pay per click – Kicks Digital Marketing

How Google Adwords Changed How You Sell

Josh Donelson — Mon, 19 Jun 2017 13:00:00 +0000

Technology is a hell of a thing. We have instantaneous access to insurmountable amounts of information with the stroke of a key and the press of the search button. Heck, you don’t even have to go to Google anymore. Just type what you want in your search bar and it will load the best search results based on your keyword with the first three-to-four results populating Google Adwords ads. With this capability, potential customers have changed the way they search and in turn changed the way you sell.

Enter Google Adwords

Since the advent of Google Adwords some 17 years ago, the digital advertising landscape has been forever changed. The user is now able to key in specific search terms for products or services they desire and Google Adwords grabs from a pool of advertisers that best suit their search and toss them strategically around the page (well, top and bottom of the page since right sidebar ads were nixed). So, why is this a good thing?

Google Adwords bridges the gap to organic search

Sure you have a good business model, your product is stellar, and your service might be impeccable. But, who cares if no one can find you? Climbing the SEO ladder to success might leave you forever refreshing the search results pages hoping for that day you hit the first page, but now you’ve got to climb higher until you reach the top three, eventually to the top spot, maybe. That comes after continuous efforts in providing quality, original content, and staying on top of digital marketing trends.

Google Adwords offers you the capability to steal the first spot, if and only if you’re willing to optimize your account and user destination. Your willingness to participate in pay-per-click advertising is rewarded generously you take the time to learn the ins and outs of the Google Adwords platform or opt to hire someone to help you achieve premium placement. But, why do you need top spot placement?

The top spot gets 33% more traffic

A recent report by Moz found that on average organic page one results received 77.33% clicks, with 67.60% in the top five results. Page two and three only received 5.59% of the clicks. You can obviously see here why it is important to push for higher ranking. With Google Adwords, the top spot placement received 33% more traffic than those of other spots on the list. Pair this with the self-serve nature of the platform and you have a no-brainer digital marketing decision to make. But, you must account for how your customer might buy.

Price transparency in Google Adwords

Do you sell a product or service that has a set price? Consumers have access to various apps that search lower prices and coupons for products. Even big-box stores like Best Buy have elected to price match Amazon.com as long as it shipped and sold by Amazon. Though this chopped Best Buy’s margins, they were able to remain a viable option for consumers who prefer a real-life sales experience or like me, instant gratification should Amazon not have one-day delivery available.

In a study from Pew, eight out of ten consumers are now shopping online and 65% say they want to compare prices before making a purchase. This means that you need to leverage prices, especially if your competitors are doing the same.

Google Adwords A/B price testing

One benefit of Google Adwords is the ability to test different ad copy and landing pages. Depending on your industry you might find that price is a pain-point for a lot of people. This is especially prevalent in the service-based industry like carpet cleaning, landscaping, pool services, and select plumbing, HVAC, and electrical contractors. Do your research and see what your competitors are offering. If you notice pricing making the top page placements, you might consider drafting up an ad that discusses price in some facet like:

1. $X price for X service
2. Starting at $X price
3. $0 installation

Mixing up the message is a good way to see what performs better for your service, but might prove difficult for your product. So, how do you get around price?

Prepare the comparison tables

If you sell a service that is highly competitive or a product that is similar to your competitors, you need to prove your company’s superiority. What gives your product or service a better benefit for the consumer? What is your competitive edge? Gather the key variables for your product and two-to-four other products and set up a simple side-by-side comparison. This will help users better understand a price gap or why your product is superior.

Sound hard? Get your phone out (only if it shoots 1080p or higher) and buy a tripod. If you don’t want to sit down and type it out, a video is your next best bet. Bonus, video can be used as ads and shared through Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube (by way of Google Adwords) opening up new avenues of advertising and marketing exposure.

Prove your product is superior

Sure, you might have a good comparison table, lack thereof, or a video, or not. Either way, people want proof. We can all throw out statistics like the fact that 86% of business owners will be smarter after reading this post, but the statistic is total BS until I do my research. If you have gathered emails from sales or past jobs, it will benefit you to do a little email marketing to gather reviews and testimonials for your products or services and ask questions like:

1. Why did you choose to hire/buy my product/service?
2. How was your experience with our company?
3. How likely would you recommend us to a family member or friend?

This is something you should be doing anyway to boost reviews on Google and Facebook. Get your customers speaking for you and you will have a brand new audience when it comes time to recommend products or services to their family and friends.

Wrapping it up

All of the topics discusses are easily achievable, but it just takes patience and an investment of time. However, knowing who you are selling to and how they shop can help you leap over a lot of hurdles when you start to advertise with Google Adwords. So, which will you choose when you start selling? Shoot us a message and let us know.

For more information on optimizing your Google Adwords, fill out the form below and let’s talk.

4 Tips For Using Google Adwords

Josh Donelson — Mon, 22 May 2017 17:53:09 +0000

If you haven’t thought about Google Adwords and what it can do for your business by now, you are missing out. While everyone strives to rank high on search engine results pages, Google Adwords, or pay per click advertising, is a viable option to bridge the gap between high organic rank and paid rank. But, how does it work? How do start? What is the cost? Let’s take a look at the basics and four tips for managing your Google Adwords.

How Does Google Adwords Work?

Google Adwords is simple. When a user loads a Google search, they are greeted with the most relevant search result based on the original search term. This is how traditional organic search engine results pages work, but Adwords includes two key differences. These include bidding and quality score. These two items act in tandem to provide you with an ad rank. The equation is simple: BID x Quality Score = Ad Rank As an advertiser on Google, you decide the terms you want to rank for, how much you want to spend per click, and wrap it up with ads that compliment your search terms and landing page. What does this mean for you and your competitors?

Rank based on quality score

Just because you are willing to pay more for an ad, does not necessarily mean you will always rank first. In 2002, Larry Page was checking search terms to see the type of ad he found. Noticing common searches were yielding poor returns in the Adwords system, he sought after a solution. He printed the results page, indicated which ads were incorrect, put it on the bulletin board in the kitchen, and left for the weekend. The following Monday, he was provided a solution, an “ad relevancy score", which would alter the Adwords system for good (source, and a darn good read). This simple task achieved by great minds fighting for the same purpose is what allows Google Adwords to have that “even playing field" opportunity. If a user keys in “Nike SB shoes" and is met with four ads, two containing Nike SB shoes, and two without, the two containing the term will rank higher. Between the two, the one with the higher quality score and proper bid strategy will rank in the top spot. The end goal is to return users the best search results, organically or paid, and in turn, benefit the company who receives the traffic. So, how are you going to achieve the same success? Whether you are running Google Adwords or just getting interested in pay per click advertising, these tips will help you build on your success, fix your issues, or give you the confidence to get started on a path to high traffic and better customer conversions.

Improve Your Quality Score

Think about a time when you Googled something simple and click through more than one or two pages. Why? Was the first one not satisfying your query? Did it not have the right information? Odds are the content was just not relevant to your search, and that is a BIG problem. Your quality score directly impacts your bottom line as you will pay more for ad rank than competitors with that of high scores. When you check your Google Adwords account health, you can review your Quality Score metrics by clicking Keywords > Modify Columns > Quality Score and choose from the data you would like to view. Be sure to click Save columns for later use. This data will allow you to see where you need to improve.

Common areas to help improve your rank:

Make sure keywords are grouped in the proper ad group
Make sure keywords appear in the ad copy
Use two (2) or three (3) ads per ad group to allow for different keyword match and testing
Make the landing page URL and content is relevant to the ad group and ad copy
Increase your landing page load to with small images and cleaner code
That last one might sound a bit more advance, but platforms like Kicks Digital
Marketing allows websites to run faster that original sites with condensed code, caching, and image adjustments.

Now that you’ve optimized the account and landing page, let’s get to tracking your Google Adwords.

Leverage conversion tracking with landing pages

One of our biggest customer complaints we hear is the inability to track where their leads are coming from. When we build websites, we always include a simple page template that allows our customers to copy a page and turn it into a simple and effective landing page. This is not the case for many people as they do not have a grasp on the digital footprint. You will want to leverage the use of properly formatted landing pages in order to provide the highest opportunity for conversions.

A proper landing page should include:

Proper CTA for form conversions or call conversions\
Dedicated content and imagery for the specific product or service
Keywords found in your ad group and ad
Proper tracking codes
Next steps once the customer fills a form

If you take the time to prepare your content and design for your landing page, make sure you go all in. The more data you have, the greater the ability to determine potential areas for growth and ROI.

Use Ad Extensions to gain more traffic

Go to Google and key in any term. You may find some ads look a little different than others. Some are shorter, some are longer, and some have more links and text. This is due to that advertiser’s ability to use “Ad Extensions" to gain more visibility into their products or services and create seamless customer interactions. The extensions allow users to click-to-call, map for directions, see review snippets, view prices, and click to other pages (landing pages of course). Say you have multiple services that are somewhat similar, like carpet cleaning and house cleaning, but you own a company that does all sorts of house cleaning. You can include site extensions on an ad about house cleaning that include carpet, upholstery, floor, and whatever relevant service might benefit the potential customer. This can increase the odds that they will elect for more services or find the proper service they might have been looking for in the first place.

Most commonly used Ad Extensions are:

Sitelink Extensions
Call Extensions
Location Extensions
Callout Extensions
Price Extensions
Structured Snippet Extensions

Once your extensions are active, you can specify which ones will take mobile preference to provide the potential customer with the best option when they search. For instance, mapping or calling from a mobile phone makes more sense than on a desktop. Be smart and set these up logically.

DDIY – Don’t Do It Yourself

Most of the Google Adwords accounts that we take over have been mismanaged or underutilized. Google Adwords offers a lot of opportunities, but unless you have the adequate amount of time to dedicate to your account, you will miss out on potential customers and conversions. Think about it in the terms of real time availability. Sure, you might have big dreams of a successful company, but you lack the knowledge and resources to effectively execute an Adwords campaign. I am not saying you are not capable, but let’s be real, saying and doing are two completely different actions. Companies like Kicks Digital Marketing exist to help you maximize your efforts in an obtainable way that benefits your bottom line by not sinking your budget in management costs. Looking for a dedicated Google Partner, like Kicks Digital will provide you piece-of-mind while you do what you do best, sell your brand.

Remember this checklist when it comes to Adwords:

Account and campaign set up
Ad group selections
Keyword research
Ad copy development
Landing page development
Bid monitoring and adjustment
Ongoing account optimization
On-site content and design optimization

If this sounds like a lot, it’s because it is, but success is a click away. Where will you rank when the customers start searching?