🚗 Automotive ads.

Buy now, pay later is chasing new markets, why iPhone boxes make a “woosh” sound, and more. August 4, 2022 [Read in browser]( [logo] [sponsor]( Good morning. We got some great responses to yesterday’s newsletter after asking for better analogies than “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” One reader said she prefers “Don’t put all your cookies in one jar.” Another suggested “Feed two dogs with one bone” as an alternative to “Kill two birds with one stone.” And another assured us that collecting eggs in baskets is actually very practical on the farm. Noted! ADVERTISING Microsoft launches new ad formats, plus other big updates [article-image] Microsoft is flexing hard this summer. [They just rolled out several muscular updates](… and they’re all worth checking out. Let’s start with the new ad types: Microsoft announced two unique, industry-specific ad products that will roll out in the next few weeks. - Automotive ads will make it easy to advertise cars and other vehicles, displaying price, fuel type, mileage, and more. - Vertical ads pull content from dynamic data feeds and individual users’ search intent, then show relevant ads drawn from advertisers’ existing catalogs. They also dropped new ad formats: - Dynamic Remarketing is expanding from retail to other industries including travel, automotive, and events. - Standard Universal Event Tracking (UET) lets you tag users that have engaged with a specific website product by using your existing UET tag. You can also use UET with additional parameters to give you access to more audience lists so you can better segment and optimize your audience. New markets just opened: Microsoft is expanding their Audience Network to 64 more global markets, including Brazil, Germany, and Australia. And more are coming this year. That’s not all… There are also three new bidding options for Video ads, reporting experience updates, and more. It’s too much to cover here, [so read Microsoft’s full update for the rest.]( Oh, and if you want to create and edit ad campaigns, better start using Responsive Search Ads (RSA) by August 29. BUSINESS Buy now, pay later is shifting away from consumers Amidst tightening economies and regulations, the Buy now, pay later (BNPL) companies are struggling to stay afloat in DTC. … So they’re looking at other businesses: [BNPL startups are rising in B2B](, and for good reason. The global business payments market is worth $125T—more than double the size of the global consumer payments market. More money, fewer problems: Plus, BNPL for businesses offers several other attractive advantages, like… - Higher average ticket sizes, which promise higher fees for BNPL companies. - More growth potential, quicker paths to profitability, and less risk. - More flexible payment options, including 30, 60, and 90 day payment terms. - A less regulated market. Why we care: The expansion of BNPL to the B2B market could open fresh conversion opportunities for marketers in services and B2B. Being able to offer additional payment options or split payments could help to accelerate the growth of your own brand or venture. Definitely a trend to keep an eye on. SPONSORED BY #PAID Don’t waste time looking for creators. Let ’em come to you instead [article-image]( If you’re running influencer marketing campaigns, you probably spend a lot of time searching TikTok for creators. And that doesn’t include the time you spend checking their engagement stats or keeping track of campaign results. Why keep doing all that when you can automate the whole process with #paid? [#paid]( finds you the perfect talent to help you sell your products. It streamlines your performance tracking, invoices, and communications with the creator—giving you back the time to focus on growing your brand or business. [Influencer marketing campaigns are a breeze with #paid.]( You just have to create a brief and choose from vetted creators already amped to work with you. You can even communicate with influencers directly through your #paid inbox—no hopping between platforms to track down DMs! [Simplify your influencer campaigns with #paid.]( E-COMMERCE Want to improve your product packaging? Study your empty iPhone boxes [article-image] Lots of marketers are envious of Apple, and for good reason. It’s not just their products. It’s their marketing, branding… and packaging. Apple literally has a “packaging room” where a designer spends months testing hundreds of packages with different materials and shapes. Trung Phan [points out in his article]( that Apple delves into human psychology to deliver the unboxing experience that goes beyond cutting tape. It’s all about impute, or, in the words of Steve Jobs, the idea that people really do judge a book by its cover. If you deliver the best possible product in a sloppy manner, customers will perceive you as such. And vice-versa. And then there’s the unboxing itself… Which, according to Steve Jobs, is a form of ritual: “You design a ritual of unpacking to make the product feel special. A theater.” That’s right: Steve Jobs started unboxing before it was a YouTube phenomenon. So with this in mind, let’s look at the three things that makes Apple’s packaging so satisfying: 1- Anticipation: Apple plays on the curiosity gap, slowly reducing the deficit of what we know vs. what we want to know. You look at the real life iPhone picture on the box, pull its plastic off with a tab and peel back the screen protector... And then you pick up your phone and inspect it. You've had an entire experience even before you turned your iPhone on! 2 - Aesthetic: Every Apple package is picturesque without being intense. It’s clean, minimalistic, and beautiful. 3 - Multi-sensory experience: Believe it or not, Apple designed their packaging with air pockets to create a “whooshing” sound when you open it. You see the packaging, you touch the smooth box, you pull against deliberately created friction, you hear the sound as air leaves the pockets… it's a sensation overload! So now that you’ve got the packaging fundamentals, the question is: How can you create memorable experiences with your product design and packaging? There’s no quick answer… but if you want to win when it comes to branding and customer retention, learning from Apple’s packaging can send you in the right direction. SPONSORED BY ODDIT Black Friday is right around the corner… is your website ready to capitalize on the traffic? [article-image]( Did you hear? [Oddit]( is offering a free UX teardown to every Stacked Marketer reader that applies. Like this “before-and-after”, for example: - Give users access to shop products, not more shipping info. - Remove unnecessary whitespace and padding. Every pixel counts on mobile! - Bring the site to life by showing off your sale and customers wearing your products. - Remind users what makes you great. - Use a descriptive and full-width action button. [Get a free UX-teardown](… or [book a time to chat with their team](! THE CREW’S INSIGHTS How to maximize conversion on your holiday emails [article-image] Here’s a surprising statistic… Holiday emails have lower open rates than emails during normal times of the year… but [they have higher conversion rates.]( Open rates are lower because every business on the block is rapid-firing sales emails faster than Steph Curry can take 3’s. But when you do convince someone to open your email, they’re more likely to convert. So here’s how you can stand out from the competition and maximize conversion: - Spend a lot of time writing subject lines. You won’t boost open rates with a subject line like “Our holiday sale starts NOW! Don’t miss out!!” but you might catch some attention with something like, “Santa’s drunk. Here’s a massive Christmas sale.” - Include a specific offer in your email. You can improve conversion by including specific dollar or percentage discount numbers in your email, and sometimes, in the subject line. Basically, you need to give people a good reason to visit your site. Telling them there’s a sale probably isn’t enough. - Include free shipping in your subject line. One study found that subject lines containing “free shipping” improved conversion rates by 3X compared to subject lines without it. Free shipping is a major lever for conversion, so this is worth testing. You’ll find more actionable holiday ideas like these in our report for Stacked Marketer Pro. Want the full preview? [Read it here](. ROUNDING UP THE STACK [CONTENT MARKETING:]( Twitter’s not entertaining newsletter plans anymore, and Facebook put Bulletin on the back burner… but newsletters aren’t going anywhere. They’re still great products in their own right. Good for contextual advertising, too. Ask us how we know. [LINKEDIN:]( Is the algo about to get more human? The social platform is testing a new, hand-curated discovery feed on mobile. Which makes us wonder… How do you optimize content for this kind of feed? [GOOGLE:]( Remember the tag that we reported about yesterday? Charles Farina walks you through how to use it in this Twitter thread. Worth a look if you’re hoping to simplify attribution a bit. [FACEBOOK:]( That happened fast. After two years, Facebook is pulling the plug on its live shopping feature on October 1 to focus on Reels. Can’t say we’re surprised. BRAIN TEASER What number and word combine to create a word that is a synonym of “everlasting”? You can find [the answer here](. [poolside-logo] POOLSIDE CHAT Grandparents going viral? [article-image] They’re trendy, they’ve got wisdom and humor… and they’re having the time of their lives. Yes, grandfluencers are a thing. And they’re [racking up millions of views on TikTok](. These elderly content creators are covering topics like: - The generational differences between grandparents and grandchildren. - “Slice of life” videos. - Retirement home friends parodying gen Z trends. … and honestly, it wouldn’t surprise us if they start doing campaigns for big brands. Anyone down to try a grandfluencer marketing campaign? SHARING IS CARING We’re total suckers for the rule of reciprocity. It seriously means a lot to us when you share our newsletter. So when you share Stacked Marketer with other marketers—and they subscribe—we reciprocate instantly with awesome content and merch, like: - Our growing library of The Crew’s Insights (2 referrals) - The Marketer Mug (30 referrals). … And lots more. Hit the link below to get started! [article-image]( [CLICK TO SHARE]( Or copy your referral link: [ [SUBSCRIBE]( | [SM PRO]( | [ADVERTISE]( You are receiving this email because you want to know what is going on in digital marketing. 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