Brand News: YouTube Shorts and Facebook Insights

Unlock the secrets to maximizing your brand's impact in the ever-evolving world of digital advertising. Learn how YouTube's latest tools are revolutionizing the way brands engage with creator content and Shorts ads, capturing a unique 40% of viewers who aren't on TikTok or Instagram. This episode offers a deep dive into the innovative strategies that can help advertisers harness the power of YouTube Shorts, turning them into a more effective and budget-friendly channel to drive business growth. Discover the art of syncing creator content with advertising efforts and how it can transform your marketing approach.

As we gaze into the crystal ball of 2024, Facebook emerges as a powerhouse with improved metrics and reduced costs, making it a bedrock for advertisers seeking reliable performance. Our conversation navigates the impressive resurgence of Facebook ads, exploring how AI-driven tools like Advantage Plus Audiences are transforming the landscape. With insights on integrating Facebook into a broader marketing strategy that includes SEO and search ads, this episode is packed with data-driven revelations that promise to enhance your marketing efficiency and elevate your brand in the digital space.

The Digital Horizons Podcast is hosted by:

James Walker - Managing Director WHD
Brian Hastings - Managing Director Nous

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome back to Digital Horizons In our brand
new segment.
Today we are talking about anarticle that was published in
Search Engine Land, and whatthis article was focusing on is
YouTube unveiling new tools tohelp brands tap into creator
content and shorts ads, the statthat I was most impressed with.
So YouTubeorts now account for40% of YouTube viewers, who
don't use TikTok or Instagram.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yeah, that's a huge audience that you aren't going
to get an overlap with in thosetwo other platforms.
That is available right for thepicking in relatively low cost
YouTube ad platforms 100%.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
And also I guess they're really focusing on the
ad platform.
I know from our experienceShorts has always been a bit of
a challenge because of the lackof ability to really run
campaigns specifically on thischannel because it's always
built into other objectives, soyou're running in a PMAX or
other areas.
So they really are going to befocusing on making this more of
an advertiser-friendly channelto help you achieve business

(01:03):
growth goals.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
One of the key benefits I see here is the
connection with the creatorcontent that has been developed
for shorts by other creators buttagged your brand.
If they're reviewing yourproduct or they've been paid to
do so, you as an advertiser canleverage that creator's content
and pay to promote it withinthis sync up of the creator

(01:25):
content with the advertiser.
I'm not exactly certain of howeasy it's going to be, but from
the screenshot here, it's gotmultiple different creator
videos that you can just selectand advertise, pay to promote.
It kind of sounds like whatTikTok shop is going to be like
in connecting the contentdirectly with the product,
except TikTok Shop is going toallow you to check it out.

(01:47):
Yes, Okay, our second articlefor today staying in the social
media vein, this one's also onSearch Engine Land.
Not that we've been lazy infinding our news for this week,
but there's some great contenton Search Engine Land and they
really get to the point.
Facebook ads 2024 data clicksand conversions up costs down.
Facebook's stable adperformance and improving

(02:09):
metrics offers advertisers acost-effective and reliable
platform to reach engagedaudience.
It does sound like a bit of aPR piece from Meta, but the
stats don't lie.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
Yeah, and I mean it's also reflective in our
campaigns.
There was a period where wereally struggled In terms of
getting consistency during thatperiod where I think it was that
Cambridge Analytica thing thathappened quite a few years back,
and there was all the pixelstuff and then Apple decided to
get rid of all the cookies andthere was all these things that
happened, which made runningcampaigns on Facebook much more

(02:40):
harder to get consistent results, whereas Google, I felt
throughout, has always beenquite consistent, though the
cost keeps going up.
I mean we're fucking paying CPCso much higher than what we were
before, but Facebook'sperformance it's been, now it's
got quite consistent, though thecost keeps going up.
Like I mean we're fuckingpaying cbc so much higher than
what we were before, butfacebook's performance it's been
, it's been, now it's got quiteconsistent.
Yeah, and we're really seeingit, really finding it, and some
of these stats on here arereally cool, like.
So the data from wordstream,and this is looking at 2024

(03:02):
average cost per click for leadcampaigns $1.88 down from $1.92.
Average conversion rate forlead campaigns 8.78 from 825.
An average cost per lead 21.98down from 23.10.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
And while these movements might not seem huge,
if you're just looking at onecampaign, this is across a lot
of data so it's prettysignificant.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
And when you're spending a lot of money on these
platforms, that differencebetween $23 to $21, like I mean
that's still pretty it's goingto have an impact on your
overall marketing efficiency.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Yeah, and I think the reason they're saying this
improvement has been experiencedby advertisers is for the
following reasons there's theadoption of AI-driven tools like
Advantage Plus Audiences.
Leveraging AI-powered creativetools to help create more
visually appealing ads, which isimproving the click-through
rate.
Util utilizing Facebook adsconversion API to track offline

(03:54):
conversions, which would be abig one on that cost per
acquisition.
They're tracking more of theconversions led by Facebook.
And then also having Facebookas a part of a broader marketing
strategy, including othersocial platforms, seo and search
ads, so working together as apart of the bigger piece of the
pie.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
Have you been an ads manager in time recently?

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yeah, my performance team has gone on holiday, so
I've had to jump in there andhave a look.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Okay, so something that I've been finding recently
is that the amount of stuffyou've got to turn off in there
when you're just trying to get acampaign built is ridiculous.
Like you're like, all right,cool, you know what you want to
do.
You want to get your campaignset up, you want to try and do
it quickly and you've gonethrough all these things and
first you've got to unhide awhole bunch of settings just to
be able to do what you want todo on the platform.

(04:45):
But then there's all thisautomatic shit that keeps is
kind of fine, but then they'vegot like all this stuff, like
what they're talking about herein terms of their AI-generated,
like powered creative tools, andit just basically has that by
default sometimes turned on.
That's happened to us, actually,and it's just messing up your
ads and making it look differentto what you want it to be, and
then adding site links, andthere's all these different
little buttons that you've justgot to go so carefully through

(05:08):
to make sure that what youractual ad on this platform is
being shown to people is whatyou want it to be, because they
just make it like trying tochange it on you.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yeah, and our clients don't comprehend how that could
happen.
So when they see a kind ofdistorted, weird ad and we say,
oh, facebook just made that up,it sounds unbelievable.
Yeah, it is, but yeah, it'shappened to us.
And we're saying to our clients, oh, they're making these
changes in the management toolso that you're having to go back

(05:35):
and turn these things offcontinuously.
And to the client it's likewell, that's not good enough.
You know, I pay you for this.
Yeah, they're just making itquite difficult to have the
campaign run as you imagine, or?

Speaker 1 (05:46):
what you plan, it just makes it such a longer
process.
Like, as you imagine or plan,it just makes it such a longer
process.
Like my team are smashed comingup to Black Friday, obviously,
and so I often give them a hand.
So I'm jumping in there and I'mjust like hold on.
This is way longer.
This is taking way longer than Iwant just because I've got to
keep turning all this stuff offall the time and so, yeah, a bit

(06:08):
frustrating, but it's offeringthere that you've got to turn
off, just stuff like that.
I feel we're going to betesting the new year and see how
it actually impacts performanceof the campaigns.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
Yeah, but it's a bit of a pain from Facebook
automatically turning them onfor us.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
But let's see how they go in the new year.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
Thanks for listening to my rant about Facebook's ad
platform problems.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
But thanks for watching today.
Yeah, that's the brand news aspart of Digital Horizons.
We'll be back next week.