The Bolt: Digital Tools for Concrete Results

Inside this issue:

• ?? Creating a Landing Page That Converts Customers
• ?? 3 New Updates for Brands on YouTube
• ?? AI is taking over Paid Ads… for real this time?
• ?? 6 New Updates for ChatGPT

Hey ??

Welcome back to The Bolt.

Today we’re talking AI (again), low converting landing pages and YouTube’s new round of updates.

Let’s get to it.

?? 6 New Updates for ChatGPT

It’s another week, and another week we’re talking about AI…

ChatGPT has rolled out some new updates to help it, and more importantly, you, be more productive:

• Starter Prompts: Gone are the days of staring at a blank screen when initiating a chat. Now, you'll be greeted with example prompts. Quite handy.
• Reply Suggestions: ChatGPT will present various suggestions to keep the conversation flowing, reminiscent of interactive games.
• GPT-4 Takes the Lead: For Plus subscribers, GPT-4 is the new standard. No more reverting to GPT-3.5 every time you start a chat.
• Bulk File Uploads: Plus users can now request ChatGPT to delve into multiple files simultaneously for data analysis and insights.
• Persistent Login: Say goodbye to bi-weekly logouts. The platform will keep you signed in.
• Keyboard Shortcuts: Everyone's favourite. Need we say more?

Nice work, OpenAI ??

?? Creating a Landing Page That Converts Customers

You’ve got a great product.?

Creative ads.?

And a budget big enough that it’s bound to bring in some sales.

But for whatever reason, your website just isn’t converting visitors to customers…?

What gives?

The likelihood is that the landing page, i.e. the first thing that people see after they click on your ad, social post etc. that you’re driving people to isn’t set up to effectively sell your product.

And your marketing efforts are unfortunately bound to fail.

Much like you'd dress to impress for an important meeting, your landing page should be dressed up in a way that sets the tone and establishes trust right from the get-go.

So with that said, here’s everything you need to include when building a landing page to sell product to the trade:

Headline:

• The first thing visitors see, it should grab attention and concisely convey the main offer or value proposition.

Subheadline:

• Positioned directly below or near the headline, it provides additional context or information to support the main headline.

Hero Image or Video:

• A high-quality visual representation of the product, service, or offer. It should be relevant and help visitors visualise the benefits.

Trust Elements:

• Testimonials, reviews, trust badges, or logos of well-known clients or partners. These build credibility and trust with the audience. Include these on the page early on to give visitors a reason to keep on scrolling down

Introduction or Brief Description:

• A short paragraph that provides a bit more detail about the offer, setting the stage for the rest of the content.

Benefits and Features:

• Bullet points or a short list that highlights the primary benefits and features of the product, service, or offer.

Call-to-Action (CTA):

• A clear, compelling button or form prompting the visitor to take a specific action, such as "Sign Up," "Buy Now," or "Download." Include multiple throughout the page so that the nearest is never more than a second’s scroll away.

Supporting Content:

• Additional information, which could include detailed product descriptions, specifications, or answers to frequently asked questions.

Visual Elements:

• Infographics, icons, or additional images that break up the text and provide visual reinforcement of the content.

Social Proof:

• Showcasing the number of users, subscribers, or customers, or displaying real-time activity like recent sign-ups.

Secondary CTA:

• An alternative action for visitors who might not be ready for the primary CTA. It could be a softer ask, like "Learn More" or "Watch Demo."

Exit-intent Popup (Optional):

• A popup that appears when a visitor is about to leave the page, offering a last-chance offer or prompting them to subscribe or take some other action.

Implement these changes to your landing pages alongside your marketing efforts and you’re bound to see results ??.

?? 3 New Updates for Brands on YouTube

On the last edition of The Bolt, we shared 6 new features coming to YouTube Shorts to help brands launch short-form video content on YouTube.

Since then, it looks like YouTube’s been busy bringing more updates behind the scenes…

And not all of them are good… ??

1?? From August 31, YouTube is rolling out a fresh safety feature: Links embedded in comments and Shorts descriptions will no longer be clickable.

This new update aims to shield viewers from threats like malware, phishing attempts, and other malicious content.

However, recognising the significance of links for content creators, YouTube has announced its plans to devise a secure method for incorporating links, set to launch in September. Here's hoping!?

2?? On the bright side for creators: YouTube has unveiled a new metric within YouTube Studio, allowing users to monitor both new and recurring views based on format (i.e. feature length video, YouTube shorts and livestreams)

Navigate to Analytics > Content > All, and you can decipher from there which format yields the best results for your channel.

3?? Lastly, an important one if you run video ads on YouTube…

YouTube is rebranding its “in-stream ads” to “skippable ads”.

This renaming provides a clearer picture. The decision was prompted by feedback from advertisers who pointed out that in-stream ads were appearing in non-in-stream spots.

Rather than tweaking the product, YouTube opted for a name change.

And that’s it for YouTube.

Hopefully some more positive updates to come from them in the future ??

?? AI is taking over Paid Ads… for real this time?

More AI news…

This time it’s all about paid ads.?

With Google's automated Performance Max campaigns, TikTok Ads' automated rules, and Meta’s Automated Ads, automation is not just a trend—it's the new norm.

So what does this mean for marketers??

We found a fascinating article from Search Engine Land, who have predicted what ads might look like in the years to come:

1. Broad Match Takes Center Stage:

Both Google and Microsoft are nudging advertisers towards the broad match (i.e. targeting just about anyone and everyone searching for your brand / keywords related to your brand), suggesting a potential decline in the use of phrase and exact match.

Over recent years, the functionality of these match types has evolved. For instance, an exact match might now trigger for searches that align with the keyword's intent or meaning.

Furthermore, Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs) are likely to be integrated with Performance Max. The takeaway? We're heading towards a dominantly "broad-match-centric" PPC environment.

2. The Dawn of Blended Campaigns:

Google Performance Max is a campaign type introduced by Google Ads designed to help advertisers reach their performance objectives across all of Google's inventory.?

It's a fully automated campaign type that uses Google's machine learning to optimise ad placements and bidding in real-time:

• Unified Inventory: Performance Max campaigns allow advertisers to access multiple Google ad inventories from a single campaign. This includes YouTube, Display Network, Search, Discover, Gmail, and Google Maps.
• Goal-Driven: Advertisers can set specific goals for their campaigns, such as driving online sales, lead generation, or offline sales.
• Machine Learning: Performance Max leverages Google's machine learning algorithms to automatically adjust bids, placements, and targeting to achieve the best results based on the advertiser's set goals.
• Audience Targeting: While the campaign is automated, advertisers can still define their audience using a combination of audience types, such as in-market, affinity, or custom audiences.
• Asset-Based Creatives: Advertisers provide multiple creative assets (like headlines, descriptions, images, and videos), and Google's algorithms mix and match these assets to create the most effective ad combinations for different placements and audiences.

As you can see, it’s pretty all encompassing.

And given Google's relentless efforts to refine Performance Max, coupled with their investment in data-driven attribution (DDA) and cross-channel strategies, it’s likely that Google will start delivering your ads across multiple channels to hit your potential customers depending on where they are in the buyer process.

3. The Rise of Auto-Applied Recommendations:

Currently, you hold the reins, deciding which optimization suggestions to embrace or ignore.?

However, with Google's introduction of auto-applied recommendations (AAR) over two years ago, the control dynamics are shifting.?

The future might see a more assertive Google, where most AARs are not just suggestions but mandates.

And that’s the forecast…?

For what it’s worth, we somewhat agree with the article, and truly believe that AI will take over, but how far it will take over and how much control we’ll have over things like creative, budget etc. remains to be seen.

?? Rounding off The Bolt?

Arguably our favourite part of The Bolt, here’s some stories from around the world of marketing to keep you feeling inspired ??

• #1: It’s time to stop deleting your old content from your website! Google has warned that removing or re-writing old blogs is actually harming your SEO, not helping it.
• #2: Buzzfeed, the king of blog content, is doing impeccably well with AI created content. Now’s the time to give it a go!
• #3: If you’re slacking on your Instagram game, it may be time to turn it around as the Meta is testing public interaction statistics!?
• #4: Quality over quantity: a case study to help you improve your SEO blog writing skills.
• #5: Speaking of SEO, need help refining best practices for keyword researches? We’ve got you covered!
• #6: Worried about ranking for niche content, less relevant to your typical blog posts? Google has alleviated those concerns.

?? See you next time on 4th September

That’s it for edition 10 of The Bolt!

We’ll see you in 2 weeks on Monday 4th September with Issue #011.

As always, hit subscribe and if there’s anybody in your network that you would like to see this, then tag them in the comments or forward it on.

Sara and the team at Expert Trades

www.experttrades.com