Weekly Marketing Rundown - December 6th, 2024

Weekly Marketing Rundown - April 18, 2025 Hi everyone! In this week's edition of Kavanah Media's Weekly Marketing Rundown we discuss weak Youtube Shorts, Meta's new Peer Approval system, Canva's latest features and more.  Enjoying the Weekly Marketing Rundown? Support our work and keep it free for missions teams worldwide: https://www.kavanahmedia.com/donatetoKM Meta Introduces Peer Approval for Ad Security Meta is implementing a new Peer Approval system to add accounts — a new feature that requires another trusted user to review ads before they go live. It helps stop unauthorized ads from being published and reduces costly mistakes like overspending. This is especially useful for teams managing multiple ad accounts or working in sensitive contexts. You can choose from: Default: Only suspicious ads need approval (the current default). Extra: Every ad must be approved before running. Custom: Only ads above a set budget require approval. What This Means for Teams: For mission teams, this adds an important layer of accountability and protection. If someone mistakenly creates an ad or a bad actor gains access, Peer Approval ensures nothing runs without trusted eyes on it. Setting this up is quick and can save major headaches. Use Extra or Custom settings for ad accounts where budget control and messaging are critical. Jon Ralls discussed this new system on the Christian Media Marketing Podcast. See the full episode here: https://www.kavanahmedia.com/resources/86836/episode-290-meta-peer-approval Tips for Creating YouTube Shorts YouTube Shorts are short, engaging videos that can help you reach a wider audience. This article provides tips on how to create effective YouTube Shorts, including using catchy titles, adding music, and keeping videos under 60 seconds. What This Means for Teams: For mission teams using digital media for evangelism, these tips are great for creating content that captures attention and spreads your message effectively. https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/youtube-shorts-creation-tips/744944 Meta's Battle to Keep Instagram and WhatsApp Meta is fighting to keep Instagram and WhatsApp in their antitrust lawsuit. The results of this trial will determine if Meta's ownership of these platforms harms competition and innovation in the tech industry. What this means for mission teams: For mission teams using digital media for evangelism, this trial is important because it could affect how you use Instagram and WhatsApp for outreach. Changes in ownership or regulations might impact your digital engagement strategies and security measures. https://www.wsj.com/tech/meta-fights-to-keep-instagram-and-whatsapp-as-antitrust-trial-begins https://finance.yahoo.com/news/the-price-mark-zuckerberg-wasnt-willing-to-pay-to-halt-metas-antitrust-trial-153134257.html Canva's Biggest Redesign in 13 Years Canva has introduced its most significant redesign in over a decade, featuring new tools such as Ai integrated spreadsheet tool, batch creation and a more intuitive interface. The update aims to make design accessible to everyone, regardless of their skill level. What this means for mission teams: Many teams implementing digital engagement strategies already use Canva and with features like these it continues to be an excellent tool for content development. https://www.fastcompany.com/91313361/canva-unveils-its-biggest-redesign-in-13-years Understanding Facebook Ad Auctions Facebook ad auctions determine which ads are shown to users based on bidding, ad relevance, and quality. The auction process involves advertisers bidding for ad space, with the highest bid and most relevant ad winning the auction. Factors like user engagement and ad performance also play a role. What this means for mission teams:  Missions teams can help to ensure their ad is shown by creating high-quality ads, targeting the right audience, and optimizing their budgets. Check out Jon Loomer's explanation below: https://www.jonloomer.com/facebook-ad-auction/ Stay Equipped for Digital Engagement At Kavanah Media, we’re committed to helping mission teams use digital tools to make God known around the world. Whether you’re looking for inspiration, practical insights, or in-depth strategy, we’ve got resources to help: Intentional Newsletter – Be encouraged each month with stories of transformed lives, ministry milestones, and the latest updates from our team. Subscribe here. Kavanah Media Blog – Learn from our experiences serving hundreds of mission teams worldwide. We share practical lessons, real stories, and best practices to help your team avoid mistakes and grow in digital outreach. Subscribe here. Christian Media Marketing Podcast – Tune in for weekly deep dives with CEO Jon Ralls on everything from digital strategy to cybersecurity. Subscribe here or on your favorite podcast app. Digital Strategies got you stumped? Reach out anytime—we’re ready to help. Contact Us Thanks for reading this edition of Kavanah Media's Weekly Marketing Rundown! For more up-to-date insights in digital marketing, make sure to follow us on Instagram @kavanah_media and stay connected through all our social media channels via the link below. https://linktr.ee/kavanah_media Authors: Cody Adams and Cherry Messimer Article Published: April 18, 2025

Weekly Marketing Rundown - May 2, 2025 Hi everyone! In this week's edition of Kavanah Media's Weekly Marketing Rundown we discuss weak Meta's potential breakup, Open Ai's new foray into social media, Government censorship on Bluesky and more. Enjoying the Weekly Marketing Rundown? Support our work and keep it free for missions teams worldwide: https://www.kavanahmedia.com/donatetoKM Government Censorship on Bluesky and Türkiye Bluesky, at the request of the Turkish government, has restricted 72 accounts on the platform. This development raises concerns about freedom of expression and the potential impact on user content. What this means for mission teams: This is a good reminder to always be prepared to shift strategies and highlights the importance of implementing cybersecurity measures. Government censorship could affect how you share your message and engage with your audience, making it important to stay informed and adapt your strategies accordingly. Kavanah Media Founder and CEO Jon Ralls discusses risk management in missions in a 3 part series of the Christian Media Marketing Podcast. Listen here. https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/23/government-censorship-comes-to-bluesky-but-not-its-third-party-apps-yet/ OpenAI Explores New Social Media Platform OpenAI is exploring the development of a new social media platform to rival X, following a $40 billion funding round. This move aims to create a competitive alternative in the tech industry, potentially reshaping the landscape of digital platforms. What this means for mission teams: This development is significant as it could offer new opportunities for outreach and engagement for missions teams to integrate into their digital strategies. https://www.marketingtechnews.net/news/openai-explores-platform-to-rival-x-following-40b-funding-round/ Meta Breakup Threat: What Marketers Need to Know Meta is facing a potential breakup due to antitrust concerns, which could lead to the separation of its major platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. This situation raises questions about the future of digital advertising and the impact on marketers. What this means for mission teams: Changes in Meta's ownership of it's platforms could SIGNIFICANTLY affect digital engagement strategies and how teams use these platforms for outreach. https://www.marketingtechnews.net/news/meta-breakup-threat-what-marketers-need-to-know/ Meta Advantage+ Tools and Ad Performance In their latest update Meta claims that their Advantage+ AI ad tools are showing impressive results across various campaigns. AI-generated backgrounds have increased click-through rates (CTR) by 11%, and advertisers using Advantage+ earn $4.52 for every $1 spent, which is a 22% increase compared to standard campaigns. The new sales setup has reduced the cost per action by 9%, and opportunity score recommendations have cut the cost per result by 5%. What this means for mission teams: While most mission teams likely are not utilizing Meta's systems for sales ads Advantage+ ads and utilizing AI content tools could improve your results. Members of the Kavanah Media team have experimented with these AI tools and did see similar performance improvements and lower costs. It should be noted, however, that any targeting parameters advertisers set when using Advantage+ Audiences (i.e. age, gender, location) are merely suggestions and the algorithms can and will ignore them if it believes it can achieve your performance goals elsewhere. In these scenarios it is best to utilize Original Audience targeting. https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/meta-advantage-plus-ads-overview-ai/746042/ Branding in Ads Manager: AI-Generated Text and Images Meta has rolled out another update to it's Branding tools under the Identity section of Ads Manager. Previously users could upload logos and select font and colors choices. However, now they can ad text tone and visual style. These selections help guide the AI content tools in ads manager. What this means for mission teams: These AI tools can significantly improve your content creation process. Meta claims they can lead to lower engagement costs and higher performance. It should be noted, however, that these tools - especially the text specific ones, do not always function well in languages other than English. Teams should experiment in their context before utilizing the new features. http://jonloomer.com/qvt/branding-in-ads-manager-ai-generated-text-and-images/ WhatsApp Adds AI Tools Without Sacrificing Privacy WhatsApp is rolling out a new feature called Private Processing, which allows users to use AI features like message summarization or editing suggestions—all without breaking the app’s end-to-end encryption promise. The messages will be processed in a secure environment where neither WhatsApp nor Meta can access the content, even as AI is applied. This move aims to balance privacy with the growing demand for helpful AI features, and Meta plans to open the system for feedback, bug bounties, and security audits. What this means for mission teams: This is a positive move for user privacy, especially as concerns grow about LLMs being trained on scraped user data. If Meta follows through with these features missions teams could feel safer when experimenting with WhatsApp's AI integrations in their digital strategies. https://therecord.media/whatsapp-in-app-tools-secret-messages Stay Equipped for Digital Engagement At Kavanah Media, we’re committed to helping mission teams use digital tools to make God known around the world. Whether you’re looking for inspiration, practical insights, or in-depth strategy, we’ve got resources to help: Intentional Newsletter – Be encouraged each month with stories of transformed lives, ministry milestones, and the latest updates from our team. Subscribe here. Kavanah Media Blog – Learn from our experiences serving hundreds of mission teams worldwide. We share practical lessons, real stories, and best practices to help your team avoid mistakes and grow in digital outreach. Subscribe here. Christian Media Marketing Podcast – Tune in for weekly deep dives with CEO Jon Ralls on everything from digital strategy to cybersecurity. Subscribe here or on your favorite podcast app. Digital Strategies got you stumped? Reach out anytime—we’re ready to help. Contact Us Thanks for reading this edition of Kavanah Media's Weekly Marketing Rundown! For more up-to-date insights in digital marketing, make sure to follow us on Instagram @kavanah_media and stay connected through all our social media channels via the link below. https://linktr.ee/kavanah_media Authors: Cody Adams and Cherry Messimer Article Published: May 2, 2025