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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 the realm of PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising, businesses often rely on key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure success and drive their digital marketing strategies. However, it is crucial to recognize that not all metrics are created equal, and some may not directly translate into real, tangible business value. In this blog post, we’ll delve into the shortcomings of certain KPIs, especially in lead generation industries, and discuss how to approach challenging KPIs internally with clients to focus on metrics that truly drive value for the business.

 

The Pitfalls of Vanity Metrics

 

👎Lead Generation: Quantity ≠ Quality

Lead generation is a popular KPI in PPC advertising, as it reflects the number of potential customers expressing interest in a product or service. However, the quantity of leads alone does not guarantee revenue generation. It is essential to consider the quality of leads, i.e., how likely they are to convert into paying customers/clients that will drive revenue for your business. Simply increasing the number of leads without considering their qualification may result in wasted resources and inefficient marketing efforts.

👎Form Submissions: Beyond Surface-Level Engagement

Form submissions are often seen as an indicator of customer engagement. While they demonstrate an initial interest, they do not provide a comprehensive understanding of the lead’s intent or potential value to the business. For example, someone who submits a form for a free e-book might have different intentions than someone who requests a personalised demo. Relying solely on form submissions as a KPI can lead to skewed insights and misguided decision-making.

 

Approaching Challenging KPIs with Clients

 

➡️Educate on 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. 

➡️Shift Focus to Sales-Qualified Leads (SQLs)

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).

➡️Cost-Effectiveness over Quantity

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. 

 

The Benefits of SQL’s for Agencies

 

👍Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

By challenging traditional KPIs and focusing on metrics that drive real business value, agencies can establish a unique selling proposition in a crowded market. Positioning themselves as partners who prioritise the client’s bottom line sets them apart from competitors who may solely focus on vanity metrics. This USP showcases the agency’s commitment to delivering results that directly contribute to the client’s success.

👍Client Respect and Trust

Shifting the focus to metrics that align with the client’s business goals demonstrates a deep understanding of their needs and objectives. It showcases the agency’s dedication to the client’s success and long-term growth. When clients see that their agency is actively working towards maximising revenue and ROI, they develop a higher level of trust and respect for the agency’s expertise and strategic guidance.

👍Enhanced Collaboration

Challenging KPIs and aligning marketing efforts with true business value fosters a collaborative relationship between the agency and the client. It encourages open and constructive conversations about the most effective strategies, target audiences, and campaign optimisation. The agency becomes a trusted advisor, collaborating closely with the client to identify the metrics that truly matter and tailoring campaigns accordingly.

👍Long-Term Partnerships

By focusing on metrics that directly impact the client’s revenue and business growth, agencies are more likely to forge long-term partnerships. As the agency consistently delivers value-driven results, the client recognises their expertise and commitment to success. This increases the likelihood of repeat business, referrals, and the opportunity for the agency to become an integral part of the client’s marketing strategy for the long haul.

👍Increased ROI for Clients

Ultimately, by challenging KPIs and prioritising metrics that drive real business value, agencies help their clients achieve a higher return on investment (ROI). By focusing resources on attracting and nurturing sales-qualified leads, marketing efforts become more efficient and cost-effective. This, in turn, leads to increased revenue generation and a higher ROI for the client, solidifying the agency’s reputation as a valuable partner.

 

Conclusion

 

While lead generation and form submissions are popular metrics in PPC advertising, they often fail to equate to true business value. To effectively challenge and overcome these vanity metrics, it is crucial to shift the focus towards metrics that directly impact the bottom line. By educating clients about the limitations of vanity metrics, emphasising the importance of sales-qualified leads, and prioritising cost-effectiveness over quantity, businesses can drive meaningful results and ensure that their PPC advertising efforts contribute to tangible revenue generation. Challenging KPIs and focusing on driving real business value not only benefits clients but also provides unique advantages for agencies. By positioning themselves as partners who prioritise the client’s bottom line, agencies can earn respect, trust, and long-term partnerships.

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

Best Practices To Improve Your PPC Landing Page

 

As a PPC expert, you will understand the critical role that landing pages play in the success of our campaigns. A well-optimised landing page can significantly improve conversion rates, enhance user experience, and improve your ad rank. In this blog post, we will go through some of the best practices to help you improve your PPC landing pages and boost the effectiveness of your campaigns.

 

⚡Trust Signals and Social Proof

Building trust and credibility on your landing pages may be what encourages a customer to complete a conversion action. This provides strong trust signals to the site and should be visible to increase user confidence. To do this, consider including customer testimonials, client logos, security badges and any relevant awards or certifications that your business/staff have acquired. Trustpilot is one of the most well-known review sites that users recognise as this is a transparent third-party site where previous customers can report back on their experience. Put emphasis on receiving reviews from customers to build up your score and then display them in a widget or banner on your website.

 

⚡Align Landing Pages With Ad Copy

Making sure there is a seamless transition between your ad copy and landing page content is important. Maintaining consistent messaging, keywords, and design elements will reassure the user that they’ve arrived in the right place. By delivering a consistent experience, you can reduce bounce rates and improve the chances of conversion. 

 

⚡Clear and Compelling Headline

Make sure you create a clear and attention-grabbing headline that instantly communicates the value proposition of your product or service. Make it relevant, concise, and interesting to the ad that brought the user to the landing page. Most people don’t read every word on the page, they skim through it – a strong headline captures attention, engages the user and encourages them to stay on the page and engage further.

 

⚡Optimise for a fast loading speed

Page load time is crucial for both user experience and ad quality scores. Optimise your landing pages to load quickly by compressing images, minifying code, and leveraging browser caching. Fast load times can enhance user experience, and also positively impact ad performance. According to Google, two seconds is the acceptable threshold for loading times on an e-commerce website.

 

⚡Concise and Engaging Content

Create concise and persuasive content that clearly communicates the benefits of your product or service. Use bullet points, subheadings, and visual elements such as icons and logos to break up the text and make it more digestible for the user. Focus on the unique selling points and address any pain points customers may have. Remember when the user has clicked on your ad they already have a higher intent to convert. Optimise all content on this page to make sure that it all directly contributes to a conversion.

 

⚡Strong Call-To-Actions

Include a clear CTA that guides users to complete the action. There is no point in paying to bring a user to the site if we aren’t going to give them a clear path to conversion. Use action-orientated words such as ‘Shop Now’, ‘Start Your Claim’ and, ‘Sign Up Today’ to create a sense of urgency and encourage the customers to make prompt action. Make the CTA visually stand out so that it cannot be missed. Some ways to do this are using encapsulation and bold colours. If you have more than one CTA, prioritise them to have the most desired first.

 

⚡Mobile-Friendly Focus

It is crucial to optimise your landing pages for mobile devices. Ensure that the design is suitable, and provides easy navigation for the user. What works on desktop may not on mobile. Text-heavy landing pages can mean that the user has to scroll many times before reaching a CTA. Make sure you test your landing pages across different devices and screen sizes for a seamless user experience. 

 

Some things to consider when optimising for mobile:

👉CTAs are centred or aligned to the right – design with thumb in mind.

👉Keep clickable elements large and spaced out – many people use their phones with one thumb or finger.

👉Design for less space – prioritise your landing page elements.

👉Make each word count – you have less space for text on the page so cut out any fluff and prioritise.

👉Make speed your top priority – users are especially picky about page speed on mobile.

 

⚡A/B Testing

Make sure you’re continuously testing and optimising your landing pages to improve their performance. Conduct A/B tests to compare different versions of your landing page elements, such as headlines, CTAs, layout, and images. Collect data and analyse your results, and make data-driven decisions to refine and enhance your landing pages.

 

⚡Conversion Tracking

Lastly, ensure your conversion tracking is working and accurate to measure the effectiveness of your landing pages. Set up conversion events and track key metrics such as conversion rate, bounce rate, time spent on a page, and average session duration. You can then leverage this data to identify areas for improvement and make informed decisions to benefit your PPC campaigns.

 

Conclusion:

To round this up, optimising your landing pages is a vital part of running successful Google Ads campaigns. By following these best practices, you can create landing pages that engage users, deliver a seamless user experience, and drive conversions. Continuously test, analyse, and refine your landing pages to achieve the best results for your client. Remember, a well-optimised landing page is a key ingredient in maximising the return on investment of your PPC efforts.

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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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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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Meta Targeting 101

by Paid SearchPaid Social

With Meta’s social media platforms being some of the largest in the world, it would be foolish not to advertise there. With over 2 billion users, Meta targeting options allow advertisers to hone in on specific demographics and interests, making it ideal to reach your desired audiences. In this blog post, we will take a closer look at the different targeting options available on Meta and how to use them effectively.

Audience Options

As always with Meta advertising, your journey begins at Ads Manager. To view your audience go to tools on the top left corner and click on ‘Audiences’. 

This will bring you to a list of all your existing audiences – allowing us to create new audiences or edit existing ones. 

This will bring you to a list of all your existing audiences – allowing us to create new audiences or edit existing ones. 

 

Saved Audiences:

 

By using saved audiences you can include or exclude people based on demographics, interests, and behaviours. This is referred to as detailed targeting audiences by Meta.

 

🎯Demographic Targeting – This allows you to target users based on various demographic data, such as age, gender, location, education level, and more. 

 

🎯Interest Targeting – This allows you to target users based on their hobbies, interests, and activities. 

 

🎯Behavioural Targeting – This allows you to target users based on their digital activities, purchase behaviour, mobile device, or consumer classification. 

 

Saved Audience’s best practices:

 

⚡ Detailed targeting works best the broader you can make it. If you narrow your target down too much you’re limiting the capabilities of Meta’s delivery system to show your ad to the right people – which will likely reduce the performance of your ad.

⚡ Turn on advantage detailed targeting, this is recommended by Meta to reach beyond your audience to drive the best performance for your ads. 

 

Custom Audiences:

 

Custom audiences connect with those who have already connected with your business or product. You can use sources such as websites, app activity, customer lists and engagement to create these.

Website data is an important source as it allows you to target people who have visited specific pages of your website, and also people who have taken part in a number of events such as; Page View, View Content, Add To Cart, Initiate Checkout, Search, Purchase and, Add Payment Info. If you want to make it more specific there is an option to set the aggregated value. For example, View content > 2.

 

Another useful audience is catching your Instagram and Facebook engagers. By using the Instagram Account and Facebook Page Meta Source you can create audiences for people that follow your account, have engaged with a post or ad, or even saved a post.

There are so many audiences you can create so have a play around with it and see what you can come up with.

Custom Audiences Best Practices: 

⚡ If you are using custom audiences do not add detailed targeting as well. This can confuse Meta’s delivery system as it has too many criteria to work with, which can be detrimental to ad performance. 

⚡ When creating the audience give a clear name including the retention time that you have selected so you can easily find it when you’re using it within an ad in the future.

Lookalike Audiences:

Lookalike targeting allows you to target users who are similar to your existing customers or website visitors. These are created from existing custom audiences. When you set up a new custom audience you will be prompted to create a lookalike. These are ideal for businesses looking to expand their customer base by reaching users who are likely to be interested in their product or service. This is also a great audience to use if your custom audiences are too small to use within ads. 

Lookalike best practices:

⚡ It is best to start small. We would recommend you start with a 1% lookalike audience, these are the most similar to your data source and are likely to have the best outcome.

⚡ Having a high-quality data source is an important factor in whether or not the audience is likely to complete the desired action. Avoid making audiences for website visitors as many of these would have left without completing another event. Whereas, using add-to-cart sources contains people with higher intent.

Rounding It All Up

Our last piece of advice is to test, test, test! Testing is so valuable when advertising on Meta. My go-to structure to test an audience is setting up three different audiences within the ad set level of the campaign and seeing which one performs the best.

In conclusion, Meta’s targeting options are incredibly powerful tools that help businesses reach their desired audience effectively. By using demographic, interest, behavioural, and lookalike targeting options, businesses can create audiences that are most likely to engage with their ads and convert into customers. By leveraging Meta’s targeting capabilities, businesses can create more effective advertising campaigns and achieve their marketing objectives.

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PMax Vs. Shopping Campaigns: Which Is Right For You?

by Paid Search

PMax Vs. Shopping Campaigns

Performance Max has been a buzzword among digital marketers since its release. It is Google’s newest advertising solution that utilises machine learning to optimise ad performance across multiple Google networks. 

 

Many advertisers have claimed that Performance Max campaigns have delivered significant results, but is it always the best solution for every scenario – what happens when the latest and greatest technology fails to deliver the desired results? That’s what we recently experienced with a client who was going through a rough patch of low search volume and low purchase intent. Despite the sophisticated algorithms in Performance Max, the campaigns were struggling to deliver results. Daily budgets were not being hit, CPCs were rising, and revenue was not being generated at the required volume.

 

After much frustration, we made a bold move and switched back to traditional shopping campaigns. After just a few days of optimization, we saw a substantial increase in volume, leading to a remarkable 184% increase in revenue compared to the previous period. The return on ad spend also increased, so they weren’t sacrificing profitability for volume.

 

The experience was a reminder that sometimes the latest and greatest technology isn’t always the best solution for every scenario. It’s important to stay flexible and adaptable in our approach to advertising and be willing to switch back to tried and true methods when the situation calls for it.

 

While Performance Max campaigns are undoubtedly effective at delivering results, they can sometimes lack the human understanding of the need to drive volume, especially in times of low intent. Standard shopping campaigns, on the other hand, are designed to capture users who are actively searching for products, regardless of their level of intent. By targeting these users with a more volume-driven approach, the agency was able to generate impressive results despite the challenging search environment.

 

So while Performance Max campaigns can be a great tool for certain situations, it’s important to recognize their limitations and be willing to experiment with other approaches when the situation demands it. Sometimes, the best ideas are the ones that go against the grain. Being willing to challenge the status quo, experiment with new ideas, and take calculated risks in our advertising campaigns is key to unlocking untapped potential.

 

With this in mind, let’s dig into the pros and cons of each campaign type to help you decide what would work best for your accounts.

Performance Max

Benefits: 

➡️ Advanced targeting capabilities: Performance Max leverages machine learning algorithms to automatically target relevant audiences across multiple channels and platforms, making it easier to reach potential customers.

➡️ Increased efficiency: Performance Max automates many of the tedious tasks involved in managing advertising campaigns, such as bid adjustments, ad placements, and audience targeting, freeing up time for marketers to focus on higher-level strategic initiatives.

➡️ Enhanced visibility: Performance Max allows advertisers to show their ads across a variety of Google networks, including search, display, and YouTube, providing greater visibility and exposure to potential customers.

 

Drawbacks:

➡️ Limited control over ad placement: While Performance Max automates many aspects of campaign management, it also limits control over where ads are placed and how they are displayed, which can be problematic for some advertisers.

➡️ High minimum spend requirements: Performance Max campaigns often have high minimum spend requirements, which can be a barrier to entry for smaller businesses and advertisers with limited budgets.

➡️ Limited transparency and insights: Performance Max provides limited visibility into the performance of individual ads, which can make it difficult for advertisers to identify and address issues or optimise their campaigns.

Standard Shopping

Benefits:

➡️ More granular campaign management: With Standard Shopping campaigns, advertisers have more granular control over the campaign structure, including the ability to create specific product groups, set bids at the product level, and tailor ad copy and landing pages to individual products or categories.

➡️ Easy to get started: Standard Shopping campaigns are relatively easy to set up and manage, making them a good option for advertisers who are new to Google Ads or who don’t have a lot of experience with advanced targeting capabilities.

➡️ Better suited for specific goals: Standard Shopping campaigns may be better suited for specific advertising goals, such as driving sales of a specific product or category, while Performance Max campaigns may be better suited for broader awareness campaigns.

 

Drawbacks:

➡️ Limited automation: Standard Shopping campaigns offer limited automation capabilities compared to Performance Max, which can make campaign management more time-consuming and labour-intensive.

➡️ More limited targeting capabilities: Standard Shopping campaigns do not offer the same advanced targeting capabilities as Performance Max, which can make it more challenging to reach specific audiences or optimise campaigns for specific goals.

➡️ Limited visibility across multiple platforms: Standard Shopping campaigns are typically limited to Google’s Shopping network, which may limit visibility and exposure compared to Performance Max campaigns, which can show ads across multiple platforms and networks.

Key Takeaways

So, what can we learn from this experience? Here are some takeaways:

💡Be flexible and adaptable in your approach to advertising. Just because a particular campaign type or technology is popular doesn’t mean it’s the right fit for every situation.

💡Don’t be afraid to experiment with new ideas and take calculated risks. You never know what might work until you try it.

💡Measure and analyse your results regardless of what approach you take. It’s important to measure and analyse your results to identify what’s working and what’s not based on what you are trying to achieve.

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A Guide To Advantage+ Campaigns

by Paid SearchPaid Social

.Facebook’s Advantage+ campaigns were first rolled out in August 2022, so by now, you’ve probably had a chance to check them out. If you haven’t, don’t stress, I’m here to give you the lowdown on what it is and how it works.

What is Advantage+?

Advantage+ campaigns are designed to be the most efficient solution to drive sales, using machine-learning algorithms to target your ads to the right people. Meta offers a simplified setup process that takes care of many of the more manual tasks, such as audience targeting and creative options. These automated shopping campaigns can give you more opportunities to reach people interested in your product, whether you are new to Meta ads or have more experience.

What are the benefits?

Some of the key benefits that Advantage+ offers include:

  1. Simplified set-up: Advantage+ has streamlined the campaign setup process to make it super easy for you to do and reduce the manual work involved, such as bid strategy and ad optimisation.
  2. Machine-learning: Advantage+ uses machine learning to identify the highest-value audience across all Meta platforms to target your ads. This increases your opportunity to reach people that are more likely to convert.
  3. Streamlined performance goals: This helps you optimise to achieve the best outcome for your business.

However, the major drawback of these automated campaigns is that you have less control over the audience you are targeting. Additionally, the lack of freedom when optimising the campaign can impact your goals and objectives, meaning, these campaigns are not for everyone.

How to set up an Advantage+ campaign?

Go to Ads Manager and create a new campaign 

Select ‘Sales’ as the new campaign objective

Choose the Advantage+ shopping campaign option

Manually input your campaign settings;

  1. Rename your campaign 
  2. Select ‘Conversion Location’
  3. Choose the correct Pixel and conversion event
  4. Select the audience location
  5. Set a daily budget and ad schedule 
  6. Choose the attribution setting for the campaign

Then you will move on to the ad settings;

  1. Rename your ad
  2. Select your Facebook page and Instagram account
  3. Create a new ad or use an existing post and follow the instructions for ad setup and ad creative
  4. Ensure your website destination is correct
  5. Make sure your tracking is added

Once you’re happy with your new campaign, then review your edits and publish

What next?

If you are giving these campaigns a try, make sure that you have all tracking set up correctly with appropriate UTMs. Give your campaign time to go through the learning phase to allow it the best chance of success; try not to change the ad too drastically, otherwise, it will delay this period. And finally, once your campaign is active, be sure to regularly check its performance against KPIs to see if this is the right campaign style for you.

To conclude, Advantage+ campaigns are a simplified approach to getting the most out of your advertising budget. They are similar to Google’s Performance Max campaigns by using machine learning to optimise your campaigns. It’s great for all advertisers whether you’re a beginner or more experienced. If you haven’t already I would definitely recommend that you give these automated Advantage+ campaigns a try and see how they perform for your business. AI is on the rise in the marketing world, so it looks like these campaigns are here to stay.

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iOS 14.5 and the Effects on Meta Advertising.

by Paid SearchPaid Social

Over a year has passed since the introduction of IOS14 & 14.5 which changed the landscape of Meta advertising. This blog will talk through the updates and the detrimental effects this ultimately had on paid social advertisers.

iOS 14 & 14.5 Update Changes – What is it?

Perhaps one of the most significant changes arising from the updates was that Apple limited the amount of data Meta could get from their users. Apple launched the App Transparency feature which asked the user for permission every time an app requested their IDFA (Apple’s Identifier for Advertisers). 

This prompt allows users to ask the app not to track and, if selected, prevents any user activity being tracked across company apps and websites.

Since Apple’s new privacy feature the rate of opt-in figures has, unsurprisingly, been low. According to Statista as of April 2022, the opt-in rate was at 25%.

What does this mean for Meta advertising?

With the majority of consumers choosing to opt out of data, there has been a significant impact on the amount of data marketers are now able to collect.

As a result of the update, Meta Pixel is now unable to track user’s activity properly, which is a big change to adjust to. Advertisers now report far fewer clicks on their advertisements as people choose to opt out of tracking. As a result, the conversions that are made cannot be reported on as granulary; for example, demographic data is no longer collected, meaning that advertisers can no longer use this information to personalise ads. Consequently, this has made it more difficult when optimising ads and caused a notable decrease in performance for all campaigns.

Another clear impact of the update is the lack of audience data that can be used for remarketing purposes. Meta audiences is one of the reasons that advertising through these platforms was so popular. Targeting users through lookalike, remarketing and custom audiences is now limited in its capabilities. To tackle this, campaigns should target a broader audience using interest marketing, this will allow Meta to use their own data to put your ads in front of people likely to convert. 

Aggregated Events Management

In addition to the reduction of user data that Meta can access, there is also no real-time reporting in Meta and results can take up to 3 days to appear. In response to this, Meta developed the aggravated events management system to help advertisers with reporting. This requires brands to limit their conversion events to 8 per domain. Meta Events Manager now only tracks the last single event made by the user, it’s therefore important to prioritise the order of conversion events. It’s also vital to have your domains verified in order to have this working effectively, so keep an eye out for the warning sign that will tell you if it’s not.

How can agencies respond to this new normal for Meta Ads? 

  1. Verify your domain: This tells Meta that you are a legitimate business and allows for the 8 conversion events to be assigned to that domain.
  1. Set up Aggregated Event Management: You can set up 8 conversion events. Meta will only track the last conversion event with the highest priority. 
  1. Target broad Audiences :Targeting large audiences with similar interests will allow Meta to put your ads in front of the right people. 

Summing up the IOS 14 & 14.5 Updates

The IOS 14 and 14.5 updates have had a huge impact on how advertisers utilise Meta for advertising. The updates mean it’s no longer as efficient as it has been before, but there are still things we can do to give our campaigns the best chance of succeeding. After all, advertisers are known for adapting to change and, as such, we must stay vigilant for any more updates in the paid social scene and run with these changes.

Find out how we work with the iOS changes and can help guide your social advertising