Understanding Google Ads RSA and Dynamic Campaigns

Responsive Search Ads (RSA) allow advertisers to input multiple headlines and descriptions, which Google tests and optimizes automatically to match various user queries. This flexibility helps improve the ad’s relevance and potential conversion rate.

Dynamic ad campaigns go a step further by automatically creating ads based on your website’s content, targeting specific categories with precision. This ensures that your ads are highly relevant to the users who see them, increasing the likelihood of engagement and conversion.

Implementing Strategic Bid Management

Starting Low to Manage Expectations

Starting with lower bids is crucial when setting up your Google Ads campaigns. This tactic is not just about saving money; it’s about avoiding setting a precedent with Google Ads that you’re willing to pay high costs per click (CPC). If you start high, Google’s algorithms may continue optimizing for higher CPCs, expecting you to be comfortable with such spending levels.

Gradual Increases Based on Performance

1. Monitor and Analyze

• Start by closely monitoring how your ads perform at lower bid levels. Look for metrics such as click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, and cost per conversion. This data is fundamental in understanding the effectiveness of your ad copy, targeting, and initial bidding strategy.

2. Incremental Bidding

• Once you have baseline performance data, increase bids on keywords and ad placements showing potential incrementally. This method allows you to test the waters without committing a large budget upfront, adjusting only based on successful outcomes.

3. Focused Bid Adjustments

• Target your bid increases on segments that are performing well. For instance, if certain times of day, geographic locations, or specific devices yield better results, adjust your bids to capitalize on these high-performing factors.

4. Set Upper Limits

• Establishing maximum bid caps that align with your overall budget and conversion goals is essential. This prevents any runaway spending and ensures that your bids do not exceed a cost-effective threshold for your business.

Benefits of Strategic Bid Management in Google Ads

• Cost Control: Starting with lower bids and only increasing based on performance keeps your CPC low, preventing budget depletion.
• Improved ROI: By optimizing your bids gradually, you invest more in areas that are proven to work, thereby improving your overall return on investment (ROI).
• Enhanced Learning: This approach allows you to understand better which aspects of your campaigns are driving results, giving you deeper insights into practical strategies and areas for improvement.

Conclusion

Combining the power of Google Ads’ RSA with dynamic campaigns and implementing strategic bid management can significantly enhance the efficiency of your digital advertising efforts. By starting with lower bids and carefully adjusting based on performance, you ensure your advertising budget is spent wisely, driving more conversions without overspending. This method maintains your CPC at a manageable level and leverages Google’s sophisticated ad-targeting capabilities to effectively reach the most relevant audiences.

Want help maximizing your Google Ads performance for the lowest cost per conversion? Contact us for a free Google Ads audit.

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Google introduced “Smart Mode” to help even the most inexperienced advertisers get their campaigns up and running with minimal effort. While the platform’s machine learning algorithms are robust, Smart Mode isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution.

We recently analyzed a client’s Google Ads campaign created by another marketing company. To our surprise, the previous vendor had used Google Ads Smart Mode instead of Expert Mode and spent a decent budget with no results. As described below, a number of significant issues were found with using Smart Mode, and other issues including Google Ads and Analytics performance tags and tracking not set up properly and no saved data. The result of the Smart Mode campaign was no conversions.

Here’s a list of reasons why relying solely on Google Ads Smart Mode could be a mistake for your advertising campaigns.

The Illusion of Simplicity

One of the major selling points of Smart Mode is its simplicity. Google promises to handle all the intricate elements of an ad campaign, from keyword targeting to bidding strategies. However, what is sacrificed for this simplicity is control and customization, crucial aspects that seasoned advertisers rely upon. While Smart Mode might get your campaign off the ground quickly, it may not be the most effective way to reach your target audience or achieve particular business objectives.

Lack of Granular Control

One of the most significant drawbacks of Smart Mode is the limited control over the settings. Advertisers can’t choose their target keywords with as much specificity, nor can they optimize campaigns by setting negative keywords to exclude irrelevant traffic. Bidding strategies are also handled automatically, which might not align with an advertiser’s goals, such as brand awareness or customer retention. This lack of control may result in a wasted budget and less-than-optimal results.

Dependence on Machine Learning

Machine learning algorithms rely on vast amounts of data to make informed decisions. While Google Ads Smart Mode does utilize machine learning, it is generally more effective when there is substantial data for it to analyze. For new campaigns or niche markets, the algorithms might not have enough data to make the best choices, which could affect your return on marketing investment negatively.

Limited Performance Insights

The analytics provided in Smart Mode are simplified to make it user-friendly. This simplification is great for beginners but less useful for advanced advertisers who want to dive deep into the data. Limited performance insights make it challenging to identify what is working and what needs adjustment, hindering your campaign’s optimization and evolution.

Incompatibility with Complex Strategies

If your advertising strategy involves multi-channel funnels, seasonal adjustments, or A/B testing of different ad copy or landing pages, Smart Mode might not be up to the task. Its limitations make it less compatible with more advanced or nuanced marketing strategies, narrowly targeting your audience that requires precise control and adaptability.

Financial Implications

Lastly, while Smart Mode might seem cost-effective initially, this is not always the case in the long run. The platform might opt for higher bids to achieve short-term results, which could result in higher costs and inefficient budget spending over time. Furthermore, the automated system may not always differentiate between high-value and low-value clicks, which could increase your advertising costs without a proportionate rise in returns.

Conclusion

Google Ads Smart Mode offers a convenient entry point for those new to online advertising. However, the limitations in control, customization, and analytics make it less suitable for advertisers looking for optimal performance and specific results. For effective advertising campaigns, hiring a Google Ads professional who uses a hands-on approach using Expert Mode is required.

Need help with your Google Ads campaigns?  Contact us for a free consultation and evaluation.

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Understanding Google Ads Audiences

Google Ads audiences are groups of users defined by shared characteristics, behaviors, or demographics. These characteristics range from interests and online behaviors to location, device usage, and more. By categorizing users into specific audiences, advertisers can tailor their marketing efforts to reach the right people at the right time, thus maximizing the impact of their campaigns. Examples of Audiences include specific in-market segments, such as “Tourism,” “Visitors to Philadelphia,” “Fitness Enthusiasts,” “Recent Homebuyers,” or “Tech-Savvy Millennials.”

Benefits of Using Well-Targeted Audiences for Branding

1. Relevance and Personalization:
   • Targeting specific audiences ensures your ads are relevant to those seeing them.
   • Personalization drives higher engagement as users are more likely to resonate with content that aligns with their interests.
2. Cost Efficiency:
   • Well-targeted audiences prevent waste of ad spend on audiences unlikely to be interested in your brand.
   • Ads are displayed to users who are more likely to convert, resulting in a better return on investment.
3. Brand Awareness:
   • Customizing your message for specific audiences enhances brand visibility and recognition.
   • Your ads will resonate better with users, leading to a stronger brand recall over time.
   • For one of our recent clients we were able to use well-targeted audiences to create a lower cost-per-click, which helped a limited budget bringing in 52,811 website visits. The expected number of industry average website visits was about 2,450.
4. Improved User Experience:
   • Relevant ads create a positive user experience, fostering a sense of trust and credibility.
   • Users appreciate content that addresses their needs, increasing the likelihood of engagement and interaction.
5. Enhanced Engagement Metrics:
   • Well-targeted campaigns typically yield higher click-through rates, longer on-site time, and lower bounce rates.
   • Users are likelier to take desired actions, contributing to better campaign performance.
   • For a recent client, we were able to combine Audiences with Dynamic Ads to generate a 25.33% click-through-rate vs. an industry average of 9.19%; and resulted in an average cost-per-click of $0.07 vs. an industry average of $1.63.

Leveraging Dynamic Ads with Targeted Audiences

Google Dynamic Ads automatically customizes ad content based on the user’s browsing behavior, dynamically generating relevant information from the landing page to provide a personalized ad experience. The advantages of Dynamic ads are as follows:

1. Real-time Personalization:
   • Dynamic ads automatically adapt content based on the user’s behavior or profile.
   • Combined with targeted audiences, this approach creates an exceptionally personalized experience.
2. Efficiency and Relevance:
   • Dynamic ads save time and resources by generating customized content for various audience segments.
   • This efficiency enhances the user experience and maximizes engagement.
3. Timely Messaging:
   • Dynamic ads can showcase up-to-date information, such as product availability or special offers.
   • Paired with targeted audiences, this ensures that users receive relevant messages at the right moment.
4. A/B Testing Opportunities:
   • Dynamic ads enable testing of various content variations to identify the most effective messaging for each audience.
   • This iterative process optimizes campaign performance over time.

In conclusion, Google Ads audiences and dynamic ads form a potent partnership for successful branding campaigns. The precision of well-targeted audiences and the personalization of dynamically created ads can significantly elevate your brand’s visibility, engagement, and overall impact. Mastering these strategies as the digital landscape evolves can position your business at the forefront of effective online advertising. So, explore the power of audiences and dynamic ads, and watch your branding efforts flourish like never before.

Want help with your Google Ads campaigns?  Contact us.

By Andy Hoover
Manager, Search Engine and Social Media Marketing
Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc.

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Here are ten keys to Google Ads Grants success for non-profits:

1. Conduct Thorough Keyword Research: Keyword research is essential for any Google Ads campaign, but it is particularly important for non-profits that are limited to a $2.00 maximum bid per keyword. Identify relevant keywords with high search volume and low competition to maximize your chances of getting clicks within your budget. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner to discover keyword ideas and bid strategically on keywords that align with your non-profit’s goals and mission.
2. Use Image Assets for Search Text Ads: Google Ads Grants allows non-profits to use image assets in their search text ads, which can make your ads more visually appealing and engaging. Take advantage of this feature by creating compelling images that convey your message effectively. This can help you stand out from the competition and increase your click-through rates (CTR).
3. Create New Campaigns Every Month: Google Ads rewards new campaigns with higher CTRs. Regularly create new campaigns and ad groups to keep your ads fresh and relevant. This can help improve your Quality Score and increase the visibility of your ads, resulting in higher click-through rates and better performance.
4. Remove Keywords with Low Quality Scores: Low-quality keywords can harm your campaign’s performance and increase your cost per click (CPC). Remove any keywords with a 2 or lower quality score to improve your campaign’s relevance and effectiveness.
5. Check Your Campaigns Daily: Regularly monitoring and optimizing your campaigns can help you identify issues or opportunities and make necessary adjustments to improve your performance. Check your campaigns daily to identify any underperforming keywords or ads and make necessary adjustments. Optimize your ad copy, landing pages, and bids to improve your campaign’s effectiveness and increase your CTR.
6. Make Major Updates Once per Month: Google Ads takes time to learn and optimize your updates. Avoid making too many changes to your campaigns too frequently, as it may disrupt the learning process. Instead, make major updates once per month to allow Google’s algorithms to adapt and optimize your campaigns for better performance.
7. Maintain a High Click-Through Rate (CTR): Google Ads Grants has a requirement of a minimum 5% CTR. If your CTR falls below this threshold, your account may be at risk of suspension. Focus on creating relevant and compelling ads, using targeted keywords, and optimizing your campaigns to maintain a high CTR and ensure the longevity of your account.
8. Check Google’s Recommendations and Keep It at 100%: Google provides recommendations and feedback on your campaigns’ performance and opportunities for improvement. Check Google’s recommendations regularly and make necessary changes to keep your campaigns at 100%.
9. Maintain high Landing Page Experience and Ad Relevance Scores: Google’s algorithm considers landing page experience and ad relevance when ranking ads and determining CPC. Make sure your landing pages are relevant and provide a positive user experience to increase engagement and improve your Quality Score.
10. Use a Google Ads Account for Highly Competitive Keywords: In some cases the keywords you want/need to bid on cannot be achieved under the Google Ads Grants $2.00 maximum bid per keyword. In those cases, some of our clients maintain a hybrid approach of maximizing what they can do with their Google Ads Grants account and supplementing with a Google Ads Account to bid on the keywords that fall outside of the $2.00 maximum bid per keyword range.

In conclusion, by following these ten keys to Google Ads Grants success for non-profits, organizations can effectively leverage the advertising grant to achieve their online marketing objectives. Conduct thorough keyword research, use image assets, create new campaigns, remove low-quality keywords, check your campaigns daily, make major updates once per month, maintain a high CTR, check Google’s recommendations, and maintain a high landing page experience and ad relevance to maximize the benefits of Google Ads Grants.

Need help with your Google Ads Grants or Google Ads account? Contact Us for a free consultation.

Author:

Andy Hoover
Manager, Search Engine and Social Media Marketing
Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc.

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About Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc.

Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc., is a full service direct and online marketing agency serving both B2B and B2C clients. Our goal is to help clients measure their campaigns and achieve the lowest cost per lead or sale through relentless analysis and optimization. Inbound marketing services include search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), content marketing, lead generation and website design. Outbound marketing services include email marketing and marketing automation, direct mail, and tele-prospecting services.

About Silicon Valley Business Journal

The Silicon Valley Business Journal is the Silicon Valley version of the American City Business Journals (ACBJ), which is the largest publisher of metropolitan business newsweeklies in the United States, with 44 websites and 64 business publications across the country reaching more than 10 million readers each week. They also offer specialty publications for sports fans, sports business readers and classic car enthusiasts.

Written by Laurie Beasley
Co-Founder and President, Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc.

Is your company’s website underperforming? Have one of Silicon Valley’s top online marketing agencies optimize your site for leads, sales and revenue generation. Contact us now.

The post Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc., Places 17th in Silicon Valley Business Journal 2022 List of Largest Advertising, Marketing and PR Agencies appeared first on Beasley Direct and Online Marketing.

Andreas Ramos, Vice President, Digital Marketing for Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc., will be teaching a live online Google Ads fundamentals PPC workshop for the Direct Marketing Association of Northern California.

Andreas is the author of 14 books on SEO, social media and content marketing, including #TwitterBook, How to Write a Book!, The Big Book of Content Marketing, Search Engine Marketing (McGraw-Hill), and technical reviewer of Search Engine Marketing, Inc., by Mike Moran (IBM Press). Andreas co-founded two digital marketing agencies. He also led the digital marketing team at Acxiom and was Manager of Global SEO at Cisco. His clients include Stanford, Harvard, and MIT. He graduated from Universität Heidelberg, the top German university. He and his wife live in Palo Alto. Visit him at andreas.com.

What You’ll Learn

• You’ll see how a Google Ads account is structured and we’ll do a live walk-through of an Ads account
• You’ll see how to quickly find 10,000 keywords, including your competitors’ keywords, and how to test those keywords to find the best keywords

Key Takeaways

• How to use the best keywords in your Ads account
• Understand how to set up large accounts
• Understand how to test ads to find ads with high conversion rates

Bonus Material

• You can listen to the complete presentation with audio as often as you like
• Spreadsheet to collect and manage thousands of keywords
• Spreadsheet tool to translate your keywords into 44 languages

Three-Part Course on Google Ads

This is the introduction course of the three-part course for Google Ads. You can continue to Google Ads Advanced, which covers methods and tools that agencies use to write and test ads in Google Ads.

Who is the course for?

• Anyone who wants to work with Google Ads and SEM
• Senior staff, managers, and directors who are responsible for Google Ads and SEM
• You will be able to understand SEO so you can manage Google Ads and SEM agencies or contractors
• Agencies can improve their Google Ads and SEM services

To enroll go here.

About the DMAnc (www.DMAnc.org)

The DMA of Northern California was formed to educate, inform and provide networking opportunities for Direct and Online Marketing professionals in the San Francisco Bay Area.

We hold monthly luncheon meetings, workshops, periodic half-day seminars, and provide opportunity for the best in learning and job networking in the Northern California marketing community.

About Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc.

Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc., is known for bringing the latest marketing strategies to online and direct marketing. We provide services in inbound and outbound marketing including: content creation, email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), print advertising, social media advertising, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, Amazon Marketing Services (AMS), website design, media planning/public relations, direct mail marketing, lead generation and nurture campaigns, and database management. We help clients in both B2B and B2C marketing and are privately held and headquartered in the Silicon Valley suburb of Morgan Hill, California. For more information, go here.

For help with your PPC campaign implementation and marketing, Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc., can help! Get a free consultation.

Find case studies and white papers at https://beasleydirect.com/resources/white-papers.

The post Join Andreas Ramos, Vice President, Digital Marketing for Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc., in a Live Online Workshop on “Google Ads Fundamentals” appeared first on Beasley Direct and Online Marketing.

Andreas Ramos has joined Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc., as Vice President, Digital Marketing.  Andreas will assist clients in global digital marketing strategy and in training their teams in content marketing, SEO strategy, social media, and Google advertising.

Andreas is the author of fourteen best-selling books on SEO, social media, and content marketing, including: #TwitterBook, How to Write a Book!, The Big Book of Content Marketing, Search Engine Marketing (McGraw-Hill), and technical reviewer of Search Engine Marketing, by Mike Moran (IBM Press). Andreas co-founded two digital marketing agencies. He also led the digital marketing team at Acxiom and was Manager of Global SEO at Cisco.

About Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc.

Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc., is known for bringing the latest marketing strategies to online and direct marketing. Beasley provides services in inbound and outbound marketing including:  content creation, email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), print advertising, social media advertising, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, Amazon Marketing Services (AMS), website design, media planning/public relations, direct mail marketing, lead generation and nurture campaigns, and database management. Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc., helps clients in both B2B and B2C marketing and is privately held and headquartered in the Silicon Valley suburb of Morgan Hill, California. For more information, go to https://www.beasleydirect.com/.

Need help with your digital marketing? Review our digital marketing offerings and get free SEO and PPC audits here.

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John Thyfault, Vice President, Search Engine and Social Media Marketing for Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc., will be teaching a live online Remarketing workshop for the Direct Marketing Association of Northern California.

How to Create Cross-Platform Remarketing Campaigns: The Sum is Greater than the Parts

(Wednesday, February 27, 2019. 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM Pacific Standard Time)

Remarketing is the process of reaching out to the 98% of people who landed on your website but who didn’t convert. A remarketing campaign can result in double digit response rates and 100-200% ROI if done properly. Many advertisers are not taking full advantage of remarketing though, limiting their efforts to just one platform and leaving potential conversions on the table. A well-designed, multi-platform remarketing campaign can combine different user data from each platform into a super engine for success.

This remarketing training workshop will focus on the specifics of developing a cross platform remarketing plan between Google Ads and Facebook (including Instagram), but the lessons learned can be applied to LinkedIn, Twitter, email and most other platforms. Case studies will illustrate the set up and measurement of your remarketing campaigns.

In this remarketing training workshop you will learn how to:

• Establish marketing goals that you can accomplish with multi-platform remarketing
• Benefit from the similarities and differences of remarketing audiences/lists creation by platform—and how you can use each platform’s unique targeting features to create super lists
• Create look-a-like audiences from current customer email lists
• Understand your customers better by looking at multi-platform data and using this to drive conversions
• Harness the power of layered remarketing across platforms
• Use parallel and sequential approaches to make the most of your remarketing dollars
• Create a unified dashboard in Google Data Studio to view your results on one screen

Learn more

About the DMAnc (www.DMAnc.org)

The DMA of Northern California was formed to educate, inform and provide networking opportunities for Direct and Online Marketing professionals in the San Francisco Bay Area.

We hold monthly luncheon meetings, workshops, periodic half-day seminars, and provide opportunity for the best in learning and job networking in the Northern California marketing community.

About Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc.

Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc., is known for bringing the latest marketing strategies to online and direct marketing. We provide services in inbound and outbound marketing including: content creation, email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), print advertising, social media advertising, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, Amazon Marketing Services (AMS), website design, media planning/public relations, direct mail marketing, lead generation and nurture campaigns, and database management. We help clients in both B2B and B2C marketing and are privately held and headquartered in the Silicon Valley suburb of Morgan Hill, California. For more information, go here.

For help with your e-commerce site implementation and marketing, Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc., can help! Get a free consultation.

Find case studies and white papers at https://beasleydirect.com/resources/white-papers.

The post Join John Thyfault, Vice President, Search Engine and Social Media Marketing for Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc., in a Workshop on “How to Create Cross-Platform Remarketing Campaigns” appeared first on Beasley Direct and Online Marketing.

A Broad Match Modifier is a variation on the traditional Broad Match for your keyword matching options. They can drive an improved reach and ROI. We’ll illustrate in a case study for a community bank client later in this blog. First, some basics on how the Broad Match Modifier works.

The Broad Match Modifier as Your Ultimate Reach: How it Works

When setting up your keyword match types, Broad Match gives you the most reach and variability in the searches your ad can appear on. In addition, the keyword’s cost-per-click (CPC) tends to be lower than using phrase or exact match. For example, if you have set up the keyword “men’s shoes” as a broad match, your ad can appear whenever Google Ads thinks it’s relevant. The ad could be triggered by searches like “shoes for men,” “men’s tennis shoes,” “dress shoes for men” or “loafers for guys.” It can appear on any synonym, plural or variation Google Ads thinks is appropriate.

This results in a wide reach to a lot of different searchers. However, often times the reach is too wide and you are getting clicks (each one costing you money) from searchers who are not looking for your particular product. You are selling dress shoes and your ad is appearing in searches for tennis shoes.

Phrase and Exact Match will focus your ads to appear in front of a much more limited set of searchers. Often times, they narrow the search down too much. The result is you don’t achieve the necessary impression volume you need to reach your marketing goals. What you need is a better balance of reaching a larger audience and yet focusing in on your product – and the Broad Match Modifier affords you exactly this balance.

What is Broad Match Modifier and how does it differ from straight Broad Match?

Broad Match Modifier will allow you to maintain a larger reach for different searches, while giving you some ability to focus the searches that your ad appears upon.

When Broad Match Modifier is used, a “+” is placed in front of a keyword, telling Google Ads to include that word “as is” in the search. Then the keyword can appear in any order in the actual search query, but the modified word or a close variation (plurals, stems, etc.) must be included.

For example:

The keyphrase “+women’s hats” could trigger an ad to appear when the searcher types in “women’s caps,” “white hats for women” or “women’s red caps.” It would not appear on “girl’s hats” because the modifier keyword “women’s” (or a close variation) was not included in the search.

In addition, you can use Broad Match Modifier to modify multiple words in your larger keyphrase you are bidding on:

The keyphrase “+women’s +hats” will trigger your ad when the searchers enter “women’s hats,” “hats for women,” “women’s blue hats” or “lacy women’s hats.” Your ad would not be triggered without both “women’s” and “hats” included in the search. Remember that the order of the words does not matter. This allows for a broader reach than phrase match where the order is maintained.

Case Study: Broad Match Modifier for a Community Bank’s Google Ads Campaigns

One of our clients, a community bank, wished to target real estate investors searching for multi-family properties. After developing an initial keyword list with a split of 30% broad match, 30% phrase match and 40% exact match, the campaign was launched. We targeted three medium size cities and six counties.

After one week’s worth of traffic, we analyzed the results, both from a conversion-to-lead basis and from a search query basis. The phrase and exact match traffic was very low. The traffic we did see performed well but at too low volume to meet the client’s goals.

Broad match generated plenty of traffic volume but a very low conversion rate. When we reviewed the search queries (Search Terms Report) that were driving the clicks, we saw a lot of consumer-based traffic. Terms being bid upon, such as “apartment building loan,” were triggering the client’s ads for terms such as “loans for apartment” and “loans to buy an apartment.” Traffic from these searches would land on the site and exit after it became apparent the bank was offering loans to purchase apartment buildings, not just one apartment. The Broad Match traffic was converting to a lead at less than a 0.5% rate.

Modifying the Broad Match List

We worked with the client to modify the Broad Match list into a more focused Broad Match Modifier list. Some of the terms were updated to Broad Match Modifier, for example:

“apartment building loan” became “+apartment+building+loan.” This had our client showing up for more relevant searches, such as “loans for apartment buildings” and “loans to buy apartment building.”

Results: CTR went from 1.85% to 3.99% in the first week. Conversion rates jumped from 1.78% to 5.10%.

“financing rental units” became “financing+rental+units.” The client’s ads began showing for searches on “best rates for financing rental units” and “banks who finance rental units purchase,” among others.

Results: CTR went from 2.57% to 3.77% in the first week. Conversion rates jumped from 0.78% to 4.22%.

A Winning Campaign

Over the course of two weeks across the entire campaign, we saw the traffic from the Broad Match list (now a Broad Match Modifier list) improve its conversion-to-lead rate to 4.1% while still maintaining a strong volume. The search queries driving the clicks were much more relevant to the ideal customer profile we had developed at the start of the engagement.

We were also able to add to our Phrase and Exact Match list based on analyzing the post-change search queries. We found a series of phrases that were not originally identified and added them to the appropriate ad groups.

Broad Match Modifier allowed our client to run ads in a limited geographic area with a more specific set of targeting options that resulted in improved conversion rates.

By John Thyfault, Vice President of Search Engine and Social Media Marketing, Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc.

Read more digital marketing case studies in Resources.

Learn how our team can help manage your PPC campaigns here.

Contact us now.

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If you have ever thought of driving more traffic to your website from organic search, you are sure to have heard about how important it is to select the right keywords. There are many data driven tools, such as Google Ads Keyword Planner, Keyword Discovery and Spyfu, that can help you identify keywords, understand potential traffic and look at the relative competition that your site is facing to rank for these keywords. This process will often leave you with a large list of keywords from which to select.

The smart marketer knows that the final selection is not just about raw numbers. It’s about finding language that will best describe your product or service. This language needs to match the language your potential customers are using in their search queries.

This final selection of keywords is at its heart a qualitative decision.

Consider the following:

• Take into consideration the unique selling proposition of your products or services
• Consider the tone of voice of your website
• Incorporate the day-to-day language your customers use to speak about your products or services

The subjective nature of this does not mean that you can’t put a process in place that will aid in finding the best keywords possible.

How to do Keyword Research: Five Steps

The five-step approach outlined below will allow you to separate the wheat from the chaff and come up with the best keyword mix possible.

Step 1 – Decide what each page you are optimizing hopes to accomplish

Each page of your website should have a primary purpose that it hopes to accomplish. Is it an informational page setting up the next step in the buying cycle? Are you trying to gather a lead or close a sale? Are you setting up a comparison to a competitor’s product?

Different goals for a page will inform the language used on that page and how that language is interpreted by search engines. Search queries have become much more natural language focused over the last five years, with many queries being stated as a question: “How do the laws about European online privacy differ from the US?”, “What is GDPR?” and “How to do set-up opt-in email lists in France?”. These queries are around the same subject. However, what the searcher is hoping to accomplish versus the page that best answers each question is different.

Step 2 – Look at your competitor’s sites that rank well to understand how they are using language

Look at your competition for one-to-one comparisons with your products, services and stages in the buying cycle.

Ask the following:

• How are your top-ranking competitors using language?
• Does it mirror the top keywords results exactly or is there modifying language around the keyword?
• What is the actual content of the page?
• Is it delivering on the intent of the keyword you are looking at?

Step 3 – Add modifying language to your base list of keywords

Once you have clarified your goals for the page and looked at the successful competition, take your keywords and add modifying language that reflects the desired goal of your page. In the above example, our keywords were ‘European Online Privacy Laws,” “GDPR” and “French email opt-in requirements”. While related, each keyword can have different modifiers added to it to make the content of the page more relevant. For example, the keyword “GDPR” could be modified to read “GDPR Definition”, “Understanding GDPR”, “GDPR Timeline” or “GDPR’s Impact on Websites”. (GDPR refers to the General Data Protection Regulation in the EU. If you don’t know about it yet, you should find out more.

The modifiers are major signals to search engines of the intent of page content (its goal). Ideally, search engines will match the searcher’s intent as communicated in the query with your page’s content. This match between the search results and the searcher’s desires is what’s going to help your page accomplish its goal.

Step 4 – Draft a title and description for each page for the keywords you are considering

Take a few minutes and plug the different keywords that you are still considering into a rough title and description of the page’s content. Don’t worry about character length yet. You are working on getting the feel of the quality of the keyword you are using. Also, ask if it really reflects the content of the page and its ultimate communications/marketing goal? You can use the best matches later as a starting point when you are ready to polish them up and fit them into the required character lengths.

Step 5 – Select your top three to five keywords and titles that best describe the page, its goal and the customer’s next step in the buying cycle

Take your rough titles and page descriptions and compare them to each other. Find the one that resonates the most for the content and goal of the page. Show them to your colleagues and get their first impressions as to relevance and tone. Select the ones that best fit your page.

In summary, as you do your initial research using the online tools, you will see many variations on a keyword that have the same potential traffic and competition. The five-step process above will help you select the best ones on a subjective basis to drive the right search traffic to your page, achieving your marketing goal.

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By John Thyfault, Vice President, Search Engine and Social Media Marketing, Beasley Direct and Online Marketing

The post Five Steps to Arriving at the Best Keyword Mix – The Art of Keyword Selection for Search Engine Marketing appeared first on Beasley Direct and Online Marketing.