With so much changing when it comes to your search engine marketing, having a few simple (and easy-to-remember) Google AdWords tips might be exactly what you need to start increasing your clicks and click-through rates without breaking the bank.
Google AdWords can be a fairly tricky landscape to navigate. The search giant has made its advertising platform easily accessible, but with so many features, options, and capabilities, running an optimized campaign can seem like a daunting task. These Google AdWords tips might seem rather straightforward, but there is no doubt that by taking these into account during your next campaign, you’ll be sure to drive improved results.
Build a Strategy
This might seem pretty obvious, but driving clicks to your website shouldn’t be the only goal of your AdWords campaign. Before building out your dashboard and spending ad dollars, develop an objective-oriented strategy that can consistently be used as a point of reference.
Smart Budgeting
When it comes to AdWords, you might be surprised at how easy it is to spend money. Set a budget early and pay close attention to it. This is particularly important early on as you’ll want to ensure that your budget is working to achieve the goals in that strategy.
Research
Take advantage of the tools Google offers, like Keyword Planner. Google’s Keyword Planner will help you get a better idea of what keywords you should be using and how much it might cost you to run your campaign (and what changes you might need to make to those keywords in order to drive that cost down).
Click-to-Call
As mobile becomes more and more important, click-to-call campaigns become increasingly valuable (assuming, of course, that they make sense for your business and objectives). These mobile-only campaigns help drive immediate, intent-driven action from your mobile audience.
Google Search Only
Oftentimes, the highest quality traffic comes from Google itself, as opposed to the Search Partner Network. When running a search campaign, it is wise to focus on Google specifically as opposed to opening your campaign up to the Search Partner Network.
Location Targeting
Take advantage of the fact that you can target your ads by location. Leverage Google Analytics in order to identify where your most valuable audience is coming from, then focus (at least initially) your campaign on those regions.
Language Targeting
Take those best practices when it comes to your location targeting and do the same with regards to the languages spoken by your audience. English audiences should be targeted with English ads, German audiences with German ads, Japanese audiences with Japanese ads, etc.
Manual CPC
If you’re looking for complete control over what you’re spending, then this is the option you’ll want to select. You’ll control your bids but will need to keep a close eye on the campaign in order to ensure that your ads are showing (based on what you’re spending).
Enhanced CPC
If you’ve run campaigns in the past, then this setting will allow Google to adjust your bid for you (by up to 30% of your designated max).
Auto Tagging
Make sure that you’ve enabled auto-tagging in order to automate the process of tagging your AdWords campaigns in Google AdWords. This way, a lot of the data segmentation (that becomes extremely important as your campaigns expand) is done for you.
Scheduling
If you know when your visitors are mostly likely to convert and when the competition is low, you’ll want to start scheduling your ads to show at those times in order to maximize your budget.
Individual Quality Score
When you enter your keywords dashboard, you’ll see a small chat bubble next to each of your keywords. By clicking on this or hovering over it, you’ll see the individual Quality Score of each of your selected keywords. Try to ensure that your active keywords have a Quality Score above 6, and pause those keywords that are below it.
Landing Pages
Your landing pages need to be on topic with the ads that sent them there in order to keep your campaign’s Quality Score high. At (virtually) all costs, avoid sending visitors to your homepage, and try to send them to a page on your site with more valuable information, related to the ad that they clicked on.
Dynamic Search Ads
Dynamic Search Ads are a great way to research the ways in which visitors are arriving at your site, and what pages they engage with most. Running a Dynamic Search Ad will allow your landing page and headline to auto-populate based on the category of your website and the keyword used by the visitor. Paying attention to these ads is a great way to improve your manual search campaigns, as they provide insights into what is driving visits from search.
Conclusion
These are just a few key elements you’ll want to pay attention to when you’re running your next AdWords campaign. Of course, there is a lot more to Adwords than what’s listed here, but keeping these points in mind from the get-go is a good start.
5 B2B Digital Marketing Must-Dos [Infographic]
/by Corey PadveenWhen it comes to B2B digital marketing, there are certain priorities that marketers need to ensure are top of mind.
For B2B marketers, there are certain subtleties that make for significantly improved campaigns and results. While the evolution of marketing has led to a melding of both the B2C and B2B worlds, there still exist a handful of differences that may appear small but are actually hugely important to the success of an organization. These B2B digital marketing focal points have been highlighted by MDG Advertising in the infographic below.
What stands out most with regards to these B2B digital marketing must-dos are the focuses on data-centric strategy and quality content. With so much noise, it is all too easy to create poor content simply with the goal of getting your brand seen. With a better understanding of your data and a devotion to creating the highest quality content that you can, your B2B brand stands a much better chance of beating out the competition online.
Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies 2016
/by Corey PadveenPerhaps more so than ever before, the 2016 Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies zeroes in on big data applications and where they are in the eyes of the market.
Let’s first start by taking a look at this year’s edition of the Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies:
We have discussed what the Hype Cycle means and how to read it in the past, so in this case, we’re simply going to focus on what the trends indicate and what we can expect to see in this space in the coming year, largely from a marketing perspective.
Augmented Reality: Poised for a Boom
Augmented reality has long been headed towards the Trough of Disillusionment. While the concept has been interesting for quite some time, universal and practical applications for the existing technology have not really existed.
Enter Pokémon GO.
The Hype Cycle might show augmented reality in the Trough, though it is likely a little closer than 5 to 10 years from mainstream adoption based on the speed with which an existing AR platform swept the public. Now, of course, hype and nostalgia had a lot to do with it, but it is still telling of how much closer we are than we might have once believed. There is clearly a market for functional AR, and we can expect to see marketers, developers and brands both large and small trying to capitalize on this reality (moving AR into the Slope of Enlightenment sooner than expected, maybe even passing Virtual Reality in that timeframe).
The Singularity Cometh
“One cubic inch of nanotube circuitry, once fully developed, would be up to one hundred million times more powerful than the human brain,” Ray Kurzweil wrote in The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. If we look at the Innovation Trigger on the Cycle and follow that through the Peak of Inflated Expectations, we can see that this statement is on the verge of becoming a reality.
The use of data, machine learning and deep neural networks is what makes up so much of the 2016 Hype Cycle, and while it might be over a decade before much of what is in the works becomes commonplace, the point here is that it is all in the works.
Machine learning is already marked as 2 to 5 years away, despite the fact that it sits atop the Peak of Inflated Expectations. That is largely because its applications can really only be refined and developed further once a breakthrough is made. So the transition through the Trough of Disillusionment will be rather quick (comparatively speaking). Another reason for that is the accessibility (as compared to more cost-prohibitive developments, such as virtual reality). Machine learning and neural networks are slowly making their way into everyday items thanks to open sourced code and technology. This will mean a very subtle but profound technological revolution will arrive in a very short period of time.
A Business Shift
Lastly, a major paradigm shift comes in the form of the workspace. We recently discussed how there were more marketing technologies than ever after ChiefMarTec.com released its annual Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic (shown below).
While we are more than likely to see consolidation in most (if not all) of these spaces, we will likely also see a budding new marketplace for friendly business and marketing tech. What do we mean by that? In essence, a move away from the competitive nature of technology landscapes and into a more cohesive network will lead to changing strategies for both the marketers and the tech companies. It’ll be interesting to watch that shift unfold.
Conclusion
Again, there is a lot on the horizon, but much of what is listed in this Hype Cycle seems quite a ways off (even more so than usual). That said, the speed of transformation is at an all time high, so we can be all but certain that while these emerging technologies may seem like a ways off, they will be a part of mainstream applications before we know it.
20 Marketing Mistakes to Avoid
/by Corey PadveenThe world of marketing is always changing, and to keep ahead of the pack, these are a few marketing mistakes to avoid.
Sometimes, the best advice anyone can give you is what not to do. Marketing is a versatile world that allows for everything from data to creativity to mix together and form unique campaigns. With so much flexibility, that leaves a lot of room for opportunity. And error. While best practices are always a good idea to follow, these are a few major marketing mistakes to avoid if you want to ensure your continued success.
Content
Data
Crisis
Search
Social
Now that you have an idea of some of the mistakes you’ll want to avoid, you can get started on executing your campaigns in the most efficient way possible!
Important Ad Blocking Information for Marketers
/by Corey PadveenAd blocking is a trend that is on the rise, and these tidbits of ad blocking information will make the life of a marketer quite a bit easier.
Over the last year (in particular) the conversation around ad blocking has increased significantly. That is largely due to the fact that ad blocking has moved away from a fringe practice, adopted by only those particularly tech savvy individuals to the mainstream, where it is easily accessible and readily adopted.
So what do marketers need to know about ad blocking in order to ensure that marketing efforts and, equally importantly, ad dollars are not wasted?
Ad Blocking Popularity is Surging
Just last year, in 2015, the number of people using an ad blocking software grew by 42% globally. It is now estimated that roughly 4-6% of web users are using an ad blocker. Google trends and the number of available ad blockers are just a few indicators that this is a very hot market.
Revenues are Being Lost
In 2015, it is estimated that nearly $22 billion in ad spend was lost due to ad blockers, and that number is expected to nearly double for 2016. Data on the publisher side is scarce, so many publishers do not even know when they are losing revenue or how much is being lost.
Mobile has Surpassed Desktop
Over the last few years, desktop websites were really where the majority of ad blocking had taken place. Now, mobile is on the rise, and ads can be blocked both on the mobile web and within apps, which has led to mobile overtaking desktop in terms of where the majority of ads are blocked.
From January 2015 to January 2016, there was a 90% growth rate in mobile ad blocking users, and there are now over 400 million mobile users globally blocking ads on their smartphones, the majority of whom are in China, India and Pakistan.
Social Advertising is Not Immune
Advertisers had initially hoped that networks like Facebook and Instagram would provide gateways through which ads could still be displayed, but that is not necessarily the case. While Facebook and other networks are doing what they can to ensure ads are being shown, ad blocking technologies continue to find ways around these changes.
Social advertising, however, is a better alternative as the ad blocking technologies are somewhat flawed when it comes to these media types.
What does this mean for marketers?
There are two ways that marketers can (and should) look at this. First, there is the reality that content matters most in any strategy. People want to see content that matters, and generally prefer not to be targeted by distracting, irrelevant media. That said, it is becoming harder and harder to get content featured, so advertising is almost unavoidable if you want your brand to succeed online. But understanding your audience and effective targeting with your ads is a key starting point in order to ensure that your brand grows organically following your campaigns.
Second, it is important to understand that without ad dollars, all of these platforms that everyone loves so much will cease to exist. We might be in a disruptive period right now, but that is not to say that advertising is dead. It is simply an evolutionary point. People see over ten times as many ads/ten times as much sponsored or branded content today as they did in the 1980s. A breaking point was almost inevitable. For the time being, those with ad blockers simply wouldn’t be interested in your ad to begin with, so again, targeting is essential.
It is only a matter of time before a comfortable middle is found, and your strategy will have to keep an eye on ad blocking trends and adapt accordingly in order to ensure that your dollars don’t fall into that lost ad revenue stream.
Corey Padveen Invited to Join GiGse Advisory Board
/by t2We are very excited to announce that Corey Padveen, Partner at t2 Marketing International and Director of Global Social Business Strategy, has been invited to join the 2017 GiGse Advisory Board.
The Global iGaming Summit and Expo – GiGse – is one of the largest iGaming events in North America, where the biggest North American operators and many international players in the industry gather to review current industry trends and discuss what’s on the horizon. This past year, GiGse expanded into new territory, introducing the Millennial Summit, where Corey was a featured speaker.
Corey joins the Advisory Board as GiGse expands its focus on the Millennial market, an area where Corey has been devoting a significant amount of time over the last year. He will bring his expertise to the Advisory Board and share his insights with other Board members as they plan the event’s agenda for the coming year.
Corey is Google AdWords and Analytics Certified, a marketing data expert, and the Director of Global Social Business Strategy at t2 Marketing International. With an extensive background in econometrics and statistics, he helped pioneer the concepts of Social Equity and ResponsiveBranding. He is the primary author of the t2 Marketing International blog, a contributing author to a number of global publications including Search Engine Journal, Gambling Insider and iGaming Business, and is a keynote speaker at events around the world. Corey has also worked on some of the most innovative Millennial-oriented campaigns for both online and brick and mortar casino operations.
Instagram vs. Snapchat: The Final Chapter
/by Corey PadveenIf Instachat – sorry, Instagram can’t pull out a win with this wildly familiar looking update, will it be time for Facebook to cede defeat in the space?
Maybe not cede, but they could definitely use a win here. In what we at the agency have decided to call Instachat, Instagram rolled out an update last week that has a very familiar look and feel: it is essentially Snapchat.
Instagram made a move to incorporate a whole slew of quick-sharing options, some that disappear, some that stick around, in an effort to compete with Snapchat’s feature, Stories. Instagram decided to take the very subtle approach of calling this competitor Stories. There are a lot of interesting tweaks that Instagram has made, which makes its Stories feature a little more versatile, and its mass market (internationally) might help it pick up some traction, but can it really move 150 million users away from Snapchat?
The Instachat Differences
So how exactly is Instagram Stories different from Snapchat Stories? Let’s take a look at the structure first.
Instagram certainly surprised its users (particularly those using Snapchat) with how blatantly this new feature seems to copy Snapchat. It also surprised users with the sudden rollout of the new feature. How did the whole world seem to find out right away? Instagram made the (seemingly smart) choice to include Stories right on the main screen as opposed to hidden on another screen as they are in Snapchat. This led to a fairly quick adoption of the feature by a lot of users.
As for the features, Instagram Stories are a little more robust than what Snapchat offers. First, users can scroll back and forth between images and videos shared to a story – a feature not yet available on Snapchat. Second, the doodling options are quite a bit more advanced (and more user-friendly) on Instagram than they are on Snapchat, though Snapchat offers more in the way of emojis. Third, in terms of chatting and privacy, both apps operate in a similar fashion. The difference really has to do with the user experience.
How UX Can Be the Clincher
Globally, Instagram has 500 million monthly active users, and an impressive 300 million daily active users. Snapchat now boasts 150 million daily active users, which is also an impressive total. But when it comes to usage, the success of one over the other on a global scale might rest in the difference between the UX of the two products, and how that plays a part in its userbase.
Here, we see the age demographic breakdown for U.S. users of Instagram:
We see a strong concentration in the Millennial market, but a fairly strong presence within all age groups. Now, let’s take a look at Snapchat:
These numbers do not tell quite the same story. The difficulty that Snapchat has had penetrating non-Millennial (over the age of 34) segments of the market could have something to do with its design. It has been speculated that Snapchat’s design is intentionally counter-intuitive to keep the app engaging for tech savvy individuals. That might be why it has performed so well with Millennials, but has had trouble taking off in these other demographics. That might not have seemed like such a big deal when it was the only player in the market, but it certainly seems like it might pose a problem now.
Instagram has a larger daily active audience (twice the size) and more evenly distributed audience across age demographics, and a larger international presence. Those three factors stand to get in the way of Snapchat’s dominance of this market. That is not to say that it will be going anywhere; certainly not. However, we might start to see some changes and a somewhat more aggressive push by Snapchat now that there is tangible competition (that actually seems to make a difference). AdAge reported that Nike posted a Story to Instagram as soon as it became available at the same time that it shared the video to its Snapchat Story, and the difference was significant. On Instagram, the Story was seen by 800,000 users, while on Snapchat, it was only seen by 66,000. Combine that with the fact that Instagram is already an advertising favorite for marketers and integrates with Facebook for more valuable and detailed insights, and Snapchat might be facing its first instance of real, sustained competition.
Time will tell where these two products go.
How Snapchat Can Expand Your Brand [Infographic]
/by Corey PadveenSnapchat appears (or disappears, if you’re into puns) to be unstoppable. The stats in this infographic show just how powerful the network is, and how Snapchat can expand your brand.
When a brand is apt to adopt a new form of media, the possibilities are virtually endless. When a Millennial audience is as active on that media as they are on Snapchat, it is hard to deny the value if the medium can be used properly (and a clear strategy comes along with it).
In the infographic below, M2 On Hold outlines some of the great ways in which Snapchat can expand your brand when used effectively. You can also learn more about the benefits of Snapchat for brand marketing by downloading our latest eBook on the subject.
How to Effectively Reach a Millennial Market [New eBook]
/by Corey PadveenThe latest eBook in the How 2 with t2 series reviews the steps that marketers need to take in order to effectively target a Millennial market and drive new business with the coveted demographic.
One of the most significant problems that marketers face when they attempt to target a Millennial market with campaigns, advertising, offers or other marketing initiatives starts long before the strategy is developed. It starts with the process through which marketers define the term Millennial.
In the latest How 2 with t2 eBook, we review the definition that marketers need to adopt when it comes to Millennials in order to effectively target the group. We then talk about the idiosyncrasies that make Millennials so attractive when it comes to marketing, review the psychographics that can help us adapt to the Millennial mindset, and review some examples of brands and organizations that have perfected the art of connecting and communicating with this coveted group.
Download the eBook here or by clicking on the image below and learn how you can effectively market to a Millennial audience!
Pokemon GO and Local Advertising
/by Corey PadveenWith the explosive popularity of Pokemon GO, it definitely leads marketers to wonder how the app can be a factor in local advertising initiatives.
In a matter of days, Pokemon GO has taken the world by storm, shifted a lot of popular paradigms and brought augmented reality to the forefront of everyday life. That’s a pretty impressive checklist, and it’s not all. Estimates suggest that Nintendo’s stock surge has led to the company valuation being up nearly $11 billion, and daily usage time for the app is higher than WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat and Messenger, and while installs of Tinder – another location-based application – have been flat, Pokemon GO installs on Android have surpassed it significantly (see the graph below). So what does this all mean for marketers and, more specifically, local advertising?
Image Credit: SimilarWeb
For the first time, the now-tired expression of local-mobile-social has become a reality that can be leveraged by marketers, and it will surely be expanding from here. It is still early to make any definitive claims as to how Pokemon GO and local advertising will work together, but there are already some brands jumping on the opportunity, and there have been hints as to what marketers can expect in terms of ad opportunities. Here are a few confirmed strategies and predictions.
‘Luring’ Clients
You might have heard a few of the not-so-pleasant stories of criminals using the app to attract people to a specific location, then proceeding to rob them. There will always be bad apples out there, and one can only assume that after this story broke, increasing security measures (in some way) became a (if not the) top priority. But the ability to lure players to a specific spot is a great tool when it comes to marketing.
Image Credit: iMore
If you’re using Pokemon GO and you find that a PokeStop is close to your business (or request that one be created around your business) leverage the ‘Lure Module’. This will increase the frequency of Pokemon around your location and certainly lead to increased foot traffic while that is happening. From there, you can offer discounts and specials to players as they pass by your business. (Catching Pokemon is tiring work after all!) Find out how to use your ‘Lure Module’ here.
Building Relationships
One of the most incredible things about Pokemon GO (and one of the reasons why we note that it really does transcend that local-mobile-social triad) is the fact that virtual relationships can transfer into real-life connections around the game (in a Gym, for example, where you might battle another player).
Brand humanization has long been a cornerstone of a successful social business strategy. Combining elements like the Lure and engaging in a game with a prospective customer (or creating a space in a store, for example, that doubles as a Gym and welcomes players from the area) creates an entirely new method of driving real traffic and building real relationships.
Sponsored PokeStops
This is a no-brainer. It shouldn’t be more than a few months before every major brand has found a way to leverage the augmented reality feature with brand prominently featured in the application. McDonald’s is already in talks to find a way to become a part of the phenomenon, and other brands are surely in talks with the developers as well.
As to what will be involved in Sponsored PokeStops and gyms remains to be seen, but there are sure to be methods used by these brands to drive up both traffic, brand awareness and, of course, sales. Which brings us to our next point…
Pokemon GO Specials
When it comes to local advertising, there is no easier way to appeal to your audience than by talking to them in their language, and offering them products, services and discounts based on their tastes and preferences. In this case, those tastes and preferences are almost certainly going to be Pokemon GO related.
We have already started to see a few examples creep up of stores and pop-up locations taking advantage of the foot traffic, but it certainly won’t be all that long before in-game integrations, offers, coupons, bonuses, etc. become available for brands to purchase and take advantage of in order to drive up direct conversions from the app.
Conclusion
20 years ago, Pokemon was the most popular game for children, teens and young adults. You would be hard pressed to find someone between the ages of 7 and 30 that wasn’t playing or at least very familiar with the game. Now, for the first time ever there is a product on the market with uniform affinity across the entire 18-49 demographic. That has never happened before and it helps explain this unprecedented growth.
We’re sure to see lots of creative uses of the app and a major expansion of the product once it comes time for monetization. It will be exciting to watch it grow!
14 Google AdWords Tips for Better Results
/by Corey PadveenWith so much changing when it comes to your search engine marketing, having a few simple (and easy-to-remember) Google AdWords tips might be exactly what you need to start increasing your clicks and click-through rates without breaking the bank.
Google AdWords can be a fairly tricky landscape to navigate. The search giant has made its advertising platform easily accessible, but with so many features, options, and capabilities, running an optimized campaign can seem like a daunting task. These Google AdWords tips might seem rather straightforward, but there is no doubt that by taking these into account during your next campaign, you’ll be sure to drive improved results.
Build a Strategy
This might seem pretty obvious, but driving clicks to your website shouldn’t be the only goal of your AdWords campaign. Before building out your dashboard and spending ad dollars, develop an objective-oriented strategy that can consistently be used as a point of reference.
Smart Budgeting
When it comes to AdWords, you might be surprised at how easy it is to spend money. Set a budget early and pay close attention to it. This is particularly important early on as you’ll want to ensure that your budget is working to achieve the goals in that strategy.
Research
Take advantage of the tools Google offers, like Keyword Planner. Google’s Keyword Planner will help you get a better idea of what keywords you should be using and how much it might cost you to run your campaign (and what changes you might need to make to those keywords in order to drive that cost down).
Click-to-Call
As mobile becomes more and more important, click-to-call campaigns become increasingly valuable (assuming, of course, that they make sense for your business and objectives). These mobile-only campaigns help drive immediate, intent-driven action from your mobile audience.
Google Search Only
Oftentimes, the highest quality traffic comes from Google itself, as opposed to the Search Partner Network. When running a search campaign, it is wise to focus on Google specifically as opposed to opening your campaign up to the Search Partner Network.
Location Targeting
Take advantage of the fact that you can target your ads by location. Leverage Google Analytics in order to identify where your most valuable audience is coming from, then focus (at least initially) your campaign on those regions.
Language Targeting
Take those best practices when it comes to your location targeting and do the same with regards to the languages spoken by your audience. English audiences should be targeted with English ads, German audiences with German ads, Japanese audiences with Japanese ads, etc.
Manual CPC
If you’re looking for complete control over what you’re spending, then this is the option you’ll want to select. You’ll control your bids but will need to keep a close eye on the campaign in order to ensure that your ads are showing (based on what you’re spending).
Enhanced CPC
If you’ve run campaigns in the past, then this setting will allow Google to adjust your bid for you (by up to 30% of your designated max).
Auto Tagging
Make sure that you’ve enabled auto-tagging in order to automate the process of tagging your AdWords campaigns in Google AdWords. This way, a lot of the data segmentation (that becomes extremely important as your campaigns expand) is done for you.
Scheduling
If you know when your visitors are mostly likely to convert and when the competition is low, you’ll want to start scheduling your ads to show at those times in order to maximize your budget.
Individual Quality Score
When you enter your keywords dashboard, you’ll see a small chat bubble next to each of your keywords. By clicking on this or hovering over it, you’ll see the individual Quality Score of each of your selected keywords. Try to ensure that your active keywords have a Quality Score above 6, and pause those keywords that are below it.
Landing Pages
Your landing pages need to be on topic with the ads that sent them there in order to keep your campaign’s Quality Score high. At (virtually) all costs, avoid sending visitors to your homepage, and try to send them to a page on your site with more valuable information, related to the ad that they clicked on.
Dynamic Search Ads
Dynamic Search Ads are a great way to research the ways in which visitors are arriving at your site, and what pages they engage with most. Running a Dynamic Search Ad will allow your landing page and headline to auto-populate based on the category of your website and the keyword used by the visitor. Paying attention to these ads is a great way to improve your manual search campaigns, as they provide insights into what is driving visits from search.
Conclusion
These are just a few key elements you’ll want to pay attention to when you’re running your next AdWords campaign. Of course, there is a lot more to Adwords than what’s listed here, but keeping these points in mind from the get-go is a good start.