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Rand Fishkin | Cofounder & CEO

End Your Marketing Reliance on Facebook & Google’s Duopoly

How to expand where we market & which tactics we employ to create

higher-ROI, more resilient, more competitive marketing engines.

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Three Core Arguments

Against Duopoly Reliance

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Facebook & Google are not reliable, friendly, in-your-corner marketing partners.

You cannot get the same competitive advantage on Facebook & Google you can from other, more diverse sources.

When you build brand equity elsewhere, the duopoly become better marketing channels.

#1:

#2:

#3:

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Facebook & Google are not reliable, friendly, in-your-corner partners.

#1

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Google Uses Your Work

to Create Addiction to Their Platform.

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They Do It in Sector After Sector

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The More Lucrative Your Sector Looks, the More Likely They Are to Become Your Competitor.

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Facebook Used All of Us to Build Their Platform, Claiming It Would Boost Our Businesses

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But, the Fanbases We Built on Facebook

Are Now Nearly Meaningless

Via RivalIQ

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Algorithms that Optimize for Engagement Lead to Polarization, Misinformation, & Hate-for-Profit

Via MIT Technology Review

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You cannot build competitive advantage from Google & Facebook alone.

#2

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Each incremental ad impression and customer conversion costs dollars

Efforts to improve ad ROI are often counteracted by competition, rising prices, & variable inventory

And when FB/GG need to show Wall Street growth… You pay more.

Duopoly Advertising

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Every step of progress requires the same amount of effort.

There’s no gain in efficiency over time.

If competition or external forces reduce ROI, successive steps get even harder!

Boulder-Pushing Marketing

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Do a marketing thing.

Boost that thing’s reach.

Engage & grow your audience.

Get higher ROI next time.

Improve your algorithmic signals.

Publish a blog post.�Create a new Google Ad.�Guest on a podcast.�Send a tweet.�Run a webinar.

Share your post.�Boost your ad.�Amplify your podcast.�Earn Retweets.�Put webinar on YouTube.

Get more blog subscribers. Find related KWs to bid on. Grow podcast subs.�Get more Twitter followers. Grow your email list.

Grow links; rank better.

Boost your quality score.�Get rec’d by platform algos. Earn more visibility per tweet. Improve email deliverability.

Get more visitors per post, more conversions per ad, more listeners per podcast, more engagement per tweet, more clicks per email.

The Marketing Flywheel

Flywheels Create Competitive Advantage

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Google & Facebook (Alone) Make This Hard to Do

Via Bloomberg / Merkle

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On the Duopolies, You’re Competing With Everyone

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Meanwhile, On Alternative Channels, Many Competitors Aren’t Even Present

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When you build brand equity elsewhere, Google & Facebook become better channels.

#3

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Brand Impression #1…

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Brand Impression #2…

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Brand Impression #16…

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“Fine! I give up! I WILL BUY YOUR $220 PESTO ROCK & STICK”

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Brands that Build Affinity Get Higher Ad ROI

Oh hey… I know this brand. They’re recommended on all the Italian recipe websites.

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Brands that Only Invest in Ads Get the Lowest ROI

Uhh… Sorry. Never heard of you.

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The More You Put Into Other Channels, The Better the Duopoly Performs

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How to Expand Marketing Beyond Google & Facebook

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Figure Out Who Your Customers Are

Find the Messages that Resonate With Them

Uncover The Sources That Influence Them

Discover Where Those Audiences Engage

Amplify Messages that Work in Places They Pay Attention

A Simple, Five Step Process:

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#5:

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Get some basic stats with a survey

Via Typeform

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Interview both customers & non-buying audiences

What brought you in today?

What’ve you tried before? What did you like? Anything you didn’t?

Who do you like ordering with for delivery?

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From that process, you can learn where/how your audience’s Buyer Journey starts:

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Find Where Your Audience Pays Attention

Via SparkToro

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Uncover Sources That Previously Worked…

Via Google Analytics & SimilarWeb

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Audience Intelligence tools can help, too ;-)

Via SparkToro

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Optimize for Engagement Streaks to Get Social Visibility, Followers, & Traffic

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Give the Networks What They Want:

A) Content that keeps users on the platform (i.e. no links)

B) Posts that earn either replies or repeat visits/clicks (more so than likes/shares)

C) Visual & video formats, shocking headlines, and/or surprising & unexpected content

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Give Your Followers What They Want:

A) Consistency of focus. Sadly, people tend not to like deviation from the initial reason they followed you/your brand.

B) High controversy AND belief-reinforcing content tends to earn amplification & following

C) Easy to consume & process (hence shorter, more visual, more emotional content tends to work)

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Engage, draw traffic, repeat.