META
Wrong side of the bed
Meta woke up to shrunken revenue for the first time in history.
And while total revenue of $28.8 billion is just 1% lower than last year, it may be a gloomy forecast – with Meta predicting a further drop by the end of the third quarter.
Is the recession to blame? The company reported that there’s been no increase in ad spend on the platform. And Mark Zuckerberg pointed to marketers adjusting their budget due to an economic downturn.
What’s ahead? According to a post shared yesterday by Zuckerberg, Meta is betting on a few things:
- Focus on recommended content: Reels engagement is already growing quickly. And they’re not even monetizing at the same rate as feed or stories.
- The algorithm is recovering from the iOS14.5 hit. And it’s getting smarter at serving ads.
- Horizon: Leading fashion houses already have a digital store on the Metaverse and smaller e-commerce merchants may soon follow.
The long term focus is on the Metaverse. And according to Mark, it will open opportunities for billions of dollars.
The sky may not be that cloudy after all…
Cookie-cutting is postponed
… Well, at least for two more years.
Google announced that Privacy Sandbox, their potential privacy-preserving cookieless solution, won’t be ready until late 2024.
Not so easy after all: Privacy Sandbox was supposed to phase out third-party cookies and cross-site tracking—while managing to serve targeted ads.
Google is taking the tool back to shop, while simultaneously testing a number of APIs, including Topics and FLEDGE.
These should become available to developers in late 2023, with third-party cookies phasing out the following year.
Why we care: While Google figures things out, the cookieless future remains in limbo.
… And with privacy regulations getting stricter, and Google already in trouble with European watchdogs… advertising has some interesting days ahead.
SPONSORED BY STACKED MARKETER PRO
From 0 to 1M subscribers: A deep dive into the rise of a $75M media empire
A while ago, The Crew at Stacked Marketer dissected the popular newsletter Morning Brew, analyzing their journey from early beginnings to massive growth.
Acquisition strategies. Rebranding. Referral tactics. Twitter hacking. Facebook Ads.
E-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g!
We threw what we learned into a digestible, actionable report… And realized we had built a masterclass in growing a newsletter from 0 to 1 million subscribers.
We shared that report with our Stacked Marketer Pro members (formerly Insights).
And this is the reaction we got:
“… in a word, WOW! This Morning Brew Deep Dive is GOLD! I am going to read this a few times, dissect it, implement, and then read it again. Worth the price of admission to Insights a hundred times over.”
Want to grow an audience?
You can find the whole Morning Brew story inside Stacked Marketer Pro, along with 17 other reports.
CONTENT MARKETING
How to shoot 60+ pieces of user-generated content every month—without going bankrupt
Store owners sometimes spend thousands of dollars on creators making user generated content (UGC).
And if you’re promoting UGC organically on platforms like TikTok, sometimes you need to post up to 30 videos to figure out what the algorithm wants.
But the bill on that kind of project can get costly… fast.
Tim Duncan shared an interesting strategy for shooting 60+ pieces of organic UGC a month without spending a fortune.
Lights, camera, action…
OK, you do have to spend some money on your first video. But make sure you have a version of it without subtitles. Get all the raw materials.
Then, replace the subtitles and text to speech by changing the hook and call-to-action (CTA). Now you have a new video with a completely different start and end.
Split test the variations to see which one brings home the dough.
Now take the raw materials and mix and match:
- Change frame orders.
- Crop videos.
- Change the first frame.
- Insert images.
And right away, you have at least 10 videos that neither your audience nor the algorithm will recognize as coming from the same original video.
Post it on multiple platforms. Reels, TikTok, in your newsletter, whatever… That’s 10 videos on 3 different platforms, equaling 30 videos from one piece of content.
If you shoot 10 videos for $50 and repurpose them to 300 videos, you’ll reduce your UGC content creation costs by at least 6x and have enough content for six months.
Just make sure you mix and match videos from different creators…
And there you go… it’s time to shoot! Try this once and let us know if this tactic works for you. Good luck!
SPONSORED BY PAVED
Forget paid social. Here’s how to reach millions and scale your business with one ad
Noom, Square, Hotjar, UserTesting, and other million-dollar companies are using Paved Ad Network to scale their revenue.
Why? Because with Paved’s advanced technology, you can run just one ad in multiple newsletters all at once… reaching millions of targeted prospects.
It’s where high-quality newsletter prospects meet the scale of programmatic advertising… and it’s a powerful mix.
Try it yourself and get a $150 ad credit.
THE CREW’S INSIGHTS
A near-foolproof method to make sure you’re hiring the right people
Hiring the wrong person is like getting engaged…
… Only to realize that your future spouse is a convicted serial killer, puts ketchup on mac ‘n cheese, and prefers the Star Wars sequel trilogy to the originals.
Hard to get out of… but easy enough to avoid.
Here’s a simple way to avoid hiring the wrong people: Try the trial week system. Popularized by David Rusenko, Jr. of Weebly, it relies on the following logic:
- Resumés are mostly useless.
- Some great talent doesn’t interview well.
- Interviewing is full of biases.
Trial week is exactly what it sounds like: Before you give someone a job offer, have them work—fully-paid, of course—at your company for a week before extending the offer.
This helps you differentiate between people who interview well and people who work well, and gives you a sense of how that person will work with your team.
Our experience at Stacked Marketer: When we make a new hire, we often have a “trial period” where we get a feel for the way someone works before making a long-term commitment.
Not everyone will be open to this, but it’s a near-foolproof way to make sure you’re hiring the right talent.
And isn’t that worth making time for?
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
E-COMMERCE: Looking for alternatives channels to acquire customers? Etsy recorded a 10% growth in revenue and nearly 6M new buyers. If your product is relevant for this platform, it might be worth a test.
INSTAGRAM: Fall back? Instagram may not proceed with TikTokization of the app amid fan backlash. The company announced it’s rolling back a full-screen display of posts and it’s “toning down” interest-based algorithm feed.
PRIVACY: Non law-abiding businesses? According to research, only 11% of US enterprises comply with California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) requirements. And that’s still 5% higher than the number of European businesses complying with the equivalent in GDPR…
LINKEDIN: Here’s a tip… When creating video ads for LinkedIn, try making them less formal. That’s just one of many insights you’ll find in LinkedIn’s guide to using different ad formats. Worth a look.
GOOGLE: Uh-oh…If you thought one product review update every year was scary, imagine a second one. Google just announced that the July update will gradually roll out so keep a close eye on your rankings. Things might get interesting…
BRAIN TEASER
You can’t see me, but I can see you; To be more specific, I see through.
What am I?
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.
That’s so meta
Talk about layers…
A company called Meta is suing… Meta. For taking the name Meta.
Quite a metaception we have here.
Installation art company META claims that they can no longer provide services under the same name, because “Meta is now associated with the toxicity linked with Facebook.”
Name a more confusing court hearing. We’ll wait.