More users doesn’t mean more revenue for Twitter
Twitter’s Q2 earnings report was released yesterday, and much like Snapchat’s earlier this week, it was a mixed bag.
The company reported an impressive increase in users, but revenue was down significantly due to the pandemic – this didn’t come as a surprise to investors, though, as the stock rose more than 4% upon the release of the earnings report.
Let’s take a look at the biggest statistics:
- Average mDAU – monetizable daily active users: 186M (a 34% YoY increase).
- Revenue: $683M (down 19% YoY).
- Costs and expenses: $807M (up 5% YoY – the Q2 operating loss was $124M).
Are subscriptions on the way?
In the wake of a decrease in advertising revenue, Twitter hinted that it may begin to explore other income streams. The announcement came in the last paragraph of the earnings report, and it’s pretty vague – however, subscriptions are mentioned in specific.
We don’t yet know what these subscriptions will look like, but CEO Jack Dorsey told investors that we will likely “see some tests this year,” and the company will be setting a very high bar for what it asks users to pay for. Edit button, anyone?
Depending on what the subscriptions look like, this could open up more opportunities for marketers – but we’re not getting too excited yet.
Google makes another e-commerce update
We wrote about Google’s new, e-commerce-focused Recommendations AI yesterday, and it seems Google isn’t taking a day off when it comes to updates for online retailers.
Here’s the rundown on the most recent update:
- Buy on Google is now entirely commission-free. This is great news! Google will no longer impose a commission fee when a customer buys your product on the Google platform, which makes selling on Google a lot more attractive.
- The Google platform is now open to more digital commerce providers. The platform is now open to Shopify for inventory and both Shopify and PayPal for payment processing. This makes the process a lot more flexible, especially for new businesses who want a quick setup.
- It’s now easier than ever to import your inventory. Google is enabling common product-feed formats, allowing you to connect your inventory for selling on Google without having to reformat data.
This is a pretty big update, and we’re excited about what it could mean for advertising and selling products on Google’s platform. These new features could also give Google’s shopping features a boost in popularity.
SPONSORED BY ADMITAD
Interested in affiliate marketing? This free course and Chrome extension will make it as easy as ordering pizza
Ever heard about the Admitad Extension? It makes finding affiliate offers as easy as ordering pizza.
You go to the website you want to promote. You grab the affiliate link using the extension and woosh! You’re ready to go. And that’s for 30k offers browsable through the Admitad catalog or via search engine highlighting.
Just check out some stats from those using the Admitad Extension:
- New publishers earned up to $3k in 2 weeks.
- Publishers’ earnings grew 46 times using the extension.
If you want to unlock 30k affiliate offers with one click, just install this Chrome extension.
But there’s one more thing from Admitad…
If you’re new to affiliate marketing or you face some difficulties, you should check their latest Affiliate Marketing for Beginners Free Course! Inside you’ll find answers to such questions as:
- What is affiliate marketing?
- What’s the difference between CPA, СPS and CPL?
- Where to place affiliate links and how to generate traffic?
- How to choose and join an affiliate program?
- What are the best tools to study the market and your competitors?
- Ways of earning on YouTube: what content helps you make money?
Sign up for the Affiliate Marketing for Beginners Free Course here.
And remember to get the Admitad Extension here.
MARKETING
Want to sell more stuff? Create a community for your customers
Your product is only worth as much as people are willing to pay for it – and one of the best ways to convince people to pay more is by creating a community.
A community for your customers can be the selling point that turns a $50 on-demand course into a premium experience sold for $1k-$5k.
But what exactly is a community? It’s a bundle of different elements and in this Twitter thread, Wes Kao listed different elements that characterize a community.
Use them to build your community. Or, at least, try to introduce some of them in your brand, product, and communication.
A community isn’t just a Facebook group – but it can be if you’re doing the right things. Let’s dive into some of the most important elements of a community:
- Companionship: Loneliness is a struggle for many people. And a group of understanding people is an antidote to loneliness.
- Affiliation and prestige: Not only do customers want to be part of a community to feel understood, they also want to stand out from the masses. T-shirts and accessories are a simple way to do this, but think about what it might look like for your brand.
- Weird in the same way: How much do you like to nerd out about Facebook Ads, copywriting, media buying, and everything in between with your circle? How weird would it be if on a first date you started talking about that dropshipping product that was converting at $2 CPA? There probably won’t be a second date…
- Exclusivity: In other words, status and power. Customers like to feel included in an exclusive community, and this is a huge selling point for high-ticket courses online.
- Shared purpose: Customers want to join people that have your same mission, be it political, religious, or a mere business purpose.
- Shared contexts, vocabulary, and assumptions. This ties into all of the other points – we all love talking with a like-minded group of people, and a course community can help us do just that.
These are our favorite elements that Wes Kao listed. As she suggests, try to introduce one of these in your product, course, or experience until you find out what sparks a response.
FROM THE CREW
We revealed our revenue and expenses live, in front of three investors… This is what happened next!
Stacked Marketer’s founder, Manu, was a guest on Nathan Latka’s “Deal or Bust” show.
The Crew’s thoughts: We’re not actively raising or looking to “exit” but discussions with potential partners always bring some constructive feedback. The show also has a crowd who could be interested in reading our newsletter. Putting those two together – constructive feedback on our product and new readers – we decided to accept Nathan’s invitation.
So what happened? Three investors had a look at our numbers live, asked Manu some tough questions, then they had to decide if they are in or out.
Spoiler alert: There were some deals on the table. Did we take any?
You will have to find out by watching the show!
PS: What questions would you ask Manu?
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
FACEBOOK: Yes, this is CCPA information again. Some brands are being given the option to extend the LDU to October 20th, according to Cory Dobbin on Twitter.
GOOGLE: The company is starting to display clothing material in their shopping ads, providing another way for retailers to increase click-through rates.
TIKTOK: As part of an incentive to encourage content creation on the platform, TikTok is starting a creator fund – currently $200M for the US – to offer more payment to creators.
FACEBOOK: You can now broadcast to Facebook Live from Messenger with up to 50 people, Facebook announced in an update yesterday.
PANDORA: It might not be the music streaming platform of choice for most of us, but people still do use Pandora – and the company is offering a creative, interactive voice ad feature.
BRAIN TEASER
You are escaping a labyrinth and you’re faced with three doors. There is a signpost explaining the following:
The left door has deadly ninjas that will kill you as you step through. The middle door has a lion which has not eaten in three months. The right door has a raging inferno. Which door do you choose to escape?
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.
Grab a winter jacket and some hot chocolate – the holidays are here, according to Burger King
2020 has been a crazy year. At this point, some of us (read: all of us) are just ready for it to end, and Burger King seems to agree.
Yesterday, the burger chain changed their Facebook profile picture to feature a classic green-and-red holiday logo with a Santa hat on. Their post to go along with it states “at the rate 2020 has been going, there are no rules, so let’s all just agree it’s Christmas.” The post advertises the 2 for $5 mix n’ match deal.
It doesn’t feel like Christmas outside just yet, but we’re loving the new ad campaign from Burger King, which has generated a lot of attention in the media.
This is a perfect example of why it helps to be in touch with how your customers are feeling when creating campaigns!