tiktok

TikTok Launches New Business Solutions To Help SMEs in MENA

The short-video application has recently launched a set of new advertising solutions. TikTok strongly feels that these solutions will help the small and medium enterprises in the Middle East region. By using TikTok for business, these SMEs can grow their market and brand value.

TikTok has made sure that the new tool is easy to use, and it can help advertisers reach global audiences with their products. Since the small and medium businesses are severely affected by the COVID crisis, the platform with the new feature will help them cope with the issue to some extent.

The Back-to-Business credit plan includes a $100 million advertisement credit reserve for SMEs. This credit is devoted to rebuilding small businesses and brands. The credit is available for worldwide markets, including the MENA region as well.

Now, the TikTok business is equipped with self-service tools. These tools will help the advertisers in a step-by-step campaign creation process. As the application is known for its creative content by its users, the toolkit will help the advertisers to create unique advertising content.

Therefore, due to the extended reach to audiences, more brands realize the potential of advertising on this application platform. With the new toolkit in place, TikTok is going to attract more number of small and medium businesses.

“TikTok’s immersive, short-form videos give businesses a platform to participate and engage with a community known for its creativity, ingenuity, and joy,” said Blake Chandlee, Vice President, Global Business Solutions at TikTok.

Further, Blake stated, “As our marketing solutions scale and evolve, we’re continuously building for the future and aiming to meet the growing needs of our partners. We’re excited to continue supporting our community by providing the tools and resources for SMB owners to navigate these challenging times.”

In another statement issued by Shant Oknayan, General Manager of Global Business Solutions MENA:

“The MENA region is a big focus for TikTok’s efforts in the Small and Medium Businesses space. SMBs play a vital role in communities across the region, and we are working very hard to ensure that those businesses can leverage the power of the platform to further build brands in a new, authentic, and engaging way. Brands will also have the flexibility to expand their reach beyond the current media ecosystem and tap into those consumers and opinion leaders that cannot be reached on other platforms.”

The TikTok’s self-service toolkit is available globally:

With the help of a simple interface, the TikTok AdManager toolkit for business empowers all businesses including SMEs. However, creative tools make it even easier for advertisers.

Key features of the product include:

Creative tool: The creative toolkit helps the advertisers to unleash their skills. These tools help the advertisers match the innovative standards of the application and its users. With the help of TikTokAdStudio, brands can tell their stories and can portray the most authentic version of their brand to the audiences.

Flexibility in the budget: The budget flexibility helps different businesses set a budget for achieving different goals.

Performance targeting: The advertisers will be able to target their audiences smartly and effectively. The toolkit assures them of reaching the right audience.

Business accounts: Additive tools will be featured along with the business account. The toolkit will come handy with some additional customization features. These features will give the advertisers a glimpse of engagement with the audience and performance analysis.

Back-to-business program, available worldwide to the users.

The program will provide a $100 million advertising credit to small businesses. The small businesses are greatly affected during this epidemic lock-down. Therefore, the advertising fund will help the users to rebuild their market and get back on their feet in the business.

Small businesses are the backbone of every economy. The advertisement and marketing will help them to get back into the business.

Any small business can apply for this credit. The credit can be availed by applying on the website, under back to business.

India Shook China: Banned 59 Major Chinese Mobile Applications

In a recent decision taken by the Indian government, 59 Chinese mobile applications will be banned, in India. The list of 59 applications included some major, names from the market. TikTok, which had a higher share of its business in the Indian market, is included in this list.

It would be interesting to know that in 2019, when TikTok was briefly banned, in India, ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok reportedly lost more than $500,000 daily. The User share of TikTok has increased tremendously since then in the Indian market. Therefore, the news must have come as a disaster for the company.

The Indian government took this decision after the Indian intelligence informed the government about the potential risk of security from these applications.

Since the brutal face-off between the Chinese and Indian army in the “Galwan Ghati“, a place in Ladakh, the air is stiff between both the countries.

In a press release following statement was issued by the government stating, “The Ministry of Information Technology, invoking its power under section 69A of the Information Technology Act read with the relevant provisions of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules 2009 and in view of the emergent nature of threats has decided to block 59 apps since in view of the information available they are engaged in activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, the security of the state and public order”. 

The press release further mentioned, “The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN) has also received many representations from citizens regarding the security of data and breach of privacy impacting upon public order issues,” 

It clearly stated that this move is to “safeguard the interests of crores of Indian mobile and internet users”.

Since the tension in Ladakh, the anger against TikTok and other Chinese application/equipment was seen, in the Indian market.

The rating of the application started falling continuously on the platform after the incident took place. On Apple store, the Chinese app used to rank in the top-5 free applications which later dropped down to 10th place in the ranking.

Similarly, TikTok saw a fall in ranking on the Google Play store and slipped from third to the fifth position in India, still managed to stay in the top 10 free applications.

It is not just the country of India, which banned the Chinese application!

Taiwan also banned a few Chinese applications due to security concern. However, in Germany, Zoom was restricted for the usage, Including other apps.

Robert O’Brian, the US national security advisor, has clearly stated that the Chinese applications are used as a weapon by the Communist Party of China(CPC) to spread its ideology across the globe.

The younger generation grew highly fond of this Chinese application. The application has this younger fan base not only in India but also in countries like the US and China.

TikTok, the highest downloaded app, had more than 2-billion users. India turned out to be the largest contributor in this success, contributing 611 million user downloads.

According to the report by sensor tower, the Chinese application grew in popularity during the lockdown phase in this epidemic.

The list of 59 Chinese mobile apps included:

1. TikTok
2. Shareit
3. Kwai
4. UC Browser
5. Baidu map
6. Shein
7. Clash of Kings
8. DU battery saver
9. Helo
10. Likee
11. YouCam makeup
12. Mi Community
13. CM Browers
14. Virus Cleaner
15. APUS Browser
16. ROMWE
17. Club Factory
18. Newsdog
19. Beauty Plus
20. WeChat
21. UC News
22. QQ Mail
23. Weibo
24. Xender
25. QQ Music
26. QQ Newsfeed
27. Bigo Live
28. SelfieCity
29. Mail Master
30. Parallel Space
31. Mi Video Call Xiaomi
32. WeSync
33. ES File Explorer
34. Viva Video QU Video Inc
35. Meitu
36. Vigo Video
37. New Video Status
38. DU Recorder
39. Vault- Hide
40. Cache Cleaner DU App studio
41. DU Cleaner
42. DU Browser
43. Hago Play With New Friends
44. Cam Scanner
45. Clean Master Cheetah Mobile
46. QQ Security Center
47. Wonder Camera
48. Photo Wonder
49. QQ Player
50. We Meet
51. Sweet Selfie
52. Baidu Translate
53. QQ International
54. Vmate
55. QQ Launcher
56. U Video
57. V fly Status Video
58. Mobile Legends
59. DU Privacy

Google Removed TikTok Clone Zynn From Playstore!

Is Google Playing Partial By Favouring TikTok?

Recently, Google removed Zynn from Google play store. Zynn was a successful competitor and a clone of TikTok.

Although, the reason provided by Google for removing the app was the copyright issues. Recently, several incidents have been registered, where Google is seen favoring TikTok in different ways.

 Zynn was a clone of TikTok. Hence, Zynn had similar policies and interface, also that of TikTok.

TikTok rival companies created Zynn to compete against TikTok. In a short period, Zynn was gaining huge success. It was nominated as the best application on play store and was among top 10 free applications on Google play store.

Zynn provided money to its users for signing up, watching videos and referrals to friends.
It’s not just the first incidence where Google favored TikTok.

In another incident, due to a dispute between members of the YouTube community and TikTok, the rating of TikTok fell to 1.2 on Google play store.

Users started reporting TikTok and reviewing it with one-star ratings. Soon, Google decided to intervene. Hence, it leads to deletion of user ratings of millions of users. Due to this, TikTok ratings resurfaced to 4.4.

According to Google, the reviews posted mostly came from fake accounts. Although, it is interesting to know that there are millions of fake accounts working on Google play store raise a question on the security front.

Google just didn’t stop there! Soon after deleting the reviews, Google deleted “Mitron”.

Mitron launched in India to compete with TikTok. Mitron was a huge success, as it gained a user rating of 4.4 with 5 million users.

However, Google decided to bring down the application.

The reason provided by Google for removing Mitron was related to its poor functionality.

According to Google, Mitron violated its spam policy. They stated that the application didn’t fulfil the minimum functionality policy. Also had repetitive content, and failed to produce any original content of its own.

Certainly, India contributes a huge user database on Chinese application, TikTok.

Recently, due to the current pandemic events, people of India decided to boycott Chinese products. Several actions were taken in the process. People made sure that the boycott proves to be successful.

Soon, Twitter flashed with the hashtag of #BoycottChineseProducts. As a result, people started uninstalling Chinese applications, on their devices. This led to the creation of an application. This application was capable of determining the Chinese application installed on phones.

However, Google stepped up and took down the application.

According to Google, no application can insist on people to remove other application from their devices.

Google’s policy reads, “We don’t allow apps that attempt to deceive users or enable dishonest behavior including but not limited to apps which are determined to be functionally impossible. Apps must provide an accurate disclosure, description, and images/video of their functionality in all parts of the metadata and should perform as reasonably expected by the user. Apps must not attempt to mimic functionality or warnings from the operating system or other apps. Any changes to device settings must be made with the user’s knowledge and consent and be easily reversible by the user.”

OneTouchAppLabs an Indian startup developed the application. The company confirmed on twitter that the application doesn’t ask people to remove applications on their mobiles. The purpose of the application was to educate people.

In just a period of 10 days, the “remove china application” gained huge success. Millions of people downloaded the application. However, the people who have installed the application can keep using the application, but no new users will be able to download the application.

According to a cybersecurity expert: “The app scan focused on the installed android application package (APK) only. Hence, it doesn’t affect any change in stored personal data.”

After monitoring the current scenarios, It is difficult to understand the roleplay of Google.

It is difficult to decide if Googles’ decisions are effective? Or is it using its policies to favor TikTok, to create a TikTok monopoly in the market?

How To Advertise Effectively On TikTok- Process And Costs Laid Out.

Even though marketers are always discussing to run ads on TikTok, but only a handful of them can do that. The situation has gone even worse during the period of recession.

The cost to run an ad to reach 1000 audience is $8 in the UK. Also, The minimum advertisement budget has to be at least $25,000. Looking at this amount you can guess that this platform is not for those who are looking forward to advertising cheap. However, those who are willing to spend this fortune will have the luxury of advertising on this platform.

The advertisement on TikTok comes into the premium category and it is managed by the sales team of TikTok. They make sure that the advertisement is unique and catchy and worth the hefty price paid by the advertiser. This results in uniqueness and quality of content gaining worthy audience. Hence, they can’t be compared to the misguided ad-campaigns on Snapchat and Instagram.

Recently, TikTok shared a rate card with the media in the UK.

The Takeover ads.

These type of ads are generally portrayed to the audience as a start-up ad. The time frame of this ad consist of 3-5 seconds.
For each category, only one advertiser can put an ad, for a day. This ad costs around $53,000 per day and is used to buy 8.9 million impressions.

A Topview ad.

This ad appears as a start-up ad when the application starts. The ad can usually last up to 60-seconds. These advertisements also contain sound.
The cost to run this advertisement is $65,000 per day. It will help advertisers to reach 7.4 million impressions. A Takeover ad can be converted to a Topview ad if the advertiser is willing to pay the difference in the amount.

In-Feed video (Maximum for one-day).

The usual time duration for these ads is 15-seconds. They are shown in video feeds of the user and usually appear in the fourth feed. To reach 3.6 million impressions with these an advertiser has to pay $26,000.

Brand Premium In-Feed videos.

This type of ad on TikTok can cost an approximate of $25,000. These ads are randomly placed in the feeds of user are shown after every 130th feed a user completes.

The Hashtag Challenge.

The Hashtag challenge is quite popular on the TikTok. A user can create a video and post it under a hashtag. This hashtag works as a challenge for others. It will challenge them to compete with the video content by posting similar content in a better manner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q3a7BSAJ5A#action=share

The advertiser can add their voice-over to the hashtag or they can simply add a piece of official music. This format includes both, One day ads and brand takeovers. The cost of this format of advertisement is $130,000. Features of this advertisement include Special content protection, Banner, personalized hashtag and their challenge page.

The Hashtag Challenge+

By paying an additional fee ($130,000+$30,000=$16,000), an advertiser can upgrade their ad to Hashtag challenge plus. The advertiser gets all the features of Hashtag Challenge, besides, they can direct people to their app or store within the application.

The Branded Effect.

An advertiser can attach 2D animated lenses and a user can use lens by their hand or face movements. Tik-Tok creative team created this effect. The cost of this format of advertising is $45,000 for a time frame of 30-days.

Even though all these options may seem costly to a new advertiser, they can take a test drive with cheaper options available. Maybe, that is the reason so many brands and influencers are collaborating to advertise the product on Tik-Tok.

Jide Maduako, the CEO of Yoke Network said, “Influencers are the only way to advertise on TikTok because all the best viral content on the platform is made by them.”

Image Credit – influencermarketingh.

He also stated, “Advertisers need to be paying closer attention to the consistency of views of influencers. It’s a strong indicator as to how successful your video will be when brokering deals.”

 

The following information is provided by TikTok regarding the creator package.

The Mid-tier package.

The package can consist of a total of five-creators, all of them will have a minimum of million followers on the application. The cost of the advertisement with the help of influencers is $12,000.

The Top-tier package.

The number of creator or influencer will remain the same(five) as of the Mid-tier package. However, influencers will have followers between 1 million to 5 million. The package will cost $35,000.

The Value Hybrid package.

The package will include a total of five influencers. Among them two will be from the Top-tier and Three will be from the Mid-tier. The cost of the package will be $20,000.

The Premium Hybrid Package.

With Premium Hybrid Package You will get one “VIP” influencer and two of each(mid and top tier) influencers. The package will cost $30,000.

Influencers Share Their Secret to Earning Big Bucks on Social Media

Key Insights

• Affiliate marketing and paid advertising are one of the top revenue sources but the real bread and butter of influencer income is brand sponsorships reveals a survey of 69 digital stars by Influencer.co
• The survey results were gathered at the beginning of 2020, before the pandemic that has changed the consumer and digital landscape.
• The result highlighted that influencers have diversified income sources and can help them earn even in an economic downturn.

 

A goal is a dream with a deadline.

– Napoleon Hill

 

Making a living out of online business is a dream that is now achievable. For many, it is a dream turned reality but with a fair share of struggles. A survey of 69 influencers conducted earlier this year by influencer platform Influence.co highlighted myriad ways available for creators to make big money in 2020.

The results gathered before the pandemic outbreak reveals Brand sponsorship as the top moneymaker with 78% of creators calling it the main source of income. 58% of creators highlight paid advertising like YouTube AdSense also amongst the top three sources of income. However, this category has been dropped off recently as advertiser demand has run down due to the pandemic.

However, influencers have leaned on alternate revenue streams and moved away from sponsored posts as brands have paused/postponed influencer campaigns in 2020. 41% of survey respondents have named commission-based revenue as a key income driver followed by affiliate marketing (39%). Respondents also pointed to physical merchandise (26%)  as one of the top income sources.

These are income sources where influencers are paid a fee for e-commerce sales that they drive from their social accounts. 

Below is the breakdown of income sources that is listed by influencers as primary revenue sources in the survey.

1. Brand Sponsorships (78%)

78% of influencers surveyed listed brand sponsorships as a primary source of income.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BYwIRyWgHqY/?utm_source=ig_embed

H&M has the largest followings as women reflect H&M style all by themselves as a part of the influencer campaign. H&M partnered for its fall 2017 collection with two influencers -fashion blogger Julie Sariñana and model Ela Velden. Sariñana promoted the clothes on her own Instagram account as she loved them.

Brand sponsorships are mostly sponsored posts on social platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. The most reliable way of making money and the main source of income has taken a hit in the last few months mainly because:

• Advertisers have trimmed their budget to save costs.
• Brands are facing economic headwinds caused by the pandemic.

As reported by Business Insider, the frequency of sponsored posts has dropped down on Instagram and 22% of creators have lowered their rates due to slow demand. 

As this category is affected by the economic downturn, brands are partnering with influencers to conduct live streaming as consumers at-home interest in real-time videos have spiked.

2. Paid Ads (58%)

The second-highest source of income listed by influencers in the survey with 58%.

 

Influencers can directly earn through ads that play in their videos across platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.

Instagram says that Live creators have seen a 70% increase in video views during the pandemic. It now prepares to launch new tools that enable video creators to earn money that includes badges that viewers can purchase during Live Instagram videos and the introduction of IGTV ads. 

YouTube’s Partner Program allows influencers to earn money by placing ad breaks within the content on their channel. Ad revenue earned directly through Google placed ads is the main source of revenue and the rate YouTube pays creators depends on factors like video watch time. And viewer demographics. And if a video climbs millions of views then creators receive a big check from YouTube.

For instance, YouTube creator Groth told Business Insider that normally his channel earns $9 and $12 for every 1,000 views. BI also reported that YouTube creators earned from $3600 to $40,000 off a video with 1 million views.

3. Commissions (41%) and affiliate marketing (39%)

Affiliate marketing has been a popular source of income for influencers and 41% of influencers surveyed pointed out commission on sales as a top source of income.

Another popular revenue source for influencers.- fashion and lifestyle influencers on Instagram, Tech reviewers on YouTube, and media publishers like The New York Times that generates affiliate income on its review site, The Wirecutter.com

In this type of arrangement, creators can earn a commission on sales made through a promotional code and affiliate marketing where they promote products with a trackable link. 

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BZQolWBB5Eu/?utm_source=ig_embed

 

In March 2020, the category saw a rise in revenue as many companies shifted their focus to e-commerce sales due to lockdown policies whereas April was a mixed bag as some brands like Walmart, Victoria Secret suspended their services.

4. Event Appearances (29%)

Event Appearances and Speaking engagements are big revenue streams for some YouTube creators who have diversified their businesses.

A recent college grad and YouTube creator Ruby Asabor (170,000 subscribers) have presented for events of universities like NYU and Rutgers in the US. She is a motivational speaker and recently many events and tours have been canceled owing to the pandemic. She explains in her video how the business has changed due to coronavirus and events are postponed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlG26M1a2gk

5. Physical- Merchandise sales (26%)

26% of the influencers points out physical merchandise sales as a source of revenue. The ‘merch’ trend has picked up in recent years. While some have built online direct sales to consumers and others have partnered with retailers like Walmart and others.

Blippi is a popular YouTube star who makes educational videos and has more than 21 million subscribers. The man behind the creation is Stevin John. Recently, Jazwares LLC which makes toys has created a line of items “My Buddy Blippi” which includes figures, plush toys, and toy vehicles. It aims at helping children count or learn colors by putting accessories inside numbered or colored boxes. The products will be released through Walmart and Amazon.

The North Start for the toy industry is Ryan Kaji, an 8-year-old who is the face of YouTube channel ‘Ryan’s World.’ According to Pocket. Watch, retail sales for Ryan-branded products had hit $200 million in 2019.  

6. Digital Product Sales (16%):

Fitness influencers on Instagram and YouTube witnessed a spike in engagement and direct-to-consumer sales due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Many fitness influencers sell fitness digital membership programs in the form of app or classes or websites. For instance, Rachel Brathen, aka Yoga Girl, is a Swedish yoga teacher and a New York Times’ best-selling author. She leverages her Instagram account to preach and encourages yoga lifestyle and sell classes from anywhere in the world.

As reported by Business Insider, a fashion stylist, and influencer, Audree Kate Lopez has nearly 30,000 followers and conducts an online course Fashion Fundamentals for college students.

7. Followers donations(6%)

Many influencers receive donations or gifts via live streaming through membership platforms and social media platforms respectively. Take a look:

• Influencers receive donations from followers through Patreon or Buy me Coffee.
• TikTok, Twitch also has features to donate to influencers in real-time.
• In April, Facebook announced the rollout of its star monetization program, where fans can send virtual stars to a live-streaming creator worth $0.01 each.
• YouTube content company launched the “FBE Super” Membership program using Patreon’s Memberful platform. It offers three paid tiers for fans to contribute either $5,$10, or $15 a month to receive exclusive live streams, discounts, or an opportunity to be cast in episodes.

 

Read more: 26 Stellar Video (YouTube) Advertising Examples To Take Creative Inspiration From!

TikTok Helped UNICEF Gather Funds of $200,000 for the Welfare of Children –

Key Insights:

• The global leader in short mobile videos inspired its community to raise awareness and funds for UNICEF in the latest challenge #JoyOfGiving.
• According to UNICEF analysis, 99% of children and young people under 18 are vulnerable and support disproportionately.
• The challenge was run during the holy month of Ramadan and received an overwhelming response with over 2.3 million views and achieving the donation goal of $200,000.
• TikTok hosted a number of celebrities and regional content creators in 17 thought-provoking live sessions.
• The funds will be utilized by UNICEF to deliver crucial resources and relief to children across the MENA region. 

In recent times, TikTok has partnered with UNICEF MENA (the Middle East and North Africa)  to help the community gather information about COVID-19 and its preventive measures.

Background

UNICEF is on frontlines worldwide with responders in this pandemic and provides them information and resources to keep children healthy and safe from sickness and violence. TikTok, a pioneer in short mobile videos with its latest challenge #JoyOfGiving is raising awareness and funds for UNICEF’s mission.

Be Smart: According to UNICEF analysis, the children and young people are vulnerable to coronavirus and urgent action can ensure that children don’t feel the impact of the COVID-19 crisis in the decades to come.

Details: The challenge #JoyOfGiving ran during Ramadan, the month of giving, invited TikTok’s community of content creators to help in the donation drive by participating in 17 thought-provoking Live sessions. 

The campaign received an overwhelming response with over 2.3 million views, easily achieving the donation goal of raising $200,000. UNICEF will utilize these funds to deliver relief and resources to the children and affected communities across the MENA region.

The intrigue: TikTok hosted several celebrities and regional content creators like Yara (@yara), Balqees Fathi (@balqeesfathi), Khalid, and Salama Al Ameri (@khalidandsalama), Carmen Soliman (@carmensoliman), and Raya Abirached (@rayaofficial) for interactive sessions. 

The session focused on UNICEF initiatives to provide essential supplies to children and personal experiences during COVID-19.

UNICEF Mena hosted live sessions on its TikTok page featuring renowned musician and composer Jad Rahbani and senior nutrition advisor Vilma Taylor.

The bottom line: The #JoyOfGiving challenge is an initiative by TikTok for the MENA region to spread positivity in adverse times and raise awareness of the critical issues.

Read on: Dubizzle Launches Their Own Self-served Advertising Platform 

Is Zynn, A Clone Of TikTok, Set To Dominate The Market? Certainly Looks Like So!

From a period, TikTok market is suffering from a lot of negativity. After being criticized for its user data policies in the US, the TikTok market is facing a downfall in its active user database in India. Several of its accounts have been suspended, as complaints have been filed against them for posting unethical content. Now, TikTok is facing a challenge due to the #BycottChineseProduct revolution in the Indian market.

Even in its own country of origin, Its problem doesn’t seem to end. TikTok is facing tough competition within its country bounds. Recently, Zynn, which is a replica of TikTok is making its way on the top charts of Google Playstore and Apple store.

Zynn has been ranked as the number one application in the free app category on Apple store. Whereas, it is among the top 10 applications on Google play store.

Zynn is a doppelganger of TikTok! Every aspect of Zynn is similar to that of TikTok, even they have a similar user interface. The only difference is, it pays its user to watch a video, refer to friends and even just to sign up.
This is also a USP which keeps Zynn ahead of its competitors.

The only distinct feature of Zynn interface is the dollar sign, appearing on the screen. The “$” sign appears on the left-hand top corner, it also acts as a timer for the video.

The moment a user starts watching a video, the dollar sign gets filled with colour. Once the video is complete, and the sign is filled, it gets added into your credit points. The user can redeem these points, and convert them to gift cards or cash.

There is no personal proof of the redeeming of cash and gift card. Although, there are some YouTube videos which claim to have received the balance in their account. They show their bank statements, confirming the above statement.

Zynn didn’t appear from non-existence. Zynn is a byproduct of the competitive market of China. It is launched and promoted due to an ongoing rivalry of tech companies in China.

Kuaishou, a well-funded start-up running the biggest video apps, created Zynn. To promote Zynn, they used the same payment technique used by Douyin. Douyin is a Chinese version of TikTok.

Zynn supports in-app advertisement purchase. It is its only source of income. Currently, as per the reports they are not selling advertisement in the US.

Recently, Zynn received a hefty investment, amount of $2 billion. Tencent a Chinese tech giant invested this amount in Zynn. Tencent is also a creator of Wechat which is the most popular Instant messenger in China.

The report posted by The Information, in December stated that the investment was made to “contain the threat of ByteDance,” the creator of TikTok and Douyin.

Following are some of the reasons responsible for the quick growth of Zynn in the market:

1.  It pays its user an approx of ($0.12), to watch a few minutes video.
2. Secondly, the application provides you with money for every referral.
3. Big brand promotion can provide up to $110. If you make five people sign up, and they keep using the application continuously.
4. The brand obtains its data from Kuaishou, hence, the application is pre-loaded with videos.

A report states that most of the video uploaded on Zynn are from Kuaishou database. Zynn is slowly attracting people to leave TikTok and shift to its database.

After downloading, you can directly start watching the videos. Though, If you are willing to earn rewards you must sign up first.

Also, you must know that you can’t create a direct account with Zynn. It has to be either with Facebook, Gmail or Twitter. it will verify your phone number, and in case of failed verification, you won’t be able to sign up.

It requests access to the device location. However, you can deny it. You also have to attach your Paypal account for the payments you will receive.

Guide On EVERY Type Of Digital Ad Out There. Case Studies Included.

What is Digital Advertising?

Digital advertising, paid advertising, or paid marketing is an online advertising model for advertisers to target potential buyers based on their interests or intent. This Digital Advertising took birth on October 27, 1994, when the online magazine ‘Hotwired’ decided to set aside a portion of its website for advertisers to raise some money. The banner ad space had a message in rainbow font, “Have you ever clicked your mouse right here? You will.” From 1994 to 2020, digital advertising has come a long way. In 2021, the amount spent on worldwide digital advertising is estimated to touch USD 375 billion (emarketer report estimates) with Google, Facebook, and Amazon, the three largest advertising platforms contributing to 43% of the market share. Here we have provided 10 best digital advertising ideas in 2020 post coronavirus (COVID-19) but be prepared to make changes in your sales funnel to meet global digital challenges. Digital advertisers get ready for a new normal in digital advertising in 2020. After all, change is the only constant in life.

Increase in Online Spending Over the Years

Ad spending in the digital advertising market has been showing an upward rise since 2018. From USD 283 billion in 2018, it is expected to reach around USD 517 billion in 2023.

The Importance of Digital Advertising

There is a wealth of available data to impact your online advertising decisions. With digital spends getting closer to traditional ad spends, it’s without doubt, every company or brand must have a strong online presence. Very large companies with more than USD 10 billion in annual revenue spend around 11.6% and companies with annual revenues between USD 500 million to USD 1 billion spend around 8.5% of their marketing budget on digital advertising.  Some of the 2019 big digital ad spenders are Comcast (USD 5.75 billion), Proctor & Gamble (USD 4.39 billion), Amazon (USD 3.38 billion), AT&T (USD 3.52 billion) and Samsung Electronics (USD 2.41 billion). While on one hand, ad spending increased, on the other hand, the demand was augmented by the addition of ad platforms.

 

• More money is being spent on digital v/s traditional advertising channels with digital ad spend expected to reach 60.5% of total media ad spending by 2022.
• India’s digital ad spend grew at a rate of 24% (2018 to 2019), becoming the fastest-growing digital advertising market in the world, followed by Russia at 22.5%. Both are home to large populations of increasingly digital and mobile users.
• Marketing budgets range from 8% to 16% of total revenue (B2B Products 8.6%, B2B Services 8.7%, B2C Products 9.8%, and B2C Services 15.6%).
• In many countries, 85 percent of internet users are accessing the internet on mobiles.

Types of Digital Advertising

There are different types of digital advertising available to a company or product or brand. The best ad campaigns are often a mix of two or more types of paid marketing or digital advertising. From Display Ads to SEO to PPC and more, here are the top 10 online advertising options available to a digital advertiser to execute a winning ad campaign.

1. Display Advertising

What is display advertising?

Online display advertising means advertising a company or a product on websites. Display advertisements run across any website that wishes to monetize their content by selling ad space on their page. Display ads are mostly image-based ads shown on web pages within the Google Display Network (GDN is a network of websites that allow space on their web pages for Google Ads) or on a search result page. It is used to redirect the user’s attention to the company’s product. Display ads can be paid for based on three different metrics: cost per thousand impressions (CPM), cost per click (CPC), and cost per action (CPA), also known as cost per conversion.

How is the Display ad used?

Online display ads on a website, can be on the top, bottom, or right side of a page depending on the web page layout. The types of online display ads are banners, landing pages (LP’s), and popups. The types of banner ads online that appear on Google Display Network are Flash, animated GIF, and Static Banners. The most popular Display ad options are Google Shopping (allows shoppers to browse a variety of products based on their search query) and App Campaigns. The types of online Display Ads include Overlay ads, Interstitial ads, Rich Media ads, and 360° Display Ads.  Display advertising and paid search advertising are the two most used forms of online advertising.

Why is display advertising important?

• Display ads are more affordable and reach a larger audience. They are used by advertisers to promote clothes, hotel chains, public events, etc.
• Website visitors who are re-targeted with display ads are 70% more likely to convert on your website.
• Display network offers advertisers contextual targeting by keywords, placement targeting by sites, topic targeting by relevance and demographic targeting based on age, gender, preferences, location and language.
• 90% of agencies and marketers believe that display ads help with branding.
• It leads to increased website traffic, and increased sales.
• These display ads can be effectively used by businesses of all sizes.

Coke’s most successful Display Ad case study

When Coca-Cola’s popularity decreased among Millennials, the brand developed the ‘Share A Coke’ campaign specifically for a Mexican audience to raise awareness and increase sales and brand love. For the campaign, Coca-Cola found the top 100 searches on YouTube and created short ads with the names of the most-searched artists, athletes, and trending YouTubers. 

Coca-Cola’s website received almost two million visits during the campaign, and more than 51 percent of them came from mobile devices. View KPIs increased by 4,000 percent, and the cost per view decreased to 2 percent ofthe initial estimated budget. Additional metrics included

• 1.7 million users reached
• 81 million media impressions on display
• 175 million social media views
• 3.2 million views for the TV commercial
• CTV average of 3.98 percent during the campaign
• 80 percent of target reached
• 51 percent of website traffic from mobile devices
• 44 percent of Mexico shared a Coke
• Awareness increased 11%

 

2. Native Advertising

What is Native Advertising

Native Advertising called ‘recommended content’ or ‘promoted stories’ is a monetized type of advertising on a website except slightly differing from display ads in a way that attempts to mimic the format of the publisher’s content. Native advertising comprises 6 main types of ads online: in-feed (which is ad units in a content stream), recommended links, sponsored search results, promoted product listings, traditional display banners with native content, and custom integration. Most of the native pricing is on CPM basis for the campaigns.

How is the Native ad used?

Since Native advertising is designed specifically not to look like an ad, it is almost everywhere and hard to ignore. It’s designed to look like and blend with the rest of the content on the page. As a result, users interact 20-60% more with native ads than traditional banner ads. As per Google Ads, in the last four years, the search for native ads has been growing in numbers. You may notice this ad type at the bottom of a blog or a FB post. It could appear as ‘recommendations’ or ‘other people also liked’ with suggested examples for users to click on.

Why use Native Advertising?

The in-feed content in Native advertising, can include videos, animations, or carousels of images. When native ads take on the looks of the content around it, they actually become non-disruptive ads. They are found in social media in the form of sponsored posts. Also, since these ads are interactive they are the best for brand building through trust by engaging with a customer. It is an up-coming ad type mostly used by new media companies. Today native ads constitute about 20% of all advertising revenue.

The Native ad case study

• Campaign:  Asian Beauties from Neverblue
• Ad Copy: Would you date an Asian Woman?
• Campaign period: Mar 30, 2019 – Apr 7, 2019
• GEO: USA
• Total spent: $934
• Total Revenue: $1397
• Net profit: $463
• ROI: 50%

 

The advertiser worked in two stages:

– In the first stage he started with a CPC campaign to get at least 50 impressions for each ad zone. After that, added these zones to the blacklist regardless of the CTR (by clicking Zone Limitation «Exclude» in the account settings) to redirect traffic to zones that weren’t tested yet. Started with $50 and got $58 for 11 conversions. So, the profit was $8. Then decided to scale this campaign to CPM.

– In the second stage he created a CPM campaign and targeted zones with the CTR higher than 0.7% (Zone limitation “Include” in the personal account). Then he blacklisted all the under performing zones. After all the testing, he had 8 zones, with two of them generating 80% of the profit. He spent $884 and got $1339 for 255 conversions. The profit — $455

3. Search Advertising

What is Search Advertising?

Search advertising or search engine marketing (SEM), or Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is the process of advertising on search engines. Search ads are text ads displayed on Google’s search result page. Worldwide Google handles over 75,000 search queries per second. It enjoys a worldwide ranking as #1 search engine, ahead of its competitors Yahoo, Bing, and Baidu. Thereby, moving up one spot in Google’s search results can increase CTRs by up to 30.8%. Google shows your ad in the same format as other search results except that it earmarks it as an ‘Ad’. SEM is mostly combined with SEO (Search Engine Optimization is the organic and not paid form of advertising. Here, advertisers use SEO tactics, like creating keyword-friendly content, back linking, meta descriptions, etc.).

How is the Search Advertising used?

There are two search ads formats, viz. text ads and product listing ads.

• Text ads appear as ‘Ad’ above or on the right side of an organic search.
• Product listing ads (PLAs) mostly seen on e-commerce websites, show the image, price, description and link of your product when a potential customer is searching for a product based on a keyword.

These advertisements are found on search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. They are purchased based on the most relevant keywords a potential buyer uses to search for a product or service. However, recent shifts in PPC strategies are showing an increase in PLAs and ‘Semantic search’ (find meaning and or intent in the words) slowly replacing a direct keyword search.

Why search advertising?

• Paid search advertising allows advertisers to place their products/service in front of people who are already looking for the product/service.
• Since the ad is shown to potential customers who are searching for a similar product or service, there is a high chance of the user clicking on your product and converting it into a sale.
• With Google searches at 3.5 billion per day, search ads reach a larger target audience.

Case study of a Search Advertisement

• Client: Automotive Industry
• Goals: Reduce cost per sale from Google AdWords & Reduce monthly spend while generating more online sales.

The advertiser began with identifying the highest value conversion points, restructuring the account to only target keywords and products that would best drive the selected conversions. By understanding the way consumers buy, they could target consumers looking for specific products. They allocated an additional budget towards increasing the bids, to increase the average search position, earn a larger click share, and win the highest value auctions.

The Results:

• Increased Online Sales by 73% vs. prior year
• Deduced Cost Per Sale by 57% vs. prior year

 

4. Social Media Advertising

What is Social Media Advertising?

Social advertising is the use of social media sites to run an advertising campaign. By Q4 of 2019, the total number of social media users had crossed earlier estimates to reach 2.95 billion users worldwide. In 2020, that number is expected to surpass 3 billion.

How is the Social Media advertising used?

As per a recent study by Statista, the social media advertising segment amounts to USD 105,863 million in 2020 and is expected to have an annual growth rate (CAGR 2020-2024) of 6.0%, resulting in a market volume of USD 133,756 million by 2024 (not taking into account the recent coronavirus (COVID-19) implications on global trade).

The Social Media Platforms available for Advertising        

Most marketers are using platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter in their marketing campaigns.

The other emerging platform is TikTok with 500 million active users worldwide. As per CNET, by end 2019, TikTok crossed 1.5 billion downloads, becoming the third most downloaded non-gaming app of the year, after WhatsApp and Messenger. Facebook and Instagram followed in fourth and fifth places. While grocery retailer Kroger was the first to run an ad campaign on TikTok, famous brands like TacoBell are now using TikTok.

Social ads charge advertisers on a CPC, CPM and other basis. However, the pricing will depend on the different types of ads like photo ads, video ads, stories ads, carousel ads, slideshow ads, messenger ads, collection ads, snap ads, tweet ads, sponsored content, etc. Here is a quick cost comparison between the three top platforms to give you an overall idea of pricing but of course your company, your product and your brand will determine the ad budget and the social media platform allocation to maximize the profits and return on investment (ROI).

Why is advertising on social media sites important?

• 97% of marketers use social media.
• 78% of marketers using Social Media outsell their peers.
• Social Media ads help to build brand awareness.
• The social media ad spend has risen to USD 89 billion in 2019.
• It helps to build a clientele henceforth bettering Brand Loyalty.
• Improves conversion rate.
• Reduces marketing costs as it is cheaper than traditional marketing.
• Rise in search engine rankings.

Case Study of Bajaj V’s Social Media Ad

• Campaign: SonsOfVikrant
• Objective: Promote Bajaj V – The Nation’s Bike

A ten day social media campaign run by Bajaj Automobiles, touched the minds and hearts of the whole nation as INS Vikrant one of India’s aircraft carriers was scrapped and its steel was melted and used to create the Bajaj V.

Result: Bajaj V gained 0.7 Million USD worth of free media coverage in just one week of the launch. It created 160 million impressions, reaching out to 32 million overall. And the most important one, Bajaj sold 11,000 bikes on the first day of launch. It got 984,862 views on Youtube and more than 23,000 views on Facebook.

5. Video Advertising

What is video advertising?

Video advertising is a process of running online display ads that have video within them to promote a company, product or website. These ads play before, during or after a video stream on the internet. 57% of marketers are now including video marketing in their digital marketing strategy. 

How is the Video advertising used?

There are different video ad formats. The main ad formats used by YouTube, the largest video hosting platform, include TrueView Ads, Non-skippable video Ads, Bumper Ads, Outstream Ads, YouTube Masthead Ads. For more details, read about YouTube here. Video ads can be purchased on a cost per mille (CPM) basis, but are also typically priced on a cost per view (CPV) basis, allowing advertisers to pay for the ad only if someone watches or interacts with it. 

 Why is video advertising gaining popularity?

• Being the most engaging form of online content, video ads have higher recall.
• Video will remain a key driver of advertising expenditures on display, projected to account for 31% of overall display ad spending next year.
• More than 50% of consumers like to watch videos of the brands they support.
• In 2019, video ads saw an increase in ad spending mainly in the fashion and retail industry.
• Almost 88% of video marketers are happy with its ROI.
• As per a study by Forbes, videos get shared 1,200% more than text and links combined.
• Mobile ads on YouTube get the viewer’s attention 83% of the time.
• Everyday people watch 1 billion hours of video on YouTube.
• 90% of the potential buyers have discovered new products on YouTube
• Companies and brands like LEGO or Coca-Cola have started uploading video content on their respective brand channels.

 

Case Study of a Video Ad

• Campaign: Meri Maggi
• Goal: Brand image

A classic example of a video ad used to regain brand image was by none other than Maggi Noodles. When the product got banned in India in 2015, its sales dipped from INR 250-300 crore a month to in between 5%-10% in various states.

In November, when the company re-launched Maggi after the five-month ban, it had 10.9 percent of the market share, which climbed to 35.2 percent in December. The relaunch campaign did include press ads and an extremely touching video launched across different platforms.

6. Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising

What is PPC advertising?

Pay per click (PPC) ads are ads that advertisers only pay for when a user clicks on them. PPC ads are usually text ads but sometimes includes a small image. Google AdWords and Bing Ads both use a pay-per-click model.

How is the PPC advertising used?

This type of advertising is used to direct a potential buyer to your website. It is important to have a PPC landing page that is optimized for conversions. Google has now removed PPC ads from Right Hand Side so they now appear on the top of the page only.

Why PPC advertising?

• PPC marketing is done through Google Ads, the worlds’ largest search engine thereby boosting the traffic to your website.
• It can deliver a large number of impressions and clicks because of the large amount of traffic, especially on Google, leading to an increase in sales.
• This type of advertising is highly successful if the advertiser has rightly focused on relevant keywords and the quality of the landing page for a higher quality score.
• Advertisers can make changes to optimize the campaign to improve the quality score which helps to increase the ROI.
• Helps to control the ad budget.
• Can improve brand recognition with remarketing.

 

Case study of a PPC Ad

• Campaign: Dental Clinic, London
• Goal: To increase the number of leads their ads were generating while lowering the cost per lead.

The strongest USP of this UK clinic, was the doctor a native Polish speaker. So the marketing team targeted the niche audience of Polish speakers living in London close to where the clinic is based, to create ads and select keywords in the Polish language pointing to a dedicated landing page. Constant refining of the keywords and target audience was required.

Results

• In the first 50 days, the number of conversions increased considerably, up 409% from 20 to 107.
• Conversion cost came down to £7.41 from £44 (when client managed own campaign)
• The conversion rate also improved — up over 207% — from 4.38% to 13.44%.

 

7. Remarketing Advertising

What is retargeting advertising or remarketing?

Remarketing (or retargeting) is a type of online advertising that allows you to serve targeted ads to people who have already visited your website earlier. A remarketing ad allows you to strategically position your ads in front of the target audience as they browse Google or its partner websites, to increase brand awareness and to remind the user to make a purchase.

How do retargeting ads work?

It is a cookie-based technology that follows the user around the internet, by serving ads on the websites and platforms which the user visits most often in order to remarket to him/her again. Retargeting is required since almost 98% of users leave the website without converting on the first visit. Thereby, these 98% users need to be reminded or targeted about a product /service of interest once they leave the website.  Here’s how retargeting works:

Why Retargeting Ads?

• Retargeting increases the conversion by 150%.
• The average CTR (Click Through Rate) for Retargeting Ads is 10 times more than display ads.
• Remarketing Ads have a CPC (Cost Per Click) which is 50% that of the PPC search ads.

Case study of a Retargeting Ad

• Campaign: Jabong 
• Goals: To increase transactions by acquiring more high-quality customers who are more likely to convert or make a purchase & to improve app activation rates to drive traffic to the Jabong.com mobile app and control user acquisition costs.

Jabong the e-commerce website has successfully used Facebook’s dynamic ads to retarget potential customers by showing them products they have looked at on both Jabong.com’s website and app, allowing the brand to customize ads to every individual.

Results

By Personalised Acquisition using “Retargeting” and creating custom advertisements Jabong was able to:

• 2X increase in customer acquisitions
• 5X increase in app activation rates
• 40% lower user acquisition cost on mobile app
• 30% lower cost per order

 

8. In-game Advertising

What is In-game advertising?

In-game advertisements are ads that may exist within computer games on desktops/PC, mobiles or tablets. In-game advertising is a digital advertising strategy provided by game developers to boost their revenue. Game developers earn money and get paid by showing the ads to the users.

How does In-game advertising work?

The ads which become a part of the user experience in a 3D game setting through virtual objects, such as, billboards, posters, or bus stops, help to improve the game app engagement and also the retention rates.

The different types of in-game advertising include –

• Dynamic In-game advertising that can be inserted or removed in real-time, inside of Console and PC video games is charged on CPM or cost per thousand impressions pricing model.
• Console Integration in the form of square tiles in the Xbox Live dashboard has a higher CPM rate.
• In the Static In-Game Advertising model where advertising is programmed directly into a game, it is normally a flat fee anywhere starting with USD 50K.
• Advergames are developed for the purpose of promoting a company, brand, or product which can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars.

 

Why the growing popularity of In-game Advertising?

• 62% of smartphone owners install games within the first week of purchasing a new phone.
• Games can be designed with the sole purpose of advertising a brand.
• It offers advertisers an option to position the product in the game, to reach the right audience with the right message.
• Market for in-game advertising on all devices in the US alone, to touch USD 3 billion in 2019.
• The ad spend in all games grew by 16% in 2019.
• Retargeting in gaming apps is generating revenue uplift of over 50% among paying users.

Case study of an In-game Ad

• Campaign: Nike Epic React

Nike named their shoe ‘Epic React’ and created a game named React Land to promote this new line of shoes in four cities. This was Nike’s idea to use gamification to attract a young target audience. After putting on a pair of Epic Reacts and creating an avatar, the player is transported to React Land, a virtual world where he/she navigates as the main character by running on a treadmill and using a handheld button to jump. In the 3-minute game, players can choose to explore a floating metropolis in China, a super soft panda land, the Fuji Mountain, a view of Santorini, a jumping frog in France and many more. After the success of this ad, Nike announced a share value increase of 7%, putting it back in direct competition with Adidas in the sneaker market.

9. Email Advertising

What is email advertising?

Email ads are interactive ads that appear in the Promotions and Social tabs of the email inbox.

How do email ads work?

Email ads are ads sent to a user via the web mail. It can include an image, video, or embedded forms. These ads are cheaper than most others. It aims to create leads, to enhance relationship with the customer, to encourage loyalty, and to grow repeat business. 

Why Email Advertising?

• Email ads help to reach affinity audiences.
• Can customize the target audiences in Display campaigns by applying keywords.
• Offer an option of automated targeting to reach potential customers whom you wouldn’t otherwise reach, at around the same cost per person.
• You can reach people on the Display Network basis demographic categories, like age, gender, income, hobbies, etc.
• Dynamic remarketing ads are possible but the targeted Gmail ads must have a minimum of 100 active visitors or users within the last 30 days for your ads to show.
• This ad type is good for promotions, new features, and discount offers.
• An Email ad looks organic prompting the user to click.

Case Study of an email advertising campaign

• Campaign: Wok to Walk
• Goal: Local customer creation, Brand Awareness

Wok to Walk, a health food company, sent a newsletter with a subject line that invited recipients to call, make inquiries and order a meal. This email generated an open rate of 18.1%. Next step they checked the statistics and selected email subscribers who didn’t open the previous email.

The same email was sent – but the subject line was changed to better suit this new segment by including a phone number, making it easier for people to call even if they didn’t open the email. This second email received 7.7% additional subscribers, resulting in a higher level of email engagement.

10. Mobile Advertising

What is mobile advertising?

Today with mobiles becoming a quintessential part of our lives, mobile advertising is growing in importance. Mobile advertising is placing ads to run specifically on mobile devices such as cell phones, smartphones, tablets, and wearable technology with the use of enhanced campaigns. Marketers often combine mobile advertising with other digital advertising channels like display advertising, search advertising, social media advertising, and video advertising.

How do mobile ads work?

Mobile advertising is targeted. It allows the advertiser to personalize the content for a specific audience. When Samsung wanted to promote its Galaxy S6 smartphone, they created an interactive mobile ad for people to experience what the company was talking about with a demo on their smartphone. The other winning mobile ads are Ruffles potato chips, GAP remix logo launch, Nissan Rogue SUV launch, and Starbucks. 

Why is mobile advertising or mobile marketing important in 2020?

• Global mobile ad spending in 2019  reached USD 190 billion.
• In India, mobile ad spending is expected to rise from approx. USD 460 million to USD 1.73 billion in 2021.
• 29% of the time is spent on desktops and 71% on mobile devices
• 80% of internet users own a smartphone.
• 70% of B2B buyers increased mobile usage over the past years.

Case Study of a video ad

• Campaign: Pay Attention
• Goal: Create Awareness

In 2018, cosmetic brand Avon India aimed to raise awareness about breast cancer among women in India through its #PayAttention campaign. Avon had a breast self-examination (BSE) video for women to help them identify the signs of breast cancer.

Results

• 15 % SOV and awareness in breast cancer
• Reached over 1 billion people of India at USD 25k
• On social media, Avon reached out to 917 million on Facebook, 101 million on Twitter, 109 Million through PR stories and 29 influencer videos with 36 million impressions.
• #PayAttention was top trending hashtags around Breast Cancer Awareness in India.
• 200,000 interactions were created on FB and near 185,000 interactions on Facebook posts.

Conclusion

The coronavirus (COVID-19) has disrupted our world, our thinking, and our way of doing business. This impact will surely be felt by every company, big or small. Once the global crises passes, there will be renewed spending on digital platforms to adapt rapidly to the new normal. This new normal stage requires new advertising strategies and new execution plans across all channels. With a fair idea on paid advertising, it’s time to get ready to leverage the right ads for your company or brand when the time is right. How to establish new goals to maximize the ROI, how to rework ad budgets, how to re-prioritize the channel amplification, how to pivot from the standard content marketing plan, how to target all devices buyers use, are all questions a digital advertiser will need to be prepared with. There will never be a right or wrong answer but always an in-between that is the ‘right fit’. We have only put you on a fast track to think on the right lines to restrategize your digital advertising campaign. Time to work on it further!

 

Summary

Coronavirus (COVID-19) will bring about deep changes in digital advertising. Ad revenues, social media, e-commerce will impact Google Ads, Social Media ads, affiliate earnings and publisher advertising earnings. Digital advertisers will require to get ready for a new normal in paid advertising from 2020. In this blog, we have tried to contain maximum information and some relevant statistics on digital advertising. There will never be a right or wrong answer but always an in-between that is the ‘right fit’. We have only put you on a fast track to think on the right lines to restrategize your digital advertising campaign. Time to work on it further!

Google’s Native Advertising Solution- Discovery Competes With Facebook

 

Key Insights:

• Google is positioning Discovery ads as a better way to reach online shoppers.
• 86% of online consumers are on a lookout for shopping ideas as they watch videos or content across the web.
• 90% of users discover new products and brands on YouTube Watch Next.
• Discover reaches hundreds of millions of consumers using the Google Search App.
• One campaign overs three giant Google products- Discovery Feed, Gmail, and Youtube.

 

Last May, Google announced at Google Marketing Live that ads are coming to discover. As a part of that, the Google Discovery ads were previewed for the Android and iOS feed, as well as Gmail and YouTube, and they are now finally rolled out to all advertisers globally last month.

With a single campaign, advertisers can reach 2.9 billion users across multiple Google surfaces-  YouTube Home and Watch Next feeds, Discover feed on the Google Search app, and in Gmail Promotion and Social tabs. This approach to audience totals is similar to Facebook who started reporting usage across its ‘family of apps’ last year. Facebook reported 2.99 billion monthly active people (MAP) as of March 31. In simple words, Google is offering reach on par with Facebook.

All ads feature visual-rich product photography and are labelled.

• YouTube: Ads include an interactive carousel format and appear as users scroll through the Home and Up next feed while looking for new videos.
• Discover: Ads appear along with sports and personalized updates. The feed is available on Android, iOS app, and mobile web at google.com.
• Gmail: As per Google, ‘time offer’ appears as shoppers are checking the latest product deals in the Promotion tab of their inbox and are marked with a green badge that appears on the top of the feed like an email.

Unlike search ads, no need to type the query manually but Google is leveraging its understanding of what customers are interested in. 

Thanks to Google’s unique understanding of customer intent, you’ll be able to show more relevant, meaningful ads to people when they’re most interested and ready to learn more about your products and services.

Why should Advertisers use Discovery

Google recommends for advertisers looking for:

• Drive conversions with their media
• Reach new customers with their media.
• Reconnect with their valuable customers.

 

Early Adopters of Discovery Ads

Early adopters like Deckers, iProspect, and M&M Direct have seen excellent results-driving customer action with Discovery ads alongside their existing media.

Lifestyle apparel brand Deckers worked with digital agency Jellyfish to promote the UGG brand’s 2019 holiday guide using Discovery ads. Deckers used repurposed high-quality images from its social campaigns and saw a revenue return of 10 times of its original ad spend. It plans to implement Discovery ads across the rest of its portfolio including HOKA and Teva.

Michelle Hernandez, senior manager of Omni-digital marketing at Deckers said,

“While Discovery ads don’t appear on social platforms per se, they offer rich, visually engaging experiences filled with meaningful content that excites and inspires consumers as they scroll through new content on YouTube, Discover and Gmail. This is where more and more consumers are engaged and spending time.”

 

In early 2019, digital marketing agency iProspect tested Discovery ads with several large clients and reported a reduction up to 48% in cost per action compared to social ads.

iProspect senior director of paid search Christina Malcolm said, “We’re finding that Discovery ads are an interesting ad type that blurs the lines between traditional search, display, and social activations, but which can target different audiences and hit conversion performance goals.”

If you have failed to notice the Discovery ads in the feed yet, then that’s because Google is treading lightly. Currently, there is only one ad slot – in position three-on the Discover feed as Google is aiming high-quality bar and only showing the ads with best image assets that are relevant to users. However, the company also confirmed that more ads are likely to be rolled out.

How to get started with Discovery campaigns

Discovery ads are set up in Discovery campaigns with two ad formats: Discovery carousel ads with multiple images and Discovery ads with a single image.

Image Assets: Google scans your website for images that meet the size requirement, upload images, or select from the Shuttershock library. The key is to have high-quality images.

Headlines and Description: Discovery ads serve a combination of headlines and descriptions automatically. One can enter up to 5 headlines and 5 descriptions.

Geographical Targeting: Google shows a weekly impression estimate based on geographical targeting.

Call To Action Option: Google can automatically choose the call-to-action text in your ads or there are 10 other options such as ‘Apply Now’, ‘Shop Now’, and more available to choose from. 

Finally, Discovery ad campaigns can be targeted by location, audience, or demographics. This is Google’s automated universal campaign and smart bidding is required. In its Discovery ads tips page, Google notes that advertisers should “Choose an average daily budget at least 10 times the value of your target cost-per-action (CPA) bid and wait for at least 40 conversions before making changes to your campaign.”

Read more: Every 2020 Google SERP Feature Explained: A Visual Guide

Morgan Stanley Forecasts Australian Ad Spend To Fall By 9% In 5 Years

In a recent analysis by investment bank Morgan Stanley on Australian advertising, it forecasted that the domestic media share will shrink if it doesn’t innovate quickly. The domestic media ad spend was $10.4 billion in 2019 and will fall at an annual rate of 9% over the next five years. In a note to clients, analysts wrote,

“We think investors perpetually underestimate the global leakage of ad spend from Australia.”

A section of marketers holds a viewpoint that the ad spend with Google and Facebook has started to plateau and revenue is returning to the domestic traditional media. However, the analysts completely disagree with this market viewpoint and highlighted numbers that suggest that there can be an acceleration post-COVID 19.

The Australian advertising market has shown little growth over the years – around 1.9 % a year. Also, the financial statements filed with corporate regulator ASIC reveals that over the last three years, global media/tech players’ revenues in Australia increased by roughly 20%.

The global ad tech players like Google, Facebook, Snap, and Twitter as well as emerging players like TikTok continue to take an increase in share in the Australian consumer’s time especially the younger demographics. They will have a larger share in digital media spend in Australia post-pandemic as well.

 

 

Morgan Stanley forecasts 2.1 % revenue to fall of global tech players in Australia in the current downturn but not as severe as that of domestic media- radio, outdoor, print, and TV. On the other side, the revenue of the domestic media players will see a drop of steep 22.1%

However, the analysts believe that global players will lift their market share in advertising in Australia. For instance, Google Australia’s gross revenue was $4.8 billion in 2019.  Morgan Stanley estimates a 4% decline this year owing to the ad industry slow down but expects to rise 13% year-on-year growth up to 4 years to reach between $7 billion and $8 billion in ad revenue a year in 2024.

Analysts say,

“Eventually, COVID-19 will be over and there will be a cyclical recovery in the Australian economy, and a bounce-back in the advertising cycle. ”

He further added that the market will be disappointed in expecting a rise in domestic media earnings.

“Even post COVID-19, when the overall advertising market stabilizes and starts to improve, we think the magnitude of the recovery will disappoint investors.”

“Our point of difference is our thesis … that if the global tech players continue to grow revenue double digits in Australia, but the total pool of ad revenues is only increasing 2% to 3% p.a., there is necessarily a ‘crowding out’ of ad spend left for domestic media companies to pursue.”

The markets underestimate the risks to ad revenue, profit margins, and ROCE(Return on equity) from a 5-year long term view. The main reason for the global tech giants growing faster than local media is structural changes. ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’ and businesses that continue with traditional media platforms for advertising need to change and rethink their strategy.

The analysts in the report mentioned that

“The consistent industry feedback we receive is the current challenges facing large, small and medium-sized businesses across Australia is prompting leadership and management teams to think harder and deeper about becoming more digital,”

Many SMEs have tried marketing on digital platforms for the first time during COVID 19 as consumer behavior and time spent has changed and accelerated towards digital/online/mobile media. It is expected that the same pivot will exist with the advertising budgets.
Unfortunately, the crowding of traditional media- radio, outdoor, TV, print – is set to be more intense.

Morgan Stanley continues to have an underweight rating for ASX media companies like Seven West Media, WPP AUNZ, oOh! media and Southern Cross but Nine Entertainment.

Nine Entertainment (NEC)is an exception due to its various revenue sources like digital subscription, streaming, and digital advertising assets. Analysts believe that some Australian media companies have the potential to reinvent themselves and develop digital businesses and NEC has demonstrated the ability for such a reinvention.

The global players may face a threat if they fail to innovate themselves and will lose their consumer share and ad share.