ADVERTISING
Twitter improves ad tracking, TikTok launches Shopping Ads
Shiny new marketing toys just arrived in time for the holidays…
Taking ads up a notch: Twitter announced several features that could help you better track ad performance and conversions, including:
- Updated Twitter Pixel. Now the platform tracks actions like “add to cart” and more.
- Conversions API (CAPI). You’ll finally be able to track Twitter’s conversion data without using third-party tracking tools.
- App Purchase Optimization, Twitter’s machine learning feature that helps you place ads in front of the users most likely to buy.
These features are global, so if you advertise on Twitter, you should be able to access them.
Hello, Shopping Ads: TikTok’s new ad service offers three formats:
- Video Shopping Ads let you highlight one or more products in your in-feed ads and place them in front of users likely to buy.
- Catalog Listing Ads help you promote your products at scale without using videos, and across placements like Recommended Products, Shoppable Products, and more.
- Live Shopping Ads enable you to direct users from the For You page to your live page shopping event. This is currently being tested where TikTok Shop is available.
TikTok claims their ad formats are designed to “replace traditional marketing funnels with an infinite sales loop.” Interesting.
Oh look, here’s another platform with a shopping update…
One-stop shopping comes to Pinterest
The distance between “I want that” and “Thanks for your order” just got a lot shorter.
Pinterest launched their hosted checkout experience for Shopify merchants, and it cuts several steps out of the buyer’s journey.
Browse, click, buy: Now users can select items, sizes, and colors, and add payment and shipping details… all without leaving Pinterest.
Who has access: The feature is currently available to select US merchants that are verified by Pinterest and have onlines stores powered by Shopify.
Why we care: It’s not easy getting customers to complete their purchases these days.
Any effort to reduce steps and smooth wrinkles in the shopping experience could work wonders for conversion and cart abandonment rates.
It will be interesting to see how this new feature performs.
Speaking of performance…
SPONSORED BY AIR
Are you choking your marketing team’s creative potential?
What if Stephen King wrote his books by hand instead of on a brand new MacBook Pro?
Sure, we’d still have The Shining and It, but it would have taken him much, much longer to write both of those books…
… which means he’d have less time to write those other mesmerizing stories.
So why are you “doing things by hand” when it comes to storing and organizing your creative assets?
It’s slowing down your workflow. And it’s trapping your team’s creative power.
They’re too busy transforming PNGs into JPEGs… Compressing videos… And searching for lost files because no one remembers what name they’re stored under.
Say goodbye to old methods. And welcome Air, the leading Creative Operations platform for marketers.
Air helps you find images and videos fast with visual search. And it automates your marketing team’s creative process, which means fewer tasks… faster project turnarounds… more ideas… and higher quality visuals.
Let Air manage your assets so your team can focus on creating the best ones.
Automate your marketing team’s creative process.
META
Running video ads? Here’s what to know about ThruPlay results
In marketing, when your results look too good to be true… they usually are.
And one thing you should pay attention to when running video ads on Meta is ThruPlay.
ThruPlay measures video ad engagement. Meta counts a view as a ThruPlay if a user watches at least 15 seconds of your video.
“But what if my video is longer than 15 seconds?”
Good question. Unfortunately, you can’t really know if users actually watched more of the video or not. And that’s not even the most painful part…
Jon Loomer recently discovered that his campaign ThruPlay numbers were inflated.
For example, out of 526 people reached, there were 665 ThruPlays… which is impossible.
How on earth does this happen?
The culprit is Audience Network Rewarded Video. It’s an ad placement where “users view a video ad in exchange for something of value,” like in-app items, virtual currency, and so on.
Ever played a mobile game that forced you to watch an ad to get coins or unlock a level? Yep, that’s what happens with Audience Network Rewarded Video.
People who watch videos in this context have no interest in the ads. At all.
It’s a low-quality placement.
So here’s what to do if you’re seeing inflated ThruPlay numbers:
First, check distribution by placement. Click the “Breakdown” dropdown in your Ads Manager. Select “By Delivery” and then “Placement.”
That shows you how much money you’re spending on Audience Network Reward Video.
Then, choose manual placements. If you’re wasting money on low quality placement, you can opt to select placements on your own.
You can then turn off Audience Networks under platforms. You can also uncheck Rewarded Video placements and keep other Audience Network placements running.
And that’s how you can finally get relevant video placements that won’t force your audience to watch them.
Because who wants people cursing at your ads while they’re waiting for in-game gold?
SPONSORED BY STACKED MARKETER PRO
We analyzed over 3,000 landing pages. Here are the 31 copywriting principles we found…
You read that right. We analyzed thousands of landing pages to understand what the high converting ones have in common.
Then we compiled our findings in a Stacked Marketer Pro report that contains 31 copywriting principles, explains when and why they work, and shows you how to apply them with 151 examples.
THE CREW’S INSIGHTS
Most introductions are boring
… But yours don’t have to be.
If you’re writing a blog post about Facebook Ads, for example, the last thing somebody wants to read is:
Facebook Ads are one of the most popular ways to get customers these days.
Yawn. And yet… general, sleepy introductions like this infest most of the content space.
You can do better. Here’s how:
Pretend you’re giving a TED Talk. When you’re writing an intro, imagine it’s the script for a TED Talk you’ll present in front of thousands of people.
You’re not going to start with a boring introduction, are you? Of course not!
Now that you’re in the mindset, here are three simple ways to start a piece of content:
- Make a pop culture reference. Just make sure it actually fits the content that follows.
- Describe something relatable. Walk through a situation or a story that ties in with the problem your content is solving.
- Make an analogy. This doesn’t just have to be pop culture—compare your topic or problem to something entirely different. Only do this if the analogy is a great fit for the content that follows.
Oh, and one final tip: Spend 3x more time writing intros than you’d think. It helps.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
SEO: Poor affiliates. Looks like they’re the biggest casualties of Google’s July update. To make up for lost rankings, some have started swapping dofollow affiliate tracking URLs with other tracking URLs. Nobody’s sure if that will help, though.
E-COMMERCE: Is inflation afraid of… ghosts? Because it seems like it won’t affect Halloween at all. Big retailers report “huge” excitement for the holidays and expect to top last year’s earnings. Good news if you’re planning Halloween campaigns.
ADVERTISING: Speaking of retailers, Walmart reported 30% year-on-year growth on advertising revenue. They’ve also seen 12% year-on-year e-commerce growth… Pretty good, considering worries about the economy.
BRAIN TEASER
Which word does not belong? Hat, What, Spat, That, or Chat?
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.
Sleeping is OK on this job
Good news for people who can sleep on planes…
If you’re one of the lucky few who can sleep anytime, anywhere, and as much as possible… You could become a professional napper.
Casper, a mattress company, is looking for someone with “exceptional sleeping ability” to demonstrate how super easy it is to have a refreshing sleep on their products.
Your tasks would include:
- Showing off sleeping skills wherever people are looking.
- Sleeping in unexpected settings out in the world.
- Sharing your sleeping experiences on different social platforms.
Sounds strenuous.