Brian Meert's Blog, page 130

Adhering to Advertising Principles, Facebook Bans Bitcoin Ads

January 31, 2018
Anne Felicitas

@facebook bans #bitcoin ads. #cryptoccurency #binaryoptions #ico #money #investment #investing
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During a time of heightened interest in cryptocurrency, especially in bitcoin, Facebook bans cryptocurrency ads.

Rob Leathern, Facebook’s product management director, revealed Facebook’s new advertising policy on Tuesday.

“We’ve created a new policy that prohibits ads that promote financial products and services that are frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices, such as binary options, initial coin offerings and cryptocurrency,” said Leathern in a Facebook Business post.

Facebook updates its advertising policy

Enforcement of the new policy will now take effect, applying to ads that are served on Facebook, Audience Network, and Instagram. According to a Facebook representative when asked for comments, both active and new cryptocurrency ads will be disapproved.

According to Leathern, Facebook’s move abides by its advertising principles that protect Facebook users from scams and misleading or deceptive ads. Because many companies advertising binary options, ICOs, and cryptocurrencies are not currently in good standing, the social network decided to ban all cryptocurrency ads.

In fact, earlier this week, a cryptocurrency project built on Ethereum called Prodeum disappeared with investors’ money, and earlier this month, a long-suspected Ponzi scheme, BitConnect, was forced to cease operations by authorities in Texas and North Carolina.

James Altucher, an American hedge fund manager and Venture capitalist who educates people on Bitcoin, approves of Facebook’s decision to ban cryptocurrency ads.

“Kudos to Facebook for trying to clean up all of the garbage out there,” said Altucher in an email interview with Recode. “This [Bitcoin] is an enormous opportunity, but, like any new financial opportunity, the schemers and crooked charlatans are having a field day.”

Because Facebook currently has more than five million advertisers, it may not apprehend all deceptive ads appearing on its platform. Facebook encourages users to report ads that they find suspicious.

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Marketers Should Look at Amazon as a Rising Advertising Platform

January 31, 2018
Anna Hubbel

Marketers should look to @Amazon as a rising platform for advertising. #digitaladvertising #AmazonAds
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Photo Courtesy of AdAge

Amazon is known for having just about everything for the average consumer: variety, video, music, great prices, fast shipping, an efficient voice assistant device, and much more. The e-commerce site also offers a popular platform for businesses to sell their own products to a limitless audience.

Jeff Bezos, the prestigious founder of Amazon, has kept his cloud services business focused on functionality and exceptional products and services, rather than advertising—until now.

Amazon’s New Focus on Advertising

According to Ad Age, generating advertising revenue is on the horizon for the e-commerce giant. Visitors to the site may have noticed the subtle increase in sponsored products featured in the search results. This tactic serves to tempt advertisers to get a prominent spot by purchasing ads through Amazon.

Ad Age says that advertising on websites and mobile devices will make up 50 percent of all US ad spending by the year 2021. Although Amazon only generated $1.7 billion in ad revenue last year, it is beginning to take center stage in the advertising market from the perspectives of major companies such as Procter & Gamble. According to Ad Age, Omnicon Group created an Amazon advertising strategy in November.

In addition, big grocery brands and big packaged-goods companies, businesses that invest a sizeable $225 million on advertising and in-store promotions yearly, have been transitioning to Amazon. With the increasing shift to digital shopping, it comes as no surprise that these companies are willing to invest in online advertising, and Amazon is a guaranteed platform for successful results.

Attracting 180 million monthly US visitors, Amazon is the perfect hub for advertising exposure.

“Similar to the candy and magazine racks, which are the most valuable space in the store, Amazon is the most valuable space on the web because you are at the very bottom of the funnel,” Scott Galloway, a marketing professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business and author of The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google, said in an Ad Age article. “Not only are people about to make a purchase, but you know what’s in their basket. It’s hard to imagine a more target-rich medium than Amazon or robust offering.”

Additionally, marketers who advertise through Amazon have the benefit of real-time insights for campaign performance. “You can put a sale on Amazon and see relatively quickly if there’s an uptick,” Neil Ackerman, a former Amazon and Mondelez executive now leading innovation for Johnson & Johnson’s global supply chain, said in the same Ad Age article. “Amazon realizes it can use this to grow ad revenue, and it can charge more because it provides instant results.”

Ad Age says Amazon is expanding its advertising to more than just sponsored search results, investing more into the ad aspect of its business. Throwing this giant company into the competitive advertising mix of Facebook and Google could be a major game changer.

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New Data Shows Drop in Time Spent on Publisher Sites in 2017

January 31, 2018
Anna Hubbel
Photo Courtesy of Facebook Media

As if the emphasis on fake news wasn’t enough for news publishers last year, recent data uncovered by Taboola indicates that US consumers’ time spent on publisher sites dropped in 2017.

New data indicates that US consumers' time spent on #publisher sites dropped in #2017. #mediastudies #fakenews
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According to Emarketer, the average amount of time spent on publisher sites began at 2.09 minutes in the first quarter. But after a very slight rise in Q2, the average session dropped again and eventually landed on 1.90 minutes in Q4.

Photo Courtesy of eMarketer

It comes as no surprise that Emarketer also reported that consumers spent more time reading news content on social media platforms last year. So it was only natural that publishers fell in line with that pattern by presenting news through social media.

Difference in Devices

Taboola also broke down its findings based on device. Data indicated that users spent an average of 1.90 minutes when visiting a publisher site on their smartphone. However, the average was higher, at 2.62 minutes, when users were on their desktops.

Interestingly, the average time spent rose for tablet usage in 2017, from 1.81 minutes in Q1 to 1.92 minutes in Q4.

What Publishers Need to Do

Rather than using social media as a news distribution channel, if publishers want to drive traffic to their sites, they may have to tweak their strategy enough to drive that traffic. Otherwise, consumers are only going to view the content that publishers are putting out there without leaving their social feed, which does little to progress in the business sense. One of the many ways media publishers can drive traffic to their sites is by capitalizing on the rise of video engagement.

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WhatsApp Launches an App for Business Owners

January 30, 2018
Jesica Schmidt

Networking is half the battle when expanding a customer base. WhatsApp’s new business app helps business owners grow their companies and make connections. This app, called WhatsApp Business, is similar to Facebook Messenger and Skype: it helps business owners connect with their customers.

WhatsApp Business exists as its own app because business accounts are fundamentally different from user accounts. Unlike user accounts, business accounts have business profiles with information such as the business description, email, and location address. Business accounts, once set up and verified, are added to an easily accessible list. Once a user finds a business profile from the list, the app guides them to highlighted information about the company.

WhatsApp Business makes communication easy with instant messaging and calling. The app includes multimedia messaging, free calls, free international messaging, and group chats. It also offers customizable quick replies and accessibility to users’ statistics. Once installed, WhatsApp’s web application allows the user and the business owner to reply directly from their browsers. The app also allows users to report spam, block numbers and companies, and have full control over the messages they read.

Users who have two separate mobile numbers for home and work can have two accounts. WhatsApp Business and WhatsApp Messenger are both compatible and available on the same device, registered under different numbers. The app is also compatible with landline numbers: business owners only need to click the “call me” option and proceed.

Both the desktop and the app versions are free, eagerly welcoming inexperienced users. Although currently available to small business owners, WhatsApp plans to expand to larger businesses and global customers. WhatsApp will soon reach out to Airlines, banks, e-commerce sites, and other companies with a worldwide customer base.

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The Best Marketing Strategy for Each Social Media Platform

January 30, 2018
Bart Mroz, co-founder and CEO of SUMO Heavy

Seventy percent of all US adults use at least one social media network. While most brands agree that social media is a critical channel, many aren’t leveraging the strengths that are unique to each platform, and the opportunities to leverage social media to raise brand awareness and generate revenue are immense.

The leading social networks—Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat—vary widely in their membership makeup, culture, and look and feel. Although the networks differ, brands can leverage the strengths that are unique to each social media platform and capitalize on a particularly strong feature.

Facebook

Although other platforms have entered the scene, 41 percent of Millennials use Facebook every day, and the platform has over 2 billion users, making it still the number one channel.

Facebook Live is a hot new medium that’s giving brands new modes to engage consumers and sell products. Users devour live video, watching a live stream three times longer than recorded video. In fact, Facebook Live’s popularity has risen 330 percent since it launched in 2016, and over 500 million people watch Facebook videos every day. With the new Facebook Watch feature, giving users access to a wide range of shows, the social network could attract more users.

For brands, the promotional possibilities via live streaming video are vast. Brands should focus on Facebook Live for ads, events, campaigns, product launches, and demonstrations to actively engage with their customers and drive brand awareness.

Twitter

Twitter has made itself the go-to customer service channel. The average user follows five businesses, and 80 percent have mentioned a brand in a tweet, so it’s a great platform to connect with customers. Because customer service on Twitter is a public feed, it is a chance to show customers that your organization is caring and responsive.

Brands should have a dedicated Twitter handle for customer service because brands who do so get a response ten times more than brands who don’t. Moreover, brands that use Twitter as a social care channel see a 19 percent increase in customer satisfaction. For some good examples of how to conduct customer service on Twitter, see Amazon’s customer service (@AmazonHelp) and Hilton Hotel’s customer service (@HiltonHelp).

Instagram

Instagram is an extremely popular platform for Millennials and Gen Zs. More than 60 percent of Instagram users are between the ages of 18 and 29, making Instagram a natural fit for youth-oriented brands and products. For example, Sephora and Nike have been successful in marketing to Millennials by using Instagram to post visually stunning photos that clearly reflects brand identity and draws users in. As a result, Nike has become the 19th most followed account while Sephora has increased its engagement rate and now boasts nearly 13 million followers.

Because posts tagged with locations have 79 percent higher engagement, and because 60 percent of users learn about a product or service from Instagram, brands should leverage visually rich platforms like Instagram to best showcase their product line. Additionally, brands should post highly visual, geo-targeted content to boost engagement.

Pinterest

Pinterest is a widely popular platform, and Millennials use it just as much as Instagram. Although 80 percent of Pinterest users are women, 40 percent of new users are men, showing the platform is slowly becoming more diverse.

Fifty-five percent of pinners use Pinterest to shop for products, and one-third of users choose Pinterest over Google search. Users browse with the intent to buy, making it an essential social media platform for many brands. When the goal is to drive traffic to your website, Pinterest is one of the best networks for that purpose. To increase traffic and sales, link pins to your website.

Snapchat

Snapchat is the go-to among Millennial and Gen Z users. It reaches 41 percent of all 18-to 34-year olds in the US each day, and 71 percent of users are under the age of 34. (However, note that growth slowed 82 percent after Instagram stories launched.) If brands want to implement interactive content with a younger audience to increase brand awareness, they can use Snapchat.

Interactive features like geotags and lenses are a great way to increase brand exposure and engagement. For example, Puma uses social media to drive awareness around big product and campaign launches. It has successfully used Snapchat for some of its most visible projects, unveiling its recent Fierce campaign featuring Kylie Jenner. It also leveraged Snapchat’s geotag filters to engage with their audience when attending Rihanna’s concerts. Like Puma, leverage geofilters and sponsored lenses to create interactive content.

The potential for reaching and serving customers via social media continues to expand. Social media networks are continually adding new features, so it is imperative to keep up with the changes, master new techniques, and integrate new engagement and personalization approaches into your social campaigns.

Bart Mroz, a serial entrepreneur with over a decade of business management and technology experience, is the co-founder and CEO of SUMO Heavy. A thought leader and a founding partner of multiple consulting companies, Mroz was published in Internet Retailer and AdExchanger. Follow Bart Mroz on Twitter.

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5 Best Practices for Protecting Yourself Against Cyber Breaches

January 30, 2018
Anna Hubbel

Although digital technology is invaluable in today’s marketing game, its data collection abilities also make it susceptible to cybercrime. Cybersecurity has become increasingly important and should be a priority in protecting your brand. Here are some best practices to protect your business and your assets from digital breaches.

Use cybersecurity best practices to protect your business and your assets against digital breaches. #cybersafety #brandprotection
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1. Closely Monitor Financial Statements

Although this practice may seem less market focused, if a hacker gets a hold of your password information through any platform or media channel, your business’s finances are also at risk, especially if you use the same or a similar password for all of your accounts.

Keep a close eye on all of your business’s financial statements so that you are able to catch any suspicious activity right away.

2. Create Strong Passwords

The more complex your password is for all of your digital business dealings, the better. Use a mix of capital and lowercase letters, as well as interject a special character and a number or two.

If a login has requirements or suggestions for what characters to use in your password, follow those requirements in a way that makes your password the strongest it can be. Also, avoid making passwords that use parts of your name, birthday, Social Security number, or anything else that may be personal. These types of passwords are easier to hack.

Hackers have a more difficult time retrieving passwords if they’re strong, so this is an important practice.

3. Update Your Passwords Regularly

Schedule a repeated reminder to update your passwords every so often. Regularly changing your passwords prevents hackers from having time to breach your digital security.

4. Invest in Identity Protection

Use an identity protection service to prevent breaching malware from stealing your personal information. It’s worth paying a fee to protect all of your information, data, and, subsequently, your brand.

5. Educate Yourself

Learning about cybersecurity sounds intimidating, but it’s vital to understand the connections between devices and data in order to protect your marketing ecosystem. According to eMarketer, marketing professionals don’t show as much concern as they should about their cybersecurity. Make it a priority to at least know the basics of your digital and data connections so that you know what resources will best protect your business from a cyber breach.

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Snapchat Introduces Deep Links for Better App Install Targeting

January 27, 2018
Anna Hubbel

@Snapchat introduces #DeepLinks for better #AppInstall #targeting. #snapchatads
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Snapchat is digging a little deeper for advertisers. According to Ad Week, advertisers can now go beyond ads that just promote app installs with Snapchat’s new deep links, which prompt users to re-engage with previously visited sections of the app. It’s deeper targeting for users who have already downloaded the advertiser’s app.

For example, a clothing retailer could use a deep link to prompt a user to revisit a product that was viewed but didn’t make it to the checkout phase. Or a video game marketer could use deep links to encourage users to finish levels or move on to the next level of the game previously started. Users are given a more interactive experience that feels personalized. Deep links are essentially the next level up, after app installs, in consumer targeting.

Previously, according to Ad Week, advertisers could only include deep links in their campaigns if they created the landing pages or buttons on their own. Now, however, the process is automatic upon app install, making Snapchat advertising a little more convenient. Here’s a GIF created by Ad Week that demonstrates the deep link function with the Bitmoji app.

Courtesy of AdWeek

 

Measurement

On top of the deep links feature, app marketers will also have access to the statistics measure attribution, which tracks what media elements most effectively drive app downloads. In particular, ad views and swipes data are available to marketers within three time windows, according to Ad Week: one day, one week, or 28 days. There is also an additional measurement that tracks the number of users who viewed an ad but didn’t download the app until later (up to one week).

To top it off, a separate set of metrics indicates users’ use of the app after downloading it. In other words, specific sections or features the user visited within the app are tracked and measured for the convenience of the advertiser.

Brands Are Taking Notice

Snapchat’s app-install ads are growing in popularity across brands as Snap Inc. continues to roll out various ad-friendly tools and features such as deep links. Companies are discovering that Snapchat users are drawn to the competition of friendly app games or the ease of making purchases through a retail app.

As reported by Ad Week, Etermax, creator of the infamous Trivia Crack game app, reported success with Snapchat app-install ad tests. The ads allegedly attracted users who are 25 percent more likely to continue playing the game after one week in comparison to other social platforms. Additionally, time spent playing the game was double the time spent on the game when downloaded through other platforms such as Facebook. Cost per install and cost per signup were also 20 percent lower than those of competing platforms.

Zaful, a women’s clothing retail app, also reported a cost per install 20 percent lower than that of any other platform or media channel.

With the deep links feature added to the already growing success of app-install ads, Snapchat is making more than a small wrinkle in the fabric of social advertising.

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How to Write Posts in Different Languages on Your Facebook Page

January 25, 2018
Anna Hubbel

Publish a @Facebook post in more than one language to reach your relevant audience. #facebookhowto
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Broaden your audience reach by publishing a Facebook post in more than one language. This ensures that your posts are seen in the language most relevant to your diverse audience.

Step 1: Go to “Settings” at the top of your page.

Step 2: In the “General” tab, select “Post in Multiple Languages.”

Step 3: Check the box next to “Allow people who manage this page to write posts in multiple languages.” Save your changes.

Create a Post in More Than One Language

Step 1: Write a post on your timeline and click “Write post in another language.”

Step 2: Type in the language you want to use in the dropdown menu.

To keep your page the focus of your users’ attention, learn how to turn off similar page suggestions on your facebook page.

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How to Improve Your Ad’s Negative Feedback Score

January 24, 2018
Danielle Kunkle, co-founder at Boomer Benefits

How to improve your #facebookads ' negative feedback score. #digitaladvertising #facebookadvertising #hacks
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Getting negative feedback on your Facebook ads can be upsetting. After all, you’ve worked so hard to craft your message and create stellar images or engaging videos. Why would anyone not want to see your awesome ads?

Don’t take it personally. The Facebook News Feed has been running out of space for some time, which means users see thousands of ads each year. Sometimes, they feel annoyed after seeing too many ads in one day. However, you should take negative feedback seriously because too much of it may get your account shut down.

Negative feedback happens when someone hides your ads, reports your ads as spam, or “unlikes” your page after viewing your ad. You want to do everything you can to prevent this so that you can stay in Facebook’s good graces. Here are some tips you can follow to garner less negative feedback and make users view your ads in a more positive light.

Replicate Ads with High Positive Feedback

 

Some of your ads will have more negative feedback than others. Learn which kinds of ads are well-received by your audience and create more posts like those.

To view your feedback ratings, go to Power Editor, click on the Ads tab, then find the dropdown box called Columns on the right. Click “Customize Columns” and add positive and negative feedback to your column. Once you click “Apply,” you’ll see a list of your ads and the ratings of low, medium, or high for positive and negative feedback.

Target the Right Audience

When you receive positive feedback (your audience is engaging with your ad), you will receive a higher relevancy score. Relevancy scores indicate the ad’s quality and its relevance to your audience. It is a great indicator of how well your ads are being received. You will receive high relevancy scores when your ads are well-targeted to the right audience. High relevancy scores will get your ads better reach on Facebook, stretching your advertising dollars further.

I like to check the relevancy of my Facebook ads daily. To check your relevancy scores, go to Power Editor and click on your Ads tab. Scroll to the right until you see your relevancy score.

Ads with a relevancy of seven or higher are receiving good marks (positive feedback) from your audience. Ads with a relevancy of four or less are not engaging your audience. Consider closing them out and trying a different ad or verbiage that resonates better.

Refresh Ads Frequently

Have you ever seen a particular TV commercial so many times that you groan whenever it comes on? That’s how your Facebook viewers feel when you’ve run the same ad repeatedly. Even if they liked the ad the first time they saw it, they will tire of it eventually.

To see how many times the average person has seen your ad, check your frequency score, which is also located in the Ads tab. Choose “Delivery” in the Columns dropdown to add it to your view.

I try to keep my ad frequency under two. Sometimes the ad might even still be working well in terms of conversions or clicks, but the bottom line is your ad creative is just old. You need to replace it frequently. Try refreshing your creative with some new images or headlines. If you’ve been using images for a while, try a video. Switch it up at least once a month.

Target A Different Audience

It’s easy to get complacent when an ad is converting well. However, if you see too much negative feedback, then it’s time to brainstorm. Which other audiences might receive your message well?

Test out new targeting or create a few Lookalike Audiences to get your message in front of some fresh eyeballs. Freshness is the name of the game when it comes to increasing your positive engagement and avoiding negative feedback.

Danielle Kunkle Roberts is the co-founder of Boomer Benefits, a licensed insurance agency that helps Baby Boomers navigate their entry into Medicare.

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How to Ban Troublesome Followers from Your Facebook Page

January 24, 2018
Anna Hubbel

You can ban page followers from posting on your @Facebook page, liking and commenting on your posts, and messaging you. #facebookhowto
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Spam is a nuisance, especially when certain users continuously publish it on your Facebook page. You can, however, ban individual followers from posting on your page, liking your posts, posting comments, and messaging and liking your page.

How to Ban Someone Who Likes Your Page

Step 1: Go to “Settings.”

Step 2: Select “People and Other Pages” in the left-hand column.

Step 3: Search for the user you want to ban and click to check the box next to their name.

Step 4: Select the gear icon and choose “Ban From Page.” Click “Confirm.”

Ban Someone from a Comment on a Post

Step 1: Hover over a comment by the user and select “…” located at the right. Select “Hide Comment.”

Step 2: Click “Ban [Name].”

Ban Someone from Messaging Your Page

Step 1: Select “Inbox” at the top of your Page.

Step 2: Choose the message from the person you want to ban on the left.

Step 3: Select the “Mark as spam” icon.

Ban Someone from a Post

Step 1: Choose “Posts” from the left-hand column of your Page.

Step 2: Select “Visitor Posts” at the right-hand side of your Page.

Step 3: Locate the post by the user you want to ban and select the “…” icon.

Step 4: Click “Ban From Page,” then “Confirm.”

Unban Someone From Your Page

Step 1: Go to “Settings.”

Step 2: Go to “People and Other Pages.”

Step 3: Select the “People Who Like This Page” dropdown and choose “Banned People and Pages.”

Step 4: Click to check the box next to the user you want to unban.

Step 5: Click the gear icon and choose “Unban From Page,” then click “Confirm.”

Learn also How to Control What Visitors Post on Your Facebook Page.

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