The Weekly Marketing Roundup: 03/10/19

In this Weekly Marketing Roundup: 03/10/19 we discuss how Google's September Update affected your ranking and how to build a successful Google AdWords Campaign, with some useful tips. #marketingnews #sydneydigitalmarketing #digitalmarketing #weeklymarketingroundup

Thank you for tuning into this Weekly Marketing Roundup: 03/10/19. Here we talk about Google Updates and Google AdWords Campaigns. Join the conversation in the comments below.

Google September 2019 Core update impact now being noticed (Did your rankings drop?)

How Google algorithm updates affect your website rankings.

If you noticed a change in your site's search engine ranking or the traffic it receives, a recent algorithm update from Google is likely the cause.

It took some time, but now the SEO community is noticing the impact of the Google September 2019 core update. On 25th morning most weren't seeing any significant impact but later on in that day, people began noticing the search results shaking up.

Note, this began rolling out on Tuesday 24th in the afternoon and it should take a few days to fully roll out. To keep you updated on Google's latest changes you can check their blog.

We also wrote a 5,000 words post that teaches you how to use and implement SEO as a business if you want to check it out.

What are Google algorithms?

Google’s algorithms are a complex system used to retrieve data from its search index and instantly deliver the best possible results for a query. The search engine uses a combination of algorithms and numerous ranking signals to deliver webpages ranked by relevance on its search engine results pages.

Google regularly updates its algorithm, and in many cases, they don't announce the update or what has been changed. SEO experts usually notice these algorithm updates when there is a significant shift that is impacting every site.

Unfortunately, besides confirming that the update took place, Google hasn't provided any guidance on what has changed. This omission isn't unusual. Google rarely explains how an algorithm has changed, except in cases where they are trying to drive a specific behavior, such as promoting mobile responsiveness or the adoption of HTTPS.

Here are a few examples of people sharing their insights:

8 Tips to create a successful Google AdWords campaign.

Firstly, what is Google AdWords? How the Google Ads auction works ? Google Ads, AKA Google AdWords, is Google's advertising system in which advertisers bid on certain keywords in order for their clickable ads to appear in Google's search results. Since advertisers have to pay for these clicks, this is how Google makes money from search. 

You don't have to spend a lot to get a lot. Google AdWords users and experts share hands-on advice on how you can improve the ROI on your AdWords campaigns.

1. Have a clear goal.

The most important part of any SEM [search engine marketing] campaign is to have a clear goal in mind,

The point of almost any AdWords campaign should be to grow sales, as opposed to merely generating brand awareness, the advertiser needs to know what specific action they are trying to get their target market to perform.

Is it completing a lead form? Calling an 800 number? Making an online purchase? Before you go live with your campaign, make sure you've identified that goal and know how you'll measure the results.

How to measure this? Here is a video from Google that shows you the 3 most relevant elements:

2. Keep your target customer in mind when writing your ads.

When writing ads, follow the AIDAS principle of advertising.

The acronym stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. It's often said that if your marketing or advertising is missing just one of the four AIDA steps, it will fail and it will fail hard.

A - Attention

To attract the attention of the consumer, the best approach is called disruption. The consumer is literally startled into paying attention. It can be done in many ways, including:

Location: Placing advertising in an unexpected location or situation.

Shock factor: Adding something provocative to grab attention.

Personalization: Targeting the consumer individually. The novelty of personalized direct mail has long worn off. But imagine reading a newspaper ad and seeing your name in the headline. That might grab you.

I - Interest

Once you've got the consumer's attention, you have to keep it. This is actually trickier than the first step if your product or service is not inherently fascinating. Think of insurance or banking products.

The best advertising pros get a dry subject across by delivering the information in a way that is entertaining, memorable, or funny. The insurance company Geico does well with its Geico Gecko and Cavemen ads.

Keeping the consumer's interest is a particular challenge in a direct mail campaign. The worst choice is to bore the reader with pages of heavy text. Keep it light, easy to read and break up the information with lively subheads and attractive illustrations.

D - Desire

Let's assume the advertiser has grabbed the consumer's attention, and kept it. Now, the ad must create desire. The story must become relevant in order to make the product irresistible. A great infomercial keeps layering on the facts until viewers can only be amazed that they've been able to live without the product for so long.

A - Action

If the consumer is still with you at this point, there's just one more step and that is, of course, closing the sale.

3. Don't mislead customers.

Your ads need to be entirely accurate for the landing page advertised. Your top targeted keywords should be used in the content included on that landing page and in the ads text. Above all, Don't mislead your audience! Make sure that each ad group is entirely relevant for the landing page you're promoting and it's only being displayed for relevant queries.

4. Use negative keywords.

Always remember to include negative keyword targeting,

says Susan Mirkin, online media specialist, Market Mentors, a full-service marketing agency.

Negative keywords are keywords related to other keywords in the campaign that are not related to what is being advertised. This further qualifies the ads within a campaign, ensuring ads do not show to users who would not find them relevant anyway.

Beth Horodnyk, Marketing anf PR manager from I Think Security said

Negative keywords help to streamline your ad, presenting it on more relevant search result pages. This drives better quality traffic and leads to your landing pages, while also improving your Google AdWords Quality Score.

5. Target your ads.

Implement all 3 types of keyword targeting - exact match, phrase match, broad match - into your targeting strategy. Bid the most for exact match keywords and the least for broad match keywords. Separate ad groups by keyword type, in addition to category, to keep the campaign well-organized.

To further help you reach your intended audience, use Google's targeting criteria. For example, you can use geo-targeting to have your ads run in a particular geographic area.

You can also target ads according to type of website (health and wellness, automobiles, etc.). And you can target prospects by certain Web behavior, like often visited websites that are relevant to your business. You can also choose to place your ad on a particular website and keep it there.

6. Don't ignore mobile users.

 Ensure that you are using mobile-preferred ads within your enhanced campaigns,

says Shelly Cihan, digital marketing manager, Adworkshop, a digital marketing agency.

This allows for customized message and mobile specific calls-to-action (CTAs) that will speak directly to your mobile users. Coupling this with a mobile-optimized landing page will result in higher conversion rates and a positive user experience.

7. Always be testing.

Once you identify your AdWords campaign goal, plan various tests to try to maximize your outcome. These tests span the entire funnel, beginning with identification of keywords to bid on and which ad copy to use, to the design of the landing page and any follow-on email marketing campaigns.

If you change your landing page design and add 20 new keywords to your campaign at the same time, you won't know which change made a bigger impact.

Test, test and then test again

says Talpau.

You can only guess what might work best, as it's impossible to predict exactly what your targeted market will consider as being most appealing and trustworthy. And sometimes one single word can make all the difference.

To get the best results, create variations of your ads and monitor which gets the best click through rate, the lowest cost per click, the highest number of conversions, etc. Once you know what works, keep only those ads that are performing well - and start the process over again.

8. Implement conversion tracking.

Being able to see what keywords are triggering a sale or a lead is huge in bid management and optimizing the account to increase ROI,

says Jason Otter, senior SEM manager, PCG Digital Marketing.

For your business a conversion may be a purchase, a sign-up or a lead. It is the action or actions that you want your visitors to take on the website.

Without proper tracking in place, you cannot trace and promote the successful keywords, ads or keyword themes. Moreover, conversion tracking "allows ongoing optimization based on the data but also gives you direct insight into the ROI for your efforts.

4 tips - How to create the best AdWords Ads?

1. The Most Popular Words in the Best-Performing Ads:

It is a universal truth that more opportunities to use more words means that choosing the right ones is more important than ever. But which words are the “right” ones?

The words appearing most often are, in this order:

1. Your
2. Free
3. Now
4. Get
5. Online
6. Our
7. Save
8. Best
9. Shipping
10. You

The fact that “Get” and “Save” are the only verbs on the list makes total sense since they have application across both B2B and B2C text ads. With both “Free” and “Save” on the list, we can assume that shoppers are as cost-conscious as ever. And “Now” and “Get” imply they want stuff fast.

Also really important to mention: the second-person pronouns “You” and “Your.” It is very important to make sure your ad copy speaks to your customer; don’t make it all about you!

2. Best Calls to Action

The call to action, or CTA, is perhaps the most important component of your ad copy.

If you sell a product, the obvious CTAs are “Buy” or “Shop”; conversely, if your goal is to accrue mad leads, it’s likely your CTA deploys the likes of “Learn” or “Discover” or “Sign Up.” If you look at frequency, though, you’ll notice that the most-used CTA verb in our data set is “Get.” Remember, nobody with a top ad is using the verb "Click," as in "Click here.

3. Are the Best Ads in AdWords Positive or Negative?

One aspect that is often overlooked however is how do you make sure your ad doesn't get shown when you know the audience isn't interested. This is where negative keywords come in, and using them well can generate a big improvement in the profitability of your AdWords campagin.

For example, if your company sells calendars then you would probably bid on keywords such as "calendar" or "monthly calendar". But if your calendars are printed, it stands to reason that someone searching for "online calendar" isn't interested in your product. In this case you would include "online", or "online calendar" as negative keywords.

This makes sure Google will explicitly prevent your ad from showing against these search terms.

Once you start thinking in these terms a lot of other possible negative keywords may become obvious, what about "Mayan calendar", or "weather calendar". Without negative keywords your ad could be showing for all these search terms.

If your ad shows for a term that is of little value it means it may not be showing for a term that is of higher value.

4. Most Common Punctuation Marks in Great Ads?

Earlier, it was not important to add punctuation in ad text because you were not following grammar rules. However, now it has become almost imperative to do so.

If the user doesn’t understand the text in your ad he/she will just move to the next ad. Your ad is showing in the most coveted position on the search page but you lose out because you didn’t use a full-stop or comma. In the long run, this will affect ad performance because the ad will accrue impressions but few clicks which means a low clickthrough rate (CTR).

Next time when writing ad text, don’t eliminate the comma or full-stop.

• Exclamation: 42%
• Commas: 25%
• Question Mark: 11%
• Percentile: 9%
• Dollar Sign: 8%