Category Archives: Local

What are Google Local Business Cards and How to Optimize Them?

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Discover one of the simplest and most affordable SEO services available now: Google local optimization with Local Business Cards

In 2019, about 50% of the 67,000 search queries made on Google Search are local searches.

Today, Google offers a fleet of help and often free tools under their Google My Business suite of strategies.

So, first, make sure your business is represented with its own Google My Business page.

Once that’s established, let’s look at other features Google offers you, a s a local entity to stand out.

How can your business tap into this user base, attract, and convert them into raving, paying customers to grow your business? And what does Google local optimization, local business cards, or Google My Business have to do with anything?

Let’s do a little experiment.

Open a new tab in your browser. Type “green tea in Houston” in the search box. What do you see in the Search Engine Results Page (SERPs)?

Anything like this?

Google My Business in action on top of search results

Notice the first result is a spice store. If you are looking for coffee and baked goods, you’d choose the second or third ones, right?

So, let’s pick Palm & Boy Coffee and Acai. Click on the name once.

This comes up:

Inside Google My Businessthe top Google local business card

Now, in the middle column, can you spot the following by scrolling down?

Google My Business reviews

And then this:

The last of the local business cards in a GMB listing

If you search for a business online, like 60% of consumers did in 2018, you may see this too:

Google knowledge panel directly in search results

The above series of screen shots demonstrate the cluster of features that make up Local Business Cards. Google calls all of it Google Posts and is yet another form of affordable SEO.

What is a Local Business Card?

A Google Business Card is a search result feature that displays a host of critical information about a local business.

The information typically displays on the right-hand side of search results. It is essentially what a search engine user needs to know about your business such as:

  • Your location on Google Maps, and directions
  • Official business website link
  • Type of business
  • Star rating
  • Contacts and address
  • Open hours
  • Relevant images

Even more critical, a local business card will help persuade (or deter) a potential customer through Google Reviews, busiest hours, and the competition’s appeal (as highlighted under “People also search for” section).

Instead of clamoring for overwhelming and expensive SEO techniques right out the gate, you can start by claiming your GMB listing. Then learn how to optimize your Google My Business Account.

How to optimize your local business cards?

Here’s how to improve and take advantage of Google Local Business Cards in the simplest, most actionable way so you can start immediately.

  1. Claim your GMB listing

Getting on GMB will almost instantly have your business feature in Local Finder, Local Pack, and Google Maps. You can link the listing to your business website.

You will also show you are a real business, in a specific location, and are open for business to boost your local and affordable SEO service.

  1. Fill all the information in

From your business name to type of business to upcoming events/promotions, to open hours, give searchers the information they need to get to you

  1. Use your niche keywords in your 300-word description.

Google only shows the first 100 characters on first glance so make those count.

Amplify what you offer without copy-pasting your menu (if you are an eatery). For example, highlight attributes such as free WI-FI, a vegan diet, and home delivery.

Don’t overuse keywords, too.

  1. Activate most relevant CTA

You’ll have several calls-to-action prompts to choose from such as read more, get, and buy. Use one that suits precisely what you want searchers to do after seeing the listing.

  1. Enable and solicit Google reviews.

And regularly respond to reviews whether positive or negative to show potential customers you care. Remember

Remember over 85% of people trust online reviews more than the would the word of a friend or a personal recommendation.

  1. Activate Click-to-Message

The feature allows consumers to easily text your business so you can connect more and convert them to buyers.

  1. Verify your GMB Listing

Log in to your GMB account. Select the business to verify. Choose verification method. Follow the prompts.

  1. Add striking images

Use sharp, 750 by 750 images or 30-seconds video on your listing to give a visual highlight of exactly what you offer. Show out your exterior, interior, team, the team at work. Ensure they accentuate the mood you want customers to know you for.

  1. Use Posts

Regularly post upcoming events such as promotions, karaoke, team building, and competitions to keep your listing fresh and buzzy. Each post lasts up to just 10 days.

With just these nine local business card optimization tips, you can start seeing increased exposure online whether you are big or small business with a limited SEO marketing budget. Try it and see. Will you?

 

A Guide to Link Your Google Analytics 4 Property to Big Query

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If you have worked with Google Analytics, chances are you’ve heard about Google BigQuery. BigQuery enables you to connect Google Analytics to other data sources. However, Linking GA4 is now easier compared to the older version of GA. GA4 brings data to the mass market and allows you to export data for free to BigQuery.

What Is Google Analytics 4?

Google Analytics 4 is a recent version of GA that utilizes firebase analytics on the backend. It’s the new default version of data collection and web traffic analysis software. You can link GA4 to BigQuery to analyze data.

What is BigQuery?

BigQuery is a cloud database that allows you to run substantial read-only data sets. It is designed to analyze data using Structured Query Language. It works well if the data doesn’t change often.

Why use BigQuery for your Google Analytics 4 property?

If you want to expand your reporting and analysis skills, the GA4 interface brings a ton of additional insights. You can contact an affordable SEO company to help with web servicing. Connecting Google Analytics 4 with BigQuery enables you to export data without billing charges.

Here are a few pros:

  • No data sampling
  • Corrects data
  • Connects GA4 with third-party data sources
  • Use native BigQuery connectors for advanced visualization

Now you are ready to setup GA4 property for BigQuery

How to link GoogleAnalytics 4 to BigQuery.

Here’s are the quick, easy steps to follow:

Step 1) Open your account and create a Big Query project

Click on the link and click on the drop-down option and create a project.

Step 2) Log in to your GA4 property.

After login, select the admin property on the bottom left of your screen. Next, scroll down to the property column and find product linking, then click Big Query linking.

Step 3) Connect your GA4 account to Big Query

Click the link option on the right corner of your screen and go to a link setup page. Click on choose a Big Query project. Select the project ID that you created and confirm. Enter data location for the cloud region and click Next.

Step 4) Configure your settings.

select your configuration for the linking of your GA4 account and BigQuery

Step 5) Access Ga4 data on Big Query

Go to your Big Query account and make sure you can access your projects. Then select API’s services on the left side and click on the dashboard. Next, on top of your screen, click enable APIS and S services.

On the search bar, type Big Query, select Big Query API and then click on the blue button labeled manage.

Next select credentials on the left side of your screen

Click on create credentials and use your account ID click create. And your account will be automatically generated.

Big Query is a robust cloud-based tool. It helps store large amounts of data. You can automatically import unsampled data when linking Google Analytics 4 to Big Query. It enables you to undertake deep analysis of new data without limits that the GA4 analysis can impose. By combining both Google tools, you can experience the benefits. Also, you can integrate Big Query with third-party tools for more efficiency.

Google Advanced Search Operators for Competitive Content Research

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The elation of completing a competitive keyword research plan often paves the way to the fear of losing a lot of opportunities. You need to have more than a list of keywords and knowledge of what your competitors are doing by sourcing affordable website SEO services. What will put you in an advantageous position is to know the content that is ranking high and how you are doing on that ladder.

Google search operators are special commands that refine your search capabilities. They boost productivity and help marketers optimize their campaigns. In addition, they give you a glimpse into your competitors’ sites so you can come up with greater ideas. By using Google search operators, you can be able to:

Find a competitors’ content

As a marketer, one thing you will always aspire to is to get featured on high-traffic sites. Google search operators can help you discover sites in your industry that accept guest posts.

Saving you time that you would have wasted searching for the site yourself, and this will help you easily locate a site that your competitors are using to rank highly. The exact formula you can use to search for your competitors’ sites is typing in the search bar the “name of the competitor’ is” – my competitors website.com and Google will show you where your competitor’s author bio is listed apart from their own websites.

For example, “Sharon Stone is” – superauthor.com. Google will then proceed to list for you all the sites that Sharon has been mentioned in apart from her own website.

Get better writers by using site

Writers have become a critical component of content making. It has therefore become crucial to find good writers who will help you market your content properly. Search operators can help you find them. If you want to write an article, it is easy to find a writer by doing a simple site search on the publication topic of your interest and choosing one of the many writers who will be listed.

Find your content gaps

To be able to keep up with your competitors or even get better than them, you might need to know what you are missing in terms of content. Let’s say, Wordgenious.com is your competitor, and you are aware that they write a lot of content on books, but you are also keen to know what else they write about without having to go through their whole site.

By typing in your Google search bar site:Wordgenious.com-intitle:books, you will see all the other topics apart from books that Wordgenious.com writes about. Through this information, you will be able to write content that seems to give your competitors a higher ranking.

These few tips are shared to help you make smart decisions about your content. Search operators are useful in helping locate information quickly. By looking through your competitors’ sites, you can tweak and come up with better content that will give you an advantage and let you stand out from your competitors. Better content means more traffic to your website.

Ten Tactics to Efficiently Manipulate Google Analytics Data

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Did you know it is possible to permanently or temporarily manipulate Google Analytics data? If you do not have the correct expertise or know-how, affordable SEO packages can help to boost the traffic to your site.

A lot of people and organizations do not have the knowledge needed to modify Google Analytics data. But learning how to do this can be very powerful to procure stellar business insights. There are two proven methods to manipulate data; temporary and permanent methods.

 

Permanent Google Analytics manipulation

Being able to permanently manipulate the data collected and shown on Google Analytics can be extremely powerful, but it also comes with several risks.

 

Here are some tips to permanently manipulate Google Analytics data:

 

Data import

Data import allows you to join your offline business systems data and the online data collected by Google Analytics. It is instrumental because it helps you organize, analyze, and act on this data set in ways that are more aligned to your unique and specific business needs.

 

There is a variety of data that you can upload to Google Analytics:

 

  1. Hit data
  2. Extended data – this can be user, content, product, geographical, or custom data.
  3. Summary data

 

Google Analytics filter

This strategy is ideal if you want to manipulate data in a report view. You can productively use Google Analytics filters to:

 

  1. Help collect data on your primary target.
  2. Remove third-party and employee IP addresses from your information.
  3. Excluded once all technical query parameters
  4. Setting up a separate test view in Google Analytics is critical if experimenting with filters to avoid completely ruining your Google Analytics.

 

Google Tag Manager

Implementing the Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a more practical approach to manipulating and tracking data collected through all the available options in GTM.

 

Temporary Google Analytics manipulation

You can temporarily modify your Google Analytics data in several ways. It is usually advantageous because you get better insights when you receive different views of your data.

 

Here are some tips to temporarily manipulate Google Analytics:

 

Report filters

Report filters fall into two categories: standard and advanced.

A standard report filter allows you to filter the first dimension of your report, which can be limiting at times. On the upside, it is straightforward to work with.

 

On the other hand, an advanced report filter allows you to add multiple selections for the reports you are looking at. In addition, it allows you to further drill down on the Google Analytics data that you would like to review.

 

Segments

Segments are probably the most excellent features you can find on Google Analytics. They allow you to manipulate ad-hoc and retroactive data in very effective ways. Since Google Analytics allows you to compare data for different audiences, applying a segment is a very strategic check that every marketer and analyst should know.

 

Hopefully, the tips above have given you better insight into how you can manipulate your Google Analytics data. However, it would help if you exercise caution when permanently modifying your Google Analytics data or, to be on the safe side, use affordable SEO packages from a reputable company to avoid completely messing up your data.

Google Updates Cumulative Layout Shift Scoring

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Many people who visit web pages have experienced unexpected movements where the button shifts itself on a webpage. This is a common problem called cumulative layout shift. For instance, you might be reading a blog post then an ad pops out. This will block you from reading the whole text. For that reason, Google updated cumulative layout shift scoring. Whether you have experience or not, here is everything you need to know about cumulative layout shift scoring.

What is Cumulative Layout Shift?

It is a part of Google core web vitals brought about by a group of layout shift scoring. It causes a shift of web page elements when a page is loading. These elements range from videos to images.

Reasons Why Cumulative Layout Shift Scoring Happens

Being a sudden movement of webpages content layout, there are many reasons why these problems occur. It is mainly caused by elements available on the pages. Such elements include:

Actions that are structured to function when there is an internet connection

The internet contains a lot of actions that are structured to function differently. Some images and adverts may appear when there is an internet connection causing a shift.

  • Wrong use of fonts.

Custom web fonts come in fall back to flash of unstyled text. These safe fonts are suitable for any browser. Both of them cause CLS and might affect elements on your page.

  • Poor Images.

In the process of loading a webpage or watching online photos, poor images might occur. This might contribute to cumulative layout scoring.

  • Advertisement or embeds that lack dimensions.

During page loading, the browser provides space for the ads and embeds. However, this will happen when the adverts have dimensions. Moreover, dynamic ads are easy to install when space is not allocated; other elements will start to move.

How to Fix Cumulative Layout Shift

CLS plays a vital role in identifying unexpected shifting on a page. Additionally, it also measures the number of unwanted movements. A good CLS score is essential because it increases user experience. Moreover, it provides affordable website SEO services, thus determining a good score for the company and user.

What is a Good CLS Score?

With all that in mind, you have understood the need to have an accumulative layout shift and why you need to have a good score. So what is an excellent cumulative score? A cumulative score is the total amount of changes that happen on a page while browsing.

How to Fix Cumulative Layout Shift.

To shift CLS, you need to change elements. All you need is to select helpful web pages. After that, you will notice a positive or negative shifting because of one of the elements. Lastly, it improves on speed to improve experience and performance.

Cumulative layout shift is the sudden movement of web page content layout. It is mainly caused when unstable elements move from their starting points as another element is added by force. CLS help in improving the score for both users and the company. While waiting for the Google updates in June 2021, to increase for the Google updates in June 2021, to increase ranking, consider the facts provided above.

How to Manage Crawl Budget and Boost Your Presence in Search

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A lot of business owners think that having a crawl budget is beyond their means. Rather, it’s much more common for anyone with an online shop to simply think that there isn’t one at all. However, if your business is expanding, that means your site is also growing. You’ll be adding more products, so your inventory grows. That means more product pages and more pages to manage. You’ll need to start thinking about setting aside that budget, then, sooner rather than later.

What is a crawl budget?

 

This refers to the resources that Google puts into crawling your pages. A crawl budget, some say, is about equal to the number of pages that are crawled every day. But that’s not really what happens. Some pages drain Google’s resources much more than others. That’s why the number of crawled pages isn’t the same every day. However, the budget remains constant. Google generally takes in four things when it allocates its crawl budget: the popularity of the site, how many pages you have, the update rate, and how well your site handles crawling.

 

Why does the budget matter?

 

The budget affects how quickly your pages show up on the SERPs. When there’s a mismatch, though, between the crawl budget and the update rate of your site, though, that’s a problem. It could lead to delays between the moment you make or update a page and the moment it pops up in the SERPs. Another likely problem is when Google doesn’t allocate enough crawl budget to your site. That means it doesn’t see your site as important. In that case, what you can do is improve the quality of your content. To pull that off, get help from an organic SEO company. With a team of experts to help you, you should be publishing better content in no time. That will help you ranking score.

 

Should you worry about the crawl budget?

 

Not always. It only becomes a problem when you run a large or medium-size website. And also, if your update rate is more than once a day or once a week. If that’s the case, you might need to start worrying about the crawl budget for your site. After all, it could be the culprit behind the delay in your permanent index. In addition, it could also be an issue if you are launching a new site or redesigning an old one. With so many changes happening all at once, you’ll likely end up with a crawling lag. However, this issue usually fixes itself sooner or later.

 

How do you make the most out of the budget?

 

You’ll need to fix your pages. This is where pros come in. Let them look over everything and pinpoint the problems with your site. They’ll start from your sitemap, SEO plugins, and more. They’ll know what to fix and replace, to prevent the crawling delay. With digital marketing experts to help you, you can also maintain your pages with no crawling lags in the future.

Shopify SEO – How to Optimize Your Shopify Site for Google

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The success of e-commerce sites has led to a surge in Shopify sites. If you’ve tried your luck at this, too, then you might be wondering how to improve your site. What can you do to get Google to boost your SERPs ranking? How do you increase the visibility of your brand and business? Pick up expert tips on how to make the most out of your store on Shopify.

Understand the Platform

 

The first thing you need to do is learn as much as you can about Shopify. How does marketing work on this channel? You also need to beef up on your understanding of search engine optimization or SEO. But if you already have your hands full running the business, then you might not have enough time to deal with your site. It would be best to pay for the services of an organic SEO company. With a team of pros to guide you, you’ll know what steps to take.

 

Fix the Structure of the Shop

 

The way you organize your content is crucial to the success of your shop. If the user experience isn’t the best, that could be a contributing factor to why your traffic is poor. The key is to make it easier for your customers to find the products they need. If your store has little to no order, then that’s probably compromising your revenue and profit. Hire a digital marketing team that knows how to fix the structure of your shop. That way, your customers won’t have to end up lost in a labyrinth.

 

Eliminate Frustrating Elements

 

What are you doing to keep your customers at your shop longer? Seasoned digital marketers know how to identify the frustrating issues with your site. For instance, do you have super-slow loading times? That irritates customers to no end and also one of the reasons why people often leave a shop. Also, take a look at your visuals. Are there too many images? Does the site look cluttered? Is the design streamlined or not? You’ll want to work together with pros to get rid of anything that causes your customers undue frustration. With those problems gone, then they’ll stay longer at your site. The longer they stick around, the more chances that they’ll buy your products.

 

Offer Collections

 

Another way to make it easier and faster for customers to find exactly what they’re looking for is to offer Shopify collections. These collections group products together. For instance, you may have sleepwear, sportswear, jeans, skirts, and more. By putting all the similar products together, you cut down on the amount of time it takes for your customers to find them. That makes for a faster and more convenient shopping experience. By offering that kind of shopping experience, customers will be more than happy to shop at your place again.

 

Research Target Keywords

 

Make the most out of your pages by using targeted keywords. Hire digital marketers to help you compile a list of these. That way, you can optimize your pages for search much better.

Core Web Vitals: What They Are & How to Improve Them

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The core web vitals refer to factors that Google looks at when checking the overall user experience of a page. There are three you need to know. The first is the largest contentful paint followed by the first input delay and then ending with the cumulative layout shift. You need to make sure these are a huge part of your pages. If you want your ranking to improve on the SERPs, you need to pay attention to all three. These are also referred to as loading, interactivity, and visual stability.

Why do they matter?

 

The Core Web Vitals tell you exactly what sort of page Google will look when it goes over your shop or site. It will affect your resulting page experience score. By knowing these factors, you can tell which areas of your pages need considerable work. You can also use these factors as a basis for why some sites rank high. With the information, you can figure out what pages you’ll need to prioritize when you set out to overhaul or fix your site. If you’re not quite certain how to proceed, it’s best to hire the services of an organic SEO company. Pros will know how to measure your Core Web Vitals. The data they’ll get from those results will be beneficial to your business.

 

How does that data help?

 

With pros to check out the Core Web Vitals of your pages, they can determine which areas are problematic for your site. Which ones are causing you endless problems? They pinpoint parts of your pages that aren’t doing so great. What do they do with all that information, then, you may ask? They use that as a guide to come up with a solution to all your problems. That’s why hiring pros work. When they’ve gotten a good look at what’s happening, then they’ll be ready to roll out plans and changes for your approval.

 

How do you fix your pages?

 

Well, start by hiring the right team. You need pros to go over your pages. If you know next to nothing about managing and maintaining sites, then get experts to help you out. If you don’t, poor user experience could be your downfall. It could even be one of the reasons why your ranking on the SERPs hasn’t improved. Look back on the last time you had upgrades done on your pages. If it’s been so long that you can’t remember, or long enough that your pages might no longer be compliant with the new changes rolled out by Google, it’s time to get help.

 

How do you find the right team?

 

Solid research will help. Look for digital marketing companies that offer the services you need. First off, determine the extent of the help you’ll be asking for. What do you need out of the team? Most businesses look for one-time hires. But there’s also the fact that you need to maintain those pages. It’ll work in your favor if you hire a team that you can work with for the long term instead.

What is E-A-T? Why It Matters in Local SEO

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E-A-T in digital marketing means Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. These are all the qualities that excellent sites must-have. If you’ve been wondering how you could increase your page ranking, then improving the E-A-T of your pages is one way to make that happen.

What is E-A-T in SEO?

 

To fully understand why E-A-T matters in search engine optimization, you’ll need to have a basic idea of what E-A-T is. Basically, it refers to having up-to-date content on your pages. The content must also be factual instead of fabricated. Do you have positive reviews on your pages? That counts too. Your content must be created by experts and must have relevant URLs on other sites. These aren’t new concepts, though. It’s been this way since Google started. What just changes over time are the measures that Google undertakes to keep ensuring that the content on the site is relevant, factual, and accurate.

 

Why Does It Matter for Local SEO?

 

Improving the E-A-T of your site will help you improve your local traffic. For instance, with better authoritativeness and trustworthiness, you can get more customers to like your page, interact with your content, and pay for your products or services. That all sounds wonderful. How do you improve E-A-T at the local level, then? If you’re already running SEO campaigns, then this might confuse you. That’s where hiring an expert organic SEO company comes in.

 

How Do You Improve at the Local Level?

 

You’ll need to work on your Google My Business Categorization and Services, for one. Is the information on your page accurate and true? Is it updated? Mistakes in your information will make it harder for customers to find you. Pros check that for you instead, build up great content, and also engage with customers who leave reviews. That helps generate more positive reviews of your business, which future customers see. That helps get you more traffic as well. You’ll also need to provide better GMB images. These images will help you get more clicks. So long as the images attached to your Google My Business page are appropriate and aligned with your business, that will help you get more traffic.

 

Why Hire an SEO Team to Help You?

 

There are a ton of details that you’ll find yourself attending to. More than fixing your Google My Business page, you’ll also need to make sure all your content on your website and social media pages are aligned with E-A-T principles. If your content is already doing that, then great. But if that isn’t the case, you’ll need to revamp your content and pages. When was the last time you updated your site’s web design? What about the navigational experience of your site? Are your pages mobile friendly? Hiring pros that can help you fix all those issues will help you get the attention of your target market and improve your conversion rates and sales. You could also hire that team to maintain your pages for you, allowing you to concentrate on your core business.

5 Ways to Measure Consumer Attention in Advertising

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Attracting high levels of consumer attention is essential to your conversions and sales. If that doesn’t seem to be happening, then you’ll need to start finding out what’s wrong. One thing you’ll need to do is set up ways through which you could measure consumer attention that your marketing efforts are getting. Here are five ways that you could try.

Measure Against Benchmarks

 

What are the regional as well as industry benchmarks? Use them to determine how successful your campaigns are. Over time, you can develop your own benchmarks or adjust those to fit your organization and needs. If you’re just starting out, though, stick with the regional and industry benchmarks first as they help you understand what’s best for your campaigns.

 

Look Beyond a Single Metric

 

Success is a combination of metrics used to measure consumer attention. That means you need to have a more holistic approach when you measure consumer attention. There are plenty of metrics that you can use. Determine channels available to you and figure out which metrics apply in your case. How are people engaging with your ads? That will help you pinpoint which metrics are well worth using. If you’re not sure how, seek out professional help. Hire an organic SEO company for assistance.

 

Know What Metrics Matter

 

Not all of those metrics will apply in your case, though. That’s why it’s also important to find out which ones matter to you. By that, we mean metrics that are aligned with your marketing and business goals. Metrics that support and can help you achieve those goals. This is why hiring pros is a must. They can help you understand all the metrics when you’re running specific campaigns and demonstrate which of those metrics and performance signals should you track if you want data that you can use to improve your campaigns.

 

Tell Compelling Stories

 

People want personalization. If the story of your brand sounds just like everybody else’s, that won’t grab their attention. That’s not to say that you should like just to create a narrative that they’ll find interesting. What you can do is personalize your brand. What kind of personality and character does it have? Taking that step will help your brand stand out from the rest. One way to create compelling stories for your brand, aside from creating a brand personality, is to use measurement outputs. With detailed campaign results, you gain more of your target market’s trust. More trust means more chances of conversions and sales, as trust means they’ll choose your brand over the rest. The detailed measurement outputs, though, will come from your agency marketers who will track campaigns and assess how the ads performed, what worked, and what went wrong.

 

Apply Core Attention Metrics

 

First, you’ll need to know what they are. These are essentially metrics that form the core of your campaigns. Meaning, these are at the center of your measurement strategy. Hiring pros to help you understand these will prepare you to measure metrics that are more advanced in the future.