🕹 Ad placement.

Twitter launches a new ad placement feature, Microsoft publishes Cyber Week insights, and more. December 20, 2022 [Read in browser]( [logo] [sponsor]( Good morning, hope you like guacamole. … Because the world record for the largest guacamole was recently smashed, and we’ve been hungry for chips and guac ever since. You’ll see what we mean when you read today’s Poolside Chat. Oh, and don’t forget: Our last newsletter of 2022 goes out tomorrow morning. We’ll resume the newsletter January 5. Try not to miss us too much! TWITTER New feature helps you choose where not to place ads [article-image] Yep, you read that right. Twitter [announced Adjacency Controls]( – a feature that should help you prevent ads from appearing above or under tweets containing keywords you’d rather avoid. Keep calm and run ads: Twitter is looking for ways to assure advertisers they can still promote their brands despite “moderation concerns.” If you’re worried your ads may appear alongside hate speech or similar stuff in “relevance-ranked Home Timelines,” this is one way to prevent potential brand damage. Who can use it: The update is currently available only to adjacent Tweets in English, with other languages joining “shortly.” Partnering up: Twitter is also adding Double Verify and Integral Ad Intelligence to their partner list, which should provide independent validation of GARM Brand Safety floor placements. … Another method for preventing unsafe ad servings. Why we care: If you run Twitter Ads, it’s another feature that can give you more control of where your ads show up. Some things are better off not being automated, you know? MICROSOFT Revealing this year’s Cyber Week trends Microsoft dropped insights into the [year-on-year (YoY) rise of certain retail categories and trends](. It’s worth taking a peep at… Words that won: Here are most-searched keywords on Black Friday that also contained “Black Friday” in their queries… - 58% contained big-box retailer names. - 20% included “sale” or “deal.” - Most included terms or stores solely relating to: “apparel” (18%), “consumer electronics” (16%), and “home improvement” (16%). The hottest retail categories: Microsoft saw some queries significantly grow in demand compared to 2021… - On Black Friday: Home Storage & Organization (100% YoY), Kitchen and Bathroom cabinets (97% YoY), Rain Gear (93% YoY), and Make-Up & Cosmetics (74% YoY) saw the biggest queries. - On Cyber Monday: Rain Gear (100% YoY), Office (81% YoY), Make-Up & Cosmetics (74%), and Home Storage & Organization (68%) spiked the highest. Why we care: Utility apparel seems to be on the rise, with rain gear topping both Cyber Weekend days. The beauty industry is also seeing a big demand. Also, the YoY rise in many other categories indicates more users are turning to search engines to find and buy their stuff – which can mean more opportunities, and more revenue if you use this channel. And speaking of revenue… SPONSORED BY INSENSE Imagine generating millions of views and raising revenue—without making a single ad or piece of UGC yourself [article-image]( Sounds impossible? It’s not with Insense. Most e-commerce brands struggle to hire enough team members to find, communicate, and manage collaborations with creators and influencers. But with Insense, you can do it all with one marketer—easily. [Insense]( is the all-in-one tool for finding, briefing, and paying influencers for UGC, organic posts, and whitelisted ads. To give you an idea of what’s possible: - Thrasio generated 3M views on TikTok for the 25 products advertised. - Hollywood Hair Bar increased conversions by 5% and click-through rates by 3% using whitelisted ads. Act now, and you’ll get $200 platform credits until Dec 27, to prepare for your 2023 marketing campaigns. [Book a free strategy call to claim your offer.]( As a bonus, Insense created the ultimate [creative brief template]( to help you speed up your brief creation process even more. [Claim your exclusive offer now and start launching successful influencer campaigns faster.]( SEO How SEOs can build trust, win buy-in, and get more done, quickly [article-image] In SEO, communication between departments is everything. But trying to explain SEO to other teams can make you feel like Bill Murray’s character in Lost in Translation. Tasks fall through the cracks. Follow-up questions compound. To remove bottlenecks like these, Adam Gent recommends a method used by elite teams called [specification by example](. Specification by example uses concrete examples and descriptions to help you build shared understanding and a common language between departments. Let’s talk about what that looks like in practice. Here are two different tickets from an SEO to a development team: - “Please add self-referencing canonical tags to certain pages in the [link]. You can read more about implementing canonical tags in Google’s official documentation [link].” - “Please add self-referencing HTML canonical tags to dress colour pages in the /dresses directory. A full list of pages can be found here [link]. Any HTML canonical tags must be placed into the section of the HTML.” Which request is the clearest—and most likely to get done? The second one, by a long shot. Here’s why: The first request leaves it up to a developer to figure out, “What is a canonical tag? Which pages?” Meanwhile, anyone can read and understand the second request – no guesswork, friction, or uncertainty. When you use specification by example, you can quickly: - Clarify acceptance criteria. Better specifications reduce completion time. - Develop a common language. - Build shared understanding and keep the entire team on the same page. Finally, Adam shares a three-step guide to creating your specifications: - First, identify the scope of the task by asking specific questions. - Then, gather examples of data, design, etc to show what success looks like. - Lastly, illustrate and write specifications, by turning abstract statements into concrete tasks. That’s the quick summary. Of course, this is all explained in-depth in [Adam’s detailed breakdown](. Seems worth trying out, doesn’t it? SPONSORED BY THE DAILY UPSIDE Here’s why 825,498 people are obsessed with this business newsletter [article-image]( [The Daily Upside]( is the premium business newsletter that’s actually worth reading. It’s equal doses of charisma and analysis. And it’s packed with insights: - Want to know why Adobe is acquiring a competitor for $20B? - Or whether BeReal can become the next Instagram? Simply put, The Daily Upside instantly boosts your business IQ and is a must-read for marketers. [Sign up today at no cost.]( THE CREW’S INSIGHTS Last minute ways to advertise your holiday offers [article-image] Here’s a holiday horror story: It’s the night before New Years, and your boss suddenly decides to push an exclusive offer that’s set to go live on New Year's Eve. … And you get the email while you’re on holiday at the beach, sipping on your Aperol Spritz. Don’t panic! Here’s how to set up your offer on Google Ads in under 45 minutes (yes, we literally timed it): - Promotion extension is your best friend. Set up a promotion extension highlighting your offer at the account level. Include all its components, like a countdown and the occasion of your promotion. Let this extension create a sense of urgency for you! - Sitelink extension. This will show up as separate links to separate pages. Create a sitelink extension with ad copy around your offer. Direct click-throughs to your offer’s landing page. - Change your ad copy. Duplicate your old ads, pinning your offer in headline 1. Turn on these ads when the sale starts, and turn your other ads off. Switch back when your offer finishes. And voila… In under 45 minutes you were able to advertise your brand’s New Year offer without missing out on cherished family time. That’s what we call a Christmas miracle! ROUNDING UP THE STACK [SMS MARKETING:]( Most companies send boring, text-only SMS campaigns. With TapOnIt you can make your SMS messages come to life, with up to 7 images per MMS. Retailer nora fleming has had click-through rates over 92% thanks to TapOnIt. [Try it free for 60 days with code STACKED60.](* [SEO:]( Remember last week, when Google released a link spam update? Well, it looks like some users are already feeling the shake-up, for better or worse. Time to check up on your Search Console… [GOOGLE:]( And while we’re on the topic of Google updates… no news is always good news! John Muller confirmed that the link spam update will be this year’s last. Meaning – no core updates until the end of the year. Trouble is, 2023 is only two weeks away. [NEWSLETTERS:]( This is big. WordPress just launched a new feature allowing you to start and run a newsletter directly from its platform. You can start from scratch, add it to your existing website, and even publish a new issue from your email. Whoa. [META:]( Another day, another antitrust investigation into Meta. The European Commission believes the tech giant abused its social platform data to gain unfair advantages over rivals when it comes to Facebook Marketplace. What else is new? *This is a sponsored post BRAIN TEASER What is bought by the yard but worn by the foot? You can [find the answer here.]( [poolside-logo] POOLSIDE CHAT World’s largest guacamole [article-image] There are some records you love to see broken. Like when 400 people in the town of Peribán in Michoacán, Mexico [prepared the largest-ever serving of guacamole](. As you can imagine, it wasn’t easy… - 40 professional chefs made the guacamole. - More than 40 local producers helped source the ingredients. - The recipe required 50,000 locally sourced avocados. Things people can do when they’re united, huh? The ginormous batch weighed almost 11,000 pounds, crushing the previous guac record by more than a ton. All that's missing is the world's largest tortilla chip… SHARING IS CARING “Cool hoodie… where’d you get it?” —your jealous friends When you refer our newsletter to other smart marketers—and they subscribe—we send you the coveted Marketer Zip Hoodie (50 referrals). And you unlock other rewards along the way, like: - The Crew’s Top 10 Insights (2 referrals) - The Ultimate Holiday Marketing Deep Dive (4 referrals) Zip. Mmm, cozy. Share your referral link below to start unlocking exclusive content and merch! [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. 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