It has been over 3 months since we introduced call tracking and the response from the campaign implementation for clients is phenomenal. We have managed to boost profits from 15%-45% by eliminating non-converting campaigns and throwing the budget to profitable ones. Simples.

An additional benefit is that we no longer need to ask for feedback continuously as we know how the business is moving. The additional sales/lead tracking facility with the software enables you to see total number of calls, as well as calls that are confirmed sales or potential leads. By attributing values to both the campaign cost and the number of sales/leads you get ROI, approximate but extremely useful. Read more

For small and medium-size businesses that are dependent on their telephone activity to generate revenue there are no excuses for not tracking the calls. When you engage in online marketing through various channels such as SEO, PPC and social media you need to be able to identify your income source.

Social Media Ltd is proud to introduce call tracking services focused on SEO & PPC campaigns. Stop losing track of your sales once the consumer picks up the phone, and use simple software that measures in detail where the call came from, if it was answered and how long it lasted for. Other features include sales and lead tracking as well as call recording, a powerful training tool for those in call centers. You can see the locations of the callers, their telephone number and how many times they called.

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Thousands and the figures could rise to hundreds of thousands website owners and marketing specialists are paying the price for having a free Analytics software. Without sending a clear note to agencies or publishers Google Analytics no longer displays AdWords traffic. Instead it categorises it as ‘direct; traffic. Can you see the oxymoron here?

Google, in what seems a clear case of power abuse, ‘blinds’ small business owners by displaying their own advertising pay per click traffic as ‘direct’ instead. The web is buzzing with dismay as to how such a thing could happen.

In a change of faith we will be advising clients to move away from free programmes and move into paid solutions as the incosistency and innacuracy of Google Analytics is now clearly evident.

The recent economic downturn is changing the way we think about our personal and corporate spending. But how can you keep your marketing budget in a credit crisis and get more out of your ad spend?

Surely a look at the basic principles of marketing won’t hurt:

1. Forget about market share. ROI is king when calculating the effect of your efforts. Refocus your campaigns around this concept and cash flow is bound to improve. Read more

I was one of the first people to preach about the greatness and added-value of Google Analytics. I suggested it to all of our clients. It is sad however to see that Google Analytics is not what it says on the tin.

Five reasons why:

1. The filters don’t work. I challenge anyone to prove to me that this is untrue. I have tried using them on at least 5 profiles but they do not work. I have correspondence with Google Support to back this up and plenty of live examples. So if filtering is important to you do not use them.
2. CPC vs SEO traffic. Unfortunate to say, but GA still does a pretty lame job of distinguishing between the two. Not something you would expect from the kings of search, is it?

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If you are using site-targeted campaigns with AdWords it’s very easy to root out invalid traffic depending on your goals. If for example you need many pageviews, have a look at your AdWords analysis in Google Analytics or any other analytics software you are using and check how many pageviews an advertiser is bringing on average. If your target is 3 PVs per user and a site is only generating 1.2 PVs then you know that the traffic you get is not really qualified.
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If you are using AdWords but can’t see the SEO vs PPC traffic go to your AdWords campaign ‘My Account’ tab, click on ‘Account Preferences’ and then enable ‘Auto tagging’ under ‘Tracking’.

A problem is that, for some reason, you will still get PPC keyword data attributed to your ‘organic’ traffic. This seems to be a bug and not a widely reported one. However you can get a much better overall picture of your spend and traffic trends.

Without any warning Google has released a brand new interface for Google Analytics. It is evident that the new release is not focusing on adding extra features but concentrates in displaying the same information in a new light.

At start, the interface takes some getting used to as the Analytics team has really shaken things up. There is more information per screen and the graphical representation takes centre stage. When looking at the keywords report for example you see a graph but also visits, average time on site, bounce rate etc. This helps you to focus on the bigger picture whilst looking at the detail. Read more