Author Archives: frank lampard

  • -

Tips for Choosing a Hosting Service

After you’ve selected your domain name, you’ll want to register it with a web hosting service before you begin building your website. Here are some tips to keep in mind to help you choose the right web hosting service for your website.

Verify That They Have Your Hosting Needs

Not all hosting services offer the same things. Consider whether you want or need shared hosting or dedicated hosting. And then see what offers and options each hosting service provider has available. If you don’t anticipate a lot of website traffic, then you might want to go for more economical options. But if you anticipate a lot of traffic, your needs will look much different.

Most hosting offers are available in 3 categories:

  • Shared Hosting – As the name implies, multiple websites will share resources on a single server. This is usually the least expensive option, and is sufficient for most individual or small business websites.
  • Virtual Private Server (VPS) – With VPS hosting, your site will still reside on a shared server, but a section will be partitioned out for your access only. This option allows more customization of the OS and the functionality of your site. And the resources you get won’t be impacted by activity on other sites.
  • Dedicated Server – Also known as a managed hosting service, you will be leasing an entire server. You will get complete control and customization of the hosting environment. Dedicated hosting provides optimum security and flexibility for high-traffic or mission-critical websites.

Know Sign Up Rates vs. Renewal Rates

Sometimes hosting service providers will offer discounts upfront if you’re a new customer, but your renewal rates might be different. Make sure that you know all costs associated with your new website, which ones are one-time only, and which costs might fluctuate in the future. This way, you’ll never receive a surprise bill in your inbox and you won’t have to worry about interrupted hosting service resulting from overdue payments.

Consider How You Will Build Your Website

If you don’t know how to code websites or build them from scratch, then you’ll want to consider going with a web hosting provider that offers a reliable and easy-to-use website builder. Most website builders offer drag-and-drop features, customizable templates, etc. Be careful not to buy a web hosting service plan or subscription that you won’t even be able to use because you don’t know how to code.

Decide Whether You’ll Need E-Commerce Features and Support

You’ll also want to consider whether your website will need e-commerce features and support as you’re considering web hosting providers. Some providers won’t be able to offer all the features and support that an e-commerce business website needs to succeed. To accept payments you will need to implement a shopping cart and payment processing functionality. Find one that offers all you need for an optimized and user-friendly e-commerce website.

Server Reliability and Customer Ratings

Most importantly, you’ll want to investigate what current customers are saying about the web hosting services you’re considering. Are customers happy with the providers’ services, options, rates, customer care, etc.? Do their websites function well and fast? Do they ever have problems with website security or billing? Does the hosting service offer regularly scheduled backups for websites?

While price points are important, you’ll also want to make sure the web hosting services you’re considering are reliable and that you’ll be able to easily contact someone if you have a question or need assistance. If your website is always crashing or encountering data breaches, you will lose customers and website visitors over time.

Read more What to know before you explore hosting companies

_______________________________________________________________________________

Please contact us for seo service packages at TDHSEO.COM.

TDHSEO Team

Email: tdhseo@gmail.com
Skype: tdhseo
https://www.facebook.com/tdhseo

Thank you!


  • -

How to market to customers by Facebook Messenger

Category : Facebook Ads

I’m going to show you the exact features that marketers are using to get those results.

Here are four specific Facebook Messenger features you must try:

  1. Comment guard
  2. Chat blasting
  3. Click to messenger ad
  4. Chat widget

1. Comment Guard (Private Auto-Responders on Facebook Posts)

Comment guard is a bot that you set up on your organic Facebook posts. When someone comments on the post, they will automatically receive a Facebook message from you.

Facebook messenger marketing graphic

You can think of it as a Facebook post autoresponder.

  1. Person comments on a post.
  2. Said person automatically receives a Messenger reply.

No offense taken if you don’t want to become my next lead (mwahaha!), so I’ll show it to you in screenshots.

Here is the Facebook post.

Facebook post with comment guard

As soon as someone comments, they receive a Facebook Messenger message from a Facebook chatbot.

Facebook messenger with comment guard

The person has not become a lead yet! The lead loop is closed only when they reply to the chatbot.

Once they reply, they’re a solid lead. You have all their information and permission to send them messages.

There are three reasons that savvy marketers love comment guard.

  1. Comment guards are free. You don’t pay for the leads. With Click to Messenger ads, you are paying per lead but not with comment guards.
  2. Comment guards are a list building tactic. Anyone who comments and then engages the Messenger bot automatically adds themselves to your list.
  3. Comment guards are blessed by Facebook. Facebook Algorithm rewards engagement. So if you have a hot organic post and it’s getting comments, Facebook will prioritize that post in the newsfeed, giving you even more engagement.

Remember, your goal with comment guards is engagement.

Here are some ways that you can create an organic post with insane levels of engagement.

  • Quizzes or riddles: Create a quiz, no matter how dumb, and ask people to reply with what they think is the correct answer.
  • Gif replies: Ask people to answer a question with a gif. It can be as simple as “How’s your Monday going? Answer with a gif!” The comments will come pouring in.
  • Autocomplete: Give people a starter sentence and ask them to create an answer with autocomplete. Example: “Hey guys, type On Mondays I feel like a” and use autocomplete to finish the sentence.
  • Surveys: Surveys are easy to create, and they bring in tons of engagement. Your survey may be as simple as this: “Are you an agency marketer or an in-house marketer?” By responding to the survey, your audience starts the comment guard.
  • Opinions: Who doesn’t want to share their opinion? Pose a question and let people comment with their thoughts and feelings.
  • Controversy: Obviously, you want to be careful with controversial issues, but you can use this technique to spark some conversation. For example, “Jason Momoa is not hot. Prove me wrong.” Obviously, you’ll want to select a topic or issue that is relevant to your niche.
Jason Momoa meme

Here are a few more tricks you can use to get more leverage from your Facebook comment guards.

  • Add a comment guard to hot posts. If you have an organic post that’s getting a lot of engagement, add a comment guard as soon as possible.
  • Boost the heck out of organic posts that seem to be getting a lot of comments. You know that the post is doing well. With a $100 boost, it will do better, and you’ll score additional leads.
  • Design organic posts for comment guard engagement. Start creating more organic posts with comment guards in mind. Spark interaction and conversation. Remember, this is free leads we’re talking about!
  • Bait your bot. Getting someone to comment on a post is only the first step. You have to keep things just as engaging once the bot starts. Add bait. Offer something enticing. Make it easy for them to respond — a simple “yes” button works just fine.

2. Facebook Messenger Chat blasting

Chat blasting is simple: It’s sending a Messenger chat to everyone on your list.

Chat blasting is a lot like email blasting (except better).

Why? It’s as obvious: 70-80% open rates in sixty minutes!

Compare that to email marketing—5% open rates—and incorporating Facebook Chat blasts into your marketing strategy is a no-brainer.

Before you can use chat blasting, you have to get in Facebook’s good graces by applying for subscription messaging.

Facebook messenger chatblast vs email marketing

Don’t worry. This is easier than it sounds.

From your Facebook page, go to Settings → Messenger Platform, then scroll down to “Advanced Messaging Features.” Click on “Request.”

Facebook subscription messaging selection

The submissions are handled manually, so the review process can take from a few days to over a week.

The main thing to keep in mind here is that you can’t send promotional content.

It might be tempting to blast your list with a “BUY MAGIC UNICORN ICE CREAM NOW! CLICK HERE!!!”

That’s not going to work here.

Facebook requires you to confirm this statement: “I confirm this Page won’t use subscription messaging to send advertisements or promotional messages and will follow Messenger policies and Facebook community standards.”

Keep in mind that anyone who receives a blast must first opt-in. Your goal is to make their opt-in smooth, simple, and delightful.

Facebook message request to chatblast

Using chat blasting is a powerful way to do the following:

  • Maintain a high degree of engagement with your most devoted fans.
  • Allow your audience segment themselves with a chatbot sequence.
  • Automate drip sequences for even greater levels of engagement.

As you gain experience with chat blasting you’ll want to dig into your data to see what works and what doesn’t.

3. Click to Messenger Ad

A click to messenger ad is a Facebook ad where the conversion action is “Send Message.” Instead of clicking on an offer or learning more, the user sends you a message in Facebook messenger.

Here’s what a normal Messenger ad might look like. (I know, normal people don’t use vomiting unicorn pictures. Not sure why.)

Facebook messenger ad

Notice how this ad “opens in messenger” and the button says “Send Message.”

If you think about it, Messenger ads convert at 100%. Anyone who messages you is part of your contact list. You have their name, email, phone, photo, likes/dislikes—everything.

profiles

Messenger ads are also ridiculously cheap compared to conventional Facebook ads.

When MobileMonkey started testing Messenger ads, we slashed the cost of our leads from $150 to only $5—a savings of 96%!

cost per result chart

A lot of marketers would look at the number and think, “Pshaw, that’s impossible.” Well, clearly those marketers underestimate the power of Facebook Messenger marketing.

When someone converts on your Messenger ad, the magic happens. Your Facebook chatbot takes over, coaxing the target down the funnel of your choice.

The user becomes part of an interactive dialogue with you or the chatbot.

Facebook messenger with chatbot

This type of interaction is enormously more compelling than a simple offer on a landing page. Plus, you can set up the bot so that users can choose to talk to a real person at any time.

Based on my experience, Messenger ads have the biggest potential in marketing today. Sure, a few lone marketers are using them, but Facebook feeds aren’t yet crowded with them.

As an example, I just spent a few minutes of my life mindlessly scrolling through Facebook. Except I was counting ads.

Out of the 20 ads that I saw, none of them were Facebook Messenger ads. There were plenty of “Learn More” and “Download,” but zero Messenger ads.

This is notable because I’m a target for ads that deal with marketing tactics and products. Ironically, one of the ads was for a Messenger chatbot app, and it was “Learn More” instead of “Send Message.”

My point is this: Use Facebook Messenger ads.

Read more How to make your Facebook Ad Campaign successful

_______________________________________________________________________________

Please contact us for seo service packages at TDHSEO.COM.

TDHSEO Team

Email: tdhseo@gmail.com
Skype: tdhseo
https://www.facebook.com/tdhseo

Thank you!


  • -

Tips To Maximize PPC profitability

Category : Google Ads

In some cases, adjusting your bids might not be enough for your business. For these situations, you should consider decreasing your sales. This sounds counterintuitive, I know, but hear me out. By making each sale significantly more profitable, you need fewer sales to boost your overall profits and ROAS.

There are two main ways you can actually decrease sales whilst still raising overall profitability. Remember that turnover is vanity, but profit is sanity!

Raising product prices to increase profits

It may sound obvious to some advertisers and alarmingly risky to others, but actually increasing product prices can lead to higher profitability if done correctly.

An ecommerce client of ours was complaining about keeping up with the demand of their main product online, they were very busy manufacturing the product (luxury coats) and had to stop selling certain colors and sizes due to popularity. We raised prices of the coats by 70%, and the number of sales fell by just under 43%, a huge improvement to their bottom line overall.

Clearly, raising prices generates more profitability per sale, but when other costs are factored in you could actually triple the profitability with just a small overall price increase:

raising product prices

Raising prices has a negative effect on the number of sales overall giving a profit vs. price relationship as shown below:

product price vs profit relation chart

Setting prices too high will stop any sale from happening, too low and you could spend more on advertising and other costs than actual revenue generated.

What we’re after in this case is the magical sweet spot of price profitability vs. conversion rate, i.e., the highest point on the CPC vs. profit curve.

Tweaking prices is, therefore, a great way of optimizing an individual product and you now see dynamic pricing across many limited-service industries such as flights, hotels, and taxi apps.

Raising average order values to increase profits

For some mass manufacturers, B2B product sellers or bulk drop-shippers, there’s a catch-22 situation when it comes to the Google or Bing Shopping platforms:

  • You can openly sell products on your website. This enables shopping campaigns, but your product prices must be shown on the website, and you may get many smaller orders from the general public.
  • You can sell products only to registered or approved website users. This blocks shopping campaigns from being available (prices must be public for shopping campaigns to exist), but your product prices are hidden, and you can set minimum costs for an entire order.

Our client wanted the best of both worlds. They wanted maximum traffic and exposure on Google and Bing Shopping, but at the same time, they wanted to discourage time-wasters with orders of only one or two products.

Here, product delivery overheads are very similar if a customer wants one item or as many as 20 items, thus making really small orders non-profitable.

The solution to this problem was to increase the average order value (AOV) by reducing bids on keywords, ad groups, and shopping product groups if they fell under a certain level:

average order value vs bid adjustments

Bid adjustments were not applied when the AOV was over a highly profitable threshold (£50 in this case), and they were applied in a negative linear fashion when under the value.

The minimum bid adjustment was set to -80% in order to keep ads within the first page of results more often and to not totally kill off any product bids.

The results from this were impressive in many ways for our client:

  • The average number of deliveries decreased, lowering internal delivery costs
  • Less administration work was needed, improving the quality and speed of admin tasks
  • Total delivery times were shorter, leading to an increase in positive customer reviews
  • Average order value increased, raising the average return on ad spend

_______________________________________________________________________________

Please contact us for seo service packages at TDHSEO.COM.

TDHSEO Team

Email: tdhseo@gmail.com
Skype: tdhseo
https://www.facebook.com/tdhseo

Thank you!


  • -

Best video advertising trends you ought to know

Here are the top seven video advertising trends you can expect to see more of in the new year.

1. Shorter video ads

Today’s abundance of video content creates an endless amount of competition for advertisers. Customers with the ability to watch virtually anything will only watch an ad if it is relevant, attention grabbing, and valuable. As a result, the amount of time people spend watching ads has declined across nearly every medium. Similar trends are leading brands to test short video ads that aim to beat the skip button and serve short attention spans.

Short bumper ads present a creative challenge for marketers who must tell a brand story in under 15 seconds. The format calls for impactful content that can induce an immediate emotional response from a viewer. Below are two examples of prominent brands using humor, shock, and action to create compelling short and effective pre-roll ads.

Hefty Brands

Mom’s Touch

Concise video ads like these have started to become a staple in video-focused marketing. According to a study by Google, 90% of bumper ad campaigns boosted global ad recall by an average of 30%. It’s a safe prediction that more brands will jump on the trend this year.

2. OTT advertising

Over the top (OTT) is a term used to describe content providers that distribute streaming media over the internet. These services are disrupting traditional broadcast television and have led a new generation of consumers to “cut the cord” with satellite and cable services.

There are three video on demand models currently dominating the OTT industry:

  • Subscription VOD: Netflix, Hulu, HBOGo
  • Transactional VOD: iTunes, Amazon, Google Play
  • Ad-supported VOD: YouTube, Twitch, Vimeo

Marketing through these platforms offers benefits similar to those gained from conventional online advertising. Unlike traditional commercials, OTT allows marketers to utilize targeting, ad insertion, and advanced analytics to create shorter more personalized ads. This enables brands to run full screen ads catered to the viewing habits of an entire household. Viewers watching these ads from an OTT streaming device can’t skip or install an ad blocker. As a result, video completion rates are significantly higher for OTT advertising than in-browser video ads.

The number of places to advertise through OTT is growing exponentially. Future iterations might combine data from other devices in the household to create even more effective targeting. Not only would this technology maximize the potential of ad campaigns, but it would also ensure viewers are seeing ads that actually match their interests. In the years to come, OTT could rise to be one of the most lucrative channels available to modern advertisers.

3. Mobile-first advertising

Smartphones have become ubiquitous. In 2018, mobile devices accounted for over 52% of all worldwide online traffic, and all video marketing stats show continued growth. Marketers are well aware that consumers now rely on their phones for news, shopping, and a significant portion their entertainment. As a result, forward-thinking brands have worked to make their websites, advertisements, and even services mobile-friendly. Creating this intuitive user experience is critical during a time when nearly half of all online transactions are done on smartphones.

In addition to changing the way we consume, mobile phones have also started to influence the way we create video content. The majority of videos recorded on mobile devices today are being shot in an upright format known as vertical video. It’s a trend that has led many brands to create vertical advertisements intended for platforms such as Instagram Stories, Snapchat, and even Facebook. Using this vertical format enables marketers to get engaging content in front of modern customers and minimize on-screen distractions.

Vertical stories are reportedly on track to surpass Facebook and Instagram news feeds in terms of user engagement. Additionally, the advent of shoppable Instagram stories and vertical video platform IGTV have created a practical motivation to create in this format. We can expect the use of mobile-first content to continue its spread well into and after 2019.

4. Cinemagraphs

Cinemagraphs are a new form of digital art gaining popularity online. These photo and video hybrids contain a subtle motion that plays in a seamless loop while the rest of the image remains still. It’s a visually interesting effect that creates the illusion you are watching an animation. Whether the subject is waves crashing against a shore or the flicker of a candle, the end result is an alluring image that captures the viewer’s attention.

Cinemagraphs are made using high-end cameras and a post-production tool to composite a series of photos or video recordings. The first to use this technique (or popularize it) were New York based photographers Kevin Burg and Jamie Beck. It was originally intended to bring life to their fashion week photos but ultimately sparked the curiosity of the web. It wasn’t long before advertisers started using Cinemagraphs for marketing campaigns.

Cinemagraphs garner more interest than photos without the involved process of video. It calls for a bit of imagination, but it’s another way advertisers will tell their stories in 2019.

5. User-generated content

Even in the digital age, word-of-mouth marketing remains a valuable asset to brands. In a recent survey, 76% of consumers said they trust content shared by “average” people more than by brands. This underlines the importance of leveraging user-generated content, or UGC, to build trust with your audience. UGC can be defined as pictures, videos, reviews, social media posts, or any relevant content created by unpaid “fans” of your brand. Not only is UGC more budget-conscious than other forms of marketing, but it has also been shown to generate 7X higher engagement than standard brand generated content.

What makes UGC most appealing is the authenticity it presents to an audience. Today’s customers are no longer impressed with pushy sales tactics. People want to engage with brands they feel an emotional connection to. The best way to build that relationship is through transparency and storytelling. Brands who find ways include their fans aren’t just marketing to them, they’re creating a viable community people are excited to be a part of.

Toyota, for example, boosts ad engagement by 440% with UGC.

Our online experience is becoming ever more content-driven as customers seek brand experiences that align with their personal interests. Marketers who succeed in creating or encouraging UGC will develop a brand people can connect to.

Read more All the best Facebook advertising tricks for small business

_______________________________________________________________________________

Please contact us for seo service packages at TDHSEO.COM.

TDHSEO Team

Email: tdhseo@gmail.com
Skype: tdhseo
https://www.facebook.com/tdhseo

Thank you!


  • -

Facebook Ad guide for beginners

Your resources are going to be limited while your startup’s still getting off the ground. Taking the long view and giving the top of your funnel some love will go a long way in making sure you don’t crash and burn—or worse yet, create a pattern of unsustainable growth in the first few years or months of your startup’s life.

Facebook ads for entrepreneurs: driving widespread and cost-effective impressions

Facebook gives entrepreneurs an unparalleled ability to reach new prospects on a massive scale through the Reach and Brand Awareness campaigns. Both of these campaign types are available at the “choose your marketing objective” step of the campaign setup process.

Facebook Ads for Entrepreneurs Objectives

In light of another resource entrepreneurs are famously light on—time!—we should note here how simple Facebook makes the campaign and setup optimization for DIY advertisers. Facebook objectives inherently mimic a fully formed marketing funnel. Wherever your advertising goal fits—be it awareness, consideration, or conversion—you can optimize your campaign to target that section of the funnel.

But let’s get back to building awareness. Both of these campaign types (Reach and Brand Awareness) allow you to use what’s known as CPM (cost-per-thousand impressions) bidding. This basically means that you, the advertiser, pay for every thousand views of your ad, rather than on a per-click basis. This optimization model is so valuable for entrepreneurs trying to build their brands, because it allows them to generate the most views of their ads for the least amount of ad spend. Maximizing ad exposure means maximizing brand exposure—and when you use CPM bidding, you’re maximizing brand exposure in the most cost-efficient way possible.

Facebook ads for reach

Reach and impressions: same thing, right? Not exactly.

Reach is the total number of unique users who see your ad, whereas impressions is the total number of aggregate users who see your ad. When you select the Reach campaign type, you get to choose to optimize your ad delivery for either reach or impressions. Optimizing for reach gives you the luxury of setting what’s known as a frequency cap.

Facebook Ads for Entrepreneurs Reach

Frequency caps allow you to set how much time you want to pass before a single user sees your ad twice. So if you want a minimum seven-day buffer between the first time a prospect sees your ad and the second time he sees it, you would set your frequency cap at one impression per seven days. Facebook ads for entrepreneurs is more about demand generation than demand fulfillment. Optimizing for reach and setting a frequency cap can go a long way in ensuring that you’re exposing your new business to as many unique prospects as possible.

For most entrepreneurs, ignoring the “Set a bid cap” option above will be your best bet. Facebook automatically optimizes your campaign to give you the most amount of impressions for your budget. But if you want to try your hand at setting a manual bid, you can select the “Set a bid cap” option. So if you decided, say, that it’s worth no more than $2 for you to show your ad 1,000 times, you can set your bid cap to $2. If you decide you want to ramp it up to $4 and see how that affects your estimated daily results, you can do so. And so on. But again, there is no shame in letting Facebook bid for you; in fact, it’s one of the ways Facebook helps entrepreneurs make the most out of their time and their budgets.

Facebook ads for brand awareness

When you select Brand Awareness instead of Reach as your campaign type, you’re going to notice that things looks pretty similar at the ad set level.

Facebook Ads for Entrepreneurs Brand Awareness

You’re still getting charged per thousand impressions; Facebook is still optimizing your ad delivery to get you the most impressions for your budget (here you’re not even given the option to set a manual bid). Except here, Facebook inherently optimizes for ad recall lift. This estimated recall lift metric shows how many people Facebook estimates would remember seeing your ad if they were asked within two days of seeing it. The idea here is that instead of generating impressions based just on your targeting, Facebook takes the perceived “quality” of the impression into its own hands by using a number of factors (behavior, polling, machine learning) to determine which prospects will actually remember your ad after viewing it.

Optimizing for ad recall lift is an especially effective strategy for entrepreneurs because it allows you to hedge against wasting money on low-quality impressions. If you’re inexperienced with targeting, or if you all your have is a minimum viable product and you’re still trying to gauge who your ideal customer is, it’s perfectly ok to use very broad targeting when running the Brand Awareness campaign type; actually, Facebook recommends it. Targeting broadly allows Facebook the room to find quality impressions that are more likely to result in conversions at future brand touch points.

Facebook ads for e-commerce entrepreneurs

Many entrepreneurs considering Facebook ads are undoubtedly going to be in the e-commerce space. Templated website creation platforms like Shopify and Squarespace make it easier than ever for entrepreneurs to set up slick online stores themselves, or to hire a third party consultant or agency to do it for them relatively cheap. Set up a quick self-made site on Shopify, get hooked up with a dropshipping supplier, and boom: you don’t even have to see your product before you sell it.

Whether you choose Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, or another e-commerce platform to pedal your tangible product, e-commerce is an extremely quick and viable way for entrepreneurs to get their businesses up and running.  Retail ecommerce sales worldwide are projected to surpass 4 trillion US dollars by 2020. If you’re considering using Facebook ads to help grow your startup or small business, there’s a good chance you’re either already contributing or considering contributing to that number.

Facebook Ads for Entrepreneurs

And while Google Search and Shopping represent great opportunities to get qualified traffic to your online store, Facebook’s extensive suite of targeting options, ad types, and placements make it no slouch in the e-commerce department.

Products can be advertised using every ad type on Facebook. Whether that’s carousel ads that allow you to showcase multiple products in your lineup (or multiple features of one product)…

Facebook Ads for Entrepreneurs Carousel Ads

Lead ads that will allow you to collect cost-efficient leads and blast them with email offers for your retail products later on…

Facebook Ads for Entrepreneurs Lead Ads

Or another ad type—there’s no shortage of formats in which to showcase your products.

Retailers who create on-site offers to incentivize purchases during set promotional periods will find Facebook offer ads extremely useful. Offer ads allow you to advertise the products that apply to your on-site promotion across Facebook, driving visitors to your online store who are ready to convert on your offer.

Facebook Ads for Entrepreneurs Offer Ads

Arming prospects with discount codes before they head to your online store is a great way to encourage purchasing behavior. Offer ads give entrepreneurs the ability to do just that.

Read more Top Creative Strategies for Facebook Ad

_______________________________________________________________________________

Please contact us for seo service packages at TDHSEO.COM.

TDHSEO Team

Email: tdhseo@gmail.com
Skype: tdhseo
https://www.facebook.com/tdhseo

Thank you!


  • -

How to increase your sales by Google Ads

Category : Google Ads

One of the biggest challenges automotive marketers face is gaining the trust of their leads. After all, the job of a marketer is to help bring leads in the door so the sales team has people to sell to. But in such a competitive industry—one where the consumer is making a rather large financial decision that will affect their everyday life—automotive marketers do not have it made in the shade.

So how can automotive marketers deal with these challenges? By being smarter about their online advertising. 97% of people looking to purchase, repair, or customize a car start their journey online.

image of woman on car

Let’s dive into nine key ways you can bring potential automotive customers in the door through compelling online advertising.

1. Build trust with customer reviews

I will never forget leasing my first car. I went for the reliable, affordable, and decent-looking (in my opinion) Honda Accord, but I was terrified at making this decision. I spent months doing research, calling local dealerships, considering whether leasing or buying a used car was the better route to go. At the end of day, I decided where to look in person by reading customer reviews on Yelp and Google.

The point of this anecdote is this: Reviews are perhaps the most critical component to getting leads in the door. As an automotive marketer you need to not only ensure you have GOOD reviews, but you need to go above and beyond to ensure these glowing reviews are everywhere they can possibly be. Yelp, Google, social networks, your own website—ensure you are covering all your bases! You can also take things a step further by creating customer success stories and videos with your most valued customers, and use these in various places, like paid social ads, your website, or your newsletter.

automotive marketing customer reviews

There is no better way to instill trust than to let your customers speak for you!

2. Be at the top of the Google SERP

As mentioned above, when I first started searching for my new car where did I turn to? Google, of course! I am not alone in this. According to a study from Kenshoo, 70% of consumers researching cars turn to search engines first.

Since Google is the first line of defense you need to be at the very top! Especially considering how often people scroll to the bottom of the SERP (HINT: it is not often). The first few listings always get the most clicks, so ensuring you in the top positions is critical. To do this your Google Ads strategy need to be extremely effective. So how can you get to the top of the page without completely breaking the bank? There are certain strategies that Google tends to favor, and will help you get in higher positions without spending more. Follow these tips to get started:

  • Ensure your Google Ads account is structured properly with tight-knit ad groups (aim to have 15-20 keywords per ad group).
  • Keep keywords tightly related to your ad text, and include 2-3 ads per ad group/keyword list.
  • Use ad extensions! Google loves them, and they will help you get more ad real estate and chances of lead interaction.
  • Add negative keywords to block out irrelevant searches (and keep a close eye on your search query report).
  • Allocate your budget properly between campaigns. What are your highest sellers? What is your target audience most likely to search for? Bid higher on these items to capitalize on what is popular among your audience

It’s also important not to forget about other search networks, like Bing.

Bing Ads breakdown by audience

While Bing might seem like the neglected cousin of Google, they do account for a section of the search market that typically attracts older folks—people who are probably more financially established and able to invest in expensive cars.

3. Bid on competitor keywords

While we’re talking about search engine marketing, it’s important to not only be bidding on the obvious keywords like “new Honda Accord.” You should also set up a campaign to tackle your competition.

It is a fierce and competitive world in automotive marketing, so being able to show up every time your competition does with compelling ad copy is key. While I would not recommend saying anything negative or using your competitor’s name in your ad copy (which Google could put you in time out for), you should bid on your top competitors brand names, and create highly persuasive ads to get leads to visit your website over your competition.

I love this ad from Toyota for instance:

automotive marketing search ad for college grads

While I can’t see if they’re bidding on competitor keywords or not, I love how they are appealing directly to a specific demographic, and adding value for that individual right in the headline of their ad.

4. Actively manage your negative keyword list

Did you know that your ads can show up for searches that are not relevant to your business? And if anyone clicks on them, you still have to pay? Whenever you are bidding on broad or phrase match keywords the potential to show up for irrelevant searches is present.

While just bidding on exact match might seem like a nice solution, this will greatly limit your reach potential, which makes the process of identifying negative keywords critical to your search strategy. While searching your search query report might feel like a time-consuming task it is an absolute necessity, especially in the automotive industry. If your ads are appearing for irrelevant search terms your business instantly loses credibility. This is why being cognizant about setting up negatives to avoid irrelevant search queries is not only going to save you face, but also going to save you money.

For instance, imagine if you’re bidding on the keyword “affordable cars” and your ad appears for the search “toy cars,” and then a busy parent accidently clicks. This is not only a waste of time for the parent, but it’s a waste of money for you!

search results for "big toy cars"

WordStream Advisor makes it quite easy for you to manage your negative keyword list through tools like the 20-Minute Work Week, which helps weed out irrelevant searches, and our search query report to find and configure your negative keyword lists.

5. Adjust your campaign budgets based on car-buying trends

Is Black Friday the hottest day to buy a car? What about Memorial Day Weekend? There are many unofficial “car-buying holidays.” According to an analysis done by TrueCar.com and U.S. News & World Report, you can purchase a vehicle for 7.5% to 8% below MSRP if you’re strategic about when you buy it. Assuming your audience has done their fair share of research, they are aware of these automotive deal times.

Figure out when things are busy, steady, and slow and then adjust your online advertising budget accordingly. Make sure your windows aren’t too narrow. This often requires planning ahead, but Google and other ad platforms make it fairly easy to adjust your budget on an ongoing basis. Just make sure you’re actually doing this!

automotive marketing ad schedule

Another thing to take advantage of is ad scheduling. When do customers typically come into the store? Weekends? Weekdays post work? Look at the data to determine this and set an ad schedule so your ads are only running at a higher budget right before these key times, reminding your future customers to come on by.

6. Target the right people with your automotive campaigns

What type of automotive business are you marketing? Who is your typical customer? There needs to be a different strategy for marketers of luxury Porshe and BMWs versus marketers of used cars or more affordable brands like Honda and Toyota. The prospective customers have drastically different concerns, questions, wants and needs when it comes to investing in a new car. While your Mercedes customer may be more concerned about their heated seats and leather interior, your Honda buyer most likely care more about gas mileage and longevity.  Although this might not always be the case…

image of people on car

“Those who buy luxury cars more likely crave social status and material wealth, as opposed to utilitarian cars which consumers buy out of necessity,” says Julia Manoukian.

Different audiences need to be broken down and targeted separately. Considering the main things your audience cares about is a critical way to get the right message to the right person and increase the chance of conversion.

If necessary, you may need to split your audiences into two, three, or even four separate campaigns to ensure you’re sending the right message to the right prospect. And, of course, with tools like Facebook’s targeting options this is not as complex as it once was. Just ensure you spend the time to define your audiences so you can craft the right message to the right person at the right time!

Read more Best tips to get an effective Google Adwords Campaign

_______________________________________________________________________________

Please contact us for seo service packages at TDHSEO.COM.

TDHSEO Team

Email: tdhseo@gmail.com
Skype: tdhseo
https://www.facebook.com/tdhseo

Thank you!


  • -

The most brilliant marketing strategies you should know

In order to stay competitive, you need to adjust your strategy, as well. Here are seven tactics that your social media strategy needs.

1. Target true engagement

Cheating the system to encourage engagement has been a popular social tactic for some time, with brands sharing posts that suggest users simply “tag a friend in the comments below” to rack up interaction figures without actually creating a conversation. But algorithms are getting smarter, and engagement bait isn’t going to cut it this year as platforms crack down on spammy systems for garnering likes and shares.

With organic reach declining and more businesses upping their social ad spend, content needs to be truly interesting and engaging so that followers, and wider audiences, can’t help but get involved. Whether that’s irreverent conversation in the style of the MERL and Gregg’s, or creating artistic vertical video for Facebook, it’s more important than ever to find the voice and the stories that work for you.

MERL tweet targeting true engagement

How to jump on the trend: Stop relying on lazy social CTAs. Think about your brand voice guidelines and how you can best apply them to social media, using social as part of wider content marketing strategies instead of a standalone.

2. Work with micro-influencers

On the theme of true engagement, it’s no surprise that micro-influencers continue to win ground over their more celebrity-like counterparts. Aside from budget benefits, in that micro-influencers often work on a gifting basis or simply have much lower fees than the big names, research continues to show that their audiences are more highly engaged and can be more niche-specific than all-singing, all-dancing social media stars.

social media influencer post on Instagram

Some research has even clearly shown that once a profiles amasses more than a few thousand followers, engagement rates on sites like Instagram start to rapidly decline. Collaborating with digital socialites who have between 1,000 and 10,000 followers comes at a fraction of the usual influencer cost, but with a likelihood that genuine engagement will be much greater.

This is in part attributed to a level of believability that can be lost with bigger “influencers.” While some brands turned their nose up at the idea of micro-influencer collaborations in 2018, anyone hoping to produce credible collaborative work this year needs to embrace the up-and-comers.

How to jump on the trend: Take the time to research up-and-comers in your niche. Search relevant hashtags to find social stars who aren’t represented by agencies, where audiences are smaller and engagement rates are higher. Plan influencer campaigns based on relevancy, not audience size.

social media influencer enagement rate tool

3. Get rid of fake followers

On the theme of genuine engagement and influencer marketing, it would be wrong not to address the issue of fake social followers that really gained momentum throughout 2018. Fake and spam accounts have been around since the dawn of social media, but now it’s increasingly common to find so-called “influencer” profiles with millions of followers, where the reality isn’t quite what it seems. Even politicians and celebrities have been caught cheating.

Part of the reason that it’s so important to check engagement rates before connecting with an influencer is that audience size does not necessarily equal views or activity. Fake followers and paid-for likes can make it seem that someone is popular, but on closer inspection, collaborating could be a waste of time and money.

2019 is already shaping up to be the year that fake followers are public enemy number one, with sites like Instagram and Facebook announcing their plans to stamp out fraudulent activity once and for all.

image of woman with social media

How to jump on the trend: If you’ve been buying followers from services promising to grow your audience, stop. And similarly, when you’re working with influencers, don’t be afraid to do some serious homework. Tools like Twitter Auditand HypeAuditor can help.

4. Make your social profile shoppable

Shoppable social has already made waves, from Pinterest’s buyable pins to the Checkout on Instagram. But there have been some major upgrades over the past year, and the path from social app to checkout page is now clearer and shorter than ever.

Pinterest has upgraded ad pins to “Product Pins”—a tool that takes shoppers straight to the checkout page for a selected item on a retailer’s site, while Instagram now gives users a route from discovery to checkout without ever having to leave the app. Even the “Explore” page now features a shopping tab—something that paid search marketers should be aware of.

Pinterest image

Pinterest say that their Product Pins have increased click-through rates to retailer websites by 40%. With shoppers likely to drop a purchase if the steps between viewing an item and paying for it get too numerous, retailers should leap at the chance to make the kinds of instant sales that social media encourages.

With many shoppers first browsing on social or on Google, paid search and paid social teams will need to work hand-in-hand throughout 2019 with a clear understanding of their respective tactics and outcomes.

How to jump on the trend: Invest in shoppable social adverts where relevant. Test out Facebook offer ads or selling on Instagram to see which platform and CTAs work best for your audience. Also, make sure to adjust your PPC strategies and targets to account for the shift.

5. Include dark social in your strategy

Dark social refers to the kind of social networking that marketers can’t track; the sharing of information over WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, iMessage and other similar apps. We are all increasingly aware that the content we engage with online forms part of our own online presence, and that posts we like or comment on will appear with this information in our friends’ newsfeeds.

This, coupled with a dislike of eerily-tailored advertising and a growing distrust of social media onTest out Facebook offer ads or selling on Instagram to see the whole, has created a situation where a lot of social sharing takes place out of sight. Direct messaging of posts and products can feel like a big hit to brand awareness, but this isn’t the case—while you may not be able to track these kinds of exchanges, they nurture valuable engagement.

Facebook’s Messenger app sees 1.3 billion users send 8 billion messages every month, and the total once you include WhatsApp, WeChat, and Skype is around 5 billion active monthly users. That’s more than the traditional social networks combined, which means “dark social” can’t simply be overlooked as an area that marketers are unable to access. Overall, it’s estimated that 75% of consumer sharing happens on dark social.

Facebook Messenger marketing example

How to jump on the trend: Incorporate dark social into your social marketing strategies. Does your brand have a presence on these channels? Could it? From Facebook Messenger chatbots to VIP WhatsApp groups, think beyond traditional marketing objectives to encourage sharing among a more receptive audience.

6. Capitalize on FOMO with live video

Tired of hearing about millennials? Good, because this year it’s Generation Z you should be turning your attention towards. Generally noted as being born between 1995 and 2015, parts of Generation Z are now starting their careers and looking at where they’ll be spending their own disposable incomes. Among this age group, FOMO—i.e., the fear of missing out— inspires experiential marketing experiences and user-generated content campaigns.

As far as social is concerned, this means that digital marketing needs to capture the same you-snooze-you-lose attitude that comes with pop-up shops and one-off events. Live video and super-short, time-sensitive competitions are just a few of the ways to instill FOMO on a waiting audience, possible through Instagram’s IGTV, Facebook Live, and other channels.

live video image

A particular benefit of live video is that followers on a range of platforms are notified when someone they’re following goes live—a neat way of sidestepping algorithms designed to minimize the amount of content that reaches audiences organically.

How to jump on the trend: Fine-tune and implement a live video strategy. Research your audience thoroughly to understand what they want, and use themes like behind-the-scenes videos, insider interviews, and giveaways to keep people engaged.

Read more The best digital marketing tips for beginners

_______________________________________________________________________________

Please contact us for seo service packages at TDHSEO.COM.

TDHSEO Team

Email: tdhseo@gmail.com
Skype: tdhseo
https://www.facebook.com/tdhseo

Thank you!