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Challenging Digital KPI Metrics in PPC Advertising: Moving Beyond Vanity Metrics

by Paid Search

In PPC, it’s easy to get swept up in the numbers that look good in a dashboard but don’t actually mean much for the business. You might see a jump in leads or form fills, but when you check in with the sales team, nothing’s really changed. That’s because some KPIs sound impressive on the surface but don’t link to revenue in a meaningful way.

Here are a couple of the usual suspects, and how I talk about them with clients.

Where Vanity Metrics Fall Short

More Doesn’t Always Mean Better

A high number of leads might look positive, but if most of those people were never likely to buy, it’s just noise. Sales teams end up wasting time chasing poor-fit prospects, and marketing spend is spread thin with little to show for it. Quality matters far more than volume.

Not All Interest Is Equal

Not every form completion carries the same weight. Someone downloading a free guide isn’t in the same position as someone booking a demo or requesting a quote. Treating them as equal “leads” only gives you misleading data and skews your campaigns.

How To Approach This With Clients

Be Clear About the Limitations

When working with clients, it is crucial to educate them about the limitations of vanity metrics and the importance of focusing on metrics that align with the business’s bottom line. Explain that not all leads are created equal and emphasise the need to assess the quality and conversion potential of leads to drive actual revenue. 

Focus on Sales-Qualified Leads

Instead of fixating on increasing the overall number of leads, shift the emphasis to identifying and nurturing sales-qualified leads (SQLs). An SQL is a lead that has been vetted and determined to have a higher likelihood of converting into a paying customer/client. By focusing on increasing the percentage of SQLs within the lead pool, businesses can drive more effective marketing campaigns and maximise their return on investment (ROI).

Think Cost-Effectiveness, Not Just Volume

Highlight the cost-effectiveness of focusing on increasing the percentage of SQLs instead of simply aiming for higher lead numbers. Share examples to demonstrate how an increase in SQLs from, say, 20% to 40%, can result in a higher conversion rate and a more significant impact on the bottom line. This approach ensures that marketing efforts are optimised to generate revenue, rather than being diluted by a high volume of unqualified leads which can overload the internal teams. This becomes even more important when growing an account – as costs increase you want to ensure that the budget is being spent as effectively as possible to drive the best ROI. 

Why This Benefits Both Client & Agency

  • Agencies stand out by focusing on results that actually matter.

  • Clients value the honesty and know you’re not just padding out reports.

  • Conversations are more productive when both sides are looking at the same goals.

  • Stronger results naturally lead to longer-term working relationships.

Metrics like total leads and form completions aren’t completely irrelevant, but on their own they don’t tell you very much. The real test of PPC is whether those leads are qualified and likely to become customers. That’s what drives growth, and that’s where marketing proves its value.

At the end of the day, it isn’t about how many leads you can show in a spreadsheet. It’s about whether those leads are actually helping the business grow.

Remember, in digital marketing, true success lies not in the number of leads generated but in the quality of leads and their conversion potential.

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Maximising ROI: Importing Phone Call Vetted Leads into Google Ads

by Paid Search

In the digital age, businesses rely on various online marketing channels to generate leads and drive conversions. However, for certain industries, phone calls remain a vital source of qualified leads. To ensure a holistic view of lead generation and optimise marketing efforts, it’s crucial to import phone call vetted leads back into the Google Ads interface. In this blog post, we will explore the benefits of this approach and outline the steps to successfully import phone call vetted leads into Google Ads.

Benefits of Importing Phone Call Vetted Leads:

⚡Comprehensive Lead Tracking: Importing phone calls of leads that turned out to be qualified back into Google Ads allows you to consolidate your lead tracking efforts. By capturing and analysing both online and offline conversions, you gain a more comprehensive view of your marketing campaign’s effectiveness.

⚡Enhanced Conversion Attribution: Phone call conversions often represent high-value engagements. Importing these leads into Google Ads helps attribute conversions accurately, giving you insights into the true impact of your ad spend and optimising your return on investment (ROI).

⚡Refining Targeting and Optimisation: Incorporating phone call data enables you to identify patterns and trends related to high-converting leads. You can leverage this information to refine your audience targeting, ad messaging, and bidding strategies, leading to more effective campaigns.

⚡Closed-Loop Reporting: You can bridge the gap between offline and online activities, enabling closed-loop reporting. This allows you to assess the entire customer journey, from the initial ad impression to the phone call conversion, gaining valuable insights into your marketing funnel.

Steps to Import Phone Call Vetted Leads into Google Ads:

➡️Step 1: Set Up Conversion Tracking:

Ensure that you have conversion tracking set up in your Google Ads account. Create a conversion action specifically for phone call leads.

➡️Step 2: Track Phone Call Conversions:

Use call tracking software or a call analytics platform to track and record phone call conversions. Assign a unique phone number to each marketing campaign or channel to accurately attribute leads as well as record the GCLID.

➡️Step 3: Define Conversion Parameters:

Identify the parameters that determine a qualified phone call lead for your business. This could include call duration, intention to proceed or other relevant criteria.

➡️Step 4: Export Call Data:

Export the call data from your call tracking software or call analytics platform in a compatible format, such as a CSV file.

➡️Step 5: Prepare Import File:

Format the exported call data into a CSV file that aligns with Google Ads’ import requirements. Include details such as the GCLID, date and time to allow Google to map this back to specific campaigns.

➡️Step 6: Import Call Data into Google Ads:

Access the Google Ads interface and navigate to the Tools & Settings menu. Select “Conversions” and click on the “+” button to create a new conversion. Choose the “Import” option and upload the CSV file containing your call data.

➡️Step 7: Map Data Fields:

Map the fields in your CSV file to the appropriate conversion tracking fields in Google Ads. Ensure accurate data mapping to facilitate seamless integration and reporting.

➡️Step 8: Verify and Save:

Review the imported call data to ensure accuracy. Save the settings, and Google Ads will begin attributing imported phone call leads to your campaigns.

Conclusion 

Importing phone call vetted leads into the Google Ads interface provides invaluable insights into the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. By consolidating online and offline conversions, you gain a comprehensive view of lead generation and can optimise your advertising efforts accordingly. Follow the outlined steps to seamlessly import phone call leads into Google Ads, enabling more accurate conversion tracking, refined targeting, and closed-loop reporting. Embrace this holistic approach to maximise your ROI and make data-driven decisions that drive business growth.

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Best Practices To Improve Your PPC Landing Page

by Paid Search

When you’re running PPC campaigns, the landing page can make or break your results. You can have the best ads in the world, but if the page people land on doesn’t feel trustworthy, doesn’t load properly, or doesn’t give them a clear next step, they’ll drop off.

Here are some straightforward ways to make your landing pages work harder for you.

Build Trust with Social Proof

People want to know they can trust your business before they hand over their details or money. Simple things like customer testimonials, client logos, industry accreditations, or even security badges all help reassure them.

Third-party reviews can be particularly powerful, sites like Trustpilot carry weight because they’re independent. Make a habit of asking customers to leave reviews and showcase them clearly on your site.

Match Your Ads and Your Landing Page

If someone clicks on an ad, they should land on a page that feels like a natural continuation of what they just saw. The message, the offer, even the design should line up. If it doesn’t, people second-guess whether they’re in the right place, and that’s when bounce rates creep up.

Get the Headline Right

Most visitors won’t read every line, they’ll skim. That’s why the headline matters so much. It needs to be clear, relevant to the ad they clicked, and instantly explain what you’re offering. A strong headline keeps people on the page long enough to consider your offer.

Keep Pages Quick and Light

Speed is everything. A slow page doesn’t just frustrate users, it drags down your quality score and pushes up your CPC. Compress images, clean up code, and test your load time regularly. Google reckons two seconds is the maximum acceptable for an e-commerce page, and that’s a good benchmark to aim for across the board.

Focus the Content

People clicking on PPC ads usually have higher intent, so you don’t need long-winded explanations. Keep the copy concise, focus on your key benefits, and use bullet points or visuals to make it easy to digest. Every word on the page should work towards conversion, if it doesn’t, cut it.

Make Your CTAs Clear

If you’re paying to get someone onto your site, don’t leave them guessing about what to do next. Use clear, direct calls to action like Shop Now, Request a Quote, or Sign Up Today. Make them stand out visually so they’re impossible to miss. And if you have more than one, make sure the priority action comes first.

Don’t Forget Mobile

A landing page that works on desktop might fall apart on mobile. Test across devices and screen sizes to make sure navigation is smooth. Keep CTAs easy to tap, avoid text-heavy layouts that require endless scrolling, and remember: on a small screen, space is limited. Strip things back and make speed the priority.

Test, Test, Test

Don’t assume you’ve nailed it first time. Run A/B tests on headlines, CTAs, layouts, and imagery to see what actually works. Use the data to refine your approach, and keep testing, even small changes can make a difference.

Track Your Conversions Properly

You can’t improve what you’re not measuring. Make sure your conversion tracking is set up correctly so you know which pages, ads, and campaigns are delivering. Track the key metrics, conversion rate, bounce rate, time on page, and use them to guide your next round of optimisation.

 

A well-optimised landing page is just as important as a well-built PPC campaign. By building trust, matching ad intent, keeping things fast and clear, and giving people a simple next step, you’ll get more value from every click. And don’t forget, optimisation isn’t a one-off job. Keep testing, keep measuring, and keep improving.

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Targeting Shopping Ads Only with Performance Max Campaigns

by Paid Search

Targeting Shopping Ads Only with Performance Max Campaigns

In the ever-evolving world of digital advertising, advertisers are often faced with the challenge of meeting the demands set by platforms like Google. With Google’s push to expand targeting options across various channels, advertisers are compelled to broaden their reach beyond traditional avenues. However, there is a workaround with Performance Max campaigns whereby advertisers can strategically focus their efforts solely on shopping ads while excluding other channels like Maps, YouTube, Discover & Display. In this blog post, we will explore how to set up Performance Max campaigns exclusively for shopping ads, highlighting the benefits and considerations of this approach.

 

Setting Up Performance Max Campaigns for Shopping Ads Only:

 

1️⃣ Campaign Creation: Start by creating a new Performance Max campaign within Google Ads.

2️⃣ Campaign Goals: Define your campaign goals, such as maximising sales or conversions, aligning with the specific objectives of your shopping ads.

3️⃣ Campaign Settings: Ensure that any “Automatically Created Assets” are unticked.

4️⃣ Bidding Strategy: Utilise a bidding strategy that aligns with your shopping goals and budget, ensuring it reflects your intention to serve ads exclusively on shopping platforms.

5️⃣ Asset Group: Ensure that all images, videos, logos headlines and descriptions are left empty. This is crucial as it makes sure that Google doesn’t have the correct assets to utilise on the other channels we want to exclude.

 

Benefits of Exclusively Targeting Shopping Ads with Performance Max Campaigns:

 

👍Precise Targeting: By setting up Performance Max campaigns solely for shopping ads, you can precisely target customers who are specifically interested in the products you offer. 

👍Simplified Campaign Management: Excluding other channels streamlines campaign management, allowing advertisers to focus their attention and efforts on optimising shopping ad performance.

👍Cost Efficiency: Since Performance Max campaigns are not serving on other channels, advertisers can allocate their budget more efficiently, ensuring maximum return on ad spend (ROAS) for shopping campaigns.

👍Increased Relevance: By exclusively targeting shopping platforms, your ads can be shown to users who are actively searching for or browsing products, thereby enhancing the relevance of your ads.

 

Considerations and Drawbacks:

 

👎Limited Reach: Excluding other channels narrows the reach of your ads, potentially reducing the overall impressions and exposure for your brand. This can be a drawback if you aim to maximise visibility beyond shopping platforms.

👎Reduced Inventory: By excluding non-shopping channels, you may miss out on potential conversions from users who may discover your products outside of dedicated shopping platforms.

👎Competitive Landscape: Since other advertisers may be utilising Performance Max campaigns for multiple channels, focusing exclusively on shopping ads may result in increased competition for limited shopping ad placements.

 

Conclusion:

 

The workaround for Performance Max campaigns offer advertisers the flexibility to focus their efforts exclusively on shopping ads, allowing for precise targeting and streamlined campaign management. By excluding non-shopping channels, advertisers can optimise their budget, increase ad relevance, and enhance conversions on dedicated shopping platforms. However, it’s essential to carefully consider the potential drawbacks, such as limited reach and increased competition within the shopping ad landscape. By weighing the benefits against the drawbacks and aligning them with your specific advertising goals, you can leverage Performance Max campaigns to effectively serve and optimise your shopping ads.

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Leveraging Google Ads and SEO for Enhanced Online Visibility

by Paid SearchSEO

Leveraging Google Ads and SEO for Enhanced Online Visibility.

 

In the ever-evolving digital landscape, gaining organic visibility for your brand can be a challenging endeavour. However, with the right strategies, such as utilising Google Ads and optimising for Search Engine Optimization (SEO), you can bridge gaps where organic visibility may be lacking. In this blog post, we will explore how leveraging Google Ads can enhance short-term visibility, especially against dominant competitors in the organic SERPs. Additionally, we will discuss how SEO can save costs for high-cost-per-click (CPC) keywords. By combining both PPC and SEO, businesses can establish a powerful and cost-effective marketing strategy.

 

Part 1: Using Google Ads to Cover Organic Visibility Gaps

 

1.1 Filling Organic Visibility Gaps:

When there are certain keywords or search queries where your client’s website lacks organic visibility, Google Ads can come to the rescue. By targeting these specific keywords through pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, you can ensure that your client’s ads appear prominently on relevant search engine results pages (SERPs). This allows you to reach a wider audience and gain immediate visibility, driving more traffic to your client’s website.

 

1.2 Overcoming Dominant Competitors:

In highly competitive industries where larger competitors with high domain authority dominate the organic SERPs, it can be difficult for smaller businesses to break through. However, Google Ads can provide a level playing field by enabling you to bid on keywords that your competitors are targeting organically. By strategically outbidding them, you can position your client’s ads above their organic listings, gaining increased visibility and effectively challenging their dominance.

 

Part 2: Harnessing SEO to Save Costs for High CPC Keywords

 

2.1 Utilising Organic Visibility for High CPC Keywords:

If your client has strong organic visibility for high-cost-per-click keywords, they can save significant advertising costs. By leveraging their existing organic visibility through SEO efforts, they can capitalise on the traffic they are already receiving without having to pay for every click. This strategic approach enables your client to allocate their budget to other marketing initiatives or expand their online presence without incurring additional expenses.

 

2.2 Maximising Long-Term Growth:

SEO plays a crucial role in building sustainable organic visibility over time. By investing in optimising your website’s content, architecture, and backlink profile, you can improve organic rankings and drive continuous organic traffic. As a result, your reliance on paid advertising for high CPC keywords decreases, resulting in substantial cost savings in the long run. SEO acts as a foundation for consistent visibility and ongoing growth without solely depending on PPC campaigns.

 

Conclusion:

 

In the dynamic world of digital marketing, it’s essential to adapt and utilise the available tools to maximise your client’s visibility. By leveraging Google Ads to cover organic visibility gaps and utilising SEO to save costs for high CPC keywords, businesses can establish a comprehensive and cost-effective marketing strategy. Google Ads helps overcome organic limitations and effectively compete against dominant competitors in the digital landscape. On the other hand, SEO offers a sustainable approach, minimising dependence on paid advertising for high-cost keywords. Integrating both PPC and SEO ensures enhanced online visibility, targeted traffic, and optimised marketing budgets, leading to long-term success in a competitive market.

 
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Google Merchant Center: Optimising your products for position #1

by Paid Search

Google Merchant Center: Optimising your products for position #1

If you have e-commerce clients, you’ll understand the importance of achieving maximum visibility for their products. Google Merchant Center plays a crucial role in driving conversions by allowing businesses to showcase their products through Google Shopping ads at the top of a Google Search page.

In this blog post, we will explore the significance of Google Merchant Center and share best practices to optimise your product listings to achieve the most desirable first position.

Understanding Google Merchant Center:

Google Merchant Center is a platform that allows businesses to upload their product data and make it available to potential customers through Google’s shopping channels, including Search, Shopping, and Images. The goal of this is to enhance the visibility of their offerings by showcasing elements like images, prices, special offers and compare these with other advertisers within the auctions. This allows for competitive advantages and therefore helps to attract customers to the business.

The Importance Of First Page Positions:

With paid shopping listings, it’s important to secure positions at the start of the shopping listing carousel as it makes products visible with no other interaction on the page. Achieving positions close to the front of the listing carousel provides significant advantages, including higher visibility, increased CTR, and a higher chance of conversions. In order to do this a strategic approach is needed alongside careful optimisation of your product data.

Key areas to focus on:

  1. Feed Optimisation:
    ⚡Ensure accurate product data: Provide precise information such as title, description, pricing, and availability. Avoid vague or misleading details that might frustrate users.

⚡The general best practices for the order of product titles are brand + product type + attributes (such as colour, size, material).

⚡Utilise relevant keywords: Conduct thorough keyword research and incorporate them naturally into your titles and descriptions. Focus on long-tail keywords that align with user intent.

⚡High-quality images: Use high-resolution, visually appealing product images that showcase your offerings. Ensure that the photos aren’t misleading showing more products that could lead the user to think that both are part of the listing. Optimise them for size and load speed without compromising quality.

⚡Detailed product attributes: Provide as much relevant information as possible, including colour, size, material, brand, and any other attributes that could influence a user’s decision.

2. Competitive Pricing and Offers: To stand out from your competitors, regularly analyse market trends and adjust your pricing strategy accordingly. Offer competitive prices, discounts, promotions, or exclusive deals to incentivise potential customers to choose your products over others.

3. Product Reviews and Ratings: Encourage customers to leave reviews and ratings for your products. Positive reviews not only boost consumer confidence but also influence Google’s algorithms, potentially improving your chances of securing higher positions.

4. Ad Campaign Optimisation: Combine your product listing efforts with Google search campaigns to enhance your visibility further. Implement well-structured, targeted campaigns that align with your product listings and optimise ad copy, bids, and targeting to improve ad relevancy and increase your chances of securing the top position.

Conclusion:

Optimising your product listings in Google Merchant Center is crucial for achieving a high position and maximising your Pmax and shopping campaign success. By following the tips outlined in this blog post, you can improve your chances of appearing at the top of Google’s shopping platforms, increasing visibility, attracting new customers, and driving conversions. Continuously monitor and refine your efforts to stay ahead of the competition and ensure your clients’ products receive the attention they deserve!

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A Guide To Meta Creatives

by Paid SearchPaid Social

Meta ad creatives come in various forms and formats. From single images to videos, carousels, and collections, Meta offers a range of options for you to choose from to help businesses achieve their marketing objectives. But, with all these options it can sometimes get a little confusing on which ones are the right ones to pick. 

This blog is going to run through the different types of ad formats, their specifications and best practices for each one. 

Ad Formats

Image Ads

These are the most basic type of ads on Meta platforms and consist of a single image that is usually accompanied by text and a call to action (CTA) button. The image should be eye-catching and relevant to the ad’s message. Image ads are easy to create and are a great option if you have a limited budget.

Best Practices for Image Ads:

⚡Use high-quality images that are relevant to your ad’s message.

⚡Keep text to a minimum to avoid clutter.

⚡Use a clear CTA button that is in line with your campaign objective.

⚡Showcase your USPs to attract your audience.

Video Ads

Video ads have become increasingly popular in the last few months. They can be used to showcase a product or service, tell a story or entertain the audience. Video ads can be in-feed or story ads and can be a maximum of 60 seconds long. They are a great way to connect with the audience and build engagement. 

Best Practices for Video Ads:

⚡Grab the viewer’s attention within the first few seconds.

⚡Always use subtitles or captions to make your message clear, even when muted and for accessibility purposes.

⚡Tell a story or create an emotional connection with your audience.

⚡Include clear CTA buttons to encourage action from the viewer.

⚡Keep the video short and sweet (under 30 seconds is ideal).

Carousel Ads

Carousel ads consist of two or more images or videos that the user can swipe through. Each card has its own headline, description, call to action button and link to its landing page. You could use this feature to showcase different products, highlight multiple benefits, or you can create a story for the user to swipe through. 

Best Practices for Carousel Ads:

⚡Use high-quality images/videos that showcase your product or service.

⚡Create a story with your slides or highlight different products or features.

⚡Make sure you are sending users to the most relevant URL for each card.

⚡Select a clear CTA on the card that aligns with your campaign objective.

Collection Ads 

This format shows a collection of images that can be used to showcase multiple products. Users can click on a collection ad to view a fullscreen instant experience. This provides the user with a seamless instant experience without leaving the app. This is only available for Facebook feeds, Instagram feeds and Instagram stories.

Best Practices for Carousel Ads:

⚡Use high-quality images/videos that showcase your product or service.

⚡Create a story with your slides or highlight different products or features.

⚡Select a clear CTA on the card that aligns with your campaign objective and encourages users to click through to an instant experience.

Image and video specifications

Placement 

Ad Format 

Recommended Ratio 

Recommended Size (Px)

Recommended Length

File Type

Feed

Image 

1:1

1080×1080 

 

JPG or PNG

Video

1:1 or 9:16 

1080×1080 or above 

15-30 secs

MP4 or MOV

In-stream

Video

1:1 or 9:16 

1080×1080 or above  

15 secs to 10 mins

MP3 or MOV

Carousel

Image

1:1

1080×1080

2-10 cards

JPG or PNG

Stories 

Image 

9:16

1080×1920

or above

 

JPG or PNG

Video

9:16

1080×1920

5-15 secs

MP3 or MOV

Reels

Video

9:16

1080×1920

15-30 secs

MP3 or MOV

Right Column

Image

1.9:1

1200×628

 

JPG or PNG

Top takeaways

💥If you are unsure it is best to keep the size 1080×1080 pixels as this fits the most placements.

💥Keep ad copy short and to the point to make it easier for the audience to digest.

💥Include clear CTAs that align with your campaign objective.

💥Remember to highlight your USPs to attract your audience.

💥Trial different creatives to see what works best for you and your objectives.

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Understanding Audiences In GA4

by Paid SearchUncategorised

As an agency or business, understanding your audiences is crucial for driving meaningful results. By collecting and analysing insights into your website visitors, you can make informed decisions to optimise your digital marketing campaigns. With Universal Analytics sunsetting at the end of June, it is important for you to understand audiences within GA4 and how you can unlock powerful insights that can benefit you.

 

What are the audiences in GA4?

Audiences let you split your users into ways that are the most important for your business. They are made from groups of people that share common characteristics or behaviours that are based on data collected by GA4 from your website or app. These audiences can then be used for targeting and observation within Google Ads. 

 

What are the differences between Universal Analytics and GA4?

GA4 doesn’t collect the same data as Universal Analytics did. GA4 can now track users across different devices, domains, and apps. These audiences can create a more holistic view of your users’ behaviours and interests compared to previous Universal Analytics. It goes beyond traditional demographic targeting and uses machine learning to enable you to create more sophisticated and dynamic audience segments based on a wide range of user behaviours and attributes.

 

How do GA4 audiences work?

GA4 audiences are created based on events and parameters that you define within your GA4 property. Events are actions that users take on your website or app, such as page views, clicks, conversions, and others. Parameters are additional pieces of information associated with events, such as the user’s location, device type, or referral source. GA4 uses these events and parameters to build a profile of your users, allowing you to create highly targeted and personalised audience segments.

 

Creating Audiences in GA4

To create an audience:

➡️Navigate to “admin > audiences” to set up a new audience in GA4.

➡️You can go on to create an audience from GA4’s suggested audiences.

➡️Or start from scratch and create a custom audience using your own conditions.

Transferring audiences from Universal Analytics.

If you already have audiences set up within a Universal Analytics account you can easily transfer these over to GA4 using the GA4 Migrator for Google Analytics. However, not all Universal Analytics audiences are supported within GA4 so you may not be able to transfer them all.

This involves a few steps:

➡️Step 1: Install GA4 Migrator for Google Analytics.

https://workspace.google.com/u/0/marketplace/app/ga4_migrator_for_google_analytics/472716783070

➡️Step 2: Create a new blank Google Sheets (type sheets.new in the search bar for a shortcut).

➡️Step 3: Open ‘Extensions’ on the menu bar and GA4 Migrator for Google Analytics will appear. Hover over this and select the option to Migration audience definitions to GA4.

➡️Step 4: Follow the instructions to import audience definitions from your Universal Property and migrate to GA4 property.

Best Practices for GA4 audiences:

Now that you have a better understanding of GA4 audiences and how they work, you can use these to help optimise your campaigns. Here are some tips for best practices:

⚡Take advantage of the built-in audiences: Start with the built-in audiences that GA4 has to offer. These will automatically generate audience segments based on user behaviour. These include purchasers, non-purchasers, recently active users and more. This is a fast way you can gain insights into your user base and tailor your marketing messages accordingly.

⚡Define custom audiences: Creating custom audiences allows you to define audience segments that are specific to your business goals. You can create custom audiences based on a wide range of parameters, such as demographics, interests, behaviours, and more. Explore the different options available to you to create audiences that are more valuable for your business.

⚡Analyse and optimise your audiences: GA4 has powerful reporting capabilities that allow you to measure the performance of your audiences. You can track specific key metrics to determine the effectiveness of your audience segments. This will allow you to make data-driven decisions to refine your audience segments, achieve audiences that are no longer relevant to you, create new audiences, or adjust your strategy for better results.

⚡Ensure data privacy compliance: It is vital that you are collecting and using data in compliance with relevant data privacy laws and regulations, such as GDPR rules and regulations. Make sure to review and follow any updates to Google’s data usage policies and guidelines to ensure that you are using your audiences correctly. This includes obtaining user consent where necessary and providing transparency on data collection and usage.

To conclude, GA4 audiences are a powerful tool that can help you create highly targeted and personalised marketing campaigns. By leveraging the data collected from your website or app, you can create audience segments based on user behaviours, demographics and interests that will be valuable for your business. Audiences allow you to deliver relevant and tailored messages to our users that can be used within your Google Ads campaigns for better targeting and observation.

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Do’s And Don’ts For E-commerce On Facebook

by Paid SearchPaid Social

The e-commerce landscape has experienced rapid changes in the past few years from the advancements in technology, changing consumer behaviours, and the impact of worldwide events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This industry has been through its fair share of ups and downs. So where does that leave Facebook Ads and their effectiveness in driving e-commerce sales? 

We’ve put together 5 essential do’s and don’ts to keep in mind when creating your next sales campaign.

 

Do’s:

👍Do define your target audience. Take time to clearly define your target audience before creating your ads. Explore Facebook’s wide range of audience options including interests, detailed targeting, website data and lookalike audiences. The more clear your target audience is the more likely Facebook will target your ads at the right people that are the most likely to buy your products!

👍Do use compelling ad copy and high-quality creatives. Social media is highly visual and very competitive. Make sure your ad stands out from the crowd by making your ads eye-catching and creating emotion for the user. Ensure that you highlight the benefits that your products offer.

👍Do test! Experiment with different ad formats, such as carousel ads, video ads, and collection ads, to see what resonates best with your target audience. Along with this make sure you’re filling out all the different options for ad copy within the primary text, headline and description sections. Facebook allows you to add multiple text options that they will then show to each person, based on what they’re most likely to respond to.

👍Do set clear campaign objectives. Is your client looking to drive sales, generate leads, or increase traffic to their website? Make sure that this is clear to you before you start and select the aligning Facebook campaign objective for the best results.

👍Do optimise your ads for mobile users. With the majority of Facebook and Instagram users accessing on a mobile device, ensure that you optimise your ads for mobile. Look at your ad creative and copy to make sure it is mobile-friendly and eligible. If you’re creating ads on your desktop, make sure to test it on your mobile to make sure all creatives are eligible and not too small to read.

 

Don’ts:

👎Don’t overcomplicate your ad campaign. We usually use the 3×3 rule. 3 sets of the ad set with different targeting and 3 different ads. This allows us room to test what works best whilst still being easy to manage and optimise. If you have too many ads sets you can overload Facebook’s delivery systems which will negatively impact your performance.

👎Don’t narrow down your target audience too much. Broad targeting is on the rise on Facebook and we can agree that our best-performing campaigns are ones that have a broad target audience. This allows Facebook delivery systems to find the best people to show your ad to. This can lead to potential customers that you didn’t know about before. If you narrow down your target too much it limits Facebook’s capabilities, which will most likely lead to poor performance.

👎Don’t ignore your landing page experience. The majority of users are on a mobile device, therefore, make sure your landing page is mobile-friendly, and responsive. Having a slow loading speed can put users off and result in low conversion rates.

👎Don’t forget what the customer is looking for. It is important to think like your target audience to create the best ads for them. Is your product solving a problem for them? What makes it better than your competitors’ products? Have you got enough social proof online that you can use to your advantage? Think about why your customer would find value in your product and use this as clear USPs within your ads.

👎Don’t rely on one ad set or ad. Facebook works best when it can use its machine learning capabilities to test and see what performs best for your audience. Creating more ad sets and ads will allow for a better chance of success to hit the mark when it comes to your audience. You can optimise your ad sets later on, if you find that one ad set performs a lot better than the other then you can allocate more budget towards driving better results for your campaigns.

 

To round this up, Facebook ads can still be very effective in driving results for your business. Make sure you’re staying up to date with all the best practices, and testing to see what works best within your own ad account. You can start by focusing on these do’s and don’t to help increase your chance of achieving your campaign objective and start driving sales. Be responsive to the changes in consumer behaviour and market trends to ensure your product portrays value to your target audience. 

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GA4: Lost Cookie Consent Data

by Paid Search

With the implementation of cookie consent policies, many businesses have faced challenges in accurately reporting their website performance. However, GA4 has introduced a new feature that addresses this issue and allows for more accurate reporting figures. In this blog, we will explore how GA4’s modelled data to estimate figures that can help you optimise your reporting process.

The Challenges Of Lost Cookie Consent Data

Since the introduction of the cookie consent policy, which had the aim of protecting the users’ privacy and providing more control of their data, you may have noticed skewed reporting figures. Without the proper consent, tracking codes or cookies will not be executed properly, leading to incomplete reporting data. This can affect your ability to accurately measure website performance and make data-driven decisions.

GA4’s Modelled Data

To address this challenge, GA4 has introduced a feature that uses modelled data to estimate figures based on historical data and intent signals, which are higher than those in Universal Analytics. This allows businesses to have more insights into the performance of different channels and optimise their strategies accordingly. By using the modelled data you can get a better understanding of your website’s performance even with the limited or lost cookie consent data.

This is particularly useful if you’ve experienced a drop-off and want more insight into the performance of different channels, making optimisation easier. It can also help to streamline your process and reduce the amount of time and effort required to manually adjust figures. 

Benefits of GA4 Modelled Data:

⚡Improved reporting accuracy: With modelled data, you can get a more accurate picture of your website’s performance, even when cookie consent data is lost or limited. This can allow for more informed decision-making and optimisation strategies.

⚡Streamlined Reporting Process: Modelled data can help streamline the reporting process by reducing the time and effect required to manually adjust figures. This can save you time and valuable resources and allow you to focus on more important tasks.

⚡Insight into the performance of different channels: Modelled data can provide businesses with insights into the performance of different marketing channels, helping them understand which channels are driving results and which ones may need optimisation.

Considerations and best practices

While GA4’s modelled data feature can be very useful, it’s important to keep in mind the following considerations:

💡Check accuracy with clients: Modelled data is an estimate and may not be 100% accurate. It is important to check figures with your clients to ensure the accuracy of the estimated data before making any significant changes to your reporting optimisation strategies.

💡Continue monitoring and adjusting: Modelled data should be used as a tool to aid decision-making, but it is important to continue monitoring and adjusting your reporting as necessary. Regularly reviewing and comparing estimated data with actual data can help identify any discrepancies and ensure data accuracy.

💡Use as a complementary tool: Modelled data should not replace observed data completely. But rather be used as a complementary tool. It’s important to understand the limitations of modelled data and use it in conjunction with other data sources to get a holistic view of website performance.

Reverting back to observed data:

If you prefer to use only observed data you can turn off modelled data in the settings by following these steps.

  1. Go to admin in your GA4 account.
  2. Click on your Property Settings.
  3. Under the Property column, click on Reporting Identity.
  4. Choose the “Use only observed data” option.
  5. Save your changes.

In conclusion, GA4’s new feature for lost cookie consent data provides us with a valuable tool to estimate figures and gain additional insights into website performance. By using the modelled data, businesses can overcome challenges related to cookie consent policies and make more informed data-driven decisions. 

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GA4 Cross-Channel Tracking

by Paid Search

Google Analytics 4

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the latest version of Google’s web analytics platform, designed to help businesses gain insights into user behaviour across multiple devices and platforms. One of the significant changes in GA4 is the introduction of cross-channel tracking, which enables businesses to track conversions across different channels accurately. This is a significant advancement as it allows you to see precisely which channels influenced a conversion and allocate credit accordingly.


Cross-Channel Tracking

Cross-channel tracking in GA4 is a powerful tool that allows businesses to see how customers interact with their brand across different touchpoints. This, in turn, helps them to better understand the customer journey and optimize their marketing campaigns for maximum effectiveness. This means that you will be able to track your customer’s buying journey more precisely and be able to attribute the correct value to each touchpoint in the customer’s journey.

 

For instance, when it comes to Google Ads, this new feature will change the last non-direct click conversion import to full cross-channel credit, allowing you to see the complete value of your Google Ads campaigns.

 

To better understand the impact of this change, let’s consider a typical buyer journey. Suppose a customer clicks on a shopping ad but does not end up purchasing on day one. On day two, they organically search for the product and brand and complete the purchase. 

 

GA4 Last Non-Direct Click

 

Using the traditional last non-direct click tracking method, organic search would get 100% of the credit for this purchase. In contrast, Google Ads would not receive any credit for the conversion. 

 

GA4 Cross-Channel Credit

However, with the new GA4 cross-channel attribution, organic search would receive 50% of the credit, while Google Ads would get the remaining 50% – giving a 0.5 recording of a conversion in Google Ads. This means you can see which channels and campaigns are working best and making the most impact on your customer’s buying journey.

 

By using cross-channel tracking in GA4, you can now gain more visibility of how your campaigns are actually influencing the customer’s purchase journey. This provides more comprehensive data that can help you optimize your marketing campaigns better. It’s now possible to see how different channels work together to convert a customer, which can help identify areas for improvement in your marketing strategy. This allows you to make data-driven decisions about where to allocate marketing resources, ensuring that you get the best possible return on investment.

 

To set up conversion tracking in GA4, businesses need to define the specific events that they want to track as conversions. These events can be defined using the built-in events that are available in GA4 or you can create your own custom events. Once these conversion events are defined, you can use cross-channel tracking to track conversions across different platforms and devices.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the upcoming changes to GA4 conversion tracking using cross-channel tracking will provide businesses with a more comprehensive view of their customer journey, enabling them to optimize their marketing campaigns for maximum effectiveness. By attributing the correct value to each touchpoint in the customer’s journey, businesses can make better-informed decisions on their marketing strategies and drive more value from their campaigns.

 

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Cedarwood Nominated For 12 European Search Awards

by Cedarwood Digital NewsDigital PR & Outreach tipsPaid SearchSEO

Delighted to kick off the week by announcing that we have been nominated for 12 European Search Awards, it’s great to see everyone’s hard work rewarded over the last 12 months & to be recognised for some of the great client achievements we’ve had in this time!

Some of our nominations include:

🍉 Best SEO Agency
🍉 Best Use Of PR In Search
🍉 Best Use Of Search (Finance)
🍉 Best SEO Campaign
🍉 Best PPC Campaign

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the event in Lisbon in May! ☀️ 🍷🍹 You can find a full list of nominations here