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Instagram confirmed it’s testing unskippable ads after screenshots of the feature began circulating across social media. These new ad breaks will display a countdown timer that stops users from being able to browse through more content on the app until they view the ad, according to informational text displayed in the Instagram app.

Unsurprisingly, people hate it. But Meta is really good at figuring out what people will actually put up with vs what they just say.

If these stick around, will they command a higher price?

via TechCrunch

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I’m always wondering where to draw the line with advertising frequency, so I’ll take this number from Meta and use it as the ad-level threshold to help with decision making.

After around 4 exposures, conversions could decrease by about 45%.

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I agree with Rushkoff on this:

The value of this technology in creative work is not to come up with the ideal commercial product but to show us perfect examples of what to avoid.

Create it yourself.
Create it with AI.
If you can’t tell the difference, start again.
(Or automate that task and find somewhere else to add value.)

Let your human show.

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Average marketing budgets have fallen to 7.7% of overall company revenue, down from 9.1% in 2023

Budgets typically lag the economy, but can be a leading indicator of advertiser confidence.

This could be a leading indicator for smaller margins from coming price cuts too.

In the four years preceding the pandemic, average marketing budgets were 11% of overall revenue. In the four years since, they’ve dropped to an anemic 8.2%.

This is from a survey of CMOs, so a specific class of business.

via MarketingTech

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LinkedIn has reduced the size of link preview images for organic posts, while maintaining larger preview images for sponsored content.

I noticed the smaller image size on a client’s post the other day but thought it was a bug or an image smaller than the recommended size, turns out it’s the new normal.

A reminder that social platforms don’t like external links. Unless you’re paying.

via Search Engine Land

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How to Make a Video According to Meta

Looking for a video formula?

This is The Playbook According to Meta:

  • Logo visible within the first 3 seconds
  • Action within the first 6 seconds
  • Core value of the video/story within the first 16 seconds

16 seconds is the recommended length.

The 6 second mark is the inflection point. You’re trying to hook them so they stick around for the rest of the video. If they make it past that mark they are engaged and interested. Cliff notes for the first 6 seconds to create some brand awareness, full story after that.

These are all geared towards videos that appear in-feed or as part of an ad. If people are coming to your video content the mindset is different.

Also consider some form of text overlay on your video. Either full captions or at least highlight callouts, depending on the intent and message of the video.

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Dexa: AI-powered search of podcast content

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Might grocers’ price cuts ease inflation and the current vibe-cession?

Target began cutting prices on 5,000 grocery store items

Walmart, which started lowering prices to pre-pandemic levels in March.

Amazon said it was slashing grocery prices at its Fresh chain by up to 30%

Aldi has begun reducing prices on more than 250 items

Walgreens lowered prices on more than 1,500 items

Voting with dollars:

in addition to eating out less and spending less at the grocery store, many price-sensitive consumers are switching from brand-name to in-house items.

via The Daily Upside

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All ads I want to try

Around half of streaming viewers have taken some action upon seeing a pause ad
…
67% said they’d interacted with an ad that they could click on to receive information via an email or device, while explorable ads and “click to buy” ads also saw high engagement, at 62% and 58% each. QR codes, meanwhile, were less popular: just 36% of survey respondents indicated that they’d interacted with one.

via Marketing Brew

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Google is emailing advertisers to notify them it will soon begin automatically pausing low-activity keywords.

According to the email, positive keywords in search ad campaigns will be considered low-activity if they haven’t generated impressions in over a year.

This should make account manager easier and cleaner.

But I think it’s also a low-key signal that:

  • We’ll continue to have less control in ad platforms
  • Keywords are on their way out as the core of Google Ads targeting

And yes, this is mostly thanks to AI.

via Search Engine Journal