Time To Include Online Advertising In Your Marketing Plan?

Ten years ago, people began making big predictions about video and its potential to change the way we were marketing our products. Fast forward to today and video has become a staple—accessible and affordable, a tool that helps attract audiences, explain products, and communicate with both internal and external clients. 

Videos contribute to search engine optimization (SEO), helping you show up in search. And YouTube, owned by Google, is the world’s second most-used search engine. Just as Google online advertising (PPC) has become a huge business, so has YouTube’s. 

Developing a video advertising campaign on YouTube 

I’m working with a client to develop a series of ten-12 animated explainer videos. For each of these videos, I’m writing a script, and we’ll have our videographer develop these videos. We’re using both explainer videos and white-board videos. Because our subject matter can be complex, the video explainer concept is ideal for breaking down complicated thoughts into easily understand ideas in a few frames. 

Identify a strong call to action 

When people see our explainer videos on YouTube, we want them to click on the call to action button, then hit the coordinated landing page on our website. While we’d like a sale, this is not realistic. None of us buys on the first pass. We shop around, check prices, quality and reviews. Our team is realistic about this and we know that we’re building a relationship. Ours is a long-term effort. Conversion for us means signing up for our monthly newsletter. This is how we will measure ROI and the success of our campaign. 

We’ll also be using Google Analytics 

Our Google Analytics report will show what kind of traffic we’re getting from our YouTube channels. We should be seeing increased traffic to our site—even if users do not sign up for our newsletter. As with any purchase, we hope that those users come back again and make a purchase. That’s what the sales cycle is all about. 

Creating a landing page in Unbounce

I’m using an app called Unbounce that is very easy to use and has a variety of templates from which to choose. While the landing page needs to be specific to each video, we can use the same design and swap out the text and images for each video. 

A critical part of our campaign will be identifying keywords and keyword groups

For any PPC campaign, identifying keywords and keyword phrases is fundamental to the process. We must also identify our YouTube audience. With more than 30 million YouTube channels, we need to identify those channels where we think our ideal clients will most likely be hanging out. 

Continue to monitor and adjust

PPC advertising works. Google rakes in more than $100M/day. Many are using this channel successfully, but each campaign needs to be monitored and adjusted. A carefully matched ad and landing page will help your campaign succeed.

Are you considering online/PPC advertising for your business but need some help?

 Contact Top of Mind Marketing. We’re writers and content marketing experts. 

Facebook Ads Boost CPA’s Lead Generation

One of my clients had been doing a good job of managing his own marketing program, but as his business grew, he found that he didn’t have time to develop and execute a strategic plan. The result? He ended up spending money on last-minute Hail-Mary efforts that weren’t reaching his audience. Those great one-time special deals that ad salespeople talk you into aren’t special at all; they’re a waste of money. We developed a strategy that includes Facebook ads.

Marketing had become fragmented and perfunctory

For this client, a CPA, a monthly newsletter was becoming a quarterly, his weekly blog was now a monthly and his social media posts were sporadic and uninspired, often missing images. He understood the power of marketing and enjoyed the creativity; he simply didn’t have time to do this well.

We reviewed his Google Analytics reports to evaluate his website traffic

We wanted to know the demographics of his visitors and from what domains they were coming, how long they stayed on his site and their drilldown patterns.

When I asked him about his target audience, his answer was too general, so our marketing plan included an exercise in creating personas. We wanted to develop detailed profiles of those clients with whom he really wanted to be working—not necessarily those with whom he was now working. We wanted to identify their likes and dislikes, ages, professions, lifestyle preferences, etc.

We agreed that Facebook advertising should be part of our marketing program

We included Facebook pay-per-click (PPC) in our marketing plan. We would start with keyword research to identify those words we should be using in all of our online communications. We also wanted to identify negative keywords—those words we should be avoiding.

Facebook advertising: ability to drill down to specific demographic information

Facebook may be unique for the detailed personal information it collects. Facebook’s fields make up a fairly comprehensive database. Every time we fill in a field with information about our lives and our preferences, we’re contributing to a rich data pool.

• We needed to create a goal—was it a phone call, email, a signup for his newsletter or a Like? The call to action needed to be clear and accessible.
• We decided to create landing page on our website. It will be branded and synchronize with the ad messaging.
• As with all online media, the headline is critical–you have just seconds and 30 characters to catch someone’s attention. Be a little edgy. Be bold. Be funny. Take a chance.
• Use high-res images that are relevant and attention-getting. Spend time finding really good images.
• Select a bidding option. Clicks, impressions, Likes.

The great thing about PPC advertising? You control costs

You pay only when someone clicks on your ad, and your daily budget identifies how much you will spend on a campaign. Once you hit your daily limit, your ads stop showing. Cost effectiveness, along with the ability to personalize your ads by detailed demographic fields, makes Facebook advertising a very effective way to promote your business.

Need help with your PPC campaign? Talk to us at Top of Mind Marketing. We’re writers and internet marketing specialists.

Is It Time To Add Pay-Per-Click To Your Marketing Mix?

With increasing online competition, pay-per-click (PPC) is becoming a critical way to get your content in front of your potential customers. Those who rely on organic strategies may find themselves frustrated that their blogs, social media posts and newsletters are just not enough anymore.

Here are three myths that may be keeping marketers from implementing successful AdWords campaign.

Myth #1: People don’t click on Google ads

Google is a publicly traded company—anyone can access their financial records that tell the story. Google generates more than $100M in revenue every single day from people clicking on their ads. With an average cost per click between $1 and $2 that’s more than 50M clicks/day. Google experiments constantly to make their ads entice more enticing. They’re not going to present you with a free, organic result at the top of the search engine results page (SERP) when they could showcase several ads that generate revenue. Start paying attention: The first few line items at the top of every search is an ad.

One more thing: Think about your own behavior

When you see an ad that entices you, do you click on it? Of course you do! Smart companies are using remarketingefforts that identify customer tastes to present you with items that you may have been looking at earlier in the day. They may serve up similar items or those by the same designer or manufacturer. I shop almost entirely online, and I’m fascinated by remarketing, which illustrates how marketing has gotten smarter.

Myth #2: My competitors can just click on my ads all day, costing me money

Google has extremely sophisticated technology to prevent “click fraud” and “invalid clicks”. This involves the analysis of several click-pattern factors.

Google provides very good reports on AdWords campaign performance, and any suspicious activity is quickly exposed. If a business is concerned they are victims of click fraud, they can contact Google directly to launch an investigation. Google reimburses questionable clicks.

Myth #3: AdWords is an outbound marketing tactic

AdWords is designed to showcase your content when potential customers are initiating a Google search. It’s the only inbound marketing tactic that guarantees your content will rank high on Google when a user performs a search. This is one very attractive reason to be using Google as your PPC platform. The sheer number of Google searches/day makes you part of this community.

PPC delivers a better user experience for the searcher

Think of the information you provide when you set up your Google account. This all becomes part of a huge database, and databased information makes it searchable. Because of this information, when you create a Google ad, you are able to drill down by location, demographics, interests, etc. This is not specific just to Google—Facebook, Linkedin and other social channels also provide rich search preferences.

Integrating AdWords with your inbound marketing strategy

Along with your existing content marketing and SEO efforts, PPC is becoming a critical component of an inbound marketing strategy.

Do you need help with your PPC or other online marketing program? Talk to us at Top of Mind Marketing. We’re internet marketing specialists.

Big Baller Brand: Learning about FB Advertising from the Ball Family

You don’t have to be a basketball fan to have heard of the Ball family. LaVar Ball and his sons regularly make headlines. There’s no coincidence here–LaVar is constantly working it. Oldest son Lonzo is an NBA rookie who plays for the Los Angeles Lakers. His other two boys, LiAngelo and LaMelo are both future NBA prospects, though they’ve taken a detour and are currently playing in Lithuania. LiAngelo was on a trip to China with the UCLA basketball team, arrested for shoplifting and suspended for a year.

LaVar thought the suspension was too extreme

LaVar pulled his kid out of UCLA and sent the two younger boys to some kind of Lithuanian league—apparently there was little interest in sticking around a prestigious school like UCLA to get an education. Note that the shoplifting was in China—a communist country with a terrible human rights record. LiAngelo could have spent the next 20 years in isolation. A year away from college basketball was a gift.

If you talk to any sports fan, commentator or coach they’ll tell you that LaVar needs to shut up and let his kids play ball. LaVar Ball’s endless commentary has made him one of the most polarizing figures in sports today. Most of us find Ball’s constant boasting about himself and his sons offensive, especially those of us who were taught that if we’re really great, people will know that by our actions.

Big Baller Brand embraces endless self-promotion

You may/not be aware that Facebook has a video platform, and LaVar and his sons are one of the channel’s most popular reality programs. They also have their own sportswear label, Big Baller Brand, and they’re using Facebook to market themselves and their products.

Here’s what we can learn from the Big Ballers

The Ball family has created multiple Facebook and Instagram pages for all of the individual Ballers and the Big Baller Brand itself. They also leverage Facebook Live, Instagram Stories and Facebook Groups linked to their Pages to further expand their brand reach, along with the Facebook Watch show. Facebook lays out a basic playbook for how Big Baller Brand has utilized Facebook ads. This is what we can learn from them.

1. They installed the Facebook Pixel to see how successful their ads were, and how close customers came to purchasing an item from the Big Baller Brand online store.
2. The Balls used Facebook Ads Manager to build and deploy ads on Facebook.
3. They created textbook-perfect ads—a clear call-to-action, crisp images showcasing specific apparel items and links to that featured item.
4. Built Engagement Custom Audiences in Ads Manager to target known fans, such as those who have interacted with one of the Ball Family Pages or have watched their videos.
5. Created lookalike audiences to expand the reach of the campaign to send new ads to people with similar qualities to those completing purchases on bigballerbrand.com.
6. Deployed remarketing techniques to retarget fans who visited the online store but didn’t complete a purchase.

If you’ve done Facebook advertising or are just beginning to experiment with it, you’ll see that this is a comprehensive effort to boost a Facebook campaign strategy.

Remarketing is key: You’re reaching a vulnerable consumer

Remarketing focuses on those who may have gone to the Big Baller store, put a product in their carts, but failed to complete the purchase. This segment is more than a warm lead; it’s red hot. It’s a potential customer who is vulnerable—he’s been to your store, is familiar with your merchandise and liked at least one item enough to add it to the cart. There’s a good chance that, with a little nudge, he might be convinced to go back and complete the purchase. One thing that would help him decide? Tell him that it’s almost sold out, that there’s limited inventory, or only 4 items left.

This formula has been very successful for the Big Ballers

Facebook advertising success is going to depend on how much time and money you are prepared to spend on this effort. But this process has driven results for the Balls. Their Facebook ads drove:

• A 17.76% purchase lift during the campaign
• A 16.9% conversion lift
• 140,000 outbound clicks to the BBB online store

Keep in mind that we’re dealing with celebrities here—a young athlete with a promising future and a father who never misses an opportunity to get in front of a camera—so the numbers are going to skew high. Nevertheless, this is a good Facebook marketing strategy that any business can replicate.

Do you need help with your PPC or other online advertising strategy? Talk to us at Top of Mind Marketing. We’re internet marketing specialists.