Catchy, provocative headlines are the key to driving traffic and clicks online. But going overboard with hype and exaggeration can backfire, damaging your credibility and turning off readers. Here are some tips for writing strong headlines that attract attention without resorting to cheap clickbait tricks. Focus on Providing Real Value The best headlines make a
Marketers are already shifting marketing dollars early in 2023. A survey of marketing professionals by Advertising Perceptions via Marketing Dive showed that nearly two-thirds of marketers said they were moving dollars to higher-performing channels. That’s not surprising as the number of channels has exploded over the past few years. With linear TV now standing alone
I know I’m not the first to point this out, but tracking by websites is out of control. After an hour of being online today, all at mainstream websites, I somehow managed to accumulate more than 8,000 trackers. After clearing it, a journey to a news website, a Google search, and a visit to an
The latest update to the iOS operating system for iPhone and iPads may cause a big change in email open rates. iOS 15 lets users opt-in to a mail privacy protection feature. If users do so, it will block email senders from being able to get information about how users interacted with the email. Surprisingly,
Google’s cookieless future needs a little more time. The plan by Google to block third-party cookies in Chrome has been put on hold. For now. “While there’s considerable progress with this initiative, it’s become clear that more time is needed across the ecosystem to get this right,” Vinay Goel, Google Privacy Engineering Director announced via
You would think that marketers would want to target the people with disposable income that can most easily afford your products. Instead of constantly targeted the people in society that hold more than 60% of all wealth, there remains an obsession with going after the youngest group of consumers. That may have made sense in
For years, many in the advertising community have maintained that consumers want targeted marketing with relevant advertising. It appears, however, that as consumers get an increased say in how they are targeted, that idea isn’t holding up. When Apple updated its iOS operating system for iPhones and iPads, it came with an opt-in component. That
iOS 14.5 is out and it’s a big deal when it comes to privacy. Apple’s App Tracking Transparency Apple’s app tracking transparency has been the target of public outcry from the folks at Facebook, saying this makes it harder for small businesses to track customers and will drive up digital ad prices. Privacy advocates applauded
Here’s a new wrinkle to Google search for local businesses. Advertisers on Google can now display a green checkmark, which Google will tag businesses with either “Google Screened” or “Google Guaranteed.” It’s only available right now for certain categories of business, such as law, financial planning, and real estate for the Screened badge and service-oriented
When you launch an advertising campaign, you want results. For B2C products, a digital ad with an incentive, such as a discount or limited-time sale, can lead ROI in short order. The sales cycle is short. Sales can also stop the minute you stop advertising. For B2B businesses, the sales cycle is much longer. 74%
We’re in for some big changes when it comes to tracking and advertising. While government regulators are making noise about taking action against major tech companies, the industry has not-so-quietly been making a couple of key changes that could lead to a cookie-less future. Cookies are those things websites use to track you as you
Nearly half of Americans now believe major tech companies should face more regulation. That was one key finding in a new survey by the Pew Research Center. The survey was released as a House Judiciary Committee is looking into tech companies. Specifically, they are examining anti-trust concerns. Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple were expected to
More than a thousand advertisers have now stopped spending on Facebook. Those behind the efforts say Facebook hasn’t made a commitment to changing anything. Jonathon Greenblatt with the Anti-Defamation League, along with leaders of other civil rights groups (NAACP, Color of Change, Free Press), organized the Stop Hate for Profit campaign to hold Facebook accountable.
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) went into effect on January 1st, but enforcement efforts were put on hold until July 1, 2020. Now that the deadline has passed, CA AG Xavier Becerra has issued warning letters to companies over alleged violations as reported by MediaPost. It’s the toughest law enacted in the U.S. so
Facebook’s facing a revolt among advertisers. Where will it end up and will it have a real impact? The campaign is asking businesses to stop advertising on Facebook in July to send a message. “We are asking all businesses to stand in solidarity with our most deeply held American values of freedom, equality and justice
BPA Worldwide is a not-for-profit organization that provides independent audits of audience claims for media publishers and media buyers. Today, they’re taking on the programmatic ad tech establishment along with a number of partner companies. The group is writing an open letter to the digital advertising agencies and asking for reform when it comes to
You can’t go online without bumping into an article about how the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has changed everything and how it’s all changed forever. When it comes to marketing, however, just 13% of marketers surveyed think COVID-19 has permanently changed branding, according to a study by Bynder. 57% agree that there will be a lasting
If you’re looking for hard data on what’s happened to brands that increased or decreased marketing during and after a crisis or recession, I’ve compiled the results of 11 studies into this article. Every single one shows the same thing: the companies that stayed the course or increased their marketing efforts grew at significant rates
Consumer research and strategy company Magid works with brands and media companies and has been tracking media consumption and consumer attitudes for decades. Their April research shows significant opportunities for brands and publishers: 69% of consumers say they are trying new brands right now. This represents an incredible opportunity for businesses to change perceptions and
Procter & Gamble is generally considered the world’s largest advertiser. They are certainly TV’s largest advertiser and it’s where they spend the bulk of their money. P&G spent more than $100 million in TV, digital, and print last year. You would think if anyone could afford to take a little time off with the advertising it
Not surprisingly, when you don’t control the conversation, it happens without you. Brands that stop advertising and sending positive messages are seeing huge drops in brand sentiment because they only thing people hear about you is nothing or negative. Those that continued to market saw a drop (people are thinking about other things these days),
You may not be thinking about advertising right now, but it may be smart to give it some thought. What you do today, can impact your business for the long-term
A new bill working its way through the NY state legislatures wants to tax companies that sell or make money from the use of consumer data. Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato wants to create a mutual fund from taxes that would pay a yearly dividend. New York State Assembly Bill A9112: Requires a five percent tax
Consumers spent way more time watching video in 2019 compared to previous years, according to a Parks Associates study reported in Fierce Video. Video consumption rose by 33% in 2019 compared to 2018. When it comes to where people watch video, TV still ranks as the #1 destination. TV sets account for more than half
January 2020 brings a new year and a new decade. It also brings new privacy laws for business. Have you made the changes you need to avoid being out of compliance? CCPA California’s CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) is one of the strictest laws in the U.S. and goes into effect in January 2020. Businesses
Once again, consumers cited traditional television advertising as having the strongest influence on their purchasing behavior, greater than the influence of all other media combined. That was the key takeaway from a research study, 2019 Purchase Funnel, conducted by GfK which measured the influence of media on consumers during their purchase decision-making process. Other key
You’ve probably never heard of it, but a new protocol called DOH could be a game-changer for online privacy. DOH stands for DNS-over-HTTPS. It would encrypt DNS traffic within your browser and hide requests and responses. When you enter a website’s URL into a web browser, it’s sent to the internet as a DNS request.
When you launch an advertising campaign, you want results. For B2C products, a digital ad with an incentive, such as a discount or limited-time sale, you can expect to track the ROI in short order. The sales cycle is short. For B2B businesses, the sales cycle is much longer. 74% of B2B sales to new
If you’re hoping organic search is the way to increase conversions on Google, we’ve got some sobering news for you: organic search on Google is producing just 22% of site visits, according to the new 3Q 2019 Digital Marketing Report from Merkle. Here are a few of the others insights from the report. Paid Search
“Personalized experiences are about delivering contextually relevant experiences to your prospects and customers, based on what you know about them, where they are in the purchase journey, and what they are looking to achieve. It is becoming more evident that marketers who consistently deliver personalized cross-channel experiences are seeing moderate to substantial conversion improvements.” –