Tag Archive for: Digital Marketing

Measuring SEO Success

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Consistently measuring SEO results and success is crucial to maintaining an effective SEO strategy. But what exactly should you be basing your SEO success off of? With so many different measurement strategies, you need to make sure you’re choosing what’s relevant to your company. What small business consider successful for an SEO campaign, large corporations probably would not.

While all businesses are aware they should be focusing on SEO to generate website traffic, it can still be a struggle to create an effective and comprehensive campaign, especially when it comes to small businesses.

Standard Measurements of SEO Success

Website traffic and conversions are the top two ways businesses measure SEO success. While traffic is important, focusing on that alone puts businesses at risk of missing other crucial metrics. Conversions do often equal success, but it’s almost impossible for a company to have a 100% conversion rate. It also depends on what the company considers a conversion. If it’s an online retail store a conversion is probably a purchase. But often times conversion doesn’t equal new business. For example, an online loan company would consider a conversion someone submitting an application, but what if the application was denied because they didn’t meet the requirements?

The metrics chosen should be relevant and align with your company’s ultimate goals and objectives. The most important aspect to be tracked is overall traffic and conversion quality. Are those coming to your website or filling out forms turning into new and legitimate business opportunities?

Measuring Quality

Time on Page & Pages Per Visit

Depending on what your goal is when a visitor reaches your site, these two things may be beneficial to track. For example, you posted a new blog and you know it takes an average of 3 minutes to read, but the average time visitors spend on that page is only 10 seconds. That probably indicates people are not sticking around to read it. It’s the same with pages per visit. Is the goal to keep users engaged on one page, or is there a final step you want them to reach? If your site’s pages operate independently then this wouldn’t really matter, if not, this may be something you want to consistently track.

Bounce Rate

Bounced sessions indicate that a searcher visited the page and left without browsing your site any further. Bounce rate can determine not only traffic quality, but also quality of the site itself. A high bounce rate can sometimes indicate your website needs improvements. Making it more engaging by including links to other posts or pages is one strategy to keep visitors interested. Though a high bounce rate doesn’t always mean the website needs to be updated. This can also mean visitors are just quickly finding exactly what they needed, such as hours, menus, addresses, etc.

Scroll Depth

Scroll Depth determines how far visitors are scrolling through each individual web page. Are visitors regularly reaching your most important content or the call to action? If not, consider rearranging the content of the page, putting the more important information higher up. Consider the quality of the content as well. While keywords are important and should be included, you don’t want that to be the extent of your content. The information included on the page should be enticing and valuable. Put yourself in the user’s place, what would make you continue to scroll down the page?

Backlinks

Backlink quality is measured by the number of links from websites with high domain authority. While you can’t control all the links that come back to your site, you can target backlink quality by reaching out to other sites that provide domain authority and a new, but similar audience. Keep in mind relevance and novelty. Endorsements from new sites can have a greater impact than repeats. The more relevant the site is to your content, the better endorsement as well.

Putting Your Resources to Use

Google Analytics is a great way to track and measure all of this data in one place. If you already enacted an SEO campaign, you most likely have access to all these capabilities. Google gives you an extensive list of metrics to use, but it can be difficult to know where to start or exactly what the data means. A few places to start could be by tracking isolate organic traffic, page visits, campaign traffic, or click through rates.

How Onimod Global Can Help

As experts in SEO and Google Partners, we know exactly what you should be tracking, and how. As one of our core attributes, we can develop SEO campaigns across all major search engines that deliver increases in organic traffic and natural rankings. We are cross-channel digital marketing experts that work with companies of all sizes, all around the world. Read more about what we do here, or contact us with any questions here.

Facebook Adds New Features to its Video Creation Kit

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On Tuesday Facebook announced new updates for its video creation kit feature. The updates are to give video advertisers more templates, editing options, and a new ‘save’ option. Facebook’s overall purpose of the new features is to optimize ad placement, while giving advertisers more support to create custom designs.

What is the Video Creation Kit:

Facebook released this feature back in August of 2018 with the mobile-first mindset, since it was becoming the most effective way to connect with customers. It enabled users to turn existing image and text assets into mobile-optimized videos framed in 1:1 for feed environments or 9:16 for stories on Facebook and Instagram. The template options are based specifically on what you’re trying to do for the product.

There are two 6 second video options if you’re promoting a product or selling multiple products. It allows advertisers to use keywords to generate interest and sales, or show a selection of products, promoting special offers. There are also two 15 second options to show product benefits or promote product discovery. You can highlight features, use case studies, explain how the product works, bring your brand to life, and share what makes it unique.

The platform gives those with limited video production staff or resources the ability to produce quality video advertisements. It’s most beneficial to small or medium sized businesses that may not have the tools or extensive knowledge on video production.

The New Updates:

Resizing Tool

Advertisers can now optimize the size of their videos for various ad placements. They say it only takes a click of a button to transform one video into many videos with multiple aspect ratios automatically for different places such as Stories or News Feed. Facebook says you will save time and be able to create videos that appear to be customized for each placement, without shooting additional content or having to edit manually.

Editing Options

Facebook has added new templates, including a single-image template with the option to add visually engaging motion, and 20 new fonts for text overlay. They have also added new event and seasonal stickers, such as Back-to-School season and Mother’s Day with more to come in the fall.

‘Save’ Feature

Before users were not able to start and stop projects whenever they wanted. Videos were required to be published in the same sitting as they were started. Now advertisers are allowed to save unfinished videos as drafts and return to work on it as they please.

You can read Facebook’s full announcement about the new features here.

Why We Care

The Video Creation Kit was made for anyone who wants to build Facebook and Instagram video ads that display well on phones, including digital and social agencies, in-house production team, Facebook marketing partners, direct advertisers, and digital creative agencies. Facebook is giving small companies with limited resources the opportunity to create customized content for multiple ad placements, ultimately allowing them to better compete with larger brands.

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To catch up on the latest digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here!

The Do’s and Don’ts of Ad Copy

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Google provides a lot of helpful data when it comes to certain aspects of search campaigns, except when it comes to ad copy. Ad copy can be one of the most crucial elements when it comes to paid search, no matter the platform. Finding the right combination of keywords and titles can be difficult, but when you’re spending a good chunk of budget on paid search, you want your ad copy to be something that’s generating traffic.

 

What is Ad Copy?

Ad copy is the main text or description of a clickable advertisement. The text is usually the second and third lines of the ads displayed on a search engine, in between the title and display URL. It’s generally used to describe what the advertisement is for, as well as inserting related keywords. While most people are aware of what ad copy is, there are still mistakes frequently made, even by experienced paid search marketers. Finding what works best for your particular paid ads can be difficult, but we’re going to discuss some general do’s and don’ts of writing ad copy.

 

Ad Copy Don’ts

Jacob Baadsgaard, founder and CEO of Disruptive Advertising, has identified the top 3 most common mistakes that keep businesses from paid search success, when it comes to ad copy.

Keyword Stuffing

Inserting as many keywords as possible into ads is no longer the secret to search success. The modern user has been trained to avoid any search results that look even slightly suspicious or point towards spam. Users now look for content that address problems and solutions. As consumers evolve, ad copy should follow. This does not mean keywords should no longer be included, they’re still very important. What it means is that they need to be appropriately and specifically selected and placed in the ad copy. The ad needs to incorporate them in a more meaningful way. Focus more on providing answers, rather than keywords, because that’s ultimately what users are looking for.

Focusing On The Wrong Problem

Users click on ads if they focus on a problem, pain point, or whatever triggered their need to search. The issue is many business misidentify the motivating factors behind customers’ searches. A common misconception is that a company’s target audience share the same needs, goals, and values. More often than not the customer doesn’t care, what they do care about is whether or not you can help fix their problem. If the ad doesn’t focus on a solution, customers probably won’t click on it. When the ad copy’s main focus is the need behind a user’s search, you’ll seem like the perfect solution.

Neglecting Ad Extension

While it is ultimately up to Google whether people see your ad extension or not, neglecting it is a huge mistake. It is important to focus on titles and descriptions, since that’s what everyone will see, but when your ad extension is shown, it needs to matter. “Google reports that adding a new ad extension typically increases click-through rates by 10-15%, so they’re well worth investing some time into.” Ad extensions are a way to incorporate callouts, sitelinks, and structured snippets.

Callout extensions allow you to include specific attributes about your business, products, and services. This is an area where you can include more keywords and pitch-heavy content.

Sitelinks are something that should definitely be taken advantage of if given the opportunity. They can build the content of your ad by offering additional information and links to more specific pages on your site, allowing users to get directly where they need to.

Structured snippet extensions allow your ad to highlight specific aspects of your products and services. The layout is a mix between a callout and a sitelink. Each snippet contains a header and list of features you choose to highlight. This extension can hurt your click-through rates if your content isn’t carefully thought out, because the design can be complicated and hard to read.

Ad Copy Do’s  

 

Include Emotional Triggers When Appropriate

Users don’t make decisions on logic alone. People are more often driven by emotions. If someone reads something that triggers a strong emotional reaction, negative or positive, they will be more inclined to click through. You do want to be careful to balance the reaction with the rest of your message because you don’t want your brand to be associated with negative emotions. The ad copy should ultimately focus on resolving the negative emotion. Positive and subtle triggers can be effective as well. It all depends on what exactly you’re advertising.

Create Keyword-Rich Display URLs

Sometimes advertisers may not be aware that the display URL and their actual destination URL can be different. The display URL can be something more interesting or relevant to your ads while including your top keywords. Even if your destination URL doesn’t contain your keywords, your ads can still appear in search results if your display URL includes them.

Be Benefit Focused, Not Features

It can be disappointing, but most customers don’t care about your actual company. As previously discussed, users want to know what you can ultimately do for them. Focus on how your brand can make their life easier, not about your actual brand. Using words like ‘you’ makes the ad more personal and can demonstrate how your service actually benefits the user. How much time or money users can save with your service are easy and effective things to include.

 

Conclusion

Writing ad copy can be tricky, and there is a lot of room for error. That’s why it’s always beneficial to outsource for your paid search needs. At Onimod Global we are experienced experts in SEM. As a Google Partner we are a digital marketing company, trusted by Google and excel with their products. Experts in paid advertising on platforms such as Google, Bing, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Not only are we experts in paid advertising, but also organic search engine optimization. Onimod Global works as your own in-house, cross-channel, digital marketing team.

You can view some of our featured work here, or contact us here.  

LinkedIn’s Newest Update Makes Advertising More Transparent

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Company transparency is especially important when advertising on the internet, social spaces in particular. Social media users want to feel safe and ensured that their information isn’t going to be exploited for advertisements. LinkedIn just recently announced it has launched a new update, called Ads tab, for company pages. The intent is to bring even greater transparency to ads, increasing trust in their environment, while benefiting companies and users.

What is Ads Tab & How it Works

The Ads tab will be available on company pages, showing sponsored content ad history for the last six months. Members can view all native ads running in the LinkedIn feed through the tab, but the advertisers will not be charged for these engagements and the clicks will not impact campaign reporting.

LinkedIn said in the announcement that “the Ads tab builds on similar tools they’ve recently introduced to help members understand and control their ad experience, including new ad settings that each member can access from their LinkedIn account.”

They also added that this is just the first of many updates they have in the works to provide members with useful information about the ads shown to them on LinkedIn. The Ads tab will be implemented across their platform over the next few weeks, meaning it won’t be available to all companies immediately.

Why We Should Care

Transparency is something that benefits both companies and LinkedIn users. This extra layer adds more security to the LinkedIn platform, making it a more trusted source, attracting more users. An increase in users means the potential to gain a larger audience, and ultimately larger ad reach.

Putting it to Use

At Onimod Global we are your in-house cross-channel digital marketing experts. We offer services in SEM and Social Media. We handle paid advertising on Google, Bing, and across all social platforms, including LinkedIn. We market across multiple social platforms to create visibility for your company in places your customers are searching, interacting, and engaging. Having your brand in the correct positioning in essential, and we at Onimod Global have the expertise to know exactly where you and your ads need to be.

Learn more about what we do here, or if you’re ready to become a client, contact us here.

The 411 on 1:1 Marketing

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The “one size fits all” mass marketing method has been well on its way out of style. Before it was all about getting out a message to as many people as you possibly could, hoping that at least one of them would become a customer. Over the last few years marketers have discovered that going this route is generally not the most cost effective. They’re now trying to send out more personalized messages to a more specific target market. 

One-to-one marketing, also referred to as relationship marketing, is by no means a new strategy, but has become one of the most popular buzzwords of 2019. It focuses on personalized interactions with each customer, catering to their individual behavior and needs. The challenge faced by marketers now is how to achieve this digitally. While brands are constantly updating their process to be more customizable, it still has yet to be perfected.

Types of One-To-One Marketing

Customization

This gives each customer the ability to customize the product to fit their own taste. The company doesn’t have to learn the preferences of each individual customer. It just has to produce and manufacture each product differently, according to the preferences set by the customer.

An example would be how Nike.com gives consumers the opportunity to customize their own shoes, deciding the colors, material used, etc. Some social media platforms also let users customize their profiles by giving the option to alter their feeds to fit their own preferences and interests. 

Personalization

With personalization the company takes the time to learn the personal preferences of each customer individually. The company then customizes its marketing plan accordingly, catering to the tastes of each individual.

Amazon.com is considered one of the most successful at using this strategy. They collect data on users based on what they have bought or looked at in the past. Amazon then uses that data to recommend new products for them to purchase.

Why it Works

One-to-one marketing takes customer relationship management data, then segments, activates, and measures that data to discover the customers of highest value, while maximizing reach to them. One-to-one marketing generates lift, has the ability for extremely specific segmentation, as well as producing measurable results. You have the ability to substantially increase conversion rates due to the fact that you’re delivering more relevant messages to each audience segment, according to the feedback from those segments. You’re also creating micro-segments, targeting each customer specifically and uniquely.

Getting Closer to One-to-One Personalization

As we said before, this is not a new concept, but taking it and perfectly applying it to the digital marketing world has difficulties. MarketingLand has found 5 steps brands have started integrating into email campaigns, attempting to get closer to reaching one-to-one personalization.

1. Practice Good Data Hygiene

Remove inactive subscribers, duplicate emails, and fake accounts regularly. The quality of your content doesn’t matter if it’s not making it to the right, and legitimate, people.

2. Maintain Good Relationships with ISPs

Brands need to follow the best practices to maintain good relations with internet service providers such as Google, Yahoo, etc. A poor reputation can prevent your brand’s emails from reaching your subscriber’s inboxes. Monitor your reputation by frequently reviewing and adjusting targeting, frequency, and deployment strategies.

3. Use User-Friendly Templates

The development, creation, and deployment of campaigns can take weeks, maybe even longer, if marketers don’t have a streamlined process with the right tools in place. Marketing teams can build responsive, dynamic campaigns without coding, using drag-and-drop functionality. Production time can be cut in half, allowing your team to create more relevant content for more of your audience.

4. Dynamic Content Blocks

These have the ability to cater to each subscriber segment, creating greater efficiencies when changes frequently occur. For example, in retail there is a constant movement of pieces from inventory to offers that have the possibility of changing at a moment’s notice. Building automated pieces of content into template ensures that these last minute changes can be made with no real labor. This reduces production and also allows the design team to focus on other, more important tasks.

5. Have a Robust Trigger Program

This is the easiest way to implement personalization for email programs. The program delivers relevant content in a timely manner with the results being open rates exceeding far above averages promo messages. MarketLand suggests to frequently check subscriber activity, purchase history, browser behavior, preference data, etc. to find additional ways to boost your program. These triggers can provide a jump in revenue with less maintenance in content creation.

Additional Thoughts

All marketers are aware that individualized content is the best way to build awareness and relationships with customers. While it’s easy for smaller companies to personally communicate with each individual customer, there are many barriers when trying to make that happen on a much larger, digital scale. Despite the challenges, marketers are employing a variety of strategies that are allowing them to get much closer to one-to-one personalization. 

More From Onimod Global

The digital marketing experts from Onimod Global are here to make sure that you receive the best information possible regarding the digital marketing industry. You can access our full compilation of news articles here!

 

Why Programmatic Video Advertising is on the Rise in 2019

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In the recent years programmatic advertising has quickly gained a substantial amount of popularity, especially among digital advertisers.

It’s estimated that they will be dedicating even more of their budgets to programmatic video inventory in 2019. It is estimated by eMarketer that programmatic video ad spend will reach $29.24 billion, which would account for almost 50% of all programmatic display advertising spending this year.

Why exactly is this strategy gaining so much popularity and why do digital advertisers believe it is valuable enough to be spending almost half of their budget on it? Are there possible downfalls?

What is Programmatic Video Advertising?

Programmatic video advertising is essentially the use of bots to buy ad space according to set prerequisites. The advertiser enters a detailed description of their ideal audience, their budget, and their ads into the program. The program then takes user data and uses real-time bidding to display the ad to a user that fits the ideal client profile, the advertisement with the highest bid is given the spot. This process is completed before the page loads. Ideally, the ads are only being shown to people that would actually be interested in what’s being offered, to hopefully get the most out of the ad spend.

The Benefits:

Greater Reach

The internet averages billions of users at any given time, with the possibility to reach millions, depending on the targeted parameters. Programmatic enables advertisements to reach a variety of different channels across platforms that companies would not otherwise have the ability. The program has an extensive web of established connections that allow these companies to reach new users across all platforms. Not only does the message have the potential to reach a larger amount of people, it also reaches specific people, those identified as the ideal audience.

More Specific Targeting Capabilities

Programmatic technology uses behavioral analysis to pinpoint the audience that the ads are best tailored for. The program is capable of IP targeting, geolocation targeting, contextual keyword targeting, and retargeting. This means advertisers and marketers can continue to reach those ideal customers that have yet to make a conversion to the website.

Uses Real-Time Data

As soon as a campaign is released, every detail is immediately trackable. You don’t have to wait until the end to measure the results. As soon as an ad is displayed the impressions, who it was seen by, where they were located, ect. can be instantly analyzed. This also allows to make changes whenever necessary, ensuring you’re not spending ad dollar in the wrong places.

The Challenges:

Fraud Risk

With the ultra simplified process of being able to buy and sell ads, anyone is essentially capable. The most common instances of fraud in programmatic advertising are non-viewable ads, as well as bot traffic. The problem of non-viewables is that the ads are reported as placed and displayed, but they were actually buried, never reaching the user. And while bots can make things very efficient, they can also be used to fool the system. The artificial traffic is used to drive up the prices, resulting in higher ad spend.

Ad Misdirects or Misplacement

Publishers can sometimes forward ads to affiliated entities, getting displayed there instead of their intended placements. This could mean that the ad never actually reach its targeted audience. Depending on the ad, this could be harmful to brand image. For instance, if an adult-intended ad ended up being displayed on a children’s site. While stronger preventative measures are being created, issues can still frequently occur.

It gets Costly

As the precision of pinpointing the perfect customer increases, so does the price. Depending on how specific your audience is, it may be more beneficial in the long run to purchase the more expensive program. You don’t want to be wasting money on an audience that would never even consider what you’re offering.

Final Thoughts

There’s no doubt that programmatic advertising is extremely efficient, but just as every other advertising platform there are a variety of downsides that come along with the advantages. As with anything, you just need to decide if those benefits outweigh the risks.

For more information regarding the newest digital marketing trends, visit the Onimod Global Website. If you’d like to see what we’ve done for other companies and can potentially do for you, click here, or if you’re ready, you can request a quote here today.

 

How to Optimize Your Dark Social Usage

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Private messaging apps such as WhatsApp, direct messaging via social media, emails, etc. are all referred to as “Dark Social” by marketers because content shared through these platforms are particularly difficult to track and analyze. This is becoming an increasingly popular way for users to do their social sharing. Read more

Pros and Cons of Using a URL Shortener

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Link shorteners are exactly what they sound like: tools that take a too-long URL and condense it into a new, briefer one. But there are some hidden benefits, and the odd drawback of these nifty generators.

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2018 Digital Marketing: Our Top 5 Trends

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The new year has officially arrived, and we bid farewell to 2018. As 2019 arrives, we have noticed a dramatic shift in the industry regarding social media, SEO, and a variety of other spaces within the digital marketing landscape. So many digital marketing trends have revolutionized the industry which will carry over to 2019. Which methods and platforms are most popular among marketers that will transition us into 2019? Take a look at some of the most notable digital marketing trends in 2018:

 

  1. Artificial Intelligence

    At the top of several lists is artificial intelligence and all of the doors it has opened for digital marketing. AI helps in a variety of ways: analyzing consumer behavior and search patterns, utilizing data from social media platforms and blog posts to help with customer’s discovery process, and much more! A great example of AI is chatbots frequently used in customer service. Gartner shares that 25% of customers will use this chatbot technology by 2020, which is a huge jump from the less than 2% in 2017.

  2. Personalize Your Marketing

    Contents, emails, products, and more! Personalizing was an extremely popular trend in 2018 and will continue to make your company stand out in 2019. With the mounds of data we have going into the new year, the process of personalization with your marketing will be easier than ever. Data such as purchase history, links clicked, and consumer behavior all aid custom content. In fact, 96% of marketers believe that personalization advances customer relationships.

  3. Video Marketing

    Single Grain shares some significant numbers that display the importance of incorporating video marketing into your 2019 marketing strategy:–  70% of consumers say that they have shared a brand’s video
    – 72% of businesses say video has improved their conversation rate
    – 52% of consumers say that watching product videos makes them more confident in online purchase decisions

    This goes far beyond YouTube. Your business can create this type of content on Facebook Live, share on Twitter, Instagram, or even LinkedIn. Live video specifically is gaining lots of popularity and will definitely put you one step ahead of competition in 2o19.

  4. Social Messaging Apps11 Digital Marketing Trends3
    This shows exactly how important it is to make your business available across social platforms. Similar to chatbots, your customer service team being available on these popular social messaging platforms will help increase customer loyalty by adding value to their experience with your business. Being easily accessible will only increase your success in 2019.
  5. Micro-Moments

    As termed by Google, micro-moments are a brand new consumer behavior. On average, people spend 3 hours and 35 minutes a day on their smartphones. This means that is more important than ever to have a clear and concise message to your consumer at the right time in the right place. More so, this must happen in a matter of seconds, or your potential consumer will lose interest. People prepare for every instance big or small; no one has time for surprises anymore. A great example of this is a restaurant having their menu, vegan options, wait-time, and other common queries all available when requested on a search engine.

More From Onimod Global

We’d like to thank you for being a part of 2018 journey and look forward to assisting you in 2019 with your digital marketing needs. We would love to work with you and help you optimize your digital marketing strategy.

To contact our experts or request a quote, please click here. We can’t wait to hear from you, Happy New Year!

How To Gain The Best Insight On Your Digital Performance

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Being able to measure your data is key to understanding how well you are performing on all of your digital platforms. Typically, data is confusing to interpret and an extremely boring visual for management. At Onimod Global, we are committed to delivering our clients a report that combats these common concerns. Our expert digital marketers, trusted Google Partners, develop custom dynamic digital dashboards with Google Studio for all of our clients.

 

Say goodbye to the boring static reports in your inbox on Monday mornings.

 

Google Studio creates the best visuals for your company to clearly see what matters. Whether that be leads, impressions, landing page views, or any other metric, this is the best platform to see it all at once with complete transparency. Google Analytics, Google Ads, and more are all on one page with high-quality visuals for you to easily see what is performing well for you and what isn’t.

The best part about our digital synergy reports? The collaboration. Individuals and teams from your company can easily view, add comments, and view different versions of data based on your preferred segmentation.

Onimod Global is a trusted Google Partner, assuring you that you’re working with the best in the business. A Google Partner is an online marketing company, trusted by Google. Look for the badge on our site, this recognizes companies that excel with Google’s products.

 

More From Onimod Global

We want to save you the time and a headache of having to read through a variety of spreadsheets and confusing numbers. Onimod Global is confident that our customized digital synergy reports are the best way to understand your digital performance, and your company can have your very own!

We would love to work with you and help you optimize your digital marketing strategy. To contact our experts or request a quote, please click here. We can’t wait to hear from you!