These days website traffic can be increased through numerous methods. Whether you're initiating a PPC campaign, sending targeted emails or adding valuable content to your site you need to keep one constant in place. Your goals!
The ultimate (macro) goal may be to sell a product or gain a customer. Other macro goals may be:
• Downloading a whitepaper
• Signing up for an e-newsletter
• Requesting a quote
• Submitting information in return for something of value
• Viewing a product, service page or consuming some form of content (article, video, blog, etc.)
These macro goals can take time to achieve. Equally important to success are smaller (micro) goals that help build to your ultimate goals. Micro goals are the steps it takes to complete the macro goal. These may include:
• Opening an email
• Clicking on a PPC ad
• Browsing your website and viewing multiple pages
• Putting products into a cart and providing billing information
Initiating an analytics package can easily help you track the actions of consumers during a visit to your website. Where did they spend the most time, what actions did they take and what was the bounce rate upon the initial arrival? Understanding the steps taken prior to completing a macro goal can help you better understand your consumer and how to direct them where you want them to end up.
Landing pages are tricky and extremely important tools. Many people believe that success has been reached when someone clicks through to your landing page, however that is only half the battle. You got their attention enough to push them further but it's the landing page that needs to seal the deal and drive your consumer to take action.
1. Determine your customer goal - It's up to you to decide what you want your visitor to do upon reaching your landing page. If you don't make it obvious what they should do upon arriving to your landing page then there's a good chance they will leave without taking any further action.
2. Make your landing page consistent with your ad - Using a consistent message from your ad to your landing page will help the visitor to understand the action you are encouraging them to take. It also let's the visitor know they've landed in the right place. This increases the likelihood that the visitor will follow and complete the path you've set out.
3. Present a professional design - Your landing page should meet or exceed the design standard set by your website. The page needs to look professional and be well designed with quality graphics.
4. Don't offer extra links - Keep your landing page to one message goal. Don't throw all kinds of links in there and hope the viewer finds something they like.
5. Call for action - If a consumer has clicked through to your landing page they are interested in your product. Make sure they know what to do upon arriving to the landing page to complete the process.
6. Track your results - Is your PPC campaign cost effective? Make sure you can measure your results. Track your conversion rate & the marketing cost per sale.
Click here to read Murapa's blog post entitled The rules of creating powerful landing pages.
Upon visiting your site potential customers will either "surf" (engage with your content) or they will "turf" it (leave without participating.) You only have about 7 seconds to engage a visitor to your site and that includes the time it takes for your site to load on their computer. Ultimately you want your visitors to visit multiple pages of your site and click through when given the opportunity, or if you create a great landing page they should be able to "convert" on that page without needing to see anymore pages.
Considering how challenging it can be to get a consumer to your site you don't want to lose them by making it hard for them to find what they need via search. The key is making sure your site pages are listed in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Visibility on SERP is achieved through SEO to increase your organic search standing, through Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads, and indirectly through Social Media. Ultimate success is often achieved with a combination of the two. Since it is easier to guarantee your standing in PPC it is important to create a conversion-focused PPC ad that compels a consumer to click through.
Here are 3 tips to create a successful PPC ad:
1. Include Strong Call-to-actions or Promotional Offers
- Use compelling words like "save, "order", "buy" etc. If there are no current sales "free shipping" or "compare" are also successful.
- Keep the most important information within the "Title Tag" which is the line of text underlined in blue. Pay attention to how any characters each search engine will display in the Title Tag and make sure your most important information is within that range.
2. Ensure You Write Your Keywords in the Title Tag First
- Do not begin your title tag with your brand name. It won't be as well received by the user and it hinders SEO efforts.
- Following your keywords use action words in the title such as "learn", "discover", "find" etc.
- Add secondary keywords or geographies you business services to the title tag.
- Last but not least, put the brand name of your company.
3. Go Social
- Social media is an umbrella term for medias that integrate technology, social interaction and include pictures, videos, audio and written communication.
To learn more tips to help ensure your website is "surfed" rather than "turfed" check out our recorded webinar, "Surf and Turf with Surf and Social."
If you are trying to increase your website visibility through a PPC campaign or by improving your organic search standings it's time to think about the speed behind your website. When ranking PPC standings Google has added loading time to it's ranking and organic searches will soon take page load time into account as well. There's no reason to allow messy coding to prevent you from getting the best possible search engine rankings.
The goal was once to keep a page load under 100kB per page. Today that can be more difficult but if your site falls between 300kB and 500kB then you need to reduce your page size. You can use Google's Page Speed plug-in for Firebug to get a page speed analysis.
The best place to start evaluating the loading time of your site look to these four areas:
1. (X)HTML: What is Your Code Weight
Make sure your HTML is clean and simple. Avoid unnecessary tables and inline images. HTML should not be over 30kB - 50kB on a single page.
2. CSS Sheets
Keep sheets minimal and well written. Divide the sheets so they are organized within the site structure. Remove any unused classes.
3. JavaScripting
Make sure all JavaScripting files are external and with everything else, keep them lightweight.
4. Images Optimization
Using the correct image files and reducing image size is a common cause of slower page loading. Use JPGs for photos and PNGs for line art. Avoid GIFs when possible as they do not compress as well as PNGs. Make sure image files are compressed correctly to avoid an oversized page.
This information came from today's blog post: Need For Speed: Give Your Web Pages a Nitro Boost by Kristine Schachinger. To read her tips in more detail click here: http://budurl.com/NFSBlogWSI63
In order to grow your dental business you need to market yourself. A radio or print ad can cost you $12,000 and it needs costly design and production before it can run. This day in age our lives are driven by the internet. For most of us it would be a challenge to completely avoid the internet for an entire week. 94,000,000 American adults use the internet every day and 63% of those people are using search engines everyday. Pay Per Click Marketing can give your dental office a cost effective way to easily and quickly bring in new business. Studies have shown that you can aquire a new customer through PPC for a cost of about $8.50 each. Considering a customer is likely to stay with your dental practice for the next 5, 10 or even 50 years that's an amazing return on your investment.
Research your keywords. For example, an estimated 40,500 people are searching Google every month for "Dentist Chicago". Finding additional keywords that are more unique will be inexpensive and enhance your campaign. Make sure your ad is clear and well written and stays true to your keywords. A PPC campaign can ensure that you are high on the paid search results but you also need to be sure your website is appearing under the organic search results as well. This will ensure the most clicks as some people gravitate to organic results. (Adjusting your organic ratings is a project for another day.)
Need more proof of the potential a PPC campaign can have for you. If you spend $2,000/month on PPC marketing and focus on a 10 mile radius you are likely to get 45,000-50,000 ad impressions (how many times your ad shows up in search engines) and from those impressions roughly 500 - 550 people will visit your site. These people need to land on a page of your site that entices them to call, email or fill out a form to take the next step with your business. On average 10% of these 500-550 visitors will act on the landing page. This gives you 50 new leads for your dental practice. If you want to be more conservative say that only 35 leads came from those visits and 30% of those didn't act beyond that initial communication. From those 25 prospects you may book appointments with 20% (on average.) Thus booking 5 new patients for the month. Depending on the dental procedures they book, perhaps a couple cleanings and a couple cosmetic procedures. If 4 out of 5 were happy with your services they could become customers for decades. Think of the return of 4 patients for 10 years. More than worth the small $2,000 initial investment for that month.
Budgets are tight but marketing is more valuable than ever. PPC is a way to market your business without breaking the bank.
Here are some quick Pay Per Click Marketing tips for you to consider when managing your own campaigns.
• Set Goals - Determine the goal of your campaign (sales, leads, brand awareness)
• Know your audience – allows you to narrow in on keywords, ad text, landing pages to avoid potential “roadblocks” in the conversion process.
• Less is more! – don’t try to do too much with 1 campaign. Creating multiple, highly targeted campaigns with focused ad groups and keywords that align well with ad copy and landing pages, will improve your quality score, relevancy, conversion, and squeeze more out of your PPC budgets.
• Geo Targeting – if your business is local, have your pay per click ads only display in a 10, 15, 25 mile radius of your office or primary market. If you are on a limited budget, the smaller the radius the better.
• Content Networks – avoid content networks until you have a good feel for your campaigns. Test content networks in small increments to see what works and what doesn’t.
• Keywords – find niche, long tail keywords that convert and you will get more from your budget. Spending time on keyword research is vital to your success. Review your keywords on a regular basis and search for more. What might work today, might not work tomorrow. Optimize, Optimize, Optimize!
• Landing Pages – make sure the page you are sending your traffic aligns well with the keywords and ad copy. Investing in a good landing page with a well crafted PPC campaign can produce excellent results.
• Analytics – study your analytics data and conversion goals. You need to know what is working and what is not producing results.
• #1 Position Isn’t Always Better– businesses are obsessed with obtaining the #1 paid ad position in the search engines. Why? They believe that being #1 will produce the best results, but this is not necessarily true. It depends on the keywords, bidding strategy, landing page, and conversion results from various placements. A #3-5 position can generate better results with a well thought out campaign with a good landing page vs. a #1 position with poor keyword to ad alignment and a below average landing page. And it will cost you a lot less! That doesn’t mean we don’t see the value in a #1 position, if we can get there by achieving a good Quality Score, and good results for a reasonable investment.
Obviously, there is a lot more to PPC than what I can provide in a blog post, and to do it well is going to take a lot of time. If you are going to manage your own campaigns, you need to stay educated and up to speed with the industry changes. There are lots of great resources online and Google even offers some good educational tools to help learn more about PPC and how to manage a campaign.
Over the past 2 years, online shopping alone has increased to over 875 million consumers (According to Nielsen’s Global Online Survey). That’s a 40% increase in 2 years. Not to mention all those who use the internet for research and to find local business services, which accounts for nearly 80% of all US adults.
Think of all those opportunities for your business. Pay Per Click (PPC) is an effective and powerful marketing tool that allows your business to get instant exposure online. We have found that PPC marketing returns are some of the strongest in the marketing industry, and averages about the same return as search engine optimization (only 8% of marketers experienced a poor ROI according to www.eMarketer.com), but produces almost instant results.
Pay Per Click marketing allows you more control over your marketing dollars and the ability to pin point market niches more effectively than SEO. PPC is like having an ad in your local newspaper and only paying for the prospects that actually read your ad! According to www.eMarketer.com, PPC advertising will grow to a $16.950 billion dollars a year in marketing spends.
No wonder Newspapers are going out of business, television advertising is decreasing along with radio. Internet marketing is here to stay and Pay Per Click marketing is a valuable marketing tool to consider for most businesses.
Earlier this week, eMarketer published an article that reaffirmed what WSI is always telling our clients - even in a poor economy, you have to invest in your online marketing spending to make money. In fact, for a lot of businesses, increasing your business spending or reallocating marketing dollars into cheaper and more effective (read: online) media during a downturn can help you come out on top as the economy picks up.
The eMarketer article goes on to discuss the correlation between businesses that are continuing to succeed and greater marketing spending. The bottom line: "Almost two-thirds of small businesses that expected increased revenues had raised or planned to raise marketing spending, compared with just 32% to 36% of businesses with flat or declining revenues."Additionally, "the survey showed small businesses shifting marketing initiatives toward cheaper digital media and away from traditional channels. The top three marketing tools used were social media, e-mail newsletters and search."
Contact us today to find out how WSI can help your business leverage these three (and other) marketing tools to maximize the effectiveness of your business spending. You may think you can't afford to increase business spending or increasing online marketing spending right now, but the truth is you can't afford not to if you want to survive and thrive in the current economy.
We encourage you to read the eMarketer article in its entirety here.
Yes. Does that mean you should? Probably not. And here's why - if you're like most small to medium sized business owners, you most likely already wear a lot of hats within your organization. You may already feel like you do not have enough time in a day to complete everything on your "to-do" list, and if so how much time are you really able to dedicate to managing your pay per click campaign? Unless you are able to spend a couple of hours per day (yes, per day) you may be wasting your clicks.
When pay per click marketing first came out, it was easy for small and medium sized business owners to set up a pay per click campaign, choose a few keywords, and let it run for the month. But as internet marketing practices become more specialized, pay per click becomes more competitive and requires constant attention. How much time are you willing and able to devote to pay per click management? Consider this -
- How much is your time worth, or how much would you have to spend to hire someone in-house? Conservatively, let's say that amount is $50/hr.
- You should spend a minimum of 5-10 hours per week on your PPC campaign, checking keyword performance and ads, which is $250 per week or $13,000 per year! And that's on the low end.
- WSI is working with a $2+ million pay per click management tool that enables us to have access to the latest and greatest in PPC technology far above and beyond a basic Google Adwords account. And we are able to track multiple conversion points (Call Tracking, Email Tracking, Web Form Tracking, Sales, Email Marketing Sign-ups, and a multitude of Web Events). We also optimize our campaigns around the keywords that lead to "conversions." Google Adwords tool can only track conversions from Web Forms and Sales, which means you are probably missing out on tracking 60% of your conversions.
We understand that in current economic times, small and medium sized business owners are looking to shrink their marketing budgets, increase their ROI or both. And while it may be tempting to tackle some of your internet marketing campaigns in house, keep in mind that you get what you pay for. WSI guarantees that we will get you better PPC results than if you manage your campaign yourself. Contact us today to find out how.
As companies continue to struggle in the current economy, many are seeing their marketing budgets cut with more cuts anticipated for the last quarter of 2009 into 2010. During this time of change and scrutiny over every advertising dollar spent, it is important to note that the online advertising sector continues to grow as business are taking their marketing strategies online. According to eMarketer, digital spending will account for 17% of total ad spending in the US by next year, up from 15.4% currently and 13.9% last year. An "Interaction 2009" report done by GroupM Interaction indicates that companies are also increasing spending on search and mobile marketing and decreasing traditional media spending. According to this report, the future of marketing is so-called "intention marketing" with a combination of paid and organic search along with mobile and social media marketing.
Savvy marketers are already following this trend, according to a 2009 accountability study done by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and Marketing Management Analytics (MMA). The number one strategy is taking offline marketing online, and reallocating spending into lower-cost digital media like SEO, PPC and Social Media Marketing.
WSI can take a look at your current marketing strategies online (and offline) and provide the online marketing how to that every business needs in this economy. For every industry, there is a correct marketing mix online that will get you the best ROI possible. And one of the significant benefits of WSI's online marketing strategies is that everything we do is 100% trackable so you know almost immediately how well your campaigns are working and where there is room for improvement.
To find out more about the online marketing strategies WSI can provide, as well as a complimentary analysis of the marketing mix online for your business, please contact us today. As we kick of the fourth quarter of 2009, there's still time to end the year and start off the new year with a bang!
that entices them to call, email or fill out a form to take the next step with your business. On average 10% of these 500-550 visitors will act on the
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