ADVERTISING
Here’s how much Facebook, Google, Linkedin and Spotify made from ads in Q2 2021
A million dollars isn’t cool, you know what’s cool? What each of these 4 companies made from ads in the last 3 months:
- Google: Made $50.4 billion in ad revenue, up 69 percent last year. Google Search generated $35.8 billion, YouTube ads made $7 billion, and the Google Network $7.5 billion.
- Facebook: Revenue was at $29.08 billion, predominantly from ads. This is a 59 percent increase over last year. Although, daily usage is stalling in Europe and USA.
- LinkedIn: Ad revenue surpassed $1 billion, for the first time in a recent quarter. This is a 97 percent increase over last year.
- Spotify: They didn’t give a specific figure, but said podcast ad revenue increased by 627 percent, exceeding expectations.
YouTube is huge now: YouTube’s ad revenue increased by 84 percent year over year. In addition, YouTube Shorts now receives 15 billion views per day. Still nothing compared to TikTok, but it’s getting there…
What about Twitter and Snapchat? Three days ago we also revealed how much these two companies made from ads in Q2 2021 (hint: some numbers start with a B.)
The moral of the stats: Next time someone says ads don’t work, show them these figures. If thousands of smart people pour billions into something for years, it probably works.
Twitter officially enters e-commerce
Who would have thought?
Twitter has announced that it is testing an in-app shopping module for their platform, which will allow businesses to showcase their physical products.
What it will look like: When you visit a Twitter profile, a carousel of products will appear above the fold. You can then scroll, tap on a single product you like, and buy it directly from the in-app browser.
Availability: Currently, only a few brands (like GameStonk GameStop) will have access to this module. Furthermore, only users in the United States who use Twitter in English on iOS will be able to see the carousel.
The Crew’s take: Obviously, Twitter is taking things slowly; announcing that they’re becoming a (sort of) e-commerce platform is shocking enough.
At this point, we wouldn’t be surprised if LinkedIn and Reddit get into e-commerce as well; they’re the only two big platforms left.
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In the USA, 1 out of 4 phones have been touched by Podium, and here’s why:
- Podium increases the conversation rate of your website by moving conversations to text. Then you can use your prospects’ mobile number to reach them in strategic touchpoints of the customer journey and convert them into customers.
- Reviews are the name of the game today. Podium makes it fast and easy to get your customers to leave Facebook and Google reviews.
- Get a free business number to receive messages from your customers.
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100,000 companies (hopefully none of them are your competitors) are using Podium to strengthen their relationship with their customers. And generate more sales.
How to multiply the clicks of your Google My Business posts by up to 4 times
The team at Sterling Sky analyzed 1,000 Google My Business (GMB) posts from a variety of different small businesses.
And in this post, Joy Hawkin shared the results of the study.
+ Types of post: You have 4 different types of GMB posts. Among these, the ones that performed better are COVID-19 posts followed by offer posts. COVID posts are a new post type that shows up higher in the knowledge panel, replacing your posts carousel. They only last for 28 days and then disappear.
+ Should your GMB posts have titles? Hell yeah! Posts with titles got almost twice the clicks and double the conversions.
That’s not all we know about titles. You should avoid all-caps: Posts with normal capitalization for titles received almost twice as many clicks.
+ Should you use emojis? Hell yeah, x2. Posts with emojis got twice as many clicks and more conversion as well.
+ What about images?
- Photos containing text got 4x more clicks than photos without text.
- Having the logo or not in the images doesn’t make much of a difference.
- Posts with original images got 5.6 times more clicks than posts containing stock photos.
+ What should your GMB post be about? In order, posts that received more clicks were:
- Posts about specials or discounts.
- Posts containing a call-to-action. For example, including “contact us today” in the image or post title.
- Posts containing a sense of urgency. For example, highlighting that you offer same-day appointments for a dentist.
With seasonal and reviews posts being the ones that performed the worst.
Now go, and multiply the clicks on your GMB listing!
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
FACEBOOK: New ideas. We all like them. Facebook has launched a tool with an uninspiring name: “Campaign Ideas Generator”, in which you can enter your industry and time period (like Halloween or Easter) and get cool campaign and ad ideas.
E-COMMERCE: What is “search abandonment”? It’s when someone searches for a product that is available on your site but doesn’t find it. Google has made their “Google Cloud Retail Search” tool generally available in the hopes of making “search abandonment” a thing of the past.
TIKTOK: Spark Ads are beginning to outperform older TikTok ad formats, according to multiple sources.
SEO: Here’s a cool free AI tool that lets you enter a URL and get a list of questions that URL might be answering.
ADVERTISING: Digital continues to rule the world. This time, it’s taking the lead in the US B2B ad market, where digital ads are expected to account for nearly half of all spending.
GOOGLE: 9 months left. Starting in April 2022, if you have an app on Google Play, you must have a Privacy Policy.
BUSINESS: Marketers who “no-code” will rule the world. Bubble raises another $100 million in the hopes of making technical founders obsolete.
BRAIN TEASER
Four years ago, Meg put a nail on a tree in order to mark her height. If the tree grows 10 inches per year, and currently the nail is 5 inches lower than Meg, how much has Meg grown over these four years?
You can find the solution here.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things marketers like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
Bezos and Branson can’t be astronauts, US says
Money can buy you a lot of things, but it can’t buy you a title from the US government, according to the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The FAA said that to be considered an astronaut, you must be part of a flight crew and contribute to space flight safety. In other words, the title will be given based on merit, not on you having billions and building a rocket.
“Accidentally”, the FAA updated this definition on the same day Bezos flew in his Blue Origin rocket.
We think the message from the FAA was clear: “You have to do a whole lot more to earn the title of astronaut, Bezos and Branson”.