Nicholas James

I've worked with 50+ investment companies on lead-gen. 90% struggled with passing ad regulations. Here's 3 tips to ensure that your ads pass: 1. FCA - Google Ads to the UK need an FCA number - If you don't have one, run campaigns overseas to English speakers Want an up-to-date list on which countries you're allowed to target? ↳ Message me 'COUNTRY' and I'll send the top-performers over. 2. Ad content - Ads are not allowed to be misleading - Don't advertise any guarantees that you can't fulfill - Your content must be correct to your services/ products 3. Compliance - If you have a compliance team, have them sign ads off - Train them up on the FCA advertising regulations Following the FCA regulations is so important. Use the tips above to keep yourself out of trouble.

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Last week Entropy held the UK advertiser trade body ISBA's first ever session focussing on Amazon ads. We took members through a case study showing how our faster, cheaper approach to Marketing Mix Modelling (MMM) can be used to measure and optimise the channel for incremental sales. Amazon spend still dominates retail media spend globally. However, as the discussion with some of the largest advertisers in the UK confirmed the majority don't measure and optimise it optimally for incremental sales. What is the consequence of that? Well, simply put you almost certainly could be making your budget work significantly harder by maximising its effectiveness and efficiency. If you'd like to be taken through the case study for your brand feel free to get in touch. You can also read a short summary of our approach via the link in the comments. #amazon #amazonads #retailmedia #mmm #marketingmixmodelling #econometrics Bobi Carley Mark Willock Stephen Chester Nicholas Louisson

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Advertising just works - long story short there are more businesses who can benefit from better advertising through digital channels. They just don’t know how to put the systems, resources and people in place to deliver. Techy PPC stuff aside you need to know what your LTV or / AOV is per customer (net) and work on a channel to repeatedly acquire new customers profitably (or even at a small loss if needed). Then steadily grow that channel or add more. Yes channels complement each other but the main thing is Do more and do better. One of our clients wanted to take his offline business - online but with anew brand, new domain 0 customers in a really competitive market. No brand search, previous sales data or repeat customers to bank on. I wanted to share this because as optimistic as I am we had planned to be a little bit behind this at this point(ad spend is relatively small at this early stage). Still have a long long way to go but worth it. In this case we’re using a mix of pmax and standard shopping. I’m not 100% happy and still building. Also Attribution is a bit painful (both inGA4 & in platform) but we know ads are driving sales and are growing month on month. Client is happy so we get to eat our pot noodles next week 😊

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Check out our latest article on how to maximise the usefulness of your existing databases. #b2bdata

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Google Ad Red Flag #1 🚩 I audit so many Google Ad accounts that just tick over. Often when you look at the last 12 months data; - No experiments or A/B tests have been run ❌ - The same 1 ad in each campaign has been running for ages ❌ - The same bidding strategies and settings have been used ❌ - Minimal new campaign testing and structure testing ❌ - Just keyword and bidding tweaks 😅 ❓ So my Google Ad Red Flag #1 is - ‘Not A/B testing’ and look I get it!….. I think people get scared to run tests BUT it’s one of the best ways to keep improving results Sometimes tests don’t work but you still learn from them and when they do work you can keep compounding your wins into better results What tests do you like to run in your paid ad or digital campaigns? #ppc #payperclick #googleads #searchmarketing #googleadvertising #sem

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5 things you should know about Revenue Per Head for Agencies. - It’s a bespoke target 🎯 It needs to be calculated for each individual agency; never adopt a generic target. - Once you’ve got your RPH target then cross check against your ratecard and utilisation targets. It needs to be achievable at a sustainable utilisation - It’s an overall target and will take into account count all headcount (permanent and freelance) whether they fee earning or not. - I would work out a revenue target for fee earners (rate x utilisation x days). This will help with recruitment. - it’s main use is to check on progress. A more immediate guide to profitability is the ratio of people costs to revenue. But RPH can track progress on how successful we have been on selling, pricing and delivery. Want to check on your Revenue Per Head and what it says about your Agency? Always happy to talk.

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I love it when brands do sexy PPC. Great example here of using: 1️⃣ Audience data 2️⃣ Location data 3️⃣ Copywriting skills To make their ad relevant and effective. Reminding me (a customer) that I don’t need to use Splitwise Inc. when I have Monzo Bank! The use of site links, that are relevant and enticing is a fantastic touch. Great example of how even a fairly dry subject, can be a chance to upsell your customer. The only way to stand out on the SERP is an effective ad - don’t forget that!

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This site is an extremely interesting case. Brand in the finance sector. Destroyed by the HCU update 2023. Backlinks from digital PR (and paid links), albeit some of the digital PR ones are totally off-topic, and some look like paid DPR placements. The site increased its content by 1000 pages in a year, so I suggest that it might have used AI content to scale. The site is well-designed, with lots of E-E-A-T elements. My gut says this site was hit by multiple factors: a bit of waffly content, some link devaluation, and AI content. It looks like they've deleted over 1000 pages a matter of weeks after being hit, so perhaps they took a chance. An interesting case, might reach out to the owners of this one.

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Here’s a link to the slide deck from my talk yesterday at brightonSEO on Tactics v Strategy #seo #strategy https://lnkd.in/esd6Yvsm

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Your Mileage May Vary… We had two great chats in the PPC Chat community this week with Ginny Marvin of Google Ads discussing Google Marketing Live and all of the new features and recommendations that came out of it. Lots of talk about AI generated content and assets, ads appearing in AI search results, the role of Ad Strength in our accounts and the role of Optiscore. One of my big takeaways was a reminder that every account is different. I mean, we all know this, but it is easy to get caught up in the hoopla of an event like GML and temporarily forget this basic tenet of PPC. The most important concept for you to remember as you sift through all of the GML announcements and begin to think about how/if they might work in your accounts is that your mileage may vary. We all know that much of what gets announced at this event is very e-commerce and large brand focused. And that’s ok. In some ways e-commerce is easier to solve for than lead generation when it comes to an ad platform. E-commerce has quick results (sale or no sale) whereas lead generation often has a much more meandering path to conversion. Again, that is ok. So when you’re thinking about things like Ad Strength or Optiscore, you want to be sure that you’re looking at what is best for your business (or your client’s business) when weighing actions to take and things to test. Google Ads might “think” your setup is less than optimal, but it might just work great for your account. Understanding that the diagnostic metrics you see in our account are just that - diagnostic from Google’s perspective, can save some headaches. Which announced features are you most interested in exploring? Which ones are giving you heartburn?

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Lead Gen for agencies has been slow in 2024 - what can you do about it? Most agencies we speak to are struggling to generate and convert pipeline this year… So what can you do? Firstly, don’t panic. It’s not necessarily a YOU problem. The industry is finding things slow and the fact you’re there working on solutions is good. Second, get the basics right. Focus on what you know works. Exceptional client service. Building strong internal, client-first, culture. Looking after your A-Players. Nail retention before taking any other action. Third, assess your positioning. Are you truly communicating something different? Are you genuinely differentiated from other agencies. If you’re not, this needs to be fixed before you consider other marketing activity. Find your unique point of difference and build your brand around that. Reminder: The world doesn’t need another ‘creative’ agency, or another ‘PR’ agency, or another ‘Brand Strategy’ agency… Don’t build your difference on your service - build it on the client you serve, the problem you solve, the way you see the world or a combination of all three. Forth, post personal content on LI. If you’re going to activate one marketing channel, make it the Founder/CEO brand on LinkedIn. It’s the quickest and most effective way to build Audience and Authority at the same time. If this is consistent and there are other leaders in the agency that want to, encourage them to build their brand too. Fifth, build audience. Look for ways to build audience in the short and long term. Short term audience building: Find relevant podcasts, stages, guest blogs for you to be on or write for. These channels must be popular with your target audience. Don’t stop when you don’t get any responses at first, keep asking and you’ll be booked on. Long term audience building: Reach out to and connect with relevant prospects on LinkedIn. Aim to connect with 10+ per day. Sixth, build email list. Once everything above is running, you need to build your own audience - the email list. Create a high value, easy to consume lead magnet that your audience will go crazy for. Build a funnel to promote it and give it out in exchange for email addresses. Seventh, start a newsletter. Once you have the email list, nurture them. Start with a 6 email Welcome Series that will be sent to new subscribers as soon as they give you their email address - the 6 emails should be sent over 14 days. Then follow up with a newsletter. At least 2 emails per week - 1 long, high value, another shorter, more conversational. Finally, COMMIT! Commit to the above for 12 months. Doing that for 12 months and you WILL build pipeline. There is no economy that will stop the above from delivering leads to you if you continue to work on all those above steps. There’s nothing to stop you executing this… Apart from you. And if you don’t think you can commit, let us do it for you. Send me a DM.

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If you run an eCommerce business, chances are you're focused on: 1. Scaling customer acquisition 2. Remaining profitable from the first purchase Here’s what you need to do: -Navigate the complexities of media buying -Implement strategic creative iteration -Optimise post-click conversion rate (CRO) -Set up advanced tracking and optimise around data Want to learn more? Drop me a message!

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Here's a benefit of Google Ads that doesn’t get enough love... I had a catch up call with a new client yesterday, and they mentioned something interesting: "Our other lead sources have slowed down since launching the ads." Their primary lead source has been aggregators for a long time. But since launching Google Ads, it turns out they’re now capturing enquiries at source. Instead of buying them second-hand and competing with other businesses, they're now getting those enquiries coming in direct. So saving money, time, and increasing both their close rate and sales velocity (in this instance leading to a 57.9% ROI in just the first few weeks when their usual lead-in time is 4 weeks+). And the proof is in the auction insight report where those same lead aggregators are all showing up. So if you're using lead aggregators and competing against other businesses for every enquiry - it's worth doing some digging to see where they're getting their leads from. If Google Ads is a big part of it, there's a ready-baked strategy there for you. #GoogleAds 

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Want a better ROAS on Performance Max? 🔥 We found one counter-intuitive optimisation after $1M+ in adspend... Try removing search themes completely. We saw shopping spend go up 50% in accounts when we implemented this... Alongside significant improvements in ROI. Here’s why this works: Adding in search themes prompts pMax to spend more on the search network. This means that pMax will then begin to cannibalise your existing cold search campaigns. Google says this themselves: "On Search inventory specifically, search themes in Performance Max campaigns will have the same prioritisation as your phrase match and broad match keywords in Search campaigns." Here's why this is bad: We want the majority of our adspend to be on the shopping network… With brand name fully excluded from the campaign. Meaning we’re spending on the highest quality, cold traffic. For 9/10 brands, shopping ads will produce the highest ROI. We want to leave the search adspend for the search campaigns instead. This is because in regular search campaigns we have more control over: ➡️ Ad copy ➡️ Negative keywords ➡️ Cost per clicks So, how do you check if you’re overspending on search? Here's your action plan: 1. Run Mike Rhode’s Performance Max script. 2. If more than 30% of your spend is on search, remove search themes. 3. If shopping spend doesn’t increase after 1-2 weeks, create a new pMax campaign w/o search themes. 4. Add in more exact match keywords to your cold search campaign. Over time, this should produce better ROAS in pMax as more of your adspend goes to the shopping network. Agree? Disagree? Always up for discussion 👇.

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562% year-over-year (YoY) SEM revenue increase {Case Study} We've all been there—pouring thousands into PPC with little return. Ecommerce apparel brand 686 faced this, needing a creative boost to improve their 160% ROAS to 350-400%. Despite the saturated market, they leveraged their unique selling points and customer persona to refine their strategy. Strategies: Location-based targeting: they refined 686's PPC campaigns to focus on U.S. areas where people benefit most from cold-weather products. Remarketing: To cultivate the buyer's journey, they launched an aggressive remarketing strategy on Google’s Display Network and Facebook, adding touchpoints to boost conversions. Optimized shopping campaign and product feed: They revamped 686's product feed with eye-catching photos and clear pricing to boost SERP conversions. The results: - 562% year-over-year (YoY) SEM revenue increase - More than 186% conversion rate increase - 303% increase in return on ad spend (ROAS) - 67% reduction in cost per conversion #digitalmarketing #marketing #socialmediamarketing #facebookads

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It's crazy how many marketers are shoehorning the UK Budget into their post today. It's lazy and played out. On a completely separate note, here's a free template for our UK PPC Budget Pacer 👀 This document allows your to monitor your paid media spend daily, and will update your numbers to make sure your don't over or under pace for the month. Better yet it's so quick and easy, you'll have it up and running before you can say 'Capital Gains Tax'. Template link in comments!

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Your brand will be hit with a hidden tax this BFCM. Black Friday & Cyber Monday (BFCM) margins for the average UK brand can fall to 0.5 - 3.5% - and while retention is the best way to offset that, it's not the point of this post. 0.5 - 3.5% is an insanely thin margin of error. Priced in of course, is the 2-6% you'll pay in payment fees for each sale. Let’s break it down: For every £1M in BFCM sales, you could be losing £20,000-£6,000—all going to card companies, wallets and BNPL providers. Imagine how much more risk you could offset, and how much more value you could offer your customers with that money - making you far more competitive this BFCM. In a time when every penny counts, tackling payment fees head-on can make a big difference. Don’t let hidden fees eat into your profits this BFCM. Act now to protect your margins and make this holiday season a win for your brand. Payment fees are dead, and Fam (Techstars '24) has killed them. 

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In the 2000’s digital teams and agencies were the ugly ducklings in advertising that were misunderstood and constantly sidelined by the non-digital agency team members. So, in order to prove our relevance we hung our stupid hat on the click-through rate (CTR) for banner ads. I know, I was there and experienced first hand. I personally designed and art direct hundreds of banner ads, all with creative options for A/B testing. We are still suffering from that decision today. There are times when it’s critical in the buyer's journey like search, research, and DTC brands where you can order something easily and does not cost an arm and a leg, but I’d argue not much else. Major purchases are usually brand considerations, not snap decisions done in an instant click. It takes time to convert a buyer, and in the end that buyer either searches for the product, goes directly to the website, looks up a location to buy your product, or drives to the store with intent to buy, or buys by impulse while out shopping. (already with a buying mindset) Dollar Shave Club, one of the first big DTC brands, sold millions of razors because of their viral brand ad that brought attention, curiosity, and recall to men frustrated with paying outrageous prices for razors. Why are we still so fixated on the Click Through Rate as the holy grail of online advertising?

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Looking to reduce abandon basket rates from your eCommerce website in the UK? There are 3 recommendations that should allow you to refine your approach based on our experiences 1.Repurpose social proofing from your customers ratings and reviews. 2. Tailor messaging based on consumer behaviour 3. Utilise data to drive individualised product recommendations. All of these areas are not only possible across digital marketing efforts but now also extend across traditional channels as well like Postal Marketing. Why choose post? Because it is not saturated and it gets noticed. Paperplanes can help you understand how data can drive relevance and ultimately conversion. Get in touch to find out more [email protected] #paperplanes #abandonbasket #marketing

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