Jordan Woods

Brands are wondering if they should turn off paid media + social media due to the California wildfire… but I actually don’t think you need to take that action, and I don’t think keeping social going makes your brand heartless. I’m a born & raised Californian who lived through far too many earthquakes & fires. This one is gonna be particularly devastating—I’ve had personal friends displaced & lose friends this time around, a first for me. But honestly, I believe we’re entering a time where there really are very few events that truly warrant a pause on social now. Historically, I’ve been on the hyper cautious side. I was a Strategy Director at R/GA working on Verizon during COVID and George Floyd’s murder, constantly being asked when it is and isn’t okay to post content. I’ve always been the “it’s better safe than sorry” guy when it comes to this stuff, and my answer was always “there’s never a reason to not just wait til tomorrow or the next day.” And with those two moments, I’d take the same approach I did then. But as the world’s returned to normal, things have changed. I monitored social closely after the Trump assassination attempt, and during the debates, and during the election. My advice was brands should steer clear and not push any campaigns during the window. But as I watched? I didn’t sense any bit of negativity towards the brands that kept on truckin’. I’m not saying to keep your brand on always no matter what’s happening in the world. Nationwide and global events happen, and are worth shutting things down for. The COVID shutdown and George Floyd murders I mentioned earlier? I’d still tell every brand to turn everything off for a few days if they happened again. But a regional event, even one as devastating as this, probably doesn’t warrant turning off your brand social. Your brand sells to the entire country, and the entire world. One state going through pain (even a state I love and was raised in) is ultimately a fraction of your audience, and I don’t believe anyone would actually fault your brand for posting. But hey, curious for your take. Reply with your thoughts, would love to chat about it.

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My friend and previous colleague has started a SEO consultancy and accepting new clients!! He is very knowledgeable and experienced, I highly recommend his services. Share with your networks!! #seo #digitalmarketing #freelance

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Meta Advertisers: If your conversion tracking & ad structure are wrecked, creative can’t save you.   Just talked to a $25M brand running a strong creative motion.   But it looked like a 5th grader set up conversion tracking and ad accounts.   They’re putting out great statics & videos every week.   Starting with great creative frameworks & high-converting ad templates.   Even running a proper whitelisting play.   But it wasn’t enough to scale ads aggressively. B/c they had:   😡 Limited server-side tracking   😡 Only CAPI v. better options - Blotout, Elevar   😡 No micro-conversions - only orders   😡 Broken attribution - inaccurate GA4, no Northbeam   😡 Too many campaigns - crushing Meta’s ML’s potential   😡 Bad budget allocation - to Tests vs. Winners   😡 Too much ABO, too little CBO   😡 Too much retargeting - faking growth w/o incremental profit   --   Bums me out when good brands get in their own way (often bc of bad agencies). Yes, creative is a massive lever. But you’ll never be A+ if sleeping on the above.

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After you’re done with that, do this: 1. Note video styles that work 2. Go to JoinBrands  3. Hire a UGC creator or a few 4. Tell them to create in that style 5. Get videos featuring your product 6. Post them everywhere organically 7. Turn them into paid ads too Get the data. Make an informed guess. Test. Adjust. Start getting more sales. It won’t be easy, but it’s a lot more doable when you have the right tools. P.S. My UGC marketplace helps you find proven creators and get persuasive content made for affordable prices.  Hit the “visit my website” button to check it out.

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TikTok getting banned: I'm 99% sure it won’t. Why? The same reason Temu and Shein aren’t leaving anytime soon… All these companies created a new revenue and cost savings channel for consumers and brands. It brings in too much revenue for America to shut it down. Or rather, brands to let them shut it down. TikTok has become a new ecosystem for: → News → Education → Advertising → Product knowledge → Etc. It’s a leading mover for brands’ success, and I don’t see it going anywhere. Yes, the ban was approved, but legislation takes time to implement. Plus, TikTok is a behemoth. Numerous lawyers are on top of this and IMO, it’ll be forgotten about later on. Just like how FB and Google constantly fight battles with the government and win, the same thing will happen here. The trials get delayed and forgotten, and people move on. Right now it’s a hot topic because the political atmosphere is anti-China. Once that sentiment goes away, so will the ban. Do you think the ban will stick? Lmk.

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Note I sent to our users this morning, but maybe interesting for some of you to read: We are at a turning point in our sector - the digital advertising frenzy is losing steam. I say this as someone who has been there since pretty much the beginning, including working to build ad products in house at FANG. There's a growing realization that our industry's obsession with all things digital has been at the very least overhyped. Maybe it’s time we rethink how we connect with consumers in more meaningful ways once again.   Advertising veteran and luminary I look up to Rory Sutherland once pointed out that brands are sacrificing creativity in favor of digital metrics. His message was simple: marketing should focus on storytelling and building relationships, not just churning out content for the sake of engagement, reaching audiences of varying quality - if real humans at all.   The rise of ad-blocking software speaks volumes here. Nearly 30% of consumers now actively avoid digital ads, frustrated by their intrusive nature. The takeaway is clear: people don’t really want ads online. This is where out-of-home (OOH) advertising shines— it’s both unskippable and non-intrusive, meeting audiences in the real world where their attention is undivided. Screens at a desirable distance, not interrupting your group chat or daily news.   Anyway, how many digital campaigns can you actually remember that stand out in the last decade? It’s a tough question, I struggle to think of many - but when you think of out-of-home campaigns, it’s clear they have the power to create memorable moments. I just flew into Seattle and can shut my eyes and recall the Dell AI campaign I saw at the Austin airport yesterday. But I couldn't tell you the social media ads I scrolled past 5 minutes ago before writing this note. All attention is not created equal.   At AdQuick, we believe in the power of combining the precision of technology with the impact of OOH. Our platform makes it easy to plan, buy, and measure OOH campaigns while delivering results that can’t be blocked or ignored. OOH provides brands with a lasting presence, one that resonates and is memorable.   It’s time to build campaigns in places that matter.

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What's a "Good Steward Of Ad Budget" even mean? We've gotten this question a few times when consulting with CMOs. So we figured we would explain what we mean when we talk about being a good steward of ad budget. Paid campaigns don't need to cost a fortune. By targeting prospects with cost-effective PPC campaigns, you can generate quality leads without the need for a massive budget. We take our job seriously as "good stewards of your ad budget." That basically means we can start small and build up. Or we can take a large budget and make it more effective.

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Ok story time folks. I'm going to lay out how we used Influencers at #WeWork and how it drove 3x the revenue that the program cost to run. When we launched the WeWork All Access products (both the monthly membership and the daily pass options), we were looking for low cost ways to get the word out about the products. This is when we begun to explore partnering with influencers. The concept was to offer them three months of All Access in return for promoting the product on their channels. This worked better than we imaged. Not only did we get tons of free content that we could use, we also were able to drive 3X the revenue of the entire cost of the program (we tracked this using a promo code). Working with influencers can be tricky, but if you find the right ones to match your products, it can be an incredibly effective way to build brand affinity and revenue! #Influncers #Influencermarketing #marketing #digitalmarketing

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My own tool turned against me 💀 Okay, not really. It just reminded me that writing for my own ear doesn't mean that others will have a positive experience with my copy. Like the Flowpoint team pointed out today, "good writing is easy for everyone to understand." You can test the reading comprehension level of your own writing using our newest free tool: https://lnkd.in/ead687S4

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Wicked dot com vs Wicked Movie dot com. Pretty close, right? Not close enough. This typo on movie merchandise drove a porn site’s traffic to a 12-year high and Mattel’s reputation to a short term low. Only took one QA workflow error. My doctor asked me about this scandal. I mentioned it would cost a fortune to clean up the mess and that “heads will roll” aka scapegoats will be fired. I contrasted it to startups where it likely wouldn’t be as big a deal perhaps merited as a PR stunt as long as retailers didn’t cut them off. My doctor said “you’re so right”. I was amused because I rarely hear that from my wife and kids; and, it reminded me that while I have worked in both Corporate and Startups, many have not and are intrigued by the stark differences. In Corporate, we protect massive shareholder value. When facing tradeoffs between risky growth and safe status quo, they’ll choose the latter 99.9% of the time to protect the prize. In the case of Mattel, follow the licensing playbook QA steps for Wicked merchandise and generate the predictable revenue. The playbook was violated, an embarrassing mistake happened, and “heads will roll”. In Startups, we fight at all costs to create shareholder value. When facing tradeoffs between risky growth and less risky growth, we choose both. If there’s a mistake, it means you’re trying hard. If you don’t take big swings, you never win big. In the case of Mattel, sure you’d be furious but you’d also consider the publicity "benefit" for your lesser known brand. Then there's motivation of Retail vs Ecommerce and Corporate vs Startups. Every URL is an opportunity to drive engagement, acquire first party data, and learn about attribution engagement source. For Wicked, was the exclusive focus solely retail revenue? Was this a Corporate move where staff ran the playbook indifferently? If this was a Startup program, would they have agonized over the URL and overall experience to yield a much higher return on investment? Startups can take more risks and thus Corporate outsources innovation to them. Corporate may pilot a partnership, invest, and ultimately acquire them but won’t take the existential risk. Startup Founders fight for innovation with their life savings, emotional stress, reputation, etc… It’s brutal & lonely, but deeply rewarding if you persevere and are lucky enough to win. Media doesn’t feature this side of Startups because Unicorns are more glamorous. Corporate isn't easy either. It’s a different set of skills. Protecting billions or trillions in shareholder value requires discipline, high stakes decision making, navigating massive cross-functional matrices, managing massive teams, etc… And deciding which startups to acquire 😉 Hopefully Mattel can embrace its former Startup - lock down their workflows better, and heads don’t have to roll. Let's see what happens…

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Syncing your product catalog with Pinterest could lead to a significant uptick in product saves, with some businesses seeing increases of up to 90%. This insight from Pinterest itself highlights the platform's power not just for inspiration but as a critical tool for driving direct sales. 🛍️ For businesses looking to expand their digital footprint and sales channels, Pinterest offers a unique opportunity. By making your products more discoverable, you're directly connecting with an audience actively seeking inspiration and ready to purchase. 📈 Interested in leveraging Pinterest's potential for your business or have insights to share? Let's dive into the possibilities together. 

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Our latest consumer study (interviewing 200+ consumers) on Emerging UGC Trends points to a huge shift in UGC as a driver for purchase behavior. 62% of consumers under 35 say that UGC informs their purchase decisions for most/every new product purchase they make - up from 33% of older consumers. Younger consumers especially engage with UGC to provide them with Inspiration & Ideas for their Fashion, Home Decor, and Lifestyle, as well as to see how products perform in Real-World Scenarios and ultimately Validate their Purchase Decisions (confirm they're making the right choice). We can expect to see this become the dominant consumer behavior over time.

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Context makes or breaks you. I won't post the Apple ad, you've seen it. This review from RogerEbert.com is a great primer for what I'll say next. There's nothing "wrong" with this ad, other than it doesn't belong in the time or place we currently inhabit. As Andy Samberg might have said in his Nic Cage character "This ad has all the classic elements I look for in an ad!" Surprise! Building suspense! Humor! (Come on, you can see they tried with the squished emoji), story resolution with a big reveal! It has a famous person's music, it's visually interesting to keep those eye trackers moving, and it's "squishing" allll that value into something so incredibly thin that Steve Jobs would have loved sliding it out of an envelope on stage. But, the reviewer rightly calls out the age, or context, this ad lives within. "The ad arrives amid a continued furor over the ethical, moral and copyright implications of "Generative AI," which is a cool-sounding name for plagiarism software. This so-called "intelligence" is not intelligent but crudely imitative. Contrary to what its industry boosters (and their simps) keep trying to tell us, its relationship to the history of human creativity is not at all like the relationship between a flesh-and-blood art student studying a book of Rembrandt paintings or a budding trumpeter playing along with Miles Davis. It's more like the relationship between the tripods in Steven Spielberg's "War of the Worlds" and the people that they suck up into their bellies, shred into gory paste, and spray onto their crops, as a kind of mulch." So, does the public at large see this new device as enabling their creative dreams by compacting all they love into an envelope sized tool that makes them more artistic? No, the context of today is of artists being squeezed out of existence. And not just artists, everyone is starting to feel the AI squeeze, if you will. This just makes the ad feel like a harbinger of things to come for all of us, given the context of 2024. The context of what comes before sets everything that comes after it. Literally everything. No one escapes its gravitational well. https://lnkd.in/giHVAqJ3

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Question: Who's in SF for Config this month? Friends, fellow marketers, new #UX buddies? It's my first trip to the Bay Area in ages, and I'm stoked. {Fun fact: The first piece of "art" I had in college was a framed photo of the Golden Gate Bridge.} It's also my first industry event as an attendee in ages. I'm ready to geek out about Figma - so come sit by me. #design #marketing #uxresearch

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I keep hearing about zero-click strategy on social. Here's the deal about it. This is NOT a new thing. In August 2018, Facebook's algorithm underwent a dramatic change in which traditional URLs were no longer a priority because too many people were leaving the platform. Facebook did its best to work around this. Did you ever notice how easy it was to get back to Facebook? Well, it wasn't enough. I am seeing brands with seven-figure followings get zero engagement on Facebook simply because they are pushing links (and hashtags, why?!) In short, if you're a social media manager or managing someone who does social, adopt a zero-click strategy NOW. It's only going to become more important. Do this: ✅ Longform storytelling with many photos ✅ Not-so-serious video (under 15 seconds) Not this ❌ URLs (unless paid) ❌ Photos without humans in them (boring) Facebook wants you scrolling so that you see more ads and create impressions. The only links you'll see are Sponsored links and links that generate a lot of engagement (TMZ, huge news orgs). Social media apps are designed to get you addicted and stay addicted. That is why there are so many talented people killing it with hilarious or eye-catching short-form video. Storytelling will still be the top skill on social, but doing it with traditional URLs is not playing their game. #SocialMediaManagement #SocialMedia #Meta

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Not allowing your marketing team to talk to customers? Your marketing team isn't the problem—You are. How much of your budget & resources go into qualitative research? If you’re not investing in qualitative research, you’re flying blind. You’re building strategies, campaigns, and entire product lines without understanding the reality of what your customers think, feel, and want. And let me tell you, there’s no quicker path to irrelevance than relying solely on data that can’t speak. The qualitative research myths you need to let go of: • 𝗠𝘆𝘁𝗵 𝟭: “𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝘂𝘀 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱.” Wrong. Quantitative data tells you what happened—it doesn’t tell you why it happened. Sure, your bounce rate went up last quarter, but do you know why? That NPS score went up—great! But do you know the specific things customers love? You can’t act on numbers alone. • 𝗠𝘆𝘁𝗵 𝟮: “𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼𝗼 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲.” You’re telling me you don’t have time to listen to your customers? That’s insane. If you’re spending hours building strategies based on numbers, wouldn’t you want to spend a fraction of that time hearing from the people those strategies are meant to serve? • 𝗠𝘆𝘁𝗵 𝟯: “𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗼𝗼 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲.” You’re already spending money on data tools, analytics platforms, and SaaS products, but you balk at the idea of allocating budget to qualitative research? Get out... just get out. Now that you understand why qualitative research is critical, here’s how to start integrating it into your strategy: • 𝗗𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮 𝗣𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗕𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗲𝘁 Start small if you need to, but make sure a portion of your marketing or product development budget is reserved for qualitative research. This could be as simple as running user interviews quarterly or setting up focus groups. • 𝗜𝗻𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗽𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 Before you launch your next big campaign, invest in qualitative insights. Run surveys, interview customers, or conduct user testing. Use the feedback to shape your messaging, design, and strategy. • 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗜𝘁 𝗮 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝘂𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 Don’t treat qualitative research as a one-off task. Build it into the DNA of your company. Whether it’s product feedback, customer interviews, or usability studies, keep the lines of communication with your customers open at all times. • 𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 Data without context is dangerous. Use qualitative research to interpret and understand what your data is telling you. It’s the perfect complement to the hard numbers. The bottom line is this—Qualitative data is something you cannot ignore. If access to that is being kept from you, do it anyway. You'll be a better marketer.

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Sparks now supports over 50 locations across California on Weedmaps, Leafly, and Yelp with 100% success rate in boosting return on ad spend in as little as one week.

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PORTLAND - (The Grimshaw Report) - Special Bulletin. I'm unfortunately seeing many Linkedin posts using graphics that are clearly completely generated by an ai prompt. Please stop doing this, it's a poor reflection of your professional/personal brand. The misspellings, the weird nightmarish colors, the poor interpretation of what ai thinks you want. Seeing this sea of poorly generated graphics across Linkedin makes me sad. There are plenty of templates and stock photos and graphics tools such as Adobe Express, Canva and many others. It takes 10 minutes to generate a passable graphic with little experience on these platforms. I'm a photographer and even I sometimes use stock photos in my posts. Nothing wrong with that. But try to make it your own. Put more than 5 seconds into creating something. People will notice. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention all of the very talented graphic designers, photographers, videographers who are a message away and could provide some guidance and some PAID work to those who are needing design assistance. I'm not anti ai (kind of), but there is such a thing as taste and aesthetics. And yes, that still matters. Don't let ai graphics be replacement for creativity. You'd honestly be better off with a black rectangle. Or doing nothing at all. Thanks for reading.

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$1,000 says your Meta agency is NOT doing this. And you can’t make good decisions w/o it.   If your in-platform reporting isn’t breaking out reports these two ways, it’s useless. 1. By funnel 2. By audience type   Without, it’s not targeted enough to inform. You won’t know where to focus.   Funnel ➡️ ✅ Views ✅ Adds to carts ✅ Starts checkout ✅ Purchases *You could add other events, too *These can be adapted for non-ecom, too   Audience Type ➡️ ✅ New: cold traffic ✅ Engaged: warm traffic ✅ Existing: current customers   A blended ROAS of 4.3 is misleading…here’s what’s really happening: - New: 2.4 ROAS - Engaged: 6.2 ROAS - Existing: current customers 12.1 ROAS   A blended CAC of 80 is misleading…here’s what’s really happening: - New: $140 CAC - Engaged: $56 CAC - Existing: $28 CAC   Want to improve ROAS, CAC, etc.? - Review the funnel - Compare to benchmarks - Find the most broken steps   TLDR: ❌ Meta’s standard reporting is a joke ❌ It’s only good for clouding judgement ✅ Better reporting = better decisions 👊

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