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Everything you need to know about Google Analytics 4

Hurrah, Google Analytics 4 is out!... But what does that mean for marketers exactly?

Our Google Marketing Platform Consultant and analytics expert Paul Wilmore shares a quick rundown of the new platform that Google is calling "the future of analytics" to help you understand its key features and how to get started today.

Psst... Need a refresh on Google''s analytics platforms?

Take a look at these posts on our blog to see how the key platforms compare:

• Google Tag Manager vs. Google Analytics
• Campaign Manager vs. Analytics 360

The ultimate guide to identifying bad backlinks

Yes, backlink audits are still necessary in 2020.

But don''t get discouraged! To help you out, SEO Consultant Sally Poundall has done a deep-dive on our blog into bad backlinks and where to find them.

From content farms to fake user profiles, this guide will help you easily spot which links should be disavowed (or not).

[WEBINAR TODAY] The Future of Digital Marketing: Looking Ahead to 2021

Join today''s webinar (November 12th) at 1pm ET // 5pm GMT for a panel discussion to help you begin planning your marketing strategy for 2021... Not one to miss!

Brainlabbers Zee Hoffmann Jones and Marissa Forde will cover the following along with Drew Whang from Google:

• COVID's impact on SEO
• Changes in consumer behavior
• Data privacy changes
• Cross-channel attribution measurement
• And more...

Careers at Brainlabs

We''re incredibly proud to announce the brand new Brainlabs Handbook ??

In the absence of being in the office this year, this handbook is a culture reset that says exactly what we think makes a great Brainlabber and how we hold ourselves accountable to that standard.

We invite you to read, share, and let us know what you think!

And after you''re done, why not take a look at our open job roles?

Our employer pledge underlines our aim to be the best place to work for people who embody our values. If that sounds like you, check out our careers page to see if we can help you build a remarkable career in digital.

We''re currently hiring for:

United Kingdom ????

London

• Senior Biddable Manager
  
• Head of Data Strategy
  
• UX/UI Designer & Researcher
  

United States ????

Anywhere

• VP, Data Strategy
  
• GMP Strategist
  
• Data Strategist
  
• Account Director, Ecommerce
  
• Senior Account Strategist, Ecommerce
  

Bloomington, Indiana

• Inside Sales Representative

Austin, Texas

• Inside Sales Representative

An interview with Brainlabs' Diversity & Inclusion Director:

We sat down (remotely, of course) with our recently-appointed Diversity & Inclusion Director Leyla Omar to discuss what her new role means to her, and her ongoing commitment to improving Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Brainlabs.

Check out the interview to read more about what she''s achieved so far and which areas she''s going to be focusing on in future.

Copyright ? 2020 Brainlabs, All rights reserved.

10.1.20 | 9AM ET // 2PM BST

Whether your business is looking to manage the growth you've experienced this year or find inventive ways to replenish your digital marketing efforts, our Digital Solutions Summit, GROW! Towards a Better Normal, will introduce new strategies for both sides of the coin.

The half-day summit will cover a variety of topics including implementing growth tactics for SEO, driving growth through automation, and optimizing your content to increase conversions.

Can't make it live or for the full day? No problem! Every registrant will receive access to the recording and slides after the event. 

The Sessions

Driving Better Conversions with Google Ads Automation 

Join Mackenzie Fisher from Brainlabs and Blair Symes from DialogTech to learn more about how advertisers can use Google Ads automation to drive more of the right conversions.

Misunderstood Concepts at the Heart of SEO

Brainlabber Will Critchlow will show you how SEO misconceptions arise, what the truth is and help you communicate with your stakeholders about these areas with confidence.

Secrets to Know Before Launching Your Next Content Marketing Campaign

Join Megan Morreale from Taboola and Mary Hartman from Brainlabs as they uncover the secrets you need to know to move people down your content funnel. 

Know someone else who would benefit from our Digital Solutions Summit? Share this email with them!

Hey Samuel,

You're receiving this email because you previously subscribed to Distilled''s newsletter. For over a decade, we've loaded your inboxes with our best blog posts, guides, and videos to help SEO practitioners become experts in their field.

From here on in, you can still expect the same SEO tips, tricks and tactics but now delivered to your inbox by Brainlabs once every month, following our merger earlier this year.

If you love our content and want to make sure it doesn't land in your spam folder, add hello@brainlabsdigital.com as a contact and we'll be in touch soon with the next instalment of our newsletter.

P.S. You can always update your subscription preferences here. 

A bit about Brainlabs...

Brainlabs is the leading digital marketing agency in the UK and US, with a Test and EarnT approach to growing businesses. Led by experimentation and data, we're experts in paid search, SEO, programmatic, paid social, CRO, and analytics. We also offer consultancy and training, along with our proprietary tech stack, to supercharge performance.

Much like Distilled, we're committed to driving remarkable performance for our clients. Today, we are nearly 400 marketers spanning Austin, Bloomington, London, Los Angeles, New York and Seattle. Along the way, we've wrestled huge accounts from global networks, including Bed Bath & Beyond, TUI, and Vans, and have won bundles of awards across the globe.

Recently featured on our blog

Organic traffic down YoY? It''s not what you think...

COVID-19: digital marketing insights and strategies for the ''new normal''

CRO & SEO: better together

Copyright ? 2020 Brainlabs, All rights reserved.

Dear friends of Brainlabs,

It's been a dull and uneventful year at Brainlabs HQ.

Just kidding. It's been absolutely BONKERS!

Before I get into that: if you're receiving this message, it's because you're signed up to a Brainlabs, Hanapin, or Distilled email list and we merged these agencies in February.

This update will only reach your inbox once a year (that's the annual part) and is jam-packed with news from our business and the marketing industry (that's the bonanza part)!

Please change your comms preferences here if you prefer receiving a monthly update... or just never want to talk to us ever again.

If you're not sure who we are... 

Hi there, and welcome to Brainlabs. We''re a digital marketing agency.

Using a test & learn approach, we help businesses grow.

(It works, we tested it.)

You might think the flurry of positivity in this update is a bit out of touch given what's going on in the world at the moment, but I beg to differ. On the contrary, we are doing well and want to spread some good vibes!

Okay, now that that's over with. Let's get going with the news in order!

1. We merged with Hanapin Marketing and Distilled

Earlier this year, we acquired and merged two exceptional marketing agencies: Hanapin Marketing and Distilled. These mergers have been a huge success and have strengthened our paid search, programmatic, paid social, SEO, CRO, and analytics service offering across the UK & US.

Together, we''re fulfilling our vision to create the full-service agency model of the future for businesses who want measurable marketing results.

2. Down the pandemic rollercoaster, and then up again

About a quarter of our clients were hit hard by COVID-19 and had to cut all advertising activity as a result.

Our business is our clients'' businesses, so we in turn faced a nosedive. Fortunately, our bounce-back has been 'tick-shaped' and I''m over-the-moon to say that we''re back on a tremendous growth trajectory ?. I guess having the best clients is paying off for both of us!

3. We hired some world-beating talent

Brainlabs wouldn''t be Brainlabs without the leagues of remarkable people working here. Supporting us on our continued growth journey, I''m ecstatic about the talented industry legends who've joined us this year:

• Matt Adams, previous CEO of Havas Media and one of the most successful and remarkable CEOs in adland, joined us as Global MD.
• Anu Adegbola joined as Global CMO, driving our marketing efforts and external engagement with gusto.
• Irene Garcia-Sacedon joined us as COO to bring together our growing remit of global services and teams.
• Jeff Allen is our new President of Brainlabs US, leading the region to drive growth and product diversification.
• Mark Syal is driving forward our new Product division as Global SVP of Product and Technology full steam ahead.
• Ofir Halfon is our new Global VP of Social, defining our social strategy and driving innovation for our clients.
• Venya Wijegoonewardene is joining us in the new year as Head of Planning to develop our media strategy offering and help connect brands with the right audiences.

4. We gave our company values a makeover

I'm really proud to share the revamped edition of the world-famous Brainlabs Handbook - our manual to building an incredible agency culture.

We believe company culture should be deliberately cultivated, and that values should be open to continuous rewriting. Our new handbook is a culture reset in this new age, describing what we're trying to build and how we hold ourselves accountable to that standard.

Drum roll please for our new values.

1) We are one team
2) We have a growth mindset
3) We are speedy strategists
4) We wow our clients

Our handbook is a true labor of love - find it in all its glory here to read more about what each one of those values mean to us.

As part of our pledge to make Brainlabs an equitable and inclusive workplace for all, we also appointed Leyla Omar as our UK Diversity & Inclusion Director and Marissa Forde as our US Head of Equality Committee.

5. We wrote about digital marketing, a lot

We've kept our fingers busy at our keyboards - if you haven't checked it out yet, our blog is a veritable treasure trove of great content on topics like all you need to know about the newly released Google Analytics 4, the impact of ITP on organic traffic, and digital marketing strategies for the new normal.

I chatted about the unreliability of cookies, appeared in Campaign in defence of Facebook, discussed how to run effective CRO in Econsultancy, and even talked about working with a robot in Forbes.

Finally, we launched our Marketing Library, a collection chock-full of our greatest free resources, including over 40 scripts, our top reports and guides, and webinars on demand.

6. We''re preparing for the future of data

The past few years have been a wild ride for data privacy (GDPR, ITP, CCPA - you name it). But we're on the cusp of even bigger seismic shifts: Apple's iOS will soon allow users to disable tracking between applications, Chrome is on its way to blocking third-party cookies, and it's likely that other US states will follow California's push for privacy regulation.

What this really means is that marketers will no longer be able to rely on tech platforms to track users for them. They need to take responsibility for their own first-party data collection (or go bust).

To prepare our clients for this, we've developed a process to mitigate data loss and maximize performance with first-party data. We're also launching a training program to help senior marketers become experts in data privacy and create their own roadmaps for the future.

7. SearchLove and Hero Conf are back

We bought two fantastic conference businesses this year. and about 20 minutes later, COVID-19 decided to rear its head and cancel all our plans.

The good news is: they are returning with a virtual bang!

Hero Conf and SearchLove are coming together on your screens for the first ever Hero Conf and SearchLove Virtual Summit on March 3-4, 2021.

This mega-summit will include a PPC track and an SEO track - the best of both worlds in one event!

8. What's next for us?

In short: more growth!

Our ambition hasn''t changed. We''re building the best and biggest marketing agency in the world.

We've just opened our first office in Singapore, and are going to keep expanding our service offering with more acquisitions in the UK and US.

If you want to share the love and get involved with our journey:

• We have lots of job opportunities open in the UK and the US, check them out and share with your network!
• If you are (or know of) an agency of 30-100 remarkable digital folks who might be interested in a merger / acquisition - please connect with Jim Brigden: jim@brainlabsdigital.com.
• If for whatever wild reason you are not currently a client but want to work with the best in the business, please reach out to partnerships@brainlabsdigital.com.

So there you have it - I hope you enjoyed catching up with coming and goings, as there''s plenty more where that came from. 

And thank you for being part of our story so far! We couldn''t have made it through this year without you.

Enjoy the holiday season,

Daniel Gilbert

CEO

Copyright ? 2020 Brainlabs, All rights reserved.