A/B testing is a great way to optimize your campaign. By testing with different variations of your ad, you will gain valuable insights into what appeals to your customers.
You should be prepared to test: different pictures, calls to action, main body copy and landing pages. Your total test duration should be two to four weeks. Once you have a good grip on what ads are driving traffic and sales you should narrow your scope and focus on two or three iterations of your ad (this depends on what audiences you’re trying to reach). Last, but not least, you should conduct A/B testing multiple times throughout the year to ensure that your messaging is keeping up with seasonal changes and shifting consumer interests.
You could be pleasantly surprised at what you will find with this type of testing.
I am new to paid search advertising. What are the three essential tips I should use when getting started?
Set Specific Goals: Ask yourself what is it that you want the marketing program to do? (Email sign ups, registration, video views, purchases, click). Know Your Financial Target: Financial targets should be set according to your cost per acquisition, cost per lead, or cost per sale. We recommend starting by setting your targets at or below your acquisition costs. Be Specific When Creating Your Ads: Use specific words to describe your product and make sure that you have a clear call to action.
Have fun and be patient! It takes a little bit of time to find your sweet spot.
Should I tweak the messaging of my NTENT campaign over time?
Yes! The mindset of consumers changes over time as does your product offering. Springtime, Mother’s Day and Memorial Day are great opportunities to play off of consumer excitement for this season and the upcoming holidays . Align your products with these holidays and play off of seasonal shopping trends. For example, “Just 1 week left to show your mom you care”. Change up the messaging as it gets closer to the day to play off of consumer guilt and last minute holiday shoppers.
What is the best way that I can utilize social media to complement my paid search efforts?
Social and paid search are great stand alone marketing tools but when used together they can be very powerful. The trick is to ensure that efforts on each of the platforms complement each other. For example, you could use your existing paid search campaign to support a promotion you are having for your Facebook fans. This allows you to achieve a number of objectives: Drive “Likes” to your Facebook page, advertise your promotion, expose your brand and create a fan base.
If you are having a special promotion that is only available on your site you can use all your channels to promote the same message which means you create one consistent message on Facebook, Twitter, and paid search. Each of these efforts should drive customers to the promotion in order to achieve maximum results. How you leverage paid search and social will depend on the unique marketing goals of your company.
What are the advantages of having multiple digital advertising methods?
Multichannel digital marketing gives advertisers the advantage of reaching prospective consumers through multiple touch points. You not only cast a wider net in terms of maximizing your branding efforts, but you also have the ability to appeal to consumers in the areas where they are most engaged. By leveraging different digital marketing methods you can increase marketing efficiencies, effectiveness and costs by using the strengths of each channel appropriately for your business needs.
What can I do to prepare better for mobile search?
We’ve put together the following key tips to help you better position yourself for the future of mobile search:
Location matters – use it & infuse it. Make sure you indicate your location on your website and your entire digital outreach program. Be sure to include both local and regional information to maximize your business appeal.
Create messages that respond to who, what, when, where. This makes the information you present to your consumer “fool proof” by keeping it simple and to the point.
Be descriptive and engaging. Don’t just tell consumers what your product is, make sure you tell them what your product can do for them and outline the benefits.
Showcase recommendations and customer reviews. Showcasing customer feedback on your site is a great way to not only build up your SEO profile but it’s a great way to gain trust from consumers who are considering purchasing your product. If you have a feedback tool already enabled, don’t be afraid to showcase it. If not, it’s time to start exploring a mechanism that you can include on your site.
Develop linked user paths through descriptions. Developing a better internal linking strategy does double duty – it keeps users on your site longer and it also can help boost your SEO rankings thus making your business more visible over time.
What is the difference between CPM and CPC?
This a great question. In the world of digital advertising, there are a number of ways in which advertisers can opt to pay for their campaigns. The two most common are CPC (cost-per-click) or CPM (cost per impression).
When you pay by CPC, you pay a per-determined amount for every click you get, for example $2.00 for every user that clicks on your ad, and all the impressions that your ad receives comes to you at no cost. When you choose a CPM plan, it is typically based on a rate for a certain number of impressions, for example, $1.50 per every 1,000 impressions. Is one better than the other? That depends on the specific goals of your campaign, your budget and overall preference. It is always good to start with a test to determine which is more effective for you.
Is it too late to launch my holiday campaign?
No! But time is of the essence. Over the next few days you will need to kick it into high gear and get your turkeys in a row. You will want the program to be live for as long as possible prior to Black Friday, the good news is that there is still time left to create a impactful campaign tailored to these holiday shoppers. Call us (646-561-8629) and we can start driving holiday traffic to your website within an hour.
Why do I have to continue to tweak my messaging throughout the holidays?
The mindset of consumers changes overtime. Black Friday and Cyber Monday present great opportunities to play off of consumer excitement and pressure to get the best holiday deals and shopping done. Whereas, December presents a great opportunity to play off the pressure of the fast approaching holiday; for example, “Christmas is 10 Days Away”. You can also use online campaigns to drive in-store traffic the closer it gets to the big holiday.
What are some good sources to use when trying to develop my promotional plan?
We know that finding the information for national holidays is a breeze, but finding more unconventional “special day” observances can be challenging. We have made it easy. Check out this guide for special day observances. For regional and local festivals and dates check your state and city commerce sites.
How much lead time should I apply when considering specific holiday promotions?
This depends on the holiday. For example, Christmas promotions can start two months or more, prior, depending on the product. On the other hand, Father’s Day spending begins to increase about 4 weeks out. A good rule of thumb is 4 to 6 weeks ahead of the holiday but, remember, as the holiday approaches you will want to change up your messaging and indicate that time is of the essence. And, for the holidays that run for a month long – keep promoting them from beginning to end.
What is semantic technology and what is the benefit of using it?
Semantic technology is able to understand both content and context. Traditional search engines or technologies are only able to understand content; they cannot understand the context of a word. Think of semantic technology like a human brain. For example, semantic technology can answer: does “java” refer to a computer programming language, a coffee drink or an island in the Pacific? Semantic ad matching technology automatically discovers relationships and understands similarities between ad content and publishers web pages, then displays ads next to relevant content which optimizes response rates. This then eliminates the need for advertisers to select and manage keywords – which is extremely time consuming!
How can you ensure that your website and landing pages are equipped for a rising trend in semantic technology advertising?
The power of semantic technology lies in the way that it can determine what content is relevant. Relevant ads are just one part of the equation. If a relevant ad is driving a potential consumer to your website, then you will want to make sure that the potential consumer is engaged with the content on your site. Provide targeted or interactive experiences for your audience, which will inevitably create more time spent with your brand. Develop copy that is clear in communicating who you are and what you are offering so that the visitor knows what to expect from your website and brand. Don’t be afraid to incorporate social media to create a dialogue. Let visitors follow you, tweet about you or even just leave comments. Lastly, remember to be dynamic. Don’t be afraid to change things up to see what people are responding to!
Why do I need to focus on campaign tracking? What metrics should I focus on?
Many marketers and/or small business owners often overlook the importance of web analytics or only focus on one metric–sales conversions–which doesn’t paint the entire picture or highlight the key benefits of running an ad campaign. Successful campaign tracking provides business owners and marketers the opportunity to identify strengths and weaknesses to help improve ad campaigns and focus throughout the year.
To get a holistic view of your online ad campaign it is essential to not only look at sales but to also focus on: page views, page views per visit, time spent, bounce rate, and visits to purchase.
Campaign tracking will help you to identify your best sellers and help you find out where your converting traffic is coming from. You can also identify patterns in how people move from being searchers to prospective consumers to consumers.
Who are my prospective consumers?