Blog, Online Marketing | SBX Media Edmonton

01 Jan 2012

Your Social Media Strategy: Getting Things Right in 2012

Posted in Blog, Social Media Marketing | Leave a comment

As we start another year, many of us stop to reflect how we can learn from past mistakes and improve in the future. Here’s a list of five simple resolutions to ensure your social media efforts are successful in the coming year.

Resolution 1: Be genuine.

With so many products available to compile messages, automatically respond or post when you’re unavailable, too much of this can be a downfall. While there’s nothing wrong with using these services in some cases, over-automation can stifle conversation and engagement. Take the time to respond to comments and inquiries and don’t be afraid to make things personal.

Resolution 2: Take the good with the bad.

Social media has allowed individuals to speak candidly and openly with companies like never before. However, this also opens the door to negative and sometimes hostile feedback. So what can you do about this? Some companies react defensively, don’t respond or even unnecessarily delete comments. This can destroy the credibility you are working hard to build. Rather than always viewing this type of feedback as a negative, see it as an opportunity to find out more and show you care about finding a solution. Sometimes a conversation over Facebook or Twitter can actually diffuse the situation while also building your credibility for other customers who witness the dialogue.

Volkswagen got off to a rough start in 2012. Here’s an example of what can happen when companies don’t respond…

Resolution 3: Focus on relationships, not selling.

While return on investment is important, try not to make it your focal point. Focusing on sales to the detriment of building a community will ultimately leave you unsuccessful. Rather, try to view sales as a by-product of having a strong and effective relationship with your client base.

Resolution 4: Keep things fresh.

Nothing’s worse than following a link to a Facebook business page to find out that it hasn’t been updated in months. Not only are you losing opportunities to spread valuable information, but you’re leaving a bad impression that you don’t care or don’t have anything interesting to share. Social media requires hard work and requires creative thinking about how to best represent your company and generate meaningful dialogue. Having regular and quality material keeps your followers engaged and ensures they will return for more.

Resolution 5: Be interesting.

How many times have you followed a company or product on Facebook or Twitter, only to never think about them again? More than ever before, attention spans are short and vast amounts of information are being shared. Posting something that will immediately pique someone’s interest and then draw them into a conversation is essential. Try to imagine you are following your business’ page. What would make you stop, read and join the conversation? Putting yourself in a fan’s place can be valuable in developing interesting and engaging content.

What are your social media aspirations for 2012? What are you planning to start doing (or stop doing) in the year ahead?

13 Dec 2011

10 Common PPC Mistakes That Are Costing You Money

Tags: Adwords Mistakes, Edmonton Adwords, Edmonton Online Advertising
Posted in Blog, Search Engine Optimization | Leave a comment

1) Sticking to Broad Terms – This has got to be the most common mistake. Don’t get lazy… get precise. Narrow down keywords to hit your ideal target user that brings you home the bacon. Yes this may take some testing, but it’s worth it.

2) Thinking Global – People like to know you’re a local company, don’t make them guess. If you’re advertising in Calgary, put Calgary in your ads. Yes, this will force you to build multiple targeted campaigns, but your conversions will surely make it worth your while.

3) Sticking to One ad – First set your ads to run evenly (despite Google’s warning) and always be running two ads against each other. This is called A/B multivirate testing, and all the pros do it.

4) Letting the Content Network Fly Solo – the content network is one of the largest contributors to useless clicks. Be sure to keep a close eye on the networks your ads are showing on and “exclude” ones that are not relevant. Better yet, consider picking them yourself.

5) Forgetting Negative terms – Negative terms are your lifesavers in the Google search pool. To ensure your ads are being shown to the right eyes, use negative keywords to weed out bad searches.

6) Using Telephone Numbers– Telephone numbers in ads are nearly useless. This person is searching via their computer, they are much more likely to click than pick up a phone. Use all the copy room you can to encourage clicks.

7) Stagnant Copy – If you’re trying to produce run of the mill ads, copy the competition. If you want results, you have to be unique and different. Be seasonal, be funny, be different, and reap the benefits.

8) Forgetting URLs – Google allows you to customize your display URL… so take advantage and add relevant keywords. These keywords will show up bolded if someone searches them. Bolded keywords draw your customers eyes and results in more clicks.

9) Not Refining Keywords – If you have deadbeat keywords sucking life out of your CTR, drop them like a bad habit. The end result is a higher click-through rate and a lower CPC.

10) Not Using Google Extension – Google extensions is also often overlooked. This add-on allows you ads to be “click-to-call” ads on mobile devices, or they integrate with a Google Places account to show you on a map – cool… and effective.

06 Dec 2011

5 Common Adwords Keyword Mistakes That Will Kill Your Results

Tags: adwords edmonton, adwords tips, online advertising edmonton
Posted in Blog, Search Engine Marketing | Leave a comment

The Google Adwords platform is a great tool because of it’s complexity and ability to give you complete control over so many parameters. But, because of this many advertisers get themselves into trouble… Here is our list of the top 5 keyword specific mistakes that are easy to make on this platform.
Enjoy!

1) Keyword Paralysis

Google Adwords is a great tool if you know what you’re doing for online advertising campaigns. It has plenty of tools to allow you to make educated guesses on your market and expected response rates of your ads. But, with that said, it often does more hurt than good for new advertisers. Part of the challenge of becoming a Google Adwords expert (whether self-proclaimed or certified), is that you need to understand the art that is keyword use. For example, if I was trying to sell mortgages in Vancouver, an amateur Adwords advertiser will likely add the following terms to their ad campaign:

Vancouver Mortgages

Someone who is a little more adept when it comes to the in’s and out’s of Google Adwords would know to take these two simple keywords and come up with a list like the following:

Vancouver mortgages

“Vancouver mortgages”

“Mortgages Vancouver”

[Vancouver mortgages]

[Mortgages Vancouver]

+Vancouver mortgages

Vancouver +mortgages

+Vancouver +mortgages

And this isn’t even including variations of plurals, and adding the word “in” (as in “Mortgages in Vancouver”). See how quickly this tool can become quite complex? Let’s move on the to the next mistake.

2) Keyword Overload

Using the above as an example, you can see how keyword lists can get quite large quite quickly if you’re trying to target a host of keywords. The challenge is to stay relevant at all time. Google gives it’s advertiser scores based on their relevancy – called Quality Scores. The higher your score, the cheaper your ads will ultimately cost you compared to the competition. Staying relevant is very difficult if you are trying to target thousands of keywords, even if you get as targeted as I did in the above example. 50-100 targeted keywords per ad group are plenty, and any more, and you can likely separate them cleanly into two or more ad groups. Here’s an easy example:

Say I was trying to sell solar powered security lights, here are some potential keywords I’d target: Solar flood lights, solar LED flood lights, solar security lights, solar security spotlights, garden LED lights, garden flood lights. I would build three distinct ad groups for this ad campaign – one using “flood lights” as it’s major focus, another “security lights” and finally “garden lights”. Using the keyword paralysis example above, it’s easy to get 50+ keywords for each ad campaign using this technique. The result? More relevant ads, cheaper clicks, higher CTR and more conversions.

3) Useless Keywords

Using the above two examples, the following words sitting solo as keywords would be utterly useless: Vancouver, mortgage, lights, security, garden. It doesn’t take a genius to consider why. For someone searching the word “garden” how likely is it that they are looking to buy lights? Not so much. To truly take advantage of Google Adwords targeting tools you need to be as precise as possible. Be specific, use long, multiple word keywords and you’ll see results.

4) Negative Keywords

This easily overlooked (because it’s slightly hidden) part of Google Adwords is your knight in shining armour. The negative keywords list can quite literally be a life saver, and is a must for all Adwords campaigns. No matter how amazing you are at keyword selection, it’s likely that some inappropriate search terms will trigger your ads. This is where negative keywords come in. For example, if I was a used car salesmen in Miami trying to run a campaign, some of my keywords may include the following:

Used cars Miami

Seems accurate enough doesn’t it? Well consider this search by a car chase enthusiast: Cars used in Miami Fast and the Furious scene. Oops, your ad just showed up. By using Google’s host of tools you should be able to weed out a majority of terms that you would want as negatives… now you can understand why this is a must.

5) Keywords & Landing Pages

Okay, you’ve got a hyper-targeted campaign on the go for smartphones, an enthusiastic clicker clicks and goes on to your landing page… and then they see nothing but news about “mobiles”. You dropped the ball. If you’re targeting the word “smartphone” your landing page should use the term “smartphone”. I’d highly recommend building unique landing pages for each and every one of your ad groups to help take advantage of better quality scores.

What are some keyword mistakes you’ve faced on Google Adwords? We’d love to hear what you think. Share your thoughts and comments below…

24 Nov 2011

Understanding Website Conversion – The Basics

Posted in Blog, Quick Tips | Leave a comment

What is the purpose of your website? Are you selling a product or service? Are you collecting information? Attempting to engage and inform? Regardless of its purpose, your website more than likely has some sort of conversion metric that you can measure. It’s vital that you pay close attention to this metric to ensure that your website is working for you and not against you. Read the rest of this entry »

25 Sep 2011

Fun With the Google Adwords Keyword Insertion Tool

Tags: adwords edmonton, Google Ads Edmonton
Posted in Blog, Quick Tips, Search Engine Marketing | Leave a comment

First off, what is it?

Google Adwords Keyword Insertion tool allows you to use your users search query as text in your ad text. So, if you’re a Google Adwords client, and in the market for selling “organic dog food”, you likely have a large list of broad, and narrow search keywords that you’re hoping will trigger your ad. With the Google Adwords Keyword Insertion Tool, you can gear your ad text to exactly match your potential visitors search query. For example, if someone search “organic puppy chow” and your ad is triggered based on your keyword selection – you could use the keyword insertion tool to add “organic puppy chow” directly into your ad copy.

Here’s how to do it, have a look at this sample ad:

{Keyword:Find a Realtor}

Looking for a Realtor? Get the
Best Service & Great Rates Now!
www.realtor.ca

Now, say a customer searches “Edmonton Based Realtors” and this matches some of your keywords. For this unique visitor, the ad will be displayed as this:

Edmonton Based Realtors

Looking for a Realtor? Get the
Best Service & Great Rates Now!
www.realtor.ca

Alternatively, if your user searches a query that would trigger your ad but is too long for a Google Adwords title, such as “Realtors Based out of Edmonton”, your default text will appear in your ad. In this case, your ad will look like this:

Find a Realtor

Looking for a Realtor? Get the
Best Service & Great Rates Now!
www.realtor.ca

The Challenges

This tool has great benefits, but it’s not for everyone. You have to have a pretty keen eye to ensure that your ad makes sense depending on the search query of your customers. Also, it’s very important to have a very refined keyword list that trigger your insertion based ads. Without it, your ads could appear for irrelevant terms, which will cost you in conversions, clicks and quality scores. Utilizing exact match, phrase match and broad match modifier tools are a good place to start – you may want to consider staying away from broad match until you have a better handle on the keywords your customers are using to find your business.

Without refined keywords, and using our above ad as an example, this tool may miss-represent your brand and company. For example, if you simply targeted the word “realtors” as a broad term, your ad may display for someone searching “realtors to avoid”, and your ad will also reflect this search query. Oops!

Have fun with this tool, but be careful!

The coding required is below:

{Keyword:default text}

Simply fill in your default text, build a custom list, and get advertising!

18 Sep 2011

The Unwritten Rules of Facebook Image Selection

Tags: facebook ads edmonton, facebook agency edmonton, social media edmonton
Posted in Blog, Content Development, Search Engine Marketing | Leave a comment

It’s a fact. Your image selection for Facebook ads are an integral and important part to generating interest and clicks on your ads. Good copy and titles are imperative, but images are what draw the eye. So with only 110 x 80 pixels to work with, what are some rules to follow, and classic mistakes to avoid. In this article we’ll cover five classic Facebook ad image mistakes to avoid, and provide you with some tips to really take advantage of for your Facebook campaigns.

Throughout this article we have examples of the good and bad images out there. Which are which, should be obvious after reading this post.

1) Avoid Unrecognizable Images

If your image it’s easily identifiable, or encourages “squinting” you haven’t done your job as an advertiser. This is likely the most common fault for advertisers on Facebook, the image may be easily identifiable to them, but not to the people they are trying to market to… this is a mistake. Simple, easy to see images are a must. If you can’t think of a way to advertise your product/cause/event with an image that anyone, and we mean anyone, can “get” – your click-through-rates and results will suffer.

2) Avoid Any and All Facebook Colors

Using Facebook colors is an easy way to make your ads blend in to the background. Compared to ads on Google’s network which can be as large as 160 x 600 pixels, Facebook’s are tiny. You need to pack an attention-grabbing punch in your ad to get the right eyes looking at your ads. If you use colors that are akin to Facebook, you will not stand-out, you will not get results, and you will be wasting money.

3) Think Simple

Get to the point with your ads. Have a clear connection between your image and the content within it. If the image is not clear, or can’t tie into what you’re trying to sell easily – you will get the wrong people clicking your ads, costing your money.

4) Make it Pop

Facebook might only give you 110 x 80 pixels for your images, but that doesn’t mean your options for standing out are limited. Not all Facebook advertisers (if I do say so myself) are that creative, nor do they understand the online advertising world. In our experience, the ads that perform best, are those that use clever, eye-grabbing images. Yes, titles and ad copy help, but nothing performs better than an interesting image. Here’s some tips to make your ads pop on Facebook:

Think outside the 110 x 80, not every ad has to be a perfect rectangle. But don’t get lazy, and just not bother to crop your images.
Facebook has a white background, which means you can use shadows to your advantage. Ads that look like stickers, or that appear to pop off the page will get more clicks.
Round ads
Fraying the edges of your ads
Playing with colors – red is always a great color to get attention, and even black & white also works well.
Experimentation to see what works for you.

5) Limit or Remove Text

You have little picture space, and plenty of text space. Don’t fill up your image with text (unless it is text), if you can. Using text in your image will fight for the attention with the title – and this is not good advertising. Use your image space wisely, and you’ll see better results.

What are your thoughts? Do you have other unwritten rules on Facebook ads? We’d love to hear them – feel free to share in the comments below.

31 Aug 2011

The Hierarchy of Google Adwords: A Strategy

Tags: Edmonton Google Adwords, google adwords, online advertising edmonton
Posted in Blog, Search Engine Marketing | Leave a comment

If you’ve frequented our site before, you likely know that we’re avid users of the Google Adwords platform. We love it! Over the years, we’ve started to notice some interesting trends on Adwords in regards to clicks, conversions and ad positioning. As I’m sure you are all aware – certain ad positions will convert better than others. In this article we’re going to take a look at what ad positions specific customer types are clicking to help you better tailor your ad positioning to their needs.

Some of what we’re about to share may seem like common sense, but very few Google Adwords advertisers are taking advantage of this. Use this strategy in your Adwords campaigns and you’ll see some great results. Let’s get to it.

Customer Type Red: I Know What I Want, and Need it Now

This customer type is ready to spend. They are looking for a quick and easy solution to their problem. A huge portion of your conversions will come from this type of customer. These people are most likely clicking one of the top two ad spots or top three organic result listings.

Ads that fit in this spot:

If your selling a high-end product or service, and can keep up with high-demand, this is the spot for you. Businesses like mortgage brokers, plumbers, carpenters, electricians, dentists, photographers etc. can make a killing being in these two ad spots.

If your ads are not in this spot:

If this sounds like the spot you’d like to be and aren’t – for example you’re ads are falling into the 3-10 position range, you’re wasting your money. As you’ll see later in this post, ad positions 3-10 are generally not going to convert nearly as well. You may be spending less per click, but you’ll be paying more for conversion.

Our suggestion:

Start a new campaign, get hyper-targeted with your keywords, up your bid and work on your quality score. We’ve written many posts on improving your Google Adwords quality score – so take advantage. So in short, go through your normal campaign process, and knock it out of the park. Then up your bid so you’re landing in the 1-2 ad position range – and track conversions. I’ll bet that your conversion per click will go down, despite you paying much more for click.

Customer Type Green: I’m Shopping Around, I Might Buy With a Great Offer

This customer type is doing their research. They are looking for a service like yours, but are not in a rush to get it. They can be swayed to convert, if you give them a really compelling offer or easy way to take advantage. They are likely searching through organic results, and your ad catches their eye. Some of these customers convert, but a majority of them will click your ad, visit multiple pages on your site, including your contact page – they may jot down your number, then they move along. Green customers are likely to click ad positions in the 3-6 range.

Ads that fit in this spot:

If you have a compelling offer, and an easy, conversion focused landing page that has great success – you can ride this ad position and see some positive results at a lower cost than positions 1 and 2. Alternatively, if you’re in a position where you want sales, but cannot handle too much volume – this may be a good spot for you. If the keywords you’re targeting are relevant, but you’re offering a slightly different product than the ads you’re around – this may be the spot for you (for example if your offering a mortgage broker guidebook instead of mortgage broker services). Finally, if you’re in the business of developing and nurturing relationship with your clients (for example, building an e-mail list) – you may want to hang out in these ad positions instead.

Our suggestion:

If your ads are sitting in this position and you’re a happy camper – all the power to you! Many Adwords advertisers can see great results in these positions, and depending on your competition you could literally pay 10% of the price per click as your competition and still see some really solid positioning and results.

Customer Type Orange: I’m Browsing, Your Ad caught my Eye

This customer type is not interested in buying right now. They are in no rush to get your services, they are just browsing to see what’s out there. These customers will click your ad, look at a page or two max, then exit – you’ll see high bounce rates from these customers. Orange customers are likely to click ad positions in the 5-10 range or even page 2 results.

Ads that fit in this spot:

You’re in awareness country. Like a billboard on the side of highway, you’re there for awareness and the occasional click. These ad positions are great for branding and getting your name out there. If your budget is small, you can sit in this ad spot for as little as $0.05 a click, which is a hell of a lot cheaper than a billboard out on a highway… and much, much more targeted.

Our suggestion:

Being an Adwords bottom feeder is not a bad gig. Your paying a fraction of the cost as the big wigs, and still getting qualified traffic and awareness. If you got a great, conversion focused landing page, you could even see some good conversions. If you’re having a slow month, amp up your bid to take things to the next level.

The Caveat

With all this said, you have to be aware that occasionally green and orange customers will click position 1-2 ads, and they will cost you some dough… but over the long run, if you use this Adwords strategy for your business type – you should see some good success.

What are your thoughts on ad positions and buyer types? Share your thoughts in the comment below.

22 Jul 2011

Don’t Underestimate The Power of Surveys

Tags: Newsletter Surveys, Survey Marketing
Posted in Blog, Quick Tips, Stuff We're Trying, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Surveys, polls, questions – whatever you call them, don’t underestimate their power as a way to gauge your audiences’ opinion and help with your marketing. New tools are making this easier than ever, and setting them up is only a few clicks away. In this article we’ll cover some simple and easy ways of asking questions of your customer base, along with some general tips on getting most out of your survey.

First up, here are 5 ways to get the most out of your survey:

Ask Open-Ended Questions – single word answers don’t provide enough context and depth to really gauge your audiences opinions. Provide large spaces for your audiences to write, and ask questions that require long answers.
Ask Questions You Don’t Know the Answers To – you’d think this goes without saying, but if you can answer the question with other analytics, than don’t bother asking it. Ask questions that you can leverage to improve your business.
Keep it Short – long surveys have high drop-off rates, if you want your customers to complete the survey, keep it short, the questions brief, and most importantly, write your questions clearly.
Allow One Response per IP – don’t muddy up your results by allowing the same people to fill out your survey multiple times.
Thank Your Survey Participants – a simple thank you page is great, but offering them some sort of coupon or other benefit, is much more appreciated. After all, you’re gaining a lot from their free participation of your survey, it wouldn’t hurt to give something back.

The two behemoths of the online survey world are SurveyGizmo and Survey Monkey.

SurveyGizmo

This site has been getting a lot of notice, and for good reason. Whether you choose their free version, that features unlimited questions, 250 response per month, saved data, and support or amp things up to their Enterprise level, you can make quality, professional surveys with extensive reporting and features, you’ll get a quality survey any small business would be proud of.

Survey Monkey

The popular survey site, with lots of media attention, Survey Monkey has earned its place as a premium survey website. Their free options are limited, but powerful – they include 10 questions, with a maximum of 100 responses, real-time results, and e-mail support. Their top notch services allow you to completely own and customize every inch of your survey experience.

Want to embed a survey directly into your website? Or an e-mail? Yep, they can both do that too.

Being able to embed your survey has got to be the most powerful tool these two websites offer, take advantage of this, and start learning from your customers!

Archive for the ‘Blog’ Category

10 Common PPC Mistakes That Are Costing You Money

5 Common Adwords Keyword Mistakes That Will Kill Your Results

1) Keyword Paralysis

2) Keyword Overload

3) Useless Keywords

4) Negative Keywords

5) Keywords & Landing Pages

Understanding Website Conversion – The Basics

Fun With the Google Adwords Keyword Insertion Tool

First off, what is it?

The Challenges

The Hierarchy of Google Adwords: A Strategy

Customer Type Red: I Know What I Want, and Need it Now

Customer Type Green: I’m Shopping Around, I Might Buy With a Great Offer

Customer Type Orange: I’m Browsing, Your Ad caught my Eye

The Caveat

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