Understanding Modern Digital Marketing Tactics that Create ROI
You’re reading this book because you want to know more about digital marketing. Maybe you want to take your current campaign performance to the next level—or you’re just getting started with digital and aren’t sure where to begin. No matter where you fall on that spectrum, this book is for you.
About Us Over the last eight years, our Seattle-based team has developed digital marketing techniques to increase sales and revenue for clients all across the country. We’ve gone from being a tiny start-up to landing on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies in the United States. We help our clients use the internet to connect with real people who are in-market for their products. We handle everything from strategy and planning, to design and execution. Every month we buy millions of ad impressions, deliver hundreds of thousands of emails and drive tens of thousands of website visitors to our clients’ sites. This book walks through real tactics we use with our clients every day. The strategies we explore in this book are the difference between running successful digital campaigns, and “doing digital” with no real sense of how it’s performing.
Our goal is to provide you with some tips and tricks for getting the most out of your digital advertising and marketing campaigns. We hope you find it useful and that you’re able to gain valuable insights to help you market more effectively.
Contents 2 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
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Intro Remarketing Lists for Search Ads Custom Audiences in Facebook and Twitter Email Retargeting Negative Keywords Ad Extensions Set Goals in Google Analytics Mobile-Friendly Website The Power of the Soft Conversion Buying Your Own Brand Name in the Search Results Use Social Media to Generate Leads Enabling Cross-Device Retargeting Email Marketing Take Advantage of Online Video Programmatic Advertising Implement Purposeful Landing Pages Invest in Reputation Management Unlock the Power of Google Trends Call Tracking Tracking Campaign Conversions Creative Sequencing Household Targeting Leveraging Third-Party Data Mobile Ads
Remarketing Lists for Search Ads In
standard search campaigns your bids, ads and keywords are the same for every person and every search. Retargeting Lists for Search Ads (RLSA) changes the game. You can now tailor your campaigns to show different ads to people who have already been to your website. By targeting high-value prospects you can bid higher, use product-specific targeting or present customized ads to these customers to improve your results.
Tactics to use with RLSA
How to implement RLSA:
• Bid on broader keywords: your RLSA audience has already been to your site so you can target them with words you might not normally buy in a traditional SEM campaign.
1. Add the remarketing tag to your website. RLSA currently requires the AdWords remarketing code rather than the Google Analytics remarketing code, but it’s fine to have both sets of code running alongside each other. Adding this tag on your website makes it easy to segment website visitors into remarketing lists.
• Increase bids for visitors who viewed a product page while on your site when they search for a similar product on Google later. Target repeat visitors with a promotion for a product they are viewing.
2. Set up any lists to be used for RLSA with the AdWords interface. RLSA is currently only compatible with the AdWords remarketing tag. 3. One of the most effective uses of RLSA is optimizing bids for different visitor segments. Use the bid adjustments feature in enhanced campaigns within AdWords to increase or decrease bids for certain groups. You can view a performance report for each list, making it easy to adjust bids over time and achieve goals for different visitor segments.
• Target a previous visitor who placed items in a shopping cart but didn’t make a purchase.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES For more information on set up, read Google’s documentation on setting up RLSA campaigns.
Real-World Example: One of our automotive
clients implemented RLSA to reach people who visited their website, then later comparison shopped by searching different makes and models. This campaign allowed our client to conquest people who were searching for other brands more cost-effectively than would be possible with a traditional search campaign.
support.google.com/adwords/
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Custom Audiences in Facebook and Twitter
Y
ou can reach existing customers, prospects, and even website visitors on the social networks they frequent. Creating custom audiences within Facebook and Twitter enables you to deliver a relevant and effective message to known audiences, increasing efficiency in your marketing campaigns. With custom audiences, you can define groups of existing and prospective customers and ser ve ads to these targeted groups who have already expressed an interest in your brand.
Developing custom audiences is similar in both Facebook and Twitter. There are 3 unique ways to create a custom audience: Create a custom audience by uploading a specific list of email addresses or phone numbers to target a specific audience. Facebook and Twitter match your upload contact information with known user IDs to deliver highly targeted ads. Create a custom audience using remarketing on your website or landing page. Insert a snippet of code on your site, and then retarget users who have visited your page. Create tailored audiences or lookalike audiences of Facebook and Twitter users that are similar to your custom audience. Facebook will find similar audiences based on your imported lists, remarketing lists, or those who visit your Facebook page. Twitter shares public information like a user’s bio, follower count and past Tweets to help identify specific Twitter accounts that would most likely be interested in your brand, helping you better define potential customers.
How to implement:
1. Upload an audience from a data file or through your email service provider.
2. After uploading your information, follow the required steps to get your custom audience running. Facebook and Twitter will serve your ads to your defined audience, increasing your reach and frequency. Please note that you need at least 20 users to create a custom audience.
Real-World Example: One of our clients was having trouble moving their used car inventory. By creating a custom audience of people who looked at used cars on their site, we delivered ads showing multiple used cars in their Facebook feeds. The campaign brought hundreds of high-value users back to the site. Each person spent an average of 6 minutes on the site and looked at 7 different used vehicles. TABLE OF CONTENTS 5
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Email Retargeting Email
marketing offers an opportunity to effectively and efficiently reach your target audience by delivering a specific message right to a user’s inbox. Is the chance to gain a customer gone after the recipient reads the email? Not necessarily. Make your emails work for you long after the reader reads the message by implementing email retargeting. Email retargeting serves online ads to anyone who opens your emails. Use your favorite email service to send an email to your mailing list. The content could be about anything: a product announcement, special promotion or change of hours. Once the message is opened, your email drops a cookie in the recipient’s browser. Once the reader receives the cookie they will see your ads as they browse the web. Email retargeting works the same way as traditional retargeting, but allows you to target email subscribers rather than website visitors.
How to implement: 1. Create your HTML-based email you want to send out. 2. Place an image pixel inside your email or email signature. 3. Your customers see your ads after they open the email.
Email retargeting is a powerful way to keep your brand in front of your email list without inundating them with emails and risking unsubscribes. Upping your email frequency might dilute your message causing your subscribers to tune out or even worse, deleting your email before even opening it. Retargeting keeps your company in the minds of consumers as they spend time online. It also gives you the ability to connect your email campaign with your display advertising efforts, providing another touchpoint fo r c ustom er s. M a rketin g across channels helps you more effectively reach your audience.
Real-World Example: One of our customers sends out monthly promotional emails to their customer list. They started retargeting their customers online and inside of Facebook. Their original campaign went to 16,000 people and delivered over 300 clicks to their website. With Email Retargeting they were able to deliver 53,000 impressions to their audience and received over 400 clicks from the retargeting portion of the campaign.
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Negative Keywords When you create a Google AdWords campaign
you spend hours researching the best keywords, creating campaigns and building targeted ad groups. These are important steps to any successful search engine marketing campaign, but if you stop your optimizations there you’re leaving money on the table. If you want to get the most out of your campaign budget you need to be adding negative keywords. Negative keywords are words that will prevent your ads from showing if they’re searched. Adding negative keywords can help you reach your most interested customers, increase your CTR and reduce your costs. Your ads are shown to people who are more likely to click on them. You no longer need to spend money on ad clicks that won’t deliver a return.
How to implement: 1. Sign in to your AdWords account and select the Keywords tab. You can add negative keywords to an ad group or campaign. Add your selected words or phrases.
Running a search terms report will show you most search terms that resulted in your ad being clicked on, giving ideas for negative keywords. Choose search terms that are similar to your keywords, but unique enough to determine that people are looking for a different product or service. Common words to flag as negative keywords for someone trying to sell a product might be “discounted” or “free.” If you’re trying to make a sale you’re most likely not interested in customers who are looking for freebies.
2. Carefully select negative keywords, making sure you don’t select too many. If you add too many negative keywords you risk reaching fewer customers. 3. Make sure your negative keywords don’t overlap with your regular keywords; this will also cause your ad not to show. Real-World Example: We have an automotive client who has a dynamic AdWords campaign featuring all of the used cars they have on their lot. We constantly add negative keywords to ensure we are only bidding on searches of people looking to buy a car. For example, for a 2005 Honda CR-V, we will add in negative keywords like window regulator and water pump because those searches are for people who are trying to fix their car, not buy a new one. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES support.google.com/adwords/answer/2453972
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Ad Extensions Make
your ads even more appealing to customers by adding extensions; extra details that encourage customers to click. By including just a bit more information about your company beneath your ad, extensions can help boost traffic, increase your ad’s visibility and improve the click-through rate. AdWords shows one or more extensions with your ad when it calculates that the extension will improve your campaign performance and when your ad rank is high enough for it to appear. Ads with greater expected impact from extensions will generally appear in a higher ad position than similar ads from your competitors.
There are two types of ad extensions: automated and manual.
Automated
Manual
AdWords independently creates and displays the automated extensions when it predicts that they’ll improve your ad’s performance.
You can manually create new ad extensions that will show beneath your ad, including:
Site Extension
Seller Ratings
links to promote additional landing pages or direct customers to more specific pages on the site
Consumer Ratings
Call Extension
Social Extensions
Location Extension
Previous Visits
App Extension
a click to call button
address to find nearest storefront
button to download your app
Google is always adding and testing new ad extensions. Check with your agency to learn more. How to implement: 1. To add manual extensions to both new and existing campaigns sign into Google AdWords and click on the Campaign page. 2. Under Ad Extensions you can check boxes of the options you would like to include. If the extension requires more information, like a phone number for call extensions, you’ll be prompted to fill that out. Save and continue creating your campaign. 3. For an existing campaign you will follow the same steps, but designate where you would like to add your new extension: all campaigns, specific campaigns or specific ad groups. TABLE OF CONTENTS 8
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Set Goals in Google Analytics Using
Google Analytics is a simple way to measure the success of your website and online marketing campaigns. This Google-driven statistics service provides valuable information about your website’s traffic, conversions and sales. Take full advantage of all Google Analytics has to offer and utilize its custom goals feature to evaluate the success of your efforts. A goal represents a completed activity, also called a conversion, and measures how well your site fulfills your target objectives. The more information you have at your disposal, the more value you can add to your website, and it makes your marketing campaign more efficient.
There are 4 types of goals: Destination: This is triggered if the user goes to a specific location. This could be any screen or page on your site, maybe a completed contact information page or a specific product page.
How to implement: 1. Sign in to Google Analytics. Create a custom goal or select a goal template. Templates are fixed actionable goals that meet standard objectives. You need to select an industry category to use templates.
Duration: The amount of time a website visitor stays on your site. You can measure different increments of time spent on the site.
2. When a visitor comes to your website and performs an action defined as a goal, Google Analytics records that as a conversion. The conversion data is made available in a number of special reports that you can analyze and evaluate, shaping future campaigns.
Pages/Screen Views Per Session: The specific number of pages or screens a website visitor sees when looking at your site. You can quantify any number. Event: You define an event and set goals according to when it is activated. An event can be when a video is viewed or a specific page is shared on Facebook.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES To learn more about setting up goals in analytics, check out Google’s help page at:
You can set the goals to quantify just about anything:
support.google.com/analytics/answer/1012040
visitors who fill out a form on the site, visitors who look up your hours and directions to your store, visitors who look at five or more products, etc. The acquired information is defined by your specific goals.
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Mobile-Friendly Website Mobile devices are now the number one source of all internet traffic. In light of this, your business
should have a mobile friendly website that looks great at any size so you can connect with your audience on any and all devices. If you don’t have a mobile-friendly site, you’re not only missing the boat, but in addition, Google will penalize you in the search results, and you may lose customers. In fact, users are five times more likely to abandon a site that doesn’t work well on their phone, with 79% of people saying they’ll go back and search for a different site.
How to implement:
A website that is classified as mobile-friendly must meet the following criteria:
1. If you haven’t done so already, set up a Google Webmaster Tools account for your website and check the mobile usability report. This report will analyze your URL and alert you to issues you need to resolve regarding mobile viewability.
1. Avoids software and scripts that are not common on mobile devices, like Flash. 2. Links are placed far enough apart so they can be easily tapped without inadvertently tapping something else.
2. Refer to Google’s Webmaster’s Mobile Guide to create and improve your mobile website at:
3. Uses standard fonts that scale properly and text that is legible without zooming.
developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites
4. Sizes content to the screen so users don’t have to scroll horizontally. 5. Optimize images to avoid long load times.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Check out your pages with Google’s Mobile Friendly Test at:
6. Uses mobile-centric 404s to ensure pages open on both desktop and mobile, ensuring mobile users aren’t shown an error page when redirecting.
www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly
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The Power of the Soft Conversion Only
2% of your website visitors will convert — which means 98% of your traffic will leave without saying a word. Your website should offer multiple soft conversion options in order to increase sales offline and online. A soft conversion is a less conspicuous way to capture information about prospective customers who may be early in the buying process. The customer can still interact with your brand, but they do not have to fully commit. A soft conversion prevents visitors from walking away from your site altogether because they don’t want to give up too much personal information. Conversions are critical to engage customers at all stages of the sales cycle, from casual browsers to consumers ready to purchase.
How to implement: 1. Understand your goals and audience to create a personal, benefits-oriented offer that customers will respond to.
Instead of filling out a web form with detailed information, a soft conversion might be an offer for a free download such as a whitepaper, useful industry statistics or a newsletter subscription, just for leaving an email address. By only giving you their email address, they receive something of value and engage with your brand. When they are ready to purchase, your brand will be at the top of their mind and they’ll know where to find you.
2. Carefully consider design, message and page placement when developing a call to action. Put the right message in front of the right people at the right time. 3. Make sure your offers complement each other instead of competing with each other. Your primary call to action should always be very clear and stand out from any other attempts at gaining information. 4. Test and test again to determine what offers and calls to action are most effective.
Real-World Example: We had a LASIK Surgery client who was struggling to get conversions on their website. They had a contact form and a beautiful site, but that was about it. We added a button to their homepage with a free download of a price comparison guide to four local LASIK clinics. Over the first six months of this being on their site they got more than 12,000 visitors. Of these 12,000 visitors, over 1,000 turned into leads – that’s a 8% conversion ratio. This soft conversion continues to drive thousands of dollars of revenue for them every month.
12,000 visitors
over
1,000 leads
>8% conversion ratio
4X the lead response rate
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Buying Your Own Brand Name in the Search Results One of the most valuable customers you have
is one that searches for your brand name. They want to buy from you so you need to make sure they end up on your site. Bidding on your own brand name is a way to boost your presence in the search results and prevent your competitors from stealing your traffic. Paying for branded keywords that include your business name might seem like a waste of money, but it actually maximizes your investment and increases your conversion potential.
Improves Your Chances of Getting the Click By bidding on your brand, you will increase the chances of a user clicking on a link to your website. It is likely that your website will already appear organically at the very top of the search engine results page for branded searches. Lining up your paid search ads with organic listings increases the space you occupy on a search engine results page, which is especially important on a smaller mobile screen.
Allows for Customized Landing Pages with Strong Calls to Action
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When advertising with branded search terms you can craft more specific landing pages that yield higher conversion rates. Typically, general searches will direct users to your homepage but this isn’t necessarily the best place for branded searches to land. By bidding on your brand, you can serve highly customized ads with a much stronger call to action.
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Discourages Brandjacking By not buying your brand name you make those valuable keywords available to your competition. Your competitors could be bidding on your company name, driving customers away from you without your knowledge, a practice referred to as brandjacking. Google makes it cheaper for you to purchase your brand name than the business who is trying to steal it because as the owner of the brand you have a higher quality score resulting in a lower cost-perclick. Problems arise when you don’t buy your brand name and a competitor successfully brandjacks it for an extended period of time. Google recognizes your competitor’s ad as the relevant option, even though you are the owner of the brand.
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Use Social Media to Generate Leads Social media is pervasive – people spend hours a day browsing through their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. It might seem like a waste of time, but you can harness the power of social media to generate real leads for your business. You can generate leads via social media in two ways: Organically and through paid channels. Both work together to reach your intended audience and help you find more qualified customers. To generate leads organically, use social media to connect with your audience on a personal level, building trust and credibility. Try to take advantage of opportunities to create conversations and encourage engagement by responding to posts and tweets with valuable content for your users. Monitor comments and feedback, quickly responding to negative comments or feedback, to keep the tone positive and productive.
How to implement: Organic Lead Gen: Maintain active profiles and pages on a variety of social media channels. Regularly and consistently engage with users. Watch for keywords associated with your business and engage with users to build relationships.
Promotional Lead Gen: Talk to your agency about getting started with either Facebook lead gen ads or Twitter lead gen ads. Also check their It’s also possible to use promoted posts on sites for more detailed instructions for setting Facebook and Twitter to generate leads. On up campaigns and strategies around these lead types. Facebook’s platform, you can create a lead generation ad to display on the mobile Newsfeed. You can customize the form to include fields for their name, email and phone number, or tailor it to your needs by adding custom fields relevant to your product. Twitter’s lead generation ads work in a similar way, but limit you to only collecting their name, email and @handle. Both platforms provide a place to download a CSV of your leads once you start gaining customer names.
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Enabling Cross-Device Retargeting It’s quite common for today’s consumers to use multiple devices interchangeably to research items and make a purchase. Effectively reaching your target audience requires making a connection between smartphones and computers. Cross-device activity makes it difficult to track consumers, but there are a few different tools and methods you can implement to make it easier.
How does it work? Since there is no way to determine exactly which devices belong to which consumer, ad tech companies use the following methods to match the varying devices to one customer.
How to implement: Probabilistic Identification: Ask your agency about getting set up with cross-device retargeting. Most ad buying platforms have partnered with the leading cross-device providers and can add cross-device capabilities to your campaign. Make sure to set your campaign to bid higher based on the confidence of an ID match.
Probabilistic Identification
Probabilistic identification combines a number of anonymous pieces of data to recognize a unique user. The data points, which might include device type, operating system, wireless networks, and online habits, are fed into an algorithm that then determines a percentage probability that a user Deterministic Identification: If you’re advertising matches an existing unique profile. This method is with Facebook and Twitter, place their respective less accurate, but will work across all campaigns. pixels on your website and utilize their custom audience feature to create an audience of your Deterministic identification website traffic. Anyone who visits your website Deterministic identification uses personal while logged into Facebook or Twitter in their identifiable information to identify users of browser will see your ads in their Facebook multiple devices including patterns of usage, newsfeed or Twitter timeline. time of day, and geographic location. This data is culled from services and apps that users have signed up for. This method is more accurate because it follows people based on their logins from different devices, but it’s not as widely available as probabilistic analysis. Facebook and Twitter use deterministic identification to track users across all devices. TABLE OF CONTENTS 14
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Email Marketing Consistently communicating with existing customers via email strengthens relationships, increases website traffic and builds brand loyalty. Ensure that you get the greatest return on investment by planning and effectively executing your campaign.
How to implement:
Personalize your communication Keep the message and tone casual and conversational; people appreciate humanness instead of something that appears to be automated or mass-produced. The more personable the communication is, the easier it is to build trust with the customer.
Send a specific, focused message Before sending each email communication, ask yourself, “What is the purpose?” Each individual email should convey a single message. Promoting a sale, announcing a new location, and sharing an exciting industry award you just received are all newsworthy, but too much information will be lost on the customer.
Include a call to action Make sure your message is crystal clear so your recipients don’t have to guess what you are expecting them to do. Include active links, prominently displayed contact information, and create a sense of urgency by including a sale expiration date to move your customers from reading your message to acting on it.
1. Build an accurate database by collecting email addresses from customers and prospects. 2. Create a mix of campaign parameters and content to determine what works best. Keep your layout simple and content clear, but experiment with your delivery. 3. Test, evaluate and refine your campaigns regularly to determine what methods get the best response rates. Gathering results through trackable links and realtime reports will help you understand what works and what doesn’t. Track calls to action, tone and style of content, even subject lines. Always invest the time to analyze results and think of new ways to increase conversions and provide value to your customers.
Adjust for people who read email on mobile devices If your recipients can’t easily read your email they will most likely delete it. Use a font size that people can easily read without having to zoom in. Be sure to check for image-based elements, such as buttons or large images that don’t fit on a mobile screen and require horizontal scrolling to view.
Reach your customers on all devices
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Take Advantage of Online Video Online video gives you a unique and compelling
platform to showcase your expertise and set you apart from the competition. Video is engaging, entertaining and shareable. It increases your exposure and provides a way for prospects and customers to connect with your brand.
Build trust and credibility Video fosters personal connections by solving problems and conveying useful information. You can use it to provide how-to videos or product demonstrations, customer testimonials and event promotions. Keep the tone of your video conversational and casual. No matter what you decide to talk about in your video, keep it interesting and relatable for viewers.
Engage mobile users
Increase brand awareness and exposure
When consumers need or want something, they most often reach for their smartphones. Mobile users prioritize immediate information above all else. They are more likely to watch, share, and feel connected to ads and branded video than desktop viewers. When it comes to digital video viewership, mobile has a significant impact, especially for younger consumers.
Post a video to your website or blog, but also share it through social media, increasing the opportunity for viewers to see your content. Create a YouTube or Vimeo channel for your company and post your videos so they are all in one place. Social media cross promotion is the key to getting your video viewed and shared.
Increase SEO
Help consumers make decisions
Search engines respond to engaging video content. Search engine algorithms heavily weigh video content and businesses that utilize video tend to have higher rankings.
Viewers use video to help them make product decisions in stores or on company websites, and indicate that YouTube is their #1 destination for finding information about a brand or product. Stand apart from your competition by giving consumers the information they want.
How to implement: 1. Decide what information or message you want to convey in your video. Be sure to include a compelling call to action. 2. Keep the content simple and focus on one topic per video. Long videos tend to lose the viewer’s attention. 3. Make sure all videos are professional and reflective of your brand and values.
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Programmatic Advertising Programmatic
advertising and real-time bidding (RTB) automates the decision-making process of where online display ads are placed and who they’re served to. RTB is essentially an online auction for the buying and selling of ad impressions in real time. It happens instantaneously, allowing every impression to be cost effective and placed in front of your potential customers in the right place at the right time. It’s a highly optimized advertising campaign that never stops working and constantly self-improves based on market conditions. It will drive higher-quality leads to your business, resulting in more conversions and increased sales.
Streamlines operations
How to implement:
This method eliminates the need to work directly with specific websites to negotiate pricing. By buying programmatically, you can maximize your advertising budget so less time and money is being spent on inefficient advertising. You have time to focus on other aspects of your specific campaign, such as creative elements and overall strategy.
1. Talk to your agency about getting started with programmatic advertising. Remember, not all agencies have access to all ad exchanges. Some might only use Google’s Display Network, which has a smaller reach than other exchanges. We work with more than 60 different ad networks – including Google’s – meaning your ad shows up in virtually every possible place.
Reaches goals more efficiently
2. Define campaign parameters such as budget, goals, bid price, and network reach. Programmatic advertising meshes your parameters with behavioral and audience data to determine the ideal placement of ads (for the right bid price) that give you the greatest return on investment.
Programmatic advertising serves impressions to the people you want viewing your ads, helping you achieve your campaign goals quickly and minimizing the number of impressions wasted on uninterested consumers.
Reacts instantly to changing market dynamics Programmatic advertising works continuously, 24 hours a day, to measure performance and fine-tune campaign parameters.
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Just how fast is RTB? RTB
100 milliseconds 134 milliseconds
The time it takes light to travel around Earth’s equator
300 milliseconds
The blink of an eye
What Goes On During RTB? 5. The winning ad is then served to the website.
1. A user visits a website.
2. An exchange announces the available bid to the bid manager.
4. Auction of bids takes place.
3. The bid manager looks at the advertiser’s targeting. It then places a bid if there is a match.
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Implement Purposeful Landing Pages Where a potential customer lands after clicking
on your paid search ad can make the difference between making the sale or losing a prospect. Instead of sending customers to your homepage, develop a specific, purposeful landing page that engages customers and generates sales. A customized landing page can help you achieve higher conversion rates and more revenue from your existing web traffic and online advertising efforts. The landing page should:
Compliment the paid search ad
Continue the message expressed in the initial ad to the landing page. The language, tone and message of the landing page should be complimentary to the ad and vice versa. The landing page should seamlessly connect the customer to the information they are looking for on your site from their specific search.
Contain compelling content The content should compel the reader to explore or learn more. There shouldn’t be any question as to what you want the customer to do once they are on the page. Take consumers a step beyond viewing your site and propel them into action.
How to implement:
Include a strong call to action Your landing page should be specifically designed and driven with your goals in mind. The page could be a giveaway, a redeemable offer or a free evaluation; whatever your potential customers would find interesting and engaging.
1. Determine what you want to achieve. What message do you want to convey to customers and what specifics will you include? 2. Establish how you will effectively capture prospects’ information. 3. Mix up your content, offer or promotion on the landing page. Change the information on a monthly or quarterly basis.
Capture customer information A customized landing page can be an effective way to capture prospective leads’ information including names, email addresses, and phone numbers. Making a landing page more focused and purposeful will garner more leads and sales from existing traffic and make your website work for you.
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Invest in Reputation Management What are your customers saying about you online?
A
positive online presence is essential to your business, but despite your best efforts, you’ll occasionally receive negative feedback. Creating and keeping a positive reputation is an ongoing process, but worth the time and effort. Monitoring your business reviews can ensure that you are proactively handling both positive and negative feedback and using it to your advantage.
Regularly interact with customers It’s easy to converse with someone who leaves a glowing review of your business, but it’s probably even more important to connect with the unhappy customer. An unacknowledged negative review is detrimental to your business. Take a deep breath and politely respond in a timely manner.
Thank them for their business and their feedback Thank all customers that leave feedback, but especially thank those who express a negative opinion to show you value their business. Keep your message simple and direct, thanking them for taking the time to leave their feedback so that you have the opportunity to make things right.
Listen and respond
Specifically address their concern or problem and express what you have done to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. Give a detailed explanation of how things have changed. This is your platform to broadcast how you have improved your business to benefit consumers.
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How to implement:
Invite them to contact you directly Offer the unhappy customer the means to contact you directly and take the conversation offline. By addressing the issue and providing a chance to communicate more in-depth you express that you value the customer and give yourself the opportunity to earn the customer’s trust.
Solicit positive reviews from happy customers Never create fabricated positive reviews to counteract the negative, but do ask satisfied customers to provide legitimate positive reviews. Genuine positive feedback can balance out the negative, creating an accurate picture of your business.
1. Make sure you can be found on all major platforms. Do this by using a tool (like our Reputation Controls platform) to syndicate your business information to as many listing directories as possible. 2. Actively monitor all online review sites and social media accounts to stay on top of any negative feedback your business may receive. 3. Create a system to encourage customers to leave positive reviews. Include cards with their purchase that ask them to leave a review online. Provide incentives for them to leave reviews like a coupon for their next purchase.
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Unlock the Power of Google Trends Google Trends serves as a marketing insight and
analysis tool that shows you the search volume of words and phrases over a select period of time. Knowing how certain keywords and phrases perform can be particularly helpful for running paid search campaigns. Learning what consumers are interested in and what phrases and search queries are trending can help you shape your online marketing efforts and keyword selection, maximizing your chances of receiving a high ranking in search engine results pages. Google Trends gives a multidimensional view of how keywords function over time, exploring elements beyond sheer search volume. You can learn how factors such as seasonality, geographic location and even media coverage affect how words and phrases perform. Some valuable characteristics of Google Trends are:
Allows in-depth analysis
Helps determine opportunities for your business
By learning whether or not keywords related You can analyze a single query or compare up to to your business are performing well or poorly, five queries at a time. you can make adjustments. If the search volume around your terms is declining, you Provides historical data know people are searching less. This gives you You can retrieve data for queries reaching as the opportunity to fix something that might be far back as 2004 or search using your own negatively impacting your campaign. If you see a dramatic increase in a certain trend, zero in on predesignated date ranges. those terms and topics and create content or offers around those searches. Gives specific insights Offers insight into the perceived health of your business, as well as the health of your competitors. You can compare and analyze the popularity of navigational searches for brand names against time and against one another.
How to implement: 1. Visit Google Trends and execute your search. Perform a search using keywords and phrases critical to your brand success. 2. Utilize the information you receive to shape your keyword selection and online marketing efforts.
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Call Tracking There are many tools available to track online conversions, but it’s not as easy to track offline conversions, particularly phone calls. Wouldn’t it be nice to know what triggered a customer to click the call button in your ad or website? Call tracking allows you to see precisely which keywords and campaigns drive phone calls. Knowing where the call is coming from provides you with an accurate and quantifiable way to track the effectiveness of online advertising. Call tracking can help you measure the return on investment of specific advertising campaigns and make informed decisions about your future advertising strategy. B y u t i l i z i ng nu m be r switching , you can determine which ads and campaigns delivered the conversion. When a customer uses a click to call button in your ad, the incoming number changes (or switches) so you can track the origin of the call. If you only have your phone number in one place on your site, the switching happens there. If you have it in multiple places on your site, you can design the system so that all instances of the number change at once. By clearly showing you which campaigns are driving leads and conversions, you can optimize your account structure to eliminate wasted advertising dollars and only target the keywords and campaigns that are driving conversions.
How to implement: 1. Ask your agency about call tracking, or sign up with a company that offers call tracking. We have a tool at calls.adsupnow.com that provides call tracking and phone number switching. 2. Set up multiple tracking phone numbers to track across your campaigns. Use a different number for search ads, display ads and print ads to tell what sort of phone calls each campaign is generating. 3. Evaluate your results and measure the effect your different marketing channels have on phone calls.
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Tracking Campaign Conversions Measure and evaluate the success of your campaign by implementing conversion tracking. This
shows you what happens after a customer clicks or views your ad, helping you understand how your keywords, display ads, and campaigns are working so you can invest wisely and boost your return on investment. Conversion tracking connects your display ads and search keywords to your defined goals (whatever you determine them to be). If you know what triggers a valuable customer activity, you can continually refine your strategy and make more informed decisions about how you bid online.
Defining Your Conversions Conversions don’t have to be limited to online purchases. You can set conversions for people who visit certain pages or take specific actions on your website – like submitting a lead form.
How to implement:
There are two ways to measure conversions: click-through and view-through. Click-through conversions are counted when someone converts on your site after clicking through one of your ads. A view-through conversion is when someone converts on your site after viewing an ad. Viewthrough conversions are more associated with display campaigns, but can apply to search as well.
1. Work with your agency to implement conversions across all of your campaigns, including search and display strategies. 2. Use Google’s cross-device tracking tool to estimate cross-device conversions. 3. Optimize your campaign for conversions and work to lower your CPA (cost per acquisition) on each advertising strategy you employ.
THANK YOU
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Creative Sequencing Achieve optimal results in your online advertising efforts by serving the right creative in the right sequence. Creative sequencing shows ads to consumers in a logical order based on actions they take, strategically moving the viewer along the path to conversion with increasingly focused messaging. Unique sequences deliver more effective outcomes whether your objectives are to increase brand awareness or propel customers to action.
Improve relevancy
Ad
Predefining a sequence of ads based on user actions improves relevancy by showing them the right message at the right time. You might first serve an ad to generate awareness, then serve a mobile ad to further build interest, and lastly show an ad with a stronger call to action to move the buyer down the purchase funnel.
Ad
Encourage brand engagement By uniquely tailoring the ad sequence to users, you are meeting them where they are at in the decision/ buying process and they will naturally feel more connected to your brand as you deliver relevant ads.
How to implement: 1. The simplest method to execute is dynamic sequencing. Dynamic sequencing is an extremely flexible tool and can also incorporate time-based or impressionsbased data. Time-based sequencing changes the creatives based on specific times or dates. With impression-based sequencing, the order of the creatives is determined by which ads the user has previously seen within the campaign.
Offer greater precision You have greater control over messaging and frequency with creative sequencing. You dictate what the customer sees, when they see it and how often they see it. There is no “one-size-fits-all� approach. You dictate the ad sequences that lead to your desired outcomes.
Minimize overexposure
2. Experiment with different formats. Strengthen your campaign by using a combination of display and video since different formats resonate with different viewers.
Creative sequencing reduces ad wear-out. Without careful planning you can inadvertently show the same ad to the same user over and over again. Ad engagement plummets after repeatedly viewing the same ad.
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Household Targeting The goal of every retargeting campaign is to maximize your exposure and the amount of sales you
make while spending the least amount of money. Household targeting broadens campaign reach while still delivering targeted impressions across multiple devices in one location such as a home or a small office. This unique capability allows you to expand targeting to every device on a user’s IP address. Household targeting allows you to reach a single user on multiple devices (think laptop, tablet and mobile) and/or reach other users on the same IP address. Reaching more people means increased opportunity for conversions at a reduced cost. Implement household targeting to a new or existing campaign to reach more prospective customers. By reaching multiple people on a single IP address you have the opportunity to capture new users within your original retargeting landscape. You have a good opportunity to beat out your competition because the right people (the decision makers and/or multiple people within the same family) are viewing your advertising. Grow your business and prospect list without any additional effort by implementing household targeting.
How to implement: 1. Utilize household targeting for any familyfocused product or service. Theme parks, private schools, and car dealerships can benefit from this unique opportunity to influence decision makers by reaching multiple household members through connected devices. 2. Ask your current display provider if they can deliver household targeting or IP address targeting in their campaigns.
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Leveraging Third-Party Data Third-party data provides valuable customer insights you can use to boost efficiency in your
marketing efforts. Third-party data is data you can act on that comes from other providers or data brokers. You can layer this data over your inventory to buy ads in a more targeted fashion. Each additional data source you apply helps you to narrow down your targeting, improve your bidding accuracy and gain more conversions. Purchasing third-party data lets you reach a specific audience of buyers who are interested in what you offer based on their previous behavior but may not have considered your business.
Benefits of using third-party data: Target known consumers who are interested in what you have to offer as they research online. Using the power of big data, you can pick out particular people who are interested in what you have to offer and show your ads directly to them. Enhance your search marketing efforts by serving an ad to a customer who conducts a search but doesn’t click on your link or ad. Deliver highly targeted advertising to valuable prospects, eliminating waste from your online advertising budget.
How to implement: 1. You can purchase data and use it within your demand side platform (DSP). When you build a campaign you choose your targets, keywords, etc. You can strengthen your campaign by applying additional data that focuses your audience. 2. In any DSP you’ll see a long list of possible customer segments. Some are free, provided by your own first-party data and many more are data segments you purchase from data brokers. When you apply that segment, you’re adding that layer onto your advertising cost, but limiting your ads to people who match that segment. 3. Be prepared to pay more per impression, but don’t worry because you’ve filtered your advertising down to only be seen by users who are interested in what you are selling.
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Mobile Ads With the ever-increasing popularity and usage of mobile devices, consumers have instant access to a wealth of information whenever they have a question or need. Whether it’s satisfying an afternoon coffee craving or finding a tow truck following a fender bender, mobile devices make it quick and easy to find businesses and services in the neighborhood. Capitalize on these reflexive searches made multiple times each day by enabling mobile-dedicated ads. Position your business to be the one consumers see first when they are actively looking to learn, discover, find, or buy. Consumers have expectations for immediacy and relevancy in their local searches and often act on the information. According to Google, 50% of consumers who conduct a local search on their smartphone visit a store within a day and 18% of those searches lead to a purchase. They want what they want when they want it. Search keywords like “near me” and “closest” show up billions of times in queries each month as people look for products and services they can use right now.
How to implement:
Location-based mobile searches tend to more generic, such as “closest coffee,” instead of searching for specific brands – so you can be the one they reach. Tailor your ad and messaging to be useful and relevant and you will provide tremendous value to buyers. Include a click to call button to make you easily reachable and a stronger call to action since people on mobile tend to make quick decisions.
1. Create a mobile-optimized ad with a message, display URL, and landing page specifically for mobile devices. 2. Check with your agency to make sure your ads are appearing on mobile devices. If you run your own campaigns, check the wiki of your ad platform for how to enable mobile ads. 3. Determine what message or information you want to include to encourage customers to interact with your brand. 4. Deliver useful local information such as directions, inventory, and pricing, increasing relevancy when people view your ad.
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Thanks for Reading We appreciate you taking the time to look through this book. Hopefully you found it helpful, and you can implement some of these tips for your own business. If you have any questions or want some help growing your business with these tips, feel free to contact us at: info@adsupnow.com 425.398.1201 You can also visit our website, adsupnow.com, where you’ll find examples of some of our past work and more details on campaigns we run for our clients. Want more tips? Visit our blog at adsupnow.com/blog Thanks, AdsUpNow Team
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