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Tim Burke If you’re an agency owner who has engaged a white-label service provider, chances are you’ve heard pitches promising a “done-for-you” approach. All you have to do is sit back while your white-label provider does the work. Eventually, you will make so much money that you sail off into a Caribbean sunset sipping a cocktail with an exotic name. Cue the record skip. At Conduit, we’ve been working with sophisticated agency owners like yourself for over a decade, and we’ve learned a thing or two along the way. For starters, you’re an entrepreneur at heart. You’re fueled by your business. You care about your agency. You care about your clients. And you care about your team.  The done-for-you model might seem like an easy route. But expectations rarely meet the delivery. A done-for-you white-label provider promises to handle everything – communication, project management, closing new deals, onboarding, training – while you focus on…whatever else you need to focus on after all of that. But here’s the rub: Loss of Control:  Handing over client communications and project management can (and will) lead to misalignments and misunderstandings. Those relationships you and your team built on trust? They’re in someone else’s hands now.  Risk to Reputation:  The reputation and credibility your agency has worked hard to foster has now been transferred to an outsider. Reputations take years to build and minutes to destroy. Churn:  Your clients were hoping to work with you and your team, and now they feel as if they’ve been baited and switched. Loyalty is not easily earned, especially by proxy.  Strategic Partnerships: Your Secret Weapon I won’t lie to you. Conduit is a white-label provider. All we do is work with agencies every single day.  So why does it seem we’re cutting off our nose to spite our face? Simple. Because we believe in a different approach – strategic partnerships. This model is all about collaboration and alignment, giving you and your team the support you need while keeping you rightfully in the driver’s seat. How do strategic partnerships differ from the “done-for-you silver bullet?” Enhanced Communication:  Your team should be the point of contact with your clients. This maintains the trust and rapport you’ve built, ensuring nothing gets lost in translation. A good strategic partner should equip your team with the information they need to help your clients succeed, making your team look good and ensuring the satisfaction of your clients. We don’t need the credit. We just want you to be successful.  Work Smarter, not Harder:  A strategic partner should integrate seamlessly into your existing workflow. Chances are, you have an onboarding process. It’s not our job to fix what isn’t broken. We seek to amplify the good processes you’ve already built.  Satisfied Clients:  A good strategic partner should focus on what they do best instead of moonlighting in your agency. Whether they are doing SEO, paid ads, or programmatic, they should be focusing on strategies that deliver the desired results, keeping your clients happy and loyal. Mitigating Risks with Strategic Partnerships Unlike the done-for-you approach, a strategic partner reduces risks. Here’s how: Consistent Quality:  When you and your team maintain control over client interactions, you can ensure consistent, high-quality service based on the values, mission, and communication style of your agency. Shared Expertise:  A strategic partner enhances your offerings by bringing specialized skills to the table, not double-dipping on the skillsets you already have in-house. We focus on what we do best so you can focus on what you do best – running an agency.  Scaling : A good strategic partner should help you streamline the accounts you already have, upgrade your current clients by identifying opportunities, and ultimately help you scale your agency by allowing you and your team to say yes to bigger opportunities. You should be involved in every step of that journey so your white-label provider is firing to your goals, not the other way around. What To Do Next Here’s how to ensure you are set up for a strategic partnership: Evaluate Your Current Provider : Are they truly meeting your needs, or are you encountering the pitfalls mentioned above? Seek Out Partners, Not Vendors : Look for a white-label provider that values collaboration and shared success, not control. Be wary of hyperbolic promises. Communicate Your Vision:  Make sure your partner understands your goals and works with you to achieve them. The future of your agency doesn’t lie in handing over control. It’s about forging partnerships that promote collaboration and client satisfaction.  The Conduit Digital Difference At Conduit Digital, we’re more than just a service provider — we’re your strategic partner. Here’s how: Proven Methods : Our streamline, upgrade, and scale methodology is designed to boost your processes, performance, and client base. Comprehensive Support:  Our holistic support every step of the way educates and empowers your team to succeed. Expert Team:  Our team of specialists navigate complex, multi-channel campaigns, delivering the results that move the needle for your clients – and your agency.

As the leader of a digital marketing agency, doesn’t it feel like most aspects of your profession never stay the same for very long? This isn’t exclusive to digital marketing, but it sure hits home for us. When unexpected innovations such as AI content generation turn our industry upside down, how can you better prepare for these changes instead of reacting to them? Disruptive industry innovations is just one aspect of unpredictability, though. There are many other factors that hit much closer to home. For example, you cannot anticipate if a valued member of your team asks for a raise that is more than you budgeted for, another one leaves to pursue another career path, or a client decides to cancel their account with you early. All three scenarios are not something you can easily prepare for, and all three impact your bottom line directly. We can’t control everything at an agency, but if we make what we can control more predictable, we can better position ourselves to scale higher and more efficiently. That brings us to today’s topic. In this guide, we’re going to explore how predictability can be a secret weapon for future-proofing business aspects of your digital marketing or advertising agency and how you can establish it in your everyday operations. First, let’s define what future-proofing your business could look like. What Future-Proofing Looks Like for Agencies Future-proofing, in the context of a digital marketing agency, refers to the implementation of strategies and measures that ensure your agency remains relevant and competitive in the face of evolving industry trends, technologies, and consumer behaviors. It can also refer to preparing to weather external conditions that could impact your agency outside of your exact sphere of influence. As an example, ChatGPT changed content marketing forever. Now, AI content generation is a standard practice at many agencies, when just a year ago, large content teams were needed to manage high-volume deliverable portfolios. Other factors like general economic conditions also need to be considered when putting a plan to future-proof your agency together. For example, inflation in the United States in recent years has drastically increased the cost of living for many Americans. In turn, this can affect an agency’s ability to predict costs associated with hiring new talent, procuring office equipment, finding affordable commercial real estate, and other similar needs. Business Model Specialization: The New Frontier for Future Proofing As our friend Marcel Petipas, CEO of Parakeeto , has said: the next frontier of specialization is going to be business model specialization. Specifically, this involves a business (in our case, agencies) doubling down on what they are best at and forming strategic partnerships to manage the rest. Ultimately, doing so saves time, effort, and money for your agency and results in a better end product for your clients. For example, an agency that primarily provides social media advertising services to its clients can say that they also offer SEO. However, they don’t have to do the SEO work in-house. They can entrust it to their SEO fulfillment partner, manage the account, and oversee the strategic direction while a white label SEO team executes the hands-on performance. The social media agency then marks up the white label service to their clients and generates a stable, predictable profit. In a nutshell, business model specialization is all about doubling down on what your agency is best at, identifying what you’re not, and structuring your business to form the right partnerships to enable you to do what you do best while the rest is entrusted to equally capable hands. Other Practical Tips for Future-Proofing Your Agency Diversify Your Revenue Streams With the sheer number of services that a digital agency can offer its clients, the range of potential revenue streams is already plentiful in our industry. For example, expanding into more channels can expand your revenue-earning potential by drawing interest from new clients who are looking for these specific solutions. When you want to expand your in-house suite, this can be done most effectively through two approaches: hiring internally or outsourcing. While hiring internally allows for more direct control, it also involves more financial overhead and time commitments. The right outsource solution, such as a white label partnership, can help stabilize costs and enable quicker strategic deployment, but you will need to vet the right one and place a notable level of trust in their own team. Invest in Marketing Your Own Business As part of future-proofing your business, treat your agency like its own premier client. Put strategies in place that consistently position your brand in front of the ideal clients that you want to work with. These types of clients could be based on factors like specific industries or niches, budget sizes, geographic locations, and company sizes. What does marketing your agency look like, though? Here are 5 quick tips: Create your own dedicated, repeatable marketing budget that you can invest each month. Consistently produce quality content that speaks directly to the types of clients that you want to reach and empathizes with their pain points. Create a library of case studies and success stories that demonstrates your expertise in running campaigns that drive results for your current or past clients. Be active on social media, both paid and organic. Offer an incentive to generate leads , such as an eBook or free/discounted audit. Continuously Feed Your Brain with New Information The more knowledge you equip yourself with, the less unpredictable the digital landscape appears. Engage frequently with online industry publications that are both broad in scope and narrowly focused on specific channels to feed your brain . Dedicate an hour or two each week to knowledge expansion, and encourage your team to do the same. The more you learn about what is developing in the industry, the less surprised and better prepared you will be when these new innovations become standard procedure rather than a shiny new marketing toy. Beyond reading about any new innovations, take the time to test them, too. For platform innovations that you’re interested in, sign up for free trials or take advantage of demos so that you can gain hands-on familiarity. If you decide to roll out these solutions at your agency, you will be able to do so more quickly and effectively. Structure Your Finances for Long-Term Scalability If you are concerned about economic unpredictability in the future, make sure that your finances are structured to weather these periods of uncertainty as much as you possibly can. Put measures in place such as: Set a clear financial forecast and budget to anticipate revenues, costs, and investments. Standardize pricing for all client-facing services as well as internal hard costs. Tie them to predictable turnaround times so that you always know how much something can cost and at what point you’re making money, breaking even, or losing money. Reinvest a portion of profits into the business, focusing on technology, training, and infrastructure. Keep a substantial emergency fund in case of economic shifts. Regularly review your financial performance with your finance team. As your agency scales, your financial operations will become more complex. By being proactive and strategic in financial planning, you'll better position your agency for steady, long-term success. Focus on Providing an Impeccable Client Experience Clients may not remember every single piece of data that you provide them in a report. However, they will remember that you made them feel heard, understood, and confident that their marketing needs were in capable hands. Providing an excellent experience for your clients requires three simple ingredients: Communication, performance, and reporting. Let’s break each of these down. Communication: Reply to clients within the same day, if possible. If not, respond to them the next business day. Performance: Justify the investment the client is making in your agency’s services. Market their business as if it were your own, and deliver strategic and tactical excellence that drives tangible results. Reporting: Reporting justifies the performance that you’ve provided for your clients. This provides regular updates on their campaign progress, and opportunities for improvement while also establishing transparency and trust. You Don’t Need to Future-Proof Your Business Alone We covered a ton of information above, and it’s perfectly understandable if it feels overwhelming when thinking of ways to future-proof your agency. Thankfully, you don’t have to do it alone. Many agencies fail in isolation, with leadership feeling like everything needs to be done in-house or not at all. Looking beyond your office walls, joining forces with a trusted partner can enable you to scale predictably, profitably, and with the uncertainty of the future in mind. It’s nice to have something you can count on in any circumstance. When running your agency, the right white label partner can make a true difference. At Conduit Digital, maybe we’re that partner for you. At Conduit, we serve as the elite white label digital marketing partner for established agencies in North America that are looking to scale. Rather than working as a vendor, we act as a true strategic partner, streamlining your accounts, upgrading performance and leaving you perfectly placed to scale. We offer access to 20 different channels through a single point of contact, taking the hassle out of managing each platform separately. Holistic reporting, a platform agnostic approach and access to experts in each area help you make strategic decisions based on performance and not platform spend. Industry-leading communication, performance, and reporting infrastructure, give your agency the means to say “yes” to any new opportunity and maintain profitability. To learn more about what it’s like working with Conduit, check out our Are We a Fit? page or schedule a call with us today.

Imagine being able to offer a comprehensive suite of marketing services under your own brand, even if you don't possess the in-house expertise or resources to provide them directly. White labeling in marketing makes this possible by allowing you to partner with specialized agencies like Conduit Digital that handle the behind-the-scenes work. Essentially, white labeling involves outsourcing a specific marketing function or service to a third-party provider, which is then delivered under your brand name, creating a seamless experience for your clients. The Benefits and Versatility of White Labeling White labeling offers numerous benefits, including the ability to expand your service offerings without significant upfront investment in infrastructure or personnel. It allows you to deliver high-quality services that may be beyond your in-house capabilities. By partnering with experts like Conduit Digital, you can provide your clients with the best solutions. This strategy is versatile and can be applied to various marketing functions such as SEO , display advertising , social media management , PPC advertising , and more to provide a flexible way to scale your business and meet evolving client needs. Focus on Core Competencies and Access Specialized Expertise One of the key advantages of white labeling is that it lets you concentrate on what you do best. By outsourcing non-core marketing functions to Conduit Digital, you can allocate resources more effectively and concentrate on what you do best, leading to increased efficiency, improved profitability, and overall business growth. Additionally, white labeling provides access to specialized expertise. Conduit Digital’s team of experienced professionals is well-versed in the latest marketing trends and techniques, allowing you to deliver top-notch marketing services to your clients. Enhancing Brand Reputation and Understanding Costs White labeling can also improve your brand reputation. Offering high-quality marketing services under your own brand enhances your credibility and establishes you as a trusted authority in your industry, leading to increased customer loyalty and positive word-of-mouth. While white labeling and outsourcing are similar, white labeling specifically refers to offering the provider's services under your own brand. The costs involved in white label marketing vary depending on the services and complexity of the project but can often be more cost-effective than building an in-house team. Timeline for Results and Getting Started The timeline for seeing results from white label marketing depends on the strategies implemented and your business goals. Typically, improvements in online visibility, brand awareness, and lead generation can be seen within a few months. To get started, consider the following steps: Identify Your Marketing Needs : Determine which marketing functions you want to outsource. Partner with Conduit Digital : Discuss your specific requirements and explore how Conduit Digital  can help you achieve your marketing goals. Implement the Partnership : Work closely with Conduit Digital to ensure a smooth transition and successful execution of the marketing services. Ready to Unlock the Power of White Label Marketing? Contact Conduit Digital today for a free consultation to determine if we’re a fit . By partnering with Conduit Digital, you can leverage the power of white label marketing to grow your business, enhance your service offerings, and deliver exceptional value to your clients.

Client retention stands as the backbone of success for any digital agency. While agency leaders relentlessly chase new business development opportunities, there's an undercurrent of understanding that the real strength lies in keeping the clients you already have long-term. The stability, profitability, and organic growth fueled by client retention are undeniable, yet it often slips into the background in strategy meetings and budget planning. Without caring for the account portfolio you have, tending to it like a fragile garden in the middle of a desert, you can risk chipping away at the foundation you’ve already built to support future success and scalability. With this in mind, the familiar tactics of excellent service, competitive pricing, and occasional check-ins don't cut it anymore on their own. In an industry swamped with similar promises, agency leaders must adopt an innovative approach, diving deeper and thinking differently. To help you boost your own agency client retention efforts, we’re going to cover some overlooked yet critical strategies for client retention. Let’s push beyond the standard practices and look deeper at the crucial measures that leading digital agencies must take to secure and grow their client base. Why Client Retention Matters: A Quick Refresher Agencies thrive on the currency of creativity and innovation, not just in their client work, but in how they handle their client relationships. It's not about reinventing the wheel; it's about adding spokes that strengthen its structure and drive. Oftentimes, agency leaders are laser-focused on new client acquisition. However, the hidden costs, effort, and uncertainty make it a gamble, especially when compared to the potential profitability of existing relationships. Retaining clients stabilizes your agency's cash flow and creates a predictable business environment where you can plan and scale operations effectively. It's not just about maintaining a revenue stream; it's about fostering partnerships that will advocate for your brand. Beyond establishing a revenue stream, retention also creates a wealth of business development opportunities from your existing account portfolio. Oftentimes, it can be easier to upsell someone who has already bought into your agency’s services rather than convincing a new business to place their trust in you. This stems from the trust that you’ve worked hard to establish at your agency with your clients. Long-term clients become collaborative partners in strategic thinking, creating a synergy that new client engagements often lack. This depth and understanding of a client's business not only streamline the project cycles but often lead to referral opportunities that no amount of cold calling can match. Furthermore, a focus on client retention signals a mature business approach. It demonstrates an understanding that success isn't about the number of clients served, but the quality and longevity of those relationships. It's this distinction that sets apart truly successful agencies in a saturated market. The 5 Often-Ignored Client Retention Best Practices 1: Proactive Communication As we know, the agency environment is fast-paced, with teams hustling to meet deadlines, but communication with clients shouldn't fall to the wayside. All too often, when we’re trying to manage bandwidth, client communications can become almost solely reactive - only waiting to respond when prompted to. Proactive communication is a strategic asset. Instead of waiting for clients to reach out with questions or concerns, leading agencies take charge, offering updates, insights, and news before clients feel the need to ask. It's this kind of foresight that positions an agency as a strategic partner and an authority in the industry rather than a vendor. Implementing proactive communication requires a cultural shift within an agency. It involves regular scheduled updates, spontaneous calls or messages acknowledging project milestones, and the agility to provide immediate responses. This strategy is not about inundating clients with information but offering relevant, timely, and valuable insights. Moreover, proactive communication involves listening, not just speaking. It’s about anticipating client needs, understanding their pressures, and being ready with solutions before problems escalate. This foresight builds a sense of reliability and commitment that clients cherish. 2: Upskilling and Adapting to Industry Changes The agency space is a shifting landscape of trends, technologies, and tactics. Clients worry about keeping up, and they rely on their agencies to navigate these changes confidently. By continuously upskilling your team and staying abreast of industry shifts, your agency demonstrates a commitment not just to its own growth, but to the client's market position as well as changing client needs . Regular training sessions, pursuing new certifications, and attending industry events are investments, not expenses. They equip your team with fresh insights and renewed enthusiasm, which is reflected in the quality of work and the innovative strategies presented to the client. This dynamic growth reassures clients that they are with an agency that’s on the cutting edge. However, it's not enough to hoard knowledge. Client-retaining agencies turn insights into strategies, showing clients how these new skills directly benefit their projects. It's this proactive application that strengthens the client-agency relationship, positioning your team as thought leaders rather than followers. 3: Personalized Touch in Client Interactions Relationships are the lifeblood of any agency, and they go beyond contracts and project scopes. Adding a personalized touch to client interactions can significantly influence client retention. Remembering details, acknowledging client milestones, and even notes of appreciation can turn a strictly professional relationship into a more personal, loyal partnership. Celebrating successes, both big and small, particularly those that the client values, shows that you see beyond the billables to what’s truly important to their business. It’s about recognizing the human aspect behind the corporate façade, crafting messages that resonate on a more personal level while maintaining professional boundaries. This strategy requires a genuine interest in the client's world. It's not about grand gestures but consistent, sincere acknowledgments that you value this relationship. It's these subtle nuances that clients remember when deciding whether to continue on with your agency. 4: Providing Added Value Without Being Asked Clients appreciate when agencies go the extra mile. It demonstrates initiative and a deeper understanding of their business. By offering insights, extending additional services, or proposing innovative strategies beyond the agreed scope, your agency illustrates its commitment to the client’s success, not just to the invoice. This approach requires a strategic eye, looking for opportunities to offer more value. It involves keeping the client's best interests at heart and recommending strategies or platforms that could benefit their business. It's about being a consultant and a confidant, not just a service provider. However, agencies must walk this line carefully. Adding value is not about upselling under the guise of initiative. It’s a genuine effort to enhance the client’s product or service offering, showcasing your commitment to their business growth and success. A simple way to do this is to reallocate any excess bandwidth near the end of the month to overserve the clients you already have. If you can add some additional value without it competing against the other accounts in your portfolio, that is a win for your agency and its ability to best serve your clients. 5: Regular Feedback Mechanisms and Swift Issue Resolution Even the most successful partnerships face challenges. However, the way an agency handles these situations can make or break the client relationship. Establishing regular feedback mechanisms, such as surveys or review meetings, creates a structured environment where clients can express concerns, knowing they will be addressed promptly. These feedback loops are invaluable; they provide real-time insights into client satisfaction. However, gathering feedback is only half the battle. Agencies need to act on this feedback constructively, making necessary changes and communicating these adaptations back to the client. Additionally, assigning a dedicated account manager or client liaison who knows the ins and outs of the client's account ensures that issues are not just resolved but anticipated. This proactive problem-solving cements a client's trust in the agency, proving that they’re seen, heard, and valued. Common Client Retention Pitfalls to Avoid While there are client retention strategies that we’ve outlined above, there are also plenty of pitfalls to avoid. Some of the most notable ones include: Overpromising and Underdelivering: Agencies that often promise too much in an attempt to impress, which can lead to disappointment when they can’t deliver. It’s better to be upfront about capabilities and timelines with honesty and clear communication. Taking Long-Term Clients for Granted: Just because a client has been loyal in the past does not mean that they will stay now. Keep clients engaged, remain attentive, and communicate proactively. Neglecting Team Growth and Satisfaction: An unhappy agency team can lead to subpar work or low employee engagement, while a motivated team will always deliver their best. Prioritize team satisfaction, training, and growth to make sure they are always at their best to perform for your clients. Lack of Adaptability: Stay updated with the latest industry trends and tools, ensuring services remain relevant and cutting-edge. Inadequate Communication: Occasional updates aren't enough. Clients need regular communication to feel involved and valued. Establish regular check-ins, provide clear project updates, and always be accessible to address any concerns or queries. Limited Suite of Services: Whenever a client asks for a new service that goes beyond what your agency has traditionally provided, this can often motivate them to look for a new agency that can and will meet their needs. Invest in continuously expanding and refining your services, or consider an external partnership with a provider that can. Agency client retention is not only about taking the steps necessary to boost retention but also being mindful of the pitfalls that could place your account portfolio at risk. How a White Label Partner Can Boost Agency Client Retention After considering all of the client retention best practices above, there’s one element that underpins everything: infrastructure. Specifically, agencies that have both the communication and performance infrastructure in place to allow for excellent delivery of services and account relationship management are in a far better position to continue retaining their existing clients while landing new business. This does not all have to be done in isolation, though. One of the most effective ways to enhance performance and implement more efficient and effective communication is to leverage a white label digital marketing partnership. A white label partner extends your agency’s in-house team with their own team of account managers and digital channel analysts. You can instantly extend your suite of services and offload many of the communication tasks involved with campaigns while you focus more on sales, account relationships, and your digital core competencies. If this sounds like something that could benefit your agency, perhaps our team at Conduit Digital is the right partner for you. At Conduit, we power successful ad agencies in North America with 18 digital channels through one single partnership. By providing you with a single point of contact, holisitic reporting and a platform agnostic approach, we Streamline, Upgrade and Scale your processses to power performance and leave you equipped to grow your agency. To learn more about how we can help you, schedule a call with us today.

Agencies of all sizes are increasingly turning to white label SEO to offer a complete suite of services to their clients. By outsourcing SEO services under their own brand, agencies can expand their service offerings, improve efficiency, and scale their business. Understanding White Label SEO White label SEO  is a business model where an agency partners with a white label SEO provider to offer SEO services to their clients. The white label provider handles all aspects of the SEO campaign, from keyword research and content creation to link building and technical optimization. The agency then resells these services to their clients under their own brand. Benefits of White Label SEO for Agencies There are many benefits to using white label SEO for agencies. Here are just a few: Expanded Service Offerings:  Agencies can offer a wider range of SEO services to their clients without the need for in-house expertise. This can help agencies to attract and retain more clients. Improved Efficiency:  Outsourcing SEO services can free up agency resources to focus on other areas of their business. This can help agencies to improve their efficiency and profitability. Scalability:  Agencies can easily scale their SEO services up or down based on client demand. This can help agencies to meet the needs of their clients and increase SEO ROI  while avoiding the overhead of maintaining a large in-house SEO team. Access to Specialized Skills:  White label SEO providers often have deep expertise in specific SEO areas, such as technical SEO or local SEO. This can help agencies to provide their clients with the highest quality of service. Key Considerations for Choosing a White Label SEO Provider When choosing a white label SEO provider , it is important to consider the following factors: Quality of Service:  The provider should have a proven track record of delivering results. Look for a provider with a strong portfolio of successful SEO campaigns. Transparency and Communication:  The provider should be transparent about their processes and communicate regularly with the agency. This will help to ensure that the agency and the client are on the same page. Pricing and Contracts:  The provider's white label pricing should be fair and competitive. Be sure to review the contract carefully to understand the terms and conditions of the agreement. How to Integrate White Label SEO into Your Agency's Offerings Once you have chosen a white label SEO provider, you need to integrate their services into your agency's offerings. Here are some tips: Client Onboarding:  When onboarding new clients, explain the benefits of white label SEO and how it can help them to achieve their business goals. Service Bundling:  Consider bundling white label SEO with other agency services, such as web design or social media marketing. This can help to increase the value of your offerings and attract more clients. Client Management:  Maintain open communication with your clients throughout the SEO campaign. Keep them updated on progress and address any concerns they may have. SEO Audits:  Before starting an SEO campaign, it's essential to conduct a thorough SEO audit. Look for a white label SEO provider that offers this service as part of their package. An SEO audit  will identify any existing issues that need to be addressed before the campaign begins. Conquer Your Clients with Conduit White label SEO is a valuable tool for agencies that want to offer a complete suite of services to their clients. By partnering with a reputable white label SEO provider, agencies can expand their service offerings, improve efficiency, and scale their business. If you are an agency looking for a white label SEO provider, Conduit Digital can help. We have a team of experienced SEO professionals who can help you to achieve your business goals. Book a discovery call  with us to learn more.

...and what to do about it! The first year of any agency-client relationship is pivotal. During this period, digital agencies must prove their value and solidify trust. However, a significant number of agencies fail to maintain their client roster after the first year. Recognizing why this happens and how to prevent it is crucial for agency owners committed to long-term scalability and profitable business development. Today, we’re going to cover some of the most common reasons that agencies can lose clients after the first year of the account relationship. Let’s start with one that we see all too often: misaligned expectations. 1: Misaligned Expectations Misaligned expectations can sour relationships quickly. Agencies sometimes overpromise to secure a contract, leading to client disappointment when reality doesn't match the hype. Other times, agencies may not communicate clearly, leaving clients confused about what they’re actually getting. To prevent unclear expectations from causing friction, begin every new account relationship with a comprehensive discussion about goals, metrics, and timelines. Ensure you're not just on the same page but in the same line of the same paragraph. Agencies should also consider conducting monthly reviews with clients to align on progress and adjust expectations as needed. Regularly checking in keeps both parties in lockstep on the client’s business goals and creates opportunities to expand accounts or pivot strategically whenever necessary. 2: Lack of Proven Results At the end of the day, clients are after one thing: results. They are investing in your agency, and they want to see the returns. When an agency cannot show a positive impact within the first year, clients may walk away. Often, the issue isn’t a lack of results but a lack of demonstrated and communicated results. This can also tie back into misaligned expectations. For example, an SEO campaign could take months to start showing measurable results, while Google Search campaigns are intended to drive them instantly. The solution: Implement a thorough reporting system that translates data into the language of value. Instead of overwhelming clients with metrics, focus on the key performance indicators that resonate with their objectives. If proving ROI is a challenge, consider refining your measurement tools or strategies to better capture the value being delivered. If you are working with an external partner, such as a white label agency , be sure to also vet their reporting processes. If they do not have any reporting process, you may want to start also searching for a new partner. For any external reporting, be sure to check for clear, transparent, and insightful information that you can use to empower your discussions with your clients. You should not be left in the dark, but instead given the resources to be the authority that your client relies on you to be. 3: Inadequate Communication When clients feel out of the loop or sense that their agency isn’t responsive, frustration builds. Inadequate communication can give the impression of indifference, making clients feel as though their business doesn’t matter. Agencies should establish a clear communication plan that includes regular updates and check-ins. This doesn't necessarily mean daily calls or emails but finding a rhythm that keeps clients informed and engaged without overwhelming them. This should also trickle down to any partners that you also have served your client’s campaigns alongside your team. Be sure they have a reasonable turnaround time for messages and calls so that you can give your clients an expected response time for their questions, comments, or concerns about their marketing campaigns. 4: Lack of Quality Control In the pursuit of efficiency and cost-effectiveness, agencies often use multiple individual vendors , leverage artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, or offshoring work. While these practices can be beneficial, they also introduce risks concerning quality control. When deliverables aren't consistently vetted, clients may receive work that doesn't meet their standards, leading to a rapid erosion of confidence.Oftentimes, this can be chalked up to: Not proofreading or vetting a vendor’s work before it goes to a client (cutting and pasting) Over-relying on AI without any human checks and balances in place to ensure accuracy, originality, and overall quality Offshoring work to large, low-cost providers that do not treat your client’s marketing operations with the same care and consideration that you do. It’s essential to establish rigorous quality control processes for any external deliverables to ensure that every piece of work, irrespective of its origin, meets a high standard. Regular audits of work done by AI marketing tools, vendors, and offshore partners are essential. To avoid some of these common issues with outside providers, consider collaborating with a white label agency that maintains a reputation for high-quality deliverables to manage overflow work and maintain standards. Ask them about their own quality assurance processes to see if they give you the necessary confidence to rely on them to work for your client, both independently and in collaboration with your in-house team. 5: Limited Scope of Services Digital marketing is an expansive field, and clients' needs are diverse and evolving. When an agency's offerings are too narrow, they risk losing clients to full-service competitors that can provide a more comprehensive suite of services. To put it simply, the scope of marketing is vast, and only having a piece of the pie can put you at a competitive disadvantage against an agency with a full digital bakery at its disposal. Agencies should evaluate their service offerings regularly and consider strategic expansion to meet market demands. Collaborating with a white label agency partner can be a smart way to extend your services without overextending your resources. This can allow you to offer new services under your brand, satisfying your clients' needs and keeping the business in-house. 6: The Client Was Too Big Landing a white whale-sized client can seem like a big win for any agency, but if your infrastructure isn't prepared to handle their volume or complexity, it can backfire. Pursuing these types of clients without the capability to deliver on their expectations can damage your agency’s reputation and lead to a loss of trust. Before pursuing or agreeing to work with a large client, assess your agency’s capacity and have a concrete plan for scaling operations quickly and efficiently. If necessary, establish a partnership with a white label agency that can help shoulder the load, providing the additional resources and expertise needed to satisfy a major client's demands without compromising quality. 7: Overlooking the Personal Touch Clients often choose agencies for their personalized service. When agencies grow and start to standardize their processes, this personalized approach can get lost. Even as your agency scales, strive to maintain a level of personalization in your interactions. Get to know your clients’ businesses intimately, and let that knowledge inform your strategies and communication. Performance Reimagined For Agencies To Keep Clients Longer The first year with a client is both an opportunity and a test. Agencies must consistently demonstrate their value through clear communication, robust results, responsive customer service, and personalized attention. By actively managing client expectations and being willing to adapt, agencies can avoid the common pitfalls that lead to client turnover. Building a solid foundation in the first year can set the stage for a lasting and fruitful relationship. If you are looking to boost your agency’s client retention efforts, consider partnering with a white label agency like our team at Conduit Digital. We proudly serve established agencies in North America as an elite ad operations partner - providing 18 expert-managed channels that are fully U.S.-based along with the communication and reporting infrastructure to support even the most complex campaigns. Our Goal-Oriented Reporting system is central to our work. These are the- Key Performance Activities (KPA’s) that have a tangible impact on business performance, the last 5 or 10 yards of a sale. We think of them as an antidote to the vanity metrics often thrown around in digital marketing and by focusing on these factors you can directly relate your budget to business goals and show ROI. KPAs go a long way to helping not only align expectations, but also help you show results and can help with communication. It’s time to upgrade the way you deliver for your clients rather than just outsourcing. Schedule a call with us today to learn more about Conduit's Goal-Oriented Reporting System to help keep your clients longer.

As an agency owner, delivering high-quality, informative reports is crucial to maintaining client satisfaction and driving growth. But you already knew that if you read our article on why white label reporting is important . And while white label social media reports offer a valuable tool for showcasing your agency's expertise and demonstrating the impact of your social media strategies, clear and transparent reports are not always easy to come by in the white label space.  In this blog, we'll delve into the essential data points that should be included in all white label social media reports, focusing on both paid and organic social media. Beyond that, we’ll also explore the different types of reports that could be provided to ensure your agency doesn’t just have the data, but has analysis behind it.  Types of White Label Social Media Reports There’s basically two types of social media reports you can and should be receiving from a white label provider as an agency, or delivering to the agency as a white label provider. Those are: Dashboards Recaps and Analyses White Label Social Media Dashboards Think of the dashboard like a live view into the campaign that’s being run on each social media channel. This includes all of the high level metrics and key data points we’ll get into shortly and is typically represented by connecting the platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Google, etc. to a reporting tool like Agency Analytics or DashThis. Or if you’re really good, you can make your own in Looker Studio (spoiler alert, that’s what we did).  Read our blog  on what is a white label social media dashboard  for more details and why dashboards are so important. In the end, the dashboard doesn’t provide any actual analysis of the campaign that’s actually running, it’s all just data represented in one view. That’s where a monthly recap or analysis can come in handy.   Recaps and Analyses Providing a recap and analysis is an essential part of white label social media reporting. Where the dashboard can and should provide key metrics, the analysis provides key insights . For the best output, a social media report, whether it be organic media or paid, should always include the 3 following items.  Performance Towards the Goal: Every campaign needs a goal. Whether it’s a specific ROAS, a cost-per-lead number that ensures profitability for the client, a media/marketing efficiency ratio, or something else that’s quantifiable, there must be a goal. And with that goal, the social media report should always include how its channels are aiding in relation to that goal, whether it has been performing well or not.  What’s Happening: Think of this section as a deeper dive into what’s actually going on in the campaign. This is where the white label report should include an analysis of why the campaign may or may not be achieving the goals set out. Beyond that, it is the job of the white label provider to not only say what changes they’ve been making to the campaign to improve its performance, but the reasons behind the changes so the agency can have a greater understanding of what’s going on before they present it to the client.  Next Steps: This seems like a simple one, but it’s often forgotten. Including next steps not only sets expectations, but it shows proactivity and planning. The added benefit is that the white label provider should be following up on their next steps the next time you talk.  Key Data Points for White Label Paid Social Media Reports Now that we’ve gotten through the basics, it’s time to get specific. Whether the following insights and metrics appear in the dashboard, the recap, or both, they’re imperative to include in a white label social media report.  Primary Goal (CPA [cost-per-action, like leads or purchases], ROAS, etc.):  Stop us if you’ve heard this one before but the primary goal of the campaign should be front and center of the dashboard and the first thing talked about in the recap. After all, this is what the client is measuring the campaign against, and it’s likely the only thing they care about. This requires accurate tracking set up and if you’re showing this in the dashboard as well (which you should be), a connection to the client’s Analytics account, CRM, or wherever the goal is being tracked.  Channel Performance Metrics: Channel-specific metrics give context to how the campaign is performing from a paid standpoint. If the campaign is surpassing the client’s goal and making them money, they’re unlikely to care about metrics like their click-through rate, but they can provide insight or additional context into how effective certain messages are, what audiences are engaging, etc. Some channel-specific metrics to include as support are:  Spend:  Perhaps the most obvious one, the spend simply reflects the dollars that were actually spent within the platform on media. It’s important to maintain transparency with the client how much of their budget is actually going to media.  Reach and Impressions:  Measures the number of unique users exposed to the ads and the total number of times your ads were seen. This can be important to provide frequency numbers, particularly as it relates to prospecting and remarketing campaigns.  Cost per Click (CPC):  The cost-per-click evaluates the efficiency of the ad spend and is one of the most important supporting metrics (along with conversion rate) in determining how you can drive the lowest CPA possible.   Clicks and Click-Through Rate (CTR) : Tracks the number of clicks on the ads and the percentage of impressions that resulted in clicks. This can be particularly useful when assessing ad performance.  Cost per 1,000 Impressions (CPM): Tracks how much you’re being charged for 1,000 impressions.  Conversion Rate:  CR measures the percentage of clicks that led to conversions (e.g., purchases, sign-ups), which can be great to determine not only audience quality, but landing page effectiveness.  Platform/Placement Breakdown:  With so many different ad placement options in social media, particularly on Facebook and Instagram, analyzing where the ads are serving can help advertisers create future ads to maximize their effectiveness.  Audience Insights: Audience insights can also be great supporting metrics that help determine if you’re reaching the right users. Some metrics to include are as follows: Demographics:  Analysis of age, gender, and interests can help determine where the budget is best spent. Device Usage:  Determining the percentage of impressions and clicks that occurred on different devices (e.g., mobile, desktop, tablet) can help the dev team determining which devices they should focus on when building out a landing page, although ensuring every landing page is responsive and optimized for all devices should always be a priority.   Key Data Points for White Label Organic Social Media Reports Measuring the impact of an organic social media campaign can often be a difficult task, but it’s not all that different from paid media in terms of the reporting style.  First and foremost, just like paid, always include the primary goal as your number one focus. For most clients, this is an increase in followers on the organic social media accounts, but regardless of what the goal is, or how effectively the white label provider is managing social media, reporting on the primary goal is paramount.  Beyond that, if you’re already outsourcing to a white label provider for organic social media, chances are key metrics and other social media activities are being tracked in their scheduling platform of choice. Platforms like Sprout Social, Hootsuite, and Cloud Campaign already have API integrations and can paint a picture of what’s going on in the world of your client’s social media. Regardless, it’s important to touch on the following key data points:  Follower Growth: We just touched on this one, but good organic social media content breeds followers, and this should be one of the top data points reported on, even if it’s not the primary goal.  Engagement: Much like follower growth, a good organic strategy facilitates engagement. The percentage of users sharing, liking, and commenting on your client’s content has a massive impact on the reach of the content.  Reach: Reaching as many relevant users as possible is essential to create awareness for a brand, so reporting on this is a no brainer.   Content Performance: Using the three metrics above, identifying the types of content that resonate most with the client’s audience infers future decisions about what a good and bad post looks like.  Audience Insights: Reporting on the audience the social posts are reaching not only helps determine if you’re reaching the right user, but a strong performing post can also uncover demographics your client’s brand hadn’t considered as the type to be interested in their brand. Benefits of Comprehensive White Label Social Media Reports It’s probably pretty obvious by now, but a comprehensive white label social media report comes with a lot of benefits.  Enhanced Client Satisfaction:  Delivering insightful and visually appealing reports helps build trust and loyalty with your clients. Improved Decision-Making:  Provide your clients with the data they need to make informed decisions about their social media strategy. Demonstrated Expertise:  Showcase your agency's knowledge and skills in social media marketing. Increased Revenue:  By demonstrating the value of your services, you can increase your agency's revenue and secure long-term partnerships. Putting it All Together   By providing your clients with both a dashboard and recap with the data points mentioned, you can create valuable resources that help your clients understand the impact of your social media efforts. This demonstrates expertise on your part, leads to enhanced client satisfaction, and likely increased revenue from your now secured long-term partnership.  If you’re interested in working with an elite white label provider with reports just like these, feel free to contact us and schedule your discovery call .

Oct 30, 2020 Successful Domain and Application Whitelists are Rooted in Quality Assurance For successful domain and application whitelisting, programmatic advertising companies need to factor a strong quality assurance standard into their operations. To many, this may seem obvious, but this crucial element of the client experience is often overlooked.  Sure, there are plenty of brand safety integrations you can incorporate to help automate scanning traffic for IVT, bots, etc. However, these solutions are the industry standard for agencies in the programmatic display space. Beyond them, the true value lies in having a team of human analysts further examine results to guarantee quality traffic.  Conduit Digital’s programmatic team’s quality assurance process combines curated automation solutions with human expertise to guarantee deliverables that exceed expectations. This drive to produce work that meets our standards led us to create one of our favorite custom deliverables for clients: manually vetted whitelists that align with specific verticals.  Domain and Application Whitelisting: Conduit Style Because we run campaigns that cover almost every vertical, we established a process to maintain consistent quality of results, no matter the client. To do this, our team has invested a great deal of time, effort, and brainpower to make this reality.  This process involved spending 648 combined hours manually vetting 13,000 domains and applications as part of our major whitelisting quality assurance initiative last year. This massive undertaking resulted in a unique cross-sector knowledge base that can be deployed for any project. And yes, we still manually update our lists on an ongoing basis.  If you have the ability to invest team members’ efforts into doing something similar, we recommend it one hundred percent. It requires a client-first mentality, a drive to produce deliverables that exceed expectations, and maybe a few extra cups of coffee when you hit hour-12.  What is a Whitelist?  A whitelist is a list of approved domains that a client or advertising operations analyst uses to serve ads to target audiences. Maintaining high-quality whitelists puts the campaign manager in the driver’s seat when it comes time to execute a campaign.  How? Instead of casting a wide net with ambiguous returns, a quality whitelist grants the ability to hone in on specific audiences based on the websites they visit.  However, not all whitelists are created equal. There are many services online that offer generic, prepackaged whitelists. These are not customized to your clients’ needs. Cheap whitelists are cheap for a reason.  Generic whitelists create the appearance of far-reaching ads across many properties. In this case, though, many simply are for show and generate minimal returns on the money you’ve spent.  At Conduit Digital, we always recommend that you ensure your domain and application whitelisting strategies align with the verticals your clients serve. This will drastically increase the likelihood that your clients see maximized returns on their investment and that target audiences engage with their brand the way you want them to.  How Can a Programmatic Advertising Agency Use Whitelists? Whitelist strategies can be layered onto other tactics that programmatic advertising agencies can use for narrowed, controlled targeting. They can also be used on their own.   Either way, the goal remains the same: Boost your clients’ reach to the most ideal target audiences possible that are already visiting sites relevant to your business.  Let’s use an example: You have a client that owns an outdoor sporting goods store. They are looking to better promote hunting and fishing gear. Here, you would implement a whitelist of outdoor sports websites with a special focus on hunting and fishing. This will take your reach directly to where qualified buyers are likely spending their time – and their money. In this case, the goal was to match the client’s ad with the most relevant audience possible. This increases the likelihood of more sales, which boosts ROI, and strengthens your client’s trust in your agency. What agency doesn’t want that?  How Do I Scrub Domains and Applications for Better Whitelists? “Scrubbing” encompasses the entire quality assurance process. This requires a team member manually scanning websites and apps to track touchpoints like:  Most importantly – does the site offer space for ad placements?  Is the website legitimate? No one wants to fall into the black hole of serving ads on cluttered clickbait sites.  Does the site offer quality content to visitors?  What vertical(s) does the domain cater to?  What’s the Alexa ranking? Would this be considered a “premium” domain?  If you are thinking of serving ads on an app, read the reviews. Look for complaints about users being spammed with ads.  Is an app you’re considering designed for engagement? For example – does it help the user fall asleep (no eyes on the screen) or does require activity like shopping, social interaction, etc.?  Though this is just the beginning of an in-depth scrub, it will provide the foundation you need to scale your whitelists up into the thousands. Without this manual element, you may be sorting tons of low-quality domains and apps into your whitelists just because they appear to “fit” your target vertical.  On occasion, you should also revisit websites and applications that you originally added to your list. Sometimes, these properties change significantly, are bought by new companies that change the ad format, or are discontinued. If they are no longer serving your whitelist strategy, they should be replaced by better destinations.  The Finished Product: Better Whitelists Your domain and application whitelisting capabilities are enhanced exponentially once you’ve put a quality assurance process in place that combines automation with expert manual analysis. At the end of an initial scrub, you will have 1+ whitelists per vertical/sub-vertical. This allows for even more brand safety and customization for clients’ campaigns.  As a byproduct of this, you can even have an updated global blacklist . This way, you can also proactively determine domains and applications to avoid and advise clients away from them.  The digital marketing industry has become diluted with agencies claiming to have the best solutions in place for the end client. Actually rolling up your sleeves and investing in the process will allow you to have a true perspective on what is unique or valuable to your clients, thus proving why you’re the best. This whitelist project is a great starting point on the road to client satisfaction.  Integrate Better Domain and Application Whitelisting Into Your Product Offering  Conduit Digital offers agencies the chance to take advantage of our robust whitelists through our premium turnkey white label services. If you want to take your programmatic display advertising to the next level faster than ever, schedule an agency growth call anytime.

Nov 23, 2020 Email has thrived in every era of digital marketing. How? Unlike most other channels, targeted email connects you directly to your audience members’ inboxes – a major communication touchpoint in their daily routines.  An agency that wants to scale its product suite cannot afford to ignore email marketing. Possessing the means to send high volumes of messages at scale can set you apart from others.  After reading this Ultimate Guide, you should have a solid understanding of what makes a great email marketing campaign. First, let’s cover some basics.  What is Email Marketing?  Though this may sound self-explanatory, email marketing encompasses so much more than leveraging your audience members’ inboxes to engage with them. Beyond crafting an effective message, there are other key campaign elements to consider like:  Who do you want to receive your message?  What should the message’s layout and design look like?  When should the message be sent?  What action do you want your readers to take after reading?  How will you measure campaign performance?  There are many digital tools and services that you can use to answer these important questions. While this helps create a process with little-to-no friction, your campaign is doomed if it lacks a clear vision.  Respected authors start writing their novels with the ending in mind. The challenge lies in getting the rest of the story there. Approach your email strategy in the same way. Is Email Marketing Dead? While email marketing has existed as a longtime staple tactic for many brands, it is far from dead. Though some parts of the internet may claim that email marketing is dead, the data does not support that.  In fact, email marketing has grown over recent years. Here are some statistics that may surprise you:  126.7 trillion emails are estimated to be sent by 2022.  Over 90% of Americans above the age of 15 read the emails they receive More than 75% of teens consider email a part of their daily life  58% of users check their email before their social media accounts every day. Social media and search engines combined only account for 34% Looking at the figures above, you can see that email is still the most popular digital messaging channel. Businesses, organizations, schools, families, and friends all use email to communicate. Why is Email Marketing Still so Popular?  Email’s popularity can be attributed to a number of factors. Three major reasons are: Versatility: You can use email for personal messages, marketing, eCommerce, sharing files, and much more.  Integration: Businesses can integrate a number of other platforms with their email systems like automation, customer relationship management (CRM), instant messaging, and many other tools.  Privacy: Unlike more public-facing platforms like social media, email allows users to maintain as much privacy as they want. Many people have multiple email accounts for specific purposes. For example, a young adult may have one for their workplace, another for personal use, and a student email if they are in college.  Benefits of Email Marketing  Each communication channel that your business uses offers unique benefits. Email offers ones like:  Reaching People at Their Inboxes Unlike social media and PPC advertisements, email marketing campaigns meet your audience right at their inbox with a personalized message. While your ad campaigns compete against other distractions on a user’s screen, email can capture more attention.  Because inboxes can filter out spam content and redirect advertisements to specific folders, content quality is king. Email is still a trusted medium for most users, and make sure you reward that trust by including engaging content, personalized messages, and an interesting subject line. Even if the reader does not open a single message, you will have your brand at the front of their minds each time a new message is sent.  Targeting Features Most email marketing platforms allow you to segment audiences into specific groups related to almost any vertical and then target them.  For example, for popular industries like Automotive, you can segment your reader base by granular interests like specific makes and models, vehicle body types, and many others.  All About Email Suppression Lists Sometimes, you want to prevent specific audiences from reading your messages. A suppression list allows you to exclude current customers or anyone from your CRM during a campaign. This ensures that your send is focused on incremental reach in addition to driving retention goals.  Screen Real Estate Most other marketing channels are competing for screen space. Social media ads have to fight for visibility against your friends’ posts. PPC ads must match or exceed the quality of organic search results on Google.  Unlike these tactics, with the exception of full-screen OTT ads,  an email message will take up most of your screen’s real estate. This means you are not battling other on-page elements for your audience’s attention. Remarketing Remarketing allows you to keep your brand fresh in your audience members’ minds by re-engaging with them at their point in the user journey.  Using a remarketing strategy, you can target any of the following audiences from your email send:  Non-Openers: Those who did not open your previous message Non-Clickers: Those who have opened your message but did not click any links within  Openers: Those who have opened your message  Clickers: Those who have opened your message and have clicked through to a link in the message  Matchbacks Show your campaign ROI by matching your CRM data with your email marketing platform’s data. This can provide a more holistic view of your success by linking any recent purchases to people who received your email send. This will show if your efforts have a direct impact on revenue.  A/B Testing A/B testing is sending two variations of the same core message to different members of the same audience. This way, if you are deciding between two directions for your email marketing campaign, you can see which one is generating better results and use that to inform your decision making. Here, closely monitoring your analytical data is non-negotiable.  Tips for Successful Email Marketing  Email marketing involves critical thinking, creative skill, and sharp strategy. Though there are many “gurus” online trying to sell you on their systems for success, these are the four cornerstone elements of any goal-crushing campaign:  Aesthetic Appeal Audience Targeting Value-Driven Content Relevant Call-to-Action Let’s look at these in more detail. Aesthetic Appeal What would you be more likely to read in an email message: A wall of text with no images or a creative infographic that combines key points with relevant visuals? You don’t need an advanced degree in psychology to assume the latter.  People are visual beings and spend more time reading content that combines engaging messages with aesthetic appeal. When creating layouts and templates for your campaigns, leave space to insert eye-catching visual elements to enhance the copy. When possible, avoid using stock photos and opt for relevant, branded visuals.  Email marketing platforms like MailChimp help streamline the design process for your emails. MailChimp includes features like block editors and drag-and-drop functions to create a comfortable reading experience for your recipients. Audience Targeting Before you craft your message, you need to know who your intended readers are. Rather than broadcasting to the internet at-large, narrowing down specific audiences will increase your chances of meeting campaign goals. For example, if you own a local coffee shop in New Jersey but your email subscribers are all skiing enthusiasts in Utah, you have a problem. Where are your local caffeine connoisseurs?  Sure, that is not a realistic scenario, but it should illustrate a key point: Always prioritize reaching audiences that share interests with your brand. This helps you tailor your messages to drive further engagement and retain a qualified reader base.  The eCommerce Appeal Audience targeting is also a fantastic email marketing feature for eCommerce strategies. If you own an apparel company and someone purchased a tee shirt from you this past summer, send an email to tell them about that awesome sweatshirt you just released for the fall season.  Value-Driven Content Remember, you are creating email content for your reader, not yourself. This is the time to educate your audience about your products, services, or expertise. If you are selling a product or service, this can provide a great opportunity to give someone a discount code or notify them of a promotion as well. Sharing knowledge to help someone get the most out of their engagements with your brand will result in stronger brand credibility and customer loyalty.  Relevant Call-to-Action  How do you drive conversions or further engagement through your email send? Use a call-to-action (CTA)!  The CTA directs readers where to go next after reading your message. Do you want them to visit your contact page? View a product on your website? Read a new blog post? Make sure you include this.  Popular examples of a CTA include:  Learn More Contact Us Find Out Why Watch the Video  Most email marketing automation platforms include layout elements like clickable buttons that can present your CTA in an eye-catching way. If you can include a button for your CTA, do so.  Choose Your Strategy: Acquisition vs. Retention  When it comes to formulating your email marketing strategy there are two main approaches: Acquisition and Retention. Both are targeted at reaching specific types of audience members.  Acquisition  Acquisition email strategies are targeted at reaching people who may not have engaged with your brand before and are aimed at generating new revenue. Here, goals could include:  Drive web traffic  Increasing awareness of an upcoming event or sale Acquiring email addresses to funnel to your CRM system.  Conduit Digital’s targeted email services focus on the Acquisition approach. Our team specializes in creating strategic funnels that act as a pipeline between your brand’s campaigns and your CRM system for you to then nurture your leads.  Retention  The Retention approach focuses on leveraging contacts in a CRM system or other first-party data platform. These are typically users that have already engaged with your brand through making a purchase, submitting a contact form, or other avenues.   Some examples of Retention emails could include:  Gated offers, for example: “Unlock 30% on your purchase by giving us your email.”  Weekly newsletters  Reminders that you haven’t completed a purchase yet  Offering a discount on your next purchase if you submit a review for your latest one Audience members targeted through your Retention campaigns are often users that you want to reach to drive repeat revenue. Here, engaging and value-driven content is critical. For example, if someone just purchased your product, send them an email the next day with helpful tips for using it.  An Easy Template for Basic Email Marketing Campaigns We’ve covered tons of email marketing topics here, but it’s up to you to put them into action! Here’s a simple template for formulating a successful campaign:  Phase 1: Preparation  Determine the type of user-centric content you want to write about  Conceptualize your campaign’s intended goals  Determine your message and its audience Create the subject line and preview text  Finalize message layout, design, and visual elements Decide on the CTA and its intended destination Determine the key performance indicators (KPIs) you will measure your campaign success against.  Phase 2: Creation  Write your message copy – keep it as short, simple, and readable as possible.  Insert visual elements to support your message.  Add your CTA Have at least one other person look it over to watch for typos or other errors Phase 3: Sending Make sure all messaging, audience members, links, etc. are working together as intended  Send a test email to yourself if you want to see how it looks in an actual inbox  Once satisfied, hit send! Want to Scale Your Email Marketing Capabilities? Let Us Help For over 8 years, Conduit Digital has partnered with agencies to help them meet client demands at scale. The millions of email messages we have sent to countless inboxes have driven revenue in almost every vertical.  We can help you do the same. If you’d like to scale up your email marketing campaigns, contact us anytime.

Mar 27, 2020 Digital video advertising is one of the fastest-growing sectors of digital marketing. In fact, digital video advertising may be one of a marketer’s most powerful tools. 84% of people say they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video. However, digital video advertising as we know today has had a short history in comparison to the ideas and concepts behind it. Advertising dates back to the beginning of basic societies, and to fully understand what digital marketing is, we need to understand how it has evolved over time. In this blog, we will go over: What Is Digital Video Advertising? Back To The Beginning The First Television Advertisement The Normalization of Television Ads Infomercials – The New World of Video ROI The Challenge of DVR and Ad-Blocker The Influence of Vloggers Society and Privacy Video ROI Today The Future of Video Advertising Conclusion What Is Digital Video Advertising? Digital video advertising is simply the process of marketing your business or company in a video format online in order to build brand awareness or sell a product/service. This can be done through a bunch of different platforms, some of which we will get into later in this blog. Back To The Beginning Long before dollar bills were accepted as currency, trading and bartering was key to sustaining the livelihood of your family within the community. Bartering for goods allowed individuals to no longer have to provide every necessity for themselves. Instead of being responsible for providing food, clothing, shelter, hunting tools. They could now use their talents to maximize what they were best at and trade with other community members for the other necessities. Once communities were big enough to have multiple individuals holding the same commodities advertising was born. Now not only was having a trade and a product necessary but sales also became a necessary skill, having individuals trade with you over what another person could give them. This is by no means the way we think of advertising today but it was the start of the concepts behind today’s advertising. Differentiating yourself from the competition for your own benefit. These are still the concepts marketers focus on today; consumer behaviors, market research, how to sell value, how to differentiate yourself from other comparable products and services. The largest difference is simply the medium in which we communicate our messages. No longer does every product require a face-to-face sales pitch. Communication has evolved and every new medium that has been invented, humans have worked to capitalize on it at a mass scale much more effective than the previous one-to-one sale. The richest and most compelling medium to date, video, has provided a new dimension of advertising that was never available before a narrative and that narrative is still important today from the first television ad 79 years ago. The First Television Advertisement It was July 1, 1941, when a regular-season game of America’s pastime, baseball took place. The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field that day 6-4 but the real history was made before the game even took place. Just prior to the game, aired a 9-second television ad for Bulova watches, a brand that is still prospering today. This was the first-ever video commercial to be aired on television. The ad would be considered incredibly basic as of today’s standards as it was a simple black and white clock in front of a map of the United States with a voiceover of the tagline “America runs on Bulova time.” At the time, however, it was a revolutionary step forward in the world of advertising. The advertisers and viewers of this ad in the New York area likely did not know it at that point, as that commercial cost only $9 to air, however, those 9-seconds were the early start of a worldwide billion-dollar industry in video advertising . The Normalization of Television Ads When Bulova watches aired the first commercial, they were well ahead of their time. In 1941 most Americans had not yet heard of television let alone owned one. The radio was still the most relevant medium of information for things such as the commentary of baseball games. This ad was only seen by about 4000 people in New York at the time, these individuals were technology innovators or friends of one in terms of the technology adoption curve. It was not until after the end of World War II in 1945 that the popularity of the television took off, but that did not stop ads from following suit with Bulova to start their advertising on television. Brands such as Colgate and Coca-Cola would often sponsor programming to have their name front and center at the start of programming. Then by 1952, Mr. Potato head became the first toy to advertise on television in which proved successful as they sold 2 million potato dolls that year. 1952 was also a big year for politics as related to video. This was the first year that political campaigns were run on television. The presidential election in 1952 was between Republican, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Democrat, Adlai Stevenson. Eisenhower won by a landslide which can be in part attributed to his catchy television campaign. The minute-long video ad featured a tune titled “I Like Ike” and was animated by Walt Disney Studios. It featured cartoon humans and animals all marching to take Ike to Washington. In this time of early majority having televisions in their homes, it worked to help the public see “Ike” as a likable guy that deserved to be in Washington. This was the start of a long history of video presidential ads, now video ads are a huge factor in getting your message across to voters and making sure they are aware of your platform. The medium in which the public consumes the ads has now evolved to different mediums such as social media and YouTube advertising but the messaging has not. Candidates use tactics to appeal to voters emotionally and connect with their audience to drive influence in decisions at the polls. Even though the medium has again changed, the impact video ads have made on elections over the years started with Ike in 1952. Superbowl Commercials While the first television ad was shown preceding a baseball game, in current society the most expensive television commercials are during the biggest United States sporting event of the year, the Super Bowl. Each year major brands spend millions of dollars to reach a wider audience. This started back in 1967, the year of Super Bowl I, at that time it cost a max of $42000 to advertise a 30-second commercial. This is expensive even by today’s standards for an average commercial, however, is marginally cheaper than the $5.2 million it will run brands today. That is a 12281% cost increase in just a 54-year time span. Brands find value in being able to reach such a large audience across all ages, genders, ethnicities, in one $5.2 million opportunity. Commercials have become such a prominent part of the Super Bowl experience that it is one of the only times per year that Americans actually look forward to ads. Some viewers even claim that they watch more for the commercials than the game. This tradition came about as Super Bowl commercials have a reputation for being the best of the best in terms of video advertising. This makes sense as if a company is willing to spend $5.2 million on 30-seconds of air time they want to make sure their message makes a significant impact during that duration. Advertisers look to arise emotion out of viewers whether it’s humor or sadness they want to make a lasting impression. Every brand strives to be that one commercial that everyone is talking about in the following days and weeks after the big game. They can even overshadow the main event of the game depending on how the teams perform that day each year. Infomercials – The New World of Video ROI In the mid-1980s after the Federal Communications Commission lifted regulations of time limits on advertising air time , video ads took on a new form. The typical 30-second commercials evolved into 30-minute infomercials. Infomercials first arrived on scene in the 70s but took off in the 1980s. Although these ads were delivered through the same medium of television this reinvented the way viewers consumed product information. No longer was a short jingle the best way to capture the attention of your audience, brands were now able to display, demonstrate, and explain the value of a product over an extended period of time. These long-form commercials were great for brands that sold household items as they often required a lower production budget. Budget was needed to spend on the “actors” demonstrating the items but not on any advanced production tools. This is still a prominent tool used today, as there are full television channels dedicated to infomercial programming. The biggest game-changer that infomercials provided was the power of attribution. No longer were advertisers reliant on waiting until the end of the month or quarter to see if they noticed an increase in sales, after airing a commercial. Infomercials allowed for a direct return on investment tracking. For example, if an infomercial aired between 7-730pm, in that 30-minute window, data analysts would be able to see how many orders were received and what the value of each order was during that exact time frame. Those specific numbers were never before available when tracking the impact of video ads. ROI attribution gave marketers the tools to optimize their campaigns based on definitive, concrete data for the first time. Based on collected data they could determine, when was the best time of day to run these ads, at what point within the half-hour were the most calls generated, what selling point seemed to drive viewers most to pick up the phone and order. This ability showed direct value in video advertising that is the groundwork of why digital is so important today, attribution! World Wide Web For a long time after becoming a common household item in the mid 1950s the television was the only screen in the household. It was even a rarity to have more than one television, as it was often seen as a group activity. This was also due to the limited channels, programming and hours per day that content was available. It wasn’t until the 1980s when computers were introduced as a household item that things started to change at an incredibly rapid rate. In the thirty years from the 1950s-1980s Americas went from having one to two screens per household on average. In the thirty years from the 1980s-2010s households went from having two screens to on average seven per household! This was due largely in part to first the amount of content available, where each person in the same household may want to consume different content at the same time. In addition the introduction of so many new devices with screens, mainly cell phones, and tablets. This quick development over time is now allowing more outlets than ever before for advertisers to reach their message to their audience. Through; video streaming sites, social media platforms, websites, video ads are everywhere and the more screens available the more opportunities created for marketers. YouTube The internet took off in the 80s but the introduction of a specific website in the mid-2000s changed video forever. YouTube was introduced to the world in February 2005. It was a new concept where anyone could upload video content and have it be streamed by any viewer, and users grew at an alarming rate. It was only a year and a half before it was bought by Google in October of 2006. Google saw it as “the next step in the evolution of the internet” and they were absolutely right, as today more people watch YouTube than anyone television channel . Then in 2007 YouTube became a new way for advertisers to reach their audience with commercial messaging. In-stream ad space became available on the platform and the YouTube partner program was launched. This program, through this day, allows creators to monetize their content by “selling” ad space on their personal content. Advertisers now had a new outlet to share their commercials and creators had a way to make an income off their content giving them more incentive to upload engaging quality content. This introduction allowed advertisers an innovative way to reach their audience through online targeting. Where television ads were served to a mass audience and advertisers hoped that someone in their target demographic would be tuning in, this was the first opportunity to target not only the content being watched but the individual end-user. By serving ads to the specific consumer not the masses it allowed for more niche targeting than previously available. Their video ads delivered within the then Adwords platform developed overtime to reach end-users through very tactical targeting options. Today, using the same platform, now called Google Ads, advertisers can reach users based not only on what type of content they are watching but on a demographic level can select a specific gender, age, household income, or parental status. Google’s plethora of knowledge about its users works to the advertiser’s advantage. Beyond a demographic level is where the power of the YouTube and Google partnership really becomes powerful in the way of targeting. Collected information about users on the Google search platform allows us to target them with ads on YouTube based on interest and exact searches. Custom Intent Audiences allow advertisers to serve ads based on exact keywords consumers are searching for on Google. This cross-platform integration embraces making the consumers’ ad experience as relevant to them as possible, as consumers want to see ads for products or services most significant to their needs. In addition, advertisers can also take advantage of Custom Affinity Audiences to serve ads to those that have visited websites with relevant content to what they are selling. Ads on YouTube, unlike other formats, allow your ads to be any length, so now you are able to only use the amount of time you need and not be forced to stick within the traditional 30-second format. Another important feature though is that there is skippable and non-skippable content. This has altered the way we work to deliver a message, it is now more important than ever on this platform to include branding or the most important part of your message in the beginning of your ad as viewers can often skip after completing the first 5-seconds. This also provides a unique benefit where you have the opportunity to make branding impressions at no cost if a viewer does not complete your ad. These tools have revolutionized video ads. Having the capability to serve ads to individuals based on past internet activity brings video advertising lower in the funnel than previously possible. Facebook Facebook although founded a year before Youtube in 2004 did not have a video centric platform. Their advertising for a long time focused on display and banner ads. It wasn’t until February 2013 that video ads were released . This is integrated with their current business manager platform making all their available targeting applicable to this new video format. Video ads provided a more engaging medium to catch the eye of Facebook users as they were scrolling through their timelines. Facebook is an advertiser’s dream because users give so much information directly to the Facebook platform on a regular basis. Facebook knows their exact age and gender upon signing up for an account and the more you use the platform the more it tracks your activity and gains valuable insights on your likes and dislikes. Their algorithm can even pair “lookalikes.” This tool allows you to utilize the power of already determined customers and target audiences who are similar to them. Often audiences who are similar to your current customers will also have an interest in your product or service. Serving engaging video content through this medium can drive extremely relevant customers to complete your advertising goals, whether it is to drive awareness, leads, or e-commerce . Based on our own 2019 Conduit insights video ads outperform static images. Driving a bigger reach and a higher click-through rate. One of the biggest things to note with Facebook videos is that, unlike YouTube, a majority of video content on Facebook is consumed without sound . This again has changed the way advertisers need to connect with their audience. As Facebook users scroll through their timeline, the default for videos is to be mute, and the majority of users view content this way. Since silent movies it has never been so important to design video to be consumed by viewers on mute. This can be achieved through different strategies, including making your imagery stand out and tell a story on its own, this can be difficult but also very powerful, the other important optimization would be to always include captions on Facebook video advertising. Having a user view your ad and not understand the message is an incredible missed opportunity! Not adapting to the way users utilize video on the Facebook platform can hinder your campaign performance by not properly conveying your message. The Challenge of DVR and Ad-Blocker As previously mentioned the Superbowl is the one time per year that individuals look forward to seeing commercials. On a day-to-day basis, commercials are more perceived by general society as a nuisance that interferes in their viewing process. So while advertisers work to utilize new mediums to reach their brands to consumers there are now more ways than ever to avoid this messaging. When television ads became popularized in the 1950s the only way to avoid it was to leave the room when it came on screen. Now advertisers struggle with the introduction of items such as DVRs and ad blockers allowing users to fast forward through or avoid ads for what they deem a better-uninterrupted viewing experience. Video platforms, such as YouTube, Facebook, Hulu are as well are struggling to find the optimum balance between an optimal viewing experience and advertising as this is how many make their profits. Over The Top (OTT) streaming services often have multiple pricing options, where customers can purchase the basic option with ads or pay a premium to have an uninterrupted viewing experience. This has been one of the biggest influences in making in changing the way advertisers present their products to consumers. Video needs to be presented in a more seamless format now. In the digital world, video ads need to be the opposite of infomercials. Their focus cannot be a hard sales pitch but a storyline where the consumer is taken on a journey to arrive at a conclusion that lines up with a brand’s goals. OTT While Facebook and YouTube are dominating the small screen in terms of video, bigger screens are also still very important to a full-funnel video marketing strategy. Over The Top Television is an internet-based, video-on-demand content format. As more and more consumers, lead by the millennial generation are cutting the cord and are focused on streaming, Over-The-Top advertising has become imperative in reaching your target audience on the bigger screens. This platform is the closest to traditional television commercials where ad formats allow for 6, 15, 30, or 60-second ads most often watched on a big screen and are often consumed by multiple people at once. This is because households are likely to get together to watch OTT content as a group. This platform is unlike television though as it allows for advanced targeting capabilities to reach those who have already expressed interest in your brand or related products, then provides the added bonus of there being extra viewers in the room. Our Conduit insights recommend utilizing 15 or 30-second ads on this platform to best engage your audience. This is what best captures the attention of your audience and to always include a strong Call-To-Action such as a prominent phone number or website you would like your audience to visit as unlike other online platforms ads are not clickable to redirect the audience to further information. Short Form Video: TikTok and Snapchat As generations evolve so does social media. Newer platforms are being built around shorter attention spans. Snapchat and Tik-Tok are among the growing platforms that are centric on short-form content, 15-seconds or less. Both channels have their own advertising platforms to share your ads with their viewers. This again has revolutionized video ads, making sure they are concise and as to the point as possible is more important than ever. Short-form ads on these platforms allow for little interruption between already short content. This keeps audiences engaged as the disruption only lasts a few seconds and is often non-skippable. This again is another platform that combats the growing expansion of ad blockers and consumers trying to avoid ad content. Non-skippable ad space with video content behind it that a user is waiting to watch is extremely valuable to marketers , especially on such large and growing platforms like Tik-Tok and Snapchat . The Influence of Vloggers The importance of the storyline is where influencer marketing makes a huge splash in the world of video advertising. Instead of using traditional commercial style ads looking to make an emotional connection with a potential customer, in 60 seconds or less, influencers are able to utilize their already established connection with their audience to convey the value of a brand or product. As in any relationship, trust is built over time, and many viewers feel like they have a relationship with influencers. Even though they have likely never met in person regularly seeing them online allows them to bond. Connecting with their audience on a regular basis allows influencers to employ their relationship when promoting a product. When viewers see influencers that they “know” vlogging about a product it is perceived more as a friend giving a recommendation rather than a sales pitch trying to pressure them into purchasing something. Consumers often view ads as untrustworthy. This is where the human connection of influencers and vloggers can make all the difference. Influencer marketing can be viewed as product placement on steroids. This is not a new concept, just a different platform. For years people have seen products used by their favorite film stars or professional athletes, in movies, television, and commercials. This is the same principle; that people buy products from people they like and people they trust. Society and Privacy Another major issue facing digital marketers is privacy restrictions. This has always been in place for sensitive topics such as healthcare, where due to HIPAA restrictions things like remarketing for health industry campaigns were not available for obvious reasons. Now, however, people are becoming more conscious of “big brother” and are worried about the information these platforms have. Over the years as the personal information we supply to the internet has increased more laws have been created to protect users. Some countries have stricter guidelines than others in what they find is acceptable information to target users based on. The more these laws develop and take away our targeting capabilities the more challenging it will be for marketers to reach their video messaging to the right audience on the right platform. This is why not only learning who your audience is but what they are interested in is extremely valuable, in being able to reach them in different ways. Video ROI Today Infomercials made direct attribution and return on investment analysis available for the first time with video advertising. With digital marketing, we have now taken that to the next level. We can not only track direct ROI but different steps in the funnel and watch the entire consumer journey unfold in analytics. Through proper tracking, we can see how consumers interact with our website from each different video channel from programmatic, to YouTube, to Facebook. These platforms all work together along with a comprehensive remarketing strategy to drive the consumer down the funnel and we are able to see just that. Through proper implementation of website analytics, we can determine every action taken by individuals once reaching your website. This allows us to determine the effectiveness of your video marketing strategy and make adjustments towards your goals, whether they are eCommerce or lead generation based campaigns. The Future of Video Advertising Video advertising has come a long way since its introduction in 1941, in terms of what kind of content is considered engaging, to the platforms ads are consumed on, to the attribution capabilities. As technology advances and still new platforms are created marketers will work to capitalize on their capabilities. We are sure that video advertising will not go away anytime soon but it will continue to evolve. Soon the up and coming craze will be virtual reality. While this technology is available today and is quite extraordinary it has not yet evolved to being adopted by the majority as a regular household item. As virtual reality gaming and experiences expand so will marketers’ capabilities in reaching this audience. We see this being the next step in the evolution of video advertising and will be focused on the growth of this industry and who its audiences will be. Wherever video heads, virtual reality, or otherwise we know two things are very important when it comes to video advertising. First is that adapting your strategy based on the individual platform is a must. One 30-second “television style” commercial will not be applicable to all video channels. Having an irrelevant format running on the wrong channel will hinder the success of your campaign. For example, designing to deliver your message without sound on Facebook or keeping your ad under 6-seconds for Snapchat. Using the right platforms but failing to adapt your strategy to the right format can lead to an underperforming video campaign. Second, always keep the storyline at the heart of your ads. Conclusion By utilizing digital video advertising for your next marketing campaign, you can increase your ROI in ways that traditional marketing never could. Video is an extremely rich source of media and compared to all other forms gives the biggest opportunity to spark an emotional response. While platforms and media channels may change human emotion will not, providing a compelling story will always drive the performance of your content. If you are looking for a white-label provider to fulfill your digital video advertising needs, don’t hesitate to contact Conduit today! Our experienced and certified OTT and Youtube Advertising teams have the capabilities to bring your digital video advertising campaigns to the next level! If you would like to speak with an Expert at Conduit about how Youtube ads or Over the Top television advertising can be the best strategy in today’s advertising age, contact us here !

Dec 7, 2020 Paid Search Marketing Playbook: Avoid these Google Ad Mistakes Most paid search marketing professionals recognize Google Ads as a gold-standard digital advertising platform. Its intuitive interface, a wealth of features, and reporting capabilities are rivaled by few competitors. Because advertisers are running countless campaigns in the Google Ads platform at any given moment, there are many stories of both successes and trainwrecks. Hopefully, like us, you are not a trainwreck enthusiast. Because the Conduit Digital team works with agencies to scale their businesses, we have executed and managed more Google Ads campaigns than most. Over time, our team has developed strategies that deliver consistent results thanks to this cardinal rule: Successful paid search marketing efforts are about equally knowing what you should and should not do during the campaign. While you can search for an endless list of “Paid Search Best Practices” articles on Google, we want to take the discussion in a different direction. Let’s discuss the worst practices, or, what you should never do during a Google Ads campaign. Mistake 1: Not Using Google Keyword Planner Properly Google Keyword Planner allows you to create a holistic view of the keywords you will be targeting and bidding on during your campaign. It can also provide you with suggestions for new, relevant keywords that you could add to your strategy. When setting up your keyword plan, you should start with broader keywords that relate to the services or products that you offer. From there, look at the other keyword suggestions that Google generates to drill down to even more relevant choices that will appeal to ideal target users and drive more successful conversions for your paid search campaign. Here are some additional tips for using Keyword Planner to provide the most value: Understanding Volume and Keyword Competition When deciding on the best keywords to use for your paid search campaign, you want to target keywords that ideally have high volume and low competition. “Volume” refers to how many users search for that keyword within a span of time. The “Keyword Competition” indicates how difficult it may be for you to rank for that keyword. Sometimes, targeting a high-volume, high-competition keyword will be unavoidable, depending on your business. Here, incorporating a diverse base of other relevant keywords with less competition will allow you to drive additional value where more difficult ones may fall short. This will aid in compensating for the limited results you may receive from that coveted, competitive keyword you just cannot say “no” to. The Downsides of Improper Keyword Planning Failing to use Google Keyword Planner properly will result in three primary unwanted outcomes. You will risk missing out on some high-opportunity keywords that could attract more qualified traffic. You may not be targeting the right users at all. Perhaps the most damaging, your competitors could capitalize on the keywords that you did not include in your strategy and take that traffic for themselves. Understanding Cost-Per-Click (CPC) CPC refers to the actual cost for each click on a certain keyword. In most cases, if the keyword is rather broad and highly competitive, it will cost more. Conversely, some low-volume, low-competition keywords may also cost more if you are paying to dominate that space. Consider the CPC value for your target keywords when developing your strategy. This will ensure that you do not overspend your budget and also prevent your budget from topping out too soon. In an ideal situation, you want to target keywords with plenty of volume, at a low level of competition, and at a price you can afford for the duration of the campaign. Mistake 2: Building an Ads Campaign without Negative Keywords What is a “negative keyword”? Sounds intimidating, right? During a campaign, however, knowing your negative keywords can be your greatest strength. According to Google, negative keywords are search terms you can incorporate into your overall keyword strategy that can steer unqualified traffic away from getting served one of your ads, clicking on it, and inevitably wasting your budget. These keywords tell Google the type of users not to target so that your budget is optimized to reach users most likely to complete your target conversions and help you reach your overall goals. For example, if you sell ice hockey equipment, and you are marketing to people that play the sport, you may add the negative keyword “field hockey” to your list. This will help avoid a syntactical error where Google may list your business in field hockey equipment searches. By doing this, you will ensure that your ice hockey-loving customers will be served your advertisements instead of users with no interest in your products. Before starting your campaign, anticipate any negative keywords that could affect your campaign. Write them down and plan to use them in your Google Ads campaign. You can also use the Search Terms Report as another resource for identifying negative keywords to add, but you may also have some in mind that are more closely related to your specific business. Additionally, you can choose from prebuilt negative keyword lists that may include: Known Competitors Job-Related Searches Informational Searches Bargain/Price Searches Manufacturers Combining your business experience with Google Ads’ powerful AI, you can develop a negative keyword list that is customized to your specific needs and will drive the most qualified customers to your site. Mistake 3: Setting Up Paid Search Marketing Campaigns with the Wrong Automated Bid Strategies Automated bid strategies can streamline your Google Ads campaigns by using machine learning to optimally bid for the goals you set. This way, you can work on other projects while Google does the heavy lifting in real-time. However, just “setting it and forgetting it” will torpedo your strategy before it has the chance to deliver the results you want. Here are some automated bidding tips from Google for establishing a strategy that will meet your goals: Maximize Clicks This strategy will automatically set your bids to help you earn as many clicks as possible within your budget. This method works well for the discovery phase of a campaign where you want to build awareness for your product or service among new users. Conversely, if you are promoting pieces of content and want to drive readership, this can also work as an effective tactic. Target Impression Share Automatically set your bids with the goal of showing your ad as the first result on a search engine results page (SERP), near the top of the SERP, or anywhere else on the page. Depending on your industry and how much your competitors invest in paid search, the results can vary. Target CPA Target CPA will automatically set Search or Display bids to drive as many conversions as possible at your set target cost-per-action (CPA). Depending on your goals and what you want to achieve with target CPA, you may notice that some conversions cost more or less than what you budget for. Target ROAS This strategy automatically sets bids to assist in driving maximum conversion value relative to the targeted return on ad spend (ROAS) that you set. Like with Target CPA, conversion costs will vary and may be higher or lower return than what you set for your target. Maximize Conversions Maximizing conversions will automatically set bids to aid you in generating the most conversions for your campaign while keeping your spend within your set budget. For brands that want to drive conversion quantity, this will be your best option. Maximize Conversion Value Unlike the Maximize Conversions strategy, Maximize Conversion Value drives the quality of conversions to help you generate the best value for your money. This may result in less overall conversions, but the likelihood of reaching more qualified users will increase. Mistake 4: Not Adjusting Conversion Counts In your Google Ads Settings, you can adjust the method for conversion counting. You can set it to “One” or “Every,” depending on your campaign goals. Implementing the proper conversion count will make a noticeable difference in your campaign results toward the goals you want to achieve. If you are not using the right setting, this will result in far fewer conversions than you are reporting on, or vice-versa. One common mistake is where paid search marketing analysts will leave the conversion count set to “Every” when it should be set to “One,” or vice-versa. For example, if you are tracking a button click as a lead, you do not want to track multiple button clicks from the same user. This could skew the data, give your marketing team false insights, and derail your strategy. In this scenario, the analyst could avoid skewed data by setting the tracking to “One.” Here, Google’s AI will count by the IP address clicking the button rather than the number of button clicks from the user. With the “One” setting, a person can click the button a thousand times from the same IP and will only ever be tracked as a single button click within the data. Mistake 5: Limiting Conversion Attribution to “Last Click” When you set up a conversion tracking strategy with Google Ads, it will be automatically pre-set to “Last Click.” This means that a conversion is only attributed in-full to the keyword and ad that a user last clicked on. Fortunately, there are other Attribution Models that you can choose from to further benefit your level of insight into your campaign performance. For example, you could implement the “Linear” model to attribute a conversion evenly across all clicks that result in the eventual conversion. How to Avoid Making These Paid Search Marketing Mistakes for Good Mistakes happen, and marketing campaigns are far from invulnerable to them. However, partnering with a team of experts that drives billions of impressions on a regular basis can increase your chances of optimizing your results. For nearly a decade, Conduit Digital has helped our partners in delivering maximum paid search marketing results for their clients. If you want to start your next campaign off on the right foot, contact us anytime.

Feb 10, 2023 Due to national security concerns, the United States Congress has decided to ban TikTok from federal government devices in late 2022. The video-sharing app generates staggering amounts of data on a daily basis, with an American user base of about one hundred million.  This raised a larger question in politics, media, and society at large. Some on Capitol Hill are also proposing a full TikTok ban in the United States altogether. While we’re not in the business of politics, and we’re not going to start here, we would be pulling the digital wool over our eyes if we did not recognize the concerns this could raise for ad agencies. While the likelihood of a complete TikTok ban across the U.S. is unlikely to happen, the discussion does bring a rather important reminder into the spotlight: diversified marketing. As long as platforms like Google, Microsoft, Meta, and TikTok dominate the digital landscape, advertisers are forced to play by their rules and work within their technical frameworks to drive the best possible results for their clients. Whenever a new update drops on any platform, it could require your strategy to shift completely from one day to the next. For example, when Apple released its iOS 14.5.1 update in 2021, iPhone users were granted the ability to opt out of cross-platform tracking. Did digital advertising become extinct as a result? No, but agencies had to adopt a new paradigm for approaching their campaign strategies for their clients. When you put all of your efforts into a single platform for any of your client’s digital campaigns, there’s an implied risk that performance hinges on the one platform remaining reliable and consistent. If something were to shift rapidly and unexpectedly, would you still be able to continue using that platform as you did before, or would it severely impact the results you’ve expected and projected? In an era where marketing platforms are constantly innovating and evolving, having a diversified and holistic strategy should not be offered as a luxury. It’s essential.  Today, we’re going to highlight some benefits of a diversified marketing strategy and offer tangible tips to create one for your own clients at your agency. Let’s dive right in. 7 Benefits of a Diversified Marketing Strategy 1. Reach More of Your Target Audience Implementing a diversified approach to digital marketing opens up more channels for reaching your client’s target audiences. By increasing the number and diversity of outlets used to connect with potential customers, there is an increased chance that your efforts will be seen by more people who may be interested in what your client has to offer. For example, if you are only running an advertising campaign on TikTok, you could easily extend it to Instagram Reels, which follow a similar format. This could enable you to also reach similar audiences on the platform without having to go through the process of strategizing new creatives from scratch. 2. Diversify Your Risk Diversifying campaigns also diversifies risk by allocating resources across multiple channels. By spreading out spending over several outlets, agencies can better manage their finances while still investing in quality campaigns that may be more costly but bring greater results than cheaper options with little potential return on investment (ROI). When diversifying your risk, you’re also creating more financial flexibility for your client’s budget. If a major platform change happens on YouTube that affects your ads’ performance, you can scale back your spend and reallocate more of that investment where you are seeing steadier growth on Facebook. 3. Collect More Data A diversified approach allows for greater data collection and analysis of customer behaviors across multiple channels. With access to more information from a variety of sources, your agency can further develop its knowledge base about customer demographics and interests which can then be applied to elevating performance for future campaigns.  Gathering data from different platforms also makes it easier for agencies to recognize trends across multiple industries or markets that might not have been detected using only one outlet alone. Depending on the mix of platforms you’re running campaigns on for your client, some may generate metrics that others do not, which you can combine into a single report for a more holistic picture of your ideal customer avatar. 4. More Advanced Tactics Leveraging a diverse range of platforms grants agencies access to more advanced tools, which can provide greater accuracy when targeting desired segments within audiences based on various criteria such as age group, location, gender etc. Agencies are also able to better utilize retargeting methods by gathering information from different sources and combining them into one cohesive message or campaign tailored specifically towards groups that have previously engaged with their content or services before. This ensures that each segment reached is provided with relevant content at just the right time during their journey, which encourages further engagement and ultimately leads to an increase in performance. 5: Improved Frequency of Impressions When you run the same campaign across multiple platforms, you’re also increasing the frequency of impressions that an audience might receive. If they have clicked on your client’s paid search ad and later receive a display retargeting ad later, the brand name and message will continue to persist throughout their entire online session rather than just on a single channel. 6: Greater Upsell Opportunities With a diverse portfolio of digital products and solutions, your agency sales team can also more effectively land and expand accounts and scale more rapidly. When the client experiences success on one or more channels, this presents an excellent opportunity to upsell to a new channel to further increase visibility to more audiences on new platforms.  7. More Credibility for Your Agency When your agency has a full product suite that you can offer to your clients, this establishes your brand as credible and authoritative in your industry. Potential clients will view your team as true experts that they can trust as a growth partner, which can then generate more interest in your brand that can ultimately result in more qualified leads. It’s important to note, however, that we’re not suggesting running a single campaign across 7 different platforms simultaneously if the budget is too limited. Trying to cover too many platforms without the budget to support it could end up negatively impacting a campaign.  For example, if you are working with a $2,500 budget in a large geographic area, running paid search, social, OTT, and display could prove too many platforms at a single time. Instead, focus on the top two that are generating the most return. With the other platforms, you could allocate a small portion of the overall budget for testing to see if results start improving over time. However, testing, diversifying, and creating an effective “Plan B” strategy for your client are all key components of any successful ad campaign. How to Implement a Diversified Marketing Strategy for Your Agency So now that we’ve covered the benefits, how do you actually put them into practice? Let’s start with the first step: Playing to your strengths. 1. Recognize Your In-House Strengths and Weaknesses Agencies often specialize in one or a few digital services. While one might excel at email marketing and social media, another might brand itself as programmatic specialists. Take a moment to review where your agency drives the most success for your clients. Are there any services that you currently do not provide and also lack the means to implement at a high level? If you’re looking to expand, start with new products and services that are most adjacent to your in-house offering.  For example, if you are already dominating Paid Search, you may want to consider adding another Google product like YouTube or to dive deep into search engine optimization (SEO) to reach users through organic search listings. 2. Re-Examine Your Supportive Infrastructure If you want to expand into new services to round out your offering, do you have the internal resources available to do so? From physical equipment to software and team members, take some time to identify what will be needed to make this a reality. With new clients also comes a strain on internal capacity and bandwidth. Can your team handle another in-house product offering with its current size and workload? If not, you may decide that you need to hire or seek help from a partner.  Beyond resources, use this time to also dive deep into your current processes. Are they designed for scalability or have they been slowly developed over time with no rhyme or reason as your business evolved? Having repeatable, transparent, and timebound processes builds your agency for scale.   3. Train Your Sales Team New products and services introduce new information and can raise questions from clients. Will your sales team have the confidence to successfully generate new business through your diversified marketing suite? If not, seek out quality sales materials and training to help them develop new opportunities with confidence. 4. Monitor Performance and Gauge Success Are your new products and services actually contributing to your agency’s success? As you start running new campaigns across a larger suite, monitor your team’s performance against benchmarks that you’ve established for your agency to determine whether you need to make further adjustments to your processes and infrastructure to help ensure profitability and scalability. 5. Want to Skip the Above? Work with a White Label Ad Operations Partner A white label ad operations partner acts as an extension to your in-house team to outfit your agency with a full suite of digital products and services. Instead of having to build the infrastructure yourself, you can instantly onboard new campaigns for your partner’s own team to manage under your agency’s brand. When you’re vetting white label solutions, you’ll typically encounter three types of providers: platforms, vendors, and partners. A platform usually involves heavy usage of software and requires some pre-existing expertise to use most effectively. On the other hand, a vendor will provide high-level services but usually only within a single product category, such as SEO or social. On the third hand (that’s a thing, right?), we have partner. The primary difference between a partner and a platform and vendor is that a white label partner is fully invested in campaign performance and works in lockstep with your agency to provide the infrastructure you need to confidently say “yes” to opportunities that may require services outside of your internal scope. Partners also bring a holistic suite of scalable products to your agency so that you can always prepare to meet your clients’ digital marketing needs. Say “Yes” to Better Diversified Marketing with a White Label Partnership At Conduit Digital, we serve established and successful agencies in North America as an elite white label ad operations partner. Outfitting your agency with a full product suite and an infrastructure built on communication, performance, and reporting, you can pursue bigger and better business development opportunities with the confidence that you will have the support you need to deliver results for your clients. To start your path to partnership, schedule a 20 minute call with us today.