Brand Ranch Media Marketing & Advertising Agency News

B2B Marketing – How to Successfully Market to Millennials

B2B (business-to-business) marketing is not a new concept. Businesses have been advertising their products to other businesses heavily since the ad boom of the 1920s. In the 1870s, farmers made up over half of the population in the US and Montgomery Ward’s Mail-Order Catalog allowed those with limited access to dry goods and clothing the opportunity to have these products shipped to remote areas via the railroads. Talk about snail-mail! In our current society, organizations have become reliant upon each other to provide products and services needed to complete tasks and ultimately grow. The generation that comprises the modern-day “millennial” has become more and more important to the operation and success of organizations.

Millennials in Business

Depending on who you ask, a millennial is defined as someone born between 1980 and the mid-1990s. This puts them between the ages of 26-41 with the average age of 34. Studies have shown that about two-thirds of millennials are decision-makers when making large purchases for their organization. This is a group that B2B marketers cannot afford to disregard or to assume that the type of marketing tactics successful with the previous generation will continue its success with millennial decision-makers. In the ever-evolving modern business world, marketers must constantly adapt their strategies in order to reach and engage their target audience. In order for B2B marketers to successfully market to millennials, it’s important to understand this group, what’s important to them, and their common values, as well as how they access their information.

Where to Reach Millennials

Millennials are very tech-savvy and tend to gather information through omnichannel resources. For example, 33-year-old Suzie is a department manager for a financial institution. She’s listening to a podcast episode on her iPhone about financial advice for people in their 30s and hears an ad for some financial software that could solve her company’s need for improved reporting analytics. The next day, she’s at work and does a Google Search on her desktop to learn more about this software. She gets served an ad for the software and watches a 4-minute video on the landing page that shows a demo of the software, all of the data that it provides, and how easy it is to use. She then posts on her LinkedIn page asking if any of her peers have used this particular software and learns that her college classmate, John, highly recommends this solution as it has worked wonders for his company’s finance department. Suzie presents all of the information she has gathered to the head of her department, and they decide to purchase the software.

In this example, the marketing department for the software company was able to reach Suzie on multiple devices (mobile and desktop) via a podcast, search ad, and a video. This omnichannel marketing approach successfully leads to a purchase. If the software company decided to only invest in a search ad, Suzie might never have known there was a solution to the reporting issue her department was facing.

Millennials Want to Learn at Ease

In our example above, Suzie is looking for a solution. When she visits the software company’s landing page, the video she watches is very informative and shows actual screenshots of the software functioning. The video provides added value for Suzie because she is able to learn how it works. Watching a video with great visuals and a well-written script makes learning easy. It’s also a very efficient way to provide more information about their product. The ability to learn about a business solution in an efficient and easy-to-understand manner is very appealing to millennials. This approach not only provides added value, but it also avoids the “hard sell”. Most millennials feel bombarded by ads on all media platforms they use. This bombardment has caused this generation to distrust many of the brands that use the hard sell approach. If a business can’t show added value through its marketing efforts, they may as well just set fire to their ad dollars.

Suzie also looked to her peers to see if anyone she was acquainted with had experience with using the software she was looking into for her company. Social media was invented right around the time the oldest millennials were in their early 20s. Those that went to college were either finishing up or had just graduated. Social media made it easier to stay in contact with friends, especially those that had moved on to other cities. It continues to be a way for millennials to keep in touch with friends, obtain information, and ask for recommendations.

Millennials and Values

Corporate responsibility, transparency, and authenticity are values millennials look for when making purchasing decisions. In the consumer world, about 75% of millennials are willing to pay more for a product if it is sustainable. Cruelty-free, Fair Trade, and environmentally friendly are all buzz words that are appealing when buying a product. The same can be said in the B2B model. If Suzie learns that the data software company gives 5% of its profits for research into solar energy, this might help sway her decision over competitors with similar data solutions.

Transparency and authenticity speak to millennials in a B2B environment as well. Similar to the concept of avoiding the hard sell, a company that can pitch their products based on transparent and authentic practices will be more appealing to the millennial generation. The corporate millennial buyer doesn’t want to feel taken advantage of and can tell when they are being sold. A direct and authentic approach will ultimately result in a more comfortable situation relieving any stress or ambiguity to the purchasing process.

B2B marketing will continue to evolve and the millennial buyer is likely to adapt to changes in advertising technology. It will be important for businesses to follow suit and deliver relevant marketing strategies that speak to and are effective with this generational group.

Need help with devising an omnichannel marketing campaign to reach the decision-makers for your B2B needs? Brand Ranch Media can help with a winning strategy! Give us a call at 713-309-6380 or reach out through our contact form on the website.

How to Make Streaming Radio Ads Work for Your Business

Music streaming has gained extreme popularity, listenership and has evolved into a massive industry with billions of dollars going into this market each year. Music (or audio) streaming has become an essential part of everyday life for many of us and the COVID-19 pandemic has helped boost this industry with many staying home regularly listening to music and podcasts. Audio streaming is convenient, has a vast array of music and podcast options, millions of on-demand songs, and ways to discover new choices and genres – all from your mobile device. The key reason for music streaming market growth is driven by the expansion of mobile, specifically mobile advertising spending, use of mobile apps, and increased subscription services (such as Spotify, Pandora, and Apple Music to name a few). Even video platforms such as YouTube are also very popular for music fans. According to Business Wire, the global music streaming market is estimated to grow at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 7.4% from 2020 to 2027, to reach $46.9 billion in 2027! There’s absolutely no doubt this media is exploding, but how can streaming radio ads help you grow your business?

Benefits of Advertising on Streaming Radio

With a strong and steadily growing listener base, streaming radio offers many significant benefits and features for advertisers. To start, many users subscribe to the free/unpaid versions on their platform of choice – and consumers are aware they will be receiving ads in exchange for free music, therefore ads are expected. Advertisers can reach their target audience whether they live in the local community or across the nation- wherever they are. So, how many people are listening? Around 176 million people (62% of the U.S. 12+ population) are now weekly online audio listeners – which is an all-time high for this media category. What makes these platforms so popular? According to Music Tech, for example, Spotify is considered the world’s most popular music streaming app with 70 million tracks, 2.2 million podcast titles, and 345 million users worldwide (Music Tech, May 2021). As of February 2021, Pandora reportedly has 70 million active listeners and 6.8 million paid subscribers. In addition, Apple Music has over 72 million premium subscribers. In addition to the number of users, most streaming platforms allow advanced targeting options. These targeting options enable you to reach the audience you want to speak to within your target demographic. Depending on the platform, advertising capabilities include country, city, state, DMA or MSA, and zip code targeting, age, gender, language, weather, genre, playlists, sponsored sessions, video, and display/clickable ads – you won’t miss your target audience! Additionally, streaming radio ads allow businesses to advertise affordably, making them a beneficial compliment to your overall media and marketing plan.

How Streaming Radio Ads Work

The main benefit of streaming radio ads is that you can reach listeners anytime, on any device (mobile, tablet, desktop, web, gaming consoles, connected TVs and cars, and even connected speakers), wherever they go – and they work! Streaming radio ads are effective because they engage the listener rather than interrupt them. Audio ads are served between songs/content while there are no distractions- so you have a captive and engaged audience ready to focus on the message being delivered. In addition, you can complement audio ads with display banner ads that entice users to act (such as visit your website, for example).

Streaming Radio Ad Formats & Best Practices

There are many different streaming radio ad formats and lengths. Examples include pre-roll (before the content), mid-roll (during the content), post-roll (after the content), live playback (often used in podcasts), audio sequencing (based on audience retargeting information) and branded audio streaming (sponsored web radio program). Recommended ad lengths vary depending on the message, advertising objective, and placement and can range from :05 – :60 seconds in length. To have your message received in the manner it is intended, it is important that your radio ads are high-quality and are produced with messages that are personal to the listener. Radio ads must be creative, memorable, and entertaining while establishing attractive offers that elicit easy purchase decisions or user interaction. One important criterion for radio ads is to remember that listeners may not have their screen on and therefore calls to action need not rely solely on screen activation or companion banner interaction. Ultimately, the bottom line is the radio ad needs to stand out and resonate with the listener you are trying to engage so that it is both memorable and effective! The end game: High-quality streaming radio ads paired with a well thought out media plan and placements can bring advertisers the results they are looking for.

If you have questions about or need help with streaming radio campaigns for your business, let Brand Ranch Media help! We have a state-of-the-art production studio and years of experience in the radio industry. We would love to give your marketing efforts a little boost and help you obtain the results you are looking for! Please feel free to give us a call at 713-309-6380 or reach out with our online contact form.

Google Delays 3rd Party Cookie Phase Out

Advertisers can breathe a little easier as Google recently announced that they are going to delay the elimination of 3^rd party tracking cookies on its Chrome browser until late 2023. If this topic sounds familiar, you might have read our previous article where we discussed how 3^rd party cookie elimination would affect digital marketing strategies. In it, we suggested some alternative ways that advertisers could track online user behavior once 3^rd party cookie tracking got the ax. Cookie tracking is a practice utilized in most online ad platforms. By placing a “cookie” on a user’s web browser, advertisers can better understand that person’s online behavior and can therefore show them more relevant ads.

Why the delay?

Google received heavy pushback from other ad platforms and digital marketers alike. Many were left scrambling to develop alternative tracking methods to ensure that marketing efforts weren’t completely spoiled once Google made the switch. Many of the alternatives suggested didn’t sit well with online privacy advocates. Extending the cookie phase out will allow more time to find an alternative that satisfies Google, advertisers, and privacy advocates.

A Monopoly in the Making

In the UK, Google’s plan raised the eyebrows of antitrust authorities. Their main concern was that Google’s plan to eliminate 3^rd party cookie tracking on Chrome would put other advertising platforms at a severe disadvantage thus causing advertisers to move their marketing dollars to Google’s ad platform. One of these advertising competitors is Facebook, which makes the majority of its revenue through selling ads on social media and apps. Facebook utilizes a piece of website code (or pixel) to track its ad performance metrics. Most notably, the pixel enables the Facebook ads platform to track conversion data such as leads and sales and attribute them to ads. Without this trackable conversion data, it would be difficult to prove any kind of return on advertising spend. Digital marketing has typically benefitted advertising firms because it is much easier to prove returns versus traditional forms of marketing such as television, radio, and print. Google has stated that they are more than willing to work with the UK’s antitrust authorities in order to appease.

What’s Next?

From an advertiser’s standpoint, Google’s delay provides a welcomed extension. It gives other ad platforms a chance to finetune their current solutions and marketing professionals time to put those solutions in place. There was also an indication that perhaps Google wasn’t quite ready for its own update. It looks like we are all going to have to wait another couple of years for the next era of digital ads tracking.

Worried that your digital ads might not be up to snuff? We love helping businesses optimize their online presence and develop successful campaigns! Give us a call at 713-309-6380 or fill out our contact form to discuss!

The Best LinkedIn Ads for Business-to-Business (B2B)

LinkedIn Ads have become synonymous with B2B marketing over the years due to the vast and ever-expanding targeting options that are available to digital marketers.

Through vast improvements to the ad platform, LinkedIn now provides many of the same custom targeting characteristics that Google and Facebook/Instagram have provided for years…but with the addition of detailed, employment specific targeting (experience, education, company, professional interests, etc.). The combination of custom audiences and highly defined employment data make LinkedIn the “holy grail” for many B2B Digital marketers that drives real, measurable conversions to your business.

Before diving into what ad format works best for your specific business, it is important to first define the following:

What are your goals for a LinkedIn Ads campaign?

Do you have a specific video that you want people to view, a website that you want them to visit, or a lead generation form that you would like them to fill out to gather contact information? Knowing the end goal is the first step in deciding what ad format works best. Think Big Picture.

*Pro Tip: Many times, multiple ads are used to accomplish one end goal and campaign data provides good feedback for campaign improvement. Don’t be afraid to test the waters but know your long-term end goal for LinkedIn as a marketing tool. It will help build your roadmap.

Who is your target audience?

Maybe you are wanting to reach people with a specific job title, who work for a specific company, or have a specific education or interests? Maybe you have a list of prospects or customers that you would like to engage with about a new product or service? Maybe you have a rockstar agency like Brand Ranch Media and have integrated your CRM to use your company database as a custom audience? Regardless of who you are targeting, it is important to clearly define who you specifically want to reach with your ads.

*Pro Tip: It is okay to reach different audiences (In fact, we encourage it!), but you want to make sure that each audience is clearly defined, and separate campaigns are used for each audience.

What is your budget?

Like most social media platforms, LinkedIn ads are sold on auction, where you are bidding with other companies to compete for that same audience. You must determine how much you are willing to spend as the platform will distribute the ads accordingly. Depending on the goal of the ad, your pricing structure may vary between CPM – Cost-per-thousand, CPC – Cost-per-click, or CPS – Cost-per-send.

What is the objective of your ad?

Now that you know the overall goal (If not, scroll back up and start over you slacker), you can begin to define your objective for each ad. Is the purpose of your ad brand awareness, consideration (website visits, engagement, video views, etc.), or conversions (lead generation form, website conversion, job applicant, etc.)? The answer to this question will help define what type of ad you will use.

LinkedIn Ads Formats

There are multiple LinkedIn ad formats to choose from, each with their own characteristics and specific functions based on the overall objective of your ad campaign.

Sponsored Content: (Single Image, Video, Carousel Ads) – These ads run directly in the News Feed and have an organic feel that can raise awareness, generate website traffic, or generate leads.

Sponsored Messaging: (Message, Conversation Ads) -These ads appear directly in the message center of a user’s inbox and tend to get high open rates.

Right-rail: (Text, Spotlight, Follower Ads) – These ads appear on the right-rail of the LinkedIn page and appear like what you would see with search engine results.

Lead Gen Forms – For message ads and sponsored content, you can utilize LinkedIn’s seamless, pre-filled forms to gather leads and improve campaign conversion rates.

What targeting characteristics should I use?

LinkedIn ad campaigns should include obvious targeting characteristics including audience location (based on profile or IP address) and language, then further broken down into more specific targeting characteristics based on your campaign goals.

Some more specific examples of LinkedIn targeting characteristics include:

Demographics

Experience

Education

Company

Interests

Age

Gender

Job Function

Job Title

Job Seniority

Years of Experience

Skills

Schools

Degrees

Fields of Study

Company Name

Company Industry

Company Growth Rate

Company Category

Company Size

Interests

Member Traits

Groups

…Or maybe you’re just more confused than you were before this article? If so, we won’t begin to tell you how often the digital marketing landscape continually evolves.By now you should have a better understanding of what the best LinkedIn ads may be for your business-to-business (B2B) campaign. If not, at least you’ll have a better understanding of what the world of LinkedIn advertising may provide for your business.

No need to fret! Brand Ranch Media is here to help.

If you think your LinkedIn marketing campaigns could use expert care, let Brand Ranch Media’s digital marketing teams help! We would love to speak with you! Please feel free to give us a call at 713-309-6380 or reach out with our online contact form.

3rd Party Call Tracking & Marketing ROI

If you’re struggling to understand which of your marketing efforts are really converting into leads, appointments, clients, and sales, you’re not alone. Maybe it’s time for the help of a 3^rd party call tracking platform? There is an entire industry built around helping businesses attribute prospect activity back to marketing efforts to get a better ROI. Digital ad platforms and dashboards can help inform you how your campaigns are performing based on virtual signals. Analytics tools can help you understand how users are functioning within your website and their activity on-page. But measuring the real-world impact of your marketing efforts could be simplified and more accurate with the help of a 3^rd party call tracking platform.

If ultimately, what you really want your marketing investment to do is drive real-world interaction with a prospect, like a call for service or a completed contact form for a product installation, or piece of equipment, then it makes sense that a program that tracks and measures those real-world interactions may simplify how you judge which marketing efforts are doing the best.

How many lead phone calls did you get last month?

Would it help if you could tell where they came from?

3^rd party call tracking platforms can often tie digitally sourced calls back the keywords used in search campaigns and call extension ads.

By using unique tracking phone numbers for each media or campaign you want to measure, you can better attribute calls and leads back to the appropriate campaign source. 3^rd party call tracking programs can help you set up and track lead responses by phone number for each call source you use. Set up a unique number for search, another number for TV, or radio, and another for print, social media, or YouTube…and keep your main/prime phone number for organic calls.

Easy to remember phone numbers may be a big benefit for mass media like Broadcast TV & radio ads, or billboards. Vanity numbers can be ported over to be tracked as well. If you count how many times that phone line rings, and it has only been dispersed to the public via that one media/campaign, it’s easy to count the leads that came from that source.

If you find yourself asking, “Well what if they called from my website?” 3^rd party tracking can help you there too. A pixel placed into your site can update the phone number that displays on your website according to where the user traffic originated from. For example, a user who comes into your site from a paid search ad may see the pre-determined phone number ending in “1010,” while a user who came to your site from a social media ad would see the number ending in “0000.” A user who clicked on the organic search results would see the number ending in “2000.”

We often see that with video, TV, radio and billboard campaigns, consumers remember your brand but not your specific phone number (even if it was a vanity number). Prospective customers may then turn towards search to find your brand online, and you may see them come in as organic leads. Asking them the question, “How did you hear about us?” during the conversation, or asking it on the contact form, can help determine if the “First Touch” that influenced the contact was truly another specific media.

How does call tracking help track that first touch, or attribution?

At Brand Ranch Media, we utilize 3^rd party call tracking software for all digital marketing clients to track advertising return-on-investment and improve the customer experience for our clients. Our software is well integrated with many ad platforms, analytics programs, and CRMs, and it offers a form of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that “listens” to the recorded calls & conversations, and then analyzes them for pre-selected keywords that can offer further insights. This additional layer of insight into your calls may sound a bit like “big brother” listening to your calls, but the AI technology is very helpful. By setting up and then listening for pre-determined keywords and phrases you can track and categorize your leads into categories or buckets that have value to you.

For instance, in the above question, “How did you hear about us?” The answers may be a keyword that verifies if the caller sites a second source for the call/lead… a response of “TV” could be tracked and measured.

Would it help to know which calls were “good” qualified calls?

If a caller mentions the specific product or services you offer and advertise, that’s probably a sign that they are qualified (not an accidental call). If the AI detects the keyword “appointment” in the conversation, then that may help measure leads that took the next step to become a customer or client and scheduled a consultation, quote, or service.

Listening to the recorded calls can also offer some additional valuable insights. If you aren’t converting phone call-based leads into appointments at the rate you anticipated, perhaps it’s time to “check the tape” (Although 3^rd party call tracking is 100% digital now ????). After listening to a few calls, patterns may emerge. Sometimes we hear opportunities for improvement by the call center or receptionist, and with a little coaching, we can improve those appointment rates. We often learn that prospects ask similar questions when they call. This type of insight can help you craft your best response and be better prepared for the next conversation to close the deal or set the appointment.

Some consumers just don’t like phone calls… they prefer to avoid real-life interaction with its uncertainty. Those prospective customers may be more likely to respond via a form fill, messenger communication, or text message. Brand Ranch Media’s call tracking technology offers “form tracking,” which can help source where contact forms, messenger communications, and text messages are coming from. When you combine form tracking, text, and messenger data with your call tracking all in one place it’s a very helpful way to validate your lead data, review trends, and make improvements on where your marketing budget is being allocated.

Would it help to track and know which leads you still have scheduled and which you need to follow up on?

Another benefit of Brand Ranch Media’s call tracking technology is that we can help you track which calls, messages and text leads you still need to reach back out to. You can integrate this with your CRM in some cases or take notes regarding what you need to do to follow up and advance the opportunity within the call tracking platform.

3^rd party call tracking can be a huge benefit. It can take a little time and effort to set up the tracking for optimal information and insight across your campaigns and media, but it’s worth it. The insights and the validation gained can make it easy to see where your qualified leads and appointments are really coming from, all the way down to the keywords. When paired and integrated with existing CRMs, ad platforms, and analytics, tying this 3^rd party data back to media and campaign performance can help make campaign analysis fast and convenient, quickly paying off through improved performance and ROI.

If you need a hand setting up a way to track the real-world impacts of your marketing efforts don’t hesitate to reach out to us at Brand Ranch Media via phone at 713-309-6380 or through our contact form on our website. We can make it easy to track the ROI for your marketing investment!

OTT: Expand Your Reach Now

OTT, which is short for Over-The-Top, is a rapidly growing streaming television experience via the internet that has seen consistent growth over the years. OTT viewing is changing the way in which we consume television and, more importantly, how we purchase television advertising.

You’ve heard the saying “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” This could be true for you if you add OTT to your traditional linear television campaign. There is a recent trend of consumers cutting the cord, foregoing cable bundles, and opting for a more personalized viewing experience with streaming devices. While many advertisers are slow to adjust to these trends, it opens the door for competitors to capitalize on the opportunity to increase brand awareness and gain a piece of market share.

The difference between OTT and Linear TV

Linear television is a traditional viewing experience, where the consumer tunes to a specific channel at a designated time to watch a program. Most linear TV is accessed through a subscription to cable or satellite services. Targeting your audience on traditional TV is based on ratings and time of day – so the advertiser pays based on viewer ratings, which sometimes are unclear or “projected” by the ratings system. It is dependent on viewers tuning in to a specific station to watch the scheduled content. The viewer’s location can also be unclear, so the reach may be too broad for the goals of your campaign.

OTT, which is short for Over-The-Top, is a rapidly growing viewer experience via the internet. Common OTT devices are Roku, Hulu, FireStick, YouTubeTV, and Apple TV. Viewers of OTT are usually watching content when it’s convenient for them – not at a “scheduled” time. OTT platforms allow advertisers to engage with their audience when and where they are watching. Targeting your audience on OTT can be a lot more specific. Because the content is being viewed digitally, the targeting can be based on location, needs, interests, demographics, and even past experiences, allowing for sequential messaging. Advertisers pay based on the number of impressions or views (not ratings and projections), and performance can be tracked in real time – allowing for optimization if needed. Ads can also include a call-to action so the consumer can interact with the ad immediately from their viewing device.

Is OTT right for you?

If you are utilizing broadcast television advertising and want to increase your brand awareness, reach a more targeted audience, and maintain growth, then OTT is right for you! Changing campaign strategies to coincide with consumer trends is key when growing your business. OTT allows you to reach consumers wherever they are! According to Effectv, adding OTT to traditional TV campaigns can boost brand awareness by 86%. Their research shows that viewers were 3x more likely to interact with the ad when seen on TV and OTT, brand recall more than doubled, and purchase intent increased by an average of 15%. Consumers are increasingly spending more time using OTT services as a benefit – allowing them to watch their favorite content whenever and wherever they want.

Publisher vs. Platform

There are two main sources for accessing OTT advertising – publishers and platforms. Publishers distribute their programming through apps on different devices and platforms. Some of the largest publishers include Hulu, ABC, FOX, CBS, NBC, YouTube, Effectv and Xfinity. Platforms are operating systems or devices that sell advertising to their publisher partners. Examples of platforms are smart/connected TV’s (Sony and Samsung), video game consoles (Xbox, Playstation), and streaming boxes (Chromecast, Roku, Firestick, Apple TV). Combining your target audience with campaign goals can help you decide which option is best for you.

In Conclusion

If you are currently utilizing traditional television and not including an OTT platform simultaneously, you may be missing out on a huge audience. OTT audiences are more targeted and add a highly engaged consumer to your advertising reach. As most consumers watching traditional television may change the channel during advertisements, an OTT user is watching content that they chose, so they are invested and more likely to interact with your ad – especially if they’ve seen it on traditional TV and create a connection through brand recall.

Achieve your marketing goals and increase brand awareness by combining the targeting and measurement of OTT with the reach and impact of traditional TV.

If you want to stay on top of the fast-changing audience trends and the capabilities of new marketing tools, contact us today about your campaign goals and OTT. Call our offices directly at 713-309-6380, or leave your comments below.

2021 Digital Marketing Predictions: Update

In early December of 2020 we made some bold (but calculated) predictions for future marketing trends as well as set forth some marketing goals and resolutions that advertisers should focus on in 2021. With all the challenges that 2020 brought to the marketplace, businesses were forced to adapt to the changes in order to stay afloat. Consumer behavior also shifted and marketing strategies that once worked had to be adjusted to cater to the evolving customer.

As a recap, here are some of the trends and goals that we predicted would be major focuses of brands both large and small:

Trend 1: Companies will continue to improve their customer’s digital buying experience.
Trend 2: SEO will continue to stay relevant.
Goal 1: Focus on mobile site speed.
Goal 2: Focus on SEO to help fill the funnel for longer sales cycles.
Goal 3: Adopt a winning social strategy.

Fast-forward to six months later and we are nearing the halfway point for 2021! It feels as though this year has been shot out of a cannon and refuses to slow down. It’s been reported that consumer confidence in the US sharply increased in April after the previous increase in March indicating that consumer attitude, buying intentions, and fiscal expectations have reached pre-pandemic levels. Marketers seem to be taking note. In a worldwide survey conducted in March 2021 by research firm, Ascend2, marketing professionals were asked, “Which areas of the digital customer experience will you focus most on improving in the year ahead?” The top three responses were website optimization, social media, and personalization all reporting at about 45% for each response.

Overall, brand marketers want to improve customer experience through website optimization by making it easier for customers to purchase products using mobile devices, adding more ways for customers to reach a sales representative directly on the digital platform, and adding more content that helps the customer to make more informed buying decisions. Increasing the speed of a mobile website will not only improve the customer experience but it will also help with Google index rankings and eliminate a reason why a customer might leave the website and opt for a competitor. Adding content that answers common customer questions will help fill the sales funnel, especially for goods and services with longer sales cycles.

Marketers also want to focus on the social media experience of their customers. This can be achieved through personalized messaging, ad content, and providing multiple ways for customers to interact with the business without having to leave the social media platform. Facebook has pioneered social media advertising and has brought the same technology to Instagram. By personalizing the messaging and content of an ad, marketers can “speak” to consumers depending on where they fit into the sales funnel. Customers can also directly interact with businesses via Facebook Messenger Ads which can also help the business to pre-qualify shoppers through automated messaging options. With the changes released in the most recent update to iOS14, tracking user behavior offsite is going to be very difficult for social media apps such as Facebook. If marketers can interact with customers while offering seamless ways to conduct transactions directly on the social media platform, ROI (return on investment) will be much easier to prove.

So, how did our predictions hold up? We think very well.

A marketing team with the foresight to predict future behaviors and trends in the market is an invaluable asset to any business. At Brand Ranch Media, our experience and expertise in the broad spectrum of advertising can help position your business towards increased revenue while placing your brand in front of customers that have the highest intent to purchase. Give us a call at 713-309-6380 or send us a message to discuss how we can help drive your business to success!

New Search Engine: What is Neeva?

Are you tired of ads that seem to follow you around whenever you go online? If you’re a habitual online shopper then you may sometimes feel like the ads are stalking you! A team of former Google executives agree and are in the process of developing Neeva, a new search engine that is completely ad free. Instead, Neeva plans to offer use of its search engine for a monthly subscription similar to streaming video platforms such as Netflix. Curious as to how a search engine without ads would function, we requested early access to beta test Neeva and were given the opportunity to get a sneak peak of the platform. We especially wanted to see how it would show organic results on search engine results pages (SERPs)

So, what is Neeva?

Neeva is a new search engine currently in development that promises an ad-free search experience. In an email from Sridhar Ramaswamy, Neeva’s CEO, he states that “you should be able to find information without having your searches used to target you with never-ending ads. We are committed to building an awesome product that finds the results that matter to you, not the content that advertisers want you to see.”

Neeva’s landing page opens with a search bar, local weather forecast, and news stories. In the settings, you can customize your preferred news providers and connect other services such as your email, calendar, and file management providers such as OneDrive. By connecting your accounts, Neeva can scan your emails, calendar, and other files to gain a better grasp on your interests so that it can show you search results that it feels might be most important to you.

A (Somewhat) Brief Critique

After fiddling around with Neeva to see what type of results it brings up for searches related to small and medium sized businesses (SMBs), we noticed that if you are looking for local businesses such as HVAC providers, map results appear to be based off of proximity to your current location (via, surprisingly, Google maps) as well as Yelp pages and Yelp reviews. The location targeting seems wonky, at best, as even when we try to set our zip code as our location, Neeva broadly sets our location to Harris County. As for Yelp listings/reviews as indications of the best results, Yelp is traditionally known for restaurant reviews. It is also rumored that if companies who would pay to have featured listings on Yelp cancelled their paid service plan, Yelp would only feature the bad reviews on their pages! If you click one of the map locations that appears on the SERP, you will be directed to a full-page map view as well as a list of businesses on the left side of the screen. However, the business that we clicked on the SERP did not even appear on the full-page map view or corresponding list.

As we scroll to the next section of organic search results (the type that shows meta data such as page titles and descriptions), we are served 4 results for ac companies, two that include “Harris” (presumably due to the faulty location targeting) while the other two are lists of AC companies in Harris County. The next organic listings were not related to anything closely related to an AC repair company. There were results for car dealerships, the Harris County Tax Office, and even the top 10 best countertop kitchen installers in Santa Fe, Texas from the Angie’s list website.

Neeva provides you with a demo of some of their search engine features when they send your account invite. They feature searches for a retail product and a recipe. This is likely an indication of where their focus on development has been and in the online retail space, most searches on other search engines bring up a slew of ads on SERPs. Overall, Neeva has a long way to go so a D+ might be a generous grade and they might consider a trip to Summer school. However, if you’re interested in an ads free search experience, Neeva might be a great option in the future.

There are plenty of search engine ranking factors to consider no matter the stage of website development you are in. We have developed and executed many successful SEO campaigns for our clients and would love the opportunity to discuss your SEO goals. Give us a call at 713-309-6380 or shoot us a message.

What Happened to Facebook Analytics?

This week, Facebook sent out an email regarding a retirement announcement of one of its measurement products: Facebook Analytics. As of June 30, 2021, you will no longer be able to access Facebook Analytics so if you are a small or medium-sized business (SMB) that manages your own Facebook page and ad account, you might find the following information helpful. If you are new to Facebook advertising and page management, you will want to avoid using Facebook Analytics all together. Marketers and Advertisers that utilize this tool should also read on!

What is (or was) Facebook Analytics?

Facebook Analytics is to Facebook Pages as Google Analytics is to websites – or at least in theory. It provides data and insights into user behavior and how they interact with a Facebook business page and then tracks conversion data that occurs on a website or app. One of the main differences is that Google Analytics is much more robust in features and AI-reporting, but also provides first-party data (data that is collected directly from a website). Facebook Analytics looks as though it was abandoned far in the past. Many of the available tools are customizable yet still take time to configure. It also tracks website data through the Facebook pixel however, this method of tracking behavior data is considered 3^rd party data which will be eliminated this year when Apple completes its updates to the iOS14 platform.

Why is Facebook Shutting Down its Analytics?

With the elimination of 3^rd party cookie data, Facebook Analytics won’t be able to adequately track conversion data from a website or app – losing one of its main functions. In addition, with the lackluster of options available in Facebook Analytics, it may leave you wanting more. That’s the feeling many people have regarding Facebook Analytics, so much so that many advertisers seek page analytics elsewhere through 3^rd party analytics software. Product intelligence platforms, such as Amplitude, integrate with Facebook and provide data analytics far more in depth and insightful than Facebook Analytics was ever able to achieve.

What Do I Do Now?

Don’t panic! If you use Facebook Analytics as a main source of data for your Facebook marketing initiatives, there are a few other tools available within Facebook that you can turn to. Facebook Business Manager is a great product that allows you to manage your Facebook page, Instagram, and Facebook Ads in one place. Insights are also available that can help measure user behavior and trends. Facebook Ads Manager is another great source for data. There, you can measure ad performance and create customized reports. Facebook also has an Events Manager where different tools track website and app activity.

If this all sounds a little overwhelming, no need to worry. Brand Ranch Media has you covered! Our marketing experts are well versed in all Facebook advertising tools and have a direct contact at Facebook to collaborate with to achieve advertising success. Give us a call at 713-309-6380 or shoot us a message to discuss!

How to Prepare Your Facebook Ads for iOS14

We are approaching the end of Q1 2021 and as advertisers anxiously await the full release of security and privacy updates for iOS14, we are closer to understanding how Apple’s plan to block user tracking for online apps is going to affect Facebook Ad’s ability to track performance metrics, especially pertaining to conversions. While we don’t know the exact date when Apple will release the update, there are a few action items to address within the Facebook Ads platform to prepare for in the meantime. So, let’s dive on in!

Verify Web Domain

Facebook suggests, as a best practice, to verify your web domain on the ad’s platform. There are a few different reasons why this is necessary. The one specifically related to the iOS14 changes applies if you want to have full control over what conversion events are reported. It’s also important if you want to assign access to multiple users who may manage different aspects of both ads and your related business pages. For those of you that rely on an advertising agency for Facebook management, they should already be familiar with domain verification.

Configure Conversions

There are limitations to the number of conversion events that you can assign utilizing the Facebook website pixel when the iOS14 update is complete. Moving forward, you will only be able to assign 8 conversion events per website domain. You can specify which conversion events you’d like to track through the Events Manager section of Facebook Ads and can assign them by order of importance. When running ads that focus on optimizing for conversions such as obtaining more contact form fills, you will need to assign that specific event as a top priority over all other events in order for the campaign to be successful. Ads may still take other events into consideration; however, the reporting will be based on the conversion event that you have specified.

Other Considerations

There are some other items to keep in mind with the iOS14 update regarding your Facebook Ads. If you are actively running ad campaigns with website pixel conversion events that you do not specify in the Events Manager, those ads will be automatically turned off and will no longer run. It’s important to work with your marketing team to narrow down those conversion events that are most important for your goals. You may notice that the delivery status might change for these specific campaigns if the ad has an unsupported event, contains a setup error, or if the event is currently updating after making changes. Changes to events take 72 hours to update.

You should also note that target audiences that were once robust may decrease in size and reach. One requirement of the iOS14 update is that apps must allow users the decision to opt out of ad targeting. If users opt out of targeting, this will affect both custom and retargeting audiences as they will decrease in size.

At Brand Ranch Media, we work directly with Facebook Marketing Experts on a weekly basis. They keep us informed on all of the latest developments within the Ads platform and the best practices to follow regarding campaign management and the latest updates. There are other considerations to make regarding the iOS14 updates. Feel free to reach out to us to discuss!