Balancing personalized experiences and consumer privacy has become incredibly complex.. As a result, retailers are constantly looking for ways to engage, retarget, and personalize consumer experiences while complying with the ever-growing list of privacy laws.

One study showed that consumers were more open to explore beyond their usual products during the pandemic, with up to 75% trying new categories and 40% switching to new brands.

To help you navigate this tricky situation, we've put together some tips on how to tread the fine line between providing the personalized experience consumers crave and safeguarding your customers’ privacy. This balance is a delicate one that retailers must learn to strike if they hope to remain competitive.

The difference between personalization and privacy

E-commerce personalization should be all about delivering something relevant to your users. Try to also make it something they will relate to, as this will help build a strong connection with them. In turn, it will also start the process of forming a successful relationship. In the modern digital age, personalized and relevant content is essential if you want to keep your consumers engaged and interested in your products and services. However, this approach doesn't mean you should resort to over-tracking and collecting your users' personally identifiable information.

Instead, focus on understanding user intent to create relevant content that meets their needs. This approach allows you to deliver an exceptional experience without compromising your customers' privacy. As a bonus, you'll ensure they follow through with their purchase after abandoning their shopping cart.

Collect relevant data only

While data is essential for personalization, only collect the data you need to create a personalized experience. Businesses should avoid accumulating too much data or data that customers are not willing to share, as this can damage trust and discourage future engagement.

To strike the right balance, businesses should focus on collecting the most relevant data to the customer journey. This data might include basic demographic information, purchase history, and browsing behavior. By collecting only the necessary data, you can create personalized experiences that feel relevant and valuable to customers without compromising their privacy.

Personalize the experience for brand-new customers

As online traffic grows, most visitors remain anonymous, limiting the potential for personalization in the retail industry. However, there are ways to address this challenge. Consumers will often move on to the next best solution if they don't receive a personalized experience. Therefore, it is important to strategically navigate these changing times and not lose the opportunity to serve your customers.

Personalization is about providing a relatable experience to the user on a session-by-session basis. Losing that first opportunity to engage your visitors is not an option. Try using quizzes or surveys for first-time visitors. By asking questions and gathering consent-based reference data, you can gain valuable insights into your customers' wants and needs without invading their privacy.

By capturing the user and understanding their intent through consent-based reference data, you can obtain valuable customer data while respecting their privacy. When creating these strategies, consider that many new customers use their mobile devices to access your content, so you should account for a mobile app marketing option.

Machine-Learning and AI tech can help understand consumer behavior

To provide an exceptional customer experience, it is crucial to gather customer data based on their consent. Focus on omnichannel approaches that track visitors and consumers without compromising their privacy. There are conversational AI tools that can lessen the work of your team in this regard.

Personalization means delivering what customers want at the right moment; this strategy doesn't necessarily involve collecting and tracking their personal information. It's essential to remember that Gen Z consumers are particularly cautious about sharing their identities.

Aim to collect customer first-party data, ensuring it is based on their consent, then use it to personalize the customer experience. Find influencers people trust to communicate your message, then target your chosen audience with relevant content, offers, or products. It's essential to recognize that different customers have different preferences; some might respond to discounts, while others might appreciate informative content or product knowledge. A lightweight solution that helps to convert customers within the session is the way to go.

Communicate data policies clearly

To continue building trust with customers while encouraging them to share their data, you must communicate your data and privacy policies clearly and transparently. This transparency includes clearly explaining how you will use their data, who you’ll share it with, and how you will protect it.

To achieve this clarity, you should provide options for customers to opt out of data sharing and have their data deleted. We also recommend displaying security badges on your website to show customers that you protect their data and privacy. By breaking down their privacy policies in an easy-to-understand manner using FAQ-style language and infographics, you can help customers feel more comfortable sharing their data.

Branding and building trust 

Everything you do is a branding exercise, even down to the Amazon Custom Shortlinks you use. Educate your team on the importance of privacy in creating a positive customer experience across every business element.

With the constantly evolving landscape of data privacy laws, it's important to stay informed and up to date on the regulations in the countries and territories where you do business. This approach ensures you are always compliant and avoid legal issues that could damage your reputation.

Supercharge your E-commerce advertising

Happy customers equal good business, and toggling the line between personalization and privacy with the tips above is one of the many ways you can ensure it. We also recommend harnessing the power of MarinOne Insights to identify opportunities in your digital marketing programs automatically. Work smarter, not harder, with our expert help.

Accurate sales forecasting is key to the success of any business. Companies have been using traditional sales forecasting techniques for years, but are they as effective as they need to be?

The truth is accurate sales forecasting is difficult to predict and achieve under the most favorable of circumstances. A report by Korn Ferry revealed that only one-fourth of sales teams are able to attain 75% accuracy in their sales forecasting.

Thankfully, times have changed and sales forecasting has seen a great improvement with the introduction of CRM analytics tools. These tools provide you with reliable predictions that are highly accurate, making it easier to get the desired outcome for your business.

This article provides insight into how CRM analytics can be leveraged to make accurate sales forecasts. It aims to help you by outlining a winning strategy for your business, through executing CRM analytics in sales forecasting. 

What is Sales Forecast Accuracy?

Firstly, let us define sales forecast accuracy. This is the accuracy of your projection tools to predict forecasted sales for a given period of time. Accurate sales projections are essential to ensure adequate resource allocation, production forecasts, insights into customer behavior and a better understanding of market trends not only for the coming quarter, but ideally for several quarters ahead. Such data is vital for businesses to make well-informed decisions.

Here are some common outcomes if a sales forecast goes wrong. 

• Overproduction
• Underproduction
• Stockouts
• Excess inventory
• Customer dissatisfaction
• Hindrance in profitability

A reliable way to measure sales forecast accuracy is by looking back at the percentage difference between actual and forecasted sales performance. A smaller gap indicates that the prediction was more accurate, while a larger gap would mean the projection was not accurate. Businesses can use this information to refine their sales forecasting models, improve their forecasting processes, and make better decisions.

The Role Of CRM Analytics In Sales Forecasting

In the final two decades of the 20th century, sales and marketing achieved some significant milestones. Way back in 1987, the first automated CRM - Automated Contact Tracking (ACT) - was released. Over time, sales forecasting has been incorporated as a feature within this software and is used by many businesses today.

Let's dive into some of the key roles of CRM analytics in sales forecasting.

Customer Segmentation

By segregating customers based on common characteristics or behaviors, your business can tailor their sales forecasting strategies to each group. This can lead to higher customer satisfaction and increased sales. 

E.g., your business can create segments based on demographic data, including gender, age, and location. The segments might also include purchase behavior, such as frequency or value of purchases.

Perform Predictive Modeling

CRM analytics use data and statistical models to predict future customer behavior, like plausibility to purchase or churn. This way, your business can anticipate customer needs and proactively address issues. 

Using CRM analytics, you can analyze historical data and identify which campaigns and promotions have successfully driven sales. This can help your business focus the resources on the most effective strategies, improving your return on investment and overall profitability.

Identify Opportunities For Scalability

Using CRM analytics, now you can identify overlooked customer segments and new markets by the data acquired. These are budding opportunities to reach out to the needs of your customers by launching new products and services, which in turn boost sales revenue and scalability. 

Monitor Sales Performance

Using CRM analytics, you can monitor sales performance in real time. As a result, you can always be updated with the correct implementation of the current strategy, identify areas of improvement, and adjust your sales strategies accordingly.

Forecast Customer Lifetime Value

CRM analytics can help you predict the potential lifetime value of customers. So next time, you can prioritize and invest in the customers adding more value to your organization. 

Identify Cross-Selling And Upselling Opportunities

Forecasting accuracy is achieved by identifying the singular opportunities that add to increased revenue. Cross-selling and upselling are some critical points for potential revenue you wouldn’t want to miss without having to drastically increase lead volume. CRM analytics can analyze customer data and provide business-driven insights to pinpoint the places your business could be better optimizing your cross-sell and upsell strategies. 

Importance Of Accurate Sales Forecasting For Businesses

Although we have covered CRM sales forecasting as a successful method for getting accurate results, there are several significant reasons why accurate sales forecasting is critical for businesses. Here are a few: 

Resource allocation

Sales forecasts are used to allocate resources such as personnel, equipment, and inventory. If a company overestimates sales, it may invest too much in these resources, resulting in overproduction, waste, and unnecessary costs. Conversely, if a company underestimates sales, it may not allocate enough resources, leading to stockouts and lost sales.

Financial planning

Accurate sales forecasts are essential for financial planning, budgeting, and cash flow management. By accurately forecasting sales, businesses can plan their expenses and investments to optimize their financial performance including overhead and new hires.

Production planning

Sales forecasts play a critical role in production planning, as they help businesses determine how much product to produce and when to produce it. Accurate forecasts can help businesses avoid stockouts and excess inventory–issues that often lead to reduced profits and increased costs.

Marketing strategy

Sales forecasts give businesses insights into consumer behavior and market trends, which can inform marketing tactics. By accurately forecasting sales, businesses can adjust their marketing efforts to maximize their return on investment.

Investor confidence

Investors rely on accurate sales forecasts to assess a company's performance and growth potential. Investors may view a company that consistently misses its sales targets negatively, which can impact its ability to secure funding and grow.

In a nutshell, accurate sales forecasting is essential for businesses to make informed decisions, optimize resources, and improve their financial performance. By investing in accurate forecasting methods and tools, businesses can gain a competitive advantage and position themselves for long-term success.

Understanding CRM Analytics

CRM analytics refers to the process of analyzing data from a company's customer relationship management system (CRM) to gain insights into customer behavior, preferences, and needs. This data can then be used to increase sales, improve customer engagement, and boost customer satisfaction.

Let’s dive a bit deeper and understand what CRM does and how its analytics benefit you. 

A CRM is a powerful database system that stores information on:

• Company customers’ contact information
• Customers’ purchase history
• Customer service interactions 

Companies can unleash patterns and trends in their customer data by using tools like data visualization, predictive modeling, and machine learning algorithms. 

For example, they might discover that customers who purchase certain products are more likely to make repeat purchases or that customers who interact with customer service through social media are more likely to give high satisfaction ratings.

Likewise, companies can make informed and data-driven decisions on how to engage with their customers. Another way to utilize customer data would be to send personalized recommendations to customers based on their purchase history. This creates a sense of customized experiences contributing to customer trust and retention. 

Implementing CRM Analytics for Sales Forecasting

Depicted above is how CRM and sales forecasting are linked. Let's walk through four easy steps to execute accurate sales forecasting using CRM analytics :

Identify The Data Sources

The first step to implementing CRM sales forecasting is identifying the data sources. Here are some data points of which you ought to be mindful:

• Customer Interactions
• Purchase Histories
• Website Traffic
• Social Media Activity

The data from these sources can help your business understand customer behavior and preferences comprehensively. 

Develop a Data Model

The next step to successful sales forecasting is to develop a data model. 

A data model will help you structure the facts and figures to pave the way for a successful analysis. This step may involve creating segments on customer characteristics or purchase behavior. You will also be able to develop a predictive model to forecast the customers’ future behavior. 

Analyze the Data

Now that you have a well-versed data model, you can now identify patterns and trends through the data model analysis. E.g., using statistical models to identify correlations and patterns or using machine learning algorithms to predict future behavior.  

Generate Reports And Insights

The final step in implementing CRM analytics for sales forecasting is to generate reports and insights. With this final step, you will be ready to make informed business-winning decisions. 

You can see your insights in KPI dashboards and monitor real-time data on sales performance. You can also get a hold of reports providing insights into customer behavior and preferences. 

The Road Ahead of Accurate Sales Forecasts

Summing up how CRM analytics affects sales forecasts, here are a few key takeaways:

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• By using CRM analytics, you can leverage customer visibility by quickly accessing accounts, tasks, contracts, and events of individual users leading to higher performing marketing actions.
• With customer segmentation, you can get a better identify opportunities for scalability, monitor sales performance, forecast customer lifetime value, and more. 
• With a concrete plan to integrate CRM analytics into sales forecasting, you are ready to take business-winning decisions with a map to guide you.  

Initially implementing CRM analytics requires a significant investment in data infrastructure and expertise. But this investment paves a long road to greater ROI. 

To learn how to optimize your sales process end-to-end, get in touch with the professionals at Marin Software. We're ready to help you make the most of your advertising investment leading to a more consistent CRM lead funnel.

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Shweta is a guest contributor to the Marin Software blog.

If you’re a business looking to differentiate yourself from competitors, switching up your marketing strategy should be your go-to. 

Creating killer marketing assets allows you to stand out, convert potential customers, and create an instantly recognizable brand identity. 

But what exactly are marketing assets, and how can you make them as effective as possible? Let’s dive in! 

What are Marketing Assets?

Marketing assets are tools used by organizations to promote their products or services. The most common examples include landing pages, blog posts, social media posts, infographics, videos, and eBooks. 

Marketing assets help you differentiate yourself from competitors, explain your unique offering to customers, and convert prospects.

With the rise of video platforms and sites like Instagram proving just how valuable visual content is, making your digital marketing assets visually appealing has never been more crucial. Creating landing pages that look stuck in the 90s or social media posts with questionable filters is a no-go. 

The good news? There are tons of stock photos, videos, and vectors you can use to set your marketing assets apart from the rest, as well as fresh content ideas to keep your site and social media page up to date.  

If you’re new to design or simply need a refresher, here are our top tips for creating marketing assets that will have your customers scrambling at your (virtual) door and your competitors scrambling to keep up. 

Create a Strong Brand Identity

If you think about the biggest, most popular brands, they probably have one thing in common - a strong, instantly recognizable brand identity. 

Consistency is key in cultivating a strong brand identity with the help of your marketing assets. The most important marketing assets will be your website, blog, and social media page, so keeping the types of images, font, and colors consistent across all three is critical. 

Your tone of voice is equally as important as the visuals. Whether you write in an informal, conversational style or a formal, more authoritative one, picking a tone of voice that resonates with your audience and sticking to it is a must. 

Make the Most of Social Media 

Social media posts are some of the best marketing assets you can use in your strategy. People worldwide presently spend an average of 2 hours and 28 minutes per day scrolling through social media platforms, according to Hootsuite.

The best part is that creating a business account on a social media platform is free, so it’s one of the lowest-cost marketing techniques you can use. 

To keep things simple, start by working with the channels most likely to connect you to your target audience. If you’re targeting Gen Z and millennials, this will be Instagram or TikTok, while Gen X and baby boomers are more likely to use Facebook. 

To create a coherent brand identity across your social media profile, use the same colors, typography, and tone of voice that you use in your other marketing assets. 

No design experience? No problem! You don’t have to be a professional graphic designer to create marketing assets that look good. Use templates, vector images, and easy-to-use image creation software to get started with social media posts.  

Tell Your Story

Implementing storytelling in your marketing assets can be a game changer for your marketing strategy. Creating a narrative around your brand can make it easier for potential customers to connect with you emotionally. 

Using storytelling in your assets can even make your brand more memorable. 

You can use free videos for your content on your social media channel or your product’s videos as part of your product descriptions to give customers a more realistic view of what they’re buying and reduce returns. 

Bonus points if you feature a content creator popular in your niche in your video content or feature user-generated content in your marketing assets. 

With 53% of shoppers saying they always do research before buying a product, having previous buyers vouch for what you’re selling can massively increase trust in your brand. 

Create Easy-to-Read Blogs

Blogs benefit your business in various ways - they can improve your SEO, boost brand awareness, and cement your status as an authority in your industry. 

Here’s the catch. 

If blogs are thousands of words long with no subheadings, long paragraphs, and a lack of visual content, readers can easily switch off, and you’ll miss out on the desired effects of improved conversion rates and brand trust. 

To keep your blogs as readable as possible (and optimized for Google’s algorithm), add subheadings to signal new topics, write in paragraphs no longer than four lines, and add visuals such as images and infographics where applicable. 

Consider Video Case Studies

Case studies are widely perceived to be the gold standard of testimonials. 

Proving how your product or service has benefited an individual or company by letting them tell their own story combines two of the most effective techniques in the world of marketing - storytelling and user-generated content. 

Imagine you could take your case studies to a whole new level. That’s where video case studies come in. By tapping into the popularity of video content and its ability to build trust with consumers, you can increase the effectiveness of some of the most popular marketing assets, case studies. 

Focus on Consistency, Authenticity, and Connection

Your marketing assets should allow your target audience to feel more connected to you and better understand what your brand stands for. 

Using images and videos can make your content more visually appealing, while settling on color and typography brand guidelines can help you create an instantly-recognizable look. 

For the best chance at capturing the minds of your potential customer base, focus on cultivating a consistent brand identity, using storytelling, and creating marketing assets across various platforms.

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Filip Nikoloski is a guest contributor to Marin Software's blog and website.

We recently attended B2B Online in Chicago to get a sense of how distributors and manufacturers are delving into digital marketing to create full-funnel B2B customer journeys. Read on to get an overview of key themes industry experts shared on day one. Some of the most important topics throughout the day were about increasing ROI, developing the ultimate tech stack, aligning sales with your digital strategy, and leveraging the power of e-commerce marketplaces. 

Modern Marketing to Increase ROI

To increase ROI, marketers should keep up with the latest trends and technologies. Key strategies discussed include:

• Leveraging digital marketing channels: Develop a comprehensive strategy that includes social media, email marketing, SEO, and pay-per-click advertising.
• Measuring ROI through analytics: Use marketing analytics tools to track website traffic, conversion rates, and customer engagement.
• Personalizing marketing efforts: Segment audiences based on demographics, behaviors, and interests to create personalized campaigns.
• Incorporating influencer marketing and user-generated content: Partner with influencers and encourage customers to create and share content.

Developing the Ultimate Tech Stack

Building an efficient tech stack requires understanding business needs and goals. Some of the most important tools for digital marketers to consider include:

• Identifying key components: CRM software, marketing automation tools, and analytics platforms are crucial for managing customer data, automating marketing tasks, and gaining insights.
• Evaluating and selecting tools: Research different options and choose those that meet specific business needs.
• Integrating and optimizing the tech stack: Ensure seamless integration and collaboration between different tools for improved efficiency.
• Ensuring data security and privacy compliance: Implement measures to protect customer data and comply with privacy regulations.

Aligning Sales

Aligning sales and marketing goals is crucial for driving revenue. The experts shared various methods for making this happen:

• Implementing a sales enablement strategy: Provide sales teams with the right tools, resources, and training.
• Using data analytics to optimize sales processes: Gain insights into customer behavior and preferences to improve engagement and increase sales.
• Aligning sales compensation with business goals: Develop a compensation plan that rewards performance and aligns with objectives.
• Providing ongoing training and development: Continuously improve sales teams' skills and knowledge.

Transforming Digital Experience with Nordson

Nordson Corporation's digital transformation journey highlighted the importance of enhancing the user experience and leveraging technology. Here's what Nordson did to be successful:

• Leveraging the power of Coveo: Nordson used Coveo to scale their business and streamline the user experience.
• Enhancing product discovery: Nordson's strong taxonomy foundation improved product discovery on their website.
• Benefits of a streamlined user experience: A seamless and responsive experience leads to better engagement and business value.

Reimagining Sales to Include E-commerce

Integrating e-commerce into sales strategies is crucial for growth. Some key points that were shared more than once: 

• The importance of a digital frontend: Digital should be an integral part of the selling process.
• Understanding headless selling: Leveraging technology and analytics to integrate digital selling and drive growth.
• Personalization and customer experience: Emphasizing the role of personalization and focusing on customer satisfaction.
• Measuring success and optimizing strategies: Tracking key metrics and continuously improving e-commerce sales approaches.

Proactive vs. Reactive: Enabling E-procurement

Procurement teams must adapt to remove inefficiencies in the Procure-to-Pay process. Key topics discussed include:

• Understanding e-Procurement and its benefits: Emphasizing the cost savings, efficiency, and supplier relationship improvements.
• Modernizing the e-commerce platform: Evolving e-commerce platforms to incorporate e-Procurement features and functionalities.
• Managing suppliers and vendor relationships: Establishing effective requirements and measuring supplier performance.
• Collaboration between departments: The importance of aligning procurement and e-commerce teams and breaking down silos for improved communication and efficiency.
• ROI goals for e-Procurement and the company: Defining ROI goals, factors impacting ROI, and strategies for maximizing ROI.
• Corporate social responsibility and hitting goals: Integrating CSR into procurement processes and aligning e-Procurement initiatives with CSR goals.

Bullsh*t Bingo in B2B Commerce: What Is Real, What Is Fake, and What Matters

This presentation highlighted the importance of transparency and authenticity in B2B marketing and sales. This was definitely the most lively, entertaining and informative presentation of the week. Here's what they ultimately had to say:

• Identifying common "bullsh*t" in B2B marketing: Vague claims, jargon, and inflated statistics.
• Negative effects of "bullsh*t" on trust and relationships.
• Benefits of transparency and authenticity: Building trust and differentiation.
• Strategies for avoiding "bullsh*t": Fact-checking, asking for proof, and focusing on specific outcomes.
• Role of customer feedback and reviews: Separating real from fake in B2B commerce.
• Ethical considerations in marketing and sales.

Myth Busting False B2B Online Beliefs

The presentation debunked common myths in B2B marketing. We've provided below the most common myths they "busted" and what B2B marketers should actually be doing:

• B2B buyers using social media: Importance of having a social media presence as a B2B company as this is a key way to build trust, brand authenticity, and have potential buyers find you.
• Importance of visual content in B2B marketing: Engaging B2B buyers through visual content should not be underestimated as it can have a lasting effect on your company's perception.
• Digital channels in B2B sales: The role of digital channels and the increasing reliance of B2B buyers on them–it's well past time to move away from traditional methods.
• Personalization in B2B marketing: Building stronger relationships with B2B buyers through personalization is a good technique for creating a healthy returning customer base.
• Role of brand storytelling in B2B marketing: Differentiating a company from competitors through brand storytelling is not just for CPG or D2C brands.
• Building brand awareness in B2B marketing: Importance of brand reputation beyond lead generation.
• Emotional factors in B2B marketing: Considering emotional factors alongside rational decisions.

Building a Paid Brand Presence to Reach Consumers

A paid brand presence is vital for standing out in a crowded market. Here are the highlights of what was shared:

• Importance of paid brand presence: Increasing visibility, brand recognition, and sales.
• Understanding the target audience: Defining demographics, psychographics, and online behaviors.
• Crafting an effective paid brand strategy: Setting clear goals, selecting appropriate channels, and determining budgets.
• Creating engaging ad content: Using visuals, clear messaging, and A/B testing.
• Measuring and optimizing paid brand presence: Tracking performance metrics and continuously refining strategies.

How the Modern PIM is Driving Growth with Automation and AI

The main presentation surrounding this topic focused on the role of modern Product Information Management (PIM) systems in driving growth. Some quick takeaways from that presentation are as follows:

• Overview of modern PIM solutions: Core features, data modeling, enrichment, and syndication.
• Importance of automation in PIM: Streamlining data entry, validation, and categorization.
• Role of AI in PIM: Leveraging machine learning to analyze product data and optimize information.
• Benefits of automating attribution: Reducing errors and increasing efficiency.
• Generating potent product descriptions using AI: Personalizing descriptions for different channels and audiences.
• Case studies of successful PIM implementations: Increased sales and improved customer experience.
• PIM's role in omnichannel commerce: Delivering consistent and accurate product information.
• Key considerations when selecting a PIM solution: Integration capabilities, scalability, and ease of use.
• Future trends in PIM: Natural language processing and image recognition for automation.

Getting the Ball Rolling With Customer Adoption in B2B Global E-commerce

The fireside chat focused on the importance of customer adoption in B2B e-commerce. Key insights discussed include:

• Customer adoption impacts revenue growth and sustainability.
• Develop a customer-centric approach with personalized experiences and data analytics.
• Address global e-commerce adoption challenges like cultural differences and regulatory compliance.
• Navigate B2B e-commerce distribution channels for efficient supply chain models.
• Build a comprehensive customer acquisition strategy using paid advertising and content marketing.
• Leverage AI for cross-selling and upselling to optimize customer lifetime value.
• Collaborate with technology partners for customized e-commerce platforms.
• Embrace emerging trends like mobile and voice commerce for innovative experiences.
• Measure and report customer adoption metrics for continuous improvement.
• De-risk e-commerce platforms with fraud prevention and data protection measures.
• Manage customer expectations for delivery times and product quality.
• Ensure robust disaster recovery and business continuity plans.

Where B2B marketers may have some changes to make compared to their B2C counterpoints is in maintaining transparency, authenticity, and ethical standards in marketing and sales. With additional focus in these areas, all the experts who presented agree that long-term relationships with customers will ultimately lead to long-term success…especially for manufacturers and distributors.

To address these areas for potential improvement, the industry expert presentations shared at B2B Online Chicago provided valuable guidance for increasing ROI, developing tech stacks, aligning sales, leveraging e-commerce, and succeeding in the marketplace model. It's clear that by embracing digital technologies, personalization, and customer-centric approaches, B2B businesses can enhance their marketing efforts, streamline operations, and drive revenue growth.

PPC advertising has revolutionized the world of online advertising, allowing businesses of all sizes to reach their target audience and generate conversions. However, managing PPC campaigns can be a time-consuming and laborious process, especially for businesses that run multiple campaigns simultaneously. This is where MarinOne comes in, providing businesses with a powerful and efficient automation tool that can save time, improve accuracy, and increase efficiency.

MarinOne Scripts is a part of MarinOne, a comprehensive cross-channel advertising platform that integrates all of a business's advertising data into a single platform. With MarinOne Scripts, businesses can automate various aspects of PPC campaign management, including adjusting bids, budgets, and ad status based on preset logic. Similar to MarinOne bidding, automated changes to bids and budgets allow businesses to focus on strategic aspects of their marketing program while MarinOne Scripts takes care of the routine tasks. Since MarinOne Scripts leverages Python, users can leverage Scripts that handle spend optimization, keyword expansion, negative keyword mining, data analysis, and ad copy optimization. 

Automate Bidding, Budgets, and Keyword Monitoring

With MarinOne Scripts, businesses can automate bid adjustments and budget allocation, eliminating the need for manual monitoring and adjustment. MarinOne Scripts can also help businesses identify underperforming keywords and pause or adjust them automatically, saving valuable time. Users can customize scripts so that they can chain actions together - ex.everytime a poor performing kw is paused, it is also added as a negative keyword to the original campaign and/or all campaigns. 

Increase Efficiency Based on Performance

Another benefit of MarinOne Scripts is that it increases efficiency. MarinOne Scripts automatically adjusts SmartBidding targets based on performance data, ensuring that businesses get the most out of their ad spend. It can also optimize ad copy to improve conversion rates and reduce cost-per-click. By streamlining the PPC campaign management process, MarinOne Scripts helps businesses improve their efficiency and increase their ROI.

Increase Accuracy with AI

MarinOne Scripts improves accuracy of data analysis as it minimizes the instances of human error - a common problem in manual PPC campaign management. MarinOne Scripts eliminates the risk of human error by automating several aspects of campaign management. This ensures that businesses get accurate and reliable data on their campaign performance, allowing them to make data-driven decisions. It also ensures business continuity in the event that a PPC manager has unexpected time off and is unable to manually monitor and/or optimize PPC campaigns. 

Customize and Scale All Advertising Campaigns Cross-Channel

In addition to saving time, increasing efficiency, and improving accuracy, MarinOne Scripts is scalable and customizable, making it an ideal solution for businesses of all sizes. Whether a business is managing a single campaign or multiple campaigns, MarinOne Scripts can help automate and optimize PPC campaigns across online ad accounts. 

MarinOne Scripts customization capabilities give advertisers the flexibility to create automation rules that are tailored to their unique business goals and objectives. Each script can have pre-defined start and end dates - this way, advertisers can apply scripts that are aligned with their business calendar. As an example, end of quarter spend governance rules may be more flexible than start of quarter so two scripts with complimentary start and end dates would ensure that the appropriate spend governance rules are applied. 

With scalability and customization options, MarinOne Scripts is a valuable asset for any business that wants to get the most out of its PPC campaigns. Speak to us today about getting started and trying MarinOne Scripts for free during the first 30 days.

Why recreate the wheel? New ads are often similar to existing ads. The powerful Copy Tool in MarinOne lets you easily copy campaigns, groups, keywords, creatives, and placements across accounts and publishers. You can also apply Find and Replace during the copy process.

Find and Replace

The Find and Replace feature is also available as a standalone tool, allowing you to quickly make changes to your ads without editing each one individually or dealing with downloading and uploading bulk files. Instead, simply input the text you'd like to find and the text you'd like to replace, then MarinOne will handle the rest. When managing large campaigns with many different assets, such as RSAs, Find and Replace can be a big time saver. 

 Used side by side, the copy tool and find and replace functionality allow you to turn a single permutation of an ad into many different permutations featuring updated brand names, product types, headlines, description lines, display URLs, and more. 

Want to learn more about MarinOne? Take a 3-minute product tour here.

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What if I say, “Subscribe to our email newsletter at the end of the article?” Probably, you’ll skip it and forget when reaching the subscription button. Why? Because a compelling call to action is not only about using action words. CTAs should appear at the right place and contain the right words to lead to conversion.

A CTA is a suggestion to people to perform a certain action: subscribe, download an ebook, schedule a call, etc. Website owners place them in various parts of the page, depending on the goals, such as:

• above the fold;
• in the middle of an article;
• next to the lead form;
• in the right rail and many other places. 

How should you arrange CTAs to encourage the audience to do what’s expected? This post will enumerate some helpful tips for successful call-to-action writing and show real-world examples from various spheres.

Image credit: Freepik

7 Proven Tips for Crafting Effective CTAs

Choose the Right Action Verb

CTAs usually appear precisely at the end of the message. It’s the last opportunity to reach out to consumers and point them in the right direction on their purchase journey. Where can you see them? On buttons, ads, banners, pop-ups, slide-ins, or at the end of videos. In any case, you have limited space for them. That’s why the CTA should be short, concise, and punchy.

Use a command verb at the beginning of the CTA copy. Compare the following variants and think of what will be more effective:

• Start your 14-day free trial period now.
• A 14-day trial period is available.

The first option is the clear winner because it tells the audience what to do. Remember that a strong call to action eliminates as much thought as possible. Choose the needed verb to match your situation and purpose, such as:

• sign up, subscribe, register now/get access
• download, start free trial;
• learn more, click here;
• buy/purchase, shop, order.

Use Power Words and Emotional Triggers

Another crucial component of call-to-action writing is power words. These are words that appeal to emotions and trigger the desire to click. While action verbs tell readers what to do and what will happen after clicking a link, power words subtly nudge people to the desired page. They rely on people’s emotions as a motivation to proceed, such as:

• fear: mistake, nightmare, painful, crisis, danger;
• encouragement: amazing, astonishing, life-changing, astounding, effortless;
• lust: thrilling, pleasurable, mouthwatering, compelling, engaging;
• anger: misleading, diminish, infuriating, annoying;
• greed: double, profit, explode, quadruple, extra, reduced;
• safety: proven, risk-free, moneyback, secure, refund;
• curiosity: lost, never seen before, unconventional, invitation only, confidential.

A strong CTA is the one people feel, not just comprehend. For example, “Secure your spot for the concert of a lifetime now,” will elicit a different response from viewers than, “Get your tickets for the concert now!” due to phrases like “lifetime” and “secure”. Another way to evoke enthusiasm is to leverage punctuation like an ellipsis or an exclamation mark.

Create Urgency and Scarcity

As most purchases are emotional rather than rational, another motivator can be a fear of missing out (FOMO). It’s one of the most widely-used tactics in e-commerce, where sellers show the number of remaining goods or the time left until the discount expires. So you can do it in the CTA.

The more people think, the less likely they will buy, remember? A sense of urgency/scarcity encourages people to act without much consideration. You can also find FOMO in social proof. If someone uses this product or service, others will be interested in joining the crowd. You can employ this idea in the CTA. Find a problem that your audience is experiencing. Emphasize it, show people they are not alone, and provide a solution.

Highlight the Benefits and Value Proposition

There is hardly anything more persuasive than a benefit. It works as simply as suggesting some perks for clicking the button. In other words, what are consumers going to gain from it? Will it enable people to perform their jobs more effectively, get in shape, or save money? You can add a tangible benefit like a discount or promotion. To show readers the value of clicking, start the CTA with words like “save” or “redeem” like “Save 15% by calling today!”

Or you can combine a USP and CTA in a single statement to persuade potential customers to take action. By highlighting what makes your product or service unique and motivating the user to take a specific action in line with that USP, you can increase the chances of converting them into leads or customers. Here’s an example of a USP/CTA mash-up:

“Get the best deals on luxury vacations - Book now and save 50%!”

Here you mention the action you expect users to perform (“book now”) and bring up a reason to do it (“save 50%”).

Personalize the CTA for the Target Audience

Personalization is one of the easiest ways to elicit emotions. It shows users that you value them and take a genuine interest in guiding them through the purchase journey smoothly. That’s why personalized CTAs can be so effective. According to Hubspot, tailored CTAs outperform standard CTAs by 202%.

Suppose a new website visitor, John, adds some products to the cart but leaves without buying them. You can show an exit-intent pop-up before he closes the tab with a personalized advertising call to action, such as: “John, get 10% off your first purchase! Plus, free shipping on orders over $50. Shop now and start saving!”

But if it was your existing customer, Rebecca, you could show her another pop-up, such as: “Welcome back, Rebecca! As a valued customer, we’d like to offer you 15% off your next purchase. Take advantage of this exclusive offer by making your purchase right away!”

Consider your audience when crafting your message, and address them specifically. You can segment people by age, gender, profession, level of proficiency in using your software, and other traits to offer the most relevant products and services.

Apart from writing a tailored message in your CTA, personalization can also be achieved by using new tools for sales documents creation. If you go with an interactive sales deck or proposal, you can add an impactful CTA by embedding your own calendar in the message, so that your potential customer can book their next meeting simply by reading your proposal.

Include Numbers If Relevant

Numbers catch the readers’ attention because they stand out on the page with text. So it’s another way to persuade people to click. Numbers also provide information that audiences want, like phone numbers, pricing, or advantages. For example, “Learn a new language in just 30 days with our intensive course.” It’s easy to spot the numbers, so viewers will immediately grasp the possible advantages of responding to your CTA.

You can also include a price in the ad copy and CTA. Why should you do it? On the one hand, you may scare away users from clicking the button and reading more about the product. On the other, if people deliberately respond to the ad knowing about your pricing, it shows their interest in the offer. It reduces the chances of bouncing from the landing page, increasing the return on ad spend.

Test and Optimize the CTA

Calls to action are tricky since you won’t know how effective they are until you put them to the test in real life. An idea that seems terrific on paper may not work well in practice. Thus, you need to understand why the CTA performs poorly and what doesn’t appeal to viewers. But how do you determine the need to change something? Through A/B testing.

A CTA is one of the most accessible and suitable page elements for the A/B test. A small change in word choice can have a significant impact. A/B testing lets you find the best option not only in terms of wording but also in placement, colors, size, etc.

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Examples of Incredible CTAs

Now that we know the best practices for organizing CTAs, let’s examine how different companies do it. We’ll analyze call-to-action examples of online stores, SaaS companies, and nonprofit organizations.

E-commerce CTAs

Converse

Screenshot taken on the official Converse website

The first example under consideration is from Converse, a renowned lifestyle brand. The company uses several tips mentioned above:

• the language is simple to comprehend;
• numbers are showing the benefits of performing a particular action, such as 15% off the next order for signing up;
• the CTAs stand out from the rest of the content because they are bold or contrasting.

Ulster Weavers

Screenshot taken on Ulster Weavers

In this example from Ulster Weavers, we see the emphasis on FOMO. The bag is at a lower price, but only one item is available, so the retailer leaves us less time to think but to click the “Add to Cart” or “Buy it now” button.

Kusmi Tea

Screenshot taken on the official Kusmi Tea website

Kusmi Tea decided to play with words and use the CTA “Enjoy now” instead of a basic “Click here” or “Shop now”. Don’t be afraid to get creative, as Kusmi Tea does in this screenshot. You can also notice that there is a lot of space around the button. This trick and the contrasting black color on the orange background make the CTA more visible.

Service-Based Call-to-Action Examples

Salesforce

Screenshot taken on the official Salesforce website

Here we can see several CTAs. Salesforce directs the viewer’s attention to them in the following ways:

• “Start free trial” is in the hero section of the website and is filled with color. So we understand it’s more important than the “Watch demo” button next to it.
• “Try for free” is filled with a contrasting green color for more emphasis. It also denotes no obligation to pay at the moment of clicking.
• The “Let’s chat” button is also noticeable. The photo on it aims to create a personal connection with the visitors and increase the likelihood of them engaging in a chat.

Time Doctor 

Screenshot taken on the official Time Doctor website

When adding creativity to your CTA, be careful with misleading users. For example, the screenshot from Time Doctor illustrates two CTAs on the exit-intent pop-up: 

• “Yes, help me increase my team’s productivity.”
• “No, I don’t need insight on what my team is doing.”

Unfortunately, they lack information about what will happen after choosing each. While you may guess the second button will close the pop-up, the first one may be confusing. Will I schedule a call, download the app, or get to the checkout page? No idea.

Exabytes

Screenshot taken on the official Exabytes website

This screenshot from Exabytes demonstrates a personalized approach. The CTA contains a personal pronoun, “My”, creating a sense of ownership and exclusivity in the customer’s mind.

Nonprofit CTAs

Elevation Church

Screenshot taken from the newsletter from the official Elevation Church website

It’s an email from Elevation Church. We can see that the organization displayed creativity in its “READY. SET. SHOP” advertising call to action. What may be the reason for that? It can be a powerful way to reach younger generations and differentiate an email from other generic promotions.

African Wildlife Foundation

Screenshot taken on the official African Wildlife Foundation website

Another nonprofit with impactful calls to action is African Wildlife Foundation. They are one of the first things you notice on the page. CTAs are concise and inspire supporters to learn more about the organization or donate immediately.

Over to You

Calls to action are indispensable elements of web forms, ad campaigns, emails, and social media content. What are the tips for designing them? We’ve looked at the top seven strategies, including:

• beginning with a powerful verb;
• appealing to emotions;
• leveraging numbers;
• offering benefits;
• instilling a sense of urgency;
• personalizing CTAs according to user preferences, behavior, and types;
• testing various aspects of CTAs thoroughly.

These tips will help you amplify your conversion rates and find the key to your audience.

Let’s face it, URL tracking parameters are an essential part of the digital marketing experience but can be tricky and time-consuming to get right. So we’ve made it easy with the upgraded URL Builder in MarinOne. Best of all, the built-in autocorrect automatically identifies and fixes URLs incorrectly set up.

The MarinOne URL Builder allows you to create, apply, and manage Tracking Templates, Custom Parameters, Redirects, and more across publishers and tracking solutions in MarinOne. Currently, the MarinOne URL Builder supports Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! Japan. In addition, it automatically handles encoding if you are using redirects and makes managing custom parameters a breeze.

Think of your URL tracking templates as the building blocks for your tracking. Typical integrations see one tracking template used for one set of query string parameters. 

Redirects

The URL Builder makes managing redirects simple. You can customize your URL by specifying the precise redirect you plan to use and any encoding. 

• None: Select this option if no redirects are needed.
• Single: For URLs with a single redirect.
• Double: For URLs with a double redirect.
  

If you use Single or Double redirects, you will also have the option to use the corresponding encoding. 

The Final Template (Preview Field)

As you build out your landing page, redirects, and custom parameters, you will see your Template Preview start to build out at the bottom of your tracking template. 

This template is a combination of three things:

• Redirect URL (if used)
• Landing Page
• Landing Page parameters

Custom Parameters

Google Custom Parameters allow you to specify URL snippets (in the form of key/value pairs) that can be substituted by Google when Google serves the ad. Custom parameters will only be substituted into a Tracking Template when explicitly referenced. 

For example, if your Tracking Template is: http://www.example.com?mkwid={_mkwid}

And your keyword custom parameter is {_mkwid}=abc123; the URL in the ad for that keyword will contain the resolved custom parameter: http://www.example.com?mkwid=abc123

where abc123 represents the specific object (Keyword, Placement, Product Group, etc.).

Bulk Upload can set Custom Parameters for any Google objects. However, by defining them in the URL Builder, you can let Marin add them automatically. Because Custom Parameters can contain URL snippets that differ across objects, most custom parameters defined in the URL Builder will be Marin Macros. 

To set up the URL Builder so that all keywords are given a custom parameter containing Marin’s unique tracking parameter, you would define: {_mkwid}=[uniq_id] in the URL Builder, and the appropriate value will then be substituted into each keyword when the URL Builder settings are applied. The example keyword’s [uniq_id] resolved to “abc123” in the case above.

Autocorrect

The URL Builder can apply URL settings to objects when they synced into Marin. This automatically adds tracking and corrects mistakes when campaigns sync into Marin. Set your Autocorrect preferences to On, Off, or Warn; these settings will apply to your entire MarinOne Client Account.

Want to learn more about MarinOne? Take a 3-minute product tour here.

Providing a great customer service experience can help you get ahead of your competitors, and there are plenty of statistics that can prove it. If your website doesn’t offer a great visitor experience, you could be missing out on a bi     g opportunity to provide value that will impact your conversion rate. 

To get a high return on your website's hard-earned traffic, you need more visitors to take the action you desire. By running a customer-centric conversion rate optimization (CRO) audit, you can gain deeper insights into your users’ needs, discover which parts of your site are actually maximizing conversions, and run tests to see what’s working and what’s not. 

In this guide, we’ll explain everything you need to know, from what a CRO audit is to how you can get started. 

What is a conversion rate optimization audit?

A CRO audit is a comprehensive evaluation of a website's design, structure, and content with the aim of improving the site’s conversion rate. The goal of a CRO audit is to identify the barriers and pain points that are preventing website visitors from completing the desired actions, such as making a purchase, filling out a form, or signing up for a service. 

The process involves analyzing website data, user behavior, and customer feedback to gain a deeper understanding of the user experience and determine which elements can be optimized to increase conversions. By conducting a CRO audit, businesses can make data-driven decisions to improve their website and achieve better results.

Why is a CRO audit important?

A CRO audit can lower your customer acquisition costs by generating increased value from the visitors and users you already have on your site. CRO audits also help you identify bottlenecks in your conversion funnel, and can provide valuable data, enabling you to make informed decisions about website and marketing strategies, which can ultimately lead to increased customer engagement, loyalty, and revenue. In addition to improving traffic quality, CRO audits also allow you to pinpoint prospects’ behavioral characteristics so you can better meet their needs. 

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CRO audit checklist

Here’s a handy CRO audit checklist to make sure you don’t miss anything important. 

Define key conversion actions

Before embarking on your CRO journey, take time to set conversion goals and plan which conversions to track. Conversions can be defined as a user action that brings users closer to becoming a paying customer. 

To accurately determine the key conversions for your business, it's important to involve various stakeholders and gain a clear understanding of what conversion means across your organization. In addition to tracking macro conversions like purchases and subscriptions, consider micro conversions along the customer journey, such as adding a product to a wish list or watching a demo video.

Concentrate on priority pages

It's important to prioritize analyzing pages that have the greatest potential to impact your conversions. To determine the most impactful pages, consider both the amount of traffic the page receives and where it fits in the customer journey.

You'll want to focus on pages that are both conversion-oriented and have a healthy traffic volume, as this will allow you to quickly see the results of your optimization efforts and determine if you're headed in the right direction. However, it's important to note that top-of-the-funnel (TOFU) content, which is designed to create awareness about a product, often receives a lot of traffic, but may not lead to direct conversions since it's positioned at the beginning of the customer journey.

Instead, consider prioritizing pages that serve as key touchpoints in the customer journey, such as specific landing pages designed to convert, or pages where users sign up for demos or download whitepapers or ebooks. 

Analyze user behavior

Once you have a good understanding of which conversion actions and pages you want to audit and optimize, the next step is to analyze the behavior of your website's visitors to gain insights into their engagement and conversion patterns. Use the goal conversion tracking feature in Google Analytics and enable event tracking to monitor key conversion actions such as purchases, newsletter signups, and webinar registrations.

Use Voice-of-the-Customer (VoC) insights

To truly understand what users want and need, go beyond quantitative data. Studies prove that businesses that place more focus on their customer experience end up increasing their revenues by 4%–8% more than their competitors. They also show that VoC programs result in 55% higher retention rates.

With statistics like these, it’s important to conduct customer research and interviews to uncover the motivations behind conversions and the barriers preventing users from becoming customers. Get a clear understanding of what users think about different elements of your site and gather more information about your customers through surveys. With this information, you can address specific pain points that are hindering conversions, enabling you to make improvements where needed. 

Combine qualitative and quantitative data

This approach will provide you with a comprehensive view of user satisfaction, objectives, and obstacles, enabling you to identify which factors are preventing conversions. When your CRO audit is complete, pinpoint areas for improvement and focus on eliminating friction points. Look for opportunities to make simple and effective changes that will quickly enhance the user experience.

Form a conversion hypothesis

Develop a clear hypothesis to guide your testing efforts and identify the changes that will have the greatest impact on conversions. Zero in on specific pages and site elements that can be optimized to better meet customer needs. 

For instance, if you observe low time-on-page and high bounce rates on a crucial landing page, gather more user insights to determine the cause. It could be that the messaging is not connecting with your target audience. In that case, your hypothesis could be: "If we incorporate use cases that are more relevant to our target audience, the conversion rate on this landing page will improve by X%."

Alternatively, if your "book a demo" page has a low conversion rate and users say they are not signing up because the time commitment and logistics of the demo call are unclear, your hypothesis might be: "If we clearly detail the length of the demo and what it will entail above the fold, twice as many users will book."

Top 5 CRO strategies 

The purpose of a CRO strategy is to convert more visitors into paying customers. By following these five steps, you can maximize your marketing efforts:

Include CTAs in blog posts

Although including CTAs in blog posts is a best practice, visitors don’t always take the action you desire. Users who have become all too familiar with banner-like information tend to ignore them, while other visitors don’t always read through an entire post to actually get to the CTA. For cases like this, text-based CTAs are your next best option. As text that’s linked to landing pages and usually styled with a Header 3 or Header 4 title, these text-based CTAs are an alternate method for converting more traffic into leads than regular CTAs that may otherwise be placed at the bottom of a page. 

Use lead capture pop-ups

A lead capture pop-up is designed to capture attention and provide value to your visitors. There are several types of pop-ups to choose from, including a slide-in box, drop-down banner, or pop-up box. When compared with standard CTAs, lead captures typically generate higher click-through rates and more submissions. 

Implement A/B testing for landing pages

A well-designed landing page can make a huge impact on your conversion rate optimization efforts. Your landing pages are where website visitors can transform into leads or where existing leads can engage more deeply with your brand. The more landing pages you have, the more targeting opportunities you have. Running A/B tests can help you optimize them and determine which design and content elements are most effective. 

Consider using marketing automation software. Doing so will help your team be more productive, and will encourage leads to be more independent. For instance, with marketing automation, emails can be scheduled and leads can easily book meetings with reps while reps get notifications of high-intent user actions.  

Leverage re-targeting to re-engage website visitors

To re-engage people who left your website, leverage re-targeting. For your re-targeting efforts to be successful, provide visitors with a compelling offer, make sure your copy is well crafted and use engaging visuals. 

Getting started with CRO auditing

Conducting a CRO audit is well worth the time and is a wise investment. It can reveal friction points on your site that may otherwise go unnoticed, and it’s critical for optimizing conversion rates. 

To learn more about how MarinOne can help you get started, request a free demo today.

To connect with audiences on Google’s feeds, your ad creative should include high-quality visual experiences combined with the perfect blend of authentic, captivating messaging and an appropriately-sized ad. With the right balance, you can attain peak performance on Google, drive more sales to increase your company’s bottom line, and hit your benchmarks to get the best results. After all, Google’s Display Network reaches 90% of the world’s internet users. 

In this article, we’ll walk you through:

• Why Google Display Advertising matters 
• Different ad sizes and formats
• How to set up a Google Display Ad campaign
• Five best practices to make sure you succeed

The importance of Display Advertising

Differentiate your brand

With your competition targeting the same prospects, it's crucial to differentiate your business. The advantage of visual imagery is that display ads can be used to distinguish your brand in the minds of potential customers — and they’re a great way to interrupt consumers who are considering giving your competitors their business instead.  

Generate brand awareness

According to the marketing “Rule of 7,” on average, a customer encounters a brand at least 7 times before doing business with them. Display advertising offers the advantage of widespread exposure, making brand awareness its greatest benefit. Because it has such an expansive reach, it’s not surprising that statistics indicate an annual growth of 7.91% with a market volume of $226.80 billion is likely by 2027. To make your brand known, get in front of consumers before they need your products or services. This way, you have a better chance of being considered when they make a purchasing decision, since they’ve encountered your brand time and again.

Increase performance of your other ads

A more recognizable brand leads to higher engagement with all of your marketing efforts, including search and social ads. Display ads, in particular, can complement and reinforce the messaging of other ads, strengthening your overall marketing campaign, and leading to better results. In fact, studies have shown that after seeing a display ad, 27% of consumers will conduct a search for that business. 

Improve results with retargeting

Most potential customers don't make a purchase on their first visit to your website. Even if they click on your ad, they often leave without taking any action. However, retargeting display ads help address this issue by targeting individuals based on their past behavior online, including those who have previously visited your website but didn’t convert. Display advertising is a highly effective approach that can help you go the extra mile to seal the deal and engage the consumers who already know about your business. 

Google Display Ad formats

Google offers two main formats for display ads: uploaded and responsive. 

Uploaded display ads

If you have access to the design resources to create display ads from scratch, go ahead and use image formats such as JPG, PNG, or GIF for Google Display Ads. However, keep in mind that even if you’re eligible for a specific placement, your ad may not be displayed if it does not meet the required size specifications for that placement. To maximize visibility, it’s advisable to upload different sizes of each ad.

Responsive display ads

To make the creation of display ads more manageable, Google introduced responsive display ads, which later became the default ad type for display campaigns. With this feature, you only need to supply visual elements (such as images, logos, and videos) and basic ad copy. Google will then test different combinations to find the most effective versions. Additionally, responsive display ads are designed to automatically adapt to the size requirements of each web page, making it easier to display your ads on a variety of sites.

Google Display Ad sizes

If you plan to use uploaded display ads, here is a list of some of the most commonly used display ad sizes you’ll need to know:

Mobile 

• 300×200
• 300×50
• 300×100

Desktop 

• 300×250
• 336×280
• 728×90
• 300×600
• 160×600
• 970×90
• 468×60

Both

• 250×250
• 200×200

The most popular Google Display Ad sizes

Of all the different Google Display Ad sizes, the following are the most popular and widely used.

Wide Skyscraper 

160 × 600 px

Large Skyscraper

300 × 600 px

The “1.91:1” 

600 × 314 px

Leaderboard

728 × 90 px

Large Leaderboard

920 × 90 px

Mobile Leaderboard

320 × 50 px

Video ads

300 × 60 px

Large Rectangle

336 × 280 px

Medium Rectangle

300 × 250 px

Large Mobile Banner

320 × 100 px

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Setting up a Google Display Ad campaign

If you’re ready to get started, just follow this step-by-step checklist:

1. First, log in to your Google account. 
2. Next, click New Campaign.
3. From there, select Display.
4. Then, Google will ask you to provide your website.
5. Be sure to give your campaign a name that’s descriptive and memorable. 
6. Select your language and your location targeting. 
7. Determine your budget and bidding strategy.
8. Develop your targeting parameters for this campaign.
9. Provide your copy and upload creatives.
10. Then, review all of your desired settings.
11. Lastly, go ahead and publish your new campaign.

5 best practices for Google Display Ads

To maximize your return on Google display ads, consider implementing these top five best practices:

Bid adjustments

Once you’ve collected enough data from your display campaigns, you can make informed decisions about the performance of your keywords, affinity audiences, and so on. Bid adjustments, which can be set at either the ad group or campaign level, allow you to turn these performance insights into action.

A positive bid adjustment for an ad group instructs Google Ads to raise your maximum cost-per-click (CPC) bid when one of the ads in that ad group is eligible to be displayed. On the other hand, a negative bid adjustment tells Google Ads to decrease your maximum CPC bid for that ad group.

Simply put, bid adjustments are an effective way to increase the gains from your top performers and reduce your losses from poor performers. 

Focus on top-performing search keywords

If you’re interested in keyword targeting, start by using your most successful search keywords. If you have groups of keywords that have driven few conversions or clicks, you may want to test them on the display network as well.

Keep in mind that consumer intent between the two Google Ads networks can be different, but if your search ads are performing well in terms of clicks and conversions, then the keywords behind them have likely proven to be effective.

Analyze referral traffic

Google Analytics provides a wealth of information, and for display advertisers, the referral traffic report is extremely valuable. It shows which websites are linking to your website the most, essentially indicating which websites attract audiences who would benefit from your product or service. 

These websites are ideal for displaying your ads since you know that the audience is relevant and therefore, you can be confident that you’ll see returns from the impressions and clicks made on those ads.

Make your value proposition clear

Consumers have become highly familiar with display ads, so it's easy for prospects to overlook them while scrolling. To avoid missing out on opportunities and wasting resources, it’s crucial to make sure your display ads stand out and grab the attention of your prospects.

The visual design of your ads, including the color scheme and typography, contribute to this, but the real key is having a clear and impactful value proposition that is prominently displayed on your ads. 

Create strong headlines

Most responsive display ads will prompt you to write four required pieces of copy:

• A short headline (25 characters)
• A long headline (90 characters)
• A description (90 characters)
• Your business name (25 characters)

When it comes to headlines, keep in mind that Google Ads will not display both headlines simultaneously, and that Google Ads may exclude your description. This means that when your Responsive Display Ad (RDA) is displayed, there is no guarantee that your description will accompany either headline. With this in mind, it’s essential to ensure that both headlines effectively convey the unique value of your business or offer on their own. 

Get your Google Display Ads noticed

Using Google Display Ads as part of your campaign can be a powerful tool for increasing traffic to your site and helping customers make their way through the conversion pipeline. 

When integrated into a comprehensive marketing strategy, Google Display ads can amplify your campaign’s success. It plays a crucial role in elevating brand awareness at the beginning of the buyer’s journey, as well as re-engaging repeat customers with personalized promotions and offers. Clearly, display advertising is a valuable tactic and can be leveraged at various stages of the buyer’s journey to maximize marketing outcomes. 

To make sure your Google Display ads are as effective as possible, reach out to the experts at MarinOne today. We can help align your marketing efforts to take your campaign to the next level.

All businesses must undergo a change at one point or another. Whether it's a change in leadership, organizational structure, or technology, companies have to adapt to remain competitive. 

But change can be disruptive and stressful for employees—and without a well-planned change management strategy, organizations may fail to achieve their desired outcomes. 

Case in point: 70% of change initiatives fail due to employee resistance or unproductive management behavior. Luckily, you can mitigate this risk by creating an effective change management plan and ensure a smooth change transition.

This article will explore the steps to develop a change management plan, including the skills needed to lead a successful change effort, common reasons why change management plans fail, and how to avoid these pitfalls.

Why you need a change management plan

As an organization undergoing change, you must prepare your employees for what lies ahead. Change can be difficult for everyone involved. But if you have a process they can follow, it makes the transition easier and ensures everyone is on board. 

A change management plan allows you to communicate the change early and often, provide training and support, and be available to answer possible questions. It also reduces change resistance, boosts employee morale, and helps to create a more positive work environment.

In addition, a change management plan helps control the effect of change during the execution and control stage, thereby avoiding overruns in cost and schedule, incoherent scope, or poor quality change management. 

Skills needed to lead a change management plan

Leading change is not a simple operation. It's a very human process, requiring human skills. Soft skills like empathy, communication, and emotional intelligence are essential. A change leader must also have strong resilience and be good at motivating others. 

Some other skills that are critical for analyzing change, creating a plan, and implementing the plan effectively include:

• Leadership: Good leadership is essential for taking employees through organizational change and delegating roles to the right people. Good leadership styles include qualities like honesty and transparency. A change leader should be transparent about why the change is taking place. They should also have a clear vision of what the company aims to accomplish through the change.
• Strategic thinking: Strategic thinking is a critical skill that helps you create change management plans. When you understand your company's needs, you can develop a strong plan that includes the timeline for the change, the deadline, specific tasks necessary to make the change, and key responsibilities for each employee.  
• Organization: Organization is another skill that can improve change management. Establishing a clear change management plan requires organizing various information, including employee roles, project goals, deadlines, and other key information. 
• Research skills: Developing research skills can enable you to assist your organization in planning for change. You can research other companies' change management tactics and methodologies to generate ideas for your company's change process.
• Analytical skills: Change management plans also require analytical and critical thinking skills to analyze company data, understand the research, and make the best decisions for your organization.

Here are a few tips to help you develop and improve the skills you need to lead a change management plan:

• Read articles and blogs about other companies' change management experiences to gain more insight and knowledge
• Find a mentor to give you specific guidance and help you make good decisions
• Hire a change management consultant to guide your company through the change and learning from their expertise
• Take and complete an online management course

How to create a change management plan

You shouldn’t take a one-size-fits-all approach to creating a change management plan. 

It requires careful consideration of the unique challenges and opportunities that come with the specific change. But, generally speaking, you'll find one to include the following:

• A clear definition of the change
• A timeline for implementation
• A communication strategy
• A training plan
• A risk management strategy

Below are the steps to develop a successful change management plan.

Step 1: Define your change management goals

Start your change management plan by establishing the plan goals. This involves identifying the problem or opportunity the change will address and articulating the desired and expected outcomes. 

Use these tips to define your goals clearly:

• Understand the changes: Familiarize yourself with the changes that need to be made and their implications, as well as the methodologies you'll use to prioritize change requests. For instance, if you plan to introduce new software to your employees, it's not enough to simply know how the software works. You also need to understand how it'll affect existing workflows.
• Have awareness goals: Employee awareness and adoption of the changes should be part of your plan, so ensure you incorporate that.
• Define KPIs: Define quantifiable KPIs to define your plan's success. How will you measure your success? What metrics do you need to move? What is the baseline for how things currently stand? Apply the metrics that make sense given the context of the changes.

Step 2: Build your change team

In order to effectively implement change management, it's important to prioritize the building of a strong change management team with the necessary resources. 

This team should consist of individuals in leadership positions from various departments, including:

• Data management
• Resource management
• Spend management
• Digital asset management 

Building alliances with various departments makes it easy to educate the rest of the team on the changes and provide support throughout the change process.

Additionally, it's important to build a finance team to manage change incentives and resources. This will help develop strategies for effective finance change management and avoid delays. You also need support from stakeholders, including the CEO and other members of the executive team, to increase the chances of success.

Step 3: Develop your change management plan

With your team assembled, it's time to develop your change management plan.

• Create a task list: This is a checklist of actionable tasks you must complete to achieve your goals. It keeps your team on track and is easy to reference when determining the next steps. 
• Put together a timeline: Assign specific due dates to each task on your list and make sure that those deadlines are met. Your plan should revolve around the project's overall due date. If any tasks cannot be completed before the rollout of changes, consider adjusting their due dates or prioritize them according to their importance and feasibility. You may also complete some tasks after the rollout if necessary.

Change management can be complex, so using a project management tool like Asana or Trello to organize your plans and keep everything in one place can be of great help.

Step 4: Create a communication strategy 

Developing a clear and concise communication strategy ensures everyone is onboard and understands what's happening throughout the change management process. 

Keep the following pointers in mind when developing your communication plan:

• Ensure all stakeholders, including employees, customers, suppliers, and external partners are aware of the project timeline and objectives.
• Create a timeline for how often you'll communicate updates.
• Have clear channels of communication. Examples include email, phone, or in-person meetings.
• Ensure that everyone understands the company's change management process and procedures clearly.

Step 5: Execute your change management plan

Executing a change management plan involves several steps, including executing the communication plan, providing training, and monitoring progress. 

During the implementation phase, change managers should identify and quickly address any roadblocks that arise. This can be accomplished by encouraging employee participation in the change, being transparent and communicative from the start, and addressing any resistance that may arise.

To help build momentum for the change, be sure to communicate all successes and provide incentives for embracing the change. Employees should also be encouraged to experiment and share their experiences to harness their emotional energy and overcome any natural resistance that may arise.

Step 6: Evaluate, review, and adapt 

Evaluating the change management plan is essential to determine its effectiveness. This involves assessing the success of the change and identifying areas for improvement in the change management process.

A few ways you can do this include:

• Use a change management tracking system to track all changes that are made in the organization. This allows you to identify and mitigate any areas of concern before they become major issues.
• Use performance indicators to help you measure the success of the plan. With a collaborative KPI dashboard, you can see if the plan is being implemented correctly or whether there are unexpected side effects resulting from the changes.
• Regularly review team progress to ensure that the employees adopt the changes and that all successful change initiatives are incorporated into future change management plans.

When do change management plans fail?

Not all change management plans are successful. They can fail for a variety of reasons. The following are some common reasons for change management plan failures and ways to avoid them:

Active resistance 

People often resist change, especially if it threatens their job security or current way of doing things. This can result in a lack of cooperation and engagement, which can undermine the success of the change management plan. 

It's crucial to communicate the why behind the change and how it will benefit the organization, involve stakeholders in the planning process, and provide training and support to help them adapt to the changes.

Poor communication 

Clear communication is essential for the success of any change management plan. If stakeholders are not informed about the changes or the reasons, they may become confused or disengaged. Anxiety and resistance are higher when people do not understand the why behind the change. 

An excellent way to avoid this failure is to ensure everyone impacted by the change is well-informed. Include the reasons behind it, the expected outcomes, and how it will affect them. Communication should be ongoing and two-way, with opportunities for feedback and questions.

Inadequate planning

Change management plans require thorough planning to be successful. If the planning is inadequate, the plan may not address all the necessary areas, or it may not be implemented effectively. 

It's critical to ensure the planning process is thorough, considering all change aspects. Clearly understand the goals, timelines, and resources required to implement the change effectively.

Lack of leadership support 

Without support from leaders, change management plans are unlikely to succeed. Leaders are critical in driving change, communicating the vision, and providing the resources and support needed to make the change happen. 

Engage leaders early in the planning process and get their commitment. They should be involved in communication efforts and be visible and accessible throughout the change process.

Inadequate resources 

Change management plans need resources such as finances, time, and technology to be successful. If these resources are inadequate, the change may not be implemented effectively. 

The solution is to thoroughly assess the resources required to implement the change and ensure that they are available. Build finance teams that will be involved in reallocating resources or securing additional funding to finance change management.

Conclusion

Change is inevitable, especially in the business world. In light of the market fluctuations, digital innovations, and constant growth surrounding the marketplace, following an articulated change management plan can help guide your organization through any changes they need to adopt or decisions you need to make today for the opportunities you'll find tomorrow.

But to ensure all the information in your change management plan is well documented and easily accessible to employees or to make any needed changes, use a change management tool or software like Spendesk. Spendesk provides you with real-time data to easily manage your company expenses/budgets during change management, keeping you on top of your finances. Schedule a free demo to empower your team to make informed spending decisions. 

The main aim of a change management plan is to stay on top of a growing business, manage change, and make the change process easier. A documentation tool can easily create a collaborative, robust, and interactive change management plan for your company.

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Rana Bano is a guest blog contributor to Marin Software.

When the cold call is dead and traditional B2B prospecting tactics are not enough, it’s time to derive the maximum from LinkedIn – one of the most effective social media platforms for generating leads.

40% of B2B marketers acknowledge that LinkedIn is the #1 channel for driving high-quality leads. In addition, they report two times higher conversion rates on LinkedIn. Among all LinkedIn’s products, 74% of B2B sellers prioritize the top three sales intelligence tools: LinkedIn.com, LinkedIn Premium, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

Indeed, Sales Navigator changes the whole leads-sales game for B2B companies on LinkedIn.

This article will enumerate some valuable LinkedIn Sales Navigator benefits and give you the most helpful tips.

So, let’s get the ball rolling with the definition.

What is LinkedIn Sales Navigator?

Sales Navigator is a social selling tool on LinkedIn. It has a relationship-based system that helps you conduct outreach on LinkedIn, nurture qualified leads, and establish a robust sales pipeline.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a paid subscription-based tool offering monthly and annual billing. Currently, there are three plans:

• Core
• Advanced
• Advanced Plus

Critical Advantages of Sales Navigator for B2B Businesses

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is highly beneficial for B2B organizations. Here’s why.

The most significant amount of B2B leads

LinkedIn generates the largest number of B2B leads on social platforms – 80% compared to roughly 13% of leads driven by Twitter and 7% by Facebook. Using LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you’ve got the richest source of B2B data: over 75 million organizations have LinkedIn accounts.

Extensive pool of methods to work with B2B leads

Depending on the Sales Navigator subscription plan, social marketers have access to different features and tools to get qualitative leads and convert them into clients:

• Advanced Search
• InMail
• Custom Lists
• Alerts
• Smart Links
• Team collaboration tools
• CRM integrations and more

Better sales content exposure

One of the Sales Navigator’s features, Smart Links, allows packaging and sharing of sales content: product overview, sales presentation, demo video, PDF case study, pitch deck, brochure, etc.

Additionally, it enables tracking your prospects’ behavior with your content. Smart Links has great selling potential and can help expose your company’s content more efficiently and increase LinkedIn conversion rates.

Shortened sales cycles

Based on LinkedIn’s report, Hyland Software, for instance, reduced sales cycles by 30% to 60% with the help of Sales Navigator.

A faster sales cycle is a huge competitive advantage, as it improves cash flow and gives you the fuel you require for continuous and more rapid business growth.

Increased revenue

In 2017, LinkedIn analyzed companies from 14 different industries. All of them had been using Sales Navigator for over a year. During that time, each organization’s revenue was significantly impacted by Sales Navigator. The percentage of income prompted by social selling ranged from 51% in telecommunications to 67% in computer and network security.

5 LinkedIn Sales Navigator Tips for Generating B2B Leads

Now, let’s look at the top five tactics you can use to leverage LinkedIn Sales Navigator, unlock more possibilities in B2B prospecting, and target the right buyers.

Target your B2B audience better with Advanced Search filters and Booleans

An Advanced Search option in LinkedIn Sales Navigator offers over 30 search filters for sales prospecting. It allows you to find accounts and leads, segmenting them by location, industry, job title, profile language, company headcount, etc.

“An often underestimated practice in LinkedIn Sales Navigator is the Boolean search,” says Tory Gray, CEO & Founder of Gray Dot Company.

“Booleans like OR, AND, NOT, parentheses (), and quoted search “ ” can help you prospect more efficiently and close B2B deals faster. You can use them in the keyword search bar for accounts and leads in the title field.

After using Booleans, you should refine your search results with Advanced Search. Together, they give you a more polished list of leads,” Tory mentions.

Save searches and segment leads into custom lists

After filtering your search results, you can make a saved search.

Alternatively, you can save particular leads, click “Select all,” and then save them to one list.

Make a new lead list if you haven’t done it before.

Chris Cozzolino, Co-Founder and CEO of Uptown Creation, explains how to keep LinkedIn Sales Navigator leads organized in this video. He recommends creating four Lead lists:

• Connection Request Sent
• Message 1 Sent
• Responded
• Follow-Up

Of course, you can name and organize your lead lists however it feels most convenient.

Benefit from InMail messaging

InMail is a feature that lets you contact any B2B prospect or lead with a direct message without sending a connection request first.

In LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you get 50 free InMail message credits every month, irrespective of the Sales Navigator edition. You can also purchase some additional InMail credits if needed.

Note: the open rate for InMails is 166% higher than regular emails. Besides, personalized InMails can bring you a 15% greater result than those sent in copy-pasted heaps.

Follow some pieces of advice on InMail personalization and other actionable tips on using InMail shared by Logan Mallory, VP of Motivosity:

“Targeting your B2B prospects with InMail, you should personalize your messages as much as possible so that each recipient can feel a personal touch throughout the text.

You should start with personalized subject lines, of course. But don’t forget to optimize them with attention-grabbers to achieve higher open rates. You’ve got 80 characters to do magic with your subject line, so don’t squander them.”

Check some examples of creative subject lines for InMail sends below.

Logan Mallory also believes it’s beneficial to use the Rule of Three regarding the InMail body. When three items are grouped, named, or listed together, they are more memorable, impactful, and motivational. For example: reduce, reuse, recycle. You can stick to a three-part structure in your message and group your ideas into three big categories.

Monitor your overall progress with Social Selling Index (SSI)

Social selling leaders typically generate 45% more sales opportunities than those who have a low SSI.

SSI is a performance indicator and helpful metric to measure your efforts on LinkedIn by focusing on the four components:

• Professional branding
• Engaging with insights
• Networking with the targeted audience
• Building profound relationships

Each component is worth 25 points. Your total score may range from zero to 100.

Calculating your SSI score, LinkedIn relies on the following data in Sales Navigator: a) saved leads and accounts; b) profile views; c) people searches; and d) Account and Lead Lists.

Align marketing and sales

When sales and marketing on LinkedIn are properly coordinated, the customer retention rate grows by 36% and the revenue – by 208%.

Besides, LinkedIn members are 25% more likely to reply to a Sales Navigator InMail message from a sales representative when they see marketing content from that brand.

“Building brand awareness and improving engagement of your B2B audience on LinkedIn is as simple as posting short videos,” according to Max Wühr, co-founder & CGO at FINN.

“Video marketing on LinkedIn helps you communicate your brand’s message in the most effective visual way because videos perform better than images and texts. You can make your mark with B2B videos on LinkedIn and keep your prospects updated on what’s happening in your company,” he notes.

Regularly, FINN shares video updates about their business on LinkedIn. Their most recent announcement, for instance, was a video of the first car delivery for a B2B customer in the United States.

You can effectively use Sales Navigator and tap into the power of LinkedIn marketing with MarinOne to merge sales and advertising and maximize the ROI in every promotional campaign.

Grow Your Sales and Leads With  LinkedIn Sales Navigator

If you’re searching for the best methods to increase B2B leads and sales, LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a true goldmine for that. You won’t find a more powerful channel to connect with the right people on LinkedIn.

You have just seen the major benefits of Sales Navigator and the best ways of using it. Now it’s time to begin your path to B2B lead generation success on LinkedIn.

On this road, MarinOne can help you focus on your best-performing campaigns and help you understand the impact LinkedIn advertising has on your business goals through intelligent analytics. Check out MarinOne in three minutes with a product tour, or start a 30-day free trial right away.

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Rachel Melegrito is a guest contributor to MarinOne.

As the second most popular search engine in the United States, Microsoft Advertising provides an excellent opportunity for businesses to reach a diverse audience and increase their revenue. With over 133 million unique desktop searches and 5.4 billion monthly searches worldwide, Microsoft Ads provides a massive audience base for businesses to reach out to. 

When comparing Microsoft and Google Ads, business growth expert Charlotte Davies said, "If your audience matches Bing’s user demographics, then this could be a better advertising option for you. Choosing Bing over Google can also work out cheaper because, even though there are fewer users, there are also fewer advertisers. This means less competition."

However, it takes more than just setting up an account and creating ads to see success. Here are some best practices to help you drive more conversions and maximize your return on investment (ROI) with Microsoft Advertising.

Optimize Your Campaigns for Targeted Keywords

The success of your Microsoft Advertising campaigns depends heavily on the keywords you target. It’s crucial to choose the right keywords that are relevant to your products or services, have high search volume, and low competition. Start by conducting thorough keyword research and analyzing your target audience's search terms. Microsoft provides a keyword research tool that you can use to identify relevant keywords for your campaigns. Once you’ve identified your target keywords, create ad groups and optimize your ads around those keywords.

Use Ad Extensions to Improve Your Ad Rank

Ad extensions are additional pieces of information that you can add to your ads, such as your business location, phone number, or links to specific pages on your website. Ad extensions can help increase your ad’s visibility and improve your ad rank, leading to higher click-through rates (CTR) and conversion rates. Microsoft Ads provides several ad extensions, including sitelink extensions, call extensions, location extensions, and callout extensions. Choose the ones that are relevant to your business and add them to your ads.

Create Compelling Ad Copy

Your ad copy is the first impression potential customers have of your business. It’s essential to create compelling and engaging ad copy that clearly communicates the value of your products or services. Use language that resonates with your target audience and highlights your unique selling proposition (USP). 

Remember what Leo Burnett said about great ad copy…as it is as true today as it was 50 years ago during his heyday: "Advertising should say, 'Here’s what we’ve got. Here's what it will do for you. Here’s how to get it.'"

Monitor and Optimize Your Campaigns

The key to success with Microsoft Advertising is continually monitoring and optimizing your campaigns. Track your campaigns’ performance regularly, and make adjustments based on the data. Analyze your ad copy, keywords, targeting, and ad extensions to identify areas for improvement. Use Microsoft Ads’ reporting tools to gain insights into your campaigns’ performance and make data-driven decisions.

Use Audience Targeting to Reach the Right People

Nicole Farley from Search Engine Land recently said this about audience targeting with Microsoft: "The Microsoft Ads Audience Network is beneficial for brands as it allows them to reach users on a variety of platforms, such as mobile apps and websites. This can be especially helpful for brands looking to target a wide range of audiences – especially B2B."

So try it out in 2023 as Microsoft Ads provides several audience targeting options to help you reach the right people. You can target your ads based on demographics, such as age, gender, and location, or based on their search history and interests. Audience targeting can help you reach a more relevant audience and increase your ad’s effectiveness. Use audience targeting in combination with keyword targeting to create highly targeted campaigns. Microsoft is also continually updating the audience options this year with a suite of new features that were just introduced in January.

Take Advantage of Microsoft Ads’ Automated Bidding and Budgeting Tools

Microsoft Ads provides several automated bidding and budgeting tools that can help you save time and maximize your ROI. Use Microsoft Ads’ automated bidding to adjust your bids based on the likelihood of conversion, maximizing your chances of winning auctions. Use automated budgeting to set a daily budget and let Microsoft Ads manage your spending for you. These tools can help you optimize your campaigns without spending hours manually adjusting bids and budgets.

Test and Experiment with Different Ad Formats

Microsoft Advertising provides several ad formats, including text, image, and video ads. Test and experiment with different ad formats to identify which ones work best for your business. Different ad formats may work better for different products or services, so finding what works best for your business is essential.

Start Running Microsoft Advertising Today

Microsoft's advertisement system has been subject to a considerable overhaul lately, with the axing of Microsoft Rewards and the implementation of a new business model. In order to make sure you're using Microsoft Advertising to its fullest potential, take the time to study its features and benefits. Knowing how everything works before you begin setting up campaigns can save a lot of frustration and give you the opportunity to use it effectively.

After you have got a good grasp of the fundamentals, you can begin establishing your campaigns. To save time and automate as much of the setup process as possible, speak with a MarinOne consultant today on how we centralize advertising data across platforms and make optimizations easy for paid search marketers.

Given that apps have revolutionized the lives of many, it’s no surprise that mobile technology has created enormous opportunities for both consumers and businesses. With more than 6.2 billion smartphone users worldwide, it’s clear that mobile apps are flourishing and our reliance on them will continue to grow. 

While this is good news for app developers and businesses, it is a challenge to stand out amongst competitors. In an app store world where users have thousands of choices, an app can get easily lost. To stay afloat, businesses must create reliable and functional apps to reach their targets — and take the right steps to display them in stores and maximize app store optimization (ASO). 

In this guide, we’ll walk you through Google Play’s ASO — from understanding the basics of how it works, tips for increasing the visibility of your app, and much more. 

What is Google Play ASO?

Simply put, Google Play ASO is a method that can be used to optimize the visibility and user appeal of an app to get more downloads and better conversion rates. 

Why is ASO important?

ASO is important for a multitude of reasons, some of which include the following: 

• It maximizes visibility

Regardless of how great your app may be, if people can’t find it, they can’t download it. Unless it’s easily discoverable, the number of installs won’t budge. However, ASO allows you to maximize your app’s visibility so you can reach as many prospects as possible and ensure your app performs well. 

• Improves appeal for users

Making your app visible isn’t enough. You need it to be visible to the right users. Because it matches your app to relevant keywords, ASO can help you get your app noticed by high-quality and relevant users at the right time. 

• Increases organic app downloads

A solid ASO strategy will increase the number of organic installs and ensure long-term results. It is essential that you continually work on your ASO to keep your rankings high when people search for keywords related to your app. 

• Enables marketers to lower user acquisition costs

By focusing on organic growth with ASO, you can cut your user acquisition costs. This not only helps you save money on ad spending, but also ensures steady, continuous growth. 

How does ASO work?

ASO optimizes various elements of an app's listing to improve its visibility and ranking in app store search results. Just as people use search queries to find different websites on the internet, app store users use search queries to find different apps and games. And just as search engines recommend additional websites based on user preferences and popularity, app stores can recommend additional apps to users. Keyword optimization, category rankings, search and paid ads, and top charts are all common ASO tactics. 

Ranking factors in the Play Store

Keywords that people use to find apps are the biggest consideration. The reason? Google’s algorithm searches which apps match those keywords in their metadata. To rank those keywords, Google uses the following elements: 

App title

The most critical metadata element in the Google Play Store is the app title because the keywords here reveal both keyword relevance and eligibility. Since app titles influence your app store optimization efforts, you’ll want to test and update your app titles frequently. According to statistics, 215 of the top 1000 mobile apps are updated a minimum once per week and 62% are updated once a month. 

Descriptions

Long and short descriptions allow you to familiarize your audience with your app. Once you’ve selected your app title, optimizing your short and long descriptions is a worthwhile investment of your time. Typically limited to 80 characters, short descriptions help provide background information to Play Store visitors and are used by Google to gain a deeper understanding of what your app is actually about. 

In contrast, long descriptions have a 4,000 character limit, so you can create a detailed description of your app with the aim to convince visitors to install it. However, it’s important to recognize that most users aren’t interested in reading long descriptions. Therefore, the best strategy for long descriptions is to explain your app’s features briefly and clearly and provide a call to action. When you do so, be sure to include the most important keywords at the beginning to increase the rate of conversions. Using focused keywords repeatedly (up to five times) can also help Google better understand your app. 

App downloads and conversion rate

When your app has a lot of downloads, it’s considered more credible and thus, it ranks higher. With high rankings, visitors are more likely to find your app and your conversion rates will increase. The number of app downloads and the download velocity are key if you want your app to show up in category rankings and top charts. 

Retention rate

For a long time, app download numbers were one of Google’s strongest ranking elements. However, when Google Play ASO evolved over time, retention rates of those downloads also gained tremendous value. The goal is not only to have someone download your app, but also to ensure they do not uninstall it shortly thereafter. 

Reviews and ratings

Customer ratings and reviews are an additional way to show Google that your app is useful and appealing. When app ratings and reviews are high, your app maintains more credibility and Google will recognize it to be high quality. Subsequently, with a high quality standing, your app will rank higher for relevant keywords. 

Developer name

Google will rank you for search queries that have your developer name. When you have a well-known brand name, you appear in search results more often and you can secure more page visits. 

Crashes, bugs, battery life, and file size

If your app crashes frequently, has bugs, drains batteries, or runs into file size limitations, this can negatively impact your rankings. These factors can also affect your reviews and retention rates. 

Backlinks

Backlinks have a positive influence on your Google Play ranking. More important than the number of backlinks you use, however, is their quality. Google’s algorithm determines the quality of a backlink based on the keywords used in the link as well as the relevance of the source website. To maintain credibility, make sure your backlinks are related to your app’s content. 

Checklist for a successful ASO strategy

If you want to get your app in front of the right users, your ASO strategy must be focused. To make sure you don’t miss anything, here’s a helpful checklist. 

• Research markets and regions

Create a clear app store optimization strategy by researching and understanding your market. Doing so will help you explore how users discover apps in your category. 

• Do proper keyword research

Think about the main features of your app and consider using synonyms when describing your features. It’s wise to analyze similar apps and competitors in the category. Exploring auto-suggestion in app store search bars and investigating the terms people commonly use in your app category can also help you establish a proper keyword research and prioritization process. 

• Pick a unique name for your app

You want to be sure your app's name is easy to read, relevant, and unique. When choosing a name, remember character limitations and adhere to app store guidelines. 

• Write easy-to-understand metadata

When writing metadata, focus on information quality. Include a short description, subtitle, keyword field, and app description. Structure it clearly, use all available characters when possible and applicable, and put particular emphasis on the first couple of sentences.

• Perform A/B testing

It’s important to create variations. Run experiments, evaluate results, and implement changes as needed. During A/B testing, steer clear of forbidden keywords such as best, free, top, new, and so on.

• Tell a visual story of how your app works

Use screenshots and videos to highlight your app’s main features and illustrate how your app works and looks. When you do, pay close attention to layout and size requirements. 

Tips for increasing the visibility of your app

Follow these tips to stand out from the other apps in your category and increase your app’s visibility. 

Get featured

Getting featured on Google Play can increase both the visibility of your app and the number of downloads. To pass Google’s screening test, be sure you have a good app rating, offer a smooth user experience, and have a flawless app store listing.

Top Charts

Ranking in the Top Charts on Google Play can be a powerful way to increase visibility and drive more downloads for your app. However, it can be challenging to influence your rank in the Top Charts using purely organic methods, as your ranking is primarily determined by your app's acquisition velocity (the rate at which users are downloading your app).

It's important to note that different categories have varying levels of competition. For example, the number of downloads required to rank in the top five apps in one category may not be enough to rank in the top 10 of another. Therefore, it's important to choose your app's category wisely, keeping in mind the relevance of the category to your app and the competition level in that category. If your app doesn't fit into one clear-cut category, you should analyze the competition and evaluate the likelihood of ranking highly in different categories' top charts.

Appear on another app’s store listing

Being featured as a "similar app" on another app's listing in the store can drive traffic to your own app. While the specific factors that Google takes into account when selecting similar apps are not publicly available, a few known elements include:

• Keyword alignment: Apps that rank for the same keywords in their metadata are more likely to be considered similar apps.

• Category and Google tags: Apps that belong to the same category or have the same Google tags are more likely to appear as similar apps.

• User behavior: Google tracks users' interactions with the store and store listings, and similar apps may be influenced by the apps that users have previously downloaded.

Tags

Google Play tags can be used to help Google better understand your app's content and purpose. These tags can be added to the app's store listing and can help Google create clusters of apps across categories, allowing them to show users more relevant content when browsing the store. This can help to increase an app's "Explore Traffic," which is the amount of users that discover the app through browsing the app store rather than searching for it.

3 ways to improve conversion rates on Google Play

Because Google wants to make sure its users have a good experience in the Play Store, it prioritizes apps that have high conversion and retention rates. Here are three tips to help your conversion rate grow. 

1. Creative assets 

Optimizing your creatives can greatly impact users. Take advantage of your app’s icon, promotional videos, and screenshots as conversion incentives. Color symbolism can influence a user’s perspective, and an icon design that represents your app functionality can make your creatives more striking and noticeable. Highlighting your brand name or changing your icon design to align with different seasons can also make an impact. Use high-quality screenshots that are localized and consistent with app expectations and showcase your unique selling promise. Promotional videos are also a good way to give users a good idea of the feel and experience of your app. 

2. Improve app ratings and reviews

As previously stated, app ratings and reviews are a good indicator of a good app since they reflect users’ actual experiences. Google’s In-App Review API displays ratings and reviews. In addition, respond to any negative reviews. Doing so illustrates that you care and are willing to implement changes to improve your user experience. 

3. Write compelling descriptions

Because users tend not to read long descriptions and therefore represent a small audience, it’s wise to concentrate on writing compelling short descriptions. However, rather than stuffing all your target keywords into your short descriptions, try to strike a good balance between conversion rate optimization and keyword optimization. To do this, summarize your app’s content, features, and benefits. When you run A/B tests you will be able to determine what works best for your app. 

MarinOne and Google Play ASO

In such a saturated market, becoming a leader requires a lot of effort. However, with innovation, creativity, and the right tools, you can take advantage of technology to make your app stand out. 

MarinOne can help you manage your mobile marketing strategies to hit revenue targets and optimize your app campaigns. Our customizable, enterprise-class solution offers everything you need in a single platform to take your app advertising to the next level. 

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To see how, contact one of our MarinOne experts today. 

When you run a digital campaign, it’s only right that you want to know how well it performed, and Google Ads are no exception. Whether you're looking to increase website traffic, generate leads, or make sales, tracking specific KPIs will help you ensure that you're getting value for your advertising investment. You can easily track your ads using Google Analytics or directly from the Google Ads dashboard.

That said, there are many metrics to analyze—and it can be overwhelming to choose the right metrics that most closely align with your campaign objectives. So we’ve made it easier by highlighting six major key performance indicators (KPIs) and sharing why they are critical to running successful ad campaigns. 

Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Click-through rate is an important Google Ads metric that helps you measure the effectiveness of your ad campaign. CTR is the percentage of people that click on your Google ad. It is ascertained from the ratio of clicks to impressions and indicates how often people click on your ad after seeing it. 

For instance, if you ran a Google Ad campaign and received 1,000 impressions (i.e. your ad was shown 1,000 times). Suppose that your ad received 30 clicks, your CTR will be: 30 clicks divided by 1,000 impressions and multiplied by 100.

• So, CTR = (30 clicks / 1,000 impressions) * 100 = 3%

This means that, for every 100 impressions, 3 people clicked on the ad. The same calculation applies to the image below:

Tracking your CTR means that you can determine whether your ads resonate with your target audience. It also reveals if your targeting strategies are effective. For example, if you notice that your CTR is low, you may need to adjust your ad content, target a different audience, or adjust your bid strategy on keywords. 

But how do you know if your CTR is good? Typically, this will depend on which industry you operate in. According to WordStream, most industries have an average of 6-7%. While it’s okay to aim for industry standards, a more effective use of the CTR metric will be to monitor how each of your campaigns or ad groups is performing and optimize them for better results. It’s also helpful if you want to identify trends in your campaign performance over time.

Cost Per Click (CPC)

The cost per click measures how much you pay each time someone clicks on your ad. This is a critical KPI to track because it tells you if you're getting value for your advertising costs. 

A high CPC suggests your ad may not be relevant to your target audience, or that the competition for the keywords you're bidding on is high. To lower your conversion costs, consider adjusting your bids and targeting settings. If you’re running ads for B2B, B2C, or recruitment marketing purposes, here are some targeting settings you can tweak for better CPC on your Ads:

Keywords - use low-competing keywords that are relevant to your search intent so that you’ll only get clicks from prospects that are more likely to convert. You can also adjust your bids on keywords that are less likely to bring conversions. It’s advisable to compare various search terms to find the keywords that fit well into your ad.

Demographics - based on your target audience, you should only direct your ads to those who your campaign caters to.

Location - target specific areas instead of going too broad with your audience.

Timing - schedule your ad to go live at a time when your target audience is more likely to engage with it.

Ad placement - choose the right ad placement (e.g. search network, display network) to reach your target audience. Adjust bids based on the competition and cost of advertising in those placements.

Monitoring your CPC helps you determine whether your campaigns are cost-effective and determine the best ways to optimize your ad spend and set better budgets. With the CPC metric, you can easily make informed decisions about how to allocate your advertising budget. Overall, tracking your Cost Per Click is an essential part of managing your Google Ads campaigns and ensuring that you get the best advertising ROI.

Conversion Rate

Conversion rate measures the percentage of visitors to your website who complete a desired action, such as making an online purchase or filling out a contact form. The higher your conversion rate, the more effective your ad campaign is at driving valuable actions. 

If your conversion rate is low, it may indicate one or more of the following:

• Your ads are not resonating with your target audience
• Your website is not optimized for conversions
• Your targeting strategies are not effective

To get more conversion actions, consider optimizing your landing pages, call-to-actions, and the overall user experience on your site. You also want to ensure that what’s on your landing page aligns with what your ad promises. Otherwise, you’ll have a high bounce rate and lose potential conversions.

Optimizing your ad and landing page relevance will also improve your ad’s quality score—which is also important to its general performance. If you need help creating engaging landing pages, you can use an AI content generator to get some ideas. Overall, conversion tracking helps you optimize your campaigns to achieve your marketing goals.

Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

Cost per acquisition measures how much you pay for each acquisition (or conversion) generated by your ad. This KPI helps you determine the profitability of your campaigns and evaluate their return on investment (ROI). CPA is calculated by dividing the total cost of your advertising by the number of conversions you have received (total ad cost / total number of conversions).

CPA is an important metric that allows you to evaluate the level of customer acquisition generated by your campaigns. If your CPA is high, it may indicate that your ads are not driving conversions efficiently. On the other hand, if your CPA is low, it may indicate that your campaigns are getting conversions at a lower cost, making them more efficient and cost-effective.

You can fix a high CPA by adjusting your bids and targeting, or tweaking your ad copy and landing pages so your ad is relevant to your potential customers.

By tracking your CPA, you can run a comparison between ads and determine which ones drive the most conversions for the least cost. Depending on your campaign goals, you can then use this information to maximize the efficiency and profitability of future ads.

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)

Another KPI on our list of Google Ads metrics to check is the return on ad spend. Your ROAS tells you how much revenue you generate for every dollar you spend on advertising. This metric helps you understand the return you're getting on your advertising investment and determine the profitability of your campaigns.

To determine your ROAS, you'll need to track your ad spend and revenue. To calculate your ROAS, divide your total revenue by your total ad spend. For example, if you spent $1,000 on advertising and generated $10,000 in revenue, your ROAS would be 10 ($10,000 ÷ $1,000).

A high ROAS indicates that you're getting a good return on your investment. It's vital to track your ROAS because it helps you understand the impact of your ads on your bottom line. If your ROAS is low, it could mean that your campaigns are not generating sufficient revenue to cover your ad spend, or that you need to adjust your campaigns to improve their profitability.

Impressions

“Impressions” is one of the Google ads metrics that help you understand the visibility of your advertising campaigns. This KPI measures the number of times your ad is shown to users. While high impressions are generally desirable, they don't necessarily indicate a successful campaign. It's important to consider impressions in conjunction with other KPIs, such as CTR, conversion rate, and ROAS, to get a complete picture of your campaign's performance.

Impressions are quite useful in evaluating the effectiveness of your targeting strategies and determining if your ads are being shown to the right audience. 

By tracking impressions, you can make informed decisions about your advertising strategy and determine which campaigns are delivering the best results in terms of reach and exposure. Your overall ad quality, audience targeting, bidding strategy, and ad placement are major determinants of how many impressions your ad will get. 

For instance, avoid the mistake of bidding too low on your keywords or you’ll lose the opportunity to show your ad to more people. Also, if you set a low budget, there’s a good chance that only a few people will see your ad while it’s running. So, let your bids and ad budget be sufficient enough to get you tangible views.

In closing

Tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) is essential to the success of your Google Ads campaigns. These KPIs provide valuable benchmarks in relation to the performance of your campaigns and can be used to optimize future advertising and marketing efforts. 

In this article, we highlighted 6 Google Ads metrics and KPIs that help you assess positive or negative campaign performance. They include: Click-through rate, cost per click, conversion rates, cost per acquisition, return on ad spend, and impressions. With these key metrics, you can unlock the full potential of your Google Ads and drive success for your business goals.

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David Pagotto is a guest contributor to Marin Software.

The growth of the mobile industry in recent years has been tremendous, and this trend is expected to continue in the future.

According to a report, about 86% of the global population owns a smartphone, which is about 6.9 billion people. That's huge, right?

Due to this extensive coverage, many businesses now use mobile marketing as a powerful tool to reach and engage with their customers. As technology continues to evolve, new trends and technologies are emerging in the field of mobile marketing that are worth keeping a close eye on. In this article, we will explore the future of mobile marketing, highlighting some of the most exciting trends and technologies that businesses should keep an eye on. 

From the rise of 5G to the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning, this article will provide a comprehensive overview of the most important mobile marketing trends and technologies that will shape the industry's future. Let’s dive in.

Emerging Trends in Mobile Marketing

Location-based marketing

Location-based marketing is an innovative trend in mobile marketing that uses a person's device location to deliver tailored and relevant content or offers. It is made possible through location-based services and GPS technology, which allows businesses to track a device's location and send targeted messages to users within a specific area.

For example, a business can use location-based marketing to send a special offer or coupon to customers near their store. This type of marketing can also be used to deliver relevant content or promotions to customers at a specific event or location, such as a sports stadium or concert venue.

There are many benefits businesses stand to gain from using location-based marketing. One of the most important is reaching customers at the right place and time, increasing the chances of converting them into customers.

John Gardner, Co-Founder & CEO of Kickoff, adds, "Location-based marketing allows businesses to gain insights into consumer behavior and preferences by tracking their interactions with various types of content and offers."

There are a multitude of channels through which location-based marketing can be delivered, including SMS, push notifications, and in-app messages. It can also be integrated with other types of mobile marketing, such as social media marketing and mobile advertising, to create more effective and personalized campaigns.

Personalization 

Personalization is another fast-emerging trend in mobile marketing. It refers to how businesses tailor marketing messages, content, and offers to the individual preferences and needs of a specific customer. Marketers use data and insights about the customer, such as their browsing and purchase history, demographics, location, and other relevant information to increase advertising personalization.

For example, a clothing retailer might use personalization to send targeted promotions to customers based on their previous purchases. If a customer has previously bought a lot of athletic clothing, the retailer might send them a promotion for a new line of workout clothes.

Another great way to use personalization is through mobile advertising. It allows businesses to target a specific group of customers with tailored ads. For example, a business can use personalization to target ads for a new product to customers who have previously shown interest in similar products.

Mobile video marketing

In today's world, more and more people are using their mobile devices to watch videos online. And businesses have to take advantage of this by promoting their products and services through videos on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.

Since businesses now know that their target audience is spending most of their time on their mobile devices, they can use mobile video marketing to target on-the-go consumers, such as those commuting, waiting in line, or even during lunch breaks.

Another advantage of mobile video marketing is that it is a highly engaging form of content. According to a study, video content is 1200% more successful than other content forms; viewers absorb 95% of the message while watching videos.

According to Tom Golubovich, Head of Marketing & Media Relations, Ninja Transfers, "Videos are more likely to capture the attention of viewers than text or images, and they also tend to be more memorable. That makes mobile video marketing an effective way to increase brand awareness and drive conversions."

There are several ways to implement mobile video marketing, such as creating short video ads that can be placed on social media platforms or creating longer-form videos that can be shared on a company's website or YouTube channel. 

Businesses can also use live streaming to connect with their audience in real time and create a sense of immediacy.

Technologies to Watch in Mobile Marketing

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Let's face it. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are taking over the world. These technologies now have applications in many parts of our daily life. In mobile marketing, businesses can use these advanced technologies to analyze data from mobile devices to create personalized and targeted marketing campaigns. Artificial Intelligence and machine learning are powerful technologies that allow businesses to create more effective and personalized mobile marketing campaigns.

According to Anthony Martin, Founder, and CEO, of Choice Mutual, "These technologies can help businesses target the right users with the right message at the right time, which can lead to higher conversion rates and better ROI. As such, they are certainly among the technologies to watch in mobile marketing."

5G and edge computing

Regarding mobile marketing, it is possible to use 5G and edge computing now to provide faster and more reliable connections for things like mobile ads and location-based marketing.

For example, with 5G, an ad can be delivered to a customer's phone almost instantly, and with edge computing, businesses can personalize ads based on the customer's location. It can lead to more effective and targeted advertising, resulting in better business outcomes for the companies involved.

Voice-enabled technology

Voice-enabled technology allows users to interact with their devices using only their voice rather than typing or touching the screen, thus making using a mobile device more effortless and convenient. In mobile marketing, businesses can use voice-enabled technology to create more interactive and personalized advertising experiences.

For example, a voice-enabled mobile ad could allow users to ask questions, receive information about a product or service, or even purchase using only their voice. That can make the advertising experience more exciting and convenient for users and help businesses target and convert potential customers better.

Another potential use of voice-enabled technology in mobile marketing is in the creation of virtual assistants. These software programs can be programmed to understand and respond to a wide range of voice commands and can help users with various tasks, such as scheduling appointments, making reservations, or even ordering products and services. This can make mobile marketing more interactive and personalized and help businesses engage with their target audience better.

There's no doubt that voice-enabled technology is an exciting and rapidly-evolving area of mobile marketing that can create more engaging, personalized, and convenient advertising experiences for users and help businesses reach better and convert potential customers. For these reasons it is considered one of the technologies to watch in mobile marketing.

Conclusion

Mobile marketing is becoming an increasingly important aspect of digital marketing as more and more people rely on their mobile devices for everyday tasks. The emergence of new technologies is helping businesses create more effective and personalized marketing campaigns for mobile users.

As these technologies continue to evolve and become more mainstream, businesses must stay up-to-date with the latest trends and technologies to stay competitive in the mobile marketing landscape. However, it's also important to note that while technology is advancing rapidly, the key to successful mobile marketing will always be understanding the customer.

As such, businesses should be aware that data and technology should be a supplement, not a replacement, to understanding their target audience and tailoring their mobile campaigns to meet their needs.

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Rachel Melegrito is a guest contributor to Marin Software.

Marketing is a complex and ever-changing field that requires careful strategy and planning. One important technique that can help marketers navigate this landscape is SWOT analysis.

SWOT, which stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, is a framework for evaluating a company's position in the market and identifying key factors that can impact success. In this article, we'll explore the basics of SWOT analysis and how it can be used to inform marketing decisions.

What is SWOT Analysis?

SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool that helps businesses and organizations identify their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This analysis allows companies to assess their current position in the market and make informed decisions about their future. Identifying these key factors enables marketers to better understand their target audience, market trends, and competition, and develop effective marketing strategies.

Why is a SWOT Analysis Important for Marketing?

Marketing is all about creating value for customers and driving growth for the business. Using SWOT analysis, marketers can identify their key strengths and leverage them to create more impactful campaigns and marketing initiatives. At the same time, they can also identify areas for improvement, such as weaknesses in their marketing strategy, and take steps to address these weaknesses.

By understanding the opportunities and threats in the market, marketers can also better position themselves to capitalize on new trends and minimize the impact of challenges. This allows them to stay ahead of the competition and keep their marketing efforts relevant and effective.

The SWOT Analysis Framework

The SWOT analysis framework is simple and straightforward. Here's a closer look at each element:

Strengths

Strengths are the things that your company does well. These are your competitive advantages and the things that set you apart from other brands. Examples of strengths in marketing might include a strong brand image, a loyal customer base, or a highly effective marketing team. For instance, if you have a strong brand image, you may want to focus on leveraging this strength through your marketing efforts to increase brand recognition and build customer loyalty.

Weaknesses

Weaknesses are the things that your company doesn't do well. They are the areas in which you are lacking and need improvement. Examples of weaknesses in marketing might include inconsistent content creation, weak branding, or ineffective marketing campaigns. For instance, if you have identified inconsistency in creating content as a weakness, you may want to allocate more resources to hiring a good content team or even use AI marketing tools to automate the tasks.

Opportunities

Opportunities are the external factors that can positively impact your marketing efforts. They entail the trends and changes in the market that you can capitalize on to achieve better results. Examples of opportunities in marketing might include new demographic groups, new geographic markets, or changes in consumer behavior. For instance, if you have identified a new audience with high potential for growth, you may want to allocate more budget towards targeted marketing efforts to reach this customer base.

Threats

Threats are the external factors that can negatively impact your marketing efforts. These are the challenges and risks that you need to be aware of in order to minimize their impact. Examples of threats in marketing might include changes in consumer preferences, new competitors entering the market, or shifting economic conditions. For instance, if a new competitor has entered your market, you may want to evaluate your marketing strategies and tactics to ensure that you are effectively differentiating your brand from the competition.

How to Conduct a SWOT Analysis for Marketing

Conducting a SWOT analysis for marketing is relatively simple and can be done in several steps. Here's a basic outline for how to do it:

• Gather data: The first step in conducting a marketing SWOT analysis is to gather data on your marketing efforts, your target audience, and your competitors. This can include customer feedback, sales data, market research, and other relevant information. The goal of this step is to gather as much data as possible to support your assessments in the next steps.

• Identify your strengths: This is the internal analysis of your marketing plan where you make a list of your company's key strengths in marketing. Consider the things you do well and what sets you apart from your competitors. What are your unique selling points? What are your core competencies?
• Assess your weaknesses: Next, make a list of your company's weaknesses in marketing. This is where you assess your internal shortcomings. What are the areas where your marketing efforts fall short? What can you improve upon?
• Determine opportunities: Next up is the external analysis of your marketing plan, whereby you look at the market and identify the trends and changes that could positively impact your marketing efforts. What are the trends in your industry? Is there new technology, artificial intelligence software, or anything else to boost your productivity? What are the untapped markets you can explore?
• Analyze threats: Here, you assess the external challenges that could negatively impact your marketing efforts. What are the challenges posed by your competitors? What are the changes in the market that may negatively impact your marketing efforts?
• Evaluate the results: After you've identified your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, take some time to evaluate the results. Determine which factors are the most important and which areas need the most attention.
• Develop a plan of action: Based on the results of your SWOT analysis, develop a plan of action for how you will address your weaknesses, capitalize on your strengths, take advantage of opportunities, and minimize the impact of threats.
• Regularly reevaluate: Because marketing is something that keeps changing over time, it's important to regularly review and update your SWOT analysis. This will help you stay up-to-date with changes in the market and make sure your marketing efforts are always effective.

SWOT Analysis Example

Below is a SWOT Analysis example for a marketing agency:

Strengths:

1. Experienced and knowledgeable marketing team
2. Strong portfolio of successful marketing campaigns and projects
3. Wide range of services, including digital marketing, branding, and advertising
4. Strong relationships with media outlets and influencers

Weaknesses:

1. Relatively high prices compared to smaller or less established agencies
2. Limited ability to handle large-scale, complex projects
3. Dependence on key clients for a significant portion of revenue
4. Limited international reach and presence

Opportunities:

1. Growing demand for digital marketing services
2. Ability to expand into new industries and markets
3. Opportunities for growth and expansion through acquisitions or partnerships with other agencies
4. Growing awareness of the importance of branding and marketing to businesses of all sizes

Threats:

1. Intense competition from larger and more established agencies
2. Disruptions in the advertising and marketing industry, such as changes in consumer preferences or technology
3. Increased regulation of marketing practices and advertising
4. Changes in consumer spending patterns, particularly in a weak economy

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By considering these strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, the marketing agency can develop a plan to address its weaknesses, capitalize on its strengths, and position itself for success in a competitive industry.

Common Mistakes in SWOT Analysis

While it can be a valuable tool, SWOT analysis is not always done correctly, and there are several mistakes that can occur.

Lack of Objectivity

One of the biggest mistakes in SWOT analysis is the lack of objectivity from those conducting the analysis. When evaluating your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, it's important to be honest and unbiased. This can be difficult when personal opinions and emotions are involved. To avoid this mistake, it's important to gather data and opinions from a variety of sources, including employees, customers, and industry experts.

Not Considering the Right Factors

Another common mistake in SWOT analysis is not considering the right factors. As you identify your strengths and weaknesses, it's best to focus on factors that are relevant to your business and the market.

For example, while a strong company culture may be important, it may not be relevant to your marketing efforts. It's important to focus on factors that are directly related to your marketing strategy and can impact your success.

Ignoring External Factors

SWOT analysis is designed to evaluate both internal and external factors, but some organizations tend to focus too much on internal factors and ignore external ones. This can lead to a limited understanding of the market and can impact your ability to capitalize on opportunities and minimize threats. That’s why it's important to consider both internal and external factors when conducting a SWOT analysis.

Not Updating Regularly

It is important to keep in mind that a SWOT analysis is not a one-time event. Marketing is a constantly evolving field, and it's important to regularly reevaluate your SWOT analysis to stay up-to-date with changes in the market.

However, many organizations make the mistake of not updating their SWOT analysis regularly, which can lead to an outdated understanding of their position in the market.

Not Using the Results

Finally, a common mistake in SWOT analysis is not using the results. After conducting a SWOT analysis, it's important to integrate the results into your marketing strategy. Plan how you will address your weaknesses, capitalize on your strengths, take advantage of opportunities, and minimize the impact of threats. Even so, many organizations make the mistake of not following through on these plans, which can limit the effectiveness of the SWOT analysis.

Conclusion

SWOT analysis is a powerful tool that can help marketers make better decisions and achieve more impactful results. Understanding your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, marketers can help you identify areas for improvement, capitalize on new trends, and stay ahead of the competition. By incorporating SWOT analysis into your marketing strategy, you as a marketer can drive more success for your business and create more value for customers.

In case you need assistance with paid search, retail or social advertising, Marin Software may interest you. The platform offers expert solution for digital marketers to save time and scale their campaigns. Get in touch today!

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Mike Stuzzi is a guest blog contributor for Marin Software.

Businesses in the e-commerce industry are continuously looking for methods of boosting their revenue. The Average Order Value (AOV), the average amount a customer spends on a single purchase from an online store, is one crucial metric that can assist in achieving this.

Each e-commerce company strives for a high AOV since it shows that customers spend more on each purchase, boosting revenue and profitability. This post will examine a few tried-and-true tactics that e-commerce companies may employ to increase AOV and, as a result, reduce cart abandonment, improve customer experience, and accelerate bottom-line growth.

How to Calculate Average Order Value

We've already mentioned the formula for Average Order Value: AOV = Revenue / Number of orders. However, to get more precise data, you can also calculate the AOV for each traffic channel, including organic traffic, referrals, ads, etc.

Installing accurate reporting web analytics software is crucial. Use Google Analytics to determine the typical order value for each traffic channel. Visit your Google Analytics profile. You'll need the figures from the Transactions and Revenue tabs and look at the low and high values to determine the causes of these changes.

Best Practices for AOV Improvement

If you strive to raise the average order value for the company, the most important thing is to earn trust. You can do this in different ways, some of them are:

• Offer a personalized approach where each consumer can discover the ideal product.
• Provide consumers the flexibility to modify their orders to fit their unique schedules or lifestyles.
• Ensure your organization has a fair pricing policy.
  

Let's look closely at some particular activities that can be done to improve the average order value.

Optimize Product Bundles

One of the tips for raising the AOV is putting up packages and bundles that drive customers to spend more. In this situation, the right thing to do is group related things that make sense to buy together. For example, if the person purchases contact lenses, they will likely need a solution for them as well.

Evaluate your product sales data to determine which goods are frequently bought in pairs. Make these goods available in product bundles that come with a discount. Use your website and other platforms to promote the bundles extensively.

Upsell and Cross-Sell

AOV may be improved by using cross-selling and upselling tactics. Upselling is the practice of persuading consumers to upgrade or purchase more expensive versions of the product they're interested in.

With product bundles, cross-selling entails making product recommendations that complement the items a consumer is already purchasing. A pair of shoes or a scarf, for instance, may be suggested items while someone is shopping for a coat.

Examine your product catalog to find items that may be cross- or up-sold. Add checkout notifications for upselling and cross-selling. Analyze the data to find the best recommendations for increasing AOV.

Optimize the Pricing

Be very careful with the products' pricing. It might be hard to boost AOV if they are too low, and if prices are too high, consumers can be discouraged from purchasing. The price must be competitive within the market sector and allow the company to profit. Do a competitive study of pricing in the industry. Maintain profit margins while adjusting product prices to comply with industry norms. To raise AOV, consider providing superior items at a higher price range.

Offer Discounts and Special Offers

Product discounts can generate more purchases and raise the average order value on your e-commerce store. Deals can be presented as a gift card, or you may provide first-time buyer discounts. This is one of the most straightforward techniques to raise the average order value and help enhance conversion rates across the site. Since customers will get a better deal, they are more likely to add other products to their shopping cart.

Provide Free Shipping

The free delivery option makes customers willing to purchase more items. You may provide a shipping option once an order reaches a specific value. If you're shipping small things, this tactic could reduce shipping costs and encourage users to make larger purchases from the website.

Free delivery is one of many options available. You may ensure the customers that the deliveries will be made safely. Another option is to offer free returns or allow clients to select from various delivery variants.

Create a Customer Loyalty Program

To thank your loyal consumers, implement customer loyalty programs. Design a program that offers the clients value-adding incentives like gifts for spending a specific amount or discounts for making a particular number of purchases or returning customers. 

These initiatives boost not only sales but also brand engagement, resulting in increased levels of customer satisfaction and steadfast brand loyalty. Due to reduced related marketing and advertising expenditures, loyal clients are more likely to leave more money at your store, which is excellent for AOV.

Create the Feeling of Urgency

Use time-limited deals to raise the average order value for your online store. Many shoppers simply can't resist a bargain, especially if it has a feeling of urgency. In this regard, you may create a limited edition of some products or launch a countdown with a discount.

Demonstrate Social Proof

If consumers see that others have bought similar goods from your store and stayed satisfied with the purchase, they are more inclined to do the same. So it makes sense that social proof is a valuable strategy for boosting your AOV and encouraging greater buy orders.

As a result, showing social proof from the customers may help build trust with potential consumers. Also, if potential and present consumers realize that you are a reputable company many people adore, they are more inclined to make larger purchases.

User-generated content is one of the finest methods to demonstrate social proof. You might also post reviews on the homepage and social media accounts to let people see what your clients think about the store.

Provide Free Trials for Premium Products

Customers prefer to try products out before purchasing them, especially if the product is expensive. Knowing that a product works well and corresponds to your expectations is comforting. Giving out free samples of more expensive or premium items is a highly efficient way to increase AOV and conversions for such products. 

If you sell a digital product, promoting a trial period is also a working strategy for entry-level products. As a product's advantages are demonstrated, any remaining doubts are eliminated, which motivates clients to spend more money.

Ensure Live Chat Support System

A company has a better chance of decreasing the abandoned carts rate and converting customers if representatives are constantly available to answer customer questions. Clients are less likely to abandon shopping carts full of items when the company can answer their questions promptly.

For instance, a consumer who wants additional details about the shipping prices would demand a prompt response before purchasing. You have a greater chance of converting such consumers if you answer immediately, raising the company's sales and, thus, AOV.

Perform A/B Testing

You should test each AOV-boosting strategy to ensure it works as effectively as possible. This may be accomplished through A/B testing. Split testing is a reliable technique for comparing several website components to get the best variables combined for positive outcomes. Making the wrong decision might result in your online store losing conversions at a staggering pace. With that in mind, make it a practice to test key components to make sure you're putting your attention where it belongs.

Final Word

To increase sales and profitability, an e-commerce company should raise its average order value (AOV). Businesses may successfully enhance AOV and boost sales by putting the tactics outlined above into practice, including upselling and cross-selling, offering free delivery, making individualized product suggestions, and others. Turning to analytics to customize these techniques to each customer's buying habits and interests is crucial.

Establish a baseline for the company before implementing any sales strategies, and then monitor changes in client behavior. By doing so, you may drive the success of your marketing initiatives, keep an eye out for any patterns or abnormalities, and adjust the tactics to better serve your target audience. In a similar vein, make sure to keep an eye on client feedback. You may keep improving customer experience by paying attention to what consumers say and how their comments change over time.

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Kate Parish is a guest contributor to Marin Software.

‍Instagram evolved from an exclusive photo-sharing platform to one that now includes video formats. From 15-second Instagram Stories to long-format in-feed videos, marketers can leverage these powerful marketing tools.

Video ads on Instagram, in particular, are an attention-grabbing way to showcase your product or service. According to Meta’s Q3 2022 earnings release, production and consumption of Instagram Reels grew by 50% to 140 billion shares across Facebook, Instagram, and DMs. So, now is the best time to capitalize on Instagram video advertisements.

In this guide, you’ll learn how video ads on Instagram can help you achieve business objectives and best practices. 

Different Types of Instagram Videos

But let’s back up a bit. What are the different types of videos on Instagram in the first place? Here are four:

In-Feed

These videos appear on users’ feeds the same way image posts do. They can run up to 60 minutes long. This gives businesses leeway to create different types of content – from behind-the-scenes videos to promotions. It’s a surefire way to get Instagram likes. Plus, you can engage customers in the comment section.

This in-feed ad looks like a regular post with the like, comment, and caption section. The call to action button (CTA) sits between the video and the engagement features.

^{Instagram Stories}

These posts use a full-screen, vertical video format, appearing in the Stories section. They run for up to 15 seconds and ‘disappear’ after 24 hours (Note that Instagram Stories ads are different from regular Stories; they allow you to customize ad length). Interactive elements like tagging and stickers give Instagram Stories content an organic feel. It’s one of the few places you can post a direct link on the app.

This Instagram Story doesn’t have like or comment features, but viewers can share the ad with their followers. The CTA button sits at the bottom of the screen, and users swipe up to go to a converting landing page.

Instagram Reels

These 90-second videos are the newest video format on the app. They appear on the Instagram Explore page, followers’ feeds, and the Reels section of your profile. Customers engage with them by liking, commenting, and sharing.

This Reels ad looks like a cross between Instagram Stories and In-Feed posts. The video is a vertical full-screen. The caption, engagement, and CTA buttons are onscreen and not separate from the video.

Live

Instagram Live allows users to stream videos for up to four hours. Live streams appear in the Stories panel and only your followers can view them. Even though Meta is phasing out the Live Shopping feature, it is a great marketing format to interact with followers. You can also share exclusive content like tutorials or events.

Whatever format you choose, well-designed Instagram ads should feel like organic posts.

Instagram Video Advertising Goals

The statistics on video marketing are compelling – demand for video content is 91%. However, it would help if you had a well-thought-out content marketing plan to capitalize on the trend. Your marketing strategy should identify the marketing or business goals you wish to achieve with video ad content.

These goals can be one or more of the following:

Brand Awareness and Reach

Brand awareness is the degree to which target audiences recognize a brand, product, or service by name. Customers are more likely to buy products they know than those they don’t. Therefore, businesses with high brand awareness rates generate more sales and create economic moats that protect their market share from competitors.

Some ways to measure brand awareness on Instagram are mentions and engagement.

Engagement

It refers to creating meaningful customer interactions and building customer loyalty. According to Forbes, people are exposed to almost 8,000 ads a day. If you want customers to remember you, you should create engaging and organic content for every step of the customer journey.

You track your engagement rate by how many likes, video views, comments, and shares your video post gets.

App Installs

This objective falls under the category of increasing brand audience. SaaS brands don’t sell physical products; they sell subscriptions. These companies use video ads on Instagram to demonstrate their software value and drive app installs. So, instead of a ‘Buy Now’ CTA, you may see an ‘Install Now’ or ‘Download’ CTA. The more downloads you get, the bigger your audience.

Conversions

The goal of every marketing campaign is to turn prospects into customers. It is difficult to justify the budget spend on video marketing with low conversion rates. Fortunately, 92% of marketers believe that videos give them a good return on investment (ROI), with increased leads, traffic, and sales.

Instagram Video Ad Best Practices to Follow

If you’re considering video ads on Instagram, study the various video feeds to understand features, engagement capabilities, and content trends. The best ones usually blend into followers’ feeds. Here are five tips to optimize your Instagram video ads.

Choose Appealing Visuals

According to a study, you should deliver value in the first three to ten seconds to ensure viewers keep watching your video.

So, you need to make your ad visually appealing.

Start by minimizing the number of visual elements in the ad. Mobile screens don’t have a lot of space. You want to reduce the visual clutter and direct the viewers’ gaze to the product.

Also, use bright colors to capture attention. Check out this great example from Apple. The yellow green and pink colors stand out:

Use your brand colors, too, to improve recognition.

Also, place your product front and center in your video. You only have a few seconds to leave an impression; the viewers should know what the product is even if they don’t watch the full video.

There are technical requirements to making video clips appealing. We recommend vertical videos to fit the natural orientation of smartphones. Instagram Stories and Reels are full-screen formats and look better in portrait orientation. Other technical guidelines include video size, resolution, MP4 or MOV format, and 4:5 aspect ratio video settings.

Write Compelling Captions

As important as ad visuals are, you mustn’t underestimate the power of captions. Videos on Instagram automatically play without sound. That means viewers must tap the sound icon to hear the marketing message.

Again, you have a short time to grab customers’ attention. If your ad relies on sound, you must convince viewers to switch on the video sound. Onscreen captions help audiences hook into ad storylines and increase view time by 12%. They allow you to communicate your marketing message with or without sound and are browsing-friendly for people with hearing disabilities.

The video captions of this Nike reel (this isn’t a video ad, but just want to prove a point) are timed with the audio narration. The font color stands out for easy reading. So, whether the video sound is off or on, the audience receives a cohesive experience. You can do this with your Instagram video ads, too.

Remember, ad copy can clutter your ad, so keep your message concise.

Use Call-to-Action Buttons

The call to action turns prospects into leads and leads into customers. If you want users to download an app, sign up for a newsletter, or buy a product, the CTA directs them to the right place.

Instagram doesn’t provide many opportunities for direct links to drive conversions. There is the link in the bio and the link sticker in Stories. However, Stories are short-lived. If you send leads from your video to your bio to a landing page, you might lose them.

A third option is available to business/professional accounts to run ads. The CTA button appears at the bottom of the screen. Check out the Learn More CTA in the screenshot of Velocity Black’s video ad above.

To catch viewers when they are most interested, ensure your CTAs appear in the middle of the video. If you wait until the end, you will miss the chance to convert the people who didn’t watch the entire video. If CTAs appear at the beginning, you might seem pushy.

Utilize Hashtags

Hashtags are keywords or phrases that help people find content around searched topics. But if you’re using a pay-per-click strategy to amplify your ads, do you need them?

The short answer is yes.

Hashtags give context to your ads, allowing Instagram to understand and categorize your content. Instagram uses hashtags as signals to determine which content gets in front of which audience, affecting your rank on the Explore page and content delivery to your followers' Instagram feed.

Test Different Ad Formats

Even if you create an ad you think customers would like, it’s best to test different ad formats to find the one your audience responds to. Customer viewing preferences change. A/B testing helps you learn what they want to see.

A/B or split testing compares two or more versions of the same ad. This helps you determine which version leaves the most impact and drives conversions. Test each element individually, i.e., CTA buttons, color schemes, or caption copy, to find the best combination. For instance, the only variable between two ads could be the caption text color or video length.

Split testing adds another step to your video ad campaign. However, with A/B testing tools, you save time and money by running ads that bring results. When you sign up for Meta Ads Manager, you can use the same tools that optimize Facebook ads for your Instagram A/B testing.

In Closing

Instagram recognizes the value of video. Savvy marketers are capitalizing on the social channel’s video formats to reach audiences and drive sales. They use the platform to demonstrate product uses, highlight unique features, or tell their brand story. This guide showed you how Instagram video ads could help you meet your business goals. You learned five best practices to optimize your video ad campaigns. As a final tip, remember that your Instagram videos must be authentic, entertaining, and high-quality. Otherwise, customers will just swipe or scroll past them. Good luck!

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Harry Flynn is a guest contributor to Marin Software.

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Some months ago, MarinOne attended Search Insider Summit’s Performance Marketing event in Deer Valley, Utah. While skiing, snow shoeing, snowmobiling and more winter fun set the tone for a casual, social atmosphere…the insights and expertise that were shared during the speaking sessions I would call anything but casual. Here are our quick and brief “too long didn’t read” notes on the content that was covered.

Keynote Presentation: Super Coffee's Digital Marketing Blend in an Omnichannel World

Super Coffee has been one of the nation's top five ready-to-serve coffees since 2015 when they quickly reached a $400 million company. They can now be found in over 70,000 stores and online, prompting the need for an update to their digital marketing efforts to continue their success. Jimmy Dicicco (co-founder and Chief Brand Officer) and Tyler Ricks (Chief Executive Officer) talked about their journey and how their digital strategy transformed over time. They also explained their strategy for maintaining a balance between expanding their business and staying profitable, along with the methods to measure ROI.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Jimmy DeCicco, Co-founder, Chief Brand Officer, Super Coffee 

Tyler Ricks, Chief Executive Officer, Super Coffee

• "We shouldn't think in silos"

• Stopped dividing ecomm goals and retail goals, looked at all business holistically

• Clued into their target market, initial targeting was very broad but it did give them the data they needed to establish the right audiences

• Seeking protein, avoiding sugar, keto

• Primary focus on lifetime value, built up the subscription model
• With the growth of revenue and reduction of paid media spend, they were able to raise a significant amount of funding for the business
• All consumers are omnichannel

Presentation: Winning at Retail Media: Leveraging Retail Media in Today’s Unique Economy

Morgan Chemij, HP's Global Senior Director of Marketplaces, offered great insights about retail media and shopper marketing! He discussed how marketers can ensure that they remain up to date and well-informed on new retail media trends. The recent trend of diverting money away from traditional media channels and allocating it towards retail marketing, means understanding the importance of this type of marketing is paramount for any brand or advertising team. He went into depth about how retail media has been gaining immense traction in the marketing sphere. 

Major players like Amazon, Walmart Connect, Target Roundel and Instacart are taking advantage of this trend to leverage their reach and engagement, while new platform partners like Costco and Best Buy are rapidly growing and making a mark. Major retail d2c brands particularly have been using these platforms to propel growth and success for their businesses. Chemij gave tips on where to place bets, what types of activations are likely to be the most successful, and HP's approach and learnings during their Retail Media journey.

PRESENTER

Morgan Chemij, Global Marketplace Strategy & Execution, HP 

• Amazon is still leading in retail media, but Walmart and Instacart are both taking a significantly higher share than they once did. Multiple media networks is critical at this point.
• Wayfair, Ebay, Costco, Macy's, Best Buy, The Home Depot, Target, Tesco, 7-11, and Kroger are all emerging networks that are gaining traffic and taking market share. (we need to get with all of these!)
• Retail media networks offer a convenience to consumers that they really enjoy. Buyers like to have a personalized experience, especially when it's with a brand they trust. Not everyone may want to share their information or activity to any advertiser online, but they may be more willing to "allow cookies" when it's a specific brand they like.
• HP invested in search on smaller media networks like Costco and had a 13% conversion lift and lowered their CPA to just $12.

Panel Debate: Automation - Friend or Foe?

The ad tech industry has progressed significantly by automating a great deal of the process for building, publishing and optimizing paid media campaigns. This shift has taken away more control from marketers. It's understandable to be wary of AI algorithms when it comes to content creation and optimization. Figuring out the perfect balance between automation and human input is key for a successful campaign. To gain more insight into this topic, Annie Stickney moderated a debate-style panel discussion where leading marketers discussed their experiences with artificial intelligence and automation.

MODERATOR

Annie Stickney, VP OmniChannel Analytics - Head of Search Analytics, JP Morgan Chase 

PANELISTS

Michael Aburas, Director of Digital Marketing, Icon Parking 

Brett Geeser, Head of Paid Search, Cross Media 

Jonathan Kagan, VP, Search, 9Rooftops @jonkagan

• Brett - "Trust but verify"
• Annie - Gonzalez vs. Google
• Jonathan - Content terrorism, Twitter is a danger

• Difficult brand decisions to ethically rule out or keep geographical areas where controversial bills are passed, like Texas vaccination law

• Michael - brand association, his view is to keep things right in the middle

• Free speech vs. brand messaging
• US and New Zealand allow pharmaceutical advertising

• Many global countries do not allow it

Presentation: Peak Behind the Curtain – Driving Organizational Change During Uncertainty

In this time of ongoing uncertainty, marketers must be nimble and flexible to stay on top of consumer's evolving needs. Being able to respond quickly is critical for success is critical. Vivian Chang, the head of direct-to-consumer at The Clorox Company, discussed how the iconic CPG brand is optimizing and adapting its organization to ensure a successful long-term outlook. During her presentation, she covered essential tactics for marketing operations success like delivering over revenue, successful change management, and finding a balance between short-term and long-term objectives.

PRESENTER

Vivian Chang, VP Growth, Clorox DTC, The Clorox Company

• Martech landscape is overwhelming
• How do you determine the tools that are needed?
• How do you be agile?
• How do you develop teams to be successful at driving strategy?
• Be a growth engine

• Get started! Be aware you'll probably pivot, but you won't know until you try SOMETHING

• Balance long term and short term mentality

• Be more reactive
• Respond to the customers' wants and needs

• Get creative on showing success

• Incremental omni revenue
• High quality first party data
• Insights to drive brand efficiency
• Early learning for R&D innovation

• Mobilize support through allies
• Build a flexible people organization

• FTEs, contractors, AND agencies
• Put people in the places that they will have the greatest long-term impact

• Clarify and simplify
• Own, don't abdicate decisions
• Check your ego
• Celebrate the small wins
• Take care of you

Keynote Presentation: The Future of Traffic Generation - Why Branding & SEO Matter in a High CAC Environment

Despite a complex customer acquisition climate, companies are still looking for effective solutions to drive traffic and sales. Brands and retailers are held to high expectations to achieve their goals in this landscape. Establishing a strong presence through conventional branding and SEO is essential for achieving success within a performance marketing strategy. These channels provide valuable assistance to paid media for maximizing the return on your investments.

Amy Madonia, Executive Director of Global Ecommerce at The Estée Lauder Companies, explained how the world's biggest makeup brand made use of storytelling techniques to differentiate themselves online. She also covered the future of demand generation in today's digital environment which is changing rapidly.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Amy Madonia, Executive Director, of Global Ecommerce, The Estée Lauder Companies

• $500M in charitable donations to those affected by HIV or AIDS
• Focus on AOV - virtual try on or "trend try on" is increasing the number of products each user buys
• Commitment, persistance, and elbow grease - there was no ownership for SEO, so they created a team of engaged and committed people that would work on easy tasks in sprints

Case Study: Becoming Relevant via Cultural Moments

H&R Block saw an opportunity to reach a younger audience and enhance its brand perception when the NCAA updated its Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) regulations in 2021. College athletes had the chance to make a large profit off of their NIL, which presented an appealing opportunity for tax preparation companies. It enabled them to join in on a relevant cultural moment and effectively connect with consumers. Pierson Curtis, Director of Growth Marketing at H&R, talked about how their culturally sensitive and purpose-driven campaign led to better performance across various paid, earned and owned channels.

PRESENTER

Pierson Curtis, Director of Growth Marketing & Engagement, H&R Block 

Case Study: Affiliates & Partnerships: Where Brand and Lower Funnel Merge

It's possible to achieve a mutually beneficial situation among Brand and lower funnel marketers. Through Affiliate and Partnership programs, teams can collaborate in creating profitable strategies and tactics for all involved. Kristina has done a commendable job at Big Island Coffee Roasters as their lower funnel marketer. 'Partnerships' has become her priority, right after her love for coffee. This initiative has enabled Kristina to support her Brand colleagues in various ways. By thinking out of the box and applying creative strategies, marketers can create fresh opportunities and deliver excellent results that are beyond usual PR and Brand activities.

PRESENTER

Kristina Smith, Head of DTC, Big Island Coffee Roasters

Google is retiring the version of Google Analytics we have all been using for years and requiring us to move to Google Analytics 4 (GA4). Because GA4 is built on an entirely new data model, we need to set up GA4 from scratch. This post is intended to highlight a few topics for consideration as you manage this upgrade from Universal Analytics (UA).

What is different about GA4?

Mobile First:  GA4 is built around an event-driven data model that tracks user interactions across different platforms and devices, providing marketers with a more holistic view of user behavior. UA, on the other hand, is pageview-based, meaning it tracks website pages' interactions and doesn't provide insight into user behavior outside the website. Additionally, GA4 uses machine learning to analyze user behavior and provide deeper insights into audience demographics, interests, and behaviors.

Events First: In UA, Goals were the focus of any conversion-related analysis and were set up in Google Analytics. Not in GA4. Everything is an Event and there are four type of events. Events can be marked as Conversions in GA4 for use in funnel reports. 

To get the most from GA4, you will want to configure the events in Google Tag Manager although you can define up to 30 custom events in GA4 directly. Instead of a few pre-defined parameters (Label, Action, etc.), events can have multiple custom-defined parameters to align with how they are used. 

Google offers a Goals Migration Tool that can be used for Destination Goals and Events, but they recommend restructuring your events to match the GA4 data model.

Goodbye Views, Hello Data Streams: GA4 maintains Accounts and Properties, similar to UA, but the concept of views is gone. Views were often used to filter your data to focus on a subset. In GA4, each data is collected from one or more Data Streams (websites, apps, or other digital properties), and any filtering must be done in Google Tag Manager.

Farewell Bounce Rate, Welcome Engaged Sessions: Because page-oriented metrics like Bounce Rate don’t translate to a mobile app, GA4 is focused on session metrics. One casualty is Bounce Rate. The closest approximation is an Engaged Session which attempts to determine whether the user interacted with your content. It’s similar in that 2 or more page views should count as an Engaged Session, but it also works on mobile. If the numbers surprise you, remember that it translates more closely to 1 - Bounce Rate.

Built on Big Query: Google’s Big Query underlies GA4, giving you improved access to the underlying data for querying or use in Google Data studio.

How does my workflow change?

Google is attempting to clarify the workflow around analytics by breaking it into separate pieces handled by distinct applications. Many of us already use Google Tag Manager and Google Data Studio, but GA4 encourages or even requires some of the work to be done in those tools.

Conversion Setup in Tag Manager: As mentioned earlier, you no longer set up Goals in Google Analytics directly. Instead, you set up anything you want to track as an Event, and then you can mark some of your events Conversions in Google Analytics. Many activities you probably thought of as metrics in UA (e.g., Page Views) are automatically tracked. For custom events tied to your conversion funnel, these need to be set up in Google Tag Manager, including things like reaching a specific thank you page or submitting a form, or viewing a video. This gives you tremendous flexibility but requires more forethought in your setup.

Reporting in Google Data Studio: Google envisions Analytics as a tool for Analysis or asking questions about the data. They are pushing pure reporting functions to Google Data Studio. The idea is that you probably have some users who will be overwhelmed with the complexity of analytics (not to mention they might break something in the process) and would be better served with a Dashboard from GDS.

There is configurable reporting in GA4, and one of the first things you may want to do is set up a Library that mimics the reports found in UA to make the transition easier.

Linking Google Ads: GA4 can still be used to power your Google Ads conversions, but you will need to reconfigure your setup to make sure this happens.  

First, you need to take the existing conversions from Universal Analytics and make them Secondary Conversions, so Smartbidding does not consider them. Then you will import the new GA4 Conversions by selecting New Conversion Action from Tools > Conversions. Once there, select Import, and you will be able to import any events that are marked Conversions in GA4. Once imported, these will be available for Smartbidding optimization.

Improved Analytics: This migration presents an opportunity to review your Analytics setup to ensure it is up today with the needs of your business. It’s easy to have your analytics on autopilot, even as your website, app, and go-to-market motions change. Take the opportunity to audit the events you want to track, the audiences or segments that are important to you, and the report your stakeholders need. Of course, you want continuity with your existing data, but don’t miss the chance to improve things.

What about historical data?

There is no migration of historical data from UA to GA4. Google has stated that historical data will be available in UA for 6 months, but after that, there is no guarantee that you will have access. This is why it is important to set up GA4 tracking as soon as possible if you have not already.

UA’s reporting tools If you work with a 3rd-party PPC platform such as MarinOne, you should be able to import your conversion data as far back as needed 

Need Help?

This article isn’t intended to be a complete guide to making the migration, so it barely scratches the surface of what’s possible with GA4. If you find yourself in need of additional bandwidth or expertise, our team of analytics ninjas are ready to help. Click here to set up a free consultation.

Meta, formerly Facebook, is one of the most powerful ad platforms on the planet. If you want to increase sales online with ads, the best place to start is with Facebook/Meta and their nearly 3 billion users.

Inside Facebook is the Meta Ads Manager system that was precisely tailored and designed by the social media giant for businesses so that regular accounts can be differentiated from personal ones.

Meta Business is the platform that lets businesses use Facebook and Instagram’s vast customer base to sell to. In short, Meta Business Manager is where effective monetization of your digital presence begins.

Meta Ads Manager simplifies life for digital marketing professionals with its capabilities of creating and monitoring separate accounts for each business they manage. This allows them to easily distinguish between different organizations and assign distinct roles based on the user's job function.

Furthermore, administrators can gain centralized control over multiple users' accounts by setting specific permissions from one easy-to-use platform. This article will dive into everything you need to know about Meta Ads Manager.

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What is Meta Ads Manager?

Meta Ads Manager is a platform that allows advertisers to manage and optimize their online advertising campaigns across multiple channels. It provides a centralized system for creating, launching, and tracking advertising campaigns, making it easier for marketers to manage their campaigns efficiently.

What Will You Get Out of This Guide?

This guide aims to provide an in-depth understanding of the best practices for using Meta Ads Manager to maximize advertising campaign performance. This guide will cover the essential steps for setting up and optimizing ad campaigns and provide insights into common pitfalls to avoid.

Overview of the Best Practices for Meta Ads Manager

This guide will provide a comprehensive overview of the best practices for using Meta Ads Manager, including setting up an account, creating and launching ad campaigns, optimizing campaigns for better performance, measuring ad performance, scaling campaigns, and avoiding common pitfalls. By following these best practices, advertisers can ensure their campaigns are performing at peak and delivering the best possible results.

Now, let’s dive into what you need to know about Meta Ads Manager.

Setting up Meta Ads Manager

You need to know here about getting set up on Meta Ads Manager.

Creating an Account

The first step in using Meta Ads Manager is to create an account. This involves

• Providing essential information about your business
• Name
• Contact details
• Setting up payment methods for ad spend

Once the account is created, you can start adding campaigns and setting up targeting parameters.

Adding Ad Campaigns

The next step is to add ad campaigns to the Meta Ads Manager account. This involves selecting the type of advertising you would like to run. You will then need to select the platform or channels where you want to run your ads. 

Setting up Ad Budget and Targeting

Once your ad campaigns are added, it's time to set up the ad budget and targeting parameters. The ad budget will determine how much you are willing to spend on each campaign, and the targeting parameters will decide who will see your ads.

Targeting can be set based on demographics, interests, behaviors, or other criteria. It's essential to carefully consider these parameters and set them correctly to ensure your ads reach the right audience and achieve the desired results.

Optimizing Ad Campaigns

Optimization is essential for your ads. You must ensure that your ads will perform as effectively as possible.

Ad Copy Writing and Testing

Ad copywriting is an art and science. Your ad copy should be attention-grabbing and relevant while including a clear call to action. It's also essential to test different ad copies to determine which ones perform best. A/B testing can help you determine which ad copy is most effective in achieving your desired results.

Artificial intelligence has recently come onto the scene in a big way. To create the best ad copy, consider using AI writing tools when appropriate.

Choosing the Right Ad Format

Choosing the proper ad format is another important factor in optimizing ad campaigns. Different designs, such as display ads, video ads, or carousel ads, have different strengths and limitations. Consider the target audience, message, and desired outcome when selecting the correct ad format for your campaigns.

Landing Page Optimization

The landing page is the first impression potential customers will have of your brand. It's vital to ensure that the landing page is optimized for conversions. This means it should load quickly, be easy to navigate, and include a clear call-to-action. Ensure that the messaging and design of the landing page align with the ad and that it's optimized for the target audience.

Measuring Ad Performance

Next, you need to know how to measure your ads. Like the stock market, you must learn how to ride the winners and ditch the losers. Meta has advanced analytics you can use to track all your ads' performance.

Understanding Ad Metrics

To effectively measure the performance of ad campaigns, it's essential to understand the critical ad metrics. Metrics such as cost per click (CPC), click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, and return on ad spend (ROAS) can provide valuable insights into how your ads are performing and how they can be improved.

Setting up Conversion Tracking

Conversion tracking is a critical component of measuring ad performance. By setting up conversion tracking, you can see which campaigns drive the most conversions and optimize your campaigns accordingly. Conversion tracking can be set up using tools like Google Analytics or a conversion tracking pixel provided by Meta Ads Manager.

Analyzing Ad Performance and Making Data-Driven Decisions

Once you have a solid understanding of the vital ad metrics and have set up conversion tracking, it's time to analyze ad performance and make data-driven decisions. Regularly reviewing ad performance and making adjustments based on data can help improve the outcome of your campaigns over time. This can include adjusting the budget, adjusting targeting, or improving ad copy and landing pages.

Scaling Ad Campaigns

Now that you have found some ads that work, it’s time to scale them up to reach the most people and bring in maximum revenue.

Managing Ad Spend

As ad campaigns scale and reach a wider audience, managing ad spending is essential. You must:

• Set a clear ad budget
• Monitor ad spend regularly
• Make adjustments as needed to ensure that spend aligns with the desired results and priorities

Expanding Targeting and Geographies

Once ad campaigns are performing well, advertisers can consider expanding to new markets with updated targeting. This can include targeting new demographics, interests, or behaviors or reaching new geographic locations. By increasing the overall reach of ad campaigns, advertisers can increase impression share in their competitive space and drive more conversions.

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Common Pitfalls to Avoid

While the Meta Ads platform has many positive attributes, it does have some downfalls and things you should avoid, or consider using a third party tool like Marin Software to layer on top of Meta and push advertising possibilities even further.

Overcomplicating Ad Campaigns

One of the biggest pitfalls in Meta Ads campaign management is overcomplicating the account structure. Ad campaigns can quickly become complex, with multiple ad formats, several different audiences, and many important metrics to consider. It's crucial to keep ad campaigns focused and straightforward to avoid adding unnecessary complication that can negatively affect overall campaign performance.

Failing to Optimize Ad Campaigns Regularly

Ad campaigns need to be optimized regularly to ensure they continue to deliver the best possible results. Failing to optimize ad campaigns regularly can diminish returns over time as ad performance gradually deteriorates. Regular optimization can include adjusting ad budget, targeting parameters, ad copy, and landing pages and testing and refining strategies as needed.

Final Thoughts

Advertising is a dynamic and ever-evolving process that requires constant fine-tuning to maximize your ROI. That's why it pays off to be knowledgeable about best practices when using Meta Ads Manager, from setting up campaigns correctly in the first place to optimizing them continually for more efficient performance.

With careful attention paid to avoiding common pitfalls along with testing, refining, and analyzing data regularly - you can reach new heights of success by taking advantage of all this platform has to offer!

Whether you're a seasoned advertiser or just starting with Meta Ads Manager, it's never too late to optimize your ad campaigns. So take action today and implement these best practices in Meta Ads Manager.

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Andrew Dunn is a guest contributor to Marin Software's blog.

The media buying industry is constantly evolving, and staying on top of the latest trends and strategies is crucial for success. That's why events like the Digiday Media Buying Summit are so valuable. Industry experts and thought leaders come together to share insights, discuss challenges, and explore new opportunities.

The recent Digiday Media Buying Summit in New Orleans was no exception. Over the course of several days, attendees had the chance to hear from a variety of speakers, participate in workshops and panel discussions, and network with peers from across the industry.

One of the key themes that emerged from the summit was the ongoing challenge of data privacy and how it's impacting media buying. As more and more consumers become aware of the data being collected about them and the ways it's being used, there's a growing push for greater transparency and control. This has led to increased regulation, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the United States.

Media buyers are having to adapt to these changes by being more transparent with consumers about how their data is being used, and by ensuring that they're only collecting and using data that's truly necessary. They're also exploring alternative ways to target audiences, such as contextual advertising, which targets ads based on the content of the page rather than the user's data.

Another topic that received a lot of attention at the summit was the continued growth of programmatic advertising. Programmatic has become an increasingly popular way to buy and sell advertising, as it allows for greater targeting and efficiency. However, there are still challenges to be addressed, such as ad fraud and brand safety.

To combat these issues, media buyers are investing in more sophisticated fraud detection tools and partnering with trusted publishers to ensure that their ads are appearing in safe and reputable environments. They're also exploring new approaches to programmatic, such as bringing programmatic in-house, which can give them greater control over their campaigns and data.

In addition to these challenges, the summit also highlighted some of the exciting opportunities that are emerging in media buying. One such opportunity is the growing importance of connected TV (CTV). As more consumers shift away from traditional TV and towards streaming services, CTV has become an increasingly important channel for advertisers.

Media buyers are exploring ways to take advantage of this trend, such as by using data to target specific households or by partnering with streaming services to create unique ad experiences.

Advertisers are being faced with new, ever-changing obstacles due to fluctuating budgets, varying company and industry objectives and unpredictable customer behavior. This creates tension between brand marketers and the platforms from which ads are purchased. 

This puts additional pressure on agencies and third party tools like MarinOne to bridge the gap and represent both parties well–ensuring marketers get the best possible return on their advertising investment, while the ad platforms' requirements are met to ensure their audiences are protected. Speak with one our expert consultants to learn how you can increase ad efficiency while remaining compliant.

We were glad to be apart of this years' Digiday Media Buying event in New Orleans, alongside our partner LinkedIn, to bring you, our clients and partners, the most up to date information possible. Continue to watch our blog for more insights that were gathered throughout this 3 day event over the coming weeks.

Creating high-quality content that resonates with your audience is more important than ever in 2023. The amount of content produced and shared online is staggering, and you need to find ways to stand out from the crowd.

Marketers also need to be consistent, so finding ways to make your content creation more efficient, impactful, and memorable should be a priority. To help, we've put together 10 fresh ideas for efficient content creation in 2023 that will help you connect with your audience, drive engagement, and reach your content marketing goals. 

From beginners to those who wish to revamp an existing content strategy, these tips will make things easier for you this year, and beyond.

Tip #1: Plan and organize your content

To ensure you create content efficiently, you must have a clear plan and strategy. A content calendar is a great way to accomplish this strategy while also guaranteeing that you publish relevant and engaging content regularly. Always prioritize your tasks based on audience demand and your content goals, and use a mockup generator with pre-designed templates to provide an idea of the look and feel of your content.

With a content plan, you can ensure your content focuses on your current products, releases, services, and business happenings while aligning with the overall marketing strategy. Your content plan should be a roadmap for creating, publishing, and ensuring that you achieve a better return on investment (ROI) for your content marketing efforts. 

Tip #2: Repurpose and upcycle old content

Instead of starting from scratch every time you create new content, consider repurposing and updating existing content. For example, you could turn a blog post into an infographic or use it to create a podcast. This approach saves time and ensures that you're making the most of the content you've already created; no one is scanning back through your feed to see what you posted a year ago, and if they do, they likely won't point out a double-up.

Take your existing content and modify it in new and innovative ways to speak to new audiences, drive engagement, and above all, save time. Extending the lifespan of your content by turning a blog post into a video, for example, also means you'll see more value from all content efforts while building brand recognition and creating a strong, consistent brand image. 

Tip #3: Collaborate with micro-influencers and crowdsource ideas

Collaborating with other departments, influencers, or subject matter experts can help create better content. Use crowdsourcing techniques, such as surveys, to gather feedback and understand what types of content your audience wants to see.

This strategy will help point your content creation in the right direction, whether it be a social post or a high-converting blog. You can also leverage the audiences of the people or organizations you collaborate with to see higher reach to new audiences, who are potential customers. For example, micro-influencers, individuals with a relatively small but dedicated social following, can be a great way to generate sales. 

Some benefits of working with micro-influencers include:

• Higher engagement rates: Micro-influencers often have higher engagement rates than more significant influencers, as they have a more dedicated and engaged following. Your brand message has a better chance of reaching and resonating with your target audience.
• More authentic relationships: Micro-influencers often have personal relationships with their followers. This connection means their endorsement is more authentic and trustworthy.
• Cost-effective: Micro-influencers typically charge less for their services, making them a cost-effective option.
• Niche reach: You can target a specific niche or area of expertise, which can help your brand reach a targeted audience. 
• Long-term relationships: Micro-influencers are often open to forming long-term relationships with brands, which can help build brand recognition and credibility over time.

Tip #4: Use storytelling and other visual elements

Make your content more engaging and memorable with images, videos, and other data visualization to understand complex information. Where possible, try to tell a story about your brand, the products, or whatever your content is focusing on. People want to be entertained and interested by the content they see; if you can achieve this, your content will perform much better.

To weave storytelling into your content, consider the following tips:

1. Identify your story: Determine the main story you want to tell and ensure that it aligns with your brand and messaging.
2. Use relatable characters: Help audiences personally connect with your story, either with relatable fictional characters or real people such as customers or employees.
3. Create a strong emotional connection: Use emotional appeals such as humor, excitement, or heartache to create an emotional connection with your audience.
4. Use vivid imagery: Descriptive language, images, and video help bring your story to life.
5. Make it relevant: Ensure that your story is relevant by tying it to your customer's needs, wants, and interests.
6. Keep it concise: A focused story is good; avoid unnecessary details that can distract from the main message.

These storytelling tips apply to everything from social posts to sales promotion examples and landing pages. Great visuals and interesting stories go hand in hand with other SEO tactics. If you run a Shopify store for your business, some of the best Shopify apps can help you combine all of these elements seamlessly.

Tip #5: Inform your content with data

Data is a powerful tool that can inform your content strategy and help you create stories that resonate with your audience. By using analytics and metrics, you can track the performance of your content and make data-driven decisions to improve its effectiveness.

If you build a scalable content marketing campaign, you can easily pivot as you receive new data about content performance. From the types of people reacting to your content to the most popular pages of your website, data helps you understand what your audience wants, which is the key to successful content creation.

Tip #6: Incorporate voice and audio content

Voice-activated and audio content, such as podcasts, are increasingly popular. These formats allow you to reach new audiences and create more immersive experiences, making them a great way to diversify your content and engage with your audience in new ways.

You can also think about voice-activated video content designed for voice assistants and triggered by voice commands. This strategy can be a great lead magnet if your video content is engaging and informative.

Tip #7: Create interactive and immersive content

Engage your audience by encouraging them to take action. This can be done with interactive quizzes, 360-degree videos, or augmented reality experiences. These formats help you create a deeper connection while driving higher engagement and conversion rates.

Consider elements such as user input, which encourages audience engagement and involvement as they build a deeper connection with your brand. Immersive content can also help users to better understand complex concepts. For example, imagine a 360-degree view of a product or VR experience demonstrating how a service works.

Tip #8: Use higher quality video content

Video content is a powerful tool for engaging and building a deeper connection with your audience. However, whether it is live video or animation, it needs to be of a certain level of quality to help bring your content to life in a more impactful way. 

Invest in high-quality video editing and production to help maintain your audience's attention and show the value of your products and services. Poor-quality video can create a negative effect, reflecting poorly on your business and lowering the perceived quality of your products and services. Once completed, enlist the help of tools that ensure quality and secure uploads for efficient content processing with large video files.

Tip #9: Specific content tailored for social media 

While you can use social media to distribute and promote any of your content, it is important to think about specific content built for designated platforms. This content can be short and humorous videos for TikTok, industry-relevant opinion pieces for LinkedIn, and carousel posts or reels for Instagram. Craft content that suits the platform, then engage with your audience in real-time. 

To do this successfully, you will need to understand the unique strengths and weaknesses of each platform. As some social media sites reward users who post regularly, use an AI Content Creation Platform to get a head-start on your social media-specific content and create in advance.

Tip #10: Benefit from personalization and targeting

Personalization and targeting are essential for creating content that speaks directly to your audience. Be it personalized email campaigns or targeted eCommerce ads, this method allows you to work smarter as opposed to harder with your content marketing. 

Ensure that your content reaches the right people at the right time to see higher engagement and conversion rates. This strategy is a cost-efficient way to spend your marketing budget and will likely yield greater results as your attention and effort are focused on people who are somewhat already interested in the products or services you offer.

Focus on these areas to enjoy quality results

These efficient content creation ideas will help you make sure you provide quality output for your audience in 2023. Always remember that the key to success is understanding your audience, goals, and whatever makes your content stand out. 

Experiment with these ideas and find the ones that work best for you and your audience, then lean into them and reap the rewards. We also recommend supercharging your paid search, social, and e-commerce advertising with MarinOne, and maximizing the return on every single marketing dollar you spend.

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Luke Carlino is a guest contributor to Marin Software.

Since Snapchat made its debut in 2011, it has drawn millions of users to its platform. And although other social media competitors burst onto the scene to compete, it has stood the test of time. In fact, Snapchat still remains one of the most popular apps for users between the ages of 15 and 25. 

With 319 million active users each day, the app continues to be a valued marketing tool for brands looking to reach millennials and Gen Z’ers. Because of its unique ad formats and its power to extend audience reach and increase brand awareness, Snapchat has gained much attention and made it possible for marketers to create some of the most memorable Snapchat ads. 

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Why you should use it

Here are a few convincing reasons to add the social media platform to your marketing mix.

Highly engaged audience

Because they’re young and highly-engaged, Snapchat users are more likely to pay attention to and interact with ads. This makes it an ideal platform for reaching younger demographics.

Targeted advertising

Snapchat allows businesses to target their ads to specific demographics, locations, and interests. Through targeted advertising, marketers can ensure that their ads are seen by the right people and increase their effectiveness.

High ROI

Many businesses have seen a high return on investment from their Snapchat ad campaigns, making it a cost-effective marketing tool.

Strong mobile presence

Snapchat is primarily a mobile app, which means it's easy for users to view and interact with the ads on their smartphones. This can be particularly effective for reaching users on the go.

The best Snapchat ads ever

Sephora

Sephora, a leading beauty brand, partnered with Snapchat to create a gamified AR Lens. They ran their campaign for four weeks and increased the total amount of transactions on their website by 5%. 

What they got right: Users were directly engaged for 37+ seconds because the brand created an interactive game that kept their audiences’ attention by teasing them with a coupon code redemption. 

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Hopper

An airline-booking app, Hopper helps users find the best deals on flights and the best time to fly. To engage Snapchatters, Hopper developed creatives for different routes with ads that were simple, static, and had a clear call to action. Through their campaign, Hopper discovered that Snapchatters were not only 37% more likely to watch a route, but booking rates from Snapchatters were 4x higher than users of other platforms. 

What they got right: The airline-booking app used location radius targeting along with geographically relevant creatives to reach millennials. 

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Bacardi

Bacardi spearheaded a Snapchat ad campaign with the slogan “Do what moves you” to target their ideal audience. They chose Snapchat as their primary vehicle for digital communications, because not only does it offer ad engagement varieties, but it allowed them to reach the age group they were after. As a result of their strategy, the brand was able to gain maximum proximity to their target group, ultimately reaching 2.5 million Snapchatters. 

What they got right: In an attempt to update their brand image and attract more followers from the younger generation, Bacardi utilized Snapchat’s ad formats to create an immersive “summer feeling” for Snapchat users that kept them engaged. 

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Motorola

To increase consideration intent and brand awareness for their Moto g7 power smartphone, Motorola used Snapchat to present the product’s three-day battery backup feature. 

What they got right: By leveraging Story Ads and Snap Ads, Motorola was able to show their customers just how much they could benefit from the brand’s long-lasting battery. 

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Gucci

As the first brand to partner with Snapchat for a global AR shoe try-on campaign, Gucci had a very successful outcome. Through the campaign, Snapchatters were able to virtually experience trying on four different kinds of sneakers. From the Lens, Snapchatters were able to go straight to Gucci’s website to purchase the shoe of their choice.  

What they got right: Gucci’s AR try-on experience not only captured the attention of many Snapchatters, but it also kept them engaged, leading to an increase in sales and positive ROAS. 

Shipt

To cement themselves as a leader in the competitive grocery delivery space, Shipt turned to Snapchat’s impactful ads to expand their audience and reach potential prospects with relevant Snap Ads. As a result of their creatives, their message was received by over 10 million Snapchatters in as little as two months. 

What they got right: They chose an illustrative animation strategy to generate awareness of their brand and increase reach. 

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Snapchat Ad best practices

With so many users worldwide, Snapchat is an ideal platform for connecting and engaging with consumers. When planning your Snapchat campaign, keep these best practices in mind.

Use interactive features

Snapchat offers a range of interactive features such as sponsored lenses, filters, and polls that can make your ads more engaging and memorable. Consider using these features to create an interactive experience for your audience.

Always use NEW story content

While it may be tempting to reuse an existing ad, it’s not recommended. Snapchat’s user base attracts a broad audience, so creating a tailored message will help you take advantage of the platform’s Gen Z niche. 

Be consistent and stay on brand

If your brand has a limited budget, develop a strategy that allows you to advertise consistently rather than being highly active one month, and completely inactive another. Of course, if your budget allows and your strategy permits a sprint advertising style, then go ahead with it. While every brand is different, it’s a preferred practice to keep your brand front of mind over long stretches of time. 

Ditch the sales pitch and create content that’s fun and natural

Work with micro-influencers and content creators to produce content that’s appealing to your audience. Keep content organic and authentic, and shift your focus away from being 100% sales-pitch oriented. 

Focus on the first two seconds

The first two seconds of your ad can either make or break performance. When promotion pop-ups appear immediately rather than in the final end card, optimal results can be achieved. Ads that have followed this best practice have outperformed others that have not. 

Test different ad formats

As part of your Snapchat advertising strategy, be sure to test different ad formats to see which ones are performing well for your brand and your target audience. By gaining key insights into how your ads are doing and why, you unlock the maximum return on investment for your budget so you can grow your business.

Supersize your Snapchat presence 

Whether your goal is to boost sales or raise brand awareness, Snapchat is an ideal platform for innovative and effective advertising campaigns. Creative Snapchat ad design relies on the combination of eye-catching visuals and a clear and compelling message that guides viewers to take the next step. 

By creating memorable, shareable, and interactive experiences that resonate with your target audience, you can supercharge your advertising efforts. Partnering with an expert in Snapchat advertising can get you started on the right track. MarinOne can help you develop engaging ads that inspire action and drive results to unlock more opportunities for your business. With its Snapchat integration, you can easily identify budget by channel, audience, and products that can be tested across multiple platforms. 

To learn more about how you can maximize the potential of your Snapchat ads and fine-tune your omnichannel advertising strategy, reach out to one of our MarinOne experts today.

You’re a customer-first brand that prioritizes customer satisfaction, but no matter how hard you try, there will always be a handful of unhappy customers who leave disgruntled reviews or share negative sentiments about your brand on social media. Perhaps they received a faulty product, or maybe they were just having a bad day and the product didn’t live up to their expectations. You can’t please everyone, but having a strong online reputation management (ORM) strategy can minimize the impact of negative feedback to help your brand maintain a positive reputation. 

Online reputation management (ORM) involves monitoring mentions of your brand name on the internet, primarily in reviews and on social media. This may sound like a job for your PR team, but ORM is different. PR teams work proactively to increase exposure to your brand and strengthen your reputation. ORM is a more defensive strategy that centers around seeking out negative content and working to minimize the damage. 

Virality's Role in Online Reputation Management

In the age of Instagram, ORM is more important than ever before. Social media algorithms favor viral content, and unfortunately negative and controversial content has some of the highest potential for virality. This is because virality is based on engagement. Engagement meaning, how many people are watching the video (most likely a tiktok or reel) from start to finish? How many people are liking and commenting? The more controversial a video is, the higher the engagement will be. This can cause negative press around a brand to spread quickly. However, the phenomenon of virality also causes trends to come and go rapidly. So while negative press around a brand could be trending for a day or two, as soon as a new scandal happens, the internet will all but forget about it. 

Internet trends move so quickly that most viral mishaps are often looked past within a matter of weeks. For example, many of us remember the Kendall Jenner + Pepsi Ad Debacle of 2017. For those who don’t, Pepsi released an ad where Kendall Jenner walked into a crowd of protestors, approached front line police, and handed the police officers a can of Pepsi which miraculously ended a conflict between police and protestors. Viewers were outraged as they felt this ad belittled protestors and minimized the issue of police brutality.

In April of 2017 it felt like this ad was all anyone was talking about. Folks on Twitter were calling for boycotts of all Pepsi products, and Pepsi’s stock certainly took a hit. But today, most people scarcely even remember that it happened. This scenario exemplifies how brands can quickly move past even the most ‘cancellable’ scenarios. Between Pepsi’s reputation as a staple household soda and the speed at which internet gossip moves, Pepsi recovered quickly. By May, the internet had moved on to other scandals, and nowadays no one thinks twice about drinking a Pespi. Virality is both an enemy and a friend to brands trying to maintain a positive online reputation.

Online Reputation Management aims to get ahead of any negative sentiments and address them before they become a larger, or even a viral issue. Things rarely escalate to the viral level, but regardless, social media has made people more connected than ever before which enables negative or positive sentiment about a brand to spread quickly if you let it.

Here are a few key steps to an effective ORM strategy:

Hire a Community Manager or Community Management Team

If someone tweets about a negative experience and tags your brand, they expect a response within a few hours. The speed of communication on social media demands a dedicated employee or team to monitor mentions of the brand on Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok. Additionally, if a customer contacts a brand via social media and does not receive a timely response, they may post a negative comment on the brand’s account in order to get the company’s attention, or to express their frustration and gain sympathy from others online. Instagram has even started including a ‘typically responds within’ blurb that users see when messaging a verified business account. People are utilizing social media as a way to get a quick response from a company representative when they have an issue. And this makes sense; we scarcely talk on the phone anymore as everyone communicates through Instagram instead. So instead of relying on a customer support hotline, brands need to meet customers where they're at, which is on Instagram and Twitter. For example, check out this helpful exchange with a member of the community management team at clothing retailer Savage X Fenty:

Their community management team responded within minutes and began working to answer the question at hand. This quick response was possible because Savage X Fenty has a dedicated team managing their social media accounts. If this customer were to receive no response to their direct message, they might start commenting on the brand’s posts asking why they’re being ignored. Then, others will see the comments and develop a negative impression of the brand.

It’s interesting; people spend so much time on Instagram talking to their friends who are also on Instagram all the time and therefore respond quite quickly to each other. But now, people expect the same behavior from brands. Which is fair, since brands want their followers to see their social media content as native and relatable, just like a post from a friend. In turn, brands are held to the same standards that we have for our peers when it comes to social media interactions. These high expectations are exactly why having a community management team is so important.

Provide a Respectful Public Response, then Move the Conversation to Private Messages

Let’s say a customer tags a clothing company in a tweet stating their pants developed holes after just two wears. The customer likely wants two things; a refund and a public apology. A generic example of an appropriate response would be to reply to the tweet stating “This is not the experience we want our customers to have. Please message us directly so that we can make it right.” This way, you’re showing you care and will work to correct the situation, but you're also taking the conversation out of a public forum so the details can be handled privately. The disgruntled customer gets their resolution, and the public viewers of the tweet see that you value customer satisfaction. 

The same goes for responding to negative reviews on your website. Publicly state that you are sorry to hear about the customer’s negative experience, and ask them to email your customer service team directly so you can make it right. This way future customers who read the review will know that if they receive a faulty or defective product, the situation will be remedied.

Here’s an example of a great response from Starbucks to a customer complaint on Twitter:

The Starbucks care team expressed empathy, apologized, and provided clear and concise instructions on how to continue the conversation in a private forum. That’s how it’s done!

Be Honest

Do not delete negative reviews or “bury” negative reviews under positive ones. Customers are smart, and an overwhelming amount of 5 star reviews will be seen as a red flag that your company is hiding negative reviews. It may seem counterintuitive, but a couple bad reviews actually help to validate the positive reviews by proving that the feedback is unbiased. However, if a review has overly vitriolic or profane language, it’s best to delete it as that is an unreasonable reaction and you don’t want other customers to be confronted with foul language when visiting your site.

If your company makes a more widespread mistake, quickly post a public apology stating why the mistake happened and what you plan to do to fix it. Utilizing the pants with holes example again, I’d recommend an instagram story post explaining that the fabric was faulty and the team will be sending out higher quality replacements or refunding customers who experienced that issue. The Instagram story is the best placement for a public apology because it is easily visible by your engaged customer base, but it won’t live on your Instagram grid forever like a feed post will. This way, you’ve addressed the issue without drawing unnecessary attention to it, so it can be resolved and your brand can move on.

Be Helpful

In order to be forgiven in the court of public opinion, you must truly take action to remedy the issue at hand. This often comes in the form of issuing a refund or store credit for a problematic item. Or if you provide a service, making fixes easy for the customer. Here’s a great example of a helpful response from Jetblue Airways:

The ORM team responded quickly and helpfully. Rather than just telling the customer to stay on the line until they reach a customer service representative, the community manager offered to fix the issue for them. The key here is that they are making issue resolution as easy as possible for the customer, diffusing frustration. This experience could have caused K. M. Sutton and their followers to stop being brand loyal to Jetblue, but by fixing the issue, their team was able to retain a loyal customer.

Stay Informed with Google Alerts

Set up Google Alerts for brand terms so that you know immediately when any negative press arises. Setting up a Google alert is easy. Simply visit https://www.google.com/alerts, type in your brand name and enter in a few settings around where the alerts should be sent and how often you would like to be alerted:

Google alerts are a great way to monitor sentiment around your brand, both positive and negative.

In conclusion, a branding issue or bad review can feel like a big deal, but utilizing our ORM tips, your brand should be able to recover quickly. The internet moves fast! So as long as you’ve got a plan in place that involves reacting to negative sentiment with empathy and truly making things right with your customers, you’ve got nothing to worry about.

ORM is a part of your business that requires empathy, energy and genuine connection between the customer and the brand representative. If you're struggling to find the budget to hire a dedicated community manager, or your current team lacks the time to do community management yourselves, consider using a tool like MarinOne to automate some of your more mundane and time consuming tasks like reporting, paid media ad creation, and ad account optimization. Automate the things you can, so that you can focus on the things you can’t. Click here to schedule a demo of MarinOne today.

With its vast professional network and communication tools (including Sales Navigator), LinkedIn is a powerful platform for establishing a sales pipeline and generating leads. It can be used to connect with potential customers and build up your business network in the professional metaverse.

In this blog post, we will discuss 7 innovative ways to conduct sales and lead generation-driven outreach on LinkedIn. If you are looking to expand your reach online to increase sales, LinkedIn is a great place to start!

Join LinkedIn Groups to Connect with Potential Customers and Generate Leads

One of the most effective ways to pursue sales via LinkedIn and to conduct LinkedIn marketing is by leveraging the platforms' Groups feature. By joining relevant groups, you can make inroads with potential customers and establish yourself as an expert in your field.

You can also use these groups to stay on top of industry trends and share helpful resources with other members. Additionally, you can join conversations about topics related to your business or product offering. This will help you build relationships with potential customers and increase brand awareness both for yourself as an individual and for the organization.

And you don't have to rely on groups that other people have created, either. You can start your own LinkedIn Group and begin a unique or niche conversation in the digital space.

Utilize Advanced Filters and Target Specific Audiences

LinkedIn can be an extremely effective tool for your business if you use it correctly. One of the best ways to get the most out of LinkedIn is by utilizing its advanced filters and targeting particular audiences.

The Benefits of the Filters Feature

These filters allow you to narrow down your search results so that you are only seeing people who fit into your desired demographic or industry. Plus, they make it much easier to find leads that could become new customers because you have a better idea of what these individuals are seeking or trying to get out of their LinkedIn engagement.

Use Paid Ads to Reach a Wider Audience

Paid advertising on LinkedIn is another great way to quickly reach a larger audience online. With paid ads, the targeting capabilities of LinkedIn become even more powerful because you can select exactly who will see your ad.

Examples of Paid Ad Targeting

For example, you can target by job title, industry, location, language, gender, interests, and more. Like the advanced filters feature mentioned above, this allows you to put your sales message in front of the right people, thereby maximizing your lead generation process and boosting your sales opportunities.

Create Engaging Content That Educates Your Target Audience

From creating a slick user profile to producing meaningful social media posts and articles, creating content on LinkedIn is a great way to engage and build relationships with potential customers as you educate your unique audience.

By crafting content that provides value to readers and followers, you can provide valuable insights into the latest industry trend or a new marketing strategy. In addition, this allows you to show off your expertise in the field.

Creating Top-Shelf Content

For example, you could write posts about the latest trends in ecommerce sales strategies or share other helpful resources, such as detailed guides or tutorials on how to start an online store. You could also provide tips for optimizing product sales pages or increasing sales conversions.

This type of informative, expert-level content can help generate leads, increase sales, and build trust with your target audience.

Incorporate Video Content into Your Lead Generation Strategies

Video content is an increasingly popular way to engage potential customers on LinkedIn. Incorporating this type of content into your sales outreach strategy can help you stand out from the competition while engaging your target audience more meaningfully.

Video Content That Makes an Impact

For instance, you can use video content to showcase a product demonstration, give an exclusive sales pitch, or provide helpful tips and advice within your industry field.

You could cover a variety of topics, including:

• How to create a sales pitch that drives sales
• How to use video content to demonstrate a product's features and advantages
• Strategies for increasing sales through targeted ads on LinkedIn
• Ecommerce best practices

By using videos that showcase your expertise and commitment to excellence, you can effectively establish a rapport with potential customers and increase sales opportunities.

Take Advantage of the Power of Endorsements and Recommendations

By leveraging the power of endorsements and recommendations on LinkedIn, you can boost your credibility on the platform.

What Are LinkedIn Endorsements?

Endorsements are simply when another LinkedIn user endorses you or your products/services. This helps to validate your expertise and put your sales message in front of more people.

What Are LinkedIn Recommendations?

On the other hand, recommendations are when someone provides a written testimonial about you or your product or service.

Both endorsements and recommendations can be incredibly beneficial if you are looking to gain an edge over your competitors.

Monitor Competitors’ Activity on LinkedIn for Insightful Ideas

Like with many facets of business, finding out what your competition is doing better than you can be a game-changer for your creative and out-of-the-box thinking.

By monitoring competitors' activities on LinkedIn, you can gain valuable insights into their sales and marketing strategies while also identifying any opportunities they are missing that could benefit your own sales efforts.

By keeping an eye on your competitors, you can spot emerging trends in the industry or sales techniques that you can borrow and apply to your own sales efforts.

Whether you are learning from what your competitors are doing right or learning what not to do based on what they are doing wrong, there is a lot to be gained from paying attention to rival businesses.

Lead Generation Strategies That Work

LinkedIn has a host of lead-generation tools that you and your marketing and sales teams can use to build trust, make connections, and spread your sales message throughout the professional sphere. By leveraging the power of endorsements, recommendations, video content, paid ads, and more you can quickly maximize your outreach opportunities on this notable platform.

No matter which LinkedIn strategy you decide to employ, MarinOne has your back to maximize the effectiveness of your digital outreach efforts.

Overcoming challenges from recent changes and resetting your sights on scaling centers on the common themes of simplicity and increasing liquidity. We’re sharing actionable and accessible changes you can make in your accounts today to improve your outcomes. 

These changes are fairly universal in application, but if you’re a current Marin Software client you can also get personalized recommendations from your dedicated expert account team.

Simplify Account Structure

All new ad sets, or those that are treated as new by the system because their learning phase has been reset by a significant edit, start out in ‘Learning’. This isn’t necessarily a bad stage to be in - all ad sets will spend some time in learning, and typically anything less than 20% of spend (overall) being in learning is fine and won’t negatively impact performance. However, we want to spend as much of your campaign budget in an efficient way, and reduce time in Learning as much as possible. Simplification and consolidation are key to improving liquidity, in particular by moving spend past the Learning Phase more efficiently.

There are four key levers that impact the learning phase:

• Campaign and Ad Set Volume

• A simplified account structure will maximize signals in the auction to get you out of the Learning Phase faster. Ad Sets and segments that exist more for reporting over value or receive less than the 50 conversions/week threshold (88 installs/day for SKAN campaigns) should be consolidated.

• Manual Edit Frequency

• Each time you make a significant edit (such as to budget, bid or targeting, at campaign, ad-set or ad level) the Learning Phase is reset. As a result, hourly and daily performance metrics will be noisy and incomplete due to restricted and delayed reporting.
• Meta recommends waiting 72 hours to evaluate performance to allow for the reporting delay in opt-out conversions and to avoid editing an ad-set or ad until it has exited the Learning Phase.

• Targeting and Placement

• Gone are the days of over segmentation, especially in retargeting campaigns. Since user opt-outs from tracking will reduce the potential reach of retargeting campaigns, Meta recommends broadening placements and targeted audiences for more effective optimization over time. The “expanded interest” option is another great way to increase liquidity.
• In retargeting specifically, Meta also recommends monitoring for audience saturation and considering shifting more budget to Lookalike Audiences and Broad Audiences.
• When deciding on placements, Meta recommends taking advantage of their machine learning system, that will place your ad in the most optimal surface for you. Including more placements often helps you find a wider audience because our audience targeting works the same across all available placements. The more places your ad is displayed, the more chances your target audience has to see it and take the desired action.
• Bidding and Budget

• Ensure that your budgets are set high enough to reach 50 conversions per week. If you’re launching a net new campaign, take a look at the average account CPA for a good starting point, then multiply that number by 50 to get your ideal weekly budget.

• Conversion Event Frequency

• Are campaigns/ad sets failing to hit 50 conversion events per week? A quick analysis could be: “Of the X number of ad sets you are currently running only Y are hitting the requisite 50 events per week (or Z hitting 100 per week. Learning doesn’t stop at 50!)”. Watch out for very new campaigns/ad sets!

With all of this talk of simplification and liquidity, you may be wondering, can I simplify things too much? The answer is yes! 

Sometimes consolidating activity too much can do more harm than good. Generally speaking you shouldn’t consolidate when:

• The ad sets have different objectives
• The ad sets are targeting audiences with different values that the auction cannot detect
• There are differences in franchises obligations or shipping costs
• There are significant differences in performance - we don’t want to drown out good performing ad sets.

When considering scaling strategies for the new normal, our common theme is to increase liquidity. Take these steps to get your accounts to a place to scale:

• Simplify account structure

• Do you often see your ads stuck in the “Learning” stage? This could be a sign that it’s time to simplify. If the adset doesn’t reach the 50 conversions threshold needed (or is predicted to not reach this threshold), it will display as “Learning Limited” and won’t hit optimal performance. If this is the case, check for audience overlap using the “Inspect” tool in ads manager. If you have overlapping audiences in your account, learning will be split between multiple ad sets. This means you could be missing out on potential opportunities! If you don’t have overlapping audiences but still have ads stuck in the Learning stage, pick your strongest performers and pause the rest to allocate budget more effectively.

• Reduce frequency of manual edits

• Manual edits, while sometimes necessary, can push your ads back into the learning phase and prevent your ad sets from reaching optimal performance. Even if there is enough conversion volume to exit the learning phase, repeated manual edits will reset the learning process and keep your ads in learning longer. Try to limit manual edits post-launch or group together necessary edits, and find a list of manual edits that trigger the learning phase here.

• Broaden audiences

• Our inclination can be to be extremely refined in our audience targeting, but this can work against us by limiting the reach and thereby learning of our ads. Test out an expanded lookalike audience or even broad audiences to discover new scaling opportunities.

• Utilize CBO

• CBO, or Campaign Budget Optimization, is when you set one overarching campaign budget instead of setting budgets individually at the ad set level. This helps simplify campaign setup and helps reduce the number of budgets to manage manually, since the budget at the campaign level is flexible across all ad sets and prioritizes top performers. If you prefer to have more control over ad set budgets and leverage manual bidding, Marin customers can enjoy Social Rules that automate bid changes based on your internal KPIs to similarly automate with more granular control.

• Prioritize events with the largest, most diverse audiences

• If you’re looking to scale, you’ll find that growth in event optimizations that are further up in the funnel. For example, if you typically optimize for Sales you might test a Leads or Engagement objective in order to broaden your reach, then nurture those users to drive additional scale in your ultimate goal of Sales. Learn more about different Campaign Objectives in Meta here.

If you’re a Marin customer and would like more tailored recommendations, please reach out to your account manager for assistance. Our team members are seasoned experts in social advertising and can help you create a personalized scaling strategy. 

Marin social customers also enjoy time saving tools such as bulk uploading, bulk ad creation, and unified reporting. If you’re interested in learning more about Marin’s social capabilities, please reach out to us today.

Businesses all over the world strive to convert brand awareness into customer conversions and profits, but marketing and customer service efforts are only as effective as the principles that are driving them. Demand generation is the strategy that helps B2B and B2C companies create reliable brand interest that translates directly to high quality leads. 

Gordon Ferris, Director of Growth Marketing at Marin Software, shares significant insight to help us understand the principles that will define the success of demand generation strategies in 2023 and beyond. With more than a decade of experience in search, social media, and ecommerce marketing, Gordon generously explains the key tenets of demand generation that every marketer must understand to succeed in both B2B and B2C companies. 

The Core Tenets of Demand Generation

Understand Your Brand

Most brands believe they know what they stand for in a general sense but this does not always translate into effective messaging. A major reason for this disconnect is not knowing how the brand is perceived within the minds of internal and external stakeholders. Each brand makes a promise to their customers and these promises must be ratified through consistent, concrete behaviors. Businesses that successfully communicate their marketing messages consistently have seen a 33% rise in overall revenue.

Gordon shares that businesses must “understand the power of their product and what makes their brand unique because this is what people will respond to. This needs to be actively pushed through across marketing activities and channels.”

Understand Your Customer

Once a business defines the promise it makes to its customers, it needs to understand how those promises relate to each customer segment’s needs. Marketing can be viewed as one-way communication from a brand to its customers, but successful demand generation requires more than that. Businesses should actively collaborate and engage with customers to collect customer insights to better define and meet their needs. This can also help businesses create brand advocates that further amplify a business’ message through organic communication. 

Even if businesses want to listen to their customers, it can be challenging to define what they’re looking for. Gordon explains how businesses can break down a customer’s needs into two distinct categories. “Businesses need to identify a customer’s rational and emotional needs. Rational needs relate to the functional needs and attributes they want from your product. This can be quality, variety, efficiency, saving time, reducing cost and effort, and more. Emotional needs, on the other hand, relate to how your customers want to feel when interacting with your product. This could be a customer feeling confident or enjoying exclusivity through the ownership or use of your product.”

Understand Your Product Positioning

In an ideal world, the relationship between a brand and its customer would be enough to translate effective communication into active demand. However, brands don’t exist in a vacuum. Competing services, products, and brands present constant challenges. This has led to almost three quarters of people actively avoiding advertising with the use of ad blockers or other tools. To avoid overwhelming the customer, businesses must position themselves as a partner customers can trust. 

Gordon adds that “positioning can only be done appropriately when businesses know their brand and all its components. They also need to understand the competitors they share space with. Marketers should ask questions such as what are some of the brands in your direct category? What brands fall just outside the category, but have an overlap or affinity with your customers? Analyze competitor brand positioning; how do they want to be perceived by their customers?”

How to Generate Demand Effectively in 2023 and Beyond

According to Gordon, “Once you do those first three steps of understanding your brand, your customers, and your positioning, then you get into tactics and the tactics become easier.” 

The principles listed above should apply across all demand generation activity. They can help businesses be more proactive in learning about their customers, themselves, and their competitors. 

Remain Authentic to Your Customers 

Authenticity has been cited by 88% of customers as an important factor in determining whether they like and will support a brand. Even if marketing messages have a proven track record of success with a customer base, if the brand that is sharing those messages doesn't believe it, it will not resonate with customers. Businesses should identify and amplify the messages that lie in the overlap of the brand’s beliefs and the customer’s needs. 

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Learn to Make the Most of First-Party Data in a Cookieless World

Businesses have been trying to phase out the use of third-party cookies as major browsers and search engines ditch the information-gathering method in favor of first-party data. However, a staggering 83% of marketers still rely on third-party cookies to learn about their customers. Businesses must learn to extract actionable insights from the information they already have or are able to gather. 

Gordon explains that “once someone is on your site, you need to make the most of that engagement. Allow your customers to find what they’re looking for, but at the same time, by the way they click or navigate your site, find what’s important to them.”

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Make it as Easy as Possible for Your Customers to Buy into Your Messaging

Marketers can sometimes overlook the needs of the average customer when designing messages that seem eloquent to their own eyes. While there is value in including flair in a brand’s marketing, it should always be accessible and easily understood by the business’ most important customers – and the message must connect to the priorities of the intended audience. 

Businesses should actively “create bite-sized paths that are addressing specific value propositions or questions that your customers might have for your product or the industry you’re in,” shares Gordon. 

With MarinOne, businesses can gather information about how well each message is resonating with their customers, learn what their customers are actually interested in, and how their competitors are faring with different marketing tactics and messages. 

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To learn more about how MarinOne can help you reach your audiences more effectively, request a free demo of our solution now. 

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In today's customer-centric world, User Experience(UX) plays a crucial role in determining the success or failure of a product. With a singular focus on the target audience and their experience, an expertly-designed UX ensures that users have a seamless, enjoyable, and immersive experience with a product. This, in turn, leads to a steady stream of satisfied and loyal customers. This is why industry giants like Google and Amazon have made UX a fundamental aspect of their business operations.

To stay competitive in today's market, successful companies continually test and iterate their products to align with the evolving needs of their users. Investing in UX has become an essential component for achieving success. Furthermore, UX plays a critical role in elevating the return on investment (ROI) for organizations. This article delves into the ways in which UX design can impact customer satisfaction and boost ROI.

UX and CX: Are they the same? 

The customer experience (CX) covers a customer’s holistic interaction with a brand across multiple touchpoints such as customer service, advertising, brand reputation, sales process, pricing fairness, and product delivery. In short, it is concerned with all the user touch points including social channels. Analyzing CX helps companies to know where their brand is positioned. 

On the other hand, user experience (UX) relates to how a user interacts with a specific product and it focuses mainly on the digital touchpoints of the user like website, applications, and devices. UX primarily focuses on areas such as usability, interaction design, visual design, information architecture, content strategy, and user research. 

CX is a more holistic initiative for customer retention whereas UX design aims at providing a pleasurable and easy experience for the users while using the product. UX is a subset of CX and is essential to enhance ROI. 

Both UX and CX have to be in tandem to boost customer loyalty and customer retention.   Let’s see an example of purchasing a product from an online store to illustrate this. 

• A user logs into the website to search for the product with the desired specification. If the navigation is seamless and product recommendations and customer reviews are personalized, the user can quickly arrive at a decision. 
• Then, within a few clicks, he can complete the payment. This is a positive user experience. Such an experience will make the user come back as the customer experience was great. 
• Imagine the package will be delivered to the user on time but the product was defective. 
• The next step for the user will be to contact customer service to figure out whether the product can be exchanged or not. 
• If the customer service team promptly responds to the user and resolves the issue, it is a positive customer experience. 

Thus we see how both UX and CX are essential for customer loyalty which is a determining factor of the profitability of the business. 

UX Strategies to Improve CX and ROI

Eliminating the risks of product failure is the main goal of UX to improve customer satisfaction. For this, certain principles of UX have to be focused on. 

• Usefulness: The design needs to have a purpose, and only user research can help in finding what is useful for the users.  
• Usability: Valuable insights and feedback have to be gathered from the users to measure the usability of the product and iterate the design accordingly. 
• Speed: The product design must ensure that it can cater to the fast interactions of the users on the web page/mobile app. 
• Trends: The UI/UX design has to be relevant and empower users to buy more. 
• Simplicity: Users like to have simple, accurate, and user-friendly solutions for their pain points. So keep the design as simple as possible. 

A good UX and CX are the pillars of a great ROI. Investing in UX enhances customer satisfaction which directly affects the company’s ROI. Following these core UX strategies will help to create a flawless user-centric design.

User Research to Create a Customer Persona

Before getting into UX design, UI UX designers need a firm understanding of the user types, their needs, and their pain points. For this, designers interview people who are using similar products, gather feedback from them to identify the pain points, conduct one-to-one meetings or launch online questionnaires to gain valuable insights into customer needs, motivations, and concerns. Keep in mind that the user needs may vary with demographics, interests, and purchase behavior. To summarize, knowing the exact target audience will help tailor user-centric designs that eliminate pain points and deliver the best customer experience. 

Mapping Customer Journeys

The data from customer personas can be applied to design a flawless customer journey. The key touchpoints that customers have with the product are identified and difficulties faced by the customer while interacting with the product are mapped. Using these maps, UI UX designers ensure that every interaction of the customer with the product is seamless. Such customer journey maps eliminate the errors that can arise due to assumptions made by designers. In addition, these maps are a great tool to understand where the customer needs are not met and then iterate the design to serve them better. 

Prototyping and Wireframing 

The design team creates a layout to demonstrate how the key interface elements look and work in a digital product. The layout can be low-fidelity wireframes or high-fidelity wireframes, also known as rapid prototypes. The choice of wireframes depends on the purpose of the design of the product and the requirement of the team members. Such basic skeletons of the design help designers prioritize all the elements with customers at the center point. The high-fidelity prototypes are close to the ultimate version of the product and developing such prototypes helps to gather feedback from the customers at an early stage. 

Testing the Usability 

Usability testing is performed to evaluate the design or prototype with real users. It helps UI UX designers to make corrections and modifications at an early stage of the design process. As discussed earlier, prototyping is the best way to find out the bottlenecks of the UX design and fix them before it goes on a large scale. Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer conducts permanent A/B testing to redesign the product that caters to user needs. 

Why should you calculate ROI for UX? 

UX/UI  improvements in design will deliver brands more positive product reviews, enhanced brand loyalty, considerable reduction in user errors, and better conversion rates. There are many success stories of companies that had an indirect increase in profits due to improvements made in their UX design. 

• Humana, a health insurance company performed A/B testing on their homepage banner. The first design was good but the company felt that it had to be improved to increase click-through rates ( CTR). Simple changes were made in the design and copy. These small changes in the UX design of the homepage banner resulted in a 433% increase in clicks. 
• Virgin America wanted to make its website more usable for modern travelers. So in 2014, they decided to make minor changes to their website to give a pleasurable digital experience for their customers. After successful A/B testing, they released a responsive website. As a result, they observed a 14% increase in conversion rates and 20% fewer support calls. 
• Rev, online transcription and captions service, completely redesigned their website to give it a modern look. Initially, the website had a carousel as the main design element to highlight the value propositions of the company. In the new design, the carousel was replaced with a simple bold value proposition with call-to-action(CTA button). This resulted in an increase in conversion rate by 19% in 9 months. 
• Vocier, a luxury suitcase brand found out that their website lacked usability. They made A/B testing pages. After implementing the changes, the conversion rate of the final version was 75% higher than the older website. 

These real-life examples show that simple changes in the UX design can have a positive effect on the conversion rate and dramatically impact your company's bottom line. So it stands to reason that investing in UX can contribute to the growth trajectory of the company, and already has for many brands. 

How can I Calculate the ROI for my Investments in UX/UI services?

It's quite challenging to get raw data on return on investment(ROI) in UX/UI services, as the result of the changes has an indirect impact on the profitability of the company. But these observations can help in determining the impact UX has on ROI. 

1. Cost-benefit analysis: In this method, the costs of the UX/UI services, including the development and test of the design, are calculated. Then the value is compared to the benefits, such as increased productivity, improved user experience, and reduced support costs. This analysis gives the net benefit of the investment.
2. Return on assets (ROA): Here, the return on the UI/UX services is calculated as a percentage of the assets invested. To calculate this, divide the net benefit of the investment by the total cost of the services and multiply by 100. 
3. Net Present Value (NPV): The present value of the future cash flows of the UX/UI services are assessed by considering the time value of money. 
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) measurements: Track the before and after key performance metrics such as the task completion rate, error rate, and task completion time. 
5. Cost of rework: Compute the cost and effort of UI/UX design services at the beginning of the project. Then compare the data to the cost of rework after software implementation to analyze the total cost savings. 

A solid UX design enhances CX and boosts ROI

A pleasurable user experience greatly influences the customer experience. Research by Deloitte and Touche reveals that customer-centric companies were 60% more profitable than companies that were not focused on the customer. And a good UX is inevitable for a positive user experience. Therefore, investing in UX is a smart move due to the following reasons: 

• Greater ease of use boosts overall revenue/conversion as the customers get emotionally attached to the brand. And this results in customer loyalty. 
• A well-designed product enhances customer satisfaction along with business-to-business satisfaction. 
• UX techniques preempt user issues in the development stage of the product. This lowers the company’s expenditure for support calls. 
• A product backed with comprehensive user research is less likely to fail to eliminate the risk of a wrong thing. 

Now that you know how to get started with improving CX and UX, increasing overall on-site conversions, you can also start the process of bringing higher quality traffic to your website in the first place…through effective advertising and targeting. With MarinOne's paid media management platform, you will be able to see what ads perform across all paid media channels you're running, and invest wisely accordingly. Get started with our expert consultation team today to learn more about improving your customers' brand experience.

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Aparna K.S. is a guest contributor to the Marin blog.

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According to Pew Research, 72 percent of U.S. adults use at least one type of social media, and 23 percent of these use Twitter, making Twitter the 7th most used social media platform in the United States in 2021.

Twitter is a free social networking site that houses over 300 million active users, allowing people to post ‘tweets’ to engage, socialize and connect with users on the same platform. 

While the purpose of Twitter for each person or organization remains the same, the ‘hows’ of using the platform vary for regular Twitter individuals or organizations using Twitter as a marketing platform. 

Why Twitter Marketing—and How?

Digital marketing has a long history, and one can’t deny how it has transformed the way marketers and audiences consume content, especially on social media platforms like Twitter.

Twitter might seem like a daunting platform to venture into for marketing, mainly because, unlike Tiktok, YouTube, or Facebook, Twitter’s main algorithm focuses more on conversations rather than visuals. 

We’ll look at this tweet from the Climbing House as an example:

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Alejandra Leyva, a Content Manager working with Climbing House emphasizes, “Different social media platforms require different techniques for marketing. In this case, we tried to spark a lighthearted conversation around climbing as a go-to activity for a first date. This makes it easier for us to converse on Twitter and grab the attention of young or old people looking for exciting date alternatives while leading them to our website.”

This is what the magic of Twitter marketing is—conversations. As a social media platform, Twitter is well-known for its ‘trending’ lists, be it words or hashtags. This trending list shows Twitter users the most talked about topic at a given moment for a specific location or worldwide. This is one of the best ways to clue into what’s happening in the zeitgeist quickly and understand what topical conversations your team should pay attention to in relation to your industry.

Benefits of Twitter Marketing

Because the charm of Twitter is centered around conversations, the benefits of using this platform as a marketing tool are centered around this as well.

The benefit of Twitter marketing is that because people are used to conversations, tweeting multiple times a day is normal and is not annoying for most users. However, Twitter is heavily chronological in the sense that it could take a nanosecond for one tweet to be buried among the tweets of the other people your followers follow, so making the best out of your content that would make people stop scrolling should be one of your top priorities.

There are endless benefits to Twitter than you might think, and these benefits have become successful strategies that marketers have utilized over the years. 

Strategies for Twitter Marketing

Establish a Brand Voice

Twitter is one of the most excellent platforms for establishing a company’s brand voice. While selecting a brand voice and reputation takes time and effort, Twitter as a platform makes this easy.

A company’s brand voice can either come off as lighthearted and casual or serious and professional, and you can establish this through your tweets and interaction on Twitter.

Take, for example, this tweet from Felix:

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Kyle Zien, Director of Growth Marketing at Felix, says, “We aim to reimagine the Canadian healthcare experience, and we believe it starts with how we interact with our audiences. We try to build our brand voice in a casual, friendly way where people feel like they’re taking advice from a friend rather than an organization.”

Make a Content Calendar

Social media marketers often have a lot on their hands, juggling three to four social platforms simultaneously. Using a social media content calendar allows you to plan and organize content ahead of time, making strategic content posts rather than just winging whatever content at any moment.

What’s more, most social media content calendars let you schedule posts even without logging in to the platform, so you don’t have to fear forgetting to post your marketing content.

Create and Join Trends and Conversations Through Hashtags

If you ask any person who uses Twitter what’s the most significant feature of Twitter that’s most attractive to them, at least three out of five will have one thing in common—hashtags.

While other social media platforms also use hashtags, Twitter makes the most use of this feature through its trending tags list immediately visible when you log in to the website. 

An important aspect of Twitter's marketing campaign is that it utilizes hashtags to join conversations or create and invite discussions surrounding its product and services. 

An example is this tweet from Prize Rebel:

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A person who does not necessarily follow Prize Rebel will discover this tweet because it has joined in on the conversation about making money online or earning extra cash. 

According to Jerry Han, CMO of PrizeRebel, “Ever since we established our Twitter account, the use of hashtags has proven how easily people can see us when they search for the same tag on Twitter. We sometimes supplement this with a “retweet to win” CTA as a condition for the prize, which also gives us more visibility to our audience.”

This tweet from PluginHive about their FedEx WooCommerce plugin also uses several hashtags to help increase the tweet’s visibility among those looking for information on shipping through FedEx.

Get Verified and Increase Your Follower Count

Before the great Twitter overhaul by Elon Musk, getting the tiny blue checkmark beside your profile name meant that your profile was your ‘proof of authenticity. Today, two forms of verification badges exist on Twitter—the old blue checkmark (which can now be bought on Twitter Blue by any user) and the ‘Official’ badge found at the bottom of your profile name.

Technicalities of these verification badges aside, there is a sense of authority emitted by accounts with blue or official verified badges, making them more reliable to Twitter users. Working to increase your follower count also helps in marketing and spreading your content throughout the platform and also helps establish you as a reliable content creator and organization.

Sponsored and promoted ads

On Twitter, you can do both paid and organic social media ads. The question is how can you harness the power of both. 

This is an example of a paid ad:

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You should be able to see a “promoted” tag at the bottommost part of the post for a paid advertisement. Having a promoted tweet increases the visibility of a tweet and is just basically paid advertising, taking your tweet to users who might be interested in your products and services.

In the case above, BPI utilizes Twitter advertising to encourage more people to apply for a credit card with the bank. Not only are they getting more credit card applications, but they are also generating more leads using the information users input through the application.

Stay Human and Interactive

The best way to ‘attack’ Twitter as a marketing platform is to stay human. You may be thinking, “But wait…what does that even mean?”

To put it frankly, in many cases marketing posts sound like they were extracted from an AI machine and then copy-pasted to the platform. This is the last thing you want to do if you wish to engage and convert your Twitter campaigns.

Twitterverse loves conversations. So go ahead, converse! Just like this tweet from Fig Loans:

Jeff Zhou, CEO of Fig Loans, says, “Our Twitter marketing campaigns don’t only rely on regularly creating or posting content for our follower’s timelines. We interact and reply to our customers or anyone interested in our products and services. That way, they know they will get top-notch customer service with us.”

Take another look at this Snickers-UNO interraction: 

There is a more lighthearted approach present here for both organizations. Engaging in conversation for your followers to see an unusual interaction between two verified accounts is a fun way to tickle and grab the attention of Twitter users. Not only is Snickers bringing fun to their initial post, but they’re also subtly implying how your next pre-football tailgate isn’t complete without Snickers. UNO calling them out on the typo was really the cherry on top to reaffirming that both companies are made up of real people behind the brands, having real conversations.

Why and How Twitter Marketing Matters

It should be no surprise that digital and social media marketing has been all the rave in the last few years. As humankind fixates on digital technology, marketers must adapt to these changes and be interacting where their target audience likes to hang out virtually.

These social media platforms are different in their ways and should be dealt with differently. Twitter, as a marketing platform, should center around conversations and engagement. This allows marketers to establish a brand voice and take valuable information and data about consumer behavior in return. 

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For help on strategically approaching any social media platform, meet with one of Marin’s marketing experts today. We will ensure your paid social advertising performs at it’s best.

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Rachel Melegrito is a guest contributor to Marin Software.

Augmented analytics is drastically changing the way marketers work, empowering them with better ways to identify customer needs, develop more effective campaigns, drive conversions, and ultimately improve business outcomes. 

Using advanced tech solutions such as artificial intelligence to collect and analyze data, augmented analytics helps marketers make more informed, data-driven decisions. Simply put, it’s a smart and powerful solution that enables marketers to move way ahead of competitors by helping them achieve more with less. From providing smart insights to revealing valuable intelligence, augmented analytics is a game changer that can transform your business in 2023 and beyond. 

What is Augmented Analytics?

Augmented analytics is a data processing approach that uses a variety of techniques, including data mining, statistical modeling, and machine learning, to analyze a wide range of historical and current data to improve data exploration and analysis. Applying advanced algorithms to the data enables businesses to better understand customer behavior, identify trends and anomalies, and make predictions that inform decisions based on facts, rather than intuition. By leveraging these complex algorithms, augmented analytics enhances the way businesses can use data for further analysis in business intelligence applications. This strategy has huge potential and is a key tool in helping marketers develop a strong competitive advantage. In fact, the augmented analytics market is expected to grow by 25% in the next five years, reaching $22.4 billion by 2025.

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4 Ways Augmented Analytics can Help Your Business

Using augmented analytics can multiply your business’s success by improving your bottom line and introducing new ways to boost campaign efforts. 

Maximize ROI

Marketing teams confronted with frozen or shrinking budgets are nonetheless still expected to generate leads and build pipelines to increase revenue. Using augmented analytics, marketers can make data-driven decisions and optimize their marketing investments through accurate insights and recommendations. Instead of just relying on past experience, estimates, gut instinct, or trial and error, the technology provides an accurate picture of which campaigns are performing well and which aren't, enabling marketers to allocate their budgets effectively to maximize returns. Here are two ways augmented analytics can help optimize marketing budgets.

• Budget Forecasting

Budget forecasting supports operational improvements that can lead to greater business success. For many marketers, monitoring spend versus allocated budget is a time-consuming process that is often prone to inaccuracies — especially when juggling several clients simultaneously. With augmented analytics, however, forecasting allows marketers to stay on track by providing historical and current information about budget spending so they can act on timely suggestions. This way, marketers can ensure that allocated budgets are spent according to plan, freeing time to spend on granular analysis of under- and overspending, preparing them to navigate future campaigns that will achieve higher ROAS. 

• Anomaly Detection

Another practical way augmented analytics can help marketers maximize ROI is through anomaly detection, a tool that uses historical data on metrics including clicks or CPM and impressions to identify and self-learn expectations for the metrics. When an anomaly is detected, the outlier is automatically flagged, indicating issues that can drain a budget. These anomalies reveal campaign performance problems that might have otherwise gone unnoticed, helping to minimize negative effects – or eliminate them altogether. 

Rapid Time to Insight

The beauty of augmented analytics is the way its powerfully constructed machine learning algorithms reveal important insights that can save time and improve a company’s bottom line. Through real-time insights and recommendations based on data analysis, marketers can make more informed decisions, understand customer behavior and needs, and tailor their campaigns accordingly. 

With such proactive insights, augmented analytics can not only help reduce risk, but can also minimize issues by allowing marketers to use its highly sophisticated number crunching to drive more sales, build effective pipelines, and retain customers.

Improve Customer Experiences

Augmented analytics give marketers accurate and detailed information about their customers that they might have not been able to obtain through other means. With greater insights about prospective and existing customers, marketers can improve customer experience by understanding how their customers will interact with their brand. 

Since augmented analytics is able to unify a diverse range of datasets such as demographics, CRMs, psychographics, and more, it can provide critical information marketing teams need to maximize customer value. By exploring large volumes of different data, augmented analytics can also model and predict customer behaviors, calculate customer lifetime value, and discover customer trends and patterns — all of which can be used to improve customer experiences. 

Task Automation

Marketers can also harness augmented analytics for smoother operations. By automating certain tasks, such as data preparation, data discovery, and data visualization, marketers can save heaps of time and effort. Additionally, augmented analytics can automatically generate charts, graphs, and other visualizations based on data analysis, helping marketers to quickly and easily understand and communicate the results of their analysis. When data is streamlined and manual tasks are automated, marketers can spend less time combing through data for insights, and more time focusing on other strategic business initiatives that demand attention. 

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Getting started with augmented analytics

Here are three steps to help you get started with your augmented analytics journey. 

Start Small and Choose a Use Case that is Aligned with Your KPIs

To begin using data science and artificial intelligence, your data doesn’t need to be perfect. Identify the business problem or opportunity you want to address. Focus on a use case that is aligned with your KPIs and has high business value. Once you see that it is successful, you can move on to other larger projects. 

Invite your Whole Organization to be a Part of Your Analytics Initiatives

Being strategic about rolling out augmented analytics and collaborating with your entire company can help build trust and show employees that you want them to be involved with the implementation. Communicating with different stakeholders in your company will help them understand the value of the technology and how it can be used to drive business results. Encourage employees from across the organization to play a role in the initiative, demonstrating that you value their input and cooperation in achieving your business’s mission and goals. 

Provide the Right Training to Gain the Most Value out of Your Investment

Concentrate on creating a data-driven culture. When you’re ready to start using augmented analytics as part of your company’s daily operations, establish strategies and offer training in place so employees can get the most out of the valuable data assets. When you include users from the beginning, they will likely be more invested in the outcome. 

Exercise Flexibility

Be prepared to make changes along your augmented analytics journey. Encourage others to contribute feedback so you can gather insights and make adjustments as needed. A flexible approach supports iteration. In turn, when you iterate with stakeholders, you’ll be better equipped to adjust to their needs. Adopting a flexible outlook will help ensure a successful transformation for your business and make for a more seamless transition. 

Using Augmented Analytics to Improve Your Campaigns

From identifying user segments to refining your target audiences, you can use augmented analytics to gain a deeper understanding of customer data and optimize your campaigns. With the right insights, you can effectively focus on those customers most likely to buy or respond positively to your offers, putting the right messages in front of them at the right time.

As you embark on your augmented analytics journey, remember that success is achieved through collaboration, training, flexibility, and the right data-driven strategies. When implemented properly and consistently across all areas of your business, these principles can help you maximize the value of your investment and take your analytics initiatives to the next level.

If you're eager to elevate your marketing efforts with sophisticated analytics, reach out to MarinOne for help. As a customizable, enterprise-class solution, MarinOne can help you more efficiently analyze your customer data, better understand your customers’ needs, and take advantage of the opportunities augmented analytics provides.

Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: What It Is and How To Get Started

If you haven’t heard the term “affiliate marketing” before, it’s a popular advertising tactic where businesses reward third parties for generating traffic and leads for them. The affiliate marketing industry is worth over $17 billion and for 20% of brand marketers, it’s the most important customer acquisition channel they have at their disposal. With statistics like that, it’s no wonder affiliate marketing has taken off so rapidly over the last few years. 

Simply put, a good affiliate marketing program will allow you to promote and exponentially grow your business while simultaneously blending smoothly with your other marketing channels. It’s a great way to generate significant online revenue and drive more sales. 

The growing popularity of affiliate marketing as an effective digital marketing tactic is a sure sign that you should get on board. Our beginners’ guide will walk you through everything you need to know—from basic definitions to how to get started with your own program. 

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a revenue-sharing model in which an affiliate promotes a business's goods or services to help them achieve their sales goals. In turn, affiliates earn a commission from the sales made as a result of their advertising efforts. The push toward less traditional marketing tactics is opening up new avenues to generate significant online revenue, benefiting brands and affiliate marketers alike. 

How Does it Work?

By leveraging the abilities of a variety of individuals for a more effective outreach strategy, affiliate marketing spreads the responsibilities of product marketing and creation across parties. To ensure affiliate marketing success, three distinct parties need to be involved: 

Seller and Product Creators

A seller can be either a product creator, vendor, merchant, or retailer with a product — be it goods or service — to market. Occasionally, the advertiser can participate as the affiliate and also profit from the revenue sharing associated with affiliate marketing efforts. 

The Affiliate or Publisher

An affiliate, also referred to as a publisher, markets the seller’s product in a way that’s appealing to potential consumers. Whether an individual or a company, the affiliate focuses on persuading consumers to make a purchase. To attract consumers, affiliates often target a specific audience and adhere to that audience’s interests. 

The Consumer

For an affiliate system to work successfully, there must be sales. And, of course, consumers are the ones who make that happen. Affiliate marketers advertise products and services to consumers through various channels by using affiliate links that direct them to the merchant’s website. When consumers do so, however, the Federal Trade Commission requires that affiliates clearly disclose their relationship to the retailer.

How do Affiliate Marketers get Paid?

For those looking to increase their income online, affiliate marketing is an inexpensive method of making money without the hassle of actually selling a product. However, the way affiliate marketers get paid after linking the seller to the consumer can get complicated. For the affiliate to earn a commission, the consumer doesn’t always need to buy the product. An affiliate’s contribution to the seller’s sales will be measured differently depending on the program.

Here are four ways an affiliate gets paid:

Pay per Sale

After a consumer purchases a product, the affiliate receives a percentage of the sale price of the product from the merchant. In this program, before they are compensated, the affiliate must get an investor to actually invest in the affiliate product. 

Pay per Lead

In this more complex program, affiliates are compensated based on lead conversions. Pay per lead demands an affiliate persuade consumers to not only visit a merchant’s website but to entice customers to click and take action. 

Pay per Click

Utilized by some affiliate marketers, pay-per-click (PPC) programs help affiliates redirect consumers to a merchant’s website. Because an affiliate is paid based on the increase in web traffic, their focus remains on engaging consumers to the extent that they move from the affiliate’s site to the merchant’s site. 

Pay per Install

With this payout system, each time an affiliate directs a user to the merchant’s website and that user installs a software product the affiliate gets paid. 

Common Types of Affiliates

Affiliates use different methods and practices to reach their target audience and make sure they stay engaged. 

Influencers

Affiliates can benefit from leveraging influencers in their marketing strategy. Since influencers already boast an impressive following, they are likely to persuade consumers’ purchasing decisions. When influencers successfully direct a seller’s products to consumers, they receive a share of the profits. 

Bloggers

Through content marketing, bloggers excel at increasing a seller’s conversions. A blogger can spread the word about a product’s value by writing about it and promoting it along with providing links to drive traffic back to a seller’s site. 

Paid Search-Focused Microsites

Advertised within a partner site or on the sponsored listings of a search engine, microsites can garner a serious amount of affiliate sales. Paid search-focused microsites offer targeted audiences relevant content with straightforward call-to-actions. In turn, this increases conversions. 

Email Lists

Email marketing holds the power to impact affiliate marketing income. Despite its older origins, it can help promote a seller’s products. Affiliates may build email lists over time, or leverage email newsletters with hyperlinks, increasing the chance of consumers purchasing a product, thereby earning the affiliate a commission. 

Large Media Websites

Media websites have the potential to create huge amounts of traffic and build large audiences. Most commonly, these large websites provide product exposure through the use of affiliate links or banners, which ultimately improves conversion rates. As a result, both the affiliate and the seller benefit from top-notch revenue. 

Benefits of Affiliate Marketing for Brands

To help you understand the real benefits of affiliate marketing, here’s a list of the top six benefits.

High ROI

Aside from being an effective tool for attracting new customers and increasing sales, affiliate marketing is known for producing a high return on investment (ROI). In fact, 84% of businesses rate affiliate marketing as a better marketing channel than others. In addition to increasing ROI, affiliate marketing produced an average return on ad spend (ROAS) of 12:1 across all industries. To determine your ROI, divide your gross profit — your revenue minus your costs — by your costs, and then multiply it by 100. 

Low Start-up Costs

To protect your bottom line, it’s essential to avoid getting tied into pricey and unprofitable purchases. Compared to other advertising techniques, affiliate marketing allows marketers to partner with online retailers at a much lower cost. It’s also responsible for 16% of U.S. eCommerce sales, which proves how beneficial it can be for companies. 

Increased Traffic

With affiliate marketing, you’re likely to witness a surge in traffic to your site. Not only do affiliates expand your audience, but they also bring them to your site. When traffic volume is higher, your rankings improve, brand awareness grows, and sales and profitability increase. 

Reputation Boost

After building a reliable affiliate network to promote your brand, you will soon begin to see how this marketing strategy can also boost your company’s reputation. A business with credibility attracts more consumers and has a more loyal customer base.  Companies with a reputable brand can often charge premium prices for their products or services. 

Brand Recognition

In addition to boosting your reputation, affiliate marketing is a quick and effective method for building strong brand recognition. With affiliates working as brand ambassadors to advertise your company in a relevant, colorful, and positive way, you can also rapidly improve your customer acquisition strategy. Affiliate marketing companies can benefit from building relationships with influencers and bloggers to increase traffic to their sites through word-of-mouth advertising. 

Getting Started

If you’re ready to get started, follow these steps. 

Pick your Niche

Merchants turn to affiliate marketers because they can reach target audiences composed of potential customers. When you pick a specific niche, you’ll be more likely to build an affiliate platform with original content that meets the demands of an underserved audience. It’s wise to pick a niche that offers value to a sizable, underserved audience.

Choose the Right Platform

Use a platform that matches your niche. Consider which platform is best for your audience. You may discover that using a mix of platforms is the best route to help your affiliate marketing endeavors. 

Create a Website and add a Disclosure Page

After you’ve chosen which platform to use, you’ll need to create a website. As an affiliate, you’ll need to let your users know how you make money from your website by adding a disclosure page.

Add a Privacy Policy and Terms of Service Page 

In addition to a disclosure page, you need to include a privacy policy along with a terms of service page. This way, you’ll be protected from legal issues, but also be able to build trust with your audience. 

Join an Affiliate Marketing Network

Joining an affiliate network can both improve income opportunities and streamline relationship-building processes with merchants. While it’s not always necessary, many affiliate networks will help affiliates optimize their chances of success. To find one that best suits a product and audience, researching your different options can lead you in the right direction. 

Expand your Network

Using a mix of digital marketing tactics including SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, and so on can increase your network and your overall audience size. By combining these tactics rather than using only one of them, you may find that your marketing efforts will create a bigger impact. 

Tips for Optimizing Affiliate Marketing Campaign Performance

While affiliate marketing can improve your company's bottom line, it takes work and often requires a lot of optimizations. Here are our top tips to make it pay off. 

Analyze Through Average Performance

Pay close attention to performance metrics by tracking your typical daily, weekly, and monthly average performance. To get a sense of average activity, keep tabs on your leads, clicks, and sales. By collecting average performance data, you can verify whether your campaign is effective and focus on what needs to change. 

Combine Customer Behavior Data with Affiliate Marketing Data

By analyzing customer behavior data along with affiliate marketing data, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of what’s working and not working. This information will help guide your marketing strategy, allowing you to adjust your affiliate marketing campaigns to deliver desired results. 

Look for the Best Converting Sources of Traffic

To optimize your affiliate marketing campaigns, focus on your main traffic sources. Analyze current data to determine any traffic sources or segmented audiences that are generating a high conversion rate. 

Improve your Funnels

Make sure your funnels are designed to make consumers take action. An affiliate marketing funnel is effective when each stage of the clients’ decision-making process is properly mapped out, guiding them to purchase the products they’re searching for.  With the right funnel, the customer journey path will lead consumers to the designated product/service landing page, encouraging them to act on the desired goal.

Partner with MarinOne to Successfully Incorporate Affiliate Marketing into your Paid Media Strategy

Because affiliate marketing offers a big bang for your buck that other strategies can’t compete with, it’s quickly becoming a central aspect of many marketing strategies. With the benefits being so apparent and as the market continues to grow, more businesses are adopting it so they can stay ahead of their competition.

MarinOne has all the tools you need to make affiliate marketing a successful pillar of paid media. We can set you up with actionable tactics that will help you drive more sales, boost conversions, and gain influence, repurposing your affiliate relationships for high performance advertising.

Whether you're new to affiliate marketing or looking to step up your current performance marketing game overall, our MarinOne experts can help. 

There is surely something in our collective consciousness that responds to well-produced persuasive advertisements. From the highly memorable “Mac vs PC” series of ads to Coca-Cola’s use of a classic song from yesteryear, most people have an ad they remember fondly. 

Businesses are constantly trying to gain the attention of customers through new persuasive advertising ideas and some have found more success than others. What’s their secret? Here are a few of the attributes that make some advertisements more persuasive than others. 

Persuasive techniques in advertising

The following are psychological triggers that can be used to nudge people toward making a purchase. 

Tell a Story

A persuasive ad should focus on telling a story that is hard for the viewer to forget. Research suggests that people are 20x more likely to recall stories than facts or figures. More often than not, people remember the story even more than the product, service, or brand being advertised!

How to do it: When you create an ad, use settings with characters that cause the viewer or listener to identify with a character's plight. Give your ads a narrative arc and watch as customers become more engaged.

Use Tailored Messaging

While there are a variety of persuasive advertising tactics that can work for your ad, focus on those that will resonate most with your target audience. Audiences respond better to tailored messaging that illustrates the benefits of what you offer and how it can improve their lives. 

How to do it: In addition to making your messaging emotionally impactful, strive to make it short and sweet. Keeping things simple is a marketing strategy that works best to keep consumers interested. 

Tap into Emotions

Emotions are responsible for the decisions we make in more ways than we realize and they play a far greater role in decision making than logic does. In fact, studies reveal that 70% of viewers are more likely to purchase a product after experiencing an intense emotional response. Connecting with your audience using emotional cues in your advertising — whether you’re making them laugh or pulling at their heartstrings — will make your brand more memorable. 

How to do it: Emotional persuasion begins with understanding your audience. Once you know your audience well, you’ll be able to determine which trigger words are likely to work best. Combining trigger words with storytelling creates emotional engagement. But to truly evoke emotional appeal and gauge attention, make sure to be authentic. 

Incorporate Celebrity Endorsements

The public is highly influenced by celebrities — what they say matters to a lot of people. Using celebrities as part of your promotion strategies will make your ad more persuasive. Tap into the ethos of popular people and online influencers and get them to tout your brand. 

How to do it: Look for celebrities that are relatable to your target audience and a good fit for your brand. Better yet, reach out to celebrities who are already using your product or service. Plan to work through a talent manager or agent. And remember, make your ask very clear and be sure to provide the details of your campaign goals.

5 Persuasive Ads to Inspire You in 2023

With a new year ahead, it’s time to look back and take stock of some of the most persuasive ads that launched during 2022 and why they worked so well. 

Dove “Toxic Influence”

Together with the marketing agency Ogilvy, Dove created this ad as a sequel to their previous campaigns such as “Reverse Selfie”, “Show Us”, and “Legacy” in pursuit of fighting for real beauty standards. 

As part of their self-esteem project, Dove has made it their mission to inspire young individuals to remove toxic beauty advice from their social media feeds. The ad features teenage daughters and their mothers discussing the disturbing promotion of false beauty advice through using deepfakes and face-mapping technology to expose the dangers of social media’s toxic influence. 

What they got right: By ensuring that their ad messaging is authentic, Dove has successfully reframed purchasing their beauty products for their audience. Beyond making people feel good about their brand, the ad focuses on connecting with others, evokes an emotional reaction, and expresses important values. 

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Pringles “Stuck In” 

During 2022's SuperBowl, the chip brand used its ad spot to highlight the 43% of consumers whose hand gets wedged at the bottom of the Pringles tube while trying to get to the last shattered chips. 

The commercial declares that any discomfort their customers experience is “worth it” by highlighting the misadventures a determined Pringle snacker faces as he goes through life with a chip can permanently wedged on his arm. 

What they got right: The brand took a comical approach to address a common pain point that Pringle fans encounter. Their sense of humor caters to the playful side of consumers by pointing to their brand’s heritage as a snack intended to be fun. They also appropriately combined the ad’s message with the perfect soundtrack: “Stuck on You” by Lionel Richie. 

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Specsavers “I Don’t Go”

The optical retail chain Specsavers uses a playful tactic to raise awareness around its home visit proposition. The ad’s goal is to challenge public perceptions around the variety of services the brand offers. It showcases a series of characters laughing off the idea of going into a store since they can experience the service from the comfort of their own home. 

What they got right: Through their ad, Specsavers successfully spotlights its home visits service while also driving brand reappraisal. It’s both powerful and emotive, and most importantly, aims to charm its customers while emphasizing the brand’s purpose of changing lives through better sight.

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Samsung “Love Hurts”

Cleverly crafted, this Samsung ad features a spider named Sam who falls in love with the Samsung Galaxy S22. The ad depicts the arachnid’s rollercoaster of emotions — ardor, pain, and joy — as it realizes the beauty of the phone’s camera lenses. The commercial closes with a happy ending and runs to the tune of “Love Hurts” by the legendary Scottish rock band Nazareth.

What they got right: Through the use of emotional storytelling, Samsung creates a memorable love story that is hard for consumers to forget. By doing so, the brand is able to shed light on its new camera innovation and also ensure a strong positioning in the highly competitive smartphone market. 

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Apple’s “911” 

Apple’s suspenseful ad revolves around how three individuals are conveniently able to call for help from their Apple Watch in the midst of an emergency. It’s as simple as dialing 911 from your wrist, by using Apple’s Emergency SOS feature. 

What they got right: By using real-life trauma to advertise their product and portraying how it can make the difference between life and death, Apple’s ad becomes relatable, effective, chilling, and dystopian all at the same time. It creates a strong emotional response from viewers by striking a balance of fear and goosebumps, illustrating how powerful it can be in saving lives. 

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These ads all attract and persuade viewers through emotional connection, relatability, and shared values — but above all, storytelling. These are the most powerful ways to create an ad that is sure to resonate with your audience.

How MarinOne can help you reach your audience

MarinOne can help you extract maximum value from your most persuasive marketing materials across different mediums, platforms, and channels. To find out how, contact one of our MarinOne experts today.

Create Landing Pages that Convert

Your marketing landing pages are receiving a lot of traffic — but are they converting visitors into leads? A landing page is an essential part of your marketing strategy for attracting new prospects and pulling them further into the customer funnel. 

The average conversion rate for landing pages is 2.35% across industries. Of those, 25% of sites have a conversion rate of 5.31% or above. The top 10% of sites have a conversion rate of 11.45% or higher. If your conversion rate isn’t reaching the high end of these percentages, we have some key strategies to share that will help you create top-performing landing pages that convert.

Eight Ways to Create a Landing Page that Converts

Here are actionable tips to get your landing page to convert like the top 10%.

Create a Good UX

For an optimal user experience, follow the best design principles. Sometimes, even if your copy is good, a poor design can hurt your landing page conversion rate. 

What you need to do: Test different designs and tweak the highest-converting elements until you reach an ideal landing page look, feel, and experience. 

Example: Lyft

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Lyft’s landing page is well-designed and well-balanced, with a good proportion of text and imagery. With a single-field form and a CTA that stands out, they make it easy for users to sign up right there and then. The page also includes a benefit-oriented headline, encouraging visitors to take the next step. 

Include Testimonials

Using social proof as part of your marketing strategy is one of the easiest tactics to adopt. Once you’ve successfully driven visitors to your website, you want them to stay there. Findings reveal that online reviews impact 88% of consumers’ buying decisions. Customers don’t trust brands as much as they trust other people. Using testimonials on your landing page can also:

• Give you the opportunity to showcase important features in an easy-to-read format
• Help you get ahead of your competition
• Establish use cases that might otherwise not be highlighted in marketing copy
• Give prospects a chance to read a review that addresses their concerns
• Demonstrate your product has been approved by a wide range of different people

What you need to do: Include testimonials on your landing page by displaying simple quotes or videos to help build trust. Alternatively, link the quotes to a person’s direct social profile. To add a more personal touch, use customer photos where possible. 

Example: KeyScouts

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KeyScouts is an online marketing agency that has chosen to use a socially proven customer testimonial widget on their landing page. Not only does it look authentic, but for visitors who want to verify that a review is real, it connects them to the reviewer’s LinkedIn profile. 

Keep Forms Short (and don’t forget to link to a thank you page)

You don’t want to sacrifice lead quality, but if you find a way to eliminate a form field or two, it could have a serious impact on your conversion rate. When you reduce the number of form fields, even by one, it improves your conversion rate by almost half. If users have to go through a lengthy process just to receive your offer, chances are they will leave the site without completing the form. 

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What you need to do: Determine the value of what your offer will bring your consumers. Then begin formulating how many fields, and what types, to show your user, eliminating any that are unnecessary. 

Example: Shopify

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Shopify has created a single field on their landing page, making it as easy and quick as possible for customers to take action. All you have to do is provide your email address to start a free trial. When a form is simple to complete and customers don’t have to offer up too much personal information, they may be more willing to commit. 

Compel Visitors to act NOW

Leverage a sense of scarcity and urgency. This creates higher demand by inducing FOMO (fear of missing out), thereby motivating consumers to act faster. However, scarcity alone will not create demand. Using a combination of the value of an item and showing consumers that they can trust you as a vendor when the deadline hits is key. 

What you need to do: Determine what offer will drive urgency and decide how you want to present it. Be sure to make a clear and meaningful distinction between the offer and the normal price. You can use keywords like “hurry,” “limited quantity available,” and “time is running out.” Using red throughout your designs is also a powerful tactic that tends to attract consumer attention. 

Example: Amazon

There’s a reason Amazon is one of the most widely used e-commerce sites. If you’re already an avid Amazon shopper, you’re probably well aware that it’s one of the best places to strike a good deal—and that’s because Amazon knows how to make its customers keep coming back for discounts. They show you the quantity left for the product you’re considering with a harmless “order soon” side note that generates impulsive purchases. Amazon also masters the principle of creating urgency by sneaking in copy that lets you know how much time you have left. And if that’s not enough, they incentivize customers to act quickly by advertising “lightning deals” and offering warped perspectives on savings to “trick” you into buying things. 

Use Video

If you aren’t already using videos on your landing page, it’s time to start. Videos are a valuable way to create trust and comfort. It gives the information you’re conveying more context and makes it more personal. In fact, businesses that utilize video as part of their content marketing strategy see an 86% increase in conversion rates. 

What you need to do: Define why your visitors need your solution and what’s going to happen next. If you can effectively answer these questions in your video, you will exponentially increase your chances of landing more conversions. 

Example: PartnerMD

PartnerMD uses a video to address the common pain points of the normal healthcare experience. In the video, there is a clear explanation of what PartnerMD offers and why concierge medicine is the best solution. More importantly, the video explains why the form is there and what the visitor will accomplish by filling it out. 

Don’t Underestimate the Power of White Space

Using white space on your landing page helps you create a visual hierarchy that guides the viewer where you want them to go. By focusing on white space placement, you can strategically draw attention to the most important elements of your page first. Essentially, creating a bigger impact for your content. 

What you need to do: Break up your content by separating text from images to improve readability. Remove any distractions and give all elements enough surrounding space so your landing page isn’t cluttered. 

Example: Wix 

Wix has created a captivating and stunning illustration of a website design on its landing page. The headline copy is short and to the point, the white text is easy to read, and the use of white space is carefully balanced with the other elements on the page. By using white space, the page’s touchpoints are clear, encouraging visitors with a direct call to action. 

Grab Attention with the Right Imagery

Using relevant images or humanizing your offer can make it more relatable, encouraging visitors to convert more easily. Images usually catch consumers’ eyes before they even read your headline. In fact, because our brains process images 60,000 times faster than text, they influence a visitor’s immediate opinion about your brand. 

What you need to do: Since you don’t have long to make a first impression, choose your images wisely. Make sure the images you select accurately promote your product or services. And of course, use visuals that are high quality. Your goal should be to create a landing page that is memorable, easily understood, and emotionally relatable.

Example: TUSHY

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Tushy’s landing page is creatively brilliant. From a humorous image to its soft pastel color palette and clean design, they successfully capture their visitors’ attention. It’s minimal, attractive, and memorable. Their value proposition is laser-focused, identifying who the target audience is while highlighting the benefit of their product. 

Eliminate Customer Fears

There are many strategies you can use to alleviate customer fears. Take buyers’ concerns into account, and you’ll be seeing more conversions before you know it. By eliminating any hesitations they have about your product or service, you can boost their willingness to buy. 

What you need to do: Give consumers the confidence that your product is one they can trust. Keep your promises. Follow through on shipping policies if you offer them, consider offering money-back guarantees, and give customers a way to test-drive your product. 

Example: Warby Parker

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Warby Parker gives customers ease of mind by letting them try on glasses before fully committing to buying them. By giving their customers time to make a decision from the comfort of their own homes, Warby Parker sways its customers towards a more enjoyable experience. 

Ready to Start Converting Leads?

When done right, landing pages can generate a significant number of qualified leads. By implementing our tips you’ll get ahead of your competitors in no time. 

Contact MarinOne today to learn how our platform can help improve your paid media management processes and get the landing page conversion rates you seek.

Modern consumer expectations and behaviors demand a creative edge from advertisers and a winning strategy that customers will respond to. Even when you know your target audience well, it’s not always easy to figure out the secret formula that gets consumers to say, “here’s my money.” However, when the right advertising techniques are used, you will captivate your audiences’ attention and direct them enthusiastically into your marketing funnel without them even realizing it. 

In a world where digital overload has made consumers resistant to ads, if you want to keep your audience engaged, you need to go above and beyond. Here are 13 compelling advertising techniques that will help you do just that and deliver the results you're seeking. 

13 Advertising Techniques the Deliver Results

Color Psychology

Many colors elicit a specific emotional or physical reaction and, in doing so, shape human behavior. When it comes to your brand and your marketing strategies, they not only influence perceptions, but can create an intentional mood for consumers, setting the right tone and conveying a desired message. In fact, research has proven that between 62% and 92% of people make a subconscious judgment to purchase something based on color alone. 

Lego’s “Make Your Own Story” ad, for example, uses color psychology to develop a playful scene with Star Wars figures. The brand strategically places the figures into a fun, casual atmosphere to tell a new story. By selecting orange — known to evoke emotions of warmth, friendliness, and enthusiasm — as the background color, they’ve created an open and inviting mood. 

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Partner with Influencers and get Celebrity Endorsements 

Partnering with a well-recognized influencer can help fast track your marketing efforts by getting your brand on the map. Doing so will also help build a big following. When consumers see popular influencers vouching for your products or services, it has a much more powerful impact on consumers than it would if the message were to come from your brand directly. 

Take Nike, for instance. In their video ad with Billie Eilish, the brand successfully reached audiences through partnering with a star who’s recognized for her distinct style. The pop artist gave meaning to the campaign, placing an emphasis on sustainability. 

“I want my collaboration with Nike to tell a story that not only highlights the importance of recycling but also reminds us that we need to take better care of our planet,” said Eilish. 

By taking a stance on a social issue, the star took the brand initiative to new heights, tying into the emotion of the buyer to help create a following. As Nike has demonstrated, celebrity marketing is a high-impact marketing tool that can produce significant gains — an increase in brand awareness, credibility, and sales.  

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Remember Time is a Valuable Asset to Consumers

According to recent statistics, 64% of customers prefer to shop with companies that can accommodate their needs in real time. In this day and age, consumers expect businesses to deliver results immediately, and if they can’t, consumers will look for someone else who can. No matter what product or service you offer, consumers are drawn to speed — how fast you can meet their expectations, or how you can save them time so they can spend it doing other things. Be sure to incorporate your time-saving advantages into all of your messaging across various marketing channels. 

Sedex, a supply chain company, demonstrates their commitment to speed by using extreme illustrations in their ads to support their promise to consumers: “Trust us. We deliver it fast.” Consumers take comfort in knowing that they will get what they want, when they want it. When brands live up to consumer expectations, it results in customer loyalty, brand trust, and more. 

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Focus on Needs, not Features  

It’s easy for advertisers to fall into the trap of focusing on their product’s features. However, customers aren’t compelled to make a purchasing decision based on features alone. When you sell an outcome that impacts the consumer on an emotional level, customers are more persuaded by the value a product has to offer to them. 

In the case of WeTransfer, their global brand campaign politely asks consumers to “Please leave”, explaining that their file sharing service is designed with the customer’s needs in mind so they can make the most of their time and get back to living their real lives. By focusing on needs instead of its features, WeTransfer highlights its company’s values: that it puts people first. 

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Make it Relatable

To resonate with your customers on a deep level, create an ad that feels immediately familiar and establishes a meaningful connection. When you inspire a strong emotional reaction, you are more likely to convince consumers that you understand how they feel. 

Nivea Men’s brilliant ad for Active Age moisturizers is a stellar example. In their “Because Life Makes Wrinkles” campaign, the brand illustrates how ordinary moments in life take a toll on us, causing wrinkles— something many people can relate to. Whether it’s taking care of children or getting in a fender bender, Nivea makes it apparent that stress affects everyone, and using a moisturizer is something everyone can benefit from. 

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Use Landmarks in your Design 

Using landmark images in your advertising campaigns can be a valuable visual asset. In fact, they can influence consumers' attentional focus and subsequent judgments. Take Asics, for example. To entice their marathon runners, the brand used a beautiful print ad to appeal to its consumers, conveying that they have the entire city of Los Angeles on the sole of their shoe. With a piercing image like that, who wouldn’t be motivated to go for a run?

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Minimalism

Implementing minimalism in advertising can be profoundly effective. When thoughtfully crafted, minimalist digital ads can get your message across without distracting clutter or over-stimulation, and are also more likely to increase conversion rates. These simple messages can be both thought-provoking and enticing for your consumers, ultimately capturing their attention in a way that motivates them to take action. 

McDonald’s McDelivery service has mastered the art of this advertising technique. Their ads are simple, yet bold. In their campaign, elegant illustrations speak louder than words. As you can see from the example, the iconic food chain has proven that less, really is more. 

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Repetition 

Repetition is key to keeping your brand or product at the forefront of consumers’ minds. The marketing Rule of 7 states that a consumer needs to see or hear something seven times before it actually sinks in. Exposure to repeating images, words, and messages makes consumers more likely to remember your brand. Thankfully, today’s digital environment provides multiple channels like your website, social media, video, and online advertising to make it easy to add repetition to your marketing strategy. 

Of the many brands that have utilized this approach, L’Oréal has proven that frequency paired with repetition can make a brand memorable. Their famous slogan “Because You’re Worth It” sprinkled throughout all their ads has been ingrained in the minds of millions of consumers. The cosmetics giant has not only created a sense of familiarity and trust amongst its customers, but has also successfully achieved brand recognition. 

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Body Language 

In advertising, body language can have more influence on an audience than words can. Body language is a powerful form of nonverbal communication that can translate a message without relying on text to prove a point. A person’s body movements, posture, and/or facial expressions are three of the most common forms of body language that can be adapted for your ads. 

In its “Melt” series of campaigns, Perrier incorporates a Renaissance twist into its advertisements based upon a Surrealist classic painted by Salvador Dali. By combining it with attractive models who use body language to exaggerate extreme heat, the brand creates an emotional trigger response from audiences, making them realize how much the sparkling refresher can quench a person’s thirst. Through using timeless and thoughtful imagery, Perrier is able to communicate a strong resonating image that makes their brand stand out. 

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Association

Association marketing relies mostly on sophisticated psychology and aims to create associations for the viewer through feelings, ideas, places, or nostalgia. Associations often lead to strong, positive brand recognition and affirm its position as a premium service or product.

Throughout Lacoste’s Ageless campaign, the brand seamlessly emphasizes its ageless style. By featuring unusual pairings of people across their print ads and commercials, Lacoste points to the fact that no matter what your age is, clothes can still make you look fashionable. 

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Turn to Pop Culture 

Using pop culture cleverly has been a mainstay of pro marketing campaigns for years. Leveraging pop culture icons in your advertisements is a great way to gain content visibility, increase brand loyalty, and build a strong connection with consumers. Not only does it have an enormous impact on buying behavior, but pop culture influences also shape your brand's personality, making your customers feel like you’re one of them. 

In this imaginative ad, Band-Aid selectively chose the Hulk to represent that its brand heals, protects, and is strong. The brand’s messaging is clear, concise, and uses a pop icon to market their flexible-fabric band-aids. The ad speaks volumes and the color choices effectively set a healing and calming mood. 

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Symbolism

Symbolism attracts consumer attention and alters buying psychology. Symbols play a crucial role in successfully conveying messages and creating meaning. The most common uses for symbols are dramatic visuals, metaphors, or similarities that draw attention or interest towards a product. Essentially, symbols are a creative visual shortcut that can be used to effectively build your brand and convey a concept that will be remembered. 

In its cleverly designed park assist ad, Volkswagen compares a spiky hedgehog squeezed between two goldfish in vulnerable plastic bags to the difficulty of parallel parking. With a unique image, the brand makes a powerful statement and a lasting impression in consumer minds. 

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Highlight the Problem AND the Solution

Consumers respond more favorably when brands make it easy for them to spot a solution quickly and affordably. IKEA is no exception. They have mastered the art of solving space-related challenges for their customers through smart storage solutions. 

As is their tradition, IKEA usually uses quirky means to get their message across. In their brilliant “Need Space” campaign, they highlight the issue of space crunching, depicting how users stuff one shoe into another to save storage space. But, they don’t just address a pain point. They provide the solution too — a sleek and thin shoe cabinet to help customers make the best use of their living spaces. 

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Mastering your Ad Campaigns

While there are countless tactics you can use in your advertising strategy to create a strong appeal, using the ones that resonate best with your audience will ultimately generate the most success. 

Change is constant in digital advertising, but these techniques and strategies are timeless and will continue to be effective now and in the future. In the campaigns above, we can see that clever visuals, subtle symbolism, strong associations and pop culture influence can go a long way.

From the advertising examples above, it’s clear that if done right, ad campaigns have the power to evoke emotions and keep products in our minds, influencing our buying decisions both directly and indirectly. 

If you’re looking to create a lasting impact with your ads, MarinOne can help. Contact our team to get started today and learn more about how we can help you continuously improve your marketing campaigns.

For marketers, there are more ways than ever before to conduct outreach, contact your target audience, and increase sales. With so many different methods available, it can be a challenge to determine which will produce the best outcomes and which ones are worth incorporating into your marketing efforts. 

While everyone has their favorite strategies, certain forms of outreach have proven to have a higher rate of success. The key is in the variety of methods you employ, and the consistency with which you use them. 

8 Proven Prospecting Techniques That Actually Work

While excelling at prospecting still demands mastery of many of the same age-old techniques that worked 30 to 50 years ago, there are new approaches you can take to level up your game. 

Here are eight advanced tactics you can use to secure more sales. 

Use a Qualification Framework

To assess which prospects are strong potential buyers, you’ll need to identify the major criteria that you and your salesforce team consider to define a good candidate. Before you reach out to your leads, develop a set of qualification questions to help prioritize your outreach efforts. This way, you’ll discover which leads are worth connecting with, and which can be ruled out immediately. 

Create a Lead Scoring System

Don’t let your hottest leads grow cold while you spend time on lukewarm prospects. After you’ve identified which leads are qualified, rank them using a lead scoring system so you can prioritize advancing those most likely to close. Develop a lead scoring system by assigning value based on data pulled from previous lead successes. 

Follow your Prospects on Social Media

The best insights into your leads will come from your leads themselves. Scanning their social media channels can help you determine whether or not they’re a good prospect by yielding relevant data. LinkedIn research reveals that social selling influences more than 50% of revenue. Staying informed about your audience’s interests and values can give you a deeper understanding of their needs while simultaneously allowing you to build rapport and win their trust. 

Strategically Structure Your Communication

The way you approach your prospects can impact how you close a deal or lose one. Use these methods to discover the best ways to reach out.

• “Wow” them: You don’t need a complex strategy to capture attention. If you’re going to draft an email, go beyond a standard pitch. Instead, use a clear statement of what you do and how you’re different, one that makes the prospect say “wow.” With so many software suites available on the market today, testing emails to see which work best is easy to do. If your outreach involves phone calls, recognize that leads warm up more when you make it personal. Pay close attention to what their needs are, gain a clear understanding of their industry, and research your competitors. By knowing what they want, you can tap into solving their needs and “wow” them with a golden pitch they’ll respond well to. 
• Offer added value: With any kind of sales communication, adding value is critical. Leads are more responsive when you win them over with free offers. Consider giving them a free demo or providing a sales guide. Not only does this give you an opportunity for a follow-up later on, but it gives your prospects a chance to become more familiar with your products. 
• Use a single call to action: Whether you’re pitching your lead via email or on the phone, ending with a single call to action is key to encouraging them to take the next step. Request a follow-up phone call, another meeting, or ask them directly to buy. When presented with a single, clear CTA, your lead is more focused and you’re more likely to close a deal.

Ask for Referrals and Recommendations

Referrals and recommendations are a powerful sales prospecting technique that can earn you the credibility you deserve. Word-of-mouth is incredibly impactful and should not be underestimated. In fact, when making buying decisions, 91% of B2B buyers are heavily influenced by first-hand accounts.

With numbers that high, it pays to be proactive about tapping into your network. You can use this opportunity to build relationships with your current customers by offering them discounts or other incentives for referring new people. Sometimes, it might be as simple as getting a testimonial, quote, information for a case study, or other social proof from past customers, all of which can elevate your leads’ confidence in you, ultimately converting them into a prospect.

Consider Using Video

The rise of video is one of the latest trends sales prospecting pros are using as a marketing and outreach tool. Incorporating video throughout your sales cycle can boost your numbers significantly. According to current statistics, after watching a video, 88% of buyers continue to complete a purchase, and 73% prefer to learn about products this way. With video rising in popularity, it’s worth taking advantage of this medium. 

Be Well Aware of the Competitive Landscape

To be a sales prospecting pro, it’s critical that you scope out your competition. By keeping a close eye on the competitive landscape, you can rest assured that you are optimally positioned for your intended audience. If you aren’t already doing so, analyze magic quadrant results, follow competitor news, survey competitor websites, and track the latest advancements across relevant industries. 

Leverage Marketing Automation Tools

Complement your prospecting strategy with an automation tool so you can nurture your leads and convert stragglers into sales. By using these tools, you can link content distribution, allowing you to get the right message out to the right people at the right time. Automating various processes to optimize your marketing-sales pipeline can convert leads into customers more quickly and efficiently. With the right tool, you can segment groups based on specific criteria, prioritize based on highest needs, generate interest along every step of the buying process, and much more. 

Closing More Deals with MarinOne

To stay ahead of the curve, sales pros need to be proactive about leveraging the latest prospecting tactics and technologies. From researching your prospects to using automation tools, every step counts when it comes to closing deals faster and more effectively. By mastering each of the above techniques, you’ll have an edge over competitors and will see better results from your outreach efforts. With so many opportunities to help you outsource work and many automation tools at your fingertips, along with a vast array of software choices to help you work more efficiently, you can multiply your successes and fill your pipeline with an abundance of qualified leads.

Using tools by MarinOne can help your marketing team optimize paid advertising processes, bring in more interested candidates into the sales funnel, and ultimately close more deals. MarinOne is a customizable, enterprise-class solution that can help accelerate your paid media efforts.

Ready to start prospecting for new leads? To learn more about how MarinOne can help you achieve the results you want, get in touch with one of our team experts today.

Marin Software has sponsored eMarketer's analyst report Retail Trends to Watch for 2023 as part of Marin's ongoing initiatives to bring the best possible retail media data to marketers across the US and Europe. Supporting content that helps marketers be more successful at their jobs completely aligns with Marin's mission to simplify and automate work for marketing professionals.

The report evaluated several areas of focus for Retail Marketers including economic climate and pressures, new revenue streams, trends in Gen Z’s spending growth, and opportunities in retail media.

eMarketer’s analysts also provide insights on how brands can drive more ecommerce sales, revamp direct-to-consumer strategies, and adjust marketing to widen their reach to acquire new customers while retaining loyal customers. 

Marin Software contributed an article to the report on Adapting your budgeting strategy for uncertain times providing key strategies for marketers to determine how to spend, where to spend, and how to improve performance to weather the storm in the year ahead. 

“eMarketer has long been a trusted source for advertisers looking for industry insights and recommendations. We are pleased to have the opportunity to support them in distributing this Retail Trends report at such a critical moment for Retail Marketers,” said Chris Lien, CEO, Marin Software. “We remain committed to delivering advertisers with the best solutions for analyzing, automating, and optimizing their retail marketing campaigns.”

Marin has been helping advertisers advance their digital advertising campaigns for over 15 years and has managed over $48 billion in advertising spend for some of the world’s top brands.

The self-serve MarinOne platform unifies industry leading optimization tools with flexible reporting to help advertisers maximize the impact and reach of their digital marketing investment across paid search, social, and ecommerce channels.

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Access Retail Trends to Watch for 2023 here.

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Affiliate content has skyrocketed in popularity alongside social media marketing and other digital marketing tactics. Since social platforms have inconsistent monetization policies, influencer content offers creators a way to vouch for their favorite brands while generating income. Lifestyle brands, in particular, can align themselves with creators whose audiences overlap with their own. 

Lauren Neels, Customer Engagement Manager and Marin Software’s resident expert on all things related to ecommerce, paid search, and digital marketing, shares some valuable insights about how lifestyle brands can use creator content to reach highly specific audiences more effectively. 

How influencer content can help brands reach their audience 

Shed the negative perceptions associated with advertising 

While advertisements used to be a popular way to reach large audiences, viewers seem to have had enough. According to research from Statista, 41% of people online find themselves regularly annoyed by advertisements. More than a quarter of web surfers went as far as installing ad blockers to make their browsing experience better. 

Advertisements are everywhere but Lauren shares that “people are more likely to trust influencer content since it comes from trusted creators that already have a relationship with their audience. This is evidenced by higher conversion rates experienced by businesses that leverage this type of content in their marketing campaigns.”

Allow your customers to engage with your content using actionable touchpoints 

It’s not enough for your customers to view your content. Businesses must be able to measure how their ads are performing and ensure that each investment is yielding the appropriate results. 

“Affiliate content is generally better than television ads for businesses that want to engage with the customer. This content is usually clickable or has some other CTA that customers can actively engage with,” Lauren shares. 

Encourage greater conversion rates compared to cheaper outreach alternatives

Businesses can sometimes show a preference for alternatives such as television or billboard advertising. However, each method of outreach has a place within a greater marketing campaign. 

Lauren explains that “paid ads work well for people who already have intent to purchase, but are less effective when people need convincing. Influencer content would be more effective at convincing or when trying to build a brand.”

Influencer content can be repurposed as paid social media posts or ads if needed

Some influencers have very niche audiences, but the reach of their content can be amplified when it is converted or repurposed as paid social media posts. However, Lauren warns that when creator content is converted to paid ads, “not all of that audience has chosen to follow that influencer so some of the trust won’t carry through to the new, wider audience. Conversion rates could go down but your reach is larger. This could help brand awareness, and boosted creator content would still have more trustworthiness than just a paid ad.”

Things to keep in mind while engaging creators for content

Social media trends often change before businesses can hop on them

All social media marketers are intimately aware of how quickly trends can change online. What is fashionable and topical today might be outdated next week. Businesses must always have their finger on the pulse of running trends and have employees that understand these trends to take charge of marketing campaigns that need to run alongside certain fads. 

“If trends change before your approval process is complete, you’re too late. Millennials, for example, have a good idea of how trends work online. Put them in charge and trust them when it comes to trends and how to use them for effective marketing,” Lauren suggests. 

Trends can differ wildly across platforms, content types, and audiences

Marketers often view social media as an effective channel for reaching younger audiences but each platform is unique. Trends, content types, audience demographics and more can differ significantly from platform to platform. TikTok, for example, is more likely to host a younger audience with a preference for short-form video content while Facebook is more likely to host a middle-aged audience with a preference for image-based content. 

Background checks should be conducted for every collaborator you work with

When businesses sponsor a particular creator, they connect the brand with the creator in the minds of the viewer. While this can be a powerful way to gain the trust of customers, it also means that any misdemeanor committed by the creator can be associated with the brand or can lead to backlash against the brand. 

“While apologies are more readily accepted now, it is always better to be in a position where an apology is not required at all,” Lauren recommends that you should “do your research to check the background of people you might be sponsoring to make sure they’re legitimate and not problematic.” 

Rates can vary greatly depending on a creator’s reach, engagement, and more

As audiences become more diverse and use more social media channels, marketers must be strategic in how they spend on each platform and each creator. Marketers must always measure how much a creator is charging against their reach, engagement, history, alignment with the brand, and more. Each of these factors can lead to great variations in asking price from the influencer. 

Affiliate or influencer content should be part of a larger marketing strategy

Affiliate content is a great way to reach targeted audiences and improve engagement rates with the brand. However, it’s not enough for a marketing team to rely exclusively on affiliate or influencer content. Like every other marketing method, creator content should be a smaller part in a larger marketing strategy designed to cover all of a business’ customer bases. 

MarinOne’s modern optimization solution helps marketers ensure that each dollar spent on partner content and other marketing strategies yields maximum results. Our paid advertising management solutions creates automated recommendations to optimize your marketing configurations that will improve return on investment. 

If you would like to reach your customers with relatable and likable content, reach out for a free demo of our solution today.

Do you remember the last advertisement you saw on social media? Chances are the answer is no, and not just because your memory is poor. As soon as you (and most consumers) recognize an ad, you are far more likely to scroll on.

That's why native advertisements are becoming increasingly popular. These “disguised” ads are meant to blend in with their surroundings and give advertisers an extra moment to hook viewers. Native ads are usually found in social media feeds, but they can be used in other places like email newsletters and search engine results pages.

If you are interested in testing this marketing approach at your own business, read on for 8 native advertising examples you can use to start brainstorming.

What is Native Advertising?

Native advertising is a form of online marketing associated with branding that integrates promotions into the content that people are already consuming. Native advertisements are designed to blend in with the surrounding content, making them appear less intrusive and more natural.

Because of their strategic placement, native ads are a powerful way to build brand awareness and connect with a highly targeted audience. Most often found on social media and in long-form written content, these ads have the potential to drive much higher click-through rates and engagement rates when executed well.

Image Source

Keys to Effective Native Advertising

Native ads are meant to be a non-disruptive way to share your product or service, so it’s important to keep a few principles in mind when creating them. Here are three key elements to consider:

• Relevancy: Native ads need to be relevant to the user’s interests and what they are already browsing. While this is highly platform-dependent, native ads can be used to provide additional context around a topic, highlight a related offering, or feature customer-generated content.
• Creativity: Although they are intended to blend in with their surroundings, native ads still need to be creative and engaging enough to keep people’s attention. Use AI to create new images, visuals, formats, and messaging to see what works best with your audience.
• Authenticity: The modern consumer can see right past an obvious sales pitch, so it is necessary to be genuine and honest in your native ads. Native advertising should not feel overly promotional — instead, focus on providing value and educating your audience.

How Native Advertising can Backfire

Native advertising sometimes gets a bad rap due to the potential for users to be misled or taken advantage of. Native ads can easily blur the line between an organic post and a sponsored one, which can damage the trust and credibility of a brand.

To make sure that doesn’t happen, avoid these pitfalls:

• Overpromising: Native ads should never make unrealistic or exaggerated claims that don’t align with the product or service you’re offering. Even if the ad is more disguised than normal, always be true to your brand and the value you provide.
• Using misleading visuals: Native ads should never use visual elements that are intended to deceive. This includes images that don’t represent the product or service you offer, or presenting facts or data in a way that might not tell the full story.
• Not being upfront: Native ads should be clearly labeled as sponsored content and not made to look like editorial pieces. To maintain your brand's integrity and reputation, be transparent about who is behind the ad and make sure users can distinguish between promoted content and organic material.

8 Native Advertising Examples for Inspiration

Native ads are all about finding clever ways to advertise while still blending in with the surrounding platform. To give you an idea of what this looks like, here are 8 native ad examples to inspire your creativity:

1) Adidas on Spotify

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Adidas partnered with Spotify to create a unique experience and promote their new shoe line — the Nite Joggers. Users who opted into the interactive campaign would receive a "Nite Score" based on their evening listening habits as well as a personalized playlist. This soundtrack was a blend of favorite hits, new recommendations, and promotional content for Adidas.

This native advertisement is a great example of nondisruptive yet nondeceptive marketing. Although it was clearly an advertising campaign, Adidas was able to engage a targeted audience without interrupting their listening experience. Plus, the company effectively tapped into a growing marketing opportunity in the music streaming industry.

2) General Mills on The Guardian

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General Mills wisely sponsored content on The Guardian to align its brand with regenerative agriculture and small-scale farming. These themes are reinforced with high-quality closeups of their sustainable practices and the families that they work with.

The photos and videos show the human side of food production, which helps viewers establish an emotional connection to the brand. Other than its "Paid content" label, this informative article looks and feels like a regular piece of expository news on The Guardian — making it a powerful example of subtle native advertising.

3) SpongeBob on Instagram

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Where are SpongeBob's original fans hanging out? On Instagram, of course. Nickelodeon's hit show recently partnered with Instagram to create an interactive filter called "What SpongeBob character are you?"

This collaboration is one of the most engaging native advertising examples on this list because it tapped into the nostalgia of an older generation and made it easy for anyone to participate. The SpongeBob fan base didn't care whether it was a marketing ploy or not. This filter was genuinely fun, it fit in with other content on the platform, and it allowed people to reconnect with the characters they love.

4) Purina with BuzzFeed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJPJUaZZOss&t=12s (to embed)

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Purina teamed up with BuzzFeed to create a clever marketing video from the perspective of a cat. The cute and comical two-minute production explains how cats view their responsibility to take care of humans.

Although it highlights Tidy Cats, Purina's cat litter product, the video is not purely promotional. In fact, it offers real entertainment value to its targeted audience and anyone who can appreciate cats' quirks. Even almost 10 years after its creation, this content marketing example still sets the standard for how to both reinforce brand identity and drive sales.

5) Taco Bell on Snapchat

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Taco Bell created a Snapchat filter that turned users' faces into a taco. Released just in time for Cinco de Mayo, the filter was an instant viral hit with more than 224 million global views.

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This campaign was a success because Taco Bell nailed both the timing and the culture of Snapchat with its native ad placement. Plus, the company was able to boost brand awareness by prominently including its logo on every snap. 

6) Netflix on WSJ

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To promote its upcoming show Narcos, Netflix worked with the Wall Street Journal to create an interactive webpage on "Cocainenomics", the business of the Medellin cartel's drug trafficking operation. This detailed profile of a $4 billion underground empire is the perfect fit for the business and finance-minded readers of the WSJ.

Netflix put together one of the most compelling native advertising examples on this list by elevating a standard piece of content from the daily newspaper. The article reads like a piece of investigative journalism but is paired with clickable maps and timelines, and a timed quiz.

For most WSJ consumers, the portal likely serves as one of the most interesting stories they read that day. And if readers are hooked by the topic, watching Narcos is a natural next step for even more detail.

7) Allbirds on The New York Times

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Allbirds partnered with The New York Times to create an incredible full-page experience for readers, complete with sound, vivid imagery, and responsive video. This native advertisement ran as an article in the paper, but rather than promoting its signature footwear directly, the brand instead focused on sustainability.

The Allbirds article dives into the importance of birds to our environment, and what eco-conscious readers can do to help birds. At the conclusion of the post, the brand offers a single call to action — visit the Allbirds website to learn more about conscious commerce.

8) Samsung on TikTok

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To raise awareness for the Galaxy Z Fold3, Samsung launched a Branded Hashtag Challenge on TikTok. Boosted by TopView ads, Brand Takeover ads, and Reach & Frequency ads, the phone maker was able to eclipse more than 1 billion video views.

Samsung's "I'Mpossible Generation" campaign slogan was a nod to the innovative foldable smartphone. And the challenge's catchy tune and promise of prizes engaged creators from all over Vietnam. The native ad strategy not only caught fire boosting Samsung's brand awareness, but it also proved social commerce is alive and well with a 14% uplift in sales.

Final thoughts

Native ads have the potential to hook viewers in a more subtle way than traditional advertising methods. With relevant and engaging content, brands can communicate their values, foster an emotional connection, and fill their marketing funnels.

The most successful native advertising examples leverage creative content and fit in seamlessly with the surrounding user experience. By matching the appropriate look, feel, and voice of the adjacent content, brands can break through the noise to capture attention and form authentic relationships with potential customers.

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Daniel Anderson is a guest contributor to Marin Software.

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Communication is the most important arrow sales teams have in their quiver for generating leads and producing sales. It also happens to be the most important tool for marketers to create relevant, qualified content, personalized customer query forms, and more. Making excellent communication an initiative throughout your organization will help you approach more prospects and increase conversion rates.

Unfortunately however, most demand generation tactics still do not encourage easy two-way communication between the brand and the user. You can create loyalty with existing customers and attract new potential customers by reaching them with your content, but for most companies, users can really only get in touch with a brand via the customer service team.

This is why we as marketers need to start to view customer service as a lead-generating channel. Opportunities to keep customers with your organization for the long run, upsell customers or encourage repeat purchases, and create an incredible brand reputation are omnipresent in the customer service process. These are all key ways that your customer service team contributes to the overarching bottom line. So how can you formalize making customer service a cog in your larger demand generation machine? Read on to learn more about strategies for making customer service a revenue-generating team.

Customer Service and Demand Generation

Freshdesk’s blog says, “Customer service is the key to generating leads in your marketing strategies that can be used not only to develop prospects but to nurture them and enhance customer retention.” 

Still, customer service will only have a positive effect on your customer journey if buyers feel their concerns are heard and addressed. The first step is to follow customer service best practices to leave every person who contacts your company on an individual basis with a great experience. Once your team has a solid understanding of how to make customers happy and resolve issues quickly, then you can funnel energy toward retention and lifetime value.

Marketing strategies have evolved as catchy advertisements and self-promotional events no longer attract consumers. Now organizations are turning their focus to being recognized for their services and products and learning to develop long-term customer loyalty. Here are a few ways you can do the same.

• Be methodical about the number of audiences you target and create a unique customer journey for each persona. This will create an inbound dynamic that will engage prospects more efficiently.
• You can build brand awareness among customers via email marketing. This helps to keep your business top of mind–it can be particularly impactful for service-oriented companies that may not have a physical product to sell. The more people recognize your brand, the greater likelihood you will see more ratings and customer responses coming in, increasing brand equity and website traffic.
• Advertising is the best short-term tactic any marketer has. While it can sometimes be pricey, especially when compared to PR, SEO, or other slow-burning channels, a great digital advertisement can capture the attention of thousands very quickly. This will kickstart your business and help you create a pool of people to nurture for lifetime sales.

How can you Integrate Customer Service into your Demand Generation Channels?

Customer service can easily use your marketing team's messaging to directly communicate your brand’s ethics. Do this by showing how your team emulates those values in real time instead of simply telling prospects what your company stands for without supportive action. Here are some ways to optimize that communication cycle.

Use Personal Lead Information to Endow Future Communications 

Before initiating any communication with a customer service contact, ask the user relevant questions like their name, email address, or contact number. It helps your team to have the data they require to develop future relationships with the client and be proactive should technical issues arrive, like dropped phone calls or ineffective email sends.

Employ Chatbots to Streamline Response Processes

Automated chat features have assisted quite a bit in this area. Developing frequently asked questions are a great way to get your chat feature up and running. It also allows wiggle room in the customer service process that keeps you in the drivers seat. Once a customer has exhausted the FAQ series in chat, your CS team members can then jump in and interact with customers with more complex queries to help them get their issues resolved. You'll be surprised how many customers will get the answers they need from the pre-loaded questions, which saves your customer service reps valuable time.

Engage with Customers Even When Your Team is Offline

In addition to saving time during regular office hours with FAQs, chatbots can also be setup to communicate with customers 24/7 when your customer support agents need to go offline. For issues that require a representative, these chatbots can ask potential visitors for their email address or phone number for your team to respond later the same day. According to the latest surveys, 82% of visitors who interact with these chatbots are more likely to convert into long-term purchasers. 

Maximize Your Efforts with an Outbound Call Center

Outbound call centers have been an integral part of sales and marketing strategies for a long time, adopting methods beyond cold calling. They can coordinate with your CRM platform and various other tools delivering targeted user experiences. This can also be a good way to utilize customer service teams' time when they don't have a high number of inbound calls.

Get the most out of your call center services by transitioning from analog to online phone services, as VoIP mechanisms provide customer service attributes like call recording, automatic tracking, customer concerns analysis, and more.

Key Takeaways

Customer service is a crucial part of your association for building a strong brand identity and to keep customers coming back to your organization again and again. Demand generation tactics are far more successful when paired with great customer service. Look at how to streamline these processes and make your CS team a revenue contributor to the company's bottom line by using tools like chatbots and live chat, seeking customer feedback, and training your customer support representatives on how to identify and take advantage of upsell or cross-sell opportunities.

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Joy D'Cruz is a guest contributor to Marin Software.

There are plenty of online shoppers in this day and age, but there is also increased competition! If you are looking for a way to stand out from the crowd, increase engagement, and say thank you to your customers, get into the spirit of giving with competitions and giveaways.

Here are our top four favorite competition strategies to incentivize shoppers to get involved with your digital communications, boosting sales in the process.

Competition idea #1: Video submissions

Improve your brand awareness with a themed video contest that asks customers to perform a specific task or show off forms of customer appreciation via video. User-generated content is a great way to spread the word about your products or services.

Some popular video contest ideas include:

• Sing your favorite trending song
• Show off your best product idea
• Demonstrate how fast you can perform a certain task relating to your product (speediest submission wins)
• Send some before/after shots of an area of your home the product improved

Always set a time limit for the video submission, and be sure to share the user-submitted videos and tag your customer's social media accounts (with their permission). You can choose the winner by the highest customer votes; be sure to follow a strict deadline and shout out the winner on your website as well as your social channels. 

Competition idea #2: Refer a friend

There are plenty of ways to get your content in front of people who do not already follow you, such as hashtag marketing and refer-a-friend competitions, which both work in a similar fashion. An effective way to cut through the competitive noise is by getting recommendations people will trust; and who better than their personal friends.

Get in front of new customers by running a referral contest and generate organic word-of-mouth while boosting brand awareness and minimizing customer acquisition costs. This approach can also help to retain existing customers by offering a discount for the person doing the referring.

Some referral contest best practices to consider include:

• Offering a reward to the person who refers, and their referral
• Setting a purchase limit to earn the referral reward
• Ensuring you have social sharing buttons available to share the referral link
• Providing a dynamic referral link for individual customers
• Setting a contest deadline 

When promoting your competition, don't forget about using offline channels, especially if your business has a physical presence. Make your storefront a feature with posters, props, or other forms of visual communication that grab the attention of new shoppers.

Competition idea #3: Run a sweepstakes contest

A sweepstakes contest is a little different from a standard contest, but is still a valuable engagement-boosting activity. As all participants receive some form of prize, people are more likely to enter as they are not off-put by high odds. Prepare to receive a high number of entrants, all of whom require a prize, so keep your prize budget in mind when choosing rewards. The lowest level prize can be as simple as a small discount off the next purchase (encouraging purchases in the process).

As sweepstakes have many winners, these can all be selected by chance, like in a lottery. This is a great way to acquire valuable information which you can use for future business marketing strategies and growth with data mapping. Think about the type of data you would like to gain about your customers, and use these as question prompts to enter the sweepstakes.

Sweepstakes are very easy to run, as all you need is a simple landing page that collects email addresses for people to enter. The key with sweepstakes is promotion, and it is important to consider the following before running one:

• Ensure you have enticing visuals and prizes to grab attention
• Make it easy for people to enter
• Set a predefined probability for choosing the winner
• Include attractive social sharing buttons
• Give bonus entries to people who complete short surveys

Competition idea #4: Gamification 

If you can make your competition fun, you'll likely get more participation. This is where a gamification contest can be an effective tool; simply play a game to win a prize! Incentivize unique actions and then reward customers, gaining their business and loyalty in the process.

Gamification contests can include any of the following:

• Spin the wheel
• Scratch and win
• Enter a quiz or raffle
• Scavenger hunt
• Play trivia

Make sure the theme of the game is relevant to the season and that it is easy and fun to navigate. Promote the game on your site's homepage and social channels, and keep the prizes a surprise to increase interest.

Creating fans of your brand

People who enjoy your brand’s output are more likely to become repeat customers. Rewarding followers for their loyalty is a great way to keep them coming back to your business. Consider the cost of your competition, how much the prize you are offering is worth, and if the cost is viable when considering the potential spend of a new, loyal customer. The marketing return of a contest should also come into consideration, as the exposure it gives you to new segments can often be more cost-effective than some other marketing methods. MarinOne can also help with this by supercharging your paid search, social, and e-commerce advertising, so reach out to meet with one of our expert consultants today.

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Luke Carlino is a guest contributor for Marin Software.

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People rely heavily on Google searches to discover new brands and products during their purchasing journey. Meanwhile, every business is looking to increase its visibility, reach its target audience, and get maximum return on investment. Google Shopping can play a pivotal role in a company's ability to successfully achieve their goals. 35% of all product searches start on Google. Think of how many new customers Google can help you reach and what that could mean for your business.

According to Andrew Gonzales, President of Business Loans, "Upcoming eCommerce startups must understand how to take advantage of the wide reach of Google Shopping to help get their products out there in front of those that need to see them and boost their sales."

This guide will walk you through the basics of Google Shopping, its importance, and how to leverage it to get the best return on investment.

What is Google Shopping?

Google Shopping is a service that displays products relevant to a user's search query. With Google Shopping, e-commerce retailers can advertise their products directly on the search engine by providing key information such as; images, prices, and descriptions that will help build trust and make more customers convert.

According to Kyle Zien, Director of Growth Marketing at Felix, "Google Shopping is a great way for businesses to build credibility for their brand and drive more sales. Not all merchants are accepted into Google Shopping, so getting your product listed on the Google Shopping platform is usually an immediate trust builder."

For maximum returns, brands must understand how best to optimize their Google shopping campaigns and leverage them as a pay-per-click marketing channel and a source of organic traffic.

Benefits of Google Shopping for Businesses

Google Shopping listings present your products to customers in an information-rich visual format that help drive consumers to quick decision-making among potential customers. But this is just one of the many benefits of Google Shopping.

Here are a few reasons why many entrepreneurs and e-commerce retailers are beginning to pay attention to the amazing value Google Shopping can provide.

Expands Your Online Presence

The biggest advantage to using Google Shopping is Google itself continues to be by far the most popular search engine. By using Google Shopping Ads to promote your products, you will be able to reach a much larger audience, attract more customers, and generate more sales.

According to Jerry Han, CMO at PrizeRebel, "Google has a reach that is second to none. Your potential customers visit Google daily to research and compare products, and your products must be there waiting for them. If you don't leverage Google for your business, you will leave a lot of money on the table."

With 51% of shoppers saying they use Google to research a purchase they plan to make online, Google Shopping can help connect you with more potential customers exactly when they need your product.

Higher Quality Leads

By providing relevant product information needed to drive customer purchase decisions, Google shopping can help increase the number of leads that will end up making a purchase from your organization. When people find your products on Google Shopping, it is because it is relevant to their search query, and these visitors usually land on your website with a high intent to purchase.

Insightful Reports and Metrics

Google Shopping has an easy-to-use feature that makes reports and metrics easy to track. After setting up your Google Shopping ads, evaluating their performance is important.

According to Nate Tsang, Founder and CEO of WallStreetZen, "Analytics is a great tool that businesses must take advantage of to measure performance. There's no doubt that companies that use business analytics experience improved productivity, better decision making, and overall better financial performance." These analytics will let you know what's working and what's not and how you are progressing toward achieving your goals.

Most Effective Tricks for Improving your Google Shopping ROI

While Google Shopping Ads are one of the most effective ways to bring traffic to your site, they can easily drain your advertising budget if not implemented properly. Here are a few best practices to ensure you get the best return on your Google Shopping investment.

Optimize Your Product Feed

Optimizing your product feed is the first and most essential step to better shopping ads. Google uses the data from your product feed to make the best ad for you. The more optimized your product feed is, the better your shopping ads will be, potentially leading to an increase in ROI.

 For best results, each of your product listings should include the following; Product title, Product type, Product Category, Description, and Global trade item number (GTIN).

Optimizing your product title and description should be the top priority, and you must ensure that these two are relevant to what buyers search for on Google. It is good practice to use simple words when writing your product feed and mention any unique features of your product.

Ensure Your Ad Is As Appealing As Possible

When potential customers come across a shopping ad, the first thing that catches their attention is the image. So you must use only attractive images with excellent quality, as this is key to increasing the conversion rate of your ads.

If you don't want visitors to skip your ads and move on to ones with more captivating pictures, then you need to make sure that you use excellent images that immediately attract their attention.

Take Advantage Of Customer Reviews and Product Ratings

Customer reviews and product ratings are important in grabbing customers' attention and increasing sales. The majority of online shoppers look out for reviews and ratings of a product before deciding on whether to purchase it or not.

Positive reviews and good ratings will leave the right impression about your products and give buyer's the much-needed confidence they need to buy from you. You must ensure your products have high ratings to stand a better chance of increasing your sales and ROI.

Use A/B Testing

A/B testing different portions of your Google Shopping campaign is a great way to find out what works better and what will yield better returns. You should refrain from entertaining guesswork if you want a productive Google Shopping campaign.

Different aspects of your campaign you can A/B test include your product titles and images. Certain variations will always perform better than others. With the knowledge you acquire from your test results, you will know where to make necessary changes to improve your ads' performance and increase your ROI.

Conclusion

Investing in Google Shopping as an advertising tactic can yield incredible returns. However, if campaign optimization is not done correctly, these types of ads can quickly eat up the bulk of your budget. Putting your best foot forward in campaign management with the above-mentioned techniques will ensure you maximize your ad spend and get the best value for the company's money.

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Erika Rykun is a guest contributor to Marin Software.

From emails to chatbots to scheduling, automation has transformed the way we work—and it’s only getting bigger: 86% of employees surveyed think automation will help them improve their efficiency, productivity, and growth. And one area that’s grown by leaps and bounds recently is creative automation. 

Creative automation can be a lifesaver for small and/or stretched marketing teams (which is probably every marketing team ever) because it does the heavy lifting for you when it comes to some of the most time-consuming parts of creating, launching, and managing ads.

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at how marketers can take advantage of creative automation to save time. 

What is creative automation?

In a nutshell, creative automation uses technology to automate the creation and/or optimization of your ad campaigns. This can include anything from simple A/B testing to more complex machine learning algorithms that will automatically generate new ad variations based on past performance. 

There are a number of different platforms that offer creative automation, each with its own unique features and capabilities. Some of the more popular ones include Creatopy, BannerFlow, and Celtra. 

How does creative automation work?

Creative automation apps create multiple versions of a base template automatically. Dynamic elements like text and audio are customized on top. Teams then link these components to a field in a data repository spreadsheet. When something in the spreadsheet changes, the dynamic elements respond. This makes it possible to launch an entire ad campaign with just a few clicks—and without ever having to leave your creative tools.

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Why use creative automation?

Saving time is a major benefit of creative automation, but it's not the only one. Here are a few more reasons to consider using it in your marketing campaigns.

• Improved quality: By running multiple versions of an ad simultaneously and letting the data determine which performs best, you can be confident that you’re always putting your best foot forward.
• Increased efficiency: Automating the ad creation process frees up your team to focus on other tasks, like strategy and analysis. It also makes it easy to align your marketing campaigns, collect data, and learn what’s working (and what isn’t) faster. 
• Better organization: With all your creative assets stored in one central location, it’s easy to keep track of everything and ensure that everyone is working with the most current and effective versions.
• Reduced production costs: By using automation to create ads, you have shorter production cycles, which saves time and therefore keeps costs low (not to mention reducing your dependency on agencies).
• Better brand consistency: Automated ads can be templated to match your brand guidelines, ensuring that every ad that goes out meets your standards.
• More scalable: As your business grows, you can quickly and easily scale your ad campaigns to reach more people without having to increase your team’s headcount.
• Easier marketing localization: If you’re running campaigns in multiple countries, creative automation can help you customize your ads for each market while still maintaining brand consistency.
• Easier A/B testing: A/B testing is famously time-consuming. With creative automation, you can test multiple versions of an ad—from banner ads to Facebook ads—to concurrently and quickly gather insights to inform your next round of tests.

5 Ways to get started with creative automation

If you’re convinced that creative automation is right for your business but you’re not sure where to begin, here are a few tips to help you get started.

1. Define your goals

What do you want to achieve? Do you want to save time on ad creation? Improve campaign performance? Collect data? All three? Be sure to establish some clear goals before you start shopping for a solution.

2. Do your research

Not all platforms are created equal. Spend some time researching your options to find the one that best meets your needs. 

3. Consider your team’s needs

What does your team need from a creative automation platform? Make sure to take their input into account before making a final decision. Things like a user-friendly interface and good tech support are a must.

4. Compare features

Once you’ve narrowed down your options, it’s time to start comparing features. Which platform offers the features you need at a price that fits your budget? Create a shortlist. 

5. Test it out

Don’t forget to test out the platform before committing to it. Most providers offer free trials so you can explore the features and see if it’s a good fit for your needs.

Discover MarinOne, the all-in-one advertising platform 

Once you've determined the right tool for automating your creative assets, you can then save time with a tool for automating the distribution of those assets. Paid media management puts all your ads in one centralized campaign manager, from TikTok to Facebook to Google Ads…so you can see what creatives perform well on multiple platforms and what creatives will need to go back to the drawing board.

MarinOne is the most versatile PPC management tool on the market. It makes it easy to plan, buy, optimize, and report on all your campaigns. Plus, with our automation insights feature, you can easily uncover opportunities for reducing spend, make the most of high-performing areas, and analyze data across your channels to improve your campaigns with ease. 

Request a demo today to see how we can help you streamline your ad creation process and improve your campaign performance.

Walmart reaches nearly 150 million weekly customers online and through more than 4,700 stores nationwide, representing 90% of U.S. households. As America’s largest omnichannel retailer, Walmart is definitely a marketing opportunity that Retail brands do not want to miss!

All those shoppers translate to valuable first party data that provides advertisers a holistic view of Walmart customer behavior and accountable, measurable results. Walmart Connect also allows advertisers to correlate online and in-store activity at scale. 

Ad formats

Walmart Connect provides many ad formats so advertisers can connect with customers at every stage of their buying journey, delivering the right ad at the right time to drive conversions. 

Search Ads

Using Search Ads, Brands can get prominent placements for their products within the search results on Walmart.com and the Walmart app and reach customers who are actively searching for those types of products. 

The ads appear in the search results or on a related product’s page as Sponsored Products. 

Display Ads

Walmart also has its own DSP which allows Brands to place display ads off-Walmart on third-party websites. 

Walmart leverages its first party data to target consumers based on their shopping history on Walmart.com. These ads are a great way to get customers back to purchase your products at Walmart. 

In-store Ads

Walmart also offers ads in their brick and mortar locations so you can reach customers as they shop in-store or as they checkout. 

Walmart can also provide closed loop tracking to determine if the checkout ads are driving conversions. 

Brand Interactions

Lastly, Walmart gives brands many ways to think outside the box with unique store events and product sampling. These brand interactions are designed to create memorable experiences that drive consumers to purchase your products. Who doesn’t want to try a spoonful of ice cream while they shop?

Getting Started with Walmart Connect

If you’re not already taking advantage of Walmart’s incredible reach, not to worry! MarinOne integrates directly with Walmart’s API so you can easily manage your Walmart campaigns alongside your other ecommerce platforms and even paid search and social. 

When you run your ad campaigns through MarinOne’s platform, you’ll be able to take advantage of our full reporting suite including easy-to-read dashboards and automated alerts to save you time analyzing all that data. 

Plus, our advanced algorithms optimize your budgets and bidding automatically to save you time while giving you the best possible return on your marketing investment.

Click here to learn more about managing your Walmart campaigns with MarinOne.

Marketers are commonly tasked with making educated guesses covering an array of topics, such as buyer’s journey, which accounts are worth targeting, what content will resonate best with their customers, and so forth. While these guesses help drive business decisions and are used to create marketing campaigns, they are not the best tactic for accelerating your business. 

To maintain a true competitive edge by making smarter, more informed decisions, marketers must stay on top of new technologies and trends such as predictive analytics. Let’s take a closer look to see what it’s all about and hear from MarinOne expert Joe Southin on how it can help you improve your business and increase your company’s bottom line. 

Understanding predictive analytics

Predictive analytics is the use of machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), data mining, predictive modeling, and other statistical techniques to forecast behavior, trends, and activities by analyzing past and present data. Using these analytics, you can strengthen your marketing efforts, enabling you to respond to developments more strategically. Predictive analytics can be used for predicting:

• Which factors impact customer preferences and their buying decisions
• Customer behaviors and their purchasing journey
• Bidding
• Marketing strategies and forecasting sales

5 ways predictive analytics can optimize your marketing budget

According to Gartner, marketing budgets are steadily climbing across all industries in 2022, increasing from 6.4% to 9.5%. That’s why using predictive analytics is more important than before. 

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Predictive analytics can be immensely useful. Here’s how:

1. Analyze data to predict how your strategy will perform over the next few days and the immediate future

For enhanced marketing performance, applying predictive analytics is crucial. With accurate data, you can implement a marketing strategy that will generate the impact you need to be successful. When you use predictive analytics to guide your strategy, you'll be more prepared to make informed business decisions and deliver campaigns that drive the results you’re seeking with minimal risk. 

“Here at MarinOne we predict with confidence how an individual object is going to perform, not just tomorrow, but for the next few days,” says Joe Southin.

2. Use forecasts to manage, adjust, and optimize budget allocations 

Predictive data helps you determine where to focus ad spend. It identifies the advertising channels and times that warrant increased spending and resources, and it provides useful insights so you know when to reduce investments. Use your forecasts to pinpoint where adjustments need to be made and how you can allocate your budget more efficiently. 

According to Joe, “Forecasting gives you the opportunity to accurately project sales, revenue, and expenses. When you can map out how an object will respond with marketing spend, you can evaluate different price points.”

3. Respond to the latest trends to stay current and relevant

You can optimize your marketing budget by staying up to date with the latest marketing trends. Not only will it make your marketing campaigns more targeted and effective, but it will improve ROI, customer retention, and customer experiences as well. Competition in today’s marketing landscape is fierce. Understanding current market trends is key to remaining competitive. With predictive analytics, you can predict future shifts and plan your campaigns accordingly. 

“Keeping up with the most current trends is key to strategizing so you can make better business decisions,” says Joe. 

4. Use customer data to adjust campaigns

Provided it’s assessed and interpreted properly, customer data can be used to maximize the efficiency of advertising expenditure. By harnessing the power of predictive analytics, you can pinpoint everything from usage to customer buying behaviors. Customer data can help ensure that you don’t waste ad spend on irrelevant ad positioning or unnecessary communications. In turn, this can free up part of your budget for other revenue-boosting opportunities. 

“No matter what industry you’re in, predictive analytics provides you with the necessary insights you need so you can make your next move. With a deep understanding of customer data, you can change your course of action for your campaigns to be more successful,” explains Joe. 

5. Manage spend across different publishers to optimize effectiveness 

If you are looking to optimize your marketing budget and maximize profitability, it's essential to allocate every dollar effectively. To fine-tune your budget allocation across different publishers, focus on the ones where you can fully control targeting and cost instead of spreading your budget thin. This will condition you to get rid of what does not work and focus your resources on what does. 

Joe adds, “It’s essential to manage spend efficiently so you can yield the most optimal results. To do so, pay close attention to what’s actually working and what’s not by using predictive analytics to maximize value.”

3 Predictive analytics best practices

Managing and coordinating all steps in the analytical process can be complex. By following best practices, you’ll be well-positioned to glean the maximum benefit from predictive analytics. 

1. Define your objectives

Predictive analytics empowers you to optimize operations by predicting outcomes. The predictions directly inform the action to take such as focusing marketing efforts on those most likely to make a purchase or identifying those who may commit fraud. To get the most value out of your data, be sure to align your strategy with your business objectives. 

Also remember that you can pull down data from a variety of different sources, and even integrate additional functions from third party platforms, thanks to widely available APIs. Learning the basics of APIs and what they have to offer will show you just how much potential they have in a predictive analytics context. They’re well suited to expanding the potential of internal tools, and letting you squeeze even more value from every data point that you gather across your operations.

2. Organize your team

Before you determine your marketing spend, thoughtfully assemble your marketing and sales teams. By making sure everyone is on the same page, departments will be able to work together more successfully. Having a transparent approach is not only beneficial for collaboration, but it also helps generate useful feedback regarding marketing tactics from different teams. 

3. Plan for disruption and continue to refine your predictive analytics models

There will always be factors that change. As a result, as you develop your predictive analytics models, you must continue monitoring them, improving them where necessary, and refining them when needed. These steps ensure the accuracy of your analytics. 

MarinOne powers success with predictive analytics

No matter what industry you are in, the need for predictive analytics is more critical than ever before. Predictive analytics can help you make better marketing predictions so you can start to achieve real growth. By mastering predictive analytics, you will also gain a competitive advantage. 

For a deeper understanding of how you can put predictive analytics to work for you, consider MarinOne. 

When you partner with MarinOne for your predictive analytics needs:

• Your marketing spends go further and you can make effective use of your budget
• You can scale campaigns that are predicted to perform well and filter out those that are not achieving your desired results
• We can advise you on how to allocate your spend across multiple publishers and campaigns and much more.

Want to learn more about how our platform can help you integrate predictive analytics into your marketing campaigns and bring added value to your business? Schedule a demo with one of our MarinOne experts today.  

Advertising is an essential part of any business today. With the advent of the internet and the massive rise of eCommerce over the last few years, online advertising and marketing are more critical to a business’s success than ever.

With all the online mediums and platforms available today, developing new and exciting advertising copy daily, week after week, can be challenging. Some businesses can afford to hire writers to keep creating advertising copy, but what about small businesses that can’t? One option is to use AI writing tools.

AI writing tools have become more mainstream in recent years. As technology develops, more AI writing tools are being developed, and they are getting better at creating more human-like and thoughtful outputs. AI writing tools have many uses in business, including helping to write advertising copy that sells and converts.

This article will discuss what AI writing tools are, what AI copywriting is, how an AI copywriter works, and how they can help you write advertising copy.

What Are AI Writing Tools?

AI writing tools use artificial intelligence (AI) to help generate text. This can be helpful for businesses that need a lot of content, as the AI tool can help speed up the process. However, AI tools are not perfect and should not be used as a replacement for human writers.

What Are Some Popular AI Writing Tools?

Several AI tools available on the market can help you with content creation. The following are some of the most popular AI writing tools:

• Jasper.AI: The Jasper.AI writing tool is a computer program that helps writers to improve their writing skills. It does this by providing feedback on how well the writer uses grammar, vocabulary, and punctuation. The tool also offers suggestions on how to improve the writing.
• Quillbot: Quillbot is a useful and inexpensive AI writing tool that is best used for rephrasing and rewriting content.
• Wordsmith: This AI tool is developed by Automated Insights and is designed to generate text based on data.

What is AI Copywriting?

An AI copywriter is a computer program that can generate text based on a set of parameters. This could be, for example, filling in the blanks of a template or developing a paragraph or two based on a given topic.

Copywriting is an essential part of online marketing, and having AI to help with the process can be incredibly valuable. With an AI copywriter, you can create content that aligns with your brand identity and that better resonates with your target audience. Additionally, an AI copywriter can help you save time and energy while still producing high-quality content.

How Does An AI Copywriter Tool Work?

AI writing tools enable businesses to harness the power of AI to improve their operations and boost their bottom line. They have many features and capabilities and use natural language processing (NLP), machine learning, and predictive analytics to improve customer engagement, automate processes, and make better decisions.

An AI copywriter works similarly to how a human copywriter works. It needs some context or guidance about the topic you'd like it to write about, and then it will use its vast knowledge and understanding of the world to create effective copy.

An AI copywriter can effectively write persuasive, targeted content that resonates with your audience. It has access to an incredible amount of data that it can use to understand your customers and what they are looking for. This allows an AI copywriter to create relevant and engaging content for your readers.

How Can You Use AI Writing Tools to Write Advertising Copy?

Writing advertising copy can be a challenging task. It’s not a task that every business owner can do; some have to hire one or more copywriters. However, another option is to get an AI writing tool to help you write advertising copy. Here are some of the ways AI writing tools can help you write better advertising copy.

Blogs

AI writing tools are excellent for writing blogs. Blogs provide background information on the products and services you sell and are a way to pack your website full of keywords. The more keywords your website ranks for, the more traffic your site will get and the more sales you will make.

Additionally, you can use AI tools to include a call-to-action at the end of the blog. This can be anything from learning more about your services to getting them to purchase your product. AI writing tools will write SEO-focused blogs that will rank higher on search engines, in which you can advertise your products and services.

• How to use AI writing tools for blogs: Provide as much information in the available fields as possible. The more information you give it, the better your content will be. Let the AI tool write your blog, and then go back and edit what was written. Ensure you double-check all important information and numbers for accuracy.

Google and Facebook Advertising Copy

Copywriting can be daunting, especially when you're up against stiff competition online. Luckily, AI writing tools can help you write catchy and compelling advertising copy that stands out from the rest.

Using these tools, you can get a head start on the writing process and develop relevant and relatable ideas for your target audience. So don't let the challenge of copywriting hold you back - try out an AI writing tool today and see how it can help you create effective advertising copy.

Most AI tools have ad templates for major social media ad platforms such as Google Ads, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn, and more. All you have to do is fill out the fields required, and the AI tool will generate headlines and ad copy for the body.

• How to use AI writing tools to write ads: Choose the proper template for the ad you want to create. Input all the necessary information into the fields provided. Have the AI tool create more than one output (ideally, at least three), so you can choose the best one.

Landing Pages

If you want to have any success with your advertising, you need quality landing pages to complete the process that your ads have started. One of the great things about AI writing tools is that you can input keywords into the template, which will be populated throughout your AI-generated copy. This is especially useful for generating landing pages because you need to keep your customers focused on what you are selling them and take them further down the sales funnel.

• How to use AI writing tools to write landing pages: Find the appropriate template and fill in the fields provided. Some AI tools will have different names for these templates, such as “Landing Page,” “AIDA Framework.” or “Sales Funnel.” Make sure you edit the final product to make it sound the way you need it.

Product Descriptions

An AI copywriter can help to generate product descriptions quickly and easily. The AI can craft copy highlighting its unique selling points by providing the AI with information about the product, such as its title and features. This can be especially useful when you have to write descriptions for many products, as it can be time-consuming.

Additionally, an AI copywriter can help to create unique content that differentiates your products from others on the market.

• How to use AI writing tools to write product descriptions: Find the product descriptions template that best suits your goals. Some AI tools have Amazon product description templates, some have ones for Facebook Marketplace, and others just use a one-size-fits-all style.

Social Media Copy

Social media copywriting can be difficult, especially when you need to be constantly and consistently developing unique content. Thankfully, there are AI writing tools that can help make the process easier. By providing you with a bank of relevant topics and keywords, these tools can help you develop captions and posts that are both interesting and optimized for the platform.

Many AI tools have templates for all the major social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Some even have templates for other social platforms as well.

• How to use AI writing tools to write social media copy: Choose the appropriate template for the social media platform you want to write copy for. Fill in the appropriate fields. Have the AI tool provide at least two different variations and choose the best one. Don’t forget to edit.

How Can I Make AI Tools Work Best For Me?

When using an AI copywriter, it's important to provide the tool with enough information to generate high-quality content in a fraction of the time.

Here are three things to do to get the most out of your AI writing tool’s outputs.

1. Provide as much information as possible: The more information you can give on the topic you want the AI tool to write about, the better the outputs will be.
2. Write in the best tone: Ensure you set the proper tone when using your AI writing tool. This will save on editing time afterwards.
3. Edit the AI-generated work: AI writing tools are good but not perfect. You should go through the outputs and edit what has been written. Ensure to check dates, prices, and other numbers are correct, as those tend to be where mistakes are made.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are many ways that AI writing tools can help you write your advertising copy. They use machine learning and natural language processing to write advertising copy that sells effectively.

AI writing tools can write copy for social media posts and ads, landing pages, blogs, and more. Instead of hiring an expensive team of writers, try using an AI writing tool for writing your advertising.

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To learn more about machine learning and automation for paid media management, take a look at Marin Software's features and solutions, or schedule a free consultation today.

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Andrew Dunn is a guest contributor to Marin Software.

If you’re new to advertising on Meta, it can be a bit overwhelming. But never fear, Marin is here with a guide to set you on the right path. I’ll outline the process of setting up your Facebook Business Manager account. Then, I’ll provide a few strategic recommendations to help you get started. 

Creating Your Facebook Business Manager Account

Business Manager is a hub designed to help you manage all of your business’s pages and ad accounts in one place. Creating a Business Manager account is free and easy to do. Simply visit business.facebook.com, log in to your personal account, and then enter some info about your business.

Once you’re in, it's time to link your business’s page to your ad account:

Be sure to link all Facebook and Instagram pages you plan to run ads for. You will be given the option to add a page, request access to a page, or create a new page. Select whichever applies to you.

Next you’ll want to link an ad account to your Business Manager account:

You will be given the same options to add an ad account, request access to an ad account, or create a new ad account. Select whichever applies to you.

Next, you’ll want to grant your team members access to your Business Manager account. You have two different access levels to choose from:

• Admin access gives the team member full control, allowing them to add and remove other employees, edit settings for the business, and link pages.
• Employee access allows the team member to view (but not edit) settings for the business, and be assigned to manage pages or ad accounts.

You will also need to assign access levels for your Ad Accounts in Business Manager:

• Admin users can manage all account settings, add new team members, assign access levels, create and edit ads and campaigns, and have full access to the Meta reporting suite. This access level is a good option for your advertising program manager.
• Advertiser users are able to create and edit ads and can view all reports. This is a good option for marketing team members.
• Analyst users have access only to the reporting features. This access level is designed for the analytics team.

After all your roles are assigned, it’s time to set up your billing information, which can be done on the ‘payment methods’ page:

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Billing on Facebook can work in one of two ways. Automatic billing will automatically charge your card for advertising costs, while manual billing will allow you to add funds to your account that Facebook will then pull from as ad money is spent.

You can cap your total ad cost by setting an account spending limit, in which case your ads will be paused when you hit that limit and won’t serve again until you increase or remove the limit. 

Once you’ve got billing set up and your proper user roles assigned, you’re ready to start advertising! If you’re not sure where to start, check out these strategic recommendations.

Utilize Top Organic Content

If you’re new to buying ad space on Facebook and Instagram, the first thing you’ll want to do is make sure that the organic content on your social media pages is optimized to drive engagement. For example, a woman’s clothing retailer should make sure that their instagram page features their most popular pieces and that the posts on their instagram contain links to buy the items featured. B2C businesses can also benefit from creating an instagram ‘shop’ page. This way customers can click a link to shop at the bottom of each instagram post and be taken to your company’s shopping page within the instagram app. This makes the buying process easier than ever for customers, as you don’t even have to leave Instagram to make the purchase.

Once you’ve got your organic content optimized, start by promoting a few of your top organic posts. Analyze which posts received the best engagement. Once you’ve chosen your top organic content, Meta makes it easy to turn an organic post into an ad using Business Manager. 

Marin’s Message Booster makes this process even easier. Simply select the post you’d like to boost, choose a campaign and a few settings, and you’re good to go.

Creating Paid Ad Content

Once you’re ready to progress from boosting content to creating intentional paid ads, I recommend a top-to-bottom marketing funnel approach. 

Building an Audience

To get started, you’ll want to cast a wide net to fill your marketing funnel from the top down with potential customers. 

Video views are quite cheap with Meta, so that ad format is a great way to gain traction and build an audience. If you send out a video ad to a broad audience, for example targeting only by age range, you can then analyze who watched more than 5 seconds of your ad. Those who engaged with your ad for longer than 5 seconds are at least somewhat interested in your product. Users who viewed your top of funnel, broad targeting ad should then get moved down to the middle of your funnel so you can retarget them. 

You can also analyze these audiences to gain demographic data about what potential customers’ online profile looks like, and target lookalike audiences.

For example, let's say you’re a university trying to acquire more students and you know that prospective university students are likely between the ages of 16 and 35. Start with an ad targeting just that age range. Then you can study the demographic that engages with your ad, and build an audience of interested prospects from there. 

Retargeting Middle-of-Funnel Users

Now you’ve built your middle funnel audience from whom you see at least some intent to purchase, or learn more about your products/services. Retarget this audience with a click-to-website ad that leads to a landing page where they can learn more. Click-to-website ads are affordable but a bit pricier than video ads, so be sure that your landing page contains multiple calls to action so you can learn more about what your potential customers are interested in and then use that info to segment your audience further as you continue to retarget them, hopefully pushing them further down the funnel. 

In the example of a university marketing to new students, the advertiser would want to drive ad clicks to a landing page on which users can click different links to learn about each degree program. This way, the advertiser is gathering more information about each potential student. They can then push those who clicked on a link further down the funnel by retargeting them with an ad tailored to the degree program they showed interest in. 

Ad Customization

This retargeting audience is now towards the bottom of the funnel, and you can continue to serve them customized ads in hopes of pushing them across the finish line and getting that application.

Hopefully this guide helps you get started! Many of the recommendations discussed here can be implemented quickly with the help of MarinOne for social. Click here to learn more.

Businesses are increasing marketing spending in a bid to stand out in highly competitive environments. As spend increases, executives and decision-makers must ensure that each dollar spent on marketing generates proportionate revenue for the business. 

Click-through rate (CTR) is a metric that is regularly used by businesses to analyze marketing performance and determine future marketing strategies. However, understanding of CTR remains woefully inadequate. Read on to learn what CTR is and how analyzing it can help businesses achieve short- and long-term marketing success. 

What is CTR?

Businesses often track how many users view and interact with a particular ad or social media post. CTR is the metric used to measure the percentage of viewers who click the link embedded in that ad or post. CTR is used to determine how well an ad, keyword, or social media post is performing. 

CTR can easily be calculated by dividing the number of clicks that each ad receives by the number of impressions or views the ad has and representing that number as a percentage. For example, if 10 people click on an ad that was viewed by 100 people, the CTR of that ad would be 10%. 

Companies can evaluate their CTR against the performance of other ads from the same industry. For example, ads from companies in arts and entertainment average a CTR of 10.67%, while ads for legal services experience an average CTR of 3.84%. Knowing how your industry typically performs helps put your performance metrics in the right context to evaluate them accurately and effectively. 

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What marketers must know before they can effectively analyze Click-Through Rate

Higher CTR does not necessarily mean positive marketing results

Results generated by marketing efforts may seem difficult to measure, quantify, or link to specific business results. However, this is often due to a misunderstanding of how each metric reveals specific insight into marketing performance. 

Marketers must have specific goals and must choose the right metrics to evaluate if these targets are being met. Marketers who focus heavily on conversions might use CTR to view how effectively each ad is being used to increase visibility—but CTR does not measure how many of those clicks lead to conversions. 

Keywords are valued differently depending on their ability to directly generate profits

Keywords play a major role in the CTR of an online ad. The right keywords can encourage more clicks, higher conversions, and better engagement with the ad. However, every keyword has a unique value within each industry depending on how effective they are in generating profits, so marketers must carefully evaluate how keywords are valued in their specific industry. 

Industry research showed that marketers typically use keyword rankings, organic traffic, and time spent on the page in conjunction with CTR to measure the value of each keyword. This information can then determine how much of the budget should be spent on each set of keywords and how frequently they should be used in marketing campaigns. 

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CTR must be analyzed through the lens of affordability and relevance

CTR can provide significant insight into marketing performance for digital marketers. However, it should always be analyzed with the specific financial needs of the campaign. Even if an ad converts a customer, the profit generated by the customer must be higher than the amount of money the marketer spent to get that click. 

3 Ways to achieve consistently positive business results in an increasingly saturated online space

Segment keywords into groups to enable improved Audience targeting and segmentation

Businesses can use many keywords across different marketing campaigns and channels to better reach a wider audience. Each of these channels must be properly evaluated to truly understand their importance to the company. Marketing spending on each channel must accurately reflect its importance to marketers and their audience. 

Park ‘N Fly, an offsite airport parking company, used keyword segmentation and optimized paid-search spending to double their CTR to 6% from 3% the previous year with the use of Marin Professional. Effectively analyzing CTR helped them optimize spending across 65 campaigns that used 2,000 keywords across multiple channels and platforms. 

Ensure consistency in messaging across ad text, marketing collaterals, and landing page copy

Once you’ve figured out how each keyword performs, it’s important to use the same keywords to reach that audience effectively across different channels. This also ensures that the marketing message is not diluted or forgotten when viewed on platforms that deviate from the language that was determined to be effective. This consistency has to extend beyond ads to marketing collateral such as email blasts, promotions, and landing page copy. 

Regularly analyze the links between keyword usage and business results with modern attribution analysis methods

The modern customer demands that companies learn their preferences quickly and expects communication that aligns with their values, beliefs, needs, and preferences. This means marketers must always have their finger on the pulse to learn when customer preferences have changed. Attribution analysis can help businesses understand if their keyword usage and ad language have kept up with changing customer behavior and the extent to which certain keywords are still relevant to existing marketing campaigns. 

Manage your  ads with insights from MarinOne

Marin’s online ad management software makes it easy for marketers to learn how their ads are performing and place that information in the right context. Analyzing the yield generated by each keyword, ad, copy, and product can help marketers optimize their ad spend in a way that maximizes conversions and sales. 

Learn more about MarinOne today. Get in touch with one of our experts to see how we can help you get the information and tools you need to increase the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.

Customers are interacting with brands more than ever, and they’re doing so across channels that can provide marketers with important customer insights. In a world where customer data has never been more important, marketers must navigate increasing scrutiny over data handling while collecting and processing data about their customers’ behaviors, needs, and preferences.

Approximately two-thirds of customers expect brands to know and understand their needs and expectations. With rising competition and amplified customer voices, businesses must find new and better ways to attract and retain modern customers. 

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Brand website analytics, custom applications, feedback forms, and cookies have empowered businesses to understand how customer interactions affect sales, marketing, and communication efforts. The extent to which businesses can extract actionable insights from behavioral data depends on their understanding of how customer behavior analysis can serve them, however. 

Businesses have also had to evolve to keep up with a rapidly changing regulatory landscape. Third-party cookies are being phased out around the world and businesses are constantly looking for new ways to collect and analyze critical customer data. 

Why businesses struggle to extract insights from customer behavioral data

Customer information is stored across operational silos

While most businesses collect customer information in some form, they struggle to build a coherent and complete image of their customers—especially when departments don’t collaborate and share the data they have. When fragmented data is scattered across departments in the organization, it can’t help businesses understand their customers and make informed choices about how to reach them.

Sales and marketing teams can benefit from knowing a customer’s communication preferences, social media teams can view a customer’s online interaction history, and finance teams can understand a customer’s payment preferences. In general, businesses can use this data to make sure they are making financially responsible decisions. 

Paid marketing campaigns can sometimes go under the radar or be under-analyzed because of this data fragmentation. 

Businesses fail to establish and integrate effective data processes into existing workflows

Data processes can be cumbersome and tedious for non-technical staff who are unfamiliar with complex data management systems. As a result, mistakes are made and data is not collected effectively and efficiently.

Businesses must find new ways to encourage widespread participation with data processes across the organization. This could include automating repetitive or tedious tasks or improving education on data processes and how they can be conducted without excessive disruption to non-technical staff. This data also needs to be funneled effectively to marketing teams who can then use it to strategize future initiatives and outreach. 

Data processes are not aligned with business objectives

Even though data processes can confer significant benefits to businesses from reduced costs to increased efficiency, these benefits have to be targeted. Business leaders must design and implement processes to align with their data strategy goals. Marketing campaigns can vary wildly in their objectives, from increasing visibility to changing customer perceptions of the brand, to improving conversion rates. The metrics used to analyze customer data change significantly depending on the priorities of the business. 

A haphazardly planned data strategy can lead to significant time and resources being wasted in service of a poorly defined plan. Poor planning during the data process design stage can also increase the likelihood of data errors caused by a lack of understanding of these processes within the organization, inconsistent participation with data practices, and more issues that could be costly and cumbersome to resolve. 

4 tips for transforming your data into truly actionable insights

Evaluate the data that has already been collected

The average person generates 1.7 MB of data per second. Businesses can sometimes collect insightful data without realizing it. Before designing and implementing widespread changes to existing data operations and workloads, business leaders must evaluate the data that has already been collected or is continually being collected unintentionally. 

Businesses that interact with customers on social media often have a base-level understanding of important metrics that the platform’s integrated analytics tool provides. That would be considered data that is already collected or being continually collected. Modern businesses have to go beyond that and analyze attribution data to optimize their presence on each platform.

Morgan Gelot, Director of AdTech Partnerships at Marin Software, revealed how marketers can use attribution data to receive insights that standard social media back-ends fail to provide. 

MarinOne provides marketers with “a collection of insights that are refreshed daily, that looks at things like search queries and performance trends. Advertisers can filter through this information to visualize the importance and the impact of certain sites and prioritize on the most impactful ads or platforms,” he shared. 

Modernize data collection strategies to receive a holistic view of marketing performance

Insightful data can be collected in a variety of ways. Some businesses set up data pipelines to directly collect data from the customer but most companies supplement that data with information that they receive from social media platforms and different marketing channels. 

In the past, companies could simply use cookies to collect the information they need to meet their business needs. However, platforms have recently “set up their own solutions to mitigate some of the risks that have appeared on the market with cookies being more limited,” Morgan explained. He also shares how MarinOne can combine insights generated from APIs across social media platforms to provide business leaders with a holistic view of marketing performance. 

Close the gaps between information silos and integrate data workflows into regular business processes

It’s not enough for businesses to collect and analyze data effectively to achieve marketing success in highly competitive markets. Marketers must be able to easily access these insights and integrate them into their daily activities. The first step to achieving this is to close the gaps between information silos and make sure information is collected from multiple sources and combined on a single platform. 

This information has to then make its way to crucial operational teams such as customer service. MarinOne empowers marketers by making marketing data easily digestible and providing them with the information they need to optimize interactions with customers across communication channels. 

How MarinOne can help businesses improve digital marketing performance by unifying customer data

Many factors influence a customer’s purchasing decision. Information about these factors exists across communication channels and social media platforms. MarinOne, Marin Software’s flagship product, allows marketers to easily consolidate performance data, customer behavioral data, generated insights, and more from multiple sources, platforms, and campaigns. A native automation engine allows marketers to simplify how they identify opportunities and tie them into existing customer journeys. 

To get started in understanding more deeply how your customers interact with your brand contact one of our MarinOne experts.

Apps are now discoverable in more places across the App Store thanks to the new Today tab and product page ad placements. Thanks to these new placements, your ads can now reach users when they first visit the App Store, and while they browse. This expands the touchpoints you can reach users along the App Store customer journey, increasing your chances of snagging your target customers’ attention.

The Today tab ad

This is where visitors (over half a billion of them) start their journey on the App Store. You can now advertise your own app here, using high-impact creatives to capture App Store visitors’ attention. The ad will leverage a custom product page you create in App Store Connect. The custom product page has to include at least four portrait or five landscape assets. It also has to use the correct language for the countries and regions where the campaign will run. 

The custom product page has to be approved first by App Store Connect then by Apple Search Ads for advertising. Once it’s approved, you can head to Apple Search Ads Advanced to begin Today tab campaign creation and submit your Today tab ad creative to Apple Search Ads to be approved for advertising. If you don’t schedule a start date or click Pause while the ad is still in review, it will run as soon as it’s approved. You can always create and submit ads for approval ahead of time to ensure they’re approved and running by a specific date. Note that Today tab ads aren't currently available on mainland China, so keep this in mind when running any international campaigns in the APAC region.

Because these ads are featured right on the front page of the App Store, they are the first content users will see. This makes them solid options for driving app awareness for new launches, special events, and seasonal promotions. 

Today tab ad guidelines

• Promotional messaging should be 50 characters or less, with the lines of text not to exceed three.
• Creative assets have to be screenshots from the app you promote. Promotional, lifestyle, or other images aren’t allowed. 
• The screenshots must be prominent and undistorted, filling up at least ⅔ of each creative asset.
• Pricing, offers, and ranking claims are not allowed in ad creative assets.
• Creative cannot include a font style similar to the App Store Today Card. Phrases “Game of the Day” and “App of the Day” are also not allowed.
• The language in the ad creative must match the language in App Store Connect. 
• Any image that mocks a device and contains a bezel (the border between the screen and the frame of the device) must feature a bezel accurate to the most current Apple devices. 
• The ad creative must comply with Apple Advertising Policies and cannot contain any images considered violent, sexually explicit, or otherwise inappropriate. 

Product pages – while browsing ads

Product pages – while browsing ads are a new ad placement that shows your app to interested users as they browse the App Store. These ads appear at the top of the You Might Also Like list to users who scroll down relevant product pages. You can run your ad across all relevant product categories, or you can refine the categories where it runs. Product pages ads aren’t currently available on mainland China either.

These ads are created using the metadata already uploaded to your App Store product page. They include your app name, icon, and subtitle. 

Time to get started

With these new ad placements, you can reach customers at multiple points during their journey through the App Store. The Today tab places your app in front of users before they think of a solution to their problem. And once they start browsing, product page ads present them with your app as they scroll through similar options. 

With so many new features to explore in Apple Seatch Ads's new ad placements, the next question is what are you waiting for? You can start running these ads now and they're certainly worth a test, especially as we enter the busy holiday season.

Meet with a Marin marketing consultant today to learn how to effectively integrate Apple Search Ads into your omnichannel marketing strategy.

Pay Per Click advertising is a great way to generate leads and sales, especially for new e-commerce businesses. It can help you get instant results, whereas something like an SEO strategy can take months. Some of the benefits of PPC advertising are:

• Targeting prospective customers precisely based on location, demographics, interests, etc.
• Tracking ad campaign goals is simple. 
• It is easy to test what produces the best results quickly. You can A/B test keywords, headers, descriptions, etc.
• Paid ads provide a wide range of formatting options compared to SEO through ad extensions.

As an e-commerce brand, you can maximize your ad spend and improve your conversion rate through proper PPC campaign management. The challenges and roadblocks e-comm companies face are distinctive from B2B companies or brick-and-mortar retailers. To help you improve your e-commerce PPC management approach and get the best performance marketing results possible, we have put together some optimization tips to support your efforts:

Tap into Targeted Dynamic Ads

Google allows you to target specific website pages that reflect the search intent of your users. Google does this by crawling your website for things such as text phrases, headlines, descriptions, and other custom labels. These are called dynamic search ads.

If you are an e-commerce website with many product pages, a blog, and landing pages for your downloads or newsletters, you might want to set up targeted dynamic ads.

Google can crawl your website and automatically match the content to the PPC ad. Additionally, having an alternative to AdSense would help you set up dynamic ads based on different target types, custom labels, page types, content, or target URLs. An example of custom labels for different page URLs is shown below.

Remember that you can upload an excel sheet with all your custom labels and other product tags. With dynamic search ads, you will generally want to stick to demand gen ads focused on accelerating sales and leads. 

You should also split-test your headlines and descriptions to see which previews are best. For example, the image above shows a preview test of two different product descriptions.

Focus on Product Page Optimization

A product landing page for your paid search campaign is primarily designed to convert a lead. Your product pages should align with your PPC ads to reduce bounce rates and optimize conversions. 

On top of that, you’ll need social proof, compelling CTAs, and a fast-loading product page to convert most of the traffic coming in.

Let’s take the example of a keyword search for “IT solutions company,” and the Google ads pop up below. We click on the second “Freshservice” ad.

Clicking on this ad result takes us to the landing page in the next screengrab. This landing page does something effective; it provides social proof of the product (“trusted by global brands”) and has a strong CTA (“Get Started for Free” or “Request Demo.”)

So, how do you optimize your product landing page? Here’s how: 

• Use strong headlines, prominent call-to-actions, and an attractive design
• Make your landing page mobile-friendly and easy to navigate
• Add visuals showcasing your product
• Utilize social proof on your landing page

The use of relevant keywords is encouraged on your landing page. But make sure to maintain optimal keyword density to avoid Google treating your content as spam.

Leverage Google Shopping Ads

Shopping ads appear at the top of organic search results, but they pack a little something extra. Shopping ads are more visual and can also be enriched using ad extensions. 

Both Google and Bing offer shopping ads. An example of Bing shopping ads is shown below.

Numerous industry case studies support the effectiveness of Google Shopping Ads in driving traffic and boosting conversions.

You can optimize your Google Shopping Ads by applying the following useful tips:

• Fill out completely your Google Merchant Center shopping product data feed - this should include descriptors like product ID, description, category, type, availability status, sale price, etc. 
• Create different ad groups if you have a wide array of different products.
• Create a separate ad group for your best-selling items.
• Add promotional text to your shopping ads, such as “Get the Winter Sale Discount” or “Free shipping for all orders above $100”.
• Use HD pictures and use catchy titles and descriptions for your ads.

You have a greater chance of moving products quickly with shopping ads. For example, if you are dealing with products with a shelf life, you can pull an inventory aging report for all your products and list at-risk products on Google or Bing shopping ads.

Choose Keywords That Align

Most PPC campaigns focus on growing leads and sales since this is where you get the most ROI for your advertising budget. Thus, you should conduct keyword research that aligns with the campaign that you are running. You might want to identify target transactional or commercial keywords for a sales campaign.

Some tactics you can use to identify and implement rich PPC keywords include:

• Targeting long tail keywords with transactional search intent and low competition. 
• Targeting affordable branded keywords of your competitors.
• Conducting competitor analysis to identify their target keywords.
• Create ad groups for your selected group of PPC keywords.

You can use tools such as Google Keyword Planner and Ahrefs to get keyword ideas for your campaign. 

In the example below, a business is targeting the keyword “espresso machine.” From Ahrefs, it’s possible to know metrics such as the monthly search volume, long-tail variations of the keyword, etc. 

Important metrics to note as you do your keyword research include CPC (cost per click) and CTR (click-through rate) for each keyword.

Finally, include negative keywords in your campaign to eliminate similar but irrelevant or non-performing keywords that could impact your ad spend.

Improve the CTRs of Your Ads

Click Thru Rate refers to the number of people clicking on your ad from the total number of impressions. 

For example, a CTR of 5% for 100 impressions would total five clicks. This might seem small. However, for an e-commerce click that costs, say, $1 per ad, a return of $20/item can be considered a good ROI.

You can employ several tactics to improve your CTR:

• Use ad extensions to showcase additional information. You can use extensions like site links, product reviews, features, and structured snippets.
• Use relevant keywords for your headlines, product descriptions, and captions. Adding relevant keywords is good for both your PPC and SEO campaigns.

Here is an example of a well-done e-commerce PPC ad utilizing ad extensions (price, reviews) and keyword-rich product descriptions and captions. 

Finally, don’t forget to improve the quality score of your ad keywords continually. For example, you can test the same ad with slightly varied keywords and analyze them. High-quality scores will result in lower CPCs and better ad positions.

In Closing

E-commerce PPC management  that is streamlined, easy, and effective offers numerous benefits to your business by saving you time, headache, and precious internal resources. Make your life easier by automating parts of the PPC campaign management process, such as ad targeting, attribution tracking, budget pacing, and reporting.

To effectively carry out an e-commerce PPC campaign, use methodical strategies such as setting up dynamic search ads, doing intense keyword research, optimizing the product page, leveraging Google Shopping Ads, and improving your CTRs.

Most importantly, your business must have a clear e-commerce PPC management strategy in line with your business goals. Track your business metrics and campaign performance constantly using MarinOne, Google Analytics, and other tools. You can also hire e-commerce PPC management services or a digital marketing agency to help you make solid gains.

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Matt Diggity is a guest contributor to Marin Software. He is a search engine optimization expert and the founder and CEO of Diggity Marketing, The Search Initiative, Authority Builders, and LeadSpring LLC. He is also the host of the Chiang Mai SEO Conference.

On December 6th, 2022, we'll be offering a comprehensive webinar on budgeting strategies for the new year featuring Forrester. Anu Adegbola, an account director of paid media with Marin, and guest speaker Brett Kahnke, a principal analyst with Forrester, will cover how to approach your marketing budget for 2023 while also giving tips on how to adapt your budgets as needed ongoing. 

To get you started before the webinar, we've put together a "too long didn't read" guide on Forrester’s approach to budget allocation and what steps you should take when planning a long-term fiscal strategy. To get all of Forrester’s insights and tips, you'll need to download Forrester's report directly (available to Forrester subscribers or for purchase) and attend our webinar event, but this quick overview should help you start moving forward.

Summary of Forrester’s Strategic Budget Allocation Process

In the Forrester report, Kahnke explains how marketing teams are tasked with executing marketing and maximizing results while also dealing with a murky set of objectives. As a part of this process, execution teams must work with business priorities to find the best course of action. The Strategic Budget Allocation Process can be used by the central, regional or country-based field marketing teams or as a second business within an organization. The complete guide by Forrester outlines the benefits of creating a marketing program plan that aligns spending with business, marketing, and campaign objectives. Kahnke also highlights common mistakes that can lead to disconnected or habitual marketing.

The Five Steps of Forrester’s Execution Strategy Phase

Step 1: Review Budget Allocations And Prepare Guidance

Check if team goals align with campaign budget allocations; include campaigns, sub-campaigns, and targeted segments in your analysis.

• Review the top-down and bottom-up budget distribution.

• Define execution guidelines for marketing teams.

• Provide regular feedback on successes and failures, especially in communication with leadership.

Step 2: Layer on Specific Program Allocations and Ensure Totals Stack Up Against Strategic Targets

Step 3: Define Programs You Absolutely Need Within Your Marketing Strategy

Step 4: Identify the Right Tactics for Your Team at this Time, Build the Calendar, and Finalize Allocations

The program manager's primary deliverable in this step is a program calendar. This summarizes the duration of each program and its related tactics in a production schedule and includes the correlating spend for each tactic. 

Step 5: Check your Bottom to Top Overview, Get Endorsement, and Share the Plan

It’s important to communicate the priorities of marketing campaigns to other departments within the business. Confirm that your final plan is still aligned to the organizations needs in terms of objective, campaigns, and program allocations. 

We look forward to sharing more with you in December and hearing directly from Brett how the execution of this strategy will give you the best marketing plan for 2023 possible.

With Black Friday right around the corner, brands are looking for creative ways to stay ahead of their competition and steal momentum. During 2021’s holiday season, nearly 155 million consumers participated in Black Friday sales—and that was despite the ongoing pandemic and supply chain disruptions. Of those consumers, 66.5 million did their shopping in-store while 88 million made their purchases online. Online spending alone totaled $8.9 billion. In years to come, this growing trend of purchasing online is expected to hold strong. 

With Black Friday remaining one of the most popular shopping times of the year, businesses must do all they can to supercharge their marketing campaigns and get in front of customers. 

8 tips for building the perfect Black Friday ad campaign

Here are eight of the top ways to make a big impression on consumers. 

Choose your channels mindfully

Decide which channels are the most active and the best fit for your brand. Be wise about where you decide to place your ads and which type of ads you’ll use—for example, are you going to run Google display ads, in-app ads, or social media ads? Knowing the answers to these questions ahead of time allows you to create deals and ads suited to the audience of each target platform.

Prepare your ads early

Get in front of consumers before your competitors do! It’s never too early to plan your Black Friday campaign. Once you’ve chosen the channels you’ll use, prepare your ads. Broaden your appeal by reaching shoppers who are looking for early deals—and those who prefer to space out their purchases. You don’t want to lose out to competitors because you didn’t get in front of customers soon enough. According to a PR Newswire survey, 54% of shoppers begin their holiday spending as early as October. By publishing your ads early, you’ll also be able to adjust your strategies for Black Friday weekend because you’ll have time to figure out what’s resonating with customers—and what’s not. 

Personalize your ads

It’s been proven that personalization efforts go a long way. To leverage the power of personalization, consider using dynamic display ads to expand your reach. For a step-by-step guide, you can follow MarinOne’s tips on how to use display ads to make the most of your ad dollars and run a successful campaign. 

Offer discounts that are impossible to turn down

Provide deals consumers can’t find anywhere else. On Black Friday, you’ll want to give customers an offer they can’t resist. Make sure the discounts you give are deeper than what you offer year round. Customers aren’t just looking for any deal—they’re hunting for the offers that allow them to buy things that are normally out of their spending reach.

Leak deals as the holiday gets closer

Take advantage of social media, influencers, emails, and other communication channels to create teasers for your audience. Tempt your consumers early on with deals they can anticipate. Creating this kind of excitement will help you win consumer attention which will translate into faster sales for you. 

Maintain brand consistency

Make sure your brand creatives look similar. With familiarity across your Black Friday ads, your brand will be more recognizable and trustworthy to consumers. By taking this extra step, you’ll give your audience the confidence they need to close the deal. 

Create visually engaging designs

Create visuals that are hard to forget and don’t overlook the value of powerful visual effects. Creating memorable Black Friday ads is a crucial step in drafting your holiday marketing plan so you attract more traffic and boost sales. Step up to the challenge of creating something that really stands out. Choosing unique designs and vibrant colors can help impress your customers, winning them over with just one glance. When you make the extra effort, your consumers will remember you and keep coming back. To do this:

• Get your point across with the right copy
• Use imagery and colors consistent with your branding
• Draw attention by using videos and animated graphics

Encourage shoppers to take action NOW

Make consumers excited to purchase products that benefit them. Creating a sense of urgency is one of the best ways to do this. You can make potential customers feel hyped about your brand an take action sooner by:

• Adding deadlines
• Using a countdown widget
• Including emotional triggers in your ads through power words and color
• Making them aware of how many products are left in stock
• Using copy like “last chance,” “final discount,” “limited time,” and so on

The best Black Friday ads to take inspiration from

If you’re looking for some inspiration, here’s a roundup of some of the most noteworthy Black Friday campaigns that caught lots of attention.

IKEA: “Buyback Friday”

Consumers love brands that prioritize global issues like sustainability. As a brand that values sustainability, IKEA built it into its annual Black Friday campaign launch. They offered customers the opportunity to return used IKEA furniture in return for a credit voucher for up to 50% of the item’s value. After running the campaign in 27 countries, IKEA donated or recycled all the items that could not be resold. By celebrating Black Friday with genuine discounts, IKEA demonstrated a commitment to its brand values and also gave consumers a reason to make more purchases. In addition, loyalty program members were given an extra 20% off on vouchers used between November 19th and 29th, making them feel valued and also motivating them to engage with the campaign. 

Bed Bath & Beyond 

With its fun Black Friday commercial, Bed Bath & Beyond can get inside the heads of its target customers. In this ad, when a shopper has trouble justifying her purchases, a reassuring sales clerk convinces her it’s “for the house.” While capturing the guilty pleasure of Black Friday shopping, this creatively genius video ad gives customers an easy “out,” encouraging them to buy the things they really want for themselves.  

Google:  “#BlackOwnedFriday”

In its Black Friday campaign, Google chose to focus on a key social justice issue by supporting black-owned businesses. The brilliant campaign commercial they used cleverly included a Google search component, allowing viewers to search for Black-owned shops that were closest to them. With results specifically configured to promote relevant links and content, Black-owned stores received greater visibility. 

Walmart: “#Unwrapthedeals”

In its out-of-the-box TikTok campaign, Walmart turned Black Friday sales into a gamified experience. By using a filter that allowed customers to “unwrap” deals, they created an element of surprise that kept consumers engaged. They also encouraged consumer participation by having TikTokers post their #Unwrapthedeals hashtag along with their challenges for everyone to see. Through its interactive campaign, Walmart broke all TikTok hashtag challenge benchmarks, gaining over 5.5 billion hashtag views in total. 

Ray-Ban

Ray-Ban successfully got its customers excited not only by offering an unbeatable discount of 50%, but also by using a countdown clock. In addition to creatively advertising saving possibilities, they created a fun design to capture customers’ attention. 

DECIEM: “Slowvember”

Instead of hosting a flash sale to encourage uninformed impulse buying, this Toronto-based umbrella company of skincare and makeup brands extended its discounts for the entire month of November. As part of a Black Friday campaign, they asked customers to approach their shopping differently and take their time. On the holiday itself, they shut down their brick-and-mortar stores and paused their website so consumers could “celebrate the beauty of slowing down.” 

How MarinOne Can Help You Make This Black Friday Successful

For marketers and advertisers, Black Friday is one of the busiest times of the year. But with the right imaginative Black Friday ad campaign you can stand out amongst the fierce competition and get consumers flocking to your holiday deals.  

Whether you’re launching a campaign to increase revenue numbers, improve engagement, or cultivate interest in your brand, our tips will serve you well. Studying the top ads that ruled the internet will give you guidance on how to create your successful ad campaign.

If you’re looking to elevate your e-commerce marketing strategy, start with MarinOne’s platform to help you analyze, automate, and optimize those Black Friday ads. 

Ready to get started? Contact our team today.

We are so pleased to be included in SEL's most recent analysis of PPC campaign management tools, where MarinOne stands out as a leader with the most channel integrations in the industry. Search Engine Land has long been a respected voice and leader in the digital marketing space, and having their stamp of approval means a great deal to the Marin team. You can read the full article here.

We'd love to point out a few things that Search Engine Land may not have gotten to:

1. Marin Software is one of the world's most established paid media management software companies. Nearly 20 years of experience in this industry has given us the time to create  one of the most sophisticated campaign management tools available.
2. We work with nearly 30 different publishers (and counting) that seamlessly integrate with the MarinOne tool, making our software one of the most versatile options on the market to analyze and optimize all your digital ads in one place.
3. Marin has a proven track record of increasing conversions, click-through rate, and return on ad spend. Look through our library of case study examples to see how our optimization suite has helped other brands like yours get a greater return on their advertising investment. 
4. Our expert solutions team is a vital part of our company's success. This group of experienced marketing professionals are an essential asset to our clients. Retailers, b2b organizations, and agencies alike see improved performance as a direct result from Marin's external analysis and consultation. Whatever your company structure, it never hurts to have another set of helpful eyes watching your performance marketing campaigns.
5. As your partner in digital, we know how difficult it can be to keep up with the market, and because of that…we take education pretty seriously. Our learning and development team is constantly creating new content to keep you up to date on important industry changes, digital trends, and best practices for any paid media channel you may be running. 
6. We regularly create webinars and training documents in collaboration with our publisher partners like Amazon, LinkedIn, Meta and more to provide you with the best digital marketing content possible. Subscribe to our newsletter and get ongoing updates on how to keep your digital efforts performing at their highest level, regardless of market volatility.

At Marin we are continually innovating to give paid media specialists the best possible tools for automating their work and making life easier. We believe that through technology, we can create a world that gives marketers a better work/life balance while making company leaders happy as they watch their growth efforts succeed. To get a demonstration of how it works, contact one of our marketing experts today. 

If you're still not sure that Marin might be the paid media management solution you've been looking for, take a look at these other third party resources that describe who we are and what we do, paired with real customer reviews.

https://www.trustradius.com/products/marin-software/reviews

https://www.featuredcustomers.com/vendor/marin-software

https://www.cuspera.com/products/marinone-ad-management-x-1022

Innovations in marketing and the popularity of social media have made it easier than ever for businesses to reach their customers effectively. However, this has also led to customers being inundated with marketing material. Competitive benchmarking can help your business rise above the competition and make an impact on potential customers.

What is competitive benchmarking?

All marketers want to drive the best performance of their campaigns, but how do you know if your efforts are paying off? Understanding and analyzing performance in a vacuum can be unproductive—or worse, misleading. Competitive benchmarking analysis is the study of marketing performance as measured against the performance of your closest competitors.

“There are several competitive analysis tools marketers can use to monitor their competitors organically - which track most things available to the public, and there are also tools you can use to track your competitors' paid activity,” Candace Boren, Product Marketing Director at Marin Software explains. “Once you’ve collected metrics for your competitors, you can use that information side-by-side with MarinOne to analyze your performance to see how you are or aren’t stacking up to your competitors.”

Monitor organic competitive intel

Take a look at what content your competitors are producing for their website, blog, and social channels. Press releases and news mentions will also allow you to keep track of the messaging strategies employed by your competition. Vendors such as Crayon, Klue, and Contify can help you keep track of your competitors’ owned content and mentions. You could supplement this research by analyzing competitor SEO performance using vendors like Semrush and Ahrefs. 

Monitoring paid competitive intel

In addition to organic intel, you should also keep an eye on paid media and where your competitors are advertising across search, social, display, television, and other channels. The success they experience can be replicated while their failures can be avoided. Some tools that can help you keep track of your competitors’ paid marketing efforts include MediaRadar, The Search Monitor, and Pathmatics.

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How analyzing the competition can give you greater insight into your own marketing performance

So you’ve gathered intelligence on when and where your competitors are advertising and distributing organic content. Now what?  

The key to competitive benchmarking is to use this data to your advantage! Take a look at which channels your competitors focus on. This may be a good indicator of where to best reach your target audience. Have they moved away from a particular channel? Maybe they haven’t seen strong performance here. And of course, notice if there are channels you’re missing in your campaign strategy—you want to maintain a presence everywhere that your competitors are reaching potential customers. 

“Competitive benchmarking is important because even if you think your performance is where it needs to be, you don’t want to look at it in a vacuum because there’s always more opportunity to acquire customers who might otherwise go to your competitors. So if you are monitoring their performance to make sure you are in line with it, you're capturing every opportunity that you can see,” Candace explains. 

Keeping an eye on your competitors can help you ride the wave of success that they might be experiencing on another platform. For example, TikTok has become important since its rise in popularity in 2019. Analyzing the competition can help you identify the opportunities a new popular social media platform can present to businesses. 

The benefits of competitive benchmarking don’t stop there. Modern customers are highly opinionated and fragmented. Effective targeting can help you find and reach customers who are being underserved by your competitors. If a competitor is experiencing success on a platform or with a specific marketing strategy but are unable to meet customer demand, competitive benchmarking would put you in the perfect position to fill that gap in the market. 

3 ways to extract maximum value from competitive benchmarking data

Make your competitive benchmarking data work for you by pairing it with effective analysis and improved strategizing using these tips. 

Use the RACE Framework to analyze the effectiveness of your marketing activities across all channels

Sometimes, it can be difficult to pinpoint the exact area within a wider marketing strategy to adjust for the best results. The RACE Framework gives marketers a simple way to analyze marketing activity and it can be applied to any channel or platform that you wish. RACE is a mnemonic device. It stands for Reach, Act, Convert, and Engage. 

These steps represent the journey that marketers must take from the beginning of a customer interaction to its conclusion. Analyzing marketing results at each of these steps can help marketers understand how to capitalize on the opportunities presented to them by competitive benchmarking data. 

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Improve marketing data utilization with effective and uncomplicated reporting processes

Data is only as valuable as the insights it can provide. These insights also have to reach the right team members to actually be useful. Marketing teams must make sure that decision makers, team leaders, and other relevant stakeholders have access to critical information so they can strategize effectively. It is also important for this data to be presented in an easy-to-understand manner. 

Optimize spending on channels and strategies that have a proven track record of encouraging conversions

The average social media user visits over seven social platforms each month. How do you decide how much attention each platform should get from the marketing team and how the marketing budget should be distributed across these channels? Competitive benchmarking data can pinpoint the platforms that seem to generate the most conversions and interactions for businesses with a similar profile to your own. Marketers should use this information to optimize their spending on important platforms while keeping niche platforms in consideration in case they become more important in the future. 

"Analytics tools like MarinOne can help you look at your performance and compare it to your competition. And if it's not where you need it to be, budget allocation tools can help you find the right level of investment for your campaigns to get you up to par," Candace explains. "And as you move through your spend period and find you are not performing in one channel and performing really well on another channel, these algorithms will automatically shift your budget allocation for you. You'll be outperforming your competition without having to manage your campaigns manually day in and day out."

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Demystify data-driven reporting and marketing strategy with MarinOne

To compare your competitors’ marketing strategies with your own, you need a comprehensive picture of your digital program. MarinOne’s advanced analytics suite pulls all your search, social, ecommerce, display, and app advertising into one view. It’s easy to see at a glance where you are spending and where you are performing, so you can easily compare your performance with the competition. 

If you want to take it a step further, MarinOne’s budget allocation tools will shift your budget between campaigns and channels based on how well they’re performing—all while ensuring you hit your budget targets at the end of each month. 

Learn more about MarinOne today. Get in touch with one of our experts to learn how MarinOne can help you make the most of insights generated through competitive benchmarking.

Modern businesses serve an increasingly diverse and demanding customer base. Between older customers who prefer traditional methods of outreach and younger customers who want a more personalized approach, marketing efforts must always be balanced to appeal to each target audience. 

The popularity and widespread use of social media also increases pressure on businesses to ensure that their marketing and messaging hits the right notes with every customer every single time. Attribution can help teams decide which messages resonate with their audiences and adjust tactics accordingly. Read on to find out how incrementality can help modern marketers conduct attribution research more effectively and accurately. 

3 Ways marketing strategies have changed in recent years

Data availability has increased significantly

Customers are engaging with businesses through digital channels more than ever. This allows businesses to monitor, measure, and adjust these interactions to yield the best marketing results. Social media interactions, engagement data from digital marketing tools, and many more systems are available for business leaders to learn about how their customers react to certain messages and marketing material over time. Modern marketers can combine this insight with effective targeting mechanisms to ensure that carefully crafted messages reach the customers that would resonate with them the most. 

Marketing campaigns are becoming more complex

In the past, marketing campaigns typically relied on traditional methods of outreach such as advertising or promotions to increase interest in their offerings. However, the rise of social media combined with the ease of e-commerce has changed the marketing landscape dramatically. Marketing collateral now has the ability to directly drive traffic to channels owned by the brand or to a landing page designed to convert customers. This has led to marketing material being spread over a wider variety of channels to increasingly targeted audiences. 

Rising marketing budgets come with higher pressure to deliver results

Modern marketers have cutting-edge digital solutions to help them reach their customers more effectively. They also have more data about their customers than ever. Business leaders understand the potential that this combination of marketing insight and strategy can realize for their organizations. This has led digital advertising spend to rise consistently in the past few years. Industry estimates show that worldwide spending on digital advertising will cross $500 billion by 2024. This increased spending also places significant pressure on marketers to deliver results and present these results in a compelling way. 

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What is incrementality?

Marketers must study their outreach efforts closely across channels, messages, and outreach types. This can make attributing business outcomes to a specific platform, tactic, campaign, or ad set challenging. While most social media and websites provide marketers with rudimentary data about their ads on their own site, these analytics are limited in the insight they can provide for omnichannel marketing efforts. 

Incrementality refers to the measurable increase in business outcomes as a direct result of specific activities. This measurement typically includes significant testing and experimentation with various test and control groups for maximum accuracy. 

“In the context of marketing, when there is a concerted action, what is the compounding action of that concerted action compared to if you take that concerted action away,” shares Supriya Shukla, Customer Engagement Manager at Marin Software. “It’s like a tap. You open the tap and water comes out - you assume all the water coming out is from you opening the tap - you took an action and there was an outcome but then you close the tap and there’s a leak - from where? - is it from you opening the tap or was the leak always there?”

Why incrementality is a powerful arrow in the modern marketer’s quiver

More businesses are employing data-driven marketing to improve the effectiveness of campaigns

Most businesses use data to effectively segment and target audiences. Social media platforms, sales sites, and owned marketing channels each provide marketers with significant data about their customers, marketing effort success, and the relationship between the two. Since this data is so easily accessible, the accuracy of this data and its ability to generate strategic insight often makes all the difference for successful marketers. 

Marin can help make the difference for businesses that operate in highly competitive marketplaces. Supriya shares an example of a financial services client who employed Marin’s solution:

“Financial services is a very competitive space known to have very high dollar CPAs. Over time, MarinOne has seen, because this client lead-scores their customers along their buying journey, various patterns and insights as they’ve tracked them incrementally as they move from one part of the funnel to the next that they wouldn’t have foreseen otherwise,” she says. “This has enabled them to formulate hypotheses that they’ve been able to test. This demonstrates how incrementality can play a huge role in sophisticated marketing measurement for customers in the digital age.” 

Multiple social media platforms with divergent user bases require unique marketing strategies 

Social media users have more options for online engagement depending on their unique needs. This has led to audiences being spread across multiple platforms such as LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, and more. While this helps marketers reach their target audiences more efficiently, it also means that omnichannel marketers have to tweak their marketing material based on the formats that are most effective for each platform. 

Marin is able to adapt to the platforms that are most valuable to you. Supriya explains how Marin’s solution “can be highly customized in terms of the data you can pull into it through business intelligence connection tools, as well as the ability to bring in custom call-ins and calculations to display in a grid format. You can calculate custom metrics within a BI tool that brings the data in or you can manually set it up within Marin. This will enable you to attribute by seeing side-by-side campaigns to see how they’re converting when compared to custom conversion touchpoints.”

How incrementality gives marketers greater insight into campaign performance and business impact

Combine internal data with industry insights to benchmark campaign performance against key competitors

Marketing data can be received from a variety of sources but it is always important to put this information into the right context. Market conditions and customer preferences change and evolve regularly. Measuring internal marketing performance and comparing that insight with competitor data and industry benchmarks can help marketers keep track of these movements and ensure that they are consistently effective in rapidly changing marketing environments. 

Effectively target increasingly discerning customers with better messaging

Modern customers are always on the lookout for brands whose value sets align with their own. Value-based marketing is more popular and effective than it has ever been. It is important for businesses to choose the right words in their messaging and adjust them where necessary to better align with their customers. Incrementality allows marketers to measure the extent to which their messages resonate with their customers and adjust accordingly. 

Accurately determine the value of each lead generated through specific marketing efforts and optimize spending accordingly

Marketing efforts can generate significant rises in sales and interaction figures and are directly responsible for a measurable amount of revenue. Incrementality measurements allow business leaders to weigh the amount they are spending on each lead against the value they generate for the business. This measurement can also improve reporting and enable better decision making at all levels. 

Meet your marketing goals with accurate insights generated across complex omnichannel marketing campaigns

Marketing data comes in all forms and has to be consolidated from multiple sources and platforms. MarinOne allows marketers to access all their crucial marketing data on a single platform while still conducting attribution analysis at various levels. 

‍Get in touch with one of our experts to learn how MarinOne can help you plan, monitor, and adjust marketing activities to achieve optimal results every time.

The marketing world is constantly changing and developing with new tools and methods. Strategies that are effective today may not work next year, or even next month. What we know for certain is that successful marketing requires looking beyond the top of the funnel for customers who will stick around. Without retention, there is no growth. 

That’s why growth marketing is more important than ever. So, what is growth marketing all about? Learn why growth marketing is important, what its core components are, and five different ways to turbocharge your business with it. 

Growth marketing defined

Growth marketing is a spin on traditional marketing with additional digital layers such as A/B testing, SEO optimization, data-driven blog posts and email campaigns, and careful attention to each aspect of a user’s experience. Insights inform strategies that are quickly implemented to achieve sustainable and robust growth. Unlike traditional marketing, growth marketing prioritizes small hypotheses, fast experimentation, and rapid iteration over large, long-term campaigns.

Why growth marketing matters

An average of 4 million businesses are opened every year, and over $297 billion is collectively spent on marketing expenditures. With those figures, it’s more important than ever to make your business stand out. To compete, it's crucial to have a growth marketing strategy. A strategy that is creative and compelling will:

• Help improve customer acquisition rates and allow you to expand your loyal user base
• Allow you to grow and scale your business rapidly

• Enable you to maximize your marketing activities across many different channels
• Provide you with insights into the full customer journey

Core components of a growth marketing strategy

The primary focus of your marketing strategy should be based on metrics like retention rates, acquisition rates, conversion rates, and customer lifetime value. Some of the most frequently used tactics that growth marketers find successful include:

A/B testing

A/B testing can be used in a variety of formats, such as email marketing, landing pages, social media ads, and more, making it one of the primary tactics to be used in a strong growth marketing strategy. By deploying “A” or “B” tests, you can gain a better understanding of which content pieces are performing better. With better insights into how to engage your audience, you can optimize future campaigns and increase your likelihood of boosting conversion rates. 

Pro tip: Just because one test proves to be more effective with a particular audience segment doesn’t mean you should stop testing. Concentrate on customized segments and keep testing new content variations to understand which content resonates best. 

Cross-channel marketing

With cross-channel marketing, your focus should be on building a plan to extend customer reach. It can include push notifications, email marketing, direct mail, in-app messages, and other action-driven initiatives. The key is to know your audience’s preferences. When you incorporate your plan into your growth marketing strategy, zeroing in on communication preferences will help you build your campaigns accordingly. 

Pro tip: When you integrate multiple channels into your marketing plan, your audience can remain engaged from anywhere. Use contextual campaigns to help you gain a deeper understanding of your audience’s behavior across different platforms. 

Customer lifecycle

As part of your growth marketing strategy, be sure to pay close attention to the three critical life cycle stages: activation, nurture, and reactivation. You need to: 

• Target your audience with introductory campaigns to build credibility
• Nurture them to strengthen relationships through cross-channel marketing efforts
• Re-engage them to drive retention and loyalty through post-purchase or win-back campaigns. 

Pro tip: Each customer will progress through the life cycle at their own pace. However, proactively accommodating users' changing needs will help you create more need-specific campaigns, setting you up for success. 

5 ways to turbocharge your business with growth marketing

Know your clients and competitors

To optimize your campaign, know your clients. Analyzing their data can often shed light on surprising insights such as discovering which leads have a higher likelihood of converting. It can also help you tailor communications to improve retention rates. 

While it’s important to analyze your client base, it’s equally important to determine what your competitors are doing. Seeing what works well (or doesn’t work at all) for them can give you insight into new marketing opportunities to test, too. 

Pro tip: To see what your competitors are doing well, use an online competitor analysis tool. To learn what media your clients consume or what terms they use when searching for your product, use the Google Keyword Planner and try client and industry surveys. 

Optimize your content marketing

When done right, content marketing can create a lasting impact as part of your growth marketing strategy to help you generate new leads. Demonstrate your expertise in your field with articles, videos, and other sources that your potential customers are searching for. By optimizing your content around keywords your audience is looking for, you can boost the chances of them coming to you and staying. 

Pro tip: Be sure to plan, test, and analyze which content is working. When you determine which content is attracting the most attention, adjust your campaigns to ensure you improve results. 

Maximize your advertising

You’re probably already employing advertising as part of your marketing strategy — be it sponsored content, display advertising, remarketing, pay-per-click, social media ads, and so on. In most scenarios, real-time data is accessible, allowing you to closely monitor your ads’ performance. Dig into the data and follow growth marketing principles by planning, testing, tweaking, and repeating. 

Pro tip: By digging into that data, you will be able to identify insights that enable you to improve leading indicators over time. But to truly maximize your growth marketing efforts, don’t lose sight of the big picture. While data is important, stay focused on broad performance metrics (like sales and revenue) over time so you don’t repeat ineffective advertising moves. 

Prioritize your website

Optimizing your website is key to generating more leads. It’s important for communicating why prospective customers should choose you. If you haven’t already done so, advance your SEO strategy. Ultimately, your goal should be to funnel your clients to the action you want them to take. Additionally, your site’s aesthetics and user experience should be familiar for your target audience. 

Pro tip: Seeking advice on your SEO strategy is wise, since it’s a specialized technical area. You can also consider identifying CRO improvement opportunities by conducting A/B testing, individual user testing, qualitative research from focus groups, and client surveys. 

Make sure your customer service team is motivated

For growth marketing to be sustainable and successful, focus on the customer experience. Having quality service will help you build loyalty and turn consumers into brand advocates. Your products alone will not keep customers happy — they must be coupled with high-quality customer service. Make sure that all brand interactions leave your customers feeling satisfied and valued. If your customer service team isn’t motivated to give each person the "white glove" treatment, your customers probably won’t be coming back…which can make the colossal effort of attracting new users feel like a waste. As we said at the beginning of this article, growth marketing is nothing without a great retention strategy. 

Pro tip: To create a good customer service experience, collect customer feedback through surveys and ask for suggestions on how to improve. You should also empower employees with the latest solutions so that they can fulfill their roles effectively. For instance, using a telephone system that automatically distributes incoming calls will benefit team members and customers alike.

Scale Growth Efforts with MarinOne

With growth marketing comes countless tools, channels, platforms, and tactics. One thing is clear: growth marketing requires work, but the return makes it very worthwhile 

MarinOne has the tools you need to be a successful growth marketer and can help you focus on both testing and optimizing to boost engagement and provide a better customer experience. 

Ready to take your growth marketing to new heights? Contact one of our MarinOne experts today.

‍Market segmentation is the foundation of a successful marketing campaign. There are likely many different types of consumers that could be interested in your products, and sending the right message to each type of customer is key to acquiring new users. Whether it be targeting customers based on their age, or understanding that different types of customers value different aspects of your product or service, you’ll want to deliver unique, personalized messages to different segments in order to foster enthusiastic brand loyalty.

Let’s run through the 5 different types of market segmentation in detail so that you can understand which is right for you.

Demographic Segmentation

This is usually the first type of segmentation we think of when starting to define our different customer personas. These are basic defining characteristics such as age, gender, race, income level and education level. Demographic targeting can be anything from advertising high end products to those with higher income levels, to a clothing company advertising gendered clothing to women and men separately.

This is mostly used in B2C marketing efforts, as these traits focus on the individual. The B2B counterpart is firmographic segmentation.

Firmographic Segmentation

Firmographic segmentation is the most basic form of market segmentation for B2B marketing efforts. Firmographic traits of a company include size, location, industry, structure and financial performance. For example, you’ll want to use different messaging when marketing towards a small business than when reaching out to an organization with hundreds of employees.

Geographic Segmentation

A subset of demographic segmentation, geographic segmentation entails segmenting customers by their location. You can segment by city, country, zip code or even language region. The most straightforward example of this is trying to drive foot traffic to a brick and mortar store by targeting people who live within a certain number of miles from the store. But even for online businesses, it’s important to analyze which geographic areas your website traffic is coming from. Sometimes these answers may seem obvious, like a company selling cowboy boots targeting states in the south. But you may be surprised what other regions are interested in your product, beyond the most obvious opportunities. Often market research brings about data that cannot be acquired by intuition alone. Who knows, there could be a lot of cowboys in Vermont…

Behavioral Segmentation

This is the most complex and arguably the most valuable type of segmentation. Behavioral segmentation is the ongoing process of tracking and targeting users’ behavioral trends. As you collect data about your target market over time, you’ll be able to segment your audience into groups based on things like purchasing habits, brand interactions, buying history, website visits and interactions with competing brands. This form of market research is very valuable because it brings to light users with intent to buy, allowing you to target your most interested audiences.

Psychographic Segmentation

This form of segmentation attempts to understand the consumers’ motivations. It’s not the what, or where, but the why that psychographic segmentation strives to make sense of. Why do customers buy your product, or choose your competitor's product over yours? Is it their values? Their political beliefs? Their interests? This sort of segmentation is extremely valuable for media companies, for example. News stations will market towards those with aligned political beliefs. Gossip magazines will target those interested in celebrity content. This form of segmentation can be difficult to nail down, but is very powerful.

Now that we’ve got an understanding of the different types of segmentation, let’s discuss how to begin segmenting your market. 

Start with testing

The first step is market research. You’ll want to cast your net wide with broad targeting, then see what content appeals to different segments of users. Once you’ve identified segments based on engagement with your different categories of content, you’ll understand what sorts of products or services they are interested in. Then you can hit those segmented audiences with more specific retargeting ads.

It’s important to set a measurable goal when testing. Let’s say you’re trying to understand if your products appeal more to women or men. Send ads to both groups equally, and measure performance with a metric such as click through rate or conversion rate. If women seem to drive a higher conversion rate for a particular product, break men and women out into separate audiences and allocate proportionately more ad spend to the female audience. This is one simple example; but there are countless ways to run this same sort of test based on the segmentation factors you believe could apply to your particular campaign.

Never stop analyzing

It’s important to continually analyze these different sorts of user trends, as things can change over time and new segments may emerge. Moving forward, allocate a small portion of your marketing budget to testing ongoing so that you can make sure you're capitalizing on emerging segments and keeping your audience fresh.

Streamline analysis with MarinOne

If you create strong audience segments and send the right message to each segment, you’re sure to win in performance marketing. With so much data to navigate when analyzing the unique performance of your various market segments, it's best to bring it all together in a powerful tool like MarinOne. MarinOne makes your life easier by enabling you to optimize campaigns in bulk, pivot bidding types on the fly, and get a holistic view of all your paid media campaigns in one place. Start your journey to better market segmentation and great advertising performance with MarinOne today. Our team of experienced marketers is ready to help you achieve your goals.

When retailers want the attention of a particular market segment, they use all kinds of strategies to effectively target their ads to specific audiences and increase conversions. The most effective one? A Google Adwords feature known as Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA). 

You have probably visited a website in search of a product, only to leave that site to be targeted with an ad for the exact product you were just researching. This happens because of remarketing lists. Once we’ve shown interest in a product, businesses want us to keep thinking about it—and hopefully come back for a purchase. 

What Exactly is RLSA? 

Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA) are a crucial part of any digital marketing strategy.  RLSA allows you to target users who have already been to your site with new ads so you can bring them back again and land a sale. This allows you to customize your search campaigns by tailoring ads and bids for related keywords on Google or other Google Display Network sites. By leveraging this tactic, you can connect with pre-qualified prospects to increase your conversion rates, revenue, and overall profits. 

How Does RLSA Work?

When shoppers are surfing the digital landscape for products, standard display remarketing catches their attention with ads. However, users are not very receptive to these kinds of placements, and many people use ad blocking technology to avoid them altogether. In fact, a study done by Statista indicates that more than 42.7% of people worldwide use ad blocking tools. 

RLSAs are different. They target audiences with search ads instead of intrusive display popups. In contrast to typical Google display ads, RLSAs only appear when a user has actively searched for a term.  

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5 Benefits of RLSA

When used correctly, RLSA ads refine your ad campaigns and help direct your ad budget into a highly valuable market. Here’s a look at some of RLSAs biggest advantages.

Compared to Other Targeting Strategies, RLSA is More Likely to Drive Conversions

Because you can customize content, you can increase customer engagement. Using search ads allows you to offer personalization and increases win-back potential. According to a ComScore study that analyzed 103 campaigns from 39 different advertisers covering seven industries, retargeting ads generated an average lift of 1,046%. 

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You Will Increase Click-Through-Rates (CTR)

RLSA enables you to target people who have already shown interest in your brand. Because these leads are considered qualified, they are more likely to return, giving you a higher CTR and a better quality score. With a higher quality score, your ad ranking in the SERPs is also likely to be higher. 

RLSAs Enable You to Trial Broad Keywords

Using broad keywords can lead to more conversions by expanding your reach. By using RLSAs, you can set up different campaigns or ad groups for the keywords you want to try so you can determine whether they improve conversion rates.

RLSAs Make Ad Spend More Efficient

With RLSAs you can choose to target only valuable and qualified users, excluding those who are not providing value, thus saving money. You can also adjust your remarketing lists so users who have chosen to disable ads are not targeted, making your campaigns more cost-effective. 

RLSAs Improve ROI

Remarketing lists allow you to segment your audiences into lists based on their performance. As a result, it can help you stay connected with potential customers who have previously shown interest, leading to increased sales and improved ROI.

The Do’s and Don’ts of RLSA

Do Understand Your Audience Before Beginning

For better results with your targeted ads, learn about your website visitors and their typical behaviors throughout their customer journey. Analyze the funnel steps they travel through before converting.

Do Start Slow

Conduct an experiment to see what works and what doesn’t work. 

Don’t Bid on Vague or Generic Keywords in Search Campaigns

Instead of selecting your #1 prospecting keyword, consider starting with your 2nd, 3rd, or 4th ranked prospecting keyword.

Do Reduce Your Bid Dramatically When Retargeting Past Visitors

Bid aggressively lower, not conservatively lower. Don’t be afraid to adjust your bid to be lower than what you are bidding on your current prospecting campaign. Doing so will allow you to realize the true impact of your retargeted search. 

Don’t Use Broad Value Propositions and General Claims When Retargeting Past Website Visitors

Remember that you are retargeting visitors who have already been to your site and are familiar with your brand or product. Instead of beating around the bush, be direct, clear, and bold. Write copy that hard sells, something that will encourage people to take immediate action on your offer.  

Do Match Messaging to User Action

Make sure that the ad copy you use is relevant to the action your users have already taken that got them on your remarketing list originally. 

How MarinOne Can Help

Interested in boosting your remarketing results or improving your search ad campaigns? Implement RLSAs to see your performance increase with less time, money, and effort. 

By partnering with MarinOne, you can improve your targeting efforts and increase your financial lift. With MarinOne’s platform, you can segment and target high value customers by audience across search, social, and display to drive your next wave of cross-channel optimization. To learn more, read our article on how to use RLSA.

Ready to get started? Contact one of our MarinOne experts today for a free trial.

PI LIVE London 2022 is done, and we're excited for many other events Marin will be attending over the coming weeks, including Amazon Unboxed in New York this week. But before we close this chapter, we wanted to highlight some of PI Live’s best moments and share what we learned.

Marin sponsored the Pyramid Stage, one of two areas where keynote presentations were shared. And we even had our own Anu Adegbola give a 30 minute session on budgeting strategies for 2023. She is an experienced and accomplished public speaker who shared great insights on budget planning.

Day One Speaking Session Highlights

Speaker Tina Judic, co-founder and Chairman of Tomorrow Group, talked about the importance of AI integration in advertising at the Rakuten Advertising Main Stage and also on the Marin Software Pyramid Stage. Shay Okelola, the Account Director for Neo Media World, described how programmatic has changed the advertising game. Both welcomed all attendees and exhibitors and outlined the schedule for day one.

Budgeting Strategies for 2023

Marin’s Anu Adegbola took the Pyramid Stage to share the best tactics for approaching a budget for the new year, as well as roadblocks that may affect how funds are allocated amongst marketing channels in 2023. Some of the key concepts Anu mentioned include:

• The 70-20-10 Methodology: 

• 70% of your marketing initiatives should be proven and tested methods that are almost certainly going to support your business objectives
• 20% of your marketing initiatives should be new methods or ideas that are somewhat untested for your business, but have had success in the market at large for other competitors
• 10% of your marketing initiatives should be what you'd call "wild bets," or tactics that are completely out of the box, creative, and untested. This is the best way to find new niche audiences for your products or services.

• Industry disruptors that will affect budgeting in the new year:

• Making way for new channel experiments - TikTok, Quora, Reddit and more all have new advertising campaign types that are relatively untested. Start with spending just 5% per month of the total possible allocation for a new channel and tie that spending to tangible deliverables. As you have data to optimize from, you can continuing scaling 5% month over month continuously.
• Covid-19 has changed consumer behavior for the long haul. One of the lasting effects Covid-19 has had is consumers have dramatically changed their behavior in terms of needs, timing, and what factors influence their purchase decisions. Buyers are still making purchases; but getting into the psyche of how, when, or where your target audience is likely to convert is more complex than it has ever been.
• The recession is here. Economists across Europe and the US project significant economic downturn in 2023, and many economists say we are already in the midst of a recession that could take several years from which to recover. Price point will be a very high priority for consumers in this next year and beyond.

• When in doubt…remember you're just frying chips

• Mark Ritson published an article this past week in MarketingWeek that really beautifully summarized what all budget allocation techniques boil down to. He describes in the article how back in the '90s famous chef Heston Blumenthal became obsessed with making the perfect chip. After hundreds of tests, Blumenthal found the best method for making delicious chips every time was simple. Boil the potatoes for 15 minutes, freeze, fry, freeze again, fry again. Perfect chips. Every time. Regardless of oil temp or seasoning or what have you…these fries always came out pretty great. 
• Planning your marketing budgets also should be simple. Here are the "brass tax" points Mark Ritson outlines that will make your budgeting strategy pretty great every time. Regardless of the market, the campaign, or the channel.

Brand-to-Brand Partnerships: The Ultimate Convergence of Brand and Performance

A panel of branding experts from various sectors shared their thoughts on brand-to-brand partnerships at the event. With trackable ROI and consumer trust, this partnership can be a fruitful collaboration for new startup businesses.

Some of the most compelling learnings from this session included:

• When you partner with someone you can use their content extensively across your different channels to drive ROI.
• Tech has progressed significantly in terms of carrying out successful brand-to-brand partnerships. Still, there's always that human element that brands can't use a computer for.
• Smaller brands are really useful for smaller niche audiences. For those clients with specific needs, why not get a partnership from the niche provider?

AT YOUR OWN RISK! 30 Mins Inside the Mind of an Integrated Creative

Jo Arscott, an award-winning Creative Director, shared her approach to storytelling. She made a compelling argument that sometimes shifting your focus away from data and research can actually lead to surprising new business opportunities.

According to Jo, the human imagination is what makes technology such a great asset for creativity. In her experience, digital data both helps and hurts at once - it’s good because it fuels creative ideas but also bad because of exposure and privacy concerns.

State of the Industry: 2022 Affiliate and Partner Marketing Trends

Have you ever wondered how advertisers feel about affiliate marketing? The IAB released a report with insights into the current state of affiliate marketing and presented the results during PI LIVE. Some of the main points that I took away from this talk was:

• Over the next year, affiliate marketers expect that editorial content will be their biggest source of revenue. Influencers are also very popular and came in second in the poll.
• Publisher diversity is a huge concern CMOs are currently facing when looking at continued investment in affiliate marketing.
• IAB saw a correlation between the worsening cost of living crisis and the importance of affiliate marketing, as reflected in survey responses. This suggests that as consumers must tighten their belts financially, buyers will be depending upon recommendations through marketing means they trust to make the best purchase decisions. 

Day Two Speaking Session Highlights

Tapx CEO, Luke Judge and the founder of PlanIt, Steve Cox, hosted a successful second day at the conference. All participants and exhibitors were welcomed and the program of the second day was outlined.

Influencers, Live Shopping & Social Commerce: Affiliate is the Ultimate Conversion Tactic

This panel discussion was an interesting dialogue based on the following statistic - 74% of consumers are making buying decisions based on social recommendations, a number that is worth paying attention to. Here are some of the most valuable learnings from the session: 

• Influencer marketing in social shopping has a lot of potential. To make the strategy work, you will have to plan everything beforehand and track each campaign individually.
• Don’t automatically go for influencers that have millions of followers. Often there are smaller accounts that share niche common interests with your brand because these influencers are more likely to drive better results.
• Humans are not like technology - they can be unpredictable. That’s particularly why you need to make sure contracts with influencers are spelled out and that the influencer is given enough freedom to do their thing.

Fireside Chat with Boohoo: The Value of Unlocking the App for Affiliates

Most affiliate campaigns drive traffic to mobile websites rather than apps, even though the app experience is much better for the user and converts at a higher rate. The content remains significantly lower on mobile sites. Some of the things we learned during this session included:

• Apps can produce different outputs for different businesses. Boohoo could make an app that's basically the same as their website with a more intuitive conversion process, whereas fintech brands may develop apps to address the need of their customers.
• Cracking the code to tracking is paramount when coming up with an app for your company. If you are great at explaining how seamless and accurate you app’s tracking really is to your affiliates, they will be happy clients and won’t stop promoting your company.
• If you're a business looking for some guidance, it can't hurt to use a tech company that offers training and advice when developing your app.

Lessons from 2008: What’s Next for the Recession-Era Affiliate Marketing Industry

This panel with professionals brimming with knowledge provides insights for current economic climate. After attending this session, it is clear that:

• Facing a decline in sales, luxury brands should consider paying more attention to more accessible products. As an example, consumers may look for a lipstick instead of the Chanel bag, so it's important to promote your products that are at a lower price point rather than the higher value items.
• Even during a recession, you should not cut your expenditure on marketing. Those who keep investing during testing times are those that remain strong and achieve lifelong brand value.
• Ensuring you're active on review sites is an excellent way to show your trustworthiness to potential customers. The key is to be sure you have a system in place that lets legitimate reviews through, while filtering out fake ones.

The Learnings Shared Were Compelling, but Networking Opportunities Were the Real Highlight

It was clear the event producers put a lot of effort into selecting an engaging agenda with keynotes, fireside chats and panels on two stages. As always, networking was one of the best parts of the day! On day one, DJ Viv May provided music during lunch. In the evening, there was a cocktail happy hour post-show on the terrace.

On the second day, as the crowd relaxed and got to know one another better, it was great to see that the event brought out so many meaningful marketing conversations. Between the Networking Village, impact.com's Prosecco Lounge, and Webgains' Sports Bar, there were plenty of places to share ideas, exchange contact information, and plant the seeds for potential partnerships. 

At Marin, we're enjoying the opportunity to re-engage with our clients and partners on a personal level. Reach out to join us at one of the other events we'll be attending in the near future. Our team of expert marketing consultants would be happy to host you for a dinner and discuss your marketing strategy for new coming year.

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Recently Google announced that Performance Max campaigns would be a more significant part of the Google Ads platform and therefore a greater part of paid media strategies for marketers at large. Since then, many questions have been raised as to what exactly this campaign type is and how it differs from other campaigns. With that in mind, we’ve compiled a few of the most common concerns coming up for advertisers and best practices to deal with the changes below.

First of all, what are Performance Max campaigns?

Performance Max (PMax) means you can now buy Google Ads across the entire inventory of products from a single campaign, with expanded coverage across a myriad of different placement types, including:

• YouTube
• Display
• Search
• Discover
• Gmail
• Maps

PMax uses a mix of automation and machine learning to help advertisers reach their conversion goals with all of these placement types all within one campaign. Performance Max campaigns should complement keyword-based search campaigns, as well as boost performance across Google's less competitive advertising channels like Gmail and Display.

If paid media marketers invest wisely, this could bring in a whole new set of customers who are not as familiar with online shopping. Previously in Beta and compatible with Smart Shopping and Local campaigns, Performance Max will be a replacement for Performance Max Offline and Performance Max for Retail by the beginning of October 2022, meaning paid specialists need to make the pivot now.

How do Performance Max campaigns work?

Performance Max helps you drive performance based on your specified conversion goals, delivering more conversions and value by optimizing performance in real-time and across channels using Smart Bidding. Performance Max combines Google's automation technologies across bidding, budget optimization, audiences, creatives, attribution, and more. They're all empowered by your specific advertising objective (for example, if you have a CPA or ROAS target) and the creative assets, audience signals, and optional data feeds you provide.

“Performance Max puts your business goals front and center, and prioritizes these above other signals by inputting your specific conversion goals,” 

-Rodney Ip, Global Product Lead, Google Ads

Performance Max are goal-based campaigns, designed to deliver the value that matters most to you. So, to get started, you choose the goals that are necessary for you to reach your marketing objective. Then Google asks you to provide a series of inputs that help the AI tool get campaigns started. These inputs include:

• Budget
• Creative assets (like text, imagery, and video)
• Geo-targets
• Optional feeds such as: 

• Google Merchant Center
• Google My Business
• Dynamic Ads Feed
• Other Business Data Feeds

• Audience Signals

• First party / remarketing lists
• Google Audiences / custom audiences

PMax campaigns are then able to take those inputs and invest your budget as effectively as possible, maintaining a core focus on the initial objective you set. Google’s automation goes to work finding the best potential customers and serving those customers the most relevant ad. Bidding and attribution technology then determine the most optimal bids to meet your goals. And of course, it’s all done in real time in the auction. 

Targeting technology, machine learning, and automated bidding all culminate to a campaign with the best possible ROI outcome. In fact, Google’s data thus far indicates Performance Max campaigns average a 13% lower cost per conversion than any other campaign to date. 

How to maximize the effectiveness of PMax campaigns

Because they leverage machine learning and automation to drive performance, Performance Max can leave advertisers feeling like they have given up some control over their campaigns. But there are still some levers you can pull to maximize your PMax campaigns. 

Audience Signals

Adding audience signals to your Performance Max campaigns enhances Google’s machine learning to help you reach the best customers. Google takes your audience data and looks at the audiences for signals to identify similar buyers likely to exhibit the same behaviors and interests. You can add audiences from:

• Your first party data (customer lists, website visitors, remarketing lists, etc)
• Custom segments based on search activity, websites visited and apps used
• In-market customers with interests in products like yours
• Demographics like age, income level, and family status

Google can then use the information you have provided to inform its targeting algorithms to find customers who are most likely to convert. This is a good way to help jumpstart your Performance Max campaigns and can also continue to inform throughout the lifecycle of the campaign, especially as your first party data changes over that time. 

Offline Conversions

Consider importing your offline conversions to help improve your PMax performance. By giving Google access to offline sales data in addition to your online digital attribution channels, you will give the algorithms a more comprehensive view of what’s working. 

The system can then interpret which leads have resulted in sales and also the assets being used in the ad groups that are ultimately driving conversions. Incorporating these valuable insights will help deliver the best content to the customers most likely to convert. 

MarinOne Engine + Performance Max Campaigns

The team at Marin has been hard at work updating the MarinOne Engine infrastructure which will deliver a powerful experience for advertisers. MarinOne Engine already powers MarinOne's newest and most advanced grids and enables new campaign types, more data, more flexible reporting, and enhanced processing for scalability.

MarinOne Engine will allow us to support additional campaign types from Google including Performance Max as well as local campaigns and additional data for video campaigns. 

As you start formulating your strategy for adding Performance Max to your digital campaigns, the marketing experts at Marin are here to help. Reach out today to schedule a demo and see how MarinOne’s advanced analytics, automation, and optimization tools can work for your Google Ads programs. 

Apple Search Ads is a powerful acquisition tool for app marketing that has been around for several years. It’s a proven method that connects advertisers with a relevant target audience to increase conversions. Using Apple Search Ads, app developers can drastically improve their visibility in the App store, thereby gaining an edge over competitors. And with two different solutions offered—basic and advanced—advertisers can implement either simple or complex campaigns, depending on their organization’s goals. 

While Apple Search Ads are a gateway for advertisers to convert more users, users are hyper-aware that companies are trying to glean as much information as they can to track them. Consequently, privacy settings in Apple’s mobile ecosystem are growing ever-more stringent. More and more users are tapping into Limit Ad Tracking (LAT), a simple but sophisticated feature that can be enabled on their mobile devices to prevent data collection by apps and to help maintain privacy rights. Limit Ad Tracking disrupted the advertising space simply by providing users the option to safeguard their personal data. 

iPhone devices now make up approximately 45% of the US smartphone market and users are turning on Limit Ad Tracking (LAT) to feel safer. This means advertisers face new challenges as they launch their App Store search ads to connect with iOS users. 

Share of Apple iPhone users in the U.S. from 2014 to 2021

What Is Limit Ad Tracking (LAT)?

Limit Ad Tracking (LAT) is a feature on Apple’s mobile OS that gives users a choice to opt out of having an ID for Advertisers (IDFA) and can be turned on from a user’s Settings app. When this setting is on, networks are unable to locate an identity associated with a device, and users who seek privacy protection do not receive unwanted targeted ads. While LAT doesn’t completely block ads, it prevents targeting users based on their behavior, and ad tech companies can’t collect as much data as they normally would if the setting is turned off. Rather, tracking is largely limited to contextual data points such as the device’s OS version, the app store subcategory, the version of the app, and so on. 

LAT was the predecessor to App Tracking Transparency, or ATT. Both iterations are Apple’s way of letting users choose to decline personalized ads. Essentially, the opt-out prevents Apple Search Ads from recognizing the user as a returning customer and using their information to serve more relevant ads. While previously referred to as the Limit ad tracking (LAT tracking) feature, Apple’s verbiage of choice is now “personalized ads”. Instead of turning on LAT tracking to prevent personalized ads, users with iOS 14+ can simply turn off the personalized ads feature. Users who choose to guard their privacy with either version of the feature prevent advertisers from targeting them through any aspects of their Apple ID. This includes demographic and search data. 

With so much riding on whether or not a user consents to personalized ads, you might be wondering if the initial ATT prompt is your only chance to acquire ATT consent. Users can turn off the “Allow Apps to Request to Track” option in their privacy settings. If they enable the requests, advertisers have one chance to request ATT permission. If the user denies the native ATT prompt, you don’t get another chance. 

At this point, your only option is to provide information in your app informing users on the benefits of tracking, as well as how to adjust the settings to enable it. 

Why It Matters for Advertisers

As more users enable the LAT feature on their devices, advertisers are being hit with a big challenge. Many users see LAT as a privacy-preserving tool. For advertisers, however, it reduces their ability to reach their target audience. The implications for marketers are not favorable; here are some of the reasons why. 

1. As the mobile marketing era shifts, user information will no longer be automatically collected. Rather, the user will have to provide it voluntarily, either willingly offering their information or denying it. While users feel more secure using the LAT feature, mobile marketers are unable to access as much information as they were able to previously.

2. The App Store may remove an app that uses an iOS ad identifier outside its intended purpose—and understandably so. A user's Limit Ad Tracking settings should be respected. 

3. If user privacy rights are violated, a developer's app risks its reputation, and users are likely to turn to competitors. The LAT feature has created new challenges for mobile marketers, urging them to step up their game or lose a user’s attention. 

4. For opted-out users, lack of attribution makes it harder for advertisers to measure the success of campaigns. 

Impact of LAT on attribution

Prior to iOS 10, companies did not have to honor the user’s LAT request. Apple also previously allowed companies to use permanent device identifiers (called universal device IDs or UDIDs) for frequency capping, attribution, conversion events, estimating the number of unique users, advertising fraud detection, and debugging. Once iOS 10 entered the picture, Apple began showing zeros in place of the user IDFA for those who selected LAT. IDFA stands for “identifier for advertisers” on Apple mobile devices. It’s like a web cookie, but for ad tracking. An IDFA notifies advertisers when an iPhone user takes a certain action on their ads or apps. 

iOS 14 changed the game by only assigning IDFAs to those who explicitly opt into tracking. IDFAs let advertisers know when a user takes an action as a result of an ad. They’re also used for fraud detection. Post-iOS 14, advertisers have to use Apple’s SKANetwork (StoreKit Ad Network) to get attribution data per campaign and marketing channel without device-level data for privacy safety. 

What to do about Apple’s App Tracking Transparency pop-up

After updating to iOS 15, users receive a prompt explaining what personalized ads are, equipped with buttons for the users to turn the feature on or off. Apple’s data on their first-part advertising efforts shows that when prompted, 78% of users opt to turn off the personalized ads feature. The same data revealed that the conversion rate between users with personalized ads on and off are practically identical. Advertisers report a 62.1% conversion rate for customers who opt in and a 62.5% conversion rate for those who opt out. In response to this data, Apple recommends developers target users with the feature disabled as they are far greater in number. Because there are more users with the feature disabled, bidding prices for that audience are lower. 

How does LAT tracking affect campaigns 

Advertisers who choose to target users based on demographic data like age or gender will not reach those who opt out of personalized ads. Those who don’t target using demographic information will automatically advertise to LAT-on users. 

• LAT-on users don’t share identifying information with Apple Search Ads. This includes age, gender, user behavior, etc. If you use these criteria to refine your audience, LAT-on users will be excluded.
• Targeting LAT-on users is not an option. Advertisers can target either LAT-off users or both LAT-on and LAT-off users. Geographic targeting doesn’t exclude LAT-on users. Discovery campaigns can target LAT-on users, but advertisers will get this data at the ad group level rather than the keyword level. 

Benefits of Limit Ad Tracking (LAT) 

Even with the limitations that LAT poses, Apple search ads enable app marketers to reach their target audience on a global scale. Apple search ads are a very effective channel of advertising with very high user intent, and so the ongoing ad-blocking evolution still has advantages for mobile marketers. 

• Limit Ad Tracking leads to a higher conversion rate. In fact, there is a 50% average conversion rate for search ads. 

• Limit Ad Tracking improves cost per taps and cost per download.

Challenges/Drawbacks of Limit Ad Tracking (LAT)

Although there are many advantages to LAT, there are some obvious downsides. Without IDFA, behavioral targeting becomes impossible, leaving advertisers to depend on contextual targeting criteria. As a result of IDFA opt-in rates ranging from 4–13%, many organizations are seeking solutions that can provide accurate analytics, reporting, and attribution. 

Worldwide Daily Opt-in Rates

For mobile marketers, tracking for LAT-on users is extremely limiting because a user’s data is off-limits unless they provide consent via App Tracking Transparency (ATT). Apple Search Ads ad groups with specific targeting (either age or gender-based) will be unable to reach users who have enabled LAT. Without a way to track LAT-on users, mobile marketers risk missing a quarter of the potential traffic. 

As a result, by only being able to obtain install data from LAT-off users, mobile marketers suffer from data discrepancies that lead to an incomplete picture with a lower number of attributed conversions. Furthermore, turning on LAT can negatively affect the functionality of certain apps by disrupting advertisers’ ability to track revenue and other post-install metrics.

How advertisers can adapt

Possibly the biggest step advertisers can take to adapt as privacy preservation becomes more prevalent is to transition advertising measurement away from deterministic, user-centric models and instead use a holistic model that incorporates variations in ad spend and revenue to attribute efficiency to channel-specific ad campaigns. 

Essentially, privacy preservation and ATT aren’t going anywhere. Workarounds are possible, however they are temporary. Eliminating the need to use extremely targeted ads simplifies the process of reaching target customers. 

How MarinOne can help

MarinOne can help your organization optimize your app campaigns to improve performance and gain efficiencies. So even with the limitations of LAT, you can drive mobile revenue as well as app installations by using MarinOne to get the most out of your Apple Search Ads campaigns. Learn how MarinOne’s Apple Search Ads integration supercharges already powerful Apple Search Ads campaigns.

If you’d like to learn more about how you can use cutting-edge software to reach your customers more effectively, contact us. We’ll be happy to schedule a no-strings-attached demo of our solution for you today. 

Conversion rate is a crucial metric for digital marketers. It indicates how well your ads are working—since conversions are the main reason you're running ads in the first place. If your conversion rate is low, your advertising dollars are going to waste. But if it's high, you'll have much more money to spend on other marketing campaigns, like PPC. If you're running display ads and not seeing the results you want, it might be time to tweak your strategy. So, what exactly can you do to increase your digital ads’ conversion rates? 

In this article, we'll walk you through eight tips to help boost conversions so you can reach a larger audience and increase sales. Remember, there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to conversion optimization, but following these tips will help get you started on the right path!

What is conversion rate and why is it important?

Conversion rate is a tricky concept. It's not as simple as measuring how many customers you get out of each ad. Instead, it's a measure of how many people who see your advertisement actually do what you want them to do, like download an ebook or make a purchase.

By increasing your conversion rate, you can make the most of your digital marketing budget and maximize your return on your investment. 

A high conversion rate is a result of:

• A streamlined and appealing sales funnel
• A well-designed website that is formatted effectively
• A unique and compelling brand and proposition
• An effective call-to-action

A low conversion rate means your website’s performance or design may be lacking.  This could be as a result of slow loading pages, forms that are broken, or content that doesn’t accurately convey the offer’s value. 

Through conversion rate optimization (CRO), you can allocate your PPC budget more efficiently and persuade prospects to take action. 

How to calculate your conversion rate

To calculate conversion rate, divide the total number of conversions by how many visitors clicked on your ad. To get the percentage, multiply that result by 100.

Leads Generated ÷ Website Traffic x 100 = Conversion Rate % 

This formula can be used for every conversion opportunity on your site. Count only the number of visitors on the web pages where the offer is listed. 

8 tips for improving conversions

Identify your conversion goals

To optimize your conversion rates, create a robust conversion optimization plan. Consider what your prospective customers really want from you so you can make the conversion path as smooth as possible. Conversion goals help you optimize your advertising objectives more easily. With defined goals, you can also measure your marketing performance and set benchmarks for improvement. Clear objectives will lead to more successful campaigns. 

Make sure your landing page copy is clear and concise

There are a few ways to make your content more accessible and clear to readers:

• Your landing page copy must be short, simple, and easy to understand. 
• The tone should be conversational so it makes a natural connection between you and the reader, rather than sounding like an overly formal marketing pitch. 
• If possible, use bullet points to highlight key benefits that would appeal to the specific type of customer who is visiting this page. 
• Separate long lists into multiple sections so they don’t create readability issues when viewed all at once.

Create a sense of urgency to get customers to act now

“Accelerators” offer the extra push users sometimes need to convert. To increase conversions on short-lived deals and offers, use copy that provokes a sense of urgency such as “Limited time only,” “Last chance,” or “While supplies last.” As part of your ad creative, add direct call-to-action buttons to increase conversions. Offer limited-time discounts or free shipping for orders placed in the next 24 hours with no coupon code needed! This will help drive traffic and increase sales, especially for those final hours before major holidays. 

Add an interactive element like an online chat window or live demo for more engagement opportunities

By engaging customers with a live chat capability, you can increase both customer satisfaction and conversion rates. Live chat tools are perfect for consumers who are on the fence. This is one of the best ways to respond quickly when a customer has a question about your product or service, which can lead to increased sales. 

Offer content upgrades that are relevant to people who have already converted

If someone has bought a product, they might be interested in learning more about the topic or how to get even more value from the purchase. If someone has signed up for your email newsletter, they're probably interested in staying up-to-date on new products and promotions. Content upgrades can include: 

• More information on the same topic
• A free trial of a paid service
• A coupon code for a discount on future purchases
• A digital download

Use social proof such as testimonials from other satisfied customers

Social proof is a powerful persuasion tool that we've all seen in action—and reviews are one of the most instrumental forms:  89% of consumers read reviews before making a purchase. Social proof builds trust and when your customers have established trust in your brand, they’re more likely to convert. Here are some tips:

• Build  a strong online presence 
• Incorporate social proof into your digital ads by including links to where others have left reviews
• Include testimonials from happy customers 

Reading reviews and testimonials puts consumers at ease. If it’s not apparent that your customers have faith in your product or enjoyed using it, your conversion rate will likely suffer. 

Create a FAQ page so customers can find answers quickly and easily

Include a search button on each landing page where a customer can type in their question or issue so a link to the answer appears at the top of the page for them. Next, make sure you include links to the FAQ page from both your homepage and contact page, or wherever else is relevant. This ensures that anyone who uses Google to research your business before clicking on one of your ads will be able to find this valuable resource immediately after landing on one of these pages. 

Surround buttons with lots of negative space

When your button stands out from its background, it becomes more obvious and easier for users to spot when they're scrolling through pages of content or shopping carts filled with products. This means that more people are likely to click on the button than if it was surrounded by other things like photos and logos, which can make buttons less visually prominent or harder to see.

Get started improving your conversion rate today

There's no doubt that digital advertising is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. In fact, display ad spending is projected to increase by 20.9% in 2022 alone. So if you're looking for a new way to increase conversions and improve your bottom line, MarinOne can help. 

Knowing how to improve the conversion rate of your digital ads is critically important to the growth and development of your business. With MarinOne, you can create, manage, and measure your digital ads so you can gain insights into what's working and what's not, allowing you to make adjustments that improve your results. MarionOne’s automation tool enables you to track ad metrics and conversions automatically. 

Learn more about MarinOne’s ad automation tools. Or reach out to one of our MarinOne experts today to schedule a demo.

Advertising is more of an art than a science, and digital marketing is certainly no exception. In the last decade, a lot has changed in the world of online marketing, and the field will continue to adapt along with the quickly evolving technology landscape and ever-shifting consumer trends. In this article, we’ll take a look at how it all began, how it has evolved, and where it's headed next. 

The evolution of digital marketing

Let’s first take a look at how digital marketing has developed over the years by looking at some major milestones in its history.

The late 1990s: The rise of the internet

Digital marketing made a strong start in the 1990s due to the rising popularity of personal computers. Between 1994 and 1996, the number of people using the internet jumped from 25 million to a whopping 77 million. Why? Well, when the World Wide Web launched in 1989 and the first popular browser, Netscape, arrived on the scene, it caused an explosion of new users. From then on, the digital landscape began to grow exponentially as more and more browsers and search engines popped up, including many of the most popular search engines we know and still use today. 

Early 2000s: The social media revolution

The invention of the World Wide Web created a collaborative space for sharing information, leading to a social media revolution. You may or may not remember MySpace, but it was the first truly popular platform of its kind, and it set the trend for all the others to follow. After its release in 2003, Facebook made its grand entrance. As a social media leader, it quickly became an outlet for businesses to reach global audiences. Brands began to realize the immense opportunities that could be achieved through tweets, posts, videos, emails, blogs, PPC advertising, and more—and this opened the door for digital marketing to expand. 

By 2011, TV viewership began to decline for the very first time in history, and marketers were taking note of the transition. With this shift came the introduction of “cookies.” If you’re not already familiar with them, cookies are small pieces of code that are useful for tracking user behavior and content retargeting. Advertisers took advantage of tracking techniques, giving attention to browsing habits and usage patterns so they could fine-tune their campaigns and other marketing efforts. 

The emergence of the internet and the rise of search engines also created an ideal space for what came to be known as native advertising. Using native advertising, marketers can promote content more effectively and connect with target customers through search ads. 

Mid 2000s: Mobile devices surpass desktop internet usage 

When iPhones became available around 2007, they completely changed how we access the web. As the world quickly invested in the many glories of smartphones, mobile usage served as a major motivation for brands to undertake search engine optimization. By 2014, mobile device usage crossed a key threshold and predictive analytics started to gain some traction. 

In 2016, marketing automation went into effect and marketers started to build more personalized and efficient campaigns. When Facebook and Google prevailed as the two most recognized leaders of the internet in 2017, influencer marketing skyrocketed—and advertisers took the opportunity to grow their audiences. Paid advertising was no longer considered a supplementary strategy for marketers. 

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2018 and beyond: content popularity surges

When 2018 rolled around, marketers continued to improve their SEO efforts, realizing that long-form content was another strategy they could use to increase session durations. But SEO wouldn’t be the only strategy on the minds of advertisers. By 2019, marketers were dealing with an entirely new frontier: the quickly growing landscape of video platforms. By this time it was clear to advertisers that if they wanted to succeed, they would have to prioritize content creation as part of their marketing strategy — be it short-form or long-form text content, or videos. 

However, the digital marketing landscape changed once again in 2020 when the pandemic hit and there were restrictions on many daily activities. Digital marketers were forced to keep up with skyrocketing social media use, new purchasing behaviors, and changing consumer behavior patterns. Consumer expectations skyrocketed and marketers had to shift their strategies to create more digital experiences. Marketers realized to adapt they would need to focus on customer values and experiences while placing a stronger emphasis on relationships than ever before. While online strategies are nothing new to the marketing world, COVID-19 initiated a stay-at-home virtual age that couldn’t be ignored. Since then, marketers have needed to focus on online strategies more than ever as a channel for reaching their existing and potential target audiences in order to remain competitive. 

The future of digital marketing

As it has done in the past, digital marketing will continue evolving and developing every year. So what can you expect for digital marketing next? Current trends forecast that AI, automation, and machine learning technologies will likely become more pervasive. Influencer marketing will continue to grow and voice search and chat bots will soar in popularity. Interactive marketing content will pop up more, and you can also expect to see digital marketing become algorithm-driven. 

While it’s impossible to say with complete certainty where the ever-changing digital marketing landscape is headed in the future, it’s exciting to see where it will go next. 

How to stay in the loop

Digital marketing has come a long way in its development. However, the digital market industry is continuously evolving and digital marketers must keep up with the rapid acceleration of changes. They must be able to identify emerging trends as well as the creation of newer and more intelligent search engine algorithms.

To help you keep up with trends and make the most of your digital advertising campaigns, MarinOne gives you full visibility into your campaigns while continuously integrating the latest developments in digital marketing.

MarinOne can help you elevate and scale your paid search, social, and ecommerce advertising by helping you automate your campaigns. To see how contact one of our experts today and schedule a personalized demo.

In case you missed it, Amazon announced a second Prime Day this week! The “Prime Early Access Sale” happens October 11 at 12 a.m. PDT and runs through October 12 in 15 countries: Austria, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the UK, and the U.S.

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Amazon is also introducing a Top 100 list with deals dropping on ASIN’s throughout the event across categories including electronics, fashion, home, kitchen, pets, toys, and Amazon devices. Of course Amazon will release their annual Holiday gift guides and Amazon’s Toys We Love list as well. 

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Prime Day in July was Amazon’s most successful to date with 300 million items purchased and $11.9 billion in sales, an 8.5% increase over 2021. But ecommerce is slowing as inflation continues to increase and shoppers become more wary of stagflation or a looming recession in the not so distant future. 

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So needless to say you do not want to miss out on a second opportunity to get your products in front of eager consumers just before the holiday shopping season starts! Check out Amazon’s Prime Day guide here, and for detailed info on how to maximize sales during the entire holiday season, Marin’s got you covered with our Amazon 2022 Holiday Playbook. 

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Happy Selling!

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Content marketing is buyer-centric. It’s measurable, compounding, and scalable. In fact, it typically performs more reliably than other tactics, which makes it one of the best foundations to build marketing success. Creating unique, consistent, and valuable B2B content is simply the best way to connect with your audience. In this article, we’ll explore what B2B content marketing is, why it’s important, how to build a strategy, and how you can use it to grow your business. 

What is B2B content marketing?

Business-to-business (B2B) content marketing is the practice of producing and distributing content methodically to increase brand awareness, improve traffic, generate leads, and boost sales. It’s the process of using content to grow your audience, strengthen brand affinity, and ultimately improve your bottom line. Traditional forms of B2B content marketing include blogs, podcasts, email newsletters, and infographics. 

Why do B2B companies need content marketing?

Builds brand awareness

Content marketing directly influences your organic traffic. When traffic is flowing, you’re building awareness for your brand. Done right, content marketing can help 

• Improve customer retention rates 
• Boost organic ranking of your site 
• Help you create brand partnerships, and 
• Attract more followers on social media. 

Creates better engagement rates 

Simply focusing on content creation isn’t enough to create an effective B2B strategy. Marketers must also take notice of leading metrics like engagement rates, clicks, and bounce rate. When content is tailored to suit their interests, audiences will continue to consume it. If content is geared towards a buyer’s tendencies and intent, it will also improve overall engagement as well as conversion rates. 

Affordable, cost-effective, and supports long-term growth

A good SEO strategy coupled with high-quality content produces long-lasting results that compound over time. Once content is generated, it has great potential to drive organic traffic to your site—without you having to compete for top spot ads. 

Although upfront costs for content marketing may initially seem high, it is considered to be more cost-effective than other traditional forms of marketing, paid advertising, and video marketing. 

Additionally, the content you create can be frequently updated and repurposed, costing you a fraction of the price it took to make it. In the long term, the more you use your content, the cheaper it will become. 

High ROI

According to Statista, 30% of marketers believe content has the highest ROI of any channel. Marketers commonly try to amalgamate content’s strategic and financial value into a single metric: campaign ROI, or the success of a single campaign. When measuring the value of your content, be sure you stay focused on the challenge you are trying to solve. Content assets can be employed in numerous ways and can simultaneously be used across multiple platforms. It can also be used for video purposes, on your website, as a transcript for a blog, and so on. 

How to build a successful B2B content strategy

Every B2B content marketing strategy is unique. However, to create a successful roadmap, you need goals and understanding of your company's long-term objectives. Don’t let the idea of a content strategy be too daunting. It’s actually not very complicated and once you understand what it takes to plan one, you can start creating content that can drive success in your business.

Understand your audience

When you know your audience well, you’ll find it a lot easier to create the right content for them. Even if you have a large audience, explore your Google Analytics data on a granular level. By doing so, you can learn a great deal about your site’s visitors such as gender, age, location, and what topics interest them the most. Once you have more insight into your audience, you can expand content into new relevant subject areas. 

Map the customer journey

When you have a good understanding of your audience, review the customer journey. This can be complex, as they probably went through multiple touchpoints. However, it will help you discover which kinds of content are most effective at leading prospects down the sales funnel. When you have a good idea of where a prospect is in the customer journey, you can adjust your content to keep them interested.

Set yourself apart from competitors

Determine who your biggest competitors are and what kind of content they’re producing. To distinguish your company, aim to deliver content in engaging ways that your competitors can’t.  Present content that highlights the unique value of your business and services. If they have specific content that is performing well, you can use an AI writing solution like Quicktools to quickly generate copy that is similar to the competitors' content, yet unique and approachable enough to give you a better chance of attracting ideal customers. Unique and approachable messaging will give you a better chance of attracting ideal customers. 

Measure leads and micro-metrics

Data can provide a lot of information, allowing you to measure what’s working and what’s not. To advance your B2B content, you must take analytics seriously. Some metrics that are worth measuring include: 

• Current statistics such as total views, conversions, and shares of posts
• Benchmarks and trends
• High-performing content

Once you understand how your content is performing, you can adjust your strategy accordingly. If there is specific content that gets better than average conversion rates, promote it via sponsored content or paid social ads. 

Common mistakes content marketers make 

Content marketing pitfalls can often be prevented with careful planning. With the market so crowded, there’s little room for error and missed opportunities. Marketers need to focus on getting it right as they are limited by a finite number of potential customers. Common mistakes include:

Not taking advantage of user-generated content 

When user-generated material goes ignored, marketers miss out on a major opportunity to build a solid foundation of trust with consumers. To ensure content reaches their audience with a greater impact, marketers can include reviews and testimonials where appropriate, and even outsource content creation to users. This saves time and resources.  

Not having a content approval process 

A review and editing process is vital to ensure high-quality content that is relevant and engaging. It is also wise for marketers to create a content review and approval checklist. Alternatively, using a content management platform can help mainstream the process, making it easy to create, approve, and publish your content. 

Not promoting content enough

Promoting content is key to extending your reach to relevant audiences. Include new content in your emails and social media posts to drive more traffic to your content pieces and help nurture potential prospects. Keep in mind that producing content is only as effective as the efforts you make to advertise it. Native ads, display ads, and paid social are also great tactics for distributing articles or whitepapers as far reaching as possible. It no one reads the content then it doesn't matter how much you have or how good it is…which is why content creation is just as important as content promotion. 

10 quick tips and tactics for effective content marketing

1. Use personalized nurture journeys
2. Engage employees in active audience building
3. Create content for ALL search engines
4. Make sure your case studies aren’t too formal or stuffy
5. Use “smart” popups
6. Maximize digital PR to extend promotions and reach
7. Use content snippets to make product education more digestible
8. Segment your retargeting audience
9. Promote your high-converting blog posts
10. Partner with brands and influencers in your industry

MarinOne can help you supercharge your content

As a B2B company, MarinOne is well versed in what it takes to reach the right audiences with the right messages. Through our cross-channel approach, your campaigns will persuade and convert like never before. 

Business to Business advertisers gain a competitive advantage by identifying and analyzing the right data and integrating insights from that data to help campaigns perform. With MarinOne, you can easily optimize your content and automate key workflows using first-party data.  

Get in touch with one of MarinOne’s experts today to see how we can help you with your marketing needs.

It’s hard to keep up with what’s new in the world of marketing with so many new strategies emerging every day. A decade ago, marketers focused on creating catchy ads and putting them in the right places at the right time. However, a lot of things have changed since then. For one thing, effective marketing now requires businesses to implement a more holistic approach. 

With more competition than ever before, simply creating an ad won’t yield the best results. In this day and age, customers are more in control and are more discerning. You must understand your buyer, learn what they want, and develop a strategy to meet their needs. One of the best ways to do that? Precision marketing. 

Read on to learn about precision marketing and gain meaningful insights and advice from one of our very own MarinOne digital advertising experts, Anu Adegbola, on how to create an effective strategy that will get your brand noticed and help you win your customers’ loyalty. 

What is precision marketing?

Precision marketing uses data and relationship-building to precisely target a brand’s customers. The technique involves nurturing relationships—specifically, prioritizing existing customers over new ones and connecting with them in a more relevant way. It’s about customer retention, upselling, and cross-selling. Using precision marketing, marketers rely heavily on market segmentation to analyze shopper habits, behaviors, and other patterns to help increase the success of their marketing efforts while providing a better and more intelligent customer experience. 

Why precision marketing is important

Marketing needs to be agile

The internet has made it easy for customers to respond to marketing campaigns and ads in real time. If you want to stay ahead of your competition, you need to be prepared to adapt quickly. 

Marketing is more complex than it used to be

To thoroughly understand your customer base, you need more than just demographic information. While it’s helpful to know the basics of where and who your customers are, it’s just as critical to know what’s important to them, how they communicate with one another, and more. When you have accurate data, you’ll be able to create messaging that resonates with your key audiences. 

Customers have high expectations

Customers expect their user experience to be frictionless. In this new digital age, they want what they want, when they want it. To ensure customer satisfaction it is critical to stay up-to-date with the latest marketing trends. If you don’t, your customers may look elsewhere, seeking out your competitors instead. 

Connections matter

Marketing is no longer about copy that sells. While engaging ads are still very important, success now requires social insight along with an understanding of psychology. When you understand why customers are making their purchase decisions, you can develop a more tailored marketing strategy. 

5 tips for an effective precision marketing strategy

Implementing an effective precision marketing strategy that produces results requires following a careful and comprehensive plan.

Engage with your customers

When promoting your product, don’t forget that commitment to your customer comes first, and their purchase comes second. Developing real relationships will help foster more brand loyalty along the way. 

“If all you’re focusing on is getting clicks, you’re not going to get the return you’re looking for. It’s not all about volume—it’s about the right volume. You need to make sure you’re showing things to the right audience,” says MarinOne marketing expert, Anu Adegbola. “Those who have focused on just the data and not building a relationship with their clients won’t succeed because they don’t have the whole picture.” 

Have a strong online presence 

Besides having had a profound effect on marketing, social media has proven to be an essential part of a successful marketing strategy. Old marketing strategies like live events and cold calls may have worked in the past, but not now. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social media platforms give you a way to connect with customers more personally. 

Anu’s advice: “If you’re going to have a presence on a social platform, you need to do it well. Test the various platforms to see what’s working for your brand or company—if it’s not working for you, move on and find what does. Make sure you’re on the appropriate platform for your brand and your customers. If you’re in the wrong space, you may get a negative reaction.”

Offer real value to repeat customers

Customers respond well to brands that cater to their needs and consistently offer them real value. “It’s not just about targeting the single purchases, but it’s about building repeat customers,” Anu explains. Make lifecycle marketing an integral part of your precision marketing strategy by creating interesting and dynamic content that brings your precisely targeted customers back to your brand again and again. Personalized offers that relate to past products they've bought, birthdays, or unique interests are all great ways to get repeat purchases from the same customer over time. 

Be authentic

Customers appreciate authenticity. Understand where your brand sits in the market and what makes it unique. To be effective, know your brand values and make sure you represent those values through your marketing efforts. It also helps to have an approachable brand voice–test out multiple variants of landing page or ad copy when running a targeted campaign. Most likely the assets that will perform the best will be the most simple to comprehend; making things too complex increases the likelihood that you'll lose interest by those unfamiliar with your brand.

Create a desirable customer experience

Customers today live in a digital world with unlimited options. Give them a compelling reason to work with you. By delivering an exceptional customer experience, you can win their trust and expect that they will keep coming back. 

“You need to make things easy for the customer,” suggests Anu. “For example, if the return process is easy, they’ll come back to shop again, and hopefully buy something even more expensive the next time they shop with you.”

5 keys for success in brand loyalty

Here are some of the best ways to get in front of your customers and build their loyalty. 

Maintain a strong brand

Customers naturally gravitate towards brands they’re familiar with and can trust. Aim to align your brand with your values, mission, and your customers’ expectations.

Understand your audience’s habits

Use precision marketing to gain accurate insight into your audience’s behaviors. When used effectively, audience data can help you create content that is engaging and relevant. 

Stick to your goals

Setting realistic goals will make it easier for you to track the success of your marketing efforts. By measuring what’s working and what’s not, you can adjust your goals accordingly. Consider evaluating click through rates, the number of email newsletter subscribers, how effective CTAs are working, as well as ups and downs in website traffic. 

Make retention a priority

While it's good to attract new customers, it’s far more cost effective to focus on retaining your existing ones. The goal is to have people keep coming back. To drive more conversions, focus on creating personalized experiences and deals that your existing customers will find appealing. Segment your audiences, collect data about each audience group and their behavior, and you’re sure to be on your way to higher retention rates. 

Stay on top of trends

You may already be aware that marketing trends change frequently. Staying on top of trends—even if they come and go—gives you a competitive advantage and helps you maintain a close connection with customers. When a new trend pops up, assess whether it will be effective for your brand. To make sure you're in the loop, read current blogs and listen to your customers so you can meet their needs. 

Use MarinOne to boost your precision marketing efforts

The marketing industry is constantly evolving and it will continue to do so in the years to come. To remain responsive, marketers must use precision marketing to build solid relationships with their existing customers and attract the right audiences for new potential customers. 

MarinOne can help you streamline and amplify your precision marketing campaigns using the latest analytics and automation tools. We can also provide tactical and strategic advice, guide you on what strategies will work best for your specific needs, and much more. Learn more about MarinOne today. 

‍Get in touch with one of our experts to see how we can help you get the information and tools you need to increase the effectiveness of your precision marketing campaigns.

It’s no secret that the social advertising ecosystem (and the rest of the world) looks much different than it did just a few years ago. We know that many advertisers are searching for direction as they learn to navigate the constantly evolving landscape. 

Explaining the Ad Auction and Delivery System

Understanding how the Facebook ad auction works is the first step to adaptation. The ad auction formula consists of components that advertisers can leverage to increase their ad performance in the auction. The formula itself is a linear relationship between all components, making it easier to understand and predict how each variable will affect outcomes.

The Ad Auction

When advertisers create ads, they tell us who they want to show their ads to by defining a target audience. A person can fall into multiple target audiences. For example, one advertiser targets women who like skiing, while another advertiser targets all skiers who live in California. The same person (in this case, a female skier who lives in California) could fall into the target audience of both advertisers. When there's an opportunity to show someone an ad, the ads with a target audience that the person belongs to are eligible to compete in the auction.

To ensure that the winning ad maximizes value for both people and businesses, the winner of the auction is the ad with the highest total value. The total value is a combination of 3 major factors connected by the formula below:

• Bid: The bid placed by an advertiser for that ad (in other words, what the advertiser is willing to pay to achieve their desired outcome).
• Estimated action rates: An estimate of whether a particular person engages with or converts from a particular ad (in other words, the probability that showing an ad to a person leads to that desired outcome of the advertiser).
• Ad quality: A measure of the quality of an ad as determined from many sources including feedback from people viewing or hiding the ad and and assessments of low-quality attributes in the ad, such as withholding information, sensationalized language and engagement bait.

Together, estimated action rates and ad quality measure ad relevance. Because these are components of the auction, an ad that’s more relevant to a person could win an auction against ads with higher bids.

The Ad Delivery System

Because the ad auction and ad delivery system behave like a supply-and-demand system, there are seasonal fluctuations and ecosystem changes that will affect the outcomes and costs of ad performance. There are two main causes of CPM fluctuations you may have experienced before:

• Seasonal and Economic events:  The impact of seasonal and economic events on advertiser cost can be represented by supply and demand. Supply and demand typically have an inverse relationship, but multiple simultaneous forces on supply and demand can create different outcomes. Considering the impacts of seasonality and economic events in terms of supply and demand can help advertisers predict how this will translate into the ad auction. The examples provided by Meta below illustrate the expected impact of different macroeconomic variables and seasonality on the ad delivery system.

A positive economic event illustrates the typical inverse relationship between supply and demand. When supply (usership and user behavior) remains constant but we see advertisers competing for user attention by raising budgets, this leads to a flat level of impressions and thereby a higher cost per impression (impacting CPMs).

A relatable example of seasonality for advertisers is the holiday season. During this time, we see both supply and demand move as users are more actively searching for gifts to purchase, while advertisers are also spending more to capture this increased intent. In this example, purchases are likely to increase while CPAs remain constant.

A negative economic event in this example moves both the supply and demand curves. If users are spending more time on Facebook, the supply rises. But concerned advertisers also typically pull back spend during a negative economic event, pushing down demand. This resulted in increased impressions at a lower cost per impression, and subsequently lower CPM.

• Effects on reporting due to user adoption of iOS tracking updates: With iOS 14.5+ adoption ramping up since July 2021, there has been an impact on advertising delivery and reporting, and performance fluctuations. While these effects have been widely felt, it’s important to recognize that these known reporting gaps do not mean our platform is not driving real business value for advertisers, or that your campaigns are not resulting in a purchase or major event. These changes just make it harder for us to measure the outcome. After extensive internal analysis, we’re able to publicly share that we now estimate - in aggregate - that we are currently underreporting iOS web conversions by approximately 8%, which is down from the 15% estimate we reported last September.

In part two of our collaboration, we’ll apply these concepts to strategies advertisers can use to structure for scale. Visit Meta for Business, for more information on the ad auction and delivery system. 

We all have a fundamental need to belong. In fact, this is not unique to humanity; some animals only survive or thrive in groups as well. The foundation of a community is built upon support from acquaintances or family, as well as shared interests or backgrounds. Churches, schools, clubs, neighborhoods are some of the primary ways people get a sense of community or togetherness. Brands can create a community using the same methodology: a group of people that are all passionate or interested in a central topic.

Why Should Community Marketing be Important to Brands?

Community marketing's primary objective is to help companies engage with members of their target audience through their products, creating an engaged and long-term audience of customers. A key component to true lifecycle marketing, creating an active brand community can keep the same customers coming back to your brand again and again. It is a pillar of brand loyalty. 

Community marketing leverages the power of social media or other online platforms to build meaningful relationships with consumers. Many consumers want to get the "brand perspective" on various topics they are interested in, and this can impact how the community members interact. Many companies underestimate the influence they may have to start meaningful conversations online. Fitness, beauty, and lifestyle brands often do this quite well as consumers of these products are addressing needs that are quite personal, like their appearance or health, and they crave a safe space to discuss those needs. Organizations doing community marketing well are hosting and owning that safe space for discussion.

What Goes Into a Successful Community Marketing Plan?

There are a few crucial aspects to establishing a healthy community marketing strategy. One component of this involves creating messaging that focuses on everything your target consumers love doing. Look at the broader universe surrounding your product and the problems it solves. 

Savage X Fenty did this successfully when they set out to have a unique discussion around body positivity and inclusivity in the lingerie space. Their approach in setting up email lists, and Facebook groups, and community boards, all added to that sense of togetherness where many people of different backgrounds could connect on feeling "on the outside" with other lingerie companies marketing tactics. The result of this harmonious messaging resulted in incredible growth for the brand. Making your company mission about more than just a set of products brings customers or prospective customers together, getting them psyched about what they already have a genuine interest in.

Advantages of Initiating and Running a Brand Community 

If you still have doubts about using community marketing for your business, here are some benefits that might help you make up your mind.

• Improved customer experience for your prospects. By constantly interacting with the community, you get first-hand information about customer satisfaction. In turn, you can use this info to upgrade your products to suit their needs.
• Increased customer retention and brand growth. An effective program seeks to build loyalty in customers who buy from your brand severally. The goal of every business is to achieve loyal relationships with their customers.
• Instead of monitoring your brand reputation like an eagle overlooking an expansive landscape, with community marketing you're more like a deer living within the environment, overhearing what is being said and interacting with the other creatures in your brand forest. Your company becomes an integral part of the conversation. The opportunity to answer questions, redirect customers, and have ownership over public opinion in this way, especially if there are any questions being thrown your way from a PR standpoint, is invaluable.
• New members of the community easily become your customers. Although a larger following does not always translate to more significant sales, you get new customers from the brand awareness that comes through your existing customers interacting and enjoying the community. 
• The business grows organically. Thriving communities have people willing to share their good experiences with the world. These advocates can result in tremendous growth, and this kind of engagement becomes a great funnel and natural segue into ambassador, influencer, or affiliate marketing strategies.
• Customers can feel the product's authenticity. We all know that advertising can sometimes be a bit fabricated. Community branding brings out honesty and transparency, resulting in an authentic feel to your product and brand.

Misconceptions Surrounding Community Marketing

Even with many benefits to businesses that use community marketing, the lack of clarity in some areas has led to misconceptions surrounding it. Let's look at a few that are the most common.

1. An extensive community is always the best.
2. Communities can only spring up naturally.
3. A product can only have a single community branding.
4. All the members should be customers.

Best Ways to Start and Run Community Marketing

If you are starting or want to better your strategy, brace yourself and put your best foot forward. You do not want your audience feeling too much pressure, coercion, or any form of spam. Here are some tips to get you started without coming across too "salesy."

• Interact with the members of the community on general topics surrounding your industry. Start with an internal brainstorm session to have a full list of ideas that you can refer back to whenever in doubt. Remember too that you're facilitating conversations, not lecturing. No need to stand on a pulpit and declare things–ask questions and let the community bring their ideas to you. The community will tell you what they care about and want to discuss.
• Exercise your expertise in the specific field. If you strike your followers as an expert, people will start coming at you with questions and seeking clarification. Seek more knowledge in the niche and focus on helping your audience build their expertise. Positioning multiple employees as thought leaders and including them in the engagement process also builds authority for your company and humanizes the interactions that take place.
• Be reachable. Group participation alone is not enough. Show up regularly, respond to direct messages, and avoid ignoring reactions. After all, you want followers to see your brand as authentic and human.
• Be consistent. If it has been a while since you created a community and no one has shown up yet, or you can only hear cricket noises, don't lose hope. Keep sharing, and in time, the audience will gain confidence in your products and their ability to contribute in a meaningful way.
• Engage with the audience. This is the surefire way to quickly learn what your community values and what they appreciate, between plain posts and videos. If you can also do a poll, that would come in handy. Sometimes simply liking, commenting, or tagging community members is enough to make people feel they are important to the company.

Conclusion 

Community marketing contributes significantly to accelerated growth and a positive brand reputation. Incorporating this channel as a tactic can help keep company goals in line with the audience's wants. Identify the best platform for building your community based on where you believe your existing target market spends their time online.

Once your organic social media strategy is inline, MarinOne can assist in continuing to drive brand awareness, revenue growth, and holistic omnichannel analysis. Our tool provides an all-in-one place to see how all your campaigns are performing against each other, and how organic channels are assisting paid channels. Speak to our marketing team of experts today to learn more about cross-channel paid media management.

‍Online grocery delivery has grown exponentially since the start of the pandemic and retailers are fighting to secure their place in the online shopping world. Retail advertisers are eager to get in front of hungry customers at the moment of purchase and have discovered that Instacart is one of the best ways to do that. 

Since 2020, Instacart has experienced a 500% increase in order volume. To keep up with this escalating traffic volume and successfully reach customers, advertisers are quickly realizing that they need to spruce up their e-grocery advertising campaigns. 

In this guide, we’ll explain the basics of Instacart advertising and explore Instacart ad inventory and the different ad types to help you find out which is right for you. We’ll also look at various campaign structures and keyword strategies, your bidding options, and some advanced tactics for optimization. 

How To Determine If Instacart Advertising is Right for Your Brand

Instacart advertising is the perfect way to extend your brand’s presence into the digital world of e-grocery shopping. 

Instacart is designed to give shoppers what they want, when they want it. They can do so because they leverage a huge number of brick-and-mortar retailers. Instacart’s ability to help advertisers maximize brand reach and consumer awareness makes it a suitable option for brands of all sizes. 

With brands reporting very good ROAS, the platform’s advertising is destined to become even more crowded than it already is. Research shows that more than 45,000 stores participate on Instacart. 

The Basics of Instacart Advertising

Retailers can create “Featured Product ads” through Instacart’s grocery pick-up and delivery services. The purpose of the ads is to reach prospective buyers on Instacart who are using specific keywords while browsing. Featured Product ads are typically displayed in areas of high visibility across the platform and can appear in two different categories: Search or Non-Search Ads. 

• Search Featured Ads or “Self-Serve” Ads

These ads appear in a shopper’s search results and are a powerful tool to help amplify your brand’s visibility. In fact, 40% of all clicks on search results are on the top 1 to 3 products that populate a results page. 

• Non-Search Featured Ads

Unlike Feature Ads, Non-Search Ads pop up in various places on Instacart and are not restricted to specific search keywords. They commonly appear in one of four placements including the home page, your items, item details, or department. 

Campaign Structuring

Keywords and products on Instacart can be grouped in two different ways: 

• Similarly-Priced Products

As its name indicates, this type of campaign structuring refers to grouping products together that fall into a particular price range. 

• Like Products

These are products that share more than 70% of particular keywords. 

Keyword Strategies

Understanding the differences that keywords can make will help you create effective Instacart ad campaigns.

• Category Keywords

These keywords present a large opportunity for Instacart growth. Because Instacart has a low volume of advertisers, Cost Per Clicks will be lower than what you would get on Amazon. If shoppers purchase your item using these keywords, it’s likely that they will make repeat purchases via your item section. 

• Branded Keywords

Typically, branded keywords have the highest ROAS and lowest CPC. However, when using branded keywords, it's wise to allocate only a small portion of your budget to them because you want to ensure that your ad spend remains incremental. 

• Competitor Keywords

“Conquesting” or bidding and winning your competitors' keywords can be a tricky strategy. While your CPC for these keywords is always more than that for category keywords, it can be ineffective and costly, and can also result in low conversion rates. Competitor keywords are best suited for items that are frequently purchased since the lifetime value of a shopper can help offset the initial high cost of the bid. 

Bidding Options

With the platform’s second-price auctioning system, advertisers' Cost Per Click (CPC) will be $0.01 more than the next highest bidder whenever they win an auction. 

• Keyword Override Bids

Specific keywords you want to target can be used when launching your campaign. To make sure you secure the most efficient bid price, you can make always-on optimizations yourself or by using a third-party service. 

• Default CPC Bid

These bids can be used for non-keyword traffic or by Instacart for new keywords that were harvested automatically. 

5 Advanced Tactics for Optimizing Instacart Ads

Instacart has revolutionized the way consumers buy groceries and it’s clear they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. To ensure your campaigns are successful, consider using these suggested tactics:

1. Consistently Update Product Details and Images

It’s crucial to ensure that your product inventory and your UPCs are accurate. Plan carefully and make sure products are in stock—Instacart will not promote products that are not.

2. Separate Campaigns

When setting up your campaigns, apply paid search best practices. Dividing your campaigns by sub-brand or product category will make them easier to manage and optimize. You can also take it one step further and separate them by product type at the Ad Group level.

3. Take Advantage of Your Instacart Ad Team

Instacart’s ad teams provide outstanding customer service to committed customers, with your brand’s success in mind. By joining forces, you can improve your Instacart presence. You can also utilize the platform’s reporting features and deep insights to help you make more informed buying decisions. 

4. Focus on Relevancy

Use keywords that are relevant to your campaign and pay close attention to default keywords that Instacart may have added automatically. Keywords that are indirectly related do not perform as well. 

5. Monitor and Test Frequently

Consistent monitoring is key to a successful campaign. When the campaign begins, gather as much data as you can and prioritize your budget. Run tests so you can see what’s working and what’s not so you can reallocate your budget quickly. 

MarinOne Can Optimize Your Instacart Ads

With advanced automated bidding solutions and our powerful reporting, MarinOne can optimize your Instacart ads. Our platform works seamlessly with Instacart’s platform so your bidding strategies perform at their peak on each retail marketplace. Read about this in more detail here. 

Want to significantly improve the performance of your campaigns? We’ve got you covered. We make it easy by building out campaigns for you automatically, alerting you when there are changes in performance, and proactively identifying opportunities for you so you can achieve top results. To get started, simply connect your Instacart account.

‍Don't have an Instacart account or want to learn more about how we can help? Reach out to us at info@marinsoftware.com and one of our account representatives will be in touch.