Google's similar audiences feature is now out of beta and available for Search Ads and Google Shopping Ads
Similar audiences is a nifty idea which lets you target your ads not just at the people you know are interested in your products or services, but also at people who share the same characteristics as those who've shown an interest.
So how does it work? Similar audiences for display works by matching the interests of people who've visited your site to people with the same interests, but who haven't visited your site. In theory, these should be the people most interested in your products. But as of this week, the new matched audiences feature also works to match with people based on their search history. The easiest way to explain this is with an example. If you had an online store selling gardening tools, you could set up ads to target people interested…
How to successfully combine your PR and Content Marketing efforts
Content marketing and public relations (PR) are very similar in nature. One can even say that they are two sides of the same coin. Most people thought that with the emergence of social media, public relations (PR) may become irrelevant. But it didn't. Instead, it started using different approaches than the age-old methods of engagement and publicity. This post offers tips on why you need to combine content marketing with PR and how to do it successfully.
Why Combine Content Marketing with PR and Vice Versa
As PR and content marketing share a common goal, there is a great deal to be gained by harnessing a hybrid approach. Here is why any PR firm should be combining PR and content marketing strategies.
Offers Consolidated Platform for Sharing Ideas
Whether you are a content marketer or a PR professional, it is your responsibility to keep track…
Chart of the Day: New research reveals that the vast majority of small businesses have only a basic understanding of SEO
A recent survey by Higher Visibility asked over four hundred and twenty small business owners about how well their internal teams understand SEO, and the results paint a rather dire picture for the state of SEO in small enterprises.
180 business owners (over one-third) either didn't know or reported that their team had no understanding of SEO. While over half of respondents said their team only possessed a basic understanding of SEO. In today's competitive SEO landscape, a basic grasp really isn't going to get you very far. If you want to effectively harness the power of organic search then you need to be using the latest techniques and not making any SEO mistakes, which those without a deep knowledge of the subject are likely to make.
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3 ways that less influential influencers can help your business
Influencer marketing often focuses on harnessing major influencers who have the highest reach and authority. Such campaigns are on the rise, as we highlighted in this recent article, 84% of marketers said they would launch at least one influencer campaign within the next twelve months.
Yet, collectively, other influencers can be important as advocates or detractors. Whether its fans mentioning your brand on Twitter, colleagues sharing your articles on LinkedIn, or disgruntled customers posting negative reviews, influencers are everywhere.
And whilst you can’t control what the public say about you, you can engage with individuals who are your biggest fans and ensure that your customers hear their voice.
The first question you might be asking is, do influencers really matter? Does your business really need them?
Here are 3 examples that illustrate the difference you can make by harnessing influencers who aren't necessarily important by…
Avoid 5 common affiliate marketing pitfalls with these 5 tips
Done properly, affiliate marketing can yield many benefits for challenger brands and established brands alike. Advances in technology and consumers’ ever-increasing willingness to shop online practically guarantee a strong ROI — if you have the right plan and resources in place.
Though affiliate networks do afford advertisers nearly automated marketplaces, these programs don’t run on autopilot. From commission structure and communication channels to budget, data tracking, and conversion metrics, everything needs to be fine-tuned in order to maximize ROI. Here’s what you need to know before you jump into the affiliate marketing waters.
The Benefits of a Well-Structured Affiliate Program
Affiliate programs are attractive marketing options because they’re inherently self-funding. Instead of buying advertising upfront and hoping it leads to later sales, you only pay a commission when a sale occurs via an affiliate program. A well-structured affiliate program not only delivers a significant boost in traffic to…
Chart of the Day: Research shows the importance of social networks to B2C online publishers
It's really interesting to see which digital marketing channels drive the most traffic or sales in different sectors. In retail, this compilation of top online sales channels shows that organic and paid search, email and affiliate channels dominate, with each contributing more than 10%. It's surprising that when using 'last click' attribution the contribution of social media is sub 5%, although this is an average of all categories and we can expect that in some retail categories like fashion, the percentage of sales from social media will be higher.
This research of traffic sources across large publishers who use the Parsely traffic reporting platform shows a very different pattern.
The first chart shows that search (orange) is the largest external traffic source, but with social not far behind (purple). Note that this traffic source breakdown is unusual…
Affiliate marketing needs to be run effectively to get the best results. Don't leave it on the back-burner.
Affiliate marketing inherently involves using middlemen — affiliates — to help bring in customers or drive conversions. Get it right and it can contribute significant online sales volume as this compilation of the top sales driving channels shows.
Automating affiliate marketing comes with many positives: a marketplace of affiliates seeking you out, automatic approval of affiliates based on your company’s preferences, and cross-currency sales tracking. But to reap those benefits, it’s critical to manage your affiliate partners continually. A successful affiliate management programme following the affiliate best practices explained in the Smart Insights members' guide requires active recruiting and optimizing partners on an ongoing basis.
Avoid the “Autopilot” Trap
The mindset that affiliate programs run on “autopilot” is common but will be detrimental to your program — and might ruin it altogether. Yes, affiliate…
Chart of the Day: Smartphones aren't killing TV
Those of us accustomed to reading marketing reports are used to the idea that mobile is killing TV, and that TV is an ageing dinosaur destined to limp along for a while till it's finally declared dead.
But the data reveals a more interesting picture. Time spent on mobile devices is growing fast, but it's not having a negative impact on TV viewing. TV viewing is shifting very slightly to video on demand and away from live TV, but TV viewing as a whole has held up solidly over the past 3 years.
Time spent on smartphones has more than doubled, but this seems to complement rather than compete with TV viewing. The lesson is simple - rapid mobile growth is happening, but it doesn't mean old mediums are dying.
Source: Nielsen Total Audience Report for the 4th quarter…
Chart of the Day: How businesses are promoting their content
Content marketing is the mainstay of many marketing strategies for both small and large companies. We can spend hours thinking up a theme our audience would be interested in and once you have found it, more hours are spent writing the content, finding accompanying imagery plus there is the possibility that you will need a little design help to turn your page of words into an ebook, white paper, infographic etc. By the time you have completed your brand new piece of content you have to get to work promoting it so that you can attract as many readers as possible. But how do you do this?
Linkedin and BrightTalk surveyed over 600 survey B2B marketing professionals and found that the most popular channel for promoting their content was through social media. This makes sense as it doesn't require any budget- only the marketer's time…
AdWords promises new update will save time, boost CRO and reduce CPA
Google have announced a series of new features for AdWords aimed at making dynamic search ads more effective. Dynamic search ads are the AdWords product which creates ads dynamically based on website content, rather than manually setting up keywords on which to bid. The idea is this allows businesses to not miss opportunities they wouldn't have known to bid on with a manually set up keyword-based campaign. It also means when the website content is updated the search ads automatically update, so there is no risk of having out of date ad copy after site updates.
Google has pressed ahead with the announcement despite the hurricane of negative PR whipped up by the revelations regarding ads being placed by YouTube and Google Display Network on unacceptable content, such as terrorist propaganda or far right groups. Because search ads don't appear on sites (only…
