You know that eerie moment when you’re halfway through an article or ad and you realize – “Hold on a second, a human didn’t write this. An AI did!”? We’ve all been there. It’s a bit like biting into a juicy apple, only to realize it’s made of plastic. 

Sure, we’ve got AI now – it’s pumping out content faster than a popcorn machine at a movie theater. But truth be told, a lot of AI content lacks the warmth, the humor, the “je ne sais quoi” that makes us human. That, my friends, is the puzzle we’re facing in today’s marketing world. 

But here’s the kicker: with just a bit of human editing and smart prompting, AI content can transform from simply good – to indistinguishable from top human writers. That’s the sweet spot we’re aiming for, and that’s exactly what we’re going to explore in this conversation.

Understanding the Limitations of AI-Generated Content

Before we delve into the nitty-gritty of why human editing is crucial, it’s essential to understand why AI can’t go at it alone. Let’s unpack the limitations of AI-generated content.

Overestimation of AI Capabilities in Content Generation

As AI’s popularity in content generation grows, there seems to be an overestimation of its capabilities. It’s easy to get drawn into the allure of automation, the promise of churning out article after article without so much as lifting a finger. However, AI is not some magical wizard that spews out flawless, engaging content at will.

AI writing tools are excellent at structuring information, spotting trends, and even using natural language processing (NLP) to mimic human-like text. But they lack the nuances, context understanding, and creativity inherent in human writers.

They can’t grasp emotions, humor, sarcasm, or cultural references the way we do (at least not yet), leading to content that, while technically correct, often feels flat and uninspiring.

The Risks of Factual Inaccuracies and Low-Quality Content

One of the most significant risks with AI-generated content is its potential for factual inaccuracies and low-quality output.

While AI tools can pull in data from numerous sources, they lack the human ability to discern between reliable and unreliable information. This can lead to content peppered with misleading or outright false information, damaging your brand’s credibility.

While these tools can spin sentences using complex language models, the final result often lacks the cohesion, logic, and flow that readers expect from high-quality content. This can lead to content that’s not only unengaging but also confusing for readers, impacting your brand’s image and authority.

While these inaccuracies might be minor nuisances in some fields, they can have devastating effects in others, particularly in “Your Money Your Life” (YMYL) niches. YMYL content refers to information that, if presented inaccurately, incorrectly, or deceptively, could directly impact a person’s health, happiness, safety, or financial stability. Think of content related to health advice, financial planning, or legal matters.

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For instance, let’s consider the healthcare industry. Imagine an AI tool writes a blog post on managing diabetes but misinterprets the data it was fed and suggests a dangerously high dosage of insulin. If a reader were to follow this advice, it could result in severe health complications or even death. This is an extreme example, but it underscores the potential risks of unverified AI-generated content.

Content Velocity Vs. Content Quality: Striking the Right Balance

In the world of digital marketing, there’s often a tug-of-war between content velocity and content quality. While it’s tempting to publish content at a high frequency to keep up with competitors and maintain online visibility, it’s a delicate balancing act that could backfire if not managed appropriately.

The Dangers of Prioritizing Content Velocity Over Quality

Imagine you’re a reader, faced with a stream of new articles every day from a particular brand. Initially, you’re impressed by their prolific output. But as you read through the pieces, you notice a recurring trend – the articles are filled with convoluted sentences, factual inaccuracies, and offer little to no value. Would you continue to trust this brand?

The point here is simple – prioritizing content velocity over quality can be a dangerous game.

While it might offer short-term gains in terms of visibility and perhaps even click-through rates, in the long run, it’s likely to harm your brand’s reputation and reader trust. It could also lead to lower engagement rates and increased bounce rates, as readers quickly exit your content if they find it low in quality or relevance.

The Continued Importance of Quality Content for Ranking and Authority

In contrast, high-quality content continues to be a pillar of digital marketing strategy, and for a good reason. Well-researched, accurate, and engaging content appeals to both your target audience and search engines. Google’s ranking algorithm, sophisticated as it is, rewards quality content that provides value to readers.

Beyond SEO, quality content builds authority. It positions your brand as a trusted expert in your field, a source of reliable information and insights. This can lead to higher engagement, increased conversions, and brand loyalty.

The Role of Human Editing in Enhancing AI-Generated Content

Integrating AI into your content creation process doesn’t mean human involvement becomes obsolete. Quite the opposite. It’s in the merger of AI capabilities with human skill that the magic happens.

My Experience with AI and Human Editing

As a seasoned digital marketer, my journey with AI has been enlightening, to say the least. I’ve seen firsthand how AI can simplify the content creation process, taking care of the heavy lifting by producing multiple drafts in a fraction of the time it would take a human.

Yet, there is something innately human about the act of writing, a subtlety and nuance that AI, for all its capabilities, can’t quite replicate. So, I’ve learned to work alongside AI, using it as a tool to augment and speed up my content creation, not completely replace it.

Every AI-generated piece I work on goes through a thorough human editing process. I infuse the AI output with a human touch, refining the language, ensuring factual accuracy, and most importantly, crafting a narrative that resonates with readers on a deeper level.

Estimation of Editing Required in AI-Generated Content

Now, you might wonder – “Isn’t that too much work? How much editing does AI-generated content need, anyway?” The answer is – it depends. Some pieces come out surprisingly well-formed, requiring only minor tweaks and polish. Others might need a more substantial overhaul to ensure they meet the desired quality and resonate with the target audience.

My rule of thumb? Consider spending around 40-60% of the total content creation time on editing and refining AI-generated output.

This isn’t a rigid number but more of a guideline. It emphasizes the need to dedicate significant time to the human element, ensuring that every piece of content you put out aligns with your brand’s voice, meets quality standards, and provides genuine value to your readers.

Google’s Perspective on Quality Content

Google’s mission is to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” This mission directly impacts how they evaluate and rank content. So, what does Google consider “quality content”?

Effective Communication with Target Audience

One of Google’s core principles in evaluating content quality is how effectively it communicates with the target audience. Simply put, your content needs to resonate with the people for whom it’s intended.

While SEO techniques, like optimizing your content with Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords and links, play a crucial role in enhancing visibility, they’re not the be-all and end-all. In fact, an overemphasis on keyword density at the expense of readability and relevance can backfire. Google’s algorithms have grown incredibly sophisticated and can penalize ‘keyword-stuffed’ content that doesn’t offer genuine value to the reader.

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So, how should you approach this? First, strive to thoroughly understand your audience’s needs, interests, and pain points. Then, craft content that addresses these aspects in a meaningful, engaging, and accessible way.

This effective communication gives your readers the sense that you are an authority on the subject, which can enhance your website’s trustworthiness and authority.

Engaging content can increase the average session duration, a significant ranking signal for Google. In other words, the more valuable your content is, the longer users will stay on your page, which in turn signals to Google that your content is useful, pushing it higher in the search results.

Providing Value and Establishing Authority

Another critical aspect in Google’s quality content equation is the value your content provides. Are you offering new insights, or are you simply rehashing what’s already been said a thousand times? High-value content tends to be original, in-depth, and relevant, directly contributing to a positive user experience.

Lastly, Google pays attention to authority. It trusts content from sources that consistently provide accurate, trustworthy, and valuable content. Earning this authority isn’t about being the loudest or publishing the most content. It’s about demonstrating your expertise and reliability over time.

Let’s look at it this way – If your content was a person, Google would want it to be a knowledgeable friend who speaks clearly, offers genuinely helpful advice, and is trusted by others.

Achieving this in an AI-dominated content landscape requires the human touch – an understanding of the audience’s needs, the creativity to offer unique insights, and the ability to build genuine connections. Taking the time to go the extra mile will make your content stand out in an ocean of AI content.

Finding the Right Editor for AI-Generated Content

Just as every artist needs a discerning critic, every AI-driven content strategy needs a sharp, skilled human editor. But what does it take to edit AI-generated content? And where can you find such talent?

Key Skills Required in an AI Content Editor

When it comes to editing AI-generated content, traditional editing skills are just the start. Of course, a solid grasp of grammar, style, and punctuation is necessary. However, AI content editing demands more.

One key requirement is a knack for spotting and fixing AI-specific errors. Sometimes, AI content can be a little ‘off’ – oddly structured sentences, incorrect facts, or phrases that just don’t quite make sense. A good AI editor needs the sharpness to catch these issues and the skill to fix them while maintaining the overall flow of the piece.

Equally important is the ability to infuse a human touch. A skilled AI content editor can take an AI-generated piece and give it life, weaving in a compelling narrative, adding emotion, and tailoring it to the target audience.

Finally, the right editor is adaptable, able to work with various AI tools and tweak their editing approach based on the specific outputs of different AI models.

Platforms to Source Content Writers and Editors

So where can you find these AI-savvy human editors? There are several online platforms to tap into:

• Freelance platforms: Websites like Upwork, Freelancer, and Fiverr are teeming with freelance writers and editors. You can post your requirements and invite freelancers to apply, or you can directly approach freelancers whose profiles match your needs.
• Content creation agencies: These are companies that specialize in producing and editing content. While they can be pricier than individual freelancers, they often provide a more comprehensive service, which can include content strategy, SEO optimization, and more.
• Online networks: Websites like LinkedIn and Facebook can be a good source of professional writers and editors. Look for individuals with a proven track record in content creation and editing, and preferably, experience with AI-generated content.

The Process of Humanizing AI-Generated Content

Leveraging AI for content creation presents a unique blend of challenges and opportunities. As we’ve established, a key part of this is infusing the ‘human touch’ to ensure the output doesn’t read like it was churned out by a machine. So how does this process work?

Starting Point: Generating AI Content Outline

The journey of humanizing AI-generated content begins with feeding the AI the necessary information it needs to know. Contrary to common misconceptions, AI is not an all-knowing entity. The quality of the content it creates is directly tied to the quality and depth of the information it’s given.

The human editor plays a crucial role here. They ensure that the AI is primed with a thorough briefing and all the necessary context about the topic at hand. From the intended audience to the key points to cover, the AI is equipped with all the requisite details.

Following this, the AI takes the baton and creates the initial content outline. This AI-produced blueprint forms the basis of the content piece, setting its direction and flow.

However, the editor’s job isn’t done yet. They need to review the AI-generated outline carefully, ensuring it is comprehensive, logical, and aligned with the content’s goals.

Only after this careful examination and potential refinement does the AI proceed to flesh out the content. This process ensures the AI-generated content starts on the right footing and stays on track as it evolves.

Section-by-Section Review and Reprompting

Once the initial AI-generated content is ready, the human editor steps in for the next phase – a detailed, section-by-section review. Here, the editor critically reads through each part, reprompting the AI tool wherever necessary.

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Is the AI providing a relevant response? Is it capturing the nuances of the topic? Is it staying within the desired tone and style? If the answer is no, the editor reprompts the AI, tweaking the instructions to guide the AI towards a more desirable output.

Fact-Checking and Surgical Editing for Final Refinement

The final stage of the humanizing process is fact-checking and surgical editing. Here, the editor verifies the AI’s data and cross-references it with reliable sources to ensure the content is accurate.

Any factual inaccuracies are corrected, and the content is fine-tuned. Grammatical errors are rectified, awkward phrases are reworked, and an overall polish is given to the content, enhancing its readability and engagement factor.

Through these steps, the AI-generated content is transformed. It becomes not just technically correct and informative, but engaging, valuable, and ‘human.’

The Benefits of Combining AI and Human Editing

In the world of content creation, combining AI and human editing is a match made in heaven. But what specific benefits does this union bring? Let’s dig in.

Saving Time and Improving Efficiency

The first major benefit is a significant boost in time efficiency. AI is lightning fast. It can generate a draft in the time it takes a human writer to finish their morning coffee. This speed frees up a huge chunk of time that would otherwise be spent on writing, allowing editors and content teams to focus more on strategic tasks.

AI doesn’t suffer from writer’s block or fatigue. It can churn out content consistently, helping maintain a steady content output.

That’s not all. Editing AI-generated content is often faster than editing human-written content. Why? AI tends to make predictable, patterned mistakes. Once editors get the hang of them, correcting these errors becomes quicker and easier.

Achieving Complete Topical Coverage

Expanding the depth and breadth of your content to cover a topic comprehensively is a proven strategy for establishing authority and improving your search engine rankings. Here, AI and human editing work together like a well-oiled machine.

AI, with its ability to generate content swiftly and at scale, can help you achieve broad topical coverage faster. It can produce multiple pieces around a core topic, covering various subtopics, and creating a web of interconnected content. This, in turn, positions your website as a comprehensive source of information on a specific subject.

However, the speed and scale of AI-generated content could potentially lead to compromised quality standards if not properly managed. This is where human editing steps in. Editors ensure that each AI-generated piece of content is accurate, engaging, and offers real value to the reader, aligning with Google’s perspective on quality content.

Ensuring High-Quality, Humanized Content

The AI-human combination isn’t just about speed and efficiency. It’s also about quality. While AI is great at producing quick drafts and covering topics extensively, it often lacks the human touch that makes content relatable and engaging.

That’s where human editors step in. They transform AI’s technically correct but often sterile output into something rich and engaging. They add warmth, emotion, and narrative flow, turning a plain piece into a compelling read.

Human editors ensure factual accuracy, maintain the brand’s voice, and optimize the content for SEO. All these are areas where AI still has room for improvement.

How to Implement These Tips

Now that we’ve discussed the ‘why’ and ‘what’ of humanizing AI-generated content, let’s dive into the ‘how.’ How can you put these insights into practice?

Identifying Suitable AI Content Generation Tools

The first step is choosing the right AI content generation tool. There’s a myriad of options available, each with their strengths and weaknesses.

Your selection should depend on your specific needs. What type of content do you produce most often? What’s your budget? How much content do you need to produce?

Some tools are excellent at generating short-form content like social media posts, while others excel at long-form content. Some are geared towards creative writing, others towards SEO or technical writing. Research different options, use free trials, and find the one that fits your needs the best. 

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Plain ol’ ChatGPT is a great place to begin if you would rather not pay to use a third party software.

Finding and Collaborating with Skilled Content Editors

You need skilled content editors who can humanize AI-generated content. Look for editors with a knack for storytelling, an eye for detail, and a deep understanding of your brand and audience. They should also be comfortable with AI tools and eager to learn and adapt.

But finding good editors is just part of the equation. You also need to foster a strong collaboration between your AI tool and your editors. Set clear expectations, establish communication channels, and encourage feedback and learning from both sides.

Consistently Reviewing and Improving the Editing Process

Don’t set it and forget it. Regularly review and tweak your editing process. Solicit feedback from your editors, watch for patterns in the AI’s errors, and continuously improve your briefings and editing guidelines.

The more your editors work with it and correct it, the better your editing processes will become.

With these steps, you’re all set to leverage AI for content creation while ensuring top-notch quality. But remember, the world of AI is fast-evolving. Stay curious, stay flexible, and continue to learn and adapt.

The post The Future of Marketing: Harnessing AI with a Human Touch appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

Are your Facebook Ads strategy ready for Black Friday? 

This is THE time of the year when shopaholics are hunting for the best offers, so you need to make sure your Facebook Ads and Instagram Ads campaigns are ready to attract hungry buyers. 

So, do you have your Black Friday Facebook Ads strategies all planned out? No? Well, you’d better get on that, because the big day is just around the corner! 

With so many changes to how we advertise on Facebook and Instagram in a post-iOS world, the Meta algorithm is going through some growing pains of its own. So, how can you be sure you’re setting your ads for success? Well, we talked to ACTUAL engineers at Meta and created a checklist with everything you need to have your target audience open their wallets for you!

7 Meta Tips & Updates You Need to Know BEFORE Creating Black Friday

#1. 20 is the New 50

Everyone has heard that an ad set needs at least 50 conversions in a 7-day period. And yes, that was true a while ago, but now things have changed. 

In the past, the Facebook Ads Learning Phase ended when, in a 7-day period, an ad set reached 50 events (whether it is conversions, lead gen, landing page views, etc). However, the Meta Ads Manager has evolved and improved. Now to exit the learning phase for optimization, your campaigns need 20 completed events in a 7-day period.

What does that mean? 

Now, a campaign can leave the Learning Phase after it reaches 20 events, again, depending on the objectives you select. The algorithm will gather data until that time to help you make better decisions in a simplified, quicker way, and make it easier for you to be successful on the platform. 

But what happens if my campaign doesn’t achieve that goal? Then, after the 7-day period *and not a minute before*, you can edit your campaign to optimize it! The algorithm will still learn based on successful events, but to hit true Meta Ad success velocity, you’ll want to consider increasing your budget so that you can achieve the 20 events Meta needs your campaign to hit for optimization in a 7-day period.

#2. Keep Your Cold & Warm Audiences Separated

Let’s think of our cold and warm audiences like a dating process. 

Cold traffic is like when you’re interested in someone you don’t know and want them to swipe right back at you. Your profile pic and information is all they have on you to make a snap judgment decision on whether they’ll engage in a convo and maybe give you their number.  

This is the same for an IG ad. They have 1-3 seconds MAX to decide whether or not your ad is worth ‘swiping right’ via engaging with your content by stopping their scroll. 

Meanwhile, our warm traffic is geared to those that have already engaged with your profile and is either mid-convo or mid-first date. Like a Facebook ad, you’ve already captured their attention, and now you’re ‘courting’ them. Asking them to get to know you more and ideally make some sort of commitment. With dating, you’ll want to ‘make it official’ and with ads you want that lead or purchase! 

They’re totally different, right? 

• Cold Traffic’s primary goal is to get them to swipe right or engage with your content (and maybe purchase!)
• Warm Traffic’s primary goal is to get them converted into being Facebook officials by subscribing to your list and actually purchasing a product

When you blend warm and cold audiences in your campaigns, you’re giving the algorithm the chance to favor warm audiences as they’re more likely to convert to a more cost-effective bidding strategy. This means, using our last example, that it’s more likely for someone that already had a first date with you to say “yes” to a second date because they already know you. Thus slimming down the chance of new swipes showing up on your feed.

Taking this into account, at the top level of your campaign, for cold audiences, you’re teaching the Meta Ads algorithm which cold audiences are yielding conversions. A successful conversion sends a signal to the platform to find more humans like the user who just converted. 

When you’re using cold audiences in a campaign, and excluding warm ones, you’re forcing the platform to find new people *aka people that don’t know anything about your product/service* that will make the desired conversion event.

Should you blend the audiences and include warm audiences in the campaign, Meta will favor the warmer audience time and time again because an abandoned cart purchaser is more likely to convert than someone who doesn’t yet know, like, or trust your offer. 

And Meta is always optimizing for the easier (more cost-effective) win in their algorithm.

That’s why at Mongoose Media we recommend not mixing these audiences in the same campaign. When you throw cold and warm audiences together you’re not teaching the algorithm to specifically find new prospects, you’re asking your algorithm to find the best buyers possible, allowing it to cheat and deliver the ads to people that already know who you are. So, instead, build a campaign for prospecting and another for retargeting warm traffic. 

#3. Know What CPA You’re Willing to Pay for Your Cold & Warm Audiences

The algorithm is listening to you, so you have to tell it exactly what you want. And this applies to anything you set up in Facebook Ads, but it is especially important for the CPA.

Let’s suppose that you are willing to pay $85 per CPA (cost per acquisition) for a skincare customer, but you capped the bid budget at $75. In this case, the algorithm doesn’t have the means to know that you have more money than what you put, so you’ll be forcing it to optimize your ads for a $75 budget. Which can mean you’re limiting your audience reach to forced CPAs that fit within your lower budget. Meaning, you’re missing out on potential customers that you’d be willing to pay for but your bidding strategies say otherwise.

Why is this so crucial? Because there may be better people with potentially higher order value or propensity to purchase available to you, but because you told the algorithm that $75 is your spend limit, your ad may not reach those people. 

Bear this in mind: if your CPA is too high, it will eat into your profits. Conversely, if your CPA is too low, you could be missing out on potential customers. 

Additionally, every day we get closer to Black Friday is a day that the auction experiences additional new competitors to the marketplace and more auction pressure that you’re competing against. So, start thinking about your CPA before the big day approaches. 

{important dates graphic: September 20th, the soft pressure increase in a ‘pre-Black Friday auction’. October 15th – the unofficial kickoff for Black Friday and the D-Day for heavy auction bids. November 15th – consider using different Meta objectives cause everyone and their grandmothers are doing ads.}

And, if you’re not sure what your CPA should be, working with a qualified Meta Ads consultant can help you to set a realistic CPA for your business!

NOTE: Your WARM CPA and COLD CPA should be different.

#4. Your Ads are a Marathon, Not a Place to Bet on Horses

I know that it is very tempting to look at your ad campaigns and ads like they are competing in a horse race. But you’re not betting on a pony, you’re marketing your products or services, so there’s no rush. 

What I mean is that even though you may want to perform a gazillion changes every time you check your ads statics and something seems off, you need to let it rest! As I said above, the Facebook Ads Learning Phase covers a 7-day period; however, if you edit your ad every other day, what will happen is that the time period will restart with every change and your campaign will be stuck in the Learning Phase *sounds like time traveling, right?*. 

Plus, you won’t be giving the algorithm enough time to optimize your campaign! Simply put, let’s suppose you launched your ad on a Monday, but by Wednesday you don’t get any of the results you wanted, so you turn it off. But, what you don’t realize is that, in a 7-day period, the algorithm is working to understand your campaign, so it may take time to reach your target audience and generate conversions. 

And don’t worry! 

Everyone is tempted to edit or stop a campaign when it is not achieving what we want! In fact, at Mongoose Media we used to make that decision after a 4-day period. However, we realized that, by doing this, we were potentially wasting the effort the algorithm is making to optimize a campaign, so now we wait a full 7 days before touching anything. 

So, walk away and go back in a week… But wait, there are a few things you need to be mindful of before you sit back and relax. Here’s a quick ads checklist

• Tracking: 

For Facebook Ads to be effective, it is essential that you have your tracking set up correctly. Without tracking, you will have no way of knowing whether your ads are succeeding or failing during the Holiday season. 

• Creatives: 

During Black Friday, brands compete for consumers’ attention with ads that are often loud, colorful, and eye-catching. As a result, it’s important to make sure that your ads are designed to be thumb-stopping.

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One way to do this is to start working on your ad creatives well in advance of Black Friday. This will give you time to experiment with different designs and ensure that your advertising campaigns are truly eye-catching. 

• Winning offer

Have you already put some thoughts into your Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals? It is important to craft a must-click offer that your specific audience is going to love. 

Remember that Facebook, unlike Amazon, is like walking into the mall during the holiday season. There are a lot of options you can pick and different offers that sound appealing, so, with many competitors out there, it is important to create deals that really persuade your audience!

• Work within a comfortable budget

Have a budget that you’re comfortable spending daily with a long-term goal of success. If you’re coming to Meta ads for a silver bullet, a single solution in your company’s bottom line, you better have a budget to back up the investment for data and the algorithm to find your target audience.

Meta Ads are great to-scale offers that work and as a discovery tool for new audiences. When Meta Ads stand on their own without a cohesive marketing plan for omnichannel remarketing, subscriber engagement, and more, expect to pay high acquisition costs to cover your marketing gaps. 

{Meta Ads on a CVJ image? Meta ads drive awareness, meta ads help subscriber acquisition, Meta Ads can drive excitement and loyalty, but Meta Ads aren’t Atlas, holding the weight of the company alone – that’s my graphic recommendation…. People think Meta Ads are the Atlas holding the world, but instead, it’s the offer that’s atlas and Meta is the muscle on the one bicep only}

#5. The Algorithm Assumes the Data is True

This may sound like a no-brainer, but it is important to understand that the algorithm can’t read your mind, so it learns from the data you give it. 

That’s why it is so important to be mindful about what you tell it. From your target audience to your ad spend, that algorithm will take everything you put as a fact and, if you’re not careful, it can affect your campaign negatively.

#6. Advantage+ Placements & Advantage Campaign Budget & Why They Matter

Placements are also known as the different platforms on which Meta can show your ad. An example of this is running your ads on Instagram, Facebook, or Messenger.

In this case, choosing multiple placements is a great idea if you want your ads to reach your target audience across different platforms. Meta’s platform is going to try and serve your ads on the placement your targeted audience is most likely going to engage and convert.

Taking this into account, by using Advantage+ placements, you’ll be allowing Meta to find the best conversion opportunities for your ad in all the placements.

This not only will help you to get the optimization events at a low cost (because Meta’s delivery system will analyze the data from all available placements and choose placements that are both cost-effective and high-performing) but also will help you make the most out of your campaign budget!

Another way of automating your campaign is by using the Advantage Campaign Budget. This is a feature that allows Meta to distribute your budget depending on the placements where each ad set will get the most optimization events at a low cost. 

With both features, you can make sure that your budget is effectively invested, Advantage+ placements and Advantage Campaign Budget are godsend help during the Black Friday season

#7. Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns

If you were looking for a way to increase your campaign’s performance without having to stick to your computer 24/7, the new Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns, launched on August 15, 2022, is quickly becoming my favorite new roll out from Meta. This new Meta product can automate an entire ad campaign with machine learning, so you can focus more on the general aspects of your online store and less on managing campaigns.

Just imagine being able to automate EVERYTHING from creatives and placements to audiences. With Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns you can maximize your ads’ performance throughout the Black Friday weekend (and beyond) without all the manual work it used to require. 

Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns allow business owners and paid media buyers to use AI to automate a campaign from end to end and make the best out of their ad budget by finding the best placements in which your ad will get the most conversion events at a lower cost.

And, if that wasn’t enough, this new feature can also automate creatives to analyze which ones are more effective in a specific audience! 

Finally, if you have a Facebook or Instagram Shop, Meta is using AI to drive traffic to the most converting destination for your eCommerce store. Either your in-platform store (FB or IG shop) or your website, depending on which one will generate the most optimization events in a certain audience! 

There’s nothing you can’t achieve with this tool and, even though it’s still in its Beta version, acting on it now will give your campaigns a lift as most other brands and advertisers aren’t taking advantage of this new campaign!

What’s the Best Time to Run Facebook Ads for Black Friday?

As soon as possible! Taking into account that you have to wait for the Learning Phase 7-day window, help the algorithm understand and optimize your campaign, and make edits if necessary, at Mongoose Media we recommend our clients to start their Black Friday Facebook Ads campaigns between July and September. 

However, this doesn’t mean that you should have launched your sale months ago! What you should have done is launch campaigns to find your audience and build a warm list.

The idea is to build a list of buyers that want your product/service and are eager to get a good deal, so you can offer them early access or another offer if they signup or register ahead of the big day. 

Why is this so important? Because even though Black Friday and Cyber Monday may seem like a weekend events, more and more people start craving good deals and offers even before November starts, so it is crucial *and cheaper* to start warming up your traffic early

But wait! If you’re reading this in October/November, that doesn’t mean everything is lost. You just need to be mindful that, when you launch your Facebook ad campaign, there’s going to be a lot more auction pressure. 

Ready to Start Preparing for a Successful Black Friday?

Planning your Black Friday campaigns with time is the key to not only crafting profitable ads that catch the attention of your target audience and persuade them to click the “Buy now” button, but it also helps the algorithm understand your brand and put your deal in front of the right people. And now you have a checklist with everything that has changed in Facebook Ads and you need to keep it in mind to set your campaigns up for success. 

Do you feel already overwhelmed with all the preparations pre-Black Friday? Fear not, you’ve come to the right place! At Mongoose Media we have a team of Facebook experts, copywriters, designers, and strategists that will help you with the planning while you worry about running your business!

So, meet with us and start your journey to a successful Black Friday Facebook Ads strategy!

The post 7 Things You Need to Do AHEAD of Your Black Friday Facebook Ads According to Meta appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

In this day and age making sales is harder than ever, with a cost of living crisis in the U.K and several places feeling the pinch post-lockdown.  But how do you effectively create a customer relationship without rushing in?

What is CRM?

Customer relationship management (CRM) refers to a strategy you have in place to manage the relationships with potential and current customers.  Usually it is understood to mean the software, but it can also refer to the strategies your team puts in place for handling customers.  The tool CRM is used to store customer information and helps you analyse it to decide how to approach customers.

Why is CRM important?

CRM is important for the ways it improves the customer experience and the ways it reduces manual labour on the business end.   You can automate tasks to allow your team to spend more time interacting with customers and building those relationships.   It also allows you to keep messaging consistent across departments as you share the system and allows for personalisation in the customer experience.

Build a Rapport with Customers

When it comes to actually working with customers it’s important to remember the old adage ‘only fools rush in’ and take your time to build a rapport.  “It is tempting to rush in but you may end up giving the customer a poor experience, loose the sale or end up with a poorly implemented product at the end of the day that reduces the likelihood of a continued relationship,” warns Jennifer Marquez, a business writer at Essayroo and Big Assignments.  Take a gradual approach, giving your company time to deliver a good product and leaving the customer satisfied and more likely to maintain the relationship.

Don’t Promise What You Can’t Deliver

Be honest and realistic with customers.  If there is something they want the company to provide check to see it’s actually possible before you make any promises.  Too often customers are promised a certain timeline, a certain scope or even special features without anyone talking to those who will actually deliver the product.  Your honesty will help you out in the end as you are not likely to over promise.  This is where that rapport you have built comes in handy as you are able to speak plainly with the customer without trying to force a product on them.

Profile Prospects

Before you pick up the phone or go to your emails in order to contact customers you should take some time to do some research on your customer to see what will engage your customer.  This avoids awkward situations where customers feel hounded into buying a product and is likely to end up with a much happier customer and a bigger success story.  Use customer insights to create a profile of your prospect and to collate your research, this will allow you to build a long-term relationship and personalise your approach.

Choose a System that Works for Your Team

Choosing a system that works for your team is really a two-fold choice.  First you want to adopt a CRM strategy that best fits your team’s needs.  However, the main choice you’ll need to make is what software you wish to invest in and the category of CRM software that best fits you.  “Choosing the right CRM for your company can help you build effective profiles, manage your relationships and keep messaging consistent.  It’s important to take some time to research this,” cautions project manager Kathy Cline, Assignment writer and Boom Essays.  In broad strokes, there are three main CRM functional categories:

• Operational CRM Systems – day to day activity management with tools like customer record collation.  Suited for companies who have short sales cycles.
• Analytical CRM Systems – organisation and management of large amounts of data used to gain insight into the customer experience.  Ideal for companies with intense competition and numerous customer data points.
• Collaborative CRM Systems – connecting communication and data across the company’s departments creating a seamless customer experience.  Excellent for companies that need to manage a large data pool across a number of departments.

Take time to discuss with the relevant teams the options available and don’t be afraid to shop around on the market.  If you want a slightly more custom solution, look for a company that is able to tailor its product to your needs.  Remember to keep budget and the goals you want to achieve in mind.

In summary, take the time to actually build a rapport with customers.  Speak with departments to find out what CRM tool would best suit their needs and train them in using it.  Keep everyone in the loop when it comes to customers, CRM tools help with this if you are a larger company.  Profile potential customers and do your research before diving in.  Most of all don’t promise the earth and deliver nothing, be honest with customers it will help build that relationship of trust.

The post Effective Customer Relationship Management: Not Proposing on the First Date appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

Ad fraud is showing no signs of slowing down. In fact, the latest data indicates that it will cost businesses a colossal €120 billion by 2023. But even more worrying is that fraudsters’ tactics are becoming so sophisticated that even big-name companies such as Uber, Procter & Gamble, and Verizon have been victims of ad fraud in recent years. 

So what does this mean for the rest of the industry? The answer is simple: every ad company, no matter their size or budget is just as at risk as the big guns – if not more. 

In this article, I summarize some of the biggest and most shocking cases of ad fraud we’ve witnessed over recent years and notably, what vital lessons marketers and advertisers can learn from them to avoid wasting their own budgets. 

The biggest ad fraud cases in recent years 

From fake clicks and click flooding to bad bots and fake ad impressions, fraudsters have and will go to any lengths to siphon critical dollars from your ad budgets.

Let’s take a look at some of the most high-profile and harmful ad fraud cases of recent years that have impacted some of the most well-known brands around the world. 

Methbot: $5 million a day lost through fake video views 

In 2016, Aleksandr Zhukov, the self-proclaimed “King of Fraud”, and his group of fraudsters were discovered to have been making between $3 and $5 million a day by executing fake clicks on video advertisements. 

Oft-cited as the biggest digital ad fraud operation ever uncovered, “Methbot” was a sophisticated botnet scheme that involved defrauding brands by enabling countless bots to watch 300 million video ads per day on over 6000 spoofed websites. 

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Due to the relatively high cost-per-mille (CPM) for video ads, Aleksandr and his group were able to steal millions of dollars a day by targeting high-value marketplaces. Some of the victims of the Methbot fraud ring include The New York Times, The New York Post, Comcast, and Nestle.

In late 2021, Aleksandr Zhukov was sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay over $3.8 million in restitution. 

Uber: $100 million wasted in ad spend 

In another high-profile case, transportation giant Uber filed a lawsuit against five ad networks in 2019 – Fetch, BidMotion, Taptica, YouAppi, and AdAction Interactive – and won. 

Uber claimed that its ads were not converting, and ultimately discovered that roughly two-thirds of its ad budget ($100 million) wasn’t needed. This was on account of ad retargeting companies that were abusing the system by creating fraudulent traffic. 

The extent of the ad fraud was discovered when the company cut $100 million in ad spend and saw no change in the number of rider app installs. 

In 2020, Uber also won another lawsuit against Phunware Inc. when they discovered that the majority of Uber app installations that the company claimed to have delivered were produced by the act of click flooding. 

Criteo: Claims sues competitor for allegedly running a damaging counterfeit click fraud scheme 

In 2016, Criteo, a retargeting and display advertising network, claimed that competitor Steelhouse (now known as MNTM) ran a click fraud scheme against Criteo in a bid to damage the company’s reputation and to fraudulently take credit for user visits to retailers’ web pages. 

Criteo filed a lawsuit claiming that due to Steelhouse’s alleged actions — the use of bots and other automated methods to generate fake clicks on shoe retailer TOMS’ ads — Criteo ultimately lost TOMS as a client. Criteo has accused Steelhouse of carrying out this type of ad fraud in a bid to prove that Steelhouse provided a more effective service than its own. 

Twitter: Elon Musk claims that the platform hosts a high number of inauthentic accounts 

In one of the biggest and most tangled tech deals in recent history, the Elon Musk and Twitter saga doesn’t end with Twitter taking Musk to court for backing out of an agreement to buy the social media giant for $44 billion.

In yet another twist, Musk has also claimed that Twitter hid the real number of bots and fake accounts on its platform. He has also accused the company of fraud by alleging that these accounts make up around 10% of Twitter’s daily active users who see ads, essentially meaning that 65 million of Twitter’s 229 million daily active users are not seeing them at all. 

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6 Lessons marketers can learn from these high-profile ad fraud cases 

All of these cases demonstrate that ad fraud is a pervasive and ubiquitous practice that has incredibly damaging and long-lasting effects on even the most well-known brands around the world. 

The bottom line is this: Marketers and advertisers can no longer afford to ignore ad fraud if they’re serious about reaching their goals and objectives. Here are some of the most important lessons and takeaways from these high-profile cases. 

1. No one is safe from ad fraud 

Everyone — from small businesses to large corporations like Uber — is affected by ad fraud. Plus, fraudsters have no qualms over location: no matter where in the world you operate, you are susceptible to the consequences of ad fraud. 

2. Ad fraud is incredibly hard to detect using manual methods

Fraudsters use a huge variety of sneaky techniques and channels to scam and defraud advertisers, which means ad fraud is incredibly difficult to detect manually. This is especially true if organizations don’t have the right suggestions and individuals dedicated to tracking and monitoring the presence of ad fraud. 

Even worse, when organizations do have teams in place monitoring ad fraud, they are rarely experts, and cannot properly pore through the sheer amount of data that each campaign produces to accurately pinpoint it.

3. Ad fraud wastes your budget, distorts your data, and prevents you from reaching your goals

Ad fraud drains your budget significantly, which is a huge burden for any company. However, there are also other ways it impacts your ability to deliver results. 

For example, fake clicks and click bots lead to skewed analytics, which means that when you assess advertising channels and campaigns based on the traffic and engagement they receive, you’re actually relying on flawed data to make future strategic decisions. 

Finally – and as a result of stolen budgets and a reliance on flawed data – your ability to reach your goals is highly compromised. 

4. You’re likely being affected by ad fraud already, even if you don’t know it yet

As seen in many of these cases, massive amounts of damage were caused because the brands weren’t aware that they were being targeted by fraudsters. Plus, due to the lack of awareness surrounding ad fraud in general, it’s highly likely that you’re being affected by ad fraud already. 

5. You have options to fight the effects of ad fraud  

Luckily, as demonstrated by these cases, there are some options available to counteract the impact and losses caused by ad fraud, such as requesting a refund or even making a case to sue. In such cases, ad fraud detection solutions are extremely useful to uncover ad fraud and gather evidence. 

6. But the best option is to prevent ad fraud from the get-go

The best ad fraud protection is ad fraud prevention. The only surefire way to stop fraudsters from employing sophisticated fraud schemes and attacking your campaigns is by implementing equally sophisticated solutions. Anti-ad fraud software solutions that use machine learning and artificial intelligence help you keep fraud at bay, enabling you to focus on what matters: optimizing your campaigns and hitting your goals. 

The post The Biggest Ad Fraud Cases and What We Can Learn From Them appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

Introduction

We live in the most diverse and multicultural times in the history of the world. Technology has helped people migrate from different countries with much more ease than ever before. In the United States alone, it is estimated that by 2044 the sum population of all minorities will surpass the population of white Americans.

Any savvy businessman or marketer knows that this means their brand needs to adapt fast or be prepared to get left behind.

We hope, with this article, to help your business transition its online advertising into a more diversified one.

Diversity in Ad Campaigns is a No-brainer

Diversity in Population is Growing Fast

According to Maryville University, current data shows that growth among racial and ethnic minority groups is outpacing that of Caucasians, indicating that America is becoming more diverse.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau in 2020, nearly four out of every ten Americans identify as belonging to a racial or ethnic group other than white, implying that the white population will have decreased for the first time in the country’s history during the 2010-2020 decade. Furthermore, another U.S. Census Bureau mentions that more than half of Americans will belong to minority groups by 2044.

Minority Consumers Relate With Brands That Understand Them

In a recent survey held among American Muslim consumers, 400 out of 400 respondents reacted to the statement “(a) I am a Muslim and (b) my choice of a brand or product is influenced by how Muslim-friendly it is”, with a “yes” for both “(a)” and “(b)”. Furthermore, in another survey, “Up to 83% of people pointed to better representing modern society as the reason marketing campaigns were impactful in a positive way”. Also, 70% of Gen Z consumers trust brands that show diversity in their advertisements.

Businesses have no choice but to update their promotional assets from a marketing standpoint. Since advertisements are at the forefront of brand efforts, diversity must be represented correctly in ad material. The only way for brands to remain relatable is to provide diverse content for diverse audiences in a way that accurately represents modern society.

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Diversity in Marketing Creates Significant New Revenue Streams

Entering new markets makes it easier to generate new revenue. More diversity and inclusion contribute to a more cohesive society and allow businesses to target new markets and increase response rates with relatable content, benefiting their bottom lines.

According to Heat, a Deloitte-owned research firm, brands with the most representative advertisements saw an average stock gain of 44% during the seven-quarter period that ended in 2018. Consumers preferred brands with the highest diversity ratings by an 83% margin.

Meanwhile, Microsoft Advertising has shown that more inclusive ads have seen 23% more “purchase intent” from Gen Z consumers. Alongside this, 64% of consumers, in a Think With Google poll, said they took action after seeing an advertisement they thought was inclusive or diverse.

How to Add Diversity and Inclusion to Your Marketing

In a very detailed article by Muslim Ad Network, you can read the step-by-step process of creating diversity and inclusion in your marketing campaign. We mention that it all starts with your internal environment: your team, your business culture, and your mentality. Before we go specifically into diversity in your ads, let’s look at some highlights from this article.

Adapting Your Message to the Market

For effective diversity marketing, you must adapt the message to the market rather than adapt the market to the message. So, if you want to communicate with minority consumers, make sure your message does not contradict their values.

Your inclusion marketing campaign must begin with a consideration of the multicultural context. You will need to research not only purchasing habits, but also values, ideals, perceptions, and communication methods.

The Right Knowledge and Combination of People in Your Team

Although your marketing team may not require members from every minority group, you should actively recruit talent from diverse backgrounds or work with external consultants and agencies.

If your marketing team is made up of like-minded individuals who decide that an ad campaign looks good to them without consulting members of the minority group you are targeting, your company is making a big mistake.

Even having members of a minority group on your marketing team may not be sufficient. Aside from soccer rivalries, Latin America, for example, is full of complex relationships. Consider Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. They compete over who makes the best plantain. Imagine making a campaign for Hispanics in general and then mentioning how Dominican plantains are the best in the world.

Connecting to minority consumer groups in real life will also help you gain more knowledge of their preferences. Even more importantly, your brand will gain a reputation and establish connections between your business and community leaders.

Diversity and Inclusion Marketing Audit

For the best results, you must audit your entire marketing infrastructure to see if there are sufficient elements of diversity and inclusion pertaining to:

1. Marketing teams
2. Marketing reach
3. Website images and language
4. Representation in collateral
5. Decision-making processes
6. Content approval
7. Audience research
8. Learnings from previous research
9. Processes of challenging stereotypes
10. The relatability of stories
11. Working with communities
12. Working with influencers

How to Create Diversity-Friendly Ads

Once you’ve optimized as much of your marketing infrastructure as possible for diversity and inclusion, you can begin creating ads that reflect this. Let us now look at how to create ads that promote diversity:

What Your Ads Must Avoid at All Costs

UNICEF Report

The information below is based on UNICEF’s Promoting diversity and inclusion in advertising: a
UNICEF playbook.

Racial Stereotypes: Black people excel at sports and dance, while Asians excel in STEM subjects.

Ethnic Stereotypes: Jewish people are extremely knowledgeable about finance and Indigenous people dislike wearing clothes.

Cultural Stereotypes: Muslim girls are always oppressed and accents from Europe are appealing, while accents from other parts of the world are amusing.

Cultural Appropriation: In the above-mentioned publication UNICEF describes cultural appropriations as:

“Adoption of icons, rituals, aesthetic standards and behavior from one culture by another. Culture is often appropriated by a dominant group from a minority or subordinate group in terms of social, political, and/or economic status. In this process, significant artifacts and beliefs are
used/exploited without understanding or respecting their original meaning”.

ASA Report

In February 2022, the ASA summary report on tackling harmful racial and ethnic stereotyping in advertising came out. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) UK’s independent advertising regulator explains:

“We have published the findings of a major project which looked at the extent to which portrayal of race or ethnicity in UK ads might give rise to harm or serious offense, including by reinforcing adverse stereotypes”.

The following came to light:

Reinforcement of Existing Stereotypes: The repetition of certain portrayals has the potential to reinforce society’s perceptions of people from minority groups.

Creating new stereotypes: Portrayals of people from BAME (Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic) groups have emerged that can paint a one-dimensional picture of them, particularly in the depiction of family life, relationships, and appearance.

Perpetuating or reinforcing racist attitudes and behaviors: Past trauma related to race or ethnicity could be evoked by advertisements depicting racist behavior or other elements, even when the advertiser was contesting negative stereotypes.

How to Get Your Ads Right

Your ads must reflect what we talked about earlier in the article in the chapter “How to Add Diversity and Inclusion to Your Marketing”. Without the proper internal audit, proper knowledge, hiring the right mix of diverse individuals, and working with external agencies it is going to be very difficult to create ads that speak to minorities. However, once this is established you can use the below checklist to create diversity-friendly ads:

1. List the minority groups that may relate to your products and those that don’t. It makes no sense to create an ad about your online gambling services and feature Native American characters when they 1) own independent casinos within their reservations and 2) have a higher rate of gambling addiction than the average rate in the general population.
2. For the minority groups that relate to your products, study their subgroups thoroughly and understand what appeals to the majority of them as you cannot please everybody. For example, if you are a vegan or meat alternative business, find out what speaks to most of the Muslims within the different subgroups.
3. Just the fact that your product is permissible (halal) for them to consume, may not be enough.
   Staying on the meat alternative example, you would create an ad that depicts family gatherings and cooking together for the Hispanic or Asian community, showing that a great extended family feast is also possible with meat alternatives. Don’t always just do a typical white family (mom, dad, and a kid) type of ad if you want to speak to the minority masses.
4. Get real native actors and have them speak in their native language too. Whatever you do, don’t use actors from Pakistan, for example, to depict a family from India, even if there is no dialogue in the ad. It is incredible how people from minority groups instinctively know when they are being taken for a ride when it comes to misrepresentation.
5. If you can afford it make sure you use authentic imagery. The risk of using stock images is that you will be inheriting stereotypes, misrepresentations, and other flaws from them. Original images make for better branding anyway.
6. Set up an approval process that includes advertisement sensitivity readers. As part of the final process of approval, sensitivity readers – always people with lived experience of prejudice in a minority group – will help you tweak your ad so that it is ready to be published. In extreme cases, they will help you avoid backlashes from the very minority group you want to support and represent in your ads.
7. If the concept of having a review committee is unrealistic for your company, at the very least have a panel every quarter to give their opinion on the type of ads you will be running for that quarter. Needless to say, it must be made up of enough people from minority groups.

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Conclusion

It’s crunch time for brands. We are in a historical moment of make or break. It’s quite simple, brands that embrace diversity and inclusion in their marketing and advertising will stay relevant and prosper, with all things equal. Brands that do not embrace diversity and inclusion in their marketing and advertising will have a hard time doing well, the stats don’t lie.

However, you can’t just start spitting out diversity and inclusion in your marketing and advertising. You need the right people, knowledge, frameworks, and infrastructure to do it right. Starting with diversity and inclusion in your marketing and advertising in the wrong way can be worse than not starting at all.

We hope that after reading this article you will be able to make the right choices when it comes to diversity and inclusion for your marketing and advertising campaigns.

BIO

Alwi Suleiman has been in marketing since 2006 and has helped several businesses build their marketing strategies. He is the Lead Marketer at Muslim Ad Network, co-author of the Muslim Consumer Guide, and the owner of Content Market King. He is passionate about helping small businesses thrive through online marketing strategies.

The post The Ultimate Guide for Creating Diversity-Friendly Ads appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

Unless you’re in an extremely niche market, then business is becoming increasingly competitive. Potential customers are looking for brands and products that really stand out from the rest of the pack. That means that your marketing teams need to be coming up with new ideas or using older ones to their optimum level to improve your brand’s social currency.

People have a tendency to trust the words of an employee of a brand less than those of their peers. After all, the employee is getting paid to say those positive things. In fact, 88% of consumers will trust an online review as much as a personal recommendation from friends or family. That means that good online testimonials can be a major business driver.

So, you can see the value of using testimonial advertising as a major part of your marketing tactics. Just what is testimonial advertising and what benefits does it offer your organization. How do you use it efficiently to improve your reach, awareness, and sales rates? Read on to find how testimonials can help you with anything from promoting your coaching services to writing a solar panel sales pitch.

What is testimonial advertising?

Simply put, testimonial advertising is using the words of your existing customers as part of your marketing efforts. As has been mentioned already, potential customers tend to trust reviews and recommendations from previous or existing customers so this is something you should focus on and use to your organization’s advantage. There are a number of Customer feedback tools available to help you generate these reviews.

For example, say you are marketing a VoIP service. While a potential customer may read your blurb, they are more likely to pay attention to your marketing if it contains reviews or quotes from real customers. Testimonial advertising has a more authentic feel to it than anything your professional marketers could write, making it a great way to connect with new customers.

Testimonial ads can take many different forms. How your marketing teams use customer feedback and recommendations can depend on the type of product you are marketing and what form the campaign takes. Some of those testimonial types you could consider using includes:

• Quotes from clients in any case studies produced by you or others.

• Images of reviews taken from your own site or 3rd party sites such as Amazon or Google.

• UGC (user-generated content) from any platform such as Instagram.

• Videos posted by customers on social media platforms such as Facebook.

• Positive discussions on forums or sites such as Quora.

Why are testimonial ads effective?

It all comes down to one word; trust. You want to build relationships with customers and the foundation of those relationships is that all-important trust. But it can be difficult to establish that trust and to then maintain it. With 88% of shoppers ready to trust what your previous customers say, testimonial advertising can suddenly become very important. It’s important to format your questions so as to get quality answers for feedback and testimonials.

When your marketing team extols the virtues of a cloud hosted PBX system, they may be being 100% honest but the perspective of customers is that your staff are paid to say those positive things. When the potential customers read what previous customers have thought, they will trust those words more and you can start building that relationship.

Video versus static testimonial advertising

There are two primary types of testimonial advertising. Which you choose, and where you use it, will depend on a number of factors such as the product you are promoting and the platforms you choose to promote that product on.

• Static ads: with this type of testimonial advertising, you are only using text and an image (or images). The image may be chosen by you or it may be part of the original testimonial from the customer. For example, a customer may have talked about their preferred client portal solutions. They may not have included an image of their choice so you could add one later.
• Video ads: These can be a great option as they add an extra layer of realism and are very hard to fake. The video may be of them using the product and showing what they love about it or it may be simply them talking about the product, the benefits they gained from it or the problems the product solved for them.

1. Static testimonial ads

These tend to be the most popular because they are quick and easy to produce while still being effective. All you need to produce one is a quote from the (happy) customer – though it is advisable to keep it fairly short; perhaps between 30 and 50 words. Add their name to the post and, as mentioned, a photo either from them or from yourself.

Static ads can be posted on any platform you use or you can use your most popular platform as a base and cross-post from there. The downside of using static testimonial ads is that their credibility can sometimes be questioned. After all, most people will just see something that Bob from Newark says, so how do they know that Bob is a real person?

2. Video testimonial ads

Video testimonials offer you a far higher level of credibility as they are more difficult to ‘fake’. There is an authenticity to video testimonial advertising that is lacking in static ads. When someone is talking directly to the camera, consumers can not only listen to what they say; they can also observe facial expressions and body language during the video too.

The other big advantage with video testimonials is that they can offer more information, even in a short video, than any static ad could ever achieve. For example, in a one-minute speech, the speaker could say anywhere from 120 to 200 words. Given we recommended a maximum of 50 words in a static ad, you can immediately see that videos offer far more scope.

Challenges of video testimonial advertising

Of course, video testimonials offer more challenges than a static ad. With the latter, all you need is a suitable quote from a satisfied customer (which may be as simple as a screenshot from a review site and an accompanying photo).

There are perhaps two major challenges when it comes to businesses adopting more video testimonial advertising. The first is cost (if produced in house) and the second is the logistics and time. If you are a small business, then you can consider purely user-generated content (with perhaps a few post-production tweaks) but larger organizations may want to go a more professional looking route.

However, when you see the many videos produced by ‘ordinary’ people online, you realize that many of them look great thanks to the budget or free filmmaking software available today. You only need to spend some time on TikTok to see the wide range of both marketing and fun videos being produced.

Even with the best looking customer-made video, you will likely want to add some finishing touches to it. After all, while the customer message is what is important, there are other considerations to take into account. And if you are asking customers to make video testimonials for you, you could provide a template much as you might use a digital agency proposal template within your business operations.

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Some of the things you may want to add in a post-production phase includes:

• Adding branding elements including logo and colors to the finished video so it is immediately identified with your business.
• The customer’s name (and title and company if you operate in the B2B market),

• Transcribing the speech in the video (which can help your SEO efforts) or using subtitles to add extra information.
• Background music (this should be thought out carefully and should complement the video so Norwegian Black Metal is probably not a good idea).
• Adding in extra information using slides, infographics, or similar.

So, as you can see, while more complicated, video testimonials can be far more effective than their static counterparts. And while many organizations may be worried about the costs of video testimonials, one study showed that 72% of marketerssaw ROIs of anywhere from 50-500% when using video testimonials as a marketing tool, and that also included improvements to their conversion rates.

The takeaway

There is no argument that customer reviews are credible and can help drive better lead generation and conversion rates. While your marketing team may write great copy and flawless product descriptions, having someone who has actually bought and used (and is satisfied with) your products say how happy they are can be a real gamechanger.

You have a lot of choice when it comes to sourcing testimonials; from casual discussions on Facebook to reviews left on independent third party sites. It’s how you use them that is the important factor. From a simple static testimonial used as a banner ad to a well-produced video that imparts information that a potential customer finds useful.

With increasing competition in the marketplace, marketers have to be increasingly more creative and often have to think about the box. Customer testimonials offer a rich source of material that praises your product or brand and that your marketing teams can use in various ways to get your message to your target demographics. We hope that this guide will help you to get more customer testimonials for your product or business.

The post What is Testimonial Advertising: Promote Your Business Through Customer’s Feedback appeared first on DigitalMarketer.