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Just noticed this in Meta Ads Manager today, Meta Shops stats will now be sent to third-party analytics and attribution tools if you have one setup.
On Brand Aesthetics
If you look and act like all the other brands in your category.
To consumers you are the same as all the other brands.
Which means you are no brand.
Podcast ads are doing great.
iHeartMedia, Spotify and Acast reported revenue growth between 12% and 31% year over year in their podcast businesses during the second quarter of 2023, with better performance compared to the first quarter of this year.
Executives told shareholders they are seeing improvements in the U.S. ad market and are bullish on continued growth in the third quarter and beyond.
Podcast networks report Q2 revenue growth, with positive signs for continued improvements in 2023
Black Friday shopping intent breakdown across generation:
- 38% of baby boomers plan to shop on BF
- 40% of Gen X
- 18% of Millennials
- 3% of Gen Z
Cyber 5 creep is here. Gone are the days of Black Friday kicking off the holiday shopping season. This year:
-
1/3 of shoppers will start before Halloween (more than plan to shop on BF)
- Nearly half before Thanksgiving
Cyber Monday may be quiet too, but the older the shopper the more likely they will shop on the deal days.
Continuing the theme of the year, sales and promos will be the most influential factor in shopping decisions this holiday season.
Branding is all about aspiration, so this technique from Droga5 (via Julian Cole is genius.
Don’t ask the consumer, ask their muses.
Go to the influences. The icons. The aspirational selves.
Plus this quote from Serena Williams:
How you get there and how you achieve victories is as important as the actual victory.
Consumers want 2 things more than they want speed:
- Transparency
- Control
A survey found shoppers are fine with longer ship times as long as they got some mix of the following:
- Free shipping
- Guaranteed delivery date
- Delivery date & location control
- Real-time tracking
The Google graveyard grows.
Starting in early October 2023, any Shopping campaigns using Enhanced CC will behave as if they are using Manual CPC bidding.
Bidding strategies have evolved a lot since the launch of eCPC, so this isn’t surprising. I’m more surprised the announcement wasn’t about the end of standard Shopping Campaigns.
Of Ads & Algorithms: A Meta Rant
Meta’s ad optimization algorithm is an idiot savant (which is the case for most algorithms). It’ll give you what you ask for, even if that’s not necessarily what you want (which is the case for most algorithms).
As humans, the content of what we say is only about 7% of what we’re communicating. Algorithms don’t understand all that other shit, they just get the 7%. So when you ask Meta to optimize for link clicks or landing page views, they’ll give you every single one you can afford. Even if they’re 99% garbage because they came from accidental in-game clicks thanks to the audience network.
The answer isn't news feed only though. For two reasons: 1) it's never good to overly limit the algorithm's choices 2) that's where everyone else is focusing, which means it's more competitive and expensive. (Other placements may be more expensive per action, but traffic quality may warrant the extra cents.)
What is the answer? Optimize for an on-site conversion (and try to make sure you have creative that feels native to each placement option/aspect ratio).
For more on audience network stuff, check out this post by Jon Loomer (your favorite Facebook marketer's favorite Facebook marketer).
For more on algorithms and optimizations, read on below.
Algorithms, especially these days, get treated as akin to magic. Of course, some of the things they can do in our post-ImageNet and deep learning world are plenty impressive. But they're really just super powerful matrix math calculators.
The best way to think of them is like Kevin Kelly said (which is an example I've used plenty before and have heard from many others), they "are best thought of as universal interns." Just like with an intern, you're going to get what you ask for.
The tension comes from the fact that humans and computers speak different languages. The biggest current danger of algorithms is they give us exactly what we asked for, which isn't always what we wanted when the gap between the two gets lost in translation.
To bring it back to Meta, traffic is not link clicks. A link click is an action that happens within Meta's network, which means as soon as that click happens the algorithm stops caring about what happens next. Its job is done.
Tools like Google Tag Manager and Meta's custom conversion builder make it easier to create more and better signals to feed the robots with. Don't settle for optimizing for what you think you want. Take the time to think about what you're trying to achieve, create a trackable event for it, and tell the algorithms to give you as much of that as you can afford.
Disney+ prices are going up…again. Except for the ad-supported options.
The Fed’s rate hikes have changed the math and the days of free money are over, which means:
- No more subsidizing user growth
- Revenue matters more than user count
Consumers will have to pay more or see more ads. Advertisers are about to have a lot more channel options.
Yelp’s ad revenue rose 14% in part (it said) because of “a change in behaviour.”
A shift away from brand advertising and towards performance marketing was noted by Yelp bosses. This is because the latter provides marketers a more efficient way to track and monitor ROI, according to the company.
it should always be a mix of the two. But I think this shift is more a sign of the end of the free money train as interest rates have continued to rise.
Moz rolled out a new brand-level metric, which is fine. But this idea is far more valuable:
Brand value is highly subjective. It’s most accurately measured across multiple attributes, including financial, trust, and popularity. As marketers and stewards of the brands, you help orchestrate – because you can’t control it – the perceptions of your brand over time. They are the sum of promises kept – the spaces in which your customers create their value and look at you in a different way.
New social platform WeAre8 wants to share ad revenue with the users who watch them.
Easier than paying for data. Opt-in consent. And all the signals that come with watching digital video. Sounds promising.
The real question is, can it scale to survive? If it doesn’t, will people write off the “get paid to engage with ads” model? (At least outside crypto.)
It’s fun watching the new social revenues live test their potential.
AdWeek: Get Paid to Watch Ads on This Hate-Free Social App, Launching in the US
More ads in more places:
And another sign that we’ve shifted from subsidized user growth to actually trying to discover what the word “profit” means.
The Consumer Price Index (inflation measure) hit it’s lowest growth rate in over two years.
It clocked in at 3% in June.
The last time it was lower was March 2021.
An encouraging sign. CPI is far from the only indicator of economic health, but shoppers will appreciate it at the least.
Steal This: IRL Cart Abandonment Follow Up.
Would you rather compete for space in the inbox or the mailbox?
(And do you know what tool(s) make this possible?)
When asked whether this tactic worked, KetoneAid’s founder Frank said:
“The cost of posting a can is $10. People get hooked and buy subscriptions. And the lifetime value of a subscriber is $3,000.”
via DemandCurve
#theftythursday #marketing
Steal This: IRL Abandoned Cart Follow Up
This won't work for all businesses (duh)—at least not shipping a sample product—but would you rather compete for space in the inbox or the mailbox?
The note says:
Hello! I see you started an order but didn't get around to completing it. Since it costs us $50 to acquire a new customer, I thought it made more sense to just send you a free product to try. Hope you don't mind. I'm sending one of our two flavors of Hard Ketones. Real Buzz, No Booze. Most people need 2 on an empty stomach to feel it, but thought we would start with tasting it. Hope you like it! Use code FrankFreebie for free shipping, I hope this helps make the decision easier! Frank LLosa CEO KetoneAid and Hard Ketones
I don't know what tool they use to make this possible. (Maybe some clever rule writing with this app?)
When asked whether this tactic worked, KetoneAid's founder Frank said:
“The cost of posting a can is $10. People get hooked and buy subscriptions. And the lifetime value of a subscriber is $3,000.”
Post Syllabus:
DemandCurve Growth Newsletter #113: Go overboard with cart abandonment
More GA4 updates:
New, pre-built report: audiences. It includes 6 default metrics and any audience you’ve created with at least 1 user in the timeframe you’ve set.
Starting next month last-click and data-driven will be the only attribution models available for optimization and reporting.
Slowly getting more regex in GA4 🎉
One of the (if not THE) biggest adjustments Google Analytics users need to make in the GA4 transition is realizing the prior version was fully realized by the time it sunset. The new version is being built as we use it.
(The Explore tab is still better.)
Captcha’s are a data collection method for creating labeled data sets for deep learning training, so is this at all surprising?
Bots are better than humans at cracking ‘Are you a robot?’ Captcha tests, study finds