Paid Search is one of the most effective forms of advertising. PPC (Pay Per Click–another way of describing Paid Search) advertisements place your product or service directly in front of the people who are already interested in it. The two places that you can advertise online through paid search are Search Networks and Display Networks.
The best way to find out which one (if not both) will work best for your paid search campaign is to test both options! What Search and Display Networks have in common is that they are both great ways to attract visitors to your website, increase conversions and help expand your business.
For those of you that aren’t already familiar with the difference between a Search Networks and Display Networks, here’s the rundown:
Search Network: When a user searches on Google (or any other search engine), relevant ads will be featured in the ‘Ads’ section on the search engine results page. This means that your ads are seen by highly targeted users looking for your product. Therefore you are likely to have a higher click through rate.
Display Network: Your ads will show up on relevant websites rather than search engine results pages. This means that users don’t even have to search for your product to see your ads. The important thing to realize about Display Network advertising is that your ads will be seen by potential customers that aren’t actively searching for your product. You will have a greater reach to prospective customers by running ads on Display Networks, increasing brand awareness.
Main takeaway: Both Search and Display Networks can be extremely effective and will allow you to catch potential customers at different stages of the sales cycle. The best way to find out which method is right for your business is to test, test, test!
Tags: brand awareness, display networks, Google, paid search, PPC, search networks, Webmarketing123
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The top goal for many B2B companies is to close deals and generate more leads. With the new quarter just beginning, companies are scrambling to meet their end of the year goals. So, what is your business doing to achieve that? There are many ways to improve your company’s performance—an excellent way is to evaluate and improve the success of your company’s website on the search engine results page.
Search Marketing is extremely cost-effective for driving traffic to your website. Last week’s webinar on How to Turn Visitors into Customers, Travis Low (Director of Search Marketing) focused on how to capitalize on that volume by making your site as user-friendly and improving your conversion rate.
What needs to be defined first is: “What is a Conversion?” Simply put, a conversion is a visitor performing some type of action on a page. This can be someone who is filling out a form, signing up for a Newsletter, or registering on your site. Where conversions happen really depends on your website. They can take place on your home page or a landing page; anywhere you would set a goal or a desired use of action. For us at Webmarketing123, we like to ask to our clients a few simple questions:
1. How does your site make money?
2. What do you want users to do when they get there?
The initial factor you need to focus on is to make your site aesthetically pleasing with color, design and graphics. You need to design the website to get visitors to become customers.
Another great way to turn visitors into customers is to test your website. If your site is user friendly, you are more likely to gain more customers. Some usability best practices include:
- Assign Visual Priority- Size and weight should represent relative importance when it comes to the actual page. If you’re looking to show someone something that is important to you or them it should be large or heavy.
- Consider Visitor’s Eye Path- What will users notice and in what order? If you were to take 10 people out of your company and do a focus group, what would they see first on your site? Where do their eyes go? A quick and easy way to analyze how users see your website.
- Clear Call to Action- Clearly announce what you want users to do. Example: Sign up for our Email Newsletter! (Should be very prominent)
- Make Steps Clear- Identify what the user is going to do next and where they should go
In addition, a majority of companies use Google Analytics but most don’t know how to use the advanced features. Google Analytics is a great way to test your website and see how your site is converting customers. Here are a few ways to measure your site and see if it is reaching your goals:
- Funnel Visualization – Where do people exit your goal path? For example, if your goal path is to get a visitor to fill out a form, how many are going all the way to clicking the submit button?
- Reverse Goal Path- What path do visitors take to complete a goal? npAre they coming from anywhere else?
- Assign Goal Value- Which pages provide the most value? If someone is filling out a form, what is that form fill-out worth to you? Assign a type of value.
- Site Overlay- Where on the page do users click?
This is a lot of information to digest, so I’ll leave you with a few key takeaways:
- Home pages and landing pages should reflect usability best practices to emphasize conversion elements and ensure users perform desired actions.
- Google Analytics provides data that will help to determine what has the greatest effect is on conversions.
- A well-managed: Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign can widen your sales funnel while decreasing your sales cycle by bringing highly qualified leads.
-@SarahShakour
Tags: conversion rate, Conversions, Google analytics, landing page, paid search, Pay Per Click, PPC, qualified leads, Search Engine Marketing, website usability
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For those of you who missed our webinar on BingHoo! or want a refresher, here’s a brief recap of Wednesday’s presentation. Big thanks to Antonio, Travis and Ben for leading the way on this one—but more importantly, to everyone who tuned in. Thank you for your questions and comments – we appreciate the constant participation!
The subject of this week’s Webmarketing123 webinar was the emerging alliance between Bing (Microsoft) and Yahoo search engines. We have to stress the fact that although the two companies are teaming up for many SEO, PPC and web search purposes, this alliance is not to be misconstrued as a merger between Microsoft and Yahoo. BingHoo!, as it’s being called, will maintain the Yahoo interface, while all organic searches for web, images, video and queries, as well as paid search results, will be powered by Bing.
In addition to the 5 Pillars of SEO (Keywords, Site Content, Meta Content, URL’s, and In-bound Links) that we have discussed at length in other webinars, a few major points to take away from Wednesday’s BingHoo! webinar are as follows:
- In the next year, as the alliance unfolds, focus more on optimizing for Bing than Yahoo. Be sure to have Bing Webmaster Tools installed.
- After the transition, Bing will represent roughly 30% of overall search queries.
- Incorporate and understand your new Bing webmaster tools and pay close attention to how the Bing Spiders crawl through your searches!
And here are a few tips on preparation for the new BingHoo! alliance:
- Continue to place your main focus on Google, a.k.a. the King. Typically, what Google does is followed by Yahoo and Bing.
- Look to optimize your searches using Bing algorithms – obtain “exact” domain matches whenever possible.
- Keep in mind that Bing favors sub-domain or root-domain keywords, so be sure that your domain names are effectively optimized.
- As always, be sure to obtain fresh in-bound links from a diverse array of sites. The greater variety of in-bound linkage that you have, the more traffic your site will receive.
As the effects of this alliance reveal themselves, the most important thing is to stay current on your company’s optimization. Look into in the future and plan for the long-term by planting the seeds for the release of new products within your keywords. Keep up with the pulse of your company’s keyword selection—it’s good practice to run a quarterly review of your keyword basket. Also, make sure that you’re in touch with your consumers and are able to effectively identify the language they use in regards to your company and products, as well as your industry as a whole.
With that said, keep your links fresh, keep your site content relevant and substantial, and optimize, optimize, optimize. SEO is the best way to boost traffic to your site!
Thanks again to everyone who participated in this week’s webinar. Next Wednesday’s webinar will be on integrating your SEO with social media. To sign up for next week’s webinar, please visit http://bit.ly/Web123-Webinar –it’s going to be a good one!
- Seth
Tags: 5 pillars, Bing, Bing-Hoo!, Google, in-bound links, PPC, SEO, Webinar, Webmarketing123, Yahoo
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Warning!
When I was a kid, my parents from time to time left me in charge of my younger brother. Since we both still had all our limbs when they returned, they figured it worked just fine and they could keep on doing it. Neither my brother nor I particularly enjoyed it, but we coped. (Kicking and screaming are valid methods of coping, right?)
I bring this up because the biggest problem with me taking care of my brother, from my perspective, was unsupervised thinking. When he was quiet and calm, it was NOT a blessing; it was a warning that he was about to break out in a new direction. It was much better if I could preemptively direct his thoughts toward a safe goal, like a nice game of 52-pickup, before he came up with something like indoor dodgeball.
Unsupervised thinking is dangerous when it comes to website visitors as well, as I learned today in our webinar, Proven Copywriting for SEO and PPC. When people click on a PPC ad, they arrive at a landing page. That page should give them clear direction about what to do next: fill out a form, download a white paper, request a demo, etc. A little guidance will help a lot with your conversion rate.
If the page has too much information on it, the clickers get confused or frustrated. They may forget why they came to your site in the first place. They may click away to some other site instead of staying to buy your product or request more information. Help them out; give them a clear and simple path for their thoughts, a goal to click toward.
Tags: Blogs, Conversion Rates, Highlights, PPC, SEO
Posted in Pay Per Click, Search Engine Optimization, Webinar Highlights, Webmarketing123.com | No Comments »
