Weekend Musings -15
Thoughts on YouTube ad Sequencing, Building better Facebook and Google creative for Performance Marketing, Video on Landing Pages and more
Nick Clegg tweeted - “I think most reasonable people would acknowledge that social media is being held responsible for issues that run much deeper in society. If Facebook didn’t exist, these issues wouldn’t magically disappear.”
Nick is the VP of Global Affairs at Meta - Facebook’s new name. The company is helping to build the metaverse, a place where we’ll play and connect in 3D.
The company says that it’s betting big on what it thinks will be the next big thing in personal computing, a virtual space where people can work, play, or socialize, all through the lenses of virtual reality (VR) headsets or augmented reality (AR) glasses.
It expects to spend more than $10 billion on Facebook Reality Labs (henceforth to be known as just Reality Labs), the division-leading the development of its mixed-reality hardware and software. It’s said to have more than 10,000 people working on the initiative already.
Why now?
“The name change from Facebook to Meta [is] a blatant attempt to distance Mark Zuckerberg’s company from growing outrage over the harm it is causing to democracy in the US and around the world,” says Paul Barrett, deputy director of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. “Zuckerberg and his lieutenants can’t shed the Facebook albatross with a clever brand adjustment. It’s past time for meaningful self-regulation combined with carefully designed government oversight.”
Allyson Stewart-Allen, the CEO of International Marketing Partners, a business consulting firm, and the author of Working with Americans: How to Build Profitable Business Relationships said: “It’s almost like they are flying blind. In some ways this almost reinforces what Frances Haugen has been saying: that the company doesn’t listen, it’s out of touch and it does what it wants to do when it wants to do it regardless of what’s going on in the wider environment.”
Ben Thompson writes Meta exists because Zuckerberg believes it needs to exist, and he is devoted to making the metaverse a reality; it’s his call, for better or worse.
Facebook Connect keynote is entirely about a future that doesn’t yet exist; believing that it will happen rests on the degree to which you believe that Zuckerberg the founder can accomplish more than any mere manager.
Will Meta change the controversial face of Facebook? Can’t comment.
However, I remember a similar backlash happened when Facebook had purchased WhatsApp for $16billion. Today we are witnessing the potential of Facebook Apps.
Nonetheless, the metaverse is something brands can’t ignore. Wunderman Thompson Intelligence says,
“As our habits evolve, we’re outgrowing the bounds of the internet as it was first created—precipitating a new era of digital platforms. And yet, only 38% of global consumers have heard of the metaverse. It’s time to truly define what the metaverse is and establish a roadmap for entry.”
"Into the Metaverse" report covers emerging consumer trends and implications for brands and businesses, alongside original research.
Not sure how many Indians know about metaverse but we are aware that Aryan Khan finally gets bail after spending 22 days in custody.
Hyderabad cops have come up with an innovative idea to stop the use of illegal drugs: Cops were seen stopping people on the road, checking WhatsApp chats for 'drugs'.
Seriously?
Last week I watched Sardar Udham Singh on Amazon Prime. I knew what he did as a revolutionary but why he did and why he waited for 20 years was an eye-opener and heartbreaking. After he was hanged officials found his best friend’s pic in his fist after he was hanged.
His best friend was Bhagat Singh - a revolutionary way ahead of his time.
I watched the movie for Vicky Kaushal who plays Udham Singh and director Shoojit Sircar. For me, the movie unfolds in the last 30 minutes. You understand why Udham Singh waited for 20 years for assassinating Michael O'Dwyer in London to avenge the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar.
Vicky has amazed me by his spectacular performances in movies like Massan, URI, Raman Raghav 2.0 and Raazi. But Vicky was something different in this movie. He was living in the soul of Udham Singh and you will feel the pain of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Hats off to the entire team of Udham Singh to create such an important and brilliant period drama.
The movie which has been appreciated across by film lovers has not been selected for the Indian entry in Oscars. Speaking to a leading daily, Indraadip Dasgupta said, “Sardar Udham is a little lengthy and harps on the Jallianwala Bagh incident. It is an honest effort to make a lavish film on an unsung hero of the Indian freedom struggle. But in the process, it again projects our hatred towards the British. In this era of globalization, it is not fair to hold on to this hatred.”
Our own people playing politics in the name of globalization. It is not about holding on to hatred but telling the world what was done in 1919. When more than 1500+ unarmed people (men, women and children) were killed and over 1,200 other people were injured of whom 192 were seriously injured.
Moving on to my weekend musings for this week:
YouTube ad Sequencing
Google says: “Video ad sequencing lets marketers show ads on YouTube in an order based on the most compelling and memorable story structures. There are a lot of structures to explore, so we tested five sequences to understand their influence on three key metrics: brand awareness, ad recall, and purchase intent.”
So as a brand which ad sequencing you should pick? Read more to find the answer.
Building better creative for Performance Marketing
Facebook says: People shifted to expressing and connecting online in 2020, leading to an explosion of creativity that often coloured outside the lines and left the traditional polish behind.
“Brands that turned heads and won hearts did the same, speaking the language of digital platforms through approaches such as lo-fi production and creator content.”
To pinpoint key creative trends for the future driven by last year's cultural shifts, Facebook's Creative Shop reviewed 100 campaigns from around the globe that broke through on our platforms.
The analysis identified five ascendent behaviours that will continue to shape creativity.
Read more about the 2021 Creative Forecast.
“People report that helpfulness is their top expectation of brands since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with 78% saying a brand’s advertising should show how it can be helpful in everyday life,” says Google.
Google has collected the most useful creative best practices for Google Ads in one cohesive guide.
“We go in-depth on each creative ingredient so you can combine the best assets to drive even better performance for your campaigns. We also sourced insights from our in-house team at Creative Works, who work with some of the world’s leading brands to better understand the DNA of effective creative.”
Read more about Google Ads’ creative best practices.
Video on Landing Pages
Unbounce says: “Adding a video to your landing page—whether it’s a product demo, customer testimonial, or an animated background—has often been championed as an effective way to showcase your offer to visitors. For years, it’s been widely accepted that videos can (and do) boost your conversion rates.”
But what is data saying? Video Doesn’t Improve Performance—No Matter Your Conversion Goal
Unbounce examined 10 industries ranging from business services to real estate and travel. Across the board, it appears that videos generally correlate with neutral or even negative page performance.
You’ll see from the graph that, in most cases, the median conversion rates between the pages with and without videos are quite similar. However, some industries (like real estate) show a strongly negative effect when a video is present. This tells us that, for these particular sectors, the inclusion of a video could significantly reduce page performance.
The distribution of conversion rates is significantly lower on video pages than non-video pages across every channel.
Read everything about the analysis here.
Facebook ads Vs Instagram ads
Facebook Feed has the highest average CTR of 4.69%, followed by Facebook video feed, with an average CTR of 2.06%.
Facebook has the highest CTR, of 3.06% on average, compared to Instagram, which is 0.68%. Socialinsider does a study to find out what kind of social media ads generate better results.
More interesting data to be found here.
B2B Content Marketing Insights for 2022
Brand awareness, credibility/trust, and education are still the top reasons why.
“We understood that digital does not exist without real life. We are now working on more ‘daily and authentic content’ for brand awareness and trust. Selling will be the last step, not the first one.”
While content marketing’s profile has risen in companies, its top goal remains brand awareness (as it has nearly every year in the dozen years we’ve done this research.) 80% of marketers say report success in achieving brand awareness, with 75% say it builds credibility/trust and 70% say their content marketing educates audiences.
More details about the study are here.
A Technical Guide to Google’s Page Speed
“If you want to speed up your webpages for better user experience and SEO, there's no better tool than Google's PageSpeed Insights,” says SEJ.
Here’s a technical guide on how Google’s PSI tool works, how to understand your reports, and some easy ways to improve page load times across your web pages.
That’s all for this week I will see you soon. Good Weekend :)
Peace and happiness.