How to Transition to Google Analytics 4

Check out these 6 steps on how to transition from Google Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4.

Step 1: Create a Google Analytics 4 Property

The first step is to create a Google Analytics 4 property. To do this, log in to your Google Analytics account and click on the “Admin” tab. From there, click on the “Create Property” button and select “Google Analytics 4” from the dropdown menu.

Step 2: Set Up Data Streams

Once you’ve created a Google Analytics 4 property, the next step is to set up data streams. A data stream is a source of data that feeds into Google Analytics 4. To set up a data stream, select your Google Analytics 4 property and click on “Data Streams” under the “Streams” tab. From there, click on the “Add Stream” button and follow the instructions to set up your data stream.

Step 3: Update Your Tracking Code

If you’re already using Google Analytics, you’ll need to update your tracking code to the new Google Analytics 4 tracking code. To do this, go to the “Admin” tab, select your property, and click on “Tracking Info” under the “Property” column. From there, click on “Tracking Code” and follow the instructions to update your tracking code.

Step 4: Set Up Custom Dimensions and Metrics

Google Analytics 4 allows you to create custom dimensions and metrics to track specific data points that are important to your business. To set up custom dimensions and metrics, go to the “Admin” tab and click on “Custom Definitions” under the “Property” column. From there, you can create custom dimensions and metrics that are relevant to your business.

Step 5: Set Up Conversion Tracking

Conversion tracking is important for tracking the success of your website or app. To set up conversion tracking in Google Analytics 4, select your property and click on “Conversions” under the “Streams” tab. From there, click on the “Create Conversion Event” button and follow the instructions to set up your conversion tracking.

Step 6: Test Your Setup

Once you’ve set up your Google Analytics 4 property, data streams, tracking code, custom dimensions and metrics, and conversion tracking, it’s important to test your setup to make sure everything is working properly. To do this, go to the “Realtime” tab in Google Analytics and test your website or app to see if the data is being tracked correctly.

Conclusion

In conclusion, transitioning to Google Analytics 4 requires creating a new property, setting up data streams, updating your tracking code, setting up custom dimensions and metrics, setting up conversion tracking, and testing your setup. By following these steps, you can smoothly transition to the new version of Google Analytics and start tracking valuable data for your business.

To learn more about why Bay MarketForce could be the growth engine you’re looking for, please feel free to Contact Us or Book an Introduction Meeting.

5 Ways to Improve Your Google PPC Ads

Here are five best practices to improve your Google PPC ads:

1. Use targeted keywords:

Make sure you’re targeting the right keywords for your ads. Use keyword research tools to find the most relevant and highest-traffic keywords for your business. Group your keywords into ad groups and make sure your ad copy is tailored to each group.

2. Create compelling ad copy:

Your ad copy should grab the reader’s attention and clearly communicate your value proposition. Use action-oriented language and focus on the benefits of your product or service. Make sure your ad copy is consistent with your landing page.

3. Optimize your landing pages:

Your landing page should provide a clear and compelling call-to-action that aligns with your ad copy. Make sure your landing page is optimized for conversion by reducing clutter, improving load times, and making it easy for users to find what they’re looking for.

4. Use ad extensions:

Ad extensions can help your ads stand out and provide additional information to users. Use sitelink extensions to direct users to specific pages on your site, callout extensions to highlight unique selling points, and call extensions to allow users to call you directly from the ad.

5. Monitor and adjust your campaigns:

Regularly review your campaign performance and make adjustments as needed. Use analytics tools to track key metrics like click-through rates, conversion rates, and cost-per-click. Adjust your bids, ad copy, and targeting to optimize your campaigns for maximum ROI.

To learn more about why Bay MarketForce could be the growth engine you’re looking for, please feel free to Contact Us or Book an Introduction Meeting.

What is B2G (Business to Government) Marketing?

B2G Definition

B2G is the sale and marketing of goods and services to federal, state, or local government agencies. The business is the supplier, and the government body is the consumer. B2G typically have a longer sales cycle and more decision makers involved.

Governments seek products and services though an RFP (request for proposal). Governments typically use RFP’s to publicly announce and solicit their need for a product or service. Businesses must submit their proposals or bid to the RFP by their specified due date. Businesses are also required to register as a vendor or supplier in order to make their bid.

What is B2G Marketing? 

B2G Marketing, or Public Sector Marketing, is aimed at government agencies. It is intended to promote products and services to government agencies.

Tactics for Conducting B2G Marketing:

SEO (Search Engine Optimization): Drive more traffic to your website or landing pages by strengthening your website and making it more appealing to search engines.

PPC (Pay-Per-Click): Use search engines like Google or Bing to make your product or service appear at the top of search results when someone searches for a keyword related to your offerings.

Attending events and trade shows: These events give you the perfect opportunity to meet and foster relationships with your key target titles.

Content Marketing: Engage with prospects and create brand awareness by creating content showing them you are an expert in the field. Examples include blog posts, videos, webinars, social media posts, and email marketing campaigns.

Local Government Intent Data: Get relevant leads for your business to pursue based on documented challenges published in meeting minutes. Each lead comes to you as a data-enriched account with actionable contact information and notes about the opportunity.

Appointment Setting: Selling to the public sector typically means there are more decision makers and influencers involved in the sales process, and as a result requires many more touches to get in the door. We network to find key decision makers and influencers and set firm appointments with them and your account managers so they can present sales demos of your products and services.  

Does Bay MarketForce Run B2G Campaigns?

Yes. At Bay MarketForce, we run business to government marketing campaigns. Our goal during those campaigns is to qualify target accounts, identify pain points, and make sure there is a need for our clients services.

Then we schedule firm appointments with key decision makers at the account for our clients to attend. The appointments can be in person or remote.

To learn more about why Bay MarketForce could be the growth engine you’re looking for, please feel free to Contact Us or Book an Introduction Meeting.

How to Use Reverse IP Tools to Audit Marketing Output

Industry Audit

Do you know if your sales and marketing activities are driving the correct buyers to your website?

One of our partners from Lead Forensics, Tyler Witt, recently conducted an audit for one of his customers that was looking for ways to improve their marketing output.

The Lead Forensics Reverse IP website visitor identification tool was at the forefront of the audit because it allows you to measure the types of companies that are coming to your website.

The company he was doing an audit for has an ICP (ideal customer profile) that falls in the Retail Apparel industry. 

Findings: 

Less than 5% of their traffic was within their ICP and they had zero idea! Check out what else he found.

Here’s What the Audit Uncovered:

• The company hired a third-party marketing agency that didn’t have experience in B2B. They had experience with Apparel, but in selling to consumers, not businesses.
• They were targeting Facebook, TikTok, and other user-based social media platforms.
• They were going for quantity over quality. Typical “but look at all the clicks, the leads will start coming in any day now.”
• They didn’t have insight into their marketing company’s activities. They were relying on that company to report back. Seriously, if you ask someone, “How’s everything going?” they are most likely going to respond with “Great!”. Trust but verify.
• They were targeting mobile.
• They hadn’t set up geographic restrictions.
• Their keywords and interests were way too broad.

Presented The Findings and Here’s What Changed:

• Facebook ad spending decreased dramatically.
• Removed TikTok and Instagram entirely. Those accounts are now only used to share free organic company posts.
• Google PPC ad spending decreased with more targeted keywords.
• Set up Lead Forensics and sales alerts for sales.
• Strategized on a basic ABM (Account-Based Marketing) program into larger accounts.
• Uploaded current leads lists to get notified when prospects are back in the market.

Results of the Changes:

• Total marketing spend went from $15k per month to under $10k per month.
• Appointments went from 2 per week to 7 per week in under 60 days.
• Existing Marketing company renewed customer!

Data-Backed Decision Making

Having website visitor data can help you do so much more than just sell smarter. You can optimize across your sales and marketing teams for better performance. 

Bay MarketForce uses Reverse IP on our client’s campaigns so we can be more efficient with all of our sales development, outbound, inbound, and digital marketing programs.

In the case described above, adding Reverse IP will provide Tyler’s customer an annual ad expense reduction of $60,000. And they should see about 260 more appointments over the year. 

For more great tidbits about using Reverse IP to make smarter sales and marketing decisions, check out Tyler’s LinkedIn Page. 

To learn more about why Bay MarketForce could be the growth engine you’re looking for, please feel free to Contact Us or Book an Introduction Meeting.

What is Account-Based Marketing?

Account-based marketing strategy

Account-Based Marketing (ABM)

Account-based marketing is a strategy that focuses sales and marketing resources on a select number of accounts within a market. The selected accounts might be called Key Accounts or Target Accounts and are typically a smaller piece of the entire market

Rather than focusing on a single person or lead, ABM strategies consider the entire buying committee at the account when conducting sales and marketing activities.

The buying committee might include several people from within a single job function, like marketing or HR, and across seniority levels. At large organizations, there might be different buying committees across lines of business or job functions.

ABM helps to navigate the buying process so you can communicate value throughout the entire buying committee. This practice can be used to target prospects or existing customers alike.

Does Bay MarketForce Run ABM Campaigns?

Yes. At Bay MarketForce, we run account-based marketing campaigns for sales development and appointment setting purposes. Our goal during those campaigns is to qualify target accounts, identify pain points, and make sure there is a need for our clients services.

To learn more about why Bay MarketForce could be the growth engine you’re looking for, please feel free to Contact Us or Book an Introduction Meeting.

How to Build and Maintain Clean Sales and Marketing Data

Data Storage

We often get asked how to keep sales and marketing data clean and actionable. There is no silver bullet.

The best sales and marketing data comes from your CRM.

However, you need to have governance and compliance in place to keep it that way.

You need to hold sales and marketing teams accountable for keeping and maintaining a clean database.

The data you can purchase from sources like D&B Hoovers can be expensive and only about 50% accurate. And it only gets more inaccurate as time goes by. Those sources can be a good starting point, but more work needs to be done to make that data great.

So how do we keep great data?

1. We train our SDRs to keep impeccable records and improve records when a change happens. They understand the positive impact it makes on their goals.
2. We keep historical records of data changes. Someone leaves an organization – they don’t leave the CRM – they get tagged as “no longer there.” This way they don’t get re-added from another bad data source.
3. We have a dedicated Data Team that is constantly working to keep contact data and account intelligence strong. Data is at the foundation of our sales and marketing efforts.
4. We are engaging with (calling) the contacts in our campaigns and we get real-time feedback and updates on contact information, personnel changes, and other valuable insights. We record it.

Good data makes sales and marketing more efficient.

If efficiency is a priority, make data a priority.

To learn more about why Bay MarketForce could be the growth engine you’re looking for, please feel free to Contact Us or Book an Introduction Meeting.

When Should I Use PPC Ads for my Business?

PPC (Pay Per Click), or Search Engine Marketing (SEM), uses search engines like Google and Bing to make your product or service appear as the top search results when someone searches for a keyword related to your business.

Use PPC campaigns to drive traffic to your website with the hopes of generating a lead or possibly adding that user to a nurture campaign where you can develop them into a new customer.

When Should I Use Pay Per Click Ads?

People are searching for your products or services right now. Pay per click can be used to capture an audience that is already trying to solve their problem.

This is a great option for when you need quick results and want to generate leads fast. Other lead generation options available, like SEO, take more time to develop.

If you have more budget than time, use PPC to pay for website traffic from interested parties. The quality of the website visitors may not be as strong as organic traffic, but developing a foundation where you generate a lot of organic traffic can take a lot of time and effort.

Keep in mind, PPC ads can only drive traffic to your website. Once a user is on your website, your content that will keep them there. Make sure each promoted keyword is linking to a related landing page.

Should I combine PPC with LinkedIn Retargeting ads?

Yes. In the B2B world, LinkedIn retargeting can be a great addition to a multichannel campaign. You can retarget your website visitors that fit your ideal customer profile so that you’re not wasting budget on people that would never buy from you.

You can even exclude or suppress ads from being delivered to individual users, companies, job functions, or titles. This is a great way to help optimize your retargeting ad budget.

As always, keep your audience in mind. Are the people who buy from you spending any of their time on LinkedIn.

Should I combine PPC with SEO?

Absolutely! Combining PPC and SEO is a great idea if you have the time or the budget. You can also slowly reallocate budget between the two different tactics over time.

For example, if you’re just getting started you may want to use 80% of your budget towards PPC and then slowly move budget into SEO over time. Here’s a potential scenario:

• Month 1: PPC = 80%, SEO = 20%
• Month 2: PPC = 70%, SEO = 30%
• Month 3: PPC = 40%, SEO = 60%
• Month 6: PPC = 20%, SEO = 80%
• Month 12: PPC = 50%, SEO = 50%

In the long run it’s more cost-effective to generate organic (unpaid) traffic because you don’t have to pay for each click. SEO-led organic traffic is always on, but it does require maintenance.

Remember that SEO is a long-term investment that will continue to provide results, and PPC only works when you have budget available for the ad channel to consume.

In Summary

We recommend using PPC ads all the time to help promote your business to the people and companies that are already in market and searching for a solution to their problem.

Combining PPC with other tactics like SEO and Retargeting is a great idea and they complement each other well to help drive relevant traffic and leads to your website.

To learn more about why Bay MarketForce could be the growth engine you’re looking for, please feel free to Contact Us or Book an Introduction Meeting.

3 Ways to Improve B2B Appointment Attendance Rates

For Sales Development Reps (SDRs), the worst feeling in the world is when a prospect that you worked hard to qualify and show value to doesn’t attend a scheduled appointment. Nobody wants that to happen from either side, but it does happen. 

We asked our team of SDRs that schedule over 2,000 B2B appointments for our clients every year about what they do to improve appointment attendance rates. Then we narrowed it down to the top 3 actions that seem to be the most effective across industries.

Below we’ll outline the best actions that your team can take to help improve appointment attendance rates. 

Communicate Regularly

Once the appointment has been scheduled, that should not be the last communication that goes out to the prospect before the appointment takes place. In some cases, appointments might be scheduled 3-4 weeks out from your conversation. Find a way to deliver value during that time without being annoying. 

1. Introduce the attending Account Executive that will be joining the appointment. Provide some of the AE’s background and expertise to help expedite the meeting when it does happen.
2. AE’s – take the time to reach out to the prospect ahead of the call to thank them for taking some time to talk and summarize what the prospect is looking to get out of the appointment as a reminder. 
3. Call, email, or leave a voicemail or two as the appointment date is approaching. Calendar reminders and notifications will go unnoticed on a busy calendar.
4. The last point on this one – don’t be annoying!!

Send Relevant Educational Materials

Since you have an appointment scheduled you should have identified the pain points that the prospect is facing. This is your chance to provide some educational materials about how your solution will directly help them and their organization overcome those challenges. 

Be sure to keep the materials that you are sending as tightly related to the prospect’s problem as possible. This does two things:

1. Educates and develops trust that you can solve their problem
2. Reminds them that they have this big painful problem that they can’t solve on their own.

Lastly, keep the AE and anyone else attending the meeting on copy of these email communications that you send. That way everyone knows which material was shared in the event any of it is referenced during the appointment. 

Ensure the Prospect is Highly Qualified

This sounds like a no-brainer but we’ve all had the sneaking suspicion that a prospect may not be as serious about entertaining a solution as they have led on. The act of scheduling an appointment does not necessarily mean the prospect is qualified.

If you’re feeling unsure about the level of qualification with a prospect, use the time leading up to the appointment to firm up any of your questions or concerns. 

A great way to get more information from a prospect is to spin it toward their benefit. For example, you could say something like this:

“To be respectful of your valuable time and to be as productive as possible during our appointment, can you explain…XYZ”

Conclusion

In summary:

1. Communicate Regularly
2. Send Relevant Educational Materials
3. Ensure the Prospect is Highly Qualified

Hopefully, those tips can help improve your appointment attendance rates. They work great for us here at Bay MarketForce and have allowed us to maintain strong working relationships with the AEs we are setting appointments for.

To learn more about why Bay MarketForce could be the growth engine you’re looking for, please feel free to Contact Us or Book an Introduction Meeting.

What Are The Different Types of Intent Data?

Intent Data

Introduction 

When I was new to the world of user experience and product management, I had no idea what “intent data” was. In fact, for a long time, it seemed like an esoteric topic that only people with PhDs in computer science could understand.  

However, now that we are all knee-deep in AI and machine learning, intent data has become more important than ever before. Why? Because your business can’t improve without knowing your users’ intentions!  

So what exactly is intent data? Let’s dive into the deep end of this pool together! 

1st party intent data refers to data that is collected from the user’s interaction with your product or service. 

This type of intent data is the easiest to collect and can be obtained by using a variety of methods, such as: 

• Surveys
• User clicks in an application (e.g., when they click on an ad) 
• Data from a CRM system (e.g., if someone enters their email address into your contact form) 
• Website visits 

2nd party intent data refers to data that is received from a third-party provider that you have integrated with. 

The data can be collected from an API call or SDK integration, but it isn’t directly collected from your product or service. 

For example, if you are integrating with Facebook Ads Manager (a 2nd party), then any information that comes back from Facebook about the ad clicks will be considered 2nd party intent data. 

2nd-party refers to other sources outside of your business (e.g., partners), such as: 

• Social media networks like Facebook and Twitter that share their user data with advertisers who pay them money to access it through advertising networks like Google Ads or Facebook Audience Network 
• Local Government Intent Data – Meeting Minutes

3rd party intent data refers to data that is received from an unconnected third-party provider via an API call or SDK integration. 

This can be a variety of sources, including social media platforms, app stores and ecommerce websites. 3rd party intent data can be used to supplement 1st and 2nd party intent data in order to provide a more complete picture of user intentions across all channels where people are expressing them (for example: shopping on Amazon). 

If you want better insights into what your users are doing and why they’re doing it, you’ll need high quality intent data. 

To get that information, you’ll need to either collect it yourself or partner with another company that collects it for their own purposes. Then, once you have this information in hand–or at least on its way–you can start looking at the differences between first party and second party intent data as well as third party intent data (which is often used by companies like ours). 

Conclusion 

This article has explored the differences between 1st party, 2nd party and 3rd party intent data. We hope it has helped you to understand the importance of collecting high quality intent data for your app or website.

To learn more about why Bay MarketForce could be the growth engine you’re looking for, please feel free to Contact Us or Book an Introduction Meeting.

3 Reasons to Automate LinkedIn Outreach to Grow Your Connections 

LinkedIn Automation

Here are 3 reasons why you should automate your LinkedIn prospecting process to grow your connections. 

Time-Savings:  

Automation tools can save you a lot of time by automating simple and repetitive tasks. Things like sending connection requests or messages on LinkedIn are easy tasks to automate. This frees up your time to focus on more important tasks like engaging with your prospects and creating valuable content. 

Improved Efficiency:  

LinkedIn automation tools can help you streamline your networking efforts and work more efficiently. For example, you can use a tool to send personalized messages to many connections at once, rather than one at a time. 

These tools can also automatically capture contact information like business emails and phone numbers that you can add to your prospecting database.

Achieve Greater Reach: 

Automation tools can expand your network and reach a larger audience on LinkedIn at a faster pace than you would be able to manually.  

For example, you can define an audience segment on LinkedIn based on job function and/or industry and then use an automation tool to send connection requests to those people in your market. This helps build relationships with people who are more likely to be interested in your products or services.  

To learn more about why Bay MarketForce could be the growth engine you’re looking for, please feel free to Contact Us or Book an Introduction Meeting.