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Is this an upgrade to link ads? We think it is!
Today, after all the love for the Facebook algo we have still another reason to love our dear Mark.
In fact, FB just came out with an update to increase your ads CTR and CVR, at least so they claim.
How? They changed the image link ads aspect ratio from 1.91:1 (landscape) to 1:1 (square). They say that these ads showed better performance.
We don’t know if more real estate means higher CTR and CVR. It will definitely take more screen space at least.
Maybe this is update is just a reaction to fight the newsfeed saturation or maybe they are right.
One thing we know for sure is that if you want higher CTR and CVR, you should test, test, and test.
Now you just have one more option to test!
Mark wants you to keep order…
Ever get flooded by notifications in your Business Manager?
There’s a bit of good news. Maybe you’ve noticed it already.
If you haven’t, there has been a change in the notification tab. Now the notifications are separated into 5 section: Responsive, Business, Pages, Ads or All.
And you can choose which one you want to receive among them.
Thanks to Depesh for bringing it up in his Facebook group!
GENERAL
Ultimate Shopify CRO guide by Joshua Uebergang
If you’re wondering what else you can do to increase your ads conversion rate, don’t worry. We got your back with this e-commerce conversion rate optimization guide shared by Colin McGuire in the Facebook Ad Buyers group.
If this year you will read only one guide about e-commerce, please, make sure it will be this one. Why?
Here are just some examples from it:
Focus only on your product fans: your product shouldn’t be for everyone. Stop worrying so much about offending people and start worrying more about selling them…
Value Proposition: a simple message that promises value to the visitor’s purchase. They are well-placed in the header to quickly communicate the visitor should stick on the store. You’ll have unique value propositions like “Take Your Bike for a Test Ride”. Here are ones to get you going:
Free Delivery: when the visitor proceeds to checkout to see delivery charges, your abandonment rate will always be higher. Unexpected charges is the number one reason for cart abandonment.
Video: it nearly universally increases conversions over no video. Video reveals product intricacies and allows you to sell to your biggest buyers with detail and visual stories.
Price: when you sell a high-ticket product, you should check your competitors’ price too. Because when the price is high, people are more likely to go on Google and search for a cheaper price. Fortunately, it’s not the same for low-cost items. Plus, people are less price sensitive for up-sells and cross-sells at the checkout.
Do not use the hamburger menu: even though every store uses it, there is a high-interaction cost. Users cannot see what the menu contains, have to press it with their finger, and scroll to locate what they want.
You can find much more in the guide. It’s so rich that it might just be the most comprehensive conversion-rate optimization guide for Shopify. And e-commerce stores. All packed in an easy to digest format, so you can simply take action.
PS: Like for every great guide, you can skip the first half page or so – it’s motivational fluff.
LinkedIn gets a more familiar advertising interface
LinkedIn is updating the campaign creation part of its Campaign Manager. The new setup starts from a campaign objective perspective rather than by choosing an ad format.
Advertisers now need to define their goals and objectives first and then will only be able to choose from ad units that apply to the chosen objective. Which means creating a campaign on LinkedIn now works the same way as on Facebook.
The new Campaign Manager also comes with a few other features. A forecasting panel will give you estimates for your ad results based on inputs and similar campaigns, and an ad preview feature will show you how your ads will look while you’re still building them.
The new beta design will be available starting November 14.
Why run on LinkedIn in the first place? Over 40 percent of LinkedIn’s 560 million users hang out there every day. If you’re looking to target a professional audience LinkedIn is the place to go.
SPONSORED
Is this the most responsive tracker and team?
Remember RedTrack.io? We’ve featured them a few weeks ago.
As promised, the team kept us up to date with what has been happening since then, so we’re sharing it with you too.
In less than a month, they’ve implemented three new features:
– Google Parallel tracking support
– Custom conversion events tracking and reporting
– Conditional postback to traffic source based on custom events
They’ve also upgraded their multi-user access settings and took user feedback for some cosmetic changes. For example, you can now see the caps directly in the reports.
It’s cool to see they are keeping up with the promise to be transparent and responsive. Acting quickly based on market changes from the likes of Google, implementing 2 features in one month based on user requests.
If you haven’t checked them out yet, you can see their live demo right here(username demo, password demo to log in).
And if that looks interesting, you can test out RedTrack for 14 days or 100,000 events for free – no CC needed. Then the plans start at $29/month for 300,000 events, but it gets better for WHAT THE AFF readers.
You also get 25% off your first 3 months with the promo code REDWTAFF25.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things affiliates like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
Kyrgyzstan satellite launch
Did anyone ask for wholesome news? Women in Kyrgyzstan are empowering girls by building the country’s first cube satellite.
Kyrgyzstan doesn’t have a space program yet, but in the next years, it might have. Completely run by a team of women from 17 to 25 years old.
The Kyrgyz Space Program is part of a free course launched by TED Fellow Bektour Iskender, which teaches young women engineering and coding.
“The mission of this program is not just about learning how to make and launch a satellite. It’s just as important to be a role model for girls afraid to explore and discover their talents.”, a member of the team says.
They are crowdfunding the project on Patreon, having named each donation tier after important women in science (such as Sally Ride, first American female astronaut). You can support them for as little as $2 per month.
Kyrgyzstan isn’t one of the most female-friendly countries, so this project definitely means a lot and hopefully helps to abolish sexism there.
“At first I thought this idea was crazy; now I clearly see that it’s brilliant. This experience has definitely changed my mindset. It’s made me believe that with passion, anything is possible.” 21-year-old Aiganysh says.
History of Ads
We focus on bringing you the latest and greatest from the digital marketing space. But sometimes, to be good now and in the future, you have to understand history too.
So we’ve written a 3 part series that goes through the history of advertising. From the days when most people couldn’t even read an ad until today when the Internet took over the advertising market. If you missed it, check out part 1 and part 2.
90 years. That’s how long television has been around. Or at least since it was demonstrated to the press. Of course, back then there was no 4K UHD TV with 3D sound. It was much simpler than that. Although it had mechanical parts, it is still considered the first electronic television demonstration.
But let’s take it back. Television had a great impact on our lives. We all remember our favourite TV shows, movies etc. But do you remember any ads? Some, that are stuck in your mind forever? Of course, you do, but do you also know which was the first television ad ever?
1941. A map of America with a watch face. “America runs on Bulova time” voice over. All this in 10 seconds. The ad was seen by about 4000 people in New York, as it only ran on WNBC at that time. Costs? $4 – $9. That’s around $70-$157 in 2018. That’s a great price for such a reach on TV!
And as always, companies saw this enormous chance. And guess what? They reached for it. In the 40s, ads in television became a great deal. Everyone wanted a piece of this sweet chocolate cake.
What became a common thing in the 50s were sponsored programs. Big companies like Colgate, General Electric or Coca-Cola didn’t just put spots between shows. They sponsored the entire program and even got to be in the name of the show. “The Colgate Comedy Hour” is a great example of this.
But it wasn’t only companies that took a bite. Politicians did too. In 1952, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Roy Disney paired up and the slogan “I like Ike”was transformed into a song and the TV spots led Eisenhower to victory, thus becoming the first successful presidential TV ad in history.
Toymakers also got a cut, because in the same year, “Potato Man” was advertised. The original product contained, this isn’t a joke… we repeat, this isn’t a joke. Ready? OK. A real potato with “piece packets”. And actually, 2 million units sold!
In the 60s, jingles became really popular. A slogan, a catchy song, and a nice animation. Brand awareness and personality were important at that time. And a cartoon character singing was also advertising coloured TV. Something that would change the digital ad game forever.
With colour, ads have the ability to easily catch your attention. When you see a bright red ad, it will surely catch your glimpse easier than a greyish one. Just like the bold words in this article. Or when you see the clear white sheets that a detergent made compared to a dirty one, you are greatly surprised. These psychological games are always in play.
But TV ads were also struck with some bans and regulations, like in 1971 with the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act, which actually banned cigarette ads not only on TV but also in radio. It was also prohibited to advertise alcohol or any type of drug at that time.
In China, the first ad was aired in 1979. It was for Shengui Tonic Wine, and it was 90 seconds long. Most people didn’t even know what an ad was, but it worked. Even though it cost 15 yuan and a good salary was 60 yuan per month, liquor stores in Shanghai sold out.
A similar effect came to be in America too. Apple showed it’s “1984” ad (by many still considered the best ad ever made) in the third quarter of the Superbowl XVIII. After that? $155 million in Macintosh sales. In just three months after airing!
Over the next years, television ads became more unconventional, filming in different places all around the world, or even in space. But the internet quickly took over, and television is, at least when talking from the perspective of a Gen Z person, slowly dying out.
YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, Twitch. Just a bunch of potential TV killers. You aren’t bound to a schedule. You can watch whatever you like whenever you like. And ads? Well, that lies in the future. We hope you enjoyed our little series.
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