Paid Search (PPC)

Google AdWords Event

April 18, 2016 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

Discover the Advantages AdWords and Working With a Google Partner Agency Can Have On Your Business

DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC will hold a sponsored Google AdWords Event for businesses to discover the many benefits of Google AdWords and learn how working with a trusted Google Partner agency can help increase their leads and sales.The Google Event will be held on Wednesday, May 4th at 11:30 am at the DaBrian Marketing Group offices located at 500 Penn Street, Suite 201, Reading PA, 19602.

During this event, those attending will hear directly from Google on how to successfully grow their business online with the help of AdWords, followed by a Q&A session with the certified team at DaBrian Marketing Group. Also during this event, the team at DaBrian Marketing Group will provide a free AdWords audit on your current AdWords account, a competitive evaluation on your current competitors, and potentially provide an Adwords credit for your business. Refreshments and parking will also be provided at this FREE Google event.

DaBrian Marketing Group started utilizing Google’s services eight years ago through Google AdWords, Google Analytics, and more. DaBrian Marketing is one of the few certified Google Partners in the Greater Reading area, and as a Google Partner, we have the expertise and the resources to help businesses in the community connect with their customers online and help increase their Return on Investment.

For more information, contact DaBrian Marketing Group to find how they can help your business. RSVP for this event at https://partnersconnect.withgoogle.com/event/dabrian-marketing-group

Importance of Keyword Research

February 29, 2016 by Justin Miller Leave a Comment

Is your local target audience finding you when they search online? If you are using the wrong keywords within your content (Headlines, Paragraphs, URL, Blogs, etc.), then there is a good chance your business is not being found. The question then becomes, how do you know what the right keywords are? Answer: Keyword Research.

Local Keyword Research via Google Trends

Scenario: You are a doctor looking to acquire new patients.
People across the US are searching for doctors, but everyone doesn’t use the same keywords to search. We ran “family doctor”, “primary care physician”, and “family physician” through Google Trends (see image below.)

Clearly “family doctor” is the most searched, but this is at a nationwide level. For doctors and other health care providers with a physical location, it is crucial to look at your specific location when doing research. While most cities across the nation will closely resemble what is shown above there are some cities that will be drastically different. For example here is the last 12 months worth of searches for the same terms in the Boston area.

While “family doctor” remains high, it is surpassed by “primary care physician.” When writing for your target audience, make sure that you are using terms that they are familiar with and use. Having these terms inside headers, context, and links throughout your website will help users find, understand and engage with your site.

Hopefully, Google Trends will help you identify what keywords your local audience is searching and would help boost your website’s visibility and performance. While search volume is a critical part of keyword research it is only the beginning.

If you have further questions or would like help conducting research, let us know, we would love to help you reach new customers.

eCommerce PPC Christmas Wish List

December 21, 2015 by Justin Miller Leave a Comment

Dear Santa,

This year for Christmas eCommerce PPC account managers would like:

1 - Preview Functionality for Shopping Ads

Why is it that I can preview my Search and Display Ads without skewing my Impression data, but can’t do the same for Shopping Ads? As marketers, we would like to know exactly what our ads will look like before they are live on the internet.

2 - Average Position Data for Products and Product Groups

We can see the Impression Share lost (Rank), but not the average position that our Shopping Ads are shown. This information would help make decisions concerning bid adjustments at the product group or product-specific level.

3 - Multiple (and more specific) Conversion Columns for each conversion being tracked

While it is great being able to track Conversions, being able to quickly see the amount of each type of conversion (newsletter sign-up, sale, or phone call) would be beneficial. This would be useful in maximizing Return on Ad Spend (ROAS.)

If we can get these 3 new features we will have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Did we include your Christmas wish for eCommerce PPC in our top three, or do you have additions for our Christmas wish list? Let us know in the comments.

Are You Afraid of PPC Advertising?

October 28, 2015 by Justin Miller Leave a Comment

With Halloween in a few days, we want to look into why some small business are afraid to run PPC advertising campaigns. After taking a closer look at some of the spooky aspects of PPC, hopefully, you will find that it is not scary, but that Pay per Click is an opportunity to help you increase leads and sales for your business. Here are the top 3 reasons small business are afraid of PPC:

1. Scary Expensive or Scared of Wasting Marketing Budget

Sure you can set a daily and monthly budget to control cost, but that doesn’t mean that it is being used wisely. Did you know that you can schedule your PPC ads to only run during specific hours of the day to maximize the effectiveness of campaigns with limited budgets? In addition, there is geo-targeting for localized businesses, and device specific bidding if mobile or desktop traffic is more valuable for your business. If you are already running PPC, these are a few settings that you might want to check to ensure you are getting the most out of your campaigns.

2. Scary Results (or lack thereof)

As a digital marketing agency, we hear “PPC doesn’t/didn’t work for our company/industry.” Really? Are you sure? Before you dive into doing PPC advertising, set your goals and know how you are measuring success. Are you trying to generate phone calls, form submissions or online ecommerce sales? Whatever the end goal might be, set-up Conversion (or goal) tracking. This can be done within the PPC platform (Google AdWords, Bing Ads, etc.), but ideally it is set-up through web analytics (Google Analytics.) Connecting web analytics to your PPC will allow you to see beyond the basic Impression and Click data, and uncover if there is a problem with your landing page(s) or conversion funnel/process.

If you are already running PPC but are not currently tracking conversions, then this is something that you should set-up ASAP. We cannot imagine anything scarier than spending marketing dollars and having no way of knowing/measuring the return!

3. Scary Complicated and/or Too Time Consuming

Pay per Click may seem simple and easy at first, but there is a reason Google requires a person to pass 2 of 6 different PPC proficiency exams to earn their AdWords Certified status. To properly setup and manage an account one needs to know the ins and outs of the AdWords platform and understand how search (both paid and organic) works. While there are several tools available to help make monitoring and management easier, these are only tools. The person using the tools still needs the skills and know how to make the most out of the tools. For instance, a carpenter can do a lot more with a saw and hammer then a chef can.

If you don’t have the time to learn, set-up and manage your own PPC advertising, we highly recommend that you seek help from someone certified (Google AdWords or Bing Ads) to help manage your PPC. Before you seek the help of just anybody, make sure that you have FULL access to your account and that if for any reason you decide to fire/disconnect from them managing your PPC, that you get to keep your account. Because the second scariest thing we can think up is not having any insight/access to your own PPC account.

Even though PPC can be scary and be a daunting task for some companies, if you take the time to truly understand the value of PPC and its ability to gain leads and sales and reach potential customers, then there should be no reason to be afraid of PPC advertising.

Are Your Wasting 25% of Your Pay per Click Budget?

September 3, 2015 by Justin Miller Leave a Comment

Study shows that small businesses waste 25% of their Pay per Click budget! Learn how working with a PPC certified individual/agency could help you maximize the return from your PPC advertising.

Check out our Google Partners Profile Page and Bing Ads Accredited Company Profile Page

Read Transcript

Hi, Justin Miller here from DaBrian Marketing Group, and I want to talk to small business owners, and small businesses in general that are running pay per click advertising. There was a study done not too long ago, that shows that up to a quarter of their pay per click budget is being wasted, and how and why is this being wasted? It has to do with not being knowledgeable of the platforms, and how to properly target your ads, as well as just not having the time to properly manage them, and keep them up to date. So, how can you be sure that you’re not wasting 25 percent of your PPC budget? If you need help, looking for a certified agency, or individual, can help cut down that waste, and maximize the return.

What's Exactly Does PPC Certified Mean?

But how do you know who is certified, and what exactly does it mean to be certified? So, let’s look a little bit more into that. First off, if you want to run Bing Ads, you’re definitely going to want to look for someone that is Bing Ads certified. What does this mean? It means they’ve passed the knowledge based test.So Bing Ads has put together a test to make sure that these individuals have the knowledge of how to set up, how to run, maintain, and keep up with best practices using the Bing Ads platform, which reaches not just Bing, but also Yahoo Search, as well as Apple’s IOS, on mobile devices. So you can see here, I’m logged in to my account, and I have passed this test. I am one of several that are, Bing Ads certified.

What to Look for with a PPC Company?

And what you want to look for, as a small business owner, is this accreditation badge. If you see that badge on somebody’s website, that indicates that that individual, or at least that agency, has someone in house that’s employed, that has passed this test, and has proven that they’re knowledgeable and successful at running a Bing Ads campaign. Okay, so that’s Bing Ads.

What's Required to be Google AdWords Certified Individual?

Next up is Google. Google has a similar type of test, or series of tests actually. So for Google AdWords, if you want to be Google AdWords certified, you have to pass the fundamentals test, as well as one additional specialized test. The specialized tests include search advertising, display advertising, video, shopping, or e-commerce, as well as targeting mobile devices, and advertising via mobile phones. Again, to be certified in AdWords, you have to pass the fundamentals, which is just a high level basic AdWords, PPC advertising exam, as well as one specialized one.

What's with Value of Working with a Google Partner?

In addition to being a certified individual, companies can earn what is called a partnership, or a Google partner status. Here at DaBrian Marketing Group, we have earned, and maintained that status with Google. So the first step is having at least 1 employee that is certified. We have 2 that are currently certified on staff, and you can see that includes the search and display advertising, as well as some of the other ones that we’ve looked at. Next is, maintaining best practices. So, pay per click as an industry is constantly changing, there’s constantly new updates, and the best practices on how you use these new features, constantly changes along with them. So you have to maintain these accounts, your client accounts, and make sure that you’re keeping up to date with best practice. So here you can see that there’s a minimum requirement, and then the average Google partner’s, requirement, and then where DaBrian Marketing Group currently sits, as far as maintaining best practices.

Why Does it Matter if You Work with a Google Partner?

Next up is experience. You have to show that at least 60 out of the last 90 days that you’ve logged in, and you’re active on these accounts. As you can see, we’re well up and above that in staying active every day on our client accounts, as well as managing a minimum ad spend. There’s a minimum spend of 10K, over 90 days, and currently, we’re just shy of 20K. So, the partnership status shows not only that they have knowledgeable staff who can take and pass those tests and exams, but also the experience in managing a sizable amount of budget over the last 3 months, as well as staying up to date with best practices, and really minimizing that wasted spend, that no company wants to pay out money to see no return for.

Is Your PPC Company Certified?

So definitely you want to connect with a certified partner, whether it’s Bing Ads, and or Google Partners, or at least AdWords certified. So, the question now is, is your current agency certified? You can go to Google.com/partners and do a search for that agency, or whomever you’re working with, or if you’re looking for an agency. This is a good place to start, and search around, find a local agency, that fits your needs. Some will require a minimum ad spend, and tit shows the different certifications that they have. If mobile advertising is important to you, you definitely want to find an agency that has the mobile advertising certification. Or e-commerce, you definitely want to look for shopping, and such. So hopefully you have a better understanding of what PPC certified means, and how individuals, as well as companies can go about getting these certifications, and working with them, to really minimize that wasted ad spend. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment, or give us a call. The office number is 610-743-5602. Thanks. Have a great day.

4 Ways Pay per Click (PPC) can Help Your Business Grow

August 24, 2015 by Daniel Laws Leave a Comment

Macquarie Research estimates that Google has approximately 4 million advertisers. Google has more direct advertising relationships in the digital advertising space than Facebook or Twitter. Is your business being hunted by the competition using Pay per Click (PPC) advertising or is your business hunting for new business with Google AdWords (PPC) and Bing Ads?

You’ve probably heard these terms before: Online Marketing, Online Advertising, Google AdWords, Search Marketing, Bing Ads, Paid Search, Cost per Click (CPC), Pay per Click (PPC). To the general public, these terms are used interchangeably and generally refer to advertising with Google AdWords or Bing Ads. These words are often associated with cost, but they should also be associated with opportunities for your business! Pay Per Click advertising can help you to increase your brand or product awareness, expand into new markets, generate leads, grow online sales, or even increase traffic into your stores.

Flexible Solution for Brand Awareness across the Internet

The opportunities to increase brand awareness through Pay per Click advertising are countless. AdWords & Bing Ads offer local, national, and global targeting with language settings. They also provide additional targeting settings to only show your brand when, where, and to whom you want to be shown. Businesses can even advertise on non-search sites like Gmail, YouTube, Forbes, MSNBC, and lots of other partners sites within minutes.

Lead Generation Tool that Controls Cost

Business Owners can generate leads such as calls, online form completions, and e-commerce sales while setting a campaign daily or monthly budget. Regardless of how a customer is looking for products or services, businesses are able to stay connected with them across a variety of devices (desktop, mobile, and tablet). No matter the target audience (businesses or consumers), Pay per Click can get your business quality leads to grow sales, while sticking to the set budget.

Drive in-store traffic and E-commerce/Online Sales

According to Google’s March 2015 case study, Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores used Google’s Local Inventory Ads (LIAs), which allows online visitors to see what their local store currently has in stock to bring nearby customers on mobile devices into stores. The results yielded a 122% higher store visit rate compared to online Product Listing Ads (PLAs) for shopping campaigns. Product Listing Ads allow you to include an image, title, price, promotional message, and your store or business name inside your ads, without the need for you to create unique ads for each product you sell. The local inventory ads generated in-store sales at more than 5X the rate of TV advertising for each dollar spent.

Diversify Marketing Channels with Pay Per Click advertising:

Pay per Click offers a diverse platform to deliver the exact type of content, specific to their device for exactly what potential customers are looking for and exactly when they’re looking for it. Most Pay per Click platforms have the capability to use text, video, mobile, banner or display ads, so your business has the ability to connect with potential customers regardless of the device.

See Advertising Formats for examples