Ad targeting is no longer what you think it is

Changing who performs the action is rarely about targeting. Impact the people you attract with your ad copy, creative, and offer. Create form questions that apply to your ideal lead.

-Jon Loomer

Craft your message in a way that resonates.

Use the language of your audience—both verbal and visual.

Understand what they want and deliver it in your unique way.

rearrange the stack

Could be handy when working out potential audience size

Population Around A Point tool

Sometimes you just need to acknowledge the state of reality and keep things simple

It’s not just about delivering the right message to the right person.

It’s about delivering the right message to the right person at the right time in the right context.

In the words of Phill Agnew:

Our surroundings always anchor us.

Louis Grenier & co shared some great nuggets on a fun CXL webinar earlier this week:

• “Strategy is deciding what not to do”
• Don’t just aim for no, but say no
• Do something unrelated to your core services to stand out
• Don’t be broad, be focused in your messaging

And, of course, the key to this whole business thing:

Find a group of people that have struggles in common that you can serve by solving them in your own unique way

What memorable message is your marketing leaving?

Is it easy to remember?

Does it focus on the customer or action?

The Art of the Deal author and Big Daddy Xi continue their game of tariff checkers with a new round of negotiations.

In the near term, penalties are way down

Amid the 90-day pause, Trump’s 20% fentanyl-related tariffs on China, imposed in February and March, will remain. That means Chinese goods entering the US will face a 30% tariff, down from 145%, while US goods going the other way will be subject to a 10% levy from Beijing, down from 125%.

Charlie Day with the advice all marketers need to hear:

A good campaign probably has a little bit of risk. You’re much better off taking the risk and taking the swing on something that could be wildly successful.

Playing it safe is planning to fail.

Tears for Fears shows songwriting is just like making ads

You get a great title, it’s half the battle.

Good beat. Good title. Ok, the rest is simple.

Your creative is your beat.
Your headline is your title.

Something something Shout

The indicators are fine, the vibes are bad

A fair amount of US economic hard data — like consumer spending, a 3% rise in core GDP last quarter, and this latest jobs report — have suggested the economy is holding up despite broad uncertainty

But

Last week delivered the lowest reading on the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index since 2011

I usually think in terms of animal spirits, which should mean bad vibes cause bad indicators. But that connection seems weak these days.

Does political tribalism and attention-capture news mean we just always think things are bad and COVID rewired our spending response behavior?

A perma-vibecession soundtracked by ringing registers?

via The Daily Upside

Audio on!

“That move led to a spike in branded search, stronger revenue, and better margins, even as their overall category was in decline,” Shah writes. “Audio wasn’t just supporting awareness. It was delivering real revenue results.”

Because ears are different than eyes

helps build emotional connection and memory structures that influence buying behavior

Why you need pre-search discovery

up to 30 percent of search clicks are actually driven by exposure to other media like video and Audio

Audio is part of (almost) every strategy I write these days.

via Inside Audio Marketing

About that pull forward…again

Behind the 0.3% contraction in GDP [in Q1] were numbers economists called “extreme” and “weird.”

businesses hastily moved to get ahead of new levies and bring goods into the US.

2.2 percentage points of that investment gain was due to companies boosting their inventories to beat tariffs. Consumers, meanwhile, spent on big ticket items like cars, motivated by the same forces.

This was before all the April Liberation Day related shenanigans too.

The theme of Q1: buy and hold.

How much spending potential is left?

via The Daily Upside

Again, about that pull forward…

From The Daily Upside:

To prepare for a slowdown of global trade, US retailers have spent months stocking up, building a massive inventory of products. It’s all in fear of the ultimate retail boogeyman: empty shelves.

This will either delay the supply shock or, if avoided, dampen future purchasing activity until inventory normalizes.

Or, we’re in for some crazy sales as retailers try to catch up to “normal” and liquidate overstock.

It’s a little paradoxical, but good ads simultaneously tell us two things: (1) you won’t be a total weirdo if you buy this product because others are using it too, and (2) this product will make you stand out from everybody else.

David Perell is right.

People want to be unique. “Authentic” to themselves.

But only in a way that is socially acceptable within their tribe.

Fitting in by standing out.

Ads usually boil down to selling a spot at the cool kids’ table.

Or, as Seth says, “people like us do things like this.”

Of course, you have to be right about the “people”, “things”, and “us”.