Social Media

Call Tracking / Features, Tips, & Announcements / Social Media — No Comments
17
Oct 12

Use Source Level Call Tracking to gain insight into your Facebook Advertising Conversions

Recently, the largest social media platform, Facebook, launched a new advertising initiative called Facebook Exchange as way to combat investor skepticism of its ability to become profitable. Since Facebook launched its IPO in May, many investors have been concerned regarding Facebook’s ability to monetize the value of its billion users.

Facebook Exchange taps into the power of retargeting, a technique that so many of the search engine powerhouses have already discovered. Retargeting allows companies to track a user’s visit and behavior using cookies, and as a result they are able to dish up targeted ads when the user is browsing the web, and now also when they are surfing Facebook.

The goal of the retargeted ad is simply to get users to click back onto the retail site that they visited earlier before, in effect, creating a new opportunity for the retailer to convert the visitor into a customer. The benefit of retargeting for Facebook is the increase in advertising revenue, which by some accounts has surged nearly 58% in the last year.

Most marketers are aware of how to track online conversions, but what about the offline conversions?

In many cases an offline conversion, via a phone call, is the result of an online advertisement click. The question comes into play as to how advertisers are able to associate the offline conversion to the online advertising source. And, why, in the instance of Facebook Exchange advertising is it valuable to track these conversions?

Because of the rising cost of online advertising, especially with Facebook, associating an offline conversion to the online source is essential. By implementing a source level call tracking phone number, all Facebook users who click on the retargeted ad will in effect see the same phone number on the website.

Source level call tracking allows marketers to attribute the offline conversion customer to the online advertising source.   Essentially, marketers can provision a call tracking phone number for any one of their online ad sources including Bing, Yahoo, Facebook, etc.  With this information, advertisers are able to see the aggregate number of calls from each online source and as a result can optimize their online advertising budgets towards the best performing campaigns.

For more information regarding out Source level call tracking or questions on how call tracking may work best for you contact our team!

Analytics / Call Tracking / Social Media — No Comments
19
Sep 12

Soft Metrics may be the most popular but deeper insight is available with Mongoose Call Tracking

In this recent article posted by emarketer, it is stated that “57% of companies around the world said the deepest level at which they could track the effectiveness of social media marketing was in terms of engagement, such as the number of followers, comments and time spent on social pages. Even more agencies said this was the deepest metric their clients could track.”

Marketers attempt to connect their social media efforts to the company bottom line in a way that will not only justify that their efforts generate brand buzz but also result in sales.  Measuring success beyond soft metrics can seem difficult and few companies are aware that they are able to track bottom-line effects on revenues.

Traditional call tracking services have been around for years, but many businesses may be unaware of the ways to leverage traditional services in new marketing channels. When a unique phone call tracking phone number is utilized correctly, it can provide powerful insight into which marketing campaigns are driving phone calls and in the end, converting to sales.

Here’s how it works: A unique phone number is assigned to each social media channel, such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.  When those phone numbers are called, they can be correlated with those individual social media channels.

By assigning a unique phone number to each channel, companies can easily measure the value and significance of each marketing effort as well as attribute the correct dollar amount to the sales cycle.

 

Features, Tips, & Announcements / Social Media — No Comments
4
Jun 12

The State of Automotive Social Media Marketing

In our recent data series report, The State of Automotive Marketing, we retrieved and compared data on the engagement ratios of Facebook pages within the automotive industry. Of the 17,669 automotive dealership websites we crawled, 38% had Facebook pages, 24% had Twitter pages, 23% had YouTube stations, and 22% of the total 17,669 utilized both Facebook and Twitter together to communicate their brand. Automotive dealerships have had to grow and adjust their messaging to appeal and communicate via social media outlets. As Facebook users are becoming inundated with information, dealers are forced to become social media experts and are collaborating to create content that will break through all of the noise in order to capture the attention of a diversified audience.

Four years ago, as Facebook Pages were first evolving many businesses considered their social media efforts to be successful if the Page was generating a sufficient amount of “likes.” In the automotive industry many dealerships and brands may still consider a substantial amount of “likes” to be successful. But, is this beneficial?

Take a look at the tope 12 car brands by “likes” and engagement:

In many cases, within the table, the car brand that had the lowest amount of “likes” had the highest amount of engagement and the car brand that had the highest amount of “likes” had the lowest amount of engagement.  It’s about quality NOT quantity!

Getting people to “like” your Page is only half the battle. After they’ve committed to liking your brand or business, the main focus of engagement becomes how involved and responsive are your followers to your content. Are you creating content that is generating conversation, is shared among followers or is liked? Are you measuring your engagement to see how effective your content is? Last October, Facebook overhauled its Page analytics tool and added a new metric, called “People Talking About” as a way for administrators to gauge overall Page engagement. People Talking About acts a barometer of how much conversation and user-initiated activity is occurring related to a Page.

Knowing now that this metric is in place, we wanted to take a closer look at individual Acura dealers to evaluate the relationship of “likes” and engagement.

Dave White Acura has the top amount of “likes” with 150,655 and an engagement ratio of .84% while Goodson Acura has 1,618 “likes” and an engagement ratio of 2.72%. Just as important as it is to gain “likes,” like Dave White Acura, it is even more important to build engagement, like Goodson Acura, as your fan group will act as your brand ambassadors and influencers.

In the past, “likes” were considered to be the main metric for measuring engagement, but as Pages have evolved and competition for consumer attention has become fierce the driving force for the engagement ratio has become centered around the level of interaction.

 

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22
Mar 12

Mobile Readiness Study Results Show Interesting Insights On State of Mobile Readiness

Mobile statistics infographicWith 2011 being described as the year of mobile, our first research topic for the 2012 Data Series was easily decided. Smartphone adoption is close to reaching the halfway mark. Consumers have become increasingly reliant on using their mobile devices for a number of functions including mobile shopping. This growing adoption of mobile technology is largely what motivated Mongoose Metrics to research the mobile Web landscape for mobile readiness.

The Mobile Readiness Study included in this post outlines the research method utilized and the results of the mobile study, which analyzed mobile-readiness for the QuantCast Top Million Websites.

A brief summary of those results, which show that mobile readiness is lagging is shown below:

- Only approximately nine percent of the QuantCast Top Million Websites can be classified as mobile-ready.

- The rate of mobile readiness for the top 100,000 Websites increased to 14.8%.

- Despite a much larger marketshare for Android phones (47.3%) versus iPhone (29.6%), there is a slight preference to serve mobile device specific content to iPhones. Speculation as to why this is the case could be iPhone’s longer time in the smartphone market.

- Server-side redirects and JavaScript redirects are the preferred method of delivering mobile content among high-traffic websites.

- 73% of Websites ranked in the QuantCast Top 100,000 used a URL redirect as the method of delivering mobile content

To capture the state of mobile, we also developed the infographic included in this post,  which conveys some of the data from the study as well as other sources.

If you’d like to see the Mobile Readiness Study’s raw data, let us know. Feel free to comment, and share the report and infographic with anyone interested in mobile technology and mobile marketing.

 

Analytics / Call Tracking / Mobile Marketing / Offline Advertising / Search Marketing / Social Media — No Comments
12
Mar 12

2012 Data Series Launches

Mongoose Metrics understands the importance of leveraging data and technology to make good business decisions. Mongoose Metrics’ 2012 Data Series was released in late February. The Data Series is a way for us to share relevant, interesting data with the industry and start a conversation with community influencers about where we are with technology development and consumption.

The Data Series will consist of a number of topics including mobile, ecommerce and social media. Each month the Data Series will publish an original data-set and then invite industry experts to analyze and comment on the data.

The data-set for mobile has been published. Search Engine Land columnist Michael Martin’s article titled “Less Than 10% of  The Web In 2012 Is Mobile Ready” presents some of the mobile data results. The Mobile Readiness Study will be released on the blog soon. Be sure to sign-up for real-time updates for the Data Series.

Interested in reviewing or writing about our research? Have an idea for a topic? Send a note to marketing@mongoosemetrics.com.

Mobile Marketing / PPC / Search Marketing / SEO / Social Media — No Comments
5
Dec 11

Why Local SEO is More Important Now Than Ever Before

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is talked about a lot between marketers. The reason it’s always in conversation is because of its importance. It ultimately improves the visibility of a web page or website in search results. Think of SEO as your company’s baseline for online success.  In this post, we touch on SEO essentials, tips from experts and the future of SEO.

Essential Tools

After some research and feedback, we’ve compiled a list of SEO tools. These tools exist so that you may better optimize your marketing efforts. When using SEO tools for your business, you have the ability to become more productive and efficient in your search efforts. The options are endless when looking for SEO tools, so having an expert opinion helps to reduce information overload. Sage Lewis, Founder of SageRock Digital Marketing provided his list of SEO tools he uses the most. A few of his favorites are listed below:

As more tools are introduced and technology gets better, some options may better serve your business. For now, our advice is to focus on keyword research and ensure your website is content rich. To achieve the best results in SEO – a combination of strategy, content placement and the use of SEO tools are required.

What does the future of SEO look like?

Most marketers have a solid understanding of how to improve both organic and paid search. However, with 50% of mobile users relying on their Smartphones for searching the web, new mobile features may pose a threat. For instance, the questions swirling the web right now involve the importance of Apple’s new feature, Siri.  Voice recognition software is now gaining traction in the mobile space. Just the iPhone alone has raised the bar of importance on how these advancements ultimately affect SEO. Siri is touted for being an iPhone user’s personal assistant that can do anything you ask it to. This looks good and sounds good, but can mean big trouble for local SEO.

How much trouble? Apple reported selling four million iPhone 4S models since its release. Going by statistics, there is a potential for two million iPhone 4S users to search the web via Siri. The problem lies in local search, where it may be convenient to ask Siri, it’s becoming less common to rely on the accuracy of search engines. Siri works by automating search for you, so it chooses how it gets that information. As stated in the article, How Apple’s Siri Could Destroy Local SEO, “Little is known about how exactly Siri collects and processes information, although it’s reasonable to assume that the program is drawing on well-cultivated public data sources, including Google Places, Yelp and similar sites.”

With Siri’s potential to use third party applications as part of the search information gathering, traffic from traditional sites could deteriorate. In order to make sure your site will survive the voice recognition threat, it needs to stay as accessible to search engines as possible. Going back to the basics of SEO, being active on social networks and enhancing your site for mobile are key factors to success. As long as your information is accurate and your site is easy to navigate, your business – with Siri’s help or not, will stay strong.

Examples / Features, Tips, & Announcements / Mobile Marketing / Search Marketing / SEO / Social Media — No Comments
1
Nov 11

Three Key Elements You Should Know About Social + Mobile

I noticed a surprising trend while attending a local social media event a few weeks ago. There are many marketers with questions pertaining to the social and mobile marketing space. As marketers, some of us are conflicted with which social networks to dedicate our time to. We’re also curious to learn and understand where mobile marketing is headed. We can certainly make assumptions…but wouldn’t it be better to feel confident in your choices?

After some research, I have compiled three insights on the marriage of social + mobile, which are highlighted below:

1. Create Compelling Evidence That Proves Social is Working (aka Content)

One of the questions asked at the social media meeting was, “How do you convince a client that they need a Facebook page?” First, we know that in order to convince someone to do anything – you need to convince them. Creating quality content is a great way to communicate the benefits of whatever it is you’re trying to get across. Within that great content, sprinkle statistics and value targeted to your audience. People are resistant to change by nature – especially if the materials being presented to them are from 2001. Be in the know with your audience and prospects on where they’re spending time and what they like. Invest part of your day reading news articles and comments in blog posts on what is relevant to them. Keeping your content fresh, new and exciting will not only help sway an opinion – but will also demonstrate your knowledge on the subject. This content can be in a proposal you present, your own Facebook page or Twitter feed and blogs on your website.

Sometimes convincing your client to change requires you having to make that first step. Once you open those lines of communication and have reasonable data to back-up your claims, the road to transition will be smoother. Instead of just telling a client they should be social – show them why.

2. Be Where Your Clients Are

What are consumers doing on their mobile phones? The answer is – consuming content. Not just via search but with social as well. Content isn’t going away. Neither is mobile technology. According to a recent study, the number of mobile users in the U.S. who accessed a social networking or blog site has grown 37% in the past year.  In addition, half of these users are accessing social networking sites on a daily basis via their mobile phones.

Here’s some food for thought, these mobile users aren’t just looking around and logging out. They are engaging with each other and sharing content multiple times a day. Even if that content is a status update or a post to a link, they’re becoming comfortable in the social space for mobile. Why should you, as a marketer, care to know how they’re spending their time on these sites? The more comfortable and engaged your audience is on a social networking site, the more likely they’ll interact with you.  Since they’re already doing it and expanding into the mobile space, all you have to do is be there. The data speaks for itself. Millions of mobile users are reading social posts from brands and companies, sharing coupons or deals, and clicking on ads. Mobile and social are newlyweds, so integrating your current marketing efforts with this new couple can be challenging. As long as you create a social and mobile strategy that aligns with your buyer personas, you’ll quickly see the benefits.

3.  Use the Right Social Site

Today’s marketing world is full of terms like SEO, mobile sites, social marketing – but the key to walking the walk is understanding these terms. Most business aren’t sure what social networks to join, so they do as many as they can. Then they write blogs and compute keywords that might interest a few customers to their site. This is not the way to successful networking, branding or marketing.

Choosing the right approach is different for every business – not everyone benefits from the same social sites. To be successful you need to be in sync with your customer. If your customers don’t use Foursquare, don’t invest in it. It sounds simple, but it is a common misconception that having a presence on every social site is good for business. Remember the saying, “quality not quantity?” This couldn’t reign truer than in the social and mobile worlds. Social sites are tools for your marketing strategy to aid in moving your customer along in the buying process. Once you realize where your efforts have the most impact, dedicate more time and effort to those sites.

My perspective on social media is as follows: At the end of the day, it’s about keeping it simple. Don’t overload your audience with information. Make sure you’re being social and active where it makes sense for your business. Lastly, create compelling content that speaks to your buyers at specific points in the buying process. Understanding your prospect’s needs and wants is the key to creating valuable content that will get them to notice you and continue to engage with you.

Analytics / Features, Tips, & Announcements / PPC / Search Marketing / SEO / Social Media — 3 Comments
28
Oct 11

Understanding Google’s New Search Default Restrictions

Google has found a way to start tightening the rope around search, and more specifically, SEO. According to Brad Reynolds, CEO at Mongoose, “Google is changing the face of web analytics by encrypting search results.” As a result of this change, anyone who logs into their Google account (i.e. Google+, Gmail) and then conducts a search via Google will no longer have referrer data sent along with it. That referrer data reveals what search terms were used in order to find a particular business or website. Paid ads, however, will not be affected by this change.

Who does this impact?

In a blog post, Google says less than 10% of searches will be affected by this change. Additionally, in a Search Engine Land Article, Matt Cutts a Google Software Engineer estimates the affected traffic to be 1-2% of search volume.  Aggregate query data will continue to be available and include visits from users who are not signed into a Google account. This change only concerns organic search results while the user is logged into a Google account. It does not impact direct traffic, PPC traffic or affiliated traffic.

How does this affect the user experience?

In the Search Engine Land article: Google to Begin Encrypting Searches & Outbound Clicks By Default with SSL Search, Danny Sullivan does a great job of describing the setbacks from this change. This encryption prevents sophisticated keyword-based targeting from being used. It is almost as if we’re taking a step backwards in the progression of custom and personalized information. Instead of creating a better user experience, this is essentially making the consumer work harder. Take for example someone searching for a specific product, but since referrer data isn’t passed along to the company, the user lands on a basic web page. Now the user has to navigate through the website in order to find their particular product – essentially making the entire process more time consuming for the user. As a marketer, having the capability to track and analyze specific keyword information will become harder to obtain.

Why the change?

There is much speculation and controversy around why this change has been made. The majority of comments we have seen believe it is a way for Google to make more money and gain competitive advantage. Google mentions there is a growing importance of protecting the privacy of personalized search results. In an effort to protect users and their privacy, Google feels this is reason enough.

There are two additional facts we find to be confusing. First, Google will continue to offer this data to their paid advertisers, which seems inconsistent with the goal of protecting user privacy. Second, Google will continue to gather this organic search result information without passing it on, thus giving them exclusive intelligence related to search results. Some say this will hurt small businesses that cannot afford to pay for online marketing services, while others mention that this is a step in the right direction towards protecting the privacy of the consumer. The debate will be ongoing as more people become aware of this change in the marketing and SEO world.

With change, there is naturally going to be resistance. Like many changes, there will be pros and cons. At the moment, Mongoose is more interested in the long-term effects. Specifically, we’re curious to know how this will impact the way we search and if this will become a standard across all search engines. Will referrer data one day disappear for good – paid or not? Again, going back to Search Engine Land’s article, Sullivan claims that the future is clear:

“Referrer data is going away from search engines, and likely from other web sites, too. It’s somewhat amazing that we’ve had it last this long, and it will be painful to see that specific, valuable data disappear.”

Let’s say he’s right and this data disappears from search engines, what does this mean for social? Most users are searching via social already; perhaps this is an attempt by Google to gain traction in the social space as well. Although Google+ is not the most popular network in the social world, this might be the first step towards making that a reality. For now, Facebook and Twitter continue to own the social search arena. Users trust their friends’ feedback, comments and likes, which is something you don’t have in search engines. However, with Google, you do have the +1 option – but you need to be on Google+ for that function.

Your thoughts?

What do you think about what Google is doing? Are you for or against this change? Please leave any comments and suggestions below.

Analytics / Call Tracking / CRM / Integration / Mobile Marketing / Offline Advertising / PPC / Search Marketing / SEO / Social Media — No Comments
24
Oct 11

Smart Marketing Insights From eMetrics NYC

Last week Mongoose Metrics visited New York City to attend the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit. The show’s focus was to help marketers and web analytics professionals turn data into insight. The keynote speakers included people from Expedia, IBM, eBay, Nissan, eMarketer and more. Surely these folks know the importance of obtaining data to develop critical insights that help today’s businesses succeed. As a marketing director, those insights are what I’m after too.

So what did I learn at the eMetrics show? Below are just a handful of insights that I feel are worth sharing.emetrics logo

  • Research shows that transparency equals trust. We all know that today’s consumers trust each other more than marketers.
  • Of course we all want good, reliable customer and analytical data to make good business decisions. But decisions must be made nonetheless. Go to war with the data you have, not the data you wish you had.
  • When trying to see a holistic view of your online social data, combine mentions from all networks at least to record the data – even if you’re not entirely accurate on the sentiment.
  • Be aware of the audience you’re in. Marketing speak isn’t going to cut it. As marketers we have to listen. Over time that listening leads to learning. Monitor social & understand what your customers say. Use their language in your ads, keywords, etc.
  • Mobile isn’t the future. It’s now. Don’t wait to embrace mobile. Companies like eBay that rely largely on online commerce recognize this and are quickly developing solutions to serve today’s tech-savvy mobile consumer.

Feel free to share any additional insights from the show or else comment on the ideas I’ve mentioned.

 

 

 

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18
Oct 11

Top 10 Takeaways from the DrivingSales Executive Summit

Mongoose Metrics recently had the opportunity to attend The DrivingSales Executive Summit (DSES) and talk with some of the brightest minds in the automotive dealer industry.  From the moment we walked into the Bellagio Hotel conference center, we knew this show was going to be full of valuable content. We’ve shared the key takeaways from the show in this post. We hope you enjoy reading the quotes that we felt really resonated with us – a mix highlighting social media, mobile and the current automotive consumer.

  1. The automotive industry is not a one size fits all industry – this was the way it was approached in the past

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  2. 1 in 7 searches are mobile

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  3. Social tools are becoming most effective in the post sale dealer/brand locality

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  4. 37% of buyers use social as a part of the decision making process

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  5. Twitter is like wearing a Speedo….if you don’t like it, don’t look at it

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  6. 27% of people use FB as a part of the buying process. This number is more than all sales from Toyota and Ford combined

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  7. 91% of car buyers want to see service reviews before purchasing a car

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  8. Successful companies know how to give customers a “Beyond the Moment” experience

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  9. A negative purchase experience in the past would result in the exposure to 7-10 people, now it is 700-1,000

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  10. When researching a vehicle, prospects look at the top three resources:  independent sites, search engines, and dealer websites. You have no control over independent sites.  You have limited control over search engines. You have complete control over your dealer websites

The underlying theme throughout these quotes and the conference itself was understanding your customer. With the increasing popularity of social media, the rapid growth of mobile devices and the wealth of information available on the web, consumers have wider access to information to make them smarter about the buying process. DrivingSales clearly understands the importance of leveraging customer data to help move them through the automotive buying process today.

If you were at the show and want to share your takeaways please leave a comment.