Remember the pre-smartphone days when Black Friday (and to a degree, Cyber Monday) were all about who has a better elbowing technique in stores? That sense of accomplishment when you managed to snatch up that last discounted TV from under your neighbour’s nose in the local appliances shop? That’s what Black Friday is still all about: the experience, the rush, and the sense of urgency.
In today’s online world, not much has changed. No, you can’t push Uncle Bob out the way to grab that toaster your Auntie has been dreaming of – but you can use a special discount code first. To entice such behaviour, a carefully created digital marketing strategy is crucial.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the two days ahead of Christmas that can make or break a retailer’s year. That is why it’s crucial that you have a pay-per-click strategy in place, and are ready for the spike in traffic on those particular days.
While all channels of digital marketing contribute to success, paid search is the most reactive of all of them and therefore particular attention should be paid to what can be achieved with a carefully and well-crafted PPC strategy.
Therefore, we’ve prepared a short guide on how to make the most out of the pre-Christmas sales. Remember, your competitors are doing it – and so should you!
[pdf-embedder url=”https://circusppc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Circus-PPC-guide-for-Black-Friday-Website-version.pdf” title=”Circus PPC guide for Black Friday – Website version”]
DOWNLOAD THE FULL GUIDE HERE
National Mentoring Day: How we make mentors of Directors
Here at Circus, we firmly believe that training and constant development are essential for us to stay at the top of our game, and continuously excel in what we do. Read on and find out how we developed our training programme, and why we think it’s crucial for every business to have a mentoring programme.
The challenge
Eight years ago, we set out to become the best PPC agency in the world (self-proclaimed, of course). Now, we find ourselves with a fantastic roster of clients, exciting work, and a great team, with the latter being the crucial element.
We have an amazing team of PPC specialist, passionate about what we do and proactive in their work. So, how did we get here, you ask?
Well, it wasn’t always this easy! When we made the decision to become a highly specialised PPC agency, we knew finding the right staff would pose a challenge. Because of the nature of what we do, we felt like finding the right people with the right experience may be a task too arduous to undertake.
The stakes
The stakes were high – after all, we not only wanted to prove our worth to ourselves but even more so, to existing and potential clients. By creating a team with great expertise, we knew our vision would become reality.
But what if we failed to find the right people? We would either have to resort to doing all the work ourselves (which was, for obvious reasons, impossible), or, resort to being a great, but not quite the best of the best PPC agency.
The fails
Time after time, we felt like we couldn’t find what we were looking for. How could we achieve our goals? So, we set out to resolve the issue once and for all.
The answer
After a while, we realised the answer was in front of us the whole time! We love what we do, and we are passionate about sharing our knowledge.
This has led us, the Directors, to create a training and mentoring programme, which allows us to take on new staff and know that they will be the right fit from the outset.
How does it work?
We thought it would be best if the programme’s creator, Will, explains how it works and what it entails. Thus, we sent a few questions his way. Here’s what he had to say!
- How did the training programme come about?
The training programme has been developed from my experience working at Google and then adapted over the years.
We want the highest calibre trainees with world-class training so we try to emulate a similar process that has proven successful.
The aim is to provide new team members with a solid technical understanding of PPC along with the confidence to take the lead in testing different strategies and problem-solving.
- Based on the skills, experience, and strengths of other team members, how do you decide which of the Directors will be a suitable match for the new trainee? Or is it always you?
The induction process and initial few weeks of training are always conducted by myself. This ensures that there is consistency in the delivery of the content for everybody.
However, we are also a very close team and there is an immense benefit for the trainee to work with the other team members. Once the trainee has grasped the foundation skills, we bring in the other directors to impart their own styles of campaign building, optimisation and client management.
Not only is this important for team integration but it also arms the trainee with a wider array of resources when deciding the best strategy to apply in an account.
- How long does the training programme take? What does it entail?
The first 4-6 weeks of the training programme is very classroom-intensive and involves a lot of campaign building practice. Repetition leads to mastery so we keep working on this until it feels like second nature.
There is also much discussion around best practice and strategy so that the trainees not only know how to implement techniques but also why and when to use them. We must train people to think for themselves because we cannot cover every single situation that they will encounter.
We understand that everybody learns differently and at a different pace. For us, it is more important to ensure that the quality is met before progressing onto client accounts, so it doesn’t make sense to put a strict time limit on the training programme.
PPC is constantly evolving, so while the training programme may end, there is always more learning and refining to be done.
- How do you identify the personal development and training needs of team members?
We have regular one-on-one feedback sessions throughout the training process. These are designed to be open and safe environments where trainees are given the opportunity to influence their own training.
The success of the training programme is not about what I deliver but rather what the trainee absorbs, so we tailor it based on the feedback. If the training is too fast or too slow or if something is not understood properly then nobody is made to feel stupid about that.
We encourage personal development in all forms so every year we send each member of the team to external training courses that they find themselves and have a desire to attend. This can be work-related or not; as long they are upskilling themselves then the company is happy to invest in that personal growth.
- How do you measure the training results?
We have a list of key competencies that the trainee must be able to perform so, once the classroom training is over, we provide ongoing coaching and assess all work produced by the trainee in the live environment.
Not only do we check that every aspect of the campaigns is built to standard but we also ask the trainees to explain the reasoning behind their decisions. This ensures that they are thinking about it in the right way and helps me identify any gaps in their knowledge.
The key to a successful training process is openness and communication so we often ask what the biggest challenges are that they are facing and then use this feedback to improve the training topics in the future.
A training programme explained wouldn’t be whole without the experience of a trainee. So, we asked our PPC Analyst, Anna, a few questions about her experience here at Circus and her thoughts on the training. Have a read of what she had to say:
- Did you have any prior experience in PPC/Digital Marketing?
I didn’t have any working experience in PPC/Digital Marketing, only what I had self-learnt about PPC before applying for the role.
- What did you expect from joining Circus PPC?
I didn’t have much of a preconception before joining Circus, as I haven’t worked in this industry before. Obviously, I knew it was a training programme but didn’t expect the level of ongoing support from all team members during my training stages which has been great. Many companies I’ve previously worked for have left me a little helpless after a week or so, which I’ve found not to be a very constructive way of helping someone grow within their role.
- How did the training help you fit into your new role?
The training provided me with all the skills I needed to become a PPC Analyst from a beginner level. I found the classroom-style teaching a really good way to learn not only about PPC but learn further about Circus and their working environment. The tasks I was given on dummy accounts mirrored work I would later be doing on live accounts, so it was easy to transfer those skills.
- Did you benefit from post-training mentoring from the rest of Directors?
I definitely did benefit from working with the other Directors, especially when I was assigned work on new accounts. During the transition of me performing a few tasks on an account to taking the lead role, I’ve been supported by the Director each step of the way. As a new member of the team, it’s been beneficial to see different ways colleagues work in terms of strategy and ideas when analysing an account as it’s given me a more rounded understanding of this position.
- What are your thoughts and feelings about the training programme at Circus?
I think it’s a really good programme that’s run here to help sculpt trainees into becoming qualified analysts. The thorough and well-rounded training I’ve been provided with has allowed me to become confident in my work whilst knowing I still have a great deal of support should I need it. It’s also been a great opportunity for someone such as myself who had no previous experience but was passionate about learning/working in PPC.
Mentoring Rocks! To find out more about what we do and the programme, get in touch!
Q4 Retail Promotions – Why You Should Play By The ‘Rules’
It’s not long before Christmas. You have retail clients who no doubt use Shopping campaigns, and no doubt will have numerous offers in this quarter of the year.
These offers come in various forms:
- Black Friday
- Cyber Monday
- Flash Sales
- Delivery Offers/Deadlines
All of the above are highly relevant in the busiest sales period of the year. The one I will focus on in this blog is flash sales.
What Are Flash Sales?
Flash sales, as you will know, are time-limited promotions, highly seasonal, such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas – these three being the most critical for most retailers.
From personal experience I have managed many flash sales. There are several ways to go about it but experience suggests that using ‘rules’ will make the process of managing this much easier.
Google has a number of automation tools; the relevant one in this case is rules. Rules essentially allow you to dictate when to activate and pause elements of your PPC account. In this case we’ll look at ads.
Why Should I Use Rules?
By being prepared you can create promotional ad copy well ahead of the time of the flash sale. You can use rules to activate and pause these ads as they begin and end.
The advantage of creating the ad copy well before the time of promotion is that you have time to make sure the ads are approved. The last thing you need is to upload new ad copy at the 11th hour only to find that it has been disapproved – something your retail client would not be happy about.
Step 1 – Flash Sale Checklist:
- Ad copy created, approved by your client and uploaded in a paused state (for approval and for the automation process) well before the time of the promotion. The ads must be paused for the following to work
- Labels – a great way to instantly identify the flash sale ads
Labels?
Labels are incredibly useful for managing ad copy. Let’s say for example that your client wishes to promote “20% Off All Mountain Bikes” on just the 15th of December. The best thing to do based on the above is to: A, create the ad copy (well ahead of schedule and, approved by the client of course) and B, create a label that you can assign to the ad (let’s say for example, “20% Mountain Bikes 15th Dec”).
By creating a label you’ve made life easier for the next step – setting up rules to automate the activation and pausing of the flash sale ad.
Step 2 – Setting Up A Rule:
If you have labelled your flash sale ad copy you need to do the following:
On the Campaigns tab:
- 1 – Create rule
- 2 – Filter by label (drop-down next to ‘Requirements’)
- 3 – Select your label
- 4 – Set the date & time you want the ads to show
- Give the rule a name
- Preview the results
Use the same process to pause the ad at the time you need it to end.
Using this method you save plenty of time and make the process of managing flash sales far more efficient.
Using rules isn’t necessarily limited to flash sales but this is an effective example of how they can be used.
Be sure to ask your client for a flash sale calendar well ahead of time.
Is Your PPC Account Ready for Christmas 2017?
Christmas, every year we all know it is coming and we all know exactly when it is yet many of us leave our Christmas shopping till the last minute. The question is, however, are you (or your agency) doing the same with your Christmas PPC Strategy? (I really hope not)
Is Your Christmas PPC Strategy ready?
The purpose of this blog isn’t to cover all angles of what you need to prepare but just some ideas to help get you started. I will go into some detail in the retail sector below and touch on a few other sectors as well.
Retail Sector
Statistics and historical data show that you should have already started to prepare your campaigns for Christmas if you are in the retail sector.
What retailers should be thinking about:
- What should you be promoting pre-Christmas?
- What will sell better post-Christmas?
- What are the competitors doing?
- When is the search volume going to pick up for your different products/categories?
- Are you having a Black Friday/Cyber Monday/Boxing Day/New Year’s Day sale?
- When will this go live?
- When do we need to push the PPC for this?
- Do we need to make sure we capture the traffic on Christmas Day? (Statistics and past performance show that a lot of people start to browse the online sales on Christmas Day)
- What are the big trends in the market at the moment?
There are many other questions but above are a few I would like to help you answer.
The promotions you have will be individual to you so this is something you will need to decide internally however it is important to keep an eye on your competition. You do not want to have a 10% sale on an item which all of your competitors are holding a 50% sale on.
Look at Google trends. This will answer the question of what the users are searching for.
Have you budgeted correctly for the pre and post-Christmas period? We have seen some retailers double their budget pre-Christmas but more than quadruple it in January (along with the revenue). Have you budgeted correctly for this to happen? You will also need to budget for the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend. I have seen the weekend revenue alone hit almost the same figures as a whole month’s revenue in the same year.
Whilst it might be very early to 100% define exactly what offer you will be running during the pre or post-Christmas period, you will need to have a clear plan of when the offer will be live, when the ads will be ready to be pushed live and when they actually need to be pushed live along with the same offer on the website. It is important to match the messages between the website and the ad to ensure the user has a smooth journey through the whole buying process.
What else do you need to think about?
- Are you remarketing to the correct audiences?
- Are you using RLSA effectively
- Are you looking at your attribution data?
- Many people think their mobile strategy does not work because they are looking at last click data only.
- I have covered attribution in much more detail here: http://circusppc.com/ppc-attribution-attributing-your-ppc-accurately/
- You will also want to read the top 10 tips here: http://circusppc.com/top-10-tips-pay-per-click-strategy-retail/. These are things that should be in place all the time and not just for the Christmas period.
Travel Sector
The Travel sector and how this is impacted is something we would like to cover in a separate blog as it needs a more in-depth discussion, however, by applying some of the above principles you can see the sector does also pick up for certain types of travel in the winter months.
A winter holidays client would want to focus their budget during these months and look to pull back in the summer months. However, holiday deals as a whole also picks up quite a bit in January so this is something all travel companies need to be ready for and budget for.
Finance Sector
Not every sector will pick up pre-Christmas. Some actually see a drop off pre-Christmas. Finance is one of these sectors (although not for all sub sectors within Finance).
Post-Christmas, however, picks up intensely. Moreover, we usually see the conversion rates picking up during this time period. Therefore, you do need to budget for this period.
Below is an example of some of the main terms from the finance sector.
There are always 2 ways to prepare for the poorer search volume months.
The first one would be to bid more to try and capture all the traffic you can. The second one would be to hold off and save your budget for the stronger months.
Both can be used by different types of companies but you need to decide which one is right for you. Sometimes you may want to look to use a combination to get the most out of your account. It all depends on your conversion rates and ROI.
To help personalise your preparation for the pre and post-Christmas period please do get in touch.
Written by Ahmed Chopdat PPC Director at Circus PPC Agency
Circus PPC Teams Up With Google for Leeds Business Week
Circus PPC, has teamed up with Google and Seven Video Productions to deliver a seminar on ‘How to create and market video content’
With video continuing to dominate marketing strategies, Circus PPC have partnered with Google and Seven Video Productions to deliver an insightful session on the importance of video.
The seminar will cover how to create and market video in the most beneficial way. The session will be held on October 10th at Aspire in Leeds as part of Leeds Business Week.
The three partners will introduce attendees to the “Why?” of video, its importance in the modern day, how it can impact and complement other marketing activities as well as the numbers behind video on YouTube. Participants will also learn top tips on creating and marketing video content on YouTube and other social platforms.
Paul Sherwood, Business Development Director at Seven Video Productions said:
“We are excited to have partnered up with two fantastic companies, Google and Circus PPC to deliver this insightful seminar. By bringing our knowledge together, we believe we can showcase the full potential of video in the modern-day media landscape.”
Rick Tobin, MD at Circus PPC added:
“We’re delighted to be sharing our knowledge on video marketing with like-minded industry professionals at Leeds Business Week. I believe there is a lot to learn from our case studies, and I am confident that through partnering with Google and Seven Video we can truly add value to the participants’ knowledge of the creation and use of video.”
For more information visit https://leedsbizweek.com/events-seminars/event-seminar/video-the-why-how/
How to Improve Your PPC Campaigns by Understanding Your Audience
Given that today’s digital users are bombarded with countless messages, very few advertisers are successful in breaking through the noise and delivering a relevant message that drives results.
If they try to understand the psychology behind each search, marketers will be able to make better decisions that will ultimately lead to enhanced experiences that will result in a purchase.
In order to better optimise their search campaigns, marketer need to understand how users think, what stage of the purchasing journey they are at, and what are the motivations behind their search (are they just researching, comparing options or looking to buy something right now?).
If you want to improve you search campaign results, the framework below is a great starting point:
Get to know your potential customers
What is their age? Are they married? What is their propensity to spend?
Think about the personality type of your potential customer: If the user is high in openness, they’ll be more likely to experiment new things and make an impulse purchase, so you have more flexibility when it comes to creating your ads.
Understanding these key aspects about your customers will make your life a lot easier as you’ll know exactly who you have to target and how to address them.
Identify consumer intent
Given the widespread adoption of mobile devices and the high speed internet connections people share their most personal experiences and seek instant answers to their questions, unveiling their intent.
Using AI and machine learning algorithms Google analysed their huge volumes of search data and managed to categorise consumer intent into different “moments”: “I want to know” (What’s the height of the Eiffel Tower? ), “I want to go” (directions to theatre)or “I want to buy” (buy red shoes) moments.
The latter is characterised by the use of keywords similar to “buy now” or “open now” and at this stage, the user has already made his/her mind up and knows that he/she wants to make a purchase, so having a catchy offer is detrimental.
Tip for beginners: a good start would be to check your Search Terms Report and try to separate your search queries in highly themed groups.
Create a tailored message
Once you identify the “moments” you want to win it’s time to create your ads.
Research indicates that people who receive tailored ads are more likely to have a positive response, so to resonate with the user; brands need to take their targeting to the next level by delivering the right ad, to the right person at the right time.
For example, if most of the search queries in your campaign have the terms “Buy” , make sure you have that in your headline. Dynamic Headline insertions are a great tip for providing personalisation.
Provide a Seamless Digital Experience
Once you understand your customers’ buyer personas and design a tailored message that appeals to their needs, your attention should shift to creating an engaging digital experience characterized by ease of use and simplicity.
Another thing that should not be overlooked is the fact that users’ expectations are at an all-time high when it comes to website speed and personalisation so marketers should pay great attention to these aspects. A few examples below:
- As page load time goes from 1 second to 3 seconds, the probability of bounce rate increases by 32%
- Over 78% of users will only engage with promotions if they have been personalized to their previous engagements with the brand
Understanding the needs of your potential customers and what makes them tick is crucial when it comes to delivering a great PPC campaign.
If you need any help with your Audience strategy, please do get in touch.
Written by Daniel Lupu PPC Analyst at Circus PPC Agency
Google Introduces New ‘Rules’ For Campaign & Ad Group Settings
Those who work with AdWords will no doubt have upgraded to the latest version of AdWords Editor. In this new version of AdWords editor Google have introduced a set of criteria that they think would enhance a campaign’s performance. They are known as ‘rules’.
Essentially ‘Rules’ are a set of minimum requirements that they believe should be applied to your campaigns and ad groups:
- 4 or more sitelink extensions
- 4 or more callout extensions
- At least one call extension
- Target Search Partners
- Automated or enhanced CPC bidding
- Use optimise for clicks/conversions setting for ad rotation
- Even ad delivery – maximise your campaign’s daily budget
- Attach a search audience to your campaign/ad group to help increase ROI
- 3 or more ads – don’t forget standard text ads can’t be created or copied anymore
- Set up conversion tracking
- Set campaigns and ad groups to ‘Target & bid’
- Responsive ads in addition to image ads
- Enable conservative, automatic targeting to increase reach
- Do not target inactive Search or Display network audiences
Some of these really should be common practice for any account:
- 3 or more ads – If you have only 1 ad per ad group and you set your campaign to ‘show ads expected to provide more clicks’ it will only show that ad anyway. If you have a minimum of 3 ads, with different themes you then ascertain which theme is attracting the most and expand your ad copy further
- Sitelinks – Sitelinks not only link to specific site pages but they make your ad bigger, therefore more visible and more likely to attract a click
- Call extensions – while some may not consider them to be as important as the above
However, there are others that should be given some thought rather than just thinking ‘yes’ and implementing them. As I mentioned earlier, these are referred to as ‘rules’, but as they’re not mandatory we’d prefer to think of them as guidelines.
- If you have a fairly limited daily budget it may not be a good idea to set your campaign to target and bid; Google will go after new users (basically clicks) which will undoubtedly result in increased spend
- Including Search Partners may not be beneficial as it could use up budget unnecessarily as well
When you upgrade to the latest version AdWords Editor these rules are automatically enabled and could be distracting if you don’t want to enable any of the settings it recommends. However you are able to pause these rules so that they don’t constantly present themselves whenever you make changes to your campaigns and ad groups. Just go to your Shared Library and pause them. Bear in mind this isn’t for AdWords Editor as a whole, it’s per account.
Keep in mind that clicks cost money, and unnecessary clicks cost unnecessary money.
Use your judgement to decide whether any or all of these guidelines will present a benefit for your campaigns and ultimately, your client.
Top 10 Tips for a Pay-Per-Click Strategy in Retail
Having a PPC strategy is essential to generate traffic to your website and as a result, boost your sales. To ensure your PPC strategy is effective, you need to have certain practices in place, so here’s our top 10 tips on making it happen!
1. Have you set up your merchant centre account?
Correctly setting up a merchant centre account is the first step to building a successful PPC strategy. A well setup merchant centre account can be used for Google, Bing and Facebook. Review the guidelines provided by Google to make sure you are using the best practices: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6363310?hl=en-GB&ref_topic=3163841
There isn’t just one correct way of structuring your PPC account. However, a good way of doing it is to have the structure of the account reflect the structure of the website. This way you can keep a close eye on the different areas of your website and easily manage the categories.
2. Do you have KPI’s in place?
This is a no brainer. If you have no KPIs in place you cannot measure the success (or failure) of an account – or anything for that matter! Knowing where your accounts perform best, and where they’re struggling will allow you to adjust your strategy and achieve better results.
Whilst CPA is a metric used by many in the world of PPC, it is important to have an ROI or cost of sale target in retail to guarantee profitability.
To be able to understand the KPI tracking is very important. Not just Adwords, Analytics, Bing or Facebook tracking but also Call tracking as well.
3. Have you prepared a budget?
You should really look at forecasting based on market trends and you historical data. A good agency will be able to do this for you with the historical data they have and some industry data they have from other clients they will have managed within your sector. This will help you understand the ROI you can expect with your budgets.
Always agree on a budget! A good agency will discuss budgets and realistic, achievable results, even if you don’t go to them with a set budget in mind.
4. Ensure you’ve broken out all of your campaigns
Make sure your account is broken down by campaign type. Search, shopping, display and video campaigns all behave a differently, and therefore it is a good idea to track their performance separately so we can have a separate strategy.
Make sure you break out the shopping campaigns and use prioritisations to help send traffic down the correct channel. There are many different ways of doing this. I personally prefer to break out not just by brand but also by price range.
5. Remember to use merchant promotions and promotion extensions
Promotion extensions are still in beta but merchant promotions have been around for quite a while. They help you stand out from the crowd, especially when the price offering might be similar.
Promotion extensions for search ads are currently in beta but if you have a good PPC agency they should be able to get you on to the beta for this.
6. Plan for seasonality
Each account won’t work all the time. It is important to look at trends data to ensure you are planning in advance.
You can get insights data here: https://trends.google.co.uk/trends/. However, if your account has been live for a while, your account data is invaluable. Bear in mind, if you have a wide range of products the seasonality of different products will be different as well.
7. Take advantage of remarketing and RLSA
A lot of visitors will be coming to your website and not converting the first time so it will be vital to ensure you retarget these people on the display network whilst also ensuring if they search for a relevant term again you appear in a strong position. By increasing (or decreasing) the bid, you can make sure you reach the right audience. For example, if someone searches for strollers and comes to the website and then leaves, but later does a search for a chrome luxury stroller, they are more likely to convert so you may increase the bid for these people by 10% (You would adjust the bid for RLSA based on performance).
8. Do not forget about Bing
We find Bing usually performs better than Google in terms of conversion rates for retail although the search volume is lower. Many people forget about Bing. We have written blogs about this in the past here: http://circusppc.com/why-your-ppc-strategy-should-include-bing-ads/
9. Ensure you are always on top of your ad copy
Ad copy is one of the keys to the success of retail search. Ensuring you have a good blend of driving a strong Quality Score, making sure your special offers and USPs are included, and the copy reads well is crucial. We have written many blogs on the best ways to write ads, but the best way to achieve great results is by testing various options and then choosing the one which converts best whilst continuing to test more.
10. Make sure you look at attribution data
A lot of people forget (and ignore) that some keywords drive a lot of the initial traffic at the beginning of the funnel, which leads to sales. By pausing these keywords, you will see an overall decline in the performance. We have gone into a lot more detail here: http://circusppc.com/ppc-attribution-attributing-your-ppc-accurately/
For more information on retail strategies or to help with your strategy please do get in touch.
How Consumer Behaviour Trends Shape the Digital Ad Industry
As the consumer behaviour in the digital landscape is rapidly changing, most brands find themselves forced to adjust their marketing efforts in order to provide engaging experiences that lead to customer satisfaction.
To understand how consumers can shape the direction of the ad industry, let’s have a look at the consumer buying process and identify the stages where the interaction between brands and users is really high.
Information Search
Given that it might represent the first touch point, this stage of the buying process is extremely important, so advertisers have to take into account the following:
- Site Speed: Even though this is nothing new, site speed is crucial as more and more users expect fast and seamless digital experiences
- Voice Search: consumers are now turning to their virtual assistants, so brands should keep this in mind when optimising their PPC campaigns
Evaluation of Alternatives
At this stage of the buying process, the user already has an idea of what he or she wants to buy and might start comparing different products. This is also the stage when they get bombarded with remarketing ads, so brands need to deliver a relevant message. Unfortunately, advertisers often get this wrong which might leave consumers tempted to use an ad blocker.
According to a recent study, more than 600 million devices on a global scale are running ad blockers and one of the main reasons for this practice is that some ads are invasive and highly irrelevant.
Rather than using existing data to shout at users, marketers should start listening to their needs and wants in order to deliver personal experiences that create a sense of mutual trust.
Purchase Decision
At this point, the user has already explored multiple options and is ready to move forward with the purchase. This step can be easily disrupted by numerous factors, so marketers need to start upping their game and aim to deliver value through highly-engaging ads and personalised experiences.
From smartphones and tablets to laptops and desktop computers, the digital consumers are now using more than 2-3 devices to search the web and make purchases, so delivering a personalised experience across multiple touch points is of crucial importance.
As users now have more power than ever to influence the digital industry, marketers should focus their efforts on building long term relationships through personalised & contextual messages that provide value.
Delivering relevant ads that serve both clients and consumers is one of the core values embraced at Circus, so if you need any help with your PPC advertising, please get in touch.
Written by Daniel Lupu PPC Analyst at Circus PPC Agency
Google Updates Its Quality Score Criteria
Up until recently quality scores were quite vague in their detail.
The quality score of any keyword vastly affects the bid you need to assign to it as well as how Google favours that keyword against other keywords (whether you have different match types or a competitor has higher quality scores).
In the ‘old’ days the only immediate information you were given were hidden in those bubbles in the status column. They simply told you if your keyword or ad was being displayed or not. And the reason for the ad not being displayed was down to keyword quality score, and the keyword quality score being affected by ‘ad relevance’.
Last month Google did something to make quality scoring assessment much, much clearer by introducing these new columns:
- Expected CTR
- Landing Page Experience
- Ad Relevance
You can add these by doing the following:
Having these three columns on display gives you a very quick overview of the performance of your keywords. It works simply by using average as its measurement benchmark
Let’s concentrate on Landing Page Experience and Ad Relevance as these are the ones which most directly affect your keyword quality score.
If all these are above average you can enjoy lower CPCs, greater exposure and better use of your budget.
If any of these are below average then you have work to do.
Ad Relevance:
- Are you sending the right messages to your audience in the ad copy?
- Call To Action – is your ad copy encouraging visitors to ‘buy today’?
- Seasonality – are there any Summer promotions you haven’t mentioned in your ad copy?
- Relevance – are you showing an ad for red wine to people searching for red wine?
- Product type – are you showing a generic ad for ‘vacuum cleaners’ when someone actually wants, and searches for ‘upright vacuum cleaners’
Several factors come into play when determining ad relevance:
- Tightly themed ad groups with only related keywords
- Content relevance – does your ad copy mention any of your keywords?
- Include one of your keywords in your URL ‘path’ – basically the new version of the Display URL
Landing Page Experience – how relevant and ‘good’ is your website?
- If you have an ad group with keywords about buying red wine, you want to make sure the landing page you are sending users to is about buying red wine – relevant content is crucial!
- How ‘good’ is your site? Google consider several factors in determining landing page experience:
- Speed – most users are known to lose interest if page loading speed is more than 4 seconds for each page
- Compatibility – not everyone uses the same browser; is the site compatible with the most popular browsers?
- Mobile – is your site mobile friendly? Search has seen a fundamental shift towards mobile over the past couple of years; phones are getting bigger and better as are mobile connections. Mobile is by far the leading device in terms of the first search. If your site is not mobile friendly then you risk distancing a lot of those initial users
Landing pages are the job of the web developer so it’s important to communicate with them (either directly or through your client) to create a better page experience for the user. The above factors are key components. Dedicated, relevant mobile friendly landing pages will help lower CPCs, and ultimately CPAs.
Google has a tool that will help you ascertain how well your website works across mobile and desktop – https://testmysite.withgoogle.com/intl/en-gb/