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Facebook going professional: “Choose your… Course? Wait, what?”
Do you ever get the feeling that Mark Zuck sometimes acts like a spoiled child? You know, like they start crying when they want someone else’s toy.
He saw Instagram, he bought it. He saw WhatsApp, he bought it. He saw Snapchat, he bou…he copied it.
Now, he put his eyes on LinkedIn. And decided to follow the Snapchat way. Copy it.
In fact, yesterday, Facebook announced that it’s pivoting a mentorship tool. A tool they started testing among some thousands of groups earlier this year.
The company wants to position itself more as a site for professional development.
With mentorship, users are able to sign up on their own as either a mentor or a mentee within specific groups. Then they can browse a list of available mentors and mentees, message people they want to connect with… Things you’d expect, really.
That’s not all. Remember the spoiled kid we talked about? Mark wanted more and another announcement was made:
Facebook is launching its own online education site called Learn with Facebook. This will have its own dedicated site. At launch, the site will include 13 nine-minute-long courses that cover both hard and soft skills. From an introduction to marketing analytics to improving your interviewing skills.
Who knows what FB will go for next… A literal kitchen sink maybe?
“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half” – John Wanamaker
Feeling that struggle too? Your Google Ads campaigns record 500 conversions and for that same period, Facebook Ads campaigns show 700 conversions. But the total number of conversions in Google Analytics was closer to 1000 instead of 1200. WHAT THE AFF?
Pretty common. The good news was FB joined the “attribution party” and launched Facebook Attribution.
A platform that allows you to observe all your prospects different touchpoints. From different advertising platform: Google Ads, Facebook, Bing, Taboola, Outbrain, and many others.
Did you like the early Christmas present? Oh, you didn’t check it yet?
Well, there’s some add-on, but this time not from Facebook. The folks at MarketingLand took a deep dive into the platform to see how much information they can unravel.
In this article, they go through setting up Facebook Attribution, testing it on their own marketing campaigns and coming to some interesting conclusions.
Spoiler alert: The system isn’t perfect, but it’s better than nothing. At least you get closer to figuring out which half of your ad spend is wasted…
E-COMMERCE
How IAmAttila “wasted” $2.3k of his money to show how e-commerce is really like
There’s a good chance your Facebook feed is full of success stories, big numbers and “working on the beach, my life is awesome” pictures. Well, the reality is not often so pretty…
And Attila put conventional “e-com marketing wisdom” to the test, then explained all the challenges that come in this case study.
He goes through the step by step campaign launch.
Punches in the face include:
- Facebook disapproval
- Technical problems
- Bad angles
- Users not following simple instructions
See how he tried to overcome those and what conclusion he came to.
What was the ROI? Well, we count the entertainment value so we say it was infinite!
If Attila looks at his actual stats, that’s a different story for which you have to read the full case study.
GENERAL
Digital ad revenue to go over $100 bil in the US? Likely…
U.S. digital ad revenues grew by 23 percent to $49.5 billion in the first half of 2018, putting digital on track to exceed $100 billion in annual ad revenues for the first time. Typically, first half revenue trends lower than the second half.
Social media ad spend keeps growing at 38 percent, leading to a total of $13.1 bil.
In terms of formats, video ads grew at 34.8 percent in the first half of the year, with mobile accounting for 60 percent of video ad revenue. Meanwhile, 75 percent of all internet time is spent on a mobile device!
So you might be thinking we’re giving you great insights here, like digital ad spend and mobile traffic are growing in the US…
But how about some applicable advice about Tier 3 geos? Read on…
The digital markets you should step foot in before it’s too late!
All that talk about digital ad revenue… We asked ourselves “What are the fastest growing digital markets?” and we’re sharing that info with you
*drumroll*
The fastest growing markets are…Africa and Southeast Asia! And you might be surprised what we found out.
Let’s start with Africa. Overall, the last year has been a good run for the whole continent. The average GDP rose, and investments came from all over the world.
The countries with the highest GDP are Nigeria, South Africa, and Egypt, making them the best performing economies of the continent. There are a few reasons for it… One of those is internet usage. And you care about that too, it’s directly proportionate to your potential reach:
- Nigeria – 98m
- Egypt – 49m
- Kenya – 43m
- South Africa -31m
But what about social media? What devices are primarily used? And what search engine is the most popular? GS Statcounter gives us exactly these statistics.
It turns out that Facebook is by far the most used social media site with 65%, followed by YouTube with 25%, Pinterest with 4%, and Twitter at 3% barely misses the bronze medal. All others have less than a 1% market share.
In terms of platforms, mobile devices dominate with 62%, followed by Desktop at 36% and only 2% are accounted for tablets. The most used search engine is Google (who expected that, right?), while all others have less than 2% market share.
Now going to Southeast Asia, we see a similar story with GDP and number of internet users.
Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia have the highest GDP. Internet users here:
- Indonesia – 143 m (4th globally!)
- Philippines – 50.8m
- Thailand – 39m
- Malaysia – 22m
Internet penetration is better here than in Africa, with 58% and rapidly growing. We can also say both from experience and talks with others that these 4 markets can be quite valuable for any sort of business, from promoting mobile CPI offers to e-commerce!
Social media use starts the same. Facebook at the top with a 71% market share, followed by YouTube at 12%. BUT Twitter made it with 10%! All others have less than 3%.
Platform market share is practically identical. 65% mobile, 33% Desktop, 2% Tablet. The most used search engine is Google again… Who would’ve thought?
The Crew’s take:
Take your digital ad spend to more than just Tier 1 English speaking geos. Whether you are new and don’t want to compete in a more saturated market, or if you are someone who has done all they could there and need to expand!
We’ve especially seen potential in SE Asia ourselves but Africa is not something to skip either.
E-commerce is probably the main vertical in SE Asia, both from stats and also from knowing the culture. People there loooove shopping!
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You set the rules and goals for your campaigns and let Maximus do everything else. Maximus runs 24 hours a day, meaning you can focus on other sides of your business.
Here are just a few of the features this tool brings to any native media buyer:
- Patent pending Fire & Forget™ technology: You set rules based on CPC, EPC, clicks, budget, campaign performance, and day parting, and Maximus automatically scales your campaign up or down based on that.
- Cross-platform campaign management on a single dashboard: Work on one dashboard to run campaigns on all major native ad networks like Outbrain, Taboola, Yahoo!, content.ad and RevContent. No need to log into those networks to create or edit your campaigns!
- Full reporting: Complete campaign logs allow you to see changes made by both Maximus and human media buyers.
- Tracking pixel: Get real-time estimates, without the network delay! Depending on how you buy your media, you can also completely replace your tracker with Maximus, which also offers rigorous and detailed campaign performance reports.
But it’s much better if you have a look for yourself.
Book a 15-minute demo call with Maximus to see the tool in action and ask any other questions you might have.
Then, if you like what you see, or if you’re already convinced, try it FREE for 15 days!
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things affiliates like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
“It ain’t stupid if it works…”
Have you ever tried to sleep on an airplane? Or a train? Or anywhere that’s a seat and not your bed? Then you’re aware of how very unrestful those naps usually are.
There is a Kickstarter campaign aiming to fix that problem if traditional neck pillows have also proven themselves less than useful to you.
Their product is called the NapUp FLY (or FLY+, if you get the fancier version), and it’s a contraption designed to comfortably strap your head to the plane seat.
It comes with a built-in eye cover, and the FLY+ even has integrated headphone speakers that can be connected to your phone or other music playing devices. Both models come with a special carrying case to ensure safe transport.
If you’re thinking “Hey, that sounds useful, I want it!” – apparently, there are still a few units left for Kickstarter supporters. Otherwise, you can wait until the launch to purchase them at retail prices of $39 and $49.
If you buy one, all that’s left to hope is that your seating neighbours leave you alone.
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