The pink below is what he took care of last week, and the blue is what i\u2019m going to take care of today!<\/p>\n
| As Advertisers<\/b><\/td>\n | Variable\/Metric<\/b><\/td>\n | Aiming for?<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n| Outbrain<\/span><\/td>\n | CPC<\/span><\/td>\n | Low CPC<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | Outbrain<\/span><\/td>\n | Traffic Sources<\/span><\/td>\n | Block poor-performing traffic<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | Outbrain<\/span><\/td>\n | CTR<\/span><\/td>\n | Doesn\u2019t matter that much!<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | Outbrain<\/span><\/td>\n | Images<\/span><\/td>\n | Dramatic, intriguing<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | Outbrain<\/span><\/td>\n | Headline content<\/span><\/td>\n | Dramatic, intriguing<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | As Publishers<\/b><\/td>\n | Variable\/Metric<\/b><\/td>\n | Aiming for?<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | AdSense\/Content.Ad<\/span><\/td>\n | Widget Placement and Size<\/span><\/td>\n | (depends)<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | AdSense\/Content.Ad<\/span><\/td>\n | Text or Image? Text\/Border Colours<\/span><\/td>\n | (depends)<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | AdSense\/Content.Ad<\/span><\/td>\n | CTR\/RPM<\/span><\/td>\n | As high as possible<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | Article Content\/Subjects<\/span><\/td>\n | Adsense keywords<\/span><\/td>\n | Include well paid keywords<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | Slideshow ordering<\/span><\/td>\n | Post exit rates and time on site<\/span><\/td>\n | Keep users in slideshows\/on site<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | Website <\/b><\/td>\n | Metric<\/b><\/td>\n | Aiming for?<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | Site Speed<\/span><\/td>\n | Load time<\/span><\/td>\n | Quick as possible<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | Theia Post Slider<\/span><\/td>\n | Arrow Colour\/Style\/Placement<\/span><\/td>\n | (depends)<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n | I\u2019m going to break Image optimisation and headline optimisation down into two separate sections, though bear in mind that we approach them together as we build our campaigns. The headline and image need to have a relationship to really optimise things, but for sake of ease I\u2019m doing it step by step here!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Image optimisation<\/b><\/p>\n When building campaigns, the image used for the Outbrain headline\/image combo is what we focus on. This is what the user sees, and is what will be enticing them to y\/our site.<\/p>\n How we do it:<\/p>\n We use NAB as our first port of call to see what\u2019s already working in an area we are hoping to run a campaign on.<\/p>\n Because i\u2019m a complete nerd, and because it\u2019s right on trend at the moment, let\u2019s use an article I just wrote about Pokemon Go as inspiration…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n From the search results, the one that\u2019s immediately caught my eye (and that\u2019s what a good ad image should do!) is the top left offering (run a close second by the tank-top girl, admittedly)…<\/p>\n Zooming in, we see this:<\/p>\n
We also get all the NAB stats, which are super useful for digging deeper into the actual success of the ad elsewhere on the web:<\/span><\/p>\n …but for now we are just scouting images to get a feel for what would work – and let\u2019s run with it, assuming we are going to build a campaign about rare Pokemon to be found in Pokemon Go (nerd alert).<\/p>\n Why do I like this image more than the girl in the tank-top? I think it has a great balance between the content we are targeting about (Pokemon), a real image that is recognisable and not too obscure (the car), and things causing intrigue (the arrows). It made me want to take a closer look, and to find out what the arrows are referring to. A rare Pokemon hiding under a perfectly normal car perhaps? I better click and see! Bingo – a session is born! Rinse and repeat!<\/p>\n And not to be fixated or anything, but back to tank-top girl again…<\/p>\n Though she\u2019s lovely, another reason I\u2019m not all for it is compliance with Ts and Cs. If you read our earlier blogs you\u2019ll remember we got stung by AdSense for having a couple of articles about alcohol – only on closer inspection did we read how that was not allowed. AdSense is also hot on not overdoing things with nudity\/explicit content (I covered the G\/PG\/R toggle in Content.Ad a couple of weeks ago too actually: https:\/\/www.nativeadbuzz.com\/blog\/productivity-hacks-analytics-theia-slideshows-and-time-saving-tricks\/), and now real money is coming in, things have gotten serious. So yea, I\u2019m super cautious, and don\u2019t want to do anything too edgy to rock the boat!<\/span><\/p>\n HOWEVER – a caveat to that. I\u2019m writing with the assumption that generally the images used in driving traffic with campaigns will also be featured within your content. But actually, my caution might be slightly over the top\u2026 it took us a while to realise, but there is actually a clear distinction between the things going on on the Outbrain traffic-driving side, and on the Adsense-hosting website side. The images used to drive traffic to the site don\u2019t always have to appear within a slideshow\u2026 in fact, it can be good practice to leave them out.<\/p>\n Why? A user will be looking for it as they click through – saving it until the end, or even better, holding out on them completely, can be a great way to drive up page views per user\u2026 but again, caution – you do not want to promise something with your ad that you cannot deliver with your content. This is a quick way to fail to get Outbrain approval for your campaign.<\/p>\n Dan\u2019s already taken you through building the campaign within Outbrain (super tedious, we know). To minimise the tedium and having to keep re-doing things, we work on nailing it from the start, which includes getting the images we think will get the most traction. So, for an article about finding rare pokemon, what are things that could grab attention? Images that include famous landmarks, images focussing on mysterious locations, general images with Pokemon, and, like the example above, use of selective arrows and circles on difficult-to-see sections.<\/p>\n We find our 5 or 6 images using NAB and searching for intriguing content, then spice them up a bit:<\/span><\/p>\n Landmarks…<\/p>\n Mysterious locations (and arrows\/circles)…<\/span><\/p>\n Images with Pokemon…<\/span> Circles to highlight interesting\/hard-to-see areas\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n It creates intrigue, and we\u2019ve definitely seen an uptick in our CTRs as a result of more considered images for campaigns. Ditto for cropping out and zooming in in sections of images:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Is there a Pokemon at the top of that fountain? Click to find out…<\/span><\/p>\n To get more of a feel for what we mean, play around with Native Ad Buzz. You\u2019ll see plenty of successful examples to replicate!<\/span><\/p>\n Replicate them 5 or 6 times and you\u2019ll have the images you need to optimise your campaign beyond the average!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A slight tangent…<\/b><\/p>\n And while we are at it, an additional comment regarding site branding and voice. In the process of building a niche, you\u2019ll likely develop a voice that your readers can recognise and relate to. That\u2019s cool, and great for eventually building up a Social Media following. <\/span><\/p>\n But don\u2019t bother with it for your headlines. Your advert will be shared by Outbrain on various different platforms, and will reach all sorts of people. By sticking to your niche (french squirrel lovers\/amputee burger aficionados\/etc) within your actual headline, you\u2019ll alienate everyone else. Keep things more general, and you\u2019ll increase traffic from demographics you were not expecting – more footfall on site, and hopefully more clicks! Proof:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n We started off writing for a young demographic (18-35), and expected our readership to fit that profile. But after a few general headlines run through OB, we ended up with quite the cross-section\u2026 and essentially the opposite of what we expected! Age before beauty…?<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Headline Optimisation<\/b><\/p>\n Rob and Pete at NAB have been superstars in terms of enabling to get to grips with headlines, and what makes them successful. It can be daunting at first (well, either daunting, or just something you simply don\u2019t consider the importance of\u2026 either or!), but with practice and a few key things to bear in mind, you can be writing headlines with the best of them.<\/p>\n From what Dan showed you last time in his section on identifying profitable combos, there are clear distinctions between a good headline and a bad headline. It wasn\u2019t something I had given much thought to.<\/p>\n What do you reckon will gain more clicks?<\/p>\n \u2018Rare Pokemon from Pokemon Go\u2019<\/p>\n OR <\/span><\/p>\n \u2018Do you know about the 7 rarest Pokemon the experts have found? You have to see number 5 before it\u2019s too late!\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n They both describe the same thing, but I\u2019m plumping for the latter! Why?<\/p>\n It offers a combination of scarcity\/urgency, social proof, numerical confirmation, and curiosity!<\/p>\n Including Numbers<\/span><\/i>:<\/span> numbers in headlines serve to create a sense of the known for a user. They will be expecting a specific amount of slides\/content, and makes clicking your ad less of a gamble. Essentially, they know what they are going to get. Top tip – odd numbers work better than even!<\/span><\/p>\n Curiosity<\/span><\/i>: self explanatory I reckon! Citing the \u2018rarest\u2019 pokemon, rather than just \u2018rare\u2019 gives the ad a sense of valuable content, and that it has something special to offer the reader. Make sure you deliver on the content-end, and your headline is justified!<\/span><\/p>\n Scarcity<\/span><\/i>: if an article is offering something that might not be around for very long, there is more incentive for them to click on it!<\/span><\/p>\n Social Proof<\/span><\/i>: \u2018the experts have found\u2019? Then I want to find them too! Giving people an insight into what others are using\/doing is like catnip – people are super curious about others, so this is a great psychological tool!<\/span><\/p>\n Admittedly that example headline is a bit too long (it could be split into 4 different versions that each allude to a category above), but you get the idea. What we tend to do is pick our 5 or 6 images using the above methods, then pull together a list of 5 or 6 headlines that address the tropes I just mentioned. That then gives us 25 or 30 combinations to run with, and gives us more chance of finding a hit using Dan\u2019s great method from last week about working out the most effective combos.<\/p>\n Start with great images and headlines and you\u2019re sure to end up with more winners than losers!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Actually – as I started this campaign today, let\u2019s get interactive!<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m going to paste a few of the headlines I have used myself. Hit me up with which one you think will do best, and i\u2019ll dig into the stats in a couple of weeks and see what occurred\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n The Pokemon Go stories they don\u2019t want you to hear!<\/span><\/p>\n People are going crazy over Pokemon Go<\/span><\/p>\n You have to hear these 7 stories about Pokemon Go!<\/span><\/p>\n People are getting seriously hurt playing Pokemon Go – here\u2019s how<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Next week? A really important look into AdSense testing and optimisation. We\u2019ve started to bring about some serious increases to our earnings as a result of focussing on AS stuff, including how (and why!) to set up experiments within AdSense, and the experiments that have really worked well for us. Until then, practice your headline writing and your image selection, and get some combos together to optimise your campaigns to the next level!<\/span><\/p>\n Cheers!<\/p>\n Jake <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hey – great to have you with us again! Dan\u2019s taken the lead on the last few entries, so it\u2019s my turn to step up today. [Where have I been, you ask? Copenhagen. Why? I have a Danish girlfriend. AdSense profitable, and a Scandinavian girlfriend? It\u2019s all coming up Jake!] And good news, we are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3954,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,25,5],"tags":[28,54,41,74,50,53,60,42],"class_list":["post-2462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arbitrage","category-arbitrage-diary","category-marketing-info","tag-content","tag-content-discovery","tag-how-to-guide","tag-images","tag-native-ad-arbitrage","tag-native-advertising","tag-native-advertising-arbitrage","tag-step-by-step-guide"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nab-s3-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/11023954\/pexels-mentatdgt-1049622.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nativeadbuzz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nativeadbuzz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nativeadbuzz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nativeadbuzz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nativeadbuzz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2462"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.nativeadbuzz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3960,"href":"https:\/\/www.nativeadbuzz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2462\/revisions\/3960"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nativeadbuzz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nativeadbuzz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nativeadbuzz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nativeadbuzz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} |
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