🗞️ Digital Marketing Must-Knows

Here are the 5 biggest Digital Marketing headlines in the last 7 days. It feels like the whole industry is in a transition at the moment. With the leading platforms either rapidly innovating or trying to play catch up. 

UPDATE: a more recent version has been published here on January 30th

 📰 Round up

1. TikTok launched an ad campaign encouraging people to "Search it, learn it, do it with TikTok." TikTok is betting its ceiling is much higher than being an entertainment app.

• The ad shows TikTok confidently pitching itself as a Google & YouTube alternative by delivering information to users through short-form videos.
• In the ad, TikTok shows how people can quickly find recipes, how-tos, and book reviews.
• Google has seen this trend of users preferring a more visual search experience coming. Last summer, a Google exec described how, in their studies, "almost 40% of young people, when looking for a place for lunch, don’t go to Google Maps or Search...They go to TikTok or Instagram.” Can TikTok accelerate the trend? (Watch the ad ↗️)

2. "Google will demonstrate a version of its search engine with chatbot features this year," according to a New York Times report. Google executives called in their founders to discuss an AI product strategy. Larry Page and Sergey Brin are helping to combat the potential threat that chatbot technology poses to Google's search business. Google plans to unveil more than 20 new products. But their priority is on getting facts right, ensuring safety, and minimizing misinformation. (Search Engine Land ↗️)

3. Amazon is paying content creators to post on its TikTok-style app, Inspire. Amazon is trying to kickstart its social-commerce platform. Where creators post and tag Amazon products. And customers see a personalized feed of content with an easy checkout experience. The content creators also earn a commission on sales. Ranging from 1-20%. (Business Insider [paywall] ↗️)

"It represents the overall industry when it comes to short-form video... Everyone is trying to create that TikTok-like experience, and it's going beyond the social media platforms themselves." - Lindesy Gamble

4. Google Cloud launched 4 new and updated AI tools to assist retailers with online shopping and in-store inventory management. The tools include personalized search and browsing, AI-powered product sorting, AI-driven product recommendations, and AI-powered shelf checking. The tools are now available to retailers worldwide. (Search Engine Journal ↗️)

5. Google has rolled out Performance Max experiments to some users. This feature will allow advertisers to set up a split test and monitor the results before deciding whether to apply the changes. There is no official announcement yet. (Search Engine Land ↗️)

Plus

• TikTok has an internal "go viral" button that supercharges views for manually selected videos, according to a report from Forbes.
• Instagram CEO admits they focused on video over photos too much last year
• Netflix committed to "building ads offering" after the 2022 launch
• OpenAI is starting to release a pro version of ChatGPT at $42 p/m
• TikTok is testing a Podcast feature

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P.S Let me know in the comments which headline you will most closely watch play out.