PPC Pay-per-click

What is PPC and why use it?

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You’ve likely heard of the phrase PPC in relation to marketing but perhaps not really thought much more about it and how it could help your business. So, here’s some insight into PPC or shall we say, Pay Per Click advertising.

What is PPC?

Pay Per Click is online paid advertising which offers a targeted way to reach your audience. It gets its name from the fact that advertisers pay when someone clicks on an advert that they have running.

The most common form of PPC that advertisers use is paid search such as Google Adwords. This means that the ads will appear in relation to a relevant search that someone has conducted to find products or services.

There’s also banner advertising and remarketing where ads will appear on a partner website or follow you around when you’ve visited a company that’s running remarketing ads. These are also referred to as display advertising.

While Google Adwords is the most popular, you can of course also run PPC campaigns on other search engines such as Bing as well as social channels like Facebook or Instagram.

Why use PPC?

There’s a few reasons to consider PPC for your business.

If you need a boost in search engine results pages (serps) to help your search engine optimisation (SEO) or want to specifically target an audience segment then Pay Per Click advertising (PPC) can help your firm be found. It can help your business stand out in local search results against your competitors.

PPC can be very targeted to your specific audience. Just think of all the information you may have shared online about your age, gender, interests and location, all this and more can be used to market to specific people. 

Unlike a traditional advertising campaign you can continually change online ads to reflect analysis. For instance, with Google Ads you can review regular recommendations for tailoring your ads even further. This means you can add and remove keywords or negative keywords, change the content of ads or snippets to help optimise performance.

Google Ads tips 

  • For your Google ad search campaigns, create more than one expanded text ad so that the best ad can be found.  
  • Create responsive search ads as well as text ads. This enables Google technology to create the best combination of title and text into the ad based on which is performing well.  
  • Structured snippets allow prospects to see a preview of your services. This helps with standout on the search page.   
  • Google display ads also offer a way to reach a wide number of people. These ads show across over 2 million sites, videos or apps – part of a Google Display Network. Ads will appear based on online activity.  

Google AdWords certified 

Each year at Smart Cow Marketing we ensure that we are Google AdWords certified and this year we are now a Google Certified Partner and the only Google AdWords Partner in Croydon.

While gaining the AdWords certification qualification year on year highlights our indepth knowledge and expertise on the fundamentals of setting up and managing successful AdWords campaigns. Being a Partner shows that Google trusts us even more with the support we offer clients.

This is probably one of the most important certifications there is with regards to Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and in particular Pay Per Click advertising. It is an important credential for marketers and one that is not lightly awarded. Receiving a Google AdWords certification means that Smart Cow Marketing continues to be recognised as being experts in digital marketing and PPC. 

PPC agency Croydon

With many marketing tactics whether organic or PPC advertising, we can help guide you. We can provide a tailored digital marketing proposal for your business needs. Book a free consultation.

PPC resources

Social Media scrabble letters

What can LinkedIn Sales Navigator offer my business?

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LinkedIn is the social media platform for business networking. It’s not about posting filtered images of lovely cups of coffee (unless that’s your business of course), it’s about networking with people to support and grow business. But how can you find the right prospects in a more efficient manner and in a way that’s not intrusive?

This is where using the Sales Navigator tool by LinkedIn can help.

What is LinkedIn?

Firstly, here’s a quick recap about what LinkedIn is. Think of LinkedIn like attending a local monthly business breakfast group, you go there to network find business opportunities and help connect suppliers. The difference is that LinkedIn is a social media platform. But the principle is the same, you engage, network, support, share updates and insight.

Whilst you would have your own individual profile, you can also set up a company page for your company. You can post updates and add links back to your blog post on your website. These provide quality links which in turn helps your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategy and being found in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

Over time you will build your network with followers through ongoing engagement with topical social media posts and the type of content relevant to your audience.

Lead generation campaign

There’s so many social media analytics to draw on from your LinkedIn company page including, seeing who has just followed you, the companies to track as well as engagement rates on posts so you can get a feel for what your audience likes to hear about most.

However, you can also ramp up your lead generation strategy with the adoption of LinkedIn Sales Navigator. The professional features mean that you can get more targeted and reach a wider audience from LinkedIn’s network.

Key benefits include being able to see who has viewed your profile allowing you to engage with them as a warm lead.

You can add tags to your prospects enabling you to filter and then synch back to your CRM (Customer Relationship Management).

You can view job changes in real time, alerting you to new business opportunities.  

The benefit of networking is connections and once you are aware of a mutual link then this makes it easier to engage with a prospect. The TeamLink connection filter allows you to reach prospects that match your search criteria and have a mutual connection. It taps into the networks of people in your company.

There are three levels of Sales Navigator package to explore from Professional for individuals, through to Team and Enterprise. Find out about LinkedIn Sales Navigator here.

Social media marketing agency

Your social media marketing strategy should form part of your overall inbound marketing. Don’t look at social media in silo. Make sure your approach to reach your target audience is holistic and also right for your business. If you’re not already on LinkedIn but feel you should be, then get in touch. As one of Croydon’s top social media marketing companies we can discuss your social media marketing plan, the social media channels for your business and a tailored approach.

There’s no one size fits all which is why we provide a mix and match digital marketing solution for our clients so we can offer a proactive approach utilising different elements of digital marketing to suit requirements. 

Book a FREE consultation
Website design

Web design guidelines

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Whether you have a website already or are looking for a web developer to create a brand-new website for you, here’s some of the key considerations to think about to ensure that your website is doing what it should – engaging with visitors and being a lead generator.

1. What functionality should your website have?

A website will be developed to your brief. Therefore, think about what you would like first before you speak to a developer. Look at other websites to see what type of functionality you would prefer. Keep a note of these so you can chat with your chosen web developer about your preferences.

Having a Content Managed System (CMS) gives you the ability to update content yourself once the website is created. Therefore you have the choice to maintain the website yourself or work with a digital marketing agency to manage this for you. A CMS website gives you a lot of flexibility for the  future for regular blog uploads through to ad hoc landing page creations for new products or services.

You also need to consider the functionality. Do you need an e-commerce website or will a brochure website be suitable for your requirements?

2. Website design

Now you know the purpose of your website and understand your target audience, you need to ensure that your web design will appeal.

Work with your web designer so that they understand your company values, branding and target audience.

A web developer will usually create a mock design for you on a wire frame – check this out when you ask for a website quote.

This mock design will give you an idea of what the homepage will look like providing you the opportunity to feedback on any likes or dislikes. Sometimes it’s easier to do this once the design is in front of you.

If in doubt, keep your website simple.

  • Keep colour to a minimum and ensure they are in keeping with your brand. Sometimes the more space on the page the better on the eye.
  • Keep font consistent across your website and ensure you can read it – there’s some lovely different styles out there but some offer design over functionality!
  • Use images to help break up space.
  • Use bold call to actions to encourage website visitors to ‘contact’, ‘get a quote’, ‘download an ebook’.

Above all it’s about ease of navigation, this is where a sitemap comes in.

3. Sitemap

At design stage your web developer can help create the sitemap with you. This will be something you agree at initial stages. The structure of the website hinges on this. Most importantly you need a website that is easy to navigate, easy on the eye – as this helps guide you around the website, and you should always have the purpose at the back of your mind.

4. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Establish up front with your web designer what content you already have, whether you need content edited or written from scratch.

Usually content is transferred from the old website. Or you can provide new content at design stage, indicating where copy needs to be placed.

Check with your developer that the website will be optimised and mobile friendly. SEO includes activity such as completing the meta descriptions. alt tags and H1 headings.

As SEO is a long-term strategy, you will need to keep up with adding fresh content to your website with keywords to help it rise in search engine rankings.

Help potential customers find your website with a digital marketing strategy for lead generation. Link building is a key part of this so activity would include adding links into social posts, completing your Google My Business page, inclusion in email marketing with ‘read more’ call to actions with links to your website.

If your website is new you might want to consider a Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign as this can help give your site a boost in search engine results pages (SERPS).

5. Security

Get security sorted at early stages such as with an SSL certificate as well as an updated privacy policy. Captcha is another security measure to determine whether users are human which you can add to forms or logins. Captcha helps to prevent bots from accessing these areas.

Website design Croydon

Your digital marketing activity should have a consistent look and feel to help brand awareness and encourage loyalty.

We are a web design company in Croydon. Our digital marketing services include creating bespoke websites for accountants, SEO, social media marketing and PPC for accountants in Surrey.

Further resources for web design and development:

Man working on laptop using marketing automation

How to write a blog

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There are so many distractions these days from email through to social media or website pop-ups therefore if you have written a blog on your website how do you get people to stay on your website to read it? Here’s some of our tips for writing engaging blog content for your website to help with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

What should you write in a blog?

When you write a blog the first thing you, or your SEO agency, should always think about is who is your target audience. Therefore, thinking of that typical customer or client will help you tailor your content specifically to them. It also helps to make your content engaging and personable.

You then need to write about topics that will help your target audience. Solve their challenges for them. A great way to get ideas for this is to think about the questions that clients ask you. Then that simply becomes the title of your blog. This is a great SEO tactic as it tells search engines exactly what to expect on that page.

Keywords and phrases

We need to mention keywords and phrases – don’t be put off by thinking it’s some kind of jargon. It’s as simple as thinking about what your customers will search for to try and find your products or services. This will help you create a list that you can refer back to when you write about a topic. Check to see if you can add in relevant keywords to help with SEO campaigns.

While we can get technical and look into keyword volume of searches and keyword difficulty score (which Smart Cow can help with), an initial list created manually will also help in the long run.

Get your point across quickly

Once you have your topic and title established then it’s time to get to work with the content. You may find it easier to break your blogs up with subheadings. If you think of these first then you already have the structure of your blog.

With your opening paragraph, you need to get to the point fairly early on. By giving an indication of what is on your blog, this will give more reason for the website visitor to read on to get more of the details.

Blog content

Keeping your reader engaged is the most important thing as this is what keeps people on your website for longer. It also means visitors return and share articles on social media to help attract more people to your website.

Here’s a few tips to consider to help you write engaging content:

  • Pose a question to move the content along and in another direction
  • Use subheadings to break up content – it’s easier on the eye and makes for a more engaging web page
  • Make content topical by tapping into relevant national days
  • Reference relevant research and statistics – but don’t forget to reference your source

Call to action

Once you’ve drafted the blog, remember the point of it. Ultimately you want people to do something as a result. So, add a call to action in your final paragraph, for example:

  • Download our ebook
  • Contact us for more information, email us on…
  • Get involved by registering at….
  • If you want to attend the networking session, contact…
  • Get a free website review

Free resources to help you write your next blog

Digital marketing Croydon

We are a Croydon based digital marketing agency offering SEO services including blog writing, keyword research, local SEO, Google Ad campaigns to help improve your online presence and visibility online as your SEO experts.

Get in touch for a consultation or a free website review.

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