ClickZ Paid Social Marketer Newsletter - 11.28.2024

PLUS: How Snapchat can help you connect with Gen Z this Thanksgiving

Author

Priscilla Soedarpo
November 28, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes

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Welcome to ClickZ Paid Social Marketer, your essential newsletter for social media marketers and e-commerce professionals. This Thanksgiving, with Black Friday just hours away, we’re here to help your campaigns sparkle and your sales shine!

Here’s what’s new this week:

🐦 Twitter Marketing Tips: Engage affluent audiences with data-driven, interactive campaigns.
📊 Meta Updates: Shift to views as a primary metric raises questions about engagement quality.
📸 Instagram Strategies: Leverage visuals, influencers, and paid ads to boost brand reach.
👻 Snapchat Ads: Use Story and Collection Ads to capture Gen Z and millennial shoppers.
📺 Oceanwing x Sihoo: Data-driven ads achieve a 38% conversion lift and 280% reach boost.

Guest At the Table 🍴

Black Friday is here, and for many brands, the hard work is done—you’ve set the stage and prepared for the biggest shopping event of the year. But as I’ve seen time and time again, the brands that succeed now are the ones that obsess over the right metrics and adapt quickly to what’s happening in real time. Here are two key areas I believe every marketer should focus on to maximize success this Black Friday:

1️⃣ Benchmarking

Benchmarks are your compass. They don’t just show how well campaigns are performing—they reveal opportunities to improve as the data rolls in. From CPMs to order volumes, understanding how your results stack up against industry benchmarks will help you refine your approach and stay competitive.

Looking ahead to 2025? Post-BFCM benchmarking will be invaluable, and Fospha’s next report will include fresh data to help you plan for the future. Follow us to make sure you don’t miss it. 📊

2️⃣ Measurement

Still relying on Last Click attribution? It’s holding you back. At the most competitive time of year, top brands are using advanced measurement tools to stay ahead of the curve. Fospha gives you a clear, cross-channel view of YoY performance, enabling you to act on the right signals—not misleading ones.

The insights you gather now can set you up for a strong 2025. If you’re ready to take your measurement strategy to the next level, there’s no better time to start than today.

🌟 Let’s make this Black Friday your most successful yet!

Harvest Highlights 🥕

X

Marketing on X (formerly Twitter) remains vital for engaging affluent, educated audiences. Success requires platform-specific content, timely promotions, and budget-friendly advertising. Interactive content and data-driven strategies enhance engagement. While X excels in real-time interactions, consider alternatives like TikTok or Instagram Threads if they better align with your goals.

Meta's recent shift to using views as the primary metric for content performance on Facebook and Instagram marks a significant evolution in digital analytics. This change, affecting reels, videos, posts, and stories, aims to streamline performance tracking under a unified measure. For non-video content, views will now replace impressions, counting every instance content is displayed, even if viewed multiple times by the same user. This could inflate reported numbers, raising questions about the true quality of engagement.

For video content, the term views will supplant plays, though the calculation remains unchanged. Meta is also refining video analysis metrics, with minutes viewed and average minutes viewed replacing watch time and average watch time. These updates, reflected in Meta's Business Suite and ad measurement tools, promise to simplify insights while maintaining consistency across campaigns.

However, this shift presents challenges for performance marketers. While Meta frames this as a move towards streamlined analytics, the inclusion of repeat views for non-video content fundamentally alters performance measurement. Inflated view counts could impact CPM metrics, potentially skewing perceived engagement quality. Marketers may need to reassess how they evaluate performance, balancing the convenience of standardization with the need for meaningful insights.

As these changes roll out, the practical impact on campaign performance and reporting remains uncertain. Marketers must critically evaluate whether these metrics truly enhance understanding or merely offer a veneer of progress.

Instagram is a powerful tool for business promotion, offering vast reach and engagement through visual content. Key strategies include optimizing profiles, using high-quality visuals, engaging with audiences, leveraging influencer partnerships, and utilizing paid promotions. Consistency and creativity are crucial for maximizing visibility and building brand relationships.

Snapchat

Snapchat eCommerce strategies can significantly boost sales by leveraging its vast user base, particularly among millennials and Gen Z. Utilizing ad formats like Story Ads, Snap Ads, and Collection Ads, businesses can effectively engage potential buyers. Influencer marketing and data-driven campaigns further enhance brand reach and conversion rates on the platform.

Oceanwing's strategic use of diverse ad formats, including video and streaming TV, significantly boosted Sihoo's audience engagement and conversion rates. By leveraging Amazon Ads and analyzing consumer behavior, they achieved a 38% increase in conversion and 280% incremental reach, showcasing the power of a comprehensive, data-driven marketing approach.

Feast of Influence 🥧

Tara Jackson on LinkedIn: It’s one of best weeks of the year for so many #ecommerce brands but it does also mark one of the busiest periods of the year

Here are 3 key stats that we pulled from Black Friday last year: 

🤯 Record online spending: In 2023, U.S. consumers spent over $9 billion online on Black Friday alone

📲 Mobile shopping surge with over 50% of all Black Friday online sales in 2023 coming from mobile devices — the easiest way for people to shop these days 

📈 Growth in 'Buy Now, Pay Later' especially for larger purchases, showing that more shoppers are spreading the cost of their holiday spending. 

Jake Abrams on LinkedIn: Harsh DTC growth truth

Optimizing your 7DC Meta CPA is only half the job.

- You need to build the ecosystem of people who know you
- You need to get tastemakers to hype you
- You need to seriously grow 1 organic channel
- You need answer every objection on your site
- You need to delight customers & get them to come back

STOP treating growth like a transactional sales funnel.
START building a brand that your audience knows, trusts, and loves.

James Gray on LinkedIn: The reactions to Jaguar and Spurs’ (expensive) rebrands this week been pretty negative…

Spurs removed the only title they've had and Jag, well, some commentary suggests they've essentially pivoted and become a new vegan cosmetics brand targeting Gen-Z... thoughts?

The Golden Gobbler 🍗

Retailers are adapting to a shorter holiday season by starting sales earlier, with major players like Amazon and Walmart leading the charge. Despite fewer days between Black Friday and Christmas, sales are expected to rise. Consumers are shopping both online and in stores, with economic factors influencing behavior.

Dynamic Search Ads remain crucial in Google Ads strategies, even with Performance Max campaigns. They offer targeted control over ad descriptions and website sections. Regular optimization and strategic setup uncover new keyword opportunities, enhancing main search campaigns. 

TikTok Shop is experiencing a record-breaking festive season in the UK, with trends in pre-loved luxury, beauty, fragrances, and appliances. LIVE shopping sessions and trending hashtags like #TikTokShopBlackFriday are driving engagement. The platform anticipates significant growth in advertising spend, enhancing its retail impact this Christmas.

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