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Google AdWords Event

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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

eCommerce PPC Christmas Wish List

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eComrece PPC wish list being checked by Santa

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 Your Wasting 25% of Your Pay per Click Budget?

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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

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

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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

Pay per Click geotargeting - PPC Services Reading, Pa
Fact: Bing Ads can help you reach 168 million unique searchers in the U.S. integrated across Microsoft Devices, Windows Phone, Windows 8.1 and Xbox. They also power search for Siri on iOS, Spotlight on MacOS and is the default search engine on Kindle devices. Source: comScore qSearch (custom), March 2015

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.

Cost per Lead with Google AdWords (PPC)

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.

Revenue from Pay per Click advertising
Fact: Three out of four purchases resulting from a mobile search take place in a physical store. Source: 2014 comScore “State of the U.S. Online Retail Economy in Q1 2014,” May 2014

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

Interested in a free no obligation consultation for your business? Contact Us for more details on Pay per Click opportunities today!

PPC Christmas Time KPIs

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It’s the most wonderful time of the year! That’s right; it’s Christmas shopping time. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are quickly approaching. The question is—Are your PPC Campaigns ready? Whether you think you are prepared for the holiday season or just starting to get ready, here are a few things to keep in mind.

What to Expect this Holiday Season

During the 2014 Christmas season, everyone is going to be searching for that perfect gift. This means more online searches and more impression opportunities. Below is a screenshot from Google trends showing that search volume for retail-related keywords and phrases   this time of the year. Although the graph only goes back 3 years, the trend is consistent for much longer.

Annual search trends for electronics, toys and retail during the Holiday season
Annual search trends for electronics, toys and retail during the Holiday season

While an increase is search volume may be the only guarantee, it is safe to assume you will also see an increase in Impressions, Clicks, and Cost. However, the real Christmas joy comes from seeing the increase in Conversions and ROI, which is never guaranteed. Keeping your focus on specific KPI’s and not the rising search volume will help you achieve PPC success this holiday season.

Important Christmas KPIs for Your Pay per Click Campaigns

Important Christmas KPIs for Your Pay per Click Campaigns

First off, ensure that you maintain your IS compared to previous months, and not miss  out on impression opportunities due to low bids or insufficient budget this holiday season. This will at least guarantee that your Ads are being shown.

Click thru Rate (CTR) and Quality Score

More Impressions are great, but more Clicks are even better. Monitor your CTR to ensure that this influx of impressions is maintaining or improving your CTR. If not, take action immediately! Whether it is new ad copy testing, increasing bids, or changing keywords and their match types, make sure that you are at least maintaining your average CTR. Dropping CTR could lead to lower Quality Scores and worse positioning, which means you will need to increase your CPC to stay competitive. Of course, the inverse is true too. A higher CTR can allow you to lower CPC without hurting position and performance, which means increased profit margins.

Conversion Rate and Cost per Acquisition (CPA)

Again, more impressions are great, more Clicks are better, but more Conversions is the best. Seeing how this is Pay per Click, more Clicks also means higher Cost. So, an increase in Clicks without an increase in Conversions will seriously lower profits and drive up your CPA. Although it seems obvious, monitor your CPA and make sure it does not exceed the value of your Conversion. This should not be a problem if you are able to maintain your Conversion Rate during the holiday season.

Have a Wonderful PPC Christmas

During all the craziness that is the holiday season, if you are able to stay focused on the basic KPIs of PPC you will have a wonderful PPC Christmas. Remember that more impressions are great, more Clicks are better, but more Conversions are the best. Keep an eye on CTR and Conversion Rate. While growth is always the goal, just maintaining these rates through the holidays will lead to higher totals of Clicks and Conversions, since searches will be increasing. Most importantly always remember to watch Cost, especially CPA, compared to revenue of your Conversions, and keep your PPC out of the red this Christmas.

If you have any feedback, questions or other holiday preparation suggestions, please leave a comment below. Wishing everyone a Safe and Happy Holiday Season!

Save Time and Money with Bing Ads Updates

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Over the past few months, Microsoft has been rolling out several changes to its Bing Ads Platform. The goal is to help advertisers manage their PPC Campaigns more efficiently and effectively. Here is a quick recap of some of the changes that you may or may not have seen and experienced.

Redesigned Interface

The new interface gives Bing Ads a cleaner more streamlined look. By combining the title bar and the first set of tabs into one row and keeping the side panel collapsible, user can now view more rows and columns of data at on time. This make data comparison and analysis easier as you no longer have the trouble of scrolling, or at least not as much.

Bing Ads Interface Comparison
Bing Ads Old and New Interface courtesy of Bing Ads Blog

View up to 1,000,000 Keywords (Yep, 1 Million)

For those advertisers with monster keyword lists, this will allow you to see (hopefully) your entire list in one view. This means no more searching through pages and pages for that particular keyword. So now, instead of loading each page, instead you only need to scroll through a single view.

Top Movers

Top Movers reveals what has had the biggest impact in performance change given the selected timeframe. This helpful tool can be found under the Dimensions tab and will give 3 possible reasons for the change: Your Account (your changes), Search Traffic (users’ changes, i.e. search trends), or Competitor Data (competitive changes.) With these insights, you will know how to edit your PPC campaigns to keep your ads and keywords performing at their best. To read more about Top Movers, check out the Bing Ads blog.

Bid Landscape

Bing Ads Bid Landsacape Tool
Screenshot of Bid Landscape tool within Bing Ads

This new features gives you an estimated idea of how bid changes would affect your overall performance. Sometimes it is difficult to determine how much of a bid increase is needed. This tools removes the guesswork by clearly graphing out the estimated impact.

Better Opportunities Tab

Previously, Bing Ads’ suggestions given in the Opportunities Tab have been “spend more” or something equally unhelpful. The new Opportunities Tab now gives actionable insights, new keyword suggestions, and even groups the suggestions into new ad groups. In addition to the suggestion, Bing Ads also provides the estimated effect it would have on your PPC if implemented. If you approve the suggestion and want to implement, you can click apply and the suggestion is implemented into action with a single click. It’s a huge time-saver, not needing to go back into each Campaign and Ad Group to make the changes yourself.

Online Insertion Order

Previously, advertisers using Insertion Orders as their payment method had to call Bing Ads and set this up over the phone. With this update it is now a much quicker and easier process that can be accomplished entirely online within the Bing Ads interface. If you are using an insertion order, then you realize the time you will save being able to set the next one up online.

Auto Tagging

This is by far my favorite update. If you were tracking your Bing Ads performance via Google Analytics, that means you were manually tagging each of your ads. Now with auto tagging, the utm_ parameters (medium, source, campaign and term) are all done for you at the account level. This has already saved me a lot of time in setting up campaigns and new ad groups inside Bing Ads.

And More…

This list does not cover all the new features and updates that Microsoft has made to Big Ads. It does highlight several that affect many advertisers’ daily usage of the Bing Ads platform. We would love to know which update(s) to Bing Ads has been your favorite and has helped you save time and money.
Tell us your story in the comments section below!