Daily Minute Master Series – July 15, 2019

Social Media

YouTube Amplifies Monetization Options for Creators

YouTube announced new and expanded monetization options for creators at VidCon last Thursday. The platform unveiled Super Stickers that viewers can purchase during livestreams to show support for creators. The animated stickers, which will arrive in the coming months, are available in multiple languages and can be themed around different content categories, such as gaming, beauty and food. They build on the growth that YouTube has established with chat and tools like Super Chats, where followers pay to have their message be pinned to the feed during livestreams. YouTube claims that Super Chats, which rolled out two years ago, are now the biggest revenue source for roughly 20,000 channels, a 65% year-on-year increase over 2018. More than 90,000 channels have received Super Chats from users, according to YouTube, and some streams earn more than $400 per minute from the feature. After debuting channel memberships at VidCon last year, YouTube used the show this week to introduce membership tiers, which the company calls levels. Creators can set price points for five different levels that offer different perks to subscribers based on how much they pay. VidCon, now in its tenth year, has become a crucial showcase for YouTube as creator culture has become a dominant driver of interest in the platform, particularly among valuable young audiences like Gen Z. 

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Google’s Invitation-Only Test for a New Social Networking Tool

Google started an invitation-only test of a social networking app, called Shoelace, that aims to bring people together in the real world — not just digitally — based on their activities and interests, Gizmodo reported. People who want to bring Shoelace to their communities can request a code to activate the app. Shoelace currently supports the latest versions of Android and Apple’s iOS. Shoelace users also need to have an active Google account to sign into the app. While it’s too early to tell whether Shoelace will be a hit with mobile users, the app already is inviting comparisons with Nextdoor, which focuses on connecting people based on their neighborhoods. By encouraging people to meet face-to-face, Shoelace is part of a broader effort by Google to address growing concerns that modern technologies like smartphones are having a negative effect on mental health. 

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Marketing

New Google Shopping program enables customer photos to show with their product reviews

Google Shopping is bringing customer photos to the product reviews sections of advertisers’ listings. Reviews are accessible from the “View more” option on mobile Shopping ads or by clicking on the star ratings in a listing. Images are eye-catching, and thumbnail images of reviewers can add further social proof to ever-critical product reviews in Google Shopping. Along with the reviews themselves, it’s a step toward including more user-generated content (UGC) to inform users as they’re shopping. UGC can add an element of authenticity and credibility to retailers’ listings that manufacturer-supplied professional shots can’t.

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New Nielsen service offers podcast audience insights for advertising

Marketing research firm Nielsen has launched a service to provide podcasting networks with insights on their audiences such as genre preferences and purchasing habits. The data comes from Nielsen’s biannual podcast survey of 30,000 respondents. Networks can subscribe to the new Nielsen Podcast Listener Buying Power Service to have their podcasts included in the survey, which includes questions regarding genre preferences, purchasing plans, podcasts and other consumer and listener behaviors. Podcast advertising has been held back by a lack of listener insights, making it hard to target an audience and measure ROI. “Nielsen’s Podcast Listener Buying Power Service makes it easy for advertisers to go deep within a specific genre to target listeners with interests and buying habits that match those of the customers they want to reach,” said Cathy Csukas, co-founder and CEO of Cabana. Although Nielsen’s service does not provide live data and the sample size is relatively small, it does equip podcast networks with more information that they can use to attract advertisers.

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