Inside Facebook's New (and Actually Useful) AI Tool

Today In Digital Marketing is a daily podcast showcasing the latest in marketing trends and updates. This week, Tod touches on:

  • Inside Facebook's New (and Actually Useful) AI Tool

  • Google Analytics Update

  • Google Partners Can Keep Their Status For Now

Below is the transcription from this weeks topics


Facebook's Actually-Useful AI

If you've listened to the podcast or read this newsletter for any amount of time, you'll know that I like to shit on Facebook every so often.

This is for three reasons:

  1. It's fun.

  2. I have the maturity of a 12-year-old

  3. Sometimes, they have it coming with their over-reliance on machine learning and AI.

But today, the impossible happened — they announced some new AI tech they're working on that may actually be quite helpful to digital marketers.

It's called TextStyleBrush, an AI research project that can copy the style of text in a photo using just a single word. This means you'll be able to edit and replace text in images.

The example they show is a shot of produce in buckets at a grocery store, with little signs written on a chalkboard above each bucket with the name of the produce written in French — and then, a version where they're written in English, but in exactly the same style as the French version. You can't really tell on the second photo that it's simulated. It looks like someone wrote those words with chalk too.

Here are a couple of videos from Facebook on the tech:

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=325545429087285

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=393933898632933

Google Analytics Update

Google today announced an update to Google Analytics aimed at trying to claw back some data that is now being lost to the cookiepocalypse. After all, when people opt out of all tracking pixels, they're also blocking Google Analytics from tracking that behaviour.

Google's solution: Modelling. Though you might know it by its actual name "Making things up." 

Okay, that's not fair. Can we settle on "educated guesses"? Here's their announcement:

ater this year, we’ll extend our modeling capabilities to certain reports in Google Analytics 4 properties to enhance your understanding of the customer journey when observed behavioral data is not available. If users don’t consent to analytics cookies, you’ll still be able to generate important customer insights while respecting your users’ privacy preferences.’\

So, yes, if the data in your 'User Acquisition' report isn't fully fleshed out, this new version will try to fill the gaps with a jolly-good estimation.

Nobody in our business wants estimations, but this is the world we're in now — so I guess it's: Take the guesses, or end up with no data at all. Honestly, the jury's still out on which is worse.

They also added some new UI tweaks — you should be able to find relevant reports in the left-hand sidebar easier now:

And finally two new and important attribution reports:

  • 'Conversion Paths' — let you see the customer journey by channel, alongside something they call 'conversion credit visualization' 

  • And a 'Model Comparison' report should let you assess campaign performance using various attribution models, and compare how each affects the value of your marketing channels.

Google Partners Can Keep Their Status For Now

If you work with an agency that is a Google Partner, you may know Google has been moving the goalposts on Partner Status for about a year now. Last year, they said everyone can keep the status they have until next February. Now, Google has confirmed the requirements to be a Premier partner.

Remember, Google Partners need to maintain a 90-day ad spend of $10,000 USD across your managed accounts, and no less than half of the account strategists on your team must be certified in Google Ads, with at least one certification in each product area with campaign spend (like Search, Display, Video, Shopping, or Apps).

MORE: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9702452?hl=en


Credit to Tod Maffin and the Today In Digital Marketing podcast, Produced by engageQ.com

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