by Daniele Masiello | Aug 1, 2022 | Creatives
Some people are always gonna say a good product just markets itself, and if so, there would be no need for performance marketing agencies like us. Apart from the fact that this would be a scenario we can’t imagine because we have many mouths to feed and are panicking at the thought, all the advantages and measurable results we provide our clients with every day would be a lie.
Well, what about if we stop imagining unreal scenarios and just claim performance marketing is something that no company can do without? This is particularly true when we talk about ad creatives, increasingly a big driver for performance. You know how we run things, right? We can’t stand metaphysical discourses but rather go deep and tactical and get a sense of how impactful good against bad creatives can be.
A little bit of definitions
First things to clear up are:
- What to expect from good or bad creatives
- How to define a good or a bad creative
When it comes to defining good and bad creatives, we should look at the performance. ROAS it’s the ultimate KPI we optimise creatives for, but we’re also looking at IPM, CPI, CTR, CR, CTI, so you get the picture: creatives can make or break your campaign.
We know that good-performing creatives help you grab the attention of your audience immediately. Your buyer persona is browsing Facebook, Instagram, TikTok – whatever, and you have only one second to grab their attention right away. So the main question is: what to address when we’re optimising or building creatives? There is a long list of actions and things to take into account, keeping in mind that the solution must merge art with science and aim at creating efficiency. This is a job for a performance marketing professional.
A process to success
You know how we do, we’re lazy folks who like to get things done achieving maximum results with minimal effort. This “least pain-most gain” mantra always led us to craft amazing automation tools, marvellous scripts, outstanding software and – in this case – a proper process to follow when coming up with new creative concepts and variants.
We called this baby Creatives Testingland and is an approach to developing new creatives – how to improve them and make them even better. The framework includes, along with the analysis of key factors and how & what elements are needed, all the steps that need to be taken in order to arrive at new concepts, test variants and create a winning idea.
This happens by analysing your competitors’ products, identifying the product you want to analyse, coming up with creative concepts, testing strategy development, statistical evaluation and microdata analysis (gathering clues from socials, websites, forums, SERP etc.).
You might be questioning yourself “why is this framework unique?” It’s not, we’re not only lazy, we’re also honest. But we know it’s outstanding since it’s done after a perfect knowledge of the entire process – as in our style, sorry for flexing! We have mapped the process that should be followed to come up with new creative concepts and to test them (by using a multiple regression model).
So what does it look like?
Find creative concepts
- Competitive research
Competitive research and analysis are fundamental to learn from best practices in the industry (both in terms of branding and advertising) and become aware of any gap that might be fulfilled. In order to define the competitors, it’s crucial to understand the competitive landscape so as to have a clear idea of the benchmark and compare similar business models.
- Strategic & Objective Analysis
Brands and products landscapes can be extremely wide and confusing. One brand might serve and offer many categories and products at a time, so it’s better to pick one objective for the analysis and properly master all the touchpoints involved. Focus on one not-too-broad vertical and study the entire concept category from as many specific angles as possible.
- Microdata Analysis
The world of the web is full of traces left by users: their questions and doubts, the comments they leave on forums, communities and blogs, and -of course- all the information available on social media. By reading what and how users write, their emotions and feelings, their concerns about the product’s pain points, etc. it’s possible to anticipate their needs and craft more relevant ads.
Generate Concept Categories
Once a clear picture is available, it’s time to put all of that together in a bible where all values, concepts and specifications are included in a simple, understandable manner. This is crucial for effective communication between the scientific and artistic brains!
Best is to have different, several concept categories (USP, user/market pain point, product, seasonality, etc.) and generate multiple variants for each concept. By doing so, a range of valid and ready-to-rock creatives will be there to be tested out in the world.
Test strategy deployment
- Test multiple concepts
The time of truth is about to strike! This is the moment to run campaigns with broad audiences and wait until a statistically significant number of impressions is reached, so as to analyse performance and elect the winning adset through a relevant KPI. Congratulations on reaching the top step of the podium, Adset!
- Iterate on the winning concepts
We shouldn’t dismiss the saying “never change a winning team”. It’s something that’s been going on for ages, who are we to argue with that? Just a funny way to say: when the time is right, damn back the winning horse!
- Reporting & insights
This is the most boring part, where there are people getting all the data together, analysing the heck out of it and visualising it on perfectly mannered tables, charts and other stuff that makes people yawn at meetings. We might be joking or at least engaging in hyperbole (not sure), but this is indeed vital for the final step that identifies the perfect, conversions-machine creatives.
Statistical evaluation
Without bogging down into irrelevant, non-scientific details, this is the place where questions get answers. It needs the analysis of all the data gathered throughout the entire process, aiming at selecting suitable endpoints and hypotheses as well as appropriate statistical methods to test them.
Wow! This sounds so professional, true. A bit boring, also true, but it’s just the way it is. Luckily, we are a performance marketing agency in love with the scientific method, which means our nerdy tech brains can take into account millions of metrics and convert them into data-driven decisions. Like the award-winning creative that wins it all and drives the best possible results.
Task complete.
Simple as that?
Not really. Much more complicated. And as everything scientific and data-driven, needs a technical team to be calibrated. Imagine? We have it. So you might want to reach out 🙂
PS if you understood the Elliot Alderson fake world reference at the very beginning, you just won a free creatives assessment. Just prove it once you get in contact with us.
by Daniele Masiello | Jul 22, 2022 | SEO
EUREKA! We just gave life to a new, super-cool SEO script
We don’t use this Ancient Greek slogan lightly folks. We have recently found ourselves like a Columbus character, in the New World of Analytics. And even though we are best known as highly specialised performance marketing nerds, we like to be eclectic. So here we are today laying our claim to the title of Archimedes of SEO! Big claims we know, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously and we like to make a splash.
What’s the SEO deal?
Let’s get down to it. SEO (which stands for Search Engine Optimisation) aims to improve organic performance and traffic volume for anything findable online. Any SEO strategy worthy of its name should aim to increase; organic traffic, conversions (sales/leads) coming from organic searches and keyword rankings.
At Booster Box we have a really, very serious SEO value chain. Well, serious is a big word. Let’s say a super-competent-and-ground-breaking value chain that is crafted to skyrocket our clients’ SEO metrics. Have a look for yourself:
- Raise awareness
We care about raising our clients’ awareness of how search engines work and the impact of SEO
- Core services
We make sure the website is SEO proof and in line with the latest search engines quality guidelines
- Outreach
We pull the best off-site practices out of the box, putting that out in the world to see
Yes, very clever. We know. It’s our favourite adjective after nerdy. But a pretty value chain by itself will not cut the mustard when it comes to SEO. SEO is a highly profitable marketing channel that requires unique and valuable content to be successful.
To achieve this, you have to be technical – there’s no point in hiding this, sorry! Technical SEO is a crucial requirement and will increase the performance of any website content, simple as that! Without tech SEO in place, your content asset runs the risk of not being found. Beyond that, long-term success with organic search requires an effective combination of content creation & link acquisition, primarily through PR.
A company forewarned is a company forearmed. You’re welcome. So, if this knowledge has motivated you enough, all you have to do is get in touch with us and leave all this crap to the experts.
What’s Booster Box’s BIG SEO deal?
So far, we’ve told you the basics. But we never rest on our laurels. We see ourselves as an integral part of our clients’ business, and strive to be a proactive source of ideas, operating as if it were our own business baby.
And if we own it, we rock it. We are always trying to create innovative SEO solutions for our clients to help them reach their goals most efficiently.
Achieving this requires a lot of behind the scenes work that our SEO nerds take care of, for the success of our clients’ websites. Research is an important part of the process. We use different tools to gather information and data and create a strategy and approach based on this.
Wow, that sounds professional! It’s hard to believe we wrote it. But folks, while our tone is playful, we don’t play around when it comes to your business: we do performance marketing damn well. And SEO damn well. And Analytics damn well. And much more, but hey this is getting out of hand.
Back to SEO, what does our SEO process look like? We run keyword research and mapping, competition analysis, performance reporting and tech SEO reporting. All very important processes – true. But maybe a little boring to read about in the abstract, so let’s explain this quickly:
- Keyword research and mapping
A vital stage that reveals crucial information needed to obtain a high rank in search engines and drive qualified traffic to the website
- SEO brief
A document that aligns everyone involved in content writing so they can understand the purpose of the content and what to include. A little secret just for you: this blog you are reading right now has been carefully crafted and reviewed to drive valuable organic traffic to it
- Tech SEO
Wow, big effort to save you from yawning here. This is a process of optimising websites for technical stuff like crawling, indexing, coverage, and other boring things. Let’s stop there
- SEO performance report
We’re dataists. We just can’t help ourselves. We’re always collecting that meaningful data, and we know how to sort it and extract the important information to provide quality ROI. As a bonus, you should see how marvellous these reports are. And they also monitor progress!
To accomplish all this work, we use many tools: SEM Rush, Google Search Console, Analytics, Trends and Keyword Planner, among others. This treasure trove of tools combined with manual research enables us to gather the right data to create the best strategy and approach for a specific client.
Booster Box as the Archimedes of SEO
Now you know almost everything about our SEO process, and might say “I couldn’t care less” (rrrrude!) BUT we’re at the most amazing and interesting part where we explain why we claim to be the Archimedes of SEO!
Let’s start with one truth: manual methods do not always save time or produce results. Plus, “Automation” is one of our core values because we are lazy and our mantra is “if you do a task more than three times a week, automate it”.
Thanks to our laziness, we have automated most of the boring bits so we can focus on the fun part: driving impact. Life is already too short to spend hours and hours researching one keyword at a time, isn’t it?
This has been the case for many processes we have used in the past, especially when it comes to keyword creation. So, our super fun techy guys (fun & funny- they make us laugh, for real) put together a list of arguments for why we should automate part of the SEO process, and justify their laziness:
- Keyword research is a time-consuming process
- Manual methods can be inaccurate
- Manual methods are not always the most efficient way to gather data
- Manual methods can be difficult to scale
They were good arguments, so we decided to use the marketing automation power.
Automate the heck out of it
So a bunch of our favourite Booster Box brains got in a room together and surprise, surprise, came up with a solution that provides massive results and ensures a high-quality output!
Booster Box’s SEO SCRIPT
We have created a unique script that is a fantastic tool for SEO, easy to use and provides results. This method, with thanks to SEMRush (which is used as part of the process, but that’s a secret recipe- sorry) will help our clients achieve their goals when it comes to SEO, and all the related marketing strategies.
Our teams also created a how-to guide for running this script and its template autonomously, ensuring you can get the most out of our unique approach without even needing our guidance.
Heaven on earth, right?
We know what you’re expecting now- a beautiful button with a catchy call-to-action that will allow you to download this groundbreaking tool right now, no questions asked, yes?
If you answered;
- Yes: Sorry darling. Our SEO nerds didn’t give us permission to do this.
- No: wow, you really know how to manage your expectations ! Interesting.
But not to worry, if you want to get your hands on our super cool SEO script, just get in contact with us, the Archimedes of SEO.
Last but not least
By the way, if you found yourself reading this post in the voice of Eureka O’Hara, you just won a free SEO assessment… with sequins and feathers of course.
by Daniele Masiello | Jul 18, 2022 | Incrementality
What is multi-touch attribution and how it works
Multi-touch attribution is a model of measurement that takes into account several touchpoints on the journey that drives to a conversion, thus qualifying the contribution that each channel gives to the goal. The credit given to each touchpoint varies according to the type of multi-touch attribution model chosen to measure the impact of the digital campaign.
Based on company needs and goals, marketing teams determine which model suits best for any specific campaign, depending on the length of sales cycle, KPIs, type and goal of the campaign, and more.
There are many multi-touch attribution models and each one varies depending on the individual score assigned to the different channels. The most popular are:
Each touchpoint gets the same credit
The first and the last touchpoints get 40% of credit. All the other touchpoints split the last 20%
The closer to the conversion the touchpoint is, the more credit it gets
First touchpoint, middle touchpoint (when the prospect transforms into a lead) and last touchpoint (when the lead closes and becomes a customer) get 30% of credit each. All the other touchpoints split the last 10%
Regardless of the model chosen, marketing teams should always keep optimising and testing campaigns to ensure they’re deploying the best tactic.
Getting over multi-touch attribution (MTA)
Understanding the role that each touchpoint plays in a conversion is crucial for budgeting, allowing devotion of funds to the most effective touchpoints while diverting funds away from ineffective channels.
Multi-touch attribution (MTA) models have been proven ineffective for two reasons:
- the platforms are sealed off from each other in terms of attribution;
- The models are not good at tracking the real-life, messy-middle, customer journey and thus provide unreliable feedback.
MTA gives a distorted picture
MTAs can sometimes be a bait-and-switch. Often, insiders rely on data and information generated by MTAs that are seldom telling the truth. Shortcomings include inaccurate analysis and incorrectly weighted channels, leading to a distorted picture which causes ineffective budgeting as a consequence.
MTA has a single-minded approach
MTAs only focus on digital channels and have a blind spot when it comes to thinking about ‘external’ factors (seasonality, offline activities, etc.). These limitations should be kept in mind when deriving marketing insights from MTAs and they should only be partially trusted.
Marketing Mix Modelling: what is and why it is more effective
Marketing Mix Modelling gives marketers the unfair advantage of breaking down data so as to determine the real contribution of each channel to a conversion, making it possible to measure past performance and chart a path for future, reliable success.
It consists in a statistical analysis to estimate the impact of digital marketing channels together with offline activities on sales or any other specific conversion. Marketing Mix Models forecast what is likely to happen if deploying a specific set of tactics and, given a goal, are the key to boost the achievement of best results by re-allocating the budget on most valuable channels.
At Booster Box we crafted a Marketing Mix Modeling tester that creates a basic version of a Marketing Mix Model, starting from imputed data. The tool is only a preliminary sample to take a sneak peek into a Marketing Mix Model, how it works and how it looks.
The cookieless wasteland
The advertising world must face the change that the cookie apocalypse is bringing. As of now, almost half of open web users’ actions are untraceable on Firefox and Safari. This number is bound to increase with the upcoming loss of third-party cookies.
The looming threat of a cookieless world
New data privacy regulations (GDPR, CCPA, etc.) together with autonomous decisions by platform companies like Apple and Google, to place greater restrictions on third-party cookies, are going to cause major disruption which could bring ineffective advertising and negative impacts on revenue to the unprepared.
A slippery cookieless slope
Even as recently as early 2022, organisations could draw on a wealth of data which provided a true 360-view of the buyer personas. However, the situation today is very different and will get worse: businesses are losing ground on the progress they’ve made in terms of targeting consumers, and are not even nearly ready for this shift.
Cookieless scenario is subverting the status quo (?)
Things have changed abruptly and the certainty of access to consumers’ data is fading away. Marketing experts need to face this head on: if there are players losing marketing attributable revenue, there must be others picking up the pieces. Here’s a hard fact: since many lost the ability to target and track users, advertisers shifted spending to Apple Search Ads to help maintain results. Upshot: Apple Search Ads skyrocketed and app downloads attributed to advertising tripled in just one year. Take note.
Faced with this situation, it is essential to safeguard the performance of marketing campaigns and limit any disruption to tracking and revenue. Unveiling the real path to conversion through Marketing Mix Modelling (a.k.a MMM) is a viable, ready-to-use solution in a landscape of new privacy norms.
Understanding incremental value: Incrementality
Ad budgets don’t grow on trees or fall from the sky. Therefore, investing in ads where customers would have converted anyway, and/or investing in non-converting campaigns is a huge mistake and waste of resources.
Marketing teams who are keen to allocate capital efficiently are always at the frontline in the battle to understand incremental value, cross-channel impacts and marginal returns.They make data-driven ad spend decisions accordingly.
Incrementality is smartest
The best part of the plan is nothing can stop it. Incrementality attribution does not require cookies and does not rely on MTA paths.
In simple terms, it withholds ad exposure to a statistically significant segment of the target audience (“control group”) whilst showing the ad to the broader audience (“test group”). The difference in results between the groups is the incremental contribution.
Every budget has its place with incrementality
Incrementality makes it possible to flawlessly distinguish organic traffic from paid campaigns. This paves the way for scaling the most effective channels and avoiding paying for conversions that would likely have occurred free of charge.
Some questions incrementality will answer:
- What will be the outcome if we pause channel X tomorrow?
- What is likely to happen if we double the budget for channel Y?
- Which ad contributes the most to reach my goals?
Incrementality has the marketing spend bigger picture
In analytics, one of the toughest nuts to crack is taking into account all marketing activities, including external factors, offline channels and any other business. Spoiler, it’s really hard.
To make things more difficult, some solutions can be correct today and wrong tomorrow. It’s possible that a channel that is delivering a huge incremental lift today will have to be shut next year. It takes several technical experts and continuous monitoring to keep the ship under control and the trip smooth through the marketing storm.
So is measuring properly a pipe dream?
The answer is no.
We said in many ways that a marketing team’s main ambition is to be able to forecast the likely outcomes when deploying a specific set of tactics, thus reducing any deadweight loss by reallocating inefficient spend to the most effective touchpoints.
Surprise: this can be achieved. With a lot of science, data analysis and modelling – three areas Booster Box excels in.
by Daniele Masiello | Jul 5, 2022 | Analytics
Universal Analytics is fading away soon. It’s time to migrate to GA4 and ignite new tracking possibilities.
Lucky for you, we have designed a clear, frictionless multi-step process to bring you from the old to the new world. Like a modern-day Christopher Columbus, basically 🙂
On July the 1st 2023, Universal Analytics will close the curtain and properties will stop recording data. Meaning that you’ll no longer be able to have your data grabbed in Google Analytics, send conversions to Google Ads, see conversion-funnels, review important KPIs and metrics inside your properties nor show your data on your GA-based Datastudio.
And – that’s right, the comforting list ain’t over – after 6 months from the previous stop, Google won’t even allow you to access your data on the platform and you’ll end up losing all the information you have grabbed during these years! Not really the happy ending one would have expected, right?
Yet, we all know high quality happy endings involve a couple misadventures for the hero. Oh… that’s so flattering of you to call us “heroes”!
However, we’d rather see ourselves as Masters Navigators, leading your expedition and making sure you experience an unharmed transition. Want to know the route to the New World of Perfect Tracking?
Well, the first step is taking care of scanning your current situation, checking ecommerce interactions, page views and all the other events you are recording. Then, we take everything that you have implemented on site and that you want to retain in GA4 and we make a matrix to create a mapping and implementation document. Needless to say, we generally use a simple yet lovely spreadsheet for that, but we are also open to alternatives if your preferences incline towards other tools…Do they, for real?
Once all cleaned and checked up, it is finally time for your GA4 configuration and property setup! Easy to make from scratch, you can rely on a thousand tutorials online, Google’s help free of charge if you’re lucky enough or, of course, put yourselves in our hands. If you are in need of our expert guidance, don’t be shy! We’d be nothing but happy to help and these navigable waters will prepare us for the stormy seas of Code Implementation. AKA what we need to do in order to actually send the data to your property.
If you’ve implemented Google Tag Manager on site already, without any custom events or enhanced ecommerce, then it’s just going to be a piece of cake. Simply create your Tag with the template provided by Google and you are ready to go! In case you don’t have GTM instead, you need Masters Developers to jump and add code on site.
Then, all that’s left is connecting your tools to the new property! What we suggest here is setting up a Bigquery linking. For those of you who don’t know it, Bigquery is a Google-provided service that used to be granted to VIP users only. Yes, you got that right: “used to”. With GA4, everybody will be able to connect their properties directly to Bigquery and have a day-to-day export of their data in cloud storage, without any sampling. As we see it, “Bigquery” basically stands for “Analyst’s Paradise where you can have all your data and do the most unbelievable analysis”.
Last but not least, to reach the New World of Perfect Tracking you’ve got to store the vitally important Universal Analytics past data in a historical repository. Lucky for you, there are tons of tools out there to help you out. Supermetrics, Rudderstack or Hevo to name a few. However, we do have a friendlier and stronger alternative in the form of our Tech Team. Yes not a tool, but great people who can do pure magic! Calling Booster Box Tech Rescue really is the easiest yet most effective thing you can do here. By exporting data from your property in Bigquery we can grab it, retain it and also make it accessible in the future! This will avoid the terrible data loss that is looming on our heads.
In conclusion, now that you have all the elements to face this scary transition, you better be starting it! GA4 and Universal Analytics are not compatible and beginning to implement GA4 as soon as you can will allow you to store data and access it in your property before the complete shutdown of the platform.
So, everybody, let’s take up our maps. Get ready to set sail: the journey begins!
by Daniele Masiello | Jul 1, 2022 | Analytics
Did really any-Italian-BODY (actually, not just ANY) said UA ’s illegal?
It seemed to many that on June 23rd the advertising world collapsed and fell apart. According to our perspective, the truth is far from it, yet still, this scenario will allow for broader scope for intervention and opportunities to improve.
The Italian Data Protection Authority (DPA) issued a decision that’s ruling Google Universal Analytics
Sounds like a big deal put it this way, yet this is a misleading and inaccurate claim. What has been released is a single provision of particular nature, which does not extend as a general law but is dedicated and sized for the specific situation and company which it has been issued for.
It’s anyway clear that conclusions subject to the warnings set out by the authority must be recognised and taken on board by all “Data Holders and Controllers” which will have to adapt, comply and conform with the requirements mentioned in the deliberation.
Let’s get the facts straight
The case originates from a complaint lodged in 2020 against Caffeina Media for analytics data whose Data Holder was directly based in America. Also, to understand the bigger picture it must be taken into account the 2021 judgement that repealed the ruling of Privacy Shield, which led to Google US being replaced by Google Ireland.
The serious problem which has led to the repeal of Privacy Shield is that, according to the UE, legislation in the USA does not provide sufficient guarantees for the rights of European (thus Italian) citizens. Any Data management happening in UE must follow GDPR and Member States’ legislation can provide higher but not inferior layers of data protection.
So what happens when Data is transferred and managed outside UE? GDPR requires that guarantees must be provided by Data Holders and Controllers to safeguard EU citizens’ right to data protection, even the ones of a compensatory nature.
So, in other words?
Italian DPA resolved that standard contract terms are not sufficient anymore and is asking Data Holder to investigate further and impose additional restrictions for safeguarding Italian citizens’ rights in relation to Data acquired outside of the UE – specifically in the USA, where – they claim that – public authorities can access data without legal protection instruments.
Conclusions? DPA is not actually vetoing UA usage but is asking to take further measures to make Data transfer from UE to USA lawful.
Let’s see the practical measures
You fell for that and bought it. You wish! Italia DPA did not provide any practical solution to the problem since “it’s not their job” and deferred it to Data Holder and Controller accountability which has to “take responsibility for their own decisions”.
Is there anything we can do?
Maybe there’s something which is not an acclaimed solution, but an extra layer of safeguarding.
GA4
Why do they say GA4 might be something doable on this matter?
Here you go with a few answers:
- It does not handle IP addresses, or at least in a highly volatile way, without registering them into the system
- It has a bunch of protection that can potentially anonymise personal data
Server-side Tracking
And what about Server-side Tracking? Why do they say it should be implemented?
We’ve got you covered:
- Data is transferred to a first-party server (located in UE), then managed to be anonym, sent to another UE server and only at the end – and if needed or asked – sent outside EU
So is the combo GA4 & Server-side tracking fully compliant?
Probably yes, probably no – or to a certain extent, it’s hard to say it without a shadow of a doubt. Given that there hasn’t been any clear statement from the Italian DPA different from the one and only specific setup upon which they focused, despite having a good feeling towards it, we’ll find this out at a later stage.
The point is: a political settlement
Authorities should be persuaded to find a political framework solution at the soonest, so as to have a clear, complete, transparent picture of the scenario. Time will tell!
One thing is certain: UA will be closed and you should act towards this NOW
UA won’t be operating anymore soon, so regardless of DPA findings, one way or another, you will have to set and implement GA4. Another fact: Server-side tracking enhances data protection.
And well, it just happens that we are here to help:
- Here you will find a deck of sources for the available “UA Illegal” information shared and released over the week
- By clicking here you do even better, you get in touch with us and we’ll find together a way to navigate in this stormy sea
No more room for procrastination, sorry for that!
