Data and Analytics Archives | Brand Ranch Media

Top 5 Ways to Collect First-Party Data

Collecting first-party data to help drive marketing campaigns has become the hot topic over the past year. Businesses have long relied upon third-party marketing data to hone in on their targeted audience and that practice has left some scrambling to find other ways to reach a more captivated buyer. As search engines have slowly blocked websites and advertising platforms from collecting third-party data on consumers, marketers are having to devise new ways to reach targeted audiences more likely to purchase the products they sell. There are many ways to build a first-party marketing list. In this article, we will discuss our top 5 ways to collect first-party data.

First-Party Data vs. Third-Party Data

Before we dive into some of the best ways to collect this data, it’s important to understand the difference between first-party and third-party marketing data, how it’s collected, and the benefits they provide to digital marketing campaigns. First-party marketing data is contact information collected directly from the customer. This information usually consists of, but is not limited to, an email address, first name, last name, and phone number. First-party data also tracks user behavior collected directly from your website or web application. This data can be uploaded to various digital advertising platforms which will match with digital user profiles allowing advertisers to directly show ads to these users not only based on their contact information, but also based on the various ways they interact with your website or web app.

In contrast, third-party data provides information about a users’ behavior across the internet on other websites they visit. This includes, but is not limited to, purchase behavior such as specific products and product categories, general interests, types of actions they take such as lead generation form fills and phone calls, and much more! Advertisers use this data to create different audience profiles and target their digital marketing efforts towards them.

Goodbye, Third-Party Cookies

In the name of user privacy, search engines and internet browsers are slowly killing off the collection of third-party cookie data leaving many advertisers scratching their heads trying to come up with alternate audience targeting practices. The best type of data to use for audience targeting is your own first-party data. Whether you’re promoting your product to those who have signed up for your email list or retargeting a list of your current or past customers, these types of audiences are going to be your most valuable as they have already expressed interest in your business.

Collecting First-Party Data

Data intelligence software provider, Claravine, compiled a list of various ways to collect first-party data but you have to provide them with your personal first-party information in order to view. We’ll save you the trouble and share our top 5 favorites.

Newsletter Sign-Ups

Most company websites provide a blog to highlight industry-related information, showcase customer success stories, and even share their involvement in community events. Companies can repurpose their blog content and create a newsletter that they periodically send via email. Most people are willing to sign up to receive a newsletter if they feel that they will benefit from its content. This is a great way to advertise promotions and offers as well.

Write Expert Content

Similar to a company blog, creating whitepapers, videos, or eBooks is a great way to collect first-party customer data. The content should go a step further than a typical blog article and provide higher value to the user in order to entice them into giving away their information. This works particularly well in the B2B sales model and can help fill the marketing funnel to target decision-makers more specifically at various stages in the purchasing process.

Discounts and Rewards Programs

Offering a membership-based rewards program will definitely help build first-party data. Consumers are always looking for ways to save money and love the feeling of getting something for “free”. A discount or rewards program will also allow you to collect more information other than just a name and an email address. The more information you can collect from customers, the more targeting capability you will have for your digital marketing campaigns.

Events

Hosting an informative industry event will not only allow the opportunity to collect information from potential customers but it will also provide you valuable face time with key decision-makers. By attending the event, you already know these buyers are serious about your product and the data you collect can be used to focus remarketing efforts or create audience profiles of individuals that share similar traits. An event doesn’t have to be 100% business-centric either. Why not host an old-fashioned cookout and label it as a community social event?

Collaborate with Other Businesses

Partnering with similar businesses can be a win-win situation for the involved parties. For example, a local HVAC company could team with a local Plumbing company and share contacts to include in each of their digital marketing efforts. Businesses can also co-host an event where interested customers can leave their contact information for future follow-up. A business might also consider influencer marketing where they team up with an individual who has a large following such as on social media or a video platform like YouTube. The leads generated by the influencer can be used as first-party marketing data.

Regardless of where your business stands with first-party data, it’s never too late to take strides towards compiling it. A great place to start is with your own customer list. This data can be uploaded to various digital marketing platforms for immediate use in campaign targeting.

At Brand Ranch Media, we love helping clients just like you come up with creative ways to utilize available marketing data to create custom audience targets. To speak with an expert, give us a call at 713-309-6380 or send us a message on our website.

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!

Marketing Trends in 2021

It’s December 2020 – finally! We are less than a month away before we wave goodbye to this rollercoaster year. While we “deck the halls” and “keep our spirits bright,” we eagerly await 2021 and hope for somewhat of a return to normalcy in the new year. Digital Marketing Agencies, as a whole, actually fared well in the uncertain economy. The Facebook Ad Boycott in June had little effect on Facebook’s bottom line. Overall spending on search advertising didn’t take the hit that was forecasted as retailers turned to more online marketing strategies to make up for lost in-store revenue. Looking through our shades at the hopefully brighter future ahead, we have identified some marketing trends in 2021 that brands and advertisers can expect as we transition into a new calendar year.

No more 3^rd party cookie targeting.

Utilizing 3^rd party advertising cookies to track user behavior on websites throughout the internet is a practice this is slowly being burned to a crisp and tossed down the disposal. Search engines and device makers have already eliminated or banned 3^rd party cookie tracking or have plans to do so in 2021. Brands that are not properly prepared for this will have a gap in their digital ad audience targeting. It will be important to start implementing data collection tools and methods in order to serve ads to the most engaged users who are likely to convert into a sale.

Google Analytics has a new face.

The future of analytics is now and in the form of Google Analytics 4. GA4 utilizes an event-based tracking method that features AI learning designed to help advertisers make smarter marketing decisions based on specific actions users take when visiting a website. Though not quite 100% fully developed, it’s best to set up and configure a GA4 analytics property along with the global site tag property and configure custom conversion tracking. As 2021 rolls along, we can expect to see more features added to GA4 to make it the analytics powerhouse that it’s promised to become.

Companies will continue to improve their customer’s digital buying experience.

As shoppers were locked out of retail stores in 2020, brands shifted their dollars and strategies towards improving the customer’s online buying experience much sooner than previously forecasted. Improvements to the mobile buying experience were a large focus as well as virtual customer services. It is unknown how long it will take for retail shoppers to feel comfortable in a traditional shopping environment, however we could eventually learn that more and more shoppers actually prefer a digital shopping experience. Amazon is now where more that half of consumers begin their search for products surpassing search engines, retailer websites, and brand websites.

Search Ad spending will continue to increase.

Despite forecasters’ predictions for 2020 search ad spend, the reality is that rather than taking huge losses now and in the foreseeable future, search ad spend will be on par with the original 2021 predictions and actually surpass forecasted estimates in 2022 and beyond. This comes as large retail brands shifted their marketing efforts to enhanced digital strategies during the lockdown caused by the Coronavirus pandemic.

SEO will continue to stay relevant.

Google continues to make core adjustments to their search algorithm and announced in May that the next update was going to focus on page load speed and mobile-friendliness. SEOs will need to adapt to these new guidelines in order to maintain site rankings and competitiveness in the organic search environment. Google tools, such as Lighthouse and Page Speed Insights, will assist in identifying site speed issues. It will be up to the SEOs to make the proper site adjustments. Mobile web experience adjustments will also be worth the investment. Websites will refine their mobile versions to enhance user experience and more sites will invest in development of AMP encoded mobile site versions designed to load faster on mobile platforms. All of these proactive measures will positively contribute to site ranking.

Ad revenues will increase for streaming devices and apps.

As more households cancel their cable services and switch to one of the many streaming options, more ad dollars will be spent trying to target these customers. Devices such as Smart TVs and Chromecast show video advertisements on free streaming apps that provide viewers with television shows and movies. One YouTube ad option (managed through the Google Ads platform) is to target Smart TV screens as well as streaming apps downloaded to those devices. Expect this feature to continue to gain momentum as it provides advertisers a streamlined option to publish video ads without directly going through paid media reps.

Facebook Ads will be limited.

Starting in February of 2021, Facebook will start to limit the number of ads that a page can concurrently run. According to Facebook, “running too many ads at once can hurt performance.” SMBs (small and medium sized businesses) are not likely to see their ad account affected by the limitations, however larger businesses that utilize widespread regional advertising will find themselves having to identify and focus on the most successful types of ads for their business goals.

TikTok Advertising spend will increase.

The newest social media platform has taken the US by storm after already leading Asian countries such as China and India in total downloads and daily users. TikTok has not only attracted the younger generation – it has become popular with those between the ages of 30-50 which opens opportunities for more advertisers to join in on the craze and reach consumers through another medium. TikTok should be included in any brand’s marketing plan in 2021.

Podcasts and Music Streaming Ad revenue will increase.

More people are working from home and companies are offering this option as part of an employment perk. As more people ditch their long commutes to work, they are turning away from traditional radio broadcasts and switching to Podcast programming and streamed music apps. There is a big market for advertising on these platforms as most users opt for free streaming versions that are ad supported.

As a full-service marketing agency, Brand Ranch Media develops and manages diverse marketing strategies that can propel your business into solid year-over-year revenue growth. Our experienced marketing experts bring diverse skillsets and understand all components of successful marketing campaigns. There is always time to adjust your marketing goals and that’s where we come in! Call us at 713-309-6380 or contact us to discuss!

Google Analytics 4: The Future of Analytics Is Changing

In mid-October, Google announced the release of Google Analytics 4 (GA4), a massive update to it’s Analytics software that helps businesses make data-driven marketing decisions based on user interactions and performance goals tracked on their websites and apps. Analytics (as it’s known) collects valuable consumer data such as behaviors, page visits, demographics, web traffic origins, and more by not only integrating with websites, but also through integration with Google marketing platforms such as Google Ads and YouTube as well as just about every other 3^rd party marketing software and tools widely used by advertisers. Since its release, GA4 has created quite the buzz in the digital advertising industry as marketers learn the differences in functionality, evaluate how the changes will affect future data analysis, and work to integrate GA4 with their websites as well as other digital marketing platforms. Today, we will share some of the insights gained through our personal experience with GA4 since its recent release.

Analytics and Session-based Tracking

Google has always strived to provide the best website analytics that help improve marketing decisions in order to get better ROI. The older version of Analytics is designed around Session-based tracking while GA4 is designed for Event-based tracking. In the original version, data analysts we re able to see user behavior based on a session. A session is a set amount of time that a user has interacting with a website. We can understand user behaviors such as page views, average session times, and pages per visits, just to name a few. Events such as various actions users take while visiting a website can be tracked but previously had to be custom coded in order to appear in Analytics. Goals can also be created to help track valuable user behavior such as submitting a contact form or making a phone call directly from the website using the click-to-call functionality.

GA4 and Event-based Tracking

GA4 uses Event-based tracking, essentially automating the process for tracking important, value-based actions users take on websites. GA4 will also be able to provide fast information on common questions marketers may want to know the answer to such as, “How many phone calls were there in March?” or “What product resulted in the most revenue in June?”. Event-based analytics is also going to be important moving forward as web browsers have removed or plan to remove cookie-based targeting. Event-based targeting will allow marketers to create custom lists based on user profiles and actions in order to use to target audiences that look like past website visitors or retarget past website visitors in their digital marketing efforts. This audience targeting can be segmented by users who took certain actions (events) while on the website and enable digital marketers to target customers who, for example, purchased a specific product. While the older Analytics software could accomplish the same targeting, it was done so through cookie tracking methods. GA4 seems to be the solution as cookie-based targeting becomes obsolete .

Updating to GA4

Now that you (hopefully) understand a little more about GA4, you might consider implementing it with your website. Though GA4 has been officially released, the data it currently provides is not something you would want to ditch the old version of Analytics for and go all-in on GA4. New functionality and statistical data will continue to be added to GA4 over time and implementing it, as well as keeping the original version of Analytics, is suggested in order to allow GA4 to optimize its AI learning capabilities over time. (Did we mention that GA4 uses AI machine learning to help you make better marketing decisions?) Implementation of GA4 has also been a process that Google has automated to make the transition easier for Analytics users. There are a few easy settings to configure, a few button clicks, and then GA4 will start populating data from the original Analytics property as well as guide you through setting up some events that are customized for your website and marketing platforms such as Google Ads.

As for the future of Analytics, it seems as though the future is now and now is the time to get acquainted with GA4. At Brand Ranch Media, we utilize the most cutting-edge marketing and analytics technologies to provide our clients with successful and profitable traditional and digital marketing campaigns. Give us a call at 713-309-6380 or send us a message to discuss how we can help you create a marketing plan optimized for results based on data-driven decision-making.

How Will 3rd Party Cookie Elimination Affect Your Digital Marketing Strategy

Cookies follow us throughout our time spent on the internet. They track every movement, every behavior, and it’s just plain scary sometimes. Have you ever been online looking at a t-shirt to buy and then navigated to another website only to find an ad for that same shirt? That’s the work of a 3^rd party cookie.

By definition, a 3^rd party cookie is a piece of code embedded into a users’ web browser that tracks their every move online. It tracks what is viewed, what is placed in shopping carts, purchases, and even non-purchases. However, 3^rd party cookies don’t just track behaviors on one website, but rather they track behavior throughout the entire users’ internet experience.

Since 2014, Safari has restricted 3^rd party cookies as well as Firefox following in 2019. These two web browsers combine for about 40% of all internet traffic in the US! Safari also accounts for over half of mobile internet traffic. This consists of millions of internet users that advertisers are not able to collect behavior data on, an advantage digital marketers have over traditional advertising methods such as television and radio. In an effort to further protect user privacy, Google announced that it will begin to phase out 3^rd party cookies on their Chrome browser with a target completion date sometime in 2022.

So, what does this mean for the future of digital marketing?

The ability to adapt to new targeting methods will be the key to future success in the digital marketing realm. If you work in the digital industry, then chances are that you are already familiar with adapting to changes in the marketing landscape. It seems as though advertising policies change daily and keeping track of all the changes can be a daunting thought considering there are so many different digital platforms to manage.

Moving forward, the data someone is able to collect first-hand (through 1^st party cookies) is likely to increasingly become more vital than it already is. One method of 1^st party cookie data collection is actually a Google product: Analytics. There are all sorts of user datapoints that you can collect to see how they interact with your website. This data can be combined in Analytics to create custom marketing lists that can be linked to and used by Google Ads to reach a specific audience. Since this data is collected directly from your website and not based off of user behavior across the internet, it is NOT considered 3^rd party.

Another example of 1^st party data collection is gathering customer data through newsletter sign ups, email lists, and past customer data. Not only is this beneficial for email marketing campaigns, but the data can also be used to create “lookalike” audiences which will target users based on the overall general profile similar to the demographics of the people included in the list. Instead of targeting people based on their personal internet history (3^rd party cookies) you can target them based on whether or not they “look like” your current customer profile.

Social media platforms, such as Facebook, have revolutionized user data and how it can be used to target a specific audience. Millions of users freely provided their personal information, interests, and habits directly to Facebook which then can provide advertisers with enhanced targeting methods that they can use freely as long as the user is logged into Facebook. Google has similar targeting methods, but the user needs to be logged into their Google account in order for it to be fully effective and not everyone that uses the internet is logged into a Google account.

There are likely other methods for digital ad targeting not yet invented. The digital advertising landscape is likely to continue to change and adapt just as the policies that govern them. If you think your advertising efforts could be better targeted, our experts and Brand Ranch Media want to speak with you! Please feel free to give us a call at 713-309-6380 or reach out through our online contact form.

Houston Sees Uptick Trends in Home Services Despite COVID-19

The COVID19 pandemic has not only jeopardized the health of millions of Americans but has also taken its toll on the economy as well. With many businesses temporarily closed (and in some cases permanently) the unemployment rate rose to levels higher than the Great Depression in the 1920s. In our hometown of Houston, the same occurred. Many people lost their jobs in different sectors of the economy including restaurant, oil and gas, airlines, tourism, and automotive. There were even layoffs in the healthcare industry as hospitals were not allowed to perform elective surgeries. As businesses can now slowly open and people begin to go back to work, we have seen large increases in demand for local services despite the continued increases in new coronavirus cases. Local services include any goods or services provided by a local supplier. They include services such as HVAC, repairs, plumbers, or any type of home service provider.

The proof is in the numbers. All non-essential businesses were ordered to keep their doors shut in Houston on March 24 when there was a “stay home, work safe” order issued. Previously, on March 16, bars and restaurants were ordered to close. These orders continued through the month of April but orders for certain businesses began to be lifted by Governor Abbott on May 1. In the months that included the closures (March, April, and May) the high temperatures were above average in Houston for about 70% of the days. However, in March and April, HVAC service providers reported much lower revenue numbers than in previous years. This was chalked up to a change in consumer behavior: with more people either out of work or concerned about the virus, the demand for HVAC repairs or replacements was lower even though the temperatures were higher than average. May saw a dramatic increase. In fact, we saw an increase in purchasing indicators such as phone calls and form fills anywhere from 66% to 133% from the previous month!

If you are a home services provider and would like to learn how we can increase your leads and revenue for a lower average cost please contact us or give us a call at 713-309-6380.

Weather Resource: https://www.weather.gov/hgx/climate_graphs_iah#2020

Does Your Google Analytics Have A Glitch?

Having accurate data is the most important asset when analyzing the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. When making data-driven decisions, you must ensure that they are based on what really occurred. When data doesn’t match between different management platforms, you could spend a great deal of time trying to figure out what went wrong. Today, we will discuss some common data discrepancy issues related to Google Analytics and some solutions to help avoid them.

A recently written article addressed a disparity of data in Google Analytics and a 3^rd party system that was tracking demo requests for their product. This company created an event in Analytics as well as a Google Sheet where the demo requests were stored. They noticed that there was a significantly higher number of demo requests recorded on their Google Sheet vs. the number of events in Analytics. The article goes on to suggest that a possible cause of the discrepancy could be the use of ad blockers. Ad blockers don’t just block ads, but they also will block anything that tracks a user, such as cookies, including Google Analytics. In this case, user events with ad blockers were not being recorded in Analytics, but they were able to collect the accurate data with their 3^rd party system. At Brand Ranch Media, we suggest finding and using 3^rd party software the seamlessly integrates with Analytics. We utilize the call tracking software, CallRail, that has an integration built specifically for Google Analytics so that we can track phone calls for various campaigns.

Another common data discrepancy that can occur is inflation in the Analytics Traffic report. This report displays user data for different traffic sources such as organic, paid, referral, etc. Traffic inflation can occur when spam and other type of bot activity is recorded in this dataset. It is not uncommon to see thousands of visits each month from spam and bots. This causes a huge headache when trying to report accurate numbers. Luckily, there is a way to block all known spiders and bot traffic through the Analytics Admin section. Navigate to the View Settings and scroll to the bottom where you can check a box to exclude all known bots and spiders.

If you are running a Google Ads campaign and the data in the ads manager platform does not match data in Analytics, there could be an issue with URL tagging. By default, a Google Ads account is setup with manual tagging enabled. If you don’t manually tag every potential final URL, you could end up with huge data discrepancies in Analytics and Google Ads. To avoid this, the ads platform has an auto-tag setting that you can select when linking Google Ads to an Analytics property. The benefits to auto-tagging is that you avoid potential human error by telling the system to tag every final URL automatically. It will import goals and transactions from Analytics to Google Ads conversion tracking. You will also receive more detailed analytics in your account.

Having an experience team to guide you through all of the data from marketing campaigns is important to the overall success of those campaigns. If you want to learn more, please feel free to contact us or call 713-309-6380 to speak directly with an expert.