Author - Leslye Schumacher

What Does Google Know About Your Search History?

Ever wonder just what does Google know about my search history?  Think that when you delete your browser cache that also deletes it from Google’s servers? Cue the Jaws theme song music…WRONG! If you want to know what Google has on you (yes, it’s a little scary) the search giant has quietly rolled out a new function that allows you...

Digital Leads Traditional Media In Average Time Spent Per Day

According to a recent article in eMarketer, digital media continues to surpass traditional media in amount of time spent with major media by US adults.  In 2015, the average adult will spend 5 hours and 38 minutes with digital media each day!  To put that growth in perspective, that number was just 3 hours and 40 minutes in 2011. TV,...

Are You Looking For More Conversions On Your Website?

If you are looking to boost the number of conversions  your website gets from mobile users, the answer looks like it’s behind door number 3… Contests! Formstack’s “Form Conversion” study analyzed 665,000 user account contributions and 117,577 form types all collected in January 2015. The research only looked at mobile-responsive forms, which are designed to be filled out easily on smartphones and...

See What A Website Looks Like On A Mobile Phone – But From Your Desktop!

If you want to know what a website looks like when called up on a smartphone, there is a way you can do this right from your desktop.  Google Chrome has a great feature that allows you to do this in a snap.  You can even look at what the website looks like on different smartphone models. 1. Open up...

The Myth Of Pay Per Click

“Pay Per Click works for everyone!” “You’ve got to be doing “AdWords!” “Every media campaign should include Pay Per Click!” These are some of the most prevalent myths circulating.  These myths are costing local businesses a lot of money in misdirected advertising.  The truth is Pay Per Click isn’t for everyone, especially small businesses and here are some reasons why. ...

Google Analytics Can Tell Me When I Should Advertise?

The folks who bring you Google Analytics have just released some first quarter insights from the previous two years that could help you decide when it is best to beef up your marketing in the coming weeks. They analyzed billions of Google Analytics sessions and found that “in particular, the week of February 5th (also known as the week...

We Are A (Insert Your Type Of Company Here), Do We Really Need To Blog?

The short answer? Yes! I recently was talking with the owner of a plumbing company and I told him that he needed to add a blog to his website. His response? “Who the *&!# is going to read a blog about plumbing?” Fair enough. I explained to him that the purpose of a blog is not just to educate and...

What Is A “View-Through” And Why Should I Care?

Google recommends that advertisers track View-Through Conversions. Here’s what Google says, “Measure the success of your display ad campaigns by using View-Through Conversions… View-Through Conversions are what happens when a customer sees an ad (but doesn’t click), and then later completes a conversion on your site.” In order to track View-Throughs, a pixel code is placed on your website. Google...

Want More Conversions? Offer Less Options!

Giving people too many options or asking them for too much information can quickly reduce your conversions. For example, a study found that by reducing the number of options on your website’s “contact us” form from 6 to 3, you can increase your conversion rate an average of 66%.  Even changing something like the “submit” button can increase your...

Are Facebook And X (previously Twitter) Worth Your Company’s Time?

“So few people actually see posts from top brands on Facebook and Twitter that focusing heavily on those networks can be a waste of time, money and resources.” This quote is from vice president and principal analyst Nate Elliott of Forrester Research in a new research report. He goes on to say that their research showed, “It’s clear that Facebook...

Where Advertising Budgets Are Going In 2015

With the new year upon us it means brand new advertising budgets as well. Nielsen released their annual report where they survey marketers to find out how and where they are spending their advertising dollars, and what is planned for the upcoming year. Overall, 70% of marketers increased the amount of budget allocated to digital brand advertising in 2014, a...

Just How Much Time Do We Spend Each Day With Digital Media?

2014 was a “banner” year for digital growth, both in advertising revenue and time spent with digital media. An eMarketer report estimates that the average US adult will have spent 5 hours and 46 minutes a day in 2014, with digital media. (Their definition of digital media includes online, mobile, and non-mobile connected devices including gaming and streaming devices.)   It’s...

The New Year Means New Facebook Changes

Have you heard about the changes that Facebook has announced that will begin in January?  Facebook announced that they are going to filter out unpaid promotional material in user news feeds that businesses have posted as status updates.  Even if someone has “liked” your business Page and opted in to see your company’s status updates, the chances are they...

Why Don’t My Click Reports Match My Google Analytics? (Example)

Google Analytics is a terrific platform for understanding more about how visitors use your website.  However, keep in mind that it is not tracking data the same way that log servers track clicks. Click data is based on ad server logs from the ad exchange(s).  Analytics data (such as Google Analytics), is based on cookies or page loads. HOW GOOGLE ANALYTICS...

2014 – The Year Of Mobile Domination

It's official - mobile rules when it comes to media consumption.  The average person consumes 7 hours of media a day and mobile is number one, accounting for about 35% or 145 minutes of that time. The 2014 "Marketing In A Multiscreen World" report found similar results with smartphones at 35% of daily screen time, far outpacing T.V., tablets, and...

“Completers” Are Better Than “Clickers”

If you are doing a video pre-roll campaign, there are a lot of metrics you can measure, but which are the most important? Impressions? Click-Through-Rates? Completion Rates? A study done by Vindico clearly demonstrated that what counts for video ad campaigns are Completion Rates, saying, “Click Through Rate is the King of False Positives” The report goes on to explain that...

Does having a separate mobile website hurt my SEO?

A question we are frequently asked is whether having a separate mobile website will create SEO issues?  (A separate mobile url is one that starts with m. and redirects to the mobil url – i.e., m.vicimediainc.com.) The answer is “no” if it is done correctly – and we do it the correct way!  (As outlined by Google in this article.)...

Your Google Analytics Cheat Sheet (Example)

Are you maximizing your company website, blog, and Facebook page?  Are they optimized for the best performance to fit your needs and for organic search results?  Google Analytics is one of the most popular web visitor tracking tools.  It adds a small snippet of code that is placed on all the pages of your website.  Google Analytics reports can...