Like commercial businesses, nonprofits have a range of specialties. From art to scholarships, housing assistance to helping animals, this is a sector that has a special place in society and our hearts. Of course, no matter how worthy the cause, nonprofits have the same needs as other businesses -- they have to worry about payroll, the cost of providing services and, of course, marketing their cause. When it comes to marketing, no matter who your audience is, a digital presence is requisite and so is effectively measuring its performance.

In this article, we’ll look at some of the data that may be especially useful to helping nonprofits excel at digital marketing.

There may have been a time when a business made a Facebook page simply because “Dude, it’s Facebook, you’ve gotta be on there.” But as the social media juggernaut has evolved, so have the opportunities to use Facebook strategically to drive actual sales. But Facebook doesn’t just have the power to drive customers to websites, it has given us the ability to measure and attribute engagement and conversions.

We’ve talked about setting up Facebook Ads conversion tracking. In this article, we’ll delve further into understanding how Facebook attributes conversions.

When you work in digital marketing it's hard not wish you could talk to Google. Wouldn't that be nice? Imagine being able to ask questions and get feedback about your site.

Ok, so there's no direct line to get in touch with Google's algorithm, at least in part because bots are notoriously bad on the phone. But we do have Search Console. It's not a helpline but it can facilitate some communication with Google.

In another post we talked about using Search Console for SEO analysis and reporting. But in addition to using the information in Search Console to make strategic decisions, you can actually use the interface to make immediate tactical changes.

In this post we’ll cover some of the features available in Google Search Console (GSC) that will help you influence how Google understands your site and improve your understanding of how Google is seeing your site.

Google Analytics (GA) is one of the most robust and accessible analytics platforms available in the digital world. Not to mention that a standard account is free. But in addition to the Analytics we all know and love, Google also has Search Console (GSC).

Google defines their Search Console as “a no-charge web service by Google for webmasters. It allows webmasters to check indexing status and optimize visibility of their websites.” So while GA allows for a deep dive into metrics for traffic acquisition and user behavior, GSC is more focused on the site’s relationship with Google.

That’s a complicated relationship for most of us. Depending on the day, we love Google, hate it, love to hate it or hate to love it. But for better or worse, Google is the largest search engine in the U.S. and much of the world. It’s also the single largest driver of traffic to most websites. For that reason, monthly digital reports can benefit from the insights that GSC provides.

Search Console is an extremely useful platform that allows you to perform meaningful analysis and make changes that can affect how Google crawls, indexes and understands your site content. But for now, we’ll focus on the analysis as it applies to reporting. Don’t worry though, we’ll cover updates and optimization in another post.

Travel and tourism is a big business, in fact here in the U.S. it’s not only one of our biggest exports but 2.6% of our gross domestic product.

It’s not surprising then, that travel industry digital ad spending is projected to be $6.77 Billion in 2017.

Like we said, it’s big business.

If you’re a marketer, there is a good chance you’ve had or are currently working with client who is somehow affected by travel, tourism or hospitality. From hotels and airlines to attractions and food services, attention (and money) from these customers is crucial.

Working with a client or in-house for a business in the travel industry comes with many of the same digital reporting metrics we’d use for anyone. But when a site needs to attract travelers, there are a few places it makes sense to spend some extra time.

In this article we’ll cover the areas where a deeper dive is nice for anyone, but can be essential for travel and tourism businesses.