How to Spot Trends... For Free 👀

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From tips so good they shouldn’t be free to a shiny new ad network, we’ve got growth tactics galore this week:

🧠 Tactics - the fountain of untapped demand has been found, and it’s free.

👷 What’s working - the mobile game ad network Applovin is showing Meta-level results (for some)

🗣️Community Talk - fraudulent orders are costing Shopify owners, but we’ve got the fix.

TACTICS

The Fountain of Untapped Demand

Greg Isenberg may have ruined someone’s day.

Someone who thought they were going to keep the TikTok Creator Insights secret to themselves. 

Nope. 

Word’s out. 

Thanks Greg. 

The secret: TikTok Creator Insights.

What it does: shows you what Tik Tok searches have big volume and few answers.

Why that’s amazing: do we even need to explain? It’s a resource to find untapped demand. And it’s free 🤯.

Here are some examples of opportunities he found with it. 

1. Adhd apps. 8 million americans have adhd and want solutions other than drugs. 

2. Coloring books are trending. Who knew?

3. Custom shirts. Especially sustainably sourced.

And there are dozens more new ideas for you to find there everyday.

Tips on how to use it

1. Scroll through suggested/trending tap

2. See if anything catches my eye

3. Check search and demographics data

4. Look at related videos to get ideas

That’s it.

PlotWorkSpace, a video social listening tool, has actually been doing this for a while, hat tip to them. 

Takeaway: it’s not built for scalability or automation, but it’s an amazing tool to find untapped demand ideas. Powerful stuff for those able to make quick, decisive moves.

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• How to build your content marketing funnel

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WHAT ELSE IS WORKING

Advertising on Applovin. 

Not heard of them yet? They’re an ad network for mobile games. The kind that used to make those low quality, in-your-face ads that were really hard to skip. 

According to recent reports though, their new algorithm is the proverbial bomb. But that’s not all. 

You see, mobile advertising used to just promote more games to its audience. 

Now, Applovin is running a pilot for eCommerce stores.

Check out what Sean Frank from ridge had to say about it:

Takeaway: tread carefully. These are early days and what might work for some won’t for others. Test and budget accordingly. On the other hand, you might want to jump on this while it’s fresh and unsaturated. Remember, marketers ruin everything and the cat is out of the bag.

COMMUNITY TALK

Fraudulent Orders Flooding Shopify Stores

"I've had five fraudulent orders today alone, all from the East Coast. It's exhausting dealing with these constant scams! Should I report these to their ISP, or just keep marking them as fraud?"

– u/iametron

🤔 Why you should care:

• Chargebacks and Financial Losses: You refund the payment and pay fees when the legitimate cardholder disputes the transaction.

• Lost Inventory: Products are shipped out, but payment is refunded, leaving you without both payment and product.

• Higher Chargeback Ratios and Penalties: Too many chargebacks increase fees and risk losing access to payment processors.

Plus, it’s a pain in the a**.

⚒️The fix: 

• Use shipping softwares that detect fraud: these automatically put the order on hold for human assessment if there are signs of fraud. 

• Integrate Third-Party Fraud Detection Apps: Shopify supports apps like Signifyd or NoFraud, which add extra layers of fraud detection.

• Delay shipment until capture: you can opt to slow or completely pause the shipment process until payment is captured. 

Takeaway: you can probably wait until you get hit before investing in these solutions. The first attempts won’t cost you too much. But they will indicate you’re in their crosshairs, so at that point, better protect your shop.

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With ❤️.

The Early Checkout Team

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Thumbnail image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay