Watch your AdWords campaign bloom with the help of these three tips.

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In the world of organic search results, it’s anything but lonely at the top. Websites that rank first in an organic search earn almost double the amount of traffic as the site ranking second, and the traffic percentages only degenerate from there.

It’s a bleak existence for sites positioned after the third or fourth rank in a search, so if you are serious about keeping your brand’s name out of the Google result wasteland, you’ve probably enlisted the help of Google AdWords. It’s quick, targeted and has a wide reach, not to mention it can be completely cost-effective — if you are doing it correctly.

That’s right; AdWords can’t be your omnipotent saviour all on its own, you’ll need to develop a strategy. Here are a few overlooked AdWords truths that can help you cultivate your campaign this summer. Once you’ve sewn a few of these tactical seeds you’ll be able to kick back, relax and watch the results bloom.

 

1. There are three types of keywords

It’s important for businesses to keep in mind that there are three types of keywords that consumers use when searching online. First, they do their research, then they compare products and lastly, they search with the intent to buy.

Research stage: During this phase, the consumer doesn’t know exactly what he or she wants, so the search typically has generic, simple terms. Let’s say the consumer is looking for a tent. During the research process he learns there are all different types of tents: dome, geodesic, ridge, tunnel, etc. Keep in mind the consumer has not decided on a brand yet.

Comparison stage: As the consumer continues to peruse the search results for the generic term, things will start to get more specific. He can read reviews and pit two products against each other. If he is in the comparison stage, he might use phrases like:

Kathmandu v. Robens
Kathmandu tent reviews
Kathmandu prices
Kathmandu warranty

We don’t particularly recommend bidding on phrases like this. They can end up being a waste of money as they are simply being used by those searching for an answer while investigating a future purchase.

Buying stage: By this point, the consumer has his credit card beside him, ready to make a purchase. This is the point where coming up with the right keywords is essential. It’s likely the consumer knows exactly what he wants, just not where to find it. A “buyer keyword” will have the following:

Colour
Make
Model
Brand

So let’s assume the consumer that was searching for a tent has made a decision. He wants to go with Kathmandu and the tent model he wants is the Retreat 270 Tent v2 in “sage green,” so his search phrase may be “Kathmandu Retreat 270.” Buyer keyword phrases are specific. Bid on these specific-to-your-brand words as they usually lead to sales.

2. Try dynamic keyword insertion

This is a big time saver. Instead of writing a new ad for each keyword, Google will update your text with the keyword that is used to target your ad. It makes your brand more relevant to potential customers while making it easier for you to create unique advertisements for a large number of keywords.

3. Ad position has less effect on CTR

This may seem a little disjointed to what was said in the opening paragraph, but hear us out. If you are using AdWords to advertise your brand, Google will highlight the keyword that is being searched for by a user. That way, even if your site isn’t the first result, they keyword that is relevant to the user will show up bold in your ad. It allows the user to see that your ad is still relevant to them, when it would otherwise be overlooked.

If you’re having trouble piecing together the right AdWords campaign for your company, don’t worry — we can help. Get in touch with our Digital Manager, Veronica Nobbs. She will happily provide you with a free, no obligation account audit. veronica@b2bpartners.nz

Stalk your customers online with Google Remarketing

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Like a jilted lover, eCommerce merchants have long waited, helplessly, with the hope that their fickle consumers, who abandoned their site without completing an action, see the err of their ways and return to them, faithful and true. Well proprietors, behold! Step out of the shadows of blind faith for a new day has dawned! An era in which you can safely stalk your capricious deserter by subtly reminding them that only you possess the good or service they truly cannot live without. Welcome to the Age of Remarketing.

Remarketing (sometimes referred to as “retargeting”) is a form of pay per click advertising which allows eCommerce entrepreneurs to show banner advertisements to users who previously visited their site as they browse the rest of the web.

Here’s how it works:

1. A prospect user enters your site

2. A tracking cookie is dropped on their browser

3. Prospect user leaves your site without converting or taking the desired action

4. You display banner ads to that user as they continue to browse other websites

5. Ads entice the user to come back to your website and complete desired action

Basically, a persistent little voice saying, “Hey. Hey, you. Remember me? Don’t waste your time endlessly searching for other products– I’m right here!”

Getting previous visitors to return to your site is an obvious perk of using remarketing, however, that isn’t the only benefit.

Improve ROI on marketing budgets

For businesses that are already spending money on driving traffic to a website, remarketing can extend the conversion funnel to your most qualified visitors.

Increase Brand Awareness

Re-displaying ads to new prospects increases the likelihood of brand retention and awareness.

Granular retargeting capabilities

Which means, advertisers can use tailored messaging and incentives based on a user’s browsing behaviour. For instance, if you have just purchased a tent for an upcoming camping trip, you might be a good target to promote sleeping bags.

 

If you decide to go the route of Google Dynamic Remarketing, you have further options to target visitor groups and choose which ones you want your ads to show up for.

All visitors:  Everyone who views your site

General visitors:  Those who visited your site but did not view any specific product. The dynamic ad will include the most popular products from your website

Product views:  People who viewed specific product pages but did not add them to a shopping cart. Here, the dynamic ad will show the viewed products alongside some recommended products

Shopping cart abandoners:  People who viewed specific items, added them to their shopping cart, but did not complete the purchase. Items will prioritise items added to the cart and will mix in other viewed products as well as recommended ones

Past buyers:  The dynamic ad will show related products to those previously purchased and items that were often bought together

So after reading this, you are probably thinking, “I need to incorporate remarketing into my digital strategy so I don’t turn out to be the sad, lonely peddler in the introductory analogy…” Great! Here are a few recommended practices to help get you from zero to hero in a flash.

Establish granular marketing lists

The more targeted the original traffic, the better the remarketing response

Avoid overexposure

Use frequency capping and ad scheduling to avoid harassing your audience, not to mention cut down on ad spend

Test, Analyse, Optimise

Overtime, begin to strike out the negatively performing placements and reward the positives

 

Whether you are an online retailer, a goods or service provider or a B2B marketer looking to improve your ROI, we can help introduce remarketing into your digital strategy alongside a wealth of tools to cultivate your brand.

 

Talk to Managing Director, Steve Ballantyne. e:  steve@b2bpartners.nz

 

 

If Adwords is failing you, it’s because you’ve failed Adwords

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Is your company using AdWords? If not, you’re failing already. But it’s not too late! It’s quick, targeted, has a vast reach, and, if you are doing it right, is completely cost-effective. Whether you are an internet entrepreneur or a large corporation, Google AdWords can be one of the best or worst advertising investments your business makes — it’s all about your strategy. In short, you want to turn searches into sales and unfortunately, companies often make the same mistakes over and over again keeping them from achieving the return on investment they deserve.

If you or your ad manager are making one or more of the following three mistakes, you are going to Google’s allegorical house, using your hard-earned dollar bills as kindling for a metaphorical bonfire and watching it burn. And the worst part — your very real money is only keeping Google warm at night.

 

1. You are not tracking conversions

Clicks are good, but you aren’t advertising on AdWords for the clicks. You want action, sales, sign-ups. In order to gauge whether or not your site is procuring the desired action step, you need to measure conversions. Did the visitor go forward with the desired action or did they hit the back button? This helps you structure your site to turn views into leads and sales; without this information you are flying blind in a situation when you don’t need to be.

 

2. You are sending people to your home page

And for shame on you if you do! I, the viewer, have already done my initial search, found what I was looking for, and your ad directs me to your home page to start my search all over again? You’ve lost my money and your other viewers’ too. There needs to be a dedicated landing page; the best ones focus on a single call to action. They don’t have any distracting links or navigation and they sell the one thing that made viewers click on your ad in the first place.

 

3. You have overloaded Dynamic Keyword Insertion

Many AdWords strategies seem to pick every possible word under the sun and run them on Dynamic Keyword Insertion. When DKI is used correctly it can be a highly effective ad writing technique, but when it’s not, it’s just a money pit.

 

Has your ad manager avoided these three cardinal sins of AdWords? I doubt it. And if he/she hasn’t and you are serious about your investment, give us a call. Seriously. I’ll even give you a taster.

 

1. Be more discerning with your keywords. Instead of bidding on hopelessly unspecific words like “grass”, choose more definitive terms that show at least a small amount of devotion such as, “wheat grass” or “grass roots”.

 

2. Use negative keywords to prevent your ads from showing up in irrelevant searches. This can significantly reduce your cost-per-conversion.

 

3.Use remarketing to retarget browsers.It’s an extremely effective way to draw viewers back into your site and stay top-of-mind.

 

If your ad manager isn’t cutting the mustard, kick him to the curb. We are champing at the bit to pick up the slack and optimise your money. Get in touch and we’ll happily provide you with a free no obligation account audit.

 

Contact Managing Director, Steve Ballantyne. p: 09 950 2140