When it comes to the role of a PPC Specialist, the functions they perform are vital to the effectiveness of any Google Ads campaign.

A PPC Specialist handles all essential functions of any Pay-Per-Click campaign. This includes managing the strategy, design, implementation, and the analysis of the performance of the ads. Basically, they will have a great level of expertise when it comes to Google Ads. The wide range of skills required by a PPC Specialist is exactly what makes them so highly sought after in the digital marketing world. The most essential functions that they perform include:

• Keyword Research – This involves a complete understanding of the search intent of the product or service being offered. A good PPC Specialist will keep up to date with modern trends, perform constant research and test keywords to see what is working and what is not.
• Landing and Display Ad design – The ads you create will direct search engine users to a specific page on the website. Ensuring that these landing pages are soundly illustrated and contain effective CRO best practices will ensure the highest likelihood of conversion.
• Effective Analysis – Of course the initial setup is not the most crucial skill that a PPC Specialist must possess. Without the ability to analyze the data, and identify where and when changes are needed, all efforts will be for naught. This is where a PPC expert really earns their paycheck!

What to Look for in a PPC Specialist

When evaluating whether the PPC Specialist is right for you, there are certain skills that you should be looking for in that individual. You should ask yourself the following when evaluating whether the PPC Specialist is the right fit for you and your business…

Are they Analytical?

Obviously a crucial aspect of addressing whether any campaign is working comes with the analysis the follows implementation. Therefore it goes without saying that an analytical thinker is crucial in taking the role of PPC Specialist.

Are they Technically Proficient?

PPC Management requires the understanding of technical elements including HTML and JavaScript as well as implementation of tracking and re targeting codes and therefore the expert must have a solid foundation in the technical. In addition, specific industries are very technological and in order to research and understand the wide range of technical industries and technology used, the expert must be capable of understanding many difficult and technical industry terms.

Are they a Creative mind?

Creativity is a big must. Considering the need to create eye-popping ad copy as well as creative and attractive visuals your PPC specialist will need to possess this vital skill. This is even more important in the world of PPC where there are often significant character and size constraints when it comes to creation of ad copy and ads.

Do they understand the consumer?

The need to understand consumer intent is crucial especially during the keyword research phase of any campaign. The PPC Specialist will struggle to strike the right chord if they fail to grasp what those in the specific industry are searching for when it comes to product and service inquiries.

Are they able to adapt to constant changes?

The world of digital marketing is in a constant state of flux. An experienced PPC Specialist will definitely be prepared and expecting constant changes. As a result, they will be on the front foot and able to adapt their goals and strategies at a moment’s notice.

They will possess a thirst for knowledge?

Not only will they be able to adapt their existing knowledge to new challenges, an expert PPC Specialist will possess a thirst for knowledge and be willing to learn new strategies in order to stay well ahead of the competition.

Are they organized and good with their time management?

Last but not least, a star PPC Specialist will need to be incredibly organized and great with their management of time to ensure they stay on top of what is often an incredibly long list of daily tasks. Most notably, they need to handle in-depth analytics stat checking and researching daily trends.

Why do you need to consider a PPC Specialist?

Marketing is often the first choice when it comes to growing your business. But what type of marketing is best? Often the choice lies in PPC advertising, especially when seeking quick wins. However the biggest stumbling block for most businesses lies in how difficult a component of marketing it can be. This is why you need a PPC Specialist.

PPC Specialists possess the expertise to make sure that the strategies implemented will be sound and, for that reason, your business will be perfectly positioned for ultimate success. In summary, the PPC Specialist will help your business dominate your industry in the following ways:

• The specialist will help with decision-making in order to deliver the best results
• The specialist will help you to produce the most effective ads possible
• The specialist will be available to identify necessary changes to your keywords and ad copy
• You’ll be able to focus on the other aspects of your business
• You’ll see that you can reach a larger audience and the result will be an increase in leads
• Which means…. A large return on investment for minimal spend

Choosing the right PPC specialist for you and your business is one of the most crucial decisions you can make when it comes to preparing for success in the digital marketing landscape. The payoff in getting it right will be felt in the wallet as your ROI is increased while your spend remains low.

The post What is a PPC specialist appeared first on Yoshiro Digital.

A business can make a lot of money on Thanksgiving. In fact, this is the time of year that companies traditionally start heading into the black (hence the name Black Friday), but competition for sales is sky-high. If you do not know how to market your business, then your competitors will be leaving you behind. Thankfully, putting together some effective paid advertising on Google isn’t too difficult.

We are not going to share specific ads that you can use here. This is because an ad that is right for one business may not necessarily be a brilliant option for another business. Instead, we want to share a few tips on creating effective Google ads for Thanksgiving sales. This will allow you to tailor Thanksgiving ads for your business.

Create a sense of urgency

Ads that work incredibly well at Thanksgiving are those that have a sense of urgency about them. You want to encourage people to buy the products there and then. You need to be making them feel that this is something that really can’t be waiting until after Thanksgiving thing along the lines of ads that say things like this:

• Don’t delay
• Limited Time
• Black Friday Sale
• Cyber Monday Special
• Don’t miss out
• Available Now

You can think around with these words as much as you want, we are sure that you will know how to create a sense of urgency in your ads. Even if you do not want to add extra words to your ad, you can always change up the display URL (this can be whatever you wish). Making the URL something like this could work:

www.yourwebsite.com/ThanksgivingDeals

www.yourwebsite.com/LimitedOffers

Both of these options still convey a sense of urgency.

Highly Targeted Ads

Running ads around Thanksgiving is expensive. It is estimated that they can be up to 20% more expensive than at any other time of the year. This means that you want your conversions to be as high as possible. This means putting your general ad campaigns on the backburner.

Ads that you are running around Thanksgiving should be for specific products or at least specific keywords. Let’s say, for instance, you run an ad campaign targeted at pet supplies. This is brilliant, but it is not a good ad for Thanksgiving. Instead, your campaign should be for specific products or product categories you offer such as ‘pet beds’ or even ‘dog beds’.

The more specific you make your ads, the higher the chance of a conversion. This will be business your competitors aren’t getting on Thanksgiving.

Retargeting Campaigns

This is something that you will need to start a little bit prior to Thanksgiving. Around October seems ideal for this.

People will be searching for products prior to Thanksgiving, but they will not necessarily be buying them. With retargeting campaigns, you can pull them back in and grab that final purchase. Without retargeting, the people are still going to want those products, but they are going to be purchasing them from one of your competitors.

Seller Ratings

The ads that we have seen perform best around Thanksgiving are those that include the seller ratings on them.

People do not like taking a risk with their purchases at the best of times. It is even worse with Thanksgiving. People know that if they buy from one place, they are going to be missing out on offers in other places. If they have never heard of a company before, then it is unlikely they will get the business. Not without including seller ratings on the ads.

The seller ratings help to convince buyers that your site is the best to shop at. It shows that you are proud of the customer service and the product quality that you offer.

We can promise you that if you include your seller ratings on the ad, your CTR will go up. This could lead to a huge increase in conversions too, but your actual website is going to need to carry a bit of the burden there.

Seller ratings are not available for every business, so if you do not have the option available to you, don’t fret.

Location Targeting

In many cases, you will find that location-based ads are a bit cheaper than general ads. However, that is not the main reason why you will be running them.

Location-based ads can get very specific. It also helps to create a sense of urgency as it appears as if you are reaching out directly to a person. People also place a bit more trust in companies that appear to be closer to them. You may see sales creep up as a result.

Your campaign shouldn’t completely be based around location-based advertising unless you are purely a local business, but an online-only business could do well targeting some of the major towns and cities around Thanksgiving.

Use Google Ad Extensions

Google has various extensions that you can use to add a bit of extra text to your ad. This may include terms such as ‘Free Shipping’ or ‘Ships Internationally’. Use them. Not only does it mean that you now have more words available for your main ad, but it helps to really convey that you are the best place for people to buy from this Thanksgiving.

Conclusion

If you follow these tips for effective Google Ads for Thanksgiving Sales, then you will see your conversion rate shoot up. Remember; you should be monitoring your campaigns throughout the day to ensure that they are as effective as possible. Some people may even run split testing on Thanksgiving, but this can be a little difficult to pull off if only one person is running the campaign. However, do not be afraid to tinker if one ad doesn’t seem to be converting well. You may be able to squeeze a few more sales out of it.

Of course, it can be time consuming and difficult to undertake a thanksgiving marketing campaign if your being pulled in many directions. That is where Yoshiro digital’s team of PPC marketing experts can help take on the task, thereby freeing you up to focus on the parts of your business that most need your attention.

The post Effective Google Ads for Thanksgiving Sales appeared first on Yoshiro Digital.

You could throw a mountain of money into your Google Ads budget online and still get horrific results if your landing pages aren’t well optimized. Obviously, the first step is to understand and capitalize on Google Ads but a crucial part of this practice is mastering landing page creation.

A lot of otherwise smart and strategic marketers are surprised to learn that their SEM account filled with thousands of carefully selected keywords and sky high Click Through Rates (CTRs) isn’t producing simply because there landing pages were just sort of slapped together.

Thankfully though, with the help included in this quick guide and your PPC agency, that’s not going to be a problem for you any longer.

By the time you’re done with the inside information below you’ll have a much better idea of how to perfectly optimize your landing page with Google Ads traffic in mind.

Zero in on the key details we share and you’ll be able to bump your conversion rates pretty quickly (maybe overnight). Keep hammering away at these fundamentals and you’ll be on the path to online marketing mastery faster than you thought possible.

Let’s get into it.

Consistent CTAs

If there’s one thing that you really (REALLY) have to get good at – aside from crafting offers, course – it’s knocking your Calls to Action (CTAs) out of the park.

One of the biggest mistakes that new copywriters in particular make is forgetting to explicitly tell their prospect what the next step to take is on the landing page.

Far too often we just sort of hope that our marketing will have handled enough of the heavy lifting to get them to do what we want them to all on their own. There’s nothing wrong with that kind of thinking from a personal perspective, but it’s going to crush your conversion rates more than maybe anything else.

You need to make sure that your Calls to Action – buy now, pre-order now, subscribe today, click here, etc. – are ALWAYS included in the close section of your landing page.

Be clear. Be concise. Be direct.

Tell them what you want them to do and they are much more likely to do it.

Split Test Various Elements – Copy, CTAs, Structure, Design

The most successful marketers on the planet are constantly tweaking, testing, and optimizing all of their marketing materials.

Your landing page should never be “finished”.

It should always be in a constant state of being taken apart and put back together again with new headlines, new offers, new CTAs, new testimonials, new proof elements, etc.

You always want to make sure that you are looking for something that can give your copy a lift, split testing it against the original to see what works, what needs to be reworked, and what should be discarded and avoided from here on out.

Once you get a high performing landing page that you’re happy with you want to make it the “control”. From there start changing one component at a time – a new headline, new offer, new structure, etc. – to see if you can beat the control.

When you inevitably do, that winner becomes the control and you rinse and repeat the process all over again.

Loading Speed

Landing pages need to load as quickly as humanly possible – and ideally even faster than that!

Google has shown time and time again that even just a half second or full second delay can kill your conversion rate.

People are so used to having the links they click load instantaneously that they just aren’t going to wait for your page to take its sweet time. Especially when all of your competitors (ALL of your competitors) can be visited by clicking the back button and then finding a different link to try – one that might load a lot faster than yours did.

Optimize your images, your copy, and shrink your code as much as you can. Make your landing pages lean and mean and you won’t have anything to worry about.

Always look for ways to speed things up and you’ll be good to go!

Use Dynamic Keyword or Other Parameters

Dynamic keywords (or other dynamic parameters) that adjust on the fly depending on how your Google Ads visitor found your landing page can be a great way to turn “halfway decent copy” into home run, blockbuster style winners without changing any of the other core elements.

It’s important to remember that when you are pushing Google ads traffic to a landing page you’re usually dealing with cold traffic. Frigid traffic, even.

Most of the time these visitors are people that have never heard of your business, your product, or your service. Your landing pages the first interaction they have had with you – and it might be the last one you aren’t really relevant to their needs.

Dynamic keywords and other dynamic parameters can sort of adjust and tailor your landing pages to the express keywords they were using to find your marketing in the first place. It’s a great way to stack the deck in your favor, that’s for sure.

Social Proof Signals

Social proof is a huge piece of the marketing success puzzle.

People are always a little bit nervous about handing money over to complete and total strangers online, but are even more nervous to do so if they think they are the first person to buy whatever it is you have to offer.

Social proof – testimonials, social media action about your products or services, customer reviews, etc. – go a long way towards putting people at ease.

When they see that other people (people like them and especially prominent they are aware of) are happy with what you have to offer you immediately get a big bump of authority and credibility have had otherwise.

You can never have enough proof on your landing pages. Flood your page with proof and your conversion rates will skyrocket dramatically.

Easy Lead Generation Forms

Again, when you’re pushing Google Ads traffic to a landing page you’re talking about ice cold traffic.

The absolute last thing you want to do is give these strangers a reason to click away from your landing page, even if that reason is something as seemingly benign as having an overly complex lead generation form.

If you’re doing strict lead gen with your landing page – especially when you’re working with cold traffic – ask for their first name and their email address.

That’s it.

You can maybe (MAYBE) get away with asking them for their last name as well but sometimes that’s really stretching things.

With those two elements (their first name and their email address) you can do some really sophisticated marketing. Keep your forms simple and you’ll streamline your success significantly.

Mobile Friendly

Mobile traffic is already responsible for a huge chunk of visitors to most people’s landing pages and you need to be sure that your site is mobile friendly if not completely built on the back of responsive design principles.

This all circles back to making it as easy as possible for your prospect to engage with you, especially before they hand you any money.

You need to simplify things, you need to meet them where they are (on their laptop, desktop, tablet, or phone), and you need to make the experience a positive one – not one they have to fight through just to maybe give you money later down the line.

Knockout the core elements of great landing pages we highlighted above and you’ll start ringing your online register a lot more often!

The post Best Practices for Optimizing a Landing Page for Google Ads appeared first on Yoshiro Digital.

If you are serious about building a business these days you can afford not to take advantage of online advertising opportunities – especially those available from Google.

The Google Ads network puts you, your business, your products, and your services in front of (potentially) millions of people every day in a way that few other advertising approaches can.

The control, the leverage, and the flexibility that the Google Ads network provides is unparalleled, especially when you know how to take advantage of the right lead generation strategies to build and grow your business online.

Below we dig a little deeper into the fundamentals of lead generation with Google Ads, helping you to hit the ground running with this platform.

Let’s dig right in!

Why Should You Use Google Ads

There are a couple of different reasons to consider taking advantage of Google Ads, but the biggest reasons have to be:

• The massive reach that Google has when it comes to online search. The search giant processes more than 2 trillion searches every single year, or more than 5 billion searches every single day.
• The incredible laser targeting opportunities to optimize your Google Ads campaigns not available anywhere else, really honing in on your perfect prospect to eliminate waste, eliminate unnecessary expense, and guarantee you get better customers all at the same time.
• The level of fine-tuned control you have over every aspect of your advertising campaigns, dictating every single step of your marketing and sales funnels through the Ads platform in a way not possible elsewhere…

… And that’s just the tip of the iceberg!

Combine all of those advantages with the ability to use Google Ads with any budget imaginable (from spending just a few dollars a day to spending millions of dollars a month and everything in between) and it’s easy to see why this is such a big business-building tool.

How to Create a Top Performing Account

Of course, there are a couple of things you want to do to make the most of your account on the Google Ads platform it all starts with covering all the bases that Google requires of you.

Make sure that you provide accurate, relevant, and up-to-date information regarding the account details that Google asks for right out of the box, but as you move through the rest of your new account be sure that you are being smart about the keywords you’re targeting, thinking like a customer and not like a business owner when it comes to campaigns to run, and are optimizing your efforts on the platform at every opportunity.

Google despises “stale” advertising – and so does the market in general.

If you want to create a top-performing account you have to come at this from a customer-centric point of view, building the types of advertising and marketing they respond to most as opposed to the kind of advertising and marketing pieces you think will work best.

Optimizing for Quality Score

There are a lot of PPC (pay per click) advertising experts out there that have different views regarding how to best optimize for a Google Ads quality score, but armed with the tips and tricks we highlight below you should be able to jack up your results significantly.

• Keyword quality handles the bulk of the heavy lifting as far as your score is concerned. Really try to be selective with your optimization efforts – optimizing things you can control with the most upside – and you’ll see your score skyrocket.
• Have a laser focus on ad relevance, your expected CTR, and your overall landing page experience to boost your quality score as well. These are the “Big Three” that Google ways heavily when it comes to figuring out how your campaigns are going to be scored in the first place.
• Find the best way to optimize the way that your ads, your extensions, and your bids all work together in the Google Ads environment and your quality score should increase, too. Connecting ad quality to overall performance (especially improved performance) is a great way to boost your score significantly.

Analyze the Competition

At every opportunity you should be analyzing your competitors, not only looking for the advertising campaigns they are running that are working well right now (you can tell by seeing which campaigns continue to run over and over again) but also looking at the campaigns their running that isn’t working well at all.

This x-ray vision kind of approach will help you get a better picture of what your market is responding to right now without you having to spend a mountain of money on the same kinds of ads your competitors are running.

Optimize for Mobile Creatively

There are a million different ways from Sunday to optimize your campaigns for mobile, but you’re going to want to try and find the most creative ways possible to make the overall experience relatable and accessible to your prospects and customers while still helping you build and grow your business.

Mobile is very much the future of online marketing (already gobbling up a huge chunk of market share) and your focus needs to be here if you’re to have success moving forward.

Re-Marketing is Key

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is thinking of your marketing as “one and done” types of campaigns.

There is nothing – NOTHING – that will kill your business faster than trying to do drive-by marketing with this approach.

Instead, you need to find ways to remarket your ads, to build out full funnels understanding that people are going to drop out at different points in time – while recognizing that lack of response at the moment may not be a lack of response permanently.

Remarketing is a huge piece of the puzzle for making the most of your Google Ads campaigns.

Use In-Market Segmentation

List segmentation, customer segmentation, and prospect segmentation are all critically important when you’re looking to optimize your Google Ads platform.

The same advertisements mass-marketed to even the hottest prospects will not get the same results that custom-tailored campaigns specifically designed for each individual prospect (as much as is reasonably possible, anyway) ever could.

Always look for ways to drill down, to distill, and to segment your market whenever you can. The more granular you can create your campaigns, the more laser-focused they are, the better your response rates will be across the board.

Cannot get a hold of Google ads? We can do it for you – check out our Google Ads/ PPC services and book your meeting now!

The post Intro to Lead Generation with Google Ads appeared first on Yoshiro Digital.

When it comes to running Google Display Advertising either independently or as part of a PPC agency, there are specific factors you need to be aware of so that your campaigns and ads are approved without difficulty.

What is Display Advertising with Google Ads?

Display Advertising provides marketers with the ability to provide messages through the use of text, logos, animations and a wide range of other graphical elements. When an advertiser users Display Ads they most commonly do so to target users that possess specific traits so that the ads effectiveness is elevated.

The trick lies in adhering to the policies and navigating the restrictions that Google places on this form of advertising that is in place to ensure that potential customers are offered the best experience from their online usage.

Why should I be concerned with Display Ad Restrictions

In order to provide the best service possible for your clients and/or customers it is crucial to take advantage of the online landscape. With well in excess of 4 billion users daily, the internet is a crucial place to enhance your business brand, get in touch with more customers and, therefore, increase sales.

Put simply, there are considerable advantages that come with Display Advertising which means abiding by the restrictions placed on this type of advertising should be a high priority.

The major advantages of Display Advertising includes:

• There are millions of potential customers on the Internet – The significant number of users on the internet that you can advertise to makes this an obvious advantage. The ample amount of users on the Google Display Network (more than 2 million sites) provides the marketer with significant opportunity to place products and services in front of all the potential customers who frequent these sites.
• Targeting is much more effective – There is much more control over when you ads show and to whom. Unlike traditional advertising methods, you can ensure that your Display Ads focus in on the right prospects at the right time with an ad that resonates.
• Monitoring and Tracking Results is much easier – Display Advertising provides you with the capability to monitor and track all results as they relate to your campaigns. The metrics available to sift through are very comprehensive. This includes being able to see when a lead has converted into a sale, ascertain on which platform leads and sales are working best, and determine which specific ads are the most successful and effective.

What are the Google Ads Prohibited Practices

There are three specific practices that Google Ads are adamant won’t be a part of their Ad network and any infractions relating to the following is guaranteed to land you in deep trouble.

Inappropriate Data Collection and Use

Privacy of internet users is paramount. Google Ads want their users to trust that any information that they share will be treated with the respect that it warrants. To do so, Google insists that their advertising partners do not misuse any information and have adequate security measures in place where this data is collected.

Example of the types of user information that MUST be handled with appropriate care includes: a user’s full name, address, mailing address, all forms of ID, social security details and so on.

Attempts to Manipulate the Ad Network

Google Ads places a high emphasis on providing a service that is relevant, useful and safe for all users. What they don’t want is to see ads, content and destination URL’s that are deliberately trying to ‘work around’ their review process.

Some examples of manipulating the network include: the promotion of malware and harmful software, cloaking/hiding the true landing destination where users are being directed, manipulation of the settings in a deliberate attempt to overcome the Google policy review system.

Misrepresentation

This is a big one. Google Ads do not want to see any of their users misled by the Ads that they are delivering to their audience. This is why they place a huge effort in ensuring that ads and URL destinations do not exclude any relevant information and that they do not mislead the user about the products and services that they are claiming to offer.

Examples of misrepresentation include: omitting crucial details during the billing process (such as how a user will be charged and how often), omitting additional user charges, where a claim is made that is unrealistic (such as can be the case with weight loss businesses), phishing – where an entity falsely claims to be a reputable company for the purpose of getting users to provide valuable personal and/or financial details.

Which Content Restrictions do you need to pay close attention to

There are a number of crucial content restrictions that you need to ensure that your ads avoid so that they are not rejected. If you fail to abide by the restrictions you may even find your account blocked. This is why we encourage you to carefully take note of the following restrictions and ensure that you comply with them.

Dangerous Products and/or Services

Google Ads has a responsibility to keep users safe. To accomplish this, they make a concerted effort not to promote products and/or services that could cause serious harm and injury.

Some examples of what Google Ads considers to be dangerous content includes: weapons, ammunition, fireworks, recreational drugs, drug use equipment.

Counterfeit Goods

As a legitimate business, Google Ads prohibits the promotion and sale of goods that are known to be counterfeit. The definition of a counterfeit item is one that possesses a trademark and/or logo that is eerily similar or identical to one already in existence. Businesses that sell counterfeit goods are behaving extremely deceitfully, trying to pass themselves off as the original brand owner and this is highly illegal.

Inappropriate Content

A key value for Google Ads is the promotion of diversity and respect for all others. This means they place a concerted effort on trying to avoid their users being offended. This means that Google Ads refuses to allow ads and destination links that promote hatred, discrimination or violence and will not approve what can be considered offensive content.

Some example of what Google Ads considers to be offensive or inappropriate content includes: racial or sexual discrimination, graphic accident images, cruelty to animals, ads that contain unsuitable language, bullying or intimidation of any group.

Refusal to Enable Dishonest Behaviour

Google Ads places a high value on fairness and honesty. Therefore, they don’t allow for the promotion of products and services that encourage dishonest behavior. For example, this means that they will reject any advertisements that contain hacking instructions or software or academic services that encourage cheating.

So there you have it. Ensuring that you avoid providing Display Ads that do not abide by the policies and restrictions that we have listed above is crucial in succeeding with your digital marketing PPC campaigns. Avoiding Display Ad restrictions and delivering an approved ad will not only satisfy your client but will ensure you are not running the risk of penalty or exclusion in the ultra-popular Google Ads landscape.

The post Basic Restrictions on Google Display Ads appeared first on Yoshiro Digital.

Previously known as a Master Client Center Account (MCC), this will allow you and your agency team members to oversee your portfolio of Google Ad accounts without the need to create separate logins for each individual account. With a Google Ads Manager Account you can hold several Google Ads accounts, including other manager accounts.

The Steps to Creating a Google Ads Manager Account

Step 1

You must first head to the Adwords manager account page located here: https://adwords.google.com/home/tools/manager-accounts/

You’ll need to be logged in via an email address that is not already associated with a Google Ads account. Where this is the case, you may be required to create a new email address, which is easily accomplished using Gmail. You’ll then need to select ‘Create a Manager Account’.

Step 2

You’ll now be asked to confirm your business information which is essential in the creation of your manager account. Be warned, you cannot change this information once it has been submitted, so you’ll need to ensure the information you provide is accurate.

You’ll be required to provide the following:

• Account Display Name
• Primary Use of Account – A choice of two, either to manage other people’s accounts or to manage your accounts
• Billing country
• Time Zone
• Currency setting – The monetary currency that will be displayed

Linking an Existing Google Ads Account to your Manager Account

If you need to link an existing Google Ads Account to your newly created Manager Account then this can be easily achieved. The steps to complete this are as follows:

1. Log into Google Ads using your manager account credentials
2. From the Accounts page, select the red + Account tab in the upper menu and select ‘ link existing accounts’
3. You’ll be asked to enter the 10 digit Google Ads Customer ID of the account that you are keen to connect
4. Click Continue
5. Name the Account something different if you would like and then click the Request Approval box.

Having done this, the nominated Account Manager Email address will receive an email from Google. This email will notify the Manager that you’ve requested access to the account. The Manager account email recipient will then need to login to Google Ads to grant approval.

There you have it, simple, easy and effective!

The Benefits of using a Manager Account

Thanks to activating a Manager Account there are many things you can now accomplish. The benefits of creating a Google Ads Manager Account include:

• Access all client Google Ads accounts from the single Manager account.
• Accomplish all Ad Words tasks from the single dashboard
• Create and Manage all client campaigns from the Manager Account
• Compare Ad performance of all client accounts and run multiple reports at the same time
• Take advantage of alerts to monitor all linked accounts effectively
• Easily link new Google Accounts from your Manager Account

The post Learning How to Create a Google Ads Manager Account appeared first on Yoshiro Digital.

Google Ads is one of the most common ways to market your business. Google caters to billions of users every day thus it would be a shame not to utilize it for your advertising purposes. In the case where you have an available investment budget to allocate to Google ads, you need is to know exactly where your money will go and ensure that a well-adjusted strategy will target the right audience. This way you can rest assured that your investment is correctly assigned to attract your target market.

What once used to be called Google Adwords is now referred to as Google Ads following its re-branding by Google. Below you will be able to find valuable information on what Google Ads is and how you can utilise it yourselves for your own benefit.

What exactly is Google Ads?

Google Ads is the platform where an individual or business can run advertisements that appear on Google itself, Google search Partners or even YouTube. The older generation marketers refer to Google Ads as PPC or Pay-Per-click which makes perfect sense since advertisers pay by the click.

The ads are not only used to drive sales but also for branding and consideration purposes. That is why they are divided into Search ads, Display ads and Video ads. The different types of creative can be used for the different stages a user might be at – the awareness, the consideration and the conversion stages. That is, as long as the message is adjusted accordingly.

All types of ads are being served by from one platform – your Google ads account. This is where you can specify the type, and end goal, at a campaign level.

How to setup a Google Ads account?

The big question here is how to correctly setup an account on Google Ads. This is very simple and you do not have to be an expert to achieve this. You only need to decide which type of account suits you best – the expert or the express one?

If you’re looking to work on all types of ads then the expert account is the way to go. The express type allows for a limited set of actions and will only run text/search ads and not the others. We will go into the debate of which one is the best in another article. But for now, we suggest you go with the expert account type even if you do not know which ad types you will end up rolling with.

So one huge tip of advice, when you start creating your account make sure you select the option shown below:

Google Ads Screenshot

After that you will need to setup your account with the basic information required. Once you’re all done creating your account, you may start working on your campaigns.

How to setup a Google Ads campaign?

As previously mentioned, you need to decide which ad type you want your ads to use so as to start your campaign. Let’s dive into the definition of each ad campaign…

Google Ad campaign types

Search Ads – Search refers to the ads you see at the top when searching for a term on Google. These are perfect for all stages of a user but are mainly used for the conversion stage.

Source: Google Search Ads

Display Ads – Display ads are the banners that appear on different websites and are perfect for branding on consideration.

Source: Google Display Ads

Video Ads – Video ads are mainly displayed on websites and on Youtube itself.

Source: Google Video Ads

App ads – These are Ads that advertise your app on the various app options such as Search, Google Play, YouTube, Discover and the Google Display Network. These are mainly used for conversion purposes.

Shopping Ads – These are not available in all countries. They are used to advertise products that you may sell on your e-store. These are also used for conversions.

Each of the aforementioned campaigns have different ad formats that you can use depending on where you would like your ads to show.

Keywords

One of the most important aspects you should be aware of when starting a Google ads campaign are keywords. Keywords are what will bring in the right visitors if performed correctly. If you’ve chosen the wrong keywords, it will not only waste your budget and efforts but also target the wrong audience which will lower your AdRank and cause high bounce rates which are both harmful for your ads and website performance.

After you’ve performed comprehensive keyword research through your handy tool called Keyword Planner, you can now set the match types for the keywords you’ve chosen. The match types are specified through a set of symbols that allows Google to understand the keyword and serve your ads to the right searchers. Read on to find out the different keyword match types and how each one can help you attract the right audience.

Keyword Match Types

Broad Match

Broad match keywords are the ones that will attract a broad audience. Adding broad type keywords to your campaign means that you do not specify which part of a user’s keyphrase/search term should match yours just as long as it’s remotely relevant to your keyword. With broad match, you do not use any type of symbols. For example, ‘red bikini in small’ will be shown to anyone searching for red bikini or small bikini. Hence, your audience reach is much broader and not as specific.

Broad Match Modified

This type is specified by adding + symbols in front of every word in your keyword. Using this, you indicate to Google that you require at least one of the + words to be targeted when someone searches for it. As an example, ‘+red +bikini’ means that the audience will be targeted if they search for red bikini, bikini, or red.

Phrase Match

Phrase Match type keywords are specified by using the “” (quote) symbols at the beginning and the end of the keyword you would like to target. This will trigger search terms closely related to your keyword as well as variations of the keyword by allowing words before and after it. For example, “red bikini” will bring visitors looking for red bikinis, red bikinis in small, triangle red bikinis and so forth.

Exact Match

In this case, the keyword is specified with the symbols []. When your keyword is surrounded with these symbols, it indicates that you only want to show up for the exact keyword you have in-between. For example, [red bikini] will only rank for the red bikini search terms and no other variations.

Google Campaign Bidding Strategies

Once you’ve identified which campaign suits you and your product/service offerings best, you‘ll need to decide the type of bidding you will utilize.

The types of bidding available are:

Manual CPC

This strategy allows the advertiser to manually set the bids for each keyword they use. When adding the keywords you would like to target you will be asked to set a maximum CPC (cost-per-click) which is where the campaign’s budget will cap as well as a bid for a specific keyword which is how much you are willing to pay for that specific keyword.

Automated Bidding

With automated cpc, you allow Google to set the bids according to how competitors bid for your keywords and the budget limit you set when setting up the campaign.

Worldwide vs Local – Location, Location, Location

When it comes to spending budget on advertising in Google Ads, one thing you should never do is have open location targeting. That is because it will chew up your budget so fast you won’t even have time to blink.

Any advertiser must know beforehand which locations they should target so it will limit the reach and thus, the clicks a campaign will generate – which is where your budget will go. In the case where your product offerings are available worldwide, our suggestion is still not to get crazy. Start out with the countries/regions you know have more demand and then test out the rest. Remember, you can set a lower or a higher budget on specific areas which is so neat since you will not have to waste it on underperforming regions.

Ad Copy

Ad copy refers to the text you include in the ads that will show up when users are targeted by all the other variables you’ve specified in your campaign. That is the message you add to attract the right audience. The ad copy has the power to attract and repel audiences.

Your ad is separated into three sections – the headline, the description, and the ad extensions.

You must always keep in mind that the three sections can influence a user’s decision to click on your ad so be as specific as possible.

You are now almost ready to roll your ads!

Conversions

The final part of setting up a proper campaign would be to set up effective conversions tracking. The tracking can be done via a number of ways, as long as you’re a bit techy.

The three ways Google Ads allows you to track actions is through:

1. Google Tag Manager
2. Adding a code on your website’s header
3. Connecting with Google Analytics Goals

You can test different ways by using dummy tests and see which one works best for you and the end goal you would like to track.

All set for Google Ads

On your mark, get set, go! You are now ready to run your campaigns and see how everything works. Never stop optimizing and be on top of things before you lose users and/or budget.

In case this is too much for you or you do not have the time to handle Google Ads, we can do it for you. Allow Yoshiro Digital’s team of Google Ads managers to manage and optimize your Google Ads while you sit back and enjoy the sweet fruits of exposure and conversions!

The post Google Ads 101 appeared first on Yoshiro Digital.

When it comes to growing your website’s traffic, you should look no further than utilizing the great results that SEO and PPC can bring.  In case you’re a business owner with an online presence, you must definitely know that traffic is the alpha and omega of your existence. 

But how well are you making use of the entire marketing cycle?

Marketing cycle 101

Building a successful and attractive website with the correct buttons, Calls-to-action (CTA’s), funnels and a lot more crucial user-experience aspects, will always be step number 1. Having done this, you’re now ready to swim into the large pond of marketing. In the marketing world, we, the marketers strive to keep users in the marketing cycle or loop. 

After years of carefully examining and researching the wonders of the average user’s mind and how they act, marketing has translated their efforts into three crucial stages: the awareness stage, the consideration stage and the conversion stage. In order to help push the user into the “oh-so-sweet” conversion stage, we need to ensure that we bombard them with your business brand and offerings at the right place and at the right time. 

Regardless of the type of business you own, you should always consider how users navigate online so as to stay in front of them. Hence, dig deep into the psychology and buying behaviour and ensure that you’re always at their disposal. Then, introduce the marketing cycle; a cycle that helps business owners during all 3 stages of a customer’s buying journey.

The cycle

The average user turns to the online world to find information, service offerings and then purchase the desirable services/products of their choice. Thus, one would search the internet’s search engines, navigate and stumble upon what they’re looking for on their social media platforms, or be influenced by the different ads one is being targeted with. This opens up the 3 biggest aspects of the internet that all business owners must be present:

1. On the organic search results of Google 
2. On Social Media platforms where their audience hangs out
3. And of course on the paid search results of Google

In other words, you need to make sure that your audience is being targeted anywhere they hang out. If they search for your brand on Google, you should be sitting there in top position. If they’re interested in the product offerings you provide, you should be there to remind them that you can satisfy their needs. Therefore, what better way to always be there for your audience than with Social Media, Google Organic and Paid Results?

SEO or PPC – Which one is it?

Now, the big debate is what is it going to be? SEO or PPC? Google Organic Or Google Paid?

We all know exactly how difficult it is to allocate your investment budget into something that cannot guarantee positive results. 

Let’s start with getting to know the positives and negatives of each marketing approach so we can figure out an answer to this question.

SEO – Search Engine Optimization

What exactly is SEO? SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. In simple words, SEO is the marketing service that allows marketers to optimize websites and their inner pages to conform by the different search engine’s ranking factors in order to rank as high as possible in the organic search results. 

Let’s dive into the pros and cons of choosing to go with SEO:

PROS 

• Loyal audience (Sticky Traffic)

SEO is achieved through a number of best practices. A proper SEO strategy involves targeting the relevant and achievable keywords that your business should aim for. In the case where the correct keyword mapping is not in place, you risk the chance of attracting the wrong audience, hence, increased bounce rates and potentially not being able to rank for the keywords you may think you’re destined for. 

As soon as you’re able to identify the appropriate keywords to optimize your website for and focus all your SEO efforts on, then you’ll be able to attract the right audience. With that comes the ability of capturing the users that will bring you closer to your goals and allow them to stick to your website by offering them what they came to you for. Hence being loyal to you and forming a ‘sticky’ relationship that they keep coming back for.

• Free traffic

Another great aspect of SEO is that the traffic you generate does not cost you a single penny. Well, compared to PPC that is. Investment in SEO is minimal since you only pay for content creation, link outreach expenses, guest posting and the several tools you may use for tracking and website health. On the other hand, PPC is considerably more expensive since you need to constantly bid on your keywords that may be ‘attacked’ by competitors that push your target keywords high to make them even more expensive.

• Helps you become an authority

One of the most important aspects of SEO is having unique and valuable content on your website. Search engines crawl your website to understand what you offer while looking for it to be fresh, engaging and worth linking to from other websites. Hence, while satisfying the different search engines with the appropriate content, you’re then able to satisfy your website visitors. Going back to point one in this list, visitors will then become sticky and make you an authority in your business niche. That will also be reflected in your site’s metrics – a higher Domain Authority (DA).

CONS

• SEO’s results are gradual

With SEO, you need to bear in mind that results will not be achieved overnight. SEO brings in long-term results and not short-term. Hence, you cannot rely on SEO if you want immediate results. Due to the fact that SEO depends on the search engines to pick up the changes and adjust rankings, this process may take many months to show benefits. In the meantime, search engines perform updates every now and then by which you need to conform by so as to not lose your rankings and visibility. 

• SEO’s overpowered by the search engines

The search engines are actually responsible for your rankings. You use SEO to influence the engines to rank you over others yet you have no power over the different updates and algorithm changes that may occur. Thus, whatever we do is to chase the search engines and abide by their rules and not the other way around. In other words, you are relying solely on a single entity for your business success. 

• No guaranteed results

No SEO’s out there can guarantee you will be ranking at 1st position at any given time. As we mention in our second point, no one can be responsible for your rankings asides from the search engines themselves. All you can do is perform all the right actions to influence rankings and wait for the search engines to catch up.

PPC – Pay Per Click

PPC or Pay Per Click refers to the ability to advertise your business and business offerings in an exchange of a fee each time a user clicks on your ads. The biggest difference between PPC and SEO is that the former is responsible for the paid results while the later for the organic results. In other words, one is ads and the other is unpaid search results. 

The below PPC pros and cons can influence your decision on which service best fits your business and will better assist in meeting your business goals:

PROS

• Quick and easy results

Unlike SEO, PPC can definitely bring immediate results since it is a practice responsible for short term results. You only need a Google Adwords account and identification and targeting of the best keywords that will bring you the right website visitors and roll out engaging ad copies that will lead users to a landing page that will hopefully be enough to make them convert. 

• Real time Trackable actions

Whether that is a lead, a purchase or a website action, Google Adwords allows website owners and marketers to track results to evaluate the performance of their ads. Based on how users react and engage with your ads, these behavioural data metrics can change your entire strategy and refine your processes. This can provide insight in order to apply changes to your website/landing page to make them more in-line to what your users are looking for.  All these are available on Google Adwords or any other search engine’s ad platform. 

• Control is in the hands of the advertiser

With PPC, you can take over what’s visible on search engines when any user searches for your brand, services or even competitors. Unlike SEO, your ads can be location based (show different ads for each location/region/country), target specific audiences with specific needs, and exclude any audiences you may wish not to target and waste budget on. Thus, the PPC investment you have available can be as targeted as possible to increase your Return on Investment (ROI) and avoid wasting it on ‘budget-eaters’. 

CONS

• PPC can be expensive

Even though SEO may require some investment towards link building and content creation, PPC can really eat into your investment since you need to pay for every ad click you receive. The trickiest part of PPC is the setup phase in which an advertiser has to allow budget to be wasted for the purpose of receiving enough data on what works and what doesn’t. This allows for solutions regarding the best approach of bidding and targeting specific keywords that convert over other keywords that bring no conversions.

• PPC can only yield short-term results

As long as you have got ads running and budget to spent, you do not have to worry about your short term results. But in case you would like your ads to take effect over the long term then PPC is not ideal. That is since once you turn your ads off; you will be nowhere to be found. In simpler words, ads will not be there for the future just because you were first for a long period of time. No long-term budget = no long term results.

• PPC cannot guarantee sales

Many times, advertisers claim to make easy money and instant sales to business owners through the use of PPC ads. That is not accurate. Here’s why; for your ads to be successful sales-wise, you need to take into consideration a number of factors, and no…. budget is not the only way to succeed. Other factors that can affect your ad performance and sales are your keyword and audience targeting, your landing page quality and much more. If you are not able to identify the effect of these factors, you will not be able to perform your best through your ads and you’ll likely end up losing investment rather than increasing your ROI.

Which is best for you?

Having said all the pros and cons of both services, we can safely say that it all comes down to your business goals and how urgently you would like to achieve them.  To further assist, ask yourself; do I want immediate short term results or should I be patient and invest in long term results? If you’re able to answer these questions then you definitely know which way to go. 

In case you do not have an answer for this question, we can help identify the right path for you and your business. Simply contact us and we will be more than happy to assist.

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