Full version of Google Ads scripts just dropped
This is for you advanced marketers out there.
Google’s ad scripts went from beta to full-fledged release yesterday.
New features: The new experience promises enhanced bidding, ES6 support, support for asset-based extensions, and more. Google also added manager account scripts, bulk upload, and video campaigns.
But manual labor may be required: If you’re one of those show-offs who writes their own Google Ads scripts, you have until September to enjoy your original work. Until then, you’ll have to disable the new experience script by script.
ADVERTISING
We need to talk about programmatic ad fraud
Do you really know where your ads are running?
Because it turns out that Gannett, the parent company of USA Today, spent the last nine months sending billions of ads to the wrong places… and no one knew until now.
For example, if you paid for an ad to appear on the USA Today website, there’s a good chance it showed up on Lebanon (PA) Daily News instead.
Talk about false advertising.
Buying blind: No agency media director, brand manager, or verification “guarantor” knew about it. So, what did marketers think they were getting?
Pandora’s out of her box now: The scandal raises questions not only about the level of fraud and who’s complicit… it raises questions about programmatic advertising as a whole.
Where do we go from here? It’s hard to say. Maybe ad networks can force users to be verified in some way. But the problem is extensive, and there may be so many parties responsible that finding and implementing solutions will be an epic task.
In the meantime, might we suggest buying ads in newsletters like Stacked Marketer? Too soon? Okay.
SPONSORED BY THOUGHTLEADERS
Video ads not converting so well? This AI could help you double your conversions
Imagine you’re eating pizza and the waiter interrupts to offer you a discount on your next oil change.
You’d feel too annoyed to be interested, right? So why treat your customers the same way?
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Because when your ad compliments the video your audience is watching, you get much better engagement—and higher conversions. Cha-ching.
And it’s easy. Just send ThoughtLeaders your ad copy and a link to your video ad, and their AI will scrape YouTube for videos that make sense for your ad message.
Don’t waste money letting YouTube show your ads in the wrong videos anymore.
Start targeting hot prospects that fit your product and brand!
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BUSINESS
What marketers can learn about cold emails
One of the scariest things a marketer can do is send cold emails.
But let’s face it: at some point in your career, you’ll probably find yourself sending them to build relationships, backlinks, or just awareness.
Kevin “KD” Dorsey, a sales professional, recently hopped on a podcast to share some valuable tips for successful and less terrifying cold emailing.
Here are our favorite takeaways we think could help you too:
Don’t use templates. There’s a good chance your first, second, or even third emails won’t get read. But if the recipient finally does open the fourth email, you don’t want them to open a template. They’ll delete you faster than you can say “Hello.”
Instead, use copywriting principles to craft cold emails that stand out.
The most important part of your email? The “from” line. Dorsey once received an email from the famous author Arianna Huffington… without a subject line. Did he open it? You bet he did. Your first goal is to become a “who” worth opening.
This doesn’t mean you need to become a celebrity, but being well-known in your industry will boost the response rate of your emails.
Customization is not personalization. Customization is when you change the names in an email template. Personalization is when you write an email only the recipient will understand. Ask yourself: If you could send only one email to this person, what would you send?
Leave voicemails. After you send an email, leave a voicemail. Don’t ask them to call you back; ask them to read your email. It’s a mini distribution model, and it’s far less scary to the recipient.
There’s lots more in this 10-minute clip. It’s worth watching the whole thing.
SPONSORED BY INSIGHTS
We analyzed over 3,000 landing pages and these are the 31 copywriting principles with 151 examples we found
You read that right! Our newest deep dive deals with landing page copywriting. 31 copywriting principles explained why and when they work, how to apply them with 151 examples has just been published to Insights.
With this deep dive, you will learn to write landing page copy that:
- Is clear.
- Makes readers visualize value.
- Uses powerful verbs.
- Reduces friction.
You can have a look at a completely free preview of this deep dive here.
THE CREW’S INSIGHTS
How to get a higher conversion rate in a couple of clicks
Friction is the biggest barrier to a purchase.
The more times a customer gets distracted, the more questions they have to ask, the more pop-up windows and slow pages they encounter, the less likely they are to purchase your product.
We’ve analyzed some of the world’s top-performing brands in our premium community, Insights. And, each member on the team has studied many more.
This is how the best marketers lower friction (and boost conversion):
- Be hyper-specific on landing pages and purchase pages. As long as they’re true, use phrases like “no credit card required”, “sign up for $0”, and “it takes less than 10 seconds”. This is hyper-specificity: You’re verbally communicating something that will make the process feel easier for your customer.
- Offer flexible payment options––but not too many. In the name of conversion rate optimization, some brands now offer 10+ payment methods at checkout. Don’t do this. Shoot for a maximum of five: Make sure traditional credit card, PayPal, one-click checkout, and a delayed payment option (like Affirm) are included. Include cryptocurrency as a fifth option, if you can.
- Offer free shipping on all purchases. Free shipping is incredibly important for e-commerce customers. Though you might eat the cost some of the time, offering free shipping on all orders is a near-guaranteed way to increase conversion.
There are lots of other ways to decrease friction. If you want to read about them, and the other insights we’ve pulled from top brands, subscribe to Insights.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
ADVERTISING: Bye, Vanced. Google just swatted the popular ad-blocking app for Android. Apparently the search giant sent the developers a cease-and-desist letter. Here’s why they finally took action.
GOOGLE: Sorry SEO experts, hreflang doesn’t help you rank better. Technically we already knew that… Google’s John Mueller said as much before 2016. But apparently it bears repeating.
ADVERTISING: Do you have to host all customer data in the EU to comply with GDPR? It’s a good question, and several marketers weighed in. Bad news is, there’s no easy answer. But the responses are worth reading.
TWITTER: Ever seen someone post a viral meme with a random Twitter spaces link? It’s an interesting idea for getting people to join. But does it work?
INFLUENCER MARKETING: “I’ve been shadowbanned!” Well, shadowbanning is complicated, and the algorithms that reward engagement also ignore unpopular content.
BRAIN TEASER
Left alone, I’m a word with five letters.
I’m honest and fair, I’ll admit.
Rearranged, I’m of no use to trains.
Again, and I’m an overt place, warm and well lit.
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.
Look who got a TikTok
How do you do, fellow TikTokers?
Turns out Facebook and Twitter just signed up for TikTok. Not sure about you, but it feels like we’re living in a meme.
Will Facebook’s first TikTok be a watermarked Reel? Or scenes from the Metaverse? Who knows.
What do you think they’ll post first?