Twitter Hack Compromises Verified Accounts & This Week’s Digital Marketing News [PODCAST]

Hosts Jess Budde, Greg Finn, and Christine “Shep” Zirnheld are back with another episode of Marketing O’Clock, Search Engine Journal’s digital marketing news podcast.

This week, we’re discussing that huge Twitter hack, new Google Ads features, and predictive audiences and metrics in Google Analytics.

Plus, we share our thoughts on the Free Britney conspiracy, tell our mummies about our new favorite meme, and exceed our quota for bad puns.

Listen wherever you consume your podcasts or watch us on YouTube for coverage on these stories:

Twitter hack on verified accounts

Twitter accounts with coveted blue checkmarks were compromised in a Twitter hack on July 15.

Major brands, celebrities, and politicians were impacted, with spammy cryptocurrency schemes tweeted from their accounts.

While they investigated the issue, Twitter blocked all verified accounts from sending Tweets and advertisers noted that they were unable to create promoted tweets during the outage.

The hackers reportedly executed the hack by exploiting internal employee tools.

New Google Ads features announced

This week, Google Ads announced that its image extension beta test officially launched. These extensions show on the right side of text ads in the search results.

Advertisers who use responsive search ads can now take advantage of cross-campaign asset reporting and countdown customizers in their headlines and descriptions.

Finally, Google announced that shopping campaigns can now be optimized for either all purchases or purchases from new customers.

New predictive features for Google Analytics

Google Analytics accounts that are part of the App + Web properties beta have access to new features.

Predictive Audiences identify likely buyers and likely churning purchasers for use in targeting and bidding in Google Ads.

Predictive Metrics help advertisers analyze campaigns and uncover insights such as which campaigns brought users to your site with the highest purchase probability.

Then, Janine Monico drops the mic with this epic take of the week. Any excuse to not use Facebook Ads Manager is good enough for us!

Not having to deal with the FB interface #ppcchat https://t.co/fNj5ow9sfi

— Janine Monico (@JanineSEM) July 14, 2020

ICYMI, here’s a friendly reminder to make sure you have product protection enabled in Google Merchant Center.

If you ever see a random drop off in products in your Google Merchant Center or just like that extra peace of mind then make sure you have the product protection setting on!

Settings – Account Settings – Product Protection

Keeps removed products active up to 30 days👌#ppcchat pic.twitter.com/e5ay7DwGnp

— James Webster (@PPC_Webster) July 13, 2020

We’ll answer your burning digital marketing questions during our lightning round segment:

• Who is banning ads for spyware and surveillance technology?
• What social platform is considering banning political ads through November?
• When did the Twitter carousel disappear from Google search results?
• Where music labels are considering hosting their music videos.
• Why TikTok users are moving to Byte.
• How to use YouTube’s new RPM metric to analyze performance.

Check out the Marketing O’Clock site to subscribe to the show! You will also find links to all of the articles featured in this episode.

Featured Image Credit: Cypress North