Tag Archive for: PPC

Maximizing ROI with PPC Advertising

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In today’s competitive digital landscape, businesses must utilize various digital marketing channels to reach their target audience and drive conversions.

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a popular marketing tactic that can deliver measurable traffic, leads, and revenue results. To get the most out of PPC advertising, businesses must maximize their return on investment (ROI). This blog will explore strategies to help businesses maximize their ROI with PPC advertising. Here’s what you need to know.

Understanding the Basics of PPC Advertising

PPC advertising is a form of online advertising where advertisers pay each time their ad is clicked. The ad is displayed on various platforms, including search engines, social media, and other websites. The cost per click (CPC) varies depending on the platform and the competition for the targeted keywords. Advertisers bid for the keywords they want to target, and the highest bidder displays their ad.

Set Clear Goals and Track Your Progress

To maximize ROI with PPC advertising, it’s crucial to establish clear goals that align with your overall business objectives. These goals should be specific, measurable, and achievable within a defined timeframe. Once you’ve defined your goals, you must track your progress using reliable tools like Google Analytics, AdWords, or other PPC management platforms. By analyzing your performance data, you can gain insights into your campaigns’ performance and whether they’re delivering the desired results. This data can help you identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions about optimizing your strategy for maximum ROI.

Optimize Your Keyword Strategy

Keyword targeting is a critical factor in the success of PPC advertising campaigns. By targeting the right keywords, you can increase the likelihood of your ads appearing in front of the right audience. Conducting thorough keyword research to identify the most relevant keywords with high search volume and low competition is essential to maximize ROI.

You should pay attention to the following metrics:

  • Click-through rate (CTR).
  • Cost-per-click (CPC).
  • Conversion Rate.

It’s important to regularly analyze your keyword performance to ensure that your PPC campaign drives the desired results. It’s also worth noting that keyword targeting is not a one-time process. You should regularly review and refine your keyword strategy to keep up with changing trends and user behavior. By monitoring your routine, you can identify which keywords generate the most traffic and conversions and adjust your bidding strategy to improve your ad position and CPC.

Focus on Ad Relevance and Quality Score

Ad relevance and quality score are critical factors in maximizing ROI with PPC advertising. Ad relevance refers to how closely your ad copy aligns with your targeted keywords and landing pages. Quality score is a metric used by Google to determine the relevance and quality of your ads. The higher your quality score, the lower your CPC, and the better your ad position. To improve your ad relevance and quality score, you must create targeted ad copy and landing pages that align with your keywords and ad groups.

Leverage Retargeting and Remarketing

Retargeting and remarketing are powerful strategies that help businesses maximize ROI with PPC advertising. Retargeting targets users who have visited your website but did not convert, while remarketing targets users who have interacted with your brand. This includes those who have abandoned a shopping cart or subscribed to your email list.

Retargeting ads are the most used among marketers, with 77% of B2B and B2C marketers saying they use retargeting as part of their Facebook and Instagram advertising strategies. By targeting users who have already shown an interest in your brand, you can increase your conversion rates and ROI. To take your PPC advertising campaigns to the next level, testing and optimizing them continuously is essential.

Test and Optimize Your Campaigns

To maximize ROI with PPC advertising, continuously test and optimize your campaigns. A/B tests your ad copy, landing pages, and bidding strategy to identify what works. Regularly review your performance data and adjust campaigns to improve ROI. One helpful tip is to use advanced analytics tools offered by platforms like Google Ads and Facebook Ads to monitor campaign performance and identify areas for improvement. Making necessary adjustments based on your tracking data can help improve campaign effectiveness.

Final Thoughts

PPC advertising can be a powerful business tool to drive traffic, leads, and revenue. By understanding these strategies and maximizing your ROI, you can create effective campaigns that deliver measurable results.

Considering all the benefits PPC offers, there’s little risk in testing it out to see where it can move the needle and gain a wealth of valuable data to inform your other marketing and optimization efforts.

If you have not already incorporated PPC advertising into your marketing strategy, it is time to learn more and get in the game. At Onimod Global, we can help you optimize your PPC advertising experience and generate those leads you have been waiting for. Contact us today to learn more about our PPC advertising services.

The Value of Social Media Advertising

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Social media advertising has become a vital tool for businesses in today’s digital age. With billions of users on social media platforms, companies must understand its benefits and how it can generate revenue. 

Understanding the power of social media can make a difference in driving success. In this blog, we will explore the importance of social media and how companies can leverage it to achieve their goals. Let’s dive in and explore the value of social media for your business. Here’s what you need to know.

Why is Social Media Important?

Social media has become an increasingly essential tool for businesses in today’s digital age. According to Statista, social media advertising spending in the U.S. will reach over $94.4 billion in 2023. Social media advertising spending will hit $122.2 billion by 2026. This trend shows no signs of slowing down. With the increasing number of social media users, it’s clear why brands need to prioritize their social media presence.

In today’s competitive marketplace, a solid social media strategy is now optional but essential for businesses looking to succeed. By 2027, nearly 6 billion people will be using social media worldwide. As such, social media provides businesses an outstanding opportunity to connect with a large audience. 

By leveraging social media platforms, companies can engage with their customers personally, build brand authority, and generate leads and revenue. It’s a cost-effective way to reach a targeted audience and foster customer relationships. Let’s take a look at who uses social media.

Who’s On Social Media?

 

Businesses must understand the demographics of their target audience when crafting their social media advertising strategies. According to HubSpot, marketers primarily target younger generations, with 84% targeting Millennials, 52% targeting Gen X, and only 22% targeting Gen Z. Meanwhile, Baby Boomers only make up 14% of the target audience for social media advertising.

The Digital 2023: Global Overview Report reveals that women tend to spend more time on social media platforms than men. The report also showed a decline in social media usage across all genders as they age. Consequently, businesses should consider these demographics when creating their social media campaigns to ensure their content resonates with their target audience.

By understanding different demographics’ social media habits and preferences, businesses can create targeted campaigns that engage and convert their desired audience. With social media advertising spending projected to continue increasing, ensuring your brand’s message reaches the right people at the right time is essential.

Engage On Social Media

Social media offers businesses an unprecedented opportunity to engage with their customers personally. By leveraging social commerce, you can attain the following:

  • Interact with their clientele.
  • Create a sense of connection.
  • Drive engagement through feedback or comments.

However, businesses must create compelling content that resonates with their audience to make the most of social media engagement. Relevant posts, videos, and images will generate positive reactions, encouraging engagement and sharing. 

By thoughtfully planning and executing your social media strategy, you can build a loyal following, increase customer retention, and more. If you haven’t already, it’s time to start engaging with your customers on social media!

Building Brand Awareness Across Multi-Platforms

Establishing brand awareness is paramount to maintaining a solid online presence. According to research, 76% of consumers claim that content significantly influences purchasing decisions. People trust others; customer reviews and testimonials can help build trust and influence purchasing decisions.

Social media gives businesses an authentic way to showcase their brand and build trust with their audience. By sharing content featuring real people who love their products, companies can demonstrate their value and establish a loyal customer base. Building brand awareness through social media is crucial in today’s digital age. Businesses can build trust, establish brand authority, and drive sales by leveraging social media to showcase their products and engage with their audience.

Let’s take a look at some social media platforms that can help build brand awareness.

Social Media Platforms

Choosing the best channels for your business can be confusing at the beginning. There are a lot of platforms out there to choose from. Depending on the type of business you are in, you may be making a mistake by not being present on all of the platforms. Here’s a quick breakdown of some of the most popular platforms businesses use today.

Instagram: This is a great visual platform. It’s a great platform to showcase products and connect with influencers to grow your customer base. 41.5% of Meta’s revenue will come from Instagram in 2023, and its ad revenues are growing faster than Facebook. With over 1.3 billion users worldwide, it’s a platform to have a presence on.

Facebook: Is one of the biggest social media platforms and the oldest around. Facebook offers a targeted way to engage with prospects and customers.

LinkedIn: LinkedIn is the place to be for B2B businesses and provides opportunities for B2C too. Businesses can connect in the B2B space organically and through paid advertising. Content that works well on this platform is blogs, white papers, eBooks, and industry-related content.

Twitter: Twitter is a real-time platform, meaning your content should be timely and relevant. It can be an excellent customer service channel for brands as it allows quick replies, and its hashtags help discover new and trending content.

Creating a Strategy That Works

It’s not enough to simply have a presence on social media; businesses must create a strategy that works. This involves identifying the right social media platforms to target your audience, crafting engaging content that resonates with followers, and consistently adapting your approach based on data and feedback. By taking a thoughtful and intentional approach to social media, businesses can build a loyal following, increase brand awareness, and drive sales.

At Onimod Global, we’re passionate about our experience in brand strategy and social media advertising in order to help businesses succeed with modern marketing strategies. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help elevate your business to the next level.

Ukrainian Digital Vacancies at Onimod Global

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Some 3 million-plus Ukrainian citizens have been displaced in recent weeks, with some of them possessing in-demand technical skills. Onimod Global is in search of a Digital Marketing expert for two current positions. Read on to learn more and apply. 

Hiring Ukrainian Talent

We’ve all been watching the horrible events unfold since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. One thing that you can count on in our industry and country is how we come together in times of trouble to help one another.

SEO entrepreneur Olesia Korobka and Val Voshchevska, Ukrainian strategic communications experts, are helping bridge the gaps beween talent and job vacancies from across the globe. And Onimod Global is onboard. 

Marketers and digital marketing companies alike have been added to these sheets with information on specializations and skills as well as contact info and details about their companies.

Val Voshchevska was able to launch Jobs for Ukraine, a site that pulled together all job openings they manually found online. With already more than 2,000 vacancies for roles ranging from graphic design to tattoo artists and more.

Ukrainian Job Vacancies at Onimod Global

At Onimod Global, we’re always looking for unique talent in our ever-evolving field. That’s why we’re looking to fill two positions for a Digital Marketer at our firm, extending the applications to Ukrainian citizens.

  • Role 1: Digital Marketing Account Manager
  • Role 2: Paid Digital Marketing Internship

If you are Ukrainian, please submit for one of our two current roles here.

While can’t promise that you will be qualified to join us, we can promise that we’ll let you know right away, either way (within a working week).

Looking to Hire? 

Throughout times of war, the necessity for us to help those in need increases. Many of us are looking for ways to get involved with the current situation unfolding in Ukraine.

In this case, we are sharing this with our digital marketing community, in the hopes that it may help someone from Ukraine get a much-needed job opportunity. If you are short-staffed and are willing to hire a Ukrainian for SEO or PPC projects, consider contacting or going through the job list above. 

Why Onimod Global

Providing custom tailored digital marketing solutions to clients worldwide, we are a Chicago-based Digital Marketing & Consulting firm offering an eclectic mix of dedicated professionals working to create, implement and manage your digital marketing efforts. Your in-house marketing team, your partner experts for specific marketing verticals or some nice balance in between. We excel in customer service and serving as our clients’ consultative marketing team.

For more information on career opportunities and more, contact us today.

4 Ways PPC Will Rescue Your Business During Economic Crisis

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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.

What You Should be Excluding from Your PPC Campaigns to Utilize Your Ad Budget

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When building PPC campaigns, marketers usually focus on what should be included in targeting attributions. However, campaign exclusions are equally as important. Negative audiences, keywords, and other exclusions help to reduce wasted spend ensure people see the right messaging at the right stage of the funnel, and prevent users from being retargeted with products too many times. With targeting capabilities only getting more advanced, why not take advantage and utilize your budget to its fullest potential? 

Audiences You Should Exclude from PPC Campaigns:

Customer Support Seekers 

Users browsing customer support pages are likely existing customers looking for assistance, not shopping for more products. Nuances may apply depending on the goal of your campaign. For example, if you’re trying to upsell, existing customers looking for support may be a good target audience. If you offer premium support, you can also promote that through remarketing. In general, these are not users you want included in your campaign. You can build retargeting audiences based on URLs associated with the support section of your site to exclude them from your campaigns. 

Job Seekers 

Those looking for open job positions are likely not going to be product or service purchasers. So you don’t want to waste your budget by serving them ads for your latest promotion. Usually you  can identify these people by building a URL-based audience from your site’s career page. If you link to a third-party site for job applications, see if you can pixel that site, or track clicks to that site as a Google Analytics event to then build an audience for exclusion.

Past Converters 

These are not necessarily current customers, but have engaged in a conversion action, such as submitting a contact form or clicked on an ad in the past. Whether or not you target this audience depends on your business goal. If you have a multi-step funnel to work people up to the point of sale, then you would probably want to continue targeting this audience. If that’s the case they should still be put into their own category, as you don’t want to show them the same ad as before. This can be accomplished by tracking who as made it to your ‘Thank You’ page, then excluding that group from your original campaign. 

Current Customers

Whether or not you target this audience depends on your business goal as well. Sometimes you may want to sell current customers on additional features or new products. It’s often valuable to retarget past customers because they may be recurring revenue. Best practice would be to put past purchases into their own segment, see how they perform, and bid accordingly. Otherwise, you can create exclusions by uploading a customer match list of customer emails. If your product requires a login, you can build an audience based on people who have accessed pages that would indicate their status as a paying customer.

Additional Exclusions to Consider:

Your Own Company’s IP Address 

You always hope that your own employees aren’t clicking on your ads, but it can happen. But if even the ad doesn’t get clicked, it can still be wasting budget. Every impression counts. If Google detects your ads being seen, but not engaged, your campaign can be penalized. An impression without a click lowers your CTR, which can lower your quality score. This can then increase CPC, leading to fewer clicks and fewer leads. It’s best to be proactive and just block your company’s IP address completely, avoiding wasted ad dollars. 

Non-Business Hours 

Some may believe running ads 24/7 is how you would capture the most business, but this is not the case. It’s rare for companies to get many conversions between midnight and 6am. If your intake team isn’t capable of handling leads after hours, don’t waste your budget on clicks you can’t convert. It’s best to only run ads during business hours to ensure all calls can be answered and emails can be immediately responded to. 

Mobile Apps 

This is an issue most common among display campaigns. While you want to show your ads for mobile searches, you probably don’t want them getting shown within apps. When ads show up on game apps they’re usually either immediately ignored or clicked accidentally. Both which aren’t favorable. Now imagine what happens when a child is playing on a smartphone or tablet somewhere. Below is a screenshot of just a few placements from ONE account for the few short months a Display Campaign was active: 

Source: WordStream

At a top level look, it seems that your campaign is getting great clicks and impressions. When in reality it’s completely irrelevant traffic and wasted ad dollars. If you’re only getting a few irrelevant placements you can just exclude specific apps, otherwise you can exclude all mobile apps from your campaigns. This might be the best decision, as they can be costly clicks unlikely to convert. 

Finals Thoughts

Developing the right audience targets takes analyzation and constant A/B testing. And if your business is seasonal your audience targets may often change. It’s important to remember what you include and exclude from your campaign all depends on your campaign and business goal. 

More From Onimod Global 

At Onimod Global we’re experts in all areas of digital marketing from SEM and Web Dev to Social Media and Content Marketing.  Take a look at how we’ve helped other companies, and learn more about what we can do for you!

B2B Paid Search Tips

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The B2B conversion funnel can be very different than that of B2C. The purchasing decision and sales cycle as a whole can take much longer. First, because there is more than one decision maker. When purchases are made, they’re usually signed off by multiple stakeholders. Once they do sign off, contracts need to get sent through legal departments as well. The average B2B sales cycle is  84 days, meaning it could be a long time before the company is actually using your product or service. B2B marketing can seem a little more complicated than B2C at first, but with the right strategies and tactics in place, it can easily be simplified. 

B2B Paid Search Tips:

Multiple messaging points across the funnel

Because there are usually multiple people that have to approve the purchase decision, it’s important to have relevant messages for the appropriate audience at each stage of the funnel. Those that are in the early exploring stages are likely to respond to upper-funnel messaging, that don’t require a strong push to sell. As they get further into the funnel and are looking for specific reviews or comparing costs, they are usually more inclined to convert when presented with a strong CTA. 

Branded and competitor keywords 

If you don’t organically rank number one for your brand searches or aren’t well-known in your industry, bidding on your branded keywords is a must. Even if you are, bidding on branded keywords can have many benefits, especially when targeting B2B searchers. It gives you full control over your message and allows you to direct users to the ideal landing page. 

It’s expected to have generic keywords relevant to your services, but you might want to drop in competitor-based keywords as well. CPCs may be higher than branded keywords, but they are often cheaper than generic. When a user searches for a competitor, they’re likely just looking for what they have to offer. Bidding on their keywords gives users more results and alternatives. This can be especially beneficial if you’re not well-known organically. Since your target market may not be aware of you yet, bidding on competitors they are searching for will get you immediate visibility. 

It’s important to keep a close eye on your keyword performance. If CPCs for competitor phrases are getting too high, or soaking up all your budget without producing conversions, you may no longer want to bid on those phrases. A/B test many sets of keywords, find which perform best, and allocate your budget appropriately. 

Tracking and attribution 

The most difficult part of running B2B paid search can be tracking and attributing your leads, clients, and sales back to specific campaigns, audiences, keywords, etc. Identifying where sales and revenue come should be clear with an ecommerce strategy, as long as tracking is set up correctly. Tracking and attribution for lead generation campaigns can get a bit more complicated. They key is collecting data from multiple sources, then bringing it back together to get a clear picture of performance. 

There are many different tools and strategies to track and attribute paid search performance. A simple way to track performance is by directly dropping UTM data into a URL. If you’re unfamiliar with this practice, Google’s URL Builder Tool is a good place to start. This strategy allows developers to pull the data through the website form completions, pull that into your CRM, then complete the attribution process separately. 

There are many attribution models. The most popular used on Google are data-drive, time-decay, and position-based. Data-driven uses the publisher’s machine learning algorithms to precisely calculate and assign partial credit to different touch points in your funnel. While this is an effective strategy, there are volume requirements. Those Being 15,000 clicks and 600 conversions over the past 30 days and 10,000 clicks and 400 conversions per month. The other models may be better for businesses that have smaller volume. 

Time decay assigns credit to different touch points through the funnel, giving more weight to the most recent touch points, and less for the older ones. This may be most beneficial for highly competitive B2B spaces, as closed deals hold more importance than initial leads. Position-based attribution assigns 40% credit to the top of the funnel, 40% to the bottom, and 20% to the middle of the funnel for a conversion. Since this strongly emphasizes top and bottom funnel interactions, it makes sense for businesses where initial leads are just as important as closed deals. 

Re-Marketing 

In B2B, it’s especially important to nurture leads once they have entered into the sales funnel, but with relevant messages. You don’t want to serve these prospects with top-funnel messages that are no longer apply to them. That’s why you should create re-marketing lists for every stage of your sales funnel. The messages should differ slightly based on where the prospect left off in the sales funnel. It can be beneficial to create separate landing pages for re-marketing campaigns as well. This allows you to craft your message and specifically target those that have seen the original ad, but didn’t initially convert. These strategies can be used for post-purchase marketing as well. It’s always more expensive to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one. There are plenty of opportunities to turn first-time purchasers into long-term, loyal clients. Consider cross-selling, up-selling, renewing, limited offers, etc. 

Conclusion 

At first glance, B2B marketing can seem much more complex than B2C. Longer sales cycles and multiple purchase decision makers can seem intimidating, but it just requires a different outlook. Take a holistic look at your firm’s entire sales journey. Collate the relevant data for every touchpoint and start crafting the campaigns that will fit best, ultimately driving more leads and sales. 

Sometimes, even B2B companies need outside help. At Onimod Global we are experts in all aspects of SEM. With our expertise and unique cross-channel digital marketing campaign strategies, we can power entire corporate marketing departments, or provide custom solutions for local businesses. If you’re struggling with paid search, SEO, social media, automation, web dev, or any other aspects of digital marketing, Onimod Global is here to help. 

Learn more about what we do, take a look at some of our work, or start your conversation with us today!

Marketers’ Top Google AdWords Mistakes

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Google AdWords is one of the most used digital marketing tools today. Even though its use is widespread, optimization is still difficult for some. Creating a successful AdWords campaign is time-consuming and takes detailed, exhaustive work. It may be demanding, but when carried out properly, these campaigns have the possibility to bring in a mass of sales and business opportunities. Not to mention the inverse can be scary for marketers: spending too much on an underperforming campaign. The average small business spends $9,000 and $10,000 on Google paid search campaigns. With marketers allocating so much budget to AdWords campaigns, it’s essential to know how to effectively use them, and to be aware of the mistakes to avoid. 

5 Most Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them: 

Irrelevant Keywords or Wrong Match Type 

Keywords irrelevant to your ad copy or that have low search volume can cause your ads to have low quality scores. Along with using irrelevant keywords, you might be using too many. While you want to try to show up in as many searches as possible, you want to make sure they’re relevant to your product or service. Bidding on too many or irrelevant keywords will immediately drain your ad spend and could leave you conversion-less, especially if you’re using broad-match type. This match type allows ads to be triggered on a broad range of variations of your keywords, such as synonyms, possible misspellings, plural and singular forms, related searches, etc. 

The match mistake is an easy fix, as you can quickly go into the campaign settings to change it. First you should do your research on which type would be best for your particular campaign and target audience, such as phrase or exact match. Choosing the right keyword set can be a tedious task. It takes a lot of analysis, as well as trial and error. It’s important to choose keywords that are also used on your landing page, as that will increase your quality score. But it’s even more important to be aware of what your customers are actually searching. Users are much more likely to click on ads that include words and phrases that match exactly the query they typed in. Getting your list of keywords as tight and relevant as possible will help to drive conversions at the lowest possible cost. 

Not Utilizing Negative Keywords

Even after you have a solid list of keywords, there’s still a possibility of your ads getting shown for irrelevant or even negative searches. For example, you’re selling Axe deodorant and you’re bidding on the word “axe.” Someone could search “tree axe,” and your ad could fire. So you would want to apply “tree” as a negative keyword to ensure Google doesn’t trigger your ad for any searches involving that word. AdWords automatically gives you a list of suggested negative keywords to get started, but you shouldn’t leave it at that. Consistently watch your search terms report. Consider adding any keywords that come in for irrelevant queries, as well as expensive CPCs. If there’s a keyword that’s costing you high clicks and isn’t converting, you may want to pull it. 

Minimal Use of Ad Extensions 

Most users of Google AdWords are aware of ad extensions, but not of the full plethora or impact they can have. Ad extensions allow you to get more space on the results page, include more valuable information to your ad copy, send users directly where you want, give them the option to call you directly, and more. They can even have a factor in your overall ad rank. Google reported that adding a new ad extension typically increases click-through rates by 10-15%. Finding the right combination of relevant ad extensions can increase click through rates, lower cost per click, and improve positioning. Consider these popular extensions and their benefits: 

  • Callouts: Allow you to include specific attributes about your business, products, and services. This is an area where you can include more keywords and pitch-heavy content.
  • Sitelinks: These can build the content of your ad by offering additional information and links to more specific pages on your site, allowing users to get directly where they need to.
  • Structured Snippets: Allow your ad to highlight specific aspects of your products and services. The layout is a mix between a callout and a sitelink. Each snippet contains a header and list of features you choose to highlight. This extension can hurt your click-through rates if your content isn’t carefully thought out, because the design can be complicated and hard to read.

Not Using Landing Pages

Sending PPC traffic to a homepage is a huge mistake that some marketers are still unaware of. Most people that are performing searches are looking for an immediate solution to a problem. Sending them to your homepage means they will have to spend even more time searching through your site for what they actually want. If they don’t immediately find it, they’ll likely bounce and search elsewhere. If a user already went as far as clicking on your ad, make it easy as possible for them to actually convert. With that being said, you also need to make sure they’re being directed to appropriate landing pages. If you can, try to create a designated landing page for each keyword set that answer the same user intent, and make sure there is a clear call-to-action on each. You can learn more about creating high converting landing pages here. 

Not Testing Ads or AdCopy 

Testing is widely underutilized when it comes to AdWords campaigns. It is often dismissed as time-consuming and unnecessary, but you really don’t know how an ad is performing unless you can compare it to another. Create ads with various headings, keywords, body copy, placements, landing pages, etc. To get the best results from A/B testing remember to:

  • Only change one factor per test.
  • Have a clear hypothesis. 
  • Perform the test long enough to gain accurate results. 

 

Final Thoughts 

Every marketer makes mistakes, but being proactive can help you to avoid the simple ones. All these mistakes are easy to make, but they’re also relatively quick fixes and easy to learn from. Running AdWords campaigns can be tedious, but when carried out correctly the results can be monumental. That’s why it can be beneficial to outsource for your paid search needs. At Onimod Global we are experts in SEM. As a Google Partner, we are a digital marketing company, trusted by Google to excel with their products. We are experts in paid search on major search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo, as well as in social advertising across all platforms. We work as your own in-house digital marketing team. 

Learn more about what we do, or become a client today! 

 

The Do’s and Don’ts of Ad Copy

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Google provides a lot of helpful data when it comes to certain aspects of search campaigns, except when it comes to ad copy. Ad copy can be one of the most crucial elements when it comes to paid search, no matter the platform. Finding the right combination of keywords and titles can be difficult, but when you’re spending a good chunk of budget on paid search, you want your ad copy to be something that’s generating traffic.

 

What is Ad Copy?

Ad copy is the main text or description of a clickable advertisement. The text is usually the second and third lines of the ads displayed on a search engine, in between the title and display URL. It’s generally used to describe what the advertisement is for, as well as inserting related keywords. While most people are aware of what ad copy is, there are still mistakes frequently made, even by experienced paid search marketers. Finding what works best for your particular paid ads can be difficult, but we’re going to discuss some general do’s and don’ts of writing ad copy.

 

Ad Copy Don’ts

Jacob Baadsgaard, founder and CEO of Disruptive Advertising, has identified the top 3 most common mistakes that keep businesses from paid search success, when it comes to ad copy.

Keyword Stuffing

Inserting as many keywords as possible into ads is no longer the secret to search success. The modern user has been trained to avoid any search results that look even slightly suspicious or point towards spam. Users now look for content that address problems and solutions. As consumers evolve, ad copy should follow. This does not mean keywords should no longer be included, they’re still very important. What it means is that they need to be appropriately and specifically selected and placed in the ad copy. The ad needs to incorporate them in a more meaningful way. Focus more on providing answers, rather than keywords, because that’s ultimately what users are looking for.

Focusing On The Wrong Problem

Users click on ads if they focus on a problem, pain point, or whatever triggered their need to search. The issue is many business misidentify the motivating factors behind customers’ searches. A common misconception is that a company’s target audience share the same needs, goals, and values. More often than not the customer doesn’t care, what they do care about is whether or not you can help fix their problem. If the ad doesn’t focus on a solution, customers probably won’t click on it. When the ad copy’s main focus is the need behind a user’s search, you’ll seem like the perfect solution.

Neglecting Ad Extension

While it is ultimately up to Google whether people see your ad extension or not, neglecting it is a huge mistake. It is important to focus on titles and descriptions, since that’s what everyone will see, but when your ad extension is shown, it needs to matter. “Google reports that adding a new ad extension typically increases click-through rates by 10-15%, so they’re well worth investing some time into.” Ad extensions are a way to incorporate callouts, sitelinks, and structured snippets.

Callout extensions allow you to include specific attributes about your business, products, and services. This is an area where you can include more keywords and pitch-heavy content.

Sitelinks are something that should definitely be taken advantage of if given the opportunity. They can build the content of your ad by offering additional information and links to more specific pages on your site, allowing users to get directly where they need to.

Structured snippet extensions allow your ad to highlight specific aspects of your products and services. The layout is a mix between a callout and a sitelink. Each snippet contains a header and list of features you choose to highlight. This extension can hurt your click-through rates if your content isn’t carefully thought out, because the design can be complicated and hard to read.

Ad Copy Do’s  

 

Include Emotional Triggers When Appropriate

Users don’t make decisions on logic alone. People are more often driven by emotions. If someone reads something that triggers a strong emotional reaction, negative or positive, they will be more inclined to click through. You do want to be careful to balance the reaction with the rest of your message because you don’t want your brand to be associated with negative emotions. The ad copy should ultimately focus on resolving the negative emotion. Positive and subtle triggers can be effective as well. It all depends on what exactly you’re advertising.

Create Keyword-Rich Display URLs

Sometimes advertisers may not be aware that the display URL and their actual destination URL can be different. The display URL can be something more interesting or relevant to your ads while including your top keywords. Even if your destination URL doesn’t contain your keywords, your ads can still appear in search results if your display URL includes them.

Be Benefit Focused, Not Features

It can be disappointing, but most customers don’t care about your actual company. As previously discussed, users want to know what you can ultimately do for them. Focus on how your brand can make their life easier, not about your actual brand. Using words like ‘you’ makes the ad more personal and can demonstrate how your service actually benefits the user. How much time or money users can save with your service are easy and effective things to include.

 

Conclusion

Writing ad copy can be tricky, and there is a lot of room for error. That’s why it’s always beneficial to outsource for your paid search needs. At Onimod Global we are experienced experts in SEM. As a Google Partner we are a digital marketing company, trusted by Google and excel with their products. Experts in paid advertising on platforms such as Google, Bing, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Not only are we experts in paid advertising, but also organic search engine optimization. Onimod Global works as your own in-house, cross-channel, digital marketing team.

You can view some of our featured work here, or contact us here.  

Paid Advertising Metrics That Matter

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There is no busier time of the year for an advertiser than the holidays. As millions of consumers are looking to purchase gifts for their loved ones, we advertisers are here competing against one another for their attention.

Digital technologies have allowed advertisers much more access into the everyday life of the consumer, which is an incredible advantage for most. However, it is not enough to simply run a digital marketing campaign unless you can accurately measure and interpret its results. So what do you need to look for?

AdWords Pay Per Click

SearchEngineLand.com has recently published an article that discusses the best measurements to analyze when assessing the value of a PPC campaign, particularly those carried out through Google AdWords. The article brings many important topics to light, and is centered around 4 major areas of concern for AdWords PPC campaigns:

  1. High Cost Per Click = low profitability
  2. Long-tail keywords are a waste of money
  3. More clicks don’t mean more conversions
  4. There is no silver bullet

Facebook

Facebook has completely dominated the market when it comes to social media advertising. With more than 2 billion active users, Facebook provides an ideal consumer base for most businesses. The platform is also equipped with many different tools to help marketers keep track of how well their campaigns are performing.

The Facebook Pixel is just such a tool. As you are setting up your campaign, you are given the option to track users with the Facebook Pixel. This allows marketers to get a more complete picture of the customer journey by embedding a tiny, pixel-sized image into the ad. A similar Onimod blog post discusses this topic a bit further with the recent debut of the Snapchat Pixel. To read the full article, please click HERE.

Another highly useful Facebook tool is their split testing option. This campaign type allows the marketer to run two of the exact same ads to two completely different audiences. This form of A/B testing helps advertisers get a better idea of who their target consumers truly are.

More From Onimod Global

At Onimod Global, our content creation team strives to consistently offer the latest industry news combined with expert insight. We have many other articles relating to this subject of paid advertising metrics, including:

For more information from the team at Onimod Global, please visit our website!

Why Digital Marketing Expertise is Critical for Startups

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With the rise in the number of startup businesses, how can you ensure your startup will succeed and stand out from the competition? Many startups claim to implement digital marketing practices, yet most don’t invest enough time and money, and have little or no knowledge of effective digital marketing strategies. According to a startup study from Profoundry, “71% of the startups researched did not have a documented digital strategy in place.” This post will explore the importance of digital marketing for startups and ultimately why outsourcing may be the best option.

Because of the increase in startups across the globe, it’s no surprise that online presence can “make or break” the success of a startup. Brand awareness and customer acquisition are two of the main benefits that effective digital marketing strategies can provide. Listed below are a few introductory steps to internet marketing that every startup organization should implement to start on the right track.

Beginning Steps

1. Website Development:
Depending on what the product or service is, it should typically start with the creation of a professional website. Without this, everything else that follows becomes difficult or unfeasible. Although a decent investment is required when outsourcing to a developer, it is worth it in the long run. Unprofessional websites or not having one at all is setting your business up for failure. Check out Our Work and see what website development solutions Onimod Global has to offer.

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO):
Having a website is one of the first steps for startups, but if it is not optimized for search engines how will it drive traffic? Ensuring that your startup’s website is highly optimized will require a lot of SEO knowledge and time. There are many components of SEO that involve “on page” optimization like paying attention to title tags, content, meta descriptions, keywords, and internal link building. There are also “off page” optimization tactics like blogging and utilizing local directory sites. Click Here to run a free scan and see how well your website currently ranks online. Ultimately, outsourcing SEO efforts to an experienced agency is your best bet to increase online visibility for your startup and rank well for relevant searches.

3. Social Media Marketing:
Once your website is fully developed and optimized for search engine visibility, social media marketing is the next step to follow. Creating accounts on as many social media platforms as possible (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus) will only benefit your organization by creating more visibility. According to Statista’s Report in 2016, “89% of startup owners indicated that social media initiatives have greatly increased exposure for their businesses.” A presence on social media not only increases exposure, but it also has the potential to increase SEO, develop a loyal following, and can even establish thought leadership within your industry.

Why Outsource to an Experienced Agency?
This is a typical question that most startups have, and why should an investment to an advertising agency be made? The answer is pretty simple – knowledge and experience. One of the worst moves a startup can make is investing money into their marketing budget without having any knowledge of where their customer base lies and how to effectively generate leads/conversions. A lack of internet marketing knowledge is one of many reasons why today’s startups fail in a digital world. Outsourcing to an experienced agency like ours ultimately ensures success and a positive ROI for your startup in the long run.

View our digital marketing expertise at Onimod Global  and see how our experienced agency could help fuel your next startup endeavor!

Contact Us: At Onimod Global we are a full scale digital marketing agency that serve our clients’ needs in website development, SEO, SEM, Social Media, E-Mail Marketing, and much more. Feel free to reach out to us on our Contact Us Page and see what digital marketing solutions we can provide for you.