5 Google Ads Tips That Will Make You More Money

/in , , /by

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.

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.

7 Marketing Metrics to Focus on for the Rest of 2020

/in /by

Tracking key metrics is crucial for any successful marketing campaign. There are countless KPI’s you could be tracking, but not all are essential. While it does vary from campaign to campaign, we’ve narrowed it down to 7 critical metrics that must be tracked to get a solid understanding of your campaign, to better identify where you should be spending your ad dollar. 

1. Qualified Leads 

Generating leads is one of the first and most difficult steps of a marketing campaign, but getting qualified leads is even more important. Qualified leads are leads that you’ve seen some level of engagement from, and have a high chance of making a purchase decision. You can calculate the rate of your qualified leads by using this formula: (Qualified leads / Total leads) x 100 = Qualified lead rate. That will help you get a better understanding of the effectiveness of your marketing initiatives. A few tips for gaining qualified leads include: 

  • Creating more personalized messages. Giving leads personal attention makes them feel more important and much more likely to continue down the sales funnel. 
  • Putting greater effort into finding them. Instead of cold-calling or sending out bulk email blasts, go through your lists to identify those that have a higher chance of converting. 

2. Customer Acquisition Costs 

Customer acquisition costs (CAC) looks at how much, on average, it takes to convert a lead into a customer. You can find it by calculating: Amount spent on lead generation / Number of new customers as a result of lead generation = Cost of customer acquisition. It’s a metric that can help you avoid wasting resources on programs and campaigns that aren’t delivering. It should not be relied on alone, though, as there are number caveats. A company’s CAC can be poor if they’re expanding into a new area, are in early stages of SEO work, the company is undergoing reorganization, etc. CAC should be viewed in comparison with the company’s overall strategy. 

3. Referrals 

Referrals are something that often get overlooked by companies, but this is an important metric, especially in digital marketing. There are a lot of ways to track referrals. Traditionally, they can be tracked using referral or coupon cards. However, they’re often run and tracked online. The most commonly used program involves a customer signing up online, then inviting their friends via a unique code/link. To track this an excel or spreadsheet is easiest to use. You can calculate your rate of referrals with: Total number of customers / Number of referrals = Referral rate.

4. Customer Lifetime Value 

Customer lifetime value refers to how much revenue the typical customer will bring into your business over the course of their lifetime. The simplest formula to measure CLV is the following: Customer revenue per year x Duration of the relationship in years – Total costs of acquiring and serving the customer = SLV. This shows how many customers you need to break even and make a profit. 

5. Time Spent on Site and Bounce Rate 

Time spent on site is a good indicator of whether or not people are interested in what you have to offer. If they’re spending a significant time on your site, as well as browsing to other pages, it’s likely they’ve found a good amount of value in your brand. Bounce rate is related to time spent on page, but refers to someone who made it to your homepage, but immediately leaves. If you have a high bounce rate, this is a big indication that either your home page is poorly designed or you are focusing your digital marketing on the wrong people and need a shift in strategy. Both of these metrics can be tracked with tools like Google Analytics or Clicky. 

6. ROI 

Return on investment is one of the most important metrics to track for a business overall. It allows you to identify which tactics are generating revenue and which are poorly performing. You can then adjust budgets and strategies as necessary. It’s important to note that you shouldn’t immediately quit a marketing strategy if it has a poor ROI right off the bat. You should take some time to think if there’s anything you can do to adjust to make it more successful. 

7. Conversion Rate

Conversion rate tracks the percentage of people that make it to your landing page and turn into a real customer. A low conversion rate is bad for obvious reasons; your landing page isn’t working and you’re not making a profit. It’s important to A/B test multiple landing pages, because you never know what people are going to like best. Sometimes it can just be a small tweak to turn a poor performing landing page into a high performing one. Try different colors, fonts, images, etc. Other things that may cause a low conversion rate is if your ask is too large. It’s best to start with something small, such as a subscription or sign up, then move those customers to bigger purchase asks. 

Final Thoughts

Like previously mentioned, all strategies and campaigns are different. But one thing all marketing programs have in common is their metrics need to be tracked and adjusted based on the data that’s found. If you need assistance in any area of digital marketing, our team at Onimod Global is here to help. We’re experts in SEM, SEO, analytics, social media marketing, and more. Learn more about what we do and contact us today. 

Tips to Increase Your Brand’s Engagement on Social Media

/in , /by

Promoting your brand through social media has become vital for overall business success. But just being on social channels isn’t enough anymore. The key to real success is through user engagement. This can help increase your brand awareness, customer relationships, and conversions, ultimately improving profits. 

Something that often gets lost to marketers is this: engagement is much more than just likes. Engagement is also comments, shares, follows, re-tweets, clicks, private messages, etc. And these types of engagements are often more valuable than likes. That sounds great, but how can brands accomplish all this? We’re here to help. Here are 5 tips for boosting your brand’s engagement across all social platforms.  

1. Talk about interesting topics, not just your brand. 

It’s common for businesses to frequently or exclusively post about their products or services. That’s not really not what social media is for, or what users want to see. The best content is exciting and informative. Ask yourself if it’s something you’d want to see or would share. It’s also important to ask yourself how it makes you feel. What getting people to engage, click, and convert comes down to is emotion. You should constantly be evaluating if your content is making you feel something and if that is worth sharing. If it’s not, editing and reevaluating may be needed. Most importantly, the content you’re creating and putting out to your audience should have value. The value is either making your audience happy, gives steps on how to get there, or anything else that’s beneficial. 

2. Join and hold Q&A’s and surveys. 

Joining Q&A sessions is a great way to provide your audience with value and get more brand awareness. You can spark discussions with prospective customers, all before competitors, you can become the go-to seller. Consumers are more impatient than ever and don’t want to wait for answers. That’s why, if it’s possible, you should have a dedicated response management person/team. While answering questions quickly is important, it’s also important to answer them accurately and clearly. We advise you to complete ongoing research for the most commonly asked questions and develop sample answers that can be customized for each question/situation. 

3. Share other people’s content. 

Constantly creating interesting, high quality, and engaging content is not easy. If there’s someone else providing quality answers to a query or other relevant content, make use of it. Your audience will see that you are there to give them what they need, no matter where it comes from. If your feed provides relevant and valuable information, whether it’s yours or not, people will be more attracted to your brand and be more encouraged to follow you. Keeping your feed diverse and from different contributors keeps audiences interested.

4. Make your customers feel engaged. 

To boost engagement, you need to be social. This means directly responding to all messages, comments, etc. Whether it be negative or positive, responding is essential. Show appreciation for the positive comments and suggest solutions for negative ones. It’s also important to respond to posts that aren’t addressing you directly, but indirectly or through hashtags. When responding you should present yourself as personable and approachable, ultimately humanizing your brand. Addressing comments with the person’s name is a great way to do this. It shows that the comment wasn’t computer generated and that someone really is listening to them. You should also try to match the person’s tone/emotion. If their comment was lighthearted and included emojis, feel free to use them back. This is a great way to generate a longer conversation and may even get other audience members involved. 

When it comes to negative comments, it’s smart to have a plan on how you’re going to deal with them. You want to be able to respond quickly to stop the issue from growing. You want to respond to show others that you’re not just ignoring the problem, but it’s also best to take the conversation offline and solve the problem privately. 

5. Post frequently and at optimal times. 

Posting frequently across all channels is vital for overall social media success. This shows your audience you’re relevant and up-to-date on the latest trends. This also helps your audience members stay up-to-date with you. Loyal customers want to know what’s happening with your brand the moment it occurs. Whether it’s a promotion, a new product/service, expansion, etc. This helps your audience stay connected and strengthens your relationship with them. 

A large part of engagement is posting at optimal times (when your audience is online and active). Most people are online during lunch hours or later at night, but it’s important to do research on your audience specifically. A/B testing may be necessary. Experiment with posting times to see which performs best and generates the most engagement amongst your audience. 

Social media moves quickly. If users think your page is inactive, they will unfollow you. Which is why it’s important to be posting as frequently as you can. Everyday isn’t necessary, but a few times a week is best practice. 

Final Thoughts

No matter what industry you’re in, social media is beneficial. It only continues to grow in value as times change in 2020. Brands that are focusing on growing their social media engagement are benefiting from better marketing reach, ROI and higher brand awareness. All which makes it easier to reach prospects and customers. Boosting and sustaining engagement is difficult and does take time, but it’s not impossible. It takes knowing your audience, a strong strategy and ongoing effort. In the end, it will be worth it. 

More from Onimod Global

As experts in social media marketing, our team knows where and when your customers need you most. We help create visibility for brands where their customers are searching, interacting and engaging. If you’re struggling in social media or any area of digital marketing, contact us today.

The Right Social Media Image Sizes In 2020

/in , , /by

With the world searching more and more online during the COVID-19 crisis, it’s important your brand and social image is professional and polished. Using images which aren’t the correct size for each platform’s requirements can impact your brand perception. Low quality and pixelated visuals make you look unprofessional or not up to date. Are you not sure if you’re using the correct image sizes? Use our image size guide to see the key image requirements for all the major social platforms.

Facebook

  • Your profile photo is representative of your brand. We recommend that is a consistent logo among all of your social media accounts. This image must be 180 x 180 pixels.
  • Cover photos are the banner behind your profile picture, and this should also be consistent across social platforms that allow for an image in this location. Cover photos should be 820 x 312 pixels, if it’s anything smaller than this your image will be stretched and distorted.
  • Images that are shared in a post, for example a blog post news update, have a recommended size of 1,200 x 630 pixels.

Twitter

  • Twitter profile pictures have a recommended size of a 400 x 400 pixel square. Keep in mind that the actual Twitter profile picture appears as a circle, so we advise you to have the proper spacing around your logo so nothing is cut off.
  • Twitter also has a cover photo, which should be about 1500 x 1500 pixels for an image size. Pick an image that compliments your profile picture and make sure it is consistent across all platforms as well.
  • Photos in tweets, when expanded, appear at a maximum of 1024 x 512 pixels and a minimum of 440 x 220 pixels. Keep in mind that on mobile, the app collapses photos which could make for an awkward crop situation. Make sure your content is always centered horizontally to avoid odd cropping.

Instagram

  • Instagram profile pictures are small but powerful. These show any time you have a new story, in direct messages, and of course at the top of your profile page. The image size is recommended to be 110 x 110 pixels.
  • Your thumbnails for photos, or often referred to as your photo grid, will appear as 161 x 161 pixels. If you’re going for a certain aesthetic, the thumbnail size is an important one to keep in mind. Individual image uploads can be square or rectangular. Square photos image size is 1080 x 1080 pixels and rectangular images should use a 4:5 ratio.
  • Instagram stories are a must for your brand to remain relevant on the platform and also where you will have the most visibility. The recommended resolution for stories is 1080 x 1920 pixels or an aspect ratio of 9:16.

YouTube

  • Your profile image for YouTube should be the same consistent branding as your other social channels as mentioned above. The image size for YouTube profile picture is 800 x 800 pixels.
  • Attractive and engaging thumbnail images are crucial to success of your videos. For YouTube, make sure your thumbnail image size is 1,2080 x 720 pixels.
  • YouTube also allows for a cover image photo in addition to your profile image. The recommended image size here is 2,560 x 1,440 pixels.

Pinterest

  • On the Pinterest homepage, profile picture image sizes are 165 x 165 pixels.
  • It is recommended to use an image aspect ratio of 2:3 for pins.
  • Pins that are on the homepage or in a board will appear at 236 pixels wide. Once a pin is expanded, it has a minimum width of 600 pixels and the height of the image will scale proportionally.

LinkedIn

  • Your company logo is very important when it comes to the identification of your brand, of course. Make sure it’s visible with the image size of 300 x 300 pixels.
  • The company background image is similar to the cover photos on other platforms, where it takes up the entire top portion of your page. The recommended image size for your LinkedIn background image is 1,536 x 768 pixels.
  • Images in your content posts have a recommended size of 1,200 x 630 pixels. Keep in mind that LinkedIn is a professional social network platform with a large focus on building relationships with industry leaders. Make sure your posts are appropriate for this kind of audience and focus less on driving sales or website traffic.

*Data from Social Media Today

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.

YouTube Select: YouTube’s New Premium Advertising Program

/in , /by

YouTube just recently launched their new premium advertising program, YouTube Select. “Helping you connect with your audience is our top priority. This is especially important as digital takes precedence in how we interact, communicate and stay connected.” Vishal Sharma, YouTube’s Vice President of Product Management wrote. The purpose of YouTube Select is to make this easier for brands. Offering more flexibility to reach hard to find audiences, with the confidence advertisers’ buys are brand-safe. 

New Features

Emerging Lineups: YouTube Select packages content in what it calls “lineups.” These are tailored by market for topics such as beauty & fashion, entertainment, technology, sports and more. They’re now introducing a new offering, called “Emerging Lineups.” These provide an easier way to extend the reach of campaigns among upcoming or niche channels.

Sponsorships and Programs: There are also custom sponsorships and programs available to help brands target audiences across top YouTube apps and vertices, such as YouTube Kid, Sports, Music, and Originals. 

TV Audience Targeting: According to YouTube, over 100 million people in the U.S. watch YouTube and Youtube TV every month. They also have a higher household reach and share of watch time than the next 3 ad-supported streaming services combined, according to Comscore. To take advantage of this surge, a dedicated streaming TV lineup is being introduced as another offering for advertisers. Streaming TV combines the best of YouTube TV and lineups content, both on TV screens. That means being able to easily reach your audience with a single, scalable offering on the big screen across the best content. This includes popular creators, YouTube Originals, live sports, feature length movies, timely news and more.

They’ve also recently announced Brand Lift measurements on TV screens, which will soon be available globally for the app and YouTube TV. Ultimately to give advertisers better help measuring their brand results. 

Better Buying Options: In addition to more capabilities on the TV screen, there will also be more choices on how advertisers purchase their ads. It will vary by region, but many countries are making certain YouTube lineups available via Google Ads, Display & Video 360 and reservation.  

Why this is Important to Marketers

Connected TV viewing continues to increase considerably, especially in the midst of the pandemic. Over the last year or so YouTube has started focusing more on marketing objectives, rather than media. Ultimately to become a stronger and more strategic marketing partner for brands. YouTube Select is making it easier to ensure brand-safety when ad buying. Granting marketers access to advanced suitability controls, as well as the option to only serve ads on videos that have been machine classified and human-verified across all lineups. Overall, it offers an easier way for you to authentically connect with your audience at scale. 

According to YouTube, brands are already seeing results. “In 2019, global lineups delivered an average awareness lift of 13 percent and an average purchase intent lift of 9 percent. And in an MMM meta-analysis we commissioned with Nielsen in the U.S., YouTube Select lineups had greater ROI than TV in 73 percent of MMMs that measured YouTube Select lineups, Other Digital, and TV in 2016-2018.” 

Whether you’re new to the YouTube advertising space, or have been here for a while, YouTube Select is definitely something you should consider. 

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.

New Facebook Report: COVID-19 Impact On Small Businesses

/in , /by

This pandemic has not only been a world health crisis, it also serves to be an economic crisis. While the world as we know it has been impacted significantly as a whole, among the hardest hit sectors looks to be small businesses. Mom and pop shops are the heart of all of our communities, and they are facing the ultimate challenge. Small to medium businesses generally operate at very tight margins as it is, and they don’t have the same safety nets that larger corporations are able to fall back on. While forecasts for the future are grim, it’s important to capture what’s happening in the moment. How are small businesses dealing with the impact of COVID-19 and how do they feel about their situations moving forward?

The State of Small Business Report, by Facebook and Small Business Roundtable, based on a survey of 86,000 owners, managers and workers in companies across the US with fewer than 500 employees, is a somber image of the struggle they are facing as they fight for their business to survive.  The data also includes 9,000 operators of “personal” businesses (i.e. people who reported that they were “self-employed providing goods or services”). You can read Facebook’s full report here, but below are some of the key points.

Insights of impact

Facebook’s report provides insight as to how many businesses have been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 lockdowns, with a look at the percentage of SMBs in each sector that are currently cannot operate.

small business facebook report 1

As per Facebook:

“According to the survey, 31% of small and medium-sized businesses have shut down [entirely] in the last three months. The situation is worse for personal business (52% of which report shutting down), hotels, cafes and restaurants (43%) and services like wellness, grooming, fitness or other professional services (41%).”

These trends have been in expected in some way, with high exposure businesses of course being forced to close their doors. The numbers also wrap some further context around the 36 million unemployment claims in the US over the past six weeks. The big question is, how many of these businesses will be able to recover and bounce back?

Businesses re-opening

In general, the majority of small businesses remain optimistic with a respective amount of caution.

small business facebook report 2

Lots of “maybe’s” here, but most significant is the lack of “no’s”. This definitely provides hope of most people getting back on their feet and resuming employment, with the economy getting back on track at some stage. Of course, the longer that businesses are forced to remain closed then the path to recovery is significantly more difficult.

Current impacts on revenue

In later notes of the report, Facebook provides some context as to current impacts on revenue, even for those businesses that have remained in operation.

small business facebook report 3

2020 will certainly not be a year of growth for the majority of businesses, if any. However, there are some indications of future potential.

Digital opportunities for small business

small business report 4

More and more business are exploring online opportunities and going digital. This was already a trend, and the pandemic has catapulted all business into the world of online sales and e-commerce. This will most likely end up being the biggest long-term shift we see stemming from the COVID-19 shutdowns. While e-commerce accounted for only around 16% of total US retail sales in 2019, this number is expected to significantly increase in the next years. While retail is the most common e-commerce sector, the pandemic crisis may prompt more businesses to consider their options for digital operations, meeting consumers where they’re spending more and more of their time.

You can read Facebook’s full, 36-page “State of Small Business Report”, which includes a heap of more specific insights and data, here.

More from Onimod Global

Contact Onimod Global today, we are here to help you navigate this uncertain time. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

To catch up on the latest digital marketing news and trends, click here.

Reopening Post Shut Down: Is it Worth it?

/in , /by

As a business owner, you’ve likely been wondering what it would look like for you post COVID-19. While it’s not post COVID-19, states are starting to reopen and allowing businesses to reopen as well. Despite this, polls indicate the majority of consumers remain nervous about the virus. This raises the question for many business owners – is reopening worth it? 

Are Consumers Ready? 

A recent survey by the Washington Post found that while 56% of consumers are comfortable shopping in a grocery store, 67% are not comfortable with the idea of going into a retail store, and 78% would not go into a restaurant for a sit-down meal. Another survey by Fluent found that only 34% of respondents were comfortable with governors lifting stay-at-home orders. Despite those results, the survey also found that 60% of the audience feels “calm and collected or neutral” about COVID-19, while 38% are “nervous or very nervous.” 

These results are contradicting and confusing for owners trying to make critical decisions. This is probably due to consumers being confused themselves. People want to return to “normal” activities, but are concerned whether it’s really safe to do so.

Where Consumers Feel Safe

A survey from First Insights revealed how comfortable consumers are with going to different types of stores. Respondents were asked in which types of stores they would feel safe or very safe. These were the results:

  • Grocery stores: 54%
  • Drug stores: 50%
  • Big box retailers: 45%
  • Warehouse clubs: 43%
  • Local small businesses: 43%
  • Department stores: 37%
  • Shopping malls: 33%

Another contradiction was found when looking at smartphone location data. When Georgia reopened, location data showed more than 60,000 people came from neighboring states, to visit stores, restaurants, gyms, salons, etc. These data points suggest that even though majority of consumers claim they’re apprehensive about going to stores, there’s a sufficient amount of people that would still turn out for reopenings.  

E-commerce Continues to Surge 

There have been many surveys and other data indicating e-commerce will continue to grow even after reopening. E-commerce order volume has increased by 50% compared to 2019. Not only that, but 57% of consumers are shopping online more than before. And 65% prefer to do that shopping on a smartphone, rather than PC or tablet. New safety protocols on stores that do reopen may also cause enough inconvenience for consumers to find going to stores not worth it. For example, many stores are requiring shoppers to wear masks, some even requiring temperature checks, and some are only allowing shopping by appointment. While this is all for the safety of shoppers and employees, it may require too much effort for what it’s worth. 

Tips for Reopening 

No matter what, people will be going back into stores. Possibly in large numbers in those states that do open over the next month. Even with the regulations, details are complex and not always clear. Business owners will have to problem-solve and make their own plans on how they will keep their employees and customers safe. Here are some tips on reopening your business, including advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

 

  • Keep social distancing guidelines in place. Social distancing, meaning keeping 6 feet of distance between people, can be difficult in the workplace. But this will likely be the new norm, for a while at least, and it’s important for keeping employees and customers safe. Consider these efforts to ensure your business can properly social distance:

 

      • Rethink desks, displays, and workspaces to create proper distance. 
      • Consider staggering work hours to limit the number of employees there at a time. 
      • Limit the number of seats in common areas. 
      • Use tape to mark 6ft intervals where people wait in lines. 
      • Post signs in or around the building that promote social distancing and advise those who aren’t healthy to please not enter.

 

  • Encourage employees and customers to wash hands and use sanitizer frequently. By now, we’re all well-aware of the efforts that are necessary to help prevent the spread of the virus. Washing and sanitizing hands is crucial. Consider installing signs around the workplace that encourage employees and customers to wash/sanitize their hands:

 

      • When they get to work/enter the building 
      • After sneezing, coughing, or blowing their nose
      • Before and after eating 
      • Before and after touching their eyes, nose, and mouth
      • After interacting with coworkers and customers 
      • After touching displays and other equipment 
      • After visiting the restroom 

 

  • Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces multiple times a day. This not only keeps employees and customers safe, but it can help customers breathe easier knowing anything that they touch has been cleaned thoroughly moments before. This includes doorknobs, light switches, countertops, handles, tables, desks, keyboards, remote controls, elevator buttons, toilets (including handles), faucets, sinks, cash registers/point of sale (POS), displays, business equipment, phone etc.

 

  • Provide PPE to employees and create a policy that addresses guidelines and proper usage. Depending on the state where your business is located, you may be required to supply your employees with gloves, masks, etc. Even if your state doesn’t have requirements, it may be in your best interest to provide your employees with them anyways.

 

 

Final Thoughts 

The decision to stay closed or to reopen is ultimately up to you. At this time, it’s difficult to know when to do anything. You know your business and your customers best. If you believe they’re eager and ready to get back outside, reopening may be a smart business decision. If you can see that the majority of your customer base is still very apprehensive and nervous about the current state of things, staying closed may be the better option. When you do choose to reopen, make sure you take the time to prepare and protect yourself, your employees, and your business. Rushing things will not help your chances of doing well as we all face the next steps. 

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.

How To Link Your PayPal And Google Merchant Center Accounts

/in , /by

Google announced last month that it will now be allowing free listings in Google Shopping search results. Google also released information that retailers can integrate PayPal with their Google Merchant Center accounts. That integration is officially live!

This means that retailers and brands using PayPal as a checkout option on their site can now link their PayPal account to the Google Merchant Center which will apply to all products for listings across Google. If you’re new to Google Merchant Center, the PayPal connection can also speed up the merchant verification process.

Where to start with PayPal integration

To integrate the PayPal platform is quite simple. Just follow these three simple steps from Search Engine Land:

  1. After you log into the Google Merchant Center, select tools in the upper left navigation.
  2. Select “linked accounts” under the settings menu. Here you will see the option to link your PayPal account.
  3. In order to have your products eligible to be listed on Google Shopping, Search, Images and elsewhere, you will need to opt into Surfaces across Google.

And that’s it, easy and efficient for everyone involved. Total win-win for retailers and shoppers alike.

Why This Integration Matters

At this moment, PayPal is the only integrated platform. Google says there will be more options for integration payment platforms in the future for retailers to choose from. When there is integration of a variety of payment platforms, it significantly lowers the barrier for entry for merchants to list their products on Google shopping search. This helps retailers expand to new unpaid channels and helps Google broaden the universe of products it can show users. Another win-win!

Bill Ready, President of Commerce at Google, also mentioned in the initial announcement additional information to make e-commerce more accessible:

We’re continuing to work closely with many of our existing partners that help merchants manage their products and inventory, including Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce, to make digital commerce more accessible for businesses of all sizes.

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.

4 Ways PPC Will Rescue Your Business During Economic Crisis

/in , /by

People may be clicking, but when are they buying? Are consumers buying too much too fast? When do they really decide to convert and make a purchase? When will brick and mortar stores reopen and foot traffic resume? As some questions are answered, they are replaced by new questions under such fast-changing circumstances. The good news: Search marketing is adaptable, measurable, and when done correctly, VERY cost effective. Even with shifting data models, PPC pros can use timely trends to guide strategic decisions.

Trends Emerging

One very helpful tool for marketers during COVID-19 is the Tinuiti COVID dashboard. Here they provide a look at trends in paid Facebook media since the pandemic took hold. It requires you to sign up for free with email, and offers insights into media spend. They have discovered some emerging trends from the data across some volatile sectors. April proved far different compared to March; May will undoubtedly look far different compared to April. The following trends, according to the data shared by Search Engine Land:

Automotive: Spending plunged month over month by 41%, but surged almost 50% week over week across the past two weeks.

Travel: Spend almost evaporated, down 82% month over month, but is showing signs of a cautious uptick.

Consumer packaged goods: Up 27% month over month, and up 50% week over week.

In some cases, it seems that the natural reaction is to slash media spend. But clear thinking and data prove to prevail while figuring out the best strategies for your company.

E-commerce

Fast impact on e-commerce is dizzying to say the least, since e-commerce covers basically everything on the market.

  • Google announced search results on the Google Shopping tab will now include free listings, so any business that sells things should fast-track getting their Merchant Feed into Google. Read more about this hot topic on our news page here.
  • Product hoarding has shifted to “next best alternative” purchasing. For example, consumers got creative about toilet paper shortages, driving interest in bidets and other solutions-oriented products.
  • Market-dominating providers are suddenly prioritizing what gets shipped and when. Smaller providers that can ship fast have the potential for an edge over Amazon, Walmart and other large companies.

Here are some PPC tips from Onimod Global:

  • Make sure you are only showing the ads for things people can actually buy. There’s no point showing ads for toilet paper if none is in stock, or for your new summer shoe line launch if your warehouse is on lockdown.
  • Pay attention to setting better bids and prioritize the campaigns that can still convert.

Home services

Quarantine has people searching around the house looking for anything and everything to fix up. This includes but not limited to: Carpet cleaning, painting, dusty air ducts, spring prep for outdoors. Some are DIY projects, but many are best handled by the professionals, including emergency repairs.

Onimod Global’s PPC tips:

  • Stay on top geo-based performance that is affected by any local regulations impacting performance in your service areas.
  • There’s no point showing ads when all you can do is disappoint a prospect with the inability to fix their problem soon. Ensure your ads are suspended while your limited staff is completely booked.

Hospitality

It’s very evident as to why spend in the hospitality industry is almost completely evaporated. Remember that this is only temporary! History tells us that people will venture back out. It is human nature to do so. Travel is a necessary escape, and essential for business at times. People need hope, that they will soon be able to do this again. Here are our tips:

  • Stay on top of shifting search queries to avoid paying for ad clicks from consumers looking to cancel.
  • Keep audiences for Google Ads up-to-date with your customer/prospects database. This will ensure you’re showing the most relevant ads at the right time to the right groups of consumers.
  • Remember that there are customers who are ready to buy, just maybe unable to because of local restrictions. We suggest to consider shifting away from last-click conversion attribution.

Local brick & mortar businesses

Most likely the largest impacted in business are the brick and mortar businesses forced to close for the near future. Family-owned restaurants may lack infrastructure for delivery services at scale.

Some tips from Onimod Global for PPC are:

  • Build audiences from customer data. Even your manual customer email list in Google Sheets can be uploaded to a Facebook campaign for more effective targeting.
  • Agencies can deploy Rule Engine (for Google and Bing) to automate optimizations. It’s another way to offer lower-cost agency services that can scale.
  • If you’re new to social media advertising, contact Onimod Global to ensure your advertising budget is spent in the most efficient way possible.

More from Onimod Global

Need help from experts on PPC and how to optimize your advertising budget? Contact Onimod Global today, we are here to help you navigate this uncertain time. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

To catch up on the latest digital marketing news and trends, click here.