For those of you that follow my blog post and witty social media graphics (“witty” quite clearly being subjective), you’ll agree that I sound like a broken record when I state that businesses need to take marketing for mobile devices seriously.
“Come on, Jon. Tell us something we don’t know!”.
Ok. You know that mobile is important. I cannot stress it enough myself. Every digital marketing blog & their grandmothers will tell you that having an optimized presence on mobile devices is extremely important, especially now that it’s 2016 where more users are using search engines via mobile devices rather than desktops. Sounds pretty evident that most businesses have adopted a mobile-centric or mobile-first mentality, right?
Wrong.
Unfortunately, yours truly comes across a number of sites and emails on a daily basis that completely miss the mark when it comes to being optimized for mobile. Luckily, times are changing and companies around the world are beginning to wake up and realize the potential of having their conversion funnels optimized for users on the go. What’s even better is that digital advertising platforms such as Google, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat are making it easier and easier to reach lucrative niches, which should be incentive enough to adopt a mobile marketing strategy. Now, let’s revisit why mobile is important and the pitfalls of being myopic when it comes to website design. (more…)
Gotta catch ’em all, right? That’s the mentality millions around the world have adopted over the past two weeks as the latest mobile gaming fad, Pokémon Go, has invaded homes, streets, pop culture, and more. Sick of hearing about the Pokémon hype? I’ve got bad news for you – you’re not going to enjoy this post. However, if you’re looking for innovative local marketing tactics to attract more street traffic, then you may have to hop on the Pokémon train.
Pokémon Go Background & Launch
For those of you unfamiliar with the mobile application, it is a “free-to-play location-based augmented reality mobile game” developed by Niantic, an American software development company based out of San Francisco, California. Yes, “free-to-play location-based augmented reality mobile game” is quite a mouthful, but it accurately summarizes the game for the uninitiated. Niantic developed the game with The Pokémon Company, which is owned by three parent companies: Creatures Inc, Game Freak Inc, and the well-known gaming/software developer, Nintendo.
Have you ever lost track of time browsing through images on Pinterest? If so, yours truly is guilty of doing the same thing….repeatedly. If not, you’re missing out on an immensely powerful platform that can help you discover new products, get inspiration for cooking & DIY projects, and find the latest memes. With regards to discovering new products, the social media giant has announced several new features that will make it easier for users to find products and retailers to make more money. Now that’s what I call a win-win situation.
Here is a breakdown of the new features announced this week:
Buyable Pins Expanding to the Web
Anxious to get your new mobile app downloaded by users across the world? Need to add fuel to your current mobile marketing campaigns? Well, if you’re targeting iOS devices, you’re in luck: Apple has announced that it will be bringing search ads to the App Store this fall.
This update was a long time coming. With the evolution of the digital landscape in recent years, the advertising space for mobile applications has increased at a rapid rate. Google, Facebook, and Twitter have opened up their advertising platforms to give mobile developers the opportunity to market their apps to specific target audiences. Of course, it’s not surprising it took this long for Apple to enter the game: the company would rather be an innovator than a follower within any field, but it was time for them to bring marketing capabilities beyond simple app store optimization (ASO) for developers and agencies alike.
That said, let’s take a quick look at some of the preliminary features that will be available for advertisers. (more…)
It looks like Google AdWords is about to become an even better platform for experienced media buyers and novice digital marketers alike. Awww yeah.
Google’s recent Performance Summit gave us a glimpse into the future as the search engine giant unveiled upcoming updates that will refine Google AdWords and make it an even more potent tool for media buyers. While the upcoming updates to the platform’s interface has been necessary for years, yours truly is more excited about the features that will make an otherwise fun activity even more entertaining. Yes, I don’t consider optimizing campaigns on AdWords and other platforms work, but rather a fun hobby that gets even more exciting when my team delivers wins for clients. Now, what about these upcoming updates? Here’s the breakdown:
1. More Text in Ad Headlines & Descriptions
The repetition of keywords over and over throughout your content and meta data once meant better rankings on Google. Those days are long gone. Although keywords are still relevant in today’s SEO sphere, the way they are being utilized in content creation has changed.
Google has become a lot better at understanding how users interact with the websites they are viewing. High quality, relevant content here is key. It’s often easy to tell when you’re are being pitched a product or service by an overly aggressive sales article. Instead, investing in content that is more user or audience based than brand based will be more beneficial, as users are more likely to engage with content that feels natural as opposed “salesy.”
High quality content means high quality engagement
Seeing new colours for ad labels on Google’s search listings or maps? You’re not the only one. According to recent news, Google seems to be testing out new colours for ad labels on two different platforms.
Google Search Results – Green Ad Labels
Less than two weeks ago, users within the United Kingdom started seeing green ad labels rather than the traditional yellow labels that were first introduced in 2013. As you can see below, the shade of green matches the display URL of each ad to the right:
Looks like Google is testing green Ads. Anyone else seeing this? #Adwords #ppc pic.twitter.com/bX5YquqGJF
— James Whitelock (@jaywhitelock) April 14, 2016
s”Let’s put all our marketing dollars into direct mailing and outbound dialing – we’re sure to convert big time!”
20 years ago…that might have been effective. In fact, it worked well for various businesses with regards to generating leads. However, a lot has changed over the past 20 years. With the advancements in technology, people have migrated online and are likely to engage in the following activities on a daily basis:
- Check their inbox only to delete a bunch of spam / notification emails.
- Login to Facebook on a mobile device to check out the latest memes and/or watch a Tasty video.
- Inevitably make a purchase on Amazon after browsing for hours (yours truly is guilty of this).
- Search for random stuff on Google, such as “Who is Stronger: Superman or Hulk?”
Snapchat’s latest update is going to take it from being a simple messaging and photo sharing app to a full blown communication app.
With the first version of Chat released 2 years ago, the company has taken the feature one step further with Chat 2.0, making it a real contender against WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. The app now allows for video and audio calls with the hopes of closing the gap between it and actual face-to-face communication. With a simple tap of the video icon, users can launch a video call with another user. If the recipient if busy, users can leave a 10 second GIF like video note or a short audio note. Users can also easily toggle between audio and video calls as well as send photos and over 200 new stickers to recipients during calls.
Source : Snapchat
The update also revealed a new emoji that can appear next to a friend’s name. When Snapchat first started displaying emojis last year, they were meant to describe the sort of relationship a user had with that friend. The new hourglass symbol indicates that your Snapstreak (when users have Snapped each other within 24 hours for more than one consecutive day) with your friend is about to end. In order to maintain a Snapstreak, users are motivated to keep the conversation going by sending a quick snap to their friend.
Another new feature being rolled out with the update is Auto-Advance Stories. Once you get to the end of one friend’s story, the next story in your list will begin to play. You can easily skip stories by swiping left or exit by pulling down. A feature like this is great for businesses as it can easily boost your stories’ view counts.
From branded geo-filters to Chat 2.0, Snapchat is stepping up its game for its 100 million daily users.
Last year’s SXSW darling Meerkat is planning on leaving the livestreaming game according to recent reports. This is not a surprising development as the application lost a lot of steam after Twitter announced they had acquired Periscope in March of last year, shortly after Meerkat had broken onto the tech scene. Interestingly enough, this spawned a myriad of contentious debates regarding which live streaming application was superior throughout the spring & summer of 2015. Well, it seems like we can officially announce a winner in the old Meerkat vs. Periscope debate. Congrats, Twitter. (more…)
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