MarketingDojo #47:🚨 The Great Digital Ad Robbery
ANA's eye-opening supply chain transparency report, TikTok Shop's shopping, impulse is strong with offline stores.
🎉 Welcome to the 47th issue of MarketingDojo! 🎉
I hope you're having a fantastic week. This time, I'm writing to you from my parent's place, basking in the comfort of mom's cooking – a heartwarming end to a challenging year.
Before we dive in, I've stumbled upon a treasure trove! Here’s a shared drive full of trends and predictions for 2024 from diverse fields. I do not know the original contributors who created this resource. But a big thank you to those kind strangers.
In this week's edition, we're unpacking some intriguing topics:
💸 The $22 Billion Vanishing Act
🤔 A gentle reminder: Keep it simple, silly!
🛍️ TikTok Shop goes shopping
🛒 The power on in-store impulse purchase
...and there's plenty more where that came from.
If you haven't joined the Marketing Dojo community yet, now's the time! Consider subscribing to a weekly dose of marketing wisdom. 📬
Ad Budget Heist💸
Of every $1 spent on programmatic advertising, only $0.36 reaches the intended audiences.
The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) Supply Chain Transparency Study is causing shockwaves in the advertising industry. Deservedly so.
The USD 88 Billion programmatic industry needs safeguards & transparency. Quantifying the problem is step 1 in finding solutions.
Programmatic advertising includes all digital advertising not within the walled gardens of Facebook, Google, TikTok, etc. Advertisers spend roughly USD 88 billion annually on the open internet.
For the study, ANA worked closely with 21 brands across 11 categories.
Some interesting findings & recommendations
The MFA Menace: A staggering 15% of total ad spending ends up on Made For Advertising (MFA) websites, effectively wasting your budget. MFA websites are created solely for advertising. They lack quality content and organic traffic.
The programmatic labyrinth: On average, campaigns spread across an overwhelming 44,000 websites, many low-quality, made-for-advertising (MFA) sites.
The Middleman Maze: Many intermediaries in the chain result in higher costs and lower transparency.
Lost in Transaction: 29% of the programmatic ad budget goes to various supply chain fees, and 35% gets lost in non-trackable ad spends and MFAs.
My experience of working with programmatic has usually been underwhelming. Bots inflate impressions, but when it comes to valuable customer actions, they're nowhere in sight.
This report quantifies the current issues around digital advertising & the extent of fraud that permeates.
So, what can marketers do to safeguard their ad dollars? Here are a few that I thought were actionable:
Quality over Quantity: Marketers need to work on creating an exclusion list instead of creating an inclusion list. 100-200 Sites that resonate with your customers will deliver more meaningful results than the 44,000 that typically go into a programmatic campaign.
Direct Dealing: Cut out the middlemen. Work with agency partners with more direct relationships with website publishers for more savings and clarity.
Ad Quality Detox: Shift from the addiction to low-cost, poor-quality, high-impression inventories. Impressions as a North Star campaign metric is no longer a great idea.
Fortify Against Fraud: Work with partners dedicated to protecting your campaigns from ad fraud as you are.
This report will inspire more brand owners to ask difficult questions to their media agencies and programmatic partners. It is a must-read to save your advertising dollars from going to waste.
Relearning The Art of Uncomplicated Marketing.
I recently went to a movie in the theatre after what feels like ages.
But what struck me wasn't the movie magic but the pre-show ads.
Telecoms, credit cards, you name it - all chanting the same mantra of purpose-driven narratives. Yet, amidst this sea of 'feel-good' tales and peppy voice-overs, I drew a blank. Where was the uniqueness? The recall factor?
If this rings a bell, you're not alone. Most companies fall into the complexity trap. We think our customers are deeply invested in our brand values and purpose.
Spoiler alert: they're not.
They're busy folks with limited bandwidth for complex messages. So, let's cut through the noise with some straightforward advice.
This is why this article resonates as well and reminds me of the power of simplicity and how to attain it.
The article lists three simple steps to becoming an uncomplicated brand.
Do less, but better: Define your brand's circle of competence. Simplify everything - your portfolio, your messages, your channels. It's not about doing more; it's about nailing what you do.
Take the complexity away from customers: Focus on one key benefit. Make it so clear and straightforward that your customers get it quickly. They'll thank you for not adding to their cognitive overload.
Be unapologetic: Trying to be something for everyone is often at the heart of complexity. It's ambitious but futile. Know your audience, stick to it and filter out the fluff. It's not about pleasing everyone; it's about wowing the right ones. Be clear on who your customers are. It's a great lens that helps filter out the unnecessary.
TikTok’s 3D Chess in Indonesia.
Where there is a will, there's a way.
Indonesia is the second largest market for TikTok and the country where TikTok's social commerce experiment took off. By the end of 2022, TikTok Shop was Indonesia's fifth-largest e-commerce company.
But when all was going well, the Indonesian government threw a curveball. The Indonesian government banned e-commerce transactions on social media platforms to effectively protect local businesses from predatory pricing.
If last week's news is anything to go by, the folks at TikTok have found a new way to keep selling in Indonesia. TikTok has agreed to invest in a unit of Indonesia's GoTo Group and collaborate with its e-commerce marketplace, Tokopedia, rather than compete directly with the local platform.
One of the most measured analyses of the TikTok x Tokopedia partnership came from this LinkedIn post. Only 36% of surveyed consumers shopped on Tokopedia and TikTok, compared to 50% who used Shopee and TikTok.
If it goes through, the partnership will bring in new customers for both Tokopedia & TikTok Shop. Exciting times are ahead for the e-commerce industry in Indonesia for sure.
Flying Off-The-Shelf: How In-Store Brands Trigger Impulse Buys
What happens when an attractive new brand catches your eye in a store?
As per an eMarketer/Insider Intelligence survey, a third of us buy new products spotted in physical stores immediately. It's the charm of in-store experiences triggering our impulse buys.
Key insights:
In-Store vs. Online: Physical store discoveries often lead to quicker purchases than online finds.
Search Engines Rule: Most shoppers use search engines for more info, highlighting the need for solid search engine optimization.
Less Chatter, More Search: Fewer people ask sales associates or check social media, preferring digital research for quick decisions.
New Social Media In Town: AI-Generated, Human-Trained Micro-Influencers Entities.
Move over influencers; entities are coming for your fanbase!
1337( AKA Leet) is a generative AI startup that has emerged from stealth with $4 million in funding to build an ecosystem of AI-driven micro-influencers. The startup has attracted investments from angel investors connected to LVMH, Hugging Face, and other top investors.
At the heart of 1337's offering are Entities.
The Entities are AI-driven influencers with social media presence such as Instagram accounts, LinkedIn profiles, and public Spotify playlists. Users can interact with them through Instagram comments and direct messages.
1337 is also developing capabilities for the Entities to speak, allowing them to host podcasts and produce videos- a feature set to launch in the first half of 2024!
Unlike other AI personas that train off the internet data, 1337's Entities are learning the ropes from real human interactions. Users are getting paid to train the models, making them more human-like.
Human-trained, AI-generated micro-influencers that run micro-communities for other humans- now that sounds dystopian.
But as the company's video manifesto suggests, this might be the future of social media.
Short Stuff:
In response to Adalytics report, Google now allows advertisers to opt out of its search partner network. (Kudos, Adalytics).
Pinterest Trends 2024 is here (Spotting trends before they become one).
Meta launches a standalone gen AI image generator (Everyone is catching up).
That’s a wrap on this week. Thank you for your time and attention. If you liked this week’s newsletter or found something interesting - please give me a like or comment. Your support helps drive the discoverability of the newsletter.
Once again, thank you for your time. See you in your inbox next Wednesday.
Regards,
Garima
P.S.: Are any of you expert digital note-takers? 📝
I'm on a quest to enhance my skills in digital note-taking. Capturing those fleeting ideas and thoughts for future reference is crucial for me, but I'm finding the traditional diary method a bit cumbersome, especially when it comes to retrieving information.
I'm ready to dive deep and even invest in some tools or resources to build a robust digital note-taking system.
Got recommendations or starting points? Please share.