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We Partner with Google to “Get Your Business Online”

August 17, 2015 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

DaBrian Marketing Group Partners with Google to “Get Your Business Online”

Reading, PA-based DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC will hold a Google-sponsored event for local businesses along with showcasing their new office additions to the public on September 14, 2015 at 500 Penn Street, Suite 201, Reading, PA 19602. Get Your Business On the Map event begins at 4 p.m. and the Grand Re-opening will follow at 5:30 p.m.

DaBrian Marketing Group started utilizing Google’s services eight years ago through Google AdWords, Google Analytics, and more. DaBrian Marketing is one of the few certified Google Partners in Reading, PA. As a Google Partner, we have the knowledge, resources, and credentials to help other businesses in the community connect with their customers online.

Google, the world’s leading search engine, has committed itself to helping local businesses around the globe optimize their presence online since 2011. Their “Get Your Business Online” (GYBO) program offers business owners the ability to to grow their reach and visibility by showing up for local search results.

According to Google “Businesses that are online grow 40% faster than those that aren’t,” and they have already helped 1,342 businesses get on the map in the Reading area. If your local listing is not up to par, make sure to attend this event and see how DaBrian Marketing Group can assist you and make sure any potential customer can locate your business.

In addition to the GYBO event, DaBrian Marketing will reveal the new additions to their office space and provide food and refreshments and offer giveaways to those who attend.

For more information, contact DaBrian Marketing Group to find how they can help your business. RSVP for each event today on Eventbrite.

Leveraging Attribution Modeling to Measure ROI & ROAS

August 11, 2015 by Daniel Laws Leave a Comment

According to 2015 CMO.com Stats about Marketing ROI, 93% of CMOs say that they are under more pressure to deliver measurable return-on-investment (ROI). Google Analytic defines “attribution modeling” as “the rule or set of rules that determines how credit for sales and conversions is assigned to touch-points or any point of contact between a buyer and a seller in conversion paths” (i.e. lead generation or sales process). Are you using attribution modeling to measure ROI or return on advertising spend (ROAS)?

Measure Marketing ROI and ROAS with Attribution Modeling

In general, most web analytics tools (Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, comScore, WebTrends, etc.) associate the last point of contact, whether it be search, email marketing, social media, or ad that referred the customer with all the credit for the lead or sale. If paid advertising was the initial marketing channel in the lead generation process, but the potential customer didn’t fill out the online form until later via non-paid search (SEO), shouldn’t this count for something?

Understand Metrics, Act on Insights and Make Recommendations with Attribution

Can marketing executives really make better decisions without understanding the metrics that are associated with reporting? Attribution modeling provides marketing executives with a tool to compare different attribution models, understand their impact on lead/sales and the cost per lead/sale, and identify marketing channels that lead to higher ROI/ROAS. For example, take a look at the ROAS for last interaction vs. position based attribution modeling with Google Analytics:

Why Should Marketing Executives care about Attribution Modeling?

As marketers, we know that a lead or sale is based upon multiple points of contact with a brand. So, why should we continue to only allocate credit to the last interaction? Let’s take the Google Analytics scenario above for example. Take a look at the image above, the ROAS for paid search was 232% for the last point of contact (last interaction). If you use the position based model, this would have been an ROAS of 314.77% which is 82.47% than the last point of contact. This could be the difference between continuously running paid search and reallocating your budget elsewhere. By doing this more than once, it can create the perception of paid search marketing as an expense versus revenue generator.

Take Action with Multi-channel Attribution Modeling

The pressure is on marketers to measure ROI and to tell the story through data so here are our recommendations to get you started. First, identify the value of a lead or a sale and get confirmation from the executive team. Without a value, it’s going to be impossible to calculate ROI or ROAS. Then, identify an attribution model that best fits your business, test it and compare the metrics to put it into context. Finally, align your chosen attribution modeling with your insights, recommendations, and actions. Remember, attribution model isn’t perfect and technology continues to evolve, so continuously evaluate your chosen attribution model with the actual leads and sales your business is getting.

Leave us a comment below to share your thoughts or your experience with attribution modeling.

Tips for your Business-to-Business Company Blog

June 17, 2015 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

The Internet is the main source of information for today’s generation. Businesses see this trend and take the initiative to write their own blogs of expertise. Providing quality content within your blogs will increase brand awareness which will help develop your business-to-business company as a leader in the industry. Pardot reports there are over 152 million blogs in the world as of 2014. Out of all of these, 43% are B2B companies competing with yours. What will make your business stand out amongst the rest? How will you build a relationship with your readers and prove to be a force in the industry? Consistency, creativity, and content all help you achieve successful credibility and viewership.

Scheduling leads to consistent maintenance for the blog

Maintaining a regular schedule for new posts not only allows your employees to know when their piece must be submitted, but it informs devoted readers when to check back to read about a new topic. In order to get new readers, you must promote your business’s blog. Setting up a HootSuite account, or any other social media management account, enables your business to assign future social media posts on several platforms at once without having to manually do it every single time. Keep reminding your followers to check out the post later that day and even a couple days later because they might have been offline during your first posting.

Become creative about how to attract new readers

Not everyone has the same schedule. Posting during the day may be ideal for your company, but not for your audience. Who is your audience? When is the most appropriate time to post to get the best views? A study done by TrackMaven stated there were more social shares for posts released between 9PM and midnight. Learn about your readers online habits and post when it is most convenient for them and not your company. These social shares boosts the possibility of someone finding your post. Outside of social media, you can also attract new readers by incorporating search engine optimization best practices inside each post. This will raise the chances of your company blog showing up in a simple Google search.

Share your knowledge and content through guest blogs

One of the best ways to bring more traffic to your blog is to ask to guest blog on other sites pertaining the same topics (industries, associations, etc). Create a list of respectable sites that your CEO approves of. This is an incredible way to become known to other business people who may enjoy the content on your blog. It will differentiate your company from your competition and reinforce your expertise in specific subject matter.

Measure the Performance of Your Blog & Evolve with Your Audience

It is useless to have a blog if you are unable to track how your blog is performing and how your company is benefiting from it. By setting up a Google Analytics account to track its performance, you will be able to track the click-through-rate, monitor who visits the blog, how long they stay on the website, and where they go after they read the blog. (Do they click on another tab or do they leave the website altogether?) This is all critical information to obtain to see what is and is not working.

There are several ways to build up your blog. Adding a personal touch to your B2B blog sets you apart from others writing about the same material. Find what your audience will enjoy, appreciate, and value the most for them to continue reading your company’s blogs in the future.

Start implementing these tips to drive relevant visitors to your site and start generating leads. Contact us today or leave us a comment below for more advice and information.

Why Landing Page Testing Solutions Are Needed

May 6, 2015 by Justin Miller Leave a Comment

You never get a second chance to make a good first impression. This is especially true when it comes to website landing pages. These pages should be search engine friendly so you can draw visitors there first. You also want to catch visitors’ attention, provide some basic information, engage them and motivate prospects or customers to take action.

This is where landing page testing solutions are used. These tools allow you to build and run “A/B” tests or multivariate versions of a landing page to answer questions such as whether you should have a navigation bar, will visitors click on a video, what color is most appealing, or would testimonials support your cause. Here are some available online platforms which help design and test landing pages to fit your business needs:

Unbounce focuses only on landing pages, with customization features and A/B testing functionality. They provide over eighty templates geared towards maximizing conversions, whether a sign-up, form submission or sale. You can capture leads on your landing page and send them directly to Salesforce, MailChimp, Constant Contact or AWeber. It’s also easy to add KISSmetrics, Google Analytics, and other conversion tools like surveys or a live chat. Different plans are available, from $49/month to $199/month, with a 30-day free trial.

Optimizely provides one optimization platform for websites and mobile apps. It offers an intuitive, easy-to-use landing page editor with a strong focus on A/B and multivariate testing. Highlights include a reporting dashboard with a testing focus, cross-browser testing and integration with common analytics tools. Benefits include increased interactions, engagement, and conversions (leads and sales.) Different pricing plans are available from $17 to $359/month. A 30-day free trial starter program is also available.

Instapage

Designed to quickly build and customize A/B testing landing pages, Instapage focuses on turning visitors into leads and customers. Over seventy templates are available for uses such as click-through, lead generation, and “coming soon” pages. It also has the capability to learn based on visitors who come to the landing page, and will serve up the best possible landing page to help increase your conversion rate. Users can view real-time data to determine the winner of split tests, while tracking conversion types including thank you pages, button/link clicks, and shopping cart checkouts. Instapage integrates with a variety of marketing platforms such as Google Analytics, MailChimp, Constant Contact, AWeber, Facebook, Google+, and Twitter. Build your first page free, then upgrade to plans from $29 to $179/month.

SiteSpect

A little more technical in implementation, SiteSpect is designed to allow a broader range of testing options for every aspect of your site. Advanced behavioral targeting is available to create deep and engaging experiences. Users can test content, functionality and features across various websites, mobile sites, and apps, in order to uncover new optimization opportunities. Pricing is dependent on the solution chosen and the user’s ongoing website needs. While pricing can get expensive, if it helps solve your business needs and increase conversions, then it might be worth the investment.

DaBrian Marketing Group understands the importance of having a tested and proven lead generation and sales process. Contact us today to make a great first impression.

5 Step Google Analytics Audit

March 4, 2015 by Daniel Laws 1 Comment

Okay, so you’ve had Google Analytics for years and you’re collecting data – but when was the last time that you performed a Google Analytics Audit for your website? Actually updated your Google Analytics account to streamline data collection, align to your current (and possibly future) goals/objectives, and verified that only approve employees have access to your data. If you haven’t updated anything within the last 6 months, then chances are that you’re missing out on opportunities to evaluate your marketing performance, improve data collection, obtain insights, or allocate your marketing budget towards the meaningful drivers of success for your website.

Have no fear – I’ve got you covered: here’s a 5 step Google Analytics Audit to get you started…

1. Prioritize Your Google Analytics Audit

So the first question you should be asking yourself is: “what are you examining your Google Analytics account against?” Any actionable audit starts with a measurement plan, and your Google Analytics Audit is no exception. The goal of the measurement plan is to provide a framework to track online performance, and define your goals, objectives, targets, and segments. Without the measurement plan, it will be a challenge to put your audit into perspective or to prioritize your next steps.

2. Get Your Google Analytics Code on All Pages

If you have a Content Management System (CMS), tagging all of your pages with Google Analytics code shouldn’t be too time consuming. Most CMS platforms have an area specifically for the Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager tracking code – but you can validate the implementation with Tag Assistant, ScreamingFrog, or WASP. If you’re not using a CMS, I would recommend using ScreamingFrog. Make sure that the code is only listed 1 time on each page, and don’t forget your ecommerce platforms or application process!

3. Protect Your Google Analytics Data and Ensure Accurate Data Collection

You may have granted Google Analytics access to your advertising agency, employees, partners, or vendors – but when was the last time that you updated your User Management settings? Are you collecting data based on the updated tracking code and information within the Google Analytics administration? I would recommend that you review both your Property and View settings to ensure that your data collection aligns with your measurement plan. This should include:

Goals
Content Groupings
Filters
Channel Settings
Ecommerce Settings

4. Link Your Google Analytics with other Products & Social Media

You can streamline the data collection across Google products, social media accounts, remarketing and data imports from third parties such as Bing Ads. By doing this, you will gain an idea of the ROI your marketing tactics are providing, and guide you to making adjustments to your approach.

5. Create Efficiencies with Segments, Modeling, and Alerts

Take the time to revisit your segments, alerts, and attribution modeling to ensure that they align with your measurement plan. You might find that these items could be updated based on your previous online performance, new insights or more enhancements that could have been available because of Google Analytics upgrades. An example was the 2014 update to segmentation.

Why audit Your Google Analytics Account?

Google Analytics will continue to roll-out enhancements. In general, the goal is usually to save practitioners time and to improve analysis efficiencies. This should have an effect on your ability to better assess your online performance and obtain insights. For example, Google Analytics has roll-out Cohort Analysis (beta) to better measure performance over time and simplify their data sharing settings.

Recommendations for a Google Analytics Audit

Perform your Google Analytics Audit quarterly to align with your measurement plan
After the audit, prioritize your tasks based on your ability to obtain insights or provide recommendations to achieve your goals and objectives
Automate or standardize segments, modeling, and alerts to simplify the audit and to implement future product enhancement quickly.
Subscribe to the Analytics Newsletters or Google Analytics RSS to stay up-to-date on product changes
Leverage auditing tools (ie: WASP, Tag Assistant, etc.), applications, and Google Analytics Solutions galleries to streamline segmentations and customizations.

Thinking of giving your own Google Analytics audit a try? Let us know in the comments below.

Save Time and Money with Bing Ads Updates

September 24, 2014 by Justin Miller 29 Comments

Over the past few months, Microsoft has been rolling out several changes to its Bing Ads Platform. The goal is to help advertisers manage their PPC Campaigns more efficiently and effectively. Here is a quick recap of some of the changes that you may or may not have seen and experienced.

Redesigned Interface

The new interface gives Bing Ads a cleaner more streamlined look. By combining the title bar and the first set of tabs into one row and keeping the side panel collapsible, user can now view more rows and columns of data at on time. This make data comparison and analysis easier as you no longer have the trouble of scrolling, or at least not as much.

View up to 1,000,000 Keywords (Yep, 1 Million)

For those advertisers with monster keyword lists, this will allow you to see (hopefully) your entire list in one view. This means no more searching through pages and pages for that particular keyword. So now, instead of loading each page, instead you only need to scroll through a single view.

Top Movers

Top Movers reveals what has had the biggest impact in performance change given the selected timeframe. This helpful tool can be found under the Dimensions tab and will give 3 possible reasons for the change: Your Account (your changes), Search Traffic (users’ changes, i.e. search trends), or Competitor Data (competitive changes.) With these insights, you will know how to edit your PPC campaigns to keep your ads and keywords performing at their best. To read more about Top Movers, check out the Bing Ads blog.

Bid Landscape

This new features gives you an estimated idea of how bid changes would affect your overall performance. Sometimes it is difficult to determine how much of a bid increase is needed. This tools removes the guesswork by clearly graphing out the estimated impact.

Better Opportunities Tab

Previously, Bing Ads’ suggestions given in the Opportunities Tab have been “spend more” or something equally unhelpful. The new Opportunities Tab now gives actionable insights, new keyword suggestions, and even groups the suggestions into new ad groups. In addition to the suggestion, Bing Ads also provides the estimated effect it would have on your PPC if implemented. If you approve the suggestion and want to implement, you can click apply and the suggestion is implemented into action with a single click. It’s a huge time-saver, not needing to go back into each Campaign and Ad Group to make the changes yourself.

Online Insertion Order

Previously, advertisers using Insertion Orders as their payment method had to call Bing Ads and set this up over the phone. With this update it is now a much quicker and easier process that can be accomplished entirely online within the Bing Ads interface. If you are using an insertion order, then you realize the time you will save being able to set the next one up online.

Auto Tagging

This is by far my favorite update. If you were tracking your Bing Ads performance via Google Analytics, that means you were manually tagging each of your ads. Now with auto tagging, the utm_ parameters (medium, source, campaign and term) are all done for you at the account level. This has already saved me a lot of time in setting up campaigns and new ad groups inside Bing Ads.

And More…

This list does not cover all the new features and updates that Microsoft has made to Big Ads. It does highlight several that affect many advertisers’ daily usage of the Bing Ads platform. We would love to know which update(s) to Bing Ads has been your favorite and has helped you save time and money.