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Embracing AI in Marketing: Insights from Len Ward, CEO of CommexisIn this episode of The Thoughtful Entrepreneur, host Josh Elledge talks with Len Ward, Founder and CEO of Commexis, about how artificial intelligence is revolutionizing marketing strategies. Len shares how businesses can move beyond traditional marketing models and leverage AI tools—from chatbots to custom GPTs—to streamline decision-making, improve customer experience, and drive meaningful ROI. If you're a business leader looking to future-proof your marketing efforts, this conversation is a strategic roadmap for embracing AI-driven solutions.Why AI Is Changing Everything in MarketingLen kicks off the conversation with a personal reflection on Key West, Florida—a place he describes as laid-back, vibrant, and unlike anywhere else in the U.S. This set the tone for a bigger discussion about adaptability and shifting perspectives, which is exactly what businesses need when thinking about marketing in the AI era.At Commexis, Len helps small and mid-sized companies transition from traditional digital marketing methods to fully integrated AI marketing stacks. These include tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and proprietary systems tailored to streamline operations and optimize campaign strategies. The goal isn't just automation—it's transformation.Len points out that consumer expectations are evolving rapidly. People are accustomed to real-time answers from AI assistants, and they're bringing that same expectation to businesses. Chatbots have become a popular entry point, offering both external customer support and internal operational efficiencies. As AI grows more sophisticated, companies need to start thinking beyond SEO and paid ads and instead create adaptive, intelligent customer experiences.About Len WardLen Ward is the Founder of Commexis and a leading expert in AI-powered business strategy. With a background that spans Wall Street, eCommerce, and performance marketing, Len now helps small and mid-sized companies deploy custom GPTs, AI workflows, and intelligent marketing systems that drive real ROI. He is also the creator of AI Field Notes, a weekly dispatch that explores how AI is quietly transforming how businesses grow, hire, and scale.About CommexisCommexis is a marketing consultancy helping companies build AI-driven systems that improve operations and performance. The firm specializes in custom GPT development, marketing automation, and internal team training. Their signature solution, “Marketing Brain GPT,” combines years of marketing data and insights into a smart, actionable tool businesses can use to optimize strategy and execution.Links Mentioned in This Episode:Commexis WebsiteLen Ward on LinkedInAI Field Notes NewsletterEpisode Highlights:Transitioning to AI Marketing: Why AI stacks are the next evolution in digital marketing strategy.Chatbots as a Starting Point: How businesses can use chatbots to enhance both customer service and internal workflows.Consumer Expectations Are Changing: As more people use AI, they expect the same responsiveness from brands.Rethinking Your Website: The future of websites...
Interview with Len Ward, who is the Managing Partner of Commexis, specializing in AI consulting and digital transformation. With over 20 years of experience, from Wall Street to founding and scaling digital marketing firms, he now helps businesses leverage AI-driven solutions like chatbots and Custom GPTs to stay ahead. Len is passionate about how AI is reshaping marketing and business operations. His web site is https://commexis.com/
In today's episode of The Water Cooler Hangout, we get together with Len Ward to discuss the intricacies of marketing investment and how he helps his clients get an optimal return on investment. We talk with Len about how he departed from a successful career in finance to embark on an entrepreneurial journey, taking on a partnership role with an e-commerce startup in 2004. Len shares how he discovered his passion for marketing and founded the online marketing agency Rank Me SEO. Today he is the CEO and founder of Commexis, a marketing consulting firm that specializes in financial auditing, investment allocation, and reporting digital marketing campaigns. Len founded Commexis through his dedication to marketing investment and upon identifying a need for a company that solves digital marketing ROI challenges. Commexis teaches companies how to optimize their marketing investment in order to improve their return on investment. Tuning in you'll hear Len break down his process with new clients and how his company helps to bridge the knowledge gaps within a company, especially between CEOs and CFOs. For all this and much more, join us today as we unpack marketing investment intelligence!
"Companies Going Out Out Of Business Because They Cannot Afford To Advertise? It's Coming….." - Len Ward You can see below some of the discussion points we covered: How Len got his start and his first few ventures 0:00 From wall Street to entrepreneur 2:36 The early days of SEO 7:48 Digital marketing, ROI, and customer acquisition costs 11:10 Tips to get a more true ROI 14:39 Companies will start to go out of business because they can't afford to advertise 17:32 A good process to go through with your company to identify you are marketing needs 21:10 How should newer companies start the marketing process 25:30 What is content strategy? 27:25 What is a sales funnel? 28:19 The Connexis platform and what they offer 30:01 Len began his entrepreneurial journey in 2004 when he left behind a successful career in finance with Credit Suisse to take on a partnership role in an e-commerce startup. Through that experience, Len realized that he was more interested in marketing products than in selling them. He took this newfound passion for marketing and turned it into RankMeSEO, an online marketing agency. Today, Len has channeled his passion for investing and marketing into Commexis, a marketing consulting firm specializing in financial auditing, investment allocation, and reporting of digital marketing campaigns. Commexis has worked with brands like the University of Pennsylvania, Johnson & Johnson, American Water, ESF Camps, Exceptional Foods, Analysis Prime, and Thyroid Virtual Clinic. In short, Commexis solves your digital marketing ROI problems and will teach you how to optimize your investment to improve your ROI. LINKS FROM THE EPISODE Connect with Len Ward Website Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Recommended Books Liar's Poker Follow Rick Mazur: Website: https://www.rickmazur.life/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/atraderslife Twitter: https://twitter.com/rickmaz1106 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rickmazur1/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickmazurlife/ Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/atraderslifepodcast/ YouTube: https://www.rickmazur.life/youtube This episode is brought to you by ENLIGHTENED TRADING COMMUNITY. If you are somebody who has any interest in trading the financial markets -- short term or long term -- stocks, options, futures, forex, and more -, please click this link on my website and be sure to join our mailing list. We are currently in private beta with Enlightened. Enlightened is a trading community and will provide great information and lots of free resources. We have tons of things planned for expansion to give anyone interested in becoming better at finance and investing and trading your money some great opportunities. Get on them ailing list today, and let's get trading and better managing our money!
Welcome to Not Another Marketing Podcast where I'm talking to Len Ward, founder of Commexis which specialises in helping businesses discover their return on investment. We're talking about marketing ROI and how to report it.
Discovering your marketing ROI can be difficult. There are so many channels and so many touch points with some of them offline. How to we reliably report the return on investment of our marketing efforts?In this episode I'm joined by Len Ward the founder of Commexis which is a consulting firm that helps organisations discover their true ROI. It's a fascinating chat which I think will make you think slightly different about how to report successes and failures to the board or your client.Check out the Commexis website and don't forget to connect with Len on LinkedIn.Can I quickly mention is that NAMP is totally ad free and I'd love it if you could give the pod a quick shout on social media and subscribe via your podcast app.
So, what is The Buyer's Journey? First, it's the name of our brand new podcast! Secondly, The Buyer's Journey is the journey that prospective clients and customers go on when deciding to purchase a product or service. On our flagship episode the team gives you the road map for every twist and turn of The Buyer's Journey, and answers questions such as: Why is Commexis shifting our focus to this method? Why is it important? And why should CMO's pay attention?
Snap and Amazon are partnering to offer visual search within Snap, allowing users to shop for products simply by scanning logos and barcodes. Visit our blog for more: https://goo.gl/UPNxER -------------------------------------------- Sources: Tech Crunch: https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/24/snapchat-amazon-visual-search/ -------------------------------------------- Follow us on social media for more! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Commexis1/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/commexis1 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Commexis -------------------------------
A newly reported Google and Mastercard deal gaves Google access to anonymous credit card data for better online ad to offline purchase tracking, raising some consumer data privacy concerns. Visit our blog for more: https://goo.gl/wF5PNL -------------------------------------------- Sources: Bloomberg: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/953927331478764 Greg Sterling on Search Engine Land: https://searchengineland.com/opinion-googles-store-sales-measurement-data-deal-with-mastercard-not-deceptive-304747 -------------------------------------------- Follow us on social media for more! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Commexis1/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/commexis1 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Commexis -------------------------------
Facebook Groups are gaining access to Facebook pixel, which will help marketers better track user interaction and engagement in the popular page type. Visit our blog for more: https://goo.gl/RPcg73 -------------------------------------------- Sources: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/953927331478764 -------------------------------------------- Follow us on social media for more! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Commexis1/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/commexis1 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Commexis -------------------------------
Today's Commexis Cast is all about experiential marketing; what works, doesn't work, how to measure ROI, and HBO and Bumble's interesting team-up. For more, visit our blog: https://goo.gl/MbDFLr -------------------------------------------- Sources: Kerry Flynn: https://digiday.com/marketing/moviepass-falls-hbo-bumble-tap-giant-spoon-market-staying/ -------------------------------------------- Follow us on social media for more! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Commexis1/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/commexis1 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Commexis --------------------------------------------
On today's Commexis Cast we discuss Party City, and other big name retailers, choosing to sell their products on Amazon despite worries that Amazon could undersell them with a 3rd party alternative. For more, visit our blog: https://goo.gl/Pgcj5b -------------------------------------------- Sources: Suman Bhattacharyya on Digiday: https://digiday.com/marketing/party-city-selling-products-amazon/ -------------------------------------------- Follow us on social media for more! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Commexis1/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/commexis1 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Commexis ------------------------------- It is Wednesday, which means it's time to talk about the purchase phase of the Buyer's Journey. Purchase is the third step, following consideration. During the purchase stage your user/client/customer has already become aware of your brand, and have done their due diligence to determine which businesses they may want to purchase from. Now, your user is looking at things such as: shipping cost, stock availability, estimated arrival time, estimated departure time, production time, etc. These will be the deciding factor for conversion. As Suman Bhattacharyya points out in his piece on Digiday, the convenience, ease, and habit of purchasing on Amazon is likely the reason Party City has teamed with the e-commerce site. In addition, partnering with Amazon opens the doors to 2 Day free shipping for Amazon Prime members, as well as better reach to customers who wouldn't be able to reach a physical location. However, this partnership isn't without its worries. As Phillip, Len, and I discussed in the past, Amazon isn't a stranger to requiring full inventories from certain brands lest the e-commerce site begin creating and selling versions of their own. To combat this, Bhattacharyya writes, "Party City designs and manufactures its own products, which it said differentiates itself from the range of offerings available in its category." He continued that Party City will only be releasing a portion of its product, and in particular the products that they exclusively manufacture, thereby controlling the ability for Amazon to create something similar. Today's cast: Phillip Brooks (Commexis Lead Strategist) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours.
On today's Commexis Cast we cap off the the final day of Influencer Marketing week with a reminder of just how vital influencers can be in the advocacy stage of the buyer's journey. For more, visit our blog: https://goo.gl/CWeHYP -------------------------------------------- Sources: eMarketer: https://retail.emarketer.com/article/loss-of-consumer-trust-costly/5b60d04bebd40005bc4dc73d?ecid=NL1001 -------------------------------------------- Follow us on social media for more! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Commexis1/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/commexis1 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Commexis ------------------------------- Subscribe to our podcast and take us on the go! Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/commexis-cast iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-commexis-cast/id1372912671?mt=2 Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/commexis-cast?refid=stpr TuneIn: https://tunein.com/podcasts/Markets-and-Investing/The-Commexis-Cast-p1120897/ -------------------------------------------- Today's cast: Len Ward (Commexis CEO & Managing Partner), Phillip Brooks (Commexis Lead Strategist), and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours.
On today's Commexis Cast we kick off Influencer Marketing Week Day 4 with a look into brands using meme accounts in place of human influencer marketing tactics, and some are finding a better ROI than expected. For more, visit our blog: https://goo.gl/Y37haj -------------------------------------------- Sources: Lucinda Southern on Digiday: https://digiday.com/uk/better-roi-influencers-meme-accounts-attract-growing-interest-instagram/ -------------------------------------------- Follow us on social media for more! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Commexis1/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/commexis1 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Commexis --------------------------------------- Digiday's Lucinda Southern spoke to social media agency Cult LDN about campaigns their running for clients using meme accounts, in particular a campaign for streaming service Huya. Cult LDN is using meme accounts centered around "Keeping Up With The Kardashians" to push Huya's brand, labeling each meme with a Huya logo at the bottom and copy encouraging using the site. Southern spoke to CEO of influencer platform Fanbytes, Tim Armoo, who said, “For 1 million followers, you could be paying $15,000 to a human influencer, and for 1 million followers on a meme account you'd be paying about $1,000." Some of the benefits of using a meme account as opposed to a human influencer is the flexibility of messaging. After all, most influencers have a particular style or voice to their content, while meme accounts can be much more freeform. However, that also opens up potential brand safety issues. It's easier to tell what a particular influencer might do or talk about, but a meme account could share an unexpectedly controversial meme. In addition, Rebekah, Josh, and I aren't 100% certain on how much better using a meme account is, particularly when building trust and authenticity with an audience. While the content meme pages post are often highly engaging and relatable, without an individual as the "face" of the account it becomes difficult for users to relate to. Furthermore, the increased ROI isn't surprising. When a meme account only costs $1,000 for a million followers, the requirements for a return is much lower than when spending $15,000 for a human influencer. Like I wrote about on Tuesday, meme accounts could be helpful for small businesses in the same way micro-influencers are, but I wouldn't go all in just yet. Ultimately, it's up to your marketing team to do the due diligence of ensuring a quality influencer, whether that be a human or a meme account. Today's cast: Rebekah Milsted (Commexis Social Media Manager), Josh Lyons (Commexis Social Media Intern), and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours.
Today's Commexis Cast kicks off Influencer Marketing week! We discuss small businesses having great success with micro-influencers, and seeing increased ROI compared to influencers with increased followings. For more, visit our blog: https://goo.gl/1h7AoJ -------------------------------------------- Sources: Dinah Wisenberg Brin: https://www.forbes.com/sites/dinahwisenberg/2018/07/31/small-businesses-find-micro-influencers-a-good-marketing-avenue/#53a228b36f9f -------------------------------------------- Follow us on social media for more! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Commexis1/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/commexis1 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Commexis ------------------------------- Dinah Wisenberg Brin on Forbes spoke with the team behind Mason Jar Storage, creators of "Mom's Mason Jar Rack". The team tapped influencers in canning, home crafts, and cooking verticals and found great success by aiming for micro-influencers with small, engaged audiences than influencers with a higher audience number. Alon Popilskis, the team member responsible for the marketing of the product, said, "We decided to work with micro-influencers as opposed to larger-scale influencers due to budget as well as due to the fact that micro-influencers, even though they have smaller audiences, have a more engaged and targeted following, leading to better use of money spend." MediaHub found that influencers with 1,000 fans had an 85% higher engagement "lift" than those with 100,000 followers. Brin writes that, "New York Times-owned social media influencer marketing firm HelloSociety, meanwhile, found that accounts with 30,000 or fewer followers are better for marketers, according to Adweek. Micro-influencers, often considered to be trusted sources, generate a 60 percent higher engagement rate than a typical HelloSociety campaign and are 6.7 times more cost-effective than big-time influencers, according to the report." In the podcast, Phillip and I discussed how micro-influencer is fantastic for small businesses because the increased engagement gained by having a smaller, niche audience. The cost compared to other influencers, for example, makes a ROI actually possible. Today's cast: Phillip Brooks (Commexis Lead Strategist) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours.
Today's Commexis Cast discusses Facebook newest ad type: playable ads! These ads can feature demos of mobile app games that allow users a taste of the full experience. For more, visit our blog: https://goo.gl/2TMo8w -------------------------------------------- Sources: Ginny Marvin: https://marketingland.com/facebook-launches-playable-ads-tests-retention-optimization-for-app-advertising-245312 -------------------------------------------- Follow us on social media for more! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Commexis1/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/commexis1 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Commexis -------------------------------------------- Ginny Marvin on Marketing Land reports that new ad type was announced by Facebook last Friday at the ChinaJoy gaming convention, and has released globally. Rick Kelley, VP of global gaming at Facebook, said in a statement, "With playable ads, advertisers can now give players a chance to experience a game in Feed before they install it, creating higher intent. And through two additions to our value suite, game developers can more efficiently reach their most valuable players — whether they're optimizing for payers or for retention.” So, what does this mean for marketers who aren't advertising gaming apps? In the podcast, Josh and I discussed how this is the first stepping stone for Facebook in creating new ad types for mobile app marketers. Marvin points out that Google is ahead of Facebook already. What I'm particularly interested in is the opportunity for the advancement of ad types into the realms of VR and AR. Previously on the podcast, Phillip and I discussed IKEA's Place app that allows for users to place furniture in their environment using AR technology to see if the color and style of the chair would be appropriate. I wonder if the same could be done in a more advanced ad type, offering a demo of a particular item without requiring the user to download a separate app. Marvin also writes that a minimum return on ad spend (ROAS) feature will be launching the coming weeks, allowing advertisers to "be able to set a minimum spend to target users that the system determines are most likely to make in-app purchases." This isn't useful for gaming apps, but for other apps that require in-app purchases, as well. Today's cast: Josh Lyons (Commexis Social Media Intern) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours.
Twitter's latest bot purge has dropped follower counts in the 6 digits for some, but marketers say they love that drop. On today's Commexis Cast we explain why engagement is the number one metric for social media measurement, not follower count. For more, visit our blog: https://goo.gl/i7DYAH -------------------------------------------- Sources: Kerry Flynn: https://digiday.com/marketing/twitters-bot-purge-welcomed-agency-execs/ -------------------------------------------- Follow us on social media for more! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Commexis1/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/commexis1 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Commexis -------------------------------------------- Kerry Flynn on Digiday spoke with many media execs who are happy to see Twitter making additional efforts to quell bot accounts on the platform. Twitter initially began looking into their bot problem following a New York Times investigation that found many celebrities and influencers on the platform paying to have bots follow, like, and retweet their accounts and posts. In addition, questions of Russian use of Twitter in an effort to influence the election, much like on Facebook and other platforms, began to surface. So, Twitter began banning bots. The platform also made significant changes to their terms of service, disallowing bot use for mass liking, retweeting, and following. In the newest wave of bot bannings, popular accounts lost hundreds of thousands of followers or more. Katy Perry lost about 2 million. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey proudly lost 200,000. Many influencers and brands expressed frustration at the loss of followers, but Josh and I explain that follower count isn't the most important metric for social media. Certainly, having a big number looks great and can be a fantastic showing of growth overtime, but engagement it does not create. Not to mention, many marketers had to scrape away data in their reports to accommodate bot followers. Now? Not so much. Flynn spoke to Darnell Brisco, vp of accounts in entertainment at Fullscreen, who said, “This is the outcome I was hoping for for a lot of reasons. Do people lose a large number of followings, a big flashy number? Sure. But it makes the job for us as marketers easier because we are already having such a tough time trying to clean that data.” "Marketing should focus on real results," Bobby Palmieri, CEO of Lilo Social, told Flynn, "and this purge will help that. I think there's a huge gap between perceived audience and true influence, and this purge is the first step in bridging that gap." Ultimately, even if your follower number (or your "audience number") decreased during the purge, your engagement should stay the same. If you're not creating quality content for them to enjoy, share, and engage with then your follower number is nothing more than a vanity. Today's cast: Josh Lyons (Commexis Social Media Intern) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours.
Today's Commexis Cast discusses Google's announcement to show marketers more data in their Google Analytics and Google My Business profiles, including popular search keywords for businesses. For more, visit our blog: https://goo.gl/n43BWX -------------------------------------------- Sources: Laurie Sullivan on Media Post: https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/322170/google-starts-to-give-marketers-more-access-to-dat.html -------------------------------------------- Follow us on social media for more! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Commexis1/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/commexis1 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Commexis -------------------------------------------- Laurie Sullivan reports on Media Post that the Search Analytics API in the search console will also allow users access to 25,000 rows of data per request, which is five times more than the previous 5,000 rows. Google has also released a guide on how to access this data, offering info on the default settings, searching by groups and by properties, and more. Len and I also talked about Google's history of keeping information close to the chest. There was a time prior to 2012-2013 where Google allowed users to look at every keyword their site could rank, but Google took that away in the place of pay-per-click. With the expanding markets of voice search and other forms of media, Google seems to be opening the gates a crack to allow some information to flow through. Today's cast: Len Ward (Commexis CEO) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours.
Today's Commexis Cast discusses Amazon's advertising working directly with some brands, leaving advertising agencies completely out of the picture. For more, visit our blog: https://goo.gl/wD5ggS -------------------------------------------- Sources: Shareen Pathak on Digiday: https://digiday.com/marketing/amazon-advertising-working-directly-brands-now-cutting-ad-agencies/ -------------------------------------------- Follow us on social media for more! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Commexis1/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/commexis1 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Commexis -------------------------------------------- Shareen Pathak on Digiday has an excellent write-up of the various ways Amazon is working with brands, in particular eCommerce brands, without advertising agency help. Lego in particular has found success with a direct relationship working with Amazon, even having their own landing page. According to Pathak, competitors are not able to advertise there. Pathak spoke with Eric Heller, founder of Wunderman Commerce consultancy Marketplace Ignition, who isn't particularly worried for advertising agencies. “I'm not sure that everything old isn't new again." said Heller, "I don't think after Google we started hearing later that companies were dropping agencies.” Our Paid Placement Specialist Jim does point out, however, that this had been going on for a while now. Google does it, Facebook does it, even HubSpot does it. But Jim is not concerned. He argues that it never works for the platform because they are so highly focused they can't diversify the portfolio of advertising options and channels, so if someone does well they crush it, if they don't they fail. Also, Amazon's advertising expertise is very limited to only eCommerce, and anyone outside of eCommerce would be hard pressed to convince to go with an amazon ad rep over a comprehensive full service agency. Today's cast: James Van Horn (Commexis Paid Placement Specialist) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours.
Today's Commexis Cast discusses the growing popularity of eSports and the vast marketing potentials waiting to be seized. Visit our blog for more: https://goo.gl/vWyC2W -------------------------------------------- Sources: Mallory Locklear on Engadget: https://www.engadget.com/2018/07/11/overwatch-league-air-abc-espn-disney-networks/ Sahil Patel on Digiday: https://digiday.com/media/turners-esports-league-aims-for-growth-with-new-games-advertisers/ Lucia Moses on Digiday: https://digiday.com/media/fortnite-themed-talk-show-coming-twitch/ -------------------------------------------- Follow us on social media for more! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Commexis1/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/commexis1 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Commexis -------------------------------------------- The Overwatch League (OWL) will begin having its games aired on the Disney, ESPN, and ABC family of networks. The partnership began at the onset of the OWL playoffs and is planned to continue in a multi-year deal that will broadcast future seasons of the league on ESPN, ESPN2, Disney XD, ABC, and streaming services. This isn't the first time esports will air on ESPN or Disney XD, but it is aimed to be quite lucrative. Blizzard Entertainment, owners of Overwatch, are already quite familiar with the esports world having created and fostered the Starcraft 2 esports Community. But what is so special about esports airing on television? After all, many millennials and the youngest of Gen Z (such as myself) don't even watch T.V. Its the numbers. Turner Sports, owners of ELeague, have exceptional viewership numbers on TV. Sahil Patel on Digiday wrote, "On TV, ELeague averages 250,000 viewers per telecast. ELeague has also helped TBS draw new and younger viewers; to date, the league has brought in 10 million new viewers who had not spent any time with the network in the month prior to watching an ELeague broadcast. The median age for ELeague programming at 10 p.m. on Friday nights on TBS is four years younger than other network programming that airs on other nights at the same time." ELeague's "Boston Major" tournament had a peak viewership of 1.1 million, Patel writes, which is inline with the viewership of the World Cup broadcasts on Fox Sports and Telemundo saw with peak concurrent live streams over the past month. Finally, Inverse, the Amazon owned streaming company, is developing a talk show based around the hit gaming sensation Fortnite. Fortnite had a total of about 125 million players and generated $315 million in revenue in June, alone, and some top streamers of the game can amass 100,000+ consistent viewers per stream. During tournaments, top streamers such as Ninja can have 200,000 - 400,000 viewers at a time. Today's cast: Phillip Brooks (Commexis Lead Strategist) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours.
Today's Commexis Cast discusses a problem facing many brands: Facebook's automated political ad authorization system is blocking non-political ads, some for keywords that are reminiscent of politics, and some that are not. Visit our blog for more: https://goo.gl/35pn3a -------------------------------------------- Sources: Nikki Baird on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nikkibaird/2018/03/01/one-year-later-amazons-influencer-program-has-not-changed-the-world/#1ecae087b630 Amazon: https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/influencers/ -------------------------------------------- Follow us on social media for more! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Commexis1/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/commexis1 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Commexis -------------------------------------------- The program quietly launched in March 2017 in an invite-only beta test for influencers with a high follower count, then shortly opened to submissions for approval. Influencers chosen for the program were able to have a vanity URL that linked to a storefront allowing users to purchase Amazon product curated by the influencer, who received a small percentage. Influencers can customize their storefronts and include YouTube videos and Instagram pictures of the products. This may remind you of Amazon's affiliate program, which allows individuals who sign up to link to products on Amazon and receive a small percentage when someone purchases using that link. The additions to the program, such as the vanity URL, are certainly a bonus for participants, but not revolutionary. Do they need to be? Nikki Baird, vice president of retail innovation at Aptos, penned a piece for Forbes analyzing how the influencer program has done for Amazon. The answer: it has neither succeeded spectacularly, nor failed abysmally. It simply is. Liz Gottbrecht at MAVRCK believes that incredible success isn't a necessary component for the program, but rather that the influencer program is but one more piece of Amazon's marketing ecosystem. The program's continued existence as an expanded affiliate link still helps Amazon form relationships with influencers while creating and maintaining direct links to commerce. Both are fantastic for the ecommerce site, even if it's not a smash hit. Today's cast: Phillip Brooks (Commexis Lead Strategist), Rebekah Milsted (Commexis Social Media Manager) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours.
Today's Commexis Cast discusses a problem facing many brands: Facebook's automated political ad authorization system is blocking non-political ads, some for keywords that are reminiscent of politics, and some that are not. Visit our blog for more: https://goo.gl/pDn2L9 -------------------------------------------- Sources: Amy Gesenhues on Marketing Land: https://marketingland.com/facebooks-automated-systems-to-monitor-political-advertisers-are-blocking-the-wrong-ads-243760 Sarah Frier on Bloomberg: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-02/facebook-s-algorithm-blocks-ads-for-bush-s-beans-singers-named-clinton -------------------------------------------- Follow us on social media for more! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Commexis1/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/commexis1 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Commexis -------------------------------------------- Following the revelations in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, as well as evidence of attempted Russian interference and influence on the 2016 presidential election through Facebook ads, the social media giant has been working to reduce the chances of such controversy while also making political advertising on the platform more transparent. To that end, Facebook instated a political ads policy in May that requires individuals who wish to run political ads to be verified, as well as inform Facebook on the individuals or political entities that purchased the ad. Artificial intelligence is then used to detect individuals who are not verified, or who have not listed the purchaser of the ad, and are running political ads. These ads are then blocked. Or, ideally they are. Amy Gesenhues on Marketing Land reports that it's not just political ads that are being blocked. Many ads that have keywords that could be ID'd as political are being blocked. Gesenhues quotes from a Bloomberg Report that a farming company, a hair waxing salon, and even Walmart had ads blocked for featuring the word "bush". The Facebook algorithm clearly misinterpreted the use of the keyword for a reference to former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. Advertisers in Clinton, Iowa and Clinton, Tennessee had their ads blocked, as well, seemingly for having an address located in the text. Our own paid social team, Rebekah and Jim, have found that Facebook is also blocking ads under this criteria that don't directly state obvious political keywords. They both found that some ads are flagged for seemingly no reason, and that an appeal can often take days, weeks, or months. This error could ultimately be detrimental for a small or medium sized business, for whom Facebook doesn't offer fantastic customer support for. Today's cast: James Van Horn (Commexis Paid Placement Specialist), Rebekah Milsted (Commexis Social Media Manager) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours.
Today's Commexis Cast discusses publishers finding more success this year with Facebook mid-roll ads than previously expected. Is this a sign of more mid-roll ad to come? Visit our blog for more: https://goo.gl/xfqFVh -------------------------------------------- Sources: Sahil Patel on Digiday: https://digiday.com/media/facebook-video-ad-breaks-signs-of-life/ -------------------------------------------- Follow us on social media for more! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Commexis1/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/commexis1 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Commexis -------------------------------------------- Digiday's Sahil Patel spoke to six publishers about their stats with Facebook's video ad breaks program. In essence, advertisers could place midroll ads in videos that were at least 3 minutes long, with at least 1 minute of uninterrupted video before the ad would play. This is one opportunity, along with Facebook Watch, that aims to help creators monetize their videos. While the program wasn't delivering much in 2017, the tide seems to be turning, however slightly, in 2018. Patel writes that one publisher's mid-roll ad revenue "grew by 10-40 percent depending on the page from the first quarter to the second quarter of 2018, and is on track to make more than $10 million from the mid-rolls this year. A second publisher said Facebook mid-rolls are on pace to be a “double-digit-million-dollar business” for the publisher this year. " An executive from a publisher said that the checks are consistently approaching six digits figures, which is a significant increase from 2017. What I find so fascinating about this is Facebook's slow move towards a traditional TV like ad layout. As I mentioned in our podcast about YouTube increasing ad numbers on longer videos, a traditional ad layout may not harm watch rates when implemented slowly. Patel spoke to an exec Facebook Watch publisher who said, “TV has four minutes of ad time for every 11 minutes of content; Facebook Watch has a fraction of a fraction of that. They're going to expand the ad load, but in the short term, they're inching into it so they don't piss off users and create scarcity for the inventory as it opens up.” In that same YouTube podcast Phillip and I discussed how creators are intentionally creating their content to increase the likelihood of ads, showing that creators aren't against significant mid-roll ad placements despite the bad rap mid-roll ads get. After all, nothing hurts more than watching a 30 second ad before a video of the same length. However, in the era where YouTube and Facebook Watch are encouraging longer videos, perhaps mid-roll ads aren't as bad. Today's cast: Phillip Brooks (Commexis Lead Strategist) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours.
Today's Commexis Cast discusses three important influencer marketing concepts discussed at Vidcon: trust, authenticity, and creative control. For more, visit our blog: https://goo.gl/4MQgm1 -------------------------------------------- Sources: Nicol Bitette on V by Viacom: https://v.viacom.com/vidcon-revealed-future-brand-creator-collaboration/ -------------------------------------------- Follow us on social media for more! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Commexis1/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/commexis1 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Commexis -------------------------------------------- Vidcon, a convention full of panels by creators and brands on how to make influencer marketing more successful, had upwards of 30,000 attendees; some fans eager to meet their favorite creators, some brands looking for marketing potential, and some creators hoping to say hello to viewers and brands. Nicole Bitette on V by Viacom wrote about the panels during the convention, which ran late last month. The event's keynote featured Brian Solis, the principal analyst of Altimeter Group, who made a point that, as Bitette writes, "as few as 5 percent of brands are interested in building relationships with influencers—as opposed to signing one-off campaigns with them—according Traackr and Altimeter, a Prophet company." During a panel, Benny Fine, of The Fine Bros fame, said that when it comes to choosing sponsorships. "[Authenticity] becomes how can you make something that doesn't feel so branded that it turns your audience off while at the same time being something that feels authentic to your brand." Many creators mentioned something similar, emphasizing that some brand deals can be created from brands that creator already supports. Matt Steffanina, a 31 year old professional dancer with 8 million subs on YouTube, said, “What am I always wearing in my videos? I'm wearing Jordans, I'm wearing a fitted hat. If you are a brand and you notice somebody is always tagging you in photos: that's a great opportunity. People will be so much more receptive to something that's already currently happening in their videos and so will the fans." These kind of deals not only showcase authenticity, but can also build trust. Multiple videos created by the same creator rather than separate creators can be the start of a great relationship. Creative control, of course, can be a sticky subject some brands don't want to hand completely over. For creators, however, it's a deciding factor in making a partnership with a brand. Often creators are the most tuned in to what their audience wants. Andrea Brooks, creator of the channel Andrea's Choice with 4.2 million subs, says that reading off a script of from bullet points doesn't make the greatest content. “I know my viewers and when I'm just rambling on about something for so long," she says, "I honestly feel like it's counterproductive like out of anger they don't want to buy your product because I made them sit through two minutes of selling this lotion." Today's cast: Phillip Brooks (Commexis Lead Strategist) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours.
Ever wondered how to get a blue verified check-mark on Instagram? Today's Commexis Cast dives into Instagram's new process for verification that hopes to stop scams that have cost some users up to $15,000! For more info, visit our blog: https://goo.gl/S4mR4h -------------------------------------------- Sources: David Cohen on Adweek: https://www.adweek.com/digital/instag... Kerry Flynn on Mashable: https://mashable.com/2017/09/01/insta... -------------------------------------------- Follow us on social media for more! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Commexis1/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/commexis1 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Commexis ------------------------------- David Cohen on Adweek reports that the Facebook owned social media platform is shedding light on it's verification process to help ensure better transparency with brands and creators. The new form will ask "all accounts that are notable and authentic" for a full name, a list of usernames, and a photo ID to prove their identity. While transparency is at the forefront of this change, the elimination of scams is another. Some users were paying anywhere from $1,500 to $15,000 on an Instagram black market to receive a blue verification check-mark, Kerry Flynn reported in September, then with Mashable. In a statement Instagram said, “We hope this new form will not only give people the opportunity to apply, but also help them better understand the verification process and safeguard them from believing false promises of verification from third parties.” The new form is currently being tested in Australia for iOS users and will be coming to Android soon. We'll be keeping a watch on this new verification process as it continues. Today's cast: Rebekah Milsted (Commexis Social Media Manager) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours.
Today's Commexis Cast discusses three of the biggest announcements from Google's Marketing Live keynote in San Jose, California. For more, visit our blog: https://goo.gl/8o2xuh -------------------------------------------- Sources: Ginny Marvin on Search Engine Land: https://searchengineland.com/google-marketing-live-here-come-fully-automated-ads-campaigns-for-local-shopping-more-301746 -------------------------------------------- Follow us on social media for more! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Commexis1/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/commexis1 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Commexis ------------------------------- Ginny Marvin on Search Engine Land reported on every new feature that Google showed at the keynote, but our Paid Placement Specialist James Van Horn had a couple that he thought were particularly interesting. The first announcement was Google's Responsive search ads. Similar to Facebook's Dynamic Ads, but without imagery, Responsive search ads allow brands to upload up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions. Google's algorithm then selects the best headlines and descriptions for each individual user before serving them up. In addition, Google will allow brands taking part in this program to have up to 3 headlines displayed at a time, and description character limits will increase from 80 to 90. Second, Google announced a new campaign type called Local Campaigns. These small business focused campaigns will allow advertisers to set a certain amount of budget and then allow Google to auto generate ads based on ad creative elements and locations extensive. Google then automatically optimizes the ad delivery across its network including Search, YouTube, Maps, and more. Finally, another campaign Google revealed were Smart Shopping Campaigns. Marvin writes that these campaigns, "automatically optimize ad delivery across Google's properties and ad networks to achieve the advertiser's defined conversion goal value, such as revenue or return on ad spend (ROAS)." Furthermore, the goal of the campaigns can be changed between store visits or new customers. Today's cast: James Van Horn (Commexis Paid Placement Specialist) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours.
Today's Commexis Cast discussed YouTube's latest initiative against conspiratorial and "fake news" content on the platform that comes with a hefty $25 million dollar price tag. For more, visit our blog: https://goo.gl/8SZQq8 -------------------------------------------- Sources: John Glenday on The Drum: http://www.thedrum.com/news/2018/07/10/youtube-allocates-25m-enhance-credentials-authoritative-news-source -------------------------------------------- Follow us on social media for more! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Commexis1/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/commexis1 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Commexis -------------------------------------------- John Glenday on The Drum explains that the initiative involves a push to have YouTube viewed as a more "authoritative" news source. You may remember the myriad of past controversies involving conspiracy content on the YouTube kids app, as well as their inclusion of Wikipedia excerpts beneath those videos on the normal site and app. YouTube will be more thoroughly verifying content it considers to be "authoritative", but will not be removing content deemed conspiratorial. Glenday reports that Neal Mohan, chief product officer at YouTube, said, “By putting that front and centre, that's one of the biggest things we can do to ensure users are getting access to high-quality information." Furthermore, YouTube wants its users to make their own decisions. While Phillip and I are hesitant to praise YouTube for this initiative before we hear any plans on how this will be executed, the video hosting platform did include other policy shifts that we feel may be more useful. For example, the platform will offer a text feed on breaking news while news outlets work to create suitable video content. The platform will also have an information panel added to it that will display trusted local news sources, as well. We'll be keeping an eye on how this YouTube change develops. $25 million is quite a lot of money, and is a sign that YouTube does care about this issue, but whether their solutions will work, or will go the way of Facebook's previous initiatives on the matter, is yet to be seen. Today's cast: Phillip Brooks (Commexis Lead Strategist) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours.
Today's Commexis Cast breaks down what the Google's "Speed Update" means for their search algorithm and your rankings. For more, visit our blog: https://goo.gl/FZiGdn -------------------------------------------- Sources: Barry Schwartz on Marketing Land: https://searchengineland.com/google-speed-update-is-now-being-released-to-all-users-301657 Barry Schwartz' FAQ: https://searchengineland.com/faqs-new-google-speed-update-amp-pages-search-console-notifications-desktop-pages-289929 Google's Original Speed Update Blog Post: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2018/01/using-page-speed-in-mobile-search.html -------------------------------------------- Follow us on social media for more! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Commexis1/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/commexis1 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Commexis -------------------------------------------- The update that focuses on mobile page speed in particular, Google says, will only effect the slowest of the slow sites. For those with fast sites that think boosting their site speed even more might help, Schwartz has a great FAQ from January, when the update was first announced, that clarifies making a fast site even faster won't have significant changes under this new algorithm. While it is extremely important, site speed isn't the only factor Google considers when creating rankings for pages. The quality of the content, as well as the relevance to search queries all play a role. In fact, Google confirmed in Schwartz' FAQ that even a slow site with great content may still rank about faster sites. That said, if your site hasn't had maintenance or optimizing in a long while, or your site is out of date, you may be affected by this new algorithm change. You can check how your site is performing on desktop and mobile by using Google's PageSpeed Insights. If you're dissatisfied with your result, or find yourself frustrated by your sites slow loading speed, don't be afraid to reach out and see if we can help. Today's cast: Phillip Brooks (Commexis Lead Strategist) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours.
Today's Commexis Cast discusses an anecdotal report of YouTube's increase ad serving on longer videos, as well as creators tweaking their content length to better match YouTube's algorithm. For more, visit our blog: https://goo.gl/FUpTjx -------------------------------------------- Sources: Tim Peterson on Digiday: https://digiday.com/media/creators-making-longer-videos-cater-youtube-algorithm/ Amy Gesenhues on Marketing Land: https://marketingland.com/is-youtube-serving-up-more-pre-roll-mid-roll-video-ads-243505 -------------------------------------------- Follow us on social media for more! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Commexis1/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/commexis1 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Commexis -------------------------------------------- Amy Gesenhues on Marketing Land reported that Dan Shure, SEO consultant and podcast host, found that 6 ads were being served on a 17 minute long YouTube video. The ads consisted of two skippabled pre-roll, two mid-roll ads a third of the way through the video, and two mid-roll ads two-thirds of the way through the video on the Maschine Master's channel. You can find a link to a video showcasing the increase in in ads here. When Marketing Land reached out to YouTube for comment, they received the following response: "Our goal is to ensure ads are useful and relevant to users. The amount of ads that a user sees will vary based on a number of factors including ad preferences and the dynamics of auction and advertiser demand." The increase in video ads isn't just being noticed by SEO experts, either. YouTube creators have been modifying their content to best react to YouTube's algorithm shifts. Tim Peterson on Digiday spoke with many popular YouTube creators who say they've been lengthening their videos for that exact reason. Not only does the algorithm prefer longer videos, as retention rates tend to be better with that content, but there's an increased likelihood of having ads placed on that video. Furthermore, users may be less inclined to bounce away from an ad halfway through a 12 minute video, while the same ad halfway through a six minute video would fair worse. That said, Phillip and I discussed our displeasure with having six ads on one YouTube video. Phillip noted that he'd likely abandon the video if presented with that many ads. While I'm not so sure I would, as four mid-rolls ads reminds me a lot of traditional TV, I can't image investing that much into a video and then abandoning it. Perhaps that's just because I don't tend to watch traditional TV anymore (hello Twitch and Youtube) and therefore my alternatives would just be other videos. Today's cast: Phillip Brooks (Commexis Lead Strategist) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours.
Today's Commexis Cast discusses how a slow page load speed can increase bounce rates, hurt conversions, and general dissatisfy and frustrate an end user. For more information, check out our blog: https://goo.gl/Q7ukqs -------------------------------------------- Sources: Chris LoRusso on Digiday for Nativo: https://digiday.com/sponsored/nativo-nativosbl-slow-death-latency-weight-dragging-publishers-bottom-lines/ Akamai Study: https://www.akamai.com/us/en/about/news/press/2017-press/akamai-releases-spring-2017-state-of-online-retail-performance-report.jsp -------------------------------------------- Follow us on social media for more! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Commexis1/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/commexis1 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Commexis -------------------------------------------- Chris LoRusso, svp publisher solutions at Nativo, wrote a fantastic piece on Digiday analyzing an Akaim study on page speed loading. LoRusso reports that the study found, "a 100-millisecond delay in website load time led to a 7 percent drop in conversion rates. Meanwhile, while only 9.6 percent of users bounce when encountering an average page load time of 2 seconds, bounce rate skyrockets to 32.3 percent when page load times climb to 7 seconds." Nativo accounts for much of this slow-down being third-party tracking tags. Phillip is quick to remind everyone that third-party tracking tags aren't inherently malicious, but can often build-up over a sites life time if not properly "cleaned" away. A business, for example, that has given access to their website to 2-3 different agencies over a couple years could have a variety of third-party tags that the agencies never cleaned out from those that came before. Then, the page can load significantly slower. So, what is the solution to third-party tracking tags slowing down your site? Do spring cleaning each year to make sure every tag you're using is actually being used. Finally, Google AMP and Facebook Instant Articles are other ways to increase site speed (one for landing pages, the other for publisher articles on Facebook). Phillip explains that both of these tools are incredibly useful to use, as long as they're being used in the right way, and brands and businesses should be encouraged to use them more. Today's cast: Phillip Brooks (Commexis Lead Strategist) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours.
Today's Commexis Cast discusses Facebook testing subscription based models for groups, allowing users to pay to have access to exclusive content and posts. The new feature will allow group admins to create an internal subscription group with prices ranging from $4.99 to $29.99. Group members will be able to see descriptions of the content, as well as the price, to determine if they are interested in subscribing. If a user does, they will be given access to the exclusive content. If a user cancels their subscription, they will still have access to the group until the end of that month. Facebook announced the test early last week in a blog post, and said the main goal of this experiment is to give group admins more tools because "they're looking for ways to help them earn money to deepen engagement with their members and continue to support their communities. Many admins do this today by creating an additional subscribers-only group that sits alongside their existing group, and rely on additional tools to track and collect payments." With new group subscriptions, Facebook would allow admins to have this all occur in one place, and with the potential for Facebook to take a cut. Speaking of which, Facebook has confirmed that they will not be taking a percentage of proceeds during the test period (though surely in the future they will). However, because these purchases are occurring through the iOS and Android app stores, Apple and Google will get a percentage of the subscription costs. This test certainly opens up a great new avenue for influencers and creators looking to reach their audience (and get paid while doing it!). We'll be keeping an eye on how these tests perform, as well as how this could work for some clients moving forward. Today's cast: Phillip Brooks (Commexis Lead Strategist) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours. -------------------------------------------- Sources: Facebook Blog: https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/06/introducing-subscription-groups/ TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/20/facebook-subscription-groups/
Today's Commexis Cast discusses IGTV, Instagram's newly announced app that is hoping to go toe-to-toe with YouTube with long-form video content! Instagram made the announcement of IGTV at an event in San Francisco, finally proving the rumor of extended length video on the platform. The announcement comes on the heels of the platform reaching 1 billion monthly users, up from the 800m monthly users in September. IGTV will be a standalone app that allows all users to upload videos of up to an hour in length, far exceeding Instagram's typical video length of a minute. IGTV differs from sites like YouTube, however, because of the focus on full-screen vertical video. Users will be able to create channels to upload these videos and follow other user's channels in a similar fashion to YouTube. Upon opening the app, IGTV will immediately begin playing videos from followed channels (or algorithmically suggested channels), but users can still search for videos, creators, and hashtags via a search bar. What excites me the most about this new app is how powerful it could be for influencers in the space. For a long while Instagram influencers and branded content makers have been requesting the ability to create longer form video content that goes beyond the 1 minute minimum. Previously, influencers who wanted to create longer form content would have to host it on their YouTube and hope people would migrate to that page to watch the full video. Now creators can host their long form content within Instagram's "umbrella" of content. Similarly, brands can take of advantage of this by using long-form content to expand their audience on Instagram's platforms, as well as hiring influencers and branded content creators to make new, interesting content. How creators will get paid on IGTV is still up in the air. For all of YouTube's faults and creator's many gripes with the platform, it still does pay. That said, Instagram has confirmed that ads are coming in the near future. How much of that will go to creators is unknown. Today's cast: Phillip Brooks (Commexis Lead Strategist) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours. -------------------------------------------- Sources: Instagram blog + Thumbnail Image: https://instagram-press.com/blog/2018/06/20/welcome-to-igtv/ Adweek: https://www.adweek.com/digital/instagram-announces-a-new-video-app-to-directly-compete-with-youtube-and-snapchat/ Tech Crunch: https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/20/instagram-1-billion-users/ Recode: https://www.recode.net/2018/6/21/17487706/instagram-igtv-video-launch-creators-revenue
Today's Commexis Cast discusses Google's release of a podcast app for Android devices with plans for integrate artificial intelligence to offer transcriptions and other features. Google released the new app, called Google Podcasts, yesterday on the Google play store (click here to get it now), and there is no word that the app will be released for iOS. According to Jon Fingas on Engadget, the app "will sync across virtually everything Google, including Assistant, Home speakers and search." Certainly an advantage over Apple's own native podcast app. But that isn't the only potential advantage the app has. In the future, Google plans on integrating the app with artificial intelligence that will offer transcriptions of podcasts for listeners, as well as give additional relevant links and information based on the podcast and topic. The release of a podcast app, and the additional A.I. functionality planned, signal the first step to Google putting a greater importance on audio and podcasts. Zack Reneau-Wedeen, product manager for Google Podcasts, spoke with BuzzFeed News, saying, “In the last few years, we've seen a huge explosion in the creativity, variety, and the quality of podcasts available." Google will also be working with an independent global advisory board and industry experts on a plan to increase the diversity in podcasting. Buzzfeed News' Pranav Dixit wrote that this initiative aims to "bring in more creators from underrepresented backgrounds such as women, people of color, and people from other countries into podcasting." Reneau-Weeden told Buzzfeed News, "When we talk about doubling the size of the podcast listening population worldwide, the growth needs to come from around the world where most of the opportunity is going to be. It can't only come from America.” Phillip and Matt are both looking forward to seeing how the artificial intelligence features work on the new app, and are also excited to see how Google's podcast diversity initiative goes. Today's cast: Phillip Brooks (Commexis Lead Strategist) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours. -------------------------------------------- Sources: Jon Fingas on Engadget: https://www.engadget.com/2018/06/19/google-launches-dedicated-podcast-app-for-android/ Pranav Dixit on Buzzfeed News: https://www.buzzfeed.com/pranavdixit/google-new-podcast-app-diversity?utm_term=.ykgoZPB5GL#.uk0Vm32vqb
Today's Commexis Cast discusses brands using Instagram to improve their audience retention and engagement on Facebook. Tim Peterson reported on Digiday that media companies such as First Media were boosting their Facebook audiences using Instagram as a way to offset the loss of engagement from Facebook's January algorithm change. In particular, First Media cross-posted Instagram stories to Facebook Stories on their So Yummy and Blusher accounts. Peterson writes that within 10 days, "So Yummy was increasing its Instagram followers by 34 percent to 6,358 new followers a day from what it was adding previously, said Yuval Rechter, First Media's head of digital. On the same basis, Blusher saw its average daily additions increase by 284 percent to 2,301 new followers." Swipe-up links, too, offered significant referral traffic even compared to Facebook instant-articles. First Media say that some links received "up to 40,000 swipe-ups." CNN, too, had been increasing its use of Instagram Stories, hiring a new video producer to create stories once a day. While CNN did not say that cross-posting stories led to an increase in followers, the company did say that the viewership numbers weren't insignificant and the content likely reached a different audience than that on Facebook. Ultimately, Phillip points out in the podcast that consistency in content and smart hashtag use are going to help smaller brands reach their intended audiences on both platforms. Big media companies have the following and clout to create these massive followings, and the only way to slowly begin to do so with your brand is to be consistent. Today's cast: Phillip Brooks (Commexis Lead Strategist) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours. -------------------------------------------- Sources: Tim Peterson Digiday Piece: https://digiday.com/media/publishers-bridging-instagram-facebook-audiences/
Today's Commexis Cast discusses Pinterest's expansion of their Pinterest Marketing Partners Program with partnerships of seven new creative services companies. Pinterest's Business Blog says that brands will be able to work with Popular Pays, QuickFrame, Shutterstock Custom, Social Native, Vidmob, Vidsy, and The Online Studio when looking to craft video assets for the platform. "These Creative PMPs have built solutions through the Pinterest API that will give brands access to creative development tools that make it easy to build, manage and launch engaging Pins. Marketing Partners can help with everything from developing high-quality creative content to managing complex campaigns to refining targeting and measuring results," Pinterest said in their post. Phillip and Matt talk about the growth Pinterest has experienced in their advertising platform, showcasing a 50% boost year-over-year in small and medium sized businesses advertising on the platform. We're going to be keeping an eye on Pinterest going forward. It's definitely an avenue we want to explore with specific clients, especially those that are targeting Millennials and Gen Z. Today's cast: Phillip Brooks (Commexis Lead Strategist) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours. -------------------------------------------- Pinterest Blog: https://business.pinterest.com/en/blog/pinterest-expands-marketing-partners-with-creative-specialty
Today's Commexis Cast discusses Facebook's brand new ad feedback system, which allows users who have clicked on an ad to rate their satisfaction with that business' services and products, and could result in a business being banned from advertising on the platform if they receive enough negative feedback. Here's how the system works: A user clicks on an ad. Sometime in the near future, a Facebook notification will ask the user to leave feedback on the service of that business. Users can choose one of three smiley face emoji that showcase satisfaction, neutrality, or dissatisfaction. Then, users pick whether product quality or shipping speed left the user the most satisfied or unsatisfied (depending on their prior choice), as well as the option to leave some anonymous feedback. Businesses that receive a large amount of negative feedback will have their feedback shown to them in a separate dashboard. In a blog post Facebook described this process: "We share feedback directly with businesses that receive high volumes of negative feedback and give them a chance to improve before taking further action. We give them guidance on how to improve customer satisfaction and better meet customer expectations. This could mean setting clear expectations about shipping speed upfront or providing more transparency about return policies." Ultimately, if a business receives a vast amount of negative feedback without making any changes, they may have their ads reduced or outright banned on the platform. The new feature, announced by Facebook on Tuesday, aims to reduce false or misleading advertising. Facebook said that user frustration towards "ads that quote inaccurate shipping times or that misrepresent products" was the main influence on this new ad policy, though surely it will also help reduce any spam/scam advertisements that have slipped through the cracks, as well. Facebook hopes "this tool will give people more confidence in the businesses they interact with and help hold businesses accountable for customer experiences they provide." While none of our clients will be affected by this new change, we'll be keeping an eye on this new feedback system as it continues to develop. There doesn't seem to be much information on whether individuals who have clicked on an ad, but haven't purchased a product or service from that company, will be able to give feedback, though it certainly seems possible on the platform. It is likely that Facebook will be using their regular tracking and cookie information to confirm purchases, but until we know more we'll be monitoring this new system. Today's cast: Amy Leach (Commexis SEO Project Manager) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours. -------------------------------------------- Facebook Blog: https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/06/improving-customer-service/
Today's Commexis Cast discusses the reactions to IHOP's rebranding to IHOb, the International House of Burgers, and two major lessons every marketer and brand can learn from this change. HOP has rebranded into IHOb for a limited time. A week's long speculation on what the "b" in the name stood crafted theories suggesting "breakfast" or "bacon". But alas, it was burgers. And it didn't take long for other social media accounts to begin tweeting about the odd change. But what can we learn from IHOb's latest marketing move? 1. Don't be afraid to try something radically different. Doing something different is scary. It's risky. And risk to many brand managers can be the death knell to a great idea. But there are times when risk can really pay off. For IHOb, their goal was to bring attention to themselves and their burgers, and they achieved so much more than that. A weeks worth of speculation. Branded twitter accounts throwing shade. Guess what? IHOb got attention. IHOb got eyes on their product. We'll have to see how their return on investment is following this, but I'm sure their impressions and engagements are high. 2. Don't be afraid to jump on a great opportunity. Everyone had something to say about IHOb's rebranding. While your brand might not have the charisma to tweet like Wendy's, that doesn't mean your brand can't engage in the conversations and trending moments happening in social media. By interacting in the community your brand can begin to establish itself as a thought leader, while also gaining additional exposure. And hey, it seems like it's paying off for IHOb, anyway. Today's cast: Phillip Brooks (Commexis Lead Strategist) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours.
Today's Commexis Cast discusses what's on every marketer's mind: how has the GDPR has affected ad prices in the EU and the US following the May 25 "launch" date. eMarketer's Ross Benes explains in depth the rise of ad prices in the US, and their fall in EU, following the GDPR. Benes writes, "Ezoic analyzed CPMs for 126 different publishers, to see how the GDPR may have affected their ad prices. An equal number of publishers in the study—42 each—came from the US, the EU and the rest of the world (excluding Asia). Ezoic found that while ad prices dropped in the EU following the GDPR enforcement date of May 25, they actually rose in the US." Our Paid Placement Specialist James Van Horn explained that this rise in prices is expected following the new regulations. Many sites who cannot meet the new rules are stopping advertising, or shutting down completely, which closes the amount of ad space available. Therefore, the cost of placing ad rises. In the case of Facebook, it is likely that they're hiring data officers to ensure that compliance is met, as many other sites may be doing, and that rise in cost may be to temper that expense. Benes also wrote about the increased dissatisfaction consumers have with companies selling their data, or using their data to target ads toward them. A May Salithru survey showed that a majority of the 2000 respondents were "very uncomfortable with brands buying and selling their data." This comes as little surprise given the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal that came to light in March. Today's cast: Phillip Brooks (Commexis Lead Strategist), James Van Horn (Commexis Paid Placement Specialist) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours. -------------------------------------------- Sources: Ross Benes' GDPR Ad Price Piece: https://www.emarketer.com/content/the-gdpr-isn-t-hurting-us-ad-prices?ecid=NL1015 Ross Benes' GDPR Consumer Feelings on Data: https://www.emarketer.com/content/most-users-are-very-uncomfortable-with-brands-selling-their-data?ecid=NL1015
Today's Commexis Cast discusses the latest improvements to Facebook Live including cross-posting functionality and a rewind feature! The news comes from a blog post by Facebook Product Manager Matt Labunka. The major announcement of these updates is the live cross-posting ability. Now, brands can have a Facebook Live stream to their own brand page, a sponsors page, and much more. Labunka gives an example of the World Surf League that streamed a competition on their page, while a sponsor and an athlete cross-posted it on their pages. By doing so, the World Surf League was able to acquire "more than 1.5M views, 4,500 Shares and over 538K minutes watched." Multishow, a Brazilian media network, "saw 40% more retention on this broadcast than other live videos in the past 90 days, and interactions on the video were 2x more than what we typically see on Live videos." One of the biggest advantages Facebook has over other streaming platforms, like Twitch and YouTube Live, is their massive user base. We've discussed in the past that Facebook has been focusing on user engagement on the Newsfeed, and Facebook has pinpointed Facebook Live as an incredible example of engagement and audience retention. On the other hand, one of the biggest disadvantages of Facebook Live in the past has been some logistical issues in setting up streams for people and brands who constantly use the Facebook Live API. To that end, Facebook Live will be adding persistent stream keys for those that do heavily use the platform. Previously, stream keys reset for every live stream which can lead to problems and additional steps prior to each stream. This will help planning streams and cross-posting by allowing keys to be sent in advance. Finally, Facebook will be adding a rewind feature for viewers watching live streams. Simply put, this will allow users to backtrack in a live stream to watch prior content. While not a game changing improvement, it certainly adds some nice quality of life. Today's cast: Phillip Brooks (Commexis Lead Strategist) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours.
Today's Commexis Cast discusses Instagram's silently releasing in-app payment options for some US and UK users and brands. As Tech Crunch's Josh Constine first reported from a reader tip by Genady Okrain, Instagram has updated their app to include payment options. Users can register a credit or debit card to their profile, and then crate a pin number for added security. You can read Constine's piece here: https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/03/instagram-payments/ Dinner reservation app Resy is the first to take advantage of these new features, with some of their clients' Instagram pages taking full advantage of the time-and-click-saving effort. Instagram also said they intend to roll this feature out for movie ticket purchases in the near future. We're sure there's more planned there, as well. Instagram's update comes only a few months after Snap's opening of an in-app Snapchat Store, where users can purchase Snapchat themed clothes, plushies, and other items. While Snap's store doesn't yet allow brands to sell directly to consumers, with some exception, it isn't surprising to see it as a potential down the line. Whether this will expedite purchasing for consumers and brands, or just be one more storefront in need of maintenance, is yet to be seen. Today's cast: Phillip Brooks (Commexis Lead Strategist) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours.
Today's Commexis Cast discusses three brands using eSports sponsorships to create brand awareness and target younger demographics. You may have heard your child's screams of delight and frustration while playing Overwatch, or saw them with eyes fixed on the screen watching the League of Legends World Championship, or read their tweets about a Fortnite live stream featuring Drake (or, frankly, have seen the Fornite craze in the newspaper). Whether you've heard or not, eSports are becoming a massive business and a fantastic opportunity for advertisers and sponsors to get their products and services in front of a large, typically young, audience. Charlotte Rogers on Marketing Week goes into detail the campaigns for Mercedes-Benz, Gillette, and Turtle Wax who each are seizing a piece of the eSports marketing pie. First, Mercedes-Benz formed a partnership with the Electronic Sports League (ESL) the largest company and organizer of eSports competitions around the globe. As part of the sponsorship deal, Mercedes re-shot their "Grow Up" campaign with an eSports storyline twist for the ESL One tournament in Genting, Malaysia. Rogers reports that, "[l]ast year there were 588 major eSports events generating an estimated $59m in ticket sales, up $32m from 2016, according to eSports market intelligence specialist Newzoo. The total prize money of all eSports events held in 2017 reached $112m, the first time it has ever exceed $100m." It's no surprise that big companies want in. Rogers spoke with Bettina Haussmann, senior manager sponsoring, product placement and motorsports at Mercedes-Benz who said, "We are already seeing sold-out stadiums around the world, enormous prize money and millions of viewing hours of streamed material. Nonetheless, we are confident that eSports has by no means reached its full potential, so we believe it was just the right time for us to make an entry." Gillette, on the other hand, partnered with the ESL to sponsor the IEM tournament in February. Gillette offered grooming for all players, as well as offering personalized 3D printed razor handles for fans. The brand saw this as an opportunity to reach a younger male demographic. A 40% share of total revenues, and the biggest financial driver in eSports, is expected to be claimed by Sponsorship deals like Gillette's. Rogers reports that, "Newzoo expects eSports sponsorship deals – spanning event sponsorship, product placement and the sponsorship of professional teams – to hit $359.4m in 2018, a rise of 53.2% year-on-year." Finally, Turtle Wax has been sponsoring OpTic Gaming's Call of Duty eSports teams in the US for three years, and is branching into sponsoring a European team, as well. For Turtle Wax, it's about the authenticity of the streamers they sponsor. Rogers spoke to Matt Chapman, Turtle Wax's European marketing controller, who said, "They're constantly streaming and they're OK with streaming their lives, so it comes off as much more genuine. So much so that if you think about the recent stream with Ninja and Drake, it was one of the most comfortable pieces of content. It went on for four hours and had a huge following." Today's cast: Phillip Brooks (Commexis Lead Strategist) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours.
Today's Commexis Cast discusses Facebook's latest tactic in the fight against fake news. Now, articles Facebook deems to be inaccurate will appear significantly smaller on the Newsfeed and appear next to fact checking links. Tech Crunch's Josh Constine reported on the announcement which took place at the Fighting Abuse @Scale Event in San Francisco. Facebook's previous attempts to fight fake news have been particularly ineffective. Originally, the social network flagged content it believed to be false. However, that only increased the likelihood of it being shared, I suspect because of individuals who didn't appreciate those sites being labelled as "false". Afterwards, Facebook removed the flag and began placing fact-checking articles next to the false pieces. Their newest tactic continues the fact-checking article placement while also severely minimizing the the size of the article link. The size difference is significant with fake articles being about 10 times smaller than normal links. Facebook also said they'll be using machine learning to better locate fake accounts and have them terminated, have groups and pages that share fake news have their ability to advertise revoked, and analyze the articles and place them in the fact-checking queue to speed the fact-checking process. Facebook believes it can cut down the amount of fake news by 80 percent. We'll see whether this execution helps achieve that goal, or if this strategy reaches the same pitfalls as the others. Today's cast: Phillip Brooks (Commexis Lead Strategist) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours.
Today's Commexis Cast discusses Google's update to their Google My Business guidelines that bans that use of review gating and filtering. Specifically, Google has added this passage: “Don't discourage or prohibit negative reviews or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers.” So, what do you do now that review gating is out of the question? Respond to your clients and customers openly and honestly. It is no surprise that Google would like to paint a fuller picture of a business listing by making negative reviews available. This gives a fantastic opportunity for your business to come in and "make right". Not every customer is going to need the full nine yards of apology and service, but an acknowledgement of fault and a willingness to make the situation better certainly help. A study by Location3 shows that businesses who respond to their customer reviews actually have a higher conversion rate in their paid search campaigns than companies that do not. Businesses with the highest response rate (8.13 percent) saw an average conversion rate of 13.86 percent. On the other hand, businesses with the lowest response rate saw an average conversion rate of 10.42 percent. And if you continue to review gate following Google's update policies? You can expect some, or all, of your reviews to be deleted. Yikes. Today's cast: Amy Leach (Commexis SEO Project Manager) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours.
Today's Commexis Cast discusses CNN's latest investigation that found over 300 brands had ads running on YouTube channels that promoted Nazism, white nationalism, pedophilia, conspiracy theories, and North Korean propaganda. CNN reports that companies such as Amazon, Facebook, Netflix, Under Armour, and more unintentionally helped financed these channels. Many of the brands said they had no idea their ads were running on this content before it was brought to their attention by CNN, and those that did were already in talks to have it removed. This comes following a multitude of YouTube brand safety controversies in the past. From the first wave of advertisements being run on extremist channels that resulted in some brands pulling their dollars from the platform to conspiracy videos being found in the YouTube kids app, and even various controversies caused by YouTube stars that the platform deemed safe for advertising, this is far from YouTube's first PR defense on this matter. What surprises us the most about these brand safety problems is YouTube's unwillingness to take some form of editorial control, or at the very least, truly assert a brand safety process. Previously, YouTube has pulled or demonetized the videos of gun enthusiasts following a change in their policies that would "ban videos that offer instructions on how to make firearms and accessories such as silencers and bump stocks. It will prohibit content in which firearms and accessories are sold, both directly and through other websites. Videos on how to install firearms modifications will also be barred," according to NPR. While a ban would likely cause quite the upset, there's no reason a demonetization couldn't occur. In fact, CNN reported that these brands were using a filter setting and blacklist to ensure that their ads were only appearing on appropriately brand safe videos. So, this process should have been occurring in the first place, but did not. Many brands are looking to hire brand safety officers to help their business take better control over where their ads end up. Phillip points out that the Brand Safety Officer position isn't directly created for these forms of social media advertising, though it certainly helps, but for ensuring brand safety in influencer marketing and generally doing the due diligence of brand safety. You can read a fantastic write up on Chase's brand safety guidelines for YouTube on Digiday. Today's cast: Phillip Brooks (Commexis Lead Strategist) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours.
Today's Commexis Cast discusses publisher disappointment with Google AMP Stories, Google's offering of a Snap/Insta story equivalent in search results built through the AMP page structure. The feature released about six months ago, and made available for all publishers to test the platform in mid February. We discussed on the show previously the the potential for Google AMP Stories to potentially change the way users read stories on search results, as well as the potential SEO boosts you'd receive to your site for having these pages. However, it doesn't seem that all has panned out as some expected. Max Willens on Digiday spoke to many publishers who felt uneasy with the progress of Google AMP Stories. The lack of monetization, as well as the inability to find stories unless using an experimental form of Google Search, means lower traffic due to the stories despite the effort being put in to create them. Willens spoke to a Google spokesperson who said, "The purpose of the developer preview is not necessarily to drive traffic but to show what is possible with the technology and give publishers the space and freedom to experiment with this new format for visual storytelling." Matt and Phillip explains their thoughts on solutions to make Google AMP Stories the success that Google hoped it'd be. Today's cast: Phillip Brooks (Commexis Lead Strategist) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours.
Today's Commexis Cast discusses Google's acceptable ads policy update which will allow drug rehabilitation facilities to begin advertising on the platforming, so long as their ads are vetted through a service called LegitScript. Paresh Dave broke the story on Reuters on Monday, where Google told him they would begin allowing rehab centers to advertise starting July. Dave's Piece on Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-google-ads-exclusive/exclusive-google-unveils-vetting-process-for-drug-rehab-ads-idUSKBN1HN28X Google typically retains high "editorial" control over the ads that can be run through their ad network, restricting ads for fireworks, firearms, and most recently bitcoin. Previously, advertising for drug rehabilitation was stopped in September due to scams and defrauders. This banning occurred just prior to the release of a piece on Verge showcasing different online scams. Google's willingness to open back up advertising opportunities for these centers is an interesting, and positive change to the policy. Though, it won't be cheap for these rehab centers. To have the ads vetted, LegitScript "will charge $995 upfront and then $1,995 annually for vetting" according to Reuters. LegitScript will be looking into 15 different criteria, including criminal background checks and license and insurance verification. In the podcast, Phillip wondered why LegitScript was chosen as the arbiter of these checks. While I can't give any clear reason, it's clear their history and experience with security and big brands is certainly evident. Today's cast: Phillip Brooks (Commexis Lead Strategist) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours.
Today's Commexis Cast discusses a major marketing mistake: half of marketers are using their terrestrial radio ads on digital radio platforms like Spotify and Pandora without creating alternatives. George Slefo on AdAge has a full report, plus the above stat that comes from a study by Edison Research and NPR. Slefo spoke to Tiffany Ray, managing director of digital strategy at Mindshare North America. "[B]ecause you can access these platforms across personal devices, your car and the connected home, there's an opportunity to engage consumers depending on how they're listening, by the device. [Yet] many marketers still put out the same generic 15- or 30-second audio ad. They treat digital audio like terrestrial radio, and that's the biggest mistake you can make." Matt and Phillip explain one of the big differences between terrestrial radio and digital radio advertising. Terrestrial advertising requires generic spots for "shotgun blasting" to different demographics, while targeted ads are created for individual stations based on their demographics. Digital radio, on the other hand, allows more targeted messaging to reach audiences based on listening patterns, playlist themes, and playlist moods. Slefo writes, "Canada Dry launched a campaign focused on 'relaxing harder,' where the company aimed to get its message across by targeting people listening to Spotify's 'chill' playlist with audio, display and video ads, as well as commercial free 'sponsored sessions.'" Ultimately, marketers should be giving much more thought when advertising on these digital radio platforms. Today's cast: Phillip Brooks (Commexis Lead Strategist) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours.
Today's Commexis Cast discusses Snap publisher's woes with the latest Snapchat redesign, some saying their views have dropped by more than half. Madison Malone Kircher has the full story on NYMag, where many publishers anonymously spoke to her about their worries since the latest Snapchat retooling. For those unfamiliar, Snapchat released a redesign to their app that aimed to separate content from user's friends and content from publishers. Previously, the content had lived one page where users could find their friend's Snap stories, and then the publisher content. Now, a page is devoted to each. One source that Kircher spoke with said that their number of viewers increased, but their time spent on the content went down. This is due in part to Snap's automatic viewing system which queues up content from other publishers after another publisher's story ends. A few sources also discussed their dismay with the sales team response. You may remember that Snap laid off over 100 sales and marketing team members in March, as well as over 100 engineers. Matt and Phillip discuss the problems with Snap's redesign, as well as the worries that publishers are having. Secondly, Tech Crunch reports that Instagram will be "borrowing" a feature from Snapchat. Instagram is testing "Nametags" which function almost identically to Snapcodes, the QR codes Snap users could scan to add on another as friends on the platform. Today's cast: Phillip Brooks (Commexis Lead Strategist) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours.
Today's Commexis Cast discusses Bluecore's latest report on Business Wire explained the benefits of tailored e-mail marketing and what brands can do to increase their success rates. Bluecore's report, which gained "proprietary insights isolated from a sample set of more than 350 million emails aggregated across more than 400 retail clients" from October 2016 to September 2017, exemplified the following: E-mails that show a product a consumer has already seen while "window shopping" or had already placed in their shopping carts had open rates of 40 percent. E-mail reminders for abandoned shopping cards generated sales 2 percent of the time. Shoppers love discounts on items they're interested in. 10% of users who received an discount e-mail on an item they were interested in click through to a brand website. Consumers like to be reminded of technology, leisure, and food. Just under 11% of food and leisure e-mails, and just under 12% of technology e-mails results in a purchase. Finally, Bluecore found that several e-mail marketing tactics were being under utilized by marketers. For example, "barely one in four marketers employ" price reduction or new product messaging, "[a]nd only one in ten use email to alert browsers that out-of-stock merchandise is available again." Today's cast: Phillip Brooks (Commexis Lead Strategist) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours.
Today's Commexis Cast discusses the two year anniversary of Facebook Live! To celebrate, Facebook released a ton of statistics on the streaming tool's success including a year over year doubling of FB Live broadcasts. Amy Gesenhues on Marketing Land has a full breakdown of Facebook's stats, which I'll list briefly below: The number of daily average broadcasts has rise 1.5 times for verified Publisher pages. Live videos often have 6 times the amount of engagements/interactions than with regular videos. Since 2016, there have been 3.5 billion Facebook Live videos. And there have been more than 150 billion reacts to Live videos. Facebook says that hundreds of millions of people have used Facebook Live, and nearly 2 billion Facebook users have watched Live videos. Phillip and Matt discussed what makes Facebook Live so unique compared to other streaming platforms, as well as what your brand can do to create Facebook Live content. Both ourselves and clients have had a lot of success with Facebook Live, and following the Facebook algorithm update in January it is no surprise. Reach, impressions, and interactions all lift significantly even if only doing a single Facebook live video in a month. Today's cast: Phillip Brooks (Commexis Lead Strategist) and Matthew McGrorty (Commexis Videographer/Podcaster). Join the Commexis team as we add context to these stories for the busy CMO. All the news you need to know–from our inbox to yours.
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