🗞️ Did Google Erase Evidence? The DOJ Says Yes...

Today’s edition of The Marketer’s Playbook is brought to you by:

In today’s edition:

• Google Erases Evidence?

• A Social Media Analysis Every Marketer Needs To See

• Instagram and Threads Level Up

But first, a word from today’s sponsor 👇

How did Original Grain improve Revenue Per Session by 17%?

Last year, extremely couth watch brand Original Grain had a big problem.

They grew site traffic like crazy, but revenue & profit weren’t scaling nearly as well. So, the VP of Marketing, Nate Lagos, turned to Heatmap.

"With element-level revenue data, we were able to identify the highest impact areas of the website to test, and that meant the results of each of those tests produced big increases in Revenue per Session (RPS)," says Nate.

So far in 2024, Nate says Original Grain has increased site traffic by 43% and improved Revenue Per Session by 17%. 

Be like Nate. Use heatmap.

Hello everyone,

Welcome back to another edition of The Marketer’s Playbook!

I just wanted to quickly say hello and thank you to all of our new subscribers! Today’s edition is short and sweet. While there wasn’t anything genuinely groundbreaking (outside of one social media analysis below that you have to see), there are still a few things that I think every marketer can benefit from.

Anyway, I’ll get out of your hair and let you get to it. Have a great week!

Happy Learning,
Cory Dobbin

THE DOJ VS GOOGLE PLOT THICKENS

In a dramatic turn of events, Google is under fire as part of its antitrust trial with the Department of Justice. Judge Leonie Brinkema has accused the tech giant of "clear abuse of privilege" for implementing a policy that automatically deleted employee chat records. This policy, dubbed "Vegas mode," was outlined in a 2008 memo from Google's chief legal officer and resulted in messages being erased after just 24 hours. The judge's scathing remarks came during a hearing to consider the DOJ's motion for an "adverse inference" finding against Google, which could allow the court to assume intentional destruction of evidence. With the non-jury adtech case set to begin on September 9th, this development represents a significant setback for Google, potentially jeopardizing any appeal opportunities it may have in the anti-monopoly investigations. To learn more about this, check out the NYPost’s article below.

SOCIAL MEDIA IS LOVING CREATOR COLLABORATION UPDATES THIS WEEK

Both Instagram and Google have launched new features that are sure to benefit any brands partaking in creator collaboration efforts - influencers, brand cross-promotions, etc.

First, we have Instagram, which is launching a new feature that will allow others to add images and videos to your posts as a collaboration. I imagine this to be a great feature for brands to better align with their collaborator’s audiences.

Next, we have Google, who also launched a very interesting update in a similar vein. Brands can now create custom audiences based on those who engage with another creator’s videos. Yes, you read that right. You can now fully tap into another creator or brand’s audiences through this new tool. Important note, though, they have to approve the collaboration, so you can’t just take MrBeast’s audience, but it does provide a unique opportunity to tap into a collaborator’s audience for remarketing, allowing a campaign to live on longer than a single post.

A SOCIAL MEDIA ANALYSIS EVERYONE NEEDS TO SEE

A recent, relatively inconspicuously shared post on X was one of the most exciting educational breakdowns of modern social media. Posted by Matthew Stasoff of Anomaly, it is a 250-page slide deck that discusses how social media is being used, abused, manipulated, influenced, and more. It shares thoughtful takeaways, lessons, and insights.

For example, I shared a takeaway from it here that I thought was very interesting:

For the entire slide presentation, check out his original post below. You won’t regret it.

• BEST TIMES TO POST ON TIKTOK: Sprout Social, the social media management platform, gathered all of its data to give you the best average times to post on TikTok to optimize for engagement.

• TABOOLA GETS MAXIMIZE CONVERSIONS: Great news for those running Native Ads through Taboola - you can now gain the automated bidding benefits of Maximized Conversions!

• THE FEDIVERSE IS SO IN: Threads, Meta’s newest social media platform, has doubled down on their basing in the Fediverse by allowing all API posts to be automatically syndicated through the Fediverse and will now show engagement across the entire Fediverse on your posts.

• IG QoL: Instagram just published a minor update that allows users to update a Reel’s cover photo after it’s been posted. Finally.

• BRAZIL BANS X: After Elon Musk refused to comply with local laws and regulations, Brazil’s supreme court formally banned X in favour of BlueSky.

• RIP AUCTION INSIGHTS: Google’s data reporting software Looker just sunset support for reporting on Auction Insights. Why? Nobody knows, but it happened.

• BENCHMARKING COMES TO GA4: As part of a wider update, GA4 now allows businesses to compare their metrics to other companies in the same industry.

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