December « 2010 « Mongoose Metrics

December, 2010

Social Selling with Promoted Tweets

As marketers struggle for answers and often prognosticate about how to convert social media efforts into real relationships and sales opportunities, we’ve found success with one of the newest and hottest – yet highly debated – methods on the planet at the close of 2010.

Yes, we’re talking about Twitter’s much-lauded Promoted Tweets advertising platform which launched a mere two months ago on Nov. 1.

As one of Twitter’s 20 beta testers for Promoted Tweets, Mongoose Metrics has aggressively tested the platform in a number of ways detailed below. For example, we’re currently running 14 distinct campaigns. See details and screenshots from our first 3 weeks in the blog post “Top 10 Things We Learned from Twitter’s Promoted Tweets.”

Recently, on Dec. 14, Twitter added a form to its website where companies can express interest in purchasing Promoted Tweets as well as Promoted Accounts and Promoted Trends. We’ve been told the program will begin rolling out publicly sometime at the end of January or beginning of February 2011.

We’d also like to note that Twitter – much like Google – has been less than forthcoming about how their algorithms work. In other words, at the present time, there is no guidebook.

What We Know So Far – The Basics

You can run multiple campaigns based on key terms that relate to the content you’re promoting in Tweets.

Bidding on these terms is competitive and begins at $.10 per engagement. An engagement is defined as a Retweet, a Favorite, a Reply or a Click.

Currently we’re seeing some bidding competition on key terms such as SEO. The base bid for SEO is currently defaulted at $1.00 even though there has been very little competition on the term.

Tweets must be Tweeted organically before they can be designated in a Promoted Tweets campaign. We’re not particularly fond of this method as it forces us to Tweet out self-promotional Tweets each time we refresh a campaign.

Tweet fatigue is ambiguous at this point. Twitter tells us that a Promoted Tweet will be shown to a user a maximum of five times before it is removed by Twitter from rotation. Analytics and details on this process are non-existent. For example, some days show a major spike in impressions and engagement for no apparent reason.

The Results

As we mentioned in our first blog post about Promoted Tweets in Nov., Promoted Tweets has delivered conversions, followers and an improved Klout score. Since Nov. 1, we have received:

961,000 Tweet Impressions
18,000 Clicks
220 Retweets
168 Replies
126 Conversions
Cost = $2067

Conclusion

Promoted Tweets is a valid marketing method for generating conversions as well as brand awareness.

Analytics / Call Tracking / Examples / PPC / Search Marketing / SEO — No Comments
20
Dec 10

Call tracking for Local SEO, suggested solutions

Problem: Local businesses want to be found easily on the internet so they can drive additional sales.

Solution: Search engines and directories provide virtual yellow page listings which display small snippets of contact information for a business to simplify access to people browsing for service.

Second Problem: Local businesses want to track phone calls and web form leads generated from this internet marketing channel to understand how much new business is being generated from these listings.

Second Solution: Local businesses can implement call tracking which allows them to replace their business phone number with a special call tracking number, logging call information and then forwarding the call to their existing business line; however, there have been numerous references on the web and twitter related to issues with using call tracking technology in local SEO campaigns.

The basic problem is that search engines get confused regarding which phone number for the local business is the correct main phone number and might therefore rank the company lower in its local browsing subsections because it does not have the appropriate references to correctly weight the main number. If a business requires being ranked highly in local places as part of their marketing strategy, implementing call tracking without understanding the consequences could have a very negative impact on their business. Luckily there are some existing solutions as well as a proposed long term fix.

For Madison plumbing, being ranked #1 in Google Places for the search term “Cleveland Plumbing” likely has a very positive effect on plumbing related sales. Their phone number is listed as 216-226-5009. This phone number could be a tracking number as the page is a lander designed by AT&T, but Madison / AT&T would have to be careful to ensure that this is represented as the main contact number for Madison elsewhere on the internet.

While Google does not reveal the details behind their search processing algorithms, conventional wisdom says that one of the components for local site rank is the prevalence of the main phone number on the internet (think of it as treating phone listings similar to your site getting links, the more of them pointing to the same destination, the more “juice” that destination/phone number has in terms of where it will rank).

Google’s Two Part Solution: Google understands that this is a problem. Their offered solution is to use Canonical Link References to inform the Google Crawler that “version X” of the page specified at the URL is the one which should be understood as default, where other versions which might have different content are essentially less informative variations. Additionally, Google suggests a local business claim the “Place Page” so that they can specify the correct local phone number. The issues with these solutions is that they require some complexity on the side of the local business.

Issues with Canonical Links

Only useful where you can influence the link location (i.e. pay-per-click traffic but not organic)
Requires multiple versions of the same page (i.e. index.php?ver=reference vs index.php?ver=tracking) which may be beyond the scope of the local business or the intermediary.

Issues with Place Pages

Requires businesses to understand and interact with Google places. While this should be relatively straightforward, many businesses like Madison Plumbing use an intermediary such as AT&T to help them list on the internet, so they may not have any direct interaction with Google.

Another Possible Solution

Another possible way to allow local businesses to track calls being generated to their site without negatively impacting their local ranking is to encapsulate a tracking phone number with a special tag indicating that it should not be referenced in terms of phone numbers for search listings.

Possible solutions would be to specifically indicate that a phone number is a tracking number or explicitly indicate that a phone number is the canonical number for the site. The issue with this solution is that it would require modification of how search engines parse web sites and may, depending on implementation, require amendments to higher level standards like HTML.

At Mongoose, we think that businesses should be able to track their phone calls without being punished in their search rankings. We look forward to participating in a conversation which helps businesses rank well locally and account for their marketing. Our solution is not the only one nor is it necessarily the best, but we believe something beyond what Google proposes needs to be discussed and implemented as the number of companies desiring phone call accountability grows.

-Brad Reynolds, chief executive officer, Mongoose Metrics

Analytics / Call Tracking / Examples / Integration — No Comments
15
Dec 10

Tracking Phone Calls from Click to Close

“Hello. How can I help you today? This call may be monitored for service quality.”

That’s the basic script if your business relies on phone calls. Of course, it’s imperative to employ friendly and knowledgeable humans to answer the phone. But perhaps more important is to understand – at a deep level – which online search engines, social media campaigns and direct advertisements are driving phone calls to your business. After understanding the marketing sources, you then need to understand how much revenue each phone call generated and then link that back to the marketing source so you can optimize your next round of spending.

An enterprise-level call tracking solution is specifically designed to take the mystery out of your web visitors’ search path from first click to phone call to completed sale.

Here is how we connect the click to the close:

Marketing: Log website activity through Mongoose Metrics proprietary web analytics
Action: When the prospect calls, connect the call information to the existing web analytics data
Conversion: Synchronize information between Mongoose Metrics and the customer CRM
Intelligence: Analyze reports from the Mongoose or CRM level to optimize which marketing sources are generating the highest value closes.

By integrating a robust set of call tracking data with your marketing automation software, bid management provider, analytics vendor and CRM system, it is possible to see the entire conversion picture from click to close. View a list of our integration partners including Google Adwords and Google Analytics.

The following screenshots detail the journey of Mike Browne, a recent Mongoose Metrics customer who called after viewing a PPC ad on Google and downloading a white paper. Here’s the path he took:

Step 1:

Mike Browne appears on the radar as a prospect in our marketing automation software indicating that he has been browsing the website and interacting with our content. This means he is interested but possibly not a qualified sales candidate yet.

Step 2:

The Mongoose Metrics system logs a phone call from Mike Browne. We link this phone call back to the web analytics data we have gathered about Mike from his website interaction. The data logged includes time, date, recording, geolocation, keyword source, keyword type and a variety of other data points. See a detailed list of data points.

Step 3

The Mongoose Metrics system injects this data into our CRM and assigns the lead to sales representative Drew Johnson. Drew then takes that lead and moves it through our sales process from qualified to opportunity and finally to closed sale. Once the sale is closed, the Mongoose Metrics system again synchronizes to the CRM allowing the Mongoose Metrics system to report the actual revenue generated from that lead and ultimately tying that revenue back to the source of the inquiry. Learn more about CRM integrations.

Step 4

View an aggregate of call data in the Mongoose Metrics dashboard to understand which advertising sources are driving phone calls. This completes the feedback loop so that you can make accurate determinations of which marketing sources are driving the key sales for your business.

Conclusion – Call tracking provides marketers with a powerfully simple way to understand and validate marketing campaigns. It’s a fact: Forty-six percent of local online searchers contacted a business by telephone following their Web research (TMP Directional Marketing and comScore, summer 2009).

With so many consumers letting their fingers do the walking, online marketers must learn how to measure and analyze calls resulting from online searches. And, as nearly all consumers (97 percent) now use online media to shop locally (BIA/Kelsey and ConStat Survey, February 2010), tracking phone calls resulting from online searches is more imperative than at any time in history.

Call Tracking / PPC — No Comments
14
Dec 10

Google Call Tracking Results and Analysis from a Live Campaign

A few weeks ago, I noticed that phone numbers were appearing in our Google Adwords Text Ads. This was surprising because our pay-per-click management company took the initiative for this experiment. Great job guys! We have previously posted on Google’s launch of Google Call Tracking and a comparison between Google Call Tracking and Mongoose Metrics and are very excited to see Google enter the competitive landscape.

Additionally I was excited to have some real world data from Google to compare against our Mongoose Metrics system in an effort to understand how this tool can be used by customers to optimize and increase their ad spend. We view the Google tool as a complement to the Mongoose Metrics infrastructure and understand that there will be situations where Google Call Tracking is the best fit for our customers. Our goal is to gather enough information to talk intelligently and steer the customer in the direction which best fits their needs.

Conclusions:

No cost (currently) means its definitely worth an experiment.
Text ads do drive phone calls.
Google Call Tracking data is summarized by campaign and day, no individual call logs or recordings.
Unsure whether calls from the Ads are sales related or support related.

Would be nice to see:

Access to per-call logs and recordings (preferably via API).
Access to keyword-level performance reports.
No charge permanently.

When I asked our PPC management firm for the call related data behind this campaign, they sent me over the below spreadsheet and noted that “

Due to the limitations of the Google Call Metrics program, we can provide only limited data describing the day calls were produced, the campaign that produced them, and the average call time for calls from that campaign on that day“

We receive summary information by campaign for all of the calls which are triggered. This is because Google currently allocates a phone number per campaign. Because we can only receive summary data, understanding how to tie this information into the distinct calls our organization received is impossible; however, knowing that calls are actually triggered out of text ads is a surprise piece of information. My guess is that these are likely support related calls, but without discrete detail I can’t easily support this conclusion. I definitely advocate the program if it helps people reach us quicker (even if it is for support versus sales) however, I would not be willing to pay for support related calls.

Call Tracking / PPC / Search Marketing / Social Media — No Comments
10
Dec 10

Call Tracking Goes Mainstream with Google, Promoted Tweets & Mongoose Metrics

2010 was a big year for call tracking. Here’s a rundown of the highlights:

By far, the biggest advancement in 2010 was Google’s entry into the call tracking space with their Nov. 2 announcement of Google Adwords Call Analytics. The basic concept of the Google Adwords Call Analytics reporting platform works much the same way as many existing call tracking services. In Google’s offering, a limited set of data points are logged and recorded within the Adwords account dashboard. Of course, Google’s call tracking product tracks only one source: Google Adwords. More sophisticated solutions, including Mongoose Metrics, track phone calls from other search engines, organic traffic, social media, email and traditional advertising sources.

“We see Google’s entry into call tracking as an inflection point for the entire industry. Essentially, Google has validated call tracking’s promise of delivering the missing piece in the online marketing analytics puzzle,” says Bradley E. Reynolds, chief executive officer for Mongoose Metrics.

2010 also saw the adoption of speech analytics technologies by many call tracking vendors, including Mongoose Metrics. Mongoose Metrics launched Conversation Conversion Dynamics, a speech recognition technology to assess real-time ROI. CCD is an overlay feature on top of call tracking which records every move web-to-phone visitors take to reveal patterns of actions and behaviors.

Additionally, Mongoose Metrics introduced a number of features to enhance the call tracking experience for customers including a reverse proxy server, API and PCI compliance. The company also began providing service to Canada and the United Kingdom.

Integrating call tracking data with bid management providers, web analytics companies and CRM software packages also became de rigueur in 2010 especially for highly technological companies such as Mongoose Metrics. In 2010 Mongoose Metrics partnered with a number of leading web analytics and bid management powerhouses including Kenshoo, Marin, Acquisio, Unilytics and SearchIgnite. “By partnering with the leaders in bid management and web analytics we’ve been able to share the power of call tracking data with more sophisticated marketing professionals than ever before,” Reynolds says.

And, finally, to top off 2010, Twitter chose Mongoose Metrics (@mongoosemetrics) as one of only 20 beta testers in the world for its newly launched Promoted Tweets beta advertising platform. Promoted Tweets launched on Nov. 1 and since then Mongoose has significantly increased conversions, followers and Klout.

Call Tracking / CRM — No Comments
7
Dec 10

Watch it Live: 20,000 CRM Fans Rockin’ w/ Stevie Wonder & Pres. Bill Clinton at Salesforce’s Dreamforce 2010

Customer relationship management giant, Salesforce, is playing host to 20,000 CRM fans at the company’s annual Dreamforce conference through Dec. 9 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Watch the amazing live stream happening now at www.salesforce.com/live

At this moment, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff is demonstrating Jigsaw and Chatter. And yes, former President Bill Clinton and Grammy winner, Stevie Wonder, also are on the bill.

Benioff says at the end of the day, “It’s about managing your deals and closing business.”

But we ask you, Mr. Benioff, “How do Salesforce users understand their customers click paths when a phone call enters the mix?”

Of course, Mongoose Metrics has the answer. Our robust call tracking data integrates with Salesforce.

The benefit of integrating call tracking is the ability to track multiple calls from the same website visitor and associate those calls to a specific ad or more importantly, distilling the average number of visits it takes (based on the marketing campaign) before the person makes the calls. This extended data set not only helps the sales team, but the marketing team as well. Marketing can learn which ads generate calls versus ads that drive visitors straight to online conversions.

To learn more about how call tracking data adds a layer of intelligence to your CRM, download the whitepaper “Call Tracking for CRM Integrations.”

Analytics / Call Tracking / Search Marketing — No Comments
2
Dec 10

Measuring Mobile Conversions — Phone Call Tracking for Mobile Marketing Attribution Analytics

Where will mobile marketing and advertising be in five to 10 years? How will new technologies for improving user interactions change the game? How will marketers use advanced attribution analytics to improve ROI? You’ll find the answers to these questions as well as concrete action steps for commencing a mobile marketing strategy in the following three white papers.

Mobile Marketing for Business: An Overview — Part 1

If you don’t start understanding and implementing mobile marketing now – ahead of the curve – you might lose out on the biggest opportunity since the invention of online marketing. People don’t leave home without their mobile devices – whether it’s a smart phone, iPad or traditional cell phone. People use them 24/7, they are always on and they are never far from the owner’s attention or touch. In other words, today’s consumers are hyper-connected. This 10-page paper features the latest usage statistics, current drawbacks, examples of successful initiatives as well as a look into the future. Download Mobile Marketing for Business: An Overview — Part 1.

Mobile Marketing Macro Trends — Part 2

How will mobile technologies change the way we live today? Mobile technologies — though they are still in infancy — are positioned to provide an incredible value to humanity by offering immediate interactions with meaningful content from anywhere on the planet. Brands, corporations, political movements, religions and any entities which depend on interacting with the masses need to understand the progression and power of mobile. Download Mobile Marketing Macro Trends — Part 2.

Optimizing Mobile Marketing Conversions — Part 3

When it comes to Mobile Marketing, the medium is ripe for savvy marketers to engage with customers. Until now, an important piece of the puzzle hasn’t been addressed. This paper answers the questions:

1. How can you analyze and attribute a single person-to-person engagement to a specific mobile marketing effort?

2. How do you create instant feedback loops for this information so that you can react as your market and engagements change?

3. How can you integrate this actionable data into your existing business process?

Download Optimizing Mobile Marketing Conversions — Part 3

Mongoose MetricsConversion & Call Tracking Blog