Google Ads Changes Coming This Fall

There are many changes coming to Google Ads this fall that will change the way we optimize our campaigns and how we report data to our clients.

No More Average Ad Position

Google just announced (again) that the average position metric will be removed from Google Ads starting the week of Sept. 30. The company first made the announcement in February, but there was no timetable. Google said the average position metric will be removed from saved column sets, saved reports that use the average position column and scorecards that use average position. With the average position metric removed, the following features also will be disabled:

• Rules using average position
• Custom columns using average position
• Saved reports that filter on average position
• Saved filters with average position

It will be important to check your current campaigns to make sure any rules and filters will not be impacted by these changes.

Google is removing average position after introducing two new metrics that provide us with an overview of where your ads appear based on the search results. The new metrics are “Absolute Top Impression” and “Top Impression.” Absolute Top refers to the very first position on the sponsored ads, while a Top Impression refers to any position within the top box of ads. Going forward, Google recommends using these new metrics as an alternative to the average position metric.

Accelerated Delivery

Google Ads announced that ad delivery options will change starting Sept. 17. The accelerated delivery option will be removed, and standard delivery will be the only option for Search and Shopping campaigns, as well as for campaigns with shared budgets. Any Search or Shopping campaigns and shared budgets using accelerated delivery automatically will be switched over to standard delivery by Oct. 1. The accelerated delivery option still will be available for Display and Video campaigns.

Google said the way accelerated delivery works can make it an inefficient option. If you do have a daily budget, choosing the accelerated option can mean your ads stop early in the day. Google also notes, “This method can increase CPCs due to increased competition early in the day or unintentionally spend most of your budget in earlier time zones.”

Google said standard delivery has been improved to be more predictive: “Standard delivery takes into account expected ad performance throughout the day and is better at maximizing performance within your daily budget.” With standard ad delivery, your budget is paced evenly throughout the day or blocks of time you’ve scheduled your ads to run. Google said it “optimizes your spend to be more reflective of targeted inventory user search (eg.user searches for your product/service),” as opposed to accelerated delivery, which Google said is “less optimized.”

Google recommends choosing the maximize conversions or maximize clicks bidding strategies to indicate your performance priority for campaigns that had been using accelerated delivery. It is also important to use ad scheduling to control when ads are served and adjust bids during certain times of day. (Though Google’s ad scheduling only takes your account’s time zone into account.) Keep in mind that it’s better to focus on contextual targeting than showing ads as often and early as possible.
If you would like to know how these changes are potentially impacting your Paid Search efforts within Google Ads, feel free to call us at 203-682-4585 or Contact Us for a free consultation or campaign evaluation.

Image Ads on Google Search

Google’s new gallery ads, first introduced this past May, are now rolling out to advertisers in beta form. Gallery ads were announced at the Google Marketing Live conference, with the company saying the ad units will be launching later this year.

Gallery ads are a swipe-able, image-based ad unit that appear at the top of search results. They’re designed to help businesses showcase their brand visually with the ability to include up to 8 images. Each image can have a unique caption, and advertisers can use a call-to-action button at the end of the gallery. Gallery ads are a new ad format that can be used in addition to text ads in search campaigns. There is no need to create a specific campaign for gallery ads.

What you need to do

While all of these changes may seem overwhelming, the good news is you have time to prepare for it all.
The image ads are in beta and most likely will not officially roll out until December at the earliest. We recommend you start putting together images you would like to use (at least 8 per campaign). For our clients in the beta program, we will be able to analyze the early results and use performance data as a basis to create a blueprint for moving forward. Once image ads start rolling out, we anticipate less ad space availability and possibly an impact on organic listings as well. When image ads come out for Google Search, it’s going to be a game-changer, so get ready now and beat your competition to the punch!

Accelerated Delivery and average ad position will have to be adjusted for campaign rules, columns or filters for any current campaign. We recommend reviewing all campaign settings to make sure there will be no disconnect for anything just mentioned.

If you have any questions about Image Ads on Google Search or need any help putting this together, keep in mind that your AdEdge Digital Marketing team is always here to help. Please Schedule a Call or Contact Us if you would like a complementary review of your campaign or some ideas to optimize your digital marketing performance.

11 Tips for Generating Website Traffic and Leads with Content Marketing

How can you best connect with your customers and prospects?

Consumers today often won’t tolerate a long sales pitch. They want to be informed and entertained. They might be interested in what you’re selling, but they’re much more likely to pay attention if they can get an immediate and free benefit.

One of the most effective ways to connect with today’s consumer is to get them to come to you. Known as Content Marketing or Inbound Marketing, the strategy involves being of service to consumers and creating a product or service they seek out. Don’t sell. Inform. Think first about what’s in it for your viewers.

The goal is to get traffic to your site. Effective Content Marketing helps with lead generation and customer retention. It’s much more expensive to attract new customers than to keep your existing customers happy.

Last week, we discussed why Content Marketing is important. This week, we’ll dig in and discuss some of the best practices to building an effective Content Marketing strategy.

1. Know your audience. Don’t try to be everything to everyone. The Internet’s a big place. Become an expert in your specialty. Know what your audience wants, and appeal to their interests.
2. Provide value. If consumers don’t find your site valuable, they won’t visit. Give them what they want.
3. Pay attention to presentation. The information is important, but so is the presentation. Make the site readable and navigable. Make the text appealing to read by designing it with white space, varying text sizes, color, images, and anything else to break up the copy blocks.
4. Don’t overdo it. Split long posts into multiple posts if necessary. Don’t try to cram too much into a single entry.
5. Use content that is “evergreen” and has a long shelf life. The site should be appealing to readers if they want to search through your archives or if a search takes them to an older post.
6. Publish content regularly and often. Train your viewers to look for your content. One effective way to do this is to release new information or articles at the same time every week, like this blog!
7. Ask questions. Ask your viewers what they want to see. Interact with them about the content you provide and be ready to make changes based on their feedback.
8. Don’t forget your other SEO tactics. Include keywords in your copy organically without being too obvious for either the reader or search engine algorithms.
9. Be strategic in how and when you share and promote your content. Know what social media channel works best for your audience and your information. Different language and tones might be more effective on different social media channels.
10. Make your content worth sharing …and encourage readers to share it!
11. Check your analytics to see which posts and topics are best received. Analytics and testing also can help you see what headlines and social media channels are most successful in sharing your content and reaching your viewers.

If you’d like to learn more about how to use content marketing to enhance your brand, naturally attract customers and build loyalty with your existing customers, we’d love to help. Feel free to drop us a line at 203-682-4585, shoot us an email at info@adedgemarketing.com or Contact Us and let us know what your biggest marketing challenge is for this fall.

Content Marketing

In 2019, it’s not enough to try to sell something. In fact, by many measures, traditional “selling” no longer works. The Internet has empowered consumers with information and they now turn to information on the Internet (rather than salespeople or a sales effort) to make decisions. Consumers are consuming information on the Internet at a break-neck pace. But not just any information — they don’t want a sales pitch, they want honest information about your products and services, and answers to their questions. Marketers can boost their brand and sales if they focus content that their consumers want and need.

The Internet is filled with content.

One of the great things about the Internet is that you can find a community for whoever you are. Is your interest ‘80s movies and memorabilia? There are thousands of blogs, social media channels and apps dedicated to Back to the Future, Top Gun and The Matrix. Or maybe you’re into the 1969 Mets. A Google search turns up more than 7.8 million pages filled with statistics, rosters and video from Miracle Mets’ magical season.

The Internet creates many challenges and opportunities for content marketing. For marketers, the good news is there’s probably an audience for whatever your promoting. The old-school approach to marketing was to appeal to a broad audience and to attract as many quality customers to your product as possible. However, with so much specific information now available online, this broad-based approach no longer works. To attract today’s consumers, you need to set yourself apart with specific information about your products and services. How are your products and services truly different and how are you as a company different and better than the other available choices?

Content is king

Quality content has become an essential component of any digital marketing strategy. Content can include social media marketing, search engine optimization, public relations. pay-per-click marketing or inbound marketing. What you write should be helpful, entertaining and/or useful to those who read it.

If your content is strong, honest and helpful, consumers will naturally come to you.

Why did you click on the link to this article? Why do you sign up to get a newsletter? Why did you visit any webpage or social media post in the past week? Most likely, it’s because you found value in that site or the information the site promised to provide. Websites that answer questions and give customers what they need are “sticky” and encourage engagement in the form of page visits, newsletter signups, chat sessions, calls, leads and ultimately, sales.

Also called “Inbound Marketing”, content marketing is designed to lead the consumer to come to you, as opposed to outbound efforts like advertising, direct mail or email where you are pushing your message out to potential customers. Content marketing does a better job at connecting with customers and because of this, it drives higher response rates. Content marketing can create a stronger attachment between a consumer and a brand or product. Effective use of content marketing can drive increased sales at lower cost and improve customer loyalty and retention.

Content marketing can include infographics, web pages, blogs, podcasts and videos. It can include calls to action, such as subscribe or share.

If you’d like to learn more about how to use content marketing to enhance your brand, naturally attract customers, and build loyalty with your existing customers, we’d love to help. Feel free to drop us a line at 203-682-4585, shoot us an email at info@adedgemarketing.com or Contact Us and let us know what’s on your mind.

Email Marketing

Sometimes it’s hard to keep up.

Consumer habits have changed in many ways over the past few years, forcing effective digital marketing strategies to change with them. Consumers are increasingly mobile. They’re on the Internet most of the day, but usually in tiny bursts and most often, it’s on their phones. To keep up, digital marketers have to constantly test and modify strategy and tactics.

Despite all the changes, one thing has stayed the same: email still is a critical and effective way to reach people.

One of the first uses of the Internet, email has remained popular both among consumer and B2B marketers. Here are a few reasons why:

Start your day by checking in: In an age of social media, people still regularly check their emails, often several accounts, several times a day. About 91% of consumers check their email every day. For many of us, it’s the first thing we do when we wake up and the last thing we check before going to bed.

It’s always around: We carry our smart phones — and our email — around with us all day. Most of us can’t help but check on our emails on and off throughout the day. That gives brands and marketers ample opportunity to get people’s attention. About 53% of emails are opened on mobile devices, and about 23% of people who open an email on their phones will open that same email again later, according to Campaign Monitor. About 75% of Gmail’s 900 million users check their accounts on mobile devices, according to TechCrunch. So even if consumers and clients aren’t biting at your offer or aren’t converting, they are reading – and that itself can be considered effective.

Email plays nice with social media: You don’t have to choose between email marketing and a social media campaign. Your email message can link to social media, optimizing both efforts. Email subscribers are three times more likely to share your content through social media than visitors from other sources, according to QuickSprout. People are 6x more likely to click on an email than a tweet, according to Campaign Monitor. But what if your email directed viewers to your tweet? Voila! Now you have two ways to get your message out.

Email can be a powerful and effective way to reach consumers. A few steps can help you make the most of your email strategy.

Give ’em the hook: You only have a few seconds to catch your readers’ attention. The subject line is key, whether it is a question, a teaser or something interesting, entertaining or compelling.

A personal touch: Personalized emails can boost customer engagement and click-through rates. Aberdeen found that click-through rates jumped 14% and conversions improved by 10% with email personalization. Also, emails sent by a person or persona outperform those sent by a generic address like accounts or info @yourcompany.com.

What’s in it for me?: Consumers are much more likely to click and read emails if they can get something out of it. That includes coupons and special offers, but it also can included tips and inside information — as long as the reader sees it as valuable.

Test and retest: An effective digital marketing team or agency will constantly evaluate all aspects of your email marketing effort. This includes the subject line, day and time it was sent, pre-header, images, message content, length of content and calls to action or other links. All of these attributes can contribute to email performance, or lack thereof. Test this and the geographic, demographics and other criteria of who you are targeting. Optimize based on performance and your effort will continue to improve over time.

If you would like to learn more about high performing email marketing tactics specific to your market, feel free to drop us a line at 203-682-4585, shoot us an email at info@adedgemarketing.com or Contact Us and let us know what’s on your mind.

Banner Advertising Tactics

Stop! Wait a second. OK. Now continue.

That’s about how much time you have to catch viewers as they browse past your digital banner advertisement on their way to reading the news, looking at fashions, researching ideas for the weekend, or reading a blog about cars.

Banner ads are an essential and early part of a digital marketing campaign in that they build awareness of your brand or your product and service ahead of your harder-hitting direct response, inbound marketing effort. But what good is a banner if it doesn’t capture your viewer’s attention. Yeah, that viewer who’s ever-distracted, multi-tasked and media-bombarded. The good news is, it can be done!

Think of banner ads as the Internet’s version of a roadside billboard or a magazine ad. They’re in front of a large number of clients and consumers every day, but only for a few seconds at a time. The ones that are most effective tend to have a few things in common:

Catchy design: Strong images and effective use of color can help land a look from consumers. But don’t go overboard. Avoid clutter. This isn’t 1997.

Concise text: Say what you need to say but keep the copy short so there’s plenty of white space remaining for your copy and images to stand out.

Strong copy: Use action words to encourage people to move quickly. A good call to action includes urgency, scarcity or opportunity. It can ask a question or tease with a peek into a solution.

Focus on mobile: Consumers increasingly are accessing the internet — and your banner ads — on their phones and tablets. Your ad should be designed to catch them where they are. The ads should be formatted to work on any size screen or device.

Targeting: Unlike a highway billboard magazine ad, TV, radio or other mass media, banner advertising platforms like Google Ads and Microsoft Bing give you the ability to choose exactly who sees your message. You can target by demographics (age, gender, income, etc.), geographic (state, city/zip or within one mile of an address), real estate zones (residential, retail, commercial and/or industrial), and using geofencing or geotargeting you can target under the rooftop of certain buildings and reach employees of certain businesses, patients and doctors at hospitals or students at certain schools.

Targeting banner advertising based on search history gives you the ability to reach individuals based on their search history. For long sales cycle services involving education, law, medicine or consulting, search-targeted banner advertising is an extremely effective way to reach prospects who you know are interested in your products or services and are very likely to be interested in what you have to say. If your digital marketing effort includes both banner ads and paid search, make sure to Google Analytics and your Search Terms report to help identify the best keywords to trigger your banner ads to show. The latest and most advanced form of banner advertising utilizes your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. By linking emails on a list (whether you own, rent or buy it) to a banner advertising effort, you can reach specific individuals with banner ads. This is extremely effective when done in advance of an inbound marketing effort, direct response marketing or sales effort. Long story short, targeting is the most effective way to reach the exact individuals likely to be interested in your products or services and with smart targeting, your cost per impression, click, lead and sale can be extremely cost effective.

Call to action: If your goal is direct response rather than building awareness with a branding effort, a good call to action will improve your CTR (click-through rate). Calls to action encourage viewers to do something, such as signing up for a newsletter, downloading a brochure, watching a video, or clicking to try or buy.

As the first company in Connecticut to earn advanced certifications from Google in Banner Advertising and Paid Search, we’ve done a ton of highly effective banner campaigns for our clients and we have lots of data (going back to 2007!) to help you run a successful banner campaign for your company. If you’d like to hear about the latest and greatest banner tactics, or get some ideas about how to use banners to build awareness, website traffic, leads and sales, we’re here for you. Feel free to reach us at (203) 682-4585 or schedule some time for a chat. Don’t miss an update! Sign up for our newsletter and get late-breaking tips, tactics and success stories delivered to your inbox once a month.

The changing landscape of digital marketing

In the world of Internet technology, change continues to happen at lightning pace and with it, consumer habits are changing just as quickly. Digital marketers must keep up or risk getting left behind by others who adapt more quickly. To keep the right messages in front of the right audiences via the right media, digital marketers need to not just to stay current, but to stay ahead of evolving consumer trends.

Everything mobile: Move quickly. According to Google, typical Americans check their phones 150 times a day. Each mobile session lasts only about 70 seconds, but that adds up to almost 3 hours in one day. To reach consumers, your message must be where they are and when they are there. Websites and advertisements designed for mobile must render well on a wide variety of screen sizes, and they must load quickly. Google refers to “I-want-to-know, I-want-to-go, I-want-to-buy and I-want-to-do” moments – moments when consumers see something that sparks their interest and leads to a related quick internet search. With a strong digital marketing campaign, your message can reach those consumers when they get an impulse to know something, go somewhere, buy something or do something. This is also referred to as In The Moment Marketing. It’s about advertising to the right consumers in the right place at the right time, all the time.

Social media: Reputation is everything. The average person in North America spends more than four hours a day on social media. While the social media experience is divided among a large and growing number of platforms and apps, the division provides an opportunity for digital marketers. Social media advertising lets companies target narrowly defined audiences, both by choosing a platform popular to a specific demography and by narrowing ad buys to specific subsets of those users based on lifestyle, life stage, interests, hobbies, affiliations with groups, and many other selections that allow for micro targeting to highly productive groups of consumers. Deeply targeted campaigns can be a game-changer for social advertising performance.

Video: Roll the tapes! Consumers increasingly are turning to short videos instead of pages and pages of text. According to Zenithmedia Bluecorona, video is expected to make up 82 percent of all internet traffic in 2021. Already, video is winning more screen time than static content. From a digital marketer’s perspective, where there is video, there is video advertising. Think of video advertising as a TV commercial, only much better. Video ads are far more targetable, more affordable, more measurable and offer direct response capabilities which makes this platform far, far more productive than TV. Being a Google owned company, the targeting capabilities on YouTube are mind-blowing and if done right, YouTube ads can perform exceptionally well.

Content is king: The more things change, they more they stay the same. While consumer trends and digital marketing opportunities are changing rapidly, at least one thing has held constant. To catch and hold consumers’ attention, marketing messages still must have strong, clearly communicated, relevant content. The three benefits of good content are: 1) Illustrate your expertise and leadership in your industry, 1) keep your company and products or services top of mind among your customers and clients and 3) being an important SEO tactic, good, relevant content improves your natural rank in the search engines.

It can be hard to keep up with the rapidly changing trends and tactics in digital marketing. If you’d like a helping hand, we’re here for you. If you’d like to chat about a specific challenge you’re having or goal you’re trying to hit, feel free to reach us at (203) 682-4585. You can also schedule some time for a chat here, or visit www.adedgemarketing.com. We’d love to share both ideas and cold, hard data about the latest digital marketing tactics that perform best for your industry.

Finding the right fit: pros and cons of working with a large or small digital marketing agency

Looking for a digital marketing partner? Or any other business service provider, for that matter? If so, there are many important factors to consider in making your decision. For example, the services offered and price points are obviously important but there are many others to consider. For example, how well does the firm “fit-in” with your organization? This is based mainly on how well you expect your teams to work together.

One important factor that you many not have considered is size. Do you want to work wtih a large company or small? There are various pros and cons. Bigger companies may have more resources, more people and — in some cases — more experience… at least they pay this a lot of lip service. But smaller companies can also have advantages, especially for small to mid-sized organizations.

Response time. In many cases, smaller companies can respond and move more quickly. Do you have a question or suggestion about your marketing campaign? Do you want to make a small — or not so small — change to an existing program or start something new? At a small agency, you can call your account rep and make it happen! With fewer organizational layers, small agencies are more nimble and it takes them less time to start or update a campaign or a marketing effort. On the other hand, this could be a case where experience is helpful. You want a company than can move quickly, but you also want to work with people who know whether your suggestion is a good idea. If it is, they need to know how to make it happen and if it isn’t, you need to be able to rely on them for pushback.

Customization. You’re looking for digital marketing expertise, but in what area? Do you need search engine optimization or social media management? Or both? Make sure the company you’re working with can provide what you’re looking for. Larger companies may have more experience in a variety of services and options but they tend to package and manage services in more of a cookie-cutter, automated way. Smaller agencies tend to be able to design a marketing campaign custom-built for specific industries, clients and goals. They tend to address the specific needs of small to mid-size companies rather than using a one-size-fits-all approach.

Focus. You want to know your service provider is working for you. There are many ways that can play out. With a larger company, you might have several people working for you and often times, floating account reps who may not be familiar with your campaign, other than what they read in their CRM notes. With a smaller agency, you are likely to receive more personalized attention. Smaller companies tend to have fewer clients, so they can provide more personalized attention to you, and they tend to care more about the relationship.

Overhead. Bigger firms may have more resources, but sometimes that can get expensive and cumbersome. Smaller companies have fewer employees, fewer organizational layers, lower rent (or no rent) and therefore can operate with more cost-efficiency and speed.

Whether you work with a large agency, a smaller agency or something in between, it’s important to do your homework. Find an organization that works well with you and your needs. If you think AdEdge may be the right size firm to serve your digital marketing agency needs, give us a call. We’d love to set you up with a free consultation to see how we could work together. You can reach us at (203) 682-4585, schedule some time for a chat, or visit www.adedgemarketing.com.

 

Building a strong reputation is essential

Building a strong reputation is essential

Do you have a great product or a great service? That’s wonderful. But it’s not enough. Do your customers know your products and services are great? More and more, people only will buy — and sometimes even shop — from highly rated companies and organizations with good reputations. A recent survey of online shoppers showed that 78% of people say it is very important to look up a business online before deciding to interact or do business with them. A study by the Etail Group shows that 92% of users read internet reviews, and a Cone Inc. shows that 89% of users trust online reviews. So positive reviews and a good reputation are critical and they can have a significant impact on your Search Engine Marketing efforts (including Paid Search and SEO). How?

Put simply, when customers search for something online, they are looking for the best solution to their issue. Sounds obvious but let’s think about two key words here: “best” and “solution” and what they mean. Most prospects start by searching for a solution. That also happens to be where most marketers doing Search Engine Marketing focus all their attention. They ask, “What words will prospects search for when they are in need of the products or services we sell?” It’s a fair enough question but whether it’s spelled out in a search query or not, most consumers are performing a two-part search. Part one is the outward question that presents itself as a search query, “Who has what I need?” but the second question that often goes unstated but is equally important is, “Who’s got the best of what I need or who will best solve my problem?” This is where reputation in the form of reviews and ratings is critical… your reputation is usually sitting right there at the top of the screen or within one click. In most industries, people choose to work with the best. Is your online reputation better than your competition? Will prospective customers and clients choose you over other options they see on the Search Engine Results Page? If not, how do you build a reputation for your company that will have you shining above your competition and will make you the most attractive choice?

Reputation management essentially is managing how people perceive your brand or company. To improve this perception, you need to create strong content and monitor and interact with others regarding conversations about your products and services, and your brand. The following steps can help you to build and maintain a strong reputation:

1. Create positive content. A steady flow of positive pages and search results can help set you apart as an expert and can cover over or reduce the impact of any negative content. One way to achieve this is with a blog. Illustrate your expertise in your field – include interesting and insightful information so people will actually read it.

2. Be meaningful. Be valuable to your readers. Answer their questions (stated or unstated) and give them information that is helpful to them. If you can benefit your readers, they’re more likely to talk about your post and share it with their friends and followers, which will spread your words much farther.

3. Be honest. Honesty can help you build a reputation as an expert. If you get caught in a lie, the hit to your reputation could be severe.

4. Limit the self-promotion. People don’t want to listen to a constant sales pitch. If you provide useful information to your readers, you will promote your broader message and brand. But if you focus only on yourself, you’ll turn away your audience. Keep in mind what’s in it for them. How do people benefit from visiting your site?

5. Be social. While a strong blog can set you as an expert, it’s not helpful if no one sees it. Being active on social media can help build followers and direct traffic to your site. Different social media channels and platforms have different audiences. Know where your audience is and how to interact with them.

6. Respond quickly and often. Social media is supposed to be social. Draw out your readers with questions and challenges. Encourage them to interact, and respond when they do.

7. Give back. When people interact with your blog and social media, post to theirs.

8. Get good pub. Gain publicity by writing articles for other blogs, buying web advertising and looking for other ways to ethically promote your brand or company as much as possible.

9. Respond properly to negative reviews. If you catch and address negative reviews quickly, you are much more likely to convince the reviewer to provide a better review. If the reviewer is unwilling to change the review, you may be able to post information that addresses, corrects or provides additional information about the negative post. But don’t get into a fight with people looking to cause trouble. And don’t make personal attacks.

10. Encourage reviews. Since you’re looking to improve your reputation, make sure to ask only happy customers to rate you and leave you a review. Don’t ask all customers to post reviews and don’t make the mistake of publishing links to your Google page or Yelp for this purpose. Doing so invites reviews from both happy and unhappy customers, and possibly even competitors. A good online reputation builder service will do all the hard work for you, communicating directly with customers and separating the happy from the not so happy. Happy customers are encouraged to leave reviews and unhappy customers get a feedback form that goes to their account manager or service department. A good reputation builder program can improve your online reputation quickly.

If you want to generate business from your Search Engine Marketing effort (whether paid or organic), make sure to 1) Show up in the Search Engine Results Page when prospects search for the products or services you sell and 2) have a great reputation in the form of positive reviews and ratings that illustrate you clearly as the best choice. If you have any questions about your online reputation or need some words of advice, feel free to give us a call at 203-836-8390 or shoot us a note.  All AdEdge clients get our Reputation Builder service free of charge for six months. If you’re not a client, feel free to schedule a 15-minute demo of our affordable and highly effective AdEdge Reputation Builder service. And do sign up for our newsletter to get monthly digital marketing tips delivered straight to your inbox.

Paid search made better: Dos and don’ts to help you get the most out of your paid search campaign

A paid search campaign is a quick and powerful way to reach your customers and potential customers. With Google Ads and similar programs on other platforms, you can connect your brand and your message with what your customers and potential customers already are searching for and looking at.

Hop on board. Go with them. Consumers today want to partner with brands that care about what they care about and can help them complete what they’re working on and are interested in.

Sounds good, right? It can be. The following tips can help you get the most out of you paid search efforts.

• Do plan first. Before you jump into a paid search campaign, define your goals. Know what you want to accomplish, and research the best ways to reach those goals.
• Don’t use generic keywords in a one-size-fits-all approach. Be specific. Be targeted. Use strong keywords that can steer customers to your specific message and your specific goals.
• Do use the data. One of the great advantages of digital marketing is the vast amount of data it produces. If you’ve used paid search before, start with what already has worked. If not, you likely still have data about how viewers most often find your sites. Build on that information.
• Don’t stop using the data. The internet isn’t static, and neither are your customers. Use A/B testing on your keywords, your headlines, your landing pages and other data points to see what works and what doesn’t. And just because something works today doesn’t mean it will work tomorrow. Keep testing and checking to see if something else could work better.
• Do use negative keywords. It’s not enough to direct your message and pages to words or phrases. Many words have multiple meanings. Use negative keywords to weed out the meanings you’re not interested in.
• Don’t be misleading. It’s never a good idea to be misleading, but with paid search, it can be costly. Attracting more people is not helpful if most are not interested in your message. Instead, be specific and clear, directing your message to the consumers most likely to be interested in what you’re offering.
• Do keep it local. Use geotargeting to direct your efforts to customers in your area.
• Don’t waste your clicks. Make sure your clicks are directed to the proper landing page and that they’re not sent to the wrong page or to your homepage.
• Do maximize your paid search results. Use text from your paid search ads in social media and blog posts to extend the reach of your efforts.

Raise the banner

If you’re looking to gain awareness of your brand or direct potential customers to your website, banner advertising might be what you’re looking for. Banner ads can be designed in various sizes, shapes, and styles and can be designed based on your industry and goals. The versatile banner ad is a utility player, able to handle most situations.
Also known as display advertising, banner ads typically feature a combination of an image and text. They can be static images such as a .jpg or .png file, or they can feature multimedia, such as animated gifs, flash or HTML5 animation. Perhaps overused at the birth of the internet with flashing, eye-numbing animations, effective banner ads today typically are much more subtle, designed to catch viewers’ attention while not distracting them from the advertisement’s message or goal. Finding that balance is sometimes harder than it sounds. How do you do catch a viewer’s attention without being overly distracting or obnoxious? Some banner ads include subtle animation, catching the viewers’ attention and directing them to the text on the ad. Perhaps only a small portion of the ad will be animated. Another strategy is to use color for the same objective. For example, a banner might be black and white, with one accent color designed to direct the reader to the advertisement.
Back in the day, banner ads were targeted by simply choosing websites on which to place the ads. Placement-based banner advertising still works in certain limited cases, depending on the industry. But much more advanced and higher-performing forms of banner ad placement and targeting have evolved. Now, banner ads can be targeted based on search history, website visit history, look-alike audiences, and even by matching to a customer or lead list, called CRM-targeted banner advertising. With demographic targeting, banners can reach prospects by age, gender or income. Geographic targeting can be done by country, state, city, distance from a point, IP targeting and even rooftop targeting for certain industries. Also called geofencing, rooftop targeting works well for certain industries that target specific locations, such as colleges that are targeting “feeder schools”.
Banner ads provide two benefits. Like print ads or billboards, they can promote a brand (company or product), a message or an idea. Viewers see the brand and eventually become comfortable with it. They take in the message and even if they do not interact further with the banner ad, it’s mission is accomplished. But because banner ads also are clickable and interactive, they are a form of digital direct response advertising. This is the second benefit. Clicks on banners direct interested prospects to a landing page that (if designed properly), will engage the visitor and in some cases, convert them to a lead or customer. These forms of engagement and lead generation can include a newsletter signup, download, live or animated chat, the Contact Us page or sales page. We’ll talk more about landing page design in the near future.
Like other online advertisements, banner ad performance is easily measurable. At a very basic level, advertisers can see how many prospects viewed and clicked on each ad and can compare performance between ads and websites that are delivering the best click-through rates. With Google Analytics in place, performance measurement is taken to a different level by crossing over to the website. With analytics, advertisers can tell which clicks are delivering the best value in terms of the amount of time clicks spend on the landing page, how many pages are viewed and whether or not clicks are converting to leads or sales.
Here at AdEdge, we run regular AB and multivariate tests on banner ads for our clients where we are constantly testing for the best performing images, copy, calls to action and depending on the business, offers and premiums. By running banner ads in a “test and control” environment, we are able to prove theories about what is driving ad performance within any given industry. Our unique research also gives us insights about ad format performance. For example, square banners perform better than leader boards and towers on most websites and for most industries. And static ads generally perform better than animated ads, again depending on the campaign goals, industry and demographics we are targeting.
Banner ads can be designed in various sizes and shapes and placed in various places on a website. Regardless of the dimensions or specific design, effective banner ads should include your company logo, name, product or service being offered, a unique selling proposition or value proposition and if the ad is to be dual purpose (branding and direct response), a call to action such as watch now, learn more or get started. The text should be easily readable and have a fair amount of white space to keep it uncluttered and “easy on the eyes”. Google Ads requires banner ad file sizes to be under 150k and in .gif, .png or .jpg formats.
Banner ads are a great way to build your company’s brand and attract visits to your website from good, prospective customers. Is your company using banner advertising to its best potential? If not or if you’re not sure, give us a call at (203) 682-4585 or contact us for a free evaluation and some great ideas. If you enjoyed this blog, sign up for our newsletter and get best practices and new tactics in digital marketing delivered straight to your inbox once a month.