Internet Marketing Archives - Page 9 of 11

4 Ways you can apply lessons from Superbowl commercials to your business

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Andrew

For those of you in Antartica last weekend (or non-sports fans), the Superbowl took place last Sunday, and the best football players competed with the best ad agencies for the limelight. You might think Superbowl ads don’t apply to your business because there’s no way you would ever be able to afford one, but all the ads had takeaways that can help with advertising and marketing for any budget.

1. Add a social layer.
If you noticed, almost every ad in the Superbowl had a social media element to it. Some had hashtags associated with them, such as Audi’s vampire commercial’s #SoLongVampires. Others, such as Bud Light’s commercial, encouraged watchers to go to Facebook for more content. While you don’t necessarily have to have a hashtag, promoting your specials on Facebook, or offering extra discounts to users who share your content can help add a social layer to any promotion you do.

Audi’s Vampire Commercial

2. Make it unique.
Every Superbowl commercial has a unique factor to it – usually humor. Do your ad spots say or show anything to separate your business from your competitors? Beware of bad jokes or going overboard, however. Your commercial may go viral for the wrong reasons.

3. Don’t just sell your product.
Not many people want to hear numbers about how your car has 6hp more than the other guys’, or why the hot tub you sell has jets that deliver 26psi more than your competitors’. Instead, focus on the lifestyle aspect of your product. VW’s commercial showed a dog getting in shape so he could chase a New Beetle, and became one of the most watched TV spots because of it’s unique approach.

VW’s Dog Commercial

4. Don’t jab at the competition
Chevy learned that lesson the hard way this year with their Superbowl ad that said Ford drivers didn’t make it through the Mayan apocalypse, but Chevy drivers did. While it generated some buzz, it didn’t do anything to help the brand at all, and Ford released a statement taking offense to the ad as well.

Let us know of any other Superbowl commercials you enjoyed in the comments.

The Explosion of Mobile Search

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Andrew

Mobile paid search is set to increase in 2012. Already this year, mobile made up 15.9% of paid search traffic in January, and mobile made up 21.5% of all paid search clicks. Meaning click-through rates were higher for mobile than desktop.

According to a forecast by Perfomics, an online analyst firm, mobile click share may rise to 28% of all search clicks over the next six months.

Click-through rate is also higher on the mobile platform. Mobile CTRs were 45% higher than their desktop counterparts.

Also, cost-per-click is lower on mobile as well, coming in at 40% below traditional computers.

So what do all these numbers mean? Well they mean you need to get started with a mobile campaign – and fast.

Conversion Logix is a full-service digital ad agency in Seattle. We can help you get your mobile game off the ground.

Check out some of our other posts on the importance of mobile marketing.

Facebook Ad Impressions Increasing

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Andrew

Have you tried doing Facebook ads in your latest display advertising campaign? Facebook is getting huge, and they own about a third of the U.S. display ad market. If you want to get the most out of your display campaign, forgetting about Facebook would be a huge oversight.

Why Hiring a Search Engine Marketer is Like Going to a Mechanic

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Andrew

Yup, you read that right. At first glance, there might not seem like there’s much similarity between digital advertising and auto repair, but they do have their similarities. For more information on search engine marketing, check out our post on online advertising and the state of search.

First off, both are things you can do yourself. Yup, it’s true. You can do your own car repair the same way you can do your own search marketing. It might take you longer and you might not get the same results, but it’s still possible.

The second reason they are similar is that a lot of people have had bad experiences in the past. Almost everyone you know probably has a story about a shady mechanic, and a lot of people have separate stories about search engine marketers over-promising and under-delivering.

The third reason is that you get what you pay for. There are mechanics out there that will give you a quote for really cheap car repair, but you don’t know exactly what you’re getting. The same is true for search engine marketing agencies. Someone can tell you that you only need to spend $200 per month on search, but don’t tell you what their methods are.

The last reason is that you’re better off hiring a professional. I know I said you can do it yourself, and it’s true. The only thing is that you’re better off hiring someone else. If I asked you to replace the head gasket in your car, the chances are you would have no idea where to start. The same thing would probably happen if I told you to make a search campaign that included dynamic keyword insertion, geo-modifiers, negative keywords, ad rank and quality score. You could spend hours researching how to do all of those things, but the truth is, you’re never done researching. Google, and other search engines, roll out changes constantly, and you need to stay on top of the latest changes in search marketing methods.

At Conversion Logix, we guarantee you’ll see a lift in traffic and will have nothing but good stories to tell your peers and colleagues. We are a full-service digital ad agency in Seattle dedicated to bringing you results.

Does Your Website Promote Conversions?

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Andrew

How much of your web traffic do you convert? The chances are, not very much. In fact, most small business’ websites achieve only a 2% conversion rate. That means 98% of your web traffic is leaving without taking any action.

So why does this happen? Consumer behavior has changed. With the introduction of the search engine, consumers shop around before making any purchase decision.

This means that you might get a lot of web traffic, but if all your traffic does is poke around your website for a few minutes and leave, your website isn’t doing you any good.

A conversion is either a sale (hard conversion), or a lead (soft conversion). To maximize your conversions, you need to alter your website to promote both types of conversions.

Examples of ways to promote hard conversions would be a feature where users could buy online. That way, for those visitors that are ready to purchase, they have the option right in front of them.

The only problem with promoting hard conversion is that barely any of your website visitors are ready to make a purchase. Thus, trying to convince your traffic to buy right away isn’t very successful.

Soft conversions are a better way to convert your users. Because a soft conversion usually consists of only contact information, your website users will be more willing to give out their information, allowing you to contact them later.

Examples of a soft conversion would be an offer to join a mail list, or using a conversion driver to give a special to your website visitors.

Also, because they are willing to fill in their contact information, soft conversions are further down the purchase funnel than the average website visitor, as they are already considering your product or service.

Your website can’t be a passive page. The Internet is dynamic; use the ability to change deals on the fly and host mini-sites with your special offers to help increase conversions.

Check out our mini-sites and conversion drivers today and see how to use your existing traffic to create more leads.

Online Listings Bring New Opportunities to Local Businesses

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Andrew

I consult a search engine about local businesses almost every day. You probably do, too. If I’m looking for the nearest bank branch, gas station or restaurant, I type it into Google Maps on my iPhone and away we go.

Research from eMarketer confirms my personal anecdote. They found that more than 70% of consumers check an online source before going to a local business or restaurant.

That’s a huge number. If you don’t put a lot of stock in your online presence, then you should.

Out of that 70% of people, 43% said they visited Google to find out information about a business. By far and away that was the most popular way of discovering new business. In a distant second place, with 30% of the vote, was yellowpages.com.

This tells us that the majority of consumers look for local businesses in the same spots, meaning it’s fairly easy to get noticed.

One of the easiest ways to appear prominently to searchers is to optimize your Google Places listing, and appear in hundreds of online directories with Local AdsUpNow. These two things alone will get you exposure to 73% of the consumers who search online for local businesses.

If you have any questions, sound off in the comments, or contact us for a free digital marketing consultation.

An infographic On the History of Google Places

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Andrew

Fellow Local Search Marketer David Mihm put together an infographic showing the history of Google Places changes over the last few years.

If nothing else, this graph shows the importance of diligence when creating a Google Places listing. It’s not something that you can just set up and forget about – it requires maintenance.

Get a Better Google Places Rank with Local AdsUpNow

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Andrew

More than 3 billion searches for local goods or services take place every month. That’s a huge number, and it’s only getting bigger.

We’ve talked on this blog before about Google Places optimization and some of the ways to get your business listing higher in Google. One of the things we mentioned was using business directories to get what are called “citations.”

Citations are mentions of your business name on the Internet. So why is it important to have so many citations? Well search engines think it’s important, that’s why.

Retargeting: The Ultimate Lift For Website Traffic

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Andrew

We’ve talked about retargeting before, but for those of you who don’t know what it is, how it works, or how it fits in to your digital marketing strategy, here’s the short version: A user visits your website, a tracking cookie gets placed in their browser, your ads appear to them over the next month as they browse the web, and they are more likely to return to your website and take action.

Retargeting is great in that it follows up with your website customers automatically. 98 percent of your web traffic leaves without doing anything, but with retargeting, you get a much higher return rate. In a study from comScore, sites with retargeting got a 726 percent lift in site visitation after four weeks of ad exposure.

Retargeting also reflects positively on your branded search. Branded search is when someone searches for your business, such as “Moe’s Pizza,” instead of searching a broad category like “Pizza Seattle.” Branded searches are important because it means more and more people know about your business. In the same study, comScore noted that after four weeks of ad exposure, branded search increased 1,046 percent.

This means that even if the retargeting ads themselves don’t have a high click-through rate, searchers are still looking for those businesses more often than ones they aren’t retargeted for.

After conducting its study, comScore concluded: “In building the model of branding effectiveness, one strategy clearly outperformed the rest – retargeting. This strategy works well in every scenario and should be considered for both direct response and longer term branding objectives.”

For more information on retargeting, contact us today for a free consultation, or ask a question in the comments.

Mobile Search Increased 269% Y-O-Y in Q4

Posted on January 17, 2012 by Andrew

We’ve talked a lot on this blog about the emergence and importance of mobile advertising, but I’m afraid we’re going to talk about it a little more. According to a new report from IgnitionOne, mobile search advertising spend grew 269 percent year-over-year during the last quarter.

That’s an outrageous amount, and really showcases the increasing importance that is being placed on mobile. Over the same period, mobile ad impressions also increased by 317 percent, and CPC decreased by 8.6 percent. Meaning marketers were serving more impressions at a lower cost than ever before.

Things were all good on the desktop front as well, as desktop search grew 22.4 percent year-over-year in quarter four. There were also increase in impressions (20%), clicks (34%) and CTR (12%).

Overall, the search market is still growing, especially in mobile. If you want some more background on what makes up a mobile marketing campaign, and why it’s important, check out some of our previous blog posts.

If you have more questions about mobile, let us know in the comments. Or, contact us today for a free mobile consultation.