WebProNews

Tag: Marketing Campaigns

  • New Facebook Collection Ads Dramatically Boost Sales for Advertisers

    New Facebook Collection Ads Dramatically Boost Sales for Advertisers

    Facebook’s Collection Ads have helped millions of companies boost their sales and drive discovery.

    The social media giant initially opted to go with image ads. But with video ads proving to be better at conversions, Facebook Collection Ads were soon launched. Collections Ads appear on the user’s News Feed and can showcase a video, a photo, or a slideshow with four affiliated images.

    Collection ads resemble a landing page. When users tap on the ad, they’ll be able to access a video or a fullscreen Canvas ad that shows more content. Businesses can pair their Collection Ads with other Canvas templates depending on their brand’s objective.

    More importantly, these ads have proven to be very lucrative for businesses. One company reportedly earmarked $177,000 for a Collection Ads campaign and received $1.2 million in sales. Big name brands like Adidas and Tommy Hilfiger had also reduced the cost of their Facebook marketing campaigns by as much as 40% while seeing their sales ROI doubling or tripling.

    Facebook has been particularly keen to point out how effective their ads have been for retailers during the recent holiday. The company reportedly saw mobile conversions rise to 64% on Cyber Monday last year. That was a major improvement from the 43% increase it had in 2016. Facebook says this boost in conversions is due to their Collection and Dynamic Ads.

    While Facebook’s ad offerings were undoubtedly a big factor, several companies believe it’s not the only reason why their holiday campaigns were a success. One such company, Wayfair, revealed that it did use Facebook’s Dynamic Ads and acknowledged that it was partially responsible for the brand’s 53% sales growth during the Thanksgiving holiday. However, Wayfair’s vice president of marketing, Bob Sherwin, also pointed out that their brand also has a very strong and loyal customer base and that they are always in touch with their customers. Because of that, Wayfair has also made it a point to work with other social media platforms like Google and Pinterest.

    There are many other companies who followed the same approach of using Facebook ads while also utilizing Instagram and other platforms. However, the majority also admit that Facebook Dynamic and Collection Ads did help in reaching more people during last year’s big shopping seasons.

    Facebook is hoping that retailers and other businesses will utilize what they learned during the last major holiday and simulate it with their other ads.

    Nada Stirratt, Facebook’s vice president of global marketing solutions in North America, says marketers should think about how they can further use Facebook and sister company Instagram to drive in-store and online sales for the whole year.

    Facebook is apparently hoping that video will play a bigger role in future ad campaigns. According to Stirratt, there’s a multitude of ways for companies to flex their creative muscles when using short-form video on mobile devices. Marketers would also do well to start thinking about video as more than just a branding tool. Video can also be a force to reckon with when it comes to merchandising.

    [Featured image via YouTube]

  • Microsoft Is Betting $1.5 Billion That You’ll Love Windows 8

    Microsoft has already made it known that they have extremely high hopes for Windows 8. The company has compared the launch of its newest operating system to the launch of Windows 95. It’s going to change everything, or so they hope. That’s why Microsoft is putting an unprecedented amount of money into this holiday season’s marketing campaign.

    According to Forbes, Microsoft will be spending anywhere between $1.5 and $1.8 billion this year on marketing Windows 8. Let that number sink in for a minute. This is going to be the biggest software product launch in the history of computing. The last big marketing push from Microsoft came in 95 for the often referenced Windows 95 when the company spent $200 million pushing the OS. Adjusted for inflation, it would only be about $300 million today, a far cry from the insane $1.5 billion being spent now.

    So what will Microsoft be spending all this money on? Nobody has a clue. Beyond a few leaked ads, nobody has seen any of the marketing efforts that Microsoft will supposedly be putting into motion this holiday season. TechCrunch figures that Microsoft will be out evangelizing the new Windows and the interface formerly known as Metro. The new UI is definitely what Microsoft needs to spend the most money as it has only confused and befuddled people up to this point.

    It’s also not known if Microsoft will be spending all this money just on Windows 8, or if the marketing dollars will be pumped into Windows Phone 8 and Surface as well. With that kind of money, I think we can assume that to be the case. Microsoft doesn’t have to just sell an operating system this year. They have to sell a lifestyle that’s defined by Windows 8. Apple has perfected this approach to marketing with its iOS devices, but now it’s Microsoft chance to convince people that their lives would be legitimately improved with Windows 8.

    Will they succeed? It’s hard to say at this point. The only real noise we’re hearing in regards to Windows 8 are from those already entrenched in the tech world with strong opinions regarding the Redmond giant. The response from the general public will be crucial as Microsoft heads into the holidays.

  • Skype Unveils Strange “Humoticons” Facebook App

    As a part of its “It’s Time for Skype” marketing campaign, Skype announced today the “Skype Humoticons” app for Facebook. The announcement came on Skype’s Big Blog, where Francie Strong, director of global marketing at Skype, detailed the thought behind this strange (and seemingly pointless) app.

    The humoticons app allows users to put their face into a circle and, well, make faces. Users can use images they already have on Facebook, or they can use their webcam to generate humoticons. For really ambitious humoticon fans, the option to use up to 5 pictures to create a low-quality .gif animation is available. Once the humoticon is finished it can be posted to a user’s Facebook page or shared using its URL.

    What are humoticons for, you ask? I honestly don’t know. Strong suggests users attempt to emulate classic emoticons such as a smiley face or a wink. From the blog post:

    “Or just freestyle it and do whatever you want to express the way you’re feeling. Because nothing can replace the look on your face.”

    Any member of Facebook person who wants to try out the humoticon app can do so on the Facebook “Create your own humoticon” page. If you don’t want to enable a marketing campaign app on your Facebook profile, I don’t blame you. Luckily for you, I’ve already been the guinea pig and tried out the app. You can see the results above, where I have created what is clearly an “unsure bewilderment” humoticon. Leave a comment below and let me know what you think.

  • Hire or Contract Your Marketing? [Infographic]

    Some critical decisions are easy to make, or at least they can be with the right information. Mavenlink.Com has provided us with a wonderful infographic on some things you should consider when making the decision to design your own marketing campaigns (a.k.a. hire somebody) or outsource the job to someone else.

    Their handy little graphic cuts right to the core issues and helps you decide based on several different critical factors. Take a minute and read through what they came up with. After you plug in your answers, it should be clear what you have to do.

    If you’ve been putting off making a decision, this is your call to action. I like what they came up with: