The Daily Carnage

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

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Your Brain on AI 🍳

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Should You Bid On Your Own Branded Terms?

JUNE 16, 2024

Q: “Should I bid on my own branded terms? Why pay for the traffic I could get for free?”

A: If you have a budget for paid search advertising, you should absolutely bid on your own branded terms and pay for those clicks.

Here’s why:

Sponsored listings take up space at the top of the SERP. A sponsored listing from one of your competitors has the potential to distract users from your organic listing below.
You can’t bank on organic traffic. In an experiment by Portent, a client lost nearly 600 leads that organic listings did not acquire by pausing branded search campaigns.

Pause your branded search campaigns at your own risk. Take a look at the data from Portent.

5 Short-Form Video Trends to Try

JUNE 12, 2024

Try these 5 short-form video content trends to effectively reach your audience in 2024:

Animation. Animated product demos and explainers “grab the attention of consumers in less than 1/10th of a second.” It’s nostalgic, it helps break down complex topics visually, and it’s especially effective for learning skills, food marketing, and teaching strategy.
Influencer-Style. Have a script, but don’t use it. We’re in the pendulum swing: Viewers are more captivated by authentic, off-the-cuff videos featuring real, relatable people. Opt for vlogs, listicles, GRWMs, duets, OOTDs, and other influencer formats as they pop up.
Sonic Branding. In addition to strategic use of viral sounds and music, a signature sound increases brand association. 20% of young adults are more inclined to choose or buy a product from a brand with a sonic identity compared to those without.
Silent. 92% of people watch with the sound off on mobile devices. That means subtitles, captions, and other visual enhancements are critical to performance. Quality check: does your content hold up on mute?
Microlearning. Breaking down dense concepts produces 4 times higher engagement rates and 50% better knowledge retention than traditional e-learning tools. Test this with tutorials, testimonials, and product demos.

Take a closer look at Springboard.

Head of Instagram Shares Algo Insights

JUNE 11, 2024

Instagram chief Adam Mosseri has shared new insights about the platform’s ranking considerations in a new interview with Colin and Samir.

Let’s break it down:

As we know, video rules all. Short-form content now accounts for over half of the time users spend on Instagram. And half of all video impressions are viewed without sound, so compelling visuals and captions are crucial.
The platform is embracing the shift toward private engagement, prioritizing the “sends per reach” metric to determine distribution.
Instagram is increasingly relying on an AI-driven algorithm, recommending content from accounts from outside of a user’s immediate network to promote discovery.
The platform is ranking content that is shared within private circles higher than widely shared posts to keep UX healthy.

Don’t miss the conversation on YouTube.

How To Run UX Research Without Access To Users

JUNE 10, 2024

How are you supposed to conduct UX research with zero or limited access to users? Here are some workarounds to better understand pain points:

Ask for reasons. There might be no good reason you can’t have access to users.
Find colleagues who are closest to your customers. Befriend your customer success and sales teams. Since many products are subscription-based, these folks are tasked with maintaining customer relationships over time. They get your customers and their needs. Talk to these colleagues, shadow them, and listen in on customer calls.
Do some homework. Dig in to analytics, CRM reports, and call center logs. Google Trends can help you find product-related search queries, too. Search logs, Jira backlogs, and support tickets. Study reviews, discussions, and comments. Map key themes and user sentiment on TrustPilot, AppStore, etc. Recruit users via UserTesting, Maze, UserInterviews, etc.
Make a case for UX research. Sometimes stakeholders lack the time and resources to grant you access to users, or they’re working with privacy regulations, or they just don’t trust you. Explain that you’ll only need 5 users × 30 minutes once a month to get started, and that design without research is merely guesswork.

Check out the full post at Smashing Magazine.

20 Books Marketing Execs Are Reading This Summer

JUNE 9, 2024

Take a peek at the books adland is cracking this summer:

“The Upcycled Self” by Tariq Trotter — Franke Rodriguez, partner and New York CEO at Anomaly
“Ascent to Power” by David Roll — Tariq Hassan, chief marketing officer at McDonald’s USA
“The House of the Spirits” by Isabel Allende — Krystle Loyland, co-founder & CEO of Preacher
“The Lioness of Boston” by Emily Franklin — Kate Cronin, chief brand officer at Moderna
“Black AF History” by Michael Harriot — Damaune Journey, global chief growth officer at 72andSunny
“The Kingdom of Prep” by Maggie Bullock — Robbie Salter, founder and co-CEO of Jupiter
“Fires in the Dark: Healing the Unquiet Mind” by Kay Redfield Jamison — Mary Lou Bunn, founder and CEO at Flower Shop
“Four Thousand Weeks” by Oliver Burkeman — Lee Anne Grant, chief growth officer at Babylist
“Kindness and Wonder” by Gavin Edwards — Keith Cartwright, founder and chief creative officer at Cartwright
“When Women Ran Fifth Avenue” by Julie Satow — Jenny Danzi, senior director of Pepsi
“The Peacock and the Sparrow” by I.S. Berry — Josh Rosenberg, co-founder and CEO at Day One Agency
“The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” by Taylor Jenkins Reid — Sofia Colucci, CMO of Molson Coors North America
“Leadership: In Turbulent Times” by Doris Kearns Goodwin — Jim O’Leary, CEO of Weber Shandwick North America
“How to Know a Person” by David Brooks — William White, CMO of Walmart U.S.
“The Creative Act” by Rick Rubin — Maggie Schmerin, chief advertising officer at United Airlines
“Red Rising” by Pierce Brown — Kaki Bjorklund, group account director at Johannes Leonardo
“Hidden Potential” by Adam Grant — Jared Belsky, CEO of Acadia
“Breakfast at Tiffany’s” by Truman Capote — Barby Siegel, global CEO at Zeno Group
“The Human Side of Innovation” by Mauro Porcini — Lindsay Radkoski, U.S. CMO at The Wendy’s Company
“Learning From Las Vegas” by Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izenour — Rich Tu, partner and executive creative director at Sunday Afternoon

Check out the blurbs at AdAge.

Pinterest Captures Total Attention

JUNE 5, 2024

Active Attention tactics like big TV moments or high-impact digital sponsorships are hard to ignore—they require conscious focus. But a new study has found that Passive Attention tactics subconsciously reinforce your marketing message, too.

A report by Amplified Intelligence found that media plans targeting Passive Attention drove 6.7x more attentive seconds per $, compared to strategies targeting Active Attention.

When you employ both tactics, you capture Total Attention.

The study found that Pinterest drove 170% more Total Attention compared to other platforms, and Pinterest ads received 7.3x more passive attention and 1.5x slower scroll. Why? People come to Pinterest to take their time.

Here’s the actionable insight:

Put your content in context. Optimize for ad placements that best suit your product or service, through keyword and interest targeting, to boost active attention by 60%.
Make happy ads. Ads with a high concentration of happiness and surprise drove more total attentive seconds than ads with a low concentration of happiness and surprise.

Check out Pinterest’s full blog for more.

A Guide to AI Features in Google Ads

JUNE 4, 2024

Here’s a brief overview of AI features available in Google Ads that can assist your creative efforts to drive performance:

Automatically Created Assets. Generate text assets for responsive search ads and Performance Max asset groups.
Dynamic Assets. Generate image assets, sitelinks, structured snippets, and callouts sourced from content and images on your landing page.
Asset Generation In Performance Max. Generate custom text and image assets for Performance Max campaigns using text-to-text and text-to-image prompts.
Conversational Experience For Search Ads. Generate keywords, headlines and descriptions, images, sitelinks for eligible search ads using a chat-based feature.

And here’s what’s coming soon:

Brand Guidelines For Performance Max. Set your brand colors and fonts to be used in auto-generate videos and responsive display ads.
AI Image Editor In The Asset Library And In Performance Max. Integrate your Google Merchant Feed products into the image editor in Google Ads. Crop, remove backgrounds, adjust color and aspect ratio, and create variations.
Animated Image Ads For Shorts. Automatically generate image ads in Shorts using the images in your account for a more Shorts-native feel.
Shopping Ads: 3D Spin & Try on. Show 360-degree views of your products in Shopping ads.

Take a closer look at Search Engine Journal.

Instagram’s Current Advice Re: Reel Distribution

JUNE 3, 2024

Instagram wants you to “stop crying over reach and followers” and simply follow their confusing and sometimes contradictory tips for success on the platform. Let’s break down the latest.

According to IG, here’s what helps drive Reels distribution:

Authentic engagement. That is, you’ll be penalized for explicitly asking for likes, shares, or comments (like “leave this emoji in the comments!”). Do marketing automation tools like ManyChat count? We don’t exactly know yet.
Upload the highest resolution and keep it clear of third-party watermarks.
Post your Reel at the same time that you post on TikTok or Shorts.
IG appears to be encouraging Reels over 90 seconds, but they won’t be recommended in Explore or in the Reels tab. So if you’re aiming to drive reach, keep it shorter.

Read Social Media Today’s post on IG’s mixed messaging.

Brands Turning IRL Events into Online Engagement

JUNE 2, 2024

Here are 5 brands that successfully transformed IRL moments into meaningful community engagement on social:

Rhode. The chic, viral Rhode booth treated Coachella goers to a photo op and a lip gloss dispenser. Related mentions drove nearly 2.5 million impressions during the festival on X and garnered a 95% positive sentiment rate.
Rocket Mortgage. As the official sponsor of the 2024 NFL Draft, the brand started the “Dreammate” charity movement, honoring mentors who have helped people achieve their dreams—from home ownership to reaching the NFL—on social and through in-person UGC. The brand and event were mentioned together more than 250,000 times on X, and those posts received 1.7 million engagements.
TikTok. As a sponsor of the Met Gala, TikTok created a portal on their app from which users could vote on their favorite looks from years past and best dressed of 2024, try the official #MetGala creator effect, and explore relevant content.
Topgolf. The brand took advantage of heightened interest in the sport during the Masters tournament by serving up peach ice cream sandwiches (a Masters staple) from a branded truck in Augusta, promoting the activation on social.
Kentucky Derby. The iconic race’s social team drummed up excitement ahead of the event with videos introducing this year’s contenders, covered the history of the event, and celebrating past fashion moments. On race day, they published over 50 TikTok posts that accumulated 51 million views.

Take a closer look at these gold-standard activations at Sprout Social.