Tag: testimonials

If you woke up with a $250K ad budget tomorrow, how would you spend it?

Some e-commerce sellers would buy first-page ads on Google for a year; others might see if they could run a commercial after the Super Bowl. Maybe hire a few hundred influencers to promote your business? One or two sellers would think of crazy publicity stunts to create hype for their products. 

However, at a certain point, your e-commerce business will need to scale up. Part of running a successful business is keeping an eye on your next steps. With that said, e-commerce sellers looking to grow need to understand what a $250K ad budget gets you and how to make the most of it.

That’s why we’re going to unpack Target Roundel, a powerful, complex retail media network with quite a few tricks up its Target advertising sleeve. 

What Is Target Roundel?

Target defines Target Roundel as its internal retail media network. Of course, if you aren’t familiar with the concept of retail media, that definition doesn’t offer much clarity.

Retail media refers to a specific kind of advertising where ads are presented within a particular retail site or app. At first glance, that might not sound particularly exciting. After all, plenty of advertising platforms help promote products to potential customers. What’s so special about retail sites?

To answer that question, it’s important to understand that retail media networks like Target Roundel offer e-commerce sellers an increased digital presence and unique advertising tactics that go far beyond your typical banner ad. 

Why You Should Use Target Advertising/Roundel

As an e-commerce seller, the more control you have over your advertising, the easier it becomes to pinpoint specific buyers and niches. This is part of what makes a retail media network like Target Roundel so appealing. 

By using Target advertising, you’re doing more than just leveraging the reputation of a trusted retail space. You’re maximizing the visibility of your e-commerce products to specific shoppers. Target Roundel is particularly appealing to e-commerce sellers looking for a variety of well-integrated retail media targeting options. 

Major brands like Coca-Cola and Disney are already using this retail media network as part of their audience targeting strategies, and it’s easy to see why. 

To enhance a marketing strategy, audience targeting has become a must-have tool in every marketer’s arsenal. Without some form of audience targeting, marketers can’t control and test every element of their strategy. 

What Makes Roundel’s Target Advertising Different From Other Platforms?

Now that we understand what retail media networks are and what makes them so appealing to e-commerce sellers, it’s time to move on to Target itself and determine what makes its retail media network valuable. Target Roundel focuses on several key areas to maximize value to e-commerce sellers. 

Target’s first-party data combines the transactional and behavioral data of over 30 million weekly in-store and online purchases. Target advertising creates audiences by reviewing unique guest profiles and measuring buyer metrics within a unified database.

The concept of closed-loop measurement revolves around connecting ad usage to actual conversions. Target Roundel built its media solutions with transparency in mind, monitoring these measurements to determine a seller’s highest performing ad, network, and channel.

E-commerce sellers need tools that help them calculate how effective the previous month’s marketing campaign was. Quickly being able to calculate return on ad spend (ROAS) makes justifying a budget based on measurable results significantly easier.

This concept of end-to-end campaign transparency extends beyond marketing metrics. By only placing your brand in positive, relevant environments, Target advertising can ensure your content is never associated with negative, inappropriate content.

In fact, Target Roundel is so committed to this idea that it only promotes seller ads in places where Target would run its own advertising!

How to Use Target Advertising Ad Types

Target offers various placement and targeting options, but there are five major ad types that e-commerce sellers should be familiar with: Target’s proprietary Programmatic ads, Target product ads, search ads, social ads, and display ads.

By incorporating display, audio, and video channels, Target Roundel can easily and consistently connect e-commerce products with the appropriate audience. 

Target Advertising Ad Type 1: Programmatic by Roundel

An ad type that’s exclusive to Target advertising, programmatic media takes Target’s first-party data and turns it into an actionable marketing strategy.

To fully understand this ad type, we have to understand how publishers and media buyers interact. Basically, publishers make certain media inventory available via ad exchanges. Media buyers use tools called demand-side platforms (DSPs) to purchase media. 

Target’s programmatic advertising allows for an automated approach to buying, selling, and fulfilling digital ads. This advertising tool lets media buyers use their existing DSPs to gain access to Target’s customized audience segments. In other words, e-commerce sellers can easily target “men’s apparel purchasers.”

Of course, this programmatic tool does more than just offer access to customized audience segments. Target Roundel also helps sellers reach engaged shoppers at any point on their buyer’s journey. 

Sellers can offer a cheaper alternative as shoppers begin their buyer’s journey or present a superior choice as shoppers approach the end of their journey. 

With clear metrics, contextual relevance, and plenty of customization available, sellers can systematically determine the most effective approach for each product. 

Target Advertising Ad Type 2: Search Ads (Target Product Ads by Target Roundel)

Target product ads are designed to boost product sales using native, cost-per-click (CPC) ads on both Target.com and the Target app. 

Target Roundel’s strategy with this ad type is relatively straightforward. First, there’s a focus on driving incremental sales by bidding against high-performing products. Sellers can then reinvest in winning strategies with up-to-date reporting and sales attribution. From there, sellers can activate their campaigns via Target’s preferred partners. 

What does this process look like? Well, sellers start by deciding their investment level. At that point, you’ll select which products you’d like to promote and organize them into campaigns. 

The ads are then live on Target.com within a day or two, and sellers can make placement optimizations in real time. Target’s preferred partners help you automate and analyze your campaigns, whether you’re looking for self-service or managed service.

As far as placement goes, these ads can appear on product detail pages, dynamic landing pages, search pages, and much more on Target.com. Target product ads are perfect for reaching interested shoppers actively searching for products.

Target Advertising Ad Type 3: Search Ads (Search Ads by Target Roundel)

If Target product ads are for shoppers already engaging with Target.com, Roundel’s search ads focus on turning active interest on search engines like Google into conversions on Target.com.

Essentially, there are two Target search ad methods that sellers can use. Both are designed to leverage Target assets and first-party data for rapid activation, whether involving product listing ads or extended text ads.

Here are the two approaches:

• In-flight approach: This first method is where sellers incorporate search tactics into their marketing campaigns, reaching shoppers at all marketing touchpoints during seasonal and high-opportunity time frames. This approach is designed for seasonal sellers who have specific marketing focal points.
• Always-on approach: This method is what most sellers may need to consider moving forward. The always-on approach lets sellers run search campaigns as stand-alone, dedicated campaigns. Why does this matter? If you’re trying to consistently improve your marketing efforts, you need to collect as much relevant data as possible. The always-on approach helps sellers capture that qualified data all year long. 

Target’s system for providing end-to-end transparency starts by detailing the journey of a potential search-driven shopper. Target guests begin by clicking on the Roundel campaign ad from a search engine. 

The Target shopper is then identified, and transactions are made via in-store or online purchase. Sellers will then receive detailed revenue breakdowns for products sold under their brand, all in real time. This lets sellers leverage their insights and further optimize their marketing campaigns.

Target Advertising Ad Type 4: Social Ads by Target Roundel

Roundel’s social offerings are part of its mission to connect Target guests with brands they can trust. Social ads by Roundel aim to help companies increase brand exposure. 

As an e-commerce seller, working with Roundel means that you can leverage Target’s brand across platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, and Snapchat. Beyond that, you’ll be able to directly engage with Target’s first-party shoppers.

You can launch your campaign with static, animated, or video ad placements across a variety of social platforms. Use branded Facebook videos, Snap Ads, and Pinterest Pins, all while co-marketing with Target.

Part of what makes this so compelling is being able to legitimize your brand by association with Target. That being said, the targeting potential shouldn’t be overlooked. Target’s unique audience segments are up-to-date and detailed, which makes them extremely valuable to e-commerce sellers.

Target Advertising Ad Type 5: Display Ads by Target Roundel

Target Roundel offers display ads to keep seller’s products visible and accessible, both on and off Target.com.

By relying on relevant messages delivered at exactly the right moment, Target advertising aims to create meaningful connections between shoppers and sellers. According to Target, the display ad approach comes at scale, with detailed measurements for products sold.

It’s worth noting that end-to-end transparency, Target’s commitment to sellers, is about more than just data and measurement. As a seller, you can engage with Target Roundel to whatever degree your brand needs.

If you’re interested in a managed service, you can expect Roundel to manage every aspect of your media buys, from pre-sale to measurement. For sellers that don’t mind getting their hands dirty, there’s self-service.

These sellers can purchase display ads programmatically and start leveraging their existing measurement solutions through the DSP of their choice.

Conclusion

Whether you’re a local business or a Fortune 500 company, finding the right platform for your brand can dramatically elevate the quality of your marketing campaigns.

E-commerce sellers looking to leverage the power of retail media networks understand that real-time access to first-party data is a valuable sales and growth marketing tool.

Target Roundel uses programmatic ads to automate the buying and selling of ads, making media buys that much easier. To boost product sales, Target product ads rely on native CPC ads. 

Target search ads drive interested buyers to seller products, and Target’s social ads help sellers connect with interested shoppers on a deeper level. Its display ads help keep seller’s products visible to shoppers, both on and off Target.com. 

With digital ad solutions that cover multiple angles, Target Roundel certainly makes an interesting case for e-commerce sellers looking to scale up their Target advertising campaigns in a major way.

Have you used Target advertising to boost sales for your brand? What was your experience?

Source: New feed 2

Like most social media platforms, Twitter is one of the best places to find and engage your target audience. It’s a fast-paced platform you can use to achieve many business goals such as lead generation, brand awareness, and even driving sales, among others.

However, because Tweets are limited in length, and the platform is one of the most competitive, it may be easy for your Tweets to disappear into oblivion within a few minutes.

That’s why you must leverage Twitter advertising and create an effective campaign if you want your Tweets to help you achieve your business goals.

Why Should You Create a Twitter Advertising Campaign?

Besides the large pool of monetizable users, Twitter advertising has several other benefits.

Here’s a rundown of several reasons why you should utilize Twitter advertising:

1. Twitter Advertising Is Performance-Based

One distinction between Twitter advertising and advertising on other social media platforms is that, unlike other platforms, you only pay for performance.

To run a Twitter ad campaign, you must set objectives. Examples of these objectives include:

• website conversions
• app installs
• engagement
• increasing your follower base

In other words, Twitter shoulders some of the risks involved in running paid ads on their platform.

2. Keyword Targeting

Another significant advantage of Twitter advertising is that you can create campaigns to target people who have used a particular keyword.

You can conduct keyword research to find seed keywords you can start with. From there, you can find more specific keywords and upload them to your campaign.

3. Tailored Audiences

One of the best features of Twitter advertising is that you can create tailored audiences by targeting people who follow influencers in your niche. The good thing is you don’t need to have their email addresses or other details for it to work.

4. Twitter Ads Are Dirt Cheap

As said earlier, Twitter advertising is performance-based. You only pay for results. That alone should be reason enough to jump onto the platform.

However, there’s even more incentive: Twitter ads are dirt cheap.

The cost per click (CPC) on Twitter ads is fairly low—probably the lowest you can get on any platform.

The most expensive platform is LinkedIn, with an average CPC of $5.26. Facebook is closest to Twitter in cost and would set you back $0.97 per click.

Besides being cost-effective, Twitter ads also have the extra advantage of not having a minimum ad spend threshold. This means anyone can start a campaign, even with a shoe-string budget.

Despite not being as huge as platforms like Facebook and YouTube, Twitter is still an excellent platform for running ads, so don’t ignore it as you design your social media marketing campaigns.

3 Types of Twitter Ads You Can Leverage

With Twitter advertising, you have three options for the types of ads you want to run. Here’s a brief overview of each:

1. Promoted Tweets

Promoted tweets are the most common type of Twitter ad campaigns. These entail creating a tweet and sponsoring it, so it reaches a broader audience. Promoted tweets are usually used for lead generation, brand awareness, and product promotion, among many others.

2. Trend Takeovers

Trend Takeovers appear in the first or second position on the “Trends for You” section under the Explore tab. According to Twitter, Trend Takeovers are best used for launches, breaking company news, or promoting an event at scale.

Trends run for 24 hours from the time they’re promoted. They’re also the most expensive types of Twitter ads.

3. Promoted Accounts

Another way to boost your reach and increase your exposure on Twitter is by promoting your account. Twitter will suggest your profile to users who don’t follow you but might be interested in your profile and content. Your promoted account will show up at the top of the suggestion lists.

Now that you know the three ways you can use Twitter advertising, here are the benefits.

Twitter Advertising: Know Your Objectives

One of Twitter’s most significant advantages is that the platform drives conversations that can sway decisions.

To use these to your advantage, you must understand your objectives. Objectives are campaign types you can use in your Twitter marketing strategy. Fortunately, Twitter designed campaign objectives around the traditional marketing funnel, making them easy to understand. More importantly, it also helps move your prospects down your funnel.

Awareness

Awareness, as the name implies, is all about getting eyeballs on your brand. That could be why Twitter named the one campaign under this category “Reach.” For this objective, you pay per thousand Twitter impressions.

Consideration

Consideration objectives are set for audiences aware of your brand and need more information to move further down your funnel. Some campaigns you can run here include:

• Video views: Promote video ads and pay per view (cost per view, or CPV).
• Pre-roll views: Pre-rolls are video ads played at the beginning of one of Twitter’s content partners. The payment model is CPV.
• App installs: Use this objective to get people to install your app. You pay every time a user installs your app on their device.
• Website clicks: Use this objective to drive traffic to your website. Twitter charges you every time someone clicks on your link (CPC).
• Engagements: This is best for getting more people to engage with your Tweets. You pay for each engagement generated (cost per engagement).
• Followers: Use this objective to build a larger audience for your brand. The payment model here is cost per follow.

Twitter is an excellent platform for grabbing people’s attention and getting them to consider your offer. Leverage Twitter advertising, particularly the consideration objectives, to get your target audience to pay closer attention to your brand.

Conversion

Twitter’s only campaign under the conversion objective is app re-engagements. The purpose is to get people to take action in your app. This is a big deal for brands that leverage apps because app retention rates can be quite low.

7 Twitter Advertising Campaign Steps

Now that we’ve looked at the essential foundational aspects, let’s dive into how to set up your Twitter advertising campaign.

7 Tips for a Successful Twitter Advertising Campaign

Before you rush off to set and run your Twitter ad campaigns, here are some tips for running an effective Twitter advertising campaign:

1. Clearly Define Your Brand

People scroll through their feeds pretty fast on Twitter, and chances are your target audience is not in your network. To make them stop scrolling in their tracks, make it clear what you do.

This is where branding comes into play.

From your images to your ad copy, users should be able to tell in an instant what you do.

2. Use Eye-Catching Images

The brain processes images faster than words, which is why a primary element of your Twitter ads must be your images. Make them eye-catching so that they grab attention. For video ads, make sure you create a custom thumbnail.

3. Write Crisp, Concise, and Compelling Copy

Once you’ve stopped users in their tracks using your visuals, engage them with your copy. Keep it short yet punchy. Most of all, make it compelling enough to move your prospects into clicking on your ad.

4. Use Figures and Symbols

Figures and symbols help break the monotony of text and make your ad copy stand out. As a result, people will pause to take a closer look at your ad. Here’s a great example that uses a hashtag and percent sign to draw attention to a sale:

5. Include a Call to Action

Your ad copy must end with a CTA.

Never assume that your prospects will know what to do after reading your ad copy or watching your video. Always tell them what to do next.

6. Use Hashtags Carefully

Hashtags are a great way to boost visibility. However, they can also detract from your campaign. For example, if your objective is to drive traffic to your website, overdoing your hashtags could lead to a prospect clicking on a hashtag instead of your URL.

Doing this will lead them to other tweets featuring that hashtag, resulting in you missing out on a website visitor.

7. Keep Tabs on the Data

Always keep tabs on your data and analytics. Knowing what’s happening under the hood can give you insights into what works and what doesn’t.

Conclusion

Twitter is an excellent platform for advertising your brand and products or services, which is why every marketer should include it in their tool stack.

With so many advantageous features like being performance-based, having tailored audiences, and being one of the cheapest platforms to advertise on, Twitter is one platform you just can’t ignore.

As you map out your social media marketing strategy, make sure to invest in Twitter advertising.

Now that you know the tips and tricks for a successful campaign, you can start with your own.

Have you used Twitter advertising before? What were your experiences with the platform?

Source: New feed 2

At one point or another, you’ve probably asked yourself if Twitter is actually helpful for growing your business or if it’s a total waste of time.

The truth is, it’s only helpful for promoting your brand if you know how to use it in the right ways.

When I first started on Twitter, I didn’t know much about growing my name on the platform.

After some work, I now have over 380,000 followers. It didn’t happen overnight, though. Like my header image says, you’ve got to make your own luck.

Here’s how you can harness the social power of Twitter to gain followers, fans, and customers who love your products and services (and what you have to say online).

But first, you’re going to want to set measurable goals before diving in. You need to outline exactly what you want to get out of using Twitter.

Set Twitter Goals

Without set milestones, you’re more likely to make mistakes.

According to Sprout Social, the number one challenge for social media is ROI.

Why? Because a lot of businesses are posting content to Twitter and hoping people interact with it.

Posting without a plan doesn’t work. You need to set goals and milestones you want to achieve so you can customize your posts accordingly.

According to HubSpot data, 65% of businesses say generating leads is their biggest challenge when it comes to marketing. Why not try using Twitter to overcome this difficulty?

Here are some examples of goals you might want to achieve:

• get more traffic
• generate better-qualified leads
• provide faster customer service
• build a following
• network

Once you’ve identified your goals, choose specific accomplishments for each one.

These could be things like keeping your response rate above a certain percentage, generating a certain number of leads from Twitter, etc.

Be sure to pick a deadline for each goal, whether it be quarterly, monthly, or weekly.

Then, measure activity and track goals with a tool like Google Analytics.

If you follow these tips and establish meaningful goals, you’ll have more than a random Twitter account with high hopes and low results.

Once you set your goals, you’ll need to start interacting with the right people.

Gain Exposure with Twitter Chats

Your main question when it comes to Twitter is probably, “How can I get more followers?”

But the thing you really should be focusing on is how to get more active Twitter followers. The numbers don’t mean anything if your followers aren’t engaging with you.

The answer to gaining active followers is Twitter chats.

That’s how you can grow your following and gain the attention of users who have more popularity than you.

Plus, they’re conversational. People use Twitter to talk to one another and have a dialog about the topics they’re interested in.

They don’t just use it to view content. People use it to talk about and share ideas.

Users engaging in chats are the ones who will retweet your posts, reply to your tweets, and get your account out to their audiences.

That’s why it’s important to look for existing Twitter chats in your industry and jump into the conversation.

Reply to people and be sure to @ them in your response, so they’ll see that you’re talking to them.

Or, look for influencers in your industry to connect with using a tool like Buzzsumo.

If you can’t find any Twitter chats relating to your line of work, just start your own.

You can go a step further and use a tool like Canva to make a graphic so your post will stand out.

Once you’ve established connections from several chats, be sure to follow them, favorite and retweet their content, and engage in what they have to say.

The key here is to build relationships so people will remember you and your brand.

People will engage with your content if it’s conversational, friendly, interesting, unique, or even humorous.

Just take a look at Wendy’s famous “#NuggsForCarter” Twitter interaction, for example.

Once you’re posting conversational content, you’ll also need to create a schedule for your tweets.

Create a Tweeting Strategy and Schedule

You’ve got to have a posting schedule for your Twitter account so you know what you’re going to tweet and when you are going to Tweet.

Keep your Twitter post schedule in mind when you’re adding to your editorial content calendar.

And remember to tweet links to your content more than just once. Posting a single time is a big mistake that tons of brands make on Twitter. Reposting content will bring in huge results.

Reposting is important because not everyone will see your content if you only post it once. It’s important to space out tweets so you’re on people’s timelines at a constant rate.

But how do you know exactly when you should tweet?

There are tons of tools out there that can tell you the optimal time for you to share content online, including Twitter’s Insights Tool which will tell you when to tweet by finding out when your followers are most active. (We’ll talk more about helpful Twitter tools later.)

In addition to planning content for each day of the week and resharing it, you should plan seasonal content, too.

For example, you should start thinking about special tweets and content for Christmas by late November and early December.

The same goes for Thanksgiving- and Halloween-themed posts, too. Come up with some unique seasonal content you can share when hashtags like #Christmas are trending.

Don’t forget to promote your tweets, too. Here’s how.

Use Twitter Ads

There are three different types of Twitter ads:

• Promoted Ads
• Follower Ads
• Twitter Amplify
• Trend Takeovers
• Twitter Live

Promoted Ads

These are regular tweets you can display to users who aren’t already following you. Users can like and retweet them just like they would with non-promoted tweets.

With promoted tweets, you can reach users who don’t know about your brand and share content that’s already doing well online.

These tweets will show up in search results and in the timelines of the users you target.

Follower Ads

Promoted accounts put you in the spotlight so you can gain followers.

Your account will show up in targeted users’ timelines, search results, and suggestions.

Twitter Amplify

Trending topics appear on the Discover tab, Twitter app, and on the left-hand side of your dashboard.

With Twitter Amplify, you can align your video content with the most relevant publishers on Twitter.

There are two different ad formats, either pre-roll or sponsorships, which are a 1:1 pairing with another Twitter publishers.

Twitter Takeovers

This is a premium, mass reach ad that takes over users Timeline and the Explore feature with an ad at the top of most users’ feed. You can choose a timeline take over for maximum reach or a trend takeover, which places an ad on the Explore tab.

These are pricey, but have a massive reach.

Twitter Live Ads

Twitter Live allows you to share real-time videos on Twitter. Twitter Live ads do exactly what you’d expect — they allow you to promote live videos on the platform to increase engagement (and gain followers!)

Choose the Right Types of Ad Campaigns

You can choose Twitter ad campaigns based on your objective, and you can select which results you want to pay for within each campaign.

For engagement campaigns, for example, you could simply promote tweets like I just mentioned. You only pay for each initial engagement per user, so you’re only paying when someone interacts with the tweet.

For impressions on promoted tweets that don’t end in engagement, you won’t pay anything.

Here are the different ad campaign types.

• Followers: Promote your account and pay for each user that follows you.
• Awareness: Promote tweets to a large audience. You pay for impressions with this type of ad.
• Video views: Promote a video and pay for the number of users who view it.
• Website clicks/conversions: Promote tweets to people you want to visit your site. Here, you pay per click, but you can track conversions and include buttons, videos, or carousel ads.

• Re-engagements/App installs: Promote tweets to users who haven’t used your app in awhile, or to users who haven’t downloaded your app in the first place.

• Lead generation: Promote tweets to gather leads.

You’ll pay for each lead collected and you can allow users to share their email, Twitter handle, and name right in the app. You can download the list later.

Out of all these options, one of the most important is harnessing the power of Twitter video.

Use Twitter Video

Video has become hugely popular in the content world with 94 percent of marketers who use video planning to continue. Currently, 60 percent of businesses use video in their marketing plans.

Twitter probably isn’t the first thing you think of when contemplating video marketing, but there are several options for using videos on the platform.

One is native videos. This feature lets you record videos (as long as 140 seconds) and upload them to Twitter.

You can also go live on Twitter, which I mentioned previously. This is ideal for live events, like conferences, podcast recordings, and webinars.

Users can still watch the recorded video after the live stream ends.

Adding videos to your Twitter marketing efforts is definitely not a waste of time.

Run Contests on Twitter

Twitter contests will allow you to convert your followers to email leads and turn them into paying customers.

Plus, there’s almost no limit to how many types of contests you could potentially run.

You could hold a random drawing, sweepstakes, contest, and so much more.

It’s wise to pick a contest type based on the marketing goals you want to achieve with it, though.

Here’s how you can run a Twitter contest from start to finish.

1. Decide Which Type of Contest to Run

You’ll want to begin by selecting which kind of contest meets your goals.

If you want to grow your email list, for example, a sweepstakes might be the way to go. If you’re seeking engagement, a contest might work better.

2. Select a Prize

The prize will be what motivates users to engage with your contest.

Make sure you choose a prize that relates to your industry in one way or another. This will keep the end goal focused on you, your business, and those interested in it.

For example, you could give away one or more of your products.

Giving away something that isn’t related to your company, like a laptop, might encourage more people to enter, but they probably won’t be very good leads.

3. Create the Contest

Build a contest entry page that’s interesting and easy to navigate. If it’s too difficult to enter, people will click away.

4. Promote the Contest

Now that you’ve created the contest, you’ve got to share it.

Promote it through a series of paid posts to get people interested and to widen the reach of the contest.

Here are some other easy ways you can promote your contest to get the most out of it:

1. Share the contest on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, and where ever your audience is active on social media.
2. Email your customers about the contest. They’re likely to enter and share with friends.
3. Make a Twitter ad to reach users who aren’t following you. Target the ad to people in your demographic.
4. Consider creating a press release explaining your content and business, then send it to larger media organizations.
5. Add a banner about the contest to your site. Link to your contest page on your site so visitors will see it when they are on your page.

5. Monitor the Contest

You want to see how your contest is doing as it’s running so you know if you’re meeting your goals.

That way, you can tweak details and adjust the contest in real time.

You can use Google Alerts to do this. Just set up an alert to monitor any mentions of your contest across the internet.

6. Follow up After Choosing a Winner

Once your contest is over and you’ve picked a winner, you want to keep the buzz going.

Take advantage of the contest coming to a close to promote your Twitter account.

You can do this by sharing who the winner was on your Twitter account or website, sending out a follow-up email to thank those who entered, sharing details about future contests, and more.

This will generate attention toward your brand long after your contest has come to a close.

Automate Your Efforts with Twitter Tools

Now you know exactly how to use Twitter in all the right ways to grow your business.

Next, you might want some additional tools, besides the ones already mentioned above, to make the process a bit easier.

And perhaps more importantly, they’ll make it less time-consuming.

Here’s a shortlist of tools that are perfect for automating several processes on Twitter and making your experience with Twitter marketing a bit more seamless.

TweetDeck

This tool is perfect for scheduling Twitter posts, monitoring mentions, and more.

SocialOomph

This service is very similar to TweetDeck, as it lets you schedule tweets in advance — plus you can track keywords.

Hootsuite

This tool lets you monitor all your social media profiles from one location.

Followerwonk

This service lets you grow your social reach and explore your Twitter analytics.

You can find out who your followers are, determine their location, and more. You can also share your reports and compare your social graph to other users.

No matter which tool you choose, you’ll shave time and effort off your daily Twitter marketing agenda.

Conclusion

If you’re wondering whether Twitter is actually helpful for growing your customer base, the answer is yes– but you have to use it in the right way. Even I had to work at it.

Once you set measurable marketing goals, you’ll have an outline of why you’re using Twitter in the first place. Your goals will keep you on track during all your Twitter campaigns.

Gain Twitter followers by engaging in conversational Twitter chats and use Twitter ads to your advantage. Promote your tweets, account, or industry-related trend.

Run a Twitter ad, and don’t forget to devote special attention to video.

Hold contests to generate a buzz around your products and services, and follow up with customers after the contest has closed.

Finally, remember to automate your efforts with Twitter tools that will save you time and energy.

How have you gone about using Twitter to grow your business?

Source: New feed 2

Marketers are likely to use desktop computers to create and deploy paid ad campaigns, so we may be primed to design with a desktop user in mind.

With so many people using mobile devices, however, the chances of people viewing those ads on mobile devices are high. By taking a mobile first ppc approach, you can ensure mobile users have the best experience with your ads and are more inclined to click through to your landing page or website.

Why Should You Create Mobile First PPC Ads?

As you create your PPC ads, a mobile-first approach can be an efficient way to think through how these will play out.

It’s important to remember mobile-first PPC ads can be compatible with desktop ad viewing as well. In other words, optimizing for mobile first can be beneficial across the board.

Let’s talk about some numbers. The average adult spends over three hours on a mobile device per day, and mobile usage now exceeds desktop usage.

Do you need some more reasons to think mobile-first?

• Google does mobile-first indexing
• mobile shopping continues to rise
• thinking mobile-first means thinking about the customer journey and the entire user experience
• mobile-first parameters could force you to be more creative and develop interactive content that is cutting edge

How to Optimize Your Mobile First PPC Ads

Optimizing your PPC ads for mobile means thinking about how mobile users will engage with your ads. The goal is to convince the user to click through, so you need to think about everything from the visuals to the interactive elements. These are designed to encourage the user to interact with your ad.

There are lots of ways you could go about optimizing your ads for mobile-first, but it really comes down to your approach. As you think about your mobile user, you can take a number of various paths. To get you started, here are a few ways to rethink your mobile-first PPC ads.

Include Interactive Content

One of the top goals for your mobile-first PPC ad is to actually grab the attention of your viewers. Interactive content can be a way to redirect attention away from the webpage, game, app, or social media platform currently occupying them.

Interactive content could include playable minigames, giving people a preview of a full game or letting them play a little game related to your product, or an immersive, 360-degree video experience.

You can also incorporate virtual reality in your ad.

To leverage this kind of engagement, you may need to build the interaction on a platform outside the ad, with the mobile-first PPC ad pointing to the interactive content.

For example, Taco Bell created a Snapchat filter to let you turn your head into a taco for a Cinco de Mayo promotion.

They then created mobile-first ads, encouraging people to head over to Snapchat and try out the filter for themselves. They knew the draw was for people using mobile devices.

Not only did they create an ad made for mobile, pointing people to a mobile interactive option, but the engagement also encouraged people to share on a mobile platform so their friends could also see.

Use Features That Work With or Without Sound in Your Mobile First PPC Campaigns

We all use our mobile devices everywhere, and some places aren’t sound-friendly. Whether you’re at work or in a quiet location, you may not want sound blaring from an ad. Nothing makes us close out an ad without interacting with it than interrupting noise.

Making your sound optional (on video or another engaging feature of your ad) could increase the chances people actually view and click through, rather than just clicking away.

You can do this by defaulting to mute and letting the user choose to turn the sound on.

Here’s an example of a Home Depot in-app video ad, with an on/off sound toggle.

There’s another important angle here too. Not only should the sound be optional, but your mobile-first PPC should also be descriptive and digestible without the sound. This can make it ADA compliant and understandable for anyone viewing the ad without sound. Ensuring your ad works well without audio might mean using relevant text or closed captioning in videos.

Keep the Copy and Videos Short in Your Mobile First PPC Ads

When it comes to getting your message across in your mobile-first PPC ad, getting right to the point is key.

This is an example of where mobile-first is good practice overall. Short ad copy can pack a punch.

Quickly introduce your brand and products or services by getting to the heart of the matter. What’s the pain point? Why do your customers come to you? What keeps them coming back?

Skip the fluff and hit the point right up front.

In doing so, make sure your call to action (CTA) is clear and compelling. Keep your audience wanting more, and then tell them exactly how to get that information by directing them to your landing page or website.

A/B Test Your Mobile First PPC Ad Copy

You should be A/B testing no matter what kind of ad you are creating, but mobile-first PPC ads can especially benefit from it. Running side-by-side ads allows you to monitor the stats over time and analyze the behavior of those who interact.

As you watch the data come in, be sure to check which ones are getting clickthroughs from mobile users. Hone in on what’s getting engagement and continue to tweak, build, and test PPC ads around the variables most likely to get clicks from mobile users.

Over time, you’ll start to see which content, images, features, and more are garnering the kind of attention and engagement from mobile users that you’re looking for in your mobile first PPC ads.

In short, the ones people are clicking on are the ones you want to emulate. Lean into those that work and let the numbers drive future mobile-first PPC campaign decisions.

Include Location and Phone Number Extensions

All PPC ads should have the information an interested customer needs in order to engage with that brand, but location and phone number extensions are especially important for a mobile first PPC ad campaign.

Giving the user these options built right into the campaign means they can click your ad and open a map location or call your number immediately.

In these ways, you are saving the customer a step. Suppose they’re wondering how convenient your brick-and-mortar location is or have a question that’s easier to ask you directly. In that case, they can do so immediately from the device they are using without having to go through another search or go to your website to find out more.

The fewer steps they need to take, the more likely they will engage with you if your brand suits their needs.

Use Mobile Site Links in Your Mobile First PPC Ads

When you are creating mobile first PPC ads, you need to think about the entire campaign infrastructure. It’s not just about the ad itself but also everything a user will interact with in relation. In other words, you need to think about what they will do next after they see your ad and respond to your CTA.

For mobile-first PPC, you need to make sure your landing page (and your website as a whole) are optimized for mobile.

Think about the user experience. Your potential customer sees your ad in an app, on a webpage, or maybe from a web search on their mobile device. They are intrigued by your copy, images, and CTAs.

They click through to the landing page the ad points to, but here’s where it breaks down. Suddenly the page is hard to read, images are wonky, they have to scroll through too much space to get to any content, and they ultimately can’t find the information they were looking for.

They close your page without acting. It had great potential but ended in defeat.

Optimize your page for mobile to ensure that doesn’t happen.

At the very least, make sure the page is mobile responsive to give the customer the best experience. Keep copy short and images clear and minimal to ensure they aren’t stuck scrolling endlessly.

Make the next step clear and unmistakable. Ensure they can purchase directly from a mobile site if that’s your intent. Otherwise, make whatever the next step is very easy to do on a mobile device.

Optimize Your Mobile Site Page Speed for Your Mobile First PPC Ads

We touched on this above, but we need to dive a little deeper into this topic. Your landing page and the website it lives on need to load at a reasonable speed so viewers don’t click away.

Sites that load more slowly tend to have an increased bounce rate.

When someone visits your web page, the last thing you want is for them to just bounce away without actually engaging with your content. After paying for that click through to your page, you want them to actually read or watch your content and then convert.

According to Pingdom, there is a direct relationship between page speed and how many people bounce from the website. The longer it takes the website to load, the higher percentage of visitors bounce away without interacting with any part of the website or going to any other page. In fact, when it takes more than 5 seconds, more than 40 percent of people leave.

There are a number of ways to increase your page speed to improve your bounce rate, including compressing images and limiting the number of additional features, plugins, and other extras you have on the website.

Use Clear Design in Your Mobile First PPC Ads

By design, mobile device screens are smaller than desktop screens. Therefore, you’ll want to consider the visual impact of your design. Design the images, copy, and more to ensure mobile users can see what you are trying to communicate.

Test your design on a mobile device or emulator to double-check that it looks good and is clear enough to read and understand.

Here’s an example of a Target ad that popped up in a weather app.

Immediately your eyes are drawn to the product, product name, and promise (about the recycled packaging). The Target logo is prominent and easily recognizable.

Conclusion

As you put together your next ad campaign, thinking about mobile first PPC is an efficient strategy, not only for your mobile viewers but for best practices overall.

In everything from the ad copy strategy and design to the end goal of a landing page or other engagement, putting mobile user experience first in your mind can help you ensure the majority of viewers have the best interaction possible and hopefully convert.

Successful PPC campaigns, in general, can help you reach your target market, and being ready to reach them on mobile is key.

Our team of experts are ready to help if you need help with your paid ad strategy. We also offer SEO and content marketing services.

How are you going to change up your next PPC campaign to be mobile-first?

Source: New feed 2

There was a time when Pandora was all the rage. Everyone everywhere was streaming music, listening, and sharing it with their friends. In came Spotify and in no time, the platform reached 345 million users.

Spotify now has 34 percent of the market share compared with Apple Music, Amazon Music, and others. What does all of this mean for you? It means Spotify ads are popular, and advertising on this platform could make a significant difference in your business.

In this post, we’re breaking down every last detail you need to know about Spotify ads and how to set them up.

Spotify Ads: What You Need to Know

If you’re considering running Spotify ads, there are a few important factors you’re likely thinking about. How much does it cost, what types of ads do they have, and how do they play the ads on the platform?

Here are more details so you can firmly understand all the minor details before I discuss how to set up and run your ads.

Spotify Ads Cost

There was a time when Spotify only dealt with large brands with big bank accounts. The cost for a campaign previously was $25,000. But that’s not the case anymore.

Spotify has opened the doors to smaller companies and brands by setting up a self-service Spotify Ads Studio where you can set your budget at $250 and let it go from there.

The process of bidding on eyeballs is similar to Facebook and other social networks, and your ads will vary in price based on deliverability and target audience. The actual price you’ll pay can differ depending on the competition but most pay between $.015 and $.025 each time your ad is served.

To convert, someone will either click or tap based on the device they’re using, and you can then bring them to your target page. The destination page will also play a role in the success of your Spotify ad because of relevancy. If you’re unsure how to set up a sales page or landing page, we have plenty of resources to help you.

Ad Types

Once you’ve determined advertising on Spotify fits into your budget, you’ll want to consider the type of ad format that will work best for your business. Advertising on a music and podcast streaming platform may not work for everyone, but there are a variety of different methods and demographics to target.

Here are the different types of ad settings you can run:

All Platforms

The first is the simplest way: running your ad on all platforms. This means your ad will reach your target audience no matter what device they’re using, and the ads will play in between songs when users are active on the platform. You also get a clickable display unit so people can click or tap it and go to your target URL.

If you’re experimenting with advertising on Spotify, starting this way will help you understand who receives your ads and who converts. When you’re first starting, you don’t have any data about how well the ad will perform and who will respond to it the best. As a result, widening your deliverability will help you collect the data so you can narrow it down later on.

Sponsored Sessions

These types of ads display on mobile and tablet only. Sponsored sessions play 30 minutes of uninterrupted music or podcast in exchange for the user watching a full-length advertisement.

At the start of a mobile session, the user receives a prompt that gives them the option to watch a snippet of the video. Then, they can continue watching it until the end in exchange for 30 minutes of uninterrupted music. At this point, they can accept the offer or click away and continue with regular platform advertisements for the duration of their session.

This could potentially work well if you have an ad you know converts. Instead of playing a small snippet and trying to get people to convert in between their sessions, you can play the whole thing right in the beginning and potentially get someone to decide before they begin listening to something and won’t want to click away.

Video Takeover

This ad strategy is a powerful one that displays on mobile and tablet only. Now instead of just audio, you get a complete video that provides a more premium experience for the user and helps to make your ad appear more engaging. It comes with a clickable companion unit so users can click over to your target URL.

Overlay

The overlay ad is a fixed-advertisement displaying when someone returns to the app. There’s no audio or video, and it mimics a banner ad like you would see on an app or website.

Homepage Takeover

This type of ad only works on desktop and it’s a standard display advertisement. You’ll earn yourself a spot on Spotify’s Homepage for 24 hours with a clickable ad that supports rich media. You can include interactive elements to make the ad more engaging.

Leaderboard

On desktop and the web player, you can display this type of ad on the Spotify leaderboard for 30 seconds.

Sponsored Playlists

The sponsored playlist works on all platforms and allows you to reach the most listeners by serving as a sponsor of Spotify. Your ad displays on Spotify’s sponsored playlists so you essentially own the real estate when you choose this type of ad placement. As someone listens to the playlist, only your ads will display as they stream it.

Why Should You Run a Spotify Ad Campaign

While Pandora held the market share of music listeners and streamers for many years, Spotify has stepped in and grown to more than 345 million monthly viewers and 199 million ad-supported users.

That’s a lot of eyeballs and ears to reach with your advertisements. With the introduction and success of the Ad Studio, they’ve made it possible for brands and businesses of all sizes to advertise on the platform. Let’s look at some of the reasons you may want to consider Spotify for your ads.

Spotify Ads Can Drive Revenue for Your Business

One of the primary reasons anyone advertises anything is to increase brand awareness. We may not always be looking for a conversion or a special action to take place; sometimes we’re merely trying to get the word out and let people know we’re here.

Spotify is a great way to do this because a majority of the ad types play in between music when someone is already tuned in and accustomed to listening even if they know it’s an advertisement. If you create an engaging ad with interesting audio and video, you may be able to get the attention you want on this platform.

Spotify Helps You Create Excellent Ads

Spotify offers so many resources to help their advertisers create the best ads they can. They’re on your side and they want to see their sponsors succeed because ads are what pay the bills.

In addition to offering a variety of ad experiences as mentioned, they also offer an assortment of free services like voice-over actors, scripts, background music, and different audio effects.

The Spotify ads-free services also allow you to choose which type of business you are and your goal with the advertisement. You can choose between types of businesses or brands and a goal, such as driving revenue or building awareness.

Spotify Ads Help You Reach Engaged Listeners

One thing I find separates advertising on a streaming platform like Spotify in comparison to Instagram or Facebook ads is this: People are already listening. They’re tuned in, they want to listen, and even if they’re not happy about the ad, they’re still listening.

People are engaged with whatever it is they hear and chances are they intend on sticking around for a while. Whether they have headphones in, they’re at the gym, they’re cleaning their house, whatever it is; they’re listening.

If you’re serving an interesting ad to the right audience, you’ll cling on the emotional engagement of a person 15 percent better than other advertising platforms.

Not to mention the number of targeting demographics help you narrow down your ad to ensure you reach the emotionally engaged audience. You can target based on listening activity, genre, mood, age, generation, location, behavior, listening time, and much more.

Spotify Users Spend More Time on the Platform

Spotify users in North America spend an average of 140 minutes per day listening to the content on the platform. That factor makes it one of the top 10 most popular apps in the world. That’s around 70 hours per month, per user.

How to Set Up a Spotify Ad Campaign

Now I want to break down the steps you need to take to create your first ad with some Spotify ad examples.

1. Create Account

The first step is to create an account if you don’t have one already. You’ll enter standard information about yourself and your business. Once you’ve created your account, it will bring you to a dashboard like the one below. From here, we can get started on setting up our first Spotify ad.

2. Set Your Budget, Objectives, and Schedule

Now, you’ll name your campaign and choose an objective. For this example, I’m offering half off my agency services for the month and the goal of this ad is to increase brand awareness.

On the next page, you’ll choose which type of ad format and platform you want. You can choose between audio or video and pick the platform you want to display the ad as well.

Once you’ve done that, you’ll choose the ad schedule for when you want the ad to start, stop, and what time of day you’d like to display it. You can also set your budget limit so if you reach a certain budget, the ad will stop displaying so you don’t run over.

3. Define Your Target Audience

Next, you’ll choose your target audience based on their country, location, postal codes, age, gender identity, interests, context, music genre, and more. I’m impressed with the level of targeting Spotify has. They allow you to narrow it down.

Most of you won’t narrow down that much in the beginning until you compile data, but this tells me Spotify has a lot of data on its users, which is good from an advertising perspective.

4. Create Your Ad

On the next page is where you’ll create your ad. You can upload a video, add an image, and decide which type of call-to-action you want. Spotify will show you what your ad looks like on both mobile and desktop.

5. Monitor Your Ad’s Success

Once you’ve created your ad, the only thing left to do is monitor its success. They offer plenty of analytics in the back end to keep track of all the data and determine how you’ll want to narrow down your audience over time. Starting as broad as possible will help you gather as much data as possible right away so you can then see who is receiving your ad, who is converting, and who is not.

Conclusion

You’ve seen the back end of the powerful Spotify ads manager and you’ve seen how to set up an ad from top to bottom. The only thing left to do now is to give it a spin and see if it works for your business and your brand.

Be sure to have a customer avatar in mind as you set up your ad, and don’t be afraid to put content out there that’s less than perfect. The most important thing is you’re putting your brand out there to increase awareness, and it doesn’t have to be 100 percent perfect all the time.

Do you think Spotify is a viable advertising avenue for small businesses? Why or why not?

Source: New feed 2

With over 55 million listeners, Amazon Music is one of the leading music streaming platforms out there. Wouldn’t it be great if you could find a way to reach these subscribers and share your products with them.

Well, you can, and it’s all thanks to Amazon audio ads. Through Amazon’s free, ad-supported tier, you can create short, engaging audio ads to reach a whole new audience base. Let me walk you through how it works.

What Are Amazon Audio Ads?

Think of Amazon audio ads like radio ads.

They’re commercials between 10 and 30 seconds long, and you can use them for any marketing campaign, from promoting brand awareness to hyping up a new product.

You don’t need to sell products on Amazon to use this service, either, which makes it accessible for more businesses.

The ads themselves play between songs. You can’t choose your slot preference, but there’s great reach available anyway. Listeners can tune in through their Echo devices, or they’ll hear your ad when they use the Amazon Music app on Android, FireTV, and iOS.

How much do these ads cost? Well, Amazon charges for audio ads on a cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM) basis, so you pay each time a thousand people see your ad.

You need to spend at least $15,000 per month on Amazon audio ads to use the service. However, according to Amazon, the average minimum budget is about $25,000 per month, so you might want to bear this in mind.

Why Should You Use Amazon Audio Ads?

Audio ads are nothing new, but there are two main reasons why Amazon’s audio ads may be worth a try.

First, think about the potential reach. The Amazon Echo is America’s most popular smart speaker, for one thing, and as I’ve mentioned, there are over 55 million Amazon music subscribers and counting!

Secondly, ad-supported streaming subscriptions aren’t going anywhere any time soon. According to Amazon, 68 percent of Americans rely on free streaming subscriptions, so there’s surely an audience for your campaigns.

The best part, though? You’re engaging with audiences in a creative, exciting new way. In a hugely competitive marketplace, Amazon audio ads may give you an edge over your rivals.

Who Should Use Amazon Audio Ads?

Can any business use Amazon audio ads? Sure.

Are these ads suitable for every business, though? No.

For starters, consider your budget. $15,000 per month is pretty steep, so small or niche businesses might find the cost isn’t justified.

Next, think about your overall marketing strategy. Do you plan on using any other Amazon advertising product? The ads might work best when used alongside other Amazon marketing tools to build a stronger, more cohesive presence on the platform.

Finally, think about your brand. Although you don’t need to sell through Amazon to create an ad, you might find Amazon audio ads make more sense if you’re already an Amazon seller and want to direct people to buy from your store.

3 Steps to Set Up Amazon Audio Ads

Ready to try Amazon audio ads? Great! Let’s break down the steps involved.

1. Understand Your Own Goals

Before you sign up, set out your goals. Why? Because it gives you some creative direction, which you’ll need to write a great script and create compelling visuals to accompany it.

Remember, no two campaigns are alike. Be clear on what you need from your Amazon audio ad before you go live.

2. Contact an Amazon Ad Consultant

Next, reach out to an Amazon ad consultant. They can help you plan, optimize, and launch your audio ad campaigns based on your budget and marketing goals.

To get going, simply click the “Get Started” link on the audio ads page.

Select which country you want to advertise in and choose your monthly budget. Remember, if you want to spend less than $15,000 per month, you can’t launch a custom audio ad campaign.

If you’re OK with the budget requirements, input your company contact details and provide a summary of your marketing needs. A consultant will be in touch to discuss your campaign in more detail.

Even if you can’t access Amazon audio ads for your marketing right now, there’s always a chance that Amazon will introduce a more flexible pricing structure in the future.

3. Provide an Audio File and Companion Banner

Your Amazon audio ad needs both an audio file and a companion banner for when your ads run on devices like FireTV.

Audio File

The audio file contains the ad itself. Remember, it must be somewhere between 10 and 30 seconds long, and the file size can’t exceed 1 MB.

In terms of format, you can submit either a WAV, OGG, or MP3 file, and the volume should be at least 192 kbps so it’s easily audible.

To be clear, you shouldn’t use suggestive, provocative, or offensive language. It must be suited for a general audience.

Companion Banner

Your companion banner (or graphic) shows up while the ad plays. Here are some guidelines for it:

• The file must be a JPEG sized to 1024 x 1024 px.
• It can’t be more than 750 KB.
• The headline can’t be more than 19 characters. In other words, keep it short and sweet.

There are some visual guidelines, too.

For starters, you can’t use style tools that make it look like any particular part of the ad is clickable. Here’s an example from Amazon:

A banner along these lines may be more appropriate because there’s nothing to suggest it’s clickable:

You can also include a URL if you want, but it should be something compact so it doesn’t take over the whole graphic. “Shop now at Amazon.com” or some variation of this is OK.

Finally, make sure the text is clear and legible.

Struggling to put a companion banner together? Don’t worry. Your ad consultant can help you design it, and they’ll offer feedback if something’s not working.

Once you’ve submitted your banner and audio file to your consultant, your ad could go live within three working days.

How to Add a CTA to Your Amazon Audio Ads

A call to action (CTA) encourages people to do something after listening to your ad, such as buy your product. Unsurprisingly, every Amazon audio ad should have one! Where should your CTA go, though, and what should it include? Let’s take a look.

First, since you want people to take action after hearing your ad, it’s usually best to place your CTA at the end. Ensure you include your brand name and a specific action for people to take.

Next, keep your CTA short and specific. Don’t leave listeners in any doubt over what they should do and how they can do it.

Finally, avoid using sound effects. You don’t want to lose the message in your CTA behind a jingle!

Let’s say your company’s called Coffee King, and you want people to buy your new Regular Roast. Here are some CTAs you could use.

• “To buy our Regular Roast, go to CoffeeKing.com.”
• “To start shopping, ask your device to search for Coffee King’s Regular Roast.”

Remember, if you don’t ask a consumer to do something, how will they know what you want them to do?

6 Tips to Create Great Amazon Audio Ads

Remember, your audio ad can’t be more than 30 seconds long, so every second counts. Here are some tips for making the most of the time you have.

1. Write a Great Script

OK, so there’s an art to writing a great script. The good news? It’s something you can learn. Here are some tips:

• Use short and simple statements to make your point.
• Ensure your language and tone resonates with your audience. For example, teens may not go for highly formal language, and so on.
• Focus on one core concept per ad campaign. Don’t confuse your listeners.

2. Promote the Product Benefits

What’s so great about your product, and why should consumers buy it? Make this the focus of your ad. If you’re running any promotions or exclusive offers, be sure to mention them, too.

You might want to avoid testimonials, though. Too many voices can muddle your recording and distract from your message.

3. Provide a High-Quality Recording

It sounds obvious, but ensure your recording sounds professional.

• Speak in a crisp, clear voice.
• Make sure the recording is free from interference.
• Avoid talking too fast. You’re trying to form a connection with your listener.

4. Avoid Sound Effects

Does your ad need dramatic sound effects like sirens or horns? Probably not. Jarring sounds can annoy your listener, which isn’t great when you’re trying to nurture them into buying your products.

If you really must use sound effects, use them sparingly, and only if they’re necessary to drive your message home.

5. Use Smooth Transitions

Remember, your ad doesn’t play in isolation. It’s playing between songs or other audio ads. Don’t begin with a long pause, and don’t “apologize” for interrupting someone’s music. Since you don’t know when your ad will play, a statement like this could be irrelevant.

Avoid long fade-outs, too. Simply end with your CTA.

6. Spread a Consistent Brand Message

Consistency is key. According to Forbes, cross-platform consistency can boost your revenue by 23 percent.

The takeaway? Ensure you’re using consistent language, visuals, and brand messaging across all your marketing campaigns. If your audio ad sounds off-brand, it could deter listeners from shopping with you.

How to Track the Success of Your Amazon Audio Ad Campaigns

Once your ad campaign is up and running, you need to monitor your key performance indicators (KPIs) to ensure it’s working for you. For audio ads, here are the metrics you should track:

• impressions: how many times the ad plays or people hear it
• listen through rate (LTR): how many times someone listens through to the end
• reach: who listens to your ad
• purchase intent: how likely a customer is to buy your product after hearing the ad

Amazon offers tools to help you track these metrics, but you can also use your own tracking tools.

Examples of Great Amazon Audio Ads

Want to learn more about Amazon audio ads in action? Here are two great success stories to inspire you.

Samsung

Samsung, the tech industry giant, needed help marketing its Galaxy S10 Lite handset. They opted for audio ads to reach young listeners tuning in to Amazon Music.

According to stats compiled by Amazon, these audio ads generated a 64 percent increase in organic impressions for Samsung and an 18 percent jump in overall product awareness.

All in all, I call this a successful campaign.

Berocca

This brand took Amazon audio ads to a whole new level.

Berocca is a popular vitamin company with customers around the world. They wanted to identify new ways to reach their diverse audience base and sell their Berocca Boost tablets.

How did they achieve their goal? They used actionable audio ads powered by Amazon Alexa.

• The ad includes a clear and effective CTA, inviting people to try Berocca Boost if they feel lethargic.
• If interested, the listener gives the voice command to try Berocca Boost.
• Listeners can then either hear more about the product or use another voice command to buy the energy tablets directly through the ad.

What’s great about this campaign is how easy it is for listeners to engage with the audio ad and actually purchase the product.

Conclusion

Amazon audio ads can help you increase your reach, sell more products, and ultimately grow your business. They’re simple to set up, and you can go live in as little as three working days.

That said, Amazon audio ads are not for everyone. If you’re in any doubt as to whether this campaign’s right for you or if you need help with audio marketing more generally, let me help you.

What do you think of Amazon audio ads? How are they helping your business?

Source: New feed 2

Pages on the internet don’t last forever.

Some disappear overnight without warning. Other times, servers go down, or maybe you’re simply curious what your website or someone else’s looked like ten years ago.

So how do you re-access this information?

You need a web cache viewer.

It’s a tool that helps you recover backups or snapshots of websites.

In this guide, we’ll go through some of the best web cache viewer tools to help you turn back time to find missing information or even spy on your competitors.

What Is a Web Cache Viewer?

A web cache viewer lets you see the older version or snapshot of any website, called a cache page. A cached page is a snapshot of the raw HTML and content of a page.

For example, when Google indexes your website, it takes a screenshot of what it looks like at the time and indexes it.

There are several tools to view an archived page, such as Google’s cache feature on search results and websites like the Wayback Machine dedicated to saving the internet’s history.

When to Use a Web Cache Viewer

A web cache viewer is a valuable tool to have in your back pocket. Here are a few times you might want to use this handy tool.

A Website Is No Longer Available

Need to get information from a page with a pesky 404 error? A web cache viewer can help you see the last archived version before it went offline.

A Page You Want to View Has Changed

If a website went through a major makeover, you could use the cached version to revert the site to what it used to look like. This is particularly helpful for doing competitor analysis. For example, if a competitor suddenly overtook your site in the search results, you can look at older versions of their site to see what they changed.

Improve Your SEO

Not seeing the SEO results you want? Did you know page caching can improve your site speed by reducing server load time by up to 80 percent? Viewing the cached version shows you what Google sees when it crawls your page. If your website is not cached, it can increase your page load times and drastically affect your bounce rate.

View a Page Faster

If the web page is slow or unresponsive, you can use the cached version to see a snapshot of the site the last time Google indexed the page. Although a cached page won’t always have up-to-date information, it can help you save time.

Check When Google Last Indexed a Page

It’s helpful to know when the last time Google bots successfully visited your page, especially if you’re making changes to your site.

By viewing the cached version, you can see if a page is unresponsive, how it is being cached, and if there is anything you need to un-do.

Web Cache Viewer Tools and Tricks

While viewing cached versions sounds like an admin nightmare, several tools make the process easy, simple, and fast.

1. Use a Chrome Extension

Not using Chrome extensions? You’re missing out.

Google’s Chrome extensions are programs you can install to your browser to change its functionality.

For example, you can add extensions that:

• Block ads from displaying on any site you visit.
• Pin any image to your Pinterest boards.
• View the DA of any website.
• Quickly access any of your passwords with a password manager.

The Web Cache Viewer Chrome extension makes it easy for you to view a snapshot of the page you’re visiting. This is useful if you come across a 404 error and want to revert to the older version to see the information.

Wayback Machine Vs. Google Cache on the Chrome Extension

The Web Cache Viewer extension will:

• Let you view the Google Cache or Wayback Machine versions.
• Intelligently redirect you to the archived page instead of taking you to the archive selection screen on the Wayback Machine website.

Which option should you use? The Wayback Machine or Google Cache?

It comes down to what result you want from the tool.

For example, if you want to check Google is caching your site, or you need to view the last cached page of a site, Google Cache is the best option for you.

However, if you want to turn back the wheels of time and dig through a website’s past, you’ll want to use the Wayback Machine.

How to Use the Chrome Extension’s Web Cache Viewer With Wayback Machine or Google Cache

Got five minutes? That’s all you need to set up the extension and start using its caching functionalities.

Here’s what you need to do.

Step 1: Install the Web Cache Viewer onto your Chrome and activate the extension.

Step 2: Go to the target URL of your choice, right-click on the page, and scroll down to “View Cached Version.”

Step 3: Select either the Google Cache or Wayback Machine option.

After choosing, the extension will show you the Wayback Machine URL for the page or show you the last Google cached version.

2. Use Google Search to Find Cached Pages

Each time Google crawls a web page, it creates a backup, which becomes part of Google’s cache.

How to Get a Cached Link With Google Search

Step 1: Do a Google search on your computer for the page you want to find.

Step 2: When the search results load, click on the down arrow next to the site’s URL and select “Cached.”

Step 3: The cached version of the page will load. You can view the “Full Version,” “Text-Only Version,” or “View Source.”

Keep in mind that you won’t be able to navigate to other pages on the site. If you do, it will take you to the live version. You can also access the live page by clicking on the “Current Page” link at the top of the page.

3. Use the Address Bar in Chrome to Find Cached Pages

Struggling to find the page you want via search results? If you have the Chrome browser, you can use the address bar to get the cached version of any URL.

How to Get a Cached Link With The Address Bar in Chrome

Step 1: Open the Chrome browser.

Step 2: Type “cache” in the address bar followed by the URL. For example, “cache:https://neilpatel.com”

Step 3: The cached version will load, and you’ll have the same three version formats to choose from with the Google search method.

4. Use the Archive Today Web Cache Viewer

Wish you could travel back in time? Well, you can with Archive.Today.

The website is a time capsule for the internet. It takes a snapshot of a page and stores it forever, even if the original disappears.

The site saves text and graphics and will give you a link to the unalterable record of the web page.

The only catch?

You need to manually submit web pages and can only view entries that have previously been saved.

How to Get a Cached Page With Archive.Today

Step 1: Go to Archive.Today and scroll down to “I want to search the archive for saved snapshots.”

Step 2: Enter the URL you want to search.

Step 3: A new page will load, and you’ll see snapshots listed from oldest to newest. Click on the one you want to view.

A secure, non-editable version of the page will load. You have the option to download the zip file, share the link, and view the webpage or screenshot.

5. Use Wayback Machine’s Desktop Web Cache Viewer

The Internet Archives runs the Wayback Machine. It’s a non-profit building a digital library of the internet’s history.

You can explore more than 553 billion cached web pages, and the site hosts an archive of text, video, audio, software, and images.

How to View a Cached Page With The Wayback Machine

Step 1: Go to Archive.org and enter the URL or keyword you want to view in the Wayback Machine search bar.

Step 2: A search results page will load. Click on the URL of the page you want to view.

Step 3: Use the calendar at the top of the page to see what the website looked like during a specific time period.

For example, if you search neilpatel.com, you can see what my blog was like in 2013!

Don’t want to log onto the Wayback Machine every time you want to view a cached page? Download the Chrome extension.

If your site is not on the Wayback Machine, you can manually submit your URL, and it will automatically create a snapshot for you. This is useful if you want to track how your site evolves through the years.

6. Use Cached Page Web Cache Viewer

Cachedpage.co is a website that consolidates a few of the tools I’ve mentioned already.

Once you type the URL of the page you want to view, you have three options to choose from:

• Google Web Cache
• Internet Archive
• Website

Select the one you want to use, and Cached Page will redirect you to those respective sites.

It doesn’t do any caching itself, so this site is only useful if you want to save time hopping between caching tools.

Conclusion

As you can see, a web cache viewer is an important SEO and marketing tool to have in your online arsenal.

It can quickly help you find information removed from the internet, see how your site has changed over the years, and tell you if Google isn’t indexing your site correctly.

While there are many tools available, remember to keep intent in mind. Do you only want to view the last cached version of a page, or do you need to go further back into time?

Your answer will help you find the right solution to your caching problem.

What’s your favorite web cache viewer tool, and how to use it?

Source: New feed 2

It doesn’t matter if you run a tiny mom-and-pop shop or a mega-billion dollar corporation; content marketing works.

Just look at the way the content marketing industry has exploded in recent years.

In this article, I’m not just going to sing the praises of content marketing. Instead, I’m going to take a deep dive into something that most people don’t talk about: a tiny slice of content marketing called H1 tags.

Truth be told, most SEOs, content marketers, web developers, and marketers know a little bit about H1s. That can be a problem though; we’re so used to hearing about H1s, using H1s, and talking about H1s, that we don’t stop and think about how to write them in a way that appeals to users and search engines.

You’re different though. You’re reading this article, and are going to learn the exact method for producing great H1s that will take your content marketing to the next level.

What Is an H1?

The H1 is an HTML tag that indicates a heading on a website.

Let me unpack that.

• HTML: This stands for Hypertext Markup Language. Most websites use this language to create web pages.
• Tag: An HTML tag is a snippet of code that tells your web browser how to display the content.
• Heading: HTML has six different heading tags: H1, H2, and so on. The H1 is considered the most important tag, and the H6 is the least important. The tags are often formatted from large (or most important) to smallest (or least important).

If you were to create an H1 in HTML, it would look like this:

<h1> Hi, My Name is Header One! </h1>

You can take a look at this yourself. Open up any web page (preferably a good quality blog) and follow these instructions.

First, make sure you’re on a web page.

Next, view the source code.

To do this, I use a keyboard shortcut for Chrome (Mac): command + Option + u (do not press the plus sign, you just hold command, option, and u at the same time).

The commands you use to open source code will vary depending on the browser and processor you use.

You can also click View → Developer → View Source (in Chrome):

This is what you’ll see when you view the source code:

Next, search for the h1 tag.

Press CTRL + F to open the search feature on your browser. Again, I’m using Chrome, but most browsers use this function.

When I press CTRL + F, I see a small search bar in the upper-right corner of the browser window.

Type “h1.”

Then, press Enter.

Chrome highlights the h1 on this page.

There’s a bit of intervening code between the start tag and the end tag, but the tag is there.

The copy within the h1 tag is “How to Keep Your Facebook Group Active and Engaged.”

That’s it. It seems pretty simple, but the h1 has a big impact, as you’ll find out in the next section.

Why Are H1s so Important?

First, I’ll tell you a story. A little while back, business was humming along as usual. I was doing my thing, running my blog, and writing my articles.

My blog traffic had been pretty good overall, but I decided to get another set of eyeballs on it to help identify improvements. One of these improvements was to update an H1 on one of my articles. Within three days, the page had 85% more organic traffic. Plus, it had gone from page 3 of the SERPs to page 1, position eight!

All because I changed the H1.

I’m not the only one who’s experienced such a dramatic change. In fact, my bump in search traffic is nothing compared to a local car parts store in Houston, TX, who changed their page titles and H1s. The result?

The chart tells it all:

I don’t want to sound like a snake-oil salesman with a bunch of anecdotes, so let me give you the cold, hard facts about h1s and SEO.

H1s have always been a major ranking factor.

There have been plenty of trends in SEO that have come and gone, but H1s have never lost their significance.

In Moz’s most recent search ranking factors survey, title tags are listed as the second most important ranking factor. Although it’s not always the case, many use the same title tag. and H1.

H1s are usually the most visually notable content on the page and are probably the most important SEO feature.

And at first, it might not seem like H1s are an “SEO” feature at all, because it’s more about the user than about the technical optimization of the page, right?

Right! That’s the direction that SEO has taken in recent years. SEO is more about user optimization than it is about search engine optimization.

Don’t skip over this idea of users noticing the H1. It matters.

H1s are one of the most potent on-page SEO and UX elements that you have in your arsenal.

Now, let’s figure out how to use them.

How Do I Create Killer H1s?

H1s aren’t a big secret. The fact is, just about anyone who knows anything about SEO or HTML uses them.

So why did I even write this article? It’s because most people use them incorrectly.

Until recently, even I didn’t realize just how wrong I had been when I was writing H1s. After turning the corner and making a discovery, my knowledge of H1s hit the roof, and my website traffic changed as a result.

Here are the rules of H1 creation.

1. Use Only One H1

Every page needs only one H1 tag. There is no reason to use more than a single H1 tag.

Why not? If one is good, wouldn’t two or sixteen be even better?

Search engines will crawl multiple H1s on a page, sure, but the logical priority of an H1 semantic tag means that you’re focusing your SEO efforts on one keyword phrase or sentence, as opposed to many.

The presence of more than one H1 won’t necessarily confuse the search engine, but it could dilute the SEO power of a single H1.

Google may also consider your page over-optimized if you use more than one H1, and may penalize you as a result.

2. Your H1 Should Describe the Topic of Your Page

At the most basic level, the H1 should describe what the content is all about.

1. Often, the H1 tag will be similar or the same as your title tag.
2. Usually, the H1 tag will be the title of your blog post or article.
3. Normally, the H1 tag gives the reader a strong sense of what he or she is going to read.

3. The H1 Should Be Between 20 and 70 Characters

If your H1 is too short, you’re wasting valuable space; if it’s too long, you’re diluting the power of the tag.

However, if you’re using the same H1 and title tag for a page, you should pay more attention. Best practices say titles should be between 40 to 60 characters so you can fit in the most keywords. However, when you start to reach the 50-60 keyword range, your click-through rate can start to decrease. As a result, try to stick to the 30-40 character range.

4. Make Your H1 Tag Stand Out

Your H1 should be the most important visual element on the page.

1. it should be big
2. it should be strong
3. it should be noticeable
4. you should use whatever visual, formatting, and style elements are necessary to make that thing stand out

Why is this important?

Keep in mind that an H1 is a semantic element, not a visual element, and it’s important to keep this distinction. Web designers don’t need to add style elements by using semantic tags such as the H1, H2, etc.

However, in the real world, style and semantic elements do mix. Following design and development best practice mean the most significant semantic tags are also the most important visual elements.

Size matters in web design, and semantic tags matter in web development. Conjoining them in SEO makes sense.

For a good example of this formatting, check out the blog at Smart Passive Income. Pat Flynn’s H1 is definitely strong.

When I check out the source code, this is what I see:

Here’s another good example from Ramit Sethi.

Can you guess what his H1 is?

The H1 is “Do you know your earning potential.”

5. Create H1s That Provide a Good User Experience

SEO changed massively over the past few years. The biggest change by far has been the influence of user experience (or UX) on SEO.

The best way to consider SEO and UX is with this Venn diagram (to access link, you must download a chrome extension).

That diagram was published in 2012.

Nearly a decade later, the SEO circle would be a smaller circle within an even bigger Design & Usability circle.

Part of the reason for this is search engines have evolved to such a high degree they can intuit what users want, even as users are searching and browsing.

Keep in mind that due to machine learning, search engines are constantly changing. There are no longer massive SERP upsets due to algorithm shifts.

Instead, there is the continual nuanced adjustment of search ranking factors based on the search and browsing habits of the search engine’s millions of users. In other words, how users interact with your page has a lot to do with how your page will rank; and the H1 is one of the most important elements on your page that influences their interaction.

This is because it’s noticeable. It sends a message. It communicates a sentiment. It makes a promise.

Your H1 should speak to the user in an overt way. It should be formatted and placed carefully so your user understands that it is the title of the page, and explains what the page is about.

6. Use a Focused Long-Tail Keyword in Your H1

Believe it or not, some SEOs used to not recommend using keywords in your H1s. They thought it could be considered keyword stuffing, which Google penalized a long time ago.

Luckily, there’s nothing keyword-stuffing at all about using a keyword in an H1. On the contrary, Google wants you to use a keyword in the H1. It helps their crawlers better understand what your page is all about.

If you don’t use a strong keyword in your H1 tag, then Google can still find out what the page is about, index it appropriately, and give you a nice rank. Why leave out the opportunity to give Google all of the information it needs and wants right in your website source code, though?

It’s better to use a keyword; sometimes a long-tail keyword specifically.

Let me show you a clear example of how this works using a simple keyword, “bandit testing.”

Even though this keyword is not technically long tail, it works well for our purposes, because it’s clear, concise, noticeable, and easy to use in an H1 tag.

This is a page from the Crazy Egg blog.

The article is about bandit testing.

The most noticeable visual element on the page is “Glossary: Bandit Testing.” That’s also the h1.

Here are the facts about this page:

• The title: What is Bandit Testing? The Crazy Egg Glossary
• The H1: Glossary: Bandit Testing
• The keyword: bandit testing

Their rank at the time this page was originally published (it has subsequently been updated)? Google page 1, position five! That position was earned only two weeks after publishing the article.

This article takes a more long-tail approach. The keyword in this scenario is “Facebook Video Ad Hacks.”

That keyword is included in the blog title, and it is also the H1 tag.

Just two weeks after publishing, the article was on page one, position 5 of Google.

To summarize: yes, I’m recommending that you use a long-tail keyword in your H1 tag.

Follow a few simple rules though:

• don’t force it
• make it natural
• don’t keyword stuff!

7. Answer User Intent With Your H1

The phrase “user intent” seems to confuse some people, but it’s really quite simple.

Whenever you write a piece of content, you want to be asking questions like:

What does the user want when they open my article?

What’s their intent?

Your H1 should satisfy that intent.

If someone is googling “risky SEO tactics,” I can probably assume that they are looking for some quick search engine optimization techniques that will boost their rankings.

If I were to write an article on that topic (oh wait, I did!) then I want to answer their intent with my H1.

Here’s how the journey of intent works.

First, the user gets an idea. Then, they search Google for it.

They see this promising result in the SERP.

If they click it, they see my blog article on the topic.

My goal with that H1 tag is to promise them what they came looking for: some straightforward but risky SEO tactics that could boost their traffic.

This is how Marc Purtell explains it in SEJ:

In order to have some great, Hummingbird-optimized h1 tags, try to understand what a user may be asking when they are searching for a keyword the page is targeting and format that question on the page with h1 tags.

Let me summarize the rules for creating amazing h1s.

1. Use only one h1
2. Your h1 should describe the topic of your page
3. Make your h1 stand out
4. Create h1s that provide a good user experience
5. Use a focused long-tail keyword in your h1
6. Answer user intent with your h1

Transform Your Website in 1 Week with an H1 Tag Audit

As a bonus, I want to give you an actionable way to put these lessons into practice. I’m going to give you a homework assignment that may boost your organic traffic by 50%. Most can carry out this task in a few days.

I see a lot of people waste a lot of time doing “content audits” on their websites. I’m not against content audits; but instead of doing a full-fledged content audit on your website, I suggest that you do an H1 tag audit first.

H1 audits are quick and easy and have the potential to produce successful results in record times.

1. Download Screaming Frog

You can do this from the Screaming Frog website.

Click “SEO Spider Tool.”

Then click “Download.”

You do not need to purchase a license to use the software. If your website is more than 500 pages, however, it’s a good idea to purchase a license.

2. Open Screaming Frog

When you’ve successfully downloaded Screaming Frog, go ahead and open it.

3. Type in Your URL

4. Click Start, and Wait for the Crawl Process to Complete

Depending on the size of your site, this could take a couple minutes or a few hours.

It usually takes less than a minute for Screaming Frog to crawl 500 pages.

5. Click H1 in the Menu Bar

Here, you’ll see a list of all the H1 tags on your website.

6. Check H1 Tags

Click the filter menu.

First, search for H1s that are missing by simply selecting “Missing” in the filter field.

You’ll see a list of all the pages on your site that lack an h1 tag.

Your first task is to create an h1 for each of these pages.

(Unless, of course, you have a reason not to. My /blog page is a menu page to select the articles that I’m regularly adding and updating there, so I’ve chosen not to include an h1).

Click “Export.”

Find a good place to save the file.

It’s a CSV, so you can open it up in Excel.

Next, filter all the “duplicate” h1s. You can do this by clicking “duplicate” on the filter menu. Again, save this list in a CSV for future reference.

Finally, add a filter all the “multiple” h1s. Again, save the list

Now, go back to the filter menu, and select “All.” Export the list. At this point, you should have four CSV files.

7. Create New H1 Tags

Your task now is to create new h1 tags for each of the categories. Start with the missing ones, move on to duplicate, next multiple, and finally rework all h1s.

If your website is tens of thousands of pages, you may only be able to work on the highest-priority h1 tag project: the missing ones.

However, if you have the time, update all of your h1s to align with the rules that I provided above.

I think you’ll see a big difference in your traffic, your rankings, and your overall site performance.

Conclusion

If you’ve read this article, you know more about h1 tags than most people. More importantly, you know exactly how to use h1s for maximum SEO impact.

If you want help creating better H1s, title tags, content, or even SEO in general, reach out to our agency so we can help.

What are some of your h1 best practice tips?

Source: New feed 2

Every Amazon seller knows how difficult it is to track and measure the impact of external advertising channels on sales. It doesn’t matter how you are driving clicks to your Amazon page; once consumers land on the website, it’s anyone’s guess what happens. 

Thankfully, that’s not the case anymore. Amazon Attribution makes it possible for certain sellers to track what happens to every user they send to the platform. In this post, I’ll explain everything you need to know about Amazon Attribution, including:

• who can use Amazon Attribution
• the benefits of using Amazon Attribution
• how to set up Amazon Attribution
• what you can track using Amazon Attribution

What Is Amazon Attribution?

Amazon Attribution is a new tool that promises to grow your Amazon business by improving experiences away from the Amazon platform.

Specifically, the tool provides analytics insight into how non-Amazon marketing channels like search, social media, display, PPC, and email marketing impact sales on Amazon. It can also track traffic sent to a different website that ultimately converts on Amazon.

Access to Amazon Attribution is available through either the platform’s self-service console or through tools that already integrate with the Amazon Advertising API.

What Does Amazon Attribution Cost?

Amazon Attribution is currently available for free, which is great news for e-commerce owners.

Who Can Use Amazon Attribution?

Amazon Attribution is currently only available to sellers enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry and Vendors in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Germany, Spain, France, and Italy. That may change in the future, so keep your eyes peeled if you are in other locations.

What Can You Track Using Amazon Attribution?

Amazon Attribution lets you track a range of metrics that can impact e-commerce sales, including:

• click-throughs
• impressions
• detailed page views
• purchase rate
• add to cart
• total sales

How Does Amazon Attribution Work?

Amazon Attribution uses parameterized URLs—essentially a tracking URL. When users click on the link and go to your store, Amazon can track precisely what they do.

It’s a bit like a combination of Facebook’s Pixel and Google Analytics. Everything users do once they click on your ad is tracked, and you can see it all in an easy-to-use dashboard.

4 Amazon Attribution Features You’ll Want to Try

Amazon Attribution isn’t just a URL tracking tool. It has several key features marketers will want to leverage.

1. Full-Funnel Amazon Analytics

Amazon Attribution significantly increases the number of sales funnel data brands have access to. You’re not just limited to conversion data. Instead, Amazon lifts the curtain on how consumers interact with your product on their platform, providing metrics like clicks, detailed page views, and how many times customers add your product to their basket.

2. On-Demand Amazon Conversion Metrics

You can see campaign performance as and when it happens. Real-time reporting means marketers can optimize their marketing campaigns faster than ever before.

3. Customer Insights

Because of the wealth of metrics Amazon Attributes provides, marketers can understand how the users they send to their store behave once they get there. Do they add the product to their basket as soon as they land on a page? Do they find a different product they prefer? Do they not buy anything at all? Amazon Attribution lets you answer all those questions and more.

4. Separate Tracking for Each Advertising Channel

Amazon Attribution lets marketers create different tags for every marketing channel. Facebook Ads, Google AdWords, blog posts, social media posts, it doesn’t matter. You can make hundreds of tags so you always get granular detail on the performance of every channel.

Why Is Amazon Attribution Such a Big Deal?

It’s not an overstatement to say Amazon Attribution could be a transformational tool for sellers and vendors. Before the tool was created, tracking off-Amazon marketing campaigns was an absolute nightmare.

There was simply no way to differentiate traffic from separate marketing channels. It was all dumped together.

Let’s say you made 500 sales, and you know that your own Amazon ads generated 100 of them. That leaves 400 sales that could have come from any marketing channel or even through an organic Amazon listing.

Do you see what a problem that is for marketers trying to find the best channel? There’s no way they can tell.

Amazon Attribution changes everything completely. Now marketers and brands will be able to see precisely where each sale comes from, and that comes with a bunch of benefits.

3 Benefits of Using Amazon Attribution

“Why use Amazon Attribution in the first place?” I hear some of you ask. There are several reasons eligible brands should start using Amazon Attribution immediately. Here’s my top three.

1. It Identifies the Most Valuable Marketing Channels

It’s not always easy to calculate the ROI of your non-Amazon marketing efforts, especially if you use multiple channels. Amazon Attribution allows sellers to see exactly which advertising efforts drive the most sales and provide the highest ROI. With a clear picture of what’s working and what’s not, store owners can focus on their most profitable channels.

2. It Optimizes Existing Campaigns

Amazon Attribution lets you understand how users interact with your store and the broader Amazon ecosystem. If traffic from one demographic converts better than others, you can optimize your existing campaigns to drive more users that do convert and fewer of those that don’t.

3. It Can Drive More Sales

Some sellers may find the concept of sending external traffic to Amazon strange, but it’s becoming increasingly important. Amazon is becoming increasingly dominant in e-commerce. At the same time, the price of sponsored ads on the platform continues to rise.

Why Drive Traffic to Amazon in the First Place?

When you understand which marketing channels are most effective and how consumers interact with your products on Amazon, you can start to make real, data-backed decisions. The kind of decisions that will help you sell more on Amazon For some that could be investing more in a specific marketing channel. For others, it could be adjusting the price of their products.

What’s more, new sellers are signing up to Amazon every day. Oberlo recently reported that a million new sellers are joining Amazon every year. With so much competition, external traffic can be a vital lifeline to help sellers survive.

Reduce Amazon Advertising Costs

External traffic helps you sidestep the competition for listings on Amazon and drive traffic directly to your storefront. There’s no need to pay for sponsored ads on Amazon when you drive traffic directly to your products.

Boost Your Seller Rank

External traffic can seriously increase the number of sales your store makes. This can have a huge impact on your overall sales. Sales velocity is one of the ranking factors Amazon uses in its A9 algorithm, so the more sales you’re making, the higher your products will rank in the future.

Better Understand Your Amazon Customers

The insights from Amazon Attribution can help you learn more about your customers than ever before. You may find that one product doesn’t convert as well as you thought it did, for instance. Or that customers prefer one product over another.

You won’t just be improving your Amazon store’s performance, either. These kinds of insights can improve your business outside of the Amazon platform, too.

How to Set Up Amazon Attribution

The first step to getting started with Amazon Attribution is filling out a signup form and logging in to your account.

Once your account has been approved and set up, you can start matching products to the campaigns you’re tracking:

1. Create a tag by clicking on the relevant advertiser’s name.

2. Click “New order.”

3. Select the “Set up an order” parameter.

4. Choose the product you want to link to by searching for your products and clicking “Add.”

5. Give a name and external ID to your attribution tag. I recommend being as obvious as possible with your name, so you know which link is which (Don’t forget you’ll have a separate tag for each of your products).

6. Choose where you’re going to place this link: Facebook, AdWords, etc.

7. The clickthrough URL is the URL of your product. Find your product on Amazon, copy the URL and paste it here.

8. Click “Create,” and you’re done. You can now copy the Amazon Attribution tag and start using it in the wild.

Alternatives to Amazon Attribution

Amazon Attribution is an incredible tool, but unfortunately, it’s not available to everyone who sells on the platform. Luckily, there are several alternatives you can use instead.

Amazon Associates Tracking

Amazon Associates tracking links were the most popular way to track external traffic to the store platform before Amazon Attribution. With Associates tracking links, you get paid a commission every time a customer converts.

Unfortunately, this tracking solution is nowhere near as in-depth as Amazon Attribution. You’ll only be able to see which items users bought, not their behavior on the site before conversion. Plus, Amazon Associates only get one tag. That means it can be hard to differentiate between traffic sources.

Pixelfy.me

Pixelfy.me is a URL shortener and tracker built specifically for Amazon sellers. You can create and track every kind of Amazon link, including Supreme, Brand, Canonical, Store Front, Add-to-Cart URLs, and many more.

Pixelfy.me can track almost everything apart from conversions. While that’s not as comprehensive as Amazon Attribution, Pixelfy.me does let you pixel users to retarget them in the future.

Amazon Super URL Tool

The Amazon Super URL Tool is part of the AMZ Tracker suite of tools. It does not offer sellers more insight into the way users shop their store, but it can significantly improve the quality of inbound traffic and boost sales as a result.

The platform’s special URL shortener makes Amazon believe visitors have searched for specific keywords on Amazon instead of going directly to the listing. Amazon should rank your products higher for these keywords, as a result, which can lead to more sales.

Conclusion

Amazon Attribution is the best way to track how off-site traffic performs on the Amazon platform. If you run external marketing campaigns for your Amazon store and are serious about optimizing your Amazon store, then Amazon Attribution is a must.

Not only can you optimize your marketing campaigns, but you can also increase conversions, too.

Creating Attribution tags is easy. Just follow my advice above or contact my team if you want an Amazon marketing agency to do the work for you.

How many external marketing campaigns are you currently running to Amazon?

Source: New feed 2