Philadelphia Inquirer is laser-focused on growing their top-performing newsletters. They consistently and successfully run newsletter campaigns – collect email addresses – and then immediately start sending out content-rich newsletters – all with an eye on potentially converting these readers into a paid subscription down the road.

Social News Desk is handling their lead gen campaigns using our proprietary Dynamic News Ads technology. Our goal is to make sure we’re acquiring new audiences at the lowest possible cost-per-lead.

Let’s throw out some impressive stats:

• Year-to-date, SND has driven 15,617 leads for the Philadelphia Inquirer. 
• Focus remains on their top performing e-mail newsletters which include: 
  • News Alerts Newsletter  
    • 6,552 leads at an average CPL of $0.70
    • This is their breaking news alert newsletter. 
  • Let’s Eat, Philly! Newsletter
    •  3,206 leads at an average CPL of $1.06
    • This is a local food and dining newsletter for the Philadelphia area. 
  • Sports Daily Newsletter
    •  4,278 leads at an average CPL of $0.60
    • A daily sports e-mail covering Philadelphia sports teams. 

We use corresponding, relevant content to drive sign-ups for specific newsletters.

Using top-performing content to build your newsletter WORKS. Philadelphia Inquirer is currently focused on growing its top-performing newsletters versus all of their newsletters.

“Social News Desk has been a tremendous addition to our digital transformation strategy. We’ve seen rapid growth with our audience. Not only in list size, but also attracting an array of diverse readers while continuing to maintain a significantly low cost per lead.” Terrance Young, Audience Development Marketing Manager of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Aside from SND’s Dynamic News Ads audience growth strategy, the Philadelphia Inquirer has a hub for all its newsletters on the website.

Some key takeaways:

-Focus on your top-performing newsletters – as opposed to all your newsletters.

-Consistency is key. Spend marketing dollars evenly over time.

-You can grow your audience quickly. It is possible.

Want to apply the same strategy to grow your audience? Social News Desk can help – reach out to us at info@socialnewsdesk.com.  

The post Philadelphia Inquirer’s Newsletters: Strategy Worth Picking Up first appeared on Social News Desk.

It’s called ‘Carousels’ and even though Twitter is still testing it… Social News Desk is part of the Pilot Program so that means it’s live right now in SND Dashboard. And you can be first to get in on it by logging in now.

If your news org’s Twitter account has long been on Autopilot (that’s SND’s version of intelligent automation) – you’re in the majority. It’s an easy way to consistently get content posted regularly.

Enter ‘Carousels’ – ready-to-use organic carousel formats for organic tweets that enable to you change the way you push out news on Twitter. Here’s how:

1. Customize the Format
2. Deliver Better Stories
3. Drive Calls to Action (note: Calls, plural)

If you’re already using SND Dashboard, it’s yours to try right now. Here’s why you should…

• Improve Storytelling – deliver richer content that grabs attention on Twitter.
• Multiple Media Types – Carousels allows image, video and article carousels. You can use all of it.
• Interactive, Swipeable Cards – horizontal media swipes provide a format change.
• Customized Destinations – add single or multiple destinations to diversify your message and URLs.

^^^ Pattern interrupt! That’s killer. It means you can send traffic more than one direction and tell a story with multiple elements.

Can you do all this through SND? YES! That’s why we’re doubly excited. Here’s a quick video to show you how it works…

Why Use Carousels?  

1. To Drive Engagement (stand out in the crowd, get attention, drive engagement)
2. To Foster Immediate Action (the multiple calls-to-action has our head spinning in every direction)
3. To Have More Flexibility (creative, customizable, but easy)

Coming Soon: The Data Will Be All Yours:

• More Data Available to You: Analytics are a mix of Ads and Public API data.
• More Granularity: You’ll get engagement metrics for each slide.
• General Metrics: Track RTs and other engagement metrics just like regular, organic Tweets

We’ll keep you posted as ‘Twitter Carousels’ data becomes more available!

Newsrooms we’ve talked to see this as a huge opportunity to get content noticed, increase engagement and drive extra traffic. And by the way, if you’re having trouble figuring out how to post a Carousel natively on Twitter… that’s because it isn’t available there. So you can stop looking.

We can’t wait to start showing off creative Carousels courtesy of our clients. Tag @socialnewsdesk in the comments of yours and we’ll feature it!

Need inspiration? Here are 6 ways to use Twitter’s New ‘Carousels’ for organic tweets.

Want to chat about it? We’re here for you – support@socialnewsdesk.com

The post Twitter just launched ‘Carousels’ for organic Tweets – and it’s live in SND first appeared on Social News Desk.

Right now, running a Facebook ads campaign for conversions can feel like someone turned off all the lights, and you only have your phone flashlight to navigate by. As a result, you have no idea where you are, whether the campaign is working, or whether you are headed in the right direction.

But if you are ready to pull your hair out or quit Facebook ads altogether — don’t panic. Instead, read on to learn how to save your data, attribution and targeting with the Facebook conversions API.

Wait, what happened?

First, ICYMI, Apple made changes in the latest versions of iOS 14 that require developers to get consent from users before collecting and sharing data about that person. Under Apple’s new policy, if the user opts out, the person’s data can’t be shared for ad tracking.

And it turns out, no surprise, people don’t want to be tracked! According to mobile analytics company Flurry, only 15% of U.S. users have opted-in to tracking.

The impact has been devastating for Facebook advertising because you can no longer reliably see how many subscriptions you are receiving, so it’s harder to figure out which Facebook ads are working. 

Ok, so now what?

The great news is there is a solution! The Facebook conversions API is a tool that works with the Facebook pixel to ensure you get all the data you need. When you use both together, they help you properly track, attribute and improve your Facebook marketing performance.

In fact, in tests Social News Desk has done with publishers across the country, adding the conversions API to your Facebook campaigns can allow you to see up to 300% more subscriptions than you could with the pixel alone. So if your cost per acquisition is $100 with the pixel, once you set up the conversions API, you could see your cost per subscriber drop to $25. This is especially important to publishers in California that are losing data to CCPA in addition to the Apple changes.

How to set up the Facebook conversions API

There are several options to set up the conversions API depending on the platforms you use and the level of technical help you can access within your business. If you want to learn more, email us, and we will walk you or your product team through the available options and show you how the conversion API and Social News Desk’s ad tech can drive incredible subscription results.

The post The Facebook & iOS Aftermath: 1 step to see up to 300% more subscriptions from your social ads first appeared on Social News Desk.

Here’s how – using proprietary technology – we create dynamic copy and dynamic creative in real-time to help your news org reach its goals – newsletter signups, tune in, subscription acquisition and app downloads or whatever else you can come up with – we can help. 

We take what you’re already doing well and enhance it. We find your best content and get you the best result. 

Our Dynamic News Ads works at the speed of news. 

New to SND? Click here to line up a demo or to learn more about Social News Desk!

The post SND’s Dynamic Content & Creative first appeared on Social News Desk.

Want more information on any of these topics and how our technology can help you? Send us a quick email info@socialnewsdesk.com. We can help you reach your goals.

The post SND’s Fast Track Series: A Full Guide to Paid Social for Local News first appeared on Social News Desk.

Creating targeted paid ads for promotions does have a few differences from traditional promo and tease writing, though.

1. Don’t withhold information.

One of the most-often used types of teases is the “we’ll tell you” tease. On social media, you don’t want to withhold information – you want to give readers enough details that they want the rest of the story. Instead of telling folks what you’re going to tell them, be specific about how you’re holding newsmakers and stakeholders to account, or how you’re helping viewers to be better informed by engaging with your content.

Great news content already performs well on social media, and by pairing interesting content with even a small budget, you can focus your efforts on folks who are most likely to download your app and read your content.

2. Consider your goal.

Are you looking to increase tune-in, have people click through to your website, or download your app? Are you trying to increase video views? All of these goals have different ad types and measurements, and SND Campaigns Manager makes it really easy to choose the most effective goal for your content.

3. Choose the right creative.

Promo producers typically work in a short video format – and a short video can work great on social media. But remember, we’re not withholding information! Instead of a traditional :15 promo, try picking the best soundbite or most compelling piece of video from the story you’re promoting and using that as your ad video. Got a great photo instead? That’s a great option, too! Keep in mind that videos and photos in a square format, with bright colors, are going to perform best in most ad placements. Our Ads Accelerator can also help you identify where you can make improvements.

Can’t decide between a couple of different photos or videos? SND Campaigns Manager allows you to easily upload Dynamic Creative elements so that people who engage more with photos will see photo ads, while people who prefer videos will have those delivered instead. You can mix and match text options, as well – Facebook will automatically choose the best option for each user who will see the ad.

4. Use your social data to inform coverage ideas.

If you notice in your Post Manager or SND Reports that a story you didn’t cover on air is performing well on social media, why not turn that social success into a boost for your newscast? Consider it research – drop that story into the rundown! You can take the same elements from the social media post, create a paid targeted ad, and drive new viewers back to the story on air.

I’ve been working with several newsrooms on using SND Campaigns Manager to boost their station promotions. Using budget they’ve already allocated for advertising, we’re able to precisely target people in a DMA who are likely to be interested in a specific story or topic. We work together to craft a message (and I get to put on my promotions thinking cap), and the turnaround is super fast. With all the assets in place, you can get a targeted paid ad up in just minutes and reach potential viewers where they already are – on Facebook and Instagram.

Excited to get started? We are, too! Reach out to us at info@socialnewsdesk.com to start taking your promotions to the next level!

The post Fast Track: ‘Take Promotions Farther with SND Campaigns’ first appeared on Social News Desk.

If you’ve asked yourself any of these questions – you’re not alone. Most major media brands are still in the early stages of figuring it out… looking for new tools and best practices that will yield big revenue. At Social News Desk, we’ve dedicated a team to figuring this out with you. We’ve talked to and tested with hundreds of local news orgs. And we’ve put together some key points to consider as you build and mature your internal agency strategy…

What are we selling?

Sure, let’s start at the beginning. And let’s focus specifically on social-media marketing. (It’s worth noting, there are other services your internal agency may be selling but social-media is our lane and we’re staying in it.) Now, you have two main options when “selling social media”… They are:

1. Branded Content: An advertiser buys a co-branded Social Ad/Post such that your news brand and the client brand are displayed together on the Ad. Content is sometimes just general news and other times it’s specific content from the advertiser. These are sometimes published to the newsroom’s Facebook Page, but don’t have to be – dark posts are a great option. Click here to read more about selling Branded Content.
   
2. Reseller Ads: An advertiser buys a Social Ad from you with the goal of promoting their business on Facebook/Instagram. The ad contains their content and their branding. It does not mention the news brand. You act as a middle man between the advertiser and Facebook and charge a markup for your ad-buying services. << If you are selling this (or want to start) – keep reading.

What will the client get in return?

Like any good sale, your objective should first be to ask the client what they want to achieve. Never lead with what you theoretically could do for them. That said, here are a few common objectives and how you might position the sale:

“I want new leads.”

• Ad Objective: Lead Generation
• Pricing Strategy: Budget Based
• What Can I Promise? It’s very difficult to promise a certain number of leads per dollar because industries vary so much. You may need to frame this as a test so they can see real results and decide from there whether or not to continue.
• Markup: 80-100% of spend (So if the total budget is $1000, you spend $500-600 buying the ad from Faebook, and keep the rest.)

“I want clicks to my website.”

• Ad Objective: Website Traffic
• Pricing Strategy: Estimated Number of Clicks
• What Can I Promise: On Average, it will cost between $0.10 to $2.30 per click. Based on the budget, you can estimate results. Note that this CPC number will fluctuate over time.
• Markup: 80-100% of spend (So if the total budget is $1000, you spend $500-600 on the ad itself, and keep $500-$400)

“I want to sell more products.”

• Ad Objective: Reach (Awareness)
• Pricing Strategy: Estimated Number of Impressions
• What Can I Promise? On Average, it will cost between $0.75 to $4.00 per thousand impressions. Based on the budget, you can estimate results. Note that this CPM number will fluctuate over time.
• Markup: 80-100% of spend (So if the total budget is $1000, you spend $500-600 on the ad itself, and keep $500-$400)

How will we deliver results?

So, this is where the rubber meets the road. SND’s Head of Innovation, Apryl Pilolli often likes to say “Sales sells the dream…and the agency is stuck fulfilling the nightmare.” But it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, Apryl has led our team in developing tools and training materials that streamline and simplify social-media ad buying (aka fulfillment) so you can easily measure, deliver and report on the results your Sales Team promised. Here’s how:

1. Create a simple Order Form or Insertion Order (IO) – Make sure the client/sales rep fills out the same details every time. These should include:
   • What is your Facebook Page URL
   • Do you have an Instagram account and is it linked to your Facebook Page
   • What is the Campaign budget?
   • What is your business goal? Select from Leads, Traffic, Awareness
   • Who is your target audience (ie geo, age, behaviors, interests etc)?
   • What elements are important or unique and should be featured in copy or creative?
   • Do you have any images or videos we can use?
2. Put someone in charge – This might be as simple as assigning this to a single person who’s already on your local team, or it may be that you spin up a national/region hub to handle fulfillment company-wide. Either way, the key is for someone (or a small team) to own the task of fulfillment.
3. Find tools that work – Facebook’s Ads Manager is free and the truth is, you get what you pay for. It’s clunky, buggy and can waste a ton of your time. But it’s often the place agencies start when first selling social-ads. When you’re ready for something better – that’s where we come in…

What tools will work best for us?

Ok, spoiler alert. We think our ad-buying platform: SND Campaigns Manager is the very best there is in terms of fulfillment for local-newsroom based agencies. Here’s how it works; you can be the judge:

STEP 1: ADD CONTENT AND CREATIVE

• Supports Dynamic Creative with Multiple Videos & Images for A/B testing
• Add Multiple Copy Variations to Deliver the Best Combination to the Right Person
• Crop Images to Maximize Impact on Mobile Screens

STEP 2: PICK THE GOAL

• Better Performance with Objectives that Drive Business Results
• Maximize Margins by Automatically Turning Off Ads when They Reach Their Goal
• Allows for Easy Lead Capture and Notifications

STEP 3: CHOOSE THE AUDIENCE & BUDGET

• Advanced Targeting Options that Go Beyond Boosting (Click here to find out why Boosting Posts is a waste of money.)
• Delivers on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger Feed and Stories
• Better Budget Controls So Campaigns Don’t Overspend and you Maintain Margins
  

STEP 4: REVIEW & PUBLISH

• Campaigns are easily duplicated month to month
• Smart UI with Best Practice Recommendations

STEP 5: SEND REPORTS TO ADVERTISERS

• Reports across Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter
• Can blend results from Paid and Organic Campaigns
• Perfect for Clients – Does not Contain Spend Info!

If that looks simple, it’s by design. Every feature you need is there. And anything you DON’T need, isn’t. It’s quicker and more reliable than Facebook’s own Ads Manager. Plus we’ve built in templates and duplication features that make it much easier to scale.

What will it take to scale?

Funny you should ask! The truth is, you already have the most critical component to scale agency-style sales of social media ads. Relationships, relationships, relationships. Your SMB clients trust your sales team to offer solid ideas on how to grow their businesses. The rest is nuts and bolts. But here are a few pointers:

1. Know what you’re selling, be specific. See above.
2. Create systems and transparency between sales and fulfillment.
3. Watch your margins. Take advantage of tools that stop serving an ad once the goal is met. This means more money goes to the bottom line.
4. Keep an eye on headcount. More ads doesn’t have to mean more staff. Give your team access to tools that allow them to work smart, not just hard.

Ready to see more? Hit me up for a live demo or test drive.

The post Fast Track: ‘Agency Strategies that are Paying Off for Local News’ | via @socialnewsdesk first appeared on Social News Desk.

But there’s money to be made. In the past two years, The Branded Content Project has helped local news organizations generate $24 million dollars. In fact, their project has been so successful – it’s sticking around for 2021. 

At Social News Desk, we have spent a lot of time and effort on putting together the knowledge, but also that technology platform to make the process easy.

The main reason is after learning the most common issues media companies were having with Branded Contents posts:

• Poor Performance
• Hard to Report Results
• Boosting Posts
• Facebook Ad Approvals

So, all the solutions are tied up into one platform – SND Campaigns Manager, our self-service platform that makes placing Paid Social Ads simple. It all happens in a few simple steps:

“With very little knowledge of how to function with Facebook and Instagram advertising, it’s empowered us without adding staff to basically put that packaging together for a client. The fact you can contract a team to build an arsenal of what you can offer our audience and advertisers, it’s a win-win for everybody.”

-Sonny Messiah Jiles, Publisher, Houston Defender

Houston Defender has done an incredible job of Branded Content sponsorships over the last months – a lot of them specific to COVID-19 coverage. Including this survey by Rice University that was coupled with the Defender brand.

Here’s why their contents is working so well…

• Relevant
• Guaranteed Impressions
• High Click-Through-Rate
• Results-Driven

And because Kinder Institute in this case has aligned its brand with the Defender Network, the campaign feels reputable.

Here are more examples of quality Branded Content campaigns by our clients:

All of these used Campaigns Manager to:

• Improve Performance without Boosting
• Guarantee Performance Results for Clients
• Automate Reporting
• Help with Facebook Ad Policies

Facebook Ad Approval is one of the single most frustrating parts about placing ads. If you don’t get approved? SND will help appeal your rejected ads if Facebook wrongly rejected them or help you revise them to meet Facebook’s policies. That alone can be a huge time-saver.

Ready to see if Campaigns Manager will work for your needs, save you time and help you on the revenue side? Send us a quick email info@socialnewsdesk.com to get a personalized demo.

The post Fast Track: ‘Become A Branded Content Wiz’ first appeared on Social News Desk.

We can help. But we’re going to need you. And your best content. 

Good thing you’re a content pro. 

Now, let’s apply a little technology trick to to help your already over-performing content. We’ve told you before how Dynamic News Ads are working to help some of clients get more clicks to grow subscriptions and newsletter signups. But, we’re back with MORE examples to make our case. 

Acquisition can be expensive and doing it off a limited budget can be stressful. We often notice, given that limited budget, a few things: 

• News Orgs spend very carefully so not to make mistakes.
• They ‘guess’ what their audience will like.
• They do a lot of boosting.

We’re going to suggest Dynamic News Ads as the way to fix those concerns; make your money go further, use content proved to already resonate with your audience and avoid boosting.

It’s a game changer.

“The implementation of the campaign was simple to execute and results have beat expectations.” –Daniel Long, eCommerce Manager, AJC

How Dynamic News Ads Work:

-SND identifies your top performing social posts and turns them into ads. Those ads can newsletter signups, and/or subscriptions, or app downloads.

-Make your Facebook advertising dollars go further by using your own great content to drive conversions.

-100% increase in performance without needing to increase your spend!

Our clients love the results:

“We appear to be maintaining acquisition costs under $0.50 which is quite honestly a significant improvement over other methods on FB. It actually substantially impacts the entire business model (we spend a tremendous amount of time analyzing acquisition costs, and the impact audience has on site traffic / membership / profitability. So we are pretty excited about this so far.” – Jeff Elgie, CEO Village Media on DNA ads for Subscription/Email Acquisition

Here are some examples of Subscription Campaigns in which a subscription offer is displayed alongside one newspaper’s best performing content:

Here are some examples of Newsletter Sign-Up Campaigns:

The Benefits of DNA Campaigns:

• Fresh, dynamic content
• Pre-populated forms
• Sync with your CRM
• Same budget goes further

Keep in mind, we manage the whole process. You lay out your goals and we make it happen. And for twice as many clicks with the same budget your’e already spending, why wait?

Learn more about how we can help with your specific goals! Email us at info@socialnewsdesk.com and we can set up a 15 minute chat to about how we can get results for you.

The post Fast Track: ‘Grow Subscriptions through Facebook Ads’ first appeared on Social News Desk.

While we watched TV stations place ads, we noticed a lot of image campaigns and a lot of ‘guesses’ as to what the audience would respond to. We thought to ourselves – wait, these stations already have KILLER content that’s over-performing. Why not use that content to their advantage. 

Enter: SND’s proprietary Dynamic News Ads (DNA) technology. Let me break it down. 

1. We use AI and a series of data signals to automatically identify your BEST-performing content. 
2. We launch ads on Facebook and Instagram which update 24/7 as your content changes and depending on who is viewing the ad.
3. The content includes a definitive call to action: Click to Read the Story, Watch Tonight at 6pm, Download the Weather App.
4. It works every time. 

It’s better than boosting posts because it’s based on data and it’s updating in real time so you never have to guess if you got a return on your budget – you’ll know you did! Care to revisit why you should Stop Boosting Posts?

Upsides of always-on ads with DNA Technology

In a nutshell, here’s why we think you should run always-on ads with SND’s Dynamic News Ads tech to drive Clicks, Tune In and App Downloads:

• Your best content + call to action + most effective creative = results.
• We manage the whole process.
• Your Facebook spend goes further because there are no costly mistakes and you spread the budget over more time and more content.
• Your ad content is fresh 24/7

Tell Us More about Results!

Our Clients Say It Best:

Working with Social News Desk to help drive tune-in was practically effortless. The team is so easy to work with and tailored the Dynamic News Ads technology to fit our campaign and budget goals. The turnaround time from getting the SND team our content to delivering a proof and executing the ads on Facebook was impressive. I would definitely recommend Social News Desk’s Dynamic News Ads tech to those wanting to experiment with Facebook advertising.’ -Jenna Wood, WBRC, Gray TV

Want to learn more about driving Tune In or getting App Downloads? We can show you in 15 minutes – send us a quick email.

The post Fast Track: ‘Increase Tune-In & App Installs with Facebook Ads’ first appeared on Social News Desk.