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New tool to create videos for Stories, which will now be saved for 7 days
Instagram has extended the life of the content you capture in Stories. It is also testing a cool new way to create awesome video content for Stories, without the need to actually record any video footage.
Two small yet helpful updates. Let’s dive into them.
Stories camera now saves your content for 7 days
“Take as many photos and videos as you like, then post your favourites later”.
What this means is that you can now capture loads of photos and videos at once, and then select your favourites to post to your Stories at a later stage.
Any content you capture using Instagram’s Stories camera will now be saved for 7 days, allowing you to use this content over a longer timeframe than you could before.
Visit the ‘Recents’ section within the app to find your content from the last 7 days and share with your audience.
This was already possible to some extent using the Camera Roll uploads, but now you can find this right within Instagram, which makes the whole process a little easier.
New ‘Stop-Motion’ tool for Stories
Don’t have the skills, resources, or equipment to create effective and engaging video content, but still want to keep your Insta game on point?
Instagram is developing a new ‘Stop-Motion’ camera option for Stories. This will provide users with a new way of creating interesting video content, without having to record any actual video.
This new tool will help you by ghosting the frame you’re capturing along with the previous frame, so you can ensure that your placement and movement is correct.
It looks like it’s more suited for a camera sitting on a stable device such as a tripod, as you would then be able to move exactly what you want to without worrying about the rest of the image changing due to camera movement.
You can use this in a number of creative ways: Capturing every angle of your product, simulating movement, or even to capture action figures playing out a scene.
It is yet to be announced officially. Yet, as you can see in the image here, it already has its own icon.
You can expect to see it in your Stories section soon.
NATIVE
Bidding on whitlelist Taboola campaigns
Do you buy traffic on Taboola?
If you do, and you’re wondering what bidding option you should go for (Smart Bid or Fixed Bid), this is the post for you.
James Van Elswyk, a pretty famous name where native media is concerned, shared his take on Whitelist Taboola campaigns bidding type.
His theory is to go for Fixed bid. Why? Because if the smart bid is not based on CTR, then it needs a pixel for data loop. Given that “Taboola pixel is always off“, going for fixed bid is the best option.
That’s James’s advice. But as always, do your own tests and try different things. You never know what could work for you.
SPONSORED
How Much Longer Will You Be A Performance Marketer?
If you haven’t asked yourself this question, GiddyUp’s founders think you should.
After releasing their Open Letter to Performance Marketers in February, comments poured in from all sides of the industry. Some agreed with its message, others had their own take, but one thing is clear… performance marketing is growing, and the early adopters are set to reap the biggest rewards.
Further proof of this came in STM’s “What’s Working in 2019” report, which showed most people think the growth is happening in the white hat direction, as black hat is getting more and more difficult, and generally “less worth it”.
This brings up another question, though: If the industry continues to boom, what does that mean for you personally? If you want to enjoy a long-term career as a performance marketer, what can you do now to set yourself up for success?
Well, the GiddyUp founders have released a series of follow-up videos with their advice on these difficult questions. Nobody has a crystal ball, but the founders give sound advice for questions that are challenging many in the industry right now, such as:
- If I want to run more white hat, but my networks all seem focused on black hat offers, what can I do? (See the video: “Why is white-hat marketing better than black-hat?”)
- What steps can I take to ensure I adapt with the industry instead of being left behind? (Answered in: “Accelerating the growth of performance marketing”)
- What’s the ONE thing I do better than any other business in the world, and how can I leverage it to build a self-sustaining business? (Find out in: “Why performance marketers are the best at scaling customer acquisition”)
If you take pride in being a performance marketer and/or want actionable advice on how to take advantage of its booming growth, these videos are a must-watch. Check them all out and leave a comment on the Open Letter discussion page!
Scary looking carousel of text ads within Search. More editing features in Google Ads app
Google is testing a new ad format for Search ads, and on first glance this is going to scare a lot of advertisers. It has also added some small new functionalities to let you edit your campaigns using Google Ads app.
Google testing carousel of text ads on mobile
Google was found to be testing a carousel of text ads on mobile devices.
This new ad format appears under a “People also considered” heading right below the first ad. The ads in the carousel show up with two headlines and a truncated description line without any ad extensions.
What does this mean?
Things looked good for the branded search query for “Xfinity” (in the example shared above), as Xfinity’s own ad does appear at the top, with a full set of extensions.
It’s not clear if this is also being tested on non-brand terms.
Though, this does look scary to a lot of advertisers as it could cause performance to tank for ads that aren’t in the top position, especially with the carousel ads being served in a truncated format.
It was never easy to figure out how our text ads would be shown in Search. Will they show up with two or three headlines? How many extensions will be shown and which ones?
Now, with this carousel, it’s opening up a whole new can of worms. And yes, the removal of the average position metric makes even more sense now, doesn’t it?
Google will monitor the impact on click volumes and click-through rates with this new approach and make a call accordingly.
New editing features in Google Ads app
Do you use the Google Ads app to monitor the performance of your ad campaigns?
Well, the ability to edit your campaigns using the app is still limited, but Google is working on adding more functionality.
Here are a few that were recently introduced:
You can now create and edit RSAs in the Google Ads app for Android and iOS.
If you already have RSAs set up, it will pre-populate the new RSA with existing headlines and descriptions. It will also show you the Ad Strength score at the top of the screen, along with suggestions for improving it.
You can now also create, review, and edit your negative keywords right within the app.
You can preview this functionality in the GIF here.
YOUTUBE
Improving YouTube Ads performance
2019 has been the year of alternative traffic sources: YouTube, Pinterest, Snapchat.
If you allocated some of your advertising budgets to YouTube, you might want to have a look at this post.
According to Google, marketers that buy YouTube video ads in addition to Search ads see, on average, 8% higher conversions on Search, 3% higher Search conversion rates and 4% lower Search CPAs.
Ashley Mo, regional director for 3Q Digital, discussed a few tactics to improve your video campaign performance.
Let’s find out more about them:
- Limit your reach: While using automated bidding strategies such as Target CPA, machine learning takes time to gather data and optimize for performance.
Thus, if you go for a larger audience, a big portion of your budget will probably be wasted as the algorithm gathers data, therefore you won’t see good results until much later on.
So, start conservatively.
- The second tip is to use insights from your search campaigns on YouTube with the new Custom Intent Targeting, which is only available with TrueView for action.
This means that you can target users that are actively researching your brand or your competitors.
You can pump all the best performing keywords from your Search campaigns into it, and it will then create an audience which can be used for your campaigns on YouTube.
Though, Ashley suggests separating the keywords from difference campaigns so you can measure the performance more accurately.
- Creative is the most important thing. However, you don’t need high quality videos. Even video slideshows work well on YouTube as long as you have enough variations of them to test and they catch user attention.
- If you don’t have a conversion history, start with Max Conversion bidding, and then switch to Target CPA after you reach 30 conversions.
- Wait at least 7-10 days before making bid changes. When you do make changes, use volume as an indicator to change the bid.
- Separate different targeting types at the campaign level. Don’t change ad group level bids when making optimizations, always change this at the campaign level.
- Consider testing micro-conversions like pageviews or an intermediate conversion if the volume is limited.
- Use different Calls-To-Action to see if you can improve the CTR.
Finish line! Have you included YouTube Ads to your marketing armoury? Are you seeing any success with CPA offers? Let us know!
Don’t let Gmail clip your emails
Last week, The Crew had a talk about email deliverability and how to hit Inboxes no matter what.
One of the key points discussed was about emails getting clipped.
It mostly occurs when the size of your email is too large, causing your message to be cut.
Bostjan Belingar shared a post that addresses this issue further.
As stated above, the cause of this problem is the email being too large. So, in order to avoid clipping, here are some ways to limit the size of your emails without affecting the overall quality:
- Compress all the images and try to keep them below 100 Kbs. We would suggest under 50Kbs.
- Paste all the text without formatting it first. This is done by CTRL + Shift + V.
- Use as few links as possible. Only add the essential ones, and avoid using social links if you can.
- Keep a 60:40 text to image ratio. Fewer images will reduce the email size and increase deliverability.
- If your template is too long vertically, try to cut it down as much as possible.
- Keep the email template as simple as possible. Remove split mobile or desktop exclusive blocks as these occupy more space.
These tips should resolve the email clipping headache.
Finally, always test the email before sending if out to your list, and don’t send it out if it turns out to be clipped. Do everything in your power to make your email as perfect as possible.
MICROSOFT
Price extensions now supported in Microsoft Advertising Editor
One year ago, Microsoft Advertising (Bing Ads) launched the price extension feature. It allows advertisers to show products and pricing in text ads in mobile and desktop search results.
With the latest update, you can now manage those extensions in the Microsoft Advertising Editor. The result is the ability to manage them quickly and in bulk batches.
You will also be able to add headers, descriptions and prices, including currency.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things affiliates like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
Pillow on the plane, head in the clouds
Do you have any weird travel stories that you always share with your friends? You know, that story that every time you tell it, everybody starts to laugh. No?
Well, Ms Adams has a very good one. It might be fun for us to hear about, but for her it’s actually been quite terrifying.
It all started when Ms Adams boarded the flight from Quebec to Toronto on June 9. It was just a 90 minute flight, and halfway through Ms Adams fell asleep.
But when she finally woke up, the aircraft was completely empty. Everything around her was dark. Then, she discovered that she’d been locked inside.
“I woke up around midnight (few hours after flight landed) freezing cold still strapped in my seat in complete darkness.”
She tried to call a friend, but her phone died one minute into the call.
A real nightmare. But how did she save her life?
She found a torch in the plane and used the light to send signals to the outside world. Eventually, she was noticed and rescued.
Well, at this point we could add an affiliate link right here and turn the poolside section into an advertorial to push those tactical flashlights. After all, it looks like a nice angle, eh?
Jokes apart, we hope that Ms Adams doesn’t fall asleep on a flight again. Or, if she does, she could at least wake up in the Bahamas.
Good luck!
Here’s what you can get if you share us with your marketing friends!
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