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PUSH NOTIFICATIONS
Mozilla & Google battle against push notifications
There comes a time for every red hot traffic source when all the hype and bloom around it starts to dissipate. Whether it’s because of saturation or restrictions, it doesn’t matter – It happens every time.
Currently, push notification is the hottest traffic source of 2019, but the first attack on it has already been launched.
What is happening? During April, Mozilla Firefox conducted some experiments to find a solution for push notification spam by websites.
It has spread so much that, according to Mozilla, they are now by some distance the most frequently shown permission request.
From the 1st to 25th of January, 18M push notification permissions were generated on Mozilla alone.
Only 3% of users accepted them, and these permission requests caused 20% visitors to leave the website.
So, what is Mozilla doing to fight it?
During the experiment, notifications won’t display unless the user clicks or presses a key while on the website in a way that signals interaction.
Moreover, the browser will test two more things.
In the first 2 weeks, Mozilla won’t show permissions to use notifications to Firefox Night users when the restriction is applied to the website.
In the second 2 weeks, Firefox will show an animated icon in the address bar, when the restriction is applied to the website. If the user clicks on the icon, they’ll be shown the permission request.
The experiment is still on, so the results of this test aren’t yet known. It will certainly be interesting to see what Mozilla’s eventual tactic to fight this will be.
Currently, the Mozilla browser only accounts for the 4.56% of usage share. So it’s safe to say that this isn’t overly threatening on its own.
However, this shows that browsers are becoming aware that push notifications are employed to spam users, and how all the permission requests can hurt the online experience.
What’s Google doing about it?
Of course, Google is aware of the push spam brigade as well. According to them, only websites with a high user engagement level can send permission prompts.
Additionally, Chrome Engineers are soon going to install the ability to send prompts into PWAs (progressive web applications).
Similar initiatives from other browsers are expected. Let’s see where this is headed.
FB rolling out new targeting features? How to fix this Ads Manager error
We found signs of a potential, new and interesting update doing the rounds in many FB groups. Yet, we’re yet to see any confirmations on this. An easy trick to fix an Ads Manager bug.
New targeting features?
Like we said, we haven’t found any official announcement on this yet, but from the looks of this post shared by Engjell Berisha, FB might be rolling out some new targeting features:
- The possibility of building audiences based on other IG profiles.
- New purchase behaviours options: targeting people based on their average order value.
Well, these updates do look very interesting. However, we are still awaiting more details and any official news about it.
Have you seen any discussions or news about it? Let us know if you come across anything.
Fixing the duplicate error
It looks like some of you are experiencing an error in the Ads Manager when trying to duplicate ads, ad sets or campaigns.
Here’s the easy fix to this, as shared by Matt Malby: Clear your cache and cookies. That should do the trick. Yup, it really is that simple!
Hopefully that will get it all sorted for you!
SPONSORED
Join the AFFengers, defeat ZBERG and get some extra rewards from Wewe Media!
The AM Galaxy was once thriving… super affiliates scaled aggressively and exercised their marketing powers, but over the past couple of years, it’s been under constant attack by ZBERG, The Lord of Faces.
He also brought his entourage of villains with MC, aka Master of Cards to help him reject online transactions, Googs, aka “God of Ad Block” and the European Data Gods to strike down the email world by implementing GDPR.
Wewe Media is putting together a team. The AFFengers will be composed of the strongest super affiliates out there to help save this galaxy. To be part of the team, you must successfully pass the AFFengers Challenge in 75 days.
Join this challenge to save the AM Galaxy. Mention WTAFF in the referral code field so you get taken care of ;).
After the challenge is over, you will find out your rank as a member of the AFFengers. If you succeed in this challenge, you will be awarded an honorary timepiece that will last a lifetime, right at Affiliate World Europe, the next AFFengers gathering!
$15K in 15 days, Rocket Raccoon: Do $15K in the first 15 days! Choose between DJI Spark, YEEZY Boost 350 V2, Beats Studio3 Wireless Headphones!(this only applies to new affiliates running Nutra and Dating offers)
$100k revenue, Captain America: Apple Watch Hermes – the coolest watch from Apple, mixing the classic with modern just like Cap.
$200k revenue, Iron Man: Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean – the watch Iron Man uses in space.
$300k revenue, Thor: Hublot Big Bang Evolution Steel Bang Blue Sunburst – worthy of the King of Asgard!
$500k revenue, Hulk: Rolex Submariner Date Hulk Green – “Hulk not smash, he wear proudly!”
$800k revenue, Captain Marvel: Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding – this may or may not give you the ability to shoot photon blasts… or money blasts.
The Crew’s verdict: Timepieces for the ages. Those are some mighty fine watches that will make you the talk of the party. The Wewe team has an awesome taste and what’s best is they are giving them away!
Infinity Stone Bonuses! To get some extra help with your score you can use 3 powerful stones:
Nutra stone – generate $100k and you get an additional $25k added to your score (not paid out as revenue).
Dating stone – generate $100k and you will get an additional $25k added to your score (not paid out as revenue).
Soul stone – successfully refer 5 affiliates to Wewe and get an additional $10k added to your score (not paid out as revenue).
Join The AFFengers challenge right here. Don’t forget to mention WTAFF referral code to get faster approval.
Smart bidding signals coming
Google’s Smart Bidding, the search giant’s machine learning bidding strategy, already uses thousands of real-time bidding signals during each auction.
As you would expect from Google, that’s still not enough for them! Now, more such signals are being added for App and Shopping campaigns.
What does this mean?
- Mobile app ratings will be one such factor for App campaigns. Hence, ads for an app with a high number of positive reviews might be deemed likely to result in an install. The bids will be automatically adjusted based on the quality and quantity of the app’s reviews.
- For Shopping campaigns, price competitiveness and seasonality will be the two new factors considered by smart bidding. Your bids will be auto-optimized based on the product’s price compared to other competitors in the ad auction. Low prices, deals and discounts will influence automated bids.
Flexible performance controls
Along with these, Google help page also shows that device-specific performance targets for mobile, desktop, and tablet traffic are also in the process of being introduced with Target CPA bidding.
Similarly, seasonal performance trends will be taken into account by smart bidding. So, if your products have a higher likelihood of conversion during the holiday season, your bid will be optimized accordingly.
Theoretically, as more and more signals get incorporated, they should make the bid optimization smarter. However, the lack of transparency around how much each factor influences the bids and results is something advertisers are still confused about.
SEO
Automated Search Console reports using Data Studio
Search Console has seen quite a few positive changes since the introduction of its new version.
But did you know that you can get even more out of your Search Console by using it in conjunction with Data Studio?
You can create custom dashboards allowing you to:
- Save loads of time by tracking organic issues, fluctuations and site insights faster.
- Turn your boring data reports into compelling visualizations.
Unless you’ve never heard of Data Studio before (which we assume won’t be the case), here’s a guide to get yourself familiar with it.
Let’s look at some of the ways to pull your Search Console data into Data Studio:
- Use a Native Connector to create a data source. It is limited to performance data alone and has a limited number of dimensions with which to dissect this data source.
- Use 3rd party tools like SuperMetrics. This will allow you access to Sitemap metrics, performance data and a wide range of other dimensions.
Custom Search Console Dashboards within Data Studio
Top Level Trends Dashboard
This dashboard provides a top-level overview of organic performance. This includes such things as:
- Site-wide trends: Site-wide, year-on-year comparison scorecard. Site-wide data trended on a monthly basis.
- Branded and non branded trends: Using data Studio connector, you can create a filter for queries that include/exclude your brand and its variations. Non branded search performance shows the effectiveness of your SEO work, whereas branded search performance tells you more about overall marketing efforts.
- Directory breakdown: Split out your site data by site sections. This can be pulled using directory level submissions using Supermetrics. It tells you how various sections on a site are contributing to the overall organic performance and how this has changed over time.
- Long tail vs short tail performance: You can use query length as a dimension to gain an understanding of long and short tail performance. You can also bucket different query lengths to group short, mid and long tail queries separately.
Monthly Insights Dashboard
This gives you a more granular view of your Search Console performance data on a monthly basis. Reports include:
- Monthly trends: Two comparison scorecards with month-on-month data comparison.
- Device, geographic and search type trends: These graphical reports can be configured to detect changes in various types of traffic, which is useful for flagging the source of the fluctuations.
- Page and query performance: You can get this data within Search Console, but with Data Studio it can be configured so you don’t have to use any filters to get performance trends on site pages and queries.
- Gainers and losers: These pre-populated tables show you the queries with biggest increase/decrease in clicks, impressions, CTR. You can add a filter for a minimum number of impressions or clicks as well, letting you focus on the more meaningful trends.
- Fraggle performance: Fraggles are jump links in SERPs that deep link to specific sections of a page. Getting fraggles for your site’s pages is simple yet useful for sites with a lot of long-form content. Simply by filtering down URLs that contain a “#” shows you the performance of fraggle impressions and clicks in search.
Well, it might take a few hours initially to get these dashboards and automated processes setup, but once they are the hard work is done and you can reap the benefits in terms of time saved in the long run.
If you are interested in learning more about how you can build these dashboards to streamline reporting, here are some useful resources by Griffin Roer, Aleyda Solis and Supermetrics to get more out of your Search Console using Data Studio.
FROM THE CREW
We’re one year old!
Exactly one year ago, on Monday, 23rd April 2018, the very first public WHAT THE AFF email was sent out. We had already done a few days of “private beta” with some of our closest industry friends to polish the concept and then we felt ready to release it into the wild.
Most of you weren’t here then, so if you are itching to see how we’ve evolved, here’s what we sent out exactly one year ago.
OMG, our header took so much space back then!
It’s both familiar and very different. We’ve evolved into more diverse content, a better layout and design, and we have a much cooler Poolside Chat logo, don’t you agree?
Thanks to everyone for reading and giving your feedback. It helps make us better! Thanks as well to our sponsors throughout the year – we wouldn’t be here without their support either!
We’ve gathered 6k marketers who want to hear from us every weekday. Here’s to getting 60k in year 2! You can leave your mark on our growth and get some prizes in the process by sharing WTAFF right here.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things affiliates like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
10 years jail for stealing $7.5M worth of Bitcoin
Every time a new currency is born, new ways of stealing follow suit.
This is what happened with Bitcoin, and specifically with Joel Ortiz, a high-tech thief.
Ortiz was a prolific SIM swapper who targeted victims by swindling their cryptocurrency and taking over their social media accounts in a bid to sell them for Bitcoin.
In May 2018, Ortiz stole over $5.2M from a Cupertino cryptocurrency entrepreneur in a matter of minutes.
The 21-year old guy spent this “hard-earned” money in Los Angeles nightclubs, renting helicopters and buying designer gear.
However, the party hasn’t lasted for Joel, and it’s not been a happy ending for him either.
In fact, he’s been arrested, along with other 4 individuals, by the REACT task force. This is a specialised group of law enforcement agents from Bay Area agencies working to solve high-tech crime in Silicon Valley. High tech sheriffs for high tech bandits…
REACT investigators have still only been able to confiscate $400k from Ortiz though, a fraction of the total $7.5M he has stolen. The rest has been hidden and squandered.
However, if Ortiz still has some money hidden who knows where, he will have to wait 10 years before being free again to spend it…