Tag Archives: Facebook

Next to Now: No Fooling Edition

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April 1st is the first day of National Poetry Month, and, much to the delight of older brothers everywhere, April Fool’s Day.

 

 

In celebration of National Poetry Month, give Jonathan Galassi a call and let him read you a poem: 949-342-5374

 

In celebration of April Fool’s Day: Pigeons with backpacks.

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“Pigeons outfitted with lightweight backpacks soared over London from March 14 to 16, collecting air quality data across the city that was shared via Twitter. The Pigeon Air Patrol was a collaboration between Plume Labs and DigitasLBi to raise awareness for an even larger air pollution project to be crowdsourced from London’s largest moving flock: its humans.”

 

TIPS FOR REACHING PARENTS ON INSTAGRAM

An Instagram for Business post suggests that the visual platform is a great way to reach moms (and dads):

“Instagram found that 93 percent of moms access its network at least once per week, with 68 percent doing so daily.”

They also link to successful campaigns for Campbell’s and Gap Kids.

#instagram #moms

 

CRUZ AND SANDERS EXPERIMENT WITH FACEBOOK’S CANVAS

While brands have been slow to try Facebook’s new Canvas feature, the political campaigns of Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders have seen good success with it. Facebook client partner Chase Mohney told Digiday:

“Canvas is great for two big reasons. It provides these campaigns with the opportunity to tell an immersive story — their story — using video, stills and calls to action — really whatever works for them. And it’s designed for mobile, which is where the voters campaigns want to reach are spending their time anyway.”

One reason for advertiser reluctance that the article doesn’t mention? Cost. The CPM is in the $450-500 range. That’s just a *wee bit* higher than we normally see with Facebook ads . . . much less rich media available on blue chip sites.  

#social #facebook

 

SIMPLE IS BEST

A new study suggests that in the visually complex world of the current Web, simpler messages hold the key to ad effectiveness.

#creative #simple

 

INNOVATIVE OUTDOOR

A campaign for the upcoming release of Game of Thrones has dragons “landing” in major cities everywhere. As advertisers, we applaud the innovative nature of the advertising. As city residents, we suspect that if any marketer showed up outside our windows with another jack hammer, just in the name of pulling off a cool marketing stunt, we would ourselves turn into dragons.

#outdoor #creative

 

HOW MUCH DO WE LIKE OUTDOOR ADVERTISING?

Well, we like it a lot. For some reasons why, here is an article from Digiday pointing to smart, fun “conversation-starter” campaigns for Thinx and Caspar on New York subways:

“‘We like subway ads because we want to create a presence in New York City where trends are set,’ Miki Agrawal, CEO and co-founder of Thinx said on stage at Marketing Unbound, the annual conference hosted by the Economist. ‘And we want our ads to be conversation starters for New York subway riders.’”

#outdoor

 

Next to Now: The Super Bowl of Advertising Edition

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It’s Super Bowl weekend! That means most of the advertising industry is strutting, preening, and fretting in advance of the one event in which ads are at least as anticipated as the game. This time of year the industry’s worries are on full display: are we just making ads so people can see what fancy ads we’re making, or are we actually helping to sell products? We know where we stand at Verso.
IF A MARKETER DUNKS IN THE DARK, WILL ANYBODY SEE IT?

Only a few years removed from the Super Bowl power outage and the Oreo tweet that launched a thousand industry thought pieces — “Power out? No problem, you can still dunk in the dark” — the idea of social media “war rooms” is on the wane. It turns out that not only is a “free” social media onslaught expensive, it’s also not as wide reaching as it used to be:

“A couple of years ago, there was a lot more fun and opportunity in real-time marketing,” said Gareth Goodall, partner and chief strategy officer at Anomaly. “Those days are behind us. It’s a paid-media game today and with that, comes a lot more preparation than real-time inspiration.”

#social #freeisexpensive

 

POLITICS AT POLITICO

Politico has never been immune to the political turmoil it covers so well, but with two founders scheduled to leave at the end of the election cycle the question becomes: is this an orderly transition that signifies the site’s healthy growth or a sign of an unstable foundation for the future?

#politics

WHAT WILL A SUPER BOWL MARKETING BUDGET BUY ONLINE?

As a thought exercise, AdWeek asked marketers what a $5 million Super Bowl ad budget would buy online. For your weekly book marketing meeting, here are some alternatives: 1.5MM app installs; 5 custom Twitter emojis; 12.5 days of sponsored Snaps; 10.5 premium Instagram campaigns; 50 Tumblr takeovers; 8-10 YouTube masthead ads; and a gazillion Facebook impressions. But how many of those alternatives could possibly drive a conversation in the way that a first quarter Super Bowl spot can?

#thoughtexperiment #digitalvbroadcast

MORE THAN 50% OF US POPULATION WILL WATCH STREAMING VIDEO

EMarketer projects that 2016 will be the year that more than half of the U.S. population will watch TV shows online at least once a month.

#streaming #video

 

AUTO-PLAY GETS POPULAR (WITH WEBSITES IF NOT USERS)

Caveat emptor: Facebook’s move to auto-play has made it popular for many websites. It certainly gooses the numbers of video views. The question is are they *good* views, and do the readers like it or are publishers just asking people to install ad blockers?

#video

 

ON CONVERSATIONAL COMMERCE

Will 2016 be the year of conversational commerce? Uber’s Chris Messina thinks so. Platforms like Facebook Messenger, Peach, Slack and more are moving in this direction and advertisers should pay attention—especially since there’s more global traffic on messaging apps than there is on social networks:

“Suffice to say, the verbs we use with traditional apps are irrelevant in the conversational paradigm. We “buy”, “download”, “install”, and “trash” apps. The conversational paradigm is more social, and therefore less technologic. We use humane verbs like “add”, “invite”, “contact”, “mute”, “block”, and “message”. The language of conversation is more accessible to a broader audience, which will in turn accelerate the adoption of conversational agents faster than we saw with desktop apps.”

(via @onlydeadfish)

#messaging

 

MARKETERS NOW: DOWN ON FACEBOOK, UP ON SNAPCHAT

Visual marketing is in. That’s good news for Snapchat, Instagram and Pinterest:

“According to research from eMarketer, more senior U.S. ad buyers are planning to advertise on Snapchat for the first time this year over any other social media site.”

#visual #snapchat #instagram #pinterest

 

Next to Now: The Road Ahead Edition

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Does the road ahead look clear or is that just snow blindness from last weekend’s blizzard? This week we read about Facebook’s entry into live streaming, strategic shifts at Quartz, and new ways to target sports and gaming enthusiasts.

 

FACEBOOK JUMPS IN & PERISCOPE BETTER WATCH OUT

Facebook enters the live stream business: “The social network today announced it has expanded Live Video access beyond celebrities, verified users and journalists to any U.S. user with an iPhone.”

#streaming #facebook #social #video

 

INTENT TARGETING BEATS DEMO TARGETING, SAYS GOOGLE

Of course, they’re saying this because it boosts their ad model. But here are the facts Google lays out in their argument for intent targeting:

  • Only 31% of searchers for video games online are men aged 18-34. So if you want video game users and buyers and use only demographic targeting to find them, you’re missing 69% of the target audience
  • 45% of mobile searches for home improvement were made by women. So if you only targeted men for your home improvement book, you’d miss 45% of the market.

#intent #demographics #targeting

 

YOUTUBE A GREAT SOURCE FOR GAMERS

Another Google article (so, take it with a grain of salt), but YouTube is undeniably a great way to reach gamers, and the gamer audience is a good way to find entertainment enthusiasts for fantasy, science fiction, action-oriented YA, and thrillers. Some takeaways:

  • 40% of YouTube Gamers say they bought something because of a video they saw online
  • Of all the places to watch video online, YouTube remains the #1 site for gamer video
  • 88% of YouTube gamers give product recommendationos in Media & Entertainment category (a category that includes books, although it’s presumably far, far outshadowed by games and movies)

#gamers #video #youtube

 

FACEBOOK TARGETING EXPANDS BEYOND APPS

Facebook is taking its mobile network beyond the in-app ads it’s run so far–now including mobile display and native content. This makes sense:

“As popular as apps are, mobile Web browsing isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. According to a comScore report last year, digital media consumption in mobile Web browsers increased 53 percent from 2013 to 2015. Between 35 percent and 40 percent of traffic to news sites comes from mobile devices, with 93 percent of mobile audiences coming from the mobile Web.”

#facebook #mobile #targeting

 

WE INTERRUPT THIS AD-RELATED READING TO PRESENT AN AUTHOR’S POV

Chuck Wendig has some things to share with you if you’re thinking of publishing your book. Two that related to marketing:

“Said it before, will scream it again and again at the asylum walls until my spit-forth soaks the padding — social media will sell tens or hundreds of books, but not thousands. Social media is good for getting the word out! Social media is good for earnestly talking about your book. Social media is not a good long-term sales channel.”

and:

“The more money spent on your book means the more money gets spent on your book. This is both sensible and weird. Sensible because investments must be protected, and sometimes you protect an investment by adding money to it. Weird because, hey, why does Coca-Cola advertise? Do they need it? Is there anybody in the world who doesn’t know that Coke exists? But even Coca-Cola must remind the world of its presence (and if I recall, Coke’s sales are down, too).”

#marketing #social #advertising

 

HOW TO ADVERTISE TO THE SUPER BOWL AUDIENCE WITHOUT A MILLION BUCKS

In their effort to get advertisers thinking of YouTube as a viable, affordable alternative to Super Bowl advertising, Google makes good points about ways to advertise to this audience if you don’t have five million to blow on thirty seconds of air: find content the demo likes, advertise earlier at key moments (the draft, opening day, crucial regular season games, etc), and don’t forget that this game is relevant to other categories than sports, including tail-gate worthy food, music, video games and more.

Here’s a link to key moments in the course of the season. 

#youtube #targeting #sports

 

QUARTZ SHINES, SHIFTS, GROWS

From a Nieman Lab interview with Quartz publisher Jay Lauf:

  • 42% of revenue from mobile
  • Despite the strength in mobile, the introduction of mobile ad blockers haven’t presented a problem (this makes sense given the nature of the site and the style of ads)
  • After famously launching as a site only, Quartz is now introducing an app. They’re doing this primarily because they want in on the app notification game

Quartz remains a great platform for reaching smart, tech-savvy, business-oriented readers. They’re a smart choice for a business or cultural trend book.

#quartz #business

Next to Now: Holidays Are Here Edition

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As the New York City sidewalks become forests of blue spruce and Canadian tree sellers and the Rockefeller Center tree lights up the night, the world of digital advertising continues to evolve. Here are links to some of the most relevant ad news we’ve seen this week:

ADBLOCKING NOT YET AN ISSUE FOR MOBILE

Nieman Lab reports that, despite the sturm und drang, adblocking for mobile is currently not a factor, though it is affecting desktop:

“The good news from publishers’ perspective is that the mobile ad apocalypse does not seem to have arrived — yet, at least. While most publishers we spoke with were reluctant to share specific numbers on the record, most said that the share of their ads being blocked on mobile since iOS 9 launched in September was minuscule — ‘1 or 2 percent’ was the range we heard most often. The big concern is still on the desktop.”

#adblocking

 

THE GUARDIAN GOES AFTER SPORTS

Digiday reports on how the Guardian’s digital team is going after the global sports audience. With the growing U.S. market interest in the English Premier League, this could make it a good venue for the right book.

#sports

 

TWITTER’S PROMOTED MOMENTS CAN BE YOURS FOR ONE MILLION DOLLARS

Twitter’s “Moments” channel has a lot of promise, especially when advertising around live events such as sports or presidential election days. As with most new high profile platforms, the bar for entry is too high for book publishers: a cool million. But over time those prices will come down. Meanwhile we can see how the high cost Starbucks, REI, and Verizon campaigns perform now, while thinking about what we want to do more efficiently down the road.

#newplatforms #twitter #social

 

FACEBOOK GETS INTO LIVE STREAMING

The social media giant introduced a live streaming platform that will compete with Periscope and Meerkat. Given their user base, this is definitely a platform that’s worth watching.  

#facebook #streaming #social

 

FACEBOOK’S NOT COOL, BUT IT HAS ITS USES

YouTube, Snapchat, and Instagram are at the top of this survey of social media that teens find “cool.” But while Facebook is only the seventh coolest in the list, teens still use it:

“A new study from research firm Forrester found that while only 65% of 12 t0 17-year-olds consider the social network “cool,” (ranking it below most other popular apps), it still generates more “hyper usage” than Snapchat, Instagram, or Twitter. About 61% say it’s the social network they use the most.”

#facebook #social #teens

 

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW STUDIES MOBILE’S IN-STORE IMPACT

In a study sponsored by Google, HBR looked into the impact of mobile activity on brick and mortar stores. Among the findings: 28% of in-store sales were influenced by mobile activity before or during the purchase, and top uses included searching for a local retailer who carried the item (39%) or taking a picture of an item to ask a friend or family member for an opinion (38%).   

#mobile

 

SNAPCHAT LETS ‘DISCOVER’ USERS SHARE

For the first time, Snapchat is allowing companies to “deep link” to content shared on Snapchat from elsewhere. As Digiday reports:

“Until now, Discover publishers couldn’t link to their Snapchat pages from anywhere outside the app. With the benefit of social media promotion, they are likely to see a boost in traffic. It is similar to how YouTube creators expand their audience by sharing video links to third-party platforms.”  

#snapchat #social

 

THE PAST AND FUTURE OF BANNERS

Are the best years of banner ads in the past or in the future? AdWeek makes a case for programmatic creative.

#programmatic #creative

 

Next to Now: Improve Your Social Life Edition

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This weeks’s Next to Now includes links to articles on standing out on Snapchat, partnering with Instagram, and checking out an experiment that gives people a real, human stake in an outdoor ad campaign. 
HOW TO STAND OUT ON SNAPCHAT

This article gives a good primer about strategies to get a presence on Snapchat without shelling out the $750,000 per day spend. We’ve noticed that many of our clients are on board with recommendation number one: Replace your Twitter Avatars with Snapcodes.

#social #snapchat

 

INSTAGRAM ANNOUNCES PARTNER PROGRAM

Instagram announces a partnership with forty outside companies to help with various phases of Instagram advertising: from planning and execution to content partnerships. This Business Insider article talks about what this means. 

#social #instagram

 

EXTREME OUTDOOR

Reality TV meets outdoor advertising with an Xbox campaign: eight people are standing outside on a London billboard undergoing arctic blasts and continual video streaming while viewers can vote on what kind of conditions they should be subjected to. Last one standing “wins.” The real winner, of course, is Xbox.

#creative #outdoor

 

MILLENNIAL MOMS BUY ON MOBILE

According to this eMarketer article, mobile is the way to reach young moms, not just with information, but increasingly with buy links:

“According to September 2015 research by Roth Capital Partners (ROTH), almost half (46.8%) of mother internet users ages 20 to 35 primarily made digital purchases via their mobile phone or tablet.”

#mobile #moms #millennials

 

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BRAND AND DIRECT MARKETING?

This Seth Godin article articulates the difference between brand and direct marketing in a way that might have seemed self-evident 20 years ago, but has become increasingly clouded in a world filled with data where every ad budget has to respond in some way to data. This is a crucial question for book publishers, which used to be 100% clear that they were doing brand advertising — leaving the direct marketing to booksellers. But in the world of digital advertising and direct selling by book publishers (however low a priority it remains) those distinctions are getting cloudy.

#advertising

 

DON’T WORRY ABOUT BEATING AD BLOCKERS, WORRY ABOUT BETTERING YOUR GAME

The IAB makes the case that ad blocking is best addressed not by blocking ad blockers, but by fixing the “pain points” that cause people to want ad blockers: slow loading pages because of tracking software, roll-overs, endless surveys, etc.

#adblocking

 

SNAPCHAT GAINS ON FACEBOOK IN VIDEO

This article in the FT reports that Snapchat is generating 6 billion video views on its app every day. This is triple what they were seeing in May, and approaching FB’s 8 billion video views per day. This article in Business Insider is where you can read about it if you’re not an FT subscriber. 

#video #facebook #snapchat

 

PANDORA AIMS TO IMPROVE MOBILE USER DATA

As desktop use (and therefore use of cookies) declines, Pandora is taking steps to get better at identifying users on mobile devices.

#pandora #targeting

Next to Now: “Fall Back” Edition

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With the end of Daylight Savings Time on Sunday, we enter the homestretch of the year. Here’s some of what we’ve been reading this week—looking forward even as we “fall back.”
SHOULD FOLLOWER COUNT DETERMINE WORTH?

It’s a question that depends on context. For regular everyday products like shoes, toasters, or books, the answer is a clear yes—more followers means your promotional dollar goes farther. But for “high art”—where value is supposedly determined by long-term aesthetic value more than short-term commercial ups and downs—the question becomes more complicated. A Dutch artist is playing with this line, and in the process reveals some uncomfortable truths about what’s behind some of those large follower counts.

Related from AdWeek: “How Celebrities’ With the Best Instagram Engagement are Helping Brands.”

#social #instagram #caveatemptor

 

SERIAL IS COMING TO PANDORA

The next edition of the revolutionary podcast “Serial” will be running on Pandora. That means there should be many more ways to advertise on it than through a single sold-out sponsorship. They aren’t saying when the second season will start yet, but Pandora has announced that season one will be available for listening as of Nov 24.

#mobile #pandora #serial #podcast

 

APPS OR BROWSERS?

In all the debate about whether the present and future of mobile is in apps or on browsers, it’s good to see an article that draws distinctions. That is, it depends. And in some cases, especially news, readers are split:

“For example, 36% of respondents said they mostly used apps to read entertainment news. But 37% said they mostly used a browser. For human interest stories, 36% turned to apps and 38% to mobile browsers. And for science or technology news, the breakdowns were identical, at 38% each.”

#mobile #browsers #apps #news

 

WILL LOUSY CREATIVE SPOIL INSTAGRAM FOR THE REST OF US?

As Instagram opens up its API, some marketers are afraid of the coming wave of ads. Will a billion terrible ads ruin our sandbox? The answer, as always, is to make creative that’s the best fit for book, reader, and audience platform.

#mobile #adtech #bepartofthesolution

 

PROGRAMMATIC OUTDOOR

Google recently announced a test of adding outdoor billboard inventory to their DoubleClick system. While there are various programmatic options available to us among current outdoor companies–including geo-fencing and app network buys tied into outdoor displays–the scale of Google’s reach make this a potential game changer. According to Business Insider,

 

“If the project proves successful, advertisers might soon be able to buy billboard ads using Google’s DoubleClick technology, which will pull in historical and real-time data signals — including audience, weather, travel information, sporting events, and scores — to decide which creative messages to display, which billboards to display them on, and the best time for them to run.”

File this under experiments to watch.

#outdoor #programmatic #experimentstowatch #media

 

BOOMERS UNDER-INDEX FOR SMARTPHONE ADOPTION

Next to Now focuses on the near-future of marketing, but it’s worth remembering that our bread-and-butter work comes from selling books right now to readers who are buying them right now.  And that means the Boomer generation. So it’s worth noting that Boomers are not as easily reached with mobile marketing as the Millennials. Only 42% of Boomers own a smartphone, and those that do own a smartphone do not live through it to the extent that younger generations do. Worth considering when you’re putting together a media plan.

#mobile #boomers #media

 

“BUSTLE HAS A BABY”

A nearly-slightly-but-not-all-the-way-snarky article on the New Yorker’s site announces that Bustle (a site and magazine we like a lot) is starting a new website for millennial moms, Romper. Bustle’s managing editor, Margaret Wheeler Johnson, provides the money quote:

“The media talks about millennials as if they are the kids, and, actually, they’re having kids.”

Good point.

#millennials #moms #media

 

THIS MUST BE SERIOUS

Even Facebook’s worried about ad blockers. From a new regulatory filing:

“Revenue generated from the display of ads on personal computers has been impacted by these technologies from time to time. As a result, these technologies have had an adverse effect on our financial results and, if such technologies continue to proliferate, in particular with respect to mobile platforms, our future financial results may be harmed.”

#adblocking #facebook

Next to Now: Labor Day Weekend Edition

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INSTAGRAM ADS PERFORMING WELL

While the minimum spend to work with Instagram directly is still too pricey for book publishers, those larger brands currently working with the platform are reporting highly efficient campaigns.

“For now, Instagram is still a premium ad space, according to marketing experts. Salesforce says Instagram ads get almost double the click through rate of Facebook, 1.5 percent compared to 0.84 percent.”

The good news is that we can access Instagram through beta programs with such partners as AdRoll.

#social #instagram #retargeting

 

INDUSTRY VARIATIONS IN MOBILE V. DESKTOP

While the pace of change is definitely tilted in the direction of mobile, different industries still see a majority of email opens on desktop devices:

“In the business products and services industry, for example, 73% of emails were still opened on the desktop—and the tablet open share was just half the average. Publishers, media and entertainment companies and travel firms all had slightly higher-than-average open shares on the desktop, while publishers and travel firms reported clearly lower-than-average open shares on mobile phones.”

#email

 

“FACEBOOK BEATS PINTEREST AS FOODIE’S GO-TO SOCIAL PLATFORM”:

“Foodies in the U.S. are particularly active on social media, especially on Instagram. Here’s a few of the U.S. stats that should be intriguing to food marketers:

  • 90 percent of American foodies use Facebook.

  • 36 percent of them visit Pinterest.

  • 73 percent scroll through Instagram (a big leap from 17 percent worldwide).”

On the other hand:

“Benjamin Bourinat, director of public relations and social media at Sopexa, explained that while Pinterest claims a low percentage of users, people come back repeatedly to the site and app. ‘What’s interesting about Pinterest is [that it’s] very niche—the level of engagement is high because loyalty is just stronger on Pinterest,’ he said.”

#social #food

 

WECHAT OPENS AD PLATFORM ANOTHER NOTCH WIDER

WeChat recently opened their “Sponsored Moments” platform to wider advertising. As the minimum spend drops from roughly $800,000 to about $31,000, the platform is now within the range of a large book advertising budget. The service does not have the U.S. presence that would make it useful to American publishers, but it’s a good development for the future of messaging as an advertising medium

#messaging

 

FACEBOOK AD PERFORMANCE UPDATE

New Facebook stats were recently announced, including average CTR, CPM, and CPC across the platform for Q2 2013 and 2014. Spoiler alert, everything’s going up: .36% CTR, $1.95 CPM, and $0.55 CPC for Q2 2014.  

#social

 

REACHING GAMERS ON YOUTUBE

YouTube NOW aggregates 25,000 gamer channels. It’s a huge market, especially good for reaching young males. But it’s not only about young males, which Kimberly-Clark makes clear, targeting women with a :30 spot for Kotex.

#video #gaming

 

NEW FACEBOOK AD UNITS

Animated .gifs come to Facebook . . . for Wendy’s and Coke, anyway. The good news is that this kind of test heralds the opening of the platform to gifs from other advertisers relatively soon.  

#visual

 

NEW MOBILE MESSAGING AND SOCIAL MEDIA STATS

Pew has released a new survey of mobile messaging and social media. Some key figures:

  • 36% of mobile users use messaging apps such as WeChat or Kik (49% of ages 18-29)
  • 17% of mobile users use messaging apps in which messages instantly disappear (as in Snapchat) — 41% of ages 18-29
  • 59% of Instagram users visit the site daily (70% Facebook, 27% for Pinterest and 22% for LinkedIn)
  • 62% of all American adults use Facebook (66% of male internet users, 77% of female internet users)

#mobile #messaging #social

 

NYT DIGITAL SUBSCRIBERS UP

The New York Times reaches 1MM digital subscribers.

#digital #news

 

NYT NEWSLETTER NEWS

New York Times gets 20% open rate in newsletters. How? Highly curated by trusted editors plus a seriously engaged opt-in audience. It’s why we love them.

#email

 

GOOGLE’S BEST PRACTICES FOR BANNER CREATIVE

Google released a pretty good  primer on banner ad creative.

#creative

 

SLOW JOURNALISM IS IN OUR WHEELHOUSE

Nieman reports on the value of slow journalism (that’s our specialty, book people) in the age of instant information.

#news

 

PROGRAMMATIC VIDEO DEVELOPMENTS

Hulu is experimenting with opening their video ad platform to programmatic buying.

#video #programmatic

 

IS INSTAGRAM CHANGING HOW AGENCIES APPROACH CREATIVE?

Spoiler alert: Yes, creative is getting much less spontaneous in look and feel. Our favorite quote comes from Chris Corley, group creative director at VML in Kansas City:

“I think we do have the obligation to sell, but we also have an obligation to not pollute the world with garbage.”

Fair enough.

#social #creative

Next to Now: “Everybody in the Pool” Edition

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PERISCOPE UP

Periscope now has 10 million users who watch 21 million minutes a day.

#social #video

FACEBOOK ADS OUTPERFORM OTHER SOCIAL NETWORKS

More marketers say they’re satisfied with Facebook ad performance than say the same about LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube. Those platforms all serve very different functions so it’s a little disingenuous to put them all together in a group as if it’s a single horse-race, but it’s worth keeping in mind. As is this tidbit in the last sentence of the post:

“The report also said paid advertising now accounts for 83% of marketers’ social spending, as it becomes harder to reach users on those social platforms without paying to do so.”

#social

NEW FACEBOOK AD PRODUCTS

The recently launched Carousel unit is already one of the best performing Facebook ad units and the Dynamic Product Ads are sure to be the same (though they are more relevant to retailers than to brand advertisers).

#social

MORE ON AD BLOCKING

Four charts that say ad blocking is something we need to face.

#adblocking

TIMING IS EVERYTHING

One way around ad blocking is increased native options, including new campaigns that target ads to specific real-time moments based on hundreds of factors, from biometric data collected by your cell phone to real-time events such as when your favorite team wins or if you attain a new level in a video game.

#mobile #native

“I AM VERTICAL / BUT I WOULD RATHER BE HORIZONTAL.”

That’s what Sylvia Plath wrote in her poem “I Am Vertical.” It’s a sentiment that applied to video shot for the Web–at least until recently, when platforms such as Snapchat, Periscope, and Meerkat definitely prefer vertically shot video. (Really? Turning your phone to the side to watch a video just takes too much time.)

Farhad Manjoo weighs in on vertical video orientation for the New York Times: “not a crime.”

#video

WHAT’S THE RIGHT MEDIUM FOR YOUR MARKETING: INSTAGRAM OR PINTEREST?

This ClickZ article does a good job outlining the pros and cons of each platform. But what it really comes down to is knowing the ins and outs of whatever platform you’re using to promote your books. Interact using each platform’s native trends, tools and tendencies.

#social

DON’T SLEEP ON VINE

Everyone has been focused on Snapchat, but meanwhile Vine continues to develop a healthy, responsive audience.

#social

ARE VIDEO ADS PERFORMING GREAT FOR ALL THE WRONG REASONS?

We know video ads work . . .

“When Q1 2015 polling by Aol queried US internet users ages 13 to 54 who watched video on a mobile device at least monthly about ad recall, more than eight in 10 remembered digital video placements on each option listed: 84% recalled those on tablets, 83% on smartphones and 82% on PCs.”

. . . .but do people remember them in the way because they’re particularly annoying? Maybe. That said, the problems cited in this survey are fixable: keep repetition down (not a problem for book publishers given our budgets) and keep the videos short (who’s going to tell the editor we can’t use *all* the quotes?).  

#video

EMAIL IS (STILL) NOT DEAD

Email marketing is not sexy but it has 3 things going for it: (1) ability to use big data to personalize communication, (2) ease of integrating with other marketing channels, (3) ability to measure and adapt every day

#email

INSTAGRAM, HASHTAGS, AND GOLDILOCKS

How many hashtags should you use in your Instagram posts? Three is too many, one is too few, two is *just* right.

#social

This week's cover art is taken from Ida Applebroog's recent show, "The Ethics of Desire," at Hauser and Wirth. It is from a series of scenes she painted on folding chairs.

Summer Friday Links for August 16

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How to Stand Out in a Crowd (of Crowdfunders)

Wattpad gives writers (and their fans) a funding platform. Given the number of literary projects that have been popping up on Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, this seems like perfect timing and a great way for beginning writers to develop a writing community from the ground up.

Facebook Ads as Market Research

We have been using non-book comparisons as a way to identify and reach audiences for years, but Peter McCarthy has an interesting twist on the idea by advocating using relatively inexpensive Facebook ads to test different comps. It’s a good idea if you’ve got the budget to do it.

The New Yorker’s Running Full-Tilt

We see the numbers, so we knew that the New Yorker’s digital reach took a huge leap forward in 2013. This article does a great job explaining why.

Gorgeous Branding for a Favorite Bookstore

One of our very favorite indie bookstores within lunch-break distance is Idlewild, so we are thrilled to see them get press for their brand redesign. And such design! As in all the best branding, Andrew Colin Beck simply brought out qualities that were already present, but oh boy did he bring them out! The perfect combination of books and looks.

Reaching readers through social networks

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We know book readers are online, but where can we find them? The first place to look is on the major social networks, particularly Facebook. As reported in the May 18 New York Times, Nielsen confirmed that “Internet use for ‘short-tail’ sites with large audience reach has evolved since 2003. The change is from portal-oriented sites…to social networks.”

Facebook v. MySpace

While social networks were defined for a time by MySpace, American audiences—particularly the audience most likely to purchase a book—have gravitated primarily to Facebook. Despite its recent tailspin, MySpace remains a vibrant network for users interested in music. But for nearly every other category of interest, Facebook is now number one.

In the last six months alone, Facebook has grown from 50 million active U.S. users to 55 million and gains more everyday. Importantly for publishers, the fastest growing demographic is age 35+. It’s now even bigger than the 18-24 age bracket.

Advertising on Facebook, however, can be a challenge. By design, Facebook hampers our ability to deliver premium ad content and determine relevant location, pushing ads off to the side in an unobtrusive column with a small, single, static .jpg for art and limited room for copy. Facebook’s ability to micro-target means that ads do perform reasonably well on the network—in line with most online CTRs of .1-.12%–but certainly not as well as they could given the network’s ideal demo for readers.

Facebook Applications

Verso Digital currently recommends running campaigns on Facebook apps instead of on Facebook itself. Apps keep users within the FB environment and have all the advantages of Facebook—viral connectivity, ease of use, user engagement, and micro-interest ad targeting.  But apps offer several unique advantages, including a pool of highly engaged users (and thus increased potential for viral outreach), greater creative flexibility (including flash and video-enabled rich media), and superior adjacency to relevant content. Recent campaigns have shown not only a significantly higher CTR with Facebook apps than with FB itself, but also an even more potentially powerful viral component. One of the most prominent examples of this viral potential is the “Visual Bookshelf” app: every time a reader puts a book on his or her “Visual Bookshelf” or writes a review, that message goes out to all of his or her Facebook Friends—120 on average. That’s a lot of value for each action taken. And it suggests another kind of answer for publishers and authors to the problem of shrinking book reviews. Neither blogs, GoodReads, or Facebook alone will answer the fill the gap left by disappearing print book review publications. But each represents another strand in the fabric of how readers are making new decisions about what to read next.