Most SaaS content programs produce blog posts. Few produce pipeline. The gap between the two is almost always the same: a SaaS content marketing strategy that optimizes for publishing volume instead of buyer progression.
Content-led growth is real - Ahrefs, HubSpot, and Intercom all built dominant market positions on content before their competitors figured out paid was getting expensive. The data backs it up: First Page Sage puts average B2B SaaS SEO ROI at 702% over three years with a 7-month break-even, and organic search drives 44.6% of all B2B revenue - more than any other channel. But those outcomes came from systems, not just blog posts. This is the framework.
The instinct when building a SaaS content strategy is to start with a keyword list. That comes later. Start with the question: Who are we writing for, and what do they already believe?
In B2B SaaS, your audience typically includes three distinct profiles with different needs:
The Economic Buyer (VP, Director, C-suite): Cares about ROI, competitive risk, and strategic fit. Reads case studies, benchmark reports, and "how to evaluate" guides. Doesn't want to read tutorials.
The Technical Evaluator (engineer, IT, RevOps): Cares about security, integrations, implementation complexity, and edge cases. Reads documentation, technical comparisons, API guides.
The End User (the person using the product daily): Cares about workflow efficiency and solving the immediate problem. Reads how-tos, feature guides, use case walkthroughs.
Most SaaS content programs write only for the end user. The content gets traffic, but it fails to influence the people with budget authority or technical veto power. Map your content plan explicitly to each buyer profile before you write a single post.
Topic clusters are a useful SEO architecture, but they don't tell you what to prioritize. A "content hub" about project management can be almost entirely top-of-funnel and generate almost no pipeline - despite ranking well and driving traffic.
The more useful framework maps content by funnel stage:
| Stage | Buyer Question | Content Type |
|---|---|---|
| Awareness | "What is this problem called?" | Explainers, trend posts, educational guides |
| Consideration | "What are my options?" | Comparisons, vendor roundups, evaluation checklists |
| Decision | "Is this the right choice for us?" | Case studies, ROI calculators, security docs, integrations |
| Expansion | "How do we get more value?" | Use case guides, feature deep-dives, customer stories |
Most SaaS content plans are overweight at awareness and nearly empty at consideration and decision. That's exactly backwards from a pipeline standpoint. Consideration and decision content drives the highest-intent organic traffic - the searchers who already have the problem and are actively evaluating solutions.
A mature SaaS content marketing strategy targets all four stages, but deliberately overweights consideration and decision content because that's where conversion rates are highest and competition is often thinnest.
"[Your product] vs. [Competitor]" and "Best [Competitor] alternatives" pages consistently rank well and convert at high rates because the searcher is already in evaluation mode. Research from GenesysGrowth shows comparison pages convert at 3.2x the rate of standard feature pages. These pages require honesty - a one-sided comparison that pretends competitors have no strengths reads as a sales pitch and damages trust. Acknowledge tradeoffs, focus on fit, and let the positioning speak for itself.
"How [ICP job title] uses [your product] to [achieve outcome]" is the most neglected content type in SaaS. It's specific enough to attract qualified traffic, it maps directly to ICP conversations in sales, and it builds credibility that broad topic guides can't. If you serve five distinct use cases, each one deserves its own dedicated content.
"[Your product] + [popular tool in your ICP's stack]" content targets buyers who are already using connected tools. These are warm buyers: they have the budget, the workflow context, and often the exact problem your integration solves. This content also earns backlinks from partner pages.
Long-form, comprehensive guides on core topics in your space - the "complete guide to X" format - anchor your topic cluster strategy and generate consistent organic traffic over time. These aren't the fastest path to pipeline, but they're the compound interest of content: slow to build, durable once established.
Here's a number worth sitting with: most SaaS companies earn 60–70% of their revenue from existing customers through renewals, upsells, and expansion. Yet most SaaS content programs invest almost exclusively in acquisition.
Retention content isn't the same as a help center. It's proactive content that teaches customers to get more value from the product, surfaces use cases they haven't tried, and reinforces that the tool is evolving. Done well, it reduces churn, increases NPS, and generates the kind of organic word-of-mouth that no acquisition campaign can replicate.
Practical formats for retention content:
If your content plan has no entries for the expansion stage, you're optimizing the acquisition funnel while leaving the retention engine unmanned.
Content without distribution is just publishing. The post goes live, gets indexed, maybe earns some organic traffic over 6 months - but nothing happens in week one.
A working distribution stack for B2B SaaS content typically includes:
The internal linking piece is particularly easy to underinvest in. A new post that earns no links from existing content starts with zero internal authority. A deliberate backward linking pass - updating 3–5 relevant existing posts to reference the new one - meaningfully accelerates indexing and rankings.
Vanity metrics tell you whether publishing is happening. Revenue metrics tell you whether content is working.
| Metric | What It Measures |
|---|---|
| Organic sessions by stage | Whether traffic distribution is balanced or overweight at awareness |
| MQLs from organic | Whether content is generating leads, not just readers |
| Content-assisted pipeline | Revenue where a content touchpoint appeared in the customer journey |
| Trial signups from blog | Whether content is driving product engagement |
| Expansion revenue influenced | Whether retention content is contributing to upsell and renewal |
| Time-on-page and scroll depth | Whether content is being read or just visited |
The single most useful reporting change most SaaS content teams can make: add UTM tracking to every internal CTA in blog posts and route those conversions into a dedicated attribution report. Most teams can't answer "how much pipeline came from content" - because they never built the tracking to know.
A SaaS content marketing strategy isn't a content calendar. It's a system: audience segmentation feeds topic selection, funnel mapping sets prioritization, content types match buyer intent, distribution multiplies reach, and metrics close the feedback loop.
The companies that invest early in this system - rather than publishing whatever seems interesting - build an organic pipeline machine that compounds year over year. SaaS-focused content SEO is the engine underneath; strategy is what decides what to put in it.
If you're building a B2B pipeline alongside this content foundation, the B2B SaaS lead generation playbook covers the channel and conversion layer that turns content readers into qualified leads.
Most advertisers pour budget into Google Search and Display campaigns while overlooking one of the most targeted placements in the entire Google Ads ecosystem: Gmail. Google Sponsored Promotion (GSP) ads appear directly in a user's Gmail Promotions tab, formatted to look like a native email. When a user clicks the collapsed ad, it expands into a full-width creative that can include images, video, and a clear call to action.
The strategic advantage of Gmail ads is simple. Because you can target users based on the emails they receive, you can place your brand directly in front of people who are already engaged with your competitors or complementary products. You are not interrupting a random browsing session. You are reaching someone who has an active relationship with a company in your space and showing them a better alternative.
For brands looking to grow market share without inflating search CPCs, Gmail ads offer a low-cost, high-intent channel that most competitors are not even thinking about.
The real power of GSP ads is not the ad format itself. It is the targeting model. There are two categories of businesses you should be targeting with Gmail campaigns:
Complements are businesses, tools, or services that your target audience uses alongside your product. They are not direct competitors, but they serve the same buyer profile. For example, if you sell a landing page builder, your complements might include email marketing platforms like Mailchimp, ConvertKit, or ActiveCampaign. Users of those tools almost certainly need a landing page solution, making them a high-quality audience.
Competitors are the brands that sell directly against you. By targeting their domain in your Gmail campaign, your ad will appear in the inboxes of users who receive their marketing emails, onboarding sequences, and promotional offers. This is the digital equivalent of placing a billboard outside your competitor's storefront, except it is personalized, measurable, and far less expensive.
The combination of complement and competitor targeting gives you access to a pre-qualified audience. These users have already demonstrated interest in your category through their existing email subscriptions and purchasing behavior.
Gmail campaigns should not operate in isolation. They work best as part of a multi-channel growth marketing strategy where each channel plays a distinct role:
By positioning Gmail ads in the awareness-to-consideration phase, you create an additional touchpoint that warms up prospects before they ever search for your brand or product category.
Follow these steps to create your first GSP campaign targeting competitor and complement audiences.
In your Google Ads account, click "Create a New Campaign" and select "Display Network Only." Gmail ads run through the Display network, so this is your starting point.
Enter your campaign name, select your target location, and set your bidding strategy and daily budget. For Gmail campaigns, start with a Manual CPC bidding strategy so you maintain control over costs while gathering initial performance data. A daily budget of $20 to $50 is a reasonable starting point for testing.
Click "Save and continue" to move to the ad group configuration.
Create a naming convention that maps each ad group to a specific competitor or complement. For example: "GSP - Competitor - Mailchimp" or "GSP - Complement - LeadPages." This structure makes it easy to compare performance across targets and scale the campaign over time.
Start with a max CPC between $0.10 and $0.50. Gmail clicks tend to be significantly cheaper than Search clicks, so you do not need to bid aggressively to win placements. You can adjust bids up or down based on initial performance.
Under targeting options, choose "Display keywords" and enter the website URL of your competitor or complement. This is the critical step that defines who sees your ad.
When you enter a domain like "mailchimp.com" as a display keyword, Google will show your ad to Gmail users who have received emails from that domain. This is how you reach an audience that is already engaged with a competing or complementary brand.
Click "Narrow your targeting further" and choose "Placements" as your targeting method. This is a step many advertisers miss, and skipping it will cause your ads to show across the entire Display network rather than exclusively in Gmail.
Search for "mail.google.com" and add it as your placement target. This ensures your ads appear only within Gmail inboxes and nowhere else on the Display network.
Click "Save and continue." On the Ad Creation page, click "Skip ad creation." Gmail ads cannot be created in the standard ad builder, so you will need to use the Ad Gallery.
Navigate to the "Ads" tab in your account, click the red "Ad" button, and select "Ad Gallery" from the dropdown menu.
In the Ad Gallery, click "Gmail Ads" to access the Gmail-specific ad templates.
Select "Gmail image template" for the simplest and most effective format. Other template options are available, but the image template provides the best combination of visual impact and ease of setup.
Fill in the template fields:
One of the strongest advantages of Gmail ads is the ability to split-test variations of every element. Create at least two to three versions with different subject lines, images, and descriptions. Test one variable at a time to isolate what drives performance.
Click "Save" to finalize your ad. Your campaign is now live and will begin serving to Gmail users who match your targeting criteria.
Your Gmail ad appears alongside real emails. If your subject line reads like an advertisement, users will skip it. Study the subject line patterns that perform well in email marketing: curiosity-driven questions, specific numbers, and clear benefit statements all tend to outperform generic promotional copy.
The expanded Gmail ad is only the first click. If users land on a generic homepage after clicking a specific offer, you will lose them. Create dedicated landing pages that match the messaging and offer in your Gmail ad. This alignment improves both conversion rates and Quality Score.
Once you validate that your initial targets are producing cost-efficient clicks and conversions, expand your campaign by adding new competitor and complement domains as separate ad groups. Each new domain you add opens up an entirely new audience segment.
Performance will vary significantly across targets. A competitor with a large, engaged email list will generate more impressions and clicks than a smaller complement. Review performance at the ad group level weekly and adjust bids to allocate more budget toward your top-performing targets.
Gmail ad clicks are top-of-funnel interactions. Most users will not convert on the first visit. Make sure your remarketing pixel fires on the landing page so you can follow up with Display, Search, and social remarketing ads that bring these users back to convert.
Gmail ads do not generate the immediate volume of Search campaigns or the flashy creative opportunities of video and social ads. They are a surgical targeting tool that delivers incremental reach at a fraction of the cost. Because they require a different setup workflow and a targeting mindset rooted in competitive intelligence, most advertisers never bother.
That is exactly why they work. Low competition means lower CPCs, higher impression share, and the opportunity to reach your competitors' most engaged audiences before they even start searching for alternatives.
If you are looking for new growth channels that deliver qualified traffic without bidding wars, Gmail ads deserve a place in your paid media mix.
Lead generation has become a crucial aspect of any organization's marketing strategy. As businesses strive to expand their customer base and increase sales, understanding lead generation pricing becomes paramount. This article aims to provide a comprehensive overview of lead generation pricing, from its definition to the factors influencing it, and offer practical tips on budgeting and evaluating the return on investment (ROI) of these efforts.
In simple terms, lead generation refers to the process of attracting and converting potential customers into leads, who express interest in a company's products or services. These leads then become valuable assets for the sales team, as they can be nurtured and eventually converted into paying customers.
Lead generation is a multifaceted strategy that involves various tactics and techniques to capture the attention of potential customers. It is not just about getting people to visit a website or filling out a form; it is about building relationships and creating opportunities for businesses to connect with their target audience.
Lead generation plays a pivotal role in the growth and success of a business. By generating high-quality leads, companies can create a steady stream of potential customers, thereby increasing their chances of closing deals and driving revenue. Moreover, lead generation helps businesses build brand awareness, establish authority in their industry, and cultivate long-term relationships with customers.
When done effectively, lead generation can be a game-changer for businesses, providing them with a competitive edge in the market. It allows companies to proactively reach out to potential customers, rather than waiting for them to come across their products or services. This proactive approach not only increases the likelihood of conversions but also enables businesses to tailor their offerings to meet the specific needs and preferences of their target audience.
When it comes to lead generation, several key components work synergistically to achieve optimal results. These components include:
An effective website is the foundation of a successful lead generation strategy. It should be visually appealing, user-friendly, and optimized for search engines. Compelling landing pages with clear call-to-actions help guide visitors towards taking the desired action, whether it's filling out a form, subscribing to a newsletter, or making a purchase.
Engaging content is another crucial component of lead generation. By creating valuable and informative content, businesses can attract potential customers and establish themselves as industry experts. This can be achieved through blog posts, whitepapers, ebooks, videos, and webinars, among other content formats.
Lead capture forms and lead magnets play a vital role in capturing visitor information. These forms should be strategically placed on landing pages and offer something of value in exchange for contact details, such as a free ebook, a discount code, or access to exclusive content. This incentivizes visitors to provide their information willingly.
Targeted advertising and marketing campaigns help businesses reach the right audience and generate qualified leads. By leveraging data and analytics, companies can identify their target market and create customized campaigns that resonate with their audience's needs and preferences. This can be done through various channels, such as social media advertising, search engine marketing, email marketing, and content syndication.
Marketing automation tools streamline lead nurturing and follow-up processes, allowing businesses to engage with leads at scale. These tools automate repetitive tasks, such as sending personalized emails, tracking customer interactions, and scoring leads based on their level of engagement. By nurturing leads through targeted and timely communication, businesses can increase their chances of converting them into paying customers.
Here are [5 proven strategies to boost lead generation].
Now that we've covered the basics of lead generation, it's time to explore the various pricing models commonly used in this realm. Understanding the pros and cons of each model is crucial for businesses to make informed decisions and maximize their return on investment.
When it comes to lead generation, businesses have several pricing models to choose from. Each model offers its own advantages and disadvantages, catering to different business needs and goals. Let's take a closer look at three popular pricing models: Cost Per Lead (CPL), Monthly Retainer, and Performance-Based.
The cost per lead (CPL) model, as the name suggests, entails businesses paying a fixed amount for each lead they receive. This model offers a predictable and measurable approach to lead generation pricing. With CPL, companies have greater control over their budget, as they only pay for actual leads.
However, it is important to carefully evaluate the quality of leads generated under the CPL model. While lower-cost leads may seem appealing, they may not always translate into qualified prospects. Businesses need to ensure that the leads they receive are relevant and have a higher likelihood of conversion.
In the monthly retainer model, businesses work with lead generation agencies or consultants on an ongoing basis, paying a fixed monthly fee for their services. This model offers a more comprehensive approach, as the agency takes responsibility for managing the entire lead generation process.
The advantage of the monthly retainer model lies in its scalability and flexibility. Businesses can adjust their lead generation efforts according to their needs, whether it's increasing or decreasing the volume of leads generated. This model allows businesses to have a dedicated team working on their lead generation efforts, ensuring consistent results.
At the same time, it's important to note that the cost of retaining a lead generation agency can be higher compared to other pricing models. Businesses need to carefully assess their budget and the value they expect to receive from the agency before committing to a monthly retainer.
The performance-based model aligns lead generation pricing with the desired outcomes. Instead of paying a fixed fee or cost per lead, businesses only compensate lead generation agencies based on the actual performance achieved, such as the number of qualified leads or converted customers.
This model provides a clear incentive for the agency to deliver tangible results. The agency's compensation is directly tied to the success of the lead generation campaign, motivating them to put in their best efforts. It also allows businesses to closely track their return on investment (ROI) and ensure that they are getting the desired results.
However, implementing a performance-based model requires businesses to carefully define and measure the key performance indicators (KPIs) that will determine the agency's compensation. This ensures fair compensation for both parties and avoids any potential disputes.
While understanding the pricing models is crucial, it is equally important to consider the factors that influence lead generation pricing. By identifying these factors, businesses can set realistic expectations and allocate their resources effectively.
The quality of leads greatly impacts the pricing. High-quality leads, who are more likely to convert into paying customers, generally incur higher costs. Factors that contribute to lead quality include the relevance of the target audience, the level of interest demonstrated, and the accuracy of the contact information provided.
For example, let's say a business is targeting professionals in the healthcare industry who have shown a strong interest in a specific product. These leads are more likely to convert into customers compared to leads from a general audience. Therefore, the cost per lead for such high-quality leads would be higher due to the increased chances of conversion.
The industry in which a business operates and the characteristics of its target market can significantly influence lead generation pricing. Industries with intense competition or niche markets may require more targeted and tailored lead generation strategies, resulting in higher costs.
Consider a business operating in the highly competitive technology industry. The target market for this business consists of tech-savvy individuals who are constantly bombarded with advertisements and marketing campaigns. In order to stand out from the competition and capture the attention of these potential leads, the business may need to invest in more sophisticated lead generation tactics, such as personalized email campaigns or social media advertising. These additional efforts would naturally increase the overall cost of lead generation.
Let's say a business wants to implement a comprehensive lead generation strategy that includes not only capturing leads but also nurturing them through personalized email sequences and targeted content. This level of service requires a greater investment of time, resources, and expertise from the lead generation agency. As a result, the pricing for such a customized and hands-on approach would be higher compared to a more basic lead generation package.
At the same time, businesses that require advanced analytics to track and measure the effectiveness of their lead generation efforts may need to pay a premium for the tools and expertise needed to provide such insights. These analytics can help businesses optimize their lead generation strategies and improve their return on investment.
As you see, several factors influence lead generation pricing, including the quality of leads, the industry and target market, and the level of service and customization required. By understanding these factors, businesses can make informed decisions about their lead generation strategies and budget accordingly.
Prior to budgeting for lead generation, it is crucial for businesses to determine their specific lead needs. This involves assessing the desired volume of leads, the expected conversion rate, and the target cost per lead. By setting clear objectives and benchmarks, businesses can allocate their budget more effectively.
Allocating resources for lead generation involves finding a balance between investing in various lead generation strategies and managing costs. Some resources that would require allocation include advertising budgets, staff dedicated to lead generation efforts, and the technology needed to support these activities.
To evaluate the return on investment (ROI) of lead generation efforts, businesses must establish key performance metrics and regularly measure their performance against these benchmarks. Metrics such as the cost per lead, lead-to-customer conversion rate, and customer lifetime value are valuable indicators of lead generation success.
Based on the ROI analysis, businesses should make data-driven decisions to optimize their lead generation strategy. This might involve reallocating resources, refining targeting criteria, or experimenting with new lead generation tactics. Continuous monitoring and adaptation are crucial for achieving long-term success in lead generation.
To thrive in today's highly competitive business landscape, understanding lead generation pricing is essential. By comprehending the various pricing models, considering influencing factors, and budgeting wisely, organizations can maximize their lead generation efforts and ultimately drive revenue growth. Additionally, by evaluating the ROI of lead generation and making necessary adjustments, businesses can continuously refine their approach and stay ahead of the curve.
It was dark. Really dark. The kind of darkness that makes you question your sanity.
The only thing louder than my pulse was the slow drip of a faucet that bounced off the concrete walls.
Cold metal handcuffs pressed firmly against my wrists. I could move, but only as far as the heavy chain would allow.
Only minutes had passed since we were blindfolded. But every second would count.
The countdown for survival was on...
Not every company subjects its crew to extreme escape scenarios, but when you’re a distributed team like EmberTribe, you have to make the most of the (face) time!
At our most recent meetup, some of our team took on the challenge of escaping from a “Breakout” room.
The team building concept is catching on quickly with dozens of franchises sprouting up across the nation. Our experience unfolded at the Greensboro, NC location.
The objective is simple: work as a team to escape! Think of it as a life-sized puzzle. Without going into specifics (you’ll have to experience that yourself!), you have to crack codes, look for clues, and use logic to escape. Each riddle you solve leads one step closer to victory.
The catch? You only have 60 minutes to do it.
The scenario we chose was called “The Kidnapping”, in which a crazed serial killer (somewhat altruistically) gives you 60 minutes to escape before...well, you know. Here’s the trailer.
The Breakout Games company records data from thousands of these escapes and monitors each one through video surveillance. The odds they gave us to escape? A mere 20% success rate.
This post isn’t so much about the destination as it was the journey, so I’ll let the cat out of the bag: we made it!
Beating the odds confirmed what I already knew: I work with some of the smartest people I’ve ever met.
But there’s a lot more that I learned about teamwork and how we’re wired.
Our team is divided evenly between folks who process internally and the loudmouths like me, who are verbal processors. This also correlates somewhat to personality.
In the breakout room, some of our quieter folks would wait, listen, think and then nail a solution that seemingly came out of thin air.
The learning here is that quiet ≠ disengaged. It’s important to remember this during brainstorming meetings and really any group context.
On the other hand, loud ≠ domineering. Verbal processors need the same space to talk through a solution.
Empathy and patience are key.
One reason why we were successful in the breakout room is that we leveraged the power of observation.
Put another way: we would state the obvious first, then figure out what that meant for next steps.
Observe. Process. Solve.
When you jump to a solution too quickly, you work on faulty assumptions. I made this mistake at one point in the breakout room. I found a puzzle piece and started working under the assumption it was meant to fit on the floor. In fact, the piece only made sense when it was held up to the wall.
This principle has a direct application to our work as an agency. We let data drive solutions for our clients. When we’re measuring performance for an ad campaign or a landing page, we carefully observe and then think about architecting a solution.
Let the facts sink in, challenge your assumptions, then think through a solution. Definitely something I want to continue to build into our culture here at Ember.
In the breakout room we all focused on a common goal. When we unlocked a new box we would huddle and observe. But then we would disperse a bit while working on the next obstacle.
Some people took notes on a whiteboard, others tinkered with puzzle pieces. Others reviewed past clues.
There was an efficient form of communication unfolding in the room where we shared information without hyper-focus on one part of the problem.
Some challenges can’t be solved until you change your perspective. In the breakout room, different clues are revealed with the lights on and others only when the lights are off.
Changing perspectives in a breakout room is easy: just walk to the other side of the room and look at the riddle differently. In the real world, it takes an intentional effort to change perspective.
One way that our team and processes can improve is to schedule time for different team members to audit our client’s accounts.
We do this already when we hit a roadblock: conversion rate is stalling, ad campaign growing tired, etc. But a big win for us will be to pre-emptively get a fresh “outside” look to make sure we aren’t missing anything in our plan of attack.
One of my favorite aspects of the escape room is the countdown. In my post-game analysis I wondered: would have we escaped after 55 minutes if there was no countdown? I’m positive that we still would have escaped, but am certain it would have taken MUCH longer.
As I continue to reflect on this experience, I wonder, where should we be self-imposing limits on ourselves as a team to generate more creativity and clever solutions?
For example, our client may have a $10M advertising budget, but what could we accomplish with $1k? Having too much of a resource (money or time) can make you lazy and potentially miss a game changing creative solution.
Not to get too philosophical, but I think highly effective people learn to dream without limits and act within constraints.
Our team’s experience with the breakout room was really fun and a big win for morale. But I’m even more grateful for the lessons we’re taking with us...beyond the reach of a hypothetical serial killer.
Marketing experts know it. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) efforts can be a game-changer for businesses looking to grow their customer base. With the right approach, PPC -a paid marketing strategy- can result in a significant increase in lead generation and ultimately lead to higher conversion rates. As you know, sales doesn't come raining from the sky. But they might. Join us to learn more about PPC lead generation tips and how they might boost your customer base.
Look at the lead-to-sale conversion rate, the average lifetime value of customers acquired through PPC, and other relevant metrics. This will help you assess the overall effectiveness of your lead generation strategy and its impact on your business's bottom line.
After analyzing your performance metrics, it's time to identify areas of improvement. Look for patterns or trends in your data that may indicate areas where you can make changes. Are there keywords that are performing exceptionally well? Are there ad copy variations that are resulting in higher click-through rates? By identifying these areas, you can make targeted improvements to your campaigns.
Consider a few analytic activities. As conducting competitive analysis to gain insights from your industry peers. Or looking at what strategies and tactics they are employing and determine if there are any opportunities for you to learn from their successes or differentiate yourself in the market.
Also, don't overlook the importance of optimizing your landing pages. Analyze the user experience, page load times, and the clarity of your call-to-action. By making improvements to your landing pages, you can increase the conversion rate of your PPC campaigns and generate more qualified leads.
Lastly, consider exploring new channels and tactics to supplement your PPC lead generation efforts. This could include social media advertising, content marketing, or influencer partnerships. By diversifying your lead generation strategy, you can reach a wider audience and tap into new sources of high-quality leads.
One of the most critical aspects of PPC lead generation is optimizing your landing pages for conversion. A landing page is the webpage where users are directed after clicking on your ad. It serves as the first point of contact between the user and your business, making it crucial to create an impactful first impression.
A well-optimized landing page can significantly impact your conversion rates. By ensuring that your landing page is appealing, user-friendly, and relevant, you can increase the chances of converting visitors into leads. This can be achieved by using persuasive copy, prominent call-to-action (CTA) buttons, and a clean and intuitive design.
When designing your landing page, it's important to keep a few best practices in mind. First, make sure that your message aligns with the ad that led users to your landing page. This helps to maintain consistency and reinforce the value proposition you promised in your ad. Additionally, keep your landing page clutter-free and easy to navigate, ensuring that visitors can quickly find the information they need.
The success of any PPC campaign relies heavily on the selection of relevant keywords and the creation of compelling ad copy. These two components work hand in hand to attract your target audience and entice them to click on your ads.
Keywords are the foundation of any PPC campaign. They are the terms or phrases that users type into search engines when looking for products or services that your business offers. By conducting thorough keyword research, you can identify the keywords that your target audience is using and incorporate them into your ads.
Once you have a list of relevant keywords, it's time to craft compelling ad copy. Your ad copy should be concise, engaging, and relevant to the user's search intent. Highlight the unique selling points of your business and include a strong call-to-action to encourage users to click on your ad.
A/B testing, also known as split testing, is a strategy that allows you to compare two different versions of an element within your PPC campaign to determine which one performs better. By implementing A/B testing, you can continuously optimize your campaigns and improve your lead generation efforts.
A/B testing involves creating two or more variations of an element, such as an ad headline or a landing page layout, and then randomly showing different versions to your audience. By analyzing the performance metrics of each variation, you can identify which one generates the highest conversion rates and make data-driven decisions to improve your campaigns.
When conducting A/B testing for PPC, it's important to test one element at a time to accurately measure its impact. For example, you can test different ad headlines or call-to-action buttons. Additionally, make sure to track and analyze your results accurately to draw meaningful conclusions and make informed optimization decisions.
By following these three tips, you can significantly improve your PPC lead generation results. Remember to continuously monitor your campaigns, analyze your performance metrics, and make data-driven optimizations to maximize your lead generation efforts. With the right strategy and consistent effort, PPC lead generation can be a powerful tool in growing your business. With them, maybe, you'll start to capitalize those marketing efforts.
In today's competitive B2B landscape, lead generation is the engine that powers sustainable revenue growth. One platform that has become a go-to solution for growth-focused teams is Apollo. By combining a massive B2B contact database with AI-powered outreach sequences, Apollo gives marketing and sales teams the infrastructure to generate qualified leads at scale while keeping cost per acquisition under control.
This guide breaks down how Apollo works, the strategies that drive results, and the metrics you should track to ensure every dollar spent delivers maximum return.
Apollo is a sales intelligence and engagement platform built for B2B lead generation. It provides access to a database of over 275 million contacts across 73 million companies, paired with tools for email sequencing, calling, task management, and analytics.
What sets Apollo apart from traditional prospecting tools is how it combines data enrichment with execution. Rather than purchasing a static list and importing it into a separate outreach tool, Apollo lets you identify prospects, enrich their profiles, build multi-step sequences, and track engagement - all inside a single platform.
For growth-stage companies that need to move quickly without hiring a large sales development team, Apollo eliminates the friction between research and action.
Getting results from Apollo starts with proper setup. A misconfigured instance leads to wasted emails, low reply rates, and poor data quality. Here is the foundational work that matters most.
Before running a single search, document your ideal customer profile (ICP) with specificity. Apollo's filters are powerful, but they only work when you know exactly who you are looking for. Key attributes to define include:
A tightly defined ICP reduces list size but dramatically increases conversion rates. Teams that skip this step often see open rates below 15% and reply rates below 1% - numbers that make outbound financially unviable.
Email deliverability is the silent killer of outbound campaigns. Apollo provides built-in tools to help, but you need to set them up proactively:
Bounce rates above 3% will damage your sender reputation and can land your domain on blocklists. This is one area where spending time upfront saves significant cost downstream.
Once your foundation is solid, the following strategies separate high-performing Apollo campaigns from average ones.
The days of single-touch outreach are over. Effective Apollo sequences typically include 5-8 touchpoints spread across 14-21 days, combining email, LinkedIn connection requests, and phone calls. A proven structure includes:
This multi-channel approach increases reply rates by 2-3x compared to email-only sequences because it meets prospects where they are most active.
Apollo's intent signals indicate when a company is actively researching topics related to your solution. Prospects showing buying intent convert at significantly higher rates than cold contacts because the timing aligns with their existing evaluation process.
Practical ways to leverage intent data include:
This approach is particularly effective for B2C and B2B lead generation teams that need to prioritize limited SDR capacity.
Generic templates get ignored. Apollo's AI features can help you personalize at scale by dynamically inserting company-specific data points, recent news mentions, and technographic details into your messaging. The key is balancing personalization with efficiency:
Generating leads is only valuable if you can prove the return. Here are the metrics that matter and how to track them effectively.
When evaluating your Apollo lead generation performance, track KPIs across three levels:
Activity metrics - These confirm your team is executing at the right volume:
Engagement metrics - These indicate whether your messaging resonates:
Revenue metrics - These connect outbound activity to business outcomes:
The most common mistake teams make is optimizing for activity metrics while ignoring revenue metrics. Sending more emails does not create value if those emails do not convert into pipeline.
Apollo's built-in analytics cover engagement metrics well, but you need additional tools for full-funnel visibility:
By analyzing data across these platforms, you gain a holistic view of which sequences, segments, and messaging strategies drive the highest return.
Even experienced teams make errors that erode performance. Watch for these common pitfalls:
Targeting too broadly. A list of 50,000 contacts feels productive but almost always underperforms a focused list of 2,000 well-researched prospects. Quality beats quantity in outbound.
Neglecting list hygiene. Contact data decays at roughly 30% per year. People change jobs, companies restructure, and email addresses go stale. Verify your lists regularly and remove contacts who have bounced or unsubscribed.
Sending without testing. A/B test subject lines, opening sentences, CTAs, and sequence length. Small improvements in open and reply rates compound significantly over thousands of sends.
Ignoring negative signals. When prospects unsubscribe, mark you as spam, or explicitly say they are not interested, respect those signals immediately. Continuing to contact them damages your domain reputation and brand.
Failing to align sales and marketing. Apollo works best when marketing and sales teams share a unified ICP, consistent messaging, and clear handoff processes. Misalignment leads to duplicated effort and conflicting outreach.
Once you have a proven sequence generating positive ROI, the next step is scaling without sacrificing quality. Key scaling levers include:
The goal is building a repeatable, measurable outbound engine that generates predictable pipeline month over month - not sporadic bursts of activity followed by periods of inaction.
Apollo lead generation offers B2B teams a powerful, consolidated platform to identify, engage, and convert qualified prospects. But the platform alone does not guarantee results. Success depends on precise targeting, disciplined execution, deliverability hygiene, and rigorous measurement.
Start with a tightly defined ICP, build multi-touch sequences that provide genuine value, track metrics at every stage of the funnel, and continuously optimize based on data. When these elements come together, Apollo becomes one of the highest-ROI investments in your growth stack.
Instagram has emerged as a dominant force in the digital marketing landscape. With its visually-driven format and highly engaged user base, it offers businesses a unique opportunity to showcase their products and connect with their audience. In order to stand out and capture the attention of users, it is crucial to create engaging Instagram ad mockups. But, first, what are them?
Instagram has revolutionized the way brands advertise, allowing them to showcase their products in a visually appealing and captivating manner. As a result, it has become an integral part of digital marketing strategies for many businesses. With the ability to target specific demographics and interests, Instagram ads can effectively reach the right audience and drive engagement.
However, in order to make the most of Instagram ads, mockups must resonate with your target audience. Ad mockups serve as a preview of your actual ad and allow you to experiment with different visuals, copy, and brand identity elements.
Ad mockups are an essential part of the creative process when it comes to Instagram advertising. They allow you to experiment with various design elements, test different approaches, and refine your messaging before investing in a full-scale ad campaign. By creating mockups, you can ensure that your ads are visually appealing, on-brand, and effectively convey your message to your target audience.
Creating ad mockups also helps you align your marketing goals with your creative strategy. By visualizing how your ad will look and feel, you can make informed decisions about the overall design, color scheme, and layout. This ensures that your ad not only captures the attention of your target audience but also aligns with your brand's identity and values.
By carefully considering these essential components, you can create an ad that stands out from the rest and effectively captures the attention of your target audience.
Before diving into the design phase, take the time to plan your ad campaign thoroughly. Define your campaign objectives, target audience, and key messaging. Conduct market research to understand your audience's preferences and interests. By laying a solid foundation, you can create a mockup that aligns with your overall marketing strategy.
Once you have a clear understanding of your campaign objectives and target audience, it's time to bring your mockup to life. Use graphic design tools or hire a professional designer to create visually appealing ad mockups. Experiment with different layouts, colors, and fonts to find the combination that resonates with your audience and aligns with your brand identity.
Remember to adhere to Instagram's ad guidelines and ensure that your mockup meets the required specifications for seamless integration into the platform. Pay attention to image resolution, aspect ratio, and file size to prevent any issues during the ad creation process.
Once your ad mockup is ready, it's crucial to review it thoroughly before finalizing the design. Take a step back and evaluate your mockup from the perspective of your target audience. Does it convey your message effectively? Is it visually compelling? Are there any areas for improvement?
Seek feedback from your team or trusted individuals to gather different perspectives. Use this feedback to refine your mockup further and make any necessary adjustments. This iterative process ensures that you create an ad that truly resonates with your audience and meets your campaign objectives.
Creating an engaging Instagram ad mockup requires thoughtful planning and attention to detail. Here are some additional tips to enhance the effectiveness of your ad mockup:
Invest time in understanding your target audience's preferences, interests, and pain points. Tailor your ad mockup to resonate with their needs and desires. By crafting ads that speak directly to your audience, you can increase engagement and drive conversions.
Instagram offers a range of features such as Stories, IGTV, and shopping tags that can enhance the effectiveness of your ad mockup. Explore these features and experiment with different formats to create a compelling ad experience.
Don't be afraid to test different versions of your ad mockup to see which resonates best with your audience. A/B testing can provide valuable insights and help you optimize your ad for maximum impact. Monitor key metrics such as click-through rates, engagement rates, and conversions to gauge the success of your ad campaign.
There you go. An engaging Instagram ad mockup is a crucial step in driving successful ad campaigns on the platform. By understanding the importance of ad mockups, incorporating essential elements, and following a systematic approach, you can create ads that captivate your audience and drive meaningful results for your business.
Achieving sustainable growth requires careful planning, strategic execution, and specialized knowledge. This is where a business growth agency plays a pivotal role. A business growth agency can be the springboard that launches your business to new heights. By understanding the role and functions of a business growth agency, as well as the importance of business growth for your company, you can harness the expertise of these agencies to take your organization to new heights.
A business growth agency is a strategic partner that works closely with your company to identify growth opportunities and develop tailored strategies to achieve them. They possess a deep understanding of your industry and market dynamics, allowing them to provide valuable insights and guidance.
When it comes to understanding the role of a business growth agency, it is crucial to recognize their ability to analyze your current business landscape. By conducting a thorough evaluation, they can identify areas for improvement and growth potential. This analysis involves studying market trends, consumer behavior, and competitor strategies.
Furthermore, a business growth agency goes beyond just identifying growth opportunities. They also play a crucial role in developing comprehensive strategies to maximize your company's growth potential. These strategies may involve marketing and branding, sales optimization, and operational efficiency improvement.
You can check an example of 5 proven strategies to boost lead generation [here].
Business growth is not just a desirable outcome; it is essential for the long-term success and sustainability of your company. Without continuous growth, businesses can quickly fall victim to stagnation, which can have detrimental effects.
When a business remains stagnant and fails to adapt to changing market conditions, it can experience stagnation. Stagnation often leads to declining sales, loss of market share, and reduced profitability. The inability to keep up with the ever-evolving business landscape puts stagnant businesses at risk of becoming obsolete.
However, continuous growth paves the way for numerous benefits. It enables your company to stay ahead of the competition, seize new market opportunities, and attract top talent. By embracing growth, your business can expand its reach and explore untapped markets, ensuring its relevance and longevity.
One of the key advantages of business growth is the increased revenue and profitability it brings. As your company expands, it can tap into new customer segments and generate more sales. This influx of revenue provides the financial resources necessary to invest in further expansion and innovation.
Moreover, continuous growth allows your company to build a strong brand reputation. As you expand your operations and reach, you can establish yourself as a market leader and gain the trust and loyalty of customers. A reputable brand not only attracts more customers but also opens doors to strategic partnerships and collaborations.
Business growth also creates a positive ripple effect throughout the organization. It fosters a culture of innovation and creativity, as employees are motivated by the exciting opportunities that come with expansion. This, in turn, attracts top talent who are eager to be part of a dynamic and growing company.
Additionally, growth provides the opportunity to diversify your product or service offerings. By expanding your portfolio, you can cater to a wider range of customer needs and preferences. This diversification not only strengthens your market position but also mitigates the risks associated with relying too heavily on a single product or service.
A business growth agency follows a structured approach to drive growth for your company. The process typically involves an initial assessment and strategy development phase, followed by the implementation of growth strategies.
But what exactly happens during each phase? Let's dive deeper into the workings of a business growth agency.
During the initial assessment phase, the business growth agency conducts a thorough analysis of your company's current performance, market position, and growth potential. They gather data, conduct market research, and assess your competitive landscape to identify the most viable growth opportunities.
But it doesn't stop there. The agency's team of experts goes beyond the surface-level analysis. They dig deep into your company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT analysis) to gain a comprehensive understanding of your business.
Additionally, they also examine industry trends, consumer behavior, and emerging technologies to identify potential disruptors or innovative strategies that can propel your company forward.
Based on these findings, they develop a tailored growth strategy that aligns with your company's vision and objectives. This strategy is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, it is customized to address your specific challenges and leverage your unique strengths.
Once the growth strategy is developed, the business growth agency collaborates with your team to implement the identified strategies. This collaboration is crucial as it ensures that the agency's expertise is combined with your team's knowledge of the business.
The agency takes a hands-on approach, working closely with your team to ensure successful execution and ongoing monitoring and optimization of the growth initiatives. They provide guidance, support, and resources to implement marketing and branding campaigns, optimize sales processes, or improve operational efficiency.
But it doesn't end there. The agency continuously monitors the progress of the growth initiatives and collects data to measure their effectiveness. They analyze the results, identify areas for improvement, and make necessary adjustments to maximize the impact of the strategies.
Moreover, the agency also keeps a close eye on market dynamics, consumer preferences, and industry trends to ensure that the implemented strategies remain relevant and effective in the ever-changing business landscape.
So, as you can see, a business growth agency goes above and beyond to drive growth for your company. Their structured methodologies (as this one for SEO), thorough analysis, and hands-on implementation ensure that your company is equipped with the right strategies to thrive in today's competitive business environment.
Business growth agencies offer a wide range of services designed to fuel growth in various aspects of your business. Let's explore some of the key services provided by these agencies:
A strong marketing and branding strategy is essential for reaching your target audience and driving growth. Business growth agencies provide expertise in developing and executing effective marketing campaigns,creating impactful branding assets, and leveraging digital channels to maximize your brand's visibility and reach.
Optimizing your sales processes and equipping your sales team with the necessary skills and knowledge is crucial for driving revenue growth. Business growth agencies offer comprehensive sales optimization services, including sales process analysis, sales training, and CRM implementation, to enhance your company's sales performance.
Improving operational efficiency is a key driver of growth. Business growth agencies help identify inefficiencies in your operational processes and develop strategies to streamline operations, reduce costs, and enhance productivity. This allows your organization to operate more efficiently, freeing up resources that can be allocated to growth initiatives.
Choosing the right business growth agency is vital to ensure a successful growth journey for your company. Consider the following factors when selecting an agency:
While cost is an important consideration, it is equally crucial to assess the value you will gain from the agency's services. Look for an agency that offers a comprehensive suite of services tailored to your specific growth needs and provides ongoing support and monitoring to ensure the success of your growth initiatives.
With expertise and a strategic approach, a growth agency can help you navigate the complexities of today's business landscape and achieve sustainable growth in various aspects of your operations. By understanding the role of a business growth agency, the importance of business growth, and the services they offer, you can make an informed decision when selecting the right agency to partner with. Embrace the power of a business growth agency and take your company to new heights.
In today's competitive business landscape, generating high-quality leads is crucial for B2C companies looking to thrive and succeed. Whether you're a small startup or an established enterprise, having a strong lead generation strategy is essential for driving sales and growing your customer base.
In this article, we'll explore five proven strategies that will help you boost your B2C lead generation efforts. From leveraging the power of social media platforms to implementing effective email marketing campaigns, these strategies will give you the edge you need to stand out from the competition and attract targeted leads that convert into loyal customers.
Before diving into the strategies, let's take a moment to understand what B2C lead generation is all about. B2C, or business-to-consumer, refers to companies that sell products or services directly to individual consumers. B2C lead generation involves attracting and nurturing potential customers who are interested in your offerings, with the goal of converting them into paying customers.
When it comes to B2C lead generation, it is important to have a clear understanding of the process and its significance. B2C lead generation is not just about getting random individuals interested in your products or services. It is a strategic approach that involves identifying and attracting potential customers who are most likely to be interested in what you have to offer.
The process of B2C lead generation starts with understanding your target audience. By conducting thorough market research and analysis, you can gain insights into the demographics, preferences, and behaviors of your potential customers. This information allows you to tailor your marketing strategies and messages to effectively reach and engage your target audience.
B2C lead generation is the process of identifying and attracting potential customers for your business, and nurturing them through various marketing channels until they are ready to make a purchase. Since B2C transactions are typically lower in value compared to B2B (business-to-business) transactions, the volume of leads generated becomes a critical factor for success.
Generating B2C leads involves implementing a combination of inbound and outbound marketing tactics. Inbound marketing focuses on creating valuable content and providing solutions to the pain points of your target audience. This can be done through blog posts, social media engagement, search engine optimization (SEO), and email marketing. Outbound marketing, on the other hand, involves reaching out to potential customers through methods like advertising, cold calling, and direct mail.
Once you have attracted potential customers, the next step is to nurture them through the sales funnel. This involves building relationships and providing relevant information and offers that address their needs and concerns. By consistently delivering value and staying top-of-mind, you increase the chances of converting leads into paying customers.
Effective B2C lead generation is crucial for several reasons. Firstly, generating a steady stream of leads ensures a constant flow of potential customers, enabling you to maintain a healthy sales pipeline. Without a consistent influx of leads, your business may struggle to meet its revenue targets and grow.
Secondly, by targeting the right audience, you can better allocate your resources and maximize your marketing efforts. Understanding your ideal customers allows you to focus your marketing budget and efforts on channels and strategies that are most likely to yield positive results. This not only saves you time and money but also increases the overall effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and keeps your brand ahead of the curve.
Lastly, attracting quality leads increases your chances of converting them into loyal customers who make repeat purchases. By nurturing potential customers and building strong relationships, you create a sense of trust and loyalty that encourages them to choose your products or services over your competitors'. This not only leads to increased sales but also helps in building a positive brand reputation and customer advocacy.
In conclusion, B2C lead generation is a strategic and essential process for businesses that sell directly to individual consumers. By understanding the process, implementing effective marketing strategies, and nurturing potential customers, businesses can increase their sales, optimize their marketing efforts, and build long-term customer relationships.
Social media platforms have become an integral part of our daily lives, providing businesses with an excellent opportunity to connect with their target audience. With billions of active users, platforms like Facebook and Instagram offer immense potential for B2C lead generation. Check out this article in which we explain how to scale en eComm brand from $500k to $5M with a Multi-Channel Growth System powered by ads.
When it comes to social media marketing, Facebook is undoubtedly a powerhouse. Its advertising platform allows you to target specific demographics, interests, and behaviors, making it an effective tool for B2C lead generation. By creating compelling ads and engaging content, you can attract potential customers who are likely to be interested in your products or services. The key lies in understanding your target audience and crafting messages that resonate with them. One of the biggest advantages of Facebook advertising is its extensive targeting options. You can narrow down your audience based on factors such as age, gender, location, and even interests. This level of precision ensures that your ads are being shown to the right people at the right time, increasing the chances of generating quality leads. Additionally, Facebook's retargeting feature allows you to reach out to users who have already shown interest in your brand, giving you another opportunity to convert them into customers.
Facebook's advertising platform is not just about targeting options; it also offers a wide range of ad formats to suit different marketing objectives. Whether you want to drive website traffic, increase brand awareness, or promote a specific product, Facebook has the tools to help you achieve your goals. From carousel ads that showcase multiple products to video ads that tell a compelling story, the possibilities are endless.
Furthermore, Facebook's ad analytics provide valuable insights into the performance of your campaigns. You can track metrics such as reach, engagement, and conversions, allowing you to fine-tune your strategy and optimize your ad spend. By constantly monitoring and analyzing the data, you can identify what works and what doesn't, making informed decisions to maximize your B2C lead generation efforts.
While Facebook reigns supreme in the world of social media, Instagram is quickly gaining momentum, especially among younger demographics. With its visually appealing layout and emphasis on aesthetics, Instagram has become a powerful platform for B2C lead generation.
As an image-centric platform, Instagram allows you to showcase your products or services in a visually compelling way. High-quality images and videos can capture the attention of your target audience and create a desire for what you offer. By utilizing relevant hashtags, you can increase the discoverability of your content and attract users who are actively searching for products or services like yours.
Engagement is key on Instagram. By actively interacting with your followers, responding to comments, and participating in relevant conversations, you can build a loyal community around your brand. This not only increases brand awareness but also creates opportunities for lead generation. When users feel connected to your brand and trust your expertise, they are more likely to visit your website and explore what you have to offer.
Additionally, Instagram's Stories feature provides a unique opportunity for B2C lead generation. With over 500 million daily active users, Stories allow you to share behind-the-scenes content, product demonstrations, and limited-time offers. By leveraging the sense of urgency created by Stories, you can encourage users to take immediate action, whether it's signing up for a newsletter, making a purchase, or requesting more information.
In conclusion, social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram offer immense potential for B2C lead generation. By utilizing their unique features and understanding the preferences of your target audience, you can create impactful campaigns that attract quality leads and drive business growth.
Content marketing is a strategic approach to attracting and engaging your target audience through valuable content. By offering informative and engaging content, you can position yourself as an authority in your industry and attract potential customers who are interested in what you have to offer.
Creating a blog on your website is an effective way to generate B2C leads. By consistently publishing high-quality blog posts that address the pain points and interests of your target audience, you can attract organic traffic and capture leads through opt-in forms or content upgrades. Ensure that your blog posts are optimized for search engines to maximize their visibility and reach.
E-books and whitepapers are in-depth resources that provide value to your target audience while also capturing leads. Offer downloadable e-books or whitepapers on topics related to your industry or products/services. Require users to provide their contact information before they can access the content, allowing you to generate leads while providing valuable information to your audience.
Email marketing remains one of the most effective channels for B2C lead generation. By building an email list of potential customers who have shown interest in your products or services, you can nurture them through targeted email campaigns and drive conversions.
Start by implementing lead capture forms on your website, offering incentives such as discounts or valuable content in exchange for email addresses. Segment your email list based on demographics, preferences, and engagement levels to tailor your campaigns and improve conversions. Personalize your emails to make them more engaging and relevant to your subscribers.
The content of your emails plays a crucial role in driving B2C lead generation. Craft attention-grabbing subject lines, compelling copy, and encourage recipients to take action with clear call-to-actions. Utilize automation to send personalized emails based on user behavior, interests, and purchase history.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing your website and content to improve its visibility in search engine rankings. By ensuring that your website appears prominently in relevant search results, you can attract organic traffic and generate B2C leads. Check out this article on how we scaled an eCommerce brand to $10M in revenue with SEO.
SEO involves various on-page and off-page techniques that help search engines recognize the relevance and quality of your content. By optimizing your website's structure, keywords, meta tags, and creating high-quality backlinks, you can improve your website's search engine rankings, driving more organic traffic and leads.
Focus on targeting relevant keywords that have high search volume and align with the interests of your target audience. Create informative and engaging content that caters to user search intent. Optimize your website's load speed, mobile responsiveness, and user experience to ensure that visitors have a positive experience and are more likely to convert into leads.
Influencer marketing has become a popular strategy for B2C lead generation, leveraging the influence of individuals with large social media followings to promote products or services. Collaborating with influencers who align with your brand allows you to reach a wider audience and generate targeted leads.
When selecting influencers, consider their relevance to your industry or niche, their engagement levels, and their ability to connect with your target audience. Collaborate with influencers to create engaging content such as sponsored posts, reviews, or giveaways. By leveraging their influence and reach, you can attract potential customers who trust and value their recommendations.
Implementing these five proven strategies will give your B2C lead generation efforts a significant boost. Remember to continually analyze and optimize your campaigns to maximize your results. With a comprehensive lead generation strategy in place, you'll be well on your way to attracting quality leads and driving business growth.
Ruth Even Haim, Co-Founder at StilyoApps, and John Tedesco, CEO at Drip, joined EmberTribe's very own founders to chat about opportunities and challenges facing eCommerce brands, how to use customer feedback to build better SaaS products, and what it takes to be a good leader.
The following interview excerpts from episode two of Founders Forum have been edited for length and clarity. You can download the full transcript here.
In this interview:
Josh: All right. Welcome to our second episode. And this is just a series where we get a chance in a round table format to dive behind the scenes and talk to some founders and executives, and really just help our community of entrepreneurs level up wherever they are. Learn from other's mistakes. Copy people's wins and take it from there. So Ruth, why don't you take it away? I'd love to introduce you first.
Ruth: Nice to meet you all. I am Ruth. I'm the co-founder of StilyoApps. We develop apps for eCommerce in general, mostly for Shopify, and Reconvert currently serves over 30,000 Shopify merchants from all sizes, providing post-purchase upselling and retention tools.
Josh: Fantastic. Thank you for joining us and John over to you.
John: Hi, I'm John Tedesco. I am the CEO of Drip. Super excited to be here. Thanks for having me on. Drip is an email and SMS marketing automation platform serving eCommerce merchants, helping them build their brand and grow their revenue. We've got over 7,000 customers across the globe, 80 employees, and we've generated over a billion dollars in revenue for our customers over the past couple of years.
Josh: Well, we're thrilled to have both of you, on this episode and I figured where we could start is the last year. At the time of this recording, we're looking back on a year of a pandemic, which has been a very interesting time in our space, which we're lucky and fortunate that we've had a lot of success in our space during this time period.
Josh: As you're looking forward, and John we’ll start with you as you're looking forward into 2021. What are some of the challenges, but also some of the opportunities facing direct-to-consumer eCommerce brands as they're trying to grow in scale?
John: Yeah, so I think as you look at 2020, the methodology for the consumer around online purchasing has now been permanently altered for the positive for D2C brands. And I think the greatest indication of that has been kind of, you know, when you see groceries and grocery shopping, which used to be the most tangible hands-on type purchasing now being done with, per service providers, Instacart, et cetera.
When, you know, when you used to have to touch produce, when now that has crossed over to online, then I think the world is open for all services and goods to be transacted online. So, and again, we talk about, you know, 10 years being fast-forwarded over the last year with, COVID. So I think online as being a method or the primary method, actually not shifting from a, from a certain minority purchasing to the method of purchasing has now opened up the playing field.
John: The challenges I would foresee is a lot of noise, a lot of competition, a lot of complexity. And so it's really going to be hard for brands, harder for brands to stand out and differentiate what their unique selling proposition is and to get a cut through the noise and get into the mind share of these consumers who now have a plethora of choices. And so I think the ability of a brand, whether it's brands like Drip or D2C brands themselves to have an authentic and meaningful value proposition, is going to be critical, in general, because that's the core. And then the ability to amplify that through all of the channels possible to get in front of their audience is going to be critical to success.
Josh: Absolutely. Yeah. Ruth, what's your take on this upcoming year’s challenges and opportunities?
Ruth: So I really agree with what John said about basically the fact that eCommerce has grown so much this year creating so much more competition, and this will force brands to focus more on retention and not just on selling and getting new customers in. But actually just making the most out of each customer, each existing one, by creating an actual relationship and just building something that is more than just a store that is selling to customers.
Josh: Definitely. Yeah. I think one thing that we're seeing, you know, on the media buying side is just as these platforms continue to get more expensive and there's more competition. Like there's more opportunity, but there's more competition and these brands need to start looking beyond customer acquisition and they need to be looking at repeat purchase rates and the whole post-purchase experience.
Josh: Reconvert does this in spades, but what are some of the ways that your brands are making use of the tool and how does that kind of impact, I guess their overall unit economics of acquiring new customers?
Ruth: So we see two different roads that stores usually go in. So basically upselling and cross-selling on the thank you page, getting the customer to buy again before they even left the store. And for a lot of people, it sounds like something that is not very realistic. Like most customers would finish the purchase and they already bought, but it's not actually true. A lot of customers are like warm customers when they get to the thank you page. We can see people going from basically a 0% thank you page all the way to a 5% conversion rate for people who are really doing it well. And this just increases the bottom line for a customer that ideally already returned the investment on the ads or however you got into the website.
Josh: Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I think what you're highlighting and underscoring there is just that you can't ignore these intermediary steps in the funnel; every piece counts to your bottom line and in an increasingly competitive space, you have to make use of things like a thank you page or things like an upsell sequence. So all of those touchpoints matter. And I think we're seeing that even more this year, like you're saying, John, I've been hearing for years, that email is dead, and yet all I'm seeing is more and more email, especially in the eCommerce world. So talk to us a little bit just about maybe those post-purchase sequences, how your customers are using drip to continue engaging with their clients.
John: Yeah. So, email's dead, long live email. I think at a high level here taking a step back a lot of what direct-to-consumer people think about as kind of a channel. But in reality, the power of direct-to-consumer is owning the customer relationship. And in the old days, you'd put the product on a shelf, at the Targets or the Best Buys or the merchant, they own that relationship. The customer came to that store, that brand, and they checked out and they had that data on that customer.
So email and direct ownership, you know, that is that identity. Now that relationship is directly with the brand. And while you may use a channel for paid media acquisition, once you capture that email address, you can start a direct relationship.
John: I think the second piece is we really have to be careful that we don't lose the humanity in the entire process here. Like we should be trying to replicate physical world relationships in a digital world. So when I hear things about sequences and funnels, and this is the challenge of our industry and we have to kind of, you know, cause we're in it all day long and we program it in the platform, we should really be thinking about a relationship we're trying to build with the customer. How would you act in a physical world and then how do I replicate that in a digital world? So, the initial purchase immediately, our customers should be asking, how was that first?
John: You know, how was that initial [experience]? Did it meet your expectations? Because that's really the trajectory for that customer relationship going forward. If it's negative, it's an opportunity to understand and salvage it. If it's positive, now you're starting to build a path in which you can have repeat purchases or have them move towards a loyal customer base. And so when you think about all of that, then you work backward and say, what information do I want to capture digitally to then feedback into my business? The outputs will be greater lifetime value, greater repeat purchasing, shorter CAC, but really think about that relationship because at the end of the day here, if you have a loyal customer base, which will generate, you know, the industry 60 to 80% of your lifetime revenues, that's also the foundation in which you create, um, word of mouth, influencer, marketing, et cetera.
And so for using Drip, what we're helping our brands do is, map out that customer journey in a digital way to help them capture this information and then really put them on a path towards better understanding. And then again, either giving them products, they want recommending products, or if it's a suboptimal experience, how do you capture more data? How do you contact the customer? And that is the information we're just helping them power digitally through the platform.
Josh: That's really good. I love that point just about focusing on relationships and then these tools, either the ones that you're building or that we have available to us in the industry should be amplifying and extending that relationship. And so I think what I'm, what I'm getting at, even from the other end of this is if you have a bad experience, these tools will only amplify about experience. So it's important to get that.
John: You know, when you have another human or you're facing another human, you would act very differently. If you can read the body expression, you can see their face. You know, you can see if they have a return in their arm or not. You know, you're just losing all of those signals. And the key is at the end. I think, you know, we sit in our offices or our home offices and look at screens all day and we forget that there's another human on the other end of the line. And that's why the biggest challenge I think, is in the digital side, is this loss of customer intimacy.
And that's why communities and voices and being embedded, no matter whether you're a service provider, like Ruth or I, or you're the brand itself, you got to remember there's another human at the other end, who cares about, or wants to care about kind of what you're doing. And that's kind of going back to the bright, bright, greater brand positioning, but I think sometimes you would get so lost in the tools. We forget kind of the bigger picture of what we're trying to accomplish.
Josh: Hundred percent. That's great. Let's actually take that angle and flip it on its head. So that's great advice for the DTC brands who need to maybe dig in a little bit more to that qualitative insight from their customer and to get closer to the customer.
Josh: But Ruth, I want to go over to you just as a, as a founder and as like a creator of this product, how have you been able to speak to potential customers? Like let's talk about user research and getting that same insight into your end users of your product. Like, how did you, you know, how did you start with that? How did you get good feedback from those users in the early stage and how that maybe directs your product roadmap?
Ruth: Um, so to be honest, our approach with market research is maybe a little different than a lot of other, um, SaaS brands. We started off, my brother and me, who's my co-founder - we started off being Shopify merchants ourselves, and Reconvert and all of our other products from our personal needs. We built it because we felt like there was something missing that we wanted to create. We also still have, even though we're not merchants ourselves anymore, we still have a lot of friends who we use kind of a small feedback group for any idea that we have.
Ruth: And when it comes to new features in existing products, it's even easier. With our support guys...whenever a customer asks for a feature, they have a list where they actually write down any feature requests and we count them. We see how many times each feature request was made. And then we decide what to work on next, according to how much time it would take to develop and what is the marketability of this feature? Is it something that is going to help us reach new customers? And what is the value this gives to merchants? Is this something that is going to give them so much value that they are going to want to stay with us even longer?
Josh: Yeah. That is highly practical. And I lost you there for a minute. So I want to just make sure I recap that and anybody listening can catch this is that you've really blended a highly, just practical, sensible approach to using the sun product. Does it add value to what I'm doing as a merchant, but then you're also pairing that with a data-driven approach of tickets. So let's actually take a look at this objectively and not fall in love emotionally with a feature set that we think is cool, but let's also hear from the people who are using our products in the trenches and yeah. And be sensible about it that way. So it's a great blend of both like the qualitative, like is this work when I use it, but also the quantitative of how many people are asking for this. It's great. Yeah.
John: To piggyback off that if you have me. Cause I think what's great about Ruth is from when she was a Shopify merchant, she has a deep understanding of the problems her target customers are facing. And so, that proximity is so critical and I think sometimes you can get it.
So I think it's a statement of data, but that qualitative piece, what we do at Drip is, many times we'll adopt a customer, particularly for new employees who have not been in the eCommerce sector and particularly on the product teams and the benefit of seeing the day to day, what they do in the app, but also what their work environment is, their challenges are how much they move through the app and outside of the app.
John: Cause many times it's around business process. That's also going on at, with the marketer or the person using the product is to understand that entire, their day to day will help you build a better product as well. And so that intimacy and not just seeing the output, the exhausts through data and metrics or tickets, but also just realizing when a customer is using your product or platform, what else is going on in their world, whether there are other apps that are up simultaneously, you know, stay in for 10 minutes and then out, or they have two hours. And then of course there's the data and the metrics that also help sort out opinions from fact. So that's always helpful.
Josh: Really tactical follow-up question to that. So besides a ticketing system, are you guys using any sort of tools or processes to track all this and kind of be able to take a high-level view of all these different stakeholders in your case, John, or all these different users in your case, Ruth, are there any kind of practical tools that you guys could recommend to our listeners?
Ruth: Yeah. So for us, we don't have any kind of tool to actually follow up on specific requests. We do use segment and mixed panel, to actually follow up on adoption of new features that we released. Cause we want to understand, okay, so X number of customers ask for that, but how many actually are using that after we released it? And we just make sure to follow up on any kind of usage metrics of these features and the value that they are providing the merchants.
So we don't just release things because they're cool or pretty. We actually give them the value that they are looking to get from the app.
John: And I'm plus one on that we use a mixed panel to get the usage, you know, the qualitative product usage data. And then we combine that we have lots of places in the app where customers can give us, you know, you know, thumbs up, thumbs down and feedback, feedback, NPS type, qualitative feedback. And again, the challenge on all of that, depending on the scope, you’ve got tens of thousands of customers. Because again, when you have, you know, you can have a sea of data, but you don't have necessarily insight. And so that's going to be a challenge for any, um, kind of SaaS leader. Who's looking at that feedback loop? It's almost too much data at times.
Josh: For sure, for sure. I want to switch gears now, to leadership and particularly I'm interested in leadership kind of in this remote era. So John we’ll start with you. You’ve been a leader in a number of SaaS and MarTech organizations over the years. What have you taken with you just from a general leadership principle of growing and scaling a team, but particularly, I guess with this remote flare, like in the last year, what are some things that you picked up to try to keep the culture coherent and consistent and to deliver a good experience to your team?
John: Yeah, so I think one of the principles that I've always appreciated is, around the power of focus as a leader. The tighter the focus, the greater the overall benefits to the business. There's a saying for startups...most of them will fail due to indigestion, not starvation. Over time I've seen that focus allows a greater excellence or chance of excellence, knowing your target customer more precisely than you do building a product that then meets their pain points.
John: So whether it's the company priorities, our values, our customer messaging that, allows people in a noisy world or a world of distractions or a world of anxiety and mental health, you know, aloneness...I think focus has just been more powerful. So I've appreciated it, you know, through my career, the power of focus.
Josh: Definitely. Yeah. I can say from experience, we've been a distributed team since 2015 and that's one of the challenges that comes up time and time again, is how do we make sure that, or our conversation isn't just transactional, but how do we create that space for people to relate on a human level?
John: I think companies that started that way or have been working in that model for a longer time. When you're meeting in person, there's a lot more inefficiency, I guess. And so when it comes in and like, you know, everyone's distributed, there's been a magnifying glass on what is the purpose of meetings? You know, so that's a great place in which to do it. And so for a lot of companies, they have to undo, how do we communicate? How do we drive outcomes? What's the purpose of us getting together?
And so people just shifted many, you know, bad meeting habits into bad zoom meeting habits, which gets to the fatigue piece, but I've found that companies that have been remote for a long time have built-in better systematic communication methods, better check-ins. And they've been much more time-efficient for the employee and consistent across the entire organization from onboarding to ongoing. I think companies that didn't have that luxury of having remote as a primary mechanism have those inefficiencies just had a magnifying glass in the last year.
Josh: That's a great point. Yeah. And Ruth, I'd love to turn this question to you as well. And with specific reference to, I guess, your military experience, cause I know both you and your brother, you come from a military background. So how, if at all, has that entered into your leadership style?
Ruth: So actually it's funny that you ask that because one thing both of us agree on because of our military experience is that we never want to work with people who don't want to be there because this is something that happens in the military when it's mandatory, people are there and you don't always have a way to motivate them. You can't incentivize them, you can't fire them. You basically have to kind of create motivation out of nowhere. And these can be very difficult and frustrating.
So one of the things we feel very strongly about is that if someone wants to work with us, they will do their job and in the best way possible. And we have a lot of patience for learning processes for human problems.
Ruth: Um, we always tend to say yes, even if it's not the most comfortable thing for the company at the moment, I never want my employees to feel like they are employees first. I always want them to know that we see them as people first.
Josh: I love that because it beats the transactional communication that we've been talking about, but it also just reemphasizes that you're human first and we care about what's going on in your life. So it's prioritized us in the meeting. Let's prioritize this in the agenda. Let's plan on talking about it because it's important. It's important to us. It's important to you.
Josh: I'd love to kind of wrap up and just hear from you. What are some of the podcasts you're listening to, the books that you're reading, the blogs that you frequent? It doesn't have to be super aligned with leadership or entrepreneurship. It could be totally out of the box and just a guilty pleasure that you have, but what are some resources that you could share with our audience and recommend?
Ruth: I really enjoy Y Combinator that you mentioned before. And basically whenever there's something new that I need to learn, another place the businesses is going, that I feel like I don't know enough about, I search on YouTube and I just listen to other founders talk about it. That's the main resource I use for mindset and for basically the new ideas on where to take the business and how to go at and how to manage it.
John: Yeah, I'll add...I think there are lots of, you know, business podcasts. TheSaaSter is one for sure. Seeking Wisdom With David Cancel out of drift is another one. So I think there's, lots of those, but I think the most exciting ones are... a lot of the ones there's like how, as a founder, you're really a leader as you talked about it. And so what is leadership? How do you become a better leader?
And I think to some of Ruth's points around, being a whole leader, the whole self, and being in tune, the stronger you are mentally and understand who you are emotionally, the better you're going to be a leader, which means the better you're going to lead others and your company is going to be successful.
John: So I think, um, podcasts like The Reboot from Jerry Colonna. He is a former VC, but he talks about the whole self as a leader as is really going to be helpful for founders as they go on that journey to understand who they are and realize also that they are human in this process because many times there's the perception of what a founder has to be and in defeat and tireless, always be positive and all that stuff, but in reality, they're human too.
John: Sometimes the best ideas are orthogonal. They're not direct, you know, it's the intersection of ideas and creativity that occurs there.
Josh: Yeah. Brilliant answers from both of you, you know, Ruth from your part, just being able to listen to other peers, just leveraging YouTube for the resource. It is the second-largest search engine in the world and maybe not over-indexing on thought leaders, but also listening from people who are in the trenches and just talking about it openly.
And then your point about getting outside of the echo chamber of business books or business podcasts, and borrowing ideas from other industries or other disciplines can be incredibly effective.
Josh: I want to thank you both for joining us and we'll have plenty of notes here in the show notes for where they can find both of your tools. I hope that people can reach out and keep the conversation going. But thank you both for your time today.
TikTok’s easy-to-consume video content is being watched by millions of people every day from all around the globe — and it’s relatively simple to understand why there’s growing popularity for TikTok ads. And if you've been keeping up with the news, video content is the future of digital marketing.
If you’re curious about advertising on TikTok but don’t know where to start, then we’ve got you covered! We’ve done the dirty work for you (we mean research), and put together this guide to give you all the things you need to understand TikTok ads like never before.
Understanding how campaigns are structured can help you set up better target audiences, design better materials, and spend your budget effectively. TikTok allows you to organize your ads using three levels: campaigns, ad groups, and ads.
These levels will help you in expanding your reach, improving your ad’s overall performance, and achieving your goals. But, first things first — to get started advertising on TikTok, you will need to have a TikTok For Business account.
Click Get Started once you’re on the TikTok Ads homepage.
You must provide your business details because your account has to be approved by a TikTok representative before you can start creating your ads.
Once you’re done filling out the form, a representative will get in touch with you within 48 hours to set up your account.
Note: TikTok Ads is currently only available in certain regions (other than the USA) but you will be able to sign up for a TikTok ad account directly if you’re located in India, Vietnam, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, or Thailand.
You will have access to the TikTok Ads dashboard once your TikTok advertising account is up and running. Click on the Campaign button at the top of the page and then click Create.
Note: You may have more options available to you depending on where you’re located.
The campaign budget is unlimited with a minimum of $50 by default. But, of course, you can set a daily or lifetime budget limit. This means that your ad groups will stop once you've reached your spending limit.
What’s the difference between daily and lifetime budget? Setting a lifetime budget would allow your ad campaign to reach as many people and as soon as possible. A daily budget, on the other hand, would allow your ad campaign to steadily penetrate your target market over a certain period.
After setting up a campaign, ad groups come next.
To get the best results among international audiences, choose Automatic Placement. Doing so will allow your ad to appear on TikTok partner apps including BuzzVideo (Japan), TopBuzz (US and BR), Babe (Indonesia), and the News Republic which, as result, will reach more people and drive more traffic.
If you choose Select Placement, you can manually choose where your ads appear.
Depending on your campaign objective, you can choose from two promotional types: app install or website. Some campaign objectives set this by default.
When the Automated Creative Optimization option is turned on, the system will automatically generate combinations from your images, videos, and ad texts. This means that you will get ready ad combinations.
Customize your audiences in your ad group targeting. You can use your customer’s contact data, website traffic, app activity, or ad engagement or by uploading IDFA & GAID. You can also create a pixel-based audience or lookalike audience (users who are similar to your clients).
Once your audience targeting is complete, you can configure the budget (no less than $50) and schedule for your ad group.
You may be able to customize the bidding and optimization of your ad budget spend. The higher your bid, the more likely your ad will be seen by your target audience over your competitor’s ads.
Note: Once your ad group is created, the following settings can’t be changed anymore:
Once your ad group is configured, you can proceed to upload your new ad.
TikTok Ads supports two formats: videos and images. If you opt for images, TikTok will group them into a video for you.
Technical requirements:
You can upload your photo or choose one from the pre-selected images from your video.
Once you have finished creating your ad, you can use TikTok’s ad preview tool to see how your ad will look on mobile devices.
The ad text will be shown above your ad. TikTok supports 12-100 English characters. Reminders:
TikTok Ads now offers 22 calls-to-action you can choose for your ads depending on what is applicable for your ad:
TikTok offers several options for paid advertising, and they are as follows:
The ad that appears in TikTok’s native news feed on the For You page (similar to Instagram story ads). In-Feed videos appear in the feed as a part of the video queue when users are exploring content.
The ad appears when TikTok users open the app and completely take over the screen for a few seconds to create images, GIFs, and videos.
The ad appears on the Discovery page and encourages users to participate in user content creation challenges about the campaign hashtag. Challenges usually last for about 6 days.
The ad appears as branded lenses (similar to Instagram or Snapchat filters), stickers, and other 2D/3D/AR content for TikTok users to use in their videos.
Luckily, you can checkout support pages and creative tips on TikTok for any ad you want to run. TikTok also supports a suite of creative tools for the ad platform:
Video Template is a tool that makes creating video ads faster and easier than ever before. With this tool, you can simply create a video ad by selecting a template and uploading your existing photo assets, text, and logos.
To help you choose the right background music to create beautiful video ads, TikTok Ads Manager offers the Smart Video Soundtrack tool. You will be able to upload videos with one click, and the system will automatically select appropriate music material based on your videos.
You can also change the music and adjust both the video volume and music volume for your ads. You can even try different background music to test their effect on ad delivery performance.
Automated Creative Optimization helps in managing your ads by automatically finding high-performing combinations of your creative assets - or in other words, takes the creative heavy lifting off your shoulders and into the hands of a clever optimization AI. With this tool, you will be able to upload images or videos, write some ad text, and select your call-to-action (CTA) buttons.
TikTok’s system will then automatically combine your creative assets into multiple ads for your campaign which will be explored, evaluated, and optimized continuously to find the optimal combination for your campaign. The best creative, then, will be presented to your target audience based on the tested combinations.
Don't let your old content go to waste.
Building a content inventory can help you build better funnels, boost your retargeting campaign efforts and better learn your audience. Fill in your content gaps with this quick and easy strategy.
Every marketer needs to have a content inventory. Basically a lay of the land of all the content that you have in your website, that can turn visitors into customers.
I want to show you how to build one of those today in 10 minutes or less.
What it's gonna do is it's going to let you build better funnels, have a more strategic retargeting campaign for your paid acquisition stuff, and really just get a better handle on who you're speaking to and where you have gaps in your content already.
Okay, so let's get to building this content inventory real fast, probably take us 10 minutes or less.
If you're like me or my team, we'll forget often, about how much content we already have on our website. So that when we go to build a funnel, or we go to build an email automation, we forget that we already have some really great stuff that we could be using, and instead just start trying to create new stuff.
Let's take a look at how to do this. The first thing you need to know is I'm building this tutorial for WordPress users, but a very similar type of thing can be repeated, no matter what platform you're on.
The first thing that you're gonna wanna do, if you're on WordPress, is to go to this plugin. You can search for it in the plugin section of your WordPress instance, but I'm using WP CSV.
Now, what this is going to do is export all of your posts into a spreadsheet format.
There's another plugin here, too, that you can use, Phimind Excel Export Plus. Just do a search for "posts to CSV," and you'll find a bunch of different solutions. But I'm gonna show you how to use WP CSV.
This is already installed on our side, and what you're gonna do is go to the plugin, go to settings, and this screen will come up.
Now you're going to choose filters. I chose to exclude all. And what this is doing is it's essentially saying, "Listen, we don't want all this other junk from WordPress," like attachments or actual pages on our site. "I just want posts."
So exclude everything, but then just deselect the option for publish, because that's the one thing we want is posts that are published.
After you've done that, you can basically go back and run this. Save it and run it, and it's gonna export a CSV of all your posts. It's gonna look something like this.
We actually cleaned ours up quite a bit. There's gonna be quite a few columns here that you don't need to use, just delete those.
Now, essentially what you've done, in one really quick step, is export all of your blog posts to a CSV format.
Now, I put it here in a Google Doc just because it's a little bit easier to share and use. That means that we have a nice, quick look at titles, the URLs, the post author, the category that it's in.
Now, I should say that, in the course of cleaning up this spreadsheet, you're going to get a slug from WordPress. So you're not gonna get the full URL. This is what it looks like. It's missing the http, www, whatever it might be. So just add a column with that right here. I'm just gonna add a column here to the left, and just put http://www, and then just paste that down for the whole column.
Now what you can do is put your top level domain in here as well. So, for us, that's EmberTribe, and then don't forget to put a little slash at the end.
Once you've done that, just paste it down to the rest of this column, and what we'd recommend is doing a concatenate function. That basically just combines these two columns into one.
I'll put a link to that resource here, but just combine these two, and then you're gonna have, at the end, one nice little group of URL here to make it complete.
After you've done that, you have a nice quick look here at a spreadsheet with your title, your URL, the author, and category.
Now, this time you can go and you can add other things in here. Like, for instance, if you wanted to put personas, like this blog post is perfect for this type of persona that you've created. Or maybe you have a certain funnel stage in mind, like this is top of funnel, or this is bottom of funnel, you can do that. Just add columns for those and you can type it in.
But what I wanted to do is show you another way to make this even more data-driven, even more actionable. And what we're gonna do for that first is actually get the shared counts, so the social sharing counts for any of these posts.
For this, we're gonna use a free tool called SharedCount.
I've already created a free account here, but you can do that on your own. You're gonna go to URL Dashboard, and we're gonna click bulk upload.
This is where we're gonna upload all the URLs that we have for our posts, and for our entire site. Just do a quick copy, a paste, and then click import URLs. Now, when we do that, this tool is going out and it's finding all the different share counts across these different social media platforms.
Right here you can see, here's a post that did really well for us. It had 382 shares on Facebook, and 68 LinkedIn shares.
If you scroll all the way down, what you can do is take this, and then export it to CSV. So now we have that CSV here, we can open it up, and there we go, boom, we have our URLs and all the share counts.
Now, if you keep the same order here, you can just actually take this, copy it, go back over to your master spreadsheet, which for us is in Google Docs, and you can paste it right here at the top.
Let me get rid of this and paste it in. Okay, so now we have all the share counts, comment, etc., all in one sheet here, which is really, really nice.
Now, if you wanna take this even further, I'm not gonna demonstrate this in this video, but you can also go to your Google Analytics, and you can pull a content report maybe for the past year, even just for all time.
Pull all the traffic and whatever other metrics you wanna pull, and then export that to a spreadsheet, and then there's a simple function in Excel called a VLOOKUP, that would very quickly kind of look up a URL, and then go have it add all the Google Analytics stated here too.
So we won't do that for our case, but what we've done is we built a really nice, robust profile of what's on our website for content, maybe how popular it's been, and what categories they belong to.
So what do you do from here? At this point, what's really interesting is that we can take this and start doing things like sorting and filtering.
Like, maybe I want to build a retargeting campaign for anybody who's viewed tutorials that we've written about Facebook.
Well, to do that, I'm just gonna go and I'm going to sort by this category for anything related to Facebook. I'm gonna add a filter, and then it'll be anything having to do with Facebook, and there we go. Now we have a nice little list here of all the things we've written about Facebook ads.
Now what I would do is maybe go to my Google Remarketing, or my Facebook website custom audiences, and add all these URLs as ones that belong to Facebook stuff. Now, anybody who visits any of these pages will automatically be retargeted with something related to Facebook that's maybe a little bit farther down the funnel in the buyer's journey.
You can do the same for really anything. Actually, this filtering is a great tactic if you wanted to add some of that qualitative data about these posts, so maybe persona, or a funnel stage, you can group things together and just in one fell swoop add it all at once.
That's how to make a content inventory that's more data-driven. Again, you can use this to figure out where you have gaps on your website, where you're missing content. You can use it to create a better funnel, so you can pick and choose from stuff that you already have. Or, you can use it to have better retargeting campaigns that really are grouping together like category types of posts.
Hope it works great for you. If you have a variation of this that you wanna share, I'd love to see it. There's a lot of ways to skin this cat, but I hope that this one's helpful to you.
Finding the right ecommerce Google Ads agency for your business can be a daunting task. With so many options available, it's important to understand the role of a Google Ads agency and why your ecommerce business needs one. Here, we'll explore key factors to consider when choosing a Google Ads agency, how to evaluate their performance, questions to ask potential agencies, and how to make the final decision. By following these steps, you'll be on your way to finding the perfect agency to help grow your ecommerce business.
When it comes to online advertising, Google Ads is an incredibly powerful tool. With billions of searches conducted on Google every day, businesses have a unique opportunity to reach their target audience and drive traffic to their websites. However, navigating the intricacies of Google Ads can be challenging, especially for businesses without a dedicated marketing team or the necessary expertise. That's where a Google Ads agency comes in.
A Google Ads agency is a team of experts that specialize in managing Google Ads campaigns for businesses. They have the knowledge and experience to create and optimize ad campaigns that generate leads and drive conversions. Their expertise extends beyond simply setting up ads, as they also analyze data, monitor performance, and make adjustments to maximize results. By hiring a Google Ads agency, you're leveraging their expertise to boost your online presence and attract more customers.
Google Ads is one of the most effective advertising platforms for ecommerce businesses. It allows you to reach potential customers at the moment they're actively searching for products or services similar to what you offer. However, managing Google Ads campaigns requires expertise and constant monitoring to ensure optimal performance. By partnering with a Google Ads agency, you can offload this responsibility to professionals who specialize in navigating the complexities of the platform. They'll help you create engaging ads, target the right keywords, and maximize your advertising budget, ultimately resulting in increased website traffic and conversions for your ecommerce business.
Running a successful ecommerce business involves more than just setting up an online store and waiting for customers to come. It requires a strategic approach to marketing and advertising to stand out in a crowded online marketplace. This is where a Google Ads agency can be a game-changer for your ecommerce business.
When you partner with a Google Ads agency, they will take the time to understand your ecommerce business inside out. They'll delve deep into your product offerings,target audience, and competitive landscape. Armed with this knowledge, they will develop a comprehensive Google Ads strategy that aligns with your business goals and drives results.
One of the key advantages of using Google Ads for your ecommerce business is the ability to target specific keywords that potential customers are actively searching for. For example, if you sell organic skincare products, a Google Ads agency can help you identify relevant keywords like "organic skincare," "natural beauty products," or "vegan skincare." By targeting these keywords, your ads will appear at the top of Google's search results when someone searches for these terms, increasing the visibility of your ecommerce business and attracting potential customers.
Nonetheless, managing Google Ads campaigns requires ongoing optimization and monitoring. Bids need to be adjusted, ad copy needs to be refined, and targeting parameters need to be tweaked to stay ahead of the competition. This can be time-consuming and overwhelming for ecommerce business owners who are already juggling multiple aspects of their business. By partnering with a Google Ads agency, you can focus on running your business while leaving the intricacies of Google Ads to the experts.
A Google Ads agency will continuously monitor the performance of your campaigns, analyzing data and making data-driven decisions to improve results. They will identify trends, uncover opportunities, and make strategic adjustments to ensure that your advertising budget is being used effectively. With their help, you can maximize your return on investment and drive more traffic to your ecommerce website, ultimately leading to increased sales and revenue.
In conclusion, a Google Ads agency plays a crucial role in helping businesses navigate the complexities of Google Ads and drive results. By leveraging their expertise, businesses can reach their target audience, increase online visibility, and attract more customers. Whether you're a small business owner or an ecommerce entrepreneur, partnering with a Google Ads agency can be a game-changer for your online advertising efforts.
These factors will help you narrow down your options and find an agency that aligns with your business goals and requirements.
One of the most important factors to consider is the agency's experience and expertise. Look for an agency that has a proven track record of managing successful Google Ads campaigns for ecommerce businesses. They should have experience in your industry and possess a deep understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities within the ecommerce space. Additionally, the agency should stay up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices in Google Ads to ensure they deliver optimal results for your business.
It's crucial to find a Google Ads agency that understands the intricacies of the ecommerce industry. They should be familiar with the specific needs and requirements of ecommerce businesses, such as product listings, shopping campaigns, and conversion tracking. This industry knowledge will enable them to create tailored strategies that resonate with your target audience and drive meaningful results for your ecommerce business.
Before making a decision, it's essential to review the agency's track record and client testimonials. Look for case studies or success stories that showcase their ability to generate positive results for their clients. Additionally, reach out to their previous or current clients to get firsthand feedback on their experience working with the agency. This will provide valuable insights into the agency's communication, performance, and overall satisfaction of their clients.
Once you've narrowed down your options and selected a few potential Google Ads agencies, it's time to evaluate their performance. This step will help you assess their capabilities and determine if they're the right fit for your ecommerce business.
When evaluating an agency's performance, there are several key performance indicators (KPIs) to consider. These may include click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, cost per click (CPC), return on ad spend (ROAS), and overall return on investment (ROI). Look for agencies that have consistently delivered positive results across these metrics, as it's a strong indicator of their ability to optimize campaigns and generate meaningful outcomes for their clients.
Google Ads agencies provide regular reports on campaign performance, which include various data and metrics. When reviewing these reports, pay attention to the level of detail provided and how well the agency explains the insights derived from the data. A good agency will not only present the numbers but also provide actionable recommendations for improvement based on the data analysis. This demonstrates their commitment to transparency and their ability to make data-driven decisions.
As you move closer to making a decision, it's crucial to ask potential Google Ads agencies a series of questions to ensure they meet your business requirements and expectations. These questions will help you gain insights into their strategies, pricing, and contract terms.
After careful consideration and evaluation, it's time to make the final decision and choose your Google Ads agency. This decision shouldn't be taken lightly, as it will have a significant impact on your ecommerce business's success.
Take the time to compare the options you've narrowed down based on their experience, expertise, performance, and pricing. Consider the agency's communication style and how well they understand your business goals. Additionally, assess their ability to align with your core values and work collaboratively with your team.
Ultimately, the right Google Ads agency for your ecommerce business will be the one that demonstrates a deep understanding of your industry, possesses the necessary expertise, and aligns with your business goals. Trust your instincts and choose an agency that you believe will be a long-term partner in helping you achieve your ecommerce business objectives.
By following the steps outlined in this article, you'll be well-equipped to find the right ecommerce Google Ads agency for your business. Remember to consider the agency's experience, understanding of the ecommerce industry, and track record of success. Evaluate their performance based on key metrics and ask important questions to gain a clear understanding of their strategies and pricing. Making an informed decision will set your ecommerce business on the path to success with effective Google Ads campaigns.
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