Tag: content marketing

Weekend Digital Media Round-up: Google’s new Search Console features, Facebook’s Smart Home Device, AdSense’s ad balance optimization tool and more..
1. Google to roll out new Search Console features in coming weeks
Google announced that it will be making the new Google Search Console available to everyone in the coming weeks. Specifically, verified users in Google Search Console will be able to access the new Search Performance, Index Coverage, AMP status and Job posting reports. The new Search Console reports provide “more transparency into Google’s indexing, stateful two-way communications between Google and website owners to help resolve issues faster, and a responsive user-interface.” [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. Facebook Is Reportedly Set to Launch its Own Smart Home Device Later This Year
Facebook could soon become a more prominent presence in your everyday life, with reports suggesting that The Social Network’s looking to launch a new voice-activated, video calling device which you could place in your home, keeping you linked into the platform at all times. The new device is to be called ‘Portal’, and will compete with existing home speaker-type devices already gaining momentum – most notably the Amazon Echo Show. [Source: Social Media Today]
1. AdSense rolls out ad balance optimization tool for publishers
Google AdSense has announced two new Experiments features to give publishers a deeper understanding of how certain factors affect their users and advertising earnings. The two new features are ‘Ad Session Length’ and ‘Ad Balance Tool’. [Source: Marketing Land]
1. Facebook shutters digital assistant ‘M’ and readies video ‘Portal’
Facebook is shuttering its digital assistant, “M.” At the same time, the company is preparing to launch its rumored touch-screen video device named “Portal.” It will compete with Echo Show and Google-powered new “smart displays.” [Source: MARTECH TODAY]
1. Google PageSpeed Insights now uses real data from Chrome browser users
Google announced that the PageSpeed Insights tool has been updated to use data from the Chrome user experience report, which means the tool is using metrics from “real-world Chrome users who experience popular destinations on the web.” The pagespeed tool now shows you how fast your pages load based on real user data, which is an important metric for user satisfaction. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. Facebook is testing a city-specific section of its app to elevate local news and events
In an effort to up its signal to noise ratio, Facebook may go local. The company is testing a new area of its app called “Today In,” a mix of city-specific events, announcements and local news. [Source: TechCrunch]
1. Unpartial – The AI-Powered Chrome Extension To Spot Fake News
This week, an AI company called Recognant has released an extension for Chrome that informs users if the news they are viewing on the browser is fake. The AI tool is said to have a function which tests the ‘trustworthiness’ of an article or a story. [Source: Logicserve Digital]
1. Google is introducing a new Smart Display platform
If Google’s gigantic “Hey Google” CES 2018 booth hasn’t convinced you that it is deadly serious about stopping Alexa’s path toward owning the smart speaker space, how about this: it’s announcing that the following companies are making speakers that include the Assistant: Altec Lansing, Anker Innovations, Bang & Olufsen, Braven, iHome, JBL, Jensen, LG, Lenovo, Klipsch, Knit Audio, Memorex, RIVA Audio, SōLIS, and Sony. Four of those names in particular are more interesting — JBL, Lenovo, LG, and Sony — because they’re producing Google Assistant speakers with something new: a screen. Google says these speakers will be available in the summer. [Source: The Verge]
1. Facebook Announces Coming News Feed Changes Which Will Reduce the Reach of Page Posts
The Social Network, Facebook, has confirmed that they’ll be making concerted moves to show users more posts from people they know – and fewer posts from Pages. The aim of these changes is to ensure that the time people spend on Facebook is ‘well spent’. [Source: Social Media Today]
1. Google is sunsetting AdWords Review extensions
Google has announced that Review extensions will stop showing this month and will be deleted entirely in AdWords accounts in February. Advertisers that ran Review extensions and want to keep their historical data will need to export it in AdWords this month. That data can be found in both the new and old AdWords interfaces. [Source: Search Engine Land]
January 12, 2018
Facebook’s video ads’ watch time – how it works across different formats

Social networking giant Facebook believes that different ads have different values based on the context under which it is played. The tech team at Facebook says that an ad experience is not just a single experience, but a variety of unique and different experiences.

How was this determined?

Facebook goes so far as to provide charts to show how many people watch ads and how the ads’ watch times fluctuate according to its environment. However, Facebook does not provide the exact facts and figures with the charts, which don’t make them absolutely conclusive. The data provided, however, is Facebook’s internal data and contains most of the information from this source. There is some information from YouTube and some other companies who place ads on their products, such as Instagram, and Spotify, which makes this data more reliable in terms of data authenticity.

Usually, companies placing ads on their videos and products evaluate the ad quality based on how many people completed the ad or how many people watched more percentage of the ad which was placed. This is called completion rate, and companies usually use this to judge an ad’s ability to keep the audience engaged. However, at Facebook, the ad’s quality is determined by exactly how many seconds the ad was viewed by a person before skipping it, and then using all the collected data to determine how many people watched the ad up to the same second.

What does the data show?

Facebook has started placing ads on videos pretty recently, and they mostly have two types of ads, pre-roll ads, and mid-roll ads. Pre-roll ads are non-skippable and are needed to be completed by the user in order to continue watching the video. Mid-roll ads are longer, skippable ads, which are usually fifteen seconds long, and can be skipped after five seconds.

After collecting all the data on the number of people who completed pre-roll ads and the people who completed mid-roll ads, Facebook observed that majority of people skipped mid-roll ads after five to six seconds, which meant that most of the people on the social network had around six-second attention span toward the ads.

This data primarily meant that in-stream ads put up by Facebook mostly ended up being watched for six seconds, in case of pre-roll and mid-roll ads, both.

Data depiction made easy with charts

Facebook released various charts depicting how their ads have fared over time. The charts mainly consisted of standalone ads which Facebook inserted in people’s news feed, skippable and non-skippable ads placed in-stream, story ads added in people’s Instagram stories, and Live TV ads which were embedded in live streams.

The charts indicate that Facebook’s pre-roll ads, which are the non-skippable ads, perform better than any other type of ad provided by Facebook. This basically suggests that brands can redirect all the money they have put in other kinds of ads and put them into placing pre-roll ads on Facebook.

Why the need for this exercise?

Facebook says they want investors to look at the time for which their ads are being viewed, and invest more money into it, rather than getting caught up in comparing completion rates and deciding where to invest more money for ads.

With these stats and charts, Facebook tries to make sense of the value of tying up experiences to an ad and how it delivers value to a brand.

January 11, 2018
Weekend Digital Media Round-up: Google’s new AI, Facebook’s WhatsApp feature, Snapchat’s new feature to share content outside app and more..
1. Google’s new artificial intelligence talks like you, me and everyone
In a major step towards its “AI first” dream, Google has developed a text-to-speech artificial intelligence (AI) system that will confuse you with its human-like articulation. [Source: The Economic Times]
1. Facebook’s WhatsApp feature will help lure more advertisers
FACEBOOK’S latest move in hoping to attract more advertisers to its platforms is the addition of a “Click to WhatsApp” option for Facebook ads. The move follows the “Click to Messenger” option introduced in November 2016 and Instagram’s “Click to Messenger”, added in last May. [Source: Tech Wire Asia]
1. Alibaba’s UC browser beating Google Chrome in Indian mobile market
The Alibaba-owned UC browser is winning the war for mobile users in India and Indonesia. Relying on StatCounter data, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that it’s beating Google’s Chrome in these large developing markets. [Source: Marketing Land]
1. Ad buyers prefer Instagram to Snapchat—and Snap’s stock is taking a nosedive
A new report from Cowen analyst John Blackledge has some bad news for Snap. He interviewed 50 ad buyers and found that they overwhelmingly preferred Instagram to Snapchat. [Source: Fast Company]
1. Snapchat Wants To Expand Snaps’ Exposure With A Feature To Share Content Outside The App
With the idea of spreading snaps everywhere, Snapchat is trying to launch “Stories Everywhere” option in their platform. The social media platform wants to provide content that can last longer than just a few hours. Stories Everywhere would allow the snaps to appear on websites and applications outside the native Snapchat app. [Source: Logicserve Digital]
1. Google Chrome Built-In Ad Blocker to Go Live on February 15^th
In June of 2017, Google announced that they would be introducing an ad blocker for the Chrome web browser in an effort to filter ads violating industry standards. Now, we have a sense of when: February 15, 2018. [Source: DMN]
1. Facebook beats YouTube and TV as best place to launch new ad campaign in survey of ad buyers
Facebook will chip away at Google’s dominance in digital advertising thanks to the growth of Instagram and video ads, according to a new research note from Cowen. [Source: CNBC]
1. Instagram tests letting users post Stories directly to WhatsApp
Last October, Facebook extended the usage (and flexibility) of Instagram Stories — the Snapchat-like feature that lets you patch together photos and videos into a slide show — by making it easy to directly post a Story to Facebook. Now Facebook is looking at how to bring WhatsApp into the fold. [Source: TechCrunch]
1. Snapchat ads could get a lot more like YouTube ads
Snapchat might be going the way of YouTube. The messaging and camera app, which has been wary of forcing ads on its audience, is seriously considering whether to subject viewers to three seconds of advertisements before giving them the option to skip the commercial break, Ad Age reported (paywall), citing advertisers and media players familiar with the company’s plans. [Source: Quartz]
1. New Facebook News Feed Algorithm Updates You Need to Know
To keep your interest and attention, Facebook’s always tweaking its News Feed algorithm to ensure that users are served the most engaging and relevant material possible. Usually these updates are good for the overall user experience, but they can also cause significant headaches for marketers, and there were two that were recently announced which marketers need to be aware of if they want to make the most of the already dwindling organic reach. [Source: Social Media Today]

Expert Opinion:
1. Giving a good consumer experience on Mobile – a must for Brands
We know that mobile phones have become an essential part of our lives and how the new-age consumers are utilizing it for fulfilling their needs. On one side, consumers are increasingly using their mobile phones to seek information about a brand, interact with it and maybe even buy their product online and on the other side consumers are spoilt for choices.

In such a scenario, it has become imperative for brands to focus on providing consumers a seamless and positive mobile customer experience in order to thrive in this disruptive environment.

Here are a few ways marketers can work on improving mobile consumer experience:

– Create compatible designs for various platforms

Various mobile handsets have different operating systems and functional capabilities. It is important to create your designs that render perfectly and uniformly across platforms & devices, thus avoiding any dissonance amongst users and creating a strong foundation for a great user experience.

– Simple, friendly onboarding experience

Different studies have indicated that on the mobile a user takes not more than 8 seconds to decide if he wants to engage with the content/brand. In this scenario if a brand wants to really connect with their users, they must have a very simple and interactive onboarding experience. This is where the customers will get to know the brand and can develop affinity and preference for it.

– Understand user personas and their context for interactions

In addition to focusing on design tools, a brand should give context a priority; they should understand the customers, their profiles, buyer personas and the context for their interactions. This can help a brand deliver memorable experiences to the customers.

– Be interactive

A Brand should be able to engage with the visitors, gain their attention and develop interest among them. Interactive customer experiences are a great way to build long-term relationship with consumers and marketers should build their websites/ apps based on anticipated user behaviors and thought out actions.

– Navigation and accessibility

Ease of navigation and easier accessibility to useful information is crucial to deliver a positive mobile consumer experience. A brand should understand the general usage pattern on mobile devices and the way users navigate across the small mobile screen. It will then be able to place important action buttons and showcase relevant information that the users are likely to look for.

Brands should also ensure there is an option for a search box/icon so that it becomes easier for users to look for what they need without having to browse through multiple pages. Complicated navigation can tend to take your users away from your website/ app and on the other hand, a good website/app with relevant information and simple navigation pattern is sure to leave the users feel good about the brand.

– Testing and alterations

It is of paramount importance to regularly test the mobile customer journey and make any changes/ alterations wherever required basis the observations and customer feedback. This will ensure the customers have a fulfilling mobile experience every time they approach the brand on mobile.

Looking at the way mobile phones are taking over every aspect of our day-to-day lives, there is a need for brands to focus their efforts on providing a great and immersive user experience to the consumers through their mobile app/ site. This can make a lot of difference in a consumer’s brand preference and loyalty.

– Anurag Gupta, CEO at SVG Media Pvt. Ltd
January 5, 2018
Weekend Digital Media Round-up: Google Tez partners with Xiaomi, Instagram’s Recommended posts, LinkedIn’s new messaging experience and more..
1. Google Tez takes another leap to dominate Indian digital payments with Xiaomi partnership
It seems like India is Google’s favorite testing ground. One of the latest India-first product Google is betting and committing heavily on is its mobile payment app Google Tez. A new chapter to this ongoing ‘great Indian experiment’ was added by a partnership with India’s most popular smartphone brand Xiaomi. The partnership will see Xiaomi introducing a new payment service on its e-commerce platform powered by Google Tez which will help users to make cashless transactions on Mi.com website and the Mi store app. [Source: PCMag India]
1. On Facebook, viral reach for branded-content ads eclipses standard ads
If brands want to attract extra attention for their ads on Facebook, they may be better off paying a publisher or influencer to produce a branded-content post through their Pages and paying to promote that post as an ad instead of a post published to the brand’s own Page. [Source: Marketing Land]
1. Instagram will now add ‘Recommended’ posts to your feed
Instagram’s feed will now show users recommended posts – a change that earlier this month was spotted while in testing, and has since quietly gone live. The feature will suggest posts for you based on those that have been liked by other accounts you follow. [Source: TechCrunch]
1. Google image search results tests new related searches box
Google is testing a new “related searches” box in the mobile version of the Google Image search results page. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. Netflix, WhatsApp may join hands to send content recommendations to users
WhatsApp and Netflix are expected to join hands to send content recommendations to users very soon. With this move, Netflix basically wants its users to be updated with all its services and also try them out, in turn enhance user experience. [Source: India Today]
1. Online Video Ad Spend Grew 36%, Finds IAB Revenue Report
It’s a good time for online video ad sales. According to the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report for the first half of 2017, total online video ad sales (which include desktop and mobile) grew to $5.2 billion, up 36 percent over the same period in 2016. [Source: Onlinevideo.net]
1. This LinkedIn feature replaces face-to-face prospecting
LinkedIn’s new messaging experience essentially replaces the need for face-to-face networking. Because of your ability to instantly scan someone’s profile, see conversation starters (where someone lives, works, went to school, etc.) and then engage in a real-time, one-on-one conversation, you can now chat up prospects at a scale like never before. [Source: The Business Journals]
1. Using AdWords API to export to third-party ad networks will remain OK as Google keeps terms it adopted in FTC settlement
Though the part of Google’s antitrust settlement with the Federal Trade Commission that had them allow exports of AdWords data through its API expires, the company announced that Google will keep the AdWords API terms and conditions as they are currently. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. Amazon is planning a push into digital advertising in 2018, challenging Google and Facebook
Amazon is expanding advertising efforts in 2018, especially on its search and video products. It also has plans to increase advertising sales off its platform, including partnering with third-party technology companies to sell partnered TV and mobile ads. [Source: CNBC]
1. Google again showing third-party reviews in local results
Google is integrating third-party reviews into the Knowledge Graph for hotels. It apparently has been happening since 2016 and is entirely opt-in for the provider. Google works directly with the third-party review source (e.g., TripAdvisor) to integrate the content. [Source: Search Engine Land]

Expert Opinion:
1. Build a positive brand image through mobile moments
In today’s age, speed and relevance are crucial for customer satisfaction. The popularity of smartphones and access to internet has made it even more critical to deliver right messages to the right users instantly and correctly. People these days have higher expectations from brands on mobile. During the customer journey on mobile, there are a lot of smaller moments that make the users pull out their mobile devices to look for what they need immediately. These moments, also known as mobile moments, are crucial for marketers to offer unique solutions to the customers when they need it, and the way they need it. Mobile moments are a great way for engaging users and creating a win-win situation for both users and brands.

Here are some ways you can use mobile moments to build your brand image.

– Be Fast

People who have a negative brand experience on mobile are less likely to purchase from that brand in the future. One of the most common complaints of users is the speed of the brand destination. Consumers don’t like it when sites load slowly, and are more likely to move on rather than wait for the details to load. As per a report published by Google, 53% of mobile page visits are abandoned if the pages take longer than 2 seconds to load. Marketers should make speed a priority to deliver a positive experience. And also, ensure that the design and navigation is simple so that people can find what they are looking for quickly.

– Be Helpful

Constantly endeavor to better understand your customers and deliver brand experiences that enable solutions rather than just distribution of brand information. Users who find mobile experiences helpful are more likely to repurchase from that particular brand. Make an effort to help your consumers. It can either be fast & friendly customer service or a simple functionality to quickly check if the items are in stock, etc. Aim to understand consumer behavior and anticipate their needs, and use this to offer products/ solutions that are useful to them.

– Be Relevant

Data as they say is the new oil. By constantly analysing your own data as well as adopting a data-led marketing approach you will be able to tailor your brand messaging a lot better for your audience. Not only will this drive greater efficiency in your marketing investments, but also enable better engagement with your audience. Mobile data, both first party as well as through trusted third-party sources, gives deep insight into consumer trends and behaviours which further drive the ability to build delightful and personalised mobile experiences. And the more relevant you are, the more brand love you will be able to generate.

Today’s consumers are more aware and want to be in control of the content they consume. Brands that do not make them feel empowered could be damaging their relationship with them in the long run. When it comes to mobile, brands need to be more proactive. Be it speed, assistance, relevance or any other aspect, users should be made to feel as if they are in control of every step in their journey. This is surely a big secret for a positive brand experience these days.

– Nadeesh Ramachandran, Vice President – Sales, Vserv
December 29, 2017
Email Marketing Trends to Look Out for in 2018
Emails continue to be a vital marketing channel. DMA’s Email tracker shows that on average, email can yield 30x more returns on investment. Hence it is pertinent to review your strategy for email marketing going into 2018. This will help you get more returns per dollar spent and make 2018 a good year for your marketing tactics. Here are some new and some ‘already in place’ email marketing strategies to focus on in 2018:

1. The grand GDPR launch

General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) will launch in less than 6 months and will have a widespread effect on all businesses that market to consumers in Europe. Earlier it was okay to obtain PII data (names, contact details, email IDs) through landing page and content collaterals like whitepapers and case studies even if it didn’t receive end consumer consent.

This will change as companies look to make stricter use of PII data. Businesses will need to process data legitimately and lawfully, and use it so that individual identities are not exposed.

2. Personalisation is the key

While ‘batch and blast’ approach may have worked in the past, it will continue yielding less favourable outcomes in 2018. In email marketing, personalisation is the name of the game. If you want to send out mass emails, make sure that there is something other than cold generic mails.

3. Interactive mails will increase

Interaction with customers through mail itself will grow as its efficacy keeps growing. You can send out interactive emails that can help interact with readers at multiple levels such as –
- Integrated forms and surveys
- Search within email
- Menu options and navigation within email
- Banners/carousels to improve engagement
- Social sharing options
- Countdowns to nudge customers to take urgent actions
It is clear that the objective is to garner more time with the reader and keep them engaged better as compared to plain vanilla text emails.

4. Mobile first philosophy

Mobile device optimisation is stated as the biggest tactic to use, as per Econsultancy report. As content is increasingly consumed on mobile devices rather than on laptops, it is essential for marketers to adapt to this shift. As more people check emails on the go, it makes no sense to leave out mobile as the key channel for your email marketing. In 2018 more and more businesses will embrace mobile-friendly design to improve UX and boost search engine rankings.

5. Enough of collection, more of action

In 2018, it will be wise to make use of the data collected and start engaging them with a higher degree of personalisation. Knowing about specific customers’ pain points and then personalising your marketing messages to address these exclusively will be crucial for your email marketing success. For this, you may need assistance from other teams (copywriting and graphic design) to shape up the campaign. Factoring in this point will help you roll out the emails on time and thus work as expected.

With these strategies in place, your email marketing plan should be in top shape as we welcome 2018. Do let us know what your no. 1 email marketing approach will be in the coming year. We would love to hear from you.
December 29, 2017
Weekend Digital Media Round-up: Google Lens, Twitter’s broadened AMP support, Instagram’s Stories Highlight on profile pages and more..
1. Google Lens an impressive start for ‘visual search’
Google Lens has gone live or is about to on Pixel phones in the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, India and Singapore (in English). Currently, Lens can read text (e.g., business cards), identify buildings and landmarks (sometimes), provide information on artwork, books and movies (from a poster) and scan barcodes. It can also identify products (much of the time) and capture and keep (in Google Keep) handwritten notes, though it doesn’t turn them into text. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. Facebook Looks to Prompt More Personal Sharing as Conversations Switch to Messaging Apps
It seems that Facebook’s still looking for ways to address its ‘context collapse’, the decline in personal sharing on the platform which has been in effect over the last few years. [Source: Social Media Today]
1. Instagram now lets brands feature Stories Highlights on their profile pages
Instagram is giving brands a new reason to invest in producing higher-quality Stories. Brands and all other Instagram users can now showcase collections of their old Instagram Stories on their profile pages. [Source: Marketing Land]
1. Twitter broadens its AMP support to include analytics
Twitter is broadening its support of AMP (accelerated mobile pages) to include article analytics. According to the announcement, when Twitter loads an AMP version of an article, it will now ping the original article URL to record the view, in addition to passing the query arguments from the original article redirect into the AMP run-time. This will allow publishers to receive the data using the amp-analytics component. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. Google officially increases length of snippets in search results
Google has confirmed that it has made a change to the way it displays snippets in search results. Over the past week or so, many have been noticing that the snippets were longer than what’s typically been shown. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. Ad spending to grow at 8.4% in 2018 in India: Zenith report
Advertisement spending in India is expected to grow 8.4% in 2018, led by growth in television ads, Publicis Groupe-run media agency Zenith forecasted. The estimated growth rate for 2018 is about three percentage points lower than the 11.2% forecast for 2017, when ad spending was estimated to touch Rs54,344 crore. [Source: Mint]
1. Apple launches ‘set it and forget it’ Search Ads Basic for the App Store
Apple says it will bring more installs with less effort “at a predictable cost.” That’s how the company is pitching its new Search Ads Basic offering. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. Pinterest Adds New Facebook Messenger Integrations to Boost Exposure and Usage
Pinterest is looking to piggyback on the popularity of Facebook Messenger in order to boost growth, adding two new tools which will enable greater Pinterest functionality within Messenger threads. [Source: Social Media Today]
1. Google testing an answers carousel within the search results snippets
Google has started testing and potentially rolling out a new feature in search that shows a carousel with a list of answers directly within the search results snippets. It shows the main search result snippet, and below it, it shows a carousel of answers picked from the content on the page the snippet is linking to. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. Report: YouTube set to raise ad prices on premium ad inventory
Even as it has hit several brand safety bumps over the past year, YouTube is poised to raise prices on premium ad inventory in the coming year. [Source: Marketing Land]

Expert Opinion:
1. Why investing in Artificial Intelligence for Your Marketing efforts is the way to go
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are revolutionizing the marketing world. Many brands are already taking advantage of this technology and utilizing it in innovative ways to boost the impact of their marketing activities. According to a survey by The Boston Consulting Group, 85% of executives believe that AI will allow their companies to obtain or sustain a competitive advantage.

Some of the benefits offered by this unique technology are:

– Efficiently process and analyse the huge chunk of data available with marketers and gain useful insights for the same that can be used for future marketing plans

– Analyse customer profiles and provide insights that can be used to optimize customer value

– Figure out effective ways to interact and engage with the audience

– Time saving

– Improved productivity

AI is surely helping marketers profoundly by streamlining their processes and functions. Marketers can make the most out of this technology by accessing the right set of data, use the insights considering their business objectives and keep on improving the processes on an on-going basis. AI has the power to transform the overall success of a brand, if used correctly. Brands that adapt to the newer technologies like AI & machine learning, invest in them and use them intelligently are sure to succeed and sustain in the new-age marketing era.

– Pariekshit Maadishetti, Managing Director, Grid Logic Group
December 8, 2017
Weekend Digital Media Round-up: Updated Google Trends, Instagram’s new features, Youtube’s new feature ‘Reels’ and more..
1. Google Is Updating Google Trends with More Data Filters and Tools
Google Trends can be a great source of insights to help guide your content strategy and understand which subjects are gaining momentum online. And now, Google is adding some new tricks to the Trends application, providing additional insights based on more specific search behaviors around each topic. [Source: Social Media Today]
1. Twitter testing a feature that shows how many are ‘talking about’ tweets
Twitter is experimenting with a new feature that will show how many people are “talking about” individual, popular tweets. The metric shows up under some embedded tweets when they appear elsewhere on the web, and seems to replace both the retweet and replies totals with one, cumulative total. [Source: TechCrunch]
1. Facebook tests tool to make it easier for businesses to send message blasts on Messenger
Facebook is internally testing a tool that businesses would be able to use to send message blasts to people who had conversed with their accounts on Messenger. [Source: Marketing Land]
1. WhatsApp rolls out new update: You can soon watch YouTube videos within the messaging app
A new WhatsApp update rolled out for iOS will let users play YouTube videos right within the instant messaging app. The update will also let users navigate to another chat while you are watching the video. [Source: The Economic Times]
1. Instagram testing native Regram, archive Stories, Share to WhatsApp, more, no iPad support in sight
Instagram is testing out a wide range of new features including a native Regram button, an archive Stories feature, a share to WhatsApp option, a beta version of its app, and more. [Source: 9to5Mac]
1. Snapchat Launches Two New Ad Formats
Snapchat business users are in for a treat with the recent changes made to Snapchat’s self-serve ad platform. With two new ad formats, the objective is to enhance the stickiness of the platform and derive maximum engagement for the users. [Source: Logicserve Digital]
1. Google launches new Google Finance features in search and drops the portfolio feature
Google announced it is launching a new Google Finance experience that brings many of the finance features directly into Google Search on desktop and mobile. With this launch, Google has dropped the portfolio, the ability to download your portfolio, and historical tables. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. YouTube is testing an Instagram Stories-like feature called Reels
After Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, YouTube is now planning to roll out a Stories-like feature called Reels. The launch of Reels Beta was made on YouTube in its blog post titled as ‘Expanding community on YouTube’. The company says that Reels is a spin on Stories format but designed specifically for Creators. [Source: India Today]
1. Snapchat’s newest filters can recognize what’s in your photos
Snapchat is rolling out new filters that can recognize what’s in your photos in order to suggest graphics, like borders or stickers, to accompany your posts. These filters are capable of recognizing images of objects like pets, sports, and food, as well as specific locations, like beaches or concerts. [Source: TechCrunch]
1. Instagram Rolls Out New Direct Message Tools, Including Remix and Replay Controls
After announcing their direct message photo remix tools back in August, Instagram has confirmed that the new option is now being rolled out to all users. [Source: Social Media Today]

Expert Opinion:
1. Build data- savvy teams for long term success
In today’s mobile-first world, it is crucial for everyone in an organization to understand analysis and interpretation of marketing data. Although a lot of marketers do not have enough analyst-related resources to accomplish data-related goals, if we look at most of the leading marketers, they seem to have figured out ways to enable everyone in their teams to be able to use and analyse the huge chunk of available data. Training the team members to be experts in data analysis not only helps strengthen the analysis purview but also helps figure out ways to effectively reach out to the customers at the right time in their journey.

Here are some ways you can make your team members data-savvy marketers and succeed in your marketing efforts.

– Knowledge and skills assessment

Get an understanding of the knowledge and skills of your team members and what they need to learn. Incorporate learning programs, training modules wherever required to speed up their analysis skills.

– Ensure your data is of great value

Make sure that the data you share is of high value and is presentable before giving your teams a peek at the same. The data should be simple, organized, understandable and usable. This also helps in setting clear and common standards that the team members need to follow.

– Provide easy access

Allow easy access to data without to help the teams understand the reports & recommendations and to provide an idea about how to use the same. This eventually helps in improving the overall performance of the organization.

– Reward the team members

It is important to recognize and reward the members who efficiently use data insights for the campaigns. This helps in building enthusiasm amongst the team and also provides you insights about the members who can take on the role of training other members.

– Provide technology support

When your team members understand the data analysis game, it is necessary to provide them the required technology that ca help them take relevant actions. This helps profoundly in optimizing user experience. As per a recent survey by Econsultancy and IBM, 33% of elite marketers say having the right technologies for data collection and analysis is most useful in understanding customers.

For brands that do not have a strong data-driven marketing strategy yet, it is high time to make use of the big data and empower your teams to be pros at data analysis. This is sure to help you reach the audience better and also grow your business in today’s highly competitive environment.

– Vish Bajaj, CEO, ValueFirst
December 1, 2017
Weekend Digital Media Round-up: Google’s #SmallThanks Hub, Facebook’s VR experiences, Twitter’s Bookmarks feature and more..
1. Google’s new #SmallThanks Hub automatically creates digital & printed marketing assets for SMBs
In a move to help SMBs — as well as drive up its verified business listings — Google has launched #SmallThanks Hub, an online resource that creates customized digital marketing content and printed materials based on Google reviews. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. Facebook debuts web-based VR experiences within standard News Feed
People can now enter virtual reality through their traditional Facebook News Feeds. The social network has debuted examples of brands that have developed VR apps that people can interact with through Facebook’s standard site and mobile apps. Facebook has labeled these VR-enabled posts as “360 experiences.” [Source: Marketing Land]
1. Twitter is now testing Bookmarks, its save for later feature
Twitter is testing a new feature called Bookmarks, which allows users to privately save tweets for later. [Source: The Verge]
1. Google beefs up mobile shopping results for the holidays, adds more product info & buying guides
Google is beefing up its mobile shopping experience to prepare for the holidays, now showing buying guides for broad categories like “sewing machine” and “coffee grinder” searches and adding more product-related information for specific product searches. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. Forget WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger now has TWO major advantages
WhatsApp might be the world’s biggest messaging service but it may have just been overshadowed by Facebook Messenger. WhatsApp is getting some major competition from Facebook Messenger as the service reveals new 4K photo sharing and peer-to-peer money transfers. [Source: Daily Express]
1. Twitter Moments – A Look At The Recent Changes
Twitter Moments is all set to get a refreshing new look. The company is currently trying to move away from the horizontal listings of curated topics on common themes like Sports, Entertainment, and News. [Source: Logicserve Digital]
1. Facebook, Google, Bing and Twitter join The Trust Project to help users combat fake news
Facebook, Google, Bing and Twitter have all agreed to be part of a non-partisan effort called The Trust project which is aimed at enlightening users about the difference between reliable journalism and fake news. [Source: The Drum]
1. Google AdWords Editor updates to support budget type option for video ads & more
Google has rolled out version 12.2 of the AdWords Editor. It brings a nice number of new features including Gmail asset-based ads, full support for promotion and video extensions and a new budget-type option for video ads. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. Pinterest adds custom QR-like codes for businesses, more shoppable pins
Pinterest rolled out several new features designed to make it easier for people to find products to purchase through its platform, from QR-like codes for brands to append to product packaging to an influx of shoppable pins to its first mashup of visual and text search. [Source: Marketing Land]
1. Facebook Is Testing Yet Another Copycat Snapchat Feature
Facebook has copied so many features from Snapchat now that it’s gone beyond a joke. But hey, here’s another one to add to the list. Facebook Messenger now includes a Snapchat-style “streak” feature. [Source: Fortune]

Expert Opinion:
1. Focus on Customer Lifetime Value for long-term success
In the fast-paced digital space, it has become critical for brands to think beyond short-term gains and instead focus on maximizing the Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).

Simply put, CLV is the prediction of the net profit attributed to the entire future relationship with a customer. It means, how much money one can actually make from a client not just from ‘a particular transaction’ but from a series of experiences we are able to provide over time. New age marketers are increasingly seen moving from immediate returns on ad spends to long-term, company-wide growth to measure the success of their campaigns. One of the key areas focused on by them is prioritizing CLV.

While this sounds easy and the focus on this type of an approach is growing, a lot of factors make it challenging to evaluate CLV. Customer journey has been transforming over time; it is split across multiple platforms & devices, and also from online to offline and vice-versa. Brands need to figure out how to tackle the problem areas and design a way to calculate the lifetime value. And like Pareto’s Principle, that specifies an unequal relationship between inputs and outputs, recent customer lifecycle studies suggest that 80% of your results will come from 20% of your efforts.

Some of the key benefits of CLV are:
- Improved marketing that focusses on your customer
- Saves time and money as you do not waste any efforts on the customers less likely to convert
- Encourages brands to use multiple marketing approaches
- Helps in better customer profiling and segmentation
- Boosts brand loyalty
Focusing on CLV not only helps the brands reach out to their most valuable customers but also to build better relationships with them. Various tools are available these days that can analyze the insights from the data available and deliver customized messages and experiences to the users. This also helps marketers in designing effective communication strategies for new and existing customers. Also, consumers are now preferring experiences from brands, so brand loyalty is not the only way to retain consumers. Customers that relate to a brand basis the experience they offer are more likely to help you continue climbing up the ladder.

Brands should focus on understanding their audience and the best approach to communicate with them. It is essential to reach out to the right set of consumers that can provide the most value. Brands that drive CLV for the right audience are sure to achieve long-term success in today’s dynamic environment.

Here is a “Fast Four” – Practical strategies to help improve your CLV:
- Focus on building a long-term relationship – remember it’s not just about that one click, transaction or view
- Brand Loyalty will remain important – however, the service experience will play a key role in retaining the client
- Look for opportunities to up-sell and cross-sell – it’s far easier to get an existing customer to buy more than a new acquisition
- Use multiple touch points to deliver superior customer service – the client is not just there for you to reach when he comes to you. There are more than enough opportunities to engage with him in his own backyard
– Balaji Vaidyanathan, Deputy Head – Marketing, Franklin Templeton Investments
November 24, 2017
Weekend Digital Media Round-up: Google AdWords updates, LinkedIn’s Professional Mentorship, Twitter’s tweetstorm and more..
1. Google rolls out AdWords promotion extensions, custom intent audiences & ad variations for testing
Google made a few announcements for AdWords advertisers just in time, before Black Friday kicks off the holiday shopping season in the US next week. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. Facebook Looks to Help Brands Tap into International Business Opportunities with New Tools
As part of Facebook’s mission to ‘bring the world closer together’, international expansion, and the removal of borders as boundaries, is a key element in their development. And aside from seeking to better connect communities, providing businesses with new ways to tap into international opportunities is another part of The Social Network’s expanding framework. [Source: Social Media Today]
1. Google News adds new referral URL source that publishers should begin tracking
Google has quietly announced in its Google News forum that they have added a new URL referrer source that news publishers should begin tracking to get a “comprehensive view of traffic from Google News.” [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. Facebook officially launches mobile app, educational site for video creators
Facebook is officially launching its standalone app for video creators to manage their channels on the social network. After previewing the Facebook Creators app in June, the iOS version is rolling out globally to all Pages and individual accounts, though the Android version won’t be available until sometime. [Source: Marketing Land]
1. LinkedIn Rolls Out Professional Mentorship Connection Option to All Users
After testing their professional mentorship connection process for the last few months, LinkedIn has this week announced that their ‘Career Advice’ option is being rolled out to users in the U.S., U.K., India and Australia, with all other regions to gain access ‘in the coming months’. [Source: Social Media Today]
1. Twitter confirms it’s testing a tweetstorm feature
Twitter confirms it’s testing a feature that allows users to more easily create “tweetstorms” – those series of connected tweets that have grown to be a popular workaround for Twitter’s character count limitations. [Source: TechCrunch]
1. Google updates mobile product knowledge panels to show even more info in one spot
Google is updating the look of of its product-oriented knowledge panels on mobile to show even more details about specific products in the search results. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. Facebook will tell publishers, creators the top Pages that shared their videos
Facebook will give brands, publishers and creators a better idea of who’s contributing to their videos’ viewership on the social network. [Source: Marketing Land]
1. Snapchat Launches Revamped Ads Manager, Provides New Ad Options
Despite the negative press, Snapchat still remains popular with younger users, and still holds a level of cool cache that other platforms can’t attain. The company has announced a major revamp of their 5-month old Ads Manager platform, while also adding in a range of new ad targeting and creation options to streamline and improve the Snap ads process. [Source: Social Media Today]
1. Google adds new features to its job listings search tool released earlier this year
After releasing its job listing search feature in June of this year, Google has updated the function so that new details about open positions will show up in search results. [Source: Search Engine Land]

Expert Opinion:
1. Winning consumer attention in today’s hyperconnected digital era
The advertising industry is undergoing rapid transformation with every passing day. Today, brands are adopting newer ways to enhance their advertising efforts and utilising the latest technologies to drive better results. On the other hand, consumers are also evolving and consuming behaviour is rapidly changing too.

Today, brands find themselves in an overcrowded market jostling to get all the consumer attention that they can, through all the different platforms. In fact, industry studies show the average consumer is exposed to up to 10,000 brand messages a day. And as marketers are presented with more and more channels to reach their customers, that number is growing rapidly. For the marketers of today, it is the consumer’s attention that has become a premium.

This does not change the fact that consumers still do engage with marketing campaigns. However, what it does mean for new-age marketers is that they need to find more efficient ways to engage their consumers that drive real value out of their efforts.

Before we get to how marketers can enhance their advertising strategies, it is crucial that they change the way they approach digital marketing itself. Good content is the only way marketers can hope to drive any meaningful engagement as good content attracts quality audience that is highly engaged.

– At Times Internet, our bouquet of premium publishers means we always have highly engaged audiences. An Economic Times is where a marketer will always find an engaged audience because the quality of content and the audience it attracts. Gaana always ends up seeing very high engagement from the youth, given how the content on the platform manages to tap into the interest of this audience. It is therefore very important to consider the content platform that your marketing campaign will run on, before getting to it.

– People have gone digital and advertising also needs to follow suit. However, the spontaneous rise in adoption of digital has also brought along clutter making it challenging to grab consumer attention. While some of the factors that affect consumer attention cannot be controlled, there are several others that can be managed. One of them being creativity.

A good creative always stands out and audiences instantly connect with one that appeals to their emotional quotient. However, what will actually reel in a consumer’s attention is the content in your marketing campaign.

If your campaign features content that piques consumer interest, it can amp up the consumer connect with your ad and drive more engagement. Another small but important detail is the timing for appearance of the brand logo. Often, the consumers don’t like to look at the advertisements if the brand logo is seen too soon, or appears repeatedly.

– Marketers should work on building a relationship with their consumers incrementally, starting with small activities that demand relatively smaller window of attention. For instance, start with short ads and then work your way up to longer, cinematic ads. Similarly, instead of running with an ad that is smacked with content from the word go, start slowly with content that teases, then continues to build interest and finally drives greater audience stickiness. This way brands can slowly, but steadily earn consumer attention, drive greater brand recall and gain a loyal set of customers for the long-term.

– Gulshan Verma, Chief Revenue Officer, Times Internet
November 17, 2017
Weekend Digital Media Round-up: Google’s new knowledge panel, Twitter’s 280-character limit, PayPal’s official launch in India and more..
1. Google adds new knowledge panel to provide information about news publishers
Google has announced a new knowledge graph card for news publishers in which searchers can learn more about a specific news publication directly in the search results. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. Twitter officially enables 280-character limit for all accounts, including brands
Less than two months after testing extending tweets’ maximum length to 280 characters, Twitter is enabling the new length for all users. The new maximum will apply to tweets in all languages except Chinese, Japanese and Korean, in which space is less of an issue. [Source: Marketing Land]
1. Facebook’s Adding a New Option to Help Advertisers Maximize their Ad Budgets
Facebook’s providing a new way for advertisers to better optimize their ad spend by automatically allocating more of their ad budget to their highest performing ads. Called ‘Campaign Budget Optimization’, the new option is aimed at smaller businesses who need to more closely monitor their ad spend, but are also looking to run multiple ad sets. [Source: Social Media Today]
1. PayPal formally launches India operations
Under its services, PayPal India will offer global Indians a single account for their domestic and cross-border transactions. [Source: MoneyControl]
1. Facebook Messenger can now power chat on brand sites
Messenger is rolling out a chat plugin for companies to use Facebook’s messaging service to power the chat features on their own sites. Called Customer Chat, the tool is currently in testing with a limited number of companies, but businesses can apply to be added to the waitlist. [Source: MARTECH TODAY]
1. Salesforce announces data integrations with Google Analytics 360
To help customers gain more insights into their marketing campaigns’ impact on the customer journey, Salesforce and Google have announced an arrangement to integrate CRM data with digital analytics and ad campaign data. [Source: Marketing Land]
1. Google adds wait times to local results in search and maps
Wait times for some local listings, such as restaurants, are Google’s latest addition to its local search results, appearing when people view those listings in web search. Eventually, this information will appear on Google Maps, as well. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. Instagram opens sponsor-tagging tool to more creators, adds monitoring system
In June, Instagram began testing a tool for creators to label when an organic post or Story has been paid for by a brand, similar to the one its parent company, Facebook, debuted in April 2016. Now the photo-and-video app is making the branded-content tool available to more creators, in particular those that receive high levels of engagement on their posts and account for a lot of the branded content on Instagram. [Source: Marketing Land]
1. Twitter opens up $99 a month subscription ad program to more accounts
Over the summer, Twitter began testing a subscription-based ad-buying program through which brands could opt to pay Twitter $99 a month and have the company promote their accounts and tweets for them. Now the company is opening up the program to all accounts in the US and United Kingdom, including businesses and individuals. [Source: Marketing Land]
1. Instagram Now Lets You Post Any Content to Stories, Even if it’s Older than 24 Hours
Instagram has rolled out a new change for Instagram Stories which enables users to upload any photo or video content from their camera roll for their Story, even if that content is older than the previous 24 hour limit. [Source: Social Media Today]

Expert Opinion:
1. Marketing Attribution is the need of the hour for new-age marketers
There has been a rise in the usage of marketing attribution lately suggesting an increase in the recognition of this technology as a helpful tool for brands to grow their businesses. The State of Marketing Attribution 2017 Report by Econsultancy suggests that the proportion of companies that carry out attribution on all or most of their marketing activities has significantly increased from 31% in 2016 to 39% this year.

In spite of this positive boost in the usage of the technology and growing awareness about this useful tool, a lot of marketers are still hesitant or lack the required confidence for using attribution technology for their marketing activities. Also, a lot of businesses find it difficult to apply the findings of the insights received through attribution tools to enhance their marketing activities.

There are multiple types of attribution models that can be used by businesses to gain better returns from their activities. However, most companies still use simplistic attribution models with last-click and first-click being the most popular ones. This limits the efficiency and effectiveness that this technology can offer for the growth of business.

Brands that wish to really make an impact and boost the success of their companies need to buckle up and take a holistic and nuanced approach to attribution, understand the contribution & impact of every touch-point and plan the future activities considering every minute detail to achieve enhanced results.

Some of the ways to better utilize the attribution technology for your business include:

– Use a good mix of automated softwares as well as the good old spreadsheets, etc to achieve the required flexibility

– Understand the online customer journey well and work on the relevant problem areas to provide a seamless experience to the users

– Keep yourself well aware about any developments and updates and incorporate them at every step applicable to keep your processes/ activities updated

– Create a culture of measurement and accuracy across the organization so that every individual works towards doing the best and improving the activities on an on-going basis

Attribution is an impressive tool that can profoundly help your business grow and sustain. A lot of marketers are already focusing on this technology and have adapted to various attribution techniques. In the age where things change every moment and the customers are shifting towards online channels, attribution can act as a gateway to understand the efficiency of your marketing activities and plan the future activities in order to reach out to the correct audiences and eventually gain positive results. If you are still not using this technology, it is high time to start incorporating attribution models in your marketing plans to move up in the advertising space.

– Gautam Shelar, Business Head, MoneyControl
November 10, 2017

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