ADVERTISING
The new era of advertising
The eagle has landed.
Apple has finally released iOS 14.5, and ATT is included in the package.
It’s all about choice: Apple released a video explaining the new prompt users will see, and why they will see it. The video’s overall theme is “choice,” emphasizing that users have a say about which apps share their data with advertisers.
The implications so far: We’ve been tracking the effects of this update, and so far, we’ve mostly seen advertisers complain about rising CPM costs as a result of many companies abandoning iOS in favor of advertising to Android users.
What’s next: As more people update to the latest iOS, we expect to see more accurate data on the percentage of users who consent to being tracked versus those who opt out.
Facebook is trying to get out of trouble (again)
Facebook has been caught yet again. This time? Attempting to do damage control caused by its “potential reach” scandal.
For context: When you customize your targeting on Facebook, you get a “potential reach” number that estimates how many people your ad could potentially reach.
It turns out that number is inflated. Worse, Facebook was likely aware of the problem but chose to ignore it.
New, unsealed documents show Facebook’s COO, CFO, and a half-dozen senior executives panicking and discussing how to deal with the problem.
Some suggestions included labeling the evidence against them as “cherry picking,” having clients speak on Facebook’s behalf about how they’re not concerned about fake accounts because they’re getting real results, and so on. It’s not the type of conduct you’d like to see from one of the biggest tech giants on the planet.
The Crew’s Take: What can you do about all this? First and foremost, understand the problem. When you see the “potential reach” metric in Ad Manager, it does not represent the number of unique people you can reach. Rather, it refers to the number of unique accounts that your ad can reach.
The problem: One person can have multiple accounts on Facebook. Fake accounts are a problem, too.
As of 2020, there aren’t any indications that Facebook has removed the fake and duplicate accounts from its potential reach calculation. This was also a major point in the lawsuit, with Facebook leading people to believe that “potential reach” is referring to the number of people, not the number of accounts.
Knowledge is power: Knowing this gives you a starting point for more realistic expectations; if you plan your next campaign and it reaches fewer people than Facebook predicted, you’ll know it’s (probably) not your fault.
SPONSORED BY PUSHGROUND
Stay ahead of the curve and in the green with this year’s hottest new ad format
Pushground announces the launch of their latest new ad format – “Calendar Push”. This format allows marketers to send notification ads to iOS and macOS devices via the calendar application.
Although it’s still in its early stages, it has already been proven to work well with some iOS apps, antivirus and VPN. Although it has a relatively high CPC, Calendar Push has been able to outperform most other formats for iOS devices.
Have you tested it yet? Here are some reason why you might want to:
- 90% iOS traffic.
- Quick and simple campaign setup.
- High CPC but low iOS CPAs.
Learn more about this year’s newest ad format in this Guide to Calendar Push.
As our industry continues to evolve, you must continue to adapt and find new more engaging ways to reach your audience.
Pushground enables you to surpass your goals offering a global supply of premium traffic and the latest in ad technology.
E-COMMERCE
Struggling to write product descriptions?
Here’s a simple framework shared by Mathias von Appen Schrøder. The model works well for products with functional features, but it can be applied to almost anything. Let’s check it.
1) List all the features of your product. Example for a lightweight down jacket:
- Quality zippers from YKK
- 2 inner pockets
2) For every feature on your list, explain the benefit it provides. Example:
- Quality zippers from YKK → The zipper doesn’t break
- 2 inner pockets → Extra, hidden storage
3) State the true purpose of the benefit. Example:
- Quality zippers from YKK → The zipper doesn’t break → You don’t have to waste money changing the zipper
- 2 inner pockets → Extra, hidden storage → You can feel safe because your valuables are out of sight of pickpockets
The final step is probably where the money is. Users must be guided by the hand. They will not consider how your product will ultimately benefit them. You must show it to them.
Another tip from The Crew is to include emotional benefits in step three if possible. People buy, mostly, based on emotion. In this case, the feeling of safety provided by the extra hidden storage is a good example.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
ADVERTISING: Apple’s App Tracking Transparency update is already leading to antitrust complaints.
NATIVE: Outbrain plans to go public, filing for an IPO.
EMAIL: Apple Mail experienced a brief outage, causing emails to hard bounce for several hours.
TOOLS: Simon Ahava created a useful tool that allows you to write any cookie from within Google Tag Manager.
FACEBOOK: The social network is collaborating with Spotify to create an in-app podcast player within the Facebook app.
CLUBHOUSE: The audio social network just released a new app update.
GOOGLE: John Mueller explained how Google recognizes authors without authorship.
BRAIN TEASER
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things marketers like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
COVID-19 has created over 1200 German words
COVID-19 was responsible for many things. One of them was Germans getting more creative.
If you’re at all familiar with the German language, you’ll know that new, ridiculously long words are created faster than Zuck can say “smoking these meats”.
Over 1200 German words have been created during the pandemic. Here are some of our favorite ones:
- Abstandsbier (distance beer)
- Kuschelkontakt (cuddle contact)
- Coronafrisuren (corona hairstyle)
In 2021, we wish Abstandsbier be a thing of the past, and let’s Kuschelkontakt more with our new funky Coronafrisurs.