SEO
Got insights?
Marketers and SEO geeks got some great news yesterday, as Google announced that a new feature, titled ‘Insights’, will be coming to Google Search Console. Right now, the feature is in a closed beta – but we did a little digging to figure out what you might be able to expect when it goes public. Here’s what we found:
- There might be nothing mind-blowing, according to Brodie Clark on Twitter (who got closed beta access), but there is an addition which lets you know about the newest and top-performing backlinks to your site!
- We may be getting additional statistics and insights on new content. Based on the screenshot in the Google Webmasters tweet, things like pageviews, average visit duration, and trending analytics may be readily available with the update.
- You can get more detail on trending search queries. In their official announcement, Google mentioned that we’d be getting some insight on top and trending queries for sites, a welcome feature.
This might not be the next big thing in SEO, but extra insights are certainly helpful – and the new backlinks feature may eliminate the need for some extra tools and trackers, depending on how it works!
TIKTOK
Is this really The Last Sunny Corner of the Internet?
TikTok’s been on a PR sprint lately, and we don’t blame them – in the face of a potential ban by the US government and criticism coming from all sides, the company has been scrambling to regain a positive image in the eyes of consumers.
Although most of their user base probably doesn’t care, TikTok just launched a new site to dispel what they consider to be disinformation about the app. The company is calling it ‘The Last Sunny Corner of the Internet’, which is a weird name, but we’re talking about it – so it’s doing its job.
Music distribution is getting integration
Yesterday, TikTok announced their first distribution partnership. It’s with UnitedMasters, a music distribution company – here’s what the deal means:
- More music and sounds will become accessible for creators. If you’re looking for something new for an influencer marketing campaign, this partnership may provide the ‘large catalog of new sounds’ you’re looking for.
- Up-and-coming artists might be able to leverage UnitedMasters for a career. If we know one thing about TikTok, it’s that songs go viral – so viral, in fact, that they get labeled ‘TikTok songs’ in almost any context. However, the new partnership with UnitedMasters may make it easier for artists to sustain a real music career.
It’s not all rainbows and butterflies for TikTok right now, but the people behind the platform are doing their best to add value during tumultuous times. And if you’re marketing on TikTok, that’s good news!
SPONSORED BY VIDICO
Amazon and Spotify get up to 15% better conversion rate and 300% better CTR with these video ads
Vidico. This company produces stellar creatives for companies like Uber, Square, Spotify and Digital Ocean… And what are the results?
- Your landing page conversion rate could increase by 15%, and in some cases go up a whopping 580% (see Vidico’s campaign for DTC-startup Koala).
- You can expect a 3-5x lift in CTR over static image ads. This can mean cheaper CPCs.
Sounds enticing? You can actually get a taste of their work for free… But first, you’re probably wondering – “Where have I heard of Vidico?”.
- Vidico has worked on over 300 projects with their videos accounting for over 1.1 billion views and millions of dollars in sales.
- Their video content has been played across national television in the US, Canada and Australia, with ads for Square and Homelight.
- They work with smaller companies as well, and this is what the CEO of Alltrails had to say about Vidico: “We partnered with Vidico to create two animated explainer videos and couldn’t be happier with the price, the process, the team, and most importantly the finished product.”
- You can see their work for tech startups and global brands here.
There are two ways you can try Vidico’s work for free:
- Get a personalized script for your company (delivered in 72hrs).
- Get an optimized video script template that has been tested on over a hundred of successful projects.
Tip from The Crew: get both of them!
ADVERTISING
36 lessons on creating better social ads
Yeah, we know, 36 is a lot of lessons – but we’re marketers, right? We can handle it.
The thread shared by Ari Lewis is inspired by a conversation he had along with Savannah Sanchez and Matthew Kobach.
Here are our favorite lessons from the thread.
+ The importance of brand strategy:
- Before you focus on paid advertising, create a great brand, because 90% of marketing success is having a great brand to back it up.
- Make sure that your social content aligns with your website. Keep your website and your copy simple.
+ On TikTok:
- Start exploring TikTok, whether that’s making an account or sending a product to influencers.
- It’s the most untapped influencer platform at the moment.
- The type of virality that you can achieve on TikTok would be impossible on Instagram. An influencer with just 10k followers can reach 3M views.
- The CPMs can be as low as $0.15.
- The tracking is clunky, but it’s expected to improve.
+ Consumer preference changes that will shape the future of content creation:
- Generation Z wants to consume short-form content.
- Content needs to capture attention quickly and be straight to the point.
+ On creating ads:
- Keep the copy to 10 words or less.
- KISS the copy, or, “keep it stupid simple”.
- You don’t need to tell your entire brand story. Just make clear what you’re selling.
- Don’t make your videos look like an ad. User-generated content is the mantra.
- Have captions on your video ads, as many people mute the sound when scrolling on Instagram, Facebook, or Snapchat.
We’ll follow the KISS principle for this section by ending things right there – it’s not all 36 lessons, but sometimes we have to pick favorites.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
CONTENT MARKETING: Aleyda Solis shared some thoughtful ideas on how SEOs can communicate better with writers. She also shared a spreadsheet with thoughtful questions to ask when putting together content!
COPYWRITING: Yes, you should show pricing on your website. But if you can’t? Joel Klettke shares some actionable advice.
GOOGLE: Chrome on Android is labeling so-called ‘fast pages’, which will likely be the same pages that rank higher when Core Web Vitals become a major ranking factor.
YOUTUBE: Trouble down under! A new law, proposed by the Australian government, would force Google to share revenue and information with large news publishers – this could hurt YouTube significantly, Google claims.
APPLE: Okay, this is epic. In the midst of a legal battle with Epic Games, Apple threatened to revoke all access to iOS and Mac development tools, which led to Epic filing a motion for an injunction.
TIKTOK: There’s a new contender for the app. Oracle, Larry Ellison’s company, entered the race to acquire TikTok’s operations in US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
BRAIN TEASER
Fact or fiction: your tongue has different ‘taste zones’ that are better at identifying certain kinds of tastes – bitter, sweet, salty, and more.
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.
The future is now
The internet is pretty much obsessed with GPT-3, an AI system that’s able to write readable, human-like content (though it still gives off some serious Uncanny Valley vibes). Last week, though? A college student wrote an entire article using GPT-3 which hit the top spot on Hacker News.
If you’re wondering how he got access to GPT-3 – which is currently private – the college student got in touch with a PhD student who had access to the AI model. Then, he gave the model a description of the blog post and an introduction, looked through various iterations, and chose one to post on Hacker News.
Within hours, the post, titled “Feeling unproductive? Maybe you should stop overthinking” had gone viral on Hacker News, reaching the number one spot fairly quickly.
The article’s here, if you want to check it out – but get ready for a lot of redundant, strangely-phrased sentences. The bottom line: GPT-3 is good, but it won’t be writing Stacked Marketer anytime soon…