The 5 Paid Ad Channels You Need to Incorporate Right Now
Many advertisers start with Google or Facebook because of their market share, track record, and the habit of thinking of them as “online advertising.”
Between Google limiting search term visibility, Facebook’s audience’s impacted by iOs 14.5 privacy changes, and both network’s auction prices continuing to skyrocket – they might need some help in driving ROI for your business.
In this article, we’ll explore ad channels you might have passed up on or not known about:
- Microsoft: More than just a cheaper Google.
- Amazon: Branding and revenue ecommerce superstar.
- Instagram: Impulse purchases and huge engagement.
- LinkedIn: Premium targeting for B2Bs.
- TikTok: Influencers and trendsetters.
Microsoft Ads
Microsoft Ads (formerly known as Bing Ads) is a robust and powerful advertising channel for B2B and B2C brands. While it’s true most only think about it as the cheaper search cousin to Google, there are lots of innovative ad offerings:
- Auto Ads: Feed-based ads on the SERP which showcase the image of the car and price.
- Shopping Ads: Feed-based ads that showcase the product and price.
- Audience Network: Microsoft’s programmatic display/video offering.
Amazon Ads
Whether you’re using Amazon as a branding tool to help customers discover you or to sell mainly through the platform, there’s a lot of value in this ecommerce channel.
- 49% of internet users use Amazon to start their search for a product.
- 225,000 small businesses made over $100,000 in sales on Amazon in 2019.
- More than 55% of all Amazon sales come from third-party sellers.
Instagram Ads
Instagram Ads are all run through Facebook’s Ads Manager, allowing you to run ads concurrently across both sites to target both respective audiences.
Instagram has specific rules of engagement and often falls down when you use the same creative on Facebook and Instagram.
Be sure your ads:
- Include hashtags in your creative.
- Always have emojis.
- Let the image/video do most of the selling – supporting text is less important than the hashtags.
LinkedIn Ads
LinkedIn is the social media platform for professionals. With 61 million senior-level decision-makers on the platform, LinkedIn is a great place for B2B businesses to do their work. On LinkedIn, you can advertise through:
- LinkedIn’s feed.
- InMail.
- Spotlight (highlight key features).
TikTok Ads
TikTok is taking the world by storm and already has more than 1 billion monthly active users.
TikTok leans more towards Gen Z, with nearly 50% of 18-29-year-olds using the platform. TikTok requires engaging and fun video spots to highlight your brand’s value and to inspire purchasing intent.
Although it lends itself easily to B2C brands, TikTok can be really powerful at building brand sentiment for B2b brands. TikTok ranks as the second-biggest app in terms of consumer spend.
Cost? It averages around $0.19 per click or $10 per thousand impressions.
Source: The 5 Paid Ad Channels You Need to Incorporate Right Now
Should robots.txt support a feature for no indexation? Take the survey
With over 20 years of experience in SEO, “I have never encountered a situation where a publisher wanted to have a page indexed that they block for crawling in robots.txt. Not even once have I seen that,” I tweeted in response. “It’s common practice for me to educate people that they have a choice: (1) block crawling, or: (2) prevent indexation, when what they want to do is both. Note: definitely more of an issue for larger sites where crawl budget is an issue.”
Will Critchlow of Search Pilot agreed, “100% agree. I can see the conservatism of not changing a long-standing standard, but I have never seen, and can’t think of a situation where you’d want to block crawling but allow indexation.”
Source: Should robots.txt support a feature for no indexation? Take the survey
WooCommerce Blocks 6.0.1 Release Notes
A new version of WooCommerce Blocks has been released! Version 6.0.1 is now available for download from GitHub and WordPress.org.
What’s New in the Checkout block?
The new iteration takes the existing design of the Checkout Block and converts it to use Inner Blocks. What this means for the end-user is that instead of having a fixed layout Checkout Block, they are instead given a checkout constructed out of many smaller blocks, with more control over each.
Terms and Conditions Block
We heard your suggestions, and took the opportunity to also introduce a Terms and Conditions block. This block was one of the main motivations for this update to the Checkout block. To create a Terms and Condition block, we needed to make the editing experience easier.
The block can function as a required checkbox, or just as text.
Extending the Checkout block
The Checkout block can now be extended by introducing third-party blocks inside it. Developers can create blocks that forced into the Checkout layout or optional (like the Terms and Conditions block). Keep an eye on this blog as we will share a guide into how to extend the Checkout block soon.
Global Styles for reviews blocks
WooCommerce Blocks 6.0.0 adds the ability to style the All Reviews, Reviews by Product, and Reviews by Category blocks:
Updating the styles can be done a block basis using the new sidebar panels:
Or, if you’re using a theme that supports full site editing, you can update them on Global Styles panel in the Site Editor:
Source: WooCommerce Blocks 6.0.1 Release Notes
WordCamp US 2021 Kicks Off Online in 48 Hours
WordCamp US, WordPress’ largest flagship event in the Western Hemisphere, is set to kick off on Friday, October 1, at 11:45 AM EDT. The single-day event will include sessions, workshops, networking events, virtual sponsor booths, and musical interludes. Get ready to be inspired by new ideas and learn about the latest and greatest capabilities in the exciting frontier of blocks.
In preparation for the event, attendees can view the schedule, star sessions they want to catch, and email, link, or print them. The event features two simultaneous tracks, one focused more on development (Columbia) and another for less-technical topics (Yukon).
Unlike many previous years, WordCamp US will not include Matt Mullenweg’s annual State of the Word address. This year the event will be capped off with a presentation from WordPress’ executive director, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, titled “Grow Your Story,” where she will discuss “trends seeded in 2020” and future growth opportunities for the community. Haden Chomphosy said there will be a State of the Word later in the year, possibly “at a hybrid in-person/live broadcast format (in December),” but the details are still being worked out.
Source: WordCamp US 2021 Kicks Off Online in 48 Hours
Social media scam: Twitter bots are tricking users into making PayPal and Venmo payments into fraudsters’ accounts
Fraudsters are using Twitter bots to trick unsuspecting tweeters into making PayPal and Venmo payments to accounts under their control.
The bots appear to be activated when a legitimate user asks another for their payment information, presumably discovering these tweets via a search for keywords such as ‘PayPal’, ‘Venmo’, or other services.
They masquerade as the other user by scraping their profile picture and adopting a similar username, before supplying them with false payment information in the hopes the original tweeter will pay into this account.
By way of example, Twitter user ‘Skye’ (@stimmyskye) posted a screenshot online detailing how they were targeted by a bot.
A screenshot of the Twitter bot in action
Skye noted that the bot blocks the account that it is mimicking, and in their case copied the whole profile and added an underscore to the end of the name.
Big issue
Venmo and other online payment services have become a popular means for users to pay for things such as charity donations or for goods such as the resale of event tickets.
This latest scam, however, is a stark warning against making or disclosing any sort of transaction on a public forum.
Skye’s tweets have already garnered thousands of retweets and likes. They also claimed that this issue is “months, if not years old”.
Pay close attention
Andy Patel, researcher with F-Secure’s Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence, told The Daily Swig that he hasn’t seen this kind of bot during his own research, but reiterated Skye’s advice for users.
Patel said: “Given that the mechanism is automated, I’m willing to bet that the attack is fairly successful.
“A Twitter user would need to pay close attention to what is going on in order to notice what’s happened.”
He added: “Don’t publicly link to your PayPal (or similar) account – deal with payments via direct message instead.”
Source: Social media scam: Twitter bots are tricking users into making PayPal and Venmo payments into fraudsters’ accounts.
More News:
Facebook changes business ad options in reaction to iOS updates
