source: pew research center

facebook has been working through something of a fake news crisis over the past two years, since it was revealed that the network was weaponized by government-backed russian in a coordinated misinformation campaign, with the hopes of influencing the 2016 u.s. presidential election. 

since then, the company has implemented a number of changes to curb the creation of fake accounts that often distribute this inauthentic information, and has uncovered at least two similar misinformation campaigns.

it poses the question: with fake news continuing to be a problem on social media, why do so many people continue to rely on it as a source of information on current events?

the answer, it seems, is two-fold.

first, the same survey conducted by pew also found that even though so many people continue to primarily consume news via social media, they don't always trust it. over half (57%) expect the news they find on social media to be inaccurate.

source: pew research center

so despite this mistrust, what's to explain for the continued consumption? hubspot vp of marketing jon dick believes it comes down to our established news-reading routines.

"ultimately," he says, "i think people have an existing habit that's hard to break."

it makes sense -- pew also found, in separate research, that 74% of people visit facebook at least once a day, reinforcing their consumption behavior during time spent on the site.

source: pew research center

that said, facebook page engagement has dropped about 50% since a january news feed algorithm change that shifted priority to content from users' immediate connections over that from pages.

which is why, dick says, there could be other explanations for users continuing to turn to social media for news discovery.

for example, there's the 42% of people who trust that the news they see on social media is likely accurate.

"people don't think it'll happen to them," dick explains, referring to falling victim to misinformation.

but given the amount of time that, collectively, we spend on social media, our news consumption through those channels might not dissipate in the near future.

"heck, i still get my news from social media," dick admits. "but for some irrational reason, i assume the news i see on social media isn't fake."

originally published sep 14, 2018 2:18:46 pm, updated december 11 2019

for our customers, we’ve enhanced the hubspot platform to enable easier compliance with the gdpr. you and your customers can read more about the product changes and deeper details on hubspot and the gdpr here.

i’m excited for our future in a post-gdpr world. buckle up!

originally published may 24, 2018 8:00:00 pm, updated may 24 2018

with contributions by sarah williams

tl;dr the hubspot sales blog pivoted to an organic-first strategy that helped us bounce back from several months of low traffic. now we’re applying this strategy to all three of hubspot's blogs.

table of contents (6  minute  read)

1. introduction
2. the 3 steps we took to increase traffic
   • abandoning the month-to-month mentality
   • focusing relentlessly on organic
   • finding untapped search potential
3. the results

→ download now: 6 free blog post templates

introduction

last year i became the editor of hubspot’s sales blog. i was super excited -- until the end of the month, when we missed our blog traffic goal.

and the end of the next month, when we missed again. and the next month, and the next, and the next.

our monthly traffic number used to spell success or failure. if the sales blog hit its target, i’d succeeded. if it was under, i’d failed. (kind of like a salesperson!)

but just like scrambling to hit quota can lead you to the wrong tactics (such as discounting heavily), trying to hit that monthly number encouraged less-than-ideal strategies.

if we were falling behind, i’d publish “quick win” posts -- digestible and clicky content that was guaranteed to give us a traffic boost (e.g. 7 seemingly harmless (but secretly deadly) sales phrases).

i’d also temporarily stop publishing “unsexy” content, which was basically anything technical and higher-level directed at executives and managers instead of front-line reps. these posts never performed well in their first several weeks.

on the surface, it seemed like these techniques were helping me salvage bad months. but every sexy post had an opportunity cost. publishing something clicky might have earned us a few extra thousand views that month… but it meant i didn’t publish a search-friendly post that would become a reliable traffic-earner down the line.

to illustrate, here’s our editorial calendar for the week of june 12, 2017. i’ve noted the search-friendly posts in orange (“search-friendly” = has an organic angle).

the four orange posts have cumulatively racked up 97,084 views. the other seven have gotten 39,955 in total.

that’s 24,271 average views per post versus 5,708. (and the gap will only grow wider over time as those four posts continue to get organic traffic -- which will boost their page authority and help them gain more backlinks and social shares, leading to higher rankings in a self-fulfilling cycle.)

the old content playbook had made the sales blog one of (if not the biggest) publications in the sales world and earned it hundreds of thousands of readers every month.

but it was time to tweak the playbook.

the 3 steps we took to increase traffic 

1. abandoning the month-to-month mentality

i realized focusing on the monthly number was jeopardizing our long-term results. so, i stopped treating it as the main measure of success.

to understand how we were doing, i’d compare equivalent weeks:

when looking at performance, i’d also factor in seasonal trends and holidays.

most importantly, i decided we’d prioritize search-friendly content, even though it wouldn’t have a significant impact on our traffic for months.

it made me nervous, but i tried to think of it like working out, going to the dentist, or saving the other half of my burrito for dinner instead of eating it all at lunch -- down the line, i’d be glad i made the sacrifice.

i needed an objective way to measure this new strategy, so i started closely monitoring our percentage of organic traffic. the more search-friendly content we published, the higher this percentage should grow -- even if overall traffic flatlined or dipped.

2. we focused relentlessly on organic

the sales blog used to publish many different “flavors” of posts. each flavor had a different purpose: the aforementioned “quick wins,” which tended to be about email/voicemails/phrases and generated instant traffic; thought leadership, which presented different views and helped us build the hubspot brand; placeholders, which were easy to write up (think infographics and slideshares) and let us fill slots in a pinch; and more.3

our posts all have the same purpose now -- capture search traffic. if an update or new post doesn’t have an organic angle, we tweak the angle so it does or look for a different topic altogether. it’s not easy to keep this going, but once you see far too many posts do this: 

… you realize every piece of content needs to have legs. in other words, it must bring in significant organic traffic every month -- every half year or so, we might update it, but for the most part it’s like passive income. big results, low effort.

(this is 21 salespeople reveal the worst sales advice they ever got, which i wrote because i thought it would be attention-grabbing and interesting. the problem is, no one is searching for “worst sales advice,” so this post gets barely any traffic on its own.)

that doesn’t mean we’ve stopped publishing thought leadership, or awesome infographics, or posts about sales emails. we still do. the difference is, they’re intended to rank.

and if you’re wondering how we found new topics to target -- great question.

3. we found untapped search potential

you know how finishing a jar of peanut butter is a real struggle? to get those last spoonfuls, you have to dig. 

that’s how i felt about scooping up the last bits of search potential for the sales blog.

if there was a general sales-related term with any search volume behind it -- we’re talking as little as 50 searches per month -- the hubspot sales blog was almost always already ranking for it.

that’s great from a mind-share perspective. but from a “grow the blog” perspective? it’s not so great. short of getting people to search for sales advice more frequently (i wish i had that power), we couldn’t influence our organic traffic.

so, my team and i got creative. we delved into topics that weren’t familiar to us.

topics like:

• real estate sales
• client gifts
• car sales
• becoming a medical device rep

while these stray from our usual topics, they do boast significant search volume. and we found ways to put the hubspot spin on all sorts of subjects. no matter the topic, a post only went on the blog if it was:

• well-researched and comprehensive
• aligned with hubspot values
• backed up with statistics and research where appropriate
• tailored to our existing audience (for example, our subscriber survey showed realtors are already reading hubspot)

here’s the total traffic from this post (published in nov. 2017): 

not bad at all! this post will continually bring in thousands of visits per month for us. (for context, the average post gets less than 100 views per month after its first 30 days.)

to make sure we didn’t lose our regular audience, i’d always balance these posts with more traditional fare, like the ultimate guide to creating and using a sales playbook.

the sales blog typically publishes two posts per day: one at 7:30 am and another at 8:30 am. if a post was super niche -- like “how to get your real estate license” -- i’d schedule it for 6:30 as a third post. the other post(s) going live that day would always target our main audience.

the results

this january, we finally broke through an 18-month traffic plateau, setting a new record for sessions (a 14.7% increase from our previous highest month in may 2017).

if you publish a blog post in the forest and no one reads it, did you truly publish it all? these days, simply producing great content is table stakes. to meet your performance goals, you have to make sure you’re covering the right topics (i.e. what your readers are looking for) in the right way (so they can find it on google).

you might be thinking, “do we want more visitors if they’re not going to convert right away?”

because the blog is as top of the funnel as it gets, yes, we do want more visitors even if they don’t convert right away. and chances are, they will -- people who are familiar with a brand are 2x more likely to click on its ads and convert. this concept doesn’t just hold true for ads. increasing your content reach gets your company’s name out to a greater number of buyers … and down the line, when they need to make a purchase, they’ll think of you.

 this report contains links for hubspot content, products, and services.

 

originally published apr 18, 2018 9:00:28 am, updated january 21 2020

table of contents (6  minute  read)

1. video around the globe
2. where consumers go to see video
3. popular content channels: google, facebook, and amazon factor
4. mobile first regions are a great testing ground for messaging
5. methodology 

our 2017 consumer trends survey was fielded in 3 major regions and explored the content preferences of consumers. our findings outlined that:

• facebook is now a major content channel.
• ready or not, video is here.
• when it comes to content, age matters. a lot.
• preference for video extends to brands.
• do invest in a mix of channels and content - don’t ditch any specific channels today.
• take demographics into consideration when staffing content teams.

this follow up report breaks down responses in the us, germany, and colombia and mexico, which we’ll be referring to as latin america in the report.

video around the globe

our previous report established a very strong preference for video, especially from a brand or business.

want this chart? click to download. 

geographically, latin american consumers were more enthusiastic about video and social compared to those in the us and uk. they’re also less likely to want email content compared to their peers.

want this chart? click to download.   

overall, branded video content is the most memorable type of branded content, but there are some striking differences in preference across regions. video is hugely memorable for latin american consumers, whereas german consumers indicate photo-based content is more memorable.

want this chart? click to download. 

when it comes to general advertising, most in the us and germany strongly prefer image based ads. strikingly, video is so popular in latin america that video based ads rank highest against image and text-based ads. this is a big difference compared to the us and germany, where video ads are reviled as a particularly annoying type of advertising. perhaps if online video ads follow the preferred formula of being entertaining, funny, or informative, the medium will win over more consumer viewers (just make sure they’re not autoplaying).

want this chart? click to download. 

where consumers go to see videos

unsurprisingly, youtube is the most popular channel for video overall. facebook makes a strong showing, especially amongst latin american and us-based respondents. facebook’s pivot to a multimedia company has made serious headway against youtube. however, facebook's recent announcement that puts the focus on content shared by friends and family over brands will make distribution and reach much harder for marketers. since brand pages will be de-emphasized, noteworthy branded videos may be one of the few types of branded content that has the potential to be shared en masse by users. but the video has to be worth sharing and commenting on.

want this chart? click to download. 

what types of video content are the most popular? people around world want entertaining, funny, and informative content. the education aspect is surprisingly popular -- 61% of consumers surveyed want to learn something from the videos they see on social media.

want this chart? click to download. 

popular content channels: google, facebook, and amazon factor

where do people catch up on stories online? google and facebook are now head to head for content discovery. as noted in the first report in this series, content discovery on facebook is very different from discovery on google. when one uses google for content, one has to have an idea of the topic or item they’re searching for. facebook’s feed allows for passive discovery of content, products, and brands. as a result, optimizing content for facebook is very different from optimizing content for search engines.

want this chart? click to download. 

mobile first regions are a great testing ground for messaging

finally, mobile devices dictate the type of content people seek out on a daily basis. as more use phones as their primary internet device, the preference for video, social content, and messaging based interactions will continue to grow. the majority of latin american respondents are mobile first, and their preferences can be leveraged by marketers looking to experiment.

want this chart? click to download. 

 

want this chart? click to download.   

research methodology

hubspot research ran an online survey leveraging a general population panel of adult online consumers via survey sampling international. 3,010 respondents from the us, germany, colombia, and mexico make up the sample. the survey was available in english, german, and spanish and fielded in june 2017. 

 this report contains links for hubspot content, products, and services.

originally published feb 7, 2018 8:00:00 am, updated december 11 2019

one of the latest was last week's aws re:invent, where amazon announced a new suite of ai-enabled technology designed with businesses in mind.

and while these new products, features, and tools come with a host of opportunities for the developers, marketers, and others who plan to use them, they also raise a few questions. what are they designed to do? how can they help you? how do they work?

there's also one less-official question that occurred to me as i learned of these developments. is amazon trying to creep into google's territory?

let's take a look at some of these ai announcements from aws re:invent and dig deeper into just what they mean.

1. what is aws re:invent?

aws re:invent is what amazon describes as "a learning conference" produced by amazon web services -- that's what aws stands for. the intended audience is what it calls the "the global cloud computing community," but the event features content for anyone who wants to learn how cloud technology can help grow and scale a business. from adtech, to content delivery, to the internet of things, the conference ranges in learning opportunities from keynotes to certification sessions.

2. what were the major ai capabilities announced at aws re:invent 2017?

while a handful of new capabilities were unveiled by aws, there are four that i'd like to focus on (with a bit of teaser text below on what each one is capable of doing):

1. comprehend: text analysis for a variety of content formats
2. deeplens: a wireless, artificially intelligent video camera with newly enhanced object recognition
3. transcribe: speech recognition technology to convert the spoken word to text
4. translate: what it sounds like -- advanced text translation technology 

if some of these sound familiar -- or seem reminiscent of similar capabilities previously made somewhat famous by a certain search engine giant -- chances are, it's because they are familiar. i'll delve deeper into this below, but many of these capabilities reflect those for which google has been known to be a leader, especially in the realm of translation. after all, who could forget this jaunty promotional video on the topic?

3. what is deep learning vs. machine learning?

the reason why i want to establish the difference between these two technologies (and what they are, in the first place) is that most of these capabilities use one or both. 

machine learning essentially describes the ability of a machine to learn things -- habits, language, behaviors, and patterns, to name a few -- without having been programmed to do so, or pre-loaded with that knowledge. it doesn't describe artificial intelligence in entirety, but rather, is one very important ai capability.

deep learning is a type of machine learning -- and is a bit trickier to explain. basically, it takes the next (big) step in that it's designed to imitate the way the human brain works by way of something called neural networks. in our brains, we have biological neural networks in which the action of one neuron creates a series of subsequent actions that ultimately result in our different behaviors.

in technology, artificial neural networks seek to replicate that phenomenon by becoming "trained" to comprehend data based on a certain set of criteria. one of the more notable examples of deep learning in practice is in image recognition, in which neural networks are able to recognize different data patterns or cues to learn what, for example, a cat looks like.

4. what is amazon comprehend?

amazon comprehend uses something called natural language processing (nlp) to better understand and determine the meaning within text. it's an instance of machine learning, in which the technology learns how to comprehend -- if you will -- and process language as it was intended by the human being speaking or writing it.

comprehend performs this capability with a series of steps:

1. identify the language.
2. pick out the phrases that most strongly indicate what the text is about -- things like names of people, companies, places, or important events.
3. use those phrases to determine if the sentiment of the text is positive or negative.
4. file that set of text according to its topic within a collection of subjects it has already organized based on patterns it's observed.

so, how does this technology apply to the real world? well, it's particularly helpful in an instance of, say, analyzing written customer feedback. by feeding these comments to an api like comprehend, marketers can use this technology to synthesize data from their audiences to determine something like thematic areas of improvement.

5. what is deeplens?

simply put, deeplens is a high definition video camera that was designed with developers in mind. it was built with deep learning capabilities and what aws chief evangelist jeff barr describes as "pre-trained models for image detection and recognition."

in other words, it's a very smart camera: one that can recognize objects, faces, motions, and creatures (e.g., a dog from a cat). and while that's very cool -- not to mention, somewhat reminiscent of the recently-announced google clips camera -- there's a reason why it could prove so helpful to businesses.

to start, deeplens comes with a number of "templates," or recognition technologies that users can build upon for their own projects. object and action recognition, for example, can help to more seamlessly create something like product tutorials or demonstrations, by developing a system or algorithm that learns to recognize how the two are paired for different outcomes.

for example, if you're demonstrating how a certain cooking appliance can be applied to different scenarios, it seems that deeplens can be utilized in building a system to recognize the appliance itself (like a standing mixer), the actions the user can take with it (like mixing cake batter), and the resulting outcome (a delicious cake).

source: amazon web services

6. what is amazon transcribe?

anyone with a journalism background is more than familiar with the headache joy of transcribing spoken interviews. we want to get it just right, be sure not to misquote the interviewee, and communicate what was said in the right context.

if only, back in my earliest days of reporting, there were advanced transcription services available to the common writer.

but now, there's transcribe: an aws service that uses machine learning technologies to recognize the spoken word and transcribe it into text.

while the function itself is fairly intuitive, the benefits might not be. so let's lay out two instances where technology like this can be applied to a marketer's world:

1. interview transcription. i already covered this a few paragraphs earlier, but let's say you're writing up a blog post that requires quotes from a spoken interview. this technology eliminates the time-consuming step of transcribing what was said, and leaves you instead with all of the text from that conversation, allowing you to pick and choose the quotes you want to incorporate.
2. video transcription. accessibility is no longer optional. it's important to provide a way for individuals who are hearing impaired to be able to consume and enjoy your video content, even without the audio. transcribing what is said in the video by way of full paragraphs or subtitles allows them to do so -- and, it allows those who simply prefer to watch videos without sound to be able to absorb the content, as well.

these are only two of the more prominent examples of how such technology could be applied, but there are many more, from transcribing podcasts, to documenting notes from an important meeting.

7. what is amazon translate?

this development might be my favorite.

around here, we talk a great deal about approaching marketing with a global mindset. while i might use jetblue as a remarkable example of marketing, it might not resonate as much with audiences in countries where this airline doesn't operate.

to put it simply, the internet is a global, international destination. the people reading your content might not regularly engage with the same brands you do, and they might not speak the same language.

that's why a growing number of developers and marketers are building a multilingual web presence -- one where their online properties and content can be seamlessly viewed in the language preferred by the user. it's a trend that, as hubspot's own global presence continues to grow, i take inordinate glee in seeing.

it's also why i love seeing tools become available that make it easier to approach marketing with a "global first" mindset. translate is one such tool: a service that uses machine learning to more naturally translate text from one language to another. 

here's a look at how it worked when translating a french paragraph to english:

source: amazon web services

so, here's the million-dollar question: is amazon creeping into google's territory?

maybe.

it's not the definitive answer i hoped to have, but in these early release days, it might be too soon to tell. while most of google's headline-making ai developments are largely consumer-centric (like the previous example of clips), it is true that the company has been working on its own stack of machine learning capabilities for businesses. look no further than google.ai, for example, where the mission is to bring "the benefits of ai to everyone" -- including, i assume, marketers.

this is only the beginning.

what are you most excited about? what confuses or scares you, and what fills you with delight? feel free to weigh in with your thoughts on these aws ai developments on twitter, or let me know if you have a question about it.

originally published dec 5, 2017 8:00:00 am, updated december 11 2019

a hubspot digital consumer trends report

tl;dr: our recent survey of over 3,000 consumers explored the type of content and channels that best attracts people’s time and attention. the clear winner is video, with interactive articles and social content emerging as close contenders.

this trend toward video has been in the making for some time now. what’s different is that millennials, an age group which roughly spans 18 to 34, aren’t just buying sneakers and gadgets anymore. increasingly, millennials comprise a cohort of people purchasing homes, baby clothing, and b2b software. and their strong preference for video, social, and mobile-first content has implications for marketers working across an expanding array of industries. (click here to see our follow up report with the data broken out by geography if you're interested in regional variances.)

download now: the state of media & content
planning in 2022 [free data report]

want this chart? click to download.

mobile phones are an integral part of modern life, with many admitting they use their phones before they sleep, after they wake up, and even in the bathroom throughout the day. 

want this chart? click to download.

table of contents (9  minute read)

1. facebook is now a major content channel.
2. ready or not, video is here.
3. milwhen it comes to content, age matters. a lot.
4. preference for video extends to brands.
5. do invest in a mix of channels and content - don’t ditch any specific channels today.
6. take demographics into consideration when staffing content teams.
7. methodology 

facebook is now a major content channel.

in july, google announced it’s overhauling its mobile homepage to feature content based on past searches. why the change?

google is adapting to the way people discover products and trends. many still rely on google to find content, but facebook is now nearly as influential as google. as more consumers passively discover content through their facebook feed, google is attempting to compete by encouraging mobile google users to browse suggested content through their feeds rather than actively search. 

want this chart? click to download.

google is shifting their mobile experience to cater to younger consumers, who are mobile first internet users. millennials now favor facebook almost as highly as google as a source for content. in contrast, gen x and boomer consumers have a stronger preference for going directly to a news site or receiving email content. 

want this chart? click to download.

what does this mean for marketers? seo will continue expanding to new channels beyond search engines. seo marketers will now need to contend with search algorithms on amazon or youtube in addition to google or bing. with the ubiquity of facebook, marketers will have to suffer the whims of facebook's algorithms in order to get discovered.

additionally, the type of 'enticing' content that needs to be developed for channels such as facebook is very different from that for google. it needs to be worth viewing to capture the attention of someone scrolling down a news feed. as a result, facebook’s goal to become an all video platform means their algorithm will favor and boost visual formatting in the future.

ready or not, video is here.

this year, many industry influencers have either bemoaned or advocated for a ‘pivot to video’. publishers such as mic, mtv, and even newsweek are increasingly shifting their resources to produce more video content while downsizing teams focused on written content. these changes, and resultant layoffs, sting.

as with any major change, many within the content industry are debating the merits of focusing on video. some say it’s a trendy blip, while others argue it’s an inevitable change caused by new consumer preferences. our data strongly reinforces the latter argument. video content is very much in demand, for a couple of reasons.

first, our respondents tell us they’re more likely to pay attention to video content, followed by news articles and in-depth multimedia articles. as long as the content is timely and engaging, people will focus and pay attention to both video and text-based content. there is a clear indication that people tend to skim most written and audio content. if you want someone’s full attention, video is a great bet. 

want this chart? click to download.

second, not only do consumers pay attention to video content the most, they want to see more video content in the future (see chart below). consumer preference for video is real, whether you’re on board or not.

want this chart? click to download

but does that mean all content teams need to abandon written content? not exactly; there is still an audience that wants more written content in the future.   

when it comes to content, age matters. a lot. 

different content preferences clearly reveal themselves when we cut our data by age (see chart below). millennial respondents show the strongest preference for video and social content. in contrast, gen x and boomers prefer more news articles, research reports, and email content, meaning most traditional content teams still have interested readers. want this chart? click to download.

the key is to balance content teams with the right ratio of traditional written content creators to video-based and social content creators. that ratio depends on the target audience of a brand or media site. those who cater to millennials will need to increase video investment, while those who target boomers should maintain their standard email and ebook-based content and experiment with video to gauge their audience’s demand. just keep in mind, millennials are aging, and just because your audience didn’t like video two years ago, doesn’t mean they won’t be interested in it today.

preference for video extends to brands.

why is video so popular with consumers? video content stands out the most, especially for younger consumers. perhaps it’s because few brands do video content well today, and consumers are more easily impressed. right now when it comes to video, most brands are working blind because quality is so subjective and difficult to measure. regardless, video content is consistently favored by consumers. the demand is there. 

admittedly, the barrier to entry for video is high: it's more expensive, it often means you're creating less content. but but across every age group, it's the most memorable content. investing in video content today will feel like what blogging was 10 years ago. video offers a blue ocean in terms of attention and content options. there's plenty of opportunity for those who choose invest and do it right. 

want this chart? click to download.

additionally, branded video is nearly 3x more popular than branded blogs or ebooks. though email is still a strong brand play today, different generational content preferences will eventually cause a shift away from email to video and social based content.  

want this chart? click to download.

when we cut the data above by age, we found consumers across age groups consistently wanted more branded video content. but there were stark differences for other types of content. just 22% of young consumers want emails from brands, compared to 68% of boomers. inversely, 60% half of younger respondents want to see social images from brands, compared to just 20% of boomers.

the decline of email may be due to the fact that for mobile-first millennials, when presented with a constant barrage of phone notifications (texts from friends and family, social media notifications, news notifications, and so on), an email notification is much easier to ignore. as content continues to get delivered in more visual and engaging ways, it’s understandable that static emails can’t capture millennials’ attention.

the ‘death of email’ has long been predicted in the marketing industry, but our demographic data shows that it may actually happen in the near future. regardless of a brand’s target audience, marketers should prepare for the eventual decline of email as a top source of leads or new business. 

want this chart? click to download.

if we look to the future beyond video, as gen z and millennials increase their earning power, we expect brands to also focus on engagement on social social media. not only do younger consumers prefer to see more social media content, they use social media as a channel for product research as well.

younger consumers consistently shows the greatest preference for social and treats it as a valid research channel. the age of your customer should play a major role in how you shape your content strategy. as a result, marketers must provide informative content on social media to help consumers better understand their offerings. that means extending from useful written content to video and image-based content.

want this chart? click to download.

do invest in a mix of channels and content. don’t ditch any specific channels today.

consumers’ changing preferences does not mean that brands should abandon email, blogs and other written content, or their website today. these content assets are still valuable, especially since there’s a broad range of content preferences amongst consumers in the current state.

in fact, when we ask about what people do to proactively learn more about a brand, the top channel is still the brand’s website, across all age ranges. while offsite platforms such as social media are critical to gaining consumer awareness of a brand, when someone is ready to learn more, the company website is still an important source of information. 

want this chart? click to download.

however, while the website will continue to be critical in the future, echoes of our earlier data show up when we review the data by age. once again, we see higher propensity of younger consumers to seek videos and like a brand on facebook or instagram. older consumers are once again more likely to want email content. 

want this chart? click to download.

take demographics into consideration when staffing content teams.

as much as marketers might wish they could make their buyer preferences hold still why they catch up, this isn't the case. even as a marketing team shifts to accommodate millennial preference for video content, know that in another 5 to 10 years, they're going to see a new generation of buyers that looks to social media, or a channel that currently doesn’t exist, as a useful channel for discovery.

in the near term, we have to accept that the hype around video is real. people want more video content. throughout this report, we’ve seen an especially strong and consistent preference for video and social-based content by millennials. brands and media companies will need to staff video content creators to cater to their preferences and adjust their goals accordingly, without completely abandoning tried and true tactics that have generated success in the past. 

jami oetting, hubspot's content strategy manager, puts hubspot's approach to video this way: video is "about different kpis and ways of measuring [success]. it's also important to think about how video is used throughout the funnel. video isn't just a tofu (top of the funnel) tactic. it can be effective for sales, customer onboarding, driving loyalty, etc. so learning how to measure video's influence and how to create effective video is key. it's also a challenge from a skill perspective for teams." 

recent news has highlighted difficulties media organizations have experienced as they pivot to video. difficulties are to be expected when trying new channels and content types. but as more content teams change their focus, experimentation and tolerance for lower kpi numbers are necessary. long held metrics will need to change -- after all, why should businesses measure video views against pageviews? those who experiment early, learn fast, and recover from ‘failures’ will be best positioned to tap into a growing number of video watchers.

research methodology

hubspot research ran an online survey leveraging a general population panel of adult online consumers via survey sampling international. 3,010 respondents from the us, germany, colombia, and mexico make up the sample. the survey was available in english, german, and spanish and fielded in june 2017. 

 

originally published nov 6, 2017 12:15:00 pm, updated may 06 2022

as of march 2017, facebook had 1.28 billion active users each day, and over 85% of those users were outside of the u.s. and canada.

with such a large portion of the world using facebook, marketers everywhere know facebook is an ideal place to reach and engage new audiences.

you’ve probably heard these stats before. after all, facebook is a no-brainer for marketers. and if you’re trying to reach new audiences, you probably know paying for facebook ads is a great way to do that.

that said, knowing a channel is effective is far different from creating an effective ads strategy for your unique brand. with more and more marketers advertising on facebook each quarter, its harder than ever to build a strategy that will stand out from your competitors and generate the return on investment (roi) your brand needs.

but if you’re ready to start putting budget behind your facebook advertising strategy, it’s important to fully understand how your ads efforts affect your business’ bottom line. otherwise, how else do you justify your ad spend?

fortunately, with help from socialbakers, a global leader in social media marketing analytics, we put together a data-packed report and how-to guide to help you build a better facebook ads strategy, benchmark your success, and improve the roi of your ad spend.

first, we’ll teach you how to calculate your paid social roi so you can benchmark your ad spend against your industry and region. then, use your calculations and compare them to the benchmarks in the full ebook. we’ll also help you create a strategy for your facebook ad campaigns along the way.

ready to set a killer facebook ads strategy and get the latest industry data on social roi? get the full-length guide now.

how do you begin measuring social media roi?

why measure your ad spend roi? it’s pretty simple. if you want your ads to make an impact on the rest of your marketing funnel, you have to measure what it’s driving and how much of a return you’re getting, which will ultimately frame where marketing dollars are best spent for future campaigns that drive the best results, leads, conversions, customers, etc.

let’s look at an example. say your cost of customer acquisition (cac) is typically $100 per customer. your boss wants you to run a facebook ad campaign to generate new customers and gives you a budget of $1000. you run your first campaign and generate eight new customers from it. was it worth it or not?

how to measure roi:

measuring return on investment is pretty simple. you simply take the amount you spent (cost) and divide it by your returns*.

*the “returns” you’re measuring will vary based on your ad objective type. if your goal is to generate more leads, you divide your costs by the number of leads you generate. the same is true for customer acquisition ads, app install ads, website clicks, etc.

in the above example, you’d take the amount you spent ($1000) and divide it by the number of new customers your generated (8). that would mean you acquired eight new customers at a cost of $125 per new customer. if your boss tells you your typical cac is $100 per customer, you know that the return you got from that ad campaign is higher than your typical cac.

roi = total amount of the investment / total return

if your ad campaigns are generating a lower return on investment than other strategies, it likely means you need to optimize your strategy to lower your costs. you can do this in a number of ways, like optimizing your ad copy or focusing your targeting strategy. get more tips in this full-length ebook.

the example we just used assumed that you already know a benchmark to compare your campaign results to. but what happens if you don’t already have that information?

in this facebook ads optimization ebook, we have brand new data that details typical ad spend by campaign type and region to give you a starting point for benchmarking the success of your ad campaigns.

ready to get started? download the ebook, “how to use data to optimize your facebook strategy” now.

originally published oct 26, 2017 7:00:00 am, updated july 12 2019

last tuesday, several amazon customers reported receiving an email from the online merchant reading, "someone great recently purchased a gift from your baby registry!" and while the internet typically can't be used for a pregnancy test -- unless you count target's 2012 public relations disaster after predicting a teen's pregnancy by tracking her shopping habits -- it still caused brief moments of panic among those who got the email.

there were some fears that the emails were a result of phishing attempts, but in the end, amazon confirmed to techcrunch that the emails were the result of a technical glitch, going on to send apology emails to the customers that received them. it's not clear what exactly happened or what the the glitch entailed, but let this be a lesson to marketers: triple check your email workflows.

among the panic, twitter had quite a bit of fun with the error:

more trouble for targeted ads

following last week's propublica revelation that facebook was allowing advertisers to use anti-semitic targeting criteria for promoted content, it was quickly discovered that google and twitter had similarly flawed advertising technology.

buzzfeed was the first to discover that the google allowed advertisers to use anti-semitic and racially-charged search terms to target certain audiences, and soon after, the daily beast reported that twitter allowed similar targeting criteria, which resulted in an audience of roughly 26.3 million users.

all three companies have since responded that they either have or are working to remove this criteria, with facebook coo sheryl sandberg publishing a very lengthy, formal apology on wednesday:

and more from facebook

yesterday, facebook released an official statement on its plans to hand over important documents regarding the ads it sold to russian organizations to congress, as well as a second one with answers to several "hard questions" on what happened to cause something like that to happen in the first place.

the gravity of that move is one that cannot be emphasized enough. as mike isaac writes for the new york times:

" ... the move to work with the congressional committees underscored how far the social network has strayed from being a mere technology company and how it has increasingly had to deal with the unintended consequences of the tools it provides to reach the more than two billion people who use the site regularly."

shortly after those posts went live, mark zuckerberg delivered a live address on his own page to address the efforts it would make moving forward to "protect the integrity of the democratic process."

some believe that this address, along with sandberg's statement form the previous day, is the first of many efforts by facebook to proactively dodge federal regulation by staying one step ahead of congressional actions or attempts to curb what such channels and platforms can actually do. it's even, perhaps, a defensive move, as the legality of the aforementioned ad sale remains in question.

meanwhile, twitter is also due to appear at a senate intelligence committee briefing nxt week to further examine its own possible role in influencing the most recent u.s. presidential election.

the uber-alphabet lawsuit got even messier

last week, we filled you in on the ongoing lawsuit between uber and alphabet, inc company waymo over proprietary self-driving technology. since then, there have been a few key developments.

first, over the weekend, alphabet requested that the trial be postponed after receiving crucial information that the court ordered uber to turn over. seeing that information, it seemed, made waymo realize just how much was at stake with uber being in possession of these materials, and needed more time to review all of the evidence supporting its case. megan rose dickey of techcrunch tweeted a key portion of its statement on the issue:

waymo wants to postpone the trial w/ uber. here's waymo's statement. pic.twitter.com/sf8crgdyak

— megan rose dickey (@meganrosedickey) september 17, 2017

uber, of course, objected to that request, charging that alphabet is trying the delay the trial -- december 5 is the proposed postponed date -- not because of surmounting evidence, but because of a lack of it. the full opposition can be found here:

that same judge also gave uber permission to publicly disclose some of what waymo is hoping to gain from the lawsuit: $2.6 billion for one stolen (allegedly) trade secret. but there are still eight other secrets that waymo says to have been stolen by uber, and no monetary figure has yet been assigned to them.

at this point, the trial is still set to begin on october 10, and recently-appointed uber has a decision to make: whether or not he wants to settle out of court, or continue to defend the company's name in what promises to be a complex, drawn-out trial.

it's just one of many problems for uber these days. with the release of ios 11 this week, uber was forced to allow users to block the app from tracking their locations.

additionally, the bbc broke news this morning that transport for london would not renew the ride-sharing app's private hire license, calling it "not fit and proper" to carry on operations there. uber has 21 days to dispute that decision and can continue providing services in london until then.

attack of the flying eggplants

i'll admit it -- my new favorite feature of ios 11, the latest operating system available on the iphone, is probably the ability to fill your imessage recipient's screen with the next, image, or emoji of your choice. but just for the sake of due diligence, i tested it by sending this gem to one of my colleagues:

but my low bar for amusement aside, the new operating system comes with some features that are actually, you know, productive. here are our five favorites:

1. screen recording. so, just how did i capture the magical moment above? ios 11 has a screen record tool that saves the video in your camera roll.
2. do not disturb while driving. this "do not disturb" feature uses your car's bluetooth connection to turn on automatically while you're driving.
3. screenshot tools. the new ios has a brilliantly simple new screenshot feature, which lets users draw on, crop, or highlight with ease.
4. gifs in camera roll. the camera roll now allows users to save and view gifs, plus the newest editing tools even enable you to turn your live photos into gifs.
5. notes app upgrade. the notes app now features useful tools like a document scanner, and the ability to insert all kinds of formatting into your note.

and, finally -- we can't forget arkit -- apple's mobile augmented reality technology -- which has been a big portion of the talk of the iphone town in the days following ios 11's release. i tweeted about my experience with using it on wayfair's home shopping app:

so, i don’t think this is gonna fit. #arkit pic.twitter.com/arpsnr1cib

— amanda zantal-wiener (@amanda_zw) september 20, 2017

what's google up to?

a lot happened for the search giant this week, beyond its parent company's lawsuit and a significant team acquisition. first, there were some leaks around the rumored october 4th release of the pixel 2 and pixel xl, but they were mostly limited to the device's available colors, as per droid life.

that same outlet also leaked the rumored google home mini, a much smaller version of the google home, which many are calling the company's response to the echo dot. and on tuesday, a “media streaming device” -- the same language used to describe the original google home -- with features remarkably similar to the first google home was submitted to the fcc. these developments all align with the timeline leading up to the october 4th press event.

source: droid life

in non-pixel or home news, google announced four new features this week:

1. the google app on ios will now have a suggested content feature, in which users are provided with visual links to more information on what they're reading about.
   source: google
2. contact information like phone numbers, addresses, and email addresses will now -- finally -- be automatically converted into hyperlinks on gmail. official announcement here.
   
   source: google
3. natural language processing has been added to cloud search -- a search tool within g suite -- to help users more quickly find information based on the words that google deemed to be the most frequently used among g suite customers: "what," "who," "how" or "when." for example, if you remember which one of your colleagues sent you a shared document, but can't remember what it was called, now you can search for it with a query like, "docs shared by karla."
   
   source: google
4. read receipts are coming to gmail -- kind of. on wednesday, google announced the launch of email log search, which allows g suite users to track the status of sent emails, such as where it is (e.g., the trash), or if it's been opened.
   
   source: google

actually, no, equifax still isn't handling this data breach well

remember all of those marketing takeaways from the equifax hack that we outlined last week? well, it turns out that equifax hasn't exactly heeded that advice -- or that of too many others, it seems. in fact, it was revealed earlier this week that the company's customer service agents on twitter were directing customers to a fake website that, visually, was nearly identical to the site equifax set up for users to enroll in free credit marketing.

the clone site was created by by software engineer nick sweeting, whose intentions weren't malicious, but rather, were to show how poorly equifax was monitoring and managing the situation.

not only did they tweet the wrong link, they tweeted it 3 times. #equihax pic.twitter.com/t8jrhsfhqw

— nick sweeting 🚲 (@thesquashsh)   september 20, 2017

sweeting was quite transparent about that in creating the site, which has since been taken down, along with any tweets directing customers to it -- it was titled, "cybersecurity incident & important consumer information which is totally fake, why did equifax use a domain that’s so easily impersonated by phishing sites?”

the "fake" site did not collect any personal information, but sweeting pointed out how easily it would be for other hackers to create an equally identical site that did using the linux command "wget" -- and he blamed that on equifax's choice to establish an entirely new domain, rather than create an equifax.com subdomain.

"wget" essentially permits anyone -- yes, anyone at all -- "to just suck their whole site down with wget and throw it on a ... server,” sweeting explained in an email to the new york times. his version, he said, had "the same type of ssl certificate as the real version, so from a trust perspective, there’s no way for users to authenticate the real one vs. my server.”

creating a subdomain should have been the obvious move for equifax, carnegie mellon is professor rahul telang told the outlet, "so that if somebody tries to fake it, it becomes immediately obvious.”

this development comes amid news that equifax actually suffered more than one hack this year. in addition to the headline-making breach in july, the company experienced an earlier one in march, creating even more confusion around the decision to wait until september to alert customers, as well as the massive august stock sale by its executives.

odds and ends

i don't want to grow up, because that means i have to file for chapter 11

for anyone who grew up begging their parents to take them to the toy store, this week came with some sad news: toy store chain toys ‘r’ us filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this week. many were quick to blame its demise on amazon, which has been named the culprit for the financial woes of many other brick-and-mortar retailers, but in reality, the cause may have reached far beyond that. as recode reports, the move is largely the result of a "cocktail" of limited product selection, a lack of competitive pricing, and piling debt after several 2005 buyouts.

for the sake of our own childhood memories, we hope toys 'r' us is able to turn things around.

the dhs got served ... by an association of vcs

allow us to introduce you to the international entrepreneur rule: a federal measure that, had it passed in july 2017 as planned, would have made it easier for foreign entrepreneurs to obtain visas for the purpose of founding startups in the u.s.

however, the same month it was slated to be effective, the current presidential administration delayed it until march 2018, with many believing that it will only go on to be completely dismantled. but this week, axios reports, the national venture capital association (nvca) has brought forth a lawsuit against the department of homeland security, on the grounds that the decision to delay the enforcement of the rule violates the administrative procedure act -- which says that the department must first "solicit public comment."

the formal complaint can be downloaded here.

no empty nest here

nest, which was acquired by google back in 2013, held its first major press event this week, where it unveiled a number of new products. among them were the nest cam iq -- this writer's personal favorite unveiling from the launch -- an outdoor security camera that can detect movement and differentiate whether it's coming from a person or an object. if it's a person, the system alerts you, as well as letting you know if it senses a barking dog or a talking person. even better: it's equipped with facial recognition, so that if someone familiar comes into the camera's range, like your regular dog walker, the system will recognize that it's likely not an intruder.

also announced was the nest hello video doorbell, which uses similar camera technology to the above to alert users if a person is within range, even if they don't ring. finally, an overall comprehensive security system was unveiled called nest secure, which exists of three key components: nest guard, where the system is armed and disarmed with the second component, nest tag, which is similar to a key fob and can be used to turn off the alarm system. the first piece is nest detect, which can sense general motion and the opening or closing of windows or doors.

check out the video summary here:

that's all for this week! next week, we're off to inbound 2017: one of the world's largest and most remarkable marketing and sales industry events. we'll be back with our regular news coverage the first week in october.

until then -- happy autumn.

originally published sep 22, 2017 7:00:00 am, updated september 22 2017