by Marianna Muscat | Oct 28, 2020 | PPC
How can you get more out of paid search advertising? Let’s discuss ad conception, creation & how that ties in with your landing page.
Pay-Per-Click, or PPC for short, is the model used by Google and other advertising services. The model charges the user’s account for every click on an ad. The amount charged is dependent on the competition for a specific keyword and the user’s budget for the ad campaign.
You can gauge competition for a keyword by using the Google Ads Keyword Planner.
Make sure you have a Google account so you can use the feature. If you have a Gmail account, you can link that to any other Google services.
The keyword “digital marketing” has average monthly searches of 1K to 10K and medium competition. At the time of writing the top of page bid low range is R9.55 and the high range is R41.81.
What this means is to be guaranteed of outbidding the competition for the keyword, you need to bid R42 or higher. Generally, the bidding process is fair by giving all bids within the low and high range a fair chance. The number of impressions your ad receives will depend on your budget.
Please note the information above pertains to the South African market. Targeting different territories will impact on the competitiveness, search volume, and cost.
Keyword research is the cornerstone of any copywriting. If you find a keyword with a high search volume and low competition, you’re well on your way to success.
Creating The Paid Search Advertising Campaign
Okay, you have the perfect keyword. What now?
Decide on your budget, both Google ads and Microsoft Advertising allows different ways to set your budget. The most common method is setting a daily budget. Both engines will then aim to keep your spend within your daily limit.
For this article, we’ll be focusing more on Google Adsense.
Choose a budget of at least R100 a day. If your daily budget is too low, you might only get one click per day. That makes it hard to gauge success. You can set up a maximum cost-per-click (CPC).
Setting up a maximum CPC will help you gauge over time whether your bid is sufficient for your industry.
Great, you have a budget in mind.
Consider Your Goal
Placing your first ad is a lot like starting a new blog. Be prepared to make some mistakes and don’t expect overnight success. Since the platforms allow for various ad types, you’ll have to consider your end-goal.
Some of the types of campaigns to consider are:
- Generating sales
- Leads
- Website traffic
- Product and brand consideration
- Brand awareness and reach
- App promotion
Whatever you decide on, remember the benefits of split testing or A/B testing. You may want to generate sales, but you can run the same ad to get website traffic. Sometimes one ad type will outperform the other.
The most experienced digital marketers know this, and they always split test. It’s essential for blog headlines, email subject lines, and ads. In time you will get better at it.
The simplest and most common in the beginning is targeting website traffic with search-based ads.
Continue Creating Your Campaign
Name your campaign (for example, men’s watches) and continue setting up. You’ll need to choose the network for the ad to run on. Google will display ads in search or across other relevant sites for your niche.
In the case of the latter, that approach has become less successful over the years. In part due to ad blockers, and part because fewer webmasters are using Google ads on their sites.
Set up your start date and end date. Without an end date, Google will continue running your campaign indefinitely.
Now you need to choose your target location. If you’re only selling in the South African market, or your business is based here, you may only want to promote ads in South Africa. Similarly, if you own a furniture business in Cape Town, you can (and should) narrow down even further.
Narrowing down your target demographic can end up costing you more money. So again, consider A/B testing here to see what works for you.
Creating The Ad Group
After setting up your campaign, you can now create the ad group. Your keyword planning from earlier comes into play here. Hopefully, you have done your research by now.
Some other planners to consider are Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest or Keywordtool.io.
Using brackets around the keyword will tell Google to look for an exact match instead of a broad match. Google ads describe them like this:
- Keyword = broad match
- “keyword” = phrase match
- [keyword] = exact match
Creating The Ad Itself
After setting up the ad group, you can now create the ad itself. You can create multiple different ads within the same ad group. Remember, your daily budget covers one or multiple ads. So, if you plan on running more than one ad, consider raising your daily budget.
At this point, you’ll be able to see which ad performs best. You can either tweak the others or remove them and focus the budget on the best performing ad.
Google will allow you to create multiple headlines and will display a preview of your ad on the side. Keep tweaking and keep your keyword and goal in mind when creating headlines.
Add a description for your ad. Now you’re ready to publish.
The Landing Page Can Make or Break Your Ad Campaign
There’s a couple of things that make a landing page successful. The first is brevity and a focused approach. Great design helps, of course. You want to entice the customer to take action by offering the value of your product or service as succinctly as possible.
Secondly, make the visitor understand what you’re selling immediately. Make sure your headline urges the visitor to read on.
A landing page with a simple design and direct message increases your conversion rate.
Your entire campaign will fall flat if you don’t optimise the page load time. Make sure it’s quick to load.
Ensure the ad matches up with the landing page’s message. If you have a message mismatch, you will immediately lose visitor trust. Combine it with a strong call-to-action.
Don’t lose the message by showcasing too many features. Instead, show people why they should trust you with testimonials and real solutions to real problems.
Conclusion
Paid search advertising is only as effective as the landing page. Be sure to master both and make them the best they can be.
by Marianna Muscat | Oct 15, 2020 | PPC
We all know that feeling when you login to your various ad dashboards to see how your Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads are doing and seeing a sudden spike in CTR and a drop in ad spend. This is part of why we run these ads, isn’t it? To feel that smile stretching across your face as you see the first results – even if they might only start paying off in a few days’ time since launching an ad campaign. It’s become an effective tool for inbound marketing, but with so many platforms popping up and changing ad choices, which ones are considered to yield the best results?
Our list of top PPC platforms
Since Google is the most popular search engine, it only makes sense that this platform will remain one of the top options for online advertising.
Your distinguishing advantage with Amazon is that you have an audience that is already intent on buying.
Not as powerful as Google AdWords, but keep in mind that Microsoft installs Bing as its default browser on Windows 10, so its reach is wider than you might assume.
Being the most popular social media network in the world, Facebook is still one of the top places for targeted ads.
Perfect for concise and powerful ad copy, with various campaign types.
If you’re hoping to get your content in front of industry professionals or for B2B connections, this is the answer.
As a side-note, PPC trends for 2020 suggest that using video content in advertising will continue to dominate, simply because it has the ability to retain attention and elevate brand identity.
If you would like to consult with a digital marketing agency on the perfect PPC strategy for your business, contact WSI OMS today.
by Francois Muscat | Oct 8, 2020 | PPC, SEO
The change in lifestyle brought about by COVID-19 has highlighted the need for SEO services more than ever. Even demographics who would previously not have been big e-commerce shoppers have been persuaded to go online as the pandemic has kept them indoors. This makes logical sense, and the stats prove it:
- Compared to the same period last year, U.S. e-commerce sales in July increased a whopping 55%.
- As a total of retail sales in the U.S., e-commerce more than doubled from Q1 2020 to Q2. “That’s over a decade of growth in the space of just a few months as reported by the U.S. Department of Commerce.”
- Year on year, Amazon sales rose by 40% for Q2 2020 to $88.9 billion.
SEO and PPC tips for e-commerce success
1. Create a strategy for SEO and PPC synergy
Google Shopping has reintroduced free listings that are generated by the Google Merchant Center. Maximize your holiday shopping campaign by aligning your organic search (SEO) and paid search (PPC).
Use your PPC spend to target high-value queries on channels where paid listings lead the results.
Seek out opportunities to use SEO to rank for searches that attract a high click-through rate.
2. Analyze Search Trends
Take note of the top search queries in your category. Utilize the results to keep SEO core to your strategy, influence your marketing messaging, and inspire your paid search.
3. Plug Fresh Content
Use SEO analysis as a guideline to create current, pandemic-related content that develops trust with your readers by showing your understanding and support.
PPC can then be used to attract some immediate traffic and fill in any gaps. The best part? Informational queries are generally cheaper per click – extending your budget.
4. Test with PPC
Paid search provides feedback on what type of message and imagery works best – almost immediately. Use PPC to test various new ideas and tweak your SEO accordingly.
5. Lengthen Your Marketing Funnel
The more familiar people are becoming with using search engines, the more diverse their reasons for doing so.
Take time to nurture prospects during the consideration stage of the buyer’s journey using an appropriate blend of SEO and PPC efforts.
6. Draw your audience a picture
As part of your search plan, make sure to include images and videos to keep up with the increasingly visual nature of Google. Keep your visual content consistent in SEO and PPC.
7. Leverage Ad Extensions
Take advantage of callouts, structured snippets, and other ad extensions – such as Google’s beta “Curbside pickup” badge – to share extra information about your products and services.
8. Add to Google
As Amazon and Walmart’s advertising improves, you may want to spread your e-commerce budget across all retailers and search engines – adjusting as their ROI becomes evident.
9. Avoid Google
Consider how you can optimize your PPC spend and SEO efforts with alternatives to Google. Specialist search engines are slightly less competitive as they already have built-in customer intent. Video search engines are increasingly gaining popularity – an exciting way to showcase what you have to offer.
10. Make the Most of Automation
Wouldn’t it be awesome to get real-time insights in the face of such an unsure time? Automated rules and AI smart bidding for PPC does just that with a flexible solution to boost your SEO and PPC strategy.
If you are looking for a holistic approach to increase online leads and sales, WSI OMS can help. Contact us for more information today.
by Francois Muscat | Sep 23, 2020 | PPC
If you want to benefit from pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, you need to have clarity and intent when integrating it as a digital marketing tool. The most challenging aspect of PPC advertising is that it is by no means an exact science. There is a lot of experimenting involved in getting the correct formula for your business and budget. The rewards, however, can be substantial with Google reporting up to double revenue for the budget spent in some cases. Let’s take a closer look.
5 mistakes to avoid to fast-track success in PPC advertising
If you’re set on success in PPC advertising, here are the most common mistakes that business owners tend to make (and suggestions to help you fix them).
1. Neglecting the data
Before making any hard and fast decisions about how your campaign is doing, and which ads and keywords to target, carefully analyse all the available data. You may find that you are doing well overall, with plenty of clicks and conversions, and so you might decide to keep your current spread of ads as it is. However, parts of your campaign may be working well, while others are not working at all. One or two of your ads may be carrying your entire campaign. Analysing the data allows you to shift your strategy and spending to maximise your results.
2. Avoiding negative keywords
Many marketers either forget, neglect, or choose to ignore negative keywords. This can be a big mistake. While it may seem counterintuitive to target keywords that are meant to keep people away from your website, it is actually one of the best ways to establish your niche and make sure that you attract only visitors who are most likely to become paying clients. You would be doing both yourself and internet users a favour by establishing these limits at the very beginning. Yes, negative keywords will lead to less traffic, but they will eliminate only the non-converting visitors and ensure that you get the right traffic.
3. Forgetting about ad extensions
Ad extensions can increase your click-through-rate by 10-20% – and they don’t cost any extra – yet many people forget to include them in their campaigns. Ad extensions can increase your ad’s reach, they can provide better value for money, and they offer more ways to reach you while increasing your online visibility. They may include contact details, site links, invitations to download an app (if you have one) or testimonials from your customers, among other things. Be sure to include as many of them as you can.
4. Not bidding on your own brand’s keywords
You should always run at least one campaign that is dedicated to your own brand keywords. The main advantages of doing so are that brand keywords are generally much cheaper, yield higher search scores and convert much better than generic keywords. By neglecting to set up brand keyword PPC campaigns, you miss out on opportunities to capture your market.
5. Incorrect keyword targeting
Sub-optimum keyword selection is a mistake that many companies make in their search engine optimisation (SEO) efforts. It can be particularly costly when it comes to PPC, as choosing the wrong keywords can result in either no hits at all or hits that don’t convert to sales, but which you still have to pay for. One of the best ways to target your PPC ads is with long-tail keywords. The main characteristic that distinguishes long-tail keywords from short-tail ones is that they usually consist of two or more words that resemble detailed queries. In contrast, short-tail keywords generally consist of single words or phrases without context. Using long-tail keywords will narrow your traffic considerably and help ensure that your PPC costs are worthwhile.
As with SEO marketing and content marketing, your PPC advertising strategy can command a large part of your budget, and you need to be sure that you’re getting an optimal ROI. If you want to ensure the best results, connect with WSI OMS for professional assistance. We will help you to improve your PPC strategy and get the best return for your budget.
by Francois Muscat | Sep 8, 2020 | PPC
Pay per click advertising should form part of any inbound marketing strategy to maximise the reach of the content being promoted. The two should work together to complement and enhance one another. Once pay per click and inbound marketing strategies are pushing in the same direction with the same goals, your business will reap significant rewards.
Aligning PPC and inbound marketing
While it is common to think of pay per click advertising and inbound marketing as separate strategies, the two can complement one another if used correctly. Paid advertising increases the prominence of your content and sends more people to your website where they can engage further with your inbound marketing content.
In order to run an effective pay per click advertising campaign, you should know who you are targeting, which keywords you would like to focus on and make use of data from testing and analytics to back those decisions up.
Rather than running general ads promoting your brand visibility in a pay per click campaign, use it to promote your strongest content instead, so that consumers are more likely to engage with it. This works best on social media where people are looking for interesting content rather than just information.
Paid adverts have been proven to work even once the customer knows what they are looking for, as long as the content is linked directly to a commercial opportunity. Make sure that your pay per click landing page is aligned to the content of the advert.
Any good digital marketing strategy should look to integrate pay per click and inbound marketing devices to make the most of the money you are investing in paid advertising and the organic SEO content you are creating to represent your brand.
Get in touch with WSI OMS today to get more insights into how to integrate PPC with your inbound marketing strategy.
by Marianna Muscat | Jul 15, 2020 | Digital Media Marketing, PPC, SEO, Social Media Marketing
Whether you’re a small business owner or a digital marketer working with a limited budget, you’re most likely trying to get the most value for your money when it comes to online marketing tools. Luckily, there are some great tools available to help you with most of your marketing activities, and many of them are free or incredibly affordable.
Online tools that every business owner or digital marketer should know of:
SEO Tools
SEO Book Tools
The latest tools from SEO Book will provide you with all the benefits of the expertise from across the marketplace. The site offers training courses, as well as audio and video content on the latest updates within the SEO marketplace. It also lists the latest tools for growing companies.
SmallSEOTools
Whether you’re looking to check the authority of a particular domain, conduct a reverse image search for your SEO campaign or check Alexa rankings, the options available through SmallSEOTools.com will provide the ideal resource.
SEOToolSet
SEOToolSet focuses on the in-depth data that your SEO campaigns need to thrive. Tools include the latest reporting options to gain insight on elements such as link analysis and domain indexing. The data revealed by these tools can help keep your firm moving forward toward its SEO objectives and driving efficiency within your campaigns.
Raven Tools
From finding and fixing errors within your SEO campaigns to getting rankings from Google, the options within Raven’s tools will keep your campaigns moving successfully forward. Raven’s standalone site-auditor is a great tool to quickly find and eliminate SEO flaws that could otherwise see your content penalised within the rankings.
WebCEO
WebCEO’s suite of SEO tools will provide you with enterprise-level features for comprehensive SEO campaign management. The company also offers tools for link detoxing and local SEO campaign management to keep your company connected to your local audiences.
Tools for content marketing
Outbrain
Outbrain helps optimise your content, amplify content reach, and ensures it connects with relevant audiences across your marketplace. You’ll achieve higher engagement across your campaigns and thereby maximise revenue growth over the long-term.
Curata
Curata is the ideal tool for a streamlined content production and analysis process. The solution helps you to drive content ideation while giving you clear data on the types of content most valuable to your qualified audiences. It also allows you to build a predictable content supply chain that takes pieces from the draft stage through to analysis and their use within the conversion optimisation process.
Ahrefs Content Explorer
Through the Ahrefs Content Explorer, you can learn the most popular content on any topic. The tool allows you to use filters and sort information via language, traffic, backlinks, and word count among other metrics so that you can hone in on the type of content that will best engage your high-value audience members.
Pay Per Click Tools
Spyfu
Gaining insight into how your competitors are using keywords within their PPC campaigns can help give you the advantage in the marketplace. Spyfu puts the latest market research at your disposal and keeps your team moving towards their ROI objectives within their PPC campaigns.
Unbounce
Getting engagement through your landing pages should ensure that your company achieves a swift ROI from invested marketing funds. Unbounce gives you the tools to build refined landing pages that continually deliver effective performance for your organisation.
iSpionage
Using iSpionage, you can begin to learn more about your competitors and the offers they’re presenting. The data delivered through the tool can help your team improve your offers and ensure a lasting return on investment for your campaign funds. Components such as iSpionage Campaign Watch give you clear insight on competitor actions, highlighting your competitors across both the desktop and mobile verticals.
SEMRush
Having access to a trusted data source for your PPC campaign can ensure your brand is continually moving forward. SEMrush combines a full range of campaign management components, such as search engine position tracking, competitive intelligence and backlink audits and analytics to ensure a constant flow of actionable data on campaign performance.
Tools for Social Media
Hootsuite
Helping companies manage their multiple social media platforms and providing them with clear data on campaign performance, Hootsuite is the market’s most trusted product for effective social media management. The solution also helps to track mentions to help growing brands retain control of their company’s reputation.
SproutSocial
SproutSocial helps brands plan, organise, and rollout content that engages a qualified audience and begins important conversations within the social media platforms. The system provides companies with qualitative data regarding their social media marketing performance to help them make more effective decisions when rolling out new content.
MeetEdgar
MeetEdgar is the social media content scheduling tool for the proactive marketing team. The system works to catalogue the best performing social media updates by category and then automatically shares the content with your audience based on when it’s most likely to gain the most traction online.
Tools for website analysis
SEO Analyzer
The SEO Analyzer from Neil Patel will provide you with concrete information about your SEO performance and how to improve your performance over time. The reports offered through the Analyser help pinpoint errors within your site’s SEO and highlight how to make quick, effective changes to support improved SEO performance.
Woorank
Woorank is ideal if you’ve got a number of pages to check. Work through content issues and analyse thousands of pages in minutes to review technical SEO elements and ensure every component is managed with precision.
SEO Optimer
SEO Optimer helps your team improve the on-page elements within your site. The tool gives you clear information on site performance and on how the natural elements on your site can be used to boost the site’s rankings in search.
Google Webmaster Tools
Google Webmaster Tools is your set of optimisation tools for effective management and maintenance of your site. Within the Webmaster Tools, you’ll discover all the components you need to make fast, effective decisions on how to improve the performance of your site. You can analyse your clicks and determine their source, discover more about how your site performs with specific audiences, and learn which content is most popular.
Varvy
Varvy can help you improve both the speed and functionality of your site for both mobile and desktop audiences. The tool helps eliminate elements that negatively impact site performance and provides important information about the problems within your current site setup.
Each of these tools provides you with a range of benefits, but they can take some time to master. If you’re interested in learning more about any of these online tools, talk to one of our digital marketers, or contact us for help with your digital marketing strategy.
