It is a great platform for anyone who wants to build a presence with video. But the competition on this network is immense. People here upload 500 hours of video every minute. 

If you randomly publish videos and hope for the best, you won’t generate enough views, subscribers or website traffic. To get stellar results you need to optimize each video you publish on this network. 

So, I am going to show you how to grow your YouTube channel by creating the right videos below…

Conduct a lot of research:

To remove the guesswork out of creating videos that get views, you should conduct a lot of research. The research will help you see what types of videos get the most views. 

Start by just searching for keywords related to your topic. YouTube will then find relevant videos that get the most views. 

This will give you a good idea on what topics and ideas rank high on YouTube and the types of videos people like to watch. 

You can also analyze each of these videos with a tool like Social Animal to see which videos are doing well on social media. 

This research will help you find ideas that do well on both social media and YouTube search. 

While doing the research, pay attention to the other important aspects such as the length of the video, the comments people are leaving, the number of likes and dislikes the videos are getting, etc.

Have a video content funnel in place:

In order to get views, subscribers, and traffic, you need to understand how they all work together. This is what I like to call the YouTube video content funnel. I also like to use a Free Online YouTube Video Editor

People watch your videos. If they like it they will either subscribe to your channel or they will visit your website, depending on the call to action you stress upon. They might take another action such as commenting on the video or liking/disliking it or sharing it on social media depending on how you optimize your video. 

So, now you understand that in order to generate more subscribers and traffic from YouTube, you need to first optimize your videos for these purposes and then work on getting views. You don’t focus on other goals as they will distract people from subscribing to your channel or visiting the links to landing pages you share. 

This is how the funnel will work. Once you know this reaching the end result will be a lot easier. Creating a funnel such as this can seem complicated, but there are several easy to use online video editors that can simplify this process. 

Optimize videos for views:

After you create your videos based on what’s driving the most views, you can publish them on YouTube. When you are publishing your videos on YouTube, you should optimize them for driving the most views. 

One way to do this is by using keywords. YouTube is usually considered to be a social network. But it is actually a cross between a search engine and a social network. People come here to look up videos and watch them. 

This is why you should optimize your videos by adding keywords to title, description, and tags. Like this video from Tasty.

You will find the keyword ‘chocolate cake’ has been added to all 3 places. Use the research from the 1st step for this. 

Optimize channels with visuals:

YouTube is primarily about videos, but you can optimize them with visuals such as thumbnails, watermarks, end cards, and banner images. 

Thumbnails can be used to drive more views as they appear on top of the video in the results. An example is this one from the Global Triathlon Network.

Watermarks can be used to get more subscribers. 

End cards can be used to get more subscribers, views, and traffic. As you can add individual video links, links to playlists, the subscribe icon and links to your website to end cards. 

An example is the below one from Manchester United.

Banner images can be used to generate subscribers and views. 

All these visuals are easy to create. For watermark, you can simply use a logo or an image with ‘Subscribe’ on it. While for the rest you can use a template. Most photo editors come with templates. You can simply pick a template, then optimize them with a still or 2 from the video and then add in some text and add them to the video. 

If you find the stills from the video too big, you can use a background remover to get rid of the unimportant bits. This will make it easy to brand your images with the right elements. 

Use calls to action:

The link and subscribe button you place in the end card will be a call to action. But that won’t be sufficient. As some people might miss it. You need to drive viewers’ attention to it by telling them to click the link or the subscribe button in the end card and take the desired step. 

Another great place to add links in the description. Make sure you place the link right at the top.

Promote videos:

Once you create the videos and have a funnel in place and you know that views will convert to subscribers and traffic, you can begin promoting the videos. The initial views will help you both in the short term and long term. In the short term, they will have the direct benefit of helping you generate subscribers and traffic. While in the longterm they will help you rank as views are a ranking factor that YouTube takes into consideration while ranking videos as found by this study. 

You can use a multitude of tactics from sharing them on social media to influencer outreach to advertising to generate more views. 

Conclusion: 

This is how you generate views, subscribers, and traffic on YouTube. Begin implementing the tactics today.

The post How to Create YouTube Videos that Get Views, Subscribers & Traffic appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

In measuring social’s impact on consideration and conversion, Google Analytics defaults to last-touch attribution, which provides a very narrow view and gives minimal credit to the channel. However, we can create segments that measure the behavior of social media users and compare them to users who do not touch social in order to gain valuable insight as to how each marketing channel impacts our KPI. You can do this type of control group analysis for any group of users by creating Custom Segments.

Creating Custom Segments

We will initially add two custom segments to your Google Analytics account in order to obtain the data that we will be analyzing in our example. These segments will include a GA Default Social User segment and a NOT: Default Social User segment, which matches how Google Analytics tracks social. Default Social Media Users is a segment created on Google Analytics that captures website visitors that have interacted with your various social media channels. We use this segment to compare behavior to that of non-social media visitors, providing valuable insight. If you are tagging your links, you can leverage that information by adding additional custom segments that align to your tagging structure’s key objectives.

Adding ‘GA Default Social Users’ Segment

Step 1: Start with going to Acquisition – Social – Network Referrals. First, we want to see what your segment is pulling for social reporting. To do this, hover over your social channels and take note of each social source.

Step 2: Now we want to create our custom segment. Click add segment at the top of the page, then new segment, and enter the name as GA Default Social Users.

Step 3: Go to Advanced Conditions. First, change Sessions to Users in the first drop down menu. Note that this is extremely important to remember for each social channel that we add. Then select Source in the dropdown menu (under Acquisition). Select “contains” from the second and type your social source. Click preview and look at the list to see what comes up.

Step 4: Then add OR source “contains” the next source for the same social channel. If a source is on the list, you must add it. Test this and check to see that the numbers match. For example, you might need to add “exactly matches” Twitter so it doesn’t bring in other data (i.e. Twitterific, etc.). Test this and make sure this matches the numbers on our Twitter list.

Step 5: Repeat for each social referral source until the numbers for the All Sessions segment and the GA Default Social Users segments match exactly.

Step 6: Once all your social media referral sources have been added, click Save.

Adding ‘NOT: Default Social Users’ Segment

Step 1: Copy the segment you created above by clicking Add Segment, then finding the segment on the list and clicking actions to the right of the segment. Click copy. Label your segment and then change the ‘Include’ dropdown to ‘Exclude.’

Step 2: Click Save.

Analyzing Consideration

Now let’s talk about running some analysis. A Control Group Analysis is a type of deep-dive analysis where we isolate all customers who have touched our social channels to compare them against customers who have not on our key performance indicators. Comparisons allow us to show where social is best aligned for future investments and strategy development. The steps below outline how to measure how social is impacting consideration.

Step 1: Select the segments above that you want to view and compare. Click ‘Add Segment’ at the top of the page. In this example, we will select the GA Default Social Users segment and the NOT GA Default Social Users segment. Then, click Apply.

Step 2: Review all metrics that indicate Consideration including Pageviews, Sessions, and Users. Look for any noticeable differences, correlations, and discrepancies between the segments. For example, if there was a sharp increase in April among social media users and no increase for non-social media users, then we could make the conclusion that something on social media caused that increase as opposed to an outside confounding variable. Do this for all of your KPI.

Step 3: Check whether or not there were any sharp increases/decreases (outliers) in any of the categories that you noted in Step 2 that may have skewed the averages, making your findings less significant. If you see an outlier, compare that to the monthly average.

Step 4: After you review your KPI for major insights that stick out, look deeper into consideration. Look for trends and major increases/decreases. Check the months of your social campaigns to see if there was any impact in consideration. I recommend running a month-to-month analysis on a separate spreadsheet, tracking your KPI’s velocity and acceleration.

The formula for velocity is V= (M₀-M₁)/M₁ and measures the percent change from one month to the next. Acceleration, or deceleration, is the rate of change from one month to the next and is measured by the formula, A = (V_o-V₁)/abs(V₁).

Step 5: Review changes in site engagement by looking at average session duration, average page views per users, average sessions per user, % new sessions, and the bounce rate. Was there specific content that may have caused users to be more engaged on the site? How does that compare to those non-social media users who came through another marketing channel and likely are not viewing the same content? If you want to take a deeper look, check to see if there are any major differences in content being viewed by each segment.

Step 6: Adjust your digital strategy as necessary to optimize consideration.

Analyzing Conversions

In order to determine the effectiveness of your digital presence or advertising campaign, a strong understanding of goal conversions in Google Analytics is crucial. The primary objective in digital marketing is to lead users toward your conversion points.

Step 1: Ensure proper set up of Goals in Google Analytics. The way in which you set up and track your goal conversions and events is critical in providing your company with the most valuable data. Track and analyze your company’s performance using measures that are tailored to your primary goals and objectives. We should only define goal conversions when there is a clear customer behavior that reflects interest in your services or supports your site’s objectives. If goals are not already set-up, follow this link for Instructions on how to set up goals in Google Analytics: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1032415?hl=en

Step 2: Go to Conversions – then Goals.

Step 3: Compare the conversion rates, locations, and paths of your segments. What was the impact of advertising campaigns that you ran in driving conversions? Specifically, are there any differences between the segments in the types of conversions that are happening? This could give you more insight into your audiences. Consider the calls to action for campaigns and whether you saw any significant changes due to your strategy.

Step 4: Adjust your digital strategy as necessary to optimize conversions.

The post Google Analytics: How to Use Custom Segments to Up-Level Your Reporting appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Why are conversions important to track?

Tracking conversions on Google Analytics gives you deeper insight as to whether your website activity is actually impacting the performance of your company and achieving your desired objectives. You could be driving thousands of users toward your site, but is this translating to progression in the customer life cycle? Are you effectively leading users to make decisions that align with your company’s intentions? Goal conversions and events on Google Analytics allow us to look deeper into the customer journey to really understand where users may be experiencing hesitation and where we can further optimize. With Google Analytics, you have the ability to drill down to analyze where users convert, where people might fall off, and the source or campaign that led to a conversion.

What is the difference between goal conversions and events?

The main difference between the two types is that events are typically tied to website elements and do not actually require reaching a certain page, whereas with a goal conversion, there should be an exchange of information that results in a URL destination such as a ‘Thank You’ page or confirmation page. The only way a visitor can get to those pages is by going through the entire customer process, hence leading to a conversion. Examples of goal conversions include leads, trial signups, newsletter sign-ups, white paper downloads, product purchases, and ebook downloads.

With event tracking, we can see interactions and behaviors on the site such as link clicks, video plays/pauses, social media button clicks, widget usage, or downloads. This allows us to understand the user experience and see how people are using user-interface features inside of goals. Goals and segments can be created using event data. A major benefit is that there is the ability to categorize events.

What is a funnel?

A funnel allows you to track users through the conversion process. This is the defined process you expect users to complete prior to conversions. Each funnel has a start point and an end point. You can use events to track all the way through to conversion. This allows you to be able to identify where users are converting and where users may be falling off in the process. In setting up a funnel, you must specify which pages lead up to the conversion and identify where users enter and leave the site. This understanding is a critical piece in understanding and optimizing the customer journey.

How do we define a goal conversion?

In order to obtain trustworthy and honest data, we need to be careful about when we define goal conversions. We should only define goal conversions when there is a clear customer behavior that reflects interest in your services or supports your site’s objectives. That being said, since events do not always take place toward the end of the customer funnel, we want to make sure that we don’t consider them as goals.

There are two key differences in identifying goal conversions and events. Simply put, we either have information about the user or we don’t. If we don’t collect information about the user, then we cannot track it back to them to remarket to them later. Therefore, we would not want to consider this a conversion.

After identifying goal conversions, you should segment them as either hard or soft conversions in order to further understand the role they are playing in meeting objectives. A hard conversion would be considered a goal in which we collect information that shows intent for services or aligns with your primary objectives. On the other hand, soft conversions are secondary activities that do not show a strong intent for your services but that may lead up to the primary conversion. Distinguishing hard conversions and soft conversions should uniquely align with your brand’s individual objectives and goals.

In order to clearly define goals and events, we need to understand what the objectives are for the site. You must first identify your Key Performance Indicators before you can develop a plan for tracking those KPI with goal conversion and events. In order to determine which actions should be set up as goals, I recommend setting up a spreadsheet laying out the most important actions on your site. From there, you should add descriptive columns for what you are tracking, the site location where the action takes place, and whether it would be considered a hard or soft conversion. Google Analytics has a maximum of twenty slots that you can reserve for goals per view, and goals cannot be deleted once created, only edited or paused.

In order to achieve honest data, attaching dollar values to goals is unnecessary. We do not recommend adding goal values unless there is a clear revenue exchange because it is unlikely that this aligns with the real value. We like to report on honest and true data that accurately reflects performance. However, this is an individual preference and adding goal values could help in your analysis.

How do we analyze conversions?

Following a solid set-up of goals and events, you can now analyze your conversions. Although there are infinite ways you can analyze your data, my favorite analysis is to look at the behavior of different segments to determine where they may be converting at higher rates. For example, by creating an advanced segment on Google Analytics that tracks any user who has interacted with any social channel and a segment for those who do not interact with any social channel, I can look at trends and compare performance across various channels. You can further dive in to understand where these conversions are happening and the sources or campaigns that are driving these conversions. Funnels are also very useful in analyzing the customer process as you can see where users may be falling off, what is leading them towards the conversion, and ultimately, where we can work to optimize conversions.

The post Google Analytics: How to Define Goal Conversions appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

The Model

In Part 1, we focused on creating a multiple regression model in order to better understand what factors are the best predictors of social ROI. We used five key variables involved in the customer journey, including 1) awareness 2) engagement 3) consideration 4) conversion and 5) customer retention. We analyzed how these variables play a significant role in driving ROI, and further, how this data can be useful in your testing. A solid understanding of this model is an essential component of diving deeper into your analytics and providing a more efficient allocation of your resources. In doing so, you can more accurately evaluate the impact that social is making on ROI and compare it across different spectrums. By allocating more resources to what is working and less to what is not working, you can achieve better and faster results.

We will now take a closer look at how you can transfer your understanding of the model in order to gain the best possible insights available. That being said, if you would like a comprehensive understanding of this approach, please read the first part of this blog series.

Bias

The goal in marketing is to achieve the greatest possible results with the least amount of effort, achieving maximum efficiency. Therefore, we want to reduce bias as much as possible without sacrificing efficiency. Omitted variable bias presents itself in some form in almost all models. In order to reduce potential bias, we must isolate certain variables or run tests on uniform samples. However, it is nearly impossible to perform a perfectly unbiased test without incredible effort and wasted resources.

Let’s say you want to achieve maximum precision with minimum effort in order to establish a deeper understanding of your campaign data; you’re looking to find the most probable and insightful explanations. Control group testing is the best method to achieving that goal.

In control group testing, we can control for unobservable differences between the samples that could influence ROI by approaching it with a difference-in-difference strategy (fixed effects). By comparing the change in certain behavioral variables of social media users to non-social media users, we can control for unobservable differences, and thus, reduce potential bias.

Control Group Testing

Let’s now approach this from a combined economic and marketing perspective – balancing precision with efficiency. In order to understand what variables are triggering events, you must isolate these variables with control testing. First, ask yourself what it is that you want to know. What is the problem you are trying to solve with data? In our case, let’s look at understanding the role that social media plays on driving ROI. We can run this test on Google Analytics by using Advanced Segments. In order to utilize control group testing, start by creating Advanced Segments to capture all of your website users who have interacted with your social media channels to see how they are behaving in comparison to those who have not. Additionally, you can create additional segments to compare each channel individually in terms of user behavior. To further investigate, we could also obtain data and compare the effects across different social channels.

User Analysis

The manner in which you analyze your data is very important. The most effective way to approach this is to use your data to answer questions. Are users who are coming from social media engaging on the website at a higher rate than users who don’t visit your social channels (i.e., spending more time, viewing more pages and coming back more often)? Are users who engage with your social media driving more conversions than others? Specifically, which conversion points are social users reacting more favorably to? What are the patterns and trends? How does this correlate with your posting structure? Structuring useful conversion points provides a strong source of data and allows for ROI measurement. Look at whether users coming from social media are converting at a higher rate than those not coming from social media.

Campaign Analysis

Look at the effects of a marketing campaign on both your social audience and non-social audience. Are users on social media reacting more favorably and driving more conversions that those who do not interact with your social media channels, indicating a higher quality audience and higher potential for ROI? In order to compare the effects between both samples, obtain both pre- and post-campaign data for your social user segment and non-social user segment. Measure the difference between pre- and post-campaign conversion rates for both samples. Finally, compare the difference between social users and non-social users to see which audience deserves more advertising spend. You can perform this analysis between many other different audiences, channels, and campaigns.

Link Tagging

You can further analyze users and campaigns with link tagging. However, you must have a defined and consistent tagging structure in place. You can use Google URL Builder as a link tracking tool to see what type of users, content, and distribution channels are driving the most conversions. Link tagging makes it possible to test and measure the effect of different variables on social media ROI.

Conclusion

In sum, it is important to look at an economic view of your campaign results, all while ensuring efficiency by avoiding time-killing tactics. Ultimately, the primary goal of digital analytics is to achieve the greatest possible results with the least amount of effort by putting more energy into what is working and less into what is not working. It cannot be stressed enough: work smarter, not harder!

The post Testing, Testing: The Economics of Social Conversions, Part 2 appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Correlation vs. Causation

In economics, you cannot make conclusions on data simply based on correlation. Correlation does not imply causation. We cannot make significant attributions to factors that are associated with events without a controlled experiment, due to evident bias. The relationship between conversions and different variables is invaluable in providing a clearer direction to which your marketing campaign can become more effective in maximizing ROI. This is where testing comes into play.

The first step in looking at causation is defining your goal. What is it that you actually want to measure? Do you want to look at how cost per lead varies across different marketing channels? Do you want to analyze at the effects of a certain campaigns, content, or channels on ROI? Pick a variable to measure, and test it while controlling all your other variables. Through this understanding, you will have the ability to draw more accurate conclusions from your data and how it is affecting specific goals. Then you can focus a larger amount of energy on what is working and less on what is not working, in order to reap the rewards.

Social ROI is primarily and directly affected by five factors:

1.  Awareness
2.  Engagement
3.  Consideration
4.  Conversion
5  Customer Retention

That being said, we must look at the entire customer journey in order to make valid conclusions about our data. We must examine every single campaign a customer touches to understand their behavior, rather than simply using first or last click attribution. We must use that data to consecutively understand how these social campaigns impact sales, revenue, and cost. From that point, you will have the ability to compare ROI across all of your marketing channels in order to minimize costs and maximize profit.

The Model