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Adwords Analytics Facebook Ads Facebook advertising Wicked Reports

Mastering Google YouTube Ads and Omni-Channel Marketing – The Role of ROAS, Attribution, and MER

When managing your Google YouTube ads (and other popular ad platforms, like Meta Ads), understanding the balance between your spending and the return you’re getting is crucial. 

While the Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) is the most common formula used, the efficiency of your marketing as a whole can be better represented by another metric: the Marketing Efficiency Ratio (MER). 

Combined with sophisticated third-party attribution tools such as Wicked Reports, these calculations can offer you a clearer understanding of your ad campaigns’ true profitability.

Breaking Down ROAS and MER

ROAS is a simple equation that divides the revenue generated from an ad by the cost of that ad:

ROAS = (Revenue from Ad) / (Cost of Ad)

So, if you’ve spent $1000 on an ad and generated $5000, your ROAS is 5.

This means you’re earning $5 for every $1 you spend, suggesting a profitable ad campaign.

While ROAS is a valuable tool, it provides a narrow view of your marketing campaign’s performance.

This is where the Marketing Efficiency Ratio (MER) comes in. 

mer_vs_roasMER measures your total revenue in relation to your total marketing spend, giving you a broader understanding of your marketing efforts.

Calculating your MER can help optimize your budget allocation and improve your overall marketing strategy.

Implementing Attribution and Tracking Conversions

However, things can get complicated when you incorporate a multi-touch attribution model into your calculations. 

This model tracks and credits all marketing touchpoints that lead to a conversion, not just the final interaction. 

This is crucial in today’s omnichannel marketing world, where customers interact with your brand across multiple platforms before making a purchase.

SCENARIO: We often see complex patterns of user behavior. For example: A visitor watches your YouTube Ad (or parts of it). Later, they Google search your brand name and visit your website. In turn, they sign up for your email list. Finally, they purchase from one of your email sequences over time, a few weeks later, or even several months after the fact. If a subscription model, they are charged on future intervals and should be tracked.

Google partially solves this dilemma of tracking. Big G can implement attribution and track sales from offline conversions and over extended periods (30 days, standard):

  1. Google’s Attribution Models: Google Ads offers several attribution models such as last click, first click, linear, time decay, and data-driven. These can help you understand each touchpoint’s contribution to the conversion path.
  2. Google Analytics Multi-Channel Funnels: This tool helps visualize your customers’ conversion path, demonstrating how your marketing channels (organic, paid, social, email, etc.) collaborate to create conversions.
  3. Offline Conversion Tracking: This allows you to measure which ads lead to valuable offline actions, such as phone calls or in-store visits. You can import this data back into Google Ads to determine which campaigns drive the most profitable offline conversions.
  4. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software: By integrating your CRM with Google Ads, you can track long-term interactions and attribute conversions to the right marketing activities.
  5. Google’s Customer Match: This tool lets you use your online and offline data to reconnect with your customers across Google services.
  6. Google Analytics 4 Attribution: GA4 provides different attribution models. An attribution model can be a rule, a set of rules, or a data-driven algorithm that determines how credit for conversions is assigned to touchpoints on conversion paths.There are three types of attribution models available in GA4. Learn more about GA4 migration here.

Leverage Third-party Tools Like Wicked Reports

To bolster your understanding of your ad campaigns’ performance, tools like Wicked Reports can provide a deeper analysis of your data. 

Wicked Reports can reconcile your multi-touch attribution data with your long-term customer value data, offering a holistic view of your marketing performance. 

This can help you fine-tune your campaigns, aligning them with your customers’ behaviors and your business goals.

And, as an agency, we now have the proof of the entire “clicks-to-purchase journey” to show our clients and back it up with OrderIDs and customer names.

How Wicked Reports Differs From Google

Wicked Reports and Google Ads are both powerful tools that marketers can use to analyze and optimize their advertising campaigns. 

However, they approach attribution differently and offer distinct advantages. 

Here’s why you might find Wicked Reports to be more advantageous for tracking attribution:

  1. Long-term Attribution: Wicked Reports tracks customers over their entire lifetime, giving you insights into long-term ROI. Google Ads primarily focuses on a 30-day conversion window, which may not capture the full value of customer interactions over time.
  2. Cross-Platform Attribution: While Google Ads provides attribution information for ads within its ecosystem (Google Search, YouTube, etc.), Wicked Reports can track attribution across multiple platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, email campaigns, TikTok, Snapchat and more. This allows for a more comprehensive view of your marketing efforts.
  3. Sales-Based Attribution: Wicked Reports uses actual sales data (first party data) for attribution, giving you accurate ROI metrics. Google Ads often bases attribution on clicks or conversions, which doesn’t necessarily translate to actual revenue.
  4. Customer Journey Insight: Wicked Reports provides detailed information about the customer journey, showing how different touchpoints influence a customer’s decision to purchase. While Google Ads does offer some insights into the customer journey, it can be limited to interactions within the Google ecosystem.
  5. Cohort Analysis: Wicked Reports enables cohort analysis, allowing you to group customers based on their behaviors and evaluate the effectiveness of your campaigns over time. Google Ads doesn’t offer this level of analysis natively.
  6. Multi-touch Attribution: While Google Ads does offer several attribution models, Wicked Reports’ strength lies in its robust multi-touch attribution model that accurately assigns credit to each touchpoint in the customer’s journey, giving a more nuanced understanding of your marketing funnel.
  7. Funnel Vision Empowerment: This report provides a visual representation of the funnel and allows businesses to identify areas for improvement by tracking conversion rates at each stage. With the FunnelVision report, eCom brands can see which campaigns drive the most sales and adjust their marketing budgets accordingly. This allows them to allocate their resources effectively and optimize their campaigns to increase their ROI.

While Google Ads offers useful insights and tools for campaign optimization within the Google network, Wicked Reports provides a more holistic, revenue-focused, and cross-platform view of your marketing performance. 

It helps marketers understand how different marketing activities contribute to the bottom line over the lifetime of a customer, which can be crucial for strategic decision-making.

Summary

In conclusion, to ensure successful attribution: Maintain a consistent tracking strategy, regularly monitor and interpret your data, campaigns, and continuously optimize your marketing efforts based on your findings and actual data.

By understanding the customer journey, you can make more informed decisions on your marketing budget allocation for maximum impact. 

Combine the power of ROAS, MER, and third-party multi-touch marketing attribution software like Wicked Reports to amplify your YouTube, Google, Facebook, Tiktok, Pinterest, Snapchat, LinkedIn ad success.

Learn more here.

Categories
Campaigns CBD Digital Marketing Email marketing Facebook Ads Google Lead Generation SEO SEO Local

4 Ways To Advertise CBD / Hemp Products Safely With Maximum Returns (On Facebook & Google!)

CBD and hemp products are one of the fastest-growing trends in the market today. Thanks to the recent law changes, the CBD market is expected to reach $16.32 Billion by 2026 (GlobeNewsWire).

One in seven Americans personally use cannabidiol based products, that’s 14% of the US population (Gallup) that use CBD-derived products.

use-cbd-products-us

There’s a huge first-mover advantage for CBD companies looking to dominate the market. The competition is at its lowest, and people are eager to learn about these new substances.

By seizing a good market share at such an early stage, you’ll guarantee your brand’s success for years to come when you advertise and consistently build content and serve your audiences.

So, that makes you wonder:

What’s the best way to advertise CBD/hemp products online?

A Brief CBD Introduction…

CBD or cannabidiol is an ingredient of cannabis. However, legal CBD is not psychoactive, and not part of any of these groups: stimulants, depressants, opioids, and hallucinogens. Psychoactive drugs affect the body’s central nervous system and are different from legal CBD.

THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), an ingredient of cannabis, affects the classic symptoms of feeling “high”. 

However, Hemp-derived CBD contains a maximum of 0.3% THC and is the legal limit for selling CBD products. The passage of the Farm Bill in 2018 made it legal in the US to sell hemp and hemp-derived products. Still, there are certain restrictions, and also state-by-state.

Many people find CBD to help with (although not scientifically proven):

  • Pain relief
  • Inflammation reduction
  • Anxiety & depression relief
  • Easing or reducing migraines
  • Treat or alleviate certain skin conditions
  • Other benefits, acting as an antioxidant, for example

There are many CBD products available, with product types like:

  • CBD tinctures (drops)
  • Edibles (chocolate infused, coffee, etc.)
  • Creams, skin salves (help with inflammation or arthritis)
  • Capsules (tablet form)
  • Isolates (powder form)
  • Vaporizers (“vaping” products)
  • CBD for pets (a specialized niche within the CBD niche)

Additionally, there are nasal sprays, candy, gummies, and candles that further reveal the variety of ideas within the popular CBD niche.

When advertising on any ad platform, and especially using Facebook & Google, do NOT try to circumvent the systems or go against their policies. As a matter of fact, this is a wise rule to follow overall… and certainly when targeting the CBD market. 

1 – Facebook, Instagram, Google Ads (Search & Display)

facebook-google-ads

Facebook and Google are two of the biggest advertising platforms today. They allow you to display your paid ads to a large customer base to boost sales and grow a successful business.

However:

These platforms are super suspicious around cannabis and hemp-derived products. Many advertisers are facing challenges when trying to run ads on Facebook and Google. Hemp (topicals) are ok at this time, but stay on top of the advertising guidelines for Facebook and read the ad policies for Google. You can’t make any medical claims about its benefits, or that your CBD products can cure or prevent serious illnesses.

Do:

<img role= Check local state laws before selling 

<img role= Source tested and high-quality CBD for your products

<img role= Label your products clearly and provide certification

<img role= Understand how CBD works and carry out in-depth research

<img role= Build a trustworthy brand for your CBD business (See certified supplier companies)

Don’t:

<img role= Sell CBD that contains more than 0.3% THC

<img role= Make medical health claims about your products

<img role= Use an unreliable or unofficial CBD supplier

<img role= Be careless when choosing a payment processor or a website builder

<img role= Take risks that could affect your business or your customers

Connect and partner with industry leaders, like the National Hemp Association.

There is a lot to consider when setting up a CBD business and advertising, but thankfully…

We have found successful ways to overcome these restrictions. You can be creative too and find unique ways to advertise on these programs without violating ad platform policies.

Here’s a shortlist of great ways to advertise on Facebook & Google (search) while staying compliant.

(We’re using an example on topic “pain relief”, but you can (and should) try multiple wellness/health angles):

  1. Run multiple ads for topicals – like “hemp” (not CBD). Mention things like “try our new survey.” And for the pain relief angle – present a special offer/coupon that can “soothe your discomfort.”
  2. Send clicks to website content with an authoritative voice around “pain relief.” Capture their email and send educational materials, information, blending in offers as appropriate. You should be building your email list at all times, naturally.
  3. Run ads to a survey page (https://www.research.net/) – with a health/wellness focus. Implement logic to direct offers (discount codes they can use) based on their answers. The resulting page provides a button/link to your website and shopping cart. Keep it closely tied to “hemp-derived” wellness products (capsules, gummies, tinctures, pain cream, pet joint support, etc.) *See example of survey questions below.
  4. Capture their email for your email list (remember: no spam, build your brand, and become a trusted authority). You can now create offers that are directly tied to your CBD products from email broadcasts.
  5. For a wellness/pain relief survey, here are questions you might ask:
    1. During the past two weeks, how often have you had sleeping problems, or not waking up refreshed? (yes-often, yes-but not often, not bothered by it, I sleep great)
    2. In a typical week, how often do you feel anxious or stressed at work/home? (always, most of the time, about half the time, once in a while, never)
    3. How much would it increase the quality of your life if you slept better and/or had less stress? (a great deal, a lot, moderately, a little, none at all)
  6. For Facebook, create a business page as usual. Keep content minimal and within guidelines. It’s for advertising only. You are not using this page to grow organically.
  7. Use retargeting strategies with AI-driven ad platforms like Adroll.com (yes, you can run CBD offers directly, but your site must be pre-approved and on a case-by-case basis)
  8. Check policies for retargeting on other platforms like Yahoo Gemini & Taboola.
  9. Reach out to targeted content advertisers like Leafly, HighTimes and market-specific journals. Do your research and allocate budgets accordingly. Sponsored content can work well.
  10. Remember to track the statistics and measure against your KPI’s. Tag all links so they can be easily tracked and reported on inside your analytics. Continue testing and tweaking.

Additional and useful CBD marketing ideas for scaling:

  1. Provide e-guides as friendly bribes to capture emails (no spamming).
  2. Consider programmatic advertising on 3rd party platforms, like Vana and Fieldtest.
  3. Influencer marketing opportunities: reach out to influencers that are related to your products and offer them a starting package.
  4. Podcasting is more popular than ever. Review podcasts for your market and reach out to the owners with an opportunity for links and shout-outs.

These tactics work well at the time of writing. We use several other strategies that are built on a long-term, growth & brand building focus. (See below for links to sign up)

REMINDER:

Stay updated with your national & local CBD laws and avoid doing business in states where cannabis is still illegal. If you are selling CBD products locally via a dispensary, make sure to follow guidelines and watch for any changes in your market.

TIP: To get more quality traffic for your dispensary and cannabis operations, all while staying compliant, visit The SM Services.

Also:

You must be sure not to include banned terms like “cannabis,” “CBD,” or other related keywords in your landing page and ad copy. Don’t use emojis with “bee” in words (c-bee-d) either!

2 – Third-Party Ads

third-party-ads-CBD-Hemp

Third-party ads can be a great way to grow your business online. That’s even more true if you’re going to focus your marketing on native advertising.

Native ads are a type of online ads that match the appearance, function, and form of the content on the page. This kind of advertising doesn’t interrupt the user experience. So, that makes viewers more likely to notice your message and interact with it.

Unfortunately, there are still some ad networks that do not accept CBD/Hemp related products.

But…

Your options here are limitless.

Many third-party ad programs are aware of the benefits of CBD-derived products and allow their advertisement.

So:

You can reach millions of users on different websites and grow awareness around your brand. Better yet, you’ll have fewer regulations and restrictions to deal with.

3 – SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO is a strategy based on creating content and optimizing it via keywords and links to rank high on Google’s first page. When people search on Google for related terms such as “CBD” or “cannabidiol,” your site can appear at the top.

These users will then visit your pages and get their questions answered, which helps promote your brand as a leading authority in the industry.

You can then convert those visitors into loyal clients via smart sales funnels and e-commerce shopping systems like:

Another way to go about this is to focus on smaller markets with local SEO. You’ll target local consumers where cannabis-related products are legal and can be purchased. Include local ranking signals for Google to show up high in the local map pack.

4 – Email Marketing

email-marketing-cbd-promotions

Email marketing is a winning marketing strategy for CBD companies for one reason:

It gives them full autonomy.

Building a list of email subscribers allows you to reach out to your audience whenever you want. You can keep them updated with your latest brand announcements and products for no cost.

However…

The restrictions this time are enforced by your subscribers. Email marketing is a pure value-first marketing strategy, and your prospects can smell when they’re being used.

You have to familiarize your prospects with your brand by sharing helpful content. And you must prove your expertise if you want to keep your audience interested in your offers.

Wrapping It Up

Most advertising platforms are still testing the waters when it comes to CBD and hemp. But, there are lots of ways you can bring attention to your products without violating any policies.

Looking for an efficient strategy to grow your CBD business faster?

Chaosmap offers professional CBD and hemp-products website development, advertising & marketing services. We provide expert advice and consulting on how to turn your company into a profitable business, including scaling an existing, proven business.

Check out our digital marketing services and contact us to learn more about how we can help you propel your CBD, health & wellness business forward, faster.

P.S.

Here’s more information on CBD/Hemp e-comm websites we can build for you.

Categories
Campaigns Facebook Ads Facebook advertising

5 Brilliant Tips to Write Facebook Ad Headlines That Convert

Are you spending $100k+ on Facebook or Google monthly? If that’s the case, this post is for you.

Millions of brands are competing on Facebook for attention and clicks. And as the market gets more saturated, users grow tired of seeing the same offers. With large budgets, frequency grows and similar, repeating ads lose traction. Your KPI’s are not what they once were.

Your prospects want to be inspired and convinced of your value proposition. And the best way you can highlight that is through a great headline (yes, the offer and creative matters too).

jon rognerud growth strategy session planning

Here are five tips for writing brilliant Facebook Ad headlines that convert:

1- Use Emotional Adjectives

Human beings are emotional creatures that react to the world based on their feelings. Thus, your audience’s perception and actions are guided by the words you choose to use.

Emotional adjectives help you set the tone, feeling, and emotions in your sentences.

They could either be positive:

  • Best
  • Mindblowing
  • Brilliant
  • Easiest
  • Most

Or negative:

  • Never
  • Worst
  • Avoid
  • Nothing
  • Horrifying

Learn how to use them and your ad campaigns will be ten times more effective.

2- Be Honest

There used to be a time where clickbait and false promises worked online.

Thankfully, they no longer do.

Online consumers have gotten a lot smarter over the years, and they can smell deception when they see it.

Customer engagement

Even worse:

Your visitors will be super frustrated if you under-deliver on your initial promise. They’ll leave your website at the drop of a hat.

So:

Be honest with your audience.

Avoid clickbait at all costs and never lie in your headlines. Be sure your content aligns with any initial promise you make.

3- Include Numbers and Precise Metrics

We, humans, love to see numbers in headlines.

Metrics help us quantify the information we’re going to learn. And they give us better expectations on how concise the article is.

That explains why listicles are so popular today.

Facebook ad example

Here are a few ideas for how you could include numbers in your titles:

  • X Best Ways to _____ With _____
  • How to _____ Your _____ in 2020
  • Key Strategies for Growing Your _____ With 20% Each Year

Numbers could also be used in headlines by featuring stats, dates, and durations.

4- Highlight the Benefits

The question in the reader’s mind always is:

What’s in it for me?

After all, it’s easier for them not to click on your ad than to click on it. That’s why you must clearly highlight the benefits in the headline.

Why should users click? And what will they miss if they keep scrolling?

Facebook Ad Headline

Tell them exactly what they’ll gain from reading your article. Make a bold promise in the headline and deliver on it.

You may also enhance some fear of missing out by taking the opposite approach. Tell the viewer what they’ll miss if they ignore your ad.

These are popular copywriting techniques used by the largest advertising companies in the world.

5- Write in Second Person

There’s no better way to catch the user’s attention than addressing them in person.

Writing in the second person allows readers to experience the story as if it’s their own. It helps them easily relate to the situation, problem, and solution.

All that makes them more interested in what you have to say.

So…

The next time you’re launching a Facebook ad, be sure to use you, your, and yours in your headlines.

Bottom Line

The best advice we can give you when it comes to headlines is to write different variations. As you start to test and learn more about your prospects, the quality of your titles will get much better.

And remember:

No matter what audience you’re targeting, be sure to keep your headlines short and to the point. Stick to using a natural language with simple words and adjectives. And, check for changing Facebook & Google ad policies (they may have changed by the time your read this!)

Need help growing your business with Facebook Ads?

Check out our Facebook Ads services to learn more about our offers and request a quote for your project now.

P.S.If you have specialized advertising needs (for example CBD) – read our “4 Ways To Advertise on FB & G for CBD and Hemp Markets

Categories
Facebook Ads

FB Messenger Ads: Chat-bots, Customer Care And Your Brand

Several years ago we worked with an e-commerce client to scale up their web chat system for customer service and sales.

They provided online chat support for clients like MGM, Nokia, Microsoft and several other big brands.

The chat platform we helped build was a competitor to Liveperson, a messenger platform that also has come a long way since then. While our partner technology was innovative 7-8 years ago, times have changed – and as we fast forward to today, it’s pretty clear that web-chat is history.

However, the idea of direct to consumer chat, or direct to business customer messaging, in specific, is on the rise.

Companies like T-Mobile are embracing the instant messenger trend.

Here’s what T-Mobile Marketing said about embracing customer care and messaging together:

“We’ve taken the messaging approach to heart when interacting with our customers as well – we know it’s not just how they talk to each other, it’s how they want to talk to us. That’s why we were the first US wireless company to introduce asynchronous messaging for customer care. This isn’t some “rep chat” window you get on the web”. 

They continued, “…our T-Mobile app has a persistent chat experience with Care reps, so you can get help anywhere you want – on the platforms you already use today. And, we were the first wireless company in North America to launch commerce over Facebook Messaging, so customers can interact with reps and buy directly from the Facebook platform.”

Testing, learning & tracking

With the ability to easily track massive amounts of data points captured from testing and learning within marketing and advertising campaigns (e.g. Facebook Ads for Messenger), the output of data – when analyzed properly – provides intelligent statistics that can be used to improve performance.

That means smarter scaling strategies of campaigns that meet established KPI’s. Dissecting the demographics is part of the data intelligence gathering so you can get to the core of the audience that you then can serve in an improved manner.

Ongoing testing of audiences and creatives is an important exercise for campaign flights, while reviewing and analyzing data in 3, 7, 14 and 30 day increments.

Additionally, leveraging pixel technology and custom scripts from various platforms (e.g. Facebook, Google, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yahoo) and placing them on websites and pages you own, helps to build up “warm” custom audiences.

These valuable customer data sets can and should be further tested and segmented through retargeting (Facebook ads) and remarketing (Google ads, YouTube ads).

Cold traffic (brand new visitors) vs. warm (custom audiences that know you already) or hot (CRM lists, buyer data) will allow you to focus money and resources in the most essential areas.

What messages to use?

Creating messages (copy), ad creatives (images, videos) and a workflow blueprint (user engagement patterns) for the chatbot is a great starting point.

For example… is “welcome message 1” better than “welcome message 2, 3, 4”?

Interestingly – though users may feel that a non-human chat-bot is not optimal, the technology is powered by humans and creative work behind it, and your messaging ought to reflect that. Tell them in your messaging what to expect, and that “Paul or Susan, the chat-bot” is there to help them, faster, better, smarter.

This will make the chat-bot seem more human. Tonality definitely matters. Use “A/B” testing practices through the use of smart experiments to help you understand better how to move forward and when.

“Because messaging is so new, keeping an open mind and letting data accrue and then making non-emotional decisions on messaging strategies is key”, says Jon Rognerud, Founder of Chaosmap.com

Big results and changes

For a recent 8-figure client, we tested different messages in a chat-bot sequence and found that “yes/no” questions provided much better engagement than an “open-ended” type of question. We found this out through testing and learning.

The end result? Over the first 2 weeks, we raised conversion rates for big ticket event sales by over 52% from this simple change!

When reviewing your analytics, gaps in data and variances comparison will help you navigate and optimize campaigns as you build a performance-driven, scalable solutions for yourself and clients, as we do.

Gartner Research indicated that 25% of customer service and support operations will integrate virtual customer assistant (VCA) or chatbot technology across engagement channels by 2020, up from less than two percent in 2017. This is a fast rise on a technology an advertising platform that is in many ways under-used today.

Meeting people where they are (online) is essential in today’s environment.

And, with email open rates declining and messaging engagement easily beating email, it is prudent and useful for any business, big or small – to test and learn from Facebook Messenger ad solutions.

Email open rates dropping

According to the E-mail Marketing Metrics Benchmark Study, the world average open rate of emails was 21.8%. This means that almost 78% of users are not interested in opening emails sent by brands. The reasons may be different, but one of the main reasons is related the high number of unwanted messages that users receive daily to their email accounts.

Intent-based branding marketing combined with technologies like FB messenger, chat-bots to leverage better customer service and more sales can yield solid improvements in your company’s bottom line sales.

Testing messenger platforms on Facebook can allow an easier way to penetrate a market without making substantial changes to website UX designs, which is an added benefit.