What does this mean?

It simply means that your daily budget is beneath the recommended amount. In other words, the funds you have available won’t be able to match the potential demand for your ads. 

As an example, say your daily click budget is $50, with each click costing roughly $1. 

Currently, you have enough of a campaign budget to pay for 50 clicks. However, if Google determines there’s enough demand for 100 clicks a day, your ad budget won’t be enough to pay for each click, and you’ll see the ‘limited by budget’ campaign status. 

Whenever this happens, Google will have to limit the number of times your ads appear in searches to accommodate your lack of budget. As a result, you may miss out on potential conversions and leads, which is never good. 

Yet, just because one of your campaigns is limited by budget doesn’t mean that you can’t work with it. 

If increasing your daily budget isn’t a possibility, there are still ways to squeeze the most out of your limited budget while still meeting your advertising goals. 

Stay tuned to learn more about Google Ads limited by budget, how to resolve the status, and how to get the most out of your daily ad spend. 

Understanding Google Ads Limited By Budget 

If your daily click budget dips below the recommended amount, this is what will appear next to your PPC (pay-per-click) campaign in your Google Ads account:

The ‘limited by budget’ status appears in red, which lets you know that you’re likely to run out of funds before the day is out. 

That’s Google’s way of telling you that you don’t have the budget to match the demand for ads, which means your ads might not appear during certain times of the day – which may lead to a loss of potential traffic & customers. 

The key word there is ‘might,’ as the ‘limited by budget’ status doesn’t guarantee a loss of traffic, it’s just warning you of the possibility. 

For instance, let’s say you see the most engagement with your ads when they run during the early morning. Due to the ‘limited by budget’ status, Google may restrict how many of your ads run during the morning, which can negatively affect your advertising goals. However, if they limit your ad visibility during the evening instead, you’ll see less of a negative impact. 

The good news is that you can control when Google displays your ads through ad scheduling (more on this in a bit). 

Google’s recommendations for your average daily budget

Whenever you receive the limited-by-budget campaign status, there’ll be a small graph icon next to it (see above). 

By clicking on this icon, you’ll get to see Google’s recommendations for an ideal daily budget, which looks like this:

You’ll see your current budget, Google’s recommended amount, and a few other options for more weekly clicks & conversions. They also provide metrics for the new budget’s weekly cost, the approximated number of clicks, and the number of conversions you should see each week. 

This is a useful tool for determining if you need to change your bid strategy, especially if you’re considerably under budget. 

What if you see the ‘limited by budget’ status but aren’t maxing out your funds?

In some cases, you may see the ‘limited by budget’ status for campaigns that aren’t maxing out your budget or generating lots of traffic. 

Why is that?

Usually, it’s a sign that your keywords are too expensive for your daily budget or you’re maxing out on the number of clicks you can get in one day. 

If your cost-per-click (CPC) is too high for your budget, you may only be able to pay for a few clicks a day. 

As an example, imagine that your daily budget is $50, but your average CPC is $25. As a result, you’ll only be able to pay for two clicks a day. In these types of situations, you can use a keyword planner to find more affordable keywords in your niche, or you could raise your daily budget. 

How Will Google Ads Limited By Budget Affect Your PPC Campaigns?

While there are ways to work with a limited budget on Google Ads (formerly Google Adwords), there are definitely consequences that will affect your PPC campaigns & advertising goals, including the following:

• You’ll see a reduced impression share. If your campaign is limited by budget, you won’t be eligible for as many impressions as you would have otherwise. That means Google will limit your ad exposure during certain times of the day. Or if you’ve tweaked your targeting settings to run at an accelerated rate, you’ll appear in every auction you’re eligible for until you run out of budget. 
• You won’t receive as many clicks. Since you won’t appear in every bid auction, you’re eligible during the day. You’ll miss out on lots of potential clicks, which is never a good thing. 
• Reduced conversion rates. Once your budget runs out, your ads will stop appearing throughout the Google Display Network for the day, which means you’ll miss out on converting new prospects. 

As you can see, running a PPC campaign on a limited budget has quite a few consequences. While it’s not a guarantee that your campaign will fail to meet your goals, Google Ads limited by budget can stop you from realizing the true potential of your PPC ads. 

What Causes the Limited By Budget Status to Appear?

The ‘limited by budget’ status on Google Ads is extremely common, so don’t feel bad if it shows up on one of your campaigns. 

There are quite a few reasons why the status may show up, some of which may surprise you – so let’s look at some of the top causes. 

Your campaign’s scope is too great 

If you’re working with a limited budget, you won’t be able to advertise to the entire planet. Instead, you should narrow your focus to only include the geographic areas that matter the most to your business. 

Advertising to the entirety of the United States will consume a lot of your budget, so use location targeting to only display your ads for the geographic areas that give you the most business. 

It’s also possible that you’re trying to promote too many products & services, and it’s spreading your budget too thin. 

Try pausing some of your ad groups and focusing on one product or service at a time. That way, all your daily resources will go toward promoting a single product/service, which will greatly increase its online visibility. 

As an example, if you stretch your $50 daily budget across 5 ad campaigns, each product will only receive a limited amount of promotion per day (10 clicks each if it’s spread evenly). Yet, if you only push one product at a time, it has the potential to claim all 50 clicks, which significantly increases your chances of finding & converting new prospects. 

Your bids are too high 

It could be that you’ve set your max CPC bids too high. On Google Ads, a bid is how much you’re willing to pay to display one of your ads. As such, ad placements are auctioned off to bidders, with the highest bid winning out and gaining the ad spot. 

Setting your max CPC bid is a crucial part of ensuring that your ads yield profits, so it isn’t something you should take lightly. 

If your bids are too low, you may save money, but you’ll likely lose a majority of your ad auctions. If your bids are too high, you may win lots of ad placements, but they’ll end up tearing through your daily budget. 

If you’re dealing with the ‘limited by budget’ status, you should double-check your max CPC bid to ensure that it’s not too high. Also, you can make bid adjustments that will increase or decrease your bids depending on certain factors, including:

• Time of day 
• Geographic locations
• Device type (mobile device or desktop)
• More

Adjusting your bids according to your metrics (i.e., only displaying ads during certain times of the day) will help you avoid wasting your daily budget. 

Expensive keywords

Keywords that have high search volume are great to target due to the exposure they can provide, but they’re also more expensive. In the PPC world, the more desirable a keyword is, the more it will eat up your daily budget. 

It’s common for Google Ads campaigns to have one or two keywords that suck up a majority of the budget. You can use our keyword planner tool that we linked to previously to discover the average cost for your keywords. 

Resolving/Working with Google Ads Limited By Budget

The ‘limited by budget’ status is by no means the end of the world for an ad campaign. In truth, there are plenty of ways to still make an ad campaign work despite having the dreaded limited budget status.

There are also ways to resolve the status in order to get the most out of your Google Ads campaign. 

Here are the top ways you can either work with the status or resolve it entirely.

Start Simple 

It is okay to start simple with your campaigns, especially if you have a smaller budget. Put your focus on 8 – 10 keywords per campaign. These keywords should be your bread and butter keywords. For example, if you’re a plumber, a straight forward keyword would be Plumber Near Me. This would be a great keyword to sink most of your budget into. 

Increase your daily budget

The first and most obvious way to resolve the situation is to increase your daily budget to cover your ad demand.

However, you should only choose this option if you’re happy with how your campaigns are performing. If things are going smoothly and you have the budget for it, going with Google’s recommendation for an increased budget can be beneficial. 

Pro tip: When increasing your daily budget, keep an eye on your cost-per-conversion (CPC) rate. If it goes too high, you’ll want to decrease your budget while addressing why your conversion rates are so costly. 

Decrease bid sizes

Lowering your max CPC bid can help stretch a limited budget further, yielding more clicks and perhaps even a more desirable CPA (cost-per-acquisition). 

The flip side to this is you’ll have a lower average position. As such, it’s crucial to closely monitor your average SERP rankings when decreasing bid sizes. 

Use strategic ad scheduling 

As mentioned previously, you can alter your ad scheduling settings so that your ads only display during particular times of the day or night.

This will take a bit of research to uncover, but once you find out which times of day grant you the most leads, conversions, and clicks – it’s wise to tweak your ad scheduling settings accordingly. 

Add negative keywords 

Using negative keywords can help you save your precious daily budget, so you should add at least a few of them. 

What are negative keywords?

A negative keyword is a search query that you DON’T want your ads appearing for, thus saving you the money of a wasted click. 

One of the most popular negative keywords to use is ‘free.’ That’s because if someone uses the word ‘free’ in their search query, it means they aren’t interested in paying for a product or service. That means if they do click on one of your ads, you’ll have to pay for the click but likely won’t get anything in return, as they’re after freebies. 

You can use plenty of negative keywords to narrow further the searches you do show up for, which will help you get the most out of your budget. 

Final Thoughts: Google Ads Limited By Budget 

In summary, the ‘limited by budget’ status is no reason to panic, but you should pay attention to it when developing your bid strategy. 

Using strategic ad scheduling, location targeting, negative keywords, and decreased bid sizes are all ways to make the most out of your limited ad budget while still meeting your goals. 

Do you need help developing a winning PPC strategy for your business?

Then don’t wait to check out our five-star PPC management services at The HOTH. We’ll fully manage your PPC campaigns, providing you with consistent traffic, leads, and sales. Our digital marketing gurus are also always available for consulting, so don’t wait to book a call today.      

The post Google Ads Limited by Budget: How it Affects Your PPC Campaigns appeared first on The HOTH.

Local PPC (pay-per-click) refers to paid online advertising focused on a specific local area. This could be a city, state, zip code, neighborhood, or a custom local radius.

It differs from traditional PPC in that you’re targeting a specific location with your ads instead of going international. With standard PPC, potential customers from across the web will get the chance to view your ads, but this isn’t always ideal, especially for startups and smaller companies. 

That’s because international PPC campaigns will pit you against enterprise-level companies from around the world that have astronomical budgets for paid ad campaigns. As a result, your ad groups will likely get blown out of the water, which can be very discouraging. 

That’s why a local PPC strategy is such an effective digital marketing tool for smaller companies and local businesses. 

By geo-targeting specific locations, you’ll significantly reduce the amount of competition you have while simultaneously honing in on your true target audience. 

Of course, local paid search campaigns are like any other digital marketing strategy in that they require intelligent tactics and proper optimization to find sustainable success. 

That’s why we compiled this ultimate guide for devising a winning local PPC ads strategy for your business, so don’t wait to read on to learn how. 

Why Bother with Local PPC? 7 Essential Benefits 

If you’re already humming along with local SEO tactics for your small business, you may wonder why you need to invest in local PPC. 

After all, why spend money on clicks when you can generate them organically for free with local SEO?

First, local SEO may not require spending money upfront, but it’s certainly not free. For a local marketing strategy to work, you’ll likely have to hire an outside agency to help you handle content creation, keyword research, technical adjustments, & analyzing metrics to adjust your tactics accordingly. 

Even if you decide to handle the work by yourself, it’s a massive time investment that will distract you from other things, such as uncovering ways to scale your business. At the very least, you’ll need a few freelancers to help you write articles and create graphics. 

Beyond that, organic SEO takes quite a bit of time to provide a return on investment. 

While local SEO is undoubtedly effective, and you should invest in it along with local PPC, it will take an average of 6 – 12 months to start working. 

What do you do in the meantime?

That’s where local PPC comes into the picture. Local PPC ads can start generating traffic, leads, and sales for you from day one – which is crucial for small businesses in desperate need of new clients. 

In addition to seeing immediate results from local PPC, you’ll also enjoy the 7 following benefits. 

#1: Superior audience targeting 

While it may initially seem counterintuitive, targeting a smaller, local audience will significantly benefit your brand. 

That’s because you won’t have to compete with international enterprise-level companies, and you’ll be able to place your ads in front of a niche audience in your area that’s genuinely interested in what you do.

Let’s consider a quick example to illustrate this. 

Say that you run a local pizzeria in Dayton, Ohio. First, you use a standard PPC campaign that places your ads in front of an international audience. Well, how many people in Switzerland want to visit your pizzeria in Ohio? Not that many, which is why targeting an audience that big isn’t wise. 

Picture instead that you run local PPC advertising strictly for the city of Dayton. Now everyone who sees your ad will be potential customers who can stop by your restaurant for a slice and soda on their lunch break. 

That’s how effective local PPC campaigns are at targeting the right audience, which other digital marketing channels don’t do quite well. 

For instance, it takes quite a bit of keyword and demographic research to uncover target audiences and customer personas for SEO, PPC, and eCommerce – which are things you don’t have to do nearly as much with local PPC. 

As long as you’ve done enough research to discover which specific areas are bringing in the most business, you’ve got enough data to start a local pay-per-click campaign. 

#2: It raises brand awareness

This perk is especially useful for newer businesses eager to implant their names in the minds of potential customers. 

By using local Google Ads campaigns (formerly Google Adwords), your ads will appear at the very top of the search results, even above the organic results. 

As such, even if some users don’t click on your ad, they’re still seeing your business name and are likely making a mental note of it. The brand awareness factor alone will lead to traffic, leads, and sales – even if they don’t occur immediately.

Your prospects can’t visit your location if they don’t know you exist, so raising brand awareness should be one of your top priorities as a new business, and local PPC ads are a great way to do so.  

The superior positioning you gain from local PPC ads is another reason why it’s such a beneficial tactic for smaller businesses. 

Remember, your ads will appear above the organic results generated by traditional SEO efforts. While you should always strive to rank in the organic search results, too, your local SEO strategy will take some time to gain momentum. 

In the meantime, your local search ads will help fill in the gaps and start working their magic for you from day one. 

#3: It improves conversion rates

Over half of all product searches occur on Google search, not to mention that 68% of all online experiences start with a search engine, even if the intent is to purchase something locally. 

So if you want to boost your sales and improve lead generation, you need visibility on search engines, and you need it fast. 

Local PPC ads will immediately skyrocket your ads to the top of the SERPs (search engine results pages), which will place them in front of all the online shoppers ready to make a purchase. 

That will work wonders for your CRO (conversion rate optimization), and you’ll start landing more sales as a result. 

Of course, local PPC ads are only half the equation. They’ll generate plenty of interested visitors to your website, but beyond that, it’s up to the strength of your landing page, CTA, and product/service. To learn more about these essential factors, check out our extensive guide on CRO. 

#4: Local PPC has trackable metrics 

Another perk of local campaigns is how easy they are to track. In other words, you’ll have plenty of metrics to analyze, which will let you know how effective you’re being with your strategy. 

Other local marketing tactics, like handing out flyers or hanging banner ads, don’t have clear-cut metrics you can view. While you may see an increase in sales here and there, it will be extremely difficult to pinpoint when, where, & why they happened. 

Local PPC is different, as you can check your click-through rates, conversion rates, & total impressions on Google Search Console and other analytical tools. These measurable metrics make it far easier to see what’s working and what isn’t, which will help you refine your strategy even further. 

#5: Fewer competitors 

As stated before, nationwide or international PPC campaigns have incredibly steep competition. They pit you against legacy companies that have deep pockets, large followings, and a ton of influence. 

Local pay-per-click campaigns grant you the ability to drastically scale down the competition, which can help you find your footing with a local audience. 

The more specific you can get with your location, the fewer competitors you’ll likely have. 

#6: It’s beginner-friendly 

Tackling a local SEO strategy by yourself is a huge undertaking that takes a lot of knowledge about search engines, link-building, blogging, website creation, and more. 

That’s why most companies turn to SEO marketing agencies to handle the majority of the workload & strategizing. 

Yet, local PPC campaigns don’t require nearly as much SEO & digital marketing knowledge. Most of the steps are intuitive, and you won’t have to worry about things like link-building and creating content, either. 

It’s another reason why startups should look to local PPC for its immediate benefits instead of only focusing on local SEO. 

#7: It’s highly flexible

Don’t have a massive budget to allocate toward a local PPC campaign?

That’s no problem at all; simply set your budget in stone and choose what you’re willing to spend. If your ads really start to take off, you’ll be able to afford to scale up, which you can do immediately. 

If things start to fall off, you can always scale your efforts back. 

This amazing flexibility is a significant benefit and definitely a reason not to ignore local PPC. 

Implementing a Local PPC Strategy 

Since it’s clear that local PPC is the way to go, it’s time to learn how to utilize it properly. There’s definitely a right and a wrong way to handle a local pay-per-click campaign, so you need to know the best practices to follow. 

Finding success with local PPC ads is all about narrowing your location down to its most compact size, appealing to your audience by speaking their language, and delivering on your offer with an optimized landing page. 

Here are some effective tips to supercharge your local PPC tactics. 

Using single-keyword ad groups 

Ad groups play a prominent role in Google Ads, as they allow you to target multiple keywords at a time for your ads.

Yet, many digital marketers don’t know about the effectiveness of single keyword ad groups, especially for local PPC. 

Why are single-keyword ad groups so special?

They are because of the following:

• They improve the click-through rate and quality score of your local ads 
• They make your ad copy more relevant 
• They’re perfect for targeting smaller audiences 

Single keyword ad groups will narrow your audience to include only the prospects that have the most potential to convert. 

They’ll also provide a sort of hyperfocus for your content, ensuring that it’s extremely relevant to the user query/keyword. 

Use local lingo in your ads 

If you want your audience to feel like you understand them, you need to speak their language. 

Beyond that, speaking like the locals will help you further refine your local keywords. As an example, if your local audience says ‘pop’ instead of ‘soda,’ you’ll want to include that terminology in your ads. 

Otherwise, your local artisan sodas won’t get near as many clicks, as your prospects will be typing ‘local pop’ instead. 

Pro tip: You should include your location in the name of your ad to negate any unqualified traffic from clicking on your ad. After all, if you operate a local bar in Albuquerque, New Mexico – you only want to advertise to thirsty patrons looking to drink inside the city. 

If Albuquerque is in the title, users from other parts of the state will know that you only serve that location. 

Using extensions 

Another great way to increase ad engagement with your audience is to take advantage of Google’s ad extensions. 

What are those?

Extensions are ways that you can spruce up standard text ads on Google. Types of extensions include the following:

• Ad extensions 
• Location extensions 
• Call extensions 

Ad extensions enable you to add extra hyperlinks to your text ad, which can boost engagement. For instance, you may choose to include links to specific product pages or testimonials at the bottom of your ad. 

Location extensions are perfect for business owners that have multiple locations across town. The extension will list your various locations, complete with their distance from the user that generated the search. Upon clicking one of the locations, they’ll immediately get Google Maps directions from their location to your business. 

Call extensions add a hyperlink to your phone number embedded in the ad. Users can either jot down their number or click the link to call you directly. These types of extensions are best if you make most of your sales over the phone. 

Final Thoughts: Local PPC Campaigns 

If you want to start increasing your leads and sales as soon as possible but don’t have the budget to compete on a global scale, local PPC is the way to go. 

It’s newbie-friendly, so you shouldn’t have trouble getting the ball rolling with some local ads. 

By following this guide and also optimizing your landing pages and CTAs (see our guide on CRO that we linked to before), you’ll be fully equipped to start acquiring tons of new clients. 

Need help devising a local PPC or SEO campaign?

Then you need to check out our local SEO packages and our PPC management service today.    

The post Local PPC: How to Optimize Your Ads So the People Come to You appeared first on The HOTH.

Have you been thinking about buying pay-per-click advertising for your business? Many businesses wander down the road of paid ads. In fact, nearly all small businesses advertise and about 45% of small businesses use PPC regularly.   

So, what is PPC? In basic terms, PPC is when an advertiser pays for an advertisement each time it’s clicked.

The ad is displayed prominently in a Google search so more people are likely to see it when searching for specific products or services. The result is that potential customers see your business first. 

While very effective if done right, there’s no question PPC can get complicated quickly. Especially if it’s your first time. 

As more businesses than ever are setting up these ads to compete in the digital marketplace, we wanted to share some important things you need to know before buying PPC. These tips will save you money and time in the long run.  

Ready to succeed? Keep scrolling!

What are The Different Types of PPC Marketing?

Successful ad campaigns require ongoing management and can take time before you begin to see results. Certain risks do come along with PPC like ad placement or a competitive keyword. So, it’s best to choose the right type of ad campaign that fits your goal. 

Here are a few different types of PPC: 

Paid search marketing

Paid search marketing is one of the most commonly used types of PPC. Providers like Google Ads and Bing Ads, show your ads to people who actively search for different keywords.  

You’re able to set up campaigns by writing an ad copy, selecting the right keywords, and choosing a landing page for your website.   

Display ads

Display ads are basically just images such as banners, video ads, and text ads that appear on websites other than SERP to target a particular audience. 

What these types of ads do is link back to your website. They generally return a lower click-through rate than search ads, but they can be more useful if brand awareness is your online marketing goal. In fact, ads can increase brand awareness by 80%. 

Social Media Advertising

Social media advertising involves ads that are placed on social media platforms and are targeted at individual users. Social networks tend to utilize an individual’s information so the ads are fairly relevant and based on interactions within a specific platform. 

There are a few different types of social media ads, such as Facebook Ads, Instagram Stories Ads, and Conversational Ads which are found on Twitter. All of these platforms have different types of ads, but the purpose of them all remains the same. 

Retargeting PPC advertising

Retargeting ads are interesting because they are more targeted by Google’s algorithm and personal to a specific user based on their previous online searches and demographic. 

For example, have you ever noticed that you tend to see ads for a product you’ve just searched for? A user who searches for a product such as an “iPhone” would see more display ads for that product. 

Price comparison website advertising

Price comparison or aggregator sites gather and display prices and special offers. That may sometimes include comparison websites or hotels and travel. People will often click through the offers and buy directly from a merchant or from the price comparison website itself. Actually, 65% of customers click on PPC ads, which increases conversion rates. 

Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing uses performance-based payment. Payment is usually aligned with results. You can set up affiliate marketing pretty easily, or even outsource to third-party provider affiliate networks. Affiliate marketing isn’t just for bloggers and YouTubers, about 90% of advertisers say that affiliate marketing is an essential part of their marketing strategy. 

The Difference Between PPI, CPC, and PPC

So, what is the difference between PPC and PPI? 

PPC is a form of paid advertising where you are only charged when someone clicks on your ad. With a PPI or pay-per-impression, you are charged anything a user goes and searches and your ad appears on the results page. Though there’s usually a lower conversion rate that is associated with PPI, the cost is usually less expensive. 

Another question you might ask is if you should use PPC or CPC? 

Let me explain:

As I mentioned, PPC is pay per click, but CPC is cost-per-click. PPC is a pricing model for digital advertising, whereas CPC is more of a metric that measures cost-per-click. The main difference between PPC and CPC is mostly marketing tactics. 

Different ad types have different goals and purposes that are used to target different stages of digital marketing. 

It’s important to understand which ad would best fit your commerce plan, which keywords your targeting, and what stage of the buyer’s journey your audience is at. That way you have more control over which ad your audience is shown. By doing so, you don’t waste time and resources on paid advertising and you can get the most from your money. 

Will PPC Work For Your Business?

If people are searching online for your products or services, PPC literally puts you up there at the moment they’re searching for you.

Think about yourself for a moment. What’s the first thing you do when you want to buy a new running shoe or hire a plumber to fix your leaky sink? 

You search Google for the “best running shoes” or “affordable plumbers.” Next, you’ll read through the search results to find products or services that are top-rated, affordable, and have a bunch of positive reviews.

This is how buyers behave today. It doesn’t matter if your business is local, national, or global, e-commerce or service-based, buying PPC can help you appear in searches first. 

The answer to the question is yes! PPC can work for your business. 

Besides brand awareness and CTR, here are a few other things PPC can achieve:

• Generate more leads
• Improve click-through rates or CTR and quality score
• Give companies more control

The most compelling reason to use PPC ads is that they can help you achieve a large number of marketing goals such as producing more qualified leads for your business. 

Improving click-through rates in search campaigns is an important goal that marketers usually want from paid online advertising. For example, if your PPC ad has 1,000 impressions but only 1 click, that means it’s a 0.1% CTR. As an important metric, CTR lets you know how relevant your target audience is finding your ad. 

One reason that PPC is great for giving businesses more control is that it is based entirely on budget. It offers a larger level of control than traditional paid advertising. One of the main reasons why businesses use PPC is because you have more control over how your ad budget is spent. 

If Your SEO Is Doing Well, Should You Still Invest in PPC?

Smart business owners understand the importance of search engine optimization, Google Analytics, and keyword research. They research their customers and incorporate relevant keywords throughout their website to enhance Google’s ranking. Some businesses even have mobile apps developed in addition to their search engine marketing strategies. 

These same owners work with agencies like The HOTH to generate high-quality content and set up backlinks from reputable sites. All of these tactics boost their organic SEO, but sometimes it’s not enough.

Around 60% of web traffic from search engine results pages bounces off your website and never returns. For whatever reason, they visited a few pages, clicked a few buttons, or read part of a blog before vanishing into thin air. 

But, here’s a silver lining.

PPC advertising can be used to remarket your products or services to these online visitors. If someone visits your roofing website for a few minutes and never returns, PPC ads for your service will be delivered to them through Google. 

Chances are they visited multiple roofing companies online to get quotes or read about specialties. While they’re mulling over the final hiring decision, your remarketing campaign will continue engaging with them. 

This increases the probability of you being hired for the job!

How Much Should You Pay for PPC?

Even before COVID-19, one of the first questions businesses asked us was about budgets. After all, most businesses don’t have unlimited dollars to spend on ads. They want to know how much of an ad spend will help move the needle.

If done right, your PPC return on investment or ROI will be well worth everything you spent. That’s also a reason to hire experienced professionals to do it for you. Our FREE PPC ROI Calculator can help you determine the correct return on investment. 

Generally, we recommend that businesses set a budget of at least $1,000 per month in ad spend to get enough traffic to start seeing results. Now if you’re a lawyer or a business with a lot of competition, we suggest increasing this budget to $5,000 to $10,000 per month.

Law firm PPC, for example, has a higher CPC than other businesses. A new client more than offsets the initial advertising investment, but having a bigger budget will ensure you get those new leads.

And we can do all of the hard work for you!

Should You Outsource PPC?

One major problem in the PPC world is ad blindness. The PPC industry is well aware of a well-known issue where people simply ignore ads because they know they are ads. Statistics suggest that a majority of ads (80%) are seen, but remain ignored. 

That’s why it’s sometimes best to use an agency such as The HOTH so your ads don’t get ignored and you don’t waste a ton of money, time, and resources on PPC that no one clicks on.

Our PPC Management Services include a dedicated campaign manager who utilizes advanced campaign strategies to help you beat the competition. 

We keep you informed of progress every step of the way. You’ll receive weekly reports from us on expenditures, the average cost-per-click, your site’s click-through rate, a full list of leads, and more!

Our services are also customized according to your industry. Check out some of the SEO and PPC solutions we’ve provided to law firms, contractors, dentists, gyms, and more!

Setting up a PPC advertising campaign seems simple. You log into Google Ads and can have an ad running within 5 to 10 minutes. Why pay someone else to do it for you?

The problem is it’s easy to burn through thousands of dollars of cash through Google. PPC campaigns are a lot of trial and error, and without the right experience you may end up losing a lot of money. 

It all appears straightforward but there are several landmines you need to clear in order to make a successful Google campaign.

The HOTH’s campaign managers are all Google certified. They have gone through rigorous training to learn the ins and outs of Google Ads, and we have experience managing millions of dollars of ad spend.

We’ve become so effective at managing PPC for businesses that Google recognized us as a Google Certified Partner. 

In the end, you can do it yourself. But, why do that when you can focus on what you do best, which is actually running your business? Our experts can help grow your business using Google Ads. 

It’s Time to Start Buying PPC!

As you can see, there is a lot of strategy and expertise that goes into PPC. Hopefully, you can apply some of what we discussed above to your business plan. 

But, if you’re tired of experimenting with it or you’re ready to get started for the first time, you should check out The HOTH’s PPC Management Services. We offer ads for retargeting, lead generation, call-only, and more.

With optimized PPC ads, you’ll see a boost in web traffic, more customer inquiries, and most importantly, higher sales revenues. 

Reach out to us and schedule a call with one of our PPC consultants and get started.

The post Things To Know Before Buying PPC appeared first on The HOTH.

In this article, we will explain call tracking, how it works and what data it can provide from phone calls (besides the typical phone numbers). Also, why your business needs and should be using call tracking. We’ll also look at Google Ads Call Tracking (which has some notorious drawbacks) and present a better call tracking solution. Read on if that sounds like the valuable, actionable info you’re searching for.

What is Call Tracking and Call Tracking Software?

Call tracking is a reporting and call recording software that empowers your business to track important details of incoming business phone calls. The data call tracking collects from inbound calls is as valuable as it gets, including who called, when they called, and what organization, if any, they represented. 

Call tracking software also tells you where the caller was located and, most importantly, provides a transcript of all phone calls. In short, it gives you hard data on phone calls that your business can then use in a variety of business-building ways. You can use it to optimize your website content, for example, and to engage and attract more searchers and visitors.

Another excellent benefit of call tracking software is that marketers can identify which marketing campaign prompted the phone call, which greatly improves KPI measurement. It can also identify the keywords, ads, and web pages that drove the call to be placed.

Call tracking can also better measure online and offline marketing campaign performance. Sales teams employ call tracking software in advertising like Google Ads (PPC) to attribute which phone calls came from which place (and which phone numbers), so you know what marketing strategies are working and, more importantly, aren’t working. 

How Does Call Tracking Software Work?

At its most basic, call tracking is when unique phone numbers are used for every marketing campaign a business runs. The reason for the unique phone numbers is simple; to tell the campaigns apart. When phone calls come in from a specific number, you know immediately to which campaign the caller is responding.

So, for example, XYZ Company decides to launch a marketing campaign (or several of them). The first thing that happens is that unique phone numbers are assigned, either local or 800 phone numbers. Those numbers can also lead to any desired department, including an office phone, marketing department, or 3rd-party answering service.

Once set up, phone calls go through phone tracking software when those phone numbers are called. The software is the key, allowing phone calls to be attributed to paid search, organic traffic, social media, and several other sources. 

Dynamic phone numbers are also available that empower an advertiser to use as many numbers as they like and cover a variety of sources, marketing campaigns, and keywords. Call tracking software also incorporates scrips, cookies, “call whisper,” conversion settings, and more, giving an advertiser tremendous flexibility, improving their marketing campaigns significantly, and even working offline.

What are the Benefits of Call Tracking?

Call tracking with unique phone numbers, and call tracking software has many excellent benefits that today’s business owners simply can’t ignore. Most of them have to do with providing valuable call data and metrics. Still, all will help you improve your marketing campaigns, optimize content and give the correct attribution to the correct campaign. Some of the best benefits of call tracking software include:

• Call recording. Using call recording, you can identify customer service challenges and areas where improvement is needed, increasing conversions and sales.
• Call tracking lets you know which keywords are driving the most traffic to your website or landing page.
• With call tracking software, you can track the performance of your PC landing pages and determine which has the best conversion rates.
• Call duration is another excellent benefit of call tracking software. Statistically, longer, more in-depth calls produce higher conversion rates.
• Call tracking software identifies the marketing campaigns generating the most calls.
• With call tracking software and place, you will be able to market smarter using call attribution.

The Problem With Default Google Ads Call Tracking

Google’s default call tracking program is included in Google ads, but, unfortunately, it has some serious issues. For example, Google’s call tracking provides very few details about the caller and why they called. The limited data from Google’s call tracking include:

• The area code of the caller
• The length of the call
• The time of the call
• Which keyword or campaign drove the call

Worse still is that Google’s call tracking is unable to provide services that many other call tracking programs do provide, including:

1. Conversion tracking is limited to the search network.
2. The system can’t track multiple numbers.
3. Call tracking is limited to AdWords.
4. There is no call recording feature.
5. All calls are recorded as conversions.
6. Dynamic numbers expire after 90 days.
7. Call tracking data can’t be integrated into Google Analytics.
8. The system doesn’t provide a “request a call back” function

The lack of these 8 main features presents several drawbacks for businesses big and small:

1. Your people won’t record many conversions triggered by Google ads.
2. It’s impossible to know which number was used on the phone calls.
3. You can’t compare the call volume from various sources.
4. You can’t improve or optimize customer service.
5. It’s impossible to tell if a phone call was a conversion or not.
6. Users who call after 90 days won’t get through as the phone numbers will be expired.
7. You can’t use analytics to make improvements or optimize content and SEO.
8. Your business will inevitably miss sales as inbound calls are often missed.

A Better Call Tracking Solution

One way to fix Google’s out-of-the-box call tracking is to implement a separate, more advanced call-tracking solution. There are many call tracking software apps on the market today, including:

1. Hubspot
2. WhatConverts
3. 800response
4. ActiveDemand
5. CallAction
6. CallFire
7. CallSource
8. FluentStream
9. Convirza
10. Infinity
11. Invoca

In our humble opinion, the best call tracking software is CallRail which we use for all our call tracking campaigns and inbound calls.

CallRail is a 3rd party software that allows a business to build tracking numbers and procure important details about phone calls not available in the standard Google Ads call tracking.

For call tracking to work, we first build tracking phone numbers that automatically forward the call to your main business line, allowing us to collect statistics on the phone call.

Doing this allows us to collect more detailed information, like:

• Exact Caller Number
• Call Time
• Call Length
• Call Source
• Call Recording

Here’s what it looks like:

This type of reporting gives much more detail, allows you to listen to recorded phone calls, and is significantly more accurate based on our research.

The Benefits Of Using Advanced Call Tracking

There are many excellent benefits to using advanced call tracking in your ad campaigns, especially to optimize them. So much so that we believe every paid ad campaign should include call tracking for the best results. 

More Accurate Call Tracking

Most modern call tracking systems use cookies to track online activity. We’ve seen major differences between out-of-the-box Google Ads call tracking and our upgraded call tracking system using CallRail.

For example, using the CallRail call tracking software, 14-40%+ more phone calls are being reported. That means your business can:

• Determine who called, from where, and why
• Make significantly more callbacks to those phone numbers
• Better optimize your ad campaigns 

You can use call analytics provided by the CallRail call tracking system to measure call-related metrics to determine conversion data effectively. For example, which Google Ads campaign generates the most phone calls for your business? 

Answering that question is the call attribution report, one of the major call analytics provided by this improved call tracking system. Call attribution provides information on the marketing sources and interactions that generate the calls. 

Killer Reporting Detail

In the past, with standard Google “Out Of The Box” tracking, you could see where calls were coming from, but qualifying them was almost impossible. That’s because Google’s Call Details report was severely limited.

With our advanced call tracking system, you get a whole new level of detail, including:

• Full phone number
• Call time
• Call length
• Call campaign
• Call recording

All of this valuable call recording data is provided on an intuitive, easy-to-use dashboard! There it’s simple to analyze each phone call quickly, see if the caller is qualified, export the call recording, or playback the call recording.

Call Recordings

Listening to call recordings may seem odd, but it is one of the most powerful tools to optimize marketing campaigns, improve conversion rates and revise, if necessary, your marketing strategy.

For example, if we hear prospects are interested in learning more about a specific service or feature, we can update the ad & landing page copy to match that need.

This single optimization increases conversion rates and brings in more qualified leads!

Listening lets you know which campaign produces qualified leads and double down on those efforts. A great example of this is below for a roofing company:

In the past, calls over 1-2 minutes were often seen as a positive lead indicator. However, gauging lead quality solely on the length of phone calls isn’t enough. We need to know if the phone call was a qualified lead, and the call content can give us that information.

In this 6-minute+ example, we found it was not for getting a new roof installed or repaired (the client’s main service) but instead was for roofing materials, a service they don’t offer.

The recording allowed us to identify this fact and optimize the campaign to prevent future irrelevant calls, saving the client time and money!

Removing Junk Call Sources

The final element of call recordings we use for optimization is figuring out where junk leads are coming from. You couldn’t qualify the leads with Google call tracking, which was a major drawback. Using Callrail, however, we know exactly where junk leads are emanating.

With CallRail, you can turn off specific aspects of your PPC campaign bringing in those junk leads, saving your team significant time and effort. Indeed, it’s given us the ability to optimize the campaign at an entirely new level.

Some of the optimizations we can make after listening to call recordings include:

• Ad copy adjustments
• Landing page copy adjustments
• Offer adjustments
• Follow up process adjustments
• Keyword changes
• And much more.

In short, call tracking with CallRail provides killer insight into what’s happening with the campaigns.

Call Tracking Case Studies & Results

Finally, let’s dive into the discrepancies we have seen while running this system for our HOTH PPC clients over the past few months.

Client Experiment #1

The first set of results is from a Lawyer. Calls and qualified leads are the heart of this campaign.

Inside Google Ads, we had 93 calls tracked. However, the same phone number using CallRail, had 142 calls tracked!

That’s 41% more calls tracked. Put another way, Google’s call tracking solution missed 41% of calls.

Even better, by listening to the calls, an important discovery was made: most of the calls were going directly to the client’s voicemail and not being picked up by an actual person!

We communicated this to the client and suggested a live receptionist take the incoming calls.

As you might imagine, the client was ecstatic that we uncovered this simple but vital piece of data!

Client Experiment #2

This client, also an attorney, informed us that inbound calls were extremely important to their business.

With Google Ads, we had 44 phone calls tracked.

With Callrail, we tracked 51 phone calls, a 14% increase.

More important than the increase, the call data allowed us to optimize the campaign. For example, we originally had 2 campaigns set up for this, one state-wide and one focused on a local area.

After listening to the recorded phone calls, we found that the city-specific campaign was producing higher call volume and higher quality leads. Our solution was to reallocate a portion of the monthly budget to the city-specific campaign.

Once done, more qualified leads started coming in, and the client is now seeing a significantly higher ROI for his campaigns.

Client Experiment #3

This last example is a roofing company. Their desire was as many qualified leads as possible for homeowners needing a new roof.

Before installing call tracking, we had decent metrics based on our predictions for this highly competitive market.

After we installed call tracking software, however, we were able to identify that callers were asking about competitors, jobs, and roofing supplies. In other words, many of the leads were not qualified leads.

Editor’s note

Today, we pre-optimize campaigns before we begin, using negative keyword lists to ensure we’re not showing up for terms that don’t fit the campaign.

Additionally, as part of our post-launch optimization process, we check the search term report daily to add new negative keywords and optimize campaigns even further.

Listening to calls gives us an entirely different data point – we’re able to find negative keyword ideas that don’t even show up on the search term report based on what the callers were asking for. This helps usensure you’re getting quality leads – not just hitting the numbers.

With this new data, we were able to add new negative keywords for specific competitors, jobs, and supplies. We also continue to monitor call quality, and we’re able to see a substantial improvement in inbound calls.

The thing is, numbers don’t tell the whole story. As a business owner, you don’t want a bunch of leads; you want a bunch of quality leads. A better call tracking solution can make all the difference in your campaigns, enhance your marketing efforts, and improve your SEO.

Conclusion- Call Tracking Makes Good Business Sense

When you’re spending money on PPC, getting as much raw data as possible is essential. This raw data allows you to optimize your marketing campaigns, which is why advanced call tracking is a service we believe all businesses should employ! Call tracking eliminates wasted efforts, maintains quality, and keeps new leads rolling in.

There’s no legitimate reason to miss the mark by 40% or more on campaign reporting with call tracking software in place!

Need help with your PPC campaigns? Have questions about call tracking, optimizing ad campaigns, or implementing CallRail call tracking for your business? If yes, check out HOTH PPC today or contact us, and someone will get back to you asap.

The post What Is Call Tracking? (And Why Your Business Needs It) appeared first on The HOTH.

We’re here to tell you that this app, which is the fastest-growing in the world with 656 million downloads in 2021, is not just for sharing silly dance videos.

Here’s some context: social media giants Instagram and Facebook only had an average of 480 million downloads last year. 

TikTok may not be as large as Facebook (yet) but it’s catching on faster than any other app on the market. 

Why is it growing so quickly?

People love using it. In 2020, 88% of TikTok reviews were positive. It’s possible some users are migrating away from other apps that make them feel anxious or depressed to others that bring them joy. 

The other reason for TikTok’s success is its incredible algorithm that personalizes the experience for every single user. 

If you’ve never thought about using TikTok ads for your digital marketing strategy, now’s the time to consider it. It’s easy to use, affordable, and effective.

Keep reading the rest of this blog to learn more about the app and how you can use it to grow your business!

TikTok 101

Before diving into the specifics of marketing with TikTok, let’s cover the basics.

This Chinese app was first launched in 2018 by the company ByteDance. Known as Douyin in China, it was developed as a video-based app where users can share content like dances, pranks, or jokes.

Most videos are only a few seconds long but users can upload content that is up to 10 minutes in length. 

Shorter content will obviously perform better and TikTok experts recommend shooting for only 7 seconds if you want to hit the algorithm’s sweet spot. 

TikTok operates with hashtags like other apps and specific videos will trend, pushing others to replicate that content in their own unique way. Check out some of the trending videos here.

Like Snapchat or Instagram, TikTok also features sophisticated filters and effects. Users can also search through thousands of original sounds (recorded by users) to use in their videos. 

Many businesses or TikTok influencers will post videos about specific products or services. They allow a user to see how something works and TikTok’s algorithm ensures it reaches someone with that interest. 

The cosmetics industry has been killing it on TikTok but there are also videos on a variety of products.

TikTok gives your business the opportunity to promote its products or services organically, but there is also an ads manager that is similar to the one on Facebook. 

How Do TikTok Ads Work?

Once you’ve created a TikTok account for your business, it’s time to set up TikTok For Business. 

As stated above, the program works similarly to the Facebook Ads Manager. You select a campaign objective (Traffic, Conversions, or App Install) and set a budget.

Marketers are able to create up to 999 ad groups per campaign. 

TikTok also offers multiple placements: 

• TikTok video ads
• On the News Feed apps 
• Pangle Placement 
• Automatic Placement

TikTok operates other apps (BuzzVideo, TopBuzz, NewsRepublic, and Babe) where you can place your ads on the News Feed. 

A Pangle Placement allows you to extend audiences through TikTok’s audience network. 

And an Automatic Placement gives TikTok the power to optimize your ad delivery. 

The TikTok For Business platform allows you to select from three types of bidding: a cap on bidding, costs, or focusing on getting the lowest cost per event. You can even choose whether to separate your ad delivery equally or to go through as fast as possible. 

Another great option is to boost existing content, a quick and easy decision that is also popular on Facebook. 

Who Is TikTok’s Primary Audience?

No social media advertising campaign will be effective unless the marketer running it understands the primary audience on that app. 

If you didn’t know, social media apps have different audiences.

Globally, 35% of TikTok users are between the ages of 30 and 39. The second-largest audience segment of 28% is made up of users between the ages of 19 and 29. 

Women are the majority of users. They make up nearly 60% of the audience. 

While this app is the most popular in China, its other major markets include the United States, Indonesia, and Brazil. 

It’s clear that the primary audience on TikTok are young women. 

Overall, the app is an opportunity for businesses to start cultivating younger potential customers. They may not be a customer immediately but that may change in the future. Brand recognition would ensure that they reach out to you first. 

Some companies are even surprised by how well their products or services resonate on TikTok, even though they never considered targeting younger people directly. 

And one effect of TikTok’s rapid growth is that the population of older users will begin to increase as it did on Facebook. 

TikTok Ads vs. Facebook Ads: How Are They Different?

Previously, if you asked a PPC expert how these two systems were different, they would point out how Facebook is far more precise because they have collected so much data over the years.

That’s been true, until now!

We wrote another blog recently about using Facebook Ads after the iOS14 update. To summarize, Apple devices are now prompting users to decide if they want to be tracked across devices. 

Most users are saying no and, as a result, the data is not as reliable as it once was. It’s also forcing businesses to focus on smaller audiences and 1st Party Data.

We’ve been using TikTok here at The HOTH to promote our services. Ads through TikTok are cheaper than on Facebook and they are effective at finding the right audience.

In our opinion, using TikTok is like the gold rush days of Facebook Ads in 2010. 

There are four available ad options in TikTok For Business: 

1. TopView: the first video users see when they open the app
2. In-Feed Ads: these ads appear in a user’s feed as they explore videos
3. Branded Hashtag Challenge: allows brands to start their own trends
4. Branded Effects: connects brands with stickers, filters, or effects for engagement

What other ways is advertising on Facebook or TikTok different? 

You can only do videos on TikTok because that’s the format (plus it’s only available on mobile devices).

Some Facebook Ads seem to go on forever but successful TikTok ads need to connect with viewers in seconds. Advertisers on TikTok target by interest and the algorithm is more precise the longer someone spends on it.

The average TikTok session is 10.85 minutes! That’s higher than any other social media app.

How To Develop a Winning Lead Gen Campaign on TikTok

Once you’re ready to dive into TikTok Ads, we would recommend setting up lead generation campaigns. Here’s how you do it.

Start by creating a new campaign. As you can see below, you have multiple options.

When you create a lead generation campaign on TikTok, users complete your lead form on the app rather than being sent to a separate landing page.

Your next step will be selecting an audience by age, gender, and location. Check out the top right-hand corner where our selections can potentially reach more than 133 million users.

In the beginning, you have to do your best to reflect what interests your potential customers have. After a few days, TikTok will analyze the data from its algorithm and give you recommended interests.

Some of these recommended interests are relevant (like for us, IT services or Marketing & Advertising) but other interests are ones you never would’ve expected (for example, Agriculture, Forest, Animal Husbandry & Fishing). 

You should still run all of these recommended interests because nothing beats the TikTok algorithm.

Next, you will upload or create your content for the ad. A stellar blog post or lead magnet will work perfectly. 

TikTok also has an incredible editing system in its manager where you can create an effective ad without needing professional help.

You can search through TikTok’s library of music or sounds, and even search by which “tracks” are getting the “highest spend.” Text and stickers can be added as a user would on the app.

After getting the video looking how you want it, your last step is to create a simple landing form to collect customer information. It only takes a few seconds and then your ad can go live!

Like TikTok—Then What Are You Waiting For?

The TikTok app is offering a big opportunity for many businesses to gain more exposure and collect more leads. 

Getting started with this popular app is as easy as opening an account. 

Once you get the hang of navigating the interface, finding trends, and posting your content using its sophisticated tools, you can establish your first-ever TikTok marketing strategy. 

As you read above, it’s cheaper than Facebook and runs off an incredible algorithm to connect you with the right users. 

Do you need help getting started with TikTok For Business? Simply schedule a consultation with our PPC team and we can guide you through every step. 

The post Cash-In On TikTok Ads To Get More Leads appeared first on The HOTH.

With so much money on the line, it’s important to see if your ad campaigns are actually effective — are they generating the desired revenue? Are they driving conversions? Or aren’t they creating the expected impact?

Return on ad spend (ROAS) is a critical metric that is used to measure advertising campaign performance. It indicates how much revenue your ad campaign is generating and is a key marker of a successful campaign. 

In this article, we will explain what ROAS is, how it differs from ROI, how to calculate it, what a good ROAS is, and give you seven expert tips on how to maximize your ROAS.

What Is ROAS?

Return On Ad Spend (ROAS) is a PPC metric that measures how much revenue a single ad or entire campaign generates for each dollar you spend on that ad or campaign.

ROAS essentially measures the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns. A higher ROAS is a good sign — it means you’re squeezing more revenue out of every dollar spent on ad campaigns.

How Is ROAS Different From ROI?

Return on Investment (ROI) is a broad metric measuring the total revenue generated per dollar spent on a specific action.

ROAS is technically a subset of ROI. It’s simply the ROI of a specific ad campaign.

That said, most people use ROI to refer more broadly to a project, such as a new product.

Imagine you launch a new product. Your ad campaign generates a high ROAS, but the overall product delivers a low ROI. 

This could indicate that your campaigns are effective at selling the product, but perhaps you’re not charging enough to cover the rest of your operating expenses.

On the other hand, you might have a low ROAS for an ad campaign but a high ROI on the product. This could indicate that although your ad campaign isn’t generating a lot of sales, each sale offers enough profit margin to deliver a high ROI.

Additionally, it’s worth noting that money spent on salaries and wages for advertising team members doesn’t count in your ROAS. Only the amount spent on the actual campaign is part of ROAS.

How To Calculate ROAS

Calculating your ROAS is quite simple. Divide the total revenue attributable to your ad campaign by the total cost of those ads. The resulting number represents the number of dollars you earn per dollar spent.

Here’s a formula:

ROAS = (Revenue / advertising cost)

For example, imagine you sell 1,000 units of a $20 product via ads. That puts your revenue at $20,000.

Let’s also say that you spent $5,000 total to run that ad campaign.

Plugging these numbers into our formula:

ROAS = $20,000 / $5,000

Your ROAS for this ad campaign is 4. That means you earned $4 on your ads for each $1 you spent on those ads.

Why Does ROAS Matter?

ROAS gives you an idea of how well you’re using your ad dollars. This offers you several benefits:

Better decision making

Gathering more data surrounding your ad performance helps you make more informed decisions in the future.

For example, you might score a particularly high ROAS after implementing a specific marketing angle in your ad copy. You might consider upping your investment in this marketing angle and continuing to run this campaign.

Track campaign performance

Revenue is a crucial KPI for ad campaigns because it gives you an idea of your campaign’s performance. 

You may be able to look at your ROAS in real-time. This could help you report on the campaign’s performance to stakeholders on the fly. It could also allow you to make adjustments right away, instead of at the end of a campaign.

Determine campaign renewal

ROAS is one of the best metrics for determining if the marketing campaigns you run are good — and thus, worth renewing. If a particular campaign had a higher ROAS than usual, there’s no need to change things. Consider renewing it.

On the other hand, you shouldn’t renew a campaign with a bad ROAS. Scrap old campaigns and try something new.

Keep stakeholders informed

Most stakeholders — especially executives — want to know how many dollars you’re earning per dollar spent on your ads. 

The same goes for partners in the business. Anyone who owns part of the business will want to make sure every dollar that’s put into growth is used as effectively as possible.

Keeping tabs on your ROAS provides them with a convenient metric that keeps them informed on how well you’re using ads to grow and can help them get an overall picture of business growth.

What Is a Good ROAS?

Like any other advertising or marketing metric, ROAS depends on the platform you’re analyzing. 

For example, Jungle Scout estimates that Sponsored brand ad campaigns have the highest ROAS on Amazon, garnering $6.28 for every $1 spent. 

On Facebook, a Databox survey revealed that 30% of marketers got a 6–10x return on ad spend, while around 5% said their ROAS was higher than 80x.

Google Ads is another common platform for marketers and advertisers. The average ROAS on that platform is 2:1 or 200%. That means Google Ads users, on average, double each dollar they invest in campaigns.

Many consider that the overall average ROAS for a successful campaign is around 4:1, which is $4 in revenue for every dollar spent.

Remember that these are just averages and that your actual ROAS depends on a variety of factors. A good ROAS depends on your industry, profit margins, and the average cost-per-click (CPC).

How To Improve ROAS

Improving your ROAS unlocks a lot of potential business growth. It helps you identify ad campaigns that work, letting you scale up your investment and redirect some efforts elsewhere.

At the same time, you can invest your extra revenue into other aspects of your business once you make significant ROAS improvements.

With these benefits in mind, let’s look at several ways to boost your ROAS.

1. Track the right data

First, ensure you’re looking at the correct data for ROAS. 

Ignore data that doesn’t deal directly with your ads, such as marketing software costs, salaries and wages for marketing or advertising team members, agency fees, and so on.

For Google Ads, you’ll also need to pick a Google Ads attribution model that fits your needs. Each model credits the conversion to different parts of your ad funnel.

For instance, the Data-Driven model credits ad interactions based on how important they were to the conversion process. This model is the default and uses automation to take out some of the guesswork.

However, there are six others that you can choose from based on your goals and needs.

2. Lower your CPC

One way to lower CPC is to target the right audience, which helps you bring in leads that are more likely to need what you sell.

This generates more revenue but could help you score a lower CPC. This is because Google might give you a higher Quality Score, which reduces your CPC.

You can also use different bidding strategies. Different bidding strategies focus on different goals, so some may be more cost-effective than others.

3. Use the right keywords

Researching and targeting the right keywords in your ads helps you get in front of users that most closely need what you offer and will click through.

Go after long-tail keywords. These are low-volume, longer keyphrases users are more likely to use closer to the purchase.

For example, “running shoes” is a broad keyword. A long-tail version for someone interested in running might be “supportive running shoes for flat feet” — that’s very specific and indicates a higher purchase intent.

Create single-theme ad groups as well. These organize keywords by theme instead of keyword. A good example would be “trimming hair” and “cutting hair.”

Now, include negative keywords, too. These screen out irrelevant leads using similar search terms.

For instance, if you’re an orthodontist, you probably offer to install braces on your patients. You might consider adding negative keywords like “arm braces” or “elbow braces” — both use the word “braces” but are a different type of product entirely.

4. Focus on bottom-of-funnel keywords

The bottom of the funnel is where the customer buys. 

Focusing on bottom-of-funnel keywords in your PPC ad campaign helps you target these customers and nudge them toward the sale. 

This can improve your campaign’s ROAS by increasing the chance any given lead buys from you. 

That means more revenue for you per dollar spent, boosting your ROAS.

Make sure you target some branded keywords here. Some customers may be looking directly for your brand or products, basically guaranteeing the sale if you serve ads to them.

5. Use landing page best practices

Getting a high number of clicks on your ads won’t matter much if your landing page doesn’t convert those leads into sales.

A key piece of a high-converting landing page is getting all the important stuff “above the fold,” meaning the visitor can see it all before scrolling.

This minimizes the chance of a user clicking away or getting distracted and failing to convert.

Here’s a good example:

(Image Source)

This business has a headline, persuasive bullet copy, and a CTA form all above the fold. This reduces the amount of work the user has to do to convert.

Throughout the page, use bite-sized, easy-to-read copy. Include a section briefly explaining the benefits, and sprinkle in testimonials for social proof.

Lastly, make sure you optimize your landing page for mobile. The majority of global traffic is now mobile, so getting mobile-optimized is critical.

6. Do conversion rate optimization on your landing pages

Conversion rate optimization involves routinely testing and tweaking your ads to try to improve your conversion rate.

This starts with personalizing the customer journey. This helps you tailor ads more closely to each customer, increasing their chance of converting from an ad.

After that, optimization never truly ends. Markets change, and customer preferences shift. You should periodically update that customer journey. Plus, you need to do regular A/B testing — basically, test your current ads against new ones to see if you can boost your conversion rate.

7. Increase revenue per conversion

Generating more revenue from each lead means more dollars from that lead per dollar spent to get them.

This starts with tailoring ad campaigns. The better your targeting and messaging, the better customers you’ll get. They will fit your brand better, meaning they might want or need more of what you sell.

There are some tactics you can use post-click as well. 

For example, you can try to bundle offers together. Find products or services that complement each other, then sell them together with a bundle discount.

Another post-click tactic is upselling. When a customer adds something to their cart or is on the checkout page, you can put another offer in front of them that makes sense for the product.

For instance, say you’re a fitness supplement company. Someone adds protein powder to their cart. You could upsell them on a subscription to regular protein powder deliveries. Alternatively, you could upsell them on buying a bigger container.

Regardless, you’re getting more revenue per ad by upselling.

Grasp Your Ad Performance With ROAS

ROAS is one of the most vital metrics to track if you’re advertising online. It helps you screen out ad and campaign ideas that don’t work while reinvesting more ad dollars into those that do work.

Although there are too many factors to nail down a “good” ROAS, you should always be looking for ways to improve after establishing a baseline.

That’s where The HOTH can help. We can handle every aspect of your PPC campaign, maximizing your ROAS while letting you get back to what you do best. Schedule a call today to see how we can help.

The post What Is a Good ROAS? How to Calculate and Optimize Your Ad Spending appeared first on The HOTH.

Content marketing can help. The problem is you need to play the SEO game to get eyes on your content. If your site doesn’t show up in search, how will you get people to read your blog?

And sure, SEO is 100% worth it, but it can take a long time to pay off. Ads, on the other hand, can provide an almost instant boost but can be expensive.

Native content solves these issues by pulling the best aspects of both together. It’s a form of paid advertising, but instead of a naked sales pitch, it’s genuinely high-quality content on platforms with an established readership.

In this article, we’ll explain native content and its benefits before offering you some tips on creating native content that works.

What is Native Content?

Native content, also called branded content or sponsored content, is a form of advertising that looks like a piece of high-quality organic content on a website.

These can be articles, case studies, videos, and many other forms of content. The important thing is that they look like content and are genuinely helpful.

That said, it’s important not to deceive the customer. Therefore, there are a few ways people can distinguish native content from truly organic content:

• It might say “branded content” or “sponsored content” somewhere on the piece.
• It may say “recommended” or “suggested.”
• It may contain small icons users can hover over to see it’s an ad and to close the ad.

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Since native content looks like regular content, it blends in and can increase clicks.

Brands are increasingly seeing the benefits of this style of marketing. In 2021, native advertising spend jumped 37%. Total native advertising spend is forecasted to reach almost $100 billion by 2023.

It’s easy to see why. As ad blocker usage increases, marketers need a way to get in front of their customers without annoying them.

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Native content done right is genuinely informative and engaging. The reader is less likely to care that it’s technically a sales piece, even if they notice.

Native content vs. native advertising: Is there a difference?

Native content and native advertising are used interchangeably, and they’re fairly similar in that they both are paid marketing strategies designed to sell.

However, native ads look more explicitly like ads that are part of a website. They link to a landing page on your site, and you pay per click or impression.

Native content is meant to look like an organic blog post, video, case study, or another piece of content. So it is a piece of content that fits right into the publication it’s on. It uses storytelling, research, and other common content elements to attract the reader’s attention.

Also, to help make sure it matches the voice and needs of the readers, you often pay the publication’s own editorial team to create the piece, rather than write it in-house.

Benefits of Native Content

Native content can be a great tool for marketers because it looks and acts like a real piece of content.

Here are some ways it helps brands and marketers:

Helps fight ad fatigue

We’ve all heard stats about how many ads people see and how they’re sick of them.

Well, native content can help. Not only does it look like real content… but it provides the same type of value that a true piece of high-quality content would.

It’s true that many customers will know it’s an ad. Stanford found in 2018 that native content doesn’t “fool” consumers.

That was several years ago, so you would think native content would be less effective, especially as even more people recognize it’s an ad.

So why is it still growing rapidly, with advertisers spending billions of dollars on native content each year? Well, it works.

Even if you know it’s an ad, the format means that you can create an ad that readers genuinely relate to, rather than a quick “buy our product” pitch.

Builds trust

Good native content is informative and helpful, not overly salesy. That plays a big part in why readers don’t treat native content like standard ads.

The reader doesn’t feel like you’re just pushing an ad on them. They feel as if you care about helping them solve their problems.

Plus, the reader may learn something from you. You get to demonstrate your expertise and authority, keeping you top of mind. Even if they don’t buy now, you stay in their brains, often landing you the sale at a later time.

Native content also lets you show customers that your organization shares their values. For instance, if your organization is passionate about a social issue — as you’ll see in our examples later — you can write a native content piece about it.

Can fill funnel gaps

One of the best roles for native content is filling gaps in the customer journey and in your marketing funnels.

Imagine a potential customer knows they have a problem they want to fix, but they aren’t aware that a solution exists. We can say they’re “problem-aware.”

Here’s where your native content comes in. You can call out their problem in the title of your piece, then elaborate on that problem and show them how to solve it. They’re now “solution-aware.”

Now that they know such a solution exists, you could simply use implicit CTAs to drive them to your website or the next stage of the funnel. They may click out of curiosity, stumbling upon your brand.

Alternatively, you can directly state that your brand provides the solution they need. Since they’re on your content, and they want their problem solved, they’re likely to click through instead of looking at your competitors.

As you can see, this could offer a high ROI if you do it right.

How to Make Native Content That Works

Creating native content that does its job well requires a fair bit of time. You have to know your customers’ problems and address them — clickbait articles or videos lacking helpful content won’t do.

Here’s how to make content that works:

Understand and answer a pressing customer problem

As mentioned, start by researching and noting your customers’ most pressing problems. Surveys are a good start, but customers may not be entirely truthful — through no fault of their own.

So besides surveys, look online in forums or Facebook groups where your target market hangs out. They tend to be more honest about their problems there.

Also, check out related searches and “people also ask” questions on Google to find common questions in your niche.

Once you see a pattern in customer problems, pick one that you can answer with content.

Know your customer’s stage of awareness

The stage of awareness reflects how much they know about their problem, potential solutions, and your brand.

There are five:

• Stage 1 — Unaware: They aren’t aware they have a problem at all.
• Stage 2 — Pain Aware: They know they have a problem but don’t know solutions exist.
• Stage 3 — Solution Aware: They know solutions exist but don’t know about your brand.
• Stage 4 — Product Aware: They know of your brand’s solutions but don’t know if it’s right for them vs. other solutions.
• Stage 5 — Most Aware: They’re almost ready to buy, but need a final nudge.

Native content generally targets the first three stages and aims to get customers to the solution-aware stage at the very least.

Your content will differ depending on the customer’s awareness stage. For example, if you’re targeting a problem-aware customer, you’ll call out that problem and start to give possible solutions to that problem.

On the other hand, maybe they’re solution aware. You’ll need to persuade them of your product’s benefit — a case study could work here.

If they’re unaware, you’ll need to make them aware that they have a problem.

For example, say you’re a marketing agency targeting small businesses that don’t know much about marketing and don’t realize they can grow faster with online marketing campaigns.

You could simply create a piece on the #1 thing business owners fail to do that causes them to stagnate. That “thing” would be digital marketing.

You’ve now made them problem aware, so you can continue moving them up the funnel from there.

Don’t be too “salesy”

The main marketing goal of this piece is to move the customer to the next step of the funnel and deliver value — so avoid any hard selling language aside from a CTA button at the end.

Instead, use soft CTAs. Depending on your customer’s stage of awareness at the end of the piece, you could sprinkle in your brand name with links to the next piece of your funnel or even just the solution you offer as the anchor text.

For example, a financial advisor could link the phrase “saving for retirement” to their page if their piece educates the reader about types of retirement accounts.

Add visual elements

If you’re writing a native article, make sure to add visuals and other creative design elements. These attract attention and make the piece more appealing to read.

Depending on the type of problem you’re solving, how you’re doing so, and the platform you’re posting the native content on, full-blown videos may work better. Some things can be explained much better via video than text.

Target the right websites

Amazing native content won’t work if it doesn’t get in front of your target audience. So figure out which websites and blogs they visit, and get your content on those.

Not only will more of your ideal customers see the article, but it will blend in better and be more relevant to what all readers are reading about or looking for at that moment.

For example, a financial advisor would want to get their native content on a personal finance blog, not a fitness blog.

It doesn’t just have to be your niche, though. It could be adjacent or even fairly irrelevant sites your customers visit (as long as you have data to back it up).

For instance, say a financial advisor firm wanted to target a younger audience moving up in the workforce and earning more. They may advertise on a news website targeted toward millennials.

To find creative targets like this (backed by data), look at other pages your audience likes using Facebook’s Audience Insights.

3 Awesome Native Content Examples to Help You Get Started

Let’s look at a few examples of high-quality native content:

1. New York Times and Allbirds

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Allbirds is a shoe company passionate about environmental sustainability. Instead of hard-selling that, they created a native article diving deep into how birds help the planet.

This is an interesting angle, as many aren’t aware that various species of birds significantly impact the environment. It also appeals particularly to the New York Times’s environmentally-conscious audience.

The article itself is a listicle covering different bird species and their impacts. Each section describes a different bird and offers stats detailing its importance to the earth.

The standout element here, though, is the attractive visuals. There’s a lot of color, and you can interact with the images by hovering your cursor over them.

The overall article ties back to Allbirds’ values. Thus, the CTA urges readers to learn more about Allbirds sustainable business practices. Readers land on the brand’s website to learn more about its values… then can go shop for shoes.

Notice that it says “Paid Post” at the top — readers can see that, but many won’t care because the article is visually attractive and has interesting content.

2. New York Times and Adobe

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Here’s another awesome native article from the NYT. This time, Adobe is covering a broad trend in its target market of retailers — how technology is changing the consumer experience.

Adobe covers a few specific trends within the retail tech revolution. It uses a mix of storytelling, explanation, stats, and quotes from industry leaders to create a compelling narrative. Images and color are sprinkled throughout the post to break up text and draw the eye towards points of emphasis.

Overall, it’s helpful content for retailers and positions Adobe as an authority in technology for retailers. Of course, they put a CTA at the end to direct readers to their website, but it doesn’t hard-sell anything. Just the fact that they write about the tech in such detail implies Adobe offers the solutions retailers may need.

3. NowThis and Blackrock

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Native content doesn’t have to be written articles. Video is a powerful medium, and is also a great option for native content. That’s why BlackRock partnered with social media-focused news organization NowThis to create the Invest in Yourself video series.

These are personal finance videos revolving around investing money and time into gaining new skills, advancing your career, improving your finances, and similar topics.

Videos are grouped into three categories:

• Advice
• Q&A
• Full-length features

Plus, the pages use NowThis’s attractive colors and visuals to please the eyes.

BlackRock’s goal here seems to be drawing in a younger crowd — millennial professionals who are advancing in their careers and earning healthy incomes and need professional assistance managing and growing their assets. They also want someone who truly understands them and is invested in their financial success.

Advertising on NowThis was a good choice since it has a younger target audience.

These helpful personal finance videos build BlackRock’s brand awareness and perceived expertise, and can potentially attract a significant amount of young professionals to start using BlackRock’s wealth management services (if not now, then in the future).

Combine the Best of Paid Ads and Content Marketing

Native content can help you lower the consumer’s guard when it comes to ads. But not just that, it can build trust and secure customer loyalty if you create content that’s genuinely helpful and enjoyable to read.

Follow the tips laid out in this article and study the examples to get some inspiration.

That said, if you need help creating engaging, high-converting sponsored content, our team is happy to help.

Schedule a call with us today to learn how our experts can create native content that builds authority and grows your brand.

The post The Ultimate Guide to Native Content appeared first on The HOTH.

How do you keep coming up with all those witty captions, snappy CTAs, and stunning visuals time after time?

You can refill your creative tank by exploring clever Instagram Ad examples that other businesses, not necessarily from your niche, use. You can also keep an eye on your competitors’ ads and gain insights from their campaigns.

This article will help you with both.

Since most brands prefer omnichannel marketing, many of these Instagram Ads aren’t unique to Instagram — they were or are also running on Facebook.

In-feed Instagram Ads Examples

With captivating Reels and Stories hijacking everyone’s attention, businesses on Instagram are having a hard time expanding brand awareness through in-feed ads. All the more reason why they should get creative and appeal to the emotional side of their target audience.

Coursera

This elegant in-feed ad from Coursera demonstrates how to evoke trust using to-the-point copy and trackable social proof. It speaks directly to Coursera’s target audience and describes the contents of the course without boring them.

Thanks to the featured social proof, the user immediately learns from this ad that this is a top-rated course with more than 20K positive reviews. A natural-looking photo draws additional attention to the ad and makes it more relatable.

Coursera also mentions that there’s a full-access free trial — this is another good-to-know fact that can boost conversions.

Bed Bath & Beyond

Tease and inspire your target audience by showing them what they can achieve with your product or service. BB&B does that by using appealing lifestyle video content in its social media campaigns.

An Instagram ad like this one can easily spark spontaneous purchases because it’s memorable, attractive, and clever. Instead of selling one specific product, why not sell the whole lifestyle? This approach also allows you to showcase your pieces in real life in a more natural context.

Dropbox

This in-feed Instagram ad from Dropbox stands out because it addresses way too familiar problems no one likes to deal with. It also offers an immediate solution and demonstrates how it works.

The intuitive video ad makes the explanation more digestible and removes any potential barriers standing between Dropbox and users who are less tech-savvy and just want their data to be safe.

Soylent

How do you make sure that your target audience fully understands the advantages of your product? Witty Instagram captions aren’t always enough — you may need to educate them with in-depth blog content.

Soylent seems to have found a perfect formula for their nourishing drinks and engaging social media posts and ads that drive website traffic.

Soylent’s team promotes their new blog posts with valuable tips and insights through in-feed Instagram ads to reach new potential customers. They go the extra mile in making sure that their audience understands what’s in Soylent products and why.

Soylent intentionally uses pure, minimalist design in its ads to maintain the overall brand aesthetic. The brand’s mission is to spread awareness about complete nutrition and sustainability, and we can clearly see that in Soylent’s Instagram campaigns.

Instagram Stories Ads Examples

Instagram Stories are all the rage these days — brands are ready to invest thousands of dollars in video production or even hire professional content makers to get their 24 hours of fame.

So, it’s not enough to just share a vertical video ad or product photo and be done with it. Instagram Stories Ads have to cut through the noise and make a user pause and reflect on the offer. Let’s find out how to do it without breaking the bank.

OfferZen

We all know how dull and uninspiring B2B ads can get, but yours don’t have to be that way. Take a look at this playful Instagram Stories ad with a custom illustration.

This is a catchy and entertaining Story that can certainly spark curiosity. It has no clutter, special effects, or popping stickers, but it does stand out and get the message across.

Sephora

The power of curated content cannot be underestimated. Sephora knows that and uses Instagram Story ads to pique their target audience’s interest by sharing secret tips and personalized recommendations with them.

Even the emoji choice here isn’t random — that’s how Sephora emphasizes that it offers an inclusive range of products for diverse hair types.

Fifth Third Bank

This ad is another example of how brands can tackle serious topics in a playful and friendly way. Instead of bombarding its potential customers with complex details, Fifth Third Bank puts them at the forefront and talks about things that genuinely interest them, such as how to make paydays more flexible.

Another good thing about this Instagram Stories ad is that this chat doesn’t pretend to be real — it’s just a good illustration of the benefits Fifth Third Bank offers.

KitchenAid

Your ads in Instagram Stories are guaranteed to be less salesy if you focus on the results your customers get and not on the product itself. KitchenAid does exactly that — for example, the company promotes its espresso machines by showing how much more pleasant mornings can get if you have one of them around.

This type of Instagram ad is very concise and eye-grabbing, especially if you can pack your whole story into a 15-second piece. However, it’ll require some money and effort to produce smooth and professional videos for social media.

Instagram Influencer Ads Examples

Authenticity is what customers want on Instagram, and what businesses try to live up to (most fail). You can share your brand’s values through hand-picked paid partnerships, collaborations, tagged publications, and other types of influencer content that truly resonates with your mission. Here’s how big brands approach this task.

Nike

The sportswear brand has once again changed the game and moved far beyond typical influencer ads. Nike partners with the boldest athletes who aren’t afraid to take a stance or confront outdated norms. As a result, their Instagram influencer ads turn out to be truly captivating and authentic.

By adding a social component to your influencer campaigns, you can also tap into customers’ emotions and show them that your brand is not another soulless money-making machine but a company with a clear mission and philosophy.

Of course, in this case, you will also need to show that your actions match your words. Nike does that by constantly working on sustainable solutions and helping nonprofits, schools, individual athletes, and local communities.

United Airlines

This airline partnered with the Golden State Warriors, one of the top basketball teams in the NBA, to demonstrate that even celebrities can’t miss the chance to benefit from their attractive loyalty program.

This influencer content looks and feels natural, relaxed, and in no way pompous — the ad features top Warriors players simply boarding the plane. We don’t see any pretentious words or overly luxurious details some big brands still tend to throw in, and that’s what makes this campaign so distinct and attractive.

Malt-O-Meal

If you want to find influencers that truly speak to your target group, check who your potential customers are following. Malt-O-Meal, a cereal brand, collaborates with bloggers who write about motherhood and lifestyle, and it’s a perfect message-audience fit.

To nail your next Instagram influencer ad, spend extra time finding niche bloggers and local stars who have a genuine following. This way, you’ll make sure that your paid partnership post will actually be noticed and read.

Guess

The iconic clothing brand collaborates with models, singers, actors, and creators all over the world and, in fact, uses Instagram influencer ads more than any other type of ad.

This is also an interesting approach since it makes branded content more unique and captivating. Working with many influencers also allows you to reach new audiences faster — it’s an expensive path but certainly worth considering. Finally, it’s a fantastic chance to show your product in action.

Instagram Shopping Ads Examples

Making promotional content look less promotional is a challenging task, but we’ve found a few ways for you to make your Instagram Shopping ads more engaging and interesting.

Birchbox

It’s hard to imagine someone who doesn’t love expertly-curated kits and beautiful sets — they’re usually fun to use and look at, not to mention a nicer price. Plus, the hardest work, choosing, has been done for you. Birchbox applies the same personalization principle to their Instagram ads.

The company offers convenient travel kits with selected products even minimalists can’t live without. An ad like this can be extremely effective when targeted at solo travelers who prefer to explore the world without carrying tons of luggage with them.

Bellroy

Having a stunning image is important, but sometimes, it also makes sense to let a witty caption be the star of the show. Here’s an Instagram ad example proving that.

In this ad, Bellroy lets its brand personality shine through, and it turns out to be way more captivating than typical dry product descriptions.

Reebok

Reebok’s team chooses passionate, energetic real-life photos for their Instagram Shopping ads. The images help them convey the essence of the brand through every sponsored post.

Thanks to that, we don’t even have to imagine how those new training shoes will withstand hardcore workout sessions — we can clearly see it in the ad. If you want to follow this practice, try using a carousel ad to increase engagement.

Instagram Explore Ads Examples

The “Explore” section on Instagram is quite busy on its own, so sponsored publications there have to be especially eye-catching.

Asos

The retailer uses retargeting to “catch” forgetful buyers when they’re unwinding by scrolling through their feed with recommendations.

It’s a steal-worthy trick because the “Explore” section is usually full of entertaining or dreamy content that automatically puts users in a good mood.

Yves Saint Laurent

YSL runs highly visual campaigns that always stand out in the “Explore” feed. For example, this stunning animation with burning letters is impossible to miss.

Of course, it is tough to compete with big brands with unlimited budgets, but you can still adopt a similar approach and pour more creativity into your Instagram Explore ads because, chances are, your competitors aren’t doing that yet.

How to Find More Relevant Instagram Ads Examples and Learn From Them

Here are the main reasons why you should be monitoring your competitors’ ads:

• Get inspired by their captions, visuals, and animations, and never run out of creative ideas.
• Double-check to make sure that you target the right audience and use the right tone of voice.
• Understand what kinds of CTAs work best for your competitors and use that knowledge for your own campaigns.
• Find the best ad types for your niche without wasting your own money on extra experiments and A/B testing.
• Learn from their mistakes and try to fill the gaps in their strategy to attract the audience they’re targeting.
• Understand how to ensure that your Instagram ads are like no others.

The best place to check out the ads that competing brands create is the Meta Ad Library. You can also access it directly from your competitors’ ads on Instagram.

Whenever you see an ad you’re interested in, click on the three-dot icon in the top right corner. Then, click on “About this account.”

By clicking “Active Ads,” you can access their ad library, where you’ll find all their past and active Instagram campaigns.

You can also find ad spy tools for any social media platform; some of them are available as Chrome extensions. You can use them to track your competitors’ ads on other channels, such as TikTok or YouTube.

However, the official Meta library remains the safest and most reliable way to do that, especially considering that it costs you nothing and covers most of your needs.

If you want to know what your target audience thinks of your competitors and their ads, consider using social media listening tools as well.

Make sure that all your ads rock

Before diving into social media ads, take care of your Google Ads — or let someone else take care of them. We offer transparent PPC management services that can give you consistent leads and sales and allow you to draw breath and switch to more exciting tasks.

We’ll provide you with your own Google-certified paid traffic expert who will analyze and improve your strategy and help you grow revenue. Book a call now to give your marketing a push!

The post 10+ Effective Instagram Ads Examples and Tips on How to Track Your Competitors’ Ads appeared first on The HOTH.

In short, Google Ad campaigns shouldn’t be performed in your spare time. The right keyword research, optimization, digital marketing, keyword ideas, metrics, and SEO must be in place for the best results. That holds true for a traditional business website or an eCommerce store. Either one requires the work of an experienced marketer, working full-time on your Google Ads account. 

If you’ve tried running Google ads campaigns in the past but couldn’t keep your metrics and match types consistent, the culprit is likely your keyword ideas – or lack thereof. Google Ads keywords play a massive role in the success of your campaigns, so you need to know how to use them properly. 

This article will show you how to perform emergency surgery on your Google Ad campaign (namely your keyword research and keyword strategy) and how to fix it. Let’s get started.

What Are the Main Concepts of a Google Ad Campaign?

When researching keywords for your ad groups, there are several concepts you’ll need to understand: 

Why Google Ads keywords matter for your SEO

We all know that the right keywords are the lifeblood of your website’s SEO for showing up in organic search results. You might not know that keywords (or search queries) are also pivotal to a successful pay-per-click (PPC) campaign and Google ads campaign.

Google will use these keywords to match your advertisements with search terms potential customers are using to find what you’re selling. 

It’s Google’s goal (and the goal of any search engine) to match search queries (or keywords) with the highest quality and most relevant content online. That’s true for both organic and paid searches. 

Furthermore, your ad could reach other potential customers or sites with similar keywords or keyword match types (more about that below). In that way, your new keywords can connect you with new audiences you never considered before.

The right Google Ads keywords for the right Google Ads campaigns

It’s essential to realize that there is a difference between the right keywords you use for SEO (which tend to be lower intent) and the ones you use for PPC (higher intent).

It’s also about more than compiling a massive list of keywords. For PPC ads, how you group and organize your new keywords are equally as important. 

For example, let’s say that you wind up with an 80,000-strong list of keywords to use in your Google ads campaign. There’s no way that you can write targeted ads or create a landing page for every single new keyword or keyword phrase. At the same time, you can’t create a handful of Google Ads campaigns that represent all 80,000 queries. 

The answer is to use keyword grouping to break up your search terms into manageable ad groups. That way, you’ll be able to create targeted ads for small groups of specific keywords. That will make it far easier to manage thousands of keywords without sacrificing your optimization quality. 

If you need a keyword research tool to get keyword ideas, you can use our FREE Google Keyword Tool or paid options like Ahrefs or SEMrush. They will help you discover new keywords to use for your Google Ads campaign. 

The intent behind the Google Ads keywords

It’s not enough to simply compile a list of relevant keywords during your search queries. It would be best if you also determined the searcher’s intent behind their search queries.

Digital marketers label keywords as having high or low intent. When a searcher is eager to buy something or perform some type of action, the right keyword or keyword phrase would have a higher intent.

If all a searcher is after is to learn more information about something, the relevant keywords have lower intent. As stated before, low intent keywords are more effective for SEO campaigns rather than eCommerce campaigns where you aim to educate and provide information through content marketing tactics. 

Search queries are broken down into three types of intent: informational search queries, navigational search queries, and transactional search queries. 

As a business owner using PPC ads, you’ll want to use transactional keywords exclusively. 

Why’s that?

It’s because these keywords have the highest intent – or the strongest chance to convince potential customers to make a purchase. Common transactional keywords include high intent phrases such as “buy now” or naming specific products like “Playstation games.” 

These keywords are precise in their intent, and the users are looking to buy something. That’s why these types of keywords are great for improving your conversion rates. 

Negative keywords

Selecting the right keywords with high intent will put you on the path to an effective Google Ads campaign on Google search. But, there is one more step: adding negative keywords. 

A negative keyword prevents your ad from being triggered by a specific word or phrase.

Here is an example of a search ad that appears for one of our clients:

But, we use negative keywords for searches that would be irrelevant or not qualified for our services. Examples of these include “free,” “DIY,” or “cheap.” 

None of these words would serve our client, so we added them to our negative keywords list. In other words, keywords are the queries you WANT to show up for, and negative keywords are the queries you DON’T WANT to show up for on your Google Ads. 

See below how the company’s ads are blocked when “free” is used in the search query.

Choosing Your Keyword Match Types

It’s essential to remember that Google Ads are delivered through a bidding process. Therefore, you need to specify how aggressive or restrictive you want to match advertisements to keyword searches.

Here are the keyword match types:

• Broad Match: Your Google Ad could appear when a search includes any words in your keyword phrase, in any order.
• Phrase Match: This one allows you to lock in a phrase using your keywords in the exact order you entered them.
• Exact Match: As the most strict of all match types, this one will only deliver your Google ad when there is an exact match of keywords.

All keyword match types have their advantages and disadvantages, and some may work better with certain products than others. Check out this graphic from Google.

The best way to find out which keywords convert best for your campaign is to start with phrase match and exact match keywords. These match types will give you the cleanest and most relevant traffic (and higher conversion rates).

Once you start getting the hang of what is working for your business, cut the keyword match types that aren’t getting more eyes on your products. Generally, it’s a smart move not to go too broad or too tight.

Seeking a Lower CPC Is Often the Wrong Choice

The next step in building your Google Ads campaign is calculating your cost-per-click (CPC). That is how much money will be charged to you every time a customer clicks on your Google ad.

One thing we always notice new clients trying to do is to shoot for the lowest CPC. It seems like common sense, but the truth is a lower cost per click doesn’t always mean more money in your pocket.

CPCs also vary depending on the industry. We see rates for different companies ranging from $50 to $200 – and we don’t shy away from the more expensive ones.

A higher cost-per-click is actually an indicator that the keywords are more profitable. 

For example, we work with a lot of lawyers. As you all know, there are a lot of law firms, and hundreds of them bid on Google Ads every day. 

Why are legal keywords so high? Because the search intent discussed above is so high that we want someone searching specifically for exact keyword match types. For example, “personal injury lawyer”.

If someone is searching for that specific keyword phrase, they’re most likely looking for a personal injury lawyer.

On the other hand, if you use “personal injury lawyer” as a keyword but use a broad match, then the search could be a mix of anything. That is a case where using very specific keywords and exact match keywords will benefit the client.

Out of these five search queries, only one of them is the search query we want our ads coming up for on Google. The rest are too broad and a waste of our money.

How To Structure Your Keywords

One of the last pieces of advice we’ll offer you in this article is about how to structure your keywords. When we start working with a new client, we advise them to begin with phrase match and exact match.

We want to make sure they’re getting clicks from potential customers who are actually interested in what they’re selling. 

While this limits the total amount of people clicking on your ads, it’s more likely to result in higher conversion rates.

After a month’s worth of data and having our search teams clean, the HOTH PPC team will sometimes open up our keywords to a broad match. That will allow us to find other search queries that potential customers are actively looking for and give us ideas for new Google Ads keywords.

Bear in mind that a broad match delivers a bigger pool of potential customers, meaning you need to be on top of your negative keywords to avoid wasting money on irrelevant ads.

How Many Keywords is Good for Google Ads?

One mistake many make is putting too many keywords in their PPC and Google ad groups. The old adage about “less is more” fits well in this situation. It’s recommended that 20 to 25 keywords per group is best, with a maximum of 30. If you don’t reach 30 it’s fine. If you’ve got less than that in your list of keywords, it’s likely because you have done your keyword research efficiently.

Fact is one of the most common mistakes in PPC is using too many keywords in your Google ads campaign. Many of our clients at The HOTH have ad groups of 4 or 5 keywords and their results have been excellent. More important is that your relevant keywords are closely related and your ad copy as specific as possible.

How to Choose the Right Google Ads Keywords for Your Campaigns

Choose keywords with a high search volume

A high monthly search volume (between 100 and 1000 searches a month)  is vital to reach the most searchers and potential customers. Indeed, if your keywords have low search volume, Google Ads will flag them.

Choose topic-specific keywords 

Specific, long-tail keywords and keyword phrases improve intent and increase your chances of reaching your potential customers. They improve your SEO and metrics and increase your conversion rates. Here’s how to choose them:

1. Write a 1 or 2-sentence description of your topic in the form of a question. 
2. Choose the most important 4 words from your question(s). These will be your key concepts.
3. For each key concept word, list several similar or related words. These will be your topic keywords.

Put the same keywords in your landing pages

Most, or all, of your relevant keywords in your Google Ads should also be present on the landing pages linked to your Google ads. To do that, your landing page content should use your keywords liberally. That means writing content (or having it written) following your keyword recommendations.

Follow best practices

Single word or branded keywords are a no-no, as well as overly generic keywords like “free information”. Your list of keywords needs to be specific and relevant keywords geared toward your potential customers. According to Google, best practices include:

• Thinking like a customer and what they would search for.
• Avoid using terms that are too general. “Wedding”, for example, is too general. “Wedding flowers”, “wedding cakes”, “wedding dresses”, etc, would be better.
• Have a website and use your keywords there.
• Include the name(s) of well-known brands that you’re selling.
• Don’t start your keyword research with an adjective. For example, “wedding dress” is better than “best wedding dress” or “prettiest wedding dress”
• Use multiple keywords and keyword phrases. 
• Be cautious using location. If your customers are in a specific locale, yes. If you’ll be using location targeting, no.

Here Are Several More Tips to Find the Best Google Ads Keywords

• Think like one of your potential customers. What search terms would they search for?
• List different keyword variations, including colloquial terms, synonyms, alternative spellings, and plural and singular terms.
• Choose language and location setting carefully, including territories, countries, regions, cities, etc.
• Avoid keyword terms that are too general.
• Know what, specifically, you’re selling. (You’d be surprised how many can’t say exactly what they sell.)
• Don’t take keyword research lightly.

Where to Find Google Ads Keywords

Below are several keyword research tools you can use to find the top Google Ads keywords for your campaigns and ad groups.

Existing Search Queries

Existing search queries are a treasure trove of excellent keywords for your Google Ads campaigns. The acquisition report in Google Analytics can show you which terms are best and are being used by potential customers.

Your Website and Landing pages

Use Google Ads Keyword Planner tool to get recommendations on keywords used in your own content, landing pages, and website. 

Keywords Used by your Competition

If your competitors are using the right keywords and having success, you should be using them also. iSpionage will help you see which keyword ideas are being used, or bid on, by your competitors. 

Current Events 

Depending on your products and services, current events and pop culture might have some relevant keyword gold when attracting potential customers.

Final Thoughts on Google Ads Keywords 

We hope this post has helped you understand what happens behind the scenes with PPC advertising. Businesses wanting to launch their own Google Ad campaigns need to do keyword research, determine intent, figure out phrase match, choose relevant keywords, include negative keywords, and be prepared to make many adjustments.

One thing we want to stress is how difficult it can be to manage Google ads campaigns and PPC campaigns on your own. We’ve worked with many clients who lost hundreds or thousands of dollars on new Google ads because their keyword research was lacking or their keywords were structured too broadly.

We help companies like yours configure paid advertising (PPC) campaigns to get a high ROI. Part of our PPC service is also working with clients to optimize landing pages, so potential customers are more likely to convert.

If you need help with Google Ads, book a call today with one of our PPC experts here at The HOTH.   

The post How Google Ads Keywords Affect Your PPC Campaigns appeared first on The HOTH.

Running Facebook Ads is great for two reasons: they’re laser targeted for custom audiences, and they tend to be cheaper than other ad types. 

In short, if Facebook campaigns don’t account for at least some of your ad spend, they definitely should.

Yet, you’ll need to watch out for some pitfalls, especially if you’re a beginner. 

The Facebook Ad Manager is user-friendly for the most part, but there are some simple mistakes you can make that will cost you money. In fact, 62% of small business owners say their Facebook ad campaigns never work out well. 

Why is that?

It’s usually due to missing an important detail that makes a big difference in their campaign, such as catering to the wrong audience without even knowing it. 

In this article, I’m going to show you how to avoid the most common Facebook ad mistakes so you can stop wasting your online marketing budget. Use this post as a skeleton outline for your next Facebook ad campaign as a rule of thumb. 

Mistake #1: Not Using a CTA in the Ad Copy 

As digital marketers, we know the tremendous value of the call to action (CTA). These brief sentences can make or break the sale depending on their quality. After all, your CTA lets your customers know how to take the next step in purchasing your product or service. 

For a Facebook ad, the CTA is what makes a prospect want to click on your ad to learn more. It’s Marketing 101 to include a CTA in any ad, and not including one is like forgetting to sign your name on a term paper. 

Yet, after auditing hundreds of Facebook ads over the past 6+ years, I continue to see business after business fail to include a CTA in the copy. 

Even if you pay for the ad, you still need to let visitors know what action you want them to take with a clear CTA. Otherwise, you’re paying Facebook for ad views, not clicks, traffic, or conversions. 

That’s made an even more significant problem when you discover how Facebook charges you for ads. There’s no cost-per-click (CPC) like PPC ads with Facebook. Instead, you’re charged based on impressions – which is the number of people that view your ad in their feed. 

So if your ads don’t have a CTA, that’s a sure-fire way to flush a chunk of your marketing budget down the toilet. 

We did a little digging through the Facebook Ads Library and found three examples of ads without a CTA in the copy. 

As you can see, each of these ads is visually appealing and written well. Yet, they aren’t directing Facebook users toward taking the next step, so they’re far less powerful. 

Correcting the mistake

Do your Facebook ads look like the examples shown above? If so, don’t panic, as this problem is straightforward to fix. 

First, take stock of all your current Facebook ads to identify those without CTAs. Ideally, it would be best to have a CTA in the ad copy AND the headline. 

Why the headline too?

It’s so that there’s no missing the CTA. If your prospects don’t catch it in the copy, they’re sure to see it in the headline. When writing a CTA, you want to layout the next step for your customers in plain English. Don’t worry about seeming too transparent here (it’s an ad, not a blog post), as your goal is to acquire customers above all else. 

Let’s take a look at an effective Facebook ad in action. 

Here’s an example of a Facebook ad we wrote at The HOTH. It has all the necessary components of a successful ad, including an offer and CTA (20% off when you test services). It also contains the offer and CTA in the headline (get 20% off, don’t miss out). 

To sum it up, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel with your ad copy. Keep it concise, focus on action, and bring it home with a convincing CTA. 

Mistake #2: Neglecting to Track Results 

If you aren’t tracking your ad performance, you’ll never know if you’re wasting money or not. As such, you should keep a close eye on your analytics and KPIs. Your analytics will also let you know if you’re reaching your target audience with your Facebook marketing. 

Google Analytics is an excellent tool to use, especially for tracking conversions, so make sure that it’s connected to your website. Beyond that, you’ll definitely want to set up the Facebook Pixel – as it will provide you with the most valuable metrics for your success. 

You can track, measure, and optimize your ad campaigns with it. You can even tweak your audience targeting if you feel you aren’t reaching the right crowd. 

Using Facebook Pixel 

The Pixel is a few lines of code that you add to the header section of your website. Once you’ve installed it, Pixel will track the actions users take on your website after clicking on your ad. That way, you can ensure that your ads are performing the way you want. 

Tracking your ad performance is critical. Analytics can show you if the ad is effective or needs to be revised to reach your target audience. You’ll also want to verify that you’re getting your money’s worth.

Most digital advertising platforms include a tracking tool. You probably already have Google Analytics connected to your website, but you’ll also need to set up the Facebook Pixel if you’re using Facebook ads.

There are many robust advertising features contained in Facebook Pixel, including:

• Lookalike audiences
• Facebook Retargeting
• Ad optimization for conversions
• Many more

You can also use A/B testing with Pixel to experiment with variations of a few different ads. It’s yet another way you can use the tool to refine your ad format. 

Correcting the mistake 

You’re in luck – installing Facebook Pixel only takes a few minutes at most. As previously stated, the installation consists of a simple copy and paste of a line of code, and you’re all set. So if you’ve never used it before, there’s no need to be intimidated. 

First things first, you’ll want to make sure that you don’t have Pixel running already. You’ll also need to know if it’s installed properly. You can use a free plugin called Facebook Pixel Helper to do so. 

If it detects the presence of a Pixel, the plugin will begin to light up. Clicking on the plugin will also provide details about the Pixel, such as if it’s installed correctly. 

Once you’re done, you’ll finally be able to visit your website’s conversion pages to see what’s active. In the example you see below, there’s the promise of new leads coming from the conversions. 

Pixel is an excellent tool for auditing each campaign objective to ensure everything is perfect before going live. You can also audit your teams and use Pixel to open up conversations with potential customers. Moreover, you’ll be able to measure the success of your campaigns to avoid wasting large amounts of money. 

Mistake #3: Targeting the Wrong Audience 

Mastering audience targeting is a core component of any ad campaign, whether you’re using Facebook or not. 

You need to clearly understand who your audience is, what makes them tick, and what they want/need the most. That will help you develop the most attractive value proposition for your products and services. 

A big mistake I see businesses making with their Facebook audience is going too broad or too narrow. 

The good news is Facebook Ads Manager has a tool designed specifically for this reason. It’s the ‘Audience Size’ tool, and you should use it to your advantage. It will appear in the top-right corner of the screen and let you know if you’re going too broad or too narrow. 

Learning the Audience Builder

Take a look at the screenshot you see below. 

Notice anything strange?

The default settings in the Audience Builder don’t show options for interests and behaviors – only basic demographic information like age, location, and gender. 

As you can imagine, interests and behaviors are a massive component of Facebook’s algorithm for matching ads with the right audience. That’s why you’ll want to discover your audience’s behaviors and interests so you can use them in your ad. 

Many people don’t know that you can’t go beyond the default settings by selecting Show More Options. There, you’ll be able to see far more insights about your target audience that you can use for your Facebook advertising. The platform compiles a TON of data on its users, so use it all to your advantage. 

If you aren’t optimizing your ads for your target audience, you could be burning through thousands of ad dollars. 

Correcting the Mistake 

Have you ever checked your audience settings in the Facebook Ads Manager? Did you not even know you could? If so, now is the time to check it out to review your target audiences. 

Make sure that you’re using a mix of demographics, behaviors, and interests. If you’re focusing solely on demographic information, you’re leaving a lot on the table. The more refined you can be with your audience, the more success you’ll have with social media marketing – not just Facebook. 

While you’re at it, take the time to add new interests or behaviors you discovered about your audience through research. You can also clear outdated information (such as an interest that’s fallen out of style). 

Also, make sure the expansion to see interests and behaviors is turned on, and don’t forget about the Show More Options section. 

Mistake #4: Not Optimizing Your Ads 

A Facebook ad campaign is similar to an SEO strategy or PPC campaign in that it requires regular optimization. 

So if you set your ads and forget about them, you’re making one of the most common Facebook ad mistakes. 

Your target audience is constantly changing and evolving, so your ads should reflect that. Just as you would optimize and update an old blog post, you should do the same for your outdated Facebook ads. 

Too many businesses waste ad costs by not optimizing their ads or doing them incorrectly. 

When optimizing, it’s best to focus on generating traffic and converting customers. I’ll focus on traffic for this article, but you can schedule a call with my team to talk about conversions. 

Pro tip: Get into the habit of checking on your ad campaigns every day. That is, at least, until they start performing the way you want by producing calls, leads, or sales. 

Why bother with daily checkups?

It’s because if you aren’t seeing results after two weeks, you probably have a traffic problem. It’s best to realize this sooner than later so you don’t waste too much money. Also, you won’t see any conversions until you fix your traffic issue. 

Correcting the mistake 

These are the most crucial metrics for ad optimization:

• Click-through rate (CTR)
• Conversions 
• View time for video ads 

These KPIs will let you know which ad sets are performing the best. A stellar ad will have an excellent CTR, high conversion rate, and long view time for a video ad. 

In a nutshell, the simplest way to optimize your Facebook ads is to turn off the ads that aren’t performing. I’ll go into more detail on this in a moment in the section ‘Split Testing.’ 

You’ll be able to tell if a campaign converts within the very first week. 

If you’re getting less than 50 clicks on your ad, try looking at your destination first. As far as lead generation goes, you need to optimize your landing pages. If you run an eCommerce store, you’ll want to optimize your product pages more than others. 

Pro tip: NEVER drive traffic to your homepage from a Facebook ad. That’s because your homepage is there to drive brand awareness, not convert customers. Your ads should exclusively link to landing pages and product pages.

Mistake #5: Not Using Split Testing 

A big Facebook ad mistake is only running one version of your ads. Advertisements tend to be unpredictable – as sometimes picture-perfect ads seem to fall flat for no reason at all. 

That’s why we encourage the use of ‘split testing (also called A/B testing) at The HOTH. That’s where we create a few versions of the same ad to see which one performs best. Each ad needs to have something that makes it unique from the others. 

Correcting the mistake 

You can try different copy, images, CTAs, or even add a video for split testing. 

You’ll want to run a limited campaign for each ad and then check out the data. From there, it’s pretty simple – all you have to do is select the ad that performed the best and create a more extensive campaign around it. 

We’re always running ad campaigns on Facebook and other platforms, and split testing is a huge secret weapon for us. As an example, check out how we swapped ad copy for this advertisement:

Based on the results, we turned off our non-performers to save money. 

Mistake #6: Not Using Remarketing 

At HOTH PPC, we’re harping on all the time about the benefits of remarketing – but it also works for Facebook ads. 

What’s remarketing?

It’s an ad strategy where you create specific ads targeted at people who visited your site but didn’t convert. 

For these scenarios, the chances are high that they looked at specific products and may have even left something in the cart. 

You can use that to grab their attention again with a remarketing campaign. 

Correcting the mistake 

While it may sound intrusive, the evidence says otherwise. In fact, 25% of online shoppers said they liked being targeted again. A majority claimed they were neutral about remarketing campaigns. 

It makes sense if you think about it. The customer already expressed interest in your product or service by clicking on your ad. That’s even more true if they put something in the cart but didn’t check out. Maybe they realized they didn’t have the funds at the time, which is where a remarketing campaign shines. 

By retargeting them, you might reach them at a time when they do have the funds, leading to a conversion. It’s also a great way to personalize the customer experience, which reflects well on your brand. 

Mistake #7: Lacking Patience 

Patience is a virtue – and that’s certainly the case when running a Facebook ad campaign. Businesses will often set up a new campaign but won’t give it enough time to perform. 

A huge benefit of advertising on Facebook is you get instant analytics. The day after going live with your campaign, Facebook Ads Manager will report on your impressions, clicks, and engagement. 

Correcting the mistake

Yet, that doesn’t mean you should start tweaking your ad strategy within a day or two. Instead, stay passive for at least two weeks. That will give your ads ample time to show their actual effectiveness. 

It’s hard for businesses to wait because they want to see that they’re getting the bang for their buck – but waiting two weeks is necessary. It’s our golden standard at The HOTH, and it’s served us very well. 

Tracking analytics is essential, but changing things up too quickly can do more harm than good.

Concluding Thoughts: Common Facebook Ad Mistakes 

Advertising on the largest social media platform globally should be a no-brainer – but Facebook Ads aren’t a guarantee of success. 

Instead, you’ll need to actively avoid these common blunders to ensure your Facebook ad campaigns achieve your desired results. 

Need help creating Facebook ads for your business? Feel free to reach out to our paid advertising team, and we’ll provide you with our expertise and fleet of secret weapons. 

Also, The HOTH is developing a new Facebook Advertising tool for our clients, but we need your help. Take our survey so we can learn which services you need to find the most success.     

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