Optimizing Your Ad Spend Mind Y ur Business

This column features business insights from a recent “Mind Your Business with Yitzchok Saftlas” radio show. The weekly “Mind Your Business” show –broadcasting since 2015 – features interviews with Fortune 500 executives, business leaders and marketing gurus. Prominent guests include John Sculley, former CEO of Apple and Pepsi; Dick Schulze, founder and Chairman Emeritus of Best Buy; and Beth Comstock, former Vice Chair of GE; among over 400+ senior-level executives and business celebrities. Yitzchok Saftlas, president of Bottom Line Marketing Group, hosts the weekly “Mind Your Business” show, which airs at 10pm every Sunday night on 710 WOR and throughout America on the iHeartRadio Network.

On a previous 710 WOR “Mind Your Business” broadcast, Yitzchok Saftlas (YS) spoke with guest Beryl Trachtenberg (BT), founder and CEO of Elite Media Trax Inc.

YS: What is the difference between Google Ads and SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?

BT: At a basic level, Google Ads are those paid ads that show on the top of your search results, while SEO is the organic rankings. But a lot of people sort of blur the definition of the two. They both fall under the umbrella of Search Engine Marketing, where you’re basically marketing in order to get your listing to the top of the search engine results. Now, Google obviously offers precedence to Google Ads in the top three to five spaces of the results page. And if it’s a product search, there will actually be images shown as well. So, Google Ads gets you to the very top of the page, whereas SEO will get you the organic listing, which falls right under that. SEO is really about telling Google that you are the best result for what people are searching for, which then gets you indexed in Google’s big filing cabinet, saying that this person matches that actual search term.

What advice would you give someone who’s getting started in digital marketing, specifically with Google Ads?

There really is no better lead you can get on the Internet than Google Ads when it comes to the search department.

It’s like you’re walking down the street, then somebody comes up to you and says, “Hey, I’m looking for the service that you provide,” you shake hands, and take it from there. It’s people expressing intent in real time. And you can connect with them and talk to them. Your ad should speak to the search term that they’re searching about, and then the landing page experience should bring them that same comfortability, where they feel like this company knows what I’m talking about, they know what I need. And then, you lead them into the phone call, the form submission, or the online sale, where you’ll actually turn it into a profitable lead for yourself.

Does digital marketing make sense for someone running a B2B (Business To Business) campaign?

With B2B, the strategy is obviously different than with a B2C (Business To Consumer) campaign. With B2C, you’re focusing on product-related searches. There is very high intent and very high conversion rates. When you’re advertising for B2B, you’re focusing more on information. People need to know things, need to get informed, and Google is the go-to for search. They have a 90% market share. Obviously, there are other means on the internet where people can learn information, but when it comes to the main source for anyone learning about anything, people come to Google. And then, they research information about different companies, areas, and industries. That’s where B2B companies can connect with them and place themselves as the thought leaders and innovators in that industry.

What’s the advantage of a business going to an agency, as opposed to trying to run Google Ads by themselves?

I get that question all the time. The first thing I do for clients, which is a very simple account optimization technique, but sadly, one that’s often overlooked, is I jump into their search term reports. This is where you can actually select keywords that people search to generate your ad, click on it, and come to your website. So, when you jump into a search term report, which is offered in the Google Ads platform, you can actually see the real search terms. So, for example, I had a very large law firm reach out to me and they asked, “Why do we need you? We’re doing a great job. We’re spending and we’re getting leads.” I said, “Great, let me take a look at your account and I’ll tell you if there’s anything I can do for you.” Again, the first thing I do is go into the search term reports. And I asked them,

“I see your advertising for attorney and legal related keywords. Do you offer these services?” They said, “No, we only offer other services.” So, I told them, “Well, half of your ad spend for the past six months has been going to services you don’t even provide.” Half of their ad spend was many thousands of dollars. These are the kinds of things that are very often overlooked.

Can you tell us a little more about what role keywords play in digital marketing?

Keywords are the actual pipeline. People overlook it. They think, “Let’s just select keywords and get started.” But keywords are the pipeline that brings water into your account. If your pipeline is not clean, and it’s not properly set up, you’re going to have wasted ad spend. There’s no question about it. Now, if you’re only spending a couple hundred dollars a month, then okay, what’s the big deal? 25% of that goes to waste. But when you’re spending tens of thousands of dollars a month on leads (and many companies live on leads from Google Ads), then you end up spending a lot of money on wasted keywords.

How can someone test the waters with Google Ads if they’re concerned about the expense?

It’s a big problem that comes with Google Ads. There are a lot of companies and people who are interested in advertising on Google, but they see it as a very large expense. Between the actual ad spend, hiring an agency, account setup fees, and management fees, you’re looking at tens of thousands of dollars before you can even really see if it works or not. What I tell people who don’t have that type of budget is that there are three main things that they need to learn about in order to test the waters and see if it’s for them. Number one is understanding keyword selection, the match types, how keywords match, etc. Number two is to also understand that there are your search term reports and your keywords. So, let’s say I’m advertising Nike sneakers, and I advertise for “Nike sneakers” as a phrase match. That can include any other words before or after the keyword. It will be “black Nike sneakers,” or “Nike sneakers for men.” So, what you want to do is, as you go along based on your keyword selection, look at your search term reports. Also make sure you’re hitting the right keywords and build on nega - tive keywords from the negative keyword lists from your search term report. Number three is to understand that your ads matter. People think they should just throw their ad out there, take Google’s suggestions, and hope for the best. But really think about your ad. Think about what the person is searching. Think about the intent behind the search. And then, write an ad that captivates and leads a person to want to click on your ad and come to your website.

What should someone know if they’re considering running a digital marketing campaign with Bing?

I guess you could call Bing Google’s very little brother. It’s not completely know about Facebook advertising?

Facebook is a whole different world of advertising. Google is about intent. It’s about real time, people are saying, “I want this, and I want it now,” and you can talk to them. Facebook is more about saying, “I have a message to deliver. I’m going to create an audience, and I’m going to use that audience to deliver my message. I am guessing that people who fall into a certain category of interests and affinities would be best suited for what I have to offer.” So, when it comes to Facebook, it’s audience related marketing. And it’s also what they call “disruptive marketing.” It’s not what I’m interested in right now. I’m on Facebook, I’m going through my feed, I’m messaging, I’m contacting, I’m watching, whatever terms of a digital marketing campaign?

Remarketing, in most cases, is an integral part of any campaign you run. People don’t buy on the first click just like people don’t convert on the first introduction. If you shake somebody’s hand at a networking event, you’re not necessarily going to be doing business with them. You need to talk to them again. So, if a person comes to your website and then they leave, you need to continue the conversation. Remarketing gives you that capability where you can follow that person. It’s like if you ever looked up a pair of shoes on the Internet, and then they followed you around for the rest of your life, this is the ability to do that. When it’s annoying, it’s annoying. But when it works, it actually works very well. And people appreciate it when you can reconnect with them.

How does email marketing integrate with Google Ads?

forgotten about, and it still does play a part in most PPC (Pay Per Click) strategies. Bing’s platform is actually officially called Microsoft Ads, and they actually have a tool that will sync with your Google Ads account. So, if you’re running a campaign on Google Ads, you can connect that to your Microsoft Ads account, and you can just run those campaigns directly on Bing. Now, when you do that, you obviously want to make sure that all the data is imported properly, because sometimes there are kinks in the process. But Bing understands that they need to cater to and have a connection with Google Ads. You can’t import Microsoft Ads to Google Ads, because Google knows that’s not for them.

One aspect I will mention that Bing does have a slight advantage in is if you have a Microsoft powered computer. They are constantly pushing the Microsoft Edge browser on you, which pushes you into using Bing as your search engine. You get a lot of B2B traffic on Edge. So, you want to be on Microsoft Ads as well, because there is a larger market share when it comes to B2B campaigns.

Similarly, what does one need to

I’m doing, and you’re trying to tell me something. When it comes to Google, I’m interested in what you have to offer right now. Google is about relevance and intent, as opposed to Facebook, which just has that audience but you can actually deliver your message when you target the right person.

Is there a way of similarly disrupting someone’s feed with your message through Google Ads?

100%. Google actually made a switch a couple years ago, where they changed the name of their platform from “Google AdWords” to “Google Ads,” because everybody just associated Google advertising with Search Engine Marketing. But Google has a much larger network of media where you can advertise. Their entire display network covers millions of websites and apps. And most importantly, it covers YouTube, where most people go when they want to learn information visually. And that’s where Google has the opportunity for you to advertise your message to people as they’re learning.

What does “remarketing” mean, in

If you’re running Google Ads campaigns, and you want to make sure every single click works for you, you need to be sure that you have an excellent email marketing strategy in place. Especially in E-commerce, where people are just bombarded with ads and no shopper is just purchasing the first thing they see. They’re going to research and price check. No one’s buying on the first click. You need to get their email. Make sure that you have a strategy in place so that you have a very high conversion rate on your email form submission pop-up. Once you gather someone’s email, the marketing is free. And you can also have their profile in whatever email subscription tool you’re using and remarket to them with abandoned cart emails or browse abandonment emails.