Tag Archive for: Google Ads

Simple Steps To Improving Your Google Quality Score

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You’ve narrowed your keywords, written compelling ad text, and perfected a great landing page. But when you check your Google Ads Quality Score, it’s not performing well.

Step one. Don’t panic.

A low quality score can translate to a multitude of potential issues with the campaign, meaning there are lots of ways you can improve it. Before you start, though, it’s important to know how Google is grading you and why it’s so important. Onimod Global is here to help explain Google Ads Quality Score and how you can easily improve yours!

What is a Google Quality Score?

A google quality score is a combination of factors which describe your ads overall relevancy to the customer. From 1-10, Google grades campaigns in three areas: keywords, ads, and landing pages.  Google describes the score as “a warning light for a car’s engine.” It tells you, the driver/ad creator, that something’s wrong with your ad or website so that you are alerted to fix it. Better ad scores of course translates to better ad ranking.

Difference between Quality Score and Ad Rank

Ad Rank is Google’s version of taking into account much more campaign information to determine where your ad will show up within search engine results pages (SERP).

According to Google, they also take into account the following:

Ad Rank is calculated using your bid amount, your auction-time ad quality (including expected clickthrough rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience), the Ad Rank thresholds, the competitiveness of an auction, the context of the person’s search (for example, the person’s location, device, time of the search, the nature of the search terms, the other ads and search results that show on the page, and other user signals and attributes), and the expected impact of extensions and other ad formats.

Quality Score, on the other hand, is more so a tool for advertisers to use and improve your campaigns. Quality in your ads is important for everyone involved:

  • Helpful for you, because your ad budget is spent more efficiently with a more relevant ad in front of a better targeted audience who is likely to convert.
  • Helpful for the customer,because no one likes or has time to scroll through useless information irrelevant to their search query.
  • Helpful for Google, because their platform is used in good purpose and more people are likely to return to them for search queries.

Simple steps to improve your Quality Score

  1. Improve your keyword selection. Using keywords which are too broad will only lose your ad in the crowd of many others boasting the same phrase. Similarly, keywords that are too niche narrow your potential audience. Meeting somewhere in the middle guarantees a more visible ad.
  2. Increase landing page loading time. This is one tip that’s often overlooked, because you would think it’s all about your audience and ad copy. However, the quality of your landing page is just as important. Google wants to know that content loads quickly enough to hold a customer’s attention.
  3. Maintain the level of relevancy. You may notice your ad starts out strong with a solid quality score, and then takes a small tumble. This is Google signaling you to restructure your ad. Grouping ads by the target audience, keyword, and other factors improve the relevancy of the ad.

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For more on the latest digital marketing news and information, follow Onimod Global! Our experts release the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday. To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

5 Google Ads Tips That Will Make You More Money

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Google Ads: one of the top marketing tools which assists you in displaying ads to promote your products or services online. If you are using Google Ads to advertise your goods or services, then you are making a conscious effort to improve your market share and increase your business. When your ads are set up properly, Google Ads can help to increase online traffic, in-store traffic, brand recognition and generate sales while reducing marketing costs. Through the process of helping digital marketing teams assess their campaigns with our expertise, we’ve constructed a list of five essential tips to help optimize your Google Ads campaigns and get the most from your ad dollars.

 

Keywords: Choose Carefully

This has relatively large and powerful effects on not only how much you spend on your campaign, but also how well your Google Ads convert. One of the most common and costly mistakes is focusing all your attention on positive keywords that bring you traffic. Don’t forget to construct a list of negative keywords (words you don’t want people associating with your company) as well. When building your Google Ads campaign, one of the most important things that you will have to do is set a match type for your keyword bidding strategy.  Consider starting with broad match. You can then add the negative match keywords to exclude those searches on Google that aren’t related to your business.

Alter Keyword Match Type Over Time

When launching a brand new Google Ads campaign, start out with several ad groups that have strong themes of similar keywords. Over time, the focus tends to become more a blend of Modified Broad, Phrase and Exact Match words as the data starts to show what actually converts.

keyword match

This graphic from Search Engine Journal showcases how keyword match can modify over time. Each match type is a trade-off between impressions, relevancy, and cost. For most impressions, Broad Match will be a success. However, it can also mean you are matching to a bunch of irrelevant searches and wasting your money.

Relevant Landing Pages

This is one of the most overlooked topics when it comes to paid search. It’s easy to get lost in the paid search platforms, tweaking bids, testing ad copy, and funneling all your energy into the platform itself. A successful PPC ad drives qualified potential leads to a landing page, but that’s only the first half of winning. The second part is getting them to convert into a paying customer. Maintaining consistency between your keywords, ad copy, and landing pages should improve both your click-through and conversion rates while lowering your CPC.

Optimize Google Ads Performance

Perhaps the most critical part of running a Google Ads campaign is making sure that it is optimized for your target audience. Optimizing a campaign consists of establishing profitable keywords and ad campaigns and terminating those without success. This can be difficult to determine when you need to make adjustment or eliminate a campaign entirely.

Onimod Global, a trusted Google Partner, specializes in all AdWords product areas. We can help you create and optimize ads that show up on Google Search. We can also advise on keyword strategy and budget planning. Contact us here to learn more about how we can optimize your Google Ads campaigns to their fullest potential.

Look For Opportunity To Drive Mobile

Many of your future customers use mobile devices, and more and more, users convert on them. Especially after the huge push in digital business during 2020, mobile-focused campaigns can potentially give you the best chance to engage your mobile customers in the right format on their preferred device.

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Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

Google Ad Policy Updates For Housing, Employment, Credit Ads

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Google Ad policy has an interesting new update that ties in with current world events. Google is updating its advertising policies around housing, employment and credit opportunities, the company announced Thursday. The update is planned to roll out in U.S. and Canada this year. The old policy allowed you to include demographic and zip code in your target audience. This audience was used frequently in housing, employment, and credit ads.

The new policy is:

Employment, housing and credit advertisers will no longer be permitted to target or exclude their ads being from being shown based on demographics — gender, age, parental status, marital status — or zip code.

This adds on to existing policies that prohibit targeting based on race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, national origin or disability.

 

When is it coming?

U.S. and Canada will be the first to see the roll-out of the new Google Ad policy. Google says this change is coming “as soon as possible” and before the end of 2020 at the latest. Advertisers that are or will be affected by this change will be notified of the update and of the potential impact on their campaigns in the next weeks.

Why is it significant?

This Google Ad policy comes during a very critical time. With a backdrop of a coronavirus-induced recession that is disproportionately affecting minority communities, this change calls for action to address systemic racism by the Black Lives Matter movement. Google says it has “been working with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on these changes for some time.” Facebook updated their ad policy  prohibit age, gender and zip code targeting for housing, employment and credit ads more than a year ago in March 2019.

Companies and CEOs around the country are denouncing racism and violence due to the Black Lives Matter movement. Since May 25th, the day of George Floyd’s death, Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests have swept a majority of the country and grown into an international movement against racism and police violence.

Read more about how silence is not an option for brands on the BLM movement, especially B2C business here.

More From Onimod Global

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

Tips for Successfully Going Local with Digital Marketing

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With the current situation of the world, not many are traveling outside of their residing neighborhoods, or even have the ability to. Being able to market your business locally and digitally is now more important than ever. Even not in times of global pandemics local digital marketing is essential. It can increase your customer base, revenue, and overall competitive advantage. Here are 5 tips for successfully going local with your digital marketing strategy. 

1. Optimize Your Site for Mobile 

Today, this is important for any business, but for local businesses it’s even more essential. Users looking for local service or products are much more likely to do a search on a mobile device over a desktop. Having a mobile-optimized website ensures users won’t leave due to inconveniences. Google has even updated their mobile algorithm so that sites that aren’t mobile-friendly may not even fire in the search results. Some tips for optimizing your site include:

  • Simplifying your content and number of pages 
  • Choose a reliable web host
  • Avoid java and flash 
  • Ensure your page load time is low 
  • Redesign or eliminate pop-ups 
  • Utilizing Google Ad extensions 

2. Create Local Business Pages 

Create business pages on Google My Business, Yelp, Facebook, Bing, and Maps. These are the types of results that rank best when local searches are performed. They’re also the types of pages users will look for and trust when searching. It’s important to remember to consistently keep these accounts updated. You don’t want to just create these pages and forget them. Inactive pages can make users weary that you’re unreliable or even out of business. 

3. Encourage Reviews from Local Customers 

Once you have these pages created, you want to start driving reviews, recommendations, and ratings. Besides word-of-mouth recommendations, social proof is one of the most persuasive elements you can leverage when promoting your business. Rarely do customers leave reviews on their own, so you have to get proactive and ask. Some strategies to drive reviews include:

  • Send follow up emails: Following someone receiving your product or service, send an email inquiring if they would be willing to leave a review on your Facebook, Google My Business, Yelp, etc. 
  • Include a note in the package you send your products in: Today, a handwritten note can mean a lot. Including one in your package that thanks the customer for their business and asks for a review is an effective way to get positive responses.
  • Remind followers on social media: Remind your followers to review your products or service. You only want to do this every so often because you don’t want to be overbearing or annoying. You don’t need to offer any incentives, just explain why reviews matter and why you’re asking for their help.

4. Utilize Locally Optimized Keywords 

To identify which keywords are successful, it takes some time and research. You have to test different keywords and combinations to determine which people use when searching for local businesses. Make sure you add the city or region names to your industry-relevant terms. This is an established method to generate localized search phrases. If you’re using paid search ads, you should use geo-targeting. This will limit where your ads are displayed to specified areas.

5. Connect with Other Local Businesses 

It can also be helpful to associate with other local and trusted businesses. Reach out to other businesses in your area that would find your relationship mutually beneficial. Explain that you can share each other’s business on social media, leave positive reviews for each other, and utilize backlinks. Backlinks are links from one website to a page on another website, and can be very beneficial from an SEO perspective. This can be accomplished through more than just other business’s sites. Consider  joining your local Chamber of Commerce and get listed on their online directories which include a link to your website. Another area of interest and value are .gov and .org. If your city’s website lists businesses by sector or service type make sure your business is listed. This will give your website added value. One thing to keep in mind is that you only want to utilize reliable sites for this. If you try to just get as many backlinks as possible, it can be detected and possibly get your site restricted. The key is gradually accumulating quality links. 

More from Onimod Global

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Tips for Creating Effective Display Ads

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According to Google, Display Network sites reach over 90% of internet users worldwide. This presents a great opportunity to gain significant visibility for brands. Display ads have considerable potential, but to be effective they must be created correctly. When a display campaign is executed in the wrong way, marketers put themselves at risk of wasting large amounts of ad dollars. If you’re new to display ads or looking to improve performance, here are 5 tips for creating effective display ads. 

1. Use Rich Media 

Rich media helps engage consumers. This can be done with video, audio, or any element that encourages users to interact with the ad. One of the easiest ways to accomplish this is with HTML5 ads. HTML5 ads enable animation, and interactive content, but are also responsive/adaptive, meaning that your design will look good across any browser, OS, or device. These ads can be created easily inside of Google Web Designer. Rich media allows for your ads to stand out and has been proved to grab users’ attention.  EMarketer research shows that brands experience higher levels of engagement (16.2%) using rich media ads compared to static banners.

2. Use Responsive Ads 

Using responsive ads ensures you’re making it as easy as possible for your ads to be shown across the Display Network. Using responsive ads saves you time creating different versions of your ads for different devices. Responsive ads will automatically adjust the size of your ad for different types of devices, such as mobile, tablet and desktops, and can fit in almost any available ad space. They can also be used with dynamic remarketing. This is done by attaching a feed to your campaigns. Responsive ads then show personalized content to users from the feed you control. 

3. Use Clear and Compelling Headlines, Ad Copy, and CTA’s

For best results, your headline should be clear, simple, and describe your offering or brand. Avoid generic or click-bait messaging and using all caps. Your description should be easy to understand and make it clear why it’s worth clicking on. Creating a strong call-to-action is always essential when creating an effective ad. Marketers have to tell users what they should do following clicking on the ad. This can be extremely simple, such as “sign up now” or “request a quote today.” Google gives examples of best and worst practices when it comes to headlines and text. 

Source: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/1722134?hl=en 

4. Provide a Relevant Landing Page 

One of the biggest mistakes a marketer can make when creating any type of campaign is sending users to their homepage or an irrelevant landing page. If a user goes as far as to click on your ad, you don’t want to send them to a page where they then have to further search for the information they expect to find. Your CTA should take users straight to a page associated with what you ultimately want them to do. For example, if your ad text says “Call us,” be sure to include your business phone number on the landing page. If your ad text says “Limited time offer,” be sure to point people to that promotion on the landing page.

5. Create Multiple Ads per Ad Group

Best practice involves testing out multiple ad variations. Google suggests creating 3 to 4 ads per ad group, trying out different messages and different images to see which perform best with your target audience. With Google Ads it will immediately show which ads are better performing for which group, but it’s best to run the tests long enough to get the most accurate data. 

Conclusion 

Rates per click are generally lower on the Display Network. Which is why to produce high performing display ads, you need to incorporate all of the features above, and then some. Creating successful display campaigns may take some extra work, but the results are worth it. If you need assistance with creating display ads, or in any area of Google Ads, allow Onimod Global to help! We are a trusted Google Partner and specialize in search, mobile, video, display, and shopping advertising. 

Take a look at how we’ve helped other companies, learn more about what we can do for you, and become a client today. 

Utilizing Google’s Lead Form Extensions

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In late October of 2019 Google confirmed they were rolling out a new lead generation form extension. The goal of the extension is to help more mobile users convert and easily provide their contact information without ever leaving the SERP. “A fast, mobile-optimized experience makes form submission easy and eliminates the extra step of navigating to your mobile site lead form,” as explained by Google. The feature has been slowly rolled out to marketers in BETA over the last few months. 

What Are Google Lead Form Extensions? 

Before making a purchase, customers often want to contact your business to receive more information, but filling out forms can be difficult on mobile. Lead form extensions simplify the form fill process to generate quality leads for your business. They’re designed to attract customers with a strong call-to-action, which can be accessed after filling out the short form without leaving Search. The extension shows beneath your search ad on mobile and tablet devices. Marketers can customize the forms with their own titles, description, and which pieces of information they require from users. This could include:

  • Name 
  • Email 
  • Phone number 
  • Postal code 

If the user is signed into a Google account they’ll reach a form with already pre-populated contact details and can convert immediately. Additionally, marketers can design and upload their own background image for the lead form and customize the message shown after submission. Marketers then have the option to deliver their call-to-action in the form of a website link or direct download. Like all extensions, it may not always show and is more likely to show in top positions. Lastly, you only pay when a user clicks on the extension. 

How to Create a Lead Form Extension:

Once you’re inside a search campaign, visit the “Ads and Extensions” tab located on the left handrail. If your account has access to this beta, clicking on the blue “+” will give you this drop down, with a noted “Lead form extension” offer. When creating your lead form you first design how it will appear beneath your ad. Some of the choices you will be given include: 

 

  • Call-to-action: Google gives the options of Get Quote, Apply Now, Sign Up, Contact Us, Subscribe, Download, Book Now, or Get Offer.
  • Extension text: Here you can provide a 30 character message supplementing your call-to-action. It will appear right below the CTA on the SERP.

Next, you create the form users are directed to after clicking on the extension. Here you chose and provide:

  • The information you want to collect from users 
  • Your business name (30 characters): Shown at the top of the form.
  • A headline (30 characters): Shown immediately below the headline, serving as your primary CTA in the form. 
  • A description (200 characters): The main body of the form, allowing you to provide additional details about your offer. 
  • A link to your company’s privacy policy. 

Following the form you create a submission message. This includes a 200 character description and an optional additional call-to-action. You can then either store the leads in your ad account, or feed them directly to your CRM. It’s important to note that Google only stores your leads for 30 days, so you would have to download them frequently. 

Are Lead Form Extensions Right for Your Campaign?  

Lead form extensions are a great option, but may not be right for every campaign. They do have some limitations and aren’t available for all ad types. If your ad is for adult-oriented content, alcohol-related content, gambling-related content, politics, healthcare, or medicine it is not eligible for lead form extensions. Additionally, lead form extensions will only appear on mobile or tablet devices. If the majority of your traffic and conversions come through desktop, going through the trouble to set up lead form extensions may not be worth it. They also can only be controlled at the campaign level, not the account or ad group level. Only first-party advertisers or third-party agencies with a well-established, direct relationship with the products or services being offered, can use lead form ads. Affiliate networks or lead generation businesses will not be allowed to use the feature. Lastly, usage of the personal information you collect with lead form extensions must comply with Google’s data collection policies and local legal requirements. 

Final Thoughts 

If none of the policies or requirements present an issue with your company or campaign, then there’s no reason to not take advantage of this new feature. Capturing mobile conversions can be difficult, the lead form extension works to make that as easy as possible. At Onimod Global we are experts in SEM and as a Google Partner, we’re trusted by Google to excel with their products. If you need assistance in any area of Google Ads, we’re your team. 

Take a look at how we’ve helped other companies, and learn more about what we can do for you!

 

Optimizing for Voice Search in 2020

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It’s estimated that 50% of searches will be done with voice search in 2020. Optimizing for voice search is no longer a latest marketing trend–it is a necessity. Those who ignore its popularity risk losing a lot of ground compared to those who have already positioned themselves to capitalize on it. As voice recognition continues to improve, and usage of voice assistants like Alexa, Siri, and Google continues to grow, it only becomes more essential. If you haven’t started already, here are 4 ways to start optimizing for voice search in 2020. 

Optimize for Question-Based Keywords 

It’s important to figure out how your audience speaks when searching for your business and products. Voice searches are more conversational and longer than text based searches. Most start with who, what, why, how, etc. Google and other search engines continuously crawl the internet to look for answers to these types of questions. To rank on the top of SERPs for voice searches, long-tailed keywords are key. While long-tailed keywords aren’t a new concept, the way they’re being used and why is changing. Before, they were mostly for the purpose of SEO. Digital marketers are now gravitating towards longer phrases for search queries. Those that have applied them have seen excellent results in search engine rankings. There are a variety of online tools that assist in coming up with relevant long-tailed phrases and optimizing content around them. Answer the Public and BuzzSumo are few examples. 

Optimize for Mobile and Featured Snippets 

Optimizing your site for mobile only becomes more and more crucial for businesses. When it comes to optimizing for voice search, it’s even more important. Most voice searches take place through mobile devices. A few things you can do to ensure your site is mobile-friendly are:

  • Make sure your site is responsive. 
  • Avoid software that’s uncommon for mobile, like flash. 
  • Make the information people look for easy to find. 
  • Use large and easy to read font. 
  • Compress images and CSS. 
  • Make sure links are far enough apart to avoid tapping. 
  • Perform regular mobile and page load time tests.

You’ll also find a strong correlation between voice search and featured snippets. Featured snippets are selected search results featured on top of Google’s organic results, just below the ads. They aim to directly answer the user’s question and give additional brand exposure to the company that’s featured. Getting a featured snippet is difficult, but not impossible. You can increases your chances by:

  • Making an entire search query the title of a content piece. 
  • Using the question explicitly in the content. 
  • Summarizing the answer in a single paragraph. 
  • Using lists when relevant. 
  • Using question and answer formatting. 
  • Re-optimize pages that already rank highly. 

Pay Attention to Readability of Content 

As we mentioned previously, people use a more natural and conversational tone when performing voice searches. To appear in search results, your content has to match the search terms. Avoid complicated jargon or lengthy responses. The simpler the language, the better the chances of your content appearing in the search results. On average, Google gives voice search results of only 29 words. Using clear, concise content is key when it comes to voice search optimization. There are a variety of online tools that check the readability of your content, such as Hemingway.  

Utilize Google My Business and Implement Local SEO 

Another extremely beneficial tool when it comes to voice search is Google My Business. Having a listing makes it easier for customers to find you and get more information. It’s also important to use the right keywords to describe your location. One of the most common searches people do is “___ near me.” Strategically inserting phrases like “near me” in Meta descriptions, internal links, anchor texts, and title tags increases chances of resulting for those searches. If there’s a well-known landmark near your business, it may help to include that somewhere as well. Structure your data in a way that makes it easy for users to get as much information as possible. It’s essential to have contact information, open hours, etc. This all makes it easier for your data to be processed and for people to find you. 

Conclusion 

The use of voice search will only increase in popularity as time goes on. It might not be used by everyone just yet, but that’s where we’re trending. Whether marketers like it or not, it can no longer be ignored. To be digitally successful brands have to start optimizing for mobile, voice, search, etc. 

More from Onimod Global 

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!

What You Should be Excluding from Your PPC Campaigns to Utilize Your Ad Budget

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When building PPC campaigns, marketers usually focus on what should be included in targeting attributions. However, campaign exclusions are equally as important. Negative audiences, keywords, and other exclusions help to reduce wasted spend ensure people see the right messaging at the right stage of the funnel, and prevent users from being retargeted with products too many times. With targeting capabilities only getting more advanced, why not take advantage and utilize your budget to its fullest potential? 

Audiences You Should Exclude from PPC Campaigns:

Customer Support Seekers 

Users browsing customer support pages are likely existing customers looking for assistance, not shopping for more products. Nuances may apply depending on the goal of your campaign. For example, if you’re trying to upsell, existing customers looking for support may be a good target audience. If you offer premium support, you can also promote that through remarketing. In general, these are not users you want included in your campaign. You can build retargeting audiences based on URLs associated with the support section of your site to exclude them from your campaigns. 

Job Seekers 

Those looking for open job positions are likely not going to be product or service purchasers. So you don’t want to waste your budget by serving them ads for your latest promotion. Usually you  can identify these people by building a URL-based audience from your site’s career page. If you link to a third-party site for job applications, see if you can pixel that site, or track clicks to that site as a Google Analytics event to then build an audience for exclusion.

Past Converters 

These are not necessarily current customers, but have engaged in a conversion action, such as submitting a contact form or clicked on an ad in the past. Whether or not you target this audience depends on your business goal. If you have a multi-step funnel to work people up to the point of sale, then you would probably want to continue targeting this audience. If that’s the case they should still be put into their own category, as you don’t want to show them the same ad as before. This can be accomplished by tracking who as made it to your ‘Thank You’ page, then excluding that group from your original campaign. 

Current Customers

Whether or not you target this audience depends on your business goal as well. Sometimes you may want to sell current customers on additional features or new products. It’s often valuable to retarget past customers because they may be recurring revenue. Best practice would be to put past purchases into their own segment, see how they perform, and bid accordingly. Otherwise, you can create exclusions by uploading a customer match list of customer emails. If your product requires a login, you can build an audience based on people who have accessed pages that would indicate their status as a paying customer.

Additional Exclusions to Consider:

Your Own Company’s IP Address 

You always hope that your own employees aren’t clicking on your ads, but it can happen. But if even the ad doesn’t get clicked, it can still be wasting budget. Every impression counts. If Google detects your ads being seen, but not engaged, your campaign can be penalized. An impression without a click lowers your CTR, which can lower your quality score. This can then increase CPC, leading to fewer clicks and fewer leads. It’s best to be proactive and just block your company’s IP address completely, avoiding wasted ad dollars. 

Non-Business Hours 

Some may believe running ads 24/7 is how you would capture the most business, but this is not the case. It’s rare for companies to get many conversions between midnight and 6am. If your intake team isn’t capable of handling leads after hours, don’t waste your budget on clicks you can’t convert. It’s best to only run ads during business hours to ensure all calls can be answered and emails can be immediately responded to. 

Mobile Apps 

This is an issue most common among display campaigns. While you want to show your ads for mobile searches, you probably don’t want them getting shown within apps. When ads show up on game apps they’re usually either immediately ignored or clicked accidentally. Both which aren’t favorable. Now imagine what happens when a child is playing on a smartphone or tablet somewhere. Below is a screenshot of just a few placements from ONE account for the few short months a Display Campaign was active: 

Source: WordStream

At a top level look, it seems that your campaign is getting great clicks and impressions. When in reality it’s completely irrelevant traffic and wasted ad dollars. If you’re only getting a few irrelevant placements you can just exclude specific apps, otherwise you can exclude all mobile apps from your campaigns. This might be the best decision, as they can be costly clicks unlikely to convert. 

Finals Thoughts

Developing the right audience targets takes analyzation and constant A/B testing. And if your business is seasonal your audience targets may often change. It’s important to remember what you include and exclude from your campaign all depends on your campaign and business goal. 

More From Onimod Global 

At Onimod Global we’re experts in all areas of digital marketing from SEM and Web Dev to Social Media and Content Marketing.  Take a look at how we’ve helped other companies, and learn more about what we can do for you!

B2B Paid Search Tips

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The B2B conversion funnel can be very different than that of B2C. The purchasing decision and sales cycle as a whole can take much longer. First, because there is more than one decision maker. When purchases are made, they’re usually signed off by multiple stakeholders. Once they do sign off, contracts need to get sent through legal departments as well. The average B2B sales cycle is  84 days, meaning it could be a long time before the company is actually using your product or service. B2B marketing can seem a little more complicated than B2C at first, but with the right strategies and tactics in place, it can easily be simplified. 

B2B Paid Search Tips:

Multiple messaging points across the funnel

Because there are usually multiple people that have to approve the purchase decision, it’s important to have relevant messages for the appropriate audience at each stage of the funnel. Those that are in the early exploring stages are likely to respond to upper-funnel messaging, that don’t require a strong push to sell. As they get further into the funnel and are looking for specific reviews or comparing costs, they are usually more inclined to convert when presented with a strong CTA. 

Branded and competitor keywords 

If you don’t organically rank number one for your brand searches or aren’t well-known in your industry, bidding on your branded keywords is a must. Even if you are, bidding on branded keywords can have many benefits, especially when targeting B2B searchers. It gives you full control over your message and allows you to direct users to the ideal landing page. 

It’s expected to have generic keywords relevant to your services, but you might want to drop in competitor-based keywords as well. CPCs may be higher than branded keywords, but they are often cheaper than generic. When a user searches for a competitor, they’re likely just looking for what they have to offer. Bidding on their keywords gives users more results and alternatives. This can be especially beneficial if you’re not well-known organically. Since your target market may not be aware of you yet, bidding on competitors they are searching for will get you immediate visibility. 

It’s important to keep a close eye on your keyword performance. If CPCs for competitor phrases are getting too high, or soaking up all your budget without producing conversions, you may no longer want to bid on those phrases. A/B test many sets of keywords, find which perform best, and allocate your budget appropriately. 

Tracking and attribution 

The most difficult part of running B2B paid search can be tracking and attributing your leads, clients, and sales back to specific campaigns, audiences, keywords, etc. Identifying where sales and revenue come should be clear with an ecommerce strategy, as long as tracking is set up correctly. Tracking and attribution for lead generation campaigns can get a bit more complicated. They key is collecting data from multiple sources, then bringing it back together to get a clear picture of performance. 

There are many different tools and strategies to track and attribute paid search performance. A simple way to track performance is by directly dropping UTM data into a URL. If you’re unfamiliar with this practice, Google’s URL Builder Tool is a good place to start. This strategy allows developers to pull the data through the website form completions, pull that into your CRM, then complete the attribution process separately. 

There are many attribution models. The most popular used on Google are data-drive, time-decay, and position-based. Data-driven uses the publisher’s machine learning algorithms to precisely calculate and assign partial credit to different touch points in your funnel. While this is an effective strategy, there are volume requirements. Those Being 15,000 clicks and 600 conversions over the past 30 days and 10,000 clicks and 400 conversions per month. The other models may be better for businesses that have smaller volume. 

Time decay assigns credit to different touch points through the funnel, giving more weight to the most recent touch points, and less for the older ones. This may be most beneficial for highly competitive B2B spaces, as closed deals hold more importance than initial leads. Position-based attribution assigns 40% credit to the top of the funnel, 40% to the bottom, and 20% to the middle of the funnel for a conversion. Since this strongly emphasizes top and bottom funnel interactions, it makes sense for businesses where initial leads are just as important as closed deals. 

Re-Marketing 

In B2B, it’s especially important to nurture leads once they have entered into the sales funnel, but with relevant messages. You don’t want to serve these prospects with top-funnel messages that are no longer apply to them. That’s why you should create re-marketing lists for every stage of your sales funnel. The messages should differ slightly based on where the prospect left off in the sales funnel. It can be beneficial to create separate landing pages for re-marketing campaigns as well. This allows you to craft your message and specifically target those that have seen the original ad, but didn’t initially convert. These strategies can be used for post-purchase marketing as well. It’s always more expensive to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one. There are plenty of opportunities to turn first-time purchasers into long-term, loyal clients. Consider cross-selling, up-selling, renewing, limited offers, etc. 

Conclusion 

At first glance, B2B marketing can seem much more complex than B2C. Longer sales cycles and multiple purchase decision makers can seem intimidating, but it just requires a different outlook. Take a holistic look at your firm’s entire sales journey. Collate the relevant data for every touchpoint and start crafting the campaigns that will fit best, ultimately driving more leads and sales. 

Sometimes, even B2B companies need outside help. At Onimod Global we are experts in all aspects of SEM. With our expertise and unique cross-channel digital marketing campaign strategies, we can power entire corporate marketing departments, or provide custom solutions for local businesses. If you’re struggling with paid search, SEO, social media, automation, web dev, or any other aspects of digital marketing, Onimod Global is here to help. 

Learn more about what we do, take a look at some of our work, or start your conversation with us today!

Marketers’ Top Google AdWords Mistakes

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Google AdWords is one of the most used digital marketing tools today. Even though its use is widespread, optimization is still difficult for some. Creating a successful AdWords campaign is time-consuming and takes detailed, exhaustive work. It may be demanding, but when carried out properly, these campaigns have the possibility to bring in a mass of sales and business opportunities. Not to mention the inverse can be scary for marketers: spending too much on an underperforming campaign. The average small business spends $9,000 and $10,000 on Google paid search campaigns. With marketers allocating so much budget to AdWords campaigns, it’s essential to know how to effectively use them, and to be aware of the mistakes to avoid. 

5 Most Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them: 

Irrelevant Keywords or Wrong Match Type 

Keywords irrelevant to your ad copy or that have low search volume can cause your ads to have low quality scores. Along with using irrelevant keywords, you might be using too many. While you want to try to show up in as many searches as possible, you want to make sure they’re relevant to your product or service. Bidding on too many or irrelevant keywords will immediately drain your ad spend and could leave you conversion-less, especially if you’re using broad-match type. This match type allows ads to be triggered on a broad range of variations of your keywords, such as synonyms, possible misspellings, plural and singular forms, related searches, etc. 

The match mistake is an easy fix, as you can quickly go into the campaign settings to change it. First you should do your research on which type would be best for your particular campaign and target audience, such as phrase or exact match. Choosing the right keyword set can be a tedious task. It takes a lot of analysis, as well as trial and error. It’s important to choose keywords that are also used on your landing page, as that will increase your quality score. But it’s even more important to be aware of what your customers are actually searching. Users are much more likely to click on ads that include words and phrases that match exactly the query they typed in. Getting your list of keywords as tight and relevant as possible will help to drive conversions at the lowest possible cost. 

Not Utilizing Negative Keywords

Even after you have a solid list of keywords, there’s still a possibility of your ads getting shown for irrelevant or even negative searches. For example, you’re selling Axe deodorant and you’re bidding on the word “axe.” Someone could search “tree axe,” and your ad could fire. So you would want to apply “tree” as a negative keyword to ensure Google doesn’t trigger your ad for any searches involving that word. AdWords automatically gives you a list of suggested negative keywords to get started, but you shouldn’t leave it at that. Consistently watch your search terms report. Consider adding any keywords that come in for irrelevant queries, as well as expensive CPCs. If there’s a keyword that’s costing you high clicks and isn’t converting, you may want to pull it. 

Minimal Use of Ad Extensions 

Most users of Google AdWords are aware of ad extensions, but not of the full plethora or impact they can have. Ad extensions allow you to get more space on the results page, include more valuable information to your ad copy, send users directly where you want, give them the option to call you directly, and more. They can even have a factor in your overall ad rank. Google reported that adding a new ad extension typically increases click-through rates by 10-15%. Finding the right combination of relevant ad extensions can increase click through rates, lower cost per click, and improve positioning. Consider these popular extensions and their benefits: 

  • Callouts: 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: These 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 Snippets: 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.

Not Using Landing Pages

Sending PPC traffic to a homepage is a huge mistake that some marketers are still unaware of. Most people that are performing searches are looking for an immediate solution to a problem. Sending them to your homepage means they will have to spend even more time searching through your site for what they actually want. If they don’t immediately find it, they’ll likely bounce and search elsewhere. If a user already went as far as clicking on your ad, make it easy as possible for them to actually convert. With that being said, you also need to make sure they’re being directed to appropriate landing pages. If you can, try to create a designated landing page for each keyword set that answer the same user intent, and make sure there is a clear call-to-action on each. You can learn more about creating high converting landing pages here. 

Not Testing Ads or AdCopy 

Testing is widely underutilized when it comes to AdWords campaigns. It is often dismissed as time-consuming and unnecessary, but you really don’t know how an ad is performing unless you can compare it to another. Create ads with various headings, keywords, body copy, placements, landing pages, etc. To get the best results from A/B testing remember to:

  • Only change one factor per test.
  • Have a clear hypothesis. 
  • Perform the test long enough to gain accurate results. 

 

Final Thoughts 

Every marketer makes mistakes, but being proactive can help you to avoid the simple ones. All these mistakes are easy to make, but they’re also relatively quick fixes and easy to learn from. Running AdWords campaigns can be tedious, but when carried out correctly the results can be monumental. That’s why it can be beneficial to outsource for your paid search needs. At Onimod Global we are experts in SEM. As a Google Partner, we are a digital marketing company, trusted by Google to excel with their products. We are experts in paid search on major search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo, as well as in social advertising across all platforms. We work as your own in-house digital marketing team. 

Learn more about what we do, or become a client today!