Meta Is Bringing Ads to Whatsapp + Search Everywhere Optimization | The Current Thing #5

We’re living in confusing times - especially if you work in SEO. Last year, we began hearing about Answer Engine Optimization, a new type of SEO that focused on giving brands visibility on conversational AI platforms. Soon later, we began seeing the term “Generative Engine Optimization” (or GEO). GEO focuses on helping brands gain visibility on generative AI platforms. Wondering about the overlap between generative and conversational AI platforms? If it’s not 100%, it’s extremely close.

Earlier this year, Neil Patel introduced the term “Search Everywhere Optimization”, whose acronym is also SEO. Convenient or confusing? We’ll let you decide. Let’s take a look at this idea, since it’s perhaps the only interesting term that has appeared in SEO in the last few months. 

What Is Search Everywhere Optimization?

Back in the day, users could discover products, compare them, and discover how and where to buy them using Google as their only search engine. Need more info? It’s just one query away. 

But, as social platforms evolved, users began to diversify their search. Users no longer use Google as their only discovery channel, they also look for product demos on YouTube, real reviews on TrustPilot, and genuine recommendations on Reddit. And, since the launch of generative AI, users also ask AI. 

Search Everywhere Optimization is about ranking organically across platforms. It involves AEO, YouTube SEO, and social strategy. Frankly, we love it. This model for how customers discover and research products is far more realistic than the Google-centric model of classic SEO. 

However, Search Everywhere Optimization can also be a recipe for wasting marketing budget and driving your team insane. With that in mind, we recommend:

• Focusing on just a few channels that you know your customers are already using
• Giving platforms a “trial period”, monitoring results obsessively and discarding tactics that don’t show results as fast as possible
• Taking in as many customer insights as possible, to make sure you’re optimizing for real users, not for assumed models
• Exploring alternative/niche social media websites & directories - and fighting for visibility on those platforms. 
  
  • (If you need a primer to alternative social media, check out our first drop of trend forecasting memos.)

Advertisements Are Coming to WhatsApp

Whatsapp was founded in 2009, by two former Yahoo employees: Brian Acton and Jan Koum. Koum was never shy about his dislike for advertisements, protesting intrusive ads across interviews and social media. A handwritten note by Acton dating from the startup’s early days lays down the three top rules for growing Whatsapp. It reads “No ads! No games! No gimmicks!”.

Facebook acquired WhatsApp in 2014. Four years later, the co-founders left the company citing disagreements over user privacy and advertising. Last Monday, Meta finally announced the unrolling of ads on WhatsApp. These ads will appear on status updates (Stories), prompting users to interact with the companies directly on the platform.

Additionally, users will now be able to monetize their Channels through ads and subscriptions. 

This announcement has numberless implications. But we’ll focus on a selection of very important but also very actionable questions:

• Should you advertise on WhatsApp?
• Who can benefit from Channel monetization?
• What does this imply for the future of internet marketing?

Let’s start from the top.

Should you advertise on WhatsApp?

WhatsApp ads seem especially interesting for small businesses looking to have 1-1 conversations with customers. If your main sales channel is WhatsApp, go ahead! 

Nowadays, thousands of businesses around the world advertise on Meta’s other platforms and connect with their users on WhatsApp. Discovery may happen on Facebook or Instagram and engagement takes place on WhatsApp. By bringing discovery to WhatsApp, Meta is reducing friction and increasing potential conversions for businesses relying on their stack.

But, if you don’t sell through the platform, WhatsApp ads may not offer you anything interesting. We wouldn’t necessarily advise against it - but your ad budget could better be spent elsewhere.

Who would benefit from WhatsApp Channel Monetization?

Monetizing a WhatsApp Channel could be a sound strategy for content creators and companies delivering personalized material through WhatsApp. In a sense, by subscribing to a WhatsApp channel, a user could be subscribing to a curated and instant information feed. However, consider that WhatsApp has a very limited UX. 

Unless major modifications are made to the way that channels operate, WhatsApp will remain a pretty limited channel for information delivery and community building. If you’re considering a community-led growth strategy, you might be better off relying on Discord, Slack or even a Facebook group.

What does the unrolling of WhatsApp Ads imply for the future of digital marketing?

In a previous issue of The Current Thing, we discussed how Figma and Webflow are becoming comprehensive but close design & dev ecosystems. Something similar may happen to WhatsApp. Today, thousands of small businesses rely on Facebook and Instagram for fresh leads, and on WhatsApp for the infrastructure to engage them. Now, WhatsApp may be on the eve of becoming a closed garden, a self-containing tool where users can discover businesses and engage without the friction of moving from one app to another.

After acquiring X, Elon Musk mentioned his plans to turn the social platform into an everything app, some sort of WeChat for the Western hemisphere. In spite of features that may be pointing in that direction - such as X’s job board, “Jobs” - Musk’s goal remains a very long shot. WhatsApp may have better chances at it. 

We help you plan for growth, with or without WhatsApp

The internet is changing very fast. The marketing channels and tactics companies used to swear by are quickly becoming obsolete. 

Are you rethinking your growth strategy? Let’s rethink it together - with a track record of successful partnerships across industries and continents, we’ve got the experience you need to separate the signal from the noise. Book a free workshop today.