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GENERAL
Wanna see a collection of junk news on Facebook? Oxford has you covered.
It’s been the talk of the year basically – misleading news spreading too much on Facebook, sometimes swaying voters even.
The good people at the Oxford Internet Institute have something for you – a collection of the biggest junk news posted on Facebook recently.
Whether you want to have a laugh or… Well, not really much else, they are for a laugh only because it’s a collection of the most misleading and clickbaiting news ever posted on FB in the recent months.
Anyway, you can check it out in full here. It shows the Facebook post, the article link and its engagement.
So will you spend your weekend scrolling through “junk”?
Instant Promote ads for Stories on IG – next cash cow?
Well, Facebook’s news feed is too crowded to put ads there and the company’s user numbers in important markets are not growing.
Luckily, Instagram is in a different spot and is also owned by Facebook (which apparently some people don’t know).
And they are planning to globally roll out Promote ads for stories. What is this? Like the “boost” feature for an FB post, you can use “Promote” for Instagram, and now you can have Stories as a placement. Of course, you can use all targeting features IG has.
Another small piece of news is Instagram Analytics as part of Facebook Analytics. And to boost IGTV numbers, you can now share a preview image from an IGTV video on your Instagram Stories.
You’ll probably want to have a short clip instead but we’re assuming it’s only a matter of time for Facebook to allow that.
Pinterest is introducing Carousel Ads
Do we have to explain what it is? Well, you can use up to 5 swipeable images in an ad.
We’re sure you’re familiar with it from Facebook, now you can use them on Pinterest as well.
Pinterest gave a selected number of brands early access to the new ads and these tests showed better results in ad awareness, engagement and higherCTRs.
While Pinterest is still a lot smaller than Facebook or Instagram it’s a very interesting traffic source because Pinterest users are more willing to spend money. 93% of Active Pinners said they use Pinterest to plan for purchases.
SPONSORED
What makes an affiliate network ACTUALLY outstanding? – Part 3
Yeah, that “part 3” there means there was a part 1 and part 2.
Part 1 and 2 were about technology. In part 3 we want to talk about history and reputation.
Why?
Because it’s an industry where so many companies come and go… And often times they go with money that does not belong to them.
We’ll not name them here, we named them when the bad things happened.
So for a company to be outstanding you need a history where you maintained your reputation.
A 16+ years history, with multiple accolades and countless happy partners, is what made Clickbooth’s reputation what it is today.
One of the best there is.
Just in the past 2 years, they have received the award for #1 CPA Network back-to-back. Of course, they’re in the run for the 3rd in a row.
We warmly recommend you check them out, and give them a little love in the vote for the award.
GENERAL
Through this series of WHAT THE AFF interviews we want to bring you short and sweet interviews with the top online marketers on this side of the Milky Way.
We have with us Dimitris Skiadas, a well known Google Analytics expert and online marketer. His story doesn’t start from his teens and by dropping out of University as it does for many. It starts with an actual job… So check it out!
WTAFF Crew: Describe yourself in 20 words or less (focus on personality, not affiliate experience).
Dimitris: Outgoing, honest, geek, love my beard, always smiling, love helping, seeing the best in others & showing a true interest about them
WTAFF Crew: How did you get involved in online marketing, what’s your beginner’s story?
Dimitris: All my life I was raised to be the typical Greek with the typical Greek mentality. Go to school, get good grades, go to college, get a degree, find a “good” job, work for 45 years & when you are 65 years old, you can finally enjoy life.
I was the like “WTF? Is this how life is supposed to be? There’s got to be a better way. I followed this whole Greek mentality thing for 27 years. I was working as an assistant accountant. And I was getting mistreated a lot. I was making coffees for my boss, mopping the floor, getting cigarettes for them.
Till one day, I decided to change my life. I went to Google & typed in “make money online”. I discovered this wonderful world of digital marketing & I was hooked. I learned all about affiliate marketing, article marketing back in the day, digital courses.
I got a new job as a Digital Marketing consultant at a small agency here in Greece. I learned a lot more about Google ads, SEO, Youtube ads, marketing in general but still wasn’t happy.
The breakthrough for me came when I decided to invest $3500 to attend a marketing event in Florida while still working my 9-5. That was the time when I discovered that it doesn’t really matter what you know. It’s who you know that makes all the difference.
As an employee I was making all these companies & stores so much money but no matter what I did, I was still making the same $1300. After I attended that event, I decided to quit again and go full time this time on Digital marketing. After that everything changed for the better.
WTAFF Crew: You are known as one of the go-to experts for Google Analytics. Could you tell us what made you go so deep into this? Did you have any “Eureka!” moment (because you’re Greek, we’re funny like that)?
Dimitris: Honestly, no… I didn’t have a “Eureka” moment LOL. Back in 2010 when I started working at the agency, the only way to improve a stores numbers, was by looking at their data. I was never a big fan of spending hours and hours looking at numbers. But when is started making some small wins for the clients by making small tweaks to their marketing strategy, I was like “Wow, that stuff works”.
Yeah, I know it’s boring & not sexy. At all! But since 2010 i’ve helped hundreds of people scale their online businesses to multiple 6, 7 & figures. I am 100% positive & confident (without sounding like a douche) that Google Analytics can help you uncover hidden opportunities for your online business.
And of course, pick up a lot of the money that you are leaving today on the table. 🙂
WTAFF Crew: What are the 5 most common issues you find when you help businesses? Any quick fixes for those?
Dimitris: 1. Speed issues is the most common one. Even for big stores doing multiple 8 figures in revenue. Would you wait 10 seconds for a website to load? Doubt it.
The quick fix is to look inside GA ( Behavior – Site speed ), use a tool by Google called Page Speed Insights, another called GTmetrix & then give all the results to a programmer. If they know what they are doing, they will bring down the site speed quite easily. The small changes are the ones that have the bigger effect 🙂
2. No back end. People focus way too much on the front end and almost completely ignore the back end. Definitely not a quick fix, but this is where the real money is made. Bring them back is the main message here (messenger, email, retargeting, coupons, even direct mail still works)
3. Mobile. Yes, we know that majority of the people buy from mobile. But one thing that I notice in 19/20 stores that I work with is that desktop is converting way better. People spend more time on desktop.
Bigger screen, less distractions, more chances of them buying something more than mobile users. Usually desktop users convert twice as much compared to the mobile ones. Check it out for yourself (GA – Audience – Mobile – Overview)
4. Targeting based on location. Usually people go for the whole United States. It’s next to impossible to cover the whole US, no matter what budget you have (OK, maybe we have some exceptions here).
So instead of targeting the whole US, go to GA (Audience – Geo – Location), check which are the specific states that are converting the best & target those. The best example I can give here is working with a client selling essential oils. His overall CR was 4%. Pretty nice. But when we got to do the same exercise, we discovered that people in Colorado, were converting at 12%! You can imagine what we did next & crushed 🙂
5. Increasing your AOV. Implementing single product funnels with tools like Clickfunnels or inside Shopify using apps like One Click Upsell will help you dramatically increase your AOV. The best time for someone to buy more from you, is exactly the moment after they bought something from you.
I know that this is not something groundbreaking but you will find so many people that are not doing this 🙂
WTAFF Crew: Tells us the 3 tools you cannot live without and think everyone should use in their stores and funnels? Excluding basic Google Analytics of course. What other tools do you recommend for CRO?
Dimitris: Hotjar is the one of the most amazing tools out there. Not only you can watch “live” what people are doing in your store, but you can also get precious feedback when you ask them things like “Is there anything preventing you from buying today?”
VWO (Visual Website Optimizer) is another great one. Split testing at its finest & one of the oldest software around for CRO. Highly recommended.
Crazy Egg is a great combination of both of the above. Split testing, heat maps, recordings, you name it. Absolutely love this tool especially because its owned and developed by Neil Patel, one of my favorite marketers ever.
WTAFF Crew: What’s the biggest challenge you see affiliate marketers and online businesses, in general, facing right now?
Dimitris: Not building a real business. They focus way too much on bringing the front end sale & finding the next winning product with FB ads. But the real money is being made on the back end.
I see it especially with people on ecommerce dropshipping. All they care is to make that quick sale without caring about the overall customer experience
And this is why 90% of people who buy from a dropshipping store never buy from it again. These people need to focus on building some strong email sequences, messenger bots, win them back campaigns, retention strategy & brand campaigns.
Ideally, we want 50% of our revenue to be from recurring customers.
WTAFF Crew: What events do you usually attend, where can people meet you? Why those events?
Dimitris: I attend 6-8 events every year. Yes, they are too many, especially when you have to fly half the world to attend one LOL. I live in Greece and the majority of the events are in USA and Asia.
I try not to miss Affiliate World Conferences (Barcelona was the last one), Traffic & Conversion Summit in San Diego & Funnel Hacking Live (Orlando).
In all 3 of them the content is amazing & the networking is on point.
I also attend events like the Arab Affiliate Summit. Last year was in Egypt, this year in Casablanca, Morocco where I am also speaking.
Lastly, I prefer attending and organizing mastermind events where usually less than 20 people attend so sharing what works becomes way easier & networking is on point.
WTAFF Crew: Affiliates and online marketers like to show off sometimes. We want to switch it around so we ask what’s the purchase you are least proud of?
Dimitris: Recently I bought into the hype of a high ticket coaching program. The guy that sold this did an amazing job on pitching it. I was so pumped on getting in, so I did pull out my wallet that day without thinking twice.
Although I learned a few nice things about funnels and conversions, the whole program failed to justify the high price I paid. I am not going to reveal what the program was or who was behind it, cause I find it unethical to do so.
My piece of advice is just to think twice before you pull out your credit card especially when it’s for a high ticket item. Make sure that this program can really help you reach the goal you are after.
WTAFF Crew: Thanks for sharing some of your insights with us, Dimitris! And hope you rock the stage at the Arab Affiliate Summit.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things affiliates like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
“Too high to drive? I have an idea…”
Elon announced on Twitter than in the next 6 weeks, the advanced Summon feature will be released. And this will enable Tesla cars to autonomously drive to your location and pick you up.
And if you hold down the “summon” button on the app, the car will apparently follow you like a pet on a leash…
Aside from that, we’re wondering how many people will go out, drink, then take a taxi home and summon the Tesla back instead of driving it.
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