Copy of Digital Marketing Careers - Director Amanda’s Talk With Loreto College

PPC Talks – Head Of Paid Social Anna’s Talk With The Go! Network

by Cedarwood Digital News

On the 30th of January, our Head of Paid Media & Operations, Anna Simpson, spoke at a virtual workshop about challenging the biggest PPC myths and unlocking smarter strategies for PPC success, courtesy of The Go! Network. 

Anna’s talking points included: 

  • Why do some brands believe they can manage PPC without external expertise, and what’s the reality? 
  • What’s the best approach to aligning PPC efforts with overall business goals?
  • How do you determine the right budget for PPC campaigns, especially for smaller businesses?
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If you fancy a listen to these expert insights, practical takeaways, and real-world case studies, check out the workshop here. 

Also, if you are interested in any other Cedarwood news or marketing tips, check out our blog page here and have a read!

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Director Amanda On The Main Stage At Brighton SEO

by Cedarwood Digital NewsDigital PR & Outreach tipsLink BuildingPaid SearchPaid SocialSEO

Having attended Brighton SEO for over a decade now, I can safely say that it’s one of the best, if not the best SEO conference in the world, so I was absolutely delighted when asked to speak on the main stage this year covering the topic “SEO For YMYL Websites”

For those of you that don’t know what YMYL is, it stands for “Your Money Your Life” and it’s a term that was coined by Google to cover websites that can have an impact on someone’s money or life. At Cedarwood, we specialise in working with companies like this and with years of experience building links in particularly tricky industries i.e. gaming, vaping, medical, legal so it was great to be able to share some knowledge about this with the community.

So what were some of the key takeaways from the talk?

  • User intent is key – matching user intent plays a huge role in the YMYL space and it’s really important that we are keeping this in mind. This ties in really well with the idea of creating a “satisfying amount of content” – that is the right amount of content for a user, not a certain number of words, to answer the questions/queries they might have and allow them to make an informed decision
  • Reputation is important –  in particular your external reputation. Google yourself – see what people are saying about you and make sure that you work to build your reputation with effective Digital PR – this will go a long way to helping what people have to say about you and also what Google are seeing being said about you
  • Showcase your trust signals – whether it’s through industry accreditations or simply by telling people why they should trust you, showcasing this on your website and on external websites plays an important role on building those all important E-E-A-T signals
  • And on the topic of E-E-A-T, making sure that it shines through in everything that you do. Google have openly stated that for YMYL websites they place a heavier weight on E-E-A-T signals so it’s important that those are showcased at every opportunity
  • Finally, making sure that the look and feel of your content matches the expertise of it – there’s no point having great content only for it to look “amateurish” – take time to consider the way content is displayed and that it matches the expertise you are showcasing.

I had a great time in Brighton, got to meet some fantastic people and hear from some thought leaders across the industry.

You can find a link to my full slide deck here: https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/amanda-walls-brighton-seo-seo-for-ymyl-websites-9pptx/267570020

Until October!

How we delivered 100+ top tier links by jumping on a trending topic.

Cedarwood Take Home 4 Northern Digital Awards!

by Cedarwood Digital NewsDigital PR & Outreach tipsSEO

We’re delighted to share our success at the Northern Digital Awards last week! 

We attended the awards ceremony here in Manchester on Thursday and were awarded: 

🏅Search Agency Of The Year

🏅Best SEO Campaign (Patient Claim Line)

🏅Best Digital Marketing Campaign – B2C (Little Loans)

🏅Best Digital Marketing Campaign – Finance (Cash Lady)

We are so pleased with this outcome, especially given the tough competition from a host of esteemed agencies. It’s really exciting to see our hard work this year recognised through such respected awards.

Here’s what the judges had to say:

Thank you to our clients for another successful year, and a huge well done to the team for their efforts! 

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PPC Landing Page Best Practices: Tips for Better Conversion Rates

by Paid Search

With PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising, every click carries a cost. It is imperative to convert those hard-earned visitors into customers to maximise the return on investment (ROI) of your ad spend. In this blog post, we will explore essential strategies for conversion rate optimisation (CRO) in the context of PPC advertising. We will cover overall optimisation techniques, desktop-specific tactics, and mobile-specific approaches. By implementing these recommendations, you can enhance user experience, increase trust, and amplify the impact of your PPC campaigns.

 

Overall Optimisation:

💡Ease of Navigation: Simplify your website’s navigation structure and ensure that visitors can easily find what they’re looking for without having to click through to different pages and get lost in the website.

 

💡Streamlined Conversion Funnel: Optimise the conversion process by reducing friction and eliminating unnecessary steps. Make it easy for visitors to convert by simplifying forms, minimising data entry requirements, and providing clear instructions.

 

💡Trust Signals from Third-Party Reviewers: Incorporate testimonials, ratings, and reviews from reputable third-party sources. Positive feedback and social proof enhance trust in your brand, ultimately influencing purchase decisions.

 

💡Unique Selling Propositions (USPs): Clearly communicate your company’s unique value propositions to visitors. Highlight what sets your business apart from the competition and why customers should choose your products or services.

 

💡Address Pain Points: Identify common pain points or challenges faced by your target audience and emphasise how your offerings provide effective solutions. Focus on addressing customer needs to increase the likelihood of conversion.

 

💡Landing Page Relevance: Ensure your landing pages directly related to the keywords and messaging used in your PPC ads. Consistency between your ad and landing page creates a seamless user experience, increasing the likelihood of conversion. Users should find what they expect to see, fostering trust and minimising bounce rates. 

 

💡Speed and Performance: Mobile users expect fast-loading pages. Optimise your mobile landing pages to load quickly, keeping visitors engaged and reducing the chances of abandonment.

 

Desktop Optimisation:

💻Design-Driven Content: Desktop users often desire more comprehensive information before making a purchasing decision. Create visually appealing landing pages that incorporate detailed content, including product features, benefits, and customer testimonials.

 

💻Clear CTAs: Use visually appealing, attention-grabbing Call-to-Action (CTA) buttons that stand out from the surrounding content. Ensure that they are strategically placed to drive conversions and guide users towards desired actions.

 

💻A/B Testing: Continuously test different elements, such as headlines, images, colours, and CTAs, on your desktop landing pages. This iterative approach helps identify the most effective combinations that yield the highest conversion rates.

 

Mobile Optimisation:

📱Responsive Design: Ensure your landing pages are fully optimised for mobile devices, providing a seamless browsing experience. Responsive design guarantees that your PPC ads drive mobile users to mobile-friendly landing pages, reducing friction and improving conversion rates.

 

📱Thumb-Friendly CTAs: Optimise mobile CTAs by aligning them with users’ natural thumb placement. Placing important buttons within easy reach improves user experience and encourages conversions.

 

📱Visible Contact Information: Make sure that essential information like phone numbers and contact details are clearly visible on mobile devices. This enables users to quickly reach out and establishes trust and accessibility.

 

📱Minimise Scrolling and Text: Mobile users have limited screen space and attention spans. Reduce the amount of scrolling required and keep the text concise, ensuring key information and CTAs are visible without excessive scrolling.

 

📱Prominent CTAs: Place CTAs near the top of the mobile screen to capture users’ attention without the need for excessive scrolling. Make them highly visible and intuitive for quick and effortless conversions.

 

Conclusion:

PPC advertising requires a strategic approach to ensure that your investment translates into tangible business results. Conversion rate optimisation is an ongoing process that requires continuous monitoring, testing, and refinement. By implementing these conversion rate optimisation strategies, you can increase the effectiveness of your PPC campaigns, boost user engagement, and ultimately improve ROI. Remember to tailor your optimisations to both desktop and mobile users, leveraging the unique advantages and challenges each platform presents. Stay proactive, continuously monitor performance, and refine your campaigns based on user behaviour to unlock the full potential of your PPC advertising efforts.

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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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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.