It’s easy to forget just how much has happened with the fast pace that our industry moves at. Here’s what stood out to Knucklepuck as we navigated an ever-changing landscape for our clients. 

The (Continued) Shift to Automation

One of the main trends that stood out to us this year was a bigger shift to automation on Google Ads. Google has been pushing automated bidding, tactics, etc. for years now, so this isn’t exactly a new development.

But 2022 just felt different. 

For starters, Performance Max became available to all advertisers, and Google announced that it would subsequently replace popular campaign types (like Local & Smart Shopping) in the very near future. 

• This might not have been a huge deal for most B2B advertisers, but it certainly impacted the B2C and eCommerce spaces. I also suspect that more campaign types will continue to be lumped into the PMax umbrella going forward (yay…). 
• That said, while PMax may not have been the tool that advertisers asked for, it’s the tool we got. And the initial results haven’t been terrible for some verticals, so it’s worth testing in 2023.

Performance Max campaign results from Knucklepuck’s 2022 test

Another major change was the sunset of Expanded Text Ads. Gone are the days that advertisers can easily control ad copy with 3 headlines and 2 descriptions, all in the specified order that we want. Now, we live in the world of Responsive Search Ads. 

• In theory, RSAs are useful when testing new messaging and language in your ad copy. There is some truth to this, however, it’s difficult to understand the difference in performance between specific headlines and descriptions without data for clicks or clickthrough rate. 
  • In my opinion, this is a glaring issue, and it’s really the only thing that stands in the way of RSAs being a great tool (instead of just a good tool).
• Pinning headlines and descriptions is a decent workaround for this issue, but it’s an extra step in an already tedious process of creating and uploading ads.
• Losing ETAs has also resulted in new processes for analyzing ad copy. Additionally, it’s changed the way that we manage expectations and help clients understand our strategies.

Using RSAs to create “Mock ETAs”

Lastly, 2022 seemed to be the year that advertisers collectively, and reluctantly, accepted that there is no escaping automated bidding. This could be due to the fact that, after years of machine learning, the algorithms are finally starting to deliver solid results. 

• Knucklepuck has tested and seen these results in our own accounts. But it’s important to note that the learning periods and performance still vary widely across different clients and industries. And in some cases, Manual CPC bidding simply performs better. 
• While we used to be very hesitant to use automated bidding in any capacity, our mindset has shifted. However, it hasn’t dramatically changed how we approach our accounts initially. 
  • We still recommend starting a campaign with Manual (or Enhanced) CPC bidding. This gives us control at the beginning of an initiative, and allows us to get a sense of the competitive landscape, costs, volume, etc. 
  • From there, we assess whether or not a switch to automated bidding is warranted. We can then test the automated strategy more intentionally, so that we maintain a feeling of control but also lean into the benefits of automation. 
  • We have found the most success using Maximize Conversions, as most of our clients are focused on lead generation.

The Importance of Creative & Video

Another major trend was the importance of adopting videos and images wherever you can. This includes having your assets be as relevant and up to date as possible.

Again, this is not necessarily a new development. But with the rise of more visual platforms (more on that later), Google Ads felt the need to respond.

They did so with the addition of more visual ad assets (formerly known as ad extensions) for Search campaigns. Image Assets became more widely available, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Video Assets launched across all accounts in 2023. 

At Google Marketing Live, there was also a heavy emphasis on YouTube Shorts. My prediction for next year is that this will become an even more important channel within video campaigns as Google reacts to TikTok’s dominance in short-form video. 

Speaking of TikTok – if you want to see success on this platform, the #1 priority should be creative. The same goes for Meta Ads (i.e., Facebook and Instagram), LinkedIn Ads, and really any paid social campaign. 

• Users want to see fresh, engaging content. They do not want the same image or video that you’ve been reusing on and off for the past year across different channels. 
• This has always been a recommended best practice, but it really came to the forefront this year because of TikTok’s rise to power.

And that brings us to the third major trend…

The Rise of Alternative Platforms

After years of digital marketing dominance, the Google and Meta duopoly appears to be in decline. 

For Meta, it could be due to the huge blow they were dealt when iOS 14.5 was released, which allowed users to opt out of app tracking. For Google Ads, maybe it’s partly due to rising costs (CPCs, CPMs, etc.). 

The biggest reason though, can likely be attributed to the rise of new ad platforms – particularly TikTok and Amazon. 

• According to one of Google’s senior vice presidents, roughly 40% of people between 18 and 24 use TikTok or Instagram to start their search journey. 
• Similarly, 55% of searches for a product (i.e., shopping) now begin on Amazon.
• This has massive implications for Google Search and Shopping campaigns, as well as TikTok and Amazon advertising going forward. Advertisers, especially for B2C and eCommerce companies, cannot afford to ignore these channels in 2023.

Other ad platforms have taken big strides in the past year as well:

• LinkedIn revamped their interface to make it easier to use, and Microsoft Advertising might finally be starting to let advertisers access some LinkedIn data within their platform.
  • During a time when it feels like Google ignores us, this is welcome news to B2B advertisers. 
• Reddit continues to expand their offerings, and has an easy-to-use platform with great support. I also believe they have the potential to surpass Meta’s ability to target specific communities. Subreddit targeting can reach highly engaged users for almost any topic or interest. 
• Apple expanded their ad inventory as well, which is especially relevant if your client/organization wants to promote an app. I expect Apple to continue adding new placements, formats, etc. across their network as well, and this will be an important company to watch in 2023. 

Summary

We saw a number of major changes and trends in 2022, particularly in automation, creative, and new platforms. We’re (cautiously) excited about what’s to come in 2023!

Resources

• Duopoly Done: Google and Meta Now Take in Less Than Half the Internet’s Ad Dollars
• Google exec suggests Instagram and TikTok are eating into Google’s core products, Search and Maps
• Apple puts more ads in the iPhone’s App Store

The post 2022 PPC Year in Review appeared first on Knucklepuck Media.

So how can we use Broad keywords to their advantage and maintain control? Meet “broadience” targeting.

Broad Match Overview

First, a quick refresher on Broad Match.

Based on Google’s definition, Broad Match keywords allow your ad to show on searches related to the meaning of your keyword, including those that don’t actually contain the term you’re targeting. They are the least restrictive keyword targeting option.

• For example: if you’re targeting soccer cleats as a Broad keyword, your ad might show to someone who searches for “shoes”.

The benefit of using Broad Match is that this matchtype can help you reach a wider audience without an extensive keyword list.

However, this also means they can be difficult to control. Broad keywords must be applied, monitored, and optimized carefully. Otherwise, you run the risk of having them tank your account’s performance through bloated spend from people outside your target audience.

• For example: if you’re targeting soccer cleats as a Broad keyword, you might match to someone who searches for “high heels”. If that person then clicks your ad, it’s a waste of your budget.

Controlling Broad Match with Audiences

Adding negative keywords is always a good option to control matching, traffic quality, and ad spend. But reviewing Search Terms Reports can be extremely time-consuming. It’s also more of a reactive optimization, because your money was already spent by the time you caught the unwanted query.

A great solution to proactively control matching for Broad keywords is to layer audiences into the ad group.

• This “broadience” strategy allows you to capture a wide range of searches (via Broad Match keywords), while narrowing your reach to the most relevant segment of those users (via audience targeting).

There are a number of ways to test this strategy, and the audiences you use will depend on your goals, keyword intent, etc. Two of our favorite tactics for awareness and remarketing initiatives are highlighted below.

Screenshot of the Targeting & Observation settings when adding audiences in Google Ads

Tactic 1 – Expand Reach

• Common Use Case: ensure you have coverage for any relevant phrases you don’t already target (i.e., reach more of your target audience)
• Process:
  • Analyze performance of the audiences you’re currently using (like in Video campaigns or Observations in Search campaigns)
    • If you’re not using audiences anywhere, add them as Observations to your Search campaigns and collect data for at least 2-6 weeks
  • Identify and note the top-performing segments
  • Identify top-performing search terms, keywords, etc. and create a custom audience based on those phrases
  • Create a campaign/ad group with non-brand, Broad Match keywords
  • Navigate to Audiences and select “Edit audience segments”
  • Select “Targeting” (see screenshot above)
  • Add your top-performing and/or custom audiences; click save
  • Optional: if possible, take this one step further by excluding your existing customers or previous website visitors
• Result: widely targeting your top audiences and generating net-new traffic from searches you might not have captured otherwise

Tactic 2 – Remarketing

• Common Use Case: nurturing users through a long sales cycle
• Process:
  • Create retargeting lists for previous website visitors, existing customers, etc.
  • Create a campaign/ad group with non-brand, Broad Match keywords
    • Another option is competitor keywords
  • Navigate to Audiences and select “Edit audience segments”
  • Select “Targeting”
  • Add your retargeting lists; click save
• Result: reaching users familiar with your brand as they search for competitors or other terms related to your services.

Summary

Broad Match keyword performance may have improved over the past few years, but they will likely continue to drive more irrelevant traffic than other matchtypes. By layering on audience targeting, you can prevent irrelevant users from clicking your ads more proactively.

Thus, your campaigns go from targeting a wide, unfocused audience…

to a narrower, more focused segment.

Have another approach to matchtypes and audience targeting? Drop us a comment or DM on Twitter and let’s chat about strategies!

The post What is “Broadience” Targeting? appeared first on Knucklepuck Media.

• In short, we’ve seen macroeconomic concerns affect our business in 2022. Despite this, we’re preparing for higher investment in Paid Media in 2023. 

Over the past few weeks, we also researched economic sentiment for the PPC industry as a whole. This included a survey on our website, analyzing responses to a PPC Chat discussion in September, and general anecdotes from others in the community. 

So, with everything that has happened with the economy in 2022, what’s the impact been on the PPC industry? And how do people feel moving into 2023?

Survey Overview

First, a high-level overview of our survey:

• Although we received a number of responses, these findings may not be statistically significant. 
• All respondents were agency marketers in roles with a PPC focus.
  • This includes titles such as Digital Marketing & Retail Media Consultant and Paid Media Manager. 
• Respondents currently work in B2C, B2B, and ecommerce across a variety of industries, including higher education, recruitment, automotive, healthcare, software/tech, and cybersecurity. 

We’d also like to give individual shoutouts to Anders Hjorth and Jeremy Krantz for contributing and allowing us to highlight some of their quotes/responses. Thank you both!

Now let’s get to the results…

The Current Impact

Knucklepuck gauged the impact of the current economic environment by asking and researching two main questions:

1. Have you lost any clients over the past 3-6 months due to their concerns over a recession, inflation, or other economic factors?
2. Have you seen any shifts in Paid Media investment over the past 3-6 months? If so, what have those trends been?

For the first question, all respondents in our survey answered no – they have not lost any clients recently due to economic concerns. This was a somewhat surprising result to us, as it differs from Knucklepuck’s experience. 

However, although clients may not be leaving their agencies altogether, there have clearly been shifts in Paid Media investment. This includes:

More Intentional Budget Allocation

• In a recent AMA for the Paid Search Association, Aaron Levy highlighted that clients across all industries appear to be more cautious about where their money is going and how much is being spent on each channel.
• On PPC Chat, people noted that they have had more conversations recently about opportunities and refinements. The outcome has usually been a heavier focus on top-performing channels, as well as retaining and upselling existing customers. 
• Knucklepuck has also experienced this first hand. A number of our clients have prioritized certain keywords, audiences, etc. more intentionally than previous years.

Lower Ad Spend 

• A number of PPC Chat responses mentioned that their clients’ budgets are tightening, something KP has seen as well. In addition to companies reducing their overall ad spend, this includes not expanding into new campaigns or platforms.
• Jeremy Krantz and Anders Hjorth also noted that they’re spending less on social and Amazon, respectively. This is partly due to issues out of their control, like some of the politics on social media and clients taking a heavy-handed approach to the situation by cutting all advertising expenses. 

Industry-Specific Trends

• One survey respondent noted that they’re seeing increased investment in higher education, which is likely due to a drop in enrollments during the pandemic and a need to prepare for upcoming demographic shifts.
• Several PPC Chat participants expressed concern for clients that have high price points. These products/services are often viewed as a luxury during tough times.
• PPC Chatters also noted that industries for vices (like gambling, alcohol) or common everyday items (like pet supplies) are more likely to see stable or increased ad spend. This is because people’s habits and responses to stress don’t tend to drastically change.

Broader thoughts about the economy’s impact on PPC include competition trends, lower demand on the consumer side, and concerns over high CPCs and CPMs. 

• Auction Insights reports are an ever-changing space as companies adjust their ad budgets and competitors fight for market share. For marketers that still have a big budget to work with, competitors lowering their spend represents a big opportunity to expand your presence. 
• People don’t spend as much when they have less discretionary income. With inflation eating into everyone’s pockets for the things that they need to survive (like food), there’s less demand for “wants”. This is especially important to note if you work in ecommerce.
• Average costs have been steadily rising on PPC platforms, which may be attributable to both inflation and the competition trends mentioned above. Another point from Anders Hjorth was the idea that the “inflation trend in CPCs and CPMs [is driven] by the big media [companies], not by the economy. Google earns more money but doesn’t have more searches or more users. Where did the money come from?”
  • Personally, it wouldn’t surprise me if something like this was a factor in higher costs. I don’t think it’s crazy to think that there is some self-serving happening under the guise of inflation, as Google has made some self-serving changes under the guise of consumer privacy in recent years.
  • For instance, after Google’s advertising revenue fell for the first time ever in Q2 2020, they then started promoting automated bidding and broad match keywords more aggressively. Simultaneously, they also limited insight into Search Terms Reports. They said this was due to “privacy”, but the timing seemed very convenient for them. When advertisers aren’t able to control irrelevant traffic as easily, their ads drive more clicks and Google makes more money.

What Do PPC Professionals Expect in 2023?

Next, we asked and researched the following questions to determine the impact that the 2022 economy has had on 2023 planning:

1. As it relates to your job and/or business, what is your biggest economic concern heading into 2023?
2. Are you expecting or preparing for Paid Media investment to change over the next 6-12 months?
3. How have economic concerns affected your planning for projects, budgets, etc. in 2023?

Based on our findings, PPC professionals are most concerned about a recession and staffing/employment as we move into next year. People are also very aware of the potential for lower investment in Paid Media services. 

• Concerns about geopolitical conflicts and supply chain issues were also recorded in our survey, but the topics above were much more prevalent in the responses across all of our sources.

However, while lower investment may reflect some general anxiety, what people are actually expecting over the next 6-12 months is the opposite. 100% of survey respondents said that they’re preparing for higher Paid Media investment in 2023, and this seems to be the sentiment across the rest of the industry as well. 

• Marketers with a diverse client portfolio aren’t as concerned, because when some clients slow down, others stay strong. Similarly, people indicated that they’re feeling less worried and more opportunistic.
• One survey respondent noted that they are hopeful for increased ad spend if the economy rebounds as well.
• Julie Bacchini raised the following point in PPC Chat:
  

  A1.1: I am also expecting the pendulum to start swinging back to consultants/outside people vs. in-house teams, as is does when the economy weakens.

  Execs start asking "why are we paying salaries & benefits when we could just pay for the work?".#PPCChat

  — Julie F Bacchini (@NeptuneMoon) September 6, 2022

It also appears that this year’s economic trends haven’t had a major effect on people’s planning for next year. 

• In KP’s survey, several responses highlighted that the current environment had no impact on their planning whatsoever. 
• This could be due to people like Anders Hjorth having built their strategies and tactics around being flexible and adaptable. That is an especially important lesson marketers should have learned from the pandemic. 

That said, a number of people are preparing contingency plans for their clients. They are also closely monitoring specific metrics/trends, such as inventory. This will allow them to pivot quickly if anything drastic were to happen. Additionally, PPCers seem to be focusing more on granular changes and getting back to basics compared to previous years. For example: 

• Making sure that tracking is as accurate as possible, and leaning into the use of first party data.
• Updating negative keywords and exclusions to refine irrelevant traffic, which helps soften the blow of CPC and CPM inflation.
• Adjusting budget allocations and reviewing campaign/keyword structures for opportunities to refine or expand.
• Updating ad messaging (like making affordability a key theme).

Summary

Knucklepuck saw economic concerns impact our business in 2022. The industry as a whole has seen that as well, particularly with shifts in ad spend and budget allocation. 

But there is definitely a feeling of hope going into next year. Fears over inflation, recession, etc. haven’t had a major impact on 2023 planning, and marketers are preparing for higher investment in Paid Media services overall. 

• Having a diverse client portfolio is especially important to insulate your business from fluctuations in the broader economy. Although some companies may pull back on budgets, this presents an opportunity for others. 
• Getting back to basics will also be key in setting your clients up for success. Make sure your tracking is up to date, tighten up your campaign coverage with negatives/exclusions, focus in on top keywords/audiences, and have highly relevant messaging.

As always, please don’t hesitate to reach out on Twitter or LinkedIn if you have any questions or feedback!

The post How Has the Current Economic Environment Impacted Paid Media? Part 2: The Industry Perspective appeared first on Knucklepuck Media.

Economic headlines have dominated the news over the past few months, particularly related to inflation and recessions.

This kind of turmoil can be especially stressful as an agency. Businesses may start looking to make cuts so they can save money, and marketing budgets and/or outsourced services tend to be at the top of that list. Whether that’s the best approach or not is highly debatable, but that’s the reality of the situation.

There are a lot of articles out there talking about how to approach marketing during a recession, high inflation, etc. However, we haven’t seen as many resources about what people are actually experiencing right now.

PPC professionals are asking questions about the economy, but it’s been difficult to find the answers we need.

So, with everything that has happened with the economy in 2022, what has been the impact on Knucklepuck’s Paid Media department? And how do we feel moving into 2023?

The Actual Impact

The first trend that we noticed this year was a lot of clients asking for more granular reporting that they can bring to other leadership in their organization. While Knucklepuck already provides detailed data and analysis in our reports, there have been far more questions about specific keywords, products/services, targeting, etc.

• This is likely due to larger conversations about what marketing channels are and aren’t successfully producing leads, revenue, etc. When hard times are potentially looming, businesses want to know the best place to put their money.

Somewhat related to the first trend, another shift that we’ve seen this year is tighter margins. This causes clients to look to redeploy funds to other channels, some of which are not Paid Media.

• For example: a B2C brand focusing more on in-store promotions. With CPMs and CPCs rising, ad budgets aren’t going as far as they used to, so other channels may have started to drive a higher ROI.

Lastly, we have lost clients over the past 3-6 months due to their concerns over a recession, inflation, or other economic factors. It may sound strange for a business to admit that, but our goal here is to be transparent about what’s actually happening in the industry.

What Do We Expect in 2023?

Knucklepuck’s biggest economic concerns heading into 2023 are related to staffing/employment and lower investment in Paid Media services. This could include reduced ad spend budgets from existing clients, as well as fewer leads in our sales pipeline for PPC services (which then affects staffing and hiring).

However, while we are concerned about the potential for lower investment, that is not necessarily what we expect to happen. We’re actually preparing for higher investment – but this comes with an important prerequisite.

• “The need for a dedicated outbound sales role has become more and more apparent. It’s been difficult to attract inbound leads in the current climate, so we’re looking to invest in a professional resource that will go out there and proactively find and close new business.” – Brett Snyder

Essentially, hiring a salesperson is our plan to drive higher PPC investment. This is the main impact that economic concerns have had on our 2023 planning. Instead of hunkering down and preparing for the worst, our focus is on building the business to have multiple options to achieve growth.

• This ensures we aren’t betting the future success of the company on what will happen with the economy, and instead we’re betting on our ability to navigate whatever does happen.

Make Your Voice Heard!

This article is the first installation of Knucklepuck’s series on the state of the economy and its impact on PPC.

For the second installation, our goal is to shed light on what the rest of the industry has seen and how other PPC professionals are feeling in this environment.

If you’re interested in sharing your thoughts and experiences, please fill out our brief survey – https://bit.ly/3VfuONZ.

• There are less than 10 questions, and all responses are anonymous (unless you note otherwise).

We would love your input, and we are happy to give you a shoutout in our next blog for helping us with our research if you are comfortable with it!

Summary

Knucklepuck has seen inflation, recession, and economic concerns impact our business in 2022.

But that doesn’t mean that hope is lost for 2023. We plan to double-down on business development moving into the new year, which will help drive higher investment in Paid Media services.

As always, feel free to reach out on Twitter if you have any additional feedback that you’d like to share!

The post How Has the Current Economic Environment Impacted Paid Media? Part 1: The KP Perspective appeared first on Knucklepuck Media.

Below are some common scenarios for setting expectations with your client, bosses, and other stakeholders.

New Projects

The most important time to set expectations is at the very beginning of a project – and not just in the kick-off call.

During the business development and proposal phase, the first question you should ask your prospect is: what exactly are you hoping to achieve?

• From there, you can hone in on the best strategy, make it clear what your specialties are, and determine whether or not the project can be successful for both parties.

After the teams agree there is a mutual fit for the project, it’s time to kick off and onboard.

The initial focus should be on the client’s goals and communicating how you can accomplish them with the available tools (similar to the BD phase). You should also note any nuances of those approaches, like learning periods or platform limitations.

• For example: if a client is interested in advertising through Facebook Ads, the first thing I note is the tracking limitations caused by Apple’s iOS 14.5 update.
  • The goal is not to discourage anyone from doing what they want, but to be transparent and realistic. This helps prevent people being surprised by any issues we may run into in the future.

Ask for feedback throughout your calls as well. Make sure your client feels heard, and set the tone that this is a partnership. You can get a lot of good information from simply opening the conversation up to people. Don’t just power through the usual talking points.

Key Performance Indicators

Once you are all on the same page with the preferred strategy, it’s crucial to align on the metrics that determine success. These KPIs can vary based on the industry, campaign objective, tracking capabilities, and more.

• For lead generation campaigns, Knucklepuck typically focuses on conversions, cost per conversion, and conversion rate.
• For sales-focused campaigns, we prioritize revenue and return on ad spend, in addition to the lead gen campaign goals.
• For awareness campaigns, we have a heavier emphasis on engagement, reach, and efficiency metrics. This includes cost per 1000 impressions, clickthrough rate, average cost per click, and shares/likes.

Timelines

A common question we get at the start of a new initiative is something along the lines of “how soon can campaigns launch?” or “what’s the turnaround time?”

This is a great time to set expectations, which will ensure the other person is satisfied but you aren’t burning yourself out.

• For example: if someone wants to launch campaigns on a specific date, make it clear that the build has to be requested at least 1-2 weeks ahead of the launch date.
• This prevents you from having to work late, deprioritize other work, and feel stressed/overwhelmed about creating ads at the last minute. It also ensures that you can deliver high-quality work to get the best results possible.

Project plans are another great tool to set expectations for longer-term partnerships. Provide an outline of what you plan to do over the next 3-6 months, which re-emphasizes timelines and ensures alignment on strategy.

Also, stress the fact that it takes time to judge results. There is a lot more that goes into a successful PPC strategy than what meets the eye.

• Yes, Paid Media is faster paced than SEO (which has more of a long term focus). However, it still takes time to collect data, optimize campaigns with negatives/exclusions, have algorithms learn how to serve your ads, tweak ad copy and landing pages to be the best they can, and more.

Testing

Whenever you are trying out a new initiative, whether it’s a campaign, platform, bidding strategy, etc., set expectations that it is a test.

• For example: you are testing a new automated bidding strategy. Try approaching it with a mindset of, “We’re going to test automated bidding to see how it impacts performance, with the goal of more leads and lower CPA.” This is slightly different from phrasing it as “We’re switching to automated bidding to increase leads.”
  • It’s only a minor change in language, but if you see worse performance after implementing the test, it’s much easier to discuss.
  • Instead of walking away from the initiative thinking “We failed to increase leads,” the takeaway becomes “That test wasn’t as successful as we hoped it would be. It was still important to learn, so here’s what we can do next.”

You should also be clear about the goal of your tests and when you plan to judge results. This ensures everyone stays aligned on KPIs and timelines.

• For example: Google Ads’ automated bidding strategies require a 2-4 week learning period, and during this time performance can fluctuate. In this case, we would review initial results after 2 weeks, 4 weeks, and then make a more informed decision after 6-8 weeks.

Additionally, if you are testing a new platform or campaign-type, make sure to discuss any nuances ahead of time. Extending performance benchmarks can be useful in setting expectations, and some specific examples to consider are related to user intent:

• Search campaigns tend to capture users that have a higher intent to convert. People are explicitly searching for terms related to your product or service.
  • Because of this, the KPIs should heavily focus on conversions, sales, revenue, etc.
• Users reached through Display and Video campaigns typically have lower intent to convert. An ad is disrupting someone as they browse other websites/videos.
  • Conversions are always important, but KPIs should focus more on awareness, efficiency, and engagement (like CPM and CTR).
• On Social, ads interrupt users as they scroll through their feeds (similar to Display or Video).
  • KPIs may vary based on the objective of each campaign. Be aware that metrics like CTR, CPC, and CPM will likely be much different than what you see for Search campaigns.

Lastly, a helpful tactic during any project is to keep a paper trail. Written documentation helps keep everyone on the same page on what to expect moving forward.

• An easy option is to provide an agenda and recap for all meetings. This holds people accountable to specific next steps, and you can refer back to them if any questions arise.

Summary

Start setting expectations in your very first meeting, and then continue to do so throughout the project. Make sure everyone is aligned on objectives, KPIs, and timelines. You might sound like a broken record at times. But it’s way better than the alternative: unrealistic expectations and a feeling/perception that you “failed.”

Have any other tactics or thoughts on expectation-setting? Feel free to reach out on Twitter!

The post Setting Expectations for Paid Media Projects appeared first on Knucklepuck Media.

To understand where this update came from and why Google is announcing its arrival, it’s important to understand a bit about how their algorithm has been updated in the past.

Google’s Past Algorithm Efforts

The first thing to note is that algorithm updates happen a lot – like all the time – but some have more widespread impact than others. Their ultimate goal? Give searchers the best possible experience on their platform.

To ensure that users are receiving the information or resources that they want, Google has to verify that the sites they are serving to users are the highest quality options for their search. In the past, Google has launched updates to better understand the way people search, to make it easier for people to search, and to ensure that websites are available on their chosen devices in their chosen areas.

Throughout all of these changes, Google has maintained that high quality content on easy-to-use sites are the ones that will ultimately win out.

How Does the Helpful Content Update Impact Search?

Because Google is focused on the quality of their user experience, they announced an update called the Helpful Content Update on August 18th, 2022. In this announcement, Google outlined the importance of content written “by people, for people.” This goes hand-in-hand with their recent emphasis on creating and maintaining a website that is focused around the needs and desires of your user (rather than search engines).

Gone are the days when thousands of spammy backlinks or overstuffed keywords would win you out in the SERP. In this update, Google stresses the fact that users are coming to websites (by proxy of search engines) for an answer to a question or to get help taking an action. Providing users the best possible experience means giving them the information they need or facilitating the action they are trying to take.

So What Does Google Consider Helpful Content?

By now you’re probably saying “I get it – give the users what they want” – if not, you definitely should be. For Google, helpful and relevant content is authentic and unique. It should be written for your users based on your first hand experience or particular knowledge base.

It contains all the relevant information your user is looking for when they go to find or learn something, make a decision, or complete a purchase.

Content that is helpful also contains next steps. What should the user do next with this information?

• For example: a user read an article about your software’s integrations and determined which integration is best for them. At the end of the article, you should provide next steps on how to implement this integration, or at least add a link to content that provides that information.

Helpful content does not lure users in with clickbait-y titles and then changes the subject once they arrive at your site.

Helpful content is not stuffed with keywords for search engines that users struggle to read through.

Lastly, helpful content is not written by people that can’t be trusted. This may sound harsh, but the reason behind it is sound.

“Not trusted” essentially means: written by authors who have no real connection to the content as a whole.Google has long touted the need to ensure content authors have experience and authority in the space they write. This started with the increased stress on E-A-T (Expertise-Authoritativeness-Trustworthiness) in their Quality Rater Guidelines in early 2020.

In response to questions about multi-niche sites and the update, Google’s John Mueller said “If you’re going to give financial & medical advice on a beauty blog, I suspect users are – probably rightly – going to find that a bit sus.”

The focus here is on ensuring users are getting information they can trust from sources who specialize in that niche. If you have expertise in an area, promote that expertise! If you don’t, Google says it’s best to stay in your lane.

What the Heck Should We Do Now?

This algorithm update has started and potential effects are looming over anyone who works with Google on a frequent basis. The gut instinct is to panic and start stripping content.

In the wise words of my father: “Don’t do that you’ll only make it worse.”

The good and bad news is that Google has already grabbed the information they need for this initial update, meaning anything you do now will not be reflected right away. While this sounds bad (and you’re right, it’s not fun to think about), it gives you two things:

1. Upfront notice that SERPs and rankings will be shaken up.
2. Time to create a plan to update or remove content that isn’t up to par for the next wave of updates.

When crafting your algorithm update plan and any future content, there are certain things you should do and things you should avoid to ensure you are successful.

What Should We Expect Next?

Google released the Helpful Content algorithm update this week, and you can expect massive shifts in keyword rankings and the search engine results pages now and in the coming weeks. Sites that follow Google’s guidelines will thrive and sites that have low quality or unhelpful content will suffer. It’s likely that there will also be collateral damage as the changes happen and the aftershocks are felt.

Despite these immediate impacts, it’s important to consider what may follow in future updates. Here’s what I predict:

• Short form content and ultra-long form content will lose
  • Because Google is heavily focused on content that is helpful and answering users’ questions, it is important that users do not leave your site feeling dissatisfied.
  • Additionally, content that forces the user to scroll for minutes to get to the point will suffer greatly. This is heavily prevalent in news, blogging and pop culture industries but has been gaining ground with sites across industries writing ultra long content with way more information than needed.
• Readability will be crucial
  • Regardless of whether your content serves your niche industry well, jargon has got to go.
  • While Google has gone on record to say that readability is not a “ranking factor,” John Mueller (Search Advocate at Google) says, “It’s not a matter of Google using that reading level score and saying, this is good or bad. But rather, does it match what the people are searching for? And, if nobody’s searching for those long words, then nobody’s going to find your content.”
• Google will consider pseudo-engagement rates
  • Google is also on record saying they don’t currently use engagement rates as a ranking factor. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if they began to try gaining a deeper understanding of what makes users return to a search again when they do not find the answer they need on the first site they accessed.
  • We see this on a small scale when Google tailors your results based on things you’ve searched for before to try to give you a better result so I wouldn’t be surprised if they begin to gather more data and use it in new ways.
• Affiliate Content
  • Google has already started to crack down on product reviews to ensure that users are getting accurate and real review content, rather than templated, paid-for content.
  • Google has also stated that it’s best to provide a personal experience with products and services if you are posting a review.
  • For those reasons, I would not be surprised if affiliate content or listicles meant to profit off the products within are seen as sales tactics rather than content users can benefit from.

If you are feeling lost or overwhelmed by this update – you are not alone. Our SEO Team is continuously monitoring news and the impacts of this update. We are ready to help your team craft a user-centric SEO strategy that will set you up for success, so don’t hesitate to reach out!

Additional Resources:

• More content by people, for people in Search, Google
• What creators should know about Google’s helpful content update, Google
• What is helpful content according to Google, Search Engine Land

The post The Helpful Content Update: An SEO Strategist’s Perspective appeared first on Knucklepuck Media.

Knucklepuck wanted to find out the answers to some of these questions, so we began testing fairly early on. A summary of the key points and findings are below.

What We Tested

In May 2022, Knucklepuck launched Performance Max campaigns for a client in the real estate industry. The primary goal for this account is lead generation through leasing applications and contact form submissions, with a secondary focus on generating brand and property awareness.

We used the following criteria to define the Audience Signal in our Asset Groups:

• Custom Segments – audiences defined with popular keywords, URLs, etc. of our target market.
  • Ex: Competitor terms
• Our Data – audiences defined based on previous interactions with the client.
  • Ex: Website visitors and remarketing lists
• Interests & Detailed Demographics – relevant audiences from Google’s pre-defined segments.
  • Ex: “Apartments for Rent” in-market audience, “Business Professionals” affinity audience

Demographics, such as gender, age, income, and parental status, can also be used to define the Audience Signal. However, we did not use this as part of our criteria because it was relevant to target all demos. This is also Google’s default and recommended setting.

Additional set-up notes include:

• Campaign Structure – Campaigns were segmented by property, as the majority of them have different locations and target markets.
• Bidding & Budget – Tested using the Maximize Conversions bidding strategy and a daily budget of $10.
• Ads – Assets include 20 images, 1 logo, 1 video, 5 headlines, 1 long headline, and 5 descriptions (one of which has to be 60 characters).
• Other – We did NOT use dynamic ads, local product feeds, final URL expansion, or ad schedules.

Results

From 5/24/22 to 8/21/22, Performance Max campaigns drove the following results compared to the rest of the account (which includes traditional Search, Display, and Video campaigns):

Note: Micro-conversions = calls + directions, which are important to the client but not a main KPI when analyzing performance.

As shown above, we saw significant improvements across all priority conversion metrics: cost per form submission, cost per action, and conversion rate. In terms of awareness and general efficiency, we saw a higher clickthrough rate and lower cost per click, but the cost per 1000 impressions was much higher as well.

• It’s important to note that the low CTR and CPM for the account (non-PMax campaigns) may be somewhat skewed. That data includes Display campaigns, which drove 9.2M impressions compared to 51.6K for PMax.
• Additionally, ~60% of PMax conversions over the past 28 days are attributed to branded searches.

Overall, the Performance Max campaign tests were a success, with the caveat that branded searches heavily contributed to these results.

There are also some FAQs we’ve come across in the PPC community since Google Marketing Live in May 2022:

1. Were impressions, clicks, etc. cannibalized from brand and/or non brand campaigns?
   • It is somewhat difficult to answer this at the account level due to fluctuations in monthly budgets and campaign coverage. That said, we were able to reference one property that had the same budget and Search campaigns running from 5/24 – 7/31.
   • For that set of campaigns, Search ads only saw a 6% decrease in impressions compared to the previous period. There was also a 22% increase in clicks and 29% increase in impression share.
     • This indicates that the decrease in impressions was likely due to account maintenance, such as adding negative keywords, and not the launch of PMax. However, please note that this data is still limited, so these results may not necessarily be the same across all accounts.
2. Did overall / incremental performance improve or decline?
   • Compared to the previous period (2/23-5/23), the account saw a 50% increase in conversions and 60% increase in micro-conversions. This resulted in a 17% decrease in the cost per form submission and a 20% decrease in CPA. Some of these shifts are due to seasonality and general account maintenance, but it is safe to say that PMax contributed as well.

Limitations & Next Iterations

The first limitation of this test is that the lead quality isn’t very clear. It’s great to see a higher quantity of leads and lower CPA. Results also seem positive based on anecdotal feedback from the client, such as “the sales team is happy with what they’re getting.” That said, there isn’t hard data (like lead scores) to reflect that as of now.

• Moving forward, our plan is to get more specific figures related to lead quality and/or conversion value so that we can make sure spammy leads aren’t inflating our numbers.

Another limitation of this test is inconsistent budget levels, as our monthly budget changes each month based on the client’s internal data and priorities. While the budgets for the PMax campaigns stayed the same throughout this testing period, the budgets for Search, Display, and Video campaigns fluctuated significantly. Because of this, it’s difficult to fully determine how much PMax campaigns may be cannibalizing traffic from other campaign types.

In terms of what we want to test next, refining our coverage will be the main focus. These campaigns are currently running without any account-level placement exclusions applied. Other advertisers have also noted that you may be able to negate keywords at the campaign level, but as of now that is only possible if you have a Google representative and ask them to do it for you. Additionally, Google notes that account-level negative keywords “will soon be available.”

• In the upcoming weeks, we plan to add account-level placement exclusions. We will also follow up with our Google rep about adding campaign-level negatives.

Conclusion

Historically, we have been cautious when testing new campaign types in Google Ads. This is especially true for ones that are heavily automated and give the majority of control over to Google.

Performance Max campaigns are no exception, but they are absolutely worth testing. These campaigns were a success for our client, so we will continue to run them in this account and begin testing for others.

Lastly, it is important to set expectations with your bosses/clients that this is a new campaign type. Google’s algorithm needs time to learn and optimize. After 2-3 months have passed, you’ll be in a better position to determine whether or not PMax becomes a mainstay in your Google Ads strategy.

As always, feel free to reach out on Twitter with any questions, comments, or feedback!

Additional Resources

• Achieve your goals across Google’s ad channels with Performance Max – Google Ads Help

The post Initial Results of Google Ads’ Performance Max Campaigns appeared first on Knucklepuck Media.

The struggle is real for B2B marketers

Some of these changes may be helpful for marketers in Ecommerce or B2C industries, but that’s not always the case for B2B. Below are some of the common struggles facing business-to-business marketers, how we can make the most of it, and potential changes we’d like to see.

Search Term Overlap

One of the main questions asked by B2B clients, whether it’s in the project kickoff call or a regular weekly status call, is something along the lines of “how do we make sure we’re reaching the “right” audience?”

While this isn’t a new problem, overlapping search terms from consumers can kill your B2B budgets. Not only is the search volume higher, but there is likely more competition, and therefore the cost per click will be higher as well.

One workaround for this is to narrow the focus of your keywords. There are two main ways to do this, which you can also combine for even more protection against consumer overlap:

1. Use phrase and exact match keywords
   • Phrase and exact keywords allow advertisers to have more control over matching, which is crucial for the B2B space. Google continues to push broad match (hard), claiming that their intent-matching and machine learning has improved. However, actual Search Terms Reports beg to differ and I’m not fully convinced yet.
2. Include industry-specific language, jargon, and/or modifiers
   • By pairing modifier terms like commercial, industrial, wholesale, supplier, etc. with your core keyword, you’re able to continue targeting a highly relevant term with less potential for overlap with consumers.
   • You can also sync with your (or your client’s) sales team to identify common terminology, pain points, and use cases that they hear when speaking with leads and customers. This is extremely valuable not just for targeting, but also when you’re developing ad copy, creative, and other content.
   • For example: targeting “commercial roofing materials” or “industrial-grade roofing suppliers” if you sell roofing products and your core audience is owners of office/retail/warehouse buildings (not homeowners looking to make repairs).

It’s also important to note that these tactics can result in lower search volume and impressions. However, because the average person probably isn’t using that language, the traffic and leads you generate should be much higher quality.

Major Platform Changes

I would argue that most of Google Ads’ changes in the past 18 months have been to the detriment of B2B advertisers.

Even during the Google Marketing Live event in May, every example given for “why smart bidding is great” and “why you should turn every keyword into broad match” was for Ecommerce and B2C businesses.

Automation has its place and, at the very least, advertisers should be more open to testing new bidding strategies and campaign types. But at the same time, Google doesn’t really have our best interests at heart. They are a publicly traded company and have to add to their bottom line, so keep that in mind before blindly following their recommendations.

• Additionally, no matter how many times Google reps say it, automation doesn’t work for everyone. If there are low-volume keywords, those will take a significant amount of time to collect enough data for the algorithm to start working in our favor. This is a huge issue in the B2B space, where keywords can be very niche, and I don’t think Google has done enough to address that.

Another pain point is the lack of features for lead generation. Not only that, but the features we’ve used for years to help control costs and keep traffic relevant are slowly disappearing.

• Search Terms Reports are less helpful now because a significant portion of search queries are hidden, even if they drove a conversion.
• Performance Max campaigns, which are being pushed aggressively, currently don’t allow you to add campaign-level negative keywords or placement exclusions.
  • Note – if you have a good relationship with your Google rep, they may be able to add campaign-level negatives to PMax campaigns for you. It’s still not ideal that advertisers can’t do it themselves.
• Lead form extensions were a nice addition in 2019, but it’s been 3+ years now. It would be great if we could see some new tools specifically made for B2B advertisers, whether it’s a new extension type, integration of LinkedIn audience targeting in Microsoft Advertising, or something else.

Lastly, with all of these updates, expectations have to be reset. Old tactics don’t work like they used to. Automation requires a learning period, which takes time and can cause performance to fluctuate for a few weeks. It’s imperative that clients/stakeholders are aware of these kinds of things in order to have a healthy working relationship.

Social & Display Performance

Search is great for capturing high-intent users, but what about the Display Network and Paid Social?

Display and Social should be in your marketing mix if you have the budget and capacity for a full-funnel strategy. They can be effective in generating awareness and nurturing potential customers, but it’s important to be very intentional with your targeting. Some strategies include:

• Using Google Ads’ Custom Audiences, which allow you to create customized groupings of various terms or websites that are relevant to your business.
  • Ex: creating a Custom Audience based on your top competitors’ brand names and URLs.
• Building out contact/customer lists and website visitor audiences. You can then nurture people with remarketing campaigns or exclude people already familiar with your business (allowing you to reach net-new users).
• Adding placement exclusions to ensure you’re driving higher quality traffic.
  • Ex: excluding mobile app traffic and children’s YouTube channels.

However, the struggle here is that Display and Social are not usually major conversion-drivers. You shouldn’t go into the test expecting the same results as your Search campaigns. Again, make sure you’re aligned on expectations, because user intent is drastically different across various platforms.

• On Search, you reach people as they explicitly look for something they’re interested in.
  • KPIs should include cost per conversion, conversion rate, revenue (or conversion value), return on ad spend, and other conversion-focused metrics.
• On Display and Social, you interrupt people as they look through their timeline/news feed.
  • KPIs should include awareness, efficiency, and engagement metrics like clickthrough rate, cost per 1000 impressions, cost per click, and engagement rate.

Overall, conversion metrics are still important, but should be emphasized less for Display and Social than they are for Search. Recent updates and privacy regulations have also made it more difficult to track success on platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn. Those types of changes aren’t going away, so marketers need to adapt and show the value of these channels in different ways moving forward.

Summary

It’s hard not to feel like B2B marketers are being left behind with recent changes made by the major ad platforms. This compounds on top of the usual issues we face (like search overlap), but there are still effective strategies we can use to drive results.

Have any other struggles with paid media for B2B? Reach out on Twitter and let’s chat!

The post The Struggles of B2B PPC Marketing appeared first on Knucklepuck Media.

Under close variants, keywords now match to searches that include abbreviations, implied words, synonyms, and more, as long as Google views the intent behind the search as being the same as the intent of the keyword. This differs from the previous behavior, when keywords were matched to searches based on the words explicitly provided by advertisers.

As a result, digital marketers have to face the reality that some of the previous best practices for campaign structure are now irrelevant.

RIP SKAGs

A common strategy that advertisers used to leverage for campaign structure was creating Single Keyword Ad Groups (SKAGs). There are slightly different ways to approach SKAGs, but in general this strategy involves segmenting ad groups by keyword and/or matchtype. For example:

The problem with the SKAG approach is that now close variant matching leads to significant overlap between ad groups. You will most likely see searches for “software” in the Tool ad group (and vice versa). You can negate “software” to try and keep the matching clean in the Tool ad groups, but “software” is still a relevant term overall for ads to show on and advertisers might be hesitant to do that.

Shifting to Thematic Ad Groups

The other common strategy for campaign structure, and Google’s recommended approach, is to segment based on the overall theme/intent of your keywords. For example:

Close variant matching may still lead to some overlap between campaigns/ad groups, but there won’t be as much as using a SKAG approach.

What About Synonyms?

We can now accept that SKAGs are a thing of the past. Advertisers need to lean into ad group themes. But how should we handle synonyms?

Let’s say you want to target the keywords “project management software”, “project management platform”, and “project management tool” to account for variations in how people search. The options for your campaign structure are:

1. Segment keywords into different ad groups within the same campaign

2. Consolidate keywords into the same ad group

3. Consolidate even further down to just 1 or 2 keywords and then account for the other variations in your ad copy

Option 1 is similar to a SKAG approach, which will lead to heavy overlap and muddy Search Terms Reports.

Option 2 will feature the most keywords per ad group (Google recommends keeping ad groups to under 20), but there won’t be as much overlap in the Search Terms Report and Responsive Search Ads can help you cater to Quality Score.

Option 3 relies heavily on Google matching your keywords to close variants, so there might be some gaps in your overall coverage.

Summary

Based on the scenario outlined above, consolidating keywords into the same ad group (Option 2) is likely the best bet. This structure allows advertisers to account for synonyms in ad copy and maximize the Ad Relevance factor of Quality Score, while not being over-segmented and competing against any other keywords in the ad auctions.

• Note – This is especially true with the rollout of Performance Max (PMax) campaigns. If you run both PMax and Search campaigns, Google prioritizes serving PMax ads on the Search Network (instead of your Search keywords) unless your keyword is identical to a user’s search. To future-proof your Search campaigns for if/when you test PMax, make sure to include the most important keywords to your business in the campaign structure.

Have another strategy? Reach out on Twitter to tell us how you approach campaign structure!

The post New Approaches to Google Ads Campaign Structure appeared first on Knucklepuck Media.

So how should advertisers move forward and what should they know in this new age of less control?

Goodbye ETAs

Keep Running ETAs While You Can

It’s important to emphasize that ETAs will still run – you just can’t create new or edit existing ETAs.

Until performance gives you a reason to pause them, ETAs are still worth running. Once you feel that enough data has been collected, you can then analyze performance of your ETA headlines and descriptions to inform messaging for new RSAs.

For example: let’s say you started testing new Expanded Text Ads in May.

• In August, you conduct an ad copy analysis to identify top-performing headlines and descriptions.
• In September, you create RSAs using the best description and top three headlines from your ETAs as a foundation.
• In October, you fill out the other RSA assets based on the keywords targeted in each ad group, new messaging themes to test, calls-to-action, etc.

Stick to 2 Variations per Ad Group

Google historically recommended 3-5 ads per ad group, but how does that change with ETAs going away?

According to recent studies by Frederick Vallaeys and Optmyzr, two RSAs per ad group is the sweet spot.

• While running one RSA per ad group allows you to test more ad copy than a traditional ETA, there still might not be space for all of the headlines/descriptions you want to try.
• Keep in mind that RSAs don’t represent a single ad. Instead, Google views them as an “ad testing environment” that can serve over 40,000 combinations, which makes it difficult for the algorithm to identify top performers if more than 3 are active.

To differentiate between RSA variations and allow for additional testing, segment them by messaging themes. For example:

• Responsive Search Ad A
  • Headlines and descriptions focused on driving conversions or highlighting promotions/deals
  • CTAs – Contact Us Today, Get Started for Free
• Responsive Search Ad B
  • Headlines and descriptions focused on common paint points or specific use cases
  • CTA – Learn More

RSA A

RSA B

Another example would be:

• RSA #1 has all headlines and descriptions unpinned
• RSA #2 has headlines and/or descriptions pinned to specific locations

Analyzing Performance Will Change

One of the biggest complaints about Responsive Search Ads (and personally my biggest issue with this switch), is the lack of data for specific headlines and descriptions.

Yes, we can see clicks, conversions, clickthrough rate, etc. for the ad as a whole. But if you want to know which RSA headline between “Call Us Today” or “Speak to an Expert” performed better, there is currently no way to get that same level of insight.

Hopefully Google will eventually provide this data, but until then we will have to rely on some workarounds and assumptions:

• Option 1: look at impressions, which is the only asset-specific data you have access to.
  • The assumption here is that if a headline/description has high impressions, that means Google may view it as a top performer because it’s served more often.
• Option 2: review the Combinations report, which shows the combination of headlines and descriptions served together. The combos are listed in order of most impressions to least.
  • The assumption here is that if you see the same messaging appear in a lot of different ad combinations (ex: “Call Us Today” shows more frequently than “Speak to an Expert”), it may be because Google views it as a top-performer and serves it more frequently.

Analyzing performance between different messaging themes can also be done using the Experiments > Ad Variations tool in Google Ads. This tells you when there are statistically significant results as well.

RSA Asset Impression Data

RSA Combinations Report

You Still Have Control

You can still basically create Expanded Text Ads by pinning headlines and descriptions in your Responsive Search Ads.

Google prefers all assets be unpinned so they can match to as many searches as possible, but as long as you understand that and are comfortable with getting fewer impressions than an unpinned RSA, you have control over how your ads are displayed.

Two examples of how to do this:

• You have a client in the banking industry, and every ad needs to include “FDIC Insured”
  • Enter three headlines and two descriptions into the RSA, mentioning “FDIC Insured” where necessary
  • Pin all of them in the positions you’d like them to appear
  • Save the ad; it will now run it as a mock-ETA
• You’re running a Brand campaign and want to make sure that your ad shows in a specific order every time
  • Enter your brand name, any other branded variations, and pin them all to position 1
  • Enter messaging around pain points, use cases, general information, etc. and pin them all to position 2
  • Enter Calls to Action and pin them all to position 3
  • Save the ad; moving forward it will only serve branded terms in H1, information in H2, and CTAs in H3

Example of Mock ETA

Example of Headline Theme Pinning

Summary

This change isn’t ideal for advertisers, but it’s the next iteration of Google’s shift to automation and we don’t have a choice but to adapt. There are still a number of ways for us to stay in control, optimize our ads, and deliver great results with the methods outlined above.

The post It’s the End of Expanded Text Ads. What’s Next? appeared first on Knucklepuck Media.

When announcing the selection, KiKi L’Italien, a BOLD founder, said: “We are thrilled to have Corey Brown as the keynote speaker for BOLD! Corey’s unique background as a master web designer, entrepreneur, and founder of the mega-successful community No Treble will help any leader enhance their community in smart and creative ways.”

The first BOLD workshop will take place in Washington, DC on September 19 from 8:30am to 3pm. The workshop will cover core principles, techniques and tactics for building strong and sustainable communities for associations.

You can attend the workshop for 50% off with promo code KNUCKLEPUCK: go to BOLD Workshop, click the green “Tickets” button, and then click “Enter Promotional Code” and enter KNUCKLEPUCK for half price entry (with no fees).

Brown’s keynote will focus on the community building strategies and tactics used to build No Treble to a thriving community of over 250,000 monthly visitors. “Any association could easily replace ‘bass players’ with the label for their members, and that’s going to be the goal of my talk. So much of what I’ve learned over the years working on No Treble has shaped what we do at Knucklepuck – from our code library’s origins to the strategies and tactics that are tied to the websites we build.”

Some of Brown’s successful techniques were outlined in a recent Association Chat podcast:

Other speakers at the September 19 event include:

1. Rebecca Tiffany, an entrepreneur who is currently serving as a virtual CMO for several technology and consumer products companies
2. Geoff Livingston, a content marketer, photographer, and author who runs the award-winning photography business, Geoff Livingston Photography and implements visual content marketing programs via Livingston Campaigns
3. Paul King, the founder of King Productions, a video marketing company focused on brand strategy
4. Marjorie Anderson, the founder of Community by Association

The post Corey Brown Selected to be Keynote Speaker at BOLD appeared first on Knucklepuck Media.

Probably not.

It seems that we all have more than enough to do to fill our time. In fact, most of us feel that we could use a few more hours every day. That being said, a fair amount of the most pressing items on your to-do list might seem significant today, but, in retrospect, might not be critically important. To add value to your organization, learn how to prioritize projects so you are spending your time on things that will have the most significant positive impact on your bottom line.

Estimated Impact of Projects

When faced with a list of projects, the pivotal question to ask yourself is: “How will this project impact the company in six months?”

Experience has taught us that, although there are many projects that could seem important today, quite a few won’t really have much of an affect on the organization in the long run. For example, every salesperson at one time or another has found themselves postponing action with a major impact client by focusing on a quick sale that will be the final step in reaching a sales quota even though it probably won’t make a long-term impact on their income or the company’s health.

On the other hand, there are projects that don’t seem to have major impact now, but could have a profound effect on your company in the future. For example, when you were setting up your email marketing, you had to configure an autoresponder system for proper follow-up. That project took time and had no immediate pay-off, but in the long run will play an incredibly important role in customer service and future income.

Putting Out Fires vs. Seeking Opportunity

In today’s workplace, there are always going to be issues that seem urgent and problems that need to be solved immediately. People in the workplace are often looking for a fireman to put out their fire. Often these urgent problems are not that important to the big picture and can be set aside so more high-value opportunities can be addressed.

People who advance in their career are often those who know how and when to put seemingly critical fires onto the backburner so they and other team members can focus on impactful initiatives.

Successful people focus on opportunities and proactively concentrate their resources on opportunities rather than reacting to solve every problem regardless of their actual impact on the organization.

Leverage Projects

Masters of prioritization know that projects that help you do other projects better should be moved to the top of the to-do list. Examples of leverage projects include vetting and making decisions on equipment or software that improve internal systems so you can get more done or put educational systems in place so people can do their jobs better.

Summary

Although there are times that you need to be reactive and address problems, try to spend more time being proactive and focusing your resources on those projects that will help take your company to the next level. Concentrate your efforts on projects that help you grow in the long run, leverage-building projects and opportunities rather than fires.

The post Best Practices for Prioritization appeared first on Knucklepuck Media.