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Jun 29, 2020 After months of testing, Google is ready to fully introduce first-price auctions to Google Ad Manager. Starting on September 10, Google fully transitioned to a first-price model after years of using a second-price model. Aimed at assisting publishers by helping them to bring in more ad revenue, first-price auctions mean major changes to Google Ad Manager. How Second-Price Auctions Work In the past, Google used a second-price auction to determine winning bids. In second-price auctions, the winner of the bid only had to pay the price offered by the second-highest bidder plus $0.01. This led to a common strategy where you could bid way above market value to ensure you won as many impressions as possible. This strategy worked well for agencies and clients since they only had to pay 1 cent higher than the next highest bid. For example, you want to win impressions for a highly targeted/valuable keyword. You might decide to bid $20, knowing that you’ll likely only pay $10.01 (depending on market value). This model tended to be more friendly to the demand-side, while the supply-side publishers lost out on potential revenue. How First-Price Auctions Work Since introducing the testing of this model in early March, Google has clearly seen the benefits for their publishers. Under the first-price auction model, if your bid wins you pay exactly the amount you bid. For example, using the $20 bid scenario we laid out earlier, if the buyer wasn’t notified of the bidding model change they would potentially be spending more money than anticipated. This is because they would now have to be clearing at the $20 they were bidding when they only expected to pay $10.01. While Google has released its plans to transition to the first-price auction, many ad exchanges did not. This may lead to some unethical practices by untrustworthy ad exchanges. Short-Term Effects of The Switch To First-Price Autions The jury is still out in regards to how the bid model changes will work out long-term. In the short term, our in-house experts expect it to drive up prices while bidders adjust to the new model. Fortunately, many forward-thinking ad exchanges have already switched to this auction-strategy. This means that ad exchanges that have not switched will be most heavily affected when buying Google inventory in the short term. Long-Term Effects Of The Switch To First-Price Auctions In the long-term, this strategy will be beneficial for publishers and generally negative for agencies and clients. Fortunately, our experts expect pricing and bids to level-off as more marketers become adjusted to the model. We expect that as time goes on agencies/clients will become more accustomed to the first-price model they will adjust bids to only what they’re winning to pay or what they think the winning bid will be. In fact, there may be long-term benefits for agencies. If publishers are able to generate more revenue through a first-price auction method, it would create an environment with less ad-spam. This would drive us toward a less invasive ad model. Unfortunately, it may be some time before the market adjusts. In the meantime, expect higher bid prices as the industry becomes accustomed to the first-price auctions. Positives/Negatives For Ad Agencies There may be some debate over how much the first-price model will affect agencies’ approach to bidding. Our experts see this change as an opportunity for savvier agencies. Those with more advanced/ongoing bidding strategies will have to manage bid strategies more actively/effectively. For example, using the $20 bid example from earlier, “set it & forget it” type agencies might be stuck paying much higher than they should. Or, if the market adjusts and outbids these agencies, they might start losing out on more and more bids. A savvier agency will notice these adjustments and use data to effectively neutralize the cost differences in the switch to a first-price model. It could even end up saving clients money. By adjusting to this new strategy and using our expert ppc google ads tips, you can deliver the best results for your clients. Conduit's Opportunities The move to a first-price model gives Conduit a significant advantage over “set it and forget it” agencies. Since we provide constant optimizations, we can actively alter bids to identify a sweet spot for our clients. This will deliver the same inventory for a lower price than competitors. For example, Conduit and Agency B both start bidding at $2 for their clients. With significantly more inventory available in the market, Conduit actively lowers the bid while maintaining delivery. Conduit will then clear at a lower CPM than Agency B. This allows for more inventory for clients without losing quality. Conclusion Overall, first-price auctions will create some uncertainty in the bidding world, especially at first. While initially being more beneficial for publishers, the demand-side of the platform may see both positive and negative changes. As agencies and clients adjust to the new normal, savvier agencies will be able to effectively adapt while “set-it and forget-it” agencies will fall behind. As America’s Digital Agency Connection, Conduit will continue to be at the forefront of bid adjustments and ad-exchange campaigns.

Jan 23, 2020 What Is OTT Advertising? OTT advertising is an internet-based, non-skippable, immersive, video-on-demand content format that allows advertisers to engage with a unique audience that is committed to the content it is consuming. OTT stands for Over-the-Top-Television, which originally referred to the devices that go “over” a cable box to provide the user access to TV content such as Roku or AppleTV. In OTT channels, content is delivered via the internet rather than through a traditional cable/broadcast provider. A connected TV, also called CTV, is a television or connected device with an internet connection and a UI that enables users to access OTT content through applications. OTT Ads OTT and CTV ads are served as pre-roll and/or mid-roll within streaming content on connected devices such as Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Google Chromecast, Apple TV, and gaming consoles. It refers to film and television content provided by a high-speed internet connection rather than a cable or satellite provider. OTT ads are the closest digital marketing product to traditional TV viewing. The big-screen guarantee promises that your OTT viewing experience will parallel the traditional broadcast experience. How Does OTT Work? OTT ads are delivered using a variety of factors such as programmatic TV delivery, household audience targeting, performance optimization, and as an extension of traditional TV. Programmatic TV delivery utilizes machine and artificial intelligence as a mechanism for buying and placing media to enable real-time impressions and targeting reporting. Household audience targeting enables OTT and CTV users to enjoy an enhanced TV experience that allows them to choose what to watch, and when to watch it. We identify viewers based on their online behaviors. In this way, we target the audience group behaviorally and not by the genre they are likely watching. Performance optimization occurs when OTT analysts monitor and interact with campaigns daily. Your OTT analyst will make adjustments to application inventory, Video Completion Rates (VCR), and frequency of the ads to deliver the best possible performance results. OTT used as an extension of traditional TV combines the power of TV with the precision of digital marketing. You should tailor campaigns to local audiences using advanced targeting tactics to maximize and measure relevance. What Types of Targeting Are Used For OTT? Geographic Targeting Geographic targeting is one of the most advanced location-based advertising techniques for targeting users based on a specific and sought after geographic area. This offers you the ability to accurately geo-target their potential customers across connected and streaming platforms. This enables you to capture your audience’s location within a media market, city, state, country, zip code, and/or radius requested. Behavioral Targeting Behavioral targeting enables advertisers to combine the effectiveness of search with the brand impact and reach of OTT targeting. Keyword level targeting gives advertisers the ability to target potential customers with OTT ads based on searches they perform across the web. A user performs a search, then the system collects data associated with that search. Then the same user is shown a pre-roll and/or mid-roll ad based on the keywords searched. Brand recognition level increases for you as the user is seeing the brand on multiple mediums. Addressable Geo-Fence Targeting Addressable geo-fence targeting brings clients a powerful, effective, and accurate new way to target specific households and businesses with OTT and CTV video advertising. Targeting up to one million street addresses within their campaign, clients can improve their TV campaigns, direct mail campaigns, and other marketing efforts. This targeting is based on plat line data from property tax and public land surveying information to maximize the precision of addresses being targeted. Benefits of OTT Big Screen Viewing OTT advertising is likely speaking to multiple members in a household. Over 93% of these users are viewing in the same area of the house or are viewing simultaneously in other rooms of the house. With a single impression, you are reaching multiple consumers with an opportunity to introduce your brand, drive, recall, engagement, consideration, and influence purchasing behavior. Audience Targeting Big screen delivery to an entire household reaches anyone in the home, geographically and behaviorally. Advanced targeting delivers your ad to household members who have already expressed interest in your products and services. Engagement OTT/CTV has the highest level of engagement among all other digital products. With no ability to skip ads on the big screen, OTT and CTV consistently deliver VCR rates over 90%. Viewers have self-selected their content and are tuned-in, making them highly likely to pay attention. Watching ads on the big screen means users are always “prime-time.” Examples of OTT Streaming Devices Over-the-Top marketing utilizes devices to give users access to the TV channels they want. Here are a few of the most popular streaming devices currently being used: Roku Roku is a digital media player that allows you to stream video, music, and entertainment content. You can stream Amazon Video, Netflix, HBO GO, Hulu Plus, Spotify, and more from the comfort of your own home without needing to pay for a cable package; all it requires is an internet connection. Roku reported having over 29.1 million active users last summer. Roku devices were used 3.5 hours per day on average, making it one of the most used devices in your home. Amazon Fire Stick The Amazon Fire Stick is a small device roughly the size of a flash drive that plugs into a TV’s HDMI port. The Fire Stick enables any TV to stream content over Wi-Fi such as Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, Pandora, HBO GO, and much more without needing to pay for a cable package; all it requires is an internet connection. Amazon has reported over 34 million active users for the Fire Stick. Examples of OTT Streaming Services While streaming devices such as Roku or Amazon Fire Stick give users access to streaming, they require streaming services to deliver the content to these devices. Here are a few of the most popular Over-the-Top services: Pluto TV Pluto TV is an internet-based TV platform which is owned by Viacom. Pluto TV generates revenue from Over-the-Top advertising between programming, with plans to remain a free television provider. Pluto TV’s user base has increased by more than 3 million since the beginning of the year. Viacom has said that Pluto TV finished 2018 with more than 12 million monthly active users, 7.5 million of which were on connected TVs. Tubi TV Tubi TV is a free, ad-supported service, with advertisements shown during commercial breaks between programming. It is the largest independently-owned video service in the United States since Pluto TV’s acquisition by Viacom. As of June 2019, Tubi TV offers more than 15,000 films and TV series with deals from major content creators such as NBCUniversal, Lionsgate, and Warner Brothers. Tubi has over 20 million monthly active users. Xumo Xumo provides free Live and on-demand streaming entertainment. Xumo features over 160 different channels to choose from including popular digital and television networks such as CBSN, History, and PGA tour. As of April 2019, Xumo has confirmed over 5.5 million monthly active users after adding distribution deals with LG and Comcast Xfinity. Last summer, Xumo reported a 325% rise in viewership and a 90% increase in user consumption. OTT Pricing Model In terms of pricing, OTT is based on a CPM (cost per thousand impressions) model. This is very much in line with the majority of other digital marketing products, making the transition to OTT advertising easier for marketers. While this pricing model lines up with the current digital marketing landscape, it stands in stark contrast to traditional TV pricing methods. Traditional advertisers rely on an antiquated ratings points basis, using metrics such as cost per point (CCP), gross rating point (GRP), or television rating point. These models have proven to be out of date and less effective than a CPM OTT pricing model. Thanks to the programmatic and immediate nature of OTT, everything is bought in real time. This means that platforms and advertisers are never left with an aging inventory that may be prioritized or deprioritized unfairly. Everything is bought in real time and ads are only served when it matches the client’s targeting parameters. Top Features of OTT Advertising OTT, CTV and Internet TV, are popular buzzwords in the digital advertising world, and rightfully so. Based on the significant video advertising shift towards OTT Television, agencies are missing more than just the boat if they are not including it within their product suite. At Conduit Digital we like to call it “Tra-Digital” because OTT is the perfect extension of traditional advertising but with the power of digital targeting. The explosion of 170 million OTT users was led by streaming on Smart TVs and devices like Roku, Amazon Fire Stick, Google Chromecast and Apple TV that allow them to access television content for free through the internet. Power OTT applications like Pluto TV, ABC News, Sling TV, ESPN, and NFL allow viewers more live TV and on-demand content than they can possibly consume. When it comes to brand awareness, OTT is king. CTV delivers commercials with an average Video Completion Rate of more than 90% and those ads are non-skippable! High video completion rates mean high engagement and relevance. Here are our Top 4 reasons to add OTT and CTV to your digital advertising lineup. 1. Large-Screen Advertising Connect TV advertisers are able to target the largest screen by household giving advertisers the capability of targeting audiences with a great likelihood of reaching multiple viewers at once when factoring in co-viewing. 2. Behavioral Targeting Show commercials to audiences that are most interested in your brand or product to drive brand awareness, website visits and consideration that aids in conversions. 3. Geo-Targeting Target by state, DMA, city or down to zip. Yes, you read that correctly! With OTT you can target down to the zip if market conditions allow. This is great for local advertisers who want to utilize a cost-effective video advertising option that targets their business community. 4. Live and Dynamic Reporting Be transparent with your clients. Conduit campaigns come with advanced reporting capabilities giving agencies and advertisers data on delivery by day, application by keywords and helps to inform other marketing plans. Video Completion Rate transparency allows clients to see the percentage of their commercials that are being watched from start to finish. CTV advertising offers an industry VCR rate of more than 90% and is exceptional for advertisers looking to improve brand awareness and reach. OTT Trends OTT advertising is the fastest growing digital marketing product. In fact, the data suggests that it will only keep growing. Here are some important trends currently happening in Over-the-Top marketing: 61% of Americans own a Smart TV (or CTV) 52% of Americans use OTT services For viewers between the ages of 18-34, OTT usage is over 65% The average OTT customer owns up to three OTT devices they can use to watch OTT content and subscribe to different services People spend more time watching OTT content than they do driving a car or talking to friends and family As OTT services gain more and more popularity, this presents grim news for cable, satellite, and broadcast providers/advertisers. Cord-cutting millenials are supplanting aging baby-boomers as the primary consumer target. In fact: Millennials who subscribe to at least one OTT service watch more than twice as much OTT content as they do live TV. The top content that people want is movies, followed by scripted TV shows. Live news and sports, thought to be the killer app keeping broadcast and cable alive, rank #3 and #4 respectively across all demographics. Fewer than 40% of Millenial OTT users plan to keep their cable package. The amount of cord-cutters is rising exponentially. Nearly ⅔ of cord-cutters are more like “cord burners;” they say that cutting cable has noticeably improved their life and there is nothing a cable company can do to lure them back into having a bundle. TV Advertising vs OTT Advertising Last year, brands spent over $70 billion in advertising through traditional television audiences. Studies and data show that this media strategy is extremely outdated. Only 5% of all ad dollars go toward OTT marketing, despite the fact that over 50% of the audience is already there. As over the top advertising catches up with traditional TV advertising, it is important to stay ahead of the curve. What Is The Future Of OTT? OTT advertising is the bridge that will finally connect digital and traditional marketing. As OTT continues to grow, it is important to have a strategic digital partner who understands over the top advertising and where it is going. Conduit’s OTT team utilizes robust datasets and emerging industry trends to develop conversion-oriented OTT campaigns that deliver proven results.

Jan 5, 2022 Across the United States, hiring has never proven more difficult, and digital agencies are no exception to these staffing roadblocks. When new client opportunities arise, does your current bandwidth allow you to say “yes” to them? Let’s be honest. Saying “no” and passing up on can’t-miss new accounts flat-out sucks. It cuts directly against an agency’s ability to scale and drive new revenue. Through a premium white label digital marketing partner, however, you can overcome these common hiring challenges. With a trusted external ad operations team serving your clients in lockstep with your in-house team, you can position your agency to be prepared to land and expand these white-whale accounts. Today, we’re going to peel back the curtain on wholesale digital marketing. We’ll cover everything from how the wholesale model works for agencies and how to select the right solutions for your needs. How Wholesale Digital Marketing Works: The Reseller Playbook 📘 As a general concept, wholesaling involves purchasing a product or service from a provider at one price point, marking it up internally, and then reselling it at a higher number that allows your business to remain profitable. A produce wholesaler, for example, purchases fruits and vegetables from a commercial farm, marks up the prices of these goods and then sells them to grocery stores. The markup covers both the wholesaler’s own expenses as well as enough space in the margin to generate a profit to grow their business. In the same vein, a digital agency can purchase a wholesale product like SEO managed services from a white label provider. You can then mark up the cost of these services based on the partner’s rate card, and resell them to the client. The partner handles the fulfillment while your team can spend more time on core internal competencies and sales. An Example of Wholesale Digital Marketing in Action 🔎 Mark is an agency owner in the New York Metro area. His agency was recently approached by Sarah’s successful law firm about the possibility of helping them manage large-budget SEO and PPC advertising campaigns. Mark’s agency has served lawyers in the past, and he would love the opportunity to pursue this new potential account. However, his internal team is maxed-out on their bandwidth and they specialize more in public relations and social media marketing campaigns. From his perspective, it would take too much time away from current client work to have his team take a crash course in these product areas in an attempt to bring on this account. After a quick online search for “wholesale digital marketing,” Mark finds a white label partner that offers a full suite of products, including both SEO and PPC. The partner’s in-house team features certified experts in these disciplines that can manage this lawyer’s campaign for him. After reviewing the provider’s rate card and deciding he could sell these services at a profit with Sarah’s current budget, he begins a white label partnership. Once the partnership begins, Mark submits an Insertion Order for both an SEO and PPC campaign. The partner’s team handles all aspects of fulfillment from audits to campaign builds, ongoing optimization, reporting, and communication. The urgent need to train his internal team or try to quickly hire an in-house search expert is removed from his laundry list of agency leader duties, and he did not have to say “no” to this account opportunity. How to Select the Right Wholesale Digital Marketing Solution In the digital marketing field, wholesale, white-label, turnkey, managed services, and other similar terms refer to an outsource provider that can act as an extension of your agency’s in-house team. However, within this niche there are three main types of providers: platform, vendor, and partner. Here’s how you can tell the difference between the three: 🌐 Platform A wholesale platform can help reduce the learning curve when adopting new digital services at your agency, but it is usually heavily software-based and requires a large amount of manual control. Someone in your agency’s in-house team would need to still have a heavy hand on the controls, and the platform may not provide sufficient resources to master its features. As a result, there is still a large amount of internal education required and it can still become difficult to gauge results. 📦 Vendor A vendor refers to an outsource solution that operates on a strictly transactional basis. This could be a lone freelancer or a specialist provider that focuses on either one or a small handful of products. As an example, the vendor might only offer solutions related to social media. If you want to expand your accounts over time into new services, they may not have the ability to scale with you. Because vendors also operate on a mostly transactional basis, it can become difficult to anticipate the quality of deliverables they provide. Once they have checked each box on their agreement, they often disappear back into the digital ether until you pay them again. 🤝 Partner A wholesale digital partner is both a true wholesale and whole-scale solution for agencies. A partner provides features not found with platforms or vendors, such as: Holistic suite of digital services Complete in-house implementation Custom live reporting Responsive human communication Flexible onboarding and offboarding of services By definition, a partner is equally invested in your accounts’ success as your in-house team. This allows your agency to drive true performance, and prove it, on an ongoing basis. Make a Resolution to Enable Better Opportunities with Wholesale Digital Marketing 💪 As the new year begins, make a resolution for your agency to solve hiring challenges and drive complete performance for your clients. With the right partner in your corner, you can turn wholesale digital marketing into your business’s greatest strength by allowing you to continuously scale at a profitable rate. At Conduit, we provide world-class wholesale digital marketing services for successful agencies around the globe. Offering a complete suite of services, sales support materials, and world-class fulfillment completely in-house, we equip your agency to say “yes” to more of the right opportunities. To get started, reach out to us anytime to learn more.

Jun 3, 2020 As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept across the country, businesses everywhere have had to rethink their marketing strategies. As advertising agencies, it is our duty to guide these clients in the right direction when it comes to their advertising strategies and marketing platforms. Recently, the team at Conduit Digital sat down with our Google Agency Partner, Ann, to discuss the changes in the digital marketing industry during COVID-19. In this edition, we are going to break down how CRM integrations are crucial for you and your clients during this time and what your agency can do to help. What Is CRM Integration? CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. The goal of implementing CRM integration is to build your website and CRM to function together seamlessly. Instead of using your CRM to just be a system that retains customer information based on manual entries, integrating your website/marketing automation software brings in valuable customer information directly into your CRM. Some of the most popular CRM software such as Hubspot and Salesforce allows you to not only record customer information but to track their entire journey on your website. During a time when lead quality is so volatile, it is a perfect opportunity to assist your clients in implementing their CRM integrations. Why Is CRM Integration So Important? Due to increasing volatility in lead quality caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, your clients’ ads may not be reaching the right consumers. Although Facebook and Google advertisers have seen increased traffic on the platforms, the quality of leads has declined and the CPCs have been volatile. For more information on how to assist your clients with their Facebook And Google Ads during this time, check out Conduit Digital’s latest blog. Read More Instead of trying to force your clients’ ads through the crowd, take the time to help them set up all of their CRM integrations or tracking integrations with Google Analytics or Facebook. This is designed to assist your clients in the long run as this crucial time can be used to gain a better understanding of your clients’ target demographics and qualified leads. Set Up The Tools For Success There are many ways for you to assist your clients with their integrations and tracking implementations. With a variety of different tools and platforms at your disposal, it can be difficult to know which tools are key to success for your clients’ business. Examples of CRMs The two most popular CRM platforms are Hubspot and Salesforce. Hubspot offers complete marketing, sales, and service software that helps your business grow without compromise. Salesforce enables you to unify marketing, sales, service, commerce, and IT teams with a suite of apps and customer support. By integrating your clients’ existing customer lists with platforms like these, you can begin to help them organize, track, and target the leads that show the most engagement and interest in their services. Google Google has many tools at its disposal to help your agency and your clients set up integrated tracking throughout the customer journey. By helping your clients set up their Google tracking and planning, they will be set up for success following the COVID-19 pandemic. 1. Google Tag Manager (GTM) By utilizing Google Tag Manager, you can place all of your clients’ tracking tags and pixels in one place. This ensures a seamless tracking experience as you watch users journey through the marketing funnel and see your clients’ ad spend generating results. 2. Google BigQuery BigQuery is Google’s serverless, highly scalable, enterprise data warehouse. This large-scaled data bank was designed to make a data analyst’s job more productive with unmatched price-performances. Setting up your clients’ data in BigQuery could save you time and money in the future. 3. Google Reach Planner Reach Planner is a Google Ads campaign planning tool designed to accurately plan for reach-based video campaigns across YouTube and video partners sites and apps. 4. Google My Business Link your clients’ Google My Business to their Google Ads account. Accomplishing this step will ensure consumers see the most up-to-date local information they need at the exact time they’re prowling to purchase. Facebook The Facebook Pixel is a piece of code for your clients’ website that lets you measure, optimize, and build audiences for your ad campaigns. Placing your clients’ Facebook Pixel will help you understand how your cross-device ads help influence conversions. Your agency can optimize for the audience most likely to convert with the Facebook Pixel, optimize delivery to people likely to take action, and ensure your ads are shown to the people most likely to take action. What To Do After Integration After assisting your clients in setting up their CRM integrations and platform tracking tags, your clients may be wondering what the right approach is as they begin to re-open their doors in our “new normal.” During our sit down with Google, here’s what they had to say about helping your clients resume their marketing efforts. Set Up DMA Specific Landing Pages By creating DMA or city-specific landing pages, your clients can speak directly to their audience and spread the message they wish to send. Integrating customized ads with this onsite messaging will enable your clients to connect with their customers. Create Dynamic Ad Copy Dynamic Ads enable your clients to send customized messaging to each of their target customers. By serving dynamic ads, your clients can be more personalized with their messaging to ensure they are truly connecting in the right way with their audience. Focus On The Local Economy The COVID-19 pandemic has affected every community differently. Focus on the trends in the local economy rather than trends you may be seeing in the market as a whole. The ways things are today may not be what they will be 2 weeks or 2 months from now, so be prepared to understand the challenges your clients face in their local economies. Conclusion CRM integration and tracking tag implementation are crucial for your clients. By helping them through these processes you will be able to differentiate your agency by setting your clients up for future success. Begin to think about the ways your clients can reach their target audiences and get the qualified leads their marketing dollars deserve. During these uncertain times, it is important to be transparent with your clients as possible. Many businesses are struggling during this time but there is still great opportunity for many clients going forward. Conduit Digital is dedicated to helping our Agency Partners navigate the marketing minefield. It is our mission to provide completely transparent reporting, constant helpful communication, and engaging, informative content to help your agency through this time.

Oct 7, 2021 Your Digital Agency is Only as Scalable as its Client Roster Whether you have just launched a new startup or have crushed campaigns for decades, you likely want to get clients that contribute toward your goals for scaling your agency. From client bases of Fortune 500 corporations to dedicated networks of local businesses, the quality of your client roster plays a direct role in your ability to scale. The Hard Truth: Not All Potential Clients Will Be Compatible with Your Agency Every agency leader can name at least one client that causes the most friction with their team. It feels like, no matter what you do, the client just does not align with the way that you conduct your business. This does not mean they are a “bad” client. However, it indicates that they are not compatible with your agency. Having a large number of incompatible clients can cut against your ability to scale as much as other pain points like struggling to hire more of the right people. When searching for the best clients to help your agency scale, it’s about finding the right opportunities, not just casting a wide net and hoping for the best. What might look like a “white whale” client on the surface may not always prove an ideal fit for the way you run your own business. Today, we’re going to discuss how to identify both high-compatibility and low-compatibility clients. Practicing discernment during your lead nurturing process can help you better identify which current and/or potential clients are the right fit for your long-term business goals. First, let’s cover some ways that you might be able to identify an incompatible client: What Makes an Incompatible Client? People and businesses are too multifaceted to simply label as “bad” or “good.” Instead, when it comes to determining if a potential or current client is the right fit for your agency, we prefer the terms “compatible” or “incompatible.” They may run an excellent business, but their culture, processes, or expectations may just not align with your own. How do Incompatible Clients Affect Your Agency’s Ability to Scale? An incompatible client can hinder your team’s ability to deliver consistently on campaigns and drive true results for their business. Sometimes, these issues can be resolved, but in many cases, they become persistent points of friction. Large agencies with more expansive teams and client bases can continue to scale beyond incompatible clients with less difficulty than smaller agencies. When an incompatible client drives a wrench in the gears that make your agency machine hum, this takes the focus away from your core objectives. Here are some factors you should consider when screening potential clients: How Much Does the Client Understand the Benefits of Digital Marketing? As an agency leader, you do not have to expect your client to possess senior analyst-level knowledge of your products and services. Instead, you should pay attention to how much the client understands the value of what they are paying for. Does the client understand why you are doing what you’re doing to achieve a campaign’s desired outcome? If not, this can affect their ability to trust your team to manage the campaign in the way that best benefits their business goals. In these situations, a client will either not understand aspects of digital marketing and want to learn more, or they will not care to understand. If they do not care about their marketing as much as you do, this is a key indicator of incompatibility. Are the Client’s Expectations Realistic to their Budget? Simply put: The more competitive an industry is, the more budget you need to generate results from your campaigns. A lawyer in New York City will require an exponentially larger paid search budget than one in Cape May County, New Jersey. Why is that? The Big Apple has more hands reaching for a piece of the same pie than a highly seasonal shore community. Continuing with the NYC lawyer example, if a lawyer based in the city wants to spend $2,000 each month to try to achieve 20,000 monthly conversions on their contact form, this will not generate the desired outcome. Why? There are many other lawyers in the same geographic area with monthly budgets in the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. They will always have the larger budget to win PPC auctions for more keywords. If the client’s expectations are not realistic, they will seldom show satisfaction. This can create an adversarial aspect to your agency-client relationship that cannot be truly resolved until either the client lowers their expectations or increases their budget to match it. Do They Trust or Doubt Your Team? Great client relationships are built on trust. The client trusts the agency to manage their campaigns with a large amount of autonomy and the agency fulfills their digital marketing needs consistently. In short: Both parties allow the data and results to speak for themselves. In reality, though, incompatible clients will examine every aspect of your team’s operations with a fine-toothed comb and look for reasons to complain about the results they are receiving. If the client continues to remain skeptical of your team’s work, despite months of driving success for their campaigns, you will hit a point of friction that is not always easily resolved. Lack of client trust often comes down to objectivity: Are you delivering what they’re looking for? As marketers, we view achievements on a metrics basis. Are the numbers on the spreadsheet where they need to be? Are the checkboxes checked off? To the client, their perceived achievements are more aligned to their big-picture business goals. They are looking at reports that you provide them to see if their investment generated the desired return. Using a framework like Key Performance Actions (KPAs) provides a more objective way for both agencies and clients to set goals and measure performance on the path to achieving them. A KPA campaign builds from the overall business goal the client desires and reverse-engineers a campaign structure to meet it. Whereas a conventional campaign might track only conversions, KPAs track audience behavior data from all aspects of the campaign to paint a more holistic picture of the engagement your marketing efforts are generating. Do They Generate Enough Revenue to Sustain their Account with Your Agency? Does the client fail to meet their financial obligations to your agency on time? If you are losing revenue for the services you are providing, this can create a rather large strain on the account relationship. For example, the client may say that they want to continue receiving services but cannot or will not pay for them at the moment the bill comes due. From a project management standpoint, this also creates a large risk for scope creep. If account growth is not managed within the confines of the client budget, this can result in your team performing way more work for a client than what they want to pay for. Having an airtight process structure, clearly defined obligations in your MSA agreements, and a team of high-performing project managers are three key ways to combat this. At the end of the day, your agency is a business, and it needs to operate profitably to achieve scale. If a client fails to honor their payments on time, it can cut directly against your own business goals. Financial warning signs can also be identified during the screening process for potential clients. Ask them what their average monthly revenue is versus their desired monthly budget. For example, if they make approximately 20,000 dollars each month, but they need an $8,000 monthly marketing budget to achieve desired outcomes in their market or industry, they will not likely be able to consistently sustain spending 40% of their monthly revenue on marketing. How to Identify High-Compatibility Clients for Your Agency Create a List of Ideal Client Personas that You Want to Target Many successful sales teams utilize the concept of buyer personas. What are the ideal types of customer avatars that you want to target? Similarly, in the agency world, consider the ideal types of clients you would want to have at your agency. Some agencies dedicate the majority of their business to specific industries or geographic regions. Others may only work with agencies that can afford a certain minimum monthly marketing budget. Regardless of the exact type of ideal clients you’d want to have, knowing what it is you want in an ideal client can help you identify them. To create ideal client personas, make a checklist of traits that you want to look for in an account. These might include but aren’t limited to: Industry focus The client’s own target audience(s) Business subject matter Monthly marketing budget Geographic location Size of company Marketing needs Decide Which Products/Services Best Fit Their Needs Clients turn to agencies for digital marketing solutions that help them generate more traffic and key performance actions from target audiences. Knowing the client’s industry, developing a solution that meets their needs, and possessing the right team to execute on these initiatives can play an instrumental role in both expanding existing accounts and landing new ones. Lack of specificity is a major roadblock toward scale. Offer a Full Suite of Digital Solutions Client needs can evolve with time, and if your team has the means to adapt alongside, you can expand the account indefinitely. To assist in deploying a full suite of solutions, many agency leaders consider a white label digital performance partnership. This can help extend your in-house capabilities without the overhead that comes with hiring and training new internal team members. Show Interest in Their Industries through Your Content Develop content for your own agency that shows your knowledge of digital marketing within the context of your ideal client’s industry. For example, if you wish to target healthcare clients for your business, dedicate blog posts and landing pages to digital marketing needs that these types of organizations commonly encounter. Nothing helps generate leads for your agency quite like a client viewing your killer pieces of content and saying “They get it.” Avoid Any Red Flags You See During the Lead Nurturing Process As you learn more about potential clients during the lead nurturing process, look for any red flags that might indicate low compatibility with your agency. If you identify them, be sure to ask the potential client about them to ensure that no miscommunications are happening during your sales process. If it turns out they may actually be incompatible, then you can make the decision whether or not to continue to try to land their account. Consider Replacing Incompatible Clients with Compatible Ones Many agencies are hesitant to let go of incompatible clients, even if they do not mesh with your internal processes or team. The thought of losing revenue is not something that helps agency leaders sleep at night. However, if an incompatible client is impeding your ability to scale, it may require either terminating the account or choosing not to renew it when the service agreement expires. If you decide that you want to rid yourself of an incompatible account, start looking for a new, more compatible client that could replace the revenue that you would otherwise lose by letting the incompatible one walk. In most cases, a lateral move financially for a client that is better aligned with your agency can bring more long-term benefits over time. Use Digital Performance Partnership to Say “Yes” to More of the Right Opportunities With the right digital performance partnership, your agency can stand a greater chance of getting the right clients to meet your scale initiatives. With a full suite of digital solutions, you can remain competitive to land the clients you want and offer them the services they need in the moment to retain them long-term. At Conduit, helping successful agencies to continue landing and expanding high-quality clients is the reason we open our doors every morning. With a full suite of expert-managed in-house digital solutions, we can bridge the gap you need to pursue your ideal client accounts with confidence. To learn more about how our team can help you say yes to more of the right opportunities for your agency, visit our partnership page for more information.

Jun 2, 2020 Did you know that data is now more valuable than oil? In this discussion, we will be talking about how agencies can maximize their data opportunity. Our Director of Client Experience Tim C. Burke, Director of Ad-Ops Rob Burke, PPC Manager Mike Gibson, and Senior Manager of Programmatic Advertising Roger Cooney sat down to discuss data opportunities and the things your agency should be doing to maximize data. Maximizing First-Party Data Nearly any established business already has heaps of data at their disposal, even if they do not know it yet. Email addresses, phone numbers, names; this is all information that businesses have readily available to add to any marketing campaign. Your clients can use this first-party data in many ways including: Remarketing Remarketing is a great way for your clients to maximize their data. Your agency can actively market to customers who you already know have an interest in your clients’ work or services. Lookalike Audiences Your agency can take your clients’ first-party data to create lookalike audiences. Taking that list of existing customers and creating a list of potential customers that are similar to the existing audience will enable you to reach people who are more likely to convert. Audience Supression Similar to using first-party data to create lists of potential customers, you can use this data to create lists of people you do not wish to target. For example, if a customer has already converted, they are likely a waste of marketing dollars. Creating suppression lists can help you disqualify certain leads for your clients. Sadly, we have found that less than 10% of clients are actively utilizing their first-party data. Utilizing this data will enable you to maximize leads and conversions for your clients. Provide ROI on a Full Scale Taking your clients’ first-party data based on sales and tying it back to the ad campaigns you run will help to communicate a clear ROI on behalf of your agency. The combination of sales data and marketing data is how you maximize the campaign. Marrying back-end data with front-end data is the goal. A Marketer's Dream For a traditional marketer, it has always been a dream to be able to tie that initial ad experience to the actual sale. When it comes to digital, that is becoming more and more of a reality. With the data and technology available now, you can tie-in directly when a person sees an ad through the funnel to when they make a conversion. Many businesses do not even realize they have the opportunity to see that path. At Conduit Digital, we have been looking for ways to bridge that gap between attributes in traditional radio or TV ads and the sale. By working holistically and taking a full-funnel approach we can see exactly how users convert, which ad they viewed, where they viewed it, and how effective it was. Data and Privacy There has been a lot of talk recently about data privacy and what it means for the digital marketing industry moving forward. From the Cambridge Analytica scandal to the introduction of the CCPA and the death of the “cookie,” data in marketing is going to fundamentally change. As marketers, we love data. It allows us to provide better results for our clients and agencies, allows us to connect closer to consumers, and provides us incredible knowledge and insights. Even as consumers, some of us, like our PPC Manager Mike Gibson, don’t mind our personal information being shared (to an extent). “I actually don’t mind people having my data. Now I don’t want people to have 100% of my data. But if feel like its about user experience. Knowing what websites I’ve been on, what I have in my cart, and seeing that on Facebook or wherever provides me with better user experience.” As Senior Manager of Programmatic Advertising Roger Cooney says, “It’s not really privacy that people care about, it’s being surprised. Everyone knows that all your data is being tracked in some capacity, it’s just when that’s being used in a way that isn’t expected, is when people actually care.” Be Future Proof We utilize data in ways that might surprise people. They are agreeing to the way we utilize cookies. But when you explain geofencing to someone who has never heard of it, it is a head-exploding moment. There is a realization there like, “Oh that’s how I was being served those ads.” People like to think that their phone is spying on them but in reality, it is just really good targeting. One thing that you have to remain focused on is being diversified in your targeting capabilities. So if you are hyper-targeting to the hundredth degree to deliver results, then you can be hamstrung in the future as we go cookie-less. A Message To Local Businesses If you’re a local business or a small agency and you are monitoring your website traffic and you’re concerned that you have a drop from a Monday to a Tuesday, don’t be! It happens literally all of the time. You will drive yourself or your agency partners crazy! Take a look at your traffic weekly or, better yet, monthly. Where Data Will Be In 2025 Who knows where data and privacy will go in 5 years! Our team sat down to give their thoughts on the subject! Roger I personally think its gonna go more of a direction of less privacy, not more. However, I think its gonna go in a way that is not malicious in intent. But I think that the benefits of being able to target ads to people will outweigh the cons. That’s with the caveat that people will be more responsible with their data and aren’t putting it in a position where it could be compromised. Tim C. Burke I think the data privacy bubble is going to burst. I think that people are going to realize that if it’s not used for malicious intent, that it is actually going to benefit their lives. You’re going to get the internet of things. Let’s say you have a smart refrigerator and it sees that you bought milk a week ago. Now you get served an ad for milk and you realize you need to buy more milk. Those types of technologies are going to open up and as long as the data isn’t used in the wrong way, it is only going to benefit the consumer. Rob The emphasis on brand and the emphasis on content are going to become immensely important. So if retargeting as we know it goes away, then you’re not going to be able to say, “Hey come back to my site, come back to my site, come back to my site.” The first time they are there they’ll need to find enough value to want to return back on their own. The 500-word blog or having a site just for the sake of it and chucking money at it, those days are going to be gone. It’s going to be good for everyone cause its gonna be focused on quality.

Jul 24, 2020 Facebook offers two options to receive official certifications to set yourself apart as a Facebook Certified Professional, one for buying and one for planning. Facebook Blueprint Certifications are the only certifications globally recognized by Facebook for advanced-level proficiency in the skills needed to advertise on their platform. If you are one of the few digital marketers not incorporating Facebook advertising into your campaigns, you’re missing out on advertising on one of the best social platforms. What is the Facebook Blueprint? Before we jump further into what these certifications entail, let’s first go into what Facebook Blueprint is. Facebook Blueprint is an online learning platform offering courses in Facebook and Instagram advertising aimed at marketing professionals. Launching in 2015, over two million people have enrolled in at least one of the 90 self-paced courses. Advertising on the world’s largest social media platform is no easy feat, if done correctly which makes these courses all the more valuable. The classes have a wide range of topics from everything you would wish to know about advertising on the platform like promoting an app or generating leads. There are eight core Blueprint exams that cover different aspects of Facebook marketing: Facebook Certified Digital Marketing Associate Facebook Certified Marketing Science Professional Facebook Certified Creative Strategy Professional Facebook Certified Media Planning Professional Facebook Certified Media Buying Professional Facebook Certified Marketing Developer Facebook Certified Advanced Marketing Developer Facebook Certified Advertising API Developer Partaking in these courses is a great way to enhance your Facebook advertising skills and set yourself apart from your competition. How Much Does The Facebook Certification Cost? Each exam can cost upwards of $150 US and certifies you for one year. The test itself is scored from 300 to 1,000, and you will need a 700 in order to pass. (Please keep in mind that these prices will vary depending on your country.) While these may seem like a hefty price tag, these certifications are the highest accreditation offered by Facebook. It shows the world that you fully understand the intricacies of Facebook advertising at an expert level. How Long Will It Take to Become Certified? If you are new to Facebook Advertising and want to pass the exam, we would suggest spending an hour or two per day, for at least 4-6 weeks. Actively is key here. Most of these courses can be taken within 10-15 minutes and all you will need is a Facebook to log-in to start! Are the Facebook Blueprint Classes/Courses Hard? While the tests are long, they are completely achievable and a realistic goal for anyone. If you are familiar with other certifications like Google Analytics or Google Adwords then you will understand that while challenging, still very possible to achieve. The proctored exams are challenging and require a sufficient amount of time spent studying the Blueprint Courses paired with extensive knowledge of both the Facebook Business Manager and the Ads Manager. The Blueprint Courses are designed to level-up your skills and help you prepare for the exams. They are the highest achievements you can earn in the eyes of Facebook due to the amount of commitment and dedication it takes to learn a particular set of skills. Why Should You Become Facebook Blueprint Certified? While you need to invest in time and money in earning your Facebook Blueprint Certifications, they are highly respected in the Social Media Marketing industry due to the difficulty of the exams and the secure testing environment. When you have a Facebook Blueprint Certified Professional managing your Social Advertising Campaigns, rest assured that your campaigns are in the hands of experts! Our analysts have the most advanced skill set and can help businesses successfully achieve their digital marketing goals and increase your social media ROI! Passing your exams and receiving your certifications as Facebook Planning and Buying Professional means you are endorsed by Facebook! You have mastered the ability to plan and buy Facebook ads while maximizing the potential of your campaigns. Passing your exams means you are in the top 1% of Facebook Experts! Facebook Certified Professionals achieve verified badges for their hard-earned certifications, which symbolizes knowledge and trust. Facebook continues to grow and evolve as part of an ongoing effort to improve user experience, transparency, and safety on their platform. At Conduit, all of our social media experts are Facebook Blueprint certified so you can be sure that your social campaigns are in the best hands!

Jul 16, 2020 One of the most exciting developments in Programmatic Advertising over the past few years has been the evolution of Geo-Fencing targeting. Technological advancements have led to unprecedented, precise levels of targeting that your client needs to take advantage of! While Geo-Fencing capabilities vary depending on the Demand-Side Platform you’re using – some are actually just targeting a 1-mile radius – our solution is accurate to within 5 meters and comes with unparalleled conversion tracking. What is Geofencing? Geofencing, in its simplest form, is a type of ad retargeting that targets a customer or potential customer with an ad when they fall within a predetermined diameter or distance from a business. Imagine that there is an imaginary fence built around your local shoe store. When you walk through the fence with a mobile device, this will trigger the action of sending push notifications to your device. These notifications can be about store promotions/discounts, restaurant deals, ride-sharing notifications and other information deemed useful to the consumer. The purpose of this type of advertising is to build brand awareness for your business and to also stay top of mind. So if a customer doesn’t convert that same day, serving ads to them afterwards may help increase the chance of conversion later on. How Effective is Geo-fence Targeting? Geofence targeting is by far one of the most effective means of digital advertising today. According to a 2018 geofencing survey, 53% of users say they have received and acted on an alert about a sale or promotion. With a conversion rate like that, it’s hard to imagine a reason why a business would not incorporate geofencing into their digital campaign. Our Agency Partner came to Conduit Digital looking for digital solutions to bring their client Casino Pier incredible success. With a yearly flash sale on Easter weekend for their customers, Casino Pier was looking to drive more sales with ½ priced for tickets to their rides and amusement park. The campaign was designed to focus on acquisition, advanced acquisition, brand awareness, and sales. With Geofence targeting being one of the driving forces in this campaign, our expert team was able to generate 164.5K mobile impressions in one county alone! This helped contribute to the 480% increase in their ROI for that year! Still don’t think that Geofencing is worth your time? Our team sat down to discuss the advantages of utilizing Geo-fencing in your digital marketing strategy. Why You Should Use Geo-Fencing 1. Conquering The Competition One of the most effective marketing concepts, conquesting works by targeting people who we know are in-market for relevant products/services since they are engaging in some way with your client’s competitors. In the case of Geo-Fencing, we are targeting people who have visited the competition’s physical locations – a tremendous advantage for clients in dozens of different industries! In one particularly strong example, we implemented a Geo-Fencing Conquest strategy for a regional Restaurant chain and targeted competitors within close proximity. Through our advanced conversion-tracking capabilities, we were able to show that people who saw our Geo-Fenced ads were a whopping 300% more likely to actually visit our client’s physical storefront! 2. Targeting The Needle In The Haystack While targeting the competition is straightforward enough, we’ve all had clients where it is much more difficult to pinpoint an in-market audience. Through Geo-Fencing, there are often ways that we can get your client’s ads in front of the right people, even in some of the most niche industries! One of our most frequent examples is B2B – many times there may not be high search volume for some of these services and it may be difficult to develop an impactful digital marketing strategy. However, we have seen success by Geo-Fencing Convention Centers hosting industry-related events, effectively getting your client’s ads in front of hard-to-reach users! 3. Demographic Targeting With Foot Traffic Attribution Lastly, we’ve also seen strong results by targeting demographically-relevant areas, as opposed to the industry-relevant locations discussed in the previous points. This can be a compelling strategy for clients who know the demographics of their target audience, as it offers the ability to track foot traffic which isn’t typically possible with traditional segment-based demographic targeting. While working with a high-end fashion retailer, for example, we were able to drive measurable foot traffic to their store by Geo-Fencing areas with a high concentration of wealthy people, such as Private Country Clubs and affluent neighborhoods. Utilizing geofencing targeting in your digital marketing strategy is a no brainer. The ability to build a “fence” around you or your competitors business in order to directly target those users will increase your overall conversion rate. People spend, on average, 27% of their life on the internet each year. Whether they’re shopping, researching products, or checking the score, our Programmatic Display & Native team ensures your client’s brand is there.

Jun 5, 2020 Conduit Digital understands how hard it is to stay on top of the latest trends and changes in digital marketing. With such a fast-paced, ever-changing landscape, it is more important than ever before to have a trusted digital partner who will not only employ cutting edge tactics and solutions but will help better educate your agency and your clients. Our CEO Tim Burke, Director of Client Experience Tim C. Burke, Director of Ad-Ops Rob Burke, PPC Manager Mike Gibson, and AT Manager Whitney Hoydis sat down to discuss the ways your agency can stay up to date and what to look for in a digital partner. Feed Your Head If you are an ad agency owner or run a digital agency, you know how important it is to keep up with your clients, their vertical, and the digital marketing agency as a whole. We are constantly looking for ways to feed our heads to make sure we are knowledgeable enough to help you are your clients. Importantly, this is not an age thing. No matter your age, you should and can constantly be looking for ways to stay up to date and remain knowledgeable in the space. Subscribing to daily blogs, vlogs, podcasts, and depending on the experts in the field is so important in this industry. To grow in this space is to keep abreast of what is going on. How We Do It Conduit Digital’s team is constantly looking for ways to feed our heads and nourish our noggins. One of the ways we accomplish this is by starting the day off with an industry-relevant podcast. For example, our Director of Ad-Ops Rob Burke listens to Gary Vee’s podcast every morning as a high-energy way of starting the day and staying informed. Gary Vee’s podcast is a great example of a podcast that focuses on the end user’s attention within the digital marketing industry. In fact, Conduit Digital had the honor of being featured on Gary Vee’s podcast following his exclusive visit to our headquarters! Set Your Agency Up For Success The best thing your agency can do is to set yourself up for success. Doing your due diligence of staying up to industry news empowers your agency to continue to deliver results for your clients. It helps to build trust and allow your clients to fully understand their campaigns and the industry. Subscribing to emails and newsletters, visiting websites and jumping on webinars will benefit your agency greatly. Dedicate around an hour of your day to cover emerging industry trends and continuing education. Seeing how the leaders in the space are innovating and doing things differently will enable you to take these tips and utilize them in your agency. It helps you to not only keep up to date on trends but to think differently about marketing. Being able to present complicated digital marketing tactics in a way that is easy for the client to digest is crucial to having good communication. Being able to make your clients understand exactly what they are purchasing helps to fix that communication problem. Have The Macro Down In order to deliver real results for your clients, you have to have the macro of digital marketing down. In other words, you have to know how products work together and recommend the best strategies and solutions. Once you understand how everything relates together, then you can start to dive deep into each product and understand them better on a micro-level. Understanding how many offerings there are, whether it is over-the-top-television, pre-roll, youtube, social, there are different benefits to running different products for your vertical. That is where agencies should put their focus. Have a Trusted Partnership While your agency focuses on digital trends at the macro level, it is important to have a trusted digital partner who understands the micro-level. Digital products are constantly changing. Even staying up to date on OTT alone can be a full-time job. Knowing when to enter certain spaces, staying up to trends, and being able to understand the micro-level will help your agency partnership thrive. Focus on maximizing immediate opportunities. Tried and tested product offerings create results for a reason: they work! Innovation lets us know what is possible. A trusted partner delivers what is probable. As Google Premier Partners, we get regular updates, data, and beta programs from Google. How you use that knowledge and access can present the most opportunities for your clients. Ask those questions to your digital partners and dig deeper to fully understand your product offering. How We Feed Our Head Our digital drivers are constantly looking for ways to feed our heads with the latest news and trends in the industry. Here are our Top 10 go-to ways to feed your head: CMO Podcast The CMO Podcast is not your typical marketing podcast, this is a unique look at the thought process and motivation of the CMO. LinkedIn Always a great place for business professionals, LinkedIn provides excellent insights and trends in their blogs and content. Moz Moz has unbelievable content for any level of SEO. No matter if you are a beginner or expert, they have the content you need. Google Discover Google Discover brings you a roundup of all of the content indexed by Google on the internet. No matter what you are looking for, you’ll find it here. AdWeek AdWeek is a great way to stay up to date on the digital landscape. Did you hear our parent company Traffic Builders was named the 21st fastest-growing agency in the world by AdWeek? The Digital Marketing Podcast The Digital Marketing Podcast covers everything from SEO technology to social platforms to process-based platforms. EMarketer As a premier publication, eMarketer is a great way to keep up with trends and data in the industry. Reddit There are subreddits (communities) for nearly anything in the digital space. Not only do you get to interact with your peers, you can stay up to date on the latest trends. Gary Vaynerchuck Gary Vee provides so much great insight into the digital marketing space. Listen to his visit to Conduit Digital’s headquarters! Blogs There are a lot of great blogs out there for digital marketers. Some of our favorites include blogs from WP Engine, flywheel, elegant themes, Hendrickson, and more! Conclusion When you are not staying up to date on the latest products, trends, and offerings, your clients are at risk of going elsewhere. Only by feeding your head on a macro level trusting your digital partner on the micro level, can you reduce your risk and provide your clients with a full-funnel solution. Using this method has enabled Conduit Digital to eliminate risk and decrease client churn! For more on Staying Up To Date On Industry News and Trends, as well as tips on surviving your biggest agency pain points in 2020, check out the rest of our content! We update and provide weekly valuable insight for just about every digital product!

Oct 7, 2021 Are Conversions Still the Right Way to Measure Digital Marketing Campaigns? “Conversion” is probably the most-used word in digital marketing. There are endless articles online that off opinions on what exactly is the “best way” to drive them for your client’s campaigns. Today, we’re going to take a clear-cut look at what a conversion is and what it should do. Then, we’re going to ask you an important question – Do standard conversion strategies really work for your clients? What is a Conversion in Digital Marketing? Our partners at Hubspot define the term “conversion” rather excellently: “A moment when a website visitor takes a desired action. Once a visitor converts, they become a lead.” Essentially, a conversion is a goal that a digital marketing campaign attempts to accomplish. When a user completes the action tied to that goal, they convert into a sales lead for your client. It’s important to know that there is no single type of conversion. A conversion can be anything from form fills to signing up for an email list or downloading an eBook. Regardless of what conversion you choose, it should offer these three key performance features: 1: Aligns with the Client’s Business The conversion strategy you choose should align with your client’s business goals. For example, if your client is a technology sales company, you may want to use a form-fill that can provide your client’s sales team with the information they need to effectively communicate with that lead. 2: Built Into a Highly Engaging Campaign If your digital campaign does not engage your target audience, they are not going to convert. The conversion method you choose should seamlessly integrate with all of the killer content, creatives, and targeting tactics that you’re building around it. After you’ve sold that user, completing the conversion action should feel like a no-brainer to them. 3: Measurable Performance Conversion assets should generate meaningful data that can be measured. These performance metrics can provide insight regarding whether or not the campaign needs future optimizations, budget increases, or other adjustments. Now Here’s The Real Question: Are Conversions the Best Way to Drive Winning Campaigns for Your Client? Digital marketing wisdom and all of the “digital gurus” on LinkedIn feeds will say that conversions are the most important metric. Now, is that based on what the client wants to actually accomplish for their business, or based on “expert opinions”? Here’s the harsh truth: As agency leaders, we can advise clients on what the “best” strategy is for their business. However, if they disagree with your opinion, they will start looking for a competing agency that can and will build campaigns that meet their own personal business goals. Introducing the New Way to Measure Performance: KPAs Beginning with the End in Mind Key performance actions (KPAs) tell a much more complete and objective story for your client’s campaigns. Rather than building toward an end-goal based on conventional wisdom, a KPA strategy starts by understanding what the client wants to accomplish for their business and reverse-engineering a campaign to generate audience actions that support that specific goal. Client-Specific Actions KPAs are all about building campaigns that meet the client’s needs rather than using conventional wisdom to determine what might be “best” for the client based on industry narratives. When your client feels that their digital investments are generating the actions they are looking for, this results in a much more satisfied client that is far more open to expanding their account with your agency. Insights for the Full Journey Unlike traditional conversion-built campaigns, KPAs will account for the complete scope of audience behavior during the campaign. Examining each aspect of audience engagement, you can generate more holistic insights and understand a more complete story of the buyer’s journey. This allows the advertiser to perform more impactful optimizations with objective data. KPAs bridge digital marketing with the real goals your client has for their business. For example, if your client is a downtown clothing store that wants to drive more foot traffic, a KPA campaign would start with that end goal and build a holistic solution around that. KPA’s in Action Let’s demonstrate an example of how a KPA-driven campaign would look in action. Your client is a successful software development company in the United States that builds B2B-targeted financial products. They want to increase their lead generation by 30%. After some thought, your agency decides that a paid search and an image-driven LinkedIn advertising campaign are the two best channels to support that goal. Your Paid Search and Paid Social analysts would work to build a campaign that supports the overall end goal: Increasing lead generation. Rather than arbitrarily determining a static conversion, the campaign would be designed to generate leads at all possible touchpoints and track these actions through a Live Report. After preparing the ad copy, shared landing page, creatives, budgets, and targeting strategies, both campaigns would go live. The Live Report would track all individual KPAs that are generated, which might include: Ad clickthroughs Sitelinks extension clicks (search) Ad likes (social) Ad shares (social) Ad comments (social) Form fills on the landing page CTA buttons on the landing page Video plays on the landing page Click-to-calls on the landing page or search ad Tracking all of these actions holistically can paint a more complete picture of how the client is succeeding at generating leads and where they need to optimize further. For instance, if they are generating a good amount of likes and comments on their LinkedIn ads, but most form fills are coming from search ads, this can generate multiple insights. The client may want to then increase their paid search budget to double down on what is working best, or you may decide that the LinkedIn campaign needs to further optimize its creative assets, ad copy, and targeting strategy. The end goal for this KPA campaign is to provide your client with a definitive “yes” or “no” answer, determined by data. Simply put, did the campaign accomplish what the client asked for? Let’s say that your finance software client’s campaigns have ended. You’re speaking with their CMO on the phone, and they ask you “did you increase our leads by 30%?”. Looking at the report, you see that they did increase by 31% with 25% of that coming from paid search. You can then say “yes, our team did increase your leads, with more than two-thirds coming from paid search.” The data might also indicate that most audience members first clicked on a Sitelink extension to your client’s “Product Demos” page on the website before filling out a contact form rather than clicking through to the landing page directly. For a future paid search campaign, you then might decide to build a new landing page with a heavier emphasis on product demos content. Similarly, you might also decide to develop a new social campaign with creatives that shine a brighter light on the software’s unique features in action through video. Drive the Audience Actions Your Client Actually Wants with KPAs At Conduit, we build each campaign for our partners’ clients around the KPA model. We believe this paints a more complete picture of the audience actions that clients truly care about. This results in more measurable, objective performance data that our agency partners can use to land and expand new and existing accounts. Your agency can start driving KPA campaigns, too. To learn more about how you can make our team part of your own, visit our Agency Partnership page.

Apr 29, 2020 Digital Marketing is a dynamic field in nature. As marketers, and especially here at Conduit, we are continually looking for ways to incorporate new emerging technologies to catalyst our ability to think ahead and form effective and data driven strategies around ever changing consumer trends. We also understand that sometimes, and increasingly more often, we find ourselves needing to tailor these strategies to conform to new laws and legislation that have profound effects on the ways in which we execute our digital marketing campaigns. Laws like HIPAA, COPPA, and the more recent GDPR to name a few, have resulted in a shift on how we are able to provide consumers with targeted digital marketing ads as well as set new guidelines on how to effectively run a digital marketing campaign. The California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, is the next groundbreaking legislation on this list and is being looked upon as the United States most comprehensive legislation on data privacy ever passed. Its purpose, in short, is to give California residents greater control over the ways in which their online data is collected, sold, and stored while also affording these users with a greater sense of transparency into how this information is being utilized by for-profit institutions. As digital marketers, we should all be aware of the effects this law will have on the ways in which we utilize data to build and execute targeted marketing campaigns. The purpose of this paper is to help shed more light on the CCPA. What exactly is it? How does it compare to other privacy regulations recently passed, and how it will affect marketers not only in California, but throughout the United States beginning in January 2020? It is also important to note that we are in no way, shape or form legal professionals and as such, this information should not be taken as professional legal advice. The Long Road To Privacy Regulation Throughout the last few years, the debate about user privacy has boiled up to a hot topic of debate following the famous Facebook – Cambridge Analytica scandal in which Facebook was found guilty of collecting the personal information of millions of users’ profiles without their consent, and subsequently utilized this data for political advertising. This event helped spark what is known as the “Great Privacy Awakening”. This ‘awakening’ describes the period when a large majority of internet users started to become aware of the fact that they really had no knowledge of how our personal data was being collected and utilized by these large corporations. This “awakening” was followed by a massive wave of support towards the push for greater privacy regulations aimed towards some of the worlds largest tech companies such as Facebook, Google, and Amazon. This support wave crashed on the shorelines of California on June 28th, 2018 when the California Consumer Policy Act was hastily signed into law, following in the footsteps of the European General Data Protection Regulation. What Exactly is The California Consumer Privacy Act? The CCPA is a groundbreaking Bill passed by the Government of California to promote greater transparency towards how a consumer’s personal data is being utilized. The policies outlined in the Bill are set to go into effect on January 1, 2020. These policies will afford citizens of California with four basic rights pertaining to their personal data: The Right to Opt-Out: All California citizens aged 17 and above will have the right to ‘opt-out’ of the sale of their personal data to third parties. As stated in the CCPA Bill, “A consumer shall have the right, at any time, to direct a business that sells personal information about the consumer to third parties not to sell the consumer’s personal information.” To ensure users are aware of their right to “opt-out” businesses must provide a clear and conspicuous link on the business’s Internet homepage, titled “Do Not Sell My Personal Information”. This link must direct users to an Internet Web page that enables a consumer, or a person authorized by the consumer, to opt-out of the sale of the consumer’s personal information. This “opt-out” law shifts to an “opt-in” law for users who are under the age of 16. For users between the ages of 13 to 16, they must provide authorization for the business to sell their data to a third party. For users under the age of 13, this authorization must be given by a parent or guardian. The Right to Be Forgotten While the “Right to Opt-Out” allows users to unauthorize the sale of their data to third parties, they also have the right to request that any business delete all personal data that they have collected directly from that consumer. The “Right to be Forgotten” must also be explicitly disclosed to all customers by the business in a “form that is reasonably accessible”. However, this is not as far reaching as the Right to Opt-Out, as businesses will not be required to comply with a consumer’s request to delete personal information if the request infringes on one’s right to free speech, or, if the data collected data is necessary to carry out the following: A business transaction for which the personal information was originally gathered, such as providing a good or service, or to execute a contract agreement between consumer and business. Detect security incidents such as any malicious or illegal activity, or to help prosecute the responsible party. Comply with a legal obligation Or, to utilize the data internally in activity that is reasonably aligned with the expectations of the consumer based on the consumer’s relationship with the business. The Right to Equal Service The CCPA also ensures that regardless of a consumer’s preferences to exercise their rights established within the Bill, a business cannot discriminate against any consumer. For example, a user who selects to opt-out of the sale of their personal data to a third-party, or who requests a business delete their personal information cannot be: Denied goods or services by that business Be charged a different price or rate for goods or services, including the use of discounts or other benefits or imposing penalties on said consumer. To be provided a different level of quality of goods or services Be suggested that they will receive different prices for goods or services or different quality of goods or services. The only instance in which a business is not obligated to abide by this article is if the quality or price of the good or service provided is directly correlated with the collection of a consumer’s personal information. The Right to Know Finally the CCPA offers all users the right to know what personal data is being collected and for what reason. The California Consumer Privacy Act states that, “A consumer shall have the right to request that a business that sells the consumer’s personal information, or that discloses it for a business purpose, disclose to that consumer:” The categories of personal information that the business collected about the consumer. Categories of personal information that the business sold as well as the categories of third-parties who received the information. The category or categories of information that were sold to a third-party. The categories of information that were disclosed for a business purpose. Furthermore, upon the receipt of a verifiable request of information by a consumer, the business must disclose and deliver, free of charge, all requested information within 45-days. The information disclosure must include all personal information collected by the business throughout the 12-month period prior to the receipt of request. These four basic rights create the framework for the legislation. But it’s important to distinguish that these rights do not apply to everyone, and the CCPA details exactly who is protected under these newly established rights. Who is Protected Under The CCPA And Will My Business Be Affected? The CCPA is a California Legislation that will protect the data privacy rights of all California consumers. A “consumer” is defined in the Bill as any “natural person who is a California resident”. An important distinction about the protections outlined in this Bill is that all residents of California are protected under the CCPA regardless of whether they are located within the state or not. So the same regulations apply to all California consumers regardless of their location including instances such as traveling out of state for business or leisure. This protection places a unique responsibility on businesses to refrain from the collection of personal data of any California resident at any place and time, which could lead to a strong reliance on unique identifiers such as user ID and IP addresses to ensure compliance with the legislations outlined in the Bill. In regards to which businesses are required to comply with CCPA guidelines, the CCPA will affect any for-profit business regardless of their physical location. Furthermore, any for-profit business that: Have annual gross revenues in excess of $25 million. Buys, sells, or receives the personal information of 50,000 or more California consumers, households, or devices. Collects fifty percent or more of annual revenue from the sale of consumers private information. will be subject to abide by the laws set by the CCPA. This will also include any business or entity that controls, or is controlled by another entity that meets the aforementioned criteria, or, who also shares common branding with said parent entity. This far-reaching definition aims to cover a broad range of businesses that may fall within the consumer data industry. Compliance has become a large area of focus throughout 2019 for businesses that will be held to the policies laid out by the CCPA. The enforcement of this new law, despite the challenges, can actually become a competitive advantage for early adopters. In an article by Mitratech, they mentioned that, “Research done after the imposition of the GDPR found 62% of UK consumers felt more comfortable sharing their personal information after it went into law. By showing they’re compliant, companies can get out in front of what’s become a seismic shift in consumer attitudes, where transparency is what drives trust”. Keeping along with this line of thinking, it is important that businesses get ahead of the curve when it comes to compliance to ensure that all t’s are crossed and i’s are dotted, as the law also has put in place stiff penalties for those who are found to be in violation of the California Consumer Privacy Act. What Are The Penalties For Non-Compliance With The CCPA? As with all laws, there have been severe monetary penalties put in place for those who neglect to become compliant with the regulations put in place by the CCPA. These penalties include a $3,500 fine for non-intentional violations and a $7,500 fine for what are deemed to be intentional violations of the CCPA. Any business that is found to be in violation will be given a 30-day grace window to rectify the violation upon receiving notification of their noncompliance. Additionally, the CCPA grants the right to citizens to put forward a class action lawsuit against any corporation in the instance of a data breach. These class-action lawsuits could result in the payment of between $100 and $750 per incident, or could be greater than $750 if the damages exceed that amount. How Does The California Consumer Privacy Act Compare To The European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)? The CCPA mirrors the European GDPR in many ways, mainly, in its objective to provide consumers with greater control over their personal information. The GDPR provides users with the same basic rights given by the CCPA which we previously touched upon, however, there are many distinct differences in how these laws are enforced, who is protected under these laws, as well as the penalties that are incurred by companies who are found to be non-compliant. Unlike the CCPA which explicitly offers protection solely to “consumers” who are natural persons (individuals) and residents of California, the GDPR’s protection is much further reaching and inclusive of all ‘data subjects’ who are natural persons, but does not specifically mention any guidelines in regards to necessary citizenship or residency within Europe. Another distinction between the two is that the GDPR protects information that can be linked to any specific ‘household’, while the CCPA concerns itself only with the data of specific ‘individuals’. Lastly, the GDPR requires compliance from all businesses, public bodies, institutions, and not-for-profit organizations while the CCPA only pertains to ‘for-profit’ organizations. As previously mentioned, the CCPA and the GDPR offer their constituents similar rights to greater data privacy. For businesses that may need to be dual-compliant, there are a few main similarities and differences that you should be aware of, as it pertains to these four basic rights. The Right to Opt-Out Both the CCPA and GDPR afford individuals with the right request that an organization refrain from the selling of their private data. However, the means in which these rights are exercised vary tremendously between the two legislations. As we mentioned, the CCPA offers the ability to “opt-out” of the sale of their personal data to a third party and is available through a link on the home-page of the business website titled “Do Not Sell My Personal Data”. All consumers must be made aware of the data that is being collected and the purpose of collecting that data. As long as those requirements are met, a business has the right to collect that information until a consumer independently chooses to exercise their right and “opt-out”. The GDPR on the other hand requires an “opt-in” to data collection from all users if the reason for the data collection does not fall under one of several legal categories for which the data would be necessary, including: To execute a contract with the individual, for example, to supply goods or services that the individual has requested, or to fulfill obligations under an employee contract When data collection is necessary for any type of legal compliance Vital interests, or when the data collected is utilized to preserve one’s physical integrity or life Since the GDPR has gone into effect we have seen examples of this opt-in policy enforced on business domains that utilize cookie tracking in the form of a “cookie banner”, which requires that a user accepts or declines that specific websites data collection policy before entering the site. The Right to Be Forgotten Again, the CCPA and GDPR each offer consumers the right to request the deletion of all personal information that has been collected, and/or sold to a third party, which has been the focus of a lot of businesses who have previously not had a good handle on thies data after it has been distributed or sold. Unlike the CCPA which does not define the scope in which a consumer request may be made and does not require a consumer to justify his or her reasoning for a request to be forgotten, the GDPR only allows for the deletion of consumer data if and only if: Consent is withdrawn, and there is no other legal reasoning for the continuation of the collection of personal data, or, If the data is no longer needed for the original purpose for which it was collected Several differences also lie in the time frames to which a business must respond to a request to private data deletion. The GDPR requires a business to respond to the consumer within 1 month of receipt of a qualifying request for deletion. This is considerably shorter than the CCPA which requires a business to respond within 45 days. The Right to Equal Service Consumers who fall under the protection of the GDPR and CCPA are provided protection against discrimination of services based on their decision to exercise their rights towards data privacy and protection. However, the GDPR is less specific as it does not explicitly define the scope in which users are protected from discriminatory action based on these preferences. The language within the Bill does state that regardless of their choice consumers should be processed ‘fairly’. While there is no exact definition for what ‘fair’ processing entails under this Bill, the focus remains on ensuring that regardless of one’s choice to opt-in or not they cannot receive different treatment as it pertains to the receipt of goods and/or services. The Right to Know The final commonality between the four main rights provided in both the CCPA and GDPR is the consumers right to know what private data is being collected, and why. This also includes a consumers right to request full disclosure of exactly what data is being collected, along with any third-parties who have received their data. The main distinction between the two lies in the specific length of time that the disclosure report must cover. The rights outlined by the GDPR apply to all personal data that has been collected from the consumer making the request, meaning that, that specific consumer must be made aware of all personal data collected by the business. Included in their response must also be information regarding the period of time in which that data was retained by the business, information relating to the consumers right to file a complaint, as well as any data transfers that occured with that specific individuals data. This policy drastically contrasts the rights outlined within the California Consumer Privacy Policy which has a much shorter reach, and pertains only to data collected within the 12-month period prior to the request. What is Considered Private Information By The CCPA and GDPR? Now that the groundwork has been laid in regards to both the CCPA and the European GDPR, there has been a lot of emphasis put on ‘private information’, and ‘personal data’ but what exactly does that include? Unfortunately, the answer is not as black and white as one would hope, and the definition is up for interpretation in both the Californian and European privacy regulation bills. As has been written within the California Consumer Privacy Act, personal information is defined as, “information that identifies, relates to, describes, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household. Personal information includes, but is not limited to, the following if it identifies, relates to, describes, is capable of being associated with, or could be reasonably linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household” This information includes identifiers such as real name, alias, postal address, unique personal identifiers such as IP address, email address, account names, social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, passport numbers, or other similar identifiers. Similarly the European Commission defines ‘personal data’ as any information that relates to an identified or identifiable living individual. Different pieces of information, which collected together can lead to the identification of a particular person, also constitute personal data and follows this with similar examples as listed in the CCPA. These loose definitions of key pieces of information make it increasingly difficult for businesses to gain a firm grasp on the steps they need to take in order to ensure full compliance with the CCPA and GDPR. What's Next For Privacy Regulations In The United States? The California Consumer Privacy Act is slated to go into effect on January 1, 2020. Since its approval, many other states have made a push to pass their own versions of online privacy law to help give more rights to consumers in regards to their private data. Nevada has followed suit with the passing of the “Nevada Senate Bill 220 Online Privacy Law”, which requires businesses to offer consumers the right to opt-out to the sale of their personal information to third-parties, much like the requirements listed in the CCPA. Similarly, Maine and New York are two states that have also made efforts to pass stricter privacy laws for their citizens. With the inevitable continuation of state-by-state legislation, hopefully soon will come a day where our Government can push for a federal law to help give equal privacy rights to all citizens of the United States, as it will start to become increasingly difficult for businesses to be compliant with all individual state laws as it pertains to the preservation of online privacy. What Does The CCPA Mean For Digital Marketing? As a marketer, the biggest question we can ask is how will the CCPA affect the industry and the way in which we are able to execute a targeted marketing campaign? And the short answer is that there is no way to know right away. Putting into perspective the guidelines laid forth by the CCPA, we can only speculate the number of users who may decide to exercise their right to opt-out of the sale of their personal data. We can also only speculate as to what effect this would have on digital marketing, but as leaders in the space we will continue to be on top of the changes that are brought along with the enactment of the CCPA beginning in January of 2020. But let’s think about this for a minute. For years, companies have been heavily reliant on consumers granting access to location data from their personal devices, despite any skepticism in regard to what that information is being used for. It is an important trade off that a majority of consumers are willing to accept, we give information about ourselves to help provide businesses with the ability to give us a greater ‘user experience’. It is no secret that data and technology help facilitate meaningful and mutually beneficial relationships between consumer and business, and we speculate that this view will not change based on the regulations passed in the California Consumer Privacy Act. But what if a large majority of users begin to opt-out of the sale of their personal data? From what has been outlined in this paper, it is easy to see that all forms of Behavioral targeting will be greatly impacted by the CCPA, as access to third-party private data becomes severely limited as users begin to opt-out. So where would this leave us? We speculate that digital marketing will start to see a larger shift towards utilizing first-party data, as well as a shift in focus towards contextual targeting to reach one’s ideal audience. Along with this shift to contextual targeting will most-likely be a transition from Open Exchanges to Private Marketplaces or PMPs. This transition will create high demand from marketers to secure inventory that is contextually relevant to the good or service that is being advertised without the utilization of behavioral data such as keyword searches, geo-fencing data, and other online site browsing activity for insight and access to their ideal user. While these are just speculations, it is important to think about the various possibilities that await the industry on the other side of 2019. In Conclusion The California Consumer Privacy Act is only the beginning of privacy regulation in the United States. As we have seen, these regulations aim to help give greater control to consumers over their personal data, how it is shared, collected, stored, and sold. Here at Conduit and as a leader in the Digital Marketing space, we will continue to analyze the impact that the CCPA has on the industry, and share how we are continuously staying ahead of the curve to ensure that we continue to provide high performing marketing campaigns for our industry partners in 2020 and beyond.

Oct 14, 2021 Welcome to Agency Talk It started with Marcus and Tim saying “You know what would be really good? If we had a show together.” Fast-forward almost a year later, and they’ve finally made it happen! We’re excited to share with you AgencyTalk: The ultimate podcast for digital agency leaders and decision-makers. Each episode, Marcus Murphy (CEO, The Five Percent) and Tim  Burke (CEO, Conduit Digital) dive deep into the most pressing pain points that digital agencies are dealing with on a day-in, day-out basis. Watch the Intro to AgencyTalk: Actionable Ideas Only! No Theoretical Musings. No Ivory Towers. AgencyTalk isn’t a typical, buttoned-up marketing podcast. Instead, it’s a very real look at in-the-trenches topics based on Tim’s hundreds of conversations with agency leaders around the world. Marcus and Tim want to build a tribe of listeners who share a passion for agency growth and want to create opportunities for themselves. Each week, they’re going to offer listeners actionable ideas that they can implement at their own agency to build toward their goals for scale. Why Start AgencyTalk? Marcus and Tim both believe agencies are the backbone of a business. Anytime a business launches a successful marketing campaign, there’s often an incredible agency team behind it. Agency owners often feel like they’re the only people who think about their business at the end of the day. They invest so many hours of their lives thinking about their clients’ companies, and it can feel isolating when it seems like you are the only person who cares as much as you do about your own brand. That changes with AgencyTalk. This is a podcast by agency leaders for agency leaders hosted by two people that love your craft as much as you do. What to Expect from AgencyTalk Marcus and Tim are going to cover a wide spectrum of topics that directly impact agency decision-makers. These can include subjects like: Managing capacity during one of the greatest hiring shortages in American history Mastering trending digital tactics to drive measurable results for your client’s campaigns What to do when those client red-alert moments happen at your agency Scaling your agency (profitably!) And many, many more! How to Tune In AgencyTalk will be available on YouTube as well coming soon to all major audio streaming platforms. Watch, listen – it’s your choice!