Meta drives (audience) inflation, Google's forced breakup, shopping Amazon on TikTok, and more.

Happy Friday, Digital Darlings,

Another week, another digital drama manifesto from yours truly. Google's monopoly could be on the chopping block as the Department of Justice weighs a breakup and Meta's in hot water over allegedly inflating audience metrics. Meanwhile, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt blames remote work for Google's AI woes, and Snapchat is simplifying ad management for a smoother ride. Let's get into it.

My dear readers are all aware that Google was found guilty of monopolizing the internet search market last week. The US government is now discussing various potential routes to break up the monopoly. One option is to break Google apart so that Chrome, Android OS, Search, etc., will all become separate business entities. They're also considering making Google share their data with competitors or abandon the agreement with Apple that makes it the default search engine on iPhones. There will be a hearing to discuss the next steps on September 6th, so you already know that this week's edition of TWiD is gonna be wild. Meanwhile, Meta is facing a legal battle of their own…

Unless the Supreme Court intervenes, Meta will face a class-action lawsuit on behalf of all US advertisers who have used Ads Manager or Power Editor to buy ads on Facebook or Instagram since August 2014… so like, all of my readers, I'm guessing. The battle started in 2018 when a business owner filed a complaint saying, "Facebook induced advertisers to purchase more ads, and pay more for them, by overstating the number of users who might see the ads." So basically, they were inflating audience sizes… I'm shocked!! I'll keep my dear readers updated on the potential impacts if Meta is found guilty. Now, back to more Google Drama…

During a speech at Stanford, he claimed, "Google decided that work-life balance and going home early and working from home was more important than winning, and the reason startups work is because the people work like hell," so that's why, in his opinion, Google is losing the AI race to the likes of Anthropic and OpenAI. Saying that with your whole chest to a group of college students in the middle of a student mental health crisis is… bold. But it's sparked a fascinating debate on LinkedIn. Is it realistic to expect a massive, established company to have the grindset of a new startup? Also, isn't encouraging workaholism a little… outdated? He backtracked the next day, saying he "misspoke about Google and their work hours" and "regrets the error," so it sounds like the PR team got to him. Now, let's cover the Google Ads API update…

In the past, we've had to wait 24 hours after a conversion occurred to upload conversion data adjustments, which was a hassle for Google Ads API users. Starting September 9th, we'll be able to upload conversion data adjustments as soon as the conversion is recorded. This update should "streamline the conversion adjustment process, potentially leading to more timely and accurate campaign data for advertisers." You may need to take a few steps ahead of the update, like removing any logic that enforces waiting periods for adjustment uploads from your API calls. Check out this article for a full list of tips and tricks. Now for a bit of AI news…

Grammarly is launching a new tool called Authorship that can detect if a document was written by AI and even detect which parts of the document are AI-written. So, if you use AI to draft marketing content, edit it to have a human voice. You can even run this new Grammarly tool on your own documents before publishing them to make sure they won't fail the 'humanity' test. This is coming the same week that WaPo reported that even advanced AI-detection tools can't suss out deepfakes. Maybe Grammarly can get on solving that problem for humanity, too! Now, let's chat about eCom…

Shopaholics, rejoice! All it takes is a quick, one-time setup to link your TikTok and Amazon accounts. Then, whenever an Amazon ad pops up on your For You Page (FYP), you can buy the featured products with just a few clicks. You can even see real-time pricing, Prime status, and delivery estimates for each product. For eCom advertisers, I can't stress the value of these Amazon + TikTok Ads enough. Simply research the influence of TikTok shop, and you'll understand how readily people spend money on that app. In other eCom news…

Before Prime Day, we discussed how retailers like Target and Best Buy attempted to jump on the summer sale bandwagon, running their promotions during or around Prime Day. Turns out they were unsuccessful at taking any significant chunk of that promotional market share. According to a report from Earnest Analytics, "over 80% of shoppers who made purchases during the recent spate of sales only bought items at Amazon." The 'zon has us all trained!! Nothing hits quite like that seamless purchasing experience and near-instant Prime delivery, so I get it. So, dear readers, keep this in mind next year. Running ads on Walmart or Target during the summer sale season can't hurt, but Amazon is where you should focus your energy. And now for a bit of social ad news…

Advertisers used to have to sort through 12 different options when setting objectives, but now Snap has narrowed it down to just 5 easy-to-use, goal-oriented options. The options are Awareness and Engagement, Traffic, Leads, App Promotion, and Sales. You can learn more about them here. These changes will be rolled out sometime between now and September, and old objectives will be phased out in mid-September. So, if you're running ads on Snapchat, be sure to update your ad objectives in early September, or they'll be updated for you.

And that's a wrap on this week's deluge of digital developments. From Google's potential breakup to Amazon's eCom domination, there's no shortage of intrigue. Keep your strategies sharp and your eyes peeled as we navigate this ever-evolving landscape. Until next week, Darlings…

You know you love me.

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