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Even after another controversy-filled year, Facebook is still the king of the social media world. With 2.74 billion monthly active users, it’s the world’s third-most visited website, and in recent years, video has been a major part of its growth strategy. It’s no surprise, then, that marketers want to get in on the Facebook video boom.
Research has shown that including video ads in an integrated marketing strategy can increase conversions by 35%, and Facebook can be a great home for those ad placements. More than 1.25 billion users watch videos on Facebook every month, together accounting for 4 billion video views per day on the platform. What’s more, the engagement rate on Facebook video posts (6.01%) soars above other categories like photos (4.81%), links (3.36%), and status updates (2.21%), making it a highly valuable medium for advertisers.
Add on the fact that they also own Instagram—which itself boasts more than 1 billion monthly users—and it’s clear that marketers have a lot to gain from video advertising on Facebook. And with Facebook giving marketers the ability to create video ads for both Facebook and Instagram at the same time using Ad Manager, it’s easy to take advantage of this valuable audience.
So, want to know how to do video advertising on Facebook and Instagram? Read on to find out!
Once you’re logged in to your company or brand-managing Facebook account, head on over to Ads Manager.
Under the “Campaigns” tab, click + Create.
Choose an objective that supports video from Facebook’s options—such as video views—and then click Continue.
Click through the next two screens to select your optimization preferences, budget, audience, and placements. The default placement is “Automatic Placements,” but you can edit where your ads may appear by instead selecting “Manual Placements.” You can also choose which bid type you’d like for your video ads. Once you’re done, click Next.
In the Ad Creative section, select the format of your ad. Keep in mind that if your objective is Video Views, your only format option will be Single Video, so if you’d prefer to use the carousel format, you’ll have to choose a different objective.
Dance break!!
Upload your video to Ads Manager.
Looking to run a single image or video? Click on Add Media, then click Add Video and select your video from your library. Click Upload to upload a new video. Alternatively, if you want to create a video from scratch using Facebook’s Video Creation Kit, choose Create Video.
Alternatively, if you’d like to use the Carousel format, scroll on over to the Ad Creative section and click Video/Slideshow. Then, click Select Video to upload a video or select a video from your library (or, to create a new video, select Create Video). Do this for each carousel card you wish to include in your ad.
Click Edit Video to crop or trim the video and customize a thumbnail image. While you’re here, you can also add captions, text overlays and logo overlays. That being said, keep in mind that not all options may be available when including a video as part of a carousel.
Add your text, links and tracking. When you're done, click Confirm to publish your video ad.
Boom! You’re done. Time to reward yourself. Tacos, anyone?
Of course, if what you’re hungry for is more knowledge, why not check out our guide to video advertising?
https://www.facebook.com/business/help/247179845697378?id=603833089963720
https://imgur.com/cvFCm
The imminent end of cookies. Major changes to iOS 14. Privacy-enhancing technologies in both the browser and OS. Everywhere you look, identity disruption rooted in privacy and data protection concerns is upending the digital advertising industry. Instead of holding tight to the status quo, it’s time to understand why things are changing, what is changing, and the frameworks for thinking about how to harness the change.
Tune in as Alex Cone speaks about the portfolio of standards IAB Tech Lab is introducing to help and how they fit in to the bigger picture, and hear from Shawn Riegsecker as he shares his perspective on how these changes are healthy for the industry.
At Centro, we know that keeping up with the trade pubs and latest trends can be tough and time-consuming. To make that easier, we’ve compiled all the articles, reports, and other bits of awesomeness you may have missed, but should definitely read. Enjoy our latest list below!
Digital 2021 Global Overview Report [:30+]
Plugged as the ultimate guide to the evolving digital world, this MASSIVE report, published in partnership between We Are Social and Hootsuite, provides insights into how people around the world use the internet, mobile devices, social media, searching, and buying via e-commerce. It is chock-full of fascinating tidbits and stats.
The Great Unbundling [:30+]
Once a year, analyst Benedict Evans produces a monster macro tech trends presentation. This year’s focuses on how COVID-19 brought shock and a lot of broken habits to tech, but mostly, it accelerated everything that was already changing. 20 trillion dollars of retail, brands, TV and advertising is being overturned (and unbundled), and software is remaking everything from cars to pharma.
Digital Marketing Matures In House [:04]
The In-House Agency Forum (IHAF), in partnership with Forrester Research, shared findings examining the degree to which in-house agencies are involved with digital marketing. While many agency functions have moved in-house, media is the exception, with a majority still handled by external agencies. This is changing as more brands find the right tools and talent.
The 6th Wave of Advertising Technology: Privacy [:06]
There’s a revolution happening in digital media, primarily driven by a new focus on privacy by major players at the core of the digital ecosystem–from OS/browser companies to regulators. These changes limit many of the targeting and measurement standard practices and will upend the industry as we know it. But there are also huge opportunities for anyone in the right position to take advantage of it. Read about how the waves of the industry how to ride this next one.
To Succeed Without Cookies, Try Content Commerce [:03]
The absence of the cookie means that content is king again. Especially if you are a publisher. And while every publisher is trying to figure out how to maintain or grow revenue while navigating the loss of the cookies, online purchasing is only increasing with the backdrop of the pandemic. This means that publishers have the opportunity to better connect audiences to sales through content.
The Crawl, Walk, Run Guide To Contextual Targeting [:07]
Contextual targeting dates back more than a decade. And the tried and true technique is having a renaissance, as marketers test out strategies that thrive in a cookie-free world. From signaling intent to aligning with creative messaging, contextual targeting companies now utilize natural language processing to ascertain more than just keywords. So, the absence of the cookie means that context is king!
Bayer Claims Industry First With Interactive Smart-Speaker Ads [:03]
In what may be an industry first, a Bayer vitamin brand has launched "actionable audio ads” to encourage radio listeners on an Amazon Alexa device to use voice commands to ask for more information about the product and even order the product directly. While an accompanying video in the article showcases the potential, it also shows a potentially cumbersome process requiring multiple steps to navigate the experience.
Clubhouse Is Booming. So Is the Ecosystem Around It [:07]
Are you on Clubhouse? Experiences range from cringeworthy bloviation (? Leave Quietly option) to insightful discussions that in the past may have only been available after paying for a hefty conference pass, and all the travel & expenses associated with an event. While it is still in a closed beta, there is a growing ecosystem to support its meteoric rise. What advertising opportunities could be in the future for Clubhouse? Well, I’m hosting a Clubhouse tomorrow at 6pm to bring together…just kidding.
Non-Fungible Tokens 101 [:08]
NFTs are blockchain-based assets that are essentially crypto-collectibles, ranging from artwork and sports “cards” to unique in-game items for video games. They are uniquely assigned, and while copies can be made, the copies don’t have the blockchain certification of originality.
The rising value of cryptocurrencies is accelerating value for NFTs, while the market is growing quickly with major artists offering ownership of their art and platforms like NBA Top Shot offering ownership of basketball highlights (akin to trading cards). Will this be the Beanie Babies (or for me, PEZ dispensers) of the 2020s and go out with a bust, or could this be the future of collectible investments?
In the Digital Economy, Your Software Is Your Competitive Advantage [:05]
For all the talk of digital transformation, many companies feel lost when it comes to actually transforming. This HBR article explains how more companies can take a software-based approach to tackling problems over tasks, working fast and not fearing failure, and taking a more adaptive and responsive approach to working with their customers.
When linear TV advertising (LTV) is in the news these days, it’s often in the context of being overtaken by connected TV (CTV) in total ad spend.
But the key to successful TV advertising isn’t a binary. Read on to learn how data-driven linear differs from other types of advanced TV, and why it’s important to include in your full-funnel campaign strategies.
Data-driven linear TV refers to using an automated technology or data-driven method of buying linear TV ads, both broadcast and cable. This includes, but is not limited to, the use of programmatic advertising.
Data-driven linear falls under the advanced TV umbrella, along with CTV, OTT, addressable TV, and programmatic TV.
Unfortunately, CTV makes many of traditional linear’s disadvantages clear: There is a desperate need for automation in the linear TV market, whereas the built-in automation of CTV offers efficiency, personalization, and flexibility.
But traditional linear isn’t the only option anymore. Companies like Basis Technologies and WideOrbit bring automation capabilities to digital media buying and LTV transactions, simplifying the buying process of CTV, local, and national spots.
Equipped with data-driven and automated options for LTV ad buying, advertisers can capitalize on the massive linear TV market.
Local & breaking news continue to drive consistent consumption across the board, and brands don’t have to worry about impression fraud or brand safety.
Overall, while LTV and CTV are often compared and contrasted, they work better together than apart. Consider leveraging both LTV and CTV in your next campaign to reach consumers across their range of TV devices.
Make sure to check out our Basis Institute webinar on how marketers can win by leveraging TV and digital together.
Learn more about CTV advertising with Basis.
St. Elizabeth Healthcare is one of the most respected medical providers in the Greater Cincinnati region. For more than 150 years, St. Elizabeth has been the heart and soul of healthcare in Northern Kentucky. They provide comprehensive and compassionate care that improves the health of the people they serve.
Basis Technologies provides thorough training to all new platform users. Once a contract is signed, the customer receives customized training and set-up advice.
In addition to on-boarding new accounts, Basis Technologies also helps new hires get up to speed with additional training. Nathan Engels, Digital Communications Manager at St. Elizabeth remarked, “We had a team member relatively new to the DSP scene and she was fully up and running in two to four weeks, maybe less than that.”
St. Elizabeth raves about the service and support they receive from their dedicated Basis Customer Success Manager.
There are many reasons why the Basis Technologies customer service is world-class, but here are a handful of St. Elizabeth’s favorites:
Basis Technologies offers Basis Certified courses for digital practitioners looking to gain a competitive edge. Attendees engage with SMEs, have group discussions, and complete relevant coursework. In 2019, St. Elizabeth sent multiple team members to get Certified in both Foundations and Advanced Strategies.
St. Elizabeth’s Digital Communications Manager, Nathan Engels shared, “Basis Certified is one of the best trainings and conferences I’ve been to in the last two to three years. There were more Basis people in the room than clients, ready to help. Basis is committed to the education and the use of the platform, which is why we're so satisfied and happy with our choice selecting Basis.”
~
Nathan Engels, Digital Communications Manager, St. Elizabeth Healthcare:
"They are teaching you to fish instead of fishing for you. I joke that self-service feels almost like it's managed service because of the level of attention. If you need a question answered, your CSM is on it."
Video advertising is essential to any brand’s marketing mix. Whether your goal is building your brand’s voice, educating consumers, or driving leads and purchases, an effective video strategy can make it happen. Recent trends indicate that more time is being spent consuming video than ever before.
Not only that, according to Hubspot, more than 50% of consumers want to see video content from the brands they support. In order to plan an effective video strategy, it is important to understand the basics.
Video advertising is the process of displaying ads before, during, or after streaming content. It can also include display ads with video content as well as native video ads.
Want to learn more about how Centro can take your video marketing strategy to new heights? Get in touch!
https://instapage.com/blog/video-future-of-advertising
https://www.retaildive.com/news/72-of-consumers-prefer-videos-to-text-marketing/524161/
https://www.advancedwebranking.com/blog/11-reasons-why-video-is-better/
It’s no secret that the media and marketing industries have a racial diversity problem. According to Marketing Week’s 2020 Career and Salary Survey, a whopping 88% of marketers identify as white, while just 2% identify as Black.
Despite these numbers, the growing presence of Black professionals in marketing, media, advertising, and tech are shifting paradigms in their respective industries—and this is just the beginning.
This Black History Month, we encourage our non-Black partners, team members, and the media community as a whole to learn about the Black women thought leaders pushing our industry forward.
Here are five changemakers to start with:
Bozoma St. John is a businesswoman and marketing executive who has led teams at PepsiCo, Apple, and Uber. Currently serving as Netflix’s CMO, St. John has been inducted into the American Advertising Federation Hall of Achievement, named Executive of the Year by Billboard Magazine in 2016, and featured in Ad Age’s 50 Most Creative People as well as Ebony Magazine’s 100 Powerful Executives.
Follow St. John on Twitter and Instagram!
Elaine Welteroth is a journalist, author, and former Editor-In-Chief of Teen Vogue. Under Welteroth’s leadership, Teen Vogue’s content transformed from fluff pieces to in-depth articles about migrant justice and climate change. Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern credits her with developing a magazine that “treats teenagers like rounded human beings with agency and intellect.”
Follow Welteroth on Twitter and Instagram!
Lauren Washington, Isosa Ighodaro, and Regina Gwynn are the co-founders of Black Women Talk Tech, a “collective of black women tech founders who have a unique understanding of the challenges we face and the advantages we bring in the industry.” Black Women Talk Tech identifies, supports, and encourages Black women to build the next billion dollar business.
Follow Black Women Talk Tech on LinkedIn and Instagram!
Lenora Porter is a UX designer, tech influencer, and Salesforce software engineer who enjoys teaching people “how not to be afraid of being a multi-passionate creative in tech.” She shares design tutorials on Instagram, runs a Facebook group for Black women in UX, and hosts local meetups for creatives in tech.
Follow Porter on Instagram and Twitter!
Semira Allen is a Reliability Engineer at Deloitte who is interested in the intersection of cybersecurity and agile practices. She runs an educational Instagram account on the side, where she shares her personal journey as a young professional in tech, as well as coding tips and inspiration.
Follow Allen on Instagram and LinkedIn!
Retargeting is such a powerful advertising tactic that you’ve probably already experienced it multiple times today. You’re scrolling through Instagram, and you see an ad for the jacket you put in your Target.com shopping cart yesterday. Or, you open up Facebook in your desktop browser, and at the top of the page there’s an ad for the pajamas you considered buying last month. Sound familiar?
For most websites, only 2% of traffic convert on the first visit. Retargeting allows advertisers to reconnect with the 98% that don't convert the first time. Here’s how it works:
So, how do media buyers make retargeting magic on Facebook and Instagram? Luckily, Facebook and Instagram are owned by the same people, so media buyers can use Facebook Ads Manager to run ads on both platforms.
The first step to retargeting on Facebook and Instagram is to add the Facebook Pixel to your website. The Facebook Pixel is a small piece of code that tracks the people who visit your site and the actions they take there.
Once the pixel is set, you're ready to identify your retargeting audience segments. Click the “Audiences” tab in Facebook Ads Manager to get started. Under “Create a Custom Audience,” you can choose either website or customer database retargeting. Website retargeting uses the Facebook pixel, while customer database retargeting requires the media buyer to upload a list from their CRM.
It’s best practice to create multiple audience segments that will be targeted for different periods of time. This way, you can test which audience segments are most responsive.
Now that your audience segments are set, you can start creating your campaign. You’ll need to set the conversion action you want to optimize for, as well as your budget.
Finally, you’ll upload your creative assets. Since you’re retargeting consumers who already know about your brand, you can skip straight to advertising your product or service. Learn more about how to create effective retargeting ads here.
Once your campaign is live, it’s important to monitor it closely. Keep track of how the campaign is performing, and reallocate budget from your worst-performing ad combinations towards your better-performing ad combinations.
Interested in learning more about retargeting? Check out our post on ROI for retargeting ads, or find out more about retargeting advertising with Basis here.
When it comes to running an eCommerce business, there is a veritable wealth of relevant data you can use to improve performance and drive increased sales. Across the plethora of marketing and advertising channels, there are myriad metrics you can follow that expose which campaigns and initiatives are creating value and which are falling short.
If you want to ensure you’re getting all the most relevant insights to optimize your eCommerce marketing initiatives, here are 13 components you need as part of your marketing dashboard:
An eCommerce dashboard is a summary of all the marketing and business data that is most important to you. Instead of making you dig into pages and pages of reports, a dashboard allows you to get a snapshot overview of performance and track weekly, monthly, or quarterly trends.
When you use a Marketing Intelligence Platform (MIP) to centralize and analyze all your business data, it can help you build a dashboard of key performance reports that you can use to make optimization decisions. A dashboard can help you understand how your sales and marketing initiatives are performing overall.
The best thing about dashboards is that they’re customizable. Using widgets, you can add in all your own reports and track the metrics that are most important to your business. You can start with a template then add and remove widgets as needed. If you’re just getting started, here are some important dashboard components to include to make eCommerce management easy:
Every eCommerce dashboard needs an overview of key sales metrics that marketers can see at a glance, such as:
As an informed eCommerce marketer using dashboard analytics, you’ll have a good idea of what your AOV is any day of the week. So when you notice any major changes in performance, you know there’s an issue that needs to be addressed. Having these key sales metrics at your fingertips can help you always ensure your marketing and sales initiatives are on track for success.
Cart abandonment rates average around 76% for eCommerce sellers, leaving huge opportunities for improvement. You should always pay close attention to changes in your eCommerce store’s cart abandonment rate because they could be indicative of an underlying problem. There are a variety of potential factors that can cause people to leave without finishing their purchase, such as high shipping costs, slow shipping speed, long checkout process, and bad site user experience. Including your ongoing cart abandonment rate as a dashboard component can help you monitor and find ways to improve it.
Average Conversion Rate is an important metric to monitor as it can tell you a lot about how your overall marketing performance helps drive sales for your eCommerce business. With this dashboard component, you can compare your current conversion rate to the previous period or year. You can also break down your conversion rate across different traffic channels to compare and determine which are the most valuable for your business. If you find a particular channel has a much lower conversion rate than others, you could start initiatives to improve your marketing and user experience for this particular audience.
Key traffic metrics like total users and traffic sources should also be at the top of your eCommerce dashboard report. While total users won’t tell you much about the performance of your marketing campaigns, it does show you how many opportunities you have to drive a conversion. Traffic sources also give you a great overview of the potential value of different marketing channels, such as direct, organic search, referral, and paid ads.
As an eCommerce marketer, it’s important to know which products are your top sellers. Having an overview of your top 10 best-performing products as a dashboard component can help you monitor this at a glance. With this dashboard component, you can easily see how many sales you’ve made in the current period for particular products, how performance has changed over time, your total revenue from each product, and how it’s increased or decreased over time.
General demand changes, seasonality, and other factors can impact which products drive the most revenue over time. Paying attention to this report helps you discover changes you can make to your paid marketing initiatives to push products that will return the most profitable margin.
When you use an eCommerce dashboard that integrates with Google Analytics and Google Search Console, you can get reports of your top organic keywords and their performance right from your dashboard. At a glance, you’ll be able to see what your top keywords are and your average position, as well as clicks, impressions, and CTR for each.
This is a valuable overview of your organic SEO performance but also can show opportunities to broaden your reach with PPC ads. For example, if keywords related to your top-performing products aren’t ranking well in organic search, you can target them through PPC to get more visibility for your best products.
Cost per acquisition (CPA) is another important component to have on your eCommerce marketing dashboard, especially if you’re investing in paid traffic through Facebook Ads or Google Ads.
Here’s how CPA is calculated:
(Total cost of paid traffic) / (Total sales from paid traffic) = Cost Per Acquisition
This metric is of course readily available to you through Google Ads and Facebook Analytics. However using your dashboard, you can see a combined metric that reflects how your paid ads are performing overall across platforms. Having this metric available at a glance on your dashboard alongside other components can also help you identify and address potential factors that could impact your CPA.
Not all site visitors are going to convert into paying customers the first time they visit, which is why Cost Per Lead is an important metric to track. Cost Per Lead helps you understand how effective your marketing campaigns are at generating leads for your business, based on how much budget you spent on the campaign. This metric is particularly valuable for eCommerce businesses that sell more expensive items, where lead nurturing is a key aspect of driving conversions.
End Action Rate is a measure of the last thing your audience members do as part of a marketing campaign. This dashboard component can include a graph illustrating what percentage of audience members take different actions, such as leaving your site, bounce, social engagement, purchase, or contact requests.
End Action Rate helps you understand how effective your campaigns are at driving key goals like engagement, lead generation, or sales.
Return on Investment (ROI) is a key metric eCommerce marketers need to make better growth decisions. ROI lets you understand how your time and money invested in marketing campaigns contribute to driving revenue and business growth.
ROI refers to your financial investment in a particular marketing campaign and new revenue generated by that campaign to calculate the metric. Say you spent $10,000 on an advertising campaign in a month, and during that time your sales grew by $15,000. Here’s what you’d end up with:
ROI = [($10,000 - $5,000) / $5,000)] x 100 = 50% ROI
ROI can tell you if a campaign is worthwhile to continue investing in, and can help marketers discover if their optimization tactics improve their bottom line.
Sales by marketing channel is an important metric for understanding which platforms and strategies are most effective at generating sales. Including this as a component in your eCommerce dashboard helps you easily see how paid ads, organic traffic, email marketing, and other channels drive revenue.
This can reveal opportunities to better allocate your marketing investment and drive more eCommerce sales through digital marketing.
Most eCommerce marketers put too much focus on finding new customers and overlook nurturing existing ones. Customer lifetime value (CLV) is a measurement of how much revenue you can expect to earn from a single customer. Paying attention to CLV can help you focus on optimizing the entire customer journey, not just the path to first purchase. Monitoring changes to CLV can also inform you of how your retention efforts are performing so you can take steps to reduce churn.
New vs returning customers is another valuable metric that illustrates how your retention efforts are doing. Since it’s cheaper and easier to convert an existing customer than to complete a sale with a brand new customer, returning customers offer a huge opportunity to increase your ROI. Using your email campaigns, you can engage and upsell your existing customers, and monitor the effectiveness of these efforts with the new vs returning customers metric.
Even as a seasoned marketer, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the amount of relevant performance data to work with. An eCommerce dashboard is the solution marketers need to summarize important reports and track performance at a glance. Dashboard component widgets allow you to customize your reports to focus on the metrics that matter most to your unique business. Start out with the components mentioned in this post to build your dashboard, then add in new variables over time to optimize it.