TLDR Marketing 2024-06-07

Costco is building out an ad network built on its trove of loyalty membership data, using its 74.5 million household members' shopping habits and past purchases to power targeted advertising on and off its website. The wholesale retailer is still testing such capabilities, and it's fielding offers from potential ad-tech vendors, but the move signals that the third-largest retailer in the US could become a formidable player in the already deeply fragmented retail media space, which is estimated to reach $166 billion by 2025, and responsible for 20% of all digital media spend this year.

Cara, an anti-AI social app for artists, surged from 40,000 to 650,000 users in a week as artists fled Meta's exploitative AI policies, seeking a safer space to share their work. Founder Jingna Zhang, a renowned photographer and advocate for artists' rights, has positioned Cara as a haven for creatives to display their portfolios without fear of AI misuse.

You will get more impressions and results for your money if a LinkedIn ad has a lot of engagement in the form of likes and comments. First, make an organic post that addresses the problem that your business is supposed to solve and also offers a narrative that gets engagement. It may take multiple tries to find the post that captures people's imagination and inspires the kind of comments and engagements you're looking for. The following day, edit the post to add in a call-to-action and a couple of lines about your service or product. Finally, boost the post with Thought-Leader Ads. This can help you achieve more affordable ad impressions, as well as a higher conversion rate due to the social proof.

Reducing churn should be the top priority for every team at scaling-stage companies – particularly for subscription businesses. Involuntary churn is when a customer's renewal payment fails, while voluntary churn is when a customer leaves on purpose by canceling. Important voluntary churn metrics include volume of “auto-renew OFF” users, volume of “auto-renew back ON” users, timing of cancellation, cancellation reasons, and take rate of discount/pause offers. To address voluntary churn, use a single-choice survey to determine the reasons, pay attention to how quickly it happens, offer a one-click option to turn auto-renew back on, use discounts in the cancellation flow, offer a pause option, and show what will be lost by downgrading.

A sunset flow begins with a series of emails you send to subscribers who aren't engaging with your marketing messages. Once you've identified the people who still aren't engaging at the end of the flow, you reduce or suppress sending to them altogether. A good sunset flow sets you up to ensure that your audience is both interested and engaged. This guide covers 2 types of sunset flows for never-openers and for subscribers who previously engaged. It also shares tips and tricks to focus on in the flows and what to do with folks who do not engage at all after a sunset flow.

Google's NotebookLM, an AI research and writing assistant, is expanding globally to over 200 countries and now supports Google Slides and web URLs. The latest update, which utilizes Gemini 1.5 Pro, offers new features like inline citations for easy fact-checking, high-level source summaries, and the ability to ask questions about images and charts. Marketers can leverage NotebookLM for diverse applications, from creating newsletters and analyzing sales calls to organizing complex storylines in writing projects.

An Instagram video suggested that posts asking for specific engagement, like single-word comments, might be restricted due to anti-spam measures. After deleting and reposting the video, Instagram clarified that general engagement tactics are acceptable, but content explicitly designed to hack reach by soliciting specific interactions could be penalized. Using 3rd-party services like ManyChat for engagement is also acceptable. Reels longer than 90 secs won't be recommended to non-followers. However, creators can still post longer Reels to engage their existing audience.

Many marketers are missing out on what Reddit has to offer due to a lack of knowledge of the opportunities it presents. Non-salesy community engagement, market research via social listening scans, gathering customer feedback, and creator partnerships are all great ways for brands to get value from the platform. At minimum, companies should use Reddit to listen to customers and understand their needs, but there is additional value gained from engaging with other users' content or even creating posts.

The leaked information from Google was API documentation related to ranking systems, not the actual algorithm. This documentation provides insights into potential ranking signals, such as page views and toxic links, which may influence Google's algorithm but are not guaranteed factors. Marketers should interpret this information as part of a broader strategy and prioritize foundational SEO practices, such as optimizing for site speed, quality content, and user engagement, rather than relying on supposed shortcuts or loopholes.

Marketers have been overly focused on less meaningful campaign metrics. Despite 92% of marketers claiming to distinguish these effects, 39% of metrics used in 2023 were less meaningful. Campaigns that avoid using campaign delivery effects in their reporting see a 67% improvement in business results. More effective measurement methods include attribution modeling, brand tracking, and econometrics. KPIs should ultimately align with campaign objectives, document benchmarks, targets, performance, and key learnings for future testing.

An avid shopper suggests adding an influencer search function on ASOS.com for a better shopping experience.

A POV on trends marketers are obsessing over that this author hasn't bought into.

A list of AI tools categorized by marketing automation, image editing, growth automation, and more.