Digital Marketing Archives | ASK BOSCO®

State of Marketing Reporting: 75% of Marketers Sack Agencies for Poor Reporting

Emily Hakner — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 09:27:34 +0000

Transparency and actionable insights have become non-negotiables for businesses partnering with marketing agencies. Recent research by ASK BOSCO®, the leading AI marketing platform for retailers, brands, and agencies, conducted in collaboration with OnePoll, sheds light on the growing dissatisfaction among marketing professionals regarding digital marketing reporting. With 75% of marketers admitting to sacking their agencies over poor reporting, the findings suggest a significant trust gap between agencies and businesses.

Key Insights: Clarity and Transparency in Reporting

The survey polled 100 UK marketing managers who either currently or previously worked with digital marketing agencies and were engaged in online advertising. The results paint a vivid picture of the industry’s pain points, with clarity, accuracy in forecasting, actionable insights, transparency, and customisation emerging as the top five most critical factors in agency reports.

Among the most alarming statistics:

62% of respondents have stopped, or considered stopping, their collaboration with an agency due to a lack of transparency.
73% have cut ties with agencies over poor analysis and lack of actionable insights.
95% of marketers reported that their agencies selectively highlighted positive metrics while downplaying negative outcomes.

These numbers are a wake-up call for agencies, emphasising the importance of comprehensive, honest, and accessible reporting to foster long-term client relationships.

The Need for More Transparency

One of the most striking findings was that 90% of respondents believe digital marketing agencies need to offer greater transparency, particularly by making data more easily accessible and insights clearer. This demand for openness and clarity reflects a broader trend in the marketing industry, where businesses expect more control over and understanding of their campaigns’ performance.

Additionally, 77% of respondents reported encountering inaccuracies in their reports, often due to human error. This highlights a growing desire for not just transparency but accuracy, as businesses increasingly rely on data-driven decisions to steer their marketing strategies.

Insights from ASK BOSCO®’s Head of Product, Emily Hakner

Reflecting on the survey results, Emily Hakner, Head of Product at ASK BOSCO®, emphasised the industry’s need for change. She stated, “The digital marketing industry is at a critical juncture. Data from the survey indicates a strong demand for greater transparency and more insightful reporting. The results underscore an urgent need for reform. Businesses are calling for greater transparency and accountability, with a clear preference for reports that provide easily accessible data and clearer insights.”

How ASK BOSCO® AI Reporting Aligns with Industry Needs

ASK BOSCO®’s AI-powered reporting platform addresses the key challenges identified in the survey by offering transparency, accuracy, and actionable insights. The platform consolidates all marketing data into a single, customizable dashboard, providing marketers with clear, easily accessible reports tailored to their specific needs. Its AI search functionality eliminates human error, offering precise forecasting and insights without the need for manual intervention. This ensures that businesses can trust the data they receive, enabling them to make more informed decisions and rebuild trust with their agencies.

For more information, visit ASK BOSCO® AI Reporting.

Time for a Paradigm Shift

The findings from ASK BOSCO®’s survey highlight a profound trust deficit in digital marketing. The selective reporting of positive outcomes, inaccuracies, and lack of actionable insights are driving businesses to re-evaluate their agency partnerships.

For agencies, the message is clear: transparency, accuracy, and customisation must be at the heart of their reporting practices to retain clients and rebuild trust in an increasingly data-driven world.

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Time Series Forecasting in Digital Marketing: How It Can Improve Campaign Planning and Performance

Tom Pickard — Mon, 20 Jan 2025 16:36:21 +0000

Accurately forecasting the performance of future digital campaigns is an important part of digital marketing. With PPC costs increasing and competition growing, and the advancement of AI, some businesses are starting to use tools to implement time series forecasting into their digital marketing planning. When used correctly, it can help stop overspending on Google, Meta and other key platforms and ultimately allow businesses to plan and allocate resources more efficiently.

What is Time Series Forecasting?

First things first, let’s explain what time series forecasting is. Time series forecasting is the process of analyzing historical data to predict future values. Unlike static data analysis, time series data is sequential and often influenced by patterns such as seasonality, trends, and cyclical behaviours.

Some of the key aspects of time series data include:

Trends: Long-term increases or decreases in the data.

Seasonality: Regular, repeating patterns, such as higher traffic on weekdays.

Sales and Events: Spikes or drops in activity linked to specific campaigns, promotions, or external events such as holidays.

Noise: Irregular fluctuations that are not explained by a trend or seasonality.

How can time series forecasting benefit a digital marketing strategy?

There are several ways in which time series forecasting can benefit agencies and brands when it comes to making better, data-driven decisions. These are:

Budget Optimization: The ability to predict future campaign performance to allocate budgets in a more efficient way.

Performance Benchmarks: Being able to produce realistic KPIs by understanding what’s happened in the past, using historical patterns.

Audience Targeting: Knowing peak engagement times to forecast and schedule ads for maximum impact.

What are the barriers to implementing time series forecasting into your digital marketing strategy?

If you ask most agencies or brands, they will probably say that at present, they do not have a sophisticated system for forecasting the future performance of digital marketing campaigns. One of the main barriers for implementing time series forecasting is the lack of technical expertise. Implementing and running forecasts often require significant time and data science skills. The cost requires significant investment in technology and tools (not to mention the cost of a data science team) so may not be feasible for all.

Another challenge is the fragmentation of data. Many businesses have their 1st-party and 3rd-party data spread across different platforms or systems, making it difficult to centralize and use the data for accurate forecasting. Without consolidating all relevant data into one place, the insights from time series forecasting can be less reliable, or worse, inaccurate

Additionally, time series forecasting often requires high-quality, consistent data. Missing data or inaccuracies can significantly affect the reliability of predictions.

How to integrate time series forecasting into your digital marketing strategy

Understand your metrics and your goals.

Define what you want to forecast and why, including the metrics you want to measure your performance against. For example, ‘How many clicks can we expect on our ad campaigns next quarter?’ Or ‘How do we achieve 700% ROAS in our ad campaigns in the next month?’

ASK BOSCO® helps you easily set clear forecasting goals by integrating your data and providing real-time insights into performance. You can quickly ask the platform for a budget plan to get future predictions and tailored forecasts for your specific marketing objectives.

Consolidate and prepare your data

Collect and consolidate all your historical data relevant to your target metric, such as website visits, ad impressions, or conversion rates. Ensure the data is clean, complete, and consistent.

With ASK BOSCO®, you can consolidate your data from over 400 sources into one place, ensuring that you have accurate and comprehensive data without the hassle of managing multiple platforms. This eliminates manual error, data fragmentation and ensures your forecasts are based on high-quality, unified data.

Choose a Model

If you have an in-house data science team, the choices for implementing a time series forecasting model include:

ARIMA (AutoRegressive Integrated Moving Average)

Pro: Effective for data with clear trends.
Con: Struggles with data that has strong seasonality or irregular patterns.

Exponential Smoothing (ETS)

Pro: Good for handling trend and seasonality.
Con: Assumes future patterns will closely resemble past behaviour, limiting its flexibility in dynamic environments.

Prophet

Pro: Designed to handle strong seasonal effects and holidays.
Con: While optimized for Facebook-type data, it is flexible enough to work on a variety of business datasets, though it may not capture complex patterns as well as other methods in some cases.

Machine Learning Models (e.g., LSTM)

Pro: Good at capturing complex, non-linear patterns.
Con: Requires large datasets and significant computational resources, along with significant data science expertise for tuning.

ASK BOSCO® streamlines forecasting using AI-powered statistical modelling, with features developed and continuously refined by our in-house data scientists. This means that the most suitable model will always be applied to your data, without you needing deep data science skills. By integrating time series forecasting for daily pacing and our own custom algorithm to calculate expected costs and outcomes for monthly forecasts, ASK BOSCO® provides you with actionable insights to optimize your budget allocation and drive better performance across all your campaigns. Saving time, optimizing budgets and eliminating guesswork.

Act upon the model’s forecasts and use human intervention too

Once your model or platform has provided you with a plan or forecast, you may wish to create multiple forecasts based on various scenarios. For example, you could simulate different budget allocations or test varying targeting strategies or swap metrics. This approach enables you to assess potential outcomes and make more informed decisions, ensuring your marketing strategy remains flexible and resilient.

The forecast you create can then inform your marketing strategy, but remember that while statistical models are powerful, human intuition and expertise are also invaluable to add to the work that the model has predicted.

ASK BOSCO® makes it easy to turn your forecasts into actionable insights. You can set budget recommendations, allocate resources efficiently, scenario-plan based on different criteria, and adjust campaign strategies based on predicted trends, ensuring your marketing efforts are proactive and data-driven.

What does the future hold for Time Series Forecasting

As time series forecasting continues to evolve, there are several key trends and advances that will shape its future in digital marketing. The integration of cutting-edge technologies will further enhance forecasting capabilities, making it more accessible and impactful for marketers. Here are some of the exciting developments to watch:

Automated Machine Learning (AutoML)

Platforms such as ASK BOSCO®, H2O.ai and AWS Forecast are simplifying the modelling process, making it easier to build and deploy forecasting models without requiring extensive data science expertise. This democratization of machine learning is helping businesses harness the power of data without a large investment of in-house data science teams.

Real-Time Forecasting

With the rise of streaming data, marketers will be able to adjust as needed, ensuring that campaigns stay optimized in real-time. This capability will allow for more dynamic decision-making and immediate responses to changing conditions, providing a more agile approach to digital marketing.

Causal Impact Analysis

This approach helps marketers understand how specific actions, such as a price change or campaign tweaks, affect trends and outcomes. By isolating the impact of these actions, businesses can make more informed decisions and drive more effective strategies.

ASK BOSCO® is at the forefront of these innovations, offering an AI-powered platform that integrates advanced forecasting techniques into your digital marketing efforts. The platform ensures that your forecasting is not just accurate but also actionable, empowering your team to stay ahead of the competition.

If you’d like to find out more about, ASK BOSCO® and its forecasting and media planning capabilities, please contact our team. You can also view this blog to understand more about how the Budget Planner feature within ASK BOSCO® works.

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Top Shopify Stores Ranked by Online Marketing Success

Tom Pickard — Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:00:47 +0000

The definition of success is quite subjective, and from our point of view as digital marketing experts, we determine successful Shopify ecommerce businesses as ones where their online marketing performance matches their sales performance.

Shopify is a versatile commerce platform that empowers users to sell products online and in person, catering to businesses from solo entrepreneurships to global brands. We wanted to compare the leading 25 retailers who are currently leading by revenue vs their online marketing performance using our ASK BOSCO® Competitor Benchmarking feature.

Our ASK BOSCO® Index analysis involves evaluating the “credit score” or digital presence of leading retailers and comparing their performance using our competitive benchmarking tool.

Here are the top UK Shopify stores ranked by revenue, according to AI:

Oh Polly
Gymshark
Victoria Beckham
Motel Rocks
Represent
Club L London
Public Desire
Jaded London
Hunter Boots
French Connection UK
Drake’s
Lucy & Yak
Skinnydip London
Twinings
Kick Game
Killstar
BrewDog
Pangaia
Hiut Denim Co.
Rocket Dog
Chubbies
HELM Boots
Asphalte
Dixxon
Negative Underwear

What is the ASK BOSCO® Index Score?

The ASK BOSCO® Index, part of the Competitor Benchmarking section in our platform, is your go-to tool. It measures your digital presence and evaluates the impact of your SEO, paid search, website health, and other marketing efforts.

Unlike traditional metrics that focus solely on marketing budgets, the ASK BOSCO® Index takes a holistic view. It analyzes your performance across both paid media and organic traffic, using data from trusted third-party sources to provide a comprehensive and accurate assessment of your online presence.

So, what’s a good ASK BOSCO® Index score? Scores range from 0 to 1000, with the average for brands and retailers hovering around 500. A higher score signals stronger online performance. Think of it as your digital marketing “credit score.” The closer to 1000, the better you’re doing as a retailer online!

Top ASK BOSCO® Index by online performance

Who topped our league table?

Gymshark

Gymshark has shown that leadership in revenue and marketing go hand in hand, solidifying its position as a leader in the fitness apparel industry.

During Black Friday, the brand employed aggressive discount-centric marketing, offering up to 70% off to create urgency among shoppers. This was amplified through omnichannel advertising, leveraging email campaigns, social media ads, and paid search to maximize visibility. Collaborations with fitness influencers further extended the reach, adding authenticity to their promotions.

Beyond sales events, Gymshark’s “We Do Gym” brand platform showcased its connection to gym culture through storytelling, high-quality content, and events like community workouts and pop-ups. The brand’s retail expansion included a New York pop-up store and the launch of its premium ‘Everywear’ line in partnership with Selfridges, effectively positioning Gymshark in the luxury fitness market. These efforts were supported by cross-channel promotions using influencers and digital campaigns. On social media, Gymshark maintained dominance by creating trending short-form videos on TikTok and Instagram Reels, engaging their audience with fitness challenges, and generating hype with limited-edition product drops

Findings from our analysis

Our performance analysis revealed some interesting insights. Notably, a few brands in our top 10 rankings performed significantly lower in terms of revenue. However, Skinny Dip, Pangaia, and Asphalte emerged as standout performers in the ‘Website Performance’ category. Despite their success, competing with Gymshark’s dominance in paid search performance and market share presents a substantial challenge. The contrast between these performance metrics underscores the varying strengths and strategic focuses of different brands.

Want to know more?

If you’d like to know more about the ASK BOSCO® competitor benchmarking feature and find out where your brand sits on our league table rankings, simply get in touch with us at team@askbosco.com – we’d love to hear from you.

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How to plan your first-party data strategy: A beginner’s guide

Tom Pickard — Thu, 28 Nov 2024 15:42:56 +0000

Privacy regulations and the phasing out of third-party cookies have made it more important than ever to establish a solid first-party data strategy. Unlike third-party data, first-party data is collected directly from your audience with their consent, making it more reliable, compliant, and valuable for understanding customer behavior.

Here’s a guide on how to plan and implement your first-party data strategy to future-proof your marketing efforts.

Understand the Importance of First-Party Data

First-party data is information collected directly from your customers, such as purchase history, website behavior, email interactions, and customer feedback. It’s both privacy-compliant and accurate, helping you build a closer relationship with your audience. With regulatory changes and consumer expectations around data privacy increasing, relying on first-party data is key to staying compliant and effective in your marketing efforts.

Define Your Goals and Objectives

Your first-party data strategy should be driven by clear goals. Think about what you want to achieve:

Better customer insights

Understand your customers’ preferences and behaviors to personalize their experiences.

Enhanced segmentation

Build targeted campaigns by segmenting your audience based on real data.

Improved ROI

Use data-driven insights to make informed decisions that drive revenue growth. These goals will help determine what type of data you need to collect and how to use it effectively.

Increase customer retention

Create a personalized, engaging experience that keeps your audience coming back. Leveraging data directly from your customers allows you to understand their preferences, behaviors, and needs, enabling you to deliver relevant offers, tailored content, and timely communications. By focusing on customer retention, you not only build long-term relationships but also reduce acquisition costs, increase lifetime value, and strengthen brand loyalty, making your marketing efforts more resilient and effective over time.

Identify Key Data Sources

Identify where you can collect data throughout the customer journey.

Website and app interactions

Track user behavior on your site or app, such as page views, clicks, and time spent on specific pages.

Email engagement

Analyze email metrics, including open rates, click-through rates, and responses to surveys.

Purchase history

Collect data on past purchases to inform recommendations and anticipate future needs.

Customer service interactions

Use feedback from support tickets, reviews, and surveys to understand common issues and preferences.

These sources provide rich, actionable insights that can help you create a more personalized experience for your audience.

Focus on Data Quality and Compliance

To make the most of your first-party data, ensure it’s accurate, up-to-date, and compliant with data protection regulations like GDPR or CCPA. Consider implementing regular data hygiene practices to remove duplicates and outdated information.

Use consent management tools to help ensure that users are aware of what data is being collected and for what purposes. Transparency and trust are essential for building a long-term relationship with your customers.

Implement a Data Collection Framework

Setting up a framework for collecting, storing, and managing your data is crucial. Here’s how to get started.

Use a customer data platform (CDP)

CDPs consolidate data from multiple sources to create a unified customer profile, making it easier to analyze and act on.

Integrate with CRM systems

Your CRM can help centralize data and streamline customer relationship management.

Leverage analytics tools

Tools like Google Analytics 4 allow you to track user interactions while respecting privacy.

Segment and Personalize

With your data in place, start segmenting your audience based on key characteristics or behaviors. By segmenting effectively, you can create highly personalized marketing messages that speak directly to individual needs and preferences.

For example, segment by.

Purchase history

Recommend similar or complementary products based on previous purchases.

Engagement level

Target frequent visitors differently than those who only visit occasionally.

Demographics

Tailor content to different age groups, locations, or interests for relevance.

Build Data-Driven Campaigns

With your segmentation in place, you can launch campaigns that leverage your first-party data to create a seamless and personalized experience. Focus on adding value to your customers with timely, relevant offers and messages.

Personalized email campaigns

Use data-driven insights to create email content that feels relevant and timely.

Retargeting campaigns

Serve targeted ads based on customers’ on-site behavior, such as browsing or abandoned carts.

Product recommendations

Use purchase data to recommend items that align with each customer’s previous choices.

Measure and Optimize

Finally, monitor the effectiveness of your data-driven campaigns by tracking KPIs that align with your goals. Look at metrics such as engagement rates, conversion rates, and ROI to assess your strategy’s impact. Regularly analyze performance to identify areas for improvement and ensure your first-party data strategy remains agile and effective.

Building a first-party data strategy is an investment that will future-proof your marketing efforts. By setting clear goals, collecting high-quality data, and implementing effective segmentation, you can create personalized experiences that foster lasting relationships with your customers. As privacy regulations continue to evolve, a strong first-party data strategy will be your most reliable and compliant path to delivering value to your audience.

Are you ready to take control of your data? Request a trading audit and start building your strategy today with ASK BOSCO®, to unlock the power of first-party data for smarter, more effective marketing.

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How to set up Google Analytics 4 in Shopify

Kylie Moody — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 10:29:18 +0000

Follow our step-by-step guide to help you through the process of setting up Google Analytics 4 in Shopify.

Setting up Google Analytics 4 (GA4) correctly on Shopify is crucial because it allows you to accurately track user behaviour, conversions, and marketing performance. By integrating GA4 with your store, you can analyse critical metrics like traffic sources, customer journey paths, and eCommerce purchases.

This data enables you to make informed decisions about marketing strategies, ad spending, and product offerings. Proper setup also facilitates better targeting through Google Ads, optimizing your ad campaigns and ROI. Without accurate tracking, you risk missing valuable insights into what’s driving your sales and growth.

Is there compliance surrounding setting up GA4 tracking in Shopify?

There are compliance considerations when setting up Google Analytics 4 on Shopify. As an online store owner, you must adhere to data privacy laws like the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in Europe and CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) in the US. These laws require transparent data collection practices and user consent for tracking cookies. Additionally, you should review your store’s privacy policy to inform customers about data collection methods, and make sure users have control over their data choices. Missteps in compliance can lead to legal risks and fines.

How to set up Google Analytics 4 in Shopify – Step by Step

1. Create a Google Analytics Account

Before we begin our step-by-step guide to setting up GA4 and Shopify, you need to have a Google Analytics account. If you already use Google products, such as Gmail or Ads, then you can use the same account for Google Analytics.

2. Create or use an existing Google Analytics 4 property

To activate Google Analytics 4 in your Shopify store, create a new GA4 property or use an existing property you have previously made. If you are using an existing property, you will need to make sure you disable the tracking already set up. We recommend you do this after you have set up the Shopify Plugin.

After identifying your GA4 property, you need to create a web data stream. Make a note of the Tag ID because you’ll use it in Step 3.

3. Add Google Analytics 4 tags

If you don’t have the Google & YouTube channel installed in your Shopify Store, then you’re prompted to install it during the set-up process for your GA4 tags. You don’t have to connect to the Google Merchant Centre to complete your GA4 tags setup process.

Steps:

From your Shopify admin, got go to Online store > Preferences.

In the Google Analytics section, click Manage Pixel.

Click Connect your Google account.

In the Your Google Analytics property section, select the tag for the GA4 property that you want to connect to your Shopify store. (See picture on step 2)

Click Connect.

After you set up Google Analytics 4 tags, certain ecommerce events are tracked automatically. To learn more about event tracking in Google Analytics 4, refer to Setting up Google Analytics events. Here’s what’s tracked:

You’re all done. Now that GA4 has been set up, you will need to review that you are complying with consent mode, you can find out more in our handy blog.

Need help connecting and consolidating all your cross-channel data?

Whether you are advertising on Shopify, Google, Facebook, Amazon, or other platforms, ASK BOSCO® Marketing AI connects all your data for easy reporting and predicts where to allocate your media spend for maximum return, enabling you to plan budgets and forecast your future performance with 96% accuracy. If you’d like to find out more, please drop us a message at team@askbosco.com

The post How to set up Google Analytics 4 in Shopify appeared first on ASK BOSCO®.

Key ecommerce and retail events happening in 2025

Matthew Fraser — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 09:00:13 +0000

Attending industry events is one of the best ways to stay informed and connected. These conferences offer not only actionable strategies but also valuable opportunities to interact with leading retail and eCommerce brands. Whether you’re looking to optimize your technology stack or explore the latest in customer engagement, 2025’s top events are sure to offer insights that can help propel your business forward.

Here’s a curated list of 15 essential eCommerce and retail events you can look forward to in 2025, each designed to keep you ahead of the competition in this rapidly changing space. From hands-on workshops to networking with industry leaders, there’s something here for everyone looking to thrive in the year ahead.

1. NRF 2025 – Retail’s Big Show

When: January 12-14, 2025
Where: New York, USA

A leading retail event focusing on innovation, with discussions on topics like AI in retail and strategies for engaging emerging consumer demographics like Gen Alpha. Extensive networking and expert speakers make this event essential for staying updated in the retail space.

Get your all-access pass here.

2. EuroCIS 2025

When: February 18-20, 2025
Where: Düsseldorf, Germany

A top European event focused on retail technology, covering topics such as smart stores, payment solutions, and robotics, providing key insights into the future of retail tech.

You can register for EuroCIS here.

3. E-Commerce Expo Berlin

When: February 19-20, 2025
Where: Berlin, Germany

One of the most significant European e-commerce events, drawing over 10,000 professionals. The event provides a platform for networking and gaining insights into the latest trends in online retail.

The E-commerce Berlin Expo is free to attend for retailers and brands, secure your place here.

4. White Label Expo

When: February 25-26, 2025
Where: London, UK

The White Label Expo 2025, organized by Prysm Group, is set to be a premier event for eCommerce professionals, featuring over 150 speakers and attracting 10,000 attendees. This year’s expo will focus on helping entrepreneurs enhance their online selling skills and source new products through engaging sessions, including the Amazon Pro Sellers Summit and Startup Masterclasses

Registration is free! Sign up for a place here.

5. DX3 Canada 2025

When: March 4-5, 2025
Where: Toronto, Canada

Canada’s largest retail, marketing, and tech event, focusing on the future of digital commerce and offering valuable networking opportunities.

These events cover a wide range of key areas in e-commerce and retail, from technological advancements to strategic insights, making them highly relevant for industry professionals looking to stay ahead in 2025.

Early bird tickets are still available, here.

6. Prosper Show

When: March 25-27, 2025
Where: Las Vagas, USA

The Prosper Show has established itself as the premier event for seasoned Amazon sellers, offering essential insights and networking opportunities to help scale profitability. In 2025, attendees will gain access to industry experts and trends focused on maximizing profits, enhancing brand awareness, and learning innovative product-launch strategies.

You can register and express your interest to attend the Prosper Show, here.

7. Shoptalk 2025

When: March 25-27, 2025
Where: Las Vegas, USA

A flagship event for retail and e-commerce, bringing together experts and innovators to share insights and strategies shaping the future of the industry.

View their range of tickets and packages available here.

8. Retail Technology Show 2025

When: April 2-3, 2025
Where: London, UK

Focuses on retail technology, attracting over 13,000 professionals. The event showcases the latest innovations that are revolutionizing the retail industry.

9. Brighton SEO

When: April 9-11, 2025
Where: Brighton, UK

BrightonSEO is a prominent search marketing conference that attracts thousands of attendees from around the world, focusing on the latest trends, techniques, and best practices in SEO. The event features a range of expert speakers and practical sessions designed to provide actionable insights for marketers and businesses aiming to enhance their online presence.

You can find registration and ticket information, here.

10. Kinetic 2025

When: April 22-24, 2025
Where: London, UK

Kinetic is a key event focusing on the future of retail and consumer trends, bringing together industry leaders, innovators, and brands to discuss the latest insights and developments in the sector. Attendees can expect engaging discussions on sustainability, digital transformation, and experiential retail, making it an excellent opportunity for networking and learning about emerging trends.

Click here to see all the packages available for this event.

11. World Retail Congress

When: May 12-14, 2025
Where: Paris, France

A gathering of global retail leaders focusing on sharing strategies and future-forward insights, helping businesses navigate the evolving retail landscape.

You can already register your interest for this event, here.

12. Retail Fest

When: May 28-30, 2025
Where: Gold Coast, Australia

Retail Fest has become a significant event for Australia’s online retailer community, typically attracting around 1,500 attendees, 75 exhibitors, and 150 speakers over three days. In 2025, the event will shift away from traditional conference formats to create a more relaxed atmosphere on the beach, focusing on networking and community bonding while featuring over 100 expert speakers and a dynamic exhibition floor.

Different packages are available for this exhibition, you can find pricing information here.

13. Paris Retail Week

When: September 17, 2025
Where: Paris, France

The Paris Retail Week stands as Europe’s largest gathering for both offline and online commerce, attracting influential investors and decision-makers each year. In 2025, the event will feature engaging sessions by prominent speakers, a wide array of exhibits, and workshops that explore innovative solutions across areas like IT for commerce, logistics, payment solutions, and customer relations

Entry fee is disclosed after registration, but you can register your interest, here.

14. eCommerce Expo London

When: September 24-25, 2025
Where: London, UK

A must-attend for e-commerce professionals, offering insights into online retail strategies and technology trends. Networking opportunities with key industry players are a highlight.

Use this link to register your interest, here.

15. Ad World Conference

When: TBC
Where: Virtual

The Ad World Conference has become a vital online event for marketers, covering essential topics like content marketing, lead generation, and conversion optimization. In 2025, attendees can expect over 400 masterclasses, networking opportunities with 15,000+ global marketers, and insights from 100+ expert speakers across various advertising disciplines

You can look at pricing details and register, here.

Whether you are attending these events in 2025 or not, ASK BOSCO® is here to support ecommerce brands and agencies by providing tailored insights through our powerful reporting and forecasting platform. With specifically designed ecommerce reports, including Shopify reports. ASK BOSCO® gives you a single source of truth when it comes to tracking performance. You can seamlessly view your ecommerce data alongside key advertising platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, ensuring you have a master view of your marketing efforts. Whether you’re looking to optimize spend, enhance reporting accuracy, or drive growth, ASK BOSCO® offers the tools to make smarter, data-driven decisions.

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Upcoming webinars: ASK BOSCO® AI Reporting Suite

Mike Thompson — Wed, 23 Oct 2024 10:36:49 +0000

The post Upcoming webinars: ASK BOSCO® AI Reporting Suite appeared first on ASK BOSCO®.

SEMrush’s Acquisition of Third Door Media, what you need to know

Mike Thompson — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 09:47:26 +0000

In October 2024, SEMrush, a powerhouse in digital marketing and SEO tools, made waves with its acquisition of Third Door Media. The parent company of Search Engine Land, MarTech.org, and SMX events. This move marks a significant step in SEMrush’s expansion. Enhancing its capabilities beyond software into the realm of digital marketing education and industry insight.

Why the Acquisition Matters

Third Door Media has long been a respected voice in the digital marketing community. Publications like Search Engine Land have provided invaluable industry news, analysis, and expert insights into SEO, PPC, and search marketing trends. With this acquisition, SEMrush now has direct control over one of the most trusted information sources in the SEO community. This could allow SEMrush to weave its tools, data, and services into the fabric of how industry professionals educate themselves and stay updated on trends.

For SEMrush, this is more than just adding respected publications to its portfolio. The acquisition of Third Door Media includes SMX (Search Marketing Expo) events, a major gathering point for digital marketers. This opens up an avenue for SEMrush to increase its reach into live events, networking opportunities, and community-building activities. By acquiring MarTech.org, SEMrush is positioning itself as a leader not only in SEO and search marketing. But also in the broader marketing technology (MarTech) space.

SEMrush’s Growth Strategy

SEMrush’s acquisition of Third Door Media is in line with its broader growth strategy, which aims to build a more comprehensive marketing ecosystem. SEMrush has been steadily expanding its portfolio through acquisitions of influential platforms such as Kompyte. A competitive intelligence tool, and Backlinko, a high-profile SEO training platform. This string of acquisitions demonstrates SEMrush’s ambition to integrate more than just software tools. Its goal is to offer education, research, and best practices directly to marketers, reinforcing its influence as a go-to resource in the industry.

This acquisition follows a growing trend of companies merging content, software, and community-building strategies. For SEMrush, acquiring the trust and credibility of publications like Search Engine Land aligns perfectly with its goal to become a one-stop solution for digital marketers.

Impact on the Industry

With this acquisition, SEMrush is likely to shape the future of search marketing content. By controlling editorial voices, SEMrush can steer the direction of industry thought leadership. Offering its own insights and positioning its tools as indispensable to staying competitive in SEO and marketing.

There are also potential implications for marketers who rely on Search Engine Land as an independent source of news and analysis. Though SEMrush has assured that editorial independence will remain intact. It will be interesting to see how this balance is maintained over time. The integration of SEMrush’s data, tools, and insights into these platforms could create synergies that give marketers more real-time, actionable insights than ever before.

What This Means for SEMrush Users

For SEMrush users, the acquisition likely means even more value-added features and educational resources within the platform. We can expect tighter integration between SEMrush tools and the content provided by Search Engine Land and MarTech.org. This will enhance SEMrush’s ability to offer its users up-to-the-minute data-driven insights, strategies, and trends for SEO, search marketing, and beyond.

The synergy between SEMrush’s data and Third Door Media’s editorial strength could lead to new innovations in how marketers interact with both news and tools. SEMrush could provide users with personalized news feeds, research reports, and event recommendations based on their own search and marketing activities.

Future Developments

Looking ahead, SEMrush’s acquisition spree is unlikely to stop here. The company is clearly building a powerhouse that could redefine how businesses approach SEO, content marketing, and MarTech. As SEMrush integrates its newly acquired assets. We can expect more developments aimed at streamlining the digital marketing process, from learning and strategy-building to execution and reporting.

In the end, SEMrush’s acquisition of Third Door Media solidifies its position as not just a provider of marketing tools. But as an educational hub and thought leader. The combination of SEMrush’s industry-leading software with the trusted content of Search Engine Land and MarTech.org sets the stage for a new era in digital marketing.

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Google scraps decision to eliminate third party cookies on Chrome.

Matthew Fraser — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 14:44:33 +0000

What are the new changes to expect?

After their initial announcement with plans to remove third-party cookies, Google declared on Monday 22^ndJuly 2024, in a blog post, that they plan to keep third-party cookies running and don’t plan to disable them from Chrome. However, Google have announced a decision to enhance a user’s privacy in relation to preserving advertising effectiveness. Google has offered a new solution, a one-time prompt which enables users to set their preferences that will apply to all Google browsing experiences.

Anthony Chavez, Vice president of Privacy Sandbox wrote in a blog post “We are proposing an updated approach that elevates user choice” Chavez continued to say, “instead of deprecating third-party cookies, we would introduce a new experience in Chrome that lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing, and they’d be able to adjust that choice at any time.”

Google’s timeline explained.

Just months prior to the announcement, Google began to disable third party cookies for 1% of Chrome users globally, as their original promise to users was to balance user privacy with advertisers demands. In January 2020, Chrome issued a statement to phase out the technology within two years. Google has subsequently pushed back their timeline on this change twice, with their most recent pushback being April 2024, due to concerns about Google’s Privacy Sandbox (the company’s suite of proposed cookie alternatives).

It’s clear that the ad industry is not prepared for such a change, with the decision to introduce a new user experience instead of removing third-party cookies. Google has released a statement claiming that this change came after much consideration of feedback from a wide variety of stakeholders, publishers, web developers and standards groups as well as participants in the advertising industry.

There is evidence that regulators, in particularly, led the decision to keep third-party cookies after the UK’s antitrust enforcer, the CMA, flagged 39 unique concerns about Google’s Privacy Sandbox. Outside of the CMA’s concerns, further research shows evidence that Google’s Privacy Sandbox terms may violate privacy laws.

Chavez claims that Google will continue to work with the CMA and other regulatory bodies to improve their Privacy Sandbox and new privacy prompts. “We’re discussing this new path with regulators and will engage with the industry as we roll this out”.

What does this mean going forward?

The IAB Tech Lab, a nonprofit digital advertising consortium, released a in-dept 106-page gap analysis that indicated the transitioning from third-party cookies to Google’s Privacy Sandbox would hinder most current forms of digital advertising across Google Chrome. According to the gap analysis, only a fraction of the 44 basic digital advertising use cases reviewed would be remain usable with the APIs provided by Sandbox. Other major industry leader have raised their concerns, after two months of testing, adtech firm Criteo stated that Google’s Privacy Sandbox would erase publisher’s ad revenues by 60%.

With the new plans to expand third-party cookie user controls in Chrome, Google is claiming that ad performance will remain strong. Google says that recent tests conducted by Google Ads have suggested that Google Privacy Sandbox APIs can deliver strong results. Evidence to support these claims are backed up from experiments run between January and March 2024, ran Privacy Sandbox tools, including APIs saw an 89% recovery of ad spend in Display & Video 360 (DV360). For performance campaigns, focused on conversions, Google says it has recorded a 97% recovery in conversions per dollar for Google Display Ads and a 95% recovery for DV360.

Remarketing campaigns showed a 55% advertiser spend recovery in Google Ads and 49% in DV360, which is a low recovery rate and can be attributed to remarketing’s alliance on third-party cookies for precise personalisation. Google found that campaigns which combined remarketing with other strategies such as optimised targeting and affinity audiences witnessed better returns.

Further experiments by Google found that publishers could mitigate revenue losses from the removal of third-party cookies by using Privacy Sandbox APIs in a combination with other approaches. “Our latest Privacy Sandbox experiment showed overall progress in driving performance without third-party cookies when using a combination of privacy-preserving signals, with room for continued improvements” a spokesperson for Google said in relation to continuing to improve their technologies.

While third-party cookies are here to stay for the meantime, Google will continue to develop their Privacy Sandbox APIs and will also be debuting new privacy measures to users. Google plans to offer IP address obfuscation in Chromes Incognito mode. Chavez wrote “we expect that overall performance using Privacy Sandbox APIs will improve over time as industry adoption increases”. Chavez continued to say, “at the same time, we recognise this transition requires significant work by many participants and will have an impact on publishers, advertisers and everyone involved in online advertising”.

Google continues to refine their Privacy Sandbox technologies in the coming months, promising improvements for users and advertisers. By embracing these changes advertisers can learn and benefit from the improved APIs when establishing campaigns.

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