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When Is PPC Outsourcing the Right Move?

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |PPC Outsourcing|When Is PPC Outsourcing the Right Move?Pay per click (PPC) ads can be incredibly valuable, allowing you to generate a reliable stream of traffic to any webpage you choose (and hopefully increasing your sales in the process). But there’s no guarantee you’re going to see a positive ROI by yourself.
Outsourcing your Amazon PPC ad management, Google PPC ad management, or PPC ads with other platforms could be the best move to boost your profitability and save you time. But when is this the right move?

The Benefits of PPC Outsourcing

There are several benefits of outsourcing your PPC ads, including:

  • Time savings. The most important and most obvious benefit is that you save time. Even if you’re only running a small campaign for a business with limited influence, you’re still going to have to spend several hours per week observing your ad performance, making changes to your campaign, and learning new things so that you can improve. If you can spend this time doing more important things, you should have an expert covering these responsibilities for you.
  • A higher ROI. While outsourcing isn’t going to guarantee you a higher ROI (return on investment), most people who begin outsourcing to an experienced expert do tend to see better results than they can get on their own. You might be seeing a positive ROI with your internal management already, but a fresh set of eyes and a trained team of experts will be able to pump those numbers up.
  • External accountability. Don’t neglect the value of having an external party who is accountable for your success. Most PPC ad agencies have a vested interest in keeping your business, which means their biggest priority is keeping you happy. If something goes wrong with the campaign, if you’re not getting the results you want, or if you’re dissatisfied with communication, they’re going to work hard to make up the difference. That could mean offering some pro bono services or overhauling the way they handle your campaign.
  • Access to a team of experts. If you’re managing a campaign on your own or if you have a single person responsible for this task, you should know that working with an agency usually put you in contact with an entire team of experts, each member of which has different specialties and different perspectives. This combination of influence to make your campaigns more creative and more effective.

When Is PPC Outsourcing the Right Move for Your Business?

So when is PPC outsourcing the right move for your business? For starters, you have to be interested in PPC ads, but since PPC advertising is so valuable to most businesses, this isn’t much of an issue.

In addition to that, PPC outsourcing could be the right move if:

  • You don’t have the time to do it yourself. If you’re a business owner, or if you’re the head of the marketing department at this organization, you probably have a lot of responsibilities and not a lot of time. You don’t want to be bogged down with an ad campaign that’s confusing and difficult to manage. If you don’t have much time to spare, simply outsource this need and forget about it.
  • You have a talent shortage. It’s not especially difficult to gain a fundamental understanding of how PPC ads work, becoming a master in this craft can take a lifetime. If you’re struggling to find talented, experienced candidates who can join your team and boost your PPC results, outsourcing could be a valuable shortcut for you.
  • You have many platforms or campaigns to manage. The more complex your campaigns are and the more channels you use to promote your business, the greater your outsourcing needs will be. As you add more platforms and channels to your advertising portfolio, the number and complexity of your responsibilities are going to grow. Don’t hesitate to reach out for additional support.
  • You’ve tried and failed on your own. Be honest. Have you already tried your best at a PPC campaign, only to be disappointed by the final results? If so, don’t feel too bad; it’s difficult to manage a successful campaign with limited experience. But if you’re in this position, don’t double down on this mistake. Seek a partner who can truly help you.
  • You have a reliable partner in mind. Not every PPC agency is worth working with. Make sure you have a reliable partner in mind before moving forward with your outsourcing plans.

There are many good reasons to hire a PPC advertising agency to help you manage your ad campaigns and grow your business. As long as you find a partner who’s truly invested in your success and who has the experts who can hope you see a better ROI, you’ll end up in a better position.

A Guide to Marketing Your Business: 2020 Edition

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Marketing Your Business 2020|A Guide to Marketing Your Business: 2020 EditionMarketing is an integral element for any business. From recent startups to long established organizations, continual promotion is necessary for a number of reasons. It allows a brand to become visible to new potential customers, it keeps them in the consciousness of current customers, and it can bring instant awareness to new products or services.

With this importance in mind, here’s a quick guide on marketing your business in 2020.

Conduct market research

Research is the basis for any solid plan. To develop a marketing strategy that will deliver results, you need to gain a deep understanding of your customers. What makes them tick? Which marketing methods convince them to purchase items? How have their tastes changed with current trends?

One of the best research methods is to look at the competition. See what they’re doing right and wrong, and use this information to your advantage.

Decide on a USP

When marketing a business, you have to decide on what to promote. While this can be the brand as a whole, the most effective plans are those that focus on a unique selling point. You have to provide potential customers with a reason to check out the business, and a USP helps to stand out from the crowd.

As for what the USP can be, this could be an affordable service or product with exceptional quality. If you are running an exclusive discount, say 30% off an item for one week only, this could help draw prospective customers in.

Select your tools

Picking the right marketing tools is, obviously, an essential aspect of advertising. Fortunately, there are many options available in that regard. Consider the following picks:

  • Social media
  • Pay-per-click ads
  • Content marketing
  • Email campaigns
  • Word-of-mouth
  • Flyers
  • Exhibit stand

Plus that’s just scratching the surface. Certain picks will require more money than others, and their level of effectiveness could differ on a business-on-business basis. Yet with the right research, you will have a firm grasp of which are the best choices.

Set a budget

Now you have the plan and tools in place, there’s one last element required before you can launch your marketing campaign: the necessary funding. The set budget for a promotional strategy can vary widely. It can cost thousands on a monthly basis, or it might not even require any money at all.

If outside financing is required, however, one of the best options is to acquire a loan. If your credit rating is in bad shape, Now Loans shows you can still acquire funding this way despite the hurdle.

Analyze the results

Even when the marketing campaign is well underway, there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done. You have to closely analyze your advertising ventures and see what’s producing results – and what isn’t generating conversions.

By studying these marketing techniques, you can constantly refine and improve your campaign. As with any component of business, you need to change with the times. A promotional tactic might become obsolete overnight, for instance.

SEO vs. PPC: Which Is Most Valuable?

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |PPC|SEO vs. PPC: Which Is Most Valuable?You can find countless articles and blogs about SEO and PPC when you browse around the web. A lot of people are writing about these topics, and it can be hard to know what to think when you’ve read so much. Of course, though, one of these marketing tools has to be better than the other, right?

To give you an idea of how they stack up, this post will be exploring search engine optimisation and pay per click advertising. By comparing their benefits, it should be nice and easy to see which of these methods will be best for your business.

What Is SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimisation, and is the process of preparing a website to make sure that it always has a good position in searches on sites like Google. The speed of your website, the content found on it, and the links between it and other websites all contribute to this area.

Most people don’t understand SEO, though, and this can make it hard to know what needs to be done to get your site into good positions. An SEO company will be able to help you with this, providing you with everything you need to get your website higher in searches. Doing this by yourself will take a lot of time and effort, and will have far from guaranteed results.

What Is PPC?

PPC stands for pay per click, and is a name given to a specific type of online advert. Hosted on loads of different websites, adverts like this cost you money each time they are clicked, but don’t require any special work to get them working properly.

The placement of your adverts will depend on the money you’re willing to spend on them. Using Google Ads, you will have the chance to set up bids and daily caps for your spending, ensuring that you don’t spend too much to get your adverts to the right people. There are a lot of companies out there which can help you with this process.


Benefits Of SEO

SEO comes with a lot of different benefits. To start, giving a professional SEO company work on your site will mean that you only have to pay for this service a few times each year. Their work will last, and will only need to be updated as the market changes.

Alongside this, organic searches have been proven to garner higher quality results than PPC adverts. People who find your link in normal searches will be far more likely to buy things from you than those who discover it in sponsored ad sections.

Benefits of PPC

The results of PPC advertising can often be much faster than working on SEO. While you will have to wait for your adverts to be approved, this will still be quicker than having your site indexed by Google, and this is a benefit which a lot of people can’t ignore.

You will also benefit from being able to choose which demographics see your adverts, using tools like cookies to make sure that no one sees your ad unless they’re likely to be interested. PPC adverts also give you the chance to have your ads in more locations, with services like Google Shopping proving to be incredibly successful in recent years. Of course, though, you have to compete with a lot of other companies with PPC adverts. PPC advertising may seem complicated, but there are many tools that can help you to work professionally and effortlessly. In order to make your PPC advertising more easy and effective at the same time you can use software for PPC management like the one from Adplorer.

Which Is Most Valuable?

Deciding which of these marketing methods is more valuable is a very challenging job. In reality, the answer to this question will usually lie with your company and its needs.

Those which don’t mind waiting for results will almost always value SEO more. While it won’t be as fast, it will draw higher quality clients in, and will cost far less than using PPC ads. This can make it easier to sell expensive items, with those who want goods like this finding it hard to trust sponsored adverts.

Companies which need to make sales very quickly are more likely to find PPC ads more valuable. While it will cost more, this could give you the chance to start selling far faster, and this is a benefit which few businesses can ignore.

It’s crucial that you work on things like SEO as an ongoing process for your business. At the same time, though, it can also make sense to take a more direct approach sometimes, and this is where PPC comes in. Neither are better; they both have their own purpose, and this is well worth recognising.

What You Need to Know About SEO, SEM, and PPC

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |SEO |What You Need to Know About SEO, SEM, and PPCDid you know that a staggering three quarters of internet users don’t click past the first page of search results on Google? This is the reason why search engine optimization, or SEO, has been and still is a dominating force in the world of digital marketing. However, while SEO is arguably the most important factor to consider, it is not the only factor that is going to help you maximize your online sales. SEO can and should be combined with both SEM and PPC for optimal results.

Here is what you need to know about all three.

SEO

SEO refers to the practice of optimizing your company’s website for search engines. In other words, the ultimate goal of a good search engine optimization strategy is to rank higher in search results, something that MackMedia can help you to ascertain. SEO is comprised of both on-page and off-page factors. On page factors refer to those aspects of SEO that you can control on your own website, including metadata, user experience (UX), keywords, alt tags, and internal linking. Off-page SEO refers to the aspects of SEO that happen off of your website, but have a direct effect on your website’s rankings. Off page factors include backlinks, domain authority, and social promotion.

PPC

PPC refers to pay per click advertising via search engines. Essentially, you decide on a budget for your campaign and create ads that display on Google or on various social media platforms (most platforms have their own PPC tools and procedures). You only pay a specified amount if and when someone clicks on your ad. Generally, the ad directs the person to your website and drives a specific CTA, often resulting in a conversion or at least commencing/progressing the buyer’s journey. You have the power to set a specific budget per day and/or per month so that it is impossible to overspend.

Many business owners put more effort into PPC because it promises immediate results and automatically takes their ad to the top of the Google search results. Many also opt to make use of PPC because they believe that it positively affects their organic rankings. However, this is a myth. No matter how much you spend on PPC advertising, it will not alter your organic rankings in any way.

SEM

SEM is short for search engine marketing and it is very similar to PPC. Most experts will tell you that PPC is a large part of SEM, but that SEM extends further than just PPC itself. While PPC is generally more focused on paid advertising via search engines, SEM is focused on paid advertising across the digital board, including on third party websites like online directories, Amazon, and YouTube.

At the end of the day, a great digital marketing strategy will encompass SEO, SEM, and PPC in order to generate maximum results and maximum brand awareness. Not sure how to get started? It is always a good idea to consider hiring a professional digital marketing company for assistance if you do not feel secure enough in your own skills. That way, you can reap all of the rewards without having to put in the extra effort.

6 Reasons why PPC isn’t Working for You

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |PPC|6 Reasons why PPC isn’t Working for YouWhen everything is done right, PPC can be one of the most powerful marketing tools out there. But when it goes wrong, it can be easy to throw in the towel and blame everything on it. However, while sometimes PPC may not be the best suited for your application, in many cases, failure is caused by errors that could’ve been easily avoided. Let’s take a look at why your campaigns might be failing and some solutions to correct them.

Using the Wrong Settings

Setting up your ads properly is very simple and takes but a few minutes but make mistakes here and the performance of your ads might be seriously affected. The first thing you have to make sure you get right is the campaign type. The type you choose has to be aligned with your goals and will have an influence on where and which types of ads you can display.

The other thing you have to decide is your whether your ads will be displayed on the search network or on both search and display. When your site is on the display network, your ads will show up in AdSense ads featured on websites. Some people like display ads while others want to only have their ads show up when people search for their terms. It’s up to you which one works the best for you. But if you’re new to PPC, we strongly suggest you start with search only as it will be easier to monitor.

Location settings is another thing a lot of people get wrong when they get started. Some people try to cast a wide net to attract the highest number of people, but it’s usually a better idea to target areas that are close to you. Consider using zip codes or GPS coordinates to zero in on specific areas, especially if your service is local by nature.

You should also consider which type of ad rotation you want. Going with default settings isn’t always the best idea. The “optimize for clicks” option will display the ads that have the chance of performing the best based on their previous performance. What it doesn’t compute, however, is that other factors that have absolutely nothing to do with the ad could’ve affected performance. In our experience, the “rotate indefinitely” option is much better for getting clicks and really testing which ads are working the best.

Your Ads are Wrong

In other cases, your ad might be wrong. Maybe the headline isn’t eye-catching. Or there’s no call to action. Or maybe your particular business could benefit from a call only ad where you’ll be able to track phone calls generated and get leads that way.

Creating great ads is an art, and you can’t leave it to chance. Your ads should be relevant, specific, attractive and sometimes even thought-provoking. And you should also make sure that your keyword appears somewhere in the copy. Just making one adjustment could send your click through and conversion rates skyrocketing. If you want to learn how to make great PPC ads, check out this information.

Poor Keyword Research

Your keyword research will be just as important as your ads when creating a campaign. You have to know which keywords are selling and how much you should be willing to pay for them. There are some paid and free tools out there that will allow you to perform some keyword research. Some will allow you to see some of the analytics before having to switch to their paid version. You have to pick words that are cheap enough to get a ROI, have little competition, but still enough traffic to make a difference.

If you’re strapped for cash right now, Google’s Keyword Planner is ok if you’re just getting started. You’ll be able to search for ad group and keyword ideas, see how you can expect them to perform, and start budgeting.

Poor Understanding of Negative Keywords

Some people completely overlook negative keywords either because they don’t think they make an impact or simply don’t understand how they work. Negative keywords are any keywords that could trigger your ads without being related to your service. If you’re running a construction company, for instance, you’d want to filter out words like “jobs”, since many people might be looking for construction jobs. Your ads will not be shown as often, which will reduce the chances of people clicking on them. But you have to be careful with negative keywords as too many could reduce impressions greatly.

You’re Not Targeting the Right Audience

PPC allows you to pinpoint the kind of audience you want to target, and you have to take advantage of this feature if you want to be successful long term. So make sure that you research and truly get to know your audience. Then work on developing campaigns tailor-made for them and push them through whichever step they are in the sales funnel.

Once you know exactly who your audience is, you can go with even more advanced targeting and start looking at demographic targeting options. You could start targeting customer groups that are likely to be in a specific household income range, gender, age group, or parental status.

You Aren’t Tracking your Conversions

Another reason why you may be failing at PPC is that you either don’t monitor or poorly monitor your results. If you don’t test your conversions and constantly test your ads to monitor not only those who get tons of clicks but those who actually turn visitors into sellers, then you’re wasting your time and your money. By using conversion tracking tools, you’ll be able to see which ads, ad groups, keywords, and campaign are converting the best. You’ll also be able to see if changing landing pages could increase your conversion rates and A/B test different landing pages for different ads.

Conclusion

PPC is one of the most efficient and easy to monitor marketing methods you can find online. However, you have to make sure that everything is done properly and that you take the time to test and tweak your strategy until you get the desired results.