TIKTOK
TikTok has just told us which videos get the most conversions
More conversions. Who doesn’t want them?
TikTok recently published a blog post analyzing thousands of video ads to see which parts of a video help increase conversions. Here are a few of the findings:
- Video ads shot in high-resolution (720p or higher) saw a 312% increase in conversions when compared to low-resolution ads.
- Video ads shot at 9:16 aspect ratio saw a 91% boost in conversions compared with ads shot at a resolution that didn’t match (and had black bars at the edges of the screen).
- Being direct pays off. Video ads with CTAs in them outperformed video ads that didn’t clearly state what to do next by 152%.
- Length also matters. Videos that ran between 21 and 34 seconds had a 280% conversion lift compared to ads that ran shorter or longer.
TikTok also shared some e-commerce video best practices, such as shooting multiple scenes and using a human voiceover.
Happy conversion-boosting!
Google Ads now has more insights
Google has announced a few updates to its Insights page:
- Demand forecasts. We don’t have a crystal ball, but Google has something that comes close. An advanced AI that will attempt to predict emerging search interest tailored to your business.
- Consumer interest insights. How do people find you on search? Sure, you know the keywords, but what about the overarching themes? This feature will try to aggregate and provide you with keyword themes as well as how they perform for you over time.
- Audience insights. Which creative resonates most with your audience? This feature should give you some insights. If you sell fragrances, for example, you might find that people prefer the headline “10 must-buy winter fragrances” and 57% convert from that campaign.
- Change history insights and auction insights. What effect did your changes have on ad performance? This feature will try to answer that.
Availability: We have a pinky promise from Google that they will roll this out within the next few weeks (hopefully before Christmas).
SPONSORED BY TRENDS
Getting your agency from $10k to 100k/month the right way
We can all agree on the fact that knowing the right people can put the turbo in your growth, right?
A question came from Bô-Soleil in the Trends community.
“How do you go from $10k to $100k a month while maintaining good cash flow?”
And hundreds of agency owners replied:
- Rachel said go upmarket with higher-paying clients ($15k/month minimum retainer for 6 months)
- Mike solved his own cash flow problem by increasing fees by 20% and then offered a 20% discount if clients prepay (they all do!).
- Max niched his clients by offering a single service. They doubled their revenue in 60 days and grew their bottom line by 50%.
Those are just three of the most interesting answers. We especially like the tip about incentivizing prepayment!
That’s the power of a solid network: You get served a roadmap to get to the next level. There are thousands of other business builders in Trends to help you every step of the way.
Level up your network for just $1.
MARKETING
The end to the brand vs performance dichotomy?
Brand marketers see performance activity as cheap and “short-term.” The performance marketer will see brand marketing as not impactful, and will struggle with brand constraints imposed on their campaigns.
The brand vs performance dichotomy is an old fight in the marketing world. Kinda like Apple vs Android…Or Batman vs Superman.
Yet, as Michael Lorenzos affirms, it’s a false dichotomy.
“The truth is, a brand drives performance and performance marketing informs brand perception.”
Before this makes somebody angry, let’s see what Michael Lorenzos has to say on the matter.
1) How does performance marketing inform brand perception?
The prospect experiences any message as a representation of the brand. They don’t make a difference between performance-oriented ads and organic social media posts designed to build a brand.
Performance marketing is another way of delivering a brand.
2) Does brand marketing drive sales? Absolutely.
When you pause your performance campaigns, all the sales that keep coming are driven by your brand.
Michael Lorenzos’ advice to marketers:
– To the brand marketer: You’re building a value-generating asset. That’s why brand equity is measured in dollars.
To tune your work with the performance team, shift your focus from “what’s good for the brand” to “how can I build a brand while enabling performance marketing to do their best work in a brand-enhancing way.”
– To the performance marketer: The value of a brand (or the lack of it), will impact your metrics. A successful brand will lead to high ROI performance campaigns.
The brand constraints on your campaigns are not nonsense. The end goal is improving a company’s revenue, not seeing beautiful stats on the Facebook Ads dashboard.
– To the CMO: Align your teams’ incentives. If your brand and performance teams work toward different incentives, it may lead them to work against each other.
Make sure that there is no conflict of interest between the two teams.
Instead, encourage synergies and reward them for delivering on these synergies.
SPONSORED BY UDEMY
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Regardless of experience level, it’s important to stay up to date with industry trends, and nothing keeps the mind sharp like learning something new.
Tap Udemy for all your educational needs, with convenient and affordable online courses you can take at your pace. From finance and marketing to music and photography, Udemy has an expert-led course for you.
THE CREW’S INSIGHTS
Smooth like butter if you can buy now and pay later
Merchants are acting quickly to add this feature to their checkout pages, and almost every payment processor is jumping into the trend. Heard about the latest partnership between Stripe and Klarna?
Buy now pay later removes the resistance that stops the customer from transferring the money from their account to yours.
Today, it can be a trump card if you sell items above $100. However, in the next few years, “buy now pay later” will likely become the norm, aka every store will have it.
If you’re looking to add this feature to your store, at the moment this is how main countries are served:
- USA: PayPal Pay in Four, Afterpay, Affirm, Klarna.
- UK: Afterpay, Klarna, PayPal.
- Canada: Afterpay.
- Australia: Afterpay, Klarna, PayPal.
- New Zealand: Afterpay.
- France and Germany: PayPal.
- Europe: Klarna is the main player here, not for all countries though. However, when integrated with Stripe, there’s a larger pool of countries that can access it.
As you can see the big names are only operating in the main markets. And this is probably due to the difficulty of adapting to local laws.
However, what we noticed is that local operators are joining the trend, so if your country is not on the list it doesn’t mean BNPL isn’t on the way or already there.
Lastly, these things change so quickly with this, so use this list as a starting point.
If you like what you read, feel free to check us out on Twitter.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
MARKETING: How did Wise go from a scrappy FinTech startup holding naked parades in the streets of London to over $7B market cap? We did a deep dive into their marketing and published it in our Insights community. But you can check out a preview for free.*
E-COMMERCE: The buy-now-pay-later industry shows no signs of slowing down. A whooping 7% of shoppers said they plan to use BNPL this holiday season.
TIKTOK: Move over Alibaba, Gen Z is coming and they’re shopping on TikTok.
LINKEDIN: If you’re targeting job roles, LinkedIn has an exciting update for you. They’ve just updated their targeting abilities for their Audience Network.
EBAY: Your eBay/Amazon/Google account has been suspended. A message seen by thousands of sellers. It could happen to you as well, so have a backup plan ready.
*This is a sponsored post.
BRAIN TEASER
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things marketers like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
Tinderverse
The metaverse is trendy. Now Tinder wants to make the metaverse a little more…enticing.
According to Tinder’s CEO, Renate Nyborg, the app is looking into ways to “blur the boundaries between offline and online words.”
Tinder is currently testing features such as “Swipe Nights,” in-app currencies, and basically anything that will keep users on the app longer (and paying more).
So one day, before swiping right, you might be able to put on your Oculus Quest and see your match in (virtual) flesh and bones.