Not all web agencies are working in their clients’ best interests.

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Who you choose to be your Google Ads web agency is an important decision. Choose well and you’ll benefit from a growing business but choose poorly and you’ll end up wasting money and losing business opportunities.

Google Ads can be confusing, and some web agencies like to keep their clients in the dark. They hide behind technical lingo and web industry speak to justify exorbitant fees for little gain. Beware of those who waive setup or management fees just to hook you up. Make sure that they put the effort needed into setting up and managing your account from the start. Advertising is expensive, so you’ll need a sound strategy and a comprehensive set-up to ensure your account is tightly controlled to avoid wasted clicks. Investing in a quality set-up and management at the start can save you thousands of dollars in the long run. Here are some useful clues to know if your account is well managed or not.

Your Account. Make sure that the Google Ads account belongs to you and not your web agency. You should have access to your account at all times. Do not buy into the concept of monthly report in which you will be assured that it tells you everything you need to know. It’s a lie. Sometimes, those reports provide no cost information and focus on the number of clicks received but not what those clicks cost. Often, the majority of clicks are put to Display Advertising because it costs a lot less than Search Advertising where you should be putting the bulk of your spending so that you can get your company’s name in front of people searching for your products and/or services. Make sure your account is paid with your credit card. This way you’ll know how much money is invested in your advertising.

Search Terms. Your web agency should be putting the bulk of your advertising spending on top performing keywords that are highly valuable to your business by applying the 80-20 rule which is to assume that 80% of all traffic to your website will come from just 20% of your keywords. These are the keywords that are more likely to convert. You want to ensure that you often show for these keywords. This way, you won’t miss business opportunities.

Top Position. If you’re not seeing your ads until page two or even three of Google, you’re missing out on valuable business opportunities. You want to ensure your ads are showing in the top three positions. Ideally, in the second position which cost less money than first. The fewer competitors potential clients have to crawl through before they come across your company, the better!

Wasted Clicks. If you get calls that have nothing to do with your business, it’s because your web agency is being lazy and only bids on broad terms, irrelevant search terms or is not adding negative keywords. It results in wasted clicks that chew through your advertising budget.

Change History. There is a quick and easy way to find out how much work your web agency is putting into your account. It’s a feature called ‘Change History’ which tells you how many changes occurred in your account month by month or in other words, how much work is being done each month. Since you are paying a monthly fee, you should be seeing changes made to keywords, ads and extensions, bids and budgets, not just bids.

Account Management. No automation program can understand the competitive landscape and intricacies of your industry as well as an actual person who has experience and can formulate a strategy or game plan to differentiate you from your competitors. There is no substitute for hard work.

Traffic. Understand that focusing on bringing more traffic to your website doesn’t equate to bringing more business. Some web agencies will get you more traffic and they will deliver on their promise. But they won’t deliver on your expectations. Because what you really want is more leads and revenue. Not more traffic. And more traffic doesn’t naturally lead to more leads. It has to be relevant and qualified traffic to lead to more leads. More often than not, the money they are spending on Google Ads is wasted on irrelevant, invalid clicks that chewed through your advertising budget with very little to show for.

Quarterly meeting. It’s critical that you meet with your web agency on a regular basis to be presented campaign results, being able to add input, and change strategy if needed.

In a nutshell, Google Advertising can be an excellent source of leads, but only if your account is properly handled. Otherwise, you’ll waste a lot of money and end up with nothing. Don’t wait another month to call us for a free confidential audit if you think your account isn’t being properly handled. Because each month is another month of squandered funds and missed business opportunities.

Amauta Marketing

 

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Tips on Advertising on YouTube and Remarketing

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In online advertising there are two opportunities you should be aware of. First, YouTube has become a powerful and popular opportunity and remarketing may be a tactic you are not taking advantage of. Here’s how to get the most of these strategies.

Link your Google Ads account to your YouTube channel

It’s the number 2 search engine in the world and it’s growing. In 2018, YouTube had 5 billion videos are screened each day and its mobile revenues have doubled over the last 3 years. As well, 60% of people prefer watching video content online versus television and YouTube attracts a large contingent of these viewers. If you have a company Google ads account, you automatically have a YouTube account. However, you should create a YouTube channel as well, and link your Google Ads account to your channel. It only takes a few clicks to get it done. Once linked, you can align your ads and video campaigns and analyze the results with the help of Google KPI (Key Performance Indicator).

Target your audience

Before you launch a campaign, carefully choose your target audience. Many criteria allow you to define a target audience: interests, lifestyle, specific demographic data (age, hometown, gender) or a theme which relates to your products or services. Then study the keywords used by Internet users in their searches. You can also use remarketing to target users who have already shown interest in your products or services – they have been on your website for example – and make another impression on YouTube by showing a video ad from your brand. This helps improve your offer memorization rate with users. But be cautious not to repeat an ad too often.

Pick an ad format

There are a variety of YouTube ad formats available. The most interesting, we think, is the Instream format of TrueView type ads. It is a short ad from your company which appears as a video at the beginning (pre-roll) or in the middle (mid-roll) of video content which can be skipped by the user after 5 seconds. You only pay if the user watches 30 seconds or more of your ad.

Contrary to what you might think, skippable ads have better performance than those that cannot be skipped because the user has the choice and does not become frustrated. Result: only the good ads are rewarded. It is essential to be convincing and to communicate your main message and brand name in the first 5 seconds.

For more details and to further explore this topic, the Amauta Marketing team will be delighted to answer your questions.

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Retargeting: How to seduce again visitors on your website

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Retargeting, or remarketing, is a great way to connect with people who have previously shown interest in your products or services. The idea is to reach a prospective customer through banner ads or emails after a visit to your website. Today, 20% of marketing professionals dedicate an increasing budget to retargeting. In fact, over the last few years, we are hearing more about this efficient component of digital marketing.

Retargeting or Remarketing:  How does it works?

Retargeting is an advertising technique used to follow people who have visited your website. It works by automatically inserting pixel tags on each page of your website which generate cookies to Internet users surfing your web pages. The cookies will be used to track a user’s IP or email addresses. For example, visitors have shown interest in your products and services on your website by adding to a shopping cart, but they have abandoned before finalizing the purchase. The aim is to generate more sales or leads by enticing potential buyers again, using banner ads or emails. This tactic has Internet users exposed to a new targeted message (for either a product or service they have shown interest in) at another moment in the buying cycle. CTR, conversion rates and sales are higher with retargeting.

This effectiveness is why retargeting is appealing to so many companies who are tired of losing visitors without a conversion action. Retargeting efforts can take the form of display ads, search ads, social media ads, or emails. When the visitor comes back to the website or goes to a website partner network (Google Display Network, TheTradeDesk, etc.) the cookie identifies them. The advertiser will then be able to show a relevant advertisement or send a targeted email featuring the abandoned shopping cart with the message: “Have you forgotten something?”

Why use remarketing?

This automatic web marketing strategy can enable your company to reach many objectives including an increase in sales, increase in awareness, and an increase the number of subscriptions to newsletters. Often used by e-commerce merchants, remarketing is a tool not to be overlooked for targeting clients, sending them personalized communications, and increase conversion rates.

In conclusion, here are 4 tips to optimize your remarketing strategy:

  1. Dynamic remarketing is an automatic advertisement which shows up and reminds Internet users that they have visited your web page and shown interest in one of your products or services.
  2. Use the name of your competitors in your Google Ads remarketing campaigns
  3. Combine Google and Facebook, take advantage of this duo which has double the CTR – think of a multi-channel strategy
  4. Create client loyalty by thanking them for their recent purchase with an email with a selection of items under the title “You might also like.” Consider offering a discount on their next purchase.

Amazon is the premium e-commerce website to have developed a retargeting strategy. It’s no wonder retargeting contributes to 35% of its sales!

What are you waiting for? Amauta Marketing can create a complete web strategy including targeted remarketing campaigns to maximize the return on your website.

 

 

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