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Instagram Stories: 6 tips to boost engagement

Tuesday, April 2nd, 2024

Instagram released a series of tips and tricks to help creators enhance engagement for their Stories.

The latest guidance from Instagram doesn’t introduce any new features but does offer presentation tips, along with a couple of sharing notes to create more impactful Stories.

Why we care. When you get more people engaged with your stories, you increase your chances of turning viewers into potential customers. This can lead to more sales and help you grow your following.

1. Add Yours stickers and templates

Using custom prompts and public responses on social media provides an interactive way to connect with others. With the “Add Yours” sticker, you can invite others to contribute to your Stories and see their responses. When you see the “Add Yours” prompt in someone else’s story, just tap the sticker to easily add your own story to the responses.

In addition, Add Yours templates bring more creativity to the table. They allow you to include GIFs, text or images in your story, providing a structured framework for responses. This feature not only boosts your content’s visual appeal, but also encourages others to join the conversation in a clear and organized manner.

2. Mention someone after you post a story

You can still mention friends even after your story was posted, allowing them to share it to their own story. Just tap the three dots, select “More,” and then choose “Add Mention.”

3. Make a collage using Layout

You can include multiple photos in a single story and assemble them into a collage using Layout. To do this, just tap the Layout layout icon before taking a photo. You can tap “Change grid” to change the layout of your photos. Then, you can take a series of photos with your camera or select pictures from your camera roll.

4. Fill the background with a solid color

Instagram also suggests filling the background of your story with a solid color to make it more eye-catching. You can use the pen tool to do this, simply:

You can enhance your story by adding a translucent overlay using the same process. Simply choose the highlighter icon before tapping the screen to fill. To select a color, press and hold on the color options to access a gradient view for more choices.

5. Turn live photos into a Boomerang

You can easily transform live photos into Boomerangs for your story with just one tap. Start by selecting a live photo from your camera roll — these will feature the boomerang icon in the corner. Then, press and hold on the photo to instantly convert it into a Boomerang.

6. Make emojis glow

Instagram also suggests adding a glowing effect to emojis on your story to make it stand out. To do this, follow these simple steps:

Deep dive. Read Instagram’s blog post in full for more information.

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Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing




Daily Mail publisher introduces new social-first video ads

Tuesday, April 2nd, 2024

DMG Media is set to launch a new social-first video advertising product called Edits.

Edits offers advertisers the chance to target the Daily Mail’s expanding audience on platforms such as TikTok, YouTube and Facebook, as well as on its own platforms like Metro and Mail Online.

Edits explained. Edits was designed to simplify the video production process and decrease entry costs for advertisers. The product assures marketers that their ads will reach their target audience through DMG Media’s combination of organic video placements on its platforms and paid distribution.

How it works. During an initial consultation with DMG Media, advertisers can select from a menu of five customizable video formats tailored to different industries. Once the setup is agreed upon, Edits videos will be produced by DMG Media and could be live within as little as two weeks. DMG Media will then use its customer ID solution, dmg::ID, to serve ads to high-value consumers on platforms like Facebook and TikTok, based on their interests.

Although DMG Media creates Edits videos on behalf of advertisers, the media giant hopes that each video will be strong enough to stand alone as an independent piece of editorial content.

Why we care. By handing over the video production process to DMG Media, Edits capitalizes on the media giant’s deep understanding of its audience, which could result in more effective content and engagement for this specific consumer demographic. However, as Edits is a brand new product, we’re yet to see what results it’s really capable of achieving.

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What DMG Media is saying. Mail Metro Media chief revenue officer Dominic Williams told Press Gazette:

Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing




7 must-know marketing attribution definitions to avoid getting gamed

Tuesday, April 2nd, 2024

I’ve worked in the field of marketing analytics for nearly two decades. Lately, more and more programs are investing in more complicated and arcane measurement strategies.

This is ultimately a net positive for programs and the industry in general, but an incomplete understanding of analytics leads to ripe ground for getting deceived. 

Whether it’s auditing accounts run by other agencies or hearing marketing partners give poor advice on joint client calls, I’ve seen plenty of instances where platforms, agencies and even internal teams are juicing their stats to twist “performance” for their benefit.  

What’s the antidote?

Knowing the measurement terms cold – their definitions, significance, examples of them at work and ways bad actors commonly manipulate them.

In this article, I’ll put some of the most common terms in focus.

What is attribution?

Before we get into the ways attribution can be manipulated, let’s define attribution itself:

Attribution is the process of assigning credit for a conversion to a specific marketing channel or touchpoint. It helps you understand which marketing channels drive the most conversions so you can allocate your marketing budget accordingly.

Now, with that said, internal teams, departments and agencies are all heavily incentivized to show as big an impact as possible and some use sketchy techniques to pump up numbers.

Here are seven attribution models and related factors you need to know to be on the lookout. 

1. Multi-touch attribution (MTA)

This method of attribution assigns credit for a conversion to multiple marketing touchpoints. Common attribution models are last-touch, last-touch, linear, decay and the always popular black box, data-driven

Why it is important

Multi-touch attribution can help you understand the impact of all marketing channels that contribute to a conversion.

Example

Let’s say a customer clicks one Google ad on Monday and another on Tuesday and converts on the second ad. The first click will credit Monday’s ad, last click will choose Tuesday’s ad and other models will give values to each depending on their logic.

How it is gamed

Usually, this happens when you just flip through different models until you see numbers that fit your story. 

Note: Be skeptical of any black box models because they’re ripe for subjectivity. For example, Google’s data-driven option in Google Analytics has every incentive to give Google more credit than other paid media channels. And remember that although MTA is much better than single-touch attribution, it doesn’t account for incrementality.

Dig deeper: Google’s attribution model shake-up: 3 solutions for advertisers

2. Marginal efficiency vs. avg. return

Marginal efficiency is the additional revenue you generate from each dollar you spend on marketing. Virtually all media spend follows a log-shaped return curve.

Why it is important

The point at which marginal cost equals marginal revenue minus operational cost is when conversions stop being profitable. Knowing this number helps you get smarter about the CPAs you’re willing to accept. 

Example

If a program spends $100 for 10 conversions, you have an average CPA of $10, but each conversion costs more than the previous one. 

This means that conversions start cheaper and get more expensive – so, although the ratio doesn’t have to be exact, something like half of your conversions are less than $10 and half are higher. 

How it is gamed

Back in the day, I heard a VP at Google claim, “Hey, if you make $50 per conversion, you can make money until your average CPA is above $50, so push up to that point!” 

However, since we know that half of that spend is going toward conversions over $50, those more expensive conversions are being bundled with cheaper ones. 

3. Non-incremental conversion measurement

Non-incremental conversions are conversions that would have happened even if you had not run any marketing campaigns.

Why it is important

Identifying non-incremental conversions helps you accurately measure the impact of your marketing campaigns – and allocate budgets more effectively.

Example

If you have a loyal customer base who regularly purchases your products, then some of the conversions you generate from your marketing campaigns would have happened even if you had not run the campaigns. 

The same is true of many direct response marketing campaigns for brands that have built positive awareness with upper-funnel marketing: many customers would have purchased even without seeing the direct response ads.

How it is exploited

We often see brand search campaigns and retargeting campaigns over-credited for conversions that would have happened without users seeing or interacting with those ads.

Other scenarios that get over-credited include: 

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4. Halo effect 

Also known as non-tracked conversions, this is the positive impact that marketing has on sales that are not tracked.

Why it is important

The halo effect can be a significant source of revenue for businesses. It is important to be aware of the halo effect and take advantage of it.

Example

If you run a branding campaign that increases awareness of your brand, then you may see an increase in sales even if you cannot track the specific conversions generated by the campaign. (Think of campaigns like highway billboards or TV commercials.)

How it can affect search campaigns

Positive marketing without clear tracking can show up in other metrics, specifically increased brand search volume. The stronger your halo effect, the more important it is to understand non-incremental conversions, which may impact some budgeting decisions in search campaigns.

5. Marketing mix modeling (MMM)

This is a statistical technique used to measure the impact of marketing variables on sales. What’s nice is it doesnt need any attributed channel/campaign conversions.  

Why it is important

MMM can help you understand which marketing variables have the greatest impact on sales so that you can allocate your marketing budget accordingly. It relies on a significant amount of historical data to be effective.

Example

MMM can be used to measure the impact of factors such as advertising spending, pricing and distribution on sales.

How it is exploited

MMM is a great tool to combine non-incremental/non-tracked and marginal performance, but it isn’t a perfect tool. 

As you would expect, these models correctly recognize upper-funnel investment, but they have difficulty distinguishing between channels if all spend rises equally. 

The majority of acquisition budgets rise and fall with seasonality. It is important to rerun these analyses after deliberately introducing and controlling variance.  

Dig deeper: Exploring Meridian, Google’s new open-source marketing mix model

6. Click-through versus view-through attribution

This is a method of attribution that assigns credit for a conversion to the ad the customer clicked on or viewed.

Why it is important

Click conversions are more meaningful than view conversions. The engagement means that there was more of an impact on the user. There is some value of view-throughs – not least in providing data density when it’s hard to come by – but that is more difficult to measure.  

Example

If a customer sees a Facebook ad and then visits your website but does not click on the ad, you would attribute a view-through conversion if you are using a view-through attribution model. However, if you are using a click-through attribution model, you would not attribute the conversion to the Facebook ad because the customer did not click on it.

How it is gamed

Giving view-through conversions the same value as clicks is disingenuous. Worse is just having one bucket of conversions that are a combination of clicks and views. 

This might be more common than you think if you don’t know how to look out for it. For instance, YouTube performance does not cleanly differentiate between the two. It is common for advertisers to use one-day view-through lookback windows in Facebook campaigns. 

7. Cookie window or lookback window

This refers to specifying the time after a customer sees or clicks on an ad during which you will attribute a subsequent conversion to that ad.

Why it is important

The length of your cookie window can significantly impact your performance. A longer cookie window will give you credit for more conversions but there is also a higher chance that there are other influences.  

Example

If you have a cookie window of 30 days, then any conversions that occur within 30 days of a customer seeing or clicking on your ad will be attributed to that ad.

How it is gamed

The longer the window, the more conversions are attributed – but the higher the chance that other factors will have influenced the conversion without getting credited. 

The truth about marketing attribution models and metrics

Even if some of these forms of measurement are simply applied incorrectly by marketers with good intentions, it’s still your brand’s budget that takes the hit. 

If your campaign management involves any of the initiatives or measurement techniques listed above – or if you start hearing other, new-to-you terms put into play – make sure you’re up to speed on the actual definitions and the optimal use cases before making any decisions based on the “data” presented to you.

Dig deeper: 5 outdated marketing KPIs to toss and what to reference instead

Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing




Walmart Connect opens up to small and non-endemic advertisers

Monday, April 1st, 2024

Walmart is expanding its retail media business to include small marketers and international suppliers.

Additionally, it is opening up Walmart Connect to brands that have not traditionally sold their products in its stores, such as automotive and financial marketers –  known as “no-endemic” marketers.

What is Walmart Connect? Walmart Connect is the rebranded media group of Walmart, serving as the advertising division of the retail giant. It offers a platform for advertisers to connect with potential customers through multiple channels, encompassing online, in-store, and sponsored media across the web.

Walmart Connect updates. The retail giant also announced several additional updates to Walmart Connect, including:

Why now? Following a highly successful year for Walmart’s ad division in 2023, with revenue soaring by 28% to $3.4 billion, the retail giant aims to incentivize advertisers to fully utilize Walmart Connect, with the hopes of boosting ad revenue even further.

Why we care. The updates are expected to fuel greater competition among marketers using Walmart Connect, which in turn may drive up costs.

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What Walmart is saying.  Rich Lehrfeld, senior VP and general manager of Walmart Connect, told AdWeek:

Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing




Google expands Vehicle Listing Ads to new markets

Monday, April 1st, 2024

Vehicle Listing Ads (VLA) within Google Ads are now live and open for Beta-listing in the UK, Denmark, and France.

Previously only available in open beta in the U.S., Canada, and Australia, VLA will also soon be rolled out to the Netherlands, Italy, and Spain by the end of the second quarter of the year.

Why we care. If you are a business or marketer trying to sell vehicles in the UK, Denmark or Frances, VLA can help you reach high-value consumers actively looking for vehicles, increasing your chances of generating high quality leads.

What are VLA? Google’s Vehicle Listing Ads enable auto advertisers to display their full inventory directly to consumers searching for vehicles on Google. This format provides key information such as images, make, model, price, mileage, and advertiser details within search results, facilitating connections with interested buyers and generating qualified leads.

Clicking on a VLA directs customers to the vehicle description page on your website. Here, they can take further actions such as contacting the dealer, filling out a lead form, and more, prior to visiting the dealership.

First spotted. Christopher Bell, Head of PPC at Kelkoo, was the first to flag the VLA news and shared a screenshot on LinkedIn:

Accessibility. VLA are accessible exclusively through the classic version of the Merchant Center, as they have not yet been integrated into the Merchant Center Next platform.

Eligibility. VLA support both new and used vehicle inventory from dealers, retailers, aggregators or original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). However, some exclusions apply, such as:

Getting started. To start using VLA, you will need to upload your vehicle data feed to Merchant Center, including key details such as make, model, price, mileage, color, and more. Google utilizes this information to match customer searches with the most relevant cars.

However, to utilize VLA, you must first create Performance Max campaigns with vehicle feeds on Google Ads. Additionally, you need to link you Google Ads account to a Merchant Center account and a Google Business Profile. Alternatively, a shop feed can be used if you do not manage the profiles for the dealer locations.

Benefits. VLA can help you reach “vehicle shoppers online at the right moment, with the right listings and information to move them closer to a purchase,” according to Google. Key advantages include:

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Deep dive. Read Google’s vehicle ads overview for more information.

Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing




Google investigating Ad Manager Reach report error

Monday, April 1st, 2024

Google is investigating an issue causing incomplete data in Ad Manager Reach reports.

Ad Manager Reach reports with dynamic date ranges like “Last week (Sun – Sat)” or “Last 93 days”, or fixed date ranges with start or end dates beyond March 20, 2024, will include incomplete reach reporting data for any Orders or Line items still actively delivering beyond March 20.

Why we care. Affected users are able to access Google Ad Manager but may not have access to the most recent data.

When will the problem be fixed? Google said it will provide an update at 5pm ET on April 1 with more information about this problem.

When did the issue start? Google confirmed that the incident began at 5.55pm ET on March 29.

What Google is saying. Google said in a statement:

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Deep dive. Read Google’s announcement in full for more information.

Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing




Report: Perplexity plans to sell ads

Monday, April 1st, 2024

Perplexity, an AI-powered search engine, is planning to introduce native advertising in related questions, according to Adweek.

How it will work. Related questions, which include links to sources, account for 40% of Perplexity’s queries. So Perplexity plans to add relevant, related brand-sponsored questions along with organic questions.

Brand safety. It will be “a paramount priority,” Dmitry Shevelenko, Perplexity’s chief business officer, told Adweek.

When. Details are few. All we know is it is coming “in the upcoming quarters.”

Why we care. Perplexity, founded in August 2022, has a much smaller user base (a self-reported 15 million monthly active users) than the likes of Google, Microsoft Bing and AI rival ChatGPT. However, Google, OpenAI and other AI-powered search engines have yet to figure out how to reliably monetize AI search. So it will be interesting to see whether Google or other companies follow this path.

Perplexity vs. ads. On its About page, Perplexity says:

“Perplexity was founded on the belief that searching for information should be a straightforward, efficient experience, free from the influence of advertising-driven models.”

However, Shevelenko said:

In a separate recent interview with Wired (subscription required), Perplexity founder and CEO Aravind Srinivas discussed ads, said he wasn’t against advertising. In fact, his vision for advertising on the platform is to help advertisers understand who is searching and then bid on the most “high-value traffic.”

This is a stark contrast from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who doesn’t love ads. He has even called internet advertising a “momentary industry.”

The report. Adweek’s Trishla Ostwal covered it in Gen-AI Search Engine Perplexity Has a Plan to Sell Ads.

Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing




6 new Reddit Ads Manager features to simplify campaign creation and tracking

Saturday, March 30th, 2024

Reddit Ads Manager has been updated to simplify the process of creating and tracking campaigns more efficiently.

The platform now offers six new automated features designed to provide advertisers with easy access to creative best practices.

Why we care. These updates offer advertisers simpler ways to build campaigns and receive creative support, which could be particularly beneficial for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with limited resources.

Smart headlines. This new tool automatically generates a variety of ad copy headlines tailored to Reddit’s unique audience. To utilize it, advertisers only need to input their website URL.

Creative asset cropper. This new tool enables advertisers to crop images to fit Reddit’s ad format specifications, making the upload process simpler.

Lowest cost automated bidding strategy. This new tool is designed to help advertisers maximize campaign results within their budgets by automatically setting an ad cost amount. Initially used by advertisers focusing on Traffic and Simple Create, it’s now available for those with Conversions and Installs objectives.

Average daily budgets. This update automates advertisers’ daily budgets to align with their total spend for the week, reducing the need for manual adjustments to accommodate spending fluctuations.

Updated campaign management. Reddit has enhanced its duplication and bulk edit functionalities to now allow advertisers to duplicate existing campaigns, ad groups, or ads, and use them as a blueprint for new ones. Additionally, the bulk edit tool features a new user interface, facilitating faster edits and optimizations for campaigns.

Reporting improvements to Reddit Dashboard. Reddit has updated its Dashboard UI to enhance clarity for advertisers tracking their campaign performance in real time. The updates offer improved usability, new graphs displaying performance metrics, and additional report filtering options for customized tracking.

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What Reddit is saying. Reddit’s EVP of Business Marketing and Growth, Jim Squires, said in a statement:

Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing




Advertisers sue Meta for allegedly inflating ad viewership in $7 billion lawsuit

Saturday, March 30th, 2024

Facebook and Instagram advertisers filed a class-action lawsuit against Meta for $7 billion in San Francisco.

They claim that the social media giant exaggerated ad viewership figures by up to 400%, leading them to pay inflated premiums for ad placements on its platforms.

Potential Reach metric. The advertisers suing Meta allege that the Potential Reach metric used by the company to determine advertising costs relies on the total number of social media accounts rather than individual users. They argue that this approach is problematic because it could include bot and fake accounts, resulting in advertisers paying more money for their ads to be served to bots.

What Meta is saying. Meta denied the allegations, explaining that the price advertisers are charged is based on performance metrics – not the Potential Reach metric as claimed in the lawsuit. A Meta spokesperson told AdWeek:

What the advertisers are saying. Geoffrey Graber, partner at Cohen Milstein and lead counsel representing the advertisers, said:

Why we care. The lawsuit represents millions of advertisers who may have overpaid to serve their ads on Instagram and Facebook. Should this case proceed to trial, more affected advertisers could potentially come forward to claim compensation.

Legal details. Former Meta advertisers DZ Reserve and Cain Maxwell initiated the case in 2018. Following the filing of the complaint, DZ Reserve ceased operations with Meta and it is not know if Maxwell’s business is still operational.. Fast-forward to 2024 the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that the company could pursue legal action against Meta for monetary damages.

Next steps. The case will either go to trial or will be resolved through a settlement involving financial compensation for the plaintiffs.

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Deep dive. Read the court documents in full for more information.

Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing




Pinterest shares algorithm insights as it shifts focus to non-engagement signals

Friday, March 29th, 2024

Pinterest provided insights into how its algorithm works while warning of the risks of overreliance on user engagement. The platform emphasized that excessive reliance on engagement to rank content can result in a negative user experience, and proposed non-engagement signals as a solution.

To encourage other companies to follow suit and contribute to “building a more inspired Internet,” Pinterest published a new document titled ‘Field Guide to Non-Engagement Signals’.

Why we care. By having a better understanding of how Pinterest’s algorithm works, brands can identify what metrics they should prioritize in order to secure more visibility for their content.

What are non-engagement signals? Non-engagement signals are generated from two primary sources:

  1. In-app surveys: These give users have the opportunity to provide direct feedback about the platform. For instance, Pinterest may conduct surveys within the app to gather user insights.
  2. Independent assessments of content quality: This tends to be generated from manual labeling.

In addition to balancing engagement signals in content ranking, non-engagement signals enable Pinterest to align with its values. For example, Pinterest’s commitment to inclusivity is supported by non-engagement signals. When users specify preferences regarding body type, hair pattern, or skin tone in their feed, Pinterest can prioritize relevant content accordingly.

Field guide. Pinterest teamed up with UC Berkeley and the Integrity Institute to create the Field Guide to Non-Engagement Signals in a bid to help platforms create a better user experiences over time. Pinterest noted that the purpose of the guide is simply to help platforms make informed decisions when it comes to utilizing Non-Engagement Signals, as opposed to tell them what to do.

Key takeaways. The field guide, which is based on practical industry knowledge, offers several practical applications for product development, including:

What Pinterest is saying. Leif Sigerson, Pinterest Sr. Data Scientist, and Wendy Matheny, Pinterest Sr. Lead Public Policy Manager, said in a blog post:

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Deep dive. Read Pinterest’s blog in full or download a PDF copy of the field guide for more information.

Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing




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