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Give some, take some: What has Google been up to?
Google kills yet another useful feature for publishers and content creators without offering a solid alternative. On the flip side, it is testing a new Search interface to pep up it’s SERPs.
Let’s look at what Google has been up to over the last few days.
AdSense mobile apps are dinosauring by the end of the year
How many of you affiliates, bloggers or marketers in general use Google AdSense?
AdSense obviously allows publishers to generate some decent income, and the mobile apps available are handy tools to monitor views and revenue performance.
As per Google, around 30% of AdSense users access their data using these mobile apps.
So, in a surprising turn of events, Google has now decided to end the support for its Android and iOS mobile apps, meaning they will go extinct by the end of the year.
The alternative is going to be a progressive web app that can be pinned to home screens and appear in the app launcher on Android.
Is this a solid alternative? Well, not really. Accessing this will still take a lot of time and effort, and the website is currently pretty useless on mobile.
The redesign never appeared on Android and iOS, and features such as advanced account management and ad customization have always been limited to the full site.
“Our vision is an AdSense that does more to keep your account healthy, letting you focus on creating great content, and comes to you when any issues need your attention.”
So there’s that. Google killing useful services without necessarily offering a suitable replacement.
Further announcements on this will come throughout the year, so rest assured that we’ll keep you posted!
Shareable results in Google Search?
In another new development, Google was caught testing shareable search results in the SERPs.
Several conversations and screenshots surfaced on Twitter which show 3 new icons for each search result.
These icons allow you to open the cache page of the result, open it in a new window and the ability to share the search result.
Currently, this feature is only available for those in the beta test.
If you are lucky, you might see three dots appearing on the top right of the search results. Clicking on those dots will make you part of the beta test for this feature.
When this gets rolled out to all users, it might change the way people interact with search results. However, it doesn’t seem like something that will impact your search traffic.
SEO
BrightLocal’s GMB Insights case study for local marketers
BrightLocal released their Google My Business (GMB) insights case study, and it could be an interesting read for all you local marketers out there.
The study analyzed over 45k anonymous listings across 36 industries to help local businesses benchmark their insights against the wider industry.
Here are the key insights from the super long, extensive case study:
- An average business appears in over 1k searches/ month. 84% of these stem from discovery searches, while 16% come from direct searches.
- Businesses in the UK see the highest proportion of direct searches.
- 49% of businesses receive more than 1k views on Search per month.
- Car dealerships receive the highest number of calls and website visits from GMB. Hotels receive the highest views on Search and Maps.
- 5% of GMB listing views result in a website click, call, or direction request.
- Local businesses have an average of 11 photos on their GMB listings.
- Between Q4 2017 and Q4 2018, direct searches grew by 38%, while website clicks from GMB listings grew 29%.
The study also features local marketing experts Ben Fisher and Claire Carlile to provide additional insights.
Check out the detailed case-study here, which comes with some handy visual data representations.
Additionally, you can download the data-rich, industry-wise breakdown on GMB Insights here.
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E-COMMERCE
From cold traffic to 8.04x ROAS and $120k/month with Advanced Video Sequencing
You might have noticed that Dim Niko features regularly in our newsletter.
Why? Because he brings us a bunch of new case studies and experiments that always offer just that little bit of extra info to marketers promoting e-comm with Facebook Ads.
Today’s tips are from his time working with a streetwear brand, who he helped quadruple their revenue using this funnel and sequencing.
Let’s dive right into the tactical part, shall we?
Top of the funnel (TOF):
Targeting cold traffic with a meme video.
The video was lighthearted, fun and spoke to this brand’s typical audience. It also got plenty of engagement from which Dim could create custom and lookalike audiences.
TOF tips:
- Try not selling on the first touch point. Look to get engagement and brand awareness. Humour drives virality and many positive reactions at a low price which you can then use for retargeting.
- Include the brand in the meme/funny video. In Dim’s case, the people featured in the video were wearing the brand’s products.
Middle of the funnel (MOF):
Step one was building custom audiences who watched 75% or more of the first video. Classic, right?
The video they were retargeted with then actually went on to explain the concept of the brand. It changed the tone from fun to more serious, told the story of the brand and its mission.
It basically made people care about the name.
To keep things really consistent, this next video featured the same people from the meme video. To reinforce this familiarity, they even wore the same clothes.
MOF tips:
- Congruence – Just do it! It doesn’t matter what you reach out to cold audiences with, just make sure you follow it with something congruent.
Bottom of the funnel (BOF):
Audiences were created of users who viewed 75% or more of both videos. Lookalikes as well, of course.
This was a much more direct offer. Again, for the same items featured in the previous 2 videos.
BOF tips:
- Sell. Really, now is the time to make a direct offer to those who are already familiar with your brand and have regularly engaged with your offer.
You can head over to the post here in the Ecom Empires group to ask Dim any questions that come to mind.
The Crew’s Thoughts
It really is about the execution. The idea isn’t exactly groundbreaking, but it takes careful planning and testing to execute the strategy in the right way.
One thing we haven’t seen many marketers do is actually put in the effort to get a few friends to help them create the video content.
If you can afford it, you can hire a professional video crew. However, even if your budget is small, you can always ask a few friends to spend a day filming with you. Oh, and phones have pretty good cameras these days.
In short, don’t use equipment or money as an excuse for not trying something like this. In many cases, it might connect with your audience even more than the overly professional, staged videos.
Last but not least, there’s still a lot to be gained from the backend, where email can play a big role in increasing the LTV and ROAS of this.
BOT MARKETING
Message tags are now available when sending a subscription broadcast.
Let’s just make this a quick one for everyone using chatbots, especially Messenger chatbots.
Rutger Thole reminded everyone in the Bots + Beers group that, by July 31st, if you want to send messages that are related to news, productivity and personal trackers, every FB Page needs to be approved to send messages at the page level.
For non-promo messages that you want to send anytime, (outside of that 24hrs + 1 rule) you will have to apply message tags. These are non-promotional only!
Using tags to send promo content is strictly against the rules and might get you kicked from the Messenger Platform.
You can check all the supported tags and their allowed usages straight from FB here.
AMAZON
Prime Day is in “prime position” to take US e-comm to new heights
Forgive the pun, maybe we try too hard sometimes… Even if you didn’t laugh, it’s true: Amazon’s Prime Day, which started yesterday and ends today, will push US e-comm to $2B on the day.
That’s only the third time outside the usual holiday season that this huge figure has been reached.
The $2B takes into account Amazon’s US sales too, but other businesses also see a lift of up to 79% according to Adobe’s analytics business.
While everyone seems to benefit from this, it just goes to show the power of Amazon. They created their own “shopping holiday”, and it caused some of their biggest rivals (Walmart, Target, eBay, Best Buy etc) to jump on the bandwagon and offer deals of their own.
In fact, 250 retailers are competing with Amazon to offer the best deals, up from 194 last year.
Hats off to Amazon! They couldn’t be beaten, so now the competition is joining them. Well, for Prime Day at least.
FROM THE CREW
Hey, you! Tell us a lil’ about yourself, will ya’?
We’ve asked you a few questions about yourself before, but since then this newsletter has grown. We want to know what type of content you’d like to see, what type of marketer you are, and how experienced in the industry you are.
Why? Because we want you to love this daily briefing!
We noticed there are a lot more types of marketers than just affiliates reading this. We’re flattered!
That also means we have to get some more info from you to ensure we aren’t neglecting any area of digital marketing that you ladies and gents are interested in.
It’s anonymous, takes 3 minutes to fill in and it helps us make sure we stay on top with content quality and the type of sponsors we bring to the newsletter.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things affiliates like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
When your hat comes with… options!
You know what we always thought? What if your hat was more than just a hat? What if your hat was also… a chicken bucket?
Our incredible thoughts have been turned into reality by KFC Russia.
KFC and streetwear brand Mam Cupy partnered up to create this multi-purpose piece of headwear.
Beautiful! Simply incredible!
We’ve already booked our flights to Russia and pre-ordered 10 buckets.
This gave us an idea too. You can’t have a bucket of chicken without a drink to wash it down, right?
So, next up after the KFC chicken hat, we’re going to release the WTAFF drinking shoe! It will be marvelous!
Here’s what you can get if you share us with your marketing friends!
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