Why failure is good and why searching for perfection is your 1st problem with #PPC.

I have had a lot of feedback recently, from people (clients AND trainees) looking for perfection with their digital marketing efforts.

This is one of the key problems for people to overcome. Traditional marketing was about getting the ‘perfect creative’. Now you do the opposite almost.

As you make something, and keep testing, testing and testing.

You can do that with PPC – you can fail and fail fast. 

In fact, that’s the point. Keep failing.

People don’t like to. But you fail fast with PPC and get better and better at it.

So on this note I would like to share 20 Powerful Quotes on failure – to change your mind about the power of it all.

1. “You always pass failure on your way to success.” ~Mickey Rooney
2. “A failure is a man who has blundered, but is not able to cash in the experience.” ~Elbert Hubbard
3. “Failure is the tuition you pay for success.” ~Walter Brunell
4. “Feeling sorry for yourself, and your present condition is not only a waste of energy but the worst habit you could possibly have. ~Dale Carnegie
5. “Success represents the 1% of your work which results from the 99% that is called failure.” ~Soichiro Honda
6. “The season of failure is the best time for sowing the seeds of success.” ~Paramahansa Yogananda
7. “Success is not built on success. It’s built on failure. It’s built on frustration. Sometimes it’s built on catastrophe.” ~Sumner Redstone
8. “Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” ~Truman Capote
9. “There is no failure. Only feedback.” ~Robert Allen
10. “Remember that failure is an event, not a person.” ~Zig ziglar
11. “Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.” ~Og Mandino
12. “Its fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” ~Bill Gates
13. “Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.” ~Richard Branson
14. “I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” ~Michael Jordan
15. 15.” Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.” ~Napoleon Hill
16. “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”~Henry Ford
17. “My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.” ~Abraham Lincoln
18. “I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.” ~Thomas Edison
19. “Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat. “~F. Scott Fitzgerald
20. Our best success often come after our greatest disappointments. ~Henry Ward Beecher

Finally, don’t let the fear of failure hold you back. Especially with your PPC advertising and digital marketing. 

Remember to take risks: if you win, you will be happy; if you lose, you will be wise.

Failure is feedback. Feedback is golden and it’s what you need.

And that’s what you get that from PPC. So go now, start, fail, get feedback, and start again.

Just remember…(not only to budget probably but also that…..)

Here’s to a wonderful 2015. Full of feedback and happiness.

Happy New Year.

5 top tips for trying out #Twitter Ads. And a Merry #Christmas Bonus.

I have been honing my Twitter advertising skills for a while, both with clients who had apps to promote and clients with businesses and websites they want more traffic for.

I can safely say (and so can many of my clients) that Twitter is THE most cost effective way to get more leads and traffic in digital marketing that I know of right now.

And even though I can’t tell you the figures or CPA’s for clients I can give you a Merry Christmas with these top tips. Here they are:

My 5 top tips for Twitter Advertising 

1) Target the followers of specific accounts

This is MUCH better than just aiming at people’s interests (which is like what you can do with Facebook advertising). Going for the follower of accounts gives you much more rich data from a psychological POV. i.e. If they like 10 or so of the right accounts – you can tell a lot about the person’s thoughts and potential desires.

2) Target by device

This one is not as psychologically exciting but it is vital for conversion rates i.e. if you are wanting people to fill in a signup form and this form is not as mobile-friendly as it ought to be (a serious challenge when using Twitter ads), you’ll want to target users who can easily sign up, i.e. those on non-mobile devices.

However, do remember that Twitter is more mobile than anything else – especially in the UK i.e. around 78% are mobile users.

3) Don’t pre-empt yourself

When you start using Twitter ads you can do lots of different things – but two of the main ones are:

Promoted Tweets or Promoted Accounts.

The assumption is that the former will get you engagement while the latter attracts followers. This is not always the case. You should play around with Promoted Tweets to get more followers as well, as this works.

4) Use conversation pieces:

Normally advertising is statement led or to increase the desire for something. But in Twitter as such a social platform try to use social actions to engage with people so use promoted tweets that have questions in there. You will be amazed at the results.

5) Don’t follow Twitter’s recommended bid price

When you create your campaign Twitter will suggest a max. bid price that you should offer. This is a ‘per engagement’ fee that you’ll pay for clicks, RTs, replies and follows. You will pay a LOT less – and you should. So go low. Then if you aren’t getting anything, gently up the price and check, check, check.

Christmas bonus tip: Play around and test, test, test.

Have fun playing with Twitter ads. The platform being self-service really is an amazing opportunity. You can turn it on and off as much as you like, tweek something and try again.

This is what we did over the weekend, for KeyRingMe an app which transforms your iPhone pics into a key ring. We changed the campaign 5 times over the weekend to get the CPA right for our client. From clicks, to downloads, to followers, to lead generation.

Enjoy:

There is so much you can do with Twitter. From using pictures to making statements, we were even going to play around with videos as well.

In 2015, as promised we will be doing some live twitter training courses, for a mixture of businesses, so at a lower price point to our 1-2-1 twitter training which is more personal.

And…

If you are feeling festive and giving – answer this question on what is holding you back from getting the success you want with Twitter.

And if you like some #Christmas stats on the power of #Twitter – click here. 

Social networks by the demographics: Useful information!

This is originally found by PEW research on a 1000 or so American people in Dec 2013. Thanks to Maeve Duggan and Aaron Smith for the hard work. It will also be interesting to note the changes by Dec 2014.

I predict Facebook falls down, Twitter rises slightly, Linkedin increases,
and Pinterest and Instagram smash it and we have new players in the market place as well.

Facebook users

Fully 71% of online adults now use Facebook, and usage among seniors has increased significantly in the last year. Some 45% of internet users age 65 or older now use Facebook, up from 35% who did so in late 2012. Women are also particularly likely to use Facebook compared with men.

Twitter users

Some 18% of online adults currently use Twitter, statistically similar to the 16% who did so in 2012. As was the case in our previous surveys on Twitter use, adoption levels are particularly high among younger adults and African-Americans.

Instagram users

Some 17% of online adults use Instagram, up from 13% in late 2012. Two groups in particular have experienced a notable increase in Instagram usage in the last year. Instagram adoption by internet users ages 18-29 has increased from 28% in late 2012 to 37% in 2013, and adoption by African American internet users has increased from 23% to 34% over the same time period. Instagram was acquired by Facebook in April 2012.

Pinterest users

Some 21% of online adults use Pinterest, up from the 15% who did so in December 2012. Women continue to dominate the site: fully 33% of online women are Pinterest users, compared to just 8% of men. Pinterest users also skew slightly towards the affluent side – those in the highest income bracket are more likely than those in the lowest to use the site, as are those with a college degree or higher compared to those who have not attended college.

LinkedIn users

Some 22% of online adults are LinkedIn users. As a platform geared towards professional networking, its user demographics are unique from the other sites discussed above. Specifically, LinkedIn usage is especially high among people with a college degree or higher, and among those with an annual household income of $75,000 or more. It is also the only social networking site we measured for which usage among 50-64 year olds is higher than usage among those ages 18-29.

Extras:

In this survey, PEW only asked about a subset of the social networking sites that people use. The Pew Research Center’s Journalism Project has collected recent data on the use of other social networking platforms – especially in the context of getting news. To read their material about other sites such as YouTube, Google+, Tumblr, Reddit, and Vine, please go to http://www.journalism.org/2013/11/14/news-use-across-social-media-platforms/.

Which one do you think will fall the most by the end of 2014?

Have your say here.

Well I did say it would be around 30%.Facebook smashes it with mobile.

Am loving the fact I was right…. but heck you don’t make money from being right.

You make money from taking action.

And action in the mobile space is what Facebook has taken…. and it looks like their mobile plans are coming to fruition as the company’s first-quarter earnings exceeded expectations—mainly because of strong mobile advertising performance. Read on…

Coursera makes first foray into K-12 education with online courses for teachers

Am on a great course from Penn Uni on Gaming – totally for free – amazing …. all thanks to MOOC and this wonderful site.

Gigaom

Coursera, one of the driving forces behind the MOOC (massive open online course) movement reshaping higher education, is bringing its disruption to K-12 schools. But its target audience isn’t the students; it’s the teachers.

On Wednesday, the startup said it had partnered with several schools of education and other institutions and museums, including schools of education at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Virginia, the American Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Modern Art, to bring free professional development courses to teachers via the web.

“We looked at our technology and realized that for 7-year-old kids, streaming university content for them wasn’t going [to be effective]. But the lever for that 7-year-old kid may be to help them get a better teacher,” said Coursera co-founder Andrew Ng.

Most school districts don’t have the resources to offer quality professional development programs that match the interests and needs of individual…

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Social Commerce / Photo Sharing Network Lockerz Launching Ador, A New Fashion Site

And so it begins….

Ring, ring! Skype video calls arrive in the browser … with Outlook.com

Gigaom

People pining for Skype(s msft) video calls directly in the browser have something to look forward to today, provided they use Outlook.com for their email. On Tuesday, Skype announced a preview of web support for its audio, video and instant messaging services in Firefox, Internet Explorer and Chrome(s goog). The service is integrated directly with Outlook.com, making it easier to make and receive Skype calls directly from your inbox.

Skype is rolling out the new service Tuesday in the U.K., with the U.S. and Germany to follow in the coming weeks. Worldwide availability is expected over the next four to five months.

Being based in the U.S., I can’t test Skype over the web just yet, although I’d like to since I use a browser-based Chromebook Pixel as my full time computer. In the meantime then, I’ll have to be satisfied with this Skype demonstration video:

Note that in…

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iTunes Celebrates a Decade, Faces New Challenges

Online budgets increasing – and right so :) – according to new report from Nielsen’s Vizu

Despite marketers’ continued struggle with measurement of brand advertising, more than half (63 percent) will increase their online brand advertising budgets, according to a report from Nielsen’s Vizu. In addition, 20 percent of respondents said that those budgets would grow by 20 percent or more.

Looks like we were right to start advising our clients last year to be doing the same.

Thanks to Visu and FierceCMO’s Tequia Burt for the report below.

Let’s all celebrate the power of Twitter – hip hip horray – hip hip fridays!

As twitter changed the way it allows us marketing folk to theoretically advertise on it’s platform yesterday, I say theoretically as at the moment it is not for us in the UK but only for USA big boys until later on …. boo boo

Anyhoo, I thought I would celebrate with some great twitter stats found on http://expandedramblings.com a marketing site which I love and I know you will too.

Some great marketing twitter stats….

• Total Number of Twitter Users: 500 million (Tweet this stat)

• Total Number of Tweets Sent: 170 billion (Tweet this stat)

• Monthly Active Twitter Users: 200 million  (Tweet this stat)

• Average Number of Followers per Twitter User: 208 (Tweet this stat)

• Average Number of Tweets Sent Per Day: 400 million (Tweet this stat)

• Average Number of Tweets per Twitter User: 307 (Tweet this stat)

• Average Time Per Month Spent by Users on Twitter: 170 minutes (Tweet this stat)

• Percentage of Twitter Users Accessing Via Mobile: 60% (Tweet this stat)

• Most Followed Celebrity on Twitter: Justin Bieber with 36.4 million followers (Tweet this stat)

Here is More DMR Twitter Coverage

and if that wasn’t enough to keep your thirst for Twitter stats quenched, here is a handy infographic from LinchpinSEO that gives us a bunch more Twitter usage data.

Twitter Cheat Sheet , an infographic by Linchpin Infographic Design