ADVERTISING
Ad prices are rising. Here’s by how much
Facebook, Google, Amazon, Snapchat. They’ve all reported record earnings last week, owing mostly to their ad platforms.
Why are these companies making more money from ads each quarter? Two things: more advertisers are flocking to them, and ad costs are rising. Let’s talk about the latter.
BusinessInsider and MediaPost recently published data on how much ad costs are rising across major platforms, as measured by average CPM:
- Amazon: Up 20% in CPM costs between the first and second quarters, according to performance ad agency WPromote. Average CPMs rose from $3.60 in February to $8.60 in May and June.
Measured, an ad measurement firm, has also crunched some numbers and discovered the following year-over-year increases across these 5 major social media platforms as of July 2021:
- Facebook: 89% increase. The average CPM was $11.
- Google: Up by 108 percent.
- Snap: 64% increase.
- TikTok: 92 percent increase.
- YouTube: Up by 108%.
Uh-oh…
What we can do about this: Keep our game sharp by improving your creatives, targeting, and staying up to date on new ad platform features.
Also, keep an eye on other major platforms and their ad formats. We’ll have a pretty interesting story about this in 3, 2, 1…
TWITCH
Twitch has introduced a less annoying ad format
If you’re not a gamer, we (sort of) understand if you haven’t heard much about Twitch. They are the 38th most popular website in the world, with over a billion unique visitors each month.
And yes, they do have ads. (Many of them are pretty annoying, though.)
Fortunately, Twitch is taking steps in the right direction by announcing that they are testing “stream display ads,” which are similar to YouTube Overlay ads (they appear at the bottom of the video).
Isn’t Twitch only for Gen-Z? Kind of, but not really. 27 percent of Twitch users are between 35 and 64 years old. This figure is likely to rise as time goes by.
Twitch does not provide a self-serving ad option yet, which is both bad (bigger barrier to entry) and good (bigger barrier to entry)…
SPONSORED BY ATTEST
“Do you know the ROI of your brand marketing efforts? ‘Cause we do!”
With so many products on the market fighting for the same audience, your brand is what sets you apart. All businesses know this. Or should.
But, are you sure your brand marketing activities are working?
What about your brand campaigns? Do you feel like you’re shooting in the dark?
Brand tracking is the answer, but how?
Ask brands like eToro, Santander, Organic Valley, and Bloom & Wild.
You’ll be surprised because the answer is simple: consumer research with Attest!
Attest measures the ROI of your brand-building activities. How?
- It puts data behind how many potential customers know your brand, whether you’re top of mind and how you rank among your competitors.
- Uncover the size of your target market, and why people are – or aren’t! – shopping with you.
- Understand your customers’ perception of your brand so you can validate your ideal customer, track the health of your brand, and align your brand messaging.
And the good news?
You can do your first survey for free with Attest.
Why you should switch to Google Analytics 4 (and a guide to help you do it)
GA4.
Or Google Analytics 4.
It’s the next generation of Google Analytics. And it’s the first time that Google rebuilt the platform from the ground up.
It’s not just a new layout. Google Analytics 4 analyzes data in a completely different way. It predicts user behavior, and, most importantly, it’s prepared for the cookie-less world we’re entering.
CXL’s Tom Whatley created a comprehensive guide on how to set up and use GA4.
And if you’re thinking about taking the step and shifting to the new platform, here’s why you should do it:
+ A model based on users and events
Every interaction between the user and your website is labeled as an event.
This allows you to track the user journey across the web and apps.
For instance, when someone signs up for your newsletter, a generate_lead event is sent to GA4.
By setting this as an end event, you can use pathing analysis to identify what users are doing before they hit subscribe. And this behavior can be used to predict future activities.
+ Preparing yourself for the future
As you might know, cookies will be phased out. But thanks to the use of machine learning, GA4 makes the need for cookies obsolete.
It alerts you of product data trends. And it gives you access to predictive metrics like:
- Purchase probability.
- Churn probability.
- Revenue prediction.
+ Improved debugging
Debugging in GA4 gets easier thanks to a live debugging report called DebugView. This report helps you monitor event data and custom parameters in real-time and set user properties.
+ Free BigQuery connection
BigQuery is a premium tool for Google Analytics 360 users that lets you query large and complex data sets. But with GA4, all users can benefit from this feature.
Google Analytics 4 won’t become mandatory in the next few months. But if you want to start getting more insights from your data, then this guide by CXL will show you how to set it up and use it.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
E-COMMERCE: How did the biggest DTC brands become the biggest DTC brands? Discover their Facebook Ads creatives, media buying strategies, upsell and cross-sell tactics, email campaigns, content marketing, and more.*
TIKTOK: Stories are coming to TikTok. ‘Nuff said.
EMAIL MARKETING: How will email ad monetization change thanks to iOS 15? This article provides some answers.
MICROSOFT: We’re losing track of what Microsoft is releasing for their Ads product (there are so many). Fortunately, the company has done the legwork for us and published a blog post summarizing last month’s updates.
ADVERTISING: Will advertising change as a result of Facebook’s recent depreciation of their Advanced Mobile Measurement program? Alex Bauer provides a perspective.
FACEBOOK: What if you could use encrypted messages to deliver more personalized ads? Facebook researchers are investigating whether this is possible (it would be scary if it is).
*This is a sponsored post
BRAIN TEASER
A man stands on one side of a river, his dog on the other. The man calls his dog, who immediately crosses the river without getting wet and without using a bridge or a boat. How did the dog do it?
You can find the solution here.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things marketers like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
What’s the most popular cocktail in your country?
You know we love you! But we love you more when you send us interesting articles to feature, like this one from Cruise Croatia on the most popular cocktails in each country.
Without further ado, here’s how the drinks stacked up:
- Mojito takes the #1 spot, with 84 countries enjoying its limey flavor.
- The elegant Mimosa cocktail is the most popular in 15 countries. France is one of them (we’re not surprised).
- Pina Colada comes in third, with 14 countries enjoying its coconut taste…mostly in the Americas.
Special mentions go to the Bloody Mary, Martini, Bellini, and, of course, Sex on the Beach (which still gets you an awkward stare from the waiter when you mention it).
Do you have any interesting pieces you’d like to see featured in Poolside Chat? Reply to this email and let us know!