Bot Takeovers | Facebook Ads & Images | Work From Here Promos |
The upcoming month of October is busting with new digital strategies, new Facebook features, and so much more! Every month, we discuss what we’re keeping on our Radar for the upcoming month. In anticipation of October, we’re keeping you what’s going on with Google Analytics, everything new with Facebook, and more. Read on to see what we’re keeping on our Radar for October 2020.
Cities Faking You in Google Analytics
Have you ever seen a map that looks like this in Google Analytics, with a far-away area reporting a ton of traffic? Do you have a Midwest destination with a ton of traffic from Boston? Basically: do you have a ton of unexpected traffic from areas that you’ve never advertised to?
While it’d be fantastic if Chicagoans or Bostonians suddenly decided, as a people, to start researching your destination… it’s likely not the case. Your website is probably being hit with bot traffic (hopefully the good kind) or your analytics is being skewed by new 5G towers.
The usual suspects with bot traffic: Ashburn VA, Coffeyville KS, Chicago IL, Boardman OR, Redmond WA, Quincy WA, Des Moines IA, and Cheyenne WY. The usual suspects with 5G distortion: Boston MA, Dallas TX, and Nashville TN. If your destination isn’t near to these areas, doesn’t promote to them, or traffic suddenly spiked after a specific date, take the data with a grain of salt.
Facebook Expands Rights Manager to All of Facebook/Instagram
Facebook has announced that it is improving and expanding on its Rights Manager tool, which allows creators to search for and report violations of their rights across Facebook and Instagram pages and profiles. While this tool has existed for a few years now, the new and expanded version will include more automatic-detection features and video integration, all in one easy-to-access spot in the Creator Studio.
There are still a few hoops that creators will need to jump through before they can begin detecting/protecting their content across the platforms. Rights to each piece of media must be established by filling out a form to confirm who the work belongs to. The difference is that now, the creator doesn’t need to do the work of checking where their image is being used – Facebook will do that for you now.
So what does this mean for us? It’s now more important than ever to double-check and make sure that all creative assets have the proper permissions for use on social media posts and in promotions.
Facebook Removes Text Overlay Rule
Calling all Facebook advertisers! Facebook will no longer be penalizing advertisements running with a higher number of text overlay on the image. The soon to be old rule would only allow for images to have less than 20% of text overlay. This was originally put in place due to Facebook believing that images with less text have a higher effectiveness. Due to this, Facebook would penalize advertisers that had more that 20% of their image as text. Thus became the Text Overlay Tool from Facebook that would give you a green checkmark if your ad would run normally. If you had too much text, your ad may not have been shown to your potential market. Going forward it will be interesting to see if advertisers will still follow the rule with less text on their photos.
Don’t Forget About Paid First Strategies
There’s no doubt it’s been a challenging time for the industry. With furloughs, reduced staff, and budgets it’s a tough road maintaining an online presence. Just because it is tough doesn’t mean that your digital channels should be silent. You might need to work smarter and not harder. Instead of struggling to “fill the feed” each week, you can leverage a much-overlooked tool in Facebook ads. It’s the “Page Posts” option in your ad account.
Let’s face it, we all have limited options of things to promote right now but we all have something. Identify that “something” then run an ad to promote your biggest differentiator! Once you’ve run your ad a few days, publish it to the organic timeline for a nice secondary (free) boost. Additionally, any engagement (likes, comments, etc.) that happened on your ad will transfer over to your organic timeline once you publish the ad. Pretty cool, right? For many of you, your page will look more active and attractive than ever before!
Page Posts is the perfect tool right now because it allows you to lead the way with a highly-targeted paid promoted post that can also fuel your organic timeline. You could, in theory, reach a more engaged audience and get better engagement by paying first on a single post for a week rather than struggle to fill a page with organic content for the same time period. It’s time to take the hope out of our marketing efforts. It’s time to be strategic and intentional. Give it a try in your ads manager today. It’ll save you time, you’re messages will resonate, and you’ll see more success.
Time to Up Your Game on Working from Anywhere
One of destination and travel marketing’s newest tactics – “work from here”- started to escalate very quickly post quarantine. It’s a great concept as people currently have plenty flexibility with online work and school programing.
Many destinations – from Mackinac Island, Michigan in the far north to Port Aransas, Texas in the far south – have touted their “work from here” options this fall.
But it’s more than a tagline! You need to tout more than your “great connectivity” to create a differential.
Here are a few additional tips to keep guests engaged as they consider “working from your location”
- Utilize banquet and meeting space that can’t currently be sold to develop large, socially distanced class or work rooms.
- Offer up smaller rooms for private call options where people can sign up and book them hourly.
- Be sure to have daily social distanced physical fitness options for groups – like yoga or spin work outs. Your unutilized large meeting space is a great option for some of these activities as the weather begins to change.
- Provide maps for area walking or running routes near the hotel and highlight local trails.
- Have multiple options available for individual physical activities like biking or kayaking.
- Do you have a historian or a local person that can tell others more about the history of the destination? Have them schedule socially distanced talks or walking tours.
- Involve your local stakeholders in the education process – like a local Art Centers or Nature Center – to do a weekly program.
- Develop special extended stay rates and pricing for guest rooms and include multiple options for meal plans.
- Be sure to provide plenty of take-out and delivery options – highlighting all of your restaurant partners
Here are a few examples to view:
With the ever-changing world of digital marketing, we are here to keep you informed of new digital trends and what we are keeping on our radar for October 2020. Have any questions? Contact us! We’re here to help.
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