The festive period means shops are selling Christmas trees, stockings, advent calendars and singing Christmas collectibles; all of which signals that the countdown to Christmas has begun.

So what should you be doing now in preparation for a lucrative Christmas?

Here are a few things you can do during this festive season:

The first step is to look at your account’s history:

Analyse your accounts past metrics such as cost per click, impressions and conversion rate in order to plan your strategy effectively. One metric that is pretty useful is the average position of the text ads and the related performance, so you will know more or less how to position your “special ads” to achieve the best results.

Choose relevant keywords and match types:

Ensure that you add festive keywords to your keyword list such as “Christmas gifts, Christmas hampers, Wine for Christmas” etc. Be sure to also include variations and misspellings as well, in this case it would be prudent to include search terms such as “Xmas gifts, Holiday activities, Xmas table decor” etc. You could even further improve relevancy, if for example you sold Christmas trees online, you could include keywords that include a clear call to action, such as “Buy Christmas Trees”. This type of keyword is great for your ROI. Another key point is to be aware of match types, if you are operating on a large advertising spend, a campaign incorporating all match types would be feasible, however if you have a smaller budget, you can try limiting the campaigns to exact and phrase match keywords.

Inject some glitter to your ad text:

This is the time of year where the competition is quite stiff, so in order to grab the user’s attention, you need to have ad text that really jumps off the page. Include call to actions, free offers and special discount prices in the ad text and more importantly include the “Christmas” terms as well.

Landing pages and website:

It’s important to keep the Christmas feel and theme on your landing pages and website, Christmas is a significant time for many people and these little touches can make a big difference in persuading users who have clicked through to convert by making a purchase.

Happy Marketing This Christmas Season!

The Next Step: Online Marketing

Blind Designs realised in 2009 that launching an online marketing strategy could have a magnificent impact on their business. They approached SAbest and we launched their Google Adwords (Pay per Click) Campaign in February 2009. Just 7 days after launching their campaigns, they had 192 visits and 20% of the visits were from Google Adwords and 6.67% from non-paid adverts. 72% were new clients visiting their website through Google.

We initially started only with Pay per Click advertising, but after a successful year of Pay per Click campaigns and remarkable return on investment, Blind Designs launched search engine optimisation on their website in conjunction with their Adwords campaign.

We started their search engine optimisation in February 2009. Within 8 months of optimisation, we managed to get them to the top listing on the first page of organic searches when searching their most competitive keyword: Blinds.
SEO especially, builds complete brand trust and awareness, as people perceive companies that rank on the first page of searches as the market leaders and the most trusted in the industry.
This meant optimum visibility online in all searches.

The Proof Is In The Pudding:

You will notice in the block below the difference in visits from 2009 when they started with Pay per Click right through to 2011 when they also added search engine optimisation to their online marketing plan. This also shows the impact the two products combined have on each other, and on customer trust and brand association.

Visits
Campaigns

PPC:Feb 2009 – Feb 2010: +20%
SEO:Feb 2009 – Feb 2010: +6.67%

PPC: Feb 2010 – Feb 2011: +20.58%
SEO: Feb 2010 – Feb 2011: +21.88%

PPC: Feb 2011 – Aug 2011: 24.37%
SEO: Feb 2011 – Aug 2011: 24.73%

This clearly states the value of doing Pay per Click and Search engine optimisation together. The performance of various keywords, and their conversion rates are closely monitored and adjusted according to the results achieved.
Focused landing pages were created for the Pay per Click campaigns, ensuring higher conversion rates as the captive audience got the information they were looking for immediately, with substantial call to action areas. Their average conversion rates from Feb 2011 – Aug 2011 was 12.07%. Other advertising campaigns expect an average of 1% conversion – and the trackability is minimal.

The Future Of Blind Designs:

Due to their online visibility, Blind Designs maintained a steady growth of 5% annually, even through the recession period.
The brand has become trusted as word of mouth is backed up by online presence – and will always be viewed as one of the market leaders for blinds in South Africa.
One last word from Paul O’ Brien is that Google Adwords should form part of every company’s strategy to some agree.

In this article we are going to have a look at how an online seasonal marketing campaign can help you generate more traffic to your website, gain more customers and then finally how to increase your sales.

With seasonal marketing you need to do the same planning as for any party – birthday party, Xmas party or a New Year’s party. First you need to set a date for when to start your marketing campaign. It is very important to have your December calendar in hand to make sure you start with your seasonal marketing in time! You don’t want to start your campaign after your competitors shops are sold out!

After you’ve decided the date for the birthday party, you should start to look at a theme for the birthday party and what invitations to give out. Now with an online seasonal marketing campaign your “theme and invitations” is your website and social media portals. Have a look at your website. Change the images to holiday images or festive season images like turkeys, presents or a company photo of your staff with Xmas hats on. Remember, images are a great way to draw your audience in and make them want to read more about your seasonal products / propmtions. This is the time to have fun and show your company’s creative side.

As soon as your website is “seasonal friendly” and your planning is up and running, you can start with your online marketing campaign. Firstly you need to do keyword research. It is very important to target the keywords which your market will type in the search box to get to your seasonal product/ promotional. A soon as the client types in the targeted keyword, your Adcopy will appear on the search page. In your ad copy, consider a promotional phrase in your title which will catch the client’s eye. If your campaign is live, don’t just sit back and relax, now you need to optimise and maximise your campaign by optimizing the key phrases and keywords, audit the channels, test contact us forms, test coupon cards, look out for 404 error messages and then make sure that most active pages link to your seasonal promotions.

The sweet taste of success with an online seasonal marketing campaign lies in the conversions! You can track your conversions on Adword and Social Media Marketing. You can see exactly where your client came from and how many convert into a sale!

Then after any party you need to clean up the place. It is very important to change the seasonal images to images relevant to your business and update your content to relevant content. It is very bad for a company’s online reputation if it is the middle of the year and the people still see the old seasonal images on your website!

Happy Marketing!

Two prevalent methods have given you the tools to do just that – get yourself known.

The first of these is similar to an online banner marketing campaign, except you can splash your adverts across many websites at the same time.  This we call Google Display Networks (GDN), and the adverts run across all the sites that have opened themselves up to this kind of marketing.  The beauty of GDN is that it creates awareness before people necessarily know about you and actively go looking for you or your products.

Furthermore, Google almost ‘tracks’ the user’s general application of the web, so if they are on certain websites often, and your advert is relevant to them, it will show to them when they go to other sites.  Kind of eerie, but from a marketing point of view phenomenal!

Having had said that, Display Network allows for a lot of awareness and positioning, but not necessarily a conversion to a sale or direct response.  People often see something, and then go in search of it later, which is why the second method is absolutely vital, we believe.

This second method is Search Engine Marketing.  This is also the most effective way of advertising online, as you have a captive audience that are ready to engage and interact with you.  The quickest way to get your product, brand or service ‘out there’ on Search Engine Marketing is by making use of Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising as it is immediate and guaranteed when managed correctly.  Besides this, Pay Per Click is flexible and can be changed and optimized real-time.

That said, however, to have a complete online visibility and presence, and to ‘dominate’ search engines cost effectively in the long run, is by optimizing your website and website content in such a way that your brand will be on the top of all major search engine listings.  This is called Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).  Search Engine Optimisation is done over a period of time, and thus does not necessarily yield immediate success, but in the long run is the most cost effective way to market yourself online.

Our advice, then, would be to start with GDN en PPC, get results and increase the proverbial bottom line, and then proceed to SEO – and eventual online success!

• Effective Analysis – This is imperative as a first step, as the budget is limited you need to ascertain what you would like to advertise, to who and where. If, for example, you own a farmers market store in Durban, it would be pointless to target South Africa as the campaign will receive unwanted and irrelevant clicks. The key point here is to analyse the goals and objectives thoroughly and develop a streamlined strategy for the campaign.
• Build Appropriate Keyword Lists – This is the most important step in the process. In order to effectively tap into your industry market you need to select the right kind of keywords or more importantly the right match type. In this instance I suggest using exact match and phrase match keywords as they are more targeted and therefore more cost effective. Broad matched keywords are unpredictable and can have quite a high cost per acquisition. Ensure that you group similar keywords together under an ad group, as this will help you achieve a higher quality score. A high quality score means that your ad ranks higher on the Google search results pages but you don’t pay as much as you would have if you had a low Quality score.
• Write Eye Catching Ads – When writing ad copies, be specific and informative. Let the user know exactly what you are offering. Avoid vague statements and claims as this will lead to users clicking on your ad unnecessarily in order to obtain more information. Writing tailored and specific ad copies serves to assist in filtering out the unwanted traffic and making sure that you have a higher chance of converting that click to a lead.

Remember though, PPC is not something you setup once and leave, you need to optimise your campaigns daily. Employ effective bid management, keyword management and overall campaign optimisations to ensure that you get the best results for your budget. What’s also important is that, if the campaign indicates a good ROI and performs well, you may consider increasing your advertising spend to expand your business.

Happy Marketing!

Isn’t that a scary thought?

Today, statistics show that only 20% of marketing and advertising still works in its traditional format.
The market is becoming saturated with similar products, services and solutions.  Our challenge today is no longer just being the most innovative producer, but the most innovative marketer in getting our products to the fingertips of the consumer seeking it, and almost more so, making the person who is yet unaware of it, feel that they need it.  You have to be able to get into your customers’ heads before you can get into their pockets.

How, you ask?
Well, the first few things to be cognizant of, is that people are drowning in the sheer volume of messaging out there, as well as the amount of media formats and choices of media formats in which they receive the messaging. Even products previously perceived as luxuries, today, have become commodities.  Most marketing messages will not stick out above others…
So how do you establish your product as trusted and known, a brand that stands out from the rest , a brand people want to associate with?

We say “It’s simple”:  You can achieve these goals by speaking to your captive audience, in their language, and at their time…  Your message will now not only be well received, but also processed well, and you are able to create the initiation of a trusted relationship between your customer and your brand.

You say “Problem”  With all the different ways to communicate at this time, how do I do that?
We have looked at, and found, one large common denominator in when this perfect time is to interact – and that is online, and specifically while people are searching for products or services like yours.

In South Africa alone, online sales broke the R2bn mark in 2010, with a predicted increase of 40% in 2011.  And this does not include the amount of sales done physically or telephonically relating to or following an online interaction.

And what is more, is that it is all tracked and measured – from the moment someone clicks on your advert, right through to them becoming your customer.  The flexibility of online also means that you can fine-tune your campaigns real-time, ensuring optimum results.

The key, thus, is to get people to know about you before learning about your competitors, and this can be successfully obtained by changing your marketing and advertising strategy to include Online Marketing and Search Engine Marketing – and getting more traffic to and interaction on your website.

Make more than 50% of your advertising work…

According to Alec, everyone Google’s themselves even if they don’t admit it. He was paying a relatively inconsequential amount of money for each click as there was no competition on Google’s search results pages for those keywords and Alec managed to secure 4 interviews and got offered 2 jobs. He is now working as a senior copywriter at Young & Rubicam (Y&R) New York. I would say that Alec’s “out of the box” thinking and PPC strategy was a certain success.

In my blog article today I am going to delve into the reasons why PPC is so effective and how you can use it just as Alec Brownstein did to your advantage.

What is Pay Per Click?

Pay per click is a method of online marketing where an advertiser bids and a pre-selected list of keywords and each time a user searches for one of the predefined keywords an Adwords Ad will be shown, now it’s important to note that and advertisers only pay when someone clicks on their ad, hence the term pay per click. Advertisers bid a certain amount in order for the ad to be shown, if there is a lot of competition (other advertisers) then you will have to pay a higher bid in order to feature higher on the landscape. There was no competition on the search terms that Alec Brownstein was bidding on therefore he had to bid very little to be featured at the top position on the “sponsored links” section of Google, also because his ad text or ad copy was very targeted and specific he did not generate irrelevant traffic. The entire PPC venture cost Alec approximately $6.

How to Get Started with Google Adwords

Step 1: Target customers
Choose from dozens of languages and nearly 200 countries. You can even choose to show your ads only to users in specific cities or regions.

Step 2: Create your ad
Write your ad text and choose the keywords that will trigger those ads.

A. Write your ad text.

Create a headline and two lines of ad text, with up to 95 characters total. The Display URL field is where you enter the website URL that will be displayed in your AdWords ad. The Display URL must fit within a 35-character limit. The Destination URL can be up to 1,024 characters and is the actual web page users will land on when they click on your ad.

B. Select your keywords.

Each keyword should be on its own line. (Press Enter on your keyboard after typing each keyword or keyword phrase.) Make sure that the keywords you enter are specific to your site or product to ensure that you receive the most cost-effective results.

Step 3: Set pricing
Choose the currency you want to use, then set your daily budget and cost per click (CPC). Spend as much or as little as you like each day; no minimum budget is required.

A. Choose your currency.

Please note that the currency you select will apply to both billing and payment. Therefore, if you select US dollars, payment will be requested and accepted only in US dollars. Once you have selected a currency for your account, it won’t be possible to change the currency again later. Also note that in some cases the currency you select will affect the payment options available to you.

B. Select your daily budget.

Your daily budget should equal the amount you want to spend on this ad campaign each month, divided by the number of days in the month. For instance: If you want to spend R3000 in a 30-day month, your daily budget should be R100 per day.

Step 4: Sign up
Finish creating an AdWords account by providing your email address and choosing a password. When you’re ready to activate your ads, log in to your new account and submit your billing information.

Enter your Google Account email address and password.

If you already have a Google Account and would like to use the same login information for your new AdWords account, select the first radio button. Then select ‘I’d like to use my existing Google Account for AdWords.’ Enter your Google Account login email and password in the fields provided. Click ‘Continue.’
When you are ready to activate your ads, sign in to your account and submit your billing information. If you choose a postpay payment method, your ads run almost immediately after you enter your billing information. If you choose a prepay payment method, your ads run almost immediately after we receive your payment

Is Pay Per Click Advertising Effective?

The great advantage Pay per click advertising has over other marketing methods is the ability to deliver almost instantaneous results that are completely measurable, no other form of marketing can make such a boast. However success with Pay Per Click marketing can only be achieved with a well planned marketing strategy and a well constructed online campaign. When planning a PPC campaign you need to visualise what goals you would like to achieve and what aspects and skills you would like to advertise. Once you have your campaigns goals, the next step would be to generate keywords that are closely related to your end goal, in this instance you would ultimately like to gain employment at a suitable company. You may try, like Alec to bid on the companies you would like to work in or bid on the names of the people you would like to work with. Another angle would be to bid on the type of skills that you possess that you think a potential employer would be looking for, such as “copywriter” or “creative director”, you could even try and bid on search terms such as “best copywriter”, the list of keywords and possibilities are only limited by your creativity. The great thing about creating such a campaign is that it will be relatively cheap and the traffic you do receive will be highly targeted. You can further improve the quality of the traffic you receive by ensuring that your ad text is relevant, clear and concise.

So if you are one of the people who are looking for a good job, why not give Pay per click marketing a try, if it worked for Alec Brownstein why not you?

Happy Marketing!

When it comes to Pay Per Click advertising it is imperative to devise a well thought out marketing strategy and carry out extensive product research before actually implementing your campaign. It is important to choose keywords that are directly related to your product or service or else you will generate high traffic volumes with low relevancy. Many PPC agencies out there today will promise you success but I advise you to be wary. When searching for a PPC agency to handle your online marketing it is important that they are a Google Accredited company, meaning that the people who will be marketing your product are qualified to do so. A good PPC agency will discuss your business goals and explain how they plan on helping you reach those goals by devising a relevant marketing strategy.

Now it is all fine and dandy if you have a good PPC agency but what if you find that the results your PPC Adwords Campaigns receive are still unsatisfactory? Well in truth PPC is not a glove that fits all. Before you decide to try Pay per click advertising you should ask yourself these questions:

• Is the product or service something that people will search for online?
• Would I be able to get a good return on my investment?
• I have tried PPC for a while and my costs far outweigh my profit, Is it time to try another avenue such as SEO?

Now if you have selected a good PPC agency, they will be able to advise you on what options are available to you after trying all they can on your PPC campaigns. Remember Pay Per Click Advertising is extremely competitive and if your product or service is still not performing well despite your PPC agency’s best efforts, it will probably be a good idea to try SEO instead. SEO is a longer process and may take anywhere from 3 to 6 months to feature well on Google’s Search Results Page but once you are there it will be beneficial to you as you don’t pay for clicks on the organic listings.

I hope you will take the above into consideration when searching for a PPC agency or when evaluating the results of your current campaigns in relation to the type of service or product you offer.

Happy Marketing!

Outsourcing your PPC advertising has many advantages but only if you choose a well established reputable online marketing company. Expertise, a wealth of resources, better results are a few of the advantages I would like to elaborate on. So here goes.

Expertise

Pay Per Click is a method of online marketing that is constantly changing and very specialized. Therefore in order to have successful PPC campaigns you need a professional PPC specialist who is able to keep track of all the changes and updates in the industry. The ever growing and changing environment of PPC requires extensive training and versatile employees. When choosing a PPC agency it is vitally important to select a reputable one as I mentioned earlier as a well established agency should be Google accredited. Most professional PPC specialists write a Google Adwords Exam so you can rest assured that you are in good hands.

Resources

PPC advertising is time consuming especially if you offer more than one product or service and if you choose to do it yourself your existing employees might not have the time to give a PPC campaign the attention it needs, therefore you will end up with a PPC campaign that is not fully optimised and an insufficient keyword list. You should also keep in mind that PPC agencies use highly specialized tools that they have developed which is not available to you should you decide to do PPC yourself. These specialized tools together with their experience enable PPC specialist to obtain good quality scores for keywords and this means that each click will cost less, thereby saving you money.

Results

If you are new to PPC, you may lack the adequate benchmarks that more experienced PPC agencies have to measure performance and success. An external PPC company possesses years of experience working with these campaigns and have a wealth of data related to the industry.

Focus

If you decide to keep your PPC internal, you must also consider the cost of hiring new staff or having existing staff focus elsewhere rather than on the job they were initially hired to perform. This can harm your company as your employees will be “stretched too thin” and you won’t have a successful PPC campaign.

When all is said and done, you are right in thinking that PPC is an excellent advertising platform but it can only be successful if implemented correctly, and enlisting the services of a Google Adwords Qualified company will certainly help you on your way to success. I hope that you will consider these points when making a decision to integrate PPC advertising internally or outsource it to a professional agency.

Happy Marketing!

Well, the quickest way to get your product, brand or service “out there” is making use of PPC (Pay Per Click) Advertising.

Pay Per Click Marketing is a method of Internet marketing where one selects a list of product relevant keywords and starts bidding on these keywords on Google Adwords for example. You write tailored ad copies for your PPC campaigns that will show on Google whenever someone types in any of the keywords in your selected list. The user is then directed to your website where they will be able to view your product and services.

Pay Per Click Marketing is especially useful when you have a sudden or quick promotion that you would like to advertise as you can easily change your text ads whenever you want and the results are immediate.

I must stress though that PPC alone will not guarantee that you will create an effective online presence, as there is still your website to consider. Whilst PPC gets your product out there immediately, it is imperative to optimise your website as well.

My advice to ensuring an effective online presence is to employ both PPC and SEO together. You should always start with PPC and get your ads on Google and then proceed to SEO as the latter can be time consuming and you will only see the effects of Search Engine Optimisation in the long run.

I cannot stress how important it is to ensure that you have an online presence so that users can find you when they are looking for your products or services. Utilising PPC in conjunction with SEO is sure to help you on the way to achieving online success.