Goodbye, Google FLoC. Hello, Topics!
Google FloC is dead. Officially.
Google has announced that Google FloC will be replaced by a new proposal called Topics API.
How Topics API will work: Based on your browsing history over the last three weeks, Chrome will determine what topics you’re interested in. Then, when you visit another website, Chrome will share 3 topics with that website and its advertising partners, one from each of the previous 3 weeks. The goal is pretty straightforward: receive more relevant ads.
The privacy part: Chrome will determine the topics you’re interested in locally, on your browser, and will not share that information with Google outside of your browser. Topics older than three weeks will be deleted, and you will be able to ‘exclude’ a topic that you do not want to share. Topics based on sensitive categories, such as gender and race, will be automatically excluded as well.
Coming soon to a (Chromium) browser near you: Google will soon launch a trial of the Topics API for website developers and the advertising industry to test. If you want to be one of them, your best bet is to keep an eye on this GitHub repository.
Which LinkedIn ad formats get the best response?
A single image. This is the best-performing LinkedIn ad format, according to a poll of 400+ people conducted on LinkedIn by Social Media Today.
Here’s what took the remaining spots:
- Video ads came in second place. LinkedIn loves to brag about how effective its video ads are.
- Promoted text posts took the third spot.
- Don’t underestimate polls: Polls, according to some respondents in the LinkedIn post, should definitely not be underestimated. They can be effective at generating both organic and paid engagement.
SPONSORED BY TRENDS
Three steps to validate, build, and monetize a $1M+ app
Have you heard the saying that ideas don’t matter, it’s all about execution? Well, the way it works in the real world is that the best entrepreneurs know how to quickly validate an idea.
That’s a key concept you should learn if you want to be successful as an entrepreneur, or as a marketer. There’s plenty of overlap between validating a business idea and a marketing idea.
This Trends guide will show you how to not just validate your idea, but also how to start building, and monetizing it to $1M+.
We don’t want to spoil everything for you – but we can tell you the first step is to start by validating demand.
Come up with the value proposition, put it in front of potential customers, and see what they do.
Check out the full Trends article here for a detailed breakdown of all 3 steps: validate, build, and monetize.
If you enjoyed it, join Trends to discover the next big thing before anyone else.
“The perfect Instagram image doesn’t exi..”
A group of researchers at North Carolina State University analyzed 147,963 Instagram images to understand which type of images gets more engagement.
The research wasn’t about whether a cat or Dan Bilzerian gets more engagement.
Nope…
Researchers wanted to find the visual qualities in a photo that generate more engagement. And this isn’t just about your brands’ organic posts.
It’s also about your ads… Engagement is always useful here…
Let’s check the result for the six specific qualities analyzed:
- Color complexity: Less is more here. The fewer colors your image has, the more likes it will get.
- Luminance entropy: This is about the intensity of the light in the image. And, contrary to color’s richness, the more the merrier.
- Unique objects: Aim for fewer objects in the frame.
- Edge density: This refers to the ratio of edges to non-edges. The ideal image has a balance between the two. This means that a photo of a giant flag in front of a windowed building won’t get many likes.
- Irregularity of object arrangement: The less regular the visual, the more likes it gets. Think about a wall of bricks vs a wall of graffiti.
- Asymmetry of objects arrangement: This is the trait to get more like, meaning, how much symmetry, both vertical and horizontal, an image contains.
The finds aren’t that easy to execute on, but according to researchers, optimizng features and design complexity of a photo, can improve engagement by 19%.
Now that you are in the know, go, and engage with the world… Or let the world engage with you!
SPONSORED BY SEMRUSH
Winning at marketing isn’t rocket science, so stop treating it like it is – use easy solutions!
You will want to bookmark this one…
Whether you are looking for help with SEO, content marketing, advertising, social media, or competitive research, this collection of tasks with guides is going to help you get a step ahead.
There are already 27 free and easy solutions to common marketing problems (and goals) that you can implement quickly, and get the best results.
Learn simple ways to beat your competitors.
THE CREW’S INSIGHTS
Is it a waste of time to create product pages?
When analysing Athletic Greens for our deep dive, we discovered the most unique product page: no product page at all!
As a single-product brand, Athletic Greens’ product page is a simple purchase panel added to their homepage, where you can select your option (single purchase or subscription), and proceed to the checkout.
Although it sounds cheesy at first, the homepage functions as a complete sales page containing:
- Product reviews from celebrities.
- Hero panel with copy and a focused CTA.
- Copy describing the quality of the product, with sources.
- Copy indicating the benefits of the product.
- Lifestyle images.
In addition, the purchasing panel integrated into the homepage contains the necessary elements of every product page:
- Product image
- Product description
- CTA and price
- Product benefit copy
- Product options clearly displayed
So, if you sell only one product this might be a better way to do it. Less friction, more conversions, right?
You can take it a step further: You can create different landing pages appealing to certain demographics that would usually be customers.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
AFFILIATE MARKETING: Lucrosus Capital is a decentralized venture capital company that allows investors to participate in the cryptocurrency space. And for every new investor you refer, you can earn 15% in ETH or 30% in $LUCA tokens on their transactions. Find more about this decentralized VC.*
PPC: Google Ads is testing emojis. One of them is the pizza emoji (yummy). What emoji would you use to describe your ads?
INSTAGRAM: TikTok might be gaining traction, but Instagram still remains the key channel for influencer marketing.
SEO: Who topped the Google’s US search results in 2021?
TIKTOK: They want you to learn marketing tactics. TikTok has launched a site with a set of best practices for succeeding with TikTok Ads.
BUSINESS: Today is the .day. Google Registry has launched the .day top-level domain. What’s a good .day domain we should get?
INFLUENCER MARKETING: TikTok creators may be popular, but they’re far from wealthy, according to data recently shared by some of TikTok’s biggest influencers, including MrBeast.
GOOGLE: Ads scripts now support asset-based video ads, replacing media-based video ads. You have to update your scripts before February 28th!
*This is a sponsored post.
BRAIN TEASER
What has to be broken before you use it?
You can find the solution here.
FROM THE CREW
Fish an extra $1,109 passive income per month if you win our giveaway
Here’s another chance to put your hands on a business that runs on autopilot.
Flippa has listed a 5.5-year-old hunting and fishing content website that has been steadily generating revenue with Amazon Associates and display ads.
Last year, it netted $1,109 per month on average only with its 100% organic search traffic.
While the business runs on its own, there’s a lot of room to grow the website by adding more content and building links.
The current asking price is US$ 12,100, which means that if you win our US$25,000 business giveaway, you can buy it and still have good money left to hire ancillary services.
To enter the giveaway, you must refer at least one person using your unique referral link – grab it here.
You have until February 4th, 2021 to get at least one successful referral. Each referral equals one entry to the giveaway.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things marketers like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
Instagram influencers are increasingly cloning their dogs
Imagine you have a popular Instagram profile for your dog. How do you keep the profile going, well, forever?
Some Instagram stars started a pretty bizarre solution: they have created genetic duplicates of their dogs.
Yup, this is possible, and many influencers (such as @ipartywithbrucewayne and @clash_of_the_clones) are starting to openly admit to doing this.
Despite the criticism, it appears that an increasing number of petfluencers are taking this route. Just 2022 things, ladies and gents!