👉 Interactive ads.

Your TikTok Ads are about to get more engaging, how to write better content, and more. April 22, 2022 [Read in browser]( [logo] [sponsor]( Hey, happy Friday. Depending on who you ask, there are at least 20 different breeds of limes. [And not all of them are green](. And if you want to sound like a real snob, ask the bartender to use Tahiti limes when you order a mojito. That’s the grocery store variety, of course. But doesn’t “Tahiti” sound more exotic? TIKTOK Your ads are about to get a lot more engaging [article-image] … and probably more lucrative. TikTok just announced they’re launching [a number of interactive add-ons](, like popups and stickers, for in-feed ads. Options include things like: - Countdown stickers. - Voting stickers. - Gestures. … to name a few. Why we care: TikTok found that users who like, share, or comment on videos are 150% more likely to buy your product or service. These add-ons could help you turn those comments into cash. Take advantage: The platform’s cheap, endless content is [already killing other social networks]( when it comes to time spent on the app. In fact, Instagram is [openly threatening to penalize users]( for reposting TikToks to Reels. If you aren’t sure where to start, [our latest Deep Dive shows]( you how to leverage TikTok for business, which products sell best on the platform, and much, much more. AMAZON Raise your prices, but go slow Wondering how to adjust to Amazon’s new 5% surcharge? Most merchants are, too. And it’s natural to want to cover costs by passing the fee to buyers. But if you raise prices too quickly, you repel customers. So what’s the solution? [According to some Amazon sellers](, it’s best to increase your prices slowly so customers don’t feel an immediate impact on their wallet. You may also want to wait until low-price merchants sell out, then raise your prices. The strategy seems to be working for big businesses: Companies like Nestlé and Tesla had to inch up their prices due to rising costs, but reported increases in organic sales during Q1. Here’s hoping that smaller brands can do the same. SPONSORED BY AIR Marketing teams are saying “adios” to Google Drive and Dropbox. [article-image]( It’s difficult and time-consuming to find, organize, approve, and share visual assets on those platforms that aren't built for collaboration on images and videos. That’s why marketing teams at Curology, the NBA, and even Google have switched to Air… and saved up to 10 hours per week, or 520 hours per year. [Air helps your team unlock their creativity and get real work done]( with tools like: - Intuitive search: Your visual assets are scanned and tagged with content keywords, so you never need to remember locations or filenames. - Visual browsing: No need to click into folders. Everything is clean and visible; a powerful filter builder gives you full clarity. - Secure sharing: Share links to single assets or entire boards, internally or externally. Set passwords or expiration dates for peace of mind. What will your team do with their extra 520 hours this year? [“Show me how Air can make my team more effective.”]( ANALYTICS How to detect and block spam traffic from your website in 10 minutes [article-image] How do you know if that bump in traffic is from real visitors and not spam? Believe it or not, spam traffic is more common than you might realize. Thankfully, as Zoe Ashbridge demonstrates, [it only takes about 10 minutes]( to identify and block this type of noise. So let’s go: One way to identify fake clicks is by controlling suspiciously high or low metrics in Google Analytics, like: - Average session duration. Generally, spam traffic won’t browse or click through the site. Instead, it lands on pages and bounces instantly. - Bounce rate (or Engagement Rate if you’re using Google Analytics 4). Similar to the previous bullet, an extremely high bounce rate can be a sign of spam traffic. - Pages per session. If the number of pages per session sinks while traffic increases, then you have a spam problem. - New users. A significant increase in new users can also indicate spam traffic. Another way is to identify spam traffic is to check your traffic sources, such as: - Referral traffic. Fake visits usually come from referral traffic, so look for suspicious links. - Check your traffic geographics. Look for large shares of traffic coming from countries you do not target. Once you’ve verified that you have a spam issue, the final step is to block that traffic. Here’s how to do it: - Disavow spam backlinks. This is a nuclear option, so make sure the links you’re disavowing are really sending trashy clicks. - Filter spam traffic in Google Analytics. Use the “Exclude all hits from known bots and spiders” feature to block the traffic coming from known flagged websites. [The article shows how to do it](. And there you go. Problem solved! One final note: When you check your metrics for spam traffic, always, always contextualize the values. For example, you might have a low-pages-per-session rate simply because you’re driving traffic to a landing page. So double check to make sure you have an actual problem before taking action. SPONSORED BY 800° GO The US pizza market is expected to be $54B by 2023 and you can own a slice. [article-image]( Combining sophisticated culinary offerings with cutting-edge technology, Piestro and 800 Degrees Pizza have teamed up to create [800° GO.]( Boasting 2x profit margins of traditional pizzerias thanks to significantly lower real estate and labor costs, these nifty robots are poised to take over the US pizza market. And right now, 800° GO is looking for investors before their campaign raise closes on May 4th! [Invest in the pizza revolution.]( THE CREW'S INSIGHTS The easiest way to write better content [article-image] Every day, our team sits down in offices and rooms throughout the world to write this newsletter. It goes through dozens of iterations and edits before it hits your inbox. Today, we want to share a simple tip that’ll make your writing much better. And it’s something that most people don’t do: Write more drafts. Here’s what we mean: - Writing the intro for a blog post? Don’t settle on the first idea you find. Write 10, 15, 20 different introductions. Don’t be afraid to write something bad, because you will, and that’s okay. Afterwards, iterate on the best things you wrote. - Writing a landing page header? Fill a page with 20, 30, even 40 different header ideas. Zero in on what’s working. Repeat until you have the best header you can possibly think of. - Writing a newsletter? Rewrite the tricky parts, again and again, until you find something that works. Take this section of the newsletter for example: The Crew’s Insights. Often, the final drafts of our best insights look very different than the first drafts. Sometimes that includes partial or complete rewrites. Why this works: The best creatives follow this process. For every song your favorite singer publishes, there are a dozen more that were left on the cutting-room floor. For every book your favorite writer publishes, there are hundreds of ideas and stories that will never see the light of day. So, take it from us: Don’t settle on the first few ideas you come up with. Write until you’re completely exhausted, and don’t be afraid to let the bad ideas flow. You’ll end up with a much better product this way. ROUNDING UP THE STACK [NEWSLETTERS:]( The Assist is a free 4x a week email newsletter that focuses on improving your life in manageable ways. Through actionable life tips that range the gamut from professional to personal, it provides the opportunity to [learn and grow through digestible, quick reads.](* [ANALYTICS:]( If the bug in Universal Analytics’s Realtime reporting is, well, bugging you, Google has a not-so-quick solution... Just switch to Google Analytics 4. [PPC:]( Be careful out there. Google added nine new policies to their repeated violators strike-based system, including clickbait and misleading ad design. And yes, some of these violations do seem murky. [MARKETING:]( Paying someone to write fake reviews isn’t just a moral question anymore. It’s becoming a legal one. The UK government is already cracking down on biased information from “bad actors.” [SEO:]( Every day, Google’s anti-spam system searches billions of pages for spam, scams, and malicious links. Their latest Webspam Report explains how and why they do it. [MARKETING:]( Looks like junior marketers are the driving force behind marketing innovation and improvements to customer satisfaction. So the next time you’re hiring, consider giving the juniors a chance. [GOOGLE:]( After getting fined €150 million by the CNIL, France’s data protection agency, Google launched a new “reject all” cookie policy in the European Economic Area, plus Switzerland and the UK. *This is a sponsored post. BRAIN TEASER Which month has 28 days? You can find the [answer here](. [poolside-logo] POOLSIDE CHAT This is the closest you’ll get to a puppy nap [article-image] Nature has always inspired humankind. And recently it inspired a group of students to improve on the activity they enjoy the most: Napping. Students at Vancouver university created [a portable, human-sized dog bed]( so you can nap anywhere, anytime. Just like your furry friend. The napping bed has already gone viral on TikTok and may start selling in the US and Canada soon. Would you swap out your office lazy bag for one of these? SHARING IS CARING Know what’s easier than telling the CEO you can’t just make a social media post “go viral”? Sharing our newsletter, of course! When you invite other smart marketers and executives to subscribe, you look like a true professional. And you earn great free merch, too. Stickers, graphic T-shirts and hoodies… Just depends on how often you’re willing to look smart in front of your peers. Try it now. Takes less than 30 seconds to do. [article-image]( [CLICK TO SHARE]( Or copy your referral link: [ [SUBSCRIBE]( | [INSIGHTS]( | [ADVERTISE]( You are receiving this email because you want to know what is going on in digital marketing. If you aren't thrilled about our emails, reply and let us know why. Or you can unsubscribe from all daily updates by clicking [here.]( Our postal address: Spectrum IT Solutions GmbH, Canettistrasse 1/Top 0107, 1100 Wien, Austria