ADVERTISING
New EU legislation could change advertising… again
What’s going on: The EU recently announced the “Digital Markets Act,” and it seems likely to get approval. If passed, the plan would force significant changes on “gatekeeper” platforms.
For example:
- Google would not be able to collect data from its various services to support targeted advertising without user consent.
- Apple would need to open up their App Store to third parties.
Both scenarios would mean less behavioral data, which could mean less effective ads.
Keep an eye on the road: There are more international regulations and agreements looming. If major platforms have to adjust their business models, you may have to adjust yours, too.
Still, it’s not entirely gloomy in the ad world…
TIKTOK
TikTok is beta testing search ads
If you’ve ever thought about growing your brand on TikTok, consider getting started soon. Maybe this week.
An exciting beta feature just rolled out…
What’s happening: TikTok just launched a beta version of search ads. When TikTok users search the platform for keywords, select partners can show them ads in the results.
Where the ads would appear: Above the “others searched for” terms on the results page, most likely within the first four results displayed. Ads will appear with a “Sponsored” label attached.
Like Pinterest 2.0, but better: As digital ads expert David Hermann pointed out in a Tweet, the new feature is similar to Pinterest, except that TikTok users actually purchase products.
That means you could potentially target users with higher purchase intent… and likely get higher returns on investment (ROI).
Start practicing: Unfortunately we don’t know who has access to this feature yet. But now is a good time to practice making your brand more discoverable.
SPONSORED BY PROPELLERADS
Vignette Banner by PropellerAds can help you increase CPM and CTR by up to 65%
Monetizing your website just got easier and more profitable, thanks to this new ad format by PropellerAds. The Vignette Banner is a small native banner that contains an icon, title, description and two buttons that visitors can see when they visit your website.
This format has a few things going for it:
- Looks like a native display banner and it includes a title and description.
- Clear and large “Close” button makes it compliant with the Better Ads Standards.
- Works well both on all devices, whether mobile on desktop.
- Comes with an integrated solution to bypass ad-blocking features and is 100% visible to every user.
It’s not just all looks, the numbers are very good too. Tests showed that the Vignette Banner gets up to 65% higher CTR. It can also bring twice as many clicks on desktop than on mobile.
It’s extremely easy to integrate, especially if you already work with PropellerAds. Just head over here to try it out or you can read the instructions here.
Not working with PropellerAds already? Create your account today.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Getting negative Facebook comments? Here are 8 things you can try
We’ve talked about ways to turn bad reviews into great ads.
But what about negative comments under your Facebook posts… especially the ones that get engagement?
If you’re a social media manager or you’ve been tasked with “building community” as part of your marketing strategy—and you don’t want your brand to go viral for the wrong reasons…
Chris Silver Smith offers eight ways to handle negative comments.
Here are our favorites:
Use a light touch. This isn’t one of the numbered tips, but it’s so good it deserves its own bullet.
Remember: Even the most negative user wants acknowledgement and respect. So don’t antagonize or go head-to-head with critics.
Instead…
Reply. Do it with professionalism and take reasonable criticism seriously. It could be as simple as responding with “We see your point, and we are going to work to do better.”
Invite users who comment with customer service issues to send you a direct message or email so you can resolve the problem.
Remember that other users will see your responses and will likely appreciate your attentiveness.
Limit the people who can comment on your posts. The options are “Public,” “Pages you follow,” and “Profiles and Pages you mention.”
By choosing one of the last two, you can reduce a lot of negative comments from people who aren’t committed to your brand.
Just keep in mind that this may limit your reach, since Facebook favors posts that get comments.
That’s all we have room for, so if you want the rest, head over to MarTech to keep reading.
SPONSORED BY MISO ROBOTICS
Invest in the company increasing profit margins by 300%.
Quick-service restaurants are suffering from high employee turnover rates and excruciatingly low profit margins (just 5% on average). Luckily, Miso Robotics has answered the call with AI solutions that are boosting profit margins and require no additional labor to operate.
Miso Robotics’ AI kitchen assistants are already flipping burgers and dunking fries for 10 of the top 25 brands including White Castle, who recently announced plans to install Flippy 2 in 100 new locations.
Learn why savvy investors are joining the company that will change the $73B quick service restaurant industry forever.
Invest in Miso Robotics today.
THE CREW’S INSIGHTS
3 simple ways to get better results from Twitter Ads
Twitter has become the black sheep among advertisers. As a platform, it just doesn’t work for a lot of marketers: The audience is smaller than Facebook’s, the targeting isn’t as great, the UI is bad, costs are high… The list goes on.
Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. We’ve talked with marketers who’ve generated $$$ in returns on investment (ROI) with Twitter.
Here’s a simple system you can use to run Twitter Ads that work:
- Craft 3–4 different tweets. No more. This isn’t an all-you-can-eat buffet––you want to start small. The text and images in each tweet should be unique. Because you’re not testing a ton of creative, you want to cast a wide net. Test various value props here.
- Then, craft 2–3 different ad groups. Set up different targeting filters for each group based on the segments in your market.
- Run each tweet in each ad group you built. We suggest spending $50–$100 a day to start.
Within a few days, you’ll have two key insights:
- You’ll know which types of creative perform best across the board. You can double down on those.
- You’ll know which types of creative work better with different audience groups.
Armed with these two insights, you can keep optimizing.
And you may end up achieving more results than other marketers thought possible.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
GROWTH: With 10 minutes a day, turn your Twitter account into a $1/follower/month machine. 2 million+ viral tweets swipe file, 200+ high converting sales tweets and outright unfair AI tweet-generator. Tweet Hunter just works. Try it for free, cancel anytime.*
LINKEDIN: We’re thrilled and delighted to announce… just kidding. But jokes aside, LinkedIn has grown by 60% in 2022, getting 1.1M downloads last week alone. It’s the place to be if you’re in account-based marketing or freelancing.
APPLE: Counting down. The new iOS 15.4 will count 2-second ad displays as impressions, which is less than the previous three seconds per impression. Will this inflate ad impression numbers and costs? We’ll see…
SOCIAL MEDIA: Cars, Mars, and media. Elon Musk says he’s considering starting his own social media platform. We have to ask… will there be ads?
*This is a sponsored post.
BRAIN TEASER
Poor people have it. Rich people need it. If you eat it you die. What is it?
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.
The humble prank that became a brand name
Trivia question: Do you know the real name of the Pringles brand mascot?
The answer: Nobody actually does.
In 2006 two college students made up a name for Pringles’s mustachioed character. One of them updated the brand’s official Wikipedia page with the fake name… and Pringles didn’t catch on until it was too late.
Seven years later, the brand adopted the fake name as its own.
As far as we know the college students didn’t earn royalties, but they’ve certainly earned themselves a great conversation starter.