How to Generate Leads through Social Media Platforms?
Social media can be a powerful tool for lead generation if used correctly. In today’s digital age, social media is where many potential customers are spending their time. With billions of users on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, social media presents a huge opportunity for businesses to generate new leads.
Here are 6 tips for using social media to generate leads:
#1. Optimize your social media profiles
Make sure your profiles on social media are optimized for lead generation. Use a professional profile picture, include a description of your business, and add a call-to-action to your profile page. Your call-to-action can be anything from “Sign up for our newsletter” to “Contact us for a quote.”
#2. Create valuable content
Content is king when it comes to social media marketing. Creating valuable content that speaks to your target audience can help attract new leads. Share blog posts, infographics, and videos that educate and inform your audience. Make sure to include a call-to-action at the end of your content to encourage readers to take action.
#3. Use social media advertising
Social media advertising can help you target your ideal customer with precision. Platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn offer robust advertising tools that allow you to target people based on demographics, interests, and behavior. Use these tools to create targeted ads that drive traffic to your website and generate new leads.
#4. Engage with your followers
Engaging with your followers on social media can help build trust and credibility. Respond to comments and messages promptly, and be proactive in starting conversations with your followers. Use social listening tools to monitor mentions of your brand and engage in relevant conversations.
#5. Host contests and giveaways
Contests and giveaways are a fun way to generate new leads on social media. Encourage your followers to share your content and tag their friends for a chance to win a prize. Make sure the prize is valuable enough to get people excited and interested in your brand.
#6. Leverage social proof in sales pitch
Social proof is the idea that people are more likely to trust a business if they see that others have had positive experiences with it. Use social proof to your advantage by sharing customer testimonials, reviews, and case studies in your sales pitch. This can help build trust with potential customers and encourage them to take action.
In conclusion, social media presents a huge opportunity for businesses to generate new leads. By optimizing your profiles, creating valuable content, using social media advertising, engaging with your followers, hosting contests and giveaways, and leveraging social proof, you can generate new leads and grow your business.
Youtube Seo – A complete Guide
With 500 hours of live-action and animated video published to the platform every minute, you may believe viewers won’t locate your videos. How will you attract clicks and deter others?
The answer to that is: With an effective SEO approach, just like on other search engines! That’s why we’re here.
We’ll show you how to optimise your YouTube videos for top rankings. You’ll understand YouTube keywords and content optimization after reading.
Research Your Potential Keywords
By conducting keyword research, you may find out what people are actually looking for. Fortunately, there are a few low-cost strategies you may employ on YouTube:
- Looking at the Search Suggestions
Yes, it’s literally that easy. It’s a good idea to base your SEO off of the most popularly used terms, which you can see by looking at the keywords YouTube suggests as you type. You may find out what people are interested in seeing more of on YouTube by selecting a wide keyword connected to your video.
- Visiting Related Channels
It’s always beneficial to examine the successes and failures of others. Our advice is that you investigate a channel that appeals to an audience not dissimilar to your own. Focus on the keywords and subjects that are generating interest from your target audience and avoid those that aren’t.
While you’re at it, take note of how viewers respond to the channel’s material in general (for example, are they more into animated or live-action videos? Is it more effective to provide them with information or to keep them entertained? In any case, this data can help you fine-tune your YouTube approach with little wasted time and effort, regardless of your focus on search engine optimization.
- Handling Google Trends
Google Trends is a great resource to use if you have a set of keywords in mind. This useful tool provides insight into the popularity of certain YouTube search terms. What’s even better is that, after a quick signup process, you can start using it for Google as well!
Choose Your Ideal Keywords
When you’re done with your investigation, you’ll have a long list of potential key phrases to choose from. Looking at them, you can tell that broad, general keywords far outnumber their more specific counterparts. It’s natural to want to go with what everyone else is doing, but you should give it some serious thinking before making a final decision.
You have to remember that most of the time those keywords are too broad. There are millions of results when you look for them online. That means there are millions of other videos vying for the same attention as yours.
Longer and more specialised search terms, or long-tail keywords, provide fewer results and thus less competition on the search engine results page.
It’s true that fewer individuals use those search terms, but you may turn that to your advantage. Using a long-tail keyword as the basis for your video will increase the likelihood that people searching for that phrase will find and watch your content. Although your potential viewers would be smaller, they would be more engaged since they would be more likely to watch your video.
Time to Put your Keywords to Work!
Once you have settled on the perfect set of keywords, it will be time to put them into action. In order for YouTube’s crawlers to understand the context of your videos, you should include your keywords in the video’s metadata. Let’s take a look at the factors that need improvement right now:
- The Title
You can choose whichever keywords you like for your title, but don’t forget to include your focus keyword.
Your primary keyword is the term used in the industry to describe the word or phrase that best characterises your video and the results of which you hope to rank well.
The truth is, the title of the video impacts your search engine optimization in more ways than one. It’s also a major role in your CTR, another important metric that YouTube uses to rank videos. Because of this, you should think of a title that will entice people to click on it.
- The Description
You may optimise your video description for search engines by including the terms you’ve selected in the text box provided. The YouTube crawlers will be better able to understand the context of your video and index it accordingly.
It also aids the audience in deciding whether or not to click on your video. After all, the first few words preview on the YouTube SERP, thus the beginning of your description might affect your video’s Click-Through Rate and, by extension, its SEO.
- The Transcript
Your video’s conversation and narration will be captured in a text file called a transcript. When will we learn? Because YouTube spiders can only read text but cannot analyse audiovisual information at this time.
Simply put, the words you use in your video can be used as keywords if you include a transcript of the video. This transcript can be written by a human, a speech recognition software, or both. An increased and more varied use of keywords is the end outcome.
Are you looking for a helpful hint from the pros? Use your target term within the first 15 seconds of your video to maximise the SEO value of your transcript.
Optimize Your Content for SEO
You may believe that optimising your videos for search engines is the last thing to do when launching a marketing campaign. It makes perfect sense, as search engine optimization (SEO) contributes to the video’s exposure in digital spaces like YouTube. While it may come as a surprise, a great search engine optimization plan for videos starts with the script.
An initial source of video concept ideas can come from doing keyword research. After all, the popularity of certain keywords suggests that people have an inherent interest in the subject, so reaching out to them by discussing it seems like a no-brainer.
Aside from keywords, there are other aspects of your video script that can affect your position in the YouTube search results page. Then, let’s take a look at them:
- The Script’s Length
Longer videos tend to rank higher in YouTube’s search results because they encourage viewers to spend more time on the site. Moreover, many people assume, reasonably so, that a lot of time and effort went into making a lengthy video.
It’s crucial that you understand how the length of your video impacts its position in the search engine results page (SERP), but you shouldn’t artificially lengthen it for the sake of SEO. Video metrics like watch-time, likes, and shares are all at risk if they are not engaged with, suggesting that SEO is not the only thing you should be concerned about.
- The Introduction
You can add this to the list of criteria YouTube uses to determine your video’s ranking: Audience Retention measures how engaged a viewer is with your video over the course of its entirety.
Having the majority of viewers stick around until the conclusion is the best case scenario. To be sure, that’s easier said than done. You just need to learn how to keep your audience gripped from the very beginning.
To hook them, you can directly or indirectly describe the benefits they’ll reap from watching the entire clip. Remember that people have clicked on your movie assuming that this value will be what they get based on the title, description, and thumbnail.
- The CTAs
An increase in views, engagement (in the form of comments, likes, and shares), and new subscribers should lead to a rise in the video’s position in the search engine results page.
Since you have no say over how viewers interact with your video, this YouTube SEO component is by far the most difficult to master. However, you may sway their choices by encouraging people to engage with your content in various ways such as commenting, liking, subscribing, and sharing. The inclusion of calls-to-action in the screenplay of your YouTube video is, thus, crucial.
A number of CTAs The answer to this question is highly context-dependent; nonetheless, 10- to 20-minute videos typically feature three calls-to-action: one at the conclusion of the video’s introduction, another at the midpoint, and a third at the end.
Closing Words
You may think that only established YouTubers, well-known brands, or funny cat videos have a shot at the top of the YouTube search results pages (SERPs). But the truth is that anybody can achieve that coveted position by employing the proper SEO strategies.
The first step is to aim lower and concentrate on long-tail keywords rather than broad ones. Certainly, you would be targeting a smaller subset of YouTube’s audience, but this subset would be actively seeking out your product or service. They’d be more likely to watch your video as a result.
A Guide to Google’s Performance Max Campaign
With the help of automation and machine intelligence, a new type of Google Ads campaign is here to help your advertising plan succeed. To accomplish these goals without relying on the Google Merchant Centre product feed, the company unveiled Performance Max (PMax) campaigns at Google Marketing Live in 2021.
Since Google said it would expand the Performance Max campaign, many have wondered what it is, how it stacks up against other ads, and how well it actually does. This blog is intended to serve as a resource for marketers by providing information in response to their most pressing queries.
What are Google’s Performance Max campaigns?
Launched for the first time in November of 2021, the Performance Max (or PMax) is a relatively new goal-based campaign type. You may utilise automation and analytics to pinpoint exactly when and where your ads need to appear for a given campaign to achieve its objectives across the full breadth of Google’s ad inventory.
This “one size fits all” campaign type is the latest step by Google to leverage machine learning to gain more control over what your ad looks like, when they will be served, and who they are offered to.
Their fascinating replacement of Smart Shopping advertising is just one example. Smart Shopping emerged in 2018 as an improvement over traditional Shopping campaigns and quickly became a Google recommended practice. This change to PMax should be noted.
Main benefits of Performance Max to plan your campaigns
100% goal-oriented 100% performance: Your marketing plan revolves around your desired outcomes. As the strategy’s focal point, your marketing goals should be front and centre. With the help of AI, you can zero in on the ideal customer for your business and make a lasting impression throughout the whole Google ecosystem, all while staying true to your original goals.
Accelerate results: Google Signals can help you get your campaigns up and running more quickly, allowing you to get better results in less time.
Reporting: A new set of reports will be available on Google Insights, letting you know which of your ads are doing well.
How to setup a Google Ads Performance Max Campaign: Things to Keep in Mind
Now that you know what a Performance Max Campaign is and why it’s employed, we can get into the specifics of how to implement one successfully.
Step 1: Choose Your Goal
The first stage in setting up your campaign is to choose your aim.
Where do you want this campaign to take you? Do you want more leads? Want to increase sales? What, you want even more people to visit your website?
Whatever your aim, ensure you have a clear understanding of what you want to achieve before you go on to the next phase.
Step 2: Choose Your Budget
The next step is to choose your budget.
Do you have a budget in mind for the campaign?
Remember, with a Performance Max Search Campaign, you are likely to notice a higher cost per click, based on your ad scheduling, average daily budget, conversion targets, bidding strategy, machine learning models, campaign type, creative assets, and more factors.
So, you must guarantee that you are willing to invest a bit extra money on your marketing.
Step 3: Choose Your Audience
Selecting your target demographic is the next step.
Who exactly are you hoping to reach with your promotion?
A subset of the population or repeat visitors to your site might be singled out for promotion. Your Google Ads account, previous campaign results, conversion goal guidelines, and other data can all go into making highly targeted Performance Max ads.
Whatever you decide, before you move on to assembling an asset group to house your advertisements, make sure you have a firm grasp on who it is you hope to reach.
Step 4: Choose Your Ad Format
The next thing to do is settle on an advertisement format.
Choose the one that works best for you from among the available alternatives.
You can choose from HTML5, as well as text, images, and videos.
Step 5: Choose Your Keywords
Selecting appropriate keywords is the next stage.
Which specific terms or phrases do you hope to emphasise in your marketing efforts?
Choose keywords that describe your product or service accurately.
Step 6: Set Up Your Campaign
The last thing to do is to initiate the campaign.
Following the acquisition of the aforementioned data, campaign setup can begin.
You’ll need to sign up for a PPC-focused advertising platform to accomplish this.
After signing up, you’ll be able to launch your campaign and begin attracting visitors to your website.
5 Tips to Optimise PMax Campaigns
With Google continuing to automate more and more tasks, there are several factors to consider when working with PMax.
1. Have clear goals
These campaigns are goal-based. Everyone wants to increase sales and revenue, but the algorithm may be optimised if you know how you want the campaigns to fit into the bigger picture of your marketing strategy.
2. Use insights from existing campaigns
Ad scheduling, geo-targeting, bid techniques, and audience indications are all things over which we have some say. You may speed up the algorithm’s learning and better connect with customers by applying what you’ve learnt from previous campaigns as additional barriers.
3. Use all the assets you can
You’ll be providing the AI a better chance of success, the more high-quality assets you can offer it with.
- 5 Headlines
- 5 Long headlines
- 5 Descriptions
- 20 Landscape images
- 20 Square images
- 5 Logos: at least 1 square logo, others are optional
- 5 YouTube videos (not required, min. 10 seconds)
4. Feed optimization
To get the most out of your online advertising budget, fine-tune your feed. As with traditional shopping campaigns, PMax’s targeting will be based on the quality of the product feed.
5. Collect the right data
A reliable data collection system is essential for automation. Feed Google the most accurate information you can find to maximise its effectiveness. You may check that you are doing so in a few different ways.
- Collect data on conversion rates directly from Google using a global site tag.
- Value your conversion actions so you may employ value-based bidding tactics like Target ROAS.
- Putting in place micro conversion steps will provide Google more signals that your users are actively engaged and likely to convert.
- Improved conversions can be set up ahead of time to guarantee correct data collection.
Takeaway
After reading this, you should have a much better idea of whether or not Performance Max Campaigns are the correct campaign type to help you achieve your marketing objectives and goals.
You can put your attention where it really counts by focusing on strategic performance factors like creative optimization, campaign strategy, and insights with this type of automated campaign. The more original resources you give machine learning, the better it will perform.
References
- https://www.adlucent.com/resources/blog/what-are-googles-automated-performance-max-campaigns/
- https://searchengineland.com/performance-max-campaigns-set-up-386684
- https://www.practicalecommerce.com/setting-up-googles-performance-max-campaigns
- https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2022/07/05/performance-max-tips
- https://www.adsmurai.com/en/articles/max-campaigns-google-ads?hs_amp=true
8 Tips for LinkedIn Marketing
B2B marketers can find the greatest pool of qualified prospects on LinkedIn, which has more than 882 million members (source: businessofapps.com). If you aren’t already using the platform, or aren’t using it to its full potential, you should think again. Successful LinkedIn marketing may do wonders for your professional reputation and, in the long run, your company’s bottom line.
Whether you’re trying to promote your business or yourself, you’ll find some helpful hints in this piece. Let’s get started.
What is LinkedIn Marketing?
Marketing on LinkedIn refers to the promotion of a business or brand through the use of the LinkedIn website. The ability to divide potential customers into distinct groups makes it useful as a marketing tool as well. According to omnicore, among LinkedIn’s 87 million young professionals, 11 million are in leadership roles.
It’s a great way for people and businesses to find each other who share common interests. In other words, if you haven’t already begun Marketing on LinkedIn, now is the time to do it.
Why is LinkedIn Marketing important?
Is there a point in even marketing on LinkedIn? It’s possible that this is the very first thing you’re considering. It’s reasonable to be wary about investing time and energy into a system that won’t provide dividends. Therefore, let’s take a quick look at why marketing on LinkedIn is beneficial:
- 45% of marketers say LinkedIn has aided them in expanding their clientele(source:bluecorona).
- Sproutsocial says that the number of leads it generates is 277 percent higher than Facebook’s.
- According to Kinsta, a whopping 80% of all B2B leads originate on LinkedIn.
- Additionally, it is the main source of social traffic for B2B websites, making up almost half of all visits.
- 91% of C-suite executives say LinkedIn is their go-to for business-related news and insights(source:foundationinc).
Just a few of the numerous compelling arguments that can be made for prioritising LinkedIn marketing and enhancing any existing approach.
Check out these 8 tips for LinkedIn marketing that will help you grow your business reach in 2022.
1. Optimise your profile
Although this is the first thing that comes to mind, it is often neglected in favour of more complex LinkedIn marketing strategies. Marketing on social media requires optimising your profiles in order to stand out from the crowd, whether you’re using a business page or your own personal account.
Create a professional profile image that represents your brand. According to LinkedIn, with an accompanying photo, you may expect a whopping 21 times as many profile views. Profile pictures for personal profiles should be high-resolution professional headshots, while company pages can include the brand logo. However, this could change based on your specific business and brand.
Including your current job title on your LinkedIn profile can increase the number of connection requests you receive by as much as fivefold. Include at least five pertinent talents; doing so has been shown to increase the number of messages you receive from recruiters and other LinkedIn members by 31 times!
2. Publish content that adds value
LinkedIn marketing is less about making salesy promotional messages and more about making a positive impact on the lives of your target audience. In fact, 88% of the best-performing content marketers are B2B professionals who prioritise the informational demands of their target audience.
Therefore, you should utilise LinkedIn to produce, disseminate, and publish information that serves a purpose, be it to instruct, inform, direct, inspire, or entertain its readers. Because of this, there is a greater possibility that your target audience will interact with your material and develop an affinity for you or your business.
And if they interact with it, it might well show up in the feeds of their connections, too, which is a great way to spread the word and get more eyes on your post.
3. Get your employees involved
The purpose of LinkedIn is to broaden your professional network. Employees are the most trustworthy brand evangelists, thus they can help you significantly increase your visibility and improve your connections on the platform. This means that your staff must actively participate in your LinkedIn marketing plan.
Instruct workers to include your business in their online profiles. This converts them to instant followers and raises your brand’s profile on the site. In addition, your staff will have an easier time participating in corporate updates and spreading the word to their own social networks. They can talk about your company in the media, in articles, or in roundup postings.
You could also urge some of your best workers to join and actively contribute to relevant LinkedIn Groups in order to position themselves as subject-matter experts in their chosen fields. Groups on LinkedIn are special pages where people with similar professional or personal interests may connect with one another.
In light of this data, it may be time to launch a LinkedIn-based employee advocacy programme at your company. Inspire your staff to spread the word by sharing relevant content, showcasing achievements, and spreading the word. When done properly, setting goals and a strategy for employee advocacy can help your company gain a wider audience.
4. Send out personalised InMail
With the same spirit of encouraging staff participation in LinkedIn marketing, you might want to go things further by sending out personalised InMail. Even if you can’t use this function through your company’s LinkedIn page, you can use it to benefit from the knowledge of other employees with a Premium account.
Therefore, whether a salesperson or recruiter is trying to get in touch with potential clients or make connections with key people, sending them an InMail can often do the work. Being more tailored to the individual increases the likelihood of a response. In fact LinkedIn says that the response rate for LinkedIn InMail is three times that of ordinary emails.
Because of this, it is excellent for reaching out to potential customers who are likely to be interested in what you have to offer. Use the recipient’s information to tailor promotions, content, and service updates to their specific interests.
Think of this as a fantastic opportunity to introduce yourself to prominent users of the service and begin forming meaningful relationships with them. To increase the likelihood that they accept your connection request, you might include a personalised InMail with your request.
Additional capabilities, such as in-built analytics, are available to Premium account holders in addition to InMail. This allows them to better understand the efficacy of various message types and optimise their own campaigns accordingly.
5. Run ads using the Matched Audiences feature
Ad targeting based on user interests is another successful LinkedIn marketing tactic. Through your existing account or email contacts, you can retarget people who have visited your website using the Matched Audiences tool.
There is a better probability of converting these individuals because they are already aware of your business or personal brand. Most customers won’t convert on their first interaction with your business, therefore this feature is really helpful for your LinkedIn advertising efforts. However, if you retarget them, you can subtly bring their attention back to you and encourage them to join your cause.
6. Use rich media to create a bigger impact
Even though LinkedIn is a professional network, you shouldn’t limit yourself to just writing status updates. Visual components, like photographs and videos, can help you attract your desired audience on LinkedIn in the same way that they do on other social media platforms.
By increasing engagement with your posts, bespoke photos can increase your reach and effectiveness by a factor of two, says LinkedIn. Plus, video increases your engagement rate by five times, so it should definitely be a component of your LinkedIn marketing approach. The most amazing figure is the 25-fold increase in engagement you can achieve with live video.
If you want your LinkedIn marketing to have the most possible impact, you should think about incorporating rich media content. This is true of both natural and artificial methods.
Don’t be shy about using comics and illustrated stories if they aid in conveying your story’s message.
7. Feed your efforts with analytics data
Last but not least, it’s essential that you complete your homework before diving headfirst into LinkedIn advertising. If you don’t have a plan, you could squander a lot of time and energy publishing hundreds of meaningless pieces. You may get a comprehensive view of your posts’ performance using LinkedIn’s built-in analytics data. If there is room for improvement, you should frequently review your performance statistics.
8. Create showcase pages
A Showcase Page is an expansion of your Company Page that operates in a manner that is quite similar to that of the Company Page. Showcase Pages are meant to draw attention to a certain facet of your company, such as your most popular item, an individual service, or a sub-brand. Users of LinkedIn have the ability to follow your Display Pages in the same manner in which they follow your Business Profile.
Conclusion
With the correct approach, LinkedIn has the potential to become a tremendous engagement hub for businesses as well as independent business owners. You should be able to have a better sense of how to ramp up your LinkedIn marketing efforts by reading the advice that we have provided above.
However, you must keep in mind that the first step is to focus on the appropriate audience. If you are unable to communicate with the appropriate demographic, none of these pointers will have the kind of effect you were hoping for.
References
- https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-statistics/
- https://www.omnicoreagency.com/linkedin-statistics/
- https://iide.co/blog/top-linkedin-marketing-strategies/
- https://www.bluecorona.com/blog/b2b-marketing-statistics/
- https://kinsta.com/blog/linkedin-statistics/
- https://foundationinc.co/lab/b2b-marketing-linkedin-stats/
- https://blog.linkedin.com/2016/05/25/get-comfortable-with-being-uncomfortable-why-now-is-the-time-to
- https://www.socialchamp.io/blog/linkedin-marketing-strategy/
How to setup Google Ads Campaign in 2022? – A complete guide
If you’re going to spend any money on advertising in order to reach your intended audience, make sure you spend it wisely.
In other words, a location with more than 259 million unique visits and 4.8 billion interactions every day.
Somewhere like Google.
The world’s most popular website, Google.com, was created just two years before Google Ads was introduced. In October 2000, Google Adwords, the company’s advertising platform, was launched. However, in 2018, Google Ads underwent a rebranding process.
You’ve undoubtedly seen (and definitely clicked on) a Google ad due to the company’s extensive reach. and so have the people who might buy your products.
You’ll learn how to get started advertising on Google in this guide. This blog will guide you on how to optimise your ad campaigns using the platform’s specialised capabilities.
We all know that the more effective and targeted your sponsored advertisements are, the more clicks you’ll get and the more likely it is that you’ll get new clients.
Thus, Google Ads has grown in popularity among businesses of all types.
What is Google Ads?
Google Ads is an advertising network that includes the Google search engine, search partners, the Google Display Network, audiences, websites, videos, YouTube channels, and mobile applications, among other components. With Google Ads, businesses may enhance the number of qualified leads and sales they receive by directing relevant visitors to their website.
Google Ads is a great approach to get qualified visitors, or people who are interested in what you have to offer, while they’re looking for such things online. Your website traffic, phone calls, and in-store visits may all be increased with the help of Google Ads.
Using Google Advertising, you can build and distribute well-timed ads to your target audience. When your target clients are searching for items and services like yours using Google Search or Google Maps, your business will appear on the search engine results page (SERP). This strategy ensures that your ad is seen by your target audience at a time when they are most likely to see it.
Please note that advertising campaigns from the platform can also be shown on YouTube, Blogger and the Google Display network.
To assist your business meet all of its sponsored campaign objectives, Google Ads will help you evaluate and optimise your ads over time.
It doesn’t matter how big or little your business is, you can personalise the adverts to fit your budget. Ad expenditure may be paused or stopped at any moment using the Google Ads tool, allowing you to keep under your monthly budget restriction.
Let’s move on to the next crucial issue: Is Google AdWords a worthwhile investment? Let’s take a look at some data to see whether this is the case:
- Nearly 8 percent of those who see Google Ads click on them(source:accuracast).
- Every month, display ads generate 180 million impressions(source:targetriver).
- Google’s sponsored advertising receives 65 percent of the clicks from individuals who are ready to make a purchase(source:valveandmeter).
- 73 percent of buyers make a purchase after seeing an ad for the product on YouTube(source:boostlikes)
Why advertise on Google?
The most popular search engine, Google, receives about 5 billion inquiries every day, according to internetlivestats. Not to mention that Google Ads has been operating for over two decades, giving it considerable experience in sponsored advertising.
People all around the globe rely on Google to get answers to their inquiries, which are provided in the form of both sponsored and unpaid organic results.
For every $1 spent on Google Ads, advertisers get $8 back, according to the search engine giant.
Is there any other justification required? Google Ads are being utilised by your rivals (and they might even be bidding on your branded terms). Even if you’re ranking organically for a search query, your results are being pushed down the page, behind your rivals, because hundreds of thousands of organisations utilise Google Ads to market their company.
In order to sell your product or service using PPC (Pay-Per-Click), Google Ads must be a component of your paid plan — there’s no way around it.
Google Ads Best Practices
Don’t give up on Google advertising if your first few attempts were a failure. There are several reasons why your Google Ads aren’t functioning as well as they should. Let’s take a look at some of the most prevalent Google Ads guidelines.
– Avoid broad keyword terms.
When it comes to keywords, you need to be absolutely perfect, which is why testing and adjusting are essential parts of your plan. For example, if you’re targeting the incorrect audience with your keywords, you’ll get less clicks and spend more money.
Adjust your keywords based on what’s working (i.e. the keywords that are getting the most clicks). Once you’ve tried a few times and tweaked the mix, you’ll likely get it right the next time.
– Don’t run irrelevant ads.
In order to justify your ad expenditure, you need to make sure your ad is relevant to the searcher’s needs. Advertisements must address the pain points of searchers, so make sure your headline and ad wording match the keywords you’re bidding on.
What you’re looking for can be achieved with only a few modifications to the formula. The ability to generate several advertisements for a single campaign is available; take advantage of this capability to do split testing to see which ads perform best. Google’s Responsive Search Ads functionality is much better.
– Improve your Quality Score (QS).
Google uses your Quality Score (QS) to rank your ad. Placements improve as your rank rises. Your ad will be seen by fewer people and have fewer conversion opportunities if your quality score is poor. While Google will provide you with your Quality Score, it is your responsibility to work on it.
– Optimise your ad landing page.
After a consumer clicks on your ad, it’s just as crucial to make sure they have a positive experience.
Once they click on your ad, what does the user see? The inclusion of the same keywords on your landing page is a sign that it is optimised for conversions. Are you able to alleviate the user’s problem or answer their inquiry using this page? The converting process should be smooth for your user.
Google Ads important terms
- Keywords
- AdRank
- Conversion Rate
- Campaign Type
- Ad Extensions
- Click-Through Rate
- Display Network
- Bidding
- PPC
- Quality Score
You may use these phrases to set up, manage, and optimise your Google Ads. PPC in general and Google Ads in particular have a lot in common. If you want to execute a successful ad campaign, you’ll need to know these things.
1. AdRank
Your ad’s position on the search results page is determined by its AdRank score. As the value of your ad increases, so do your rankings, the number of people who see your ad, and the likelihood that they will click it. In order to get your AdRank, multiply your maximum bid by the Quality Score of the ad you’re running.
2. Bidding
You, the advertiser, decide the maximum amount you’re ready to spend for a click on your ad using the Google Ads bidding system. As your offer rises, so does your position on the auction block. There are three ways to place a bid: CPC, CPM, or CPE.
- For each click on your ad, you pay a fee known as CPC, or cost-per-click (CPC).
- When you pay CPM (cost per mille), you pay for one thousand ad impressions, which means your ad will be seen by 1,000 people.
- If someone clicks on your ad and does a certain action, you pay a fee known as CPE, or cost per engagement.
3. Campaign Type
Search, display, or video are the three types of campaigns that you may run on Google Ads before you launch a sponsored campaign.
- When you do a Google search and get back the results, you’ll see what’s known as a “search ad.”
- A display ad is an image-based advertisement that appears on a website that is part of the Google Display Network.
- YouTube’s video adverts last anywhere from six to fifteen seconds.
4. Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Your ad’s CTR (click-through rate) is the percentage of views your ad receives that result in a click. A greater click-through rate (CTR) signifies that the ad is relevant to the user’s search and includes relevant keywords.
5. Conversion Rate (CVR)
CVR is a metric that measures the number of form submissions as a percentage of total page views. In layman’s terms, a high CVR indicates that your landing page delivers on the promise made in your ad.
6. Display Network
Search results pages and websites in Google’s Display Network (GDN) can both show Google advertisements (GDN). GDN is a network of websites that enable Google Advertisements to be placed on their pages; these ads can be text-based or image-based, and they are displayed alongside material related to your keywords. Google Shopping and app campaigns are the most popular solutions for Display Ads.
7. Extensions
Ad Extensions allow you to add more information to your ad without incurring additional costs. Sitelink, Call, Location, Offer, and App are all examples of ad extensions that fit into one of five categories.
8. Keywords
An extensive set of results is returned when a user submits a query into Google’s search area. When a searcher types in a query, they are looking for keywords or phrases that express exactly what they’re looking for. It’s up to you to decide which search terms show up next to your ad in the results. You’ll see ads for companies that target phrases such as “how to remove gum off shoes” and “clean shoes” if you search for that term.
It is possible to create a list of keywords that you do not want to appear in the search engine results for. If you bid on these terms, Google will remove you from the auction. In most cases, these keywords are connected to your desired search phrases, but they’re outside of the scope of what you’re offering or attempting to rank for.
9. PPC
A sort of advertising known as pay per click (PPC) is when the advertiser pays for each click on an ad. The most frequent sort of sponsored campaign is PPC, which is not particular to Google Ads. To get the most of your first Google Ads campaign, it’s critical that you learn everything there is to know about PPC advertising.
10. Quality Score (QS)
CTR, keyword relevancy, landing page quality, and your historical performance on the SERP are all factors in determining your Quality Score. AdRank takes QS into account.
How does Google Ads work?
Google Ads places your ad in front of people who may be interested in what you have to offer. Depending on the sort of ad campaign chosen, advertisers bid on search terms or keywords and the winners of those bids are displayed at the top of search results pages, YouTube videos, or relevant websites.
There are a number of things that might affect your ability to develop high-performing Google Ads. We’ll go over them in more detail below.
AdRank and Quality Score
An ad’s placement is based on its AdRank and Quality Score is one of the two elements that influence your AdRank. For example, your Quality Score is based on your ad’s CTR (click-through rate), which is how many people see it when it appears in their search results. Your ad’s CTR is mostly determined by how well it fits the searcher’s purpose, which may be determined in three ways:
- Your keywords’ relevancy
- As long as your ad content and CTA are in sync with the searcher’s expectations, you’re doing a good job
- Your landing page’s user experience
Even before you increase your bid amount, you should spend most of your emphasis on your Quality Score (QS). The lesser your acquisition expenses will be and the better your placement will be if you have a higher Quality Score (QS).
Location
Choosing a specific region in which your Google Ad will be shown is an important initial step in creating your ad. Ideally, your storefront should be within a reasonable driving distance of your business. If you run an ecommerce business and sell actual goods, you should configure your location to the locations from where you send your shipments. The sky’s the limit if you offer a service or product that is available to anybody in the globe.
Placement is affected by your current location. You can’t get your yoga studio in San Francisco to show up in New York, no matter how high your AdRank is. This is because Google’s primary goal is to provide users with the best relevant results, even if you pay for them.
Keywords
The importance of keyword research for both paid and organic search advertisements cannot be overstated. You want your keywords to be as relevant as possible to what people are looking for. That’s because Google uses your keywords to match your ad to relevant search searches.
Google will show your ad based on the keywords you pick for each ad group within your campaign (ideally one to five keywords).
Ad Extensions
Ad Extensions are a no-brainer if you’re running Google Ads because they’re free and provide users with more information and an incentive to interact with your ad. They fit into one of the following categories:
- Sitelink Extensions extend your ad — increasing the number of clicks on your site by making you more visible and adding extra links.
- With Call Extensions in your ad campaign, you’ll have an extra (and quick) option for customers to contact you. Include your phone number if you have a customer care staff ready to interact and convert your audience.
- Location Extensions allow Google to show searchers a map and your phone number in your ad so they can quickly locate you. It’s a terrific choice for brick-and-mortar companies, and it’s perfect for searches like “…near me.”
- If you’re currently running a promotion, then Offer Extensions are a good idea. It can encourage people to click on your ad above others if they find that your selections are cheaper than those of your rivals.
- Mobile users can access an app’s download page via an app extension. This eliminates the need to conduct a fresh search in order to locate and download the software from an AppStore.
Google Ads Retargeting
Users who have previously engaged with your website but have not yet converted can be targeted using retargeting (or remarketing) in Google Ads. Tracking cookies can be used to advertise to specific people while they browse the web. In order for prospects to become customers, they need to see your marketing material a minimum of seven times.
Types of Google Ads Campaigns
- Search
- Display
- Shopping
- Video
- App
On Google Ads, you may choose from one of five campaign kinds. In this section, we’ll go through the most effective applications for both and explain why you would prefer one over the other.
1. Search Ad Campaigns
Text adverts that appear on Google search results pages are known as search ads.
One of the advantages of using search advertisements is that your ad will be displayed where the majority of people begin their search for information: on Google. Users are used to viewing and clicking on results since Google displays your ad in a similar fashion to other results (except that it is labelled as “Ad”).
Responsive Search Ads
You may input up to a total of 15 headlines and ad content variants in responsive search ads, and Google will choose the most effective ones to show to viewers. You may use the same headline and description for all of your conventional advertising.
To acquire the most clicks from your target audience, you may use responsive advertisements, which allow you to create an ad that is dynamically tested until you find the optimum version for your demographic.
2. Display Ad Campaigns
The Google Display Network is a collection of websites across a wide range of businesses and demographics that have agreed to allow Google Ads to be shown on their pages. Paying per click or impression on adverts benefits the website owner. Advertisers profit from the ability to target specific audiences with their content.
3. Video Ad Campaigns
It is common for YouTube videos to be accompanied with video advertisements. Consider YouTube to be an extension of your browser. To get a user’s attention, you need the correct keywords to put them in front of a video.
4. App Ad Campaigns
With Google App Campaigns, you can advertise your mobile application across a variety of Google properties, including the Google Search Network, YouTube, Google Play, and the Google Display Network, to name a few. Using advertising, you may persuade your target audience to either download your app or, if they already have it, to do a certain action inside it.
You don’t create an App ad campaign as you do with other ad kinds. Instead, submit your app’s details and target audience to Google, and then bid on it. For the rest, Google performs the heavy lifting for you.
5. Shopping Ad Campaigns
Shopping campaigns, like other forms of advertising, appear on search engine results pages and feature information about the product, such as the price and images of the goods. Using Google Merchant Centre, you can set up a Shopping campaign and provide Google with particular product information for use in the creation of your shopping advertising.
With Shopping Ads, you may focus on a single product or series of items rather than promoting your whole business. As a result, if you conduct a Google search for a certain product, you will see advertisements for several manufacturers appear at the top and/or side of the page.
How to Use and Create Google Ads
Setting up Google ads is a breeze (and quick), thanks to the platform’s step-by-step instructions and handy tips. Starting a Google Ads campaign is as simple as clicking “Start Now” on the Google Ads website. The setup process should take no more than 10 minutes if you already have your ad wording and/or photos ready.
In order to get the most out of your ad campaigns, there are a number of additional steps you must do to ensure they are properly set up and trackable. Let’s take care of this together. Once your advertisements have been submitted for evaluation, follow these procedures.
1. Link Google Analytics.
As a business owner, you probably already have Google Analytics installed on your website so that you can monitor traffic, sales, and other information. Google Ads must be linked to your Analytics account as well. It will be much simpler to keep track of, analyse, and report on these occurrences if you link these accounts so that you can see everything in one location.
2. Add UTM codes.
Tracking activity linked with a link is done by Google using Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) codes. The section of a URL following a question mark (“?”) is one you’ve probably encountered before. The most effective portions of your campaign may be tracked using UTM codes, which show you which offers or advertisements resulted in a conversion. Because you can see exactly what’s working using UTM codes, optimising your Google Ads becomes much simpler.
Instead of doing this for each ad URL individually, you should include your UTM codes when setting up your Google Ads campaign. Google’s UTM builder can be used to manually add them if you choose.
3. Set up conversion tracking.
Your ad campaigns’ conversion monitoring informs you just how many clients or leads you’ve gotten from them. You don’t have to set it up, but if you don’t, you’ll have to make educated guesses about your advertising’ return on investment. An app install or phone call from an ad can be tracked through the use of conversion tracking.
4. Integrate your Google Ads with your CRM.
Having all of your data in one location makes it easier to manage, analyse, and report on. You’re already keeping track of contacts and leads in your CRM. Using Google Ads and your CRM, you can see which ad campaigns are most effective at reaching your target demographic, allowing you to target them with more relevant offers in the future.
Google Ads Bidding Strategies
It’s time to start bidding once you’ve set up your ad campaigns and put tracking in place. Remember that how much you bid in Google Ads affects your position in the search results. Even though your budget and goals will dictate how much you may bid, there are a few things to keep in mind while putting up your sponsored campaign.
Automated vs. Manual Bidding
In order to bid on your keywords, you have two options: — automated and manual. Here’s how they work:
- Google’s Automated Bidding feature allows it to alter your bid in response to the competition. As long as your budget is reasonable, Google will do everything it can to help you outperform your competition.
- Manual Bidding allows you to set your own bids for your ad groups and keywords, allowing you to save money on advertisements that aren’t doing as well as you would like.
Bidding on Branded Search Terms
The terms that include your company or unique product name are referred to as branded terms. There’s a lot of discussion about whether or not you should use your brand phrases in your bids. On the other hand, bidding on phrases that are likely to bring in organic results might be viewed as a waste of money by certain people.
While bidding on these phrases provides your website a higher ranking in search results, it can also assist to convert more advanced customers.
If you don’t bid on your branded terms, your rivals will, and you will lose out on precious real estate that is rightfully yours.
Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
A CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) is a better option if you don’t like the concept of spending money to get people to sign up for your email list. This bidding approach may cost more, but you only pay when you get a paying customer, so it’s worth it. This approach makes it simple to keep track of and defend your advertising expenditures.
Start Your Google Ad Campaign NOW
Google Ads should be a component of your sponsored campaign because of its reach and authority. Use the advice we’ve given you to get started, and don’t forget to keep tweaking and improving as you go.
Only campaigns that require a little more work are considered failures in the world of Google Ads. A successful Google Ad campaign may be created using the approach and information supplied above, so long as you follow the steps outlined.
References
- https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6146252?hl=en
- https://evenbound.com/blog/how-to-use-google-ads-a-complete-guide
- https://ads.google.com/home/resources/how-to-setup-googleads-a-checklist/
- https://surfsideppc.com/google-ads/
- https://neilpatel.com/what-is-google-adwords/
- https://valveandmeter.com/pay-per-click-statistics/
- https://www.internetlivestats.com/google-search-statistics/
- https://www.targetriver.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-google-ads#:~:text=Display%20ads%20yield%20180%20million,seen%20on%20a%20YouTube%20ad.
- https://www.accuracast.com/articles/advertising/adwords-clickthrough/
YouTube Ads – A Complete Guide
Do you ever wonder how many hours of video are viewed on YouTube every day? More than 1 billion hours of YouTube videos are streamed everyday, according to an article from Brandwatch. That’s almost 60 billion minutes. To put this in perspective, there are 1,440 minutes in a day. That’s insane! You should be interested, too, as a marketing professional. Learn how to start your own YouTube advertising campaign and compete in this visual marketing field by reading on.
What are Google YouTube Ads?
As a general rule, YouTube Ads should be short videos that appear at various points during a user’s YouTube experience. Depending on the ad type chosen during the campaign setup process, these adverts can show at the beginning, middle, or end of the video. Depending on the ad type, YouTube Ads can run anywhere from six seconds to over three minutes in length.
This blog post will walk you through the YouTube ad campaign setup procedure. After reading this blog, you should be able to start your own YouTube advertising campaign from scratch.
Different types of YouTube ads
In order to reach a certain demographic, marketers have three alternatives when it comes to using YouTube ads. Following is a list of each.
1. TrueView Ads
Advertisers only pay for TrueView advertisements if their ads are shown or if viewers interact with them. As a result, brands only pay when viewers watch an ad for at least 30 seconds or the whole thing or if a viewer takes action, such as clicking on the call-to-action button.
Skippable TrueView advertisements should be between 12 and 6 minutes long, while non-skippable advertising should be between 15 and 20 seconds long. Depending on the campaign, these videos may feature real people, recorded dialogue, and music that has been given their consent or is available for free use. Use TrueView ads sparingly because viewers can quickly skip traditional commercials that promote your product. Creating YouTube commercials that give viewers a reason to watch them would be beneficial.
There are two kinds of TrueView YouTube ads:
- Video discovery ads – As a companion video, these commercials can be shown on the site’s home page and search results pages.
- In-stream ads – These advertisements appear just before a user starts watching a video they’ve chosen. Viewers who have seen the ad for five seconds are offered the opportunity to skip it. Marketers can customise these ads with varied text and CTAs to achieve the desired outcome.
What TrueView Videos Can Include
When using TrueView videos, you can incorporate persons who have given their permission or are considered royalty-free in the speech and music you use. A conventional commercial, on the other hand, should not be shown. You must give your audience a reason to keep watching because these films can be skipped, and product plugs typically don’t receive the views you might expect.
Instead, utilise the available time to convey a tale through your film. People enjoy reading about people who have had to overcome hardships that they can identify with. As a source of amusement, it makes your brand recognisable and less likely to be skipped over.
Advertisers can get tons of data on their advertisements’ success with TrueView ads, which can be used for tweaking and testing.
If you’re running an ad campaign through Google Ads, you can see how many people have seen it in its entirety.
By following these steps, marketers may make more informed decisions about how and where to spend their video ad budgets.
2. Preroll Ads
Unskippable in-stream advertising on YouTube exist. Ads that appear before, during, or after your introductory video can be pre-or post-roll. They last between 15 and 20 seconds. Like TrueView advertising, you can design your ad to your heart’s content. People, audio, and other elements can be used to convey your message in the most effective way possible.
When marketing a new product or an upcoming event, Preroll adverts are an excellent way to attract the attention of potential customers. Try to get visitors to click on the ad in your ad. Preroll ads can’t be skipped, so include a call-to-action (CTA).
3. Bumpers
Brands can use a third type of YouTube ad in this format. They’re six-second commercials that appear before the video you’ve selected. In order to tell a good story in this short of a period it’s impossible to do so. If you’re promoting an event or a new product, these ads can be used to supplement a larger campaign.
To make the most of your time, please focus on the most important aspects of your business that you want your audience to take away with them.
4. Overlay Ads
A video’s bottom overlay is a banner ad for a product or service. This form of ad can be used in conjunction with other in-stream video campaigns. You don’t have to worry about your product being overtly advertised with a banner ad.
How to Set Up and Launch Your YouTube Ad Campaign
After deciding on the right ad type that fulfils all your requirements, it’s now time to set up the ad campaign. The first step is to log in to your Google AdWords account and perform the following steps:
Campaign Type
Select a video by tapping the +Campaign button on the homepage.
Campaign Name
Ensure that the video option is chosen after entering your campaign name.
Video Ad Format
Decide what kind of ad you want to run. In-stream or video-discovery advertising and bumper ads are available.
Budget
You can now specify a daily budget. In addition, you must choose between standard and accelerated delivery as a delivery model.
Network
It would be best to decide whether you want your ad to appear in YouTube Search or YouTube Videos. A separate campaign for YouTube videos and searches is needed to monitor performance indicators effectively.
Locations
Determine where you want your ad to appear.
Language, Device and Mobile Bidding
You can select the device, carrier, and operating system for advanced targeting here.
Advanced Settings
The campaign’s start and finish dates can be specified in this area.
Create the YouTube Ad
Insert the video link after you’ve given the ad group a name. Afterwards, choose if you want this ad to be displayed in display or in-stream.
Bidding
Here, you need to figure out the maximum amount you’d be willing to pay for each view.
Targeting
Define your target audience, taking into account factors such as age, gender, social status, and personal interests, to name a few.
Advanced Targeting
It is possible to target specific individuals through the use of subjects, keywords, and even entire websites!
Link Account
You must connect your AdWords account with the YouTube channel where your video is housed if you haven’t already. To begin running your YouTube Ads campaign, click the “Finish” button.
10 Tips for Optimising Your Video Ads
While launching a video ad campaign is an excellent first step, there are a few details to iron out before you begin paying for views. You’ll get the most bang for your buck and the most return on your investment this way.
1. Define your metrics and goals.
You may track four primary metrics for each video when analysing the results.
Views and Impressions
In the “views” section, you can see how much of the ad individuals saw and how the ad drove views. You may also observe how your brand’s other videos saw a spike in views.
Audience
Tracking engagement metrics by age, gender, household income, and parenting status is possible with this category.
View Rate
The ad’s view rate can indicate whether or not the creative and message are engaging enough to draw in viewers. Your cost per view will be reduced if you can raise your view-through rate (VTR).
Conversions
Conversions can tell you if your ad generates leads and provides a good investment return (ROI).
Establishing a few objectives based on these indicators can help you focus your efforts and create a strategy for improving your creativity and testing out various targeting options. While some metrics are better for branding, some are better for driving leads and conversions, and you should base your ad’s content on your aims.
2. Track low-performing placements.
Using your Google Advertisements dashboard, you can see where your in-display ads have appeared by going to Video Targeting > Placements > Where advertising was shown > Display network and looking at the locations where your ads have been shown. This list might help you identify which sites are causing your targeted metrics to perform poorly. To improve your CPV, remove these sites from your ad campaign.
3. Use a custom thumbnail image.
In order to get people to click on your video, design or use an attractive still image from the video. Keep in mind that this image must be readable on various devices, including mobile. A person in your photograph should be gazing directly into the camera’s lens if possible. If you’re showcasing a product, avoid using a distracting background.
4. Drive people to buy with cards.
A little I sign appears on a YouTube card, which the user can click to expand. Only those who have watched the video and content will see this notification.
You can use cards to promote products related to or featured in the video. It is possible to customise the card in any of the available formats. We’ve also included an example from our YouTube channel showing how to use cards to generate donations and traffic to a URL or other videos.
5. Create calls-to-action.
Call-to-action overlays that point to a URL can be used to drive traffic to a YouTube video’s promotion page. You can link to a product page, an information page, or even a career page to whatever you like. A link to a positive review or interview with the brand might also be shared.
6. Create a YouTube end slate.
Create an end screen. Create an end screen to drive subscribers to your channel, promote your social networks, or increase interest in your brand. If a viewer sticks around until the finish of your video, it’s a positive sign they’re interested in what you have to say in the future and may want to subscribe to your channel.
7. Use negative remarketing.
For long-term campaigns, you may want to create a list of people who will not see your ad so that you may only target those who are new to your business.
In order to save money, you can exclude those who have already seen the video, visited your YouTube channel, or commented on or shared any of your videos from your campaign’s target audience.
8. Closed captioning is a great way to meet the expectations of your audience.
Not many brands follow this general best practice, yet it applies to all YouTube videos. Make sure to include a high-quality video transcription you’ve prepared and authorised yourself. Because YouTube’s automatic captioning isn’t always accurate, Google only indexes transcriptions posted by users. Transcriptions in other languages may also be necessary, depending on your audience. Additionally, you can include a link to a transcript of the video in your video description.
9. Qualify viewers.
People with no interest in your product may view your ad. Don’t waste their time by showing them an ad when it’s irrelevant, and you won’t have to pay for the view either.
10. Consider making your ad longer.
If the ad is less than 30 seconds long, you only pay if the viewer watches to the conclusion. An advertisement longer than 30 seconds gets paid for if the viewer spends at least 30 seconds viewing it. In any situation, you’ll be charged if a viewer engages with your advertisement before it ends. When brainstorming for the ad’s content, keep this in mind. You may wish to place a message at a specified time in the video so that viewers who aren’t interested can skip it, or you may offer special deals at the end.
The Future of Video is Bright
You can’t have a content plan without including some form of video. With YouTube allowing marketers to target individuals based on their search history, this is even more true today. Due to video’s relative youth and relative obscurity on the internet, it has a smaller market share than blog postings regarding advertising on YouTube.
References
- https://blog.hootsuite.com/youtube-advertising/
- https://blog.hootsuite.com/youtube-stats-marketers/
- https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/youtube-video-advertising-guide
- https://razorpay.com/learn/youtube-ads-for-beginners-the-complete-guide/
- https://www.broadplace.com/blog/complete-guide-to-youtube-ads/
- https://www.thundertech.com/blog-news/august-2019/youtube-advertising-101-your-guide-for-success-in-2021
- https://www.reliablesoft.net/youtube-video-ads-guide/
LinkedIn Ads – An effective Lead Generation Tool
For professionals and companies, LinkedIn has evolved as the biggest lead generation platform. With 810 million members (source: LinkedIn), LinkedIn is a platform where people invest time, unlike other platforms where people are just passing time.
With such a large user base, LinkedIn becomes the go-to platform for promotions. If you operate in the B2B space, there are high chances that your potential customers will be found on LinkedIn by running ads. With optimum market research, you can reach out to your potential customers and run a successful LinkedIn Ad campaign.
What are LinkedIn Ads?
LinkedIn Ads are paid marketing tools offered by the platform. It lets you run Ad campaigns in different formats. LinkedIn Ads help in:
- Website conversion
- Audience engagement
- Sales
- Brand awareness
- Lead generation
- Increasing website traffic
LinkedIn ads, with a wide variety of options, can help you target your customer no matter what kind of business you are into.
Types of LinkedIn Ads
To achieve specific ad goals, LinkedIn offers you several ad formats to choose from. These are:
- Message Ads
- Video Ads
- Carousel Ads
- Single Image Ads
- Event Ads
- Spotlight Ads
- Conversion Ads
- Text Ads
You can choose any format to start your LinkedIn Ad campaign. Every format has its compositions and benefits. Depending upon your budget and goals of your LinkedIn Ad campaign you can choose from Cost per click ads(CPC), cost per impression (CPI), Cost per send(CPS) models.
How to create Linkedin Ads?
You’ll need a LinkedIn account to get started. Signup and go through the beginner’s guide to get started with LinkedIn. Once you are done with it. You can start creating LinkedIn Ads for your business. Let’s have a look at the steps to create Linkedin Ads
- Set up a Campaign manager account
This is the platform where all your LinkedIn Ads-related activities take place. This includes setting up ad accounts, budget management, and running LinkedIn Ad campaigns.
- Decide your LinkedIn Ad objective
The type of action you want the user to take after seeing your LinkedIn Ads is your objective. Setting up an objective helps in deciding the best suitable format for your LinkedIn Ads.
- Target audience analysis
You can choose a location for your Ads and then you can filter your audience by company name, industry, job titles, personal interests, etc.
- Choosing your LinkedIn Ad format
Your ad objective will help you decide the right format for your ads. You can choose from the formats listed above. Each format has its benefits and capabilities. You can choose the format that aligns the best with your Linkedin Ad objective.
- Decide your budget
LinkedIn ads manager will provide you with a budget range. This range is based on your target audience and format. Ad managers also factor in the competition in your chosen target audience.
- Decide the right time
Once you are done with the setup of your LinkedIn Ad, you can choose the right time for it to run. You can decide the start and end of your LinkedIn Ad campaign or you can continuously run the campaign.
- Confirm and pay
Once you are done with the above steps, you can preview your ad. Once you are satisfied with the preview, you can make the payment and that’s it. Your LinkedIn Ad is ready to meet its audiences.
Final words
LinkedIn has proven to be one of the best platforms to connect with like-minded business-oriented people. You can connect with the right audience and brands. Once you’ve built the right LinkedIn Ad strategy, you will learn how powerful LinkedIn ads are.
Follow the above steps and build your ads the right way.
References
8 tips for increasing engagement on LinkedIn for Businesses
Over 55 million companies and 740 million users are currently present on LinkedIn(source: kinsta.com). LinkedIn is the most preferred social platform for most B2B marketers. According to marketing charts, 86% of respondents say that they use LinkedIn more than any other social platform.
79% of the B2B marketers use LinkedIn to generate leads and about 94% of them distribute content using LinkedIn (source: LinkedIn). All these statistics show that LinkedIn is an essential platform for companies. Just being present on Linkedin is not enough, businesses need to drive engagement to be on top of the mind of their consumers. Moreover, high engagement shows that your consumers trust you as a brand and want to be associated with you.
So, here are 8 tips that will help you in increasing engagement on LinkedIn:
#1. Create and post a variety of content
Keeping in mind the interests of the audience, you should post a variety of strong content on the company’s LinkedIn page. Limit the promotional posts. Sharing industry updates will also increase engagement and will keep your page up to date with the industry trends. Keep a check on what the competitors are posting. Post images and infographics to make your posts more engaging. Asking questions can also help in getting a better engagement on the company page.
#2. Focus on growing your network
Having a large network on LinkedIn is necessary. A larger network means an increased number of likes and shares. Monitor interactions in industry-related groups. Add keywords to the page and update so that it starts ranking on SERPs.
#3. Proofread everything
As you know, LinkedIn is a platform for professionals. You can’t make silly mistakes while creating any form of content as it will harm the brand image. Grammatical mistakes in the text post make the post look unprofessional which leads to a downfall in engagement. And while you may be extremely good at proofreading, you should still use tools to check grammar and plagiarism.
#4. Optimize your profile for mobile users
According to omnicore, 80% of engagement comes from mobile users. This clearly shows that optimizing the content for the mobile user is necessary. Make use of photos and videos that look good on the mobile app.
In 2018, Google rolled out mobile-first indexing. This impacts your LinkedIn presence as both your articles and profile can rank in SERPs
#5. Adding link and Posting videos
According to LinkedIn, adding a link to your post doubles the engagement. Posting videos from YouTube increases the share rate by up to 75 percent. Also, keep in mind to engage with the users that are commenting. And also promote the posts that have important updates to reach connections outside your network.
#6. Engage with employees
According to LinkedIn, about 30% of the engagement comes from the employees. So make sure all the employees of the company connect with the company page and interact with it timely. Also, some of your selected members can invite their connections to the company page manually. Make your employees reshare the company page updates.
#7. Size of profile image and banner image
The size of the profile image should be correct and it should show the logo completely. The profile image is the same for all the platforms but you can have a customized banner for your LinkedIn page. Make sure both of them are rightly sized so that they appear professional on the page.
#8. Be consistent
Posting regularly is important to increase engagement on LinkedIn. Linkedin’s algorithm promotes business pages that post regularly. Most of the advisors and experts suggest 3-4 posts per day. According to Hubspot, the best days to post on LinkedIn are Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
Summing up
LinkedIn is one of the most powerful professional tools. You can build and maintain your network with it. Following these tips will help in boosting your engagement on LinkedIn. Optimize your page for search results. Be consistent with the posts and keep a track of your success after implementing these tips.
References
- https://www.marketingcharts.com/industries/business-to-business-111025
- https://news.linkedin.com/about-us#statistics
- https://www.omnicoreagency.com/linkedin-statistics/
- https://www.postbeyond.com/blog/linkedin-company-pages-increase-engagement/
- https://www.socialsamosa.com/2017/09/boost-engagement-on-linkedin/
- https://wearesculpt.com/blog/grow-linkedin-company-page/
- https://www.linkedin.com/business/marketing/blog/linkedin-ads/get-proof-the-case-for-b2b-marketing-on-linkedin-infographic
- https://kinsta.com/blog/linkedin-statistics/
5 Next Big Trends in Social Media Marketing (2021)
Do you want to know what’s going on in the world of social media and stay updated about it?
In a short period of time, social media has managed to become a vital part of our lives. What began as a way for friends and family to remain in touch quickly evolved into a way for brands and companies to interact with their target audience through social media.
There are always upcoming and ongoing trends which can be seen on social media every year.
With Each year, social media trends keep on evolving as social media sites add new features and update their algorithms. The social media market is growing faster than every day, and we must be aware of the latest trends to stay updated and above competition.
Some of 5 social media marketing trends to incorporate in 2021 are given below:
#1. Influencer marketing
Social media today is dominated by influencers and will continue to do so for years to come. Humans prefer to buy products which are recommended by their known circle. Influencers have large social media following and when they recommend a product their followers tend to buy it. It is comparatively more economical to invest in influencers than running ad campaigns. Moreover it delivers good results. These are the reasons why influencer marketing is becoming more popular these days.
Companies are now working with a whole network of micro and niche influencers. These kinds of influencers get much higher engagement and don’t cost much. Companies are preferring this strategy over going for a single celebrity and spending too much money.
Influencer Marketing can be a very good strategy for Instagram.
#2. Employee Advocacy
Employee advocacy means the promotion and awareness of an organization or by it’s staff members. (1)
Employee Advocacy is about transforming your engaged staff and creating more promotion and sales. It gives better market efforts by creating better content.
Employee advocacy gives better engagement, more productivity and an increase in sales. A good advocacy will generate more leads, customer retention and brand exposure.
Employee advocacy helps in increasing the reach and is an effective tool on Linkedin
#3. Use of groups on social media
Social media groups are communities of professionals from different niches who come together to share their knowledge on social media platforms. These are mainly private groups for like-minded people with similar likes and interests.
Brands can learn a lot about their audience’s interests and behaviors and get feedback about their products in the group. These interactions can help build brand trust and loyalty and drive engagement. The group can help brands create better content for their social media pages. Having conversations with their customers will make them feel seen, heard and respected.
Groups can be a powerful tool on Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter.
#4. Stories
Stories of social media were first invented by Snapchat and then copied and amplified by Instagram and Facebook and recently by Linkedin and Youtube. Stories are the next best way to communicate on social media.
These virtual stories last for 24 hours and give people many opportunities to create different types of content which are recent in nature and let them express their thoughts in a creative way. They are more casual as compared to posts on the feed and hence give you a place to experiment.
The main advantage is that they are very short to watch which makes it easy for people to watch them on the go. Examples of stories can be behind the scenes, opinion pieces, editorials, podcasts and more.
#5. Direct interaction
Direct messaging allows individuals to connect instantly. It allows companies to connect with their customers directly by messaging. Messaging allows you to connect with the people you need digitally without meeting them in real life.
Businesses can communicate through direct messaging for order and product questions, feedback and queries. This helps your business to stand out from others by creating a more positive and meaningful customer experience.
Instagram and Linkedin are the platforms which give the option of direct messaging.
Conclusion
Above given trends are dominating social media in 2021 and will dominate beyond. Businesses need to adopt the trending features to have an engaging and effective social media strategy so that they can remain ahead of their competition.
References
THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO LINKEDIN ANALYTICS
LinkedIn is a professional networking site that enables its users to build business connections, search for jobs and find potential clients. Every business on LinkedIn has their business goals- awareness, sales, generating leads, building credibility or so. And without LinkedIn analytics, the ability to analyse the performance of these goals is merely a guesswork.
Understanding LinkedIn Analytics can get overwhelming. In this article, discover how you can use LinkedIn Analytics to analyse and improve your LinkedIn strategy for your business.
HOW TO USE LINKEDIN ANALYTICS?
To access LinkedIn Analytics, lookout on top of your profile. Analytics related to-
- Visitors
- Updates
- Followers and
- Employee Advocacy can be tracked
Let’s look at each of them in detail.
VISITOR ANALYTICS
Visitors are similar to traffic that lands on the LinkedIn page. From Visitor Analytics one can track –
Unique Visitors : To track how many individual members have visited your page.
Page Views : Page Views help in determining the total number of times your page was visited.
Custom Button Clicks : These are the total number of clicks on the given site- website, blog link, form link etc.
(The data for the above three is available for a 30-day time period.)
Visitor Metrics : Visitor metrics can be filtered by time ranges. The analytics can also be determined by filtering between pages – Home, About, Insights, People with respect to page views and unique visitors under each section. The metrics also present the device used to access the pages – Desktop or Mobile.
Visitor Demographics : Visitor demographics on LinkedIn are the ideal way to judge whether one is able to reach the target audience or not. The demographics are classified based upon- job function, location, seniority, industry, and company size.
UPDATE ANALYTICS
Update analytics are helpful in evaluating the quality and performance of content shared on the page. The following analytics are available for Page updates.
- Update Highlights : Update highlights show the number of total likes, comments, and shares in the last 30 days. It also indicates the percent of change from the previous 30 days.
- Update Metrics : These are key metrics for organic and sponsored updates over time and can be filtered by time ranges. The following metrics are available:
- Impressions : The total number of times the update was seen
- Unique Impressions : The number of times updates were seen by individual members
- Clicks : The number of clicks on your content, company name, or logo
- Reactions, Comments, Shares : The engagement on content through reactions, comments, shares
- Engagement Rate : LinkedIn calculates update engagement rate by adding the number of interactions, clicks, and new followers acquired, divided by the number of impressions the post receives.
- Update Engagement : Update engagement lists details of individual updates that can be filtered using time range. The metrics like – Impressions, Clicks, Reactions, Shares, Views (in case of videos), CTR, Engagement Rate, Follows, Comments are also enlisted corresponding to the update. This helps in determining the performance of each post.
FOLLOWER ANALYTICS
Follower analytics provide an insightful look into the followers that have taken interest in your Page. The data is helpful to tailor engagement strategy with followers. The following analytics are available for your Page followers:
- Follower Highlights: Follower Highlight shows the number of members who have followed your Page since it was created. It also shows the number of followers your Page has gained and the percent of change from the previous 30 days.
- Follower Metrics: Follower metrics show how your number of followers has changed over time and can be filtered by time ranges.
- All Followers : The list of all followers can be seen under this. This helps in providing a consolidated list of all the followers of the page along with when they followed. The list is shown in order of recency.
- Follower Demographics: Follower demographics helps in knowing the audience. The people who follow you on LinkedIn are the people who will see your company posts and updates. Understanding who they are, where they are, and what they do will help you create relevant and engaging content. The demographics are shown based upon Location, Job function, Seniority, Industry, and Company size data.
- Companies to track : Companies to track helps in comparing companies similar to the business based upon- Total followers, new followers, post frequency and engagement rate. This helps in understanding the performance of the company on LinkedIn in comparison to its competitor/s so that changes can be made to the strategy if needed.
EMPLOYEE ADVOCACY
Employee Advocacy analytics provide page admins of a LinkedIn Page the opportunity to gauge trends in employee and member engagement with content recommended to employees. These analytics are available on desktop only. The analytics include:
- Highlights : The analytics are an aggregate calculation from the past 30 days. The percentage increase or decrease for each metric can be used as an indicator of engagement with your recommended content. The metrics are:
- Recommendations
- Posts from recommendations
- Reaction to posts
- Comments on posts
- Reshares of posts
- Employee Advocacy Metrics : This determines the change in the number of recommendations, posts from recommendations, reactions to posts, comments on posts and re-shares of posts over a specified timeframe.
- Employees posting from recommendations : These are the number of posts shared by employees according to their Seniority, Job function and Location over a specified time range.
- LinkedIn Members reached : The data shows the number of LinkedIn members who interacted with your employees’ posts that were generated from recommendations according to their Companies, Location, Job function, Seniority, and Industry.
- Recommendation Engagement : The analytics are based on all recommendations made to employees over a specified timeframe. The data offers insight on impressions, reactions, comments and re-shares of the recommendation.
The employee advocacy data is therefore helpful in reaching out to the audience through updates recommended to employees and also helps in building the brand as it generates the credibility of the employee.
LinkedIn Analytics is a free tool and its valuable data should be harnessed to make the best of business on LinkedIn. Not only that, the data can also be downloaded to be stored for future use.
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REFERENCES
https://blog.hootsuite.com/linkedin-analytics/
https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-analyze-linkedin-profile-using-linkedin-dashboard/