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Zuck launches a device called Portal – has nothing to do with the video game.
Facebook announced its first hardware device, called the Portal, to improve the experience of 1.5 billion minutes of video calls every day.
The Portal makes Messenger video chats more conversational by using an AI-powered camera to pan, zoom and reframe the picture, allowing you move freely and naturally around.
You can start a video call simply by saying “Hey Portal” and noting who you’dlike to call. Portal also has Amazon Alexa built in, so you can ask for sportsscores, check the weather, control smart home devices, order groceries, and more.
Facebook seems to be aware that users have a hard time trusting them after all the recent scandals.
This is why Facebook encrypts Messenger data locally. The device even comes with a physical mute button and a camera cap to cover the lens when you’re not chatting.
The Portal comes with a 10 inch 1280 x 800 display. If you are looking for a larger screen you can opt for a 15 inch 1920 x 1080 pivoting display with Portal+.
Portal ($199) and Portal+ ($349) are available now for pre-order in the US and will begin shipping in November.
Click-to-WhatsApp ads are here!
If your business uses WhatsApp, you can now run click-to-WhatsApp ads on Facebook.
For users, it’s pretty similar to Messenger ads. For you as an advertiser, you have to do a few more things.
You have to create a business account on WhatsApp and connect it by verifying your phone number. Pretty much expected though, because WhatsApp works with your phone number only, not with your Facebook profile.
That’s really it.
The bigger question is how this integration will continue over the next 6 months or so when ads are expected to show up in WhatsApp too!
Quick tips for targeting when using the carpet-bomb strategy
The carpet-bomb strategy is something Chris Colvard made popular in the Facebook Ad Buyers group. In short, you run a video views campaign to a broad audience to gather a custom audience – those who watch your video become your target audience from now on.
You can check the explanation from Chris, from over a year ago right here.
OK, so for those who are already familiar and understand it, Chris posted a few tips about how to target a bit better, depending on your niche.
GENERAL CONSUMERS
This is wide open targeting in a geo area. The only thing you add is Age or Gender-related to your product or service.
REAL ESTATE
“I can’t target homeowners anymore.” You can certainly target specific homeowner zip codes. Use these zip codes for services such as real estate agents, lenders and related services like inspections, etc…
MEDICAL
Realize that this is a service area. The best target audience for this niche is affluent zip codes. No need to overcomplicate it.
SERVICE
The service dictates the targeting in the service business. If the niche is plumbing, then it is target zip codes. If it is auto repair it is the entire geo. Think terms of who will respond to the offer and where are they in the local market.
RESTAURANTS
This is a no-brainer. The service area of the restaurant is the objective. A pizza delivery place is going to have a smaller radius than a 5-star steakhouse. Know what these are!
EVENTS
Depending on the event, you have several strategies. The best I have used is pin include and pin exclude. Other ways are to include interests that a specific to the event and geo-targeting.
If you have questions, head over to the post.
Say “Goodbye!” to Google+
Google exposed private data from hundreds of thousands Google+ users but decided not to inform the world.
A software vulnerability gave outside developers access to private Google+ user data between 2015 and 2018. When a user gave permission to an app to access their public profile data, the bug also let those developers pull their and their friends’ non-public profile fields.
Google said that it also found no evidence that any of the developers behind the 438 applications that used the API were aware of the bug.
The company decided against informing the public because it would lead to “us coming into the spotlight alongside or even instead of Facebook despite having stayed under the radar throughout the Cambridge Analytica scandal” according to an internal memo.
In response to the bug, Gmail will restrict building add-ons to a small number of developers. Google+ will stop its consumer services over the next 10 months with an opportunity for users to export their data while Google refocuses on making G+ an enterprise product.
Since this started in 2015 and was discovered in March before Europe’s GDPR went into effect in May, Google could be spared a 2 percent of global annual revenue fine for failing to disclose the issue within 72 hours. With annual revenue of $110 billion this would mean a $2.2 billion fine.
E-COMMERCE
Want return customers? Here’s what you need to know…
Of course, having returning customers is better than having to get new ones. We’ve looked at some numbers to get a rough feel about what influences people’s decisions whether to buy from you (again) or recommend you to a friend.
For the past three years, the most sold products online have been clothing/apparel, electronics/technology, and beauty products.
Research shows that about 90% of people are more likely to buy when they get free returns and/or free shipping. 67% say they are even likely to add items to their cart to get that free shipping.
One other thing is clear – expectations on delivery time may vary.
Dotcom Distribution’s studies show that in 2018, only 25% of participants would be willing to pay more for faster shipping. This number was a whopping 47% two years ago.
77% also said that a delayed delivery would make them less likely to buy again.
That’s not all that changed in the past couple of years. Fancy packaging and freebies seem to have less of an impact these days. The quality of the actual product is way more important, say 75%.
Our thoughts on this one. Maybe people got used to higher quality packaging and expect it. We bet the crap packaging from some AliExpress suppliers will get you some bad reviews.
Also, it’s essential to have high-quality product images on your website.According to MDG Advertising, 67% of consumers say that product images are “very important” in making their choices.
Things like product-specific information (63%), long descriptions (54%) and ratings/reviews (53%) all come after.
In short, people want to know what exactly they’re getting. And get it quickly with the least effort or costs on their side.
You probably knew a lot of this but at least you have clear numbers to back it up!
SPONSORED
Crypto-affiliating is dead, right?
Well, not really. While the (digital) goldrush like we had it at the beginning of the year seems to be over, there is still plenty of money to make in this vertical.
When cryptos hit a new all-time high every few weeks or even days, people were in the shut-up-and-take-my-money investing mode.
Since then a lot of people got their fingers burned and are more cautious about cryptos. This means nowadays you have the be more selective about what offers to promote.
It can be tough to keep track of all the offers and new trends with so much noise in the space.
This is where the guys from RunCPA can help you out.
Check out their Crypto Marketing Blog. If you are considering crypto-affiliating it’s a must bookmark.
In their most recent post, they tackle the state of the crypto-affiliate marketing status.
They touch on cloud mining, crypto courses, ICOs, gambling, exchanges and just about anything under the crypto-sun so go check it out!
But not only do they provide you with all the info about crypto-affiliate marketing, they have great, exclusive offers in the crypto space and also offer instant bitcoin payouts.
They are crypto, after all!
Last but not least – a special bonus for WHAT THE AFF readers – 10% bonus on every payout, if you sign up and reach out to [email protected] with the keyword WHAT THE AFF!
PS: If you’re just after the offers, go here to see the full list!
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things affiliates like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
“Have you ever been playing a game and just wanted a bunch of air blown into your face?”
Seriously, that’s a real quote from the product introduction.
And the product? Well, it’s a $120 desktop fan that blows air into your face as you play video games. It’s called Vortx.
We really thought this is some satire article but it isn’t.
Apparently, if you have explosions in your game, it will blow warm air into your face. And otherwise, it can blow room-temperature air when playing a snowboarding game, skydiving, etc.
The promising part is that it can work with any game or video. But the current features are underwhelming, at least in our view.
You can read a more detailed explanation of how it can detect what sort of air to supply your face within the full article by Engadget.
And we’ll just let you think of all the “blow” and “hot air” jokes for this one.
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