[vc_column][vc_column_text]
ADVERTISING
Are you taking full advantage of ML?
Machine learning has undeniably changed the way we run ads, and the changes keep on coming every day. So, to keep you up to date, this post from the CXL blog highlights the best practices to run campaigns in the machine learning era!
Here are the tidbits, but the post really goes deep into this topic:
+ AI-friendly structure: Back in 2017, a Facebook campaign would have a pretty granular structure to get better insights. Now, however, the more granular you go, the more you limit the AI’s ability to optimize your camps.
The answer? Find the right balance between getting enough optimization and getting better insights.
+ Optimize for the right metrics: You have more data points at the top of your funnel, so it’s easier to train the algorithm. But, those metrics aren’t the juicy ones. Once again, the answer lies in the balance. You should optimize for metrics that are further down the funnel, but make sure there are enough data points to train the ML.
+ Let AI determine the creative fit: This is not about letting AI create ads. It’s about giving AI the power to determine the best-fitting audience for a particular creative.
+ Follow the general guidelines of advertising: Some rules apply irrelevant of the specifics of your campaigns. This post provides you with some general rules that you might want to follow, so check it out if you’re curious.
That’s all. Machine Learning definitely made media buying easier, but you still need the skills to take advantage of algorithms’ power.
Abandoned carts make us sad…
We are worried about your abandoned carts. Are you using the power of email to close these low-hanging prospects?
This post shared by Parikchhit Basnet in the Ecom Empires group, gives some helpful tips to stop you leaving them on the table:
- Write a six email sequence, each one hitting a different angle: Reminder, brand selling points, testimonials, discounts, scarcity.
- Don’t give discounts right away: Start sending discounts two to three days (and emails) after the cart abandonment. Additionally, always add scarcity when providing discounts.
- Don’t forget to add social proof in your emails.
- Test at least 3 different subject lines for each message of the sequence. Once you reach statistical significance to be able to make a decision, select the best performing variant.
- In the last email, tell them that the cart has expired and ask for feedback on why they didn’t buy.
Got the leads, got the purchase intent. Write those emails and enjoy a happy ending!
SPONSORED
📺 Learn to manage your ads for maximum performance on native in a COVID-19 world with Outbrain and three expert marketers
The industry’s favorite native ads platform, Outbrain, has teamed up with various marketers for a three-part workshop to help support you through these uncertain times.
The workshop has 3 sessions, each with its own segment around how to succeed with affiliate marketing in a COVID-19 world. Session one is happening soon! Here are the details:
Topic: Current COVID-19 Trends & Actions you can take.
Speakers: Joe Burton, Founder, ROI Marketplace + Bryan Hernandez Director, Customer Success, Outbrain.
Why native ads as an affiliate? Simply because trust is everything. And consumers find native ads trustworthy. To be precise, 24.4% more than social ads.
Learn how to leverage this consumer confidence and drive performance.
What’s the agenda of the first session?
- Uncover never-before-seen COVID-19 trends.
- Discover how to digitally operate during a crisis.
- Gain direct, expert advice — live Q&A.
When is this happening? April 22, 11am EST.
Oh, and they are also taking any questions you might have beforehand and addressing as many as possible during the Q&A. Everything will be as practical and actionable as possible.
E-COMMERCE
Scaling to $1M in a week
Shane Cicero took to Twitter to share some key insights he gained while helping a client scale to $1M in just one week. Let’s have a quick look at what he shared.
+ Email: Since the brand had a loyal email base and a huge repeat purchase ratio, this platform helped a lot.
+ Relevant & timely campaigns: Keeping communication relevant to the current situation and having his audience look forward to more promising and fun times helped him build on that desire for the product.
+ Creatives: Creatives that look and feel like user generated content, customer reviews and meme style headlines in the copy worked best for Shane.
+ 1 day click/view optimization: This helped him optimize for many impulse buyers currently active on the platform.
+ IG Stories: For users in the middle of the funnel, this proved to be a great way of building FOMO among those who had already visited the site or engaged with the business without purchasing.
+ Lookalike audience: Building lookalikes from static custom audiences of purchasers in the last 30 days.
+ Campaign Budget Optimization: He used CBO with three ad sets: 3%LLA, 3-6%LLA and 6-9%LLA of purchasers in the last 30 days, while excluding 180-day purchasers.
All this, along with continuous fresh creative testing, helped him achieve big results for his client in the food subscription business.
Maybe that’s partly also because food delivery niches are in demand during lockdown. But hey, maybe you can pick up some nuggets from this and test them out.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
- E-COMMERCE: During the lockdown Shopify recorded Black Friday level traffic. Well, might not hold true for purchases but definitely a lot of people browsing for stuff online.
- FUNNELS: Don’t think we’ve ever seen so many funnels swiped in one folder. Check them, copy them, make the most of them.
- VIDEO ADS: Ian M Nagy shared a bunch of YouTube Ads with low budget production but high performance on the Facebook Ad Buyers Group. Breakdowns included.
- BUSINESS: Australia’s competition watchdog will force Facebook and Google to pay for news content. A trend started by France with Google that is already spreading quickly.
- LINKEDIN: The business platform will soon have a Poll option for users to ask questions and a hashtag presentation mode to showcase the broader conversation attached to a specific hashtag.
BRAIN TEASER
I have six letters. When you take one away I am twelve. What am I?
You can find the solution by clicking here.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things affiliates like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
Masks…check. Gloves…check. Pants…?
Residents of Maryland have got their priorities straight during the lockdown, but it is causing a few issues.
They might be wearing their masks and gloves while going out to check their mailbox, but they are forgetting one thing… Their pants.
So, the Taneytown Police had to resort to their FB Page to remind residents to keep their all important wearables on.
“Please remember to put pants on before leaving the house to check your mailbox. You know who you are. This is your final warning.”
Well, considering the situation, we understand that it might be a little difficult to keep track of all the things you should be wearing before heading out, but maybe a checklist might help.
Keep your masks, gloves and… pants on, at all times.
Readers from Maryland, have you spotted any such incidents? Maybe share some pics with us.