E-COMMERCE
Black Friday revenue breaks records. Or does it?
If store floors weren’t scuffed up as much this year, it’s probably because phone screens and keyboards were getting smudged.
According to Adobe, online sales hit a new $9.12B record in the US, beating last-year’s $8.9B record by 2%.
Throwing greens on the black: There are some interesting trends that contributed to this year’s spending spree…
- Mobile sales increased by 48%, which is 4% higher than last year.
- Buy now, pay later increased by 78% compared to the week before.
- Electronic sales went up by 221%, toys by 285%, and exercise equipment by 218% compared to the average sales day.
Adobe says e-commerce activity is expected to remain high during Cyber Monday as well.
Shopify broke records, too, reaching $3.36B in sales worldwide—the most lucrative day in the platform’s history.
Shopify says top selling countries were the US and Canada, confirming predictions that spending would rise in the US while Europe tightened the purse strings.
… But were there actually more sales? Considering that product prices rose by 10% on average, and sales went up by 2%… were fewer items sold this year at higher prices? Was this year’s Black Friday really more successful than last year’s?
The questions remain.
On the other hand, it seems consumers are willing to spend money. Shopify going strong is a good sign for e-commerce brands. Let’s see what Cyber Monday brings…
New ad updates landing
After a hectic couple of weeks, we finally have some useful Twitter news.
The platform launched ad objectives and ad targeting options that should help you reach certain audiences more effectively.
Hello high intent, low cost: The conversion goal Website Conversions Optimizations (WCO) helps you promote offers to “users that are more likely to take certain actions,” such as subscribe or add to cart.
… And at a “25% lower cost-per-conversion,” according to Twitter. Nice.
Just so you know, you’ll need the Twitter Pixel or Conversion API (CAPI) set up to use WCO.
Twitter also announced two updates to existing ad formats:
- Dynamic product ads are now optimized for privacy-first approach, delivering effective performance with fewer signals.
- Collection ads now allow you to share a hero image with a carousel of smaller thumbnail images below.
By the way, Twitter is relaunching the verification process, but with manual authentication, according to Elon Musk. Sounds like verification could take a while…
Why we care: Even before Elon’s takeover, Twitter was working to improve performance marketing. The newest updates are just the continuation of that.
And if you’re running Twitter Ads, they may help you get more out of your campaigns. Let us know how it goes!
SPONSORED BY STACKED MARKETER PRO
50 cognitive biases con artists use to trick people—and how you can use them to win customers
What if you could change your prospects’ behavior with the push of a psychological button with the same ease you change TV channels with a remote?
Con artists do it all the time… except they get people to make decisions against their best interests.
For instance, why does the “cup and balls” trick work over and over again… even though everyone knows it’s a scam?
Because con artists leverage human mind biases.
You can do the same in your marketing: Change people’s behavior with the push of a psychological button. But in an ethical way.
Inside the System 1 Manipulation report, you’ll find 52 cognitive biases that fraudsters use to hack the human brain. And how you can use these ethically in your marketing campaigns.
Take a peek inside the report.
TIKTOK
Here’s how TikTok chooses which content to show you
TikTok’s algorithm is crazy accurate when suggesting content. But was it always like that?
When you first create a TikTok account, the home feed shows you popular content based on standard factors: demographics, location, etc.
As Lidia Infante points out, TikTok puts audiences into different “interest cohorts” based on engagement, and is able to surface topics you’re likely to be immersed in for hours.
Lidia collected a bunch of data to identify TikTok’s content ranking factors. You can use them to optimize your own content to reach your “interest cohort” organically.
Let’s check out some of the most interesting ones…
#1 – Video engagement. The most obvious and most important one. TikTok analyzes likes, comments, watch time, and profile visits to determine which videos would be most engaging.
Replays, follows, bookmarks, and tagging videos as “not interested” are all taken into account as well.
Also, TikTok measures videos by engagement, not by follower count. However, more followers do give you a headstart when it comes to engagement and reach.
#2 – Video content. Basically, the way TikTok “understands” videos is similar to how search engines understand content.
According to official documentation, TikTok can “identify objects, scenery, sound, and other characteristics of your video” to power the algorithm. The same goes for any text over video, title, hashtags, and more.
Knowing this can help you do predictive optimization, making your video more visible.
#3 – Language and locality. If the viewer and the creator are born in the same country, there’s a higher chance of engagement, according to TikTok’s documentation.
Also, choosing a preferred language tells TikTok that you will enjoy content in that language more.
As you see, it’s the tiny details that can push your content into someone’s feed. If you want to know more about the algorithm, read the entire article.
And if you’re off to optimize your TikTok content, we wish you plenty of engagement!
SPONSORED BY PANDA COPY
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THE CREW’S INSIGHTS
How to write content that’s built for distribution
It doesn’t matter how good your content is, if nobody’s reading it.
And, sure, it’s not fair that clickbaity, low-effort LinkedIn posts can generate more attention in a day than your content might in a lifetime.
But that’s how the game is played.
Fortunately, there’s a way to win:
Think about distribution before you write content, not after.
This helps you write content that’s not just good, but good for sharing.
For example: We write long-form, deep dive reports for Stacked Marketer Pro.
While we believe each of these reports is packed with ROI-boosting insights, nobody’s going to see those insights if they’re not subscribed to Stacked Marketer Pro.
So what do we do?
Well, when we were drawing up our strategy for the reports, we came up with the section of the newsletter you’re reading right now: The Crew’s Insights.
When we write our reports, we focus on including a high number of short, actionable insights in each one. That way, we can share a handful of them in the newsletter—and drive subscribers to Stacked Marketer Pro.
If we had written the reports in a way that didn’t allow for easy distribution, we wouldn’t have been able to get people interested. All our awesome content would be collecting dust instead.
Don’t let your content collect dust: Before you write, think about how you’ll distribute the content.
You’ll find it dramatically changes the way you put a piece together.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
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E-COMMERCE: How do you sell more? Display your items on marketplaces everyone buys from, obviously. This list shows the most downloaded apps this month for both Android and iOS, with Temu, Amazon, and Walmart leading the pack.
GOOGLE: No, it’s not déjà vu. There’s a 60% chance you’ll encounter duplicate content somewhere on the internet, according to Google, though it seems authentic content will continue getting more attention from search engines.
APPLE: iPhones, iPads… and iAds? It’s becoming more evident that Apple wants to be an ad company, first by paving the way for market advantage with App Tracking Transparency regulations, then following up with multiple new ad placements. Smooth moves, Apple…
*This is a sponsored post
BRAIN TEASER
Four cars come to a four way stop, all coming from a different direction.
They can’t decide who got there first, so they all go forward at the same time.
They do not crash into each other, but all four cars go.
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.
Pout, baby, it’s World Cup fashion week
The first week of World Cup 2022 is behind us.
And we’ve seen excitement, heartbreak, underdogs, and a couple of belters.
But in-between new matches today, let’s take a moment to appreciate something that makes every team different: the kits they’re wearing.
The Sporting News released its picks for the top 10 best World Cup 2022 jerseys, and now we want to know: do you agree with their fashion taste?