Today's newsletter unpacks SEO secrets, AI wizardry, Amazon's expansion, and the TikTok vs. Instagram showdown. Buckle up for a digital rollercoaster. 🎢

In today’s email:

• The Secret Sauce: Unlocking 5 Essential SEO Secrets 

• Platform Benchmarks: Google, Facebook, & TikTok

• Creative Insights: Google's AI Tools Redefine Ad Creation

• Industry News: Amazon’s Expanding Ecommerce Empire

• Brand Highlights: The Farmer’s Dog

• Tech Talk: TikTok Challenges Instagram’s Throne

Unlocking 5 Essential SEO Secrets

Google's algorithm is constantly evolving, but basic SEO principles allow your brand to focus on what actually works. Let’s explore 5 essential SEO strategies from Brian Bourque, the SVP of Marketing at SmartAsset. 

1. Align with Google's Mission: Make sure your content aligns with Google's goal of making information accessible and useful.

2. Page Quality: Create top-notch content that shows effort, originality, talent, and accuracy. This boosts user experience and trust.

3. E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness): Establish expertise, authority, and trust across your content, authorship, and site to gain credibility.

4. Meet Search Intent: Focus on providing relevant, valuable content that meets users' needs and queries.

5. Technical SEO: Improve search engine visibility and user experience by optimizing technical aspects like crawlability, page speed, and site structure.

SEO can be complex and intimidating, but it's the secret sauce for brand success. Following these principles can take a small brand to the next level and boost your brand visibility like never before.

Platform Benchmarks

In our platform benchmarks section, we’ll compare the most recent performance metrics for Facebook, Google, and TikTok. This week’s edition examines data from April 11-18 compared to the previous seven days. Check out CPA, CPC, ROAS, and CPM fluctuations to uncover valuable insights into advertising trends.

Google's AI Tools Redefine Ad Creation

Google Ads has unveiled groundbreaking generative AI tools, revolutionizing how advertisers craft ad creatives. Through simple text prompts, brands can generate high-quality images for their campaigns. This can streamline the creative process and allow brands to experiment with new visual concepts easily. 

Rest assured about copyright concerns, as Google is implementing measures to guarantee the authenticity of generated content. Through identifiable markings and digital watermarks, advertisers can confidently use their creations while protecting against unauthorized usage.

These new AI tools are flipping the script on ad making, allowing businesses to create new ad creative without the need for advanced design skills. This levels the playing field for small businesses and agencies, helping their digital ads stand out amongst competitors.

Bid farewell to design woes and embrace limitless potential for your brand's visual narrative. We'll monitor these tools for further updates, so stay tuned for more exciting creative developments!

Check out Matt Southern’s article on Search Engine Land for more information.

Amazon’s Expanding Ecommerce Empire

Amazon's reign over the ecommerce landscape will continue through 2024. The mega-retailer is projected to capture over 40% of US ecommerce sales this year, totaling a $491.65 billion. Despite this staggering figure, Amazon's share of total retail sales in the US remains relatively modest, standing at just 6.6%.

Looking ahead, Amazon is poised to further expand its market share across more product categories over the next couple of years. Despite its rise, it still faces stiff competition in sectors like home improvement and automotives where established retailers still hold sway.

It may not crack every industry this year, but Amazon's growth trajectory remains impressive. Only Walmart outpaces its ecommerce sales growth, albeit slightly, at 13.6% compared to Amazon's 10.5%.

With a huge market share, advertising on Amazon offers unmatched chances to reach a wide audience of online shoppers. As ecommerce shapes consumer behavior, brands need to understand Amazon's power to boost sales and visibility. With the digital grocery sector growing, competition between Amazon and others like Walmart heats up, calling for advertisers to stay agile and innovative.

The Farmer’s Dog: Fresh Food, Happy Pets, and Clever Content

In the inaugural edition of Brand Highlights, Ascend wants to showcase The Farmer’s Dog. 

The Farmer’s Dog (TFD) disrupted the pet food industry by offering fresh, personalized meals based on a pet's unique needs. Since their inception in 2014, they have delivered over 100 million meals to your furry friends. But how did they do it? 

Their success stems from a deep understanding of the customer journey, divided into three phases: brand awareness, problem-solving, and education about fresh food benefits. 

TFD's content marketing strategy is pivotal in its customer acquisition efforts. It leverages educational content to effectively capture new customers. With over 1.3 million organic monthly visitors and over 237,000 keywords, its approach showcases significant reach. Through platforms like Digest and its educational blog, TFD establishes itself as an authority in the pet food space.

TFD's strategy includes enticing offers to convert blog visitors into paying customers, such as a compelling 50% discount on the first trial purchase. This approach not only drives conversion rates but also creates customer loyalty by providing an affordable entry point for their premium products. 

As TFD continues to expand its reach within the pet food market, its data-driven content marketing tactics serve as a blueprint for other DTC brands looking to carve out a niche in highly competitive industries.

TikTok Challenges Instagram’s Throne

TikTok is stepping into the ring to challenge Instagram's dominance by introducing a new photo-sharing app, dubbed "TikTok Notes." While users have received notifications about this impending feature, details regarding its design and release date remain shrouded in mystery. 

TikTok's move is part of a broader trend in the social media realm, where platforms continuously borrow features from one another to stay relevant. While imitation has its merits, as evidenced by Instagram's successful replication of Snapchat's "Stories," history also shows that mimicking competitors doesn't always yield favorable results (Twitter made a similar move that ended in failure). 

This strategic pivot by TikTok is a possible response to both regulatory pressures and evolving user preferences. With the United States passing legislation that could potentially lead to TikTok's banning, the platform is navigating turbulent waters. This regulatory uncertainty casts a shadow over TikTok's future, prompting the need for strategic diversification to avoid potential risks associated with a ban.

Ascend is committed to keeping you informed and updated on the latest developments in the world of TikTok, so stay tuned!

Check out Liv McMahon’s article on the BBC for more information.

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💵 Your FREE 2024 Ultimate Growth Toolkit 💵

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• Programmatic Advertising

• Search Engine Optimization Best Practices

• A Complete Guide to Short-Form Video Content

• The Next Generation of Google Analytics

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