🧪 Experiments.

There’s one channel that’s growing these days. But ad spend is getting a cut. November 21, 2022 [Read in browser]( [logo] [sponsor]( Good morning and welcome to a new week. Christmas markets are in full swing here in Vienna. We’re sure you’ve heard of the most popular ones at Schönbrunn Palace or Rathaus (City Hall)... And they are nice but we would actually recommend you to check out Spittelberg if you’re in town. Very cozy alleys with a very wide range of food, drinks, and decorations. INFLUENCER MARKETING Not feeling the heat [article-image] Among the crashing waves of recession and economic uncertainty, one advertising channel stands tall. Influencer marketing has seen a rise and — [according to eMarketer’s Influencer Marketing report]( — could even benefit from the challenges faced by paid advertising. Creator money flowing: The report claims U.S. marketers will spend around $5B on influencer marketing by the end of the year — $1B more than they’ve spent last year. Instagram is still the major creator channel with $2.23 billion spent on influencer marketing just in the U.S. this year – mostly thanks to the “wide range of shoppable content.” But TikTok’s catching up: The platform is expected to take Instagram’s crown by 2024, as “static content takes a back seat.” and marketers moving to a Reels-first approach. Here are some of the other most important takeaways: - New industries are finding their place in influencer marketing such as travel and food. - Marketers are using influencers to “bypass” Apple’s iOS14.5 privacy regulations. - TikTok’s lower entry costs could benefit advertisers short term. - Influencer marketing will likely keep trending up, but there are issues with platform changes. measurement, and safety concerns that could prevent you from going all in. Of course, we recommend you read the entire report – it’s definitely worth it. Why we care: It’s good to see a resilient advertising channel that doesn’t require you to break the bank and could be worth testing. Especially when there are clear indicators that advertising is being affected, too… E-COMMERCE Cutting the spend, for now If you are looking for a word to describe 2022 advertising – try careful, weary, or cautious. And according to [Advertiser Perceptions' latest report](, a third of advertisers have reduced their spending this year due to “increasing inflation and/or disruptions in supply chain.” But the glass is half full: Despite the results, the outlook seems much more promising: - Most executives cut spend by 15% on average, which is much less than 40% earlier this year. - 60% said they plan to restore some or all of their ad budget for the holidays. - Most affected are traditional channels like TV or out-of-home ads, with spending seeming to be coming back to digital channels. Why we care: While small sample size, it confirmed what we already knew – advertising wasn’t resistant to the current economic climate but there is light at the end of the tunnel. Furthermore, less spend from competitors could mean lower advertising costs for you – which could be a nice opportunity if you’re planning to spend big during the holiday season. SPONSORED BY AB TASTY These 50 experiments from 50 companies show you how to explode conversions for your funnels [article-image]( A single banner variation A/B test helped Seafolly increase their revenue by 20%. Peugeot boosted the clicks on their CTA button by 22% with a design split test. A/B tests can lead to huge improvements in your customers’ experiences—and conversions. So AB Tasty [gathered the top 50 experiments]( conducted by 50 different brands to improve their customer journeys and conversion rates. You’ll discover a wide variety of tests and see the results generated, from personalization to CTAs, navigation bars, product images, social proof, gamification, free shipping, and more. … And from a wide range of industries, too: beauty, travel, hospitality, fashion, retail, nonprofit, and more. If you want to get more leads and sales from your traffic, this collection is a must. [And you can download it for free.]( [See the 50 experiments for free.]( META ADS Which Meta Ads bidding strategies do you have to use – and when? [article-image] What separates good Meta ad buyers from the average? The way they navigate their bidding in the ad auction is one factor, that’s for sure. As Brett McHale points out in [his ads bidding guide](, it all boils down to understanding how the bidding process works as well as what each strategy represents. Assuming you already know how media buying works, let’s cover each bidding strategy: #1 – Highest volume: This is the ultimate quantity vs quality strategy. You set a budget and Meta’s algorithm works towards spending it… at all costs, no questions asked. The main goal is to get as many conversions for the set budget, but without optimizing for CPA or ROAS. If there’s more competition, it will be more expensive, and vice-versa. #2 – Highest value: This one also aims to spend the entire budget, but with a catch. It will look to get the highest value conversions – for instance your highest ticket item – to boost your return on ad spend. Keep in mind that you’ll need to have conversion values assigned, conversion tracking set up, and optimization set for conversion value as well. #3 – Cost per result: This strategy will keep your cost per acquisition steady and consistent. Since the main goal is to get as many conversions at a particular cost. However, if you set it too low it may take longer to spend and get out of the learning phase. #4 – ROAS goal: As the name says, this strategy focuses on maximizing value. It will look to aim for a certain minimum ROAS but may not spend your entire budget in doing so. Naturally, you’ll use this strategy if you want to reach a certain return on investment. #5 – Bid cap: …or “the only manual bidding strategy” left which requires you to have a clear insight into your conversion rate and lifetime value models. This strategy allows you to set the maximum bid for your ads across auctions and requires your attention as it doesn’t control CPA. It can be quite effective, but most time-consuming. That’s it, time to bid! Oh, and if you want to learn even more about auctions and bidding, make sure you [give the entire article a read](. Going once, going twice… sold to the highest bidder! SPONSORED BY BOUNCER Protect your reputation—and earn free credits towards verifying your email list, too [article-image]( Every time you send emails to invalid addresses, you hurt your sender's reputation… and your deliverability. No deliverability = no sales. Thankfully, Bouncer is one of the highest-rated email verification platforms on the market by over 5000 businesses. And Bouncer’s prepared an offer just for you: [You get 30% extra credits on every purchase]( to help you take care of your deliverability and stick to your budget. [Get the free email verification credits now!]( THE CREW’S INSIGHTS Avoid these common post-purchase mistakes [article-image] So you’ve made a sale. Great news. And kind of like being on a particularly good first date, everything is euphoric: you want to talk about everything and learn everything about them and, most of all, have lots of fun. Careful, though: Moving too fast with your post-purchase messaging can cause more harm than good. Case in point… Here are two examples from brands we’ve analyzed for Stacked Marketer Pro: - Peel, the cell phone case brand, sent us a “How Would You Rate Our Product?” email almost immediately post-purchase, before the product had even been delivered. - Goli, the supplements brand, asked us to refer a friend (for a discount) immediately after our purchase—well before we’d even had a chance to buy the product, and well before we’d consider the value of a discount for a follow-up purchase. Mistakes all ‘round. Here’s a quick checklist of messages you probably shouldn’t be sending immediately post-purchase: - Product review requests - Sales emails - Product referral emails - Discount code emails Why? All of these are better to send after delivery, once the customer has the product and might be thinking about ordering again. What should you do instead? Immediately post-purchase, you can send: - Friendly confirmation emails - Educational, fun, or interesting content - Shipping updates The Crew’s insight: Immediately post-purchase, don’t ask customers to do things they can’t do (review your product) or things they don’t want to do (immediately buy again or refer your product). Instead, give them confidence about their order and inspire them with good content. [See more insights like this one in Stacked Marketer Pro.]( ROUNDING UP THE STACK [EMAIL DELIVERABILITY:]( Imagine your revenue if your email campaigns averaged 60-70% open rates… Hundreds of businesses are achieving these open rates with a new tech that lets you send emails right when your subscribers are checking their inbox. [Here’s how it works](.* [TWITTER:]( After one of the biggest polls in Twitter’s history with over 15 million participants, 51.8% voted for Donald Trump’s account to get unbanned. “Vox Populi, Vox Dei”, tweeted Elon Musk after the unbanning. [BNPL:]( Affirm dethrones Klarna in the U.S when it comes to downloads. The Buy Now, Pay Later app—which is also Amazon’s official partner—is now the most popular in the States, while Klarna still dominates the international market. Good to know before the holidays. [SEO:]( Be careful – there’s been a huge rise in scammers that are trying to hijack Google Business Profiles by sending fake owner requests. If you receive one, make sure it’s legit. [PRIVACY:]( While Europe is tightening data privacy regulations, India is loosening up. The country proposed an easier cross-border data transfer which is seen as a positive sign for big tech companies in the country. [META:]( After removing religious, political, and sexual preferences from targeting earlier this year, Facebook will now remove the same fields from the user profiles entirely. So if you thought the options might come back, it’s much more likely they won’t. [TWITTER:]( First background check, then the blue check? After a flood of “impersonators” abusing the feature, Twitter announced that new accounts will have to wait for up to 90 days before they can subscribe to Blue. As they say – fool me once… *This is a sponsored post BRAIN TEASER There is an ancient invention still used in some parts of the world today that allows people to see through walls. What is it? You can find [the answer here](. [poolside-logo] POOLSIDE CHAT The smell of pickles [article-image] If your senses tingle at the smell of a jar of pickles, we come with great news! Pickle brand Vlasic teamed up with a candle company to manufacture a candle that looks and smells like—you’ve guessed it—[a jar of pickles](! Pretty niche, alright. OK marketers, who are we targeting with pickle candle ads? [The Mayor from The Powerpuff Girls](? [Rick Sanchez](? Urgh… promoting this could be…quite the pickle… SHARING IS CARING Know what’s easier than negotiating a permanent “work from home” deal with the CEO? 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