Menu

Dabrian Marketing Group

Post Smarter on Social: Leverage Social Reports in Google Analytics

by 1 Comment

It’s no surprise that more organizations than ever are allocating additional time and resources to establishing a solid presence in social media. Strategies are cooked up by marketing and brand managers. Page designs, cover photos, and icons are designed with care. Facebook and Twitter badges are placed on marketing pieces and business cards. As a member of a team of digital marketers and analysts, this is a glorious thing to behold. But (there’s always a ‘but’), how effective are these strategies? Is there room for improvements? Are these organizations really connecting with the right customer segments, or are they just shouting in a room full of the wrong people? These are just a few of many questions that Google Analytics Social reporting can help answer.

These reports can be found under Traffic Sources and range from Referral data to landing pages, Trackbacks, Conversions, and more.

These social reports can shine light on a wide array of facets of your social media presence, including referrals, social plugins (Likes, +1’s, etc.), social conversions (online purchases, submissions, or requests performed by social visitors), as well as the flow and paths of social media traffic into your website. Let’s take a look at three of these reports and features a little closer and see how they can be leveraged to bolster the effectiveness of your social media assets.

So, Where Are You From? – Network Referrals

One of the more fundamental reports available in the Google Analytics social section, the Network Referral report, is very similar to the main Traffic Sources report we’ve all come to know and love in the past. Much of this referral data was available within Google Analytics for some time, however in the past we had to perform some manual slicing and dicing to get a clear picture of social media traffic. This report does much of that manual labor for us, shining light onto what social media assets are actually referring visitors to your web properties. Since this is essentially a modified derivative of the original Traffic Sources report, you also have access to advanced filters and regex functionality.

See what social platforms are sending the most traffic to your site – and see how relevant they find your content!

What Google Analytics report would be complete without some drill-down functionality? There are some juicy insights beyond just the names of the social media websites that referred traffic. Clicking on the various network names drills down to reveal what URLs on your website were shared and how many visitors landed on each. This is where you can really turn insights into tactics: Leverage the information here to determine what social posts and links are being deemed relevant to your target audience. If they’re clicking on the links and getting to the site but aren’t spending enough time on the page to do much of anything, there’s a good chance that there’s a disconnect between the post’s message and the content on the shared page.

Thanks For Sharing! – Trackbacks

A crucial element in establishing a solid foundation on any social media platform is to secure advocates of your brand or product. One very powerful way of leveraging this is getting these advocates to talk about you! In today’s world this can take the form of social posts or even blogs. With the Trackback report in Google Analytics, you can see exactly where some of these kinds of social referrals are coming from. Just last month we found a very interesting tidbit for one of our financial services clients using the Trackback report. A prominent travel blogger recently posted a very in-depth evaluation and review of their global credit card that detailed his experiences using the card abroad. Not only was this critique extremely useful for optimizing their product; but it also expanded their brand and product visibility to a significant and extremely targeted audience. Overall, this is not a report to be ignored! Trackbacks may come and go depending on the size and volume of your website, but every now and then there might be a hidden gem worth taking a look at.

Thank You, Come Again! – Conversions

It’s great to know how many visitors reached your site from Facebook versus Twitter, what pages they landed on, or who’s talking about you; but how do you know that your social marketing is really effective? By using the Social Conversions report, of course!

Whether we like it or not, marketing always comes down to Return on Investment. Since social media is one of those weird areas where the emphasis is more on customer relations than sales, it can be a bit tricky to directly tie social media success back to ROI. So whether you’re leveraging social media for sales, customer relations, or both, you can gain much greater visibility into the end result using the Social Conversions report in Google Analytics. This report provides a look at whether or not your social traffic is performing the conversions you’ve set up in Google Analytics. If you’re leaning more towards using social media as a customer relations tool but still want to see if all of that hard work is leading to increased long-term sales, you can employ the use of the utm_nooverride parameter on your shared URLs to ensure that the first touch-point with social media gets credit for the conversion over the long-term.

Measure, Rinse, Repeat!

It should be noted that these are only a few of the measurement capabilities that Google Analytics has with regards to social media. Some of the other reports and features within the tool can easily be sliced and diced with filters and advanced segments to uncover even deeper insights into your social media marketing effectiveness. The biggest thing to keep in mind: any marketing method (social media, traditional, pay per click, etc.) can only be improved if you have a measurement strategy in place. In the case of social media, leveraging Google Analytics brings your insights full-circle and provides actionable insights to keep your customers happy and your marketing budget even happier.

Have questions on how you can use the social reporting capabilities of Google Analytics? Leave a comment and our web analytics team will answer!

5 Rapid Fire Social Media Tips

by Leave a Comment

Along with the exponential popularity of social media, there’s been an equally large amount of misconceptions surrounding the “right” or “surefire” way to be social and reap all its benefits. In light of that, we’ve compiled a quick list of tips that almost any organization can use, whether they’re building a social strategy, looking to improve their efforts, or are still learning how social media works.

Expand your presence (if it makes sense)

A big misconception related to building a presence on social media is that you should focus on one network. Another big one? That you need to be anywhere and everywhere. Both seemingly have their benefits, whether you’ve got limited resources for the former or a small company and big dreams for the latter. The problem here is that not every network is right for your business. The best approach is to experiment, evaluate which networks are really worth it, and move from there. Wash, rinse, repeat as necessary.

Set aside the appropriate amount of time

Think that your entire social media workload can be handed off to an intern who works a few hours a week? Think again! As you learn more about social’s impact on a business, you’ll begin to appreciate the amount of time and work it takes. This is due to the fact that now, more than ever, social media represents the face and personality behind a company. Our last tip will talk about this in greater detail, but just remember: marketing with social media is just as important as any other tactic.

Don't spam!

This tip falls in line with the first one on the list. The assumption that “the more you post from the most places, the better off you’ll be” really shows a lack of knowledge and experience surrounding social media. Understanding that different networks attract different audiences, and that those different audiences have different expectations in terms of post language, content, and frequency, all come into play during a business’s social media strategic planning.

Cater the message to the network

To piggy back off of the previous point, crafting messages that align with the networks you’re sending from should be the last line of defense before social media communications head out the door. This also reinforces the point of getting educated on the subject. Once you do, you’ll find out that Twitter is more useful for quick, frequent updates, while images and videos are better served for Facebook. Little things like that can mean the difference between fostering engagement and your following taking a major nosedive.

Bring in company and employee personality

One final thing to realize about social – your business is one in a sea of many. It’s going to be difficult to set your business apart, and there isn’t going to be an end-all be-all solution. One great way to get started is to add distinct personality to your social media presence. Remember earlier in the post how we mentioned the face behind a company? Audiences are on social to interact with other people, and nothing will make you look like a robotic, faceless corporation more than impersonal messaging or broadcasts focused solely on you.

Have a tip we might’ve missed? Let us know in the comments below!

PPC Just Makes “Cents”

by 1 Comment

Pay-Per Click (PPC) advertising is an effective way to market your company that also brings measurable value to you. PPC advertising creates a great amount of exposure and visibility. This makes it an efficient and cost effective way to increase leads, generate sales, and maximize your return on investment. Search engines like Google and Bing allow businesses and individuals to buy listings in their search results. These listings appear along with the natural, non-paid search results. These ads are then sold in an auction. You will be able to control your bid and what you want to pay for a click on the ad. The higher your bid, the better chance you have at ranking number 1 in the sponsored results. But, what exactly can you do to increase sales by using PPC advertising? Let’s take a look at a few basic steps that will help you do just that.

Choosing High Quality, Relevant Keywords

Choosing the right keywords is vital to your PPC campaigns. If you don’t have relevant keywords that are going to resonate with your target audience, then your ad rank, quality score, and your overall PPC campaign will be affected. It is important to develop an extensive keyword list. Keyword research is what is going to enable you to define the keywords used by your target audience to find your products or services. This also allows you to cover numerous possibilities without utilizing the “broad match” function, which is likely to prove more expensive due to the poor audience targeting of this method. Negative keywords are also important to ensure you are not paying for traffic which is of no value to you. Negative keywords are the keywords you specify that shouldn’t be included in the search engine results pages which show your ad. Using multiple match types is also beneficial to a successful PPC campaign. Google AdWords offers “Broad Match”, “Phrase Match”, and exact match for the keywords selected for your ads. Using the proper match type is critical to achieving the targeted traffic you are looking for. Although broad match may deliver high traffic volumes, this choice should be avoided in favor of “phrase match” and “exact match,” which are more precise and will bring more targeted traffic to your website.

Create Relevant Ad Copy with a Clear Call-To-Action

Most PPC advertising platforms require that you write a couple short descriptive phrases about your product or service. It is extremely important that you make sure your grammar, spelling, and overall language is correct and appropriate for your audience. You must also verify that your language adheres to the rules enforced by the Pay per Click service. Get specific! Entice the reader and tell them why they should click on your ad. The better your ad copy, the better your quality score will be. The better your quality score, the less you will pay per click and the higher your ad rank will be. The higher your ad rank, the better chance you will generate more conversions and increase sales.

Improve Landing Page Experience

The landing page associated with your keyword advertisement is just as important as your advertisement itself. The web page associated with your keyword advertisement has to be 100% relevant to the ads offered if you are going to obtain reasonable conversion rates. In general, the typical business web page is often too generic to offer high relevancy to the specific ad. Also, general web pages often have too many distractions to achieve reasonable success at converting PPC advertisements. The objective of the landing page, ideally, is to convert the visitor on the page. However, at times in the sales process, additional information is required. If this is the case, developing a multiple page sales funnel to obtain the desired conversion should be considered. A well constructed and relevant landing page is often the deciding factor as to whether or not a user converts.

Summing It Up

In summary, PPC advertising is an efficient and cost effective way to monitor performance and stay ahead of the competition. It will also help you gain greater exposure and visibility to generate leads and increase sales. Adhering to the three basic steps listed above will put you that much closer to developing and maintaining a successful PPC campaign. Thus, it will help you to drive more traffic, generate more conversions, and increase sales.

If you would like to learn more about how PPC Advertising can help your business drive sales, please comment below or call us at 610-743-5602.

DaBrian Marketing Group Selected by Green Giant Lawn & Tree Care for Website Redesign

by Leave a Comment

Green Giant Lawn, Tree & Pest Control, a Fleetwood, PA-based Company that provides residential and commercial lawn, tree, & pest control services throughout southeastern Pennsylvania, has chosen DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC, an Internet Marketing company that specializes in Search Engine Marketing & Analytics, to design its new website.

Locally-owned and operated since 1982, Green Giant prides itself on providing effective Lawn Care, Tree Care, & Pest Control services in a family- and environmentally-friendly manner. The new website works to reinforce Green Giant’s commitment to their customers, their industry expertise, as well as their long-standing focus on making life easier for every client.

“We were able to provide a solution to Green Giant Lawn Care’s website challenges and improve the backend functionality,” said Daniel Laws, principal owner of DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC. “The beauty of these solutions is that clients have access to make changes as well as with the support of our team. This new design provides a small sample of our web design capabilities and demonstrates the evolution of our service offerings.”

DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC designed and developed the Green Giant Lawn & Tree Care website using the WordPress CMS platform, greatly improving the site’s user experience, better reinforcing the Green Giant brand, and opening new doors for content customization and more effective marketing.

“Our old website was outdated and not nearly as user friendly as we wanted,” said Daniel Rothermel, owner of Green Giant Lawn & Tree Care. “We choose DaBrian primarily because they committed to providing a site that will be very user friendly and informative while also providing industry leading Search Engine Optimization.”

Green Giant’s new website can be found at GreenGiantLawnCare.com and GreenGiantPestControl.com.

Create Analytics Reports For ALL Key Players

by Leave a Comment

So your organization has decided to delve into the world of digital analytics. You’ve done your research, talked to countless analytics professionals and consultants, and performed the song and dance to gain the support of the decision makers for measuring your campaigns. At this point you may be thinking that you are ready to hit the ground running, throwing analytics tracking tags every which way and setting up eye-catching dashboards and graphs. This is looking like a sure-fire thing, right?

Not So Fast!

Before you deploy your analytics tracking solution, let alone begin reporting, you’ll want to get a little more strategic. The beautiful thing about web analytics solutions is that they can be wielded to gather insights that will benefit virtually any department or role in an organization. It is important to understand, however, that even though these solutions can be very flexible and adaptable; this entirely depends on the measurement plan and reporting strategy that’s in place from the start. Laying a solid foundation in measurement is paramount to the success of all involved parties.

Regardless of what industry an organization is in, there are often multiple individuals with unique responsibilities when it comes to marketing and advertising. From marketing managers to copywriters to brand managers, the list can go on and on. Each one of these roles has their own set of responsibilities. With those responsibilities come unique challenges, which very well could be alleviated through increased visibility into marketing, website, and brand performance.

This is why it is a good idea to get these individuals into a room together during the early stages of measurement planning and laying out reports. These reporting capabilities may be great for your own purposes, but these benefits can extend well beyond that. Share the wealth!

Get The Wheels Turning

Now that you’ve rallied all of the right people together, it’s time to figure out what you will be reporting on and how you will be measuring it. I read a very interesting little blog recently that did a really great job of driving the point home that success with analytics comes from asking the right questions. Truer words have never been spoken. When meeting with your marketing, branding, and advertising personnel, be sure to get down to basics: Ask them what they think is a successful action a prospective customer can take in a campaign or on the site. Ask them what they deem as a valuable Key Performance Indicator. Their responses may not be ideal, but they will at least give you a direction to take when deciding what to measure, where to deploy tracking, and what to report on. This high-level feedback will also give you something to base those shiny visuals on when it comes time to develop graphs and performance dashboards.

One of the most important things to keep in mind during this entire process is that analytics reports can be extremely organic. Measurement models and reports can easily be altered to suit changing needs, campaigns, and marketing strategies over time. It might be a good idea to revisit this whole process quarterly or at least bi-annually to ensure that all of those data needs are still being met for ALL players. The key is to stay light on your analytical feet so you can anticipate and adapt accordingly.

What kinds of analytical challenges have you come up against in your organization? Leave us a comment and share your experience!

The 5 W’s of Mobile Advertising

by 1 Comment

It’s safe to say that the “Mobile Marketing Revolution” is in full swing. To offer a bit of perspective, think about this: Mobile web usage is expected to surpass traditional Desktop Internet browsing by 2015. It’s clear–smartphones and tablets are on the fast-track to ubiquity, and a lot more marketers are starting to catch on and make moves. This week, we’re going to break down Mobile Advertising into its most basic elements.

Here’s the Who, What, When, Where, & Why of Mobile Advertising (your High School English teachers would be so proud!).

Who?

This one is pretty self-explanatory, but there’s nothing wrong with bringing in a little context. In just two years, 40% of American consumers will have a smartphone. That’s a big portion of the market, and that means that advertisers will have to take these devices into account when forming their latest and greatest marketing campaigns. Another thing to consider is the way consumers are using their devices. Now more than ever, mobile devices are becoming the go-to platform for eCommerce, managing finances, performing brand research, and more.

What?

When it comes to mobile advertising, there are many options that marketers will have to consider. Some big ones include mobile-optimized content, mobile-friendly websites, mobile application development, QR Codes, as well as the mobile paid search environment. It’s a lot to wrap one’s head around, and it’ll require research for those marketing teams that are planning to make the mobile transition soon. The numbers don’t lie though–Mobile Ad Spend in the US is projected to reach nearly $4 Billion by the end of this year.

When?

Studies and research have completely agreed on the rise of mobile devices in the future. Consumers are expected to devote more time to using mobile devices, spend more money on mobile apps, and complete more tasks and activities on the small screen. As devices and consumer behavior evolves, marketing teams will have to keep an eye on the trends, capitalize on what they can right now, and prepare for the advances the future will bring.

Where?

Where are these users spending their time? The era of using a smartphone just to check email is over. As these devices have become more sophisticated, average users have become far more comfortable using their smartphones and tablets to complete everyday tasks that were once confined to a Desktop. Shopping, doing research, connecting via Social Media, banking, searching, using brand-specific apps, and playing games–all of these offer big opportunities for a business to gain reach & visibility. Put simply, industry-specific possibilities abound for the mobile arena.

Why?

Time for the most important question of all: Is mobile marketing really worth it? Will it live up to the hype? Time will certainly tell, but the current data is hard to ignore. Mobile devices are fast-becoming the latest communication medium, both from a personal and business perspective. When it comes down to it, successful marketing starts with target audience’s behavior and values, and ends with creating a unique marketing message to match. Mobile devices are poised to be the most effective way to get the word out, and advertisers have begun their plans to explore this new technological frontier.

Have a burning question about your approach to Mobile Advertising? Leave us a comment below!