Pinterest sheds light on current user trends
Six months ago, the term quarantine would probably conjure up images of post-apocalyptic movies and hospital rooms. Now? It’s as much of a staple in our vocabulary as saying hello.
As it turns out, lockdown-related terms aren’t the only things that have received a lot of attention as a result of the pandemic. People are turning to new hobbies, routines, and topics as a result of the current situation – all of which have the potential to be relevant for marketers.
Pinterest released a report yesterday detailing the biggest trends since early 2020. Here are our main takeaways:
- Searches for all types of stress relief activities are up almost 5X. People are looking for ways to take care of their mental and physical health during uncertain times.
- DIY, at-home projects and products are soaring. In an era where many people are currently working from home, interest in renovation and entertainment-related home improvements has spiked dramatically.
- Zen mode: meditation is on the rise! Between February and May, Pinterest saw a 44% increase in meditation-related searches.
These statistics aren’t just valuable for Pinterest, as they indicate larger trends going on in people’s general interests. Being in touch with customers is one of the most important parts of being a successful marketer – and this data can help you do just that.
SNAPCHAT
Snapchat’s Q2 earnings report was a reality check for investors
Snapchat released their Q2 earnings report yesterday – and on the heels of a successful Q1, expectations were high. During the first few months of the year, the company saw historic growth at the start of lockdowns in many countries.
That growth slowed down faster than Snapchat expected. Though the company added 9M users in the last quarter, investors saw the overall data as a disappointment. Snapchat’s stock cratered 6% after hours yesterday.
The numbers:
- Revenue: $454M (up 17% from Q2 2019).
- Global daily active users (DAUs): 238M (up by 17% YoY).
- Average revenue per user: $1.91 (flat from last year).
Revenue was up 30% YoY in Europe, 17% in the United States, and just 2% in the rest of the world. Snapchat also saw increased engagement in their AR capabilities, with over 180M users engaging with the features on a daily basis.
The Crew’s take
Contrary to what the news headlines might tell you today, things are still headed in the right direction for Snapchat, with reasonable daily user growth. Lockdowns began to ease as countries reopened during the spring and early summer, so it’s no surprise that the initial surge of popularity during quarantine died down.
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Are you aiming for engagement or for sales?
We are sure you’re the kind of marketer that always goes for the kill (or, in most cases, the sale).
However, when you run Facebook engagement campaigns for brand purposes, it might be hard to decide whether your ads are driving conversions or just likes and shares.
UTM tags don’t cut it as the user may visit your website from your post, but then buy after searching for your store on Google. Or maybe, with a different device.
Luckily, Etgar Shpivak’s post on PPC Hero comes in help with a solution: the ‘Event Source Groups’ in the Facebook Business Manager.
The process Etgar outlines is made of two steps:
- Creating the Event Source Group in the Business Manager. This allows you to group together various data sources to create a unified view of their data.
- Create a funnel in Facebook Analytics. Once you have unified data, you can use Facebook Analytics to create a funnel that reports both on Page and Pixel data.
You can also apply this process to analyze data from past campaigns and create funnels that drive insights on all your campaigns.
If this post sparked your curiosity, Etgar Shpivak provided all the instructions to create the Event Source Groups and the funnel in Facebook Analytics.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
INSTAGRAM: The company is rolling out a feature that will allow users and small businesses to raise money, allowing them to set fundraiser goals – like a mini-Kickstarter.
SEO: There was a problem with the site:command feature in Google search yesterday, which caused indexed pages on sites to go completely missing from SERPs. Google’s fixed the issue, but it caused some serious panic for SEOs when it was happening!
E-COMMERCE: Ryan Deiss just posted an insightful Twitter thread analyzing customer behaviors pre and post-lockdown. There are some great insights in here if you’re in advertising or e-commerce!
TIKTOK: The United States has banned TikTok on all government devices. While this doesn’t mean much for us yet, it could be a sign that a general TikTok ban is looming.
SPOTIFY: Your favorite (probably) music streaming platform is introducing video podcasts, available to select creators. Are we going to see video ads for podcasts soon?
E-COMMERCE: Walmart skips Black Friday for its physical stores on Thanksgiving Day this year. We can only imagine what this means for e-commerce…
SEO: Google Search Console just got a new search type filter. Care to venture a guess? It’s News!
BRAIN TEASER
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things marketers like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
First Barbados, now Georgia – who’s next?
If you’ve been having a bad case of the travel bug lately, we’re with you. One member of The Crew took a quick trip to Barcelona over the weekend (and yes, the rest of us are jealous). More countries are starting to open back up, and a couple are looking to people who are in for longer than your average vacation.
Last Wednesday, we wrote about Barbados’ new program to let remote workers come into the country for a year – and we were pretty excited about it. This Wednesday? The country of Georgia has announced a visa program for people interested in working remotely for at least 6 months.
If the beaches of Barbados aren’t your style, try the mountains of Georgia. Is this going to be a weekly thing? We certainly hope so – which country is next?