Video finally came into its own as a content marketing format over the past year, with the launch of 360-degree videos, Facebook Live, and all sorts of new features for video marketing on Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat.
It was only a matter of time, as video has been a huge part of the online ecosystem since the launch of YouTube all those years ago. Currently, estimates suggest up to 78% of all people watch videos online every week and 55% percent make it a daily activity. That means if you have been ignoring online video as a marketing channel for your business, you’re missing out on a huge and highly engaged audience.
With the start of the new year, many businesses are considering finally making video marketing a part of their larger advertising strategy. If you aren’t, you might want to reconsider. This infographic created by HighQ shows exactly why 2017 is poised to be the year video marketing blows up. You don’t want to be lagging behind when it does.
00Taylor Ballhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngTaylor Ball2017-01-09 15:08:102017-01-09 15:08:10Why Video Marketing Should Be a Priority in 2017 [Infographic]
In the age of the internet, Facebook has become one of the premier ways to advertise a local business. Now, a new report from Borrell Associates shows just how many businesses are using the biggest social platform around to grow their business.
According to the report, almost 80% of local businesses have a Facebook page, and 62% are buying Facebook ads to reach a larger audience. In total, that adds up to more than 2.5 million US businesses paying to promote their brands or content on Facebook every year, spending $1,500 on average.
For the survey, Borrell Associates quizzed a mix of US businesses – many of which qualify as small businesses. However, it is important to note that some respondents represent larger brands with annual marketing and media budgets over $100,000.
Among those surveyed, 85% said they maintain a presence on at least one social media site. The vast majority of those (96%) were on Facebook, with Twitter in second place. Surprisingly, Snapchat does not appear on the list at all.
The data also shows that online marketing of all forms have firmly overtaken more traditional advertising mediums like print or TV ads as the best source of new customers for businesses. Company website and social media were second and third respectively, only outranked by word of mouth referrals.
A significant number of the respondents were categorized as “social media mavens” by the report, because they consider social media as the absolute best channel for acquiring new customers for their business. However, these businesses are probably not who you think.
Instead of new, high-tech start-ups or large businesses with the budget for extensive social media marketing, these “mavens” are described as being:
“Smaller, older, independent companies with less than $1 million in gross sales.”
“More likely to have a single location or be home-based than have multiple locations and slightly more likely to cater to consumers (B2C) versus only businesses (B2B).”
76% manage social media themselves.
57% pay to boost posts
A significant number of these companies are also looking at cutting or eliminating traditional advertising from their marketing mix in the near future.
The findings highlight that you don’t have to be a Forbes 500 company or a typical online-based business to benefit from marketing your business on Facebook. Businesses of all sizes are seeing the social platform as an enormously powerful tool for reaching new customers.
00Taylor Ballhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngTaylor Ball2016-12-06 14:53:262016-12-06 14:53:26Almost 80% of Local Businesses Are On Facebook
Pinterest is giving business pages a makeover that highlights their boards and buyable pins – just in time for the holidays.
The biggest change is the addition of the new rotating showcase. This allows you to show off up to five of your boards and your buyable pins all in one, easy-to-view location.
“You can use the new showcase space to highlight anything from seasonal content to your all-time best ideas – whatever helps tell the unique story of your business,” according to Pinterest.
The rotating showcase can be updated as often as you like, which means you can use it for a whole host of things. For example, you can update your showcase to put a seasonal spin on your page or share items on sale for a limited time.
That isn’t all that Pinterest is rolling out, though. The site is also making several cosmetic changes to business pages:
New tabs are available for organizing your boards and pins.
Pins you’ve liked are now only visible to you.
The showcase will replace your most recent pins on mobile.
You can now pick new board covers from mobile devices.
The company says it has also tweaked its layouts to ensure a more consistent experience from smartphone to desktop, and everywhere in between.
“The boards you showcase, the cover images you choose for each board—they look the same no matter where people choose to view your profile.”
The changes have already begun to roll out to all devices and should be available to all users.
After months of testing a new verification in the San Francisco area exclusively for locksmiths and plumbers, the search engine has officially launched the “Google guaranteed” verification process.
If your business gets “Google guaranteed”, you get a special green badge next to your business in the search results – and customers get a few perks and protections through Google.
If you tap on any of the results, you are then taken to the home service ad specifically for that business, along with some extra details about what the Google guarantee really means:
Tapping on Learn More goes even more in-depth, with a full page of details about what the Google guarantee covers and how it works:
”When you book an eligible home service pro on Google, you are protected by the Google guarantee. If you’re not satisfied with the work quality, Google may refund up to the amount paid for the job.”
What Businesses Need To Know
Currently, the Google guarantee is limited to just locksmiths and plumbers. This is because both industries have had recent issues with ad fraud and abusive advertising practices which Google is attempting to clean up.
There does not appear to be a public sign-up process for businesses hoping to be verified, and it is unclear what the verification process includes. However, this is likely to become more transparent as the verification process is extended nationwide.
What Customers Need To Know
To activate the Google guarantee, fill out this form before your first appointment. You can also call customer support at (844) 885-0761 to submit a claim or ask questions about your coverage.
Coverage
If you’re unhappy with the work performed, you can submit a claim and Google will cover the invoice amount up to a lifetime cap of $2,000.
The job must be booked through Google Home Services. Any future work completed by the same provider, unless booked through Home Services, is not covered.
Jobs completed before September 14, 2016, are not covered.
Currently only locksmith and plumbing jobs are covered.
00Taylor Ballhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngTaylor Ball2016-11-28 15:57:472016-11-28 15:57:47Google Introduces The “Google Guarantee” For Locksmiths and Plumbers
Google is giving AdWords’ price extensions a makeover this week to make prices even more prominent in search results, according to an announcement Monday.
Price extensions are one of Google’s many extended ad formats designed to highlight individual products and services and allow searchers to easily compare prices.
The extension was first released in July as a simple list, similar to how sitelinks are displayed. Now, Google has redesigned the extensions to appear in a card carousel near the top of search results. You can get a preview what these cards look like in the tweet AdWords released to announce the change:
The 10 languages included in the release are English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish.
While the new price extensions put the emphasis on cost, it is also useful for highlighting your brand, events, products, and related services. The ad format includes a header, description, and price.
Unlike some ad formats, price extension ads don’t direct users to a landing page. Instead, they serve as direct links to sales pages for the specific item highlighted.
The best part of this redesign is that price extension ads now take up even more valuable space at the top of search results, without costing any more than a typical ad. That means you get to make an even bigger splash without costing you anything extra.
Bing is officially expanding their ad format selection to include app install ads in a pilot program open to all US advertisers. These ads are designed specifically to drive users to install apps when searching from their mobile devices.
The new format isn’t exactly revolutionary. Google has offered similar adds which directed searchers to the iOS App Store or Google Play Store for a fairly long time. However, this is the first time these ads have been available for Bing advertisers.
Setting up App Install Ads is easily done when selecting your ad type in your campaign settings screen. Once your campaign is running, Bing will then detect what type of device a searcher is using and show ads with a direct link to installing an app through their device’s app store.
”Using App Install Ads gets app customers to your app store directly, eliminating the extra time, navigation, and clicks they would otherwise need to take from your website.”
App Install Ads do have a few quirks compared to older ad formats. For example, there is no display URL on the ad. Instead, any clicks will take users directly to an app store page. The new ad format is also limited to just iOS and Android apps. There is no indication whether they will eventually support Windows or Windows phone apps in the future.
00Taylor Ballhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngTaylor Ball2016-11-14 12:16:542016-11-14 12:16:54App Install Ads Come To Bing
Facebook has been expanding their advertising service across every aspect of their platform for years, but one area has remained completely ad-free for users despite this – until now.
The company has been testing sponsored messages since April, and now it has announced it is opening the messaging app’s ad format to all brands using Messenger’s developer tools to manage their chats.
The ads are pretty much exactly like the format they have been testing, with straightforward ad messages. However, you can’t spam out ads to everybody. You can only show sponsored messages to those who “have an open, existing conversation with” a brand, according to Facebook.
To help with this limitation, the company says it is also allowing advertisers to create ads that link directly to their Messenger account to spark more conversations with brands.
The ads are also limited to just one link and photo. Unlike most Facebook ads, sponsored message campaigns also cannot be modified to automatically run on Facebook or Instagram.
In another departure from Facebook’s normal ad formats, the company says it will charge advertisers anytime the ad appears on a Messenger user’s screen in their Messenger Inbox – even if it is never opened.
00Taylor Ballhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngTaylor Ball2016-11-11 12:36:192016-11-11 12:36:19Brands Can Now Send Sponsored Messages On Facebook Messenger
Earlier this year, Facebook was excited to announce that over three million businesses actively advertise on their social ad network. Now, just seven months later, the company has added another million businesses to that number.
In comparison, Facebook’s biggest competition in the social advertising field, Twitter, only took in a little over 130,000 advertisers in the fourth quarter of 2015. The Facebook-owned social platform Instagram announced last week that it has reached 500,000 brands purchasing ads each month, more than doubling from around 200,000 in February 2016.
Really, the only ad network that counters the size of Facebook’s is Google, and they no longer say how many advertisers are active on their network.
While the highlight of Facebook’s advertising announcement was the overall growth in advertisers, they also highlighted just how big of a factor mobile is in their ad network. Not only do more than 80% of Facebook’s advertising revenue come from ads shown on smartphones and tablets, but approximately 40% of Facebook’s active advertisers also have created ads on mobile devices.
Another major player in Facebook’s ad network is video advertising. More than 20% of Facebook’s active advertisers have purchased video ads, and over four million new video ads are created on Facebook every month.
While every social network has its benefits, it is hard to argue with the sheer size of Facebook’s ad network. No other social platform gives you the massive audience and versatile tools that make Facebook ads so popular with advertisers.
00Taylor Ballhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngTaylor Ball2016-09-27 12:45:172016-09-27 12:45:17Over 4 Million Businesses Are Actively Advertising On Facebook
Video is finally experiencing the dominance many have claimed it would rise to since the release of YouTube. No matter which platform you look at, it is hard not to see videos littered throughout all your feeds.
This includes Twitter, which has made video a major part of its platform. As such, Twitter has also been keeping close track of how videos on its platform perform, to help advertisers know who is watching what, when, and whether these viewers are taking the time to watch pre-roll ads.
Twitter and AdWeek just released the platform’s annual Online Video Playbook to share what makes Twitter uniquely suited to video content. In particular, the research shows that video ads in Twitter are at least twice as memorable as ads presented on other services.
“As we navigate the dynamic world of video, these insights can help marketers and agencies unlock massive opportunity,” said David Roter, agency development director at Twitter. “We refer back to this playbook as we work strategically with our partners to develop innovative and creative campaigns.”
00Taylor Ballhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngTaylor Ball2016-09-26 15:30:392016-09-26 15:30:39Twitter Releases Its Online Video Playbook for 2016 [Infographic]
In response to the surge in mobile browsing, Google has encouraged webmasters to optimize their sites for users across a wide variety of devices, like smartphones and tablets. However, one of Google’s most popular services, Gmail, hasn’t been as quick to change over.
Brands hoping to optimize their emails for on-the-go users have been increasingly frustrated by Google’s lack of support for responsive email designs. Despite over half of all emails being opened on mobile devices, senders have been forced to use time-consuming and extremely complicated coding techniques to create emails that look great no matter where they are viewed – with often mixed results.
Thankfully, Google has finally started to Gmail up to speed with the rest of its platform by allowing a limited support for responsive design.
Starting this month, both Gmail and Inbox by Gmail will start allowing email developers to use response design in their emails to dynamically adapt their content across all screen sizes. This means instead of distorting your content, everything in your emails can automatically be sized for any device that opens it. You can see what the difference looks like below:
Of course, you’ll still have to use CSS media queries to create responsive emails that adapt like this. However, the change means you can now use a variety of widely-available tools or services that will optimize your emails for you without having to learn to code yourself.
The change could mean emails delivered through Gmail will perform significantly better than they have in the past. The majority of users say they are likely to close and even delete emails that don’t render properly on their device. That is a big deal when over 75% of all Gmail’s one billion users say they use mobile devices to access their account on a regular basis.
00Taylor Ballhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngTaylor Ball2016-09-19 13:30:142016-09-19 13:30:14Gmail Starts Supporting Responsive Emails That Look Great On Every Device
