Google Page Experience Update: Need-To-Knows
Google Page Experience—what’s that? Ah, yes, there is another Google algorithm update. As a digital agency specializing in advertising services, we don’t talk about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) too much. But this update might affect your website performance, so here is what you should know about Google Page Experience. What Does the Google Page Experience Update Mean? When is the Google Page Experience Update Happening? What Will Google Evaluate on Page Experience? Where Do I See My Google Page Experience Report? How Will the Google Page Experience Update Affect My Ads? What is the Takeaway? What Does The Google Page Experience Update Mean? Google will now consider the user experience on your web pages when they rank your website in the search results. They said: You can think of it as if you’re adding a flavoring to a food you’re preparing. Rather than add the flavor all at once into the mix, we’ll be slowly adding it all over this time period. Google reaffirms to the public that we shouldn’t expect any drastic changes to our websites. However, from now on, we should strive to create good page experiences to rank well! When is the Google Page Experience Happening? It will be rolling out in mid-June 2021. But it won’t be until the end of August for page experience to be 100% kick in. What Will Google Evaluate for Page Experience? Accessibility Loading Security & Privacy User Annoyance These key performance metrics incorporate the following: Core Web Vitals HTTPS Safe-Browsing Mobile-Friendliness No intrusive interstitials Accessibility Mobile-Friendliness Ensure all web pages on your site to be easy to use and navigate on mobile devices. Factors to consider include content readability, link clickability, and on-page element accessibility. Test if your webpage is mobile-friendly here. Loading Core Web Vitals Google combines three performance metrics to measure your overall core web vitals. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): This metric measures loading performance. For a good user experience, aim to have the LCP occur within the first 2.5 seconds. First Input Delay (FID): This metric webpage inactivity. It’s best to keep the FID less than 100 milliseconds. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): this measures visual stability. It would be best if you aimed to have a CLS score of 0.1 or less. Security & Privacy HTTPS You should serve your website over HTTPS, which means having a secure connection. Safe-Browsing Your web pages should not contain: Malicious content like malware Deceptive content like social engineering for phishing purposes. You can take a look at your website Security Issues on Google Search Console. User Annoyance No Intrusive Interstitials Users should enjoy your content as they’re browsing; thus, there shouldn’t be any obstruction to your content—for example, interruption by poorly designed or annoying pop-up ads. Where Do I See My Google Page Experience Report? You can find the Page Experience Report in Google Search Console. It falls under the “Experience” section on the sidebar. It currently covers Page Experience, Core Web Vitals, and Mobile Usability. Here is an example of what it would look like: How Will the Google Page Experience Update Affect My Ads? Google Search Ads value your Quality Score: Click-Through Rate Historical performance of your Google Ad account Quality and relevancy of your landing page, copy, keyword, etc. As an advertiser, you’re already familiar with landing page optimization. Clear content that’s easy to read, engaging visual media—all laid out that’s navigatable. Apply this mindset to your entire website. DOWNLOAD: BLUEPRINT FOR A HIGH-CONVERTING LANDING PAGE Although paid ads and organic results aren’t directly related, they work in sync in a digital marketing strategy. For example, you run Paid Search Ads on Google. Your ads show up in the top ad results for “best craft beer in Oregon,” so people can find you easier.Let’s say your website’s organic ranking is on the second page. If you work on your Page Experience optimizations, you could increase your page’s ranking and move up to the first page. That way, you’ll be establishing more presence on the first page of Google Search results! PS. If you are an eCommerce brand, you should also run Google Shopping Ads. You will show up in 3 separate and optimal spots on Google search, maximizing more clicks to your website! What is the Takeaway? We should focus on creating a seamless user experience on our website for better Google search rankings. If you have time, take a look at Google Search Central’s presentation on “Preparing For Page Experience Ranking”: Looking for a Strategic Advertising Partner? We specialize in customized advertising strategies that convert. Let’s connect and see if we’re a good fit! Contact Us
6 Digital Ad Metrics to Measure For Success
You Need This Resource if Your Brand Runs Digital Ads How are your campaigns performing? How effective are your ad dollars? Whether your digital ads are run in-house, or by an agency, this resource will come in handy for any brand to better understand their marketing data and ad performance. We will break down each digital ad metric, discuss its definition, how it relates to other metrics, how to calculate it, and how it affects the big picture. Ultimately, you want a balanced ad budget and Return On Investment (ROI) for your business! 6 Digital Ad Metrics to Measure For Success Download Now
Introducing Our Charity Program: Kedet Kares
Giving back to our community has always been a big part of War Room’s company ethos. Our agency’s core values are Passion and Service. We are passionate about making a difference and believe that relationships are the key to business success and longevity. As a small business navigating its way through the COVID-19 pandemic, there had been lots of uncertainty. The importance of local community has never been greater. With the accumulation of everything that happened in 2020, the team at War Room started reflecting and planning ahead on what we could do more of in 2021. An idea hatched and we’ve been planning ever since. Now, it’s time for us to announce our charity program: Kedet Kares! Kedet Kares will encompass different charitable activities, such as volunteer work, donations, and more. We will be launching these initiatives one-by-one. Today, we’re proud to introduce the very first initiative: Gift Matching! Everyone makes charitable donations each year, no matter how big or small the amount is. We want to amplify that! Before December 31st of each year, submit your donation matching request, and War Room will match it and donate to the non-profit organization of your choice, which means doubling the love and impact! Our program wants to place the emphasis on supporting local. We encourage you to donate to a registered, non-profit organization that directly supports your community! Editor’s Note: Not sure if your choice of charity is eligible? See our details page. Our Gift Matching program is open to: War Room’s employees Employees of War Room clients Current Directors of War Room We decided to launch it in April, because April is World Autism Month. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 1 in 270 people have an Autism Spectrum Disorder worldwide. It occurs amongst all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups. We want to raise awareness and help empower individuals on the autism spectrum and their families! Triple Your Impact: If you donate to an organization that supports those with Autism in your community, we won’t just match your donation amount, but DOUBLE it! We will be accepting Gift Matching submissions now until May 31, 2021! Check out our "Kedet Kares" page now! PS. Subscribe to our newsletter as we’ll announce future “Double the Gift Matching” events for other awareness months! Give Back to Your Community with Kedet Kares!
Great Examples of Mother’s Day Ads
We’re sharing our favorite Mother’s Day ads of all time! With the special day coming up soon, we’re gearing up and planning for gifts and ways we can celebrate mom! According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), consumers spend an average of $205 on Mother’s Day gifts and celebrations. The top three gift categories are: Houseware (25%) Books or CDs (24%) Electronics (19%) Aside from gift-giving, as marketers, we also wanted to share our selection of great examples of Mother’s Day ads. We hope it inspires you and gets those creative juices flowing for what your brand can do for Mother’s Day! Editor’s Note: This blog will serve as a living document, and we will continue to update it each year with Mother’s Day ads we adore! Photo by Alisa Anton on Unsplash Google “Hey, Google” has been one of the most common phrases since voice command was a thing. But what phrase has been around…forever? Yep, “Hey Mom”. Google aligns itself with the family’s matriarchs, responding to all sorts of inquiries and questions, big or small. Google is always there for you, and so is Mom. At the end of the ad, they insert their featured product, the Google Nest Hub, which can be used with voice command and act as a digital photo frame to celebrate mom. Mother New York Mother New York is a creative company, and they were pretty smart in taking advantage of Mother’s Day to spread brand awareness! If you go to their website, you’ll see the leadership team’s mothers’ photos and if you hover your mouse over it, it showcases the actual team member’s face. Their mothers’ pictures are also featured on one side of their business cards and decked out in the office lobby. As you can see, it’s a big part of their company culture and identity to show love and appreciation for moms. Their ad featured photos of mothers when they were younger, alongside a cheeky mom truth bomb. Another ad says, “Be the kind of person your dating profile promises”. The primary purpose of the campaign was to let mothers know they are heard and appreciated. On the other hand, we believe it’s also an effective advertisement for hiring talent. With a first look at the sign; people might not know what company the ad is for, but when they look up “Mother New York”, take a look at their website, it all clicks, and you’ll be like, “A-ha! That was a clever ad!”, hence, that’s a cool creative company. We think it’s an authentic ad and their brand identify genuinely shines through. Publix Publix, the supermarket chain kept it simple but heartfelt for this Mother’s Day ad. The commercial focuses on a pregnant mother prepping a meal with her young daughter. It’s an everyday moment many families can relate to. The camera pans in and out, showing many of the fresh produce Publix carries, as well as the interactions between mother and daughter. It’s a sweet video that establishes Publix as a family-friendly, nurturing brand. (Did you choke up a little at the end too? We know we did!) Mint Mobile Is it a “best ads” blog if we don’t feature another one with Ryan Reynolds (don’t forget about his Deadpool V-Day ad)? As a co-owner of Mint Mobile, Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds features his mom to narrate this Mother’s Day ad. We like the self-deprecation element, but it’s also a way for Ryan to celebrate his mother through the montage of childhood photos with her. The ad has a believable dynamic between mothers and adult children and has a friendly message for everyone out there not to forget to call home and connect with mom now and then. Peoples Jewellers This 15-second video advertisement has it all. The narration effectively encapsulates “mom” reminding a son that getting a thoughtful gift for her ain’t that hard. The visual presentation of the types of jewelry was presented front and center nicely, alongside affordable prices. Then cue heavy music and enter goth yearbook photo, then oop– back to Peoples Jewellers’s branded purple. To sum it up, it was engaging and funny! Jack Spade “You Never Call Anymore” grabs your attention almost immediately. The positioning of the text draws your eyes down to the Call-To-Action button, “Shop Now.” Moreover, the soft coral color really pops and represents the look and feel of Mother’s Day. PS. Don’t forget to call mom! Microsoft Teams Microsoft Teams‘ ad debuted in May 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, where people worked from home. It’s a successful ad because firstly, It was highly relevant to the climate, secondly, it highlights the online video meeting product, and lastly, shows just how much it takes to be a working mom to transition to working from home. We think it’s relatable, on-trend, and sends out a good message to show our appreciation for working mothers everywhere. P&G This P&G commercial was released in the Philippines in 2020 during the first wave of Coronavirus. It’s an emotional glimpse into what goes on for our heroes in the frontline. We like that the ad serves two purposes: thanking frontline workers for their sacrifice and celebrating working mothers. Virgin Mobile The objective of this Virgin Mobile Mother’s Day ad was to encourage adult children to sign new contracts for separate plans and ditch their family mobile plan. It felt like a TV short with sponsored content instead of a straight-up advertisement. Even if you haven’t seen Curb Your Enthusiasm, Susie Essman’s dynamic character was still pretty effective for driving engagement (and sales), eh? Toms Okay, who else is a sucker for rhymes? We unapologetically raise our hands! We like that the graphic showcased that they offer their product offerings, especially the sunglasses as it’s not the first thing you think of about the Toms brand. Notice it doesn’t even have a discount code of promotion? This email campaign by Toms is seasonal and is simply there to remind the reader that their products can make for a great gift option for mothers and ultimately, drive website traffic. Nike
What is Cohort-Based Advertising?
Why is there talk of shifting towards Cohort-Based Advertising? What does it even mean? Find out below. User privacy has been top-of-mind in the current digital age we’re in, resulting in a shift to a cookie-less internet in the near future. But what about advertisers? Cookies have been the ideal tool for us to collect user behavioral data and serve granularly targeted ads to them. So there’s no doubt the announcement of Google removing third-party cookies caused quite a panic. In this blog, we’ll talk about the proposed changes by Google, LinkedIn, and many other advertising platforms and share what we know so far about Cohort-Based Advertising. Here’s a quick outline of what we’ll cover in our blog: Cohort-Based Advertising VS Third-Party Cookies What Cohort-Based Marketing Might Look Like in the Future Google’s Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) Google’s First Locally-Executed Decision Over Groups Experiment (FLEDGE) How to Prepare For Cohort-Based Advertising What It Means For Marketers Cohort-Based Advertising & Third-Party Cookies Cohort-Based Advertising will be the new norm for audience targeting in a cookie-less advertising world. Here’s a quick breakdown of cohort-based advertising and third-party cookies to see how they differ. Cohort-Based Advertising Cohort-based advertising target anonymized groups of people who share common interests and online behavior The assigning of cohorts is all done within Google Chrome’s browser User information is stored locally Third-Party Cookies Cookies track specific individuals and their online activity Set by a third-party server (ad tech) with a code placed on a web domain by the domain owner Third-party cookies are accessible on any website that loads the third-party server’s code What Cohort-Based Marketing Might Look Like in the Future A cohort stands for a group of users that fall under common criteria. For example, cohorts could be: “Every user who bought adidas brand shoes” “Every user who made a purchase on the website in January 2021” “Every consumer acquired from an Instagram ad” In the article, “The Future Of Digital Marketing Will Be Cohort-Driven, Not ROAS-Driven,” Alexandra Greifeld, rejects the concept that “any customer is a good customer.” Instead, she defines the “best” customers are ones who have a high average spend on their first transaction and become returning customers within 6 to 12 months. By honing in on consumers that fall under this category, you’ll be able to forecast future sales, and it might even save you money from needing fewer product markdowns or promo events. Being able to group consumers based on their interests or purchase behavior — does seem like a reliable way to predict how new campaigns would perform! What do you think? Google’s Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) In our previous blog, “Google Privacy Sandbox: Explained,” we discussed the different solutions Google has proposed thus far, and one of them was called the “Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC). People shouldn’t have to accept being tracked across the web in order to get the benefits of relevant advertising. And advertisers don’t need to track individual consumers across the web to get the performance benefits of digital advertising. — David Temkin, Director of Product Management at Google The function of FLoC is to replace the cookie that tracks individual behavior with an API built into the browser instead. Individual user data is anonymized and Google Chrome will group users based on their browsing habits, including common interests or behavior. These groups will share the same Cohort ID, to which both websites and advertisers will have access and visibility. Google’s proposal suggests that an average cohort should have at least a few thousand users. Google has already started running different tests with FLoCs, experimenting with different algorithms, user clusters, and tried a variety of cohort assignments, definitions, and sizes. Then they compared the data with other Google and publicly available data, and the results look optimistic! For example, the test FLoCs generated a 350% improvement in recall and a 70% improvement in precision over randomly assigned users to cohorts. Our tests of FLoC to reach in-market and affinity Google Audiences show that advertisers can expect to see at least 95% of the conversions per dollar spent when compared to cookie-based advertising. Note that everything is still in the experimental phase, and nothing has been set in stone regarding any internet standards, so there still might be updates along the way. Google’s First Locally-Executed Decision Over Groups Experiment (FLEDGE) First Locally-Executed Decision over Groups Experiment (FLEDGE) is another API Google had proposed to add to their privacy protection efforts. Its function is to retarget by facilitating interest group-based advertising. It works by containing ad auction decisions in the browser (instead of the ad server) and limits user data that is transferred around bid streams and ad systems. Ad bids and targeting decisions will happen at the browser and device levels instead of individual profile data, protecting user privacy. Google’s document on FLEDGE points out that other businesses such as third-party ad tech companies or ad publishers could create unique audience segments and sell them to marketers in the near future. How to Prepare For Cohort-Based Advertising With this shift to cohort-based advertising, there will be chances that ad processes will be affected, leading to inefficiencies. As your trusted advertising agency, War Room will keep you updated and informed of any significant changes. Our Campaigns Team will get familiarized with the latest best practices and update our workflow. Your Account Manager will provide multiple touchpoints with you and prepare to hit the ground running when the changes happen. User information is now like hotcakes. Start baking yourself some by collecting your own audience data! Whether it be implementing Google Tag Manager on your website to track specific user actions or creating whitepapers for lead generation to build lists of verified email addresses. These are easy, actionable ways to keep an eye on your website performance and engage with your audience. That’s proprietary first-party data and potential sales for your brand. Editor’s Note: We will continue to update this page as Google releases more information about Cohort-Based Advertising. What Does Cohort-Based Advertising Mean for Marketers Marketers rejoice! We
Disadvantages of Programmatic Advertising (& How To Avoid Them)
Programmatic advertising companies do WHAT with your money? It can be daunting for brands when they first step into the bright and promising world of Adtech, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and machine learning. There are a lot of red flags you’ll want to avoid and make good budget decisions. There are many digital ad agencies that hide behind jargon, complex tech and bad practices that bank on brands not knowing these incredibly important aspects of the online ad business. As an agency that specializes 100% in programmatic and over a decade of experience in the industry, we’re here to spill the tea and discuss: The Disadvantages of Programmatic Advertising From fraud, to bots, to outrageous pricing structures – we will make sure that by the end of this post you know what to look for and expect from an honest, quality programmatic ad agency. You will learn about the ways unethical programmatic agencies operate, what problems you stand to face and how to avoid these risks in the future! Here are the topics we will cover: How The Adtech Industry Cashes In on Ignorance The Problems You Face With Programmatic Advertising Why Measurement isn’t Consistent at Some Agencies How Lack of Agency Transparency Costs You Money How a Lack of Third Party Visibility Harms Your Ad Campaigns The Reality of Ad Fraud in the Industry Why Viewability of Ads is a Cause for Concern How Brand Safety Should Be Your Main Priority How to Choose an Ethical Digital Advertising Agency TL;DR – What Have We Learned Editor’s Note: Be sure to check out our comprehensive posts on programmatic: What is Programmatic Advertising?How Does Programmatic Advertising Work?9 Genius Programmatic Advertising ExamplesThe Pros & Cons of Programmatic Ad Buying How The Adtech Industry Cashes In on Ignorance You’ve probably heard a lot about the benefits of programmatic advertising. The media loves to seize anything with futuristic technology and turn it into the latest must-have. That’s why you see everyone from Fortune 500 brands to small mom and pop stores investing nearly all of their ad budgets into programmatic ads. And you know what – they don’t all suddenly experience transformative growth. There is one thing in particular, that unscrupulous ad agencies get away with. They do this daily and it’s a gross misuse of their client’s ad budgets. Worse still, if you don’t know what to look for, you would never even know it’s happening, which we’ll tell you more about it a little later in the post. First, there are 3 things you need to agree with before we continue. Doing business with any Demand Side Platform (DSP) or agency without proper orientation on good practices and what they look like is a bad idea. Programmatic advertising is based on new technology, so yeah – there are going to be adjustment issues. Some companies factor this in for their clients’ benefit; other companies exploit the knowledge gap for financial gain. It’s best to know who is who. Technology is only as good as the team managing it. You can have the most advanced platform in the world, but if you can’t trust your ad team, you’re not going to maximize your ad campaigns’ potential. As a player in the industry, we don’t like to see other programmatic advertising companies cashing in on the ignorance of brand marketing teams. Let’s take a look at the disadvantages of programmatic advertising and get to the core of what makes a healthy, successful ad partner relationship work and negate these risks for your brand! The Problems You Face With Programmatic Advertising What if we told you that even the biggest, most successful ad agencies are guilty of not doing right by their clients? Martin Cass – CEO of MDC Media Partners and Assembly – did a talk on it a while ago, exposing Adtech as ‘the Wild West’ – a landscape brimming with problems. We believe the Wild West perfectly describes what the industry is currently experiencing. There are hordes of settlers, like your brand, looking for the promise of a better future. Programmatic advertising, AI, and machine learning is a new frontier – exciting but ultimately in its infancy. You have good guys and bad guys. Sheriffs and bandits. It makes sense. In this space, size and past reputation are no guarantee of smart, fair service. We all have guns now, and it’s a gunfight. People who get the raw deal are almost always the settlers, unfortunately. Not the bandits getting rich off robbing and exploiting others. Clients suffer most — which doesn’t sound like a sustainable business model. There’s no denying the landscape has irrevocably changed forever. Here you are, and where you’re likely to stay. But let’s not ignore the problems you’re facing. According to a survey, senior ad buyers have identified several key concerns that are happening right now in the Adtech industry. Among the most prevalent concerns are consistent measurement, agency transparency and viewability of ads. We’re going to address each of these disadvantages of programmatic advertising, one by one. Why Measurement isn’t Consistent at Some Agencies According to The State of Programmatic Advertising report, 49% of companies are struggling with inconsistent measurement and metrics in programmatic advertising. Advertising teams aren’t sure which metrics to measure Teams aren’t sure which metrics carry the most weight Getting fair Return on Investment (ROI) is easy which makes teams ignore optimization There is a high turnover of programmatic ad employees at most companies This is quite a revealing statistic considering measurement is why programmatic media buying is so popular and such a promising technology. Performance optimization is challenging in all marketing areas, but when you throw in proprietary technology that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning, things get complicated. Programmatic advertising companies spring to life purely because the demand for them is so high. The result, of course, is non-specialist teams working with technology they don’t really understand. Inconsistent measurement happens because: Measurement is a problem everywhere in marketing >right now. There is a well-known data scientist shortage, which means the industry lacks the
What are Search Ads?
Search Ads are one of the most popular types of advertising. Have you ever looked something up on Google and saw the top search results labeled “ad”? Those are precisely what Search Ads are. Brands invest in Paid Search Ads to ensure they show up in the results for high purchase intent audiences. When a consumer is actively searching for a specific product or service, their conversion intent is a lot higher, so it’s crucial to be in front of that audience segment. Search Ads are typically on search engines. This can be: Google Ads Microsoft Advertising (known as Bing Ads) Yahoo Search Ads Quora and more What are Search Ads? Search ads typically contain all text and no visuals, so it is a skill to craft compelling ad copy and entice people to click on your link. Keywords are crucial in paid search ad strategy. To capture the audience you want, you need first to select relevant keywords for your business. Search ads require attention to detail. It’s not just your keywords and creative ad copy that are needed. Other details include a list of negative keywords and appropriate extensions for specific ads. This consists of a Call-To-Action (CTA) for calling your business or directing them to click through to a landing page and fill out a form…whichever is your goal. Search campaigns can work for many different business objectives, taking detailed optimizations to create truly effective ads. Bonus: Learn more about Keyword Match Types in our blog: A Guide to Keyword Match Types What is Pay-Per-Click (PPC)? The next step in the search ad process is the entrance into an online auction with your competitors to bid for ad placement. As a business, you will set your ad budget, specifying the maximum amount you’re willing to pay when people click on your ad. That’s why it’s called Pay-Per-Click (PPC). Once your ads are created, it is assigned a Quality Score. The relevancy of your ad and keywords determine your Quality Score. The Quality Score determines your Cost-Per-Click (CPC). It is multiplied by your preset maximum bid budget, which ultimately determines your ad ranking in the auction. Quality Score is determined by many factors such as: Click-Through-Rate (CTR) Quality and relevancy of the keyword, ad group, landing page, and ad copy Your Google Ads account’s historical performance, etc So, the higher your Quality Score, the higher your ad ranks for, and the lower it costs. At War Room, we specialize in programmatic advertising. Programmatic Search Ads are the automated process of buying and selling ad space on Search Advertising platforms. Instead of requiring someone to adjust your ad budget and bids manually, it leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to optimize your ad campaigns automatically! Bonus: Check out these two resources to enhance your Quality Score! Blueprint For Building a High-Converting Landing Page 170+ Power Words for Writing Emotional Ads Why You Should Be Running Search Ads If people are looking up a specific product or service in the search engine, they already have high purchase intent and are either doing research, price comparison or ready to convert. Search Ads are great for: Increasing website traffic Driving conversions (leads, sales etc) and more Perhaps these statistics below will convince you that Search Ads are worth the investment: 74% of brands say PPC ads are ahuge driver for their business 97% of consumers use the internetto search for local business 106.5% million dollars were spent on Search Adsby companies around the world in 2019 50% PPC visitors are 50% more likelyto make a purchase compared to organic visitors Why Choose War Room as Your Search Ad Partner Running PPC ad campaigns is an intricate process, so having an agency partner help you navigate and deliver results is invaluable. We are the experts in programmatic advertising, and Search Ads are quintessential of what we do for our clients. We combine our technology with our team’s expertise to deliver performance-driven ad campaigns. Here are some additional benefits of running PPC ads with us: Certified Partner We are experts in Paid Search. As a Premier Certified Google Partner, we deliver strong PPC campaigns that make the most of your ad budget. Our repertoire extends to Bing Ads, Yahoo, Quora, and more. This means more eyes on you! Cross-Channel Advertising We know that digital marketing strategies are multi-pronged and that you are most likely to have ads running on various channels. You will get to see exactly how your campaign performs, not just on the platform itself, but how it compares to the industry and how it is attributed cross-channel. Say for example, you have Instagram ads running at the same time as your Google Search Ads; we have the function to exclude those who saw your ad on Instagram and already converted, so you don’t have to waste more ad spend targeting them on Google. PS. Not a lot of agencies can offer this, but we can! Expert Management & Reporting You’re in good hands with our team of advertising experts. From strategy to the execution of your Search Ads, we got you covered. You can rely on our team and proprietary programmatic technology to proactively monitor your ad performance and make optimizations on the go. The War Room team will provide feedback if the opportunity arises on your ad creatives to ensure maximum potential and performance. After the completion of your campaign, our Data Analyst, Campaign Experts, and Account Manager will provide insight and recommendations for your future ads (how to continue and outpace your goals) and stand out from the crowd! As for reporting, we don’t send out automated reports from Google Ads. We consolidate all the measured data (sometimes cross channel) and input it into our beautifully branded reports that we’re famous for. Imagine data being told visually as a story. Our Account Manager will then walk you through it on an in-depth call, making the numbers easy to understand. Client Testimonial 600%increase in inquiries War Room really show you directly what ads and where those ads are being placed and where the returns are coming from… They
Negative Keywords of Wisdom
Does a bear defecate in the woods? Yes. Does someone walk into a dog shelter looking for cats? No. Cause’…that’d be a cat-astrophe. Meow, wouldn’t it help if a shelter worker told you that cats were excluded from their lineup, so that you could steer your search towards a place that did have cats? In terms of ad campaigns and pages, a negative keyword is that shelter worker that will help you find what you’re looking for, and not what you aren’t. Side note: Here at the War Room we LOVE cats (in fact, we’re one of the most pet-friendly offices in Vancouver). For example, we have an office cat named Bella. She’s great, and unapologetically steals sips of our smoothies when we’re not looking. When it comes to Search Ads, negative keywords can help you reach the most interested customers, reduce your costs, and increase your Return On Investment (ROI). With negative keywords, you can: Prevent your ad from showing to people searching for or visiting websites about things you don’t offer. Show your ads to people who are more likely to click them. Reduce costs by excluding keywords where you might be spending money but not getting a return. As a real world example, let’s say you work at a wine store and you sell wine glasses. You’d want to prevent your ad from showing to someone searching for or visiting webpages that contain terms like “sunglasses” and “eyeglasses,” since that person isn’t likely to buy those at your establishment. …Unless you’re preparing them for the morning after purchasing said wine. The right implementation of negative keywords helps to funnel viewers to your ad, helping to spend ad money in the right places to increase ROI, show your ads to people who are more likely to click-through and engage, and overall reach the most interested customers! Negative keyword searches can be done through your favourite campaign management system, Google Adwords. Through the keyword planning section, click the negative keyword tab on the bottom left corner of the screen. Here, you can find the key words to be excluded from your ad campaign that show data on search volume and competition to help steer viewers in your ad’s direction. If you’d like to steer viewers towards an ad for things you do offer, and away from those that you don’t – negative keywords are your go-to! Steering viewers towards what you do offer is only half the battle; steering them away from things you don’t offer is the other. Negative keywords are often useful for Paid Search campaigns that are a part of a broad field with a large spectrum of keywords, such as employment. Basically, negative keywords = funneled viewers which = higher conversion rates. Words of Wisdom: Don’t use too many negative keywords – you don’t want to steer away too many potential viewers, especially in broad fields Your ads can still show on pages that carry variations of the keywords selected. Say you add sunglasses as a negative keyword, you might have search terms like “red wine and sunglasses” and more show up. This reinforces the importance of careful selection when it comes to negative keywords, to be used sparingly. Generating Negative Keywords The old mentality behind negative keywords was for a bunch of marketers to dust off a few Red Bulls and let a massive brainstorming session begin, which often times looks like this: To save time and efficiently generate negative keywords, try using Wordstream’s services or Google Adwords’ broad match/phrase match options for a large spectrum of keywords. Again, Google Adwords search query report does offer set keywords for your ad group that you can choose selectively as “negative,” but the list is ideal for a few keywords at best. Paired with Google Analytics or other PPC metrics systems, you can determine what keywords have performed well, segmented by dates, times and more to maximize the effect of your negative keywords – without breaking the bank. And if all else fails, look at what the competition is doing in terms of keywords/negative keywords! Depending on the context of your ad or page, you can always refer to pre-set negative keyword lists to give you a better idea. In a nutshell – be wise about your negative keyword choices, but don’t miss out on an opportunity to engage the viewers that matter, and maximize the effectiveness of your PPC advertisement efforts!