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In This Issue:

📝 Misspelled brand names can deter potential customers and hurt sales: Study

🔍 Google refunds clients due to inappropriate video ad placements.

📈 eBay Ads sees a 35% growth with new ad strategies and measurements.

❌ X discontinues its $100M “promoted accounts” ads.

🎥 TikTok's content creation pace has marketers rethinking lead agencies.

🛂 Microsoft updates its advertiser identity verification process.

🎶 Instagram introduces new music features for collaborative posts.

Lost in Translation: The Cost Misspelled Brand Names

Quirky branding may spell trouble for your sales strategy.

Many brands opt for creatively misspelled or uniquely spelled names to set themselves apart from competitors or to highlight key messages and selling points. For example, Lyft instead of Lift.

But what impact does it have on consumers' perception of your brand?

💸 From Catchy to Costly

A recent study found that using misspelled words in your brand or product name reduces sales by up to a third as consumers are less likely to choose or buy from businesses with misspelled names, versus grammatically correct names.

👀 Spelling it Out

According to the study's researchers, this is because when a brand misspells its name, people assume it's a marketing tactic to influence them. This comes across as insincere, and consumers react negatively to the attempt to persuade them and are less likely to buy as a result.

The study was first published in the Journal of Marketing. It’s called, “Choozing” the Best Spelling: Consumer Response to Unconventionally Spelled Brand Names”.

Images: Ariyh / Hilton

Google Refunds Clients Following Low-Quality Ads Report

Have you been a victim of low-quality ads? You may be entitled to compensation.

Google is reportedly now refunding some advertisers following a report from Adalytics which claimed the company misplaced 80% of ads through its Video Partner Program, which places YouTube-style ads on third-party sites.

Ad Age reported yesterday that Google confirmed refunds and credits but said they were not directly related to the report about below-standard ad placements, which it called “wildly inaccurate.”

According to the Adalytics report, Google's ad standards for viewability were not met the majority of the time, and ad campaigns sometimes ran on low-quality sites that hosted clickbait or pirated content.

The news prompted clients to demand refunds and increased transparency from the tech giant. Some expected regulator intervention.

More than a month has passed, and that intervention hasn't happened, leaving Google to deal with the blowback on its own. Despite Google denying the report's accuracy, Insider Intelligence suggests the refunds show the company is acknowledging the need to rebuild trust with advertisers.

How eBay Ads Grew Its Retail Media Network by 35%

eBay recently posted a 35% year-over-year increase in ad revenues reaching $367 million in its second quarter. Insider Intelligence reported yesterday that much of that success can be tied to innovative ad strategies, improved measurement, and expanded third-party ads.

🔧 Tech Advancements

In terms of innovation, eBay Ads has made several technological improvements to boost revenues.

According to the company, the platform upgraded its search ranking system to provide better relevance and monetization. Rather than focusing solely on individual ads, it has adopted a holistic approach to assessing ad performance. This involves considering metrics beyond just return on ad spend and KPIs like incrementality.

eBay Ads also updated its ad rates and listing standards. Sellers now determine the amount they are willing to pay for a sale and receive suggested rates from the platform.

Promoted display ads were also introduced to redirect buyers to store pages rather than specific listings, driving traffic to seller stores.

📏 Measurement

As for measurement, the ads platform introduced halo attribution, where the company takes credit for ads that drive a purchase of a seller’s promoted items, even if it’s not the item a user clicked on.

🌐 Distinct Market Focus

In the market space, the platform differentiates itself by not focusing on consumer packaged goods. Instead, the platform caters to a distinct advertiser base.

eBay Ads has found the most retail media success in sectors like:

Parts and accessories

Fashion

Home

Garden

Electronics

Third-party sites also play a role as eBay Ads purchases placements on Google and is expanding to Bing, helping sellers drive external traffic to their eBay stores.

X Kills Off Ad Format That Brought in $100 Million in Revenue

Elon Musk is saying “ta-ta” to an ad product that generates more than $100 million annually in global ad revenue for X, the former Twitter.

The platform will no longer let advertisers promote their accounts on the For You feed to boost new followers, according to an email sent to clients obtained by Axios.

❌ X Marks the Unfollow

The company is pulling the plug on promoted accounts, or “Follower Objective” ads, which are one of the oldest ad formats offered on the platform. The ads appear as text-based posts within the timeline and include a “Follow” button for the account promoting them.

But as Axios points out, follower ads, though easy to sell, are static ads that lack the multi-media tools, like video, that X is trying to push.

According to a source familiar with the matter, the change was driven by X's product group, not the company's revenue side.

An X representative informed advertisers of plans to start phasing out the Followers objective ad unit last Friday. As of today, the Followers campaign is still listed as an advertising option on X's business web site, but it likely won't be for long.

⌛ Is Elon Stalling Out Links He Doesn't Like?

Also, Taylor Lorenz, the technology reporter for the Washington Post reported this morning that X has introduced an arbitrary delay in users accessing links — but only for those web sites Elon apparently doesn't like.

Every link on X is cloaked by their in-house shortener, which is t.co. Hover over ANY link on the platform, and you'll see it will first take you to t.co, then it will redirect you to the place you wanted to get to.

This gives platforms the ability to track trends, block harmful sites, and so on. But if this report is true, they're now using it to just make life irritating for people trying to get to the New York Times, or Twitter competitor Threads.net.

Lorenz posted on Mastodon this morning a report from Hacker News reading:

Meet the “TikTok Agency of Record”

As TikTok continues to evolve, more marketers are seeking expertise to master the platform, and an interesting piece from Digiday today suggests that the industry is creating spin-offs from the Agency-of-Record model, to have lead agencies just for TikTok.

Due to the expertise and cultural awareness required to create content for the platform, capitalize on trends, and manage logistics, marketers and brand executives are recognizing the necessity for a streamlined approach with a lead agency.

There are a lot of behind-the-scenes and business affairs aspects involved in publishing on TikTok, such as talent, rights, legal, and compliance, which can be tricky to navigate. These demands require a well-versed team that can make effective recommendations — which is not always the case with an agency set up to do TV commercials and banner ads.

🆘 Requests for Assistance

In terms of requests for help with TikTok, some marketers will directly approach agencies – search consultants said they had not seen RFPs for TikTok – requests for agencies to help with the platform are often less formal than that. According to the report, brand execs or chief marketing officers are often looking for guidance on how to stand out in what’s becoming a crowded and complex environment.

🤳 Understanding the Creator Space

Understanding the creator space is also important when it comes to TikTok. The rise of influencer marketing has led marketers to want help from influencer agencies. As a result, an expert in the field expects the push for TikTok Agency of Record or lead agency relationships to become more popular in the coming year.

Microsoft Extends Deadline for Advertiser Identity Verification

Microsoft has backtracked on its timeline for banning ads from unverified advertisers.

In June, the company announced that Advertiser Identity Verification would be required for all customers prior to August 1, to continue showing ads globally. Now, Microsoft is giving advertisers more time to complete verification.

All advertisers will still be asked to complete the verification process when setting up a new account. If verification has not been completed, Microsoft will pause ads in the following scenarios:

Advertisers whose ads will serve in the European Economic Area will have 30 days to complete verification for ads to continue serving.

Advertisers whose account has been flagged by systematic checks related to risk for advertisers or those who use its products.

Advertisers whose account has been suspended for policy violations, who have not already completed verification.

As this continues to roll out across advertisers, the range of ads that may be paused may expand.

Instagram ‘Turns Up’ Photo Carousels

Photo dumps can now have a soundtrack. Instagram now lets you add music to photo carousels.

The platform has also expanded its collaborative posting feature, which now lets you invite up to three creators to co-author a feed post, carousel, or reel. Once accepted, the content will reach the collaborator's audience and appear on each account's profile grid.

Image: Instagram

Newsletter Image: Original photo by Valeriia Miller / Edited by us

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