[vc_column][vc_column_text]
There is a lot going on in Facebook-land
From new business terms and data misuse to new features and tips, then all the way down to the ever-present boycott… There’s a little bit of news related to Facebook from all sides, so we’ll give you a quick rundown of each update.
Let’s start with some helpful tips
Retaining social proof can be a pain, even in 2020 when Facebook has its own feature specifically for doing just that. Thankfully, Florian Litterst has a possible solution that works more reliably, even with Asset Customization.
The next tip on the list comes directly from Facebook IQ. We might be only halfway through 2020, but this year’s “Christmas, Unwrapped” holiday guide is now live with insights, reports and guides for all regions of the world.
What’s the new feature, you ask?
You can now use “Shopping” as a source for creating custom audiences. Whether that’s people who viewed your products, added to cart or made a purchase. Thanks to Michael Vittori for the find and to Matt Navarra for the share.
A data-related hiccup
This is somewhat a case of old news bobbing back to the surface. While Facebook has made progress on the data front, the latest piece from the Privacy Matters series shows that some apps have still collected data they shouldn’t have.
While probably not directly related to this find, Facebook also updated its business terms. All the updates are related to data collection, sharing and usage.
Brands boycotting Facebook, how much were they actually spending?
Thanks to Digiday and Pathmatics, we can now see how much some brands were spending on Facebook ads back in July 2019, plus how much they spent more recently.
What stands out? While the companies are big names, their ad spend doesn’t always measure up to what many would expect. For example, Ford spent $1.5M last July, but only $825 in May 2020 and $19k in April 2020.
That’s an extreme example of course, but more brands have spent less this year compared to 2019.
Our thoughts: The PR pressure is ramping up for Facebook, of course. They released a statement addressing the situation. However, when it comes to the bottom line, Facebook isn’t as hurt as many would expect. Brands were already spending much less than last year and there are 7M+ other smaller advertisers who are the backbone of FB’s revenue.
E-COMMERCE
“We all know at the end of May, e-commerce fell off a cliff”
E-commerce and DTC sales were on fire between March and May, and many of us expected that was going to be the new reality.
However, as June approached and quarantine measures began to loosen up, performances declined and people started talking about a cliff. The panic took over.
However, looking at the data provided by Aaron Orendorff, that’s not telling the whole truth. In fact, despite seeing a performance decrease, we’re still sitting on top enjoying the sun.
Let the data do the talking
Seeing all the desperation around, Aaron, from Common Thread Collective, decided to delve into analysis data from 47 accounts his company manages on a year-over-year basis.
Comparing the period that runs from January to June, with respect to the same period of 2019, there have been the following changes:
- Amount spent: +174.65%
- Revenue: +237.03%
- CPMs: -27.11%
- ROAS: +22.03%
Yeah, there’s been a little decrease in June, but compared to 2019 the situation is still better.
That’s not the real point though.
Despite this being an interim report, there are three general problems it highlights:
- Efficiency: As marketing efforts increase, returns diminish. Not linearly, but it does.
- Seasonality: You can’t consider June in relation to May. In addition to the quarantine, Spring had shopping events such as Easter, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, and Memorial Day. So, you can’t compare these results with off-season performances.
- Recency bias: You thought that performances during quarantine were the new normal. Well, they’re not, and e-commerce, despite the decrease from that period, is still doing better than 2019.
Bottom line: Zoom out, and you’ll probably see that you’re still having a great year.
SEO
The product triangle adapted to SEO
Sometimes even SEO wizards get lost in the deep pool of tactics and gimmicks… and eventually they come out the other side with results they didn’t expect.
According to Aleyda Solis, the problem is that you’re so involved in the tactics that you’re missing the bigger picture.
Her solution? Integrate your SEO activities with the Product Triangle, a concept developed by Daniel Schmidt.
Aleyda Solis uses it to get a better idea of what her SEO activities are going to accomplish. What’s the final goal, beyond reaching page one on Google?
Let’s break down this product triangle:
+ Growth and marketing efforts: How SEO affects and is affected by the company’s other growth and marketing efforts?
It’s important to know how your SEO strategy works together with your other marketing activities.
Example: Social media activities that amplify the content visibility and attract links to it, taking into consideration the keywords that generated more conversions.
+ Features and functionality of the site: How SEO affects and is affected by the site’s features and functionality?
Aleyda explained this better than we could, so here it is:
“Has the SEO process taken into consideration the site/product key features/functionality when doing the keyword and competition research and prioritizing the SEO recommendations to optimize their crawlability, indexability, content and identify link opportunities, to better connect and fulfill users search intent?”
Basically, your SEO process has to take your products and website features into consideration in order to fulfill the customer intent and demand.
+ The business model of the website: How SEO affects and is affected by sales?
You can’t neglect sales when establishing SEO goals. There are some questions you can ask yourself when doing this:
- Which are those high priority product/service lines?
- Are there any expected new releases for which you should start optimizing for in advance?
- What areas/pages are ranking very well already but are suffering from poorer conversions?
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
- YOUTUBE: Google is leveraging advanced AI to encourage YouTube creators to engage with their audiences with simple comments.
- INSTAGRAM: Ever wanted to see everyone’s Instagram story at once? Well, according to Julian Gamboa you’ll soon be able to as Instagram tests a new full-page story layout.
- CCPA: Time’s up for businesses still trying to meet CCPA compliance guidelines – the grace period is over, and many are bracing themselves for more restrictive guidelines in November.
- E-COMMERCE: See how a Google Bot, operating under the alias John Smith, is causing headaches for many e-commerce site owners.
- SEO: Learn more about how and why Google is securing patents for displaying entities in SERPs, a move that can be frustrating for niche site owners.
- WORDPRESS: Get ready to make your website feel fresher than ever, as Web Stories are now available on WordPress in a new public beta.
- LINKEDIN: You’ll now be able to view follower analytics on your LinkedIn pages, Matt Navarra reported. The new feature adds helpful demographic information including location, company size, and more!
BRAIN TEASER
What did the British man lose when he spent his money working out at the gym?
You can find the solution here.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things affiliates like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
Ink, paper and hustle
Do you think you created something “innovative” by adapting your ads to the quarantine mood during these last few months?
Let us tell you, you didn’t do anything new.
History repeats itself. And so does advertising.
Indeed, back in 1918 our predecessors were adjusting to the Spanish Flu pandemic to sell piano courses, phones, record players and other products
“People who are in quarantine are not isolated if they have a Bell Phone”.
Says one of these vintage ads shared by Igor Franceško in The Gary Halbert Copy Club group.
Or “Knock the flu a sure shot today”.
Another advertisement leverages the quarantine to sell piano courses. “Stay at home and learn to play the piano”.
They didn’t have algorithms and powerful targeting options, but they definitely knew how to make those sales even when the whole world was locked down.
Ink, paper and hustle.
This collection of ads made us think one thing: Nothing has changed in the business world!
And if you’re not in the group, you can see them in this folder, where we added even more examples.