💼 Targeting.

LinkedIn is getting specific with its new targeting feature, CTV is racking up eyeballs, and more. February 27, 2023 [Read in browser]( [logo] [sponsor]( Good morning. A man survived at sea on nothing but ketchup, and now [Heinz is looking for him](. Is this a campaign stunt, or a genuine man hunt? We haven’t looked into it enough. But it certainly caught our attention, and here we are, sharing the story with you. Brand awareness, baby. We’ll take that check now, Heinz. LINKEDIN New B2B targeting feature: interests [article-image] If you want to be the most interesting person in the room, be interested in other people’s… business interests. Or simply target them. LinkedIn [announced an interest targeting update]( to help you get your ads in front of the right people. Could you be more specific: LinkedIn is segmenting these interests into three categories and over 500 specific attributes. Here’s the overview: - General interests include a wide range of categories like science, environment, technology, and health. - Product interests allow you to target users that showed interest in different software types such as content management, data science, and other tools. - Service interests reach users that engage with service pages similar to the service you provide. Categories include real estate, environmental consulting, and more. Most categories also have subcategories, too, so you can get really, really specific with your targeting. Very Cool. How to use them: You should see these interests in your Campaign Manager. If you’re not sure what topics to select, LinkedIn recommends checking content that’s trending on your organization page or on your blog. Why we care: This new feature could help you narrow down your targeting, reach the right people, and save you some ad dollars. In theory, of course. Guess you won’t know it until you test it… ADVERTISING Ad-supported connected TV is on the rise Apparently the telly just isn’t the same without the commercial breaks… … Because ad-supported connected TV (CTV) saw [a 55% increase in time spent during the second half of 2022]( – a 48% share, according to TVision measurement agency. Correlation or causation? The increase in eyeballs is happening right not long after Netflix and Disney introduced ad-supported tiers. An interesting coincidence, for sure. Meanwhile, ad-free subscription-only streaming services dropped 30% to a 36% share at the same time, showing that people are opting to pay less for ad-supported tiers. And now Apple wants in: The tech giant is apparently preparing to introduce an ad-supported tier for Apple TV+. How do we know? Well, Apple is hiring seasoned TV advertising expert Lauren Fry to “help build a video advertising service,” so… Why we care: With just about every big platform introducing or planning to introduce ad-supported tiers, CTV is slowly becoming a mainstay in US households. That’s good news for marketers, because it means more channels and more opportunities to promote. … And that may lead to affordable placements for smaller to medium-sized businesses as well. Fingers crossed. SPONSORED BY UPFLUENCE Organic reach is declining and ad costs are increasing. Try this instead… [article-image]( Let’s face it — the golden days of cheap traffic from paid social ads are long gone. And building your brand with interruptive advertising that keeps increasing in cost is not a profitable strategy. People trust people. Not ads. That’s why many brands are doubling down on their influencer marketing budgets: so they can tap into already-engaged and already-established audiences. [Upfluence is the ultimate platform for influencer and affiliate marketing.]( It helps you find the right influencer for your brand, automate your campaigns, manage affiliates, send payments, and measure results ⁠— all in one place. Plus, Upfluence makes it easier to build authentic, long-term relationships without any of the time-consuming manual work. (Looking at you, spreadsheets!) Turn creators’ audiences into your brand's consumers at scale. [Start driving ROI from this all-in-one influencer and affiliate marketing platform.]( SEO Avoid black hat tactics. Especially these… [article-image] Black hat SEO is like a forbidden fruit of the marketing world. It tempts you with its sweetness and may even work for some time. But in the long run, you end up with a desolated website, flagged by Google, never to be ranked again. SEO case study recently [picked apart popular black hat SEO tactics](, explaining why you should avoid each at all costs. Here are some of the most notable offenders… #1 – Hidden text and links. This is when you stuff an article with keywords and links, then hide them with text color, another element, put them off-screen, or make the text tiny. Google bots may skip this initially, but will eventually understand that you’re hiding something, which can put your article—if not your entire website—in jeopardy. #2 – Bait-and-switch. A popular method where you build a website’s authority with top quality content, only to switch some pages with lower quality copy or unrelated content later. For example, Groupon used this technique to host a legitimate promotion that stayed on the first page, but later they switched it to something else entirely… leaving the expired promotion content intact so it still ranked. Not good. #3 – Paid backlinks. Yes, we know. This is still a subject for debate. However, Google officially states that paying for links is out of the question in their guidelines. For now, you need to earn links organically and not through monetary transactions or similar “schemes.” #4 – Spammy programmatic content. Although programmatic SEO exists and can sometimes be legitimate, most automatically generated content makes no sense. Such content provides no real value to the reader. Think auto-translated pages with no context, auto-paraphrasing, or rewording to avoid plagiarism checks, merging pages, and similar. Of course, you could risk it... Some private blog networks (PBNs), A-B-C link exchanges, and similar methods still seem to be going strong. It’s up to you whether you want to embark on that journey. But there’s always the worry that the next core update will burst that bubble, too. SPONSORED BY STACKED MARKETER PRO You asked, “What do high-converting landing pages have in common?” We analyzed 3,000+ pages. Here’s what we found… [article-image]( If you want to consistently write high converting pages with "grab ‘em by the eyeballs" copy… You need to study what works. Luckily for you, we already did. You’ll find our insights in the Landing Page Copywriting Deep Dive, including how to apply the 31 copywriting principles we found, and 151 examples of great landing page copy. This report, along with more than 20 others, [is yours with a Stacked Marketer Pro membership](. [Join Stacked Marketer Pro for $7 and start converting like crazy.]( THE CREW’S INSIGHTS Here’s why your referral program isn’t working [article-image] So you whipped up a referral program for your customers. You had high hopes when you launched it, but then… crickets. Before you decide the referral program is not “on brand” and scrap the project altogether, make sure you’re not making any of these detrimental—but very common—mistakes: - There’s a better offer on your website. Your customers have been telling their friends to use their 15% off coupon code for your store. Your email capturing popup sports an alluring 20% off discount. You’re still getting the sale, but you’re not attributing it to the right source. - You’re not sending enough reminders. The key here is to hit your customers at their happiest. Did they just place an order? Remind them to tell their friends. Did their order just ship? Let them know the order is on its way… and remind them to tell their friends. - You’re making it too hard for customers to redeem their prizes. You offer $10 for every referred sale, but you send payouts out once a month when you remember. If your customers have to wait a month to get their prizes, they might stop caring. Chances are, you’re probably falling for one of those traps. The good news? They’re all easy fixes. Make some small tweaks and enjoy predictable acquisition costs while paid advertising prices continue to soar. ROUNDING UP THE STACK [SMART MARKETERS:]( Do you want to add to your marketing skillset? Get thousands of bite-sized lessons to learn skills that you can put to work right away, starting at your own level of expertise, in just 15 minutes a day. [Master data analysis, math, and more with a 30-day free trial.](* [REGULATIONS:]( Whoa, could a TikTok ban be coming to Europe? UK government officials have been urged not to use the platform amid concerns “that data can be accessed by Beijing.” Get the popcorn. Or maybe the tissues. [META:]( Another day, another big platform launching an AI language model. Meta just announced LLaMA, its own research tool for building AI based chatbots intended for universities, industry labs, and similar groups. So we’ve got Microsoft, Google, Meta… who’s left? [ECONOMY:]( Inflation keeps rising, but Americans keep spending. US consumers went on a “spending spree” in January, eating out in restaurants and shopping for high value items like cars. Maybe there’s a way your marketing can take advantage of this spending frenzy… *This is a sponsored post BRAIN TEASER What belongs to you, but other people use it more than you? You can find [the answer here](. [poolside-logo] POOLSIDE CHAT Shift’s over, please go home… [article-image] Admit it: you work more than you intend to at least once or twice every week. Unless you work at this IT company in New Delhi, India, of course. Because if you do, your laptop notifies you when your shift is finishing, [then says “please go home” before shutting down](. The company says it’s an effort to improve the overall health and work-life balance of employees. We love that. Now, who’s going to design software that shuts your phone down after 15 minutes on TikTok? SHARING IS CARING How about schnitzel with us in Vienna? Attention, Stacked Marketer fans: If you get 1000 people to sign up for our newsletter, we’ll fly you to Europe for a weekend with us in Vienna. We’ll eat schnitzel, see the sights, and talk marketing. It’ll be awesome. You’ll unlock other rewards, too, including: - The Marketer Mug (30 referrals). - The Marketer Zip Hoodie (50 referrals). Hit your custom link below to unlock exclusive content, merch, and membership! [placeholder for share GIF already in template] [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