Fastbase
is a data analytics company that offers a growing suite of tools to support B2B
marketing and sales. Fastbase was founded in 2014 by marketing and tech
entrepreneur Rasmus Refer. In June 2016 Fastbase launched Fastbase WebLeads, an
add-on to Google Analytics, that identifies companies that visit websites by
using the data gathered by Google analytics and by Fastbase.
The
Fastbase platform gathers and displays detailed information on website
visitors, including the name of the company, contact information, email
addresses, and LinkedIn profiles. Its platform can identify website visitors in
real-time providing business customers with powerful insights into their
website users’ behaviour.
Fastbase
is one of the companies that provide web leads like Lead Forensics, Leedfeeder,
Leadlander, Leady and Leadfuze. According to the CEO, Fastbase would like to be
seen as a contender for being in the top 6. There are many satisfied users who
have been using the product to help them in their B2B marketing for a number of
years.
I
have worked with the Fastbase team as a consultant for six months in a very
interesting area of data analytics. Here is a description of the Fastbase
products.
Products
It started with Google
Analytics
Roughly
half of the world’s population or 3,8 billion people use the internet every
day. Internet Live Stats claims there’s around 5,5 billion Google searches per
day or more than 63,000 search queries per second. in 2020. there may be 7
billion, or even 10 billion Google searches per day, but best to take this
information with a grain of salt as we will witness the true figures in time.
Google
Analytics is a mega technology, as it is used by at least 29,134,826 websites
on the Internet. Google Analytics is a freemium analytic tool that provides detailed
statistics of the web traffic. It is used by more than 60% of website owners.
Google analytics helps to track and measure visitors, traffic
sources, goals, conversion, and other metrics and generates reports on −
●
Audience
Analysis
●
Acquisition
Analysis
●
Behavior
Analysis
●
Conversion
Analysis
This
information is helpful to see how popular pages are on a website but it does
not help identify the companies who are visiting. It was possible to use fields
from GA to match against companies using the same IP address but in February
2020 Google deprecated two important fields used in identifying website visitors: Network Domain and Service Provider.
97% of website visitors leave
without any trace
Statistics
show that a high percentage of visitors to a B2B website leave without trace.
That is frustrating. How does one trace the people who visit but do not request
contact via popup or form? There are 3 steps to working out who has been
visiting a B2B business site:
1.
Figure out the name of company visiting your site
2.
Find a Contact at the Company
3.
Figure Out Their Email and Reach Out
It is
described in this article by Dmitry Dragilev about converting website visitors.
The 3 steps above and Dmitry’s advice is is a good fit for companies which are
selling a product or service costing around $15 but for companies selling at
over a hundred dollars a month it makes more sense to automate this.
How do Fastbase do this?
Fastbase
have created a number of products to help companies in a B2B sales cycle:
WebLeads
Fastbase
WebLeads takes data from Google Analytics. Data is also collected by a special
small snippet of Fastbase code which is added to the website exactly in the
same way as the GA code (because of the deprecated fields Network Domain and Service Provider). By using the data
returned from these two sources Fastbase cross-references visitor IP addresses
and matches to Fastbase’s proprietary big data store of worldwide companies.
It is
straightforward to register and start using Fastbase WebLeads by signing in
with a Google analytics account and agreeing that Fastbase can access the
Google analytics data.
Once
in the application the first time a short tour of the menu items explains the
main features. Then Fastbase retrieves the leads from your analytics account.
The
main menu offers a search of leads and a location filter. Then the main views
are:
●
Stats
●
New
leads
●
Webleads
●
Hot
leads
●
Google
Ads leads
●
Show
Map
The
‘Stats’ option is useful for getting a snapshot of recent activity showing the
most active visitors and their segmentation by industry and country.
Fastbase
identifies companies/organisations (called webleads) which have visited and
also provide a list of people from the organisation with available contact
data. The data comes from their own company database which has been built using
the company’s web-crawlers and algorithms. WebLeads does not identify which
individual person from the organisation visited. However, the data available
tells you which company and many of the people that work there and that is so
much better than guessing and cold-calling. The Fastbase WebLeads information
also helps determine if marketing efforts are effective and helps track site
visitors through the entire sales process.
The
main use case for Fastbase WebLeads is B2B lead generation.
The Fastbase Database of companies
Fastbase’s
big data repository includes millions of the world’s most active companies. All
companies are categorized by the Google Industry Index and contain all relevant
contact information such as company name, address, phone number, website,
contact information, email addresses, industry category, and more.
You
can create filters (visitors from a specific country, visitors who viewed a
certain page etc.) and integrate with your CRM system to feed in the qualified
leads.
Drill down
By
clicking on a company name in the WebLeads display you can drill into the
company and website visitor data from GA is transformed into actionable
information to help you contact decision-makers. The company information is
populated from the Fastbase company database.
Historic View
Fastbase
WebLeads gives access to view all the companies that have visited a website in
the last 24 months. This helps understand the way a digital audience behaves
and helps correlate it with marketing campaigns. Rasmus Refer the CTO told me
that in the next release there will be a view back for 5 years.
WebLeads Views
The ‘Map’
option is a useful way to instantly see where your web visitors are based
world-wide.
By
looking at the companies that are visiting, the number of visits and the
location it is possible to determine which are the priority potential customers
and contact them just a short while after they were looking at your website.
Reviews
There
is a loyal user base and there have been some objective reviews of WebLeads
since 2016:
Abilogic
(2019)
Fastbase’s
Other Tools
There
are five other tools created by Fastbase which exist as products in their own
right:
InMarket Leads
InMarket
Leads, launched in 2018, is a tool that shows which companies are searching for
certain relevant business keywords and shows the location of that company and
the key contact details. Like Google Ads, Fastbase InMarket Leads users can
choose leads according to keywords and company location. In addition, users can
filter leads based on keyword search dates. The service is offered as a pay as
you go service.
MailAds
Fastbase
MailAds is a new ad system to get marketing qualified leads (MQL). Fastbase
MailAds manages the lead gen process after the target audience has been
selected. Fastbase MailAds then takes over to free up marketing resources and
deliver leads that have interacted with a business.
Key
to how this works is access to Fastbase’s B2B business database with clean
first-party quality data that includes individual contact information. In
marketing, the two primary types of data available are known as ‘first-party’
and ‘third-party’. First-party data refers to the company’s data that they have
collected from their own consumers and/or brand. Third-party data is
information that’s collected by an entity that doesn’t have a direct
relationship with customers. At Fastbase there is an experienced and talented
team of big data experts using a range of techniques to collect freely
available data from a number of different sources. They then consolidate it to
resemble ‘first-party’ data.
MailAds
Fastbase
MailAds is a new ad system to get marketing qualified leads (MQL). Fastbase
MailAds manages the lead gen process after the target audience has been
selected. Fastbase MailAds then takes over to free up marketing resources and
deliver leads that have interacted with a business.
How
does MailAds simplify the marketing lead generation process?
●
The
target group is chosen by location, vertical, job position
●
B2B
business runs an email campaign
●
All
client interactions such as openers will be provided as a report or list which
could then be targeted through digital marketing partners such as Google.
●
Fastbase
will track ads clicked and provide clients with leads (including visitor
interaction)
Being
able to use first and third-party data effectively can help organizations
deliver next-level customer experience. According to Fastbase CEO, Kevin
Rodgers: “Having a comprehensive data strategy is foundational in today’s
business climate. From a digital marketing perspective, first-party data is the
most valuable data a company can have. Historically third-party data has been
used to help expand your audience and potentially reach new customers but the
performance of that data on a CPL/CPA basis is often well behind that of
first-party data. What Fastbase has done with their data, and specifically in
building the MailAds product, is to offer their customers the ability to use
third-party data with a first-party feel to capture more new leads at a cost
per comparable to first-party data.”
Google Ads Click Identifier
Google
Click Identifier shows companies and organizations that have clicked on your
Google ads and reveals detailed information about the businesses that have
interacted with ads including company name, website, address, phone number,
contact and email information as well as the keywords searched and the
advertisements that were clicked on. The Google Ads Click Identifier helps
understand, optimize, and streamline the better performing ads and shows the
companies that are interacting with ads.
Google Adwords Click
Identifier
Offers
a similar service as above for Adwords.
Business
Model
Fastbase
is a SaaS company. Webleads can be used free after the trial period (with
reduced functionality) or users can continue on a standard Premium
subscription. They also offer a Professional level for digital media agencies.
The subscription for Premium starts at $39 per month and is calculated based on
the number of profiles/websites monitored.
Fastbase
Inc. is a Nevada-registered web and database analytics company. Fastbase Inc is
currently listed on the OTC exchange in New York under the symbol FBSE. Recently the shares have started trading in New York:
●
August
2019: Engaged Maxim Group LLC to provide general financial advisory and
investment banking services
●
August
2019: E*Trading available for Fastbase Inc. Shares
●
September
2019: Fastbase Inc. (FBSE) starts trading on the OTC exchange in New York
Fastbase
recently announced the appointment of Kevin Rodgers as Chief Executive Officer.
He succeeds founder Rasmus Refer who grew the company into a market leader,
analysing billions of web visits from over a million companies worldwide. Kevin
Rodgers has been on the Fastbase Advisory Board for the last year and brings a
wealth of industry knowledge and 13 years Google experience to Fastbase. Rasmus
Refer will lead product development and focus on development of leading-edge
data analytics solutions, data labs and technology engineering. The new CEO
will concentrate on company strategy and operations, business development,
marketing and sales.
The
company has a history and knowledge of email marketing and since starting in
2016 have used email a lot to update users and invite share purchase. The
company eagerness to contact its own database of registered users has not been
without blips and at times it seems email distribution lists have not been
updated in synch resulting in some users having to request removal a second
time. I discussed this with the new CEO Kevin Rodgers and he was keen to point
out the doubling down on governance that he will continue as the company move
from its origins as a provider of leads to a data company developing AI to
automate B2B business.
I
wondered what his vision of a future Fastbase. He referred me to his recent
press release explaining: “At our core Fastbase is a data company. As
technology has advanced around areas like machine learning and artificial
intelligence the ability to synthesize large amounts of data and find the right
data points are critical. Businesses are looking towards technology and data to
provide insights faster and at a larger scale by identifying aspects of the
business that can be accelerated — one is a constant stream of leads which is
fundamental for revenue growth and the other is information that can provide a
significant advantage in competitive markets. I would like to thank the Board
and Rasmus for this opportunity, and I am excited for us to build on Fastbase’s
successes and momentum as we move the company forward.”
