Digital Profits

How does paying for each click on an ad translate to skyrocketing brand awareness and a healthy return on investment? The Profit Squad delves into the captivating world of Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, a game-changing tool for boosting your business growth in this episode. Get a sneak peek into the secrets of building effective Google Ads campaigns, hitting the bullseye with audience targeting, and maximizing your reach with the power of Performance Max. The episode also sheds light on the significance of crafting relevant and consistent ad content. But how do you outshine bigger competitors in the PPC arena? The answer lies in this episode. Plus, get a taste of the magic that Google's Keyword Planner tool can weave for your campaign performance. So, whether you're taking your first steps into PPC or looking to refine your existing strategy, this episode will take you on a thrilling ride into the PPC cosmos that could redefine your marketing strategy and accelerate your business growth. Tune in now!Episode Highlights:01:56 - Sometimes people call it paid traffic, paid media, digital advertising, all kinds of synonyms for that. Ads nowadays can take all different forms. Not just text, but also image-based shopping ads, banner ads, Gmail ads. Ads everywhere.08:27 - It's a self-serve type of platform. So, you go and create an account on Google ads, you make the account, you set up your targeting, you create an ad, and then you say exactly what keywords or audiences you want to serve to. And then those ads start to deliver. And there's a lot more that is behind that, like in the sauce as to how they can effectively deliver.14:14 - From Google's standpoint, every time one of these searches happens on Google, that returns sponsored results, that returns advertisements. There's an auction taking place behind the scenes because in most cases, there's not just one advertiser who wants their ads to show up for that keyword.Contact Ben PageRay SawvellBlake JohnWebsiteJoin the Community

Have you ever wondered how to make your business more discoverable online? Join Ben and Blake of the Profit Squad unravel the mysteries of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). With over 90% of online journeys starting with a search, understanding SEO is paramount.The Profit Squad demystifies SEO, revealing its pivotal role in driving organic traffic. Learn how search engines like Google operate and why being on the first page of search results is crucial. Discover the different types of search intent—Navigational, Commercial, Informational, and Transactional—through a clever library metaphor. Tune in to gain insights on Technical, On-page, and Off-page SEO, and the vital role of keyword research. Join us in this illuminating discussion, and equip your business with the tools for sustained online growth. Episode Highlights:02:51 - Google is where your users are, like where your audience is. They're searching for your products on Google, to find the products and services that you offer essentially. I think we have a couple of statistics here, but one of the big one that always stands out for me is that something like 90% or 92% percent of all online experiences begin with a search. And if you just imagine like the breadth of that, how many just online experiences are happening on a daily basis and how many of those–the vast majority of those–are beginning with like a Google search? You want to be in there. 07:12 - There's really three core processes that happen from a search engine's perspective and how they actually work. There's crawling, indexing, and serving results.  20:22 - If it's a high value, high potential keyword for your business, it's relevant to what you do, you can help the people searching for that. You want to try to appear as often and as highly as possible in that search engine result for that keyword. And that's what off page SEO is all about.Contact Ben PageRay SawvellBlake JohnWebsiteJoin the Community

The Profit Squad shares a treasure trove of strategies to launch a local service business, even with limited resources, in this episode. Learn how to create a buzz without a hefty ad budget by leveraging social media, Google My Business, and local communities. Establish a strong digital presence through platforms like Google Business Profile and Facebook. Discover effective strategies to get you started. Use compelling content to engage potential customers. Gain traction by posting frequently and interacting on platforms like Facebook and Google Business Profiles. Harness the power of customer reviews for trust and credibility. Break through competition with targeted ads and a well-structured website. Allocate a budget for quick visibility boosts on platforms like Facebook and Google. Don't miss out on these golden nuggets of wisdom for launching and growing a successful local service business. Tune in to the episode and kickstart your entrepreneurial journey!Episode Highlights:12:34 - It's got to be social. But if you're going to do Meta, do it well, like be consistent. Obviously, make sure NAP is good. Your name, address, phone number is all up to date. But I think it's really important to not spread yourself too thin. 19:40 - I would post multiple times because it's like in these ecosystems where it is a local business, local service business, or even a brick and mortar, the idea is like there's a finite number of people that are your potential customers within that world, in that ecosystem. It's like what you're trying to do is you're trying to reach those people. And that's where I think the depth strategy comes in. But ultimately, you want to do surround sound. 23:44 - You'd probably want a good mix. Specifically, your platform, if it is Facebook, then I would say, "Yeah, you're going to want reviews on Facebook." But really I think the scalable way is Google Business Profile because that is going to be a landing spot for you, for as long as you're in business.Contact Ben PageRay SawvellBlake JohnWebsiteJoin the Community

Are you ready to supercharge your business growth? Join the Profit Squad as we delve into cutting-edge AI technology transforming search engines. In this episode, we unravel the potential of Microsoft's Search Engine Experience and Google's Gemini. These powerful tools extract invaluable insights, refine training data, and master complex formulas.Discover Google Duet AI's game-changing features, from the composer editor to the AI prompting engine, revolutionizing content creation and data organization. We demystify optimizing for SGE, emphasizing the importance of understanding generative AI sources. Tune in to learn how to provide expert explanations for each presented snippet, revolutionizing your search engine results. Explore the integration of voice search with AI-powered searches, streamlining user interaction and refining data analysis. So, don't miss the insights on AI's role in shaping future search engine results pages. From anticipating user needs to seamless ad integration, you'll gain the edge in digital marketing.Episode Highlights:04:21 - I actually have some complaints about generative AI in search because just as the SEO guy, Google's always preaching like core web vitals, and cumulative layout shift  (CLS) is a core web vital. And the way that it works is you Google something, and then sort of at the top of the search result page, there's this generative ad. Sometimes when you Google, it'll just start spinning. It'll start thinking right away and you'll scroll down. And while you're sort of scrolling down to find whatever result you want to click on, it'll expand all of a sudden and the layout shifts completely. 11:22 - From an organic standpoint, it's almost like the evolution of optimizing for featured snippets and zero click results. Some of the best practices or thoughts, for me, I'm thinking structured data. Some of the basic things still apply. You have to make sure that you have a fast site. It's easy to crawl. It's easy to index. 18:10 - I wonder if there's an argument for if you can conduct your own original research, like basically going as deep into the well as you can. So, like go to the original source to generate something that's truly new and valuable or a unique take on it, because otherwise you're just like 1 of 10 and you get lost in the noise of the crowd.Contact Ben PageRay SawvellBlake JohnWebsiteJoin the Community

In the ever-evolving digital landscape, website migrations are inevitable. But are you prepared to tackle the challenges they bring? Website migrations can encompass a variety of changes, from hosting and domain name shifts to CMS changes and complete redesigns. But here's the kicker: a smooth migration requires expertise. Experience matters when it comes to ensuring all elements are accounted for during this complex process.The impacts of migrations are profound. URL structures can shift, impacting user experiences, content, and structured data. Delicate elements like redirects, often overlooked, can make or break the migration's success. The Profit Squad shares real-world insights, like the client-requested launch that resulted in unexpected URL changes and a drop in organic traffic. A cautionary tale that highlights the importance of a robust redirect strategy for redesigns.Changing domains? Keep content consistency intact. Listen to the Profit Squad as they outline the dos and don'ts – maintaining page paths, transferring structured data, and conducting content audits. So, don't forget the importance of SEO expertise during a redesign. Tune in to learn how to help mitigate risks and ensure a seamless transition.Episode Highlights:12:46 - In all of these redesigns, you need to have a really strong redirection, a redirect strategy like you just mentioned, Ben, and it needs to be one-to-one, like as one-to-one as humanly possible. And if you are changing domain names, I recommend trying to keep the content on the legacy site as close to the same as possible on the new site.14:43 - A lot of people sometimes have seen that like on actual websites, they'll have a message saying under construction. And so, like for temporarily they'll point you to this other place. But, eventually and I would say usually within like four to six weeks, I would try to keep the temporary redirect. You come back to that page and your content is back. 25:57 - There's like one case of a current client where they redesigned and we were brought in something like nine months after the redesign site launched, and they were down at that point, 30% to 40% organic traffic year over year was being lost. And subsequently it took 12, you could even argue like up to 18 months, after that point to start getting back to parity, which was, in this case, a combination of building out that new content. ContactBen PageRay SawvellBlake JohnWebsiteJoin the Community

Are you curious about the secrets behind transforming a behavioral healthcare organization's pay-per-click campaigns into a roaring success? Join the Profit Squad as we team up with Sandstone Care, a national behavioral healthcare provider. In this episode, we share our expertise in managing Google and Microsoft Ads for Sandstone Care, guiding them to overcome challenges related to substance use, addiction, and mental health. Sandstone was facing escalating costs and fierce competition as they expanded into new markets, but the game-changing principles of paid traffic and a customer-focused approach turned the tide. Discover the strategies to boost treatment center admissions by a staggering 134% while reducing the cost per admission by 25% in just 90 days. Find out how to align real-world results with digital platforms, and gain insights into how to operationalize data for better decision-making.From restructuring campaigns to leveraging custom dashboards and refining ad copy, this episode offers practical takeaways that can elevate your own digital marketing efforts. Ready to revolutionize your digital marketing game? Tune in to learn how Sandstone Care's success can inspire your strategies and lead to better PPC outcomes, and be sure to log into your ad accounts and apply the insights shared to optimize your campaigns for remarkable results. Episode Highlights07:53 - I think the first big piece is ensuring that the cost per admit data that's actually happening in centers is closely reflected or you're getting the appropriate conversion signals into the ad account. So, that's like one of the biggest pieces when we first started to ensure that we have proper data within the ad accounts.10:31 - We were seeing higher conversion rates for chats, and then you might see kind of a middling conversion rate for phone calls, and then you would see maybe the lowest conversion rate or lowest number of conversions for VOBs, because higher friction, more personal information is required. It's a high intent form, and so on.22:11 - We're trying to find like top themes or combinations that have performed best historically. So, we're peeling those out and making sure that we have coverage for those top performers everywhere. That's really crucial because if you're running something, you already have some historic data that you can use to your advantage. I would say like the other big piece is really doing like a competitive and SERP like search engine result page analysis.ContactBen PageRay SawvellBlake JohnWebsiteJoin the Community

In the world of treatment center marketing, digital strategies hold the key to success. We explore the importance of data-driven decisions and hyper-targeting to make the most of your marketing budget. Join us for an insightful episode where The Profit Squad uncovers the crucial role of digital marketing in driving admissions for treatment centers and they also discuss how SEO and PPC take the spotlight while navigating regulatory challenges.The Profit Squad emphasizes the need for medically reviewed content to establish authority and legitimacy. They dive into how call tracking solutions can capture crucial data on sources of incoming phone calls as well as talk about the connection between search terms and admits to scale efforts effectively. Take note of their tips for navigating Google Ads restrictions while boosting your domain authority.Tune in to find out how building custom intent audiences can compensate for remarketing limitations and learn how to maximize the potential of your Google Business profile and landing pages to showcase services and levels of care. Discover the significance of local SEO/PPC and mid-high funnel content creation for effective treatment center marketing and learn why investing in CRM and tracking total advertising investment yield valuable insights for decision-making.Episode Highlights:06:30 - When I look at the search engine results pages for common keywords that you'd expect or you'd maybe want to be visible for within your industry here, there are some issues. It's like there are lead aggregator sites that, because they're running the SEO hustle in some markets quite well, they've kind of dominated or they get a lot of the click share and then they're trying to resell leads or place leads like a paper lead type thing. Some of the tactics involved there are a little bit questionable. I see a lot of deceptive advertising take place.15:04 - Going back to the multi-site versus single site, your competition is going to vary by market, so really understanding who the top players are by market is going to be important when it comes to who am I competing with when it comes to organic SERPs, along with from an auction insights' standpoint with paid. Your results are going to differ based on who the different players are by market.25:05 - It's actually interesting because it's not new, like peer review journals are a thing, decades old, but I feel like in the web, it's a relatively new, I'll call it a trend. But it's the idea that you're sending this signal to say to Google like, "Hey, this piece of content or this article is reviewed by a medical professional." From a your money, your life perspective, YMYL, I think that can go a long way and I don't know if you're proving that it's more factual necessarily, but you're really like kind of putting a name to it and saying, "Hey, this is legit."ContactBen PageRay SawvellBlake JohnWebsiteJoin the Community

Are you looking to enhance your digital presence and drive more local traffic to your business? The Profit Squad conducts an in-depth audit of a real company and shares valuable insights and strategies to optimize the company's digital presence. Blake emphasizes the importance of data gathering using tools like Semrush and Screaming Frog for the SEO audit. Ray suggests focusing on three key areas for paid advertising: identifying the biggest opportunities, cutting wasted spending, and implementing essential account basics. Ben highlights the significance of assessing data quality and understanding the business model and customer lifetime value during the audit process. Listen to their initial observations, including the need to target specific cities on the homepage to differentiate from high statewide competition. Hear their professional recommendations about implementing schema markup and optimizing the website with filters and geo-based mentions of completed projects which can further enhance local SEO. Discover the importance of targeting bottom-funnel keywords, leveraging confusion search techniques, and utilizing local search ads and directories. Learn actionable strategies to boost your digital marketing efforts.Episode Highlights:14:28 - It's like proximity and just having a strong website with good content. That's really as far as you can go. Those are hard to quantify on the SEO side, but they're extremely important because so many searches happen with that near me modifier.26:40 - As marketers, we can say there's opportunity for boom, boom, boom, but if they can only fulfill like, let's say, "Hey, we're not taking on service right now. We're only doing new projects." That changes how we're going to go out and market for that as well. So, it's really clearly understanding what is the key objective and then how do we best help support that.33:06 - You should just really make sure you have a presence, because not only are potential clients going to find you there, but it helps improve your authority overall, because there's sort of a baseline that all these contractors have. And if you are missing that baseline compared to all of your competitors, you're at a serious disadvantage. It's not going to put you ahead of anybody, but it kind of at least puts you foundationally at a good starting place with all of your competitors. ContactBen PageRay SawvellBlake JohnWebsiteJoin the Community

Are you frustrated with your marketing efforts falling short of expectations? In this thought-provoking episode, the Profit Squad dive deep into the world of data-driven marketing with expert insights. Join us as we explore the challenges faced by businesses, uncover key metrics to track, and reveal strategies to diagnose and overcome marketing obstacles.Discover the importance of data analysis and communication with your marketing team before making impulsive decisions. Learn how to identify the root causes of marketing challenges by leveraging the 80/20 inversion and Occam's Razor principles. Understand the significance of aligning internal expectations and setting realistic projections.Tune in to uncover the key metrics that reflect volume and efficiency throughout the customer journey. Gain insights into optimizing marketing channels, SEO strategies, audience targeting, and more. Explore the value of testing, failing fast, and continuously experimenting with new possibilities.Episode Highlights:11:49 - Again, it goes back to alignment, where we can make a change in one area that might drive a 2% total growth of revenue, or we can make a change somewhere else that is 30% of the pie. Make some changes there and really move the needle forward, because it's a larger chunk of revenue. Just thinking from an impact standpoint. Are we making the changes that really matter? 21:14 - Everything is kind of connecting the dots here, but make sure you're doing the basics right. One specific opportunity analysis that you can do from an SEO perspective is a keyword gap analysis. If you have a handful of competitors that you know are kind of a pain in your side, take a look at those, do a keyword gap analysis.25:20 - Prioritize the user's need. Answer their question. Solve their problem. This is more of an SEO thing, but think about the intent of the search and the content that you're providing. If the intent is to compare products and your content is just like, "My product is the best," you're never going to rank. It's never going to work.ContactBen PageRay SawvellBlake JohnWebsiteJoin the Community

Ready to supercharge your digital marketing strategies? In this episode, the Profit Squad discusses the rapid evolution of AI in digital marketing. Google's AI Bard now provides real-time accurate responses, while GPT has advanced significantly, even passing the bar exam. Marketers must position their products strategically to compete in the AI-driven landscape.  AI tools can optimize workflows, automate tasks, and craft Google Ads scripts. Experimentation is key, so ask AI questions to leverage it as a tool and improve SEO campaigns. SERP analysis with AI helps evaluate search intent and identify opportunities. Explore the web access of GPT-4, leverage AI for personal activities like gaming or financial planning, and optimize automation tasks for higher-quality insights.Tune in to learn how to unleash the power of AI in growing your business faster. Discover how AI-driven search results, advanced language models, and cutting-edge tools can transform your marketing game. Supercharge your strategies, stay ahead of the competition, and grow your business faster with the Profit Squad.Episode Highlights12:17 - It's almost like priming or getting the AI ready to go and making sure that it understands before it gives you the output that you're expecting. Typically, in my experience, the more detailed you are, the longer your prompt is, the more specific you are, and I think this is a key component,. You make sure that GPT or the AI understands what you want it to do, and then it spits it back to you, is extremely important. 14:33 - I don't think you get very good results without seasoning. Like anytime I am working with an AI tool, if I don't give it basically three prompts before the real prompt that I want to give it, it's always a poor response and so, I am always building it up. 21:21 - Sometimes it will return things that are not true. They're inaccurate, and they're viewed commonly as bugs. The system made an error. That reference doesn't really exist, or that's not a real thing, or that's a lie. It's not a fact or whatever. But what if you started to think of, instead of bugs, they are features? In other words, we don't fully understand how this model is coming to the output that it is in all cases. And the phenomenon of you can literally copy-paste the same prompt in three different threads and get three different answers. ContactBen PageRay SawvellBlake JohnWebsiteJoin the Community

What does it take to be a successful digital marketer? How can you build a marketing team that excels in today's competitive landscape? In this episode, we dive into the world of digital marketing, exploring the importance of core values, specialized expertise, and the ever-evolving skills needed to thrive in this field. Recruiting a digital marketer who aligns with your organization's values is crucial. The Profit Squad emphasizes the importance of dedication, continuous learning, and integrity as essential traits for a great marketer. Understanding how to connect people and products lies at the core of this role.Building a successful marketing team involves thinking through core values. Ben Page shares valuable insights on how core values impact hiring, firing, rewarding, and promoting within an organization. Ray Sawvell highlights the significance of customer obsession, while Blake John emphasizes the value of truthfulness and trustworthiness in fostering deeper conversations and understanding. Tune in to get insights into specializing or generalizing when marketing and why soft skills are just as important as technical expertise. Episode Highlights09:53 - I just think it's so valuable to have a partner who is willing to give you the bad news and not try to spin everything to be good news. Because we're not always going to have every single month, every single week, it's going to be, "You're going to increase 10% every month." It's never going to happen that way. Sometimes it's going to be things in the data when you're digging in whatever it might be, that could be an issue. And it needs to be surfaced, it needs to be discussed, and you need to tackle it.14:23 - Definitely being a specialist is the way to go. Being open to learning, which goes back to the values that we were talking about earlier, being curious, willing to learn. Understanding other disciplines is very important, because then you're able to call out different patterns that you see. But hey, if I find an SEO problem, I'm going to Blake but I'm not just saying, "Blake, go fix this issue for me. Blake, I think we have a gap in XYZ content. Can you check this out based on this keyword?" So, it's just different conversations that you're having that's getting you one step closer to a potential resolution.32:02 - If you combine the curiosity and the passion for your skill set with the relentless mindset of, "I'm going to find a way to use this. I'm going to apply it. I'm going to make connections. I'm going to go deeper. I'm going to find what I don't know." And knowing there's a lot more you don't know   than you do know. I think that's right, regardless of where someone is in their career development and their skills development. ContactBen PageRay SawvellBlake JohnWebsiteJoin the Community 

Ben Page is joined by Ray Sawvell to discuss the tradeoff between hitting CPA (cost per acquisition) goals versus hitting MQL (marketing-qualified lead) goals in PPC campaigns. They explain how optimizing for efficiency can cause businesses to miss out on revenue opportunities, limit testing, choke off funnel growth, and fail to factor in lead quality. Instead, they recommend having different conversions defined and optimizing different campaigns for various objectives to determine which conversion actions work best. They also stress the importance of understanding marketing-qualified close rates by conversion action in finding campaign types with higher close rates or allocating more budget to the best-performing campaigns. They further define terms such as CPA and MQL, discuss the importance of data and technology in evolving PPC strategies beyond what can be seen in Google Ads, and touch on the tradeoff between volume and the stress put on internal teams while qualifying leads. Ray emphasized the importance of having a business intelligence dashboard that combines web analytics and CRM data to surface KPIs, as well as closed-loop tracking (including call tracking) to understand all the paths to conversion and avoid missing out on revenue opportunities. Ben stressed the need to optimize campaigns for the right conversion action (such as MQLs) to achieve business outcomes, balance growth with efficiency, and align incentives to achieve business goals. Overall, Ben and Ray provide valuable insights for marketers looking to improve their PPC campaigns and make data-driven decisions to drive business growth. Don't miss out on valuable insights and practical advice for improving your PPC campaigns in this episode! Tune in to learn the importance of hitting MQL goals, optimizing for different conversion actions, and the role of data in decision-making. Plus, learn how to balance growth and efficiency and align incentives to achieve your business goals.Episode Highlights01:53 - The biggest thing that I tend to think of is you're optimizing for efficiency versus growth. So the numbers that the platforms give you might be lying. They may not be telling you the entire story. So a good example here is you could be leaving revenue on the table. So Google Ads might be giving you one number where you're getting a ton of conversions. Whether that's a form fill if you're a lead gen business or E-com. But obviously we're talking about legion. So you may be optimizing for just as many conversions as possible versus qualified ones. That's why you need some type of data connector like Salesforce or HubSpot to really understand down funnel, what those marketing qualified leads look like.13:38 - I'm sure many listeners have ran Facebook lead ads, for example, and they're like, oh man, my agency or my team delivered so many junk Facebook lead ads because it's low quality or it's garbage and it’s like, well, how do you optimize better? And it's like a different conversation, but it falls directly in line with marketing qualified leads. Like are they qualified? Are they not? Where do you put the budget? And that's kind of like how is the buy happening? Like, where are you putting your dollars to work most efficiently for you?21:14 - Yeah, I mean, depending on the vertical you're in, it's key that you measure your online and offline conversions. So if you're only looking at online, you're definitely missing a major piece of the pie. So really, looking at online and offline and understanding what percentage goes towards online and offline, it will help you a ton.Contact

Ben Page and Blake John discuss the importance of creating an SEO strategy that not only increases traffic and rankings but also grows marketing qualified leads (MQLs). They highlight common factors that cause failed SEO strategies and stress the need to measure the right Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to achieve business outcomes. Ben and Blake emphasize the importance of prioritizing conversion funnels and continual optimization for a given user need and keyword. The discussion includes evaluating campaign returns, segmenting traffic by intent, understanding where traffic lives in the funnel and its conversion potential, and emphasizing the value of focusing on product or service-based traffic to drive potential MQLs. Ben and Blake caution against copying competitors but advise auditing their content and understanding successful practices to deliver two, five, or ten times more value than their competitors for a user's need. They conclude that successful SEO strategies involve setting goals, selecting metrics, and implementing SEO strategies that focus on user needs and adding value to surpass competitors. Tune in this episodes to discover valuable insights and strategies to create an effective SEO strategy. Learn how to avoid common pitfalls in failed SEO strategies, prioritize conversion funnels, measure the right KPIs, and create better content that fulfills user needs for long-term business success.Episode Highlights02:56 - What your digital marketing channel should do for you is drive your bottom line and put heads and beds. Get leads. If you're a landscaping company, you want to work on more lawns this summer, that's what we need to do. Like, that's what SEO and PPC and every other channel that you prioritize in your marketing should be doing for you. Traffic and rankings. Sometimes you get caught up in that. It's easy to get caught up in that, but at the end of the day, it's like, that bottom line that you really need to focus on.07:25 - I think if you can get to that level of specificity, you're on your way, because now you have a desired end state and you can create a strategy to try to accomplish that. But the first thing you need to do is really benchmark where you're at today and compare current state versus that future desired state.32:24 - When you're doing SEO strategy, what's that business level outcome that you want to drive? You have to measure appropriately. You have to focus on the right user needs that are aligned with that outcome. And then finally you need to put in the reps and the work to provide the best solution to the user need. And that's really all it is.ContactBen PageRay SawvellBlake JohnWebsiteJoin the Community

Ray Sawvell and Blake John join Ben Page to discuss the importance of competitive intelligence in digital marketing. They start by highlighting how often the competitors that clients bring to marketers are different from their digital competitors. The team then explain why competitive intelligence is important and how it can help businesses understand where they stand in their market. They also mention how tracking the competitive landscape over time can inform adaptive strategies. Blake and Ben emphasize that while businesses should focus on serving their customers, they still need to keep an eye on their competitors. Furthermore, they suggest that gaining awareness of who the significant players are in a given acquisition channel and reverse-engineering their model of acquisition can help businesses understand the market and develop effective strategies. The team share expert tips about understanding your competitors' tech stack, evaluating their tools and strategies, and analyzing their site structure to identify gaps that your business can fill. They recommend using tools such as Call Tracking Metrics, Salesforce, Hot Jar, Microsoft Clarity, and Screaming Frog to gain insights into your competitors' online presence.Ben, Blake, and Ray stress the significance of identifying competitors and understanding their digital marketing strategies, including keyword gaps, creative gaps, and offer gaps. The team advise using tools like SEMrush to conduct keyword gap analysis and identify the whole keyword matrix. They also mention that understanding keyword spaces and content gaps in your industry, user needs and specific user intents is crucial in building content and ranking for keywords organically and improving your SEO efforts. Join Ben, Blake, and Ray as they share actionable insights and expert tips to outsmart your competitors and grow your business faster.Episode Highlights03:28 - There's the idea that if you're always pursuing your competition and chasing after them, that you're always going to be in second place. So I think on the one hand, you need to concern yourself with your customers and your product and just serving their needs more effectively, more efficiently, to gain an edge. However, I think it is still useful to keep an eye on the market and your competitive set.14:16 - I will say, if your target audience is older and it's more of a B2B type industry or niche, Bing is relevant because a lot of people are on work computers. They're doing their searching. They're doing their looking for their next supplier or whatever it might be on their company laptop. And a lot of times the default browser and the default search engine is Bing. And so, honestly, it could be relevant. But for most almost every other industry, though, I would recommend Google.37:15 - Ad Creative is like one of the biggest insights you can gather from competitive analysis. And again, I want to preface all this with we're not going to copy & paste like Blake mentioned and just take everything and put it into our ad copy, but there are tools out there or we can Google it to find exactly what are our competitors going to market with from a visual format copy offer. There's a lot of different ways to look at this and then you can determine how you may want to go to market for a specific product or offer as well. Getting more tactical, you can use tools like Facebook or Meta Ads Library where you can literally see the ads that they are running on Facebook today. And you can find out, are they running videos? Carousel ads? Are they doing memes? Like, what are they doing for their marketing strategy? And then what might be gaps in your current marketing strategy from an...

Today's topic covers vital trust between digital agencies and their clients. Our hosts Ben, Ray, and Blake discuss key points that can help strengthen the relationship between both parties, such as open communication, honesty about challenges or opportunities for improvement, realistic expectations in terms of time and money constraints, avoiding empty promises from agencies, and picking an agency with clear plans to achieve desired results. They also highlight red flags like asking for a budget before pricing or lack of transparency when it comes to budgets and team setup, as well as signs that it may be time to look for a new partnership, like flatlining performance or lack of meaningful conversations regarding growth strategies. Are you feeling overwhelmed by the complexities of digital marketing? Are you in need of expert advice on how to maximize your ROI? Tune in now to get actionable guidance on how to build trust with your digital agency! Learn about the challenges and pitfalls to avoid when building a successful relationship. Discover what signs indicate it's time for a new partnership, tips for setting realistic expectations, and advice on finding an agency that has a clear plan and roadmap for success. Listen to learn more about creating effective partnerships that will deliver results!Episode Highlights12:15 - One of the biggest reasons why a client wants to hire an agency is for them to be led. If you're not bringing that strategy to the table and you're not responsible for executing and the client is, that's a big reason why it'll fail. There's a big difference in my mind from consulting a client on strategy versus waiting for the client to tell you what to do.29:40 - There's nobody that good who can do everything, unless they just have a bunch of time that they're working on. In my experience, it's better to have someone who is working on specific facets of the business based on how large you are. Having that generalist versus specialist in my experience has been huge.36:03 - Having a documented process for how to do keyword research, how to develop a content brief, how to tactically complete a task will make that agency so much stronger, because again, it comes down to less of the individual's capacity to do the work if they're new that might not be as strong of an analyst. But if they have a strong process to lean on, we're not worrying so much about how good this analyst is or more about how good this process is.ContactBen PageRay SawvellBlake JohnWebsiteJoin the Community