Digital Marketing This Week - Analytics, Conversions, and Internet Marketing (DMTW‪)‬ Chris Mercer

This week in “Digital Marketing This Week” --- Should you be worried about the rising popularity of mobile ad blockers? Should you use Pinterest’s “buyable pins?” Have you heard of Google’s new product, Customer Match? When was the last time you checked if your website was secure?

This week in “Digital Marketing This Week”...We get a look into what marketing experts think of Facebook’s new “empathy” button, explore the relation between neuroscience and social sharing, how eye movement affects your conversions, what programmatic means and how it relates to micro-moments...

This week on “Digital Marketing This Week”, we delve into:



The latest changes Facebook advertising has rolled out,

The right techniques in search engine marketing, and

Google Analytics Reporting Basics



Catch the full episode here or read a quick summary below…

 

First up…

Facebook ads…

Facebook is trying out new ad formats that they hope to be more immersive and engaging.

 



“The ads look like normal sponsored posts in the News Feed, but when tapped, they open full screen and allow the viewer to flip and scroll through text, photos, videos and other content. It’s like an alternate version of a brand’s website but will load more quickly and be more interactive because the content is native to Facebook.”

Right now, it’s being used by big brands…but eventually, when small businesses start tapping into this ad format, it’s important to remember that…



Your ads need to tell a story. Sure these ads are designed to be immersive, but you still need to compel your audience to watch and not hit that skip button.

You should keep an eye out for how the big brands are going to utilize this. Take note of what works and what doesn’t.

Assuming it does make it's way to direct response marketers, make sure that you still tie the technology back to achieving a result. At the end of the day, it’s still a tool that should help you reach your goals.



Read the entire article here…

Facebook's “Conversion Lift” tool gets updated…

What’s the real value of a Facebook ad? That’s the question that Facebook wanted to answer when they introduced Conversion Lift–”a tool designed to help marketers understand the additional business Facebook Ads drive.”



Recently, they’ve announced a new feature for Conversion Lift that focuses now on understanding how your individual ads are driving towards your objectives.

This means–



You get to make better marketing decisions based on metrics you get from your individual ads, which you can now measure against each other.

This helps you understand your ROIs on ad spend.

You get a more holistic view of ad performance in your marketing mix.



Check out the full article here…

Podcasting Power…

Mashable talks about a new milestone in podcasting…



“It has been a breakout year for podcasts, the overnight success that's been a decade in the making. The subscription and RSS-fed audio platform not only enjoyed unprecedented visibility thanks to Serial (a product of Chicago Public Media radio and This American Life), but was in the spotlight again in June when President Barack Obama joined comedian Marc Maron on his popular podcast WTF.”

As a marketer, you probably recognize the importance podcasts as an additional channel for interaction and engagement with your audience. Podcasting never really disappeared…but right now, it’s getting the attention that it rightly deserves.



With podcast listenership on the rise, now is the best time to start one.

Great podcasts don't cater to everyone. Like your website, it should address a specific audience for a specific purpose.

When you do decide to start your podcast, here’s my most important tip: be consistent. If you commit to upload a new podcast weekly,

This week on “Digital Marketing This Week” we covered…



some possibly disturbing trends in mobile,

how 4 little letters could help to improve your conversions,

tips on how you can connect to your customers better on Facebook,

the latest feature from Google Analytics, and

why it’s important to remember who you’re talking to.



Read all about it below or you can watch the full episode here.

First up…

Are you using mobile marketing correctly?

Marketing Land talks about the latest trends in mobile search based on a research by Yahoo.

“Effectively, the browser has been sidelined on mobile. This has major implications on the digital industry in general and the content and media industry in particular. Historically, the media industry has relied almost entirely on search for user and traffic acquisition, building entire teams around SEO and SEM on the desktop web. But search engines are predominantly accessed from a browser. If mobile users aren’t using browsers, the media industry will have to look for new approaches to content discovery and traffic acquisition.”



How does this affect your mobile marketing strategy?



Search marketing still works, but only because desktop users still use it as their primary way to drive traffic. This isn’t the case for mobile anymore. On mobile, users rely on social and messaging apps to consume media. And while users spend 90% of mobile time with apps, they do so on very specific apps.

Yahoo says that social, messaging and entertainment apps take up 51% of mobile user time–so this means that there’s a lot more opportunity for you to focus on developing great social ads. Think of adding Facebook and Twitter ads and YouTube video ads into your marketing mix.

YouTube presents a really massive opportunity for visibility–time spent on the YouTube app was up by 60% and average viewing session on mobile is now more than 40 minutes. So if you’re thinking of investing in some paid ads, YouTube might actually be your most effective option.

Remember though–online ads don’t necessarily give you a captured audience as they can easily skip the ad or ignore it altogether. So while they might see your ad because you’re placing it on the right channels, they might not even catch or hold their attention if it doesn’t offer well-made, informative, relevant content.



Read the entire post by Marketing Land here…

#FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) is real–and it could be key to your conversions

Crazy Egg talks about the 7 questions every online customer has…and it turns out, motivation to purchase or convert has a lot to do about a customer’s fear of missing out (FOMO).

“Your ability to give them that something determines whether they take up your offer and your landing page converts.”





Given this, social proof could really give your offers a boost–be sure to add that on your landing pages. Not only does it build trust, it also shows the demand people have for what you’re offering.

Try to build up the exclusivity and limited-nature of your offer. Do they get member’s only access? Discounts? What perks can opting in give them that they might miss out on if they don’t sign up today?

Highlight an emotional perk that they can immediately get and make sure your copy reflects that.



Read the full article from Crazy Egg here…

Always remember that you’re marketing to people
...

This week in Digital Marketing This Week, we cover the latest updates from WordPress, the recent changes Twitter has announced and some tips for using live chat to optimize your conversions.

Conversions is a process. it’s all about split-testing - but split testing with a purpose that involves learning your customers' language. Following the Conversion Framework will help you decrease the "pain" involved from your user's perspective and increase the "pleasure" involved - ideas include decreasing distractions, creating congruency, and how to test for each of these various factors.