Set your ad creative on autopilot… if you dare
Do you trust Google’s algorithm enough to let it choose your creative assets?
Because their new beta feature is happy to help.
What’s going on: The “Automatically created assets” feature uses machine learning to generate headlines, descriptions, and other assets based on content from your website, landing page, keywords and existing ads.
If you enable the feature, just keep an eye on your ads to confirm they’re accurate.
Why we care: Testing automated creatives is just another step in Google’s efforts to make their advertising process fully automated.
It’s almost to the point where you can put ads on autopilot and focus on optimizing your content and creative assets instead…
APPLE
Buy now, pay later comes to Apple
People love splitting things: restaurant checks, Netflix accounts…
And of course, payments.
Now Apple’s doing splits: The company announced the release of their own Buy now, pay later (BNPL) platform at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).
It’s called Apple Pay Later, and it’s available in the US wherever you find Apple Pay.
No action needed: Apple says there’s no work needed from the developer or merchant side, since payments can be managed through the Apple Wallet app.
Additionally, Apple released Apple Pay Order Tracking, which sends receipts and tracks orders in the Wallet app. It’s already integrated with Shopify.
Why we care: BNPL can significantly increase your conversion rate, so now’s a good time to notify your iOS customers.
For example, you might send customers a pop-up notification or display the feature as a payment option if they’re visiting from an iOS device.
Probably won’t be long before we see custom extensions for Apple Pay Later on Shopify and other platforms…
SPONSORED BY READY SET
TikTok videos so good, customers will throw money at you
Why do DoorDash, Hims & Hers, SmileDirectClub, Coinbase, and Goli turn to Ready Set to produce their video ads?
Because Ready Set delivers videos worth $350k… using live action recordings with real actors, and not a single piece of stock video…
… for a fraction of that price.
And Ready Set is all about boosting your ROI.
First, they help you get high-quality videos for TikTok and Reels for a low price.
Second, they shoot direct-response style messages that make users excited to pull out their credit cards and buy your products! Watch some examples here.
And you don’t have to worry about your brand: Ready Set knows how to find the right balance between direct response and brand consistency.
They make both the CFO and the brand manager happy!
See how Ready Set can supercharge the ROAS on your TikTok Ads.
At MAU in Vegas? See CEO John Gargiulo’s presentation on “The TikTok-ification of Everything” tomorrow at 11:20AM in the Terrace Ballroom.
ADVERTISING
Why you should think of your ad creative like a language
As advertising platforms lose targeting power, they’re relying more on your ads to find the right audience.
That’s why Alexa Kilroy says that you should treat your ads like a language.
Here’s the gist:
The visuals and copy of your ad are speaking to your prospective customers.
But if customers don’t understand your “language”—your ad—they ignore you.
Poor engagement tells the advertising platform that your target customer isn’t your target customer. They assume that if users don’t respond to your ad, they aren’t the people you’re looking for.
So Alexa suggests taking three steps to understand and speak your customers’ language:
1) Visualize your consumer. Look at the data, and identify their demographics and psychographics. Who they are, where they live, what content they consume, and what they buy. And even whether or not they have a cat or a dog.
2) Visualize your consumer’s environment. Imagine your customer using your product. Do they use it in the kitchen? In the living room? Do they have a lavish house? What country do they live in?
3) Model your messaging. Where are people asking questions about products like yours? Facebook, Reddit, forums? What are people saying in your reviews? How do they describe the problem they need to solve?
Once you get all this information, model your message and design accordingly.
Your visuals and copy should reflect all three of these steps.
So the next time they see your ad, they can’t ignore it… Because it’s speaking their language.
SPONSORED BY SEMRUSH
Small business. Big results.
Want to grow your business fast, but don’t have the marketing budget?
Semrush helps small companies access the kind of marketing tools and data usually reserved for big corporations.
With Semrush you can generate buzz on social media… Identify your biggest competitors and find out what’s working for them… Leverage SEO tools to get ahead of your competition… And more.
Try it now for free and save time and money on marketing.
THE CREW’S INSIGHTS
How to spot bad marketing experiments
When marketers and agencies experiment with a new platform or run A/B tests, they love to share their insights.
And hey, we love a good experiment as much as the next marketer.
But most marketers aren’t statisticians… so they often craft case studies that are full of statistical errors.
Why this matters: Many studies are often not representative of marketing as a whole. And taking bad experiments to heart could hurt your own marketing.
So the next time you come across an experiment or case study…
Here’s how to spot bad marketing experiments:
- The study was conducted with a small or unspecified budget. We recently read a study that ran on a budget less than $400. On many platforms, this simply isn’t enough to provide representative results. The margin of error is just too big.
- Too many variables were being tested at once. There are lots of variables that go into marketing. And if a study doesn’t explicitly control for all of them except for the one they’re testing, you should be wary of the data.
- Data being presented as objective, broad insights. Any good experiment will recognize that, although the data may be useful, it’s not the end-all be-all for the industry. If you ever see someone presenting their data as the objective, final truth, you should be cautious.
Don’t get us wrong… We encourage all marketers to share as much data as possible. That’s how we all get better at this thing!
But you know the classic adage: Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
E-COMMERCE: Three incredible industry leaders – Luke Hodgson (Co-Founder of Ecommerce Thinking), Tim Richardson (Founder of Fern Studios), and Tash Courtenay-Smith (CEO and Co-Founder of Bolt Digital) – are joining for an informal panel discussion sharing insights and best practices for successful scaling. Join them for Juni Day on 9th June, at 4pm CET (3pm BST).*
LINKEDIN: Turns out inspirational quotes and success stories aren’t the most effective LinkedIn post types. Videos and native documents are all the rage. Is it time to create new lead magnets and video ad campaigns?
GOOGLE: Want to have a say in the future of Attribution Reporting? Google is inviting interested developers to participate and experiment in an origin trial. Could be fun if you’re into aggregate reports and APIs.
ADVERTISING: TV ad breaks are fading away… and “integrated ad experiences” on connected television (CTV) may replace them. It seems targeted product placements and in-show formats are coming to your audience’s favorite shows. Wild times.
*This is a sponsored post.
BRAIN TEASER
I am the beginning of sorrow, and the end of sickness.
You cannot express happiness without me, yet I am in the midst of crosses.
I am always in risk, yet never in danger.
You may find me in the sun, but I am never out of darkness.
What am I?
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.
Your favorite song could be a fossil
Did you know there’s a high-tech cold storage facility in Norway trying to protect music from digital rot?
The Global Music Vault is collaborating with Microsoft to preserve humanity’s favorite tunes in insanely durable quartz glass hard drives.
The goal is to eventually store “tens of petabytes—or 1000 terabytes” of digital data for 10,000 years.
That sounds like good news for future generations.
Only thing we’re wondering is… Can they preserve our personal music libraries next?