Website content is very much alive and requires ongoing maintenance. Even if you think your content is in tip-top shape, there are tons of benefits you can glean from an audit.

But before we dive into reasons why you may need a content audit, let’s start with a quick recap of what a content audit entails..

What is a Content Audit?

A content audit is a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of website content that helps us better understand what’s working and what may be hindering content performance.

A content audit may look at behavioral trends, organic search visibility, and social engagement. An audit could also shed light on things like content relevance, accuracy, and readability. 

Content audit findings help determine content opportunities and the steps to take toward content optimization.

When to do a Content Audit?

A content audit may feel like a heavy lift, especially for websites that have large content inventories. That said, a content audit may unveil opportunities that could help regain your competitive edge, improve user engagement, and generate more leads and sales.

And while we encourage our clients to do content audits regularly, there are several instances where content audits are an absolute must. 

Your Organic Traffic is Down

Many reasons can contribute to a dip in organic traffic. The rise of new and existing competitors, internal website changes, and Google algorithm updates are amongst the most obvious.

And while some traffic variation is expected, major traffic losses over long periods of time can be detrimental to your business. 

To better understand why traffic may be down, take a look at your Google Search Console (GSC) and see if you can spot any major drops in impressions (how often your site appears in Google’s search results) or average rankings.

Once you’re in GSC, go to Performance then Search results. Then, select Total Impressions and Average Position, leaving Total Clicks and Average CTR unchecked. Next, change the date range to display a comparison period over the last three months. This time frame will help you identify glaring red flags.

From this view, you’ll be able to analyze what search queries are responsible for the dip in your organic traffic and the landing pages associated with them. If certain pages are not ranking as well as they use to, you should run them through a content audit.

GSC aside, you can use tools like STAT, Ahrefs, or Semrush to monitor changes in your keyword performance. While these tools are not free, they’re a phenomenal resource and a huge time saver.

Your Content is Out of Date

Google prefers useful and relevant content. Having fresh and up-to-date content on your website plays a big role in this. If you haven’t updated a piece of content in over two years, keyword rankings and organic traffic will start to dwindle. 

Content updates are especially important for websites that want to be authoritative in their space. To be authoritative, you must be relevant. And to be relevant, you must have an ongoing conversation about what content you need to update or retire.

Updating older content can be more beneficial than creating new content. Even if the older content isn’t ranking well for its target keywords, there’s a good chance it’s ranking for something, and you’re not starting from scratch. Older content may also have backlinks, which give content credibility and a competitive edge. 

But don’t just take my word for it. Check out our study on the benefits of refreshing old blog posts. Whether you rewrite the content from scratch or make minor updates, content edits can help you rank better in organic search.

You’re Out of Content Ideas

It’s not entirely unusual for companies to feel as though they’ve said all there is to say about their brand, product, or service. After all, how much content could you possibly produce about air conditioners?

If you are struggling to come up with new content ideas, content audits can help you get a better understanding of what you’ve written about. Once you have this information, spotting content gaps becomes much easier. 

You’re Adding a New Product or Service

When adding new product or service pages, you should be mindful of how these pages flow with the rest of your site ecosystem. Regardless of whether this update is core to the entirety of your business model or another variation of something already existing, you need to ensure that the new information fits in flawlessly.

If you don’t quite know where to start, think about the user journey and ask yourself the following questions:

• When visitors arrive on the new landing page, how are they getting there?
• Does the path make sense? Or do you need to add more copy to help the pages flow together?
• If a visitor arrives on the page from organic search, are the contents of the page sufficient enough for them to take action?

To answer these questions fully, you must thoroughly understand your content inventory and should, therefore, start with a content audit.

You’re Going Through a Site Migration

Whether you’re finally moving your site from HTTP to HTTPS, experiencing subdomain or subfolder changes, moving to a new server, or undergoing a site redesign, you should always start with a content audit.

The key to a smooth site migration is planning. Before you start, you must know what you’re going to migrate and when. A content audit is your opportunity to get organized and eliminate any redundant or trivial content on your site. 

Think of the site migration as a move from one house to another. Tossing random belongings into a box may help the move go by faster, but this approach will result in more work in the long run. 

Your Competitors are Outranking You

New content from your competitors can emerge overnight. Yesterday you were ranking first for a target keyword, and today, a competitor you didn’t even know existed is outranking you.

Competitors get ahead because they do their research. In other words, they audit you. And once they know what’s worked well for your site, they have an easier time competing with you.

You must beat them at their game to keep your spot in SERPs. First, you’ll need to do a content audit of your website. Then, you’ll want to run the same audit for your competitor. While this can be a manual process, tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush mentioned earlier can cut your labor by half.

In doing so, you’ll have a better understanding of what they’re doing that you’re not and how to fill the most glaring gaps.

You Established a New Voice and Tone

Think of your voice and tone as your brand’s personality. It’s how you express your value proposition, and it’s key to the type of audience you want to attract.

If you’re a law office, or a hospital, your tone and voice will likely be assertive and informative. Most importantly, it will be the exact opposite of, say, a comedy club.

We’ve seen brands get overly caught up in their product or service, neglecting their voice and tone. Sometimes, it could take months to years before a company has a clear direction. Does that sound familiar? If so, check out Portent’s Tone of Voice Generator tool.

Once you have a clear direction for your voice and tone, you’ll need to do a content audit to ensure you use a consistent voice and tone throughout the site. If there’s one thing that’s more important than content quality, it’s content consistency.

Don’t let your audience think, “wait, what did I just read?” 

Final Thoughts

In summary, a content audit should be an ongoing part of your content strategy efforts. Your content should never be stagnant or more than two years out of date. And it must be audited anytime you add a new product or service to your website.

An audit is especially important when making significant changes to your site. And through it all, your content should always have the same look and feel.

So iterate on your current work and leverage old content topics to create new ones. If you don’t, know that your competitors will find a way to use your top-performing content against you.

The post Why You Need Content Audits in 2023 and When to Do Them appeared first on Portent.

On the heels of the news that Google is postponing the retirement of Universal Analytics for 360 customers until 2024, I can’t help but feel a little vindicated. It validates a lot of chatter among analytics professionals (myself included) in the industry that feel Google Analytics 4 (GA4) was launched half-baked. GA4 is still undeniably missing vital functionality for marketers and product owners to make decisions about their apps and websites.

Today, though, we’ll look at possible feature additions that could bring GA4 up to snuff and assuage some organizations’ fears about adopting it.

Unburying Event Parameters in the Interface

One of GA4’s greatest strengths is its new event-based data model and the ability to attach rich parameters to any custom events you send into the platform. But, as of my writing this, the parameters are buried in a drop-down menu in the interface instead of accessible in the main report data tables.

The ability to click on an event name and get a table with the event name and an event count with parameters, similar to how custom dimensions are laid out, would be a powerful way to bring this data to the forefront and play to GA4’s strengths.

Add Date Range Granularity Options Back to Charts

Part of what made charts in Universal Analytics powerful is that you could easily toggle between date range granularities – hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, etc. – in the top right corner of each chart.

In GA4, charts will automatically default to daily granularity if you’ve selected a week or month’s worth of data in the date range selector. Choose anything more than that, from 90 days up to a year, and the granularity changes to weekly. You’re locked into those views even if it would be helpful to see the data another way.

Make Page Path the Default Dimension for the Pages and Screens Report

Historically, the biggest challenge in analyzing Universal Analytics’ content performance was that Page Paths/URLs containing query parameters would generate a new row in the report instead of rolling up performance for each page under a single row. 

GA4 seems to have largely solved this problem, but now the page path dimension is hidden in the Pages & Screens report. For analytics and marketers working on sites with very similar Title Tag templates, Page Titles can often be a misleading way of viewing content performance.

Create More Connective Tissue Between GA4 and BigQuery

Again, one of the inherent advantages of GA4 is the ability to warehouse the raw event data in BigQuery. And while GA4 purports to offer unsampled reporting in their interface, several reports are still subject to thresholding due to high cardinality. 

Thresholding, like data sampling in Universal Analytics, sows seeds of mistrust in the data with stakeholders, which is a huge non-starter for companies of all sizes when considering an analytics tool. 

In those instances, it would be amazing to be prompted to view the same data in BigQuery and analyze that in Looker Studio to overcome some thresholding warnings in seconds.

Liberate Attribution Model Comparison from the Advertising Section

Businesses of all sizes are getting more sophisticated around attribution and incrementality discussions to evaluate the performance of marketing channels. While GA4 took one big step toward solving this by allowing you to change your default attribution model on the property level, it still buries model comparison tools deep in the advertising section of GA4.

Model comparison functionality was also cordoned into the Multi-Channel Funnels section of Universal Analytics, which kept it from widespread adoption (and even broader awareness) for years. It deserves better!

A massive improvement would be a way to toggle model comparison whenever conversion counts are present in a reporting table.

Provide a Public Roadmap for GA4 with Upvoting/Downvoting Features

The proposed additions above would solve many problems I have with GA4 and get the product out of its way, in my opinion. 

But the largest issue people have with the rollout of GA4 and the sunsetting of Universal Analytics is that Google has done a terrible job communicating what they’re working on to improve the product and why. This gives the perception (whether true or false) that Google isn’t listening to its core user base in making development decisions on GA4.

Even with Google Marketing Platform partners like us, there’s been very little communication outside of a monthly newsletter around feature additions.

Google could solve this today by going public with its roadmap and letting the end users have a say in building features. Otherwise, agencies like us will be left defending an indefensible product.

The post Things I Wish Google Would Do With GA4 appeared first on Portent.

This year marked my seventh year with Portent. We’re a different agency now: we’ve expanded our services and grown our team. Yet, what still brings me the most joy each fall is reflecting on the lasting partnerships we’ve built with some pretty amazing client contacts and celebrating the KPIs we’ve helped them achieve. 

Portent is still growing after 27 years, while maintaining its focus on teaching and partnership with brands, because of the clients like you who test, learn, laugh, and collaborate with us. 

We take pride in being an agency of consultants that share our honest opinions about digital marketing trends, as well as the pivots and roadmap ahead for websites. 

This year, the brands we work with brought us more requests for site migration support, information architecture research, social customer experience plans, content hub strategies, competitive keyword research, paid media and landing page optimizations, event strategies, and YouTube influencer management. We’ve also learned more about GA4, Looker Studio, and new tools we can utilize to provide closed-loop analytics for organizations. All in all, it’s been a challenging year, which we love!

As we approach the holidays, know that we’ll be by your side to help you end the year strong and prepare for 2023. We look forward to: 

• Celebrating progress toward your annual business goals
• Seeing your holiday Zoom backgrounds 
• Brainstorming and setting new KPIs together for your digital strategy
• Swapping stories about time with family and friends
• Sharing recommendations that will improve your performance in Q1-Q2 2023
• And, talking about our favorite holiday traditions

We hope when you think of your Portent team this season, we are like that cousin you’re excited to catch up with, who will tell you if you have some food in your teeth yet also help you strategize how to sneak one of each type of dessert. 

From all of us at Portent, thank you for your continued partnership and for allowing us to create positive change in your digital strategy and drive success in your business. We wish you a very happy holiday season. 

The post A Thank You From Everyone at Portent appeared first on Portent.

The one topic I’ve seen Google and SEOs disagree on the most is the best place to host content – subdomains or subdirectories. SEOs say subdomains aren’t optimal, and Google says it doesn’t matter because they can read and understand your content wherever it is. Google even put out a video to clarify the matter, but no one was satisfied with their answer.

So what’s the disconnect? While it’s true that Google has no problem understanding content on subdomains, SEOs say that content doesn’t perform as well in Google’s search engine. Google disagrees and says that subdomains aren’t a problem, yet the SEO industry continues to publish case study after case study that refutes Google’s claim.

We should host our content on our primary domains – unless we have a very good reason not to. Even if Google turns out to be correct, and it doesn’t matter for performance, organizing your content in subdirectories on your primary domain is the better decision for your infrastructure and long-term SEO.

What’s the Difference Between a Subdomain and a Subdirectory?

If you’re given the choice between hosting a blog for your website at “blog.brand.com” and “www.brand.com/blog,” will the choice matter? Is there a big difference between putting “blog” at the beginning of a URL instead of the end?

There is a difference, but it’s subtle and goes back to the early internet.

Subdomain

In the early days of the web, a single server could host multiple services and they would be assigned to different subdomains. It was conventional for system administrators to host additional services on subdomains, like “mail.brand.com” for the email server or “ftp.brand.com” for filesystem access. 

Even “www.brand.com” is a subdomain, but we don’t usually think of it that way because the service we use most of the time is the website, but it does have a purpose. 

Subdomains should be used to organize services that are separate from each other but still part of the entity that owns the root domain (“domain.com”). They’re still used this way, even for separating websites owned by the same brand.

Subdirectory (or Subfolder)

Subdirectories, also called “subfolders,” were originally for allowing users to navigate a website according to the file structure of the server hosting the website. Now, most websites store their content in a database and display it to users through a content management system, so the server’s file structure is irrelevant. 

Organizing URLs like a directory as if there were a file structure is still useful because it lets users know “where” they are on a website. It also communicates to users that the content on any given URL is closely related to the subdomain they are on. For example, if the URL for a blog post was “www.brand.com/blog/guides/10-best-blue-widgets” a user could infer that this URL goes to a blog post, in the Guides category, about blue widgets.

The Debate: Subdomain vs. Subdirectory

The debate between using subdirectories or subdomains for organizing content isn’t really about what helps users understand a website. It’s mostly about what will yield the most organic search traffic on Google and other search engines. 

SEOs want to know if a brand’s content is split between two (or more) subdomains, will Google treat the subdomains as separate sites or a single one? 

How Google handles the situation is important. If Google treats subdomains separately, then ranking signals related to expertise, authority, and trust might not be shared between them. 

Based on experiences like this, many SEOs think Google does treat them differently in a way that makes subdirectories generally better for performance.

Google’s Point of View

Google has always treated content separated by subdomains in a way that suits their needs. 

As far back as 2007, Google said that they treated subdomains as separate for one aspect of ranking. However, they found that it led to people abusing how Google handled domain diversity in the SERPs. 

This video by Matt Cutts from 2012 explains why they had to adjust that approach to prevent abuse:

Later in 2017, John Mueller recorded a video stating, “Google Web Search is fine with using either subdomains or subdirectories.” After verifying each subdomain in Search Console, they will be crawled as if they were one website.

The problem with this answer is that it doesn’t address the original question: What’s best for SEO – subdomain or subfolder?

People want to know if separating content by subdomain will make a difference in their rankings, but Google wants us to know that Google’s needs are taken care of either way. But, they also want us to understand that Google doesn’t have a preference and that we should do what’s easiest. I disagree with Google on both points, and I’ll get to why.

SEOs’ Point of View

SEOs want to know three things:

• If Google treats content organized by subdirectories differently than content separated by subdomains
• If there is different treatment, which systems distinguish between them and how they work
• Which configuration is ultimately better for rankings, traffic, and revenue

For the first point, Google wants us to think they treat it all the same, but then they will post stuff like this:

I take this tweet to mean that multiple systems inside of the major parts of Google Search (crawling, indexing, ranking) treat subdirectories and subdomains differently depending on what Google’s needs are. Their helpful content classifier is just one of those systems.

Google doesn’t want us to know which systems do what and how because it makes them vulnerable to abuse. If the Helpful Content Update had a strong impact on rankings, many SEOs would begin testing to see if their content worked better on one domain or several, just like the domain diversity problem Matt Cutts discussed.

Due to Google’s secrecy, the second point is generally not answerable. Someone would have to pick a specific part of Google and determine how to test its reaction to using subdomains to reach a conclusion.

For the third point, many SEOs have consolidated their content into one subdomain and found their overall performance improved. Due to how many case studies have come out, it’s widely believed among SEOs that using subdirectories to organize content is better than subdomains.

From the list of case studies Rand posted, three stand out to me as the most compelling.

The first case study is from Jesse Heap of Janssen. He saw a 40% increase in sessions after moving a blog from a subdomain (blog.pinkcakebox.com) to a subdirectory (www.pinkcakebox.com/blog). 

This type of migration is commonly recommended for company blogs but they rarely limit their changes to just the URLs the blog uses. Usually, marketers will take the opportunity to change the design of the blog or clean up old content, or make some other improvement that doesn’t isolate the URL change. 

Based on the before and after snapshots on Archive.org, the only change Jesse made was migrating the blog, which makes this case study notable. 

The second case study is from Johannes Beus at Sistrix. Using their proprietary SERP visibility metric, they found three clear examples of large brands moving a section of content from a subdomain to a subdirectory with a subsequent improvement in organic visibility. 

The third case study is from Timo Reitnauer of iwantmyname, with an example of moving a blog from a subdirectory to a subdomain – the opposite direction people usually go with a migration. After six months, they found their initial decrease in traffic never improved. 

One factor involved was Google launching their update that gave ranking bonuses to websites using HTTPS, and their new CMS didn’t support HTTPS at the time. However, that update didn’t appear to be big back then. 

The other factor was changing CMS. This migration wasn’t as clean as the example with Pink Cake Box. If iwantmyname didn’t design their new blog as well as their previous one, then a worse design could explain the performance decrease.

Taken with lots of anecdotal evidence over the years, SEOs have good reason to believe that subdirectories tend to perform better than using several subdomains. 

Impact of Subdomains & Subdirectories on SEO

Deciding where to host your content isn’t just about what it communicates to users and how Google treats it in its algorithms. There are also practical day-to-day SEO concerns to consider.

Link Authority and Backlinks

Where would you rather host your content, on two domains with 1,000 backlinks each or one domain with 2,000 backlinks? Which setup would you rather maintain years down the line?

If you’re investing in link building for content that lives on a separate subdomain, you must ensure that the subdomain redirects its URLs after it’s retired. I frequently see great backlinks pointing to forgotten legacy subdomains in clients’ broken backlinks. 

Suppose there are multiple URLs on a subdomain that you need to redirect to several other URLs. In that case, the redirection isn’t as trivial as setting up a DNS record to blanket redirect everything to a single URL. That legacy subdomain must have a web server attached that can handle all those specific redirects. 

International Subdirectories

International websites are usually implemented in three ways: ccTLDs, subdirectories, and subdomains. Subdomains have no upsides over the other two options. ccTLDs aren’t optimal either, but at least they contain a strong signal about how they want to target international users.

Google’s recent update to their URL structure advice in Search Essentials doesn’t even mention subdomains, which is curious.

Using a subdirectory strategy for international websites is something I see more brands using every year. I think they realize the benefits of having everything in one place: one CMS, one development team, better content parity, and easier management of hreflang tags.

Mobile Subdomains

Creating a subdomain to host the mobile version of a website isn’t as popular as it once was, and it’s becoming rarer every day, but they are still out there. 

Wikipedia is a popular example of a website that hasn’t adopted responsive design. They also use subdomains for their international strategy, so they must maintain a mess of subdomains like en.m.wikipedia.org and fr.m.wikipedia.org. 

The future of the web is responsive and mobile-first. It’s the easiest and simplest way to adapt to modern internet usage. Brands that disregard this tend to tack on mobile subdomains that plague their technical teams with problems like:

• Wasted crawl budget and canonicalization issues
• Server-side device detection and redirect handling
• Maintaining content parity between mobile and desktop sites
• Shrinking content and navigation to fit mobile screens

There is no reason not to use responsive design at this point.

Cost

How many websites do you want to pay for? How many web applications do you want your engineers to maintain? Every subdomain you add to your website introduces another hosting environment to your technology stack and all the business concerns that come with it.

A new subdomain could mean additional costs for any of these:

• 3rd party hosting or subscription fees
• Additional SSL certificates or a wildcard certificate
• Developer hours for the subdomain CMS
• Additional colocation space or network hardware

You would also have to manage the subdomain’s login credentials, analytics, security, and webmaster consoles. These headaches add up fast if you have regulatory compliance to worry about.

When to Use a Subdomain? (Occasionally)

There are a few cases where a subdomain makes the most sense for your brand outside of technical necessity. Usually, it’s for a sub-brand or a product substantially different from what the brand normally sells.

If your content satisfies most of these criteria, then you should probably use a subdomain:

• The content or branding isn’t different enough to justify an entirely different domain
• Users would be confused if they navigated between the two content experiences
• The content sells a completely independent product or is part of a portfolio of products

Google itself is pretty good at this. They have developers.google.com, assistant.google.com, cloud.google.com, store.google.com and the list goes on. Each subdomain is an aspect of Google but independent and hosts its own thing.

Another valid case for a subdomain is content that will never need to be indexed by a search engine. Paid landing pages, customer portals, and company intranets are all good examples. 

Customer support and user community sections can stay separate. I don’t think investor information, careers, and user-generated Q&A content will help the sales website rank because the content isn’t relevant to its KPIs.

For example, Getty Images has its Careers (careers.gettyimages.com) and Investor Relations (investors.gettyimages.com) sections on subdomains. The audiences for these sections probably aren’t relevant to selling stock photo licenses.

When to Use a Subdirectory? (Most of the Time, Sometimes With a Reverse Proxy)

The best way to avoid dealing with the subdomain question is to start with a website or CMS that does everything you want on one domain. I often find brands that try to tack on the functionality later because they don’t foresee an upcoming need.

Begin with an infrastructure that will do everything you need. If you need a blog or eCommerce experience, choose a CMS with those built into the app. Or you could even use an extensible CMS, like WordPress or Drupal. Shopify has a lot of SEO quirks, but it’s relatively solid and comes with a few site speed improvements out of the box.

Suppose you already have a website and do need to add functionality your existing infrastructure doesn’t support. A few common additions brands need to make are:

• Their blog
• Ecommerce
• Customer support
• Technical documentation

Usually, the easiest way to attach these to an existing site is to host them on a separate server and map it to a subdomain. However, putting them in a subdirectory is straightforward with a reverse proxy.

A reverse proxy is a way to make other servers accessible through a subdirectory instead of a subdomain. They do a lot more, but their purpose for SEO is mostly that.

Suppose you were adding a blog to your PHP website and hosting it on WordPress. Typically, the easiest way to do this is to map blog.brand.com to the server hosting WordPress, but given how the SEO chorus says, “use a subdirectory!” you ask your engineers to invoke a reverse proxy. 

With that reverse proxy, you can host the blog at www.brand.com/blog, and the reverse proxy will reroute all requests in the /blog subdirectory to the WordPress server instead of the PHP server. 

From Google’s point of view, /blog is part of the www.brand.com website even though that subdirectory serves content from a different server. 

Google Will Keep Its Secrets

I think the major reason Google won’t give us a straight answer about how they treat subdomains is that no single person knows. For a Google spokesperson to begin to answer the question, they would need knowledge of all the parts of Google Search that “care” about subdomains, then investigate each part to see what it does. 

Supposing they did that, how much could they say publicly? It’s vital for Google to prevent abuse by not letting the public know too much about how its systems work. 

I don’t think we’ll ever get a satisfying answer from Google about the topic. Hopefully, they advance to the point where it doesn’t matter how our content is organized, and case studies no longer show a preference. Until then, subdirectories are probably better for your situation.

The post Subdomains vs. Subdirectories: Which Is Better for SEO? appeared first on Portent.

I’ve been involved in paid search and paid display advertising for more than a decade, and I can say with confidence that running a B2B account is a whole different ballgame from B2C lead generation or e-commerce advertising. Businesses that sell services or products to other businesses typically have long lead cycles, long sales cycles, and low click-to-sale conversion rates that are only justified by the large amount of revenue associated with each deal closed. Compared to a typical B2C account, there’s far less “hard” conversion data to analyze and optimize from.

Too often, paid search advertisers in the B2B space get so focused on bottom-funnel lead acquisition that campaigns become hard to scale year after year. Using a full-funnel approach can help ensure new users are continually introduced to your brand, that they engage with your on-site content, and that they become qualified leads down the line. In this post, I’ll review why this full-funnel approach is beneficial for B2B advertising and how to implement these tactics appropriately in your account(s).

The Problem – Only Focusing on Bottom-Funnel Campaigns

Scaling B2B accounts year after year is challenging. If you’re dealing with sales cycles of anything longer than three months on average, determining which of your campaigns are actually driving sales – not to mention which attribution model you should be applying – is a convoluted exercise in making educated guesses. Meanwhile, competitors and market forces typically result in continually increasing click costs year after year, forcing you to commit more budget just to stay visible for key terms on the search network.

This is where some advertisers can fall into a trap. With limited quality conversion data and a sole focus on lead acquisition, the rational decision seems to be to shore up a select few competitive search campaigns with enough impression volume and a proven track record in an attempt to keep lead submission volume up.

However, with competitors doing the same thing, those clicks – and thereby leads – become more and more expensive. Meanwhile, brand presence stays static or even shrinks without additional investment in upper funnel efforts. Branded search campaigns become a smaller and small share of impressions, clicks, and lead volume. Costs can spiral out of control, and paid search advertising seemingly becomes a less and less feasible channel to profit from.

The problem here is that there’s a lack of awareness about a business’ brand from new users. Without that initial awareness, it’s hard for said business to convince these users to convert when they’ve moved down the funnel with other brands or resources and are ready to submit a lead. The chances of you or anyone else convincing another business to invest in your brand based on your first interaction with each other are quite slim. At that point, even if they do submit a lead, the onus is then entirely on your sales team to close at high rates to carry your business and justify your marketing budgets.

That’s not a sustainable or winning digital marketing strategy in the B2B space.

The Solution – A Full-Funnel B2B Strategy Scales Up Effectively

The answer to growing your lead volume at scalable rates and budgets year after year is to invest appropriately higher up in the marketing funnel. This gets more new prospective customers to interact with a brand earlier and is more likely to provide dividends as these users move down the funnel.

So, why don’t more B2B advertisers in the paid search and paid display channel do this right off the bat? Besides needing to invest time and resources in creative assets, the typical answer is that higher-funnel campaigns (e.g., brand awareness) are harder to “prove out” using primary key performance indicators (KPIs) such as lead submissions since these campaigns reach new users who aren’t ready to convert yet. Using the same set of KPIs across all of your campaigns can limit your ability to assess how successful your top-funnel and mid-funnel campaigns are, even with a suitable attribution model.

This is where micro conversions come in handy. In our experience, identifying key events that occur on your website that correlate with higher lead submission rates and using those as “conversions” for campaigns that target users higher up the funnel is an excellent way to acquire new and qualified prospective customers effectively. Using these events as conversion signals for campaigns that are not supposed to produce lead submissions right away tells these campaigns’ bidding algorithms that they’re doing their job.

Instead of using limited lead submission data, these micro conversions help you prove that investing in a full-funnel strategy is worthwhile – since these events correlate with higher lead submission rates, it’s easier to see your lead submission volume growth over time and trace that growth back to the micro conversions you acquired from these same users earlier in their journey. This gives you the flexibility to rely on different calls to action and still be able to measure your campaigns’ success appropriately.

Proof in Numbers

This isn’t just a theory – we’ve executed several full-funnel strategies for our B2B clients and have numbers to prove it works. Our paid social team recently provided their own overview of implementing a full-funnel B2B strategy on platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn. In addition to the excellent results the paid social team has had, our team has also produced impressive numbers.

First, let’s take a look at a full-funnel approach we ran for a B2B solution targeting mid-sized companies. These campaigns had a significant impact on new user acquisition as well as eventual lead generation compared to the previous set of campaigns which were exclusively tailored to bottom-funnel calls to action and conversions:

Next, let’s take a look at a similar approach we ran for an enterprise-level B2B solution targeting larger companies. Once again, these new campaigns had a significant impact on results compared to the prior set of campaigns geared towards the bottom of the funnel only:

In both cases, we saw users grow, micro conversions grow, and lead submissions grow at even more efficient costs. Driving more traffic higher up the funnel with appropriate CTAs, landing page experiences, and micro conversions led to more eventual lead submissions at a lower average cost per lead.

You may be looking at those numbers and asking yourself, “alright, how do I set this up in my account?” That’s a great question. Below, you’ll find an overview of how to implement top-funnel, mid-funnel, and bottom-funnel campaigns for your B2B paid search and paid display advertising efforts, including campaign types, calls to action, and key performance indicators to use.

Top of Funnel Campaigns for B2B

Before you can move users down the funnel, you need to get them into the funnel in the first place. Top-funnel campaigns target users who aren’t searching for anything related to your business but share qualities with known prospective customers.

Campaign Types

• Display, discovery, video, and native advertising campaigns on the display network that focus on introducing new users to your brand, your purpose, and your story.

• Dynamic search and performance max campaigns targeting blog posts or other pieces of informative content that get a high level of engagement on your site and correlate with eventual lead submissions at higher-than-average rates.

Calls to Action

CTAs should focus on “learning more” – keep it as a low barrier to entry, so users don’t feel like they have to commit to something right away. Make sure you don’t gate content or ask users for any of their contact information just yet.

Key Performance Indicators

KPIs should be focused on user engagement with on-site content, such as time on site, pages per session, and bounce rate, along with ad click-through rates or view rates (for video ads).

Middle of Funnel PPC Campaigns for B2B

Once you identify users who show genuine interest in your business through either their previous interactions on your website or their intent via search queries, you need to offer these users something of value that entices them to move closer to taking action and submitting a lead.

Campaign Types

• Display and discovery campaigns using relevant in-market and/or life event audiences, as well as similar audiences built off any customer match lists you have uploaded to your account. Furthermore, you can and should use remarketing audiences of users who’ve had initial interaction(s) with your website but haven’t engaged heavily with your site’s most important content, such as your primary services pages.

• Search campaigns that cover “problem-aware” non-branded keywords (i.e., “best digital marketing strategies” versus “digital marketing agency”). These campaigns target users who show some level of interest and/or intent in what your services are and how they can benefit from them.

• Dynamic search and performance max campaigns targeting content that focuses on the features and benefits of what your business has to offer, on common concerns or obstacles your sales team encounter from qualified prospective customers, and on positive reviews, testimonials, or case studies (“social proof”).

Calls to Action

CTAs can lead to lower-funnel content (i.e., pricing options) but should stay away from a direct ask to convert.

Key Performance Indicators

KPIs should focus on user engagement with your on-site content, micro conversions, and assisted leads.

Bottom of Funnel PPC Campaigns for PPC

At this stage, you should have a pool of users who have demonstrated repeated interest in your business and show intent to submit a lead. These campaigns should be focused on acquiring lead submissions directly.

Campaign Types

• Display, Discovery, and Video (Action) campaigns that use remarketing or customer match audiences of users who’ve processed a micro conversion and/or who have engaged with your site’s primary pages (i.e., services, features, specifications).

• Search campaigns that cover “solution-aware” non-branded keywords (i.e., “digital marketing agency” versus “how to do digital marketing”) as well as branded keywords. These campaigns should target users with the highest level of intent to convert.

Calls to Action

CTAs should focus on direct asks for a contact or lead submission, interest in a demonstration or speaking to a representative, and potentially pricing or subscription specifics.

Key Performance Indicators

KPIs should focus on lead submissions and marketing qualified leads, including lead submission rate and cost per lead.

Conclusion

In addition to implementing a full-funnel strategy, you can and should use offline conversion tracking from your CRM to provide your campaigns with more accurate data about which leads advance through your sales funnel and which leads actually turn into closed deals for you (along with how much value is actually generated). Giving your campaigns these value signals will allow you to leverage automated bidding strategies such as Maximize Conversion Value and Target Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) more effectively.

A full-funnel approach to B2B paid search and paid display marketing can help escape the vicious cycle of ever-increasing search click costs and shrinking impression volume. You can and likely will scale up effectively if you follow the implementation guide above.

The post Implementing a Full-Funnel PPC Strategy For Long-Term B2B Success appeared first on Portent.

We recently put together a case study on the organic search results of a content hub we helped our client create. This massive content hub spanned 135 articles and took 1.5 years from conception to publishing.

In this blog post, I’ll discuss a few reasons when and whether to consider a content hub as part of your content strategy, a summary of the case study, and the takeaways we had after completing this project.

Are Content Hubs Right for Your Content Strategy?

Content hubs are indeed popular within SEO and Content Strategy. You often hear about the success stories of how content hubs can help businesses achieve their organic traffic goals, but you never hear about the effort required to execute a hub strategy correctly. Before you’re ready to commit to developing content hubs, consider whether content hubs are, in fact, the right thing for your content strategy.

Ensure Existing Content Is of the Highest Quality

Before content hubs should even be considered, ensure the content you already have is of the highest quality. Only then should you move on to tackling breadth. When onboarding a new client for Content Strategy services, we first prioritize evaluating existing content and its performance and making plans for that content. As Jimmy Daly from Animalz put it, “The best content strategy is the one that prioritizes quality and depth, not volume and breadth.”

Resources Needed for Content Hubs

Content hubs involve creating several, if not dozens, of pieces of content. Content hubs shouldn’t be part of your content strategy if you lack the resources or time to produce high-quality content. You’ll need resources to:

Resource needs will also depend on the type of hub. There are various content hubs, and they don’t all serve the same purpose. Consider what your strategy and KPIs are and review our recommendations on how to choose a content hub.

Content Hub Case Study

The Challenge: The Client Wanted to Be the Leading Authority in Its Field

We worked with a leading reference client who wanted to improve keyword rankings for existing content to drive additional organic traffic. They also wanted to be recognized as an expert in the area they specialized in—one way of doing that was to show up at the top of SERPs.

The Strategy: We Created Content Hubs to Fill Gaps & Drive Traffic

Using Portent’s content hub strategy framework, we conducted keyword research, analyzed search results & competitors, and evaluated existing content to understand the breadth of content and identify any gaps. We created an editorial calendar to summarize key information and used it to organize content briefs.

We prioritized updating existing content first due to the smaller efforts required from our client’s editorial teams and the potential results of refreshing old content. When creating content to fill gaps, we relied on metrics like search volume and keyword difficulty to prioritize the most impactful content first.

We helped our client generate 135 articles—27% content updates and 73% new content.

The Results: Content Hubs Filled Content Gaps & Drove 3.3 Million Additional Organic Traffic

For a more detailed breakdown of the results and data visuals, see the Results section of our case study.

Takeaways

Our content hubs proved to be successful in achieving our client’s goals and KPIs. This was one of the largest content hubs our team has worked on, and we certainly learned a lot. Here are some of the takeaways.

It May Take 2+ Months to Start Seeing Results

Our client published articles in batches. It took two months since the first batch of articles was published before we started to see results. It’s no secret that results from organic search take time, so this timeline was aligned with our expectations. In our experience, we’ve seen that it can take even longer than two months before a client starts to see the results of their work—sometimes as many as four months.

Despite the delay in results, we saw sustained traffic.

Breadth & Depth of Content

Organic traffic was only one part of the goal for our client—the other part was to be recognized as an authority in their field. Our client chose to publish content with low organic traffic opportunities to demonstrate their expertise, especially for topics that were important in their field (but less commonly talked about).

When organic traffic is the goal of a hub strategy, each piece of content should drive incremental traffic—you don’t need to write about every topic just for the sake of writing it. But if the goal is to be an expert, you should consider content that covers both depth and breadth.

Author Bylines & Bio Pages

One of our key learnings on this project is the value of author bylines and bio pages. Our client’s content included author information within the Schema. However, this information was not displayed on the page. Additionally, they didn’t have a template or design for author pages, so creating them would’ve required development resources.

Author bylines within articles establish writers’ expertise and credibility and help build readers’ trust—a fundamental component of Google’s E-A-T. An informative author byline should include the writer’s name, job title, and/or experience.

To take it a step further, author bio pages can elaborate on the author’s expertise. A bio page should include everything in the byline in addition to the author’s years of experience, previous experience, formal education, other published work, and any other relevant information.

Main Content Hub to House Content

The client’s existing main hub page to house all the content was simple—paginated pages containing cards that linked to each article. Potential improvements to the layout and organization of the main hub page would help users landing on the page find relevant content more efficiently; this includes organizing content into sections by topic or allowing users to filter by topic.

Conclusion

When a content hub makes sense for your content strategy, and with the right resources and planning, content hubs can deliver impactful and sustained results. If that sounds like it might be right for you, please get in touch with us by using our contact form.

The post Lessons Learned From a Content Hub Strategy appeared first on Portent.

Updated 10/19/22 with new information.

Are you creating charts on Looker Studio (formerly known as Google Data Studio) using multiple data sources and running into problems with data blending?

In this blog post, we’ll introduce you to exactly how data blending works in Looker Studio, note the considerations that limit our blending abilities, and share some tactics we’ve successfully implemented to resolve data blending issues. If you’re new to Looker Studio and would like to learn more, please check out our blog on getting started with Google Data Studio.

What Is Data Blending in Looker Studio?

Looker Studio’s data blending feature allows users to combine data and calculate metrics across data sources without writing code. It is a powerful function and yet requires some understanding of fundamental SQL join types.

You can use data blending to create any visualization offered in Looker Studio for a complete view of performance across different sources. You can also blend data sources to combine metrics across multiple properties like cost, revenue, and transactions, by joining matching dimensions like campaigns, keywords, and device types.

Looker Studio allows users to easily create a Data Blend in a report by simply clicking multiple scorecards or tables, right-clicking, and selecting ‘Blend Data.’ This method creates the Data Blend for you with the selected metrics and sets the first data source you selected as your left-most source.

In the screenshot below, click the Cost scorecard first and press the command key on mac or the control key on pc. Then, click the Clicks scorecard and right-click to select Blend data. That’s how you blend the Cost/Clicks scorecard, but you need to adjust the metric type from percentage to currency.

Why Use Data Blending in Looker Studio?

Combine Metrics Across Platforms

I use and build automated reports extensively for client work, and data blending is undeniably the most useful feature of Looker Studio. More often than not, I run into clients who have multiple Google Analytics properties or Google Ads accounts, are running Paid Social ads on multiple social platforms, or offer their services or products within a website and across applications. 

Clients and analysts should look at combined performance metrics for efforts with the same goals or budgets, regardless of how the data collection is disjointed. Check out my blog post on the marketing metrics you must track to determine if you’re tracking the right ones.

Better Performance Reporting

Blending data in Looker Studio allows you to combine metrics reported on different platforms that should be viewed as a total (ex., app conversions in Firebase and website conversions in Google Analytics). You can provide performance for an overall budget spread across more than one source or medium (ex., Facebook Ads and LinkedIn Ads). Ultimately, data blending provides holistic reporting on performance.

When to Use Data Blending in Looker Studio

Data blending should be used when you need to view combined data for analysis or reporting purposes. Below are some example use cases for data blending in Looker Studio, just in case this sounds overly general or doesn’t seem like it will ever apply to you—which it will.

• You’re running Google Ads across multiple accounts with the same overall budget.
• You’re running Bing Ads and Google Ads and need to report on combined Paid Search performance.
• You need to report on Bing Ads Ads cost metrics by campaign but report on goal completions out of Google Analytics.
• You want to report on Paid Social campaign metrics and goal completions from Google Analytics.
• You’re running Paid Social ads across multiple platforms from the same Paid Social budget.
• You manage multiple subdomains or sister sites for the same account.

What Can You Blend in Looker Studio?

Conceptually, you can blend just about anything in Looker Studio as long as the data source is in an available Looker Studio connector and there’s at least one dimension in common (i.e., a Join Key) among your data sources. Your data can live in a Google Sheet, SQL database, or even be a simple file upload to connect to Looker Studio, and custom fields can be added to create matching Join Keys.

Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as we’d like to blend any data with data blending in Looker Studio with these liberties. There are limitations outside the two main requirements (data source available in Looker Studio and Join Key) to return accurate metrics in your reports.

How to Blend Data in Looker Studio

Step 1: When in Edit mode, select the chart you need to work on and click the BLEND DATA button under Data source to add more data sources to the blend.

Step 2: Click Join another table, search and select the data source.

Step 3: Select the dimensions and metrics or create calculated metrics as needed from each data source with or without filters.

Step 4: Configure join by selecting the join operator and matching dimension(s) for the join conditions, then save.

Step 5: Rename the Data Blend and click save.

Different Types of Join Operators

Left Outer Join was only initially available on Looker Studio for data blending. In early 2022, Looker Studio released other advanced join types. There are now five join configurations available for data blending in Looker Studio. If you have experience with SQL, the following join operators should be fairly straightforward.

Inner Join (New)

It will return the matching rows from the left and right tables. In the screenshot below, only Campaign 1 and Campaign 2 match in Data Source 1 and Data Source 2.

It will return everything from the left table plus the matching rows from the right table. The screenshot below shows all campaigns from Data Source 1 plus the matching Campaign 1 and Campaign 2 from Data Source 2. This is a default join type when you start data blending.

Right Outer Join (New)

It will return everything from the right table plus the matching rows from the left table. The screenshot below shows all campaigns from Data Source 2 plus the matching Campaign 1 and Campaign 2 from Data Source 1. 

If you shift the right table to the left, you’ll get Left Outer Join.

Full Outer Join (New)

It will return all rows from the left or right table, resulting in potentially very large datasets. The screenshot below shows all rows from Data Source 1 and Data Source 2.

Cross Join (New)

It will return all possible paired combinations of each row in Data Source 1 with each row in Data Source 2.

Challenges of Data Blending in Looker Studio

Limit of Five Data Sources

Five data sources sound like plenty, but there are many situations when you need more than that to blend together. I’ve run into it quite a few times, and the only solutions have been to either forgo some metrics or combine data sources into one through Google Sheets or by importing data from one platform to the other.

Some examples where I’ve run into problems because of this limitation:

• Combining Bing Ads Cost data (Data Source 1) with Google Analytics conversions (Data Source 2) across more than two accounts or properties.
• Combining Google Analytics metrics across more than five different properties.
• Combining Assisted Conversions data with Google Analytics last-click conversions across more than two accounts or properties.

Common Data Blending Issues and How to Resolve Them

The issues I often run into in Looker Studio are easily resolved with a simple workaround. It seems Looker Studio is still ironing out logistical kinks for functionalities that should work seamlessly on their own. The following solutions and hacks have solved my blending issues so far.

Data Returning “Null” Values

Looker Studio will return “null” (-) values when any row of a dimension has no value associated with it. In the example below, the ‘Leads’ column returns null values and misses conversions from the second data source in the data blend due to the Left Outer Join operation.

The ‘Leads’ column is missing a conversion because the First Interaction Assisted Conversion (which is from the second data source) occurred for a keyword that did not return any values under the first data source. This results in inaccurate reporting! You can see that the total number of Leads under the ‘Leads’ column does not add up to what Looker Studio is reporting as the ‘Grand total.’

This issue can be resolved by creating custom metrics in the table that tell Looker Studio to either return the max metric for that field or return a 0 (instead of null). Use the formula below to create this metric:

NARY_MAX([FIELD],0)

Replace [FIELD] with the metric and use the SUM([FIELD]) calculation if you need an aggregated metric. This is the formula used in the above example:

NARY_MAX(SUM(Goal Completions),0)+NARY_MAX(SUM(First Interaction Assisted Conversions),0))

Returning 0s instead of nulls allows Looker Studio to combine the metrics and return a value, even if there are no values for one of your combined metrics. It’s a silly workaround, but it’s what makes sense with Looker Studio’s current configuration.

Another solution I’ve seen for this is creating a custom metric using a CASE WHEN formula, telling Looker Studio to either return 0 when the value returns null or to return the field:

CASE WHEN [FIELD] IS NULL THEN 0 ELSE [FIELD] END

Data Returning Incorrectly Calculated Metrics

I highly recommend always viewing your combined metrics by the Join Key in a table format before putting it into a scorecard. Viewing it in a table allows you to check that the correct metrics are being pulled in from each source before combining them.

When you’ve noticed that your report is calculating metrics incorrectly, comb through the following checkpoints:

1. Make sure the naming is the same for your Join Keys. I’ve tried using Device Category as a Join Key between Bing Ads and Google Analytics before realizing that the naming conventions are different. Bing Ads uses Computer, Tablet, and Smartphone instead of Desktop, Tablet, and Mobile, which are used in Google Analytics. Use a CASE WHEN formula to return the same dimension names in one data source to match the other. For example, you can create this custom field in your Google Ads data source:
2. Make sure the formatting is the same for your Join Keys. This is specific to dimensions like Date. Although the Date dimension may be called the same and look the same in their platforms, they may be formatted differently in Looker Studio. Pull your data into a table with the date set as the dimension and check the formatting of your dates. You may find that one is YYYYMMDD, while the other is MMDDYYYY. If reporting on a monthly basis, you should attempt changing the ‘Show As’ under each date in every data source to ‘Year Month.’
   

Wrap Up

I hope these tips and tricks are helpful when you need to do data blending on Looker Studio for reporting. Since Looker Studio keeps rolling out new features, there will likely be new issues, and hopefully, some existing ones will get resolved.

The post How to Blend Data in Looker Studio appeared first on Portent.

E-A-T, coined by Google, has become an adjective and a concept for SEOs to describe the quality of their website. This term is used by many in the SEO industry, especially when they’re discussing algorithm updates. Recently, it became a hot topic with Google’s announcement of the 2022 Helpful Content Update.

I’m here to tell you what E-A-T means, why it matters, what it has to do with algorithm updates, and how to improve your website’s E-A-T.

What Is Google’s E-A-T?

E-A-T is an acronym for Expertise, Authority, and Trust. It is mentioned in Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines (SQRG) for raters to evaluate while rating quality and purpose. It is used by the Search Quality Raters but not by the Google algorithm. That’s why I call it an adjective in the SEO community. SEOs use it to describe this guideline and whether or not their website has a high or small amount of it, interchangeable with “quality.”

As previously mentioned, E-A-T isn’t new. It has been around since 2014 and gained a lot of traction during the “Medic” update, where impacted sites scrambled to figure out how to recover. Case studies about the recovery relied heavily on the SQRG; since then, we’ve seen the hype about E-A-T grow. To better understand this acronym, we need to define each letter.

Expertise

The E in E-A-T is for Expertise.

Expertise is the experience and knowledge the website or author has about a specific topic. Professional degrees, accreditations, or work experience are ways to showcase expertise in a topic.

Authoritativeness

The A in E-A-T is for Authoritativeness.

To understand the authoritativeness of an article or website, we have to look at its reputation. Authoritativeness is gained via how often their respective industry mentions them. If you consider someone a thought leader in an industry, their level of authoritativeness is high.

Trustworthiness

The T in E-A-T is for Trustworthiness. 

Trust is earned through security, engagement, and support. A trustworthy eCommerce website will ensure that transactions are secure and that there’s customer support available. News outlets or similar websites will provide their sources, methodologies, and feedback channels. Ask yourself, “what makes me trust a website?” and ensure your site implements those answers.

Is Google’s E-A-T a Ranking Factor?

E-A-T is not a direct ranking factor. It’s a concept for us on how we can measure the quality of our content. In a Tweet, Google’s Danny Sullivan shared how the algorithm doesn’t measure E-A-T directly. However, Google attempts to detect E-A-T using other ranking factors such as reviews, authorship history, what links say about a brand and more.

Although not a direct ranking factor, it’s still important to consider it in your strategy. 

Why Is Google’s E-A-T Important for SEO?

The days when the ranking of a website was influenced through keyword stuffing and the number of links are long gone, and I’m glad they are behind us. Today, Google prioritizes and focuses on the user. That’s why E-A-T is important.

 Here are some of the questions I address to focus on the user:

• What is the user searching for?
• Will the user have a good experience?
• Will the content be helpful to the user?

The first question I answer through keyword research and understanding the search intent. For the second question, I look at the Core Web Vitals of a site to start, but then I want to make sure I consider interstitials, text size, and more. The third question is to understand how helpful my content is. If it met the search intent, then it fulfilled its purpose. However, fulfilling the purpose doesn’t end there.

We use E-A-T as a concept of the quality of our content. We need to ensure that users are seeing content that fulfills their intent but that it lets them feel confident that the information they got is accurate.

This concept of quality doesn’t need to apply to every type of topic. The Search Evaluators also consider that during their assessment.

“The level of E-A-T needed depends on the purpose and topic of the page. For some types of pages, formal expertise may not be needed. For pages on YMYL topics, it is critical.“ (pg.37 of SQRG)

However, the accuracy of content becomes extremely important for YMYL topics because those topics, in general, can hurt someone.

Your Money Your Life (YMYL) Content

YMYL is an acronym for “Your Money Your Life,” and it’s used to describe content that can affect a person’s well-being. A person’s well-being can be affected by medical, financial, or legal content. YMYL content requires higher E-A-T than other types because of how damaging it can be. That’s why it’s critical for YMYL websites to establish guidelines on E-A-T. 

Consider how a user would assess the E-A-T of your website and make it easier for them to conclude that your site is an expert, authoritative and trustworthy.

 Sounds easy, but it’s a lot of work, so let’s talk about ways you can get started. 

Tips to Improve Your E-A-T

Having high E-A-T should be fundamental to your Content Strategy and your team’s work. To get there, we must learn ways to improve our E-A-T. I’ll share 8 steps to do so.

1. Build High-Quality Backlinks

Having high-quality backlinks is a signal of how authoritative and knowledgeable your business may be. Work with your SEO, PR team, or an agency to do link building by promoting content that helps your website become your industry’s thought leader. Authoritativeness is recognized when other experts or authoritative websites mention your brand. This isn’t gained through the number of backlinks but by the quality. An example of a high-quality backlink is when an authoritative website mentions your site as an expert in its content. Backlinks through images or buttons don’t acquire authority and aren’t of good quality. Building high-quality backlinks is a great first step in building a site’s authority. 

2. Review and Update Content

Studies have shown how important it is to review and update existing content on your site. When doing so, review existing content through the lens of E-A-T. Search Raters are looking for high-quality content that shows time, effort, expertise, and skill. It’s a great best practice to revise content multiple times to ensure it’s accurate and current, and it may also be a way Google detects time and effort.

3. Showcase Positive User Reviews & Testimonials

To build trust, showcase user reviews or testimonials. Provide examples of customer experiences, so that prospective users have an idea of what to expect. But don’t stop there; your team can engage with reviews on third-party sites. Respond to positive and negative reviews so that users investigating your company know that you’re responsive and open to feedback.

4. Collaborate with Experts

Your site or authors can’t be considered experts if the information isn’t available. Be clear on how you’re an expert. A great first step would be to update your organization’s “about us” page to include any extra information about your expertise. Additionally, work and collaborate with known experts in your industry so that users can associate you as one.

Often I see websites publishing blog posts with their business name as the author. It’s not ideal, but if the group of writers is writing them then include who makes this group. You can include the teams involved and the combined years of experience to start.

5. Include Author & Business Credentials

Author bios or business can be one step of many to substantiate expertise and authoritativeness. An author bio should explain why someone is an expert in the topic or who the author group is made up of. Business credentials should be clear on how long the business has been in business, what organizations they are a part of, awards they have won, and why they do what they do.

There are instances where anonymity makes sense, e.g., Reddit. However, anonymity is not acceptable for YMYL topics; it needs to be clear what organization or person is behind the content. 

6. Show Support & Contact Information

To earn trust, especially in eCommerce sites, people want to know they can get the support they need when necessary. This isn’t limited to eCommerce sites, but contact information and support articles help users gain trust in your site. They know they can count on help if they get stuck or if someone doesn’t work out on that site.

7. Monitor Your Businesses Reputation

The best way to learn about your business’s reputation online is to Google your organization. Some sources to look at are Wikipedia, Better Business Bureau, Yelp, and other review sites. Look at what is being said of your organization, and come up with a PR strategy to address concerns, and restore a positive reputation.

You can work with Off-Page SEOs to help with reputation on the web, including various strategies like news outlets reporting on your organization, contributing to podcasts, and more.

H3: 8. Avoid Clickbait Content

Stay away from clickbait content! It’s terrible and deceiving. If you think of the user first, you won’t make this mistake. It’s a lot easier to ruin your reputation than to improve it.

I strongly believe that content needs to be helpful, so please don’t use clickbait content. Here’s a refresher for writing title tags, a ranking factor to consider! 

What Does Google’s Helpful Content Update Mean for E-A-T?

On August 18, 2022, Google announced the Helpful Content Update as “part of a broader effort to ensure people see more original, helpful content written by people, for people, in search results.” It was expected to demote sites with a lot of unhelpful content. However, there weren’t many websites with major shifts up or down. For my clients, I saw no change. We saw a positive increase in clicks for the month, but nothing was concerning. It appears that the SEO community shared that consensus in Barry Schwartz’s summary of the helpful content update rollout.

Although the Helpful Content Update didn’t affect many sites, E-A-T is still important when it comes to core algorithm updates. It will continue to be a focus as we move forward navigating the unprecedented algorithm updates.

If you want to learn more about E-A-T and its importance for SEO, I highly recommend reading Lily Ray’s article on the importance of E-A-T. I watched her original presentation at MozCon, which was amazing. The article is just as great!

Wrap-Up

SEOs should continue to focus on optimizing for the user. If they do so, they will most likely do a great job with their E-A-T. There are ways to improve a website’s E-A-T, but it’s a lot of work. That investment is worth it because we continue seeing Google update its algorithms to improve the web for users. 

If your organization does well by the user, you’ll forget what it felt like to anticipate the aftereffects of an algorithm update on your site. As more updates happen, the more we will see E-A-T mentioned. Use the 8 tips and be proactive about the next update; you don’t want to have to recover what you could have prevented.

The post What Is Google’s E-A-T & Why Is It Important for SEO? appeared first on Portent.

Achieving success in digital marketing can sometimes feel like “a game of inches.” Whenever clients ask me for advice on what design changes to their website would work best for driving conversions, I often assess how we can strengthen our recommendations with A/B tests.

Experimentation is the perfect proving ground for bolstering a client’s bottom line. Regarding conversion rate optimization, our work as strategists ranges from improving user journeys toward a purchase to increasing competitive edge in paid and organic search engine results pages.

Conversion rate optimization tests can take on many forms. One version of A/B testing that doesn’t get talked about enough is multivariate testing. Whether this is the first time you’re learning about multivariate testing or trying to figure out when to use this experimentation method, this blog post is for you.

We’ll take a comprehensive look at what multivariate tests are, when to use them, multivariate test examples, and some ways you can start experiments of your own. 

Multivariate Testing (MVT): A Definition

Multivariate testing (MVT) is a form of A/B testing in which numerous combinations of variants from sections of a website or app are used to determine which changes on a page will optimize conversions. Strategists build combinations by selecting variations to the page or interface to test.

Think of it as trying to find the right brand and amount of chocolate chips your cookies will need that earn the most praise among your friends and family. Maybe it’s one of three brands of chocolate chips that work best? Maybe it’s a cup of chocolate chips, or perhaps a cup and a half? Between three brands and two measurements of chocolate chips, there are six possible combinations of cookie recipes to test.

“How does this concept work in a website?” you might ask. For example, take a scenario in which we are running an MVT test on the call-to-action(CTA) banner from our Portent CRO page:

In the example above, I have split the CTA banner into two sections: Section A has an original and two versions of the copy for a total of three variants, and section B has an original and one version of the button’s copy for a total of two variants.

In a MVT of this CTA banner, our experiment would use every possible pairing of sections A and B for a total of six combinations to test.

A/B Testing vs. Multivariate Testing

Of the many ways A/B testing can be used, MVT takes your analysis a step further into determining what precise combination of changes provided the best lift in conversion rate. A traditional A/B test can involve a variation with one minor change or a completely different layout. Should that variation provide the largest conversion rate lift in that test, the results may not be able to indicate if the layout’s image, content, or combination was a winning factor.

This is where a MVT can identify whether or not precise changes or a combination of them was your best recipe for optimization success. The example above represents how four combinations of the chart and copy designs can be evaluated and help declare a clear test winner.

Why Is Multivariate Testing Important?

MVT is an essential tool to learn for CRO strategists and digital marketers. Consider these two reasons when gauging how impactful MVT can be in your optimization strategy.

Range

MVT is used in numerous marketing and design practices. From social media marketing to UX research, an MVT is a versatile way to gain insights into what parts of your website and customer experience are helping your business’s bottom line.

Results

MVT provides a way for CRO strategists and digital marketers to identify what design changes to a website or interface affect conversion rate performance the most. Unlike traditional A/B testing results, MVT has the potential to glean more comprehensive insights into the effectiveness of specific content and design combinations.

Benefits of Multivariate Testing

Conversion rate optimization can benefit greatly from a sound MVT strategy. Two benefits stand out as recurring themes from our experience and research in the field.

Interaction

Combinations of variants you introduce in a MVT will ultimately provide the best insight into what elements, visuals, content, etc., work best or interact with one another and influence the best conversion rate possible.

Efficiency

Running sequences of A/B tests to determine whether or not your variations would perform better than preceding iterations can prove inefficient. An MVT can run several variants as combinations concurrently in the same amount of time a single A/B test may have been planned.

Challenges of Multivariate Testing

MVT is not without some downsides worth knowing in CRO strategy. We recommend keeping two things in mind when approaching MVTs.

Sample Size

Adequate site traffic or visitors to your pages is a significant factor that could ultimately rule MVT out of your immediate CRO strategy. For example, in an A/B test, you would split 1,000 site visitors into groups of 500. A MVT would split site visitors further into smaller samples depending on how many combinations your variates create. Smaller traffic samples to your experiments would likely mean it would need a longer test time to reach statistical significance.

Sequence

One challenge a MVT can present that goes overlooked is how combinations of changes can work in sequential order. For example, suppose a test’s combination of a CTA banner’s copy and button text does not make sense or reads awkwardly for users. In that case, it’s probable that it would not convert as well as other combinations and thus be a wasted opportunity in the overall experiment.

MVTs take a lot of planning and consideration to avoid challenges. You can anticipate some meaningful MVT results if your CRO strategy is complete with a sufficient sample size and adequate variations that can impact your conversion rates.

When to Use Multivariate Testing

While not every opportunity will call for it, multivariate testing for CRO strategists will have a lasting impact on marketing strategies when planning perfect moments to run experiments.

Common Uses for Multivariate Testing

Most often, MVT on a website or landing page will occur when a design needs some refined changes. If your e-commerce site is looking for a combination of the best product detail layout and call to action, consider a MVT to find its most optimized arrangement for conversion rates.

The Nielsen Norman Group example provides a perfect case for when an A/B test should be prioritized over an MVT for larger-scale redesign experiments. MVTs will work best when they can determine the best combination of variables on a webpage or interface design.

When Not to Use Multivariate Testing

If time is of the essence and your sample size of sessions or users to evaluate is limited, it’s best to explore options or testing strategies that can meet the needs of the digital marketing strategy timeline. One alternative a team may explore is how to run A/B Tests on low-traffic sites.

Strategists should also avoid MVT for experiments that involve variations with numerous large-scale design changes to an experience. For example, CRO strategists do not use MVT to test three completely different page layouts with minimal changes. I would recommend reassessing the testing strategy using our guide to the risks and rewards of page layout experiments.

To reiterate from an earlier point, MVTs are best used when they use all combinations of variables in a design or experience.

Methods of Multivariate Testing

Conversion rate optimization uses MVT in several ways to glean the best insights in almost any scenario. While the ongoing debate over which method would be most effective, it’s important to identify which types of MVTs are commonly referenced in the statistics community.

Full Factorial

Full factorial MVTs are the most commonly executed and understood methods. Every variation’s combination is equally treated with the same amount of traffic and provides an insightful understanding of changes made in each. Because the number of variations and combinations can rapidly increase, full factorials can take a long time to run or require a larger sample size of traffic to have a chance at statistical significance.

Fractional Factorial

MVTs with a fractional factorial method are very challenging to conduct and most necessary for tests with dozens of possible combinations. Dozens of variations create a complex web of permutations that will require additional resources to analyze its results.

Fractional Factorial experiments take a lot less time to run than a full factorial. However, this is because it only runs a calculated sample of the possible combinations used in a test to determine the conversion rate of each one. Fractional factorial MVT can rely on more robust experimental software to conduct and calculate tests.

How to Run a Multivariate Test

Running a MVT will require careful planning to execute effectively and efficiently. To get you started, here is a brief checklist our CRO team uses for their experiments:

1. Assess your multivariate test approach.

This stage of planning an MVT requires considerable thought to accomplish; a who, what, where, when, and why. Identify what audiences you’re going to gather as test traffic, your conversion objectives, where on your website or flow to test, when and how long the experiment will take place, and why this test outcome will be important.

2. Outline all variations needed for the test.

Consider how many combinations your variants will produce based on the experience you’re testing. Depending on your page’s daily traffic, less than six combinations would be ideal, but no more than 10. Choose only the best design or content-based insights from analytics or user research.

3. Set up your Multivariate Test in your testing environment.

Our CRO team uses Google Optimize for a MVT environment. I’ve included links to a few other popular MVT tools and platforms below. Referencing our earlier example of the CRO Services page CTA Banner, you can see how we’ve staged our combination of variants in this image.

4. Run your test and analyze the results.

Results of your MVT can be found on your testing environment’s reporting platform, complete with calculated probabilities for a variant to be best and the modeled conversion rate for each combination.

Results like the one seen above in Google Optimize show that the combination of A1-B1 (Section A’s Variant 1 and Section B’s Variant 1) had a 34.10% conversion rate; an improvement of 8.48% from the original (A0-B0) baseline’s rate of 31.43%. A1-B1’s probability to be best of 51% indicates that it would be most likely to earn the highest conversion rate and might be the best combination to implement on the page.

Multivariate Testing Best Practices

Like all A/B testing, MVT is built in various ways but shares similar best practices that are paramount to follow when conducting conversion rate optimization. 

Some Multivariate Testing Dos

• Determine your test’s one to two KPI goals or objectives to gauge success.
• Set a reasonable span of time for your test to run to collect enough traffic for every combination of variants.
• Monitor your MVT from time to time to ensure your data is reliable.

Some Multivariate Testing Don’ts

• Do not create too many combinations that split your traffic in several directions if your typical session count is limited.
• Do not test areas of your site that get very few interactions or engagement.
• Do not make any changes to your test variations during the test.

Multivariate Testing Tools & Resources

To learn more about MVT, we highly recommend getting familiar with some tools and resources before building your first MVT.

Tools and Platforms

The CRO strategist community relies on test calculators from sites like CXL, AB Testguide, and Dynamic Yield to plan their experiment durations using expected traffic and baseline conversion rate metrics. These same tools supplement results calculations from testing platforms like Google Optimize, Unbounce, and Optimizely.

Helpful Resources

The conversations on in-depth MVT strategy will be ongoing as digital marketing evolves. One of the best resources for understanding MVT comes from Google Analytics Academy’s YouTube playlist of Google Optimize features. Because Google Optimize’s testing platform provides a seamless connection to Google Analytics, their Resource Hub is a great place to supplement an understanding of MVT.

H2: Wrap Up

Of the different kinds of CRO tests strategists use in their arsenal, MVT is one of the least understood but potentially important methods to refine designs in a user’s journey across a website or app.  Using a combination of variants in an MVT method allows for precise insights to be gleaned across numerous experiences and interfaces websites rely on to improve their business’s bottom line.

We hope you found this guide a comprehensive and excellent starting point for your journey into MVT. For more information on how Portent’s CRO team can help your optimization efforts, check out our Services page or hit us up on our Contact page!

The post What Is Multivariate Testing (MVT) & When to Use It appeared first on Portent.

So, you’ve done your keyword research, analyzed competitor content, and finalized your hub strategy; you’re well on your way to improving your reach on your targeted SERPs. But how do you choose when it comes to narrowing down the content ideas and prioritizing what should come first? 

In an online world where ROI plays an important role in content development, you must depend on more than just a gut feeling or brand likeness to a particular topic. 

This guide will discuss the importance of content prioritization and the steps you should take when choosing new ideas for development or updating existing content. 

What is Content Prioritization?

Content prioritization is how we determine what pieces of content to develop and publish first based on gaps on our site. This process largely informs content planning and how we build editorial calendars to fill those gaps. Prioritization relies heavily on competitor analyses and keyword research that unveils areas in which content is lacking or nonexistent. 

Why it’s Important to Prioritize Content Ideas

Content prioritization allows us to analyze which content ideas will give us the greatest return with the least effort. However, this can look different to different stakeholders. When we talk about the greatest return or biggest impact, that may be a different outcome depending on where the content requests come from or what kind of event spurs the need for new content. These events may include new products or services, website changes or updates, promotional or campaign content, new resource content, and more. 

The goals we want to achieve for each event will also differ. In this case, when we discuss creating new content that impacts search visibility, we need to lean on data and examples from competitors to help prioritize content development efforts.

How to Prioritize Content Ideas for Search

The following methods for content prioritization create a framework you can follow to make the planning process more manageable. 

Organize New and Existing Content

To avoid duplicating efforts and writing about something you’ve already done, ensure you’re adding new content ideas to your existing editorial calendar. This way, you may also find which existing pieces may just need updating with further information to close a content gap.

Prioritize Updating Underperforming Content 

By prioritizing already existing (but underperforming) content early on, we don’t have to invest precious time into creating brand-new content that might not be necessary to reach our goals. Simple blog post updates can significantly affect your keyword growth without a major overhaul. Brand new content and simple updates sometimes look the same to Google, which means we can get it to crawl your site more frequently without needing to publish more. 

After you’ve updated your editorial calendar and spotted these opportunities, start with content that currently ranks in positions 4-10. A jump from position 4 to 3 makes a more considerable impact than a jump from 12 to 11, especially since positions 1-3 are the ultimate goal. Focusing on content that we can see movement with on page one of the SERP follows the guideline of low-effort, high-impact work.

Leverage Keyword Data Insights

On the subject of low-effort, high-impact work, keyword research data can quickly inform us of which topics will bring in the most organic traffic. If you don’t already, include a row in your editorial calendar that captures the keyword search volume and difficulty information. Generally, we can get the most out of creating content for topics with a higher search volume to keyword difficulty ratio. This can vary when it comes to the funnel stage, however.

Consider the Funnel Stage

First and foremost, content topics should be relevant to your goals and KPIs, and we can stay on track by mapping each topic to the user’s journey in the marketing funnel. Label each content topic as either Top of Funnel, Middle of Funnel, or Bottom of Funnel (and add it to your editorial calendar, too). Once we know the funnel stage for each topic, it will be easier to dictate the type of content required.

The funnel stage will affect the search volume and keyword difficulty metrics, as topics lower in the funnel tend to garner less search volume yet possess more value since readers are closer to making a purchasing decision. Keeping this in mind, the marriage between keyword data and the marketing funnel makes more sense and can further help you prioritize your content ideas. 

Thoroughly Evaluate Competitors

Once you’ve determined which topics will bring in the most organic traffic, you can dive into competitor coverage on the topic to see what type of content they’re creating in more detail. The goal isn’t to reproduce the same content as competitors but to improve what they have. Better yet, by comparing multiple competitors across a single topic, you can take the best of all, find what’s missing, and create a stellar piece of content that you’re confident will do better than them.

Determine Internal Linking Structure

Before you can move on to the copy brief stage, it’s important to take some time to consider what you want to be your content hub pages. It’s easier to start with the hubs and work your way down to the spokes later on, especially if the content piece you’re about to work on could be an excellent umbrella topic for multiple other existing pieces.

Building out internal linking within your hubs helps create stronger topic authority and helps the reader answer their questions in one spot without reverting to Google repeatedly. If your content is self-contained and the reader doesn’t have to do further research beyond your site, you begin to build a trust that you are dependable for answering user queries.

Repurpose Topical Research Findings

There is no need to reinvent the wheel every time you write a new piece of content. Especially when you’re writing about similar topics, creating a template that can be utilized for more than one piece of content can help make development more efficient. It can also help with refining internal linking. 

For example, if you are a cosmetics company looking to cover skin care for a specific skin type, you’ll likely be answering the same questions for “how to manage dry skin” as you would “how to manage oily skin.” Once one is done, the other comes pretty simply.

Wrap Up

The final step of the content prioritization process is to create copy briefs for each of your topics, starting at the top of your list and working your way down. Following a standardized template is another way of improving your content development process efficiency and keeping your topic focused and relevant to your goals.

At its core, content prioritization answers the question, “what’s next?” Using these steps to thoughtfully digest your new content ideas will make prioritizing your work and budgeting your time much more manageable. When you utilize this framework, you’ll find that content prioritization doesn’t have to be daunting. 

The post How to Prioritize New Content Ideas & Improve Search Visibility appeared first on Portent.

INBOUND 2022 is a wrap, and once again HubSpot didn’t disappoint. This year, I joined Portent’s client partner team for three days of exceptional programming that covered all aspects of inbound marketing. 

With all of the quality content, it was hard to narrow down our favorites! Below are the top takeaways from INBOUND 2022 that Leyla Church, Kyle Eliason, Erika Lang, Kirsten Pickworth, Ann Robison, Matthew Taufa’asau, and I wanted to share.

Category Entry Points In A B2B World: Buying Situations To Brand Sales

Presented by: Ty Heath, The B2B Institute

Recapped by Ann Robison

The value of Brand Strength and its role in a business’ overall financial performance is something many non-marketers underestimate, and that is in part due to the fact that the traditional Marketing funnel used in B2B isn’t Finance-centric. It’s not even customer-centric. 

One way to counteract this disconnect is to stop non-marketers from thinking about top-funnel, mid-funnel, and bottom-funnel users, and instead accept that for most B2B industries, the percent of current buyers “In Market” pales in comparison to future buyers “Out of Market.” 

What this means for marketers is that “Brand Strength” is only as strong as its capacity for longevity in the minds of “out-of-market future buyers.” Enter Category Entry Points.

Category Entry Points (CEPs) are defined by Professor Jenni Romaniuk of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute as “the cues that category buyers use to access their memories when face with a buying situation.” And they’re important to marketers because context matters and the memories associated with brands affect how and when consumers think of brands. 

The example used in Ty Heath’s presentation was coffee brands, and how the coffee brand that comes to mind varies dramatically depending on the situational frame of the question.

1. What coffee brand do you think of when you’re meeting a friend to chat?
2. What coffee brand do you think of when you’re sipping your first cup in an Air BnB?
3. What coffee brand do you think of when you’re making a quick caffeine stop on a long drive?

In order to successfully market to the 95% of out-of-market future buyers, marketers need to identify and evaluate what CEPs make sense for their specific brand and strategize accordingly.

Here are some example ads:

My most actionable takeaway

With 95% of your potential buyers not even in the market for your product yet, the value of brand strength and mental market share is intrinsically connected to the financial performance of a business. Because, to quote Ty Heath, buyers can only buy brands they remember. Don’t underestimate the power of CEPs in capturing mental market share. 

Check out the full report at the b2binstitute.

How Modern Ceos, Founders, And Revenue Leaders Go-To-Market And Become Leaders In Their Category

Presented by: Sangram Vajre, GTM Partners

Recapped by Erika Lang

Go-to-market is broken. Part of this is due to the burst of complexity that we continue to inherit as a growing digital society. The sophistication of a growing digital economy also means that the channels that support it are also becoming difficult to tease apart from one another. In fact, GTM itself has evolved since it first emerged onto the scene. Sangram Vajre explores this issue by walking through a series of questions: 

1. Why GTM is broken 
2. How to fix it with a GTM operating system 
3. Where the future of GTM is headed

You don’t have a marketing problem. You don’t have a sales problem or a customer success problem or a even a product problem. You have a Go-to-market problem.

One of the sources of this problem is that there’s confusion about who owns the go-to-market strategy. A survey GTM Partners ran produced the remarkable statistic that 77% of over 1,000 B2B professionals believe that GTM belongs to Marketing or to Sales. However, GTM is informed by multiple functions within an organization. At any given moment, companies exist in at least 1 of 5 Valleys of Death that are symptomatic of a misalignment between the roles that feed an organization’s GTM:

1. They’ve launched a product but can’t create enough demand;
2. They’ve generated enough demand but they can’t sell. 
3. They can close customers, but their customer team struggles to deliver or has to reset expectations.
4. Their customers love their product but can’t seem to quantify the ROI enough to renew.
5. Their customers like what they do, but fail to see their value increase as their solution improves. 

Founders and CEO’s of companies have to be obsessed with revenue growth, but overwhelmingly lack an effective foundation to traverse these valleys. What’s worse is that an organization can experience growth yet still suffer from a failing GTM that they cannot scale as the market moves. Alleviating this issue means utilizing a new GTM operating system.

Old frameworks don’t apply anymore because they addressed simpler problems.

I’m about to throw a lot of acronyms at you, but the crux of it all is that go-to-market strategies have been forced to change. MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads) and SQLs (Sales Qualified Leads) lenses are no longer sufficient means to measure the success of a business. Nowadays, the typical trajectory that most companies take is to begin with ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) where the focus is centered around growing revenue followed by GRR (Gross Revenue Retention) where the organization begins redirecting its focus toward retaining the customers they’ve now acquired. The golden goose, though, for most companies (especially, SaaS companies) is a growing NRR (Net Revenue Retention). This is the third layer of revenue growth and this is where category leaders markedly lead the pack.

While different departments get layered in at different joints of these stages, what distinguishes the industry giants from other companies is that they pursued product fit before they address platform market fit. A prime example of this is Salesforce. It spent nearly a decade in the Sales Cloud, the GRR stage, before exploding onto the scene and making their NRR splash.

McDonalds? Believe it or not, its story began with barbeque and orange juice in 1940 before moving over to hamburgers, fries, and soda in 1948. In both of these cases, a harmonic alignment existed between departments within the company that drove their initiatives and overarching strategy. Inefficient growth occurs where different departments are solving different problems.

The future of GTM is to regard your go-to-market strategy as a solution comprised of pillars.

The next wave of how organizations run and what board decks are comprised of is examining their pillars of go-to-market in a more holistic manner as seen below:

What’s important to note is that this approach relies on leadership to connect and build unity between the teams. We marketers often use the term “stickiness” in a variety of situations, but the same can be applied here. A go-to-market strategy requires stickiness amongst its teams for it to really take shape, fully mature, and fly. 

My most actionable takeaway

Whether you’re a new kid on the block looking to make your industry debut or a company that has either stalled in growth or currently experiencing shrinking revenue, it is critical to not only define (or redefine) your go-to-market approach intentionally but to regard it as a working departmentally cohesive model. By siloing off departments that have historically interacted with different metrics of success, you’re likely leaving revenue on the table and allowing competitors to steal market share.

The Logic Of Emotion: How To Make Inaction Impossible

Presented by: Tamsen Webster, Find the Red Thread

Recapped by Jake High

Tamsen Webster says that something (pretty important) is missing from the majority of marketing messaging. Marketers do a great job of outlining the problem and offering a solution. But we often miss an important step – creating a messaging moment of truth.

What is that? It’s a realization about the problem your audience is facing that makes inaction impossible. Successful marketing creates an emotion that forces people to make a choice.

We’ll borrow Tamsen’s hilarious (and for legal reasons, satirical) example to illustrate.

Let’s say my company sells medicinal leeches. My argument is that my audience wants to improve their health; therefore, they need leeches.

Makes sense, right? Tamsen argues that it’s only logical to me, not to my audience.

She says that every decision has a story. That means it must have a beginning, middle, and end in order to seem logical. As the marketer, I have inside knowledge and a bias that helps me fill in that missing middle part. My audience doesn’t have that information.

Here’s where Aristotle comes in. He believed that the critical component of motivation in any story is something called Anagnorisis. The word literally means “recognition,” but for our purposes, it’s more about the audience recognizing the “true nature” of their circumstance. We might call it an epiphany.

Without that element, we can create any number of illogical arguments:

While most of our messages aren’t this illogical, her example is a great way of shifting our thinking about our own messaging. Think back on the messages you’ve put out lately. Did any of them leave your audience with the same, “huh?” reaction this one does?

The solution to filling in the middle of our story lies in something psychologists call the “Silent Assumption.” These are our deep-seated beliefs about how the world works.

In my leech business, that missing assumption is that leeches improve health. As the marketer for the business, I believe that inherently. My audience needs that crucial bit of information in order to make the story make sense.

Now, not everyone in my audience will share that silent assumption. Those people were unlikely to buy from me anyway. But for those that do, stating the belief that they want to improve their health married with the information that leeches can help them do that makes it nearly impossible to ignore my message.

My most actionable takeaway

Think about every message as a story. Does yours have a clear beginning, middle, and end? Make sure it taps into a silent assumption for your audience and surfaces that truth to make the strongest argument possible.

Marketing Rules of Thumb: “Trust It” or “Bust It”

Presented by: Nancy Harhut, HBT Marketing and Tom Shapiro, Stratabeat

Recapped by Kyle Eliason

We all have heard of some golden rules of marketing. Some make sense like “know your buyer”, but what about tactical applications like “shorter is better?” Are these rules of thumbs surefire guidelines for marketing or are they meaningless proverbs? Nancy Harhut and Tom Shapiro debate four of the top marketing rules of thumb.

Copy should be short

Marketers often try and explain things too much, whether it be product solutions, features, or benefits. Copy should be short and punchy to maximize results. Behavioral analytics of page consumption show that when copy is too long and clunky, we lose buyers. Always edit, edit, edit – it becomes more powerful. A good place to test this is email marketing. Try a long-form email versus an extremely brief email and see which one drives more results.

On the other hand, the short copy can be inferior to longer copy. HubSpot studies show that blog posts between 2,100 and 2,400 words are best for search. Also, if you’re trying to sell on a page, buyers want to know everything before they pull the trigger. Even though attention spans are lower than ever, people spend over two hours per day consuming content and we just need to make sure they’re getting what they want.

Your marketing messages should include social proof

Social proof is like lighter fluid. It is one of the strongest forms of marketing. This can include celebrity endorsements, case studies, testimonials, and even customer reviews. Rober Cialdini’s book Influence talks about the impact of social proof to sway people. His example is canned laughter on TV – how although everyone hates the idea of it, it sways consumers to actually trust the performance and feel a part of things.

On the other hand, social proof sometimes can backfire. If you’re a smaller company without a lot of user testimonials, it can seem chintzy. And if you use social proof to talk about how many people are missing out on not using your product, potential buyers feel more comfortable not using it also. It can’t be that bad to not use the product if so many people are doing just fine without it.

Marketers should focus on benefits

Psychologically we’re all self-interested. Buyers don’t care about your company or even the features really. What they do care about is how your product will impact their lives. You need to evoke an emotional response with benefits.

On the other hand, marketers may sometimes lean too much into positive benefits. You can evoke a powerful emotional response with loss aversion tactics. Studies show that people are twice as motivated to avoid the pain of loss as to achieve the pleasure of gain.

Making people feel special or exclusive is a sure way to get them to buy

There is tremendous power in exclusivity. It drives the entire luxury layer of the economy. You can tap into this with limited-time offers, a limited number of items, and limited editions. Maybe for your next webinar, you talk about how few seats are left.

On the other hand, exclusivity is not something buyers always want. If a product or service is brand new, buyers reject early exclusivity in favor of something that is safe. This is a good time to bring in social proof or to evoke the authority principle like endorsements or approvals from trustworthy authorities like the ADA or Greenguard certification. 

My most actionable takeaway

In marketing, there aren’t too many steadfast rules on their own. It’s about context and intention. What might work for some buyers may repel others. It’s important to be informed and analyze what your marketing may be communicating at a deeper level before committing to your marketing communication.

Ignite Your Brand With Empowerment Over Interruptions

Presented by: Jeff Rosenblum, Questus

Recapped by Ann Robison

Starting with the remarkable story about Phineas Gage, Jeff Rosenblum was off on an engaging, no-visuals-needed talk about how and why our understanding of the human brain should matter more to marketers. 

The key according to Jeff is to connect with an audience’s prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that (among other things) influences attention and prospective memory. In our world where the human brain is accosted with 11 million bits of information every second, we only consciously process 50 of those bits due to our prefrontal cortex. So how can our understanding of this impact our marketing tactics? 

Rosenblum argues the answer is to pivot away from “interruption” as our chief means of communication (pop-up ads, print ads, commercials). Instead, he proposed that the most successful brands are the ones that focus not on interruption, but on empowerment and improving the lives of their customers. He claims that by embracing transparency and creating content and experiences that are so powerful that people go out of their way to consume them, brands not only bring value to their audiences but also drive trust and loyalty. 

He also introduces the concept of psychological momentum, by citing a study about athletes’ performance in basketball games. According to this study, when one team was picking up momentum, and the other team calls a time-out, there was a 56% decrease in performance for the team that had all the momentum. The reason that’s important for marketers is because the time out is just friction. And brands unknowingly create friction all the time; the complex, non-intuitive app, the slow site speed, the popup on every website looking for your email. 

The key to building psychological momentum is not only to reduce these points of friction, but to look at the full customer journey, and evaluate the small behaviors all the way from prospect to customer to evangelist. Where in all these micro-moments are consumers not having their emotional and functional needs met? Once you have the answer to that, you can create content that fulfills those needs and begin generating psychological momentum. 

Too often, brands focus their marketing time and energy at the Campaigns level. But for products that have a long buying cycle, this can be a death sentence. If the average user takes, on average, 10 hours of research and demoing products before making a purchasing decision, then all that money that was poured into that great, hilarious 10-second ad is essentially wasted. 10 seconds in a 10-hour buyer journey is nothing. 

My most actionable takeaway

The human brain automatically filters spam. Brands need to create content and experiences that are so powerful and engaging, that people go out of their way to consume them. The marketing industry cannot keep relying on interruptions, because modern marketing is now a value exchange. People aren’t only giving your brand their dollars, they’re giving time, their attention, data, and recommendation; and in exchange, they want content that informs, educates, and inspires. And they want it at every stage of the buying journey. 

What’s Next: The “Seller Free Economy”—And The Future Of Sales And Marketing As We Know It

Presented by: Marcus Sheridan, IMPACT

Marcus Sheridan once again brought an infectious energy to this year’s INBOUND stage. This time around, in addition to his boundless stage presence, he brought a serious topic you need to quickly start considering if you haven’t already: The seller-free economy.

He also came bearing a few exciting numbers long to start his discussion. Did you know that the average prospect comes to your site 80% of the way through their buying journey? Combine this with the fact that 30-40% of buyers prefer to avoid speaking with a sales representative. To Sheridan, the disconnect lies in the current way that business sell. Sales teams may incorrectly believe they still need to educate up to that 80%. In our new, online-first, post-pandemic world, sellers must adapt to this new reality. Customers want to do the research themselves and then opt for a quick sales/confirmation call.

Here’s how he suggests that businesses can prepare for these seller-free customers.

Trust

Remember, these buyers are self-educating nearly 80% of the way through a buyer’s journey. Therefore, you must consider where they’re getting their information. Your site should educate the customer; leave no questions unanswered. He strongly recommends removing information gates, giving pricing ranges, and letting potential customers do all the research they want on one site: Yours. If a customer needs to go elsewhere to find a pricing range or whitepaper, you’ve given your competition a chance to gain better trust. There are no excuses here: “You don’t understand my business or customers,” or “our business model is different” justify sticking to an outdated model. If you’re attempting to drive prospects to a phone call by withholding information, be prepared to lose them to competitors who make the information readily available.

Self-Service

In addition to answering all the questions your customers want, it’s time to let them also start guiding themselves through the buying process. He has three topics for your consideration here. 

1. Self-Scheduling. Consider allowing your future customers to select the time and date of their consultation. Better yet, add bios of your sales team, and let customers pick a salesperson with which to speak. It may seem small, but it allows the customer to control the start of their journey on their terms. Sheridan notes that a company that implemented this tactic saw a 62% higher close rate.
2. Self-Selection. Build out an online, interactive journey that lets your customers make critical decisions as you guide them. Educate them along the way with tooltips, videos, and additional considerations. Arm them with all of the information they’ll need.
3. Self-Pricing. Modern internet users are a savvy lot. They’re used to buying flight tickets, shopping for groceries, and customizing potential car purchases online. Your site should allow a customer to complete a sale or at least a request for a price-range quote. 

My most actionable takeaway

Self-service is no longer just for larger e-commerce companies. It’s time to lean in and find ways to let your customers take the reigns of their buying experience. Sheridan has five action items for you to take:

Final Thoughts

We left INBOUND 2022 with a ton of tips, tricks, and insights on the future of inbound marketing. We can’t wait to apply everything we learned to the work we do at Portent!

The post Our Favorite INBOUND 2022 Sessions appeared first on Portent.

No data is ever completely accurate, and if you work on Google Ads, you know that conversion tracking doesn’t always match up between Google Ads and your analytics platform. With different attribution models, this disconnect can continue to grow.

If you want to improve your data accuracy, the first step is implementing the Google Ads enhanced conversions feature. It offers increased visibility into your data, making optimizations and attribution more accurate!

What Are Enhanced Conversions on Google Ads?

Enhanced conversions are part of Google Ads that are designed to improve the accuracy of your conversion data. Enhanced Conversions allows Google Ads to insert data from a converted visitor and then match that data to different ads viewed through their other devices.

How Do Enhanced Conversions Work?

To help demonstrate the process of enhanced conversions, let’s use an example:

1. A visitor is researching air conditioners using their work laptop and clicks on an ad but doesn’t purchase.
2. The visitor then leaves work and uses their phone, which is connected to a personal email address; they then revisit the website and purchase an air conditioning unit. The visitor puts information such as their name, address, and phone number into the checkout. The personal data collected is first-party data and what is shared with Google.
3. The visitor was on their business email while researching air conditioners However, they also use their cell phone to authenticate their email. The authenticator on their phone helps Google match the phone number associated with the purchase with the email they use at work!
4. Enhanced Conversions then files a single user for this visitor using this first-party data!

If it wasn’t for enhanced conversions, that initial ad that the visitor clicked on might not have gotten any credit for this sale, and Google would have believed there were two users for this single visitor.

Why You Should Use Enhanced Conversions

There are many benefits to enhanced conversions. If you have ever struggled with inaccurate revenue amounts or mismatched data between analytics and Google Ads, then you know the importance of this data’s accuracy. With the rise of user privacy, enhanced conversions are setting advertisers up for success in the future.

Greater Conversion Data

There are conversions that would not be measured due to third-party cookie restrictions and data privacy laws. These now can be tracked because of the hashing process of enhanced conversions!

More Reliable Data Analysis

You can decide bids and budgets, and adjust campaigns with enhanced conversions more confidently. This more accurate data, paired with Google’s ‘data-driven attribution model’ and smart bidding strategies, will help you make much more effective optimization decisions!

First-Party Data

As third-party data is more restricted due to data privacy laws, you can use your first-party data to measure conversions. First-party data helps us rely less on paid data from parties that aren’t always effective.

How to Set Up Enhanced Conversions in Google Ads

Before implementing Enhanced Conversions, please verify that you comply with Google’s Customer Data Policies. There are a few ways to implement enhanced conversions:

Set Up With Google Tag Manager

In your Google Ads account, go to Tools & Settings > Conversions.

Locate your primary conversion action and click on it.

At the bottom, you will see ‘Enhanced Conversions.’ Click on it and check ‘Turn on Enhanced Conversions.’ Click on ‘Global Site Tag or Google Tag Manager’

1. Next, click on ‘Check URL’ to check your website for a Google tag.

If you used Google Tag Manager to set up conversion tracking, use this method.

2. Follow these instructions in Tag Manager to complete the setup.

Set Up With Code

CSS selectors (or existing data layer variables)

No code is required as long as there’s first-party customer data on the conversion page. To not set use code in the setup process, your thank you page must have this information for Google to crawl. 

You can find full instructions for implementing enhanced conversions using CSS selectors can be found in the link above.

JavaScript

Enhanced conversions can be implemented using JavaScript variables if customer data is defined as global JavaScript variables on your conversion page.

Follow the link above for instructions on implementing enhanced conversions with Java.

You can also use the Google Ads API to leverage enhanced conversions by sending first-party customer data as conversion adjustments. Learn more about this on Google’s website.

Best Practices & Troubleshooting Enhanced Conversions

The setup may not work on your first attempt when using enhanced conversions. You will want to verify that the conversion tracking is set up properly.

Verify Enhanced Conversions is Running

Once enhanced conversions have been set up, there will be a new status in the ‘Status’ column in Google Ads within your conversions. It takes a few days for enhanced conversions to be effectively recording conversions. Once that happens, you’ll see ‘Recording (processing enhanced conversions)’ in the status column. You can also see this under your conversion action and Diagnostics tab within Google Ads.

Double Check Your Global Site Tag

You may see an error that says “no tag detected” when first setting enhanced conversions up. It indicates an error in your website URL that you entered or indicates that you do not have your global site tag implemented on your website. You’ll want to ensure that conversion tracking has been set up using GTM or gtag. Troubleshoot your sitewide tracking to ensure they have been correctly implemented.

Wrap Up

Implementing enhanced conversions will provide more robust conversion tracking. This should improve your reporting, improve attribute conversions, and lend more effective data-driven optimization.

The post Understanding Enhanced Conversions in Google Ads appeared first on Portent.

Since 2019, the global influencer market has more than doubled, and that growth doesn’t look to be slowing down. Why? Because a well-placed, authentic endorsement from a trusted influencer cuts through the noise of an online landscape saturated with ads.

As more and more brands realize the power of influencer marketing, the answer to how to optimize those partnerships remains elusive. By learning the value of your partnerships and integrations, you can save a lot of money. Our Influencer Marketing program has saved our clients XX while boosting conversions) while still compensating our partners for their hard work. Here are the strategies we use to get the most value from successful influencer marketing campaigns.

Where to Start: Budget & Goals

Before you start negotiating, there are two main things you need to determine: your budget and your goals. 

Knowing your budget will help you be realistic about prospecting potential influencers to work with. Only have $10,000 to spend? Maybe don’t try and hit-up Kylie Jenner or Cristiano Ronaldo. The good news here is that much smaller influencers have been shown to be incredibly powerful for brands.

Knowing your goals (are you trying to bring awareness to your brand or get people to buy your product?) will help you determine whether particular influencers are successful for you.

How Much Should You Be Paying?

The influencer marketing industry is famous for its lack of transparency in pay. This reality makes it difficult to know if a requested rate is reasonable – not just for the brand seeking partnership but also for influencers themselves!

One of the reasons why it is difficult to find transparent rates for influencers is that so many factors play into what an influencer is worth. Influencer Marketing Hub neatly summarized some of the factors at play: 

• The influencer’s reach and engagement
• The channel they use
• How many posts do you want, and if they include things like images, videos, and audio
• How much effort will it require from the influencer
• Where the ad will be promoted/cross-posted
• Agency fees (if the influencer is represented by a manager)

Additionally, while there have been some efforts for small communities of influencers to share their pay, there still isn’t a comprehensive data set on exactly how much influencers make per post. 

Because of this, we recommend you start recording what you pay influencers to have a data set as a point of reference.

How We Do This

Here at Portent, we use simple tables to track how much we pay influencers per post. 

First, we create a table for each platform we have influencers on. In the first column of the table, we have ranges set for how we choose to categorize the influencers. For YouTube, our primary metric is “Views,” whereas, for Instagram and Twitter, the primary metric is “Followers.”

In the following columns, we input the prices we pay for various integrations. As you’ll see below, if you only sponsor one type of video on YouTube, you only need to have one column. If on Instagram you have various types of requirements, you can create a column for each type. 

This table is for your reference, so you can make it as detailed or as general as you need. In the beginning, this table won’t be very helpful in helping you gauge what prices are reasonable. However, over time you’ll get enough information to help you better as you negotiate rates with new influencers.

Best Practices for Negotiating Rates

With influencers, their product is, well, themselves! Discussions about pay and fair rates can often be sensitive since under-valuing them can be perceived as a direct insult, and delighting them with a fair price for their work can really enhance and strengthen your relationship. Talks about payment and rates require tact from the get-go.. Here are some best practices for discussing this sensitively and maintaining a good relationship while discussing rates with a potential influencer partner.

Ask for Their Rates First

Once you’ve connected with an influencer with whom your product resonates, we recommend asking the influencer what their rate is for one integration and their discounted rate for multiple integrations. This might look something like this:

We’re so happy that our product aligns with your brand and is something your audience would get value from! Could you please share what your rate is for a single integration and what your discounted rate for 3 integrations would be?

Asking for their rates first gives you a sense of what an influencer expects and helps you avoid offending them by lowballing them right out of the gate. 

Asking for a discounted rate for multiple integrations also has a few benefits. First, it signals to an influencer that you’re open to an ongoing, mutually-beneficial partnership with them. Influencers’ income can vary widely month-to-month, so offering multiple integrations offers them more stability than just a one-off sponsorship. 

Secondly, asking for a discounted rate for multiple integrations implies that this is what you expect if you’re going to enter into a longer relationship. Most influencers offer this freely, so it’s not unexpected!

Countering

Once you’ve received the influencer’s initial rates, you’ll want to do a few things. First, look at your budget, and see where their rates fall. Then, look at what you have paid similar influencers in the past (average monthly views, followers, engagement rates, subject matter, etc). This will help you understand if what the influencer is asking is reasonable. 

Always keep in mind that a happy influencer who feels valued and well-compensated for their work will often become an amazing evangelist for your brand. And you certainly don’t want the opposite happening. Countering is expected among experienced influencers, and it can be done fairly, sensitively, and kindly.

Four basic scenarios will affect how you counter.

Scenario One: Their Proposal Is Above Your Expectations or Budget

In this scenario, the proposed rate is higher than what your budget allows or what you’ve paid influencers with similar stats. Across the board, we recommend that if you cannot afford to pay an influencer within 25% of their original offer, politely decline their offer. More on this later.

If you have historical information on what you’ve paid similar channels in the past, or at least have a general idea about what value this particular influencer has for your brand, provide a counter no lower than 25% of their original asking price. When doing this, be sure to give context to the influencer. This might look something like this:

Thank you so much for sharing – at this time, our budget would allow us to pay XX for 1 integration or XX for 3 integrations. 

Speaking in terms of your budget depersonalizes the offer and provides a sense of boundaries with the influencer. While you may have looked at what you’ve paid other influencers of a similar caliber, you don’t want to speak in terms of comparing them to others.

Determining the value of an influencer is a complex task, and no two influencers are the same. Telling an influencer that you don’t want to pay them what they think they’re worth based on what you’ve paid other influencers is much more likely to rub them the wrong way (and isn’t entirely accurate, either, since so much is involved when considering value).

Scenario Two: Their Proposal Is Within Your Expectations or Budget

In this scenario, the proposed rate falls within or below your budget and aligns with what you’ve paid influencers with similar stats. The rules for countering in this scenario are all the same as in scenario one. The difference is that you can start your counter knowing that at the end of the day, it is very likely that you will be able to begin a relationship with this influencer. 

While the proposed rate may be in the same range you’ve paid similar influencers in the past, it’s important to remember that every influencer is different, and you still don’t know how this influencer will perform for your brand. For this reason, it’s better to test at a lower rate. We suggest countering slightly lower, letting the influencer know that if things perform well, you’d be open to renegotiating rates down the line.
We suggest something like this:

Thank you for providing your rates. At this time, we can offer XX for one integration or XX for three. If these ads perform well for us, we are more than willing to renegotiate down the road, but for this initial test, this is all our budget allows.

Scenario Three: Their Proposal Is Below Your Expectations or Budget

We know this post is about negotiation, but sometimes you might receive a proposed rate below what you had budgeted for and maybe less than what you’ve paid in the past for a similar-sized influencer. In this case, we suggest accepting the given rate. This can be an excellent opportunity to see how an influencer performs; if they’re successful for your brand, there will be opportunities to negotiate down the line and compensate higher if you continue working together.

Scenario Four: When an Influencer Doesn’t Ask for Enough

Occasionally you will come across a situation where the influencer is asking way too little for their integrations. It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes a micro-influencer who hasn’t been doing integrations for very long will ask a lot less than their channel deserves. 
It may be tempting to pursue a contract at this price, to increase your profitability, but you could also see this as an opportunity to create a lifetime relationship for the brand. Oftentimes, offering a little more than they’ve asked communicates appreciation for their work, and an influencer that feels valued might just become the best evangelist for your brand that you have.

This is something to consider when evaluating the value of any level of compensation for one of your influencer partnerships.

Turning Down a Partnership

So you’ve provided a counter, and the influencer is not able or willing to work within your budget. That’s ok! Here’s what politely declining might look like:

Thank you for getting back to us with that offer. Currently, our budget does not allow us to pay that much for an integration. While we cannot enter into a partnership at this time, we will reach out if anything changes! We admire your work and wish you good luck with your endeavors.  

Again, phrasing things in terms of your budget signals that the decision is not personal, and letting them know that you will reach out if anything changes signals that you recognize their value and keeps the door open for a future relationship

Wrap Up

Negotiating with influencers might seem intimidating or complicated. Still, with these best practices, you will set yourself up for success by ensuring that you pay fairly and optimize your spending. 

Finally, don’t forget to track how much your negotiations save you! For example, since 2019, Portent has saved our clients over $565,936 through negotiations for one client, driving over 77,000 conversions that made up more than 42% of the client’s entire sales volume.  
This is not a number you want to leave uncelebrated! Demonstrating how much money you save through your savvy negotiation skills, along with reporting all your success metrics, will prove invaluable when justifying your influencer efforts.

The post Negotiating With Influencers: Best Practices appeared first on Portent.

Updated 9/7/22 to include new information.

You’ve spent a lot of time making sure your website is user-friendly, has a descriptive navigation, and is organized in a way that makes sense, but what if someone makes a typo when typing in a URL? What if another website links to a page you don’t have any longer? What will the user see on your 404 error page?

What is a 404 Page?

When users request a page from an address that doesn’t exist, the server should return a 404 HTTP status code. Since HTTP status codes are typically invisible to users, servers will also show an HTML page with an error message.

If it’s a default server error page, it will be an ugly, confusing experience that is sure to drive users away:

Server error pages are pretty rough to look at, and even worse, they don’t help users navigate to the actual intended website. They are also very difficult to track with web analytics, so we usually don’t know if users ever reach our content after seeing them.

What is a Custom 404 Page?

Since default server error pages have a bad user experience, it’s best to design your own custom 404 error page that is user-friendly and explains why the content requested isn’t available. Custom 404 pages should also help users continue their session and find a relevant substitute.

For example, this eFax custom 404 error page is better than a default server page because it explains the error and gives users options to get back on track.

Why Custom 404 Error Pages Are Valuable

Landing on a 404 page is inconvenient for your users, but not all hope is lost. A good custom 404 page can gently break the news and keep them on the site.

Better User Experience

Default error pages that look technical can give users the impression that something serious has gone wrong or confuse them. Ideally, with a custom 404 error page, we can downgrade the user’s concern from “broken website” to “minor inconvenience” by explaining what happened.

Keep Users On Your Site

If users reach a dead end on a default error page, they will leave the website and search for something else. But with a custom 404 error page, you can give users a clear path to a new destination on your website, keeping them on your site. For instance, the eFax example from above presents users with internal site search and links to common pages that could put them back in the sales funnel.

Insights on How to Improve Website Performance

Default server error pages don’t tend to have analytics tracking tags on them. How many users see one? How many exit after landing on one? We’ll never know unless we’re able to put analytics on it. Being able to easily track the analytics of your custom 404 error pages can provide helpful insights into your website’s performance. More on this below.

How to Create a Custom 404 Error Page

Creating a valuable and user-friendly custom 404 page isn’t hard. By following the steps in this guide, you can deliver a 404 page that will help users find what they are looking for and keep them on your site longer.

Step 1: Design the Page

At the start of your design process, you need to decide how funny and creative you want your custom 404 page to be. Some organizations already have creative or fun design elements as part of their brand, and the 404 page is a great way to show that off. Canva has a great list of things you can do to make your 404 page creative and interesting.

Not all 404 pages need to be creative, though. Some brands are more serious, and their 404 pages can be just about getting users to where they want to go.

Either way, a good 404 page should have these features:

• A clear statement that the page the user requested isn’t available
• Advice to help your users correct a possible mistake in the URL
• The main header and footer navigations
• Links to important sections of the website
• A search bar for the website’s internal search function

At the very least, your 404 pages should tell the user there is a problem with their request. We don’t even have to use the term “404” to do this. People who aren’t digital marketers don’t need to know about HTTP response status codes.

Step 2: Configure the Server

Nowadays, most content management systems have a built-in feature for 404 error pages, but not always. If your infrastructure doesn’t support them out of the box, then you’ll need your developer to configure the server for it. Here are technical instructions for common web servers if you need to do it yourself:

• Nginx
• Apache
• Microsoft IIS

If you have to configure your webserver to show custom error page content, an easy way to generate HTML for the error page is by copying the source code of a regular website page. Change the main content section to show the error message, and your 404 error page will match the rest of the site pretty well.

If your website is developed as an application with frameworks like ReactJS, Angular, or Ruby on Rails, you’ll need the routing part of the application. These approaches tend to look like creating a catch-all route that sends users to a 404 page component.

While doing research for this post, I found this novel idea for recommending the most likely correction of a non-existent URL. If your infrastructure is capable of this type of feature, definitely add it to your error page.

Step 3: Test Your Configuration

However your infrastructure is configured, there are a few best practices we must have in place for a proper 404 error page.

Confirm a 404 HTTP Response Code

Displaying the missing content message and returning a 200 status code (the normal response given for a working web page) will confuse crawlers, and you will receive soft 404 errors in search consoles. Search engines will treat soft 404s like regular ones and will count against you for ranking.

Test to see which status code you’re returning with a crawler like ScreamingFrog, or an HTTP status code checker by inputting a bogus URL like “www.yourbrand.com/asdf.”

Give the Error Page a Descriptive Title Tag

Page titles are visible in browser tabs and available to users using assistive technology like screen readers. We want to make sure that our error message is accessible and clear to everyone. Giving the error page a unique and descriptive title tag will also help us with web analytics down the line.

Put Web Analytics on the Error Page

We’ll want to see how often users encounter a 404 page and where they go after landing on one, so make sure the page has the same web analytics or tag management container as the rest of the site.

Step 4: Track 404 Sessions in Google Analytics

Paradoxically, we don’t want users landing on our 404 error pages, but we want to monitor that traffic when they do. We want to know how well our error page succeeds in recovering the user’s session and guides them toward helpful content.

We also want to know which URLs are broken so we can fix something that changed with our website or redirect the 404 URL to something relevant. Luckily, if we follow best practices, it’s easy to see how our lost users are doing in Google Analytics.

See Which URLs Return 404

Create a segment to only show pages that use the title tag of your custom 404 page:

Then go to Behavior > Site Content > All Pages to see the pageview report of the 404 error pages:

Here we see users are still navigating to some posts we removed in a content cleanup project. We’ll need to create redirects for these to solve the problem, but how is our 404 page performing after people see it?

To answer that question we’ll need to take a look at the navigation summary report for one of these pages:

Only 26% of users are exiting the site after seeing a 404 error message on this page. Not great, not terrible.

See Which Pages are Sending Traffic

If we want to see which other domains are sending users to our 404 pages, we can add Full Referrer as a secondary dimension to the pageview report:

Broken backlink reports should give us most of these pages over time, but the backlink reporting services are limited to how quickly they can crawl the web. If we have a time-sensitive need to know which other pages are sending users who are at risk of exiting our site, this report gives us that.

Common Mistakes to Avoid With Custom 404 Pages

We perform technical SEO audits for a lot of sites at Portent, and here are some of the most common problems we run into while writing recommendations for our clients.

Don’t Redirect to an Error Page URL

Make sure your website is just displaying the content of the error page and not redirecting the user to a URL like /404 or /error.html. Redirecting will prevent users from examining the problem URL, and it won’t send useful information to your web analytics.

Don’t Redirect to the Homepage

Sending all users to the homepage instead of letting them see an error may seem like a clever solution, but search engines don’t appreciate it and will treat instances as soft 404s. Redirecting users to the homepage for individual URLs when the homepage is the next most relevant page is totally fine, but a blanket redirect to the home is not.

Don’t Use a Meta Refresh Tag Redirect

I’ve seen some websites use a meta refresh tag to send users somewhere else after being on an error message page for a few seconds. Don’t do this. Navigating a user off of a page without their consent is usually a bad practice. Rarely have I seen anyone use this type of redirect well.

Creative Custom 404 Page Examples

Here are some examples of custom 404 pages I think perform their task pretty well while adding something extra to a negative experience. Consider them as a small swipe file for your designers to take inspiration from.

Dribbble

Dribbble is doing a lot of things right with this custom 404 error page. It’s colorful, interactive, clear about unavailable content, and provides a search bar for their internal search. The slider changes the color of the “404” by changing the images that make up the numbers to match the color. Each of the images links to users’ creative work, which is a great way to get users back on to content that is core to the website.

NPR

404 pages don’t have to be overly creative, especially if it isn’t part of the brand. NPR presents a very usable 404 page with a clever twist to get users back on track to reading their articles by linking content about lost people, places, and things.

Tripadvisor

Tripadvisor’s 404 page is a great example of being creative while staying on task. They feature an animated suitcase to keep users engaged while they read the error message.

Ahrefs

In this 404 example, I wish Ahrefs included their main navigation, but going with a call-to-action (CTA) to try their software that includes a clever inversion (what if your website has the same problem?) is pretty good.

Link Rot is Real and That’s Okay

The web is not static. Pages are constantly being created and deleted, and the links between those pages break and disappear every day. This phenomenon is called “Link Rot,” and it’s perfectly natural.

Our links are going to break over time. As SEOs, web managers, and good citizens of the web, we should be making sure users are able to navigate through link rot smoothly. And the first line of defense is a custom 404 page.

The post How to Create a Great Custom 404 Error Page (with Examples) appeared first on Portent.

By now, you’ve most likely heard the news that Universal Analytics will stop processing hits on July 1, 2023.  Google recommends that all Google Analytics properties move over to Google Analytics 4 as soon as possible. 

One of the biggest, most impactful benefits of this move is the exporting of Google Analytics data into Google BigQuery.  BigQuery allows scalable data warehousing and data architecture needs that integrate with the rest of your organization’s data.  Using the rich data sets of Google Analytics in Google BigQuery can help you mine more impactful insights about your organization and your customers. 

What Is BigQuery?

BigQuery is a product of Google Cloud and serves as a cloud data warehouse that allows you to query large datasets quickly and efficiently.  Google Analytics 4 is an event-based measurement protocol.  GA4 can count every action taken on a website, from page load to mouseover to form fill, as an event.  This permits you to export all of your raw events from Google Analytics 4 properties to BigQuery.  You can then use SQL queries to query that data or combine that data table with other data tables in your organization.

Why You Should Connect GA4 With BigQuery

One of the immediate benefits of Google Analytics 4 is the BigQuery export.  Exporting all events into BigQuery is a must-have when setting up GA4.  The standard reports GA4 can provide you with some instantaneous data, such as page visits, event loads, and conversions.  That’s a good start, and your organization likely has other data sources in other locations, so I recommend setting up your connection to GA4 to BigQuery as soon as possible.  Always keep in the back of your mind how this data can connect to other data sets in your organization.

The Export Integration step-by-step can be found in the Analytics Help of Google. 

Once I did that, I turned my attention toward implementing some of the reports that were readily available in Universal Analytics.  This article explores how and why we want to build three queries based on reporting needs.  After we query, we can then make them into a table and pipe the data into Google Data Studio.

Queries to Improve Your GA4 Report

With the direct connector to GDS, we want to explore 3 queries based on some of the reports that were more readily available from Universal Analytics.

Each Google Analytics 4 property has a single dataset named “analytics_<property_id>” is added to your BigQuery project.  Within each dataset, a table named events_YYYYMMDD is created each day if the Daily export option is enabled.  I highly recommend enabling the daily export option.  Once exported, you can find a list of all available columns in the GA4 BigQuery Export schema. 

1. How to Create a BigQuery Table

Any query in BigQuery can be turned into a table.  That table can then serve as your data source in a Google Data Studio report.  Visit Google’s documentation for more details on how to create a table in BigQuery. 

After the query is run, click on the “Save Results” drop-down in the Query Results section.  You will have 7 options available.  Choose the one named BigQuery table to then serve as a standalone table. 

2. Build GA4 Fundamentals Into Your Table

One of the biggest challenges I faced when shifting over to GA4 was cardinality.  Cardinality is the number of unique values assigned to a dimension.  Invariably, I would receive the warning that “Google Analytics will only display the data in the cards when the data meets the minimum aggregation thresholds.”  Cardinality often happens with URLs that have many different parameters associated with them. 

BIgQuery to the rescue!

The workaround to this is a highly targeted, full sample of the bread and butter analytics that we know and love.  Here’s the script I use:

SELECT
 user_pseudo_id,
 event_timestamp,
 
 (SELECT value.int_value FROM UNNEST(event_params) WHERE key = 'ga_session_id') AS ga_session_id,
 (SELECT value.string_value FROM UNNEST(event_params) WHERE key = 'page_location')
   AS page_location,
 (SELECT value.string_value FROM UNNEST(event_params) WHERE key = 'page_title') AS page_title,
 traffic_source
FROM
`mytable.events_*`
WHERE
 event_name = 'page_view'
ORDER BY
 user_pseudo_id,
 ga_session_id,
 event_timestamp ASC;

This delivers the following: 

• A timestamped list of all users and sessions
• With a list of all pageviews
• By the source/medium

If you don’t have a CRM-based User ID available, include the user pseudo ID for now.

Any query in BigQuery can be turned into a table.  That table can then serve as your data source in a Google Data Studio report. 

Note that I have a direct connection to the table itself, not the entire database of GA data. 

3. How To Build a Close Loop Analytics Dataset via Custom Dimension

At Portent, we are big fans of Closed Loop analytics.  Setting a non-PII (Personally Identifiable Information) User ID serves as a way to join the online and offline data sets together in the reporting layer.  Our original post from 2019 walks you through each step in setting up a Custom Dimension.

Of course, we would set up our Random User ID (RUID) as a Hit based-scope custom dimension.

After the RUID is set up, use the following script:

SELECT
 (select value from unnest(session.customdimensions) where index = {{Insert Custom Dimension Index Here}} group by value) as RUID,
 event_timestamp,
 
 (SELECT value.int_value FROM UNNEST(event_params) WHERE key = 'ga_session_id') AS ga_session_id,
 (SELECT value.string_value FROM UNNEST(event_params) WHERE key = 'page_location')
   AS page_location,
 (SELECT value.string_value FROM UNNEST(event_params) WHERE key = 'page_title') AS page_title,
 traffic_source
FROM
`mytable.events_*`
WHERE
 event_name = 'page_view'
ORDER BY
 user_pseudo_id,
 ga_session_id,
 event_timestamp ASC;

We must also pass the RUID into our CRM of choice. Make sure that, in your CRM, you have two important factors in place:

• Lead scoring/Qualification exists
• Form customization is possible

From there, you’ll want to blend your two data sources – the BigQuery table and the CRM data.  You might want to import a subset of your CRM data into Google Sheets.  Some sample fields that you can use for this subset are:

• RUID
• Create Date
• Lead Scoring Value
• Lifecycle Stage

Wow, that’s a lot of data!

Wrap-Up

This data, blended with a full list of page visits and events, provides a scalable, manageable, and powerful method of analyzing user journeys throughout the entire customer lifecycle.  

Your business requirements will dictate each of the data points that you want to measure.  Your audience requirements will guide how you want to display that data.  Unsampled Google Analytics data aligned with your CRM data provide rich veins of customer behavior both online and offline.  Mining the insight is now in your capable hands!

The post How to Use BigQuery to Fill in the Gaps in Google Analytics 4 appeared first on Portent.

Updated 8/24/22 to include new information and insights.

Google Ads offers different ad extensions that you can use to provide helpful information to your customers, such as phone numbers, directions, additional products/services, and more. Using these extensions helps your ads stand out from your competitors and boosts your click-through rate.

In this post, we’ll explore a few of the highest performing and most popular Google ad extensions, their features, and how to implement them into your campaigns.

What Are Google Ads Extensions?

Ad extensions are additional pieces of information that add more value to the ad outside of what the traditional headlines and descriptions provide. They cover a wide range of use cases (more on that below) and are essential to maximizing the overall performance of your Google ads account.

They are also free and simple to set up.

Why Use Google Ads Extensions?

Ad extensions can help improve your account performance by increasing your click-through rate and overall conversion rate.

Studies have shown time and time again that the more relevant an ad is to the user’s search, the more likely they are to click and convert. Ad extensions are one of the best ways to improve ad relevance. Google studies show that you can improve CTR by 20% just by including four sitelinks in an ad. You can also improve return on ad spend (RoAS) by including image extensions in your ad copy. 

Additionally, sitelinks specifically can help improve overall conversion rates by reducing the path to conversion. For example, if someone was looking for a jacket from Patagonia and they Google “Patagonia,” they’d see a generic Patagonia Ad. However, if a sitelink extension were included that sent people directly to the jackets section on Patagonia’s website, people would be more likely to convert. 

How to Set Up Google Ads Extensions

Google Ads extensions are both incredibly valuable to the overall performance of the account and incredibly easy to set up. All you have to do is follow the steps below: 

1. In the Google Ads interface, click Ads
2. Under the Ads tab, click Extensions
3. In the top left corner of the Extensions tab, click on the blue plus sign and pick which extension you’d like to add
4. Create the extension (more below)
5. Choose whether or not you’d like to add the extension to a single campaign or to the entire account
6. Post the extension

In addition to manually creating ad extensions, you can also enable automated extensions. This gives Google the leeway to create new ad extensions for your account when it thinks it’ll improve performance and is a great way to keep improving your account without checking it as often.

10 Best Google Ads Extensions With Examples

Now that you know how to set up Google Ads, it’s time to decide which extensions you’d like to utilize in your account. “But, there are so many! How do I choose which one?” Don’t worry, friend. We’ll go over the 10 most commonly used extensions and how they can benefit your business.

1. Sitelink Extensions
2. Call Extensions
3. Location Extensions
4. Callout Extensions
5. Structured Snippets
6. Promotion Extensions
7. Lead Form Extensions
8. Image Extensions
9. App Extensions
10. Price Extensions

1. Sitelink Extensions

Sitelink extensions allow advertisers to display a short list of links to internal pages of their website that customers might find useful directly in the ad. They are a great way to provide additional value to your advertising efforts.

The extra links make the ad bigger, allowing you to take up more real estate in the SERP, which in turn provides more brand exposure to your customers. Sitelinks also offer customers with additional options to get what they need from your site with fewer clicks and less work.

2. Call Extensions

Call extensions are a great resource if your business relies on phone calls for leads. Google Ads doesn’t allow you to include phone numbers directly in ad descriptions or headlines. Thankfully, call extensions give you something better by adding an embedded, click-to-call phone number as an extension. You can also optimize call extensions by scheduling the time of the day you want to run them (i.e., only setting them to work during your business hours).

3. Location Extensions

Location extensions allow you to list your business’s address in your ads. There are a couple of different ways you can get your address to show. If you have a Google My Business account, you can link that up so your ads will pull information directly from there. If you don’t have an account, you can manually add new addresses.

4. Callout Extensions

Callout extensions are a way to promote unique offers or additional benefits of your product or business.

Callouts can cover a wide variety of offers, whether it be an evergreen selling point (i.e., “Quality Service”) or a monetary offer (i.e., “Free Shipping”). Callouts are the easiest way to quickly and clearly show more value in your ad while also taking up more real estate on the SERP.

5. Structured Snippets Extensions

Structured snippets are extensions that highlight specific aspects of your products and services. This can mean a lot of different things for different businesses. If you’re a clothing company, you could list the types of products you have (shirts, pants, jackets, etc). If you’re offering coursework, like a school, you can display the different courses you offer.

6. Promotion Extensions

Promotion extensions are the perfect way to display your current promotions on the search network without having to update your ad copy whenever there’s a sale. 

You can highlight the type of promotion (% off, buy one get one) and also set a date range for the sale so that once the sale is over, the extension automatically stops showing on the SERP.

7. Lead Form Extensions

Lead form extensions cut right to the chase and allow users to fill out a form directly on the ad rather than on the website. They are extremely useful in tandem with or instead of a form.

8. Image Extensions

Image extensions allow you to provide rich visuals to your already compelling text ads. They’re especially useful if you sell products or services that benefit from having imagery.

9. App Extensions

If your business has an app they want to promote, app extensions work through both Apple and Android phones to allow users to download the app directly from the Google search results page.

10. Price Extensions

Price extensions, like many of the others, are very straightforward. All they do is display the prices of your products directly in the search results page so users can more easily make a purchase decision with fewer clicks.

Wrap Up

Ad extensions are a low effort, high payoff addition to any account that can add a ton of value to your consumers. Whether you want to get them to chat on the phone, go to a physical store, or just see that you offer free shipping, ad extensions can get that done for you.

The ten that I mentioned here are easy to implement and are relevant to a majority of businesses, but there are other, less-used, and more advanced ad extensions within Google Ads too. To learn more, a great resource is Google Ads Help Center.

Check out the rest of the six-part series:

PRIMER: What is PPC – Pay Per Click Marketing Explained

PART 1: Structuring Your Google Ads Account

PART 2: Understanding Campaign Settings

PART 3: Researching Keywords

PART 4: Writing Engaging Ads

PART 5: 10 Best Google Ads Extensions to Implement (you are here)

PART 6: Tracking Success

The post Building Successful PPC: The 10 Best Google Ad Extensions to Implement appeared first on Portent.

Updated on 8/17/22 to include Google Analytics 4 content.

What comes to mind when you think of the word “goal”? 

Most people, myself included, think of personal goals or ambitions for their own life: obtaining a master’s degree, running a marathon, or traveling to every continent. 

Others think of business goals: reaching an annual sales target, launching a new product or service, or expanding from selling in local to global markets. Analytics goals are different, although they can help measure and track progress toward your business goals. 

In this post, we’ll untangle the definition of goals and help you understand what to configure as a goal in your analytics platform. We’ll use Google Analytics (Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4) as an example today, but you can configure similar goals in most analytics tools. 

We will use the term “goal” to include GA4’s “conversions” since “conversions” are meant to replace “goals” in the latest Google Analytics product.

How Do Analytics Goals Differ From Business Goals?

To tease out a proper distinction between an analytics goal and a business goal, we need to understand how it’s defined in the platform you work in. Google Analytics defines a goal as:

“…a completed activity, called a conversion, that contributes to the success of your business.”

Since Google Analytics primarily tracks websites and apps, the implication is that the “completed activities” they mention as goals are online activities. Whereas business goals can (and do) often include offline measures that are impossible for a user of your website or app to accomplish.

Naturally, there’s a lot of overlap in analytics goals and business goals for companies that do a large percentage of their sales online, like e-commerce retailers or gaming app developers.

And for companies that do a large percentage of sales offline, it’s also possible to connect CRM systems to web analytics platforms and better understand how those offline sales goals are influenced by online marketing.

Generally speaking, some analytics goals can be business goals, but most analytics goals are online behaviors at least a few degrees of separation from your offline business goals.

How Do You Configure an Analytics Goal?

Now that we’ve made the distinction between an analytics goal and a business goal let’s look at how to configure a goal in Google Analytics. There are several ways to do this, but the three most popular ways are: 

• Destination Pages (also known as “confirmation”, “receipt”, or “thank you” pages), or 
• Event Tracking (which requires additional configuration in Google Tag Manager)
• GA4 automatically tracks events out of the box so additional configuration is not always required (more info on GA4 events)

Destination Pages – Universal Analytics

Destination Pages are the easiest way to get up and running. These are typically pages that a user is directed to after a desired action, such as a thank-you page after a user has completed a purchase on a site. 

A good way to start is by making a list of all the destination pages that a user could reach on your site and which activities they map to (i.e. a completed sale, a demo request, a trial request, or a download of a gated asset). The list is a useful aid in determining which pages should be tracked as goals.

Note: Note: GA4 takes a different approach to destination-based goals, addressed further down.

Event Tracking

Destination pages aren’t always enough to track all of your goals. Depending on how your site is built, some online activities don’t result in a unique page being reached. Forms can be submitted without the URL in the browser changing. Call-to-action buttons can be clicked without the user being whisked away to another page. In those instances, Event Tracking is the fix. 

Google Tag Manager enables marketers to listen for those form fills and clicks and send an event into Google Analytics with a category, action, label, and value. Custom Event Tracking in GA4 differs slightly from Universal Analytics, but the concept is the same.

Conversion Tracking in GA4

Google Analytics 4 takes a different approach to goals. I won’t go into the rabbit hole that is the difference between Universal Analytics and GA4, but I will touch on the relevant ones for conversion tracking. 

The main difference between the two Google Analytics platforms is that UA data collection is “hit-based” while GA4 is “event-based.” In GA4, pageviews are events, so there are no destination-specific goals. GA4 also replaces the “goal” terminology and just defaults to using the word “conversion.” 

Configuring goals in GA4 takes a path of its own. To create a conversion in GA4, navigate to Configure > Events from the menu on the left side. From there, you will see a list of all events.

Once there, you can toggle on the “Mark as conversion” slider to track any event as a conversion. The finicky part here is that an event has to be feeding in data before it can be marked as a conversion from this window. 

To get around this issue, you can also create a conversion by going to Configure > Conversions and setting a “New Conversion Event” from there. When creating a conversion from this window, be sure that the event already exists or that the name matches a future event that will be created.

I prefer creating conversions from the existing events list just to be sure the event already exists. If the event doesn’t already exist or if you need to narrow down an existing event to mark for conversion, you can create an event from the Configure > Events window.

Any event created will have to be based on an existing event. Take the example below.

The ‘diversity_send_us_a_message_form_submission’ conversion below is GA4’s equivalent of a destination-based goal. In this case, we created a new event based on the existing page_view event but narrowed the new event to fire only on the thank you page. One thing to note, there currently is no regex operator in these configuration options.

What Are Some Prerequisites for Analytics Goals?

Knowing how to configure goals is only one piece of the puzzle. I’m sure you’re all tempted to race to your Google Analytics admin and add all the thank you pages you can find. But before you do, you should ask yourself if those pages or events meet a few criteria.

Here are some good rules of thumb when considering whether a certain activity should be set up as a goal:

1. A Goal Must Be Evergreen

A visitor should be able to accomplish them as long as your website (or app) exists. Google Analytics only allows you 20 goal slots per view. You don’t want to occupy one of your 20 goal slots with a “thank you” page for a temporary campaign that will only be live for one month. GA4 bumps this number up to 30 total conversions that can be configured, but you should still think carefully when setting up goals.

2. A Goal Must Require Action on the Part of the Visitor

Views of a category or product page, even if they’re important for you to measure, are not good goals because people can accomplish them sometimes just by landing on your website, without any engagement at all. Pages that can only be reached with an action—a form fill or a purchase—are better candidates.

3. A Goal Must Map to Your Business Objectives

I already mentioned why business goals and analytics goals aren’t always the same, but they should always have some kind of relationship. If you can’t demonstrate how a visitor achieving your analytics goal has an impact on brand awareness, customer loyalty, or revenue, it’s probably too generic.

A Goal Must Result in a Conversion Rate of Less than 20%

This seems counterintuitive, but hear me out: If more than a fifth of your visitors are able to accomplish an analytics goal, it’s too easy of an action for them to take and probably not a meaningful way for you to segment them versus an average user of your site.

There are some exceptions to this rate, as some sites are purpose-built to navigate a visitor to a specific action. For example, a subdomain or landing page that is built to get users to fill out a free quote request form.

In this case, a higher conversion rate is the norm as the site was built to get people to submit a free quote form. Tracking this as a goal is still recommended since conversion data can feed to other platforms that might tailor their algorithm to attract users that are likely to complete the same action (think Google AdWords).

Primary Goals

Once you’re sure a goal meets the prerequisites above, you should prioritize which ones you set up first. I call these primary goals. They have a direct connection to how much money your business makes.

Some examples of primary goals include:

Revenue

If you run an eCommerce business, this might go without saying. And you may already be measuring revenue by virtue of your enhanced eCommerce configuration. But there’s value in setting up goals for your cart thank you page. Why? Funnels.

Funnels allow you to configure a linear path from a cart summary page to a sale and report on drop-off at each step, which is valuable in determining where you have friction in your cart process.

GA4 does not have an option to set up a funnel-based goal. Instead, GA4 has Funnel Exploration, which accomplishes the same thing as far as letting you visualize and explore drop-off in steps to a conversion.

Subscription Sign-Ups

If you run a subscription model business, sign-ups where you gain a customer’s credit card information work here. If it’s a free trial where no credit card is required at the time of sign-up, I would consider holding off configuring that goal until later (see secondary goals below).

Leads

For a B2B business, where it’s impossible to close a sale online, lead form measurement is key. But not all lead forms are created equal. Some only require an email address. The ones you need to measure here are forms that generate enough information for you to evaluate whether the prospect is a Marketing Qualified Lead or Sales Qualified Lead. That means you need to be collecting a name, a company, an email, a title, and potentially a phone number.

Event Registrations

The same goes for events. If somebody RSVPs for a free meetup, that doesn’t qualify here. It needs to be a paid event only.

Secondary Goals

For goals that don’t have a direct connection to revenue, but are still important to moving people along in discovery of your product or service, consider configuring those next. Secondary goals (aka micro conversions) are tipping points to sales, socially sharing your products or services in the marketplace, or building your house list for future marketing efforts.

Good choices for secondary goals include:

Email Newsletters

If somebody wants to give you an email address to receive future discounts, news, or product information, that’s gold. It gives you a touchpoint for reaching back out to a user who may have otherwise just left your website.

Gated Assets

Collecting emails in exchange for a useful ebook, webinar, or whitepaper is also super common.

Lesser Leads

You might also have other forms on your site that have fewer fields or a generic “contact us” form that really doesn’t give you any sort of implied intent on the part of the user. These might create leads that require more vetting on the part of the sales team.

Shares of Blog Posts or Products

Don’t forget amplification of your message by interested parties via social or email. Even if the person visiting your site isn’t in the market for what you offer, they might share it with someone who is. That reach is just as valuable.

Registrations for Free Events

As with gated assets, you might provide tickets to a meetup in exchange for an email or a follow on social.

Tertiary Goals

Lastly, we have goals that indicate a higher level of engagement from the visitor to your site or app, but do not constitute a contact or a sale.

Video Views

Folks who watch videos about a product or service may just be curious, but studies find that they tend to purchase at a higher rate than most website visitors.

Ungated Assets

Many businesses offer free tools or downloads where no email is required. There’s something to be said for being useful to your target audience without a quid-pro-quo so that they’ll remember you when they want to buy.

Clicks of Major CTA Buttons

Online marketing and merchandising only works if we can convince people to click on “learn more” or “buy now” buttons. Upper-funnel content on websites might not have a form to fill out or another more substantial action to take, so recognizing which CTA buttons work to encourage people to move deeper into the site is paramount.

Average Session Duration

I’m generally not a fan of pageview or time on site-based goals. More pageviews can indicate a person is lost on your site and can’t find what they need. Higher time on site could mean they stepped away from their laptop to make a sandwich. But when you add some qualifiers and look at averages across your entire visitor base, they can become more helpful. Look for users who exceed 3x the site average (excluding bounces).

While these are just a few examples of how and why goals are tiered, it’s not always as back and white as every business has different priorities. Our blog on micro vs. macro conversions is a great resource to help you prioritize your goals.

What To Do With Your Goal Data

So you’ve established these goals. Now what? Your data is only as valuable as what you do with it, and here are some ideas for action:

• • Build segments for any user that accomplishes a secondary or tertiary goal. Use those segments to understand how much more likely those users are to accomplish primary goals than your average site user.
  • Build audiences for any user that accomplishes a secondary or tertiary goal, but none of the primary goals. Use those audiences to run remarketing campaigns in Google Ads.
  • Set incremental growth targets for these goals every year. If you know that 1,000/month convert to a lead form, set a target to improve that by 10% on top of your current pace. We set these goals because we care about improving these metrics.
  • Leverage goals in AB testing. Goals and conversions that have been configured in either UA or GA4 can be used in tandem with CRO products (such as Google Optimize) to help improve conversion rates.

Trust Your Gut With Goals

This isn’t an exhaustive list or a be-all and end-all set of rules. You know what’s meaningful to your business and what really moves the needle.

Experiment with additional Google Analytics views that can house another set of 20 goals if you’re not sure about what you’ve got in your main view. Or make the transition to GA4 to take advantage of the additional conversion slots along with other benefits.

The post What Goals Should I Be Tracking in My Analytics Tool? appeared first on Portent.

I remember back at the beginning of my career when I worked marketing in-house at a local business. We had an agency that ran our PPC campaigns back when the only automated bidding available was through a third party. That agency did its due diligence in presenting monthly reports and quarterly reviews to our team, and I remember how pointless those meetings seemed to me then. 

Looking back now, those meetings were filled with thoughtfully segmented data, top revenue-driving keywords, and plans to improve low-performers. And yet I never walked away from those meetings excited or inspired. I felt like I was there to hear data, much of which went right over my head. At no point was I compelled to ask questions, weigh in with insights, or challenge our agency contacts’ plans and assumptions.

It’s only now, over ten years later, that I realize what was actually happening; this agency was very good at explaining the what and the how. What they were missing was the so what and the why does this matter.

Don’t be scared to have an opinion

I see this across the board, not only in marketing, and I understand there are many perfectly valid reasons for it. 

1. Stating facts is much safer than stating your opinion. Keeping your slides objective is more comfortable than making a subjective interpretation that’s open to disagreement. 
2. Answering the “why does this matter” question takes time and deliberation. 
3. Answering the “so what” question requires thoughtful planning ahead.

Whatever the reason, I witness people across verticals hold back the “so what” during some critical times. And that’s a dangerous game to play if you have best interests at heart. 

Business reviews offer account managers a unique opportunity to have candid conversations about progress to date and the plan ahead. And business reviews shouldn’t stop there. They should be about why we did or did not make that progress, what that means for the client’s overall success, and they should help everyone understand the reasons it all matters. So how do you ensure that your annual, monthly, or quarterly business review accomplishes these goals? How can you make sure you’re answering the “so what?” in your presentations?

How to answer the “so what?” and “why does this matter?”

1. Include an Executive Summary 

The executive summary is the corporate version of the TL;DR, which stands for “too long; didn’t read.” It’s the big picture, the long story short, the essence of your review. Your executive summary should distill your entire deck or presentation into one key takeaway slide or paragraph. It should function independently from the rest of your document, and if you do it right, it should persuade your audience to pay attention to the rest of your presentation.

The executive summary is a crucial component of any business plan or project proposal; even scientific papers have abstracts that help summarize the key facts. They’re mainstays because they satisfy three important needs: 

1. they introduce your main point
2. they highlight only the most important facts and figures
3. they tell your audience why your plan matters 

You want the executive summary to identify the lens with which your audience should view your material. Should your audience go into the presentation expecting amazing progress? Should they prepare themselves for bad news? Is it a mixed bag that you’re about to sort through?

I always introduce my executive summary slides with, “if you don’t remember anything else that happens over the next ninety minutes, I want you to remember this slide here.” When writing an executive summary, that should be the bar with which you measure the content.

What is important for them to know if your audience takes away nothing else from your QBR? What are the one, two, or three things you want them to remember? That’s what needs to be in your executive summary.

2. Be Ruthless and Move Data to the Appendix

You don’t need to feature all your data in your business review. Unless you have only one client contact who has asked for data exports and reports throughout your engagement, and no one else is present in your QBR meeting, there’s a good chance that there are some unfamiliar faces on your call. QBRs tend to attract executives, directors, and managers you haven’t spoken to before. Unless there’s an obvious takeaway from a table or chart, those higher-ups probably don’t want to see it. 

Any time you want to feature data through a graph or a table, ask yourself, “what is this trying to say?” No one wants to see a bar graph demonstrating a correlation that doesn’t matter. If a chart doesn’t directly support your main point of the slide, but you still want to include it, simply don’t feature it. Enter the appendix, the wonderfully helpful depository of extra “stuff” that lives at the end of your materials. It contains all the information and data that corroborates your points but maybe doesn’t stand well enough on its own.

Don’t be afraid to link to the appendix in your main presentation. A simple, hyperlinked reference at the bottom of your slide or in the footer of your document can indicate to your audience that there’s more information available if they’re interested. It also works to remind people that you want to keep the business review high-level, as it should be. 

Data that can be distracting and lead you or the client down rabbit holes is the perfect example of data that should live in the appendix. If you anticipate questions about a graph that you don’t believe are a valuable use of QBR time, push that graph to the end and let everyone know it’s available for their review after the presentation is over.

3. Use Subjective Language

In our non-confrontational world, where we’re discouraged from rocking boats and stirring things up, we sometimes struggle to enunciate our points clearly. Some of this comes down to good ol’ public speaking skills, but even the best speakers can shy away from making strong, declarative statements that convey their subjective opinion. And business reviews are the perfect opportunity to give your personal opinion about the data, the progress, and the goals. 

The “so what?” is rarely just a next step or an action plan. To be effective, it also needs to include the framing, such as “these are great results, and we’re really happy with them.” That’s a subjective opinion that you need to share with your audience. Especially if you have higher-ups or C-suite executives in your meeting, you need to be helping them interpret the information by providing those qualifiers.

Is a two-point increase good? Was it much more than you thought you were going to get?  Is this metric increasing actually a bad thing? Does the fact that this KPI stayed constant during an experiment mean that the test was a rousing success? 

We cannot merely present information and next steps without giving our audience some indication about how they should feel about it. A genuinely great presentation touches on all components of the rhetorical triangle:

• Logos – the appeal to logic
• Ethos – the appeal to character
• Pathos – the appeal to emotion

Emotion and pathos do double duty by humanizing your presentation and giving your audience the cue for how they should respond. When you leave out emotionally loaded language, like subjective qualifiers, you ignore the essential component that helps you prevent your presentation from feeling flat and lifeless. Using subjective language, you guide your audience to the appropriate emotional state you want and/or feel.

Wrapping It Up

I’m used to QBR announcements eliciting groans from my teams and clients. They’re a lot of work and take a lot of brain power from both sides. It’s important to help your teams focus that brain power on the right things: the things that matter to your client and the things that matter to you as the account manager. 

It can be tempting to use the business review as an information dump but resist the urge. After completing your draft, write up an executive summary showcasing what’s important. Push for the use of an appendix, where secondary information and data can live. And encourage your team and yourself to use subjective language in your delivery. With these three tips, you’re one step closer to creating business reviews that not only matter but that people actually want to attend.

The post 3 Keys to a Business Review People Actually Care About appeared first on Portent.

When onboarding a new B2B client on paid social, aligning on goals and expectations is a central part of our discovery process. Often, we find that our new partners have targets that start and end with “as many leads as possible at the lowest cost.”

After taking stock of their ad accounts, we generally see several campaigns with little to no delineation between audiences that are all working towards the same goal — capturing as much lead volume as possible. Sometimes, this works! But inevitably, we hear a lot of the same frustrations:

• Our CPLs are on the rise
• We’re not seeing the same volume we once did
• We try to invest more in a given platform, but our efficiency tanks 

Though it may seem logical to focus ad spend solely on the campaigns driving the desired outcome, this can impact an account’s ability to scale long-term. Too often, a narrow-minded and conversion-focused approach to lead generation ignores the importance of top-funnel prospecting. 

With this in mind, we’ve begun implementing full-funnel marketing strategies across paid social platforms for our B2B clients. Now, with nearly two years worth of data across multiple client accounts, we’re breaking down a tried-and-true strategic framework for campaigns and sharing our findings.

Demand Generation vs. Lead Generation

First, some context. For marketing teams, lead generation is typically the end goal of B2B campaigns. Before a Sales Qualified Lead can become an opportunity and eventually a customer, they’re a good-old fashioned MQL. 

Marketers often prioritize lead generation is often prioritized without weighing the benefit of demand generation — a concept that aligns more closely with the full-funnel approach. 

According to Gartner, demand generation is a marketing strategy focused on building reliable brand awareness and interest, resulting in high-quality leads. 

Clients are often focused on the bottom-funnel campaigns that drive these leads, particularly when budgets are tight. This is typically the case for paid social campaigns. Clients are generally more apt to invest a large proportion of their ad spend into channels that drive last touch conversion, like search. 

In reality, a multi-channel investment is a perfect scenario for implementing a demand generation strategy that speaks to users in different stages of the funnel. Utilizing these tactics on paid social platforms can lead to:

• A lift in branded search
• An increase in assisted conversion volume 
• High intent, high-quality leads

Driving Results

Over the past two years, we’ve proven the impact of these tactics across many B2B accounts, from mid-size to enterprise level. Here’s an example of the full-funnel strategy we implemented for a client that skyrocketed growth.

We began managing paid social advertising for a tech startup in March 2021. Growth had stalled due to a lack of top-funnel acquisition, and the previous team had tested in to Facebook with little success. 

Thankfully, this client had a wealth of content available which allowed us to begin crafting a true awareness campaign to prospect for new customers. Over the first three months of the engagement, we launched awareness campaigns on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. We restructured the existing remarketing campaigns on LinkedIn into a mid- and bottom-funnel touchpoint and replicated those efforts on Facebook. 

By December of that year, we had seen a 408% increase in lead volume on LinkedIn compared to the previous year. With a steady stream of new users entering our retargeting pools, we more than tripled ad spend by the end of 2021, all while decreasing our average CPL by more than $30.

With a dedicated full-funnel strategy on Facebook, we drove a 1,603% increase in lead volume and improve acquisition costs by more than $100 year over year. Focusing on demand generation helped us drive over 206,600 new users to the site from paid social campaigns — a 3,948% increase from the previous year.

So, how did we get there?

What Does a Full-Funnel B2B Strategy Look Like?

While there are special considerations for B2B accounts, the primary goal of a full-funnel strategy is an engaging, relevant user experience. Before we dig into tactics, consider brushing up on your knowledge of the general full-funnel approach.

Top of Funnel

While often overlooked, awareness campaigns are perhaps the biggest success factor for long-term account health. Without new prospects filling the marketing funnel, remarketing audiences will be exhausted over time. This can directly impact an account’s ability to scale and drive results.

Targeting

Focus on reaching engaged users by utilizing Lookalike audiences modeled off of key-page visitors. On LinkedIn, our team has uncovered compelling audience insights by tapping into Member Group targeting and leaning on Job Function rather than specific title names to avoid unintentionally excluding relevant users.

Ad Experience

These are the campaigns to lean on video and GIF assets — anything to drive engagement with the audience. These ad formats drive higher click-through rates, and video viewership can be a strong signal for retargeting. 

Don’t utilize CTAs and landing page destinations on conversion. Instead, surface content that focuses on familiarizing new users with the brand and its offerings, like:

• Blog posts
• Product FAQs
• Thought leadership content
• Informational webinars

Salesforce nails a true top-of-funnel ad with an engaging and informative video that isn’t afraid to play into questions about their product and mission.

Middle of Funnel

Begin to create demand by nurturing prospects that have shown intent based on their engagement with top-funnel content.

Targeting

• Utilize engagement-based retargeting signals like percentage of video viewed or time on site 
• Create remarketing segments based on users that visited the pages utilized in awareness campaigns

Ad Experience

LinkedIn and Facebook offer a native lead ad format, which allows advertisers to gate content users can download after submitting a form. This opens up the opportunity to share various assets that differentiate the brand, build trust with users, and help solidify a prospective customer’s decision. 

Utilize high-value content like:

• Comparison guides
• Whitepapers
• Case studies

Here, Zoom takes advantage of the lead ad experience by gating a downloadable report. The use of Gartner branding can help build trust by association.

Bottom of Funnel

Move engaged prospects even further down the funnel to capture the most qualified lead possible.

Targeting

• Layer in additional remarketing segments that capture the users that downloaded a piece of content at the mid-funnel stage
• Explore testing opportunities by building segments made up of users that opened a lead form but did not submit

Ad Experience

Depending on the type of destination page, in-platform lead forms can help drive lower-cost action among users at the bottom of the funnel. If you’re pointing to a landing page on a website, make sure that page is optimized for conversion.

Focus on driving action by pointing users to content like:

• Contact forms
• Trial sign-ups
• Schedule a meeting or consultation
• Demo requests

Work OS monday.com appeals to authority by featuring a review from a senior decision-maker before prompting a user to sign up for a demo via a native lead form.

Conclusion

Our performance over time for our clients is a testament to a strategic investment in the entire user journey. While it may mean an initial divestment away from the very campaigns that drive leads, a full-funnel strategy is the key to long-term account health and scalability.

The post Investing in a Full-Funnel B2B Strategy on Paid Social for Long-Term Growth appeared first on Portent.

One of the biggest challenges when designing a website is figuring out how to encourage users to take the actions you want. While we can’t force our website users to take a specific route, we can use a design element known as a call-to-action (CTA) to guide them down specific paths.

CTAs are one of the most powerful elements to get users to take action on your website. Since a good CTA can be the difference between making a conversion and losing one, it’s essential that they are both user-friendly and accessible so they can be as effective as possible.

What is a CTA?

A CTA refers to a design element that prompts users to take action, such as sign up now, add to cart, start a free trial, etc. CTAs appear in many different places on a website, from the homepage, to product pages, to landing pages, and more. They allow marketers and designers to focus the user’s attention and lead them to a specific conversion.

In the example above from Athleta’s homepage, the primary CTA is the black button in the center of the page, with the text ‘Shop New Arrivals’. The verb ‘Shop’ defines the specific action Athleta wants users to take and ‘New Arrivals’ explains what they want users to shop for. This CTA visually stands out on the page and is designed in a way that makes it obvious this is the next step for a user to take on this page, thus encouraging users to select the button and shop their new arrivals.

Why You Should Consider UX & Accessibility When Designing CTAs

User Experience (UX) is all about understanding the user’s needs to create a positive and easy-to-follow experience. Web accessibility focuses on making sure websites are designed and coded so that people with disabilities (and/or people using assistive tools, like screen readers or voice-over) can use them.

UX and accessibility go hand in hand as they are both about putting the user first and making sure products are created with their needs in mind. Considering these two aspects when designing your CTAs will benefit both your users and business goals.

Better Experience for All Users

By understanding the user’s journey and what design elements will make things as easy as possible for them, you can make sure your CTAs seamlessly and intuitively fit into the user’s overall experience.

When you create accessible CTAs, you are opening your content up to more users and making sure your users who are disabled can also have a positive user experience. One of the great things about accessible website elements, like CTAs, is that they are beneficial for all users regardless of who your target audience is. Accessible website elements can help people who:

• Browse websites using devices with small screens, such as a phone or a tablet
• Undergo mobility changes due to aging
• Experience temporary disabilities due to an injury
• Experience situational limitations based on their environment, like bright sunlight or slow internet

More Conversions

CTAs are a crucial step in conversions and moving users down the marketing funnel, so it’s important to design them in a way that will be the most effective for all users. If your CTAs are not user-friendly or accessible, you will miss out on conversions.

For example, if someone is using a screenreader and is tabbing through each of the buttons on the page but they all have a vague CTA that says ‘shop now’ or ‘learn more’ with no context, that person won’t know which button to select and as a result, won’t convert.

Improves SEO Performance

In terms of SEO, when a website is built and designed with accessibility top of mind, website crawlers can better identify what the content is about since there is more context and labeling included. As a result, the content can rank better.

To create the most effective CTAs, you need them to stand out on the page and provide value for your users. UX and accessibility best practices can help you do just that. So let’s jump in.

9 CTA Best Practices for UX & Accessibility

These best practices range from what the CTA says, how it looks, where it’s placed on the page, what interactive elements it has, and more. By optimizing each of these aspects you can create an effective and accessible CTA that will help you improve engagement and, ultimately, achieve your conversion goals.

1. Use Action-Oriented & Descriptive Text
2. Check Text Contrast
3. Consider Use of Color & Visual Design
4. Use Strong Hover & Focus Styling
5. Prioritize CTA Placement Above the Fold (w/AIDA Model)
6. Include Consistent Labeling & Placeholders For Forms
7. Implement Selectable Blocks of Content for Secondary CTAs (Link Shielding)
8. Consider Mobile Design
9. Test Your CTAs (A/B tests)

1. Use Action-Oriented & Descriptive Text

When writing user-friendly copy for your CTA, active verbs are your friend. A vague ‘learn more’ is not very compelling for users nor is it accessible as it doesn’t provide enough context for users using assistive technology that looks at the links on a page.

By writing a specific and descriptive action, you can better capture the user’s attention and more accurately set up users’ expectations for what they will get by selecting your CTA.

CTA Example #1 — Descriptive Text

Let’s look at the screenshot below of Hello Fresh’s homepage. The primary CTA on the page is the green button in the middle of the page that says “View our plans”. If the CTA had said “Learn more” the user wouldn’t know exactly what content they would see by selecting the CTA button and might gloss over it. This vague text would also not meet accessibility standards.

By using the specific CTA of “View our plans”, users can see exactly what value they will get out of selecting the CTA button — getting to see the plans. This copy is also more intriguing for users since it directly answers a main question users have when looking at a meal subscription service, what do the meal plans look like?

2. Check Text Contrast

It’s important to consider the text contrast of your CTAs so users with visual impairment can easily perceive content on your page. Text contrast refers to the difference in brightness between the text and its background color. The ratio between these two colors has to be at a certain minimum to be accessible.

Web Accessibility in Mind (WebAIM) has an excellent Contrast and Color guide that explains the current Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) two for contrast and color. WebAIM also has an incredibly helpful contrast checker where you can plug in the color code of the foreground and background to see if it meets accessibility guidelines.

CTA Example #2 — Text Contrast

For an example of a CTA that does not have good color contrast, look at the screenshot below of Archer & Olive’s homepage. Their primary CTA button is light pink with white text that says ‘Shop Now’. When you plug in the color codes for that shade of pink and white, its contrast ratio does not meet the minimum requirement of 4.5:1 and it still doesn’t meet the required ratio when the text is presented at larger sizes.

3. Consider Use of Color & Visual Design

Your CTAs need to stand out on a page and draw users in. What colors you use and how you design the size and shape of your CTAs play a large part in making that happen.

Make sure to use colors that are accessible in contrast with your text color. It’s important to use colors for your CTA button that are different from your page’s background and aren’t used in many places on the page. That way, your CTA color is visually unique and stands out.

Your CTA button should also look different from your page’s regular buttons. This way you can use the visual design to help convey the information hierarchy that your CTA is the number one priority action for users to take.

When visually designing a CTA, don’t forget to consider how it will work with all of the other components on the page. You’ll want to have a good amount of negative space (or white space) around your CTA to help emphasize it.

CTA Example #3 — Color & Visual Design

Crate & Barrel has an example of a CTA that does not have a good color or visual design. The primary CTA button is a rectangular button in the middle of the page that says ‘Shop Sectionals’ with a transparent background so the image behind it is showing through. This CTA blends into the background, is difficult to read, and doesn’t visually stand out on the page.

Target’s product page has a good example of a CTA button that uses their bright red brand color to draw attention to their ‘Add to Cart’ CTA. It is the only red button on the page and it stands out against the white background.

4. Use Strong Hover & Focus Styling

An excellent way to emphasize your CTAs is by giving them a strong hover feature and styling them in a way that draws focus.

Hover features are when a user’s cursor hovers over a button and the button reacts in a way to visually show that it is selectable. This interactive element could be adding a drop shadow to the button, underlining the text in the button, changing the background color of the button, etc.

CTA Example #4 — Hover & Focus Styling

For an example of a strong hover feature, look at Allbirds’ home page and their primary CTAs to ‘Shop Men’ and ‘Shop Women’. When you hover your cursor over the CTA button, the button changes from a white background with black text to a black background with white text. This change in color really makes the CTA pop on the page and focuses your attention on the button since an action is happening there with the color change.

5. Prioritize CTA Placement Above the Fold (w/AIDA Model)

When figuring out where to place your primary CTA on a page, you have to consider your user’s journey through the page. You can’t start by trying to get someone to take action without first capturing their attention and creating interest and desire.

It would be like walking into a store and having an employee ask you if you want to buy a product right away without telling you what the product is, what makes it unique, and why it’s relevant to you. Similarly, in an online experience, the CTA step needs to come up at a natural part in the user’s flow through the page.

The AIDA model is a good framework to help organize the order of your content. AIDA stands for four stages a customer needs to go through before converting: ‘Attention’, ‘Interest’, ‘Desire’, and ‘Action’. In this instance, the fourth stage ‘Action’ is referring to our CTA.

Now that you have the order of your content, you’ll want to make sure your CTA is placed above the fold so users can see it without having to scroll down the page. It’s already difficult to capture people’s attention, so you want to make it as easy as possible for them to see your CTA without requiring any additional work. You could have the most amazing CTA button with the perfect copy but if it’s too far down the page and users don’t see it, it won’t do any good.

CTA Example #5 — Above the Fold & AIDA Model

Let’s look at Redbubble’s homepage. They do a great job of following the AIDA model, which you can see labeled in the screenshot below.

The big, colorful banner image immediately catches your attention. The next element that draws you in is the header “You’ve been accepted”. This piques your interest as it’s visually the biggest text on the screen, it talks directly to you by using the word “you’ve”, and makes you wonder what you have been accepted to. You then see the smaller text located under this header that says, “Bring your whole self to campus. Explore designs by artists who love what you love.” This generates a sense of desire for how your life will be better with Redbubble’s products.

The design then leads you directly to the primary CTA button “Shop Back to School” which tells you exactly how you can achieve this desired, better life.

These four stages are also all happening above the fold so you can see and experience this just by landing on the page without taking any additional action. You can really see how the thoughtful placement of a CTA can set it up for success and make it much more powerful.

6. Include Consistent Labeling & Placeholders For Forms

If not designed with UX and accessibility in mind, form CTAs that prompt users to enter information (like an email sign-up, payment form, contact form, etc.) can be extremely frustrating and difficult to fill out for everyone and especially for people with disabilities. The Web Accessibility Initiative (W3) has an in-depth tutorial guide on how to create accessible forms. 

The key steps to take are labeling controls, grouping controls, form instructions, validating input, user notifications, multi-page forms, and custom controls. W3 explains the impact these design steps can have:

• People with cognitive disabilities can better understand the form.
• People using speech input can use the labels via voice command to activate controls and move the focus to different fields
• People with limited dexterity benefit from large selectable areas that include the labels
• People using screen readers can identify and understand form controls more easily since they are associated with labels, field sets, and other structural elements. 

CTA Example #6 — Forms with Labels & Placeholders

For an example of a well-designed form CTA that is accessible, let’s look at World Market’s sign-up form on their website in the screenshot below. This form does a great job of including descriptive placeholder text to explain what specific information needs to be filled out in each field and in what format.

Another crucial element of this form is that when the user inputs information into a field, the placeholder text becomes a label for the field. You can see this highlighted in yellow in the example for the first and last name. This means when a user is inputting their information, they can still see the label for each field and not rely on memory alone that they have inputted the correct information for each field.

7. Implement Selectable Blocks of Content for Secondary CTAs (Link Shielding)

For your primary CTA to stand out, don’t clutter the page with too many CTAs that will distract users from the primary action you want them to take. A solution for a lot of these secondary CTAs on a page, like ‘Learn More’ or ‘Read More’ for additional resources at the bottom of a page, is to take away the vague CTA button and make the whole piece of content selectable with its title as the descriptive text. This is not only visually cleaner but it is also more accessible.

Having the entire content block selectable doesn’t require precise motor skills to select and the descriptive text will give users using assistive technology more context so they can know where this link will take them.

CTA Example #7 — Selectable Blocks of Content

Barnes & Noble’s homepage lists a lot of additional content for users to check out below the fold. In the screenshot below, you can see they have square blocks of content that link to different blog posts. For each blog post block, they list a ‘Read More’ CTA that bolds when you hover your cursor over it.

Instead of having this vague ‘Read More’ CTA repeating over and over on the page distracting from the primary CTA, they could remove the ‘Read More’ copy, and have the title of the blog post highlight and/or underline when you hover over it so the blog post title can be the descriptive copy a user can select.

For an example of what more user-friendly and accessible selectable blocks can look like, let’s look at REI’s homepage. In the screenshot below, they have three blocks of additional content similar to Barnes & Noble’s page. However, REI does not include the CTA to ‘Read More’ for each block but instead has made the title of the content the descriptive text you can select.

In addition, when you hover your cursor over REI’s content blocks, a drop shadow is added to the whole block to slightly pop up the whole block and the descriptive title text is both underlined and bolded. These CTA blocks have descriptive text which is good for accessibility, they don’t have unnecessary vague buttons cluttering the page, and they have hover features that draw your attention to the content block and highlight that it’s selectable.

8. Consider Mobile Design

We live in a mobile-first world, so you have to design your CTAs so they will look and function on mobile as well as desktop. This means the mobile version of your CTA may need to change size and placement compared to the desktop version so it can still be effective on a smaller screen.

For instance, when designing for mobile with usability and accessibility in mind, you want to put your most important content in the center of the screen as this is where mobile users tend to look first. That is very different than how users interact with a desktop. Therefore, your CTAs need to take into account the different ways that people interact with mobile vs. desktop.

CTA Example #8 — Mobile Design

Half Price Books’ homepage is a good example of the importance of updating your CTAs for your mobile design. When you look at their homepage on a desktop, there is a large banner with the CTA to ‘Read the Blog’ that is circled in yellow in the screenshot below. The size of this desktop CTA text is much larger than any of the other buttons on the screen so you can easily tell it’s a priority on the page.

When we then look at the same homepage on mobile, the main banner from the desktop version has been shrunk down but not resized so the mobile CTA that says ‘Read the Blog’ is now smaller in size than the other navigation buttons. This makes the CTA very hard to read and feel like it’s not a priority on the page.

After looking at the desktop vs. mobile version of this homepage, you can tell It’s going to be a lot harder for the mobile CTA to help drive conversions since users can barely read it and it’s competing for attention with the navigation buttons. Be sure to consider how your CTAs look and perform on mobile as it makes a big difference.

9. Test Your CTAs (A/B tests)

Test out those CTAs! The best way to find out what resonates with your users is by testing different versions of your CTAs and getting data on what performs well. You can then iterate on your CTAs to create more effective versions.

When A/B testing your CTAs, remember to only change one element of your CTA at a time. If you have multiple elements that are different between version A and version B, you won’t be able to know which element resulted in the change in performance. For instance, you could change just the color between the two versions of the CTA, or just the text but you wouldn’t want to change both the color and text in one A/B test.

CTA Example #9 – A/B Test

In the graphic below you can see what an A/B test with two different versions of a CTA button might look like. Version A includes the text ‘Buy Now’ while version B includes the text ‘Review Cart’. By then showing half of your users version A and the other half version B, you can get data on which version of the CTA button performed better to decide which text to go with.

Wrap Up

By considering both UX design and accessibility with CTAs, you can create a better user experience for all of your customers and make your CTAs more effective at leading to conversions. I hope you found these best practices helpful and can apply them to your own projects.

The post 9 CTA Best Practices for UX Design & Web Accessibility (w/ Examples) appeared first on Portent.