Tom McCarron

Last week I was asked to contribute to the one and only ColdChain newsletter. If you'd like to read a little rambling OpEd piece from yours truly please do go take a look. The newsletter always covers some great content, so do take a look and if you're looking for more Web3 Marketing Alpha straight to your inbox, consider joining the newsletter. Topic covered this week: - Polkadot's $37 Million Marketing Experiment - How to Establish a Powerful Brand in Web3 & Crypto - Evaluating & Measuring the Success of your Web3 Campaign https://shorturl.at/EqGd3 #marketing #web3marketing #web3 #media

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We need to hold agencies accountable for paying creators on time. The amount of late payments from agencies I have experienced recently is astronomical. Industry standard is net 30. If you’re lucky net 15 and if you’re even luckier you can negotiate an upfront payment/ deposit. Now I have seen a rise of data driven creative agencies with net 45 + net 60 payment terms taking another 30 days to actually pay. This is absolutely unacceptable… I always push back on net 45 and rarely agree to net 60 unless talent genuinely love the brand. We need to have a lot more serious conversation about brands paying agencies on time + agencies paying creators on time. Obviously it’s not always on the agency but often times it is…

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In talks with an 8 figure brand who believes Meta's traffic campaigns are the only way to scale. I've never seen a test outcome which shows traffic campaigns drive incremental customer acquisition. If you have, please let me know. I would like to see either: → A conversion lift test on traffic campaigns → UTM pathways showcasing traffic clicks path waying into conversion campaigns.

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A lot of brands make the mistake of not optimizing their abandon cart flows for BFCM. I mean its the biggest sale of the year... Why would you not optimise sales further on your core flows? BFCM shoppers expect urgency and answers. If your abandoned cart flow isn’t optimized You’ll lose easy sales. Simple as. Here’s how to fix that: 👉 1 Hour Post-Abandonment Hit them with FOMO right away. Show the product, pricing, and create urgency. Add success stories or answer FAQs like “Will this work for me?” Customers will still be asking these questions about your products and brand whether theirs a discount or not. "Your Black Friday deal is almost gone!" "Limited stock on {{product name}}."  👉 6-12 Hours Later Tackle hesitation with a small bonus—free shipping or a BFCM discount. "Still deciding? Here’s free shipping on us!" 👉 24 Hours Later Don't be afraid to add urgency with a countdown timer. And no its not tacky to add one in your email. Remind them it’s their final shot. "Final hours to claim your Black Friday deal!" One client last year saw a 40% increase in recovery after we optimized their abandonment flows for BFCM period Adding $60k in just a few days. I've put together a great example of this that we did for one of our clients last year.

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This site is an extremely interesting case. Brand in the finance sector. Destroyed by the HCU update 2023. Backlinks from digital PR (and paid links), albeit some of the digital PR ones are totally off-topic, and some look like paid DPR placements. The site increased its content by 1000 pages in a year, so I suggest that it might have used AI content to scale. The site is well-designed, with lots of E-E-A-T elements. My gut says this site was hit by multiple factors: a bit of waffly content, some link devaluation, and AI content. It looks like they've deleted over 1000 pages a matter of weeks after being hit, so perhaps they took a chance. An interesting case, might reach out to the owners of this one.

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Need to level up on your audience insight? 🕹 Check out the next instalment in our 26PMX retail realities series which focuses in on how to unlock and get more from your customer data to ultimately get the performance gains. So sign up and get some intel to prep you for Q4 and beyond - all from the comfort of your own home, desk or commute! 🗓 Date: 12th September 2024 ⏰ Time: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM What To Expect: - Major performance boosts through audience insights - Fast AI-driven audience segmentation - Unlocking hidden value in first-party data - Practical strategies for immediate Q4 success Who you'll hear from: A squad of the smart minds at MSQ, InfoSum and SQREEM Technologies 🔗 Sign up now! Link in the comments. #RetailWebinar #AudienceInsights #AI #FirstPartyData

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Agency's that charge a percentage of ad spend won't tell you this 🤫 But you might be massively overspending on Google Ads! We recently audited a £50,000 a month account that had loads of ads running on kids Youtube channels (legal ads lol) plus loads of other silly mistakes wasting thousands and thousands of pounds each month. This client below was also overspending! We cut their budget from around $20,000 a month to $10,000 and conversions only dropped by about 10% The conversion metrics also greatly improved because of this change; CPL reduced by $16 CPC reduced by $3.35 But more importantly the client is not wasting budget! These are just two quick examples but I know there are a lot of businesses out there overspending! What are your thoughts on this topic? #ppc #googleads #googleadagency #ppcagency #adspend #payperclick

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We're playing about with the formats for #brightonSEO in the UK this October and wanted to get some feedback on topics and the ideas in general. *Roundtables* - we've run these for a few years focussed around sector and job title, like agency owner, in-house ecommerce, agency head of SEO etc, there's usually about 12 people informal discussions. - Any ideas for topics for these you'd like to attend? - Do you like roundtables as a format? - What makes for a good roundtable? *Masterclasses* - a new thing, thinking about a 60-90 minutes slot, about 20-30 attendees, more in-depth and interactive than our usual conference talks. Aimed at more experienced attendees, more discussion, maybe more "laptop open and try thing thing" Might be topics like agency growth masterclass, paid media for ecommerce masterclass, Google tag manager debugging masterclass etc Would this be a format you'd be interested in attending? Any ideas for topics or masterclass host ideas? Thanks in advanced my lovely Linkedin focus group/connections!

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It’s been an exciting week launching Equaliser! 🚀 Thank you for the kind words and well wishes. It’s been wonderful to reconnect with so many of you too. If you’re interested in learning more - check out the article in Prolific North below! #Equaliser #BusinessGrowth #PPC #PaidSearch #Startup #Manchester

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PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising can seem like the perfect way to drive traffic and grow your business - sounds great in theory, right? But as Tony Restell highlights in his latest post series, PPC often doesn’t deliver the results businesses are hoping for. And for small businesses, that frustration when your marketing spend doesn’t deliver can be all too familiar. 👇 Take a look at Tony’s post below to learn how to avoid common PPC pitfalls. If you’ve tried PPC before, what worked for you - and what didn’t?

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"the inevitable enshittification of Google" is possibly one of truest and most hilarious lines I've ever read Danny Goodwin The silent part is now being said out loud, that Google has been intentionally padding its pockets at the expense of users, businesses, and realistically mankind. Ironically, Google is no longer following its own principle of E-A-T which is what is supposed to dictate search results (to some degree). #SEO #EEAT #googleads #alphabet #PPC #google

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Breaking Industry News... Google has u-turned on the decision to deprecate third-party cookies after years of promising to do so. Google has announced that they won’t phase out third-party cookies in Chrome as previously planned. Instead, they are opting for a new approach that gives users more control. Why does this matter? 🤷‍♂️ This decision marks a significant shift in Google’s privacy strategy and will come as a relief to many advertisers who have been scrambling to prepare for a cookieless future. Google will introduce a “new experience” in Chrome that will allow users to make informed choices about their web browsing privacy. Quick-fire information: 👉 Google is discussing this pivot with regulators, including CMA and ICO. 👉 This move suggests Google is trying to balance privacy concerns with the needs of the ad industry and its own business model. 👉 This decision follows more than 4 years of back-and-forth and multiple delays. So, what’s next? 🤔 Google hasn’t provided a specific timeline for the new approach, likely to avoid the pitfalls of previous delays. We will be releasing more information about this soon, so keep an eye on our blog. #Privacy #Google #WebBox

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Analysing this Hatch Belt ad so you can print money with UGC! First, the hits: • Common pain point highlighted • Key USPs listed • Product shown in use But this was a massive missed opportunity… The misses: • Pacing is WAY too slow. As a rule of thumb, you should cut every 1-2s Change angle, location, style You need to keep re-hooking the viewer • Needs a stronger hook The first 5 seconds are crucial Would have benefited here from visual effects Eg. something satisfying, motion, camera pan, etc. • Product introduced too late Given that most people don’t watch more than 5s… They need to know the problem and solution FAST This ad takes a touch too long to get to the point • Product only shown in one scenario You should show your product in multiple scenarios This will give a better idea of how it can be used And maximise CTR Overall, not bad, not great. 5.2/10 Which brand should I review next?

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Have agencies been conditioned to accept the symptoms of weak positioning as 'normal', particularly during the sales process? You decide. For the full blurb, check out the link in the comments. #businessdevelopment #newbusiness #sales #agencies

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🕳️ Is Performance Max the Holy Grail of PPC Advertising? Or is it a Budget Black Hole? (hint - it can be either, depending on how you approach it). Performance Max is obviously a massively hot topic at the moment, especially given all the changes that have happened since it's launch a couple of years ago (there were even significant changes to how it plays in the auction just last week). Given how powerful it can be, and all of the changes being made to it, there are so many questions; How do you keep on top of these constant changes to the tool? How do you take advantage of the increased reach and automation? How do you maintain control and visibility through all of the above? From my experience, PMax can drive serious results when done right. But without a solid strategy, it’s easy to see budgets eaten up by low converting, irrelevant traffic and placements. That's why I'm excited for Lunio & Opteo's webinar with Thomas Eccel discussing how to harness the power of PMax without wasting budget. The guys are going to be addressing; - The pros and cons of PMax: What works, what needs work - Real-life examples of wasted ad spend: Low conversions, invalid traffic, irrelevant traffic - The high cost of wasted spend (and how to stop it) - Campaign control in the era of exclusions - Opteo + Lunio partnership and what it means for advertisers - Minimizing waste: Immediate solutions and quick wins I'll drop a link to the event in the comments 👇🏼 #google #googleads #ppc #ppcchat #ad

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There's a dangerous trend emerging on here. Agency founders, who by their profiles seem to manage huge monthly Facebook ads budgets, giving completely incorrect blanket advice to 'smaller' eCommerce brands in their posts 😰 If you're not managing ad spends under $50k a month (this seems to be the benchmark), don't give advice on strategy at that level of spend 🙈 If you predominantly run ads in the USA, your ad strategy will be different in the UK and Europe. Also, Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns are not performing well across many smaller accounts at the moment, so telling a smaller brand to 'go all in' into those campaigns is just irresponsible. Achieving profitable returns is much more challenging on smaller budgets and is never achieved by applying the same strategy to every business. If you're an eCommerce brand and have come across these posts, you're not going mad. You've not missed a trick. There is no magic 'one-size fits all' secret you haven't been told. If you invest under $50k a month in your Facebook ads and need advice on how to improve your results and grow your business, we offer audits that can help identify your untapped opportunities. Send me a message to find out more. #facebookads #metaads #ecommerce

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Had a business call me up out of the blue the other day, wanting me to review their Google Ads account and try to identify why performance had been decreasing over time despite pouring ever more money into ad spend and management fees over time. Here's where it got interesting. We agreed the terms - very much a one off review at this stage and unlikely to become ongoing management - and then the client reached out to the current agency that runs the account and said 'hey keep an eye out for an access request'. Now I'm the first to admit that nobody likes it when they are running an ads account for a client and then you see the dreaded email notification that a new user has been added to the account/requested access. But clients changing service vendors - not just for Google Ads but for anything - happens for many different reasons and is part and parcel of business life (as an aside, if you are the advertiser/client I think at the very least it's good manners to give your existing provider a clear heads up, rather than them finding out only from getting the system notification that new user has been added) Within 5 minutes of agreeing the project terms and my new client sending an email to their existing agency, I had a panicked phone call from the client. "We've been locked out of the account. All access has been removed and the agency now says the account is their property and all work belongs to them" The client now found themselves in a position where well into 5-figures of Google Ads ad spend per month was their responsibility (as it was their card on the account) but with absolutely no independent oversight/visibility of what was going on in terms of activity as they couldn't get into the account. The agency was unrelenting as well - "it's our account, we built it and ran it for you for several years, nobody else can have access or else our IP risks being stolen and therefore we won't be re-adding you. You'll get a report each month and that's it". If I had a dollar for every time I've seen an agency/freelancer throw such a wobbly so aggressively when the mere threat of losing work comes their way I'd be able to afford something off the value menu at McDonalds, as this behaviour isn't all that common. At least not when the advertiser/client pays the ad spend directly and originally set up the account. I explained that the client could have their access forcibly re-added by Google because they are the ultimate bill payer, that I would assist them in doing so, and that in my professional opinion such behaviour should mean the end of that working relationship ASAP. So, what has the outcome been? Unfortunately, the client was so "frightened" by the behaviour (and worried the account might be sabotaged resulting in detrimental performance) they've decided to stick with agency for the foreseeable future. There's a moral in this story, but for the life of me I can't find it.

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Want a better ROAS on Performance Max? 🔥 We found one counter-intuitive optimisation after $1M+ in adspend... Try removing search themes completely. We saw shopping spend go up 50% in accounts when we implemented this... Alongside significant improvements in ROI. Here’s why this works: Adding in search themes prompts pMax to spend more on the search network. This means that pMax will then begin to cannibalise your existing cold search campaigns. Google says this themselves: "On Search inventory specifically, search themes in Performance Max campaigns will have the same prioritisation as your phrase match and broad match keywords in Search campaigns." Here's why this is bad: We want the majority of our adspend to be on the shopping network… With brand name fully excluded from the campaign. Meaning we’re spending on the highest quality, cold traffic. For 9/10 brands, shopping ads will produce the highest ROI. We want to leave the search adspend for the search campaigns instead. This is because in regular search campaigns we have more control over: ➡️ Ad copy ➡️ Negative keywords ➡️ Cost per clicks So, how do you check if you’re overspending on search? Here's your action plan: 1. Run Mike Rhode’s Performance Max script. 2. If more than 30% of your spend is on search, remove search themes. 3. If shopping spend doesn’t increase after 1-2 weeks, create a new pMax campaign w/o search themes. 4. Add in more exact match keywords to your cold search campaign. Over time, this should produce better ROAS in pMax as more of your adspend goes to the shopping network. Agree? Disagree? Always up for discussion 👇.

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