Category: Digital Marketing

Meet the Mindstreamer – Amelia Monroe

Posted on by Mindstream Media Group

She oversees the execution of client campaigns, leads a diverse team of specialists and drives year-over-year performance improvement. An adventure tri-athlete and lover of many outdoor hobbies including sailing, camping and hiking, meet Account Director, Amelia Monroe.

Based in our Cedar Falls, Iowa office and an agency veteran of seven years, Amelia has established herself as a team leader dedicated to client and teammate success. She collaborates with cross-functional internal teams to ensure we provide the highest quality of service, campaign management and operational execution to agency clients. She also focuses on establishing a deep level of trust with the client as a foundation upon which successful campaigns—and growth—are built.

What Amelia likes best about her job is partnering with clients to take on new challenges and help them meet their marketing goals. “I try to avoid my relationship with clients feeling like a traditional client/vendor relationship. I like to see myself as an extension of the client’s marketing team. This allows me to always focus on what is best for their campaigns, and I am excited to work at a company that encourages those client relationships.”

As a former radio DJ, Amelia knows the value of communication. In fact, communication is her top recommended focus area for anyone wanting to pursue a career in this industry. “Never underestimate the value of good communication. Consistent, clear communication with your team, your client, and your vendors is so valuable and appreciated. As the industry constantly evolves, good communication will never go out of style.”

Armed with a master’s degree in Marketing, Amelia pursued a career in the advertising and media industry because she loves the speed and flexibility of digital marketing. Seeing campaign results almost in real-time is really exciting to her. “I knew it would be a good fit and I’ve loved working in the industry.”

When Amelia first began her career in digital marketing, it was challenging to convince clients to take a risk and try something “new.” But, as the landscape evolves with new platforms, technology and a multitude of other changes, she notes, “It has been exciting to see digital marketing become the new normal.”

An avid reader both on a personal and professional level, Amelia is inspired by and follows the work of several successful women. She looks up to Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg, co-founders of theSkimm, as well as Beyonce for her brand strategy, creativity and dedication to giving back. Amelia is also inspired by Rosalind Brewer, the new CEO of Walgreens and first woman to lead an S&P 500 company.

In the media and advertising industry, challenges go with the territory. When asked about a challenging situation, Amelia said, “A big challenge for both agencies and clients is reporting on the performance of digital marketing campaigns. I’m so happy Mindstream Media Group is dedicated to providing automated reporting solutions for our clients. It makes my job even better when I can quickly pull up campaign results in an easy-to-understand dashboard to show my clients how we’re doing.”

We are grateful for Amelia’s leadership and perspective when it comes to helping clients succeed and grow.

An enormous part of what makes Mindstream Media Group successful is the collective talent and collaboration of its employees across the country. While we as an agency love to share stories about client successes, industry news and product updates on our MMG Blog, we also want to feature the actual people behind the work we are doing to grow client business.

 Our recent video series, Fast-Forward the Conversation, discusses the HOW behind supporting client growth through media strategy, with topics like shopper marketing, franchise work, QSR challenges, agency partnerships and more.

 We’re also now featuring a Mindstreamer (as we like to call ourselves) periodically to share their stories and celebrate the diverse people, backgrounds, interests and qualities that make us unique.

[Case Study]: Media Restructure Delivers 55% Lead Efficiency in Pandemic Year

Posted on by Mindstream Media Group

The Graduate Management Admission CouncilTM (GMAC) is a global, mission-driven association of leading graduate business schools. They own and administer the Graduate Management Admission TestTM (GMATTM), the most widely used exam for graduate business school admissions. Mindstream Media Group has had the pleasure of partnering with GMAC for several years to hone strategic media initiatives that grow their business, even in spite of the difficulties created by the coronavirus pandemic.

Challenge

GMAC found themselves facing simultaneous challenges. The issue of potential MBA candidates opting out of business school to go straight to the workforce, combined with the increase in schools dismissing the need for the exam when recruiting new students, were already a trend impacting the business over the last several years; moreover, the 2020 pandemic caused all global test centers to shut down for months at different times as the virus progressed in each country. This resulted in a large decrease of their primary revenue source (in-person testing), considering at that point all tests were conducted in person.

These challenges needed to be overcome with less resources compared to previous years, due to the impact of the pandemic.

Solution

In order to solve these complex challenges, we gathered data and insights from previous years of campaigns and built a robust, yet lean, paid media funnel where the target audience (potential MBA candidates) could be nurtured through their journey from initial awareness and engagement, to the purchase of test preparation products, all the way through to the exam registration.

Based on the historical data, we completely restructured GMAC’s campaigns across all platforms involved, resulting in a channel mix allocation which included paid search, paid social and programmatic display. Creative focused on each step in the customer journey to resonate with users whether they had not yet considered graduate management education, were merely considering it or were ready to purchase study materials or register for the GMAT exam. Specific and measurable KPIs were identified within each stage to gauge campaign success.

The carefully planned funnel, along with remarkably close monitoring of data through our analytics technology and intel, allowed for agile adjustments on all types of allocations from channels, to creatives, to global regions, with the objective of maximizing the efficiency of every marketing dollar.

Results

At the end of the most challenging year in recent times, the overhauled marketing strategy and implementation of the paid media funnel yielded extraordinary results. In 2020, there was up to a 55 percent improvement (decrease) in Cost per Lead and a 70 percent improvement (decrease) in Cost per Registration compared to the previous year (2019). We anticipate continued improvement throughout 2021 as well as funnel stage allocations are adjusted to fine-tune the structure.

55% YoY Decrease in Cost per Lead

 

70% YoY Decrease in Cost per Registration

 

Julie Slovin, GMAC Senior Director of Strategic Marketing notes, “The funnel performed so well that the performance gains that we saw this year I think were so significant that they sort of outweighed the market losses that resulted from the pandemic, from an advertising and marketing effectiveness and efficiency standpoint.” Click here for the full interview.

 

 

 

iOS 14 User Privacy Update: Impact to Advertisers

Posted on by Mindstream Media Group

The core of Apple’s targetable ad system, Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) is one of the most accurate means of tracking iOS users. This randomly-generated and generally anonymous tag allows advertisers to track and identify users as they interact with mobile advertising campaigns on Apple devices; however, it has come under increasing scrutiny amid consumer privacy concerns. As a result, Apple’s recent iOS 14 launch included a major privacy update that limits tracking across apps and websites. Designed to improve transparency and control, the new privacy features require users to opt-in to data tracking. This profound shift from the traditional model of requiring users to opt-out will affect all advertisers and every digital platform.

The new privacy features include three policies for apps:

  1. Apps must submit information about their app’s data collection practices through Apple’s App Store Connect.
  2. Apps must ask users permission to track them across third-party apps and websites through Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) Framework. ATT is a prompt that will pop up asking users for their permission. The prompt will be configured by the app, not by the advertiser.
  3. Apps without user opt-in will need to use a new framework adhering to Apple guidelines which will restrict data, aggregate some data and cause delays in event reporting for advertising purposes. Each platform will have variances in the data they can capture and report on due to the limitations required by Apple’s new policy. Like the ATT prompt, the new framework will be implemented by the app, not the advertiser.

Each social platform will have a different approach for how advertisers should move forward. This is a massive industry change, and while the platforms have been able to provide next steps for advertisers, there are still unanswered questions. Below is a summary of how some of the most popular social platforms will address the policy rollout based on what we know today. Our social, planning and analytics teams are working closely together to assist clients through the transition.

FACEBOOK

Facebook has outlined an initial roadmap to help advertisers navigate impacted areas. Both Facebook and Instagram will be adopting Apple’s ATT prompt requesting permission to track and will also enact Aggregated Event Measurement (AEM). This will align with Apple’s policy which restricts, aggregates and delays data usage. These changes will impact Facebook Business tools and event setup, optimization, targeting and measurement.

ATT Prompt Implications

If a user opts in through the prompt, there will be no change in data use. However, if a user opts out, then Facebook will use AEM which will restrict, aggregate and delay event attribution. This will also apply to advertisers using the Software Development Kit (SDK) to track and measure in-app actions. If a person opts into BOTH Facebook and the third-party app there will be no change in data usage. However, if a user opts out of one or both apps, the conversion data shared through Facebook’s business tools may be restricted, aggregated and delayed. Facebook will be applying these prompts on all operating systems and not just iOS 14. If a user opts out, it could potentially exclude them from being included in a custom audience.

Aggregated Event Measurement (AEM)

AEM helps advertisers measure campaign performance while complying with consumers’ decisions about their data. Advertisers will need to prioritize eight conversion events per domain to collect data. If a user opts out, the highest ranked conversion event, per the prioritization, will be recorded. For example, if an advertiser has “purchase” as the top priority and “add to cart” as the second, when a user makes a purchase from an ad, only the purchase conversion will be recorded. As a result, campaigns will need to be optimized to one of the eight priority conversions.

Attribution Changes

On January 19, the default attribution window in Facebook changed from a 28-day click/1-day view to a 7-day click/1-day view. The 28-day attribution window will be accessible for past campaigns until the iOS 14 ATT prompt goes into effect. Although it will vary by advertiser, Facebook has stated this attribution change could cause up to a 10 percent decrease in conversions. Our social and analytics teams are working together to forecast the expected impact for each Mindstream client.

SNAPCHAT

Until Apple’s new privacy policy is mandated, there will be no disruption or changes on Snapchat for advertisers; however, once implemented, Snapchat will be prompting users for permission to track them across apps and websites owned by other companies. The Snapchat pixel will continue to be supported with no configuration changes and should be compliant with Apple’s new policy by the time it goes into effect.

Snapchat will also support Apple’s SKAdNetwork, an API that helps advertisers measure the success of ad campaigns while maintaining user privacy. A closed beta was completed in the fourth quarter of 2020 and should be available soon. Reporting will be provided in Ads Manager and Mobile Measurement Partner dashboards.

Efforts are currently underway to create more, but two tools are currently available to help advertisers maximize their efforts using their own first-party data.

Snap App ID

The Snap App ID is a unique code that authenticates ownership of the app to ensure control and privacy of the data. It will unlock new features such as self-serve mobile app custom audiences, app re-engagement goal-based bidding, tracking toggle and dynamic ads with more coming soon.

Conversion API

The conversion API will allow advertisers to pass web, app (if Snap App ID is enacted) and offline events to Snapchat via a server-to-server integration. Depending on the information shared via the API, there are solutions for custom audience targeting, campaign optimization and dynamic ads.

PINTEREST

Although Android audiences will not be affected, Pinterest does anticipate a decline in Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) available for measurement and targeting due to iOS 14; however, they do not expect any immediate impact on conversions passed through the Pinterest tag for web-based events. Rather than relying on IDFA, Pinterest is suggesting advertisers use emails for audience targeting lists. The Pinterest Conversion API or Conversion upload solution can also be used to pass mobile conversion events through.

REDDIT

For App Install campaigns, Reddit will only target users who authorize Reddit to use their information for advertising purposes. For ad groups targeting iOS 13 or lower, Reddit will proceed with their current method for reporting. For ad groups targeting iOS 14 and above, Reddit will use the SKAdNetwork implementation. The internal team at Reddit is still evaluating how non-app install campaigns will be affected and what next steps should be.

The new privacy regulations featured in Apple’s iOS 14 will significantly impact advertisers’ ability to target campaigns to specific user groups. This combined with the phase-out of third-party cookies by Safari, Firefox and Chrome has created a challenge for digital marketers and marks the end of the way many measure performance. At Mindstream Media Group, we’re working diligently to identify alternative solutions, assist clients with configuration updates and define optimization strategies to ensure efficient campaign management.

New Performance Reporting for Google My Business

Posted on by Malcolm Groves

Google has kicked off the new year with updated Google My Business performance reporting. The new reports appear in the Insights section and include metrics detailing how consumers discovered listings and business profile interactions. The time frame has also been extended with data now available for up to six months rather than three months.

Insights

When listing managers log into their Google My Business accounts and view the Insights section, they will be greeted with a message that says, “Your insights are moving.” Once users click through to the new performance reporting they will see a pop-up window allowing them to choose a date range to view their metrics within a six-month timeframe.

Source:  Google

The number of business profile interactions including calls received and messages sent are displayed. A breakdown of search terms visitors used to find the business profile is included as well.

 

Source:  Google

Business Profile Focus

Google has released a help document to provide information about the new performance reporting and the refocus on the Business Profile. One of the changes within the updated performance reporting is a change in frequency. The searches detailed in the report will now be updated monthly, instead of quarterly. While metrics that are included in the current Insights, such as driving direction requests and website clicks, are not included in the new performance reporting, Google notes that this version of performance reporting is still evolving, and we will see the appearance of additional metrics in the coming months.

Source:  Google

What’s Next?

Google says that interactions within the new performance reporting are just the start. New metrics will be coming soon and the old versions will be removed from Google My Business. Although the new performance reporting is only available on Search, it will soon be available on Maps as well with the same six-month data timeframe.

We believe the evolution of these Insights will prove to be helpful in managing Google My Business profiles and evaluating the value they provide to our clients. Stay tuned for more updates to the GMB platform throughout 2021.

[Video]: Success Through Strategic Partnership

Posted on by Mindstream Media Group

The pandemic wreaked havoc on many industries in 2020. But for GMAC (Graduate Management Admission Council), the performance gains created by a new paid media funnel strategy helped offset their market losses. In this episode of Fast-Forward the Conversation, Julie Slovin, GMAC Senior Director of Strategic Marketing joins Fabio Ramos, Mindstream VP of Business Development to discuss our strategic partnership and the success that has driven for their organization.

Fast-Forward the Conversation

We believe the daily pressure on CMOs to move their business forward is real, intense and not going away. Join our media practitioners, as we discuss the HOW behind making meaningful progress, on well-defined targets.

 

 

Catch the Highlights

  • GMAC is the parent brand of the GMAT exam (among other products and companies), the entrance exam that 9 out of 10 people pursuing an MBA or Master’s degree will take. They’re a global organization with testing centers across 6 continents which has created additional challenges for navigating unpredictable market dynamics.
  • The global nature of their business has been both a blessing and a curse, allowing them to balance healthy markets with those being impacted as the pandemic spread from country to country and across the U.S.
  • Throughout our 4-year relationship, Mindstream has gained a strong understanding of GMAC’s markets. That knowledge, combined with historical and current data allowed us to monitor changes in consumer behavior in real-time, providing reassurance and confidence to guide marketing decisions.
  • Julie states, “I think hands down, one of the biggest wins for us this year was this new paid media funnel and the strategy that… your team brought to us for discussion back in 2019 and we were finally able to activate that.” She continues, “The funnel performed so well that the performance gains that we saw this year I think were so significant that they sort of outweighed the market losses that resulted from the pandemic, from an advertising and marketing effectiveness and efficiency standpoint.”
  • Julie attributes their success to the strategic partnership that we’ve built together over the last 4 years. “That partnership drives everything. The cadence and the productivity around all of the ongoing communications that I have with your team and the collaboration, the analytical reporting that we get, not only monthly but ad hoc as needed. Your team has pivoted quickly on everything that we’ve needed you to all along the way as our business needs change. The dashboard – two of them – both dashboards but certainly the current one, is even better than the first one.  You’ve customized the dashboards for us and for our business and for our needs specifically. I think everything that defines a good partnership really comes down to trust. And, I think that that’s where both teams benefit. In my opinion you can’t really put a price tag on that.”
  • Listening goes a long way. Julie adds, “You guys, you’ve listened to us from day 1. I’ve worked with so many agencies over the years and they don’t all listen, really listen to what you need, what you don’t need. You’ve always listened from the first day and we know we’re being heard by your team all the time.”
  • At Mindstream we strive to operate as an extension of our clients’ team. We can only be successful if we make our clients successful. Julie agrees, “We’re part of the same team…the commitment that you guys show our business goals, our outcomes and the expertise that you bring. I think that you’re essentially an extension of our business and it’s just been such a great thing.”

Tackling Restaurant Challenges Through the Pandemic

Posted on by Mindstream Media Group

There have not been many industries more severely impacted by the pandemic than the restaurant industry. Coming into 2020, the restaurant industry was projected to gross $899 billion. As of the first week of December 2020, the restaurant industry was estimated to have grossed only $659 billion. This $200 billion shortfall impacts small business owners, restaurant workers, industry partners and subcontractors, and even advertising partners.

As an experienced digital marketer responsible for national restaurant campaigns at Mindstream Media Group, I wanted to share my learnings from this experience in order to help any restaurant or marketer out there in some small capacity.

It may be obvious to point out, but the pandemic has seismically affected user behavior, both in real life and online. Under normal circumstances, 60 percent of dining is done off-site. During the pandemic, that figure has swelled to 90 percent.

This shift in consumer behavior increases the importance of placing a greater emphasis on carryout, catering and delivery. Unsurprisingly, restaurants with drive-throughs have generated a noticeably higher portion of visitors and sales than those without drive-throughs. 90 percent of Wendy’s 2020 sales is attributed to their drive-through business.

Source:  Wall-Street Journal

Many restaurants were not preemptively equipped to handle this increase in carryout and drive-through business initially, so they got creative. Several restaurants we work with have added meal kits and unusual carryout items (like charcuterie boards) to their menus to help boost sales. Some restaurants are now selling wholesale ingredients to ensure their surplus inventory does not spoil. And I would say many of us are thankful that some restaurants now offer alcohol for carryout and delivery.

Adjust Keyword Targeting

With an additional 30 percent of diners choosing to eat at home, how does that affect their online behavior? Simply put, user search behavior has shifted to what is local, and what is available. Searches that include the words “available near me” have increased 100 percent globally year over year, and searches that include the words “restaurants open for” have increased 1,000 percent year over year.

Based on these statistics, one of the most important changes we’ve implemented in our client campaigns is to make sure keyword targeting reflects these consumer behavior changes, both for SEO and SEM. Some examples of these keywords include: “local restaurants open for delivery,” “restaurants open near me” and “nearest restaurant open.”

It is important to also keep in mind that other restaurants have taken this into consideration as well, which has led to a noticeable increase in SEM cost per click due to the increased competition among these keywords. In order to mitigate these cost increases, smart digital marketers are now looking for opportunities to add both exact match and longtail keywords and putting less emphasis on phrase match keywords. Another best practice is identifying variations of these more popular searches that are less competitive, by adding in the specific city or street name into campaign keywords.

Google Ads’ Keyword Planner can be used for ideas and estimates of keyword costs, as well as perform frequent search query reports within search campaigns to see which search terms are performing well, and which aren’t. If certain keywords aren’t performing well over a long period of time, the decision can be made to pause them, or look for opportunities to add negative keywords to the campaign.

Google keyword research also shows an uptick in search behavior that includes the words “safe” and “safety,” so those keywords are worth exploring as well. With that being said, I would encourage marketers to watch the performance of any ad text or messaging that focuses on “safety” closely. At the beginning of the pandemic, safety messaging performed extremely well. However, as the pandemic has continued, we are seeing across multiple campaigns that consumers have become less and less responsive to safety messaging, and more responsive to general brand messaging and Limited Time Offers.

Leverage Google Offerings

In addition to adjusting your SEM and SEO, it’s also critical that each Business Profile of all Google My Business restaurant locations are kept up to date. Make sure to update any changes to business information due to the pandemic, including hours of operation, menu limitations and safety measures you have taken. Users can reserve tables and order online through your business profiles, so this is just another avenue that can be can utilized to generate business and keep customers informed.

Another option Google offers small businesses that has helped greatly with the onset of the pandemic are Google Local Campaigns. Local Campaigns run dynamic creative across 4 different Google platforms: Google Search, YouTube, the Google Display Network and Google Maps to local customers in a business location’s service area. The campaign optimizes in real-time, mixing and matching the different headlines, descriptions, images and logos uploaded to the campaign, and automatically shows the best performing combinations. These algorithms utilize 7 million data points in a split second, determining when, where and to whom to show your ads, based on performance.

There is a caveat for running Local Campaigns: Google does recommend that a business run Local Campaigns with a Store Visit-focused strategy in an account that has at least 10 different restaurant locations, so this option lends itself more toward medium and large sized businesses. However, there is a separate bidding strategy for smaller businesses to run Local Campaigns: optimize towards phone calls and/or Google Maps driving direction clicks. So, while the primary option of Local Campaigns is to drive as much foot traffic as possible, Local Campaigns can use the same algorithmic data points to optimize towards driving customers to call and/or search for directions to your restaurant. Even during a pandemic, Local Campaigns remain one of the best digital marketing tactics a restaurant business can leverage – whether big or small.

Overall, marketing budgets are going to be much tighter in 2021 than they would be under normal circumstances, and marketers may not be able to execute all the digital marketing tactics they would otherwise. Being flexible and staying up to date with Google’s offerings and best practices can help businesses succeed and thrive in a changing environment.

Stay Creative

Saying that 2020 has been an unpredictable year would be an insulting understatement. It is difficult to tell if consumer behavior will return to normalcy in the long-term, or if this will drastically affect customer behavior permanently going forward. Regardless of that answer, it is important for all of us to remain creative and ensure that we’re not stagnant in our strategies. If I have learned anything from both digital marketing and 2020, it is that flexibility is imperative.

 

–Brian Pappas is a Sr. Digital Manager at Mindstream Media Group. An experienced digital marketer for over 7 years, Brian enjoys helping clients with their goals, voice acting and taking long walks on the beach.