SEARCH
Microsoft reveals valuable search trends
It pays to read the room. Or, in this case, several rooms at once…
What’s going on: Microsoft just published consumer trends in several industries that could come in handy for your PPC campaigns.
Here’s the summary:
- Travel: Searches for “cheap” and “discount” have risen by 56% since the start of the year. People are still traveling… and they’re looking for deals.
- Automotive: With gas prices soaring, electric vehicles are getting traction. Microsoft’s Audience Hybrid & Alternative Vehicles has increased 3x since the first half of 2022.
- Retail: Shoppers are waiting for good deals to buy non-essential items. The most popular deals being buy-one-get-one (BOGO), percentages, and free shipping.
- Technology and telecommunications: Cheaper and even older models of smartphones are the new rage. Microsoft recommends promoting both new and old models below $500.
- Health and wellness: Yes, customers are looking for cheaper options here, too. You can stand out by lowering your prices just the tiniest bit.
- Financial services: Saving accounts, cash-back, and reward-based credit cards are growing in popularity.
Why we care: The common denominator among all these industry trends matches people’s feelings about the economy. No one wants to break the bank.
Keep that in mind when planning your PPC campaigns, and try to include words that emphasize discounts, deals, and offers.
By the way, Microsoft isn’t the only one with tips…
ADVERTISING
Twitter wants to help you improve your ads
Twitter recently hosted a Space on their platform where they shared tips for making the most of Twitter Ads.
A little bird told us: Twitter’s internal promotions team says their tips are based on analytics and first-hand experience. Let’s break them down:
- Look into trending hashtags: This will help you understand trends and context. For annual events, check last year’s top tweets for inspiration.
- Use concise copy: Tweets between 50-100 characters perform the best.
… And here are some universal tips you may find useful, regardless of the ad platform:
- Keep track of key events: Keep a major events calendar so you don’t miss out on opportunities to position relevant offers and maximize your ad performance.
- Focus on visual assets: Videos and gifs are outperforming still images and text. Make sure the visuals are eye-catching and carry your brand’s message.
- Use variable creatives: Use at least 3 creative assets so you don’t exhaust your audience with the same visuals.
- Don’t change things too soon: Every platform has a learning phase that usually lasts around five days. If you chop and change too early, you’ll restart this process.
- Make changes at one time: Similar to the above bullet, always make sure you make all changes together so the system can calibrate the ads over the next few days.
Why we care: While these tips come from Twitter, social media advertisers can implement most of these regardless of the platform they use.
And with the holidays coming, any help is welcome.
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Storyblok is shaping the future of digital storytelling.
… And there are several reasons why both small teams and large enterprises alike swear by it—including giants like Netflix, Adidas, and T-Mobile.
Here’s how Storyblok is different from traditional content management systems (CMS):
- You can create the content in the backend once, then publish it to any front end: website, mobile app, product pages, etc.
- Its intuitive discussion feature empowers teams to create, comment, and approve content directly inside Storyblok. No more juggling Google Docs, Slack, and email chains.
- The visual editor helps you to build pages with a few clicks, dramatically shrinking the time to market.
- Storyblok helps you build components like teasers, grids, or feature sections… and re-use them anywhere as content blocks.
The list goes on and on!
Storyblok helps you finish projects on time, and on budget… and this quick demo shows you how.
CONTENT MARKETING
Time-saving ways to increase website traffic
You can be running a small business or an entire marketing department… it doesn’t matter.
When you’re wearing multiple hats, who has the time and resources to focus on driving traffic to your website?
Thankfully, this article by Fernando Pessagno, founder of ResumeMaker, explains how he built his website’s organic traffic to 100,000+ monthly visitors—without spending hours and hours of effort.
So let’s do more with less…
Choose organic promotional channels. Organic traffic is a gold mine. But you can spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars on building links…
… Or, you can promote it wisely and let the backlinks come to you.
Fernando decided to launch his startup on Product Hunt and got selected for “product of the week.” Then, backlinks started rolling.
Now, instead of Product Hunt you can find different promotional channels related to your industry, get your content out there, and watch it gain traction.
Tender, loving, SEO care goes a long way, too. As you build your website, always check to see if the backend meets Google’s requirements.
Tick all the Search Console boxes, optimize the website for different devices, and once you do, keep monitoring the performance.
Share to download. If done right, referrals can be a great source of traffic and acquisition. It worked for Fernando, and it has worked well for this newsletter as well.
For example, ResumeMaker offers a paid and a free version. Once you create your resume, you can download it for free, but it’s gated behind a “share to download” button.
So the service is free… kind of.
Of course, most users will delete the shared post, but Fernando says nearly 10% of his traffic comes from social media thanks to the “share to download” model.
That’s all we have time for, but you’ll find more time-saving, traffic-driving tips in Fernando’s original post.
So take a few minutes to read it. It could potentially save you hours.
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THE CREW’S INSIGHTS
One tip for writing better-converting copy
We’ve shared plenty of copywriting tips here in the past: landing page checklists, formulas, frameworks, psychology.
Today, we’re sharing something simpler… one single tip you can use to improve the copy in your ads, on your website, and almost anywhere else you’re doing marketing.
Here it is:
Every sentence should convey one unique idea. And as Julian Shapiro wisely points out, that idea should do at least one of the following three things:
- Increase desire.
- Reduce confusion.
- Reduce labor.
With this framework in mind, take a look at your website.
Read every single line of copy, and ask yourself if it’s following the advice above. Here’s one example:
- Useless sentence: “This is marketing news, done right.”
- Useful sentence: “We comb through 400+ sources to bring you the most relevant marketing news every weekday.”
You’ll find that most websites are littered with useless sentences that felt good when they were written, but aren’t doing much work to sell.
The more effectively you write sentences, the more effectively you sell.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
MARKETING: You still have time to subscribe to the ultimate marketing newsletter bundle and get a shot at winning a $1,000 Amazon gift card. What are you waiting for? This promotion ends on August 31. Sign up today, it’s free!*
SEO: So long, International Targeting report. Google has deprecated the feature and will soon remove it from the Search Console. Don’t worry though… hreflang will continue to be supported, processed, and used in search.
BEREAL: It’s not just hype. The latest social media sensation now has more than 10 million active users. That’s a staggering 1000x growth in just over a year… Whoa.
AMAZON: Not just for e-commerce? One financial service used Amazon’s targeting to reach hundreds of millions of people in India. Something to keep in mind if you’re looking for new ad channels for your services brand…
*This is a sponsored post.
BRAIN TEASER
Four legs I do have, yet I never walk.
I work not, yet I have food.
All the food I get, none do I eat but you do.
I cannot read yet many times I’m found with books.
I am only but a carpenter’s work.
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.
New ice cream flavor: “Dive bar”
We’re not kidding.
Miller High Life made an ice cream treat that tastes like your favorite local dive.
They got all the details right, too. Here are the layers of flavor you can expect:
- Real 5% ABV beer infused into the ice cream.
- Peanut swirl, to honor the “quintessential bar snack.”
- A hint of tobacco smoke flavor… because what’s a dive bar without smoke?
- Gooey caramel swirl to mimic the sticky dive bar floor.
- Dark chocolate coating to replicate dark wood and dim lightning ambience.
Mmm… sounds tasty.
But please lick responsibly. Too many of these could make the room turn.