2017 will bring about more changes than any year before and with it comes the rise of something that many online marketers may have lost sight of in paid media: creativity.

There will be new ad formats, new advertising platforms, new targeting demographics and options, new competitors, new conversion and audience tracking, and new ad extensions. That sounds great, but who knows how to use all of these new options effectively? In the information age, the most informed will reap the biggest benefits. If you’re standing still or doing what you did last year, you’re going to be left behind. And if you’re not advertising online already, then what the hell are you doing?!

With that said, here are the top 5 PPC trends of 2017:

1. New Targeting Options Change The Game

Face it: Google and Facebook probably know you better than you know yourself. There is an endless amount of private data about everyone, but how can advertisers use that to their advantage?

Google only recently released demographic targeting for search ads, which already proved to be successful and effective.

Letting search advertisers target by demographic was just a small glimpse into the collective knowledge that Google holds so close to the chest. In 2017, look for Google to give advertisers a bigger peek into what they know about users.

For Google to compete with Facebook, it will have to let advertisers in on more than just user demographics (age & gender). Look for Google and Facebook to allow even more precise targeting.

Hopefully hyper-targeted ads won’t scare away too many users, but things might get awkward if Google and Facebook start to reveal how much they know about you.

Think “I Know What You Did Last Summer” was just a movie? Think again.

2. Video. Video. Video.

Advertisers who aren’t utilizing online videos in their advertisements are living in the past. Video is basically mandatory at this point. Users visit your site to learn more, and what is the quickest way to do that? Video!

No one has time to read articles. I’m surprised you even made it this far! If you don’t have videos on your website or advertisements, you need to get on that, like, yesterday. Potential customers feel much more comfortable making purchases when they have a clear view of you, your company, and the benefits that you offer.

Advertisers can show videos to highly-targeted potential customers for a fraction of the price of TV advertising. Many companies are already taking advantage of this. Are you? Look for videos to become an even bigger part of the overall online marketing strategy.

3. Waterproof Tracking

Can you tell me where every single one of your online leads came from? Probably not. There are most likely holes or blind spots in your tracking. Change that in 2017.

This year, advertisers will be looking to close any gaps in their tracking to make sure everything is absolutely “waterproof.” The ability to analyze leads and where they came from is absolutely crucial in 2017.

How do you know what your ROI is if you don’t even know where sales came from? Was that sale from Facebook? Google? Organic search? How can you optimize towards high-performing platforms when you can’t tell which one is doing better?

Look for advertisers to segment their traffic in extreme detail. Make sure that you are not missing any important pieces of the puzzle. At Clix we make sure that our tracking is up-to-date and accurate so that we can make informed decisions.

If your tracking is lacking, your campaign will be slacking.

4. Less Money, Mo’ Problems (a.k.a. Competition)

If you thought everyone was already advertising online, think again. There are still tons of companies who underutilize or do not utilize internet advertising at all. Look for them to join the (already crowded) party in 2017.

With the influx of advertisers, Google and Facebook will become even more cost-prohibitive. Advertisers will need bigger budgets to compete when every business owner realizes that internet advertising is a necessity, not an option.

(Side note: if you aren’t advertising on Facebook, you need to be!)

Competition will be increasingly fierce, so it will be imperative to have a plan and a backup plan (or two). If you’re afraid or confused, find someone knowledgeable like the paid media team we have at Clix to help you navigate the rough online seas.

Gone are the days when the intern is running the online ads. The online advertising landscape is unforgiving, and don’t underestimate the competition – they probably know what they’re doing!

Many advertisers may be flushing money down the drain with terrible ads or targeting, but count on that as the exception rather than the rule. It’s time to take charge and work with someone who is adept at advertising online, so if you have questions, you can always talk to us!

5. Creativity!

Yay! It’s back! Or did it ever leave?

With all of the new targeting options and platforms, it will be those advertisers who are creative and adaptable that will make the most of it.

Quickness is a requirement. You’ll fall behind if you wait a year to implement new strategies or take advantage of new targeting options.

If you aren’t constantly testing new ads and ad formats, then you need to be. Don’t be afraid to try something new. It is often the advertisers that start the soonest that get the best results.

It is up to you to investigate and see how you can improve your campaigns with new tactics. It could mean the difference between receiving 10 leads or 1 lead. Knowledge is power!

Remember:

Internet advertising is not exclusive anymore. Everyone is doing it. The defining factor will be whether or not you use all of the available options, or if you’re smarter than the advertiser next door.

Look for brainpower, creativity, and adaptation to become the most sought-after qualities when looking for someone to handle online campaigns.

In 2017, it may be necessary to hire a professional to run your online ad campaigns. The ever-increasing complexity of the online landscape can be overwhelming for anyone starting out. However, you’re not alone. Take a deep breath. We’re here to help, so feel free to contact us!

The post Top 5 Hot PPC Trends of 2017 appeared first on Clix.

Our business development team understands that in order to grow your business, it is our job at Clix to understand the human side of the work you do. We get to know your leadership team and learn what drives you. Our team discusses your products or services and what makes you stand out from the crowd. We want to know your goals and are willing to adapt to the changes in your goals over time, often adjusting our strategy when necessary. Using digital marketing and the various tools and software available to us, we create strategy that focuses on what our partners need and want from their business.

The human side of business not only needs a dynamic team to work as your marketing partner, but a willing and open minded client that understands the expectations we have in place for them. We thrive on communication and make the best progress on campaigns where there is a collaborative creative process. We love coming up with creative solutions, and we’re most successful when our clients are engaged in the ongoing process of improving their campaign. At Clix, we are ready and willing to listen to the concerns you have about the progress of your campaign.

The benefits of collaboration go beyond the business itself. As your business grows, the employees and families who have contributed to your success also see the ways in which their success is affected. Communities can benefit from the human side of business growth because companies can better contribute and give back to them not only through jobs, but through charity events and fundraising sponsorships.

Digital marketing offers up your business to potential growth you may not have envisioned. You might find yourself having to hire more people to keep up with the number of leads you get per day because your local citations have been standardized and the content on your website is a robust resource. You may find customers tell you the information you provide on your social media platforms enticed them to call, or the follow up emails you are sending through marketing automation provided them customer service no one else has. And to think this can all begins with simply becoming a partner with a robust, adaptable, and knowledgeable digital marketing partner.

If you have a desire to make your business better through tapping into the potential that digital marketing provides, you can go far. But you also need the right partner who will be transparent and honest with you along the way. Clix is that partner and has the track record to prove it. If you have questions about any of the services we offer, don’t hesitate to reach out.

The post The Human Side of Business Development appeared first on Clix.

Digital marketing offers a number of solutions for getting honest, constructive customer feedback. Through a variety of channels such as automation marketing and a focus on local citations, you can use the tools and software digital marketing offers to collect and analyze evaluations of the services or products you provide.

Automation Marketing and Customer Feedback

One of the most clear-cut ways to use digital marketing to benefit your business, automation marketing, allows you to create campaigns that drive engagement and feedback from customers. Campaigns might be focused on surveys to gauge customer satisfaction, or even something as simple as an automated follow up to an opened promotional email can help you determine whether or not your marketing efforts are paying off.

But automation does not exist in a vacuum, and neither do any of your other marketing efforts. An effective automation marketing campaign still relies on high quality customer service from your team, such as personal phone calls to customers or email checkins to touch base when appropriate.

Your automation campaigns are also an opportunity to increase usage of your website, using blogs, website pages, and other digital resources to benefit your customers, giving them the right information they need to make decisions.

Customer Service Software

When people think about digital marketing, they might not realize they can use tools like tracking numbers to not only record their own business calls, but to make more informed decisions about what their staff are doing on the front lines. Using call recording can open up a lot of avenues for internal improvement and allow business owners to hear the questions their customers ask in real time.

At Clix, we have had clients use call recordings to make informed decisions about their staffing and better serve customers’ needs in the office. We also take a proactive approach and give recommendations following our call reports in order to continue to be an active partner in your business success.

Form fills also provide our clients insight into the information customers are seeking. More often than not, having a report of the number of form fills and quality of leads helps our clients determine new information about customers they might have thought about or make adjustments to their website copy in order to move their campaign along. Plus, unlike having an email address on your website – an email address that could be in many other places or handed out by customers via word of mouth – a lead from a form fill can be directly correlated to the success of your digital marketing campaign.

Website Content and Customer Participation

Many businesses may not realize the kind of resources available to them to make their customer service even better, but using your website and other avenues for sharing your content can make a difference. From regular blogs and news updates, to using video and social media to drive engagement to your website, a robust website can set you apart from competitors in big ways.

If you’re ready to use digital marketing to gain customer feedback and grow your business, contact us today!

The post How to Use Digital Marketing to Get Customer Feedback appeared first on Clix.

NO!

Why? It’s complicated. It’s constantly changing. It’s time consuming, and mistakes are expensive. Like, really expensive.

Google makes it sound easy enough though, right? Add a few keywords, write some ads, and then voila! Customers magically appear on your site and your phone is ringing off the hook.

Unfortunately, this is not reality for many advertisers. After setting up their AdWords campaign, spending a lot of their time, a decent chunk of change, and receiving zero leads, advertisers want to give Mr. Google a call and give him a piece of their mind (“#$%& you Google!”).

However, if they would’ve let an expert build, run, and constantly optimize their campaign, they could have seen some real results and saved a lot of time, frustration, and money in the process. Then AdWords becomes an investment and not an expense.

Let’s face it – do you want to spend countless hours on Google AdWords forums searching for the answer to your questions? Do you have time to worry about click-through-rates, impression share, average cost per click? You have a business to run! You ain’t got time for that!

It seems crazy, but some people actually like exploring which of the 14 ad types perform best. They like testing different keyword bids, campaign settings, and ad copy. Believe it or not, some people enjoy digging into hundreds of search queries to find great keywords or eliminate bad ones. They savor the opportunity to look at row after row of data, numbers, and percentages…sounds fun, right? NERD ALERT!

Our paid media managers are the geeks who relish the opportunity to increase conversion rates, lower cost per conversion, and dominate the competition. They fist-pump when they lower cost-per-click. They dance in their cubicles when they deliver a huge amount of leads to the client. They even read boring digital marketing articles for fun. Really!

Don’t waste your time and money trying to figure out AdWords when we have experienced, smart, talented AdWords experts ready to create the perfect campaign tailor-made for you. You’re a business owner, and there are more important things for you to do. Don’t make an expensive mistake. Leave the AdWords campaigns to number-crunching dweebs like us. You won’t regret it!

The post Should I Run My Own Google AdWords Campaign? appeared first on Clix.

Typically a developer will run a speed test prior to launching a website. If the site has not been designed specifically for mobile, then it is recommended that a Google developer mobile-friendly test is also ran. This test will determine if users will be able to use this site on mobile devices, and if the user see all text and images without excessive scrolling (left and right). While this is the first check, there are additional items to continue optimizing to create the best user experience.

Once the site is mobile-friendly there are additional optimizations that can take place within AdWords. On the settings tab, for each campaign, there is a mobile device bid adjustment. Since almost half of PPC traffic is typically from mobile devices, it is a best practice to have an increased bid between 5-25% for mobile devices. The percentage depends on the industry and competition. This begins differentiating the PPC campaign on mobile.

Google gives preference to mobile-friendly sites. To take full advantage of this opportunity, set up mobile versions of the ads and ad extensions. When creating an ad, there is a checkbox that must be selected for the ad to be mobile optimized.

In addition to ads, ad extensions also have the opportunity to be mobile optimized. Sitelinks, call extensions and callout extensions each have the option for a mobile checkbox. While the same extensions can be used, this is another chance to build a connection with a mobile user. The information can be different or shorter to be more applicable on mobile devices.

Beyond the website, each additional checkpoint is building a better user experience especially for the mobile audience.

The post Mobile PPC Provides Additional Opportunities appeared first on Clix.

The Dimensions tab, which is available in Google AdWords, is a great resource to help you gain insight from your historical performance and optimize your campaign.

What Is It?

Dimensions is a tab located within your Google AdWords account. You can access the tab at the account, campaign or ad group level and view data for that particular tier. The feature allows you to view and filter your historical data based on different points of information, such as the location that drove your clicks and conversions or the time of day that gets a lot of impressions but no clicks.

How Should I Use It?

Dimensions allows you to filter through and dissect your data, to find actionable insights to optimize your campaign off of. If certain geographic locations in your targeted area are performing better (down to the zip code) or certain days of the week are driving more conversions, adjust your bids during those peak performing times to maximize your exposure. In the reverse, reduce your bids for poorer performing times or locations, to improve your KPI performance.

You can also use this information to identify areas to expand on or concentrate focus on. For example, if Florida is driving the majority of conversions, separate the state into its own geo-targeted campaign to support with more budget or tailor your ad copy to be specific to the location.

Here are some top recommended views for your Dimensions data:

• Geographic
  • Identify locations driving the majority of conversions or areas using a lot of the budget but not driving conversions. You can bid adjust locations +/- via Settings -> Locations tab.
• Time: Day of Week
  • Identify days of the week driving the majority of conversions or days not driving conversions. You can bid adjust days +/- via Settings ->Ad Schedule tab.

Keep In Mind

If you are working with a limited budget and want to increase bids for a particular location or day of week, try to decrease the same % from a poorer performing location or day. This should help to still work within the same budget and just get more bang for your buck.

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Nowadays, there are so many aspects of your website and traffic to analyze in order to make educated decisions for your business. This typically requires use of many different applications that each require their own tag to be place on the site in order to start collecting data. These ongoing needs for placing, updating and removing tags is where container tags become such a useful and easy tool to make your life of managing tags easier.

What Are They? Container tags are a great solution more managing multiple tags on your website. Rather then placing several individual tags within the code of your website, you place a single container tag which then houses the multiple individual tags. You then manage the individual tags within the container tag’s interface. For example, one of the simplest (and free) container tags out there is Google Tag Manager.

Why Use Them? In short, efficiency. The container tag reduces clutter, redundant tags, and can speed up the tagging process.

• Making Tag Management Simple
  • Easier for you to add, remove or update individual tags on your website via the container tag interface
  • Keeps your website code clean. You install one container tag in the code of your website rather then several individual tags
• Speeds Up The Tag Implementation Process
  • If tag placement is done by a third party, you can have the site manager place the single container tag on the site. Then at will, you can add, remove and adjust the individual tags via the container tag interface, giving YOU more control and reducing turnaround times for tag placement.

Container tags help make your digital marketing life easier. If you are looking for a good place to get started, check out Google Tag Manager, which is an extremely easy and free container tag option. GTM integrates with many third-party platforms, which makes tag integration and setup that much simpler.

The post Simplify Analytics Tracking: Using Container Tags appeared first on Clix.

 Why Creative Optimization Is Important

1. Stand Out From The Crowd! Testing new ad copy messaging adds freshness to your PPC campaign and can help your ad stand out from the competition.
2. Adjust For New Formats. Search engines switch up ad formats constantly to improve user experience; create new ad variations to align with changing formats.
   • Example: Google recently introduced a new mobile ad format, only displaying your ad headline and description line 1. Due to this, you should add a mobile specific ad to your campaign with the CTA in the beginning of your ad since it may not display in description line 2.
3. Address Changes in Offerings & Seasonality. What your target audience is looking for and the products/promotions you offer can change throughout the year; update your ads to promote the latest.
4. Learn From The Past. See what messaging and CTAs have worked for you to date and which have not; build from these key insights to create new effective ads and improve conversion rate.
5. Be Relevant, Speak To Your Target Audience. The more relevant your ad is to the keyword being searched, the better quality score the search engine assigns which helps your ad rank and reduces costs.

Getting started on a creative refresh can seem daunting, so to make it more approachable, come up with a plan and approach optimization like a process. First, conduct an audit of your account(s) and determine which campaigns could benefit from ad copy optimization. If you have a significant number of ad groups to optimize, identify the top groups that could use optimization and start from there, working your way down the list.

You may not think that introducing new ad copy will make a large impact on your campaign—especially considering the tight restrictions on character limits you are working with—but this is not the case! Improving the relevancy of your ad, trying new CTAs, and adjusting ad formats can greatly improve your quality score, CTR, CVR, and can ultimately reduce costs.

More tips and tricks from Search Engine Land.

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This shake-up created quite the buzz in the search world as SEO and PPC professionals watched to see what kind of shift in traffic was to come, both for organic traffic and paid. Although Firefox trails behind Chrome and IE in search market share, the 3rd-largest browser drives millions of queries a month and a shift in providers would likely impact the search market share between Google and Microsoft/Yahoo.

What’s At Stake? Firefox reportedly held approximately 16% of the desktop search market share in 2014 (according to NetMarketShare). By replacing Google with Yahoo, Firefox users were automatically switched over to using Yahoo, unless they so choose to manually switchback their default search engine.

What This Means For PPC. Current investment in Yahoo/Bing needs to be reevaluated.

Investment in both percentage of time spent managing and optimizing and percentage of media budget currently allocated to Yahoo/Bing needs to be reconsidered as shifts in traffic volume and performance take place. Google has been the 800-pound gorilla in search for several years, compelling the lion’s share of media budget and optimizations, while Yahoo/Bing regularly came in 2nd. With market share potentially shifting to Yahoo, search professionals need to monitor their campaigns to see impacts to performance, and start to consider if Yahoo/Bing now requires more management hours and budget, to support the shift.

Key Considerations. Yahoo/Bing is typically the lower volume, more efficient performing search engine. With some traffic shifting away from Google to Yahoo, Yahoo volume will likely pick up requiring more budget and more management and optimization, as it may become less efficient with the increased traffic.

Read more from Search Engine Land here on the Firefox/Yahoo deal and an update on users switching back to Google, post rollout.

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Why PPC Ads May Not Appear:

There are several reasons why your PPC ad may not appear when you conduct a search. Here are some of the main reasons:

• Engines pace the budget throughout the day and may not show the PPC ad for every search.
• Campaign may have hit budget cap for the day.
• Geo-targeting settings may be applied. Example: You are located in Missouri and campaign is geo-targeted to Texas.
• Day-parting settings may be applied. (ad may be set to only serve during select days and hours)
• Repeat searching – if you repeatedly conduct searches without clicking, the engine may stop displaying certain results since it optimizes to display relevant results that you’ll click on.

Ways To Preview Your PPC Ad:

As a best practice, utilize an ad preview tool in order to view your ad and avoid any potential affects to the performance of your ad. These preview tools allow you to select locations and devices when previewing, in order to adjust for any settings applied to your PPC campaign:

• Google Ad Preview Tool: http://adwords.google.com/d/AdPreview/?__u=1000000000&__c=1000000000
• Bing/Yahoo Ad Preview Tool: http://bingads.microsoft.com/Tools/AdPreview

The post Reasons Your PPC Ad May Not Appear and Using Ad Preview Tools appeared first on Clix.