1 September 2015 – Marketing your brand message to a digital audience can seem a daunting process but if you follow these easy steps you should quickly find yourself on track to a complete digital advertising campaign. So says Gavin Coetzee, a digital researcher for amaSocial.
Account set-up
Firstly set up your Pay Per Click and Analytics accounts.
Google has options for both but there are a range of solutions that can be used to meet your needs.
Adwords; and
Google Analytics.
Once you have completed your initial set up, review your accounts and settings according to your campaign goals and objectives.
You’d also set up the analytics tracking code on your website at this stage, to track and measure campaign performance.
Performing your Keyword Research
Keywords are those terms and phrases people use when searching for your product or service. Comprehensive keyword research is crucial to a successful campaign. Selecting profitable, targeted and proven keywords can bring in the most relevant and valuable traffic to a website, which should be the initial target of your digital marketing campaigns. Once again, there are a range of tools you could use to find and research your keywords.
Initially your
Google AdWords account will offer you recommendations based on your current website, which is a good place to start your research process. Expand your keywords list from here with further testing and targeted keyword sets.
Creating Ad Copies
Ad Copies are the final product your targeted customer will see. Ads can be displayed on the top and right hand side of search results for a given search term. Additionally, Ad Copies may appear as banner ads on various Google partnered websites which are known as display ads. Steps should be taken to ensure care in all aspects of your ad copy. Your ad copy should be creative, attractive and informative.
Define your Call-to-action
A good call-to-action (CTA) helps drive users to take action upon having seen your ad. Ad copy without a call-to-action is essentially a campaign without a target. Your CTA should help drive your potential users to specifically defined brand objectives, be that signing up, clicking through or completing the sales funnel. Examples of a CTA include: Buy Now, Get More Details, Get Started.
Billing, Bidding & Budgeting
Pay-per-click advertisers are billed for every click to keywords they have won the bid on. This is where the bidding process for keywords becomes a little more complex. As a brand, you define how much you’re willing to bid on each keyword as well as fixing the maximum daily spending limit for your campaign. Your bid per keyword, combined with the overall quality score, determines your ad’s position on the search result page.
It’s important to note not all keywords are created equal. High use, high demand keywords are inherently pricier and may end up costing you more than the benefit you receive. When it comes to keywords, it’s in the long tail where you see the greatest returns. It’s best to pick those keywords and phrases that are specific to your brand, service or industry. Such keywords usually indicate a potential customer is further along in their commitment, need or desire for your product or brand. A customer with this level of expressed interest is far more likely to complete the process and achieve your campaign objectives.
Landing pages
A landing page is the point of entry your visitors land on after clicking through on your ad copy. It’s important to pay attention when crafting your landing page so as to maximise conversions. Following best practices can help you maximise value for your visitors and encourage them to take an action according to your defined objectives. Objectives at this stage may include filling out enquiry forms, signing up for email, adding to cart and so on.
Refine & Optimising
Perhaps the most important yet overlooked part of this whole exercise is refining and optimising your ads. The great freedom of digital advertising is the ability to track, modify and change your ads as needed. You should closely monitor your PPC campaigns to see what works and what doesn’t, then refine the process by building on those the ads, CTA’s, keywords and landing pages that achieve the best results.
At this stage you should be:
- Continuously monitoring bids and position to attain goals and objectives.
- Continuous analysis and addition of keywords and removal those that do not work.
- Continuous analysis and testing of ad copy; and
- Ongoing analysis on tracking conversions.
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