These new Performance Max features could help you get more customers
… And who doesn’t want that?
What’s going on: Google added new features to their automated Performance Max campaigns.
The most notable mention? The new customer acquisition goal.
What it does: This goal lets you bid more for new customers or focus optimizations on new customers only. It also enables you to:
- Upload first-party data.
- Set up conversion tags.
- Use Google’s autodetection method.
Out with the old, in with the new: It’s worth noting, too, that while Google’s busy improving New Performance Max, it’s also phasing out Google Adwords.
They just shut down the Adwords API.
Why we care: All signs point to machine learning being the future of Google advertising. The sooner you start automating your campaigns and adapting to the new Performance Max goals, the sooner you’ll reap the benefits.
ADVERTISING
Still trying to boost revenue after iOS 14? This report may help
For most people, long reports are like melatonin gummies:
They’re great for helping you fall asleep…
But if you’re one of those marketers who’s trying to navigate Apple’s App Tracking & Transparency (AT&T) update, their latest report may have you alert and sitting up.
What it covers: How Apple’s ad business works, and what the effects of their AT&T policy are.
Why we care: While the report comes across a long-winded justification of Apple’s policies, it’s still useful for understanding how they impact your ads.
Apple’s report also walks you through their permissionless tracking tool called SKAN (StoreKit AdNetworK), which may provide a solution to improving your ad results.
SPONSORED BY HOPIN
At your next hybrid event, get a standing ovation from… the financial department
When planning a hybrid event, most marketers focus on making the sponsors and attendees happy. But there’s one big problem they forget to address…
The event has to be profitable! Because wonderful as it is, you can’t deposit applause in your checking account.
So how do you plan a hybrid event that goes well—and makes money?
The Hopin Virtual Events Playbook shows you how to make everybody happy: Attendees, sponsors, and even the CFO!
Inside this free playbook you’ll find:
- A comprehensive checklist for event planning and production, so when the event starts, you can sit back, relax, and enjoy it like an attendee.
- A plan to capitalize on the revenue opportunities of a virtual event, so you don’t leave a single penny on the table.
- Event promotion strategies to attract attendees and sponsors. Push those revenue numbers up.
“Yes, show me how to plan a successful and profitable event!”
COPYWRITING
Which video sales letters convert better: The ones with speakers on camera, or text-on-screen?
Russel Ruffino recently asked this question in the Nothing Held Back group, and the responses were both fascinating and useful.
Here are our favorites:
Mike Pavlish pointed out that text slides and one-person camera setups can quickly bore the viewer.
In his experience writing 200+ video sales letters (VSLs) for health supplement offers, he found that what converts best is a professional narrator speaking alongside rapidly changing footage (known as B-roll).
This creates a more engaging, movie-like experience, which hooks the viewer.
Russell Brunson said it depends on who’s on camera. Scott Phillips confirmed his opinion, saying that after he took acting lessons, the conversion rate of his video sales letters jumped by 30%.
And Alen Sultanic pointed out, too, that how viewers prejudge the person on camera also affects viewership and conversion rates.
Sultanic went on to say that copy only accounts for 20% of the results. The scene, the background, the tonality, outfit, look, and charm of the speaker all play a big role in the conversion rate.
On the other hand… Russ Reynolds said scripted Zoom meetings worked well in the financial space.
Reynolds’s tip fits a type of video sales letter we’ve seen a lot lately: Podcast VSLs.
This type of VSL works because it looks and sounds like content, which can also keep users engaged.
Our takeaway? As with every marketing question… It depends!
If your business has a charismatic frontman, then you’ll have more success putting them on camera.
If not, you might have to hire a professional speaker and pair their voice with a b-roll sequence.
SPONSORED BY CAMPAIGN MONITOR
Running SMS campaigns? Don’t hit “send” again until you learn how to create genuine urgency
Text messages may have an insanely high open rate, but not every company gets the ROI they deserve from this marketing channel.
This list of best practices from Campaign Monitor will help you get the most out of what’s quickly becoming an essential channel. You’ll discover the right frequency to create real urgency in your prospects without breaking their trust, how to reward your readers so they keep opening your texts, and more essential SMS marketing tips.
Read the post here—no signup required.
THE CREW’S INSIGHTS
How to spy on the best ads on TikTok and get inspiration for your own
A great ad on TikTok can make you a lot of money.
But figuring out how to create great ads takes time—and money, too.
So instead of iterating for months trying to find good creative…
Here are three reliable sources for finding the kinds of TikTok ads you can get ideas from:
- TikTok’s native tools.
- Third-party spy tools.
- Curated collections, like Twitter threads.
TikTok’s native tools: If you go to the TikTok Creative Center, you’ll find curated collections of top-performing ads you can take inspiration from.
TikTok will show you stats about the ads, too, like campaign objectives, formats, duration, and more.
Third-party spy tools: Spy tools for TikTok are not as popular as Facebook Ads ones. But with some digging you’ll find some.
We haven’t used any, but they may be worth a shot if you want to go deeper than TikTok’s own tools, which aren’t as complex as you’d like.
Curated collections: TikTok often creates blog posts—like this one—where they include examples of successful TikTok ads.
There are also some interesting threads on Twitter, like this one and this one, where people manually curate ads they find interesting.
The Crew’s insight: There’s no Facebook Ads Library caliber tool for TikTok, but the methods above should help you find top-notch ads to get ideas from.
Speaking of ideas… This short guide comes from our latest TikTok Deep Dive.
If you want to read the rest of the Deep Dive—plus more content designed to give you inspiration and ideas—check out Insights.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
CONTENT MARKETING: Need to create high-quality content fast and at scale? Don’t waste time and money on overcrowded job platforms. Contentfly matches you with the top 1% of writers so you can rank, build your brand, and accelerate your growth! You’re 5 minutes away from getting high-quality content.*
LINKEDIN: Hooray… You can finally add a “link in bio” to your profile, which hopefully driving more traffic to your website. Plus, if you have a newsletter, users will be able to subscribe right inside your “Featured section.”
TIKTOK: Guess which one is the most downloaded app of 2022? Yep, once again it’s TikTok, with a staggering 175 million downloads.
SEO: Bye-bye, Search Console’s URL Parameter Tool. Although Google assures that there’s nothing specific you should do, you may want to monitor your analytics for crawling, indexing, and ranking changes.
MOBILE: More privacy updates are coming to Google. The “Data Safety” section in the Play Store tells you how data is collected and shared with app usage. If you’re a developer, make sure you update your apps by July 20 to avoid “further enforcement actions.”
TWITTER: Should you stay or go? In this piece, Sarah Perez shares her opinion on what advertisers will do if Elon Musk sticks to his free speech agenda.
SEO: Meet the MuellerBot. An AI version of Google’s very own John Muller stands by to answer all your SEO-related questions. It’s almost like chatting with the expert himself… Almost.
*This is a sponsored post.
BRAIN TEASER
Two mothers and two daughters go to a pet store and buy three cats. Each female gets her own cat.
How is this possible?
You can find the answer here.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things marketers like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
Let Instagram inspire that next getaway, but don’t let it drive
If it seems too beautiful to be true, it probably is.
At least, that’s what some people have experienced.
One YouTuber thought she was getting snow-capped mountains when she packed up and traveled to Gastonia, North Carolina.
… Only to realize upon arrival that what she saw on social media was actually Switzerland—and Gastonia was very, very different.
You know what they say: Don’t believe everything on the internet!
We’re still going to get inspiration from our Instagram feeds, of course.
We’ll just combine inspiration with due diligence before we book that next trip.