The Daily Carnage

The savvy marketer's hub for industry news, insights, resources, and culture.

Issues

View All

Wistia’s 2025 State of Video Report

APRIL 20, 2025

The 2025 State of Video Report reveals businesses are investing more in video and moving production in-house by using AI for scripting, editing, and captioning.

Performance benchmarks show that:

  • Engagement rates drop as video length increases, though longer videos can deliver more total watch time.
  • How-to videos are the most engaging across different lengths.
  • Lead gen forms are the highest-converting interactive video features, especially when placed at the end of a video.
  • Webinars and original series drive the most conversions, with videos between 30–60 minutes converting best.

Top video trends for 2025 include:

  • More in-house video production
  • Widespread use of AI in video creation and distribution
  • Greater investment in accessibility features
  • Continued focus on product videos, educational content, and webinars
  • Increased resizing of videos for different social platforms
  • Search optimization for short-form videos as they gain visibility in mobile results

Get the full report from Wistia.

Google’s Tips to Improve Ad Strength

APRIL 16, 2025

Google has just released a cheat sheet of best practices for improving your Ad strength. Here are the highlights.

Best practices for text assets:

  • Recommended # of headlines: 11
  • Recommended # of long headlines: 2
  • Recommended # of descriptions: 4

Best practices for image assets:

  • 4 horizontal images at 1200 x 628 px
  • 4 square images at 1200 x 1200 px
  • 2 vertical images at 960 x 1200 px

Best practices for video assets:

  • While you can add up to 5 videos across all types (vertical, horizontal, square), Google recommends using just 1 video asset.

Best practices for logo assets:

  • Google recommends just 1 horizontal logo asset at 1200 x 300 px.

Take a quick look at Google Ads Help before going live.

2025 LinkedIn Benchmarks Report

APRIL 15, 2025

SocialInsider’s 2025 LinkedIn Benchmarks Report reveals just how much the platform has matured into a full-fledged content and engagement engine—especially for B2B brands.

With engagement up 30% YoY and organic reach still very viable, the opportunity is clear: brands that show up strategically are reaping the rewards.

Top content takeaways:

  • Multi-image posts are LinkedIn’s engagement winners (6.6%), leading in likes and impressions alike.
  • Native documents (6.1%) and videos (5.6%) follow close behind.
  • Polls doubled their engagement over 2023 and now drive the most impressions.

Engagement benchmarks by format:

  • Multi-image is best for storytelling and visual walkthroughs.
  • Native documents are ideal for frameworks and templates.
  • Video works best when personal, short, and hook-driven.
  • Polls get high reach and are best used with bold or timely questions.

Performance insights:

  • Pages with 1–5K followers saw the highest YoY growth (40.75%).
  • Multi-format posting beats single-format strategies.
  • Early engagement fuels algorithmic success.

Dig into the SocialInsider report for comprehensive insights.

The Brand Differentiator 2×2

APRIL 14, 2025

The Brand Differentiator 2×2 is a simple but strategic matrix that helps brands visualize how they stack up against incumbents, disruptors, and complementary players in their space.

Originally developed at Brex, this tactic is all about carving out meaningful differentiation that actually resonates with your audience—not just sounding cool or trendy.

Here’s how to use it:

  1. Start with your brand. What are 3 to 5 traits that feel authentic, matter to your customers, and can scale with you?
  2. List 3 to 5 incumbent brands in your category. These are the big, established players.
  3. List 3 to 5 disruptor brands. These are the challengers in your space with new approaches.
  4. List 3 to 5 complementary brands. These are the brands in your tech stack or adjacent spaces.
  5. Next, collect examples of how each brand personality shows up in visuals, tone, product experience, marketing, and comms (yes, screenshots encouraged).
  6. Analyze common traits—and spot the gaps. Look for personality traits no one owns yet that your audience will care about and that your internal culture can support long-term.

Check out Kira Klaas’ post to learn more and get the free Notion template.

How to Start Tracking LLM Traffic in GA4

APRIL 7, 2025

SEL LLM GA4

👀 Sponsor this spot to share your content with our community.

According to a Daily Carnage poll in March, 60% of respondents indicated that they did not know how to track web traffic from LLMs.

But with AI-powered tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot reshaping how users discover content, segmenting LLM traffic in GA4 is critical to ensuring that your content strategies remain aligned with changing user behavior.

Here’s how to create an LLM traffic segment in GA4 Explore:

  1. Go to Explore in GA4 and create a new report.
  2. Set dimensions to Session source/medium and use Views as the metric.
  3. In Segments, create a new session segment.
  4. Input a regex as a filter on session source.
  5. Use a line graph visualization to monitor trends over time.

Head to Search Engine Land to learn how to set up LLM reports in Looker Studio, too.

5 Strategies for LinkedIn Live Event Streaming

APRIL 6, 2025

On LinkedIn, live streams get 7x more reactions and 24x more comments than standard video posts.

Alexandra Rynne, LinkedIn Ads’ award-winning content strategy lead, outlines five smart strategies to get the most from LinkedIn Live Events.

Here’s a breakdown of the key takeaways:

1. Schedule early and promote strategically. Give your audience time to plan and register. Use organic promotion plus LinkedIn Live Event Ads to expand your reach and cut costs per registration by up to 40%.

2. Stick to proven formats first. Start with high-performing formats like product launches, fireside chats, and panel discussions. Keep broadcasts between 15 minutes to 2 hours for maximum engagement.

3. Think like an attendee. From the moment someone sees your invite to watching the replay, their experience matters. Notify your audience, make the event easy to attend, and follow up with content they can revisit or share.

4. Make it memorable. Keep people curious, engaged, and participating. Use teasers, interactivity, and even pre-recorded content to make the experience dynamic.

5. Focus on one objective at a time. Clarity is key. Whether your goal is brand awareness or lead generation, don’t try to do it all at once. Phase your strategy and repurpose content for future campaigns.

Head to the LinkedIn Marketing Blog for more.

How Many Social Media Interactions Does Every Platform Drive?

APRIL 2, 2025

When we talk about interactions on social platforms, we’re not just referring to engagement metrics (likes, comments, shares). We’re talking about direct, intentional actions—sending a DM, tagging your brand in a post, or mentioning you in a comment.

These signals represent a user reaching out to your brand, not just passively reacting to your content.

Take a look at the average interactions per post by platform:

  • TikTok interactions surged by 42% year-over-year, with an average of 300 interactions per post, making it the most engaging platform. Videos dominate interaction, outperforming carousels.
  • Instagram interactions increased by 20% (162 interactions per post). Carousel posts perform best, keeping users engaged longer.
  • LinkedIn also rose by 42% (61 interactions per post). Resource-driven content (e.g., reports, whitepapers) generates the highest interaction.
  • Engagement on Facebook dropped by 47%, averaging only 28 interactions per post. Here, text-based status updates drive more engagement than videos or links.
  • With just 18 interactions per post, X struggles to compete. Video posts receive the highest interactions, while static images lose traction.

Dig into Social Insider’s report for more.

The Viral “Death of Duo” Campaign Unpacked

APRIL 1, 2025

Wondering how the dead-mascot stunt paid off for Duolingo in Q1?

Embed Social analyzed 1,336 social posts to find out.

Here are the key insights…

  • Over 60% of posts were text-based, while memes and videos played a supporting role in engagement.
  • Nearly half of the posts lacked hashtags, limiting discoverability. The most-used tags included #DeathOfDuo and #SaveDuo.
  • The highest activity occurred at launch and when influencers joined the conversation.
  • Meme pages, influencers, and Duolingo’s official accounts fueled discussions.
  • 620 positive, 360 neutral, and 345 negative posts revealed mixed reactions to the campaign’s approach.
  • X saw the most engagement, and Instagram saw the most positive responses. More critical discussions happened on Reddit, and TikTok had high virality for both positive and negative reactions.

So, what can we learn from the stunt?

  1. Mix content formats to maximize reach.
  2. Promote branded hashtags to centralize engagement.
  3. Time posts around peak engagement periods.
  4. Partner with influencers to amplify messaging.
  5. Monitor sentiment and adjust strategy accordingly.

Take a look at Embed Social’s report for more.

How to Persuade Skeptical Audiences

MARCH 31, 2025

Persuasive copy is what turns skeptics into product believers.

Let’s say you’re writing copy for a highly experienced and discerning audience.

Here’s how to change minds:

  1. Get straight to the point. Don’t waste time with fluff—dive right into a relatable story or scenario.
  2. Speak their language. Using industry-specific terms shows credibility and filters in the right audience. If non-experts don’t get it, that’s okay—your goal is deep resonance, not broad appeal.
  3. Challenge comfortable assumptions. Experienced professionals often believe they’re too skilled to encounter problems. Address this directly by demonstrating how even experts face challenges and showing proof that no one is immune.
  4. Use facts, not hype. Replace vague claims with hard data. Instead of saying something is “highly effective” or “game-changing,” provide statistics, cost breakdowns, or expert insights to let the facts do the work.
  5. Offer multiple reasons to buy. Secondary selling points can help close the deal.
  6. Bring viewers to a crossroads. After making your case, present a clear choice: continue with the status quo or take action. Framing the decision this way makes the cost of inaction more tangible.

Head to the Conversion Rate Experts for a closer look.

Insights

View All

Get the best daily marketing newsletter in your inbox