The popularity of headless web applications has been steadily rising. Why? Because Facebook. I’m only sort of kidding because Facebook created React, the popular JavaScript framework that catapulted headless architectures into the limelight a few years ago. But they’ve also become popular due to their ability to address the evolving demands in what has become a complex digital world.

Businesses are adopting headless architecture for many reasons. Some of those include blending new sources of data, the ability to adapt quickly to changing customer expectations and providing personalized user experiences.
But just because headless web applications are popular and modern does not mean they are a good fit for all businesses and web applications. In this article, I will discuss the pros and cons of headless web applications, who I think is a good fit for this type of architecture, and potential resource and budget pitfalls that could arise.

What Is a Headless CMS?

Headless web applications are a development approach where the front-end and back-end of a web application are decoupled. In this architecture, the front end, responsible for user interface and presentation, operates independently from the back end, which manages the main source of content data. They communicate through APIs to present the content needed for the website.

In this article, I will often use “headless CMS” and “headless web application” interchangeably. Understand that a headless web application does not require there to be a CMS (content management system) involved.

Traditional Monolithic vs. Headless Web Applications

In traditional monolithic web applications, the front-end and back-end are tightly integrated into a single codebase, where the user interface, content entry, data management, and functional logic are all managed. In contrast, headless web applications separate the front-end and back-end, allowing them to operate independently and communicate through APIs.

How Does a Headless CMS Work?

Without poring over too many details, let’s take a quick look at the key components that make up headless architecture.

Front End

The front end is the user-facing part of the application responsible for rendering and displaying content to users. It’s often built using modern JavaScript frameworks like React, Angular, or Vue.js, which consume data through APIs.

In a headless architecture, the front end is decoupled from the back end.

Back End

The back-end is the behind-the-scenes part of the application responsible for managing data, logic, and business operations. It typically includes server-side technologies like Node.js, Python, PHP, Ruby on Rails, or Java.

In a headless architecture, the back-end provides APIs that deliver data to the front-end. These APIs act as a bridge between the user interface and the data/content repository.

Content Repository

The content repository, more commonly referred to as a Content Management System (CMS), is where content, such as articles, images, videos, and product information, is stored and managed. It allows content creators and administrators to add, edit, and organize content without needing to interact directly with the front-end or back-end code.

In a headless architecture, the content repository is also decoupled from the front-end and back-end, which means it can be swapped out or upgraded independently. Content is fetched from the repository via APIs and delivered to the front end, enabling dynamic content updates and multichannel content distribution.

Advantages of Headless Web Applications

The hype around headless CMSs has its merits. Let’s discuss some of the key advantages that headless web applications provide.

Improved Flexibility and Scalability

One advantage of headless architecture is its improved ability to adapt to changing requirements. In traditional setups, making substantial changes to the user interface or introducing new features can involve complex and time-consuming overhauls of the entire application. With headless, the front end is decoupled from the back end, making it more agile for changes. Front-end development can progress independently, allowing for quick iterations and new features without disrupting the core functionality.

This agility can accelerate development cycles as well as enable businesses to respond promptly to user feedback and market demands. Whether it’s a design facelift or the integration of cutting-edge technologies, headless architecture provides the flexibility needed to keep your web application up to date.

Improved Longevity of Application

Headless web applications aren’t just about addressing current needs; they’re designed to be more easily adaptable. Their architecture offers several features that can enhance the longevity of your application.

With a headless architecture, having the front-end decoupled with the back-end provides a distinct advantage as web development practices evolve and if you need to revamp your front-end technology stack or redesign your site in the future. You could completely scrap the existing front end and replace it with a more modern or suitable framework without reconfiguring the entire application.

This means that your investment in the back-end and content management system (CMS) remains secure and adaptable, ensuring that your application can continue to evolve.

Similarly, headless empowers you to change your data source or CMS without overhauling your entire application. Should you find that your current CMS no longer meets your needs, you can just change it out without disrupting the front-end or back-end functionality.

These traits of headless architecture can safeguard your application’s longevity.

Improved Security

Popular content management systems like WordPress, while powerful and user-friendly, can become targets for security breaches due to their widespread use. In a headless architecture, these potential vulnerabilities are reduced. Since the back end doesn’t directly interface with the CMS’s front end, it becomes more challenging for attackers to exploit known vulnerabilities.

Additionally, you have more control over the security of your headless application. You can implement security best practices tailored to your specific use case unhindered by third-party code, reducing the risk of data breaches and helping ensure the integrity of your application.

Disadvantages of a Headless CMS

While headless content management systems have gained popularity for the many reasons we just touched on, they are not without their disadvantages. It’s essential to weigh the pros and cons before deciding whether a headless CMS is the right choice for your project. Let’s explore some of the disadvantages.

Complexity in Setup and Configuration

One of the more significant drawbacks of a headless CMS is the increased complexity in setup and configuration. Unlike traditional monolithic CMS platforms that come with pre-built templates, headless CMSs require more effort to configure, especially if you’re building a custom frontend. Developers must design and implement the presentation layer from scratch, which can be time-consuming and challenging for those unfamiliar with modern front-end technologies.

Higher Development Costs

Developing a website or application with a headless CMS can be more expensive than using a traditional CMS, especially for small to mid-sized projects. Customizing the front end and building API integrations require additional development time and resources. Features and components often must be developed from scratch. For budget-conscious organizations, these higher development costs can be a significant drawback.

Limited Built-in Features

Traditional CMSs typically have many built-in features, such as SEO tools, user management, search, and e-commerce functionality. In contrast, many headless CMSs focus primarily on content management, requiring developers to build additional features or integrate third-party services. Event calendars, tabbed content, carousels, and forms are examples of features that in traditional CMSs could lean on community-based code but are not possible with headless CMSs. Depending on your project’s requirements, this lack of built-in functionality can be a drawback. It definitely inflates development resource time.

Steeper Learning Curve

Headless CMS platforms often come with a steeper learning curve compared to traditional CMSs. Developers and content editors may need to adapt to new workflows and technologies, which can slow down the onboarding process. This learning curve can lead to longer development timelines and potential frustration for team members who are new to headless CMS architecture.

Content Preview Challenges

Content preview can be more challenging in a headless CMS, as content editors often need to rely on separate tools or environments to preview how content will appear on the live site. This separation between content creation and presentation can make it harder for content editors to visualize the final output, potentially leading to errors or misalignment between content and design.

Maintenance Costs and Updates

Maintenance and updates for a headless CMS can be more complex. Developers must ensure that both the CMS and the front end are updated and that API integrations remain functional. This added complexity can result in higher ongoing maintenance costs.

Who Should Consider Using a Headless CMS?

Headless web applications are not a one-size-fits-all approach, but rather, they’re particularly well-suited for specific scenarios. Let’s explore who should consider adopting headless web applications.

Enterprise-Level Companies

Enterprise-level companies often operate on a grand scale, requiring substantial resources to manage their web presence effectively. For these organizations, headless web applications can be an ideal choice, but it’s essential to consider the time and budget required to build and host a headless site.

Unlike off-the-shelf solutions like WordPress, a headless app will require custom development to build all the required features. This means allocating resources for development, testing, and maintenance. Additionally, hosting a headless architected site usually involves more complex configurations, potentially requiring a dedicated team to manage it.

For large enterprises with the financial means and a commitment to delivering top-notch digital experiences, investing in a headless app can pay off with enhanced flexibility and scalability.

Microsites, Subdomains, etc.

Some companies require a separate microsite or affiliated site on a subdomain that is distinct from their main website but still needs access to shared content or data. In these cases, opting for a headless web application architecture is a practical solution.

To implement this, the main site must be able to expose a GraphQL endpoint for the headless app to retrieve data. The microsite can interface with this data source and potentially others, delivering a cohesive and consistent user experience across various web properties.

This approach enables each site to maintain its unique identity and design while benefiting from a centralized data source, streamlining content management and updates.

Companies Anticipating Scaling and Rapid Growth

Companies on a rapid growth trajectory often find themselves dealing with an increasing number of data sources. These may include CRMs, APIs, third-party integrations, and more. Managing this complexity is well-suited for headless web application architecture.

A company that knows they are expanding into additional channels and will require integration with its website should strongly consider a headless architecture as its solution.

Who Should Avoid Using a Headless CMS?

While headless web applications offer many potential benefits for many use cases, it’s important not to get caught up in the hype and force an integration. It may not be the best fit for every situation. Here are some scenarios where a headless approach might not be the most suitable choice.

Simple Marketing Sites

Headless web applications shine when dealing with complex, content-rich projects with multiple data sources, but they may be overkill for simple marketing sites. If your website primarily consists of 5-10 static pages, a blog, and minimal interactivity, opting for a headless architecture might introduce unnecessary complexity and overhead.

Traditional content management systems (CMS) like WordPress or platforms like Squarespace can provide a user-friendly interface for managing content without needing custom APIs or front-end frameworks.

Building and maintaining a headless CMS and front-end for a simple site can be more expensive and time-consuming than using an out-of-the-box CMS solution. For smaller projects, these additional costs may not justify the benefits of headless architecture.

In such cases, it’s more efficient to leverage traditional CMS platforms that are designed to streamline the development process for simpler sites, saving you time and resources.

In such cases, it’s more efficient to leverage traditional CMS platforms that are designed to streamline the development process for simpler sites, saving you time and resources.

Single-Sourced Data

Headless web applications are well suited in scenarios where data comes from multiple sources and needs to be integrated seamlessly. However, if your project relies heavily on a single data source without much need for aggregation or transformation, a headless architecture is probably overkill. Adding in the additional layer of APIs, increased development time required for a headless app, and the various complexities in hosting and maintenance may tip the scales for a straightforward approach.

Conclusion

In this article, we’ve explored both the advantages and disadvantages of headless web applications. On the positive side, headless architecture provides improved flexibility, scalability, and adaptability. It empowers businesses to create dynamic, personalized user experiences while offering long-term viability. They are especially advantageous when integrating multiple sources of data from various channels.

On the downside, headless CMSs can be more complex to set up and configure, have a steeper learning curve, and probably require higher development costs. Content preview can be challenging, and maintenance and updates can be more complex. Plainly speaking, they can be overkill.

Weigh these considerations before diving headfirst into a headless architecture.

The post What Is a Headless CMS & When Does It Make Sense to Use One? appeared first on Portent.

There are so many content marketing “best practices” out there these days it can be overwhelming to figure out which ones are actually helpful and which ones you should prioritize. To make things a little easier, I’ve gathered up the most common best practices and assigned a priority and effort rating to each one listed below. 

The priority level refers to how much of an impact that best practice can have on the bottom line. The effort level refers to the time and resources required to implement that recommendation. These ratings are based on my own experience using these strategies for client work as a content specialist at Portent. 

With these ratings included, you will be able to more realistically assess which content marketing best practices to focus on that line up with your individual needs and resources. 

Let’s dive in!

Table of Contents:

1. Conduct Keyword Research
2. Analyze Competitors
3. Maintain an Editorial Calendar
4. Create Content for Each Stage of the Marketing Funnel 
5. Update & Repurpose Existing Content
6. Balance Publishing Evergreen & Trending Content 
7. Measure Analytics for Your Content
8. Create Content Hubs
9. Implement Web Usability & Accessibility Standards
10. Utilize AI-Generated Content

1. Conduct Keyword Research

Rating: High Priority, Low Effort

This content strategy and SEO best practice is definitely worth the hype. Keyword research is the process of finding what words, phrases, and questions people are entering into search engines to look for information about a particular topic. By using tools like Ahrefs and Semrush to conduct this research, you can discover foundational insights about your audience and understand what type of content they are looking for. 

By understanding what questions people are asking, what type of content is currently ranking for those questions, and what the user’s search intent is behind those queries, you can craft valuable and relevant content for your users. If you only have resources for one item on this list, make sure it’s keyword research.

2. Analyze Competitors

Rating: High Priority, Low Effort

Your content does not exist in a vacuum online. It is always put in context next to other people’s content. Therefore, it is crucial that you understand the competitive landscape for whatever content you are working on so you can assess how your own content can do better and rank higher in the SERPS. This is where competitor research comes into play.

Competitor research is the process of analyzing what your competitors are doing well and not well, so you can use those insights to inform your own content. This best practice is also a great way to identify gaps in your content if your competitors cover topics you don’t. 

As long as you have your competitors identified, you can start learning from the successes and failures of your competitors right away. The implementation of those insights, on the other hand, might take a little longer depending on your resources.

3. Maintain an Editorial Calendar

Rating: High Priority, Low Effort

An editorial calendar contains all of the key publishing information and deadlines for each piece of content that you’re creating for your site. Maintaining an editorial calendar for all of your content allows you to plan out content that aligns with your marketing objectives, track progress, consistently publish, and foster better collaboration. An absolute must if you have lots of different content and contributors to keep track of.

Fortunately, there is a fairly low threshold to starting an editorial calendar and many benefits to gain. Once you find a template that works for you, start filling in your content details and continuously keep it updated. Your future self will thank you!

4. Create Content for Each Stage of the Marketing Funnel

Rating: High Priority, Medium Effort

The marketing funnel has four major stages: awareness, interest, desire, and action. It’s crucial to create content for each stage of the marketing funnel so you can help guide users down the funnel to convert. 

For example, if you only have content for the awareness stage, your content won’t ever push users to action. And if you only have content related to action, you won’t have any content to help bring in new users to your brand. Having content for every stage means that at whatever stage a user interacts with your brand, there will be content ready to help move them down the funnel.

Before you start mapping out your content to each stage, you’ll want to make sure you have a clear understanding of what the buyer’s journey looks like for your specific brand.

5. Update & Repurpose Existing Content

Rating: High Priority, Medium Effort

This best practice can get easily overlooked since it might not sound as flashy as creating new content, but don’t let that fool you; it can be extremely useful. Updating and repurposing your old content means identifying underperforming content and finding new ways to re-optimize that content. 

The best part about this strategy is that you don’t have to start from scratch with your content. For example, let’s say you have an older blog post on “The Coziest K-Dramas to Watch During Fall” that has some great backlinks but is losing rankings and organic traffic. Instead of writing a brand new blog post that doesn’t have any of those backlinks, you can update your existing post with fresh content relevant to your users to increase your keyword rankings and organic traffic while retaining those backlinks.

This is a great way to efficiently allocate your time and resources since updating content generally takes less effort than creating new content but can still pack a punch when it comes to impact. Even small updates, like refreshing the title tag, meta description, and publish date can have a larger impact on keyword rankings than you might think.

To identify what content needs to be updated, re-purposed, or deleted, you’ll want to start by auditing your existing content.

6. Balance Publishing Evergreen & Trending Content

Rating: High Priority, Medium Effort

Evergreen content means that content will always be relevant to your users, whereas trending content relates to something timely and only relevant for a short period of time. Both types of content are beneficial to create. 

Evergreen content, like a how-to guide, can be updated yearly and continuously gain traffic and rankings for years to come. It’s also a great way to showcase your expertise and authority on topics that are particularly important to your brand. Trending or topical content allows you to capitalize on the buzz from a current event that is getting a lot of attention and direct some of that engagement toward your brand if you’re lucky.

It’s important to diversify the types of content you produce so not all of your eggs are in one basket. Having both types of content allows for more diverse sources of traffic to flow to your website.

7. Measure Analytics for Your Content

Rating: High Priority, High Effort

Tracking analytics for your content is a game-changer. By measuring how your content is performing, you can understand what is and isn’t working and adjust your strategy accordingly. It’s important to track KPIs and metrics that focus on your content’s conversions, engagement, and reputation that tie back to your main business goals so you can measure the ROI of your content marketing efforts.

Having a data-driven content strategy approach will allow you to make more informed decisions so you can spend your time and resources focusing on content that will have the most impact.

Setting up analytics for your content will require a higher amount of effort to set up, but once you do, it can provide a lot of valuable insights.

8. Create Content Hubs

Rating: High Priority, High Effort

A content hub is a strategy that involves having one central hub page for a topic with several pages of related content (spoke pages) that all internally link back to the main hub page. This allows you to improve your topical authority and increase keyword rankings.

Content hubs can be an excellent way to show Google that you are an authority on a key topic related to your business. Especially with Google’s latest E-E-A-T update, it’s more important now than ever to showcase your brand’s expertise, experience, authority, and trustworthiness with your content. The spoke pages also allow you to create content for users at different stages of the marketing funnel.

However, it’s important to note that this best practice requires a good amount of time and effort to both research and create all of the necessary spoke pages.

9. Implement Web Usability & Accessibility Standards

Rating: High Priority, High Effort

Nielsen & Norman defines usability as, “a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use.” and the Web Accessibility Initiative defines web accessibility as “when websites and web tools are properly designed and coded so people with disabilities can use them.” Both web usability and accessibility are essential factors to consider so all users can easily access your content.

These two best practices are particularly important for pages where you want users to take action and convert, such as a Contact Us page with a form or a product page with a CTA button. It needs to be as easy as possible and accessible for all users to fill out that form or select that CTA button so they can convert. 

But for pages where the main goal is for users to read the content, like a blog post, the usability of the page is less of a priority since the text is the main focus and there are less complicated design elements on the page. 

Updating usability and accessibility elements can require a fair amount of web development support, depending on what CMS platform you use.

10. Utilize AI-Generated Content

Rating: Low Priority, Medium Effort

Everyone and their brother has been talking about AI-generated content and, quite frankly, to quote Taylor Swift, “you need to calm down.” Yes, AI is revolutionary and exciting, but it’s also not very good at writing content for humans. Fortunately, humans are still better at that.

For example, ChatGPT is good for short and simple content like updating title tags, meta descriptions, and product descriptions. It’s also a good option for topic ideation since it can quickly pull information from many different sources. However, ChatGPT can’t generate new information and can easily repeat misinformation. While it may sound easy to have ChatGPT start writing all of your copy, it actually still requires quite a bit of time and resources to have someone review and edit the AI-generated content to make sure it makes sense, is accurate, and fits your writing style. 

It’s important to think of AI-generated content as a tool that can assist with content marketing, not as a full content strategy by itself. Whenever you’re writing more complex or thought leadership content that requires new ideas, unique opinions, and a strong creative voice, stick to having a human write it.

Wrap-Up

There are so many different strategies you can use in content marketing, but before you leap into doing all of them at once, it’s important to assess which strategies you have the time and resources for that will make a significant impact on your bottom line. Use these priority and effort ratings to decide which content marketing best practices you can focus on first, so you can make the most of your content marketing efforts. 

For other resources and tips, make sure to check out the Content Strategy section of our blog to read about other insights from our industry experts.

The post How to Prioritize the Most Common Content Marketing Best Practices in 2023 appeared first on Portent.

For businesses of all sizes, the last few years have been a bit… difficult, a rollercoaster, you might say. With the recent economic downturn, many businesses are tightening their marketing budgets and focusing on techniques to get them a guaranteed return on their investment.  

Whether you are focusing on SEO to ensure your business ranks with the best or investing in paid ads to drive revenue, you may be missing one key component to ensuring that the customers you attract become the customers you retain – a CRO Strategy. 

Having worked in the digital marketing space for just shy of a decade, I have witnessed the shared frustration of seeing businesses, from small mom-and-pop shops to Enterprise companies, forced to reinvest their hard-earned dollars into the business expenses that take priority during a down economy such as running operations and employee salaries. What remains of their budgets tends to get pushed towards various marketing strategies focusing on efficiency and bringing down the customer acquisition cost. 

However, according to a study performed by McGraw-Hill Research of over 600 companies from 1980 – 1985, companies who maintained or increased their advertising budgets during the 1981-1982 recession, on average, had slightly higher sales growth over the next three years post-recession than similar companies who cut back or eliminated their budgets. 

While bringing down the cost per customer acquisition cost becomes a priority during slow times, ensuring that the traffic you are bringing in converts and brings in more revenue is where CRO, when done right, becomes an absolute priority.

So, I am here to tell you not to give up on your marketing plans, even if you’ve had to cut back! In this post, you’ll learn why dedicating your time and budget to an effective CRO Strategy with AB testing will pay off in the long run.

What Is CRO?

CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) is the art of improving your website’s performance and functionality to lessen user frustration and confusion and prevent user dropoff within your website’s conversion funnel. CRO uses data-driven testing methods to get behavior insights from your existing website traffic and turn them from visitors into qualified leads.

The tests we can run on your website can range in quantity and complexity, but we usually begin with analyzing how your users interact with your website and making changes to your brand messaging or website elements to ensure that your customers are experiencing your website the way you intended. 

AB Testing is the most common CRO Test used to test incremental changes to a web page (more on that in a bit); however, we also utilize both multivariate and redirect testing for larger and more complex design changes.

Why Is CRO Important?

Now, if that sounds abstract and risky when trying to conserve budgets, that is understandable. For many decision-makers, cutting costs and finding efficiencies becomes the absolute priority. However, I often pose the question – do you fully understand how the changes in economic, social, and environmental conditions can affect your customers’ online behavior and, specifically, how their browsing habits have changed throughout the pandemic through the present day? 

Environmental and economic changes can impact how many users view your website’s messaging. What may have been appealing in 2019 may be seen as negative today as brands shift to make their marketing messaging personally relevant to their situation rather than their demographics. Also, it is safe to say that many consumers have become price sensitive over the last year, but they may also be sensitive to the cost of using a product or service you offer. For example, the fashion industry has been affected by companies offering work-from-home policies and consumers cutting back spending on nonessential items. 

It is important to be open to undiscovered possibilities and, most importantly, open to being challenged on long-held assumptions that may have impacted previous marketing strategies. Through CRO research, you can discover a new world of possibilities.

You may have designed what you believe is the best possible experience in the world, but watching real people interact with your site is often a humbling experience. Because you are not your user.

Peep Laja

Get to Know Your Customers Even Better

CRO allows us to perform what is essentially a user study on how your consumers are browsing through your services or products. We can understand if changes to your brand tone or communication strategies may need to be made.

Make More Informed Decisions

For many businesses, the slowdown in activity provides the perfect opportunity for a CRO team to do a full website audit. The opportunity for a CRO to get data-backed insights on which of your pages are getting the most or least engagement or how cart abandonment rates may be affecting your bottom line can provide insights that you may not have noticed during your busier seasons. These insights, along with the slowdown, can allow your team the time to examine your conversion flow with a fine-tooth comb and make plans for improvements that will give you a head start when business picks up.

Steadily Increase Your Revenue

CRO can help you find long-term strategies to improve your conversion rates and save you the steep costs associated with website redesigns. Looking into how your website’s mobile responsiveness and site speed is of top importance as that may be responsible for users bouncing from your website prematurely.

Lower Customer Acquisition Cost

CRO often works alongside other marketing channels, such as paid advertising, to maximize user retention by efficiently directing them through tailored conversion channels. We can also expand on existing conversion paths by creating customized landing pages based on targeted traffic that can encourage additional conversions.

What Is AB Testing?

Now that I’ve outlined how CRO can work for you, let’s dive into one of the most popular CRO testing techniques, AB Testing, and how we leverage testing tools to get data-backed insights and improve website conversions. 

As Portent, we often start our client engagements with a full website audit to identify potential improvement opportunities. From there, we formalize a research plan utilizing quantitative (site analytics, click/scroll maps, etc.) and qualitative (surveys, usability testing, heuristics) data to ideate, ask questions, and form solid hunches. After our initial research, we formulate a hypothesis based on what we’ve learned, which forms the backbone of what comes next – experimentation and AB Testing.

When executing a test, a CRO Strategist will use software such as Optimizely or VWO to set up both a control and a variable within the testing environment. We then designate that all users landing on your website are assigned to a control group or an alternative test group(s) in a randomized order. When testing an element on a website, such as a CTA on the home page, all web page components are kept the same except for the CTA being tested. This ensures we get clean data and allows us to attribute any observable differences in conversion rates to the change made for better or worse. While there is no official rule stating how long we should test an element, our rule of thumb is no less than two weeks and no longer than four weeks. A/B Tasty has an excellent write-up on how to determine testing duration.

Why Is AB Testing Important?

AB Testing is our go-to when testing a hypothesis, such as a dropoff in conversions, because it provides clarity in pinpointing what may be the exact cause, as the changes made to the variation are often very limited in scope. 

Some common problems in the conversion funnel we test for include:

• Confusing CTA’s
• Complex Navigation
• Complicated Page Layouts
• Form Abandonment due to friction or poor UX
• Checkout Bugs or Frustration
• Too much or not enough targeted content

Now that I’ve outlined how CRO can be beneficial and why AB testing is our go-to for experimentation, how can an AB testing plan be translated into ongoing revenue for your business?

Narrow Your Focus

Often as CROs, we have hundreds of ideas for optimizing website conversions, and while we would love to pursue them all, testing on too many elements too often dilutes our efforts from focusing on the places that will move the conversion needle forward.

AB testing allows us to be more strategic in our approach as we are limited in the changes we can make to the variation page. This allows us to focus our testing incrementally on high-visibility pages or experiences closest to the point of revenue, such as:

• PPC Landing Pages 
• Pricing Pages
• Demo Forms
• Checkout Funnels

Get More Accomplished, Quicker

Many AB Testing tools, such as VWO, allow us to run multiple tests simultaneously without breaking the user experience on the website or creating a flicker. This means that while we are testing a headline on your pricing page, we can also be testing how the CTA’s land to a completely different audience with no overlap. 

This can help us save time in determining what may be causing conversions to drop and help us make more impactful changes to your website much quicker.

Innovate with Less Risk

With limited budgets, AB testing can give us the flexibility to make high-impact but well-thought-out bets on design changes, test them, and roll them out to your audience with a short turnaround. This allows us to constantly iterate as technology evolves without any guesswork on if your audience will respond well to these changes.

CRO Testing is a controlled environment; thus, there is no long-lasting negative impact. If a proposed change does not perform well with audiences, we can simply take those insights and apply them to another testing iteration. This methodology allows us to increase sales from your existing traffic and attract new leads in a more optimized timeframe. 

Tap Into CRO’s Potential

So to tie all of this together, I encourage you to keep an experimentation budget active during these tough times for a few reasons:

• We are the keeper of customer insights. While Google Analytics can tell you what the data says about your customers, CRO can give you insights into the story behind the data. Since consumer behavior is unpredictable at best and constantly in flux, understanding why your users are making certain decisions on your website is crucial to keeping updated with the changing times. 
• CRO is resourceful. We can use your existing customer base to drive growth and ROI. 
• We are adaptable as CROs and work with a variety of channels. Whether you are focusing your marketing efforts on organic, paid channels, or e-commerce, we can drive your growth.

We at Portent wish you the best during these tough economic times, and our CRO Team is always available to assist you on your conversion journey!

The post Innovative Marketing on a Budget: Why Your Business Needs CRO appeared first on Portent.

This post was originally written by Ryan Moothart and updated by Sabrina Souza with additional information in August 2023.

Ad rank is a critical factor to consider when you’re creating and optimizing successful PPC campaigns. 

Contrary to what you might think, ad rank isn’t all about the money. Having a higher budget doesn’t automatically mean your ads will show up in a higher position. It’s a more complex formula that’s important to understand, especially if you have a limited budget. While you may not be able to bid as much as other advertisers, if your ad rank is higher, you can still show up in a higher position than your competitors without having to spend as much per click. 

One of Google’s primary goals is to ensure users have a quality experience by connecting them to the right solutions for their queries. By creating ads and landing page experiences that are valuable and relevant to the user, you can increase your ad rank and the chances of Google showcasing your ad. This ultimately helps increase the visibility of your ad and can lead to higher click-through rates, higher conversion rates, quality leads, and cost efficiency.

What Is Ad Rank?

Google defines ad rank as “a value that’s used to determine your ad position and whether your ads will show at all.” 

Your ad rank is the result of any given paid search auction and is compared to those of your competitors to determine if and where on the search engine results page (SERP) your ad will show in relation to these competitors.

In the image below, you can see the top 3 positions to attain in the SERP for the keyword “scented candles.” The higher you rank, the higher the position your ad will show in:

To assess your own ad rank, position, and quality, these are the metrics you’ll want to take a look at in your Google Ads account:

• Search Impression Share Lost to Rank: Percentage of how often your ad didn’t show due to poor rank.
• Top Impression Rate: Percent of the impression you received that showed at the top of the SERP.
• Quality Score: Expected CTR + ad relevance + landing page experience.

What Is the Ad Rank Formula?

In simpler times, Google’s ad rank was determined by your max cost-per-click (CPC) bid and quality score. However, like anything else, it’s evolved over time to add a bit more complexity in order to provide users with a more relevant and higher-quality experience. 

A key change Google made was adding the expected impact of extensions into the mix, allowing advertisers to further tailor a user’s search experience. For instance, sitelink extensions are a powerful asset that allows you to show the user (up to) 4 additional links to specific pages on your site. They also let you take up more real estate on the page, making your ad stand out more.

According to Google, ad rank is calculated using several factors:

• Bid Amount (and whether or not that meets a minimum threshold)
• Auction-Time Quality Score (includes expected CTR, ad relevance, & landing page experience)
• Competition of the Auction
• Context of a User’s Search (i.e., location, device, time)
• Your Enabled Ad Extensions 

Your ad rank is also recalculated each time an ad is eligible for and competes in an auction. Therefore, it’s entirely possible that an ad for one of your keywords will show up in position #1 at the top of the page for one user’s search and in a different position for another’s.

What Factors Affect Ad Rank?

We discussed what factors go into calculating ad rank, but let’s dive deeper into what those factors are:

Bid Amount

You might be thinking – can’t I just bid more to show up higher? Not necessarily. Other factors like ad quality and context matter! If your quality score is high and your assets (keyword, ad copy, etc.) are highly relevant, you can still wind up getting the best ad rank in an auction while bidding less than your competitors. 

Likewise, if your quality score is low and your assets aren’t as relevant to your user’s context (where they are in the funnel, for example), you could bid higher than all of your competitors and still not get the best ad rank.

Auction-Time Quality Score

Your quality score is available at the keyword level, scaled from 1-10. Since quality score factors in expected click-through rate (CTR), ad relevance, and landing page experience, a higher score indicates that you’re providing a higher quality ad and landing page experience that’s more relevant to the user searching your targeted keyword than competitors.

While your keyword quality score factors into determining ad rank for a given auction, your ad rank does not directly impact your quality score as a result of that auction. 

Quality score is, however, determined in part by your expected CTR, which takes into account your historical CTR trend. That trend can be influenced by an improved ad position, which is determined by your ad rank.

Competition

In an auction, you’re competing against other advertisers for your ad to show up for searches relevant to keywords that you are all targeting. When competing for the same position, if one ad ranks higher than the other, they’ll be more likely to win that position.

Context of the User’s Search

Context includes factors like the user’s search term (the actual query that triggered your targeted keyword), physical location, time of day, device being used, etc. 

That’s why it’s important to regularly review your search terms to make adjustments to your targeted keywords, location, ad schedule, and devices to optimize your campaigns and influence ad rank.

Ad Extensions

When creating your ads, you have the option to add additional assets like extensions (sitelink, callout, call, image, etc.). To calculate ad rank, Google takes into account the expected impact of your implemented extensions.

What’s the Difference Between Ad Rank, Quality Score, and Ad Position?

Your quality score is a component of how ad rank is calculated, which impacts your ad position. 

Quality score focuses on the quality of your ad based on things like ad copy and landing relevance to targeted keywords. Ad rank layers quality score with factors like bid amount, user location, time of day, etc. Ultimately, all of these factors and calculated metrics determine what position your ad actually shows up in.

How to Increase Your Ad Rank

Having a better ad rank means better visibility on the SERP. The more visible you are, the more likely someone is to click on your ad. There are a few ways to directly improve your ad rank, which all refer to the factors mentioned earlier.

1. Increase Your Bids

This could mean increasing your max CPC if using a max clicks bidding strategy or your target CPA if utilizing a smart bidding strategy. Cost-per-click can also vary widely per industry or keyword you’re interested in targeting. It’s important to do thorough keyword research beforehand to create a proper budget strategy.

2. Improve Your Quality Scores

Ad quality and landing page relevance are important factors for quality score, so Google can make sure users are seeing relevant ads that match their search intent. You’re able to see your quality score on the keyword level to help ensure your keywords and ad copy are highly relevant to the search queries that could trigger them.

3. Optimize Ad Extensions

You’ll want to use as many relevant ad extensions as possible to boost your ad rank. Ad extensions can be set on the account, campaign, or ad group level to make sure you’re able to get as specific as possible to your targeted keyword themes and audience.

Wrap-Up

To sum it up: ad rank matters. It’s a great way to keep a pulse on the quality and competitiveness of your PPC campaigns. 

Creating quality ads benefits both the user because they’re getting highly relevant ads tailored to their search and you as the marketer who is able to efficiently use your budget and drive business results. 

If you need help optimizing your campaigns, check out our PPC services or contact our team today.

The post Ad Rank in Google Ads: What You Need to Know appeared first on Portent.

Hello, digital marketers and data enthusiasts. Today, we will be talking about something that’s been on the minds of many in our industry: Google Analytics 4 (GA4).

If you’ve been living under a rock (or just busy), you may have missed the memo that Universal Analytics (UA) stopped collecting data on June 30th, 2023. That’s right, folks. If you still need to set up a GA4 property (or have yet to evaluate a competitor to Google Analytics), your data will have been gone since July 1st, 2023. 

But don’t panic just yet. It’s still possible to migrate to GA4. We’re here to guide you through it.

The Setup Assistant: Not as Magical as It Sounds

In its infinite wisdom, Google has been automatically migrating old UA properties to GA4. Sounds great, right? Not really, it turns out. Their Setup Assistant does a poor job of customizing the setup and event tracking to meet the needs of your specific business. It’s a one-size-fits-all disaster.

But you can follow our step-by-step guide to set things up correctly.

That walkthrough takes you into Google Tag Manager (GTM) to deploy your new GA4 Measurement ID. While you’re in there, you might’ve noticed your container has gotten out of hand, which brings me to my next point.

Time to Spring Summer Clean Your Google Tag Manager Container

While you were in Google Tag Manager setting things up, you might’ve noticed that your container has gotten out of hand. Now is an excellent time to re-evaluate your Google Tag Manager container. 

Believe it or not, even if you pause old tags that are no longer relevant, GTM must evaluate all your tags, triggers, and variables on each page load to understand whether or not to use them. That puts a weight on your site performance. 

We recommend retiring anything you’re no longer using and carrying forward only the most essential tracking for collection in GA4. Let’s be honest: Were you using all of that information?

Speaking of your old data, you’ll need to devise a plan for that too!

The Clock is Ticking on UA Data Access

Another crucial point: Google will only allow access to old UA data until June 30th, 2024. A year from now seems like a long time, but there’s currently no self-serve tool for exporting that data into a more permanent storage method. 

So, what’s a data-loving marketer to do? We recommend using the Google Analytics API to export specific data groups into BigQuery.

There are eight different schemas that we recommend holding onto, including campaigns, content, devices, traffic sources, and user behavior.

Once you’ve nailed down which ones are most critical for your business to preserve, it’s time to reap the benefits of having that warehoused.

The Big Benefits of BigQuery

BigQuery is more than just a fun word to say. It’s a powerful tool allowing you to merge historical UA data with newly-collected GA4 data and create seamless reporting going forward. It’s like a time machine for your data, allowing you to look back at your past performance while keeping a keen eye on the present.

It also allows for accelerated load times for Google Analytics reporting in Looker Studio. That means less time waiting for your data and more time analyzing and strategizing.

The Bottom Line

The migration to GA4 might seem daunting, but there is still time to switch. With some effort and strategic planning, you can ensure smooth data collection and analysis. So, roll up your sleeves, dive into your Google Tag Manager, and start making the most of GA4. Your future self will thank you.

If you run into any issues with the migration process, Portent is happy to help. Just reach out to our analytics team!

The post It’s Not Too Late to Migrate to Google Analytics 4 appeared first on Portent.

These days, SEO practitioners cannot start their workday without reading some kind of headline about AI. However, most of the recent announcements surrounding AI have centered on national search results rather than local SEO, from Bing Chat’s image answers to publishers featured in Google’s Generative Search Results.

It’s relatively unknown how AI will impact local search. And this sense of bewilderment doesn’t stop there. Google’s other recent initiatives around the Perspectives feature, short-form video, and changes to the Google Business Profile (GBP) platform all speak to uncertainty surrounding Google’s future as a search engine.

Despite these unknowns, I will forge ahead through this steaming hot plate of confusion and share my predictions of what’s next for local SEO and GBP.

We’ll look at a few changes with AI that will affect GBP: 

1. Google’s new Search Generative Experience includes the local pack, but it will struggle to remain up-to-date.
2. Perspectives yields new opportunities in the local review space.
3. Review spam will get worse, then better, then the same.
4. GBP support will get more automated🥲  

Ultimately, these changes have altered the physical appearance of search results, but overall Local SEO strategy won’t change much. We’re seeing plenty of attempts from Google to modernize its interface, but the core content remains the same or similar. 

1. Generative AI Search Results Won’t Improve Local Search

If you log on to SEO Twitter or LinkedIn these days, the future is dark:

“SEO is not dead, but could lose relevance as a traffic channel in the future” – Olaf Kopp

“​The world is underestimating how much of an apocalypse Google’s new experience will be.” – Eli Schwartz

SEOs are concerned that SGE, or Search Generative Experience, will reduce organic traffic and delegitimize SEO as a marketing channel. Google has introduced SGE as its solution for AI in search results, using a system similar to Bing GPT. 

Because the SGE populates the entirety of above-the-fold search results, many SEO practitioners fear that it will impact organic traffic. After all, why should a website try to rank in traditional search results that aren’t even seen by most users?

SGE includes the local pack, but this doesn’t really mean much. Credit: Digital Danielle

So far, I’m not concerned about the impact of SGE in local search results. It’s not adding any value. Because it lacks real-time data, SGE can’t meet users’ local needs as effectively.

How SGE Works and Why It’s Not Effective for Local

SGE is an AI chatbot that picks search results for you based on its large language model (LLM). 

Traditional search results are modeled on a query—a crawler fetches results based on a few words. 

AI search results are more conversational—an LLM interprets the context of human language. 

The LLM from SGE has been added on top of Google’s existing model. It’s a robodog designed to fetch the best stick (LLM chat AI) that’s running on top of a technology designed to bring you the best stick available (Google search). 

While the SGE uses a lot of SERP real estate, its impact in the local space is unclear. Google states that the SGE “will provide context about local places, using AI-powered insights that make it easy to compare and explore options.” This statement really doesn’t say much. It’s the equivalent of saying that a coffee shop offers multiple lattes without posting the menu. 

So, how will local search work on the SGE? Poorly. An LLM doesn’t reference a live index—it’s static. To develop the LLM, engineers trained it on a massive data set, and they can’t update that data set on a regular basis.

It Lacks Context

Think of an LLM like an English-to-Spanish dictionary. It parses words and helps you understand and speak the language, but it doesn’t have access to news and events in a Spanish-speaking region.

The base technology behind SGE doesn’t understand when there’s a flood that wiped out 30 basements driving demand for sump pumps or that the newest local taco truck is trending on social media. Its functionality is dependent on its ability to connect real-time information in the index with its LLM model, a technology that Google describes as Retrieval Augmented Generation.

It Relies on User Generated Content

To understand real-time local information, Google relies on user-generated content through its Knowledge Graph, which is interpreted through an index of Google Business Profile, social media, and local news. 

SGE doesn’t index reviews. It depends on Retrieval Augmented Generation to connect its index with its LLM, but the LLM isn’t interpreting the content of recent reviews. The LLM is limited to its AI training database.

Local Information Changes Too Rapidly

It will be difficult for SGE to naturally integrate local search elements because this information changes so quickly. The trendiest restaurants in Denver in 2022 are not the same in 2023. The relevance of local information centers on its ability to adapt to community trends.

Regardless of the connection between SGE and local, we also won’t experience a large change with the SERP interface. The local pack has historically consumed the top of organic local results, and now it is being used in SGE.  Since the SGE references the top three organic local results (as shown in the SGE screenshot), this isn’t much different than achieving the Local Pack. 

SGE has not shifted the paradigm for local SEO—it resembles the current configuration, and  Google can’t keep it up to date.

2. Reviews Will Become Even More Personalized

Google Perspectives is a new, personalized tab in search results—it’s Google’s answer to TikTok. And it’s a bigger deal for local SEO than SGE. While Perspectives isn’t an AI feature, it could significantly impact Google’s narrative for first-person experience in search results.

In Google’s announcement for Perspectives at I/O 2023, the search results preview included information from Twitter, Reddit, TikTok, and YouTube. Users click a tab in search results and then view a feed that emphasizes user-generated content. Perspectives is a change of pace from the news articles and corporate websites that typically rank in traditional search results.

In its announcement about Perspectives, Google directly references the addition of Expertise to its E-E-A-T changes in 2022. Google’s shift toward first-person experiences reflects a transformation in its user base. In 2021, TikTok became the world’s most popular domain—yes, even more popular than Google. Younger users aren’t connecting with Google, and the search engine will continue to attempt to capture this market. 

As part of this aggressive youth targeting, I predict that Google Perspectives will add a new dynamic to a business’ review cycle. Instead of targeting reviews from all types of customers, local businesses will increasingly lean on a hyper-local “influencer” style of local review. Encouraging customers to create a video review or a self-made testimonial might change the landscape of GBP reviews.

On TikTok, people look for influencers to tell them about lesser-known, trendy restaurants. Google will offer its Perspectives feature for similar first-person experiences with local businesses. 

Because Perspectives is sourced from multiple channels, it offers numerous opportunities to stand out from other local businesses. Google may end up connecting local content from Perspectives to a GBP profile, enhancing the reviews section.

Perspectives will target a younger audience—71% of TikTok users are in the 18 to 34 demographic. Google might start to include first-person video reviews, possibly sourcing them from third-party video websites. Local businesses can inspire short-form video content from a younger audience by: 

• Defining a user persona for a younger demographic
• Determining if any local competitors have been featured through first-person experiences
• Encouraging genuine interactions between staff and customers (no canned responses, treat your employees well)

As local SEO evolves, much of it will move away from optimizing a certain web page or profile and into attracting content produced by customers. By improving business operations, locations will begin to stand out and prove themselves worthy of content from younger customers. Success in local search will still rely on reviews, but the format for them will change.

3. Review Spam Won’t Change

In 2022, Google removed 20% more fake reviews than in 2020, including 20 million attempts to create fake Google Business Profiles.

AI will exacerbate fake reviews across GBP, with some spam companies already integrating AI technology to write them. A Google search for “ai review generator” produces numerous options to improve a business’ review count. It’s against GBP and FTC policy to create fake reviews, and the initial wave of spam will challenge these organizations.

However, every advancement in AI content generation also results in an advancement in AI that detects fake reviews. It’s a perpetual game of cat and mouse that developers and spam fighters will wage for ages to come.

Local business owners can expect the following: 

• Competitors improve rankings with the integration of fake review spam.
• AI detection technology from GBP identifies the fake reviews and removes these competitors.

Ultimately, the rise in AI reviews won’t impact day-to-day operations for a local business beyond an initial dip and correction in rankings. The best approach with reviews is a shift toward targeting Perspectives review traffic, as well as staying the course with current review tactics.

4. GBP Support Will Dwindle

Sometimes I reminisce about the earlier days of GBP when contacting support was only a phone call away. You’d dial a phone number, wait 30 minutes or so on hold, and get the help you needed. These days, contacting GBP support typically happens through an email request. If that email request isn’t properly formatted, GBP support might ignore it. If you do everything correctly, it still might take weeks for GBP support to respond. 

When GBP support does respond, they’ll often ask to confirm identifying information about the business and then take a few more weeks to respond. I usually set expectations with businesses that the turnaround time for a request with GBP support is a month.

Paying a human being to provide customer support is expensive. AI doesn’t require a salary, while a person does. Though GBP’s paid Local Service Ads continue to expand, the GBP platform itself is free and requires resources to maintain. 

With this shift toward email support and long wait times, many users have moved to the GBP forum for support, which is managed by GBP product experts. These product experts are able to expedite certain GBP requests to Google support. Some local SEOs have theorized that Google is using the free labor of its product experts on the forum as a way of filtering out extraneous customer service requests.

In another attempt at cost savings, GBP updated its management dashboard in November 2022. Many local SEO practitioners explain this change as an attempt to simplify the GBP management experience for small businesses, which would reduce customer service requests. This update, described as the New Merchant Experience (NMX), equipped local business owners with a dashboard that intuitively updates a GBP directly in search results. 

Making an adjustment in search results might help small businesses more directly understand the impact of a GBP change. When GBP users make a change and can immediately place it in search results, this might reduce the volume of customer service requests.

Google’s decline in phone support and its shift toward in-search management speak to a larger move toward making the GBP platform more efficient. When Google needs to cut costs, it will look at removing support for cost-intensive tools like GBP that are free to the user. 

As Google’s AI chat technology continues to improve, it would make sense to replace some human support with Bard or a similar LLM. This move toward AI support would further reduce costs and contribute to the collective shrug that Google has directed toward its GBP platform.

The Future of GBP and AI

So what’s the future of local search, GBP, and AI? It’s a mixed bag—search traffic won’t change much for local, but managing GBP will become more challenging. 

Google’s shift into AI is reflective of society’s current fascination with digital automation. People are exploring how an AI assistant can save them time and simplify their lives. Google is attempting to address the arguments that its search results have become unhelpful and gamified by SEO.

For the most part, these AI discussions seem to ignore how well Google has captured the local market. The local pack delivers search results that are customized to the user’s location, favor positive reviews, and consider community recognition as a ranking factor. While the GBP platform may continue to frustrate local SEO practitioners and small businesses, its local relevance will continue to reign. 

Local SEO isn’t going anywhere. Businesses will continue to earn top rankings in GBP by improving their customer experience and community involvement. Regardless of how many times we read the word “AI” in a headline, human beings won’t change, and neither will their need for local search results.

The post Local Search Isn’t Dying, But It Is Changing: 4 Predictions About the Future of GBP & AI appeared first on Portent.

“It’s Summertime, and the living’s easy” if your marketing strategy is continuing to find success through the change in seasons. Digital marketing relies heavily on the details about a business and how it serves the industry it targets. One of the best ways marketers can be aligned with a B2B client’s goals and reach is by building and refining an Ideal Customer Profile, otherwise known as an ICP.

It’s not uncommon for marketers to be without an ICP. I was surprised by the number of clients I’ve worked with that do not have a detailed ICP, even though our collective teams had all the tools and insights at our disposal to create one.

In this guide, I’ll cover what an ICP is, its importance in marketing, how it’s different from a buyer persona, how to build one, and why Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) strategists may rely on it.

What is an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)?

Ideal Customer Profiles (or ICPs) outline a business’ attributes that your product or service is the best fit to reach and do business with. These ICPs include traits your business finds the most success with, whether that’s return or retention.

Here’s an example of what a typical ICP looks like.

Common traits ICPs include:

• Industry
• Location
• Headcount
• Referrals
• Pain Points
• Growth Potential
• Goals

You may already see from the short list of attributes above that an ICP includes firmographic data, behavioral traits, and performance insights. This list is purposely built to distinguish itself from customer and buyer personas, which I’ll cover in a later section.

Before getting there, let’s examine how ICPs are vital to marketing success.

Why is an ICP important?

Summarizing your most successful clientele is essential to connecting with the right prospects. ICPs allow your marketing and sales teams to align on who your most valued customers are and where to find more of the same.

Identifying Prospects and Impactful Messaging

Digital marketing teams will use ICPs to identify the type of lookalike audience or prospect who will purchase from or partner with your business. That’s a kind of potential more valuable and purposeful than targeting a broader audience with only a few shared attributes.

Not only will an ICP clarify who to target, but also how to send an effective message to those prospects.

Improving Conversion Rates and Retention

Leads earned from optimized campaigns stand a better chance of being retained customers if their needs can be met. ICPs establish the value propositions and levels of expectations an account manager would rely on to nurture leads through their sales process.

What’s the difference between ICPs and Buyer Personas?

To put it bluntly, buyer personas are to individuals as ICPs are to business organizations. Both are valuable assets to have for sales and marketing initiatives. Still, if your product or service relies on buy-in from a prospective organization, an ICP is a critical must-have.

When to use an ICP?

Most commonly, ICPs are used in B2B. An ICP helps your business find the best prospective organizations that will value your products and services to meet their needs. For example, your ICP might tell you to target specific sizes of companies within a certain locale looking for the unique services you are offering.

When to use a buyer persona?

A user or buyer persona allows you to target specific people within an organization. This could be executives within that business that make decisions on spend and budget. Due to how buyer personas would target specific individuals, they are commonly used in B2B and B2C.

Another example of when a buyer persona would be used is targeted marketing for an end user within a company that could benefit from your services.

When to use both an ICP and a persona?

Using an ICP and persona in tandem for your marketing strategy will never be the same for any clients you work with. Using the examples mentioned above, you may combine them to build a clear outline of the prospects you should target campaigns and messaging for. 

A combined ICP and persona report is powerful, whether intended to meet an organization’s needs or the expectations of its decision-makers.

How do I create an ICP?

Building an ICP relies on several techniques, many of which digital marketing strategists already know how to do. Data-driven marketers are skilled in collecting insights and deriving certain traits about who they market toward. Some of these skills and techniques to unearth ICP and persona data can be learned and practiced, while other insights may come from resources you already have.

In this section, you’ll find links to blogs from other Portent digital marketing strategists exemplifying how we find the essential details that complete an ICP.

Learn from Quantitative and Qualitative Research

Your analysts and researchers have access to reporting and outreach to gain critical insights that can be used in an ICP. Those familiar with Google Analytics can use Audience insights to spotlight traits that can be used in an ICP or buyer persona.

CRO, UX, and Content strategists may be familiar with qualitative research methods that would clarify motivations, behaviors, and intentions needed for an ICPs anatomy.

Know Your Prospects with Social Listening

Social listening fills the unknowns in a marketing strategy and replaces the guesswork of how a campaign or landing page should sound or feel to your prospects. That’s right. Your social media professionals can contribute to your developing ICP by mining insights from “a treasure trove full of easily-accessible, real-time customer feedback that you can use to inform your marketing strategies.”

Connect with your prospects, too! Use the information you find in social listening to determine how your prospects learn and interact within the industry. Observing their interests will paint a clearer picture of how your ICP will look.

Check Your CRM to Round It Out

Your customer relationship management (CRM) platform is an excellent tool for discovering some of the basic details of your current customers and prospects, like budget, engagement, or level of consideration. If you’ve integrated your paid ads campaigns with your CRM, your insights have become richer with information on how some of your existing customers or prospects came to be from as early as a raw lead.

Find your most valuable leads along the conversion process, and you might just discover recurring themes or traits among them that would make for a great ICP. Hubspot has a great Ebook for creating an ICP with an interactive worksheet to help with the process!

How does CRO use ICPs?

As in product and UX design, conversion rate optimization thrives off all available insights to make their work more efficient and purposeful. Like other strategists who optimize their campaigns, content, and analysis, CROs use an ICP the same way they would a buyer persona to ensure their experimentation ideas will resonate with the audiences for maximum return.

Without an ICP, there’s the potential for misalignment between sales and marketing initiatives. This will sometimes fall on CRO strategists when a variation needs particular verbiage or vernacular for a copy change test. 

Below is a brief example of an ICP and buyer personas with details CRO strategists may use toward testing copy on a landing page.

The following table shows how the above detailed ICP and buyer persona intended for corporate operations or executives would best inform the kind of Variation header and CTA we would use in an AB test.

To conclude…

ICPs are an efficient way for your sales and marketing strategists to go after your highest-valued prospects. If your team is new to building an ideal customer profile, let this post guide your journey toward optimized targeting.

Remember that buyer personas differ from firmographic information regarding the details considered for your ICP. Use both ICPs and buyer personas for a richer insight into who your target audiences are and how to best connect with them. We hope to connect with you when you’re ready for CRO’s help at any stage of your ICP progress.

The post Well Qualified to Represent the ICP: A Beginner’s Guide to Ideal Customer Profiles appeared first on Portent.

Content audits are a foundational step when creating a content strategy. It’s easy to get excited about new ideas for your website content and want to start changing things right away, but you are doing yourself a disservice if you don’t take the time to first understand the state of your existing content and where you’re starting from. 

For a cheesy metaphor (stay with me now), you can’t plan a meal without first looking at your ingredients in the fridge and pantry. By going through your cupboards, you might find ingredients that you had forgotten about that give you new ideas, something that’s definitely rotting and needs to be thrown out, and maybe you discover what’s missing that needs to go on the grocery list stat. Your website content is very similar but with fewer funky smells.

Conducting a content audit is a core part of what we do on the content strategy team here at Portent to understand a client’s website content before recommending a strategy. They are a critical step in gaining a holistic view of a client’s website content. Put simply, we cannot build an effective strategy without one – and neither should you.

In this post, I will walk you through how to look at your website’s cupboards and take stock of what existing content you already have.

What Is a Content Audit?

Let’s start with a fancy definition. A content audit is the process of evaluating a website’s current content to discover what is and isn’t working. This includes all different types of content, from blog posts to landing pages, to case studies, videos, and more. By conducting a content audit, you can then build a content strategy to improve your website’s content.

There are lots of different ways to approach a content audit. For example, you might be conducting an audit of a whole website that covers 15-20 different types of web pages (homepage, product pages, hub pages, about pages, blog posts, etc.) in-depth. Or you might be focusing on a specific subset of pages, like the blog where you’re assessing 500 blog posts and making high-level recommendations on what to keep, update, consolidate, or delete. 

Your approach will depend on your website’s needs and the type of content you have. For this post, I’ll focus on evaluating a website as a whole, where you’re doing a deep dive into each major type of page on a website.

Why Do a Content Audit?

As someone who spends arguably too much time looking at different website content on a day-to-day basis, trust me when I say do not underestimate the value of a content audit. Websites have a lot of different content and a lot of different people working on them over the years. This can create a lot of inconsistencies and siloed content that has received varying levels of love. That blog post that Greg from accounting wrote five years ago is probably still live on your site, and it might be hurting your site’s performance. No offense Greg.

By continuously auditing your content before making any significant changes to your website, you can build a more cohesive and effective content strategy. An audit helps ensure that your existing content is up-to-date and not sitting around going stale. It can also identify what content needs to be thrown out and what gaps you need to fill.

We recommend performing a content audit for your website at least once a year and more frequently for specific subsections of content.

How to Perform a Content Audit in 6 Steps

Now it’s time to dive into how you actually execute a content audit. To help showcase what this process looks like in action, we’re going to look at a hypothetical bookstore website along the way (I have named it the Super Cool Bookstore).

For your content inventory, where you’ll put all of this audit information, I recommend using a spreadsheet to easily organize all of your notes and data for each page. Here’s an example of a blank content audit inventory spreadsheet template to help you get started.

1. Establish Business Goals

While this may sound obvious, establishing your goals for a content audit at the beginning is essential to ensure all stakeholders are aligned on the project. This also prevents you from wasting time addressing issues that aren’t actually relevant or a priority for your business. 

Your content goals frame the rest of the project and give you direction on what issues to focus on. For example, if we’re performing a content audit for the Super Cool Bookstore website, some of the goals for the project might be to:

• Improve organic traffic
• Increase conversions
• Increase user engagement

2. Determine What Content to Audit

Now that the goals have been established, you’ll want to figure out which pages to look at that will help you achieve those goals. 

A good starting place for this step is to identify the different types of pages that exist on the website. Since each page type will most likely follow the same format, you generally won’t need to look at every single page.

For the Super Cool Bookstore, these page types could be the homepage, a blog post, an event page, a book product page, a book club page, a genre hub page, a gift card page, and a checkout page. 

Once you’ve determined these different page types and which are relevant to your goals, you can consult the analytics data to help decide which page or pages to choose for each type. Maybe for the blog post type, you want to look at a range of posts with different levels of performance, so you choose one blog post with high traffic, one with medium traffic, and one with low traffic.

3. Decide on Grading Criteria & Metrics to Include

Next up, you’ll want to decide how you are going to grade each URL and which metrics are relevant. This could vary depending on what content you’re looking at and what your goals are.

Overall, there are three major categories you’ll want to consider for your content audit – content quality, on-page SEO elements, and analytics and engagement metrics. These three categories will give you a well-rounded view of how your content is performing.

When looking at your content quality, it’s important to evaluate your content against Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines, especially if you hope to increase organic traffic. Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines focus on experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. By understanding how your content measures up to these guidelines and what updates need to be made, you can figure out how to provide your users with better content and, in turn, help improve your organic rankings.

It’s also important to understand, at least at a high level, how your content compares to your organic search competitors. For each URL, by briefly looking at what ranking competitors are doing, you can gain more context and get a baseline idea of how to grade your own pages.

These are the major categories I recommend looking at when evaluating your content.

Content Quality:

How well made is the content, and does it address users’ needs and solve their problems?

• Content Helpfulness
• Content Depth
• E-E-A-T
• CTAs
• Writing Quality
• Images & Video

On-Page SEO Elements:

Are the title, metadata, and header tags optimized for SEO?

• <h1> header
• <h2> – <h6> subheadings
• Title tag
• Meta description

Analytics and Engagement Metrics:

How well does the content perform internally and organically?

• Pageviews
• Unique visits
• Entrances
• Exit Rate
• Bounce Rate
• Average Time
• Google Search Console Clicks
• Google Search Console Impressions
• Google Search Console Click-Through Rate
• Google Search Console Average Position
• Top Keyword by Traffic
• Keyword Volume
• Number of Organic Keywords
• Number of Backlinks
• Number of Referring Domains
• Publish Date
• Funnel Stage
• Mobile Readiness Test

4. Pull Data Using Tools

I’ll be honest, this is one of the more boring steps, but it’s important nonetheless. Now that you have all your URLs and know how you want to grade them, you’ll want to pull any necessary data and metrics for each page. 

This is where content audit tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Ahrefs, and SEMrush can come in handy to help you quickly gather all your different data.

5. Complete the Inventory Spreadsheet & Assess Content

This is where the fun part begins (kind of)! Now you have all the information you need to review each URL and evaluate the content. It’s kind of like filling out a very long report card for your website content. 

I’ve found it helpful to use a simple letter grade system with A, B, C, D, or F when evaluating each section, but you can use whatever grading system works best for you. The world is your oyster.

For instance, if you’re auditing a lot of pages at once, you could have a column for a recommended action where you choose between keep, update, consolidate, or delete instead of an overall grade.

This part can be a bit tedious at times, but it will be worth it in the end, stay strong friends.

6. Analyze Findings & Prioritize Next Steps

This is where you bring it all together. Now that you’ve gone through all your pages, you’ve probably started to notice some common themes. For example, maybe most of the subheadings don’t include keywords, the content doesn’t effectively answer users’ questions, or it doesn’t have enough E-E-A-T. These are the types of high-level insights you will want to look for in your content audit notes. 

Once you’ve gathered up all the high-level insights from the pages you audited into a nice heap, you’ll want to take the time to sort and prioritize your recommendations. It can be a touch intimidating and overwhelming when you have a giant list of recommendations that would ideally all be great to execute. Prioritizing can help minimize some of the panic you may be feeling. 

It can be particularly helpful to assign a priority and difficulty level to each recommendation that takes into account your main business goals and the resources you have available to implement changes. This way, you can ultimately focus on what will have the highest impact for the least amount of effort. 

Here’s an example of a prioritized table of recommendations for the Super Cool Bookstore. So many valuable insights that can have a huge impact!

Using this foundation and context from our content audit, we can then start building a content strategy to improve the site’s content and create a roadmap for the future. In our hypothetical example world, this is where we would help the Super Cool Bookstore take its website content to the next level! Full disclosure: I used to work at an independent bookstore and will never shut up about them.

Free Content Audit Template

If you’re ready to start digging into your own website, use our free content audit template to roll up your sleeves and discover what content is and isn’t working on your site.

If this sounds too daunting, we can help! Contact us about doing a content audit for you. It’s literally our job.

Wrap-Up

I hope I’ve convinced you of the power and importance of a good ole content audit. 

A content audit allows you to understand the state of your current content (the good, the bad, and the ugly) so you can then create an informed and productive content strategy. You can’t jump to a solution without first understanding the problem.

And if nothing else, I hope you remember to check your cupboards first before deciding to make brownies at 2 am and realizing halfway through that you don’t have any eggs. An absolute bummer.

Let the auditing commence.

The post How to Conduct a Website Content Audit in 6 Steps appeared first on Portent.

It’s time to talk about the newest addition to Google’s Core Web Vitals metric family – Interaction to Next Paint (INP).

What is Interaction to Next Paint (INP)?

Interaction to Next Paint is an experimental new metric that helps website owners and developers understand if the webpage’s collective interactions are responsive.

INP measures the time it takes for a website to respond to all user interactions (e.g., clicks a button or taps on a link) and outputs the maximum time that all or most interactions were below.

For example, if a page had a poor INP value that was over 500ms, this would mean there is one or more interactions on the page that take longer than 500ms to respond, which is considered unresponsive. On the other hand, if you had a good INP score of 000-200ms, this would demonstrate that your website is highly responsive and interactive, creating a seamlessly smooth user experience.

Why is INP Important?

INP is all about user experience and responsiveness. By now, we know site speed is very important. In today’s fast-paced digital world, users expect fast and responsive websites. If your website is slow to respond to user actions, it can lead to a poor user experience, increased bounce rates, and, ultimately, lost revenue. INP helps lift back the curtains on finding interactivity pain points.

This new metric differs from other Core Web Vital metrics in that it specifically focuses on user interaction. The other metrics round out a balanced profile for page speed.

INP is particularly important for websites that heavily rely on user interaction, such as e-commerce websites, social media platforms, and gaming websites. A low INP score indicates that the website is responsive and provides a great user experience.

And, of course, improving your website’s INP score can also have a positive impact on your search engine rankings. Google has announced that starting May 2021, the Core Web Vitals will be used as a ranking signal for search results.

How is INP Different from FID?

Interaction to Next Paint (INP) and First Input Delay (FID) are both performance metrics used to measure different aspects of a website’s interactivity and responsiveness. Though they might seem similar at first glance, they have distinct characteristics and applications. INP is focused on measurements after the page load and once the user starts interacting with the page while FID is more geared around the initial page load.

Definition and Focus

INP measures the time it takes for a user to interact with an element on the page and the subsequent paint that occurs. It aims to evaluate the speed at which the browser can process and display the outcome of a user’s interaction.

In contrast, FID focuses on the delay between a user’s first interaction with a webpage and the browser’s ability to respond to that interaction. It helps gauge the responsiveness of a website during the initial loading phase.

Timing of User Interaction

While INP considers the entire lifecycle of user interactions on a webpage, FID specifically targets the very first interaction.

INP can provide insights into the overall browsing experience and how efficiently a website handles user input, whereas FID is more concerned with the initial perception of the website’s responsiveness.

Impact on User Experience

Although both INP and FID influence user experience, they affect it in different ways. A good INP score ensures a smooth and seamless browsing experience, as the browser can quickly process and render user interactions.

An optimized FID score, on the other hand, contributes to a positive first impression by demonstrating a responsive website right from the beginning.

How Does Interaction to Next Paint (INP) Work?

Simply, INP gauges the time it takes for the browser to process and display the results of a user’s interaction with a webpage element. In order to better understand INP, let’s break down its core components and how it’s measured.

Components of INP

INP comprises two main events:

1. The interaction: This refers to the user’s engagement with a webpage element. Some examples of interactions are:
   • Clicking buttons or links
   • Selecting items from a dropdown menu
   • Submitting a form
   • Scrolling through content
   • Hovering over elements that trigger an action
2. The subsequent paint event: This is the browser’s response to the interaction, which typically involves updating the page’s content, layout, or appearance.

How to Measure INP

To measure INP, we first need to record the precise moment when a user interacts with a webpage element. This timestamp serves as the starting point for the INP calculation.

Next, we monitor the browser’s processing of the interaction and identify the subsequent paint event. The time difference between the initial interaction and the next paint event represents the INP value. A shorter INP indicates a more responsive and interactive webpage, contributing to an enhanced user experience.

INP helps us understand the user interactions that are causing the most friction.

What Is a Good Interaction to Next Paint Score?

Striving for an INP score of 200ms or less is ideal for providing an enjoyable user experience, which should increase user engagement and, ultimately, boost the success of your online presence. Here are the scoring guidelines set by Google:

Good: 000-200ms
Needs improvement: 201-500ms
Poor: Over 500ms

It’s important to remember that Interaction to Next Paint is an experimental metric at this time and that these ranges are not set in stone.

Here is an example of an interaction with little to no delay that will contribute to a good INP score. The user clicks the image, and it immediately opens a lightweight modal displaying the image in a larger size.

And here is an example of the same interaction, except there is a significant delay between when the user clicks and when the subsequent action triggers.

Tools to Measure INP

There are a number of tools to measure Interaction to Next Paint. The most common tools give a high-level score, but we have the ability to dig in deeper as well.

Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX)

CrUX is a Google-powered, public dataset that aggregates user experience metrics, including INP, for millions of websites. By using BigQuery or PageSpeed Insights, you can access CrUX data to analyze your website’s INP performance and identify areas for improvement.

WebPageTest

This popular online tool offers a thorough performance analysis of your website, with INP being one of the many metrics it evaluates. To measure INP using WebPageTest, simply enter your website’s URL, choose your desired test settings, and let the tool do the rest.

Browser Developer Tools

Modern browsers, such as Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, come equipped with built-in developer tools that can measure INP. In Chrome, drill into the “Performance” panel to record and analyze user interactions. For a more in-depth look, Google gives a detailed example of how to surface slow interactions through the performance profiler.

Custom JavaScript

If you’re proficient in JavaScript, you can create custom code snippets to measure INP for specific interactions on your website. This method allows for a more tailored approach to measuring, focusing on the elements most crucial to your site’s user experience.

How to Improve Your INP Score

Once we have identified the areas that are hurting our INP score, we need to work on improvement. Improving Interaction to Next Paint will come from three main areas: long input delay, event callback optimization, and presentation delay.

While there are other factors, like 3rd party scripts, these main three will be what we can diagnose and find solutions for on the assets under our control.

1. Fix Long Input Delay

Fixing long input delays is essential for ensuring a smooth and enjoyable user experience on your website. When it comes to addressing this issue, there are several strategies you can employ:

Optimize JavaScript: One of the primary causes of input delays is heavy JavaScript execution. To combat this, consider breaking up long tasks into smaller, more manageable ones using techniques like requestAnimationFrame or requestIdleCallback. Additionally, be sure to defer non-critical JavaScript execution until the main content has loaded.

Prioritize Event Handling: To improve input responsiveness, prioritize event handling by using passive event listeners. These allow the browser to continue with other tasks while simultaneously processing user interactions, resulting in a more fluid experience.

Minimize Main Thread Activity: Keep the main thread as light as possible by eliminating unnecessary tasks and optimizing your code. The less work the main thread has to do, the quicker it can respond to user inputs. Consider the use of isInputPending and yielding to the main thread.

2. Event Callback Optimization

To optimize event callbacks, focus on executing only the essential logic required for visual updates in the next frame, deferring other tasks. When we defer non-critical task updates until after the next frame, it reduces processing time and delays in painting that next frame. Once the next frame has been painted, we can execute the rest of our non-critical tasks.

An example of this is when the user interface gets updated while the user is typing in something. Perhaps an auto-complete search field, a rich text editor, or the like. For a more in-depth look at an example like this and how to address event callback optimization, check out this web.dev article.

3. Reduce Presentation Delay

Our last INP optimization topic is presentation delay. Presentation delay starts when event callbacks finish and ends when the browser presents the next frame. While you have limited control over presentation delays, here are some tips to avoid frame delays:

1. Don’t misuse requestAnimationFrame() for non-rendering tasks, as it might delay the next frame.
2. Be cautious with async, await, and Promises; they can still block rendering, so keep tasks short.
3. Carefully use ResizeObserver callbacks; expensive work in them might delay the next frame. Defer non-essential logic.

Wrap-Up

In conclusion, Interaction to Next Paint (INP) is a valuable new Core Web Vitals metric. By addressing issues with INP, we can pinpoint areas for improvement, working towards a smoother experience for users. This is particularly crucial for websites that are heavily reliant on user interactions, such as e-commerce sites, social media platforms, and gaming websites.

A low INP score signifies a responsive website, leading to better user experience, increased user engagement, and higher conversion rates. As Google now includes Core Web Vitals as ranking signals for search results, improving INP scores could also enhance search engine rankings, further contributing to a site’s overall online success.

Everyone wants a faster and more seamless user experience!

The post Interaction to Next Paint (INP) – New Core Web Vitals Metric appeared first on Portent.

Have you thought about using ChatGPT to write your content? Well you certainly aren’t alone. With its ability to generate full-length articles in just seconds, ChatGPT might seem like a magic bullet for content creation. In reality, ChatGPT isn’t the solution to all of your content problems. 

A world where you and your competitors use ChatGPT to write articles and landing pages is where all your content is remarkably similar. Since you’re all using the same “writer” and the same information pool, no one will stand out or gain a competitive advantage in search results.

Fact: ChatGPT, in and of itself, is not a content marketing strategy.

Additional fact: ChatGPT is a highly useful tool for content marketers.

How can both be true at the same time? ChatGPT can assist with simple, time-consuming tasks but is not great for any high-level strategy; those tasks are still better suited for humans.

Let’s take a look at when it’s helpful to use ChatGPT and when it isn’t. While it might not be a content marketing panacea, ChatGPT still has a role to play.

What is ChatGPT & How Does it Work?

Before we consider the ways ChatGPT can help with content marketing, let’s go over how it works. The first thing to understand about ChatGPT is that while it generates text, it’s not actually intelligent or creative.

ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is a type of large language model, or LLM, made by OpenAI and trained on large amounts of publicly available text from the web. Upon receiving a prompt from the user, ChatGPT outputs text it thinks is a realistic response based on the text it was trained on. To us, it might seem like ChatGPT is thinking and responding. In reality, it’s just outputting what a human is statistically likely to say.

ChatGPT is able to make predictable text because it was trained to do it in two key ways:

1. By completing sentences from the web: Drawing on billions of examples of text available on the web, ChatGPT learns which words are most likely to follow the next word in practically any sequence.
2. By humans asking questions and telling it which responses are best: Here, the LLM provides several different answers to a specific prompt. Human trainers then tell ChatGPT which answers are best. From this, it learns what appropriate responses look like.

While its creators may have trained ChatGPT not to plagiarize anything word-for-word, the information it provides is taken from elsewhere on the web. ChatGPT can’t have original ideas since it can only repeat what it has been shown before in training, which is not very creative. Similarly, its predictable output isn’t based on synthesizing information to develop new conclusions, so it doesn’t really qualify as intelligent, either.

How Content Marketers Can Use ChatGPT

Despite it’s limitations, ChatGPT excels at simple, time-consuming tasks that involve generating different options in response to a prompt. That being the case, it can greatly help activities in the “high time commitment/limited expertise” category. Think of it as an assistant or copywriting intern.

Since ChatGPT is good at generating several short snippets of text at a time, it may quickly become your go-to tool for several necessary but tedious (for a human, anyway) content marketing tasks.

1. Research & Content Ideation for Copy Briefs

Before you send your copywriter any kind of writing task, you probably create a content brief or outline. Typically, this brief will include a rundown of topics to address in the copy. ChatGPT can help you create this brief.

Asking ChatGPT for a copy brief is like asking, “Hey, what does everyone else usually write about this topic?” You basically get a summary of the competitor research you would normally do by hand, but now it happens instantaneously. In the example above, each of the sections in the outline shows what you would see if you read through the different top-ranking blogs for that topic.

If you follow these outlines to a “T,” you will end up with content that’s fundamentally the same as what’s already out there. Your content won’t stand out, and it’s unlikely to get many links or much attention.

However, none of this means that ChatGPT’s outlines aren’t valuable. Instead of just running with the outlines as-is, you should use them to identify what’s missing from competing content. That way, you can find a unique angle that makes your content truly superlative.

Start with the ChatGPT brief as a part of your research process. Then refine it so that you end up with something that gives your content a competitive edge.

2. Write Title Tags & H1 Headers

You may be an avid reader, but ChatGPT has read more headlines than you have. As such, it has “learned” several patterns and formulas that can really make headlines pop. This can be really helpful to quickly generate different title tag and H1 header  options to choose from.

To get ChatGPT to write headlines for your article, blog post, or landing page, ask it to create headlines for a specific topic. Alternatively, you can provide ChatGPT with the URL of an existing article and ask it to generate new headlines for the piece.

Not sure you like the headlines ChatGPT provides? Ask it for more! Eventually, you should land on something you like or at least narrow your options down to a couple of headlines you can rewrite.

You can also adjust your prompt so that ChatGPT uses headlines with specific keywords or outputs headlines that are longer or shorter. Remember, all of this headline writing only takes a few seconds. ChatGPT isn’t exact with character counts, but it definitely understands the general idea.

3. Write Meta Descriptions

Have you ever received SEO audit results and been surprised by how many pages have missing meta descriptions? While Google often ignores our meta descriptions for SERP snippets, there’s still value in controlling what displays in the snippet when we can. You really should have good meta descriptions for all of your pages. 

Unfortunately, writing them is time-consuming and not much fun. We usually recommend writing meta descriptions for your most important pages manually. Then you can use a template for the rest, saving time and effort.

But ChatGPT can do this for you, and it’s pretty good at it, especially if you provide specific instructions about what words to include. Consider this example, where ChatGPT generates five pretty bland-sounding meta description options:

After giving the tool a little more instruction, the results are much better. Here, we told ChatGPT to use the words “empathy” and “inclusivity” in our meta descriptions:

Now we have meta descriptions we can actually use! 

There’s really only one downside to using ChatGPT this way, and it has to do with character count. Even if we tell ChatGPT to keep each meta description to less than 155 characters, it often provides responses that are – you guessed it! – more than 155 characters. As with the copy briefs, you will need to review ChatGPT’s outputs and add the human touch.

4. Write Unique Product Descriptions

A common problem among ecommerce websites is that while they sell a lot of products, they don’t have the time to write unique product descriptions for each product. As such, many retailers just copy/paste descriptions provided by the manufacturer, forfeiting the opportunity to have unique content for each product.

Since ChatGPT has “read” a lot about all of these products already, it can easily generate unique product descriptions on demand. Your product descriptions will be different from everyone else’s, which helps your content stand out and can improve SEO performance.

That almost seems too easy… and it is. Unfortunately, ChatGPT sometimes gets things wrong. It could provide false or inaccurate information about your products.

For this reason, you shouldn’t immediately publish whatever ChatGPT spits out. You will need to carefully read through every new product description, making adjustments for accuracy as required.

5. Update Blog Posts

When we perform content audits, we often come across blog posts that could bring in more traffic if they were updated or rewritten. In addition, we frequently find posts based on great ideas but where the content itself is pretty thin on information. In both cases, rewriting the content would take a lot of human effort and time.

This is a situation where ChatGPT may prove useful. Try having ChatGPT rewrite the posts that you can’t get to right away. If the AI’s version performs well, then you can leave that version up. You can also give that post a higher priority for human revision if you want to make it even more compelling.

ChatGPT writes content pretty much instantly, so it could be a quick way to update those medium-to-low-priority blog posts. The downside, of course, is that ChatGPT uses its default tone of voice for everything it writes. And its tone isn’t exactly, um, edge-of-your-seat fare.

We can’t make ChatGPT use the right voice and tone. As intelligent as it may seem, ChatGPT cannot provide the stylistic nuance that an experienced writer consistently delivers. You will need to massage whatever content ChatGPT comes up with to make it worth reading.

Limitations of ChatGPT

In considering the potential uses of ChatGPT among content marketers, we’ve already mentioned a few of its limitations. Let’s take a closer look at some of ChatGPT’s most serious shortcomings and how they could impact how you use it.

Can’t Generate New Information

Chat GPT might look like it’s generating new ideas, but it isn’t. Nothing it tells you is original; it’s all just repetition of information that is published elsewhere.

Since ChatGPT doesn’t have the ability to think or analyze the world, it can’t contribute any new facts to any discussion. The best an LLM can do is publish a compilation of information that hasn’t previously been seen or published together.

That being the case, you shouldn’t count on ChatGPT to create truly original content for your website. You will still need a human subject matter expert if you want to stand out from the competition and contribute new ideas or perspectives.

Doesn’t Write With a Creative Style

Speaking of a lack of originality, have you ever thought about ChatGPT’s writing style? It isn’t what anyone would describe as a cornucopia of witticisms and rhetorical delights.

Using ChatGPT to write your content will result in content that reads like, well… ChatGPT. It won’t be particularly engaging. After a while, your audience may even come to recognize a ChatGPT article when they see one. This would do damage to brands that copy/paste directly from the LLM.

Repeats Misinformation

ChatGPT could misinform your audience. An LLM isn’t capable of determining what is true and what is false. It merely tells you what’s being repeated often. So, when misinformation gets spread around the web – and we all know it does, right? – there’s a good chance ChatGPT will regurgitate the misinformation as if it were true.

Needless to say, feeding your audience misinformation isn’t good for your brand. This problem is likely to worsen as more people and organizations publish AI-generated text uncritically. This practice could create a feedback loop where the misinformation is spread further on the web and increasingly fed back to LLMs.

Not Very Good With Source Attribution

Although ChatGPT doesn’t technically plagiarize information from the web, it also doesn’t tell you where it gets its information. When you copy and paste ChatGPT’s informational output directly into your content, you’re almost always publishing unattributed information without any discretion as to whether it requires a citation.

Most brands wouldn’t be comfortable with this – and they shouldn’t be. It risks the presentation of others’ original ideas as your own, opening your brand up to public criticism and credible accusations of intellectual property theft.

Sometimes Generates Nonsense

ChatGPT might know a lot, but it doesn’t know everything. If you happen to ask it something for which it can’t provide a statistically likely response, it might tell you something that’s just plain wrong.

This isn’t exactly misinformation, but it does show how ChatGPT can get confused. Until the LLM “learns” that the English Channel lacks a pedestrian footbridge, it will continue providing answers like the one above. Also note that Christof Wandratsch is a former record-holder for swimming the Channel, not the current one.

Use ChatGPT as a Tool for Content Marketing, Not as a Strategy

ChatGPT and other large language models are pretty good at a variety of simple tasks. However, they aren’t a substitute for real human experience and judgment. If you over-rely on AI text generation, your content is almost sure to be unoriginal, boring, or even inaccurate – all of which are things that search engines are trying to filter out.

That being the case, you should limit use of ChatGPT to the easy but time-consuming stuff. Just be sure to combine it with a healthy amount of human discretion. ChatGPT is useful, but it’s a starting point for your content strategy – not a replacement for it.

AI and the Changing Search Engine Landscape

At present, Google and Bing are working on AI chatbots that reside inside the search engine results. These will look like the featured snippets we see today, but will also have an interactive chat function.

Whether all of these chatbots will directly cite sources (i.e. link to your content) is still up in the air. Bing’s chatbot will link to citations in its responses. At the time of writing, however, it’s unclear whether Google’s chatbot, known as Bard, will cite sources at all. That being the case, it is imperative that we create content that is as good or better than what a search engine’s AI chatbot can generate. After all, we may end up competing with the search engines for our audience’s attention.

If that sounds worrisome, remember this: Humans still have a big upper hand over LLMs when it comes to visibility in search engine results. Google recently updated its Search Quality Rater Guidelines to emphasize first-hand experience. That’s a good thing! After all, only humans can both observe the world and change it through action. Therefore, only humans can meaningfully contribute new information to the web.

The formula for great content hasn’t changed. Whether we end up competing against other organizations’ content or the search engines themselves, humans remain in the driver’s seat. ChatGPT and other LLMs can help speed things along, but these are just tools for content marketing. Human effort is still what makes the difference.

The post 5 Best Ways to Use ChatGPT for Content Marketing appeared first on Portent.

First of all – yes, the title is a bit hyperbolic on purpose. There are several important marketing metrics and KPIs you should pay attention to when it comes to paid media campaigns. However, everything we do as strategists and tacticians comes down to one final point: are these campaigns driving revenue and profit?

I’ve been a paid media marketer for more than a dozen years now. I’ve worked with many clients across all different types of industries and verticals. Each of these clients had different strengths, weaknesses, strategic awareness, and tactical needs. But every single one of them had the same ultimate goal of using paid media campaigns to make money at profitable rates.

When it comes to ensuring the work you do meets that ultimate goal, there is one metric that you must hold above all others: Return on Ad Spend (ROAS).

In this post, you’ll learn the basics of ROAS, the benefits and challenges of using ROAS as your primary KPI, and tips for increasing your ROAS levels in your own paid media accounts.

What Is Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)?

The formula for calculating Return on Ad Spend is simple:

For example, if you have a paid search campaign that has spent $1,000 and you’ve acquired $3,000 worth of revenue from that same campaign, your ROAS would be 300% or 3.0 (as in 3:1) because $3,000 revenue / $1,000 cost = 3.0 (or 300%).

Why Is ROAS Important?

ROAS is the primary metric you want to use to gauge how effective and efficient your campaigns are at generating revenue for your business. After all, generating revenue is what keeps your business going.

How Does ROAS Compare to Other Marketing Metrics?

While other conversion-based metrics such as conversion rate (CVR) and cost per acquisition (CPA) can give you some insight into your campaigns’ effectiveness at driving leads or sales, they do not give you any insight into revenue or profitability. And, at the end of the day, it all comes down to the money.

Here’s an example of why ROAS is superior to other conversion-based metrics – let’s say you have two campaigns that have the following metrics:

If you only look at CPA or CVR, you would jump to the conclusion that campaign A is more efficient and effective for your business. However, once you factor in how much revenue each campaign is driving, you see campaign B is actually acquiring more valuable conversions and has a better ROAS. Instead of pushing more money into campaign A, this data suggests you would want to invest more in campaign B first.

What’s a Good ROAS?

A good ROAS is whatever percent allows you to be profitable and sustain (or even grow) your media investment and your business as a whole.

If you sell a product or service with small profit margins, you’ll need to aim for a high ROAS level well above 100% (say 500%, 700%, or maybe even 1000%). If, however, you make a large profit margin on any conversion you drive, you can probably consider a ROAS level closer to 150% or 200% as “good.”

I’m going to expand more on how you figure out exactly what ROAS level you should be aiming for below. But first, we need to talk about profitability and Return on Investment.

Return on Investment (ROI) looks at net profit versus total investment, whereas Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) looks strictly at revenue and media cost. To give you an idea of how these metrics can vary for the same campaign, here’s a hypothetical example of a paid search account selling products via e-commerce:

Media Spend: $10,000

Revenue Generated: $50,000

Profit Margin on Products Sold: 25%

ROI = ($50,000 revenue x 0.25 profit margin) / $10,000 cost = 125%

ROAS = $50,000 revenue / $10,000 cost = 500%

ROI is a crucial metric when analyzing profitability, but it factors in components (such as the profit margin of a given product) that aren’t impacted directly by paid media campaigns. Thus, when evaluating your digital marketing strategy or what tactics you’re using, ROAS is the truer metric to use.

Breakeven ROAS

While you don’t necessarily want to let business expenses outside of your paid media efforts impact your judgment of success or failure for any particular campaign, it is good to know at what ROAS level you stop being profitable and start losing money. Using the same details as the hypothetical above, let’s calculate what the breakeven ROAS for that paid search account would be:

Media Spend: $10,000

Revenue Generated: $50,000

Profit Margin on Products Sold: 25%

Breakeven ROI = 100% (by definition)

Breakeven ROI: ($Y revenue x 0.25 profit margin) / $10,000 cost = 100%

Y = $40,000 revenue

Therefore, Breakeven ROAS: $40,000 revenue / $10,000 cost = 400%

In this case, this advertiser’s paid search account needs to have a ROAS of 400% or more to break even and begin making a profit. This advertiser should, therefore, aim to acquire a ROAS over 400% for it to be considered “good.”

What’s a Target ROAS?

A Target ROAS is simply a ROAS level you set as a goal for a campaign. Once you’ve determined what your breakeven ROAS is, you can aim for a desired ROAS target for an entire account. To do this, you can evaluate each campaign you’re running individually (or sets of campaigns, if you choose to) and set an individual Target ROAS level using automated bidding strategies in your paid media platform. 

For example, you can set a Target ROAS while using Maximize Conversion Value automated bidding in Google Ads. These Target ROAS levels are used by your paid media platforms as part of their bidding algorithms in an effort to generate ad impressions and acquire ad clicks from the right users who are more likely to generate revenue at appropriate costs.

Benefits of ROAS

Using ROAS as your primary KPI makes prioritizing and optimizing your campaigns more straightforward.

Do you see a campaign generating a high ROAS level that’s currently being limited by budget? Increase the daily budget. You just identified and made an adjustment in seconds that should, in all likelihood, generate more sales and revenue at profitable costs.

Do you see a campaign generating a relatively high amount of clicks and spending a noticeable amount of money without producing an acceptable ROAS level? Dig in and see what keywords and search terms are costing you too much money. You identified a potential problem quickly just by referencing a campaign’s ROAS level.

Without ROAS, identifying the adjustments for these campaigns would be more time-consuming and convoluted. Again, other conversion metrics like CVR and CPA are helpful! But they often don’t tell a detailed story regarding your bottom line, which is necessary when making optimizations in your account.

Challenges of ROAS

The challenge with using ROAS as your primary KPI is that it’s not a “set it and forget it” tactic, nor is it a “one size fits all” strategy.

Not every campaign you run will or should have the same Target ROAS level. For instance, in a paid search account, you might have a set of campaigns that convert really well and typically generate an efficient ROAS level. You’d likely want to set a fairly high Target ROAS level in these campaigns as you can rely on them generating the results you’re looking for in terms of both revenue volume and ROAS.

Likewise, you might have a set of campaigns that convert efficiently but have far more expensive click costs and, thus, lower ROAS levels compared to other campaigns. While these campaigns generate desired sales and revenue levels for your business, you’d likely want to set lower Target ROAS levels for these campaigns as they’re more competitive. Setting a Target ROAS level too high for these campaigns might cause impressions (and clicks, sales, revenue, etc.) to drop off significantly as your platform determines it isn’t able to keep up with your competitors while attaining the desired ROAS levels you specify.

While ROAS gives you context about your campaigns’ efficiency at acquiring revenue, it doesn’t guarantee any particular level of revenue volume. You need to continually evaluate and adjust your campaigns to keep up with what’s happening in your market.

3 Tips to Increase Your ROAS

Now that you have a clear understanding of what ROAS and why it’s important, let’s look at some concrete ways that you can improve your ROAS.

1. Assign Values to Your Conversions

Ensure all the conversions you’re using and optimizing toward have value data associated with them. For e-commerce accounts, this is a given because any transactions you have that register as conversions in your platform should dynamically populate revenue data. However, for lead-based accounts, it’s not as straightforward.

For businesses that have a robust CRM with accurate lead and revenue data associated with their customers, you often have the opportunity to import offline value data into your paid media platform via an API connection. These connectors use an identifier, such as a click ID from Google Ads or Microsoft Advertising, to link any values data housed in your CRM associated with a given user with the conversion(s) they trigger in your platform.

If you’re eligible to use this type of API connection, this makes associating value with your conversions easy. If you aren’t able to use an API connection, but you have the necessary value data in your CRM, you can still automate offline conversion tracking (it’s just a manual process to set up).

If automating offline conversion tracking just isn’t a feasible solution, you can still calculate how valuable each of your conversions is and manually assign static values to them. That way, your platform can tell that a form-fill conversion is more or less valuable than a click-to-call conversion and can use that data effectively. You’ll need accurate data on your conversion funnel to do this. 

For example:

Platform Conversion = Form Fill

CRM Data:

• Form Fills convert to sales at a 10% rate (e.g. 10 form fills per sale)
• Sales are worth $2,500 on average

Therefore, average value per form fill = $250 (10% of $2,500)

2. Use Automated Value-Based Bidding

Once you have conversion value data for everything you’re including in your conversion metric and optimizing toward, you’ll be able to use automated value-based bidding strategies such as Maximize Conversion Value or Target ROAS. These are part of many paid media platforms but can only be utilized effectively if you have accurate (or at least relevant) value data associated with your conversion actions.

Using these automated bidding options will make your life as a paid media advertiser much simpler. Instead of doing manual calculations in a spreadsheet or changing manual bids one by one, you can just tell any campaign to “do its thing” and try to hit a certain ROAS level or maximize ROAS given your campaign’s daily budget. It’s a massive time-saver and frees you up to focus on other strategic items versus being bogged down in the minutia of manual optimization.

Pivot to a ROAS-First Strategy When the Market Contracts

If the vertical you’re advertising in is experiencing a contraction or being affected by an economic recession, it’s crucial you use ROAS to your advantage to stay above your competitors as best you can, even if you don’t have the biggest budgets. 

Using ROAS as your primary KPI when you know impressions, clicks, and sales are on the decline will allow you to focus your media investment on the most profitable campaigns first and foremost. You can then prioritize where to invest any remaining budget after maxing out campaigns that are giving you the most revenue at the best return possible.

Wrap Up

If you’re not using ROAS in your paid media platforms already, you should absolutely do that as soon as possible. Preferably yesterday. You should assume your competitors are doing the same. You’re putting your business at a disadvantage by not utilizing ROAS effectively.

If you’re just getting started with using ROAS, use the information above to calculate your breakeven point and figure out what the right ROAS levels should be for each of your paid media campaigns. Once that’s done, use the tips I provided in this post to give yourself as much advantage as possible when using ROAS in your accounts.

As markets and economic trends shift over time, ROAS will continue to be a vital metric that may determine whether or not using paid media accounts as entire advertising channels for your business succeeds or fails. Don’t ignore ROAS – use it with confidence and drive results for your bottom line!

The post What Is ROAS & Why It’s the Only Marketing Metric You Should Care About appeared first on Portent.

Social media has become an essential market for paid and organic strategies. Since brands from every industry push out content, channels can quickly become polluted with the same trends and content. To succeed in this area, you must be creative; cross-channel marketing is the answer. 

Cross-channel marketing is a combination of various marketing channels to create a more cohesive customer journey for your target audience. Different channels should work together to create a connected message that leads from one to the other. This collaboration allows you to reach a wider audience and drive more revenue. With paid social ads, you can leverage the power of social media platforms to get your message out to potential customers. Using PPC keywords, you can take your paid social ads to the next level and increase your reach even further. 

At Portent, we focus on uniting our paid media strategy by utilizing the insights from each channel to make the others stronger. Introducing a PPC strategy into our paid social processes has made an immediate impact for our clients. In this blog post, we will discuss why you should use PPC keywords for your paid social ads and how to implement this strategy.

What Are PPC Keywords?

PPC keywords are terms that potential visitors enter into search engines in order to find solutions to their purchasing problems. By using the correct keywords, you can ensure that your website is delivered to the viewer in the form of a top-ranking search result ad. For example, if someone is searching for a Social Media Agency in Seattle, they may enter keywords such as “social media,” “marketing agency,” and “Seattle” into the search engine. 

If an agency uses these keywords in its PPC campaign, they will be displayed as a top-ranking search result, making it more likely that the potential customer will click on their ad. Although there are a variety of keyword types, this blog will be focused on branded keywords and generic keywords. These types of keywords typically cover vague keywords that could reference an assortment of users throughout the user journey. 

Keyword research is crucial to this strategy breakdown and can make or break a great PPC and paid social campaign. Many practitioners have a mixture of resources and platforms that they utilize to build their keyword research. Keywords should reflect a solution to a particular problem that your product or service solves, and the best way to find these keywords is to research the customer journey. 

Check out this Portent blog on PPC keyword research to learn more about the process and start researching your own keywords.

Why Are PPC Keywords Helpful for Paid Social?

When it comes to content creation, especially for social media posts, keyword strategies are important. Furthermore, cross-channel marketing requires a certain degree of uniformity between social media ad copy and the overall message you are sending across funnels. PPC keyword research can ensure that your brand messaging is cohesive and relevant to what users are searching for. By leveraging the insights of this research to create better paid social ads, you can ensure your message resonates with your target audience. 

Incorporating high-quality keywords into social media posts will increase brand exposure and maintain a cohesive marketing scheme across funnels and marketing strategies. 

Write More Engaging Paid Social Ad Copy

PPC keywords can give you a better understanding of what potential customers are searching for, allowing you to create tailored ad copy that speaks directly to their needs and interests.. By strategically placing 1-4 keywords into your paid social ad copy, you can better connect with your target audience and more effectively push users toward purchasing. 

When you write social media ad copy, it’s your job as a marketer to remove all barriers preventing a potential customer from making a purchase. Put yourself in the user’s shoes and answer this question: What would keep you from clicking an ad, visiting a landing page, filling out a form on the page, or making a purchase? Since PPC keywords are usually focused on user problems and solutions, when you include them in your ad copy, you can explicitly acknowledge user problems and connect them to the solution you are offering.

Better Targeting

By understanding the most valuable keywords for your social media campaign, you can develop a more defined audience who are more likely to convert down the funnel. Targeting options on social platforms are incredibly granular and sophisticated. Advertisers can target prospective users based on many different criteria, like demographics, interest areas, job titles, groups, platform interactions, lookalike audiences, and more. 

Given the likely powerful connection between interest targeting and general keywords, using audience segmentation options is an ideal starting point for your paid campaigns to guide your audience and help you optimize.

How to Use PPC Keywords to Inform Your Paid Social Ads

Cross-channel marketing is key to ensuring that your social media ad copy, creative, and audiences are effectively optimized by channel. You can gain an advantage over your competitors by performing keyword research on a platform-by-platform basis rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.  With cross-channel marketing, your social media ad copy and creative will be tailored to the platform you are using and optimized with the right keywords to fit the specific audience network. This helps you better reach your target audience and maximize the result of your paid social campaigns. 

Just as content can vary by platform, so should keywords. With the right strategies and tactics in place, you can leverage the user interest of the most popular social networking sites to maximize your paid social campaigns and get the best bang for your buck. Remember that user behavior varies from search to social and from platform to platform, so your approach to keyword research must also adapt.

Facebook

Facebook holds the advantage of a wide range of demographics and age groups. Since Facebook carries billions of users on its platform, utilizing PPC keywords to define targeting can help optimize your campaigns toward users more interested in your brand and offerings. 

For example, suppose a marketing agency was looking to create a campaign to help with their hiring efforts. In that case, they could utilize their keyword lists to narrow the audience to users more interested in your agency’s skills and needs. Facebook offers audience insights like user interests, and PPC keywords are the top phrases searched by users to find a solution to their problem. By inputting the keywords into this section, like “Marketing,” you can tighten your audience to users interested in similar phrases. 

Twitter

Twitter is the top social platform when it comes to granular audience insights. The platform has various insights into audience types and diverse targeting qualifications. This means that PPC keyword research can be highly insightful when building a campaign. 

Twitter has functionality within audience refinement called keywords. This space allows you to input your keywords into the audience section based on terms users have searched or engaged with.

In recent years, Twitter has refined its internal search algorithms to make finding relevant content on the platform more accessible. Hashtags were considered more paramount on Twitter than on most other social platforms. Hashtags offer unique ways to track user engagement and interests. 

Twitter’s search functionality means that you can now search for any keyword or phrase; by utilizing this feature, you can search keywords from your research to find what users are talking about and connect with them on a deeper level to increase brand awareness and conversion volume. 

Similarly to Facebook, you can also utilize these PPC keywords with the interest area of audience targeting. Twitter offers a much more robust selection of audience interests than other platforms. The example below shows what searching for interest keywords within the fashion industry would look like.

Pinterest

In the example search below, our original keyword was “Athletic Fashion.” Pinterest then suggested a series of additional keywords that were applicable to the initial query. This is a great way to continue your keyword research and connect to more solutions users may be searching for.

Another great option is to use Pinterest’s trending platform as part of your keyword research workflow. You can enter your initial search query to see a range of related keyword suggestions that are relevant to your original keyword and trending on the platform. This will be a range of phrases, accounts, and boards that can help guide your research and narrow down audience insights to users most interested in your product or service.

TikTok

Like Pinterest, TikTok offers an advertising platform called the TikTok creative center. Within this portal, you can find resources for trends, inspiration, and creative tools. Once you have your PPC keywords, you can cross-check if similar keywords are ranking directly on the TikTok app with their keywords insight center to ensure you’re using the exact terms that users are connecting with in your TikTok ads. 

TikTok is proving impactful over its competitors, pulling a higher per-post engagement rate (5.69%) than those of Twitter and both Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, according to Rival IQ’s Social Media Industry Benchmark Report, which analyzed 2022 social media performance. TikTok offers a unique opportunity for businesses to connect with potential customers through user-generated content and provides a great space to build brand trust and loyalty. This benchmark indicates that TikTok is an excellent resource for double-checking and authenticating your keyword research.

Example of Using PPC Keyword Research for Paid Social Ads

For a high-level example of what this strategy can look like in action, let’s consider a small business gym. Let’s say keyword research was conducted by the Paid Media team, and the top four keywords are: 

1. Fitness center
2. ‌Yoga studio
3. Personal training
4. Workout center

After receiving this information, we would add these keywords to the detailed targeting parameters on our social media platforms, like Facebook.

Next, we would use this keyword research to inform our ad copy. This ensures we are using phrases that will resonate with our target audience. For instance, since some of the other PPC keywords are “Yoga Studio” and “Personal training,” we can make sure to include in our next ad copy that our gym has a yoga studio and offers personal training to interest users with features that are important to them. 

Below is an example of what a potential ad could look like that incorporates these PPC keywords.

Wrap-Up

PPC keywords are an effective way to improve the success of your paid social campaigns. These keywords help you understand your audience so you can create better, more targeted ad copy and engaging content. By utilizing cross-channel marketing, you can leverage the power of PPC keyword research to inform your paid social ads. 

With a holistic paid social strategy that incorporates cross-channel marketing and PPC keywords, you’ll be well on your way to boosting your own paid social campaigns and reaching more potential customers.

The post Cross-Channel Marketing: Improve Paid Social Ads With PPC Keywords appeared first on Portent.

Having a social media presence is arguably mandatory for brands in today’s fast-paced and increasingly connected world. However, simply creating profiles and just setting them live isn’t enough. You have to engage and really listen to how people are talking about your brand on all these different channels. A well-run social media strategy requires time and cultivation. 

Social listening involves using a software suite that monitors how current and potential customers talk about you and your products across the internet and social media.

Social listening is one of the best things you can do to understand your audience. Social media accounts are living, breathing entities that are in constant dialogue with your customers. This means they are a treasure trove full of easily-accessible, real-time customer feedback that you can use to inform your marketing strategies. 

In the past, before this strategy was called social listening, I would advise clients to visit their Amazon store, or fan-run forums to see how customers were talking about their products or brands. At that time it was a far more manual process. Today, the process is far easier. In this post, we’ll discuss how social listening suites allow you to stay ahead of your customers’ needs and desires. You’ll be able to understand what they wish you’d do better, what you’re excelling at, and what they wish you’d do next.

What Is Social Listening?

Social listening is when you track and analyze how your customers (or potential customers) talk about you online. Maybe they’re singing your praises, sharing frustration about a product or experience, or asking how your product compares to another they’re considering. This also includes how people are discussing your industry.

Social listening must consider consumer sentiment throughout the user journey: awareness, acquisition, support, and advocacy. It should track direct, indirect, and brand-specific mentions. However, as I always say around here, tracking is great, but what you learn from it is more important.  

These mentions are then compiled to provide insights into prominent themes uncovered during analysis. These insights provide a starting point with clear action items for the design and execution of marketing and customer experience (CX) strategies across your various channels.

Social Listening is “analyzing how people talk about your brand, products, and industry, and using that information to define marketing and CX strategies.”

Social Monitoring vs. Social Listening

There’s some nuance to deciphering the difference between social monitoring and social listening. 

Social monitoring involves tracking what your customers are saying about your brand on social media and responding to them. It shows that your brand cares about its reputation and customers and is something that all businesses should consider deploying. It is, unfortunately, somewhat reactionary. 

Social listening takes things further by adding industry insights. 

As a simple example, let’s say you’re a mortgage company. Social monitoring would uncover that people are upset about increased monthly payments for a recent refinance quote. Social listening would note that the fed is raising interest rates to combat inflation and that mortgage rates are climbing. This analysis should look for strategy shifts and include competitors’ actions to combat this overall trend. 

A brilliant way to illustrate the difference between the two comes from Sprout Social, “Monitoring addresses the symptoms, and listening reveals the root cause.” 

Why is Social Listening Important?

Social listening gives you valuable insight as you plan and refine your customer experience (CX) and marketing strategy. This intelligence can assist before launching a new product by looking early at industry trends and competitive products. By having things like term volume, competitor offerings, and pain points at hand, you can better map out your launch and how to best position your product. 

Beyond that, once you’ve launched, you can continue to monitor how your brand and products or solutions are discussed in forums, product reviews, or social media. Coupling this with industry trends will allow you to drive a feedback cycle that will output new products or upgrades. Your customers are already discussing what the next firmware or product release should look like. Ensuring that they feel heard will continue to keep them as customers and advocates. These insights can all drive content decisions. Your marketing material will seem as though it’s tailored directly to your customers’ needs. 

Identify Customer Pain Points

Customers are talking about your product or those similar to it across the internet. As you can imagine, a lot of that chatter is about customers’ pain points when using a product or service. There’s a forum for virtually any topic you can think of where people discuss why something isn’t working. If your product is sold on an online marketplace, there are likely review sections where people rate setup, long-term reviews, or initial impressions. 

All of this data should be tracked and analyzed. From there, use the analysis to answer customers in those online properties. You should also create new content that helps customers overcome these issues. Examples include new product page copy, new setup guides, video walkthroughs, and/or FAQs.

Discover Product Feedback

Similar to the pain points you may uncover with social listening, you’ll also find lots of feedback about your product. This can be good or bad. You can use this feedback to overcome new customers’ purchasing objections to drive adoption. 

This also helps you keep existing customers happy by adding their feedback to upcoming firmware releases, ensuring that new products have what they’re asking for and keeping them in your ecosystem.

Learn From Competitors

Tracking your competitors is another important tenet of social listening. Keeping an eye on the competition and what people say about them will keep you ahead of their offers, appraised of their new products and innovations, and allow you to learn from their successes and mistakes. 

Social listening can also let you see how users compare like companies: which they like more and why.

Stay Up to Date on Industry Trends

As you start to let this all sink in, you’ll likely realize that social listening is most impressive when you think about its scope. We’re talking about tracking a ton of branded and non-branded terms that are important to your business. These can be company terms, competitor terms, and industry terms. For the latter, tons of websites, YouTube channels, Twitter channels, etc., already cover your industry. They often write about the latest trends, whether new products, technology, supply line issues, or other small details that can impact your business and place in the industry. It behooves you to keep an eye on these important issues.

Find Potential Influencers to Work With

While you’re following those Twitter and YouTube channels for industry insights, you can also identify important influencers in your industry that you might want to collaborate with to help get your brand and products in front of your target audience.

Influencer marketing campaigns are a great way to get industry experts talking to their passionate followers about your products. 

Help with Crisis Management

If something goes wrong for a company, the word can get out quickly these days. And if that company isn’t actively listening for its brand name, it might have a full-blown crisis on their hand before it can craft a response. I’ve had this happen to clients. 

Having social listening in place should allow a company to learn about cascading negative sentiment before it becomes a full-blown crisis. This extra time could allow a problem to be addressed quickly or for a response to be crafted until it is fixed. 

Social Listening Tools

There are a lot of available tools out there that you can use for social listening. Prices range from affordable to ‘Enterprise.’ These are some of the main tools we use.

Sprout Social

Here at Portent, we’ve used Sprout Social for a number of clients over the years, and they’re always the first company that we recommend to clients who are looking for a good place to start their social listening journey. 

As a bonus, they integrate with our next recommendation, Hubspot, if you’re in their ecosystem. We’ve been recommending them for a literal decade now:

Hubspot

The beautiful thing about Hubspot is how it integrates with its already powerful suite of solutions. If you’re already using their CRM or marketing automation, you should definitely look at investing in social listening from Hubspot. 

If you want to explore more options, check out Hubspot’s post about social listening tools.

Example of Social Listening

So what does this all look like in action? Let’s start with a hypothetical company that recently started selling super-niche racing paddle boards (to be honest, I prefer outrigger canoe racing, but it’s even more niche). Let’s call this company FastrBORD.

FastrBORD has only been selling its board for six months, and its social media properties have been around for nearly that entire time. So let’s quickly note that if we were just starting them off with social monitoring of their owned properties, we’d be missing out on a whole lot of information. Social listening would actively track industry terms and trends for the Standup Paddling (SUP) community. This information would then be turned into content that can be used to promote FastrBORD. This can help identify the hot and current topics folks are interested in. Rather than guessing, we can use this data to write the right content. 

Plus, FastrBORD can see what people are saying about the competition. Are their boards better built? Do they last longer? How do people see FastrBORD when stacked against the competition? Are people winning with FastrBORD? You can even identify trusted voices in the community speaking about the brand positively and then reach out to them to see if there’s an opportunity for an influencer campaign.

How to Start Social Listening

The simplest way to start social listening is to admit that you need it (and you do). Yes, this is a blanket statement, and I’m being a bit flippant here. But imagine for a second a brand that you connect with. One that treats you right, one that really speaks to you. One that always seems to get the right press. One that has a product set that is a notch above the rest. One that deals with a crisis with aplomb. They are likely monitoring their space in the industry, its trends, and the competition. They’re using social listening to make timely, informed decisions to attract, keep, and continually ‘wow’ customers. 

Now, imagine your company with social listening. You’ll need to start by gathering up keywords, industry and company terms, competitors, brand jargon, and an idea of what this data will inform. Once you have this all at hand, you’ll need to get this information into your platform of choice. Each platform will have onboarding guides and best practices to follow. From there, you can run your initial audits to get an initial baseline to plan your next steps!

Wrap-Up

Market research doesn’t have to be hard, and it certainly doesn’t have to be something that happens only periodically. Social listening allows you to better understand and drive higher engagement with your target audience. You’ll be empowered with timely insights into what your customers are talking about and be alerted to any potential issues with your products, services, or larger industry issues that could affect your business. 

There is a social listening tool for nearly every budget, so I highly encourage you to investigate a platform sooner than later. Trust me; you need these insights, so get out there and start listening!

The post What Is Social Listening & Why It’s a Gold Mine of Insights appeared first on Portent.

If your Twitter feed is anything like mine, then it’s been inundated with hype about AI chatbots and how they will make our lives as organic search marketers easier. GPT-4 just released, and Google is still assuring us their offering is coming, so I don’t anticipate the torrent of headlines to stop anytime soon.

Contrarily, I think AI chatbots will actually make our jobs harder for a few reasons:

• AI chatbot results mean we’ll suffer more zero-click results.
• ChatGPT won’t help Bing take significant search market share from Google
• Writing content the hard way (by real people, with real experience) is more necessary than ever.

This isn’t to say that AI chatbots can’t do anything useful for us. Tactically, using AI chatbots for things like content outlines and writing non-essential text will save us time. But they can only do so much.

The question on everyone’s mind is, how will AI chatbots impact the search engine landscape and our subsequent strategies? While some people are worried that AI chatbots will result in the fundamentals of SEO and content marketing being thrown out, at a high level, they will actually make those core principles more important than ever.

What is ChatGPT & How Does it Work?

ChatGPT and its kin are conversational text generators, and they’re pretty good at it. They should be if it takes billions of sequences of text and millions of dollars to train. 

Fundamentally, AI chatbots like ChatGPT cannot think. They are just like other software that mechanically output data in response to some input. What is notable about them is how well they imitate a real person’s response. 

ChatGPT belongs to a family of neural networks called Large Language Models (LLM), and they are typically trained with two major steps – unsupervised training and supervised training.

In the unsupervised training step, an LLM will be given an incomplete sequence of text (sentences and code) and asked to predict the next word or symbol. This is how it learns what natural language looks like and how it “knows” anything. Since the text it’s trained on is from the web, it is very good at repeating text that has already been published.

In the supervised learning step, the language model is tasked with generating several answers to a prompt, and humans tell it which answers are the best. Also called a “fine-tuning” step, this human feedback specializes the model for certain tasks. For example, ChatGPT can respond to prompts for writing an email, but a model with a lot more of its human feedback geared toward email could perform better at the task.

A large language model specialized for web search might be fine-tuned on prompts that are questions people type into the search bar, while the responses are good summarizations of the pages that appear in the top search results.

What AI Chatbot Results Look Like in The SERPs

Bing has already allowed some users to see chatbot results in SERP, and they look like this on desktop:

After expanding the box, we can see that it has a few other features: links to citations, prewritten follow-up questions, and a link to expand the feature to the whole screen:

Presumably, this feature will only show on search results where Bing thinks it will help users, instead of all of them when it’s finally opened up to everyone. A lot like a direct answer or featured snippet result.

If a search result doesn’t have the feature, Bing provides a link in their “Scope Bar” to take the user there directly:

Google doesn’t have any public previews yet, so we’ll have to rely on what they’ve shared to get an idea of what’s coming:

Google’s preview isn’t from their final release, so it probably isn’t complete. However, we can expect that they want it to act like an extended featured snippet.

AI Chatbot Results Mean More Zero-click Keywords

Contrary to a lot of fears about featured snippets, I find that featured snippets bring in a lot of traffic. Why wouldn’t they? The snippet is large, at the top of the page, and includes a prominent link to the source page. With a little bit of investigation and copywriting, it’s totally doable to get featured snippet results.

The real zero-click results are the ones that come from the search engines themselves. Both Google and Bing have knowledge graphs made up of facts they’ve scraped from other websites. Knowledge graph results don’t link to sources and deprive websites that rank below them of valuable clicks. Search engines love them because it keeps users on their site because, hopefully, the user will search for something else that will generate ad results.

Will AI chatbot results be more like featured snippets or more like zero-click results? I’m betting on them being more like zero-click results, but I want to be wrong.

Organic Attribution is Important for Traffic

Wanting attribution in AI chatbot results makes sense for marketers. The search engines trained their large language models on our content, so they could at least cite their sources. 

Bing’s ChatGPT results do link to sources, including pages not already in the top ten positions, but they aren’t immediately visible on the SERP.

So I expect Bing to deliver some clicks to us but not many, provided they choose us as a source.

With Google, their preview screenshot didn’t show any attribution links, but they did make a vague allusion to continuing to give brands traffic from AI search features:

No promises and nothing specific. I think we’ll hear more about ad formats in Bard (Google’s upcoming AI chatbot) before organic attribution.

This is a big problem for organic search marketers because search engines are reneging on the informal arrangement they imposed on us.

The better content we produce, the better results search engines can display to users. If users are satisfied and keep coming back, then they will click on more ads. Search engines need marketers to enhance the value of their products. In return, the search engines give us some traffic, so we’ll continue to stay in business and keep delivering content to them.

If AI chatbots can summarize our content and cut us off from the traffic that sustains us, we’ll be in a very bad position.

ChatGPT Won’t Make Bing Competitive

Historically, Bing’s problem when competing with Google is that it tails whatever Google is doing. Whenever Google comes out with a new feature, Bing presents their own months to years later. Even their snippet design is like Google’s from a few years ago:

Google 2019:

Bing today:

With so much hype around Bing adding a ChatGPT-based feature to their search engine, we should expect to see more traffic coming from Bing to our websites. Many marketers hope this will happen because it might help dislodge Google from its monopoly position in web search.

Unfortunately, users aren’t rushing to Bing like it’s a Black Friday sale. Looking at a few of the websites I work on, Bing traffic has increased but not as much as expected from a revolutionary new feature.

Here are some screenshots from Universal Analytics from the last six months, year over year:

Traffic has been up, but not to Google-killing levels. News about ChatGPT in Bing started in January 2023, but their big ChatGPT announcement didn’t come until March 5th, which is when search interest peaked. Bing also had a significant algorithm update beginning January 18th, so we might see the effects of that or both. Either way, traffic from Bing needs to be several times larger before it becomes an important traffic channel.

I think a major problem holding Bing back is its design. Not just because they are tailing Google but because they don’t take it as seriously as Google. Here are the organic results for “vacuum cleaner.” Where does Bing want us to focus our attention?

It’s a mess. Each feature on this SERP is screaming for the user’s attention, and it shows they follow a different design philosophy from Google.

It’s disappointing that Bing doesn’t seem like it’s going to take a much bigger chunk of the search engine share. At Portent, we’ve always said that diversifying your traffic sources is a good idea for managing risk. 

For many of my accounts, roughly 90% of their organic traffic comes from Google. What if Google wipes it out after an algorithm update? Where are they going to get their qualified traffic from instead? Bing’s 5% and DuckDuckGo’s 1% aren’t going to cut it. Not every brand can make video or social platforms their primary source of traffic, and Google’s dominance puts them in a risky situation.

The sooner Google’s monopoly ends, the easier we’ll all be able to sleep.

AI Chatbots Raise The Floor for Content Quality

Many brands are excited at the prospect of using AI chatbots to write their content because it’s fast, and their pricing is cheap compared to a human writer. 

The problem with adopting this content strategy is that their competitors can very easily do the same thing. Since AI chatbots only “know” what has been published before, they will all be drawing from the same pool of information to repeat. I’m expecting search results to flood with pages all saying the same things in various ways.

How will the brands who are using ChatGPT to write their content have a competitive edge over everyone else using the same writer? They won’t.

Additionally, if search engines are using the same class of technology to answer user queries directly, why would users read their AI-generated content instead? They’re also failing to differentiate themselves from search engine content. 

Even further, what incentive do search engines have to rank a brand’s AI-generated content over what the search engine produces? History has shown that Google prefers to rank its own products in organic search where it can. In a sea of undifferentiated content, Google will probably rank itself higher than anyone else on average.

As the capabilities of large language models advance, the content quality floor for viable content in organic search will rise. The next key question brands will need to answer before they publish a new page is, “is this content better than what an AI chatbot could produce?” If the answer is no, then that page is not likely to rank in the top 10 results anywhere.

Google Search is still meritocratic to some degree, so there must be a way to stand out from the crowd of AI-generated content. Fortunately, the answer has been around for years, and it’s known by many names but mostly as “10x content.”

Google basically agrees with the principles of 10x content, but they call it E-E-A-T. They have also anticipated the homogenizing effect AI-generated content will have in organic search and are already advising their search quality raters on how to differentiate superlative from average:

This table and other advice gleaned from Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines are going to help guide us out of the oncoming AI-generated content swamp.

The Winning SEO Strategy Hasn’t Changed

While AI chatbots are creating new challenges, the strategy for achieving success in organic search is the same as the old one: have real people provide new information based on real experience that goes beyond the core answer to a user’s query. 

Focusing on this fundamental strategy for high-quality content also addresses the three problems I listed at the beginning of the article:

• Search engines won’t show zero-click results on queries where users clearly prefer our content.
• We’ll be able to get more traffic from whatever search engines are available. Even video and social because the formula applies to them too.
• Real people with real-world experience can outperform AI chatbots because only they can bring new information to the web.

The post AI Chatbots Make Organic Search Marketing Harder, Not Easier appeared first on Portent.

With the rise of TikTok and Instagram Reels, short video content is everything when creating social media content—and that’s why you should use it in your advertising.

 If you’re a B2C brand already advertising on platforms like Meta, then TikTok is the perfect way to expand your social media advertising strategy to tap into TikTok’s giant user base (with over 1 billion active users). However, if you’re a B2B brand currently advertising on LinkedIn, TikTok ads may not be the best fit depending on your business’s goals and target market.
But be quick with your decision-making! American brands may run out of time to test TikTok ads if, “Congress passes a new bill that could be used to ban TikTok and other technology products that pose a threat to American national security interests.”

What Are TikTok Ads?

If you’re familiar with Meta, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, and Snapchat ads, it’s time to meet the newest addition to the advertising platform family: TikTok ads. 

TikTok has a variety of ad types to work with. Some ad types are similar to advertising platforms you may already use like Meta, and some ad types are new to spice things up and add variety to your creative. TikTok ads have multiple campaign objectives to meet your business goals, which will help you decide if advertising on TikTok is right for your brand.

Types of TikTok Ads

If you’ve runads on Meta before, or any other social media advertising platform, you will find very similar ad types on TikTok, like video ads and even image ads. 

Let’s dive in and take a look at all of the different ad types TikTok has to offer:

In-Feed Video or Image Ads

The most common TikTok ad type is in-feed ads. In-feed ads are the most cost-effective for companies to create and run. You can easily utilize video assets that you’ve already created for Instagram stories or reels, or you can create new video content that is specific to TikTok. 

Typically, these ads look organic as users scroll down their feeds and are usually about 15 seconds long. If you are selling e-commerce products, this is where you can collaborate with influencers or record an employee talking in a video to add a more relateable feel to your ad content. You can launch in-feed ads using TikTok’s self-service auction advertising platform.

TopView Takeover Video Ads

The next kind of ad type is TopView ads. These ads capture the user’s attention because they appear at the top of people’s ‘For You’ page when they first open the TikTok app on their phone. With this format, videos can be up to 60 seconds long, offering a great viewing experience with no other ad competition while your TopView ad is playing. 

This type of ad is very similar to when a pop-up ad takes over the full screen of a website, and you have to exit the pop-up before you can carry on. TopView ads require a higher budget than in-feed ads because they have a more powerful impact in raising awareness in impressions.

Branded Hashtag Challenge Video Ads

With a branded Hashtag Challenge Ad, you can encourage your target market to actively participate with your brand’s message. Hashtags play a major role on TikTok since they help users find videos that they are interested in and can join conversations or build communities around hobbies they enjoy. Branded Hashtag Challenge ads can give your brand the opportunity for the hashtag challenge to go viral on TikTok for additional brand awareness.

Spark TikTok Account Video Ads

Unlike in-feed ads, Spark ads are a new ad type that uses posts from your brand’s TikTok account or branded posts made by other creators that have given you the authorization to use their content. Spark ads allow your brand to build up trust and credibility with your audience through utilizing already-made organic TikTok content. Spark ads drive more engagement because you can incorporate organic video features like Duets, Stitches, or Stickers.

Branded Face Filter Effect Video Ads

If your brand wants an out-of-the-box way to advertise on TikTok, then you can use Branded Effect ads! This ad type lets you tell your brand’s story through augmented reality (AR) filters. AR filter effects have become increasingly popular on apps like TikTok and Instagram. 

With this ad type, you can invite other TikTok users to engage with and share your brand story by using your Branded Effect. Branded Effect ads can come in handy at all stages of the marketing funnel and they give your brand increased awareness by making your Branded Effect searchable on the app.

Promote: Boosted Organic Video Ads

If you want to take a more subtle approach to advertising on TikTok, you can use TikTok’s ‘Promote’ feature to boost your organic brand posts on your TikTok account for extra visibility. This feature is very similar to boosting a post on Facebook or Instagram. 

This feature is also the most cost-effective option, besides using in-feed ads, because you can boost a post for a small amount of money, and you can pick and choose which posts you want to boost instead of creating a whole new campaign. This feature can be very beneficial because it can help more people discover your TikTok videos, guide them to your website, and improve your chances of gaining followers.

Search Ads (New!)

TikTok is now entering the paid search advertising market. Like the market leaders, Google and Microsoft, TikTok will allow advertisers to bid on keywords and phrases. This means you may have access to better targeting options than previously available – dimensions like interests, behavior, or demographics.

While it remains to be seen how effective this new advertising platform will be, search ads may be a great option if TikTok’s other ad offerings aren’t a good fit for your business.

How Much Do TikTok Ads Cost?

TikTok ads are fairly cost-effective because you can tailor how much you want to spend to your brand’s advertising budget. TikTok allows you to have a flexible marketing budget for businesses of all sizes. 

TikTok ads typically have a CPM of about $10 and a CPC of about $1, depending on your campaign objective. TikTok ads also require you to spend a minimum of $50 a day at the campaign level and a minimum of $20 a day at the ad group level. You must spend about $500 minimum when running tests or planning your budgets.

Are TikTok Ads Effective?

A new advertising platform brings new opportunities for brands. Depending on the type of brand you have, TikTok ads can be a very effective way to advertise and get out in front of and grow your target market. You might even reach a new audience that isn’t on the typical social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram!

Pros of TikTok Ads

These days, people’s attention is spread across more and more social media apps. So instead of having all of your eggs in one basket, it’s important for brands to diversify their social media channels. Particularly for small businesses, social media can be a great avenue for advertising. 

Let’s take a look at some of the pros when it comes to advertising on TikTok: 

Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing has become an increasingly popular way to advertise on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and more. TikTok’s Creator Network gives brands the tools they need to easily collaborate with influencers and promote their products or services in a very indirect, doesn’t-look-like-it-is-coming-from-the-brand not-annoying way.

Targeting options

If you’re tired of Facebook’s boring interest-based audiences that have been impacted by Apple’s iOS14 update, now is your chance to utilize TikTok video engagement behavior, creator audiences, hashtags, and so much more. Facebook could never!

Unique tools, analytics, and insights

Access to TikTok advertising also gains you access to exclusive tools and analytics through TikTok’s Creative Center. You can find inspiration with TikTok’s ad library and see what competitors are running for ads. See what’s trending on TikTok through hashtags, songs, creators, videos, and more. 

If you don’t have an in-house video editor, TikTok also has creative tools and an audio library so you can easily create new content that will thrive as TikTok ads.

Opportunity to go viral

If your brand, product, or service has a special razzle dazzle compared to other brands in the space, you will also have the opportunity to go viral and earn fame organically or through paid advertising on TikTok. 

There are a lot of eyes looking at TikTok’s huge amount of trending and viral content. If your brand, small or enterprise, is not already on TikTok, you are missing out on the chance to increase your brand awareness, grow your audience, increase website traffic, drive more conversions, and generate ROI.

Cons of TikTok Ads

All great new platforms come with their own set of challenges for the platform and the users. 

Meta has faced multiple challenges with their community regarding data privacy and brands being transparent with their customers. TikTok has also been a trending topic in the news lately. 

Using a new advertising platform also means there is a learning curve for anyone who hasn’t done this before. The nice thing about TikTok’s advertising platform is that it looks very similar to Meta, LinkedIn, and Twitter ads since it is separated by campaigns, ad groups, and ads. The learning curve comes for optimization decisions, algorithm changes, audience targeting options, and making top-performing ad creative. We’ve all heard the best way to learn is by doing…so test out TikTok ads for yourself ( if it makes sense for your brand).

New Data Privacy Concerns

Since TikTok is a newer social media platform in general, they are not as developed as other platforms like Meta when it comes to connecting an API or connecting to GA4. There are also concerns around data privacy, with TikTok being owned by a Chinese company and the possibility of the Chinese government having access to users’ data. This has been a current topic of discussion in the news since the US is considering banning TikTok altogether.

TikTok Ads Are Not a Great Fit for Every Business

If you are advertising a B2B product or service, TikTok ads may not be the best fit. Right now, TikTok ads cater to B2C brands, with the overall average age of TikTok users being lower than other platforms. E-commerce brands and brands that work with influencers–this is your time to shine. B2B brands may want to wait until more targeting features are rolled out so they can accurately reach their customers like you can on LinkedIn ads.

How to Decide if TikTok Advertising is a Good Fit For Your Business

Are your competitors already advertising on TikTok? Is the product or service you are advertising trending right now, or does it have the opportunity to go viral? Does TikTok’s advertising solutions work with your marketing goals? If so, you can tap into your target audience and get in front of competitor brands by advertising on TikTok.

Ask yourself these three questions to help determine if advertising on TikTok is right for your business:

1. Is Your Target Audience on TikTok?

Once you create a TikTok advertising account for free, you can create a draft campaign, walk through the ad group settings, and pick your audience details to see what your estimated audience size looks like. You can also utilize other tools and resources TikTok offers, like case studies and the TikTok ad library, to see if similar businesses are already advertising on TikTok.

2. Do You Have a Product That Works Well With a Visual Medium?

It is best practice for businesses to use TikTok for organic posts and paid advertising. By using both methods, your content will have the opportunity to go viral or become a new trend, especially if your content is aesthetically pleasing.

3. Do You Have the Resources?

When planning your advertising strategy, set your strategy up for success by allocating some of your budget to tests. The best way to learn if TikTok ads are right for you will be by testing it to see how it goes. Create a hypothesis to test with your marketing strategy and see if TikTok can help you achieve that goal or prove your hypothesis wrong.

Examples of TikTok Ads

You can see what kind of ad creative performs best on TikTok by looking through TikTok’s case studies of successful campaigns.  With TikTok’s Creative Center, you can customize your creative search by location, industry, campaign objective, and more.

Let’s look at some examples of TikTok ads to spark some inspiration:

Influencer TikTok Ad

Influencer TikTok ads have a lot of power when it comes to advertising on TikTok. Because TikTok has a large creator network of influencers, when brands work with influencers to create their ads, it gives the ads more of an organic feel and it builds brand awareness and credibility with new customers when an influencer is speaking about the product or service. 

Here is an example of an Influencer TikTok ad for a bedding product:

E-Commerce TikTok Ad

TikTok users are more likely to buy something after hearing about it on TikTok, especially when it is at a more affordable price point. Since e-commerce products are so visually appealing, like clothing, makeup, skincare, and more…that makes TikTok the perfect choice for advertising your products and getting in front of your target audience. 

Here is an example of an E-Commerce TikTok ad for a clothing brand:

TikTok Ads for Apps & Games

Since TikTok is already a mobile-first platform, it is a great place to advertise mobile apps. A lower average age range on TikTok means more app downloads for games and other apps, depending on your target audience. With app and game ads, it is important to address the needs of your customers in the ad. 

Here is an example of a TikTok ad for a social app:

Wrap-Up

If you are a B2C brand…then meet your new favorite advertising platform! TikTok ads make it easy for brands to connect with influencers, create trending or viral content, and tap into a new audience. 

If you are a B2B brand, it may be best to wait until they expand their tools and add new targeting options. Search ads may offer the kinds of targeting options that make TikTok attractive to B2B brands. Keep an eye out.

If you are interested in increasing your brand awareness and content engagement, then TikTok is the right advertising platform for you. Give it a try and see how it goes! You can also reach out to Portent for all of your social media advertising needs.

The post Should Your Business Advertise on TikTok? appeared first on Portent.

If you’re involved in SEO or content strategy in any professional capacity, chances are you’re familiar with tools like semrush and ahrefs. And if you’re familiar with tools like those, you’re probably familiar with the wide variety of metrics they provide, or at least a selection of them.

Some are straightforward and ubiquitous—we’re all familiar with search volume and keyword difficulty, and at this point, chances are that your clients are as well. What’s not straightforward, however, is how this data is gathered and if or why you can trust it. Because these two extremely powerful tools have risen to prominence, there hasn’t been much use in questioning them, as unanswered questions will bring about little recourse. 

But, it’s important to understand how these metrics are being calculated, the margin of error presented throughout doing so, and the confidence you should have in trusting these numbers or, more importantly, presenting them to clients. At a glance, it seems that being presented with these metrics without any analytics work is a cheat code for reporting. Still, it’s important to understand what they’re actually telling us—and why that isn’t always what we think it is. Estimated traffic is a handy guideline that can tell us a lot about the state of our content, but it is most definitely not an accurate representation of the organic traffic that a page receives.

To understand estimated traffic, we must first understand the underlying principles of the two main determining factors: search volume and keyword difficulty.

How is Search Volume Measured?

In days past, search volume was a straightforward and accurate statistic that you could get directly from Google. We’re talking about days before GDPR and privacy agreements, and things were a little simpler. You could see accurate data in Google Keyword Planner because Google had the data (and remember that it still does), and there was no obvious reason not to share it with you. The more you understood about the demand for whatever you were working on, the more likely you were to be successful in the execution of its campaign, and the more likely you were to return and spend more dollars on ads.

The problem was when SEOs got the hang of wrangling this data. They could now clearly identify the most lucrative and in-demand topics and skew all of their efforts toward dominating SERPs for those items or concepts. This means that effectively, whatever query in a big list of semantically related concepts was listed as having the highest search volume, you could be more or less sure that that would be targeted relentlessly by marketers. So, Google decided to obscure that information, which they do now largely through clustering and bucketing.

What about Keyword Difficulty?

In the old days, before the prevalence of paid third-party tools, “keyword difficulty” was not a unified statistic by any means. However, there’s always been one equation (with some variation, of course) that could be used to determine—or better said, to get a rough idea of—the competitive difficulty of a keyword and how hard it would be to rank. 

This formula involves:

• The quality/authority of the pages already ranking 
• The backlink profiles of those same pages
• The search intent of the query itself, and
• The total number of pages currently ranking 

It is interesting to note here that by semrush’s own admission (or rather, omission), the number of results is not candidly stated as a factor that’s taken into account when calculating keyword difficulty. That being said, all of the other factors previously mentioned are present in that list.

Keyword difficulty, put simply, is an extremely useful stat. It’s also extremely imaginary.

It’s unlikely that there is a perceptible difference in the effort that it would take to rank for a keyword term with a KD of 87 rather than 83, though if you take these statistics as gospel, you will believe as much. These metrics are not so much a map as they are a compass, they won’t show you exactly where your goal is, but they will point you in the right direction (and sometimes, just as importantly, point you away from the wrong one).

The Good and Bad of Estimated Traffic Share

Now that we’re on the same page about the two factors above, we can examine how they come together to create the sometimes misleading—and often inaccurate—statistics of estimated traffic. Let’s examine a client example, using semrush for this particular example. 

Below are the largest estimated drivers of traffic on a page level:

We’re given not only the estimated pageviews of each page (and many others should you continue to scroll) but the overall traffic share of the website as a whole. This means that, according to semrush, the /featured page will account for a whopping one-third of all traffic driven from organic search to the site in a cumulative 150,300 unique pageviews. We see a large dip into the second place position, as the figures pretty much level out in terms of traffic for the next several pages.

Now let’s compare these figures to the actual data gathered from Google Analytics:

First, the good news. The top organic traffic driver, as estimated by semrush, was correctly identified. This is impressive and means that there might just be some method to this madness. That is, unfortunately, all the good there is to see here.

Now, the bad news. Look at those traffic discrepancies—yikes. Semrush estimated close to a 10x higher unique pageview count from the period of January (the most recent complete month) than what was actually recorded by Google Analytics. Additionally, the estimated traffic share was almost exactly 2x higher as compared to what actually happened.

This is problematic for a few reasons. The first is that many clients have subscriptions to these tools and monitor them with some degree of regularity. It is going to be a deflating reporting call if you crush them with the news that, despite what they’ve been told, a page is actually only generating 15% of the pageviews that they’ve been told to expect by other sources. Of course, if a client is monitoring third-party tools and not a reporting dashboard, that’s really out of our control—but it doesn’t mean they won’t be disappointed or surprised.

The second reason is that this means that according to all of the factors that semrush measured in this instance, human behavior has actually differed greatly from what it should have been on paper. Go figure.

So, How is Estimated Traffic Share Actually Calculated?

Well, the answer is relatively complicated in nature but can be understood rather straightforwardly. A basic summary of the breakdown is as follows:

First, semrush took inventory of all the keyword rankings for every page of the client’s site that it has on file and noted their last known ranking position. Then, it estimated a clickthrough rate based on the percentage that it algorithmically finds likely for a query within that vertical. 

As an example, if the client site ranked #4 for a certain keyword, semrush would calculate that the site would receive an assigned percentage of the total search volume registered for that keyword. 

You can see that through each step of this process of estimation, the calculation becomes more estimated than known and, therefore, more tenuous as a whole. It’s like a game of telephone with data, in which the person who started the game was guessing in the first place.

So the calculation probably looks something like this:

[Estimated Search Volume] x [Estimated Clickthrough Rate] = [Estimated Traffic]

Let’s look at an example scenario:

1,700 x .13 = 221

Total estimated monthly traffic for example keyword = 221

This example is then replicated over and over for every keyword ranking that the page possesses according to whatever tool you’re using. While 221 pageviews is a relatively low number by itself, once this calculation is applied for over a thousand keywords, the sum of estimated traffic can quickly get out of hand and detached from reality. 

Estimated traffic is not, in fact, estimated traffic. It’s more realistically projected traffic according to the current status and rankings of a website’s associated keywords. It is not going to give you accurate traffic information—far from it—but it can be used as a divining rod to understand the state of your keywords and their resulting organic traffic. Think of it more as a rough temperature check on how your content is performing rather than an exact measurement. 

Estimated traffic share is not an inherently bad number to look at; we just need to understand its limitations and use it accordingly.

But Wait, The Data is Still Useful

One of the best ways to use estimated traffic to our advantage is to check if there is a disconnect between estimated traffic share and a site’s Google Analytics data. This information can be a helpful way to identify upcoming trends or possible issues that need attention.

For example, if a page is performing great in estimated traffic but poorly in GA data, there are a couple of potential insights we can gather:

Potential Insight #1: The page is increasing in strength, and traffic will increase soon (though not likely to the level projected by third-party tools) 

It’s not uncommon to see third-party tools catch onto trends before they’re reflected in analytics data. If you make optimizations to a piece of content, tools will often catch the spike in rankings (from page eight to page three, for instance) and reflect that in the estimated traffic data. In reality, moving up from page eight to page three will still leave you with close to zero organic traffic, but if the trend continues, your GA data will reflect it eventually.

Potential Insight #2: The content is underperforming in terms of CTR 

If a page has strong rankings and high estimated traffic but still gets a low share of the site’s organic acquisition, you might have a problem with SERP appearance. Seeing a high estimated traffic (or traffic share) for a URL that just isn’t performing well can be an indicator that meta titles and descriptions need to be rewritten to appear more appropriate for related queries in SERPs.

Potential Insight #3: The page is ranking for a lot of unqualified traffic

If a page has high estimated traffic but isn’t actually performing well, examine the keywords it’s ranking for. If many keywords aren’t appropriate for the search intent that would lead to the page in organic search, people aren’t going to click through. This is a good opportunity to evaluate the content of the page and potentially rewrite aspects of it to omit the unwanted keywords and replace them with something more appropriate to the page that has a higher likelihood of driving traffic.

Conclusion

Traffic estimated by third-party tools is, at best, usually inaccurate. At worst, it’s a complete misunderstanding of the way human behavior affects organic search performance and a mischaracterization of the way the various factors above culminate. But within its core is a helpful statistic that can be taken as a thermometer check of your content’s performance, give insights as to how and why it’s working, and do the same for what’s not. Just don’t take it as fact.

The post How SEO Tools Estimate Organic Traffic and Why You Should Take them With a Grain of Salt appeared first on Portent.

Performance Max (or PMax) is a new type of advertising campaign in Google Ads that is becoming increasingly relevant in the world of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. As online advertising becomes more complex and fragmented, PMax campaigns use machine learning and automation to optimize ad delivery and bidding strategies across multiple Google networks and platforms.

As a Senior PPC Strategist at Portent, I have been able to launch and test PMax since its inception in 2022, improving performance for my clients along the way. In this blog post, I will cover the top PMax optimization best practices that have proven to be the most effective in my day-to-day work with clients. Since implementing these strategies with one client, we have increased our ROAS 3x since launch!

Whether you are a seasoned PPC advertiser or new to Google Ads, these best practices will be helpful for readers looking to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and tactics in online advertising.

What Are Google’s PMax Campaigns?

PMax campaigns are a campaign type in Google Ads that aim to maximize the performance of a specific advertising goal, such as a purchase or form fill, across different Google campaign types, networks, and platforms.

The goal of PMax campaigns is to use machine learning to optimize ad delivery and bidding strategies in real-time, allowing advertisers to target the right audience and serve the most effective ads at the right time and place. PMax campaigns also offer various targeting options, including audience targeting, demographic targeting, and location targeting, to help advertisers give Google the correct signals to reach their desired audience.

There are many pros and cons to PMax campaigns. For instance, PMax campaigns offer more control over ad creation and targeting compared to Smart Shopping campaigns. While Smart Shopping campaigns automatically generate and display ads based on a product feed and machine learning, PMax campaigns allow advertisers to create and customize their ad assets and choose their own targeting options.

PMax campaigns can target audiences across a wider range of Google properties, including YouTube and the Google Display Network, while Smart Shopping campaigns were limited to the Google Search and Google Display Networks.

While Google PMax campaigns offer several benefits, there are also some potential drawbacks to consider.  Some of those include:

1. A lack of transparency in where ads are shown and what campaign types receive what percentage of impressions and clicks can make it difficult for advertisers to understand and optimize their campaigns fully. 
2. PMax, while possible for goals beyond e-commerce, may not be a good fit for lead gen strategies as there are limited case studies proving its effectiveness. 
3. PMax campaigns require a significant investment in ad creative and may not be as effective for all types of advertising goals or industries.

For more information on whether PMax is the best campaign type for your business, read the Pros and Cons of Google Ads Performance Max Campaigns.

6 Best Practices to Optimize PMax Campaigns

You need to do many things before launching your PMax campaigns and Google Ads account in general. Our 6 best practices ask that you identify your top target markets and personas before diving into the campaign setup. Your feed is also a critical component of PMax success that isn’t editable in Google Ads. With our 6 best practices, your PMax campaigns will be up and running with a profitable ROAS in no time!

1. Feed Optimization

To talk about PMax Optimization, we need to start at the foundation of effective shopping ads, your Google Merchant Center Feed. The quality of your product feed determines whether your products appear in relevant search results and how effectively they compete against other products. A well-optimized feed can improve your click-through rates, conversion rates, and, ultimately, your return on investment. 

How to optimize your feed:

• Ensure your feed contains accurate and up-to-date product information, including product titles, descriptions, images, and pricing. 
• Verify that your feed meets Google’s technical requirements, such as using the correct format and including all required attributes. 
• Regularly monitor and adjust your feed so you can stay competitive and relevant in an ever-changing e-commerce landscape. 

There are third-party tools, such as Feedonomics, GoDataFeed, and Data Feed Watch, that can make it easier to manage and update your feed. Overall, feed optimization is a critical component of a successful Google Shopping advertising strategy.

2. Create Effective PMax Asset Groups

As you assess the strategy of your shopping ads, you need to define your different audiences. These audiences, in turn, will impact the creative strategy, including the images, headlines, and other assets you create to draw their attention. 

An asset group is a collection of assets centered on a theme or related to a specific target audience. Each asset group in a campaign can target any listing group from your product feed.

There are many reasons to differentiate your PMax asset groups within a campaign.

1. Specific ROAS by Product Category 
2. Product Type Organization
3. Budget (To Manage Large Product Groups)

Once you decide on your audiences and create your PMax asset groups, you can begin crafting the audience assets and choosing which of your products to target.

3. Add Audience Signals

By adding audience signals to your PMax campaigns, you can reach people who are most likely to be interested in your products and tailor your ads to them. Audience signals such as custom segments, customer match, affinity audiences, and in-market segments can help improve your ads’ relevance and effectiveness. 

Signals you can add to your campaign include:

• Custom segments that you create based on the keywords people search for, the websites they visit, and more.
• Remarketing lists include people who’ve visited your website, engaged with your YouTube channel, provided their contact details, and more.
• Interests include in-market segments, life events, affinity segments, and more.
• Demographics include age, gender, parental status, and more.

We strongly recommend uploading a customer match list using your company’s first-party data. This provides the strongest signals for Google to learn who your target market is. You need a minimum of 1,000 matches to use the audience in your PMax campaign.

By adding audience signals, advertisers can improve the performance and efficiency of their PMax campaigns, ultimately leading to a better return on ad spend and increased revenue.

4. Optimize Creative Assets

Optimizing creative assets is essential for maximizing the effectiveness of PMax campaigns. To truly take advantage of these benefits, it’s important to have compelling and relevant ad creative that resonates with your audience signals you provide by asset group. 

Google lists out their PMax asset requirements and specs here.  Effective creative should be visually appealing, clearly communicate your product or service, and include a clear call to action. 

Additionally, testing and iterating on different creative elements, such as ad headlines, images, and descriptions, is important to see what resonates best with your audience. PMax reports on the “Performance” of each asset with these rankings:

• Low – the asset is low performing when compared to all other assets of the same type across properties.
• Good – the asset performs well enough against all other assets of the same type.
• Best – the asset is one of the highest performers of all assets of the same type on one or more properties.

Until enough data is available to assign a performance label, an asset’s default status is ‘Pending.’ We recommend using these signals to replace low-performing assets and test new creative.

Google also creates automatically generated video content with headlines, descriptions, and images provided. These videos often appear to be low quality and do not match the branding of the company. There is no way to opt out of the videos being generated, so we strongly recommend that you upload a 10-15 second general branded video to every asset group.

Regularly reviewing and optimizing your creative assets can help ensure that your ads are achieving the desired performance and that you are getting the most out of your advertising budget.

5. Exclusions

PMax provides very few insights and even less control over campaigns. If you go into Google Ads and click on Reports > Other > PMax campaign placement, you can find what percentage of impressions go to “Google Owned and Operated” placements and what other websites and apps your ads are served on. 

We recommend working with Google support or your Google rep to ad exclusions to campaigns if a low CTR is observed. These exclusions include:

• Placement Exclusions
• Mobile Apps
• Content Exclusions
• Website Categories: News

6. Check Insights for Reporting

To continue to optimize your PMax campaigns, check the “Insights” tab within Google Ads. This will provide you with insights such as top search terms within your PMax. If you see terms that are not relevant to your products, reach out to Google Ads Support to request a negative keyword list application for your PMax campaign. You can also use these search terms to optimize your headlines and descriptions in your asset groups! 

Date ranges for the Insights page can be viewed week-over-week (last 7 days) or month-over-month (last 28 days). Check Audience insights to see which audiences are converting at higher rates. Focus on segments labeled as ‘Optimized’ to learn the new audience segments that automation discovered for you that you may not have known about before to help inform your broader business strategy. You can use these optimized audiences to your advantage and apply them to your search, display, and other non-PMax campaigns.

Wrap Up

Google is slowly releasing more data and control to the advertiser. Until that time, don’t sit idly by; take control of all the components of PMax you can optimize. When optimizing, start at the foundation of your marketing strategy by optimizing your feed. Once past that point, solidify your goals and how you want to divide your products into campaigns. From there, plan out your audiences and create audience signals as well as assets tailored to each audience. 

Finally, you want to regularly check the performance and insight report on your PMax campaigns. With this data, you can optimize both PMax and other campaigns to see the impact on your ROAS and ROI. With these PMax best practices, you can gain greater control over your shopping ads strategy!

The post Top 6 Performance Max Campaigns Best Practices appeared first on Portent.

Updated 2/22/23 to include new information.

On-page SEO is more than a checklist of factors that you need to optimize and maintain. It’s the gateway to getting your content in front of users, growing your brand, and maintaining a loyal customer base.

In this blog post, I’ll explain what on-page SEO is, why it’s important, how it differs from off-page SEO, and demystify which factors to consider when making on-page SEO optimizations.

What is On-Page SEO?

On-page SEO is the process of optimizing various factors of a web page to improve its rank in Google and other search engines. It includes optimization of headers, title tags, meta descriptions, and other crucial on-page factors that appear directly on the landing page and within the HTML source code (more on this later). 

Why Is On-Page SEO Important?

On-page SEO improves the quality of your web pages so that search engines can understand them and rank them higher in search results. If a page shows up in search, it is more likely to increase traffic and even help with conversions. Additionally, on-page SEO optimizations help improve user experience and content accessibility.

On-Page SEO vs. Off-Page SEO

Although both are important for rankings and search visibility, on-page and off-page SEO each solve for different SEO factors. 

On-page SEO focuses on optimizing factors directly on your website. Those factors, such as H1-H6 header tags, title tags, meta descriptions, image alt text, etc., are easier to control and maintain.

On the other hand, off-page SEO focuses on factors outside your website and involves optimization tactics such as link building, guest posting, brand mentions, and so on.

How to Improve On-Page SEO

To improve on-page SEO, you need to familiarize yourself with the on-page factors search engines look at to understand the content of a webpage.

Let’s get to know on-page factors that impact SEO.

1. Conduct Keyword Research

Keyword research is the process of discovering what keywords and phrases your target audience uses to search for the topic you want to show up for in organic search results. The goal of keyword research is to find keywords that can drive traffic to your website.

For instance, had I not checked to see what else people are searching for in relation to the keyword “on-page SEO,” I might’ve missed the fact that folks are frequently searching for an on-page SEO checklist:

Tips for keyword research:

• Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, Semrush, etc.
• Choose 1-3 primary keywords to target per page.
• Pay attention to search volume and difficulty metrics.
• Align keywords with search intent.
• Analyze competitor keywords.
• Bonus: target long-tail keywords whenever applicable.

2. Write Content with E-E-A-T in Mind

E-E-A-T is an acronym coined by Google that stands for Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust. While it’s not a direct ranking factor, the quality of E-E-A-T helps Google determine if the content can be trusted.

Tips for E-E-A-T first content:

• Reference first-hand or life experience. 
• Showcase subject matter expertise (e.g., use data, research, etc.)
• Establish yourself as a credible source by siting high-quality content
• Include accurate, useful, and up-to-date information.

3. Use H1-H6 Header Tags

H1-H6 header tags are HTML elements that create a visual hierarchy of a web page, which helps users and search engines quickly scan and interpret the content of a web page. 

Maintaining hierarchy through header tags is a crucial aspect of on-page SEO. You’ll want to start with a single H1 tag, followed by H2 and H3 subheadings. The page structure should look something like this:

If additional header tags are needed, continue to use the rest of the H4-H6 tags in the same hierarchical order.

Tips for header tag optimization:

• Include the H1 tag above all other subheadings.
• Apply no more than one H1 tag per page.
• Use H2-H6 subheadings to break up heavy copy.
• Incorporate target keywords naturally.

Bonus: make sure your headers pass the blank sheet of paper test.

4. Write Captivating Title Tags

Title tags provide a brief web page summary and help users and search engines understand what the page is about. They appear in search results, browser tabs, and social media posts.

A title tag is an important on-page SEO factor and should be added to all pages you want search engines to find and rank. We also know that search engines like Google use the title tag as a minor ranking factor, making it much more valuable for on-page optimization.

Tips for title tag optimization:

• Keep them between 50-60 characters. Any longer, and Google will truncate them. 
• Include target keywords. Preferably at the beginning of the title tag.
• Consider the user. Show them you have what they’re looking for. 
• Be descriptive. Check to make sure the title tag reads well on its own.

5. Write Enticing Meta Descriptions

Meta descriptions appear in search results below the title tag. Though they’re not considered a ranking factor, they’re an essential aspect of on-page SEO as they help improve click-through rates.

Meta descriptions hold valuable real estate in search results and can help drive clicks and traffic. 

Tips for meta description optimization:

• Keep them under 160 characters for regular pages. 
• Include target keywords. Google is more likely to bold them.
• Use them as an extension of the title tag. Include additional context you couldn’t fit there.
• Explain the value of the page. Consider what the user is trying to accomplish.

6. Use Clean URLs

Clean URLs are easy to read and understand. It’s important to review URLs before publishing a web page because most Content Management Systems (CMS) will auto-generate the URL based on the title of a web page.

For instance, if I didn’t override the URL for this blog post, our CMS would’ve used:: https://www.portent.com/blog/seo/on-page-seo-guide-how-to-optimize-landing-pages-for-search.htm

Instead of: https://www.portent.com/blog/seo/on-page-seo.htm 

Not only is the auto-generated option long and wordy, it also becomes truncated in search results:

Tips for URL optimization:

• Keep URLs word count to a minimum.
• Use hyphens to separate words. Using anything besides hyphens is a bad practice.
• Use lowercase letters.
• Incorporate target keywords.

Important: if you update URLs retroactively, remember to set up proper redirects!

If you want to check and see how your title tags, meta descriptions, and URLs will appear in the SERPs before adding them to your site, check out Portent’s SERP Preview Tool.

7. Add Image Alt Text

Image alt text, which stands for “alternative text,” is the text used to describe a non-decorative image used within the body of a landing page. 

Image alt text helps search engines understand and index images properly. It’s also imperative for users with screen readers because it improves the image’s readability. 

Tips for alt text optimization:

• Keep your description under 140 characters – about the length of a tweet.
• Write an accurate and concise description of the image (think stock image names).
• When applicable, use target keywords to reinforce the page’s relevance.

8. Include Internal Links

Internal links are the links that point from one page of your website to another. Since older pages typically have higher page authority, linking new pages to older content helps search engines find and rank them. 

Tips for internal linking optimization:

• Use descriptive anchor text, avoiding generic text such as ‘‘as mentioned here,’ ‘see in this chart,’ and ‘this link.’
• Ensure the content you’re linking to is relevant.
• Link blog posts (and other highly trafficked pages)  to product and/or service pages.

9.  Include External Links

External links are the links from other websites you may link to within your content. Using external links may help establish the credibility of your content, which, if you recall from earlier, is important for E-E-A-T. 

Tips for external linking optimization:

• Link to credible sources (e.g., third-party data, original research, etc.)
• Use external links sparingly (link to your content whenever possible).
• In your CMS, set external links to open in a new window so that the user doesn’t accidentally exit from your website.

Advanced On-Page SEO Factors

Some aspects of on-page SEO are more complex than others. And while you can learn to make the more advanced on-page optimizations on your own, those opportunities tend to be more complex and should be addressed by someone with a deep understanding of Technical SEO. 

In this section, I’ll cover the most common advanced on-page SEO factors we run against. However, instead of providing tips on optimizing them, I’ll share a few resources from our Portent blog. Should you need additional support, feel free to contact us! We’re here to help. 

10. Improve Page Speed

Page speed is the amount of time it takes to fully display the content of a landing page. It’s an important ranking factor, as websites with faster page speed have better user engagement and higher conversion metrics. 

Page speed can be impacted by many factors, such as redirects, image quality, CSS and JavaScript files, etc. 
To learn about your page speed performance, check out Google’s Page Speed Insights to better understand your mobile and desktop performance.

For more information on page speed, check out our blog post: How Page Speed Affects Conversions

11. Target Featured Snippets

Featured snippets are short pieces of text carefully extracted by Google to provide a concise and direct answer to the user search. They’re displayed at the top of organic search results and come in several formats, such as paragraphs, lists, and tables.

Disclaimer: to qualify for a featured snippet placement, your landing page must first rank on the first page of Google’s organic search results. 

For more information on featured snippets, check out our blog post: How to Compete for Featured Snippets in Google.

12. Use Structured Data Markup

Structured Data markup is a form of metadata that helps search engines understand what the page is about. You can describe many types of content with structured data, such as articles, recipes, events, products, reviews, videos, etc. Some rich snippet types are only available to pages that use this markup. Google lists their supported rich snippet types here. 

The different types of data you can mark up can be found at Schema.org – “collaborative, community activity with a mission to create, maintain, and promote schemas for structured data on the Internet, on web pages, in email messages, and beyond.” This resource can take the guesswork out of what Google and other search engines expect when structuring your data. 

For more information on structured data markup, check out our blog post:  Introduction to Schema Markup for SEO

To Recap

Now that you know what it takes to keep your on-page SEO in tip-top shape, you’re ready to optimize your content! I’ve provided the information in this post in a quick-reference checklist below to help you get started optimizing your landing pages.

On-page SEO Checklist

Use the following checklist as a starting point to evaluate the essential on-page SEO factors on your landing pages.

1. Conduct Keyword Research: use keyword research tools, target no more than three primary keywords per page, pay attention to keyword metrics, align keywords with search intent, and analyze competitors. 
2. Write Content with E-E-A-T in Mind: reference first-hand experience, showcase subject matter expertise, establish yourself as a credible source, and include accurate information.
3. Use H1-H6 Header Tags: include the H1 tag above all other subheadings and no more than once per page; use H2-H6 subheadings to break up the heavy copy and incorporate target keywords.
4. Write Captivating Title Tags: keep them between 50-60 characters, include target keywords, consider the user, and be descriptive. 
5. Write Enticing Meta Descriptions: keep them under 160 characters, include target keywords, add context that compliments your title tag, and explain the page’s value.
6. Use Clean URLs: keep URL word count to a minimum, use hyphens and lowercase letters, and incorporate target keywords.
7. Add Image Alt Text: keep them below 140 characters, write accurate and concise image descriptions and (when applicable) use target keywords.
8. Include Internal Links: use descriptive anchor text, link to relevant content, and link blog posts (and other highly trafficked pages) to product and/or service pages.
9. Include External Links: link to credible sources, use links sparingly and set links to open in a new window. 
10. (Advanced) Improve Page Speed: read Why Page Speed Matters
11. (Advanced) Target Featured Snippets: read How to Compete for Featured Snippets in Google

(Advanced) Use Structured Data Markup: read Introduction to Schema Markup for SEO

The post On-Page SEO: How to Optimize Landing Pages appeared first on Portent.

In today’s business world, you likely already know what a quarterly business review is. However, I find that too often, people either don’t do them right or they don’t do them at all. If you aren’t having an honest conversation with your clients about how work is going or if it continues to be the right work, you may be setting yourself up for failure. 

In my 11+ years of agency experience, whenever a client is unhappy, the first question I ask is, “When was the last time we had a QBR?” It’s an important time to break out of the day-to-day and standing meetings. QBRs give you the chance to pull back from the minutiae and look at the big picture. Taking the time to do this will ultimately benefit both you and your clients. 

What Is a Quarterly Business Review (QBR)?

A QBR is a company or group’s chance to analyze its work from the previous quarter. By looking at the work’s impact on hitting existing goals, a company can determine what challenges they encountered and what opportunities they found. The plan for the next quarter should use these insights.

Why Are QBRs Important?

I get a lot of questions here at Portent, and:  “What defines a good quarterly business review?” is probably near the top. Another version of this question is, “Do we need to have QBRs?” I have only one answer: “Damn right, you do!”

Showcase Value

So, why are QBRs so important? Because a good QBR shows value. Value in work done. Value in the relationship. Value in the time and money that you’ve spent! Your teams have dedicated countless hours working hard to deliver on the client promise, and now is your time to highlight the fruits of your labor. 

Plus, you never know who might show up to your QBR. If a Director, VP, or C-suite stakeholder who rarely attends your weekly meetings should participate in this meeting, invite them! We’ll get into tailoring your QBR for a broad audience later.

Note: If a project or phase is ending, and you want to report on how things went, you should consider running a post-mortem or retrospective. 

Track Overall Success Metrics

QBRs are also a critical time to reflect on the work. How did your strategy and tactics perform?  Let your audience know if something went well and why. Did something fall flat on its face? Tell your audience why it didn’t work and what you learned.

Early-Warning Signals

Was there a project delayed or depreciated due to roadblocks? Use your QBR to bring light to these issues. You were hired to do something; if something is in your way, be frank about what you need to complete the work.

Alignment (or Realignment) on Goals

Finally, these business reviews are a time to evaluate the project’s scope. If your team realizes that a small or large pivot is needed, this is the time to say so.

What to Include in a QBR?

Over the years, we have tweaked what to include in a QBR. Though we have adjusted our language to describe the work, the ultimate goal is to report on what we did and how it went. Our new presentation format contains the following steps:

1. Executive Summary
2. Goals
3. What We Learned
4. Next Steps
5. Roadmap
6. Appendix

1. Executive Summary

At Portent, we start our QBRs with a high-level summary of essential topics. If we have something to celebrate here, we’ll say it. If something didn’t go as expected, we’d mention it here too. Don’t bury the lead in the 20-40 slides that follow. And please, please ensure that the main takeaway of the QBR is bolded for emphasis.

2. Goals

In this section, we use two slides to reaffirm the goals that we are working on for our clients. The first slide shows our high-level goals in plain language. We may have specific KPIs that may fall under each category, but this section is for your daily contacts and high-level ones. 

Our second slide explores how we can affect these goals as a marketing agency. For example, increasing leads for your sales team is something we can only partly affect. We can’t control how a client’s sales team qualifies leads. We can, however, influence conversions. So for clients with goals we can’t influence directly, these two slides are critical to ensuring they understand what we can affect and how we help them meet their goals.

3. What We Learned

In the “What We Learned” section, our team looks at our roadmaps, projects, and initiatives to see how they performed. We describe projects important to your work. You should identify them by name, when the project ran, what you did, and why you did it. 

We highlight this project information in our first slide:

As a follow-up, the next slide presents the supporting data. Ideally, you’ll have a graph line going straight up and to the right. But we’re looking for any data that shows why we’re highlighting this project. We’re big advocates for data visualizations here. So whether the data indicates a clear win, a near loss, or something that needs additional time, show it here.

Finally, it’s time to discuss the takeaways from this project. Deliver your observations and what you and your team learned from your project. However, you must include an explicit “so what” and “what’s next” here.

Instead of saying, “Bounce Rate went down,” consider saying, “Bounce Rate has decreased since we deployed our new content on these pages. We must continue this project and recommend revamping an additional 20 pages.”

4. Next Steps

With the information from your learnings section, it’s time to present your next steps. We break these down into three sub-sections, what we’ll keep doing, stop doing, and start doing.

Each current process or project should have its slide, and you can combine like topics if you recommend keeping, stopping, or starting them as a whole.

1. What We’ll Keep Doing

As mentioned, our “What We’ll Keep Doing” slides highlight your successes and why they’re essential. For these slides, call out:

• What did we do?
• Why was it successful?
• Why will we keep doing it?
• How will we keep doing it?

Bolding the one phrase that you want people to remember from this slide.

2. What We’ll Stop Doing

In your “What We’ll Stop Doing” slides, it’s time to be honest partners and call out what didn’t work. Whether the work was a legacy holdover that the client was working on or something you recommended, if it isn’t working and you need to pivot, here’s your chance to say so. For these slides, we suggest the following information:

• What did we do?
• Why wasn’t it successful?
• What will we do instead?

Again, bold the one phrase you want people to remember from this slide.

3. What We’ll Start Doing

Use the “What We’ll Start Doing” section to call out net-new suggestions based on learnings or as pivots away from tactics in the “What We’ll Stop Doing” section. For this section, the process looks like this:

• What do we want to do?
• Why do we want to do it?
• How will we do it?
• Bolding the one phrase that you want people to remember (are we making this clear enough?) from this slide.

5. Roadmap

This section can and should incorporate items from your Next Steps part of the presentation. I’d say that this can be a high-level snapshot of the work you’d like to do in the next quarter. You may have a more tactical, existing roadmap, but you can paint in broad strokes for this broader audience.

6. Appendix

Depending on how you run your presentation, you can add or remove this section. We use this section to link to data that would otherwise crowd out important messaging.

Again, with attendees ranging from in-the-weeds to once-a-quarter, some may demand a complete explanation, while others may be content to move on.

How to Prepare for a QBR?

While there are many ways to prepare for a QBR, at Portent, we encourage our teams to be proactive in planning these meaningful discussions. 

Previously, we’d ask folks to come to these meetings ready to talk about what they’d done in the past quarter. The hope was that discussion would spark ideas in others and that a beautiful freeform, brainstorm session kind of jazz would happen, with folks layering on their parts. Sometimes, it works that way, and it’s lovely. And… sometimes it doesn’t. Especially once remote-first and hybrid work became the new reality. So now we do it a different way. Now we have our team fill out a spreadsheet before we meet.

One Month Out – Ask Your Team to Fill Out Their Notes

About a month before your QBR, send a notes spreadsheet to your team. Ask them to fill in their What We Learned and Next Steps sections. These ideas and topics don’t need to be fully fleshed out, but each team member needs something to bring to the brainstorming session.

Three Weeks Out – Hold a Brainstorming Session & Assign Slides

You should hold your brainstorming three weeks out, provided you have a completed spreadsheet. I’d highly suggest you look at the sheet in advance. If it’s not ready, do not hold your brainstorm: you’ll waste your time and your team’s. 

Once prepared to meet, ask that your team read their ideas out loud. The idea here is to have people in different areas recall all the work they did in the past quarter. Though teams may operate in their silos, the reality is that there’s a ton of cross-team collaboration that happens. 

As an example, most PPC campaigns have analytics or content support attached to them. And that same campaign may have an organic counterpart. If so, is there a way to highlight this as a larger, holistic initiative in one series of slides? Look for common themes here and dig in! If an initiative worked in one area when it didn’t work in another, can you and the team determine why? Do you need to shift resources from one channel to another? 

Once you have your ideas fleshed out, determine who will create these slides and assign them. Again, using the PPC/Analytics example, you can have your PPC specialist as the primary slide creator, with your analytics team completing them by creating supporting graphs or images. 

Two Weeks Out – Schedule Internal Delivery Date & Practice Presentation

Schedule an internal slide delivery date. We typically ask that our teams deliver their slides to the account manager two weeks before the final presentation. Ensure that your team’s slides are rooted in the client’s vocabulary, and tie tightly back to your client’s goals and KPIs. Don’t just add sexy numbers. Show your client the “so what?”

Next is your internal team presentation, which is your chance to give your QBR a dress rehearsal. Your team should be prepared to speak to their sections. We also suggest involving senior leadership or other stakeholders from your agency or company. These additional eyeballs provide an objective perspective that ensures your presentation delivers on your company’s promise. Implement any final feedback following this meeting.

One to two Days Before the QBR – Send Your Presentation to the Client Early

Send your deck to the client contact. Sending it early serves two purposes. First, it allows you to ensure that you have covered all angles. Your primary stakeholder may ask that you cover additional topics or clarify existing ones.  Second, should you be presenting remotely, they’ll have it if your connectivity goes down.

Day of the Presentation

You will likely want to schedule 90 minutes for the presentation. The first 60 will be for the QBR itself, while the remaining 30 will allow plenty of time for Q&A.

That’s All, Folks…? – Send Follow Up Notes & Assign Tasks From Roadmap

You’re not done just yet. Be sure to see if your client has any edits to the presentation. Within a week, it would be helpful for you to update your deck and send them the final PDF for their records. Don’t forget to assign all tasks from your roadmap.

QBR Best Practices & Advice

If you take nothing else away from this article, please take note of the following advice to create an engaging QBR presentation. This is your chance to say the things you need to say. If things are going swimmingly, let people know what you did and why it worked! And again, if something is getting in your way, DO NOT be shy in identifying what it is.

Have an Opinion

As we like to say around here if you’re showing numbers or a graph on a slide to someone, you better have either a “so what” or a “why does this matter” statement attached to it. Your QBR is your chance to be honest about progress and the road ahead. Even if your “hot take” may be unsettling for some, you are the expert here. Say what needs to be said.

Executive Summary = TL;DR

Again, don’t shy away from showing your cards right at the top of the presentation. Summarize what went well and what didn’t. Some QBRs can reach up to 90 slides, so call it out in bold if you need your client to hear an all-encompassing theme or issue. Remember, have an opinion, and don’t bury the lead.

Have Fun

If you’ve built enough trust and rapport with your client leading up to your QBR, you should give yourself a little free reign to have fun with your presentation. Don’t go overboard, but if your gut tells you that one animated gif or funny photo will get the point across, give it a try. You might just see a smile or two.

Portent’s Free Quarterly Business Review Template

Ready to up your quarterly business review game? Check out Portent’s QBR Slide Template to get started!

Final Thoughts

In my experience, I’ve found that sticking to this schedule and format has made for some transcendent QBR conversations. The “What We’ll Stop Doing” and “What We’ll Start Doing” sections allow you and your client to discuss what fine-tuning your relationship needs, and you’ll both be better for it. 

Moreover, don’t forget to take credit for the beautiful work you’ve been doing. Your Quarterly Business Review is the perfect time to show the value you bring to your client.

The post How to Perform a Quarterly Business Review (QBR) in 2023 (w/ template) appeared first on Portent.

Statements of Work (SOWs) are a critical part of client work at any agency and play a big role in how projects play out. Here at Portent, we used to use a template-based SOW for our web development clauses but with this approach our development team ran into issues such as improper scoping, vague functional requirements, and occasional feature creep.

To combat these frustrations, our team realized a couple of years ago that we could apply the principles of component-based design, a powerful development ideology for creating websites and web apps, to our SOWs to create better protection for our teams, prevent scope creep, and be more organized.

In this article, we’ll cover why development SOWs are so important, problems with template-based SOWs, and how you can apply the concept of component-based design to create component-based SOWs that can improve the working relationship between your developers and clients.

What is an SOW?

Statements of Work (SOW) are essential for setting up a successful business relationship. They provide details of the scope of work, timeline, and the expected deliverables from all parties involved.

In this article, we are focusing on SOWs that have a development scope for website build projects.

Why It’s Important to Get SOWs Right

When SOWs are done correctly, they are an effective tool for managing expectations and ensuring that everyone involved is on the same page about the project and their respective roles.

When a SOW is not done correctly, it can lead to miscommunication and frustration between client and agency. If the SOW is too vague or does not properly cover the specific project requirements, it can lead to misunderstandings, scope creep, and delays.

The importance of getting SOWs right cannot be overstated. They are a fundamental first step of the business relationship and the bedrock on which the project starts. As such, SOWs should be comprehensive, clear, and specific, with lots of attention to detail.

Problems With Template-Based Development SOWs

For a long time, we used a template-based approach for our development SOWs. Template-based design and development is a method of breaking the website into a number of unique pages (or templates). 

For example, common templates may be:

• Homepage
• Blog hub
• Single blog page
• Services page
• Default internal page

While it is a simplified, easy-to-understand, and relatively uncomplex method, on some projects, it exposed us to vague requirements, scope creep, and scope underestimates.

For instance, let’s say a project calls for 10 templates. How can we properly scope the level of effort required for each template? What if a single template ends up being made up of 15 unique components? And another comprises of 10 unique components? With 8 other templates to account for, you can see how the complexity could explode rather quickly. Additionally, multiple templates often share multiple components, so there is less precision in scoping template-based development resources.

This is why at Portent, we shifted the way we write the development section of our SOWs. By looking at these problems through a developer lens, we created a new approach that is based on component-based design and development practices; This new method is a major step forward from previous iterations of development SOWs.

What is Component-Based Design?

For those unfamiliar, let’s first touch on what component-based design is. Component-based design is a software development method which emphasizes the compartmentalization of an application into individual, self-contained components (or blocks). The components are designed to be loosely coupled, meaning that they can be swapped out or rearranged without disrupting the overall application.

The idea behind component-based design is to allow developers to create an application solution that is adaptable to future changes and easy to build upon. Rather than starting from scratch, developers can reuse existing components and customize them to fit the application’s needs. This helps to reduce development time and cost while encouraging code reuse and flexibility.

Component-based design is increasingly popular in web development as it allows developers to create complex and dynamic websites quickly.

Component Examples

While we won’t dive into a ton of detail about components, the visualization below depicts a handful of components as broken down from the Portent homepage. Components can be:

• Main navigation
• Search icon/field
• Cover block
• Logo array
• Card with media, text, and CTA
• Buttons
• Carousel of content with image, text, and CTA
• CTA banner
• Blog post card
• Ebook card
• Footer navigation
• Social sharing icons

How to Apply Component-Based Design to Your Development SOWs

The benefits of component-based design for software development are apparent, so why not put that logic into our SOWs? Compared to the template-based approach, a component-based methodology for our SOWs is an obvious upgrade.

1. Break Down the Project into Components

First, create a list of all the common, known components for our project. For example, all websites need navigation, search, cards, and some kind of cover or hero component.

Next, define as many additional components that are specific to the client’s requirements. These could be things like a testimonial carousel, a comparison table, and/or a Google reviews component. It’s OK if you’re not able to define every single component in the SOW, as this can be finalized during the technical requirements phase early in the project.

However, be sure to specifically scope any complex, resource-intensive components as part of the components list in the SOW. Most components will be approximately the same level of effort, but some may break that mold. An appointment scheduler, a carousel with varying views depending on mobile or desktop display, and tabbed content are all examples of components that should be defined as a requirement in the SOW so they can be properly scoped by your team.

2. Establish the Max Number of Components

If you haven’t done many component-based design and development projects, you may be asking yourself how many components should a site have? The answer is it depends. Based on my experience at Portent, small to mid-sized sites will have 15-25 components, whereas larger to enterprise-grade sites will have 30-50 components.

All websites will have overlapping components or components that are necessary based on the nature of what is being built. Things like navigation menus, search functionality, content cards, buttons, and maybe CTA banners are examples of heavily reused components.

3. Define Functional Requirements

In addition to our clearly defined number of, or range of components, any additional functionality requirements are defined as a clear list of deliverables.

Some examples of functionality requirements that need to be defined alongside the number of components could be:

• User dashboard
• CRM integration workflow
• Custom event calendar and registration system integration (API)
• Google Maps location finder

Benefits of Component-Based Development SOWs

With a component-based approach for development SOWs, there is naturally more protection for your team, built-in guardrails for feature creep, and it’s more precise and organized.

Protection / Safety Net For Your Team

Component-based SOWs create a safety net because they provide a framework for creating and managing the scope of a project. By breaking a project down into components and specifically defining the max number of components, the scope of the project is clear. This builds protection into the SOW for your company for any large changes being asked for by the client once the project has started.

Avoid Scope Creep

Another advantage of component-based SOWs is avoiding scope creep. Scope creep is the gradual and unplanned expansion of a project’s goals and requirements beyond the original agreed-upon plan.

With our component-based SOWs, the deliverables list is agreed upon by both parties prior to the start of the project and serves as the basis for the entire project. Once the project is underway, any changes to the agreed upon list of deliverables must be discussed, negotiated and agreed upon before proceeding. This ensures that all parties are aware of any changes to the project scope and are in agreement on how to proceed. Avoiding ambiguity avoids scope creep.

Better Organization

Organization and precision are a natural result of a component-based approach to development SOWs. We’re getting more detailed with our list of components which further defines the project’s requirements. With all the primary functioning elements defined in the development section of our SOW, it creates a great resource for the development team and clients to reference throughout the length of the project.

Conclusion

At Portent, we adapted our approach to development SOWs by implementing component-based design techniques because it just made sense from an organizational, functional, and protection basis.

As always, be sure to heavily involve your dev team or team lead on all development-based SOWs. They should have an integral role in scoping functional requirements as well as breaking down approximately how much each component will take to develop.

We see the integration of component-based design techniques into development-based SOWs as a step forward for all parties involved: clients, the agency, and the development team.

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