Meet Aziza Mistral

Hi, CI! is our monthly series featuring the best team we know – the Capacity Interactive team! You will learn more about the people who help arts organizations market smarter. This month, we’re featuring Aziza Mistral, one of our Senior Search Analysts who loves comic books, is a keyword analysis superhero, and helps arts administrators get excited about search engine marketing.

How long have you been at CI?
A year on March 20th. But who’s counting?

Where are you from originally?
I usually tell people Napa or an appropriately ambiguous “near San Francisco,” but the truth is I grew up in a small city in California called Vacaville, which, yes, means ‘cowtown’ in Spanish.

What were you doing before joining the CI team?
I worked briefly in digital marketing at the Curran in San Francisco before moving to New York last year. Before that, I was at Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco, working on their Google Grant. Housing terms spend a lot of money in the Bay Area. Surprise!

What drew you to work at Capacity Interactive?
If we had more time, I’d perform the ‘Star-To-Be’ solo from Annie’s NYC. Since this is a written article, I’ll just say I thrive on musicals, so an opportunity to work in marketing on Broadway (literally) is a very niche childhood fantasy come true.

How did you get into search engine marketing? What excites you about it?
I started with a long-defunct Google Grant account for Habitat Greater San Francisco. At the time, one of their major key performance indicators (KPIs) was spend (no longer the case, of course), so rehauling the account and watching it grow month over month was weirdly addictive. I downloaded the app to my phone and spent hours on the weekends watching the numbers rise. Now I look at other metrics (clickthrough rate, conversions, etc.), but I still have the app on my phone.

What is one of the biggest opportunities for nonprofits when it comes to growing Google Grant performance?
Check out the new maximize conversions bid strategy for Grant accounts! In a nutshell, it allows some bids above the infamous $2 max CPC that can make it so difficult to spend money in a Grant account. It’s one of the new policy changes this year and is still in the early “learning” phase, but if you have a high-converting campaign tracking purchases (or other valuable conversions), it’s worth testing.

We heard you love comic books. What are your top 3 favorite comic books and/or comic book illustrators?
Just 3? Well, I have to start with a shout out to the Coates/Stelfreeze team that revamped Black Panther a few years back. The art is amazing and the writing is poetic. If you liked the movie, get the book(s). Fiona Staples draws for one of my favorite series, Saga, which is a sci-fi fantasy must. The commitment to diversity there is everything. But probably my favorite comic book is Batman: Year One. An oldie, but a goodie.

Speaking of super skills, we heard you’re a whiz when it comes to keyword analysis. What is keyword analysis and why is it important?
First of all, definitely not as scary as it might sound. Keyword analysis means taking stock of which keywords are working hardest for you, and which ones aren’t. There are a bunch of ways to do this, from measuring quality score and conversion data on a keyword level to bidding down on keywords with lower clickthrough rates. It’s also a great way to find new keywords, and can even help your organic search efforts.

So…if you were a keyword analysis superhero, what would your name be?
Very Specific Super Long Tail Keyword Girl. People may not search for me often, but when they do, I am highly valuable.

What’s something about your job that makes you excited to come to work every day?
Since Capacity works with so many great clients, I always have an arts-related recommendation when friends come to NYC and ask, “What should I see?”

What’s one tip you can give to help arts organizations market smarter?
I have used Canva at every job I’ve ever had. It’s so quick and easy – more people should know about it. Pro tip: I used Canva to design the thank you card I sent after my first interview with CI. Take that for whatever it’s worth.