Tag: Seattle Ad Agency

4 Ways Small Businesses Can Be Competitive Using Google Shopping

Posted on by Andrew

Google Shopping AdsDo you use Google Shopping to sell your products or do you think your business is too small to compete with larger businesses that have bigger budgets? With careful planning and execution, using Product Listing Ads within Google Shopping can be a very effective digital advertising platform. Here are four strategies for your smaller e-commerce business to find success.

  1. Focus on your niche

What makes you unique? Why would someone buy from you? Your uniqueness adds value and will make your ads stand out to online shoppers. Focus your campaigns on new, niche, or unknown brands – different products that aren’t sold by big box retailers or Amazon. This exclusivity helps separate you from your competition. Selling unique products means there’s less competition to appear in Google Shopping for relevant searches.

  1. Segment your campaigns

Segmenting your campaigns correctly will help you deliver ads to the most relevant, ready-to-buy audiences. Focus on capturing high-converting traffic by making sure your ads appear to high-conversion queries. By segmenting your campaigns into the type of queries that receive high, medium and low conversion rates you can set bid amounts that correlate to the user’s intent. Bid more for high-converting queries and less for generic searches.

  1. Leverage location-based targeting

Target location to make sure your ads are reaching shoppers who are most likely to purchase your products. Are consumers in certain areas more likely to be interested in what you are selling? Depending on what your goals are, you can bid higher for your ads to show in very specific areas. If you sell gas fireplaces with all the bells and whistles, you may decide to bid more for ads shown in high-income areas with colder climates where buyers have a budget for your custom fireplaces.

  1. Use RLSA lists

Most consumers who click on a Product Listing Ad are usually close to making a purchase decision. Pairing your ads with RLSA (remarketing lists for search ads) allows you to bid more for ads that will be shown to people who have already visited your site or made a previous purchase. Consumers who have existing knowledge of your business are more likely to make a purchase.

The key to making a sale is delivering the right message to the right person at the right time. We can help you create and execute a multi-faceted advertising campaign that puts your products in front of interested buyers. Contact us today!

 

Drive Traffic to Your Dealership with Strategic Advertising

Posted on by Andrew

Dynamic Display GifWhen consumers begin their car search, they are turning to their smartphones to research this huge purchase. The car shopping journey is increasingly influenced by mobile, instead of dealership visits. According to a Google study, the average car shopper in 2006 made five visits to dealerships in order to research potential vehicles. Ten years later, that number has dropped to two. With buyers making limited visits to dealerships, it’s critical that you have an ad strategy in place to reach active buyers.

Google recently investigated search patterns and foot traffic data and discovered that the most popular to reveal popular times of year for consumers to visit actively shop at a dealership are during summer and the holiday season. Take advantage of these key moments and ensure people head to your dealership and not the lot next door.

During these busy periods, auto shoppers prefer checking out cars during daytime hours. When they’re on the lot, consumers are still using their smartphones to search for information. According to Google, the top action people perform with their phones while on the lot is confirming that they are getting a good price on a vehicle.

An ongoing ad strategy will help you drive foot traffic year round, but during these peak shopping times, consider adjusting your mobile budgets so your ads appear when people are searching for auto information near your dealership. By executing the following strategies and making sure you have a mobile-friendly site, you will reach shoppers when they are ready to buy.

Dynamic PPC Ads: Car shoppers typically begin their search in the Google search bar, looking for a specific make or model. We help you reach active buyers by delivering your real-time online inventory via our Dynamic PPC Ads. Our servers crawl your site and extract the cars you have on your lot. We create ads for your current inventory and when a consumer searches for a car you have in stock, your ad appears. When they click on your ad, they go directly to the vehicle details page (VDP) for that car. Dynamic ads give you the ability to advertise your entire inventory: new and used. Connecting active buyers with their ideal car means more sales for your dealership.

Enable Extensions: Providing detailed information through ad extensions can increase CTR and make it easier for consumers to call, text, or locate your business. Give your ads relevancy and value by enabling the following extensions:

Compelling Call-to-Action (CTA): Put all of your important information and mobile-specific CTAs in the title or first line of your mobile ads. Fill that space with incentives and promotions that will drive traffic to your dealership.

Facebook Delivers Quality Car Buyers to Dealership Websites

Posted on by Andrew

Facebook AdvertisingOnline car research and shopping creates ease and convenience for the buyer, but can pose a challenge for dealerships. As consumer behavior changes, you need to shift your strategy to deliver relevant ads to high-quality prospects. What is the best way to reach consumers online and deliver a compelling ad that drives traffic to your site?

Facebook Marketing Science and Oracle Data Cloud recently analyzed 64 auto campaigns, evaluating the quality of audience and scale across a variety of publishers. The study found that auto advertisers should use their data to create high-quality audiences and then execute highly-targeted campaigns to achieve the quality of audience and scale that delivers results.

According to the study findings, advertisers were able to reach more car buyers on Facebook than through most other publishers. In this analysis, Facebook’s audience was above average on the quality index and was particularly strong in delivering auto buyers at scale. Facebook ranked in the top 10% of publishers in these studies and first on 25% of the campaigns analyzed. Combining quality and scale resulted in the best performance for Facebook compared to other publishers.

What strategies can you implement to reach more car buyers on Facebook?

Lookalike audiences: Lookalike targeting gives you the ability to find more qualified prospects by leveraging the data from your existing campaign, reaching people who have not yet expressed an interest in your business, but more than likely are interested in what you have to offer.

We can pull lookalike models directly from the pixels we’ve placed on an advertiser’s website for your specific retargeting campaign and then use that data to target similar Facebook users.

Custom audiences: Creating custom audiences within Facebook enables you to deliver a relevant and effective message to known audiences, increasing efficiency in your marketing campaigns. With custom audiences, you can define groups of existing and prospective customers and serve ads to these targeted groups who have already expressed an interest in your brand.

Dynamic Facebook ads: We offer a relevant, highly-targeted advertising option with our Facebook dynamic ad campaigns. This tool reaches active car buyers by sharing your real-time inventory with them. Our Facebook dynamic ad campaigns show your inventory to the best prospects on Facebook by driving traffic right to the Vehicle Detail Pages (VDPs) for your cars. Dynamic ads are relevant, maintenance-free, and shown to buyers who are lower on the purchase funnel.

By implementing these strategies, you can increase your ROI by targeting in-market shoppers who are looking for cars you have on your lot. Contact us today and we’ll get your social media advertising campaigns working for you.  

Connect with Users by Displaying Facebook Ads in Instagram Stories

Posted on by Andrew

Instagram AdvertisingSince its launch just six months ago, Instagram Stories have become wildly popular with users. Over 150 million people interact with Stories on a daily basis and now, you have the opportunity to display ads to this engaged audience. Capitalize off of Instagram and Facebook’s powerful connection by creating ads that reach users within Instagram Stories.

With Instagram Stories, people and businesses can share multiple photos and videos in a slideshow format without overloading their profiles. Photos and videos will disappear after 24 hours and won’t appear on their profile grid or in feed. Stories appear in a bar at the top of users’ feed from Instagram accounts that they follow. Your ad image or video can be placed between Instagram Stories.

How to Create Facebook Ads for Instagram Stories

After connecting your Instagram account with your Facebook ad account, it’s relatively easy to insert an ad. Within either Power Editor or Ads Manager, create a campaign using the reach objective, a strategy that delivers your ad to the most people your budget can afford. On the ad set level, you will see the option to create ads for Instagram Stories. The new format will allow for a single image or video (no longer than 15 seconds). There will be no standalone links or text, including titles, messages, or descriptions.

Benefits of Facebook Ads in Instagram Stories

You are somewhat limited with your ad because you can’t promote a link or text that would drive traffic back to your website. Instagram plans to allow links or call-to-action buttons in the future, but there isn’t that capability just yet. Although you can’t directly send traffic to your website, this ad format can still work for you. You can:

  • Increase awareness: Delivering ads using the reach objective displays your image or video to a large audience, increasing exposure and awareness of your business, products, and/or services.
  • Make a memorable impression: You are limited to a single image or a 15-second video, so your image or video needs to make a statement. Get creative and create a visual message that leaves a lasting impression.
  • Spark interest: Insert ads to spark interest in a new product, promotion, or incentive. Once you capture someone’s attention, you can follow up with more targeted advertising that links to your website, moving users down the purchase funnel.

Lear more about Facebook advertising here, or contact us today!

Boosting a Facebook post or Launch a paid social campaign? Which is best?

Posted on by Andrew

Boost Post on Facebook

 

When you post on Facebook, it might be tempting to click the “boost” button to increase your reach and exposure, but hold on a second! The “boost” button is not the most effective way to reach your audience. This tool lacks the options available to advertisers who deliver ads to new and existing customers. Still need help making a decision?

 

Here are three reasons why you should avoid boosting your posts:

1.Limited Posts: You can only boost one post at a time, eliminating any opportunity to test different posts to see which is performing best. You miss out on refining your audience targeting to make sure you’re getting the right message in front of the right people.

2.Limited Targeting: With boosted posts, there are essentially two groups of people you can promote to: “fans and friends of fans” and interest groups.

  • “Fans and friends of fans”: Fans are interested in what you’re selling, but “friends of fans” most likely aren’t. Don’t waste ad dollars on an indifferent audience.
  • Interest targeting: Interest targeting is strictly limited to interests. It doesn’t include any demographic or location targeting.

3.Increased Expense: Without the ability to properly test posts and using vague audience targeting, you spend more money for less engagement than an ad that reaches your target market.

Skip the boosted posts and share your message through a Paid Social campaign. Using the following three tools, we deliver your ads to a relevant, engaged audience.

Optimized Bidding: We can optimize your bids to reflect what you want to achieve with your ads. First we determine your campaign goals (e.g. brand awareness, lead generations, and clicks to website), and then we can define optimization goals, bidding strategies, and ad formats that will reach your audience and compel them to take the action you want. Depending on your objective, you can choose to get charged for different actions, including impressions, page likes, and post engagements. By determining objectives and bids, you can efficiently extend your reach and maximize every ad’s potential.

Custom Audiences: Creating custom audiences within Facebook enables you to deliver your message to known audiences, increasing efficiency in your marketing campaigns. With custom audiences, you can define groups of existing and prospective customers and serve ads to these targeted groups who have already expressed an interest in your brand. Extend your reach and increase your ROI by delivering your ad to highly-qualified audience.

Facebook Dynamic Advertising

 

Dynamic Facebook Ads: We create an audience of people who are most likely to buy your products. After identifying a potential buyer’s intent, we serve the most relevant ad to that person. This ad pulls real-time inventory from your website’s data feed. We optimize the bid to bring the most traffic back to your site. When the prospect clicks the ad, they are sent right to the product page, creating the highest possibility of conversion. Compared to standard Facebook ads, businesses using our dynamic ads experience decreased bounce rate, increased time on website, and increased page views per session.

 

We have expertise and experience to help you execute a Paid Social campaign that reaches your target audience. Contact us today.

Facebook Inserts Mid-Roll Ads into Videos

Posted on by Andrew

Facebook Video AdvertisingFacebook continues to evolve and develop new opportunities for advertisers and publishers. Most recently, Facebook started testing mid-roll ads in live-streaming and regular videos on its platform. This new feature aims to help media companies and the social network generate revenue from growing video audiences. How will this affect your video advertising efforts?

After a video of at least 90 seconds in length has played for at least 20 seconds, Facebook may insert a 15-second ad “break” during video content. Facebook will reportedly give publishers 55 percent of all ad sales, the same revenue split that YouTube offers. Facebook is rolling out these new ad slots to agencies.

The mid-roll ads will be enabled by default when you buy a video ad campaign on Facebook, but you do have some control. As advertisers, you can opt out if you don’t want your ads to run in the middle of publishers’ videos. You can also pick categories of videos (like DIY segments or sports clips) in which you want your ads to run. Conversely, you can avoid certain categories like, “live news,” controversial social issues,” and “political debates.”

These mid-roll ads are an effective way to reach a captive audience. Take advantage of these engaged audiences by sharing your message with consumers. How can you best utilize this 15-second video spot?

Tailor your story to your audience: People want to watch relevant, helpful ads catered to their interests. Customize your ad’s message to the people who see it.

Invest in production: Spend some time and resources to produce the best possible product within your allocated budget. Consumers will respond to well-crafted, professional video that renders properly on every size screen.

Get to the point: Bring your story to life quickly so you quickly grab consumers’ attention. Consider showing brand or product imagery in the first few seconds so it’s clear what you are promoting.

Focus on storytelling: Since you only have 15 seconds, you need to tell a clear and concise story. Use every second wisely to keep your audience engaged from beginning to end.

If you’re interested in learning more about Facebook advertising, or want to launch a Facebook video campaign, contact us today!

Five Strategies to Craft a Killer Call-to-Action

Posted on by Andrew

call-to-action

Your website is the go-to place that car buyers visit to learn more about your dealership. To drive qualified prospects to your website through paid search ads, you need to engage users with a strong call-to-action (CTA) that compels visitors to click and learn more. The key to an effective CTA strategy is getting the right message in front of the right person at the right time. Here are five tactics to consider when writing CTAs for your paid search ads.

  1. Use a strong action verb to start your CTA

Be clear, concise, and get straight to the point. With limited ad space, you don’t have many words to get your message across. Let your audience know exactly what you want them to do by starting the CTA with a strong action verb. Use words like “buy” or “test drive.” Instead of writing, “the 2017 models are now here,” move users to action by saying “test drive our brand-new 2017 models.” Creating informative, yet direct CTAs will improve your click-through rate.

  1. Give your audience a reason why they should act

How will your dealership offer value to potential buyers? Include language like “call today to schedule your free test drive!” or provide some sort of incentive to come into the dealership. You have stated the action you want the user to take, but you have also provided them with a valuable reason why they should take that action.

  1. Create a sense of urgency

Fear of missing out is an extremely effective motivator. When there is a sense of urgency, people are quick to jump at the opportunity for fear that it might not come around again. Promote a sale that is running for a three-day weekend or announce that you have a limited inventory of a particular model. Provoking fear of missing out in your CTA is sure to drive traffic to your site; it’s tough to ignore a time-sensitive prompt.

  1. Customize CTA for Mobile Ads

Consumers using mobile devices exhibit different behavior and search intent than desktop users. Users searching for something on their smartphones are often looking for a quick answer, so tailor your CTA to meet their need. Mobile searches are often spur of the moment and will also likely result in a phone call. For mobile CTAs, focus on generating more phone calls. You could try something like “call now to learn more” or add a call extension so they can easily click-to-call. Google allows you to set a mobile preference for your ads so you can designate certain ads to only appear for searches completed on mobile devices.

  1. Think Outside the Box

Keep your CTAs fresh and don’t be afraid to experiment with some creative content. Use A/B testing to identify which CTAs bring you clicks and which ones don’t generate traffic. You never really know how certain messages will perform until you try them. Test and refine your CTAs to see what brings the most success.

Did you find this blog post interesting? Comment below with your thoughts or questions. 

Everything You Need To Know About Facebook Advertising

Posted on by Andrew

Facebook Advertising

You’ve heard you should be advertising on Facebook and we now have even more evidence as to why it’s a good idea. A new study says that Facebook users engage with promoted posts the same way that they react to organic content. According to L2’s Promoted Posts report, emotion reactions on paid posts are nearly the same as reactions to organic posts1. Facebook users actively engage with promoted posts as much as organic posts, proving the effectiveness of serving Facebook ads to target audiences.

Knowing that users will respond and engage with your ads is a huge benefit to advertising on Facebook. If that isn’t enough to convince you, consider four other compelling reasons why to advertise on the social network:

 

Active, engaged audience

With 1.49 billion members worldwide, and 22 billion ad clicks per year, Facebook is providing businesses with the largest advertising opportunity since search. Your Facebook audience is waiting for you to reach out with targeted advertising.

 

Cost-efficient options

The days of reaching fans with organic posts are gone because with Facebook’s algorithm, those posts aren’t appearing in their newsfeed. Getting traction from organic activity on your business page won’t yield results, so you need to advertise. A dollar spent on Facebook ads goes much further than other advertising platforms. You can run a focused, cost-efficient campaign with minimal effort.

 

Focused targeting capabilities

The level of targeting you can get with Facebook is exceptionally focused. Choose audiences by behaviors, interests, demographics, age ranges, or locations. Try remarketing on Facebook through Custom Audiences. This strategy targets an audience that has already visited your website, and therefore is more likely to be interested in your dealership. Custom Audiences enables you to deliver a relevant and effective message to known audiences, increasing efficiency in your marketing campaigns.

 

Multiple ad formats

 

Facebook offers multiple ad formats for you to use, including these three popular options:

  • Carousel Ads: Carousel Ads display 3-5 images and links within a single ad unit to direct viewers to specific pages on your website. Carousel ads offer improved click-through rate over single image ads and a considerable reduction in cost per click.
  • Lead Ads: Collect information from interested consumers with Lead Ads. Give interested consumers a chance to get a free quote, sign up for a newsletter, or redeem an offer.
  • Dynamic Product Ads (DPAs): Reach consumers who have already expressed interest in your cars with DPAs. Each ad is specifically formatted so it is highly relevant and automated with your information.

 

Did you find this blog post interesting? Comment below and let us know your thoughts or questions!

Why Mobile Ads Are The Future of Digital Advertising

Posted on by Andrew

Mobile Marketing and AdvertisingFive recent statistics confirm what we already know: mobile is growing and it’s necessary to reach your audience on this platform. After each key statistic, we’ve highlighted an action point suggesting what you should include in your marketing strategy to capitalize off of mobile consumer behavior.

 

 

1.Mobile web expanding exponentially

The IDC estimates that there will be more than 2 billion mobile users this year. Nearly all new internet usage, and subsequent growth, is expected to come from mobile. Although mobile is booming, keep in mind there are still billions of desktop and laptop users. Varying devices mean different sizes, speeds, and memory that all affect the user experience.

Take action: In order to reach all consumers, no matter the channel, have a responsive website that adjusts to the size of screen it is viewed on.

 

2.Media consumption is moving to mobile and users crave visual content.

Digital and mobile usage are increasing and television are diminishing. People are watching less content on TV, instead moving to mobile platforms to watch video content. According to ComScore, 61% percent of mobile users have the YouTube app on their phones and almost 40 percent use Instagram.

Take action: Use video ads and content to connect with your audience in an engaging, memorable way.

 

3.Facebook is the most popular app on mobile

ComScore’s recent ranking of top US smartphone apps named Facebook and Facebook Messenger the top two used apps by a wide margin. 77.3% percent of smartphone users use the Facebook app and 60% percent use Facebook Messenger.

Take action: Use Facebook ads to share your message with engaged users. Connect with your audience using a variety of ad formats to fit your needs.

 

4.The majority of email opens are on mobile

More than 50% of emails are opened and read on a mobile device, according to email service provider Litmus.

Take action: Optimize your dealership emails for mobile so they are easily accessible on mobile. Hard to read emails with too much text and large graphics will most likely be deleted before they are even read.

 

5.Mobile is the fastest-growing ad format

Mobile advertising is the fastest-growing ad segment taking 24% percent of the $27.5 billion global digital advertising share in 2015 according to MobyAffiliates. Marketers are spending their advertising dollars on mobile platforms because that is where their audience is spending more and more of their time.

Take action: Reach your audience when they are searching on the go with mobile-specific ads. This platform is ever-changing and becoming a more effective avenue to reach interested consumers.

 

Did you find this blog post interesting? Comment below and let us know your thoughts or questions!

Using Purchase Intent to Target Car Shoppers

Posted on by Andrew

We all know car shoppers spend the bulk of their buying cycle researching online. They use more than 11 different sources and visit countless websites comparing features, prices and reviews.

So what does this mean for car dealers? If you’re looking to connect with car shoppers, you need to do it online. Luckily we have a tool that lets you do that.

It’s called Pixel Targeting. What we do is measure the intent of car shoppers and deliver ads to them based on what they’re looking for.

So how do we measure intent?

We do it in a few different ways. By analyzing browsing history, search queries and page contexts we can get an accurate picture of what car shoppers are looking for and serve ads appropriately.

Take this shopper’s history for example. From this page we can see that this shopper is looking at buying a new Jeep. They’re looking in the for sale section of AutoTrader and are located in Kirkland, WA.

AutoTrader Intent

Since we know where this person is located and know what kind of vehicle they’re searching for, we can deliver a relevant ad to them.

The power of Pixel Targeting is being able to reach people who are looking for what you have to sell them. You’re not trying to break down barriers and convince these shoppers they should buy a Jeep — they’re already looking for one. You just need to get your ad in front of their eyes and give them a reason to pick you over your competitor.

Interested in Pixel Targeting? Contact us today for more information.