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Aug 16, 2023 At Conduit Digital, we abide by a list of values that we call the 5P’s: People: Our team drives our engine, and our Agency Partners matter to us. That’s why we don’t just work with anyone and everyone who says that they own an ad agency. Performance: We hold ourselves to a high standard to ensure our product is worthy of our Agency Partners’ investment in our expertise. Product: We want to offer a product that matters to our Agency Partners and their clients. Partnership: We strive to be a true partner for our agencies, acting as a seamless integration to their in-house ad operations. Isn’t that only 4? We’re saving the fifth one for last because it underpins the other four: Process. The marketing process involves the series of steps that we take to make sure that our people can perform at a high level within their areas of product expertise so that we can be a true partner for our agencies. Without process, none of the above can be possible. From the series of tasks that need to be completed, the order they need to be completed, and how long each one takes requires a process that drives the engine forward. If you’re running an agency and it feels like any of the above is plateauing at your business, the first place to start looking for opportunities for improvement has to be the processes. If you do not have a process in place for something that’s stalled, now is an excellent time to create one. Does this sound relevant to your day-to-day at your agency? If so, this guide is for you. Today, we’re going to cover how you can construct a marketing process that supports your people, their performance, the quality of your products, and ultimately, sets you up for more profitability. While we cannot guarantee success for you, we can give you a framework that you can consider applying to your own agency. Let’s start with the first P: people. Marketing Processes Need the Right People Hiring is subjective, and it’s often mysterious to some degree. When you hire someone to join your agency team, you’re doing so based on their background and your interactions with them during the interview process. Once they’re actually on the team and starting to work for your clients, that is when you see the actual fruits of their labor and expertise. A good marketing process needs the right people because the success of marketing isn’t solely dependent on strategies, tools, or technologies but on the individuals who design and execute those strategies. The right people possess the necessary skills, creativity, and understanding of both the market and the customers' needs. Beyond this, they can also navigate the complex landscape of modern marketing, embracing both analytical and empathetic thinking. Their ability to analyze data helps in making informed decisions, while their creativity allows them to craft compelling messages that resonate with the target audience. Beyond their skills and abilities, communication is another critical aspect of hiring the right people. Effective collaboration and communication among members of a team ensures that various aspects of the marketing process are well-coordinated and aligned with the client’s goals. Having the right people in place fosters a culture of continuous learning and adaptation, which is crucial for staying ahead in a constantly evolving profession. Process Supports Performance Performance is the actual result of a well-executed strategy. It’s the fulfillment of the promises that you have made to your clients. Ultimately, it’s the lifeblood of any agency alongside communication. What is performance, though? That term could apply to a number of different aspects of the services you provide. Let’s try to create a more objective understanding of what it means. First up, we have accuracy: Understanding the market and the client's specific needs is key. A well-structured marketing process starts with some serious digging into what customers want and what the competition is doing. At the end of the day, does the strategy you create align with the client’s industry and business goals? Next, we have the implementation of the strategy. It's not just about throwing a bunch of ads out there. It's a coordinated effort to align campaign tactics, optimizations, and internal collaboration to continuously drive the client’s marketing efforts toward accomplishing their stated business goals. Finally, it doesn't end with just launching the campaign. A marketing process includes constant monitoring and optimization. It's about learning from what's working (and what's not) and making on-the-fly adjustments. Imagine steering a ship; small changes to the course can make a massive difference in where you end up. At the end of the campaign, or at various touchpoints throughout, the performance is justified in reporting. Did your work match the expectations that you’ve set with your client? Are there other factors that came into play that could have enhanced, maintained, or lessened expectations? With a process in place that enables your team to perform at a high level, you can more accurately craft the right strategy, set realistic expectations, and create a comprehensive reporting system that accurately communicates this information to your clients in context. Without that infrastructure, campaign implementation and subsequent reporting can often feel like your agency is constantly shooting from the hip. This Results in a Superior Product to Offer to Your Clients Every agency has a set of core competencies that they emphasize. One of the main motivating factors for our Agency Partners to join the Conduit Agency Network is that they want to expand beyond what they do well in-house and add another expert team into the mix. For example, if you’re great at paid social ads and PPC , you may want to explore white label SEO and OTT campaigns because you do not have the personnel to meet those needs for your clients. With the right process in place, one that allows you to maximize the potential of the platforms you work on, you can offer a superior result to your clients for the services that you excel at. This not only enhances your reputation, but your credibility within the ideal niches you seek to serve. For services you may not offer or struggle with in-house, there are other solutions to compensate and continue to maintain a high standard of performance. Whether it’s white label digital marketing partnership or building a process system that enables you to cover for any performance gaps in certain channels, there are means to deliver for your clients even when you do not have all the tools in the toolbox on your own. Process is the Key for Any Partnership When we talk to the hundreds of agency leaders that we do each year, a common question that we answer revolves around some variant of “What are your processes like?”. This is no small question. If you are looking for the right white label solution, you need to make sure that their processes fit with your own. As you’re considering a holistic white label partner (not a single-channel vendor or platform), don’t be afraid to ask a potential partner about their processes. This will give you a clearer idea of what to expect for your clients, when to expect it, and what you can guarantee to your current accounts and leads when selling new solutions. Think of asking questions like: What is your pre-live process like for (campaign channel)? When should I expect reports for my clients’ campaigns? What is needed from me for your process to work as intended? What can I expect from ongoing monthly work performed by your team? These are fair, objective, and momentum-driving questions as you prepare to scale. Predictability is key to partnership, and the right process supports that. You will be able to have a solid idea of the work being performed for your clients, communicate this to them effectively, and more easily manage expectations across the board. Learn More: 5 Signs Your Agency is Ready for Partnership The 6th P: Process is Profitability Do you track how much each aspect of your agency operations costs? It goes beyond payroll and platform expenses. When you’re running a fast-paced business like a local ad agency, time literally is money, because that is the majority of what your client is paying for: your expert time spent on their marketing and advertising campaigns. With a solid process in place, you can determine how long something takes to do, how much that costs when specific team members are doing it, and whether or not it is profitable for your business. By continuously analyzing and modifying your process toward achieving profitability, you can protect yourself from overserving specific accounts and potentially losing massive revenue as a result. Not tying specific tasks to expected turnaround times also muddies your view of bandwidth and capacity. When you have metrics set for specific tasks and channels, you can more accurately gauge other needs for your agency such as: Making a better-informed decision to hire more people as bandwidth dictates Setting a definitive workload for existing team members Knowing exactly how long something should take and how much it costs Knowing when a team member definitely has or does not have time for extra work or special projects What the full campaign cycle looks like, how much you will spend on it, and how much you will also make on it by the end Process infrastructure does more than just make agency life easier from a work standpoint. It also drives your ability to scale, land and expand accounts, and to know when it’s time to go to another level. 5 Key Takeaways We’ve covered quite a bit of detail about the importance of process. It really cannot be overstated in agency life. Let’s bring it all back together before we wrap up with five of the most important takeaways here: Process enables your best people to be the best and will reveal team members that are not the right fit for what you want to accomplish at your agency. Process directly ties into performance, giving the foundation for your team to deliver for your clients. Process also allows you to offer a superior end-product to your clients, giving them the confidence that they are working with a credible agency with the expertise to help them. Process is inextricably linked to profitability. Without knowing how long something takes to do and how much it costs, you can risk leaving your agency exposed to missed opportunities to gain more revenue and grow further. If you do decide to expand beyond your in-house scope, such as joining forces with a white label partner, make sure they have the right processes in place to support your operations effectively. Process and Performance-Driven White Label Partnership for Your Agency At Conduit, we’re proud to be the elite white label digital marketing agency partner for established and successful local ad agencies throughout North America. We’ve invested countless hours into building the right processes to provide your agency with the necessary communication and performance infrastructure to scale higher, land and expand your accounts, and ultimately, drive greater profitability. To learn more about what a white label partnership could look like for your agency, let’s talk.

Jun 11, 2020 Conduit Digital has consistently created incredible results for our clients and their campaigns. Do you want to know the secrets to growing your agency’s revenue? It may be easier than you think! At Conduit, we believe in the Land and Expand method. Using this method has enabled us to grow accounts from $200,000 to $4.8million in monthly billing! Our Director of Client Experience Tim C. Burke, Director of Products Rob Burke, PPC Manager Mike Gibson, and Programmatic Team Lead John Smithson sat down to discuss the Land and Expand method and how it has enabled us to become one of the fastest-growing agencies in the world. What is Land and Expand? Land and Expand is a concept that we live by at Conduit Digital. When you successfully Land and Expand a client, you are “landing” on the deliverables of their campaign and then “expanding” their campaigns into multi-product campaigns. There are 3 key elements into how we make Land and Expand work for our clients. 1. Data-Driven Results When we get an account in, through data-driven results, we grow it to the moon. We provide our clients with unique, critical data that they may have not had access to. Whether it be competitor data, market data; any data that we can deploy a digital campaign around. It is about creating a baseline for growth. 2. Provide Account ROI Over the course of our relationship with our partners and clients, we continuously provide account ROI . If we can prove that what they’re doing with us is working and the ad spend is working, that sets the baseline of trust and credibility. This sets a nice foundation for us to really expand that account and grow that account. Because they know that we’re already proving results, they can trust us to continue to improve those results. 3. Paint a Vision For The Future Since we know that we are driving results at a particular level in a market, as the client looks to expand to different facilities and different markets we can utilize that baseline of data-driven results of the entirety of the account to take it to the next level. We are able to forecast and show that forward-thinking data-driven results will be able to drive results in the future. Time and time again we have proven the Land and Expand method. In fact, here are some real-life examples of how we took this approach, applied it to our clients’ campaigns, and saw incredible success for us and the client. Regional Cancer Center We started with the Cancer Center in early 2017. They told us the number of leads they were hoping to reach with their campaign. From there, we worked backward to help them reach their goal. The first step before landing and expanding is to build the foundations to grow an account. Don't Be Afraid To Start Small Our most successful land and expand accounts have started with a $2,000-$3,000 monthly spend. To many agencies, that may not seem like a lot of money. But at Conduit, we believe that every dollar matters for every single client. Conduit Digital analysts take the approach to take that monthly spend as if it were their own. As an agency, when you take on that responsibility and apply that to your accounts, that builds trust and credibility. That is what allows you to take that smaller account to the moon. Land and Expand is not about putting your hand in your client’s pocket and taking money out. It is about helping your clients realize the opportunity they have. Whether that opportunity is on one platform or several platforms and helping them reach that opportunity. Growing To The Moon When we started with this regional cancer center, it started out as a single-market, $3,000 per month programmatic client. After studying the data, we saw the opportunity for them to succeed with paid search. This success led us to take over the entire digital marketing operations of one of their locations, bringing their monthly spend from $3,000 per month to $30,000. After seeing the success that these multi-product campaigns were bringing this location, we applied the same strategies to expand into the client’s other locations. Over the 3 years we have worked with them, they have now grown to a $90,000 per month monthly spend. It's Not About Spending More Money The win with this client is not that we were able to get them to increase their monthly spend, the win is that they were driving better results. They offer a great service. We were able to educate the market, drive results, and create success for both themselves and us as an agency. When we expanded into new markets, it requires adjusting concepts and messaging to the specific market using data we have gathered through working with other clients in similar verticals and markets. It is all about helping our clients’ team go from lead to filling beds in their facilities. We can bring as many people to the door as possible, but what is happening on the sales process side? Having that conversation and being an extension of their team has allowed us to leverage that back-end sales data with our marketing data. And that is what it is all about. Not just the marketing aspect, but growth for the entirety of the account. Start With Tangible Results It always comes back to return on ad spend. You’re never going to grow a client from $3,000 to $90,000 because of click-through-rate. While CTR is a good performance barometer early on for their campaign when it comes to long-term success you have to link it to tangible results. It’s about proving that when your clients spend money with you, you are really moving the needle for their business. It makes it real. Take it from theory to real return for your clients. Global Beverage Distributor Another great example of how we Land and Expand our clients is the work we have done with a global beverage distributor. This client was looking to increase the amount of qualified applicants for their distribution side. The way that we approached this was to develop a complete marketing plan around these frontline jobs, whether it be a merchandiser, a warehouse worker, or a CDL driver. When we started, the client had no data on the potential applicants they were looking for. That is why we set up a Data Beta. Data Beta When your clients have little to no data on what their digital goals are, it is important to set up a data beta to gauge the market and determine best practices for a successful campaign. For this global beverage distributor, we set up a data beta in 10 of the potential markets they wanted to advertise in. By maximizing the customer data, we started finding certain insights that would prove useful in the client’s campaign execution. If your client has first party data of their target audience, utilize that! It’s one of the easiest ways to increase the ROI for your client. We discovered the best way was to take a proactive and reactive approach. In terms of proactivity, you want to go out and get qualified leads. They may not necessarily be looking for a job, they may even be working for a competitor. However, the goal of the data beta is to discover who out of that target demographic is most likely to be interested in joining our client’s team instead. This targeted audience may not actively be looking for a job, but thanks to our targeted campaigns, they now know they have the option. Think Strategically and Creatively When approaching a campaign in the data aggregation phase, creativity and strategy are so important. With automation becoming more prevalent to fill campaigns, people are coming to agencies for more than just fulfillment. They are looking for advice and strategy. For example, around the time we started this campaign Toys R Us was going out of business. So we had the idea to geo-fence all relevant Toys R Us locations with targeted ads to let the warehouse workers, who would soon be out of a job, know that our client was hiring. The impact that we saw from that was pretty significant. More Than Just Marketing Campaigns We are doing so much more than just running product marketing campaigns. We aren’t just running a PPC campaign and reporting on it. Nor are we just running a programmatic campaign and reporting on it. It’s all about the overarching strategy behind it. It’s about building a relationship, developing the strategy, and then bringing the team together to be singularly focused toward executing that strategy. Now that a client sees the hard work that has been put into their campaigns, and the results that have been generated, they are more likely to put more money and more resources in their market. Have an Engaged Client Big name, multi-location clients are a huge opportunity. Ultimately, having an engaged client is key. When you have a marketing manager or an account executive who wants to crush it but just doesn’t really know the digital side of it, that is where we can really have success. By having effective communication , you will not only have a happy client but will also set a foundation for trust. They know that they can come to us for strategic guidance, whether that means expanding to other products or increasing their spend, they trust that we will work with them to develop a strategy that sees the best results. Conclusion Whether your client has a monthly spend of a few hundred dollars or thousands of dollars, treat every dollar as if it were your own. When working with clients, take a Land and Expand approach. Develop strategies based on aggregated data collected through data betas. Discuss expectations and prove results that result in more than just higher CTRs; create real ROI for your clients! By using these approaches, expand your clients into new markets and replicate the success. Using this method has enabled Conduit Digital to grow accounts from a few thousand dollars in monthly spend to over $4.8 million! Want To Implement Land and Expand For Your Clients? Contact Us Today.

Feb 19, 2021 Over-the-top TV, otherwise known as OTT , has become a major advertising platform for many agencies looking to move beyond traditional television campaigns. Instead of casting a wide net with ad delivery, OTT allows advertisers to narrowly target viewers via the biggest screen in the house.  Many agencies partner with us to manage their OTT campaigns, and that’s for good reason. OTT has steadily grown in viewership and popularity over the years with original high-quality, platform-native content that draws millions of eyes to the screen. With a sound strategy to reach these viewers, you can reach far more qualified leads and customers than with traditional television advertising.  First, What is OTT?  OTT refers to platforms and streaming services like Hulu, PlutoTV, Roku, and FireTV. They contain their own library of subscription on-demand content that viewers can choose from rather than having to opt for whatever occupies a fixed time slot like with traditional cable.  For a more in-depth look at OTT, check out our Ultimate Guide.  How Popular is OTT?  Traditional television has never faced a challenger for viewership quite like OTT. Streaming-native series like Schitt’s Creek and The Handmaid’s Tale captures millions of viewers’ attention on a regular basis and have won Emmy awards for their content quality. Many of these platforms also offer their users a variety of shows that originated on cable but can now be binge-watched through their service instead.  Many OTT platforms are also more affordable than cable. This has led to a trend called “cord-cutting” where users are replacing their expensive cable bill with a curated set of streaming subscriptions that better-suit their interests for less money.  Don’t just take our word for it, though. The data also confirms this. In 2010, OTT’s global revenue clocked in at 6.1 billion US dollars. This skyrocketed to 83.34 billion in 2019, up to almost 100 billion in 2020, and is expected to reach over 167 billion by 2025.  What led to such massive growth? With more people spending time at home in late 2019 and all of 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this led to an increase in content consumption as a means of entertainment. OTT platforms can provide on-demand streaming for adults, teens, children, and family programming.  OTT Platforms  Each OTT platform has its own advertising and audience targeting capabilities . When we manage campaigns for our agency partners, we align their client’s goals with the platforms that we think will best reach the most qualified viewers. Making this decision depends on a number of factors like demographic data, geographic location, platform features, and more.  Now that you’ve gained an understanding of how OTT works, let’s cover some mistakes to avoid at all costs when launching your client’s next campaign:  OTT Advertising Mistake 1: Not Vetting Your Inventory  As OTT increases in popularity, developers are releasing more streaming apps than ever. With such a high volume of potential platforms to choose from, vetting for top-quality solutions isn’t optional, it’s mandatory. You want to ensure that your ads are served on the most premium OTT platforms rather than ones with limited viewership and targeting capabilities.  How We Built Top-Performing OTT Advertising Inventory One part of our jobs that we absolutely love is getting to vet OTT applications for quality inventory availability. Why? We can analyze ad performance while watching great content! But seriously, we aren’t just sitting at our computers watching Hulu all day. In reality, we’re investing countless manually vetting every feature to see which applications meet our standards.  How do we do this? There are a number of ways that we build our inventory: Manually constructing whitelists and blacklists of OTT platforms based on actual performance  Run each platform and application through a rigorous checklist of quality standards Watching individual channels to ensure content quality  Using Deal IDs – We establish direct deals with exchanges and streaming services based on specific criteria we set to ensure ad placement across top applications.  Mistake 2: Not Utilizing a Day-Parting Strategy When running an advertising campaign on OTT platforms, you need to ensure that you are delivering the ad when people are actually watching the content. Without a day-parting strategy in place, you may have no way of knowing if your ads are being served during optimal viewing hours or at 3 a.m. when people are falling asleep on their couches.  We day-part all of our partners’ OTT campaigns to ensure that ads are only served at times where people are actively watching content. This means the ad appears at moments where viewers are most engaged.  Mistake 3: Using Too Narrow of a Geo-Target A “geo-target” refers to a defined area in the form of a city, state, DMA, etc. Individuals within these geographic regions are eligible to receive ads as long as they meet your specific targeting criteria.  Using too narrow of a geo-target can inhibit your OTT campaign from targeting and reaching the right viewers. This can also result in over-exposing viewers within a narrow area and missing out on potential customers or clients that otherwise could qualify.  Mistake 4: No Frequency Capping Running an OTT campaign without a frequency cap can result in oversaturation similar to what can happen if you target too narrow of a geographic area. Without a cap, or one that is too high, you risk serving unlimited ads to the same viewer over and over again. This results in wasted commercials,  inevitably annoying the audience member, and creating a negative brand recall the next time they see your ad.  Start Your Next OTT Advertising Campaign the Right Way   When your agency is gearing up for your client’s next OTT campaign, invest the time and effort to ensure it does not fall prey to these four common mistakes. Knowing what not to do can provide just as much if not more value than solely abiding by best practices.  If you prefer to have a team of video experts managing OTT advertising for you, the Conduit Team can do just that! Learn more about how you can partner with us to deliver more value to your client’s future campaigns.

May 13, 2020 Conduit Digital is dedicated to creating incredible success for both our Agency Partners and their end-clients. In this campaign, we worked hard together to not only reach but greatly exceed the end client’s goals and expectations. Having worked with this Agency Partner and their client during the previous year to incredible results, we were confident in our ability to deliver on the trust and credibility we had proven. In fact, with just a $7,000 increase in budget, we were able to generate a $41,000 increase in Return on Ad Spend. That’s a 480% ROI! In this Conduit Digital Marketing Case Study, we will take a look into our Agency Parner’s client, Casino Pier, and the amazing results we were able to create with them. What They Needed Our Agency Partner came to Conduit Digital looking for digital solutions to bring their client Casino Pier incredible success. With a yearly flash sale on Easter weekend for their customers, Casino Pier was looking to drive more sales with ½ priced for tickets to their rides and amusement park. Over the 5-day flash sale, Conduit Digital worked with our Agency Partners, using the data we had acquired from the previous year to build a goal-oriented campaign to drive increased results for this end-client. We closely analyzed the Easter sale data from 2018 to develop a strategic approach to achieve superior results for the 2019 sale. Our team chose to maximize the potential in Casino Pier’s home county, Ocean, followed by a strategic expansion into select counties with a hyper-focused audience targeting and frequency strategy. Conduit Digital's Solution After developing an appropriate budget to exceed our 2018 benchmarks, we cultivated a campaign strategy that would see the budget allocated over a multi-product campaign. The campaign was designed to focus on acquisition, advanced acquisition, brand awareness, and sales. Our approach to getting our Partner’s client through the marketing funnel included a Programmatic Audience Targeting campaign and a Social Advertising campaign, along with Programmatic Video and Paid Search campaigns. Programmatic Audience Targeting Strategy To start the journey of taking Casino Pier through the marketing funnel, we created a comprehensive Programmatic Audience Targeting campaign. Programmatic campaigns are designed to raise awareness. We used data from the 2018 sale, as well as data collected from studying competitor’s campaigns to develop a winning strategy. Our Audience Targeting team recommended an emphasis on Casino Pier’s home, Ocean County, NJ. According to the data our team analyzed, Ocean County had the highest waterpark sales, highest Easter sales, and the best engagement. Using the 2018 campaign data, we were able to retarget over 5,000 users. Conduit Insight: The power of a previous customer is more important than ever before. The ability to remarket and retarget existing customers will save your end-clients time, money, and resources. Behavioral Targeting We utilized Behavioral targeting to play a strong role in creating conversations and ad engagement with potential customers. Behavioral targeting involves building a custom keyword list of terms your client’s ideal audience is searching for. We use these terms to place your clients’ campaign ads directly in front of that audience. We were able to generate 164.5K mobile geo-optimized impressions in Ocean County alone. Conduit also generated 120K Ocean County impressions through behavioral targeting. Geo-Fencing In addition to behavioral and site retargeting, we utilized geofencing. Geo-fencing measures the foot traffic driven to a campaign by targeting people who have visited a campaign relevant location. Conduit Digital was even able to reach all of the emails we acquired from last year’s campaign, or use any list of visitors with addresses they have in order to have the largest reach. Social Adverting Strategy In order to generate interest and consideration on our journey through the marketing funnel, we utilized a social advertising campaign. Our Social Advertising team decided that Facebook, having reached over 160,000 users and driving almost 7,000 converted users in the previous year’s campaign, was the ideal platform for this campaign. Based on our projections and data, we aimed to reach over 3X more users with our 2019 strategy. Over the course of 3 weeks, our Facebook Blueprint Certified Experts ran 3 different Facebook campaigns. We used an awareness campaign to spread the word of the event. Our team generated these new leads for new audiences. Then, we ultimately converted them into a sale. Core Audiences In order to achieve this, we created core audiences that were built to reach users who exhibit certain behaviors and interests on the platforms. By targeting custom audiences we were able to show the ads in front of users who had already shown an interest in Casino Pier through website traffic, Facebook engagement, and lead data we collected. Through these social strategies, we created over 1.2 million impressions, with a reach of over 348K. This led to our expert team generating 20,518 clicks. Lookalike Audiences Our team also utilized lookalike audiences to reach new, yet extremely relevant people with key similarities to those in the custom audiences. Programmatic Video Strategy We ran a programmatic video campaign through Youtube. Youtube Advertising enables users to harness the power of the largest video streaming website in the world to reach your target audience. We were able to generate incredible results across many different screen sizes. Conduit Digital’s emphasis when executing a YouTube advertising campaign is to bring the user through the “Consideration” part of the marketing funnel. We utilized Casino Pier’s YouTube reach by expanding targeting capabilities. This enabled us to target audiences who have visited competitor’s websites and other local family activities. In addition to targeting users who visited competitors, our expert team targeted audiences based on what they searched in Google. This enabled our team to have a more complete view of the client’s custom audience. Having a complete view of the custom audience enabled us to deliver over 99K impressions in Ocean County and 51.8K impressions in surrounding counties. Our remarketing campaign generated over 1000 impressions throughout Ocean and other counties. Pay Per Click Advertising Strategy Paid Search advertising is used to bring our audience to the final stage in the funnel, “Conversion.” During this stage, we drove users directly to Casino Pier’s landing pages for final conversion. Our Google Premier Partner PPC team strategized a dedicated paid search campaign that targeted the end client’s home country of Ocean County, NJ. By implementing this strategy, paired with these google ads tips , we were able to lead the same Ocean County users through the funnel that we targeted in our initial Programmatic Audience Targeting campaign. We ran a secondary campaign serving surrounding counties that were optimized based on engagement. That means that ads were delivered to the users who had most engaged with the content. Our Results Our multi-product campaign strategy paid great dividends for our Conduit Agency Partner and their client. Our strategies were able to tangibly create real ROI for Casino Pier. In fact, with just a $7,000 increased budget investment from 2018 to 2019, Casino Pier made an additional $40,680 increase in revenue. In addition to increasing ROI by over 480%, our partnership increased the general awareness of Casino Pier by over 47,000 new users. Through the entire Easter sale campaign, Conduit Digital was able to generate a 38% increase in website traffic, increase engagement by 28%, and increase overall sales by over 20% for Casino Pier and our Agency Partners. As seen in the information above, the 2019 campaign outperformed the 2018 campaign in every metric. What Our Agency Partners Had To Say “[This campaign] really has to make the most of converting to sales. [Conduit Digital suggested] that Casino Pier moved into a brand awareness campaign where we really cast a wide net to try to bring in as many people as we can to their properties. No matter what, be it a short sprint or a long marathon, Conduit Digital helps us get there.” Conduit Digital enables your agency to provide complete digital solutions that your clients need through our services and strategic consulting. Our team acts as an extension of your team, constantly providing you with industry best practices and delivering exceptional results.

Feb 26, 2021 Data Reporting for Marketers: The Ultimate Guide Experienced marketers understand that data reporting can influence client decisions, public perception of important topics and products, and can demonstrate the value of campaigns with tangible numbers. However, incomplete data can only tell part of the story and can limit the impact of the true value that agencies offer to their clients.  A winning data reporting strategy transcends the Excel spreadsheet. Numbers, while important, deliver far less insight without context and transparency.  In this Ultimate Guide, we’ll discuss why you should rethink data reporting for digital campaigns. Let’s break down some elements of an excellent data reporting strategy: Data Transparency When delivering campaign performance data to your client, it should be completely transparent. Many marketing professionals tend to hide unsavory metrics from their clients out of fear of currying dissatisfaction.  When the client has a full report of campaign performance data in front of them, you can initiate important discussions that can benefit both parties. For example, if an aspect of the campaign requires optimization, you can identify this and demonstrate your ability to correct it.  Context For those of us who live in digital marketing day-in and day-out, we immerse ourselves in data. However, when our clients are focused on running their own businesses, we cannot expect them to do the same. This is where your knowledge of their campaign performance within the context of their business goals proves immense value.   We may understand what certain metrics mean and what those numbers are reporting about a particular campaign. Beyond this, though, you also need to know how to put this information into the proper context for the client.  For example, if the client has a complicated home page on their website and Google Analytics reports a high visitor bounce rate, the marketer should use this information to advise the client that something is not connecting with the target user. This can open a discussion about redesigning the home page for better navigation and user experience.  Value The client invests all of their marketing budget, or a significant portion of it, into your campaigns. They want to know whether their capital is generating returns that justify their spending and correct campaign aspects that are not accomplishing this goal.  Data reporting can demonstrate this value. Is the client receiving an appropriate return on their investment? If not, the marketer has the opportunity to advise new optimization strategies and other tactics to correct performance.  Timeliness  Ideally, every data reporting system should provide regular updates with 24/7 access. Without consistently updated data, context and value are diminished.  Live reporting also aids marketers in swiftly providing more accurate insights. Rather than digging through reporting platforms to find the most updated information, a live report will offer it upfront.  A high-quality live report should also offer date range filters that enable the user to distill data to a specific period of time. You can cross-compare campaign performance at different stages and identify exact moments where it might have improved or dipped and develop both a diagnosis and solution to correct it.  Accessibility  Gatekeeping with data reporting is extinct, or at least it should be. Keeping this in mind, the client should also be able to access this information with the same ease.  As we mentioned above, no one wants to report poor-performing data. It can create a tense, uncomfortable conversation, but at the same time, hiding this information will only damage a client’s trust in what you are doing for them.  Instead, use any poor-performing data as an opportunity to offer solutions and drive further value. This will strengthen the client relationship and foster more trust.   Flexibility  A suitable data reporting platform for marketers should be flexible to provide context that is specific to the product driving a campaign. For example, a paid search report should contain different metrics and insights than one for paid social . Using a boilerplate template for all products does not deliver tangible value. Data Reporting Best Practices  We’ve just covered the essential elements of excellent data reporting. Now, when it comes time to deliver this information to your client, there are some best practices to keep in mind to ensure a more fruitful dialogue.  Understand What the Metrics Mean Data reports track aspects of campaign performance categorized as “metrics.” These can include impressions, clicks, conversion rate, and many more; depending on the digital product. Knowing what each one means can allow you to provide the best insight possible to your client.  Share Your Live Report with Your Client Provide full access to your client. When both of you can view the data holistically, this creates a common point-of-reference when discussing campaign progress and future optimization strategies. They are allocating the budget for the campaign, so it is important to let them see all the paths their investment can take.  Prepare to Offer Insights As a data-savvy marketer, you should be ready to apply your knowledge of metrics and campaign performance benchmarks to answer any client questions. This can strengthen client trust and position yourself as an authoritative analyst when explaining what the numbers mean.  Use a Holistic Live Data Reporting Platform  A live reporting platform suited for the agency industry should be able to deliver product-specific data for each solution you offer to your client. Boilerplates cannot account for the nuances of each platform you are running campaigns on.  We know this all too well. That is why we’ve developed our own live reporting platform to account for each service that we offer to our partners. Reporting Ninja’s Live Report technology allows us to provide product-specific data and real analyst insights to each client campaign in real-time. This enables us to have productive and fruitful discussions with partner agencies when reviewing campaign progress so that all parties can optimize for success!  Activate Better Marketing Data Reporting  Are you interested in taking data reporting to the next level at your agency? If you answered “yes,” we want to help you make that a tangible reality.  We partner with agencies serving over 95 markets to deliver not only excellent campaigns but to also fundamentally transform the way that data is reported. To learn more, visit our agency partnership page or get in touch with us anytime.

In the ever-evolving digital landscape, agencies are constantly seeking ways to differentiate themselves while delivering exceptional value to their clients. One powerful tool that has become increasingly essential is white label reporting. This strategic resource not only empowers agencies to streamline their operations but also enhances client relationships and brand identity, driving long-term success.  What Is White Label Reporting? White label reporting refers to the process where agencies use a third-party reporting tool, branded as their own, to present data and analytics to their clients. Instead of spending countless hours compiling reports, agencies can utilize white label reporting tools to create professional, branded reports that reflect their agency’s and clients’ identities.  Empowering Agencies With White Label Reporting Solutions White label reporting allows agencies to focus on what they do best - crafting and executing strategies that drive results - without getting bogged down by the logistical challenges of data presentation. By leveraging white label reporting tools, agencies can automate the reporting process, freeing up time and resources to invest in other areas such as client strategy and creative development.  For example, consider an agency that manages multiple campaigns for a diverse range of clients. Instead of manually compiling reports for each client, the agency can use white label reporting to generate customized reports almost instantly. This efficiency not only saves time but also ensures consistency and accuracy across all client communications.  Strategic Advantage: Enhancing Client Relationships One of the most significant benefits of white label reporting is its ability to strengthen client-agency communication. Monthly reporting, powered by white label reporting, becomes a vital touchpoint between the agency and its clients. These reports provide clear, actionable insights into what is working, what needs adjustment, and where future efforts should be focused.  For instance, if a monthly report reveals a significant increase in conversions due to a particular ad campaign, the agency can highlight this success and propose scaling the strategy. Conversely, if a drop in performance is identified, the agency can proactively recommend adjustments, showcasing their expertise and commitment to the client’s success.  This level of communication not only builds trust but also positions the agency as a strategic partner, rather than just a service provider . Clients are more likely to stay loyal to an agency that consistently demonstrates value through data-driven insights.  Strategic Advantage: White Label Dashboards And Tools Beyond the data itself, having branded reports and dashboards is crucial for maintaining a strong agency-client relationship. When clients access a dashboard that is fully branded with the agency’s logo, colors, messaging, it reinforces the agency’s identity and professionalism. This branding consistency helps to build client trust and loyalty, as it signals that the agency is both capable and invested in delivering a seamless experience.  Moreover, branded dashboards provide clients with an intuitive easy-to-navigate interface that allows them to view their campaign performance in real-time. This transparency empowers clients, making them feel more involved and informed about the progress of their campaigns. It also reduces the number of queries and concerns, as there is direct access to the information needed, when needed.  For example, a client who can log into a branded dashboard and instantly see their latest metrics, customized reports, and actionable insights will appreciate the convenience and clarity. This not only enhances client experience but also strengthens the agency’s reputation as a forward-thinking, client-focused partner.  The Power of White Label Reporting In a competitive industry, agencies must continuously find ways to add value to their clients. White label reporting offers a powerful solution by simplifying the reporting process, enhancing communication, and providing strategic insights. By leveraging branded dashboards and white label reporting, agencies can further solidify their relationships with clients, building trust, transparency, and loyalty. This allows agencies to focus on what truly matters—delivering results and fostering long-term client partnerships. If you're looking for a strategic partner to take your agency to the next level, let's talk .

The focus for any Agency Leader will always be on operational excellence. Operational excellence allows Sales Driven Agency Leaders to sell with confidence and grow their agency without churn. Mastering your operations and refining your processes are key to delivering exceptional results for your clients and boosting your agency's profitability. If profitability is your priority, you won't want to miss this! Our CEO, Tim Burke, joined Marcel Petipas, CEO of Parakeeto, on the Agency Profit Podcast. They discussed Conduit Digital’s journey and Tim’s insights on why true agency profitability stems from delivering real value, not just competing on price. They also explored the power of strategic partnerships and leveraging top-notch expertise.   Tune in to the full episode and discover how to drive profitability for your agency. Ready to take the next step? Reach out to us today!

Many agencies frequently encounter scenarios where the demand from clients exceeds their available resources. Being over-bandwidth presents a significant challenge: ensuring client satisfaction without stretching the team too thin. Identifying signs of resource strain early is critical. Symptoms like missing deadlines, communication gaps, and a decrease in team morale are clear indicators. Addressing these issues promptly is essential to prevent any negative impact on service quality and client relationships. Achieving scalability at your agency is a two-sided coin. On one side, developing new business consistently contributes to your growth and profitability. At the same time, this cannot be done sustainably unless you’re able to successfully retain the clients you already have. If you find yourself in a situation where you’re adding more clients at the expense of serving your current clients, this is where client retention is threatened. Thankfully, there are some steps you can take to mitigate the impact on your current clients while you’re landing new ones. Are you struggling with maintaining a healthy client-agency relationship when you’re over bandwidth? If so, this guide is for you. Today, we’re going to talk about just that. First, let’s start with something you can immediately control - prioritization and delegation of tasks. Effective Prioritization and Delegation The cornerstone of managing an over-bandwidth situation is prioritization. It’s vital to assess the urgency and importance of tasks and distribute them accordingly. This prioritization ensures that the most critical tasks are addressed first, safeguarding client satisfaction and project timelines. Equally important is delegation. Utilizing the strengths of each team member optimizes efficiency. It’s not just about completing tasks, but also about ensuring they are handled by the most capable hands. This maximizes productivity and prevents team burnout by evenly distributing the workload. To effectively prioritize tasks, agency leaders should implement a system that categorizes tasks based on urgency and impact. One method is the Eisenhower Matrix, which divides tasks into four quadrants. This system helps in quickly identifying which tasks require immediate attention and which can be scheduled for later. The quadrants include: Urgent and important: These tasks are vital to your agency. If ignored, they could result in negative consequences that are immediately felt. Important but not urgent: These are tasks that can perhaps be postponed by a week or two, but eventually, they may become more urgent if left until the last minute. Urgent but not important Neither urgent nor important In terms of delegation, it’s crucial to have a clear understanding of each team member’s skills and strengths. Regular skill assessments and open communication about team members’ interests and career goals can provide insight into who is best suited for various tasks. Additionally, implementing a project management tool can aid in visually assigning and tracking tasks, ensuring that everyone is aware of their responsibilities and deadlines. For effective delegation, leaders should also provide the necessary resources and support for team members to complete their tasks. This includes clear instructions, access to required tools, and an open-door policy for any questions or concerns. Regular check-ins can help track progress and provide support wherever it’s needed. Enhancing Efficiency through Technology Technology can be a powerful ally in managing workloads. Automation tools and project management software streamline tasks, reducing manual effort and freeing up time for high-priority work. These tools also enhance accuracy and consistency in deliverables, a key factor in maintaining client trust and satisfaction. However, when tasks are left in the hands of automation software and artificial intelligence models, having quality assurance process in place is critical. Quality can vary, and if you are in a cycle of cutting and pasting this work into client deliverables without checks and balances, this could potentially leave your agency open to client dissatisfaction. Learn More: How to Integrate AI Marketing Tools Into Agency Services Transparent and Consistent Communication Open communication channels with clients are vital. Setting realistic expectations is a must, as is keeping clients regularly updated on project progress. Regular client interactions, even for small updates, assure clients of your agency’s commitment to their project. This proactive communication approach can preempt concerns and build a stronger client-agency relationship. Strategic Collaboration with External Partners As your bandwidth increases, you may decide that you need to expand your in-house team through new hires. Depending on the geographic area and the talent pool of your local market, finding the right candidate may seem near-impossible. That, or you may find that having to recruit and train someone from the ground-up will take too much time and bandwidth in and of itself. In these situations, a solution beyond your agency’s walls might be the answer. Sometimes, the optimal solution to bandwidth constraints is external collaboration. Forming partnerships with partners like white label digital agencies can bring in additional expertise and resources without you having to furnish additional overhead. This strategy allows agencies to handle complex projects without diluting the quality of their services. Selecting the right partners is crucial. They should share your agency's commitment to quality and seamless integration into existing workflows. This synergy ensures consistency in client servicing and maintains the standard of output. Building a Scalable Team Building a team that can adapt to varying workloads is essential for long-term sustainability. This involves not just hiring additional staff or forming external partnerships but also developing the skills and versatility of existing team members. Training and professional development are key to creating a team that can handle a diverse range of client needs. Scalability also means being selective about client projects. Assessing a project’s fit with the agency’s capabilities and bandwidth is as important as its revenue potential. This strategic client selection prevents overextension and ensures a focus on quality service. Get a Handle on Bandwidth with a White Label Agency Partnership Managing client satisfaction when over-bandwidth is a complex challenge that requires a balanced approach. The ability to adapt and maintain high standards of client service, even under strain, is what sets a successful agency apart. Remember, it's about finding the right balance between accepting new opportunities and delivering exceptional service to existing clients. If you are ready to get a handle on your agency’s bandwidth, achieve profitable scalability, and accomplish this without sacrificing the quality your clients expect, let’s talk. At Conduit Digital, we outfit your agency with 18 different channels, all expertly managed in the U.S., with one single point of contact. To learn more, schedule a quick call with us today.

White label marketing refers to a partnership where Agency A provides digital marketing services to Agency B, who resells those services under their own brand name. Agency A, the white label company, maintains anonymity to the end client and this is what’s referred to as “white-labeling.” Agency B, the reseller, maintains the appearance as the sole provider of all services.  If you’re curious about venturing into a white label partnership, you might be wondering what the benefits of doing so are. Let’s explore those.  Access To an Arsenal of Services Under One Roof By partnering with a white label digital marketing agency  who offers a full suite of services, the reseller gains access to a host of services that they didn’t previously have in their offering. This allows the reseller to pitch a multi-channel solution to their clients while avoiding multiple vendors, varying rate cards, and multiple points of contact which can feel a lot like herding cats. A full-service white label partner offers a range of channels that offer unique solutions to truly cover all portions of the funnel, such as: Paid Search Advertising (Google Ads/Microsoft Ads) Social Media Advertising (Facebook/Instagram/Snapshot/TikTok/LinkedIn) Programmatic Advertising (Display/Online video/OTT/Audio/Email) Organic Media (SEO/Social media) Account Analysis and Reporting (Performance & Financial dashboards/analysis) Strategic Partnership (Dedicated account manager/Sales support services) Save Time and Money By Not Hiring In-House Specialists With a breadth of services like the above, white labeling is a more cost-effective and time-saving alternative than hiring specialists and maintaining an in-house team. By partnering with a white label agency, the reseller doesn’t have to stress about the cost or time commitment of training, healthcare benefits, or salaries. As a result, they can focus exclusively on sales and growing their revenue while their white label partner handles everything else. Instant capacity Just landed a big client? Amazing! But now you have to deliver. Working with a white label provider will give you immediate access to the resources you need without the stress of having to hire quickly or the worry of over extending and needing to make lay-offs down the line. Scale Your Agency With the worry of hiring, training, and managing bandwidth completely off the table, the only thing the reseller has in front of them is the opportunity to grow and scale. What’s really important to note is that a true white label provider doesn’t wait until the insertion order is submitted to get to work because strategic guidance is essential to the partnership. A white label partner provides everything from sales collateral to sales coaching calls to custom proposals to help the reseller land an account. If these sound like opportunities for your agency, then let’s review a few key factors to consider when searching for the right white label digital marketing partner for your business model. Expertise Entering into a white label partnership can seem risky. Afterall, you’re transitioning a book of business that your agency has worked hard to attain and retain. However, you can reduce your risk by choosing an elite white label provider . Look for a partner with years of experience in the services they offer as well as advanced certifications in every area. Case studies  are a great way of getting to know the level of expertise and quality of work that the white label provider encompasses, and they should be easily accessible. Communication and Support Your agency should be given a dedicated support team for everything related to your partnership, from your agency’s growth to individual accounts and campaign execution. Transparency is crucial in a partnership like this and being able to speak to the people handling your book of business, with reasonable turnaround times, cannot be understated.  Pricing & Contracts The pricing structure for white label digital marketing services can vary greatly depending on the provider so ensuring your agency model and pricing structure aligns with your white label partner is essential. A rate card that’s pages and pages long with “if this then this” scenarios doesn’t benefit anyone except the company who manufactures your migraine medicine brand of choice. Pricing shouldn’t be a barrier and the model should be very easy to understand, thus making your agency’s ability to sell that much easier.  Additionally, check whether the white label provider has a retainer fee and what it includes. These are quite common but what a retainer fee encompasses varies immensely (ex: sales support, custom dashboards, etc.). Contracts are inevitable, they’re the cornerstone of any business relationship, but ensuring the terms align with your agency’s business model and commitment of course cannot be understated. White label digital marketing can be a win-win situation with the right partner. It empowers agencies to expand their offerings and increase revenue, while providing clients with access to high quality digital marketing services. Looking for a white label partner to take your agency to the next level? Book a discovery call  with us today to find out if we are a fit for each other.

Aug 8, 2023 A Supplement, Not a Substitute for Effective Content Marketing If you've worked in digital marketing in any capacity, you have probably seen more and more mentions of ChatGPT and other AI applications increasing over the past 8-10 months. From headlines in major media outlets to questions from clients asking about this exciting new technology, it seems almost inescapable. So, after ChatGPT has had its viral moment, and now we're in the era where generative AI is becoming more widely adopted, how do we use it the right way? For agencies, using a tool like ChatGPT can be a powerful copywriting resource, especially when an in-house writer is not a readily available commodity. Like with any tool, though, AI content generation is best used when handled responsibly. That's exactly what we're talking about in our latest eBook "How to Use AI Content Generation: A Supplement, Not a Substitute for Effective Content Marketing," which you can find here: View and Download the "How to Use AI Content Generation" eBook Here Get More Resources to Grow Your Agency At Conduit Digital, we partner exclusively with the most established and successful digital advertising agencies in North America to serve as a complete ad operations solution to extend your in-house team. With 17 channels and the communication, performance, and reporting to back it up, we'll supercharge your clients' campaigns and enable you to scale higher than ever before. Why partner with Conduit? Find out by clicking below!

July 17, 2024 The cannabis industry has emerged as one of the fastest-growing American consumer product verticals in recent years.   States are continuing to permit legal medicinal and recreational cannabis use at an increasing rate. In 2022, our home state of New Jersey officially allowed recreational cannabis on April 21, 2022.   As more dispensaries open to the public, we can predict more opportunities for agencies to secure these businesses as clients. Statistics show that the North American advertising spend for the cannabis industry will grow to 3.39 billion dollars by 2028.   However, these products are still heavily regulated and classified as illegal at the federal level. This can create some complications for your agency as your team develops a holistic digital strategy for cannabis retail marketing clients.   That’s why we wrote this guide to help your agency master the ins and outs of compliant cannabis marketing  and advertising. We’re going to cover:   Important considerations for cannabis marketing and advertising campaigns  The best channels to compliantly invest your client’s budget   A channel-by-channel breakdown of cannabis-related restrictions  Important Considerations for Cannabis Marketing and Advertising Campaigns  Federal Legal Status   Cannabis is currently not legalized at the federal level. Instead, its medicinal and/or recreational use is permitted by individual states. Keeping this in mind, regional and local campaigns are currently the most effective for paid media and organic channels that permit cannabis content when targeting by geography.   Platform Rules and Guidelines  Similar to the state-by-state legal status, each digital platform has its own advertising and organic content standards for promoting cannabis products. If these guidelines are not closely followed, your client’s campaign could fail to launch at the start or swiftly be removed from the platform.   Content Liability   Due to the industry’s heavy regulations, misleading or misinforming content could potentially create liability issues for your client. For example, making certain claims about the medical properties of cannabis could create legal complications  Before you begin posting content for your client, you may want to consider consulting with an expert on cannabis marketing beforehand. For example, a cannabis-informed attorney or an experienced digital marketing partner can provide you with the necessary guidance to help avoid these pitfalls.   What Are the Best Channels for Promoting Cannabis Clients?  Cannabis-Specific Channels   As the industry continues to expand its footprint, many cannabis-specific channels are emerging that agencies can capitalize on. These platforms are designed to specifically target the same audience your client is trying to reach.   For example, there are digital map services that show users dispensaries near them, such as WeedMaps. Advertising on a channel like this one will not pose the same restrictive guidelines like Facebook or Instagram.   Some industry publications like High Times also maintain a cannabis-focused news website. Here, a client that wants to reach more cannabis consumers can also advertise more freely than on a general-use platform.  Paid and Organic Channels   Paid digital media channels like Google Search and most social platforms place heavy regulations on paid cannabis content due to it being labeled as an “illicit” subject.   To compensate for this, focusing on organic content can help drive engagement and quality traffic to your client’s website. Services like SEO and email marketing maximize the performance potential of the content that you can control on your client’s site to reach their ideal customers.   For blogs, product pages, service pages, and informational pages on your client’s website, you can freely write content that objectively educates customers and builds authority. In most cases, it is recommended that you place an age gate on these pages so that the visitor can confirm they are over the age of 21 before proceeding.   Because the client’s website is their wholly owned digital property, you have more creative freedom to market their cannabis products. However, this still requires a deliberate SEO strategy to draw the right traffic. Using high-opportunity keywords in your content, minimizing technical errors on the backend, and building a strong backlink portfolio are three vital tactics for generating the results that your client is expecting.   Now, this is not to say that there are no paid media options available to agencies that offer cannabis advertising services. For example, some programmatic channels like pre-roll, OTT, and display may allow these campaigns, albeit with restrictions.   A Channel-by-Channel Breakdown of Cannabis Restrictions  Advertising Cannabis on Social Media   Most social platforms do not permit any cannabis advertising. Though this may seem like a frustrating obstacle for your agency, this does not mean that all social media doors are closed.   Cannabis companies can still promote their business on social media through organic content. However, they cannot create posts that deliberately entice people to buy their products.   Examples of what not to post on your client’s profiles include:   Product prices and price-lists  Solicitations to buy a product or order one online  Information on growing or selling cannabis   Medical claims about cannabis   Invitations to contact the client’s business about purchasing cannabis   Instead, leverage your client’s accounts to build authority and credibility in their industry and link to pages on their website. Keep the content as educational as possible, advocate for the industry at large using reliable sources, and use visual content that showcases a product rather than solicits it to the audience.   Keep in mind that most platforms do have some methodology for flagging certain organic content that could be considered non-compliant with their content guidelines. For example, posts that use certain hashtags could be identified as unsuitable for sharing. Posts can also display on users’ feeds in states where cannabis is still fully illegal, thus further emphasizing the need for more general informational content.   In addition to organic content, the best way to reach users on social media with ads is to maintain an educational attitude. Be a leader in the space and educate users instead of selling to them to avoid being flagged. For the ads specifically, if you want a broad stroke across most social media platforms, begin by promoting topical hemp products, which are allowed by all platforms. These ads should have landing pages specific to those products that have no mention of cannabis, THC, or CBD.  Avoiding using these words in the copy or having them displayed on the image of the ad is also important.  Once these users are interested in your brand and product, they will discover your other products that may contain THC and CBD.  Although most platforms do not allow advertising for cannabis, below is in order the least to most restrictive platforms with a quick overview of what is permitted and what is restricted or prohibited. For a full list of the advertising policies for each platform, feel free to utilize the links in their respective sections.   Snapchat – Restricted but allowed (hemp-derived CBD)  Snapchat is one of the least restrictive platforms regarding cannabis, but unfortunately still has restrictions around it. Despite Snap’s Drugs & Tobacco Policy stating they “allow some limited ads for cannabis”, the advertising of cannabis on the platform is still prohibited.  CBD is where Snap opens up its policies, allowing products to be promoted as long as they’re derived from hemp and contain less than 0.3% THC.  If you have a Snapchat rep, you can reach out for specifics on a case-by-case basis to see if this is a feasible option for your client. Keep in mind that the platform “[does] not allow the depiction of smoking or vaping, except in the context of public health messaging or smoking cessation”, and whether or not an ad gets rejected or not can vary from reviewer to reviewer.  X – Permitted Where Legal  In February 2023, X (formerly known as Twitter) announced it will be relaxing its policies for cannabis advertising, including both THC and other cannabinoids. This marks the first major social platform to permit paid advertising to directly promote these products.   However, this does not come without restrictions. X still enforces restrictions on cannabis advertising. These include:   Advertisers must be credibly licensed and preapproved by X to run Cannabis campaigns  Advertisers can only target geographical locations where cannabis products can be legally bought and sold online   Ads cannot promote or offer cannabis for sale (this includes CBD)  Exception: Ads for topical (non-ingestible) hemp-derived CBD topical products containing equal to or less than the 0.3% THC government-set threshold.     All applicable laws, rules, regulations, and X advertising guidelines must be followed   Ads cannot be targeted at users under 21 years of age   In terms of ad content, a few additional guidelines exist. X prohibits any ad creatives that are not age-gated. Additionally, ads featuring public figures endorsing products, pregnant women, or minors cannot be used either.   The rest of the content limitations pertain mostly to messaging, such as:   Ads cannot promote claims about cannabis’s efficacy or health benefits  Messaging cannot include any false or misleading statements   Cannabis use cannot depicted in the ads   Ads cannot encourage transporting products across state lines   So, can your client qualify for X ads? To distill the above, as long as the ads are compliant with X policies and local government regulations, and the advertiser is approved by X to run cannabis ads, you can launch a campaign.   One of the major points that should be emphasized, yet could be easily overlooked, is that advertisers cannot promote the direct sale of cannabis through their ads.  Avoid placing pricing information in the creative assets as well as using any CTAs like “shop now.”   Instead, a safe bet would be to simply promote that your client’s business exists as well as where it’s located. For example, “Dispensary X, Located in Newark, NJ” will likely be deemed acceptable whereas “Cannabis Flower for $24.99 at Dispensary X” would not be.   TikTok – Restricted (topical CBD allowed)  Although one might initially consider TikTok to be more lenient here given their demographic, cannabis targeting is currently prohibited on the platform.  However, according to their Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals policy , “the promotion of products derived from hemp oil and topical CBD products for cosmetics may be allowed in some markets and is subject to additional restrictions.” According to TikTok’s Drugs and Drug Paraphernalia Policy, ad creatives and landing pages must refrain from displaying or promoting:   Illegal drugs  Controlled drugs  Prescription drug abuse  Recreational drug use  Drug paraphernalia and accessories and their use  Supplies and their use   However, the company’s Hemp & CBD policy does go on to say that “…promoting hemp products and topical CBD products may be allowed subject to additional restrictions.” It is the advertisers’ responsibility to comply with local regulations of the regions they are targeting. Additionally, hemp products may not be advertised via the self-serve format.   Meta – Restricted (topical hemp allowed)  Meta (advertising on Facebook and Instagram) prohibits THC products, cannabis products containing psychoactive components, and ingestible CBD. However, non-ingestible CBD ads are allowed on Meta provided advertisers follow Meta’s CBD and Related Products Policy . In short this means: You must comply with local laws (must be legal in that region) No false claims can be made Must have LegitScript It’s important to note that non-ingestible and ingestible hemp products can also be promoted and do not require LegitScript. Pinterest – Restricted (topical hemp)  Pinterest is quite restrictive in the CBD and hemp space, only permitting ads for topical hemp as of now. According to the platform’s Drugs and Paraphernalia Policy  they will allow these topical hemp ads as long as they contain negligible amounts of THC and no CBD and make no therapeutic or medicinal claims.” It is safe to assume the negligible amount is the 0.3% agreed upon by the FDA. Like other social platforms, educational content is usually the way to go. Per the same policy, “we will allow informational or brand content on CBD and hemp. Advertisers are responsible for complying with all laws and regulations.” LinkedIn – Prohibited   LinkedIn’s Illicit or Recreational Drugs Policy  states that ”ads that promote the sale or use of illicit or recreational drugs are prohibited.” While this seems black and white, this does open the door for interpretation for advertisers to promote educational content on LinkedIn, much like other social platforms.  Advertising Cannabis on Google   Google adopts a strict “just say no” policy when it comes to advertising or marketing topics referencing cannabis, marijuana, weed, etc. There are no explicitly stated restrictions against targeting keywords related to these terms, but any ad copy or landing page that features this subject matter will be heavily scrutinized and regulated.   Because Google has more ambiguous standards for advertising cannabis, you may occasionally see ads that are related to the topic. For example, you may see paid ads for a local marijuana dispensary if you enter the term “weed dispensary near me”. However, many of these listings will use vague references and innuendo to avoid a platform penalty.   Trying to game the Google Ads system is not advised. In general, this can lead to a poor user experience and can fall under Google’s Circumventing Systems policy.Depending on the nature of the offense, this can potentially lead to your Ads account being suspended or terminated, which we believe is not worth the risk.   To view other cannabis policies for paid search ads, also check out the guidelines from Microsoft and Baidu for their search engines.  Advertising Cannabis on Programmatic Channels  Programmatic advertising for cannabis clients used to encompass direct-to-publisher display ad buys and ad networks that leveraged cannabis-friendly websites which were sold to advertisers trying to reach consumers of the product.   While both of these methods are still used, some DSPs are starting to loosen their restrictions on cannabis advertising to keep up with the evolving climate. This results in more robust and creative ways to reach cannabis consumers.  Contextual Targeting   DSPs that are embracing the new wave all offer a variation of contextual targeting – serving ads on websites that are categorically relevant or contain keywords or phrases related to cannabis. This can range from consumption in general to information as granular as insight into different strains.  First-Party Data  A desire to leverage first-party data has also increased for a variety of reasons ranging from having the highest likelihood of purchase intent to cookies being sunsetted in the near future. First-party data allows cannabis advertisers to leverage their list of existing customers, such as dispensary item purchasers, and reach them while they’re surfing the web, using their favorite apps, or streaming their binge-worthy shows at home on their CTV devices.   In addition, first-party data allows for lookalike audience expansion. Lookalike audiences mirror the online behaviors of a client’s CRM list, for instance, and find users who aren’t already on that list that could be potential consumers. This provides a campaign with more scale and reach while maintaining its niche audience targeting.  Third-Party Audience Targeting  Additionally, advertisers can utilize the power 3rd-party audience targeting. Via trusted data providers,  your client can reach people identified as cannabis users based on their demographic, interests, intent, etc. as a result of their online behavior.  Dabble with competitive conquesting or hone in on physical stores/locations that a cannabis audience frequently visits with radius targeting or 3rd-party location data. This strategy is exclusive to a handful of DSPs right now, but it could expand in the future.   Radius targeting also lets your client reach dispensaries down to the mile and serve them an ad on their mobile device once the user is within the radius. 3rd-party location data allows your client to capture historical data, via lookback windows, of users who visited specific dispensary locations across the US and Canada and deliver their ads to these highly relevant consumers.  Site Retargeting  Site Retargeting is another strategy that is offered universally and is key for all cannabis advertisers, but especially for eCommerce campaigns. Being able to drive awareness and bring users to a client’s site is great, but retargeting them after the visit keeps them in the funnel and increases the likelihood of conversions by about 70%.   While programmatic advertising sits very high at the top-of-the-funnel and conversions shouldn’t be the primary way to measure campaign effectiveness, there’s no doubt that they’re still points of extreme interest. With that said, conversion tracking for cannabis campaigns is borderline universal for all DSPs that allow this type of advertising.   However, the granularity of the conversion journey varies greatly. Most DSPs can report on a conversion just like any other platform, but others have the capability to show the consumer journey from ad click to last-click attribution and everything in between!  Cannabis SEO Campaigns  Because SEO is an organic channel that primarily leverages your client’s website, there are not the same restrictions compared to paid media. As your client owns their domain, they are largely free to publish whatever content best suits their business’s best interests.   However, any organic content published on a client’s website should maintain compliance with state and industry regulations. All necessary consumer warnings, disclaimers, and other advisory information should be displayed where appropriate to help avoid any potential liability for the content on the site.   Because SEO is one of the more permissible channels for marijuana topics, you can expect a large amount of competition for high-opportunity keywords. Working a team of SEO experts, you can prevent many of the common obstacles and challenges that can come with a cutthroat digital environment.   Start Delivering Elite Performance for Your Cannabis Marketing Agency   Navigating the often unclear waters of cannabis advertising is enough to make anyone’s hands shaky before pressing “live” on a campaign. We understand that, and that’s why we’ve invested the time and effort to provide your agency with the necessary tools, expertise, and performance to deliver high-performing campaigns for your clients.  At Conduit Digital, we have delivered elite campaign performance across 125 verticals for successful agencies in North America leveraging our holistic digital product suite. Our team of U.S.-based, platform-certified expert analysts can build your own cannabis client’s campaigns to drive the ideal key performance actions that align with their business goals.   To help keep your partnership confidential and profitable, we also offer a margin-friendly rate card along, custom-brandable deliverables, and full NDA compliance.   Start saying “yes” to better opportunities to serve your clients in the cannabis industry today. Schedule a call with us to learn how we can help you scale profitably.

Aug 11, 2023 When voice-enabled search features were first introduced, many thought this new way of using search engines would become the next digital frontier for search engine optimization (SEO) and paid search (PPC). However, that didn’t come to pass. With voice search, one glaring limitation would prevent it from meaningfully competing against text-based searches: privacy. Speaking into your phone requires you to audibly enter your query into the search engine. If you want to ask Google or Bing something confidentially, you are not always able to with voice features. Sure, voice searches are fine for asking where to find a nearby restaurant. However, they could easily prove the less-preferred option for questions of a more sensitive nature like seeking medical, financial, or legal information. This year, Microsoft’s Bing transformed the search engine landscape by introducing Bing AI. Instead of entering a query and letting an algorithm compile its best guess, a sophisticated artificial intelligence model actively searches the internet for the most up-to-date information that answers your questions, all while compressing the information into a concise response with links to websites for the users to read further. The craziest part? Microsoft released Bing AI for free to anyone with a Microsoft account and the latest Edge browser. All you need to do is create an account to start using it in your searches. While Bing AI is fully rolled out and available to everyone, Google is not far behind. The undisputed search engine leader has worked diligently behind the digital curtain to introduce new AI-based features to enhance the user experience. Some new Google AI features on the horizon include: Immerse View for Google Maps where the app allows you to see the actual streets you’ll be driving on rather than a 2D graphic of the roadways. Magic Editor for Google Photos where AI will automatically enhance your favorite photos that you want modified to enhance visual elements, remove visual elements, and many other features without you needing to know tools like Adobe Photoshop. PaLM 2: An advanced model based on logical reasoning that could be used for complex tasks like debugging code and providing advanced medical insights in over 100 different languages. Bard: Google’s generative AI model intended to compete with tools like ChatGPT, will only grow more intelligent and capable with the vast amounts of first-party data the platform has at its disposal. The one that stands out the most in regards to SEO, however, is the new Search Generative Experience (SGE). Google’s SGE will operate almost exactly like Bing AI, with its ability to provide conversational search results that synthesize information from more than one source online, all presented in a tidy format at the top of the page that is easy to read. So, where does SEO go from here? Is SEO another profession that will be eaten alive by the machine overlords? No, and today we’re going to cover why AI-based search is not only the future of SEO, but why SEO matters more than ever. First, let’s explore why AI-based search really is the wave of the future, compared to voice search. For purposes of convenience, any screenshots we share here are done using Bing AI, as it is already a fully developed and widely available tool. We’ll be updating this later once Google SGE becomes a universally accessible asset for more users. Why Will AI-Based Search Do What Voice Couldn’t? AI-based searches not only provide the convenience of voice search, but they can also maintain users’ much-valued privacy. You can type in a phrase or question as you would with a standard text-based search and receive a more tailored response. The results also contain resources from other sites that are pre-selected by an AI model that has done the heavy lifting and scoured billions of web pages for you in seconds to find the most credible information possible. Obviously, for any agency incorporating paid and/or organic search into their service offerings, this presents a seismic shift in the industry. Instead of relying solely on established best practices to rank highly for traditional text-based searches, strategies now need to incorporate positioning a client’s website to be viewed as highly credible and trustworthy by an AI model that is more selective and places a heavier emphasis on the quality of information. How AI-Based Search Results Differ from Traditional SERPs Answers Are Specific and Personalized Because most of these AI-assisted search engines are using a more conversational approach to curating results for you, users can expect a more tailored experience. Beyond initial results, you can also continue the conversation to dive deeper into certain topics or refine your results over multiple iterations. Along with this change, it can be reasonably expected that a more personalized organic search experience will be expected by users in the future. AI chatbots are designed in a way to act as if they are conversing with you like they’re your own personal assistant. You Will Only See a Few Results at a Time When tools like Bing AI’s Chat feature or Google SGE compile search results, they condense the information into a single body of concise text along with links to sources if the user wants to dive further. For instance, if you want to learn about white label digital ad operations, you might receive a response like this with a familiar domain in the Learn More section: As you can see above, Bing AI condensed the information into a single paragraph with some additional bullet points for specificity. Then, it curated its top-four external resources to provide you with more information if you want to dive deeper into your search. If you are content with the information you are given, then you can count the AI-generated response as sufficient and continue with your day. Greater Potential for a Multimedia Experience AI-powered search engines like Bing AI can not only provide text-based answers, but they can also generate images you might request. As an example, we asked it to create pictures of a coffee cup containing fancy latte art. Below, you can see that it was able to do this within seconds and with minimal effort. With AI powering your searches, the results will have a greater potential for a more visual multimedia experience. To position your client’s ranking potential, optimizing images, including alt text, file names, and descriptions will be a necessity and not just an extra finishing touch. How AI Search will Transform Your SEO Strategy Domain Credibility and Authority Matters More Than Ever Compared to traditional SERPs, AI-based searches focus on curating the most authoritative and credible sources possible for their responses. As part of that, these programs heavily consider the domain authority and credibility of a website. Providing credible, authoritative information on your website that strays from self-promotion will be the dominant strategy here. Couple this with Google’s increased emphasis on content that is objectively helpful, and the brands that emphasize helpful information over promoting their exact brand and business model will dominate the SERPs. Many clients tend to want to produce content for their website that aligns exactly with their business model and product or service offerings while also promoting themselves somewhere within the content. This is not considered “helpful” by Google’s standards. Instead, information that could be applied to a topic or industry at large is considered preferable, regardless of whether or not it mirrors a business’s exact way of operating. Quality Backlinking Will Be Essential As AI-powered search engines compile their results for users, part of their methodology for assessing a domain’s authority will be its backlink portfolio. If you’re new to SEO, essentially a backlink is created on your client’s website whenever another domain links to its content. For example, a blogger in the same industry might link to a blog on your client’s site as a source for their own writing. A desirable backlink is one from a credible domain with relevance to your industry or the topic your content is centered on. Links from spammy, irrelevant, or oddly structured sites are considered “toxic” and can negatively impact your domain authority if not dealt with properly. In essence, if your client’s website is swarmed with toxic backlinks, search engines will likely also view your site as a low-authority domain. Keeping on top of toxic backlinks and acquiring ones from quality sources will continue to remain a priority for organic search. Great Content Will Matter More Than Ever Since the dawn of SEO, various thought leaders, reporters, and influencers in the profession have proposed new strategies to leverage content to dominate organic search. These tactics and best practices have evolved as search engine algorithms have grown more sophisticated, but one thing remains the same: Content is a competitive world. What is one of generative AI’s current most-useful tools? Content writing. With the power of tools like ChatGPT in SEO professionals’ digital toolkits, maximizing content production will turn into something of a virtual arms race to try to cover as many topics and keywords as possible. Beyond the production of content, though, its quality will matter more than ever. As AI models compile results for search users, they will rely on the well-written, authoritative, and helpful content that your clients provide on their websites. For example, if a local search user is looking for great camping spots in Upstate New York, and your client is a camping equipment store in the area, you have an immense opportunity to leverage their brand to provide credible information to that audience member! LEARN MORE: How to USE AI CONTENT GENERATION. Optimize Your Media Assets! As AI-based search engines are able to retrieve media files from the web that match a user’s prompts, having your images and videos properly optimized will be non-negotiable. This could include essentials like: Using keyword-optimized ALT text for your images Choosing descriptive file names for images and videos Making sure that your YouTube channel’s video information is optimized for organic search Local SEO Strategies Need to be Airtight Tools like BingAI are currently able to leverage your device’s location to provide you with a list of locations in your area that are relevant to your searches. Within the response, it can also supply the actual business listing with directions and phone numbers to call. With this in mind, managing directory listings for your clients and ensuring their business information is as accurate as possible will both be necessities for competitive performance. When people are able to interact with their business directly from an AI chatbot’s response, this level of convenience has immense potential to spur significantly more interaction. Long-Tail Keywords Take Center Stage AI-assisted search engines like BingAI distill the most essential part of your search into a long-tail keyword. Looking at the example below, you can see how it transformed a question into a highly specific keyword search: From an SEO perspective, this long-tail keyword would be a low-volume keyword (not many people are searching this on a regular basis), but also likely one where competition is not high. As new SEO strategies are built with AI in mind, dedicating equal time to focus keywords (high volume) and granular long-tail terms that are immensely relevant to your client’s business model will become the new norm when building keyword lists. Similarly, incorporating multiple variations of keywords and long-tail phrases will need to be kept in mind. Giving AI-based search engines the ability to align their long-tail surveys with your content will highly increase the chances of your pages being recommended in chat responses. Double Down on Mobile-First The earliest viral generative AI programs, like ChatGPT and Jasper, were first developed as browser applications meant to be viewed via a desktop or laptop. Now, most generative AI programs are starting to offer mobile apps to best align with the majority of users who conduct most of their online activity via smartphones and tablets. For example, these are just some of the notable generative AI apps that are available via iOS and/or Android: Bing AI Snapchat’s My AI ChatGPT Jasper Google Bard We can reasonably expect that AI-based search engines will also determine a page’s quality in a similar way to traditional algorithms based on various user experience features like quick site speed. With that in mind, continue to optimize toward the most seamless mobile experience possible for your client’s website. Be Ready for an AI-Based Search Engine Optimization Future So, with everything above, what can we take away? Here’s a few key points that stand out: AI will only become a more prominent search engine tool in the future Currently, AI tools have incredible features that enhance the user’s search experience Over time, SEO campaigns will have to factor in how AI tools use search engines to serve users as a key component of the strategy At Conduit Digital, we are the white label digital marketing partner for established and successful ad agencies in North America. We equip your agency with the ability to say “yes” to any new client opportunity by extending your in-house ad operations with 17 digital marketing channels operated by expert U.S.-based analysts. To learn more about how you can leverage us as your white label SEO partner for an AI-driven landscape, let’s talk.