TIKTOK ADS
A new tool to dive deeper into audience data
More data, more fun.
TikTok just launched an Audience Insights tool, allowing you to delve into users’ specific interests, demographics, and other details that should help you structure your campaigns.
Read ‘em like a pie chart: The new tool can help you explore users’ interests, discover information through specific user filters, and gain data to better plan your audience workflow.
You can find the new Audience Insights filter in the “Reporting’ section of your Ads Manager and some of the filters include:
- Age demographics and gender splits
- Interest categories such as “Food and Beverage”, “Pets,” and more
- Interactions such as video, creator, or hashtag interactions
- Device
By applying these filters properly you can both validate your existing audience and find inspiration for tweaks or entirely new campaigns. It’s a whole new testing ground.
Why we care: The new audience insights tool can help you discover new targeting options as well as optimize your existing campaigns to drive better results.
Definitely a needed addition when you can’t allow yourself to throw ad money down the drain. And speaking of…
E-COMMERCE
It’s still slowing down
The e-commerce growth signals seem to be unanimous: It’s moving at a snail’s pace.
And the latest reports from two industry heavyweights seem to confirm that recovery is still far and away.
Alibaba struggles: The Chinese e-commerce giant reported a single-digit rise in quarterly revenue, falling below already low expectations, amid the current economic slowdown.
Furthermore, customer management revenue—accounting for 30% of the company’s total revenue—fell 7% annually, which is the steepest-ever decline for the company.
Amazon commences layoffs: The company has reportedly begun cutting jobs with reports saying it may be Amazon’s “largest workforce reduction” in history, with over 10,000 people affected.
A company spokesperson cited the “current macro-environment” as the main reason.
Why we care: The growth decline among e-commerce platforms indicates the domino effect is in full motion – buyers are more cautious, making merchants and advertisers afraid to throw the money down the drain…
This doesn’t mean you should hit the brakes on your marketing efforts. But at the same time, it’s more important than ever to market smarter and look for opportunities in unlikely places.
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TIKTOK
Why you should leverage TikTok’s “For You” page – and 3 tips to help you do it
When you open your TikTok app – what do you see?
The platform isn’t serving you content from the profiles you follow. Quite the opposite – it provides a suggested content feed curated by their algorithm on a “For You” page (FYP).
And according to Tyler Perry, FYP is where the magic happens, so “figuring out” how to use it to your advantage may help you significantly increase your brand’s visibility.
But first, why is FYP so important? Because it’s a powerful tool to market your content organically.
TikTok’s algorithm will track your behavior – videos that you watch, skip, like, add to favorites, and more – and will start tailoring FYP to serve you content you’re most likely to enjoy.
Going by that logic, getting your video on someone’s FYP means you’ve taken advantage of TikTok’s algorithm to get in front of highly interested target audiences.
Tyler shares three tips that should make it easier for your videos to end up on FYP:
#1 – Use proper hashtags: When adding hashtags, don’t think about them as shortcuts, but instead as tools that will help your audience reach you easier.
Use TikTok’s Trends tool to find trending hashtags relevant to your niche, combine less popular with popular tags and make sure they’re relevant.
#2 – Create shorter videos: The most popular videos usually last between 20-34 seconds.
Of course, TikTok allows videos to be up to 10 minutes long, but they are much less likely to be picked up by the algorithm, simply because users want short, snappy content.
#3 – Use trending sounds: Similar to hashtags, you can also find trending sounds using the Trends discovery tool.
By adding popular and familiar sounds to your videos, the chances that users will stop and watch your videos increase. Consequently, algorithms will recognize them as “FYP-worthy.”
Ready to grab those high-intent eyeballs? Time to pay more attention to the FYP page and try to make content that will cater to TikTok’s recommendation algorithm. Good luck!
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THE CREW’S INSIGHTS
How scammers generate sympathy to make sales
Disclaimer: We’re not going to link any of the shady accounts we’re talking about. They’re out there, but we don’t want to lend any traffic to their businesses.
Now for the meat and potatoes: There’s a common advertising tactic that’s been going around lately—we noticed it on Twitter, but it can be found all over. Here’s the three-step ‘scam’:
- Dropshipping (or low-quality product) company creates a social media account.
- That company runs an ad with copy like, “We are sad to say that our small shop is closing . We’re offering a 50% discount on the rest of our items for the next week until we run out.”
- Profit.
We did some digging: Most of the accounts running these kinds of ads are, more than likely, lying. Many of these are new accounts linking to generic, dropshipping-style sites.
The comment sections of these ads are often filled with sympathetic remarks. Whether these are from real people or bots, it’s hard to say. But what we can say is that these ads make money.
Why? Because they generate sympathy. People read the ad, think “they’re closing down, that’s sad,” then “hey, this is kind of a cool product,” then “hey, why don’t I help them out and buy something. Win-win.”
In other words, sympathy serves as the hook for making sales.
The Crew’s insight: We’re not advising you to do this—just the opposite. But, we’re writing about this to show you that sympathy is a powerful hook. If you can find a way to ethically work it into your marketing—whether it’s with real, personal behind-the-scenes of your business or otherwise—you can use it to generate lots of sales. Just be thoughtful, ethical, and careful.
Want more psychological insights? Read our deep dive on the most powerful psychological levers in Stacked Marketer Pro.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
BUSINESS: What’s a deal with a Kardashian worth to a company’s share price? Who profits from your morning cup of coffee? Chartr subscribers know! Join 300,000+ others who love snackable charts and easy-to-remember data insights. Sign up for free today.*
ADVERTISING: Yelp launches Spotlight ads. A new, highly visible home screen ad format that will allow you to reach high-intent users that are near your stores. Sweet, considering Yelp records over 134 million visits per month…
TWITTER: It looks like Twitter Ads still work for smaller advertisers, despite all the ruckus. Some reports show no significant performance changes since Elon Musk’s takeover amid a number of bigger advertisers pausing ads “until there’s more certainty.”
WHATSAPP: Finding, messaging, and buying from businesses on WhatsApp just got easier – for a select few countries at least. Meta is testing new navigation features in Brazil, Indonesia, Colombia, and the UK before making them globally available.
GOOGLE: Picking up beauty products and sneakers in augmented reality just got a bit better… Users shopping for makeup can now search for “foundation shade” and match it with models with a similar skin tone, while sneaker shopping just went 3D. Exciting stuff.
TIKTOK: Not everyone is feeling the pressure. While others are laying off their workers, TikTok is apparently hiring and is set to double its staff. If you needed any more signals about who’s currently leading the social media space race…
META: You might have been hit with messages offering to “help you unlock your IG account”. Seems Meta is trying to put an end to this practice where some companies bribe Meta employees to help users regain control of their accounts.
*This is a sponsored post
BRAIN TEASER
There is a common 9-letter word in the English language, such that if you keep removing its letters one by one, the resulting 8 words are still valid. What is this word?
The removed letters do not need to be from the beginning or the end of the word.
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.
Record-breaking pea blower
Some hobbies can be adrenaline-pumping, like paragliding or rock climbing, while some can be totally vanilla – like collecting postmarks (we love both!).
And then you have utterly weird ones… like casually breaking world records.
For instance David Rush, a serial Guniess World Record breaker recently earned his 250th title when he managed to blow a pea to a distance never blown before!
And before you think blowing a pea is easy… go ahead. Grab one and try.
That track record is no joke.