Google Ads is rolling out more auto-applied recommendations
News and updates about auto-applied recommendations typically divide PPC marketers into two camps: “I like this” and “not again.”
The update: Google has rolled out automatic recommendations for Discovery campaigns, as well as recommendations for Video campaigns. According to Google, you can also “apply recommendations at scale,” choosing from a list of over 22 recommendations (“upgrading your conversion tracking, improving your responsive search ads,” etc.)
They can work: Preliminary data showed that advertisers who used recommendations to increase their account-level optimization score by 10 points “saw a median 14% increase in conversions.”
ADVERTISING
What will this year’s Super Bowl ads look like?
YouTube has just saved us some time discovering the answer by updating their AdBliz channel, which showcases this year’s Super Bowl commercials.
According to the official YouTube release, 72% of sports fans “rewatch at least some football commercials before or after the game.” We’re not sure about you, but if someone actually rewatched an ad, it’s definitely an ad worth looking into further.
SPONSORED BY CLEARBIT
Turn Facebook Ads into a B2B dream
Facebook Advertising wasn’t necessarily created with B2B advertisers in mind.
However, more than 1.5 billion people log on to Facebook every day. That’s four times the entire United States population and 600,000 times the total number of Chipotles.
But with limited native targeting, how have some B2B marketing teams been able to turn Facebook into their top-performing channel?
- RStudio doubled qualified leads with 20x lower acquisition cost
- Chargebee increased SQLs by 200% while reducing costs by 50%
- Gorgias built a $2M paid strategy in less than a year
Clearbit’s free, comprehensive guide, The B2B Guide to Facebook Advertising, answers that question. Full of real-life examples and expert opinions, it explains how to:
- Unlock a new channel that reaches your target audience at low costs that scale
- Personalize ads using 100+ firmographic, technographic, and employee attributes
- Eliminate wasted spend by retargeting website visitors that you care about
Facebook ads are finally ready for B2B.
Are you ready? Turn Facebook into your highest-performing B2B channel.
CONTENT MARKETING
How to produce episodic content that promotes itself
According to Rand Fishkin, episodic content is the best kind of long-term content investment most online brands can make.
You’re asking what’s episodic content, right?
It’s any format that satisfies these three criteria:
- It’s produced in episodes and with similarly structured pieces.
- Users can subscribe to this content and are notified when there are new episodes.
- It builds a backlog of previous episodes that keep driving engagement, shares, and new subscribers.
This newsletter, for instance, is a classic example of episodic content. But almost every podcast, YouTube channel, serialized blog, or webinar series are an example of episodic content.
So here are some tactical tips shared by Rand Fishkin for creating episodic content that gets you more shares:
- Target topics that your audience is actively talking about, but add unique value: Take new positions, answer unexplored questions, or add your own take on the matter.
- Take controversial positions and attract enemies: An enemy doesn’t necessarily need to be a person. It can be a brand, a consolidated idea in your industry, an old way of doing things, popular advice, etc.
- Make a list of people you “could totally see sharing this,” and reach out.
- Feature the work of others. Exactly like we are doing in this post.
- Make your content easy and enjoyable to consume. Share it on any platform, and when you feature somebody, contact the author.
- Involve guest contributors: Ask for a quote, a strong opinion, data, or ask them if they want to co-create a piece.
- Use visual assets similar to the ones that are shared in your industry.
- Leverage content discovery and distribution networks: Like Reddit, Hacker News, Techmeme, Google Discover, YouTube, Pocket, Flipboard, or Metafilter.
- Give them the next episode, so you’ll turn one-time consumers into readers.
SPONSORED BY B2B HEAVEN
How to tap into the most underrated B2B acquisition channel
Influencer marketing is becoming the main channel of acquisition for many brands. But for B2B companies it’s not that easy to find influencers.
They give you access to a database of B2B influencers from different industries. Whether you run a SaaS company or a Fortune 500 brand, you’ll find the right influencer on B2B Heaven.
Find your next profitable partnership here.
THE CREW’S INSIGHTS
Ideas to get more replies to your welcome email
A reply to the first email you send a subscriber is probably the strongest positive engagement for Gmail. If you get a good number of replies to your welcome email, your Gmail results will be great.
We want to share some ideas to make that happen.
1. Offer an insider report. It’s what we do here with our newsletter. In our welcome email, we explain to new readers what they can expect, and we tell them they can check out our annual report if they reply.
This also helps many new readers get a deeper look into what we do here at Stacked Marketer, which is always a plus.
2. Ask where they’ve heard of you. This helps to get replies and feedback. It’s best practice to have a survey for new subscribers to understand where they are coming from. If you ask them in the welcome email, you can also start conversations, and improve your engagement.
3. Discounts. We don’t like this as much as the first two options. If you offer any type of paid product, offering a discount in exchange for replies is worth trying.
4. Other lead magnets. Depending on why your readers sign up for your newsletter, there can be many other lead magnets you can offer for a reply. For example, templates, guides, mini-courses, and more.
Just keep in mind that the incentive to reply only works if you use something valuable. Tricking people to subscribe for something useless won’t get you far.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
E-COMMERCE: Did you know 83% of online stores miss incoming messages? Good customer support is vital but it’s not easy! With Smart Inbox, you can connect all channels in a single space, save time, eliminate missed messages, and elevate your customer support. Level up with Smart Inbox.*
PINTEREST: Wanna see how that sofa you saw on Pinterest looks in your living room? Not a problem. Pinterest launched “AR Try-On for Home Decor.” If you’re in the home niche, this can be a conversion booster when it launches for everyone.
MARKETING: Stuck on Valentine’s Day marketing ideas? This blog post can help.
MEDIA: We have a problem. People are losing trust in the mainstream media. Is this a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for user-generated content?
*This is a sponsored post
BRAIN TEASER
If you drop a yellow hat in the Red Sea, what will it become?
You can find the solution here.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things marketers like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
This 3,503 customers SaaS business will reward you for taking it over
Marketers have a love-hate relationship with B2B SaaS. On one hand, there is the scalability of SaaS and all the cool marketing strategies you can try. On the other hand, there’s the attribution inferno that comes with the B2B customer journey.
If you’re within the group of marketers thrilled by B2B SaaS, here’s a company listed on the Flippa Marketplace you should check out.
CoraText is an automated SMS selling machine that allows people to build SMS and email lists. It also has features such as text bots and mass SMS.
While the company has 3,503 customers and falls into the B2B SaaS category, the pricing model is a one-time fee, leaving the next owner with a huge opportunity to create a recurring subscription.
Needless to say, this is another business you can get if you win our US$ 25,000 business giveaway (and still have plenty of money left to hire ancillary services).
If you haven’t entered the raffle yet, use your unique referral link to get at least 1 referral. Each successful referral means 1 chance.
The entry period ends on Friday (Feb. 4th). Good luck!