What is Google up to? Looking at the various Google tools and features, here is what I see is happening at Google.

Google has been developing Google Data Studio (GDS) for several years (this is their free version comparable to Salesforce Tableaux). Both are data visualization tools, which means they pull in data from multiple sources, tools, and databases to create visually appealing reports. Google sees Google Data Studio as a reporting overlay for Google Ads, Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and other tools. All those tools will send data to Google Data Studio. We’ll explain later where we see Google headed with Google Data Studio as it continues to update other tools.

Google Analytics was updated to Google Analytics 4.0 (GA4) in October 2020 and now, a year later, many companies are using it.

Universal Analytics, the previous version, was only a reporting tool. It collected and displayed website data. But GA4 isn’t an update. It’s an entirely new concept of data on the web.

The most powerful feature in Google Analytics 4.0 is predictive analytics. It can predict data. How does it do that? Google bought DeepMind (an AI company) in 2014 for $600m. David Silver at DeepMind developed Reinforcement Learning (a new type of Machine Learning). He developed Alpha Go to play the game of Go (Wei chi). Chess is easy for machine learning: the rules let one predict future steps. Alpha Go however is vastly more complex. How much?

Alpha Go has 10¹⁷⁰ combinations (there are only 10⁸⁰ in the universe). Instead of rules and steps, Alpha Go looks at patterns. In 2016, it won against the world champion. A year later, Alpha Go Zero won 100 straight games against Alpha Go, the previous version.

It’s important to understand these game-playing AI are not controlled. Tens of thousands of games in chess and Go have been recorded over the last three hundred years and are well-known to grandmasters. But the AI often makes moves that have never been seen before. The AI discovers patterns and opportunities that humans have never played.

Google owns this AI software, so it has been applying it to their software tools, Android software for phones, and the Google Pixel phones.

How does this matter for digital advertising?

Google has been collecting data on some two billion people and tens of millions of companies worldwide for twenty years now. Every email you’ve ever sent (including drafts that you deleted), every ad that has ever appeared on your screen, your Android phone movements, air pressure, temperature, and so on, and much more is recorded. Time for a pop quiz: How many Google websites are there? There’s Google Search, Gmail, YouTube, and so on. Perhaps a dozen? Twenty? Forty? There are more than 130 Google websites, and many do not say it’s Google. All of these are collecting data.

AlphaGo Zero looks at that ocean of data on its own to find behavior patterns. It matches behaviors with actions, such as purchases or registration.

Now it becomes interesting. Previous analytics tools (Google and other companies) were like weather reports in the 1970s. They could tell you it rained last week. So what? What’s the weather for the next 30 days? This is important for agriculture, transportation, and many other fields.

Google Analytics 4.0 uses AI to show you future data. It tells you this group will buy in the next seven days. That group will quit your website in the next seven days. Another group will be your top-revenue group in 28 days. This lets you adjust or create new marketing campaigns.

Analytics changes. It’s no more “reports of the past”. It’s actionable future predictions.

The Google Analytics 4.0 data can be imported into Google Data Studio for presentation.

What happens then?

If Google’s AI can find winning patterns in 10¹⁷⁰ data points, what does this mean for marketing? Currently, people enter a few dozen keywords, write a few ads, and manage bids and budgets by hand.

But the Google AI can do this far better. For example, a Responsive Search Ad (RSA) in Google Ads generates over 46,300 permutations. If you place three RSA ads in an ad group, that’s nearly 150,000 ads. Google Ads uses multivariate testing to quickly find the version with the highest click rate. If you have 300 ad groups, that can be forty-five million ads which it uses to find the best ads. Humans can’t do that.

Considering all of this, it’s plausible that within a few years, Google may combine Google Ads, Google Search Console, Google Analytics 4.0, and Google Data Studio into one tool, perhaps called “Google Marketing” which manages marketing on its own.

By Andreas Ramos
Vice President, Digital Marketing
Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc.

The post The Future of AI in Google Marketing appeared first on Beasley Direct and Online Marketing.

Finding ROI in Healthcare Marketing.

Healthcare Marketing is Challenging!

Healthcare marketing is a very competitive digital marketing space. Even more so in the midst of a dramatic shift as the ACA (Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare) will be modified or replaced. Marketers in the healthcare industry need to proactively research and implement strategies to stay at the top of search engine search results. Below are some steps we implemented to help the Center for Elder’s Independence (CEI) increase their organic search rankings and therefore bring in new healthcare consumers.

The Center for Elders’ Independence (CEI) is an Oakland, CA- based PACE affiliated healthcare organization. PACE is a Medicare and Medicaid program that helps low income elderly people stay at home. They also have their care needs met in the community instead of going to a nursing home or other care facility. CEI gets most of their new patients through online inquiries and phone calls. We wanted to get their listing moved to the top of search engine searches for elder care in the Oakland and San Francisco East Bay. We implemented several steps on their website to increase search awareness and new patient registrations. These steps will apply to any healthcare organization.

First, Find The Right Language for Your Site Via Keyword Research

Comprehensive Keyword and Key Phrase Research is Essential.

Your target audience finds your site through online searches using keywords or phrases. So, your first problem will be researching keyword or key phrases most frequently used by potential site visitors. In this case we were targeting a specific set of elderly healthcare patients. Start by reviewing both your website and your competitor’s sites. Talk to key stakeholders – the sales team, your product development team and, most definitely, your customers. Listen for key phrases that best describe the healthcare market niche you’re researching. Once you have a base of key phrases, then go to Google’s Keyword Tool, or SpyFu. Or, consider “Searches related to…” at the bottom of a Google search page to refine your research. Be creative researching the marketplace and the language your potential customers are using for both voice and traditional search.

One consideration for CEI was targeting clients in a small geographic area, the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. Therefore, inclusion of geographic modifiers in key phrases was necessary to attract well-qualified local web traffic, i.e., “Oakland Elder Care Services” vs. just “Elder Care Services.”

The other consideration for CEI was potential changes to Medicare, so the best research information was found on government websites, such as www.medicare.gov or The Department of Health and Human Services.

Sources for reliable information are dynamic. So, don’t fall into the trap that what you knew a month ago still applies. It might, but be aware even subtle changes can add to the success of your campaigns. News sites are okay, but they mostly report what’s current for the day. Ultimately, you want to keep ahead of the game by following the data as it unfolds.

Secondly, Be Objective in Your Research, and Follow the Data

Secondly, objective and effective results come from following the data.

Opinion doesn’t matter. Whether your healthcare marketing target audience is local or national, as healthcare legislation changes appear you’ll need to objectively analyze the data. Start by setting a baseline search engine traffic measurement before you implement changes, then compare it to results post-implementation. Google Analytics is a great tool, and it’s free! As we rolled out changes on CEI’s website we closely monitored the search traffic generated by Google and the other major search engines. Were our changes to the language of the site demonstrating success or did we need to revisit our assumptions and tweak the copy more? Were we attracting well-qualified local East Bay traffic? Was the client satisfied with the results?

Third, Google’s Rules Rule

Google sets the rules on how it ranks a website for any particular search query, and we have to follow them. Understanding how Google analyzes your website is key to restructuring the content to get the broadest exposure within search results.

When writing META Tags (Titles, Descriptions) and headlines, front-load the target key phrase that best describes page content. Include the company name at the end of the Title, and with Descriptions be concise, close with a strong call-to-action.

Google uses Titles to rank web pages. Descriptions aren’t a ranking factor. But, they are critical in getting a viewer to click through for more information. Remember, they’re your sales pitch to get a click from well-qualified searchers.

Read details about Titles and Descriptions in Google’s Guidelines.

Content will remain king. A large part of Google page ranking is based on content focused on a topic, its authoritativeness, and the authority of links from other web pages to yours. It’s a vicious circle. To attract the best backlinks your content has to be among the best.

Lastly, maintain awareness of coming and current changes to Google’s search algorithm. Moz has a “Google Algorithm Change History” page. Also, run periodic searches for changes in Google’s search algorithm. While keeping up with digital healthcare marketing, you don’t want a surprise penalty because of a Google rule change.

Comprehensive Data Analysis Pays Off!

In conclusion, a successful healthcare marketing strategy.

Changes we made to CEI’s META data (Titles, Descriptions, Headlines), along with on page content, resulted in an increase in monthly traffic of about 6,500 new users. Further, potential clients on average visited 3 pages, reading each page for over 2 minutes. Thousands of Bay Area site visitors per month found the healthcare services they were looking for.

How can Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc.’s organic search marketing team expand your healthcare business? Contact us today and let’s get started.

We’d like to hear from you! Did this post help you understand part of healthcare marketing? Please leave a comment below!

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Andrew Hoover has been a consultant in Internet Search Marketing, Web Site Optimization, and pay-per-click/CPM/Display for over 15 years. He has extensive experience with Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask, AOL and was a beta tester for Amazon’s search engine. Andrew started a Network Consulting corporation in 1999 (GLT, Inc.), and a search marketing company in 2003, Lead Adrenaline: he has worked with medical, financial services, real estate, retail, entertainment and high-technology companies. His educational background includes degrees from both the University of California, Berkeley, and California State University, East Bay.

– See the Beasley Team.

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The ABC Glove Corporation (not the real name) is a leader in the field of industrial gloves. The average value of a new customer account to ABC is high -— around $50,000 per customer per year. The target contact is a decision maker in safety, operations or purchasing within metal manufacturing industries.
ABC’s ambitious goal was to gain $2.5 million in incremental sales. The corporation’s marketing department tried everything: pay-per-click advertising, email, tradeshows and more -—-but could not acquire enough qualified sales leads to hit this target. ABC called us in to help them take a fresh and more productive approach that would result in more appointments for the sales department.

First, we identified the sales-ready “A” lead criteria based on their selling process and marketplace. Then we did some simple, back-of-the-napkin analysis of the needs of the lead-to-sales funnel. Based on the estimations of the vice president of marketing, we found that achieving an incremental $2.5 million in annual sales at $50,000 per sale meant they would have to close 50 new sales in a year. At a 20% proposal close rate, they needed 250 qualified sales opportunities in the proposal stage. At a 25% conversion rate (qualified sales-ready A leads to proposal rate), ABC needed 1,000 “Qualified A” leads in the sales team pipeline. And the conversion rate of marketing inquiry level (MQL) leads to sales-ready A leads is 10%. The bottom line: ABC Corporation needed 10,000 MQLs in the top of the demand generation funnel process to be able to hit their incremental sales target.

Why Wouldn’t Email Alone Work?

The VP of marketing estimated that on the high end, the available universe of contacts in companies in metal manufacturing was roughly 7,500. If ABC emailed all 7,500 and got a 1% inbound response, that would equal 75. If 50% of those leads filled out a form, that would result in 35 marketing-level MQL leads. ABC would have to email to this list at least 285 times to get the 10,000 marketing-level leads in the pipeline. (But it is unlikely that every email would result in a 1% inbound response as the response rates from this small audience would decline over time.) So email alone could not achieve the sales goals.

Multi-Touch and Multi-Channel Solution

Under the conditions of this small but highly valuable target market, we determined that ABC needed a much higher lead-to-sale conversion process to meet their sales goals. We recommended a multi-touch and multi-channel sequence of email and tele-prospecting. This would result in actual appointments being made for the sales department.

We normally recommend testing different approaches with a small sample of prospects to see which approach stimulates the highest response level. In this case, we tested two offers. A book about physical safety in the metal manufacturing environment versus the offer of a free pair of gloves. The VP of marketing suggested the offer of a free pair of gloves because in his experience, the prospect would request a sample pair in any case, so he felt this would short-circuit the process to some degree. We were less certain, as we have found in the past that a free sample sometimes feels like too much of a commitment early in the relationship. We also tested two lists, an in-house list versus a rental list.

The test showed that the appeal of the offer was about equal between the gloves and the book. (We went with the gloves for the roll out campaign). Both lists performed equally well.

The Multi-Touch Lead Nurturing Process Involved:

Initial email campaign.

• Initial call (left voice message or in some accounts we must be directed to proper contact).
• Call to engage new contact in the value prop and offers.
• Email to the correct contact, and or email content as requested to support our dialog.
• Call to complete the value prop and offer conversation, listen to needs and pain points and gather those critical data points into the lead qualification script-record, and if qualified, close on ABC sales rep appointment.

Marketing collateral for Glove Company campaign.

We often find it takes seven to thirteen touches to deliver a sales-ready lead. In this case, the average number of touches was 4.28. Why did our campaign for ABC require so few touches? The answer is embedded in our multi-touch best practices:

Have a good list (few incorrect contacts).

• Develop creative that captures hearts and minds and have follow up content and dialog to support it.
• Offer something of high perceived value.
• Optimize the value proposition delivery by adding tele-prospecting to the mix. This creates a personal relationship with the prospect. Remember: people buy from people, and prospects don’t share their qualifying pain points on lead forms.

We were able to generate enough qualified sales appointments to help them meet their additional $2.5 million sales goal, and we taught them how to sustain this level of growth year over year.

Laurie B. Beasley

Laurie B. Beasley is co-founder and president of Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. Beasley Direct is a Silicon Valley direct marketing agency that has managed search, email, online, and demand generation campaigns for nearly 100 companies. Ms. Beasley serves as President of the Direct Marketing Association of Northern California. Laurie manages the eMarketing Roundtable for the BMA Northern California. She is also an instructor of online marketing at UC Berkeley Extension and teaches for the Online Marketing Institute. Ms. Beasley frequently speaks on online marketing and demand generation topics for marketing organizations, including the DMA, BMA, AMA, Tech Council, and the Online Marketing Summit.

Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. is known for bringing the latest marketing strategies to online and direct marketing. The company provides services in email marketing, search engine optimization, social media, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, website design, media planning, direct mail marketing, lead generation and nurture campaigns, and database management. Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. helps clients in both B2B and B2C marketing. Beasley Direct and Online Marketing is privately held and headquartered in the Silicon Valley suburb, Morgan Hill, California. For more information, go to www.BeasleyDirect.com or call Laurie Beasley, President, at 408-782-0046 x21 or email lbeasley@beasleydirect.com.

The post How We Helped an Industrial Glove Manufacturer to Schedule New Sales Appointments that Resulted in $2.5 Million in Incremental Sales appeared first on Beasley Direct and Online Marketing.