Digital Marketing

Why LinkedIn’s Premium CPCs Are Indispensable for B2B Marketing
In the competitive world of B2B marketing, LinkedIn Ads stand out as the premier social media marketing option. Their precision and effectiveness make them unparalleled for reaching decision-makers and driving high-value engagement. While their cost per click

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April 9, 2025
Top 3 Things B2B Marketers Must Do NOW to Prepare for a Cookie-less Future
By early 2025, the marketing landscape will be completely different. Google’s long-anticipated phase-out of third-party cookies, first announced seven years ago, is finally approaching. Originally expected in 2024, the timeline has now shifted to give advert

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November 15, 2024
Future Trends in B2B Paid Media: What to Expect in 2025
8 Emerging Trends in B2B Advertising. What to Expect in 2025 With 2024 coming to an end, many questions are arising regarding the emerging trends and technologies that will shape business-to-business marketing (B2B marketing) and B2B paid media over the nex

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November 7, 2024
Leverage Programmatic Ad Buying to Improve ABM Results
In today's digital age, where the competition for consumers' attention is fiercer than ever, marketers must adopt innovative strategies to reach their target audience effectively. Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a highly targeted approach that focuses on

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April 16, 2024
Selecting The Right Data Visualization Platform For Your Business
Choosing the most suitable platform for data visualization is essential for businesses seeking to derive meaningful insights and drive informed decision-making. Looker Studio, Power BI, and Tableau are prominent players in the field, each offering distinct fea

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January 22, 2024
Comparison of B2B Marketing Attribution Models
What is marketing attribution? Most B2B buyers engage with a brand across several digital channels as they move through their research and buying journey. In fact, the average business buyer is exposed to a brand 36 times before making a purchase decision. Wi

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March 5, 2023
Utilize Pipeline Progression Data to Prove Marketing ROI
B2B lead generation metrics typically include conversions, conversion rate, and cost-per-conversion. While these metrics are essential to understanding marketing results, they should not be the primary measurement of your success. Move Beyond Conversion M

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January 10, 2023
Effective B2B Targeting to Maximize Media Spend
Filling the top of your sales funnel with leads is easy to do in B2B digital marketing, however ensuring those leads will turn into valuable opportunities and potential revenue is a more challenging task when the leads coming in are not the most qualified. One

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May 6, 2020
The Age of Data Privacy – Google Analytics, CCPA and GDPR
What is data privacy? Data privacy relates to how data is handled based on its importance. In the digital age, the concept of data privacy applies to critical personal information, personally identifiable information (PII), as well as personal health inform

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April 24, 2020
CMO’s Share B2B Marketing Budgets (Industry Statistics)
One of the questions I am most frequently asked is: “How much money should my company be investing in marketing?” Here’s a summary of B2B marketing spend, as a percentage of total company budget, as a percentage of revenue, and by industry. Wondering how

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April 3, 2020
Understanding the B2B Revenue Engine
We recently attended our client’s annual B2B Marketing conference in Austin, TX; Sirius Summit. Here is an overview of what they had to say about the Revenue Engine. How is your revenue engine doing these days? Do you have a revenue engine? Do you kno

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June 27, 2019
SEO Blueprint: Your Strategic Roadmap
Whether you’re handling SEO in-house or using an agency… how do you know if your program is delivering maximum results?  This is a valid question and a difficult one to answer.  Organic search success does not look the same for every company or every web

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January 29, 2019
SEO Tips to Increase Organic Traffic
Driving qualified traffic to your site via organic search can be very challenging, especially in highly competitive markets. We all know SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is critical to increase organic traffic to a site, but if you're failing to make specific

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December 18, 2018
Forrester’s ABM Vendor Review
Struggling to understand the ABM ecosystem?  You’re not alone!  With a plethora of ever-changing ABM vendors and platforms it’s difficult to understand how all the pieces fit together.  Forrester published a 2018 New Wave Report™ that compares 14

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December 6, 2018
Proving the Value of SEO
There are a lot of concerns surrounding SEO marketing these days and I’m left scratching my head wondering why. Yes, SEO can be complicated and can be seen as a downright waste of time to those who have tried it and haven’t gotten the results they expected

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September 10, 2018
SEO to Drive Qualified Leads
In the B2B digital marketing world, SEO at times can take a back seat to paid search in terms of lead generation. Here is a real-life example illustrating how SEO can be a powerful B2B lead generation tactic. What is SEO Lead Generation? SEO lead genera

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August 1, 2018
The Importance of Video SEO
B2B marketers understand the importance of content, but many are missing the boat when it comes to video. Do you have a video optimization and marketing strategy in place? Are you capitalizing on YouTube’s huge business audience? Let's take a deep dive into

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July 2, 2018
SEO That Ensures a Competitive Advantage
One important question every digital marketer should ask is: How can my website rank higher than my competitors for customers’ most important search queries?  The answer is found in analyzing top-ranking sites and reverse-engineering a winning organic searc

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June 4, 2018
How to Integrate Account-Based Marketing (ABM) and SEO to Improve Results
Account Based Marketing (ABM) is one of the hottest trends in B2B marketing today, similar to the previous attention given to SEO, or search engine optimization.  In this post I’ll discuss how these two strategies can best be used in an integrated fashion t

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May 15, 2018
How to Conduct an SEO Competitor Analysis
Competitor analysis is a crucial component of any successful B2C and B2B SEO campaign, but carrying out an effective competitor analysis can be challenging. Having a clear understanding of who you're going up against in organic search results is extremely impo

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March 28, 2018
B2B Search Ads With a Human Connection
The impact of the human element in B2B paid advertising text and how it can help PPC (Pay-Per-Click) ads stand out against niche business competitors. Often when advertising to other businesses, we focus on the technical aspects of the products; The bus

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March 21, 2018
Google Analytics Best Practices
Before you start with Google Analytics make sure you are familiar with implementation best practices and follow these practices so that you can trust your data. Have in mind that implementation, configuration and customization of Google Analytics is an ongoing

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February 28, 2018
Proving B2B Digital Marketing ROI
"Half of the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” - John Wannamaker B2B marketers often struggle with calculating the ROI of their marketing programs. This is increasingly more difficult if the company has a lon

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February 13, 2018
How to Select the Right SEO Agency
Search engine optimization (SEO) can be overwhelming. You want to make sure you are partnering with the right SEO agency; a firm that understands your business goals and marketing objectives; who will provide the right knowledge and expertise to help you achie

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January 12, 2018
The Basics of B2B Web Analytics
Understanding B2B web analytics is understanding how B2B and B2C audiences are different and what is different in the way each audience makes purchasing decisions. In the consumer world it usually takes only one person to research and make the purchasing de

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December 29, 2017
Content Development to Fill SEO Gaps
In a recent blog post title “SEO Content Gap Analysis Explained”, I explained what a content gap analysis is and how to find content gaps in regards to SEO. Now that you have found your content gaps and have a list of keywords you are going to target it’

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November 8, 2017
Demystifying (not set) Landing Pages Related to Phone Call Tracking in Google Analytics
Are you seeing (not set) landing pages in Google Analytics? I recently experienced this, related to call tracking for a client. Here is an overview of my experience researching (not set) pages, understanding what they are and why they often appear as top landi

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October 25, 2017
SEO Content Gap Analysis
If you’re fairly new to SEO you may have heard colleagues throwing around the phrase “content gap analysis”. If hearing those words causes your heart rate to increase or your palms to sweat -- then we have you covered. Consider this a Beginner’s Guide

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August 30, 2017
4 Reasons Competitors Are Outranking You
There are many reasons why your SEO competitors could be outranking you in organic search. Content, backlinks, page speed, and technical aspects (robots.txt, XML sitemaps etc.) are all things you should consider investigating to determine why your competitors

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August 11, 2017
Tips on Hiring Digital Marketing Experts
Digital Marketing is a fast-paced, growing, and very competitive industry.  The cornerstone of success for all digital agencies is recruiting and retaining exceptional people.  After all, this is really what our clients are buying…. a team of experts who c

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July 5, 2017
Avid Demand: Agency Culture & Values
What makes a digital marketing agency a great place to work?  How do you know if an agency environment is right for you?  And which firm offers the best fit given your individual goals and career aspirations?  Here is a summary of the unique agency environm

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July 5, 2017
5 Ways to Improve SEO and Increase Organic Search Traffic
Google is constantly developing new algorithms to help improve their search results. In today’s world, people expect to find information quickly, and Google is taking all the necessary steps to meet this demand. Is your website performing well in organic

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June 8, 2017
How To Leverage UTM Parameters
While their use has been around for quite some time, I’ve found that many marketers are confused about how they should be leveraging UTM parameters to track their digital efforts. UTM parameters are tags added to the end of a URL that will allow marketers to

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April 25, 2017
Balancing Lead Quality & Quantity
We have all been there, whether working in an agency or in-house, when the question comes up – “What’s more important to you, lead quantity or lead quality?” Nine times out of ten the answer is “both!” and while this may not seem helpful, or even p

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March 28, 2017
Proven ABM Strategies
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) has become a large focus for B2B organizations.  The concept of casting a smaller net and focusing on key accounts and prospects is a massive departure from some traditional marketing strategies.  Marketers are now collaborating

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March 13, 2017
Conducting a Paid Search Campaign Audit
Just like an annual physical exam, marketers should regularly conduct a PPC “check-up”.  The beginning of the year is a great time to do this type of assessment.  In this post I cover the most important campaign elements to review including ad extensions

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February 13, 2017
Using Google Analytics Pivot Tables
By default, Google Analytics loads reports in the data table view. This setting can be changed to present data in another visual format. In this post I’ll discuss how to take advantage of Pivot Tables. I’ll show you how to modify pivot table options, struc

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November 16, 2016
Lead Nurture, Scoring & Engagement
As a full-service B2B digital marketing agency we have seen that just working to capture a lead is not enough to fully realize the potential value of that lead. As prospects move thru the marketing and sales process lead data can be automatically imported into

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September 28, 2016
Avid Demand: a Google Premier Partner
Avid Demand (formerly SmartSearch Marketing) was named a Google PREMIER Partner Agency. This is an honor reserved for select agencies that meet Google’s stringent qualification criteria including: the ability to keep and grow clients, employee education and

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September 20, 2016
Free Google SERP Preview Tool
In May of 2016 Google updated the SERP’s (Search Engine Results Pages). Since 2014 Google has been using a pixel-based Title Tag limit - instead of character length. The most recent update has expanded the Title and Description tags from 512 pixels to 600 pi

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August 31, 2016
Implementing Google Expanded Text Ads
In February of this year, Google announced they would no longer serve ads on the right “rail” (or sidebar) of their search results.  This move was designed to improve the consistency of the search experience when using multiple devices, especially mobile

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August 26, 2016
Advanced Analytics Segments
Advanced segments offer additional insights over the standard Google Analytics reports. There are some predefined segments already in Google Analytics, and users can build their own custom segments tailored to their specific business needs. I love to use advan

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July 29, 2016
Structured Data: SEO Basics
Structured data is one of the newest pieces of the SEO puzzle, yet it seems there is some hesitation to incorporating it into an SEO strategy. Yes it’s code-based, and a lot of SEO’s don’t have access to the CMS or website code. And sometimes it can be a

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July 18, 2016
Web Conversions and the Lead Funnel
Many marketer’s working to generate leads via digital channels get very focused on one single action; the website conversion. In my opinion, this viewpoint is too narrowly focused given the amount of activity that must occur both before and after the website

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June 1, 2016
B2B Lead Gen for Tech Companies
In my previous post I discussed the advantages of working with a search marketing specialist (versus a general marketing agency).  I’d like to take the concept of specialization one step further and explore the benefits of working with an agency that specia

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March 7, 2016
Conversion Testing & “Statistical Confidence”
“Statistical confidence” is a frequent conversation that circulates in the CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) testing community.  How much statistical confidence do we need?... How should it be calculated?... How much data is required for the confidence t

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October 26, 2015
Improving Agency-Client Communication
I have found that communication can be one of the harder skills to master – largely because it tends to be an “add-on” to the skills that are required to do our jobs from a technical perspective (we search marketers can be total geeks about our work!)

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September 16, 2015
How to Survive Change in a Digital Agency….
Most people have a hard time dealing with change. It’s disruptive and it can be challenging, and yet it’s a part of life. In the online marketing industry, change is the norm. We are constantly keeping up with the latest innovation, algorithm update, adver

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September 15, 2015
Web Analytics Should Inform CRO Testing
The purpose of website testing, in general, is to improve results - whether that be site engagement, form completions, eCommerce sales, etc. However, if we’re not smart about our testing plan then we will end up with inconclusive tests, failed tests and test

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August 3, 2015
Why Hire a Search Marketing Specialist
Today (have you noticed) everyone is a search marketing expert. Over the past 10 years, the number of search engine marketing agencies has grown dramatically.  This increase in competition has created a lot of choices for marketers.  Many are asking this

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July 23, 2015
Google’s “Search Analytics” Report and SEO
Google recently provided a rare and significant upgrade to Google Search Console by replacing the Search Queries report with a new Search Analytics report. The new report has more robust filters and Google claims that the data is “much more accurate” and

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May 21, 2015
B2B Marketing & Personal Email Addresses
Since I’ve been working in paid search marketing, the question surrounding the validity and quality of personal email addresses has been a hot topic, especially as it relates to B2B lead gen efforts. Here are several reasons B2B digital marketers should not

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April 7, 2015
4 Questions When Hiring a Digital Agency
There are many questions that should be asked during an RFP or interview process for hiring a Search Marketing Agency. After executing countless client on-board processes, I have found that ensuring a good fit between a client and an agency comes down to askin

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March 11, 2015
Benefits of Partnering With a Multi-Disciplined, Integrated Marketing Agency
In a previous blog, “The Power of an Expert Search Team”, I explained our agency’s philosophy regarding hiring subject matter experts in each search marketing discipline - paid search advertising, SEO, conversion, analytics, content, etc. In this post, I

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March 5, 2015
International Site Architecture & SEO
Your business is growing and you’re ready to break into international markets. Congratulations! However, your site is only structured to target domestic prospects. Before commencing down the path of multilingual SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and other glo

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February 13, 2015
Benefits of Optimizing Downloadable Assets
Just like webpages, your pdfs if developed and optimized properly, can rank in the search engines. Most websites have assets, such as infographics, brochures, eBooks and whitepapers, that prospects can download, print and take with them.  Not all of these ass

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October 21, 2014
Basics of Structured Data
With the semantic web quickly evolving, adopting semantic markup and integrating structured data into your SEO strategy is imperative and should be scoped into your project plan in 2014. If the search engines comprehend the markup on your pages, the engine can

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July 8, 2014
Evaluating Campaign Management Tools
The use of PPC (Pay-Per-Click) Management Tools has been a “hot topic” at SmartSearch recently. We’ve been re-evaluating our campaign tools and re-examining our requirements. We decided to break down our needs by specific PPC function and investigate wha

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June 5, 2014
Benefits of Virtual Usability Testing
You know your website needs improvement, but...    - Where do you start?    - How do you deal with all the conflicting opinions? Answer:  Ask your prospective customers! There is a relatively fast, easy and inexpensive way to solicit very sp

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February 27, 2014
B2B Assets That Engage Customers
I think too often marketers get in a habit of creating the same type of assets over and over, or just updating old assets. Instead consider expanding the different types of assets that you make available. Be creative and often those will be the most compelling

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February 24, 2014
Search Marketing: A Year in Review (2013)
As the year comes to a close, it seems everyone is looking back on how far we've come.  January of 2013 is a faraway place and all of the animals Google has thrown at us since (including a Hummingbird) leave us not too worse for the ware. So if you struggl

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December 23, 2013
The Power of an Expert Search Marketing Team
A few thoughts on an effective search marketing team... As the VP of Client Services at SmartSearch Marketing, I do a lot of thinking about what makes a client delivery team effective and successful. We have a fundamental philosophy at our agency that ex

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October 23, 2013
Developing a Content Marketing Program
Create Awesome Content That Will Attract and Win Customers Content is an increasingly essential component of web marketing – and marketing in general. In a recent poll of top marketing executives, content marketing has surpassed PPC (Pay-Per-Click) in impor

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June 13, 2013
The Fallacy of SEO Ranking Reports
How To Better Spend Your Time & Effort For some time now, there’s been a growing buzz in the SEO community regarding organic ranking reports.  The conversation focuses on a significant short list of controversial topics including: accuracy of data, use

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April 5, 2013
Tips: Optimizing B2B Content Assets
Does this situation sound familiar? Due to the success of your B2B SEO program, organic traffic to your website is increasing. However, visitors aren’t engaging with specific aspects of the site and aren’t taking the desired actions. Why? Many B2B marke

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March 14, 2013
Avid Demand Adds Paid Search Expert
B2B Search Marketing Agency Expands PPC Team to Serve Rapid Client Growth Boulder, CO – January 23, 2013 – Avid Demand (formerly SmartSearch Marketing), a full-service B2B digital marketing agency, and a Google Ads Certified Partner, announced today th

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January 23, 2013
B2B Brand Awareness & Remarketing
Branding in B2B search engine marketing is a constant topic for debate. All B2B marketers realize that online brand awareness and recognition is extremely important, and most marketers already promote their brand via PPC (Pay-Per-Click) campaigns and SEO (Sear

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December 13, 2012
SMX East Welcomes SmartSearch Marketing
SmartSearch Marketing loves a good conference! That's why we're getting excited about the Search Marketing Expo (SMX) East that kicks off October 2, in New York CIty! SMX has over 50 sessions on internet marketing topics including search engine optimization (S

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October 1, 2012
Finding the Perfect B2B Agency For You
All search marketing programs are not created equally. This rings true most profoundly in the B2B marketing arena where shifting corporate demands, streamlined staffs and reduced budgets produce unique challenges for both B2B companies and the search marketing

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August 23, 2012
Content That Drives Qualified Blog Traffic
Blogging can be an art form in that sometimes it can be difficult to find a niche that generates traffic, engagement and new subscribers. Similar to YouTube videos, you never know what will go viral or become popular. It’s important to stick to your passions

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July 25, 2012
3 Questions To Ask Your B2B SEO Expert
Whether you’ve hired a search marketing agency or are using in-house resources, how do you know if your B2B SEO expert is doing a great job? Three simple questions that all business marketers should ask about their B2B SEO program are: How does our SEO pl

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June 28, 2012
Avid Demand: Top Integrated Search Agency
Avid Demand (formerly SmartSearch Marketing) has been ranked as a "top company" in the Best Integrated Search (SEO & PPC) Company category by www.topseos.com. Avid Demand has been included in the top 30 ranking for more than 12 consecutive months with

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June 25, 2012
Avid Demand: 100% Google Advertising Certified
Avid Demand (formerly SmartSearch Marketing), a Google Ads Certified Partner, announced today that every member of its paid media team is fully certified in all Google Ads functions. To become a Google Ads Certified Partner in the Google Ads Certification Pro

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June 18, 2012
Content Marketing and the B2B Buy-Cycle
One of the most important aspects of increasing online conversions (particularly for B2B focused sites) is speaking to prospects at all stages in the buying cycle. A prospect doing research on a topic is at a different place than one who is looking to hire a c

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May 31, 2012
Understanding B2B Search Marketing ROI
By Patricia Hursh, President and Founder, SmartSearch Marketing In search marketing it’s essential to track conversions, such as contact forms, white paper downloads, and webinar registrations. But if that’s your sole focus, you’re likely miscalcu

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April 23, 2012
Assessing the Value of B2B Marketing
B2B marketers, if you’re measuring and evaluating “conversions” only — such as white paper downloads, webinar registrations, or contact forms — you are likely not seeing the big picture in terms of true return on your search marketing investment.

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April 9, 2012
Convert Leads Into Sales – Part 2
By Dale Hursh, President, SmartSearch Marketing In B2B digital marketing, the #1 key to your success is converting web visitors into leads and sales. Perhaps you’ve got plenty of web traffic. Great. But how’s your conversion rate? What percentage of

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March 14, 2012
Improving B2B Paid Search Ad Targeting
B2B marketers often use paid search for lead generation and customer acquisition purposes. Based on the lifetime value of a customer, many business marketers are willing to pay a significant amount for a PPC-generated lead. Advanced PPC matching technology can

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March 12, 2012
Convert Visitors Into Leads – Part 1
by Dale Hursh, President, SmartSearch Marketing In B2B digital marketing, your success depends on converting web visitors into qualified leads. Perhaps you have plenty of web traffic. Great. But how’s your conversion rate? What percentage of your visitors

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February 13, 2012
Great Rankings… But Little Organic Traffic?
Most of the time an increase in search engine visibility does generate additional organic traffic, but what should a B2B marketer do if it doesn’t? Have you ever been a victim of this scenario? Below are three aspects of your SEO Program to analyze and im

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January 17, 2012
Holding Your SEO Agency Accountable
Accountability in B2B SEO To some B2B companies, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can seem like a mysterious practice.  The fact that the industry has those so called “Black Hat” SEO agencies making ridiculous promises can make understanding SEO even har

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January 16, 2012
Web Marketing – 5 Need-to-Know Trends for 2012
The only thing that’s certain is change. And the only change that’s certain in web marketing is that every year will bring more and faster changes. To compete in web marketing in 2012, it’s essential you have either a well-trained in-house team of exp

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January 10, 2012
Does Search Deliver Sales-Ready-Leads?
This is a mantra we hear far too often. Many B2B marketers expect their search marketing program to generate only high-quality leads that are immediately ready for sales interaction and closing. Question: Is this really realistic? Business Buying Is A Process

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December 20, 2011

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