In many cases, this stems from the fact that we all have at least *some* familiarity with the online world. We take that knowledge and immediately believe we can use specialist networks, ignoring basic fundamentals which we wouldn't normally do in any other area of business.
And although I admire their enthusiasm greatly, their execution? ...maybe not so much.
The obvious truth here is that there is a lot of money to be made using internet marketing and as an example today, let's take Google Adwords - because although it's a great way to accomplish this you really do need to have knowledge of what you are doing in order to succeed.
So, in this particular blog post we are going to give you some examples of what to bear in mind when putting together your Adword Campaigns if you must do it yourself. And of course being Mediatasks, instead of writing this up normally - we're getting some extra special help from James Bond because, with the following attributes, we're sure 007 would be outstanding in the art of making money with Google Adwords.
The most important and basic thing that you need in order to succeed is to really know what your mission is going to be. Bond always know what his mission is and this is the reason why he always manages to get the job done no matter how many obstacles he finds on the way.
The same applies for Google Adwords and by knowing what you need to accomplish, you will definitely see the results you want. Always know what your goal is, typically who do you want what to do. Do your homework on the way the system works and what is efficient and useful.
We have seen Bond do anything that is required to get to the job done. He has stepped on hungry alligators, bungee jumped to the bottom of a dam and performed all kinds of stunts in all sorts of vehicles. Adwords isn't something you can dip in and out of and still expect to get great results, it will simply end up costing you a lot of money.
The point is, you need to do whatever it takes to become a successful Google Adwords Campaigner and stay committed to the cause. Our experts at Mediatasks go through many hours of training before they are let loose on actual accounts, you shouldn't do any different just because it's your own money.
Bond keeps track of all things that are going on around him in order to complete his mission. This is something that he would definitely use in his tactics for Adwords. You can get priced out of Adword campaigns quickly, so you need to keep track of how things are moving along and you can’t just rely on the analysis offered by Google.
You need to get involved and this means getting as much external information as possible in order to get the most accurate results. Here at Mediatasks our software analysis tools allowing us to compare the stats we get in great detail. You could too.
Lastly, you need to work your way through the rough patches. Adword campaigns fluctuate daily, there will always be difficult times, but only those who persevere will ever see the kind of results that are truly exceptional. Bond knows that nothing comes easy and the most rewarding missions are always the hardest ones to accomplish. If you view your efforts online with the eyes of the iconic agent, you will be on your way to a successful outcome.
If you'd like a hand with your online advertising, please use book your free strategy call. There's no obligation, although we can guarantee you will be shaken and stirred with the results.
The internet revolution is upon us and more and more companies are finding tremendous success by business blogging.
Blogging is great, not only for individuals, but for businesses, companies, and services as alike. Some would even say, that as far as your company goes - business blogging is cooler than James Brown!
Now, James Brown was a pretty cool guy, cooler than most, and still cool to this day. His lyrics, the way he sang, and his songs still ring true today. C'mon, "I feel good", now what could be better than that? Well, the answer is in blogging!
Cool businesses are successful businesses, and successful businesses are found higher up Google search results. A great way to get up those rankings is to blog as it keeps your content flowing, increases your link building and shows your expertise.
In fact, companies who blog on a consistent basis have found their revenues skyrocketing, their business visibility increasing and their customer base growing every single day.
The reason for all this is simple.
With the countless amount of prospective customers who are searching the internet for new things to buy and services to purchase, businesses who successfully blog are using it to "speak" to these prospects on a 1-2-1 basis. Blogging has proven to be a more personal way for businesses, companies, and services to advertise than any other method out there.
Blogging allows business to do their marketing using the internet which ends up saving them heaps on advertising costs when compared to traditional methods as well as tons of time that could be spent on another area of business.
Blogging gives businesses, companies, and services the ability to create content that is able to be tailored perfectly to alert prospective buyers about new deals, promotions, and any other information that the business is trying to convey, at that point.
It actually makes no sense for a business not to blog in their day to day operations. But, like with anything else, it is advisable for businesses to adhere to a few guidelines when writing their articles.
The first thing businesses should do when creating their content is follow certain SEO rules. All blogging content must include keywords that directly relate to the business as a whole, and are regularly searched for on search engines like Google or Bing.
When this is done correctly, prospective customers will be able to locate any business, company, or service with ease, resulting in businesses with very high brand awareness.
To maintain the benefits businesses need to keep going because like everything that is worthwhile, blogging requires commitment. But if they do, a regular blog with clever keyword analysis and careful link building can really up the ante and help companies stand out from the competition on the internet, on search engines and therefore in their industry.
And that's pretty cool to us!
Many of the nuances of SEM are lost on small business owners and entrepreneurs, simply because in terms of advertising, this kind of thing has only recently really become a major player.
Just like Miley Cyrus...
Here are three other things, search engine marketing and Miley have in common.
Miley is a money maker, no one is questioning that. So is landing number one on Google search results.
First page of results will guarantee you traffic. Second page makes you competitive. Beyond that? You need a new SEO strategy and to invest in some Pay Per Click ads.
Being acutely targeted in nature, effective SEM brings in your ideal customers, without blowing your marketing budget. You simply have to know what your market is searching for. Pay Per Click puts your offer in front of the eyes of your buyers--but you either have to research to know what they’re searching for, or have a strong intuitive sense about your target market.
Miley seems to excel in the latter (but who knows? Maybe she has some kind of wacky brilliant marketing team behind her). She understands what her ideal audience wants to or is ready to see, and has gotten really good at delivering the goods. Love her or hate her, that’s a business lesson to take to heart.
Miley’s new videos walk a line between art, exploitation and expression. Sort of how Search Engine Optimization does with your web presence.
Sure, you want to provide useful, meaningful, and valuable content to your customers, but you also want Google to pick up on that. Striking a balance between writing for robots and writing for people can be tricky.
Thankfully, there are SEO tricks that you can use to boost your rankings without sacrificing your content. On-page optimization, will give your site more flexibility and rank your site higher in search results. It can be as simple as ensuring that your content is styled for search engine visibility, or as complicated as embedding specific keyword phrases and code into your copy.
So long as people are searching Google for any kind of information at all (and can you imagine a scenario where humanity would suddenly find search engines useless?), SEM is going to be a part of every successful business marketing toolbox.
How seriously you take SEM in your business will have an impact on your bottom line. As, thanks to the internet small and local businesses find themselves competing on a much grander scale.
So you might as well jump on board now, because like Miley, SEM is going to be on the scene for awhile.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the business of getting your business to the top of the results page on Google when someone searches for a term related to your industry.
This is important because more people search online when looking to buy a new product or service than do anything else.
As a general rule, sites that appear near the top of the results page get more traffic and therefore more potential business. Your mission is to get to position one on the first page, which, depending on what industry you operate within and how achievable it is - varies greatly in time and money.
If you operate in a niche and follow these basic principles you stand a good chance of getting to at least page one...
Search providers like Google & Bing use 'spiders' to determine their search result rankings. A spider is a piece of software that crawls the web to identify what is written on website pages and in particular any keywords and phrases. So, when someone searches for that keyword on Google (for example) they can work out how relevant your website is to that request.
Because of this, it is important to make sure your website has all its keyword areas correctly filled out and includes the words or phrases which people may search for; when looking for a business like yours.
If this sounds a little Greek don't worry, Google has a free tool to help called the Google Adwords keyword tool. This is actually designed to help potential advertisers identify the most relevant words to use in their ad's but you can also use it to research what should ideally be on your page.
When you know which keywords should be on the page, make sure they are in the body of text and not in places like imagery which is an SEO no-no. In addition to the body of text, keywords should also appear in an unseen area called 'metadata' which is where spiders will look for key information.
If you don't know how to do that, your web designer can help. But if you have a little knowledge of HTML or your website is run by a management system like WordPress, then it may be more straightforward that you think.
Your sites PageRank is a score out of 10 that is based on Inbound & Outbound links to and from it. If your site is linked to by another site with a good PageRank, your ranking will improve.
At this point you may think the more links the better but you would be wrong. Artificial ways of linking, like Link Farms, are especially frowned upon by search providers. It is not just the number of links, but also the quality. Social Media - like Google+ - is particularly good for this, as are professional bodies and certain directories.
A good rule of thumb is to make sure whenever you reference an external site or source, you use a hyperlink. Internal links (to and from pages on your own website) encourage people to spend more time on your site by real people and spiders mentioned earlier. It is worth making sure your menu structure and available quicklinks are clear and easy to use too.
Just like the Google Adwords Tool, there is something which can help here too and it is a Google Chrome browser plugin called PageRank Status.
The more your site content changes, the more frequently spiders will revisit your website. This is a particular reason why a regular Blog is so good for SEO. That, and the fact that is illustrates your expertise in your area of business.
Google and Bing change their algorithms periodically so they can improve their search results so more people will use their service. Because of this, SEO is something which needs to be monitored in order to get the most benefit although some basic principles - like those described above - are universal.
If you like this, sign up to our Newsletter or use the contact form to get in touch. Alternatively you could give us a call in the office on 020 3303 0005.
In our Marketing 101 Series we demystify Digital Marketing by walking through the industry fundamentals and basic terminology. So, if you don't know your SEM from your SEO or the difference between Opt-In and CAN-SPAM - this one's for you!
Pay Per Click or PPC is a type of Search Engine Marketing largely made famous by Google. Perhaps when searching on their website you remember seeing a little yellow box of results above the usual ones?
They are 'Sponsored Results' also known as 'Paid Search' but both effectively advertising whereby a company or companies have paid to be positioned there in the hope that you will take more notice of their listing than any other. And largely, it works. Very well in fact.
Disclaimer in case Microsoft is reading this: ofcourse Google is not the only place that does this. Bing does too....
Whether or not you are using Google Adwords or Microsoft Bing for your PPC, here are some of the terms that you will come across in handy alphabetical order. Enjoy!
Ad Extensions
Additional information you can add to you ad. The most popular type of ad extension is sitelinks which allow you to add links to additional pages on your site underneath your main ad. There are many other ad extensions though such as call extensions, location extensions and social extensions.
Ad Rank
A measure that takes into account your Quality Score and bid to determine the position on the page your ad will show.
Ad Scheduling / Day Parting
Allows you to adjust bids by a percentage at campaign level depending on time of day or day of week.
Click Through Rate (CTR)
The number of clicks your ad receives divided by the number of impressions. A high CTR is a good sign that your ad is relevant and stands out from competitors and it can lead to increases in quality score, lower CPCs and higher average positions.
However, a lower CTR is not always necessarily a bad thing, for example, including a price in your ad might reduce the number of people clicking on it but those that do might be more likely to convert. Additionally, ads in higher positions often see the highest CTR and search partners and the display network usually see lower CTRs than search.
Conversion Rate (CR)
The number of conversions (sales, leads etc) divided by number of clicks.
Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) / Cost Per Lead (CPL) / Cost Per Sale (CPS)
The amount spent for each conversion.
Cost-per-click (CPC)
Actual CPC is the amount you pay for each click on your ad. Your actual CPC will not be higher than the Max CPC you assign a particular keyword but it is often lower depending on your quality score and the ad rank of competitors.
Impressions
The number of times an ad is shown.
Impression Share
The number of times your ad is actually shown divided by the number of times it entered the auction to be shown. If this is less than 100% your ads will be missing out on potential traffic. An ad might lose out on impression share because there is not enough budget or because ad rank is too low.
Keyword
The word or phrase chosen by an advertiser that is used to determine whether an ad will show for a particular search term.
Match Type
A property of the keyword that determines which search terms a keyword is eligible to show for. There are several match types:
- Exact – search term must match the keyword exactly
- Phrase – search term contains keyword in that precise order
- Broad – search terms contains keyword, misspells, similar terms and synonyms in any order
- Modified broad – search terms contains keyword, misspells, similar terms but not synonyms in any order. You can also specify negative keywords which prevent an ad from showing if the search term contains that word or phrase.
Product Listing Ads (PLAs)
Ads that show on Google Search and Google Shopping that contain an image of a product, its price and the store name. These are set up within AdWords using a product feed in the Google Merchant Centre.
Quality Score
Google assigns keywords a Quality Score which is represented through the interface by a number from 1 to 10 (10 being highest) based on their relevance. This takes into account factors such as CTR, landing page quality and relevance, and relevance of the keyword to the search term and ad. A high quality score can lead to higher positions and lower CPCs.
Remarketing
Remarketing lets you display ads to users who you know have previously visited your site.
Return on Investment (ROI)
A measure of how much money is made compared to how much is spent. One of the benefits of paid search is that you can track each sale or lead right down to individual keyword level so you can measure ROI at a very granular level and optimise accordingly to improve ROI.
Search term / Search Query
The word or phrase searched for in a search engine.
How many did you know? If you'd like to add any more please feel free to use the comment section below. Or if you'd like to talk about a PPC Campaign or another form of Search Engine Marketing please use the contact form to get in touch. You could also give us a call in the office on 020 3303 0005 if you prefer.
