4 Notable Reasons Why You Should Hire an Advertising Agency

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The world of marketing and advertising is changing and with it, the strategies that are used. As technology continues to evolve, so do the ways in which we communicate with one another. The way that we advertise has changed dramatically over the years.

Some people may think that because a company has a large budget for marketing, their advertising needs will be met. This is not always the case as there are many different aspects of advertising that need to be considered when creating an advertisement campaign.

There are four notable reasons why smart business owners understand they need to invest in marketing and advertising:

  1. it can save cost on hiring a new employee
  2. it can save you time
  3. it can help you develop your brand
  4. it can help you maximize your conversions

Savings is Key!

Hiring new and dedicated employees is definitely expensive, and if you are thinking of getting top-level talent – trust us when we say that it will cost you a pretty penny. But what if we told you that there was a way to get the same caliber of talent, with the same level of dedication, for a fraction of the price?

Enter agency freelancing.

Agency freelancing is the process of hiring an individual or company to fulfill your marketing needs

without having to take on any long-term commitments. With agency freelancing, your company can hire one person for one project or hire many people for many projects. You can even hire an entire team – your In Front Marketing Team

Time is Precious – Lets save you time!

Every business owner understands the value of time. Hiring an ad agency allows your team to focus on the areas it excels in. This way, your company can focus on what it does best and let the agency handle the rest.

In today’s world, the way we work is changing. Workplaces are becoming more dynamic and flexible. Businesses are looking for partners that can provide them with an edge in a highly competitive market. This is why many companies have turned to advertising agencies to help them with marketing and branding efforts.

An advertising agency such as In Front Marketing can help your business in many ways. We will be able to provide you with a new perspective and fresh ideas on how to promote your company, as well as give you access to their team of experts who have years of experience in this field.

Building your Brand – One digital step at a time.

Developing a brand is not an easy process, which is probably why even the most experienced businesses struggle to do it. An article in Forbes, “The 10 Steps to Building a Brand”, outlines the steps to developing a successful brand. The article states that one of the most important aspects of developing a successful brand is understanding your industry. This means that you need to take the time to research your competitors as well as identify what they do well and what they don’t do so well.

Generate business engagement is also another important aspect of developing a successful brand. Engagement can be done through social media posts, advertisements or customer reviews and testimonials.

Saving time is saving money!

Most companies are not getting the most out of their advertising budget. They are either not using it effectively or they are not spending enough on it.

Google Adwords is a great place to start because it can help you get more customers and make more money. It can also help you find new customer segments, understand customer behavior, and increase your conversion rates. In Google Adwords, make sure you choose the right metrics to measure your campaign’s success. But there is a lot to learn about Google Adwords before you can use it successfully, hence where we come in. Contact us today to learn how you can get your business In Front of your market.

Conclusion

We hope this article proves to be useful when it comes to helping you gain a better understanding of how advertising agencies can help your business grow. While it may seem like a significant investment, directing resources towards advertising will help you achieve your short-term and long-term goals. Be sure to keep everything you’ve learned here in mind so that you can make the most informed decisions for your business.

If you’re looking for an advertising agency in Calgary, In Front Marketing has got you covered, Digital advertising is an essential piece of almost every business today. What was once high traffic and low interest has now become a centerpiece in the world of marketing. We are able to track the value of each ad, and perfect its message and strategic placement for your audience. For top of mind awareness, and high converting performance, give us a call, and we’ll find the best solution for you.

Important Components of an Effective Marketing Plan

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The internet has brought with it an unprecedented amount of competition. The internet of things is becoming such a large tool for so many businesses. This allows us to find, evaluate and choose products and services at our fingertips, which also means that businesses are having to utilize more of these tools to have the competitive edge to draw and engage their potential customers. By using digital marketing, companies can offer customers access to products and services that they simply could not get any other way.

Furthermore, digital marketing allows businesses to position themselves from the competition through niche targeting, often referred to as “micro-targeting.” By pinpointing certain groups of people within their targeted audience, businesses can cater their marketing campaigns directly to their consumers. Does your marketing strategy have focus pages? Do you know what the next 6 months brings?

If you want your business to have a successful venture into the online world, you need to ensure that your digital marketing plan has the following components:

1 – Responsive Website Design

Your online presence begins with an attractive and functional website. A user-friendly website is vital to building a powerful and long-lasting relationship with your potential customers. User friendly across different devices allow you to have the dynamic ability to reach your customer base.

A website is the first aspect of your digital marketing plan. The overall design of your website says a lot about your brand, as it’s usually where customers and clients first encounter your business. A professionally designed website will make consumers want to do business with you. Understanding your needs and budget is simple with a discovery call with our team. We can provide a quote based on your company and scope of work, while working to create a strategic plan that includes your website and potential marketing phases.

Responsive web design is a technique that allows designers to create a website that will look good on any device. This means that the user journey will be smooth and conversion points will be clean. It also means that the website will generate traffic and bring in leads for your business. See where this is going……..

Creating a smooth user journey is key when it comes to building your brand, audience and executing your marketing plan. Think Conversion rate optimization strategy while also realizing that you can not break the bank on the marketing plan – at least until we do our job and prove our return on investment.

2 – Solid SEO Strategy

A strong search engine optimization (SEO) strategy is a vital component of any digital marketing campaign. Your website exists only to convince your customers to buy a product or service. The only way to do that is to make your website visible to as many potential customers as possible.

SEO, which entails putting your website in the best position possible to be found in search engine results, is arguably the most effective way of reaching an organic audience. That search function on browsers comes in handy for so many reasons.

SEO campaigns include keyword research, website optimization, links, and other factors that search engines can utilize to determine your website’s relevance to a search query. Once again, looping back to that search function.

A good way to start an SEO campaign is by using the right keywords in your content, backlinks, and social media posts. Having a content strategy will help you create more compelling content that will rank higher on search engines. Optimizing your website can be done with various tools like Google Webmaster Tools or the Yoast plugin for WordPress. Lastly, technical SEO includes things like having a sitemap or XML site map and making sure your URLs are readable and not messy.

This is also not a short term goal – this strategy is a long term and solid foundation to your marketing strategy. We advise clients this phase is at least 6 months to see solid results, so with communication and transparency – you will have the opportunity to grow and build your brand on your website to achieve the goals that you want.

3 – Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is an integral part of any digital marketing campaign.  With Social Media being widely accessible to the majority of people, across different devices and platforms, it creates space in the digital world for social media marketing. Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn are valuable marketing platforms – especially for social advertising.

It is a great way for businesses to reach out to people and get their attention. Social media marketing has become one of the most popular ways for companies to advertise themselves, especially because it is free and easy to use. Businesses can use social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn in order to market their products or services by engaging with customers, building an audience or educating.

Companies can display their products and services through social media platforms, connect directly with consumers, and build a following of engaged and interested consumers.

4 – Paid Advertising

Paid advertising is a form of marketing that involves the purchase of space in media to promote a product or service. It is one of the most inexpensive and competitive platforms for driving traffic and lead generation.

The main objective of paid advertising is to increase sales by driving potential customers to a company’s products or services. Paid advertising can be carried out through digital channels such as social media, search engine optimization, and display ads.

Digital marketing campaigns that neglect to include paid advertising are incomplete. Paid advertising is cheap, simple to set up, and can provide a significant return on investment. Especially on large and competitive platforms such as Google Adwords, paid advertising can effectively drive targeted traffic to your website. There are so many tools when it comes to paid advertising – that it really comes down to asking your company:

How fast can we handle growth?

How much is our budget?

What are our goals?

Then it becomes the magic of creating a digital marketing strategy to execute the above – now that is what we call a win-win.

5 – Video Marketing

Video is another growing form of marketing that is valuable in a digital marketing campaign. Online videos, such as YouTube videos, can be a powerful form of communication and presentation. It can show consumers that your company is dynamic, engaging, and relatable. Videos are often an effective way of branding a company to engage consumers.

There are many different forms of video content that are used on a daily basis. Educational, introductory, short form, long form, documentaries, case studies, testimonials and personalized videos are at our fingertips – it just becomes the question of how do we use these to benefit our brand! 

Content Creation is crucial to building your website and other channels, which can also include blogs, social media management, and as mentioned – Video. 

Conclusion

In the modern business landscape, digital marketing is an essential tool. With the explosion of the internet, consumers have unprecedented access to products and services. To be successful, businesses need a competitive edge over the competition. By using digital marketing and having these key components, companies can offer customers access to products and services that they simply could not get any other way. 

If you’re looking to work with a reliable Calgary digital marketing agency, In Front Marketing has you covered. We develop effective strategies backed by data and make sure you get the results your business needs. Call us today so we can find the perfect strategy for your business.

Social Media Marketing: Why It’s Still Important in 2023

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Social media is a marketplace where buyers and sellers connect with each other. It is a vital tool for marketing and networking.

Social media marketing is relevant and effective because it allows brands to connect with their target audience on a personal level.

Through social media, brands can connect with their customers and followers. This goes beyond simply selling a product or service.

Customers and followers feel like they have a personal connection with the brand, which makes them more likely to buy from that company in the future.

The reason why social media is growing in popularity is that more and more people are using it to connect. To chat with friends, find entertainment, build professional connections, or simply follow up on current trends. 

The options are endless. Content is easily accessible at our fingertips.

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In 2023, social media marketing continues to be a powerful tool for brands. By using social media, brands can connect with their customers and create a connection that wasn’t possible before. Also, social media marketing can be effectively used to reach new customers and grow your brand. 

Scroll on this page to learn how from our digital marketing team in Calgary shares how: 

It’s Cost-Effective

Social media is cost-effective. It’s a great way to connect with a large number of people at a low cost.

You can reach a huge audience for a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing methods. By gaining exposure and brand recognition, you are establishing a solid foundation for your company and marketing efforts.

You work with People You Trust

By engaging with your existing and potential clients on social media, you can build trust with them. When consumers feel like they can trust a brand, they are more likely to do business with that brand.

Customers who feel like they can trust a brand are more likely to recommend that brand to others. 

Social Media Management Standards.
Your story on all digital platforms reflects the reason you exist. By what defines success metrics?

Forbes noted a variety of things that can assist with your social media marketing, especially when it comes to using tools that assist with your process. In researching what works best, you have the ability to curate your brand content to your audience. This can be in the following areas:

Organically Boost Brand Awareness

By using social media, you can grow your brand in a number of ways. First, social media can help you create a strong and recognizable brand identity. Additionally, social media can help you reach a larger audience and create a connection with your customers.

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What does your current social media plan consist of? Write down your content plan – Visually draw it. Are there gaps?

Finally, social media allows you to create a community around your brand. 

It Works to Establish Your Authority

If you want to establish your brand and business as a leader in your industry, social media is the way to do it. By sharing informative, valuable content on social media, you can show your audience that you’re an expert in your field.

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What does your content say about your business? Do you want to increase your audience – add this into your content list.

This will help your brand to build trust with your audience and make them more likely to do business with you.

Think of your brand authority as the client trust level – Branch out! Tell your story. By reaching out through your content

Learn how to Increase Your ROI

Social media marketing is a good way to reach more people for less money.

Creating useful and informative content lets you connect with potential and current customers without spending a lot of money on advertising. Additionally, social media marketing can help you boost your ROI by creating a connection with your customers.

Building a strategy that allows for ROI is key, as demonstrated by HootSuite, as your strategy should be dynamic, based on the current needs of the client.

There are so many variables that play a part – your In Front Marketing team will help you understand efficiencies within your industry market. 

It Can Get More Traffic to Your Website

By using social media to share your brand’s story, you can reach new audiences and bring them to your website.

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With a clear strategy, your social channels should build brand awareness, engagement and most of all your story.

After all, isn’t it why we have a business?

Additionally, you can use social media to drive traffic to specific pages on your website, such as your product pages or your landing pages. 

What channels work for you?

While many different marketing tools are available, social media continues to be one of the most effective.

It allows businesses to connect with customers in a personal way, build relationships, and create a loyalty base. Additionally, social media is a convenient way to share news and announcements and get customer feedback.

Overall, social media is indeed a powerful tool that can help you achieve your marketing goals. 

It’s recommended that you work with an established digital marketing firm in Calgary that can help you determine the right marketing strategies for your business. In Front Marketing offers digital marketing solutions in Calgary that include social media marketing.

Contact our team today to find out how we can help you!

Building Functional Ads

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Getting the most from creative services in ad design.

Have you looked at the price of a good creative agency lately? One that gets you great ads on time, works normal business hours and isn’t your niece’s best friend who’s getting an art diploma?

It’s not cheap.

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As a result, many small to medium businesses blow most of their budget on work by big creative agencies. This leaves little money to spend on getting the ad where it actually needs to go: in front of the right audience. Then, when their big, expensive ad underperforms, they are unsure where they went wrong.

Untangling creative

The problem with creative isn’t that it’s too expensive – the time and effort a good design firm will invest into a re-brand or an advertisement is huge.

The problem is that creative occupies a strange space in advertising.

In effect, creative design is both the bones of every ad, as well as its style. If you look at an advertisement as a pyramid, with the foundational aspects at the bottom and the ‘nice to have’ aspects at the top, it would look as follows:

  • Messaging is the foundation of your ad; the idea you’re trying to communicate.
  • Ad creation builds a piece of advertising around your message.
  • Medium/Traffic is placing that ad in front of the right audience.
  • Branding/Creative ensures your ad is performing to its top potential.

The first three levels of the pyramid are integral: you need a message, an ad and an audience. However, that top-tier Branding/Creative isn’t. When you have the budget for high-level creative, the cost is worth it. However, for those who don’t have the budget, that big, initial spend makes advertising prohibitively expensive.

The key for businesses with constrained ad budgets is to balance ad spend across the foundational aspects of an ad – and that means avoiding big ticket creative design.

Creating A More Functional Ad

To help these businesses, IFM offers in-house ad design to support our traffic/medium services. To make sure our ads perform how they should, we follow a few data-derived insights we’ve found to be incredibly powerful.

Our ad creation process:

K.I.S.S. (or Keep It Simple Stupid)

Less is more. This isn’t just a design concept for us – it’s backed by real numbers, and proven through constant iteration and refining over years of ad creation. Over and over, we’ve seen ridiculously simple ads out-perform complex, overly-designed ones.

Good messaging lasts

No matter how great your ad design is, it will fall flat without a cogent message. Good messaging is foundational, and will ensure even the most mundane ads stick with your audience. Whether you need all new messaging, or need to simplify an idea, we can help refine what you want to communicate to your audience.

Branding vs calls to action

Branding ensures the recognizability of your ads, so you can create a relationship with your customers. A call to action compels viewers to move to the next step, i.e., pursuing that relationship, and working with you. By balancing your ads with consistent branding and CTAs, your ad will be more effective.

Partnering with freelance creatives

While that high-level design isn’t essential to the success of your ad, good design and good designers are. We’ve cultivated relationships with some of the best, most dependable creatives, helping to both keep costs down, and ensure quality work for our clients. 

Balancing your ad budget 

For any business dealing with a constrained ad budget, it’s important to strike a balance between ad creation and media buying. Paying big design firms big money just to create an ad doesn’t make sense if it hampers your ability to get your ad out there, in front of your ideal audience. 

There are tons of options out there (like yours truly) who can work with you to get the most out of your ad budget, giving you functional ads with powerful messaging – and featured in the right space: where your potential customers are watching.

So what are you waiting for? Reach out and let’s talk.
Contact Us Today

The Power of Organic Social for your Business

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Social media trends move so fast it seems like the only people able to keep up are in middle school.

Facebook turns into Instagram, then Snapchat and TikTok and now Clubhouse and House Party are joining the, well, ahh, party (?).

It’s enough to make your head spin.

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The good news is, your business doesn’t have to chase the trends to make the most of your social media presence.

To help you get the most out of your social media, we talked with Tarila Uti, our Social Media Maven.

“Social media is basically about community building,” she said.

Why creating a community through social media is essential – Power your Social.

Traditionally, media and advertising was unidirectional. Businesses created messaging to sell their brand and their product/service, but the person on the receiving end had no ability to respond.

But without extensive research with each step, this method can lead to a general disconnect from your clients that affects your advertising ROI.

But with social, it’s different.

“Social media is a two-way street,” Tarila said.

That makes it a very powerful tool for businesses as it can be used both to convey and gather information. 

According to Tarila, five of the greatest benefits of staying up-to-date with social media are:

#1: Establishes a solid online presence

With social media, you can create a richer experience for people who are looking to reach out to your brand.

“Your social media is like a second website,” Tarila said. “So when people first learn about your brand, they go to your website. After that, most people go to social media pages: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, wherever to learn more about the company and understand it a bit more.”

That gives your business extra time to create a relationship with customers, build your brand, and walk a lead down the path to a conversion.

#2 Builds a stronger, more connected community

Every business works within a community or niche, and finding that community is one of the best ways to really make your advertising shine. When you know where your community is, how they talk about themselves, and what they’re looking for, you can not only improve your messaging – but laser-focus that messaging accordingly.

“Posting on social media is basically speaking to your followers and speaking to your community,” Tarila said. “So, with social media, you can build a good community, and build some hype around your business and about your brand.”

Social media also allows you to be a part of building that community to create new potential customers. Through search and hashtags, you can grow your audience by introducing your brand to new people.

#3 Allows you to truly listen to your customers

To build community, you cannot treat social media like advertising. Instead, you need to treat your community like a community, which is where that two-way street comes into play. Where before you simply talked to your audience, with social media, you need to equally learn to listen to what they’re saying – and let them know you hear them. 

“Social media is super duper important for listening and learning,” Tarila said. “Through comments, feedback, and looking at your insights, you can tell what people like and don’t like about your brand or about your products.”

This can include both responding in the comments section, following and interacting with the right people.

So, while a great website is a one-and-done experience, great social media requires consistency.

#4 Offers a direct communication tool 

As social media companies streamline direct messaging (DM) across platforms (like Facebook merging Messenger and Instagram Direct Messages), more and more people are using social media to speak directly with companies.

“Many customers today will go straight to a brand’s page to comment to say they had an issue,” Tarila said. 

With phone and email, this may seem redundant, but it’s often the first choice, and the choice they feel most comfortable with, especially for the younger generation. By giving your customers, and prospective customers their preferred option, you open a door they’re more willing to step through. That increased communication will give you greater engagement – a key performance indicator on social media.

#5 Creates a cost-effective approach to advertising

Perhaps the greatest reason to focus on social media is its ROI. With a wide reach and little upfront cost, social media can offer a striking return on investment for those who take the time to learn its secrets.

“If done properly, organic social can help you reach new audiences and increase your engagement rate which in turn leads to conversions,” Tarila said.

And that’s without paying for ads. That means your only cost is the time it takes to post and communicate with your community – which can be very enlightening anyway.

Our data-heavy approach to social media

Of course, the problem is: social media is so vast that it’s incredibly easy to get lost in the shifting seas of information.

For our clients, we combat this by front-loading our work with intensive research to ensure we’re headed in the right direction before we even begin.

“My approach is first of all understanding the business, what kind of business it is, and if they have any social media pages already,” Tarila said.

After talking directly to stakeholders in the business, and surveying any social media presence it has, the research phase begins.

Our social media team takes a deep dive into:

  • Follower demographics 
  • Competitor’s strategies
  • Ideal posting times and strategies
  • Hashtags
  • Brand voice
  • Which channels are right for your business
  • Who your business should follow

With a complete understanding of how to move forward, Tarila and the team then execute on it. 

“The goal is to drive engagement,” Tarila said, “loads of engagement. So, likes, comments, feedback, which in turn increase in leads and conversions.” 

The value of the right team

We talk with so many business owners who are ready to give up on social media because it requires such a diverse set of skills, such a consistent effort and, at the end of the day, it isn’t moving the needle.

Employing the right team changes all of that, and makes social media make sense. Currently, our team includes copywriters, photographers and researchers who consistently work to ensure our client’s social media is found by their ideal audience..

“We have dealt with a lot of businesses, and we know what works and what doesn’t,” Tarila said. ”We have the data, we have the research, and we have the experience to help.”

For more information on how you can take one item off your (very full) plate and make your social media presence shine, email Tarila or contact her on social media now or reach out to the IFM right now ~ Click Here.

IFM’s Top 100 Magazine Feature

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We’re excited to announce we’ve been featured in the Top 100 Magazine in both The Top 100 Canadian Professionals and The Top 40 Under 40.

We first learned about this months ago but had to keep our lips sealed and wait for the actual magazine to come out. For those who’ve dealt with print magazines, you know this takes a long time – especially for someone used to instantaneous digital ads.

It’s been tough, but finally, we can tell everyone.

This is a great honour for us, and we’re so happy that taking the leap from employee to self-employed to push for a change in the industry has led to this.

From the ground floor to Top 100 in 5 years.

Since we started In Front Marketing in 2015, we knew we wanted to do things differently in the advertising arena. But, we never anticipated the success we’ve seen.

IFM started out as a way for both of us (Dave and John) to do advertising right. After working in the industry for years, we knew the then-current method of asking for money in exchange for a handful of promises and more ‘impressions’ wasn’t going to cut it.

With technology always advancing to gather more information, and our clients pushing for more from their ad-spend, we knew it was time to change. But the corporation didn’t.

That’s why we walked away.

That was a big step. The opportunity was there, but there were no guarantees for success.

Now, just five(ish) years later, we’ve been able to create change in our industry by focusing on data and the return on investment for every campaign and every client. As we’ve gained momentum, we’ve gone from self-employed to employers. This has been an exciting time as we grow to meet the needs of our customers and offer a great place for others with the same drive for excellence to work.

This honour is further vindication for those two guys (that’s us) who stepped out to make a change.

The prestige of the Top 100 Magazine

Read in over 30 countries, Top 100 Magazine publishes a range of career-specific content, highlighting industry leaders, academic institutions, Fortune 500 companies, private and public businesses, and social media influencers.

Those featured in the magazine are chosen through nominations or through proprietary software that searches social media, blog posts, peer reviews and Google indices. 

After the first round of nominations, the magazine’s R&D department manually analyzes each candidate to choose the businesses and individuals that will ultimately be featured.

With over 400,000 readers online and another 20,000 in print, this puts IFM, and our unique digital advertising approach, in front (sorry, couldn’t resist) of hundreds of thousands of people, including C-level executives, attorneys, doctors, entrepreneurs and academics.

We’re so excited at the chance to introduce our data-driven approach to new clients across the world.

Thanks for celebrating with us!

Social Advertising Adds Value to Your Organic Reach!

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Almost every business owner at some point will close their Instagram app as angrily as one can close an app and call the whole d*mned thing useless.

It’s impossible to get followers.

Even when you get followers most of them don’t see your posts.

And, even when they see your posts, they don’t convert.

However, just because you’ve hit these walls in the past doesn’t mean social media can’t work for you indefinitely.

Start with a strategy

Without a cohesive marketing plan, posting on social media is a bit like yelling into the void.

But with a proper plan, you can utilize both organic posts and paid advertisements on social media to work for you.

Last month we looked at the importance of organic social media, so this week we’re covering how paid advertising plays a unique role that’s equally critical for your business.

“It’s one of the easiest ways to generate a direct return on your investment through an advertising platform,” John, our ad guru, said.

The unreal reach of social media

Social media has an almost unfathomable reach in our current culture.

If you combine the US and Canada, there are less than 150 million television viewers – and that audience is chopped up among hundreds of channels and costs thousands to access.

Those numbers don’t come close to the behemoth of Facebook, which has 2.7 billion active users that can be accessed at almost any budget.

“On social media, the potential for your audience is nearly limitless,” John said, “but, your budget isn’t.”

While you can start to access that immense reach with even simple organic posts, the days of finding a huge following using strictly organic posts are gone.

Today, there’s too much noise.

You’ve got to pay to play

Social networks aren’t designed to let you cut through all that distracting noise made by those billions of users organically. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, whatever social network pops up next, they all cater to the pay to play crowd.

It used to be, if you posted at just the right time, when people were typically on their phones and scrolling their chosen social media – you would pop up.

But, posts aren’t dictated by timing anymore. That serendipity has been replaced by an algorithm that no one can predict – an algorithm that’s not there to serve your posts to your people, but to make the social media giant money.

So, they only deliver your message to those who want to see it.

“Facebook is only serving organic stuff to your highly engaged, participating user or follower,” John said. “But, with paid you’re going to hit people based on your specific targeting.”

So, if you want to find new audiences to fill the top of your funnel and introduce your brand to people who have never heard of or interacted with you (or haven’t interacted much) to drive traffic to take action, you’re going to need to pay.

A great spot to dip your toes

While organic social isn’t the place to go to grow your audience from zero, paid social advertising is.

“It’s one of the best places to start advertising,” John said.

With all the information social platforms have on their users, it’s incredibly easy to find the audience you want on almost any social platform. So, if you know your audience, which is critical for any successful campaign, you can make sure you’re talking to them whether they follow you or not.

And, best of all, you can do this no matter your budget. You can start with a meager $500/month and carefully track your success. When you nail down your advertising and start seeing a positive return on advertising spend (ROAS), then you can start to ramp up your investment.

Paid plays well with others

Though paid social advertising is a great place to start, it’s very rarely where you want to keep all your proverbial eggs.

The truth is, your audience is constantly switching between search, websites and social, and advertising is more effective when it follows users across all three. And, the good news is, paid social works really well in tandem with other advertising.

“Social is nimble – it can be a primary part of your ad campaign, or just a reinforcement of your total campaign,” John said.

Now, this is when advertising tends to get a little more tricky, as simply adding more dollars to your ad spend won’t create a cohesive campaign. But, with the right key performance indicators (KPIs), an understanding of which platform is the best primary for your product, and a tight focus on the right audience, you can really start to fuel your campaigns.

The future is murky

We touched on the death of the pixel in an earlier article. If you haven’t read it already, we highly recommend it, because it will be one of the biggest changes in online advertising since the pixel first appeared.

And, it’s going to have a major effect on paid social.

“The targeting and the impressions and the reach is still going to be there,” John said, “but we’re losing a lot of the functionality in terms of some of the tracking and the results of the analytics – for now”

Facebook has a plan to deal with this loss of granular data, but they’re not revealing what it is, or how it will work.

So, for those doing their own advertising campaigns currently, that means the ROAs of social advertising is going to get a little more hazy.

The IFM Advantage

The key to making your social media campaigns truly perform is to use an advertising partner who understands how to create clarity in ad planning and execution – especially as the tremors from the death of the pixel shake up the social world. Then, together you can maximize your ROAS on a social platform.

At In Front Marketing, we work with you to give you transparent results that allow you to make the best decision for your business.

We help you find the right audience, the right platform, then work with you to spread your advertising dollars through search, organic and paid social media advertising to create the most effective advertising campaign – and the greatest return for your advertising budget.

Death Of The Pixel

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Long the Golden Goose for advertisers, the pixel has recently become the cookie monster under the bed.

For marketers, the third-party tracking completely changed the game online.

It gave us the power to track the ROI of advertising budgets, refine our campaigns, and show our clients exactly how online advertising made them money. And that was something traditional advertisers could never do.

In short, cookies and pixels took online marketing to the next level.

So, why are we celebrating the death of the pixel?

Because these days, third-party tracking is increasingly viewed with suspicion. 

With bad actors taking advantage of cookies, and major world governments creating laws around it, third-party tracking is quickly becoming the boogeyman of the internet.

This is why Google recently announced that Chrome will stop supporting third-party tracking by 2022.

As Google leaves the pixel behind, a consortium of advertisers and advertising organizations are moving on to create a new way forward: Unified ID 2.0.

What is third-party tracking?

Third-party tracking means an organization other than the website owner tracks the movements of a user.

This is done in two ways:

  • A cookie: a piece of code downloaded by the user’s browser that gathers information about the user.
  • A pixel: a piece of code existing on the website that gathers information about the user.

Essentially, they both accomplish the same task in different ways.

Website owners also use cookies to optimize usability, but they’re not a third-party so it’s untouched by this update.

What will be changing is third-party trackers (like yours truly), and any other advertiser out there, will not be able to track users with cookies or pixels in a few, short years.

Without another solution, i.e.: Unified ID 2.0, this would leave advertisers blind again, unable to target relevant ads to consumers, or tell if their clients’ campaigns are working as well they should be.

The ‘Wild West’ of Internet Tracking

Rewind to the beginning and it’s easy to see why there are so many concerns with pixels, cookies, and internet-tracking in general. It’s a chaotic mess of different codes, companies and methods.

It started when someone discovered lines of code could be placed within pictures that allowed websites to follow traffic, and then everything grew ad hoc from there. Different solutions were implemented to monetize various sites and other advertisers diverged – with even the best strategies carried out in a rather chaotic manner.

In short, it was the wild, wild west of the internet, where everyone did as they pleased with their pixels.

Today, the internet isn’t quite so cobbled together – but tracking still is. The result is sketchy companies, like Cambridge Analytica, have been able to push the boundaries of what is possible and what is morally acceptable within the confines of the online world.

This has made users and governments look at the mess and try to create some sort of order.

The Pixel Has Fallen; The Cookies Are Scattered

When the European Union started creating laws requiring websites to disclose their tracking, it was the beginning of the end for the pixel. 

The new laws:

  • Came with annoying pop ups

and

  • Made people wary of internet tracking

Today, for example, Mozilla Firefox defaults to blocking third party cookies trying to track you. But, arguably more important, Google has just announced that Chrome, which has a 60% share of the browser market, will disallow third-party tracking as of 2022.

That gives advertisers just two years to find a method that’s seamless and secure.

Unified ID 2.0 – a better way to internet

Unified ID 2.0 is a new solution to the confusing nature of the pixel/cookie world. Created and backed by a variety of huge internet advertising companies and organizations, like Nielsen of Nielsen Ratings fame, Unified 2.o makes tracking and advertising not only simpler, but more transparent for users across the board.

Instead of operating in the code users don’t see, Unified 2.0 relies on users to opt-in through a secured sign-in page, much like logging into Chrome. 

The first time they sign-in, they will be prompted to create an account with their email as a username. In that account, they will be able to control their settings, which will work across the internet

This makes life all-around better for both users and advertisers.

For advertisers

The thrown-together nature of cookies has worked fine for advertisers as we try to find out how users are interacting with our ads. However, because it’s hodge-podge, problems have been glaring from the get-go – one of the main ones being how cookies can’t track users across different platforms.

However, Unified 2.0 is built to allow advertisers to track cross-platform, solving one of the biggest issues for cookies. Because users sign in on all their platforms, Unified 2.0 will know if they see an ad on their computer, then search for the brand on their mobile device. This helps us to better track users so we can see how effective our ads are, and it also helps us better target consumers.

It’s also a much simpler system than the ever changing multitude of protocols we currently use. Because it is open source and interoperable, it will work across browsers and sites, making it a perfect one-stop solution.

For consumers

While Unified ID 2.0 looks great for advertisers, it’s even better for consumers. 

Just like everything with cookies, security was something of an afterthought. But, with Unified ID 2.0, security is baked in from the very beginning. To protect privacy, all login emails will be hashed and encrypted, with regular rotation of decryption keys to help maintain privacy. A code of conduct, governed by an independent body, will also ensure Unified ID 2.0 will remain open and respect its users’ privacy in an ongoing manner. 

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it will help speed up the user’s internet experience. Today, when a user lands on a website, anywhere from one to 100 trackers all start sending information. This not only takes up bandwidth, slowing down a user’s experience, but it also eats up their data.

Google Analytics 4 – Google Beyond The Cookie

As Google moves away from third party cookies and toward a new future in online advertising, it will make it easier than ever for business owners to track how consumers are interacting with their website.

And, with updates to Google Analytics (the most powerful free tool available), new, machine-learning software will improve its ability to spot and report on trends – even alerting marketers and business owners on high ROI advertising opportunities.

Combining this powerful tool with Google Ads and new movements in tracking software, like Unified ID 2.0, will give online business owners better options to find the right audience for their products and services.

How Can IFM Help Prepare You For The Future?

As big pieces of the puzzle start to change, it’s important to stay on top of how your website is performing. Increasingly, tracking is moving from ‘really nice’ to ‘absolutely critical’ for online businesses.

These days, you don’t need to be an expert to track how effective your site and your online advertising is. But, if you do need help, give us a call and we can walk you through how you can take advantage of the tools and data in front of you to make your advertising more effective. 

Looking Past The Click – Non-Unique Conversions – Know Your Data

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The Importance of Non-Unique Conversions

Everyone’s after that unique click. It’s a simple, clear and easily trackable KPI for business owners and advertising firms that really makes it feel like digital advertising is moving the needle.

But, advertising isn’t that simple. Though it may feel good to look at all those brand new customers rolling in, a good advertising firm will help you drill down further to get the most out of every campaign.

Without digging deeper into your analytics, you’re only looking at the tip of the iceberg.

And we all know how that worked out for the Titanic.

Poor Leo…

If you look beyond the ‘click’, you’ll discover reams of data that will help you hone your online presence.  

Understanding non-unique conversions is the first step to drilling down into your data to create the better web presence.

Before we delve any further into non-unique conversions, let’s take a quick step back to see how digital advertising interactions are typically tracked.

The different types of ad interactions – drilling into your data

Users can interact with your ad in a variety of ways. Sometimes, that means they see your ad, click and make a purchase. That’s the simplest road to conversion from an ad but it’s hardly the only one.

Everyone tracks the see, click, buy crowd. But, a good advertising firm goes beyond that, breaking down ad interactions into two, broad categories:

  • Post click or click through is when someone sees your ad, comes to your site, but leaves and then comes back later.
  • Post view or view through is when someone sees your ad, but doesn’t click. Instead, they find their way to your site at a later time through other means, such as a web search or coming directly to your site.

Each of these categories of ad interaction then lead to two, broad categories of conversions (whether that means purchases or calls).

  • Unique conversions: which are actions taken by first-time visitors to your site.
  • Non-unique conversions: which represent return business, or visitors who’ve been to your site multiple times before taking an action.

Whether post click or post view, unique conversions are often the most coveted, as they represent new customers. However, tracking only unique visitors creates a very shallow perspective on how your advertising is actually performing.

The importance of non-unique conversions

By tracking how non-unique visitors are interacting with your site and what actions they are taking, you can get a deeper, more holistic view of your web presence.

Wading through all that data can reveal:

  • How often buyers come back to interact with your site
  • Points of friction on your website that are causing you to lose sales
  • The impact of your full campaign, including retargeting ads
  • How strong your relationships are with your customers

This understanding gives you the ability to refine your whole online presence, from advertising to specific web pages. 

The key to understanding an abandoned cart – an example

Perhaps the easiest way to show the importance of non-unique conversions is the very common abandoned cart scenario. 

Let’s say you run an ad campaign for an e-commerce website. Someone sees the ad, fills their cart up with goods, then at that crucial moment of click to purchase – they get cold feet and nuke the tab. Perhaps they want more information on the products they purchased, or maybe they want to shop around to see if they can get a better price – either way, they’ve left a cart full of goodies just waiting for that final click to make the purchase.

If they come back to hit that button, that’s a non-unique conversion and if you’re not collecting that data, you’ll never know why they came back. 

  • Did they see your retargeting campaign? 
  • Did they shop around only to discover that you have the best price?
  • Did they just need some time to think it over before making a big purchase?

All of this information is invaluable because it can help you hone your retargeting campaigns, abandoned cart emails and more. It also allows you a backstage view to see if this scenario is playing itself out over and over again. 

From website tweaks to new ad campaigns, all this extra data gives you the ability to pivot your digital presence to create more conversions.

After all, that’s why you started advertising in the first place.

More data = smarter advertising 

At In Front Marketing, we’re big fans of data. 

We track every action on our client’s websites so they can understand how prospective customers are interacting. 

But more than that, we comb through that data to make sense of everything that’s going on,  then give you feedback not only on your advertising, but your digital presence as a whole.

For us, that means a lot of back end work for us so we can create a clearer view of how your advertising is performing.

For you, that means a better understanding of your advertising ROI and a clearer return on advertising spend.

Take a deeper look at your web presence with In Front Marketing.

Let’s Talk.

[email protected]

Dave Taylor       /  John McColman
(403) 891-9295 / (403) 861-9727

Suite 401 – 255 17 Ave SW
Calgary, AB, T2S 2T8

The Flexibility of Google Ads The IFM Way

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Search drives sales.




Whether it’s a search inspired by billboards, banner ads, podcast placements, if you don’t pop up on the search engine results page when your audience looks for you, your ad isn’t as effective as it COULD and SHOULD be.

The flip side is if your business runs well-placed ads, you can be there at every stage of the sales funnel, walking with a prospective client from initial want/need all the way to purchase. 

This ability to tie together the whole digital ecosystem of advertising makes search ads an integral part of any ongoing campaign. Done right, your campaign will excel, done poorly and the ad will cost more than it’s worth.

Search is essential

Every ad in the digital ecosystem – the whole advertising ecosystem – drives search. That’s because people navigate the internet with search – overwhelmingly, with Google (who owns around 87% of the market).  

That means most buyers’ journeys begin with a Google search. Looking for a product? Google. A service? Google. Want to know when you have a better chance at getting into your favourite restaurant on a Saturday? You guessed it: Google.

So, when someone sees your banner ad, a video on YouTube featuring your product, even a traditional billboard that grabs their attention on their morning commute you can bet their next step typing, texting or talking to Google. 

We see this every time we place an ad for a client. The audience may not click the first time they see it – or even the second time –  but when we follow that traffic long enough and we see the true value of banner ads laid out in search traffic. 

Suddenly, all those people we’ve targeted and re-targeted with ads are searching for that thing you sell.

But if you’re not there, those ad dollars spent essentially driving customers to search for you are much less effective. In fact, they may end up driving traffic to your competitor simply because they appear at the right time on the results page. 

The bottom line is, you have to be at the right place at the right time, i.e.: when someone searches.

Finding the right keywords

The power and problem with Google Ads lies in how flexible they are. Whatever search terms you want to appear for, Google gives you the chance to bid and make it happen. 

Choose the wrong keywords to bid on and it will get expensive fast – especially in a bidding war over big-ticket words. Done correctly, you can leverage every dollar you spend to outperform any high-dollar keyword. 

The first step to creating that high ROI campaign is to understand what your customers search for. This can include:

  • Terms from your ad campaigns
  • Branded words
  • Competitors
  • Information they need before making a purchase

You can try to guess what your client will be looking at based on your knowledge, but the best way to ensure you’re where you want to be is research. That means utilizing every piece of data you have access to in order to track and understand what your clients are looking for. So, when it finally comes time to secure your keywords, you can make data-based decisions you can be sure about.

Flexibility to stay within your budget

While Google Ads can get very expensive, very fast, they can be remarkably effective even on a tight budget.

With the proper plan in place, you can place hard lines around your ad spends, then track the ROI of each campaign to make sure each is effective. If you find one campaign isn’t making the return it needs to, you can change it quickly, without penalties.

Touchpoints throughout the funnel

One of the most powerful aspects of Google Ads is its ability to find your customer at the very end of the funnel – just before they make a purchase. But, that shouldn’t be your only goal when setting up a Google Ads campaign. 

Properly utilized, Google Ads are there with your customer on every step of the buyer’s journey, from the initial idea, through research to the final purchase.

If, for example, you own a furniture business, you may target young people who are moving out on their own with an ad for a coffee table. Your ideal client may see this ad two, three, even four times before deciding they need a coffee table.

Then they search, and you’re there. Now they’re browsing your selection of furniture, along with other stores, and you can see where they go, and what they seem to like. Now, you’re retargeting with the understanding they’re looking for a tasteful, but inexpensive coffee table. 

Each step of the way you’re there, so you can understand what they want, and offer it to them. Then, when they’re ready to purchase, and make that final search, they’ve already interacted with your website. They’re familiar with you, and how you work, making you the frictionless choice.

Optimizing your campaign – the IFM advantage

At In Front Marketing, we love Google Ads because we love data. 

The reams of data that come through Google Ads allows us to constantly tweak and optimize every keyword and KPI created. From the moment someone clicks on an ad, we can track their behaviours with a pixel, which helps us understand where they’re going, and what they want. Using this data we can optimize your Google Ads campaigns as well as your ads throughout the entire digital ecosystem.

And of course, because we believe you have a right to your own data, we share it all with you.

Then, once we can see there’s traction, we work with you to create goals and KPIs that will guide us through the process of further optimization.

So, if you have a superstar sales team boasting a high rate of conversion over the phone, we can make that first call a priority. If you’re a brick and mortar shop that just needs more foot traffic, we can build your campaign around that goal. Whatever your need, we can track and optimize KPIs to ensure your campaign does its job.

By understanding the process, and doing all the research and heavy lifting at the very beginning, we can work with you to create goals and optimize your campaigns constantly. So, whatever your advertising spend, audience or purpose, we can add lift with Google Ads. 

Like what you hear? Reach out, call us for a free no obligation discussion or just to chat. We look forward to hearing from you.

Dave Taylor – 403.891.9295 – [email protected]
John McColman – 403.861.9727 – [email protected] SEARCH