Over the next few weeks, we’re offering four opportunities to learn more about Google+ for your business. We kick off with a Learn with Google Hangout on Air with bestselling author+Chris Brogan on November 5th at 10am PT / 1pm ET. Chris will cover tactics for successful social marketing and discuss his new book, “Google+ for Business: How Google's Social Network Changes Everything.” RSVP for the Hangout on the Google+ Event page.
Learn Chris’s recipes for how to grow and engage your Google+ community to build your brand and drive your business’s visibility and conversions. Hear about Chris’s own experiences helping companies succeed in their content marketing and social projects. Chris Brogan is a New York Times bestselling author, CEO of Human Business Works, and advises companies on marketing, business strategy, communications and more.
If you have a question for Chris, leave your question as a comment on the Google+ Event.
Boost your success with Google+
Want to learn more about using Google+ for your business? Sign up for our Learn with Google webinars. Here are some great upcoming webinars to help you get the most out of social for your business:
Social that Adds Up: Performance and Measurement (Thurs, Nov 8, 10am PT / 1pm ET)
Supercharge your Social Media Initiatives with Video (Wed, Nov 14, 10am PT / 1pm ET)
Building a Digital Brand with Google+ (Thurs, Dec 6, 10am PT / 1pm ET)
It's Halloween. You've stocked up on the best candy and your house is decked out in ghoulish decorations as you prepare to handle the rush of excited children. Unfortunately, despite all of the preparation, nobody is knocking at your door.For many financial institutions, this is the same feeling they have had as they have introduced personal financial management (PFM) tools to a less than overwhelming consumer response.
Arguments across the industry continue over the potential impact and adoption of PFM tools. Despite topping the charts in hype and media coverage over the past several years, some believe that PFM may always fail to deliver in terms of usage rates.
A 2012 survey by the Federal Reserve shows that 21 percent of consumers currently use a PFM tool (this includes any program or website used to track household finances). Aite Group shows that the percentage may be closer to 27 percent when all PFM options are taken into account. However, there is still potential for growth in this area, with an additional 14 percent of consumers indicating a desire to use PFM tools.
Aite Group, Sept. 2012
According to Javelin Strategy and Research, nearly two thirds of consumers in the U.S. would like to see all of their financial accounts consolidated in one place (which continues to be a challenge for many PFM applications). Javelin also reports positive consumer feedback to the primary features of a PFM solution as shown below.
Studies also emphasize the value a financial institution can generate by providing a PFM solution that is adopted and utilized by its account holders. These studies show that on average, retention of account holders that use PFM improves by 4% over those that use online banking alone. From a customer acquisition perspective, this can make a huge impact on the financial institution’s bottom line since the industry average for acquiring a new account holder is around $250.00. Assuming an online user base of 100,000 account holders, this equates to $1,000,000 in savings.
PFM Hurdles to Adoption
So, if the benefits are there from both the consumer and financial institution perspective, why are a relatively few taking advantage of these 'treats'? Some point to a lack of functionality within the early PFM offerings that have driven the trend since about 2005. Others say that the financial institutions offering PFM as a complement to online banking have not correctly packaged and sold the service. Still others point to the fact that, while people say they want to manage their finances, a significant proportion of those households simply want reports around what they have done as opposed to what they should do (See Ron Shevlin's Snarketing 2.0 'PFM is Dead, Long Live PFM').
According to Celent, the barriers are multifold and include technology, experience and behavioral hurdles.
Could an Enhanced User Interface (UI) Help?
When I attended this year's BAI Conference in Washington, I was impressed with a firm that is taking a different look at PFM. Provo, Utah-based MoneyDesktopis relying on a unique, eye-catching and dynamic user interface to drive adoption of PFM through consumers’ relationship with their FI. While this may not seem revolutionary, after engaging with the product, I understood how this product could potentially improve the take-up rate at institutions struggling with PFM sign-up and usage.
MoneyDesktop is doing more than just putting lipstick on a pig– its patent-pending BubbleBudgets combines colors, variable sizes and movements to give users an undeniably clear picture of their budget status on a yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly, or even daily basis.
Use this link to understand the power of this highly visual and engaging solution.
While initially introduced as an online PFM application, MoneyDesktop now includes an even more robust MoneyMobile™ application for smartphones and tablets (demo below). Each application leverages the highly engaging visual elements that made the online application a success. “User experience is absolutely critical no matter what the device,” said Caldwell. “That, paired with the power of our software, is what makes it work. Our mobile and tablet solution have accelerated the path that MoneyDesktop was already on - which was to make sure that peoples’ experience of managing their personal finances was an amazing one.”
As opposed to viewing all of the delivery channels independently, MoneyDesktop introduced it's Sync Engine at FinovateFall in New York this year. With this tool, data is synched in real-time across all of a user’s devices, and intelligently updated when one device is disconnected from a data signal. The firm also is about to introduce HTML 5 Widgets that will emulate the design available for phones and tablets on a bank's online banking site. Widgets erase the line that has historically divided PFM from online banking, providing compelling data visualization that is displayed front and center on the Fi’s online banking interface.
Working With Financial Institutions and Outside Providers
According to MoneyDesktop founder Ryan Caldwell, "While many of the PFM providers were trying to copy the success of standalone solution Mint.com, we saw more opportunity in creating a cohesive slew of benefits for consumers, financial institutions and online banking partners." Taking this approach of partnering for an enhanced offering, MoneyDesktop has forged close to 25 partnerships, including industry powerhouses such as First Data, Sybase and Visa.
According to Caldwell, “Our number one goal is to offer the ultimate user experience for a financial institution's customers through strong partnerships with core providers that provide the most innovative financial technology solutions. Research shows that users want to dive deeper into their finances, and we are creating an experience that allows them to do that. This, in turn, creates an increase in customer loyalty - making it a win-win for both parties.”
Additional Enhancements
Like a few financial institutions have done with standalone services, MoneyDesktop is working on an augmented reality solution that leverages augmented reality to visually guide a user, using the camera view, toward the closest and best accessible branch or ATM locations. Imagine a portable GPS system that allows you a 360 degree view of locations and distances as you move your mobile device in different directions combining computer generated data with your actual surroundings.
Will Consumers Respond?
Will this combination of enticing form and powerful functionality be enough to move the needle and get customers to embrace a tool they have so far only accepted marginally? Is there a revenue potential to this offering that product developers and marketers can take advantage of? Has MoneyDesktop found the secret formula to success? The team at MoneyDesktop definitely believes they have found the code to the customer's heart (and hopefully wallet). They firmly believe that the old style of plugging in numbers and watching bars move up and down is dead. They feel that consumers want to interact with their money and they want to do more than look in their financial rearview mirror. To date, MoneyDesktop has proven this with FI and consumer adoption rates that trump the industry norm. In the company’s FinovateSpring demo, Caldwell stated that the industry targets PFM adoption rates of 10 to 15 percent, while some MoneyDesktop customers have reached adoption rates as high as 65 percent within a year.
As Ron Shevlin and Aite highlighted in their study, Strategies for PFM Success, the goal is to provide forward looking, executable goals to help consumers get out of debt, or simply spend money more wisely. To succeed, the tools also must create a seamless integration between the financial data and the myriad of devices people rely on these days.
“At the end of the day, users need to accomplish the objective for which they are using the product: 'I need to understand my finances, so I can make smart financial decisions.’ If we can make that experience visually appealing, compelling and fun to use, it will draw the end user back into the product,” confirmed Jason Cragun, Product Development Director at MoneyDesktop. "Particularly in a mobile or tablet device we can emulate real world experience like never before…a swipe, a touch, a gesture - these make the money management experience more tangible and engaging in a way that consumers have come to expect based on their other digital experiences."
The Marketer's Role
Obviously, the first role as a marketer will be to effectively market the PFM service to customers. I believe the best way to accomplish this is to immerse all employees into the product first so they can provide compelling examples of the benefits of the product to customers. In addition, it is important to provide 1:1 demonstrations of the product since it is difficult to show the benefits of how a customer can manage their finances through even the best video. Finally, once you have 'sold' the PFM solution to your customer, what are your objectives now that you’ve just become the hub for their financial data? With the account holder as the central focus, all of their other checking and savings accounts, credit cards, lines of credit, home loans, etc. are now associated with your institution, even if they are held elsewhere. You have an invaluable 360 degree view of your account holder that opens the door to nearly unlimited cross-sell opportunities, as well as the chance to take their business away from your competitors. That should make any multichannel strategy easier to implement.
Note: I am not the only person who has been impressed with what MoneyDesktop offers. MoneyDesktop has left an impression after virtually every show at which it has presented its products, garnering six out of six Best of Show awards in the past year, including FinovateSpring and FinovateFall 2012, CUNA Technology 2011 and 2012, CU Water Cooler Symposium 2012 and BAI Retail Delivery 2012. While awards do not necessarily lead to success in the marketplace, I feel this approach to PFM could help move the needle on both acceptance and usage.
Have you ever planned a campaign or event and were running around last minute scrambling to complete everything in time? If so, a backwards plan may be exactly what you need. Begin with the end in mind. Backwards planning is a great time management tool. By planning a campaign or event backwards it is easier to guarantee nothing is missed and everything comes together perfectly.
First, define the end result. Then record every step and sequence to receive the result. Finally, create the deadline driven timeline. Use a blank calendar and mark down the number of days until the event or campaign launch. Be sure to exclude the days you aren’t at work, such as weekends and holidays, etc. This will give you and your team an accurate picture of where you are and how much time is left to complete each task.
This same concept works as well for setting personal and career goals.
When talking about US Hispanics marketers seldom explore socioeconomic level as it relates to their attitudes and behaviors. For me this is a most interesting relationship because if, for example, Latinos hold cultural attitudes in the same esteem regardless of their social standing, then one may conclude that one marketing approach may reach diverse types of Hispanics.
What should the marketer tell Hispanic consumers when selling a new Toyota Camry? Or what should the marketer tell Latinos when selling diapers? Should the communication and positioning approaches used be equally crafted to reach the Hispanic that can afford a new relatively expensive car, or a more common product like diapers?
Using data from the Experian Simmons National Hispanic Consumer Study that was collected in the twelve months ending on June 1, 2012, I created crosstabulations of the TGI Socio Economic Scale in the Experian Simmons database by those “agreeing a lot” with cultural attitudes and behaviors that will be specified below. The TGI Socio Economic Scale is a composite of education, ownership of selected household durables, mobile phone ownership, credit card ownership, usage of Internet and air travel. The scale results in four levels of socio-economic standing: The top 10% of the population, the next 20% of the population, the next 30% of the population, and finally the remaining 40%.
The bar charts below report the percentage of Latinos in each of the Socio Economic Level that stated they “agree a lot” with each of the cultural statements.
The way to read these results is, for example: Of those Latinos that are in the lowest 40% of the TGI Socio Economic scale, 30% “agree a lot” with “I often encourage Hispanic children to participate in traditional Hispanic games and activities,” and 25% those in the next higher 30% level state they “agree a lot” with the statement. Twenty percent in the next higher level and only about 16% in the highest Socio Economic level similarly “agree a lot.” Meaning that strong agreement with the statement is heavily concentrated in the lower socioeconomic classes. There is a monotonic trend that indicates that as Socio Economic Level rises, attitudes and behaviors endorsing Latino cultural elements decrease. There are other attitudes and behaviors that do not conform with the above trend, for example:
The cultural value of being gregarious and enjoying family and extended family appears to be consistent across Socio Economic Levels, and to an even higher extent at the upper levels of the Socio Economic scale. In general, however, the percentages are very high and they speak more readily about how certain cultural values persist even as people become wealthier and more educated. It appears, then, that some values and behaviors decline as Hispanics climb the social ladder and others persist regardless. This highlights the complexity of the Hispanic market. Further, those higher in the Socio Economic scale are more likely to endorse values of US society as reflected in the chart below regarding the priority of speaking English in the household.
The findings are consistent and surprising, in my opinion. Those who are less affluent and less formally educated are the largest share of those indicating they engage in culturally related behaviors as well as holding attitudes and beliefs that are culturally based. Nevertheless there appear to be values that survive Latino prosperity like the value for family get togethers. It may be that those better off have more family around to get together with and that those less well off tend to be more geographically separated because of lack of economic resources.
These findings corroborate what our book “Hispanic Marketing: Connecting with the New Latino Consumer” says about how lower socioeconomic classes are more likely to be attached to their culture to a larger extent. It is also likely that having roots, of any kind, is more important to those who have not fared as well in society. Nevertheless, this data shows that there are exceptions and that more affluent Latinos are likely to endorse US values to a larger extent. That may not be too surprising but certainly the trend points to the importance of Socio Economic Level considerations in marketing to Hispanics.
Another factor to point out is that recency of immigration to the US should be correlated with Socio Economic Level. That may also explain to some extent why lower levels endorse cultural attitudes and behaviors to a larger extent.
The consistencies are important and we will report some more of these in future postings. The trends have powerful implications for those who for example plan business to business campaigns, or plan approaches geared to the more affluent. In a business to business setting, if targeting relatively well to do Hispanic business owners a culturally based approach may not be as relevant as when targeting Latino employees of that business.
Three trends were highlighted here. Specific cultural attitudes and behaviors that differentiate Latinos of diverse levels and that tend to be more strongly endorsed by those in the lower 40%; Other more general cultural attitudes and behaviors that seem to be relevant to all Hispanics; And, a tendency for the better off to endorse US values to a larger extent.
Marketers should, in my opinion, pay close attention to these findings. Marketing in culture may render more robust results when campaigns are directed to the lower socioeconomic strata. It appears that cultural heritage loses some prevalence as Latinos become increasingly affluent. Thus, having a campaign in Spanish with Latino themes for better off Hispanics may not be as productive as once thought.
The data used here is from the Experian Simmons National Hispanic Consumer Study and collected from April 25, 2011 to June 1, 2012. The sample contained 8252 Latinos.
Google Analytics has been a great place to analyze the performance of your Google advertising programs, but a piece of the puzzle has been missing: analyzing return on investment across all your digital channels. That’s why we’re happy to announce our new Cost Data Import tool, now available in public beta. This tool allows Google Analytics users to import their cost data from any digital source -- such as paid search providers, display providers, affiliates, email, social and even organic traffic.
Your imported cost data can be viewed in two places: in a new report called Cost Analysis in Traffic Sources, and in the newly publicly available Attribution Modeling Tool. These reports show you how all your digital marketing channels are performing compared to each other, so you can make better decisions about your marketing programs.
To take advantage of cost analysis, you can upload data in two ways: via a self-service API, or using solutions created by independent application providers. These solution providers include:
Our early customers are already loving it! Here are some success stories:
“Most of our paid search and social advertising decisions were made strictly based on a conversion pixel and CPA. We really didn't have the resources or the energy to continue to pull data and work it backward for detailed analysis. Now that we can import raw data into Google Analytics using NEXT Analytics v5, we can quickly and easily look for insights - just as we do with Adwords." -- Darcy Foster, President, Natural Wellbeing (with Cardinal Path)
“Before, we used to manually match paid search cost to revenue data in Excel. With AutomateAnalytics.com GA Data Uploader, we have been able to automate this process, and can now much more accurately measure paid search campaign ROI within Google Analytics." -- David Jaeger, Director of SEM, National Positions
“Using the ‘In2GA’ cost data import tool from ShufllePoint, our partners at E-Nor can improve the performance of our paid search channel more efficiently.This translates into quicker insights comparing campaign metrics, ad effectiveness, and keyword performance at one glance instead of logging into multiple systems. Any application or feature that streamlines data collection for analysis, ultimately impacting the bottom line positively, is welcomed. Thanks for the continued innovations and look forward to more.” -- Michael Rosito, Founder & President OEMPCWorld.com
Cost Data Import will be rolling out over the next month. If your account has been enabled, you should be able to see the Cost Analysis report show up in the Traffic Sources menu on the left-hand side of the Google Analytics interface (in the Standard Reporting tab). We hope this tool will provide a clearer view of your media performance across all your channels and help you make more informed budgeting decisions.
Over the next few weeks, we’re offering five opportunities to learn more about Google+ for your business. We kick off with a Learn with Google Hangout on Air with bestselling author +Chris Brogan on November 5th at 10am PT / 1pm ET. Chris will cover tactics for successful social marketing and discuss his new book, “Google+ for Business: How Google's Social Network Changes Everything.” RSVP for the Hangout on the Google+ Event page.
Learn Chris’s recipes for how to grow and engage your Google+ community to build your brand and drive your business’s visibility and conversions. Hear about Chris’s own experiences helping companies succeed in their content marketing and social projects. Chris Brogan is a New York Times bestselling author, CEO of Human Business Works, and advises companies on marketing, business strategy, communications and more.
If you have a question for Chris, leave your question as a comment on the Google+ Event.
Boost your success with Google+
Want to learn more about using Google+ for your business? Sign up for our Learn with Google webinars. Here are some great upcoming webinars to help you get the most out of social for your business:
Social Media Best Practices for a Successful Holiday Season (Wed, Oct 31, 10am PT / 1pm ET)
Social that Adds Up: Performance and Measurement (Thurs, Nov 8, 10am PT / 1pm ET)
Supercharge your Social Media Initiatives with Video (Wed, Nov 14, 10am PT / 1pm ET)
Building a Digital Brand with Google+ (Thurs, Dec 6, 10am PT / 1pm ET)
Bank Marketing Strategy was just recognized as one of the Best Banking Blogs by The Financial Brand, the foremost online publication for bank and credit union marketers. In addition to receiving the Editor's Choice Award, Bank Marketing Strategy was also a Top 5 recipient of the prestigious Reader's Choice Award.
To be included as a winner in 2012, nominated blogs must have had specific relevance to marketers in the banking or credit union industries, been in existence for a minimum of 12 months with consistent content and an RSS feed. It was also noted that all of the blogs selected needed to display excellent writing skills with a deep knowledge of the financial services industry.
Jeffry Pilcher, publisher of The Financial Brand, stated when asked about the recognition, "Bank Marketing Strategy is a blog that combines industry research with real world applications that can be used by financial marketers daily. It is also one of the few blogs that is not a commercial endeavor, but is developed on a personal level."
Pilcher went on to say, "If I had to pare down to just five blogs that I followed, Bank Marketing Strategy would definitely be one of them. When the blog fell silent for a couple months earlier this year, I was worried that the banking industry was losing one of the best blogs out there. But, Jim's come back with a fury, and he's at the top of his game."
Bank Marketing Strategy was developed more than 3 years ago as a way for me to better understand social media while providing an outlet for my desire to research, write and share insights with the industry I have been part of for (significantly) more than 20 years. It has been an ongoing passion, affording me the opportunity to meet and consult with some of the best people in the industry (many of whom are recognized by The Financial Brand for their blogging efforts).
I would like to thank (and congratulate) fellow bloggers Ron Shevlin, Brett King, Bradley Leimer, Matt Wilcox, JJ Hornblass, Liz Lum, Chris Skinner, Serge Milman, Christophe Langois, Karen Licker, Jim Bruene, Randy Smith, Jim Van Dyke and most importantly, Jeffry Pilcher for your ongoing encouragement and support.
At a time when our current elections involve a great deal of mudslinging, lies and putting down the other nominees, I can definitely say that all of the other blogs recognized are excellent resources I go to regularly and worthy of recognition.
I would also like to thank all of the readers of The Financial Brand who voted to recognize Bank Marketing Strategy as a top 5 banking industry blog worldwide.
Last year, we launched Multi-Channel Funnels, giving marketers insight into how customers interact with multiple touch points prior to conversion. Since then, we’ve begun to see a great shift in the industry, as marketers move away from simple, last click attribution, toward a more holistic picture of how digital marketing channels work together to drive conversions.
Earlier this year, in Google Analytics Premium, we added the Attribution Modeling Tool, which lets marketers build models that distribute the credit for conversions across channels and touchpoints, and quickly compare multiple models side by side. We’ve received great feedback about how the tool provides fast and easy insight into channel value.
Yesterday at the Google Analytics Summit, we announced wider availability for the Attribution Modeling Tool through a public whitelist. We also shared our plans for a new 90-day lookback window, better sampling controls, and the ability to import cost data for use in attribution models. To help you get started, this Friday we’ll host a webinar, Attribution Modeling for Digital Success, giving an overview of the tool. We’ll cover the opportunities and challenges of attribution modeling, how to interpret and build models, and ways to take action on the results.
Webinar: Attribution Modeling for Digital Success Day: Friday, November 2 Time: 10am PST / 1pm EST / 6pm GMT Webinar sign-up:goo.gl/YTulu Whitelist sign-up:goo.gl/uHckk
The AdWords Communities Global Summit 2012 took place on October 16-17th at Google’s Headquarters in Mountain View, California. This event brought together over 50 of the most prolific contributors to the AdWords Communities from 20 countries. These experts deserve a heartfelt thanks for selflessly investing their time in providing guidance to other advertisers on the AdWords Communities forums. The Summit brought together Google’s Small and Medium Business (SMB) and support teams, product managers, as well as external speakers for two action-packed days covering the evolution of AdWords customer support in the digital age and the future of online Communities at Google.
Two of the sessions were also broadcast via Hangouts On Air. In the first session, Deepak Khandelwal, Vice President of Global Customer Services and Sophie Bromberg, Director of Online Help, discussed the progress that AdWords customer support has made in the past year in helping to make Google a better company for Small-Medium Businesses (SMBs) to do business with.
In the day's second session, a panel of members of Google's SMB team answered questions on the future of AdWords support and advertising. They discussed opportunities to use technology to make customer support more streamlined and customized, as well as emerging advertising opportunities in mobile, video, and social.
On the second day we honed in on the topic of online Communities. The program included workshops on content writing as well as breakout sessions for individual markets where Community members had the opportunity to help shape the future direction of the market-specific Communities.
Every year, Google Analytics Certified Partners and Premium customers descend upon Mountain View for our annual summit. Google Analytics team members share a glimpse into the future of Analytics, and GACPs network and share ideas. Previously what happens at the summit stays at the summit. But starting this year we decided to share the latest and greatest with our wider community. Following is round up of the cool things we're working on which we shared at the Summit.
Paul Muret, Google Analytics Engineering Director, delivering opening keynote
Universal Analytics
This morning, we announced the launch of Universal Analytics, which helps customers tailor Google Analytics to their needs, integrate their own datasets and ultimately get a more complete vision of the entire marketing funnel. Read more in our announcement blog post.
Attribution Modeling Tool Public Whitelist
Since April 2012, Premium customers have been using the Attribution Modeling Tool to build models that give credit to all of their digital channels, providing insight into the impact of various marketing programs as they work together to drive sales and conversions. Today, we’re beginning a gradual public rollout of the Attribution Modeling Tool. Please register for our webinar this Friday to learn more, or request early access to the whitelist.
Cost Data Import
Google Analytics now allows users to import their cost data from any digital source -- such as paid search providers, display providers, affiliates, email, social and even organic traffic. This allows you to measure performance of all your digital programs side-by-side. Cost data import will be rolling out over the next month.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
Customer Lifetime Value is a feature being worked on for 2013, and shows the dollar amount of money that an individual customerwill spend with a given business in the future. Its a very powerful feature, putting the types of analysis marketers need to drive smart decisions into their hands.
Our CLV reports will help you:
Value segments or all of your customer base
Decide how much to spend acquiring new customers in a given segment
Decide how much to spend retaining certain customers (e.g. remarketing)
Rank customers
Measure success of marketing actions
Recency & Frequency
Finding your most valuable customers leads to smarter marketing decisions, improving your spend allocation and customer relationship management. Recency, Frequency, and Monetary Value (RFM) are three powerful behavioral metrics that savvy marketers have been using for decades to identify exactly these customers. With these forthcoming reports, we are bringing the power of RFM to Google Analytics. Watch out for these reports in 2013.
Custom Dimensions / Metrics
Dimension widening (a feature activated by Universal Analytics) enables you to easily add information like CRM data to your Google Analytics account. You can, for example, widen an advertising campaign by adding cost data to get a clear picture of the ROI on your marketing effectiveness.
Note that custom dimensions and custom metrics are just like the default dimensions and metrics in your Analytics account, except you create and define them yourself. You can use them to collect and segment data such as demographic data, which isn’t automatically collected.
Premium International Expansion
It’s been a year since we launched Google Analytics Premium to better meet the needs of our enterprise accounts. With the strong demand we’ve seen for Premium in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada, we are now planning to launch in at least 8 more countries: Japan, Brazil, France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, and Norway for 2013.
Mobile 100%
With ever-expanding mobile application marketplaces and a shift in focus to mobile, measuring apps is more important now than ever. With this, we’re excited to be movingGoogle Analytics Mobile App Analytics out of closed and into open beta. We’ve listened to feedback from more than 5,000 mobile app developers during the closed beta, improved the product and are now making it available to all developers and marketers.
We’re excited to push Analytics forward into the future with new features and reports which help marketers and businesses become more data-driven.
A typical consumer today uses multiple devices to surf the web and interact in many ways with your business. For most large businesses, already swimming in many sources of hashed data, it’s an enormous challenge, but also an incredible opportunity.
Measurement today is evolving from technology that counts site traffic into a broader system that measures your effectiveness in advertising, sales, product usage, support, and retention. Ultimately, this sort of integrated measurement can help you deliver the best service, products, and experiences for your customers.
We’ve been developing solutions, like Google Analytics Premium and Mobile App Analytics to advance this vision. For large enterprises, such as Premium customers and those who want to work with APIs, we're now starting to offer “Universal Analytics.” This will help these customers tailor Google Analytics to their needs, integrate their own datasets and ultimately get a more complete vision of the entire marketing funnel.
The new tools offered by Universal Analytics via the new Measurement Protocol (an API that enables you to send your data to Google Analytics) can help you measure the how people actually become and remain loyal customers:
Consumers use multiple devices.
Mastering data on your website is no longer sufficient - larger clients are increasingly asking for a cross platform view of their data in Analytics. The tools from the Measurement Protocol allow you to seamlessly send your own data about your customers and business (from any digital device that you are measuring) to your Analytics account. This can help you see how users interact with your brand from multiple touchpoints - phones, tablets, laptops or more - in one place.
The world is mobile.
We announced Mobile App Analytics at I/O in 2012 as a beta. It’s been delivering great results for clients. Universal Analytics now enables you to measure your marketing more holistically by integrating this data with your Google Analytics account.
Cross-channel measurement is essential.
Cross-channel information is more important and more diverse than ever before. Universal Analytics, via the Measurement Protocol, lets you sync your own data from across various marketing channels, so you can discover relationships between the channels that drive conversions.
Your business is unique.
Not every campaign (or app, or website!) is the same, and sometimes, depending on your business and goals, you want to learn more about a particular aspect of the way visitors interact with your business. With Universal Analytics, you can integrate your own data and can customize the metrics that matter to you - beyond website visits. Google Analytics can deliver the custom metrics you want, in the same report you’re used to, based on the customized data you provide.
As a Google Analytics user, Universal Analytics won’t mean any changes in your account. But if you’re a large enterprise that is interested in exploring the integration options, you can learn about getting started in our help center.
Posted by Manav Mishra, Group Product Manager, Google Analytics
While not a new tactic in the online world, retargeting is gaining momentum from more than just e-commerce players.
Due to the ability to target interested consumers as they proceed through the purchase funnel, financial marketers are increasingly leveraging ad-tech advancements to influence financial service buying behavior.
Over the weekend, my son and I were looking at new car options on Edmunds.com. After about 45 minutes on the site, I decided to leave the virtual showroom only to be 'stalked' by car ads for the next two days as I visited totally unrelated locations on the web (I am sure the retargeting won't end soon). Even my entry into the Edmonds.com site was a bit unnerving since the front page of the site was promoting the newest version of the car currently sitting in my garage.
A coincidence? . . . Not a chance. In fact, illustrating the digital geotargeting prowess of the team at Edmunds.com, the first search I did for the category of car I might be interested in highlighted a sponsored ad from the brand of the other car in our garage . . . from a local dealer. It comes as no surprise to today's consumer that the internet knows almost everything about us due to the tagging, tracking and monitoring that is done on an amazing amount of 'big data' flowing in the digital universe. Technology and digital tools have the ability to process our digital footprints almost as fast as we surf the web, predicting what we might do next and what we may be interested in purchasing.
While becoming almost Orwellian in it's omniscience, and a very powerful tool for digital marketers, the process is not always perfect. For instance, because of my profession and my search habits, I am often targeted for financial services I don't need, a new brand of smartphone I don't want and a candidate I would never vote for. Worse yet, I am sometimes targeted for something I already bought (an example of marketing without sufficient channel integration). Despite the occasional mistargeting, the 2012 Display Advertising Study from Bizrate Insights found that the majority of consumers (60 percent) were neutral on the tactic of retargeting, 25 percent appreciate the ads because they "remind [them] of what [they were] looking at previously, and only 15% do not like the process." Also noted was the convenience of being able to visit a web site users already were intending to visit (28 percent), and the proactive offering of more information on a desired product or service (21 percent).
From a marketers perspective, retargeting allows an organization to customize the overall prospect or customer experience and maintain consistency across all customer touch points. In other words, the retargeting does not need to stop with online ads, but could extend to email and even direct mail as part of an overarching cross-channel strategy.
Types of Retargeting
While most organizations are familiar and use search retargeting due to the reach and ROI of the tactic, there are additional types of retargeting that can prove valuable.
Search Retargeting: Targets individuals who have searched using keywords or phrases relevant to our business (loans, checking, investments, mobile banking, etc.). With search retargeting, assumptions are made around intent and the consumer's stage in the purchase funnel. Just because a person searches a term doesn't mean they are ready to buy.
Site Retargeting: In this case, the consumer has visited your site. By 'tagging' them, you can deliver your message as they continue using the Internet (like my Edmunds.com example). Again, identification of intent is important. A customer visiting a bank site to find out hours of a branch is a much different target than a prospect investigating credit card rates.
SEM/SEO Retargeting: This tactic combines search terms used prior to visiting your site with where on your site the prospect or customer visits. This form of retargeting hones in on the intent of the visit and allows for more specific creative messaging.
Email Retargeting: As the name suggests, this tactic leverages the actions taken by a customer receiving an email from you. With email retargeting, it is important to differentiate between a customer who just opens an email, a person who visits a landing site after opening an email and a person who simply discards the email.
Contextual Retargeting: By exchanging pixels between websites that are relevant, you can target visitors to another site. An example would be what is done between hotels, airlines and car rental companies.
Engagement Retargeting: Consumers who visit and engage with your company's blog, Facebook page, YouTube, rich media, etc. can be retargeted using properly placed pixels on keywords.
Social Retargeting: Targets individuals who consume social content similar to your current customers.
comScore recently released a study on the effectiveness of online display advertising based on various media placement strategies. The analysis included 103 campaigns from 39 advertisers covering seven different industries. The categories included:
Audience Targeting: Based on interaction with related products/content but no visit to site
Contextual Targeting: Targets sites with related page-level content
Efficiency: Based on cost-per-click engagement
Premium Pricing: High visibility placement with premium publishers
Retargeting: Based on previous visit to site
RON: Ads appearing anywhere in a network, optimized by conversion
The chart above indicates that retargeting clearly outperforms all other tactics due to the reach, cost and performance lift. This obviously reflects the impact of reaching out to consumers who have already indicated a desire to search, shop of purchase. This strategy also is effective for both brand building and immediate response. The challenge is that there is limited scaleability of this strategy.
According to Lloyd Lee, SVP, Integrated Services for direct and digital agency New Control, "The benefit of retargeting is clear - among all offline and online channels, retargeting is often the most efficient acquisition strategy on a cost-per-approved account basis." Lee added, "For our clients, retargeting has almost become an 'insurance policy' as it ensures that we are capitalizing on all of the traffic we are driving to a client's site from all of the offline and online acquisition efforts. It is at the core of most of our clients' digital strategies."
Tips for Retargeting
As mentioned above, while retargeting is highly effective, there are still some challenges related to scalability since the overall effectiveness of retargeting is related to the ability to have a sufficient target audience. According to Lee, "Often our clients would do more retargeting, but the 'offering pool' is finite by definition. With a strong multichannel marketing strategy, however, a larger potential audience can be identified through direct mail, email, social media, advertising and other forms of marketing."
As with any marketing strategy, there are certain guidelines that can improve results. Here are some tips provided by Lloyd Lee at New Control for success.
Develop Relevant Audiences: Understand the needs of your customers and places they go to satisfy those needs. Remember that the power of retargeting can create challenges if poor assumptions are made (my examples above). Also, don't take unwarranted liberties. If a customer or prospect has abandoned a loan product page, don't retarget for a checking account. In addition, be careful about retargeting a prospect that has become a customer unless it is for an ancillary, related product.
Creative is Key: Retargeting success is dependent on good copy and design. Clarity of why the prospect should respond and how to respond is the foundation. You only have a split second to get your prospect's attention and have them take action so make sure the viewer knows what they should do and why. With retargeting, less is usually more.
K.I.S.S.: Make it easy for your prospect to get what they are looking for. If a prospect responds to a retargeted ad, get them to their desired destination with a single click. If they need to navigate through more than one page to apply for a loan or open an account, they will most likely move on. In addition, if you don't have a way for the prospect to make a purchase or open their account online, you may lose a customer.
Test, Test, Test: As with any direct marketing initiative, testing (and measuring results) is the key to success. Test ad sizes and creative (including visuals, offers, etc.). Test audience selection and networks that you will use for retargeting. Similar to credit bureaus, not all networks are alike. Finally, test frequency and cadence of communication to understand how often you should reach out to a specific prospect and how soon. Not all products or prospects are alike due to the purchasing process and where the prospect is in the purchase funnel.
Challenges for Banks
While later to the game than most industries, the larger and mid-sized banks are enjoying the benefits of this digital strategy. Smaller organizations are also starting to test the waters due to the potential for results at a time when budgets are tight. But there are still some challenges.
According to Lee, the most significant challenge is usually around culture and anxiety related to privacy perceptions. "While some of our clients have some IT queue challenges, the biggest hurdle usually comes from legal, compliance and around privacy concerns. With such a powerful tool that utilizes insight collected from so many digital sources, some organizations are wary of negative feedback from prospects and customers. Our experience, however, is that these are concerns that are eventually alleviated through careful targeting, messaging and careful digital strategy development."
2013 Planning Strategy
If you are unsure of whether you should include retargeting in your 2013 marketing plan, simply look at the number of visitors to your site that leave before opening an account, applying for a loan, activating an online banking account or responding to an email or web banner.
Worse yet, look at the number of potential customers that abandon their financial 'shopping cart' before completing an online account opening form or credit application (see Seven Steps to Reduce Offline and Online Product Purchase Abandonment). These are people who have been compelled to visit your site and begin the purchase process, and have either gotten cold feet or decided that the number of hurdles you have placed in front of them are too severe. It's as if a person sat down at your new account desk and left midway through the account opening.
For bank marketers, retargeting should definitely be part of your 2013 marketing plan.
If you currently use retargeting, please share with other readers some of your successes. Have you been faced with any challenges?
