Facebook to Hire Banking Expert to Run 'Libra'

David Marcus, Facebook's vice president of messaging products and a key figure behind 'Libra' digital currency project, made the statement in an interview.

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Microsoft Cortana Appears as a Separate App on Microsoft Store

A Cortana beta that has appeared in the Microsoft Store has ignited speculations, The Verge reported on Friday.

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Spotify Sharing User Activity Data With Music Labels: Report

Spotify is reportedly sharing personal information of users who pre-save music on the app with content labels.

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Google's New 'Equiano' Subsea Cable to Connect Africa and Europe

Google said Equiano is the company's 14th subsea cable investment globally.

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DeepNude Deepfake App to Undress Women Shuts Down After Furore

The creators of "DeepNude" said the software was launched several months ago for "entertainment" and that they "greatly underestimated" demand for the app.

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Facebook's Libra Coin Likely to Run a Regulatory Gauntlet

Libra announcement was met with immediate backlash from U.S. lawmakers and regulators across the globe, who are concerned that Facebook is already too massive and careless with users' privacy.

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Talking UDAY and Smart Meters With UK-Based CyanConnode, Supplier of Meters to Indian Discoms

The Modi government has been pushing for smart meter adoption by discoms.

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Redmi K20 and Vivo Z1 Pro India Launch Info, Mi CC9 Teasers, LG W Series Price in India, and Other Tech News This Week

Redmi K20 is being teased by Xiaomi, Mi CC9 is set to launch, Vivo Z1 Pro price in India set to be revealed, LG W series launched in India, and more tech news this week.

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Bitcoin Volatility on Full Display With $1,800 Drop in Minutes

Bitcoin prices revived themes well known to the digital currency that inflated then burst less than two years ago.

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Yandex, Russia's Google, Said to Have Been Hacked by Western Intelligence

Hackers working for Western intelligence agencies broke into Russian Internet search company Yandex in late 2018.

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Flipkart to Replace 40 Percent of Its Delivery Vans With Electric Vehicles

Flipkart said late Thursday it plans to replace nearly 40 percent of its current fleet of delivery vans with electric vehicles (EVs) by March 2020, as part of its efforts to cut down on its carbon footprint.

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Microsoft Edge Gets Tracking Prevention Feature to Block Third-Party, Malicious Trackers

Microsoft Edge preview version 77.0.203.0 provides tracking prevention that needs to be manually enabled.

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Google Cloud Absorbs Alphabet Cyber-Security Firm Chronicle

Chronicle would be absorbed by its Google Cloud division because customers have been seeking an integrated offering.

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Google Endorses 'International Tax Deal' for Multinational Companies

Google said Thursday it supports a global agreement on taxation that could allocate more taxes from multinationals to jurisdictions outside their home countries.

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IBM Gains Unconditional EU Approval for $34 Billion Red Hat Deal

The EU's powerful antitrust authority on Thursday cleared the buyout by IBM of open source software company Red Hat.

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Apple Music Hits More Than 60 Million Subscribers, Trailing Spotify

Apple confirmed that the company's streaming music service has more than 60 million subscribers, trailing rival Spotify's 100 million premium subscribers.

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Facebook to Hire Banking Expert to Run 'Libra'

David Marcus, Facebook's vice president of messaging products and a key figure behind 'Libra' digital currency project, made the statement in an interview.

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Microsoft Cortana Appears as a Separate App on Microsoft Store

A Cortana beta that has appeared in the Microsoft Store has ignited speculations, The Verge reported on Friday.

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‘Paris Is Burning’ Goes Global

By DUSTIN THIERRY, ALLYN GAESTEL and EVE LYONS from NYT Style https://ift.tt/2XbB9L4

Donatella Versace Has Long Been a Gay Icon. Now It’s Official.

By JACOB BERNSTEIN from NYT Style https://ift.tt/2XcaWMH

Spotify Sharing User Activity Data With Music Labels: Report

Spotify is reportedly sharing personal information of users who pre-save music on the app with content labels.

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Google's New 'Equiano' Subsea Cable to Connect Africa and Europe

Google said Equiano is the company's 14th subsea cable investment globally.

from RSS Feeds | INTERNET - RSS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com https://ift.tt/2NkwMxH

DeepNude Deepfake App to Undress Women Shuts Down After Furore

The creators of "DeepNude" said the software was launched several months ago for "entertainment" and that they "greatly underestimated" demand for the app.

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Facebook's Libra Coin Likely to Run a Regulatory Gauntlet

Libra announcement was met with immediate backlash from U.S. lawmakers and regulators across the globe, who are concerned that Facebook is already too massive and careless with users' privacy.

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UK Is ‘Very, Very Keen’ to Learn India's Ability to Create Tech Talent at Scale: techUK's Simon Spier

techUK is the UK equivalent of NASSCOM.

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Google, University of Chicago Sued Over Data Sharing

A patient has sued Google and the University of Chicago, accusing them of sharing hundreds of thousands of records without removing date stamps and doctor's notes.

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Facebook Crypto Plans Turn Up Heat on EU Banks Over Real-Time Payments

Real-time payments have been possible in the 19-country currency bloc since 2017, but only about half of the euro zone's banks have joined.

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Google Enables Auto-Delete Feature for Location History, Activity Data on Android, iOS Devices

Google's My Activity section has included the anticipated auto-delete feature to let users remove location history and activity data using an Android or iOS device.

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Delhi Government Announces Pilot Project to Deliver Online Orders via Electric Vehicles

Delhi government announced its first EV freight pilot under which up to 1,000 such vehicles are aimed to be deployed over the next year for delivering online orders.

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Opera Touch Browser for iOS Gets Crypto Wallet Integration

Opera Touch for iOS with Crypto Wallet integration based on Ethereum protocol is available for download through the App Store.

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Trump Suggests EU Out of Line in Suing US Tech Firms

US President Donald Trump suggested the European Union was out of line in suing US tech companies like Facebook and Google.

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Trump Signals US Government 'Should Be Suing Google and Facebook'

US President Donald Trump complained again about supposed bias against conservatives at social media companies.

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Google Workers Petition San Francisco Pride to Exclude Company From Parade

Almost 100 Google employees are urging the organiser of this weekend's San Francisco Pride parade to kick the company out of the celebration.

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RBI Says Foreign Firms Can Process Abroad, but Must Store Data in India

Foreign payment firms can process transactions made in India outside of the country but the related data should be brought back for local storage within 24 hours.

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Google Maps Flooded With Over 11 Million False Listings: Report

With thousands of new fake accounts being added every month, Google Maps is flooded by about 11 million false listings and phone numbers that reroute to competing businesses.

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Mozilla Firefox Fixes Zero-Day Exploits That Impacted Coinbase Employees, Mac Users Involved in Cryptocurrency Exchange

Mozilla has released Firefox 67.0.3 and Firefox ESR 60.7.1 as well as Firefox 67.0.4 and Firefox ESR 60.7.2 to patch the two recent zero-day vulnerabilities.

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Facebook Accused of Copying Calibra Logo From Current, an Online Bank

Facebook has been accused of using a logo for its new cryptocurrency play, similar to the logo of an online banking company called 'Current'.

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Microsoft PowerPoint Gets a 'Presenter Coach' to to Help Improve Presentations and Avoid Swearing

Microsoft is adding AI-based Presenter Coach, Design Ideas, and a Perspective Engine to PowerPoint to improve your presentations.

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Netflix Recommended TV List of 2019: Here's Netflix's List of TVs It Works Best On

Netflix may just be a streaming platform, but its increasing importance as a content provider means that a lot of people want TVs built around it.

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Slack Stock Rises in Wall Street Debut, Values Company at More Than $23 Billion

Slack's newly public shares aren't slacking off. The work messaging service grew 49% in value after its stock started trading Thursday under the ticker "WORK”.

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Amazon's Merchants Are Feeling the Pain of a Trade War With China

Amazon.com merchants around the world are scrambling to navigate an unpredictable trade war that's upending their proven business model.

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Suspected Chinese State Hackers Attack Global Telecom Carriers: Cybereason

Suspected Chinese hackers have infiltrated into the networks of over a dozen telecommunication providers in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, Cybereason said.

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NASA JPL Hacker Used a $35 Raspberry Pi to Steal Data

A hacker used a tiny Raspberry Pi computer to infiltrate NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory network, stealing sensitive data and forcing the temporary disconnection of space-flight systems, the agency has revealed.

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Cricket World Cup 2019: Hotstar Breaks Record With 100 Million Daily Active Users on India vs Pakistan Match Day

The India vs Pakistan match marked a 1.7x increase in average concurrency on Hotstar compared to any other India match so far.

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Bitcoin Surges Above $11,000 Thanks to Facebook's Currency Plans

Facebook said last week it planned to launch a new cryptocurrency called Libra.

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Google Says Fighting Fake Business Profiles on Maps

Admitting that fake business profiles were lurking people on Google Maps, the company has said it was working hard to remove bad actors.

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Netflix Spotted Testing a Pop-Out, Picture-in-Picture Video Player on Desktop

Netflix seems to be testing a new pop-out, floating video player that plays content on top of all other windows and apps on your desktop.

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Microsoft Bans Slack for Employees, Discourages Google Docs Use: Report

Microsoft has banned its employees from using the free version of Slack, reportedly due to security concerns.

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Craig Wright Says He Invented Bitcoin, Now He’s Suing Those Who Doubt Him

Craig Wright is a comic-book supervillain for some in the world of cryptocurrency.

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Facebook's Libra Coin Frightening, Company Co-Founder Says

Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, who initiated the call to break up the social networking giant, has termed the new digital currency Libra "frightening”.

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Aadhaar Is Very Well Protected, Cybersecurity Chief Rajesh Pant Says

National cybersecurity coordinator Lt Gen (retd) Rajesh Pant has said that Aadhaar is very well protected and that there was nothing to worry about.

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Google Maps Flooded With Over 11 Million False Listings: Report

With thousands of new fake accounts being added every month, Google Maps is flooded by about 11 million false listings and phone numbers that reroute to competing businesses.

from RSS Feeds | INTERNET - RSS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com https://ift.tt/2NdX1WA

Mozilla Firefox Fixes Zero-Day Exploits That Impacted Coinbase Employees, Mac Users Involved in Cryptocurrency Exchange

Mozilla has released Firefox 67.0.3 and Firefox ESR 60.7.1 as well as Firefox 67.0.4 and Firefox ESR 60.7.2 to patch the two recent zero-day vulnerabilities.

from RSS Feeds | INTERNET - RSS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com https://ift.tt/2ZMa4A3

Facebook Accused of Copying Calibra Logo From Current, an Online Bank

Facebook has been accused of using a logo for its new cryptocurrency play, similar to the logo of an online banking company called 'Current'.

from RSS Feeds | INTERNET - RSS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com https://ift.tt/2J7qYlS

Microsoft PowerPoint Gets a 'Presenter Coach' to to Help Improve Presentations and Avoid Swearing

Microsoft is adding AI-based Presenter Coach, Design Ideas, and a Perspective Engine to PowerPoint to improve your presentations.

from RSS Feeds | INTERNET - RSS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com https://ift.tt/2Xxb39D

Netflix Recommended TV List of 2019: Here's Netflix's List of TVs It Works Best On

Netflix may just be a streaming platform, but its increasing importance as a content provider means that a lot of people want TVs built around it.

from RSS Feeds | INTERNET - RSS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com https://ift.tt/2X6aXBI

Slack Stock Rises in Wall Street Debut, Values Company at More Than $23 Billion

Slack's newly public shares aren't slacking off. The work messaging service grew 49% in value after its stock started trading Thursday under the ticker "WORK”.

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Bitcoin Surges Above $11,000 Thanks to Facebook's Currency Plans

Facebook said last week it planned to launch a new cryptocurrency called Libra.

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Google Says Fighting Fake Business Profiles on Maps

Admitting that fake business profiles were lurking people on Google Maps, the company has said it was working hard to remove bad actors.

from RSS Feeds | INTERNET - RSS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com https://ift.tt/2FuRJ2Q

Netflix Spotted Testing a Pop-Out, Picture-in-Picture Video Player on Desktop

Netflix seems to be testing a new pop-out, floating video player that plays content on top of all other windows and apps on your desktop.

from RSS Feeds | INTERNET - RSS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com https://ift.tt/2KCwiRv

Microsoft Bans Slack for Employees, Discourages Google Docs Use: Report

Microsoft has banned its employees from using the free version of Slack, reportedly due to security concerns.

from RSS Feeds | INTERNET - RSS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com https://ift.tt/31Tg0sG

Craig Wright Says He Invented Bitcoin, Now He’s Suing Those Who Doubt Him

Craig Wright is a comic-book supervillain for some in the world of cryptocurrency.

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Facebook's Libra Coin Frightening, Company Co-Founder Says

Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, who initiated the call to break up the social networking giant, has termed the new digital currency Libra "frightening”.

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Aadhaar Is Very Well Protected, Cybersecurity Chief Rajesh Pant Says

National cybersecurity coordinator Lt Gen (retd) Rajesh Pant has said that Aadhaar is very well protected and that there was nothing to worry about.

from RSS Feeds | INTERNET - RSS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com https://ift.tt/2X3vs1R

Google Maps Flooded With Over 11 Million False Listings: Report

With thousands of new fake accounts being added every month, Google Maps is flooded by about 11 million false listings and phone numbers that reroute to competing businesses.

from RSS Feeds | INTERNET - RSS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com https://ift.tt/2NdX1WA

Mozilla Firefox Fixes Zero-Day Exploits That Impacted Coinbase Employees, Mac Users Involved in Cryptocurrency Exchange

Mozilla has released Firefox 67.0.3 and Firefox ESR 60.7.1 as well as Firefox 67.0.4 and Firefox ESR 60.7.2 to patch the two recent zero-day vulnerabilities.

from RSS Feeds | INTERNET - RSS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com https://ift.tt/2ZMa4A3

Facebook Accused of Copying Calibra Logo From Current, an Online Bank

Facebook has been accused of using a logo for its new cryptocurrency play, similar to the logo of an online banking company called 'Current'.

from RSS Feeds | INTERNET - RSS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com https://ift.tt/2J7qYlS

Microsoft PowerPoint Gets a 'Presenter Coach' to to Help Improve Presentations and Avoid Swearing

Microsoft is adding AI-based Presenter Coach, Design Ideas, and a Perspective Engine to PowerPoint to improve your presentations.

from RSS Feeds | INTERNET - RSS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com https://ift.tt/2Xxb39D

Netflix Recommended TV List of 2019: Here's Netflix's List of TVs It Works Best On

Netflix may just be a streaming platform, but its increasing importance as a content provider means that a lot of people want TVs built around it.

from RSS Feeds | INTERNET - RSS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com https://ift.tt/2X6aXBI

Slack Stock Rises in Wall Street Debut, Values Company at More Than $23 Billion

Slack's newly public shares aren't slacking off. The work messaging service grew 49% in value after its stock started trading Thursday under the ticker "WORK”.

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Let YouTube be YouTube

YouTube's latest attempt to crack down on hate speech has produced significant collateral damage.

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IBM Said to Be Set to Win Unconditional EU Okay for $34-Billion Red Hat Deal

IBM is set to secure unconditional EU approval for its $34 billion bid for software company Red Hat, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

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Zuckerberg Ahead of Cook, Behind Pichai in Glassdoor's Top CEO List for 2019

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has dropped from his 2018 rank of number 16 to number 55 on the Glassdoor list of Top Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) in the US this year, as chosen by employees.

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A US City to Pay $600,000 Ransom to Save Computer Records

A Florida city agreed to pay $600,000 in ransom to hackers who took over its computer system, the latest in thousands of attacks worldwide aimed at extorting money from governments and businesses.

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YouTube Said to Be Under Investigation Over Allegations That It Violates Children's Privacy

US Federal Trade Commission is said to be in the late stages of an investigation into how YouTube handles children's videos.

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Facebook Called Before US Senate Panel Over Libra Cryptocurrency Project

Facebook’s plans to create a global cryptocurrency will face scrutiny from the US Senate Banking Committee on July 16, the latest sign that policymakers around the globe are casting a wary eye on the project.

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Amazon's Merchants Are Feeling the Pain of a Trade War With China

Amazon.com merchants around the world are scrambling to navigate an unpredictable trade war that's upending their proven business model.

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Suspected Chinese State Hackers Attack Global Telecom Carriers: Cybereason

Suspected Chinese hackers have infiltrated into the networks of over a dozen telecommunication providers in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, Cybereason said.

from RSS Feeds | INTERNET - RSS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com https://ift.tt/2X85ejH

NASA JPL Hacker Used a $35 Raspberry Pi to Steal Data

A hacker used a tiny Raspberry Pi computer to infiltrate NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory network, stealing sensitive data and forcing the temporary disconnection of space-flight systems, the agency has revealed.

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Cricket World Cup 2019: Hotstar Breaks Record With 100 Million Daily Active Users on India vs Pakistan Match Day

The India vs Pakistan match marked a 1.7x increase in average concurrency on Hotstar compared to any other India match so far.

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Zachary Quinto Reads ‘An Affection Multiplier, With Four Feet and a Wet Nose’

By Unknown Author from NYT Style https://ift.tt/2Ng5Mj4

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13 Fun (Not Cheesy) Ice Breaker Games Your Employees Will Enjoy

Asking "How is everyone?" at the beginning of every meeting isn't always the best way to encourage connection and team bonding. Sometimes, you need to take it a step further with an ice breaker.

The best ice breakers have the power to strengthen coworker bonds, stimulate better brainstorming sessions, and create an atmosphere of inclusivity. But it's easier said than done, and the wrong ice breaker questions can lead to awkwardness or even increased tension.

To get the most value out of your team bonding moments, we've compiled a list of the best ice breaker games for the workplace. Next time you get together with your team, use one of these games instead of asking "How is everyone", and you're sure to hear some better, more insightful responses than "I'm good."

Ice Breaker Games for Work

1. One Word Game
2. Pop Quiz
3. Birth Map
4. Would You Rather
5. 18 & Under
6. Two Truths and a Lie
7. Fun Questions
8. Personality Quiz
9. Who is it?
10. Marshmallow Challenge
11. Scavenger Hunt
12. No Smiling
13. This is Better Than That

Ice Breakers for Meetings

1. One Word Game

The One Word ice breaker allows you to provide initial context into a meeting's topic, and get everyone in the right mindset for discussion.

To play, you'll want to divide meeting participants into smaller groups. Then, tell them to think for a minute or two, and then share with their group one word that describes X.

For instance, let's say you're leading a meeting on culture. Tell the groups to describe work culture, or your office culture in particular, in one word. Once they've shared with their groups, you can invite them to share their word with the entire room.

This game encourages everyone to think about a certain topic in smaller groups ahead of time, which could increase participation during the meeting.

2. Pop Quiz

To successfully loosen everyone up and get them in the right mindset for a meeting, you might consider putting a short Pop Quiz on the board.

If your goal is simply to encourage team bonding, your quiz can be more fun -- like, "Match the lyrics with this 80's song". However, you might also use the Pop Quiz as an opportunity to introduce participants' to the meeting's theme.

If you're discussing company changes, for instance, maybe you'll start by quizzing team members on company history facts (i.e. "What year was this company founded?").

3. Birth Map

Place a map and a set of pins at the front of a large conference room before a big meeting. As people walk in, ask them to place a pin where they were born or raised.

As the map fills up with pins, people will learn about how diverse their teammates might be. Allow some time at the end of the meeting for your colleagues to walk up and look more closely at the map.

Quick Ice Breakers

4. Would You Rather

A classic game played at summer camps everywhere, "Would You Rather" is actually an excellent, quick ice breaker for the workplace. Next time you're settling into a meeting or team bonding outing, take turns going around the table and asking each person a "Would You Rather" question.

Here are a few "Would You Rather" questions to get you started:

• Would you rather only have summer or winter for the rest of your life?
• Would you rather go on a hike or see a movie?
• Would you rather never use social media sites and apps again, or never watch another movie or TV show?
• Would you rather have a horrible short term memory or a horrible long term memory?

5. 18 & Under

18 & Under is an engaging and unique way to encourage team members to share fun or interesting stories with one another. Before a meeting, simply go around the room, and ask each person to share one accomplishment they had before they turned 18.

Undoubtedly you'll get some of lesser importance, like "I bought a skateboard," but you never know what hidden skills you might discover in your colleagues.

6. Two Truths and a Lie

One of the more classic ice breakers in the list, Two Truths and a Lie can be used anywhere from family parties to company events. To play, you simply ask each person to brainstorm three "facts" about themselves -- two of the facts will be true, and one will be a lie.

For instance, I might say, "I once auditioned for the TV show Zoom. I have three brothers. I ziplined in Switzerland once." Coworkers can take turns guessing which is the lie. (FYI, I have two brothers, not three, so that's the lie. Unfortunately, I did audition for Zoom.)

Two Truths and a Lie is a fun and engaging game, and more importantly, it can help your team learn facts about one another, so they can begin forming deeper bonds.

Ice Breaker Games for Small Groups

7. Fun Questions

Asking fun questions is an easy and effective ice breaker game. To play, simply go around the room and have each person provide an answer to a fun question. The questions are up to you, but if you're stuck, here are a few ideas:

• If you're stranded on a desert island and have the option of bringing three items with you, what three items would they be?
• If you could be any animal, what would you be and why?
• What was the first concert you ever went to?
• If you could have any celebrity over for dinner, who would it be and why?

These questions serve two purposes -- first, they allow your coworkers to get into a sillier, more creative mindset. Second, they encourage conversation on topics typically reserved for outside the office, which enables members of your team to get to know one another on a deeper level.

8. Personality Quiz

This ice breaker can promote team bonding, and it's one of the easier options in the list. Simply choose a brief personality quiz on your phone or computer (if you're stuck, here's a list), and pull it up on a projector or send the link to everyone.

Once everyone has completed the personality assessment, have each colleague mention one thing they agree or disagree with in their results. This game allows your team members to gain a new perspective on their peers, and it's also a fun and easy way to get an interesting conversation started.

9. Who is it?

Have everyone write a unique, strange, or unexpected fact about them on a piece of paper. Then, put the pieces of paper into a hat and mix them around. Pull from the hat and read each fact.

Allow the team to try and guess who wrote it. After they guess, ask the employee who wrote the fact to identify themselves and give any further context if necessary. This could be a great way to get to know surprising new things about your teammates.

10. Marshmallow Challenge

Tom Wujec, a business visualization expert, initially presented his Marshmallow Challenge at TED. To play, you simply divide your team into groups of four and give each group 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string, and a marshmallow. Whichever team can build the tallest structure, wins -- the trick is, the marshmallow must be on top.

There are a few reasons this game works as both a great ice breaker and a team-building exercise. First, the most successful teams are the groups of people who don't spend time competing for power.

The game forces your colleagues to work collaboratively when brainstorming potential solutions. Second, the Marshmallow Challenge encourages people to think quickly and offer alternative solutions when their initial idea fails.

With the Marshmallow Challenge, you can strengthen your team's brainstorming and problem-solving skills, and your team can also have some fun. A win, win.

11. Scavenger Hunt

At HubSpot, we conduct a scavenger hunt for new hires on the first day of their training. It's fun and encourages collaboration, but additionally, it can help employees learn their way around the office.

Fortunately, you can conduct a scavenger hunt for your team even if they've worked at your office for years.

Simply split up your team into groups, and give each group a short list of items to find -- if you work in a smaller space, maybe you can hide some funny items around the office ahead of time. You might even provide incentive for the winning team, like a $50 Amazon gift card.

A scavenger hunt is also an exceptional opportunity for cross-department interaction. Consider reaching out to managers' from other departments, and creating groups of employees who don't often get to work together.

12. No Smiling

This game is simple and meant to energize your team. Get your colleagues in a circle and ask one volunteer to sit or stand in the middle. Tell the volunteer that they can not laugh or smile, regardless of what happens. Then have each other colleague take turns telling the volunteer a work-appropriate joke.

The goal of the volunteer is to hear a joke from every colleague around the circle, while the goal of the other team members is to make the volunteer laugh.

This icebreaker can be helpful in new-employee or management training to lighten the pressure of starting a new job. It can also be helpful as a way of lightening the mood on teams that regularly deal with stressful projects or situations.

13. This is Better Than That

Aside from being a fun team activity, this might be great energizer for sales employees or others that regularly pitch, market, and sell products.

Ask your team to find four to seven items around the office and bring them to one room. These items could be something they use daily, like a pen or a chair. However, you should encourage them to find items that are more odd or unique. This will make the game more challenging.

Line the items up and split the group into sub-teams. Task each team with picking an item they would use to survive if stranded on a dessert island.

Tell team members that they cannot pick more than one and must assume it is the only item they will have on that island. Allow the teams time to deliberate and then ask them to present the item they chose and why.

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[UPDATE] 7 Customer Loyalty Programs That Actually Add Value

Did you know it costs a business about 5-10X more to acquire a new customer than it does to sell to an existing one? Not only that, but on average, current customers spend 67% more than new customers. 

In light of statistics like these, businesses must think about what they are doing to keep their customers coming back to their business. And if you’re like 65% of marketers, your company has implemented a loyalty program.

But is your loyalty program working?

According to the 2015 Colloquy Customer Loyalty Census, American households hold memberships in an average of 29 loyalty programs, but are active (meaning earn or redeem at least one per year) in only 12 of them. Companies lose money on time and effort, and customers get no more value from the businesses to which they are "loyal."

So how do you keep your business out of that one-third segment? How do you convey enough additional value in your programs to keep your customers coming back?

It’s time for marketers to look beyond convoluted rewards systems and offer actual value to customers using their loyalty program. To get you started, here are some ideas for customer loyalty programs that might work for your business.

7 Customer Loyalty Program Ideas for Your Business

1) Use a simple point system.

This is the most common loyalty program methodology. Frequent customers earn points, which translate into some type of reward. Whether it’s a discount, a freebie, or special customer treatment, customers work toward a certain amount of points to redeem their reward.

Where many companies falter in this method, however, is making the relationship between points and tangible rewards complex and confusing.

"Fourteen points equals one dollar, and twenty dollars earns 50% off your next purchase in April!"

... that’s not rewarding, that’s a headache.

If you opt for a points-based loyalty program, keep the conversions simple and intuitive.

Although a points system is perhaps the most common form of loyalty programs, it isn't necessarily applicable to every business type. It works best for businesses that encourage frequent, short-term purchases, like Boloco.

Case Study: Boloco's Boloco Card

Boloco, an American restaurant chain known for its burritos, is an example of a company who does the points-based loyalty program well. Customers swipe their stylish Boloco Card at every purchase, and the card tracks the amount of money spent. Every $50 spent earns the customer a free item. It doesn't matter if that free item is a super jumbo burrito or an extra small smoothie: It's free once the customer records $50 on their card. Boloco speaks the language of its audience by measuring points in dollars, and rewards in food and drink items.

Source: Boloco

2) Use a tier system to reward initial loyalty and encourage more purchases.

Finding a balance between attainable and desirable rewards is a challenge for most companies designing loyalty programs. One way to combat this is to implement a tiered system which rewards initial loyalty and encourages more purchases.

Present small rewards as a base offering for being a part of the program, and then encourage repeat customers by increasing the value of the rewards as the customer moves up the loyalty ladder. This helps solve the problem of members forgetting about their points and never redeeming them because the time between purchase and gratification is too long.

The biggest difference between the points system and the tiered system is that customers extract short-term versus long-term value from the loyalty program. You may find tiered programs work better for high commitment, higher price-point businesses like airlines, hospitality businesses, or insurance companies.

Case Study: Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

In addition to earning miles, Virgin Atlantics' Flying Club allows members to earn tier points. The club inducts members at the Club Red tier, then bumps them up to Club Silver and then Club Gold.

• Club Red members earn miles on flights and get discounts on rental cars, airport parking, hotels, and holiday flights.
• Club Silver members earn 50% more points on flights and have access to expedited check-in and priority stand-by seating.
• Club Gold members get double miles, priority boarding, and access to exclusive clubhouses where they can grab a drink or get a massage before their flight.

Seem complicated? They created a comprehensive benefits table so customers can easily understand the extra benefits they'll receive as they move from Red to Silver to Gold. The key is to offer benefits in the early stages to hook the customer into coming back. Once they do, they’ll realize that "gold" status isn’t unattainable, and offers really cool benefits.

Source: Virgin Atlantic

3) Charge an upfront fee for VIP benefits.

Loyalty programs are meant to break down barriers between customers and your business ... so are we seriously telling you to charge them a fee? In some circumstances, a one-time (or annual) fee that lets customers bypass common purchase barriers is actually quite beneficial for both business and customer. By identifying the factors that may cause customers to leave, you can customize a fee-based loyalty program to address those specific obstacles.

According to a 2015 study of 500 leading global brands, cart abandonment rates reached 75.6% across retail, travel, and fashion. This abandonment is often caused by "sticker shock" after tax and shipping prices have been applied. Below, we'll take a look at Amazon, the ecommerce giant that's found a way to combat this issue using a loyalty program with an upfront fee.

This system is most applicable to businesses that thrive on frequent, repeat purchases. For an upfront fee, your customers are relieved of inconveniences that could impede future purchases. Amazon's mastered this for ecommerce, but this model also has potential to work for B2B businesses that deliver products to businesses on a regular basis.

Case Study: Amazon Prime

For $99 a year, Amazon Prime users get free, two-day shipping on millions of products with no minimum purchase, among other benefits.

Why is this a great example? Because it provides enough value to frequent shoppers for them to feel like it's really benefitting them. Actually, analysts estimate Amazon loses $1-2 billion per year on Prime. But the company makes up for it in increased transaction frequency: According to a 2015 report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, Prime members spend an average of $1,500 per year on Amazon.com, compared with $625 per year spent by Amazon customers who aren't Prime members.

Source: Amazon Prime

4) Structure non-monetary programs around your customers' values.

Truly understanding your customer means understanding their values and sense of worth. Depending on your industry, your customers may find more value in non-monetary or discounted rewards. While any company can offer promotional coupons and discount codes if they want to, businesses that can provide value to the customer in ways other than dollars and cents have a unique opportunity to connect with their audience.

Case Study: Patagonia's Common Threads Initiative

Patagonia, an eco-friendly outdoor apparel company, realized that its customer needed more than just points and discounts from a loyalty program. In conjunction with eBay, it implemented the Common Threads Initiative in late 2011 to help customers resell their highly durable Patagonia clothing online via Patagonia's website.

The Common Threads program builds on Patagonia's brand of sustainability and creating a high-quality product. Plus, it matches perfectly with the company’s target audience by providing a value they know customers really care about. 

Source: Patagonia

5) Partner with another company to provide all-inclusive offers.

Strategic partnerships for customer loyalty (also known as coalition programs) can be super effective for retaining customers and growing your company. Which company would a good fit for a partnership? Again, it boils down to fully understanding your customers' everyday lives and their purchase processes.

For example, if you’re a dog food company, you might partner with a veterinary office or pet grooming facility to offer co-branded deals that are mutually beneficial for your company and your customer. When you provide your customers with value that's relevant to them but goes beyond what your company alone can offer them, you're showing them you understand and care about their needs. Plus, it'll help you grow your network to reach your partners' customers, too.

Case Study: American Express Plenti Program

American Express has a huge partner base with companies across the country. The company's Plenti program, launched in May 2015, lets consumers pool their rewards from various retailers like Macy's, AT&T, Rite Aid, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Hulu, and more. Plenti members earn points for shopping at these stores and redeem points at these stores by linking their existing store loyalty card to their Plenti account. For example, customers can use Plenti points they've earned from something like renting a car from Enterprise in order to pay their AT&T phone bill.

Flexibility is the biggest appeal here for customers, since points can be earned and redeemed at a variety of retailers. According to Fortune Magazine, "For the companies, even ones like Macy's that already have huge loyalty programs, Plenti is a way to tap into the broader customer base of its partners, save on program costs, and lift sales by offering a more appealing program to customers."

Source: Interbrand

6) Make a game out of it.

Who doesn’t love a good game? Turn your loyalty program into a game to encourage repeat customers and -- depending on the type of game you choose -- help solidify your brand's image.

With any contest or sweepstakes, though, you run the risk of having customers feel like your company is jerking them around to win business. To mitigate this risk, it's important to make customers feel like you’re not duping them out of rewards. The odds should be no lower than 25%, and the purchase requirements to play should be attainable. Also, be sure your company's legal department is fully informed and on-board before you make your contest public.

When executed properly, this type of program could work for almost any type of company -- even an off-the-beaten-path B2B company. If your audience enjoys having a little fun and purchases frequently, this type of program can make the buying process both fun and engaging.

Case Study: GrubHub's Yummy Rummy Sweepstakes

GrubHub, an online food ordering and delivery website, has run its successful Yummy Rummy sweepstakes since 2011. Once customers place three unique orders through GrubHub, regardless of price, they get to play a game for a chance of winning free stuff. Players choose one of four cards and have a 25% chance of winning a free dessert, drink, GrubHub credit, or other cool stuff.

Casey Winters, who was part of the GrubHub team that launched the sweepstakes in 2011, advises in a LinkedIn post, "You should strive to think of your program as constantly evolving to stay interesting to your users. This will make your program stay effective for longer as well as give you the flexibility to tweak elements to make it more interesting to you as the business. I have seen many companies stuck with a program they no longer think is effective, but too afraid to shelve it because of potential user backlash."

Source: GrubHub

(Want to learn more about how to run a contest on social media? Read this blog post.)

7) Scratch the "program" completely.

Considering how many marketers offer loyalty programs, one innovative idea is to nix the idea of employing a program altogether. Instead, build loyalty by providing first-time users with awesome benefits, hooking them in, and offering those benefits with every purchase.

This minimalist approach works best for companies that sell unique products or services. That doesn't necessarily mean that you offer the lowest price, or the best quality, or the most convenience; instead, I’m talking about redefining a category. If your company is pioneering a new product or service, a loyalty program may not be necessary. Customers will be loyal because there are few other options as spectacular as you, and you've communicated that value from your first interaction.

For example, one of the most innovative companies on the planet implements this strategy: Apple.

Case Study: Apple

Even the most loyal Apple customers don’t get special rewards or discounts ... because it doesn't offer them to anybody. Apple "enchants" customers by delighting them with a product or service the very first time.

"The loyalty is voluntary and long-lasting," explains Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki.

Apple has plenty of supporters, both online and offline, ready and willing to rave about its product. For them, loyalty happens organically.

How to Measure the Effectiveness of Your Loyalty Program

As with any initiative you implement, there needs to be a way to measure your marketing success. Customer loyalty programs should increase customer happiness and retention, and there are ways to measure these things (other than in rainbows and sunshine).

Different companies and programs call for different analytics, but here are a few of the most common metrics companies watch when rolling out loyalty programs.

Customer Retention Rate

This metric is an indication of how long customers stay with you. With a successful loyalty program, this number should increase over time as the number of loyalty program members grows. Run an A/B test against program members and non-program customers to determine the overall effectiveness of the loyalty initiative. According to Fred Reichheld, author of the Loyalty Effect, a 5% increase in customer retention can lead to a 25-100% increase in profit for your company.

Negative Churn

Churn is the rate at which customers leave your company. Negative churn, therefore, is a measurement of customers who do the opposite: either they upgrade, or they purchase additional services. These help to offset the natural churn that goes on in most businesses. Depending on the nature of your business and loyalty program, especially if you opt for a tiered loyalty program, this is an important metric to track.

Net Promoter Score

NPS is a customer satisfaction metric that measures, on a scale of 1-10, the degree to which people would recommend your company to others.

NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors (customers who would not recommend your product) from percentage of promoters (customers who would recommend you).

The fewer detractors, the better. Improving your net promoter score is one way to establish benchmarks, measure customer loyalty over time, and calculate the effects of your loyalty program. A great NPS score is over 70%, and your loyalty program can help get you there. (Read this blog post to learn how to use NPS surveys for more powerful marketing automation.)

Customer Effort Score

Customer Effort Score (CES) asks customers, "How much effort did you personally have to put forth to solve a problem with the company?"

Some companies prefer this metric over NPS score because it measures actual experience rather than the emotional delight of the customer. A Harvard Business Review study found that 48% of customers who had negative experiences with a company told 10 or more people. In this way, customer service impacts both customer acquisition and customer retention. If your loyalty program addresses customer service issues, like expedited requests, personal contacts, or free shipping, this may be one way to measure its success.

Have you implemented a customer loyalty program? Share what tactics worked (and what didn't) in the comment section.

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in April 2012 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

                                     

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The Ultimate Guide to Product Marketing in 2019

During the 1950s, Volkswagen sold a bus. Although now considered a classic vehicle, the bus remains an icon for the car company decades later. The cool part? Volkswagen just introduced their new VW Bus this year — it’s electric and features modern and sleek styling. Volkswagen’s marketing for the vehicle is eye-catching, unique, and fun, and it fits the original “hippie” vibe the company was once known for.

Source

Volkswagen also released a TV commercial for the bus that’s clever, minimalist, and on-brand. It introduces the new vehicle with the song The Sound of Silence playing in the background (hint: electric cars are silent) and ends with a short message on the screen for viewers to read: “Introducing a new era of electric driving.” This sentiment touches on the fact Volkswagen is contributing to society’s interest in electric, eco-friendly vehicles, and it also relates back to this being a new era for the bus.

So who works on this type of marketing? Who helps create content that excites consumers about new and/or updated products, like the Volkswagen bus, to the point they want to buy them?

Product marketers.

So, what makes product marketing unique? How is it different from conventional marketing?

Product Marketing vs. Conventional Marketing

Product marketing is more strategic whereas conventional marketing is more all-encompassing. Product marketing is actually part of conventional marketing. In fact, if you look at the seven Ps of marketing, you’ll see product marketing is one of the most important aspects of a business’s marketing efforts.

Product marketing is focused on driving demand for and adoption of a product among existing customers. It’s focused on the steps people take to purchase your product so product marketers can build campaigns to support this work.

Product marketing is about understanding a specific product’s audience on a deep level and developing that product’s positioning and messaging to appeal to that audience. It covers the launch and execution side of a product in addition to the marketing strategy for the product — which is why the work of a product marketer lies at the center of a business’s marketing, sales, and product teams.

Conventional marketing is focused on broader topics under the umbrella of marketing such as lead generation, SEO, and anything related to acquiring and converting new leads and customers. It’s about promoting the company and brand as a whole, including the products that are sold. These marketers make sure there’s a consistent, on-brand message behind all of the company’s content.

Why is product marketing important?

Product marketing is a critical part of any business’s marketing strategy. Without product marketing, your product won’t achieve its maximum potential in the market. Let’s look at why.

Product marketing …

• Helps you understand your customers
• Allows you to target your buyer personas
• Teaches you about your competitors (products and marketing tactics)
• Ensures your company’s marketing, product, and sales teams are all on the same page
• Helps you position the product in the market
• Boosts revenue and improves sales

There are also questions you, as a product marketer, will have to ask yourself and reflect on in regards to your product. Asking yourself these questions will help you ensure your product is a success among customers.

Here are some examples of questions to ask yourself:

• Is this product suitable for today’s market?
• Is this product appropriate for our customers today?
• How is this product unique from similar products of our competitor’s?
• Is there a way to further differentiate this product from those of our competitor’s?
• Are there any products we’ve sold in the past that we wouldn’t market or sell ever again now that we look back? Is so, why not?

As you can see, product marketing requires you to look at your products from a strategic perspective to ensure they’re successful among customers in your current market. Now, let’s take a look at the specific responsibilities you have as a product marketer (or product marketing manager).

Your responsibilities as a product marketer may vary slightly based on industry, company, products, and company size and resources. If you’re working for a startup, you may be a product marketer who also helps create the content the broader marketing team produces due to limited resources and budget. As the business grows, you may move onto a team whose sole job is product marketing.

Either way, your responsibilities as a product marketer will remain the same — let’s take a look at these responsibilities next.

1. Clearly Identify the Buyer Personas and Target Audience for Your Product

You must identify the buyer personas and audience for your product so you can target customers in a way that’s convincing and makes them want to make a purchase. This will allow you to tailor your product and its features to solve for the challenges your audience is facing.

Use templates to create buyer personas for your business.

2. Successfully Create, Manage and Carry Out Your Product Marketing Strategy

A product marketing strategy (which we’ll review shortly) allows you to create, build, and execute content and campaigns — this supports the steps that will lead your buyer personas and customers to make a purchase.

3. Work With and Enable Sales to Attract the Right Customers for Your New Product

As a product marketer, you have to maintain a direct relationship with sales. You’ll work with sales to identify and attract the right customers for the product at hand and provide sales enablement materials to reps to ensure they understand the product inside and out, along with all of its features.

This way, you and your teams are on the same page in terms of what’s being shared with customers, allowing you to provide a consistent, on-brand experience for anyone who comes in contact with the product.

4. Determine Your Product’s Positioning in the Market

One of the most important parts of your job is determining the product’s positioning in the market. Think about this process in terms of storytelling — your positioning requires you to create and tell the story of your product.

As a product marketer, you’ll work with the broader marketing team and the product team to tell this story by answering critical questions like:

• Why was this product made?
• Who is this product made for?
• What challenges does this product resolve?
• What makes this product unique?

5. Ensure Your Product Meets the Needs of Your Target Audience

You must also make sure your product meets the needs of your customers and target audience. Through the research conducted to determine your buyer persona’s and target audience, you should have uncovered the pain points and challenges you’re working to solve with your product. If your product doesn’t meet the needs of your customers, they’ll have no reason to make the purchase or choose your product over your competitor’s.

6. Keep Your Product Relevant Over Time

Your product needs to stay relevant over time. As needs, expectations, and challenges change and evolve, it’s your job to make sure your product marketing strategy, and the products themselves, remain relevant among customers.

This means you may have to manage slight changes in your product marketing strategy (which we’ll discuss in the next section), or updates and modifications to the product itself (you’ll likely work with the product team, who actually creates the product, to do this).

Now, let’s take a look at how to market a product so you can begin optimizing your content for success — think of these five steps as your product marketing strategy.

How to Market a Product

1. Define your product’s target audience and buyer personas

2. Determine your positioning and messaging to set your product apart

3. Set goals for your product

4. Price your product

5. Launch your product

1. Define Your Product’s Target Audience and Buyer Personas

As mentioned above, one of the main roles you have as a product marketer is to define the target audience and buyer personas for the specific product being sold (different products will likely have different target audiences). This the first step to marketing your product.

By understanding your customers and their needs, challenges, and pain points, you’ll be able to ensure all aspects of your product marketing strategy (as in, the rest of the steps we’ll define below) are tailored to that target customer and persona. This way, the product and the marketing content that’s created for the product will resonate with your audience.

2. Determine Your Positioning and Messaging to Set Your Product Apart

After performing your customer research and learning about your audience, you’ll have clearly identified their needs, challenges, and pain points. From here, you can think about how to highlight the ways your product resolves those challenges for your customers.

However, that doesn't necessarily mean you’ve differentiated yourself from your competitors. After all, they are your competitors because they solve the needs of your customers in a similar way to your company.

The key to setting your product apart is positioning (which we touched on earlier) and messaging. Your positioning and messaging answers key questions your customers might have about your product and what makes it unique and then turns those answers into the main points behind your product’s marketing strategy.

It’s your job as the product marketer to ensure your customers and audience know your responses to these questions without having to dig around for them or make their own assumptions about them.

Examples of questions you’ll need to answer to develop your product’s positioning and messaging include:

• What specifically makes our product unique?
• Why is our product better than our competitors’?
• Why are our product’s features ideal for our target audience?
• What will our customers get out of our product that they cannot get from our competitors’ products?
• Why should our customers trust and invest in us and our product?

Once you’ve answered these questions, you can compile these responses into one, impactful, and shareable statement that captures your positioning and messaging as a whole. To do this, follow these steps:

• Turn the answers to the positioning and messaging questions into an elevator pitch
• Use action words to excite your customers
• Ensure the tone of your statement captures the tone of your brand
• Focus on the benefit of your product as a whole (not just one specific feature)

And if you’re in need of a bit more guidance, check out the HubSpot Marketing Hub product page. The main positioning and messaging statement reads as follows: “All-in-One Inbound Marketing Software: Everything you need to launch effective marketing campaigns that make people interested in your business and happy to be your customer.”

Tip: As product marketers, you should ensure the sales, product, and (the broader) marketing teams are also aware of your positioning and messaging around the product so they too can communicate the same information to prospects and current customers.

This allows you to ensure the entire company is consistent in the content and information they share about your product. Additionally, you can provide this information to your support team if you think it’s necessary, as they may be fielding support calls and working with your customers who’ve already invested in the product.

3. Set Goals for Your Product

Next, you’ll want to set goals for your product. These will vary based on your specific product, the type of company you work for, your overall marketing goals, and more — your goals will be specific to your business and situation. However, let’s review some common goals product marketers aim to achieve:

• Increase revenue
• Engage with customers
• Improve market share
• Gain customers from competitors
• Boost brand recognition

Tip: Feel free to combine several of these goals or just choose one to focus on — every company and product will have different goals. The key is making sure you view and set these targets in the SMART goal format, meaning they’re specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound.

Use a free template to help you create and achieve your SMART goals.

4. Price Your Product

As a product marketer, you’ll also have to contribute to the discussion of the price of your product. Depending on the company you work for, you might work with other teams on this part of the strategy, or it might be a job just for you and your fellow product marketers. Either way, you can consider competitive vs. value-based pricing.

Competitive vs. Value-Based Product Pricing

Competitive pricing means you’re basing your product’s price off of the similar products your competitors sell. It’s ideal for companies who have created a product similar to one that several other companies sell.

If you believe your unique features warrant a significantly higher price than those of your competitors’, you might choose to price your product above the other similar products on the market. A good way to evaluate the fairness of the pricing of all of your competitors is by studying financial reports and industry trends.

Value-based pricing allows you to maximize your profit, although it’s a bit more time-consuming to establish in comparison to competitive pricing. It’s ideal for companies selling a product with very few competitors on the market or one with exceptionally new and unique features.

Value-based pricing quantifies your item’s value in a way your customer can relate to their profitability. It allows you to base your product’s price on its value for your customer rather than whatever the market, industry trends, and your competitors say.

5. Launch Your Product

Now it’s time for the most important part of your role as a product marketer — not to mention, the most exciting: the launch of the product you’ve been marketing.

There are two main parts to the launch to focus on as a product marketer: the internal launch (what goes on within your company upon product launch) and external launch (what goes on outside of your company, with customers and audience members, upon product launch).

Internal Aspects of a Product Launch

As previously stated, your job as a product marketer entails making sure the entire organization is on the same page about your product. This way, your customers only receive consistent and accurate details about the product.

The marketing, product, and sales teams at your company should be aware of the following information:

• Your product’s benefits
• Any available product demo information
• Sales training opportunities on your product and how it’s used
• What the positioning and messaging looks like
• Who your buyer personas and ideal customers are
• What the goals for your product include
• What your product’s features are
• The pricing of your product
• How your product is being launched to customers (which we’ll discuss below)

Now, you might be wondering how to provide this information to marketing, product, and sales. Which channels are ideal for sharing these details with your fellow employees?

Here are a few examples of ways to do this:

• Sales enablement kit (ideal for sales)
• Presentation (ideal for the broader marketing department and product)
• Knowledge base (ideal for support)

External Aspects of a Product Launch

Externally, there are many ways to market your product launch so your current base of customers, prospects, and target audience learn about whatever it is you’re selling.

First, determine where you’re going to focus your product marketing efforts. Here are some examples of channels and places to do this (you might choose several of these or just one to focus on depending on your needs, goals, and resources).

• Social media
• In-store
• Product launch event
• Blog
• Website landing page
• Exclusive product preview (prior to the official launch)
• Promotional event/ campaign (in-person and/ or online)

On whatever channel you choose to focus your product launch marketing efforts, you should include relevant product information (focused on your positioning and messaging) so prospects and customers can learn all about your product and why they need it. This includes your product’s features, what makes it unique, pricing, demos for customers, training for customers, and any other materials you’ve created and want to share.

Congrats! You’ve just worked through the steps to marketing a product. Remember, this process is one that should be thought about and updated as your products change and evolve so they remain relevant among your customers. (This shouldn’t be an issue as long as you have a member of your team focused on product marketing, considering it’s one of their main responsibilities.)

Start Marketing Your Products

Product marketing is the process through which a company brings a product to market. Being a product marketer (or product marketing manager) means you’re at the center of your company’s marketing, sales, and product teams.

You’re an integral part to the success of your product, as you create and manage your product’s specific marketing strategy, but you also serve as a liaison between all three of these departments, ensuring everyone is on the same page with your product, it’s features, capabilities, and more. So, start developing your latest product’s marketing strategy to ensure it’s a success among your target audience and customers.

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Microsoft OneDrive Gets a Secure Personal Vault, Additional Storage Plans

The consumer version of Microsoft's OneDrive Cloud storage service is getting a new security option and new storage plans.

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12 PPC Tools & Software to Help Your Ad Campaigns Crush It

PPC, or pay-per-click, campaigns can be a great way to gain traffic, leads, and ROI. In fact, businesses make an average of $8 for every dollar they spend on Google Ads.

Although PPC sounds like a great opportunity, creating profitable campaigns can cost you time, effort, and money. If you don’t have a strong strategy or monitor your campaigns, you could lose precious dollars. WordStream reports, for example, that the average small business loses 25% of their PPC budget on wasted spend.

If you’re a PPC marketer, you might know how time-consuming these campaigns can be.

Before you even launch a campaign, you should take time to consider keywords, what competitors are bidding on, and how much you’ll be willing to spend. After the launch, you’ll need to monitor the campaigns, edit aspects of them as necessary, and occasionally adjust your budget.

If you have a lot of other marketing tasks on your plate, this process can seem daunting.

Luckily, if you’re looking to cut down on these tasks and make room for new projects, there is a long list of tools that can be used to build, manage, monitor, and adjust your campaigns, bids, and budgets.

Some are low-priced, while others offer automated features to limit the need for unnecessary human involvement. Many of these tools fall into the categories of general PPC management, bid management, or reporting.

To help you develop a less time-consuming and more profitable PPC process, this blog post highlights 12 PPC management tools and software.

PPC Management Tools

WordStream PPC Advisor

Cost: $264/month for 12-month plans, $299/month for 3-month plans, or $2,928 for an annual pre-paid subscription.

Integrations: Google Ads, Bing Ads, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter

WordStream’s PPC Advisor is targeted to small business owners who want to take advantage of PPC properly but do not have the finances to staff experts or hire advisors. The software can integrate with Google Ads, Bing Ads, and other major ad platforms.

With WordStream Advisor, you can activate the “20 Minute Work Week” tool which will take a short time to analyze PPC campaigns and send recommendations on how you can improve your campaigns. You can then make these changes through the Wordstream software.

You can also build campaigns, identify positive and negative keywords, and adjust budgets. The software also allows you to create optimized landing pages, as well as track and build reports around conversion and call data.

Below is a quick explainer video:

 

 

 

WordStream offers a seven-day trial to those who fill out a contact information form.

Optmyzr

Cost: $499/month (Pro), $799/month (Pro+). The Enterprise version’s cost is unspecified.

Integrations include: Google, Bing, and Yahoo ads programs

For marketers or agencies with larger budgets, interest in running multiple PPC campaigns, or who just want more automated features, Optmyzr offers slightly more advanced tools for creating and managing campaigns in bulk.

Like WordStream, this paid platform similarly allows you to launch, track, and manage PPC campaigns on different platforms. According to Optmyzr’s website, all versions of the software allow users to automate scripts, alerts, and reports. Each membership also comes with biannual product training sessions with Optmyzr reps.

One of Optmyzr’s tools, the Automyzr, allows users to upload and generate campaigns in bull from data sources like spreadsheets or integrations.

Once the data is uploaded, a user can use certain criteria such as “brand” or “product” to generate names and other elements of ads automatically. Here’s a demo that walks through the process:

 

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=441&v=1IYrui2Kh_g

This software is highly recommended by Joe Martinez, who was named one of PPC Hero’s top 25 PPC experts in 2017 and 2018. He says the PPC manager is helpful to both lead-gen and ecommerce accounts.

“Optmyzr allows marketers to easily see performance data in their accounts and make adjustments on the spot. I can also use their list of scripts to automate certain tasks I have to do on a consistent basis,” he says.

He adds that the software has saved him a lot of time over the years. “I can rely on the tool to do a lot of the tedious, high-level tasks which gives me more time to focus on strategy or deeper analysis in the important areas of the account.”

Google Ads Editor

Cost: Free to Google Ads advertisers

Integrations: Google Ads

This downloadable desktop application, formerly named AdWords Editor, can be used to create, track, and edit your Google ads.

Along with performance monitoring, the app allows you to make bulk changes to multiple ads, preview edits in draft mode before they go live, and build or revise your ads offline.

The editor works alongside Google Ads, which allows users to create and assign a bid strategy to campaigns specific to the Google bod strategy. You must first create a Google Ads campaign to manage it through the Ads Editor. Here’s a quick demo that explains how:

 

 

If you are just trying to master one PPC strategy at a time and want to focus on Google first, this tool could be an affordable and simple option.

However, Google Ads Editor does not give you similar automation options or improvement suggestions like WordStream or paid PPC managers will. Because of this, more manual adjustments and monitoring might be required.

Bing Ads Editor

Cost: Free to Bing advertisers

Integrations: Bing Ads

While many marketers might think of Gooogle as their primary PPC option, Bing PPC has also gained steam as the search engine has over five billion daily inquiries.

Bing offers a similar software to Google for its search engine’s PPC ads. Like the Google Ads Editor, you can make offline revisions to your ads which can be uploaded to the online platform once you regain internet access.

You can also research keywords, manage your bids, and monitor your performance with this management tool.

The below demo walks you through how to create a campaign, import data via Google Import, and use the Opportunities tab to gain suggestions on how you can improve your performance.

 

 

Similarly to Google Ads Editor, this tool does not offer any automation tools and is only accessible to those with a Bing Ads account or campaign.

SEMRush PPC ToolKit

Cost: $99 (Pro), $199 (Guru), $399 (Business), Enterprise edition varies by company

Integrations include: Google Ads, Bing Ads

SEMRush’s PPC management software focuses on competitive research, keyword research, and campaign planning.

When researching competitors on SEMRush, you can search your domain to see a list of domains you compete with organically and a list of those you compete with in paid search. You can also find out which keywords competitors have bid on in the past to see if you should take a similar bidding strategy.

The ToolKit’s “Charts” tool can also show you visual graphs of how multiple competitors are performing.

Another feature is the Keyword Magic Tool, which allows you to type in a keyword or phrase and get a list of stronger keywords, as well as data about them such as search volume. You can then export this information into a document which could be shared with their team.

SEMRush four pricing plans. The lowest cost plan -- targeted to freelancers, startups, and small businesses -- includes SEMRush’s PPC, search engine optimization, and search engine marketing tools.

The larger plans are targeted more towards larger companies and agencies. These offer advanced reporting features, such as whitelabeled reports and more advanced API integrations.

To test out SEMRush, you can try features including the Keyword Magic Tool here. To access these free tools, you’ll need to register for a free account with an email and a password.

For a more detailed look at all the tools, here’s a demo that shows how you can use SEMRush to start a PPC campaign:

 

 

 

HubSpot’s PPC Management Template

Cost: Free download

If you prefer to plan their PPC ads for the lowest cost without using a software, we recently posted this helpful template on our blog.

This spreadsheet guides you through the process of creating a strong PPC ads for each level of the customer journey. It also guides you through identifying positive and negative keywords and building AdGroups.

Download this Template for Free

While this template can help you plan out your campaigns, it can also be a great document to share with clients or other decision makers on your team before launching ads.

You can find the link to download, as well as detailed instructions on how to use the tool, in this blog post.

PPC Bid Management Tools

MarinOne Search

Cost: Plans often start around $499/month. Marin does not specify specific pricing.

Integrations include: Google, Bing, Yahoo, Facebook, and Twitter

MarinOne Search offers bid management features for ads on platforms including Google, Bing, Yahoo, Facebook, and Amazon. According to Marin, the software uses a large pool of data and patented machine-learning algorithms to “allocate budgets and calculate bids.”

According to Marin’s tour of its budgeting software, seen below, users can also adjust the budget algorithm by taking actions like assigning a dollar value to different types of conversion events:

 

 

If you want more information on Marin’s impact, its website highlights case studies on how the software has helped major clients like Nissan, Dell, and Jeep.

Kenshoo

Cost: Varies by company. Kenshoo provides free demos and quotes.

Integrations: Compatible with platforms including Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Apple Ads.

Kenshoo offers a variety of advertising tools related to budget management, search, social, ecommerce, and app-based ads. The software’s bid management features allow you to make and adjust a variety of bids, including rules-based and model-based bids.

You can integrate data straight from Google Ads and other online ad programs with Kenshoo’s platform. The data can be displayed on multiple dashboards, including one which shows spend, revenue, ROI, and conversion head-to-head.

Kenshoo says they use award-winning machine-learning algorithms to give users bid suggestions as well as budget and ad performance forecasts in its dashboard interface.

Kenshoo’s site describes its software as enterprise level, but says they offer plans and paid tools targeted at startup-level companies as well.

Prospective customers can visit Kenshoo’s website to request a free trial.

Acquisio Turing

Cost: Varies based on your company’s ad spend, the number of accounts that will be managed, and the length of a contract determined between the company and Acquisio.

Integrations include: Google. Bing, and major social networks.

Acquisio’s bid and budget management tool uses machine learning algorithms to analyze and adjust bids and budget distribution on a 24/7 basis.

According to Acquisio, the algorithms are trained to automatically adjust budgets based on factors including seasonality, day of week, time of day, and ad platform.

Because of the flexible pricing plans, this software could be helpful for companies ranging from startup to enterprise level.

This software might be helpful to marketers with multiple accounts or who may be too busy to monitor bids and budget distribution regularly.

Due to the machine learning tools, you might save time on tasks related to bid research and crunching numbers. This extra time could then be used for other productive projects.

PPC Reporting Tools

Google Ads Performance Grader

Cost: Free with short registration

Integrations: Google Ads

This WordStream tool, formerly called the AdWords Performance Grader, can give your Google Ads campaign a percentage score based on criteria including text and keyword optimization, keyword quality, click-through rates, impressions, and landing page optimization.

The report also gives more information or a sub-score related to each individual piece of criteria.

To help users in benchmarking, the report also notes how well campaigns are doing compared to the previous month.

Here’s an example of what the top of a Google Ads performance report might look like:

After registering and giving a small amount of company information, you can link this tool to your Gmail account and automatically receive the grades for ads associated with your email address.

ReportingNinja

Cost: $20/month (Starter), $40/month (Small), $70/month (Medium, $120/month (Large)

Integrations include: Google Ads, Bing Ads, Twitter Ads, Facebook, LinkedIn

This software might be a good options for marketers or agencies who wish to build whitelabel analytics dashboards that their clients can access. Aside from the portal, ReportingNina can also be used to schedule and send automated reports to marketers or clients via email.

When integrating with Google Ads and/or Bing Ads, a marketer or client with access to the whitelabel portal can see a dashboard that pulls in all the information from these third-party platforms.

With this integration feature, users can see all their need-to-know data in one place. Outside of PPC, data from Twitter Ads, Facebook Insights, LinkedIn Ads, MailChimp, and other accounts can be integrated as well.

Octoboard

Cost: Octoboard offers seven plans with annual and monthly commitment options. Annual plans are $5 to $150 monthly, and monthly, no-commitment plans fall between $18 and $210. Each plan allows a different number of clients as well as access to a different list of features.

Integrations include: Google, Bing, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

Octoboard provides a number of customizable and whitelabel reporting templates for marketers and their clients. With the software, you can create reporting documents as well as dashboards that can be sent to an unlimited amount of recipients. The software also offers report templates that can be embedded on to a website.

For those who need to report to their team or clients, but don’t have time to create a nice visual, Octoboard already offers templates that specifically report on Google, Bing, Facebook, and LinkedIn PPC. Here’s an example of a few of the templates currently displayed on the website:

To test drive the software, you can click on one of the templates on their homepage. When you enter the template, the site will give you a prompt and instructions showing you how to integrate your data.

Similarly to ReportingNinja, the software also offers automation tools that can create and send templated reports on a schedule.

You can register and preview certain reports with your data in them for free on the Octoboard site. However, to receive more access, you will need to subscribe to one of its monthly or annual plans.

DashThis

Cost: $39/month (Individual), $129/month (Professional), $209/month (Business), $339/month (Standard), $499/month (Enterprise)

Integrations include: Google Ads, Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, Youtube, LinkedIn Ads and Twitter Ads

Like ReportingNinja and Octoboard, DashThis allows users to connect PPC and SEM tools to the platform so that all performance data appears on one dashboard.

This feature could be helpful if you need to use two or more tools to monitor your PPC ads, traffic, and other data related to your campaigns.

The platform allows users to build and customize these overarching dashboards.

When building a dashboard, DashThis allows you to build off of three templates: Periodic, Rolling, and Campaign. While the Campaign pulls in data about a specific campaign, the Rolling dashboard shows live data and the Periodic shows data for a certain time period.

Here’s a tutorial that shows how to get started with a DashThis Periodic template:

 

 

DashThis also offers a list of pre-made KPI widgets that measure and report on factors like cost-per-click, cost-per-acquisition, conversion rate, impressions, ROI, and return on ad spend. Users can also create custom widgets of their own.

This software would be a good choice for agencies looking to save time on the reporting processes related to PPC or SEM marketing. After creating a dashboard, they can use it to share and report back on live data to their clients or colleagues.

DashThis also offers a low-cost individual subscription which allows users to launch up to three dashboards for $39 a month.

Building Your PPC Toolkit

Before you subscribe to one or multiple of these tools, be sure to consider your company’s budget and how many accounts you’ll be managing.

If you’re a marketer at an agency or large company, you might prefer an enterprise software that has all the necessary management tools in one. If you’re part of a startup or work as a freelancer, you might just want to use the more affordable resources on this list.

Regardless of which tools or software you use, be sure to check out our Ultimate Guide to PPC for facts, figures, strategy ideas, and best practices.

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