Advertising Wollongong 3 - YBR Marketing | SEO, Online Advertising, Web Design, Social Media Marketing, Lead Generation

How To Make Your Ad Campaign More Effective Over Time

by Red/Marketer with a Soul | Nov 25, 2022 | Advertising Wollongong, Digital Marketing SOPs, Digital marketing wollongong, Google Ads, Online Advertising Wollongong

Google AdWords has been around for many years now, and there are lots of people that use this platform to promote their business. The question is, how long will your ad stay on top of the search results?

Here’s how to make it happen.

If you’re using Google AdWords, then you probably know that you need to set up an account with them. “Creating a Google Ads Account”

Once you’ve done that, you’ll need to decide what type of advertisement you’d like to run. There are two main options: text ads and display ads. Text ads are basically just words that appear at the top of the page, while display ads are images that show up when users scroll down the page.

Create an effective ad group.

After you’ve decided which kind of ad you want to use, you’ll need to choose where you want to place it. This decision will depend on how much money you want to spend. Display ads cost more than text ads because they take up more space on the screen. However, they also tend to generate higher click through rates (CTRs). So, if you’re looking to make the most out of your budget, then display ads might be the way to go.

Set up your keywords.

Once you’ve chosen an ad type, you’ll need to decide what words you want to show up when people search for those terms. These are called keywords. If you’re using paid advertising, you’ll need to set up keywords before you start running campaigns. You can do this by going to the “Keywords” tab in the “Ad group settings.”

(“SEO Keyword Research and Mapping”)

Choose your bid strategy.

There are two main strategies for bidding on keywords: cost per click (CPC) and cost per impression (CPI). CPC bids are based on how much advertisers are willing to pay for each click on their ads. CPI bids are based on how often users see your ads.

Test your campaigns.

If you’re not seeing results after a few weeks, try testing different ad groups, ad copy, and landing pages. (“How to Create a Lead Generation Landing Page”)

Also consider changing your bid strategy.

(“Reasons Why Your Google Ads Don’t Work & How To Fix ’em”)

So there you have it, if you’re thinking of starting a Google Ads campaign and you want it to stay up at the top of the results, then remember these steps. In time, your ad will reach the first page and stay there. Besides, who doesn’t want to be advertising on the first page of Google? Well what are you waiting for? Get started!

Go to our “Free Tools” for more resources from professional standard SOPs to free software apps that can really boost your marketing without draining your wallet..

Dedicated to your marketing success

John

What Are Marketing Controls?

by Red/Marketer with a Soul | Nov 19, 2022 | Advertising Wollongong, Google Ads, Online Advertising Wollongong

An Overview of Marketing Controls

Advertising is an important part of any business, but it can also be tricky. The goal of advertising is to reach the right audience at the right time, so marketers use various techniques to control how consumers view their advertisements.

One way they do this is by using marketing controls. Marketing controls are simply methods used by marketers to control how consumers interact with advertising campaigns. They can be as simple as choosing what colors to use in an advertisement or as complicated as deciding which channels to advertise on. In this guide, we’ll go over some common marketing controls and how you can use them to improve your own advertising efforts!

Ad Extensions

You know what they say: the more you know, the less you show.

And that’s where extensions come in. One of the most common ways to control who sees your ad is through extensions. These are small pieces of code that appear alongside your ad. They allow you to customize your ad based on where it appears. For example, if you only want your ad to be shown on a certain kind of website—say, news sites—you can set up an extension that will display only when someone visits one of those sites.

Google Ad extension tool

Dynamic Remarketing Lists.

Dynamic Remarketing Lists are another way to control who sees your ads. If you use Google AdWords, you can create a list of users who visited your website and then add those users to an ad campaign. You can also create a list of people who have visited certain pages on your site or added certain products to their cart but didn’t complete the purchase.

This type of targeting allows you to show ads to users who have shown interest in your product or service but haven’t bought it yet. This helps you increase sales without wasting money showing ads to people who don’t care about what you’re selling!

Targeting Options.

You can also target users based on their location, device type, and other criteria. For example, you might only show ads to users who live within a certain radius of your business. Or you might only show ads on mobile devices.

You can also target users based on their interests and demographic information. This is particularly useful for targeting customers who are likely to be interested in what you’re selling. It is a great way to help cut down on costs while still getting the most out of your ads!

Display Network Ads.

If you use Google AdWords, you can choose to display your ads on websites across the web. This is called the Display Network. It includes sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.

The Display Network is a great place to reach people who are actively searching for solutions to their problems. These people will be focused on their search and are therefore more likely to notice your ads.

You can also target specific groups of people who have an interest in what you offer. For example, if you sell products for pets, you could target pet owners by setting up campaigns that show only when someone searches for an animal-related query on Google or Bing.

Audience Segmentation.

You can also choose to limit who sees your ads by using the Display Network. This allows you to control where your ads appear based on the type of site visitors you want to reach. For example, you might only want to show your ad to users who visit certain pages on your website.

This way, you can make sure that people who visit your homepage don’t see an ad for a product that is only available on a more specific page of your site. This is called audience segmentation and it helps you improve the relevance of your campaign.

Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of marketing controls. There are many more in-depth resources available online that can give you even more information about the specific methods and techniques highlighted here. Remember to always experiment with different marketing controls to see what works best for your business and how you can adapt your advertising efforts accordingly.

Need answers om how to implement these controls or any other aspect of your makrketing efforts, please let me know, and I’ll be happy to help you out!

To Your Marketing Success

John

Free Resources Here.. or click on the images and links in the sidebar of this post ➡️➡️

What’s Your Unique Selling Position?

by Red/Marketer with a Soul | Sep 16, 2022 | Advertising Wollongong, Digital marketing wollongong, direct response marketing, Lead generation, local seo, Online Advertising Wollongong, Unique Selling Position, USP, word of mouth marketing

Get Out Of The Commodity Business By Developing A Unique Selling Proposition

You know you’re marketing your business as a commodity when prospects start the conversation by asking you about price.

Positioning yourself as a commodity and hence being shopped on price alone is a terrible position for a small business owner to be in. It’s soul crushing and this race to the bottom is bound to end in tears.

The answer is to develop a unique selling proposition (USP). Something that positions you differently, so that prospects are forced to make and apples-to-oranges comparison when comparing you with your competitor.

If they can do an apples-to-apples comparison of you and your competitors then it comes down to price and you’re toast, because there’s always someone willing to sell cheaper than you.

There’s Nothing New Under The Sun

Very few if any businesses or products are truly unique, so a common question is, “there’s nothing unique about my business, how do I develop a USP?”.

There’s no quick and simple answer to that question but here are a few ideas.

Firstly we want to get into the mind of our prospect. What do they really want? It’s rarely the thing you are selling, it’s usually the result of the thing you are selling. The difference may seem subtle but it’s huge.

For example someone buying a $50 watch is buying something very different from a person buying a $50,000 watch. In the latter case they are likely buying status, luxury and exclusivity. Sure they want it to tell the time just like the buyer of the $50 watch but that’s unlikely to be their core motivation.

So to get into the mind of the prospect, we need to discover what result they are actually buying. Once you understand this, you then need to craft your unique selling proposition based on the result your prospects want to achieve.

For example if you’re a printer, you’re a commodity business. You want to get out of the commodity business as quickly as possible. I don’t mean get out of the industry but you do need to change how you position yourself.

Stop selling business cards, letterheads and printing and start asking open ended questions such as, “Why are you coming to a printer? What is it that you want achieve?”. The prospect doesn’t want business cards and letterheads, they want what they think business cards and letterheads are going to do for their business.

So you could sit down with them and and say, “What are you trying to accomplish? Let’s do a printing audit and evaluate all of the things you’re trying to use printing for. By taking them through the process, you can charge them to do a printing audit. Then if they end up hiring you to do their printing, you can apply that consulting fee towards printing. This way you’re no longer viewed as a printer anymore. You’re now viewed as an advisor that’s serving their needs.

Use Outrageous Guarantees

Another great strategy for creating uniqueness in your offer is an outrageous guarantee. One which completely reverses the risk of the transaction.

To be truly unique when using this technique you must avoid the vague crap that everyone says e.g. satisfaction guaranteed, service quality, dependability.

You must have a very specific guarantee to address the fear or uncertainty that the prospect has about the transaction.

For example if you’re in the pest control business you’re customers want to know:

The pests won’t come back
The technician won’t leave their house dirty
That you won’t poison their family with chemicals

So you’re outrageous guarantee could be something like this:

“We guarantee to rid your home of ants forever, without the use of toxic chemicals, while leaving your home in the same clean and tidy condition we found it. If you aren’t absolutely delighted with the service provided, we insist that you tell us and we’ll refund double your money back.”

Compare that to a weak, vague guarantee like, “satisfaction guaranteed”.

Does an outrageous guarantee like the one above entail risk for the pest control service provider? Sure, if they do a crappy job. But in a case like that they’re likely to have to give the customer a refund anyway. It may even be a legal requirement.

Here’s the other thing about guarantees. If you’re an ethical operator, you are most likely already offering a guarantee but you just aren’t using it to your advantage in your marketing.

So why not make a point of talking about something that you’re already doing.

Most people are honest and won’t abuse guarantees if they’ve received the service they were promised.

Even after accounting for the few people who do abuse them, you’ll be far ahead because a strong guarantee will attract more customers than a weak and vague one.

A strong, results oriented guarantee will also drive you to deliver a great customer experience. This alone ensures that it’s worthwhile to have a strong guarantee.

Your customers have their own fears. When you can name the fears and guarantee
against them in your marketing, you give yourself an overwhelming advantage
over your competitors.

Pricing Strategy

I’m sometimes asked, “can’t lowest price be my USP?”. Sure it can, but can you absolutely guarantee that everything you sell will be priced lower than all your competitors including the behemoths like Target and Kmart? Unlikely.

So a USP that says “lowest prices on some things, some of the time” is not quite so compelling.

The fact is if you’re a small or medium business, you’re unlikely to beat the big discounters at the lowest price game.

Truth be told, you probably don’t want to. By charging higher prices, you attract a better quality client. As counter intuitive as it may seem, you get far less grief from high end customers than you do from low end ones. I’ve seen and experienced this in multiple businesses across multiple industries.

A better option than discounting is to increase the value of your offering.

Bundling in bonuses, adding services, customising the solution can all be of genuine value to your customer but can cost you very little to do.

This also helps you create that apples-to-oranges comparison that gets you out of the commodity game.

Don’t hate the player, hate the game. So as hard as it may be to resist, don’t play the commodity/price game.

Dedicated To Your Marketing Success

John

“I would like to acknowledge the wonderful Alan Dib from Successwise“

Social Media Marketing Wollongong – How To Grow Your Business With Social Media

by Red/Marketer with a Soul | Aug 22, 2022 | Advertising Wollongong, SEO Wollongong, social media marketing

Social media marketing is an important part of any online strategy. It allows you to reach customers where they spend their time, and create a community around your brand. But it can be confusing. To make things worse, most advice on social media marketing comes from the people selling it, rather than from businesses who are already successfully using it. That’s why I wanted to write this article. I want you to have the real scoop – straight from other successful business owners who know what they’re doing and have been there before you.

Create an Account with Facebook.

Whether you’re a business owner, a blogger or a webmaster, we all know the importance of having a Facebook account. Having a Facebook account allows you to have your own personal page where people can follow and connect with you. However, did you know that there are also websites where you can create a business page as well? This allows your customers to get information regarding your business and also enables them to read posts that you’ve posted on your page. If you’re not using social media yet, now’s the perfect time to start! You can use Facebook as a free platform to build your brand and connect with potential clients.

To get started on Facebook:

1. Create a Facebook Page for your business by going to www.facebook.com/pages/create/. Follow the instructions to create a page for your business.

2. Set up your Page by filling out all of the required fields in the Info tab (including a profile picture).

3. Add some information about yourself by filling out the About tab and adding additional tabs if necessary (for example: Contact Info or Services).

4. Manage your Page by clicking on the Edit Page button at the top right-hand corner of your page (next to where it says “Like”) then selecting Manage Permissions from the dropdown menu that appears next to Settings & Privacy Settings in order to add new people as admins who can post content on behalf of your business.

Setup a Twitter Account

Twitter is another great place to promote your business. It’s easy to set up an account, and you can easily share links to your website, blog posts, and other online content.

To set up a Twitter account, go to the website: https://twitter.com/signup. If you already have a Facebook or Google account, you can use it to sign up for Twitter. If not, you’ll need to create an account with your email address and password, then verify it by entering in your phone number or SMS code.

Once you’re signed in, you’ll be able to write your first Tweet! A tweet is a 140-character message that can be posted publicly (to everyone) or privately (to only your followers). To post publicly on Twitter, just type in your message and hit enter—it’ll be posted instantly! You can also attach photos and videos from other websites using a “link” icon on each post. To send private messages (DM), click on the envelope icon beside a user’s name when they are mentioned in one of your Tweets; this will open up their DM inbox so that you can send them something more personal than what would be appropriate for everyone else to see!

Start posting regularly.

You should post at least once every day. This will help build trust with your followers and keep them interested in what you’re doing..

Here are some tips for making the most of your time on social media:

1. You should post at least once every day. This will help build trust with your followers and keep them interested in what you’re doing.

2. Post during times when your target audience is most likely to be online: between 9am and 5pm (Eastern Time) on weekdays, and 11am – 6pm on weekends.

3. Don’t use all caps or excessive punctuation—it makes it look like you’re yelling at people, which is never a good thing! Also avoid emoticons like 🙂 or :-(—they’re kind of creepy.

4. Make sure that each post has a clear call-to-action so that people know how they can interact with you (e.g., if you’re selling something, let people know how much it costs).

Find out what works best for your audience.

The best way to grow your business through social media is to tailor your approach.

There’s no one size fits all approach when it comes to social media marketing. It depends on your industry, your brand, and your goals.

So how do you know which approach is right for you? Here are some questions to ask yourself:

-What are my goals? Do I want to grow my customer base or increase brand awareness?

-What kind of imagery will appeal most to my customers? Do they like photos or videos? What kind of message should I convey in each post?

-What are the most popular platforms among my target audience? Facebook, Instagram, Twitter…or something else entirely?

-Who am I trying to reach—just people who already know about me or those who aren’t yet familiar with my business?

Promote your posts.

Don’t just post your content and hope it goes viral—you have to promote it!

This is one of the best ways to grow your business on social media. You should promote your posts as much as possible. This will help them gain more views and engagement.

You can do this by promoting your posts on other networks and sites, like Facebook or Twitter. You can also promote them on other websites that are related to yours, like forums or blogs.

If you’re not sure where to start with promoting your posts, then check out these tips:

1. Use hashtags in your posts so people can find them easily when they search for those terms on Twitter or Instagram.

2. Include links in your posts so people who want more information about something can click through and read more about it without leaving their feed (this is called a link-in-post). This is great because it allows users to quickly get a lot of information without having to go somewhere else first!

3. Try using video content on Instagram stories instead of just photos—it’s easier for people to digest while they’re scrolling through their feeds!

And most importantly, don’t be afraid to push yourself outside of your comfort zone. It may feel uncomfortable to hold a giveaway or reach out to strangers, but let’s face it—Social media is a powerful resource that we can all take advantage of. Don’t be afraid to at least give it a try, and you may find yourself growing in ways that you hadn’t even realized were possible.

Growing your business through social media requires consistency, persistence, and a willingness to experiment with new ideas. The information in this article should give you a headstart on growing your company through social media. Hopefully, it will serve you, but even if not; try something new. That’s the only way you’ll know for certain if it works for you.

Dedicated To Your Social Media Marketing Success!

John

Why Advertising Agencies are the Best Option for your Business

by Red/Marketer with a Soul | Aug 12, 2022 | Advertising Wollongong, Digital marketing wollongong, direct response marketing, facebook advertising, Google Ads, Lead generation, Online Advertising Wollongong, SEO Wollongong, social media marketing

If your business wants to grow, advertising agencies are the way to go.

As a small to medium sized business owner, you would have to agree that one of the toughest things to figure out is how to get the attention of potential clients. While we have all heard that word-of-mouth is the best way to generate business, today’s customers are inundated with ads, promotions and information overload. As a result, they can easily ignore your message or even worse, get annoyed with it. That’s why advertising agencies are so important. They are trained strategists who know how to deliver your message in a way that will capture the attention of your target market and keep it from interfering with their world.

They also have the resources and experience to help you reach your goals.

When you’re in the business of selling products and services, it’s important to have an advertising agency on your side. They have the knowledge and resources to help you achieve your business objectives. They have the ability to develop creative campaigns that will attract customers to your products and services.

What’s more, they can help you build a brand that people will recognize and want to buy again and again.

Business owners who work with advertising agencies tend to see results quickly—and those results are often measurable in terms of increased sales or improved customer loyalty.

You get access to their expertise.

Every marketing campaign is unique. Your business has its own goals, needs and audience. You need an ad agency that can develop a customized strategy for your company based on your specific needs.

The best ad agencies are able to take the time to understand your business and your goals before they develop a plan of action. They know that effective advertising requires more than just creating an ad campaign; it requires understanding who you’re trying to reach and what message will resonate with them.

You get access to new ideas.

You’ve got a business to run, and you don’t have time to spend hours on your marketing strategy.

Fortunately, an advertising agency can help you get the most out of your marketing dollars. They can bring fresh perspectives to your business, helping you develop creative campaigns that will appeal to your target audience. They can also provide insight into the latest trends in your industry so you can stay up to date with current events.

You get access to more qualified leads.

It’s no secret that marketing is a challenging endeavor. In order to succeed, you need to get your message across to the right people at the right time—and that means being able to reach a diverse range of demographics.

You need to get access to more qualified leads.

When you work with an advertising agency, they are able to offer you a wealth of opportunities that would otherwise be unknown to your business. This includes access to advertising platforms and markets that might not be available to smaller businesses like yours.

You also get access to more qualified leads.

When companies advertise on TV or radio, they are often advertising to everyone in their local area or even state. This means that the leads generated by these ads may not be targeted enough for your business needs. With an advertising agency, you get access to a network of professionals who will target their campaigns specifically at your ideal customer base.

You might like to also read: >>Big Business vs Small Business Marketing<<

At the end of the day, an ad agency is the ideal choice because they are experts at creating marketing material. While they will require payment for the services they provide, it is a small investment that can pay off in a big way. Their expertise will result in a better advertising campaign than you could ever run on your own.

Ultimately, the agency you choose will depend on your own needs and preferences. But if you are searching for an advertising agency that can provide your business with primary or secondary marketing tools, such as commercials or advertisements, then an ad agency may be just what you need to help your company thrive.

Dedicated To Your Marketing Success

John

How To Compete With Big Spenders In Google Ads

by Red/Marketer with a Soul | Aug 5, 2022 | Advertising Wollongong, Google Ads, Lead generation, Online Advertising Wollongong

Every Small Business Can Compete With Big Advertisers

As a small business owner, you know that Google Ads can be an amazing way to get in front of the eyes of your target audience and grow your business. You also know that Google Ads can be expensive.

And you know what hurts?

When you spend a lot of time, energy, and money on your ad campaigns, and then you see the big-budget competitors out-spending you. It makes you feel like all that effort was wasted—like you didn’t even stand a chance in the first place. And it makes it hard to keep going when you’re feeling like there’s no point in trying to compete with those guys.

But here’s the thing, you don’t need to spend $50k+ per month on ads to get results, there is a way to compete with them without spending more money!

There are a few things you can do right now that will help level the playing field in your favor. Here are some tips and tricks for competing with big spenders without spending more $$

Big advertisers are always using conversion tracking

If you’re spending money in Google Ads, and you aren’t using conversion tracking, you need to ask yourself this:

How are you supposed to know what’s working? How can you optimise for success if you don’t have the data to back it up?

If your CTR (click through rate) is a measly 2%, and you’re not seeing conversion volume climbing as a result of your ads, then something is wrong. You might think that people just aren’t clicking on your ads, but maybe they are! Maybe they’re just not converting after they click.

Maybe they were too busy looking at their phones to notice the call-to-action in the ad. Maybe they didn’t have time to click on their mobile device while driving down the road at 60 miles per hour. Maybe they were distracted by a cat playing with string or something. Who knows?

The point is: if people aren’t converting on your site after clicking on your ads, then there’s probably something wrong with either your ad copy or landing page (or both). You need data from those clicks so that you can make the necessary tweaks and see results.

Even if you’re spending less money on Google Ads than Coca-Cola (and who isn’t?), you should care about ROI (Return On Investment). Getting conversion tracking set up on your website is relatively simple and completely free (unless you need a developer’s assistance). But it can make a big difference in your business. The $500 or $10,000 or however much you’re spending on Google Ads each month can significantly impact your business—and learning how and why is paramount to your success in Google Ads. That starts with conversion tracking.

Get Your Free Access To Professional Standard Analytical and Tracking SOPs >> “How To Set Up Google Tracking on Your Website” <<

Big advertisers have more landing pages than small spenders.

You know that ad that’s been working like gangbusters for you? The one with the low CPC (Cost per Click) and high CTR (Click Through Rate)? Well, what if we told you that was just the tip of the iceberg?

As it turns out, even with conversion tracking enabled and a structurally sound account in place, there’s a factor outside of Google Ads that can have a profound impact on performance. I’m talking about those action-inducing corners of your website to which you send paid traffic. I’m talking, of course, about landing pages.

Big-budget advertisers know that if you have multiple ads and multiple offers, you need multiple landing pages too. That’s because your prospects will respond much better to specific, tailored messaging that matches the ad they clicked very closely. If you’re sending all your traffic to one generic landing page (or worse, your home page!) they’re going to get confused and bounce.

When you’re small, it can be hard to find the time to build new landing pages.

But if you want to take your Google Ads campaigns to the next level, you need more than one landing page.

More than 1 in 4 (26%) of lower-budget Google Ads accounts only have a single active landing page, compared to just 4% of top-spending accounts.

We know this is a challenge—especially when you have limited resources at your disposal.

However, even if your Google Ads account is only a few months old and your team consists of just one or two people, there are ways for you to begin testing different images and copy on each page.

First off, duplicate the current design of your landing page and make multiple versions for each ad group. Then, optimize the language for each page based on the keywords being targeted by that ad group. This will help improve relevance for both users and Quality Score algorithm (in an ideal world, you can do this at the ad group level).

Get Your Free Access To Professional Standard Funnel SOPs >> How to Create a Lead Generation Landing Page <<

According to recent studies, big spenders have a 17% higher conversion rate than small spenders.

If you care about your business, you’re probably interested in improving your conversion rate.

You’ve probably heard that big spenders have a higher conversion rate, but why?

We’ll tell you: because they prioritise conversion rate optimisation.

When you start considering CRO, it’s tempting to skip right to your landing pages (if you have more than one!) and start fiddling with button colors and graphic elements. Don’t do that. Or, rather, do that later. But start at the beginning.

Make sure the keywords you’re bidding on relate to your business. Broad terms might bring in a ton of traffic, but paying for superfluous clicks is a waste of your budget. We recommend allocating more than half of your budget to high-intent, top-converting keywords.

You can see how important it is to create a landing page that converts.

It’s your chance to show people what you have to offer, and why they should buy from you. It’s also your opportunity to address their needs and concerns, so they can feel confident in their decision to choose you over the competition.

But there are a lot of things that can go wrong in this process. Your landing page might not be mobile-friendly, or it could be cluttered with too much information or make visitors work too hard to find what they need. Or maybe your headline is boring, or your call-to-action buttons are unappealing or difficult to find.

You need to make sure that everything on your landing page works together in harmony: everything works together nicely so it all adds up to a positive user experience for visitors. That means:

Using compelling headlines (just like your ads!)
Writing concise and targeted body copy (not too much information)
Testing different CTA buttons until you find one that works best for you

Top spenders have 38% higher click-through rates than average.

If you’ve ever spent any time in Google Ads, you know that a lot of people are bidding on the same keywords.

And if you’re not spending tons of dough in Google Ads, you can compete with the big guys by spending more time on your ad copy, and by getting creative.

Top-spending Google Ads accounts have an average CTR of almost 7%, whereas low spenders have an average CTR of 5%.That’s a 38% difference—a chasm in a world where a few measly percentage points can mean the difference between profitability and boarding your doors.

So how are the big guys doing it? The truth is, bidding more isn’t going to make your ads more clickable. The ads at the top of the SERP (search engine results page) are generally the ones with the highest Quality Scores, which correlates highly with relevance and better-than-expected click-through rate. If your ads really resonate with users, you can get high CTR even if you’re bidding less than bigger advertisers!

It’s no secret that the world has moved towards mobile devices. In fact, over half of all internet traffic comes from mobile devices—a number that’s only set to grow.

And with the rise of mobile comes a shift in how we consume content: most people don’t read past the headline.

By improving relevance (leveraging your target keyword) and including a call to action in your headlines, you can improve your CTRs without having to crack your piggy bank open.

Big Advertisers Are Using More Ad Extensions Than Smaller Ones (4,631 % more)

Chances are, you’ve heard ad extensions like Sitelinks, Location, and Callout Extensions can help improve your click-through rate (CTR). But have you ever wondered why? Or how?

For small businesses, ad extensions can be a huge difference-maker. Ad extensions can improve your click-through rate six-fold

When it comes to PPC (pay per click) ads, size matters, and these top spenders know that you can use every ad extension in the book to make your Ads big enough to blot out the sun (or at least the rest of the SERP).

Provided your ads are served in the top three positions, there are a dozen extensions you can use to increase both value and ad real estate (and that doesn’t even include the automated extensions Google’s want to sling your way just because it’s a Wednesday afternoon).

We get it. If you’re a one-man-band, routine optimsation and writing ads is time-consuming enough; worrying about optional ad extensions probably feels like a waste of time. That said, if you’ve got an hour or two to spare each month—and especially if your competitors are willing to take advantage of automatic extensions—you might want to consider enabling some of these extras for yourself.

Get Your Free Access To Professional Standard “Paid Strategies SOPs” >> How To Reverse Engineer Your Competitor’s Google Ads Strategy <<

>> Google ad alchemy template <<

When you’re trying to get a message across, it’s all about making it as easy for people to understand as possible. The same goes for online ads: Your job is to ensure that your ad gets noticed, so people can read your message.

That’s where Google Ads sitelink extensions come in—they make sure that your ad stands out from the crowd by providing additional information about your business or service in an easy-to-read format. In fact, 13.5% of Google Ads accounts don’t have their sitelink extensions applied to every campaign! That’s a huge number of potential customers who could be lost before they even see the main headline of your ad.

Don’t let this happen to you! Take a page out of the big boys’ playbook and implement sitelinks today!

Big Spenders Add More Keywords To Negative Keyword Lists Than Small Spenders

Negative keywords are the unsung heroes of any high-performing Google Ads account. You know they’re there, and you assume that they’re working hard to protect your campaign from irrelevant impressions, but you only think about them when something goes wrong.

If you’re bidding on all the right keywords (high intent! relevant! volumetrically salient!), but you can’t seem to earn a conversion to save your life, it’s probably not because your prospects don’t like you. Provided you’re tracking conversions, it’s likely that either…

A lack of negative keywords is causing a deluge of superfluous impressions, many of which are stealing budget away from those interested in your offer
Overzealous negative keywords are impeding your ability to enter auctions for relevant search queries

If you operate with a lean marketing budget, I’m willing to bet that it’s 1. But why is that?

Top-spending Google Ads accounts use many more negative keywords than low-spending accounts; 98% of top-spending accounts use over 250 negative keywords.

Say you sell men’s shoes, and you’re bidding on the keyword +men’s +shoes. How many of these terms do you want to serve ads for?

The first thing you need to know is that there are a lot of search terms that don’t convert.

Many of them are simply too broad to justify paying for (see: “shoes”). Others may be off-brand (like “sneakers” or “cheap shoes”). Paired with the sky-high monthly search volume on some of these, you’d be out of budget before you could blink.

Large advertisers have already figured this out, and devote a little time each week to reviewing their search query reports, between visits to the Ping-Pong table and chocolate fountain.

For the rest of us, by simply jumping into the search terms report available in AdWords, filtering out terms that converted, and sorting by impressions, we’re able to discern whether a search query is making us money or costing us money. While doing so, it’s well worth the little extra elbow grease to add negative keywords frequently if you want to maximize your ad spend and save money in Google Ads.

High spenders tend to have higher quality scores.

You might have clicked on the link above “Quality Score”, if not exactly what is a Quality Score?

You’ve probably heard the term before, but you’re not really sure what it means.

Well, wonder no more! A Quality Score is Google’s rating of the overall user experience that your ads and landing pages provide when users search for your keyword(s). This includes factors like ad relevance and performance, as well as landing page experience.

It all comes down to this: If you want to get a better Quality Score, you need to make sure that the people who click on your ads are happy with what they see when they get to your website.

If they’re not happy with what they saw in the ad or on the landing page, then they may not come back again. And unless they return (and return often), Google won’t show your ads as often. So if you want to keep getting clicks and make more money from them (which is why we all do this), then it’s important that you pay attention to how much people love what they see when they land on your site!

Image source: Wordstream

As you can see, Quality Score can drastically raise or reduce your average CPC. A perfect Quality Score can discount your CPC by about 50%; a heinous Quality Score can increase costs by 400%. At that point, you’re either bidding on the wrong keywords or there’s some serious work to be done on your ads and landing pages.

Impression-weighted Quality Score is a variation on the QS metric that’s available to you in Google Ads. The difference is straightforward: it adjusts for the number of impressions (shocking, I know), giving you some much needed context. Impression-weighted Quality score isn’t a KPI, per se, but it is an indicator of health. Like a Google Ads thermometer.

According to the latest research, top spenders have an average impression-weighted Quality Score of 6.3, where low spenders average just 5.6. That 12% difference might not sound like much, but in reality it represents unneeded budget inefficiency that small businesses simply cannot sustain. If you’ve got a lower budget, you need to do everything in your power to make sure you’re spending it efficiently.

To determine the impression-weighted Quality Score of a given ad group or campaign use the following formula:

(Impressions * Quality Score) / Impressions

Once you’ve got a handle on your impression-weighted Quality Score, it’s time to pull some levers to improve it. The factors that impact Quality Score the most are:

That all-important CTR (Click Through Rate)
Ad relevance (what is it?)
Landing page experience

Again, improving ad copy and landing page quality (resources to help with this) are the most direct ways to close the gap between the average joe and the multi-national conglomerate (at least when it comes to Google Ads)

>>>>Google Ads Grader<<<<

Big spenders are more active in their accounts.

The big spenders aren’t just spending more money in their accounts; they’re also spending more time there. We found that the $50K-and-up crowd are 1196% more active than the smaller spenders. They’re getting in there and actually doing all the stuff we talked about above.

Big spenders take more actions in their accounts, so they get better results.

Money can’t buy happiness, and it can’t buy you a perfect Google Ads account. However, with great budgets comes great responsibility—and business owners who spend a lot on their online advertising take their account performance very seriously, so they invest time and attention in their accounts, not just money.

So What Does It All Mean?

Even if you can’t raise your budget significantly, you can make like a big spender and commit to more activity in your account: adding new keywords and negative keywords, testing new ads, building dedicated landing pages, enabling every ad extension under the sun.

If you spend a month or two working diligently on your account without spending a penny more, and If done right, a series of small steps today can help steer your Google Ads towards greater profitability tomorrow.

Dedicated To Your Marketing Success

John