MICROSOFT
Microsoft is back again with more than 10 new ad features
Microsoft’s Ads team is on a roll. After announcing more than 10 new features last week, they’re back with 10+ more today.
What’s new: A lot. For the sake of not turning this issue into a 12-page article, we’ll give you the top 3 features that we believe are relevant to marketers:
- Phrase match will now include the broad match modifier. This is the same change that Google made in February.
- Customer match is now available to all advertisers. Everyone can now upload their customers’ email addresses and retarget them across Microsoft’s network.
- Conversion tracking gets easier. Microsoft made a few UI and functionality changes to make it easier to track your conversions.
Someone at Microsoft clearly decided that if they can’t beat Google at ad reach, they’ll at least beat them at feature count.
Instagram is introducing real-time, dynamic captions to Stories and Reels
Instagram has added a new accessibility feature that will allow you to instantly add automatic captions to IG stories (and soon, Reels).
Not boring: These captions are poppin’. They’re sticky, attention-catching, and ideal for advertisers.
The (temporary) opportunity: Every new social media feature, especially a cool feature like this one, has a brief period during which people who see it click and engage with it more. Dynamic captions are unlikely to be an exception.
Our prediction: If you use these dynamic captions for your video ads (especially if they are user-generated), you could see an increase in CTR and overall engagement. This will continue until people see these videos everywhere, which is likely to happen within the next month or so.
Use them while they’re hot. And even when they’re widely-used, dynamic captions still may be useful.
Availability: According to Instagram, this feature will first be available in English-speaking countries.
SPONSORED BY JOVE
How do you win in a world dominated by data and algorithms?
In 2020, Facebook stated that there were 10 million advertisers on the platform. Big data and algorithms made it extremely easy to run campaigns, and not just on Facebook.
How do you break through this digital clutter?
Big ideas are what help you hit the jackpot.
This is not a new story, but there’s a problem… How do you come up with unique ideas? The ones that make you stand out like a black stallion next to a herd of white sheep?
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MARKETING
Turning a landing page into a 1M person waitlist
A lot of people heard about Robinhood for the first time during the GameStop story earlier this year.
Yet, in 2020, the app already had 13M users. And according to Ryan Kaufman, their pre-launch waitlist was the catalyst of their growth.
It was 2013. Robinhood hadn’t even launched their app yet, but their waitlist was already filled to the brim with 1M users. That’s a hell of a user base to start with. But how’d they do it?
Here’s a breakdown of their strategy by Ryan Kaufman:
+ Building FOMO in the pre-launch: They leveraged their fan base to invite potential users to gain invite-only access to the private beta.
The waitlist itself created a sense of exclusivity. It made people feel like they were missing something. And it got the attention of HackerNews, making the waitlist grow even more.
+ Easy sign-up: To capture this FOMO, they made the signup process extremely easy – they just asked for users’ emails. The design was very straightforward. It didn’t have much copy or jargon. Just one powerful hook.
+ Gamification of the referral system: The waitlist principle was first come, first served. Users, after entering the email on the sign-up page, were sent to a thank you page where they could see their spot in the line.
Yet, they were given the chance by gaining a higher position by referring Robinhood to their friends: “The more friends that join, the sooner you will get access.”
And they also made it easy to refer a friend.
This strategy gave Robinhood the initial boost to generate 13M users and gain a $20B valuation.
This framework is easily applicable, and not just for the pre-launch of a new business. It even works if you manage an e-commerce store and you’re about to launch a new product or a new line.
- Create a waitlist.
- Tell your audience that items are limited and people on the waitlist will have priority access. You can pump up the FOMO even more by saying that the first people on the list will also have access to a discount or another bonus.
- Gamificate the experience with a referral system similar to the one used by Robinhood. The more referrals, the more chances of getting the bonus.
- Watch the sales roll in.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
SEO: Remember yesterday’s mention about links on featured snippets that lead back to search results? It’s just a bug that Google’s working to fix.
SOCIAL MEDIA: Rival IQ recently published a humongous report on the current state of social media.
YOUTUBE: The company wants to make ads on interactive TVs less boring by introducing more interactivity as you watch.
PINTEREST: Promoted Pins land in Mexico. Argentina, Colombia and Chile are next.
GOOGLE: The search engine no longer likes to see digital books in Shopping Ads. Google will stop this practice beginning May 18th.
LINKEDIN: B2B is not boring. At least, that’s what LinkedIn would like you to think.
This LinkedIn post includes several examples of how businesses are making B2B more interesting.
SEO: Rel External, Noopener & Noreferrer have no effect on your SEO, according to Google’s John Mueler.
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.
Everyone is sliding into Bill’s DMs
After Bill Gates announced his divorce, girls (and boys) have been rushing to slide into his Twitter DMs.
You gotta be creative to catch Bill’s attention, though. So people are coming up with innovative pickup lines.
“Hey, my name’s Microsoft. Can I crash at your place tonight?”, is what actor and musician Jackson Rathbone came up with.
Or, maybe you need to be more direct. “Hi Bill, this is Amira. Hope you’re hanging in there. If you’re ever feeling down, remember the only Microsoft thing about you is your company.”, Amira wrote.
Our favorite: “Bill Gates is single? Well make like PowerPoint & slide into my DMs. We will make an EXCELent couple. you’ll have my WORD.”, Dessy wrote.
Jokes aside, a divorce is a divorce and Bill would probably prefer the internet not to be frantically sliding into his DMs. But, as this year has only further proven, the internet has a mind of its own.