6 Things You Can Do to Get More Out of Google Ads

/ Zach Heller

Is it any wonder that Google dominates the digital marketing space? More people than ever use Google to find what they’re looking for online. And so companies and advertisers flock to Google Ads for the opportunity to show up at the top of search results pages for people looking for products and services.

But as more and more advertisers take part in Google’s auctions, achieving success becomes harder. As competition for prime advertising space heats up, how can you make sure that your paid search efforts are adding value to your company?

Here are six things you can start doing today to get more out of your Google ads:

  1. Understand which keywords are driving results. Search marketers need to dig deeper than they used to in order to effectively manage bids and optimize their campaigns. This means knowing at the keyword level how performance looks. Where keywords exist that are not driving conversions, you are wasting money that should be spent elsewhere.

  2. Let Google’s algorithms identify new opportunities. AI and machine learning are taking over the search industry. Google already offers tools that will help you leverage the technology in order to find new audiences you may not have been able to find on your own.

  3. Nail the user experience. The most ignored aspect of search marketing campaigns is what happens after a prospective customer clicks on the ad. The landing page and shopping experience need to be perfected, and search marketers need to push hard internally to make sure the right level of attention is being paid to user experience on the website.

  4. Leverage audiences. The future of search marketing is shifting away from keywords and towards audiences. You want to deliver the right ad to the right person at the right time. It used to be that the best way to do that was with keywords. But Google’s algorithms are now smart enough to identify intent in different user groups. So instead of focusing solely on keywords, you can manage your bids based on who is using those keywords.

  5. Stay ahead of new features. Google has been busy making it easier for advertisers to grab attention and get more clicks, releasing new features like expanded text ads and site links. From adding star ratings to ads, to phone numbers and offers, successful advertisers take advantage of these new features to stay ahead of the competition.

  6. Work with a specialist. Either aim to hire someone with deep industry experience or work with an outside team that knows search better than you do. Companies like PPC PRO bring their expertise with them and make sure that you are taking full advantage of every best practice there is.

Bottom line, your search campaigns can be doing more for you. Search is still one of the most effective digital advertising channels around. And those marketers who dedicate the time and resources required to succeed in this space will continue to outperform the competition.

This post was sponsored by PPC PRO, a transparent and refreshingly different Google AdWords management service.

The Future of Search Might Destroy Your Business

/ Zach Heller
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What is the future of search? If you ask 20 people you might get 20 answers.

The truth is that the future of search will depend on a number of different factors.

  1. Technological change – what is possible?

  2. Business investment – what do they build?

  3. Consumer behavior – what do we like?

More and more, it is looking like Voice Search will be a big part of the future of search.

What is Voice Search?

That may seem like a silly question to some. Voice search is exactly what it sounds like, searching with your voice.

What started as a convenient option for mobile Googlers has taken on added significance thanks to the rise of personal assistants like Siri and Alexa. Google tells us that as of 2017, 20% of all searches done on mobile devices are voice searches. That is a significant number of searches. And it’s growing every month.

But where voice searches done on Google still lead a user to a search engine results page (a SERP), new voice search tools have eliminated the SERP entirely. For devices like the Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Apple Homepod, the entirety of the interaction is spoken and heard. Gartner predicts that nearly 30% of all searches will be done without a screen by 2020.

And therein lies the potential issue for many companies.

Will Voice Search Destroy Your Business?

When searches occur entirely via a conversation with virtual assistants, the first result is often the only one that matters.

While users are given the ability to set preferences for certain types of searches or commands, the majority of these voice searches will return one result. And if that result is not for your company, too bad.

If the prospect of a voice search world scares you, you are not alone. Rather than bury your head in the sand or hope the future never comes, there are things you can do now to prepare for this inevitability.

There are tools and tips out there to begin optimizing for voice search today.

Don’t Believe the Google Search Hacks

/ Zach Heller
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If your business is marketing itself online, you are likely to get numerous cold calls and emails offering something like the following:

“I was doing some research on your industry today and came across your website. If you are like most companies, you are having trouble getting qualified traffic to your website. That’s why I’m reaching out. Our company uses technology to ensure that you show up at the top of the Google search results whenever anyone is looking for you. Are you free for a call to learn more?”

(the above is taken from an email I received just last week)

My advice – don’t waste your time.

That is not to say that there are not valuable resources out there to help you improve your SEO or PPC efforts. There are many companies who are quite good at helping online businesses get qualified traffic to their site.

However, those companies don’t make promises they can’t keep. And they don’t treat you like an idiot.

When it comes to SEO and search marketing, there are no easy hacks or one-size-fits-all approaches waiting for you, just behind the curtain. The companies that are most effective will tell you that. They will customize an approach for each of their clients, a strategy that takes time to implement and scale.

And the key thing is, for most of them at least, you have to find them. They won’t be the ones cold calling or emailing you for business. So you can ignore 99% of the emails you get from companies promising the moon. If you decide you need help growing your business, the best thing you can do is get referrals or do your own research.

The Future of Search is Voice Search

/ Zach Heller

We live in a world that is changing faster than most people realize. We will soon be sharing our roads with self-driving vehicles and our sidewalks with delivery robots. Upwards of 50% of tasks Americans perform at work can be automated with technology that already exists today.

In the digital marketing world, the landscape is always changing. Today’s example is voice search.

Just as people were finally coming to appreciate mobile search as a departure from desktop search, we have a new trend that is fast becoming critical for businesses to understand.

Voice search may seem like the future. Or it may seem like a fad that consumers will grow weary of. I’ve heard both opinions expressed, but the truth is that voice search is here already (and here to stay).

Google, the world’s leader in search, readily admits as much if you ask them. As of mid-2016, 20% of all mobile searches were voice searches, meaning someone spoke their query instead of typing it. According to more recent data, 41% of people in the US use voice search on a daily basis. And with the rise in popularity of IOT (Google Home, Amazon Echo), where users interact with digital assistants by voice alone, we can expect this trend to continue.

What does it mean for marketers?

Just like mobile search is different from desktop search, we must realize that voice search is different from mobile search. The biggest difference will be in user behavior. Search terms people use when they speak will vary from those typed. This means that companies will need to rethink their keyword strategy in both search engine marketing and search engine optimization.

Google and other search engines should start to break out voice search keywords in the next 12 months. We can start by taking a close look at how the search terms different from what users have traditionally used, and then match our strategy to consumer behavior.

The Convergence of Search and Social

/ Zach Heller

Search and social media are two separates arenas when we typically talk about digital marketing.

Search was, for a long time, the representation of all that digital marketing could be. It quickly came to dominate the new landscape. For the first time, it allowed brands to take advantage in real time of identifiable consumer demand. Google and their AdWords platform came to own that world, giving companies an efficient way to seize the marketing opportunities presented by search.

Then came social. If you believed the early hype, social media meant the death of things like email, and even search. But the truth is, brands are still trying to figure out how social media fits into their marketing plans.

But until now, most companies treated search and social as separate things. This post is meant to put that way of thinking to rest. If your company is not already busy identifying how these two channels relate to one another, the time to start is now.

Consumer Behavior

It used to be that most web sessions began with a search engine. Not anymore. Social media has been quickly gaining in that area, helped by the continued shift to mobile as our primary web consumption platform.

Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter are now where many users start their web sessions, using the networks to make discoveries the same way they might have with a Google search in the past.

While these “searches” differ in a number of ways from Google searches, they are no less important for marketers. Recognize that consumers are looking for the same things, but in slightly different ways.

Which Platforms?

Not all social media channels are created equal. Someone on Facebook is looking for a different experience than someone on Pinterest. Marketers must be able to dissect the “user intent” of each platform in order to understand best how to use them.

For example, on Pinterest, many users are expressing real intent to purchase based on the brands they follow, the products they pin, etc. Whereas following a brand on Facebook may better signal past behavior, such as attending an event, entering a store, or being an existing customer.

When we learn how people search and identify items of interest on each platform, we can begin to address user needs when and where they occur.

One Informs the Other

While the tools and techniques for marketers still differ between search and social, one must inform the other. Search and social teams should work together to identify and track trends and react, adjusting campaigns and programs in real time.

 

The way we search and interact with the mobile web will continue to change. And only these kinds of responsive, close-knit teams will be able to adapt and keep up.