ADVERTISING
New EU act could reshape big tech advertising
Big news…
Over the weekend, the European Parliament agreed on the Digital Services Act (DSA), a package of bills that would wrap red tape around Big Tech activities in the EU.
It currently awaits formal approval by EU institutions. But if it’s approved, the DSA could go into effect as soon as 2024, which means…
Ad targeting will get even more limited: Tech giants will no longer be able to target users based on race, religion, or gender data, and they’ll be prohibited from targeting children.
The DSA also prohibits “dark patterns,” or deceptive strategies that manipulate users to buy products and services.
E-commerce platforms will need to monitor their markets: The DSA tasks marketplaces like Amazon with preventing the sales of illegal goods.
Depending on what you’re selling, the act could complicate things for merchants and marketers in the EU.
… And those are just two of the several possible effects of this bill.
Why we care: Meta, Google, Twitter, and other “gatekeepers” would be fined heavily for not complying, so the implications of this legislation could be massive for marketers.
But until we know all the specifics—and how Big Tech responds—the best we can do is keep an eye on the DSA’s progress and see what happens.
Until then, let’s talk about alternative ad channels… like lock screens.
ADVERTISING
Are ads coming to lock screens?
You know how you check your phone more often than you’d like?
Well, advertisers are planning to do something about it… by turning your lock screen into an ad placement.
No ad block before you unlock: Glance, a Google-backed ad company, is launching in the US, and it’s teaming up with a wide range of country’s mobile carriers.
Glance launched in Asia in 2019, and has since been added to 400+ million smartphones.
And while the company brings interactive elements like content, news, and games to the lock screen, its primary monetization source is lock screen ads.
Its US release is expected within the next two months, which means new Android smartphones will probably come with it built in.
Why we care: While Android users may hate getting ads on their lock screens, it would certainly offer advertisers a new channel.
… Especially if Glance shows good results in the US.
Would you integrate lock screen ads with your paid strategy?
SPONSORED BY PAID
Don’t waste time looking for creators. Let ’em come to you instead
If you’re running influencer marketing campaigns, you probably spend a lot of time searching TikTok for creators.
And that doesn’t include the time you spend checking their engagement stats or keeping track of campaign results.
Why keep doing all that when you can automate the whole process with #paid?
#paid finds you the perfect talent to help you sell your products.
It streamlines your performance tracking, invoices, and communications with the creator—giving you back the time to focus on growing your brand or business.
Influencer marketing campaigns are a breeze with #paid.
You just have to create a brief and choose from vetted creators already amped to work with you.
You can even communicate with influencers directly through your #paid inbox—no hopping between platforms to track down DMs!
Simplify your influencer campaigns with #paid.
MARKETING
Motivate your customers to spend more using these pricing strategies
Knowing how to use psychological triggers can be the difference between running a successful business and going bust.
Jared Ablon recommends trying 10 pricing psychology tricks to appeal to your customers and drive more sales.
Let’s see how they work…
Value pricing: Expensive products can feel more valuable. Make your product too cheap, and your customers may question its value.
Charm pricing: This is a well-known trick… Prices ending in 9 sell better than those ending in 0. For example, a product priced at $200 statistically has less chance to sell than the same product priced at $199.99.
Buy one, get one free: It’s basically the same offer as handing out 50% discounts on two products. But shoppers feel like they’re gaining more with a free product.
Shorter prices: Price appearance can make something look more or less expensive. For example, $1500.00 feels much more expensive than $1500 or even 1500.
Anchoring: When you list multiple products, show the most expensive product first. It usually makes customers spend more.
Bundle items: Believe it or not, customers would rather pay a single lump sum rather than purchase items separately. Bundle your items and you increase average order value while encouraging shoppers to buy.
Website price positioning: If you position product price on the top-left of your page, it feels less expensive. On the other hand, positioning your price to the right makes it seem pricier.
Wording: By using words like “small,” “low,” and “tiny,” you can make your product appear cheaper.
Alliteration: This one is wicked. If your pricing has a sequence of the same numbers it’s much more likely to sell. Nine-ninety-nine is much more appealing than eight-seventy-two.
Decoy in the middle: You might’ve heard of this one… Give your customers three options, but the middle option should be there to boost the sale of the third. Make it so the third option brings more value for the price.
Now that you’ve learned these psychological tricks, it’s time to start implementing them, no?
SPONSORED BY INSIGHTS
Data proves you should sell this product during Q4—because every store has it
Want to boost your sales during the holidays?
The Ultimate Holiday Marketing Deep Dive contains 89 pages of insights to draw from.
Like this one: In Q4 2021, people spent 3.6x more money on gift cards than in 2020.
Why? Because people are already busy buying gifts during the holiday period, and a gift card saves them time and effort.
So simply by adding a gift card to your store—or promoting gift cards more—you could earn more profits.
Get more ROI-boosting insights here.
THE CREW’S INSIGHTS
A short guide to making your time count
If you’ve spent any amount of time on the internet, you’ve probably heard of deep work.
The idea is to do intense, focused work, usually completed in short sprints.
It’s not a fad: Deep work is how we get most things done at Stacked Marketer. This newsletter, for instance, is completed in short, intense sprints of work—not a long slog.
Here is our best advice for making your time count:
- Stop tracking your hours. Work expands to fill time. When you plan to work, say, eight hours, your projects tend to slow themselves down to fit that timespan. Instead, focus on short bursts of distraction-free work. You may be surprised how much more you get done.
- Separate busy work from deep work. Checking emails and Slack messages is busy work. One tip for doing busy work: Set a timer for 30 minutes. Open your email and Slack and rapid-fire responses to as many messages as possible. Don’t allow yourself to check messages outside of this window. Afterwards, take a break to mentally reset before going back to deep work.
- Do fun stuff when you’re not working. For most people, a healthy balance of fun, healthy life activities alongside work is far more productive than a workaholic, 80-hour week schedule with no room to breathe. To do good work, you need good rest.
It’s easy to get sucked into the black hole of Slack messages, email, and 12-hour days.
Resist the temptation—you’ll thank yourself later.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
BUSINESS: What’s a deal with a Kardashian worth to a company’s share price? Who profits from your morning cup of coffee? Chartr subscribers know! Join 230,000+ others who love snackable charts and easy-to-remember data insights. Sign up for free today.*
GOOGLE: Search Console’s link report keeps showing fewer and fewer links. Makes sense, since Google claims link reporting just ain’t a priority for them. But it’s also a bummer, since link reporting is a priority for lots of third-party tools…
TIKTOK: False alarm? Now TikTok claims it’s not abandoning its live shopping expansion in Europe, after Financial Times reported otherwise. Maybe we’ll find out what’s really going on later this year.
TWITTER: Running an agency? Twitter just released a feature that lets you identify yourself as the creator of an image or video. Might be something to include when you link to case studies and portfolios. Who knows, maybe you could get clients from it.
*This is a sponsored post.
BRAIN TEASER
A hen and a half lays an egg and a half in a day and a half.
How many eggs does one hen lay in one day?
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.
Never lose a game of Monopoly again
Imagine eating Jell-O… only it’s completely clear.
That’s kinda what this Japanese artist is making. Her “crystal clear confections” let you see through her mouthwatering treats to the incredible visions inside.
Some of her cakes look heavenly… They’re filled with whipped cream in the shape of billowy clouds or with slices of fruit and flower petals.
Her work is so beautiful, it almost makes you feel bad about eating dessert!