Digital Marketing Tips For The Holiday Season

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are all the craze around the the holidays. There are great promotions in stores, apps, and online. If you think you missed out this year, don’t fret, because promotions actually run all the way through and even after Christmas and into the New Year. Lots of consumer businesses generate most of their revenue during the months of November. In fact, “Black Friday” was named after the day that many businesses finally got “in the black” for the year. December sees lots of last minute shoppers and January attracts deal-crazed shoppers. As a business owner or manager, what can you be doing with digital marketing to make the most of the holidays? Here are some simple tips to help you be successful this holiday season.

Focus on Re-targeting Ads: For businesses with longer sales cycles – those with products or services that don’t involve “snap” purchasing decisions, re-targeting is an extremely effective way to keep your brand and product or service in front of prospective customers. With customers facing so many choices, the best way to break through is with repetition and with re-targeting or re-marketing, your ads are shown only to customers who have considered your product or service but have not completed a goal – whether that goal is a lead, sale or some other form of engagement on your website. By keeping your company and information in front of these prospects, you remain top of mind which keeps you in the game during the research process and develops trust and preference among these prospects. Most businesses aren’t doing this which makes this tactic that much more effective.

Compliment Your In-Store Promotions With a Strong Digital Strategy: There are many brick and mortar stores that offer in-store promotions. Use digital campaigns to compliment your in-store promotions and other advertising and marketing channels. Advertising to customers from several channels of media has a multiplying impact. Whether it’s print, TV or digital advertising, each channel of advertising you add to a campaign, improves it’s effectiveness by a multiple. Although online purchases are expected to increase 5.1% this holiday season, in-store sales still make up the majority of sales during the holidays. So it’s important to maintain a healthy balance between in-store and online promotions to maximize your marketing performance.

Increase Campaign Budgets: Tying into the idea of maintaining a strong digital strategy, it’s a good idea to set a healthy budget for ad spend during the holidays, especially for consumer products. With a heavily saturated online market, a simple way to boost your campaign performance is to increase ad spend for the months of November, December and January. Since sales conversions are higher during holiday periods, a budget increase will increase your ads position and frequency. Just make sure all the other attributes of your campaign are healthy as well: high intent keywords, top performing placements, location targeting, demographic targeting and bids that are custom set based on keyword and placement performance, just to name a few.

Focus On Mobile Marketing: It’s no secret that almost everyone has their cell phone within one foot of themselves at all times but what you may not know is that smart phone use has surpassed desktop use and the divide is growing. As of 2018, 63% of all desktop traffic comes from mobile devices. Looking at the consumer market, that number jumps into the upper 70% range! To take advantage of this opportunity, make mobile a priority for your marketing strategy. That means a mobile optimized site and mobile optimized advertising.

If you have any questions about your digital marketing efforts during this holiday season or anytime for that matter, feel free to schedule a complimentary call with one of our experts, request a free digital marketing performance analysis or subscribe to our newsletter which is chock full of news and cool new tactics in digital marketing. Thanks for reading and happy shopping!

Four Tactics for Highly Targeted Banner Ads

Back in the day when traditional media was king, (the movie Mad Men, anyone?) most brand building was done with TV, radio and print ads. While we’re not one to poo-poo mass marketing (because for some industries, it still works!) the days of two martini lunches at overpaid ad agencies are gone and the new kid on the block is digital advertising. Why is digital advertising and banner advertising in particular stealing the show?

Two reasons. 1) Unlike traditional media, digital banners are interactive – they not only build brand, but they can also act as direct response ads, driving prospects to your website for further cultivation. 2) Banner advertising is highly targeted and able to present a custom message to an exact audience in the right place at the right time… Oh and 3) they’re way more cost-effective. It’s the ability to target ads with laser precision and optimize campaigns in real time based on performance that distinguishes the great campaigns (and the great agencies) from the mediocre. Knowing your customer well, who they are, what they do, what they want and when they want it are all clues you can use to build a strong digital campaign. Here are four banner ad targeting tactics that can skyrocket your campaign’s performance if implemented correctly.

Placement Based Targeting – This most simple form of targeting involves selecting specific websites for your ads to be displayed on. Use placements that appeal based on context, demographics, lifestyle or other considerations. For example, yacht ads can be placed on website related to boating, high net worth lifestyles or target locations.

Search-Based Targeting – This hybrid form of targeting combines the relevance of search history with the appeal of graphics in a banner ad. With search-based banner, you can show ads to anyone who searched for your product or service in the last 30 days. This tactic works particularly well in industries with long sales-cycle products or services like automotive, education, law, finance, real estate and others. It doesn’t work as well for short sales cycle purchases like the trades (electricians, plumbers, etc.) inexpensive consumer products, entertainment and dining industries. These shorter sales cycle industries cannot benefit from ads that show over time because those purchase decisions happen quickly. Placing banner ads in front of prospects who have searched for the products or services you sell keeps your brand top of mind as the decision-making process is happening. It gives you the unique ability to share multiple benefits of your products and services to perfectly targeted individuals.

Re-targeted Ads – Everyone has seen ads that “chase them around” but if done well and tastefully, re-targeting (also known as re-marketing) can be extremely effective. As your other digital marketing efforts (paid and organic) drive traffic to landing pages, re-targeting is there to kick in with prospects who “stall” within your sales funnel. Prospects who visit targeted landing pages but fail to take next steps of engagement, lead gen or purchase, are presented with ads designed to help jump-start their interest. Such ads can illustrate unique benefits, qualifications, testimonials or other compelling copy and images that will help get you a second look and hopefully, back in the game.

CRM Targeting – This more advanced form of banner advertising works with your company’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to present ads to individuals based on their email address. Targeting can be based on basically any information in your CRM such as products or services they’ve looked at or other interactions they’ve had with your business. The technology is not perfect but you can expect to reach about 70% of your prospects with banner ads. This works best with lists of over 5,000 individuals but even a smaller list can make a big impact. No email list, no problem. A good digital agency should have access to reliable and trustworthy data partners who can append emails to your mailing list to get the job done. Combine CRM targeting with email marketing and all of a sudden, your brand is front and center. Hit your prospects with messages from all angles (banner, email, search and social) and your marketing impact multiplies. These four banner advertising tactics are great ways to reach relevant prospects, build your brand and drive activity to your website in a very cost-effective way.

If you would like to learn more about which form of banner ads might work well in your industry or which digital marketing tactics you might want to try in general, feel free book a meeting with one of our experts or subscribe to our newsletter for monthly insights on all kinds of effective and emerging digital marketing topics!

Staying Ahead of Industry Trends: 3 Tips

The most effective ways of doing business ebbs and flows over time. Best practices in operations, human resources, accounting and marketing come and go. Back in the day of “old school” mass marketing like print, TV and radio, change happened slowly like water carving a canyon, but with the newest and most effective form of marketing (digital marketing) change happens fast and those quick to adapt reap the benefits of supply and demand. You can catch a wave and ride it to success or watch it go by and your competition with it. So how do you stay ahead in the fast-paced world of digital marketing? Here are three effective ways to stay informed from thought leaders in the industry.

1) Subscribe to a Newsletter: It’s always exciting to learn about a new digital marketing tactic from a leading agency but it’s even more telling when more than one of them starts talking about it and starts finding success. Subscribe to a few newsletters, read them regularly and compare notes. You’ll get insights on industry trends, case studies and the most promising new tactics.

2) Set up Google Alerts: If you learn about a new trend or want to focus on a promising tactic that’s worthy of a deep dive, set up Google alerts using your Gmail account to get late breaking news and information about the topic as it comes off the presses. The cool thing about Google Alerts is it puts you in complete control, allowing you to set up specific times and days to get updates. Simply select any topic you want to receive updates about, and Google will deliver all articles they find pertaining to that subject according to your schedule.

3) Research Competitors: Of course, you want to be the company who harnesses the best new trends in digital marketing, but you never know when someone is going to beat you to the punch so keep abreast of your strongest competitors. You never know when they are going to pull and Ace out their hat. Visit their website, follow them on social media, subscribe to their newsletter and set them up on Google Alerts and you’re sure to keep close tabs on their every move. There are lots of smart people out there and sometimes it’s not always your awesome team that comes up with the coolest and best new ideas. By following your competition, you kind of putting their thought leaders on your team – not bad.

The overall message here is keep on top of the latest trends in digital marketing, don’t be afraid to test promising new tactics before your competition does and remember in digital marketing it’s all about testing, testing, testing. If you’d like to keep up to date on cool new digital marketing trends from a super smart agency, here’s one place you can start, our own newsletter from the geniuses at AdEdge, the “Digital Edge”. But don’t just subscribe to ours, subscribe to several to fill your brain with lots great ideas from leaders in digital marketing and watch how fast you’ll become an expert! If you want to learn more about Digital Marketing and how we help our clients feel free to give us a call or book a meeting with one of our experts.

P.S. Happy Thanksgiving!

4 Pros & Cons: Small Vs. Large Marketing Agencies

Big or small, broad or narrow, fast or slow… there are always pros and cons in choosing to work with various companies. The same is evident when choosing what kind of digital marketing agency you’d like to work with. The most important thing to consider is size, “should I work with a large or small agency?” Again, there are pros and cons to large and small agencies. It’s an important decision that could impact communications, operations and even performance. In this article we are going to explore the differences between large and small agencies and highlight four pros and cons to help you figure out which type of digital marketing agency is the right size and best fit for you.

Adapting Landscapes: In business, changes are inevitable, so it’s important to know what you’re getting yourself into with large vs. small agencies. In most cases, large agencies will have more people working on a project, more hierarchy, structure and a longer approval process. Clients who need to make frequent changes or need changes fast may be frustrated by having to navigate all of the moving parts, longer approval times and expense of changes typical of a larger agency. A benefit of a larger agency in this respect is the very structure and approval process that makes changes slower ensures that changes are done correctly and done well, usually the first time. Small agencies are lighter on their feet when it comes to campaign changes. With less people, everyone usually knows what is going on at all times so changes can be made quickly and smoothly without having to fight through red tape. The work will likely be fine in either scenario but if time is an issue and deadlines change, its usually worth a conversation with the account manager to understand the process, time and cost involved in making the changes.

Specialized Work: In most cases, digital marketing agencies say they do anything and everything like SEO, SEM, Social Media Management, Website Development, Email Marketing and more. However, do they have true experts with significant experience on staff for each type of tactic or are they winging half of what they do? Many younger small agencies do not have the breadth or depth of experience of a larger firm but if you do your homework, you can find some very highly experienced small agencies. But if you ask, “what’s your sweet spot” you will usually get an honest answer and find out which areas of digital marketing they’re really good at. And here’s an interesting paradox. Don’t mistake a large agency’s qualifications for individual qualifications. Most large agencies have big, impressive qualifications, awards and badges on their website. But often, these designations are earned by a select few individuals, perhaps even one. They may talk a big game but when it comes to who is actually doing the work, some agencies (not all) use newly minted college grads who learn as they go, taking advice and direction from a senior marketer and in doing so, these agencies are able to serve the account on the cheap. Naturally, the quality and performance will suffer under this scenario. Regardless of what size agency you are working with, look past the impressive badges and find out who is actually going to be doing the work. If you want a full digital marketing campaign across all channels built from the ground up, a larger agency will probably be a better choice. However, if you are testing the waters with few digital marketing tactics a smaller agency may be better. Regardless, know the strengths and weaknesses of the agency you decide to work with and your relationship will be a smoother one.

Culture/Personality: Liking who you work with is always a good thing and having a good relationship is much easier and more natural when there is a good cultural match. There are a couple notable differences in the culture between large and small agencies. Depending on how large the account is, large agencies may assign dedicated account managers to clients. Again, it depends on the agency but larger agencies tend not to meet with clients in person and those who do tend to meet in person less often than a small agency. In some cases, large agencies will assign rotating account managers to clients a definite “con” If signing up with a large agency. Insist on a dedicated account manager and backup and again, make sure their qualifications meet your needs. With smaller agencies, you’re generally going to get the same account manager for the life of your account. They tend to be more accessible for in-person meetings as are their manager/owner. With a more flexible schedule, it’s easier for smaller agencies to dedicate time to individual clients and address their needs. Most of the time, smaller agencies will not have as many clients and therefore those clients simply get better attention and develop a more personal relationship.

Projects: Since most large agencies have more employees and resources, they are generally better at taking on a wider and deeper scope of marketing campaign than a small agency. A large agency will be able to take on and service large marketing projects for large clients but their smaller client accounts may not get the attention or resources they need or deserve. Some smaller agencies can handle pretty large and complex campaigns but they may have trouble balancing workload when needs or problems converge at the same time. Smart small agencies have contracted subject matter experts on the ready for such cases so that work can get done in a timely manner.

There is no evidence that reveals whether large or small digital marketing agencies produce better work, but it’s true that most small agencies tend to work well with small to medium sized businesses and small to medium-sized projects and large agencies tend to work well with larger clients. Whether you go small or large, just make sure you understand who you’ll be working with and confirm that person is qualified and is a good personal match for your company and personal style.

If you would like to learn more about banner advertising or get some ideas about other digital marketing tactics that may perform well in your industry, give us a call or schedule a meeting with one of our experts.

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The Ins and Outs of Banner Advertising

What kind of advertising is included in your marketing mix? Traditional media like TV, radio and billboards? Or perhaps some digital media like social media marketing? Depending on your industry, each of these tactics has it’s benefits but one tactic that can be customized to all markets and audiences and one that produces good results most consistently is digital advertising.

Banner advertisements more specifically are a graphical form of advertising that can be presented to highly targeted groups of individuals on a broad range of websites. Banner ads come in a wide range of shapes and sizes giving you flexibility to present your campaign in a variety of creative formats. Of all the available sizes, we have found that square and rectangular formats tend to perform better than traditional leader boards or towers. Our theory about this difference is that square ads tend to appear in the “meat” of websites, in the thick of the content where eyeballs are more focused, whereas traditional banners tend to appear more often at the tops or bottoms of websites where they are easily missed and/or ignored. For brand building, banner ads can bring value in just a quick glance, creating familiarity with a company’s logo, name, colors and images relating to the feelings you are trying to convey. A picture is worth a thousand words, so in a split second you can showcase your brand, get your message across, and promote your business…..all without a prospect ever clicking on the ad…in other words, for free. Here are a few of the benefits of running a banner campaign for your business:

Brand Awareness: With banner ads, it’s easy to showcase your brand because you can reach a huge, relevant audience quickly and easily. Every view your ad receives moves your prospects down the early part of the sales funnel – from unaware to aware to engagement, even trust. None of these require a click. By including banner advertising as part of your larger strategy, your company is appearing in multiple places and beginning to build itself as an authority in your industry. With banner advertising, you can also reach prospects before they initiate a search and beat your competitors to the punch.

Increased Web Traffic: The main goal of banner advertising is to generate awareness around a brand, and create a connection with the viewer. A second and very important benefit is driving traffic to your website. It’s the “part two” of banner advertising. Banner ads can be a pure brand building play or they can include a direct response mechanism designed to generate engagement. With the click comes a move from branding to engagement. Overall we see that click rates for these campaigns are lower, simply because those who see the banners aren’t searching for your products or services at the moment. That doesn’t mean that these visits aren’t valuable. In fact, clicks to your banner ads require a person to interrupt what they were doing and are extremely valuable.

Increased Offline Sales: Most people who take the time to go to a store know exactly what they are shopping for. An impulse buy is far more likely if they are familiar with a company or product or recognize the brand. Banner advertising helps impulse buys and helps improve the effectiveness of your other marketing efforts because they are more likely to recognize your company and like and/or trust your product or service.

Value First: One aspect of banner ads that always stands out, is the concept that value is delivered to the viewer before they even click on the ad. In a split second they can understand who you are as a company, recognize your logo, see the unique offer you provide, and create a great first impression. Customers love getting things for free, or learning as much as they can about a product or service before actually paying for it. Offer something of value right in the ad. To encourage better engagement, consider offering a solution or idea at no cost as part of the offer in your banner ads. Make sure to use calls to action that indicate some type of purchase intent such as “Download the Whitepaper”, “Read the Case Study”, “Set up an Appointment” rather than non-committal calls to action like, “Click Here” or “See the Pictures”.

Higher Conversion Rates: Since value is brought to the viewer in the beginning stages of seeing the ad, clicks to such ads are more likely to convert on your website. Another reason that banner ads have higher conversion rates is because of their relevance. Contrary to popular belief, banner ads can be highly targeted by age, gender, income, location down to a one mile radius, based on prior search history, website content, and even targeted by a customer CRM list. With banner ads offering both super low cost of brand building and direct response from a highly relevant group of targeted prospects, banner ads remain a highly effective form of digital marketing for all industries.

Keep up to date on the latest and greatest digital marketing strategies, tips, tricks and hot-off-the-press news. To get in on the action, follow us on social media and sign up for our Newsletter.

Online Reputation

Guest Post By Andrea Wagner, President, Wagner Web Designs, Inc.

A neighbor speaks highly of you. A satisfied customer recommends your service. It’s what many times keeps us in business. But what about your online reputation? Are you aware of how your business is reflected online?

Testimonials on your site are not worth the same weight as testimonials from third party verified sites such as Google, Angie’s List, LinkedIn, Trip Advisor and Yelp to name a few. Google even uses how many times your company has been reviewed as part of their ranking algorithms.

You may have seen those little gold stars (oh how we all love them!) next to listings. They are an important indication of how you are perceived to your purchasing public.

Find out what your Online Reputation is: Google your company name, and your name. Make a note of all sites that come up, and read. If your website, Facebook, or Linkedin profile does not come up first, you are not controlling your reputation. You are letting others that write about you dictate your brand. Your web developer should be able to have your website come up first, controlling what people will see first. Review sites should follow.

What you can do to improve your Online Reputation: Make sure you are asking satisfied customers to review you online, and have a direct link on your website to make it easier for them to do so. I’ve seen bad reviews for restaurants when overcrowded for Mothers’ Day. (Doesn’t everyone go out for Mother’s Day?) I’ve seen negative reviews for Auto Body Shops, Cleaning Services, Motels and other industries where it is almost impossible to please 100% of the people, 100% of the time. You know those people; and it’s better to walk away from customers who are difficult and have unreasonable expectations. However, online you need to respond when necessary: A response to the restaurant customer may have gone as follows: “We are sorry your wait was longer than expected. We do our best to accommodate everyone and suggest making a reservation in the future, or try us when it’s not a holiday.”

This tells the public you care, and that you are responsive. Most people will no longer perceive this as a negative review, but rather the customer should have made a reservation and that lowered his expectations of getting a table for 12 on a holiday.

If you’re having trouble with your online reputation or need some help building your star rating, contact us at AdEdge Digital Marketing for a word or two of advice and a free demo of our Reputation Builder solution.

Book a Meeting with one of our experts!

Call us at 203-682-4585

Email info@adedgemarketing.com.

6 Tips For SEO Success!

Search Engine Optimization or “SEO” is the process of improving your websites organic (or natural) ranking on search engines. By ranking higher on search engines, your organic listing will generate more traffic to your website. You might be asking yourself, “Isn’t that what paid search does?” Yes, and Paid Search is important but there are a few big differences. Clicks on your organic listing don’t cost anything, unlike paid search. For most companies, an investment in SEO is a more cost effective long term solution. Good SEO also builds your perceived leadership position in your market space. Look at it from the customer perspective… A business that resides at the top of the first page of Google that didn’t pay their way to get there, must be experts and leaders in their field. The more exposure you have on the Search Engine Results Page, the better that exposure builds your brand. Weather or not you are actually a leader, human perception reigns.

Here are six tips to help drive a successful SEO effort:

1) First things, first, what are the top keywords you should be ranking for? Turn to your paid search performance for this. Paid search can give you excellent insights as to which keywords are performing in the real world. Using Google Analytics to further evaluate keyword performance takes some of the mystery out of identifying your best keywords. To supplement this, consider also using a keyword tool like Google’s Keyword Planner or Moz’s Keyword Explorer. These tools can help you find out what customers are actually searching for, instead of just what you think they are searching for.

2) Do you have a great website? Of course, having a good website is the first important step before implementing any kind of digital marketing effort. But even the coolest, most modern website may not be optimized for search. Google doesn’t care how cool your website looks and in fact, they don’t even look at it …with human eyes. Google and other search engine crawlers look at your website through “spider vision”. With Spider Vision, they are looking for keywords and related terms – where are they used in copy, internal links, titles, meta data and elsewhere. This process is of course, on-site optimization.

3) Off-site optimization relates to everything else you do outside of your website to improve it’s rank. Link-building is probably the most effective tactic but be very careful to avoid solutions that seem too easy. Link farms are unscrupulous pop-up businesses, often overseas that promise hundreds or thousands of inbound links to your website. This is considered by Google to be a “Black Hat” tactic and one that can get you banned from Google. No, really. If it seems too good to be true, don’t do it. Better yet, rely on a trusted professional for your SEO.

4) Create Unique Content: Content is key (aka, King) for great SEO strategy. Creating your own content shows that you know your stuff, and makes you a resource for anyone else in your industry who may have questions about your products or services. Content creates opportunities to increase the number of inbound links to your site which will improve your SEO. Another great way to increase inbound links is to post on Q&A forums like Yahoo Answers and Ask because the information you put up there will further illustrate your expertise in your field.

5) Use website analytics: It’s important to know if the work you’re putting in is producing results. Before getting started with SEO (or any digital marketing tactic) use analytics to take a baseline. Where is your traffic coming from – organic, direct, paid, social media, inbound links, etc. and how good is that traffic? Analytics allows you to track the value of all visits based on what each visitor does after s/he hits your website. Evaluate time on site, number of pages viewed, key pages viewed (such as the contact us page or pricing) and any form of engagement that occurred such as a download, email signup or chat session. At AdEdge, we use Google Analytics every day to evaluate our client digital marketing performance and optimize according to what’s working and what’s not working. Over time, analytics will show you the increase in the volume and quality of website traffic and other goals that happen over time, whether you are doing the work yourself or have someone internally or externally doing it.

6) Be Patient: While not paying for clicks to your site is certainly appealing, it takes time to get there. Patience is key when implementing an SEO plan. Go “all in” on the effort and if done right, you will eventually see your position rise!

We hope you learned a thing or two about SEO strategy in this article. If you would like to learn more about SEO or get some ideas about other digital marketing tactics that may perform well in your industry, give us a call or schedule a meeting with one of our experts!

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The New and Improved Google Ads Experience

Back in July, Google announced that they would be making improvements and re-branding their Ad interface. Formerly know as “Google Adwords”, the new and improved Google Ads experience is officially here, and has a lot of exciting changes to offer advertisers! Starting on October 18th it will become the exclusive way to manage ads, so it’s important to understand all that has changed.

These new features are meant to help guide advertisers to making better data-based decisions, and drive performance in the increasingly competitive world of digital marketing. Utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) and automated key optimizations enable you to make better informed decisions and make changes at a faster rate. The new and improved Google Ads experience has lots to offer, so let’s get started!

Dashboard: The updated dashboard is more visual, using bar graphs, arrows, colors, and charts to clearly display how your data is trending. The dashboard utilizes real time data that shows you how accounts are performing and paints a clear picture as to what’s working and what isn’t. The new visuals give you a more clear and quick indication of what changes to make. Not only is the new dashboard more visual, but it’s completely customizable so that as a marketer, you can pay close attention to the metrics that are most relevant and important to your campaigns. Customizable dashboards make it possible to tailor each Google Ads account to the individual user.

Recommendation Engine: Another improvement is Google’s recommendation engine, which can help speed up the process of optimization. These recommendations are meant to give you guidance to making better decisions to optimize your campaigns. By comparing your campaign’s performance to it’s goals, the recommendation engine can generate specific guidelines as to what you can do in order to improve nearly any aspect of the campaign. This includes keyword conflicts, bid adjustments, targeting, demographics, ads, budget limitations and more. These changes can also be made easily with the automation feature. Google will make the change for you if you apply the recommendation they give you. One word of caution, don’t lean too heavily on the recommendation engine at the expense of remaining fully involved in the nuts and bolts of your account. Google has been known to put profit over performance at times and the old “trust but verify” is in order here.

Ad Format: There is now a third headline and second description for all search ads. With more characters, ads can be even more specific to help attract a more relevant audience to your website. We’re talking about tightly themed AdGroups and they will improve your performance.

Enhanced Demographic Targeting: This is an improvement on Google Adwords previous demographic targeting feature. This allows you to associate specific demographics with one another. Now you can select multiple demographics, and see if there is any correlation between the two.

Predefined Reports: With Google Ads new Reports, all data is visualized so you can quickly identify any trends or correlations. This makes it easier to identify potential problems with your campaigns and make appropriate changes.

If you’re using Google AdWords now, the new Google Ads experience will help you to gain more insight on your data and make better overall decisions to optimize your PPC campaigns. Overall these changes are aimed at making advertising on the Google Ads interface more intuitive, and better for both the marketers who are managing the ads as well as the end users who will be viewing them. Visit Google’s site to learn about these exclusive features.

Keep up to date on the latest and greatest digital marketing strategies, tips, tricks and hot-off-the-press news. To get in on the action, follow us on social media and sign up for our Newsletter!

4 Proven Strategies to Drive Website Conversions

Most of us are quite happy building a website that loads quickly and looks great on phones and desktops; but is building a pretty and functional website enough? Remember the saying, “Beauty only goes skin deep”? Substance with your website is key and in this case, we are talking about content. Here are four key approaches to website development that can improve visitor retention, engagement and conversions.

1) Provide Value First Don’t drill customers with sales pitches when they arrive on your website. Customers know what they want, and there is a reason they arrived on your page. They didn’t come to “be sold”, they came to learn. Focus on providing value and inform them of how your product or service can help them. Content that is customer-focused will create value and will demonstrate your leadership in your field. Doing this increases your authority and develops trust, and you’ve just increased your odds that the visiting customer will buy your product or service when and if they need it.

2) Add Video Content Video is a powerful tool that can be extremely beneficial to those visiting your website. Video puts a person behind the name and humanizes your company. If you offer a complex product or service, explainer videos and product demonstrations simplify the complex. They reduce buyer friction and improve conversion rates.

3) Website layout While it’s not exactly content related it can make or break conversions on your site and it’s worth mentioning. When someone arrives at your website, they should find everything in a familiar place. Customers who easily find what they are looking for have a better, more enjoyable experience. They go deeper into your site and are more likely to convert to a lead or bookmark your site for a later visit. Make sure your navigation bars are in expected places and don’t forget to add large, Contact Us buttons. These lead-generating “jump off points” should be there to capture leads at the moment they are ready to take further steps whit your company. It’s another way to reduce buyer friction.

4) Be Social Everyone has their own way of researching and utilizing information and many will do so by visiting your social accounts rather than bookmarking your site. Social media is a great way to increase your reach, nurture prospects and create a funnel of visitors to your website. Make sure that content on your social accounts aligns well with your website and your brand. This makes for a seamless experience among those who jump off your website onto your social media accounts and visa versa. Well built social accounts also improve your website’s natural rank in the search engines. But that’s an SEO conversation for another day.

While there are lots of other tips and tricks involved in optimizing your website for conversions, these four proven strategies are likely to work well for your website, regardless of what industry you are in.

Keep up to date on the latest and greatest digital marketing strategies, tips, tricks and hot-off-the-press news. To get in on the action, follow us on social media and sign up for our Newsletter!

Google AdWords Help from a Google Partner

One of the most common concerns we hear at AdEdge is how to become more visible. People ask us “How do I get my name out there more?” “How do I get my business noticed?” “How do I move higher on Google search?” All valid questions! There are many ways to beef up your visibility and increase your site traffic. One of our most effective strategies is the use of paid search via Google AdWords. With Paid Search, you are reaching customers and clients who are searching for your products and services right now. This is something we help businesses with nationwide from our offices in Westport, Connecticut. We’ve been doing it for over 10 years!

Help with AdWords

Though we often recommend Paid Search, we don’t recommend you go it alone. Anyone can set up an “AdWords Express” account. It’s super easy and it’s super simple. The problem is, easy and simple is rarely good and that’s especially true in the case of AdWords. Targeting is extremely limited and advanced tactics don’t exist in AdWords. As you can see, the world of online advertising can be a confusing place, and Google may seem like a complicated and distant entity. And they are. Have you ever tried getting Google on the phone for help? When dealing with Google AdWords, we highly suggest you utilize a special connection to that big search engine in the Internet sky. Or should we say “cloud?” That special connection is us.

AdEdge has an extra special connection to Google. We are proud to say, we’re a Google AdWords Partner. This means Google tested us, and we passed! To become a certified Google Partner, an agency has to demonstrate expertise by not only passing exams; it also must show a certain level of agency and client revenue growth, as well as continue to retest and pass annual exams.

Extra Help from Google

Here at AdEdge, we’re not your run-of-the-mill partner. Unlike most partners, we have access to two account representatives assigned to us by Google. These representatives are available to help us anytime we need to resolve any issues or have any specific questions. They help us expedite new campaign approvals and advise us quarterly on tactics for optimizing client campaign performance.

One more advantage about our special connection with Google is beta testing. Last year, AdEdge was accepted into Google’s advertising beta testing platform. What does that mean? It means that our clients have access, through us, to test out Google’s latest digital marketing technologies. At AdEdge, we only work with the latest and greatest tactics – tactics that improve your performance and beat your competition to the punch.

In a market that can at times seem like the Wild West, AdEdge calmly offers you brilliant, customized, high-ROI Internet Marketing for a reasonable, transparent price. Our focus is your success.