Eight PPC Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
Is a business model whereby a company that has placed an advertisement on a website pays a sum of money to the host website when a user clicks on to the advertisement.

This form of marketing is one of the best digital marketing tools every business owner should have in their marketing arsenal, according to Jomer Gregorio, author of "Top 8 PPC Marketing Mistakes to Avoid (Infographic)". Natural search traffic through SEO still tops the traffic generation pack, PPC generates as much as 64.6% clicks, making it the second most effective lead generation tool. 72% of marketers increased their PPC budgets last year, with small business owners averaging at least $1200 spent on PPC campaigns. As a fault, many businesses poorly manage their PPC campaigns resulting in negative results. Mr. Gregorio and his team came up with an overview of the top eight PPC marketing mistakes so that business owners/marketers won't commit those same mistakes:

1. Too Broad Keyword Targeting - make sure keywords are precise and properly focused
2. Not Using Specific Campaign Type - one of the most effective display advertising channels online is from the Google Display Network (chance to reach out to as much as 92% of all online traffic in America)
3. Running Untested ADs - use things such as A/B, multivariate, and other test methods to confirm the efficacy of a certain campaign
4. Using Poorly Created Landing Pages - generate leads (gives digital marketers up to 54% more leads)
5. Using Poor Call-To-Action Terms - make sure and have effective CTA
6. Putting Too Much Focus on the Number One Position - Focus on conversion rate
7. Targeting the Wrong Audience - Decide on demographics such as age and location
8. Overlooking the Power of Remarketing - Understand the power of remarketing

Marketing has so many detailed parts that businesses must be aware of in order to ensure they are optimizing their online presence. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) seems like a wonderful investment, even for small business owners looking to grow their online marketing tactics. Jomer Gregorio was correct in laying out some of the top mistakes that a lot of PPC marketers make because a lot of those aspects are easy to overlook. Business owners could think that "my business and what we offer is unlike many other companies, I don't need to worry about broad keywords" when in reality, those are the exact businesses struggling with the number one issue Jomer spoke of. 

This organization is a great example of how to use PPC marketing. Olay is a cosmetics company that uses symbols (Ex. Trademark symbol) and offers (Ex. "Get a Free Skin Consultation"). When googling "Olay," you can see that they have taken the time to eliminate mistakes, such as the examples Gregorio reviewed in his post. 

 

Marketing Through Email

SPAM This is what I first think of when I hear people talk about email marketing... But after reading a great article by Ifran Ahmad, I am more educated on the true importance of emailing as a business. 

In today's society, I am naturally accustomed to social media and I know how important it is for companies to have some sort of presence in that aspect. It is very hard for me to see email marketing as something that is just, if not more, important than social media. "#SocialMedia Vs. Email Marketing - #Infographic" helped me to see how much actual research has gone into email marketing and how it compares to the growing social media craze. Research has shown that it would be a costly mistake for business owners to toss email marketing out entirely.

Email Marketing

• For all SMM (Social Media Marketing), email is still converting better
• Spending on email marketing campaigns increased by 60% in 2012, resulting in a 4,000% return on investment
• When someone opts in to an email list it is to learn more about product/service, resulting in a relationship with that customer 
• Provides availability from "just a mouse click away"
• Social media channels are more complementary and additive to email than displacing

-VERSES-

Social Media

• When someone 'likes' a Facebook post or follows a company on Twitter, the context is typically more indirect and less overtly commercial
• More geared toward sharing status updates with friends
• Less direct, more entertaining approach that respects the nature of why people visit sites like Facebook works the best
• People on Facebook like to stay on Facebook
• Most social media can run laser targeted ad campaigns to target markets
• Capture interesting individuals in Facebook ads to an email list by incorporating an opt-in form inside your campaign

Both are very different and distinct marketing channels that can both be effective for your business. As someone who has pretty much grown up with social media, it's hard for me to get away from much of anything being more important for businesses that marketing through social media. But now I understand and really see why email marketing is just as important.

BUZZFEED

This growing organization is known for its well-written subject lines within their emails. They are said to be "short and punchy," great for individuals in today's society that are drawn to things that don't look like they are going to take forever to read. Also, they have arranged their emails to have a preview text that accompany's the subject line. 

Search Engine Optimization Techniques To Master

Thanks to Jim Yu, author of "5 Essential SEO Techniques To Master In 2015", web designers, business owners, bloggers, and any other online entity can have an idea of what they should be focused on. Companies with an online presence have seen the importance of SEO, and are continuing to focus more on the success of their SEO in order to unsure profitability for their company. It is amazing the detail of online resources and small things like SEO's that can benefit an organization.

Jim Yu's keys for successful marketers:

Map Strategy To Audience & Competitive Insights

Find data points that can help:

• Identify new ways to tackle adjacent markets
• Discover new keywords to target
• Understand what types of content perform
• See where the competition is doing well, and where you can do better

Align Your Content & SEO Teams

• Start with strategic content

• Apply SEO best practices to better maximize its value and visibility online

• Establish a clear workflow from content creation to optimization.

Make Mobile SEO A Priority

Like I've stated in a previous post, in today's society, mobile accessibility is a major key to success with your online presence. There is a huge target market that you are partaking in when you ensure your SEO has mobile marketing. But remember to keep in mind:

• Even though Google recommends a responsive design, you may find that a hybrid approach suits you best for your marketing needs.

• Whichever route you choose, Google wants sites to render above-the-fold content in under one second. Slow sites could negatively impact mobile rankings.

Find Measurement & Reporting That Works

• Reporting does not have to become increasingly complex. In 2015, SEOs should focus on simplifying their data sources and work to uncover the right information via structured data sources

• Identifying the KPIs that truly matter to prove marketing efforts (those that impact the business)

• Obtaining the technology that can pull multiple data sources into one platform to provide real insights in performance.

Integrate SEO Data Across Teams

• SEO practitioner/team is working towards some of the same goals as other teams are. 

When these various marketing teams share their learnings and work in tandem for cross-channel marketing, the concerted effort can be much stronger than when performed alone.

Meridian Financial

One success story of a small business having a successful SEO that caused their company to "hit it big on the web" is Meridian Financial. This small firm is located in Holliston, Massachusetts and also serves clients in the Boston metro area and Cape Cod, MA. The firm is a registered investment advisor (RIA), regulated by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In 10 months, Meridian Financial doubled their average monthly web traffic and gained top-20 Google rankings. This is proof that taking the time to ensure a solid SEO strategy pays off, even for smaller companies. 

As a young soon-to-be graduate of a business program, it is comforting to know that even a small business is capable of receiving large customer views and opportunity simply by being up-to-date and active on the web. That creates great chance for young entrepreneurs like myself.

Tools For Great Web Analytics

Need alternatives for successful analytics? 
Thanks to the author of "The Top 31 Best Web Analytics Tools", Ankit Oberoi, there are an abundant supply of resources for businesses looking to advance their online presence. Here are a couple that Oberoi suggests:

Clicky

Known to be one of the most "robust" analytic tools currently. It provides many traffic identifiers from outside viewers to your website. Here are some of Clicky's characteristics:

• Provides real-time data
• Easy to install
• Automatically feeds your website with keywords individuals are using to access it
• Twitter Search Tracking - monitors twitter hashtags, retweets, and keywords
• Has mobile access, an iPhone app, called ClickyTouch
• 21 day free trial for all accounts

KISSmetrics

The developers of KISSmetrics claim that this tool keeps track of potential customers/viewers before, after, and during the purchasing processes on a businesses website. KISSmetrics is known for:

• Real-time data - automatically updated allowing you to see trends as they are happening
• Helps website owners find their weakest aspect of their website
• Allows split testing of different layouts 
• Highly intuitive interface
• Price: Starts at $250 per month for up to 500,000 events

It is amazing to me that there are so many online tools to improve an online presence for businesses developing websites. It is important for business owners to research tools like these in order to give their website the best opportunity to be successful and competitive with other companies. 

NASA

Google Analytics dominates 51% of the fortune 500 companies. One company of many that uses this specific tool is NASA. They rely on Google Analytics to watch their view traffic throughout their website and what percent is viewed on mobile devises. This company has constant live streaming occurring, making it very important for them to receive videos and images in the highest quality as possible. 

Trendy Web Design Tactics

Image Is Everything
Coming from the generation that judges nearly solely on how attractive something is to the eye, it only makes sense that I view Web Design a HUGE necessity for a successful website. Even with businesses that have had an online presence since the beginning, it is crucial that those same companies keep up-to-date with today's online trends in order to gain customer appeal. 

Successful websites must master:

Mobile Focus

 In today's society, mobile technology has grown to an ultimate high. Nearly every individual owns a cellular device with online capabilities. If a company does not set up their online website to be assessable on mobile devises, they will lose out on a very large target market.

Interactive scrolling

Viewers love to interact with websites by scrolling through, seeing images that connect with posts, and a smooth flow throughout the page.

Flat design

Cutting through potential clutter that may distract viewers is a characteristic that builds a strong and successful website. 

Single Page

By having a single page, it eliminates confusion of where information is located within the website and provides the viewer with direct communication of what the company is trying to portray. If a company can build a solid one page website, they may later begin to build off of that in order to broaden their website.

Clean Simple Layout
                  
Similarly to the flat and single page design, having a clean and simple layout removes distraction from the website. This should include bold photography that portrays the images that the company stands for, appealing layout, and "typography" meaning text content.

crosswebideas.com

Nixon
A great example of a successful and appealing website is Nixon watches and premium accessories. They have a very slick/"flat" and simple design that draws attention to their specially products. Images are very large and their text is bold, bringing viewers into what they are advertising. Throughout their website they have clean and simple views of what the customer is looking for and how to get to it.

Video On Successful Blogging for Businesses

Lori Wilkinson did a great job of explaining how to start in the process of getting into blogging for business owners. Many individuals have no idea where to start in the process and give up from the start. Ms. Wilkinson gives a detailed description of some of the beginning steps in helping business owners become successful bloggers.

One business that is a great example of having a successful blog is Proctor & Gamble. They target a very specific market, typically of men. There are very few blogs that men can really relate to, making Proctor & Gamble's Blog a great place for men to read about many different things that they may be interested in. Some of these that P&G cover are technology, cars, money, career, family, and fitness. One thing that I found very appealing was their use of pictures to capture the attention of their readers. Many times when I look at a blog that has a lot to read, I skip it due to the fact that I do not feel that I have the time to sit and read through a long article. There are many things that make Proctor & Gamble's blog appealing to me, but those are a few of the highlights.