Google Has a New Competitor | Vol 87

Welcome to Volume 87

Let’s get straight to the good stuff. 

• Google has a new competitor
• How to choose the right distribution channel
• How influencers can grow your brand

🎧  Listen to this episode of Revenue Talks as Ross and Dave Gerhardt dive deep into distribution, attribution, hiring, and building a brand that inspires audience trust, generates consistent demand, and drives long-term business growth.

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B2B NEWS

Google Has a New Competitor

If you saw this tweet in 2019, it probably won’t surprise you to know Ahrefs CEO Dmytro Gerasymenko kept his word. Here’s a screenshot of the tweet:

Three years after this thread, Ahrefs invested $60 million in building its own search engine. Yep! Yep.com lives and breathes, and it’s Google’s latest competitor. 

To gain initial user trust, Ahrefs is leveraging two unique value propositions: privacy and profit share. Ahrefs CEO says these are two issues Google have ignored for years. 

Privacy: Instead of relying on personal data like Google, Ahrefs’ CEO says Yep.com will improve user experience by relying on keyword search volume, the position of the link getting the most clicks, and other non-personal data. However, it won’t create a targeted advertising profile for its users. 

Profit Share: Dmytro Gerasymenko believes search engines should share ad revenue with creators whose content makes an impact. 

He shared in an interview that if Google used a 90/10 profit share model to compensate Wikipedia, it could make up to $6.75 billion out of Google’s $105B+ search revenue. That’s a lot more than the 2M grant Google gave Wikipedia’s parent company in 2019. 

That’s why Yep is adopting a 90/10 profit sharing model. That means creators will receive 90% of revenue generated from ads, while Yep takes 10%. Offering creators a higher profit share is an acquisition move that can strengthen Ahrefs’ positioning in the $20B creator economy. Hats off to the Ahrefs team for such an audacious, ambitious move. It’s not every day you see an industry giant take on a bigger giant. 

CONTENT DISTRIBUTION

How to Choose the Right B2B Distribution Channel

If you’ve followed Ross Simmonds for a while, you should be familiar with the mantra, “Create Once, Distribute Forever”.

Investing in content creation without a solid distribution plan is like driving around town for hours with no idea of how to reach your destination. You waste time and resources trying to find your way.

A distribution plan saves you time and rewards your efforts. Instead of letting the content pieces you create collect dust, you identify, share, and promote your content across profitable channels where your target audience hangs out the most. 

At Foundation, we use this distribution channel matrix to build a distribution strategy and select the right channels to distribute our content as well as our clients’:

These categories help us identify core distribution channels where our audience hangs out so we know where to invest our efforts. Our recent article dives deep into distribution best practices and how you can use this matrix to identify profitable distribution channels for your brand. You should read the full article.

Find the Best Distribution Channel for Your Brand

INDUSTRY REPORT

How Influencers Can Grow Your Brand

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, many social media platforms have seen a significant increase in users. 

TikTok, for example, saw its total users jump from 65 million to 700 million in 2020. Right now, the platform has 1 billion users, and it’s the fifth-largest social network after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, and Instagram. 

As the number of social media users keeps growing, B2B marketers are investing more in these platforms to get their content in front of their target audience. As a result, more marketers are partnering with niche influencers to gain audience trust and boost sales. 

If you’ve been wondering whether or not influencers are a good investment for your brand, you should check out Nielsen Company’s influencer marketing report. The report details useful influencer marketing statistics, trends, and tips to help you create a winning strategy, choose the right influencers for your brand, and build better connections with your audience.

Download and read the full report here

OTHER NEWS OF THE WEEK:

⚓️ Despite the layoffs, hiring freezes, and economic downturn, Salesforce’s report shows the company is riding out the storm. 

💰 Pinterest acquired The Yes to redefine how people shop online. 

📉 There’s been talks of a recession headed our way, and the numbers haven’t been so great for the tech industry. See how the economic downturn is hitting the industry. 

BRAIN FOOD OF THE WEEK: 

Some things that will elevate your life don’t feel comfortable when you do them. But they are super rewarding. The secret to moving past your comfort zone and experiencing repeated success is to: 

• Assess if an action is the right thing to do in the moment. 
• Make up your mind to show up consistently. 
• Push past negative feelings and dig the work. 
• Treat rejection and failure as feedback. 
• Let go of things that aren’t working anymore, toxic habits that don’t serve your purpose, and toxic relationships that kill your progress. 
• Celebrate little wins.
• Know your worth and never settle for less.
• Choose progress over perfection. Take it one day at a time, one goal at a time. 

TWITTER THREAD OF THE WEEK:

11 Important Lessons About Content Creation by Ross Simmonds

INTERESTING FINDS ACROSS THE INTERNET

• How to do User Research in the Remote World
• How To Navigate A Downturn Or Recession 
• Great Employees Don’t Complain. They Walk Away
• The Bill Gurley Chronicles: VCs, Marketplaces, And Early-Stage Investing
• The Macroeconomic Signal to Watch for Software & Infrastructure Startups

WHAT WE’RE WIRED INTO THIS  WEEK 🎧:

We have $10,000 to not mess this up (Podcast)

These round-ups are brought to you by me, Jessica O., every week ✌!