Three strikes and you’re out, says Google
Google will warn you before kicking you out of its ad program (if you’re on consistently bad behavior, that is).
The company has announced their plans for how they plan to deal with repeat ad policy violations. You know, things like promoting things you’re not supposed to be promoting on the network (like tobacco).
How it will work: By the principle of three strikes. If you violate a Google ad policy, you will first receive a warning. If you do it again within 90 days, you will get your first strike and your account will be put on hold for 3 days.
Your account is put on hold for 7 days after the second strike. The third strike? Yeah, it’s a full account suspension.
Google has set September 2021 as the official start date for the strike-based system’s rollout.
Why should you care: We’re all human, and we all make mistakes. It’s useful to understand how the platform we’re working with handles penalties for our mistakes.
Google stated that they will initially use this strike system for ad policy violations, but that they intend to expand it to more policies in the future.
TIKTOK
TikTok launched Spark Ads, a native ad format
Here’s a question for you: What should you do if a post performs well organically? You can:
- Do nothing
- Boost it with ads
We know you won’t do nothing because you’re reading this newsletter. So that leaves you with the smart option: Capitalizing by boosting your post with ads.
TikTok is banking on you by helping you banking on your top performing posts. They’ve just launched Spark Ads, a native ad format where you can advertise your popular, native content.
Ads + influencer marketing: This can be one of the primary applications for Spark Ads, according to TikTok. Let’s say you paid an influencer to promote you and their post went viral. The whole point of Spark Ads is that you can now take that post and increase its exposure so that more people will see it.
Here’s an example of what this ad format looks like.
Apparently, TikToks give you an emotional rush compared to other platforms. We hope that with this new ad format, they’ll also rush your bank account.
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FROM THE CREW
You tell us your monthly ad spend, we’ll give you a gift
We want to get to know your advertiser (and media buyer) habits a bit better. We’re looking for some information about your ad spend.
We want to ask you about this to bring you better offers, and better content. If we understand your ad spend level better, we can better curate the right type of case studies, partners, and sponsors for the newsletter.
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COPYWRITING
Quick copy fixes for more conversions
In this Twitter thread, Demand Curve’s Growth Tactics shared 10 quick copywriting fixes to pull more conversions from your ads and sales page, and in general, create more engaging content.
Here are the most useful ones:
Use an active voice: This results in shorter, sharper sentences. And for readers, it’s even easier to flow through the content.
Be specific: Specificity separates noise from signals. Use numbers, data, and precise statements to describe the benefits of your product.
Make them take action: The ultimate goal of your copy is to make people take action. Each sentence should be designed to make the prospect move to the next step, be it reading the next sentence or buying your product.
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Build your copy around your prospects’ emotions and desires. People buy with emotion and justify with logic. This is a very common fact in the marketing community. Still, many companies want to use logical facts and information to get them to buy. Build upon their emotions, deep desires, and pain points.
Give more examples: These help your prospects understand how your product works and can benefit their life.
Talk like your prospects: Use their words, their tone of voice, their common expressions. Study how they communicate and communicate the same way they do.
You can read the full Twitter thread from Growth Tactics here.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
SEO: Google Search traffic drops come in different flavors. Here are all 5 of them, straight from the horse’s mouth.
FACEBOOK: How can app and game publishers prepare for a post-IDFA world? Facebook publishes a report on the topic.
SNAPCHAT: They’re taking AR seriously. Snapchat has acquired yet another augmented reality company that can turn photos of your e-commerce items into 3D models.
GOOGLE: AMP is becoming a thing of the past. Google is gradually removing the lightning bolt icon from their search results.
ADVERTISING: The ad market is growing nicely. 35.2% in June, to be exact.
YOUTUBE: They want to supersize everything. Following the release of Super Chat and Super Stickers, “Super Thanks” is coming to YouTube, allowing viewers to leave tips to videos.
BRAIN TEASER
How many sides does a circle have?
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.
This robot keeps getting fired from jobs
Finally, a robot that acts like a human. Apparently, Pepper (a robot made by SoftBank) tried to do multiple jobs and got fired for “malfunctioning”. Here are some of the things it did:
- Took unplanned breaks in the middle of the shift
- Couldn’t recognize the faces of family members
- Malfunctioned during reading scripts
SoftBank, the company who makes Pepper, said that they couldn’t retire Pepper because it still does a good job as a temperature taker and a teacher at hospitals.
If there’s one takeaway from this short story, it’s that the robot takeover is probably still far out in the future.