Brian Meert's Blog, page 106

4 Easy Ways to Control News Feed Content

September 21, 2018
Anna Hubbel, writer at AdvertiseMint, company for Facebook ads
Thought Catalog / Unsplash

Why am I seeing this? You ask yourself this question when yet another status your aunt posted about her cat Mr. Kibbles appears on your Facebook News Feed. The News Feed algorithm is an enigma to many, especially after Facebook changed it to prioritize friends’ content over content by businesses and publishers. However, the algorithm doesn’t always get it right. Sometimes you don’t want to see any cat videos or depressing news on your feed. In this case, it can be very frustrating because you feel like you have no control over what appears in your feed.

You may be surprised to learn that you do have control over your feed content. Don’t be embarrassed about not knowing this. Many Facebook users don’t know that they can either. According to the Pew Research Center, 28 percent of Facebook users think they have no control over their News Feeds. Only 14 percent believe they do have control. Furthermore, 53 percent of US adult users say they do not understand why certain content appears in their feeds over other content, with 20 percent indicating that they do not understand the News Feed at all.

As you can see, you are not alone. Before learning how to control your feed, you must first have a basic understanding of how Facebook’s algorithm works.

Facebook’s Algorithm

Some users assume that Facebook posts display chronologically. That is not true. Facebook’s algorithm takes into account three specific factors when determining what to prioritize in your feed:

The person who published the post
The type of post
The post’s engagement numbers

First, the algorithm considers the person who published the post and your relationship with that person. If you interact more with posts from certain Facebook friends, the algorithm will interpret that to mean content by those friends is more meaningful to you. For example, you may frequently visit your partner’s profile page, tag your partner in posts, and like or comment on your partner’s posts. Facebook’s algorithm looks at that behavior and determines that posts by your partner are meaningful to you and should therefore be prioritized in your feed.

Second, the algorithm looks at the type of post. If, for example, you frequently like or share how-to craft videos, Facebook will populate your feed with this type of content. Again, it comes down to what the algorithm interprets as meaningful to you.

Last, Facebook considers the post’s engagement numbers when deciding whether to prioritize it in your News Feed. If a post consistently receives a lot of engagement, the algorithm will perceive the post as relevant and high-quality. As a result, Facebook will decide it’s worth showing to you.

Earlier this year, Facebook tweaked its algorithm to ensure the feed will only show meaningful content. The platform announced that it was reducing both business and news content in the feed. As a result, businesses and publishers now have to work harder to make their content relevant and meaningful so they can appear in feeds. If you’re wondering why you see more posts by your friend Jimmy over posts by Huffington Post, it’s because the algorithm prioritizes friends’ posts over those by groups, news pages, and businesses—but you can change that. You can learn how to control what appears on your feed. I’ll show you how to control ads and posts by pages and friends

Pages

If you don’t want to leave it up to Facebook’s algorithm to determine what posts by a certain page appear in your feed, you can control it yourself by visiting the page in question. When you go to the page, locate the “Like” and “Follow” buttons under the page’s cover photo. Assuming that you’ve already chosen to follow the page, click the dropdown for “Following.” Under the “In Your News Feed” heading, you’ll see three options:

See First – Content by this page will appear on top of News Feed
Default – Content by this page follows the algorithm
Unfollow – Posts won’t appear on your feed, but the page will still be part of your liked pages

Choose the option you want and boom—you just controlled how posts by that page appear in your News Feed.

Friends

If you want to change the post frequency of a specific friend, navigate to that friend’s profile page. Under the cover photo, next to the “Friends” button, select the “Following” dropdown. Again, you will see three options:

See First – Content by this friend will appear on top of News Feed
Default – Content by this friend follows the algorithm
Unfollow – Posts won’t appear on your feed, but you will still stay Facebook friends

Posts on Feed

You can also control the appearance of specific posts in your feed. To do this, select the menu at the top right of the post you want to control. There are a few options in the dropdown you can choose from:

Snooze (when a friend shares a post) – Snooze content from the posts’ original source
Hide (when a friend shares a post) – Hide posts from original source
Snooze friend – Temporarily stop seeing posts from a friend for 30 days
Unfollow – Unfollow the friend but still remain Facebook friends

If you want to see fewer posts from a particular person, stop interacting with their posts. If you want to see more posts from a particular person, frequently interact with that person’s posts.

Ads

You can also control what ads appear in your News Feed. To do this, select the menu dropdown at the top-right corner of the ad you want to control. You will see a few options, including “Save link,” “Report ads,” and “Why am I seeing this?” You can also see the following:

Hide ad – See fewer ads that look similar to this ad.

If you want to see fewer ads if a specific type, click “Hide ad.” Say, for example, you hide an ad about motorcycles. Once you do that, you will see fewer motorcycle ads on your feed.

Conclusion

The Facebook algorithm and News Feed are enigmas to most users. Most users don’t know that they can control the content that appears on their feeds. You should never feel like you have to see certain types of content when you’d rather not. Now you know how to control your News Feed content, which will hopefully improve your overall Facebook experience.

Written by Anna Hubbel, writer at AdvertiseMint, company for Facebook ads

The post 4 Easy Ways to Control News Feed Content appeared first on AdvertiseMint.

Instagram Is Testing a Feature That Hides Hashtags

September 21, 2018
Anne Felicitas, editor at AdvertiseMint, Facebook ads company
Hieu An Tran / Unsplash

When it comes to Instagram posts, every element must be absolutely perfect. The image must be clear, crisp, and beautiful. The caption must be succinct, well-written, and relevant to the image. If your post isn’t perfect, it can’t compete against the thousands of accounts whose professionally photographed and photoshopped images stop users mid scroll.

And then you add hashtags.

For many Instagrammers, hashtags are both a blessing and a curse. While they help propel posts to visibility, they also ruin the aesthetics of the content. The big chunks of hashtags not only look garish, but they also inadvertently imply that the account is desperately trying too hard to be discovered.

Instagrammers have devised ways to hide their hashtags by burying them under a series of dots and spaces or adding them in the comments section instead of the caption. Recently, one Twitter user discovered a feature that solves the hashtag dilemma.

The Twitter user, Jane Manchun Wong, posted a screenshot of her unpublished Instagram post. Underneath the locations box where users can tag a location is a section for hashtags. “Instagram is testing the ability to add hashtags to posts without including it in the post caption,” Wong said in her Twitter post.

Jane Manchun Wong shares a screenshot of the new Instagram feature

No one knows for certain how the new hashtag box works. No one knows whether Instagram will penalize posts with spam hashtags once the feature rolls out and no one knows the number of hashtags users can include per post. However, Wong did say that “there doesn’t seem to be a limit to the number of hashtags per post for now.”

For many avid Instagram users, this feature is long overdue. If officially rolled out, users will no longer have to go to great lengths to hide their hashtags. Most important, they will no longer have to compromise aesthetics for visibility.

Written by Anne Felicitas, editor at AdvertiseMint, Facebook ads company

The post Instagram Is Testing a Feature That Hides Hashtags appeared first on AdvertiseMint.

New to Google: Video Showcase Shopping Ads and Shoppable Images

September 20, 2018
Anna Hubbel, writer at AdvertiseMint, Facebook advertising agency

It’s officially fall, and Google’s ready to help you conquer the holiday season. The company is introducing two ad formats that will help you better reach shoppers when they’re deciding what to buy. The first format is a video version of Google’s Showcase Shopping ads. The second format is called Shoppable Images.

Showcase Shopping Ads in Video Form

Google is expanding the capabilities of its multi-image Shopping ad format to include video. The Showcase Shopping video ads allow you to incorporate YouTube videos into paid search ads. With this format, you will be able to make ads attached to pictures in content through specific Google publishing partners.

Google officially rolled out Showcase Shopping ads last October. They give you the ability to conjoin lifestyle and product images to make up one, unified ad. Google then shows the ad in paid search results when shoppers enter certain keywords into search. This format is especially useful for businesses reaching shoppers who don’t know what to buy but who have an idea of what they want. For example, if shoppers enter the generic search term “kitchen appliances,” Google will display your Showcase Shopping ad of your kitchen selection to help them narrow their search.

Including video to Showcase Shopping ads will only add to the success this ad type has already delivered. According to Digital Commerce 360, Showcase Shopping ads produce click-through rates (CTR) that are 3.6 times higher than the average Google ad CTR. Additionally, ads in this format achieve 20 percent more conversion credit according to a first-click attribution model. Since video creative has ultimately proven to be more engaging than static images, this update to the format will come with high expectations.

This new Showcase Shopping video format will roll out to 500 advertisers in the Unites States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany later this month.

Shoppable Images

Shoppable Images will help create a seamless shopping experience for customers. By simply hovering over an image with a shopping ad attached, shoppers will be able to click and be directed to a relevant shoppable search. For instance, if shoppers are visiting the fashion blog This Time Tomorrow and come across a Shoppable Image that displays the message “Shop This Style,” they can click on it. Once they click on it, they will be directed to a shoppable search containing items like those they saw in the image that they can then purchase. It’s a smart way to reach shoppers immediately after they think, “Hey, I like that.”

You Still Need to Know Your Audience

While these latest Google products will be undeniably useful in the advertising process, you still need to know your audience for your ads to succeed. Elements like styles, tastes, preferences, and past purchases are up to you to learn about your target customers. If, for example, you use Shoppable Images, you want to show shoppers content that is relevant not only to the content of the image but also relevant and personalized to the individual shopper. Machine learning is key to learning and delivering relevant customer information.

It’s also important to remember that most shoppers see ads and make purchases on their mobile devices. You should keep this in mind when creating video for Showcase Shopping ads and choosing images for Shoppable Images. The more you think about how your audience will see your ad, the better your chances are at driving action.

If you’re struggling to reconcile in your mind what knowing your audience”\ really means, think of it this way: you want to assist your shoppers more than throw information at them. When you think in terms of assistance, you’ll find shoppers are far more receptive to the ads you put out. Your ads will be assisting them in personalized and relevant ways, eliminating for them that extra step of having to indicate the types of things they want every single time they shop. This level of assistance is especially desirable during the holiday season. Video Showcase Shopping ads and Shoppable Images will help you cater to your audience’s needs.

So buckle up and get ready to conquer!

Anna Hubbel, writer at AdvertiseMint, Facebook advertising agency

The post New to Google: Video Showcase Shopping Ads and Shoppable Images appeared first on AdvertiseMint.

Twitter Is Giving Users More Control over Their Timeline Settings

September 20, 2018
Anna Hubbel, writer at AdvertiseMint, Facebook advertising company
Photo courtesy of theverge.com

Twitter users have wanted more control over their timeline feeds for some time. Now they finally have it. According to an article by The Verge, Twitter just announced that users now have the option to turn off the setting that shows only the “best” tweets first. Turning the setting off will change the timeline to display tweets in reverse-chronological order, which was the platform’s original algorithm up until 2016.

Previously, users had the option to uncheck the box for its best-first option, but it still didn’t give users the control they wanted. Instead, when the setting was unchecked, Twitter would still show “in case you missed it” tweets, recommended tweets, and tweet interactions by followed users. It didn’t give many users what they wanted, which is tweets organized based on when they were posted.

“Twitter is now acknowledging that its users want more control over their timeline, and that the initial settings tool and how it functioned was not an adequate way to address this,” The Verge article points out.

“We’ve learned that when showing the best Tweets first, people find Twitter more relevant and useful,” Twitter said in a statement, reports The Verge. “However, we’ve heard feedback from people who at times prefer to see the most recent Tweets. Our goal with the timeline is to balance showing you the most recent Tweets with the best Tweets you’re likely to care about, but we don’t always get this balance right.”

According to The Verge, Twitter has been planning this change to its timeline settings for a while. There is more to come, however, because this update is just a temporary fix. The platform is developing a way to easily switch between the two timeline settings (relevant tweets and latest tweets) so users have even more control over what they see. Users can expect to see this capability in the next few weeks, says The Verge.

Twitter has been introducing new features and capabilities as of late. Earlier this year, the platform introduced a new Bookmarks feature for saving tweets. Back in October, Twitter increased its character limit for tweets to 280 characters, and earlier this month, the platform launched its audio-only broadcast feature.

Written by Anna Hubbel writer at AdvertiseMint, Facebook advertising company

The post Twitter Is Giving Users More Control over Their Timeline Settings appeared first on AdvertiseMint.

New in Instagram: Shopping in Stories and Explore

September 19, 2018
Anna Hubbel, writer at AdvertiseMint, Facebook ad agency

Instagram just expanded shopping with this latest announcement: brands can now include Shopping tags in Stories, a capability the digital marketing world has been waiting for. Additionally, Instagram announced that it is testing a shopping channel on Explore.

Shopping Tags in Instagram Stories
Photo courtesy of Instagram.com

According to Instagram, one-third of the most viewed Stories on its platform are by businesses. Clearly, advertisers see the potential of the Stories format. That’s why Instagram is finally allowing businesses that use Shopping on Instagram to include product stickers in Stories and product tags in regular posts. Shoppers will be able to learn more about products they’re interested in directly through the platform.

“With product stickers in Instagram Stories, people can quickly access product information and shop seamlessly,” Instagram said in its announcement.

Explore Shopping Channel
Photo courtesy of Instagram.com

Users familiar with Instagram know that the Explore tab is a great, organized way to browse various topics of interest. To benefit both users and brands, Instagram is now testing a Shopping channel for Explore. This channel will be available to users whose platform activity has indicated interest in purchases through Instagram. When users visit the Shopping channel, they’ll see personalized shopping posts based on their individual shopper style and preferences.

Instagram says the new Explore channel will help businesses appear before new shoppers. The space will allow users to find and browse new brands and posts, as well as “tap through on product tags and visit the business’ website or continue browsing that business’ other shopping posts.” It will be like walking through a shopping mall and checking out the various storefronts.

Brands have flocked to Instagram for digital marketing needs, and Instagram is clearly responding to the growth of its e-commerce potential. Earlier this month, Instagram shared that a standalone app for shopping is in the works. The more products and features the platform rolls out, the more opportunities brands and businesses will have for acquiring loyal customers.

Written by Anna Hubbel, writer at AdvertiseMint, Facebook ad agency

The post New in Instagram: Shopping in Stories and Explore appeared first on AdvertiseMint.

8 Team-Bonding Ideas Your Employees Will Love

September 19, 2018
Anne Felicitas, editor at AdvertiseMint, Facebook advertising company

Looking around your office on a Tuesday morning, you find a depressing scene: Mary Sue shuffles from copy room to her desk, eyelids droopy, a steaming mug of coffee in hand. Meanwhile, Joe hunches over his keyboard, sulking, and John, stressed, is furiously twirling his fidget spinner. The team’s morale is low. What can you do to lift your employees’ spirits?

In addition to healthcare and 401Ks, offer team events as a company benefit. I’m not talking about a sad get together at the break room for one-dollar donuts and muddy coffee. I’m talking about fun activities that allow your employees to break from their usual work routine, step away from their cubicles, and stretch their legs, activities that allow them to de-stress, unwind, and socialize outside an office setting. Here are a few ideas to start.

Play a Competitive Sport

No substance—not even coffee—can rouse your employees better than a human-sized ball barreling in their direction. If you want a team event that jolts employees out of their sedentary work life, consider playing a competitive and unconventional sport. Companies like Air Balling LA host games such as bubble soccer, where players squeeze inside inflated balls used to ram opponents, archery tag, and Nerf war. Not only do these games give your employees a much-needed exercise, but they also cultivate team spirit and laughter.

Participate in Game Shows

If playing a competitive sport is too intimidating for your employees, you can bond by participating in less strenuous games. While competitive sports strengthen the body, game shows strengthen the mind. You can join Jeopardy to flex your trivia knowledge, Wheel of Fortune to sharpen your guessing skills, or Let’s Make a Deal to enhance your instincts. The best part? You get to be on TV and win money.

Watch TV Tapings

There may be a select few on your team who are camera shy. If your team wants an event that doesn’t involve so much exposure, you can opt to become a part of the studio audience. Instead of being the scrutinized, be the scrutinizer. Shows like Jimmy Kimmel, X Factor, and Family Feud offer free seats to those wanting to be an audience. Other than complying to the dress code and standing in line for tickets, you must arrive to the show on time. (Look, an exercise on being punctual.)

Watch a Movie

Here’s a classic, easy-to-organize event: movie day. If your team’s idea of relaxing doesn’t involve sports, game shows, or TV tapings, you can instead opt for an activity that requires minimal effort. Let the plush theater seats lull you into relaxation, the wide screen rouse your attention, and your favorite theater snacks, buttery popcorn and sweet Twizzlers, delight your taste buds.

Watch a Game

If movies bore your employees, who would much rather watch live action, then spend a few hours at a game, may it be a baseball game, a football game, or a soccer match. Put your sunglasses on, sit back, relax, and take periodic sips of your overpriced-but-totally-worth-it beer. If you’re lucky, you might be featured in the dance cam.

Solve Puzzles in an Escape Room

Escape rooms do more than trap you with your employees. These rooms cultivate critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and teamwork, all of which are needed to escape to freedom. Escape room companies provide room for every genre, including horror, adventure, and fantasy. If you’re in the Hollywood area, try the escape rooms by 60 Out. The Jumanji escape room, particularly, is the best of their selections so far.

Dine In

Food truly does bring people together. If you don’t believe me, bring pizza to the office and watch your coworkers transform from cubicle hermits to social butterflies—they’ll flock to you like moths to a flame. Because everyone loves food, an outing to a restaurant is a safe and easy event idea. Granted, it isn’t the most exciting, but, you know, free food. Enough said.

Unleash Your Inner Child

Adulthood can be stressful. You’re expected to act a certain way, behave a certain way, and have certain accomplishments by a certain age. It’s liberating to shed adult responsibilities even if only for a few hours.

You and your employees can visit Dave and Busters, the arcade for adults. Begin with delicious food from the menu then spend the remainder of your day revisiting your childhood with games that fill you with nostalgia: Pacman, Mario Kart, and Lara Croft Tomb Raider. For the younger ones in your office, they can play the contemporary favorite The Walking Dead, Fruit Ninja, and Guitar Hero.

Work Hard, Play Hard

Looking around your office on a Tuesday morning, you find a surprising scene: Mary Sue practically skips from the copy room to her desk. Joe merrily types away on his keyboard, and John is raving about scoring a goal in bubble soccer to a colleague. The team spirit is high, and it’s all thanks to the team events you started organizing.

Written by Anne Felicitas, editor at AdvertiseMint, Facebook advertising company

The post 8 Team-Bonding Ideas Your Employees Will Love appeared first on AdvertiseMint.

20 Facebook Ads and Why They’re So Effective

September 18, 2018
Anna Hubbel, writer at AdvetiseMint, Facebook advertising agency

Almost everyone has experienced creative block, even the most talented artists among us. Take Shakespeare who, in Sonnet 86, blames a rival writer for his inability to write. Simply give Gwen Stefani’s song “What You Waiting For” a listen to feel her frustration over her inability to write a hit song.

Creative block is a common occurrence, and you shouldn’t be ashamed of experiencing it. You also shouldn’t be ashamed of finding inspiration from your favorite brands. Here’s a list of 20 Facebook ads from which you can draw inspiration. Why should you emulate these ads? Because they are effective.

1. Sugar Bear Hair

Sugar Bear Hair is a gummy vitamin that helps women grow thicker, healthier hair. This brand’s vibrant ad not only catches your eye but also employs an effective marketing strategy.

The text, instead of pushing for a hard sell, educates audiences about the product. The ad teaches them about the product’s ingredient, pectin, which is “made from fruits” and “gives the SugarBears the chew consistency with natural vegetarian ingredients.” By educating audiences about its product, the ad also simultaneously presents a benefit: the product is all natural and vegetarian.

While teaching audiences about its product, the ad also incorporates branding in the image. Not only does the image feature the product and logo, but it also maintains a color scheme consistent with the brand’s: blue and pink. The colors are bright and eye-catching, popping from the cluttered News Feed.

2. Dollar Shave Club

This ad by Dollar Shave Club, a subscription service for razor users, tackles a relevant topic: women’s equality.

The ad evokes emotion by using the strong words and phrases “strike fear,” “hearts,” “bad guys,” and “change.” These words give the audience, especially the women in that audience, a sense of empowerment.

The sense of empowerment plays an important role in the ad’s image. The image address both the policeman and the policewoman and emphasizes the equality between men and women by including identical products with gender-neutral colors and prices under each word. The identical prices reference a common problem women face with razor products: the pink tax. By addressing this issue, the ad positions itself not only as a brand that is aware of social issues but also as a brand that empathizes with women’s plights.

3. NatureBox

Why is this video ad by Nature Box worthy of emulation? It’s optimized for mobile, it features the product, it uses bright colors, it creates a sense of urgency, and it appeals to people’s sense of taste.

In the post text, Nature Box uses the word “free” to grab the audience’s attention. After all, who doesn’t like free products? The text also appeals to the audience’s sense of taste by using the words “great-tasting flavors” and “delicious.” To make the audience feel the need to try the product, Nature Box uses the words “unique, “can’t find anywhere else,” and “daring.” At the bottom of the ad, Nature Box also creates a sense of urgency by saying “Hurry,” “limited time offer,” and “run out soon!”

Because the ad is in the vertical format, users don’t have to rotate their mobile devices to watch it comfortably. The video’s format, as well as skilled editing, allows the product to be displayed clearly in the video. The bright orange theme, prevalent throughout the ad, is consistent with Nature Box’s brand. Viewers can’t help but feel a little happy while watching the ad.

4. Prose

Prose’s Carousel ad illustrates the power of testimonials. In the post text, Prose empathizes with women’s frustration over off-the-shelf hair care products, offering a custom experience that will solve each woman’s hair “needs and goals.” The ad is comprised of carousel cards with different testimonials and images to support the ad’s claim of addressing hair needs. One of the customers in the testimonials raves “The BEST purchase I have ever made!!!”

The branding in this ad is also done well, with the products featured in each image and the color scheme complementing the colors of the product labels. The photos are also high-quality, making Prose look more trustworthy. By using testimonials, consistent branding, and beautiful high-quality images, Prose appeals to every woman’s desire for gorgeous hair.

5. Madison Reed

Madison Reed’s ad educates, evokes emotion, and presents a value proposition. It educates in the post text by revealing the ingredients of Madison Reed hair colors: argan oil, keratin, and ginseng root extract. It evokes the desire for beautiful and healthy hair by using the words “nourish,” “strengthen,” “radiant,” and “multi-dimensional” in the post text and “salon-quality” in the text below the ad.

The ad also presents a value proposition by telling its audience the benefits they get when they buy from Madison Reed: beautiful, healthy, salon-quality hair and a coloring system easily done at home. The value proposition is also in the video: it features a woman getting ready to color her hair in her bathroom while her children watch from the background. The value is obvious: the hair color is easy and convenient to use. It appeals to women with hectic lifestyles, women who have limited time or money to spend two hours at a salon.

To ensure the branding is noticeable throughout, this video ad optimized for mobile contains the color purple consistent with Madison Reed’s brand and logo, making the ad pop on users’ phone screens.

6. Sand and Sky

This Sand and Sky video ad both excites and informs its audience. In the post text, the words “hype,” “addicted for life,” and “instant” get the audience excited for the face mask. It also conveys that others have used the product. By creating excitement and buzz around the face masks, the ad entices its audience to watch the video to learn more.

The ad also informs the audience by including a demonstration of the mask. The video shows how it works, featuring both the application and the removal of the mask. As a result, the video allows the audience to see the process from before to after. The value proposition of an instant detox mask further attracts the audience’s attention.

7. Gwynnie Bee

Gwynnie Bee uses value proposition as its primary tactic to promote its clothing subscription service. The vertical ad promotes unlimited exchanges, no due dates, all sizes, a 30-day trial, the ability to cancel anytime, and no contracts or commitments. The ad compliments these offers with a video of a model wearing the various style options the service offers.

To ensure the audience will remember the brand after seeing the ad, the video consistently uses the purple color scheme to match the company’s logo.

8. Old Spice

This Old Spice ad, as with most of the company’s marketing, uses humor to spice up users’ feeds. In the post text, Old Spice uses the adage “eyes are the windows to your soul” to convey the humorous idea that because the face is “the architecture around it,” it’s important to keep it clean. The text within the creative gives the humorous punch of “Do Your Eyes a Favor and Make Your Face Look Good” to urge the audience to use Old Spice to keep their faces well kempt. To top it off, the text below the image, “Get more face likes,” offers a silly yet simple value proposition. It tickles the viewer’s funny bone one last time with “Just click on it, man.”

9. Noom

Noom uses video ads like this one to educate and offer benefits to people who want to lose weight. In the post text, Noom uses the words “if you’re like 83% of Noom users ” to show the amount of current Noom users who tried to become healthy. The ad taps into the frustration people feel when finding an effective weight loss system by adding “it’s not your first time trying to get healthy.”

After creating a sense of frustration, Noom positions itself as the answer to its audience’s prayers. Within the video, large text that says “A smarter way to lose weight” appears, making the audience feel like they need to look no further. Noom reinforces this idea within the headline that says “Lose weight for good.” The clear value proposition tells viewers they no longer have to waste time with other weight loss programs.

Noom pairs its rhetorical strategies with branding by featuring a woman wearing an orange sports bra that matches the orange ring in Noom’s logo.

10. Ritual

To capture the audience’s attention, Ritual creates intrigue around its product. “Ritual offers way more than traditional multivitamins do,” says the ad, suggesting that buyers will get health benefits that they can’t get elsewhere. The ad then increases interest. Using the teaser “We’re More Than a Multivitamin — Here’s Why,” Ritual compels the audience to learn more about the product. This ad gives enough information to communicate the main message (we offer more benefits than normal multivitamins) while also leaving the audience wanting to know more.

Ritual also uses the image to capture attention. The yellow background and the vitamins arranged in a circle cleverly complements the circular Ritual logo while placing the product front and center. The ad is simple yet eye-catching enough to attract users.

11. The New York Times

The New York Times markets its app in this simple yet powerful ad. The ad both evokes emotion and offers a value proposition. In very few words, the post text makes its audience feel empowered with “All your news in the palm of your hand.” The ad image offers the value proposition of “Tech in real time,” telling users they’ll get all their news instantly and conveniently from their mobile devices. The Times punctuates the message with “Stay informed” below the ad, directly next to the “Download” call to action.

The ad reinforces branding by using the black-and-white theme of The New York Times. It flows nicely with the image to the right, which depicts a news-like story one might come across in the app.

This ad is especially effective because of its simplicity. All of the text is in short, clear sentences that demonstrate the ease, convenience, and power of the app.

12. Grove Collaborative

Grove Collaborative uses a Carousel ad to feature its products. The company also liberally uses the word “FREE” to entice shoppers. The images support the benefits described in the text by exhibiting the products buyers can get in their free set. Additionally, the images used in the ad are high-quality photos, making the company appear professional and trustworthy.

13. MailChimp

This MailChimp ad uses high-quality video, value proposition, and humor to drive its message. In the post text, MailChimp conveys the convenience of its marketing email automations by using the humorous comparison of a second brain. According to the ad, signing up for MailChimp is a “100% net increase in brains.” Translation? MailChimp automation is high-tech and intelligent.

Throughout the video, MailChimp uses bright colors to contrast against the white background. The quirky woman who talks rapidly explains the concept of the “second brain,” both informing and entertaining viewers.

14. Bombas

Bombas uses a common dilemma to hook its audience in this ad: a lost sock. Because nearly everyone has lost a sock in the laundry, Bombas offers to replace the socks customers lose. It even uses the headline “The Cure for Lost Socks” to appeal to those who hate losing socks.

15. Home Chef

Home Chef highlights customer testimonials in this video ad to build trust and prove that the meal subscription service is rated number one. The post text also offers a discount on the first box, giving users more incentive to buy.

Throughout the video, Home Chef uses upbeat music and high-quality images of delicious food to appeal to its audience’s senses of taste and sound. The color green is also prominent, cohesively matching the green logo on the upper-left corner of the ad.

16. Lexus

In this Carousel ad promoting the 2018 Lexus LC, the text creates a feeling of adventure and excitement by using the phrase “uninhibited exhilaration.” It then emphasizes that the Lexus LC is more than a product: “Not a car — a feeling.”

To capture attention, the ad features stunning images of the vehicle from both the exterior and the interior, using dramatic lighting and the phrase “unprecedented craftsmanship” to draw attention to quality. The ad’s color scheme, silver and black, as well as the focus on the car with the logo, highlights the Lexus brand.

17. Adobe

Adobe educates its audience in this back-to-school ad. Using some statistical information from last year’s back-to-school season in the post text, the ad invites the audience to access shopping data for 2018. By offering educational information, Adobe provides a benefit in exchange for customers’ clicks on the ad.

18. Coca-Cola

One can’t help but drool when looking at this Coca-Cola ad. The ad appeals to the senses, causing the audience to crave a refreshing bottle of Coke. First, the ad pairs an image of delicious steaming barbeque with a bottle of Coke to appeal to the sense of taste. Then the ad accompanies those images with chatter and clanking plates to appeal to the sense of sound. The colors are also bright, with red appearing throughout the video to match the brand logo.

To increase engagement on the ad, it brings in a social element by playfully encouraging its audience to tag a friend in the comments section: “Name the last person you had lunch with.”

19. Squarespace

Not only is this Squarespace ad optimized for mobile screens, but it is also simple yet high-tech. First, it offers value proposition by telling its audience that they can “Make their website a reality” with the company’s “all-in-one platform” with its free trial. Second, the video uses bright colors, unique shapes, movement, and upbeat music to demonstrate different tasks that can be done through the platform. The video gets the audience excited about making their website come to life.

20. Pandora

Last but not least, this Carousel ad by Pandora uses high-quality photos with bright colors to evoke emotion. Using words like “regal,” “reign,” “fairy tale,” and “queen,” this ad appeals to the inner princess of its female audience. It elicits the desire to feel pampered and pretty.

Each image features Pandora’s products against a light pink background, matching the background of the brand’s logo. In the last image of the ad, Pandora even presents a map with its location and invites the audience to “Get Directions,” driving foot traffic to physical stores.

There is no shame in looking to popular and successful brands for inspiration. Note the strategies each brand used and apply them to your own ads. If you want to use video like many of these ads, see what expert media buyers suggest in terms of Facebook video best practices.

Written by Anna Hubbel, writer at AdvetiseMint, Facebook advertising agency

The post 20 Facebook Ads and Why They’re So Effective appeared first on AdvertiseMint.

When Disasters Like Hurricane Florence Strike, Facebook Can Help

September 12, 2018
Anne Felicitas, editor at AdvertiseMint, Facebook ads company
Nikolas Noonan / Unsplash

Earlier this week distressing news flooded TV and phone screens. This coming Thursday, Hurricane Florence, a category 4 storm, is heading for the Carolinas and the Virginia region. Predicted to be the strongest storm to hit the Carolinas in decades, according to CBS News, Hurricane Florence is sending residents to evacuation.

Evacuation is only one among the many ways the residents are bracing for impact. The residents of North Carolina, according to CBS News, are preparing emergency supplies and equipment, such as chainsaws and bulldozers, for the storm’s aftermath. One tool people seem to overlook in this crisis is, as strange as it may sound, Facebook.

An app that is nearly omnipresent in people’s devices (Facebook has one million downloads in Google Play Store), Facebook has tools people in crises can use to seek help and alert loved-ones of their safety.

Crisis Response

Accessible by clicking the hamburger button on the upper-right side of the Facebook app, Crisis Response is a hub for people in a disaster. Using this tool, people can seek help by commenting on posts and messaging those offering aid. A tool that is several years old, Crisis Response has helped those in need during disastrous events such as the fire in Trabuco Canyon, the flooding in the Philippines, and the fire in Goleta.

When Hurricane Florence hits the targeted states, residents can use Crisis Response to ask for aid, keep up with local news, and alert loved-ones when out of danger.

Safety Check
Photo courtesy of newsroom.fb.com

A feature of Crisis Response, Safety Check allows people to mark themselves as “safe” on Facebook. When a disastrous event occurs within an individual’s area, whether that disastrous event is an earthquake, mass shooting, or flooding, Facebook will send that individual a notification with the option to “tell friends you’re safe.” Safety Check works by using users’ location listed in their profiles and the location enabled for the app on mobile devices.

Facebook Lite
Photo courtesy of newsroom.fb.com

Facebook Lite is a lightweight version of the app that uses fewer data and functions normally in areas where network conditions are unreliable. It contains Facebook’s core features, such as the News Feed, status updates, and notifications. Because this version doesn’t use a lot of data, those in disasters can switch to Facebook Lite when the regular app loads too slowly if at all. When a hurricane like Florence hits, it’s important to anticipate low internet connectivity.

Fundraisers

Fundraisers allows users and organization to fundraise for a cause they are passionate about. Currently, notable organizations such as St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, Alzheimer’s Association, and World Wildlife Fund use the tool to fundraise for their causes.

Although only a year old, Fundraisers generated $300 million in donations, 100 percent of which all go to the nonprofits. With such a success, those willing to help victims of disasters can certainly use the tool to fundraise independently or donate to an organization’s fundraiser.

This Thursday, Hurricane Florence will hit the Carolinas and the Virginia region. Although an unconventional tool to use during disasters (normally batteries, first aid kits, food and water supplies, and flashlights are seen as better suited for those events) the Facebook app can help people in need.

Anne Felicitas is the editor of AdvertiseMint, Faebook ads company. You can follow her (@littlebananie) on Instagram.

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Facebook to Launch Facebook Stories Ads

September 12, 2018
Anna Hubbel, writer at AdvertiseMint, Facebook ads company

 

After seeing positive results for Facebook Stories ads, Facebook will soon allow everyone to serve ads to Stories.

Currently still in beta, ads in Facebook Stories are delivering positive results for media agencies, according to Digiday. The feature generates low costs and high engagement, the ideal balance for any social media campaign.

Wallaroo Media, which first began testing the format about a month ago, found that some of its Facebook Stories ads within its $20,000 ad spend have outperformed other ads in other placements.

“CPM and conversion rates have been the best of any placements over the course of the last month, probably due to the fact that the competition is lower there,” Brandon Doyle, founder of Wallaroo, told Digiday.

Digiday reports that ads in Facebooks Stories are expected to roll out globally by the end of the year. As digital media consultant Matt Navarra shared in a tweet, an email directed to Facebook’s marketing partners on September 6 invites advertisers to join the beta test to prep for the global release.

“Your customers have already been able to reach their audience with Instagram Stories ads,” Facebook says in the email, “and now they have another opportunity to reach even more people in this full-screen, vertical environment with Facebook Stories ads.”

Flight-booking service Hopper has seen positive results in its tests with Facebook Stories ads. The company told Digiday that it’s paying $2.3 per thousand impressions with the format, which is less than the $5 per thousand impressions it’s paying for Instagram Stories. For both formats, the company is using similar targeting and creatives, as well as the same time frame. Hopper also told Digiday that the conversion rates from Facebook Stories ads have not been much different than those from Instagram Stories.

As promising as ads in Facebook Stories appear to be so far, there are still some downsides. For one, only 150 million people use Facebook Stories on a daily basis, which is significantly smaller than the userbases of Instagram Stories and Snapchat. Additionally, Facebook Stories ads don’t have the same useful features that Instagram offers, such as links and product tags. However, Facebook will likely introduce such features gradually after rolling out ads in Facebook Stories.

To qualify for the beta test of ads in Facebook Stories, advertisers must also run the same ads in Instagram Stories or Facebook News Feed. This stipulation allows advertisers to compare the results of their Facebook Stories ad campaigns with those of other campaigns on Facebook-owned platforms.

Anna Hubbel is a writer at AdvertiseMint, Facebook ads company

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Twitter Has a Cool New Audio-Only Feature

September 12, 2018
Anna Hubbel
Writer at AdvertiseMint, Facebook ad agency

Say it loud, say it proud! You can now share audio-only broadcasts on Twitter for iOS and Twitter’s Periscope, Tech Crunch recently reported. In the same place where you create a live video, you can create an audio broadcast, providing another option for sharing unique content.

According to Tech Crunch, the audio-only option appears as another button you can tap when you navigate to Live. As you would with live video, you can see metrics such as live viewers, replay viewers, and time watched when making an audio-only broadcast. Although the new feature is only available on iOS and Periscope at this time, it’s sure to roll out to other platforms sometime in the future.

Audio-Only Is Great for the Camera Shy

If you’re like me, and you hate seeing yourself in a video, this audio-only feature is a godsend. Being able to get my message across without feeling squeamish about my appearance is going to be a massive weight off my shoulders in instances where I believe a live broadcast is the more effective option over a regular tweet. Twitter may see a spike in the number of live broadcasts users make with this new feature available because users who don’t typically broadcast because they’re camera shy may feel more comfortable with the sound of their voice.

Twitter’s audio-only broadcast feature may also appeal to the growing podcast audience. People today are flocking to podcasts for interesting and engaging content. Twitter may become a go-to place for podcasts if this audio-only feature takes off.

Let’s not overlook the benefits of being able to share a message in more than 280 characters as well. If you don’t want to spend 10 minutes trying to edit your tweet down to the maximum limit, it’ll be easy to say what you want to say in an audio clip instead.

It’s no surprise that Twitter now has an audio-only broadcast option. Facebook already offers a live audio option, so the concept isn’t revolutionary. However, Twitter’s live audio may be more popular than Facebook’s since Twitter is more of a news-snippet hub, and audio will contribute to that niche.

Anna Hubbel is a writer at AdvertiseMint, Facebook ad agency.

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