Data Vizualisation

 

Time and attention, as ever, are at a premium. Especially when we must work within the limitations of speed and resources while information and markets move and change ever more rapidly. AI and machine learning make it possible to gather, analyze, and interpret data into actionable insights at inhuman speed. But this data must be understood, translated, and shared. Quick, clear, and compelling data visualization allows you to present large amounts of complex information as a powerful story for any audience. 

Why does data visualization work so well and what are the best ways to visualize data and build your business?

 Let’s start with visualization. Most people are visual learners. We learn and communicate visually because compared to written language our brains have been processing visual information for much longer and have evolved to do that work more quickly and efficiently, much of it unconsciously. Research has been cited showing the brain to process images and graphic information up to 60,000 times faster than text. So maybe a picture is worth several thousand words.

And data, in itself, even when it’s arranged in expansive tables of numbers, is on the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of our ability to quickly process, compute, recognize patterns, and find meaning.

That’s unfortunate because among all the data is a wealth of valuable and important insight. However, the speed of data analytics tools and visualization software more than make up for our relatively slow thinking. It’s a perfect example of humans and machines teaming up with their complementary strengths to transform how we see and understand the world. The dynamic partnership of art and science in data visualization can spark explosive growth in creativity and revenue across your entire business.

Digital tools enable human analysts to study and interpret patterns and trends to gain actionable insights for making adjustments and developing initiatives. With AI and machine learning, we can distill galactic amounts of seemingly random and chaotic data that means almost nothing to any human staring at a sea of numbers in a table or spreadsheet. However, arranged as visual models, these insights tell a story or many possible versions of a story, and data-driven strategies are developed using the best, most relevant information.

Data, data, everywhere…

Data is the digital residue of the world in motion, of people living, working, and playing. It drives and is produced by business, science, technology, sports, and so many other human activities we don’t immediately associate with data, including art. 

Data is valuable because it tells billions of stories — stories within stories. Imagine Big Data as a massive human novel-in-progress, and we are all characters in it. If each word is one byte of data, then the world produces 2.5 quintillion words a day. That’s a word count equivalent to writing Tolstoy’s War and Peace about 1.7 trillion times a day, or 19,707,697 times per second. Let that sink in.

Everywhere, data flows and accumulates. But, of course, that’s not the end of it. 

You’ve got data. Now what? It’s time to analyze, interpret, and translate.

Now you need to find the stories within the data. You’ve got the raw material, the words and maybe some sentences and paragraphs, but none of that makes any cohesive sense yet. No one could pick a scene out of that mountain range of verbiage. 

Once you get that data, how do you make it work for you? While goals, audiences, and strategies vary by company, data visualization organizes information for quick and easy understanding across functions, industries, and even cultures.

In the same way that memes do so much work with an image and maybe a line or two of text, a graph can be worth a table of a million numbers.

Relationships between data sets become clear in seconds compared to hours of poring over the same information arranged in tables and spreadsheets, and still missing key trends, patterns, and connections.

Assemble the story before it’s too late

On January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after launch. During the investigation, it was discovered that colder temperatures compromised the integrity of the O-rings, which had become brittle and failed, leading to the explosion. Although engineers had gathered data and presented various data sets in several tables, key data sets of temperature and O-ring failure rates had not been shown in relation to each other. Experts had the data they needed but had not organized it visually, and missed the insight they needed when they needed it to make a decision that would have saved lives.

The power of data analytics and visual representation can give you real-time actionable insight to make data-driven decisions in the moment that impact every area of your business. Offer what your customers need and want. Build a stronger brand presence. Create better customer experiences. Fix problems early. And, depending on the context, even save lives.

Creative data visualization: Saving lives since 1854

Harmonize form and content to give your data life, and maybe even save lives

It’s not a revelation that representing data in a graph or chart or map can be a quick and effective way to understand and communicate information. Strong and compelling data made clear and understandable is approximately 43 percent more engaging and persuasive.

An early example of data visualization came from the work of John Snow, considered one of the founders of epidemiology, who tracked the cholera outbreak of 1854 in London by representing his data on a map. This helped him and others to see how the disease moved through the community. He figured out that the main point of transmission was a handle on a well pump, which was then removed, having an enormous impact on fighting the outbreak.

When interpreted and understood in a timely way, data visualization is a powerful guide for making informed decisions with confidence in their predictive power.

Flattening the curve with the help of data visualization

Examples of visual arrangements of data have been front and center since the beginning of the year.

Using three straight lines and two curves, the COVID “flatten the curve” graph has been successful in conveying two scenarios where, 1) we go about business as usual without practicing social distancing or any other measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus, or 2) we take measures to slow the spread of the virus, which is indicated by the shorter longer curve that stays below the horizontal line indicating the maximum number of patients the healthcare system can handle at once. The taller curve in scenario 1 rises above that line, meaning that the people represented by that area likely will not receive the care they need because the hospitals would not have the resources at that time.

That’s only a quick distillation of an explanation but is already far more cumbersome than the information quickly presented by a few lines and a couple of curves. Processing visual information 60,000 times faster than text sounds more believable. The data and the story are coded in the image of that graph, yet another image worth thousands of words as well as lives.

Another example includes heat maps showing areas hardest hit by COVID-19. The same data visualized differently as a bar or line graph shows the impact of various state or national efforts to control the spread of the coronavirus by comparing those who took varying stances on social distancing and shelter in place measures.

To show the possible speed and distance of spreading the coronavirus by ignoring social distancing measures, anonymized cell phone data tracking was visualized with a heat map to show how a small group of vacationers on the beach could impact the rest of the country by potentially carrying the virus back home with them.

Art and science come together

What form of visualization will bring the content of your data to life? That depends on what you’re trying to see in the data, what story you want to tell, who needs to see the story in your data, and other factors.

Watching data flows of all kinds is mesmerizing, satisfying, and incredibly informative all at the same time. An example of engaging and informative animated and interactive data visualization is Visual Capitalist. Take a look after you finish reading, though, because you’ll be there a while. Rabbit holes abound. 

Eventually, you’ll be ready to put your own data on display. Sometimes a simple pie chart or a graph will do the job. But if you’re looking to do something more creative with your data visualization to engage your audience, Tableau is an example of the current state of data visualization tools.

Gather and analyze data with purpose. Amassing huge quantities of information without rhyme or reason can still end up costing a lot of time and money and get you nowhere. 

Okay, so how can data visualization improve your business?

1. Locate processes and initiatives needing improvement or adjustment. Take the pulse of your people and your business to find sources of friction that can be smoothed out. Visualizing the right data gains faster buy-in and stronger alignment. Understanding the efficiency and effectiveness of workflows, hierarchies, and everyday business processes, as well as functions, such as marketing, production, sales, and service, can all be monitored by collecting data and then analyzing it in ways that reveal what otherwise goes unseen or unnoticed.

2. Understand your customers, partners, and other stakeholders. Take surveys. Monitor social media. Gather this important data with transparency and consent. The powerhouse team of AI, machine learning, Big Data, and the Internet of Things can collect, analyze, and help make sense of whatever amount of data you have and need. Knowing how stakeholders and customers are feeling, what they want, and how your efforts can be improved gives you the keys to respond with precision.

3. Predict marketing, sales, and other performance. One of the greatest values of Big Data, AI, and machine learning is the power to consult past and present trends and behaviors and then to predict what’s next, building an agile strategy based on the most probable models and scenarios.

4. Develop the most effective strategies for your situation. Data analysis enables your teams to see what’s working and what’s not, and, most importantly: why. Understanding the why can inform your problem solving, since data analysis is also finding problems as well as gaining insights to help solve those problems – whether it’s a quality issue, a situation or process causing churn, room to improve customer experience, getting ahead of shifting market trends, or pivoting operations to respond to major disruption. Seeing the data tell impossibly complex stories with a few visuals that replace the sea of data not only saves time and money getting to that point, but also in guiding your team to the right strategy.

5. Communicate and motivate using your data to tell a story. Customers, colleagues, and investors appreciate having complex information presented in a way that’s clear and easy to understand and use to make informed decisions. Conveying your knowledge, vision, and strategy often calls for strong data to back it up. Present your story with authority and confidence. Creativity inspires creativity.

6. Respond quickly, effectively, and creatively. Time is always in great demand and short supply. Speed remains essential to agility. Creativity is compelling. Gaining clear and current insights to inform swift, creative, and effective action is the advantage that data analytics and visualization grants companies who learn how to harness its cosmic scale of possibilities.

 By: Rena Gadimova

 Digital Marketing Metrics 

Much of the time, you will want to start with an allocated budget. This may be tweaked as you calculate the cost per customer, but in starting with this metric you will get the best idea of ​​what your return on investment will be.

Impressions

Number of Clicks

Click-Through-Rate

Cost-per-Click

Number of Leads

Cost-per-Lead

Number of Customers Gained

Cost-per-Customer

Burdened Hourly Cost

Final Customer Acquisition Cost

If you're calculating cost based on a running campaign, take a look at the impressions you're gaining through your ads. If you're estimating, use previous ad data or research industry or payment amount averages. You may want to use your Google Webmaster tool as a base-level parameter for the specific keywords you're targeting as well.

The number of clicks you get on an ad is very important. This will be the determining factor for your click-through-rate, cost-per-click, number of leads, and ultimately your customer acquisition cost. If an ad is not getting clicks, you may want to consider tweaking the copy or targeting different terms. You may be competing with a high authority on the same terms, and therefore aren't appearing in the first page of results.

Spend a good portion of your time running through this statistic and working towards improvement. Ultimately, It is the leading factor for making or breaking your ROI on PPC.

Your click-through-rate will compare the number of clicks received by the number of impressions.

# of Clicks / # of Impressions = CTR

It's important to track your click-through-rate because it will help to determine whether your ad copy or design is effective and clear. It's safe to assume that if your CTR is really low that your copy may not be relevant for the search term that is driving impressions. On the other hand, if your CTR is very high, you may want to replicate your tone or design elsewhere or invest a larger monthly budget to benefit from these results.

Many PPC platforms will report on your cost per click. If this data is unavailable, determine your cost-per-click by dividing the number of clicks received by the allocated budget.

# of Clicks / Allocated Budget = CPC

Taking a look at your CPC may reveal a few things. For example, if your cost per click is very high, you may be utilizing keywords within your ad that are very competitive. It may also mean that you're not getting enough clicks for the amount you're budgeting. If you'd like to lower the cost of a click, you may want to find lower competition terms, remove terms that are driving high bounce rates or lower your bid amount.

Assuming your PPC landing page includes a form that will capture a lead conversion, the number of leads will be determined by your visit-to-lead conversion rate (or the number of leads procured if your campaign is active).

# of Clicks X Visit-to-Lead Conversion Rate = # of Leads

In this case, a Lead is essentially someone who has said, "Yes, I am interested in a portion of your business." These are ultimately the prospects who you'll be focusing on in order to make a sale. As with any marketing tactic, tracking the number of leads captured from a PPC campaign is very important, because it will help you determine whether or not pay-per-click is an effective method of acquisition for your company.

To map out your CPL, divide your allocated budget by the number of leads gained.

Allocated Budget / # of Leads = CPL

This number to remain as low as possible. Since a lead is not a guaranteed sale, if you're not converting on leads, this will just be wasted money. It's good to be cognizant of your CPL and continually assess whether or not the price is worth the return.

Similar to the number of leads gained, you will calculate the number of customers gained using your average lead-to-customer conversion rate or use your active campaign data.

# of Leads X Lead-to-Customer Conversion Rate = # of Customers

Whether or not the numbers of customers gained through PPC is good or not depends on the value of a customer. For example, you may have only received one customer, but if they're shelling out thousands of dollars, this may be worth the spend. The number of customers will be important for your business, but is not necessarily the most accurate number to report on. Instead, you'll want to focus more on the cost-per-customer, as described next.

Now it's time to get to the nitty gritty. The result of this question may prove or disprove the value of PPC for your company. If the cost is higher than the amount made from a single customer, it may not be worth the spend.

To calculate your cost-per-customer, you'll want to divide the allocated budget by the number of customers earned. Allocated Budget / # of Customers = Cost-Per-Custome By this point, the cost-per-customer will show (based only on the actual budget) what you've spent in order to earn that customer. However, this is not including the time you've spent to create or track your PPC campaigns or the paid too

Article By Ron Sela

 It’s common knowledge that the best products don’t always make it to the top. Many times great products fail, and companies have to go back to the drawing board because of a lack of strategic marketing. Time and again, the magic is in a product-led marketing strategy that covers all the bases.

This read provides a detailed guide on developing a product strategy, creating a product roadmap, and executing a successful product launch.

Find invaluable advice on these pages.

What is Product-Led Marketing?

Product-led marketing is a strategy in which the product is the primary driver of growth. It focuses on promoting and selling a product rather than a service or brand, opposing traditional marketing strategies. Its goal is to create demand for a product by highlighting its features and benefits.

You can often see this marketing in SAAS companies or industries where products are highly technical or complex, and customers require substantial information before purchasing. In these cases, product-led marketing can be an effective way to reach potential customers and build greater market penetration. By providing detailed information about the product and by demonstrations, your sales team can help customers make an informed decision during the entire buying process.

To be successful, product-led marketing must be supported by a well-crafted marketing plan that includes objectives, target markets, and key messages.

How Product-Led Marketing Works 

Product-led marketing relies on three things: Trial, education, and word-of-mouth. 

Trial

The best way to get people to buy your product is to let them try it first. Provide demos and offer free trials of your product so potential customers can see how it can benefit them. 

Education

Once people have tried your product, educating them on its optimum usage is necessary. You can do this through blog posts, video tutorials, or even in-person events. 

Word-of-mouth

Finally, once people use and enjoy your product, they’ll start talking about their positive customer experience. And when they do, make sure you’re ready to capitalize on that by monitoring social media and other online channels for interactions with your brand. 

Why Should You Consider It for Your Business?

There are many reasons why product-led marketing can be beneficial for your business. Here are four:

Enhanced brand awareness

Product-led marketing can help you become more famous because people will see your product more. It can also help you keep your current customers because they will be able to see how your product has improved. You can give away free samples or conduct demonstration videos that show how the product works.

Greater profitability potential

Product-led marketing leads to greater profitability potential because it creates a need for the product. With proper product marketing, businesses can create or heighten a demand in their customers that they did not have before. This effective marketing technique targets consumers’ buying motive and gets them to purchase the product. It increases the company’s profits with relatively lower customer acquisition costs.

Improved customer loyalty

This approach can lead to improved customer loyalty for three reasons.

• Product-qualified leads are more likely to be active and engaged product users. They have already been exposed to the product and its value firsthand.
• Product-led marketing leads to a higher quality customer base. Customers acquired through this type of marketing are more likely to be satisfied with the product and less likely to churn.
• It helps create a virtuous cycle of growth for product-led growth companies. As customers become loyal users of the product, they also become advocates for your brand. They spread word-of-mouth about your product, leading to more customers signing up. This positive feedback loop can lead to sustained growth for product-led companies over time.

Strengthened Brand Equity

Putting the product front and center allows customers to focus on what the brand offers and what makes it unique. As you focus on the product experience, you build a solid emotional connection with customers. Product-led marketing also drives constant innovations and improvements, keeping the brand relevant and top-of-mind. With all these, your customer success team can create a secure relationship with your target companies, building a sturdy foundation for long-term brand equity.

Now that we’ve defined product-led marketing and why you should consider it for your business, let’s look at the pieces that constitute successful product-led growth marketing.

Components of a Product-Led Growth Marketing

If you want to drive a product-led growth strategy, you need to focus on five key areas: merchandise, market, message, media, and methods. Let’s zoom in on each component so you can create a comprehensive growth marketing strategy for your business.

Merchandise

The merchandise is the physical product that you are selling. It is the foundation of your product-led company and what everything else revolves around. It sounds obvious, but if you want people to buy your product, you need to offer them something they want or need, or as we said, create that need.

Market

The market is whom you are selling your product to. Knowing your target companies is essential for developing an effective product-led growth marketing strategy. Yes, you have a great product, but you must be sure you’re earmarking the right people.

Message

The message is what you are saying about your product. It includes your brand identity and how you position your product in the marketplace. A strong message resonates with your target market, thus answering these questions: Why should they buy your product? What need does it fill? How will it improve their life?

Media

The media is how you deliver your message to your target market. It includes your website, social media, and paid advertising. 

Methods

Finally, you need to focus on conversion optimization to turn leads into customers. Your methods are the tactics you use to execute your product-led growth marketing strategy. You will need A/B testing, customer segmentation, and funnel optimization. 

Now we can put all these components together and create a strategy.

How to Create a Product-Led Marketing Strategy

It’s already settled that in a product-led marketing strategy, your product is the star of the show—not your marketing collateral or campaigns. This approach can be extremely effective, especially for companies with innovative products that speak for themselves.

But you still need a strategy. Here’s a seven-step process you can follow:

Step 1: Understand your target market and their needs

This is invariable. The first step in any marketing strategy—product-led or otherwise—is understanding your target market. Who are they? What do they need or want? What are their pain points?

Examine these steps:

1. Consider your current customer base. Who are they, and how can you serve them? Take the time to understand their businesses and what they want in a partnership. It will give you valuable insights into the companies most likely to benefit from your products or services.
2. Take a look at your competition. Whom are they targeting, and how are they positioning themselves? This research will help you better understand the needs of your potential customers and how you can best meet them.
3. Ask your target market directly! Surveys and interviews can be very helpful in getting feedback from potential customers about their specific needs.
4. Create buyer personas. These are made-up representations of your ideal customer based on factual data and research.

Step 2: Identify your product’s unique selling points (USPs)

Every product has unique selling points (USPs), and it’s important to identify yours before developing your marketing strategy. What makes your product preferable to the competition? Why should potential customers invest in it? Once you know your product’s USPs, you can begin to craft messaging that highlights them. 

Step 3: Create product messaging that resonates with your target market.

At this stage, you can start to develop messaging that resonates with them. You must include this messaging in all your marketing collateral, from website copy to social media posts to email Marketing campaigns. 

Here are uncomplicated tactics for creating impressive product messaging: 

• Keep it simple and easy to understand 
• Be clear and concise 
• Highlight the benefits of your product, not just the features 
• Use customer testimonials and case studies to show proof points 

Step 4: Develop a content plan that aligns with your product messaging

Once you have finalized your product messaging, it’s time to start thinking about content. Content is essential for any marketing strategy, but it’s vital for product-led approaches since it helps potential customers understand how your product can help them solve their specific problems or meet their needs. 

Some things to note as you develop your content plan: 

• Map out the buyer’s journey and create content for each stage 
• Make sure all of your content aligns with your overall brand identity and voice
• Don’t be afraid to get creative with different types of content (eBooks, infographics, blog posts, etc.)
• Use data and analytics to track engagement and adjust accordingly
• Always test different pieces of content before investing too much time or resources into them 

Step 5: Use effective channels to reach your target market

One of the most critical aspects of creating a product-led marketing strategy is choosing the right channels to reach your target market. There are a plethora of marketing channels accessible today, so it’s important to carefully select the ones that are cut out for your business and your products.

The most effective channels will vary depending on your product and target market. Some effective channels for reaching buyers include online advertising, webinars, eBooks, and social media marketing.

Step 6: Implement a lead generation process that will generate quality leads

To be truly successful, you need to generate leads that convert into customers. The best way to achieve this is by implementing a lead generation process that generates high-quality leads. To do this, you need to identify your target market, create compelling content that will capture their attention, and use effective call-to-action techniques to encourage them to take action. 

Step 7: Analyse and track the performance of your marketing campaigns

If you’re not measuring the performance of your product-led marketing campaigns, you’re missing out on valuable insights that will improve your results. The final step of creating a product-led marketing strategy is analyzing and tracking the performance of your marketing campaigns. It will allow you to see what’s working and what isn’t so that you can make necessary adjustments.

To do this effectively, plenty of tools and resources are available to help you. Google Analytics is a great place to start, but other tools like KISSmetrics, Mixpanel, and Heap can be helpful.

Once you have all this data, you can see patterns and trends emerge. This information will be invaluable as you fine-tune your product-led marketing strategy.

Best Practices for Launching a New Product

Launching a new product is both inspiring and nerve-wracking. On the one hand, you have a fresh product that you’re excited to share with the world. On the other hand, you have the pressure of making sure everything goes off without a hitch. No matter how prepared you are, there’s always a chance that something will go wrong.

The key is to minimize the risk of going wrong by following some tried-and-true best practices. 

Plan, Plan, and Plan Some More

One of the most important things you can do to ensure a successful product launch is to plan as much as possible. It involves planning for every eventuality and preparing contingency plans in case something goes wrong. By taking the time to plan everything out in advance, you can avoid many of the pitfalls that can trip up even the best-laid plans.

Keep a Tab on Your Competition

Another necessary thing to do is to keep an eye on your competition. You are already aware of your main competitors, but it’s important to monitor their activities leading up to your launch date. This way, you can adjust your plans accordingly if they make sudden changes. For example, if one of your competitors launches a similar product before you do, you may need to adjust your marketing strategy to emphasize why your product is different or better. 

Create a Prototype

Creating a prototype will allow you to work out any kinks in the design and ensure that it meets all your quality standards. You can show the prototype to potential customers and get their feedback before the launch. It’s also a good idea to market-test your prototype with a small group of potential customers before you launch it. It will give you valuable feedback that you can use to improve your product before it goes live. 

Furnish Your Product for Launching

Making sure your product is ready for launch day is another critical step in having a successful launch. It includes providing enough units to meet the demand and ensuring that all the packaging and labeling are correct. If any last-minute changes need to be made, now is the time to do them. By taking care of these details ahead of time, you can avoid potential issues on launch day. 

Build Up Anticipation

Leading up to the big day, it’s important to build up anticipation for your product amongst your target market. You can do it through marketing campaigns, social media teasers, and even leaked information (if you feel bold). The goal is to generate as much interest and excitement as possible so that people will be clamoring for your product when it finally hits store shelves or goes live online.

Launch and Learn from Your Mistakes

No matter how well you plan, there’s always a chance that something will go wrong on launch day (or even afterward). The key is not to let this discourage you; instead, view it as an opportunity to learn and improve for next time. Taking these lessons to heart ensures that each successive launch is more successful than the last one. 

Conclusion

As a B2B entrepreneur, product-led marketing is an excellent way to showcase your product and its features while providing valuable information to potential partners. By focusing on the product, you can demonstrate why it is superior to other products on the market and highlight its unique selling points. This type of marketing also allows you to build trust with target companies by providing them with accurate and helpful information.

Moreover, product-led marketing can be a great way to generate buzz and excitement about a new product launch. By creating an engaging and informative campaign, you can capture the attention of potential customers and encourage them to try your product.

FAQs

Here are other questions about product-led marketing that we have not covered in the article.

How do you create a winning product for your business?

While there’s no silver bullet or one-size-fits-all answer, some factors can help you give your product the best chance of success.

First, you should clearly understand your target market and their needs and wants. Once you know this, you can begin to ideate and develop products that address those needs and wants. It’s also important to keep an eye on trends in your industry and make sure your product can adapt and change as needed.

Second, ensuring that your product delivers value to customers is critical. It must be well-designed, easy to use, and provides a good user experience. It’s also important that your product is priced competitively and offers a good value proposition.

Lastly, have a solid marketing and launch plan in place. It should include identifying your target market, defining your marketing objectives, and crafting a messaging strategy. It’s also important to create compelling content that will generate interest in your product and drive traffic to your website or store.

How can you ensure your products stand out in a crowded market?

There are a few ways to ensure your products stand out in a crowded market. One is to create a unique product that can’t be found anywhere else. Another is to price your products lower than the competition. And finally, you can market your products to make them more appealing to consumers.

What are the challenges of product-led marketing?

Some major challenges include:
1. Guaranteeing that the product is the star of the show. Too often, companies focus on clever marketing slogans or pretty packaging instead of ensuring the product is worth buying.
2. Creating a clear value proposition for the product. To persuade consumers to buy your product instead of a competitor’s, you need to articulate what makes it unique and why they should care.
3. Generating excitement and interest for a new product launch. It isn’t easy, especially if the product is not innovative or interesting.
4. Ensuring that accurate and helpful information is provided to potential customers. To build trust with target companies, you must ensure that the information you provide is accurate and helpful.
5. Creating compelling content to drive traffic to your website or store. It can be challenging if you’re not a skilled writer or marketer.

Paid search trends to watch for the 2018 holiday shopping season

Shopping, local searches and audience optimizations are three of the biggest considerations to keep in mind.

With turkey carving set to commence on the morrow, the busy holiday shopping season is officially upon us (I’m a 40L for curious souls, love classic fabrics, timeless styles and cheese). As such, paid search marketers are gearing up for the next few weeks of data crunching, promotional scheduling and optimizations to make sure there’s more than coal awaiting them on Christmas Day.

By now you’ve hopefully got a solid strategy set and are ready to take advantage of the surge in online shoppers searching for gifts and gadgets aplenty. Still, here are a few key paid search trends to think about before the bird is out of the oven.

In retail, Google Shopping is king

I’ve written at length several times (here and here) throughout the years on the growing importance of Google Shopping for retail advertisers, but it just keeps getting bigger! In Q3, data from Merkle (my employer) showed Shopping accounting for 87 percent of all non-brand Google paid search clicks.

As such, retail advertisers must now focus a significant portion of their attention on these campaigns to get ready for the holiday season. Keeping close track of which products are driving traffic and orders and mining query reports for potential negatives and/or query-mapping optimizations is now an absolute must.

Advertisers should also be mindful of newer Shopping variations that are becoming increasingly prevalent in search results. For example, Showcase Shopping Ads have grown significantly over the last year, and went from accounting for just 1.6 percent of phone Shopping clicks for participating brands last Q4 to 5.1 percent in Q3 2018.

With Google increasingly choosing to show these units for more general searches, including in some layouts which show both Showcase ads and traditional Shopping units, having Showcase campaigns active and ready is more important than ever.

Another important variation of Google Shopping ads which stand to play a crucial role this holiday season are Local Inventory Ads (LIA), which give users information on when a product is available for pickup at a nearby store location. These units have also grown meaningfully in the share of Shopping traffic they account for over the past year for participating brands.

LIA trends can depend heavily on advertiser strategy during the holidays. Some retailers become significantly more aggressive with LIAs in order to push users in-store, while others maintain roughly the same strategy as pre-holiday. Still, many brands see LIA click share grow around Black Friday, as well as in the leadup to Christmas Day when users can no longer feel confident that items ordered online will arrive in time.

For advertisers that have LIAs active, being mindful of shipping cutoff days and shifting strategy to prioritize LIAs over traditional Shopping units can help provide a boost during key offline days.

However, LIAs aren’t the only local ads that brick-and-mortar brands should be mindful of during the holidays this year.

Users turn to navigational apps in the final days of holiday shopping

For the last several years, the U.S. Bureau of the Census has reported a jump in e-commerce share of total U.S. retail sales from Q3 to Q4, as shoppers seem to become more likely to order online during the busy holiday season. Even so, e-commerce sales still accounted for just over 10 percent of Q4 sales last year, as brick-and-mortar conversions continued to account for the vast majority of sales.

As many surveys and offline attribution techniques show, however, many brick-and-mortar sales are preceded by online research.

Users don’t just turn to traditional search engines in researching offline purchases – they also go straight to navigational apps, including Google Maps. While Google has yet to provide reporting to cleanly segment Maps ad traffic, click type reports provide some insight as the “Get location details” click type primarily comes from Maps.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve identified a trend that spans essentially all brick-and-mortar retailers studied that shows an increase in the share of text ad traffic attributed to “Get location details” in the days leading up to Dec. 25. This is what that looks like for one apparel retailer studied.

As you can see, Dec. 23 and 24 were by far the biggest days for Maps clicks. This trend indicates that shoppers modify their search behavior and go straight to navigational apps once they know shipping will be pricier or too slow to arrive in time. A similar uptick in searches probably occurs on other navigational apps as well.

Another trend to point out is that the share of traffic coming from these ads increased significantly from 2016 to 2017, something observed across our brick-and-mortar advertisers over the last couple of years. In Q3 2018, Merkle saw a meaningful lift relative to the quarters prior, so brick-and-mortar brands might be seeing even more traffic coming from these ads this year.

While Google announced Local Campaigns in July, at this point most retailers are still deriving Maps ad traffic from location extensions added to active keyword campaigns.

There’s not much control with this setup as there are no bidding or other targeting levers available specifically for Maps via location extensions, but one thing to certainly keep an eye on is offline attribution. Since Maps searchers are naturally more likely to head in-store than convert online, online conversion rate may start to slip as traffic from Maps grows. Being mindful of this throughout the holiday season will help ensure ads are being bid based on the full value they drive, both online and offline.

After Shopping and local searches, I’ve got one more big trend to keep an eye on this holiday season to help make your paid search campaigns glisten.

Audiences, audiences, audiences

It’s probably no surprise to you that audience segmentation has grown tremendously in importance over the past couple of years. Merkle advertisers that use audience targeting find 30 percent of all Google paid search traffic is now attributed to Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA), Customer Match or Similar Audiences.

One trend that might pop out from the chart above is the dip in RLSA click share in September. The decline started in mid-September around the time of the rollout of Apple’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) 2.0 initiative, but share bounced back and returned to previous levels by the end of the quarter, where it’s remained ever since.

Talking with sources in the know, it does sound like ITP 2.0 could eventually prevent RLSA tracking and targeting for iOS and Safari 12 users, but that the erosion of RLSA for those users would happen slowly over time. As such, we shouldn’t expect too much of a dip over the course of the holiday season, but it wouldn’t be totally out of the realm of possibility.

In terms of strategy, advertisers should be trying to use these audiences to maximize the value of these shoppers who are already familiar with the brand. While that can at times mean bidding more aggressively to stay in front of these searchers when they’re researching, it’s important to keep in mind that last click attribution often inflates the true value of ad clicks from these audiences, since some audience members would end up converting anyway.

In addition to bidding adjustments, modifications to ad copy and landing pages can help place the most effective offers and experiences in front of users based on interests displayed during past interactions with the brand. With RLSA audiences now allowed to include website visitors from as far back as 540 days, forward-thinking advertisers that created holiday shopping-specific audiences from last year’s Q4 shoppers can call on those audiences this season for optimizations.

I do think it’s important to note that there’s a lot of misinformation floating around on the use of audiences, with some in the industry going as far as to say advertisers should only target remarketing audiences in paid search since those users have higher CTR and conversion rate. While a small share of advertisers might want to pursue such a strategy, most brands would be ill-served by turning off ads to anyone other than those searchers that are already existing customers. In terms of incremental value, often ad clicks tied to non-audience members can have the biggest positive effect for an advertiser’s business.

There’s no silver bullet for all advertisers to use to effectively target audiences in paid search during the holiday season, as every brand is different. That said, brands should be aware of how these audiences have performed in the past and keep an eye on how things are shaking out this year to identify potential pain points or successful strategies that can be built upon throughout the season.

Conclusion

There are plenty of other paid search bits and pieces to focus on throughout the next few weeks, but Shopping, local searches and audience optimizations are three of the biggest considerations to keep in mind. Getting them right can go a long way towards making the next few weeks as successful as possible.

Source Search Engine Land

11 Things CMOs Need To Know About Mobile Marketing Strategy And App Development

I honestly cannot believe I actually have to write this but this just in, pretty much entire world is on a mobile device on pretty much the whole time they are awake. In other words, the world of mobile marketing and its ridiculously enormous benefits should come as no surprise to anyone.

I have written countless articles on the topic of mobile marketing going back years. I don’t say to imply I am some sort of soothsayer or anything like that. I merely bring that point up to highlight the fact that mobile marketing is not something someone in the marketing world should just be waking up to.

Ok enough about that.

I’ve put together a high-level list for CMOs or any marketer for that matter to consider when looking at their mobile marketing strategy. 

1. Mobile App or Mobile Website?
Many companies rush forward and create an app just because their competitors have one. But not every company needs an app. Often a mobile-optimized site will meet most requirements. Mobile apps, however, generally allow for more creativity, and better interaction with your targeted users.

According to Janna Badalian, Director of Marketing at MobileSmith, “When it comes to customer engagement, native mobile apps can give your website a run for its money.You can engage various groups of customers and offer them a superior user experience – even without a reliable Internet connection.”

2. How Are Your Customers Using Mobile?

Use analytics to understand how your target audiences are using mobile. Are they transacting or using it to gather information? Are they mostly on Android or iOS; smartphones or tablets? Translating this data to your IT will help them make the right decisions and prioritize development plans. However, sometimes requirements can get “lost in translation.” Marketers usually know best what their customers expect from a mobile app, and they can get their idea to market quicker if empowered with the right app prototyping and development tools.

3. Get to Know ASO

What is ASO? App Store optimization. The App Store can be a great source of new customers or it can be a competitive nightmare where your app never sees the light of day. Getting to understand ASO is a critical part of gaining traction and maintaining traction in the App Store. Sites like apptamin.comoffer great information on the subject. 

4. Get to Know Your Competitors
Download your competitor’s apps. Not just you, but everyone on your team should get to know what’s out there and how the competition operates. Not only will you get some ideas, you will find out what they are not doing well which will give you an opportunity to identity ways to beat them. 

5. Check Cost Per Download
This is a fundamental issue that hits the business side of marketing your company with an app. It’s one thing to develop an app, it’s entirely another to motivate customers or potential customers to download the app. 

6. Consider In-App Advertising
CMOs should look at the app landscape and focus on popular apps with frequent usability. Popular apps like Twitter allow in-app advertising or mobile advertising, and that’s one way to quickly distribute your app. 

7. Use Social Media to Acquire Users
You should consider every distribution point that you think is efficient, but certainly use mobile social media platforms. The technology offers an almost immediate access to download your app. Your creative plan to drive consumers to download must be spot on, or your app will fail. 

8. Double-Down on Mobile

The future of marketing is mobile: Mobile is the most personal device we possess, which makes it the best device to market to. In addition, time spent in mobile apps has already surpassed time spent on desktop Web, and for some parts of the world, mobile devices are the first and only computer people possess. 

9. Use Mobile App Marketing Automation
CMOs are already familiar with marketing automation on the Web; however, mobile apps present a lot of unique challenges and opportunities. On the Web, marketing automation is predominantly a B2B market, whereas apps are primarily for consumers. Also, the primary use case for marketing automation on the Web is lead nurturing, whereas with mobile apps it’s about engagement, retention, and lifetime value. Therefore, CMOs responsible for mobile apps should adopt marketing automation solutions specifically designed for mobile. 

10. Take Advantage of Real-Time Location
Location is one of the great opportunities for marketers on mobile. CMOs should experiment with iBeacons and geo-fences, not only to be able to segment users based on where they’ve been in the past, but also to design marketing interactions for users as they enter or leave certain locations. For example, switch the user experience in the app to “in-store mode” once a user passes by the iBeacon at your storefront, or send a survey to hotel guests as they leave the geo-fence of the hotel. 

11. Be Lean!
Mobile holds tremendous promise, but it’s also uncharted territory for a lot of CMOs. We can’t rely on gut feeling of past experience to build a successful mobile app. Instead CMOs should adopt a culture of data-driven decision making and build their app incrementally. That involves relying on A/B testing and analytics for optimizing both the in-app experience and all marketing interactions, such as push notifications.