The Digital Transformation Lab

The Beginner’s Guide to Hashtags Formerly known as the ‘pound sign’ by generations past, the cross hatched symbol synonymous with social media messaging is now fondly referred to as the beloved hashtag. Unless you’ve completely unplugged from the digital world for the last few years, you’ve undoubtedly run into these somewhere in your communications. While they may be a familiar sight, the concept and purpose often requires some clarity. Hashtags are a funny tool that have taken on a life of their own with the rise of our social media saturated world; however, when implemented properly into your social media strategy, they can be extremely beneficial to your businesses’ content. Incorporating them into your brand’s social media can play a key role in increasing exposure for your brand and fostering valuable audience engagement. If you’re one of the many who still can’t wrap their mind around the idea, don’t worry. You’re not alone, and we’re here to help. Together, we’ll exp...

3 Tools to Use With Facebook Ads in 2019 The continued growth and expansion of  digital marketing  in 2018 has only tee’d up the industry for further growth in 2019. Healthy growth and increased opportunity has brought new players as well as advertisers into the picture – something that one should expect and prepare for in the new year as competition stiffens. With more businesses allocating budgets towards digital marketing and more people with skin in the game, it is critical that advertisers stay on the cutting edge in order to be successful. This is important Facebook advertisers in particular as CPMs rise and more people enter the space. While innovative strategy is key, leveraging the appropriate tools to gain better insights will position your business to make better informed decisions and build more effective strategies. There are a few very powerful tools that advertisers should be using as we head into 2019. The best part? They are all free. Facebook A...

11 Changes & New Features Coming to AdWords: What You Need to Know Every spring, Google unleashes a slew of big announcements. One year, the big announcement was Enhanced Campaigns. Last year, they dropped the spectre of Expanded Text Ads on us. Today, our own Mark Irvine was live in person at Google's Marketing Next event in Mountain View to get the scoop on what big changes and new features are coming to AdWords, and we've got a roundup of all the updates right here. Between sweeping aesthetic alterations, a bunch of new audience features, and oodles of buzzwords, Google Marketing Next did not disappoint. The good news: our AdWords overlords have bestowed on us a bounty of exciting new features that’ll enhance your digital marketing strategy. The bad news: you’ve got some learnin’ to do! Recent  changes to AdWords  (I’m looking at you,  Exact-ish Match keywords ) have led the digital marketing community to declare the ...

Why Influencer Marketing is Not a One-To-One Direct ROI In recent years, influencer marketing has become an increasingly popular method of marketing for just about any B2C business. This popularity surge is due to a variety of factors including the need for high-quality content, the increased efficacy of ad blockers, and the decreased efficiency of organic social media promotions. It also speaks to the fact that we humans naturally trust the recommendations of real people more than we ever would promotions or advertisements. According to  OnBrand Marketing’s 2018 State of Branding Report , 79% of marketing decision-makers will invest in influencers marketing in the upcoming year. Of these, 43% plan to spend more than they did in the previous year, shifting resources away from more traditional marketing methods.  Now, whether this is just a trending fad or a fundamental shift in the way marketing will be done from here on is, as of yet, unknown. There are those w...

How to Set Your 2019 Social Ad Budget With 2019 right around the corner, businesses are starting to think about their marketing budgets and where to put their advertising dollars. With the digital marketing space constantly changing, businesses’ can’t just repeat the same budgets that they had in 2018. And while spending more money may seem attractive, spending more money does not necessarily guarantee success. How do you define your marketing budget? With social media, we know that there are a ton of moving parts that must work together to help consumers move down the funnel and eventually to a sale. With that being said, businesses aren’t exactly sure how much to spend on social media and even how much to spend on which network. This blog will revolve around the strategy in creating a budget for social media and how each social media channel can benefit your business. First, you will need to define your goals for the coming year and where you hope to go. That way, you ...