Digital Marketing, PPC, eCommerce and Lead Gen
If you haven’t noticed yet, the LinkedIn advertising platform has been stepping up its game. Out of all the major digital ad platforms that we deal with (Google, Bing, Facebook, etc.), LinkedIn’s platform and capabilities has historically been the worst in my (and many others) opinion. This is of course outside of the vastly superior[…]
On March 18, 1995 Michael Jordan shocked the world when he faxed the simple and effective press release: “I’m back.” This went viral, before viral was a thing, and perfectly got the message across that he was setting down his baseball bat and rejoining the NBA. The success and simplicity of “I’m back” is[…]
To insource or to outsource? For many businesses, that is an ongoing question. In the past few years, the benefits of outsourcing have been highly touted and embraced by companies of all sizes and in all industries. But insourcing also has a certain appeal. So, how can you choose which option is best for your[…]
As PPC Marketers we are constantly testing new ways to stand out on the SERP. As you probably already know, this involves extensive keyword research, manual bid adjustments, and sometimes even a little luck. But now Google has gifted us with three new awesome formats to make your search campaigns stand out vs your competitor[…]
In the field of analytics, the great Avinash Kaushik has said “data in aggregate is crap.” Why did he say this? Because when you aggregate numbers, things become blurry. To say your website got a million visits last month might mean something to you, but breaking it down into how that is spread out among[…]
One of the biggest hindrances to productivity is how we feel at any given time. We’ve all said it – “I don’t feel like doing anything today” or “I don’t feel like going to work.” And it’s true, we all need time blocked off to do nothing or do only what we enjoy. But sometimes[…]
This past week, Google has introduced a change to their call-only ads. Previously, a call-only campaign would show on a mobile device with the only option being to call the business directly from the ad. With this change, while the primary action in the headline is still calling the business, there is now an additional[…]
For too long, I disregarded Google Sheets as a poor man’s Excel. I’d grown up with excel – from making tables in 5th grade to learning advanced linear programming in my Supply Chain degree courses. Google Sheets didn’t have the processing power, the features, the familiarity. And in some respects, it still doesn’t. There’s no[…]
Here at Granular, we’ve read countless articles and have had many heated discussions about who has the best French fries in Milwaukee. Being data-driven individuals, we always took issue with the methodologies we read about from other sources. So naturally, we had to take matters into our own hands and bring you the definitive list[…]
Sometimes you get to the end of the day and say “I didn’t get anything done that I wanted to get done today!” Sometimes that’s unavoidable. Life happens. But I’d argue that most of the time, it IS avoidable. To be as productive as you can be, you can’t just work your way down a[…]
Paid search is basically the stock market. They both boil down to making investments to maximize return hopefully with a minimum amount of risk. By investing more time into important economic theories, we can better figure out how to optimize returns and lower overall risk. Modern Portfolio Theory is one of the most important and[…]
“What is our competition doing right now?” “We don’t want to come off as tone-deaf or insensitive with our ads.” “We don’t want sales to tank, but orders are down due to COVID-19. I don’t think pausing all ads is the right thing to do, but we can’t keep spending what we were. What do[…]
With the advent of machine learning & automated bidding, you may be wondering what tools merchants can use to push their products for relevant queries. Say for example, if every merchant is using automated bidding for a particular search query, how does Google choose who shows up and who gets their products shown first? It[…]
If you work in digital marketing and create campaigns for Google, Facebook, Instagram, etc, you know that you can never check your work enough before launching campaigns. The worst feeling ever is thinking you may have forgotten to set your budgets or that you accidentally targeted the entire United States when you only meant to[…]
If you manage Google Shopping ads and Google Merchant Center product feeds, especially for ecommerce websites that have price changes and dollar- or percent-off sales, then there is a good chance that you have ran into an issue where your Google Shopping Ads display the incorrect price. This can be frustrating if you are counting[…]
Granular’s Remote Work Tools / Tech Stack At Granular we’ve been setup to work remotely since day one. While most of the team is in Milwaukee, we were built to have a flexible work schedule and be able to be plugged into work from remote places. PPC doesn’t sleep, weekends and holidays need coverage sometimes[…]
Are you a work from home pro, or beginner? While more and more people are working from home, it’s important to remember that working from home can be very different from working in the office. Our office started to work from home this week, and while some of my coworkers are pros, some of us[…]
Ad Customizers Part 2 In part one of this three-part blog post, I shared how Ad Customizers are superior to DKI. We are still waiting on statistically significant data to prove our point. In the meantime, below is some helpful information on how to implement. How to Implement To implement these in your own campaigns,[…]
In the book Getting Things Done, David Allen shares this about the human mind… The short-term memory part of your mind – the part that tends to hold all of the incomplete, undecided, and unorganized stuff – functions much like RAM on a computer. Your conscious mind, like the computer screen is a focusing tool,[…]
Do Google Gmail Ads Work for Restaurants? Most restaurants I’ve worked with seem to have tried Google Search Ads at some point, and although Search can be successful, common questions I hear are “what else can we do on Google?” and “how do we get new customers?” Surprisingly, I have found that most brands have[…]
The success of PPC campaigns is more than just what you see in the interface There are always challenges when running any successful paid search campaign. Most of the time, people will look at the data right in front of them when attempting to address a challenge they are facing. Sometimes, the answers can only[…]
Every once in a while, my wife will start a conversation with me with a sigh and the exclamation that she “feels overwhelmed.” What she means by this is she’s decided that she has “a million things to do” (her words) and she doesn’t see a way to get it all done with the time[…]
In paid advertising, we all know the pains of quality score. We work incredibly hard with our clients to get their website to reflect exactly what their business does. Then we write ad copy based on those landing pages and our keywords need to be the most relevant to the user. But sometimes no matter[…]
Google Ad Customizers: Part 1 At a former agency, I worked on a PPC account that was so geographically segmented that we targeted such hot spots as Twin Falls, Idaho (population <50,000), and separated out Orem, UT from Provo, UT (a distance of less than 5 miles). This account was terribly under-managed, because most of[…]
If you’ve got indoor plumbing, a machine in your basement that pumps hot and cool air into your house, and it’s just a trip down the road to pick up all the food you can eat, then life is good. Most, if not all, of your daily problems are, as the saying goes, “first-world problems.”[…]
