Successful Campaign Analysis Via Tagging Strategies

There can be a lot of unknowns when it comes to marketing campaigns. Who's seeing your ads or print pieces? Of those people, who are they resonating with? Are your strategies working? These are all very important questions, that if answered, can lead to valuable insights into improving these strategies. But how can you gain visibility into these in the first place? If these marketing initiatives are designed to drive traffic to your company's website, you're already headed in the right direction!

If you have advertisements on billboards, print, you likely already have a web analytics platform selected to measure your site. If not, what are you waiting for? If you are using a platform like Google Analytics, you can mark your campaigns for easy analysis via URL tagging. New to manual tagging? Here are a basic outline so you can get the most analysis out of your campaign data.

1. Identify Advertising Methods & Locations: The first step is to get your ducks in a row by laying out all of our advertising methods. What type of ads will they be? Where will they be placed? What will the call-to-action be? What URL will be featured on the ad? These are all things that should be considered before proceeding.
2. Evaluate Campaign Flexibility & Constraints: It is a good idea to identify any strengths and weaknesses with the campaign. Are the placements permanent, or is there flexibility to change the ad up periodically? It is good to know whether or not you will need to prepare additional tags for the different ad variations, be it a billboard or a banner ad.
3. Create Information-Rich Tags: Now that you have all of the information you need, it's time to make sure you carry as much of it over to Google Analytics as possible through information-rich URL tags. What do I mean by this? For Google Analytics URL tagging, you have the option of using several different fields for labeling, including campaign source, medium, and campaign. There are also other fields like term and content which will allow you to differentiate even more. You'll want to make sure you get as much information as you'll need down the line. The more information there is, the deeper you can drill down for analysis in the future.
4. Test, Test, Test! This step is pretty self-explanatory, but perhaps one of the most important steps of all. You should the new tags with their URLs to ensure that they send you to the proper page, as well as verify proper data collection within Google Analytics. You don't want to find out after deployment of these tagged links that something isn't right!
5. Deploy & Analyze: And now, the waiting game! Once enough data has begun populating in your analytics profile, you can begin slicing and dicing for deep analysis!

It is important to understand that this entire process can be time-consuming to start, but will serve to be a wise investment as the data comes rolling in. The insights that will be brought forth will be well worth it, as they'll help you understand how well all of your advertising is performing, regardless of the medium.

3 Content Questions for Your Next Web Design Project

For any business owner, the company website is one of the most valuable marketing materials. It is often one of the first points of contact for prospects, and as they say, first impressions are everything. A website’s content, when managed effectively, ultimately contributes to higher conversion rates, increased revenue, and better customer service across the entire business. But before the content creation process begins, there’s a few questions to ask yourself that will save you time and aggravation.

Do I Have All The Materials I Need?

I don’t mean cutting down the amount of work you do by reusing the content of your brochures and data sheets. Instead, gathering and utilizing the context, message, or tone from these established materials can give your brand a kind of “time-honored” consistency. In addition, users and potential customers will often respond and more easily relate to content they feel is familiar. That’s the trick—making sure your content is updated and “fresh,” but reinforcing the same message / values that you’ve established your business around.

Do I Know Who I'm Writing For?

The point above, as you might expect, leads to the issue of your audience. To attract, engage, and ultimately convert customers with a website, it’s important to have a firm grasp on who makes up that audience and what they want to see. Choosing your desired segmentation, identifying their interests, needs, and expectations, and finally aligning your content with those attributes makes for a smoother process and a better, more impactful end result.

What About The Future?

When all is said and done, what happens next? Where do you take your content after your project is complete? The good part about pondering this is that there is a wealth of options for your new web content. For example, you can create an optimization plan to ensure it stays fresh and relevant. You can also use your renewed branding efforts to update your marketing materials, brochures, pamphlets, social media pages, etc. The goal here is to form a solid information architecture with a steady stream of relevant content. No matter how you end up using it, understanding the applications of new content is a big step on the path to better marketing.

Now more than ever, great content is at the heart of all marketing, and taking your efforts online doesn’t change that. Investing the time and work into new web content is something that will have a host of benefits in the long run. Overall, thinking about your company’s history, your target audience, and what lies ahead will greatly contribute to that success.

Google Redoes Remarketing

If you have ever set up a Remarketing Group in AdWords, then you know the pain of creating and placing the new code every time you make a change. Recently, Google has released the new Remarketing code which allows one to manage their Remarketing efforts through Google Analytics. This new code is a single snippet that can be placed onto your entire site, instead of needing separate codes for each Remarketing being done.

What is Remarketing?

Before we go too far, let’s make sure everyone understands Remarketing. In simple terms, Remarketing is advertising to people that have previously been to your website. Placing the Remarketing code lets us know who (or which devices) have been to your website and how long ago it was since they have been there. Since this code allows us to know who has revisited a site, as marketers, we can turn these previous visitors into a target market and create tailored ads just for them in attempts to bring them back to your site.

How Does the New Remarketing Code Help?

The new Remarketing code eliminates the need of having a unique code for each Remarketing list. For instance, previously you could create a list of people who came to the site but did not buy, in an attempt to bring them back and still get that sale. On the other hand, you could create a list of people that bought 2 years ago and may now need a replacement, extensions, or upgrade to your product or service. It's easy to see the value of creating these groups and ensuring that these groups are receiving uniquely different messages from your company.

This new Re-Marketing Code enables one to create, modify, and add on to these groups without going through the headache of creating, placing, and double-checking the lines of code for each Remarketing list. Instead, as good marketers, we can focus on the advertisement message, making sure that it is relevant and engaging to the targeted audience.

If you have any questions about Remarketing or the changes that Google has made, please contact DaBrian Marketing Group. We would love to help you grow your Business through PPC.

5 Lessons for Successful Internet Marketing

Recently, I was reading an article in Advertising Age that highlighted the lessons from their CMO Strategy Summit.  I would have to agree with the eight things that the article mentions, but I’ve created a modified list of 5 lessons that applied to internet marketing or digital advertising.  Below are my 5 lessons that should be applied to internet marketing: 

1. Challenging Internal Think 
We need to challenge the “internal think” within our organization and marketing departments.  In the world of internet marketing, the old ways of thinking need to be modified and must include collaboration.  In order to be successful, many departments can no longer work in solos; otherwise campaigns are destined to fail.  We must work together to identify the best solutions that help to achieve strategic goals & objectives. This shouldn’t just apply to agency clients but advertising agencies as well. Be sure to limit risk and identify opportunities to control them with challenging internal think. 

2. Building Relations with PR, Finance and IT (be inclusive)
Don’t just get to know your CIO but also the heads of Public Relations, Communications, and Finance.  Understand what they think about your approach challenge, and obtain feedback from them.  Include your department heads into strategic discussions because everyone has a role to play with the marketing campaign.  Be prepared to justify cost, forecast, and predict outcomes with Finance, and reinforce the role of IT within the scope of every campaign.

3. Experiment with Failure (Wisely) – A/B & MV Testing
Experiment with failures through A/B & Multivariate testing of all things digital.  Create controlled experiments, develop hypotheses, identify sample sizes for statistical significance, run the test, and don’t stop testing.  It’s not as expensive as it was in the past with the functionality of Content Management Systems (CMS), Google AdWords, Google Analytics, KISSmetrics, and other usability testing sites.  Start gathering information and spend less time talking about it in meetings that don’t generate outcomes to reduce cost and improve marketing.

4. Local, Regional, and then National
It seem like every business thinks they’re a national brand, but they have challenges spending the national budgets. Grow locally, regionally, and then nationally to save money, measure your effectiveness, and apply your finds to new markets. If done effectively, you just might identify competitive advantages and target national markets that grow your business.

5. Measure & Value
Measure the effectiveness of your marketing tactics and provide a value for leads or sales.  This should lead to better marketing, reductions in cost, and the ability to forecast and predict.  Now, you’re speaking the language of the finance department and gaining credibility.  It should also help to reinforce the value of the IT department. 

These lessons should help to position your organization and team for successful internet marketing campaigns.  I would highly recommend that marketing professionals take a look the CMO Strategic Summit’s 8 lessons.  Let us know if you have any lessons that you’d like to share.  Good Luck! 

3 Roadblocks in Web Analytics and the Ways Around Them

If you're reading this blog, you probably already understand that a great deal of marketing power can come from web analytics. If you're an analyst, then we share the same pride in being able to take those high level metrics from tools like Google Analytics and slice and dice them to reveal tasty morsels we call insights. We've got a wide variety of tricks up our sleeves to help us accomplish this; from cohort analysis to predictive models. But none of that means anything unless you can get the buy-in needed for measurement to even take place.

I've written past blogs about getting the support from the decision-makers on data. This included creating a data-driven culture and developing KPIs that matter to form a solid measurement base. These are great, but only once you've gained the ears of the prospects. What do you do when they start spatting out excuses?

Excuses, Excuses

We've all heard them. In fact, we could all probably write a book with all of the excuses we've heard on why web analytics just aren't a part of an organization's immediate future ranging from budgetary to resource woes. Here are 3 excuses I've come across in the past and ways to help the prospect overcome them:

1. "We know how many hits our site gets." – Okay, so the first one on the list isn't an excuse….directly. This statement is enough to make any web analyst cringe, though. "Hits" don't even scratch the surface of what web analytics can measure.
   
   Solution: Flex those analyst muscles! Explain to them that web analytics goes well beyond measuring "hits". Wow them. Tease them. Tie it back to dollar amounts by showing them some examples of ROI analysis. With some persuasion, you can quickly open their eyes to a much larger analytical world than they originally thought they saw.


2. "We're focused on marketing initiative XYZ right now. We don't have the time." – This one's pretty common to hear, especially for agencies looking for new prospects. Unbeknownst to them, however, holding off on developing measurement strategies could severely impact marketing initiative XYZ.
   
   Solution: To overcome this kind of scenario, your best bet is to get more information on the initiative they're so focused on. Once you have a better understanding of what they're currently pursuing from a marketing perspective, you can show them how a measurement plan can help save them time and money as well as create efficiencies. We quote the movie Jerry Maguire here in the office a lot. This seems like a good time to do it: "Help us help YOU!"


3. "We don't have the right talent or skill-sets in-house." – This is a sad truth that exists in today's business world, though it is starting to dissipate. Avinash Kaushik has astutely pointed out in the past that web analytics is in its awkward teenage years. Tools are improving and new strategies are being developed for their uses. Progress in these areas has been completely largely by companies and individuals. It hasn't been until recently that the industry has started to gain the attention of some educational institutions.
   
   Solution: If you're an agency, hand them your consulting information! If you're not, find an agency! There are countless web analytics agencies out there that will do everything from full blown implementation and analysis to high-level consulting and guidance for your organization. Good insights only come from organizations with data-driven cultures. This has to start somewhere, so make sure it starts the right way!

Keep in mind that these aren't likely end-all solutions to get the right kind of buy-in for web analytics. One thing is certain though: The greatest way to gain widespread support for the discipline is to continue spreading the word! The importance of measurement is already (albeit slowly) gaining traction in the business world.

Have you come across some other interesting roadblocks? Share them in the comments below!

Why Your Social Media Marketing Isn't Working

When it comes to Social Media, many companies know enough to realize that nearly everyone is connected to at least one social network. And if they’ve done their homework, they’ll realize that a great deal of benefits can come from interacting and advertising in the Social space. Thinking they’re already behind the rest of the pack, they hurriedly create social media accounts and, after a fury of liking, friending, re-tweeting, pinning, and posting, not much happens. How is this possible? Isn’t Social Media one of the easiest ways to create visibility and improve customer service? It is, but only if it’s done right from the start.

Problem 1: Timing is Everything

If you gathered anything from the example above, it’s probably that that particular company rushed into marketing with Social Media without any sort of preparation or plan in place. As with anything related to a business, performing research, weighing the options, and planning accordingly are vital to success. Once your business decides that entering the Social Networking realm is viable, have a detailed plan of action. Define goals and objectives, determine which social networks would be most effective for your industry and audience, and implement with a Social Media Management tool (if applicable).

How does this help me?

Not only having a plan, but sticking to it, keeps your company’s Social Media activity consistent, fresh, and (for the most part) automated, saving you time and resources. Also, clearly outlined goals give you a better idea of what future direction your campaign should take to reach its desired outcome.

Problem 2: Finding the Time

Usually a direct result of the first problem above is failing to allocate the appropriate amount of time, resources, & personnel to a new Social Media Marketing plan. Many newcomers to the digital marketing frontier often misinterpret the amount of work that goes into a smoothly running, revenue-generating digital marketing machine. A Social Media strategy cannot be implemented, maintained, and managed by a small handful of people, especially for larger companies. During the initial planning stages, it is essential to take the amount of time and work into consideration and allocate the necessary resources to the project.

How does this help me?

Having the foresight to designate specific tasks to the right individuals eliminates the risk of unexpected budget concerns and scheduling problems that can arise with workers’ other projects.

Problem 3: Where's the Data?

When all is said and done, a marketing campaign of any kind is nothing without analytical proof of its effectiveness at achieving its goal (See Image Below). Without the necessary data to track a campaign’s impact on revenue, leads, or sales, all of the effort put into it will be wasted. Thus, adding social media into a standalone analytics tool (such as Google Analytics) or one that is integrated into a prior solution (such as Hootsuite Analytics) is the best way to make the best decisions regarding your Social campaign.

How does this help me?

Having analytics data at your fingertips allows your business’s Social Media Marketing plan to remain flexible, offers the advanced ability to evaluate whether your goals and objectives are being achieved, and acts as proof of what’s working, what isn’t, and which campaign areas need improvement.

Is your Social Media Marketing campaign guilty in any of the areas above? Is there something you’ve experienced that you’d like to add? Let us know in the comments section!

Keyword Research to Improve Email Marketing Effectiveness

In the internet marketing environment, we have access to a lot of information about our existing customers as well as prospective customers. Keyword research provides information on terms and phrases that are relevant to a specific audience, but demographic and geographic information should also be leveraged to improve effectiveness of email marketing campaigns and promotions. By leveraging and testing keyword research, you can create more targeted campaigns, be more efficient with your message, and improve overall conversion rates.

Segmentation of Email Campaigns based on Keyword Research

The segmentation of email campaigns beyond demographic information can include segmenting by sales process, customer lifecycle, etc. You can use keyword research to align with your segmentation strategy and deliver keywords-rich content to relevant demographics such as Female/Male or by State (See Tables Below). Several keyword research tools such as Ispionage, SpyFu, Ad Intelligence, Google Insights, and Google Keyword Tool can provide valuable insights into keyword trends by age, geographic locations, and other demographic information.

Image 1: An example of demographics information by age & sex.

Image 2: An example of keyword research that is available at the state level. 


Keyword Targeting with Subject Line Testing

Email Marketing is still an effective tactic which should include keywords that are consistent with your SEO campaign. Implementing relevant and targeted keywords that are not only consistent with your products/services, but also with your demographics and geographic locations, will help to improve open rates, click-through rates, sharing of emails, lead generation, lower cost per acquisition, and increase profit margins. The most interesting opportunity for keyword insertion into Email Marketing is within the subject line and content of the email. The ability to implement keywords into the subject line should improve your open rates as long as the keywords are relevant to the desired target audience. In some cases, email software providers can implement subject line testing to improve the open rates and test new keywords within the subject line (as seen in the Image 3 Below).

Image 3: Shows an example of subject line test for email communications.

Content Strategies by Segmentation

Based on the information that’s available for keyword research, you can develop and test content strategies based on keyword research and trends. For example, Table 1 above shows the keyword “home mortgage loan” for females between the ages of 25-34 as being consistent with the audience. By implementing keywords and content, the likelihood of the content being read, as well as its click-through rates, social media sharing, and conversions, will increase.


More Insight into What Works by Segment

If you’re running a SEO or Pay per Click campaign, it’s important to leverage this information and not “reinvent the wheel.” Some of this information is accessible via Google Analytics, WebTrends, Omniture, etc., but you need to differentiate what works and what does not. Don’t just stop at the conversion itself. Look into the segments, subject lines, and content messages that are leading to quotes, leads, and sales. It is recommended that you simplify the reporting to more clearly align the campaigns, keywords, segments, and content strategies with completed actions on the website or within the email campaigns.

Muted Ads – Is Being Blocked Bad?

Google is always trying to give web surfers the best experience. Recently, with a change made to Display Advertising, Google has given the web surfer the capability to block or “mute” paid ads. As a marketer, initially my reaction was of fear and dread. Now, people on the web won’t just ignore my display ad, but go a step further and mute it! However, after thinking about this further, it may not be such a bad thing after all.

What is the new “Mute Ads” Feature?

The “Mute Ad” feature, which Google announced to the advertising world on June 29, is slowly being rolled out on their Display Network. This feature simply places an “X” next to the Ad Choice Logo on the top right hand side of your Advert.
If a web surfer chooses to click this “X,” then your advert will no longer appear to them, even if fit all of your targeting settings, such as placements and keywords. The first thoughts surrounding these “Muted Ads” were that they would lead to fewer Impressions and a decrease in reach.

How will “Muted Ads” Impact Your Display Campaigns?

Although getting fewer Impressions may be true, the “Muted Ads” could also mean lower costs, higher CTR (Click Through Rate), and decreased CPA (Cost per Acquisition). If you are a bidding CPM (Cost per 1,000 Impressions), then muted ads mean fewer Impressions to viewers who don’t want to see your ads – or less wasted dollars. If you do see a drop in Impressions, then overall Cost should drop with it, seeing as how you are paying per 1,000 Impressions. If you are running CPC (Cost per Click) bidding on the Display Network, “Muted Ads” can help you too. They will decrease your Impressions, but since you would lose people who didn’t want to see your ad, you should not be losing any Clicks (or at least valuable Clicks – the ones that lead to Conversions). This will result in a better CTR, which in turns will help improve Quality Score, reduce CPC, and improve ranking position. Altogether, the “Mute Ad” feature seems like it will be more beneficial than first expected. The question is, will people actually use it, or just continue ignoring irrelevant ads?

Could “Muted Ads” be Better?

In saying that I think this “Mute Ad” feature is good, I am also hoping Google AdWords will release more data around it once it is fully launched. Knowing where (which placements) an ad is being muted, or by which demographic (age, sex, geographic location) could be useful. This would enable advertisers to pull, revise, and replace irrelevant ads with more relevant ones to niche markets. For instance: An Ad may perform great in L.A. but get “muted” a lot in D.C. Knowing this allows the marketer to continue the successful Ad in L.A. while creating a new one for the D.C. area. So here is hoping that more data around “Muted Ads” is on the way.
What are your thoughts on this new “Mute Ads” feature, which enables web surfers to block specific display ads? Let us know in the comment section below.

5 Tips For Making Your Data a Top Priority

Whether you’re a marketing manager for a private organization or a web analyst for a digital agency, you surely understand the great importance of data and the powerful insights it can yield. You've also probably encountered one (often frustrating) roadblock: The people around you just don't get it. The business analysts haven't gotten the historical data you requested. IT has adopted a "we'll get to it when we get to it" approach to installing tags on the website. Upper management doesn't share the enthusiasm that your department does.

These factors almost always lead to marketing inefficiencies for the long term, with your organization's proverbial marketing rear-ends hanging in the wind. Without quality insights, marketing campaigns cannot improve and are ultimately doomed to fail.

Tips for Success

So how do you go about creating a data-driven culture in your organization? Check out these tips to help convey the importance of data and insights:

1. Get Everybody On Board! – This is perhaps the most important item in this list! Measurement simply cannot happen without the complete support of the required parties in the organization. Make sure everyone, from IT to the decision-makers, knows what you are measuring, why you are measuring it, and how it affects them.
2. Establish Data-Gathering Policies & Procedures – You'll be measuring with the goal of gathering insights to drive business, so you will want to ensure that the data you're basing it all upon is of good quality. Establishing policies and procedures related to data and documenting them will take some time, but it will definitely pay off in the long run.
3. Identify KPIs Relevant to Your Audience – At this point you've caught the eyes of the necessary people in your organization. This is where you reel them in completely. Identify the Key Performance Indicators that matter most to each of them. This will differ according to their respective roles. You want to ensure they see the benefits of their work!
4. Create a Measurement Plan – Once you've identified all of the necessary KPIs, you must map out how you'll go about obtaining the data. Identifying opportunities for measurement and creating documentation for deployment are included in this step.
5. Get Hyped! – You've put all this effort into winning the right people over. Now it's time to get excited about it! Show them why they should be excited about the insights they'll be receiving. The more anticipation you build, the more likely you'll have advocates for the long haul.

Conclusion

So there you have it; 5 great tips for creating a data-driven culture. Some of them will be easier to accomplish than others, but all are possible with enough planning and communication with the right people. The benefits that can be reaped from them greatly outweigh the challenges. The insights that can be gained from complete buy-in and support can help drive business and improve campaigns well into the future.

Have additional tips? Share them in the comments!

3 Common Pitfalls in Content Marketing

By now, you’ve probably heard about the benefits that come with incorporating a Content Marketing strategy. The ways content can enhance your business’s marketing mix, how it builds a sense of community with customers, the ways it shows off your expertise—the list goes on and on. Unfortunately, many businesses aren’t utilizing their content to its full potential. Below are the most common of these mistakes and tips on how you can avoid them.

1) It’s All About Me

Sometimes when a business decides it wants to jump on the content bandwagon, there is the mindset that the bulk of their content should be directly tied to their products / services, or that they should always try to sell something when they communicate with their audience. Unfortunately, this strategy often turns users away from your content rather than sharing it and coming back for more. The problem is that businesses often fail to step into their target audience’s shoes and think about what they like, care about, and expect from web content. People want to be informed, entertained, and assisted in solving a problem, not bogged down by constant self-promotion.

The Tip: Do your research & be customer-centric—think about who your audience is, use their feedback, and create content based on what’s important to them.

2) Nothing But The Facts

You may have heard the phrase “facts tell, but stories sell” before when it comes to Content Marketing. This point builds off the pitfall above in that users don’t want dry, isolated, or negative content; rather, they want stories. Stories have themes, compelling elements, room for engagement and interaction, and connections between them. The success of other marketing tactics, such as SEO and Social Media Marketing, rely on building content that users can relate to, find what they need, and pass on to others. This not only affects the way content is made, but also the way it is distributed.

The Tip: Have a theme & make connections—use stories to entertain, persuade, and engage with your audience.

3) Publish & Pray

In any new marketing endeavor, having a plan is essential. Not only can your business keep its efforts (and budget) organized, but it also projects a sense of reliability to customers. With your content, this step is even more important. Many businesses take a heavy-handed approach to their content, letting regular communications fall by the wayside. Customers don’t want to keep checking your site for new content only to find the same thing they saw the week before. In most cases like this, they’ll eventually stop returning. Applying an optimization plan (set a goal, plan, implement, measure, refine, & repeat) is a great way to look at the content creation process.

The Tip: Make a plan & stick to it—create a calendar for content to show that your business can maintain a high standard while enhancing your reputation to your audience.

What do you think of the pitfalls above? If you have any suggestions or questions about this list, leave us a comment below!

3 Steps to a Successful Strategic PPC Campaign

Pay per Click can be a very powerful form of advertising. Google and Microsoft often brag about its amazing reach and how cost-effective it is. However, like everything else in business, if your PPC advertising efforts are aimless, then the profitability will most likely not be there. In order to not waste your time and money, here are 3 Steps (Strategy, Implement, and Optimize) to consider prior to running a Pay per Click Campaign.

1) Strategy

First ask the all important question: Why? What is your purpose of advertising online? This begins the strategy building process, which all starts with an overall objective – Increase brand awareness, generate leads, drive more sales, etc. This defined objective gives your PPC Campaign a focus. Next, decide how much you are willing to spend. Your budget is best set either monthly or daily. The final stage of the strategic process is setting specific and measurable Goals – i.e. to increase sales 3% month over month.

2) Implement

Now that you have an objective, budget, and at least one goal, the next step is setting up the Campaign. Before heading to Google AdWords or Microsoft adCenter, you will want to do some research. A few questions to consider are – Who is your target audience (broad or niche), what are they searching (keywords), and where are they online (websites, Social Media, etc.)? With all of this newly found information, it is time to head to the most appropriate advertising platform(s) (AdWords, adCenter, Facebook, etc.) and set-up your PPC Account. Remember to include multiple ad copy variations, keyword match types, and landing pages for testing purposes, because it is never too early to begin testing to see what will be the most effective and efficient.

3) Optimize

Finally, your PPC is up and running. The last step is to monitor its performance and make adjustments accordingly. Re-visit your goal(s) and determine all your Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s), not just the final goal metric. For example, if your goal is to increase sales 3% month over month, your KPI’s would include:

• Impressions – Number of times the ad was shown
• Clicks – How often your ad was engaged with
• Conversions – Sales, Lead Generation, Phone Calls, etc.
• Cost – Cost/Click and Cost/Conversion
• ROI – Measure and show Profitability

Between checking the important KPI’s and continuously testing different elements (Ad Copy, Landing Pages, Keywords, etc.) of your PPC Campaign, you will be able to make the modifications needed to ensure that you reach your goals and objectives.



To summarize, Pay per Click can do wonders for your business, but you have to put work into it, rather than just running it aimlessly. Start with putting together a strategy. Use that strategy to guide you through the set-up and targeting process. Finally, stay focused on your business’s goals as you monitor, test, and optimize your PPC Campaigns. This simple, yet time-consuming and work-intensive 3-step process will help you build and manage an effective and efficient PPC Campaign.

Top 5 Features of Google Analytics Content Experiments (vs. Website Optimizer)

For about 5 years now, marketing professionals have been using Google’s Website Optimizer to run A/B tests and Multivariate tests on webpages. Google recently announced that Website Optimizer will be replaced with Content Experiments. Content Experiments offers similar functionality as Website Optimizer with a few limitations; however, I’ll highlight the top features that I think Content Experiments offers. Here are my top 5 features for Content Experiments when compared to Web Site Optimizer:

1. Experiment Integration within Google Analytics

Content Experiment’s integration within Google Analytics is much improved compared to Web Site Optimizer. Web Site Optimizer did not integrate with Google Analytics, which limited a user’s ability to obtain additional information about the test variations for each experiment such as time on site, bounce rate, or the possibility of segmentation.

2. Simplified Workflow with the Set-up Wizard

The simplistic workflow to implement an experiment is streamlined as well. The process went from 5 basic steps to 4 basic steps. The set-up wizard for the experiment clearly identifies where you are within the set-up process and the next steps. In addition, there are icons to help you throughout the process to understand what you’re doing.

3. Visuals of the Experiments within the Console

The simple workflow is enhanced with visuals of the experiment variations, which was not part of Web Site Optimizer. Within the console of Google Analytics Content Experiments, you can see exactly what your original design vs. the variation(s) will look like prior to launching the experiments.

4. Better, More Simplified Reporting

In my opinion, the reporting in Content Experiments is much better than before. Content Experiments provides high-level experiment detail at a glance (visits, days of data, status of the experiment, and percentage of included visitors). The conversion data is also much improved by providing separate columns for visits, conversions, conversion rates, and basic green & red arrows to compare the variation(s) to the original page. Finally, the look of the reports is now more consistent with the newer Google Analytics interface.

5. Rewrite the Variation URLs to the Original within GA Content Reports

By selecting to rewrite the URL variations, you can consolidate all of the traffic to your original and variation pages. These URLs will appear under the original page within your Content Reports. This ability makes the Content Reports easier to read and streamlines the analysis of the experiment’s impact on page metrics in addition to its data. This provides increased functionality with custom reporting and experiment segmentation.

What’s the BIG Deal with Content Experiments?

The simplified shift from Web Optimizer to Content Experiments will save companies and marketers’ time, money, and allow them to easily create testing experiments. Ideally, Content Experiments will reduce the amount of time to create experiments and simplify their data, making them easier to understand as well as more actionable. With more actionable information, companies and marketers should be able to improve their users’ online experience and generate higher conversions.

Get off the excuse bandwagon! Start experimenting for better lead generation and online sales, what are you waiting for? Leave your feedback on Content Experiments in the Comments section below!

Want to Improve Your Advertising? Align Your Measurement Strategy With the Right KPIs

The ability to measure nearly every facet of marketing campaigns and websites is nothing new. Solutions have existed for several years now and are continuously receiving updates, improvements, and new features that allow for even more in-depth analysis of customer and visitor trends. Tools like Google Analytics even allow for tracking of everything from your business's website, to social media interactions, to your television ads (just to scratch the surface). With such a powerful (and free) tool available, there is really no excuse NOT to have insight into your initiatives!

With such a robust arsenal available to today's marketers, however, it can become quite tempting to report on every available piece of data. While much of this data is indeed important, only a small selection of them does a good job of gauging the impact of marketing and advertising effectiveness.

So your organization chose an analytical tool to measure its campaigns and website: What should your measurement be focused on? Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)!

KPIs and You

KPIs are metrics and insights that are used to measure the success of a website or campaign. These KPIs typically demonstrate the success of your website at accomplishing the tasks it was designed for. Check out the visual below for a nice little example:

In order to identify KPIs for measurement, you must first determine the purpose of your organization's website or campaign. In the case of the above visual, the website exists to generate brand awareness, increase leads, and increase sales. Once you've identified these high-level goals, you must then look at what your analytical tool can measure and align the right metrics to the appropriate goals. For example, the amount of new visitors and direct traffic to the website are great indicators into its ability to generate brand awareness. Keep in mind that these KPIs shouldn't always be limited to a single tool! In some cases, they may even require insights into foot traffic (i.e. increases in foot traffic to a branch or ATM).

Want to impress the decision-makers even more? Use those KPIs to demonstrate Return on Investment! The people with the power to allocate budgets and make decisions often glaze over when presented with standard metrics. While they will definitely be impressed with the KPIs you've come up with, showing them ROI on the marketing budget will knock the ball out of the park. This requires that you have visibility into profit margins for a given initiative. If that isn't readily available to you, you might want to find out how to get it!

Conclusion

It is imperative that KPIs are identified with any measurement strategy, as they greatly benefit all facets of your business. They can help individuals in your team identify opportunities for increased efficiencies. Campaign performance can be easily determined by the marketing department, which would then allow for improvements. Your entire business benefits from a solidified base in measurement and improvements, and KPIs can be great building blocks for that foundation.

Picture This—An Infographic’s Role in Content Marketing

What are Infographics?

In short, an infographic is any visual representation of information. These large, creative images (see below for an example) can be found in a variety of places around the web, like on blogs, through some social networks like Pinterest, and on bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon. For the purposes of Internet Marketing, an infographic is normally used to present a large amount or complicated data in an appealing and engaging way. And that’s the key to your business getting the most out of this kind of content—engagement with your target audience. The assumption always seems to be that web users are impatient—they won’t bother with a site if it doesn’t load after a few seconds, and they won’t take the time to read every word on a text-rich web page. To market in this environment, where users want information in (faster than) an instant, visual content like infographics just might be a way to slow people down and get your message across effectively.

How can I use Infographics for Marketing?

Just like any other visual-based piece of content, the marketing value of infographics lies in their portability, opportunities for sharing via social networks, and linking back to your business’s web site.

Portability: Once designed and completed, an infographic can be easily uploaded to an aggregator, repurposed in a presentation, highlighted in an email promotion, or discussed in an article, blog post, press release, or social media post.

Sharing: Your business’s online presence, reach, and credibility can all receive a substantial boost when users share your visual content. Because of their relatively small size and wide range of applications, infographics make for an inexpensive chance for your business’s content to “go viral.”

Backlinking: Just because any text content within an infographic can’t be crawled or indexed by a search engine doesn’t mean that these images don’t have distinct SEO advantages. Anyone that shares and/or publishes an infographic somewhere else typically links back to your business’s website; this link bait results in greater traffic and a higher search ranking.

Conclusion

It’s easy to see the benefits that can come not only from infographics, but from the integration of any visual content into your business’s digital marketing plan. The key is that the content has to be well designed. The best images are appealing and easy to understand, as well as informative and engaging. They can show your business’s expertise on a particular subject as well as increase your reach and web traffic. Finally, infographics are easily repurposed, shared by users, and serve as effective link bait for SEO purposes. For a business owner, it seems a picture can be worth much more than a thousand words.

PPC Advertising Battle: AdWords Vs adCenter

Everyone knows that Google is king of search. But when it comes to Paid Search Advertising (PPC), is going with the Google always the best option? Although Bing and Yahoo combined do not compare to Google's daily search volume, their paid advertising via Microsoft adCenter might be a cheaper alternative that could generate a higher ROI for you.

Round 1 of the PPC Advertising Battle: Stats & Metrics 

From my experience, there seems to be less competition and therefore cheaper prices (CPC) on adCenter. Below is a snapshot look into a client's account on adCenter.

As you can see, they had an almost 2% CTR, an Average Position within the top 2-3 spots, a CPC below $1.00, and a CPA under $20.00. Now let's compare those performance metrics to the same time period on Google AdWords.

 Stats are taken for the same Date Range from Google AdWords and Microsoft adCenter.

As expected, Google AdWords brought in more traffic, and therefore more conversions (7 more to be exact). However, each Click cost $0.71 ($0.07 more) and each Conversion cost $26.26 (almost $10 more.)

Round 2 of the PPC Advertising Battle: ROI

If, for example, we assume the value of each conversion is $50 each, which PPC Account has a better ROI? Microsoft adCenter is showing a Cost of $583.10 (CPA $16.66 x 35 Conversions) with a returning Value of $1750 (35 Conversions x $50 value per Conversion). That results in an ROI of $1166.90 ($1750 Value - $583.10 Cost).

Keeping the same assumption of a $50 value per Conversion, Google AdWords earned a returning value of $2100 (42 Conversions x $50 Value), but had a cost of $1102.92 (Cost/Conv. $26.26 x 42 Conversions). With that said, the ROI for Google AdWords was $997.08 ($2100 Value - $1102.92 Cost.)

In this particular case, although Google AdWords earned a 90.4% ROI ($997.08), it was trumped by Microsoft adCenter, which earned an incredible 199.9% ROI ($1166.90).

Google AdWords Vs Microsoft Adverting Battle Re-cap

Microsoft adCenter did well in Round 1 with maintaining a good CTR (almost 2%) and generating 35 Conversions. However, Google was able to out muscle Microsoft, with more than double the CTR (above 4%) as well as an additional 7 Conversions (42 in total.)

In Round 2, Microsoft adCenter came out swinging with it lower CPC and CPA (or Cost/Conversion). After multiplying the incremental costs out, it turned out to be too much for Google. Microsoft adCenter was able to pull out the victory with a very impressive ROI of over $1,000.

If you run similar or identical campaigns on both Google AdWords & Microsoft adCenter, let us know which is performing better. Does your paid search advertising battle end the same way this one did with Microsoft earning the higher ROI?

A/B Testing (Split Testing) to Convert More Online Customers

What is A/B testing (split testing)?

A/B testing, or split testing, is a marketing testing method by which one baseline control sample is compared to a variety of single-variable test samples in order to improve response or conversion rates. An example would be to test two different subject lines of an email campaign. A/B testing has been implemented for direct mail and within the interactive space to test tactics such as banner ads, emails, landing pages, or even entire websites to improve performance. You can also extend A/B testing to PPC advertising copy, alternative keywords, or PPC keyword match types.

How can my business or marketing department apply A/B testing?

You should always be testing ways to improve the sales process to reduce your cost per acquisition and to improve your customers’ experiences. I would recommend that you start with the “low hanging fruit” that could have the greatest impact on revenue or the customer experience. For example, an A/B test could be a simple as testing the color of the calls-to-action to improve the click-through-rate.

A/B testing can be applied to marketing tactics to improve sales or lead generation at a lower cost. In general, it’s easier to implement A/B testing with digital advertising because of the ability to make changes quickly and optimize the process. The findings from digital advertising can also be carried over to traditional advertising.

A/B Testing Best Practices

If you’re new to A/B/ split testing, here are a few best practices:

Define your goals. Clearly state what you hope to accomplish.

Determine how you plan to accomplish your goals. Keep it Simple!

What are you testing & why?

What is the variation you are testing (color, position, ad copy, etc.)?

Define the control and your variation for testing.

What are your expected results & reasoning?

Measure & Analyze the results through the sales or conversion process.

How do you apply A/B Testing to Internet Marketing Strategy?

You can leverage A/B testing based on geography, psychographics, customer lifecycles, etc. You want to develop realistic goals based on your target audiences. At first, I would recommend being targeted with your approach and limiting the test to a single market. It’s important to identify the greatest impact on the conversion process or sales process by modifying the internet marketing strategy slightly. Be sure to focus on all the results from the beginning of the process to completion and to communicate the results. Think about the effect the testing will have on saving time, money, and creating efficiencies.

Conclusion

If you haven’t started A/B testing, you’re wasting time, money, and missing opportunities. As marketers, we should always be testing to maximize performance and to reduce costs. Testing goes beyond just a subject line or ad copy. It requires focus, consistency, and planning. In addition, you must think about usability, branding, layouts, the purchase process, etc. There are numerous tools such as Web Optimizer, Visual Website Optimizer, or Test &Target to get started.

Looking For Better Insights On Members? Get The Big Picture!

In past blogs, I have discussed how web analytics can help gain the support of the decision makers and even laid out some great ways to measure traditional marketing with Google Analytics. But how do you get to the point of being able to show the decision makers the right insights in the first place? Today's blog is focused on some of the most common problems we've come across with banks and credit unions that stand between them and gaining greater insights into member behaviors and trends. More importantly, it sets out to show how you can get the most out of your marketing campaigns via analytics and open minds.

The Problem

Institutions often seem to lack visibility into the "big picture". When I say "big picture", I am referring to the complete analytical scene: The website, your institution's social media assets, marketing campaigns (both online AND offline), affiliate sites, and of course conversions (leads & sales) and Return on Investment. There is little-to-no connection between their assets. Why is this?

This fragmented view seems to be caused by several things from internal politics to fears on data collection and security. What banks and credit unions often fail to realize is that tools like Google Analytics do not collect personally identifiable information! Monitoring beyond the main credit union/bank website is often viewed as a risk, when in reality the real risk is in the lack of visibility into the performance of marketing initiatives.

Are you from a bank or credit union that isn't afraid to get the tools in place to uncover some insightful gems? Want to see how to tie everything together? Read on!

Getting the Pieces in Place

The key to putting this analytical puzzle together is to first establish links between the data points. This means that policies and procedures need to be created for every "fragment" of your institution's initiatives:

1. Cross-Domain Tracking - It's imperative to remove any gaps in the clickstream of your website. Credit Unions and banks often use 3rd party loan application platforms. Luckily, web analytics solutions like Google Analytics feature advanced Cross-Domain tracking functionality to ensure the data is preserved all the way from the time the consumer lands on the site to the point that they submit an application.
2. URL Tagging - URLs being used for Pay Per Click & banner ads or being posted to your social media assets should be tagged for easier identification within web analytics tools.
3. Vanity Numbers & URLs - Vanity URLs and phone numbers set up for call tracking can help bridge the gap between web analytics and traditional marketing.
4. Event Tracking - Event Tracking can be used to identify when visitors to your website complete a desired action (like downloading an informational PDF or paper application).

Conclusion

A seamless view of marketing initiatives not obstructed by the glaring gaps and disconnects in data is every financial marketer's dream. Luckily a holistic view can be achieved through a combination of tagging, scripting, and good ol' ingenuity. Connecting the dots using analytical tools can yield opportunities to optimize both traditional and digital campaigns and ultimately increase new memberships and loan & credit applications.

[Exact] ≠ Exact; at least not in Google AdWords

What is Google Changing Now?
With the upcoming changes to both the [Exact] and "Phrase" Keyword Match Types, Google is helping you reach a larger audience. The question is will it still be your target audience. If you read the official post AdWords Blog, the examples given seems like this change will be extremely helpful. However, some marketers do not agree. Whether these changes will be beneficial to you is yet to be seen, but you need to know what impacts these changes will have on your account(s).

How Match Types Work
First, understand that [Exact] and "Phrase" match types are designed to help you reach your target audience and only your target audience. For example:

As you can see, the changes to these match types include close variations of the keyword (i.e. checking – check.) In addition, [exact] and "phrase" match types will also include misspelling, abbreviations, and singular/plurals. According to Google, these changes are meant to help you increase your reach and visibility online. Will it really help?

The Impact of the Changing Match Types
The obvious impact is going to be more Impressions for your ads. The question is will these addition Impressions generate more Clicks for you. If you feel that the addition impressions caused by the change of the match types will bring in more Clicks, then great. You do not have to do anything. Google will automatically opt-in to these changes for you.

However, if you feel this extended reach and visibility is going to be outside your target audience, then the additional Impressions will not result in more Clicks. That means that your Click Thru Rate (CTR) will drop, which is a large aspect of your Quality Score. A drop in Quality Score would result in an increase in Cost per Click and potentially in overall Cost, or drop in Position and most like Clicks. Therefore, if you feel this update to match types is not going increase Clicks, then you are going to want to opt-out in the advance settings.

Beneficial or Harmful Changes?
To conclude, these changes to the [exact] and "phrase" match types on Google AdWords are neither beneficial nor harmful across the board. It is going to be a case-by-case situation. You are going to want to keep a close eye on your CTR over the next few weeks. Once the change is made, you will notice an increase in Impressions, but if your CTR drops, you will want to opt-out. Otherwise, you will soon see a drop in Quality Score and eventually a decrease in Position and Clicks, or an increase in Cost. Do you think these changes will help or hurt your PPC Campaigns? Let us know.

Claim Your Place

According to Google, 97% of consumers search for local business online, therefore having a local business listing with Google Places is a must. Google Places allows businesses to connect with local customers by providing a simple free web page containing relevant company information on Google.

The first step to getting your business listed on Google Places is to verify your business. After verifying your business, you may begin building your page.

It is important to claim your business’ page, otherwise the information Google accumulates may be inaccurate. Additionally, it is advantageous to add details about your company. For example, many businesses customize their pages by including “photos, videos, coupons, and even real-time updates like weekly specials” (Google “Getting Started”).

Regardless of whether you claim your business’ Place page, customers may post reviews about your business and their experience. However, once you claim your Place page, you possess the ability to monitor and respond to customer reviews.

Not only may your Google Place page show up in the search engine result pages but also be accessed and visible on Google maps. This can be helpful to customers trying to physically locate your company.

Google Places-- a great free, easy way to create more visibility for your company online.

Increase Productivity and Leverage SEO/SEM Beyond Search for Enterprise Search Solutions

What is Enterprise Search?

Enterprise Search (ES) is typically defined as the practice of creating content from multiple enterprise sources, such as databases, intranet sites, and/or directories that is searchable to defined audiences. Enterprise Search differs from traditional web search by indexing data or documents from sources such as file systems, emails, or document management systems. ES has the ability to use access controls to limit the content that is available to user types.

How can my business use Enterprise Search?

Businesses of all industries and sizes can leverage Enterprise Search to increase productivity, reach new customers, and improve customer services. Enterprise Search can help your sales team effectively and efficiently find product information (Product updates, features, and benefits, for example) to help them in their sales process. It also helps prospective customers quickly identify information related to products or services on your website. According to Google, customers that deploy an Enterprise Search solution report an increase of conversion rates by 25%. Enterprise Search solutions offer improved customer services and cut costs by providing relevant information to customers faster.

What Enterprise Search Solutions are available for my Business?

• Google Search Appliance: Search Box with similar algorithm as Google for intranet, employee directories, internal databases, etc.
• Google Site Search: Integrated into your company website to find product and service related information
• Google Commerce Search: Integrated into your e-commerce website for a better shopping experience
• Open Source Solutions: Constellio, Apache Solr, etc.
• Other ES Solutions: Vivisimo, Attivio, SharePoint, IBM, etc.

How can my business apply SEO insights to Enterprise Search?

Enterprise Search can incorporate SEO/SEM insights to provide query suggestions, related queries, dynamic navigation and synonyms for a better user experience for customers, and create internal operating efficiencies. Your business can also leverage meta data that aligns to web related searches and business information. Enterprise Search provides an opportunity to use the insights that are generating leads and sales to save your company time, money, and develop internal efficiencies.

Tip for Considering an Enterprise Search Solution

• Be sure to choose the correct Enterprise Search solution base on your business goals and objectives.
• Consider the impact of Enterprise Search on your intended audience.
• Target your Enterprise Search on your intended audience.
• Target your Enterprise Search solution and configuration according to your audience
• Test configurations, query features, and designs to maximize its benefits.
• Measure the impact on revenue, internal efficiencies, and sales.

Conclusion

The power of search goes beyond search engine optimization and pay per click advertising. In general, we associate “search” with the customer finding us within the search results. As marketing professionals and business owners, we need to consider what happens when a prospective customer lands on business website. We work to create strategies to increase brand awareness and reduce our cost per lead, but we still need to identify opportunities to increase productivity, reach new customers, and improve customer service. Enterprise Search provides us with the ability to leverage our findings from SEO or SEM to take advantage of these opportunities to better serve customers, create efficiency, and increase sales.

Google's Value of Content over Optimization

Recently, a debate has emerged regarding Google’s potential forthcoming decision to place greater restrictions on its algorithm for websites that utilize less-compelling content coupled with so-called “over-optimization.” While the details aren’t exactly clear as of yet, at this year’s SXSW Conference in Austin, Google’s Webspam Team manager Matt Cutts made mention of “something that they’ve been working on in the last few months” that will make the search playing field “a little bit more level.” And even though multiple sources have taken this brief mention of change as something that won’t solve a much greater problem, or are criticizing Google for trying to level a playing field that inherently cannot be so, a single point remains—impactful and meaningful content has increased value for a website over SEO alone.

SEO Provides the Means to a Content End

The benefits of SEO for businesses and digital marketing teams have often been proven in the past. While the importance of SEO is beyond question, the real value of a website for searching users lies in the content they find once they arrive there. And while it’s one thing to fault Google for fighting a losing battle or “jumping the shark,” as many bloggers have touted, Google’s intention was made clear in that same conference—certain SEO techniques or “tricks” that can increase a site’s traffic in lieu of engaging, relevant content should not have a strangle hold over their (or any) search index. As it stands, whatever Google is working on, there is simply not enough information available yet to make any sweeping claims about their next update or improvement.

Marketable Sites have Meaningful Content

For any web developer or digital marketing team, a page’s content in relation to its search engine ranking is a powerful combination in terms of visibility and reach. These factors also provide a basic, yet effective foundation for additional, future internet marketing campaigns. Rather than bashing Google for over-regulating the over-optimizers and creating an unjustified fear of SEO, businesses should allocate time and resources toward the creation of content that is accessible, impactful, and informative in addition to approved, “white hat” optimization efforts. Many are anticipating further clarification on this issue when Cutts speaks again at the Search Marketing Expo Advanced in Seattle this June. Then we’ll see whether all the hype was warranted and who really “jumped the shark” on this issue.

Conversion Attribution: Give Credit Where It's Due

In the Digital Analytics space, we are all obsessed with identifying marketing tactics that perform the best and drive the most return-on-investment via conversions. We seek to track all sorts of checkout funnels, application submissions, and newsletter sign-ups and do our best to identify what search phrases and traffic sources ultimately led visitors to those actions. But one of the most common mistakes of many analysts and marketers is to only pay exclusive attention to the assets that led to a conversion in a single session. Many people fail to realize that the conversion process can often span several sessions before a valuable action is taken.

That's why it is important to consider conversion attribution: Did converting visitors visit the website prior to making the purchase or submitting an online application? If so, how did they initially find your website? There are countless gems that can be found in looking at these factors.

Be sure to check out DaBrian Marketing Group's latest YouTube video where Web Analyst Brandon Wensing discusses the importance of Conversion Attribution:

Also be sure to connect with us on Google+, Facebook and Twitter to receive great tips and news on Web Analytics, Digital Marketing, and more!

The Value of PPC: Where is ROI?

All too often PPC reports focus on performance metrics such as:

- Impressions
- Clicks
- Click through Rate (CTR)

Although these metrics are important, where is the value in them? If anything a report showing these items is only showing cost (CPC or CPM) but fails to show any type of value added. This isnt just a PPC problem, but a marketing problem. It is important to not just report on Cost, but to show Value too.

This is why Conversion tracking through analytics is crucial for PPC Campaigns. Once the tracking codes are are in place and working properly, assign a value to each Conversion. Now you can see not only the Cost (CPC or CPM) but also the Value coming from your PPC Campaigns, Ad Groups, Ad Copy, and Keywords. This will greatly help you optimize your Campaigns and reveal where to allocate your budget to increase and maximize your ROI.

If you have any comments or questions about setting up Conversion Tracking through Google AdWords, Microsoft adCenter, or an analytics platform, let us know in the comments below.

3 Tips to Track Conversions More Effectively

As analysts, we are taught and bred to have an insatiable desire to track as many aspects of our websites and marketing strategies as possible. We often go out of our way to tag everything with codes and scripts so we can sniff out trends and insights. This hard work usually pays off in the form of content performance and traffic source reports.

More often than not, we like to pay close attention to the conversion report. How many newsletter subscribers did we get last quarter? Did online sales increase or decrease from last year? How many visitors from my target market downloaded an application? Conversion tracking is clearly an important element of marketing as a whole, but how do you do it effectively? Here are 3 tips to help you get the most out of your Google Analytics conversion reports:

1. Assign a Conversion Value: Conversions are usually actions visitors can take that result in some sort of revenue, be it directly or indirectly. Whether the conversion is for a completed transaction or for downloading more information, an average value should be assigned. This is paramount to demonstrating ROI for any digital marketing initiative.


2. Identify & Use Funnels: It’s great to know how many online sales transactions there were or how many new member registrations took place over the past month, but there is a great deal more that can be studied about these conversions. Conversions like these often feature several steps (a checkout process for instance: Add to Cart, Checkout, Billing Information, etc.). Specifying a conversion funnel within Google Analytics for these processes can shine a great deal of light on problem areas where visitors and leads are dropping off and leaving the conversion process.


3. Pay Attention to 2nd and 3rd Degree Touch Points: The conversion process can often pan out beyond just the first visit. In the case of an online purchase, the sales process usually spans across several sessions, as the modern consumer researches your product or service, looks for reviews, and reassurance that this will be a wise purchase. With that being said, do not ignore the first touch point that the converting visitor made with the website! If they initially discovered your site via your company’s Facebook page but completed the sale after returning to the site directly three sessions later, your social media efforts might be paying off more than you think. In the case of paid campaigns on Google AdWords or Microsoft adCenter, the destination URLs can be tagged with “utm_nooverride=1” to ensure the first touch point gets credit for the conversion. A nice, quick explanation of how the nooverride tag works can be found here. The latest version of Google Analytics also makes analysis of multiple conversion touch points easier with its new Multi-Channel Funnel reports.

Knowing how many conversions were triggered on your website is one thing. Having a deep understanding of how much revenue was generated from those conversions, where improvements can be made in the conversion process, and which of your marketing campaigns helped drive them can save your company time and money. Most of all, however, it can help you market more effectively and efficiently to ultimately increase conversions and ROI.

Good Ol’ YouTube

With Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest hogging the social media limelight, it’s easy to forget about Youtube as a valuable tool to promote your business. YouTube allows viewers to get acquainted with your business, employees, products, and services. This tool provides viewers with an authentic experience as they can gain a broader understanding of your business.

All businesses should take advantage of the benefits YouTube provides. Videos are free to post and will create greater visibility for your business on YouTube and the general Internet. YouTube may also assist in SEO and link building for your website, when videos are correctly tagged and linked to your business’s website. All it takes to make and post a YouTube video is a decent camera and time.

YouTube can be used in a variety of ways to inform, educate, and entertain your target audience. Companies selling complicated products may choose to provide tutorials on how to use their products. Companies may also gain publicity by showcasing their usually boring product in an interesting way. For example, one company, Blendtec, has achieved a lot of attention by producing entertaining videos about their blenders. In their videos Blentec’s CEO portrays a quirky host who blends anything from fruit to iPhones, thereby showcasing the blender’s strength and durability. Here is a link to one of their videos: http://www.willitblend.com/videos/view/129.

Incorporating Youtube videos in your company’s social media plan is a great way to interact with the public. Utilizing video enables a company to engage the viewer’s senses in at least two ways: visually and audibly. So don’t forget about YouTube when devising a social media plan for your company.

The Need for Digital Marketing Education

In the recent blog “8 Predictions for SEO in 2012”, Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz predicted the rise of a serious certification program. I believe that there is a real need for our industry to identify and support a serious certification program; however, I have not seen any organization dedicated enough to establish themselves as an industry leader. Institutions of higher education need to start preparing their students for the “real world”. In my opinion, colleges and universities are doing a poor job of identifying opportunities to integrate traditional marketing knowledge and skills with today’s internet marketing environment.

There are several organizations that offer certification programs, but I am not sure that they can keep up with the changes or obtain a consensus between fact and fiction. Case in point: Several members of our team at DaBrian Marketing Group have taken courses provided by SEMPO Institute, but we have not been notified of what the latest updates were to the course information. As of February 21, the SEMPO Institute closed up shop for their certification program.

The colleges and universities need to introduce their students to internet marketing as a whole. Within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, you will have a difficult time identifying colleges or universities that offer an internet marketing course as part of the undergraduate marketing curriculum. This extends to web design and development area of study, as graduates often lack basic SEO knowledge.

There is a serious need for education within our industry from the university level as well as alternative methods. Even as an adjunct professor, I don’t expect a student to be an SEO expert, but I would expect them to know the marketing fundamentals for an online marketing campaign. At the same time, internet marketing is not just SEO, PPC, and Social Media. We need to align the traditional concepts to internet marketing beyond business or marketing. These concepts should be accessible to IT graduates as well. Internet Marketing is not just for marketing people anymore, but it’s now IT, Public Relations and Math. We need to start demonstrating the crossover of these disciplines within our industry. It starts with us and we need to reinforce the need for education in internet marketing and encourage the progress of certification programs.

Let us know what you think!

PPC Experts? - Prove It!

Recently I read an article talking about how there are many "PPC Experts" due to the low barrier of entry. With that said, if you or your company is looking for online adverting assistance, it is crucial to find an agency/person with the right certifications and a proven track record.

The must have as far as certifications are Google AdWords and Microsoft adCenter. Google requires an individual to pass 2 different tests to be certified. A general PPC test and a more specific test focused on the Display Advertising, Search Network, or PPC Reporting. Once the individual certification is earned, it must be maintained by retaking at least 1 of the more specific tests annually and the general test bi-annually. Microsoft adCenter, on the other hand, only requires you to pass 1 general PPC test annually to earn and maintain certification.

In addition to being certified, ask to see what the "PPC Experts" have accomplished for other clients, preferably within your industry. Case studies, white papers, and/or a portfolio of their work and accomplishments should be available and easily accessible. I would think that a "PPC Expert" would want you, as potential future client, to know and see their previous success stories.

I hope that this will help you avoid, as the first mentioned article describes, PPC scams. If you have any questions or comments about PPC, AdWords, adCenter, or online advertising in general, please leave a comment or contact us.

Gain the Support of Your Superiors: Show Them the Right Metrics

There are countless analytical platforms and tools out there for measuring just about every facet of your website and marketing efforts. From web analytics platforms like Google Analytics, to social media tools like Facebook Insights, the number of metrics and insights that can be gathered may be downright overwhelming to the less-experienced. Even worse: The higher-ups you are pulling these metrics and writing 20 to 30 page reports on visits, Likes, and pageviews for simply don’t understand, and might not even care. This presents a problem, as these are also the people that control your marketing budget.

At this point you are probably scratching your head. Sure, there are plenty of great insights in those 30 page reports on content performance and conversion funnels. You might be able to see which products and services consumers are most interested in this quarter, or that your pay-per-click campaign drove a large amount of targeted traffic to the website. But none of this resonates enough with the decision-makers. They speak one language and one language only: Dollars and cents. So how do you prepare reports that interest them?

• Show them how time was saved. This could be through how turn-around time for site improvements was reduced or how improved internal policies and procedures led to less problems in the first place.


• Demonstrate how money was saved. Did a display or banner ad campaign bring in more targeted traffic than a traditional billboard campaign? Show this and the dollar figure associated with the savings.


• Let them see what efficiencies were created. The whole point of monitoring is to identify problems and determine solutions to create a more effective and efficient web presence. Show these to the decision-makers and you’ll build even more credibility and support.

Getting to the data and insights via your arsenal of analytical tools is only half the battle. Convincing your superiors that what you found is relevant and worthy of their time is the other half. If you can convey the value of your findings via compelling visuals and reports centered on ROI, the time saved, and efficiencies that were created, you will stand to gain the support of the decision-makers and ultimately drive improvements in your marketing efforts.

Enjoy this blog? Be sure to follow DaBrian Marketing Group on Facebook, Google+, and Twitter to stay up-to-date on the latest news and tips for Web Analytics, Search Engine Optimization, PPC, and more. Also stay tuned for details on our webinar on how the latest version of Google Analytics can help drive business success (tentatively scheduled for April 19, 2012)!