With a keynote delivered by Googlers (complete with product announcements!), it’s a full house at SMX East 2016.

Jerry Dischler, Vice President of Product Management for AdWords, and Babak Pahlavan, Senior Director of Measurement & Analytics, field questions from Search Engine Land editors Ginny Marvin, Greg Sterling and the SMX audience.

Read on to learn about:

• Expanded text ads
• Device bidding
• Store visits
• Audience Suite
• Data Studio
• Analytics Insights Cards
• And announcements of new tools and features!

Expanded Text Ads

Who’s succeeding with expanded text ads?

Editor’s note: Expanded text ads are the next generation of standard text ads on the Google Search Network and Google Display Network optimized for the mobile user experience. The format was rolled out to advertisers this past July.

Dischler: Advertisers who are using a dynamic, creative elements. Those who aren’t getting good results are only dipping their toe in the water. They’re only using one creative element, not going dynamic, aren’t optimizing as strongly.

What we’re hoping is that folks will jump in with both feet and start devoting the effort they devoted to standard text ads to expanded text ads.

Another observation: with branded terms, we’re seeing shorter headlines perform better.

Device Bidding for Ads

Earlier this year, device-level bidding was reintroduced. Talk a little bit about that decision to bring back separate device bidding and you expect to see advertisers take advantage of that?

Editor’s note: Here’s the quick and dirty background on device bidding. In 2013, Google took away its advertisers ability to bid differently based on the consumer’s device (mobile, tablet, desktop) in an initiative called Enhanced Campaigns. This year, device-level bidding was reintroduced to the Google advertising networks. Read Marvin’s write up on Search Engine Land for more on how advertisers are organizing campaigns by device.

Dischler: What we were seeing was a number of advertisers come to us with use cases for tablets that were really different. Let’s say you’re looking for NY hotels on your mobile phone vs. looking for NY hotels on your tablet. On the mobile phone, you’re going to have much higher conversion rate and would want to bid aggressively accordingly. Folks are thinking in a very mobile-first way, and this was happening more and more.

In the time before Enhanced Campaigns, we were seeing mobile avoidance. But here is the opposite. Advertisers have fully embraced mobile but the controls we had weren’t robust enough.

Take a look at your current bids – they represent a blended ROI. If you are able to get better performance on desktop and worse performance on tablet, adjust them in a way that is symmetric. In general what you should be doing is looking at your blended target across platforms in order to set your bid. This will achieve the right ROI mix. You have to figure out what’s right for you.

Store Visits Metric in AdWords

Google announced that they were expanding the store visits metric and that more than one billion store visits have been measured. Where is this going? What are the metrics today? Why is this important?

Dischler: In this multi-device, mobile-focused world, you should be measuring entire ROI whether they’re online or offline or calls, etc.

We want to help you work in an omni-channel way and measure the total value of your ad spend.

In retail, where 90+ percent of sales are offline, or in auto where 99.9% of sales are offline, it’s very important that you be able to measure online ROI.

For many advertisers, we’re seeing that the offline benefit is greater than the online benefit and we want advertisers to be able to measure that as easily as possible.

Earlier this week, Brad Bender announced that we’re adding the store visits metric to display, as well.

We have hundreds of millions of people who’ve opted into location history. We take that anonymized data and aggregate it, combine it with tradition signals including Google Maps and 3D modeling of building, Wi-Fi data and more to increase precision. We also have more than 5 million human reviewers working with us. Google has more than 99% accuracy with its store visits.

Google Analytics 360 Suite

Regarding the enterprise Audience Suite, how does audience targeting work and what does it mean for marketers?

Dischler: Advertisers who are using our RLSA (remarketing lists for search ads) say that this is the biggest change we’ve made that allows them to target their customers. Some largely sophisticated advertisers are still hesitant to experiment with RLSA, and I’d really encourage them to try it out.

Announcements

What’s going with Google Analytics Data Studio?

Pahlavan: Data Studio is our dashboard and reporting tool. There are two fundamental things about it that people love.

First, you can be up and running to do reporting by just connecting to the data sources.

And there’s collaborative sharing. The notion of collaboration is something we really focused on – you can very easily share a report across organizations and make the data available to everyone. The free version and enterprise version are available in 21 countries as of today; it was only available to U.S. advertisers before.

What new tools are coming?

Pahlavan: Our objective is to enable measurement for all businesses, no matter the size. Today we are announcing the free version of Optimize; sign up here: g.co/optimize.

Smart Goals were created for AdWords advertisers to be able to take advantage of crowd-sourced machine learning analytics that will help inform marketers of sessions that likely would have converted. How does this work? 

Pahlavan: We have a set of investments around how to leverage Google machine learning capabilities to make business a lot more efficient when leveraging the data they have. It’s being used by tens of thousands of advertisers. You can get a preview of what the performance could look like even if you’re not yet using it.

Recently, the Google Analytics mobile app launched with Insights cards. Can you talk about what’s going on with that? 

Pahlavan: Insights cards is in the bucket of our efforts around leveraging Google’s machine learn capability. Inside our Google Analytics app, it looks at a series of signals and tells you things like products that are performing much better. It looks at all permutations automatically. What channels are under or over performing? What are the areas you should pay attention to more? These are the kind of things it looks at. Insights cards will also be available on desktop in the future.

Will expanded texts ads be available for call-only ads?

Dischler: We’re in the process of testing out some things.

Do you want to talk about the thoughts behind the changes to Keyword Planner as far as data available to non-paying customers?

Dischler: We had this situation where what we wanted to do is have good actors be able to use our Keyword Planner and keep some bad actors out.

Our limits are really low so the vast majority of advertisers who have any spend should be able to use our tool. We can now accommodate most use cases while keeping the bad actors out.

Does Google Analytics have a plan to better address referrer spam?

Pahlavan: We have an active project internally. It’s been going on for sometimes to combat spam traffic. I can’t share the stats externally but this is something we take very seriously. We are constantly monitoring.

Some people just rely on Google Analytics for tracking and goals rather than implementing the AdWords pixel. What do you recommend?

Dischler: We recommend implementation for both.

Pahlavan: The have complementary use cases.

Are you going to add more and more ads to the search results page? Will organic disappear?

Q & A with @google‘s @jdischler & @babakph at @smx. “Are you going to add more and more ads? Will organic disappear? #SMX #SEO #PPC pic.twitter.com/xJnVCtWbFm

— Kristi Kellogg (@KristiKellogg) September 28, 2016

The post What’s New & Cool with Google AdWords & Analytics: Keynote by Jerry Dischler & Babak Pahlavan appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

Of course, you’ll want to find the right social media software that aligns with your needs and goals. In this article, I will explore the factors to consider when choosing social media tools so that your social media marketing strategy has the power it deserves.

What to Look for When Choosing Social Media Tools

As you search for the right social media tool, here are seven factors to consider:

• Cost and features
• Contracts
• Google Analytics integration
• Supported social networks
• User access
• Access to historical data
• White labeling
• Comparison of social media software options
• FAQ: What are the key factors to consider when choosing social media management tools? 

1. Cost and Features

The price range of a social media tool can vary from $50 to $1,600 per month.

Lower-priced options usually offer basic features like follower growth tracking and reporting. On the other hand, higher-priced tools provide advanced features like social listening reports, competitive analysis, hashtag tracking, and more.

(Some tools even offer free versions that give you basic functionality.)

Consider your budget and the specific features you require to make a cost-effective choice for your business.

2. Contracts

Most social media software providers require a year-long contract. However, some options like Sprout Social and Quintly offer month-to-month payment plans, providing flexibility for your business.

Be sure to carefully review the contract before signing so that you know what you’re signing up for.

3. Google Analytics Integration

You’ll want to see if your social media marketing strategy is actually bringing in traffic, so you may want to consider a tool with integrated Google Analytics.

Some social media tools generate reports similar to Google Analytics’ Social Referrer Report. Evaluate whether separate data platforms are acceptable for your reporting needs or if integration with Google Analytics is necessary for your business.

4. Supported Social Networks

Social media marketing is not a one-size-fits-all, so decide which social networks your target audience spends time on.

While platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook are typically included, some tools offer additional integrations with platforms such as Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, and more.

5. User Access

Different social media software packages allow varying numbers of user logins.

Assess the size of your team and the number of individuals who require access to the software. Ensure that the chosen tool offers adequate user access to facilitate efficient collaboration and management.

6. Access to Historical Data

Historical data can help you identify which messages and strategies resonate with your audience. However, not all tools provide access to data that existed before you started using the software.

Nuvi is an exception, offering historical data for X (formerly Twitter).

7. White Labeling

White labeling allows you to customize the software’s branding to match your company’s identity. This provides a seamless integration of the software into your overall brand experience.

While lower-priced accounts often lack this feature, higher-priced options like Nuvi offer white labeling at an additional cost.

Consider whether white labeling is essential for maintaining a consistent brand image across social media management tools.

Now that we’ve covered the key considerations let’s take a closer look at some popular social media software options and their associated features and costs.

Comparison of Social Media Software Options

• Nuvi: Nuvi offers packages priced at $600, $900, and $1600 per month. Their social media software provides advanced features, including comprehensive social listening reports with advanced sentiment analysis, competitor analysis, customizable threshold alerts, and content management capabilities. It supports multiple social networks, allowing you to monitor and analyze data across various platforms. Additionally, Nuvi offers white labeling at an extra cost for seamless branding integration.
• Sprout Social: Sprout Social offers a range of plans starting from $59 to $500 per month. The lower-priced plans provide basic features such as follower growth tracking and mentions. As you move up to the higher-priced plans, you gain access to advanced reports, Google Analytics integration, white labeling, and a message approval workflow. Sprout Social supports Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, ensuring comprehensive coverage of major social networks.
• Quintly: Quintly provides packages priced at $129, $299, and $479 per month. While Quintly may not offer Google Analytics integration or content management features, it does support white labeling. If having control over your software’s branding is a priority, Quintly may be a suitable option to consider.
• DataPine: DataPine offers packages priced at €219, €399, €699, and €799 per month. Their software includes features such as Google Analytics integration and white labeling. However, it does not provide content management capabilities. Evaluate your specific requirements to determine if DataPine aligns with your business needs.

To get the most out of your social media marketing, it’s obvious you need a tool. Be sure to analyze your target audience and what has worked in the past to identify which tool you need.

There are many options, and most offer free trials, so be sure to try out a few before choosing the tool that will supercharge your social media marketing strategy.

What’s your preferred social media software? Share your thoughts in the comments.

FAQ: What are the key factors to consider when choosing social media management tools?

Businesses and individuals must select an ideal social media management tool based on their goals and resources. Our guide explores key considerations to aid this decision-making process.

1. Purpose and Goals:

Begin by defining your social media objectives. Are you looking to increase brand awareness, engage with your audience, or analyze data? Your goals will dictate which features and functionalities you need in a management tool.

2. Platform Compatibility:

Consider which social media platforms you intend to utilize. Ensure the tool you choose supports the most relevant platforms to your target audience.

3. User-Friendliness:

User interface and ease of use are crucial. Opt for a tool that your team can navigate comfortably, as this will impact efficiency and productivity.

4. Features and Integration:

Evaluate the tool’s features. Does it offer scheduling, analytics, and monitoring capabilities? Furthermore, check if it can integrate with your existing systems, such as customer relationship management (CRM) software.

5. Cost and Scalability:

Determine your budget and select a tool that aligns with it. Additionally, consider scalability – can the tool accommodate your future growth without significant cost increases?

6. Analytics and Reporting:

Comprehensive analytics and reporting are vital for measuring the effectiveness of your social media efforts. Choose a tool that provides in-depth insights and customizable reports.

7. Customer Support and Training:

Assess the quality of customer support and training the tool’s provider offers. A responsive support team and accessible training resources can save valuable time when troubleshooting issues.

8. Security and Compliance:

Ensure the tool complies with data privacy regulations and offers robust security features to protect your social media accounts and data.

9. Reputation and Reviews:

Read user reviews and seek recommendations from peers in your industry. A tool’s reputation can provide valuable insights into its reliability and performance.

10. Trial Period:

Choose tools with free trials whenever possible to see if they suit you before making the commitment to subscription services.

Selecting social media tools that meet your goals and circumstances is paramount to improve social media strategy and productivity. When selecting an application, it should help enhance both.

Step-by-Step Procedure for Selecting Social Media Management Tools:

1. Clearly define your social media objectives and goals.
2. Select your social media platforms.
3. Prioritize UX design and make sure everything is user-friendly.
4. List the essential features and integrations required for your social media management.
5. Determine your budget and consider scalability.
6. Prioritize tools that offer robust analytics and reporting capabilities.
7. Investigate the quality of customer support and available training resources.
8. Ensure the tool complies with security and privacy regulations.
9. Research the tool’s reputation through user reviews and industry recommendations.
10. Take advantage of trial periods to test the tool’s suitability whenever possible.

Following these steps will enable you to evaluate and select social media management software that best fulfills your objectives and needs.

This article was updated on September 13, 2023.

The post Is Your Company Ready to Invest in Social Media Tools? Which Factors Should You Consider? appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

Here’s her agenda:

• How Analysis Drives CRO
• 5 Tips for Accelerating CRO via Analytics
• Bonus Tip: Rapid Optimization Plan
• The Future of Testing, Adapting and Personalizing

How Analysis Drives Optimization

What is optimization? Conversion rate optimization is the ongoing, data-driven process of continually discovering what works for your consumer.

#CRO is the ongoing, data-driven process of discovering what works for your consumer. @KristaSeiden
Click To Tweet

Testing or analysis? Whether testing or analysis is appropriate depends on the question you’re asking or the hypothesis you have. You can use analytics to justify the test you want to run.

Why don’t people convert? There are many factors that can contribute to low conversion rate:

1. User experience
2. Site content and personalization
3. Actionable web analytics
4. Development resources

Next, she’ll give five tips for accelerating CRO via analytics.

Tip #1: Implement Ways to Track CRO

Email testing: Use campaign tagging to distinguish variations. Use campaign tracking to tag calls to action (CTAs) on buttons and links from email to test different headlines or email copy.

Ad testing: Use the utm_content slot to denote the ad variation. She usually describes the special offer — it’ll add a lot of light to your analysis later on.

Social media testing: Tag each post with unique campaign parameters to ensure you can track back to find out which individual post and channel are driving the highest conversions.

Use the dataLayer to collect test IDs. If you’re using a tag management system, you’ll have a data layer.

Tip #2: Set Up Analytics Goals to Track CRO Success

In analytics, you can set goals and create a funnel for that goal.

In this slide, we see that it’s a three-page sign-up flow. She actually has set goals for each of those steps (micro conversions) leading to the user completing the final goal, signing up (macro conversion).

Tip #3: Your Site Can Tell You What’s Important

Site Search will tell you what topics people are looking for on your site. Take that information and use it to determine your roadmap for different posts you’re going to write.

Heat maps can pinpoint areas to optimize. The Crazyegg confetti report of where and when people click even lets you sort by time to click. How long does it take a visitor to click what you want? Are they clicking on what you want, or are they distracted by something else on the page?

Tip #4: Use Key Google Analytics Reports

The Devices report (in Google Analytics) lets you look at where conversions came from. Do you need to spend more time optimizing the mobile experience?

Browser reports and the Browser Version report tell you if your performance varies based on browser types and versions.

The Site Search report lets you create a custom report and see when people search for something and also convert. Then you can create more content about that topic.

Fallout Funnel is her favorite report. You can zoom in on the flow and see where the drop offs are happening in the funnel.

A few other report ideas:

• Look for high traffic, high bounce rate landing pages and segment these to find out if performance varies by demographic, browser, device or other factors (such as location).
• Use custom funnels to identify user drop off through your path to conversion.

Tip #5: Qualitative Surveys as CRO Tie-breakers

Add to quantitative testing and analysis with qualitative feedback. The combination is powerful. You can ask how satisfied they are with multiple choices of satisfaction levels and ask what the main reason they visited today was. You can also ask who they are, and that gives you another lens to analyze the data against.

Bonus Tip: Analytics to the Rescue with a Rapid Optimization Plan

She explains that over two years, they ran a lot of tests before launching a site redesign: 453 unique variations, 159 unique tests, 25 locales and 4 different product lines. The result was 50+ key learnings.

What they tested:

• CTAs
• Headlines (see variants in slide below)
• Images
• Grids for pricing
• Demos

“If we see a 5 percent increase in sign-ups, then we’ll launch the new site,” she says. They didn’t reach the 5 percent mark; the sign-ups were flat. So she dove into analytics. She saw that they might want to change the button color to the old style. They changed the color of the icons. They also found a video that was a blank part of the page if the user scrolled too quickly. They addressed these three items and tested again, and this time they did see the 5 percent increase they were looking for — test validated.

Read Krista’s article for more details: Rapid Optimization Plan Blog Post

The Future of Analytics, CRO and Testing

It’s easier to have an engaging conversation in the offline world. Online it’s more difficult, but we have analytics to slice and dice our traffic. Even still, we serve people the same web experience even though we know they are different and have preferences.

Google Optimize 360 customizes your site by customer.

Personalization is the big bonus of Optimize 360. You can use the audience segments built in GA to target experiences to different customers on the web. If you’re a travel brand, you can segment your customers by different levels of spend. You can target people on the site and give them a different experience.

Next, she explains how Google Optimize 360 makes enterprise-level testing and personalization simple. It’s because they designed it to integrate (“best-in-class”) with the Google Analytics 360 Suite and other Google products:

• Simple to use from start to finish
• With powerful testing and personalization capabilities that support sophisticated needs
• Enabling users to act on all their data seamlessly.

Because this is the scenario we all want to get to:

Subscribe to the blog to get all the news coming out of Conversion Conference 2016!

The post Essential Analytics to Turbo-Charge Your CRO #ConvCon appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

Tools for Monitoring Social Traffic

Here’s the complete list of the tools that received shout-outs during SEOchat.

• Hootsuite https://hootsuite.com/
• Brandwatch https://www.brandwatch.com/eng/
• Raven Tools https://raventools.com/
• Sprout Social http://sproutsocial.com/
• Audiense https://www.audiense.com/
• SEMrush https://www.semrush.com/
• NUVI https://www.nuvi.com/
• SocialPilot http://socialpilot.co/
• Buffer https://buffer.com/
• Mento https://mento.io/
• Iconosquare (for Instagram) http://iconosquare.com/
• Adobe SiteCatalyst http://www.adobe.com/marketing-cloud/web-analytics.html
• Brand24 https://brand24.net/

Tools for Monitoring Social Referral Traffic and Conversion

• Google Analytics http://www.google.com/analytics/
• Google Tag Manager https://www.google.com/analytics/tag-manager/
• Facebook Conversion Tracking https://www.facebook.com/business/a/online-sales/conversion-tracking
• Facebook Insights https://www.facebook.com/help/336893449723054
• Twitter Analytics https://analytics.twitter.com/

Tools for Identifying Influencers

• Zoomph https://zoomph.com/
• Onalytica http://www.onalytica.com/
• Followerwonk https://moz.com/followerwonk/
• Simply Measured http://simplymeasured.com/
• Copromote https://copromote.com/
• BuzzStream http://www.buzzstream.com/
• BuzzSumo http://buzzsumo.com/
• Ninja Outreach https://ninjaoutreach.com/
• Ahrefs https://ahrefs.com/

Social Tools for Everything Else

• Tweepi http://tweepi.com/
• Canva (for design) https://www.canva.com/
• Pablo (for design) https://pablo.buffer.com/
• Click to Tweet https://clicktotweet.com/
• CoSchedule http://coschedule.com/
• Meet Edgar https://meetedgar.com/
• Gramblr http://gramblr.com/uploader/
• TweetDeck https://tweetdeck.twitter.com/
• Tailwind (for Pinterest & Instagram) https://tweetdeck.twitter.com/

I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For: Social Intelligence Tool Wish List

Even with all these useful tools, there are still needs that aren’t being met. Here’s what SEO-chatters are still hoping to find in a tool:

• A way to schedule posts on Instagram
• Accurate sentiment analysis, especially for ecommerce sites
• Better reporting on Instagram and Pinterest
• Integration of all social channels
• History of follower count provided by all social platforms themselves
• Insight into time viewers spent looking at a business’s social posts

Actions to Take Based on the Data

Here’s are some of the says digital marketers are leveraging the data they are pulling from social media monitoring and analysis.

A7: Learning what types of social content works better for which audiences. i.e. what converts on Twitter may not work for FB! #SEOchat

— Jonathan Foulds (@jonfoulds) April 21, 2016

A7 It’s impacted the timing of social posts/activity & the type of content I post on social. #SEOChat

— Clair Wyant (@KG7MAJ) April 21, 2016

A7: We’ve used industry keyword data to find audiences & events where discussed to build social ad campaigns around. #seochat

— Jannette Pazer (@sociallyclimb) April 21, 2016

A7: We’ve used social data to find our KPI benchmarks to help measure our monthly performance and optimize/troubleshoot if needed. #seochat

— Karolina Bakanovas (@karo_linab) April 21, 2016

A7: We leverage social data to help predict what content works best with our audience! It’s key to understand your audience. #seochat

— Netvantage Marketing (@netvantage) April 21, 2016

You can get a complete transcript of the chat here. Join #SEOchat every Thursday at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET. #SEOchat is a great opportunity to ask questions, get answers and share insights with industry leaders and the engaged digital marketing community. Read more about #SEOchat here.

Want more?
Check out our post comparing top social media tools and their costs/features!

The post Monitoring Social Media Traffic: Tricks, Tips, and Tools appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

You’re using Google Analytics, but, as the SMX West audience just learned from speaker Andrew Garberson (@garberson), manager of search at LunaMetrics, you’re merely scratching the surface of the tool’s usefulness in your work life. This is a retelling of Garberson’s presentation that he writes about himself on the LunaMetrics blog here.

First, a story. Your 80-year-old neighbor gives you a call and says that he wants to buy an electric car. He mostly just drives to the grocery store and around town, and everyone agrees he should probably stop riding around town on his bike.

You think of a list of criteria for a good car for him: safe, efficient, a good warranty. He drives home in a Tesla. Yes, this meets all the criteria, but it’s a little more than that. It goes 0–60 in 2.8 seconds.

Google Analytics is like the Tesla. It’s a sports car and we’re driving it like we’ve got the emergency brake on. Let’s drive it like the high performance machine it is.

Basic: Daily Reporting

Google Analytics is here for you 24/7. But we shouldn’t have to be monitoring analytics on a day-to-day basis. It’s not ideal to be worrying about analytics around the clock. Just because we have 24/7 access, it doesn’t mean we need to be there at all times.

Ideal: push notifications. “Hey, something is great/not so great.” Google Analytics Alerts is the answer!

You can tap just about every metric in GA and set an alert on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Here are 55 alerts you can set up: bit.ly/smx-pwrsem-alerts

Intermediate: Monthly Reporting

At this level, we’re spotting trends and reacting to trends to minimize negative and maximize the positive.

The Google Analytics optimization for this is Dashboards.

Take any standard or custom report and add it to a lightweight dashboard. Before doing this, look at what other people have done. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Go to the GA Gallery to see what others have built that you need. Avinash Kaushik is among the authors of these dashboards that you can import into your account.

Dashboards:

• bit.ly/smx-pwrsem-seo
• bit.ly/smx-pwrsem-cpc
• bit.ly/smx-pwrsem-basic-adwords
• bit.ly/smx-pwrsem-content
• bit.ly/smx-pwrsem-pr
• bit.ly/smx-pwrsem-social

You can see that there isn’t one dashboard for everything, but specialized ones. These are helpful weekly check-ins. Choose the option to “email” (from the drop-down, changing it from CSV) and you’ll get a PDF in your inbox.

Advanced: Monthly Reporting

The perfect tool for a monthly report is in between a generalist dashboard and a specialist tool — it lets you dig deep into SEO traffic by product category or SEM campaign. The middle ground tool he’s devised is using the API and Google Sheets. bit.ly/smx-pwrsem-drive

You’re going to be able to make reports like budget tracking (current spend v. budget, and conversions from search v. other). For segmented reporting in Google Analytics, go to bit.ly/smx-pwrsem-drive-2.

Add-Ons

A plugin called Supermetrics will let you pull data from everywhere (AdWords, Bing Ads, Search Console, Facebook Ads, Facebook Insights, MailChiimp, Moz, SEMrush) into Drive. The link you want to look at here is bit.ly/smx-pwrsem-import.

Takeaways

GA can be your power reporting tool. You can do serious deep-dive reporting with Google Analytics. Or, it can be whatever you need. GA does the easy legwork reporting better than anyone else.

The post Google Analytics Power Reporting for SEO & SEM – #SMX Liveblog appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

• Grace Chan, VP Product at Wanderful Media
• Sherry Thomas-Zon (@sthomaszon), Chief Marketing and Revenue Officer at Retailigence
• Elliott Waldron (@ElliottWaldron), Director of Analytics at Placed, Inc.

Receipts vs. point of sale data — how does this inform campaign planning and the purchase journey?

Chan: Receipt data is a part of the input — you can quickly come up with profiles that you can infer from receipts. Look at a grocery data receipt and find out information about the household and demographics — are there diapers on the receipt, for example? We use this information to target user needs and create offers that will appeal to them.

Statistically meaningful data can come from whether or not coupons were used. So it’s important to get that data from receipts, as well. Did the consumer use the offers you thought they would? That tells you something.

Who are you working with and how?

Thomas-Zon: Historically, we’ve worked in the digital domain with advertisers. We’ve worked with Mars candy to help get product off the shelves. They come to Retailigence for a layer of inventory visibility in certain markets. We are able to provide regional targeting. As we move into 2016, we’re focusing on capturing inventory-level data over time and provide that back through analytics dashboards.

Part of what you do as a data scientist is to collect and torture insights out of data and then find ways to represent those insights. How do you do that when working with tons of data?

Waldron: That’s a really hard problem. As a data scientist, you want to be able to show that things aren’t that simple and provide different ways to look at the data. The challenge with any analytics product is letting the data tell its story in the simplest way. We provide a lot of metrics, but 90 percent of what people care about is sales lift and in-store visitation. The nature of the metrics should be actionable, then — for example, we need to reach more females, etc.

More and more, marketers are becoming data scientists. They know they can zero in on mounds of data and find what’s crucial.

Handle consumer expectation — if your ads are too specifically targeted, it can freak them out. Make sure to tone it down.

SMBs have different problems than national brands. Tell us what’s going on?

Thomas-Zon: National brands have some verticals that are highly dependent on local retailers, like home goods or appliances. While the national brands are creating national campaigns, there are third-party services emerging to help the SMB. These bring on local retailers to help the national brands. In the CPG area, those mechanisms exist to help those business. But in apparel, for example, they haven’t really had the tools.

What’s going to be significant when it comes to attribution in 2016?

Thomas-Zon: The in-store experience will improve — mobile will be able to get more personal, beacons aside. Mobile is the doorway to shake a hand in the store.

Waldron: Agencies are wanting to be able to put all their different channels under the same measurement regime. Companies like Placed are moving in the direction to support that.

The post Connecting the Online World to the Offline World with Data: A Round-table Chat at #BIAKNEXT appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

In the SMX East session “The Most Valuable Analytics Reports All SEOs Should Be Running,” a panel of three SEOs share their tactics when it comes to reporting.

What the SEO Stakeholders Need – Adam Proehl

First up is Adam Proehl (@AdamProehl), a partner with NordicClick Interactive. He is talking about how to present analytics and information to the different teams digital marketers must work with to achieve SEO success.

“You can be the greatest SEO in the world, but if you can’t present to executives, you’re going to fall short of your ultimate potential. You can learn all the technical SEO you want, but you also need to understand corporate politics, priorities and limited budgets,” Proehl says.

Who Affects Your SEO?

• Board and C-suite
• IT and development
• Marketing communications
• Local branches and retailers

Board and C-Suite

What resonates with them? They want to know what they’re getting for his money.

• ROI analysis
• Competition (this keeps them up at night)
• Risk vs. upside
• Visual representations (keep them simple)

IT and Development

What resonates with them?

• Work effort
• Priority fit
• Why it matters
• Proof and evidence

Forget spreadsheets. Show the visuals. Quote the source. Give clear requirements. Translate insights into customer experience. Don’t insult them.

Local Branches and Retailers

What resonates with them?

• Where they show
• Their competition
• What you’re doing from them

Marketing and Communications

What resonates with them?

• Coverage/brand perception
• Messaging
• Audience habits and mindsets
• Market trends

Provide them query data, click data and post-click engagement. Show them what their audience cares about.

Using Data to Tell a Story – Timothy Gillman

Timothy Gillman (@TimGillmanDrums), analytics strategist at Portent, holds that if you take the time to combine multiple data sets, you’re going to impress people.

Reports need to acknowledge KPIs every time, and in context. If you have a report with no KPIs, it’s just a bunch of numbers. Rather, you want to tell a story with a story

1. Get your data
2. Customize report
3. Combine data sets

Example of Context + KPI

Using Portent’s data, we’re going to find the best landing pages by search volume and (?).

Put URL in SEMRush and look at data. Now, it’s time to customize by filtering out homepage and branded queries. Export it; select CSV, where you’ll have more control. Make a pivot table!

Now, onto find out what happens after people visit a site. Head over to Google Analytics. Here, look at the Channels Report. Use Report Filters and eliminate other and PPC channels, and use custom segment, which will stay intact across multiple reports.

Make sure to add metrics, primarily KPI metrics, and add landing page dimension. Export the file as a CSV, and combine this data with the original CSV from SEMRush.

From here, visualize the data. Visualizations drive home our SEO efforts.

If you tweet to @TimGillmanDrums, he will provide you with a Google Analytics custom report and a dashboard.

Build Your Map to Google Analytics Treasure – Leslie To

Leslie To (@itsleslieto), director of SEO at 3Q Digital, says the first thing you must think about is this: What metrics and dimensions do you care about most?

Some definitions:

• Metric = number or ratio (revenue, sessions, bounce rate, etc.)
• Dimension = user info (landing page, channel, device type, etc.)

To’s Approach to Google Analytics

1. Select a metric. Focus on KPIs. To focuses on users + sessions, sessions per use, revenue per user and a few microconversions.
2. She likes to use default channel dimensions because it provides context.
3. Control noise through segmentation:
   • New vs. returning (Note: Returning users are more likely to spend more money. This is interesting, because clients often ignore retention in favor of new customer acquisition.)
   • New customers are important, obviously, but don’t forget about existing.
   • Converters vs. non-converters. Can we utilize certain channels to make up for performance gaps in others?

Final thought: Mindful reporting leads to actionable insights.

The post The Most Valuable Analytics Reports for SEO – SMX Liveblog appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

It never ceases to amaze me how often I come across business owners who have websites, but no analytics installed on them. While they may understand the value of research and data in their decision making process, they don’t know how to collect that data. I love that I can solve that problem for them through the modern magic of Google Analytics. They’re excited to learn that after they add some simple code to their site they’ll be able to:

• Track and measure the results of their efforts
• See how many visits their website is getting and where visitors are coming from
• Access a clear vision of the role their website plays in the grand scheme of their business

Without this type of data to inform your business decisions, you are potentially wasting valuable time and resources on strategies and activities that do nothing to increase your bottom line. So, without further ado, here’s how to bring on the data! And know that BCI is standing by with supportive Analytics services including setup, data analysis and data-based optimization to boost your online efforts.

Setting Up Google Analytics

Now that you know how much more your website can do for you, it’s time to start collecting data so you can step up your online marketing game and optimize your website for SEO.

Step 1: Sign Up for Google Analytics

The process for setting up Analytics on your website is fairly simple. The first step is signing up for Google Analytics. If you’ve been using AdWords or already have a Google account, then you can use your existing Google account to sign up. Pretty simple and straightforward, right?

Step 2: Set Up a New Account

An Account is an organized way of managing your digital assets in a way that makes sense to you. Accounts are organized by Properties and Views. A Property would be a website, mobile application or other digital asset for which you’d like to collect data. A View would be your access point to the actual data on your website providing you with a unique perspective of an associated Property.

If you have more than one website you’d like to track, then you can add them all as a new Property under the same Account.  You don’t need to create a new account for each website property unless they are unrelated. For example, if you are an SEO consultant with two clients, then you would  have two separate accounts for each of your clients and their website properties.

By default, each Property comes with a standard View of all the website data for that particular Property. If you only want to see a specific portion of your data from a different lens, so to speak, then you would need to create a different View for that Property. For example, you can use one View to see unfiltered data, and another View to see data filtered by IP address so that you are not tracking your own website views from your computer.

Once you’ve signed up for Google Analytics (step 1), you’ll be prompted to set up your new account.

• For Account Name, enter the name of your business.
• For Website Name, enter the name of your website.
• For Website URL, type in your web address or copy and paste it from a separate browser window.
• For Industry Category, select the business category that best fits your website. If nothing is a good fit, then select Other.
• For Reporting Time Zone, select the time zone most relevant to your business.

Then scroll down and click the blue “Get Tracking ID” button.

Step 3: Install the Analytics Tracking Code

This is the part of setting up Google Analytics where most novices stop dead in their tracks and throw their hands in the air in exasperation. As far as you’re concerned, this tracking code might as well read like ancient hieroglyphics, but it’s actually a lot less intimidating than it looks. All you need to know is how to copy and paste.

If you use a content management system, like WordPress, to make updates to your website with minimal technical know-how, you have two options for adding the Google Analytics tracking code to your site.

Option #1: Copy and Paste Tracking Code into Your Site’s header.php File

Most CMSs used today allow you to modify the header.php file ━ that’s the top section of code that’s used on every page of the site. For WordPress sites, you can find your header.php file from the WordPress dashboard by navigating to Appearance, then Editor. From the Editor, you’ll see a long list of page templates along the right side of the screen. Select Header to open up the page template. Then click inside the template, and use CTL+F to search for the closing </head> tag near the top of the page template. Paste the tracking code immediately before the closing </head> tag.

There’s just one caveat. If you decide to update your theme or use a different theme altogether, this header.php file will most likely be replaced with a new or updated version, in which case you’d have to add the code again into the new file. If you have a different CMS than WordPress, you may need help from your webmaster to locate the header.php file to edit.

Option #2 (WordPress Only): Copy and Paste Tracking Code into a GA WordPress Plugin
If your CMS is WordPress, there are plugins specially designed to add the Google Analytics tracking code to the site header. Add a new WordPress plugin by navigating to Plugins, then Add New from the WordPress dashboard. Type in Google Analytics for WordPress in the search field, and click Search.

Google Analytics by Yoast is considered an industry standard plugin for tracking analytics in WordPress. Once installed, navigate to the plugin’s settings where you’ll be able to manually enter or copy and paste the tracking code in the provided field as shown below.

Once installed, it can take up to 24 hours for Google Analytics to update its servers. It usually starts tracking sooner than 24 hours, but if it takes longer, you may want to review your setup and try again.

In order to make Google Analytics really work for you once you’re ready to start collecting data, you’ll want to configure your filter settings so that the resulting reports are best aligned with your business needs. This instructional data from Google will introduce you basic filters you can use to narrow your views, transforming how data appears in reports.

Armed with the right data, you’ll be well on your way to measuring your online marketing and SEO efforts with great precision.

For more information regarding tracking codes in Google Analytics, please see our How to Set Up a Google Analytics Tracking Code guide.

The post How to Set Up Google Analytics appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

You may have noticed this session has a special hashtag — #ms3 — which signifies this presentation is the third session in today’s 11-part Marketing Summit Track. The Marketing Summit Track is special because in this track attendees hear three 25-minute mini-sessions on three different topics during one 1.5-hour session slot, rather than hearing several speakers share on one topic for the full 1.5 hours (which is the standard SMX session format).

In this 1.5-hour block we have the following three mini-sessions bundled:

(9:00-9:25) From Content Marketing to Media Company (#ms1)
(9:30-9:55) The Coming Paradigm Shift In Mobile Marketing (#ms2)
(10:00-10:25) Revolutionizing Decision Making: How The Analyst Will Take Over Business (#ms3)

In this post I’ll cover the third in the 9-10:25 series: Revolutionizing Decision Making: How The Analyst Will Take Over Business. Click the above links to read liveblog coverage of #ms1 and #ms2.

// Start liveblog session

Leading us through this 25-minute talk on the “analytics revolution” is Natalie Kortum (@NatalieKortum), director of analytics and consumer insights at Humana. She’s going to be discussing Revolutionizing decision-making.

She starts by saying plain and simple Big Data will change analytics (and how we report them) forever.

Not only will more data allow us to better connect with our consumers during specific/targeted phases in their lives, it will also allow us come to more statistically relevant conclusions. A lot of data increases our statistical relevance.

HR is even using analytics in 2014! (They want to get a feel for whether they’ve recruited the right people; whether their employees are going to be star performers or expendables.)

In Mad Men times we used our gut instinct a lot. Today we use DATA!

Look at:
1) High level exporting/trends. Generalized data.
2) Key performance indicators; where are we? What metrics represent success?
3) Business intelligence data exploration.
4) Math modeling.
5) Machine learning

At each one of these decisions you need Acceptance – at every stage you need someone to give you buy-in. To approve what you’re doing; to accept your data; to give you a green light to move on to the next stage.

The difference between a good analyst and great analysts – getting buy in!

The Key: 3 Ways to Nurture Successful Ongoing Analytics

What do I need to create a project that continually gets funding quarter over qurter? Year or over?

1) Make sure your data collection meets a strategic business need.
By this we mean the business itself needs to find it important. Not the analytics team finds it important; the business leaders need to find it important. Stakeholders need to ask about it in follow-up meetings; they need to be interested in it.

2) Explain the analytics in a way that the stakeholders can understand.
How can you explain to your directors — in an accessible way — what the data is saying, and why the data is critical?

3) Demonstrate ROI to stakeholders.
How can you improve this data gives you stronger confirmation than a primal instinct, and that the data collection and analysis is worth the investment.

4 Tips for Communicating Analysis to Stakeholders

1) Walk a mile in their shoes.
What does it the person you’re communicating to need? Ask them! What are your top of mind problems you’re dealing with? What do they need to communicate to their supervisors? What data do they need to give X project value? How can you mine the right data to solve the right problems?

2) Run your presentation past a nontechnical supporter.
Seriously. Make sure your nontechnical volunteer understands what you’re saying before you run your presentation by a stakeholder. Another approach is to pretend that you’re giving your presentation to your mother, or your neighbor; will they understand what you’re saying?

Pro tips:
Only take  two-minutes to explain your methodology.
Use analogies!

3) Create proof points for your techniques.
For example: Are there other markets that are already using a similar approach? Other companies? Other internal resources? Respected industry expert? Can you get examples of their work, or actually get the person in the room with you (if in-house)?

4) Watch your assumptions!
Only show two or three if you need to show them. Don’t get them overwhelmed with maybe data.

How to integrate data into business decision-making

A flow might go like this: [She calls this “the evolution of the non-technical business decisions maker”]

Sure, let’s test it!
Implement it – but I want to approve final decisions.
Implement – but you approve final decisions.
Ok. This is working great. Let’s automate it!

What you want is for your business decision maker to hand you the keys: “You own this! You know it better than I do; let me just give you the context of what I am trying to accomplish, and you mine/collect the data to make it happen.”

When developing your speaking skills it’s remember: We all learn from our failures. Keep trying, keep failing, keep learning.

The post #SMX Liveblog: Revolutionizing Decision Making: How The Analyst Will Take Over Business (#ms3) appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

According to the Knowledge Graph (seemed like the appropriate tool to use), a zeitgeist is “a mood or spirit that defines a particular period in time as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time.”

Said another way, it’s the perceived analysis of how people felt during a specific time based on the actions they took.

This is truly the perfect way to describe Google Trends – the fairly new tool that lets you evaluate consumer interest and sentiment over time based on analysis of relative search popularity.

In the 16 months since its christening as a standalone tool, it may have been tempting to write Google Trends off as “just” another keyword research tool, or that thing Google made to tell you which NBA player people are searching most frequently.

While, yes, you can perform keyword research with it, and, yes, it is a world of fun and can easily trick you into wasting an hour visualizing “hot searches,” these uses are only the tip of the iceberg. If you stop there you’re truly missing out.

Here’s a rundown of five strategic things you can do with Google Trends that make the tool much more than a state-by-state LeBron James peak interest analyzer.

5 Ways to Use Google Trends for Serious Business

Each and every one of these five items could be a full-length blog post unto itself; there’s that much power is packed into each of them. That said, here I’ve summarized each point relatively briefly.

Let’s not let the discussion be brief, though! Please ask questions in the comments section as you see fit.

Now, the list.

To put more strategy in my marketing strategy, I use Google Trends to…

1. Visually Weigh Campaign Options

Google Trends lets you graph the relative popularity of up to five topics or queries. This is a great way to get a sense for consumer interest in a niche market, how that interest has changed over time, how interest changes with the seasons, and whether a niche is gaining momentum or fizzling out.

The query comparison feature is a great tool to help you make more strategic, consumer-focused decisions year round, but it can be particularly helpful if you’re on the fence about a campaign direction or considering an increased focus on a niche segment.

Here’s an example: say you are a sporting goods company and you’re trying to decide whether you want to target hiking, running, climbing, rowing or boxing for your summer campaign. You sell accessories for all five sports in your store, but which do people care most about? Using Google Trends to supplement your internal data you can see at a glance that Google searchers show significantly more interest in running (red), and that the interest level is continuing to rise.

You may also be surprised to see a very high level of interest in boxing (purple), with spikes happening more frequently from 2011-2013, which could mean an increased interest in recreational participation.

If you need a quick, visual guide to get your campaign headed in one direction over another, Google Trends is an excellent data-driven resource. (And the color-coded graphs make communicating insights with stakeholders much easier.)

2. Get a More Comprehensive Idea of the Popularity of Search Concepts

Below your query selections in Google Trends you’ll see a fine-print message letting users know that Trends is measuring interest in topics – not necessarily just search terms. To glean insights about interest in a specific search term, the message tells you to make sure the “search term” category is selected.

What does this mean?

Measuring interest in topics, not queries (unless specifically designated), means that Google is clumping together several terms that it infers to mean the same thing. A clump may include questions searchers ask to find out more about the query without ever typing the exact query words. Google Trends returns all of that data, together, as part of the topic’s 1-100 relative popularity “score.” (I say score in quotation marks because I am calling the data Trends returns a score; Google has never called it that.)

The example Google software engineer Gil Ran gives is the popularity of queries like “Gwyneth Paltrow (Actress),” “Gweneth Paltrow,” “Gwen Paltro,” and “Lead actress in Iron Man” all being cumulatively considered and returned when a user enters “Gwyneth Paltrow (Actress)” into Google Trends.

Data based on topics, not individual queries, is incredibly useful because it truly helps us get a better, more complete picture of what the searcher wants when they are searching (which is what we need to know if we are looking to be there with what they need before they know they need it.) When someone types “Lead actress in Iron Man” they want info about Gwyneth Paltrow, even if they don’t say “Gwyneth Paltrow” and Google Trends has found a way to articulate that implied intent as data.

(It’s awesome.)

How do you select a topic or get query popularity by designating “search term”?

If you want to do an apples-to-apples comparison, you should make sure all your search queries pertain to the same topic – like, sports in the case of our above-mentioned hiking, running, climbing, rowing, boxing example. When you type in your query a drop-down list that offers your word in several topic contexts will automatically appear; this is Google making it easy for you to choose the right topic category. If you want to analyze the popularity of the term “boxing”, not the topic, choose “Boxing (search term).”

3. Get Specific Insights about a Term’s Connotations

Scroll down the Google Trends search page and you will see a Related searches section with a column of Topics on the left and Queries on the right. There are two options you can choose for each list, Top and Rising. The Top option lists the most popular terms that are related to the topic you entered, while Rising shows you terms that have seen a significant increase in interest year over year (or month over month, or week over week, if you have your search narrowed to only a 30-day or 7-day period).

Both Top and Rising lists are a great way for you to get just a bit deeper into the mind of your consumer by digging just a bit deeper into their specific interests. For instance, looking at the Top topics within our Running category we see “Shoe”, “Nike” and “Marathon” – which tells us that people who are interested in the topic of running may also have a particular interest in buying Nike shoes, and that they want to know more about running marathons. This is excellent information that can lead visual campaigns (show someone running a marathon in Nike shoes to get their attention), or content marketing strategy next steps (consider writing more how-to articles about marathon running and preparation).

Looking at the Rising portion of the Queries column within the Running query we can also see that there has been an increased interest in technology that helps runners map their runs. Again, this information is great content marketing fuel, whether you take it simply to write more strategic blog content (think articles that review run mapping technology) or to propose that your company create its own branded run mapping app.

4. Leverage Trending Cultural Topics to Add a Sticky Flair to Content

Google Trends is a great resource if you want to know what shows people are watching, what celebrities they’re talking about and, in general, more about what’s trending in pop culture. This function of Google Trends might be the most fun a non-statistician can have with data, actually. That said, why are we talking about this? I thought this article was about how serious Google Trends is?

We’re talking about this because knowing what TV shows are trending is a great way to wrap your head around what TV shows people are interested in, which can be a great way to know how to get the people’s attention. The trick is to leverage what’s happening in pop culture (the start, end or re-release of a TV show, for instance) to add a sticky spin to your content marketing efforts.

HubSpot does this really well and got it particularly right with their article, “What the Arrested Development Re-Launch Tells Us About the Future of Mass Media.”

As Mary Poppins said, a spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down, and a dash of pop culture makes the marketing tutorial less dry.

5. Visual Data Makes It Easier to Parse Opportunity and Learn from Off-Season Spikes

As you look at more and more of these Google Trends graphs you’ll start to see that usually companies and topics have a natural ebb and flow as the seasons progress. For instance, like clockwork, there is always a major spike in queries for bike companies like Trek, Cannondale, Giant and Schwinn in July, a smaller spike slightly earlier in April or May, and a plummet in December.

Because Google Trends displays all of its data in color-coded line graphs, seasonal changes like these are incredibly easy to parse at a glance. This visual representation of data also makes it easier to pick out historical spikes and changes in places where they don’t usually happen.

Looking for these off-season spikes is kind of like looking for a needle in a haystack, but if you see one, hop on it! Hover your mouse over the unnatural spike to see what month and year the spike happened in, then do some in-house research to get an idea of what you were doing at that time. Were you running any special campaigns during that month and year? Did you host or sponsor any events? Was there an external event or some press coverage that could have caused a heightened interest in your brand? Could this be a spike from negative media coverage?

Sometimes it will be obvious what was happening at that time with little effort; sometimes this back-story search will take more work. The key is to try to learn from what happened at that time because, whatever happened, it worked – it caused your consumers to adjust their normal routine and heighten their interest in your brand when they wouldn’t have done so otherwise. Learn from this spike and, if the spike was caused by something positive, try to reproduce it – and the spike – if you can.

Google Trends: Your Wacky, Fun Friend Who’s Actually Really Smart

Let’s recap:

Can you glean insight about keyword popularity using Google Trends? Yes! Can you look at sentiment for LeBron James state-by-state? Yes! Is that all you can do? No!

Google Trends is an excellent marketing tool that helps you get just an inch or so further into the minds of your consumers and their preferences. While it will give you data on keyword research, it’s the tool’s ability to return topic insights, shed light on trending cultural interests and visualize data in ways that make insights easier to parse, making it far more than “just” a keyword research tool.

I don’t expect you to use Google Trends data as a replacement for the insights you glean from Google Analytics, traditional keyword research or any other consumer data flow you have coming in. In fact, I would highly advise against it.

Instead, regard and use Google Trends as a supplemental marketing tool that effectively gives marketers a relevant, big-picture sense of a topic’s past, present and future popularity – all wrapped up in a visually engaging, easy to understand package.

Or, if you can’t shake the idea of Trends as the guy who’s wearing the lampshade on his head at the Google tools party, I encourage you to think about it like a wacky, fun friend who’s actually really smart. Google Trends has no problem talking about popular celebrity breakups for a couple hours if that’s what you feel like doing. But he also knows how to get down to business when it’s time.

For even more great ways in which Google Trends can enhance your search marketing techniques, check out our 5 Enlightened Ways to Use Google Trends for Keyword Research post!

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