Online advertising is growing and growing, and will only continue to grow as more people get online and businesses can’t reach consumers through traditional means.

At Cohlab, we work hard to help small, local businesses succeed in their online advertising strategies because we know this is make or break for many local businesses, and will only increase in importance. Contact us anytime to chat about how we can help boost your business!

1. More People Are Online Than Ever

In 2016, the number of Americans online increased to 87%. That’s up from only 52% in 2000, an increase of 35%!

The number of people online, and searching and shopping online will only continue to increase, especially as younger generations continue to mature. The target market for your business will be online from here on out, and while the methods of reaching them may change, the channel will remain online.

2. Ads Are More Effective

New techniques, like retargeting (targeting online consumers based on past online actions i.e. visiting your website or searching for a keyword) allow you to get way better ROI than in the past. In fact, users who are retargeted are 70% more likely to convert into customers than those who are advertised to randomly. As well, the average click-through rate for display ads is .07%, but with retargeting it’s 10x higher at .7%!

3. Searches Are Becoming More Local

Google continuously works to help local businesses more prominent in search results, as they can typically fill searchers needs better. In light of this, when searchers are looking for something local i.e. “car repair near me”, the 3-pack of map results shows up in the top spot 93% of the time! So it’s very important to target those local searches with your ads, especially if you’re not naturally showing up in those local searches.

As well, getting your name in front of a searcher is important because 50% of searchers who conduct a local search on their smart phone visit a store within a day.

4. Searches Are Becoming More Effective

With recent updates like Penguin and Possum, searches are only becoming more and more effective at displaying the most relevant results to searchers. This means you either need to have the best and most pertinent content, or you need the best online advertising campaigns possible in order to keep your business running. If you don’t have the manpower or time to keep your website fresh and top notch, online advertising is going to help keep those online dollars rolling in.

Let us know when you’re ready to chat about online advertising, and how it can work for your business!

Search engine marketing is an ever-changing subject with lots of techniques and subjects to learn about. It truly is a full-time job to use it effectively for your business.

If you’re tackling SEM on your own, we hope these tips help you succeed. If you’re looking for some extra, help, let us know. We have multiple Google AdWords, Google Display Network and Analytics experts on staff.

1. Spreading Your Ads Thin

You may believe that by not targeting your ads, you’ll be able to hit everyone and have a better chance of getting more sales. In reality, it’s like hoping a rainstorm will put out your house fire; no, you need a lot of concentrated water in one spot, not a ton of water spread out over miles.

Target your ads at the people who will be most likely to react to them: target by age, gender, income, language, device they are using, along with targeting people who have visited your website in the past 30, 60 or 90 days.

2. Unfocused Ad Groups

Each ad group you create should have a single focus. Don’t make the ad group do too much, because if it’s not focused people will be less likely to click on it because it doesn’t pertain to the problem they’re searching to solve for.

3. Directing Ads To Poor Pages

Okay, so you’ve targeted your ad, and you’re pretty sure people are going to click on it. But where is it taking them?

Make sure the page you’re sending them to is worth their time. If they’re clicking on the ad expecting information about your lawn mowing services, make sure the page describes what they’ll get, pricing, and how to get in touch with you (fill out a form, call, email, location, etc.) If your landing page is vague, not helpful or doesn’t have prominent contact information, it’s not going to perform well with your SEM ads.

4. Resting On Your Laurels

Finally, remember to keep studying! One of the hardest parts of managing a search engine marketing strategy is keeping on top of the latest strategies, technology and information.

Google is constantly putting out new features for clients to try, and sometimes those features are rolled out early only to digital marketing agencies who are Google Partners, like us. That means we get to play with and test features, learning how best to use them before the general public does, giving us an advantage.

If you’d like some expert help with your SEM strategy, give us a call or send us an email. We hope these tips have helped start you on the right path!

As many as 88% of consumers, and probably more now, are researching items online and then buying them in a physical store. This is according to a 2013 study by Accenture, and from it and other data we can see that the world between online and offline is blurring in regards to the purchasing process.

Whether the customer is searching for your product or brand, or is doing a related search you have an ad running for, your online ads can and do boost your offline sales. Here are some strategies to get you started, but if you are looking for more detailed advice, contact us for help.

Direct Searchers To Your Store

No matter what page your ad takes the consumer to, you should have some sort of contact information nearby. People need to be able to see your phone number, address or even a map so they can contact you and find you easily.

While this information might not always fit neatly into your ad, it should be on your landing page.

Target Searchers Who Fit Your Demographics

Woody Allen famously said, “80% of success is showing up.” This couldn’t be more true as it applies to online advertising and store sales.

If you’re not doing online advertising, you’re missing out on sales, period. By doing any form of online advertising, you’re already halfway there.

One great way to refine your online advertising is by targeting your key demographics. Through Google AdWords and the Display Network, you can target people by location, gender, income and many other guidelines to increase the impact of your ads by getting in front of the right people.

Target Mobile Searchers Nearby

Like we just mentioned, you can target people by location. But even better than that, with AdWords and the Google Display Network you can target ONLY mobile phones and ONLY within a certain area, like your local downtown district. This ensures your ad is hitting nearby mobile users who are very likely to drop in.

According to Google, 32% of consumers say that location-based search ads have led them to visit a store or make a purchase, so it’s important to take advantage of these ads to drive visits to your offline location.

Include Location, Directions, Call Options

More than 70% of consumers who have used ad features such as directions or the call button say it’s important to have location information in ads, according to Google.

Sometimes it is beneficial to have your phone number, address, or even general location directions (i.e. Inside the Crossroads Mall) on your online advertisements.

Create Direct Call Ads

Google allows businesses to create Direct Call ads. These ads show up on search results only through AdWords, and only appear on mobile phones, not on desktops. Once clicked, the ads place a call to the number you choose rather than displaying a website, leading the consumer directly into a conversation with you.

This is a tactic which could be very beneficial for certain businesses, and if used right could lead to additional sales.

If you’d like some expert help with online advertising, give us a call or send us an email. We hope these tips have helped!

If you don’t have an agency by your side, it can be harder to get the most out of your search engine marketing (SEM) dollars.

Whether you’ve done your own SEM in the past, had an agency manage it for you or haven’t tried it yet, as a Certified Google Partner we have a few tips to help you get the most bang for your buck from advertising with search engines!

1. Stay Active

Consistency. It’s important in sports, life and advertising. Even if you’re only looking for short term results, spend a little bit more and for a little bit longer of a timeframe than you originally planned. You may find that if you stop advertising and then come back, it will cost you more than if you had just stayed consistent.

2. Utilize Analytics

Your SEM with Google is managed through AdWords, and while there are some good statistics available in AdWords, Google Analytics is where you are really going to get insight into who is clicking on your ads and what they’re doing once they’re on your website. You can also tie your AdWords account to Analytics, so you can view your AdWords statistics inside of your Analytics dashboard.

Be sure to analyze your results, so you can fine tune the text and targeting of your SEM.

3. Keep Your Organic Ranking Strong

While concentrating on SEM, it’s important to keep your organic ranking strong. Strong organic placement is very important, as organic search results still receive the majority of traffic as compared to ads.

A search engine optimization (SEO) company can help your website ranking through user experience design, responsive website design, content development and more. These changes will also help users stick around when they click on your paid ads, as they will be easier able to navigate your website and find what they want.

So, increasing your SEO can increase the effectiveness of your SEM.

Lastly, if you’re feeling overwhelmed or are having a hard time with your SEM, let us know! We’re always glad to help small-to-medium-sized businesses succeed.

It might seem like the digital landscape has always been dominated by big companies with big names. Google. Apple. Facebook. Twitter. But the landscape can change, and can do so rapidly. Recently, Apple has begun to take a bite out of Google’s supremacy in the online advertising arena.

Online advertising has been Google’s driving force, funding all of its other ventures for nearly 2 decades. As it turns out, this is both a strength and a weakness, and one which Apple will soon be in a position to exploit.

How Apple Set The Stage To Defeat Google’s Online Advertising Empire

Apple’s Safari Defaults To Google Search

It’s recently been discovered that Apple has a deal with Google to help bolster Google’s online advertising business. It’s estimated that Google pays Apple around $1 billion each year to be the default search option on Safari, Apple’s browser which is native to every iPhone sold.

In 2014, Goldman Sachs estimated more than 75% of mobile online advertising revenue for Google came from iPhones, which, based on public information, is estimated at $8.85 billion annually, about half of which is estimated to come from Safari searches, putting the value of Google being the default search option for Safari at about $4.4 billion annually. Online advertising revenue has only increased since 2014.

In 2014, Google reported more than $66 billion in total annual revenue, so Apple supplies/controls about 6% of Google’s annual revenue. This is a powerful bargaining chip.

Apple’s CEO Positions The Company As A Champion Of Privacy

Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, says on Apple’s privacy page: “We sell great products. We don’t build a profile based on your email content or web browsing habits to sell to advertisers. We don’t “monetize” the information you store on your iPhone or in iCloud. And we don’t read your email or your messages to get information to market to you. Our software and services are designed to make our devices better. Plain and simple.”

This is in direct opposition to the purpose and mission of online advertising companies like Google and Facebook. Apple is a hugely influential brand with hundreds of millions of devotees, and when they say online advertising companies don’t care about privacy, it holds weight.

Apple tries to remind users often that by using Apple products – which process commands locally on the machine and not in the cloud like Google – they’re making themselves and their data more private, safe and secure.

Apple’s Siri Stands As A Gateway To Vertical Search

Siri isn’t open to the developer community . . . yet.

Currently, Siri can handle basic queries (along with other functions, but we’ll stick with search for now). Queries like “What movies are playing near me” will return a result of films at local cinemas, but displayed natively and not in a browser.

This is an example of a vertical search – using a particular service to get a particular result, bypassing Google’s online advertising. While Siri itself is not a vertical search tool, it can be used in the future to access them. Current examples of vertical search engines include Amazon, where the number of product searches have overtaken the total number of product searches on Google.

When Siri opens up, users will be able to search vertically much easier than they can now. For instance, instead of using Safari:

• iPhone users can use Siri to search Facebook, LinkedIn or their Contacts Book for a person
• Users can search through Siri for places and be taken to Yelp or Apple Maps directly, cutting out Google
• Searches for news can be sent straight to Apple News
• Searches for products sent to Amazon
• Searches for travel sent to Expedia, Orbitz or Priceline directly.

The more vertical searches Siri can handle, the fewer searches Google gets on Apple devices, which directly cuts into their online advertising profits and brand recognition.

The stage is set, but it will be a long, slow, drawn out process. Should Apple continue to move in these directions – being a go-to source of Google’s online advertising revenue, championing privacy and opening up vertical search – this will limit Google’s online advertising growth and lower the company’s margins.

At Cohlab Digital Marketing, we’re passionate about online advertising. If you’d like to learn more about how to grow your business through Google’s AdWords tool, reach out and we’ll walk you through the process.