Top 6 Things Businesses Need To Know About GA4

As a business owner, you know that understanding your customers is essential to successful strategic planning. And for years, businesses have relied on Universal Analytics to gain insights into user behavior. But now, there’s a new player in town: Google Analytics 4 (GA4).

GA4 is the next generation of Analytics, designed to collect event-based data from both websites and apps. It offers a more comprehensive and flexible measurement approach that considers the complex, multi-platform journeys of your customers. But what exactly is GA4, and why should you care? Let’s take a look at the top 6 things businesses need to know about GA4 and how it can help you stay ahead of the curve when it comes to analytics and measurement.

1. GOOGLE WILL SUNSET UNIVERSAL ANALYTICS IN JULY 2023.

If you’re currently using Universal Analytics to measure your website or app, it’s important to know that Google will soon be phasing it out. Starting July 1, 2023, standard Universal Analytics properties will stop processing new hits, and new data will only flow into GA4 properties. It’s important to make the switch before the July deadline to avoid losing important data.

So, why is this happening? In short, Universal Analytics was built for a different era of online measurement. It was designed to measure the desktop web and relied heavily on cookies and session-based data. But in today’s digital landscape, users interact with brands across multiple platforms and devices, making it more important than ever to have a measurement solution that can capture the full picture of customer behavior.

2. GOOGLE ANALYTICS 4 USES EVENT-BASED DATA COLLECTION.

One of the biggest differences between GA4 and Universal Analytics is how data is collected. Universal Analytics relies on session-based data, which is based on a user’s interactions with your website or app during a single visit. Session-based data is limited and doesn’t fully represent a user’s journey.

GA4, on the other hand, uses an event-based data model that allows for more granular tracking of user behavior. Instead of just tracking sessions, GA4 tracks individual actions taken by a user, such as clicking a button or watching a video.

For example, let’s say you run an e-commerce site and want to see how users are interacting with your product pages. With Universal Analytics, session-based data can show how many users visited a particular page or how long they spent on it. But with GA4, you could track individual actions like clicks on the “Add to Cart” button or time spent watching a product video. This in-depth reporting allows you to see a more complete view of how users engage with your site and make data-driven decisions to improve the user experience.

3. YOU’LL BE ABLE TO MEASURE USER DATA ACROSS PLATFORMS.

One of the biggest challenges businesses face today is understanding their customers’ journeys across multiple platforms. With users moving seamlessly between websites and apps, getting a full picture of how they interact with your brand from the top of your funnel to the bottom can be challenging.

GA4 is designed to provide a unified view of your customers’ journeys across all your digital properties. This means you can see how users interact with your website, app, and any other online channels you use, all in one place.

For example, let’s say you have an e-commerce site and a mobile app for your business. With Universal Analytics, you might have to track data separately for each platform, which can be time-consuming to compile into a complete picture of your customer journey. But with GA4, you can see how users interact with your website and app and track their behavior across both platforms. Being able to see how users interact with your brand across all touchpoints is a game-changer for businesses looking to gain a more complete view of their customers’ journeys.

4. GA4 MAKES USER PRIVACY A TOP PRIORITY.

In today’s world, privacy is more important than ever. Customers are increasingly concerned about how their data is collected and used, and businesses need to address these concerns proactively to maintain consumer trust.

As more and more users opt out of third-party cookies, we need a new approach to collect meaningful data about customer experiences. That’s where GA4’s privacy controls come in. Unlike Universal Analytics, which relies on cookies to track user behavior, GA4 offers cookieless measurement. 

But that’s not all — GA4 also includes other privacy controls to help protect user data. For example, GA4 no longer stores IP addresses, which can help protect user privacy and ensure compliance with international data privacy regulations. By being proactive about privacy, businesses can show their customers that they take data privacy seriously and are committed to using data in a responsible way.

5. GA4 USES MACHINE LEARNING TO GENERATE PREDICTIVE INSIGHTS.

One of the most exciting features of GA4 is its predictive capabilities. Using machine learning technology, GA4 can generate sophisticated predictive insights about user behavior and conversions.

So, how does it work? GA4 uses machine learning algorithms to analyze your data and identify patterns and trends that may not be immediately obvious. For example, it can identify users likely to purchase a specific product based on their past behavior or predict when they will likely churn based on their interactions with your site or app.

This kind of predictive analysis can be incredibly valuable for businesses, allowing them to address customer needs and behaviors proactively. For example, if GA4 identifies a group of users who are likely to churn, you can take steps to re-engage them and prevent them from leaving. Or, if it identifies a group of users who are likely to make a purchase, you can target them with relevant marketing messages and promotions.

6. YOU’LL BE BETTER ABLE TO MEASURE THE SUCCESS OF YOUR CAMPAIGNS.

Measuring the impact of marketing campaigns can be challenging, especially when customers interact with your brand across multiple channels and touchpoints. But with GA4’s data-driven attribution, businesses can get a more comprehensive view of how their marketing efforts impact customer behavior.

So, what is data-driven attribution, exactly? Simply put, it’s a more sophisticated way of measuring the impact of marketing campaigns that goes beyond last-click attribution. With data-driven attribution, GA4 can analyze the full impact of your marketing across the entire customer journey, assigning attribution credit to all the touchpoints that contribute to a conversion.

For example, if a customer clicks on an ad, browses your site, but doesn’t make a purchase until later, GA4’s data-driven attribution can still attribute that conversion to the ad, even if it wasn’t the last touchpoint. By measuring the full impact of marketing across the entire customer journey, businesses can make more informed decisions about where to invest their marketing dollars and drive better business results.

HOW TO SET UP GOOGLE ANALYTICS 4

If you’re ready to make the switch to GA4, there are a few things you can do to ensure a smooth transition:

  • Create a GA4 property: To start using GA4, you’ll need to create a new property in your Google Analytics account. You can do this through the Google Analytics interface or the Google Tag Manager.
  • Set up tracking: Once you’ve created your GA4 property, you’ll need to set up tracking for your website or app. This can be done using the Google Tag Manager or adding the GA4 tracking code to your website or app.
  • Migrate your data: If you’re currently using Universal Analytics, you’ll want to migrate your data to GA4 to ensure a seamless transition. 
  • Learn the new interface: GA4 has a new interface that may take some time to get used to. Thankfully, Google offers a course to help you get up to speed. Take some time to familiarize yourself with the new interface and the available reports and features. 

Ready to switch to GA4 but need assistance with the transition process? At The Snow Agency, we offer expert GA4 migration services to help businesses smoothly transition to this next-generation measurement solution. Our team of experienced digital marketing professionals can guide you through the entire process so you can rest assured that your transition to the new platform will be seamless and successful. 

So, if you’re looking for expert assistance with your GA4 migration, give us a call! We’ll work with you to ensure that your data is being collected accurately and that you’re taking full advantage of all the new features and capabilities of GA4.

Learn More About GA4 Migration Services

Black Friday Cyber Monday 2022 Recap

In the wake of Apple’s iOS 14 security updates, e-commerce brands were braced to face a more challenging and competitive marketplace this past BFCM weekend than ever before. Success in this climate despite these new challenges hinges upon employing specific vital strategies to maximize ad performance and results.

Here at The Snow Agency, we are proud to share that we had a smooth and successful BFCM weekend for our clients. We will share crucial takeaways and key insights you should keep in mind for next year’s BFCM and as we move forward into the new year and beyond.

Without further ado, here’s a closer look at some of our results.

Black Friday 2022 vs 2021 Facebook Results

  • Spend up 101% (FB NOT DEAD)
  • ROAS down 10% 
  • CPM down 24%
  • CR up 5%
  • AOV up 4%
  • Overall Store Revenue up 39%

Cyber Monday 2022 vs 2021 Facebook Results

Top 10 spenders increased their spend this year as compared to 2021. 

  • Spend up 102%
  • ROAS down 3%
  • CPMs down 24%

Black Friday-Cyber Monday 2022 Weekend Insights (Nov 25-28) vs 2021 (Nov 26-29)

  • FB CPMs were 35% lower this year as compared to last
  • Clients spent more on ads
  • High AOV brands were the biggest winners: 8 of top 10 spenders had AOV >$100
  • LAAs (FB and Shopify Audiences) outperformed cold audiences
  • Store Revenue was +49%
  • Brands without compelling offers did NOT yield significant results over 2022’s BFCM weekend.

Key Insights For Next Year’s BFCM

1. Clearly Display Your Offer In Ads Using The ½ Second Rule

Remember, during the most impactful weekend of the year for your brand’s performance, your customers don’t necessarily care about your brand. They only care about the deal you are offering and are actively searching the Internet for the best deals they can find. 

So, it is crucial that your ad creative and copy clearly display the deal you are offering within .5 seconds aka “the half-second rule.” It is back to the drawing board to remake your creative if your ad does not pass this half-second test.

2. Make Sure Your Offer is Clearly Displayed Throughout Your Site

Don’t only put your offer on your homepage. Remember, traffic will also be navigating to your collection pages, product detail pages or landing pages and if your offer is only on your homepage, prospective customers may miss it altogether. 

Pro Tip  #1: Include a large sticky banner with your offer on your web pages that also passes the .5 second rule. 

*Bonus Points: Incorporate a daily countdown timer in the sticky banner which expires at 11:59pm (and resets at midnight if your sale takes place the following day as well). Even better if the time is also included in the fly-out cart.

3. Make Sure Your Discount Code is Easily Accessible to Customers to Identify and Use

We sometimes see marketers using a manual discount code make the mistake of not having it easily accessible to customers. 

Pro Tip #1: Code your offer directly into the site underneath the price and have the deal appear in-cart with a field for customers to easily enter the discount code. 

Of course, if you are not using discount codes and are instead holding a sitewide sale, make sure that is clear to your customers as well. Call out clearly on your site with *NO CODE NEEDED* on all your sales materials.

4. Use Countdown Timers To Create Urgency

Success during BFCM also hinges upon not only making customers excited about your deals – but also getting them to act on them fast before they expire. This is why it is crucial to include countdown timers on your site and have them expire daily to create even more urgency. 

Once you code in your countdown timer, watch your ATC – IC (Add-to-cart 👉 Initiate Checkout) rate skyrocket!

5. Allocate Proper Budget For Retargeting Audiences

A common mistake we see marketers make is not allocating enough budget for retargeting audiences. Consider how many people are in each of your retargeting audiences and how much it would cost to reach all of them (multiple times). This gives you a baseline understanding of how to scale each audience, assuming you have ROAS.

Pro Tip: To prevent customers from seeing the same ads, make sure you are showing different creatives to each audience in your retargeting campaign. An even better way to avoid ad fatigue is to run different ads from different social pages (influencer pages, publisher pages, etc).

6. Run BFCM Ads From Non-Brand Pages You Have Access To

Speaking of running ads from different pages to prevent ad fatigue, maximize conversions and results from running BFCM ads from other pages you have access to. These include influencer pages, persona pages and Black Friday Deal Pages. Don’t have a Black Friday Deal Page? Make one!

Bonus Tip: When you run ads from non-brand pages make sure you adjust your copy to reflect the appropriate tone of voice, as if it is coming directly from the influencer, persona page pr publisher (Black Friday Deals) page.

7. Use These Critical Audiences to Maximize Performance

-Pixel Purchase and order export past 180 days.

We also see marketers make the mistake of not using their order export and pixel purchase audiences past 180 days where the pixel cuts you off. Keep in mind, your order export audience is low-hanging fruit and the best-performing audience, so it is to your advantage to use it! 

-Website Visitors up to 180 days

Segment day ranges as you see fit. Make sure you at least segment 0 – 7 days if your audience is in the thousands of people.

-Engagement (FB and IG) 

-Video View (75%) – You can consolidate VV and engagement into one audience if <100,000 people are in either of the audiences.

Scale Growth and Maximize Results in The New Year and Beyond

2022 is coming to a close and another year and Q1 is ahead of us. It is the perfect time to rethink your marketing materials and strategies, and make adjustments as you head into a new year of growth.

Looking to take your marketing operations and performance to new heights? Partner with the digital marketing experts at The Snow Agency who have the savvy and knowhow to help you make moves that propel the needle forward and your business to new levels of success.

Reach out for a free consultation today.

Meta’s Latest Ruling in EU And Its Impact On Facebook Ad Performance

In recent months, Meta has taken blow after blow, losing billions of dollars in advertising income. This comes as a result of iOS14 security updates taking a toll on Facebook ad performance and revenues, macroeconomic forces that have impacted consumer spending, as well as new kid on the block, TikTok taking some attention away from Facebook and Instagram. 

And now the latest ruling in Europe concerning data privacy regulations forebodes that even more trouble may be brewing on the horizon. 

These rulings may significantly impact Facebook ad performance in Europe and the overall performance of ecommerce brands there. So, it is crucial to be aware of these changes so you can plan ahead, plan accordingly and navigate them successfully.

The Latest EU Ruling Against Meta’s Ad Targeting

On Dec 6, 2022, the European Union ruled against Meta tracking user data within the app as a means for ad targeting without the user’s consent, dramatically cutting down on the data that the platform could use for selling ads. 

As a result of the ruling, Meta threatened to shut down the use of Facebook and Instagram in Europe.

How Will the Meta EU Ruling Affect Facebook Marketers and Ad Performance?

It is important to note that iOS14 security updates only impacted the tracking of users outside Meta. Meta, therefore, still has access to users’ data from inside the platform to leverage for targeted ads.

But regardless of the data the platform can or can’t collect inside or outside of the platform, these data regulations will force the social media giant to potentially have to reconsider its ad targeting model. The same goes for ecommerce brands who market their products and services using Facebook ads. 

These data security updates have already taken a toll on Facebook ad performance, making for false negatives, unreliable attribution and failed data optimization overall.

How Will This Impact Ecommerce Brands’ Future Ad Targeting Strategy?

The thing is these sorts of privacy updates often cause chain reactions. The U.S. will likely need to weigh in on where it stands regarding data privacy regulations of its Facebook users, next.

In the short term, as the Facebook algorithm no longer has web pixel data from users who opted out of having their data tracked outside of Meta, brands that rely on a broad targeting model will likely have to rethink their Facebook ad targeting strategy. 

The pendulum has already started swinging in the direction of intent-based, owned audiences and it seems they will only grow in importance over time. Meta’s ad revenues and the Facebook ad performance of e-commerce brands on the platform will then depend on importing their own audiences based on data they already own. 

Here at The Snow Agency, we are focusing on Shopify Audiences and Angler AI as valuable tools for building owned audiences based on first-party customer data.

We’ve been digging deep into Shopify Audiences, for more information on Shopify Audiences, read more here:

What is Shopify Audiences? Here’s What You Need to Know

Shopify Audiences Best Practices

Elevate Your Ad Strategy With The Right Agency to Scale Your Business

As owned, intent-based audiences continue to take on more importance in a heightened, fiercely competitive marketplace, you will need a partner on your side that knows what it takes to succeed. Our digital marketing experts here at The Snow Agency will passionately help you take your ecommerce store to the next level, get your brand in front of the right audiences and help make you moves that will mean everything to your bottom line. 

Reach out for a free consultation today.

iOS To Enable Web Push Notifications Starting in 2023

It’s been a challenging year for e-commerce and the world of digital marketing. But recent updates from Apple regarding iOS web push notifications indicate that a promising road lies ahead that can help elevate engagement with your customers to new heights.

Previously, Apple did not support iOS web push notifications. However, in 2023, Apple will begin enabling web push notifications on Safari and other browsers.

What Does This Mean For Direct-to-Consumer Brands?

This new development offers a goldmine of opportunity for direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands. Besides enhancing engagement with your community of customers, this can dramatically increase CTR, conversion rates, and revenues which will directly impact your bottom line.

And for brands with a web-first model without a mobile app, this is game-changing. Suppose a brand without a mobile app wants to send a customer a message. In that case, it currently has to use other channels to engage with users on iOS mobile phones, such as asking users to opt into SMS or email or send a mobile app push notification. However, the vast majority of brands do not have their own app. 

It is not necessarily cost-effective for companies with a high-performing web-first model to develop a mobile app. Therefore, for these non-app-based brands, being able to target customers through web push notifications is a valuable tool for engagement. With web push notifications enabled, they will no longer need a mobile app or be forced to use alternative channels to communicate with their audience in real time.

Why Are Web Push Notifications A Powerful Channel of Engagement?

While email can be an effective channel for communicating with customers, sources reveal that web push notifications can generate 30 times higher conversion rates than email. They also have a 7x times higher CTR than email and two times higher CTR than SMS. Plus, they are free to send, making them even more cost-effective. 

One of the major benefits of web push notifications is that you can use them to reach customers even if they have already navigated away from your website or never even visited your site! With web push notifications enabled, you can easily tap into a wider section of your audience and initiate or build deeper customer connections through re-engagement. Real-time communication with your audience at timely points in their customer journey means that the impact of your messages can go further and more strongly incentivize customers to take action and convert. 

And the fact that you do not need to use a third-party channel to engage with customers using web push notifications means that they follow the latest privacy regulations. So, it is an ideal tool to market your products or services and communicate with your audience.

How Do Web Push Notifications Work?

Web push notifications appear similarly to mobile push notifications at the the top or right side of the mobile device screen in the user’s web browser.

Once a user clicks on the notification, they will be redirected to whatever URL the brand has assigned to the push notification’s CTA. It is important to note that users need to opt-in to receive web push notifications. Therefore, be mindful not to overdo it by inundating your audience with these notifications. Be strategic and timely with your messages, clearly conveying the value users will enjoy from taking action on your push notifications. Also, be purposeful in asking users to opt-in with a nuanced, more personalized approach that will more deeply resonate with your audience.

Build Strong Customer Connections With The Snow Agency

Effective customer communication is one of the most vital pillars of your marketing strategy and engagement with your community. If you are seeking explosive growth that means everything to your bottom line, partner with the digital marketing experts at The Snow Agency. Our leading marketing teams create powerful, personalized, result-driven content that will help your company accelerate your performance to new heights. 

Get started with a kickoff call today.

The Snow Agency Ranks #7 On Adweek’s 2022 Fastest Growing Agency List

Major industry news came in this week when Adweek released its annual list of the fastest-growing agencies in the country. 

We’re thrilled to announce that The Snow Agency is ranked as Adweek’s 7th fastest-growing agency in the US! 

Rising to one of the top 10 fastest-growing agencies is a testament to The Snow Agency’s meteoric growth over the past year and the resilience and work ethic of the entire Snow Agency team. 
 
“In the ever-changing world of ad-tech, marketing platforms, and industry/global trends there is NEVER a dull day,” explains The Snow Agency Co-Founder Jonathan Snow. “Our team takes it all in stride, moves quickly, formulates solutions, and sees the rapidly changing environment as an opportunity and a challenge to become better.”
 
Co-Founder Daniel Snow adds, “While 2022 has been the hardest year in the advertising industry in my career, our team continues to push further and we are still seeing brands reach new heights!
 
Through innovative marketing solutions like our recently launched Performance PR Marketing, The Snow Agency has generated $350M+ in revenue across all of our client accounts. While we’re delighted with our progress, we know we’re just getting started. We’re honored to receive recognition from Adweek and humbly thank our supporters, partners, clients, and our passionate team of marketing professionals for making an achievement like this possible. 
 
If you want to join the hundreds of brands who have evolved into industry leaders thanks to the help of The Snow Agency, reach out for a free audit today!

Shop Cash Is Changing The Game For E-Commerce Customer Acquisition

First came Shopify Audiences, which enabled e-commerce brands to expand their network of buyers and tap into an audience of millions of new shoppers. 

And now you can turn that audience into converting customers with Shopify’s latest release, Shop Cash. It’s both an appealing customer rewards program for shoppers and a powerful vehicle for customer acquisition for your brand.

Interested? Keep reading to learn more.

What is Shop Cash?

Shop Cash is a customer rewards program available to Shop App customers. Customers can only redeem their Shop Cash rewards for purchases made in the Shop App. Customers earn 3% in Shop Cash when they use Shop Pay for eligible orders in both the Shop App and for your specific store. 

When a customer pays for an order with their Shop Cash, Shop Cash is applied first, and they pay for any remaining balance using Shop Pay. You get paid using Shop Cash in the same way you receive payments for Shop Pay orders. And you do not incur any additional charge for payments you receive in Shop Cash.

How Does Shop Cash Offer Cash Rewards to Customers?

After a customer makes a purchase using Shop Cash on the Shop App, they will be awarded Shop Cash rewards. They will then receive offers from stores to multiply their Shop Cash balance. These offers incentivize them to continue shopping on the Shop App and with an attractive offer to expand their Shop Cash, they will be encouraged to use their Shop Cash at your store. Using Shop Cash towards their next purchase will save them money as a reward for their purchase.

What Are The Benefits of Shop Cash?

Simply put, Shop Cash is a win-win for your customers and you. Customers are rewarded with Shop Cash after their eligible Shop Pay purchases, and you can incentivize customers to shop at your store using their Shop Cash. 

Shop Cash puts your brand in front of millions of engaged shoppers already making purchases on the platform. Tapping into Shopify’s massive network of 100 MM active shoppers will significantly elevate your brand’s overall visibility throughout the Shop app. 

The opportunity to earn Shop Cash will naturally incentivize customers to make purchases from your store and then continue making purchases with their Shop Cash to earn more rewards. After all, who doesn’t like getting cash-back rewards from shopping?

And it gets even better. Shop Cash enables you to enhance the performance of your marketing campaigns to acquire and re-engage customers. 

It’s a tool for customer acquisition that just keeps on giving!

How Do Shop Cash Campaigns Work?

Shop Cash offers your brand opportunities for free, strategic marketing using push, email campaigns, and other promotions throughout the Shop App. You can also create opportunities to re-engage customers to strengthen customer connections and further enhance your customers’ lifecycle values. 

You can use Shop Cash offers to incentivize first-time sales at your store. Your Shop Cash offer will only be presented to new customers who haven’t yet shopped at your store. 

Setting up campaigns on Shop App is pretty straightforward, but it can be incredibly impactful for your brand. 

First, you set your campaign budget, then you select your maximum cost per acquisition (CPA) and Shopify will then help you target customers at your desired CPA. Note that your Shop Cash offer amount can never exceed your fixed CPA, so you won’t be hit with any unexpected charges. And you only pay for successful conversions. 

This means that you are more in control of your customers’ acquisition and, consequently,  potential ROI than ever before.

How Can You Get Started With Shop Cash?

To get started with Shop Cash offers, you can now apply for early access. 

Elevate The Performance of Your Marketing Campaigns

Taking advantage of Shop Cash offers to incentivize your customers can help your brand stand out on the Shop App and maximize customer acquisition and conversions to unprecedented levels. 

In the fierce world of e-commerce, especially in the wake of ongoing IOS security updates, effective marketing that fosters strong connections with your customer community means everything to the success of your business. If you want to enhance the performance of your marketing efforts to scale your growth to prodigious new heights, connect with the digital marketing experts here at The Snow Agency. 

After all, as Shopify says, it’s time to #ConnectToConsumers.

Reach out for a free consultation today.

TikTok Releases the Long-Awaited Attribution Manager

First came TikTok’s conversion data sandbox, launched recently to optimize attribution of TikTok ads to enable more accurate and high-performing attribution. And now comes an even more exciting development to enhance campaign measurement and maximize performance further: TikTok Attribution Manager. 

What is TikTok’s Attribution Manager? 

Attribution is key to gaining insight into customers’ actions after clicking or viewing an ad after a certain period. This information is vital to understanding what does and does not work in your ad campaigns and further informs ad content strategy to enhance future performance. 

An attribution window refers to the time passed from when a person first clicked or viewed an ad and the point at which they took action. The launch of TikTok’s attribution manager enables marketers running ads on TikTok to customize the length of their attribution windows, ranging from one day to 28 days. This means that based on the campaign’s specific needs, marketers can adjust the parameters of the attribution window to optimize the campaign toward reaching specific goals and maximize their ad performance. 

A flexible attribution manager is vital because the campaigns’ length and expected conversion times can vary so much across different brands and their respective offerings. For example, if a brand expects that customers need a certain amount of time to deliberate about their purchase rather than make an impulse buy, it would need a longer attribution window. 

How Does TikTok’s Attribution Manager Work? 

TikTok’s Attribution Manager enables you to customize click-through attribution from one day to 28 days and view-through attribution up to 7 days. However, it will automatically default to 7-day click and 1-day view for TikTok Pixel and Web Event API advertisers. 

The length of the attribution window you choose determines how long a customer has to take a certain action on your ad ad for that action to be recorded in TikTok Ads Manager. 

What Does TikTok’s Attribution Manager Mean to Ad Campaign Performance? 

In the past, with TikTok’s more basic attribution capabilities, TikTok could only track conversions that occurred directly after a consumer clicked immediately within the same session. This means that even if the same customer returned later that day to make a purchase, TikTok’s Ad Manager didn’t register it as a conversion. This would result in TikTok’s pixel reporting many false negatives leading brands to believe that their ads did not result in conversions when in reality, they did! 

The introduction of the conversion data sandbox that enabled cross-conversion reporting was a major development, helping to improve TikTok pixel’s feedback loop with more accurate, reliable and high-performing attribution. 

And now, with the release of a flexible attribution manager, TikTok’s pixel will be able to capture events beyond 1-day click like it was only able to do in the past. Longer attribution windows mean that the TikTok pixel will now be able to pick up more data about conversions across various sessions and thus, have more positive data to report. This is huge in terms of how this will result in a more positive feedback loop.

More simply, advertisers on TikTok will have more data to work with to gain deeper insights into what is and isn’t converting in their ads and then use those insights to inform future ad content strategy. More reliable and accurate attribution can potentially supercharge ad performance like never before. 

Which Brands Have Access to TikTok’s Attribution Manager?

Any brands that currently use TikTok Ads Manager can now access TikTok’s Attribution Manager directly from TikTok Ads Manager under the Assets menu. It will be available to marketers creating campaigns using either the TikTok Pixel or Events API. 

Learn more about how TikTok’s attribution manager can amplify your ad campaign efforts and performance. 

Amp Up Your Campaign Performance With TikTok Advertising

TikTok is a powerful platform in which ecommerce brands can advertise their products to drive massive conversions and growth for their business. And now, with the introduction of TikTok Attribution Manager, shortly after the release of the conversion data sandbox, you have more opportunity than ever to optimize your campaign performance to move the needle for your company. The right strategy makes all the difference. Partner with the digital marketing experts at The Snow Agency to help your brand home on the right ad content strategies, accelerate your ad performance and experience more growth than ever before. 

Reach out for a free consultation today.

Shopify Audiences Best Practices

If you have been staying up to date with the exciting developments happening in the marketing world, you would know that Shopify recently launched Shopify Audiences. Shopify Audiences is a free prospecting tool that uses a machine-learning algorithm to allow you to connect to Shopify’s massive network of consumers to find new audiences of high-intent buyers. With valuable insight into customer information to better target high-intent buyers, you can supercharge the performance of your top-of-funnel acquisition, drive conversions and increase return on ad spend. And it may just be the solution to attribution and post-IOS 14.5 tracking.

Shopify Audiences is available exclusively to brands that use both Shopify Plus and Shopify Payments. If you’re not yet on the Shopify Plus plan or processing payments with Shopify Payments, this is a compelling reason to make the switch.
Ready to get started with Shopify Audiences? Here are 9 best practices you should know. Keep in mind that Shopify Audiences is a brand new tool and new best practices will emerge on a regular basis as the product matures. These 9 came directly from Shopify:

  1. Categorize your products

Success in ecommerce depends on ensuring you get the right products in front of the right audiences. The easiest way to do this? Label your products in your Shopify Admin with their product type to help link your products to the right customers. Not only will it help you better target the right customers, but it will also increase the efficiency and accuracy of customer acquisition. Shopify Audiences relies directly on your assigned product categories to determine which consumers are in the market for that particular product. If you don’t do this, you’ll limit the effectiveness of Shopify Audiences.

  1. Re-export your in-market and lookalike audiences every 7 days 

As Shopify Audiences continues to get rolled out to more and more brands, the algorithm will continue to evolve and improve. Shopify advises refreshing your audience or lookalike every 7 days to make sure it is up to date and can predict the most relevant high-intent shoppers for your brand. For example, if you have an Audience crafted around women’s shoes, if you don’t re-export your Audience to Facebook, you won’t have the most up-to-date target audience in your ad account. Your aged Shopify Audience may still contain people who are no longer in the market for your products. Be sure to put the date of your Audience export in the title of your audience and ad set to easily keep track of this!

  1. Track audience export dates 

Keep track of when you exported your audiences to determine which exports performed well and which need adjustments. This will help you also pinpoint when you need to refresh an audience. Put the export date in your ad set too!

  1. Try multiple audiences and different products 

The key is to keep testing and learning what works and what doesn’t. Test out different product sets to represent a range of different personas within your store – to see which products of yours best resonate with which audiences.

  1. Build scale 

As your performance improves, begin scaling gradually with in-market audiences. The network of audiences you can potentially tap into will continue to expand as more and more merchants are added.

  1. Create lookalike audiences 

Creating lookalike audiences offers you more opportunities to expand your network of high-intent buyers to reach audiences of ideal customers – while lowering CPMs. And brands are already starting to see results! Blender Bottle earned a 6x return on its ad spend from using lookalike audiences. 

  1.  Test the Reach objective in your ad settings to lower CPMs. 

Leveraging this niche audience of high-intent buyers comes with higher CPMs since you have a custom list of consumers you are trying to target directly. This means in order to target these people directly, you automatically need to bid more to reach this defined audience. However, there is a workaround. Test the Reach objective to radically lower CPMs, while maintaining the same high intent audience. If you can target the same list of high intent purchasers, theoretically, you can elevate performance through hacking your way to lower ad costs.

  1. Exclude Shopify custom audiences from other ad sets

Keep your ad sets on Shopify Audiences separate from other ad sets while running similar campaigns to better measure attribution by avoiding audience overlap. Also, avoid stacking audiences to increase attribution accuracy. 

  1. A/B test with your comparison audiences

For accurate A/B testing to your comparison audiences, only target U.S. and Canada, exclude your existing customers, and make sure your budget is proportional to each ad campaign audience. Your first tests should be Shopify Audiences against a similar-sized Facebook lookalike or interest-based audience.

Get started with Shopify Audiences today to amplify customer acquisition and amp up your conversions.

Shop Cash – Shopify’s Newest Rollout

Just when Shopify launched Shopify Audiences to help ecommerce brands better target high-intent buyers and maximize ROI, comes another exciting new development currently being rolled out. But this one incentivizes and empowers both buyers and sellers alike. Meet Shopify Cash – a reward program designed to encourage customers to purchase within the Shop app.

Shopify is focusing on increasing value for both merchants and consumers, alike. They are doing everything they can to get as many merchants on the platform, on Plus plans, accepting Shopify payments, and leveraging the Shopify Fulfillment Network. Now, with the rollout of Shop Cash, they are making their next big play to keep consumers incentivized on spending on the Shopify network of brands. 

What is Shopify Cash and How Does It work? 

Shopify Cash is a rewards program that offers Shop app customers another way of making payments for purchases they make in the Shop app. Shopify Cash works like “points” or “cash rewards” for customers to use towards their purchases. When a customer uses Shop Cash to pay for their order, their Shop Cash is applied first. Any balance remaining they pay for with Shop Pay. 

Shop Cash works the same way as Shop Pay as a payment method to pay you for Shop Pay Orders. For merchants, note that the payment for a Shop Cash portion of an order might get paid out to you a day after your Shopify Payments payout. 
Shopify Cash is available to some Shop app customers and can only be used within the Shop app. Shop Cash does not have any monetary value outside the Shop App. 

How Will Shopify Cash Incentivize Customers? 

Typically, customers can only make use of the specific rewards program that an individual brand offers them and their rewards points can only then be applied to that specific brand.  What’s unique about Shop Cash is that it rewards customers with cash that they can use across the entire Shopify ecosystem. This means that they can apply their cash rewards to any brand’s store or product. This keeps them within the Shopify ecosystem and increases the chances that they will fulfill their needs there rather than seek out other retail options, like Amazon or local retail stores.

In terms of competing with the likes of other ecommerce marketplaces, Shop Cash is a significant play for Shopify. And if you have been on the fence, trying to decide which marketplace to use for your ecommerce store, Shopify might very well be the right one for you to gain major traction and supercharge growth of your business. Shopify continues to evolve with new and advanced features to help ecommerce brands maximize performance and drive conversions to enhance ROI. And in today’s increasingly fierce market, you need all the edge you can get. 

Learn more about Shopify Cash in the Shopify Help Center and within the Shop App. 

Stay Competitive With the Right Agency

Getting started in the world of ecommerce, especially in such a cutthroat market can be challenging and scary. That’s why you need to partner with digital marketing experts with the savvy and know-how to help your brand cut through the noise, stand out and make the kinds of moves that will mean everything to your bottom line. Reach out for a free consultation today.

What is Shopify Audiences? Here’s What You Need to Know

With rising CPMs, it’s only getting tougher to achieve a strong return on ad spend. Shopify Audiences may be just the solution you need to combat ever-rising advertising costs. It is not only a major play for the ecommerce platform giant, it could be game-changing for millions of ecommerce stores worldwide. 

What is Shopify Audiences? 

Shopify Audiences is an audience-sharing tool that enables you to connect to Shopify’s massive network of online buyers to generate new audiences and find high-intent customers. The way it works is you share your first-party data from your Shopify store in exchange for the ability to access a pool of other brands’ first-party data. This data includes customer information such as their name, phone number, email address, purchase history, and shopping behaviors.

And with access to 2 million merchants’ customer information as of March 2022, and 457 million buyers worldwide, you can only imagine the data you can potentially tap into. 

How is Data Shared on Shopify Audiences? 

Data shared through Shopify Audiences is anonymized using a hashing function and is powered by AI/ML. Think of how you can upload hashed customer lists onto social platforms to create targeted Facebook and Google Ads. 

With access to customer data through Shopify Audiences, you can supercharge the performance of your targeted ads. The data network enables you to obtain the information you need to get your ads to highly relevant, high-intent buyers – buyers who have already been in the market looking for products from other brands just like yours. 

Shopify Audiences is currently integrated with Facebook and Instagram ad platforms, but TikTok and Snapchat will soon be hopping on the bandwagon, too with their own integrations to build audiences using Shopify. 

What Does This Mean for a Future Without Third-Party Cookies? 

With recent data privacy changes, it is increasingly more challenging to collect second and third-party data as well as stay in compliance with platforms’ data restrictions. The world is quickly moving towards a pixel-less future without third-party cookies.

Passed on March 2, 2021, the Consumer Data Protection Act gives consumers the ability to opt out of offering their personal data for means of targeted advertising. This type of advertising exposes customers to ads that were specifically selected for them based on data processed through their shopping behaviors.

These data privacy changes also mean that it’s getting tougher for ad platforms to correctly target the right customers so more than ever, brands need to turn their attention to collecting first-party data.  A data-exchanging tool such as Shopify Audiences is therefore, not only super helpful, it is invaluable as a means of collecting accurate first-party customer data. 

Plus, since the data shared is anonymized, there is no need to worry if the data is compliant with the data privacy requirements of major platforms like Facebook and Instagram. And shared data accessed through Shopify Audiences does not require customers to consent to their information being processed.

But as privacy regulations are constantly evolving, it is wise to stay on top of them to ensure you are always in compliance. 

What are the Benefits of Shopify Audiences? 

You can generate audiences composed of a pool of up to 2 million high intent-customers throughout the Shopify network, based specifically on the product you select.  Better targeting of high-intent buyers means that you not only increase the likelihood of conversions, you can magnify your overall top-of-funnel acquisition. With more accurate targeting, you can decrease conversion costs, while driving conversions up for improved return on ad spend. 

And while you will eventually exhaust your ability to expand your audience on third-party channels like Facebook and Instagram, this won’t happen with Shopify Audiences. Shopify Audiences’ algorithm is continuously evolving and improving which means you will always have access to new, uncharted pools of high-intent buyers. Shopify Audiences can also be used as seed audiences to generate Lookalike Audiences on your paid social platforms to find more customers that are similar to the ones Shopify already found for you.

Shopify Audiences not only offers an incredible opportunity to amp up ​your ​performance, it could be the solution to attribution and post – ​IOS ​14.5 tracking. ​Previously, the algorithm was unable to identify which creative, ad set or user had converted, and therefore was unable to provide actionable feedback to improve future performance.  Using server-side tracking, Shopify Audiences can accurately attribute customers’ purchases right down to the very ad or creative that motivated them to convert. This means that Shopify Audiences may not only be able to potentially close the feedback loop, it could even eventually make Facebook Lookalike audiences obsolete.

Which Brands Are Eligible for Shopify Audiences? 

At this time, Shopify Audiences is a feature that is exclusively available to brands who use Shopify Plus and Shopify Payments. If you were thinking of upgrading to the more advanced Shopify Plus, there might not be a better time. Don’t forget, with the upgrade you also get access to cheaper merchant processing rates from Shopify Payments. Shopify Plus caters to enterprise level businesses who require more sophisticated levels of customization, features, and integrations to support stores who generate millions of dollars in sales revenue. 

How to Apply For Shopify Audiences

Getting set up for Shopify Audiences is pretty easy and straightforward. If you are eligible for this new Shopify feature, here’s how you can apply! 

From your Shopify admin, go to Apps

In the Installed apps section, click the Shopify Audiences app.

Click Set Up Audiences. 

Click Turn On to enable data contribution and agree to the Shopify Audience terms and conditions.

Click Set Up to connect to your Facebook account that you use for your ad campaigns.

Click Connect, enter your Facebook account credentials, and then click Continue.

Click the Facebook Ad account that you want to export your Shopify audiences to.

Click Accept terms to accept Facebook’s Custom Audiences terms. 

Get Started with The Snow Agency to Scale Your Business

Competition is only getting more fierce for ecommerce brands. So, taking advantage of Shopify Audiences could give your business the edge it needs to succeed and amplify your performance like never before.

We are incredibly excited to dig into this further with our brands and publish some case studies that speak to the power of this new, potentially game-changing tool.

If you have questions on how to take your Shopify store to the next level or are looking to elevate your marketing campaigns to drive conversions, connect with the digital marketing experts here at The Snow Agency. Reach out for a free consultation today.