Ask: What is web analytics vs. marketing analytics?

Ask: What is web analytics vs. marketing analytics?

In marketing, we have the concept of a purchase/sales/click funnel. There are different stages within the funnel that describe customer interactions. A basic purchase funnel includes the following steps:

- Acquisition involves building awareness and acquiring user interest (Facebook Ads, Google Adwords) - Behavior is when users engage with your business (measuring activities on your website) - Conversion is when a user becomes a customer and transacts with your business (sales, download, etc) The current job market: Marketing analytics tend to focus on Acquisition + Landing page/AB Testing/ Conversion while Web analytics focus on Behavior /Missed Opportunities + Conversions.

Viral Video Checklist (Storytelling) by UC Berkeley Extension

Viral Video Checklist (Storytelling) by UC Berkeley Extension

Facebook and Instagram have also been dominating video consumption with more than 500 million users watching Video on Facebook each day. 

How to increase the "sharability" of videos for more exposure?

Here are some traits of storytelling that ignites an emotion/facebook like/engagement of audiences which would increase exposure and viewership.  There's a reason Facebook decided to choose these emotion engagements buttons

Traits of Virality of a video for social media platforms that ignite engagement

• Tell a story with beginning, middle and end.  It's human nature to seek "stories" with hook/setup, meaning, and closure. That's why people pay to see films and movies.  
• Challenge or Confirm people's assumption - Facebook Shock
• Inspire audiences to take action - Facebook "like/thumbs-up" "love
• Have unexpected twist - Facebook "shock" 
• Make people laugh  - Facebook "laugh"
• Have an underdog story - Facebook "cry" "like"
• Have a fresh point of view, even about a common thing 

How to increase traffic to your Youtube channel? How do you get recommended more by Youtube Suggestion? (38%) What is CTR Click Thru Rate and Watch time?

How to increase traffic to your Youtube channel? How do you increase reach/exposure by Youtube Recommendation? 

So 38% of my traffic is coming from "Youtube recommendation" according to my Youtube Analytics.  I decided to make some changes to see if I can improve that.  So according to Youtube Analytics, to increase the chance of Youtube Suggesting my content, I need to increase my CTR (Click-Thru Rate) and watch time.  But first, let's go thru some of the terms and what it means.

My Youtube Analytics data

What is Youtube suggestion?  Here's an example of "Youtube Recommend on Homepage"

What is CTR Click Thru Rate and Watch time?

Click-through rate (CTR): Definition is
A ratio showing how often people who see your ad end up clicking it. Clickthrough rate (CTR) can be used to gauge how well your keywords/image/thumbnails and ads are performing.

Watch Time:
The amount of time that a viewer has watched a video. This gives you a sense of what content viewers actually watch (as opposed to videos that they click on and then abandon).

What changes will I be implementing? 

• Improve Watch Time: My previous videos were around 15-20min.  But my avg watch time is 5-6min.  So I decided to shorten my videos to 5-6min and tightening my storyline.  (more post later)
• Improve CTR: I'm testing some different versions of Thumbnails and Title.  (more post on this later) 

Here's my Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/abcmsroo

My issue now is- I do see a lift in subscriber count and revenue (I haven't see Youtube Suggest improve or views yet), BUT since I didn't implement AB testing or Multi-variant testing, it's hard to contribute the improvement to which factor.  But through comments and engagement, my audiences approves the new content.  

Ask: Do Copywriters need to learn Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop?

Ask: Do Copywriters need to learn Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop? 

Ask: Is learning Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop

important for someone going into copywriting either at an agency or a freelancer after graduation?

Answer: Yes or other image editing skills such as Canva, Illustrator, Photoshop, etc.

So now content and copywriting is driven by #SEO (search engine optimization) and adding an image to your article is also essential for your On Page SEO. That image might drive traffic to your article thru Google image search.  Here's my check list of SEO On-Page with would essential for #copywriters 👉https://mumbling-digital-marketing-analyst.blogspot.com/2019/08/50-seo-to-do-checklist.html  

Ask: What is SEO? And why does your website need it? And how has it changed?

Ask: What is SEO? And why does your website need it? 

SEO = Search Engine Optimization

is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic (non-paid directly to Search Engines) search engine results.  Search engines (ex. Google, Yahoo, Bing) will crawl, measure, and rank websites based on different factors and their own algorithm.  These weight of these factors may change throughout the years due to bad players trying the game the system.

Previously, due to some players who tried keyword stuffing the website (increase the number of count of the keywords to be read by bots), buying backlinks, created content for bots instead of humans, and other ways to trick search engines, these Search Engines updated their algorithms to de-rank this Back Hot SEO websites.

Currently, they include, relevancy to the searched keyword (where I worked at Yahoo! In 2004, I designed the mapping priorities), tagging, headlines, backlinks, ancher text, high-quality content, and etc (there’s some debate about how these factors’ importance changed)

Ultimately, Search Engines want users to find what they are looking for.  SEO is how search engines rank websites organically by the information they can capture.  The ranking algorithm will change depending on how websites behave (such as black hat SEO).  So always practice white hat SEO.

Tools for AB testing and MultiVariant Testing - To Be completed

Tools for AB testing and MultiVariant Testing - 

• Optimizely https://www.optimizely.com/plans/ very common tool has both AB (essential package)  and MultiVariant (business package) 
• Google experiment
• VWO

AB testing or MultiVariant testing at a photo shoot

AB testing or MultiVariant testing at a photo shoot

I love how Zack Scriven is AB testing (sort of) his image! This is how photo shoots should be done now! Here’s what I suggest for Multivariant testing because this is not exactly AB testing or aka Split testing 

Multivariant Testing: You should have 4 pictures to choose. 

1= A (baseline); 2= A but with sunglasses; 3 = A but with that 🧢 in B; 4 = B 

AB testing: 

1 = A baseline; 2 = A with sunglasses 🕶  

So the AB testing with show whether this sunglasses and
placement improves or not. 

I just explained this in details here 👉 The Difference Between a Multivariate Test and an A/B Test? Which should you use?

Side note: in all my testing, “eye contact” tend to have more conversions, time spend on site, and click thru rate.  I like A but do tell me your results! 

Side side note: I actually told my gfs they should do this for their dating app profile.  They were like “tell us more about AB testing/multi *what what* testing?!”  

Most of the times, it doesn’t turn out the way I expected.  That’s why I love #marketinganalytics #webanalytics!

Ask: The Difference Between a Multivariate Test and an A/B Test? Which should you use?

Ask: The Difference Between a Multivariate Test and an A/B Test? Which should you use? 

Both tests are trying to test which component you should change on your website to improve click thru rate and your funnel to your ultimate goal. 

Site visitors are bucketed into one version or the other. By tracking the way visitors interact with the page they are shown — the videos they watch, the buttons they click, or whether or not they sign up for a newsletter — you can determine which version of the page is most effective.

AB testing 

changes only “1” component at a time, such as font size, headline keyword, color of call to action button, etc.  (but not all at the same time which most makes this mistake) 

Multivariant testing 

compares a higher number of variables, and reveals more information about how these variables interact with one another. As in an A/B test, traffic to a page is split between 2 versions of the design. The purpose of a multivariate test, then, is to measure the effectiveness each design combination has on the ultimate goal. So there are more combinations in your testing but will reveal how the
components perform with each other.  See picture below with 1 image/2version and 1 headline/2 version testing

Should you use AB testing and Multivariant testing? 

Depends on your volume of website traffic:

Multivariant testing requires a large amount of traffic to complete. Since all experiments are fully factorial, too many changing elements at once can quickly add up to a very large number of possible combinations that must be tested. Even a site with fairly high traffic might have trouble completing a test with more than 25 combinations in a feasible amount of time.  But the biggest advantage is that it will test "combinations" of components which AB test does not do. 

A/B testing is a powerful and widely used testing method. Keeping the number of tracked variables small means these tests can deliver reliable data very quickly, as they do not require a large amount of traffic to run. This is especially helpful if your site has a small number of daily visitors. Splitting traffic into more than three or four segments would make it hard to finish a test. In fact, A/B testing is so speedy and easy to interpret that some large sites use it as their primary testing method, running cycles of tests one after another rather than more complex multivariate tests.

50 SEO to-do checklist!

The Ultimate SEO Checklist

On-Page SEO

• Perform keyword research to find the top keywords. 
• Choose one primary keyword for your content. (or even your DOMAIN name! ex. www.BestRentalFinder.com)
• Choose three to five related keywords for your content. 
• Create a content plan for your keyword.
• Write a title that includes the primary keyword.
• Wrap the title in an H1 tag. (check your HTML)
• Write more than 300 words of body content. 
• Write original content.
• Write high-quality content.
• Write for an eighth-grade reading level.
• Add the primary keyword to create a 2-3% keyword density. 
• Use each related keyword at least once in the body copy. 
• Make your content scannable.
• Wrap subheadings in an H2 tag. (check your HTML)
• Use the primary keyword in at least one subheading.
• Use the primary keyword in the first and last paragraph of the content.
• Add relevant internal links using targeted anchor text. Add relevant links to high-quality sites.
• Set outbound links to open a new page.
• Add at least one image.
• Add the primary keyword to the image file name. Add the primary keyword to the image title.
• Add the primary keyword to the image alt tag. Size the image properly.
• Write an SEO-friendly URL that includes the primary keyword. 
• Assign relevant tags and categories (if it’s a blog post).
• Add an optimized meta title.
• Add an optimized meta description. 
• Add structured data markup.
• Add social sharing links.
• Proofread your content.
• Check your work.

Off-Page SEO

• Create a strategy for attracting backlinks from high-authority websites through digital PR, original research, and guest blogger outreach.
• When possible, include your target keyword for the page in the anchor text of links you earn.
• Disavow links pointing to your site from low-authority websites.
• Link to your website on all social media profiles.
• Set up a Google My Business page.
• Add your website to relevant business directories.
• Make sure all of your NAP (name, address, phone number) entries are consistent.

Technical SEO

• Create a Google Webmasters account and submit your sitemap. 
• Create a Bing Webmasters account and submit your sitemap. 
• Properly set up robots.txt.
• Point all domains to the same host.
• Utilize organized and natural site architecture. 
• Use a responsive, mobile-friendly design. 
• Add an SSL certificate to your site.
• Increase the speed of your website.
• Remove unnecessary site redirects.
• Use canonical tags on duplicate content. Fix broken links on your site.
• Track analytics and monitor website activity.

Why aren't your Videos being viewed?

Why aren't your Videos being viewed? 

Someone asked me today.
Question: Video Marketing is supposed to be the most effecting tool recently?! But I noticed my video isn't being viewed as must as my posts. 

My answer: My videos on my personal brand on https://www.facebook.com/EatDrinkManRuth/ are viewed 3x ~ 6x more than my FB post. So I know videos get more views.

There are many factors to why videos are getting shown/viewed. 
1. Do you have a community that wants video content from you?

2. Are your videos on your website? 

3. Where is it embedded? It is under the fold? 

4. Is it entertaining?  

5. What does the thumbnail look like? (AND so on and so on... you get my drift?)

I have 200+ videos on ww.Youtube.com/c/ABCmsRoo and those are the ones I decided that worked.  I DELETED a bunch! (so did Buzzfeed but for copyright issues, I heard)

There's a lot that goes into making videos channel (which is NOT the same as making a "successful video"). There's audience expectation from your previous work, your storytelling skills, and style, where the audience is in the lead funnel and does your video even make sense in your marketing campaign?

Conclusion: Making 2-3 videos does not make your current/new audiences want to return and watch more videos.  You have to be "consistent" in making this type of content that adds "value" to your brand.  

Example of audience demographics, behavior, devices from my Chinese Blog

Example of audience demographics from my Chinese Blog 

My Testing site http://abcmsroo.blogspot.com/

Pageview by Countries: 

Although it seems like there's no traffic from China.  I estimated from the questions and comments I get, that 30-40% are from China because they write in Simplified Chinese.  In Taiwan, Traditional Chinese is used. 

Also, my China audiences tell me they usually VPN out of the wall and mask themselves as US audience

What's the difference between Digital Marketing Analytics v.s. Web Analytics?

What's the difference between Digital Marketing Analytics v.s. Web Analytics? 

My co-working in Branding Marketing asked me a question today when I was pulling a report for her: What is the difference between Digital Marketing analytics and Web Analytics since I'm doing both for our company.

Web analytics

How is it defined? Short Answer: The goal is to analyze the Click Path or ClickStream.  Long Answer: It zooms in on the elements in the "user behavior" such as how potential customers or site visitors interact with particular elements in your marketing campaign or website. Interactions can be in the form of page views, time spent on a page, or click-through rate which give you an idea on customer/visitor behavior or Click-Stream behavior.

Softwares or tools used are Google Analytics ( used to be Urchin Software before Google bought them) and Adobe Analytics.

Marketing analytics 

How is it defined? Short Answer: The goal is to measure ROI.  Long Answer: It takes on a wider perspective than web analytics. It focuses on your marketing campaigns (such as Facebook or Instagram advertisement) and activities, multichannel attribution, marketing mix modeling, distribution of marketing efforts and the like, all within the context of discovering ROI and how effective your marketing tactics and strategies are.

Software or tools used? Since there are lots of different social media marketing platforms emerging and offline marketing campaigns that can't be tagged/streamlined, it's often executed by Analysts like me via adhoc- reporting.  I pull the data thru the platforms or API and then clean up the data in Excel or SQL (if IT dept got involved - usually startup/tech company have this covered). 

How to Set up Google Tag Manager Account

How to Set up Google Tag Manager (GTM) Account

Set up an Google Analytics Account (free). 

Click on [All Account] (see pic) 

Hover over on the 2nd icon and [Tag Manager] will show up.  click on that

Follow thru the instruction to "create your account"

It will ask you for Account Name, Container Name and what your target platform is

then you sign away on Use Policy and probably a bunch of privacy policies.  And you also accept the Data Processing Terms as required by GDPR.

Then a box pops up with your Google Tag Manager code that is should be "Copy the code below and paste it onto every page of your website."

one code is for <head>, one is for <body>

Now, your new workspace is set up on GTM Google Tag Manager like so: