In its simplest terms, scrolljacking is the web industry term for repurposing the scroll wheel/motion for something other than the expected advancing up or down the page. Though some may have a more specific definition, this is the one we’re going to work with in describing unexpected behavior triggered from scrolling.

There are several ways developers have scroll jacked different sites at varying levels of “jackedness,” if you will. Doing a quick Google search, you can find plenty of strong opinions on scrolljacking, most of which reveal vehement opposition.

In this post, I will explain and critique a few different scrolljacking techniques and give my thoughts on how and when this can be a positive experience.

Technique 0: Parallax

Probably the most common example of scrolljacking these days is a parallax background — when a background image moves at a different speed than the rest of the content on the page, creating an interesting layered effect. This is a very minor example of scrolljacking, though it does use the scroll to manipulate the page in a way that is not consistent with what users expect from a scroll wheel.

I’ve decided to make this “Technique 0” because at this point, though it is falling out of favor, most users don’t bat an eye at seeing parallax backgrounds. Of course any element can have the parallax effect applied to it, though backgrounds are the most common.

Technique 1: The Full Jack

Some sites feature elements that are essentially slides which take over the full browser area and use the scroll wheel to advance or rewind. Some examples of this technique can be found at Apple, Huge Inc, and Yapstone.

These are pretty easy to get used to, though this can be frustrating for a user who may want to jump around the content or quickly scan the whole page. These are sections that demand your attention the same way a pop-up does. You are not able to continue to the rest of the page until you get past the scroll-jacking section. Pop-ups are universally hated, so why should scrolljacking sections be viewed differently?

Technique 2: The Slight Jack

Some sites still show the expected scrolling of text with a background image that becomes fixed and perhaps changes to a different background image at a certain point. It eventually either becomes relative again and scrolls up the page or gets covered by content below the particular section. This would be a pretty low level of scroll “jackedness,” and perhaps the least offensive. A couple examples of this technique can be found at The New York Times and Grammarly.

Technique 3: The Fading Jack

A third variation can be found at dstillery. This technique utilizes both fixed background and foreground elements, and then uses scroll position to fade through text and imagery.

This is the least intuitive example for the end user. It is easy to get to a point where you can use the scroll wheel a bit and nothing will change because you have passed one trigger but have not yet hit another. Issues like this can make it seem like the site is broken by not responding to your scroll.

So What’s the Big Jacking Deal?

Scrolljacking alters the fundamental truth users have come to expect from using their scroll wheel. Think of it like renting a car and then when some a-hole cuts you off on the freeway, you go to honk your horn but instead you get a spray of washer fluid and the wipers start wiping at full blast.

OK, so scroll jacking certainly doesn’t create dangerous situations, but still, it goes against everything a user has learned to expect from their previous experiences with scrolling, both on the web and in most applications.

How Can Designers/Developers Practice Responsible Scrolljacking?

Probably my favorite example of scrolljacking, which I would call a slight variation to Technique 2 comes from Melanie Daveid. This is an example of half of the screen starting as relative, becoming fixed for a certain duration, and then becoming relative again.

Only half the screen gets jacked at a time, so you always see the continuity of the page scroll. We’ll call this technique “The Half Slight Jack.” Then she’s got the cherry on top at the bottom of her page with her scroll event animation.

In my opinion Melanie Daveid has it right on, and Technique 2 is pretty good as well. When it comes to scrolljacking, as long as something on the page is still moving in an expected way, the user is getting that motion and a good deal of the control they expect.

It can be used as an interesting and interactive way to tell a story without the use of a slider or accordion, which, by the way, can be used against you when it comes to SEO.

Though scrolljacking has many opponents, I don’t see it going away anytime soon. I’m going to guess it will become more prevalent throughout the web and that UX designers will continue to come up with new ways to scrolljack, many of which will continue to get serious opposition from the web community.

Sometimes a prospect comes to your website, finds exactly what they want, and makes a purchase. This post is not about these people. This post is about the vast majority, who visit your site a few times. They also visit other sites and comparison shop.

They mull over the decision to buy something — researching, searching, reading, and thinking. This post is about these prospects. The people who just need a little nudge to get them over the finish line.

We know from research that on average it takes six touches before a prospect converts. So the obvious question most marketers should be asking is, how do you keep these people engaged?

Use Retargeting to Bring Potential Customers Back

Retargeting is a method of digital advertising that aims to entice users back to an advertiser’s site after they have left. Advertisements are show to customers who have demonstrated what we call intent, which is an action they’ve performed on an advertiser’s site that shows they’re interested in a product or service.

Intent signals come from a variety activities. The classic use case is when a customer puts a something into a shopping cart, but does not complete a purchase. That action of putting an item into the cart shows clear purchase intent.

To be effective, web retargeting uses a combination of tailored messaging and targeted ad placement, that capitalize on the intent signals found on the website. With that in place, display ads are bought on digital advertising exchanges and served on news sites, blogs and other locations online — wherever your customer might be browsing.

Web retargeting is popular in nearly every vertical from ecommerce and travel, to B2B and entertainment. It’s great for any brand interested in engaging current or prospective customers online. The technology to find users again has grown to work across most websites, social networks and even email.

5 Proven Tips to Keep Leads Engaged With Retargeting

1) Segment your audience.

Poor segmentation is one of the main culprits of low performance in a retargeting campaign. Once segmented, you can target each group with creative and content that’s most relevant to them.

You can set up basic URL segments with audiences defined by specific pages they visited while on your website. Some common groups to create include:

1. Homepage (Upper-funnel): Target prospects with branding message or discount offers to get new customers in the door.
2. Category pages (Mid-funnel): These users have demonstrated interest in a specific product type; re-engage them with a general  ad for that product category (i.e., shoes).
3. Specific product pages (Lower-funnel): If a user has looked at a specific product offering (i.e., men’s blue Nike Air sneakers), they can be retargeted with an ad for those specific shoes.
4. Shopping cart: These are very high intent users. Target these customers with ads for those specific products they looked at, and include an enticing offer, such as free shipping, to encourage them to complete the purchase.

2) Leverage email.

Did you know that email can be easily incorporated as a inventory source for retargeting now? The best part about email retargeting is the inventory is free. Sending an email as part of a retargeting campaign doesn’t require bidding on ad exchange for a placement. It does have some limitations, for example you shouldn’t send out more than one email to a specific prospect per day.

A well designed email is a great way to remind a customer of a specific item they looked at, send a specialized offer or coupon code, or promote similar items to one that they pursued before. On average, retargeting emails have an open rate of 60%, convincing customers to click 15% of the times.

With some research, AdRoll discovered that when running both traditional email and email retargeting, email retargeting produced 3x the open rate and 6x the clickthrough rate.

3) Dig into your CRM.

A typical CRM campaign is focused on one channel, email. Why limit your CRM efforts only to that channel? With CRM retargeting you can market to customers from your database with display ads. This has a few advantages over email including the ability to increase the frequency of messaging, emails can’t be sent more than once per day.

It also helps your brand stay top of mind as customers browse the internet, not just when they look at their inbox. You can even upload a lead list of prospects and target ads directly at a specific segment that’s not in your CRM.

To get started we recommend creating segments from existing prospects and customers, defining where they are in the funnel, and then using retargeting software to reach those segments with web and Facebook ads. Whether you’re storing contact data in an email platform, already leveraging a CRM tool, or just storing customer purchase history in a spreadsheet, CRM data onboarding allows the flexibility to use multiple data sources to re-engage your contacts with relevant content.

This approach can work well for B2C companies who wish to target in-store buyers and event attendees. A great example of a use case is Kiehl’s recent campaign, where they targeted their in-store convertors for repeated sales, using a combination of website data and CRM email lists.

4) Use dynamic creative.

If you’re not using dynamic creative, you should definitely consider it. Dynamic creative is a system that allows for an ad’s creative to be generated on the fly, based on how well its various elements are performing.

For instance, a call-to-action on an ad might be susceptible to a higher clickthrough rate (CTR) when it’s red as opposed to blue. Dynamic creative would test these variations and then serve up the winning color to the larger audience. It’s popular with direct-response digital marketers and retailers because it simply performs better. Being able to show the exact product that a customer browsed in an ad is powerful.

And it performs better than showing a generic item that they might not like. Last year, AdRoll advertisers increased their campaign spend for dynamic-creative ads by 30% quarter over quarter (QoQ) from Q3 to Q4, compared with a 16% increase in total spend for static ads. And the trend was validated by results: highly-personalized, dynamic ad campaigns delivered costs per acquisition (CPAs) that were 60% lower than those for static campaigns.

Some best practices to consider include:

1. Use clean, mobile-friendly designs. You want to make sure your ads display well on mobile. A straightforward and simple design is better suited for display across multiple devices, they also load quickly, providing a better customer experience. Drop the flashy Photoshop art and use a white background that allows the product to be easily swapped out depending on what the customer last viewed.
2. Keep messaging consistent. This one is a given. You want to avoid confusing customers, so check all your creative and confirm that your promotions are consistent across different ad placements, campaigns, vendors and channels. Nothing is more frustrating for a consumer than seeing a discount for a item they just purchased for full price.
3. Showcase multiple products. Dynamic carousel ads on Facebook can display the most relevant products to customers, regardless of device — desktop, mobile, or tablet. Each ad spotlights an individual product and its price. Consider including a call-to-action (CTA) button, such as “Shop now,” to encourage clicks.

5) Get smarter with attribution. 

In marketing or advertising, attribution is the process of identifying a set of user actions (“events” or “touchpoints”) that contribute in some manner to a desired outcome, and then assigning a value to each of these events.

Because technology is evolving daily, attribution in advertising is oftentimes considered a confusing and complex topic. But, that doesn’t mean you should bury your head in the sand and ignore it. It’s obvious at this point that just using a last-click (meaning the last element a lead clicked on before converting) attribution model is an antiquated method of measuring advertising success.

At the most basic level, using last-click doesn’t value any other advertising that a user saw prior to clicking. It also incentives platforms to bombard users with ads, who would make purchase anyway. It’s like giving out coupons to people in the checkout line and then taking full credit for the sale. Clearly, that is not the best allocation of valuable marketing resources.

There are a variety of platforms, technology and approaches that you can use to improve how you do attribution. For example, AdRoll encourages people to use a blended attribution model. One that takes into both views and clicks. This is an easy way to account for viewing an ad, but also retains the immediacy and clarity of last-click.

The Bottom Line

Retargeting is a core aspect of nearly every digital marketer’s approach. With these tips you should be able to get even more value from your retargeting campaigns, incorporate new innovations and maximize the return on investment.

Interested in learning more? Join AdRoll and HubSpot for our webinar September 29th, Funnel Vision: Leveraging Display Advertising & Retargeting to Improve Your Digital Marketing Efforts

The last time I went on vacation, Facebook and Instagram announced two big product changes that I was left scrambling to catch up on when I returned.

Know the feeling? If you work in social media marketing, my guess is you know it all too well.

Social media is constantly evolving, making today an exciting time to work in marketing. This can also mean that you sometimes feel as if you’re falling behind on your general social media knowledge and education.

The solution? Podcasts.

In this blog post, we put together a list of 10 podcast episodes that deliver helpful and actionable guidance for social media marketers looking to brush up on their skills in a quick and entertaining way.

10 Amazing Podcasts About Social Media

1) Marketing Smarts: How ‘Dolphin Tale’ Brought 800,000 Visitors a Year to Clearwater Marine Aquarium

Click here to listen to this podcast episode

In this episode, Kerry O’Shea Gorgone speaks with Chief Marketing Officer of the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, Bill Potts. They discuss Winter the dolphin, whose story of recovery from losing her tail was chronicled in the movie Dolphin Tale. Thanks to their social media and public relations teams’ relentless work to get Winter’s story shared with local media outlets, she eventually became the star of a hit film (seriously, rent this movie).

In light of the Aquarium’s newfound fame, Potts talks about their strategies for maintaining the momentum of the Dolphin Tale films by investing in social media more than ever. In particular, they’ve experienced a lot of engagement by live streaming video of their animals on Facebook Live, Periscope, and Snapchat. (You can learn how to master Facebook Live with the help of this free guide.)

[Live-streams are] not super-rehearsed. They really are authentic. We focus on the animal, we focus on the story, and we don’t script it. We have an outline of what we want to be reviewed during the live webcast, but we make sure they’re naturally delivered. They’re really not rehearsed. They just happen. We do schedule and plan them, and we do know what’s going to be discussed, but we make it really authentic. It’s a one-take deal.”

Key Takeaways:

• All organizations have a story to tell, whether it’s about their mission, an individual, or a certain achievement. Give it the direction it needs to garner attention from media.
• Don’t just talk about yourself: Get others to talk about you on social media and in the press to earn more attention. (Here’s a handy PR guide to help with that.)
• Live streams should be raw, unscripted, and authentic: You can practice using the technology, but ultimately, remain flexible to allow room for more genuine content. (Check out this live streaming checklist before you get started.)
• Don’t be afraid to experiment with how and where you’re sharing video content. For example, the aquarium turns over their Snapchat to trainers working with animals 1:1 so followers can see how the aquarium helps marine life up close.
• Learn about your audience and where to reach them: For the aquarium, it’s mothers on Facebook.

Duration: 25:20

2) Online Marketing Made Easy with Amy Porterfield: How to Get Started with Facebook Live

Click here to listen to this podcast episode

This episode of Amy Porterfield’s marketing podcast features Kim Garst of Boom Social, where they discuss best practices and strategies for using Facebook Live. Main themes of this episode included determining how often to broadcast, apprehension about broadcasting live and making mistakes, and uncertainty about measuring success.

I think the reason live video is so impactful (again, this is my opinion and what I’ve seen through my personal experiences and watching other people) is that people are so attracted to people who are not just real, but people that are relatable. In other words, they can see themselves having that issue.”

Key Takeaways:

• Consistency is a contributor to successful live streams: Create a regular schedule on Facbeook Live or Periscope to expand your reach after you stop broadcasting live.
• Carefully choose your broadcast’s headline: Remember, this is an opportunity to grab more attention from followers.
• Incorporate an offer into pre-outreach for your Facebook Live event. For example, tell followers that you’ll be giving away promo codes, ebooks, or checklists that they can only download if they tune in.
• Have a strategy to achieve a specific goal for every single broadcast, and don’t just talk for the sake of sharing.
• Find a way to capture people’s attention while they scroll: Facebook only counts “Views” as users who watched for 10 seconds or more.

Duration: 55:31

3) Social Media Marketing: Content Creation Hacks

Click here to listen to this podcast episode

This episode, hosted by Social Media Examiner Founder and CEO Michael Stelzner, focuses on social media content creation with the help of special guest and social media pro, Nick Westergaard.

In the interview, Westergaard discusses the fact that everyone knows they need to create content, but not everyone knows how to do it most effectively. Many content creators don’t operate with a comprehensive strategy, which can make people object putting in the work to make content pay off. Westergaard mentions the term “checklist marketing,” which he says refers to marketers tackling every new marketing strategy like an item on a to-do list without objectives or strategy in mind.

You have to gamify it a little bit and think about, if you’re creating one thing, how many more things can I create out of this? … By planning one piece of content, I create many.”

Key Takeaways:

• Try a team approach to social media content creation to both share the workload and curate a diverse array of content — even from colleagues who aren’t marketers.
• Experiment with user-generated content: Develop a campaign around an event or hashtag so your followers are sharing photos and messages that you can share with your networks.
• Repurpose content: If you’re writing a blog post or designing an infographic (here are some helpful templates for that), find a way to create smaller pieces of it that can be used as social media posts. Additionally, you can string smaller pieces of content together to create an ebook or guide.
• Take part in #TBT: Align your older content with current events and re-share it on social media. This takes advantage of nostalgia marketing and re-promotes content you’ve already created.

Duration: 41:08

4) TED Radio Hour: Why Do We Like What We Like?

Click here to listen to this podcast episode

In this episode of the TED Talks podcast, host Guy Raz interviews several TED speakers who’ve talked about branding:

• Filmmaker and Producer of Super Size Me Morgan Spurlock discusses how brands impact our purchasing decisions.
• Management Advisor and Author Joseph Pine touches on the power of authenticity.
• Ogilvy & Mather Group’s Vice Chairman Rory Sutherland explores the real versus perceived value of different products.

Their discussions are varied and well worth the full listen, but the overarching theme was how brands’ perception impacts their success (or lack thereof). Pine mentions that customers make choices because they’re bought into the dreams and imagery surrounding big brands, and that once they start using the product, they start to believe the message.

Ubiquity is the death of authenticity.”

Key Takeaways:

• Take advantage of the opportunity to cultivate and promote what makes your brand unique. There’s always room for bragging on social media — just do it in moderation.
• Be authentic and real, but don’t say that’s what you’re doing. Consumers want authenticity, not disingenuity.
• Tell stories with a sense of place to drive greater authenticity: Set the stage when sharing blog posts, updates, and videos on social media so followers can see the kind of activities your organization is up to.
• A/B test different types of post on social platforms to see how they perform comparatively: Consumers don’t objectively think a product or service is good or bad — branding and marketing messages impact their perception, and that’s in your hands.

Duration: 49:13

5) The Growth Show: Episode 100: Guy Kawasaki’s Unconventional Advice on Growth

Click here to listen to this podcast episode

In this episode of The Growth Show, HubSpot CMO Kipp Bodnar sat down with Canva Chief Evangelist Guy Kawasaki to discuss Instagram Stories versus Snapchat Stories, Facebook Live video, and organizational growth challenges.

During the discussion, Kawasaki admits that he prefers Instagram to Snapchat due to its superior content discoverability features and analytics options. And when it comes to Facebook Live, he is bought in.

In fact, he mentions that while taking a break from streaming on vacation, his Facebook reach was only 400,000 users, versus the 1 million users he sees when he’s streaming regularly. (Spoiler alert: He also lets listeners in on his secrets to greater engagement during live streams — but you’ll have to listen to find out what they are.)

I don’t want positive, supportive, wonderful, reinforcing engagement on social media. I want any kind of engagement.”

Key Takeaways:

• Facebook Live drives greater engagement and reach than publishing recorded video or sharing a YouTube link.
• When you’re streaming live on Facebook, have a second screen (and ideally a teammate) available to see what comments or questions are rolling in from your audience so you can answer them live.
• Ask your audience questions while you’re streaming live to increase comments, Likes, and followers.
• Publish regularly and frequently to increase engagement on social media platforms.

Duration: 35:01

6) Hashtagged: Focusing on Creating Content and Community Versus Being an Influencer with Dan Joyce

Click here to listen to this podcast episode

In this episode of Hashtagged, host Jordan Powers interviews Dan Joyce, a content creator on Instagram, about the cultivation of vibrant and engaged social media communities. Joyce was one of Instagram’s very first users.

They swap stories about how they started using Instagram first as a creative outlet, and then eventually as a tool for content creation and personal networking. As a professional content creator, Joyce initially began experimenting with Instagram, but it’s since evolved into a powerful network that photographers and other content creators can harness:

[The] platform has provided a breadth of knowledge about photography and content creation in a way that makes big social network a lot smaller … There are so many types of content being shared on Instagram, it’s created its own ecosystem.”

Key Takeaways:

• You can’t force becoming an influencer or thought leader, even on social media. Share lots of unique and creative content to grow your social network, and followers will come after.
• Individuals and brands can use Instagram as a more professional portfolio of photographs and Snapchat as a more lighthearted photo log of their day-to-day.
• Experiment with the types of posts you share on Instagram: Powers found that when his posts are more about content creation than networking, they end up performing better. (Here are 18 photo and video ideas for Instagram to try.)

Duration: 40:18

7) Inbound Marketing Today: 7 Social Media Mistakes Companies Make & How You Can Avoid Them

Click here to listen to this podcast episode

Inbound Marketing Today is hosted by Neil Brown, founder of the Brown Creative Group, and in this episode, he discusses common mistakes businesses are making on social media:

1. Treating all social media sites as if they’re the same and not changing up how you share content.
2. Too much automation.
3. Not posting on social media frequently enough.
4. Not responding to questions or comments.
5. Deleting negative posts, comments, and reviews.
6. Trying to be active on every social media channel.
7. Not having a lead generation strategy.

You want to use automation to make marketing more efficient, not to appear as a bot. Social media should be social.”

Key Takeaways:

• Social media is an arm of your customer service team: Aim to be helpful, positive, and delightful to your customers.
• It’s better for engagement to have a comprehensive strategy for only two social media platforms than to post at random on all platforms.
• Maintain your voice’s authenticity. You’re a human speaking for an organization, so don’t forget to be real, and connect with people when they seek assistance or give feedback.

Duration: 12:14

8) Social Pros: Why Most Social Media Writing Sucks & How to Fix It

Click here to listen to this podcast episode

In this episode of Convince and Convert’s Social Pros, hosts Jay Baer and Adam Brown interview Josh Bernoff — chief troublemaker at Without Bullsh*t — about writing quality content for social media.

Bernoff’s mission is to eliminate convoluted writing from marketing, and he thinks it’s a challenge because we were rewarded for writing long papers when we first learned to write in school. Now, that experience is impacting social media posts, press releases, and blog posts in a detrimental way.

You’re not creating art. You’re creating effective communication, and there’s nothing wrong with doing that simply and directly.”

Key Takeaways:

• Get to the point. You should aim to say what you mean in the first 2-3 sentences of whatever you’re writing.
• Adopt Baer’s ROAM content marketing checklist: Who are the readers? What are your objectives? What follow-up action do you want to inspire from the reader? What impression will people have of your organization when they read your content?
• Always have another set of eyes look over your content, even Facebook captions. Never publish a first draft.

Duration: 53:40

9) #AskGaryVee: YouTube Growth Strategies, Business Risks & VanyerMedia’s New Office

Click here to listen to this podcast episode

In his podcast #AskGaryVee, Digital Marketing Expert Gary Vanyerchuk answers questions from his followers (delightfully coined “VanyerPeeps”), and his entertaining responses make it worth the listen. At the beginning of this episode, Vanyerchuk answers questions from a VaynerPeep about strategies for hacking YouTube growth.

Vanyerchuk believes that for all content creation — be it blog, video, or social media — the distribution is more important than the creation, and that those priorities are often the opposite to modern marketers. It’s not enough to write a great blog post, or produce a great YouTube video: it has to be seen and picked up by the right people, and that won’t happen unless you hustle for it.

You have to continue to bring value and produce good content, but you also need people to know about it.

Key Takeaways:

• Try collaborating with other YouTubers or influencers in your space on social media. If you can’t offer them exposure, what can you offer them in exchange for their partnership? Always offer value.
• Use targeted hashtags on Instagram to grow your audience there. Do some research to determine which tags are generating the highest levels of engagement.
• Join forums within your industry communities to develop a network of support that you can reach out to for social sharing, promotion, and participation in your social media campaigns.

Duration: 17:55 (YouTube answer ends at 8:00)

10) Social Media Social Hour: Behind the Data: A Quantitative Look at the Future of Social Media

Click here to listen to this podcast episode

In this episode of Social Media Social Hour, presented by Scoreboard Social and Casual Fridays, host Tyler Anderson interviews CEO of the Social Fresh, Jason Keath, to discuss the outlook of the future of social media. Social Fresh recently conducted a survey of over 500 participants about how brands are measuring, or not measuring, the ROI of their social media strategies.

Anderson and Keath discussed many of the findings in the report, with results often circling back to the outlook that video will continue to dominate social media in terms of engagement and ROI. This episode provides in-depth analysis and conversation without being too lengthy, with lots of helpful tips and actionable next steps for listeners along the way.

No one is seeing a return on what they’re doing on Snapchat right now… but people are passionate about the engagement opportunity.”

Key Takeaways:

• Prioritize social networks that deliver the greatest ROI: According to the report, those networks are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn (in that order).
• Instagram is projected to overtake Twitter in terms of popularity and ROI. Keath speculates that it’s because Instagram is less saturated than Twitter, which leads to greater engagement.
• Get the ball rolling on a video strategy: The number of respondents creating video assets on a monthly basis is growing — it ranked third for assets marketers are creating after images and blog posts.

Duration: 35:10

Are you a social media marketer? What podcasts do you listen to that we missed? Share with us in the comments below.