META
Will this new ad type tackle privacy issues?
Seems Meta is getting back to the basics.
Facebook is developing “Basic Ads” to help battle ongoing privacy concerns.
It’s pretty basic: Instead of relying on personal data, the new ad type will be measured by simple metrics like engagement and video views.
So the reach of your ad—and its performance—would depend on how engaging it is.
While this could improve overall brand exposure, it would obviously lack the powerful targeting features of other ad types.
Why we care: As companies adapt to working with less data, digital advertising could become more… limited.
Which means creativity will once again be among the most important assets a marketing team can have.
And TikTok seems to agree…
TIKTOK
Now you can see the best performing content on the platform
Say goodbye to creative block… On TikTok, at least.
The popular platform just announced Trend Discovery as a part of their Creative Center. It’s a feature that gives you insight into the most engaging posts on the platform.
What’s making users Tik: The feature helps creators and brands access the best performing hashtags, songs, creators, and TikTok videos in a single place.
You can also further segment each category. For example, you could segment hashtags based on industry, creators based on region or number of followers, and more.
Why we care: Having accurate data on what’s trending on the platform and seeing examples all in one place can help you come up with more engaging content.
And going by recent moves in the advertising space, it seems engaging content will be the next money machine.
SPONSORED BY HOPIN
Is hybrid really the future of events?
The events industry has been shaken to its foundation during the last years.
And while events are making a comeback, they’ve changed a lot since 2019.
That’s why Hopin interviewed innovative event leaders: to find out what the new trends are, what’s working right now, and what isn’t working anymore.
They compiled the findings, useful resources, and the 10 hottest trends in event planning in their 2022 Event Trends Report—and you can download it for free.
- How to unlock sponsorship ROI.
- 3 psychological methods events leaders are leveraging to engage with their audiences.
- Whether or not you should still consider a virtual component to in-person events.
- The event structure 63% of event professionals plan to use to increase the perceived value of their events.
… And more.
Download the 2022 Event Trends Report for free and find out what’s shaping the industry.
SEO
How to unlock new audiences and boost your SEO ranking with synonyms
Remember synonyms?
The last time you heard about them was probably in your third-grade grammar class.
In case you need a refresher: A synonym is a word that means exactly or nearly the same as another word or phrase.
And believe it or not… synonyms can help you get more clicks and sales.
Why? Because when you talk about your product in different ways, you attract more users.
For example, users might search for a webcam with terms like “streaming camera,” “e-meeting camera,” or “Zoom camera.”
Same goes for chatbots. Users might search for them using terms like “conversational AI chatbot,” “customer support automation,” “omnichannel engagement platform,” and so on.
Same product. Different use cases.
And as Adriana Stein explains in this blog post, by finding and targeting new product synonyms, you can unlock new selling angles for your products.
For your SEO strategy, this means that you can target more relevant keywords to improve your rankings.
It’s a powerful way to expand brand awareness while compounding hundreds of thousands of monthly searches from different keywords.
Adriana suggests a six-step process for finding product synonyms:
- Understand the different use cases for your product.
- Benchmark your competitors.
- Study the language of your audience.
- Review “People Also Ask” and related searches.
- Research keywords.
- Differentiate keyword placement basement on your site structure.
Follow this process if you want to target new audiences and raise your search engine results page position. And if you want more details, check out Adriana’s blog post.
SPONSORED BY ONLINEJOBS.PH
How to add a marketing professional worth $250,000 to your team… for as little as $1500 per month
Big claim, huh?
It’s true! For the last 15 years, John Jonas has been helping thousands of entrepreneurs hire US-level talent in the Philippines.
And in this free article, he shows you exactly how to add a highly skilled professional to your team at an affordable amount.
Learn how to build your team of professionals now.
THE CREW’S INSIGHTS
How we write sponsor copy for this newsletter
You know when you’re listening to a podcast you love and the host pauses the show to say, “And now, a message from our sponsor”…
… And you tune out for the next 30 seconds because they’re reading from a boring, corporate-sounding script?
Yeah. That sort of copy doesn’t work very well.
Which is why we want to talk about how we write sponsor copy for this newsletter, why it keeps sponsors coming back for more, and how you can apply the takeaways to your own copy.
Our process is fairly simple:
- We have a briefing form. It’s easy for sponsors to fill out, and the information-gathering process is the same for everyone, which means we’re always writing copy based on the same structure of information. This reduces friction.
- The person who writes the copy is also a newsletter writer. This is key. In order to keep you interested, our sponsor copy needs to feel like part of the newsletter. Our writer is skilled at writing both content and copy based on our persona and tone, so the sponsored sections feel natural and helpful.
The Crew’s Insight: When you write promotional copy—whether it’s in your blog posts, for a newsletter of your own, or in your ads—you never want it to feel like ad copy.
Two ways to make your copy feel natural:
- Write in the same style and tone as the source. If it’s a newsletter, adopt the newsletter’s tone. If it’s a podcast, adopt the tone of the host.
- Instead of writing to sell, write to inform… then close with a strong call-to-action (CTA). If it’s helpful, focus on the context your copy will appear in and write for that context, instead of focusing on what your copy needs to accomplish.
Practice this enough, and you’ll describe products and services so well that people can’t help but be interested.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
AFFILIATE MARKETING: Did you know you can finally manage all your affiliate links for your WordPress site using one plugin? Create beautiful product displays, organize and cloak affiliate links, find and fix broken links, and more. Try Lasso for free.*
GOOGLE: Just in time for the travel season. It’s now easier for hotels to connect information to their Business Profile, add booking rates, and run ads. Also, hotel advertisers can promote their properties across all channels with Performance Max campaigns.
BUSINESS: European markets are feeling the inflation. Nearly half of Germans can no longer afford their lifestyles and are slowing down on spending. If you’re selling non-essential products in the region, you may notice a slight downturn in sales.
E-COMMERCE: Wowza. Online commerce search ad spending keeps rising… It’s estimated to reach almost $56 billion by 2026. If forecasts are true, it will account for 20% of the entire US digital ad market.
GOOGLE: If you have a brand loyalty program, you’ll be able to showcase it using Google Shopping ads soon. According to Google, loyalty programs will be easy to integrate to Merchant Center and easy to promote with Performance Max campaigns.
PINTEREST: Hyper-personalized shopping feeds are coming. The company just acquired THE YES, a shopping platform that customizes users’ feeds with human expertise and machine learning. Seems like a great fit.
*This is a sponsored post
BRAIN TEASER
I never was, am always to be.
No one ever saw me, nor ever will.
And yet I am the confidence of all,
To live and breathe on this terrestrial ball.
You can find the answer here.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things marketers like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
And the world’s most expensive car goes for…
There are a couple things you could buy for a cool $143M…
Fifteen private Caribbean islands… half of Neymar Jr. the footballer – aka soccer player, if you’re in North America…
And the most expensive car in the world: the 1955 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe.
Splashing cash on the Benz: The rare Mercedes-Benz—one of only two existing models—was just sold in a private auction for a record $143M.
That’s almost three times more than the previous record holder: The 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO sold for $48.4M in 2018.
Mercedes-Benz plans to use all proceedings from the sale to finance global scholarship programs focused on environmental education.
Now, if only we could get marketing budget increases that big…