PPC
Should I be Running Facebook Ads? #FAQuesday
There is a slew of different ways to advertise your business online these days. How do you know which platforms are the best bang for your buck? Aside from AdWords, which you should definitely be running, Facebook comes out on top. The audience is far too large and the targeting is much too precise to be ignored completely. Here are three reasons why you should be promoting your business on Facebook. 1. Your Target Audience is Already There Pretty much everyone has a Facebook account these days. No, seriously. There are over 1.6 billion active users currently registered to Facebook. No matter who your target audience is, they are reachable through Facebook advertising. It’s simply a matter of targeting them. 2. Your Money Goes Further Gaining organic traffic through your business’s Facebook page is quite difficult these days. In fact, reaching your entire audience for free is nearly impossible. The … Continued
Google AdWords: 4 Major Changes for a Mobile-First World
1) 50% More Text for Search Ads One of the first changes Google announced was that search ads will be eligible for up to 50% more text. That’s right — Google will be affording PPC ads with even more real estate on search results pages. It’s clear that Google is giving extra love to PPC ads because not only do they plan on expanding the text, they’ve already made the switch to adding a fourth placement for ads at the top of search results pages. The 25-character headline limit will be expanded to two 30-character headlines. The new ads will have one consolidated 80-character description line, instead of two separate 35-character descriptions lines. In the example below, the new format on the right includes more ad space for businesses to better market their unique selling propositions. 2) Device-Specific Bidding Currently, advertisers set bids for desktop searches and make adjustments for … Continued
Why Does My Business Need AdWords? #FAQuesday
It used to be enough to rely solely on SEO strategies to keep your phone ringing, but due to some of Google’s latest updates, it’s not your safest option to turn your back on PPC. What changed? In February 2016, Google announced that it was killing right sidebar ads, and moving a fourth position to the top of the search results page. Does this impact me? This has a huge impact on organic results. While there used to only be three ads at the top of the page, there’s now an additional ad taking up space. Often times, organic results can’t even be seen until you scroll further down the results page. Do you want to rely on results that people have to scroll to find instead of getting a top-of-the-page position that searchers will see first What should I do? If you aren’t currently running ads with AdWords, it’s … Continued
Why Should I Outsource AdWords Management? #FAQuesday
AdWords is like a foreign language to many business owners. Until you take the time to dive in and learn as much as you can about it, it’s overwhelming and difficult to understand. Not only is it a large task to learn about AdWords, it’s always evolving. In order to stay ahead, you have to keep up with all the new updates that Google is making amongst the other struggles you’ll find below. 1. The dashboard is confusing. The number of tabs are overwhelming when you open an AdWords account. See the screenshot below as an example of the tabs that are likely difficult to understand for a first-time user. 2. You have to know the language. To even begin to understand the dashboard, you need to know the AdWords lingo. Do you know all about campaigns, ad groups, modified broad-match keywords, and RLSA bid adjustments? It’s confusing! The more … Continued
What’s the Difference Between AdWords & AdWords Express? #FAQuesday
With a name like “AdWords Express”, it’s easy to assume that it must be a quick and effective way to get your business involved with AdWords. This is true, but the differences between a regular and Express campaign are far greater than most may realize. The Web Guys team is going to clear things up to help decide what’s best for your business. Learn more about AdWords in a previous blog. Overview AdWords Express AdWords Pay only for clicks Yes Yes Automated Management Yes No Ads on Google Search & Maps Yes Yes Ads on other related websites Limited Yes Mobile ads Yes Yes Advanced ad formats (videos, graphics, etc.) No Yes Geographic targeting ability Anywhere Anywhere Ability to use without website Yes No Pros & Cons Breakdown AdWords Express Pros: Having a website isn’t necessary. Many features are automated, so ongoing management is minimal. Only pay when someone clicks … Continued
How Will I Know if my AdWords Campaign is Working?
A very common concern for new AdWords users is figuring out if it’s money well spent or money wasted. It’s an understandable concern that can be avoided if you plan ahead. There are a few things that business owners would need to think about when deciding if the campaign is working. What action do I want to drive with these ads? By this we mean, do you want these ads to produce more phone calls? Do you want more leads through the website? Do you want a video on your landing page to be watched? It’s important to know what you want to be measured before setting up the processes to measure that action. Google offers excellent tools and integration with Analytics to be able to measure phone call data as well as submissions through your website or users watching a video. Where can I locate this information in the … Continued
Draw High-Quality Website Traffic with AdWords
Now that you’ve learned about the various digital marketing tactics needed to establish a thriving online presence for your business, it’s time to dive into the purpose and complexities of paid search, commonly referred to as PPC (pay-per-click). We’ll focus today on Google AdWords, the most-recognized type of PPC advertising. You’ve likely seen these ads, which are identified with a small yellow box that says “Ad,” in Google search results. Whenever one of these links is clicked, the ad owner pays for that visit to its website. The price is set through Google’s auction process. Factors affecting the price of ads include: the industry, competitors’ bids, quality of your ad, and quality of the landing page searchers will be taken to. In order to get high-quality clicks to your website at low prices, you need to be armed with a plan before jumping into the PPC world. We at The Web Guys are happy to … Continued
Why Mobile Ads Are Part of a Smart PPC Strategy
When it comes to PPC strategy, you can’t afford to turn your back on mobile devices. You’re missing out by assuming your customers are only searching from desktops. It’s important to take the time to understand why and how to properly optimize your pay-per-click ads to maximize results from mobile traffic.Why? Google recently reported that more than half of Internet searches worldwide are conducted through a mobile device. That alone should make it clear that businesses need to have a mobile presence, especially for an AdWords campaign. And since only the top two or three ad positions appear on mobile devices, it’s critical that yours be set up for success (which we’ll cover later in this post). How? If you know how to create ads within the AdWords dashboard, optimizing them for mobile searches is fairly simple. As shown below, you’ll see a box that you can check next to “Mobile.” This tells Google … Continued
Should I Use Click-to-Call AdWords Campaigns? #FAQuesday
Google is constantly introducing new features and ad types to keep up with the ever-evolving forms of technology we use on a daily basis. One of the most recent additions to Google AdWords was click-to-call ads, and they’ve created a lot of buzz about who should be using them and why. Let’s cover the ins and outs of this new option to help you make the best decision about setting up your next advertising campaign. What does Click-to-Call Mean? Click-to-call (CTC) is a type of ad within Google AdWords. These ads will show on mobile devices when users search Google for relevant keywords. Clicking on a company’s CTC ad will connect searchers to the business by phone, rather than sending them to its website. These ads cannot be shown on desktop computers, since most aren’t set up to make phone calls. What are the Pros? These ads don’t require your website to have a landing page … Continued
Viewing Your Google Ads in the Wild
When you begin an AdWords campaign, it’s so tempting to immediately start performing searches from your browser to see where the ads are showing up and what they look like. Without realizing it, you will pay for it … either directly or indirectly. Direct Effects If you search for your Google ads and happen to click on one of them, you will be charged for that click as you would when anyone else clicks on your ads. You certainly don’t want to be draining your budget to visit your own website. Indirect Effects Even if you know that you shouldn’t click on your ads, you’re still creating ad impressions just by searching for them. Impressions are the number of times your ad is fetched to be shown to a searcher. Google looks at the number of clicks and impressions your ads have to determine the click-through rate. The click-through rate has … Continued
