Author: Franz Malten Buemann

As marketers, it’s in our nature to adapt quickly to our changing environment and to evolve our processes over time — sometimes even moment by moment. And as we kick off Summit 2021 in the shadow of one of the most unexpected and challenging years of our lives, it’s safe to say we’ve realized the full value of this quality, as well as our our community.
On April 27–29, we’re thrilled to present you with an unmatched virtual Summit experience that’s completely free to attend. In addition to presentations and announcements from our Adobe leaders CEO Shantanu Narayen and Digital Experience EVP Anil Chakravarthy, hear from inspirational keynote guests like tennis superstar and entrepreneur Serena Williams, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, and many more.
Discover the latest innovations and technologies from Adobe Labs during Sneaks, hosted by Emmy-winning writer, actor, and director Dan Levy. You can also develop new skills at our training workshops and choose from our Innovation Super Sessions for a deeper dive into the latest trends in CXM, including content, customer journey management, collaborative work management, and other key topics.
We are so grateful for the time, thought, and effort invested by our incredible community of customers, partners, and developers. This year’s Summit is living proof of the innovation and evolution that happens in response to change, and it’s simply not to be missed — register now and stay tuned for more details and announcements to come.
Click here to register for free.
The post Discover All the Reasons to Attend Adobe Summit 2021 appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog – Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

As marketers, it’s in our nature to adapt quickly to our changing environment and to evolve our processes over time — sometimes even moment by moment. And as we kick off Summit 2021 in the shadow of one of the most unexpected and challenging years of our lives, it’s safe to say we’ve realized the full value of this quality, as well as our our community.
On April 27–29, we’re thrilled to present you with an unmatched virtual Summit experience that’s completely free to attend. In addition to presentations and announcements from our Adobe leaders CEO Shantanu Narayen and Digital Experience EVP Anil Chakravarthy, hear from inspirational keynote guests like tennis superstar and entrepreneur Serena Williams, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, and many more.
Discover the latest innovations and technologies from Adobe Labs during Sneaks, hosted by Emmy-winning writer, actor, and director Dan Levy. You can also develop new skills at our training workshops and choose from our Innovation Super Sessions for a deeper dive into the latest trends in CXM, including content, customer journey management, collaborative work management, and other key topics.
We are so grateful for the time, thought, and effort invested by our incredible community of customers, partners, and developers. This year’s Summit is living proof of the innovation and evolution that happens in response to change, and it’s simply not to be missed — register now and stay tuned for more details and announcements to come.
Click here to register for free.
The post Discover All the Reasons to Attend Adobe Summit 2021 appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog – Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

Most marketers and organization leaders would agree that diversity and inclusion matter for company performance. Statistics reveal that the more diverse a company is, the better its profitability. 
But beyond profitability, diversity in marketing is important, affecting how consumers perceive a brand and possibly even how they perceive themselves and others. 
For this reason, it’s crucial that marketers prioritize diversity in their campaigns, especially when it comes to the images they use. 
What does diversity in images mean?
It’s important to have a complete, nuanced understanding of diversity, especially as it applies to choosing images for your marketing and branding. 
A common myth is that diversity refers exclusively to diversity of race and gender. However, while diverse race and gender are certainly a part of true diversity, it expands beyond that. True diversity in images includes representation from people of different races, gender identity, socio-economic status, age, disability, sexual orientation, culture, and more.
More than mere representation, diversity also requires showing individuals as humans first — rather than a representation of a group. That is, recognizing difference without implying that anyone is superior or inferior to anyone else. 
This also includes avoiding tokenization. As Vanderbilt University defines it, tokenization is “the practice of doing something (such as hiring a person who belongs to a minority group) only to prevent criticism and give the appearance that people are being treated fairly.”
With this definition in mind, we can now explore why it’s important to have diversity in your images.
Problems with non-diverse images in digital marketing
Images in marketing, media, and advertising have implications beyond the brand itself. These images shape our culture’s perception of reality, of what’s “normal” and what’s not. 
When images lack diversity (showing, perhaps, only one person among many who is not white, able-bodied, thin, young, straight, and cis-gendered), the effects are far-reaching. 
As Jenny Dorsey and Addy Zou recently wrote in Studio ATAO, “People with marginalized identities are taught from an early age that there is room for only one of their kind in any given space.”
Let’s take a closer look at why non-diverse images are harmful. 
Doesn’t accurately reflect reality 
The United States is becoming more culturally diverse every day, yet diversity is still lagging in marketing imagery. The majority of marketing doesn’t accurately reflect the reality of the diversity of the North American population. 
And this lack of diversity in marketing extends beyond race, ethnicity, and culture. For example, 15% of the world population has a disability, but people with disabilities are portrayed in only 2% of media images. 
Similarly, though data shows that searches for transgender representation in stock photo websites has starkly increased, only three photos on top stock image websites showed transgender people engaging in everyday activities the way cisgendered people are shown. Instead, the top image results did not show the face of the person at all. 
Statistics like these reveal a common theme in marketing images: White, able-bodied, thin, young, straight, and cisgendered people are over-represented, while others are underrepresented or are tokenized (or both). 
Perpetuates stereotypes and impacts individuals
Lack of diversity in marketing and media images has real-life consequences for everyone observing them — which is nearly every member of our society. 
Theories suggest stereotypes are formed based on a collective observation of everyday life. And since Americans spend an average of 3-4 hours per day looking at TV or smart phones, much of our observations are dictated by representation there.
In other words, what we see in marketing and media shapes how we view the world and the people inside it. If marketing and media images lack diversity, perpetuate stereotypes, or tokenize individuals, many of us will internalize those ideas as indicative of reality. 
As to how this affects lives, we can look to a recent study that found the self-esteem of girls and Black children of both genders decreases as TV consumption increases, but the reverse is true for white male children. The researchers concluded that how and how often your demographic is represented in the media directly impacts how you feel about yourself.
White male children, frequently shown images of heroes that look like them (think: Superman, Batman, Luke Skywalker), may internalize that confidence. Conversely, girls and children of color, with half as many positive images in the media, may internalize the idea that they are not as valuable or capable. 
Audiences want to see more diversity
It’s very likely that your consumer base desires to see diversity in your marketing. 
A Google survey revealed that diverse marketing directly leads to more clicks, engagement,  and sales. In fact, 64% of respondents reported taking an action on an ad specifically because they thought the ad was inclusive or diverse. And this percentage was even higher among minority groups: 85% Latinx, 79% Black, 79% Asian/Pacific islander, 85% LGBTQ respondents reported taking an action on an ad because it was diverse. 
Another survey found that “nearly 80 percent of consumers globally said they expect that brands demonstrate a consistent commitment to inclusivity and diversity in their advertising.” 
Importantly, this survey uncovered that the majority of consumers are sophisticated in their understanding of diversity — they see through surface-level tokenism and prefer a thoughtful approach to diversity and inclusion. 
Diverse images in your marketing are likely to improve the effectiveness of your marketing, and less-diverse images may therefore diminish the effectiveness of your marketing. 
How to include diverse images in your marketing
It’s clear that marketers should prioritize diversity in their images. However, as we’ve seen, diverse images go beyond simply including non-white people in your photoshoots or stock images. 
Here are some strategies for making sure your images are truly diverse:
Don’t perpetuate stereotypes
Including diverse subjects isn’t enough. Images should also not reinforce a stereotypical version of the subject. 
With Vice’s release of the Gender Spectrum Collection of stock images, the media company outlined a helpful guide for how to ensure images don’t perpetuate stereotypes:
“Understanding the stereotypes and tropes that have accompanied transgender media representation—such as trans subjects being cast only as sex workers, portrayed solely in states of apparent victimhood or crisis, and being characterized as deceptive and mentally unstable—can help you to avoid them. If your usage of one of these photos could feed into a stereotype or negative stigma, you probably shouldn’t use it.”
Though this statement refers to the trans community, the principle can be applied to every aspect of diversity and inclusion: Understand the stereotypes of how different groups have historically been portrayed, and then take care to not choose images that reflect the stereotype. 
For example, portraying a disabled person in a hospital gown or with a sad, lonely expression reinforces the stereotype that disabled people are tragic anomalies incapable of a healthy and happy existence. The image below is an example of one such stereotypical stock image: 

Instead, opt for an image that portrays a disabled person as they exist in reality, as happy, social, and productive members of society, just as able-bodied people. The image below from our partner Unsplash, is a great example of an image that does not perpetuate negative stereotypes: 

Think critically about image context
Part of true diversity in images involves the context of the subject. 
It’s important to choose images that show subjects in a variety of settings or real-life scenes (at a restaurant, at work, with friends, etc.) rather than posed and non-contextual (in front of a blank wall, face blurred, alone, etc.). 
Additionally, be mindful about tokenization or implied superiority. Often, tokenization in images looks like having a homogeneous group of people, with one different person as an attempt to not be so homogenous. Implied superiority often looks like featuring minorities as background characters in the scene rather than the main focus. 
For example, the image below is not a truly diverse image: It shows a group of white, young, cis-gendered, and able-bodied people engaging in a discussion at work, while one person of color looks on in the background. 

By contrast, this image by Unsplash shows a more diverse workplace setting: The group includes a variety of different races, genders, and ages, and no one is portrayed as inferior to anyone else. 

Create a documented strategy for diverse and inclusive marketing
Diversity does not start or stop at choosing diverse images for your marketing; it should go all the way down into the core of your marketing strategy. 
This not only makes it easier to spot and select truly diverse images, but it also helps avoid the pitfalls of tokenism or stereotyping (which consumers will see through). 
What does a documented strategy for diverse and inclusive marketing look like?
To start, it means creating target audience personas that aren’t homogenous, ensuring your marketing team is diverse and inclusive, and making diversity a core value of your organization. 
Questions to consider before creating or selecting an image
Once you’re ready to select an image for your next campaign, it can be helpful to have a checklist to refer to. Here are the questions we recommend you ask before choosing an image:

Who is missing or excluded? 
Would I want to be portrayed this way? 
If this was a photo of me or someone I love, would I be okay with how they are represented?
Are any stereotypes being perpetuated in the photo I am using? 
Am I depicting someone in the role our culture typically puts them in or making a more unexpected choice? 
Can everyone who might view the photo see someone like themselves represented in it?

Asking these questions helps you be mindful of diversity when creating or choosing your marketing images. 
Wrap Up
Diversity in marketing is a must to help your audience feel seen and safe in your online spaces. Additionally, diversity in marketing also reflects the diversity of your company on a deeper level, which is vital to your revenue and company performance.
Though diversity in your marketing doesn’t begin and end with your images, having diverse images is a clear way to signal to consumers that your organization holds diversity and inclusion as a core value. 
To make it easier to gather diverse images, Campaign Monitor has partnered with Unsplash to create a Free Image Gallery of diverse and inclusive stock images right inside your email builder. 
The post The importance of diversity in images appeared first on Campaign Monitor.

Does a good proportion of your business come from renewals? 
Do you ever worry that you’re letting renewal business slip through the fence? 
Do sales managers struggle to gain visibility into the hard work your reps are doing? 
If you answered “yes” to all three questions, it’s safe to say that you’re facing the same challenges as many B2B marketers today. 
It’s common for a large portion of customer revenue to come from repeat business such as renewals. The good news is that, in these cases, a lot of returning customers are already known contacts in your CRM. 
To ensure these customers receive real-time follow-up without creating duplicate records, consider managing renewal workflows with task queues in Sales Cloud.

Data from Pardot can be used to build out task queues in Sales Cloud which, among other benefits, can help your sales reps follow up on hot prospects in a timely manner.
Task Queue Benefits
Here are three reasons to invest in building out Sales Cloud task queues:

Consolidate your tasks into one task management tab/app, so your sales reps can follow up on hot prospects in a timely manner.
Take advantage of the many productivity tools that list views and queues provide. Create multiple views for open, closed, and in-progress tasks. 
Give management full visibility into the hard work the sales team is doing and provide greater insights via activity reports and dashboards.  

How to Build Out a Sales Cloud Task Queue
There are three basic steps for creating task queues in Sales Cloud. Two important notes before we dive in:

You may need to add more processes or tweak the criteria to suit your individual workflows.
Your Salesforce Administrator is the person best suited to manage this process.

Step 1: Build your task queue
From Setup, enter Queues in the Quick Find box, then select Queues. Click New.
This is essentially a bucket of all on-going tasks. You could customize this bucket in three ways to differentiate your prospects’ various scenario entry points: 

Net New Prospects

Existing Contacts you do business with

Existing Contacts you haven’t engaged with yet 

When you create a queue, a list view is automatically created and shared with the members of the queue. Add the sales reps as queue members so they can view and manage the tasks assigned to the queue.

Step 2: Build out a process using Process Builder to assign tasks related to leads and contacts to a shared queue
From Setup, enter Process Automation in the Quick Find box, then select Process Builder. Click New.

Next, define criteria for this action group.

Finally, update records accordingly.

Step 3: Manage Your Tasks Through the Queue 
You can create multiple task queues or list views to manage each scenario mentioned above by adding to your process and building out your workflows.

You may also want to use or add the task object to a sales console so you can make use of the console utility belt for mass reassignment, macros, notes, history, soft phone, and more.
Imagine the task object as the bridge between marketing and sales. It can help consolidate sales activity between leads and contacts into one unifying activity center to boost productivity and close deals faster.
Want More Information?
We’ve got you covered:

Assign Tasks to Queue to Share Work Effectively
Create or Clone a List View in Lightning Experience
Find Your Way Around List Views in Lightning Experience
Add a Utility Bar to Lightning Apps
Sales Activity Dashboard App

This is a guest post from Fonteva.
Effective email marketing strategies are vital for associations, nonprofits, and businesses alike—especially in a time of uncertainty. Organizations everywhere are trying to stay top-of-mind for consumers, and the amount of digital clutter has only increased. That’s why walking through some top tips (and mistakes to avoid) for event marketing is crucial.
This article will provide a deeper understanding of effective email marketing tactics. You will learn how to:

Personalize your messages.
Leverage intriguing subject lines.
Use graphic elements wisely.
Establish a drip campaign.
Ensure mobile-friendliness.
Conclude with a clear call to action.

As a result of COVID-19, organizations across the globe have shifted to virtual events to maintain engagement levels while social distancing. However, it’s important to recognize that even once things begin to settle down and return to a “new normal,” virtual engagement will continue to be a communication strategy for associations and other organizations.
Whether you’re planning a brand new virtual event for your association, or pivoting an existing event to the virtual realm, spreading the word is crucial for the best turnout. Ready to dig in? Let’s get started.
1. Personalize your messages.
When it comes to crafting an effective marketing email, personalizing your messaging is vital. Consumers, members, and other recipients get so many emails every day that it can be too easy to slip through the cracks. To avoid this, you have to make sure your messages stand out— and personalization is a great way to go.
Here are two ideas you want to implement as you begin drafting your email copy:

Address recipients by name. Any effective email starts out with a personalized greeting. “Dear John,” is always going to be a better opening than “Dear member,” or worse, “To whom it may concern.” After all, this is your chance to make a first impression on the reader as they skim over your message and decide whether to engage. From the beginning, it’s important the recipient feels that it is a personal invitation to your event, rather than a blanket, pre-written message. 

Segment your audience. Personalization can go farther than just your greeting. Be sure your entire message is customized based on content type and relationship to each recipient. That’s where audience segmentation comes in. For event marketing outreach, you may choose to segment based on whether the recipient is registered already (you can send detailed event information) or not (send a generalized overview and an invitation). Further, you can segment based on a recipient’s previous event history as well.

Each of these tasks, while possible to complete by hand, can be streamlined by using the right email marketing software—thus saving your team time and effort to be used elsewhere. For even better results, be sure your marketing tools and CRM are fully integrated. When you start your engagement off on the right foot, your readers are more likely to respond to your marketing attempts in the way you seek.
2. Leverage intriguing subject lines.
A well-crafted subject line for your email is one of the most important elements in your entire campaign. After all, the subject line is what originally grabs (or loses) the reader’s attention even before opening the email.
If you’re overwhelmed or unsure of where to start, here are some examples of strategic subject lines to market your event:

Hurry! Register by midnight for 50% off your ticket price. This subject line expresses a sense of urgency and the fear of missing out which can lead to increased clicks and conversions.

Introducing our virtual event series: [Name of series]. This subject line makes it clear that the contents of your email include new information that the reader does not want to miss out on.

7 reasons to attend our annual event. This subject line implies that the body of the email will clearly spell out a string of reasons why the reader should attend the event, which inspires the curiosity to continue reading.

8 out of 10 association members want this one thing. This subject line peaks the reader’s curiosity, encouraging them to open the email and find out more. What exactly do 8 out of 10 members want? If they’re a member too, it will be relevant to them!

Warning: Event may cause too much fun. This subject line combines shock-value and humor to grab the recipient’s attention. Of course, the reader will want to know what kind of exciting event necessitates this type of warning.

[Recipient’s name], we want to see you at this event. This subject line uses personalization (as described above) to position your marketing email as an individual event invitation.

On the other hand, here are some not-so-great examples:

[Name of event] Association Event. Not only is this subject line bland, it gives no information about the event or even why the reader should open the email.

[Name of organization] weekly newsletter. If you’re trying to drive registrations for your event, this subject line will do no good. An event marketing email should be independent of any regular newsletters and demonstrate that with a unique subject line.

Event on [Date of event]. Stating the date of your event is not enough to convince recipients that they want to attend. What’s happening at your event that will inspire registrations?

Register for our event here. This subject line is simply telling the reader to register but fails to tell the reader why they should register (or even open your email in the first place!).

Writing the best email subject lines can be tricky, but it is of utmost importance for your marketing campaign to yield results. Doing some research on businesses and organizations that have seen success in their email marketing is a great way to gather inspiration and emulate effective strategies.
3. Use graphic elements wisely.
Studies show that communications containing visuals see up to 650% higher engagement levels than those solely composed of text. That’s because visual elements are a great way to grab the attention of the reader and they provide a more aesthetically pleasing experience overall.
Email campaigns should use several types of graphic content to take your messages to the next level, including: 

Images: Images are a classic example of graphic email content, whether it’s your own photography, stock photos, or clipart. Including pictures is a great way to brighten up your emails and increase engagement rates.

Videos: Video elements can be an excellent contribution to email marketing content, especially when you’re promoting events. You might include a video recap of a previous event, or a series of interviews with past attendees sharing their favorite memories and urging members to register.

Gifs: As a sort of combination of photo and video, gif content is a new and exciting way to grab the reader’s attention. There are plenty of pre-made gifs you can find online, or use online tools to turn your own short video clips into unique gifs!

However, visual elements can also have negative consequences when used incorrectly, as they can lead to sensory overload and distract the reader from the message in the text. Finding a solid balance between too little and too much graphic content is a great way to optimize your content for engagement.
4. Establish a drip campaign.
A drip campaign is a marketing strategy that utilizes a predetermined cadence of emails to nurture leads and eventually direct recipients toward a desired action. In this case, the action is registering for your upcoming virtual association event! 
These examples of successful email drip campaigns demonstrate the way in which triggered emails can effectively lead to higher levels of recipient engagement. Simply put, the process is as follows:

Your association team comes up with a collection of created emails.

You utilize an email marketing automation tool to schedule emails at particular points in time.

A recipient receives their first email in the campaign.
Depending on whether they opened the first message, they might receive a second email pushing them further down the conversion funnel.
If the user does not open the first, they might receive a follow-up email or the campaign could stop there.
The process continues based on your predetermined email sequence.

Email drip campaigns are a great way to engage with your network without becoming too overbearing to those who are uninterested. Because the campaign takes cues from a user’s own behavior, the strategy allows you to pursue leads that continue to show interest and are the most likely to become registrants.
5. Ensure mobile-friendliness.
Did you know that more than 50% of web traffic comes from mobile devices? That means if your association’s materials are not mobile-friendly, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to boost your online registrations.
Be sure these two elements are as easy to use on mobile devices as they are on desktop:

Emails: Most smartphone users have their email accounts signed in on their mobile devices for ease of use and increased accessibility. As soon as they receive an email notification, they can quickly decide whether to engage or ignore it. If a user opens your marketing email on their cell phone only to find that reading it involves endless scrolling and zooming, they’re likely to click out and never return. Instead, mobile-friendly emails are more likely to be consumed and responded to. Check out our responsive email templates!

Registration forms: For your event marketing campaigns, not only should your marketing materials be mobile-friendly, but your registration tools should be too. Using mobile-friendly event registration software allows association members to register and pay on-the-go, rather than waiting until later (which may never come). 

In order to ensure the most conversions, it’s important your campaign is easy to engage with. A member may have the desire to attend, but if the registration process is too difficult, they have a much higher risk of abandoning the process altogether.
6. Conclude with a clear call to action.
There’s nothing worse than getting to the end of a marketing email and thinking “so what?” The next steps in a marketing campaign should never be unclear— especially when it comes to event promotion. Because the end goal has a clear deadline (the date of the event or close of registration), it’s more important than ever to include a clear call to action in any email you send.
Large, colorful, and easy-to-read CTA buttons with actionable language are a great way to encourage recipients to take the next step in the registration process. Even if the reader starts to skim the text, the CTA will still be clear and persuasive.
Wrap up
By employing these tips in your next event marketing campaign, you can ensure higher levels of virtual event registration and attendance for your association. When you personalize your messages, grab the recipient’s interest, and design an easily accessible campaign, you’ll create a system of communication that each recipient will actually want to read and take action. 
The post 6 Email Marketing Tips for Virtual Association Events appeared first on Campaign Monitor.

If you’re reading this article, it’s likely because you’re considering running digital ads.
You’ve heard about Facebook Ads and Google Ads but you’re still unclear on the difference between the two platforms.

In this article, we’ll cover each platform’s unique features, the key differences to keep in mind, and the factors to consider when deciding which ad platform to use.
Let’s get started.
These platforms are often pitted against each other but in fact, Facebook Ads and Google Ads are complementary, each offering unique benefits to marketers.
If your team can only focus on one, there are a few things you’ll want to consider.
Your Campaign Goal
What do you want to accomplish with your campaign? Is it brand awareness, leads, sales, or something else? Knowing this answer can already steer you in the right direction.
Google Ads is ideal for demand capture – meaning reaching users who have high purchase intent. For instance, if I’m looking up the keyword “water bottle,” this may signal an interest in purchasing one.
With that in mind, the ads below align well with search intent and can lead to sales.

Facebook Ads, on the other hand, is ideal for reaching consumers who are near the top of the funnel, (i.e., great for brand and product awareness).
So, you could use both platforms at the same time to target users at every stage of the journey. But if that doesn’t align with your broader objectives, knowing the main goal of your campaign will help you determine which platform is better suited to achieve it.
Your Budget
With any ad campaign, your goal is to maximize your return on ad spend (ROAS). It’s easier to do that on some platforms than others.
With Google Ads, you’ll have to look at keyword competition and keyword price. If the keywords you’re targeting have high cost-per-click (CPC) and you have a small budget, it may not be the best place for you to invest your money.
For instance, let’s say you have a $100 daily budget. You want to rank for “hardware store” in your local area but the cost for that keyword is $20. This means that you’d get a maximum five clicks per day – pretty limiting.
With that same $100 budget, you could potentially reach more people on Facebook Ads and conduct experiments to learn more about which strategies work for your target audience.
It’s all about finding where your dollar will go the furthest in relation to your goals. Tools like HubSpot’s ads software can help you measure your campaign’s ROI and allow you to make adjustments to optimize its performance.
Stages in the Buyer’s Journey
As mentioned above, certain platforms align better with certain stages in the buyer’s journey.
With Facebook being a social media platform, most users are not actively looking to purchase products. However, they do explore and share their interests on the platform. With that in mind, it’s a great place for users to discover your brand, especially if you don’t think it relates to a topic users will be searching.
In contrast, it’s estimated that Google receives over 5 billion searches every single day. These searches can fall anywhere on the buyer’s journey stage, but certain keywords indicate a high purchase intent.
For example, if I search “best water bottle” or “water bottle price,” this suggests that I am interested in purchasing this item. With this approach, marketers can reach users they know are near the bottom of the funnel.
Historical and/or Competitor Data
As you develop your playbook for your next campaign, it will be helpful to look at historical data to inform your strategy. Knowing what has worked in the past, what hasn’t and what is left to explore can serve as a reference and benchmark.
If you’ve never run a campaign before, look at your competitors. What ads are they running? Where are they running them? What do their creative assets look like? What’s their messaging?
This competitive intel may highlight some areas for opportunity and give you insight into the strategies your competitors are using.
Benefits of Facebook Ads
In a 2019 HubSpot State of Marketing Report, marketers revealed that the paid channel offering the highest ROI was Facebook. Let’s dive into some of the reasons why.
For starters, Facebook is the number one social media platform with over 2.7 billion monthly active users, according to a 2021 Statista report. In addition to its large audience base, the platform offers granular targeting capabilities, allowing marketers to reach users based on demographics, behaviors, life events and interests.
Before launching a campaign on the platform, you can create a “lookalike audience,” which is essentially your user persona. Facebook Ads will then show your ads to audiences who match your description.
That’s one advantage the platform has over Google Ads – it’s much more detailed in who you’re able to target for your ads.
Beyond that, you may also be able to reach more users and get a better clickthrough rate (CTR) through Facebook Ads. Smart Insights reported found that in Q1 of 2020, the median CTR for a Facebook ad on the newsfeed was 1.11% – compared to .47% for Google Display ads in the same time period.
Benefits of Google Ads
In 2019, Google estimated that for every dollar a business spends on ads, it earns $8 in profit. Let’s see why that may be and how the platform can be useful for brands.
Google Ads, formerly known as Google Adwords, initially offered only very simple text-based ads on the search engine. Now, it’s evolved to include features that can drastically improve clickthrough rates, such as reviews, detailed contact information, a shopping function, and mobile optimization.
In Q1 of 2020, Smart Insights found that Google search ads had the highest CTR at 1.55% when compared to display ads and Facebook ads. This is likely because Google prioritizes ads based on relevance.
While you do have to bid on keywords, the highest bid doesn’t necessarily always win. Your bid gets your foot in the door, your ad’s relevance to the keyword the user’s search intent gets you in the house.
Remarketing, which is reconnecting with users who have interacted with your brand before, is now much easier using Google Ads. So, let’s say someone visited your site and added something to their shopping cart but didn’t complete their purchase. You can now re-engage users as they search on Google, watch a YouTube video or navigate a site within Google’s Display Network.
In addition, the platform’s simple interface and advanced features like search term report, ads editor and auction insights make it easy to build, launch and track campaigns.
With Facebook Ads and Google Ads, one isn’t inherently better than the other. Once you account for your goals, budget and target audience, you will find that each one offers unique features that can be useful to your brand at various points in its growth.

Remember when you’d go to the mall, see something you liked, but then leave without it? Then you’d leave the mall and think about it the whole drive home, wondering if you made the right decision until you forgot about it. That was until you saw someone else with the exact item we wanted. Ah, the good ol’ days.
Today, you can’t leave an item in your cart without it following you everywhere online. Who do we have to thank for that? Technically, a lot of people – marketers, retargeting tools, Al Gore’s internet – but for the purpose of this article, we’ll focus on one: dynamic ads.

Dynamic ads allow brands to change the ads shown to users based on their behavior.
Let’s dive into what exactly dynamic ads are, their benefits, and how to use them on social media platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook.
Dynamic ads are often used in remarketing campaigns to reach users who have already interacted with a brand. More on that here.
Static ads, on the other hand, do not adapt based on external data, so they tend to target broader audience groups for brand awareness or product launches.
A banner ad can look like this:
Or like this:

They range in size and placement depending on the platform on which they’re displayed.
The Benefits of Dynamic Ads
Ad personalization is one of the biggest advantages of using dynamic banner ads. In a 2020 study by Innovid, 43% of respondents agreed that ads should be personalized.
What’s more, 30% of respondents said they liked brands more when ads were personalized. It’s easy to understand why – there’s nothing more annoying than getting an irrelevant ad that doesn’t relate to you or your interests. In fact, it’s a major reason why people get adblockers.
In 2020, AudienceProjects surveyed people in the US, UK, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland and found that avoiding offensive or irrelevant ads was the second most popular reason why they got adblockers.
The more personalized the ad, the better the chances it will resonate with the audience. This brings us to the next benefit of dynamic ads: relevance.
While an ad may be personalized, it may not be relevant to that user’s current stage in the buyer’s journey.
For instance, imagine you’ve heard of a brand but aren’t exactly sure what they do or what they offer. Getting an ad to request a product demo may be too big of a jump. You may need more nurturing before you reach that level of interest in their products.
With this in mind, dynamic ads can help you only present ads that will meet the user where they are. Doing so can move them further down the funnel and help generate more revenue for your brand.
This brings us to return on investment (ROI). Because of the reasons outlined above, your dynamic ads can optimize your return on ad spend (ROAS) because they are more targeted and relevant to each user.
How Dynamic Search Ads Work
What are dynamic search ads?
Dynamic search ads (DSAs) are dynamic ads that show up on search engines like Google and Bing based on the content of your website, not keywords.
When marketers set up search campaigns, they bid on specific keywords and create ads that match the intent behind the keywords. For instance, let’s say you’re a website operations company and you want to rank for the keyword “best WebOps platforms,” you’ll need to bid on it and win to show up on the search engine when a user searches that keyword.
With dynamic search ads, you don’t have to bid on the keywords. The search engine will analyze the user’s search query and scan your website for relevant content. If the search engine determines it’s a match for what the user is looking for, it will automatically generate the ad with a headline and text based on a relevant landing page from your website.
The main benefit of using DSAs is that it allows marketers to target audiences who may fall outside of the keywords they’re already targeting in their campaign.
Think of a dynamic search as a safety net; even a well-designed search campaign won’t target all of the keywords your user persona might search for. The dynamic ad identifies new targeting opportunities and fills that gap by aligning your content with the right users – earning you extra traffic and more reach.
It’s also a time-saver. With dynamic ads, you don’t have to go through the process of mapping out keywords, setting up bids, and creating copy for every single ad.
My latest browsing sessions have involved a lot of furniture and home decor websites. This is why my Facebook feed includes ads like this:
And why I see ads like this when browsing online.
They work just as regular dynamic ads do, adapting their content to the user for better results.
You can take your display ads one step further by creating responsive dynamic display ads. It’s a mouthful, I know but the concept is simple to understand: A responsive ad adjusts its size based on the space on the page.
For example, you’re on a website and you minimize the page to make space for another window. A responsive ad would adapt its shape based on that new space – just like a responsive website.
This creates a better user experience and ensures your ad will be displayed correctly no matter the screen size.

Dynamic Remarketing Ads
Let’s say I visit the Sabai Design website to look at furniture. Then, I put a beautiful emerald green couch in my cart but don’t complete the purchase.
If the brand sets up dynamic remarketing ads, I’d see that couch, and similar styles, as I’m scrolling through social media or browsing through websites over the next few days or weeks.
The way dynamic remarketing works is by pulling the product feed from your website and leveraging user data to show your visitors ads that will move them down your funnel.
You can target various ad groups, ranging from visitors who’ve only visited your product pages to those who have already purchased items from you.
Then, once you generate the ad copy and the offers, the ad platform you use will do the rest. This means pulling the relevant product information to show that specific user.
LinkedIn Dynamic Ads
When creating a dynamic ad on LinkedIn, you will target users based on their profile, including demographics such as location, work experience, company, and job title.
There are three main formats to use when creating ads on the professional network:
Follower Ads

If you want to gain more followers on your LinkedIn Company Page, create a Follower Ad. This will encourage users in your ad group to follow your Page and learn more about your brand.
Spotlight Ads

Want to drive traffic to your website or landing page? Use a spotlight ad. You can also use it to promote upcoming events, highlight your products or services, or gain new email subscribers.
Content Ads
Content offers are great lead magnets. This dynamic ad format allows you to generate leads through downloadable offers. You can manage those leads in the LinkedIn Campaign Manager or export them to a CRM like the HubSpot Marketing Hub’s Ads Software.
You’ll notice that none of these ads show up as a carousel image, single image ad, video, or text ad. That’s because dynamic ads on LinkedIn are only formatted to show up on the right sidebar on desktop view. Like this:

Facebook Dynamic Ads
On Facebook, things work a little differently. In this case, dynamic ads are ideal for brands with a large inventory of products and/or services. Unlike LinkedIn ads, when creating a dynamic ad on Facebook, you can choose any ad format, including single image, carousel, stories, or collection.
Here’s how Facebook dynamic ads work: You can create a retargeting campaign to reach consumers who’ve had previous interactions with your brand, or reach a broader audience that matches your user persona and may be interested in your products or services.
To set up a dynamic ad on Facebook, you’ll need:

A catalog – This contains the products and services you want to promote, with descriptions, prices, images, availability, and other relevant information.

Facebook pixel or DSK – You must install a Facebook pixel on your website or SDK for your mobile app to capture how your users are behaving on your webpages or app.

From there, you will set up your campaign in the Ads Manager to outline your ad objectives, ad format, copy, and calls-to-action (CTA) by product set.
Every time a user fits your targeting parameters, the machine learning program will use the pixel to gather user data and pick relevant products or services from your catalog to display the ad on mobile, tablet, or desktop.
This saves marketers time, as they don’t have to create an ad for every single product or ad group.
You may no longer need those drives home from the mall to decide if you really should have bought something. With dynamic ads, you get multiple chances to reconsider your decisions.
Whether that’s a good thing varies from person to person, but from a marketing standpoint, it’s another opportunity to win over a consumer. Why not take it?

How great would it be if you had a panel of successful entrepreneurs and business leaders you could turn to whenever you needed help getting unstuck, or needed a daily dose of inspiration?
Fortunately, that’s exactly what the new Masters of Scale Courses App offers — expert advice from some of the world’s best and brightest minds, guided by Reid Hoffman.
The first course is all about The Mindset of Scale. Here’s what I learned from the first two lessons.
1. Ask “Why not?” and “What if?”
Start by asking two important questions — “Why not?” and “What if?” — whenever you encounter something that makes you feel a strong emotion.
For instance, think about the last time you experienced sticker shock or frustration over waiting in a long line. Those simple questions have sparked countless successful products and businesses — including Virgin Airlines. In his own words, here’s Richard Branson:
“35 years ago, when we started [Virgin Airlines], the big carriers were dreadful. And on one of those flights coming to the Virgin Islands, I got bumped, which is a sort of typical thing that airlines did in those days.”
Of course, being Richard Branson, he didn’t pass the time by staring woefully at the departures board. Instead, he asked one of those powerful questions: What if? What if he didn’t have to wait for the next flight? What if he created a flight of his own?
“So I hired a plane and filled it up with all the people who had been bumped and called it Virgin Airlines as a joke. And we arrived in the BVI, and during that flight, I just thought, ‘Airlines do bump people, maybe I should ring up Boeing the next day.’ Which I did, and asked if they had any secondhand 747s for sale.”
As you can probably guess, they did, and Virgin Airways was born. Now, you may not be in the market for used 747 jets, but that doesn’t mean these questions can’t create similarly impactful results for you. So next time you find yourself feeling any powerful emotion, pause for a second, think about the situation, and ask yourself, “What if?”
2. Have an idea, act on it, and never look back.
Even though many people talk about the power of ideas, what the world actually rewards is action.
Generating ideas is often the easy part — and with the right mindset, it’s a process that can become second nature. But, what separates daydreaming from living your dream is taking action.
Richard Branson has been an entrepreneur since he was 14 and launched his first business: a student magazine. After the magazine, he went on to found a record label, a video game publisher, and many other ventures — each one a product of taking action.
If you’re like me, even just reading that list of accomplishments sounds daunting. To overcome that feeling, Reid Hoffman offers this helpful advice: “Next time you have an idea that you can’t stop thinking about, act on it immediately.”
After asking yourself “Why not?” or “What if?”, identify the smallest or most immediate action you can do right now to act on your idea.
By starting small and taking action right away, you can avoid the dreaded “analysis paralysis” and start building momentum towards your goal instead.
3. Need a big idea? Get intentional about looking for one.
Before founding Spanx, Sarah Blakely was stuck in a dead-end job — making door-to-door fax machine sales were far from fulfilling. She knew she wasn’t on the right path, but she just wasn’t sure what that right path looked like.
After a challenging day, she decided to try something different. In her journal, she wrote down, “I want to invent a product that I can sell to millions of people that will make them feel good.” According to Blakely, “This was something that I set an intention for; I had really asked the universe to give me an idea that I could bring to the world.”
Blakely kept asking herself, “Is this my big idea?” until the answer was “Yes.”
With her newfound intention, Blakely began finding the opportunities and ideas all around her. One night, after getting frustrated with her undergarment options, she cut the feet off of her pantyhose and discovered that her DIY solution was exactly what she was looking for — in more ways than one.
4. Fill knowledge gaps with the people around you.
After discovering her big idea for Spanx, Blakely faced a new challenge: How to build a business in an industry she knew almost nothing about. It wasn’t an easy problem to solve, but Blakely wasn’t about to let a lack of domain expertise get in her way.
Instead, she started digging deeper. In the words of Reid Hoffman, “She knew that to succeed, she had to be continually open to information and ideas — always in search of the insights and people who could help her turn her idea into a reality.”
It’s okay not to know everything about your business, as long as you get help from people who can fill in your knowledge gaps. You’ll go faster and further with the help of other people.
Ask lots of questions to find your idea — and then keep asking them.
5. Find a place or time where you do your best thinking, and set aside time to be in that space.
Creating a successful business, launching a new product or campaign, or just keeping up with a highly demanding job all require a lot of decision-making. And good decision-making rests on a foundation of good thinking.
According to Hoffman, “Wherever, whenever and however, the point is this: an idea won’t come looking for you, and it won’t perfect itself. You have to put yourself in spaces and places and frames of mind, where you can find and shape the idea.”
For more lessons about scale, download the Masters of Scale Courses app for 50% using the code HUBSPOT at join.mastersoscale.com/hubstpot. Offer is valid through 5/15/21.