PPC campaign mobile

Tips for setting up and running PPC campaigns

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Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns create adverts online so when your business is not being viewed in the natural results, you can give it a little nudge with a paid campaign.

There’s a number of ways to conduct a PPC campaign and these include Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and social media boosts and ads. Here’s our tips for setting up and running a PPC campaign.

Google AdWords

While appearing on the first page in an organic search is the goal, if your website is new you need to give it a bit of time before your keywords and phrases start to take effect. So, this is where a paid campaign can give your website a boost in search as a paid for ad will pop up towards the top of the first page.

Understanding a Google AdWords campaign

  1. Set up the overarching Campaign: AdWords Accounts and PPC advertising are structured starting with a Campaign level, you can set up a number of Campaigns within this. Really think about your target audience for this campaign and the keyword you want to be known for.
  2. Create a subset of AdGroups: Each Campaign has AdGroups, so you can focus on targeting your audience with key messages. For example, you may want to focus on promoting CRM software so that would form one AdGroup within the Campaign. If you decide that you want to promote another service or product, you can create another AdGroup at any point Ensure each landing page is relevant in for said product of service.
  3. Focussed messaging for Ads: Each AdGroup has a number of Ads so you can have a range of messages per AdGroup.
  4. Maintain: Monitor and analyse the results and ‘throttle up’ or ‘down’ individual ads depending on how well they are preforming and how each PPC ad ranks.
  5. Be specific: Be specific with your keywords or negative keywords, and the geographic area you’re targeting.

Social Media Marketing PPC

You can also get targeted on social media with a PPC campaign.You need to carefully consider which channel is best for your business. If you’ve not already set up your channels, take a look at how we help our customers with their social media.

But firstly, let us explain the difference between ‘ads’ and ‘boosts’.  

Social media channels offer an effective form of advertising, but you need to select what’s right for your business and the purpose.

  1. Boost: While allowing you to use a relatively small budget to reach a wider audience, it’s more about awareness and ‘likes’ increasing visibility for a short time through sharing your post more widely.
  2. Ads: By setting up an ad you’re enticing people to take action by clicking through to a website or urging you to call. The goal is to get people to engage and encourage them to do this via your website.

Remember who your target audience is when you tailor your messaging. Most PPC campaigns have a limited number of words you can use, so be clear and concise. Campaigns that are very specific to the service, product and price are much more successful than a generic advert. In order to use PPC marketing effectively consult our SEO company in Croydon.

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Read some of our PPC related blogs for further information.

SEO croydon

8 tips on setting up and maintaining SEO

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To help your business grow, you need to tell people that you exist. These days your shop window is a virtual one – it’s your website. However, just like a bricks and mortar premises your website needs to be found, it’s just that these days that means via a search engine. Just as you would have a sign on your window advertising your products and services you need to let people know where you are.

So, this is when you may hear about the term Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). In a nutshell, SEO is a marketing strategy about a set of processes that make it better for a website to be found through search engines and build your online presence so that you rank higher in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Here’s our top tips on setting up and maintaining SEO to help your business rise in organic search.

  1. Know your audience that you’re marketing to: For this you need to create an online persona. Think about the goals or challenges of your target audience. Start with their job role, imagine their personal goals such as business growth, saving the business money or a future promotion. Then imagine what challenges they face and start to note solutions for these and how your product or service can help them. Already you can start to see a personality form in front of you.
  2. Draw up a list of your keywords and phrases: Website optimisation involves looking at how your website is built, the keywords within any content creation, on your website as well as understanding your target audience and their search behaviour. Armed with this background you can build a strategy to improve your rankings in the organic (non-ads based, natural) search results. Most online searches start with a few words relevant to what you’re looking for. So, if you’re an ‘accountancy’ practice in ‘Brighton’ then you would likely be interested in your company showing up on page one of a search relevant to these keywords.
  3. Longtail keywords: Think about being very specific on keywords, which are sometimes given the term ‘long tail keywords’. For example, if you are searching for an accountant you may search for “Accountants in Croydon”, “Accountant for business start-up”, “Chartered accountant in Surrey,” or “Accountant for SME Tax Return”. It’s likely to be a lot easier to rank for this as there will be less competition, but, while you may see less traffic to your website as not many people will search such a specific phrase, it will help it to be targeted.
  4. Meta descriptions: This is the short paragraph that sits beneath the company name when you conduct a search online. By completing the meta description when you upload content to your website, you can create a succinct paragraph which includes keywords to helpfully direct prospects to your website. Meta descriptions are a website’s way of telling Google and other search engines exactly what each of your pages are about, what to display and how to display it in the results.
  5. Alt tags: Complete the description of your image in the ‘Alt Tag’ box when you upload it to your website. You can be descriptive about what’s in the image but also relate back to a relevant keyword if you can.
  6. Headings: Think about whether you can add keywords to your blog title. Or at least in your subheadings. The h1 tag is also key and should not be missed on any page as it should contain information about the content of the page. Search engines check the keyword consistency between the header tag and the content on the rest of the page.
  7. Try local search: Decide on the geographical areas you want to target to find new clients and use that for your future digital marketing campaigns. Think about your content on your website, is it specific for the location you’re targeting? Have you mentioned that you are offering a service for people in a specific area anywhere on your website?
  8. Populate Google My Business: This is a free tool to use and well worth the time and effort to complete. Google is one of the most popular search engines after all, so you may as well let them know about you by filling out as much about your company as you can. The very basics to complete are your website URL, opening times, address, contact number and email as well as a short paragraph about your company. But it is worth exploring what else you can complete as this will all help Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and your company being seen in search, further optimising your website.

Get in touch with us at Smart Cow today for you Free Consultation on improve SEO in Croydon and beyond.

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Digital Marketing written in pen

What is digital marketing?

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Digital Marketing is all about marketing communication that we consume via digital devices, that is, laptop, PC or smart phone and of course through the internet.

This means that beyond the adverts you may see in print or in leaflets, brands can reach their target audience using a wide range of tactics through digital marketing services including website Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) e.g. using Google Ads, search engines, social media, email marketing, video, advertising campaigns etc. With the analytics and insights available as a result of using digital marketing, you can really keep track on what resonates with your audience by monitoring what works and what doesn’t.  

Digital marketing encompasses

  1. Website design & Development
  2. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
  3. Social Media Marketing
  4. Pay Per Click (PPC)
  5. Remarketing / Banner advertising
  6. Email Marketing
  7. Inbound Marketing
  8. Content Marketing
  9. Marketing Automation  

The evolution of marketing automation

With digital marketing continuously evolving, changing beyond recognition in just the last 10 years alone, the possibilities for communicating with a potential audience are endless. With access to a raft of channels in our daily lives and different ways to seek out the brands we want to know about, digital marketing also includes marketing automation.

Perhaps deemed the new kid on the block, marketing automation is not to be overlooked. It not only frees up time by automating repetitive tasks, it also allows tailored automated responses, tracking of prospects activity on a website as well as chat bot automation…you get the picture. In short it offers more marketing opportunities. Align this with a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system and the data and analytics at your fingertips to help you grow your business are sometimes beyond comprehension.

Using digital marketing to its full potential for your business

It’s highly likely that at some point in your daily routine you’re using some sort of digital marketing activity in your business. Whether that be through social media, an email to customers or writing a blog for your website. However, by pulling these tactics together you can start to formulate your digital marketing strategy to target the right audience for your business which will enable growth.

Smart Cow is a digital marketing agency in Croydon, we work across a range of industries including the accounting sector. We look at the products and services on an accounting firm and see best how to put them high up on the landing page for the accounting market.

Get a Free Consultation here.

Further reading to help you develop your digital marketing strategy

Robot creating video content for digital marketing

6 digital marketing video tips

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With studies showing that people have the ability to recall 65% of the visual content they see almost three days later (HubSpot, 2017), we highly recommend business owners everywhere take the time to get to grips with the visual side of content marketing.

Consumers watching a branded video are 28% more likely to buy (Hootsuite), so video content will really enhance your inbound marketing strategy.

6 tips for great video

Here’s a few tips to help you create great video and ways of sharing video that helps increase views and helps Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

  1. A simple way to record a video is through a social media app and share from that for your social media marketing. You can also live-stream via Twitter and other channels such as Facebook and Instagram, which have a story function for live feeds. With 100 million hours of video content watched on Facebook daily (Facebook, 2016), using video makes sense.
  2. To make sure you utilise video across social media channels or on your website, use the video function on your phone for simple and effective images. You’ll find recording on your phone easy for short soundbites to offer your target audience tips and advice. This can even include email marketing campaigns.
  3. Remember that content is king. It’s not about posting any video, it’s important that your video content is also targeted to your audience, with a relevant script, tagline and a clear call to action for more lead generation.
  4. If you have a blog on your website with a relevant video, post it at the top of the page as it helps to keep the visitor on your website for longer. This reduces bounce rate and helps SEO.
  5. Host your video content on YouTube. With over 1.8 billion users on YouTube every month, the business opportunities for using this channel shouldn’t be overlooked.
  6. Be authentic so that your brand resonates with your target audience.

Get in touch

Talk to us about your digital marketing needs. Our marketing team will help grow your business through online marketing, web design, social media management and more.

We will advise of the best combination of channels and tactics to utilise to make you stand out from the crowd. A digital marketing agency in Croydon, Smart Cow will be glad to answer any questions on the inbound marketing strategy best for you.

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