🗞️ Links & Thinks from 2023.03.23
Google Rediscovers Discovery
Google’s Discovery ad type had a brief moment in the sun before Performance Max Kool-Aid Man-ed through the ads manager wall. Well, it’s time to rediscover Discovery ads.
Big G announced 3 new features (with varying degrees of current availability).
- Add a product feed to your ad
- Get product level metrics
- Conversion Lift experiments
Congress Critters & The Clock App
Oh look, another painful Congressional tech hearing.
Rate Hike
The Fed appears to think the collapse of Silicon Valley and Signature Banks weren't a sign of a systemic issue but just poor management and animal spirits, and has raised rates again. That's the 9th consecutive hike and puts the rate at (if my math is correct) 4.75%.
The bigger concern for The Nation's Bank is the continued climb of consumer prices. Interestingly, airline tickets and streaming services were called out.
Tales From Retail
Buy now pay later usage is growing to start 2023, thanks inflation! Overall, usage grew 10% year-over-year. The big drivers of this growth are grocery (surprise!) and home furnishings.
Everyone's feeling the squeeze out there (well, except maybe Gen Z) and that's shifting brand's focus from the top line to the bottom line, at least on Amazon. I've heard it myself, profitability is the focus now. Just like affordability is the focus for consumers.
Amazon is testing a new social proof feature: showing how many people purchased a product in the past week. If other people are buying something it’s got to be good, right?
Walmart’s stores don’t just look like warehouses, they are warehouses:
Walmart made 248 million last-mile deliveries from 3,990 stores offering delivery.
Just The Headlines
Washington prepares for war with Amazon / A multi-pronged investigation of the online giant is approaching the action phase — on mergers, antitrust, privacy and more.