What’s Hot
YouTube & TikTok Advertising
Some of the HOTTEST things in July (other than the temperature in Orange County) were easily our favorite video platforms, YouTube and TikTok.
With over 2.8 BILLION monthly active YouTube users and 1.1 BILLION TikTok users, it’s no surprise that these two apps are constantly the topic of conversation. What makes them even more valuable to business owners is the ability to hit your target audience with engaging content, and build a meaningful connection with your customers.
On YouTube, you can do so in one of two ways. Either you create organic content like YT Shorts or long form videos, or you can run ads on the platform.
A common strategy we implement is running ads on YouTube while simultaneously running Branded Search ads across Google & Bing. But how do we know if a YouTube campaign is impacting our search traffic?
We can directly measure exactly how many of our YouTube ad viewers are searching, clicking, and converting on our search campaigns using Observation Audiences.
What does this mean exactly for advertisers?
You can create an audience composed of your YouTube ad viewers and attach it to your search campaigns. Every time someone in this audience interacts with an ad it’s tracked, and if given enough time, you can even set bid modifiers on an observation audience. You could increase bids on YouTube ad viewers on a branded campaign just to be extra sure that you’re always top of page for them!
There is one requirement for this. The YouTube channel that the ads are hosted on MUST be linked to your ad account. Ad Viewer data does not live on Google Ads, but rather it lives on YouTube. If the YouTube account is not linked to the Google Ads account, then there is no way to track the YouTube viewer observation audience.
But that’s not all that’s HOT in the world of YouTube Ads.
YouTube just announced that 30-second unskippable ads are becoming available later this year. Pair these 30-second ads with a branded search campaign and start tracking the effectiveness through Observation Audiences.
TikTok “High” (School?)
Earlier this month our Senior Media Buyer Joey LoPiccolo attended TikTok “High” – a keynote conference put on by TikTok for Strategic Agency Partners where they shared new insights for Media Buyers, tips, and previewed a bit of what’s to come on the platform in the near future.
We’ve gathered the biggest takeaways here for you so you get the same great insights we do!
First things first, they came out of the gates firing with an eye-opening stat.
15% of ALL new buyers are found on TikTok – making it the fastest growing discovery platform for businesses.
For advertisers – this is great news. More and more users are engaging with brands and businesses on TikTok, creating a loyal following, and finding new ways to convert prospects into customers.
The good news doesn’t stop there.
Greater targeting capabilities are on the horizon, with zip code targeting, “frequent buyer” targeting, ISP targeting, and more custom events for retargeting are in the works.
Our Clicks to Conversions readers will be first to know when that is available to the public.
Another exciting update that’s out right now is the TikTok Script Generator. It’s exactly what it sounds like, where you can enter keywords to describe your product or service and then within a few seconds a script, voice-over, and on-screen element ideas are generated. This is a great way for you to repurpose existing content such as blogs or articles and quickly turn them into bite- sized video content to share on social media with your followers.
One final takeaway from TikTok High that was echoed time and time again is the importance of tailoring your ad content to the specific platform you’re running it on.
If you’re strategizing a campaign on TikTok, make your ad creative look like a TikTok. If you’re running a Facebook ad, make it look like a Facebook post, and so on and so forth…
This should come as no surprise as we’ve been praising this for months, but this proved to be extremely successful with a recent ad we created for a client to run on Facebook.
Ad Spotlight
Everyone loves a good ole’ political cartoon. We all remember learning about their history and influence in American politics growing up, but I can’t even remember the last time I saw one featured in an advertisement. That’s something we recently tested, and the results blew us away.
This is an ad we ran for the Gold and Silver Summit. Our CPL’s on this ad shrunk, and conversion rates on the landing page went up.
Why? Look at the amount of shares that ad received. 9,000+!!!
That’s not a fluke. We pay for people to view our ads, but we DO NOT pay for shares. Every time someone shares our ad to their own feed, that’s essentially a free view and lead.
What does this mean for advertisers?
First, political cartoons are a great way to “poke fun” at complex topics in an enjoyable way for viewers. They’ve been around for hundreds of years, and they’re still around, because people like them!
Second, when you’re strategizing an ad, whether that be the copy or design, ask yourself “would someone find this interesting enough to send to a friend?”. If yes, that can turn into free leads. If not, it may fall on deaf ears.
Do You Have an SEO Strategy in Place?
SEO is becoming increasingly more valuable every single day, which is why it’s imperative that your business has a strong SEO strategy in place.
A common theme we see all too often is that businesses are not investing enough time or energy into the right strategies. It’s not just about ranking higher on Google, it’s about appearing in front of the right people at the right time to convert a prospect into a paying customer.
93% of online experiences start with a search engine. That alone should tell you how important it is to invest in SEO. Staying on top of keywords, changing strategies, and updates to SERPs can be challenging, but that’s where we come in.
Strikepoint is happy to offer world-class “done-for- you” SEO services, from account audits, setups, strategy, to technical, on-page, and off-page support, we’ve got you covered.
We recently published a helpful guide on How to Generate Mass Page Backlinks for SEO Success.
Now, if you’re like a lot of people in this world, you may be a bit overwhelmed by SEO – and that’s okay! It’s a complex subject that takes a lot of time to understand. Here’s a quick breakdown at everything our SEO service covers:
Account Setup, Reporting, & Strategy
- Competitive Analysis
- Data & Analytics Reporting
- Strategy Development
Technical SEO
- Website Structure (Title Tags, Meta Descriptions, URL Structures, Page Speed, Mobile Friendliness)
- Sitemap and Robots.txt
On-Page SEO
- Headers & Subheadings Image Optimization
- Internal Linking Optimization
Off-Page SEO
- Link Building
- Directory Listings
- Guest Blogs
Content
- Content Creation – keyword-focused blogs
- Content Optimization – high-quality, informative, and engaging content
Copy Corner
Turn Your Headlines Into Tabloids With ChatGPT
For those of us looking to leverage A.I. in our daily lives, ChatGPT has been the gift that keeps on giving.
If you do a little bit of research you’ll see that the highest paid copywriters in the world are actually tabloid writers.
Why?
Because they are extremely skilled at one thing: writing headlines.
A tabloid makes its money by creating an irresistible headline and cover that DEMANDS attention and makes you wonder what’s inside.
If the headline isn’t good then it won’t generate any sales.
Now – back to ChatGPT.
How can we take this same thinking and apply it to writing email subject lines, headlines for ads, or copy for landing pages?
I recently tried out asking ChatGPT to write me some “tabloid-style headlines” for a promo we were running and the responses were much better than the standard headlines ChatGPT normally pumps out.
Here’s a few of the examples.
Bank Account Surveillance: The Shocking Truth of Docket No. OP-1670
Your Freedom at Risk: How to Dodge the Government’s Financial Control
Exposed: The Government’s Secret Plan to Freeze Your Bank Account
Try this ChatGPT prompt with your own campaigns and see what it comes back with!
Tools, Tech, & Software
As with every edition of the Clicks to Conversions Report, we aim to be at the forefront of innovation when it comes to new applications or software to use in your business. That’s why when one of my Creative Strategists showed me Opus, I knew I had to include it in the C2C Report.
Opus Clip is an A.I. generative video tool that can repurpose your existing content from YouTube or other platforms into quick, bite-sized pieces of content that you can then post to TikTok, Reels, and YT Shorts.
Powered by OpenAI, it allows you to drop in any YouTube link in a few hours you’ll have fully edited and transcribed clips ready to post.
Their A.I. analyzes your video to identify the most compelling clips, pulls out click-baity or eye- catching highlights from different parts of the video, and seamlessly edits them into potentially viral short videos.
Is it even a new tool if it doesn’t run on AI?!?
Kidding aside – UIzard allows you to create a website design mockup based on prompts you upload. While we haven’t fully taken advantage of everything the platform has to offer, we have been able to generate ideas for brainstorms.
You can generate mockups using text, screenshots from sites you love, and drag and drop UI components to easily mock up your ideal website.
I’m curious to see if this technology can eventually develop into a reliable website and landing page builder, but for now, it’s a great use case to drum up inspiration for our design team, without wasting too much time on strategy development.
What’s Hot At Strikepoint
Seemingly every August there is a “lull” in the advertising world where spends are pulled back, but everything seems to still be red hot as we head into month #8.
One thing that’s ALWAYS “hot” in August is the buzz surrounding Strikepoint. I cannot believe we officially hit 10 YEARS in business this month.
If you would have told me in the summer of 2013 that 10 years later we would have a kick-ass team of 35+ digital marketers and a beautiful office
in Laguna Beach, California, I’d have told you I believe it.
Because I did.
I am so proud of everyone who has ever been a part of Strikepoint, because without them, we would not be where we are today.
Just take a minute to watch this Day in the Life video to see what it’s really like to work at Strikepoint.
That’s a great segue to say that we’re looking to grow! Our team is looking to hire three full-time positions, including:
- Digital Marketing Media Buying Director
- Email Ad Tech Specialist
- Google/YouTube Media Buyer
In addition, our Fall Internship Program is now accepting applications.
This 10-week training program will run from August 28th – November 3rd, 2023 and provide you with valuable hands-on experience in the digital marketing industry. We have both a Creative Operations Internship and a Business Development & Sales Internship available for college students.
And finally, if this month’s content was not enough I think you will find these recent blogs super valuable.
Webinars have been a hot topic in our world lately, and we shared 7 Proven Webinar Conversion Strategies to Increase Profits for you to implement into your own webinar strategy.
As we touched on earlier in this report, YouTube has been absolutely crushing it as an ad platform. We recently published a post titled “Exploring the Different Types of YouTube Ads” to help you master YouTube ads.
That’s it for this month’s edition of the C2C Report! As always, if you have a question, or if there’s anything you’d like to see more of or that we can do better, please shoot me an email and let me know directly.
Jeremy Blossom
CEO, Strikepoint Media
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