Digital ROI takes time, Google gets what you're saying, and brands take to Twitter after a "second-best" SNL shoutout.
November 1, 2019
Slow and Steady Wins the ROI Race
As digital marketers, we all get a little rush of dopamine when our brand gets a retweet, ad clicks, or a boost in traffic. But as good as these metrics look (and feel), they don’t necessarily prove ROI, which a lot of marketers struggle to accurately measure, according to LinkedIn research. The networking site found 77% of marketers try to calculate ROI within a month of a campaign, even though most B2B sales cycles average six months. And this rushed reporting causes many to track KPIs (like clicks and traffic) rather than metrics that demonstrate how their campaigns impact leads and sales. Marketers are often under pressure to quickly present results, but when it comes to sustained success, uncovering ROI is a long-game and patience is the play.
Google Just Gets Me
It’s not taught in schools, yet almost all of us Google searchers are experts in a second language: keyword-ese. You know, those nonsensical, semi-questions you type into the search bar in hopes Google will pick up what you’re putting down. Soon enough, though, keyword-ese may be as dead of a language as Latin. That’s because the search engine’s latest algorithm update helps it better understand natural speech, meaning users can search more conversational queries (rather than strings of keywords) to find exactly what they’re looking for. According to a Google VP, it’s the platform’s “biggest leap forward in the past five years” and one of the biggest leaps ever in search history. Our advice? Stay on your SEO toes and watch for changes in the keywords and phrases driving website traffic. Conversational queries will likely pop up more and more, and you don’t want to be caught without question-answering content.
Optimize Me, Captain
Facebook’s under major fire for its stance on political ads, but we’re going to keep this apolitical and chat about something all marketers can agree on: FB’s new “Multiple Text Optimization” ad offering could be a game-changer. The recently launched option lets marketers add multiple versions of ad text for headlines, body copy, and descriptions. FB’s systems will test and determine which combinations of copy deliver the best results. With this feature, Facebook can also serve up different versions of wording for the same ad to different audiences based on what its machine learning system believes will resonate the most. The option’s biggest drawback? It might require a big chunk out of your ad budget since FB will likely have to run multiple tests to find that perfect copy combo. But if your brand is receiving higher engagement and increased results, it may feel like chump change.
SPARK OF THE WEEK
1st Is Worst, 2nd Is Best
If you went to kindergarten, you know the rest. And whether you agree or not, anyone can get a kick out of the phrase being put to use in Chance the Rapper’s recent Saturday Night Live monologue. The entertainer opened the show with a rap about his hometown of Chicago (a.k.a. The Second City), complete with shoutouts to a few well-known “second bests.” Think: San Diego (vs. Los Angeles), Pepsi (vs. Coke), Bing (vs. Google), and Percy Jackson (vs. Harry Potter), to name a few. In total, Chance called out 14 brands during the late-night performance, most of which probably weren’t huge fans of the second-best label.
The monologue was a little snarky, but it was good-natured. And for the brands who responded, it was a chance to poke fun at themselves (and show a little brand self-awareness). Qdoba,Redbox, and the Lightning Thief Musicaltook to Twitter to respond to Chance within minutes, but other brands took longer (Pepsi on Sunday morning and Caribou Coffee on Monday). The brands’ tweets saw varying degrees of success, but the clear first-placers in engagement (keeping follower counts in mind) were those who responded in real-time: Qdoba, Redbox, and the Lightning Thief Musical. The three demonstrate it’s not only crucial to be in tune with how your brand is being spoken about, but how responding in the moment can make a major difference. Of course, most marketers aren’t social listening 24/7, but it’s important to always have an ear out for your brand, whether through notifications from a social listening tool or even Google Alerts. Because even on the weekends, people talk. And by Monday morning, it may be too late to respond.
