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Digital marketing

Digital marketing is the marketing of products or services using digital technologies, mainly on the Internet, but also including mobile phones, display advertising, and any other digital medium.[1]

Digital marketing's development since the 1990s and 2000s has changed the way brands and businesses use technology for marketing.[2] As digital platforms are increasingly incorporated into marketing plans and everyday life,[3] and as people use digital devices instead of visiting physical shops,[4][5] digital marketing campaigns are becoming more prevalent and efficient.

Digital marketing methods such as search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), content marketing, influencer marketing, content automation, campaign marketing, data-driven marketing,[6] e-commerce marketing, social media marketing, social media optimization, e-mail direct marketing, display advertising, e–books, and optical disks and games are becoming more common in our advancing technology. In fact, digital marketing now extends to non-Internet channels that provide digital media, such as mobile phones (SMS and MMS), callback, and on-hold mobile ring tones.[7] In essence, this extension to non-Internet channels helps to differentiate digital marketing from online marketing, another catch-all term for the marketing methods mentioned above, which strictly occur online.

Contents

1History

2New non-linear marketing approach

3Use in the digital era

4Brand awareness

5Latest developments and strategies

6Ineffective forms of digital marketing

7Strategy

8See also

9References

10Further reading

4.1Ease of access

4.2Competitive advantage

4.3Effectiveness

5.1Ways to further increase the effectiveness of digital marketing

6.1Prioritizing clicks

6.2Balancing search and display

6.3Channels

6.4Multi-channel communications

6.5Self-regulation

6.6Advantages and limitations

7.1Planning

7.2Stages of planning

7.2.11) Opportunity

7.2.22) Strategy

7.2.33) Action

History

The development of digital marketing is inseparable from technology development. One of the key points in the start of was in 1971, where Ray Tomlinson sent the very first email and his technology set the platform to allow people to send and receive files through different machines [8]. However, the more recognisable period as being the start of Digital Marketing is 1990 as this was where the Archie search engine was created as an index for FTP sites. In the 1980s, the storage capacity of computer was already big enough to store huge volumes of customer information. Companies started choosing online techniques, such as database marketing, rather than limited list broker.[9] This kind of databases allowed companies to track customers' information more effectively, thus transforming the relationship between buyer and seller. However, the manual process was not so efficient.

In the 1990s, the term Digital Marketing was first coined,[10]. With the debut of server/client architecture and the popularity of personal computers, the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications became a significant part of marketing technology.[citation needed] Fierce competition forced vendors to include more service into their softwares, for example, marketing, sales and service applications. Marketers were also able to own huge online customer data by eCRM softwares after the Internet was born. Companies could update the data of customer needs and obtain the priorities of their experience. This led to the first clickable banner ad being going live in 1994, which was the "You Will" campaign by AT&T and over the first four months of it going live, 44% of all people who saw it clicked on the ad [11].

In the 2000s, with more and more Internet users and the birth of iPhone, customers started searching products and making decisions about their needs online first, instead of consulting a salesperson, which created a new problem for the marketing department of a company. In addition, a survey in 2000 in the United Kingdom found that most retailers had not registered their own domain address.[12]These problems made marketers find the digital ways for market development.

In 2007, the concept of marketing automation was raised to solve the problem above. Marketing automation helped companies segment customers, launch multichannel marketing campaigns and provide personalized information for customers. However, the speed of its adaptability to consumer devices was not fast enough.

Digital marketing became more sophisticated in the 2000s and the 2010s, when[13][14] the proliferation of devices' capable of accessing digital media led to sudden growth.[15] Statistics produced in 2012 and 2013 showed that digital marketing was still growing.[16][17] With the development of social media in the 2000s, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Youtube and Twitter, consumers became highly dependent on digital electronics in daily lives. Therefore, they expected a seamless user experience across different channels for searching product's information. The change of customer behavior improved the diversification of marketing technology.[18]

Digital marketing is also referred to as 'online marketing', 'internet marketing' or 'web marketing'. The term digital marketing has grown in popularity over time. In the USA online marketing is still a popular term. In Italy, digital marketing is referred to as web marketing. Worldwide digital marketing has become the most common term, especially after the year 2013.[19]

Digital media growth was estimated at 4.5 trillion online ads served annually with digital media spend at 48% growth in 2010.[20] An increasing portion of advertising stems from businesses employing Online Behavioural Advertising (OBA) to tailor advertising for internet users, but OBA raises concern of consumer privacy and data protection.[15]

New non-linear marketing approach

In order to engage customers, retailers must shift from a linear marketing approach of one-way communication to a value exchange model of mutual dialogue and benefit-sharing between provider and consumer.[21] Exchanges are more non-linear, free flowing, and both one-to-many or one-on-one.[5] The spread of information and awareness can occur across numerous channels, such as the blogosphere, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, and a variety of other platforms. Online communities and social networks allow individuals to easily create content and publicly publish their opinions, experiences, and thoughts and feelings about many topics and products, hyper-accelerating the diffusion of information.[22]

The Nielsen Global Connected Commerce Survey conducted interviews in 26 countries to observe how consumers are using the Internet to make shopping decisions in stores and online. Online shoppers are increasingly looking to purchase internationally, with over 50% in the study who purchased online in the last six months stating they bought from an overseas retailer.[23]

Using an omni-channel strategy is becoming increasingly important for enterprises who must adapt to the changing expectations of consumers who want ever-more sophisticated offerings throughout the purchasing journey. Retailers are increasingly focusing on their online presence, including online shops that operate alongside existing store-based outlets. The "endless aisle" within the retail space can lead consumers to purchase products online that fit their needs while retailers do not have to carry the inventory within the physical location of the store. Solely Internet-based retailers are also entering the market; some are establishing corresponding store-based outlets to provide personal services, professional help, and tangible experiences with their products.[24]

An omni-channel approach not only benefits consumers but also benefits business bottom line: Research suggests that customers spend more than double when purchasing through an omni-channel retailer as opposed to a single-channel retailer, and are often more loyal. This could be due to the ease of purchase and the wider availability of products.[24]

Customers are often researching online and then buying in stores and also browsing in stores and then searching for other options online. Online customer research into products is particularly popular for higher-priced items as well as consumable goods like groceries and makeup. Consumers are increasingly using the Internet to look up product information, compare prices, and search for deals and promotions.[21]

Use in the digital era

There are a number of ways brands can use digital marketing to benefit their marketing efforts. The use of digital marketing in the digital era not only allows for brands to market their products and services, but also allows for online customer support through 24/7 services to make customers feel supported and valued. The use of social media interaction allows brands to receive both positive and negative feedback from their customers as well as determining what media platforms work well for them. As such, digital marketing has become an increased advantage for brands and businesses. It is now common for consumers to post feedback online through social media sources, blogs and websites on their experience with a product or brand.[25] It has become increasingly popular for businesses to use and encourage these conversations through their social media channels to have direct contact with the customers and manage the feedback they receive appropriately.

Word of mouth communications and peer-to-peer dialogue often have a greater effect on customers, since they are not sent directly from the company and are therefore not planned. Customers are more likely to trust other customers’ experiences.[22] Examples can be that social media users share food products and meal experiences highlighting certain brands and franchises. This was noted in a study on Instagram, where researchers observed that adolescent Instagram users' posted images of food-related experiences within their social networks, providing free advertising for the products.[26]

It is increasingly advantageous for companies to use social media platforms to connect with their customers and create these dialogues and discussions. The potential reach of social media is indicated by the fact that in 2015, each month the Facebook app had more than 126 million average unique users and YouTube had over 97 million average unique users.[27]

Brand awareness

Ease of access

A key objective is engaging digital marketing customers and allowing them to interact with the brand through servicing and delivery of digital media. Information is easy to access at a fast rate through the use of digital communications. Users with access to the Internet can use many digital mediums, such as Facebook, YouTube, Forums, and Email etc. Through Digital communications it creates a Multi-communication channel where information can be quickly exchanged around the world by anyone without any regard to whom they are.[28] Social segregation plays no part through social mediums due to lack of face to face communication and information being wide spread instead to a selective audience. This interactive nature allows consumers create conversation in which the targeted audience is able to ask questions about the brand and get familiar with it which traditional forms of Marketing may not offer.[29]

Competitive advantage

By using Internet platforms, businesses can create competitive advantage through various means. To reach the maximum potential of digital marketing, firms use social media as its main tool to create a channel of information. Through this a business can create a system in which they are able to pinpoint behavioral patterns of clients and feedback on their needs.[30] This means of content has shown to have a larger impingement on those who have a long-standing relationship with the firm and with consumers who are relatively active social media users. Relative to this, creating a social media page will further increase relation quality between new consumers and existing consumers as well as consistent brand reinforcement therefore improving brand awareness resulting in a possible rise for consumers up the Brand Awareness Pyramid.[31] Although there may be inconstancy with product images;[32] maintaining a successful social media presence requires a business to be consistent in interactions through creating a two way feed of information; firms consider their content based on the feedback received through this channel, this is a result of the environment being dynamic due to the global nature of the internet.[29] Effective use of digital marketing can result in relatively lowered costs in relation to traditional means of marketing; Lowered external service costs, advertising costs, promotion costs, processing costs, interface design costs and control costs.[32]

Effectiveness

Brand awareness has been proven to work with more effectiveness in countries that are high in uncertainty avoidance, also these countries that have uncertainty avoidance; social media marketing works effectively. Yet brands must be careful not to be excessive on the use of this type of marketing, as well as solely relying on it as it may have implications that could negatively harness their image. Brands that represent themselves in an anthropomorphizing manner are more likely to succeed in situations where a brand is marketing to this demographic. "Since social media use can enhance the knowledge of the brand and thus decrease the uncertainty, it is possible that people with high uncertainty avoidance, such as the French, will particularly appreciate the high social media interaction with an anthropomorphized brand." Moreover, digital platform provides an ease to the brand and its customers to interact directly and exchange their motives virtually.[33]

Latest developments and strategies

One of the major changes that occurred in traditional marketing was the "emergence of digital marketing" (Patrutiu Baltes, Loredana, 2015), this led to the reinvention of marketing strategies in order to adapt to this major change in traditional marketing (Patrutiu Baltes, Loredana, 2015) .

As digital marketing is dependent on technology which is ever-evolving and fast-changing, the same features should be expected from digital marketing developments and strategies. This portion is an attempt to qualify or segregate the notable highlights existing and being used as of press time.[when?]

Segmentation: more focus has been placed on segmentation within digital marketing, in order to target specific markets in both business-to-business and business-to-consumer sectors.

Influencer marketing: Important nodes are identified within related communities, known as influencers. This is becoming an important concept in digital targeting. It is possible to reach influencers via paid advertising, such as Facebook Advertising or Google Adwords campaigns, or through sophisticated sCRM (social customer relationship management) software, such as SAP C4C, Microsoft Dynamics, Sage CRM and Salesforce CRM. Many universities now focus, at Masters level, on engagement strategies for influencers.

To summarize, Pull digital marketing is characterized by consumers actively seeking marketing content while Push digital marketing occurs when marketers send messages without that content being actively sought by the recipients.

Online behavioural advertising is the practice of collecting information about a user's online activity over time, "on a particular device and across different, unrelated websites, in order to deliver advertisements tailored to that user's interests and preferences[34][35]

Collaborative Environment: A collaborative environment can be set up between the organization, the technology service provider, and the digital agencies to optimize effort, resource sharing, reusability and communications.[36] Additionally, organizations are inviting their customers to help them better understand how to service them. This source of data is called User Generated Content. Much of this is acquired via company websites where the organization invites people to share ideas that are then evaluated by other users of the site. The most popular ideas are evaluated and implemented in some form. Using this method of acquiring data and developing new products can foster the organizations relationship with their customer as well as spawn ideas that would otherwise be overlooked. UGC is low-cost advertising as it is directly from the consumers and can save advertising costs for the organisation.

Data-driven advertising: Users generate a lot of data in every step they take on the path of customer journey and Brands can now use that data to activate their known audience with data-driven programmatic media buying. Without exposing customers' privacy, users' Data can be collected from digital channels (e.g.: when customer visits a website, reads an e-mail, or launches and interact with brand's mobile app), brands can also collect data from real world customer interactions, such as brick and mortar stores visits and from CRM and Sales engines datasets. Also known as People-based marketing or addressable media, Data-driven advertising is empowering brands to find their loyal customers in their audience and deliver in real time a much more personal communication, highly relevant to each customers' moment and actions.[37]

An important consideration today while deciding on a strategy is that the digital tools have democratized the promotional landscape.

5. Remarketing: Remarketing plays a major role in digital marketing. This tactic allows marketers to publish targeted ads in front of an interest category or a defined audience, generally called searchers in web speak, they have either searched for particular products or services or visited a website for some purpose.

6. Game advertising: Game ads are advertisements that exist within computer or video games. One of the most common examples of in-game advertising is billboards appearing in sports games. In-game ads also might appear as brand-name products like guns, cars, or clothing that exist as gaming status symbols.

The new digital era has enabled brands to selectively target their customers that may potentially be interested in their brand or based on previous browsing interests. Businesses can now use social media to select the age range, location, gender and interests of whom they would like their targeted post to be seen by. Furthermore, based on a customer's recent search history they can be ‘followed’ on the internet so they see advertisements from similar brands, products and services,[38] This allows businesses to target the specific customers that they know and feel will most benefit from their product or service, something that had limited capabilities up until the digital era.

Ways to further increase the effectiveness of digital marketing

A strategy that is linked into the effectiveness of digital marketing is content marketing.[39] Content marketing can be briefly described as "delivering the content that your audience is seeking in the places that they are searching for it".[39] It is found that content marketing is highly present in digital marketing and becomes highly successful when content marketing is involved. This is due to content marketing making your brand more relevant to the target consumers, as well as more visible to the target consumer.

Marketers also find email an effective strategy when it comes to digital marketing as it is another way to build a long term relationship with the consumer. Listed below are some aspects that need to be considered to have an effective digital media campaign and aspects that help create an effective email system.

Interesting mail titles differentiate one advertisement from the other. This separates advertisements from the clutter. Differentiation is one factor that can make an advertisement successful in digital marketing because consumers are drawn to it and are more likely to view the advertisement.[5][22]

Establishment of customer exclusivity: A list of customers and customer's details should be kept on a database for follow up and selected customers can be sent selected offers and promotions of deals related to the customer's previous buyer behaviour. This is effective in digital marketing as it allows organisations to build up loyalty over email.[22]

Low Technical Requirements: In order to get the full use out of digital marketing it is useful to make you advertising campaigns have low technical requirements. This prevents some consumers not being able to understand or view the advertising campaign.[22]

Rewards: The lucrative offers would always help in making your digital campaign a success. Give some reward in the end of the campaign. This would definitely invite more engagement and word of mouth publicity[22]

Ineffective forms of digital marketing

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Digital marketing activity is still growing across the world according to the headline global marketing index. Digital media continues to rapidly grow; while the marketing budgets are expanding, traditional media is declining (World Economics, 2015).[40] Digital media helps brands reach consumers to engage with their product or service in a personalised way. Five areas, which are outlined as current industry practices that are often ineffective are prioritizing clicks, balancing search and display, understanding mobiles, targeting, viewability, brand safety and invalid traffic, and cross-platform measurement (Whiteside, 2016).[41] Why these practices are ineffective and some ways around making these aspects effective are discussed surrounding the following points.

Prioritizing clicks

Prioritizing clicks refers to display click ads, although advantageous by being ‘simple, fast and inexpensive’ rates for display ads in 2016 is only 0.10 percent in the United States. This means one in a thousand click ads are relevant therefore having little effect. This displays that marketing companies should not just use click ads to evaluate the effectiveness of display advertisements (Whiteside, 2016).[41]

Balancing search and display

Balancing search and display for digital display ads are important; marketers tend to look at the last search and attribute all of the effectiveness to this. This then disregards other marketing efforts, which establish brand value within the consumers mind. ComScore determined through drawing on data online, produced by over one hundred multichannel retailers that digital display marketing poses strengths when compared with or positioned alongside, paid search (Whiteside, 2016).[41] This is why it is advised that when someone clicks on a display ad the company opens a landing page, not its home page. A landing page typically has something to draw the customer in to search beyond this page. Things such as free offers that the consumer can obtain through giving the company contact information so that they can use retargeting communication strategies (Square2Marketing, 2012).[42] Commonly marketers see increased sales among people exposed to a search ad. But the fact of how many people you can reach with a display campaign compared to a search campaign should be considered. Multichannel retailers have an increased reach if the display is considered in synergy with search campaigns. Overall both search and display aspects are valued as display campaigns build awareness for the brand so that more people are likely to click on these digital ads when running a search campaign (Whiteside, 2016).[41]

Understanding Mobiles: Understanding mobile devices is a significant aspect of digital marketing because smartphones and tablets are now responsible for 64% of the time US consumers are online (Whiteside, 2016).[41] Apps provide a big opportunity as well as challenge for the marketers because firstly the app needs to be downloaded and secondly the person needs to actually use it. This may be difficult as ‘half the time spent on smartphone apps occurs on the individuals single most used app, and almost 85% of their time on the top four rated apps’ (Whiteside, 2016).[41] Mobile advertising can assist in achieving a variety of commercial objectives and it is effective due to taking over the entire screen, and voice or status is likely to be considered highly; although the message must not be seen or thought of as intrusive (Whiteside, 2016).[41] Disadvantages of digital media used on mobile devices also include limited creative capabilities, and reach. Although there are many positive aspects including the users entitlement to select product information, digital media creating a flexible message platform and there is potential for direct selling (Belch & Belch, 2012).[43]

Cross-platform measurement: The number of marketing channels continues to expand, as measurement practices are growing in complexity. A cross-platform view must be used to unify audience measurement and media planning. Market researchers need to understand how the Omni-channel affects consumer's behaviour, although when advertisements are on a consumer's device this does not get measured. Significant aspects to cross-platform measurement involves de-duplication and understanding that you have reached an incremental level with another platform, rather than delivering more impressions against people that have previously been reached (Whiteside, 2016).[41] An example is ‘ESPN and comScore partnered on Project Blueprint discovering the sports broadcaster achieved a 21% increase in unduplicated daily reach thanks to digital advertising’ (Whiteside, 2016).[41] Television and radio industries are the electronic media, which competes with digital and other technological advertising. Yet television advertising is not directly competing with online digital advertising due to being able to cross platform with digital technology. Radio also gains power through cross platforms, in online streaming content. Television and radio continue to persuade and affect the audience, across multiple platforms (Fill, Hughes, & De Franceso, 2013).[44]

Targeting, viewability, brand safety and invalid traffic: Targeting, viewability, brand safety and invalid traffic all are aspects used by marketers to help advocate digital advertising. Cookies are a form of digital advertising, which are tracking tools within desktop devices; causing difficulty, with shortcomings including deletion by web browsers, the inability to sort between multiple users of a device, inaccurate estimates for unique visitors, overstating reach, understanding frequency, problems with ad servers, which cannot distinguish between when cookies have been deleted and when consumers have not previously been exposed to an ad. Due to the inaccuracies influenced by cookies, demographics in the target market are low and vary (Whiteside, 2016).[41] Another element, which is affected within digital marketing, is ‘viewabilty’ or whether the ad was actually seen by the consumer. Many ads are not seen by a consumer and may never reach the right demographic segment. Brand safety is another issue of whether or not the ad was produced in the context of being unethical or having offensive content. Recognizing fraud when an ad is exposed is another challenge marketers face. This relates to invalid traffic as premium sites are more effective at detecting fraudulent traffic, although non-premium sites are more so the problem (Whiteside, 2016).[41]

Channels

Digital marketing is facilitated by multiple channels, As an advertiser one's core objective is to find channels which result in maximum two-way communication and a better overall ROI for the brand. There are multiple digital marketing channels available namely;[45]

Affiliate marketing - Affiliate marketing is perceived to not be considered a safe, reliable and easy means of marketing through online platform. This is due to a lack of reliability in terms of affiliates that can produce the demanded number of new customers. As a result of this risk and bad affiliates it leaves the brand prone to exploitation in terms of claiming commission that isn’t honestly acquired. Legal means may offer some protection against this, yet there are limitations in recovering any losses or investment. Despite this, affiliate marketing allows the brand to market towards smaller publishers, and websites with smaller traffic. Brands that choose to use this marketing often should beware of such risks involved and look to associate with affiliates in which rules are laid down between the parties involved to assure and minimize the risk involved.[46]

Display advertising - As the term infers, Online Display Advertisement deals with showcasing promotional messages or ideas to the consumer on the internet. This includes a wide range of advertisements like advertising blogs, networks, interstitial ads, contextual data, ads on the search engines, classified or dynamic advertisement etc. The method can target specific audience tuning in from different types of locals to view a particular advertisement, the variations can be found as the most productive element of this method.

Email marketing - Email marketing in comparison to other forms of digital marketing is considered cheap; it is also a way to rapidly communicate a message such as their value proposition to existing or potential customers. Yet this channel of communication may be perceived by recipients to be bothersome and irritating especially to new or potential customers, therefore the success of email marketing is reliant on the language and visual appeal applied. In terms of visual appeal, there are indications that using graphics/visuals that are relevant to the message which is attempting to be sent, yet less visual graphics to be applied with initial emails are more effective in-turn creating a relatively personal feel to the email. In terms of language, the style is the main factor in determining how captivating the email is. Using casual tone invokes a warmer and gentle and inviting feel to the email in comparison to a formal style. For combinations; it's suggested that to maximize effectiveness; using no graphics/visual alongside casual language. In contrast using no visual appeal and a formal language style is seen as the least effective method.[47]

Search engine marketing -

Social Media Marketing - The term 'Digital Marketing' has a number of marketing facets as it supports different channels used in and among these, comes the Social Media. When we use social media channels ( Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, etc.) to market a product or service, the strategy is called Social Media Marketing. It is a procedure wherein strategies are made and executed to draw in traffic for a website or to gain attention of buyers over the web using different social media platforms.

Social Networking[48]

Game advertising - In-Game advertising is defined as "inclusion of products or brands within a digital game."[49] The game allows brands or products to place ads within their game, either in a subtle manner or in the form of an advertisement banner. There are many factors that exist in whether brands are successful in their advertising of their brand/product, these being: Type of game, technical platform, 3-D and 4-D technology, game genre, congruity of brand and game, prominence of advertising within the game. Individual factors consist of attitudes towards placement advertisements, game involvement, product involvement, flow or entertainment. The attitude towards the advertising also takes into account not only the message shown but also the attitude towards the game. Dependent of how enjoyable the game is will determine how the brand is perceived, meaning if the game isn’t very enjoyable the consumer may subconsciously have a negative attitude towards the brand/product being advertised. In terms of Integrated Marketing Communication "integration of advertising in digital games into the general advertising, communication, and marketing strategy of the firm"[49] is an important as it results in a more clarity about the brand/product and creates a larger overall effect.

Online PR

Video advertising - This type of advertising in terms of digital/online means are advertisements that play on online videos e.g. YouTube videos. This type of marketing has seen an increase in popularity over time.[50] Online Video Advertising usually consists of three types: Pre-Roll advertisements which play before the video is watched, Mid-Roll advertisements which play during the video, or Post-Roll advertisements which play after the video is watched.[51] Post-roll advertisements were shown to have better brand recognition in relation to the other types, where-as "ad-context congruity/incongruity plays an important role in reinforcing ad memorability".[50] Due to selective attention from viewers, there is the likelihood that the message may not be received.[52] The main advantage of video advertising is that it disrupts the viewing experience of the video and therefore there is a difficulty in attempting to avoid them. How a consumer interacts with online video advertising can come down to three stages: Pre attention, attention, and behavioural decision.[53] These online advertisements give the brand/business options and choices. These consist of length, position, adjacent video content which all directly affect the effectiveness of the produced advertisement time,[50] therefore manipulating these variables will yield different results. Length of the advertisement has shown to affect memorability where-as longer duration resulted in increased brand recognition.[50] This type of advertising, due to its nature of interruption of the viewer, it is likely that the consumer may feel as if their experience is being interrupted or invaded, creating negative perception of the brand.[50] These advertisements are also available to be shared by the viewers, adding to the attractiveness of this platform. Sharing these videos can be equated to the online version of word by mouth marketing, extending number of people reached.[54] Sharing videos creates six different outcomes: these being "pleasure, affection, inclusion, escape, relaxation, and control".[50] As well, videos that have entertainment value are more likely to be shared, yet pleasure is the strongest motivator to pass videos on. Creating a ‘viral’ trend from mass amount of a brands advertisement can maximize the outcome of an online video advert whether it be positive or a negative outcome.

It is important for a firm to reach out to consumers and create a two-way communication model, as digital marketing allows consumers to give back feed back to the firm on a community based site or straight directly to the firm via email.[24] Firms should seek this long term communication relationship by using multiple forms of channels and using promotional strategies related to their target consumer as well as word-of mouth marketing.[24]

Multi-channel communications

Push and pull message technologies can be used in conjunction.

Self-regulation

The ICC Code has integrated rules that apply to marketing communications using digital interactive media throughout the guidelines. There is also an entirely updated section dealing with issues specific to digital interactive media techniques and platforms. Code self-regulation on use of digital interactive media includes:

Clear and transparent mechanisms to enable consumers to choose not to have their data collected for advertising or marketing purposes;

Clear indication that a social network site is commercial and is under the control or influence of a marketer;

Limits are set so that marketers communicate directly only when there are reasonable grounds to believe that the consumer has an interest in what is being offered;

Respect for the rules and standards of acceptable commercial behavior in social networks and the posting of marketing messages only when the forum or site has clearly indicated its willingness to receive them;

Special attention and protection for children.[55]

Advantages and limitations

The whole idea of digital marketing can be a very important aspect in the overall communication between the consumer and the organisation. This is due to digital marketing being able to reach vast numbers of potential consumers at one time.[56]

Another advantage of digital marketing is that consumers are exposed to the brand and the product that is being advertised directly. To clarify the advertisement is easy to access as well it can be accessed any time any place.[56]

However, with digital marketing there are some setbacks to this type of strategy. One major setback that is identified, is that Digital marketing is highly dependent on the internet. This can be considered as a setback because the internet may not be accessible in certain areas or consumers may have poor internet connection.[56]

As well as digital marketing being highly dependent on the Internet is that it is subject to a lot of clutter, so it marketers may find it hard to make their advertisements stand out, as well as get consumers to start conversations about an organisations brand image or products.

As digital marketing continues to grow and develop, brands take great advantage of using technology and the Internet as a successful way to communicate with its clients and allows them to increase the reach of who they can interact with and how they go about doing so,.[2] There are however disadvantages that are not commonly looked into due to how much a business relies on it. It is important for marketers to take into consideration both advantages and disadvantages of digital marketing when considering their marketing strategy and business goals.

An advantage of digital marketing is that the reach is so large that there are no limitations on the geographical reach it can have. This allows companies to become international and expand their customer reach to other countries other than the country it is based or originates from.

As mentioned earlier, technology and the internet allows for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week service for customers as well as enabling them to shop online at any hour of that day or night, not just when the shops are over and across the whole world. This is a huge advantage for retailers to use it and direct customers from the store to its online store. It has also opened up an opportunity for companies to only be online based rather than having an outlet or store due to the popularity and capabilities of digital marketing.

Another advantage is that digital marketing is easy to be measured allowing businesses to know the reach that their marketing is making, whether the digital marketing is working or not and the amount of activity and conversation that is involved.

With brands using the Internet space to reach their target customers; digital marketing has become a beneficial career option as well. At present, companies are more into hiring individuals familiar in implementing digital marketing strategies and this has led the stream to become a preferred choice amongst individuals inspiring institutes to come up and offer professional courses in Digital Marketing.

A disadvantage of digital advertising is the large amount of competing goods and services that are also using the same digital marketing strategies. For example, when someone searches for a specific product from a specific company online, if a similar company uses targeted advertising online then they can appear on the customer's home page, allowing the customer to look at alternative options for a cheaper price or better quality of the same product or a quicker way of finding what they want online.

Some companies can be portrayed by customers negatively as some consumers lack trust online due to the amount of advertising that appears on websites and social media that can be considered frauds. This can affect their image and reputation and make them out to look like a dishonest brand.

Another disadvantage is that even an individual or small group of people can harm image of an established brand. For instance Dopplegnager is a term that is used to disapprove an image about a certain brand that is spread by anti-brand activists, bloggers, and opinion leaders. The word Doppelganger is a combination of two German words Doppel (double) and Ganger (walker), thus it means double walker or as in English it is said alter ego. Generally brand creates images for itself to emotionally appeal to their customers. However some would disagree with this image and make alterations to this image and present in funny or cynical way, hence distorting the brand image, hence creating a Doppelganger image, blog or content (Rindfleisch, 2016).

Two other practical limitations can be seen in the case of digital marketing. One,digital marketing is useful for specific categories of products,meaning only consumer goods can be propagated through digital channels.Industrial goods and pharmaceutical products can not be marketed through digital channels. Secondly, digital marketing disseminates only the information to the prospects most of whom do not have the purchasing authority/power. And hence the reflection of digital marketing into real sales volume is skeptical.[citation needed]

Measuring The Effectiveness of Digital Marketing Campaigns

Although the ultimate criteria to evaluate any business initiative should be its return on investment or any other financial metrics in general, the evaluation criteria and metrics for the digital marketing campaigns can be discussed in more details.

The criteria and metrics can be classified according to its type and time span. Regarding the type, we can either evaluate these campaigns "Quantitatively" or "Qualitatively". Quantitative metrics may include "Sales Volume" and "Revenue Increase/Decrease". While qualitative metrics may include the enhanced "Brand awareness, image and health" as well as the "relationship with the customers".

Shifting the focus to the time span, we may need to measure some "Interim Metrics", which give us some insight during the journey itself, as well as we need to measure some "Final Metrics" at the end of the journey to inform use if the overall initiative was successful or not. As an example, most of social media metrics and indicators such as likes, shares and engagement comments may be classified as interim metrics while the final increase/decrease in sales volume is clearly from the final category.

The correlation between these categories should exist. Otherwise, a disappointing results may happen at the end in – spite of the illusion of success perceived early during the project.

Strategy

Planning

Digital marketing planning is a term used in marketing management. It describes the first stage of forming a digital marketing strategy for the wider digital marketing system. The difference between digital and traditional marketing planning is that it uses digitally based communication tools and technology such as Social, Web, Mobile, Scannable Surface.[57][58] Nevertheless, both are aligned with the vision, the mission of the company and the overarching business strategy.[59]

Stages of planning

Using Dr Dave Chaffey's approach, the digital marketing planning (DMP) has three main stages: Opportunity, Strategy and Action. He suggests that any business looking to implement a successful digital marketing strategy must structure their plan by looking at opportunity, strategy and action. This generic strategic approach often has phases of situation review, goal setting, strategy formulation, resource allocation and monitoring.[59]

1) Opportunity

To create an effective DMP, a business first needs to review the marketplace and set 'SMART' (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant and Time-Bound) objectives.[60] They can set SMART objectives by reviewing the current benchmarks and key performance indicators (KPIs) of the company and competitors. It is pertinent that the analytics used for the KPIs be customised to the type, objectives, mission and vision of the company.[61][62]

Companies can scan for marketing and sales opportunities by reviewing their own outreach as well as influencer outreach. This means they have competitive advantage because they are able to analyse their co-marketers influence and brand associations.[63]

To cease opportunity, the firm should summarize their current customers' personas and purchase journey from this they are able to deduce their digital marketing capability. This means they need to form a clear picture of where they are currently and how many resources they can allocate for their digital marketing strategy i.e. labour, time etc. By summarizing the purchase journey, they can also recognise gaps and growth for future marketing opportunities that will either meet objectives or propose new objectives and increase profit.

2) Strategy

To create a planned digital strategy, the company must review their digital proposition (what you are offering to consumers) and communicate it using digital customer targeting techniques. So, they must define online value proposition (OVP), this means the company must express clearly what they are offering customers online e.g. brand positioning.

The company should also (re)select target market segments and personas and define digital targeting approaches.

After doing this effectively, it is important to review the marketing mix for online options. The marketing mix comprises the 4Ps – Product, Price, Promotion and Place.[64][65] Some academics have added three additional elements to the traditional 4Ps of marketing Process, Place and Physical appearance making it 7Ps of marketing.[66]

3) Action

The third and final stage requires the firm to set a budget and management systems; these must be measurable touchpoints, such as audience reached across all digital platforms. Furthermore, marketers must ensure the budget and management systems are integrating the paid, owned and earned media of the company.[67] The Action and final stage of planning also requires the company to set in place measurable content creation e.g. oral, visual or written online media.[68]

After confirming the digital marketing plan, a scheduled format of digital communications (e.g. Gantt Chart) should be encoded throughout the internal operations of the company. This ensures that all platforms used fall in line and complement each other for the succeeding stages of digital marketing strategy.

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marketing2sales-blog · 7 years ago

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The Ultimate Guide to PPC Marketing

What is PPC?

PPC (pay-per-click) marketing is a form of online advertising in which advertisers accrue costs when users click their ads. Advertisers bid on the perceived value of a click in relation to the keywords, platforms, and audience type in which it originates.

The Basics

PPC is used for all types of campaign goals, including:

Increasing sales

Generating leads

Promoting brand awareness

PPC is all about relevance. Users are searching for specific products, services, and information at any given time. Advertisers have the ability to show a targeted ad at the exact moment this search is occurring. For example, if a user searches for “blue running shoes,” an advertiser can show an ad speaking to “blue running shoes.”

Through both targeting settings and account structure, advertisers can run successful PPC campaigns as long as relevance is paramount.

Main Platforms

Google AdWords

Run on Google, Search Partner sites, and Display Network sites, AdWords is the largest pay-per-click platform. AdWords was launched in October 2000 and has gone through several iterations over the last 17 years. AdWords is geared toward the entire spectrum of companies from small businesses to Fortune 500.

Bing Ads

Similar to AdWords, Bing Ads is a pay-per-click platform showing ads on the Bing and Yahoo networks. The platform also utilizes Search Partners. Bing Ads is primarily keyword based advertising. As of 2017, Bing Ads has 142 million unique searchers on the Bing Network*. *Data taken from advertise.bingads.microsoft.com

The Ultimate Guide to PPC Marketing is produced

by Hanapin Marketing, the agency behind PPC HERO.

Learn about our proactive approach to PPC »

Account Structure

Campaigns and Ad Groups

Advertisers begin by choosing keyword themes and creating individual campaigns. For example, a PPC professional may create a campaign with the theme “Coffee Tables”. Within this campaign are themed subcategories, called ad groups. These ad groups may include:

Oval Coffee Tables Long Coffee Tables Round Coffee Tables

Each ad group then contains themed keyword variations. For example, the “Oval Coffee Tables” ad group may contain these keywords:

Oval coffee tables Coffee tables oval Oval coffee tables on sale

Keywords

Every keyword must be assigned a match type, which defines the queries for which ads will show. There are seven keyword match types:

Exact – Query must be typed in exactly

Exact (Close Variant) – Query must be typed in exactly, but can include misspellings or other variants

Phrase – Query must be typed in correct order, even if there are additional terms before or after the query

Phrase (Close Variant) – Query must be typed in correct order, even if there are additional terms before or after the query. Query can include misspellings or other variants

Broad – Query can be typed in any order and will potentially show ads for similar searches

Modified Broad – Query can be typed in any order, but must include terms that contain a plus sign

Broad (Session-Based) – A form of broad match that takes into account other queries from that user’s search session

Here is a table of the match types, keywords, and potential search queries.

Negative Keywords

Along with the positive terms, negative keywords can be added to help remove unqualified traffic. For example, someone who searches for “free coffee table” isn’t looking to buy. By adding “free” as a negative keyword, the advertiser’s ad will not show when a query containing this term is typed. For a company selling high end products, “bargain” or “cheap” related terms may make good negative keywords.

Audiences

Audiences are groups of users segmented in a variety of ways. Most often audiences are used in remarketing. Audiences can be created based upon specific pageviews, time spent on site, pages per visit, and more. Similar to keywords, audiences are bid upon based on relevance. For example, advertisers may bid more to remarket to shopping cart abandoners vs. homepage viewers.

Ad Copy

Expanded Text Ads

Once ad groups are created and the keywords chosen, ads can be written. Ads should include the targeted keyword theme, any value propositions, and a call to action.

AdWords text ad structure and character limits are as follows:

Headline 1 – Up to 30 characters (including spaces) Headline 2 – Up to 30 characters (including spaces) Description Line – Up to 80 characters (including spaces) Path 1 – Up to 15 characters Path 2 – Up to 15 characters

Ads cannot contain excessive capitalization, punctuation, or misleading statements. Keep in mind that the display URL will combine the root of the final URL with Path 1 and Path 2.

It should be noted that Expanded Text Ads replaced traditional Text Ads in both Bing and Google. While still currently eligible to serve within AdWords, advertisers can no longer create new variations of the traditional ad format. For reference, this consisted of a 25 character headline and a pair of 35 character description lines.

Every ad group should contain at least two ads for testing purposes. Here is an example of an “oval coffee tables” ad:

Here is an example of a mobile version of the “oval coffee tables” ad.

You’ll write one version of the ad copy that will be automatically formatted for both desktop and mobile. When writing your copy be aware that it will show on both desktop and mobile and make sure the copy works well on both formats.

Upon clicking, visitors should be taken to a page that continues the ad messaging. This is called the landing page, and it should contain a selection of oval coffee tables with messaging around free shipping.

Product Listing Ads (PLAs)

Product Listing Ads are square units used in eCommerce PPC campaigns that contain product titles, images, and prices.

PLAs utilize Google product feeds, and must be connected to a Google Merchant Center account. Bing Ads contains a similar feature called Product Ads that also requires the use of a Bing Merchant Center account.

Image Ads

Advertisers can run Display Network campaigns that utilize image ads. These ad units show within and around the content of millions of sites across the Display Network. You can choose to create a responsive ad that will automatically adjust size depending on where it is shown or utilize the 19 standard image sizes below.

200 x 200

240 x 400

250 x 250

250 x 360

300 x 250

336 x 280

580 x 400

120 x 600

160 x 600

300 x 600

300 x 1050

468 x 60

728 x 90

930 x 180

970 x 90

970 x 250

980 x 120

320 x 50

320 x 100

Settings

Campaign Types

Search Network – This is the most common targeting option. The Search Network consists of google.com and Google’s Search Partners such as aol.com, amazon.com, and many more. The Search Network is primarily keyword based advertising. In other words, searchers type in queries for which ads are shown.

Display Network – This network consists of millions of sites that agree to show Google text, image, and video ads. These ads are shown within the site’s content and don’t utilize traditional keyword based targeting, but rather audiences and demographics. For example, a user may visit a blog that speaks to the history of coffee tables. Even though the user isn’t necessarily in a buying mode, the content is relevant to coffee tables. The user may or may not click the ad, but is ultimately now aware of the brand.

Search Network with Display Opt-In – This targeting option is a combination of both networks. In the new AdWords experience this replaced Search Network with Display Select. Now you’ll create a regular Search Network campaign and opt-in to the Display Network. The caveat is that Google determines when and where ads may perform best, taking control away from the advertiser. The preferred option is to break out campaigns by network, but Search with Display Opt-In is worth testing.

Shopping: Product Listing Ads – PLAs are shown on Google and Bing. After submitting a product feed to Google Merchant Center, Shopping campaigns can be created in AdWords. Advertisers create product groups to which they can bid on various feed attributes. These attributes include:

Brand

Category

Condition

Item ID

Product Type

Custom Attributes

Shopping campaigns do not contain keywords. Both search engines match user queries to the product they deem most relevant. Thus, it is important to ensure all products have accurate information as well as clear titles and descriptions.

Device Targeting

Ads can be shown across all devices, including:

Desktops/Laptops

Tablets

Mobile Devices

Desktops/laptops and tablets are considered similar enough by the search engines that the same bid is applied to these platforms. Mobile devices can have a bid modifier. For example, if the bid is $1.00 and the mobile bid modifier is set to -50%, the bid on mobile devices becomes $0.50. A bid modifier of 150% would set the mobile bid at $1.50.

Location Targeting

PPC targeting is extremely granular, going down to the zip code level. Advertisers have many options to ensure that their ads show only in desired locations. The example below showcases a campaign only targeting Iowa.

Bid modifiers can be setup by location. For example, advertisers targeting all 50 states can set separate modifiers by location.

Ad Scheduling

Advertisers have the ability to run ads only at desired times. Whereas an eCommerce campaign may run ads 24/7, a brick and mortar store may only show ads during business hours. Ad scheduling allows easy management of when ads will show.

Also, just like device and location, bid modifiers can be set for both days and hours. For example, weekends may drive more revenue so bids could be 20% higher on Saturdays and Sundays. Or, poor quality traffic comes in from midnight to 4 AM so the modifier might be set at -80%.

Budget

Each individual campaign is allowed a daily budget. Budgets should be created in accordance with account goals.

Delivery Method

There are two options for which ads are delivered: standard and accelerated. The standard delivery method shows ads evenly throughout the day. This option is good for advertisers who may have budget restrictions and want to ensure their ads show throughout the day. Depending on the budget concerns, ads will not show at all times. Accelerated delivery method shows ads until the budget is depleted. This option is best for advertisers who may not have budget restrictions and want to ensure their ads show for every query.

Ad Delivery

There are two options for which your ads will be delivered by Google:

Optimize – Delivery is based upon ads expected to produce higher click volume.

Rotate indefinitely – Ads are delivered more evenly into the ad auction, but they are not optimized toward any kind of goal like clicks or conversions.

Technical PPC

Conversion Tracking

Advertisers have the ability to create conversion goals in order to gauge account performance. Both platforms provide code snippets that can be placed on key pages— generally order confirmation or thank you pages. Advertisers are able to determine whether ad clicks are turning into conversions.

AdWords allows many types of conversion tracking, including:

Webpage

Mobile or tablet app

Calls from ads using call extensions

Calls to a Google forwarding number on your website

Clicks on a number on your mobile website

Imported goals (from third party platforms like Salesforce)

Google Analytics

AdWords accounts can be linked to Google Analytics accounts to provide information on post click behavior. It is highly recommended that these accounts be linked in order to get a more complete picture of the conversion funnel. In order to link the accounts, the AdWords ID number must be entered in the “Admin” section of Google Analytics.

Once added, the connection can be confirmed by navigating to “Account Settings” and then “Linked accounts.” The “View details” section will show the link.

The account can also be linked to Webmaster Tools, which will show how ads and the organic listings perform.

Google Merchant Center

In order to run Google Shopping campaigns, or PLAs, the Google Merchant Center account must be connected to AdWords. Similar to Google Analytics, the AdWords ID must be entered into the “Settings” section of the Merchant Center account.

Once connected, Merchant Center account information will show within the “Tools” section in AdWords.

Remarketing

Setting up Google remarketing code is a fairly simple process. Within the Shared Library is the remarketing tag.

The code needs to be copied and placed on every page of the site before the closing </body> tag. The code can then be validated by going back into the Shared Library.

Ad Extensions

Ad extensions are additional links and details that show supplementary information about your business to enhance the basic PPC ads. Certain ad extensions are manual choices, which you can control. Search engines may also automatically generate some ad extensions. The main advantage of ad extensions is that they help improve the click-thru-rate (CTR) of the ad headline because the ads are larger in size and therefore more prominent on the search engine results pages (SERPs). There are many ad extensions.

Sitelink Extensions

Sitelink extensions are additional links to help searchers navigate deeper into your website. Sitelink extensions are manual additions, and can be added within the interface or in the editor, both in Google and Bing. The actual sitelinks should be relevant to the search term.

Sitelinks can also include descriptions, known as enhanced sitelinks.

Location Extensions

Location extensions are great for brick and mortar businesses. Location extensions show the business address and are available in Google and Bing. Google requires that a Google My Business account is setup and connected to AdWords.

Call Extensions

Call extensions are available in both Google and Bing and give advertisers two possibilities. On mobile devices, call extensions supplement ads with the ability to click-to-call, giving mobile searchers an easy way to call the business. Keep in mind that call extensions are now part of AdWords’ dynamic ad extension options. In the event that calls are of no use to your business, consider opting out of this feature.

On desktop ads, call extensions allow a phone number to show within the vicinity of an ad. Again, users have the option to call the number instead of clicking the ad.

App Extensions

App extensions or application extensions is a feature in Google. This extension works great for businesses looking to promote application downloads and engagement.

Consumer Ratings Annotations

Consumer ratings are extra annotations that promote business ratings based on various customer surveys. This extension is only found in Google and is automatically populated. Google pulls these ratings from trusted sources and specifies that businesses must have at least 30 unique reviews in order to show. Consumer rating extensions are determined only for certain businesses and industries based on Google’s discretion.

Seller Ratings Extensions

Seller Ratings are similar to consumer ratings in that ratings are automatically pulled by Google based on trusted website reviews. Google will show these ratings when a business has had at least 30, 4 plus star reviews over a 12-month period.

This extension also takes into account the overall business process. Businesses that successfully roll out rating and review extensions create processes whereby they ask customers for feedback on a regular basis. Search engines also have processes to identify fake reviews as well. Part of this process involves a natural flow of ratings. For example if a business were to suddenly get fifty 5-star ratings in single a month, it would indicate to the search engines the potential for fraudulent reviews.

Tools

Working in PPC rocks. The search engines want to maximize revenue. As account managers, we are in charge of this spend. The search engines are incentivized to keep the people managing budgets happy, while providing tools to justify increasing spend. Here is a preview of various tools that can support an effective PPC campaign.

Change History

Change history can be found in both Google AdWords and Bing Ads. The change history catalogs past updates, from bid changes to sitelink additions. The data includes the alias or login email that made the modification and the date and time of the change. The change history can be exported.

Keyword Planner

The Keyword Planner is a tool delivered through Google AdWords, which is used to discover and plan your campaigns, keywords, and ad groups. The tool also provides performance data approximations. You can use the data in the Keyword Planner to estimate starting bids and budgets for your PPC accounts.

Display Planner

The Display Planner is a tool used when architecting Display Network campaigns. This tool lists websites, keywords, topics, and interests that your target audience is likely to utilize. The Display Planner recommends thousands of fresh websites, apps, and video channels.

Ad Preview and Diagnostics

The Ad Preview and Diagnostics tool helps establish why your ad might not be displaying for an individual search term. This tool can be used in the AdWords Interface. Enter the location and language and the tool will run in the background and populate results.

Opportunities

Labels

Labels are like Post-It notes and built-in documentation for campaigns, ad groups, keywords, and ads. Labels can be used for anything, from ad creation dates to top performing keywords. Labels are especially useful in accounts with multiple account managers or specific segments with varied goals. Once properly applied it is much easier to assess campaign performance for a specific initiative.

Automated Rules

Automated rules are unique to AdWords. These rules are set using any number of performance criteria and can run on a schedule. The rules are meant to make account management less tedious, but should never fully replace the human touch. It is also worthwhile to set some type of performance threshold or safety rule to account for performance degradation.

Shared Library

The AdWords shared library allows advertisers to manage changes across multiple campaigns.

Audiences

Audiences can be added to Display, Remarketing, and Remarketing Lists for Search Ads campaigns.

Bid Strategies

Bid strategies are a form of automated bidding where control is handed to the search engine based on predetermined goals. Bid goals are setup within the shared library and the search engine changes the auction bids through algorithms. There are several different strategies that can be employed at the campaign and ad group level.

Enhanced CPC – A bidding feature where your max bid is spontaneously raised for you if Google believes that the click will convert. Your maximum bid using this bid strategy can be up to 30% higher when your ad is competing for a spot on the SERP. If Google does not think that your ad will convert then your bid is decreased in the auction. The last part of the Enhanced CPC bidding feature is that your bid will stay at or below the maximum bid you set for certain auctions. Google’s algorithms evaluate the data and adjust bids.

Target Search Page Location – This flexible bidding strategy changes bids so your ads can be consistently shown either at the top of the page or on the first page of the SERPs. This strategy is great when your goal is to maximize the number of people who see your ads.

Target CPA – This strategy sets bids to maximize conversions at your target cost-per-acquisition. This strategy works well when wanting to keep costs down while growing conversions.

Maximize Clicks – A flexible bid strategy that will set bids to help you get as many clicks as possible while maintaining spend. This strategy is useful when click volume is the primary goal.

Target Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) – Some businesses, particularly eCommerce, place higher value on certain conversions over others. The target ROAS is a strategy that sets bids to maximize conversions within a target ROAS goal

Maximize Conversions – Since this bidding strategy can be applied to one campaign at a time you won’t find it under shared library. Proceed to the settings tab of a given campaign in order to capitalize on this automated strategy which seeks to push your campaign budget to its maximum value.

Budgets

Typically, daily budgets are setup for each campaign, but sometimes you want these funds to shift between campaigns depending on what’s working. The shared budget feature saves the time spent managing and monitoring individual campaign budgets. Using a shared budget, AdWords will adjust the budget. There is one daily amount for the entire account or a group of campaigns within the account.

Campaign Negative Keywords

Negative keywords can be managed through the shared library, saving time adding negative keywords to multiple campaigns. Most account managers have certain lists of adult terms or industry exclusions that are standard for an account. Maintaining the lists in the shared library saves time. The lists can be added account wide or to selected campaigns in the account.

Campaign Placement Exclusions

Much like negative keywords, in Display campaigns certain websites convert poorly. Adding a list of campaign placement exclusions will allow the list to be shared across multiple Display campaigns.

Reporting

Search Query Reports (SQRs)

Search query reports are extremely useful and are one of the top optimization techniques. SQRs can be run in both Google and Bing and can be used to find irrelevant search queries to be added as negative keywords. This report can also be used to unearth new ideas for keyword expansion. It is suggested that SQRs be run at least twice a month.

Placement Reports

Placement reports show the websites within the Display network where your ad was shown. You can adjust bids for certain websites or exclude websites that are producing non-converting traffic. It is best practice to run a placement report at least twice a month.

Auction Insights Report

Found in AdWords, this report is used to determine what companies are competing against your business in the search auctions. The Auctions Insights Report is a great place to look at your impression share relative to the competition, and then determine if you should increase bids and or budget to become more competitive in the auction. Another useful feature of this report is determining if you are competing against businesses in other industries. This could mean you need to add negative keywords to your campaigns or reconsider some of the keywords on which you are bidding.

Segmentation Options

When running reports in the search engines you always have the option to further segment your data. You can segment by device, time, network, and much more . There are many different options to choose from giving you the granularity you desire. These can be located on many of the tabs in AdWords. Some segments will only apply to certain sub-sets of data, and other segments can be found once you download the report from the interface.

Filters

Filters can be created and saved in AdWords and Bing Ads. They are especially useful when reviewing large campaigns and trying to break them down into more digestible pieces for analysis. You can filter based on all types of performance data and then make bid changes to the filtered group or other actions based on your goals.

Columns

Columns are another cross advertising platform feature that shows pre-determined metrics. Columns can be edited on all tabs within the engine interfaces. You can add data such as assisted conversations, competitive impression share metrics, conversion data calculations, and more. Columns act as a great way to customize the interface and view for your goals and analysis needs.

Display Network

The Display Network is a great way to drive a larger volume of traffic than Search. Average cost per clicks tend to be less expensive on the Display Network, but the traffic isn’t always as qualified. It’s important to test all of the Display Network targeting options to ensure quality traffic is coming in.

Targeting Options

Display Keywords

Using keywords on the Display Network is called contextual targeting. These keywords match your ads to websites with the same themes. For instance, the Display keyword “shoes” will match to any website that Google deems is related to shoes. These keywords aren’t used as literally as Search keywords, and they’re all considered broad match. Keywords in an ad group act more like a theme. Display keywords can be used alone, or you can layer them with any other targeting method to decrease scope and increase quality.

Placements

Placements are the sites on which your Display ads are shown. You can opt to let AdWords choose placements based on your targeting methods, or you can choose to manually select placements for your ads to appear. Manually selected placements are called “Managed Placements.”

One common way to manage Display campaigns is to pull regular placement reports, in which you identify both great and poor performing sites. You add the sites with great performance to your “managed placements” to ensure you’re capturing a high share of impressions on that site, and you exclude the poor performing placements.

Remember, depending on your targeting methods, the placement might not be that important. If you’re targeting the user through interests or remarketing, the placement is just where that user visits. Of course, some sites will still perform better than others, but keep in mind which targeting method you’re using when evaluating placement performances.

Topics

Display Topics are themes you can select, which Google will then use to find sites that match that theme to display your ads. Topics work in much the same way as Display keywords, except that you select the theme instead of creating a theme with your own keywords. You also have keyword level bidding with Display keywords, and only Topic level bidding with Topic targeting. Placement reports for Topic targeting should evaluate if the site actually matched the intended theme for the placement.

A way to determine which Topics to target is by deciding which themes match the services or products you are marketing. However, if you have less of a direct response goal and more of a branding or impression goal, you could also select Topics that you believe your targeted audience would be interested in.

Interests

Interests are very similar to Topics. In fact, they are the same themes. However, the key difference is that Topics target websites and Interests target users. Google gleans user interest based on browsing history or self-selected interests if they’re logged in to their Google account. This allows your ads to appear on whatever site someone with your targeted interests is on, even if that site isn’t related.

Demographics

Demographic targeting allows you to take an audience centric approach to ad delivery. This allows you to either adjust bidding or limit your audience based on characteristics that can change purchase intent such as age, gender, parental status, or household income. Gender targeting works similarly to interest targeting. It targets the gender of the user based on information Google has gleaned from their browsing history or their self-selected gender if they’re logged into Google. If you are marketing a service/product that has different performance by gender, this option is a great one to test.

Age

Age targeting works the exact same way as Gender targeting, except it targets the user’s age instead of gender. With both of these demographic targeting methods, you’ll want to exercise caution. There are many situations, such as a family computer, in which Google could be wrong about their gleaned demographics.

Parental Status

Rounding out the demographic targeting options is the newest addition, “Parental Status”. This option targets users based on if they have children, which can be a huge win if you’re marketing a product or service to parents, like selling baby furniture.

Ad OptionsResponsive Ads

Responsive ads are text based promotions that fit just about any ad space available. The combination of text and supplied imagery can show as native ads which boost your impact by blending into a publisher’s website. Reach is also extended as specifications are dynamically altered to meet a given placement’s requirements.

Image

Image ads are the more traditional Display ads, since they are unique to this network. You can upload your own image ads through either the interface or AdWords Editor. Note there are variety of images sizes that can be utilized across the Google Display Network. Confirm file size and image resolution prior to upload in order to ensure no errors exist.

For effective image ads, call-to-actions should be explicit. Including prices, promotions, and exclusives is effective as well. Testing different engaging images and ad sizes will be important when using image ads.

Remarketing

Basic Remarketing

The theory of remarketing is that users who have visited your site are both more likely to convert upon visiting again and less likely to click your ad a second time if they aren’t already considering converting.

The remarketing code lives under the “Shared Library.” You’ll place that code across all pages of a site, and then set up remarketing lists to target based on what page(s) users did or did not visit, or based on the dates they did or did not visit a page or set of pages.

You can create combinations of remarketing lists. For instance, if you have a subscription-based service that needs renewal every 30 days, you could create one list for visitors of your “thank you” page that lasts 30 days and another that lasts 60 days. You could target the one that lasts 60 days while blocking the 30 days one. This would target people who have visited the “thank you” page 30-60 days after that conversion, and you could use ad copy like “time to renew your subscription.”

Another classic example of a custom combination is targeting people who have visited the cart of an eCommerce site, while excluding those who have already purchased an item. This strategy allows you to target people who came close to buying, but didn’t. They are often persuaded into purchasing with an ad that gives them a bit of a discount or free shipping.

Ad copy for the Display Network will be written similarly to ad copy for the Search Network. It needs to be compelling, have a call-to-action, and specifically lets users know what your product/service is. The more related to your landing page, the better your Display quality score will be.

Dynamic Remarketing

You must have a Google Merchant Center to utilize Dynamic Remarketing. You link this feature with your Merchant Center data feed, and it can use product images and information to customize ads with products users have viewed.

You can customize dynamic ads with the style elements of your brand, or simply upload your logo and auto-optimize layouts through AdWords.

Remarketing Lists For Search Ads (RLSA)

Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA) work like Display remarketing in that it targets previous site visitors based on one or more pages they did or did not visit. You can create custom combinations here as well. However, we are targeting users through Search instead of Display.

The implications here are that you could use more broad keywords and higher CPCs if you know the audience is more qualified. For instance, an eCommerce site might want to bid on “Christmas Gifts” if users have already been to their site and added an item to their cart.

To set-up RLSAs, you simply need to navigate to the “audiences” tab in your Search campaigns. Here, you can manage remarketing audiences, both positive and negative, and their bids.

Dynamic Search Ads

Dynamic Search Ads use your website to dynamically create ad headlines and landing pages to target relevant searches automatically. So, if you have a section of your website dedicated to purple shoes and someone searches about that, they’ll be served a purple shoes ad that takes them to the most relevant page.

Theoretically, advertisers with a ton of different pages, such as large eCommerce sites, could use this ad type to fill in the gaps where they haven’t specifically target with keywords.

You’d avoid cross-contamination of search queries by placing all non-low search volume keywords currently enabled in your account as negative keywords to your Dynamic ads.

You would select this campaign type in the settings in order to create. You’ll need to ensure you create a dynamic ad type as well. You can write your own ad copy and allow AdWords to create a dynamic headline and landing page.

You can focus on your targets so you can write targeted ad copy and bid/budget appropriately. You can do this based on categories, URLs, page titles, or page content. For example, you could set a target for all URLs with “purple-shoes” in the string. That would allow you to know all searches and ads will be about purple shoes, so you could write ad copy and bid accordingly.

You’ll want to exclude pages on your site that you don’t want used for ads. For example, any pages that include the words “out of stock”. You would use the “+ Exclusions” button under the dynamic ad targets sections of the auto targets tab.

Conclusion

This guide gives you a great start in the world of PPC. It touches on everything you’ll need to start or get into soon after launching your PPC accounts. However, the unofficial motto of the PPC world is “always be testing.” Make sure that you test different features and strategies for your account. Every account is unique, and will have its own reactions to different features and strategies. Of course common practices exist because they’re considered to work the best for most accounts, but you’ll never know until you test.

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