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May 31, 2023 Come July 1, 2023, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) will supersede Universal Analytics (UA) as the standard analytics platform offered by Google. UA will disappear shortly after, and with it, valuable data that many marketers have relied on for previous campaigns. That is unless you take the steps now to prepare for the migration. To prepare for GA4’s arrival, we are going to cover exactly what you need to know to ensure a smooth migration. First, let’s talk about why the best day to implement GA4 was yesterday but today is a very close second. Why is It Important to Activate GA4 ASAP? GA4 does not have historical data. Therefore, this should be treated as a fresh start or a much-needed refresher for accounts. Your insight and analysis are only as good as the data you have. Ensuring your data is clean, tangible, and functional is crucial. For some accounts, the UA property has been set up for years. It has seen many iterations of changes from new websites, new marketing channels, and revised priorities and goals - some of which are no longer relevant. Think about it. If you moved into a brand new home, would you take the bag of slimy lettuce from the back of your fridge that you swore up and down you’d make a salad out of a month ago to your new home? We’re hoping you’re shaking your head no. So treat your new GA4 property in the same way and clean up your events! While UA accounts will eventually disappear, there is still time to configure your migration. To help marketers currently using UA, Google has offered an automatic migration to allow current accounts to maintain data continuity. However, it’s not a perfect science, and Google even recommends that you configure your GA4 account manually. Opt Out of Automatic Migration To ensure that you can maintain a continuous level of measurement prior to the July 1st deadline, Google has been automatically opting IN all accounts by default to be automatically migrated to GA4. This would copy over applicable Universal Analytics configurations unless you opt out of this service. Google themselves strongly recommends not relying on this auto-migration, but rather configuring your GA4 manually. The two primary reasons for this being: Not all UA configurations have obvious GA4 counterparts The automated process may not make the same choices you would - causing things to get missed, removed, or no longer be relevant. If you have already created a GA4 property, the auto-migration will copy over any configurations from UA that you have not marked as ‘completed’ in your GA4 Setup Assistant panel, unless you opt out. If you opt out, the toggle in UA should be gray to the left. You are opted in if your toggle is blue to the right. If it is gray to the right, that means you do not have the permission to edit this setting. Important Reminder: Auto Migration is done at the property level. Meaning, if you have multiple properties within your UA Account, you will need to opt OUT of every applicable property you do NOT want migrated. What if I didn’t opt out in time? Google has already begun creating these automatic GA4 properties for those that are opted IN. An easy way to tell if this has been done for you is if you see this red header in your GA4 property. If you want to manually configure your GA4 settings OR Google automatically created a property you did not want to migrate, follow these steps: 1. In your UA property, click Admin (lower left) 2. In the Property (middle) column, click GA4 Setup Assistant. 3. Under Connected Property, click Disconnect 4. Navigate to the GA4 property that was disconnected, click Admin (lower left) 5. Under Property, navigate to Property Settings (second option) 6. Select Move to Trash Can in the upper right a. Note: you cannot delete this GA4 property if it is still connected to UA. You must disconnect the properties first b. Also, be sure you are deleting the property not the account. 7. Confirm. Do I Still Need to Opt Out if I Already Created a GA4 Account? This will depend per account. Some accounts will prefer to manually configure all settings - in this case you will still want to opt OUT in UA. If you are looking for some, but not all configutations to be automatically copied over, you will want to continue to be opted IN and follow these steps: In your GA4 property, navigate to Admin (lower left) In the Property (middle) column, click GA4 Setup Assistant. It's the first option. Mark the configurations that you don’t want copied over as complete Click the arrow to the right of the configuration Mark as Complete Repeat step 3 as necessary for each configuration If you have created your GA4 account already and want some configurations are auto-migrated, be sure the two accounts are linked. You can do this by Navigating to the UA property, under Admin > Property Settings > GA4 Setup Assistant In the I want to connect to an existing Google Analytics 4 property section, select the Google Analytics 4 property that maps to your Universal Analytics property. Click Connect properties. All information regarding how this auto-migration process works can be found here. Please note, it is recommended to manually configure your GA4 property. There’s Still Time to Beat the GA4 Clock - Let’s Get to Work! When you’re in the middle of navigating the neverending chaos that comes with every digital channel always seeming to update their platforms at once, it can be tough to know the right direction to take. With the timed sunsetting of UA, the urgency only magnifies. Instead of waiting for the inevitable, take charge of your clients’ data destiny and set them up the right way before July 1. To ensure a smooth transition, you can also ask your partner for help. For you, we may be that partner. At Conduit Digital, we serve as the elite white label digital ad operations solution for established and successful local ad agencies in North America. Lean on our team of Google Analytics experts to assist you in navigating to GA4 while also setting up your client’s organic and paid digital campaigns to reach new levels of performance you never thought possible before. To learn more about how we can assist your agency, schedule a quick call with us today.

Nov 11, 2022 During this year’s Web Summit in Portugal, advertising icon Martin Sorrell predicted that 2023 will prove a difficult year for advertisers and marketers. With many global events affecting international economic relations and tech giants like Meta experiencing financial downturns in late 2022, the evidence can create some white-knuckle stress for agencies. While we are not in the business of financial or political sector commentary, it can’t be ignored that happenings in these spaces can affect clients’ businesses which, in turn, affects your agency. In a period that could create a recession or have consumers holding onto more of their money instead of spending it, agency leaders need to discover new strategies to communicate their immense value to their local markets. Thankfully, Sorrell didn’t just finish his talk by saying that 2023 appears challenging for advertisers and marketers. He also followed up with some suggestions for navigating what might become a trying twelve months ahead. Advertising Strategies for 2023 Speaking to AdWeek at Web Summit, Sorrell said that the path forward in times of recession is focusing on performance, activation, measurement, media mix, and return on investment. How can we translate these pillars to an agency’s day-to-day operations, though? Let’s break them down one by one. Performance Transparent proof of performance is essential for agencies to build their reputation, continue landing new accounts, expand existing ones, and ultimately scale. When you can provide your client with tangible evidence of results from their investment in your services, that increases their confidence in their decision to partner with you in growing their own business. If a client is feeling the financial strain of a recession, they will likely not be willing to spend on digital campaigns that are not producing results that help them generate more revenue. Keeping this in mind, agencies must provide hard data that explains how their campaigns are benefitting the client’s business as well as contextual insights to explain the why behind it. Measurement Measurement involves tracking the right metrics to gauge a campaign’s performance by assigning the appropriate value to them. Once your team has outlined the goals for the campaign, are you gathering all of the proper data? Beyond your client’s stated advertising goals, think of any that might also add value to their campaign. Present them to the client, communicate any potential budget adjustments they might require, and determine if they are doable or if they should be the focus of a separate campaign in the future. Performance and measurement represent two different sides of one coin. For a campaign to best perform, the right metrics need to be collected and carefully analyzed. With this information in hand, you can make more informed decisions on future optimizations, adjustments, and strategic pivots to work toward your client’s goals. Activation Activation refers to marketing a business’s product, service, or brand to a target audience. In the traditional sense, this could take the form of an in-store event or an appearance at an industry trade show. Since digital does not involve an in-person element other than the audience member physically using the device the ad was served on, how can you incorporate activation into a digital campaign? With a digital campaign, you can track a wide range of offline behaviors that can be measured to gauge campaign performance. For example, with Google Ads and Analytics, offline conversions can be tracked if someone had visited your client’s store within a certain period of time after viewing an ad. The digital promotion they received inspired that individual to visit the store in person. For digital activation to succeed, the audience member must interact with your client’s business as a result of experiencing the ad. Beyond in-store visits, other ways to reach them can also include conversion-optimized landing pages, surveys, contact form fills, and other similar actions that require manual input. Media Mix A media mix strategy combines all of the possible digital and traditional channels that someone could reach your client’s business and engage with them further. Offering a single service or a narrow range of solutions will limit their reach to desirable audiences and also create a gap in offerings between your agency and local competitors. Campaigns that adopt a holistic approach to digital advertising and marketing can capture a greater share of qualified audiences. For example, if your client is an online outdoor sporting goods retailer that wants to promote a special on fishing rods, you could reach a wide range of potential shoppers with a media mix strategy that includes: Paid search – to insert shopping ads directly Google search results for users that have indicated an interest in fishing by their online behavior. SEO – to drive qualified organic traffic to content on the client’s websites consisting of users that want to know more about fishing and fishing gear. Paid social – to inject an in-app shoppable ad into a qualified user’s feed that showcases the fishing gear that your client is offering a promotion for. Programmatic advertising – to insert dynamic image and video ads directly in front of viewers while they’re consuming their favorite content related to fishing or outdoor recreation. Organic social content – to engage with the store’s followers that want to stay up to date on the latest releases and learn more about fishing gear. All of these channels can then direct users to your client’s website where they can quickly browse and purchase products that interest them. If one of these were omitted, an entire customer base could remain unaware of the incredible discount your client is offering. Return On Investment Lastly, but far from least important, ROI matters for clients who are investing hard-earned revenue back into their digital campaigns. Are they earning more than they’ve spent on your services? Reporting provides the transparent performance data needed to gauge whether a campaign is performing exceedingly well, as expected, or underperforming. If the results are underdelivering from an ROI perspective, this can create a productive discussion with the client where you could introduce a new strategy, revisit one that may have been previously rejected, or optimize the current campaign further to move users further along the conversion path. Putting it All Together Now that you know Martin Sorrell’s pillars for marketing in 2023, how can you achieve them at your own agency? Many agencies today are still experiencing many of the same struggles that they did in 2019 when the world hit pause. From hiring and retaining qualified talent to expanding services and developing new business, it can seem difficult to hit all of these five pillars simultaneously without at least one of them on the back burner more than the others. To distill everything above into a few simple takeaways, here are some principles to keep in mind when strategizing for the year ahead: 1. Double down on performance for your clients and prove it with reporting 2. Make sure you are tracking the right metrics that are necessary to support performance 3. Prioritize the ad experience for your campaigns and optimize them to encourage conversions from audiences 4. Offer the most complete suite of services possible to attract new clients and retain and expand existing ones 5. Prioritize ROI and/or Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) as the chief goal for your client’s campaigns If you are concerned about how your agency can hit these objectives in 2023, it may be time to consider joining forces with a performance partner. At Conduit Digital, we partner exclusively with successful and established agencies throughout North America to equip them with a full suite of digital marketing services managed 100% in the U.S. by a team of certified expert analysts. We bring the performance, hands-on implementation, industry best practices, and 24/7 live reports that you need to stabilize your internal operations and say “yes” to better opportunities with confidence. To learn more about what a Conduit Partnership looks like, schedule a 20-minute call today.

Jun 19, 2020 If you are sharing content across social media on behalf of a business and pinning your success on whether you go viral and not on social media ROI, chances are you will be deeply disappointed. Asking clients to invest in time-consuming creative and expensive videos is not a responsible request unless you have a clear plan for how to connect that creative with the right audience and convert their interest into results. You can balance campaigns that are focused on new customer acquisition by infusing creative into the mix that invites prospects further down the funnel and elevates conversion rates. By expanding your scope beyond brand awareness campaigns, you can also increase your agency billings with creative that is more directly attached to results. What Is the ROI of Social Media? ROI stands for “return on investment” and is key to securing buy-in and budget for your social media strategy. Using this will allow you to know whats working and whats not, in order to shift your focus and better allocate resources to what is. In general, social media ROI refers to the sum of all of social media actions that generate value. Its important to know the ROI of your social campaign because if you don’t measure the success of your actions, you wont know whats working. How is Social Media ROI Calculated? Learning how to calculate ROI can open many doors for you and your agency. Social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are great for building your business’s online presence but lack the capabilities for measuring actions, costs and results. Before you calculate ROI, you need to know your campaign goals and KPI’s. Knowing what your goals are will help you focus on what you want to measure. Once we know what the client’s goals are, how do you measure ROI? If you were measuring ROI by revenue, for example, you could use this simple formula: Revenue/Investment(work hours, ad budget, etc) X 100= social media ROI (represented as a percentage). So, if you made $1,000 in revenue from social media on a $500 investment, your profit is $500 (remember: profit = revenue – investment). And then your calculation would be: $500 profit / $500 investment X 100 = 100% return on your investment. There isn’t one set formula when calculating return on investment, so you can use these other common social ROI formulas for your agency. So now that you know how to calculate ROI for your social media campaigns, how to you make sure to deliver on those campaigns? Although there is no cookie-cutter template for social success, below are tactics our social media team executes when creating a complete social strategy. These tips will help you create a campaign that is measurable and delivers a return on investment for your clients. Personalized Retargeting The easiest people to convert into a sale are those that have already expressed an interest. With retargeting ads, you can reach people that visited specific pages on a website and invite them back to learn more or to complete a purchase. If you are investing in expensive paid search ads or utilizing programmatic to generate traffic, you can elevate conversions for those campaigns by directing personalized retargeting ads to consumers across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more. These relevant social ads can invite consumers back to your website to generate a lead or complete a sale. For those that are running TV buys, which will either spike your Google searches or drive more direct traffic to your website, you can create content that invites people back to buy after they do their initial research. With the ability to segment retargeting ads and create social experiences that are tailored to specific age groups, genders, interests or other attributes, you can deliver personalized remarketing ads that are unique to every service or product that a consumer looked at on a website. Since these retargeting creatives can pay off dividends every day throughout the year, you can justify the increased creative costs by delivering results whenever a new customer is ready to buy. Custom Audiences Are King Facebook advertising is unbelievably powerful. One of the best tactics to consider building creative campaigns around is Custom Audiences. If you have a database of leads that have been generated, warranty registrations, email lists, or a CRM full of people that have already made a purchase, you can deliver tailored ads to those audiences. Since most social media services require an email and phone number to sign up, the lists you have can be matched with an account so that you can deliver a custom ad. By running social media targeting ads to people that have already expressed an interest by filling out a lead form or have already bought before, you can drive more sales for your clients. With micro creative campaigns that are personalized to specific lists and segments within, you can drive more repeat business and convert leads into transactions. You can also utilize Custom Audiences with Facebook to retarget people that watched your video or engaged with your content, which opens up endless opportunities to build upon your brand awareness campaigns. If you start off your social campaign with a shiny new commercial, you can follow-up with a sequence of ads that further educate consumers on your offering and guide them toward taking action. You can also narrow the focus to target people that watched all of the video, as well as apply layers of demographic and psychographic data to narrow your focus to those most likely to buy. If you find that women, age 18-24, have a higher rate of conversion, you can narrow your focus to people that watched your video and fall into that demographic bracket. Social advertising is profoundly powerful by itself, and when combined with first-party data you can unlock unparalleled opportunities to deliver personalized advertising experiences. Lookalike Audiences Existing customers have unique attributes that extend far beyond age groups, genders, and generic interests. By tapping into Lookalike Audiences, which is one of the best advertising tactics to deploy across Facebook and Instagram, you can reach people that are similar to your followers. With algorithms and machine learning mechanisms that are able to dive deep into the unique interests and behaviors of an existing clientele, these platforms can gain a deep understanding of what makes this audience unique and find people that act in a similar fashion. Which audience you decide to replicate is also important. You might not want to simply reach people that are similar to your followers, you might want to reach people that are similar to people that have actually bought from you before. By combining Lookalike Audiences with Custom Audiences, you can reach those that are just like your customers. Focusing on the people that are most likely to buy will help expand the scope of success with your social campaign. Always Be Iterating With Split Testing Many creative shops bill by the deliverable or by the hour, whether that be banners created or videos produced, and split testing is the greatest thing that happened for many creatives. With social advertising campaigns, the most important thing you can do is create multiple versions of the same ad in order to enhance performance. Unlike TV where you just have one spot and hope it works out, with social advertising you can test different images, various videos, and sets of conversion-oriented copy to see which ones inspire the highest conversion rates. Although your instincts will likely be correct as to which one will drive the best results, you can add scientific methods of testing to confirm those suspicions with real audiences. By testing your campaigns to see which creatives yield the best results, you can see what works and optimize your efforts to deliver the best results possible for your clients. Maximize Your Social Return With the unlimited possibilities available today within the social media ecosystem, the need for a large quantity of high-quality creative is only increasing. When you no longer have to worry about producing creative that speaks to everyone, you can focus on designing personalized brand experiences that speak to the individual. By implementing advanced targeting, retargeting, Custom Audiences, and constantly refining your approach, you can prove that your creative delivers measurable social media ROI.

Jun 25, 2020 When you think of social media, what you use it for, and what it was originally intended for, what comes to mind? I bet it isn’t advertising (although, some would argue that is exactly what it was intended for)… It is most likely social media engagement, meaningful connections, and people. That is, after all, why it’s called “social” media. While engagement is important for many people on social media, is it the same for agencies trying to deliver on a client’s campaign? As advertisers, should we measure the success of a campaign based solely on the engagement our ads receive? What Is Considered Engagement On Social Media? Social media engagement can be classified as measuring the amount of public likes, comments and reactions a post receives. Engagement has long been measured as a metric used to determine a campaigns performance. As we progress further into the digital age, the way we look at metrics and campaign performance changes. Now, many advertisers do not use engagement as a metric for success because the amount of likes a post receives does not directly correlate to the number of sales. With that being said, should you even focus on the engagement levels your post receives? How Important is Engagement on Social Media? No matter what the goal of your campaign is, engagement will always be important, just not necessarily in the way you may think. Its an inescapable truth that consumers are paying attention to their social media accounts for as long as 2 hours a day. Social media is more than just the number of likes you have on your Facebook page, although it does play into how your brand will be perceived by other online. Having social media accounts offers social proof that your brand exists and is legitimate. If someone visits your page and sees high number of followers, likes and comments, thats the same validation to a consumer that a celebrity endorsement would make. Social Media engagement also offers more of a marketing reach with fewer dollars. Just think of a recent video you saw online that amassed a bunch of views. Some videos receive millions of views at a time and for advertisers, reaching that large of an audience would be very costly. But thanks to social media, you can increase brand awareness fairly easily and for a relatively cheap price depending on the content. If just one person shares it, it can reach everyone in their network, and if someone in that network shares it, it continues to spread. Social Advertising Is Evolving As social has evolved, brands have discovered the infinite possibilities it offers. The brands that excel at social media understand that, yes while it is essential for advertising, it is also a channel for two-way communication. A direct outlet to connect first hand with customers, while providing an opportunity to humanize their brand. Research shows that customers prefer social care as their top choice for customer care. If they are unhappy about something, they can tweet at or message you right away. If they are ecstatic about something, they can rave about your product/service to their friends and family. Conversely, if a brand is not there to catch a complaint and resolve it, a consumer can drag their good name through the mud, we see this all the time, especially in the service industry (hello Facebook township groups!) How Engagement Helps Brands By engaging with customers on social, brands can listen to what their target audience is saying straight from the source. What are their needs, wants, and interests? How can they help solve their consumers’ problems, or how can they improve their service or products? So why do brands, on average, take 10 hours to respond to a customer when they complain on social media? “As soon as customers decide to engage with your business on social media, they’re essentially putting trust into your brand to solve their problem.” By not engaging, you’re not only telling your audience that you’re not present, but that you don’t want to provide additional avenues for communication. Why Some Advertisers Are Against Engagement On the other side of this conversation, industry leaders, and Facebook itself argue that engagement has practically zero correlation to ROI and business objectives. There are many reasons for this, but the one that consistently comes to my mind is that not everyone who is on social, reading content and scrolling, is engaging with the material. Regardless if the social media content was targeted and personalized for that specific audience, some people do not engage with content as much as you would hope. I like to call them lurkers, but that is probably not the politically correct term. Social media engagement should not be the only metric used to determine the success of your campaign. If you really want to increase your social media ROI, there are a few others ways to do so. Mark Schaefer puts it plain and simple in his blog Social Media Engagement is a Lousy Metric, “To be clear, nearly everyone who hires me is a fan of some form of my content — this blog, The Marketing Companion podcast, my marketing books. But almost no one has ever engaged with me on social media. The strangers are the ones who are sending me the paychecks.” What this statement tells us, is that engagement, while not a business strategy by itself, can be a very important piece of the puzzle in the big picture. As marketers, we should be trying all efforts to boost our overall business goals, engagement included! How can social engagement contribute to our success? Some examples of goals that engagement can aid are; customer or client acquisition, brand awareness, recruiting, and B2B relationship development. Thinking of Engagement Objectively If we think of engagement in terms of our objective, it can help us hone in on where we put our efforts. Liking, commenting on, and responding to every single engagement can be daunting. Knowing which interaction would be most valuable to the big picture can give a clearer vision, as well as save us from wasting resources, time and money. Have a game plan. Which type of actions and comments would be the most valuable to your business? Some things to consider when you begin to build an engagement plan are: Where are you seeing the most engagement? On which platforms? You need to be where your audience is, not where you want them to be. Be real with the amount of time and level of engagement your business can sustain. If you are doing it on your own, how much time in your day can be spent engaging before it hinders your real work? What is your industry, how conversational are you, and how would that affect how much time is spent engaging? Will you need to hire someone, or will you have a dedicated time block each day? For example, if you are a ski resort, you probably have a ton of engagement. As opposed to a personal injury lawyer who may not have as much social engagement for obvious reasons. The debate is hot and clients are consistently inquiring how likes, comments, and shares relate to their business. What are your thoughts on social media engagement? Are we wasting our time on engagement or missing out on tremendous opportunities?

Aug 22, 2023 In the agency world, there are few worse feelings than hitting a plateau or having to tell a client “no” when they ask for specific services, but your current scope is holding you back from fulfilling them. As we’ve said many times before in previous articles, if you cannot offer a digital marketing service that your client is asking for, chances are another agency can and will. After reading that, you might think, “I’d love to offer every agency service under the sun, but there’s just not enough talent or resources in my market to make it happen.” That’s fair, and it’s not an uncommon issue that we discuss in the hundreds of conversations with agency leaders that we talk to each year. Frankly, as difficult as it can be to find the right clients, it can be similarly challenging to hire the right talent or access the necessary resources to provide a service that your client keeps mentioning at their last few account check-in calls with your team. This boils down to two major obstacles that your agency might be facing when it comes to the scope of marketing services you can offer to your clients: lack of capabilities and inexperience. So, how can you overcome these without overstretching your in-house resources? There are three possible paths forward, and we’ll break them down for you in a good, better, best format so you can decide which one makes the most sense for your agency. Good: A Software Platform Look online and you’ll find no shortage of software companies claiming that their solutions are what your agency needs to elevate your client services to the next level. Some of them are handy in a pinch, and they offer a wide range of capabilities. As much promise as a platform might offer, they do not come without their drawbacks. Platforms could be limited in their own scope of marketing capabilities, and they do often require some pre-existing expertise in a specific area to maximize their value. Without that expert overseeing the use of the platform, are you also able to guarantee the quality of its work? While it might seem like an opportunity to scale your service offerings, trusting in software alone can also create massive risk when it comes to delivering something of quality that your client will be satisfied with. For example, if you’re using a generative AI tool like ChatGPT to tackle your content marketing, can you be confident in what it’s producing if you do not already have a skilled copywriter on hand to quality-check its work? Platforms are best utilized when an expert is using them, which can become a challenge if you’re lacking that expertise in-house. Learn More: How to Use AI Content Generation Better: A Vendor In the scope of marketing, a vendor is someone who provides a third-party service for your agency in exchange for a fee. Oftentimes, these individuals possess expertise in a single channel and will deliver a specific set of services. Look at a platform like Fiverr. These are filled with vendors offering to provide you with a specific lists of tasks in exchange for their listed price. Vendors may be a suitable alternative to an in-house hire, as it will not necessarily matter where they are located. You will not have to go through the same hiring process and you will not have to furnish any costs beyond what is mutually agreed upon. However, vendor costs can add up, and if you’re using multiple vendors for multiple channels, stabilizing these expenses and unifying your strategy becomes more difficult. It’s like constantly trying to catch multiple fish with your bare hands instead of using a net. Lastly, vendor quality can be tricky to gauge. A vendor is only obligated to fulfill the specific terms of their work agreement with you. If you need additional support or services, this could result in more expenses that can quickly eat at your margins. When you’re looking for help, you’re looking for someone to assist you in maintaining your profitability, not threatening it. Best: A White Label Partner In the context of digital marketing, a white label partner refers to an agency that provides a holistic suite of services to another agency. Essentially, it’s like hiring another ad operations team to support your own, adding your own markup to their services, and keeping everything under your own brand. Partnership contrasts with using a software platform or single-channel vendor, where the services are typically more specialized and might not be as easily rebranded or integrated into a broader service offering. Here are some reasons why hiring a white label digital marketing partner might be considered better for your agency’s scope challenges: Comprehensive Service Offering: White label partners typically offer a range of digital marketing services like SEO, paid search, paid social, and programmatic advertising. This allows agencies to provide full-service solutions to their clients without needing to specialize in each area themselves. Cost-Effectiveness: Developing expertise in every aspect of digital marketing would be time-consuming and expensive for a local ad agency. By outsourcing these services to a white label partner, you can offer these services without having to invest in the hiring and development of in-house expertise. Customization and Flexibility: White label services can be tailored to fit the specific needs and branding of your clients. This level of customization might be harder to achieve with a specialized software platform or single-channel vendor. Quality Assurance: White label partners often have expertise in various aspects of digital marketing and can provide quality assurance on the services offered. This can enhance your agency’s reputation and ability to establish credibility with your clients. Time to Market: Partnering with a white label provider enables quicker delivery of comprehensive solutions, since your agency doesn't have to develop each service from scratch. This is especially valuable if you to quickly meet the varied demands of different clients. Scalability: White label providers are usually equipped to handle a range of client sizes and needs, allowing you to scale offerings up or down based on demand without significant adjustments to your own processes or infrastructure. Consistency: Using a single white label partner for various services ensures a uniform approach and quality across different channels and strategies. This might be harder to achieve when working with different single-channel vendors or specialized software platforms. Client Relationships: By outsourcing to a white label partner, you can focus more on building and maintaining relationships with clients, understanding their needs, and acting as a strategic partner rather than being bogged down with the technical details of implementation. Competitive Edge: Offering a wide range of services under one umbrella can give your agency a competitive edge in you market. It allows you to be a one-stop-shop for your clients, increasing client retention and attracting new business. When you compare the three options we’ve outlined, there really is no question that a white label partner is the best solution for any agency that needs to scale but feels impeded by scope. Upon activating your partnership, your agency becomes truly unleashed to deliver at a higher level and land and expand new business - all backed by the confidence that there are experts ready to deliver on your campaigns for your clients. How to Find the Right White Label Partner for Your Agency Not all white label digital marketing partners are the same, and you shouldn’t automatically join forces with the first one you encounter. Take the time to vet a few different white label digital marketing agencies to determine which one fits best with your existing operations. As you’re considering your options here are some factors to keep in mind: Can the partner meet your needs? Clarify what services you want to offer, the target markets, budget constraints, and any specific technology or skill requirements. Does the partner have the expertise and experience you’re looking for? Ask to speak with members of their team that specialize in services you’re interested in, look at their case studies, and request a demo with them to learn as much as you can about their capabilities. Where does the partner source their work? Is their work offshored or outsourced to another provider after you sign with them? Is the partner compatible with your brand? Consider whether the partner's style, culture, and approach align with your brand values and the way you want to work. How do they communicate? Communication matters as much as performance. Ask them about how they handle communication between their team and your agency. Can they maintain confidentiality? You may not want to have your partnership disclosed. Ask them what steps they take to maintain confidentiality and if they’re willing sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) if you want an extra layer of assurance. Are they scalable? Consider whether the partner can scale their services up or down to match your growth and adapt to changes in demand. Can I afford their work? Ask them for a quote or estimate for how much their partnership would cost you to maintain to determine whether it’s the right fit for your agency. These questions are examples of ones you can use to gauge the right white label for your agency. You can also develop questions that relate directly to your specific business model to determine if the potential partner is the right fit from a process, tech, or performance standpoint to determine whether or not you want to move forward. Learn More: 5 Signs Your Agency is Ready for Partnership Work with the Elite White Label Partner for North American Agencies At Conduit Digital, we’re the proud partner of some of the highest-performing ad agencies in all of North America. With 17 channels provided to your agency through a single solution, all implemented 100% in the U.S., you can confidently say “yes” to better opportunities without worrying about limitations on in-house scope or expertise. To learn more about how you can overcome scope challenges at your agency with a Conduit Agency Partnership, let’s talk.

Limiting your agency’s services might seem like a way to hone expertise, but it can severely impact client retention. While many agencies believe specialization is their strength, and it very well could be, it can also push some clients away. If you’re leading an agency and find your client list thinning or stagnating, it's time to reassess. A restricted scope can be a major weakness. Today, we’ll be diving into how a limited scope of solutions could be impacting client retention and what you can do about it. Clients Want Adaptability Clients’ needs change. Whether this can be chalked up to seasonal variations, industry shifts, or personal preference, any digital strategy can become “here today, gone tomorrow” in an instant. Let’s use marketing in the cannabis industry as an example. As cannabis becomes more widely legalized in the United States at the medical and recreational levels, more digital platforms are altering their policies. This enables more businesses operating in the cannabis industry to invest their marketing budget in different avenues. If a new opportunity in the industry reveals itself and all of your cannabis client’s competitors are flocking to it, but you don’t have the means to deliver in-house, what do you do? If you say “No, we do not offer services on that platform,” do you run the risk of losing their business with your agency? Clients that stay with an agency long-term do so because there is a great deal of trust established. Within that trust, from the client's perspective, comes a confidence that the agency they work with can evolve and adapt to address their needs and introduce innovative ideas that drive performance. Your Competitors Are Broadening Their Scope Every agency has another agency they compete with to some degree. Oftentimes, this boils down to two or more agencies that operate in the same geographic area or industry niche where a client pool is limited to an extent. If your agency concentrates primarily on serving regional clients and there’s another agency on the other side of the county doing the same, that would be your direct competitor. Are your competitors broadening their scope of services while you continue to double down on what you are most comfortable with? There’s nothing wrong with emphasizing your core competencies, but at the end of the day, clients want what they want. At Conduit Digital, we’ve said this more than once in the past. If your client asks for a specific service that you cannot or will not provide, there’s a good chance that they could start seeking out another agency that can and will do what they ask. You’ve Lost Opportunities to Upsell Your Clients Ultimately, a broader scope of solutions gives you the ability to upsell clients on an ongoing basis. As you’re upselling, this naturally lengthens the timeline of the account relationship, and you become the go-to resource for your clients when they want to broaden their marketing and advertising investments. This not only benefits your clients’ ability to better market themselves, but it also grants your agency the opportunity to maximize your revenue-earning potential per account. To put it simply, if you are earning a few hundred or a few thousand more dollars per client each month, that starts to add up. That becomes operating capital that you can invest in scaling your agency on an ongoing basis while you’re also boosting your reputation and credibility with both current and potential clients. How Can You Broaden Your Agency’s Scope? Unfortunately, no legitimate or sustainable method for hacking your way to a broader scope exists. If it did, you should be wary of what it promises and ultimately delivers. Rather than broadening your scope quickly, we suggest doing so purposefully, strategically, and deliberately. In other words, doing it in a way that leads to sustainable scalability for your agency. Here are some potential ways to do so: Hiring New In-House Talent The first option that most will consider is hiring new talent in-house. While this method grants you ultimate control, it can take a bit of time and result in additional financial overhead. You have to first find the right person, which could take multiple rounds of interviews with a long list of candidates. Then, you have to onboard them to your agency’s processes and infrastructure. Lastly, you have to spend additional dollars on benefits, payroll, equipment, and other costs that may be associated with bringing in someone in-house. We’re not saying that you should never hire an in-house team member again. What we are saying, though, is that if you do want to wait to onboard someone or the financial overhead doesn’t make sense for you right now, those are factors to consider. Building a Vendor Network It’s not uncommon for an agency to seek out vendors that can help them quickly and efficiently provide services for their clients in a fee-for-service model. While vendors have their usefulness in a pinch, they can be limited in their scope, their prices can vary wildly, and their quality can be difficult to gauge. For most, as long as the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed on their work agreements, they will not provide services beyond what they’re explicitly contracted for. Beyond this, vendor pricing can spike at any moment. If a freelancer that you work with starts building a reputation and generating more business for themselves outside of your agency, their time then becomes more valuable. They may unpredictably increase their rates beyond what you can afford, and you risk losing access to them. These are just some of the headaches that come with managing multiple vendors in a siloed environment where communication and collaboration becomes more difficult. While they may be helpful to start, growing a vendor network in the 2020s may prove more difficult than beneficial. Using New Marketing Tools Have you thought about filling gaps in your scope of services through different software platforms? Sure, there are many out there pitching agencies at any given opportunity. They promise that you can fulfill an entire channel’s worth of services by using their tools. In most cases, that sounds too good to be true. Platform expenses can add up, and if you do not already have someone in-house with a degree of expertise in the digital channel the software is designed to serve, you may not be maximizing its value or performance potential. Or course, we’d be leaving a giant elephant in the room unaddressed if we didn’t mention artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT and Google Performance Max. While AI can help cut down some of the labor-intensive tasks, these are not all-in-one solutions that remove the need for human expertise. AI needs to be used responsibly through the filter of a skilled marketer. The Best Solution: White Label Agency Partnership A white label agency partnership is when one agency provides services or products that another agency can rebrand and sell as their own. Rather than expanding your team in-house, you’re extending it with another team of channel experts that can help you fulfill evolving client needs so that you can retain them for longer. For example, if your agency specializes in SEO and Google Ads, but you are noticing clients asking more for TikTok advertising, you do not have to spend hours crash-coursing on TikTok advertising. Instead, you can use your partner’s white label TikTok ads to meet your client’s needs, rebrand them as your own service, and make a predictable profit on top of the platform and service fees. However, not all white label partners are the same, and you should not just go with the first one you find online. With this in mind, there are a few objective questions you should consider when you’re reviewing your options: Where is the white label partner based? Are they based in an area where there is a wealth of marketing talent available (i.e., major cities). Does the white label partner offshore or outsource their work? Or, do they do it all in-house? Does the white label partner have a comprehensive suite of service? The white label partner should be able to meet your needs now and have the infrastructure in place to support future requirements for your campaigns. How does the white label partner communicate? Are they easy to get along with, and do they provide you with the digital tools you need to reach them effectively? Do they offer reports, and what do they look like? Ask to see a sample report from a potential partner to see if they provide the data and insights you need to prove performance to your clients. Does their pricing feel more like an expense or an investment? If you can afford the pricing of your white label partner, it will feel more like a wise investment rather than an ongoing expense. Be sure to ask them for their rate card! Work with North America’s Elite White Label Partner At Conduit Digital, we openly admit that we are not the perfect fit or everyone, such as startup agencies that are still building their businesses. Like your agency, we value retention, and we’d rather the partnership be the right one and one that’s built for long-term scalability. With 18 different channels, fully managed in the U.S. by channel-specific teams of expert analysts, we give your agency the means to say “yes” to better opportunities as well as expand and strengthen your current accounts. If you own or lead an established, performance-minded agency and also value client retention, schedule a call with us today.

As an agency leader, you’re likely always considering new ways to expand your offerings to your clients, enhance campaign performance, and continue striving to be better today than you were the day before. We’ve been there, and we respect the mindset. If your search for the next mode of leveling up your agency has led you to consider a white label partnership with an agency like ours at Conduit Digital, you’re likely (and understandably) wondering if you can create a pricing model that works for your business goals. Of course, when you entrust some or all of a client’s work to a partner, cost does come into play. White label pricing is designed for scalability. Instead of managing multiple vendors with their own price points or hiring and training in-house team members that also require additional overhead, white label digital marketing agencies give you a single payment channel to expand your in-house capabilities so that you can stabilize costs, bandwidth, and capacity to focus more on what you love about running your agency. If you’re wondering how to create a predictable pricing model to integrate white label services into your agency’s day-to-day operations, this guide is for you. Today, we’ll cover everything you need to know to ensure that your pricing remains predictable and scalable when you join forces with the right white label solution. First Steps: White Label Digital Marketing Pricing Models White label digital marketing refers to services where a company provides digital marketing solutions (like Conduit) that another business (like your agency) can brand and sell as their own. In turn, this allows your agency to keep greater control over brand continuity and the information that you present to your client. Essentially, think of it like hiring another agency to support your own. Each white label provider will price their services differently, but they generally fall into five distinct categories that include: Monthly Retainer: This is usually used to maintain constant access to the white label agency for reporting, dashboards, communication channels, and all of the other infrastructure that underlies the rest of the partnership. Typically, most agencies will pay this out of pocket as part of theirregular monthly expenses. Management Fees: These are most common for campaigns like white label Facebook ads, TikTok, or Google Search. The white label charges a sliding-scale fee that can be marked up or down from the client’s budget. Wholesale CPM: Wholesale cost-per-mile (CPM) pricing is the cost that the agency pays for every one thousand impressions or views in a programmatic advertising campaign. Your agency then marks up above the wholesale price. Custom-Scope: Custom-scoped campaigns are most commonly used for organic campaigns like white label SEO or social content management. The pricing is determined through an audit process and leaves room for your agency to determine the right markup when billing your clients. A La Carte: These are typically one-off deliverables that an agency can purchase for a fixed price. They can range from items like sales support documents to one-off pieces of creative work like a landing page design or blog post. Unlike the others above, this type of payment is not intended to be ongoing. As an example, for a management fee-based service, let’s use a white label Google Search campaign. Your client wants to invest $10,000 on a paid search campaign, and your agency charges a 20% management fee. You then create a revenue share model where you pay your white label partner $1,299 for elite-level media buying, and your agency would make $701, typically used for front-end monthly client services. Most of these pricing models can vary based on overall budget size and volume. Be sure to use your white label partner’s rate card as a financial lifeline when pricing new campaigns for your client. Can You Afford the Pricing? The next step beyond understanding the pricing models is to see how they’ll translate to your agency’s actual finances. If you are interested in a specific white label agency, ask them to provide you with their rate card if they do not already have it on their website. The rate card provides a complete picture of the pricing and what it will look like for your campaign. From there, you can run the numbers yourself or consult with your financial department to determine the costs of launching a campaign across any channel that your partner offers. It also never hurts to communicate your desired spend per campaign with your white label agency ahead of submitting an insertion order. They have priced out countless campaigns and can help you determine what it would look like for your agency to markup their services to your clients. For instance, at Conduit, we perform an Agency Alignment Assessment to make sure a potential partnership can work financially. This also enables us to create transparency and guidance for how you can create a predictable pricing model using a white label partner. Making a Predictable Pricing Model Start by Finding the Right White Label Partner Before you can build a pricing model around white label digital marketing services, you need to find the right white label partner that truly enables your agency to scale. As you’re considering your options, keep the following traits in mind: Transparency - How transparent is the white label agency about their services, deliverables, pricing, and personnel before you book a discovery call with them? In-House Performance - Look for a white label that does not further offshore or outsource the work that you have outsourced to them. Proof of Performance - Does the white label team have any case studies or success stories they can share with your agency to show how they’ve performed on campaigns in the past? Geographic Similarity - Look for a team that shares relative geographic similarity to your own. For example, if you’re in North America, select one also based in North America. Scope of Solutions - Does the white label partner have the digital channels you need right now, as well as ones that you could expand into as you scale? Agency Deliverables - Does the white label partner provide you with deliverables that make managing your accounts easier, like in-depth reports or sales support materials? Communication Style - Do you communicate well with the white label partner’s team? As you’re narrowing your list of potential partners, keep the above in mind. Not every white label is the right fit for every agency, and vice-versa. As our CEO, Tim Burke, says, “Finding the right white label partner isn’t speed-dating.” Determine the Channels You Want to White Label Some agencies prefer to white label one or two channels while others might outsource a significant amount of digital campaign work to their partner. In turn, this will also affect the types of pricing models that you will be working within. From there, gather the rate information by referencing your white label agency’s rate card for each channel that you are going to utilize their team for. You can start to piece together a foundational framework for how you onboard new campaigns for your white label team. Create Standardized Client-Facing Pricing Models Creating client-facing pricing can be a delicate task that requires transparency, clarity, and the ability to convey the value of your services. Here are some tips for effectively presenting pricing to clients: Clearly Define Services: Provide a clear breakdown of the services included in each pricing tier. Clients should have a precise understanding of what they are paying for. Highlight Value: Emphasize the value your services provide. Explain how your solutions can solve their problems, meet their goals, or improve their business. Help clients see the possible return on investment (ROI) they can expect. Use Simple Language: Avoid technical jargon or complex terminology. Explain pricing in simple, plain language that clients can easily understand. Offer Multiple Options: Present clients with different pricing options or packages. This allows them to choose a plan that best suits their needs and budget. Anchor Pricing: Use anchor pricing to influence perception. Present a higher-priced option first, followed by the option you want clients to choose. This can make the latter seem like a better deal. Tiered Pricing: Consider tiered pricing with clear differentiators between tiers. Clients can then choose the level of service that aligns with their requirements. But Also Prepare for Clients that Don’t Fit the Mold While many clients will certainly appreciate the predictability of your own tiered pricing structure, there will be others who have larger and/more more complex needs that cannot fit within the models you create. For example, you may land a whale of a new client with a budget that far exceeds the majority of your entire client roster. In these cases, use your white label agency’s rate card to create custom-priced campaigns that will be designed to deliver maximum performance for the client’s investment. Build Better White Label Pricing with a Conduit Partnership If you’re looking to make your costs more predictable at your agency, and avoid financial surprises, let’s talk. At Conduit, we partner with North America’s most established and successful local agencies to deliver elite performance and operational excellence through a single partnership that grants your agency access to 17 channels managed by elite U.S.-based analysts. Schedule your call with us today to learn more about how Conduit can help your agency scale!

Jun 7, 2023 Google Analytics 4 (GA4) represents the largest and most significant change to the Google Analytics platform to date. Beyond establishing Events as a primary metric at the forefront of GA4’s capabilities, the shift has upended much of what agencies have thought they’ve known about analytics for years and has introduced a necessary paradigm shift. On July 1, 2023, GA4 will officially replace Google’s previous Universal Analytics model as the standard analytics system offered by the tech giant. Universal Analytics will cease collecting new data and account owners will have a period of time to save the historical data before it is fully sunset and access is no longer possible. We’re here. GA4 is happening and the shift will occur before you realize. Fortunately, this does not create a cause for panic. With some strategy, careful planning, and making the most of the time available, you can ensure a smooth transition from UA to GA4 and maintain a seamless continuity across your campaigns. That’s why we assembled our latest eBook: The Ultimate Guide to GA4 for Agencies View and Download Our Latest eBook for Free Here What’s Inside A Concise Yet Comprehensive Preview of GA4 Learn everything about the major changes that GA4 is introducing. After reading this eBook, you’ll know exactly what the most notable shifts are to the platform so that you can prepare to adjust your own measurement and reporting practices accordingly. The Big Shift to Event-Based Data Collection Why is GA4 treating Events as its primary metric? Why does that matter, and why is it a better way to measure performance? In this section, we’ll dive deep into Events and how to put them into the right context for your clients. Notable User Interface (UI) Improvements with GA4 Along with a shift in how data is collected and measured, GA4 has also introduced new updates to improve the functionality and efficiency of its UI along with notable visual updates. Get a full preview of these updates and what they entail before you make the shift. Changes to Dimensions and Metrics How have dimensions and metrics changed with the introduction of GA4? We dive deep here to show you the significance behind these changes and which ones are worth paying the most attention to. What You Can Do to Prepare Right Now July 1 is not far from now. This section includes a practical guide to prepare for the Google-wide implementation of GA4 with confidence that you are fully ready for the big move. Prepare Your Clients with an Original GA4 Adopter Since GA4 was first introduced in late 2020, our Ad Operations Team at Conduit Digital has been an early GA4 adopter and has integrated this new system into the core of our measurement and reporting processes for our agency partners’ clients. Along with implementing campaigns across 17 different channels at the highest levels to the most complete multi-channel reporting processes possible, we give your agency the confidence to say “yes” to better opportunities knowing that you have the communication and performance infrastructure to take that next step towards scaling. To learn more about how we can assist your agency in the GA4 era, schedule a call with us today.

Jul 29, 2020 In 2020, it is no secret that all things change. This is now as apparent as ever. While there are some things in today’s society that are currently the prime example of needing to change, how people consume entertainment is not an exception to the rule. People are changing the way they consume content like watching television. While it may seem like Traditional TV and OTT should be bloodthirsty competitors, in reality, they should be paired like the best of friends. What is OTT? What is Traditional TV? You see those three letter marketing acronyms all over the internet these days (and to be honest it’s hard to keep track of them all), but perhaps the most important is known as OTT. Over-The-Top Television is more commonly understood as ‘streaming television’. When you watch Hulu, or Netflix, or any other internet TV, you are essentially watching OTT. Traditional Television, also known as Linear TV, is how people would watch TV before streaming services were available. All shows and channels are pre-programmed and follow a specific schedule. A huge difference between Linear TV and OTT is with streaming, you get to choose your own programming whenever and wherever you want. OTT allows you to no longer be limited to what is on at any given time, and gives you the ability to finally watch 20 episodes of The Office in a row. While OTT Streaming and Traditional TV can be seen as very similar things with few differences, on the marketing side they are greatly different. Most people are familiar with how Traditional TV works: ad space is bought and sold manually. This leads to a very long process and an inability to have a quick turnaround time. On the other hand, OTT ad inventory is usually bought and sold programmatically, meaning that digital ads are bought and sold in an automated manner through designed software. This opens a whole new world of possibilities in marketing on the big screen! Transition from Traditional TV to OTT OTT subscriptions have seen some absolutely astounding growth in the past 10 years. Think about how you used to watch TV in the early 2010’s. You were probably still flipping through channels, while Netflix and Hulu were just getting started. In 2014, there were 150 million online streaming services subscriptions. In 2019, this number has grown to over 600 million, a 300% increase! Subscribers are also expected to almost double to 1.1 billion by 2021. Researchers also found that about 70% of US citizens are subscribed to at least one OTT service, while the average user subscribes to 3.4 different services. In addition to the average user being subscribed to multiple OTT services, it’s also been reported that the number of households with two or more OTT subscriptions has increased by over 130% in the past five years. In 2019, 46% of US households subscribe to multiple OTT services, as opposed to 33% in 2017 and 20% in 2014. This proves that once users try one of the big guns like Netflix or Hulu, they are likely to expand on their OTT capabilities and subscribe to other services! It’s getting easier each year to reach a vast number of people using OTT! You can read more about the evolution and future growth of OTT in our OTT Advertising During The COVID-19 Outbreak! Pushing the Growth of OTT Now you may see the numbers from above and think “how it is even possible to achieve that many new users over such a short amount of time?” The thing to know here is that these new users probably aren’t just discovering television for the first time, they are most likely just adapting with the newly available services. These people are most commonly referred to as Cord Cutters. A ‘cord cutter’ is simply someone who figuratively ‘cuts the cord’ on their cable in favor for internet streaming. Between 2019-2020, there were 120.6 million homes in the US that used some kind of TV service (that is about 94% of all homes in the US). This equates to about 300+ million people in the US. Of these people, about 39.3 million were cord cutters. eMarketer is expecting this number to reach 55.1 million by 2022, following the trend of huge growth. Who Are Cord Cutters? According to a study from PwC, 90% of Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 access TV content via the internet. Also, 87% of surveyed people between the ages of 18-25 are cord cutters, while 78% of people ages 35-49 and 63% of people between the ages 50-59. This shows that cord cutters aren’t just millennials, they come from all different age ranges. Families with a parent 35-54 years old with two or three children are a huge part of the cord cutting demographic. The families claim that cord cutting is a way to save money and watch more content on demand. Cord cutters are value-focused but not averse to paying for entertainment. Benefits of OTT While OTT and Traditional TV seem to be very similar in their general definitions, the biggest difference has to be the targeting and tracking capabilities of OTT. With Traditional TV, you are most likely casting the biggest net you can, and can really only attempt at reaching an ideal audience by choosing what shows or times people are choosing to watch. These things are still possible with OTT, but your marketing campaign will also be able to target relevant audience segments. Using advanced demographic information and internet cookies OTT can take advantage of users’ behaviors and serve your ads to the right people at the right time. At Conduit, we are even able to target people based on the physical locations they recently visited! As for tracking and reporting, your Conduit OTT campaign will be able to tell you how many users saw every second of your ad, where your ads have been served, and exactly what streaming service or tv application your audience is using. Why OTT is a Perfect Extension of Traditional TV If you are already running an ad campaign on Linear TV, there is absolutely no reason to not also be running an OTT campaign! By only running one or the other, you are severely limiting the potential reach of your campaigns. It is easy to confuse the two and see them as rivals, but in reality, they should come hand-in-hand with each other. With a huge population of TV watchers moving from Traditional to Streaming, it is getting more and more imperative to open up your capabilities and start targeting every potential customer, instead of just the ones watching one type of television! We believe OTT is only going to continue to grow as the world switches to a more mobile first society, especially with the rollout of 5G. As our internet becomes faster and more reliable, people will find themselves streaming video and movies on their mobile devices, which allows marketers like us to place our ads in front of them wherever they go.

Jun 5, 2020 Retargeting is a strategy that nearly every successful programmatic marketing campaign needs to be utilizing. If your website is seeing a lot of traffic but very low conversion, you may want to try this strategy out. It is uncommon for first-time visitors to convert, which is where retargeting becomes a highly valuable, cost effective way to close the deal. In fact, average conversions via landing pages are 2.35%. So how do you capture the attention of the other 97% of users who bounced from your website? Keep reading to learn how to recapture these users and ultimately increase your ROI. What is Ad Retargeting? Before you even begin implementing our steps into your digital marketing strategy, you should know all the ins and outs of what ad retargeting encompasses. Ad Retargeting is exactly what it sounds like: an online marketing strategy that retargets users who bounced from your website without making a purchase. How Does Ad Retargeting Work? With good old cookies, that’s how. Not chocolate chip cookies (although, that wouldn’t be a terrible way to get the attention of some of your target demographic. Writes that down for later..). Retargeting utilizes cookies to essentially “follow” your audience around on the web. By placing a small, unobtrusive piece of code (or pixel) on your site, your ads can be served up to those same users after they leave your site. The code places this cookie in every new user’s browser, so your retargeting provider knows when to serve up an ad to this user. Using this method also ensures that your ads are only served to users who previously visited your site. Retargeting Is The Answer So, for the users who clicked through to a client’s homepage but didn’t make a purchase, didn’t look into available auto inventory, or didn’t look up how to contact the company -programmatic retargeting is the answer. Say a user clicks through to an auto dealer’s homepage, absorbs enough necessary information about the brand, and leaves without looking into the dealer’s inventory. Since it’s already known that this user is interested in the brand, it’s beneficial to retarget them to a page of the website that brings them further down the conversion funnel (i.e. the inventory page). This can work particularly well when paired with a separate set of incentive-based ads aimed directly at previous website visitors, as it may further entice them to engage and make a meaningful conversion. In this particular example, an ad with a call-to-action could be something related to a certain percentage off the MSRP of a vehicle for new customers. By linking this ad set to the inventory page, users who are already familiar with the brand will be much more likely to convert (i.e. visiting the contact page, calling the dealership, visiting the dealership, etc.). Ad-Frequency Another imperative aspect of a programmatic retargeting strategy to keep in mind is the frequency of which the ads are served. While spamming users with ads could certainly hurt a brand’s image, it may take more than one ad to entice a user to come back to your website. If you’ve ever shopped on Amazon, you’re likely very familiar with their retargeting strategy. You may even be able to ignore that 120-pack of Yoohoo you were looking at if you only see the ad one more time. However, if it keeps appearing, you may just decide that you really should treat yourself to 120 Yoohoos. According to Social Media Today, the ideal frequency rate is from one to four ads per day per user, depending on the campaign and industry, and anything above this will typically result in a diminished conversion rate. So while it’s essential to capture the user’s attention, the line between optimal and annoying needs to be clearly defined. Is Ad Retargeting Effective? Retargeting is extremely effective. It helps increase conversion rates and keeps your brand top-of-mind in situations where a user could be shopping around for other brands. Web users who are retargeted are more likely to convert by 43%! When it comes down to it, it’s really all about getting into the mind of the user, and if properly executed, it can be one easy way to increase your client’s ROI. 3 Steps For A Successful Programmatic Advertising Campaign With the variety of constantly-evolving targeting options programmatic advertising companies are utilizing: Geo-Fencing Behavioral Native Advertising Site Retargeting Whitelisting 3rd Party Data Targeting Event Targeting Addressable Geo-Fencing Cart Abandonment Retargeting the list goes on – just figuring out how to set your campaign can seem like a daunting task. However, there are a few fundamental aspects that will ensure your campaign crushes it for your client! 1. Place The Campaign Pixel This may seem obvious, but we cannot understate the importance of placing the campaign pixel on your client’s website! Not only does this allow us to Site Retarget people who have engaged with their website – which leads to people coming back to your website 3x as often – but this also allows us to track campaign engagement in much greater detail than just clicks. Where the pixel placement process used to be a bear – we previously had to place individual conversion pixels only on the specific pages we wanted to track. YIKES . We can now set up your conversion tracking internally once the pixel is placed on all pages of the site. This means we can track how many people saw the campaign’s ads and then visited key pages on your client’s website, like the Contact Us or Locations page. Perhaps even more intriguing, for applicable e-commerce websites, we can retarget only people who have an item in their cart but haven’t checked out yet! 2. Provide A List of Competitors There are several different ways in which we can get your client’s ads in front of their competitors’ customers. You may already be familiar with Geo-Fencing, where we can build a digital fence around a competitor’s physical storefront and retarget anyone who enters that fence with your client’s ads, and then track how many people actually visit your client’s storefront. BTW – in 2018, people who saw our Geo-Fencing ads were on average 175% more likely to actually visit our client’s locations! But did you know we can also serve ads to people who have searched for your competitors across the web, and even people who have searched for your competitors’ websites? And with our integration with some of the industry’s top Data Providers, we can even serve ads to people who have been identified as a customer of several National Brands! 3. Provide All Necessary Creatives This may also sound obvious, but one of the most common hindrances we see comes from only running one or two ad sizes. By providing each of our recommended ad sizes (300×250, 320×50, 728×90, 160×600, 300×600 and 300×500), as well as a .mp4 for Pre-Roll, your campaign will be set up to knock it out of the park right from the get-go! This will allow us to analyze performance data on each ad size and format, and then optimize accordingly by maximizing your top-performers! Conclusion Ad Retargeting is one of the best ways to ensure your programmatic campaigns see incredible success. By following these simple steps and understanding the importance of programmatic ad retargeting, you can ensure your clients’ campaigns grow to the moon!

White label SEO services are an ideal solution for agencies wanting to expand their offerings without diving deep into the intricacies of SEO. But with this solution comes the critical component of reporting - presenting results to clients in a comprehensible manner. So, what should you anticipate when you unbox one of these reports? In this gudie, we'll cover everything you need to know about white label SEO reports so that you can know what to expect when you prepare to present them to your clients. First Time with White Label SEO? Here’s What It’s All About White label digital marketing refers to digital marketing services provided by one agency under another agency’s brand. This allows the client-facing agency to offer these services without having to develop them in-house while still maintaining greater control over their own brand and the deliverables they provide to their clients. Specifically talking about white label SEO, this service refers to search engine optimization campaigns performed for your clients on your behalf. This can include services like link-building, keyword research, auditing, content optimization, and technical optimizations. White label SEO provides the most benefit to agencies that specialize in other digital channels and want to activate an SEO division for their business without having to develop an in-house team. Conversely, it’s also a scalable and efficient option for successful agencies to manage their volume of client work without needing to hire more team members internally. What is a White Label SEO Report? Any type of marketing performance is justified through reporting. A white label SEO report refers to a holistic recap of all the work performed for your client within a span of time by your white label SEO agency partner. Usually, these reports are provided on a fixed frequency, such as weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. Within the report itself, an analyst at the white label agency will break down everything that your agency needs to know about the work that was done. This can also include sharing any interesting insights, opportunities for improved performance, and suggestions for tailoring the strategy to better drive qualified organic traffic. This deliverable, along with any others provided by the white label partner, can then be rebranded under your agency or client’s name. That decision is ultimately up to you, but the easiest way to decide whether to brand it under your agency or client is how you plan to use it. For example, you might keep it branded to your agency if you want to only use the report as an internal reference document. Most white label reports are developed with the agency as the end user in mind. If you want the report to be developed in a more client-facing manner, this can usually be done with a simple request to modify the way the content is written in the report. What’s Inside White Label SEO Reports So now that we’ve covered what white label SEO is and what these reports entail, let’s open the box and see what’s inside. Here’s what you should expect from white label SEO reports: An Executive Summary of the Actual Work Performed To start any report, the white label SEO team should supply you with a quick summary of the actual work performed on your client’s site that month. This can be written as a quick paragraph, a bulleted list, or a slightly longer rundown depending on the needs of the website and the scope of work. Deeper Dives Into the Data Next, the analyst should go deeper beyond the surface summary. How has their work affected the organic search performance of the website? This could include valuable data points such as: Keyword rankings: Where are the largest jumps in keyword rankings? Is there a pattern that can be identified? How have these improved month-over-month? Organic traffic analysis: Have performance metrics changed in a significant way, such as an increase in page views to specific parts of the website that align with campaign goals? Has organic traffic taken a larger share of the site’s overall traffic? On-Page analysis: This would entail a summary of major improvements like a shorter load speed, or opportunities for improvement like unminified javascript or CSS. Content overview: What content has been produced that month for your client and what pieces of content are currently performing best on the site? Local SEO (if applicable): This section would include any updates to Google My Business performance and any updates made to other local directories used as part of a local strategy. Of course, this doesn’t encapsulate everything that would be in a deeper dive, and not every agency may want something as detailed. Maybe you may want a few highlights and data screenshots that you can share to your client to maintain their confidence in your SEO services. This all depends on the personal preference of your agency and how you present your information to your clients. Putting Everything Into Context Okay, so you have this killer white label SEO in-hand and you’re ready to send it to your client. You take one look at it, and then you ask yourself: “What does any of this actually mean?”. A high-quality SEO report should include real insights from the analysts working on the campaign. These notes should put the information presented in the report into its proper context in a more narrative-driven format so that you can easily summarize it to your clients. Notable Wins for Your Client Are there any standout performance improvements that deserve more attention? A report should help you easily identify these so that you can highlight them to your clients. These could include examples like earning a top-3 keyword ranking, a piece of content being used as a Featured Snippet on Google, or a significant uptick in organic traffic to the site or specific pages. Where to Go Next After you’ve reviewed what happened, where do you go next? The report should end with an overview of where the analysts recommends concentrating SEO efforts for your client’s website in the upcoming month. For example, if missing metadata for multiple pages was identified in the report, the analyst may recommend filling adding this data as a priority in the upcoming month’s work. Get Better White Label SEO Reports for Your Agency At Conduit Digital, we’re proud to serve as the elite white label SEO partner for established North American agencies looking to scale. As one of 17 digital channels, our SEO team gives your agency the communication and performance structure to say “yes” for new organic search campaign opportunities that present themselves. To learn more about partnering your agency with Conduit for white label SEO, schedule a call with us today.

May 28, 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 the biggest differences between Facebook and Google CPCs, CPMs, and more. The Difference Between Facebook and Google Ads When your agency runs ads on either one of these platforms, it’s important to know the difference between the two. Knowing this will help you develop a better strategy for capturing leads for your clients. The biggest difference between Google and Facebook ads is search intent. When users are using Google it’s because they are looking for a specific thing, so you can target ads based on the keywords they use. Whereas with Facebook, users are shown ads based on their interests. You can attribute Google to having more of a pull marketing strategy where Facebook is great for building brand awareness. So when you are meeting with your client on the best way to reach their goals, it’s crucial to know the different strategies that go behind each platform. Now that we had a refresher on the differences between these two platforms, we can go into what the best practices are for running ads during COVID-19. What Are The Data Points? When discussing the shifting strategies across digital channels, it is important to differentiate between your data points. Identify the KPIs that you would like to study. For example, in discussing these trends with our Google Agency Partner, we noticed particular volatility in both CPCs and CPAs on Facebook and Google. Here is a breakdown of some of the most important data points during COVID-19. 1. CPCs Cost-per-click is a metric that changes based on the bids of the target keywords. Your client only pays for a click on their ad. CPCs on both Facebook and Google are very volatile during COVID-19 and it is not recommended that you put too much stock in CPC performance during this time. 2. CPAs Cost-per-action is a metric based on qualifying actions such as sales, form fills, or registrations. CPAs may also be currently volatile due to the pandemic. When discussing data points, you should encourage your clients to look away from metrics such as CPCs and CPAs due to the volatility of the market due to the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, encourage your clients to focus on clicks-to-site, ROI, and CLVs. 3. Clicks-To-Site While not normally a key metric, many businesses have shifted their focus to draw as many clicks to their site as possible. Especially if your clients aren’t selling right now, a brand awareness campaign with clicks-to-site as a metric could see huge dividends for your clients. 4. ROI Return on investment may be the single most important metric when it comes to digital marketing, especially during this pandemic. Our Google Agency Partners stress that focusing on ROI as a metric for your clients will help them to see the value that your agency brings and continue marketing during this difficult time. 5. CLVs Consumer lifetime value is the amount of money a customer is predicted to spend with your business for the duration of your relationship with that individual. By focusing on calculating their CLVs, your clients can begin to hyper-target individuals who provide their business with the highest value. What Google Suggests During our sit down with Conduit Digital’s Google Agency Manager, we wanted to dive deep into the most pressing changes in metrics and data. They explained to us the increasing volatility of CPCs and CPAs on Google platforms, which may not exactly come as a surprise to most people in the industry. However, one notable difference was found between verticals. In fact, week over week, there have been many different and interesting shifts. When looking at your clients’ campaigns, it is important to note whether these shifts are week over week trends, or if they are part of a larger pattern. With the volatility of KPIs like CPCs, it is important to have your client assess their 6-month goals. Is their CLV increasing? Where are the profits coming from per channel? Develop a 6-month plan with their full-marketing mix. In an ideal world, that includes all of the platforms they are currently running on including Google and Facebook. If your client has been seeing strong end-KPI efficiencies, then keeping up a strong mix of marketing will help them to separate themselves from their competitors. What We Have Seen On Facebook Facebook has been very interesting for our analysts to watch and test. While usage of the Facebook platform has skyrocketed in countries hardest hit by COVID-19, those same countries have contributed to an online-advertising pullback that undercuts results. With the combined additional usage on the platform and the wildly varying advertising strategies, traditional Facebook advertising methods have seen volatile KPIs. As with Google, Conduit Digital recommends straying from traditional data points on Facebook. Instead, look for ways that your clients can take advantage of the shift in usage. Focus on brand awareness, your clients’ COVID-19 response, and informational tools for consumers. What Google Says To Do In order to drive sales, your clients need to seize emerging consumer needs: Bid, Budget, Keyword, & Targeting. Here is how Google recommends adjusting your campaigns in search. Adjust Unused Budget In The Account To Capture High Traffic Campaigns Get more traffic by moving unused budgets to the ads that need it most. This helps to avoid losing potential traffic of where the demand is. Check the “Move unused budget” recommendations from Optimization Score for more actionable details tailor to your account. Leverage Automated Bid Strategy To Achieve Your Current Business Goals Your business goal might change as online traffic presence becomes more important, using Google’s auction-time signals help you to bid more effectively for your main business goal. Activate Dynamic Search Ads Show your ads on searches relevant to the business that you may be missing with your keyword-based ad groups. It is important to get incremental traffic and discover new keywords especially the online searching queries behavior might be different during this time. Use Keywords Identification To Show Your Ads More Often To People Searching For What Your Business Offers Check “Add new keywords” recommendations in Optimization Score, analyze your previous keyword performance to keep performing terms, and explore search term reports to identify high potential keywords. Raise Your Budget Where There Is Demand Fixing your limited by-budget campaigns can help you not to miss out on more potential traffic which could lead to potential online/offline sales. Check the “Raise your budgets” and “Raise your budgets for upcoming traffic increases” recommendations from Optimization Score. Empower Customer To Take Action With Your Ad Copies Be creative with your ad copies messaging for a unique selling point, i.e. special promotion, free delivery, next day delivery, in-store discount. Leverage Sitelink Extension To Make Your Ad Stands Out And Be Helpful Take people to specific pages on your site i.e. a specific product, store hours, specific online stores, store location. Leverage Promotion Extension To Show Special Sales And Offer With Your Ads It makes your offer stand out so potential customers can spot great deals and generate new sales for your business. Activate Responsive Search Ad To Show More Relevant Messages To Your Customer By adapting your ad’s content to more closely match potential customers’ search terms, responsive search ads may improve your campaign’s performance. If you want more PPC tips and tricks to effectively run your campaign, our expert analysts wrote an extensive guide to help you crush your next ad campaign. The Issue With Lead Quality Lead qualification has become a huge issue for many businesses during COVID-19. With spikes and surges in volatile online activity, it can be tough for your clients to know they are reaching the most qualified leads and not wasting their precious ad spend budgets. It is important to work closely with your clients to ensure they are prepared on their end to reach the right customers. The good news is that API integration and tracking has become much more streamlined, enabling you to easily assist your clients in setting them up with the tools they need for success. Conclusion Now is the perfect time to help your clients set themselves up for post-COVID-19 success. By following these tips from Google and Conduit Digital, you can ensure your agency is in a position to grow revenue for you and your clients. Remember to focus on data points that matter during this time and stray away from those that might be more volatile. Understand that Facebook and Google are still two of the best tools available for helping your clients reach their goals. Focus on qualified leads, track and measure every ad encounter, and shift goals to reflect ROI, ROAS, and CLV. By following these tips from Google and Conduit Digital, you will set up your agency and your clients for success. For more assistance on running your clients’ PPC ad campaigns during this crisis, contact Conduit Digital today to see how a White Label Pay Per Click Partner will be there to help you during this difficult time.