Under the section of marketing, you will find different types of articles on everything related to marketing.

We offer insights into different strategies, tools and useful best practices. We also give you several tips that you can apply within your own business to get your marketing in better order.

Whether you want to build brand awareness, get more leads or improve customer loyalty, marketing is a crucial component within any organization. After all, you can't keep a business running or growing without good marketing.

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From SEO to AIO: the future of online findability

More and more people are now using AI for answers to their questions, rather than a search engine like Google. Whether they are searching for certain information, product recommendations, manuals or shortlisting, AI-powered tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity are rapidly becoming the starting point for more and more people. This requires a new approach to becoming visible in these AI tools: AI Optimization (AIO). 

In mid-2023, I started testing myself to do all the information I wanted to look up, and for which I previously used Google Search, through AI. As a result, I now start with AI 99% of the time and use virtually no Google search engine. This is a trend that is going on worldwide. This shift from general search to AI-driven interactions also causes us to think differently about the approach to online findability for websites and businesses.

SEO, or search engine optimization, has been an important part of online marketing for many years. SEO is optimizing your website and content to rank high in search results, with Google being the main player. But with AI comes an important component: AIO, or AI Optimization. To what extent this will completely or partially replace SEO in the short or long term, we do not know, of course, but that AIO will play an extremely important role in your online findability is a certainty.

AIO goes a step further than SEO. It focuses even more on the intent behind search queries and is all about creating content that directly provides real value to the user. Where SEO focuses on search engines, AIO is about optimizing content to directly answer questions people ask through AI systems. As AI-driven search engines become more dominant, this will increasingly shift.

What exactly is changing?

The transition from SEO to AIO follows fundamental changes in the digital landscape:

Changing search behavior

People are increasingly searching with natural phrases or questions rather than single keywords. This means that content must not only meet technical optimization criteria, but must also increasingly match how people search.

Emergence of AI-driven search engines

New AI technologies such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI views (which is still in rollout phase) are providing increasingly direct and relevant answers to search queries. These technologies better understand the context of a search query and provide in-depth, relevant answers that go beyond general search results.

Shift to 'zero-click searches'

Users are increasingly seeing their answers directly in search results, without clicking through to a Web site. This is forcing marketers to think about how to still make their content visible and effective, even when there is no click-through to the Web site.

With these changes, a new approach is needed to remain discoverable to your audience online, where traditional methods must be expanded and/or adapted to remain relevant.

What is the impact on website visits?

While exact numbers are difficult to predict, we do see some trends and research:

Decline in organic search engine traffic expected

Experts estimate that search volume through search engines such as Google could drop by 25% in the next few years. This decline could have a major impact on businesses that rely largely on organic traffic. In some businesses, we have already seen even larger declines. It is important to prepare for this and develop alternative strategies (see also Gartner Report and Prepare for Searchquake).

Increase in AI-driven search traffic

In contrast, traffic through AI-driven search engines is expected to increase by 50% to 100%. This presents opportunities for companies that succeed in creating content that is picked up and displayed by AI systems. AI-driven search engines such as ChatGPT could completely change the way we consume information (see also Insight Partners and Google AI Overviews).

This means that businesses can no longer rely solely on traditional SEO strategies to stay visible online. This shift is also referred to as a "Searchquake," which significantly undermines the foundation of previously used SEO strategies.

The key to success with AIO

AIO requires a different approach to content creation and optimization. Here are some key pillars:

Intention over keywords

Understanding what your target audience really wants to know is more important than just using keywords. Content should not only be informative, but also address users' specific needs and questions at different points in their fan journey. Consider using clear personas (a detailed description of a fictional customer who represents a specific group within your target audience) and search intent research to better understand what really moves your audience.

In-depth, valuable content that answers questions

Superficial and generic articles are a thing of the past. AI systems prefer content that offers real value and best answers to questions. This means that you need to connect very well with the questions your audience has, elaborate on specific topics much deeper, create more content from your own experiences, offer extensive research or analysis and enrich your content with multimedia such as videos and infographics. This will also prepare your content right away for the multi-modal AI era of text, images, video and audio. 

Structured data

Make sure AI systems can easily interpret your content by using structured data. This can be achieved by using what is known as schema markup, which allows AI search engines to better understand what your content is about and how it is relevant to specific searches.

Natural language

Write as if you were in conversation with someone. This means that your content should not only be good, but also come across as natural and authentic. It is important to find a conversational tone that both informs and connects.

The growing importance of PR in the AI era

If you want your company and/or yourself as a person to be highly visible in AI, it is also becoming increasingly important to get serious about your "Public Relations. The AI model needs to know who you are and what you stand for. How do they know that? By the data they are trained on. This data comes largely from the public Web. The so-called "Common Crawl archives" (archives that contain a copy of much of the Web, including Web pages, texts, and other online resources) make up 70-90% of what AI models learn, depending on the model.

Unlike search engines where SEO metrics and link traffic play an important role, AI models learn at the sub-word level and do not pay attention to links. Therefore, for companies aware of AI, it is essential to have relevant text about themselves in as many places on the Internet as possible. Blogs, transcripts of podcasts and webinars, YouTube subtitles, news articles and books, make sure you have a presence in as many relevant places as possible. Where from the perspective of an AI model, an online article on a smaller media platform is just as valuable as an article on a leading national platform. 

And who can help with that? Public Relations. PR focuses primarily on getting placements, which make you visible in places outside your own channels.

If you want to become highly visible in generative AI models, we recommend focusing your PR strategy on volume, to be present everywhere. From guest articles in local newspapers to responses to relevant LinkedIn posts. Every bit of text counts.

Don't forget about opportunities with relevant trade publications, either. If you have a good publication in a trade journal that is read by your audience, chances are it will also be published online and bring you to the attention of journalists. Who in turn may approach you for an article they are working on, if they see you as an important expert on that topic.

The caveat, of course, is that you want to be in as many places as possible that are credible and trustworthy for your brand. So it's time to get started on a PR strategy. PR may become an important part for you in the AI era.

How do you incorporate AIO into your content strategy?

With the increasing need for AIO, it is advisable to make adjustments to your content strategy. 

Here are the key components to get started:

Focus on 'Topic Expertise'

Become the source of information for "your" topic by creating comprehensive, in-depth topic groups (content clusters) and linking them together on your Web site. Creating these content clusters helps demonstrate your expertise on this topic and show AI systems that your site is the place for reliable information on these specific topics.

Optimize for 'highlighted summaries'

Answer specific questions clearly and concisely and use structural elements such as lists and tables. This helps AI systems to highlight your content in so-called "featured snippets," which increases the chances of a zero-click view.

Invest in "long-form" content:

Write comprehensive e-books, white papers and in-depth articles (think at least 1,500 words) with a logical structure. Long-form content is often seen as more valuable and can help increase your authority and credibility in the eyes of both search engines and users. This content is what people with a certain intent want to view more extensively and is also more durable. This serves a very different purpose than "short-form" content that people see on socials. That's not what people are specifically looking for and this is what they happen to see coming along in their timeline. That content is much more intended as entertainment, newsworthy or inspirational.  

Improve your E-E-A-T signals

E-E-A-T (expertise, experience, authority & trust) is already important according to search engines since 2022. For AIO, this will come into play as well. Show your expertise by sharing unique insights and build your authority through collaborations and publications in as many (reputable) sources as possible. This not only helps improve your visibility, but also build trust with your audience.

Implement structured data

Make sure AI systems can easily understand your content by using structured data called schema markup. This means adding extra information to your content, such as tags and descriptions, that help search engines and AI understand what your pages are about. This makes your content appear better in search results, and your information is more likely to stand out in AI-driven search engines.

Use natural spoken language that matches how people talk. Voice search is becoming increasingly popular, and it's important to make sure your content is easily accessible for this new way of searching.

Create multimedia content

Integrate videos, infographics and interactive elements into your content and provide transcripts and detailed descriptions. Multimedia content is becoming increasingly important in a world where AI-powered search engines can understand and display a more diverse set of media formats.

Looking ahead: The future of AIO

The transition from SEO to AIO represents a major change in how we approach online findability. It's no longer about optimal keywords and backlinks, but about actually understanding and serving your audience with valuable content.

Companies that adapt quickly to this change will have an edge in the coming years. It's time to look beyond the SEO best practices of years ago and focus on creating real value with your content. In the world of AIO, quality is king, and your knowledge and expertise are the keys to online success!

Stay on top of the latest developments, experiment with your strategies and always keep your content strategy up-to-date. Have questions? We're here to help.

Invitation to monthly AI inspiration sessions

We would like to invite you to join us on the last Friday of every month to explore the world of AI. We dive into the latest developments, discuss current updates and share valuable experiences. Together we inspire each other, discover the possibilities of AI and prepare for the upcoming changes in our field. These sessions are designed to increase your knowledge, expand your network and give you an edge in the rapidly changing AI landscape.

Would you like to attend? Then sign up

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Google's core algorithm update August 2024: What you need to know

When Google makes a major update in their algorithm, it has a major impact on how websites are ranked in Google and what position you come up with keywords. Google regularly adjusts the algorithm to ensure that users get the most relevant search results.

The August 2024 core algorithm update is one such update, in this article we share some findings about the update and advice on what to focus on.

Forums and User Generated Content (UGC) continue to do well

During the update now underway in August 2024, we see that forums and user-written content (UGC) still perform well in search results.

While this is not a new trend and has been around for some time, it is remarkable that this type of content continues to have so much value. Reddit is a good example of this. A small increase in visibility can quickly lead to many additional visitors for Reddit, as the platform already has a large number of users.

Niche and local businesses get more visibility

Another important change is that both niche and local businesses seem to be doing better in search results. This presents opportunities especially for SMEs and niche companies. Where previously large national players or multinationals were often at the top (partly due to a combination of amount of content, domain authority, through links and branding) we now see that smaller and medium-sized companies are also scoring better in national searches. This is a positive development as it also gives smaller companies a chance in the playing field.

Relevance of your website

Domain relevance also plays a larger role. It remains important that your domain name and the services you offer are consistent with other content on your website. Sites that get this right seem to hold their position(s) well or rank better in search results than before.

So while we see smaller and medium-sized companies doing well, that does not mean that all big brands are/will do worse. Brands that already have an established name and receive constant flow of authoritative backlinks continue to perform well in search results. These brands continue to do well because of their broad visibility both on and off the Internet and because of their a multi-channel approach.

Our findings

With an algorithm update, it is important not to react emotionally too quickly, whether you are positive or negative about the changes in terms of rankings. This is because it may take some time before all the effects are fully visible.

Recently, there have been many complaints about Google's performance, as some people feel the search results have become less relevant. Google seems to be taking these concerns seriously, especially given the emergence of new competitors such as SearchGPT, which means that in addition to SEO, AIO is going to become more important.

The August 2024 core update shows how important it is to create content that fits well with what your visitors are looking for. The success of forums and User Generated Content shows that people need valuable and real information. Therefore, it is important that your content is not only informative, but that it really responds to your visitor's needs.

What can you do?

Make sure that the content on your website is relevant to your services and matches your visitors' questions and expectations. You can do this, for example, by creating a content strategy, in which you create content that connects to different stages of the fan journey. It is also important that your content is well structured and easy to read, so that visitors can quickly find what they are looking for.

Google values websites that put their visitors first and provide the best user experience. By focusing on the quality of your content, you increase your chances of ranking well in search results regardless of future Google updates. Visitors will stay on your site longer and actually be interested in what you have to say, which can further improve your ranking.

Invitation to monthly AI inspiration sessions

Together with you, we would like to take a look at the most important AI developments, discuss the latest news and updates, share experiences, inspire each other, take advantage of what is possible and prepare ourselves as well as possible for the changes that are coming.

Would you like to attend? Then sign up.

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Will OpenAI soon launch the forward-thinking 'Strawberry' project or will it lose momentum?

In recent months, OpenAI announced several impressive updates such as Sora, a new Voice Mode and SearchGPT, but nothing has really been delivered yet. There are increasing critical voices about this. Only Voice Mode has been made available to a limited group of real users. The first sounds about Voice Mode are very positive and several experts even wonder if this feature is not already using the successor of ChatGPT-4o.

Now there are also rumors of the launch of a project codenamed "Strawberry" (formerly Q-Star).

Top executive Sam Altman added to this a few days ago with this tweet.

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Although nothing has been officially confirmed and details are kept strictly secret within OpenAI, there are several rumors and speculations circulating about "Strawberry. 

What is Strawberry from OpenAI?

Strawberry is said to be a new AI technology that OpenAI has been working on for some time, with which the company intends to push the boundaries of AI. It goes far beyond the current capabilities of ChatGPT-4 and DALL-E and is seen as an important step toward Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). This is the point where AI systems not only become more intelligent than humans, but can also perform most economically valuable tasks better. 

What can we expect?

A revolution in AI creativity: Strawberry is said to be pushing the boundaries of creative AI, allowing users to generate even more complex and realistic content.

Augmented intelligence: It offers much more complex and nuanced form of AI intelligence and is able to plan, reason, learn and understand in a way we do not know today. It could be a big step forward AGI.

Independent Internet use: It can independently search the Internet and gather information. Just as a human would, but much faster and more efficiently.

Long-Term Tasks: It can perform complex tasks and projects that take longer periods of time and require continuous adjustments and planning. 

This development also raises important ethical questions. As AI models become more autonomous and powerful, it is crucial to adopt ethical frameworks and responsible development methods. This is essential to mitigate potential risks and unintended consequences. OpenAI faces the challenge of striking a balance between encouraging innovation and ensuring that these advances are used responsibly and ethically for the benefit of society. 

Recently, OpenAI has also been remarkably communicating more about their approach around secure AI. 

Where did the name "Strawberry" come from? 

It has not been disclosed where the name "Strawberry" comes from, but it seems to be a name that was not chosen lightly and can possibly be traced back to Elon Musk. Musk now competes with OpenAI through his own AI model Grok, but he was also one of the 11 founders of OpenAI at the time, with which they particularly wanted to compete with Deepmind (where Musk was also previously one of the early investors, by the way, before it was acquired by Google in 2014). 

While working with Sam Altman at OpenAI before he left the organization in 2018, Elon Musk used "strawberries" in an anecdote to emphasize the need for safety and ethical considerations in AI development. He reportedly used the example of an AI system tasked with becoming the best at making strawberries.

The system might then decide that the best way to do this is to produce as many strawberries as possible, at any cost. In an extreme scenario, the AI system would eventually devote so many resources to producing strawberries that it could turn the entire planet into a giant strawberry plantation, which of course would be catastrophic for human civilization and the ecosystem. 

This example was used by Musk to demonstrate how an AI system, without proper constraints and ethical guidelines, could adopt a very narrow and destructive interpretation of a seemingly innocuous task. It illustrates the point that AI, if not properly controlled or guided, could pursue goals in a way that is ultimately harmful to humanity. Elon Musk regularly makes negative comments about OpenAI and a few days ago reopened the lawsuit he had previously filed against OpenAI and Sam Altman. The name "Strawberry" may have stemmed from that anecdote at the time and be a form of reaction to Musk.

Also hefty challenges for OpenAI

OpenAI also seems to face quite a few challenges.

For example, co-founder and President Greg Brockman announced this week that he is taking a sabbatical until the end of this year. On the same day, co-founder John Schulman announced that he was leaving OpenAI for a role at competitor Anthropic (Claude), where several OpenAI people have previously gone. Peter Deng, a key product leader, also appears to be gone. Meanwhile, of the 11 founders at the time, only three remain. This raises questions about internal support for the company's current direction.

In addition, OpenAI appears headed for a $5 billion loss this year, major shareholder Microsoft (49% stake) has added OpenAI to its list of direct competitors, and the company must continue to invest billions to train new language models on larger and higher-quality datasets. This means they also need many more GPUs (Graphics Processing Unit), special chips designed to process graphics tasks quickly and efficiently,

For comparison, here are some figures on how many GPUs different companies are using for their AI models:

GPT-4 is trained on 25,000 GPUs (OpenAI)
Llama3 - 16,000 GPUs (Meta)
Grok 2 - 20,000 GPUs (Elon Musk)
Grok 3 - 100,000 GPUs (Elon Musk)
Llama4 -160,000 GPUs. (Meta)

This comparison shows how intensive the training process is and how many resources are needed to develop advanced AI models.

Other challenges

An additional challenge for OpenAI is that new and more extensive data is much more limited access for them compared to Google (Chrome web browser, YouTube, Gmail, Search, Drive etc.) and Meta (Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, Whatsapp and Threads in particular).

This situation does not only apply to large technology companies. Even for smaller organizations and individual developers, the quality and quantity of available data, along with time and resources for training and development, determine the effectiveness of AI applications. 

It will be interesting months to see if OpenAI can maintain its lead and take big steps forward again. Or whether it will lose momentum and begin to lose its position as a forerunner.

Given these rapid developments, it is important to be flexible in your AI strategy. Using and developing AI applications around a single company can be risky.

A better approach is to develop your AI infrastructure in a modular fashion, so that you can easily replace or modify components AI tools and applications.

Take a leap forward in your marketing AI transformation every week

Every Friday, we bring you the latest insights, news and real-world examples on the impact of AI in the marketing world. Whether you want to improve your marketing efficiency, increase customer engagement, sharpen your marketing strategy or digitally transform your business,'Marketing AI Friday' is your weekly guide.

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Google Lets Users Decide About Cookies

The change in cookie policy

Google recently shared that they will not completely abolish third-party cookies after all as previously planned. Google still plans to abolish third-party cookies, but this will be done gradually through the Privacy Sandbox, which offers alternatives to tracking. Instead, users will have the choice of whether to allow cookies or not. This raises questions about the implications for advertisers and the protection of personal data. In this article, we talk about the impact on advertisers and users and the possible consequences for in the future.

Apple's Example and Google's Approach

In 2021, Apple introduced the App-Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature, allowing users to choose whether they wanted to be tracked by apps. This made it a lot harder for advertisers to track users. In fact, the opportunities to do so became a lot less. This had a big financial impact on Meta. Google offers privacy-friendly alternatives to third-party cookies through Privacy Sandbox, but does not explicitly ask users for permission for every tracking action the way Apple's ATT does.

The impact on users & advertisers

Consumer preferences and privacy

An important factor in this change is consumer attitudes toward privacy. Indeed, users have become much more aware and caring about this. In fact, data shows that a large number of users are blocking cookie tracking. According to online sources, about 70% of consumers are currently not being tracked by cookies. This is due to blocking by the user themselves or by using browsers such as Apple's Safari, which generally blocks cookies by default.

Advantages and disadvantages for advertisers

If cookies disappear or if many users choose to block them, this could reduce the effectiveness of online ads and reduce advertisers' revenues. Advertisers will therefore have to be more transparent about their data usage and may have to invest in server-side tracking, among other things.

Google's Privacy Sandbox is a new initiative to help advertisers still show targeted ads while protecting users' privacy. Reactions to this system have been mixed. Some worry about how well it will work and the potential impact on privacy.

What does this mean for the future?

Google's decision to let users make their own choice about cookies indicates the importance of privacy. This means advertisers will adapt to this situation, especially when the exact future of online tracking is uncertain and in which there will be more emphasis on transparency and privacy. This shift may affect that way we advertise, with more focus on first-party data.

While first-party cookies are essential for the basic functionality and user experience of a website, third-party cookies are often used for targeted advertising and tracking. If you want to learn more about the differences between first-party and third-party cookies and how they affect privacy and advertising, you can read our earlier article on first-party and third-party cookies. In this article, we discuss in detail the differences between the two types of cookies and their impact on.

Getting Started with Server Side Tracking

First party cookies and third party cookies have their own applications and challenges, but with increasing restrictions on third party cookies, a new approach is needed. Starting to apply server side tracking is a good option in this. Would you like to get help with this? Please contact us.

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Meta launches Llama 3.1: a big step forward with open source AI

Meta took a big step forward early this week. With the launch of Llama 3. 1, the company introduced an AI model that is as powerful as the most advanced systems such as ChatGPT-4o and Claude Sonnet 3.5, but freely accessible to all.

What is Llama 3.1?

Llama 3.1 is a large language model (LLM) developed by Meta. The main features of this model:

  1. Size: the model has three sizes: 405B, 70B and 8B, where B refers to the number of parameters. The 405B, for example, is 405 billion parameters and one of the largest models available. It can handle up to 128,000 tokens.
  2. Architecture: it is based on transformer architecture, similar to GPT models such as ChatGPT.
  3. Open source: unlike most other models, anyone can use Llama 3.1 for free and modify it to their liking. Also, you can install it on your own computer and also use it offline (e.g. via LM Studio). For this, the 8B version is best suited.
  4. Multimodal: Although it can currently process only text and files as input and output, other forms such as images, video and audio will be added in the future.

What makes it different?

The big difference from the other models is that Llama 3.1 is open source. The advantages of this are:

  1. Adaptability: researchers and developers can fine-tune the model for specific tasks.
  2. Transparency: the operation of the model can be thoroughly studied, which is important for ethical AI development, among other things.
  3. Accessibility: everyone will have access to advanced AI technology.
  4. Innovation: the wide availability and ability to build on it can lead to many new applications. 

However, open source AI models also have challenges, such as misuse and the need for careful regulation. After all, anyone can develop products using this language model, including people with not so good intentions.

Llama 3.1 is not yet available via Meta AI in Europe, but you can test it via, for example, Groq, select it as a language model within Perplexity, or run it locally via LM Studio.

Below you can see how Llama 3.1 performs against other models such as ChatGPT4o and Claude 3.5 Sonnet.


Can it really compete with ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini?

It is to be expected that Meta will become a dominant player in the AI landscape. One of the big advantages they have is that they make money like water from their social media platforms and do not necessarily need to make money from AI. They can integrate the AI into their existing platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, as well as in collaboration with partners such as the Ray-Ban smart glasses.

Also, open source is attractive for engaging many developers. In addition, their Chief AI Scientist is Yann LeCun, one of the leading AI researchers. You will also come across his name in this comprehensive overview of leading individuals and companies in the AI landscape.

Mark Zuckerberg is willing to invest billions of dollars to democratize the market for advanced AI models. With this strategy, he is also trying to undermine the core sales of competitors such as OpenAI and Anthropic and thwart the emerging market potential for Google, Microsoft and Amazon by giving away for free what they sell. 

The race to the next breakthrough

As Meta Llama 3.1 launches, other major breakthroughs are expected soon. OpenAI's GPT-4 is already 17 months old. In that time, other companies have invested billions to create similar models, but no one has definitively surpassed GPT-4. Will this Gemini 2, Claude 4, Llama 4 or perhaps Elon Musk's new Grok model (about which he himself announced in December that it is the most powerful AI model in the world) succeed?

Or will OpenAI make such a leap forward with the successor to ChatGPT-4 that they will once again set the standard for the time to come? And what level of their classification system will they be at? 

Time will tell, but we probably won't have to wait long for the answer. Almost immediately after the announcement of Llama 3.1, OpenAI already responded by announcing that their latest model GPT-4o mini is now also available for fine-tuning and that the first 2M tokens are free until Sept. 23.

In addition, OpenAI has made several announcements in recent months that have not yet been made available such as Sora, Voice Mode and other applications of ChatGPT-4o. All of these could be launched soon.

Regardless of which model leads the way (for a while), our advice remains to experiment with different AI tools and use the ones that best suit your specific tasks and needs.

Take a leap forward in your marketing AI transformation every week

Every Friday, we bring you the latest insights, news and real-world examples on the impact of AI in the marketing world. Whether you want to improve your marketing efficiency, increase customer engagement, sharpen your marketing strategy or digitally transform your business. 'Marketing AI Friday' is your weekly guide.

Sign up for Marketing AI Friday for free.

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The Difference Between First Party Cookies and Third Party Cookies & Server Side Tracking as a Solution

Update 08-2024: Google recently shared that they will not completely eliminate third-party cookies after all as previously planned. Read more about it here.

If you want to have a well-functioning website, cookies are very important. Cookies are used to collect data and there are two "main" types: first party cookies and third party cookies.

It is essential to understand the difference between these two types of cookies and the advantages and disadvantages, especially given the constantly changing privacy laws and regulations.

In this article, we explain what these cookies are, their advantages and disadvantages and why server side tracking provides a better solution to contemporary privacy issues and regulations.

What are First Party Cookies?

First party cookies are cookies set and managed by the website you are visiting. They are specific to that domain and are usually used to improve the user experience for the user. Examples include remembering login information, language settings and the items you have placed in a shopping cart.

A key benefit of first-party cookies is that they significantly improve the user experience. By remembering preferences and login information, interaction with the website is smoother. In addition, these cookies offer a high degree of privacy because they only collect data within the website itself. This makes them less controversial when it comes to privacy issues.

If you run a website then first party cookies are very valuable because they help collect accurate analytical data. This data can be used to improve website performance. In addition, the legal ownership of the data collected is clear: the website owner owns the data. This means that the data is not shared with third parties, which facilitates compliance with privacy laws such as GDPR.

However, first-party cookies also have some limitations. One of the main drawbacks is that they can only collect data within the domain of the Web site. This means they are unable to track user behavior across different Web sites, which is known as cross-site tracking. Using only first-party cookies is a significant limitation for advertisers because it prevents them from showing targeted ads based on users' browsing behavior across multiple Web sites.

What are Third Party Cookies?

Third party cookies have some distinct features and characteristics. These cookies are not set by the website you visit (as we described above about first party cookies) but by an external entity such as advertisers and analytics providers. These cookies are mainly used for advertising purposes, such as targeted ads and cross-site tracking.

Benefits of Third Party Cookies

A big advantage of third-party cookies is the ability to show targeted ads. They can track users' browsing behavior across different websites, which means that when you advertise, you can show specific ads that match the user's interests and behavior. This is incredibly valuable because it allows your ads to better connect with the target audience and increases the conversion rate. This can be seen as an effective way of advertising.

In addition, third-party cookies enable cross-site tracking. They offer marketers and advertisers valuable insights because you can track users across multiple Web sites. This gives a better picture of user behavior and helps you create a more targeted marketing strategy.

Disadvantages of Third Party Cookies

Despite their advantages, third-party cookies also have significant drawbacks, especially in the area of privacy. These cookies are often seen as an invasion of privacy because you can track users across multiple Web sites without explicit consent. This can lead to mistrust among users, who are uncomfortable with the idea that their online activities are being monitored by third parties. Users may feel that their privacy is being violated, which can result in a negative perception of the websites and companies that use these cookies. This distrust can damage the relationship between users and companies, which can ultimately negatively impact a company's reputation and success.

Another problem is that many modern browsers and privacy laws such as the GDPR in the Netherlands and Europe restrict or block the use of third-party cookies. These restrictions significantly reduce the effectiveness of third-party cookies.

A better solution: Server Side Tracking

We offer businesses an innovative solution to the limitations of third-party cookies by using server-side tracking. Instead of collecting data through the browser (client-side), tracking and analysis is moved to the server (server-side), bringing several benefits.

Better privacy

One of the main benefits of server side tracking is the improvement of privacy. Because data collection and processing takes place on the server, the risk of privacy violations is significantly reduced. This is because there is less chance of sensitive user information falling into the wrong hands or being misused.

More accurate data

Server side tracking also provides more accurate data. By relying less on cookies, which can be blocked by browsers or influenced by adblockers, the data collected is more reliable. This results in better data, which is a better basis for analysis and decision-making.

Compliance with privacy laws

Another advantage of server side tracking is that it makes it easier to comply with privacy laws and regulations such as the GDPR. Because the data storage and processing takes place on the server, the process can be better controlled and kept within legal regulations. This helps companies comply with strict privacy regulations and avoids potential legal problems and high fines.

Broad applicability

Server side tracking technology is broadly applicable to various platforms such as Google Analytics 4, Meta Ads, Google Ads and more. This means that companies can get a complete picture of their marketing applications regardless of the platform they use.

Getting Started with Server Side Tracking

First party cookies and third party cookies have their own applications and challenges, but with increasing restrictions on third party cookies, a new approach is needed. Starting to apply server side tracking is a good option in this. Would you like to get help with this? Please contact us.

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Differences between Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Google Analytics 4 360 (GA4 360)

Many companies rely on Google Analytics 4(GA4) to gain insights into their online performance. Although GA4 offers powerful functionality, larger organistions can benefit from the expanded capabilities offered by Google Analytics 360. In this article, we compare Google Analytics 4 with Google Analytics 360 on several aspects, discuss what the differences are and whether upgrading to GA4 360, is really the best solution if you want to better map your data.

Number of Dimensions and Metrics

GA4 offers up to 50 event-scoped custom dimensions which may be sufficient for smaller businesses. However, with Google Analytics 360 this is increased to 125, which is a big step and allows you as a business to perform more detailed and in-depth analysis. Especially for corporate organizations that have many Web pages, want to analyze complex data sets and need detailed insights, this is ideal.

Predictive metrics

Another important distinction is the use of predictive metrics. GA4 offers limited or no access to advanced predictive metrics. In contrast, GA4 360 does offer these metrics such as churn probability and purchase probability, which works based on machine learning. By having these metrics, you as a company can better predict and anticipate customer behavior that you can then focus your marketing strategy on.

Data volume capacity

Data throughput is an important factor for companies with large amounts of data. GA4 is suitable for smaller to medium-sized businesses with a limit of 10 million hits per month. GA4 360, on the other hand, is designed for large companies and can process up to 2 billion hits per month, making it ideal for organizations with a lot of data and thus also a significant difference.

Speed of data processing

Speed of data processing is essential for real-time insights. GA4 has slower data processing and reporting. GA4 360 offers faster data processing, with data updated every 10 minutes. This provides real-time insights, allowing companies to react faster to trends and changes.

Support and Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

Support is an important aspect for companies that rely on analytics for their operations. GA4 offers standard support through documentation and community forums. However, GA4 360 offers access to dedicated support from Google with SLAs for guaranteed service levels and uptime. This ensures higher reliability and faster problem resolution. As a business, you can move faster if you notice issues with your data, whereas with GA4 you are more dependent on your own knowledge or data team you are working with.

Custom reporting options

For companies that need extensive reporting, GA4 offers limited options for customizing reports. In contrast, GA4 360 offers extensive options for custom reports, including custom funnels and unsampled reports. This allows companies to customize reports to their specific needs and gain deeper insights.

Analysis Hub

Data exploration and analysis capabilities differ significantly between GA4 and GA4 360. GA4 offers basic analysis capabilities. GA4 360 offers advanced analysis tools such as funnel analysis, pathing analysis and segment overlap. These tools allow you to dive deeper into the data, which can be very important if you want to do complex analysis.

Integrations

Integration with other tools and platforms is essential for seamless data analysis. GA4 has limited integrations and often requires third-party assistance. GA4 360 offers seamless integrations with other Google products such as BigQuery, Salesforce, and Google Marketing Platform, without the need for third-party help. This makes it easier to integrate and analyze data.

Unsampled data

For accurate analyses, it is important to have access to unsampled data. GA4 can provide sampled reports when the data volume is large, which can lead to inaccuracies. GA4 360 provides access to unsampled data, enabling more accurate analyses without data loss due to sampling.

When to switch to GA4 360?

Businesses may want to consider switching to GA4 360 because of its extensive support and ability to get more integrations. GA4 360 offers access to dedicated support from Google and extensive integrations with other Google products. These benefits can be important for companies looking to improve their data analytics and make strategic decisions based on accurate and comprehensive insights.

Using a custom analytics dashboard

So Google Analytics 360 offers a lot of advantages compared to the normal Google Analytics. However, this also comes at a price. In fact, using Google Analytics 360 starts from $50,000 per year, which can quickly become a lot higher. That's an awful lot of money compared to what you get in return.

We also see that many companies struggle to extract all the valuable insights from their Google Analytics data. It often takes a lot of time and effort to find and interpret the right information. Therefore, we have developed a Google Analytics dashboard that displays your data in a clear and understandable way.

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) dashboard

Having your own analytics dashboard gives you instant access to key insights, while being very quick and easy to use. This not only saves you a lot of time and money, but also makes for better and faster decision-making. It also has many other benefits, you can make connections between different data sources much easily and more.

What is the right decision?

It completely depends on your company's needs, goals and budget whether it is worth upgrading. Although native analytics tools like GA4 are powerful, companies can benefit from the expanded capabilities of GA4 360. By making the switch, companies can benefit from improved support, more integration capabilities and deeper insights.

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How to build a smart AI chatbot for next-level service on your website

Almost everyone has experienced it. You're on a website, see one of those chat icons, click on it, ask some questions, and within no time you get answers that don't help you at all. The chatbot apparently doesn't understand anything you ask. Very frustrating and a waste of your time. 

But imagine if your website or online store had a digital service that was available 24/7 and did a great job of answering your visitors' questions like customer service would. Which is also increasingly smart and always friendly. That is the promise of AI chatbots for websites and one of AI's application areas within marketing. 

At NXTLI, we put it to the test and developed our own AI chatbot. We are already quite proud of the first result. Test our AI chatbot by clicking on the icon at the bottom right of our website. Please give us feedback about your experience and what could be improved. After all, we are training this assistant on a daily basis. We are curious.

Would you also like to deploy an AI chatbot for your website that does work? We would love to help you develop such a digital assistant that really is an asset to your website visitors. And doesn't give them a lot of frustrations and headaches. 

Let's take a look at the main points to consider when developing an AI chatbot for your website or online store.

Define the purpose of your chatbot

Before you start, it's important to have the purpose of your chatbot clear. Do you want to improve your customer service, provide more sales or simply help visitors find relevant content on your website faster? This goal will determine the direction of your entire chatbot project.

What should the chatbot be able to do?

What do you want the chatbot to be able to do? Go through a very structured process of questions or converse as naturally as possible. Give tips including links to more extensive information on the website or keep the conversation in the chat. Provide information about your products and services, your team, your customers or articles you have written. Communicate in Dutch and/or other languages. Being able to switch to a personal chat. These are all questions you can ask yourself. 

What questions should the chatbot be able to answer?

This can be a real eye-opener, at least it was for us. Make a good list of all the questions you want answered. For example, use the questions you already often get via social media, DMs or emails. These are questions that resonate with your audience. Supplement these with the questions you can think of yourself.

Test these questions and see how the answers are given. If a question is answered incorrectly or not answered, chances are you do not have the necessary content on your website and have not used it as additional training data. This provides immediate insight for creating or updating content.

What are desirable functionalities?

To best train the chatbot and make it better and better, the following features are important to consider:

  1. The chatbot uses one of the best AI language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT4o, Claude Sonnet or Gemini. 
  2. You can give the chatbot a lot of information as training data, such as your website urls, documents and instructions for specific answers to certain questions. 
  3. You can give the chatbot detailed instructions.
  4. You have clear insight into all the questions asked and answers given, where you can easily adjust incorrect answers. 
  5. You can easily customize the chat interface to match the style of your website and activate the chat easily. It may also be desirable to deploy different chatbots on certain pages.
  6. The chatbot users and conversations can be integrated with your CRM or marketing automation systems. 
  7. The chatbot must be able to respond quickly.

Provide a chatbot with a human touch


To make users feel that the chatbot is a fine assistant, try to make it carry on a conversation as naturally as possible.   

1. Give your chatbot a name and some personality, for example, "Sam the Servicebot. 

2. Let the bot adapt to the user's tone.

3. Use data from previous conversations for a more personalized experience.

4. Let the bot use humor.

You don't want to make your visitors feel like they're talking to an aloof, impersonal robot. By giving your chatbot a little character, you'll make the conversation a lot nicer.

What technology are you using as a base?

There are several AI models you can use as the basis for your chatbot. From open-source solutions to advanced models from large tech companies. Choose a model that fits your purpose, needs and budget. Consider factors such as:

  1. Language support: should your bot be multilingual?
  2. Processing speed: how fast should your bone react?
  3. Adaptability: how easily can you fine-tune the model?
  4. Cost: does it fit within your budget?

Train your chatbot 

Think of your chatbot as a new (customer service) employee. The more you train it, the better the results.

1. Collect relevant data from conversations with current customer service, the AI chatbot and new inquiries you see coming in via social media or email.

2. Develop content and enhanced instructions based on common questions.

3. Continually test and refine.

At NXTLI, for example, we noticed that our chatbot was able to answer 30% more questions correctly after intensive training.

Integrate the AI chatbot with your website

Make sure your chatbot looks like it is part of your website. Tune the design to your corporate identity and make the interface personal and user-friendly. A chatbot that looks very different from what you would expect on your website is less likely to be used. Also make sure that the chatbot's location does not interfere with anything else. For example, a cookie notification, an arrow to go up or down on the website or some other application

Ensure proper privacy and data security

We live in an age where there is an increasing focus on privacy and data security. Handle the information users share with your chatbot carefully. Provide encryption and be transparent about data usage.

How do you measure the success of your chatbot?

When setting your goal with the chatbot, it is also important to determine how you will measure success toward achieving the goal. You can think about:

1. Look at how often the chatbot is used.

2. The percentage of correct answers to the questions asked.

2. The time when customer service is less busy handling inquiries.

3. Increasing conversion to inquiries or purchases.

Without clear metrics, you won't know if your investment in time and money is paying off.

Set up a backup

Although developments are rapid, AI is not perfect at this time and still makes mistakes regularly. Therefore, ensure a smooth process to put users in touch with a real human if they get stuck with the chatbot. 

Keep your chatbot up-to-date

The world of AI is developing rapidly. Be sure to make regular updates, both in terms of knowledge and technology. Designate someone on your team to be responsible for optimizing and further developing the chatbot.

Be transparent

Be honest about having users talk to an AI and make sure your bot does not exhibit bias or provide misleading information.

Do you also want a good AI chatbot on your website?

Developing an AI chatbot for your website and improving your customer service can be done fairly quickly with the right approach. By paying attention to the points mentioned above, you take the first steps toward a digital assistant that really helps your visitors and can make your customer service and sales much more efficient.

Ready to upgrade your website with a smart AI assistant that offers your visitors the best service 24/7? We'd love to help you with strategy and development. 

Invitation to monthly AI inspiration sessions

Together with you, we would like to take a look at the most important AI developments, discuss the latest news and updates, share experiences, inspire each other, take advantage of what is possible and prepare ourselves as well as possible for the changes that are coming.

Would you like to attend? Then sign up.

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Website usability best practices: improve the user experience of your website

Recognizable? You've invested a lot of time in creating your website, but the visitors stay away. The cause could be the usability of your website. How user-friendly is your website and can people find their way around? In this blog, we discuss the best practices to optimize the usability of your website so that visitors stay longer and come back more often.

Keep it Simple

Having a simple website is crucial if you want the user experience to be good. Avoid elements on your site that are unnecessary and make sure your website looks uncluttered. If you were to put yourself in your target audience's shoes, is it easy to understand how your website works and where to find what you're looking for? This seems like a pretty simple principle, but even big companies make mistakes here.

Things you can consider include your fonts and use of color. In addition, make sure there is a logical arrangement of content on your website.

Speed optimization

Another important issue in terms of Web site usability is the speed of your Web site. A slow website can quickly become an annoyance for many people, as people are increasingly accustomed to websites loading quickly. A faster website also affects your search engine ranking. In fact, Google places a lot of value on the speed of websites, so optimizing for this is essential. Furthermore, having a slow website also affects conversion. A slow website will not convert as well.

What can you do if you have a slow Web site? Use a tool such as Pagespeed Insights or Gtmetrix to test the speed of your website. In addition, make sure that images are compressed, that your website is technically sound and that you are affiliated with a fast hosting provider.

Navigation

Good navigation helps users find what they are looking for quickly. A user-friendly website has an intuitive and clear navigation structure. Make sure your menu is logically structured and use breadcrumbs to help users find their way back to previous pages. In addition, make sure this fits well with your URL structure.

A good navigation structure includes main menus, sub-menus and a clear footer with important links. This not only helps usability, but also SEO, as a clear structure helps search engines index your website better.

A responsive design

Responsive design ensures that your website works well on any device, whether it's a computer, tablet or smartphone. This not only improves usability, but is also important for SEO. More than half of Internet traffic today comes from mobile devices, so having a mobile-friendly website is a must. Always test carefully if your website is optimized for different screen sizes.

In addition, it is also important in terms of usability to create elements on your site that are also often found on other websites. Think of buttons and forms that are recognizable to users, but also buttons such as a "hamburger" menu icon, or recognizable phone icon on the contact page.

Accessible to All


Make sure your Web site is accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities. This increases your audience and improves the user experience. Accessibility for all is not only an ethical good thing to do, it can also affect the performance of your Web site. Filling in titles and alt tags is one example. It helps people with poor eyesight understand photos and also has benefits for SEO and voice search.

Thus, an accessible website can be used by a wider audience, including people with visual, hearing or motor impairments.

Security


A secure website is important not only for data protection, but also for user trust. Security measures such as HTTPS and performing regular updates on your website are essential. In addition, make sure you use a good password to log in which cannot be easily cracked.

Search functionality

Good search functionality helps users quickly find the information or products they need. This is especially important for larger websites with a lot of content or extensive offerings.

Some tips we would like to include in this is that you put search bar in a clear place on the website, make sure there is an error tolerance in terms of typos in searches and that one can apply filters to further specify their search result.

Make it as relevant to the visitor as possible

Changes are happening fast in the marketing world. Not only because of AI but also with algorithm updates from Google. It is becoming increasingly important that your website and content is a good match for the searcher's query. So make sure this is what you focus on. Know who your target audience is and how they prefer to be provided with information.

Use Good Content

What you often hear is "content is king," and it really is. If the content on your website is not good, the speed or design can be as good as it is, but visitors will quickly click away or scroll through. So make sure you have high-quality and relevant content that meets the needs of your target audience and that you have a good content strategy.

Tracking

The last point we want to discuss in terms of Web site usability is tracking user behavior on your Web site helps you understand what works and what doesn't. This allows you to make continuous improvements. Tracking is essential for measuring the effectiveness of your website and making data-driven decisions.

Tracking gives you insight into how users interact with your website, which pages are popular and where improvement is needed. This helps optimize the user experience and increase conversion rates.

Many companies invest a lot of money in creating a functional website and marketing it, but don't actually know how the site is performing and where they need to take direction. Our Digital Reputation Monitor gives you deep insight into your website's performance and helps you make data-driven decisions that take your digital strategy to the next level.

If you would like help or advice on the issues discussed, please contact us.

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