MarketingDojo #44:🚨 Ad Fatigue: When Less is More

Striking the balance between ad recall & purchase intent, WhatsApp monetization might be coming sooner rather than later, Creator funds are drying up.

Nov 15, 2023

Hey there,

Welcome to your weekly dose of marketing insights - Issue 44 of the Marketing Dojo.

📢 Heads Up! I'm taking a break for some family time next week. These short vacations are my secret ingredient for refilling my creativity. So, let's meet again in two weeks, refreshed and ready for more marketing adventures!

In today's newsletter, we will cover:

🔄 Ad Overload: Recall High, Sales Low?

🛒 Everywhere You Look: Shoppable Ads Pop!

💰 "WhatsApp Ads: From Chats to Riches"

📉 "TikTok’s Creator Funds: The Well Runs Dry"

And lots more.

Before we jump in, I have a small favour to ask.

If you haven't subscribed to The Marketing Dojo, now's a great time. I comb through the vast marketing world each week to bring you the crème de la crème, all in a digestible format. Making sense of marketing has never been easier.

And if you're already a subscriber, a huge thank you! Your support keeps this solo journey exciting and worthwhile.

Eye-Opener or Eye-Sore? Finding the Sweet Spot of Ad Frequency.

Ever wondered if bombarding your audience with the same ad could backfire? MNTN Research just dropped some eye-openers in their latest piece, "Enough (Ads) Is Enough: Avoiding CTV Advertising Over-Exposure".

Here's the skinny:

Six Times the Charm? Viewers who saw an ad six times in an hour clocked a whopping 92% recall rate. But, at four views, recall dips to 85%, and just one view? Only 64%.
Recall vs. Desire: Here’s the twist – more views might not mean more sales. In fact, when ad exposure shot from one to six, purchase intent actually took a 16% nosedive.

Length Doesn't Equal Attention: Whether it's a quick 15s, a standard 30s, or a lengthy 60s, ads on connected TVs snagged a consistent 30% viewer attention rate.
Repetition Risks: Here's a kicker – 43% of viewers would switch streaming services if haunted by the same ad over and over.

As ad-supported streaming grows, this data is gold. It's all about striking that perfect balance between memorable and maddening.

Click, Scan, Shop: TV's Retail Therapy!

Picture this: You're lounging, engrossed in the latest episode of 'Suits', admiring Harvey's sharp suit or Donna's dazzling dress. Suddenly, a thought strikes - "I need that look!".

Traditionally, this would mean embarking on a digital scavenger hunt, scouring the internet for that elusive item. But the process of searching and shopping inspired by your TV viewing habits is about to change.

Shoppable Ads that make it easy to shop for products are rapidly evolving.

Most recently, Peacock has partnered with Walmart for AI-powered shoppable ads on its show "Below Deck Mediterranean".

The AI technology behind these ads scans the show for products, like those sneakers or the chic cookware used by the yacht's crew. An interactive carousel appears during commercial breaks, allowing you to scroll through these items with your remote. Spot something you like? A QR code whisks you away to a mobile checkout page, and voilà, the product is yours!

Earlier this year, Roku and Walmart experimented with shoppable ads. With Roku already holding your credit card details, the partnership streamlined the journey from "Ooh, that's nice" to "It's mine!".

Amazon's show Citadel might have had a lukewarm reception, but the show also debuted shoppable ads on the Prime platform.

With most streamers going all-in, shoppable ads will become more commonly available. Customers will start shopping on big screens and marketers need to get ready for the shift!

August 2020 to December 2023: TikTok Pulls the Plug On Its $2Bn Creator Fund.

The economy is tight, and TikTok's $2Bn creator fund is its latest victim. TikTok's large creator fund was a game changer in many ways. It stymied YouTube's $100 million fund dedicated to its Shorts feature. The move also forced Instagram and Facebook to open their wallets with a $1 billion fund for their creators.

The fund drew much criticism for stingy payouts to creators. Creators were pocketing between 2 to 4 cents per 1,000 views. Doing the math, that's like earning $20 to $40 for a million views. Talk about making it rain pennies!

However, the creator economy's dependence on platform funds has decreased. Brand deals, followed by personal brands/businesses, are more prominent sources of income than platform funds. 92% of creators earn most of their revenue through brand deals.

TikTok will continue to incentivise the creation of videos that last longer than 60 seconds in a move away from ultra-short form content. As with many other things this year - this closure of a creator fund might be contagious and a sign of things to come.

Meta’s Untapped Goldmine.

WhatsApp, boasting 2 billion active users, represents a vast ocean of marketing possibilities. The average user checks the app between 25 and 27 times daily, underscoring the platform's integral role in daily communication.

Despite its colossal user base, incorporating brand ads into WhatsApp has been a conundrum for Meta's monetization experts. The balance between advertising and maintaining user experience is delicate.

WhatsApp for Business API, a step towards commercial engagement, generated $906 million in 2022, which accounts for a mere 0.78% of Meta's total revenue for the year.

Compared to Facebook's Average Revenue Per User (ARPU)of over $7, WhatsApp Business's ARPU of $0.24 in 2021 seems modest.

Other than WhatsApp for Business, Meta's Click to WhatsApp Ads are good for brands seeking deeper customer conversations.

The buzz around advertising on WhatsApp has been growing strong of late. Two prominent articles about WhatsApp advertising came out last week:

Techcrunch'sarticle states that WhatsApp could launch ads in channels & status.
A New York Times article highlights Meta's push to monetize WhatsApp, including ads and payment infrastructure.

The chorus around Meta's aggressive push to open WhatsApp for advertising is growing louder daily. The potential for WhatsApp to become a significant player in digital marketing is enormous, but the path to that future is being paved as we speak.

Source: Created on Dall-E using a prompt on ChatGPT4.

Short Stuff:

If your podcast has 30 downloads for a new episode in the first week of its release, you’re in the top 50% of all podcasters (Podcasting is brutal).
Google rolls out a watermark for AI-generative creatives. (AI in marketing).
Instagram reminder ads are now available on stories (More ways to expand audience reach).

That’s all for this week’s newsletter. If you learnt something new or liked what you saw, please leave a like or a comment. Your likes and comments drive up the discoverability of the newsletter.

Thank you for your time and attention. I hope you have a fantastic rest of your week.

Regards,

Garima

P.S: Last week, OpenAI organized its first developer conference and announced the ability to create private GPTs. I experimented with creating a MarketingDojo GPT. My private GPT is trained on some of the past issues of this newsletter. This week I sought MarketingDojo GPTs help to refine my drafts while maintaining my original style of writing.

I feel like I have some work to do with training the MarketingDojo GPT, but it’s learning really fast and helped me get out a refined draft a lot faster than I did before.

Have you tried using these custom GPTs? I would love to hear some use cases.

Marketing Dojo