📦 - Take a Step Back, Beyoncé

BANTER

Monday, July 18, 2022

How have we not solved this yet?! 🤡

In this newsletter, you’ll find: 👇

📦 4 tips to create display ads that ACTUALLY convert

📦 Tackling creator marketing on TikTok with #paid

📦 A no-code solution to seeing your website on mobile from your desktop

📦 Loop’s deep dive into the 2022 Ecommerce Returns Benchmark

Want a DTC Yeti to keep your drinks hot? Read till the end. 👀

👉 If a pal forwarded this to you, subscribe , so you never miss out.

DISPLAY ADS

4 Tips for Display Ads That Crush

Recipe blog sites be like… 😵

While that’s a little overboard, most businesses do need at least one banner or display ad on their site to drive clicks or generate leads.

However, according to Google, display ads across all industries have an average click rate of just 0.05%. Yikes.

Luckily, there’s a handful of psychology-based and data-backed strategies – ranging from placement and design – that you can use to help your ads crush the measly average.

Here are four (4) easy but effective tips on increasing the performance of your banners, display ads, opt-ins, lead gens, and more! 👇

1️⃣ Place ads in the “F-Pattern”

The “F-Pattern” describes how users tend to read or scan webpages:

1. Horizontally across the top of a page;
2. Scanning vertically down the left side of a page;
3. Stopping occasionally to read from left to right, with decreased time on the right side of the page as they move down.

Source: F-Shaped Pattern for Reading Content, Nick Babich

In other words, users tend to pay the LEAST attention to content on the far right side, especially towards the bottom of your page.

According to eye-tracking data, ads near the top left of a page tended to have more visibility than other areas (but notice how the static topbar banner performed poorly):

Source: Beating Banner Blindness: Saving Display Ads, Infolinks

With all that in mind, here are a few, quick tips for better ad placement:

• Left-hand side > right-hand side.
• Place ads higher up on the page (although banners at the very top may be easily ignored).
• Try putting them inside content blocks or other areas on the page where people spend most of their time (you can use heat-mapping to determine this).
• You can also try testing unconventional placements of ads, such as full-screen sliders/pop-ups (just make sure they’re easy to exit out of, relevant, and not annoying… More on that in a bit).

2️⃣ Text: a Goldilocks balance

Generally speaking, less is more when it comes to text on ads and opt-ins – but there’s definitely a bit of a Goldilocks balance to strike.

Since you only have a short window to capture someone’s attention, you want to use the least amount of text required to get your point across, but not so little that you leave people scratching their heads.

For example, this ad from Guinness doesn’t have any text to provide context, and the image, well… Is it a beer? Or a flashlight? Or both? Haaalp. 😕 The QR code is also so small, users may not even notice it. 👇

On the flip side, here’s an ad that gets away with no text because the image is so good. 👇

This ad from Grammarly, on the other hand, uses mostly text – but just enough to get the point across, and no more. 👇

And then there’s the ad with way too much text that you probably won’t even bother reading. 👇

In a nutshell, here are some best practices for text on ads:

• People won't take the time to read a novel. You have a split second to capture their attention, so use as little text as possible while still getting your point across. Often, that looks like:

• One clear headline
• One clear CTA
• (Maybe) One-sentence subheadline

• If you use an incredibly descriptive image, you may be able to get away with less text or none at all.

Keep scrollin’ for tips 3 and 4! 👀

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SPONSOR

Score All Your TikTok Creator Marketing Goals With #paid

So you want to tackle creator marketing on TikTok? Sounds like a good plan.

1st tip to running an effective TikTok marketing strategy – stop using a bunch of separate apps, DMs, and email chains just to get the ball rolling! ⚽️

#paid agrees with us. That’s why they created a platform lets you chat directly with creators in your #paid inbox instead of using third-party apps or wire transfers.

Say toodle-oo to connecting scattered data together on your own— instead see your progress and feedback all in one place.

Yep, closing those 14 tabs is gonna feel so good. 😅

😗 Click here and kiss all those third party time wasters goodbye.

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DISPLAY ADS – PART 2

3️⃣ Design to break “banner blindness”

Another key to getting users to see and click on your ads is designing them to stand out (in the right way).

Your goal should be to overcome scrollers’ “banner blindness” – the act of ignoring (consciously or unconsciously) irrelevant ads that may disrupt their site experience.

So, you want to strike a balance between making your ads visually interesting and impressive, *without being disruptive to the user.*

One way to do this is to use eye-catching colors and bold fonts that differentiate the ad from the rest of your site. 👇

You can also use GIFs and animations in your ads to grab your shopper’s attention! 👇

Another lever to pull is your ad size. You may think bigger is better here, but data shows that’s not necessarily the case. Medium rectangle (300x250) banner ads tend to get the most impressions compared to other sizes. 👇

Quick tips for breaking banner blindness:

• Use bold colors and fonts that stand out from the rest of your site.
• Use creative, eye-catching imagery, GIFs, and animations.
• Data shows medium-sized ads tend to perform best (300 x 250), but test different sizes to see what works best on your site.
• Experiment with different ad placements.

4️⃣ Don’t force it

Last, but certainly not least: don’t try to sneakily force your users to click on ads.

We’re talking about making your ads soooo huge that people can’t avoid them, or hiding the (X) in the bottom right corner where no one can find it.

While these tactics may lead to higher click-through rates, they will also make your data useless because you don’t know if the clicks were intentional or accidental. And your users will surely get annoyed. 😤

📌 The best way to increase ad performance is not trickery. The secret is creating ads that are relevant, useful, engaging, and ensure a positive experience for the user.

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SPONSOR

The 2022 Ecommerce Returns Benchmark is here! How do you stack up?

They say comparison is the thief of joy, but when it comes to your brand, you need to know if your return process is making or breaking your customer relationships.

Get the inside scoop on 1,500+ brands and nearly 10 million returns - analyzed and wrapped up into one easy-to-read report. The 2022 Ecommerce Returns Benchmark Report.

You'll get the all the juicy data on:

• 📈 The macro-level trends of e-commerce returns.
• 🔂 The factors contributing to a superior return process.
• 👏  What you can do to optimize returns for your brand.
• ✅ Industry benchmarks for apparel, footwear, accessories, and more!

👉 Click here to see how your return process stacks up against the competition.

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CREATIVE HACK

What Does Your Website Look Like on Mobile?

If you’re not a coder or want a simple life hack to see what your website looks like on mobile without the effort of grabbing your phone, keep reading!

The cleverest creative content team is giving away their life hack to see how most viewers will see your site. 🧠

Remember that mobile optimization is important. Most eyes that land on your pages are viewing from their smartphones. Make sure your site is clean and crispy. 👇

Step 1: Navigate to your (or any) website on desktop

Hop over to the site of your choice. Right-click anywhere on the screen, and click on ‘Inspect’.

Step 2: Toggle by device

After clicking Inspect, you should be seeing the view below.

On the top of your code toolbar, click the button as shown below:

Step 3: Select your device

Select the mobile interface you’d like to see, and voila!

If you’re checking out your own site and things don’t seem quite right, send this to your developers to turn those scrollers into shoppers. ✌️

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M&A

🤖 Supermodel Karlie Kloss brings a virtual runway to Roblox.

🤝 Netflix partners with Microsoft for its ad-supported plan.

📉 Klarna’s valuation slashed by $39B amid fintech rout.

👩‍⚖️ Twitter’s legal team unleashes on Elon Musk, as it moves to force Musk to complete takeover deal.

🤑 eCommerce sales to exceed $1T this year.

‍🔊 HAVE YOU HEARD OUR LATEST PODCASTS

‍🍫 Tabs Sex Chocolate: Engineering Virality from Day One.

💸 Ridge Wallet CEO Sean Frank's Hot Takes After $100 Million+ in Sales.

☕️ Death Wish Coffee's Will Critcher Spills the Beans.

🕯️ Making Memories of NYC into Candles (and Killing It on TikTok) with Erica Werber from Literie Candle.‍

🍪 AdRoll Bakes Up a Solution to the 3rd Party Cookie-pocalypse.‍

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Don’t forget to rate the DTC Podcast  on Apple (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)‍

DTC Newsletter is written by Rebecca Knight, Kelsey Hess, and Jordan Gillis. Edited by Eric Dyck.

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