Tips on Launching a Retargeting Ad Campaign
If you’ve ever visited a website to research a product, then later see an ad pop up for that exact product, you haven’t just experienced an amazing coincidence. No, you’ve just experienced the magic of retargeting.
Retargeting works on the premise that you can reach consumers when they are ready to make a purchase. Sure, purchasing online makes window shopping easy, but it also means buyers can get sidetracked more easily by an email, IM, phone call, crying baby, knock on the door, etc. However, if they’ve lost their attention, don’t worry; retargeting will get it back.
In the event you’re wondering whether retargeting is worth it, consider this—according to several studies, the average conversion, or purchase, rate for ecommerce websites is only around 2%. That means for every 100 visitors to your site, you’ll make roughly 2 sales. That’s a lot of lost revenue due to attention span interruptions. Without retargeting, you’re hoping those 98 come back. Hope is a bad marketing strategy.
Here’s how retargeting works
Retargeting works by placing a piece of code (AKA pixel) on your website that drops a cookie into each visitor’s browser. So, when they’re browsing on the Internet, they’ll see an ad for your website. Again, it’s not magic; it’s smart marketing. Also, it’s immediate. The second they leave your site, they’ll begin seeing your retargeting ads on sites that host native or display ads.
There are a number of advertising vehicles from which to select if you’re interested in launching a retargeting campaign. There are a slew of vehicles, including Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, to name a few. And then there’s Google Ads, the granddaddy of them all. Google shows your retargeting ad(s) across its vast Google Display Network, which boasts well over 2 million websites.
If you’re ready to enter the world of retargeting, consider the following tips to help ensure you get the most from your retargeting campaign.
Too much is too much
Yes, it’s exciting knowing that you can track website visitors around the Internet and flash your ad in front of them. However, showing that ad too much can actually reduce its effectiveness, not to mention it will cost you more. If they see your add too much, it no longer carries the weight that it does if they see it sparingly. How to fix this? Cap the number of times a visitor can see it in a time frame of your choosing. You can set daily, weekly, or monthly limits, and by ad level, ad group, or per campaign.
If you’re running multiple campaigns, you may want to choose a maximum number of impressions one visitor will see. Remember the info about visitors seeing too many ads? This can apply. Note that the word can is in italics because there’s a good chance you’re running different ads and messaging per campaign. If you set the maximum number of impressions that a single visitor can see in a week, multiply that by the number of campaigns you’re running. That’s the real number of impressions.
Segment your Audience
Think about who is visiting your site—men, women, age, parental status, household income, etc. Consider where visitors are going on your website based on these demographics, along with where they probably are in the buying cycle. Sure, you can run a retargeting campaign that attracts anybody who has visited your website, but that’s not going to convert into sales like a campaign targeting particular demographics. You probably have a pretty good understanding of the types of visitors to a page and the products they’re interested in. Then, craft your retargeting campaigns and messaging to better address particular needs and interests. Is a 55-year-old man checking out a pair of Vans checkerboard shoes. Probably not.
In the event you’re asking yourself How does Google know an Internet browser’s demographics?, it’s a good question. Here’s the answer. Google makes assumptions about all of us based on where we go on the Internet, what we purchase, and a spate of other things. Google gleans information about all of us from our interactions with sites on their display network. On mobile devices, Google does the same and also gets demographic data based on applications users’ access.
Retarget ads based on visitors’ behavior
Basically, there are 2 kinds of people who visit your website: ones interested in what you have to offer, and all the others. We’ll call them uninterested. Why pay for ads to target them? If they spend a few seconds on your site, are they interested enough for you to spend ad dollars targeting them? Probably not. You want your ad to be seen by the ones who visit several pages, peruse a variety of products, and spend time on your site. They’re the ones with good intentions and the ones you want to see your retargeted ads.
Campaign Duration
This will require a bit of testing on your part. For a conversion campaign, it’s a good idea to run ads for the length of the sales cycle. And, of course, this will have to adhere to your budget. However, you may find that running a campaign the length of a predetermined sales cycle may not be the best use of ad dollars in the event the metrics indicate that the campaign has lost its steam. And, once again, target certain demographics. If you spray and pray you’ll exhaust your budget much faster. If you’re selling men’s shoes, what’s the point in targeting women? Actually, bad example; women buy men’s shoes more often than men. Maybe a better example is fishing rods or camping gear.
Also, you can set up campaigns seasonally to kick off and end on predetermined dates. For instance, if your company hangs Christmas or holiday lights, you’ll want to spend your marketing dollars during that desirable advertising window.
Don’t set-it-and-forget regarding your creative
If you’re experiencing dwindling success from your retargeting ads, ask yourself one simple question: Am I running the same ad? If you change up your ad copy, that’s great, but change the look, as well. Remember that stuff about visitors getting tired of seeing your ad? Well, maybe it has to do less with seeing your messaging and more about the experience. If they’ve seen too much of the same thing, you’ll lose their attention. Well, grab it back with something different. You’ll probably be surprised how this will buoy your results. Sure, it’ll take a little more work, but it will pay dividends.
Speaking of creative, get familiar with all the ad sizes you’ll need to consider. Take advantage of your resources; Google provides great information that will remove a lot of the mystery—Google Image Ad Requirements.
Retargeting ads, like any type of online advertising, is a great tactic to include in your digital marketing strategy. But it’s not a set-it-and-forget it proposition. It takes time and effort—and ongoing monitoring—to get the results you’re looking for, both in sales and the most efficient use of your advertising budget.
Contact the experts in online advertising
If you need help with your online marketing efforts, Globe Runner is the partner you’re looking for. We are here to help inject your digital marketing initiatives with rocket fuel and launch it to success. If you’re ready to blast off, call us at (972) 538-0260 for a free digital marketing consultation.
5 Ways to Help Your Business Survive (And Even Thrive)
A downturn is no time for downtime, at least when it comes to your business. Even though you may be out of the office, by following these 5 tips you can help your company succeed, now and in the future:
1. Double down on marketing
In today’s world, marketing is a necessity, as vital to your business as the products you make or the services you sell. “A number of studies going back nearly one-century point out the advantages of maintaining or even increasing ad budgets during a weaker economy. Those advertisers that maintained or grew their ad spending increased sales and market share during the recession and afterward” said a 2019 Forbes article titled “When A Recession Comes, Don’t Stop Advertising.” Even big brands can’t afford to skimp. McDonald’s cut its marketing budget during the 1990-91 recession and then saw sales plummet 28% after competitors grabbed a big chunk of the burger chain’s market share. Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, which both increased their advertising dollars, saw their sales soar a whopping 40% and 61%, respectively.
“Successful companies do not abandon their marketing strategies in a recession; they adapt them.” That advice from a 2008 article in Harvard Business Review seems tailor-made for our current situation. Today, companies have to figure out how to reach their customers in a new virtual world; how to offer services or products via new delivery options or apps; how to create online storefronts that will please their loyal customers and entice new ones; how to ensure safety for customers wishing to access physical products or spaces—the list goes on, and the options and opportunities are as varied as the businesses that exist. With so many options, it’s important to implement the strategies that suit your business—and your customer.
2. Beef up your business processes
“Business as usual” doesn’t apply these days. Why not take the opportunity to learn from the changes you’ve had to make?
- Clarify remote working rules, roles, and routines. You can no longer measure an employee’s performance based on time and attendance. Instead, establish clear work productivity standards for individuals and consider creating company-wide policies (e.g. all customer emails are answered by the end of the day). Set a clear chain of command and/or communication. HR Provider Insperity suggests you reserve certain days for meetings, and regularly schedule catch-up calls with remote employees, in part to keep them engaged.
- Evaluate your customer analysis strategy. How well do you know your customers and their behavior, both online and offline? How do you organize your customer data? How do you analyze it, and how often? A world of information is available to you. Now is the time to make sure you are capturing, reviewing, and using that data.
- Utilize online collaboration tools. Collaboration works. Participants in a Stanford study who worked collaboratively attended to their task 64% longer than those who worked by themselves. The collaborators also reported less fatigue, more engagement, and a higher success rate. At Globe Runner, we use Asana as our primary project management system: organizing projects across diverse teams, and simplifying collaboration with team members spread across various time zones.
- Improve your internal communications. When we moved to remote work, we realized quickly that strong communication was foundational to our success. We’ve used Asana for years but found that we now needed to add a lot more detail into each task in order to reduce the number of clarifying questions. So for complex tasks, we started using loom.com, a simple video recording service that allows us to quickly and easily explain the work and properly delegate it to the appropriate team member. By adding a short Loom video and a brief text description to Asana, we’ve reduced the amount of back and forth in the Globe Runner virtual office and increased our overall efficiency.
3. Improve your technology
We rely on technology more than ever, so it’s a good time to analyze what’s working well, what needs improvement, and what’s needed to fill the gaps.
- Review your existing tech. Some issues have probably become apparent. That server in your office is not doing you much good right now. Other systems may not work as well with a scattered, remote team. For instance, we thought our VoIP phone System was a great choice—until we tried to plug phones into our various home units. It took ten business days. When you do put out fires, do so with intention. A day of research can save you and your employees from daily frustration with a product that doesn’t fit your business.
- Once you’ve resolved any major issues, review your not-so-obvious (but just as important) tech areas, like backup. Make certain your system conducts regular automatic backups, and that you and the appropriate members of your team know how to access those backups. Don’t forget to verify their integrity, too.
- Update software, if it’s not done manually. Consider upgrading to newer versions.
- Optimize programs with add-ons and extensions. Choose from a wealth of tools from email filing programs to cloud sharing and storage platforms. The list is endless, and sure to include at least one tool that will increase your business’s efficiency.
- Find tools to facilitate business online. The tasks you used to do in person now have to happen virtually. At Globe Runner, we utilize Zoom for meetings, PandaDoc to develop and digitally sign proposals, and Google Drive to create documents collaboratively and FileCenterDMS.
4. Over-communicate in trying times
In tough times, people need reassurance and clarity. Your customers need to know if you’re still able to serve them, and how you’re modifying your service operations to keep them safe. Your employees need to thoroughly understand their responsibilities, and how any changes will affect them. But if we don’t know what the future holds, how can we offer the sense of security they need? Communicate. The best way to maintain business relationships is reaching out to your team and customers on a regular basis. A few tips:
- Make sure your message is consistent. All of your team members need to know how to respond to questions.
- Provide good information. Offer tips, inspiration, and industry news. Give people a reason to read your email/ blog post/white paper, and to read the next one you send.
- Remember to focus on the receiver. Whether you’re speaking to a customer or an employee, remember that what people want to know is the answer to their questions or the solution to their problems. When relaying your business news in an email, talk about how you can help them. During a phone call, ask how they are doing, how their company is doing, and if there’s anything more you can do for them.
- Rethink social media (at least for now). At the beginning of March, social media engagement was down, but has risen dramatically since stay-at-home orders were issued. Facebook reported that “in the US and UK, Gen Z, Gen X and baby boomers all say they’re spending more time checking social media due to concerns around COVID-19 (27%, 29% and 15% more, respectively).” An April 7th New York Times article noted that Facebook’s overall usage was up by 27%, and You Tube’s by 15.3%. What’s App, Pinterest, Snapchat, Twitter, and LinkedIn are also experiencing higher engagement levels.
- Don’t forget your website. Let site visitors know how you’re conducting business right now: how they can access your services or products, what alternatives you may be offering during this time, and how they can contact you. Encourage them to reach out with any questions, problems, or even ideas. It’s a good time to refresh your site, too. Your website is now your main line of communication to your customers. Make sure it offers pertinent information in a well-designed package.
5. Work with an experienced digital marketing agency
A good digital marketing agency can help you understand your customers, format a solid online strategy, and reach your goals. Look for a team with a deep bench – with the knowledge and experience to recognize, anticipate, and pivot with the new ideas, like those needed right now in this changing market. Globe Runner is an Inc. 5000 company with over ten years of experience with expert marketing professionals and customers who rave about us. We’d love to be your digital marketing agency. Contact us today.
MUST KNOW PAID SEARCH STATS AND TERMS
PPC could easily be rebranded to PTP – pay to play. That’s where online advertising is and has been heading for the past few years. But succeeding in this digital playing field is more than a roll of the dice. This is a game of strategy.
If you’re ready to run successful PPC campaigns, let these terms get you up to speed. If you’re still on the fence, let these paid search stats do the convincing.
PPC Terms
Good game players know they have almost zero chance of being a worthy component if they don’t fully understand the premise. Though there may be many routes to winning, you first need to make sure you’re speaking the same language.
This glossary of PPC terminology can help.
AdGroup: Manually created subdivisions of the same overall campaign. Each can be set up and sorted by themes such as product type or keywords.
Average CPC: Is the average of what it costs you every time a user clicks on your ad. This figure is the cost of your ad divided by the number of clicks in a set timeframe.
Bounce rate: Users who land on one page of your site and leave it immediately make up your bounce rate percentage. The lower this number, the better.
Broad Match: PPC ads that are shown to a user based on their search and your targeted keyword.
Click-through-rate (CTR): A percentage showing the number of times your ad has appeared to users in relation to the number of times that same ad has been clicked. A high CTR means your copy and keywords are resonating with users. Lower CTRs require some investigating into the user’s behavior and effectiveness of your ad.
Daily Budget: An amount you feel comfortable spending on PPC ads each day.
Geo Targeting: Target areas at the country, state, and zip code level that you want your ad shown to.
Impressions: How often your paid search ad shows up online. These are usually higher than your click through rates, but with repetition and time, they can help spread brand awareness.
Keyword: The word or phrase a user searches for that also aligns with your products and services.
Remarketing: Ads that appear to a user who has previously landed on your site. Ads can be further targeted based on the portion of your site they viewed.
Once you’ve committed these ABCs to memory (or bookmarked the page to refer back to), we recommend brushing up on the paid-per-click statistics that can help make you a better marketer.
2019 PPC Stats
According to Invesp the average person is served over 1,700 banner ads per month, but only half of them are ever viewed. This is just one example of a statistic that can put paid search into perspective and help you shape your strategy accordingly.
Here are 10 others we think are worth noting as you continue on your PPC pilgrimage.
- 3.5 billion Google searches are made every day. (Internet Live Stats)
- Businesses make an average of $2 in income for every $1 they spend in AdWords. (Google)
- Search ads can increase brand awareness by 80 percent. (Google)
- The top 3 search results get up to 35% more clicks than their first page competitors. (SmartInsights)
- By 2019, mobile advertising is expected to represent 72 percent of all U.S. digital ad spending. (MarketingLand, 2018)
- 33 percent of internet users find display ads completely intolerable. (Adobe)
- Consumers are 27 times more likely to click on online video ads than standard banners. (CMO)
- When local search ads (LSAs) are present, 25.3% of all clicks are on paid results. (Bright Local)
- Roughly a third of all mobile Google searches are related to location. (Blue Corona)
- The average cost-per-click on Bing is $1.54 and the average CPC on Google is $2.69
Key takeaways include: advertising with location, location, location in mind. Running PPC campaigns on the less competitive and cheaper, Bing. And utilizing video to make your pitch.
So there you have it. Think of your paid search ads as pawns in a battle of wits. It’s your goal of increasing conversion rates verses their discerning attention.
Need a little help putting your campaign together? Let us do the work for you!
How to Map the Customer Journey
The customer journey has transformed over the years. What was once driven by analyzing outbound channels has transformed into a two-step process. The old and linear process is now a dynamic one that goes beyond concentrating on outbound alone.
Today, the customer journey should be analyzed with email and how it mixes with outbound and inbound channels. Analyzing the customer journey from both the inbound and outbound sales point-of-view will give you more insight into the customer experience and what they know about your business to help you improve your SEO, your reputation and more.
Customer Journey Basics
Mapping the journey starts with you: You need to use what information your organization has to create an interesting offer to be able to see what catches the customer’s eye. Once the customer bites, this is where the customer journey is initiated for organic or paid search.
TIP: Providing valuable, actionable information to new customers regarding their recent purchase or inquiry is a great first step.
Once the customer inquires about or buys your product, your job is to follow up with the customer journey by emailing them with content to help them get the most out of their purchase while also helping you increase your SEO (should they research about what you sent them for further information). After this, send out relevant information about local attractions, events and the nearest store location.
Your most important job in defining the customer journey is developing interactions that build value, relevance and brand trust with your target audience.
It is after you do your email marketing and event-driven marketing that you go back to analyzing your customer journey. See how the customer reacts to your outbound marketing by gauging their wants, needs and interests at a particular moment—i.e. when the email was sent out, correspondence about a particular event, etc.
Understand the distinct needs of your customers by analyzing how you may need to refine your message based on response rates, purchases and upgrades or changed in location. The way you analyze your data is your one-step away from creating a personalized customer journey.
Be sure to subscribe to our blog so you can get up-to-date information and a notification when our next post on how to turn the customer journey into sales goes live. We will also delve into the specifics of what to look for in your analytics when tracing the customer journey.
.Com Versus New Gtld Domain Names: 8 Months Later
Back in September 2014, we released the results of a search engine marketing study that we did to find out which are better for online marketing: a .COM domain name or a New gTLD domain name. The results revealed a lot of interesting data, which really caused us to want to look into the use of keyword rich New gTLD domain names for landing pages, micro-sites, and for fully developed websites. Those results from our Google AdWords testing, which we disclosed in our last white paper, showed us that:
- A .COM outperformed a .Diamonds domain name in certain key areas. However, in other key areas, the .Diamonds domain name performed much better.
- It cost less per click for a .Diamonds domain than to run the same keywords on a .COM domain name, and the total campaign cost was lower.
- Google AdWords appeared to favor use of the .Diamonds domain name, giving it more impressions and even better positioning. The average position for the .Diamonds domain name was better then the .COM domain name.
- Based on the Effective CPM, it cost nearly twice as much to advertise a .COM domain name than it did a .DIAMONDS domain name.
We compiled all of the data, even the keywords, bid prices, CTR, number of clicks, and even the number of conversions we got into an extensive 27 page white paper, which you can download here on this page. But we weren’t done. Several months later, we wanted to know if anything had changed after about 7 months. So, during January 2015, we run the tests all over again.
What Changed After 8 Months?
We ran the previous Google AdWords campaigns again, using the same keywords, the same ad copy, the same domain names, and even the same landing pages. Again, the only difference between the campaigns was the domain name. We focused our testing efforts this time on refreshing the previous test, which was www.3CaratDiamonds.com versus www.3Carat.Diamonds. And boy did we get some interesting data this time. Here’s a quick outline of what we learned from our updated testing:
The first testing was done in May 2014. The 2nd testing was done in January 2015.
January 2015 Results:
Average CPC
3Carat.Diamonds: $.69 (vs. $.77 in May 2014)
3CaratDiamonds.com: $.82 (vs. $.81 in May 2014)
Conclusions:
31.76% Conversion Rate on .COM, 29.11% on .Diamonds
Previously: 52% Conversion Rate on .COM, 36% on .Diamonds
New gTLD converting just as well now as the .COM
Effective CPM: Still costs 2x as much to advertise a .COM
What we learned from running our testing again is that the price to run ads using Google AdWords on a .diamonds domain name went down. It got cheaper. But to run ads on the .COM domain name, the price virtually stayed the same (within one cent per click). But what’s even more significant is the fact that the conversion rate on the .COM domain name got worse–it went down. And now, the conversion rate of the .COM is very close to what the conversion rate on the .diamonds is–there’s only a 2 percent difference between the two. Back in May 2014 the .COM converted a lot better. But that’s not the case anymore. The New gTLD domain name is converting the same as a comparable .COM domain name.
We analyzed what has happened to the conversions between the first testing we did in May 2014 and the second round of testing we did in January 2015. The graphic below shows the changes:
As you can see, we are seeing a significant change to the .COM domain, as the downloads of the PDF file and the total conversions are way down for the .COM domain, and the .Diamonds domain’s downloads of the PDF file are actually UP since the last time we run these tests. The total conversions of the .Diamonds domain was down, but not as much as the .COM domain name. We’re definitely seeing changes here.
Conclusion: .COM Versus New gTLD Domain Names
So, which would you rather use for a Google AdWords campaign? A .COM domain name that costs more, or use a New gTLD domain name that costs less to use, and converts just as well as a .COM domain name?
Don’t just take our word for it. We’ve updated all of the test results, and, like in our previous white paper, we want to be totally transparent: we’ve published all of the results and included the data we gathered from the updated Google AdWords campaign in a new, updated white paper.