Google To Provide Free Shopping Listings

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Google Shopping is responding to the coronavirus crisis by taking steps to make it easier for more merchants to sell via the platform free-of-charge. The Google Shopping tab results “will consist primarily of free product listings” starting next week, the company announced Tuesday.

This major shift, after 8 years of Google’s shopping results platform, comes after many brick and mortar retailers have had to close their doors due to the coronavirus pandemic. E-commerce has inevitably boomed, and everyone is quickly catching up to speed on how to best service store owners. This change, while COVID-19 was the motivation, was a planned initiative and will be permanent. Free shopping listings fits into the longer-term vision for the company’s role in digital commerce.

Bill Ready said in a blog post that he expects the change to take effect in the U.S. by the end of April, with the aim of expanding it worldwide by year-end. Ready clarified the win-win of the shopping listings free-of-charge: Retailers gain free exposure to millions of people who search via Google Shopping every day, while shoppers discover more products from more stories. While Google is packaging the change as a gesture to help retailers during an economic crisis, there’s no doubt Google is also seizing the strategic opportunity to expand its role in e-commerce in the midst of this worldwide uncertainty.

Millions of people are stuck at home with almost no options for shopping in brick and mortar stores. Online and e-commerce has and will continue to see a huge rise. So what does this mean for retailers and advertisers?

“For retailers, this change means free exposure to millions of people who come to Google every day for their shopping needs. For shoppers, it means more products from more stores, discoverable through the Google Shopping tab. For advertisers, this means paid campaigns can now be augmented with free listings.”

Why does this matter? This is actually where Google first began, then named Froogle. It became an entirely paid platform in 2012, and in those 8 years 2 things have drastically changed the e-commerce game: data quality and Amazon. Google’s ability to ensure that the information in a product feed matches the data on the site has advanced significantly since this time. In addition to limiting the products available on Google shopping results to retailers willing to pay, their search power was at a major disadvantage.

Another exciting development to the platform is a recent partnership with PayPal. Merchants using PayPal will be able to link those accounts to Google Merchant Center, which will allow Google to pull in seller details faster and to verify trusted merchants. Google also partners with e-commerce platforms, including Shopify, WooCommerce and BigCommerce to make it easier for merchants to manage inventory and products.

As Ready concluded, “Solutions during this crisis will not be fast or easy, but we hope to provide a measure of relief for businesses and lay the groundwork for a healthier retail ecosystem in the future.”

More From Onimod Global

To catch up on the latest digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

 

Brand New Features Added to Google Ads Keyword Planner

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Keyword research has always been one of the most important SEO activities; but it takes up a lot of time. With their new slick features, that’s where a powerful keyword research tool like Google Ads Keyword Planner comes in to play. Read more

How Customer Reviews Can Rev Up Conversions

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Whether your business is product or service based, B2B or B2C, great reviews will help smash your conversion goals. It’s time to leverage customer reviews to boost online traffic, sales and revenue. Read more

Updates To Amazon’s Advertising Platform

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Amazon has earned their powerhouse title over the years since starting their business in 1997 selling books. With growth of 39% year over year in net sales, a 12x jump in earnings per share (EPS), and over 100m Prime subscribers globally in Q2 2018, it’s impossible to ignore their influence over customers’ journey in the e-commerce space.

This month, Amazon’s team revealed some big changes by reintroducing their advertising brand. Competing with Facebook and Google platforms, Amazon is combining several applications in their advertising suite into the simple brand of Amazon Advertising. What was once Amazon Media Group (AMG), Amazon Marketing Services (AMS), and Amazon Advertising Platform (AAP) will now all become one simplified tool for brands to utilize.

Senior Vice President of Amazon Advertising, Paul Kotas, elaborates more on their new and improved platform:

“We’ve unified our product offerings under the name ‘Amazon Advertising.’ This is another step towards our goal of providing advertising solutions that are simple and intuitive for the hundreds of thousands of advertisers who use our products to help grow their business.”

How Amazon Is Positioning To Be Competitive 

Above all, Amazon has the competitive advantage of knowing that customers are going to their site first for product search and discovery. With Amazon being the most used and trusted tool, it must be thought of as a search engine in itself rather than just an e-commerce site. According to RedDoor, many brands and companies are creating specific marketing teams to manage their positioning on Amazon’s site in addition to agencies creating large scale so brands can establish themselves on Amazon.

Amazon has differentiated themselves in the following areas:

  • Real-Time Optimization: The tool that sets them apart the most from Google and Facebook is real-time optimization. While it may take time to see improvements in your organic search ranking on either of those platforms, Amazon is optimizing your product page in real-time.
  • Direct: Everything in Amazon’s space is within the Amazon ecosystem. A potential buyer never leaves the network with Amazon’s inbound links which is a huge difference in how they advertise versus other competitors like Google and Facebook.
  • Incentive: Amazon makes money on what you sell, where Google is more concerned on click-through rates to any landing page you have. The bias of each platform is very important to keep in mind while reviewing what is performing best.
  • Customer Service: Customer satisfaction is another thing that individualizes Amazon’s advertising space due to the fact that reviews and ratings are crucial to Amazon’s listings.

 

Amazon advertising has grown so much, yet is still young in its development. Amazon’s team will be working to make tools more efficient and effective for all brands, companies, and customers using this platform.

 

More From Onimod Global

For more information regarding digital marketing expertise, trends and insights, visit the Onimod Global Website. We provide weekly news updates on the latest in the world of digital marketing. Enjoy!

 

Restaurant Digital Marketing Strategies That Will Increase Traffic

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Managing a restaurant in today’s fast paced, digital environment can be very difficult to keep up with. It’s well known how competitive the restaurant industry is, so how can your venue stand out from the crowd? Implementing effective digital marketing strategies is critical when it comes to increasing restaurant traffic and overall revenue. If your restaurant is unfamiliar with SEO, social media marketing, or any other aspect of digital marketing, this post will provide strategies to help your business stand out.

Invest in a Highly Functional Website
Investing in a responsive, professional website may seem like a major expense to restaurant owners, but it’s essential in today’s digital world. According to a survey from OpenTable “86 percent of consumers go online to view a restaurant’s menu prior to visiting the venue.” This demonstrates how today’s consumers are visiting venues online before physically entering restaurants. Because of this it’s also important to ensure your restaurant’s website is optimized for mobile, as the industry is known to experience a massive amount of mobile traffic. Be certain to never hide important information from potential consumers on your site such as menus, hours, contact information, photos, and any call to actions (reservations).

Prioritize Social Media Advertising
Having an effective social media strategy is essential to restaurant success. This seems obvious, but many restaurants don’t know how to reach the right audiences or execute their overall plan. According to an article from Forbes, some common mistakes seen in the industry are “not connecting Facebook and Instagram accounts, marketing to a national audience instead of local, using hashtags on Facebook, and many others.” This mistakes are not too difficult to correct, yet it requires an investment of both time and money to be properly executed. Ultimately, because social media marketing is such an integral part to restaurant success and takes time, outsourcing to an experienced digital marketing agency like ours is probably your best bet.

Pay Attention to Google My Business
Google My Business (GMB) is an important tool that provides local businesses with an opportunity to appear in Google search and map results to essentially increase local SEO rankings. Having a GMB listing and being active is critical in today’s digital world for local restaurants in order to stand out from the crowd. Including restaurant information, uploading appealing images, optimizing your GMB listing, and frequently posting updates will greatly improve a restaurant’s digital visibility. Utilizing Google My Business allows your organization to take charge of what people see when conducting a local search for your business, and it should never be overlooked.

Analyze Website Traffic and SEO Rankings
Having a professional website is great, but does it rank well on Google? The survey from OpenTable also found that “87 percent of potential consumers go online to find a restaurant in their area prior to visiting any venue.” Therefore, an enhanced SEO presence is critical, especially for local businesses. Not ranking on the first page of search engines for relevant search queries in the restaurant industry can potentially set your business up for failure. Monitoring website traffic is also crucial so be sure to install Google Analytics on your website to help with traffic analysis.

Bar & Restaurant Case Study
Wondering what kind of bar & restaurant digital marketing experience Onimod Global has? Take a look at our Case Study and read about how one of our clients in downtown Chicago is outranking their competition and seeing sales soar as a result. We developed a highly functional website, increased organic SEO rankings, and spread the word about their incredible services across all major social media platforms. As displayed in the chart below, in the first 3 months alone of 2018 our client has been found 146,000 times in Google Maps and a total of 321,000 times on Google.

Contact Us
Is your restaurant in need of superior digital marketing services? Reach out to us at Onimod Global and see what digital solutions we can provide for you!

Pringles to Debut in Upcoming Super Bowl LII Advertisement

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Despite being a digital marketing company, we here at Onimod Global are interested in all sorts of different marketing methods. That is why today we are taking a more traditional approach to discuss ads for the upcoming Super Bowl LII.

Super Bowl Spot Cost

Each year, brands compete for a coveted spot to advertise during the super bowl. As one of the single most televised events of the year, the Super Bowl brings in some serious cash from advertisers.

It is safe to assume that each and every TV spot comes with a hefty price tag, but just how expensive can they be? Jeffrey Dorfman from Forbes claims that $5 million dollars is a bargain for such a TV spot.

Dorfman explains that the cost for these spots has been on the rise for years, but they still present an incredible value for brands. These ads air in front millions of viewers, roughly 110-115 million viewers to be exact.

This huge audience is exactly what makes the opportunity to advertise during the Super Bowl so appealing. Once you break down the cost of $5 million across 110 million viewers, the cost per view is just pennies on the dollar.

Pringles Premier

The Pringles snack company belongs to Kellogg’s, which acquired Pringles back in 2012. Since 1968 the brand has expanded across the globe to over 140 nations, and continues to market itself in as many new locations as possible.

According to Adweek, the Pringle’s Super Bowl campaign will be centered around the idea of “Flavor Stacking”. Flavor Stacking is a concept designed to entice consumers into creating unique flavors by combining different types of Pringles together.

The upcoming ad is said to be, “an opportunity to show people a fun, new way to enjoy their favorite Pringles flavors with their family and friends,” according to Kellogg’s U.S. Snacks’ senior vice president of marketing, Yuvraj Arora. Be sure to look for the debut Pringles ad, along with many others at the upcoming Super Bowl LII on February 4th!

Happy Thanksgiving From All Of Us at Onimod Global!

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With the Holiday Season approaching, our thoughts turn gratefully to our clients and those who have made our progress possible. It is in this spirit that we say thank you, and best wishes for the holidays and Happy Thanksgiving!

– The team at Onimod Global

Google Partners Launches Digital Sales Certification Exam

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Google has announced that the Google Partners program has launched a new certification exam – Digital Sales. Google Partners is a program that provides agencies access to free training and exclusive tools, as well as the guidance and support to help businesses successfully advertise on Google. Advertising agencies that are members of the Google Partners program like us at Onimod Global contain certified employees and are companies trusted by Google.

According to Google, the “Digital Sales Certification Exam has been created to assess and increase partner sales representatives’ effectiveness in selling Google digital solutions to businesses.” There are a total of five parts to the exam which include planning, the open, identifying, recommendations, and the close.

The planning section involves networking, prospecting potential clients, and preparing for the pitch. The open is about delivering an effective pitch, positioning, and setting up meetings. The identification part is just about asking questions and discovering what potential clients need. Recommendations consist of delivering solutions and how to solve client problems. Lastly, the close section is about handling objections, closing the sale, and how to generate referrals.

Contact Us: Here at Onimod Global, we are a member of the Google Partners Program and all of our employees are Google certified in many areas. If you’re a business seeking an upgrade in brand awareness, website development, or any other digital marketing service feel free to reach out to us at Onimod Global on our Contact Us page. We look forward to hearing from you!

 

3 Deadly Digital Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

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Digital marketing is often much more difficult than many people think. You can’t just hand over a marketing department to any millennial with a laptop and a Facebook account. You need a trained professional. Onimod Global is here to help with a quick list of marketing mishaps to steer clear of.

1.) No Clear Marketing Strategy

This is without a doubt the most effective way to sink your company. Moving ahead with digital marketing initiatives without any type of real game plan is detrimental. Not only will it waste time and money, but some of the damage may be irreversible. It can be very hard to change a consumer’s perception of a business once they’ve already interacted with it. After all, no one gets a second first impression.

Make sure to develop a real strategy before making any major moves. Consult with real professionals outside of your business. You may also want to seriously consider hiring someone full time to run your marketing campaigns. Digital marketing is not something that can be learned overnight. It requires real experience and education to be implemented successfully.

 

2.) Limited Social Media Exposure

First of all, you need to make sure that your brand exists on social media. Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and Instagram are just a few to get started. If you aren’t on these 4 basic platforms, then you are most certainly missing out on an enormous customer base.

Being present on these various platforms is invaluable to your brand’s identity. They are also completely free, aside from the time it will take to get them up and running.

If potential customers cannot find you anywhere on the internet besides your website, they may think that your company is a scam. Social media is a perfect way to build up a solid foundation and spread the word about your business. It is also a great way to push your content.

 

3.) Not Enough Content

The more original content you generate, the better. Whether in the form of a tweet, blog, or newsletter, these all have the potential to gain more traction for your business. This is a great way to get people interested in what you have to say.

Every extra minute you spend inside of a particular platform helps you gain more knowledge and credibility. Engaging with others is a great way to prompt them into engaging with you. The more time that you spend tweeting, retweeting, hashtagging, and following major influencers, the more recognition your brand will receive.

Why Mobile Matters

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It’s no secret that mobile advertising is taking over in a big way. This transition is quite possibly the single most important trend in digital marketing at this time. So what are you doing to enhance your advertising strategy for mobile users?

A recent Nielsen report shows PC usage down in every demographic, while mobile usage through tablets and smartphones only trend upward. It is clear that users are shifting away from desktops in favor of more convenient mobile devices.

An article by Forbes gives 15 examples of how to lead the way in mobile digital advertising. One of their strategies is to optimize the first 3 seconds of your ad in order to quickly gain the attention of the viewer.

Many consumers are giving less and less consideration to ads, so it is imperative that your message is delivered quickly and clearly. In general, all interactions should be faster. Increasing speed relates directly to increasing convenience, which in turn increases the likelihood of a response from the user.

Another suggestion is to treat mobile as an entirely new practice. It will not benefit you to copy over all of your old tactics and beliefs to the mobile realm. Instead, try to picture it with a fresh mindset.

Do some research, find out what works best. Look over other industry trends, like the ones mentioned in this article of ours: 4 Digital Marketing Trends to Follow, and figure out how you can implement them into your mobile campaign structure. Do not assume that mobile will work in the same way as all other advertising methods.

Also pay attention to changes in digital marketing platforms. Many large advertising platforms such as Google, Facebook, and Bing Ads are constantly trying to innovate and improve their services. Google recently redesigned their AdWords platform for the first time in 8 years. Another Onimod article discusses the 5 Things You Need to Know About the New Google AdWords.

Continue to stay up to date with other platforms by subscribing to their newsletters and webinars. The best way to stay ahead of the competition is to stay informed.

Here at Onimod Global we are regularly reporting on digital marketing related news. Visit our blog to view recent articles, or contact us to subscribe to our email newsletter.