Digital Marketing, PPC, eCommerce and Lead Gen
When Google introduced Responsive Ads to all advertisers in July 2018, I saw it as an opportunity to simplify the workflow for a common optimization task performed by search marketers: ad copy testing. It has long been a best practice to run multiple variations of ad copy simultaneously, accrue data, and decide winners and losers[…]
After somebody clicks on an ad, the only way to turn that person from a window shopper to a customer is the experience you provide for them on your website. It’s that critical moment, right after a click, for your brand to make an impression, gain trust, and ultimately get the person to spend their[…]
I wanted to start this blog series off (check out part 1) talking about one of the most underutilized and misunderstood digital marketing mediums: email. Email marketing is much more than just sending a newsletter or sales to your consumers. There are many secondary benefits from running an email marketing program, most of which can help[…]
When I first got into PPC management, I had basically no client management skills. I got into PPC because I read a book called The Future of Music (I’m a musician) that explained to me how digital distribution was changing entire industries and how the Internet made it possible for anyone to sell anything to[…]
The Technique In a previous post, I showed you how telling your customers how many have converted unlocks the principle of social proof and is helpful in persuading more people to take action. In that test, I simply replaced a fairly generic introductory text in an ad designed to attract subscribers on Facebook to include[…]
PPC Management Takeaways From Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2018 With another Black Friday and Cyber Monday PPC season under our belts, it’s time for us to exhale with the rest of the retail and marketing world. As we take a second to catch our breath, we wanted to look back at the crazy week[…]
The Ecosystem Approach If you have ever chatted with me about digital marketing, you have most likely heard me say (over and over again) that digital marketing is an ecosystem. Over the next few months, I’ll be writing about the ecosystem approach to digital marketing. I’ll tackle all the components of the marketing ecosystem, what[…]
The Technique It’s been well-documented in marketing psychology books like Brainfluence and others that offering too many choices to your customers can create frustration and a mental paralysis that leads to lower rates of people taking action. This New York Times article dives more deeply into the psychology behind it. But basically, when the number[…]
Joe Martinez, our Director of Paid Media & Community at Granular, just wrapped up presenting at Confluence Conference for the third year in a row. Everyone in attendance got to learn why they cannot avoid YouTube advertising anymore. Besides learning about the value of YouTube, marketers got to learn all of the targeting options to make[…]
The Technique There’s a single word that can lead you to getting better results from your PPC ads. That word is because. Why is this word so effective? Because whatever you put after that word acts as a justification or reason why a person should comply with your request. And because people have grown used[…]
YouTube campaigns in Google Ads seems pretty straight forward, right? You have a YouTube channel. You link it with Google Ads. Then you can promote your videos on YouTube to the exact audience you want. Well not so fast. There are a few caveats you should know before creating your new campaigns. Let’s break a[…]
The Technique A classic way to be persuasive in advertising is to use a principle known as social proof. The principle holds that when people are uncertain about a course of action, they tend to look outside themselves and to other people around them to guide their decisions and actions. One such way to implement[…]
Joe Martinez, Director of Paid Media & Community at Granular, presented at SMX Advanced yesterday during the ecommerce section. Setting Up and Tracking a Full TrueView for Shopping Strategy There can be more to your ecommerce strategy than Shopping feeds and marketplaces. Joe demonstrated to the crowd how you can use your products to push[…]
So, we know that most B2B companies really should have a killer Paid Social strategy these days. But as soon as they get on board with the idea, the most frequent question I hear is undoubtedly “What kind of content should we produce for promotion?“ The simple answer is – content that is helpful to[…]
Most B2B companies suck at social media. OK, it’s not just B2B companies. But that’s where I want to focus for this post. You may not have thought about this before, but social media is probably more beneficial for B2B companies than B2C ones. Of course, this likely depends on the companies and industries we’re talking[…]
I’ve been recommending advertising videos on YouTube to clients, colleagues, and industry acquaintances for quite some time. Advertising on YouTube is one of the most affordable and efficient ways to build brand affinity and attract new customers. The issue we hear a lot is getting video content seems like such an expensive and long-winded ordeal.[…]
As we know from previous posts, your B2B prospects can vary widely as there are likely multiple stakeholders in all different stages of the buying process. They range from unaware of your product’s/service’s existence to ready to buy. Since this is the case, you’re going to see the best results by matching up your ad[…]
Joe Martinez, Director of Paid Media & Community at Granular, just finished pulling double duty at SMX West. Check out the slides Joe presented on below. How to Use Feeds to Improve DSA Campaigns and Ads DSA feeds will help accounts easily set up new ways to target their pages. Websites with poor URL structures will[…]
The first step to picking the right keywords for B2B search advertising is defining your audiences. Doing this first will help keep you from bidding on search terms that are superficially related to your offering, but don’t actually indicate any relevant search intent. It will also give you ideas about what your audience can be searching[…]
In B2B, you’re typically not getting a transaction online. You’re developing a relationship that you hope will lead to a transaction offline in the not-too-distant future. Therefore, the best approach with PPC advertising isn’t to offer what you’re ultimately selling, but to offer valuable information that makes what you’re selling attractive to those you reach[…]
The internal search box on your website is an opportunity for you to learn about the people who use your website and what they search for. The data you obtain from your internal search analytics is an amazing resource that tells you what your visitors cannot find on your site. There is also the opportunity[…]
There’s a more recent follow-up post about Waze advertising. Waze is the world’s largest, community-based navigation app. A subsidiary of Google since 2013, Waze helps users find the best route to their destinations in real time. The drivers who make up the community share information with other drivers such as construction locations, gas prices, cop[…]
We now live in the most over-communicated society in the history of the world. It’s gotten so bad that it feels like people and companies are simply just constantly fighting for people’s attention. I fight the fight every day in my own house. Trust me, I’m not immune to this either. But, I’m not quite[…]
Whenever accounts see negative shifts in conversion volume over a period of time, or an increase in CPLs it becomes panic time for many. But as online advertisers, a lot of the time, the answers are right in front of us as to why the decline is occurring. There are a lot of things that[…]
Back in May 2017, Quora Ads opened up for all businesses. The platform has grown from basic topic and website audience targeting to include specific options such as question targeting (BETA) to interest targeting. The platform has become the lowest CPA channel for many of my PPC clients. While I recommend jumping in immediately to[…]
