We believe in the power of data. It can help you make decisions about spending, strategy, and marketing priorities. It can also reveal truths about your business performance and marketing efforts that you might not get from any other source. Data is why we encourage our clients to follow industry best practices and use Google tools.

With over 90 percent of the search market share, Google is undoubtedly the most popular search engine in the world. Because of that market power, Google itself has a lot of data at its fingertips – and it shares useful tools that help make sense of the data on web traffic and human behavior.

Let’s look at three of the most useful tools for marketing:  My Business, Google Analytics, and Google AdWords.

About Google My Business Page

You’re probably most familiar with Google My Business Page (GMB) results. Search for any business, and up pops a neat synopsis listing the address, phone number, a map, and a link to the company’s website.

The listing is free and super important, even for companies without a physical office or storefront, because it allows your businesses to show up in searches.

Google’s algorithms have been developed to consider user intent. Having a GMB listing helps Google direct the right kind of customers to your business. Optimizing your listing, by adding a description and keywords about your business, helps Google. You can even add interest to your listing with photos, videos, and short teasers about services, products, special offers, other information, and events – to attract customers who see your results.

GMB includes a feature for customers to leave reviews. These reviews can influence other potential customers to do business with you – or not. Managing reviews, by responding to them, is a best practice for GMB, and a great way to learn about your customer experience and customer likes and dislikes, so you can adjust where necessary.

Updating your GMB listing, and actively posting and responding helps your business rank higher in Google searches and helps with your brand’s credibility.

About Google Analytics

Using Google Analytics on your website shows you data on how people are using your site specifically – and that data includes insights that can help improve your site and grow your brand. For example, Google Analytics shows you the bounce rate, number of users and sessions, and your top pages.

We like Google Analytics because of its user-friendly nature. Of course, understanding the data can get complex as you dive deeper or set up tracking, however because it’s so widely used, there are lots of resources that can help with interpreting data reports.

Another benefit of Google Analytics is that you can customize the data that’s collected. Google Analytics offers the ability to generate custom reports using only the data that impacts your business, track eCommerce, and link Google Analytics with your Google Ads or Google Search Console account to track results.

The data you collect can also help with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) by showing what keywords people search to find your site, your impressions, and your click-through rate. Knowing where you rank in terms of your top keywords can reveal areas of the site that may need improvement to attract customers.

About Google Ads

With 5 billion daily interactions, Google knows what attracts attention – and clicks. Google’s ad program helps you target customers and deliver messages right to those who are searching for a solution. The stronger and more focused your offer is, the more clicks and potentially new customers.

Google Ads is paid advertising that utilizes search algorithms and behaviors to put your ad in front of good-fit customers who are searching for or interacting with products and services like the ones you offer. Google Ads operate on various models, such as Pay-Per-Click (PPC), Display, Video, Shopping, App, and Local.

Over time, Google Ads help you analyze and improve your ads to reach more people and the platform offers ads for every budget, allowing you to cap expenses and start, stop, or change ads at any time.

Google Ads have a click-through rate of nearly 2%, which is considered very good for the amount of traffic the search engine handles. Display ads yield 180 million impressions each month, allowing advertisers to conduct optimized campaigns, lead flow, and high-ROI marketing.

Companies around the world use Google Ads to promote their businesses so even if your website ranks high for an organic search term, your results can be pushed down the page beneath paying competitors. Advertisers can choose their keywords, including competitor keywords and product names, so they show up even in very specific searches.

A Quality Score (QS) is how Google determines where your ad ranks. The higher your QS, the better your rank and placements on the Search Engine Results Page. Google data can show you how to improve your QS score and optimize your ad and target audience.

Data-driven Decision Making

Using Google tools to establish your online presence, understand your webpage performance, and attract your ideal customers offers clarity, insights, and answers based on data – and those are actions we can all appreciate. Here is a handy glossary that will help you as you navigate your Google path of do’s and don’ts.

Glossary of Terms:

Click-Through Rate (CTR) The ratio of clicks compared to impressions.

Impressions The number of times the ads were seen or heard.

Bounce Rate The bounce rate is the percentage of people who clicked through to your website but left without visiting any other pages on your site.

Pages Per Session The pages per session analytic is the average number of pages on your site that were viewed per session.

Cost Per Click (CPC) How much it costs to get a click on the ad.

Click The number of clicks on the ads.

Cost Per View (CPV) How much it costs to get a full view on a video.

Video Views How many people viewed the entire video.

Video Completion Rate (VCR) The percentage who viewed the video completely.

If you’ve read this far and are thinking “this all sounds great but I don’t even know where to start” don’t worry. Our team of digital experts and wizards will not only develop a thoughtful strategy and manage it for you but they’ll also help educate you (as much as you’re interested) along the way. Contact us today and let’s get started!