Tuesday, June 28, 2016
6 money saving hacks for pay per click advertising
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a very valuable advertising tool. Its effectiveness cannot be denied. It's also a treacherously expensive tool if used incorrectly.
Spoiler alert! It's very easy to screw up a PPC account – 80 percent of the organizations using PPC tools like Adwords are in fact doing it wrong – and at great expense to their businesses.
PPC was born a bit of an oddity. In fact, you may remember getting snail mail from Google offering you $100 of free advertising just to use it. Now most of the content above the fold on search result pages is paid for by advertisers like you. The platform looks easy to use – and in fact it is.
But that's the trap. And a dangerous one.
It's easy to use – but very difficult to use well. Without a lot of training, 99.9 percent of the time you're going to waste precious marketing dollars using it. This fact leaves you with two options - either get yourself a well trained PPC consultant to manage your program or make sure you get well trained before using it.
In the meantime, here are six money saving hacks to help.
1. Don't combine PPC search and display
Unless you're making salad dressing I wouldn't recommend trying to mix oil and water, and for the same reason, you should not combine PPC search and display campaigns. They are two totally different beasts with two totally different purposes and need to be set up separately (each requires special training to use as well).
Search campaigns are a good tool to consider when one wants to target searchers with intent to buy while display campaigns are often best for branding – for targeting buyers at an earlier stage in the purchase funnel. Because of these differences, the advertising message, target audience and over all approach you use, need to be different in order to be successful.
2. Those most likely to convert or buy
If you are like most of us, and you aren't working with an unlimited budget you need to focus your campaigns on targeting those most likely to convert or purchase. Start with geo-targeting and change your Adwords target location settings from the recommended, "people in, searching for, or who show interest in my targeted location" to "people in my targeted location."
Why would you change from the recommended setting? Great question...let me give an example. If you're a restaurant or a retail store owner, you are better off spending your ad dollars targeting people living in your immediate area and who dine out or shop frequently. If you stay with Google's recommended setting, you will well end up inadvertently targeting someone in a state like Florida, who is researching Hartford restaurants for a trip they may never take.
3. Listen to the data
No matter how clever and creative you think your ad is – listen to the data – if the data says it stinks, then it stinks. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a client create a text ad they thought was pure marketing genius only to have the data tell them otherwise and that's OK!
Use optimization methods like A/B testing, dynamic keyword insertion and different ad copywriting techniques to constantly tweak your message. The key is to differentiate your offer from your competitors. And remember, an ad might have a strong click-through-rate but if the clicks aren't converting to sales you might want to rethink your message.
4. Use long-tail keywords
Use long-tail keywords whenever possible. Long-tail keywords are by their very nature more specific and therefore often produce clicks with higher buyer intent.
Take for example the keyword "glasses"… if that was all you bid on you could get clicks from people searching for "wine glasses" or "eye glasses" or even "magnifying glasses" and I doubt you sell all three.
By using a long-tail keyword like "women's eye glasses" you are more likely to pre-qualify your clicks and save your money for the clicks that count.
5. Use negative keywords
While we're on the topic of keywords… always, always, ALWAYS build negative keywords into your campaigns. Along with long-tail keywords, negative keywords help you weed out unwanted clicks.
When a word is added as a negative keyword, Google or Bing know not to serve your ad if a search query includes that word or words. By preventing your ad from showing in irrelevant search results, you'll save money, and create opportunities to have your ad served only on searches that are actually relevant to your product or service and that could lead to a conversion.
6. Improve campaigns weekly
Make sure you are spending time every week improving your campaigns. Most times when an account fails or wastefully burns through a lot of budget it's because the person managing the account isn't spending enough time working with it. This point is really important. Unless you're spending the time to consistently monitor and improve your campaigns, you will invariably waste money and miss valuable opportunities.
Beyond the tips you see here, there are other things to consider such as ad extensions, trying different keyword types and making sure your conversion tracking is turned on… oh and by the way, Google, Bing and others are always adding new features to improve user experience so staying on top of the changes is crucial.
PPC advertising is a great tool for advertisers - and one that can make a real difference to your bottom line.
Article Source: http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/article/20160617/NEWS01/160619945/6-money-saving-hacks-for-pay-per-click-advertising
View our youtube video about internet marketing.
Online Marketing Requires Baby Steps Before the Black Belt
"If you're not marketing, you don't have a business."Josh Weidman, head trainer at REI 360, recently coined this phrase -- and to Chris Haddon and Jason Balin, co-founders of Columbia, M.D.-based lending and real-estate companies Hard Money Bankers and REI 360, truer words have never been spoken.
"There's really no excuse not to do marketing," Balin says in this video.
The best marketing is about being consistent and building up slowly before becoming a black belt at it -- that way you won't get overwhelmed.
"The internet is changing on an hourly, daily basis," Balin says. "Things that were relevant in SEO world a few years ago are not anymore. Social is changing constantly ... you don't have to do everything. Just pick two or three things that you're comfortable doing -- and just get started and do them."
Watch more videos from the folks at REI 360 on their YouTube channel here.
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Article Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com/video/278196
MASTER INTERNET MARKETING WITH THESE USEFUL IDEAS
Some companies are able to last for years as modest but successful enterprises, while others remain on a smaller scale. The vast majority; however, fade into oblivion.Businesses overall have a high rate of failure, and that is especially true for online companies.Read this article to learn some Internet marketing tips.
If you belong to message boards, your link can appear in every single post, if you put it into your signature box. This is an easy way to passively promote your business without actively having to “talk it up” to others.
This helps them to feel more informed regarding the purchase they are considering. This tells them that you are just supplying information; the choice of whether to buy or pass.
Provide something really unique on your site.This can be a lot of traffic towards your site as people search for this unique niche.
You should invest time researching the design websites.
Regular blogging is an asset to any internet marketing with success. A high-quality blog is one more way to communicate with clients. In addition, you will eventually attract more visitors to your website because you are, in effect, which ultimately leads to more site traffic.
This can help new visitors understand what your company is all about. This will allow you highlight a specific product or service.
Article Source: https://scitechnation.com/master-internet-marketing-with-these-useful-ideas
View our video regarding ppc marketing.
Monday, June 27, 2016
Top 4 Reasons Why Microsites Are Revolutionizing PPC Marketing
The past few years have seen a significant evolution in PPC marketing, with more brands starting to use Microsites to serve as the new destination for traffic from their PPC campaigns. Instead of sending prospects to the brand’s main website or a landing page within the main website, more companies are creating dedicated microsites that serve only one purpose: to capture traffic from PPC campaigns and convert those prospects to take whatever specific action is the goal of the campaign. Microsites are giving brands a new level of flexibility, targeting, user engagement, and successful conversion in PPC marketing.
Below are the top 4 reasons why your brand’s next PPC campaign strategy should include microsites:
1. Microsites work better than landing pages.
The idea of having a dedicated place to direct inbound traffic from a PPC campaign is nothing new - but instead of a landing page that is part of the company’s main website, Microsites offer an added degree of focus and flexibility. With a Microsite, your brand team has the freedom to design the Microsite to look and feel totally different from the rest of your main site. You can focus the content on precisely the needs of users who are coming to the Microsite, without worrying that they might get confused, lost in the larger site’s navigation, or distracted by the surrounding content of your main site. With microsites, you can talk to the audience in a focused and highly relevant manner to give them exactly what they need.
2. Microsites deliver big results for brand building and conversions.
Microsites are narrowly focused on the needs of the user - each microsite has only one goal: addressing the immediate problem on the prospect’s mind. As such, microsites tend to achieve better results for engagement, brand building and conversions. Microsites can be designed to quickly and concisely spell out the key information, make the case for why the user should take the next step in the sales process (whether it’s to sign up for a newsletter, get a free download, or make a purchase), and then clearly show the user how to tap a button or click to take the next call to action. Microsites are a simple, elegant “conversion machine” to boost your sales results.
3. Microsites are better than landing pages at building trust with customers.
Consumers today tend to be distrustful of advertising. If they click on a PPC ad the link takes them to a cluttered, cumbersome landing page that takes a long time to load and is full of pop-ups, users are likely to get frustrated and immediately lose trust for the brand. Microsites tend to offer a much simpler, cleaner user experience that delivers relevant information quickly - and this has the side effect of building trust with buyers. With a microsite, you can cut to the chase and speak directly to the concerns of your PPC inbound traffic: you know that they already saw your PPC ad and decided to click on it, so your microsite can skip past the usual boilerplate and immediately pick up the conversation where the customer left off by clicking your ad. The nature of PPC campaign microsites is ideally suited to having a focused, efficient sales conversation - you know what your customer wants, and your microsite can immediately go deeper into showing the customer why your product or service is the right answer to their problem.
4. Microsites make it easy to build distinct campaigns.
As their name implies, “microsites” tend to be smaller and simpler than typical websites - and that means that they are faster and cheaper to build. Since microsites tend to have simple designs, limited features and not a lot of navigational complexity, they are also ideal for mobile devices and they load very quickly. Microsites are also ideal for creating multiple templates that can be used across multiple campaigns and A/B tested for multiple objectives and metrics. You can quickly create multiple versions of the same microsite and test it with different audiences, or test different stages of the sales process. Microsites are remarkably versatile, and can give you an experimental sales conversion test laboratory that exists separately from your main site.
For your next PPC campaign, use microsites to make sure that users who respond to your PPC ads are getting directed to the most relevant, useful and actionable information to address their needs. Microsites are the new standard and ideal best practice to speak to a highly targeted audience, track campaigns, launch new products, test new markets, and quickly generate leads and build brand awareness. Each microsite has a single purpose, but microsites can serve a broad array of purposes to help your brand grow.
Article Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-rowe/top-4-reasons-why-microsi_b_10463116.html
View our video regarding internet marketing.
AdWords Ads Coming To Google Local Pack
At SMX Advanced yesterday, Google announced that ads are coming to the local pack. That means one of the three local results in the local pack will be an ad and local SEOs need to make sure their clients show up in the top two local results, instead of the top three.
Joy Hawkins posted about this on Google+ and said:
Well....Google just announced at SMX that the 3-pack is going to start containing an ad soon. So instead of the 3-pack it's going to be 1-ad + 2 organic listings. Yes, the ones right on Google search (not the expanded pack). Be prepared to try to get clients in the top 2 instead of the top 3!
There is a lot of concern over this news from the local SEO community. There is also discussion around this at the Local Search Forums.
Here is a mock up of how the ad may show in the local pack, at least, how I think it may show. Note; the ad label may be purple instead of green.
Forum discussion at Google+ & Local Search Forums.
Article Source: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-local-pack-to-get-adwords-ads-22275.html
Take a look at our youtube video regarding ppc management.
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