Paid Search (PPC)

5 Steps You Can Take Today to Bring More Traffic to Your Website

July 23, 2020 by Daniel Laws Leave a Comment

Website traffic is an important business indicator and a driver for growth. You get to see how your marketing is working while gathering insight about your target audience. More traffic to your website builds your credibility on the web. It’s important to drive quality traffic that will impact lead generation and sales.

Create a Blog Editorial Calendar & Write Your First Blog Post

A blog is a regularly updated web page that is typically run by an individual or small group and is written in an informal or conversational style. Create a blog schedule or an editorial calendar that zeros in on your target audience questions, concerns, and challenges.

I recommend that the blog editorial calendar include who is responsible for writing, idea topics, and due dates. Start out small with 1 blog per month then make adjustments based on your goals. Consider how you will distribute the content to increase the likelihood that it will get into the hands of potential customers.

69% of businesses attribute their lead generation success to blogging. (Source: HubSpotⓇ)

Develop a SEO Plan to Increase Traffic from Google & Bing

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results. SEO techniques include content creation, linking, site navigation, local business listings, site speed and more. Develop a SEO plan that is specific to your business situation.

Start by getting an SEO or website audit. The website audit will provide information on website issues that are hurting your position in the search engine results. You can get a free evaluation of your website:

The local business profiles on Facebook®, Google My Business®, Yelp®, and Bing Places® also attract more local customers. These business profiles should include reviews, maps, services, a link to your website, and a description of your business. This information is used to populate local listings and provide directions to your local business.

Try the Yext business listing scan to review your business listings.

According to consumers, businesses that respond to reviews are 1.7X more trustworthy than businesses who don’t (76% vs. 46%) Source: Google

Start Social Media Posting on Relevant Platforms

Social media enables users to create and share content, career interests, ideas and to participate in social networking conversations. What social media networks are your existing customers using? Share information that is useful to your customers. Use polls to get their feedback on your products and services.

Use social media as a distribution channel for your blog editorial calendar. I recommend adding a post to your Google My Business profile so that it stands out from others. Use social media management tools such as Hootsuite®, Buffer®, and SproutSocial® to schedule your posts.

LinkedIn’s number of users in the U.S. reached 160 million, making it the country with the most users in the world. (Statista, 2020)

Launch a Paid Search or Social Media Campaign

Paid Search or pay-per-click (PPC), search engine advertising, and sponsored listings are often used to define ad types such as Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords), Google Product Listing Ads, Google Shopping Ads®, and Bing Ads. Paid social media display advertisements or sponsored marketing messages on popular social media platforms and target a specific sub-audience.

Define the goals of the paid search or social media campaign before starting your campaign. Consider the type of ad campaign that would be most likely to succeed. For example, if you are selling ecommerce products, I recommend a shopping campaign. Create the campaign for your target audience that minimizes cost and improves results.

If you are already running a campaign, get a free paid search audit to improve your return on investment.

In 2019 the U.S. was the largest global market based on mobile advertising spending. (Statitsa, 2019)

Create Content for Your Target Audience

Content is high quality, useful information that communicates a story presented in a contextually or visually relevant manner with the goal of soliciting emotion and engagement. The content can be used as part of social media posts and added to your website for SEO.

Create content that is useful to your potential customers and target audience. For example, I recommend video demonstrations, product guides, flyers, and brochures. These content pieces must be accessible via a mobile device.

70% of marketers are actively investing in content marketing. (HubSpot, 2020)

Combine Tactics to Increase Your Web Traffic Today

The increase in website traffic provides businesses with more opportunities to sell products or services. A one-size-fits-all model will not achieve your target results. All of these ideas are connected and will have a greater likelihood of achieving success when used in combination with each other

Understand where your business is going and measure if and how you are increasing traffic. Look to understand what is working and the impact that it is having on your sales. If you need any help, give us a call or check out our other blog posts on these topics.

Get an Inbound Marketing Assessment!

Drive Web Traffic With Paid Digital Advertising

February 28, 2020 by Justin Miller Leave a Comment

You have a great looking website, but this is not Field Of Dreams. Just because you built it does NOT mean people will come. So, how do you increase traffic to your website? Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media, Email Marketing, Paid Advertising, etc… Where should you start???

Here are a few questions to consider:

Is your website mobile-friendly?
Is your content clear and concise?
Is it easy to achieve the end goal on your website?
Do you have a budget to acquire more traffic?
Do you need web traffic immediately?

While all of the above listed options are valid methods to increase traffic, some take time (SEO), or require an existing audience (Email and Social Media.) However, if you answered “Yes” to all the above questions, then you are ready to run Paid Digital Advertising. Running Paid Ads isn’t quite that simple. What kind of ads – Search, Display, Video or Shopping? Where will these Ads be shown – Search Engines, across the internet, on Social Media? And very possibly the most important how will you reach your desired audience (targeting settings)?

While this blog will never answer all your possible questions about Paid Digital Advertising, let’s at least tackle some of the big ones.

1. Type of Paid Digital Ads

Search Ads – Context based ads that appear above and below Search Results. These ads consist of Headlines, Body Copy, URL and often various Extensions (ie. location, phone numbers and other additional information.)

Display Ads – Image ads that show on various sites above, below, next to, and among a websites content. Since these ads are not the primary reason a person comes to the given website, they need to grab their attention and give them a reason to click.

Video Ads – Often shown before, after or during a desired video similar to a tv commercial. Again, this ad needs to distract a person from their desired video and give them a reason to click.

Shopping Ads – Product focused with the goal for selling typically via an ecommerce site.

2. Placement of Paid Digital Ads

Search Engines – Seems obvious, but Search Ads are shown on Search Engine Result Pages (SERP.)

Display Network – Display Ads can show almost anywhere on the web. There are several Display Networks with the most popular being the Google Display Network (GDN) which boasts to include over 2 million websites,videos and mobile apps. Since videos are included in the Display Network, your video ads will show on this network along with your display ads

Shopping Ads – These ads mostly shown on Search Engine Shopping sections (Google and Bing). However, depending on targeting setting your shopping ads could also be Display ads and therefore be shown across the Display Network.

Social Media Advertising – Facebook/Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and several other social media platforms have their own Advertising platform. These ads are often similar to display ads, since they are often shown along the side of the page and are not based upon a search, but rather other targeting settings (geographic, demographic and more.)

3. Target Audience

The success of your Ads ultimate starts with your targeting settings. Even with the greatest Ads (search, display or other) shown to the wrong audience will never succeed, While Search Ads are primarily targeting and shown based on what a user searches, there are several other targeting settings involved. A short list of setting that can (and should) be setup on most, if not all, Paid Digital Advertising campaigns:

Geographic Location
Day Parting/Time of Day
Demographics (Gender, Age, Parental Status, Household Income)
Interest/Topics (for Display Campaigns)
Bidding Strategy
Device Targeting/Bid Adjustments
ReMarketing/Similar Audiences/In-Market Audiences

Following this very oversimplified process to setting up your Paid Digital Advertising will help put you on the path to not only driving web traffic but also growing your business and bottom line. However this is only getting you setup, you will still need to monitor and optimize your Paid Advertising campaigns on a regular basis.

Ready to Start your Paid Digital Advertising? Want Help setting up, monitoring and optimizing your Advertising Campaigns, or just have additional questions – Contact DaBrian Marketing Today.

Target LinkedIn Profiles on Bing Ads

March 6, 2019 by Justin Miller Leave a Comment

What is Bing Ads with Linkedin Profile targeting?

Microsoft is combining the advertising ability of Bing Ads and the profile information on LinkedIn to bolster your ad target capabilities. One of the biggest challenges with advertising is getting the right message in front of the right people at the right time. Bing Ads helps with the right time – when someone is searching. LinkedIn Profile Targeting now helps with finding the right person based on their position/title, company and industry on their profile on LinkedIn. Getting help from Microsoft sounds great but how does it work? And how can it help your business, specifically?

How can it help improve your PPC Marketing?

Using Keywords to target your ads is just the beginning with Bing Ads. If you are a B2B marketer trying to reach healthcare professionals with the keyword “business support tools” you’re wasting your ad dollars. While this is a longtail keyword phrase (3+ words), it does not identify an industry or type of tool that is being searched. However, adding the industry to the search term (ie. healthcare business support tools) causes the search volume to drop drastically.

Now you have a better targeting solution. Targeting “Healthcare industry professionals” with LinkedIn Profile targeting with your Bing Ads will ensure you are getting your ads in front of the right audience without losing as much search volume. Imagine the impact this would have on your PPC Budget (less unwanted Clicks), your CTR (improved quality of Impressions and Clicks), your Conversion Rate (whether your goal is awareness, leads, or online sales), and ultimately your return on ad spend (ROAS)!

Who should be using LinkedIn Profile Targeting?

If you are running Bing Ads and trying to target business professionals then LinkedIn Profile Target could help you. Improve your audience targeting based on Company, Industry or Title parameters. This type of targeting allows you to setup a bid adjustment (either up or down) on these audiences. This means not only can you increase the likelihood of your ads being seen by the right audience (more leads), you can also minimize the risk of showing your ads to the wrong audience (lowering wasted spend).

How To Get Started With LinkedIn Profile Targeting?

First, it is important to know that this feature is not available for everyone (as of yet.) Microsoft is still refining it before rolling in out to everyone. The other important thing to note is that you cannot target any and all companies, industries, or job functions (initial list is 80,000 companies, 145 industries, and/or 26 job functions – source: searchenginejournal.com) I am sure more will be added.

If you are fortunate enough to have this feature, Bing Ads give details instructions on how to implement LinkedIn Profile Targeting

If you don’t have this feature yet, you can request access to the Beta Test.

Looking for more information about Pay Per Click, check out some of our other PPC Blogs. If you are already running Google Ads, we are offering a Free PPC Audit to review how you are doing and where your account could improve.

How To Do Lead Generation Via Pay Per Click?

December 12, 2018 by Justin Miller Leave a Comment

Let’s be clear PPC ads don’t (primarily) generate leads. Ads get Clicks and generate traffic. [A few exceptions, which will be covered later, include call-only ads, call extension and message extension.] However, PPC is more than just Ads. From a customer’s journey perspective it starts with their search query which triggers your ad via your keywords and other targeting settings. Finally, assuming your ad gets their click, the Landing Page and experience on your website. If you really want leads it is important that this journey is clear and painless, otherwise your potential leads will be leaving you for one of your competitors.

While the customer journey starts with a search, the marketer’s building process should begin with the desired outcome (Goal/Conversion) and work backwards.

Step 1: What is a PPC “Lead” for You?

Great, you want to generate Leads! What is a “Lead” to you?

Form Submission
Contact Us
Phone Call
Subscriber
Social Media Follower
Other

Step 2:, Why should People Become a Lead for You? (Enticing Valuable Offer, Feature, and/or Benefit)

Free Offer/Trial
Downloadable Content
Discount Offer
Unique Feature/Benefit
Other

Step 3: How Are Users Becoming Leads? Create A Great User Experience

Let’s say you decided that your Leads are Trial Request and you are offering a 30 Day Free Trial. This answers the “What” and and “Why” in Steps 1 & 2. Now is the How? This includes the information needed to start the free trial (your form) and the content (contextual and visual) on your landing page.

A few things to keep in mind to boost your Conversion Rate:

Optimize for Keywords (will help with PPC Quality Score)
Design for Mobile First
Only Ask for Information that is Truly Needed (less form fields = more submissions)
Keep It Simple – Build for Fast Loading

Step 4: Drive Traffic & Get Clicks (Not the Same Thing)

Finally diving into Ads. If you want form submissions focus on Ads that lead to your landing page. However, if your desire is phone calls, make sure to create Call Only Ads. These Ads will only show on devices that can make a phone call and a click will open their phone/call app with your phone number ready to go. While this counts and is charged the same as a Click the user is never sent to your site.

Tips for writing Lead Generating Ad Copy:

Use Your Customers Words (Not Industry Jargoon)
Focus on the Problem You Solve
Highlight Features & Benefits
Use Clear Call To Action (this is for Ad Copy and Landing Pages)
- Call Now
- Request Info
- Claim Offer
- Download Content

After your Ads are ready to go, make sure you are using all the appropriate Ad Extensions (call, message, location, callout, site links, etc.) that will help you not only get additional Clicks, but help capture the lead

Step 5: Target Your Ads - Keywords and Intent

Last step – get you Ad in front of the correct audience. Yes, this includes more than keywords (learn more about all ppc targeting options), but for simplicity let’s use keywords to uncover intent. Since this blog is focused on Lead Generation, you will want to focus on keywords that reveal that the customer is in the research phase of the purchase process. Include search terms such as “reviews”, “best”, or “how to do…”.When it comes to keywords, Negatives are wonderful. Searchers for Brand Names, discounts, deals, or unrelated terms will help you prevent wasting your marketing budget on Clicks that are doomed from the start.

As a quick review, make sure that throughout the entire set up process you stay focus on your goal which is to generate leads. This will ensure that your message to the future customer is consistent from keyword to ad Copy through to the Landing Page.

Quick Backwards Review of the PPC Lead Generation Steps:

5. Use Keywords that show user intent that aligns with a lead generation goal

4. Highlight Problem Solving Features & Benefits in Ads with Clear CTAs

3a. Lead Searchers to Landing Pages that are User (and Mobile) Friendly

3b. Short Concise Forms that Only Capture Required Info

2. Promote an Enticing Offer that cannot be refused

1. Know Your Desired Outcome!

Seems simple try Google Ads or Bing Ads for yourself, or if you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask via comments.

What action do we want them to take? This is where we are falling short. We are just conveying info. Let’s direct them to subscribe for future blogs or something with more meat on the bone.

Introducing Responsive Search Ads

August 3, 2018 by Justin Miller 2 Comments

How Responsive Search Ads Are Transforming Ad Writing

Google Marketing Live 2018 event was only a few weeks ago. One of the “big” announcements was a new Search Ad Format – Responsive Ads. This is still within Beta, but will be fully available soon. Whether you are able to begin testing Responsive Search Ads now, or just want to be prepared for when it is available, let’s discuss some strategic approaches to these new search ads.

How are Responsive Ads Different

First, stop thinking about Ad Copy as a whole ad unit. We need to start thinking of Search Ads as plug-and-play components. There are Headlines, Descriptions, URL and paths. The current Expanded Text Ads (ETA) allow for a maximum of

(2) x 30 Character Headlines
(1) x 80 Character Description
(1) x URL (your final URL root domain)
(2) x 15 Character Paths

While that was an increase over the Legacy Ads, the new Responsive Ads are even longer. These new ads allow for up to:

(3) x 30 Character Headlines
(1) x 90 Character Description
(1) x URL (same as ETA Ads)
(2) x 15 Paths (same as ETA Ads)

What Else Is Changing?

In addition to the increase in characters allowed, the other, more drastic change is how Responsive Search Ads are constructed. You no longer write a single (full) Ad Copy. Instead, you write multiple (max of 15) Headlines and a few (max of 4) Descriptions. Google Ads (formerly AdWords) then “constructs” the final Ad Copy by using 3 of your Headlines and 1 of your Descriptions.

It is important to know that any of your Headlines could appear as the first, second, or third Headline, but will not be repeated within the same Ad Copy. There is however a “Pinning” option which allows you to pre-select a Headline to only be shown in a given Headline position.

Why The Ad Copy Change

This new approach to treating Ad Copy as components as opposed to a single Ad unit has the biggest impact on Ad Copy Testing. You no longer need to have multiple unique Ads within a single Ad Group. Instead having just 1 Responsive Search Ad in which you write 5 Headlines and 2 Descriptions with a Final URL and (optional) paths, is equivalent 120 Ads. The testing is then automatically done within Google Ads.

After this Responsive Search Ad runs and it becomes clear that certain Headlines and/or Descriptions are being shown more often due to maximized performance, then it is time to start a new test. Rather than writing a completely new Ad or making a subtle change to a current Ad, by replacing a few Headlines and/or Descriptions the auto testing starts all over again.

Are Responsive Ads Better

Since these Ads are still in Beta, the verdict is not in yet. Longer Ads allow advertisers to say more, which going from Legacy to ETA ads seems to be very helpful. The real question here is “Will writing the components of an ad (Headlines and Descriptions) separately and allowing Google Ads to auto create the actual Ad Copy that will be seen by searchers lead to a performance boost? Only time will tell.

Let’s us know your thoughts on or experience with Responsive Search Ads. Are you a fan of the segmented approach to Ad Copy writing or do you prefer to have more control over how your final Ad Copy will look?

Before You Use Google AdWords…

June 13, 2018 by Justin Miller Leave a Comment

Although creating an Google AdWords account is easy and free, there is a good amount of preparation work that should be done before paying for your first PPC click. Before you put your company credit card info in AdWords, make sure you can clearly answer the following questions:

What Is The End Goal For Your PPC?

Stephen Covey wrote it best in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, “Begin with the end in mind.” Knowing if you want to build a subscriber list, generate leads via form submissions, or increase online sales, will change your campaign targeting and setting as well as your keywords, call to actions, and extensions.

Who Is The Target Audience For Your Google AdWords Ads?

Know who you want to reach and engage with online. This will impact audience targeting setting including which network(s) to target (Search and/or Display). Are you trying to generate new traffic or focused on driving return visitors via remarketing? This would drastically impact the verbiage of your ad copy and landing page(s). Pairing the answer to the first two questions, will help you write targeted and clear Call-To-Actions within your ad copy and landing pages.

Why Should Your Audience Click On Your PPC Ad?

Without knowing your company’s value proposition, your ad copy on Google AdWords will be very generic and unlikely to get clicks. Make sure you highlight features and benefits that you (and only you) can offer your customers. Give them a reason to click on your ad. Here is the example (with my notes) from Google AdWords Support:

The Headlines hint at who they are targeting – someone looking for insurance within their budget.

The body/ad description line builds trust, offers and discount and the suggested call to action is request an online quote. (Sidenote – don’t forget to leverage Ad Extensions to add more specific details to your ads.)

How Will Your Customers Reach You After Their AdWords Click?

Go through your customers journey yourself. What are they searching, does your ad catch your own attention, and is your landing page relevant and easy to use/navigate? After you have done that once, consider doing it again on a different devices (computer, tablet, or most importantly mobile.)

After, going through these quick questions, you will be prepared to setup and begin running your Google AdWords. As you go through the setup process, keep in mind your target audience and what their needs/wants are. Use your ad copy and landing page to speak directly to their problem/pain points and your solution to them. Ensure your landing pages are as mobile friendly as possible and that your conversion funnel/path can be easily completed on any devices. Once you are ready to go live, start collecting data and reap the benefit of all your preparation work.

Have any questions, or think we missed a crucial piece of preparation work for setting up a PPC campaign, let us know in the comments or via twitter or facebook.