PPC changes 2018 and their impact on advertisers in 2019

Major changes in SEM made waves throughout 2018 and are redefining nearly every aspect of paid search marketing. There were a number of momentous shifts, nearly all with a common thread of more automation and machine learning.

Google Ads: New brand name, new UI – The name change from AdWords to Google Ads is indicative of the fact that keyword selection plays a lesser role in paid search marketing than even a year ago, but more broadly the name change reflects the platform’s growth from one created for text ads to one that now includes dozens of ad formats across Search, YouTube, Gmail, Maps and a network of partner sites and apps. With the new interface, we lost some things such as Display Planner and gained a YouTube reach planner, notes and the ability to make changes from the Overview page in addition to other new features.

Responsive Search Ads – RSA are part of the continuum of letting machine learning models do the work of ad creative optimization. Some of the initiatives that have come before it: dynamic search ads, automated ad suggestions and Google efforts over the past years to get advertisers to give up manual A/B testing and add at least three ads per ad group. An ad strength indicator and somewhat more extensive reporting for RSA were introduced in August. Same month, Google said it would soon roll out RSA to more languages and in the meantime extend the extra character benefits of RSA to text ads for everyone. This fall, Bing added support for the third headline and second description in text ads, including the ability to import the longer ads from Google.

Exact Match – As with ads more machine learning was injected into keyword-to-query matching in 2018 with the inclusion of same meaning words in close variants of exact match keywords. The match type lost its literal meaning and forced marketers to rethink how they use match types altogether.

AI-powered insights – Google and Bing have dedicated significant resources to developing much more robust recommendation engines in their interfaces. Bing introduced a competition tab, performance insights and location recommendations that highlight performance changes and competitive pressures, all delivered with machine learning. Google also continues to iterate on the data visualizations available from the overview page. The goal is to spend less time downloading and analyzing spreadsheets and more time focused on strategy and creative tactics.

AI-powered bidding – The manual bidding option is now buried below a growing list of machine learning driven bidding strategies, including ECPC. On the smart bidding front, Google introduced Target Impressions share, Pay for Conversions in Display Campaigns when Target CPA is the bidding strategy and rolled out Smart Bidding for search partners. Bing introduced Target CPA and Maximize Conversions bidding strategies.

Audiences: LinkedIn data for Bing, MSAN and more – Bing launched the Microsoft Audience Network (MSAN) which encompasses native ad inventory on MSN.com, Microsoft Outlook and the Microsoft Edge browser, as well as syndication partner for what are now called Microsoft Audience Ads. It uses AI for ad delivery optimization and uses data from the Microsoft Graph for audience targeting, including web and search activity, demographic and consumer behavior activity and select LinkedIn profile dimensions. In October, Bing also made LinkedIn categories of company, job function and industry available for targeting in search and shopping campaigns in the US.

Universal Automation vs. Hybrid Management – Google introduced goal-optimized Shopping campaigns, Smart Campaigns for small businesses and Local campaigns for driving in-store traffic. With Smart Campaigns, everything from ad creation, audience targeting, ad delivery across Google channels and soon landing page creation are automated based on the advertiser’s goal. Goal-optimized Shopping campaigns employ machine learning to automatically optimize ad delivery to achieve the defined conversion goal value, such as revenue or return on ad spend (ROAS). It also combines dynamic remarketing and standard Shopping in one campaign to deliver an ad across Google properties and the Google Display Network. For Local campaigns, advertisers set a budget, and the ads are generated automatically based on ad creative elements from the advertiser and their location extensions. Google automatically optimizes ad delivery across Search, YouTube, Maps and websites and apps in its ad networks.

Based on the trajectory of automation in ads and exact match, this hybrid approach has the potential to spell the end of manual control of match types (except negatives), bid modifiers, geo-targeting and other tools we use for campaign management. This doesn’t mean people will be erased from the equations and certainly not in 2019 but it will require SEM specialists to adopt a very different mindset. We have to embrace machine learning as a tool that helps us find opportunities that are imperceptible through traditional techniques.

New Inventory Locations and Surfaces – There were a number of new surfaces for ad formats that opened up in 2018. Bing’s native ads extending across the Microsoft Audience Network is just one example. In November, Google made AMP Story ads available to all publishers, and there are now more than 100 ad tech vendors with AMP integrations. Hotel deals from Google Search are now featured on the Benefits tab of the new Google One cloud storage app (for Android only at this point). Expect to see more promotional opportunities. Google said more promotions from the Google Store and Google Express benefits and more will eventually be featured on the tab. Google has also been testing native ads in the Discover Feed (originally Google Now) on the front page of the Google app. It’s a limited whitelist test for now, but could open up more native inventory in a prominent location.

Connected TV advertising is growing rapidly, and YouTube says more people are streaming it on their televisions. This fall, “TV screens” became the latest device type for video and display campaigns in Google Ads. Eligible display and video campaigns are running on TV screens by default now, and can be managed with bid modifiers. Expect to continue hearing much more about connected TV advertising in 2019.

Amazon Ads – The Google - Amazon face off started with where consumers start their product searches. Now it’s extending to search and other advertising. Amazon was declared the third-largest digital ad seller in the US by eMarketer in September, (far) behind Google and Facebook. Its ad revenue is expected to increase by 50 percent per year through 2020, which would put its market share at 7.0 percent, up from 4 percent currently. In our Amazon Advertising Forecast 2019, 80 percent of Amazon advertisers said they plan to increase spends in 2019, with 30 percent saying they’ll shift some budget from search.

Google’s strategy to counter Amazon’s encroachment into product search is to partner with retailers. It debuted Shopping Actions in March to address three key challenges on the e-commerce front: (1) how to make mobile shopping from its properties like Search faster; (2) how to maintain market share for product search in a splintering mobile landscape of apps and digital assistants; and (3) how to compete against Amazon. Shopping Actions runs across Search, any Google Assistant-enabled devices, Google Express (which includes Shopping ads that now feature blue shopping tags instead of parachutes), and features a universal shopping cart and a Google-hosted checkout when users save their payment information in their Google accounts.

2018 is kind of a turning point in terms of SEM I think. “Keywords aren’t gone, but they’ve been greatly depreciated. SEM in 2019 is going to be much closer to modern programmatic than it is to the ‘enhanced’ era.

Employment Geography in India

Where do Indians find regular jobs easily? Where are Jobs harder to find? Are there parts of the country where regular factory jobs outnumber other kinds of jobs? Such questions are typically hard to answer because of the lack of granular jobs data in the country. The official employment surveys conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) typically have very small district-wise samples, which makes district wise estimates much less precise than state-level ones.

The only source that provides rich employment data at the district level and beyond is the census. While the latest census data pertains to 2011, it provides far more granular and rich information than any other data source on jobs. The comparison between 2001 and 2011 census data has been made by merging newly created districts in 2011 back with their parent districts so that all comparisons are on a like-to-like basis.

Most districts in some of India’s most youthful and populous states, such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, witnessed either a decline or stasis in the share of regular jobs between 2001 and 2011. These are the districts where the demand for jobs is the greatest, and where regular jobs are increasingly difficult to find. One big reason for the lack of much progress in creating regular non-farm jobs lies in India’s failure in manufacturing. Barely 26 of the 640 districts in 2011 had more than a fifth of their workforce employed in manufacturing. Most districts across the country actually saw the share of regular manufacturing workers fall between 2001 and 2011.

It comes as little surprise therefore that the farm sector was the largest employer across districts. The two big exceptions to this trend lie in the two extremes of the country—Kerala, where construction accounts for the lion’s share of workers across several districts and Jammu and Kashmir, where government workers make up the majority of workers across a large swathe of the state.

Manufacturing is the biggest employer only in a handful of districts: in the Coimbatore-Tirupur belt in Tamil Nadu, the Thane-Mumbai belt in Maharashtra, the Jalandhar-Ludhiana belt in Punjab and a few other districts scattered across the country. Till that picture changes, it is difficult to imagine an end to India’s chronic jobs shortage.

Career Lessons from the game of Poker

Poker has picked up steam in India over the past 10 years. From legal off-shore casinos in Goa and student hostels to professionals catching up over weekends and poker apps on smartphones, either you or someone you know swears by poker for its entertainment value or the excitement of making money. Like every other great game, poker has many lessons to offer for your life or career, if you choose to learn.

Pick the right table- A poker player who does not want to lose money knows that a table full of vacationers or friends catching up over drinks is a better bet than a table full of serious looking professional players. Similarly, picking a career or the right employer is the most important decision you will take. Choose one where your own skills are in short supply, have a direct impact on the business and the employer is willing to recognize your contributions.

Keep improving- The first few skills that a poker player learns are the meaning of different combinations of cards, the mathematical odds of success of each, and calculation of risk depending on how many players are still playing, the size of their stacks, the position on the table and how many cards are yet to be dealt. Identify the basic skills required for your job and master them. Your skills will grow with experience and so will your self-knowledge about how you respond to people and situations.

Discipline compounds your wealth- The ability to consistently play at a high standard is what creates sustainable success in poker. A single emotional disastrous decision can wipe out the winnings of a complete evening. Your wealth is built over long-term discipline in pursuing a career path in an industry or a skill set and building over your past successes and promotions. A single poor action can destroy your reputation and credibility, denting your wealth significantly. 

It’s a lonely journey- The poker player traverses a lonely journey in his mind. He questions his decisions when he is losing and cannot seek solace inside the game. In your profession too, you will be lonely. No one else can take your decisions for you. You cannot seek sympathy at work for your poor decisions and have to bear the consequences alone. Be prepared.

Take the plunge- Players who take zero risks always lose and slowly bleed away their stack over multiple hands while they wait for their dream cards. If you are afraid to try out new roles and responsibilities, or switch jobs, or accept that target, you will be trapped in a sense of false security and bleed with every passing year of your career. Go take that jump and constantly step out of your comfort zone to win big.

A bad hand is not the end- A bad card situation can change when new cards are on the table and if you play the game well. At work too, being the weakest in the team is not the end. You can build upon your output and a change in circumstances can push you to the top. Similarly, good times can turn too. So don’t take a promotion, bonus, your boss or even your job for granted.

Enjoy the game- Poker works because people enjoy it in the right spirit. When playing for fun, players ignore rule violations, friendly indiscretions and distracting banter. When playing for serious money, players don’t seek emotional fulfillment on the table. Similarly, pick a career you enjoy. At your workplace, don’t expect your team to fulfill your emotional needs. Keep your ego in check and never let your emotions run riot and take you away from your primary focus of career growth.

The past is meaningless- The past has no bearing on the present cards dealt in poker. Each hand is played on its merits. Don’t carry baggage from your past employer, work culture, expectations or even failures into your current role. The new outcomes are not dependent on your past but on where you choose to be available and how you act now. 

Let the casino keep the rake- In a casino, at the end of every hand, the dealer strips away 5% of the total winnings of the table for the casino. This is the rake, the fee for the casino to operate the business. Your employer likewise needs to survive and grow in business. While it creates opportunities for your growth and wealth, know that your employer’s goals need to be met first. Don’t forget to deliver outcomes while you pursue your dreams. 

Walk away from bias- Sometimes players cheat and a bunch of them play in concert against the rest. If the dealer doesn’t take corrective action, then the table is biased against the lone player, who ultimately loses. Similarly, if you perceive extreme politics or discrimination, harassment, or bias that the employer is unwilling to change, then walk away and find a fair workplace.

LESSONS FOR THE ENTREPRENEUR

Decisions without complete data- On the poker table, you never have perfect information and yet you take a decision to bet or not in each turn of play in a hand. Likewise, in entrepreneurship, you will operate on incomplete data and, to win, you need to take immediate daily decisions based on your ability, personality and intuition. Some might go wrong.

Your co-founder called luck- Sometimes the luck of the draw lands in the player’s favor. With a poor hand and a low pre-flop investment, he wins a full house in a dramatic reversal of fortunes. Every successful entrepreneur has a story about when their co-founder called Luck flopped out the perfect cards. So, limit your losses and stick it through till that moment.

Learn how to quit- When the odds of success are negligible and the commitment of cash to stay is huge, the good player folds and saves his stack for the next hand. Similarly, be willing to quit and save everyone’s resources when there is no hope of success. Deploy your energies into pivoting your business or building a new one.

It’s the player, not the cards- Poker is not about getting dealt hundreds of hands of great cards over multiple contests. It’s about the player and how he plays. Similarly, good investors choose to bet on the entrepreneur more than the proclaimed business opportunity.

Go all-in- The poker player’s biggest victories come from hands where he goes ‘all-in’ on a winning combination. By committing his entire stack to the game, he multiplies winnings in one go. Similarly, with a successful pilot, a large market and customers willing to pay for your product don’t hold back. Go all-in and commit fully to your venture.

What’s next for Smartphones?

What is the next for Smartphone, which has become the hottest-selling consumer device around the world in just over a decade? Even as Top makers like Apple and Samsung unveil new handsets with new features and improved performance, smartphone sales have flattened with most major markets largely saturated.

Next Catalyst – The next catalyst for Smartphones could be the possibilities offered by the forthcoming 5G or fifth generation wireless networks, new form factors or advances in virtual and augmented reality. But some analyst contend that something entirely different may supplant the smartphone.

Transition – 2018 marks the beginning of the end of traditional smartphones and sees a transition to a new era of computing and connected devices based on voice, gesture and touch. The transition from smartphones to smart wearable’s and invisible interfaces – earbuds that have biometric sensors and speakers, rings and bracelets that sense motion, smart glasses that record and display information – will forever change how we experience the physical world. The Smartphone market is not going away, but it might change its shape and form factor. The smartphone market still has legs for many years to come.

Evolving – The mobile industry is evolving to devices with more immersive touch-less experience fueled by artificial intelligence, mixed reality and gesture control. New devices may also see improved biometrics such as face recognition, and changes such as foldable screens. Google and Amazon will lead and drive innovation around smartphones and related ecosystems over the next five to six years because of their strength in these emerging technologies.

Mobile Subscription – In the US, 91% of adults under 50 use a smartphone and 95% teens have access to one. Europe had some 465 Million subscriptions at the end of 2017, representing 85% of the population with more than two-thirds of the devices smartphones. The market may get a boost in 2019 from 5G and a likely appearance of the first devices with foldable or bendable displays.

Next Innovations – Smartphones are still preferred by consumers despite the arrival of new devices like smart speakers from Amazon and Google. The next innovations are likely to be devices that are ever “smarter” than the current generation of handsets, with artificial intelligence that is built in. The completion among tech firms is now centering around the smart digital assistants like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple’s Siri and others.

Reversing your Advertising Process

Most of the time advertisers work in one direction. We come up with an advertising concept or message, create an ad that matches, and then fill in the missing pieces between that ad and a completed scale: landing pages, forms, lead magnets, promotions, sales collateral and so forth. Then we want to improve things, we go back to our pieces and try to figure out how we could improve them. Poor CTR – Try tweaking the ad copy. Not enough sales – offer promotion.

Many big companies recognize this and use surveys or focus groups to try to get inside the heads of their target audience. However, that sort of in-depth research can be a bit hard to pull off. So we end up taking our best guess and making tweaks instead. This works well enough most of the time, but what do you do when your best advertising ideas still aren’t delivering adequate results? In this situation, it may be helpful to try reversing your advertising process. Instead of coming up with different ways to catch your customer’s eye, start by looking at what your customers are responding to on your website and landing pages.

Google Analytics – The easiest way to do this is to take a look at the messaging on the top-performing pages of your site. Landing page reports tells you how many people landed on a particular page and then went on to convert on your site. In other words, regardless of how they got to your site, these people saw something they liked on your site and converted. Once, you’ve identified the elements that make a particular page deliver the results you’re looking for, you can use that information to come up with a great ad.

Right Ad Strategy – When you get right down to it, you don’t really want people to click on your ads. You want people to convert. If people aren’t converting, every click you pay is a waste of money. Typically, most people recommend that you match your landing page to your ad and then split test your landing page. Instead of keeping the ads the same and testing the landing pages, keep the landing page the same and test different ads.

Identify one of your top landing pages and come up with a few different ads that match the messaging of your landing page. Then, set up a split test in your ad platform of choice and see which ad produces the best conversion rates. Most online advertisers see the journey from click to conversion as two separate processes, CTR and Conversion rates. Since we’re trying to reverse-engineer our advertising, we’re going to assume that the conversion rate of our landing page is directly influenced by the type and quality of traffic we’re sending to it. So, if our ads send better traffic to our landing page, our conversion rate will naturally improve.

Limitations – Reverse-engineering your ads from your landing page and site content comes with its own set of disadvantages. Conversion data only tells you what worked for the people who have converted, it doesn’t tell you much about what might work for new audiences. This approach is most helpful when you have quite a bit of existing conversion data and want to use that data to come up with new advertising ideas.

Online advertising is something of a tricky process. You know what you want to say and who to say it to, but figuring out the best way to say it can be hard. Your current customers have already given you a lot of information on what makes them want to convert. All you have to do is use that data to reverse-engineer an advertising strategy that really speaks to your audience.

Implementing Cohort Analysis Modeling

When reporting paid search results, marketers often field a few recurring questions “How does search contribute to retention?” However, the ability to strategically and correctly answer these questions about search campaign effectiveness over time requires both deep reporting capabilities and a strong grasp of your organization attribution model.

Adoption of Cohort analysis as part of paid search reporting can be a powerful means to assess trends, retention and path to purchase. It also allows for greater accuracy when analyzing campaign results over a dedicated window of time based on the time it takes users to move through the funnel. In marketing, the term “cohort” describes segments of users who share specific events or experiences within a specific time frame. Cohorts include purchasers, email subscribers, trial and/or demo downloads or any other conversion action in the funnel.

Shifting to a Cohort model requires diligent up-front assessment and work, it’s crucial to ensure accurate data is being collected. The most important spreadsheet columns in this instance are the date and time stamps, such as “Original created date for the lead” and “Date when the lead transformed into its next stage” and so on. The date allows measurement of the time it takes for users to move through the funnel and application of that knowledge to paid search reporting and insights.

Once the right data is flowing and a statistically significant lookback window of results to review is available, it’s time to analyze the time it takes our users to pass through the sales funnel from paid search. To set up a Cohort analysis with ample data, shoot for a 6 – to – 12 month window of data. It’s vital to have a large enough date range so we don’t misinform paid search contribution to the marketing platform.

The Cohort model can be used to make faster and smarter search optimizations. It’s not practical to wait for 100% of our leads to move through the funnel before making decisions. Choose the right percentile to use instead. For example, taking the 75^th percentile will help determine how many days it takes for the fastest 75% of our paid search leads to move through the funnel. This may significantly reduce the days between stages from previous analysis.

The key to developing accurate reporting is to ensure prospects; opportunities and customers aren’t being reported outside their time windows. This means if a customer window is 30 days, we’re not viewing any customer results unless they’re 30 days old and have had that time to mature. To get an accurate cost per customer in this instance, we also want to exclude spend from the most recent 30 days. We should only view spends in the maturity window for our customers or opportunities.

Cohort Analysis application for Paid Search

Forecasting - Understanding the flow and evolution of paid search cohorts in correlation to pipeline or revenue makes it much easier to forecast the behavior of a new subset of customers.

Retention strategy – Comparing cohorts by day, week or month of acquisition by revenue generated from that group over the next 6 – to – 12 months will shine a light on purchase and engagement habit changes. If repeat purchases don’t increase, it may be best to implement a retention or re-engagement strategy to guide users back to the sales journey.

Seasonality - Assessing date of first customer/purchase against repeat purchase will highlight users who fall off after a holiday or busy season. Using this data can help inform marketers whether they should double down post-season.

Geo-specific purchase behaviors – If employing international or geo-focused paid search initiatives, measuring revenue incurred month over month by location will make it clear where LTV thrives or dives by region.

Analysis models vary greatly, and shifting to a cohort analysis or model can be a big decision. For many marketers, such a move is necessary for working with lead-gen campaigns. Implementing cohort analysis into paid search reporting is often a powerful means of charting true long-term trends for retention, churn and attribution at a more granular level — and more importantly, bringing to light opportunities within paid search programs.

Why Marketers should focus on Indian Language Content

English once dominated the Internet in India, but not anymore. According to the 2001 census, there are more than 1.600 dialects spoken in India, with 22 official languages recognized by the government. Interestingly, only 8% Indians read English language newspapers while others prefer consuming news in their local language. Clearly, these regional languages are now taking center stage, and the Internet too is transitioning into a diverse amalgamation of Indian languages.

According to a recent Google – KPMG report, India has 234 Million Indian language users online while only 175 Million are English language users. The Indian language user base is poised to account for 75% of India’s Internet user base by 2021. These projections are set to have a profound impact on the existing and future content on the Internet, where a paradigm shift is now imminent.

Rapidly growing Internet penetration, affordable mobile data connections and improving digital literacy have appeared as the key drivers for the growth of Indian language content within the Internet ecosystem. It is interesting to note that apart from digital content platforms, several chat applications, online government services, digital payment services, classified ad platforms and e-tailing platforms are witnessing a steadily growing Indian language user base. Currently, 68% Internet users feel that Indian language content is more reliable than English.

However, there is a huge gap between the demand and supply of quality Indian language content across categories from digital news to online payment platforms. 60% Internet users claim that limited Indian language content acts as a major obstruction in the adoption of online services. Therefore, Internet based enterprises are losing out on a lot of businesses and have a untapped client base. In fact, Indian language content drives almost twice the engagement and exponentially increases the reach of online content. So, the transition from English to Hindi languages will benefit content creators as well as brand managers experts for SMEs.

As brands comprehend the persuasion power of Indian languages, regional content is increasingly being leveraged to increase brand recall through vernacular based digital advertising. Additionally, Indian language users find it challenging to read product descriptions and reviews in English. Research suggests that the share of digital advertisements in Indian languages is set to increase from 5% to 35% by 2021. This proves to be a massive opportunity for SMEs.

90% of new Internet users over the next five years are projected to be Indian language users. Government is planning to propagate digital literacy among 60,000 rural households by 2021. The adoption of Indian language content across categories such as entertainment, news, online shopping and digital payments will consequently skyrocket. Business will continue to capture a larger share of consumers by giving them access to quality Indian language content.

This shift in the Indian language consumption trends within the Internet will push e-commerce firms, digital entertainment platforms, online payment platforms and other Internet based players to continually invest in creating content that covers the most consumed regional languages. The creation of vernacular based content will lead to higher internet inclusion, especially among the rural population in India and hasten India’s journey towards becoming a truly digital country.

Book Review: The Fuzzy and the Techie

If you had majored in the Humanities or Social Sciences you were a fuzzy. If you had majored in Computer Science, you were a techie. This informal division quietly found its way into a default assumption that has misled the business world for decades – that it’s the techies who drive innovation. This book clearly articulates the importance of the liberal arts in our techno centric world.

But in this brilliantly contrarian book, Hartley reveals the counter-intuitive reality of business today; it’s actually the fuzzies not the techies who are playing the key roles in developing the most creative and successful business ideas. Author looks inside some of the world’s most dynamic new companies, reveals breakthrough fuzzy – techie collaborations and explores how such associations are at the centre of innovation in business, education and government and why the liberal arts are still relevant in our techie world.

The book’s early chapters explore how, underappreciated and largely unnoticed, “fuzzy” skills have already proven themselves to be complements to coding talent. Numerous examples, from Palantir’s national security insights to Stitch Fix’s wardrobe recommendations, make the point that combining human and algorithmic intelligences often leads to better results than a purely automated approach. Fuzzy insights provide the driving force for new businesses, whether it is social messaging application Slack or school/parent communication tool Remind. In later chapters, Hartley uses example after example to make the case that the liberal arts’ concerns for ethics, understanding of human motivations, and insights into social dynamics can find a productive home in the technology world.

Author also highlights the human skills needed to find the “novel patterns” in big data, shows How high-tech tools such as satellites have become much more accessible to breakthrough thinkers of all backgrounds, and offers case studies of and shout-outs to blended businesses such as StitchFix, which utilizes both algorithms and skilled stylists, and Talkspace, which provides access to lower-cost therapy via an online platform. He also dips into the idea of design ethics, such as those involved in programming self-driving cars or providing people with default choices that affect behavior.

When you look at many of the great creative minds of our times and humanity in general, brilliant people are good at many things. Da Vinci, known as a painter and sculptor among other things but also the earliest person to sketch the idea for the helicopter. Many brilliant scientists and mathematicians are also often great musicians or painters too.

This is a revelatory and original book of particular importance in India, where students are unduly pressurized to gain admission into institutes of technology in the hope that they will be at the forefront of change and innovation in the VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) world. Our greatest leaders are those who have depth of human understanding and empathy.

Inside Pinterest Advertisement

While Pinterest has been around since 2010, it still is a vastly underutilized advertising channel for many brands. Pinterest users are on the lookout for ideas, inspiration and your relevantly targeted products and services that can help improve their lives. Expand your business efforts into Pinterest and discover Advertising opportunities that can result in a positive return.

Getting started and tag implementation –

To begin, create a business account or convert your existing personal profile into a business account. When setting up a business account, Pinterest will automatically create an ad account for user. Similar to other advertising channels, Pinterest has its own Tag, which is a piece of code that is applied to your website. With the Tag, you will be able to better measure the effectiveness of your campaigns, understand customer paths from engagements to conversions, define audiences for remarketing and track a number of events such as page visits, category views, searches, cart additions, checkouts, video views, signups and leads. To install the Tag, place the base code on all pages on your website, and then add event tags to any page on which you want to track conversions.

Goals –

Pinterest offers two types of campaign objectives: Awareness and Consideration. Awareness campaigns are a good way to introduce people to your brand, as they are bringing new potential customers into your funnel. Consideration campaigns are effective vehicles to reach warmer audiences to entice them to visit your website or app and make a product or service purchase or to download an app if they haven’t already.

Ad Types –

Promoted Pins – These are Pinterest Standard ads. They can support a variety of marketing goals, such as increasing awareness, engagement and website traffic. One of the many benefits of having a business account is that you can create private boards that are not publicly visible to Pinterest users, and with these, you can compose Pins that you later deploy as part of a campaign.

Promoted Video Pins – One of the challenges advertisers face is standing out in a sea of pins. One approach is to use autoplay videos on Pinterest for a more captivating and immersive experience for your potential customers. With consideration campaigns, video ads tend to have higher CTR and conversion rates, as they leave less to the imagination and allow users to better visualize your products and services.

One – tap Promoted Pins – With this, one can get people to website much more quickly. With these expect to see high CTRs. For a better rate of success, test One-tap Promoted Pins with warmer audiences so that they are more likely to convert after they click through.

Promoted App Pins – Looking to increase awareness and downloads of your app? This ad format is effective in doing both with a simple click of a button to “Install” within the ad unit. Users don’t have to leave Pinterest, making this an effective and seamless experience, resulting in a win for both your campaign objective and the users experience on Pinterest.

Strategies for Success –

Stand out, Naturally – Create ads that inspire, are relevant and look natural to the platform and your brand.

Repurpose successful organic Pins – Already have something that works? Expand its shelf life by using your highest engagement organic pins and promote them using one of the aforementioned ad formats to expand your reach, traffic and conversions.

Remarketing for Conversions – Entice your newsletter subscribers, website visitors, cart abandoners and leads to return to your site and complete the conversion with remarketing campaigns. Test different messaging, images and videos with these warmer audiences and present offers.

Include Call to Action in Pin descriptions – Regardless of ad format, use a strong call to action in your Promoted Pin description, especially if you are doing One-tap Pins.

Forego Hashtags – While Pinterest support Hashtags, they can appear slightly spammy, as they don’t appear on Pinterest as often as they do on other more Hashtag friendly social channels such as Instagram or Twitter. Use relevant keywords in your promoted pin description, as it will appear much more organic and welcoming.

Desktop vs. Mobile – 80% of users access Pinterest via tablet or smartphone. When browsing Pinterest, users will typically see more ads on mobile than on desktop, so take advantage of the comparably less saturated advertising environment to see how desktop ads perform with your target audience. To save time, run separate mobile and desktop campaigns to better understand performance. If you determine that one type isn’t worthwhile to run long-term, you’ll be able to easily disable one or the other.

How to get more from Push Notifications?

Finding the right way to utilize mobile push notifications is both an art and a science. If you have an app and you’re trying to goose users into action, push notifications are the way to go. Here I will break down the not-yet mighty push notification, general best practices, opt-in best practices, two main ways to segment your customers, timing best practices and push notification types.

General best practices:-

1.      Provide Value – What does your customer get out of interacting with your push notifications? Is it an exclusive sale? Whatever it is, make sure it’s clear and gives the user insider access to something that non-users won’t get.

2.   Make it visual – Adding pictures and videos to a push notification can result in more powerful storytelling by triggering emotional responses in users that plain text simply can’t. If you’re selling a product, that’s on sale, add a picture of the product. If a deal is expiring, add a clock.

3.     Personalize – If you’re communicating directly on the phone’s interface, include the user’s name to mimic the feel of a one-on-one conversation.

Opt-in best practices for Push Notifications – Before users take any action on your push notification, they must opt-in.

1.      Convey the value of your push notifications – Include value proposition that specifically focus on the benefits users will receive from push notifications. Ensure these value propositions are display under the app store description, as well as when users first engage with the app.

2.      Wait for right time to ask for the permission – Resist asking users to opt in right when they open the app, they won’t understand the full value of the service yet. Let users explore the app first, and then ask for permission when they are at a point where there is a clear need that push notifications could satisfy.

3.      Use a “soft-ask” approach - First, use in-app messaging to ask users if they want to receive push notifications. If the user says “yes,” then present those users with the official permission prompt. If the user replies “no,” allow them more time to find value in the app before asking again.

4.      Consider making an in-app micro-permission control center – In-app micro-permission control centers allow users to select the types of notifications they are interested in receiving.

5.      Leverage in-app messaging on customers who refused to grant permission – While you can only send the official permission prompt to a user once, you can leverage in-app messaging as many times as you want. Customers who answered “no” to official permission prompt should be targeted with in-app messaging that highlights the benefits of receiving pushes from the app. These messages should also include a link to “Settings” from which push notifications can be enabled.

Segment Push notifications according to Behavior – The more tailored to its audience a push notification is, the higher its open rate will be. As such, segmenting is imperative. One effective way to segment your user base is through their behavior. Looking at the various ways customers interact with the app provides valuable insight into what they care about and how engaged they are with the brand. This, in turn, helps us understand how often we want to send them pushes and what aspects of the app to highlight when we do.

Segment Push Notifications according to user Preferences – Another effective way to segment users is by their preferences, which informs strategy on which products customers care about the most. We can gain insight into user’s preferences by looking at their past engagement with products through the app and website and by defining their inclusive and exclusive traits.

1.      Inclusive Traits – When a user interacts with a product through the website or app, this indicates they have a positive preference towards that item.

2.      Exclusive Traits – When a user ignores promotions or emails for a certain product, this indicates they might have a negative preference toward that item.

Timing for Push Notifications – The effectiveness of any push-notification strategy is largely dependent on timing. The day of the week, time of day and frequency at which you send push notifications can drastically affect their open rates.

1.      Consider your users time zones – The last thing a push notification should do is wake a customer up in the middle of the night. Take time zones into account to ensure that all customers are receiving pushes at reasonable times.

2.      Avoid Scheduled blasts – Think about what times and days during the week your users typically engage and consider how this may vary by region, demographics and user behavior.

3.      Progressively increase the intervals between pushes for disengaged customers – Customers who are disengaged with the app must be dealt with very carefully, as sending too many pushes to someone who isn’t invested in the brand could easily cause them to delete the app. Use a push strategy in which you progressively add more time between each push.

4.      Never stop testing – While these guidelines may provide a nice starting point for a push strategy, it’s imperative to keep testing and honing your timing and cadence to find the optimal times to reach users.

Notifications Types – There are many different types of push notifications that can be used to accomplish a variety of goals, ranging from informing users of new promotions to providing them with industry-related entertainment.

1.      Welcome Push

2.      Preference based Push

3.      Cart Abandonment Push

4.      Delivery update Push

5.      Topical Push

6.      Promotional Push

   Once you’ve gotten users to download your app, push notifications are a great way to increase conversions and revenue – but don’t abuse the privilege. Be thoughtful, be relevant and be helpful and your users will reward you by engaging.