Categories AdWords Analytics Bing Ads Business Ecommerce Graphic Design Landing Pages Marketing News PPC Shopping Site Optimization Social Media Tag Management Uncategorized Video Advertising Webinars Writing

What Is Lead Quality And How To Measure It

Want to know the secret that generates more revenue from email marketing?

Many marketers assume that driving more leads can help them generate more sales and revenue. While increasing the size of your email list should be a top priority, your leads are worthless unless they’re qualified enough to make a purchase.

Driving more qualified leads is the secret to generating more revenue from email marketing.

In this article, we’ll show you everything you need to know about lead quality and how to measure it.

What Is Lead Quality?
Lead quality is a factor that allows you to identify how likely your prospects are to become your paying customers. The higher the quality of your leads, the more likely they become your customers.

Exact measurements of lead quality may vary depending upon your lead generation strategy and the products you sell. However, there are a few methods to determine whether a prospect is right for your business.

Some of them are:

• People download your lead magnet that is part of your marketing or sales funnel.
• Visitors contact your sales team to ask pre-sale questions.
• Leads browse through various product pages or pricing page, meaning they could be thinking of doing a business with you.
• How to Measure the Lead Quality?

1. Download Tracking

Tracking downloads on your website is easy with MonsterInsights. All you need to do is to install and activate the MonsterInsights plugin. File download tracking works out of the box without any further configuration.

To find how many times visitors download your lead magnet, simply look at your events report in Google Analytics.

how to measure lead quality with download tracking

For more details, read how to track and view file downloads in Google Analytics.

In addition to measuring lead quality in Google Analytics, you might also want to tag or segment your qualified leads in your email marketing tool.

Identifying the quality of your leads is an essential step in lead nurturing. This way you can send emails that are more likely to be opened and engaged.

Read 50 smart ways to segment your email list like a pro.

2. Pre-sale Query Form Submission

To track presale query form submission, just install and activate the MonsterInsights Forms addon. If you’re using WPForms, you can even automatically add your users to your email list by including a checkbox to your contact form.


3. Important Pages visit

By setting up Google Analytics goals, you can track whether your visitors are browsing through important pages on your site. By visiting important pages on your site, your visitors are showing an interest in your offer, which makes them qualified.

And once identified a lead as qualified, you can target them onsite and offsite to show personalized marketing messages.

Below are a few ways you can target your qualified leads on various marketing channels.

Onsite retargeting: With OptinMonster’s onsite retargeting feature, you can show personalized marketing campaigns using popups, slide-ins, floating bar, etc. to your qualified leads that are proven to convert.

Remarketing: Target your qualified leads on Facebook through remarketing campaigns to convert them into paying customers.

That’s it!

We hope this article gives you some insights into tracking the quality of your leads.

If you liked this article, you might also read how to find your most profitable email campaigns.

And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for more Google Analytics tutorials.
https://www.monsterinsights.com/how-to-measure-lead-quality/

Are You Getting the Most You Could Be from Your Email List?

Let’s start out by facing a tough reality: many small businesses — even the most successful ones — aren’t getting the most they could be from their email list.

It’s not that they’re not working hard or seeing good results. In fact, for many, email marketing is already their biggest driver of new and repeat business.

But there’s one thing that many small businesses aren’t doing that could help take things to the next level.

Luckily, adding that one thing to your email marketing strategy is a lot easier than you might think.
It starts with understanding a term you may have heard before — segmentation.

Segmentation is the process of organizing your contacts into different groups with the goal of targeting them with content or offers that are relevant to their needs or interests.

Rather than sending the same message to your entire list and hoping the right people see it, segmentation makes it easy to create emails that you know specific groups of contacts will be interested in — improving the chances of them opening, clicking, and acting on the content and offers you send out.

Still not using email to market your business? Give Constant Contact a try for FREE!

Why is segmentation important?
Did you know that 39% of marketers who segmented their email lists experienced higher open rates; 28% experienced lower unsubscribe rates; and 24% experienced better deliverability and greater revenue?

One of the biggest reasons people ignore emails or unsubscribe from email lists is because the content they receive isn’t relevant to them.

Think about your own experience — wouldn’t you be much more likely to pay attention to an email if it were designed with your needs and interests in mind?

While you may have people who read and act on every email you send out, if you’re not taking the appropriate steps to segment your audience, it’s likely that you already have potential customers or donors who are tuning you out.

If you’ve never segmented your list — one of the questions you may be asking is “how can I get started?”
The good news is that Constant Contact makes it super easy to segment your contacts.

Segments allow you to create customized groups of contacts using campaign engagement, contact information, and list memberships. Segments can be saved to use for later campaigns and refreshed in real time to update the list of contacts that meet your selected criteria.

But before you can start organizing contacts into different groups, you’re going to need some information to work with.
If you’re like a lot of businesses, the amount of information you have available may be limited to name and email address.

But there are also details like: job title, company, address, birthday, interests, and purchase history, which could be used to your advantage.

How can you find the information you need? Here are a few quick ideas:

Use what you know
If you’re brand new to segmentation, you may want to start by creating a list of your most loyal customers or supporters. Even if you don’t have a ton of information about your contacts, you should be able to quickly scan your list and recognize a handful of names.

You can add a tag for VIPs, or create a separate list and send them exclusive offers to reward them for their loyalty.

Update your sign up process
Much of the information you need to segment your list, can be available right from the moment people sign up.

While you may only want to require people to give their name and email address, you can also add optional fields like address or company name.

You can also provide options for the type of content they want to receive and let new contacts opt-in to different lists right from the start.

Use a survey
An online survey is a quick and efficient way to collect information from your email contacts.

You can provide multiple choice questions to help gauge people’s interest around a particular product or service, and can also provide open-ended questions for people to fill out their own information.

Host an event
Events are a great opportunity to collect additional information for your contact list.

You can collect information when interacting with attendees face-to-face, and also use an online registration tool to collect important details before the event.

You can also create a separate list for people who attend your events, and send follow-up emails and invitations to future activities.

Use your reports
You can see which contacts are opening your emails each month, and export a list of people who have clicked on a particular link.

This is a great way to identify your most active readers, and can also be used to learn more about the content or products your audience is most interested in.

If you see a group of contacts clicking through to learn more about a particular product or to read a piece of content, you could then create a separate list and follow up with more information or an offer that’s relevant to them

With the right information, you’ll be ready to start segmenting your list!
Take some time to think about the different groups of contacts you have on your list.

Consider things like:

• Location: Do you have groups of contacts that live locally and others that visit from out of state?
• Customer Status: A lot of the people on your list will be customers, but you may also have a sizeable audience of potential or new customers, as well.
• Interests: Use your click-through data to create interest-based lists.
• Questions/Needs: Use survey data or questions you’ve received in-person to group contacts, and follow up with more information.
• Length of time on your list: Creating a separate list for new contacts is a great way to engage people right from the start.
• There are plenty of ways you can use segmentation to get more from your list.
• Remember that growing an effective email list isn’t just about adding names and email addresses to your database.

These are people who have opted-in to receive updates from your business. It’s your responsibility to offer an experience that meets their needs and inspires them to take action.
https://blogs.constantcontact.com/segment-email-lists/

Attribution Models for Marketers: The Definitive Guide

We would like to think that a visitor finds your blog or clicks an ad, and immediately converts into a sale or lead.

Unfortunately, that is rarely the case.

Today, people will visit your site several times prior to converting. They'll find your blog post, return directly a week later, and click a retargeting ad the next day. Then, they will finally convert!

So which marketing channel gets credit? Was your blog responsible for the new sale? Or was it your Facebook Ad?

When trying to show clients the value of each marketing channel, it can be difficult. With multiple touchpoints in the buyer journey, each channel plays its part.

These are the questions at the heart of attribution models.

What are marketing attribution models?
Attribution modeling is a framework for analyzing which touchpoints, or marketing channels, receive credit for a conversion. Each attribution model distributes the value of a conversion across each touchpoint differently.

A model comparison tool allows you to analyze how each model distributes the value of a conversion. There are six common attribution models: First Interaction, Last Interaction, Last Non-Direct Click, Linear, Time-Decay, and Position-Based.

By analyzing each attribution model, you can get a better idea of the ROI for each marketing channel.

There isn't necessarily a "best" attribution model. You may choose one as your primary attribution model for reporting and analysis. Different factors, like business goals or buying cycles, can make one model better than another.

Attribution modeling is an analysis tool. Don't limit yourself to one and stick with it. Compare performance under each model to understand the importance of multiple touchpoints in the customer's journey.

Let's look at an example.

Currently, your default reporting is based on a last interaction model (more on each type below.)

You look at your analytics and only see a few leads from organic blog traffic. You're evaluating if you should keep investing in the blog. How do you prove the value of the blog?

You navigate to Google Analytics attribution comparison tool and view your conversions under the first interaction model.

Under a First Interaction model, the conversion value of your organic traffic shoots up! You realize that your blog visitors comeback to your site after clicking a retargeting ad. Then they sign up or purchase.

Under the Last Interaction model, the retargeting ad received all credit for those leads.

By comparing multiple attribution models, it's easier to understand how two (or more) marketing channels work together to generate conversions, so you can assign a conversion value to each channel.

Attribution models are useful, but they're also one of the more complicated topics in marketing.

In our complete guide to attribution models, we'll walk through the primary attribution models and when to use them. Let's get started on each type of attribution model.

What are the different types of attribution models?
1. Last Interaction Attribution


Last Interaction Attribution is also referred to as "last-click" or "last-touch."  As the name implies, this model gives 100% of the credit to the last interaction your business had with a lead before they convert.

For example, a visitor finds your website through organic search. A week later they see a Facebook Ad and click the ad. Later that day, they go to your website directly and make a purchase.

The direct traffic, in this instance, gets all of the credit for that purchase. 100% of the value is assigned to that last interaction.

This is the default attribution model in most platforms, including Google Analytics. If you are looking at standard conversion reports in Google Analytics, you're seeing each goal attributed to the last interaction your customer had with your business.

Pros & Cons:

Last Interaction attribution is the simplest to implement and evaluate.

It is also often the most accurate. Digital marketing today is scattered. People may access from multiple devices, clear cookies, or use multiple browsers. This makes it difficult to track their entire journey.

However, you can always be certain of their last interaction prior to converting.

The downside is that this model ignores everything that happens before the final interaction. Many of the interactions and touchpoints prior to that last-click will be just as important.

This model may be a good fit for you if you have a short buying cycle. If there aren't many touchpoints prior to converting, only tracking the last one will give you a good idea of your strongest channels.

You will also find this model especially helpful if your sales funnel is wide at the top, but narrow at the bottom.

2. First Interaction Attribution


First Interaction is similar to Last Interaction, in that it gives 100% of the credit to one click/interaction. First Interaction (also called "First-Click") gives all of the credit for a conversion to your business' first interaction with the customer.

For instance, if a customer first finds your business on Pinterest, then Pinterest gets all of the credit for any sale that happens after that interaction.

It doesn't matter if the customer found you on Pinterest, then clicked a display ad a week later, and then went to your site directly. Pinterest, in this example, gets the full credit.

Pros & Cons:

The main appeal of using First Interaction attribution is how simple and straightforward it is. However, this model ignores the effects of any potentially important marketing channels that at a later point.

This model is also helpful if your industry has a short buying cycle. If there is a tendency to convert customers immediately, then their first touchpoint is especially important. Or, if your main business goal is bringing in new top-of-the-funnel customers, First Interaction is a great model for evaluating each channel.

3. Last Non-Direct Click


The Last Non-Direct Click Model is a bit more helpful than a standard last-click model. 100% of the value is still assigned to a single interaction. But, with last non-direct click, it eliminates any "direct" interactions that occur right before the conversion.

Direct Traffic is when anyone goes directly to your site by manually entering your url or clicking a bookmarked link. So this visitor already knows about your company.

How did they learn about your company? What prompted them to go to your website directly? By eliminating direct traffic in a last-click model, you can better assign value to the marketing strategy that led to the conversion.

Pros & Cons

As I mentioned above, eliminating direct clicks makes this a more insightful model than last interaction. However, it still assigns 100% of the value to one interaction. If your customer had 4 touchpoints prior to that last non-direct click, it's completely ignored.

4. Linear Attribution


With a Linear attribution model, you split credit for a conversion equally between all the interactions the customer had with your business.

For instance, a customer finds you on Instagram, signs up for your email list and later clicks an email link. The next week they go to your site directly and make a $120 purchase.

There are 3 touchpoints in this situation. Each touchpoint gets 33% of the credit, or a $40 conversion value attributed to the channel when the purchase was made.

Pros & Cons:

Linear attribution gives you a more balanced look at your whole marketing strategy than a single-event attribution model does.

However, this means it also assigns equal importance to everything.  Some marketing strategies are more effective than others, and this model will not highlight the most effective strategies.

If you want a nuanced attribution model that's straightforward and easy to explain to clients, linear attribution might be a good choice for you. It's a great way to demonstrate how each channel does have value.

5. Time Decay Attribution

Time Decay attribution is similar to Linear attribution - it spreads out the value across multiple events. But unlike, Linear attribution, the Time Decay model also takes into consideration when the touchpoint occurred.

Interactions that occur closer to the time of purchase have more value attributed to them. The first interaction gets less credit, while the last interaction will get the most.

Pros & Cons:

If relationship-building is a big factor in a business' success, using Time Decay attribution can be a helpful way to conceptualize that.

Keep in mind  that this model minimizes the effect of top-of-the-funnel marketing techniques. You may want to use a Time Decay attribution model when you're dealing with a particularly long sales cycle, such as for expensive B2B purchases.

6. Position Based Attribution


The Position Based attribution model (also called U-shaped attribution) splits the credit for a sale between a prospect's first interaction with your brand and the moment they convert to a lead.

40% of the credit is given to each of these points, with the remaining 20% spread out between any other interactions that happened in the middle.

For example, if a prospect first makes contact with your business through a Google search, looks at your Facebook page, and later signs up for your email newsletter, the first and third touches each receive 40% of the credit, and the Facebook visit receives the remaining 20%.

Pros & Cons:

Position Based is a strong attribution model for many business types that have multiple touchpoints prior to a conversion. It gives at least some credit to every interaction. But, it gives a stronger weight to your two most important interactions: the first time a customer found you and the interaction that prompted a conversion.

Bonus: Custom Attribution Models

Do you know a particular weight or valuation you want each touchpoint to have? Do you have a very specific funnel that you want to evaluate?

You can create custom attribution models in Google Analytics. A custom attribution model lets businesses give a custom amount of weight to whatever touchpoints they think are most important.

Pros & Cons:

A custom attribution model provides the most nuanced look at what's getting you sales. However, it can be difficult to create, and this type of model requires a lot of data. Businesses that have a long buying cycle and plenty of data on hand are the best candidates for using a custom attribution model.

Where to Find Attribution Model Reports in Google Analytics?
Google Analytics uses last interaction attribution by default. However, you can compare different attribution models in your account. You'll find this tool under "Conversions" > "Attribution" in your account.


By comparing each model, you can see the value each channel delivers under different attribution models. You can use their default channel groupings, or if you are customizing your links with UTM codes, click "Source" to see the value assigned to each source you are tracking.

In the above example account, direct traffic was attributed with 2,234 conversions with last interaction attribution. Under first interaction, that drops to 1,408 -- a 40% decrease!

By looking at both models, we can understand the value of the other marketing channels that led to the direct traffic and conversions.

Marketing Attribution Model Infographic
Attribution models are complex to use and understand. To help simplify it, we created an infographic that you can save and share.

marketing attribution model infographic

Let us know what you think in the comments! What attribution model do you use when analyzing your marketing campaigns?
https://agencyanalytics.com/blog/marketing-attribution-models

5 of the Best Tools to Build Your Email List Online

You know how to build your email list in store.

You’ve even gotten pretty good at collecting contacts during events, with tools like Text-to-Join and the ListBuilder tablet app.

What about your website and social channels?
Are you doing everything you can to build your email list online?

The good news is there are a ton of easy-to-use apps and tools that can automate this process for you, letting you get back to other parts of your business.

Looking to learn more list growth tips? Join us for a FREE webinar: How to Ask for Email Addresses, Anywhere. Can’t attend live? Register anyway and we’ll send you a recording.

Once you set up these list growth tools, many of them will run continually on their own.

Ready to get started? Check out these five ways to build your email list online.

1. LeadPages

LeadPages makes it easy to create landing pages to drive engagement on your website and grow your email list.

Like good email design, a great landing page provides a simple call-to-action and can be viewed on any device.

LeadPages follows these best practices with plenty of pre-designed templates to get you started fast.

Build email list online -- leadpages

Plus LeadPages’ integration for Constant Contact makes it easy for you to automatically sync your new website leads directly into your Constant Contact email marketing account.

Learn more about LeadPages here

2. MailMunch

MailMunch helps grow your list by converting website visitors into subscribers and customers. MailMunch provides beautiful opt-in forms that allow you to catch visitors before they leave.

They have a variety of forms like Popups, Top Bar, and Scroll Box —  all of which are optimized for mobile devices and integrate with Constant Contact, so your leads go directly into your contact list.

Build your email list online -- MailMunch

MailMunch comes with analytics so you’ll be able to eliminate assumptions and test designs that get visitors engaged.

Here’s how you can get started with MailMunch

3. Neat

Do you have a stack of business cards on your desk but haven’t had time to upload them into your account?

Neat’s scanning software eliminates manual data entry and digitizes your business cards in minutes.

Build your email list -- Neat

Neat has a variety of integrations that automatically send your new business card leads into a database of your choice, including Constant Contact.

Check out how Neat can work for your business

4. Join My Mailing List Facebook App


The Join My Mailing List App lets you collect email addresses easily from your Facebook business page that will automatically be added to your Constant Contact account.

It takes just a few minutes to get set up and you can customize the form with your logo and an introduction to let your audience know what they’ll receive.

Build Your Email List Online -- Facebook JMML

Set up your Join My Mailing List now

5. Constant Contact Forms plugin for WordPress


Add a sign-up form to your website in minutes. With the Constant Contact Forms plugin, you can create a form that automatically matches the theme of your WordPress site.

All forms are mobile-optimized and you can customize the fields your subscribers are required to fill out.

Choose which email list you’d like your new contacts to be added to and you’re good to go!

constant-contact-wordpress-form-example

Learn more about the Constant Contact Forms plugin

Looking for more tools to grow your email list?
Get ready to grow your email list quickly and easily.

We’ll show you how in our new webinar: How to Ask for Email Addresses, Anywhere. Can’t attend live? Register anyway and we’ll send you a recording.

And be sure to visit our Apps & Integrations Page for a full listing of our integrations — including integrations with Outlook, QuickBooks, and more. Search by your business needs to discover integrations that can work for you!
https://blogs.constantcontact.com/build-your-email-list-online/#

Scale Adwords Management Using Automated Rules

Ah, the age old question every agency owner has to answer… How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

The answer is so obvious.  A woodchuck would chuck all the wood he could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.

So how does this tongue twister apply to advertising agency owners like us? Let’s make a comparison...

You start out on your own, chucking wood and selling it outside of a local campground. You are profitable and, because you’re ambitious, you want to grow. You chuck as much wood as you can but soon realize the more time you spend chucking wood, the less time you have to sell it. Which is more important? Chucking or selling? Both.

Since you’re a savvy entrepreneur, you hire your first jr. woodchuck. But how much wood can this woodchuck chuck?

Your woodchucks wood chucking goal: 250 pieces/day.

Week 1: Although your woodchuck’s processes are slow, he goes beastmode and chucks 500 pieces of wood!

Week 2:After a week of chucking non-stop, he gets tired, pulls a hammy and his girlfriend breaks up with him. 100 pieces.

Week 3: He get’s better but still fluctuates between 150 - 200 pieces/day.

All of a sudden, you have increased your sales process but your fulfillment is slow and your employee is underperforming.

Is there a smarter solution?

Let's say that instead of hiring a woodchuck, you went to Costco and bought a woodchucking machine. This woodchucking machine claims it has 50 horsepower and can chuck 500 pieces of wood per day, everyday, comes with a one year warranty.

Is the comparison obvious yet? As ad agency owners, our wood is advertising campaigns. The more advertising campaigns an employee can manage, the more profitable they will be and the more scalable your business will be.

The problem is, there is a point of diminishing returns. If one account manager has too many accounts then some of those will be neglected. Happens every time.

Here at adMind, we manage all paid traffic channels, but depending on your business model you might just manage AdWords, Facebook or a combination of both (or even offline). This article is geared towards AdWords automation to both increase productivity and reliability of account management.

First, let's make a very important distinction between automated rules and automated bid strategies.

Automated rules; Perform the same tasks that a human account manager would perform, but through automation, for free.

Automated bid strategies; Control bids to minimize CPC, hit a Target CPA or ROAS. Put away your Texas Instruments calculator, spreadsheets and don't even try to mess with the bids manually. You won't win.

The most common automated rules that we use on a daily basis are for keywords and display placements.

Things to consider:
Client’s budget; How much do they have to spend on ads and how much for management?

Client’s CPA; if the client is in a vertical where conversions are very expensive then you must be extremely careful with your targeting choices. More expensive conversions mean more money required to get statistically significant results.

As a general rule of thumb, you want to begin with a test CPA of about 3x the value of your clients Target CPA. If you have a list of 100 keywords and a target CPA of $10, then you need $3,000 in order to accrue a significant amount of data across each keyword. Why? Because $30 x 100 KWs = 3000, that's why. Now imagine if your client’s CPA was $100. You really need $30K before you start to see the light.

Search
At the campaign level, click on automation > change rule for keywords > pause keywords when > then, if your Target CPA was $10 your rule would look like this.

adwords automation

It’s fairly obvious, but this will pause a KW that got $30 in traffic without a single conversion. You want to choose all time because some KWs may be low volume. This does not eliminate the need for adding negative KWs to avoid further waste, but it does help lend a helping hand in your client’s account.

Display
If you want to win with display then you have to eliminate low-quality placements as quickly as possible. Since you should start out using the maximize clicks bid strategy,  AdWords will automatically begin allocating more of your budget to wherever is generating clicks for the lowest CPC. If you’ve ever ran a display campaign before then you know you will get tons of clicks for but if none of those convert then nothing matters.

We recommend automatically eliminating placements with a spend 3x your clients target CPA and performance below their Target.  You use essentially the same rule as you did with search, but apply it to placements. To do so, click on a display campaign > Display networks tab > Placements > Automate > Pause placements when...

scale adwords 2 Remember, we are talking display here and there could potentially be thousands of placements or even tens of thousands. In order to be more efficient if your client’s budget is small then you might want to do this on the topics level or even display keyword level.

Automated rules are not perfect, but they save us hundreds of hours per month and make our clients campaigns more successful, quicker, with lower management costs.

There are dozens of rules like this you can apply to any aspect of your account. Be creative. Just think, if I were the account manager what would I do when I open my client’s AdWords account? What would I look for? What would I change if the numbers were above or below a particular metric.

Happy optimizing!
https://agencyanalytics.com/blog/scale-adwords-management

How Much Should You Charge for PPC Management?

As a rockstar marketer (agency, consultant, freelancer, or otherwise), you've got to be a renaissance scholar: skilled and learned in many things. You've got to offer what your clients need. And in 2016, that most definitely includes pay-per-click (PPC) management.

The PPC marketing model works remarkably well, and Adwords is the godfather of that family. Just how much control does it have? A lot, controlling a full 33% of all online ad revenue…$38.6 billion in 2014 alone, and it accounts for roughly 95% of Google's total revenue. So yeah, it seems to be doing okay (if by "okay" we mean billions in ad spend, billions in revenue, and a huge market share).

To the layperson, success in a PPC campaign can be a complete mystery. It can happen, but they often have no idea why, and would be hard-pressed to replicate it. Mistakes are commonplace. That's where you come in.

As a PPC manager, you avoid the pitfalls and use every successful best practice out there. You squeeze maximum results from each campaign, from each ad group. You polish, refine, and improve, day in and day out. And for that, you expect and deserve to be paid.

But how should you determine your pricing, and how much is fair?

The Candidates: Payment Models
Let's get this out of the way from the get-go: PPC management is not and should not be cheap. It can run anywhere from $250-$1500 per month on average. In can get much, much higher. In this sphere, the maxim that you get what you pay for has never been more accurate. Anyone can charge $100, slap together something that will never do anything, and spend that money on string-in-a-can and hacky sacks (or something else equally silly).

But you're a professional. And your payment structure options are many.

Candidate #1 – The Flat Fee
This one is tricky to pull off in your early days as a PPC deity, as it requires a bit of experience to determine the likely time and effort each account will need. Once you're able to accurately estimate, though, it does bring in a steady and reliable paycheck…always the same amount regardless of the fluctuating workload. You can always revisit your price if the client drastically changes budget or requirements.

Candidate #2 – The Hourly Rate
This is considered a recipe for poverty within the freelance community. The prevailing wisdom is to always work by project and never by hour. Clients often love this model, though, as it's easy to see a direct correlation between how much work you're doing for them (the number of hours you bill), and the cost to them (those hours multiplied by the hourly rate). That said, you're basically penalizing yourself if you work efficiently and reduce the amount of time you spend on each campaign. Try an online hourly rate calculator to give yourself a ballpark figure if you're curious.

Candidate #3 – The Percentage of Ad Spend
This is the industry norm, with bigger agencies charging anywhere from 15-20% of total ad spend. Smaller operations might fall between 10-15%, with an account minimum to cover costs. This model does "punish" the client for increasing their budget, though, and doesn't consider individual account difficulty (spending a lot in an "easy" industry or niche vs spending a little in a more competitive one…you'll be working much harder for less money).

Candidate #4 – The Performance Based Fee
Sounds good in theory – you're rewarded for your hard work and success – and clients LOVE it – they pay much less or nothing if you don't deliver the goods – but it typically doesn't translate to the real-world. As the PPC manager, you're not in control of everything that plays a part in the ultimate success of a campaign. It could work if you had total control over sales, leads, landing pages, checkout, and the sales funnel from top to bottom…but you don't.

Candidate #5 – The Hybrid
Some marketers favor a smaller percent of total spend, plus a base fee for certain repeatable tasks like weekly reports. Others determine their hourly rate, estimate the hours involved for a particular account, then charge that as a flat fee. There's guesswork involved, and some of us are not comfortable with that.

There's a lot to consider. The trick here is to analyze the pros and cons for each candidate as you would when casting a political vote: choose the best fit for you. The percentage model is the most popular, but that doesn't automatically mean it works best in every situation. You're a unique flower.

Even after you decide on a price model, there's no magic dollar figure that you should be charging. There are considerations. A checklist, if you will. Hit them all, and you're able to charge more.

The Considerations: Take a Long, Hard Look in the Mirror
In selecting your price, you need to look at your situation from every angle. Stand your service in front of a full-length mirror (metaphorically speaking) and scrutinize every flaw and shortcoming. Make a list of its best features.

What exactly are you providing? Initial consultation, set-up, analytics integration, keyword research and selection, copywriting, bid management, ad scheduling, reports (weekly, biweekly, monthly)? Does your service include search term reports, ad performance analysis, restructuring existing ads and creating new ads (groups and campaigns)?

It's all about cost to value ratio. Your clients will spend more if you give them more. So, what else have you got up your sleeves besides Adwords?

Who Do You Think You Are ?
Consider your background and experience.

• How long have you been doing this?
• What evidence of success can you provide?
• Are you Google certified (Google Partner for Analytics and/or Adwords)? Are you an Accredited Bing Ads Professional?
• Do you have dozens of glowing recommendations?
• Do you keep up with new developments and trends in the PPC arena?
• If you're new to the PPC game, you can't very well charge the same as an established expert.

Just Google It ?
We often incorrectly believe "search" is synonymous with "Google". Heck, we use the term "google" to mean look something up online. But that search engine is not the only show in town.

It is the biggest. Adwords boasts over one million advertisers, and Google gets in excess of 100 billion search queries each month. But does that mean it's the best?

Google controls about 67% of the paid search market in the U.S. compared to Bing at 18%. So it's a no-brainer which network to use, right?

No. As always, it depends on your criteria. Google gets you more impressions, yes, but the Yahoo Bing network can cost up to 70% less per-click, and because of their smaller market share, you're not competing with as many others for those clicks. That's important for many businesses.

The Google vs Yahoo Bing debate isn't going to be resolved anytime soon. And that's okay. There's room for both…and you should be recommending both to your clients. Better for them, better for you. If Bing Ads and Yahoo Gemini are part of your stable of services in addition to "just" Google, you can charge more for that.

Let's Get This Party Started
The cost of launching a PPC campaign from scratch is very front-end heavy. It takes a lot of time and energy to get it out of the gates.

If you swoop in and do the heavy lifting from day one, you should consider your set-up fees. You can either charge a hefty launch fee, or you might waive that initial cost to get the ball rolling and bringing in steady income.

Clients generally prefer a lower up-front charge in exchange for a higher ongoing/monthly fee. There's less risk for them, as the real management cost doesn't kick in until the campaign is (hopefully) doing its thing and bringing in revenue. You, however, may find yourself only breaking even (or even losing money) at this stage, but can look forward to higher profit margins once the campaign is running smoothly. Can you afford to wait it out?

For existing campaigns, you may be called in to take over, in which case you'll start with a PPC audit. What exactly does that include (campaign settings, ad groups, keywords)? How long will it take you? Are you going to charge for it, or roll it into the monthly management fee?

Be VERY clear about what your clients get, and what they don't get (perhaps offering a wide variety of add-ons they can opt for down the road). The add-on menu works at fast food joints for a reason…different people want different things.

Goal! Goal! Goal!
Of course, no campaign will accomplish anything without clearly defined and identified goals. So, what are they? And does your price ultimately work within your ideal client's budget? Go after smaller fish at first, but remember that they have smaller wallets, too.

Determine Your Minimum Worth
The Tools of the Trade Whether you're a high-falutin' agency with dozens of employees, or a lone ranger on the plains, you have business expenses. List them.

Software and subscription services like Google Analytics, Wordstream, Optimizely, SEMrush, Clicktale (heat maps, session replays, conversion analytics, advanced insights, management tools), or Crazy Egg…to name just a few that may be in your marketer tool belt
Office space

• Internet connection, landline or mobile phone service
• Employee salaries (if any)
• Your own marketing
• Personal expenses

And on and on and on…(there's never a shortage of expenses)
Whatever you charge, you need to pay your bills. So be sure you know how much is enough, and what the industry supports for someone with your credentials (whatever they are) and experience (whatever it is). Look around. Compare yourself. Are you doing everything the major players offer, or are you a more budget-friendly option? Both have their value.

Bottom line? Successful businesses understand that they must spend money to make money, and they understand that a well-run PPC campaign can make them money. People are willing to pay for that…if you know what you're doing. Do you? If you're emphatically nodding your head right now, then don't be afraid to ask for what you deserve. PPC management is not frivolous, nor is it a luxury. It's a modern business necessity. On average, businesses make $2 for every $1 they spend on Adwords.

Top-flight management providers can demand top-flight fees. The best are providing a robust service that includes Adwords, the Yahoo Bing Network, and Facebook Ads (or some other paid social platform). The best can do it all (but don't necessary bundle everything together). The best ask the right questions and have the right answers. The best are ready to deal with whatever the industry throws at them. Are you?

Can you deliver increased traffic? Higher conversions? And a solid ROI? Then you should be paid for that handsomely
subcenr.
https://agencyanalytics.com/blog/how-much-to-charge-ppc

From Beginner to Pro: 21 Free Adwords Tutorials

With the growing PPC budgets come increased demand for experienced pay-per-click services. It's no surprise, then, that PPC and SEM jobs are on the rise. As we continue to move forward into the second quarter 2016, the need for quality PPC analysts and Google Adwords managers intensify.

Though brands are allocating large portions of their marketing budget to Adwords, learning effective pay per click strategies doesn't have to break the bank. It can be overwhelming trying to learn this new skill - with countless courses and guides, many would-be Adwords consultants are scratching their heads and wondering, "Where do I start?"

Let's get one thing straight: learning the fundamentals of Adwords doesn't cost a cent. If you're just starting out, don't buy in to expensive training programs or monthly subscription services. There is plenty of free information on the Internet which teaches you everything you need to know about Google Adwords.

We looked sought out the best free tutorials on the web today, covering every facet of the Adwords universe. They're broken down in to 11 categories:

Unbounce is the leading authority on conversion rate optimization. They consistently write content that explains complex ideas in simple terms, and their Noob Guide to PPC is no different. The guide covers the absolute essentials, from campaign setup to keyword targeting and Ad rank. If you're just getting started and looking for help setting up your first small campaign, this guide is for you.

The Google Adwords support center is an excellent resource for any and every PPC consultant, from beginner to expert. But it wasn't always this way - the Adwords help was, for a long time, outdated and sporadically updated. Times have changed though, and Google regularly updates the Adwords tutorials it evolves.

My favorite thing about the Adwords support guides: they come in video format. If you're a visual learner, then these videos are an excellent resource and explain detailed PPC concepts with simple, short cartoons. Given that Adwords is the major PPC platform and belongs to Google, it's worth a visit to the Adwords support site to stay abreast of the latest goings-ons with the Adwords platform.


When it comes to internet marketing, Neil Patel is a household name. He's the founder of two marketing companies - Kissmetrics and CrazyEgg - and regularly blogs about marketing topics on his eponymous blog and QuickSprout.

This Adwords guide, like most of Neil's content, is in depth with amazing attention to detail. He does a great job of explaining the value of Adwords for SMEs, both now and in the future. Looking at PPC from a high level, it's easier to understand the importance of granular things like landing page optimization and conversion tracking.

The best part about this guide: the examples. Each section has a real-world example, accompanied by annotated images that clearly explain the thought process. This is a great guide for anyone who's already set up their first campaign or two and is looking to take their Adwords PPC game to the next level.

The folks at WordStream are trusted experts when it comes to pay per click advertising. Yet despite their extensive expertise, they explain technical concepts in a way that is generally accessible and easy to absorb. Such is the case with their '6 Steps Guide' to paid search account structure.

Laid out sequentially, each step covers a defend aspect of campaign structure. Chief among these, as they point out, is doing your due diligence in the two phases before the campaign even starts: planning and keyword research. For many PPC consultants, including (and perhaps, specifically) the veterans, there is a temptation to rush through the planning and keyword research phases. The fact is, these do not scale well; every campaign is different and will be structured differently.

Website structure, products and services, and the location of customers all play a part in PPC campaign structure and should be considered to help the campaign succeed over time.


If you're setting up a campaign for an ecommerce site, this PPC tutorial is an excellent resource. Using the example of a retailer selling women's jeans, the CPC Strategy team shows how a properly structured site at the outset allows for easy expansion later on. Another example of how, when it comes to PPC, moving slow is actually moving fast.


If you've been anywhere near the pay per click advertising industry in the past 15 years, then you probably feel like the topic of keyword search has been beaten to death by now. But the fact is, smart advertisers know that success comes from the fundamentals, and nothing is more essential to PPC than effective keyword selection.

In this keyword research PPC tutorial, veteran marketer Beth Morgan shows us how to truly identify the keywords that will convert searchers into buyers. The right keywords are those that match the interest and intent with a searcher when are at a particular stage of the buying cycle. Rather than grouping keywords by their grammatical similarities (the 'traditional' way of doing keyword research), we should, according to Beth, group them according to likelihood to convert. In doing so, we can appropriately allocate more budget to the keywords that will have the highest ROI.

paid insights ppc guide

I'll cut right to the chase: this keyword research tutorial drops a value bomb tip, and it's one that almost every PPC consultant I know completely overlooks. It's quite simple: talk to the customer!

So often we set out to crest the perfect Adwords campaign with the perfect keywords (as if such a campaign was even possible), without even asking the customer about their needs. "Me! Me! Me!" is the default way our minds work, so it's crucial that we take a step back and remember why we're doing PPC in the first place: to deliver an amazing experience to another human being through our advertised product or service.

A simple, conversation is all it takes to reveal unique keyword insights, both positive and negative, that can save time and money down the line.

Unbounce

Unbounce has created this brief, useful tutorial for writing PPC ad copy. The biggest takeaway here is, not surprisingly, write like a human speaking to other humans. Focus on the end needs, wants and outcomes of your target customers. Speak their language. Don't be afraid to get personal, explaining what you can do for your customer in the ad copy.

white shark media adwords guide

Without a doubt, the most important part of Adwords ad copy is the headline. It's the largest part of the ad, the part we see first, and what triggers an emotional reaction. In this tutorial for writing PPC headlines that convert, PPC expert Andrew Lolk at White Shark Media takes a deep dive into the art and science of writing amazing headlines. Almost as important as knowing what to do is knowing what not to do. This guide helps avoid those pitfalls write away, laying out 8 common mistakes to avoid when writing Adwords PPC headlines, including copying competitors or using generic wording.

With this in mind, the guide then lays out a complete blueprint for writing headlines that convert, including tips for saving space and which words to use to build trust with customers. But without a doubt, biggest takeaway from this guide is that writing effective headlines is about much more than throwing your main keyword in the headline and hoping for the best. In fact, as Andrew points out, many off the best headlines today omit the keyword entirely. So next time you're writing headlines for ads, test a few sans-keywords.

white shark media adwords guide

Following on their epic tutorial for writing attention-grabbing PPC headlines, Andrew Lolk at White Shark takes us even deeper into the world of ad copy with this guide to writing hyper-targeted descriptions for Adwords ads. For someone without much experience writing descriptions, this guide clearly lays explains their two-fold purpose: to attract the right audience while, at the same time, deter the rest.

The tutorial walks us through best practices for writing descriptions that help you stand out from your competitors and convince the consumer to convert. Among these: call to actions, USPs and offers that relate to the audience you want to attract, to name a few. Whether you're a total novice or pro copywriter, White Shark's Ad Writing 101 are excellent resources for improving your ad copy skills.

Unbounce

Oli Gardner and the Unbounce team continue to unleash their PPC knowledge with this epic 50-page ebook for building the ultimate PPC landing pages. This is Unbounce's bread and butter - building better landing pages for PPC marketers - and it's definitely worth the read.

The ebook covers everything from user intent, attention ratio (the amount of the page dedicated to converting the visitor), to optimizing mobile landing pages. For example, the guide explains the difference between responsive design and dedicated mobile landing pages, and when to use each. Once again, Unbounce takes complex concepts in the PPC marketing space and distills them into a clear, concise tutorial.

Moz

This "Entertaining" Guide to building and optimizing landing pages is written by none other than Oli Gardner, the founder of Unbounce and leading PPC expert. Covering many of the same ideas as the PPC Landing Page ebook, this tutorial takes a more light-hearted approach, sprinkling in a variety of fun examples and light-hearted memes. I, for one, enjoy this style of writing as it helps me learn and absorb material much more easily.

search engine watch adwords tutorials

Not to be outdone by Unbounce, this incredible PPC tutorial truly covers every detail for building PPC landing pages. Not surprisingly, given that author Graham Charlton is editor in chief of ClickZ, a long-time authority in the digital advertising and pay per click space.

The checklist overlaps with Unbounce guides in many areas, but also stands out in others. Namely, it looks at a high level view of the different types of landing pages, and when to use them. Graham also shares a few points for capturing visitors who don't convert, but may end up converting later on in some other way.

Overall, this sequential checklist is a nice summary of the essential steps to take when building PPC landing pages and definitely worth a read!​

Kissmetrics PPC guide

PPC consultants spend a large part of their careers searching for the ideal keywords to target – those that lead to the most clicks and conversions. However, fewer devote as much time and energy to building a negative keyword list, despite the crucial role that negative keywords play in maximizing the ROI of an AdWords campaign. The fact is, negative keywords are equally important to the success of any PPC marketing campaign, and this tutorial from Kissmetrics shows just how to identify and use negative keywords effectively.

Author Igor Belogolovsky points out that building a negative keyword list is about more than just omitting keywords like "free", "torrent" or adult-related searches. While that aspect is important, it's also about identifying "blind-side" keywords that may drive up conversion costs - ie, keywords you would not expect to show up for searches unrelated to your brand. This negative keyword tutorial is simple and straightforward, and a quick read for anyone looking to optimize their keyword lists.

Word Stream

Everything you could possibly want to know about Ad Extensions is in this ebook from Wordstream. Seriously, everything. That's why we chose at this the sole free PPC tutorial in the Ad Extensions category.

The ebook is broken down into 6 sections, one for each of the different extension types: Location Extensions, Product Extensions, Sitelinks, Call Extensions, Communication Extensions, Offer Extensions.

Adwords is constantly releasing new extensions, and it's a tool that isn't well understood nor utilized by most PPC marketers. This guide clears the confusion, giving use cases and examples with visuals for each extension types. Save and bookmark this PPC Ad extension guide - it's a resource worth coming back to.

ppc hero adwords remarketing guide

Google Adwords remarketing is perhaps one of the most powerful and effective marketing tools on the web today. And yet, there are many PPC marketers who don't know exactly what remarketing is or how to use it properly.

In Google's own words, "remarketing lets you show ads to people who have visited your website or used your mobile app before. When people leave your website without buying anything, remarketing helps you reconnect with them by showing relevant ads as they browse the web, as they use mobile apps, or as they search on Google."

This in-depth tutorial from PPC Hero explains Adwords remarketing in its entirety, covering everything from list building, member duration windows, custom combinations and the interaction of all three. There's a lot of information here, so it's best to move through it at your own pace. Remarketing can take some time to set up, but once it's up and running it's a powerful tool in any PPC marketer's arsenal.

state of digital adwords scripts

A State of Digital consistently puts out short, helpful content and marketing guides. I love their content because it so easy to read, and this guide to Adwords scripts is no different. A quick read (4-5 minutes), it explains what scripts are, when to use them, and how to use them most effectively to save time and money.

Author Jackie Hole even goes so far as to include a few example scripts for her readers in the article itself. Though scripts are oft-considered the exclusive domain of coders and Adwords techies, this guide does a good job of explaining this in non techno-jargon, making it a great primer on Adwords scripts for beginners.

koozai adwords scripts

This Adwords Scripts tutorial from Sophie Howell at Koozai is not for beginners. Each type of script is covered in depth, with specific use cases and examples of each of the 15 or so categories of scripts.

An excellent resource, Sophie includes in the article 100 different Adwords scripts to copy and paste for immediate use and implementation. For the PPC professional with some knowledge of scripts, this list may prove invaluable - offering up Adwords account management shortcuts on a silver platter.

crazy egg adwords customizers

Have you heard of Ad customizers? Announced back in 2014, Ad customizers are a neat tool from the Adwords team that lets you dynamically update Adwords ads without any extra effort. Ad customizers are a godsend for Ecommerce PPC marketers who deal with lots of inventory that constantly changes stock and price. It bypasses the need painstakingly hunt through Adwords ads adjusting prices, discounts, and product information.

In this nifty guide to Ad customizer use from Crazy Egg, author Gary Victory explains why Ad customizers are important, how to implement them, and how they help increase conversion rate, explaining that "Ad customizers can nab the customer at that crucial decision-making moment with the right kind of incentive…[helping avoid] banner blindness." Check out the last few paragraphs for some cool examples of Ad customizers at work!

seobook adwords tools

In the fast paced world of online advertising, the right tools can literally make the difference when it comes to narrow success in business, or total failure.

This list of free and paid PPC tools from SEO Book includes everything you could possibly need as a PPC marketer: Paid Competitive Research Tools, Bulk Keyword Editing Tools, Bid Management Tools, A/B Testing Tools, Tools Offered by Search Engines, and others.

Also see: The Only SEO Tutorials You Need in 2016

Did I miss any amazing PPC tutorials? Let me know in the comments below. I'm all ears if you have one!
https://agencyanalytics.com/blog/adwords-tutorials

9 Proven Strategies to Get More Clients for Your Agency

Frustrating, isn't it? So many professionals believe that, for a marketing agency, getting more clients must be ridiculously easy.

After all, as these people see it, agencies would have enormous expertise and the know-how already to grow without much effort. 

But I've heard enough about our customers' struggles with attracting new clients to know better.

Many of them told me how the most popular channels have become oversaturated with larger agencies.

Others recalled the challenges they've found attracting new clients with content. In fact, I've heard terrifying stories from agencies trying to out-publish larger competitors.

Needless to say, most ended up frustrated and only with a bigger hole in their budget to show for their efforts. 

The thing is - content, Adwords and SEO are only some of the channels to find new customers.

As a matter of fact, many other approaches could help you attract ideal customers too.

In this post, I've outlined some of my favorite strategies for finding new clients.

But I think it's best if we start by gaining a broader perspective on your growth challenges.

Why Agencies Struggle with Growth?
Notice that I didn't ask whether marketing agencies face growth challenges above.

Unfortunately, that is a given.

When preparing to write this article, I read a good bit about agencies today. What I discovered terrified me a little.

For example, a series of interviews with agency owners by Smart Insights made it clear:

Marketing agencies struggle with maintaining growth.

(You can read part one here and the other one here.)

Many of the interviewed founders admitted to having challenges with finding new clients. Others revealed how much they struggle with ranking for target keywords. Also, a lot of them openly spoke about the difficulties in overcoming the competition.

Hubspot's 2018 Agency's Growth Report revealed similar findings.


At the same time, it showed that 79% of agencies feel confident in their ability to close clients. Only 60%, however, say the same about their lead generation efforts.


To me, the data above reveals the root of the problem:

The agencies inability to reach the target market and engage it with a relevant message.

And if you read the interviews I referenced above carefully, you would also discover why.

Many interviewed founders talk about the growing competition, both from larger agencies and freelancers. Some also point at the over-saturation of popular marketing channels.


So, below are some strategies that, I believe, will help you overcome this challenge. With them, you'll be able to reach your target audience, without having to compete with larger brands at that.

STRATEGY #1
Host Regular Training Events or Workshops
Most leads early in the buying cycle seek education above anything else.

They want to learn more about their problem and how a potential solution could help them solve it. However, they may not want to discover it by reading content.

For example, a manager of a thriving business who struggles to generate more inquiries online, might not have enough digital expertise to understand your ideas.

In fact, they might prefer someone to explain it to them first hand.

And here lies your opportunity -- hosting regular educational events to explain the benefits of your services to potential clients.

This agency, for example, runs workshops that introduce potential clients to solutions they offer.

Personally, I doubt that anyone would become a topic expert during any of the above workshops. Then again, that's not the point of running them.

Such events help participants get a good understanding of a particular strategy.

And for you, they also:

Help connect your agency with highly-qualified prospects,

Present yourself as matter experts,

Subtly pitch your services.

PRO TIP: To get even more out of these events, partner with a local coworking space or a meetup group. Many such places would have extensive networks of contacts that you could tap into.

STRATEGY #2
Ask Your Broad Network for Introductions
I admit that this strategy seems almost too obvious.

And yet, I rarely hear of agencies actually using it.

Current and former clients, leads you had a good rapport with, industry connections and other people you've interacted with can introduce you to companies looking for your services.

And all you need to do to avail of it is ask.

The problem? I believe many founders do not know how to inquire about such introductions.

So, here's a simple approach a friend of mine uses. Whenever he's low on new leads, he reaches out to connections with this simple message.



Notice how the message suggests one recommendation only. This way, it doesn't seem as intimidating as asking for many introductions would.

STRATEGY #3
Retarget Website Visitors to a Lead Generation Asset
Not all website visitors are ready to inquire during their first visit.

Most need to come back more than once to make a buying decision.

And so, if you focus only on increasing conversions but forgo enticing visitors to come back, then you're leaving money on the table.

One way to overcome this is retargeting. Ideally, by positioning relevant information while prospects continue their research.

And I admit, this strategy incorporates many others -- content, lead generation, etc. But by combining those efforts, you increase your chances for new inquiries greatly.

Here's how.

First, map your content to the entire customer's journey. By doing so, you'll understand what information to present, depending on a person's interests.

Next, to establish exit points relating to the buying cycle. For example, customers who only read your blog posts are, most likely, at the awareness stage.

Those who reviewed your about page or service pages could be evaluating your agency.

And you can consider anyone who drops off from the contact page as a potential customer.

Now, the above is just an example. You'll have to analyze your data and establish how this process looks for your agency.

Finally, set up retargeting ads to present those people with relevant content:

Blog posts for people in the awareness stage,

White papers or other lead magnets for the second, and

Case studies or other proof for those already looking to hire an agency.

STRATEGY #4
Use Strategic Guest Posting
I'm sure you've already heard how effective guest posting can be. Countless success stories confirm how sharing your expertise builds trust, authority and grow your business.

But many agencies still shy from this strategy. And I believe it's because they don't know where to guest post for the biggest exposure.

In fact, a joint-report by the Content Marketing Institute and SEMrush, called "The Invisible Key to Content Success" identified this as one of the major content marketing challenges.

How do you overcome this? My suggestion -- by being strategic in your selection.

Let me explain.

When publishing guest posts, you want to achieve two things. You want to gain the greatest possible exposure for your agency. At the same time, you also want to raise its authority level.

When evaluating guest posting opportunities, focus only on sites that promise exposure and authority.

Sites like Social Media Examiner or Moz, for example, immediately deliver on both objectives. Those sites have ginormous readerships. And, being featured there immediately raises the author's industry status.

Another strategy, reach out to your best customers, asking what publications they read often. This way, you can uncover opportunities you could possibly miss otherwise.



PRO TIP: Feature where you've written on your website too. This adds credibility when a visitor sees that you are a published expert in your field.

STRATEGY #5
Join Relevant Slack Groups
Slack is slowly becoming a much better alternative to forums and other online communities.

For one, it's where many of us spend a lot of our time. As a remote team, for example, most of our team interactions happen on Slack.

Slack is also incredibly intuitive to use. Not to mention that its UX truly helps bring people together.

But this goes beyond engaging with teammates. Slack communities connect like minded people to connect, engage with, and help one another out.

However, a little-known fact is that becoming part of a Slack community could lead to new business opportunities.

That's because, often, members will ask for or refer work to others. Here's one proof from a Slack community, a friend of mine frequents.



Here's a list of Business-oriented Slack communities to help you get started.

STRATEGY #6
Create a Mastermind Group on Facebook
Joining an existing community offers an incredible opportunity to expand your network and grow.

But building your network can deliver far greater benefits. That's particularly if your community helps solve problems relevant to your agency's specialization.

(That said, building a community requires significantly more work than joining one. But as I'll show you shortly, it's well worth it.)

Think about it. Many local businesses around you feel overwhelmed by marketing.

And some of them will want to gain as much knowledge as possible about it first. Moreover, they might prefer to do it by interacting with the industry professionals, rather than reading content.

And that's why building a mastermind group is a good idea, particularly on Facebook.

For one, it makes engaging with you much simpler. After all, most of your potential clients would be on Facebook already. Using the social network to host your group makes joining and interacting with others effortless. A person can log in to check updates or post comments whenever they check their Facebook feed.

At the same, running it allows you to position yourself as the expert and great source of advice. And that's even if your potential clients interact with other members instead of you.

LionZeal is an example of a vibrant Facebook SEO Mastermind group set up by an agency.

example of facebook group for finding new clients

STRATEGY #7
Develop Strategic Partnerships with Non-Competing Companies
For many business owners, strategic partnerships are an absolute no-go.

They fear how a partnership could affect their client relations.

But building a strategic partnership doesn't mean giving another party access to your clients.

Instead, it allows you to:

Help out clients who need complimentary services to what your agency provides.

Deliver additional services through a white label connection with another agency.

Take managing Adwords campaigns, for example. To deliver results, a PPC campaign requires more than just keywords and bid management. Content, landing page design, and other factors contribute to higher conversions and lower spend.

However, not every PPC agency would offer those services. At the same time, it shouldn't rely on a client to provide assets necessary for their success.

But those services are in synergy.

A copywriting firm might service clients who need help with growing website traffic. Many PPC agency customers would need a better copy for their landing pages, and so on.

By forming a strategic partnership, both agencies could service their clients better, while helping each other grow.

STRATEGY #8
Use Agency Marketplaces like Credo
(Full disclaimer, neither AgencyAnalytics nor I are affiliated with Credo. We don't even know those guys. But their service seems like a great opportunity for agencies to expand their customer base.)

Many agency owners I know associate marketplaces with low rates and cheap labor.

And perhaps they are right with some of them.

But recently, a friend told me about a service that seems to combat that negative perception. It's called Credo, and instead of allowing agencies pitch for jobs, it manually introduces clients to high-quality, vetted, and verified vendors.

As the company states on their website:

"Credo started in 2013 to solve the problem of businesses not knowing which SEO or digital marketing agency to hire."

As said, I have never had any interactions with Credo. I also don't know anyone who has used the service. But judging by their testimonials, and the fact that its run by an agency veteran, John Doherty, it might be the marketplace to consider.

Conclusion: What to Do Next to Get More Clients?
There's one other thing customers often ask me about marketing agency customers. They want to know what they could do to convert new leads into paying clients.

And it's a fair concern. The strategies I outlined above would help attract new clients to your agency.

But you still need to convince them to become clients.

And my recommendation is to use data to present them the biggest wins of working with you.

Let me explain this further.

When companies reach out to you, it's not because they want to have a particular desire to work with a marketing agency.  They face challenges they believe doing so would help overcome.

And most likely, they'll choose an agency that shows how well they understand those concerns.

So, here's a simple trick you can do to make it happen.

Research the new client's industry and market before the sales call.

Next, collect various data illustrating the situation now. For example, research what estimated traffic their domain might receive. Or the most popular keywords their competitors use (including those your new client doesn't target), the cost of acquiring more traffic, and so on.

Then, create a dashboard showing sample results companies receive with the service you provide.

Here are some sample dashboards we created with AgencyAnalytics for your inspiration:

1. The PPC dashboard:
2. ppc dashboard sample
3. SEO Conversions Dashboard:
4. seo dashboard sample

As the last step, merge those results with the data from your initial research. Then, use the results to illustrate the ROI a new client could expect from working with you.

For example, when pitching SEO services, show how growing the number of ranking keywords will affect conversions and revenue.

Calculate the difference between attracting a certain number of visitors to a much bigger one. Using the average conversion rates for SERPs positions, combined with the client's avg. sales amount, work out the actual earnings increasing visibility would deliver.

For PPC, discuss the effect of improving campaigns and reducing spend would have on their sales growth and so on.

By a.) presenting the data in context, and b.) outlining the ROI using visual cues, you make it not only more relevant but also, easier to comprehend.

And what goes with it, simplify their decision of whom to hire

The 14 Ultimate Tools for Scaling Your Marketing Agency

Running a marketing agency is no bed of roses. Or maybe it is, but only after you sleep on a bed of thorns.

There are so many fields that you have to excel in, such as improving your marketing strategy, getting more clients, closing sales, and so on.

Luckily, we live in the 21st century and you can use a tool or software for almost anything. This can help you automate a number of aspects of your business and focus on your most important goal -- your clients.

That is why we have prepared a list of the best tools that you can use to scale your marketing agency.

Rock your marketing campaign
Once you have built your team, it is time to move on to your marketing campaign.

Use these five tools to reach as many people as you can.

curata statistics

Everything starts with content marketing. Creating and promoting content is the cornerstone of every successful business.

Awarded by several organizations, Curata is a tool that can help you discover the best content, as well as organize and publish it across the web.

Moreover, it enables you to promote your content by analyzing sales pipeline and marketing impact, streamlining content production and building a predictable content supply chain.

Mixbloom homepage screenshot

If you have no time to create your own content, you can use Mixbloom to outsource it.

This tool allows you to collaborate with professionals, schedule posts automatically, approve your content simply and promote it effectively.

When you introduce the Mixbloom team to your brand, their project manager suggests a content strategy and starts working on your content. After that, all you have to do is approve your content, and it will get published and promoted within a few days.

In a word, Mixbloom is perfect for all marketing agencies, yours included.

Buffer homepage screenshot


Buffer is another application that lets you manage your social media quickly and easily.

With it, you can schedule your posts, add them to your queue and build your following from a single user-friendly dashboard.

Also, you can use Buffer browser extensions and mobile apps to work from anywhere and schedule content as you discover it.

Finally, this tool enables you to view how your posts are performing and analyze what type of content works best for your audience.

Act-on homepage screenshot


With Act-On, you can run the best marketing campaigns of your career. As a marketing automation tool, it enables you to improve numerous aspects of your campaigns:

Inbound marketing: Maximize customer awareness and convert unknown visitors to prospects.

Outbound marketing: Segment, score and nurture contacts and target accounts.

Sales effectiveness: Use sales intelligence to increase sales and revenue while minimizing sales cycle duration.

Proving marketing ROI: Learn which marketing programs and campaigns directly influence your revenue and growth goals and to what extent.

AgencyAnalytics
AgencyAnalytics homepage screenshot


If you are looking for an all-in-one reporting platform, you have found it.

SEO tools included in AgencyAnalytics are a rank tracker, site auditor, backlink monitor and competition analyzer.

AgencyAnalytics offers:

• automated reports delivered to your clients' inbox
• a custom, shareable drag-and-drop dashboard so that your clients can see the most important KPI's
• a possibility to use your own logo, color scheme and domain
• Boost your sales
• An increase in sales is the end goal of each business.

With the following three tools, boosting sales becomes a piece of cake.

Unbounce homepage screenshot

Unbounce focuses on building mobile-responsive, high-converting landing pages, website popups and sticky bars.

With this software, you can build dedicated landing pages to drive more leads and revenue from your pay-per-click campaigns.

Over 15,000 brands have built their landing pages with Unbounce, including Vimeo, Hootsuite and Shopify Plus.

Albacross homepage screenshot

If you want to generate more leads (who doesn't), using Albacross is definitely your best bet.

With it, you can increase your B2B conversions by finding out who is visiting your website and how you can reach them to land a deal. Also, you are able to see the most engaging pages for your visitors and company information to help your sales team engage with them more effectively.

Moreover, Albacross improves your account-based marketing by helping you use personalized ads to target companies and influence decision makers.

Better Proposals
Better Proposals homepage screenshot

Writing sales proposals can be very simple if you use the right tools. Better Proposals is one of them.

With their beautiful, web-based proposals, all you have to do is write what you like and type in the pricing.

• Using Better Proposals is very simple:
• choose a cover template or design your cover
• write your proposal by creating it from scratch or using a template
• send your proposal for signature

Once your client receives the proposal in a professionally designed email containing your logo and message, they will have no other choice but to click 'Sign Proposal'.

With Better Proposals, you get paid instantly through PayPal, GoCardless or Stripe. Also, this tool is easily integrated with your favorite CRM to help you streamline your process.

Create great relationships
When reaching out to people, meeting and interacting with them, you need to be professional.

Use these three tools to stay on top of your game and create great relationships.

Hunter homepage screenshot

True to its name, Hunter enables you to find email addresses in the blink of an eye and connect with people who can help you grow your business.

With Hunter, you can:

find the email addresses of the people who matter for your business

verify the deliverability of any email address

This tool browses more than 200 million email addresses to find the ones you need, collecting and distributing them in the Domain Search with indicated public sources and discovery dates, thus promoting data transparency.

Calendly homepage screenshot

With Calendly, you can schedule meetings without the back-and-forth emails.

You only need to share your Calendly links and let your invitee pick a time. Then, the event is added to your calendar.

Calendly is:

very flexible, allowing for various types of individual and group bookings

easily integrated with calendars, apps, websites, as well as APIs and webhooks

customizable, offering buffer times, custom event times, notifications and other options

enjoyable and user-friendly

Chargebee
Chargebee homepage screenshot

• Chargebee helps over 7,000 companies around the world to:
• catalyze subscription growth
• maximize recurring revenue
• secure payments
• simplify accounting

It enables you to easily configure and manage renewals, add-ons, coupons, proration and more. Also, you will be able to win every potential customer and accept payments in any form they come -- online, offline or alternative.

Gather and manage a team
You can't run a business without people in it. To achieve outstanding results, you need to collaborate with experts.

These are the three tools that will help you build and manage your team.

99designs
99designs homepage screenshot

All of us are much more likely to buy a product if it has a great design. If you need to hire a talented freelance designer, 99designs is the place to search for them.

There are a number of freelancer platforms to choose from. 99Designs is great for design work specifically. Designers compete to meet your requirements. Then, you choose your favorite design and pay for it.

However, if you think that hiring remote workers is easy, you are wrong. Sure, it does give you numerous benefits, but it is completely different than a traditional hiring process, so you need to be careful, especially if you have never done it before.

slack image with user chat

Whether online or in an office, building a high-performance team can be very tricky.

Slack is a collaboration platform that allows communities, groups or teams to work together. When a team admin or owner wants to invite a new user, they just need to send them a specific URL or invitation.

Team members are able to communicate through public channels without using email or group (SMS) texting. However, if a part of your team has a small project to work on, it can use private channels for private conversation.

Finally, Slack can be integrated with Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, Heroku, Trello and other major platforms to enable your team to have a seamless flow of work activities.

trello dashboard with tasks


An online project management application, Trello is being used by more and more teams who need to manage their tasks in a simple and effective way.

Trello can be used in a number of different fields:

• 
  
• real estate management
• software project management
• accounting
• web design
• gaming
• school bulletin boards
• lesson planning, etc.

Its API and the email-in feature allow you to integrate Trello with enterprise systems and cloud-based integration services, as well as to master teamwork skills.

Bottom line
Those were the fourteen tools that can help you effectively scale your marketing agency. They cover a number of stages: building and managing your team, improving your marketing strategy, boosting your sales and creating great relationships with people.

Use these tools wisely and patiently, and you will see your marketing agency achieve great results. Of course, there are many other tools that you can use, so make sure you search the web thoroughly and find your favorite ones.
sub
https://agencyanalytics.com/blog/marketing-agency-tools