"Posted by OeuyownK As a Senior Analytics Strategist working at an agency with clients across..."

“““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““

Posted by OeuyownK

As a Senior Analytics Strategist working at an agency with clients across industries, I’ve seen wildly contrasting performance throughout the pandemic. Certain online retailers and auto sites were far surpassing any historical performance, while others had to cut back budgets significantly. The variances in revenue performances also empirically correlated with time frames when the public received more support, in the form of stimulus checks.

My team at Portent conducted the study detailed below to verify our hypotheses that the pandemic caused revenue increases in online retailers and auto industries, and that those spikes correlated with stimulus distributions. We discovered a few specific factors that increased the probability of confirming our hypothesis along the way.

“Unprecedented” has undoubtedly been the word of the year, and it’s touched all aspects of life and business. There have been changes in consumer behavior across all industries — we’ve unfortunately seen swaths of shutdowns in particular markets while others have sustained or are even thriving. This post will provide some observations in online behavior along with some consumer data that should be used as predictive indicators through the rest of the pandemic.

The study

The observations of changes in online behavior were pulled and anonymized from 16 of our clients across 8 different industries. We narrowed those 8 industries down to three categories defined by Google Analytics for the purposes of this analysis: Shopping (10), Travel (3), and Autos & Vehicles (3).

The sites included in this analysis were limited to the US where possible and ranged in monthly revenue from $16K to $103K and in monthly sessions from 4K to 44K.

Observation #1: Stimulus checks resulted in increases in online behavior

Stimulus checks initiated the first revival of spending since the start of the pandemic. Granted, it was only about a month between the first notice of a lockdown and the beginning of stimulus payments. However, that increase in spend remained at higher levels after the majority of stimulus checks were distributed for most sites in this analysis—of course, excluding the Travel sites.

The first round of stimulus checks provided some form of relief to single Americans that made less than $99K a year, with those who made less than a $75K salary receiving the full $1,200. There were differences in limits depending on whether you have children or how you filed your taxes.

There was a noticeable jump in both sessions and revenue during the (1) week of April 13th, when $80M worth of stimulus payments were deposited for taxpayers who had direct deposits set up. By the (2) week of April 20th, additional rounds of deposits were made to those who manually set up direct deposits through the IRS. And by the (3) week of June 3rd, the IRS had delivered $270B in stimulus checks to Americans. At this point, revenue and sessions began to normalize below that period of stimulus distributions until the undeniable Black Friday sales occurred.

Observation #2: The impact depends on the market

There were obvious industries that were impacted most by the changes in consumer behavior and are still barely recovering: travel, in-store retail, and restaurants, to name those that were hit the hardest. On the other hand, some industries are actually performing better than before, such as online retail sales and food and beverage stores.

The analyses from S&P Global and the U.S. Census Bureau were accurately reflected in our study as well. Through the end of November, the average revenue for the Shopping sites in our analysis was 27.5% higher than our dip seen in March while sessions were 24.4% higher.

What came as a surprise, however, was that the Autos & Vehicles sites actually sustained higher averages than the Shopping sites. The sites in this industry saw 26.8% higher sessions and 36.8% higher revenue compared to the dip seen in the beginning of the pandemic and also well above prior levels in the beginning of the year.

The stark jump in sessions and revenue also aligned with when the distribution of stimulus checks began. In hindsight, the increase in consumer spending in this industry could have been anticipated considering the limitations and fear associated with traveling by plane. Online behavior is higher in the summer months as well, as those who were becoming restless from quarantining began to take road trips to satisfy their wanderlust.

There were a few other predictable trends that we identified in our study:

1. There was one quick spike in athletic wear purchases with the average sustaining higher than pre-pandemic levels.
2. There was a prolonged spike in revenue and especially traffic for baking goods and flour purchases, which remained at much higher levels compared to prior numbers. Then there was the seasonal influx of interest during the holidays. Interestingly, the conversion rate was 123% higher during the holidays compared to its peak in the beginning of the pandemic.
3. With parents and families stuck at home, there was an exponential and lengthy growth in online behavior for children’s toys. Although the growth has tapered, it continues to see an upward trend.
4. As expected, travel sites have taken the largest hit out of our study with a significant drop that has resulted in little to no recovery. The increase in revenue and sessions in the summer is almost entirely attributed to a resort that saw a similar increase in interest from the wanderlusts of the Autos & Vehicles sites.

Observation #3: There’s a positive correlation between AOV and % change in revenue

There was a fairly strong correlation of 0.76 between average order value (AOV) and % change in revenue YoY* for Shopping sites only. The consumer behavior on Autos & Vehicles sites was more dependent on stimulus checks and weather while the behavior on Travel sites was dependent on the feeling of safety.



*The data in this chart was pulled with the following notes:

• YoY comparison was for November 2019 vs. November 2020 (November being the highest performing month based on seasonality)
• Two anomalies were excluded from this data: (1) A flour company and, (2) A company with an AOV of nearly $2K

This one makes intuitive sense if you think about who’s been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. Industries that are still thriving are ones that were able to more easily transition to 100% remote work and ones that had enough funds to weather some dropoff in clientele. Those who were fortunate enough to be employed in those industries during this time are also more likely to be paid higher than the median. In fact, only 30% of parents earning $200K or more lost their jobs since the pandemic, compared to 65% of parents earning less than $25K. Those who lost jobs in higher income brackets were also more likely to be able to find work again.

High-income spenders weren’t significantly impacted by the pandemic aside from the first few months, during which the change in consumer spending came from uncertainty. Although high- and low-income brackets both saw significant drops in spending initially, high-income consumers returned to levels comparable to January 2020 while low-income consumers were still about 10% below on average through September 2020.

Considerations to forecast future performance

There’s quite honestly nothing novel in this analysis that hasn’t been surfaced through market research, and these observations have been corroborated by economic data. The key takeaways here are to pay attention to the trends we’re seeing, think about how they relate to your target audience or customer, and pay attention to new developments that may signal a shift toward normalcy once again as you re-enter the digital marketplace.

Stay informed of economic trends

Keep up-to-date with economic research published by S&P and monitor news releases from the Bureau of Economic Analysis to identify trends in Personal Income, Disposable Personal Income (DPI), Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE). The PCE started dipping in July, which correlates with the changes in consumer behavior we saw in our study. Although the reports don’t come out immediately, staying updated on the direction of these trends could inform your efforts.

Consider your target audience

It’s important to narrow down your research to your target audience. If your business is international, you likely won’t be as impacted by future stimulus checks in the US. However, different international markets will recover at differing rates.

Similarly, it’s important to keep your industry in mind. S&P is already estimating that the most-affected industries may not recover fully until 2022. This means that industries like in-store retail, travel, and service will have to find alternative ways to pivot during this time to return to normal levels.

Once you’ve considered your market and industry, weigh the risks based on your AOV and the income level of your average consumer. The higher the average income level, the more likely it is that your market has already recovered or the higher your chances are of being able to adjust successfully.

Additional federal support

Although the support from the US government throughout the pandemic has been lackluster at best, there’s a possibility of additional support. The recent round of stimulus checks were more limited than the first, meaning the impact on consumer behavior might be less noticeable. Economists are guessing that consumers would rather save this smaller amount than put it back into the economy. However, these bills should be accounted for in forecasting with the hopeful potential of additional (and more significant) federal support.

The distribution of vaccinations is likely to take at least several months to be impactful and possibly even longer to reach herd immunity. During this time of forward movement in the pandemic, we will all need to monitor and predict consumer behavior in unprecedented ways until we begin to see normalcy again.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don’t have time to hunt down but want to read!

”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/how-did-us-stimulus-checks-impact-on.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644004323529031680”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644015648396148736”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_24.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644026974044602368”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_52.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644038296821989376”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_51.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644049624096751616”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_66.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644060947885015040”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_18.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644072267126554624”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_26.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644083592457322496”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_25.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644094919201439744”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_0.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644106244768104448”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_74.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644117569353154560”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_95.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644128893319643136”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_29.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644140220954132481”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_11.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644151544075452416”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_34.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644162870292152320”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_15.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644174194193612800”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_60.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644185520567648256”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_3.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644196846297874432”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_86.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644208170601005056”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_98.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644219493583896576”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_31.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644230816612876288”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_33.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644242138521092096”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_30.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644253464514494465”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_87.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644264787773145088”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_27.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644276114892767232”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_72.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644287438688256000”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_17.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644298764993052672”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_35.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644310089179791360”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_65.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644321415875674112”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_78.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644332736590528512”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_91.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644344062770561024”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_8.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644355386964656128”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_28.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644366711003430912”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_45.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644378038472196096”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_2.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644389361263198208”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_76.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644400686324482048”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_79.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644412013029867520”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_69.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644423336175271936”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_55.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644434657859059712

"Posted by Greg_Gifford While Google Posts aren’t a ranking factor, they can still be an incredibly..."

“““““““““““““““““““““““

Posted by Greg_Gifford

While Google Posts aren’t a ranking factor, they can still be an incredibly effective resource for increasing local business conversions — when used correctly. This week’s Whiteboard Friday host, Greg Gifford, shows you how to put your best post forward.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz fans. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Fridays. I’m Greg Gifford, the Vice President of Search at SearchLab, a boutique digital marketing agency specializing in local SEO and paid search. I’m here today to talk about— you guessed it — Google Posts, the feature on Google My Business that lets you post interesting and attractive things to attract potential customers.

The importance of Google My Business

Mike Blumenthal said it first. Your Google My Business listing is your new homepage. Then we all kind of stole it, and everybody says it now. But it’s totally true. It’s the first impression that you make with potential customers. If someone wants your phone number, they don’t have to go to your site to get it anymore. Or if they need your address to get directions or if they want to check out photos of your business or they want to see hours or reviews, they can do it all right there on the search engine results page.

If you’re a local business, one that serves customers face-to-face at a physical storefront location or that serves customers at their location, like a plumber or an electrician, then you’re eligible to have a Google My Business listing, and that listing is a major element of your local SEO strategy. You need to stand out from competitors and show potential customers why they should check you out. Google Posts are one of the best ways to do just that thing.

How to use Google Posts effectively

For those of you who don’t know about Google Posts, they were released back in 2016, and they used to show up, up at the top of your Google My Business panel, and most businesses went crazy over them. In October of 2018, they moved them down to the very bottom of the GMB panel on desktop and out of the overview panel on mobile results, and most people kind of lost interest because they thought there would be a huge loss of visibility.

But honestly, it doesn’t matter. They’re still incredibly effective when they’re used correctly.

Posts are basically free advertising on Google. You heard that right. They’re free advertising. They show up in Google search results. Seriously, especially effective on mobile when they’re mixed in with other organic results.

But even on desktop, they help your business attract potential customers and stand out from other local competitors. More importantly, they can drive pre-site conversions. You’ve heard about zero-click search. Now people can convert without getting to your site. They appear as a thumbnail, an image with a little bit of text underneath. Then when the user clicks on the thumbnail, the whole post pops up in a pop-up window that basically fills the window on either mobile or desktop.

Now they have no influence on ranking. They’re a conversion factor, not a ranking factor. Think of it this way though. If it takes you 10 minutes to create a post and you do only one a week, that’s just 40 minutes a month. If you get a conversion, isn’t it worth doing? If you do them correctly, you can get a lot more than just one conversion. 

In the past, I would have told you that posts stay live in your profile for seven days, unless you use one of the post templates that includes a date range, in which case they stay live for the entire date range. But it looks like Google has changed the way that posts work, and now Google displays your 10 most recent posts in a carousel with a little arrow to scroll through. Then when you get to the end of those 10 posts, it has a link to view all of your older posts. 

Now you shouldn’t pay attention to most of what you see online about Posts because there’s a ridiculous amount of misinformation or simply outdated information out there.

Avoid words on the “no-no” list

Quick tip: Be careful about the text that you use. Anything with sexual connotation will get your post denied. This is really frustrating for some industries. If you put up a post about weather stripping, you get vetoed because of the word “stripping.” Or if you’re a plumber and you post about “toilet repairs” or “unclogging a toilet”, you get denied for using the word “toilet.”

So be careful if you have anything that might be on that no-no, naughty list. 

Use an enticing thumbnail



The full post contains an image. A full post has the image and then text with up to 1,500 characters, and that’s all most people pay attention to. But the post thumbnail is the key to success. No one is going to see the full post if the thumbnail isn’t enticing enough to click on.

Think of it like you’re creating a paid search campaign. You need really compelling copy if you want more clicks on your ad or a really awesome image to attract attention if it’s a banner image. The same principle applies to posts. 

Make them promotional

It’s also important to be sure that your posts are promotional. People are seeing these posts in the search results before they go to your site. So in most cases they have no idea who you are yet.

The typical social fluff that you share on other social platforms doesn’t work. Don’t share links to blog posts or a simple “Hey, we sell this” message because those don’t work. Remember, your users are shopping around and trying to figure out where they want to buy, so you want to grab their attention with something promotional.

Pick the right template

Most of the stuff out there will tell you that the post thumbnail displays 100 characters of text or about 16 words broken into 4 distinct lines. But in reality, it’s different depending on which post template you use and whether or not you include a call to action link, which then replaces that last line of text.

But, hey, we’re all marketers. So why wouldn’t we include a CTA link, right? 

There are three main post types. In the vast majority of cases, you want to use the What’s New post template. That’s the one that allows for the most text in the thumbnail view, so it’s easier to write something compelling. Now with the What’s New post, once you include that call to action, it replaces that last line so you end up with three full lines of available text space.

Both the Event and Offer post templates include a title and then a date range. Some people dig the date range because the post stays visible for that whole date range. But now that posts stay live and visible forever, there’s no advantage there. Both of those post types have that separate title line, then a separate date range line, and then the call to action link is going to be on the fourth line, which leaves you only a single line of text or just a few words to write something compelling.

Sure, the Offer post has a cool little price tag emoji there next to the title and some limited coupon functionality, but that’s not a reason. You should have full coupon functionality on your site. So it’s better to write something compelling with a “What’s New” post template and then have the user click through on the call to action link to get to your site to get more information and convert there.

There’s also a new COVID update post type, but you don’t want to use it. It shows up a lot higher on your Google My Business profile, actually just below your top line information, but it’s text only. Only text, no image. If you’ve got an active COVID post, Google hides all of your other active posts. So if you want to share a COVID info post or updates about COVID, it’s better to use the What’s New post template instead.

Pay attention to image cropping

The image is the frustrating part of things. Cropping is super wonky and really inconsistent. In fact, you could post the same image multiple times and it will crop slightly differently each time. The fact that the crop is slightly higher than vertical center and also a different size between mobile and desktop makes it really frustrating.

The important areas of your image can get cropped out, so half of your product ends up being gone, or your text gets cropped out, or things get really hard to read. Now there’s a rudimentary cropping tool built into the image upload function with posts, but it’s not locked to an aspect ratio. So then you’re going to end up with black bars either on the top or on the side if you don’t crop it to the correct aspect ratio, which is, by the way, 1200 pixels width by 900 pixels high.

You need to have a handle on what the safe area is within the image. So to make things easier, we created this Google Posts Cropping Guide. It’s a Photoshop document with built-in guides to show you what the safe area is. You can download it at bit.ly/posts-image-guide. Make sure you put that in lowercase because it’s case sensitive.

But it looks like this. Anything within that white grid is safe and that’s what’s going to show up in that post thumbnail. But then when you see the full post, the rest of the image shows up. So you can get really creative and have things like here’s the image, but then when it pops up, there’s additional text at the bottom. 

Include UTM tracking

Now, for the call to action link, you need to be sure that you include UTM tracking, because Google Analytics doesn’t always attribute that traffic correctly, especially on mobile.

Now if you include UTM tagging, you can ensure that the clicks are attributed to Google organic, and then you can use the campaign variable to differentiate between the posts that you published so you’ll be able to see which post generated more click-throughs or more conversions and then you can adjust your strategy moving forward to use the more effective post types. 

So for those of you that aren’t super familiar with UTM tagging, it’s basically adding a query string like this to the end of the URL that you’re tagging so it forces Google Analytics to attribute the session a certain way that you’re specifying.

So here’s the structure that I recommend using when you do Google posts. It’s your domain on the left. Then ?UTM_Source is GMB.Post, so it’s separated. Then UTM_Medium is Organic, and UTM_Campaign is some sort of post identifier. Some people like to use Google as the source.

But at a high level, when you look at your source medium report, that traffic all gets lumped together with everything from Google. So sometimes it’s confusing for clients who don’t really understand that they can look at secondary dimensions to break apart that traffic. So more importantly, it’s easier for you to see your post traffic separately when you look at the default source medium report.

You want to leave organic as your medium so that it’s lumped and grouped correctly on the default channel report with all organic traffic. Then you enter some sort of identifier, some sort of text string or date that can let you know which post you’re talking about with that campaign variable. So make sure it’s something unique so that you know which post you’re talking about, whether it’s car post, oil post, or a date range or the title of the post so you know when you’re looking in Google Analytics.

It’s also important to mention that Google My Business Insights will show you the number of views and clicks, but it’s a bit convoluted because multiple impressions and/or multiple clicks from the same users are counted independently. That’s why adding the UTM tagging is so important for tracking accurately your performance. 

Upload videos

Final note, you can also upload videos so a video shows in the thumbnail and in the post.

So when users see that thumbnail that has a little play button on it and they click it, when the post pops up, the video will play there. Now the file size limit is 30 seconds or 75 MB, which if you got commercials, that’s basically the perfect size. So even though they’ve been around for a few years, most businesses still ignore Posts. Now you know how to rock Posts so you’ll stand out from competitors and generate more click-throughs.

Hopefully you enjoyed the video. If you’ve got any additional tips to share, please throw them in the comments down below. Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you again next time.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don’t have time to hunt down but want to read!

”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/google-posts-conversion-factor-not.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644185519868280832”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644196845641498624”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_26.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644208169712844800”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_19.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644219493219008512”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_76.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644230816262733824”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_73.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644242138218004480”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_31.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644253464000692225”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_27.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644264787349553152”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_37.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644276114552946688”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_33.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644287438302347264”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_44.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644298764555894784”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_92.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644310088827404288”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_4.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644321416359149568”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_56.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644332737018413057”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_38.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644344061292167168”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_53.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644355386479099904”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_28.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644366710727704576”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_14.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644378038060089344”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_66.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644389360731586560”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_0.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644400685660651520”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_65.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644412012628230144”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_50.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644423335758921728”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_39.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644434657419624448

"“““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““ Posted by OeuyownK As a Senior Analytics Strategist working at..."

““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““

Posted by OeuyownK

As a Senior Analytics Strategist working at an agency with clients across industries, I’ve seen wildly contrasting performance throughout the pandemic. Certain online retailers and auto sites were far surpassing any historical performance, while others had to cut back budgets significantly. The variances in revenue performances also empirically correlated with time frames when the public received more support, in the form of stimulus checks.

My team at Portent conducted the study detailed below to verify our hypotheses that the pandemic caused revenue increases in online retailers and auto industries, and that those spikes correlated with stimulus distributions. We discovered a few specific factors that increased the probability of confirming our hypothesis along the way.

“Unprecedented” has undoubtedly been the word of the year, and it’s touched all aspects of life and business. There have been changes in consumer behavior across all industries — we’ve unfortunately seen swaths of shutdowns in particular markets while others have sustained or are even thriving. This post will provide some observations in online behavior along with some consumer data that should be used as predictive indicators through the rest of the pandemic.

The study

The observations of changes in online behavior were pulled and anonymized from 16 of our clients across 8 different industries. We narrowed those 8 industries down to three categories defined by Google Analytics for the purposes of this analysis: Shopping (10), Travel (3), and Autos & Vehicles (3).

The sites included in this analysis were limited to the US where possible and ranged in monthly revenue from $16K to $103K and in monthly sessions from 4K to 44K.

Observation #1: Stimulus checks resulted in increases in online behavior

Stimulus checks initiated the first revival of spending since the start of the pandemic. Granted, it was only about a month between the first notice of a lockdown and the beginning of stimulus payments. However, that increase in spend remained at higher levels after the majority of stimulus checks were distributed for most sites in this analysis—of course, excluding the Travel sites.

The first round of stimulus checks provided some form of relief to single Americans that made less than $99K a year, with those who made less than a $75K salary receiving the full $1,200. There were differences in limits depending on whether you have children or how you filed your taxes.

There was a noticeable jump in both sessions and revenue during the (1) week of April 13th, when $80M worth of stimulus payments were deposited for taxpayers who had direct deposits set up. By the (2) week of April 20th, additional rounds of deposits were made to those who manually set up direct deposits through the IRS. And by the (3) week of June 3rd, the IRS had delivered $270B in stimulus checks to Americans. At this point, revenue and sessions began to normalize below that period of stimulus distributions until the undeniable Black Friday sales occurred.

Observation #2: The impact depends on the market

There were obvious industries that were impacted most by the changes in consumer behavior and are still barely recovering: travel, in-store retail, and restaurants, to name those that were hit the hardest. On the other hand, some industries are actually performing better than before, such as online retail sales and food and beverage stores.

The analyses from S&P Global and the U.S. Census Bureau were accurately reflected in our study as well. Through the end of November, the average revenue for the Shopping sites in our analysis was 27.5% higher than our dip seen in March while sessions were 24.4% higher.

What came as a surprise, however, was that the Autos & Vehicles sites actually sustained higher averages than the Shopping sites. The sites in this industry saw 26.8% higher sessions and 36.8% higher revenue compared to the dip seen in the beginning of the pandemic and also well above prior levels in the beginning of the year.

The stark jump in sessions and revenue also aligned with when the distribution of stimulus checks began. In hindsight, the increase in consumer spending in this industry could have been anticipated considering the limitations and fear associated with traveling by plane. Online behavior is higher in the summer months as well, as those who were becoming restless from quarantining began to take road trips to satisfy their wanderlust.

There were a few other predictable trends that we identified in our study:

1. There was one quick spike in athletic wear purchases with the average sustaining higher than pre-pandemic levels.
2. There was a prolonged spike in revenue and especially traffic for baking goods and flour purchases, which remained at much higher levels compared to prior numbers. Then there was the seasonal influx of interest during the holidays. Interestingly, the conversion rate was 123% higher during the holidays compared to its peak in the beginning of the pandemic.
3. With parents and families stuck at home, there was an exponential and lengthy growth in online behavior for children’s toys. Although the growth has tapered, it continues to see an upward trend.
4. As expected, travel sites have taken the largest hit out of our study with a significant drop that has resulted in little to no recovery. The increase in revenue and sessions in the summer is almost entirely attributed to a resort that saw a similar increase in interest from the wanderlusts of the Autos & Vehicles sites.

Observation #3: There’s a positive correlation between AOV and % change in revenue

There was a fairly strong correlation of 0.76 between average order value (AOV) and % change in revenue YoY* for Shopping sites only. The consumer behavior on Autos & Vehicles sites was more dependent on stimulus checks and weather while the behavior on Travel sites was dependent on the feeling of safety.



*The data in this chart was pulled with the following notes:

• YoY comparison was for November 2019 vs. November 2020 (November being the highest performing month based on seasonality)
• Two anomalies were excluded from this data: (1) A flour company and, (2) A company with an AOV of nearly $2K

This one makes intuitive sense if you think about who’s been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. Industries that are still thriving are ones that were able to more easily transition to 100% remote work and ones that had enough funds to weather some dropoff in clientele. Those who were fortunate enough to be employed in those industries during this time are also more likely to be paid higher than the median. In fact, only 30% of parents earning $200K or more lost their jobs since the pandemic, compared to 65% of parents earning less than $25K. Those who lost jobs in higher income brackets were also more likely to be able to find work again.

High-income spenders weren’t significantly impacted by the pandemic aside from the first few months, during which the change in consumer spending came from uncertainty. Although high- and low-income brackets both saw significant drops in spending initially, high-income consumers returned to levels comparable to January 2020 while low-income consumers were still about 10% below on average through September 2020.

Considerations to forecast future performance

There’s quite honestly nothing novel in this analysis that hasn’t been surfaced through market research, and these observations have been corroborated by economic data. The key takeaways here are to pay attention to the trends we’re seeing, think about how they relate to your target audience or customer, and pay attention to new developments that may signal a shift toward normalcy once again as you re-enter the digital marketplace.

Stay informed of economic trends

Keep up-to-date with economic research published by S&P and monitor news releases from the Bureau of Economic Analysis to identify trends in Personal Income, Disposable Personal Income (DPI), Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE). The PCE started dipping in July, which correlates with the changes in consumer behavior we saw in our study. Although the reports don’t come out immediately, staying updated on the direction of these trends could inform your efforts.

Consider your target audience

It’s important to narrow down your research to your target audience. If your business is international, you likely won’t be as impacted by future stimulus checks in the US. However, different international markets will recover at differing rates.

Similarly, it’s important to keep your industry in mind. S&P is already estimating that the most-affected industries may not recover fully until 2022. This means that industries like in-store retail, travel, and service will have to find alternative ways to pivot during this time to return to normal levels.

Once you’ve considered your market and industry, weigh the risks based on your AOV and the income level of your average consumer. The higher the average income level, the more likely it is that your market has already recovered or the higher your chances are of being able to adjust successfully.

Additional federal support

Although the support from the US government throughout the pandemic has been lackluster at best, there’s a possibility of additional support. The recent round of stimulus checks were more limited than the first, meaning the impact on consumer behavior might be less noticeable. Economists are guessing that consumers would rather save this smaller amount than put it back into the economy. However, these bills should be accounted for in forecasting with the hopeful potential of additional (and more significant) federal support.

The distribution of vaccinations is likely to take at least several months to be impactful and possibly even longer to reach herd immunity. During this time of forward movement in the pandemic, we will all need to monitor and predict consumer behavior in unprecedented ways until we begin to see normalcy again.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don’t have time to hunt down but want to read!

”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/how-did-us-stimulus-checks-impact-on.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644004323529031680”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644015648396148736”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_24.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644026974044602368”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_52.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644038296821989376”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_51.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644049624096751616”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_66.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644060947885015040”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_18.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644072267126554624”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_26.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644083592457322496”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_25.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644094919201439744”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_0.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644106244768104448”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_74.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644117569353154560”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_95.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644128893319643136”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_29.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644140220954132481”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_11.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644151544075452416”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_34.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644162870292152320”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_15.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644174194193612800”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_60.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644185520567648256”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_3.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644196846297874432”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_86.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644208170601005056”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_98.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644219493583896576”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_31.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644230816612876288”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_33.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644242138521092096”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_30.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644253464514494465”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_87.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644264787773145088”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_27.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644276114892767232”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_72.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644287438688256000”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_17.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644298764993052672”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_35.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644310089179791360”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_65.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644321415875674112”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_78.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644332736590528512”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_91.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644344062770561024”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_8.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644355386964656128”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_28.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644366711003430912”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_45.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644378038472196096”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_2.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644389361263198208”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_76.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644400686324482048”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_79.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644412013029867520”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_69.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644423336175271936

"“““““““““““““““““““““ Posted by Greg_Gifford While Google Posts aren’t a ranking factor, they can..."

““““““““““““““““““““““

Posted by Greg_Gifford

While Google Posts aren’t a ranking factor, they can still be an incredibly effective resource for increasing local business conversions — when used correctly. This week’s Whiteboard Friday host, Greg Gifford, shows you how to put your best post forward.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz fans. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Fridays. I’m Greg Gifford, the Vice President of Search at SearchLab, a boutique digital marketing agency specializing in local SEO and paid search. I’m here today to talk about— you guessed it — Google Posts, the feature on Google My Business that lets you post interesting and attractive things to attract potential customers.

The importance of Google My Business

Mike Blumenthal said it first. Your Google My Business listing is your new homepage. Then we all kind of stole it, and everybody says it now. But it’s totally true. It’s the first impression that you make with potential customers. If someone wants your phone number, they don’t have to go to your site to get it anymore. Or if they need your address to get directions or if they want to check out photos of your business or they want to see hours or reviews, they can do it all right there on the search engine results page.

If you’re a local business, one that serves customers face-to-face at a physical storefront location or that serves customers at their location, like a plumber or an electrician, then you’re eligible to have a Google My Business listing, and that listing is a major element of your local SEO strategy. You need to stand out from competitors and show potential customers why they should check you out. Google Posts are one of the best ways to do just that thing.

How to use Google Posts effectively

For those of you who don’t know about Google Posts, they were released back in 2016, and they used to show up, up at the top of your Google My Business panel, and most businesses went crazy over them. In October of 2018, they moved them down to the very bottom of the GMB panel on desktop and out of the overview panel on mobile results, and most people kind of lost interest because they thought there would be a huge loss of visibility.

But honestly, it doesn’t matter. They’re still incredibly effective when they’re used correctly.

Posts are basically free advertising on Google. You heard that right. They’re free advertising. They show up in Google search results. Seriously, especially effective on mobile when they’re mixed in with other organic results.

But even on desktop, they help your business attract potential customers and stand out from other local competitors. More importantly, they can drive pre-site conversions. You’ve heard about zero-click search. Now people can convert without getting to your site. They appear as a thumbnail, an image with a little bit of text underneath. Then when the user clicks on the thumbnail, the whole post pops up in a pop-up window that basically fills the window on either mobile or desktop.

Now they have no influence on ranking. They’re a conversion factor, not a ranking factor. Think of it this way though. If it takes you 10 minutes to create a post and you do only one a week, that’s just 40 minutes a month. If you get a conversion, isn’t it worth doing? If you do them correctly, you can get a lot more than just one conversion. 

In the past, I would have told you that posts stay live in your profile for seven days, unless you use one of the post templates that includes a date range, in which case they stay live for the entire date range. But it looks like Google has changed the way that posts work, and now Google displays your 10 most recent posts in a carousel with a little arrow to scroll through. Then when you get to the end of those 10 posts, it has a link to view all of your older posts. 

Now you shouldn’t pay attention to most of what you see online about Posts because there’s a ridiculous amount of misinformation or simply outdated information out there.

Avoid words on the “no-no” list

Quick tip: Be careful about the text that you use. Anything with sexual connotation will get your post denied. This is really frustrating for some industries. If you put up a post about weather stripping, you get vetoed because of the word “stripping.” Or if you’re a plumber and you post about “toilet repairs” or “unclogging a toilet”, you get denied for using the word “toilet.”

So be careful if you have anything that might be on that no-no, naughty list. 

Use an enticing thumbnail



The full post contains an image. A full post has the image and then text with up to 1,500 characters, and that’s all most people pay attention to. But the post thumbnail is the key to success. No one is going to see the full post if the thumbnail isn’t enticing enough to click on.

Think of it like you’re creating a paid search campaign. You need really compelling copy if you want more clicks on your ad or a really awesome image to attract attention if it’s a banner image. The same principle applies to posts. 

Make them promotional

It’s also important to be sure that your posts are promotional. People are seeing these posts in the search results before they go to your site. So in most cases they have no idea who you are yet.

The typical social fluff that you share on other social platforms doesn’t work. Don’t share links to blog posts or a simple “Hey, we sell this” message because those don’t work. Remember, your users are shopping around and trying to figure out where they want to buy, so you want to grab their attention with something promotional.

Pick the right template

Most of the stuff out there will tell you that the post thumbnail displays 100 characters of text or about 16 words broken into 4 distinct lines. But in reality, it’s different depending on which post template you use and whether or not you include a call to action link, which then replaces that last line of text.

But, hey, we’re all marketers. So why wouldn’t we include a CTA link, right? 

There are three main post types. In the vast majority of cases, you want to use the What’s New post template. That’s the one that allows for the most text in the thumbnail view, so it’s easier to write something compelling. Now with the What’s New post, once you include that call to action, it replaces that last line so you end up with three full lines of available text space.

Both the Event and Offer post templates include a title and then a date range. Some people dig the date range because the post stays visible for that whole date range. But now that posts stay live and visible forever, there’s no advantage there. Both of those post types have that separate title line, then a separate date range line, and then the call to action link is going to be on the fourth line, which leaves you only a single line of text or just a few words to write something compelling.

Sure, the Offer post has a cool little price tag emoji there next to the title and some limited coupon functionality, but that’s not a reason. You should have full coupon functionality on your site. So it’s better to write something compelling with a “What’s New” post template and then have the user click through on the call to action link to get to your site to get more information and convert there.

There’s also a new COVID update post type, but you don’t want to use it. It shows up a lot higher on your Google My Business profile, actually just below your top line information, but it’s text only. Only text, no image. If you’ve got an active COVID post, Google hides all of your other active posts. So if you want to share a COVID info post or updates about COVID, it’s better to use the What’s New post template instead.

Pay attention to image cropping

The image is the frustrating part of things. Cropping is super wonky and really inconsistent. In fact, you could post the same image multiple times and it will crop slightly differently each time. The fact that the crop is slightly higher than vertical center and also a different size between mobile and desktop makes it really frustrating.

The important areas of your image can get cropped out, so half of your product ends up being gone, or your text gets cropped out, or things get really hard to read. Now there’s a rudimentary cropping tool built into the image upload function with posts, but it’s not locked to an aspect ratio. So then you’re going to end up with black bars either on the top or on the side if you don’t crop it to the correct aspect ratio, which is, by the way, 1200 pixels width by 900 pixels high.

You need to have a handle on what the safe area is within the image. So to make things easier, we created this Google Posts Cropping Guide. It’s a Photoshop document with built-in guides to show you what the safe area is. You can download it at bit.ly/posts-image-guide. Make sure you put that in lowercase because it’s case sensitive.

But it looks like this. Anything within that white grid is safe and that’s what’s going to show up in that post thumbnail. But then when you see the full post, the rest of the image shows up. So you can get really creative and have things like here’s the image, but then when it pops up, there’s additional text at the bottom. 

Include UTM tracking

Now, for the call to action link, you need to be sure that you include UTM tracking, because Google Analytics doesn’t always attribute that traffic correctly, especially on mobile.

Now if you include UTM tagging, you can ensure that the clicks are attributed to Google organic, and then you can use the campaign variable to differentiate between the posts that you published so you’ll be able to see which post generated more click-throughs or more conversions and then you can adjust your strategy moving forward to use the more effective post types. 

So for those of you that aren’t super familiar with UTM tagging, it’s basically adding a query string like this to the end of the URL that you’re tagging so it forces Google Analytics to attribute the session a certain way that you’re specifying.

So here’s the structure that I recommend using when you do Google posts. It’s your domain on the left. Then ?UTM_Source is GMB.Post, so it’s separated. Then UTM_Medium is Organic, and UTM_Campaign is some sort of post identifier. Some people like to use Google as the source.

But at a high level, when you look at your source medium report, that traffic all gets lumped together with everything from Google. So sometimes it’s confusing for clients who don’t really understand that they can look at secondary dimensions to break apart that traffic. So more importantly, it’s easier for you to see your post traffic separately when you look at the default source medium report.

You want to leave organic as your medium so that it’s lumped and grouped correctly on the default channel report with all organic traffic. Then you enter some sort of identifier, some sort of text string or date that can let you know which post you’re talking about with that campaign variable. So make sure it’s something unique so that you know which post you’re talking about, whether it’s car post, oil post, or a date range or the title of the post so you know when you’re looking in Google Analytics.

It’s also important to mention that Google My Business Insights will show you the number of views and clicks, but it’s a bit convoluted because multiple impressions and/or multiple clicks from the same users are counted independently. That’s why adding the UTM tagging is so important for tracking accurately your performance. 

Upload videos

Final note, you can also upload videos so a video shows in the thumbnail and in the post.

So when users see that thumbnail that has a little play button on it and they click it, when the post pops up, the video will play there. Now the file size limit is 30 seconds or 75 MB, which if you got commercials, that’s basically the perfect size. So even though they’ve been around for a few years, most businesses still ignore Posts. Now you know how to rock Posts so you’ll stand out from competitors and generate more click-throughs.

Hopefully you enjoyed the video. If you’ve got any additional tips to share, please throw them in the comments down below. Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you again next time.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don’t have time to hunt down but want to read!

”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/google-posts-conversion-factor-not.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644185519868280832”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644196845641498624”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_26.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644208169712844800”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_19.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644219493219008512”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_76.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644230816262733824”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_73.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644242138218004480”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_31.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644253464000692225”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_27.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644264787349553152”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_37.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644276114552946688”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_33.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644287438302347264”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_44.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644298764555894784”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_92.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644310088827404288”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_4.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644321416359149568”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_56.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644332737018413057”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_38.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644344061292167168”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_53.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644355386479099904”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_28.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644366710727704576”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_14.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644378038060089344”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_66.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644389360731586560”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_0.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644400685660651520”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_65.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644412012628230144”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-greggifford-while-google_50.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644423335758921728

"Posted by OeuyownK As a Senior Analytics Strategist working at an agency with clients across..."

“““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““

Posted by OeuyownK

As a Senior Analytics Strategist working at an agency with clients across industries, I’ve seen wildly contrasting performance throughout the pandemic. Certain online retailers and auto sites were far surpassing any historical performance, while others had to cut back budgets significantly. The variances in revenue performances also empirically correlated with time frames when the public received more support, in the form of stimulus checks.

My team at Portent conducted the study detailed below to verify our hypotheses that the pandemic caused revenue increases in online retailers and auto industries, and that those spikes correlated with stimulus distributions. We discovered a few specific factors that increased the probability of confirming our hypothesis along the way.

“Unprecedented” has undoubtedly been the word of the year, and it’s touched all aspects of life and business. There have been changes in consumer behavior across all industries — we’ve unfortunately seen swaths of shutdowns in particular markets while others have sustained or are even thriving. This post will provide some observations in online behavior along with some consumer data that should be used as predictive indicators through the rest of the pandemic.

The study

The observations of changes in online behavior were pulled and anonymized from 16 of our clients across 8 different industries. We narrowed those 8 industries down to three categories defined by Google Analytics for the purposes of this analysis: Shopping (10), Travel (3), and Autos & Vehicles (3).

The sites included in this analysis were limited to the US where possible and ranged in monthly revenue from $16K to $103K and in monthly sessions from 4K to 44K.

Observation #1: Stimulus checks resulted in increases in online behavior

Stimulus checks initiated the first revival of spending since the start of the pandemic. Granted, it was only about a month between the first notice of a lockdown and the beginning of stimulus payments. However, that increase in spend remained at higher levels after the majority of stimulus checks were distributed for most sites in this analysis—of course, excluding the Travel sites.

The first round of stimulus checks provided some form of relief to single Americans that made less than $99K a year, with those who made less than a $75K salary receiving the full $1,200. There were differences in limits depending on whether you have children or how you filed your taxes.

There was a noticeable jump in both sessions and revenue during the (1) week of April 13th, when $80M worth of stimulus payments were deposited for taxpayers who had direct deposits set up. By the (2) week of April 20th, additional rounds of deposits were made to those who manually set up direct deposits through the IRS. And by the (3) week of June 3rd, the IRS had delivered $270B in stimulus checks to Americans. At this point, revenue and sessions began to normalize below that period of stimulus distributions until the undeniable Black Friday sales occurred.

Observation #2: The impact depends on the market

There were obvious industries that were impacted most by the changes in consumer behavior and are still barely recovering: travel, in-store retail, and restaurants, to name those that were hit the hardest. On the other hand, some industries are actually performing better than before, such as online retail sales and food and beverage stores.

The analyses from S&P Global and the U.S. Census Bureau were accurately reflected in our study as well. Through the end of November, the average revenue for the Shopping sites in our analysis was 27.5% higher than our dip seen in March while sessions were 24.4% higher.

What came as a surprise, however, was that the Autos & Vehicles sites actually sustained higher averages than the Shopping sites. The sites in this industry saw 26.8% higher sessions and 36.8% higher revenue compared to the dip seen in the beginning of the pandemic and also well above prior levels in the beginning of the year.

The stark jump in sessions and revenue also aligned with when the distribution of stimulus checks began. In hindsight, the increase in consumer spending in this industry could have been anticipated considering the limitations and fear associated with traveling by plane. Online behavior is higher in the summer months as well, as those who were becoming restless from quarantining began to take road trips to satisfy their wanderlust.

There were a few other predictable trends that we identified in our study:

1. There was one quick spike in athletic wear purchases with the average sustaining higher than pre-pandemic levels.
2. There was a prolonged spike in revenue and especially traffic for baking goods and flour purchases, which remained at much higher levels compared to prior numbers. Then there was the seasonal influx of interest during the holidays. Interestingly, the conversion rate was 123% higher during the holidays compared to its peak in the beginning of the pandemic.
3. With parents and families stuck at home, there was an exponential and lengthy growth in online behavior for children’s toys. Although the growth has tapered, it continues to see an upward trend.
4. As expected, travel sites have taken the largest hit out of our study with a significant drop that has resulted in little to no recovery. The increase in revenue and sessions in the summer is almost entirely attributed to a resort that saw a similar increase in interest from the wanderlusts of the Autos & Vehicles sites.

Observation #3: There’s a positive correlation between AOV and % change in revenue

There was a fairly strong correlation of 0.76 between average order value (AOV) and % change in revenue YoY* for Shopping sites only. The consumer behavior on Autos & Vehicles sites was more dependent on stimulus checks and weather while the behavior on Travel sites was dependent on the feeling of safety.



*The data in this chart was pulled with the following notes:

• YoY comparison was for November 2019 vs. November 2020 (November being the highest performing month based on seasonality)
• Two anomalies were excluded from this data: (1) A flour company and, (2) A company with an AOV of nearly $2K

This one makes intuitive sense if you think about who’s been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. Industries that are still thriving are ones that were able to more easily transition to 100% remote work and ones that had enough funds to weather some dropoff in clientele. Those who were fortunate enough to be employed in those industries during this time are also more likely to be paid higher than the median. In fact, only 30% of parents earning $200K or more lost their jobs since the pandemic, compared to 65% of parents earning less than $25K. Those who lost jobs in higher income brackets were also more likely to be able to find work again.

High-income spenders weren’t significantly impacted by the pandemic aside from the first few months, during which the change in consumer spending came from uncertainty. Although high- and low-income brackets both saw significant drops in spending initially, high-income consumers returned to levels comparable to January 2020 while low-income consumers were still about 10% below on average through September 2020.

Considerations to forecast future performance

There’s quite honestly nothing novel in this analysis that hasn’t been surfaced through market research, and these observations have been corroborated by economic data. The key takeaways here are to pay attention to the trends we’re seeing, think about how they relate to your target audience or customer, and pay attention to new developments that may signal a shift toward normalcy once again as you re-enter the digital marketplace.

Stay informed of economic trends

Keep up-to-date with economic research published by S&P and monitor news releases from the Bureau of Economic Analysis to identify trends in Personal Income, Disposable Personal Income (DPI), Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE). The PCE started dipping in July, which correlates with the changes in consumer behavior we saw in our study. Although the reports don’t come out immediately, staying updated on the direction of these trends could inform your efforts.

Consider your target audience

It’s important to narrow down your research to your target audience. If your business is international, you likely won’t be as impacted by future stimulus checks in the US. However, different international markets will recover at differing rates.

Similarly, it’s important to keep your industry in mind. S&P is already estimating that the most-affected industries may not recover fully until 2022. This means that industries like in-store retail, travel, and service will have to find alternative ways to pivot during this time to return to normal levels.

Once you’ve considered your market and industry, weigh the risks based on your AOV and the income level of your average consumer. The higher the average income level, the more likely it is that your market has already recovered or the higher your chances are of being able to adjust successfully.

Additional federal support

Although the support from the US government throughout the pandemic has been lackluster at best, there’s a possibility of additional support. The recent round of stimulus checks were more limited than the first, meaning the impact on consumer behavior might be less noticeable. Economists are guessing that consumers would rather save this smaller amount than put it back into the economy. However, these bills should be accounted for in forecasting with the hopeful potential of additional (and more significant) federal support.

The distribution of vaccinations is likely to take at least several months to be impactful and possibly even longer to reach herd immunity. During this time of forward movement in the pandemic, we will all need to monitor and predict consumer behavior in unprecedented ways until we begin to see normalcy again.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don’t have time to hunt down but want to read!

”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/how-did-us-stimulus-checks-impact-on.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644004323529031680”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644015648396148736”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_24.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644026974044602368”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_52.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644038296821989376”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_51.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644049624096751616”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_66.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644060947885015040”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_18.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644072267126554624”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_26.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644083592457322496”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_25.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644094919201439744”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_0.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644106244768104448”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_74.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644117569353154560”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_95.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644128893319643136”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_29.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644140220954132481”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_11.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644151544075452416”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_34.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644162870292152320”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_15.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644174194193612800”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_60.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644185520567648256”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_3.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644196846297874432”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_86.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644208170601005056”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_98.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644219493583896576”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_31.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644230816612876288”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_33.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644242138521092096”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_30.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644253464514494465”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_87.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644264787773145088”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_27.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644276114892767232”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_72.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644287438688256000”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_17.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644298764993052672”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_35.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644310089179791360”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_65.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644321415875674112”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_78.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644332736590528512”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_91.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644344062770561024”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_8.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644355386964656128”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_28.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644366711003430912”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_45.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644378038472196096”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_2.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644389361263198208”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_76.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644400686324482048”

- http://monleyhomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/posted-by-oeuyownk-as-senior-analytics_79.html
from Tumblr https://monleyhomes.tumblr.com/post/644412013029867520