If you have a high average path length or are running campaigns at the top end of the marketing funnel (social media, display, PR) then you should be lookinat attribution closely and assessing the impact it is having on your results and therefore your decisions.
When it comes to social media there are so many ideas and techniques out there to help your brand perform better. From post formatting to frequency and timing, there seems to be a lot of technicalities to social media marketing today.
Amongst all of these techniques it is important not to forget the main purpose of social media; to connect and engage with your customers. This is what makes your social media voice so important. In this post, we will explore how to establish an effective voice for your brand, and how you can use this to improve your social media strategy and increase engagement.
Don’t you hate it when you phone a call centre and you’re greeted by a lengthy automated voice message? Or those irritating automated marketing calls? People like talking to other people, not computers or robots, and this rule also applies when it comes to social media. Giving your brand an identity will make your audience feel more comfortable, meaning they are more likely to interact.
In order to humanise your brand, you can begin by asking yourself some questions about the kind of person it would be. The more detailed your brand persona is the better, but below are some questions to get you started:
Once you have developed a clear persona for your brand you should visualise this character in all of your social media posts. If it doesn’t fit the character, then don’t make the post!
People are constantly being marketed to, but they certainly don’t use social media just to look at ads. Competition is fierce, so you need to give consumers a reason to follow or like your page. Many businesses make the mistake of being overly promotional on social media, with profiles that look something like this:
Looking from an audience member’s perspective, would you really be interested in following a brand that constantly made posts like this? Probably not, right? Of course, it is fine to post some promotional content; just make sure it is relevant, not too sales-heavy, and most importantly is of interest to your audience. One brand that does this particularly well is Innocent. Their light-hearted and humorous tone is projected in all of their posts, even promotional:
We’ve made a TikTok account but no one believes it’s really us. It definitely is though. Pretty sure, anyway. Like, 80% sure. https://t.co/2ZXHOcsJUH pic.twitter.com/qk3Von3ZUf
— innocent drinks (@innocent) April 30, 2021
In a case study interview with The Drum, Innocent Drinks social media team broke down how they promote their brand on social media:
Our team is split between ‘One To Many’, and ‘One To One’. ‘One To Many’ is our content creation – they’re the ones who get all the glory. ‘One To One’ covers our responses across social – both solving customer service queries and having a fun chat with the people who buy our stuff.
We actually have a very in-depth strategy: chat nonsense all day. (…) it’s our day-to-day stuff – making consistently great posts that our core audience love. We don’t crowbar sales messages into every tweet. (…) We constantly reply to people. We try to have one-to-one interactions so good that they become one-to-many by writing replies that people want to share.
Your audience wants to feel like they matter, so be polite and make sure you respond to any interactions. Competitions are another great way of giving value to your audience whilst boosting engagement and expanding your social media presence.
You should already be aware of your business’s target audience and their interests, so the next step is to cater your social media content towards these interests. Make the most of analytics tools to see which posts your audience responds best to and tailor your future posts around this data.
Remember that social media is all about conversation, so give your audience something to talk about. Ask questions and encourage interactions – just one person talking positively about your brand can reach a multitude of potential new customers.
When posting content on social media your brand identity and consumer profiles should always be at the forefront of your mind.
Your social media voice may seem trivial at first, but getting it right truly can make such a difference for your brand. Having a consistent and authentic voice allows your audience to really connect with your brand; they should almost feel like they know your brand as a person and will, therefore, be able to interact with you in that way. Engagement is key when it comes to social media success, so having an audience base that is willing to interact with your brand is invaluable.
Remember that building a recognisable social media presence will take time; so be patient, keep things consistent, let your personality shine through, and you’ll soon start seeing the rewards.
If you would like any further advice around finding your social media voice, or anything else related to social media management then please get in touch and we’d be happy to help.
Google Analytics is the most used tracking tool in the world. It’s used on almost half of the top 1,000,000 websites (as currently ranked by Alexa).
As a Digital Marketer or webmaster, it can be incredibly frustrating to open your Google Analytics reports and see huge increases in traffic to your site only to have to put the champagne on ice after you’ve dug a little deeper.
Realising that a load of the new referral traffic you have been receiving has come from spambots and not, in fact, genuine sites linking to you is both heartbreaking and incredibly frustrating!
Referral spam is the fake referral traffic that you get from ‘bots’ that crawl your website and perform a variety of repetitive tasks for a multitude of malicious reasons.
Not all bots out there are bad, take Google’s very own ‘Googlebot’ for example. Googlebot crawls the web to index websites and pages so they can accurately present them in their search engine results pages (SERPs).
Google’s Googlebot is good. It even has flowers.
However, you are going to want to stop the not-so-friendly bots from crawling your site and appearing in your Analytics data.
Not sure which ones I mean? Well I’ll come onto how you can spot the spammy sites that you need to block soon, but as a starter for 10, if you recognise any of these then I have bad news for you:
But do not fear, the majority of websites today are receiving referral spam on a regular basis and it’s a trend that has increased rapidly over the last couple of years. In fact, Google’s Webmaster Trends Analyst, John Mueller, has admitted that Google know all about referral spam but have yet figured out a working solution!
The initial frustration you may have with referral spam is that it skews your, otherwise mostly reliable, Google Analytics data making any conclusions you take from the tracking software redundant.
Metrics based on sessions such as bounce rate and conversion rate will be hit and gleaning any valuable information becomes tricky. Although some of the less complex bots that crawl your site won’t affect your GA stats, they can still negatively impact on site performance.
I know right. Where has the humanity gone? Well, there are a variety of reasons they do it, and here’s just a few:
Well, as I mentioned earlier, there is no definitive solution to referral spam but there are effective workarounds. Whilst Google themselves tell you to use the ‘Referral Exclusion List’ to block the spam, this is not the ideal technique; and here’s why:
Using the Referral Exclusion List to attempt to block spammy websites coming up as referrals in your Google Analytics reports is dangerous as it merely records the traffic as direct rather than excluding it completely.
What we and many other reputable sources recommend is using ‘custom filters’. Here’s how:
1. Head over to Google Analytics and sort your ‘Referral Traffic’ by ‘Bounce Rate’. It’s fairly safe to assume that any site that has 0% or 100% bounce rate, with at least 15-20 sessions, is spam.
2. If you’re unsure then check it against our ‘Ultimate Referral List’ at the bottom of this page.
3. Can’t find it in our list? consider searching the site in a search engine to see what other people are saying about it. Remember to be incredibly cautious when choosing whether or not to visit the site as we already know that a lot of these sites are harmful.
4. Now you have your final list, block them with ‘custom filters’
When you’ve selected the account you desire, click the ‘Admin’ tab
Select ‘All Filters’
Click the big red ‘+ Add Filter’ button
Enter the spammy URL’s as you see them entered in this example, select ‘All Website Data’ from the ‘Available Views’ box and click ‘Save’.
Bear in mind that there’s a 255 character limit for each filter so you will only manage to get 10 or so spam domains in each one. Although it can be time-consuming to keep adding to your
filters, this currently the best fix and is definitely worth doing.
Enjoy.
The Current 128 Domain Strong Referral Spam List
traffic2money.com
floating-share-buttons.com
get-free-social-traffic.com
site4.free-floating-buttons.com
4webmasters.org
site10.free-floating-buttons.com
free-social-buttons.com
site3.free-floating-buttons.com
www.event-tracking.com
success-seo.com
seo-platform.com
site2.free-floating-buttons.com
chinese-amezon.com
hongfanji.com
site8.free-floating-buttons.com
site9.free-floating-buttons.com
video–production.com
www.Get-Free-Traffic-Now.com
buttons-for-website.com
qualitymarketzone.com
site5.free-floating-buttons.co
videos-for-your-business.com
how-to-earn-quick-money.com
forum.topic63020490.darodar.com
7makemoneyonline.com
acads.net
anal-acrobats.hol.es
anticrawler.org
best-seo-offer.com
best-seo-solution.com
bestwebsitesawards.comblackhatworth.com
brakehawk.com
buttons-for-your-website.com
buy-cheap-online.info
darodar.com
econom.co
event-tracking.com
forum20.smailik.org
forum69.info
free-share-buttons.com
googlsucks.com
guardlink.org
hulfingtonpost.com
humanorightswatch.org
ilovevitaly.com
iminent.com
kabbalah-red-bracelets.com
kambasoft.com
makemoneyonline.com
masterseek.com
o-o-6-o-o.com
ok.ru
pornhub-forum.ga
pornhub-forum.uni.me
priceg.com
ranksonic.info
ranksonic.org
rapidgator-porn.ga
savetubevideo.com
semalt.com
sexyteens.hol.es
simple-share-buttons.com
social-buttons.com
theguardlan.com
webmaster-traffic.com
youporn-forum.ga
youporn-forum.uni.me
ilovevitaly.co
myftpupload.com
iskalko.ru
ilovevitaly.ru
o-o-8-o-o.ru
o-o-6-o-o.ru
cenoval.ru
cenokos.ru
seoexperimenty.ru
gobongo.info
vodkoved.ru
adcash.com
websocial.me
cityadspix.com
luxup.ru
ykecwqlixx.ru
superiends.org
slftsdybbg.ru
edakgfvwql.ru
socialseet.ru
screentoolkit.com
blackhatworth.com
prlog.ru
bestwebsitesawards.com
forum.smailik.org
aliexpress.com
Get-Free-Traffic-Now.com
semalt.semalt.com
iloveitaly.ro
prodvigator.ua
resellerclub.com
adviceforum.info
europages.com.ru
lomb.co
lumb.co
54.186.60.77
srecorder.com
see-your-website-here.com
76brighton.co.uk
paparazzistudios.com.au
powitania.pl
sharebutton.net
tasteidea.com
descargar-musica-gratis.net
torontoplumbinggroup.com
100dollars-seo.com
semaltmedia.com
rankings-analytics.com
free-floating-buttons.com
rednise.com
erot.co
generalporn.org
trafficmonetize.org
trafficmonetizer.org
domination.ml
torture.ml
depositfiles-porn.ga
pornhubforum.yk
pops.foundation
justprofit.xyz
best-seo-software.xyz
To be a thriving business in today’s world, you need to have a compelling presence on a variety of platforms.
Some social media sites may suit companies within certain business sectors more than others – and your audience may engage with and show interest in some profiles more than others. In this blog post we will take a look at a handful of image-based social media platforms to see how they are being used:
This photo-sharing website allows companies to be creative with what they share and their content should be high quality, interesting and original imagery. Hashtags are vital when posting on Instagram. Users will then be able to find your posts in the billions of photos posted every day. Companies within the following sectors tend to be popular on this platform:
Instagram is a place where people can share everything that they get up to in their everyday lives, especially when it comes to what they eat. Users love seeing photos of food that they can try out the recipe for themselves or would just like to try. Restaurants can use this platform to share photos of their tasty looking meals. This type of business should also take advantage of the popular food hashtags such as #foodporn and #foodie. A good example of a restaurant that is using Instagram to best effect is Pizza Hut:
The travel industry can use Instagram as a promotional tool to great effect. Airlines, cruise lines and holiday travel companies can share photos of destinations to entice users to book through them. British Airways and Airbnb are examples of travel companies that we think are using the social media platform to great advantage:
Pinterest is a social media platform that can be useful for various business industries to promote and sell services/products as well as keep up-to-date with the current trends in their area. For some types of businesses Pinterest may hold the most potential to engage and interest consumers. The platform is ideal for planning and ideas and therefore perfect for any businesses or users that are preparing, designing or organising anything. Here’s what businesses we have found work best on Pinterest:
Venues that can be hired for occasions such as weddings and those who plan events can effectively be promoted on Pinterest. Users can use this platform as a way of planning their own event and collecting their ideas. Venues or planners can create boards around photos of the venue or work done as well as boards regarding other related aspects. For instance wedding venues can provide inspiration for other areas of the big day such as dresses, food, ideas etc. This helps potential customers gain ideas for their own events and envision themselves at a venue.
Here’s a wedding venue and wedding planner that we think are using Pinterest well:
https://www.pinterest.com/almonrybarn/
https://www.pinterest.com/heatonhouse/
Fashion is a sector that receives a large amount of engagement in the form of likes and repins. Photos are pinned based on fashion-related topics such as outfit inspiration. The online fashion retailer ASOS is one business that is using Pinterest to its full potential. With their 412.8k followers and only 42 boards, their approach to this platform and ultimately promoting their products are extremely successful.
Interior design is something that requires planning. Therefore, Pinterest is the perfect microsite to be on for any interior design business. As well as post inspiration for homes, businesses in this sector can convey the newest trends available and how their products/services can recreate this look. It also allows interior designers to create an online portfolio for their work and target potential customers.
UK homewares brand Dunelm have managed to take advantage of the many users on Pinterest interested in interior design. They have individual themes for each board with their products and inspiring photos pinned to each. Each board is very simple but effective.
https://www.pinterest.com/dunelmuk/
Tumblr is a platform where branding can really be promoted to full effect. A company can promote their brand through not only their Tumblr posts but also their page design. One company that has a consistent and visually-effective brand image on Tumblr is Coca-Cola:
Companies should try to fit in and appeal to the Tumblr community when having a presence on this social media site. It is important to use hashtags on Tumblr so that your posted content can be found. Users on Tumblr also like to share images in GIF format which, when done well, can also work for companies. Coca-Cola, Nike Women and Disney use these effectively to create eye-catching and interesting profiles.
Company sectors that seem to perform best on this platform in terms of gaining the most interest and engagement include:
Users on Tumblr use it as a way of gaining inspiration for what to wear. Retailers Topshop and Adidas are two brands that are using the social media site well. Brands are able to use social media as way of displaying their products to their audience almost as if it were a shop window.
With the young and individual audience on Tumblr there are not necessarily any particular rules or types of things that a business should be posting to gain interest. Therefore this is a social media platform that allows for creativity and more risks to be taken. Humour is one thing that seems to go a long way on Tumblr. This and posts providing some real inspiration seem to work best.
If your business is in one of the sectors mentioned within this list, it is essential to be present on the social media platform most relevant in order to compete and take advantage of having your target audience in one place. If not, your company should still have these profiles but it may just be a slighter different or smaller user base that you are targeting.
If you would like to help with getting your business noticed on social media, get in touch with us today.
We interview Robert Craven about his work with Google, and can reveal the full list of the 30 best digital agencies in the UK.
The 30 agencies come in all shapes and sizes and from across all areas of Great Britain. Common features of the agencies selected include a commitment to invest in staff development, and a positioning at the cutting edge of Google products. Robert was able to reveal more detail:
“Google selected the top 30 using factors such as; current high performance in their field, and having demonstrated the most potential to develop to the next stage of their growth. – Robert Craven.”
As part of the program, we schedule calls with Robert where he asks probing questions and gets to the root of the challenges that we currently face.
At the end of our phone call we turned the questioning on its head and took the opportunity to ask Robert a few questions of our own. His answers are eye-opening!
We interview Robert Craven about his work with Google, and can reveal the full list of the 30 best digital agencies in the UK.
The 30 agencies come in all shapes and sizes and from across all areas of Great Britain. Common features of the agencies selected include a commitment to invest in staff development, and a positioning at the cutting edge of Google products. Robert was able to reveal more detail:
Google selected the top 30 using factors such as; current high performance in their field, and having demonstrated the most potential to develop to the next stage of their growth. – Robert Craven.
As part of the program, we schedule calls with Robert where he asks probing questions and gets to the root of the challenges that we currently face.
At the end of our phone call we turned the questioning on its head and took the opportunity to ask Robert a few questions of our own. His answers are eye-opening!
Hello Robert, now it’s time for us to ask you some questions.
Fire away.
Firstly, can you tell me about your work with Google?
My current work with Google is to lead a program designed specifically to help 30 high potential digital agencies transition to the next stage in their growth. The program is a bit like a market stall where the agencies can come and take from it to match their individual needs. I then individually engage with those business to help springboard them to the next level.
If all of the top 30 agencies could improve in one dimension, what would it be?
I’ve got a short answer and long answer.
The short answer is put up their prices. The reason that I say this is because it means you can create better quality work and it will allow you to work with people who truly value what you are doing. You can deliver a concierge service rather than a commodity product. It also separates you from the masses. There are thousands of reasons to put up prices. All the agencies on the programme are probably undercharging for their work.
The long answer is that you’re asking the wrong question! It’s the wrong question because there are three dimensions for all agencies to improve on.
Ok then, if all of the top 30 agencies could improve in three dimensions, what would they be?
1) Where the heck is my business going? Also known as strategy.
2) How on earth are we going to sell this stuff? Also known as marketing.
3) Why can’t we get on together better? Also known as teams and people. If you talk to a “normal” agency that simply plods along, they wake up every morning, open up their inbox, and work from that. They won’t have a marketing strategy; they simply take any work that comes in.
So how did Google select the top 30 agencies to work with in 2016?
They were selected from an original pool of Google Partners. Google selected the top 30 using factors such as; current high performance in their field, and having demonstrated the most potential to develop to the next stage of their growth. If you want more detail you’ll have to ask someone at Google, because I didn’t select you!
Good to know! Final question; you’re helping us to form a 3-year plan. What does your 3-year plan look like?
Very ambitious. We are switching from a ‘best kept secret’ model to a ‘high value adding’ program. This is based on a 2 year scaling strategy. We’ll be using the same systems, programmes and tools across the organisation, to deliver the same level of results.
It’s been a pleasure Robert, thanks for your time.
Likewise.
Below you can find the complete list of the top 30 digital agencies in the UK as chosen by Google. Take a look at what they do below and make sure to follow these market leaders on Twitter!
LIMELIGHT DIGITAL
@Limelight Digital
Loughborough
ACCURACAST
@AccuraCast
London
ANICCA
@aniccadigital
Leicester
CLICKOO UK
@ClickooUk
Manchester
CLIMBING TREES
@climbingtrees10
Essex
THE FOUNTAIN TEAM
@FountainTeam
London & Norwich
HALLAM INTERNET
@HallamInternet
Nottingham
INFOTEX
@infotexuk
Suffolk, London & Yorkshire
KOOZAI
@Koozai
London & Southampton
LEXISCLICK
@LexisClick
Bournemouth
LIBERTY MARKETING
@LibertyOnlineUK
Cardiff
FARKY RAFIQ
@farkyrafiq
Salisbury
LONELY ROBOT WEB DEV
@lonelyrobotweb
Hertfordshire
MAJOR MARKETING
@aGoogleGuru
Cornwall, Devon & Somerset
NAVIGATE DIGITAL
@navigatedigital
United Kingdom & Australia
PERFECT STORM MEDIA
@PerfStomMedia
London
POP CREATIVE LTD
@popcreative
Oswestry
PUSH GROUP MARKETING
@PushGroup
London
RECEPTIONAL
@Receptional
Bedfordshire & London
RED EFFECT MARKETING
@RedEffectLtd
Bristol, London & Monmouth
RETURN ON DIGITAL
@returnondigital
Manchester & London
SAGITTARIUS
@SagittariusMktg
Ashford & London
SEO TRAFFIC LAB
@seotrafficlab
Gainsborough
SOAP MEDIA
@soapmedia
Manchester & Preston
SOCIAL RESPONSE
@Social_Response
Bristol
TANDEM DIGITAL
@tandem_digital
Edinburgh
TICTOC
@tictocdigital
Glasgow & London
XANTHOS DIGITAL
@XanthosDigital
Cambridgeshire
XELSION
@XelsionMedia
London
We have long wondered “how does google rank search results!?” and now we know! Google have kept pretty quiet about how they rank websites and SEO website … Moz even runs a Search Engine Ranking Factors survey with their latest being from 2015.
As I’m sure most people are all too aware of, achieving organic Facebook reach for your business is now harder than ever. There are many rumours surrounding… the subject, but are they all true?
Today, we’ll show you step-by-step how Limelight Digital helped Shoe Zone plc to achieve the best AdWords returns in its history.
Online shoe retail is a highly competitive space. Large shoe retailers bid against each other to appear at the top of Google’s popular searches for specific phrases. Direct competitors for Shoe Zone’s search phrases include; Asda, Debenhams, Next, Schuh, Monsoon and many more. Each company has to carefully manage their advertising spend to ensure it provides a strong ROI.
This is a common situation for many of our clients at Limelight Digital We use all our experience and knowledge (as accredited Google Partners) to find the best solution.
In this case study, we’ll show you EXACTLY how we achieved an increased ROI by 196%, step-by-step.
In June 2015, Shoe Zone’s AdWords were converting at 2 x ROI, essentially this means that for every £1 of Google advertising cost, Shoe Zone made £2 in additional revenue.
Shoe Zone calculated that to achieve financial targets it required a 3 x ROI. In this competitive space, that level of increase is not an easy challenge.
Using our expertise, in November we tripled the 2 x ROI they were typically achieving, increasing it to a 6 x ROI. The client was, of course, thrilled.
And here’s how we did it….
However, the huge stepped change (196% in one month) occurred in November, so what did we do?
We identified Google’s Shopping campaigns as a more appropriate placement, with the following benefits:
Here’s an example of how Google’s Shopping adverts appear:
Google Shopping campaigns work quite differently from normal AdWords campaigns. Normally, we define the keywords to target and write our own titles and descriptions for the adverts. However, Google Shopping automatically selects product titles and descriptions directly from the website. In theory, this should make it easier to set up.
However, to maximise ROI, product titles and descriptions must be re-written to appear in search results and increase website conversion.
To achieve this we worked closely with Shoe Zone to edit custom labels to create helpful descriptions which are in line with how their target audience search and buy.
Here’s an example of the finished advert - all content is provided from the product titles and description information, hosted on the Shoe Zone website.
Shoe Zone has over 10,000 SKU’s on its website, we are able to target specific shoe types to maximise ROI. To achieve this, we replicated the website structure into the product feed so we can filter what we are targeting down to individual product types.
Filters include:
We can also filter out certain SKU’s. For example, if the product is flagged as ‘limited distribution’. This ensures Shoe Zone does not waste marketing spend on SKU’s that are unavailable.
By optimising Google Shopping campaigns we were able to almost double Shoe Zone’s ROI in just one month.
This case study requires the following health warning:
Not all e-commerce websites respond to Google Shopping in the same way, but with our skill and experience, you will see improvements.
We’ve been in the digital marketing industry for long enough to know that all businesses are unique and need bespoke solutions.
Unlike most agencies, Limelight Digital spends time to continually optimising AdWords accounts to achieve business objectives. As accredited Google Partners we learn about new Google products before the majority of other agencies and have a superb team of qualified Google professionals on hand to work closely with you through every step of the campaign.
If you are interested in taking your PPC account to the next level, call the team on 01509 631 136 or email [email protected] and let’s chat about your ambitions and how we can help.
2020 is here, not only is it a new year but it’s also a new decade. In the 2010s, marketing made huge strides with the introduction of Facebook Ads, Instagram’s IGTV, new techniques of SEO and much more.
With a new decade means new technologies and trends. We delve into the marketing trends you need to know for 2020.
We’re already seeing shifts in beliefs about what marketing actually is, so we’re expecting 2020 to be the year of the customer. It’s now not all about convincing people to buy from your company but prioritising fantastic customer service that keeps customers coming back. By building a positive business culture and providing great customer service the marketing side almost takes care of itself.
With the introduction of chatbots, providing customer service has never been easier. Modern-day websites are adding the chatbot feature to allow customers to get an instant response which is usually quicker than email. This is increasingly popular with Millenials as they prefer digital conversation over having a live conversation as it’s almost instant.
Providing excellent customer service is a great way to get the word out about your company without it even costing you a penny.
Research has shown that people prefer visual content to plain text. Just look at the growth of image and video-focused platforms such as Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok and YouTube. Images already account for 19% of searches on Google and 62% of millennials have already stated they are more interested in visual search than anything else.
Creating exciting and enticing images, infographics, animation and video will not only help your brand stand out but will also help you build links as other websites are now more willing to host images over the written word.
(We bet you’ll remember this infographic)
With the introduction of smart speakers such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home, Voice Searches are on the rise. It is predicted that at the end of 2021 there will be more than 1.6 billion people using voice searches on a regular basis.
It might be time to consider implementing a voice search for your upcoming marketing strategy.
Want your audience to engage in your product, website or social ad? Interactive Content could be the key to this. It helps to form a conversation in which you don’t have to actively participate.
Creating interactive content doesn’t have to be difficult, it could be as simple as offering free, instant quotes allowing the user to fill in a form to go to the next stage and then they will receive a quote via email.
The online digital media company, Buzzfeed seems to dominate the online world with internet quizzes which can be silly or controversial but this always creates a conversation with users. In fact, one quiz once got over 22 million views.
It’s human nature to interact with something so why not use this to your advantage?
Smart Bidding is a set of automated bid strategies in Google Ads that use machine learning to maximise conversions. Google looks at historical search behaviour and contextual data to predict the likelihood of conversion and then increases your bids when a conversion appears more likely.
Google’s Smart bidding strategies allow your campaigns to utilize the data it collects over time so your ads appear in front of customers that have shown more intent. If a particular keyword converts well, it will be prioritised. If users in a certain Geographical location are converting well, that location will be prioritized. If users convert better at a particular time of day or day of the month, this will affect the bidding. And so on..
Smart Display campaigns are available on the Google Display network. You upload your Display Banners, assign a landing page and then Google takes over the targeting. A negative to these campaigns can be that there isn’t much visualisation on what targeting is working and what’s not. But, from our experience, they work really well!
Smart shopping campaigns allow advertisers to run product listing adverts across multiple platforms such as: Search, Display, Youtube & Gmail. Smart shopping campaigns take into account key user interests, demographics, users who have already visited the website to optimise & retarget products to those who are most interested/likely to purchase. This campaign type is fully automated using smart bidding & works cross-platform to gain the best possible ROI for e-commerce.
Another new campaign type that has been made available in recent months is the Smart Campaigns. These campaigns utilise call extensions and map listings to help drive footfall to your Google my Business locations.
In the old days when Blockbuster still existed, the guy behind the counter would know your name as you visited so often on a Saturday night. In the digital age personalisation is a powerful tool where a company knows what you are planning on buying before you’ve even thought about it. Changing a merge tag through emails is an easy way to add personalisation.
For example: sending an email through Mailchimp with the merge tag *|FNAME|* will automatically change the name in the email to the one that is listed in the mailing list. Thus making the recipient feel like the email was sent one by one by the company they have subscribed to.
Google Adwords, Facebook Ads, Emails, and Rewards and Incentives are a great way to make the user feel like the whole digital world is personalised for them. Making the user feel like you’re talking to them personally is a great marketing technique and has been around for decades.
AR (Augmented Reality) and VR (Virtual Reality) are quickly becoming more common within marketing, allowing brands to change standard marketing into a completely interactive experience.
Many people have the assumption that VR is strictly for video gamers and something that requires a heavy investment in technology to enjoy the virtual experience. However, this isn’t the case as now most people have their own little VR device in their pocket. VR marketing allows companies to bridge the gap between experience and action helping to promote products as a digital experience in place of a physical one.
Inviting your customer along for the journey will really help to engage your customers as they will be invested in the product alongside the company.
AR is now an emerging trend in marketing and sales strategies. It allows customers to have a unique experience within the convenience of tapping into their mobile devices. By using AR, businesses will eventually be able to upgrade the experience they offer customers leading to business opportunities and brand awareness.
Brands can use AR to allow customers to try their products before they buy them. A good example of this is Glasses Direct Virtual Try-On. This allows customers the opportunity to try on a style of glasses before they buy the product. The website scans the users face creating virtual reality and then they can choose the glasses.
AR is not a new technology but has come on since the launch of Pokemon GO! with more people willing to interact with augmented and virtual reality.
So there you have it, our top picks of digital marketing trends to watch out for in 2020. Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments below.
