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BUSINESS
The Crew promises, The Crew delivers!
We told you we were building a report to frame the impact of the COVID-19 on our community, and that’s exactly what we’ve done. Thanks to the input of our readers, we’ve been able to gain an understanding of what’s working and what’s not.
We initially shared this report in our Stacked Marketer Insiders group (Read the “From The Crew” post to find how to join). Now it’s time to make this report public for the entire digital marketing community!
- Digital vs physical products: ROAS impact, CVR changes, ad spend variations.
- Facebook Ads vs Google Ads: Which traffic source has been more stable during the outbreak?
- The performances among 24 different product categories.
- What businesses are struggling and may find it difficult to survive the outbreak.
- What businesses are thriving (hint: It’s not just digital products in this category.)
A lot of data, a lot of charts and a lot of very useful conclusions you can come to for yourself!
And thanks again to the readers that filed the survey! Sending you a virtual hug!
ADVERTISING
Contextual targeting case study: In a world beyond cookies
We bring you a case study designed by GumGum, a contextual advertising company that uses computer vision and natural language processing to analyze text, images and videos and conducted by neuroanalytics company SPARK Neuro.
Background: They used biometric sensors to monitor the brain activity of 60 participants from the US, UK and Japan, asking them to read six articles on varying topics while monitoring their emotions, reactions, attention and skin response to various stimuli.
Each article had three creatives with both high and low relevance to the article. For example, an article about soccer had ads for soccer apparel, beverages and electronics. Placements of the most relevant ad varied across the articles. They then conducted personal interviews with the participants.
Findings:
- Contextually relevant ads generated 43% more neural engagement and 2.2x recall value.
- They were also 10% more engaging than the article content overall. Contextually relevant ads inspired a statistically significant increase in purchase intent.
PS: Keep in mind that content isn’t the only factor to consider. Variables such as platform, device, time, location also affect responses.
Where are we going with this study? In a world beyond third-party cookies, browser limitations and privacy regulations, our targeting strategies could face a big upheaval. However, this study shows that the loss of data might not be as bad as we think.
But it’s also not as simple as pairing a dog food brand with an article on dogs.
Why? Because the reach will be too limited for mass marketers. Also, context beyond the content itself also makes a difference.
SPONSORED
✂️ Cut the BS out of Native Advertising: An affiliate guide for marketers
What’s the most productive thing to do during any lockdown? Use this time to learn or upgrade a skill and prepare for the period when everything is back on track.
How many of you wanted to learn about and start buying media from one of the best sources of traffic? Native ads.
Here’s your chance to do that from one of the best from the native industry – Outbrain!
Why native?
- 88% US digital population reached.
- 5.7x higher impressions than social.
- 20M gained conversions per day.
- 55+ countries in the network.
So, download this ebook now and uncover:
- Internal-Only Targeting + Optimization Tips: Actionable best practices their very own Account Reps use to drive more leads and sales.
- How to Avoid (Content) Rejection: Get access to the compliance do’s and don’ts, and swap rejections for top-performers with unlocked content insights.
- Fundamentals of CPA-Driven Campaigns: Data-informed strategies, from conversion tracking to the magic dollar amount, expand your growth with these.
- Fast-tracking Content Approvals: Be faster than your competition to the best-converting audiences.
It’s free and it’s available for download for everyone over here.
Are you new to affiliate marketing and heard native ads are difficult and expensive? Outbrain has also put together something for you. It’s called the Affiliate Marketing Strategy Hub and it provides you with the content you need regardless if you are new, intermediate or advanced.
Articles, guides, case studies and reports – they are all there.
Check out the Affiliate Marketing Strategy Hub here.
FROM THE CREW
Your easy chance to score a seat in Stacked Marketer Insiders FB Group…in 3…2…1. Go!
We’ll keep this short… We’re looking to gather more testimonials for this daily newsletter so we can refresh our website a bit.
If you send us a nice testimonial reply to this email, telling us what you like about Stacked Marketer, we’ll send you an invite to our Stacked Marketer Insiders group on Facebook.
Here’s what you have to do:
- Send 3-4 lines explaining what you like about these emails and why they’re a must-read for marketers.
- Include your first name so we can credit the testimonial. Last name and company are optional but we will add them when we use the testimonial.
That’s it!
Bunch of updates coming from Facebook
There have been a handful of updates from FB during the last few days. Nothing major, but definitely changes that a marketer like you should be aware of.
Let’s quickly skimp through them:
+ Download Your Data: New sections are being added to the ‘Download Your Data’ tools on both FB and IG in an attempt to offer more transparency about the information collected on your activity and how FB and IG uses this data to show you more relevant ads and content.
+ Auto Status: The platform is also adding a new ‘Auto Status’ option for Messenger which, when enabled, will use location tracking and other device tools to indicate what you’re up to at any given time. Sounds creepy… but, well what’s not creepy anymore.
+ COVID-19 themed post reactions: That reminds us, a new COVID-19 themed Reaction is also being tested to allow users an additional option to respond to relevant posts. So, you can now either like a post, express happiness, sadness, laughter, anger or…simply express coronaviration.
+ Coronavirus Community Hub: FB launched a new Coronavirus Community Hub for Messenger, allowing users to stay in touch during the COVID-19 lockdowns and get access to knowledge areas for parents, educators, business, health organizations and more.
Imagine a world without the Internet in times like these. Thank goodness… or should we say thanks Tim Berners-Lee?
+ New links on IG: They haven’t forgotten IG either, as they test a new ‘Links’ option within business profile settings to allow businesses to set up links to giftcard and donation from Stories. A way to let customers help their favourite brands in these rough times…
+ Instagram Direct Messages Ads? Last but not least, something most of us might find more interesting.
As shared by Fabio Tiburcio in our Stacked Marketer Insiders Group, FB is now allowing some advertisers to use “Instagram Direct” CTA for campaigns with the Messages objective.
Instead of redirecting users to Messenger after they click on your ad, you can redirect them to Instagram direct messages.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
- CRO: A quick tip to move non-essential pages to the footer of your websites to convert more of your users into customers.
- SECURITY: Over 7k darkweb sites have been shut down after a group of hackers attacked a dark website hosting provider.
- MICROSOFT: Microsoft Advertising unveiled a new UI design for its advertisers.
- GOOGLE: Google announces new features for its Search Console, allowing you to choose whether to show performance data for your property directly in search results. It also allows you to choose which types of emails you want to receive.
BRAIN TEASER
I’m so fast you can’t see me, though everyone else can see straight through me. I don’t stop until the day you die. What am I?
You can find the solution by clicking here.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things affiliates like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
How NOT to adjust your content to the outbreak
A few days ago, we wrote a post discussing how marketers should review their ads and content to make them more relevant to the current situation. Buuuut we didn’t expect anybody to take it this far…
This influencer went waaay too far!
Yulia Ushakova, a fitness model with over 500k followers, posted a pic of herself wearing a mask-bikini on Instagram.
And she didn’t stop there. She went on to attempt to start some sort of mask-bikini challenge.
“I ordered the new trend of the 2020 swimming season on AliExpress. The built-in valves make it easier to breathe, but the set needs to be changed every two hours! I don’t know if this challenge is already on Instagram, but I like the idea!”
Well, you can see exactly how the followers reacted yourself.
She probably didn’t intend for it to be in bad taste, but she definitely didn’t spend enough time thinking about her strategy!
But that’s a reminder for us: Be very careful about what you try to communicate, especially in these days when public opinion is extremely polarized.