Google’s recent meet-up provides solutions, but also talks problems
What happens when you get a bunch of SEO marketers in the same virtual room?
They trade: Successes, challenges, keyword lists… Okay, maybe not the lists.
Google’s summary of their latest virtual unconference provides insight into what’s working well for SEO experts, and what could be better.
The key takeaways:
- Quality product reviews from blogs and community sites are proving to be an effective top-of-the-funnel solution for driving traffic and acquiring new customers.
- Organic and paid growth are more productive when they collaborate.
- Paying attention to images is still one of the best ways to improve website speed.
Problems: There were also talks about the challenging side of e-commerce SEO, particularly when it comes to dealing with product variations and faceted navigation on websites.
Why we care: With e-commerce SEO getting more complex and competitive, it’s helpful to know the landscape so you can focus on what’s working.
TIKTOK
Are we getting live shopping soon?
TikTok “can’t stop, won’t stop” with the feature updates.
Now it appears the company is looking to improve the in-app shopping experience with live shopping.
Shop and stare: TikTok may add a shopping bag button to live videos, which would allow users to scroll through your products while the video plays in the background.
Why we care: It’s been coming. We’ve been hearing about TikTok live video monetization for quite a while, and now we’re finally getting a sneak peek at what it could look like.
… If you angle it this way, it almost looks like a money printer.
SPONSORED BY DTCX4
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Buckle up, because the event you’re reading about is taking off soon, and you’re gonna want to be seated for this…
From the comfort of your home or office, you can:
- Enjoy insightful presentations from e-commerce industry leaders like headline speaker Harley Finkelstein, the President of Shopify.
- Discover innovative strategies, tech, and trends for ecommerce from other brand speakers and industry leaders like Crossnet, True Classic Tees, Hush, Chase Dimond, Vegamour, Steve Chou, Jones Road Beauty, and more.
- See how winning brands are staying ahead with the latest digital e-commerce practices.
We’re talking about DTCX4, the event where DTC executives expand their professional knowledge and discover the latest industry trends and topics.
The event is sponsored by Shopify, Gorgias, and Loop and it’s going live June 22-23 at 11:00 a.m. EDT.
Reserve your spot at DTCX4 now for free.
PPC
5 questions you need to ask to run effective PPC audits
Pay-per-click (PPC) audits are valuable tools for identifying inefficiencies in your campaigns and uncovering hidden problems.
If your campaigns could use a lift, Navah Hopkins recommends asking five specific questions.
Let’s get optimizing…
1) Does your account structure support your business goals?
A poorly structured account can undermine even the best creatives and waste your ad dollars.
To find out which structure will serve you the best, ask:
- How much is a customer worth?
- Are all markets worth the same or are some more valuable?
- Do you need to invest in all parts of your business, or can you play favorites?
Some tips are:
- Have one country for campaigns.
- Use Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs) if your budget is not enough to cover all the parts of your business, but use negative keywords to avoid DSA stealing budget from general search ads campaigns.
2) Do you trust your conversion tracking?
We know… It’s a sensitive question.
But when you’re auditing campaigns, it’s easy to misinterpret results because of poor tracking processes.
Three guidelines to follow here:
- Make sure the right conversion actions are set to primary.
- Confirm there are no instances of duplicate code.
- If phone leads are important, make sure to use some form of call tracking.
Three more questions to go… But we’re out of room here, so head to Navah’s WordStream article for the rest.
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After implementing Chili Piper, Workato was able to convert 75% of their leads into paying clients. And Apollo boosted their revenue by 300%.
How? By leveraging Chili Piper to qualify, route, assign and book inbound meetings with the right rep.
They’re not the only revenue teams seeing success with Chili Piper, either. Shopify, Monday.com, and Airbnb are also using this automation tool… and achieving similar results.
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THE CREW’S INSIGHTS
TikTok wants you to rethink your marketing
What do anime, astrology, and videos of people eating have in common?
Answer: They’re subcultures. And TikTok believes they’ll help you make your next sale.
What are “subcultures”? Traditional demographics, like age and gender, have dominated how marketers think about their audiences.
But a platform like TikTok runs on rich, long-lasting subcultures: Communities that rally around particular topics.
So what does this mean for your marketing? Here’s what we uncovered:
- As of today, TikTok’s targeting is limited. For example, if your ad account is from Europe, you can’t target the US unless you request it from your ad rep, and vice versa. There are many other limits on TikTok’s targeting that leave a lot to be desired.
- TikTok recently added DMA geo-targeting. In normal words, that means you can now go narrower in your US-based targeting.
- Advanced targeting options aren’t available to every advertiser. Features that would be considered normal elsewhere, like lookalike audiences, are still not available to everyone on TikTok.
The Crew’s take: TikTok is a subculture-focused platform, so you should take advantage of that in your ads.
If the info above sounded discouraging, the good news is that TikTok’s ad reps are quite helpful, at least in our experience. You may unlock plenty of features after spending a few thousand dollars.
These insights were sourced from one of our recent Deep Dives which contains actionable insights like these to help you to succeed on TikTok. Get full access here.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
GROWTH HACKING: You can learn more practical things about growth marketing from this one free newsletter than you can from a 4-year $200k degree in marketing. Subscribe here.*
TWITTER: Big update for the Twitter API… Developers will now be able to access the platform’s reverse chronological timeline much easier than before, which means third-party apps are about to get a lot better. Hopefully.
E-COMMERCE: Is buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) slowing down? Klarna, one of the biggest BNPL services, just let off almost 10% of their entire team.
AMAZON: … Aaaaannd Klarna’s not alone in cutting costs. Amazon is looking to terminate or sublet a chunk of their leases with warehouse landlords due to excess space. E-commerce in the US continues to drag its feet.
GOOGLE: Yay! We’re finally getting new Ad Manager tools for video ads specifically. This should mean less speculating and more accurate data… at least in theory.
*This is a sponsored post.
BRAIN TEASER
What 5 letter word typed in all capital letters can be read the same upside down?
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.
Your next summer adventure might be closer than you think
When looking for a new travel destination, we’re so eager to look for “hidden gems.”
But what if those hidden gems are just down the road from you?
This website features hundreds of thousands of articles covering unique attractions and interesting destinations for every US State.
There’s even a “creepy” category for the people who enjoy that kind of thing.
Seems like a fun way to plan a mini getaway.