In an era of constant change, the trends that you were using to guide your company’s digital marketing strategy may now be unraveling. For brands sold primarily offline, their digital presence always felt like an afterthought or a luxury. Now, everything is digital (even in-store sales!). For example, it’s no longer enough for PPC and SEO teams to simply know what the other is up to. Going forward, organic and paid search need to be true, integrated partners, especially with Google rolling out the Page Experience Update. This long-awaited update will be completed by the end of August and is pushing all brands to know what digitally native brands have since their inception. The solution? Both PPC and SEO teams should understand the available SERPs features and placements. The synergy between these two teams must go beyond just sharing data and results. Instead, the teams should be proactively planning and sharing common goals to provide the best solutions and answers to each customer’s needs, during every step of their journey to a purchase. It's not too late to get ready and make your paid and organic search inputs a true team effort, your brand (and rankings) depend on it.

Social audio platforms like Clubhouse have taken the media industry by storm. Right in line with its copycat strategy, Facebook officially launched Live Audio Rooms, which pushes the platform further into the social audio and podcasting space. The live audio rooms will be for public figures and select Facebook groups within the U.S. What are Live Audio Rooms? These rooms enable people to discover, join or listen in on live conversations with experts and public figures. These public figures can invite anyone on Facebook to be a speaker: followers, friends, or other public figures with verified badges. Hosts can invite speakers in advance or choose listeners during the stream, and there can be up to 50 speakers, with no cap on listeners. Should Your Brand Give Live Audio Rooms a Try? Although Facebook may be taking cues from Clubhouse to enter the audio social space, the well-known and popular platform may have the edge to compete, especially on the brand side. Facebook has the best monetization offerings for brands to share their messaging, even if Live Audio Rooms are not being monetized currently. Plus, with already established communities organized around interests, brands will easily know where their audiences are, and how to interact with them. As advertising and brand presence matures in the social audio space, Facebook is now on the must-try list for testing these platforms.

During the Google Marketing Live event in 2021, the tech giant showcased its machine learning tools and ambitions. Here’s what the team at Exverus found to be the most interesting for our brands: E-Commerce Integrations. Retailers on WooCommerce, GoDaddy and Square will soon be able to integrate with Google easily and for free Ad Automation Gets Better. Google’s suite of products, called Performance Max, help marketers automate the optimization of their ad campaigns Customer Match. Marketers can develop an audience strategy using their first-party customer data – critical in the post-cookie and pre-post-cookie world Consent Mode. Conversion modeling tin Consent Mode will give more detailed conversion insights, while you can soon get a more complete picture of the performance of your Google Ads with improved attribution reporting. Key Takeaway for Marketers Google is #1 for a reason, and they are not giving away any of the advantages of their scale. These technologies and tools can provide visibility in cases where data or signals may be limited. Machine learning and automated solutions enable continued measurement of advertising effectiveness and continue to allow us to measure success in our media investment.

In lieu of the impending death of the cookie, brands have been getting creative about how to use their first-party data to replace cookies. One of those brands is T-Mobile, the self-dubbed “uncarrier” who announced a novel use of their subscribers’ information. “Right now, advertising is a little bit broken, we’ve created a new marketing solutions group to help fix that,” T-Mobile said, explaining its offering. Essentially T-Mobile will allow advertisers to target its subscribers using its first party data that is sold to those brands. At the center of these ambitions is T-Mobile’s Magenta Marketing Platform which enables brands to hone their media targeting using IDs derived from data generated by the T-Mobile cellular network. Advertisers using the Magenta Marketing Platform can access the data, and audience targeting capabilities of up to 35 of Marketing Solutions’ partners to plan, implement and measure the effectiveness of their campaigns. How are they doing it? T-Mobile updated its privacy policy to automatically share subscribers’ data with third-party companies. While its subscribers are at liberty to opt-out at any time, get ready for a new era of opt-in privacy clauses from service providers who then repackage your data and sell it to the highest bidder.

Due to the pandemic, 2020 saw a 10% drop in ad spending. However, multiple industry forecasts are expecting an up to 22% growth and recovery in media ad revenue in 2021. In fact, the ad market is already beginning to see a surge; 56% in May following a 53% gain in April— the first year-over-year rebound from the pandemic-influenced advertising recession. With the additional expected growth, digital will account for 57% of all advertising in the U.S. So, what should your brand do to support your own growth with demand for media strong? 1. Start ramping up plans now, especially with connected TV, which is expected to make a full recovery and grow 8.7% according to forecasts. 2. If you are not using or testing podcasts, now is the time. Podcasts grew during the pandemic, even while people were not commuting, showing how strong they will continue to be. Brands in podcasts are seeing an exceptional return. 3. Go beyond podcasts in audio. Audio-based media outlets and platforms are projected to grow 25%. Spotify, Pandora and even terrestrial radio are priming for huge demand and brands who act first will benefit the most. If your brand is planning on new or increased budgets in the second half of 2021, the time is now to act.

It has been six years since the first Prime Day, Amazon’s infamous annual summer sale. We know the impact of Prime Day on Amazon spend and sales, but since its launch, Prime Day has impacted ad spend on other retail media networks. The retail media network boost spurred by Prime Day provides more options than ever on where and how we place ads. Here were the top tips for Prime Day strategies employed by brands in 2021: Because the dates for Prime Day are released only a few weeks ahead of time, the most successful brands had an ad spend reserved and ready to pull out of their back pocket when Amazon announced – there was no going to the CFO to ask for incremental dollars. With demand artificially increasing, the most successful brands also zeroes in on other retailers, such as Walmart, Target, Home Depot and Best Buy. These brands also recognized that upping their bids was not the smartest strategy – taking advantage of a lift in the tide was. The exception to this was when brands were intentionally sourcing new consumers from the competition. Be careful about how you ramp up and down for a summer sale moment. At the end of the day, it is not just about getting a transaction, but about creating strong loyalty from existing and new customers. When that conversion is made, your brand can remarket to that new customer and monetize the shopper IDs.

Exverus Media's Managing Director Talia Arnold lent her expertise on streaming ads to a Marketing Brew article on frequency caps. Learn what they are below: This news appeared in our weekly Paid Media Insights newsletter. For more tips, research, & analysis, subscribe for free here.

What Snapchat’s AR Adoption Means for Marketers Augmented Reality (AR) is set to become a core focus in the coming years for brands and opens the door to new marketing, communications, and discovery possibilities. No longer is AR just for gaming. Snapchat conducted a study on AR, and has big plans to become a key player. Why should marketers pay attention? Here’s what Snapchat uncovered in their report: AR is already influencing people's shopping process, with more than 100 million people currently shopping using AR-enabled processes, such as virtual try-on options and digital product placements. AR keeps consumers engaged with new, relevant content that engages with their real life environment, and helps them make strong, confident purchase decisions. There is a gap in the market. Most AR-focused apps include home goods, furniture sellers, and other retailers including Houzz, IKEA, Sephora, and Warby Parker. But as far as social media apps, Snapchat is the only social platform created with a strong foundation centered on AR. The consumer appetite for AR is already here, with consumers far more likely to pay attention to brands who adopt AR into their marketing strategy. As a brand, now is the time to meet the demand and gain success in this market share for the future and utilize existing platforms such as Snapchat, Houzz, IKEA, etc., to participate in AR. - Bill & Team Exverus

How to Tell if Ad Repetition is Hurting Your Brand With the rise and rapid growth of OTT platforms, added with the death of cookies, ad repetition has become a major issue noticed both by marketers and consumers. According to a survey by Deloitte, 50% of Americans said they were watching ad-supported video content (AVOD) in 2020—a figure that was 18% higher than in 2019. The bad news? Ad pods have emerged without any regard for frequency, resulting in increased ad redundancy. Ad redundancy has frustrated consumers, who then seek another service that will provide a better user experience. This means that not only are OTT platforms losing subscribers, but brands are losing security with target audiences. So, what can your brand do to help minimize ad repetition? Take a cue from Tubi, a San Francisco-based technology company that has developed tools and methods to help excessive ad repetition: Capping frequency at the campaign level regardless of demand source. Having visibility into the buy and what creative is running. Pinpointing households that are the same target and demographic but that have not been exposed through other channels. Consider utilizing similar target definitions across platforms and managing frequency on each platform to ensure people are not overloaded. The core thread between each solution is tied to improving the customer experience. The better the user experience, the more opportunities for advertisers and a happier target audience. Reduce your ad frequency and see an increase in efficiency.

3 New Ad Trends That are Shaking Up the Industry NBCUniversal announced new ad formats that will make commercials more interactive and give brands more engaged audiences. By understanding and taking cues from how consumers experience and interact with advertising within the digital landscape, TV can now progress with modern audiences. The three trends making it into your living room include: Shoppable TV Ads Shoppable ads, while well-known on social media, continue to make their way onto consumers’ TVs, offering a streamlined journey from the point of viewing to making a purchase. Users can scan an on-screen QR code with their phones to view a product or use a special offer code to make a purchase without them having to go elsewhere. Users Choosing What Ads to Watch In addition to the interactivity of shopping, a “Choose Your Destiny” approach lets consumers personalize their ad experiences. Users will vote in real-time, usually between three different options, for what brand creative they want to see next. Integrated Ads Platforms are beginning to offer a portion of the screen to appear as an ad during a commercial break to make transitions between shows and commercials seamless. An area where this is implemented well is live sports, where ads play while the viewer can see what is going on during a commercial break. Though none of the above trends are new, especially in the realm of digital advertising, these developments are exciting as TV marketers—not just digital marketers—will get to take advantage of its innovative ad formats, too.

Will TikTok Ever Push Past Gen Z? At the Interactive Advertising Bureau's NewFronts, the world's largest digital content showcase, TikTok pitched to advertisers and media buyers that their platform extends beyond Generation Z, which currently makes up over 60% of its users. The popular video-sharing app moves to sustain its user growth that exploded during the pandemic to other audiences. In fact, it's something TikTok already feels it's doing, reinforced by Nick Tran, TikTok's head of global marketing. "You can't get to the scale that we've reached without reaching almost everybody and having content for everybody. Even if [your brand] is trying to reach an older audience, they're all on the platform, they're engaging and being entertained by the diversity of content and the diversity of creators that we have." Does this remind you of the same conversation we were having about Facebook ten years ago? Distinguishing the brand TikTok went to great lengths to separate itself from the social media pack stating that its scrolling full-screen model and sound-enabled videos are more closely aligned with Netflix rather than Facebook or Twitter rivals. TikTok believes that the platform allows anyone to lean into storytelling, including brands, in a way that makes it feel akin to non-sponsored content. So, what are TikTok's next moves, and what does that mean for your brand? TikTok is blending paid and organic media in such a way that makes it feel akin to non-sponsored content, strengthening its statement as a streaming service rather than a social media platform. TikTok's mantra, "Don't make ads, make TikToks," continues to drive their goals to push beyond the Gen Z image. This is a challenge that all businesses should be trying to overcome. "When brands create content that looks and feels like a TikTok, people tune in and take action," TikTok said. The true goal should be for users to forget that they're even interacting with a brand's marketing strategy, and instead having a genuine, non-paid experience.

Scaling Brand Conversions With Pinterest Pinterest may not be the most popular social media platform, but with a massive boost in usage over the past year it has over 478 million monthly active users. Pinterest is more than a social underdog. Pinterest is often an underutilized tool that is relatively easy for brands to incorporate into their existing marketing strategies. Because of the nature of the platform, users seek out Pinterest as a way of shopping and discovery, often purchasing items and services directly. There is a huge opportunity for brands to win over new audiences and drive conversions. So, how can your business use Pinterest as a marketing tool to help improve brand awareness and conversions? Check out these four tips: Distribute your content The primary purpose people use Pinterest is for visual content. This makes the platform a solid place to distribute all kinds of non-audio content. And, unlike Instagram, users can click-through live links. The best part of this is that your company can also invite people to join your boards, which is a fantastic way to increase engagement and interaction. Build a community Like-minded people serve as a helpful hub for businesses, and Pinterest makes those people easy to find. Interact with potential customers to build a loyal community. Be sure to promote your Pinterest on other social accounts, use keywords and hashtags, and run paid ads to grow your following. Educate customers Looking through Pinterest, you are bound to come across a tutorial or infographic that includes additional links to educational content. Where is your brand a thought leader? Because of its visual nature, Pinterest is a powerful channel to educate and engage customers. Users will be exposed to your brand as a thought leader and expert. Drive website traffic and boost online sales As mentioned, Pinterest allows your brand to link your visual content to another site. This feature means that you can share both written and visual content and direct users back to your website all at the same time, boosting your online sales. Pinterest is a powerful marketing tool that is often overlooked. It can help you organically increase brand awareness, boost conversions, increase sales and create long-lasting relationships with your target audience, and is super powered when added to your brand’s paid media budgets.