SPOTIFY
Spotify is getting interesting
Spotify first made big headlines in the podcast world back in the spring, when the company made a deal with Joe Rogan valued at more than $100M.
Yesterday, we got some more news on Spotify’s big podcast plans – and they’re interesting for marketers. Here’s a breakdown:
- Spotify is adding new tools and features for podcast creators. With their announcements yesterday, it was clear that the company wants to put a focus on podcasts. Spotify’s podcast creation platform, Anchor, will be getting more interactivity tools and text-to-podcast features in coming months. Paid podcast subscriptions will also be a part of this.
- There’s a new ad platform on the way. This is the most exciting part of the announcement for marketers. We don’t have an exact release date, but the audio ads platform will help advertisers connect with listeners on all types of content.
These are some eyebrow-raising moves from Spotify. It’s clear that the company is making moves to bring in some more revenue, and these moves could end up creating a whole world of new advertising options for marketers.
CLUBHOUSE
The shaky growth of Clubhouse
Clubhouse has been the ‘next hot thing’ in social media for a while now. And, like most new and hot trends when they’ve been around for awhile, some questions are starting to be raised.
But, at the same time, the platform continues to grow and brands are starting to make use of it. Here’s what you need to know about the state of Clubhouse currently:
- Data breaches are a little too common. Bloomberg reported on one such breach over the weekend, where a hacker was able to stream audio from multiple rooms onto a third-party website. Although the user has been banned, it’s raised questions as to the security of the platform.
- Brands are starting to figure out the value of Clubhouse. There’s a new Digiday piece out about this. Although there’s no real ads platform, brands are working with Clubhouse influencers to reach audiences that care.
The Crew’s take: Most of The Crew here uses Android phones, so we’re not in on the Clubhouse action just yet. But it’s clear that the platform will likely go through the same growing pains that many other social platforms do.
SPONSORED BY REVCONTENT
Why do native media buyers drool at this Revcontent bidding feature?
‘Cause it’s helping some companies exceed their revenues goal by 40%!
What company are we talking about? And which bidding feature?
You can find the case study here. Tapstone started running Revocntent campaigns back in August 2020 and in November they were exceeding their revenue goal of $20k.
According to Tapstone’s media buyers:
“Revcontent’s strongest capabilities lie in widget bidding and the user interface, particularly when creating campaign boosts. It’s one of the most seamless processes I’ve experienced as a media buyer and makes it quick for getting ideas out as efficiently as possible”
Indeed, Revcontent allows you to manipulate the bids individually on a site or widget level with a feature called Bid By Widget.
You have full control of exactly where you bid and how much, cutting every inefficiency in your ad spend.
And if you’re worried about the quality of traffic when running native ads, Revcontent lets you advertise on tier 1 publisher sites across the web – Barstool Sports, Nexstar Digital, Salon, and more. And their built-in technology detects and eliminates bot clicks to your landing pages.
Bot-free premium traffic. That’s the dream of every media buyer, right?
Head over here and read the complete case study.
SEO
How will your website be impacted by Core Web Vitals?
We’ve talked several times about Core Web Vitals. And you might be aware of the three metrics that will impact your website ranking after the update will roll out in May 2021:
- Largest contentful paint (LCP)
- Cumulative layout shift (CLS)
- First input delay (FID)
The SEOClarity team analyzed over 1 million websites in their database to understand how these three metrics will impact websites’ traffic. They put a special emphasis on Cumulative Layout Shift.
What is the Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) score?
It’s a score that’s designed to make sure a page is easier for a user to navigate. Once a browser has done its first layout and paint of a page like fonts and lazy loading images, any layout changes that are then made after this can affect the CLS score.
Basically, if you’ve got a site that “moves around” a lot after loading, you’ll get a bad CLS score.
Here are the main stats that came out from the analysis:
- About 5% of sites’ rankings will likely be negatively affected by the Google Core update relating to CLS, which could mean an estimated $205.25 billion (5%) of e-commerce revenue affected.
- Websites with ‘Good’ CLS scores have a longer FID: The average First Input Delay time of websites with a ‘Good’ CLS score was 19.32 milliseconds. Websites that came under ‘Needs Improvement’ for CLS scores, had slightly quicker speeds of 13.47 ms, while ‘Poor’ CLS scoring sites had an even faster 13 ms.
- 97% of Sites Will Likely Not Be Negatively Impacted by FID Scoring in Core Web Vitals Algorithm Update.
- LCP was the only metric in SEOClarity’s analysis that was slowest in sites that have a ‘Poor’ CLS score.
- Only 2% of sites will likely be negatively impacted by LCP in the Core Web Vitals algorithm update.
- Websites that have a poorer CLS score, have fewer linking root domains (LRDs) – on average, 239 LRDs for sites with “Poor” CLS vs 463 LRDs for those with ‘Good’ CLS.
- Surprisingly, websites with better CLS and page loading statistics have a higher trust flow.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
SEO: Google has launched a new Search Console feature designed to help you get a better picture of your site’s performance.
YOUTUBE: There are a couple new ways to compare data in YouTube Creator Studio.
GOOGLE: Someone recently took to the r/Entrepreneur subreddit and posted a great little tip to find, with a quick Google search, a spreadsheet on almost any topic.
FACEBOOK: News sharing in Australia is getting restored after an agreement has been reached.
BRAIN TEASER
It stalks the countryside with ears that can’t hear. What is it?
You can find the solution here.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things marketers like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
It’s a touchdown
No, not the American football kind. This touchdown happened last week, approximately 131M miles away from Earth.
It’s the descent of the NASA Perseverance Probe, which successfully touched down on Mars back on Thursday. We only had photos, though, until yesterday.
Now, with some new footage, you can see the video of the crazy descent to the surface of Mars (and the excited reaction of the people at NASA when the mission is complete).
Check it out here! Maybe, if you look long enough, you can spot a few aliens on the surface.