Google Ads has two unofficial updates
Have you noticed any changes to your Google Ads account? You’re not alone. It appears that Google has rolled out two unofficial updates:
- There appears to be an “Asset library” tab on several Google Ads’ accounts. This tab displays any existing images you have in your account. A Google spokesperson confirmed this feature to Search Engine Land.
- Google Ads’ custom columns have been updated with a new design and custom columns. Additionally, you can now use functions on custom columns.
Why we care: Reporting on Google Ads is complicated enough, so it’s nice to have Google make it easier for us. The “Asset library” feature will also save you some time if you often use image extensions.
BUSINESS
Goodbye, Alexa.com
Amazon is shutting down Alexa.com, one of the most popular web traffic analysis services on the internet.
The website will shut down on May 1st, 2022.
Used by a lot: You’ve probably used Alexa at some point to find out which is the most popular website in your industry, or simply to compare yourself to competitors (hopefully not obsessively).
What we have now: All hope is not lost. There’s still SimilarWeb, Alexa’s direct competitor (and probably more popular). As for Alexa’s “top million” list, we have Majestic’s version, although they use links as a way to rank sites. Not perfect, but still better than nothing.
SPONSORED BY HOPIN
Are you keeping up with the evolution of events?
Want to learn more about measuring your event ROI? Read this new guide:
The Future of Events: The ROI of an All-Virtual & Hybrid Approach to Events.
In this guide, you’ll learn:
- What’s new in events for 2021 and beyond
- The key value drivers that deliver next-level ROI
- How to maximize your savings potential (and how some event planners reduced total event costs by as much as 50%)
- How to increase revenue from event programs
- How event technology is changing our ability to measure ROI
E-COMMERCE
Lessons from scaling an e-com biz from $21k to $487k
What do you think of when you just scaled your e-commerce business to half a million dollar revenue?
“I am an e-com god?”
Or…
“I could have done more!”
These represent two different mindsets and Jake Langley belongs to the second group.
Indeed, from January 2021 to October 2021, he scaled his company from $21k to $487k. And he shared a Twitter thread including all the mistakes he made that stopped him from reaching “higher highs,” as well as what he did well.
Vamos!
Order more inventory: Their “just in time” system backfired, sending it to competitors visitors that found their products out of stock.
The reason for not ordering more inventory was to have a healthy cash flow. Yet, it turned out to be a loss of money, because of all the sales they missed.
Cash flow: In the beginning, all the money you make in e-commerce should be pumped back into your business.
There are different ways to have a healthy cash-flow:
- Find a good manufacturing partner that lets you negotiate payment terms.
- Don’t compete on price. It murders your margins. Instead…
- Use premium prices by building a premium brand and premium product. Better customer support. Better customer experience.
- Invest in design. This contributes to giving a premium brand feeling to your customers, as well as building trust and confidence.
A marketing agency won’t solve your acquisition problem: This doesn’t mean agencies do not do a good job. Not at all. It means that you can’t completely outsource your customer acquisition and expect to be rich. Build an internal marketing department.
Systemize and delegate: If you think you’re the only one that can do a task, you’re wrong. Delegate admin stuff to your team members, and spend your time on revenue-driving tasks.
Launch more products: The fisherman with twelve fishing poles will beat the one with two fishing poles. More products means more opportunities to cross sell and upsell. As well as more opportunities to tap into more audiences.
SPONSORED BY INSIGHTS
One tip to upgrade your referral page
If you do any kind of referral marketing, this tip is a must: Personalize your landing page for referrals.
Even something as simple as a heading will be very helpful.
Our experiment:
We have a referral program (you can check it out here).
When someone clicks on a referral link, they visit a dedicated page that’s similar to our home page with one difference – the headlines.
We ran a split test and these were the results.
What changed? The headlines for the referral page says, “Your friend thinks you want to be a smarter marketer.”
In other words, just specifying that this page, this recommendation, is coming from a friend gives us a significant conversion rate increase from 27% to 35%.
If you like what you read, feel free to check us out on Twitter.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
MARKETING: On Deck Marketing (ODM) is a continuous community for top marketing and growth leaders to exchange practical frameworks for scale and develop deep connections alongside a highly-curated and trusted network of peers. Apply to the next cohort today!*
GOOGLE: Here’s the reason why your Google local click-through rates have been fluctuating lately. Google has confirmed that a new local pack and map design for their search results is on the way.
BUSINESS: Buy-now-pay-later is slowly but steadily making its way into the B2B world.
INSTAGRAM: Finally, Instagram will allow you to sort posts in your feed by chronological order.
E-COMMERCE: Pay attention to this if you’re shipping via Fedex or UPS.
BUSINESS: What were the world’s biggest startups of 2021? Here’s a nice visual list.
*This is a sponsored post.
BRAIN TEASER
What’s stronger than a boulder, but weaker than a flying insect?
You can find the solution here.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things marketers like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
Neuralink will begin implanting chips into humans’ brains in 2022
Elon Musk has said that they’ll most likely start testing Neuralink in humans next year.
Neura..what? Elon Musk’s Neuralink is essentially a company that wants to implant a chip in your brain. The goal is for humans to be able to directly interact with computers, thereby making humans far smarter than they are now.
Elon Musk being Elon Musk, clarified this news saying, he’s “definitely not saying that we can for sure do this, but I am incredibly confident that it is possible.”
Fair enough.