Tag: Maximize
How to Maximize Website Conversion Rates Through Mobile Optimization Strategy
If you’re struggling for conversions, it’s tempting to throw money at the problem in search of a quick fix. Resist that temptation, though – because the key to a better conversion rate isn’t always to be found by pumping money into your ad campaigns, or a flashy new marketing drive.
Nope – the solution’s much more simple. Mobile optimization!
Starting with your site’s mobile experience makes sense. After all, 46% of Americans spend between five and six hours on their phones, every day. When they come across your website, it’s likely to be via their phones. Meaning your site needs to be ready.
Below, we’ll walk you through our top 4 mobile optimization tips. Follow them, and you’ll end up with a clean, compelling, and customer-centric site – that’s ready to convert.
What is Mobile Optimization Strategy?
First things first – what is mobile optimization, exactly?
Mobile optimization is the process of tailoring your website to users accessing it on a mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet (as opposed to on a desktop computer.)
It involves ensuring that your website’s layout, structure, and content are customized to mobile devices. So why is that important?
Well, think about the consequences of a site that isn’t optimized for mobile. Content displays as misshapen or missized. Elements jump around on the page, as if with a life of their own; you find yourself having to zoom madly in and out, simply to read the text on the screen.
It’s not a good user experience (UX). But, more importantly, it’s not good for business. 57% of mobile users won’t recommend a business with poor mobile optimization.
Sloppy mobile optimization – or total lack of it – means a frustrated user. And frustrated users rarely turn into customers!
How To Maximize Your Conversion Rates Through Mobile Optimization Strategy: 4 Top Tips
Ready to start maximizing your conversion rates – and make your website more mobile-friendly in the process? Here are our 4 top mobile optimization tips:
- Provide a simple, clean checkout experience
- Add on-page product recommendations
- Offer more ways to pay
- Strengthen your CTAs – and their visibility
Read on for the full scoop.
1. Provide a Simple, Clean Checkout Experience
The first way of boosting your mobile site’s conversion rates? Optimizing your checkout flow to ensure you’re providing a frictionless experience at the checkout.
How exactly you do this will depend on how you’ve built your website. But a few broad tips include:
- Enabling guest checkout, so users aren’t deterred by having to create an account to make a purchase
- Providing a wide range of shipping options
- Reducing the amount of form fields (i.e. the depth of info you require from your customers)
- Displaying security badges to increase consumer trust
Image source: Average Website Conversion Rates in 5 Key Industries
2. Add On-Page Product Recommendations
Integrating on-page product recommendations is a low-effort – but potentially high-impact – action for optimizing your mobile site.
The on-page product recommendations you recommend could be products the customer has recently viewed, or ones similar to the products they’re currently looking at. These will appear in the frame as they browse your store on their mobile, meaning they can quickly, and easily navigate to the kinds of products they like.
On-page product recommendations are great for UX. But they’re also good for your conversion rates – as you’re removing one more barrier to your customer making a purchase.
3. Offer More Ways to Pay
These days, offering a diverse range of ways to pay isn’t simply a ‘nice to have.’
It’s a must-have. And, along with choosing the right web hosting provider and building your site with the most suitable platform, it’s one of the biggest website decisions you’ll make.
Consumers are more discerning now than ever. Many distrust the process of paying online; others just want the process to be as slick, seamless, and speedy as possible.
Your job? To ensure your customers can pay with multiple different payment methods, including:
- Mobile wallets (such as Apple Pay and Google Pay)
- Credit and debit cards
- PayPal
Millennials, in particular, are fond of the convenience and ease mobile wallet payments offer. In the US, Gen Y leads the share of consumers making digital or mobile wallet payments (46%), according to Statista.
And, to target Gen Z, you can even offer your customers a ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ (BNPL) service. It’s big with that demographic – in the US, 55.1% of Gen Z consumers 14 years old and over will use a BNPL service at least once this year.
4. Strengthen Your CTAs – And Their Visibility
When it comes to maximizing conversions, compelling call-to-actions are a must.
So take the time to audit the content, placement, and design of your website’s current CTAs. Do they:
- Start with command verbs that create excitement and engagement.?
- Cultivate a sense of urgency?
- Demonstrate the benefit to the customer if they choose to take action?
Remember, you’re optimizing your CTAs here for mobile devices. So think about your user, and how they’re interacting with your site. They’re already on their phone, after all – so how can you tap into that to improve your CTAs?
One tip is to use phone call-based CTAs. Instead of inviting someone to fill out a lengthy contact form, or get in touch via email – both trickier to do from a mobile phone, or while on the go – invite them to call to make an inquiry, instead.
Plus, CTAs aren’t just about the wording – what they say – but about how they look. So make sure they stand out from the rest of the page’s content (you want people to know they’re looking at a CTA, after all!). Harness the powerful simplicity of white space. And, if there’s a button, make sure it’s big, bold, and screams “click me!”
Summary
Mobile optimization won’t just improve the look, feel, and usability of your site. It’ll increase your conversion rates – and help you grow your business online, too.
So good luck, and have fun implementing these tips. Mobile optimization can be tricky and time-consuming. But the results will be worth it in the end – trust us!
The post How to Maximize Website Conversion Rates Through Mobile Optimization Strategy first appeared on PPC Hero.
How to Maximize Google Ads Results With a Low Budget
How much Google Ads budget a business allocates to campaigns has been a question that has lingered for years. Whilst paid marketers around the world would say that their channel should get the most spend, in reality, for lots of businesses the money just isn’t there.
So what does this mean? Is that it for small businesses? Does this mean that Google is a no-go zone? This is most certainly not the case. In this post, I’ll outline the key rules to live by for any low-spending account, as well as discuss the best approaches for making sure you’re making the most of your money.
Important Tip 1. Plug the Leaks
As any good home energy expert will tell you, the key to saving money is to stop heat going out (weird analogy but stick with me!) – no more so is this true than in this situation.
Often on accounts, you see search queries come in that are completely and utterly irrelevant. In larger accounts, this isn’t normally too much of an issue. Typically, advertisers will review the number of clicks and decide whether or not it’s an urgent task based on spend accrued. However, with smaller accounts, this becomes more of an issue.
So what can you do? Well, it’s time to get your detective cap on and find the cause of the leak! Common areas to start with are:
Networks
By default, Google recommends showing content on search partners. Despite this, search partner performance can often be poor when compared to Google’s alternative networks. If you notice performance dipping here, turn content off and help tighten up the ship!
Search Queries
This is an immediate go-to when thinking of tightening up spend. With the ever-increasing blurred lines when it comes to what match types actually show for, the tightening up of search queries has arguably never been so important.
When reviewing search queries, it’s important to remember that not only should you take user searches at face value, but you should also consider asking how your ads show. Is there a theme across search queries? Are lots of irrelevant terms showing at once? Trying to uncover the cause of the issue can often be more beneficial and time-saving than removing queries on a case-by-case basis, so again pop on your detective hat, grab your pipe and get digging Sherlock!
Scheduling
Often forgotten, scheduling is a really easy fix when plugging up lost spend. Put simply, are consumers engaging with your brand at 2-3 am? No? Then pause your ads. It’s as simple as that.
Location Targeting
Until recently I wouldn’t have thought about adding in location targeting to this article. With many advertisers viewing this element of Google as a ‘point on a map and this is where ads show’, Google’s shift towards ‘Presence and Interest’ targeting has now become a much bigger priority.
By default, Google will target ads based on presence and interest – meaning it will target ads to users based in, frequently in, or ‘interested in’ your target location. Now I don’t know about you, but I feel that the majority of advertisers won’t really care if users are only interested in their target location. They’ll want ads to show to users actually IN their location. So don’t forget to check this out as you could find that this has been a costly leak!
Important Tip 2. Remember Your Key Business Aims
Whilst this should be the primary focus for any Google ads campaign (and really any marketing campaign in general!) no more does this ring true than with small spending accounts. Whether you’re an agency running a client account, an in-house marketer, or even a business owner, there’s nothing worse than spending what little money you do have available on irrelevant focuses. If your aim is to raise revenue, focus on that. If you need to build the brand, then focus on awareness. Regardless of your strategic drivers, try to avoid blurring the lines.
This is quite a simplistic way of thinking. Often these goals overlap and intertwine, but by thinking specifically about what one strategic driver you’re hoping to get from your Google campaigns, you’ll find that you’re able to be much more competitive in ad auctions. This is instead of spreading yourself too thin and chasing numerous business aims which could in fact be pushing you further away from your goals.
Important Tip 3. Don’t Silo Yourself
Transitioning nicely off the last point, it can be simple to sometimes forget what other arms of marketing are doing. If you work in an agency it can be easy to just live within your team. Only venturing out once an hour to grab a coffee and bumping into someone from SEO or Social. I’m afraid to tell you however that when spend is tight, you HAVE to do more than that.
A simple conversation with wider teams can help departments understand where paid campaigns can sit within that framework. It’s easy to forget that there is nothing stronger from a marketing campaign than a unified message with consistent aims and a tone of voice. So reach out! How can other teams help you? Is there an area you can’t compete on, but that organically isn’t as competitive? Have you noticed perhaps a gap in the market from a social perspective? Reaching out for help and support will often have beneficial, piggyback effects on your campaigns – so get chatting!
I should at this point say that this also goes if you work in-house or are running marketing solo – understanding the bigger picture isn’t just specific to agency workers.
Conclusion
When it comes to Google ads, if you don’t have the money for major campaigns, I hope you now know that there are steps you can take to see incremental success.
I will end with arguably the most important piece of information. If the money isn’t there to see reasonable results, wait until it is. There’s nothing worse than spending what little you have on campaigns where you’ll likely not prove very competitive. Follow your gut, wait and when you do have the money, don’t forget to come back to this handy article for tips on how best to spend it.
The post How to Maximize Google Ads Results With a Low Budget first appeared on PPC Hero.
Best Practices to Maximize Connected TV Advertising
Connected TV campaigns should pair with other paid media campaigns to drive conversions and take advantage of each targeting tactic to maximize inventory.
Read more at PPCHero.com
PPC Hero
Eliminating Conflict to Maximize CRO and SEO Efforts
Learn how conversion rate optimization (CRO) and search engine optimization (SEO) strategies can work together by eliminating conflicting tactics.
Read more at PPCHero.com
PPC Hero
How To Maximize eCommerce Revenue When Demand Skyrockets
This blog describes the PPC performance, during the stay-at-home period, of 3 eCommerce businesses and how we maximized revenue during a period of high demand.
Read more at PPCHero.com
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How retailers can maximize the influx of organic search traffic to PDPs during COVID-19
30-second summary:
- While it has always been important to optimize PDPs, which serve as one of the main entry points to a site, it is a good time for online retailers to maximize the performance of traffic to these pages, ensuring high-intent visitors are able to find what they are looking for.
- Product recommendations are consistently used to surface relevant items for visitors on PDPs. However, brands can influence browsing even further by creating a richer recommendation experience.
- Sometimes, a shopper lands on a PDP via search and either finds the item doesn’t meet their original expectations or they’re interested in exploring other similar products. To best serve these visitors, brands should allow for easy navigation back to the product’s main category.
- To reduce the likelihood of a visitor bouncing from the site, brands should consider employing exit-intent popups.
- While many consumers are now stuck at home, they may still want to browse for products they’d be interested in purchasing in the future. A great way to incentivize these shoppers to come back to the site is by allowing them to add items to a wish list.
- The coronavirus outbreak has greatly impacted both consumers and the retailers doing their best to serve them. By optimizing these entry points, brands can not only better connect their search traffic with the products and information shoppers need, but also increase the likelihood of conversions.
Over the last few weeks, the coronavirus has triggered massive shifts in shopping behavior across affected regions, as many physical retail locations have begun operating under limited hours or have temporarily shut their doors.
Now largely reliant on ecommerce, consumers uncertain about the future are bulk-purchasing necessities and ordering otherwise non-standard items to make their extended periods at home feel more comfortable.
Among these new patterns, some brands are experiencing increases in organic search traffic, which is traditionally the second-largest source of overall monthly ecommerce traffic.
As shoppers take to Google in search of unfamiliar or high-demand products, retailers – especially those dealing in essential goods – can expect organic traffic to rise
While it has always been important to optimize Product Detail Pages (PDPs), which serve as one of the main entry points to a site, it is a good time for online retailers to maximize the performance of traffic to these pages, ensuring high-intent visitors are able to find what they are looking for.
Below, discover a few tips we’ve seen successfully implemented to improve product discovery, reduce bounce rates, and keep brands top of mind throughout an entirely new purchase decision process.
Surface more product recommendations on PDPs
Product recommendations are consistently used to surface relevant items for visitors on PDPs. However, brands can influence browsing even further by creating a richer recommendation experience.
For example, instead of just one recommendation widget, brands can include several, each experimenting with a different strategy, such as “Bought Together” or “Similar To.”
An example of product detail pages (PDPs) featuring two recommendation widgets: one employing a Bought Together strategy and the other, “Similarity”
Additionally, Pinterest-style recommendations with infinite scroll can serve to continuously expose and recommend new items to visitors, enticing them to keep exploring until they stumble upon the right product.
An example of PDPs featuring Pinterest-style recommendations
Offer easy navigation back to the main category
Sometimes, a shopper lands on a PDP via search and either finds the item doesn’t meet their original expectations or they’re interested in exploring other similar products. To best serve these visitors, brands should allow for easy navigation back to the product’s main category.
By placing a category discovery banner at the top of the product page, brands ensure that visitors won’t have to hunt for the category page on their own from within the navigation menu or via an entirely new search. This is especially useful for mobile traffic, where limited real estate creates barriers to browsing the site.
An example of PDPs displaying a discovery banner for visitors to easily navigate to the main category
Keep distractions at bay with value-adding popups on PDPs
On a regular day, consumers experience multiple distractions throughout the online shopping experience, whether they’re comparing items across different sites, toggling between devices, or jumping from one scenario to another.
With constant, frantic COVID-19 alerts, the crisis represents an entirely new challenge, making it even harder to capture and hold visitors’ attention.
To reduce the likelihood of a visitor bouncing from the site, brands should consider employing exit-intent popups.
Triggered when a visitor idles on the page for an extended period of time, scrolls down to a certain portion of the page, or upon displaying exit intent, these overlays can be used to narrow down a shopper’s focus and highlight key messaging.
These popups may highlight promotional offers to encourage a purchase or important COVID-19-related updates, such as current business hours and delivery windows.
An example of two exit-intent popups used to promote an offer or specific message on PDPs
Allow shoppers to add items to a wish list via PDPs
While many consumers are now stuck at home, they may still want to browse for products they’d be interested in purchasing in the future. A great way to incentivize these shoppers to come back to the site is by allowing them to add items to a wish list.
Once created, offering quick access to their list makes it easy to add saved items to their shopping cart for fast checkout.
Wish lists are also effective tools for capturing subscribers, which brands can then leverage to identify and further nurture the relationship via other channels, such as email.
PDPs featuring a link for shoppers to add items to a wish list
Assist like never before
The coronavirus outbreak has greatly impacted both consumers and the retailers doing their best to serve them.
By optimizing these entry points, brands can not only better connect their search traffic with the products and information shoppers need, but also increase the likelihood of conversions.
More importantly, although not all of this new traffic is guaranteed to translate into revenue, in making some of these changes, brands stand to communicate that they are being mindful of consumer needs during this unprecedented situation – the benefits of which will have a lasting impact, long after COVID-19 eventually subsides.
The post How retailers can maximize the influx of organic search traffic to PDPs during COVID-19 appeared first on Search Engine Watch.
5 Optimization Tips to Maximize Sales This Holiday Season
As advertisers, we need to take advantage of the upcoming holiday sales predictions and position ourselves for an outrageously successful holiday season. To set yourself up for success, we’ve highlighted 5 tips to maximize your online sales.
Read more at PPCHero.com
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5 Tips To Maximize Your Next Facebook Ads Strategy
Since its inception back in 2007, Facebook Ads has changed the way companies approach their online advertising strategies. Early on, many advertisers have tried and failed with Facebook Ads NOT because they were targeting the wrong audience, but because they did not fully understand the dynamics of this (non-search like) Ad platform. The confusion (still today) is due to the enormous traffic volume of users (which many of them disclosed their likes, interests, age, sex, race, political views, education, marital status, household income, etc…) that are skewing the overall performance which forces many advertisers into believing that Facebook is a scam. In this post, I will try to reinforce the notion that Facebook Ads can be successful for advertisers if they approach their strategies on a more micro-targeted level.
Over the years, marketers (like myself) started to change the methodologies of campaign structures just like we did with Google to obtain a good Quality Score. In March of 2014, Facebook rolled out a bunch of new features which seemed to model that of Google Adwords. Some of these updates included:
- Self-serve ad tool, Ad Sets, Ads Manager, Power Editor, 3rd party interfaces
Even before the adoption of Ad Sets, marketers started to realize that in order to “offset” the huge traffic volume and identify what was working and not working, they needed restructure everything at a Micro-level. This strategy of creating individual campaigns for each specific interest is what empowered many to re-think their expectations of what Facebook could do for them.
Below is a quick example of a standard Facebook Ads campaign that focuses on one specific audience. As you can see, we are focusing on Green Tea only (not Tea Drinkers in general). We are also segmenting Women-only as well as different Age Ranges which allows for a more granular understanding of interest and interaction.
#1 Why Micro-Targeting Works
In order to get the most out of your Ad dollars as well as identify winners and losers, micro-targeting is a must for every advertiser. Yes, it’s a lot of work and yes it requires many hours to set it up correctly. However, not investing in this time could cost you even more later down the line because all of the work that was done, can be utilized again in the future with little to no effort to update.
#2 Facebook Ads Creates Storytelling
Wouldn’t it be a great story to tell your CEO or client (Tea Company) that the majority of the FB conversions came from Single Women, 35-40, who live in Baltimore MD, and enjoy Pilates and Yoga. That specific piece of information was made possible by the micro-targeting created in Facebook Ads and quite possibly created a whole new level of both online and offline marketing strategies for years to come.
#3 Geo-Targeting Matters:
As mentioned in the storytelling example above, geography is a huge proponent of micro-targeting because of the different social behaviors that surround us. For example, advertisers that are interested in reaching a younger audience (25-35) that enjoy nightclubs and dancing, would be more likely to choose to target their ads in USA cities such as NYC, Miami, Las Vegas, LA, and Chicago instead of other locations that are not as likely to be interested.
#4 The Power of Indirect Targeting:
Lets assume that avid Tea Drinkers are also more likely to be fans of the Food Network and other TV cooking shows. With Facebook Ads, we have the ability to create individual campaigns targeting not only the Food Network, but also specific shows such as Man vs. Food, Barefoot Contessa and others… The fact that we can create TEST campaigns to see if those “in-direct” yet similar audiences could convert is a game-changer in all aspects of marketing.
#5 Why Timing Matters:
We are constantly being bombarded by news everyday coming from TV, radio and the internet. However, the one thing that is NOT constant is the “shelf-life” of the news story and that is where Facebook Ads (including all Social Media) provides a unique advantage for advertisers. For example, lets say the FDA (Food & Drug Administration) comes out with a study that says people who drink 2-3 cups of Green Tea everyday have a better chance to fight the symptoms of the common cold. This report obviously not only shines a positive light on the Tea Industry but it’s also fresh in everyone’s mind and when they see an ad for Green Tea in their Facebook Feed, they are likely to remember that news story about the health benefits and are more inclined to make an impulse buy.
In Conclusion:
Truth be told, Facebook Ads may not be a fit for everyone. While certain industries may thrive on having a social-friendly presence, many others will not find their target audience in that social environment. However, I implore that all advertisers/marketers to keep an open-mind when looking at Facebook Ads because there is more strategy potential than you think. In my opinion, FB Ads has become more a testing ground than a standard vehicle for website traffic. Facebook Ads may not be a GEM for everyone, but with an open-mind it could be a diamond in the rough.
5 Tips To Maximize Your Next Facebook Ads Strategy
Since its inception back in 2007, Facebook Ads has changed the way companies approach their online advertising strategies. Early on, many advertisers have tried and failed with Facebook Ads NOT because they were targeting the wrong audience, but because they did not fully understand the dynamics of this (non-search like) Ad platform. The confusion (still today) is due to the enormous traffic volume of users (which many of them disclosed their likes, interests, age, sex, race, political views, education, marital status, household income, etc…) that are skewing the overall performance which forces many advertisers into believing that Facebook is a scam. In this post, I will try to reinforce the notion that Facebook Ads can be successful for advertisers if they approach their strategies on a more micro-targeted level.
Over the years, marketers (like myself) started to change the methodologies of campaign structures just like we did with Google to obtain a good Quality Score. In March of 2014, Facebook rolled out a bunch of new features which seemed to model that of Google Adwords. Some of these updates included:
- Self-serve ad tool, Ad Sets, Ads Manager, Power Editor, 3rd party interfaces
Even before the adoption of Ad Sets, marketers started to realize that in order to “offset” the huge traffic volume and identify what was working and not working, they needed restructure everything at a Micro-level. This strategy of creating individual campaigns for each specific interest is what empowered many to re-think their expectations of what Facebook could do for them.
Below is a quick example of a standard Facebook Ads campaign that focuses on one specific audience. As you can see, we are focusing on Green Tea only (not Tea Drinkers in general). We are also segmenting Women-only as well as different Age Ranges which allows for a more granular understanding of interest and interaction.
#1 Why Micro-Targeting Works
In order to get the most out of your Ad dollars as well as identify winners and losers, micro-targeting is a must for every advertiser. Yes, it’s a lot of work and yes it requires many hours to set it up correctly. However, not investing in this time could cost you even more later down the line because all of the work that was done, can be utilized again in the future with little to no effort to update.
#2 Facebook Ads Creates Storytelling
Wouldn’t it be a great story to tell your CEO or client (Tea Company) that the majority of the FB conversions came from Single Women, 35-40, who live in Baltimore MD, and enjoy Pilates and Yoga. That specific piece of information was made possible by the micro-targeting created in Facebook Ads and quite possibly created a whole new level of both online and offline marketing strategies for years to come.
#3 Geo-Targeting Matters:
As mentioned in the storytelling example above, geography is a huge proponent of micro-targeting because of the different social behaviors that surround us. For example, advertisers that are interested in reaching a younger audience (25-35) that enjoy nightclubs and dancing, would be more likely to choose to target their ads in USA cities such as NYC, Miami, Las Vegas, LA, and Chicago instead of other locations that are not as likely to be interested.
#4 The Power of Indirect Targeting:
Lets assume that avid Tea Drinkers are also more likely to be fans of the Food Network and other TV cooking shows. With Facebook Ads, we have the ability to create individual campaigns targeting not only the Food Network, but also specific shows such as Man vs. Food, Barefoot Contessa and others… The fact that we can create TEST campaigns to see if those “in-direct” yet similar audiences could convert is a game-changer in all aspects of marketing.
#5 Why Timing Matters:
We are constantly being bombarded by news everyday coming from TV, radio and the internet. However, the one thing that is NOT constant is the “shelf-life” of the news story and that is where Facebook Ads (including all Social Media) provides a unique advantage for advertisers. For example, lets say the FDA (Food & Drug Administration) comes out with a study that says people who drink 2-3 cups of Green Tea everyday have a better chance to fight the symptoms of the common cold. This report obviously not only shines a positive light on the Tea Industry but it’s also fresh in everyone’s mind and when they see an ad for Green Tea in their Facebook Feed, they are likely to remember that news story about the health benefits and are more inclined to make an impulse buy.
In Conclusion:
Truth be told, Facebook Ads may not be a fit for everyone. While certain industries may thrive on having a social-friendly presence, many others will not find their target audience in that social environment. However, I implore that all advertisers/marketers to keep an open-mind when looking at Facebook Ads because there is more strategy potential than you think. In my opinion, FB Ads has become more a testing ground than a standard vehicle for website traffic. Facebook Ads may not be a GEM for everyone, but with an open-mind it could be a diamond in the rough.
PPC Marketing Agency | Search Marketing Firm | Adwords Certified Consultant
Tips to maximize ROI on paid social: Facebook + Instagram
Available ad impressions on social media are hitting a wall as user growth slows, driving up CPC and CPM prices. As demand increases, it becomes even more important for advertisers to properly optimize campaigns to maximize their return on investment for paid social.
According to Merkle’s Q2 2018 Digital Marketing Report, advertiser spend increased 40% year-over-year in Q2, while impressions fell 17%.
The influx of advertising dollars to social media platforms with a steady number of available impressions means that the average cost-per-click (CPC) is rising.
Many paid social media campaigns do not maximize their return on investment because of poor or incomplete optimization, limited distribution, incomplete tracking, and undefined goals.
Here’s what you need to do to squeeze more out of your paid social media campaigns.
Advertising for the funnel
Each advertisement you run must have a clear goal in mind, and that goal must fit into a larger piece of your paid social media strategy. Moving prospects from the top of the funnel to the bottom—as efficiently as possible—is necessary for a successful ad campaign.
Keep in mind that it may take multiple interactions with your advertisements and content before someone works their way through the funnel. Your ad campaigns should never take on a one-and-done approach.
An ad targeting a past purchaser will be very different than an ad targeting someone who is completely unfamiliar with your brand and products.
This makes it important to segment your customers into the correct phase of the buying process. Run different ads with different messages and calls to action for each segment.
Advertise smarter, not harder.
Simple process improvements
A number of small improvements can greatly impact the success of a paid social media campaign. Not implementing these is basically leaving money on the table. Remember, we are trying to squeeze every last drop of ROI out of these campaigns, even if getting the maximum return takes time.
While the examples I cite relate to Facebook and Instagram, we can see equivalents on Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Snapchat to some degree.
Whichever social media platform you are advertising through, follow platform best practices and make sure everything is set up properly—through tracking pixels and UTM codes. Everything should be properly attributed across platforms.
Facebook Pixel
First, make sure that Facebook’s tracking pixel is properly implemented on your website.
Facebook Pixel Helper, a free Chrome browser extension from Facebook, can help you troubleshoot any issues. You can find information on how to set up Facebook Pixel from scratch on Facebook’s website.
You also need to set up Facebook Pixel with standard events like newsletter sign-ups and successful e-commerce actions (add to cart, purchase, etc.) to help with creating higher quality custom and lookalike audiences.
Facebook and Instagram have powerful tracking and conversion optimization abilities in their ad technology, so use them.
Custom audiences
Using Facebook’s custom audiences feature is a must if you want your paid social media campaigns to really perform.
It is foolish to not capture and harness information about your website’s visitors, especially when it is free and requires only minutes to set up. Facebook offers a number of ways to create a custom audience in the Facebook Ads Manager.
Website traffic
If your Facebook Pixel is properly set up, it can record every action taken by visitors on your website in the past 180 days. The actions include page views, button clicks, abandoned carts, and purchases.
You can create audiences to build lookalike audiences or use them for remarketing.
Advertising to someone who has already been to your website and possibly even completed on-site actions has a much higher chance of converting than advertising to a first-time visitor.
Offline conversions
With proper implementation, you can track offline events, like sales at physical retail locations, after someone has interacted with your Facebook advertisements.
There are two ways to set up offline activity: either upload the offline data CSV file manually to Facebook or sync your CRM directly with Facebook. The customer information will then be matched to the correct user IDs on Facebook.
This approach will show you if someone took a specific action, like purchasing after viewing.
Lookalike audiences
You can create lookalike audiences in the Facebook Ads Manager to find audiences that have similar traits and characteristics to your ideal user.
The lookalike audience is created based on a custom audience, which acts as a seed audience. This allows you to greatly expand the number of potential customers you can target based on a higher-quality custom audience.
Conversion tracking
Conversions are of paramount importance for e-commerce stores. Website traffic is useless unless it results in sales. Luckily, Facebook and Instagram can help optimize your campaign’s delivery for successful conversions.
Conversion tracking depends on the proper implementation of the tracking pixel and properly set up ad campaigns. You also need to set up standard events or custom conversions on Facebook to accurately measure and optimize for conversions. Google Analytics offers conversion tracking as well, but it’s based on a last-click-attribution model.
There is no reason not to track and optimize for conversions. Even media companies that generate revenue by on-site ad units can benefit from optimizing toward conversions by focusing on pages-per-session to find a higher quality user, opposed to general website visitors.
Remarketing
Remarketing with social media ad managers requires proper implementation of each platforms’ tracking pixels.
For example, Facebook’s audience and lookalike audience features are powerful tools that can track users and specific website actions up to 180 days in the past.
Remarketing with these audiences in mind is a strategic approach, and entire campaigns can be built around them. In fact, these types of campaigns often yield the highest returns.
Image: http://marketingjumpleads.com/facebook-remarketing
Sequential Advertising
Sequential advertising is when you show different ads to the same person over a period of time. Large television campaigns sometimes use this tactic, but there is no reason why it cannot be successfully applied to paid social media campaigns.
For example, you may show an audience an ad focusing on one benefit of your product. The next ad, after the majority of people in the audience has seen the first one, would highlight another benefit of the product. The third ad would highlight a customer testimonial. You are showing your audience the same product but with different messaging.
If you are running video ads, you could also share a related story via that format. Think the Budweiser Frogs television campaign or some of BMW’s mini-movies. A sequential advertising campaign does not have to go to such lengths to be successful, but fresh, on-brand, eye-catching creative in any form is generally a good thing.
Maximizing distribution
Besides improvements to the advertising process, further optimization to paid social campaigns can be achieved through maximizing the campaigns’ distribution. That will ensure your campaign is successful based on your set goals. Not maximizing the distribution of your ads will leave money on the table.
Regularly refresh your creative
Using the same creative—images, video, and text—over and over can quickly cause fatigue. This means your audience will start to ignore your ads—or worse, start leaving mean comments on them. You’ll also start experiencing an increase in CPM and CPC as you lose more in Facebook’s ad auction.
Regularly refresh your creative to avoid this. It makes a difference, even if you’re just refreshing your images or copy every month.
Standing out in the newsfeed is a big part of successful paid campaigns. If you are using photographs or videos, they need to be high quality and relatable to make the user stop scrolling through their newsfeed.
Pay special attention to resolution, aspect ratio, and how the ad units look on a mobile device. The majority of users will see your ad on their phone, so make sure it’s thumb-stopping.
Use all available placements
Facebook is always optimizing for the lowest event cost possible. The vast majority of your results will come from ads run on the Facebook or Instagram newsfeed. But don’t forget about other placements, like the sidebar, messenger, and marketplace.
Automatic placements are the best option to maximize results beyond the newsfeeds.
All placements selected.
Image: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/965529646866485
Limited placements selected.
Image: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/965529646866485
Optimize for mobile
Unless you specifically target only desktop device users, the majority of the impressions or clicks you receive will be from mobile devices. This means you better make sure your creative is mobile-friendly.
Make sure all of your images and videos are formatted to maximize the viewable space on mobile for the type of advertisement you are running. Your headlines and accompanying text also need to be optimized to fit.
If you’re using videos, make sure they’re formatted to a 1:1 aspect ratio (square videos) to take up the most room on the Facebook mobile newsfeed and outperform horizontal aspect videos.
Image: https://blog.bufferapp.com/square-video-vs-landscape-video
Minimize restrictions for the Facebook algorithm
Don’t try to control Facebook too much. Instead, give Facebook room to show your ads to the correct users at the correct time with the least necessary targeting restrictions. The more freedom the algorithm has to use your pixel data, the better able it is to encourage conversions.
Josh Thompson is Senior Social Media Strategist at Portent—a Clearlink Digital Agency. Josh is Facebook Blueprint Certified and has worked in social media advertising for seven years.
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