Buy on Google for Search and Shopping will shut down Sept. 26, the company announced today via an email sent to participating U.S. retailers.

While Buy on Google is ending, Buy on Google for YouTube will remain available for eligible U.S. merchants.

Why we care. Google says it is dropping Buy on Google to create a new “streamlined buying journey for shoppers” that makes it easier for retailers to sell on Google and YouTube.

What Google is saying. A Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land:

• “Our goal is to support an open ecosystem by connecting shoppers directly with merchants, and this is a big priority for us. We developed a new streamlined checkout process that allows shoppers to go directly from Google to the checkout flow on a merchant’s website when they’re ready to buy. We’ve received great feedback from merchants and users. Buy on Google was a small feature that a very limited number of merchants used, so we’re investing in this new buying experience instead.”  

New pilot. We’re told that more merchants are already using Google’s new checkout pilot than Buy on Google. Google has created a new form if you’re interested in the new checkout pilot.

Here’s what we know about Google’s plan for a “more streamlined buying journey for shoppers,” according to this page:

• “Instead of a multi-step buying journey, people who are ready to buy will now have the option to go directly from Google to the checkout flow on your website. Once there, they will see the chosen product already in their shopping cart and can checkout on your site with whatever payment method they select. We will be piloting this experience on Google and YouTube with select merchants and will share more information as we’re ready to take on additional partners.”

The email. Here’s a copy of an email Google is sending to merchants today:

Building great checkout experiences is something we’re focused on, and are always evolving. We’re writing to inform you that, as of September 26, 2023, the current Buy on Google program will be ending in the United States. We have some new channels that we’re excited to be testing (more info below), however, we wanted to share some key details about Buy on Google.

1. Your participation in Buy on Google will end on September 26, 2023 and no listings on Search or Shopping will show the Buy on Google option. If you are currently onboarding, you will be removed from the process today. 
2. All orders received through September 2023 should be fulfilled with return policies honored, regardless of program termination. 
3. You have the option to terminate your participation in the program sooner than September if you feel this choice is more beneficial for your business.  Please reach out to support for assistance with doing this.
4. Order data will be available for one year post program ending. You can access your reports via the instructions here.
5. No action is required from you to end the program. 

We will continue to introduce new ways to optimize the way users navigate to checkout on our platforms, and look forward to continued engagement with our retail partners on other products such as our new checkout pilot and all other areas of collaboration through our tools, insights and training. 

We’re excited about the  streamlined checkout experience we introduced last year, wherein consumers who are ready to buy will have the option to go directly from a listing on Google to the checkout flow on your website. Once there, they will see the chosen product already in their shopping cart and can checkout on your site with whatever payment method they select.  *Merchants using the new Google checkout feature see an improvement in gross merchandise value (GMV) between 1-10%

• *Source: Google Data, US, Retail, March 2023. [Caveat: Data pulled for existing pilot merchants]

Learn More:

• If you are interested in joining the checkout pilot, please complete the interest form here. 
• Please note, if you are selected to join the checkout pilot ahead of September, any current Buy on Google experiences you have running will stop showing effective immediately.  
• For those not selected to participate in the pilot, we will reach out to you once the solution is more widely available so you can onboard then! 

For any questions or support regarding terminating your participation, please contact our support team or reach out to your Google contact.

Whether you’re opening retail locations in a new state or selling your software in a new country, entering a new geographic location requires a well-thought-out marketing strategy. 

Paid media can be a foundational tool for cost-efficient sales generation from prospective customers in the new market. 

This article provides several suggestions for tailoring your PPC efforts toward a region new to your brand.

1. Estimate search volume

Looking at projected search volume in advance will help you:

• Determine realistic budgets.
• Consider how wide a set of keywords you can include in your initial campaigns if you have strict budget limitations. 

Google’s and Microsoft’s respective Keyword Planner tools offer free solutions to estimate volume for each platform. 

Note that any data is approximate based on historical searches and can be particularly inaccurate for more niche queries. 

Ultimately, you can use data after launching the campaigns to get an idea of actual volume. 

2. Add regional keywords

If you’re promoting a business with local presence, think through regional terms that make sense to incorporate into keywords. These could include:

• City/town names
• County names
• State/province names
• Popularly used references for a particular area (i.e., “Capital Region”)

Additionally, your phrase and broad match keywords should pick up on queries that include local modifiers. 

For instance, the keyword “furnace repair” may show for the query “charlotte furnace repair.” 

Watch your search terms for local queries and add the ones that show significant enough volume or have converted. 

3. Customize assets

While you may take learnings from existing markets as to what ad copy assets perform best, you should consider where to tailor ad copy to the region. 

For instance, use location insertion to show city names in ads if applicable. 

On the landing page end, include location callouts and pictures of landmarks from the region you’re targeting so prospects can see you’ve taken the time to identify with their area.

Additionally, consider offers you can put in front of people in the new area. 

If you just opened new brick-and-mortar locations, you may be able to offer a free gift to the first 1,000 customers who visit and can mention that in your ad to promote while supplies last.

4. Check conversion tracking and tagging

This is an area that can all too easily slip through the cracks when launching a new marketing effort. 

You need to be sure you’re getting accurate conversion data from the start to report on performance and allow ad platforms time to learn.

If you’re pushing traffic to new landing pages from new ad campaigns, make sure that you’re tracking results properly. 

You may need to configure new conversion tracking or ensure existing pixels are carried over to these pages.

Depending on how you track lead performance on the backend, you may also need to ensure that URLs are properly tagged. 

UTM parameters must be unique to these campaigns. Incorporate any custom parameters necessary to sync up with your CRM or automation platform. 

If you’re offering a coupon code for the new market, you may also need a separate parameter for that.

5. Find local competitors

Competitor bidding can be an effective way to reach potential customers if they are searching for a business in a similar realm. They are likely looking for your products/services. 

Research local competitors that appear popular in your market and incorporate their names into keywords.

Because competitor keywords can often be pricier, test segmenting out these keywords into their own campaign. 

As a bonus, research top selling points for competitors and read their reviews to identify pain points to capitalize on. 

For instance, if one competitor gets frequent complaints about poor customer service, emphasize the quality of your service in ad copy.

Your core search campaigns will also be valuable for identifying new competitors to bid on as you review search terms. 

You’ll see what competitor names appear the most and which ones are likely to convert.

6. Support search with other channels

While this article focuses primarily on tactics for paid search, no marketing channel operates in a bubble. 

Particularly in a new market, branding efforts via other channels can help to establish familiarity and legitimacy for your business. You can build credibility before people search and recognize your brand name. 

Additionally, you can create audiences based on people who visit your site or engage with videos and social posts.

You can then retarget them with offer-focused messaging and layer these audiences onto search campaigns.

Some potential options for alternate channel efforts include:

• A YouTube campaign teasing the launch of your product/service in the new market.
• Social campaigns on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and/or other networks. Upload an existing customer list and target lookalike audiences to reach people with similar characteristics to existing buyers.
• A Google Discovery campaign incorporating in-market audiences for products/services in your industry and custom audiences based on top converting search queries and competitor URLs.

7. Set realistic expectations 

Establishing CPA/ROAS goals for a new market will inevitably be crucial to planning conversations with business stakeholders. 

Particularly when entering regions where people are unfamiliar with your brand, you should not expect to be able to drive conversions as efficiently as in markets where you’ve operated for years. 

The team involved should know that CPAs will likely be higher (and ROAS lower) than in existing markets, at least while getting off the ground. 

People will just be starting to become familiar with your products or services, and campaigns must go through the learning phase to bid efficiently.

Additionally, prepare to be flexible and adapt to trends as you monitor them. 

You may find users have a higher conversion rate than expected, and you may be able to scale budget more quickly than anticipated. 

Or you may discover that responses are lower than expected and need to experiment with a few different tactics before finding the right combination of messaging and channels that works.

Start planning

With these tips in mind, it’s time to get to work planning your campaigns for entering a new market. 

Think through the channels, keywords, and budget. Work with your technical team to ensure conversion tracking is firing properly and links are properly tagged. 

Finally, set reasonable expectations for performance and prepare to watch campaigns closely as they get off the ground.

Leading and scaling a fast-growing agency has been an incredible journey, especially since building a business was not even on my radar when I began consulting independently six years ago. 

Over the past six years building Eyeful Media, I’ve leaned into my network and colleagues, specifically those with agency experience, to navigate our growth successfully. I have learned invaluable lessons at every turn.

While we learned some lessons early, many have come as we’ve matured. We divided our journey into stages based on the Adizes organizational lifecycle model: 

• Infancy.
• Go-Go growth.
• Adolescence.
• Prime. 

We realized the need to adjust and improve our approach at each stage. 

Many of the most critical growth opportunities that we were able to capitalize on were gathered from the feedback of our clients and employees. 

Those important lessons learned at each stage of our journey have continued evolving as we matured as an organization.

Setting themes for business progression

To provide clarity and direction, we assigned a theme each year that represented the state of our business. 

In 2020, we focused on building infrastructure. 2021 was for establishing structure. In 2022, our goal was to enhance efficiency, which remains a priority in 2023.

One of the most important things we’ve done has been carefully crafting and refining our mission, vision and values. 

Having clarity around those things has allowed us to scale in a way that feels right for us, including hiring for culture fit and building infrastructure, structure, and efficiency in ways that align with what we want to accomplish and stand for.

The year of infrastructure (2020)

In the early years of our agency, we relied on a network of contractors and consultants. 

However, as we started hiring full-time employees (FTEs) in 2020, we needed a stronger infrastructure to support our growing team. 

The primary reason for switching to FTEs was to have more predictability in staffing as we pitched clients. 

The items below are all things I wish we had implemented much sooner, so if your budget allows, consider putting them in place as soon as you can afford to:

Get a payroll solution

Transitioning from paying contractors through PayPal to using Gusto for payroll greatly simplified our processes. 

With Gusto, issuing 1099s and W2s became more efficient. Integration with Corpnet and benefits also helped us manage employees in different states more effectively.

Invest in quality communication tools

We realized the need for seamless collaboration and upgraded from Google Chat to Slack based on feedback from our team. 

Investing in communication tools that facilitate effective teamwork and information sharing is crucial, especially for remote agencies.

Choose business accounting software

Start with more robust accounting software like QuickBooks Online to avoid migrating data later from a version designed for independent freelancers. 

Consistency in project naming and setting up divisions and classes will provide valuable insights for growth analysis.

Automate reporting data gathering

To reduce manual tasks and save our team’s time for analysis, we initially used Supermetrics to pull data into spreadsheets. (However, as our needs grew, we adopted Domo, a more comprehensive reporting solution, to create detailed internal and external reports during our year of efficiency).

Track time accurately

Although many dislike tracking time, we recognized its importance in understanding project and client profitability. 

Time tracking was in place starting on day one since we needed it for billing purposes, but we upgraded to a solution that better integrated with the rest of our tech stack.

(Note: In later years, we began to perform a deeper monthly analysis of the percentage of total time tracked and client/project profitability, but this set the stage)

Use a project management solution

Adopt a project management tool to streamline workflows and improve efficiency. Our first SEO hire pushed for project management. 

Since I had come out of an in-house leadership role, I didn’t realize its importance in aligning multiple organizations across concurrent workstreams.

Invest in tools that make it easy for your team to share feedback

As a values-oriented agency, having a consistent pulse on how our employees are doing is important. We implemented 15five after a suggestion from a friend who runs a much larger agency. 

Although big companies have typically used workforce management tools, this is one of the few things that changed the game for us.

Build a custom PowerPoint / Google Slides template

This might sound silly, but one of our best investments was hiring a designer to create a Google Slides template. 

We used to spend countless hours reworking decks because they were inconsistent. It’s been a huge time saver and cost us under $2,000.

Offload bookkeeping and get a CPA that can support multiple states

I used to categorize every expense in QuickBooks manually. While it’s OK to manage your own bookkeeping early in your company’s journey to understand your expenses, it stops being the best use of your time at a certain point. 

Pay someone (like Corpnet) to set up states for you for taxes and find a bookkeeper. After our first few years in business, we also had to hire a new CPA. We had outgrown our first one due to the complexity of operating in many states.

Create an overarching operating plan

As a founder, you may have a clear picture in your head of where you want to go with the agency and what’s important to you. 

But, as you hire more leaders, you want to ensure it’s also clear to them. Putting a plan down on paper also helps you identify gaps and opportunities.

Set up shared drives and organize your documents

I’d be fine putting all documents into a single folder and searching. However, not everyone can work like that, and it can be very painful to go back and organize documents afterward. 

Build an organized, scalable file structure that will make it easier to onboard new hires. When you’re growing quickly, you need people to ramp up fast, and taking time to be organized will help accelerate the process. 

While you’re at it, make sure you also put all contracts into an organized folder.

Identify revenue and expense streams

Identify what you want to sell, how you want to charge for it, and the alignment of resources to the type of work you want to do. 

In your first few years, you may be willing to take on any projects that come your way, but as you scale, you may opt to expand or reduce the breadth of your offerings.

The year of structure (2021)

During this phase, our main focus was establishing a solid foundation and refining our processes for scalability and strategic initiatives. 

We aimed to free up the team for strategic initiatives and improve the onboarding process. 

It can be challenging to step away from day-to-day tasks, especially if you started as a marketer and now have to become a “real” CEO.

However, delegating responsibilities and establishing a solid team structure is crucial as you hire the right people.

Maximize the technology you have in place, standardize practices, and consider using more sophisticated tools to consolidate and present data effectively. 

Introduce additional layers of management to ensure efficient communication and alignment within the agency. Exploring partnerships and securing a line of credit can also support your agency’s growth during this stage.

Build a robust onboarding process

I conducted onboarding for the first few years since I wanted to make sure that people understood our values. But this wasn’t efficient or scalable and wasn’t as effective as it could be. 

Some of our leaders decided to build a better process with more clarity around expectations for the first 90 days, links to important documents, and meet and greets with various colleagues.

Establish a team structure

At this stage, we started building additional layers of management, including adding group directors. This allowed our team to have managers to go to for help and provided more role clarity.

Implement annual reviews

I’ve never been a huge fan of annual reviews because I feel like managers should communicate feedback 365 days a year.

However, some of our greener employees wanted a more structured process that helped them understand what it would take to get to the next level. 

We started doing these in Google Docs but then moved the process to 15 Five.

Secure a line of credit

The best time to get a line of credit is when you don’t need it.

As a leader, you’re responsible for the livelihoods of your employees and their families. Have a safety line in place if you run into a cash flow issue.

Upgrade your brand

You may be flying under the radar for the first few years. As you start to scale, even through word of mouth, consider a website redesign or logo refresh. Just make sure you don’t overspend!

Hire in advance, but not too much

As your agency scales and revenue becomes more predictable, consider switching from a just-in-time hiring model to adding staff a little in advance. 

Don’t overhire so that you aren’t faced with idle bandwidth (like flowers, agency hours are perishable – once they’re gone, they’re gone!). But being staffed up gives the team more runway for training and coverage for absences. 

Use contractors to scale resources quickly if a project comes out of nowhere and you need the bandwidth.

The year of efficiency (2022)

Efficiency became our primary focus as we aimed to optimize our processes, embrace automation, and improve client and project profitability. 

We also put a heavy emphasis on developing our people. Although leadership training may not feel related to efficiency, your goal should always be to reduce involuntary turnover and create growth opportunities for your team. Coaching can help with both of those things. 

Get an assistant

As a founder, you’ll often find yourself taking on tasks that no one else is around to handle. 

This may include things like setting up email addresses for new hires or handling questions about benefits. Consider the opportunity cost of your time and offload these items to an assistant.

Build processes and templates

Navigating process implementation with early hires can be tough. You’ll likely encounter resistance, so make sure that you get their feedback early and often. 

Templates may include options like 90-day plans or reporting plans, but your goal should be finding anything being recreated frequently to save the team time. 

You may also be able to build reusable project approaches and content, although you want to avoid doing any work that feels “canned” or cookie-cutter.

Become serious about client and project profitability

You should always have a good pulse on profitability, but you may be willing to accept thinner margins during the first few years as you build your reputation. 

Ensure you have a good handle on your true cost to manage accounts based on the assigned team and their specific costs.

Develop your people – and not just with tactical platform/marketing training

Don’t assume people have the same skills as you do. Remember you’ve probably seen a lot more than they have. 

Build a robust training calendar covering topics like active listening, navigating tough conversations, and tailoring materials to clients at different organizational levels.

Realign your team

The people who got you here are not necessarily the ones who get you to your next level of growth, but you want to remain loyal to people doing good work. 

One of the toughest parts of growing a business is understanding if you need to change some of your hires’ roles or their reporting relationship. It’s also important to ensure that your team members fit within your brand and values. 

Someone may be an incredibly hard worker, but it’s best to move on from them if they are not a culture fit. A rigorous hiring process can help screen people upfront. However, you may not always get it right. 

Upgrade your legal paperwork

Now that you have more employees and clients make sure that you have a lawyer review your consulting agreements, employee handbooks, employment agreements, non-disclosure agreements, and other similar paperwork. 

Laws change frequently, and you want to ensure your business is protected.

Review your bank accounts

You may have a basic checking account from when you started your agency. 

As your business grows, make sure you speak with a banker about upgrading your account and consider adding a linked savings account so that you can start to gather some interest. 

You may also be able to save on wire fees.

Upgrade your reporting suite

Now that you’re likely working with more clients, look into a more advanced reporting suite such as Domo, Tableau, or another solution that meets your firm’s needs.

Build a real budget

With a more mature company on your hands, it’s time to start operating and managing against a planned budget.

You’ll be wrong in the first year, but it’s a great muscle to build to understand where you’re growing revenue faster or slower than expected and where expenses are deviating from your plans.

6 more agency growth tips to keep in mind

Get frequent feedback from clients and your team

Nothing is more important than ensuring your clients and team members feel heard.

Capture quarterly or more frequent feedback, including NPS, eNPS, and Start/Stop/Continue. 

Pay attention to the feedback you receive to build a strong and enduring agency.

Diversify your revenue

You may not be able to control this while you’re in the early stages and you’re accepting most of what comes your way. 

Agency development consultants may recommend you focus on a specific niche, and it is a balancing act to ensure you’re protecting the health of the business and livelihoods you are responsible for in the face of that advice. 

Avoid putting too much of your business in one client or vertical’s hands. Balancing retainers with one-time projects is important to keep your business healthy. 

Retainers are easier to hire against, while one-time projects can be lucrative as long as you don’t run into a lot of scope creep.

Say no when it feels like a stretch or if the client isn’t a good fit

Nothing good can come from taking on a project that you don’t have the skills to support. 

Trust your leadership team’s perspectives, and don’t rely solely on your own intuition. It’s better to walk away graciously and even recommend another firm than to deliver sub-par work. 

Remember that you can always walk away if a client isn’t a good fit for you because they are demeaning to staff, always trying to squeeze you for more, or are generally a bad partner.

Implement minimums that allow you to do your best work 

During the early stages of company growth, you may be willing to flex on minimum retainers or project fees. 

Over time, you’ll learn how many hours your team must have to do work that you and they are proud of and are capable of driving results. 

Don’t be embarrassed by your rates. Charge what you and your work are worth.

Figure out what types of people thrive at your company

Based on the speed and complexity of our work, we’ve found it challenging to hire more junior people who require daily hands-on guidance. 

Step back, look at the patterns of who thrives and who tends to opt out or underperform, and adjust your hiring accordingly. 

You’ll want people to have the right values and skills, which requires effort.

Keep tabs on small expenses 

If you are fully remote, you’ll find that most of your expenses are people and software – and software can add up quickly. 

One quick tip is to regularly check to see if freelancers are still part of your roster so that you can cancel email, project management, time tracking, and other expenses that add up quickly. 

Do a quarterly audit of all software to ensure your team is still actively using it.

Embracing different stages of growth and change

Scaling an agency is an exciting journey filled with challenges and lessons. You can successfully scale your agency by diversifying revenue, making strategic hires, implementing efficient processes, and focusing on team development. 

Embrace the different stages of growth, adapt to the changing needs of your agency, and consistently evaluate and optimize your operations.

Remember, every step in the journey brings valuable insights that contribute to your agency’s success.

Google has urged marketers to import their web and app conversions from Google Analytics 4 into Google Ads.

Advertisers that have a linked Google Ads account may have already received a message advising of the new import conversions recommendation.

If your GA4 account is eligible for the import, a card will likely appear at the top of the Advertising snapshot page, as a card on the Home page, or as a card on the Insights Hub page.

Why we care. Importing the data will make life easier for marketers as they can access their web and app conversion in Google Ads, meaning they don’t need to revert back to GA4. It will also help advertisers to better optimize bids which will potentially result in improved performance.

How does conversion data help marketers? Tracking conversions is how marketers understand which of their ads are actually resulting in sales. So it’s essential they have easy access to this data to make adjustments to campaigns where necessary, such as amending keywords, budgets, bidding and more. This ultimately results in maximizing profits and cutting costs in Google Ads.

Deep dive. To get the most useful and accurate data and take advantage of Google’s latest features, read the search engine’s GA4 Recommendations guide.

Google has allegedly been mis-selling video ads to marketers for the last three years.

Advertisers working for small businesses, Fortune 500 companies and even the U.S. Federal Government have all been impacted, with the Google violating its own standards approximately 80% of the time, according to an Adalytics study.

Dozens of marketers expressed their regret over purchasing Google’s True View ad product as a result.

Why we care. Advertisers have been paying premium prices for a service that Google has allegedly failed to deliver, costing them up to billions of digital ad dollars. After reading the reactions from advertisers impacted by the substandard service they received from Google, it may make other marketers think twice before deciding to place ads with the Google Video Partners program.

How does True View work? True View is Google’s primary video ad product, which is featured on YouTube as well as third-party websites and apps. Users can skip True View ads after five seconds, but marketers only have to pay for the product when a video watches at least 30 seconds (or the length of the ad if it’s less than 30 seconds). Marketers can only be charged if their ad also plays with audio and isn’t activated accidentally by a user scrolling a page.

Google charges high prices when ads tick all of these boxes and the deal is brokered through a program called Google Video Partners.

In exchange for coughing up these expensive fees, advertisers are promised:

• Ads will play on high-quality sites.
• Ads will play before a page’s main video content begins.
• Ads will play only with the audio on.
• Ads play only after viewer initiation.
• They will only have to pay for ads that aren’t skipped.

Has Google broken its promise to advertisers? Google has been accused of violating its own standards the majority of the time while still charging marketers a premium fee, according to the Adalytics report.

Google was accused of misleading advertisers by:

• Playing premium ads without the promised audio.
• Placing ads in small videos in low-value places such as the side of a page’s main content.
• Placing ads in automatically-played videos.
• Placing ads on websites that don’t meet Google’s standards for monetization.

Several dozen advertisers claimed they would never have purchased ad space through the Google Video Partners program had they been made aware of these issues in advance. Advertisers also said they were shocked and didn’t want their ads to play without audio, and that doing so contradicted their understanding of the ad space they had purchased.

What Google is saying. Marvin Renaud, Google’s Director of Global Video Solutions, issued a statement to deny the claims on the Google Ads & Commerce Blog shortly after the Adalytics report was published. He said:

• “Brands care deeply about where their ads are placed and so do we. A recent report by a third party used unreliable sampling and proxy methodologies and made extremely inaccurate claims about the Google Video Partner (GVP) network.”
• “The report wrongly implies that most campaign spend runs on GVP rather than YouTube. That’s just not right. The overwhelming majority of video ad campaigns serve on YouTube.”
• “Video advertisers can also run ads on GVP, a separate network of third-party sites, to reach additional audiences, if it helps them meet their business objectives. While only a small percentage of video ads appear on GVP, it’s effective: we’ve seen adding GVP to YouTube campaigns increases reach by over 20% for the same budget.”
• “Ad inventory across the Google Video Partner network is more than 90% viewable. This is well above industry norms. The claims in the third-party report simply aren’t right. Put simply, over 90% of ads on GVP are visible to people across the web — and advertisers are only paying for ads when they are viewed.”
• “In addition to the high bar we set on YouTube, we have strict policies that all third-party publishers, including Google Video Partners, must follow. We actively enforce these policies. Our policies prohibit made for advertising (MFA) content. To give you a sense of how serious we are about this, in 2022 we stopped serving ads on more than 143,000 sites for violating our policies.”
• “We offer third-party validation for ads running on Google Video Partners content. We partner with outside organizations to help us ensure publishers are complying with our policies. Google Video Partners supports independent, third party verification from DoubleVerify, Integral Ad Science, and Moat for viewability and invalid traffic. These partnerships, combined with the work we already do internally to enforce our policies, give advertisers reassurance about their ad placements.”

Who is Adalytics? Adalytics is a crowd-sourced advertising performance optimization platform that was set up to review and improve the digital advertising landscape. The company conducted this research by investigating campaigns for more than 1,100 brands that achieved billions of ad impressions between 2020 and 2023.

Deep dive. You can learn more about Adalytics’ investigation by reading its report, Did Google mislead advertisers about TrueView skippable in-stream ads for the past three years? You can also read Google’s ‘Transparency and brand safety on Google Video Partners‘ statement which was made in response to the report.

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is a sophisticated web analytics tool. But it isn’t your only option.

Despite its many advantages, there are also plenty of disadvantages to consider.

Luckily, there is no shortage of analytics tools that can compete with it, both in features and price.

Here, we’ve compiled a list of 15 free and low-cost alternatives to Google Analytics 4 that you may want to consider.

1. Matomo

Matomo is an open-source analytics platform that provides similar features to Google Analytics. It offers real-time analytics, customizable dashboards and detailed reports.

Matomo also gives users complete control over their data and offers a range of privacy features.

One of the most popular Google Analytics alternatives, Matomo is free if hosted on your servers.

2. Piwik PRO

Piwik PRO is a commercial spinoff of Matomo. The main differences are enterprise-level support and the integration of a customer data platform.

Like Matomo, it has an integrated privacy consent manager.

Piwik has free and paid plans.

3. Clicky

Clicky is a flash-free, real-time analytical platform that is easy to use and records and tracks user actions in detail.

It offers features like heat mapping, backlink analysis, and mobile compatibility.

Clicky has a free option and four paid options.

4. Heap

Heap is best suited for online products.

It lets you measure every interaction on your website, including swipes, clicks, tabs, form submissions and page views.

Heap also offers retroactive analytics, which allows you to examine the impact of changes to your website or app.

Heap offers both free and paid plans.

5. Clarity from Microsoft

Clarity from Microsoft focuses on users interacting with your website.

It summarizes information in a convenient dashboard and provides data like rage clicks and excessive scrolling, which could indicate user frustration. Clarity also offers session recording features, which can help you understand user behavior.

Clarity is free.

6. Woopra

Woopra provides website analytics based on four data types: people, journey, trends, and retention.

It analyzes user actions based on their journey through different touchpoints like customer reactions after introductory emails.

Woopra tracks usage through your website and apps with real-time analytics and data. It also offers customized live reports that can help you use data to improve your customer retention and engagement.

Woopra offers free and paid plans.

7. Countly

Countly is an open-source analytics tool that prides itself on being a GDPR-friendly alternative to Google Analytics.

It offers real-time analysis across websites and apps, as well as a unique user ID feature that allows the same user to be identified more easily across multiple browsers and devices.

It has free and paid options.

8. Smartlook

Smartlook is an analytics solution tool for websites, iOS/Android apps and various app frameworks.

It helps users understand how customers interact with their website or app by providing features such as session recordings, heatmaps, automatic tracked events, and conversion funnels.

Smartlook has free and paid options.

9. GoSquared

GoSquared is a web analytics platform designed for ease of use.

Its features include heatmaps, session recordings and funnel analysis. It is also privacy-focused, with features like IP anonymization and consent management.

Plans start at $9.

10. Kissmetrics

Kissmetrics tracks and analyzes user behavior based on first-party data it collects from your website or app.

Features include heatmaps, session recordings and funnel analysis. Kissmetrics helps personalize the user experience by showing different content to different users based on their behavior.

Plans start at $299.

11. Cabin Analytics

Cabin Analytics is designed to have a very small carbon footprint.

It is similar to Kissmetrics in that it is based on first-party data and can personalize user experience.

Cabin Analytics has free and paid plans. 

12. PostHog

PostHog is an all-in-one product analytics platform that includes session recording, A/B testing and other features to track user behavior in your app or website.

It is an event-based platform, which means you only pay for the events you track.

PostHog offers a generous 1 million events per month for free, so most smaller users can use it for free.

13. Plausible

Plausible is a leader in the trend of lightweight, privacy-oriented analytics tools.

It is easy to use and does not collect any personally identifiable information, making it ideal for complying with the E.U.’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This comes at the cost of functionality.

Plausible, and tools like it, only track very basic website metrics like pageviews, session duration and referrer information. It is a good option for content and marketing teams who just want easy-to-use, basic website analytics.

Plans start at $9.

14. Fathom

Fathom is another privacy-focused analytics tool like Plausible.

It doesn’t have the deeper features of GA4, but it’s a solid choice if you want a lightweight website analytics tool.

Plans start at $14.

15. Counter

Counter is an open-source analytics tool that uses a “pay what you want” model.

As with Plausible and Fathom, it is privacy focused and has very basic features and measurements.

The big difference between it and the previous two entries is you can’t drill down deeply into individual page performance. However, it is free.

TikTok is testing a new feature that connects advertisers and creators in a financially beneficial way for both parties.

Under the new program, titled TikTok Creative Challenge, marketers can share ad briefs with relevant U.S.-based creators, who will then have complete creative freedom to make a video entry for consideration.

Should their submission get approval from the marketer, that creator will then receive payment based on the video’s performance.

Why we care. Advertisers will have access to influencers with already established followings and a deep understanding of the TikTok audience. Not only will this type of collaboration potentially give brands better insight into their target audience, which could result in higher engagement, but the fee they have to pay is dependent on ad performance, which reduces financial risk.

How it works. The TikTok Creative Challenge is an in-app feature that creators must sign up for. Once enrolled, they will have access to briefs posted by marketers, which should include reward pool details, rules and requirements.

Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of what happens next:

• If creators are interested in applying to a marketer’s brief, they will need to submit a video entry that meets the requirements specified in the ad.
• For each brief, advertisers will receive up to 30 ad creatives within 10 days.
• Should advertisers wish to ask creators for revisions or modifications, they have the option to notify them.
• If the final entry is given the green light, approved videos will run as ads on the For You feed.
• Videos will not be displayed on the creator’s profile.
• Creators will be able to track the performance of their submissions on the in-app feature, including views and monthly earnings.

@tiktoknewsroom

⭐️TikTok Creative Challenge⭐️ A new way for creators to collaborate with brands with full creative freedom! We’re excited to continue recognizing and rewarding creators for their creativity through this new in-app feature.

♬ original sound – TikTok Newsroom

How much will advertisers need to pay creators? Rewards will differ from project to project as multiple variable factors are considered, such as:

• Qualified video views.
• Clicks.
• Conversions.

However, creators will not just benefit financially from signing up to this feature. Once enrolled in the TikTok Creative Challenge, they will also have access to a number of rich resources, including a dedicated Creator Community group and a Mentor Program to connect with other creators.

The rules. Content creators wishing to take part in the TikTok Creative Challenge must adhere to certain rules and regulations set out by the platform:

• Creator must be at least 18 years old.
• Creator must also have a U.S.-based account.
• Creator needs to have a minimum of 50,000 TikTok followers.
• All videos submitted for the TikTok Creative Challenge must abide by the platform’s Community Guidelines.
• Videos should be high-quality, well-edited, original content.

What has TikTok said? TikTok explained via a statement posted in its digital Newsroom that the TikTok Creative Challenge is aimed at helping all parties involved – however, the initiative remains a pilot for now, which is still under review:

• “TikTok Creative Challenge is currently in testing as we explore this new solution with select brands.”
• “We will continue to listen to the feedback of our community to further develop the program and continue to make it easier to advertise and drive results on TikTok. We’re committed to working with our community to bring new features that enrich the TikTok experience and look forward to continuing that journey with the TikTok Creative Challenge.”
• “TikTok Creative Challenge provides brands with authentic, high-performance and easy-to-use creative content at scale to help drive their performance advertising campaigns.”
• “By simply creating a creative challenge on the platform, advertisers are given up to 30 ad creatives within 10 days created specifically for the TikTok audience developed by creators who truly understand the community.”

Deep dive. To find out more about how creators can monetize or collect rewards on TikTok, including Series, Creativity Program Beta, Pulse and LIVE Subscription, visit the platform’s Creator Portal.

Time is running out to migrate your website from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4.

Even though Google has been telling marketers for months to make the switch “as soon as possible“, most websites around the world ignored the warnings and were still using UA as of June 21. That’s a decision many may regret starting Saturday morning when UA officially sunsets.

On the other side of the coin, some brands have followed Google’s guidance and adopted GA4 – but it seems many marketers aren’t getting along with the new tool. In fact, some are even starting to look for alternative platforms.

“There are definitely reasons to look elsewhere, depending on your budgets, depending on the type of tracking that you need,” says Sharon Mostyn, CEO of Mostyn Marketing Group. “The one that I’m seeing with a lot of healthcare clients is that Google has said blatantly we are not HIPAA compliant. So that’s a good reason to consider alternatives.”

It would seem that GA4 hasn’t got off to the greatest start – but we want to hear your thoughts! Have you made the switch yet? Are you not going to bother? Or have you already and absolutely love it?

Whether you’re a marketer on the frontline at an agency, in-house or working as a freelancer, let us know whether you feel ready for the forced adoption of Google Analytics 4 – and why.

Be bluntly honest. What do you think of GA4? Do you think this was a good move by Google or is it going to make your job necessarily harder? Are you tempted to look for an alternative platform or does GA4 tick all your boxes? This is your chance to have your say!

Submit your answers below and we may include your response in a write-up of our poll results!

As Google continues to push for automation, advertisers have gotten more creative about making updated best practices, including smart bidding strategies, work for their companies and verticals. 

While value-based bidding has become a staple for ecommerce and retail brands, non-retail verticals have struggled to incorporate it effectively into their holistic PPC strategies.

This article explores the challenges faced by non-retail industries in embracing value-based bidding in Google Ads and how to make it work for your unique business.

Making value-based bidding work for non-retail brands

Most ecommerce and retail brands can seamlessly update their bidding strategies to value-based models. 

The revenue is already set up.

The conversion path is clearly valued (i.e., add to cart, purchase, first-time or returning purchaser value)

The steps to transition make sense. 

But for finance? SaaS? Insurance? Healthcare and education? It’s been a trickier shift for many advertisers in these fields. 

At its core, value-based bidding takes designated signals noting the quality of a customer into consideration while ultimately optimizing for the highest possible value to the business. 

This is absolutely attainable for non-retail companies and will function the same way. But it should be treated a bit differently in terms of strategy and setup.

Think about your business and what you’re most proud of from an advertising or website analytics standpoint: 

• Do your users spend an average of 10 hours on your site per visit? (This could be a world record, so congratulations!) 
• Have you spent a ton of time and energy making sure your attribution method is accurate?
• Does your YouTube channel statistically and unwaveringly contribute to 99% of your conversions? 
• Are you struggling with conversion drop-off rates from a lead start to lead submit? If so, you are, in fact, a perfect candidate for value-based bidding.

Consider what’s valuable to your company and what tagged activities contribute to the lifetime value of your customers. 

Once you’ve answered these questions, you’ve proven that value-based bidding will work for your business.

In the meantime, there are several bigger-picture factors to consider: 

• Identifying the conversion actions to include
• Defining conversion rates and assigning values.
• Considering whether to include offline conversions in your data. 

Below are different options and thought-starters for each step.

Defining goals: What matters most?

The funnel stage is an incredibly important piece of the puzzle. 

For many advertisers, it can feel like there are limited options for which conversion actions are most important to their bid strategy. 

For example, a B2B company whose main KPI is qualified leads generally cannot optimize that low in their funnel in a bid strategy due to data limitations or low conversion volume. 

The best case scenario will be to have ~2-4 conversion actions marked with a value for value-based bidding to work effectively. 

However, many non-retail companies may have difficulty deciding what else is important to them outside their final lead submission or last-step conversion item.

In many cases, lead form submissions are the last tracked data point via a conversion tag or Floodlight for advertisers to optimize for. 

Marketers need to remember that every touchpoint is important in a customer’s journey. 

Maybe you mark a pageview, time on site, and a lead start as your set of conversion actions to include in a bid strategy. 

Each is a tick in the consumer journey to become a qualified lead. Foundationally, value-based bidding is optimizing for more than lead volume or an efficient tCPA. 

Any data that advertisers can tag for the algorithm is helpful. 

The fine line here, however, is determining conversion actions with a high enough conversion volume per month (30-50 actions at minimum) while also being low enough in the funnel to drive higher and more qualified conversion rates. 

Secondary and tertiary touchpoints: The middle of the iceberg

If you’re struggling to identify secondary and tertiary goals to include values for, imagine your customers’ journey from their perspective.

How many pages do they need to visit or buttons do they need to click before completing the primary conversion? 

If the primary goal is a button click on the homepage, consider including a minimum time on the page as a secondary conversion action to increase the number of qualified leads. 

If a pageview feels too broad, how about creating an engaged visit action, where the time on page needs to be higher than 30 seconds to count as a conversion? 

Or visiting 3-4 pages, using Google Analytics data to create a custom conversion? 

From there, you can hone in on the most impactful chunk of the funnel before losing out to offline data that may be unavailable or hard to import on a consistent cadence.

In these scenarios, it’s crucial to align on the best inflection point.

Can we optimize for lead form submissions since they’ll be higher volume, or should we import offline data from submissions or scrubbed leads as a last touch even though we know the drop-off is steeper? 

If offline conversions are less than 30 per month, even if they’re worth 100X of a lead submit, it would be better to aim higher in the funnel so that the bid strategy can best optimize.

Defining values: What’s it worth to you?

Once a goal has been agreed upon, it’s time to look at values. Google has released a helpful calculator as a starting point. 

Still, it will also be good to have an internal contact and an analytics resource on hand to help comb through the known data points, conversion rates, lifetime values, and any other important variables for your business. 

The conversion rates will be your easiest entry point. 

If you’re looking at 100 engaged page visitors, 60 lead form starts, and 50 lead form submissions, with a lead form submission worth $100, you can calculate the trickle-down metrics using Google’s calculator. 

This will tell you that your lead submission is worth $100, your lead form start is $83, and your pageview is $50.

If your approach requires lifetime values to be calculated, use your CRM as a source of truth to gauge your customers’ fullest potential within your company. 

Once you’ve calculated the highest value (within the ~30 conversions per month guideline), work backward with your analytics team to determine specific values for the events leading up to the main goal.

Offline data: To ingest or not?

The last major commonality in a non-retail bidding strategy is the ingestion of offline conversion data to include in optimizations. 

In a best-case scenario, offline conversions are set up and directly available in Google Ads or SA360 for conversion action with minimal proxies or gaps. 

In reality, there are often data lags, connectivity issues, and other unforeseen hurdles when setting up offline conversions. 

To get ahead of this, consider what resources you have available. 

• Do you have a 20+ person team that can help get everything in order? 
• Do you need to work with six different vendors to attach each puzzle piece? 

Evaluate your appetite for a heavy lift and how you can set smaller goals to reach full value-based bidding. Can you set up value-based bidding using only online tags to start?

I’d offer that most of your customer journey on your website or in your ads is helpful to inform value-based bidding. 

You’ve set up a great user experience online for your customers to find you (paid ads), reach you (your contact information is listed somewhere, I’m sure – if not, please make sure it is!), and raise their hand showing interest in your company (a lead form, a phone call, an appointment booking, and so forth). 

Anything outside the web for the majority of these industries (a closed booking, showing up to an appointment, scheduling a follow-up meeting) will happen more naturally and at higher rates by strengthening the online footprint using value-based bidding.

Embracing what sets your industry and business apart

The shift into more automated bidding and the emergence of value-based bidding as an option for many verticals come with both headwinds and tailwinds. 

Any businesses considering shifting to value-based bidding but wary of the effort or setup should zoom out and consider the strategies outlined above to start their journey towards bidding to value. 

The future of advertising will only get more automated in exciting ways, so ensure the “best practices” work best for you before they are no longer optional and/or continue to evolve. 

Google is officially sunsetting Universal Analytics (UA) this Saturday, July 1. And if you haven’t yet switched to Google Analytics 4 (GA4), Google will do it for you.

GA4 is a powerful analytics platform – but is it the right solution you – even if it is free?

Fundamentally different from UA, GA4 requires you to learn a new way of tracking data and new interfaces. So, even if you’ve been using Google Analytics for years, GA4 is an entirely new system you need to learn.

Now is the perfect moment to be sure this new analytics system is the right one.

Here is a guide to determining that for yourself.

GA4 weak spots 

“There are definitely reasons to look elsewhere, depending on your budgets, depending on the type of tracking that you need,” says Sharon Mostyn, CEO of Mostyn Marketing Group. “The one that I’m seeing with a lot of healthcare clients is that Google has said blatantly we are not HIPAA compliant. So that’s a good reason to consider alternatives.”

GA4 is a fundamentally different platform from Universal Analytics. It uses event-based tracking, which means that it tracks user interactions with your website or app as individual events. This is in contrast to Universal Analytics, which tracked user sessions as a series of hits.

The event-based tracking model in GA4 has several advantages. It:

• Allows you to track a wider range of user interactions.
• Provides more granular data about user behavior.
• Is less reliant on cookies, making it more future-proof.

But there are disadvantages to consider with GA4.

In addition to privacy issues, controlling your data is one of many things to be concerned about.

No support

“There’s a thresholding that occurs depending on whether you’ve got Google Signals on,” Mostyn said. “So if you’re looking for all of your data there can be a bit of a black box with GA4.” 

Another issue: GA4’s lack of dedicated support or onboarding. This means a lot of work for large businesses with complex websites and data that must install and customize it.

Businesses of all sizes need to keep in mind that there is now a cost for long-term data storage. While GA4 comes with a free connection to BigQuery, Google’s data warehouse, there can be fees for accessing and processing your data.

Questions to consider

Here are a few other questions to consider when deciding on a web analytics platform:

• Business goals and objectives. What do you want to achieve with your analytics? Do you need to track specific metrics, such as sales, leads or website traffic?
• Features and functionalities. Does it have the features you need, such as event tracking, integration with other tools or advanced analytics?
• Learning curve. How easy is it to learn? Do you need to spend hours on courses or tutorials?
• User-friendliness. How easy is it to use? Can you easily track the metrics you need and generate reports?
• Cost. How much does it cost? Does it offer a free plan or a trial version? Are there maintenance or other long
• The future. Is the platform future-proof? Will it be able to handle your changing business needs?
• Support. Is support available? How quickly can you get help if you have problems?
• Data. How does it handle large amounts of data? How easy is it to export data?
• Stack integration. How easily can it be integrated with other marketing tools?

By considering these factors, you can choose a web analytics platform that meets your specific needs and helps you achieve your business goals.