For this article we will discuss lead generation campaigns and assume that a website is the destination for your ads.

Here is what we’ll learn:

1. What is a conversion?
2. What is conversion tracking?
3. Why track conversions?
   1. Optimisation
   2. The conversion buzz and high morale marketing teams
   3. Data-driven decision making
4. How do we track conversions?
   1. Google Analytics 4 and Google Tag Manager
   2. Google Ads conversion tracking and the Google Tag
   3. Phone call tracking
5. What to do if you can’t track conversions?
6. Tracking enquiries, leads and sales with CRMs and spreadsheets
7. Conclusion

Firstly, let’s define a conversion.

What is a conversion?

A conversion is any valuable action that takes place on a website. Form submissions and phone calls are key examples of conversions on a website for lead gen and we usually call these enquiries.

An example of a conversion path is when a prospect searches on Google, sees your ad, clicks on it, visits the page and then calls the website number or submits a form, resulting in an enquiry for the business. These conversions can be tracked and reported in Google Ads and Google Analytics and indeed in CRM systems (Customer Relationship Management Systems) like HubSpot, Salesforce and Zoho. This is distinct to a conversion from an enquiry to a sale by the business owner or a sales team and that will come later.

Other examples of conversions are email address link clicks and booking a service via a booking system.

What is conversion tracking?

Conversion tracking is a system provided by Google and other providers that allows you to see when prospects enquired about your service after clicking on a Google ad. When a prospect submits a form or calls a phone number these actions are known as conversions.

But, why track conversions with conversion tracking? There are several important reasons, let’s take a look.

Why track conversions?

As a Google Ads consultancy, Espan Digital tracks everything we can so that we have the visibility of which Google Ads elements are resulting in conversions and driving profit for the business. Also, for Espan, it’s important to demonstrate to clients how the campaigns are performing and so that we can track ROI and demonstrate our value. With us, it’s all about the return you are getting from your Google Ads spend. In terms of lead generation there is little else that matters when it comes down to it.

Optimisation

If you know which elements in Google Ads convert then these elements can be optimised and improved, and vice versa, poor performing elements can be adjusted, paused or removed. This applies at many levels in Google Ads, from keyword bidding to blocking poor performing search terms with negative keywords to knowing which messaging in ads works best. We often ask, which elements had the highest volume of conversions, the lowest cost per enquiry (CPA) and highest conversion rates? Every element contributes to the overall performance and the goal of optimisation of these elements is to push the things that work best, eliminate high cost or poor performing elements, and regularly test new elements, for example adding new ads to out-compete the existing winning ads.

Optimal budget allocation is made easy when you know which campaigns convert well and are within your target cost per conversion.

Without conversions being reported you cannot answer questions such as “how much can I afford to spend on a conversion and still achieve my profit goals?”.

The conversion buzz and high morale marketing teams

One important thing for me about tracking conversions is that it’s a buzz when the conversions roll in. I recently calculated as part of the annual ROI calculations for clients, that every enquiry into one client’s website is worth an additional £1000 to their turnover.

Who doesn’t want a Google Ads specialist or indeed any member of your marketing team who gets a buzz every time a conversion occurs. This keeps motivation and morale high, and in turn results in increases to your bottom line. Don’t underestimate the power of conversion buzz and the client-agency relationship that enables this; Trust the specialists to put conversion tracking in place and your business will reap the benefits.

Data-driven decision making

Conversion tracking enables data-driven decisions. It’s less than ideal to rely on guesswork, estimations or assumptions; concrete data interpreted by an experienced Google Ads specialist always wins the day.

So, now we know why it’s important to track conversions, how do we track them?

How do we track conversions?

There are several methods to track conversions and several tools including the Google Ads system itself, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Google Tag Manager, which is a way to deploy tracking codes onto the website. We will also discuss phone call tracking, for example CallRail is a popular platform.

Let’s look at each of these methods.

Google Analytics 4 and Google Tag Manager

GA4 is Google’s website and app Analytics system and is a way to measure and understand user behaviour on a website, for example which pages were visited, how long people spent on the website and how they engaged with the website. GA4 also measures conversions. GA4 is built around website events like pageviews, scrolls, clicks and so on. An event such as a pageview of a form’s thank you page after you submit a form is important to us here. This is one method to track forms. When a conversion is measured in this way, the GA4 conversion can be imported into Google Ads and therefore you know which keyword resulted in that conversion. Great!

Google Tag Manager allows you to deploy the GA4 code onto a website from a centralised platform and in basic terms a ‘container’ of code is placed into the website into which other codes can be injected to get the tracking working. With Tag Manager you can very easily track things like clicks on email addresses and phone numbers (if you are not using a third-party call tracking system like CallRail).

Google Ads conversion tracking and the Google Tag

An alternative and superior method of tracking form submissions is by using Google Ads conversion tracking, the most recent development is the Google Tag which is viewed by Google as “one tag to rule them all”. The Google Tag uses a single Tag ID that fires to Google products including Google Ads and Google Analytics 4.

Google explains that “The Google tag is a single tag that you can add to your website to use a variety of Google products and services. Instead of managing multiple tags for different Google product accounts, you can use the Google tag across your entire website and connect the tag to multiple destinations.

The Google tag lets you send data from your website to linked Google product destinations to help you measure the effectiveness of your website and ads. The Google tag is currently only accessible and configurable from Google Ads and Google Analytics 4.”

So, instead of using multiple tags to measure different Google products, you can now use the Google Tag to consolidate those tags into one tag.

You can set up the Google Tag in Google Ads and Google Analytics 4.

Where can you find the Google Tag?

In the Google Ads web interface go to Tools > Google tag as shown below.

Where to find the Google Tag in the Google Ads interface

Setting up the Google Tag and conversion

Once set up, it looks like the image below – the Google Tag has an ID and this is firing into Google Ads. You can change various settings in the “Admin” tab top right.

Setting up the Google Tag

For a form submission where there is a thank you page you can set up a pageview event to trigger a conversion. You can find conversions in the Google Ads interface at Goals > Conversions and then click + New conversion action. See below:

Adding a new conversion action in Google Ads

Then choose Website so that you can track a pageview event. You can then scan the website for potential pages to track. See below:

Adding a website conversion, the first step to adding a pageview conversion for the thank you page

Then scan the website and choose + Add conversion action as seen in the image below.

Add a conversion action

Then select the Conversion goal = Page view and Event type = Page load and enter the URL of your form thank you page, i.e. the page that loads after a form submission. You can click “See more settings” to finalise the conversion configuration. See image below.

Set up and configure a pageview conversion

Finally, you need to add the Google Tag in Google Tag Manager to add it to your website – the tag type will be the Google Tag and you need to enter the Google Tag ID which is available in Google Ads from when we first set up the Google Tag in the first step of this process above. The trigger is All Pages, so it fires on every page.

Add the Google Tag via Google Tag Manager

Phone call tracking

Systems like CallRail can be utilised to track phone calls from the website and send that conversion into Google Ads. It’s an inexpensive but reliable solution that pays for itself.

How does call tracking work?

Your normal phone number will be on your website and when CallRail is installed, it swaps that normal number with a tracking number drawn from a pool of numbers that is assigned to your CallRail account. You can use local numbers as well as freephone numbers etc. Each website visitor sees a different number from the pool and when they call it the system knows several things about the call, including the traffic source of the phone call. The Google Ads/ CallRail integration facilitates the phone call conversion being sent into Google Ads, just like a form submission conversion. Call tracking is useful, and these days AI developments mean that you can do some clever phone call analysis, such as searching all phone calls for a keyword and identify sentiment, and the latter could be useful to help identify where your call handlers could improve.

If you receive most of your enquiries via the phone, then it’s important to track phone calls. CallRail and other systems track calls from all traffic sources and can be integrated into Google Analytics, so you know which channels deliver the most phone calls. This data is also available in CallRail.

What to do if you can’t track conversions?

We’ve seen several booking systems that are not commercially fit for purpose as little thought has gone into tracking and feeding the traffic source back into Google Ads and GA4. When looking at booking systems it’s important to ask these questions. Avoid systems that you cannot track at all costs otherwise you are working blindfolded and undoubtedly wasting money and advertising will be less effective when measurement can only be done on aggregate and with estimation and educated guesses.

Tracking enquiries, leads and sales with CRMs and spreadsheets

Now the enquiries are rolling in, and they are being tracked in Google Ads and Google Analytics, there needs to be a way for the business to track the enquiries/qualified leads in either a CRM (Customer Relationship Management System) or at least in a Google Sheet or Excel spreadsheet. Examples of CRMs are Salesforce, Zoho and HubSpot. Google Ads can feed enquiries and related information into CRM systems and vice versa. For example, when a form submission comes via Google Ads, it can be pushed into a CRM as a lead pre-populated with name, phone number etc. as well as an identifier called a Google Click Identifier or GCLID and when the lead turns into new business, the GCLID allows seamless tracking from ad click to eventually the invoice value recorded against that lead/account being pushed back into Google Ads, so you know which keyword etc. led to that transaction value and this helps to optimise the account. We will discuss how a business may effectively track and administer leads in another article.

Conclusion

We’ve looked at the importance of tracking conversions when using Google Ads and I hope I have convinced you that this is fundamental to the success of Google Ads.

We track conversions as it is vital for Google Ads optimisation, allows data-driven decision making and also drives a high-morale team who get a buzz when the conversions roll in.

For lead generation, the main sources of conversions are form submissions and phone calls and we looked at the different ways that these can be tracked. We discussed tracking conversions with Google Analytics and the Google Tag, and phone calls with systems like CallRail.

Look for booking systems etc that can track conversions and their traffic source.

If you take one thing away from this article, it’s perilous to not track conversions in Google Ads, and you will be throwing money away. Ensure your Google Ads agency is tracking conversions for you.

The post The importance of conversion tracking for Google Ads success appeared first on Espan.

The post Why waste is a natural part of Google Ads (and any advertising) and how to minimise it appeared first on Espan.

1. What’s the difference between a search term and a keyword
2. What is a negative keyword?
3. An example of a negative keyword
4. Why use negative keywords?
5. What’s a keyword match type?
6. How do I find negative keywords?
7. Where can I add negative keywords?

What’s the difference between a keyword and a search term?

When you add normal “positive” keywords to your Google Ads account, Google will show ads for those keywords when someone searches on Google, and that search of a word or phrase on Google is known as a search term.

What is a negative keyword?

A negative keyword allows you to block your ads showing in Google for that word or phrase.

An example of a negative keyword

For example, if you have a keyword “tennis shoes” in your account and you sell every colour except for red, then by adding the negative keyword “red”, your ads will never show if someone searches “red tennis shoes”, but will show for “blue tennis shoes” and “tennis shoes”.

Why use negative keywords?

When you use keywords in your Google Ads account, often they may be triggered by irrelevant search terms unrelated to your business. Negative keywords are used so that you do not waste money on irrelevant search terms for products or services you do not offer. So, negative keywords help control when your ads show and therefore boost profit, because the search terms align more with your offering and so convert to leads or sales at a better rate.

What’s a keyword match type?

As a Google Ads consultant, Espan Digital uses two keyword match types: phrase match and exact match. “tennis shoes” is a phrase match keyword and will show ads when other words are added to it when someone searches Google, so your ads can show for the searches “tennis shoes”, “blue tennis shoes” and “tennis shoes white”. [tennis shoes] is an exact match keyword and will have a narrower range of search terms that trigger the keyword. In times gone by, the only search term that could trigger the exact match keyword would be the exact term “tennis shoes” searched in Google. However, Google has loosened the matching in recent years and other words added to the search terms will also trigger your exact match keywords. Some experts have suggested that Google will move away from exact and phrase match and more towards “broad” match, a much looser match type, which will make negative keywords even more important.

How do I find negative keywords?

So, we know we need to add negative keywords and there are several approaches to finding them, as described below.

The search terms report

The search terms report is central to finding irrelevant search terms that triggered your keywords in your Google Ads account. This approach is not as effective as it once was, as these days, Google hides a large percentage of the search terms that triggered your keywords. Therefore, it is impossible to block these and so there is the potential to waste more money than you should do and there is some despair about this in the PPC community. However, it’s vital to regularly review the search terms report and add negative keywords. The search terms report can be found in the tree menu on the left of the Google Ads web interface as seen in the screenshot below. Campaigns > Insights and reports > Search terms. Find out more about the search terms report on Google.

Accessing search terms in the Google Ads interface

Brainstorming negative keywords

When setting up a new Google Ads account, we always add a list of negative keywords we brainstormed over the years and found to be useful for most accounts. So don’t forget to brainstorm.

Finding negative keywords with the Google Keyword Planner

Another source of negative keyword ideas is the Google Keyword Planner. When researching normal positive keywords for an account we use the Google Keyword Planner to search for keywords related to the main keywords and this can often highlight negative keywords too.

Finding negative keywords with Answer the Public

You can input a main keyword into https://answerthepublic.com and it will show related keywords and is a goldmine of potential negatives. You need to register to export the keywords.

Finding negative keywords with paid keyword research tools

There are other very useful paid keyword research tools, like SEMRush, SE Ranking and Ahrefs.

Where can I add negative keywords?

Now you’ve found all those lovely negative keywords, where can you add them in your Google Ads account? You can add negative keywords to a campaign or an ad group, (which contains a set of positive keywords). Campaign negative keywords will apply across the whole campaign, whereas ad group negative keywords will only apply to that ad group. This is useful when you have several ad groups in a campaign but you only want the negative keyword to apply to that ad group. You can apply negative keywords directly from the search term report. Negative keywords can also be added to an exclusion list in the Shared Library –  Tools > Shared library > Exclusion lists in the tree menu, see image below. This allows a list of negative keywords to be applied to multiple campaigns.

Add negative keywords to an exclusion list in the Shared Library

Finally, negative keywords can be added at the account level under Admin > Account settings > Negative keywords. See image below.

Add negative keywords at the account level

Negative match types

It’s worth mentioning as a final point that negative keywords can be added as exact, phrase or broad match. Exact match [tennis shoes] will only prevent ads showing for the exact search term “tennis shoes”. Phrase match will prevent ads showing for any search term that contains “tennis shoes” in that order. Broad match will prevent ads showing for any search term that contains “tennis shoes” in any order.

Next steps

Now we have found out all about negative keywords in Google Ads, all we need to do is add them!

The post Why negative keywords are essential to Google Ads performance appeared first on Espan.

Turn off Auto-Apply Recommendations (AAR) in the Google Ads web interface

Step 1 – Click Campaigns > Recommendations Step 2 – Above the recommendation cards click Auto-apply (clock icon) Step 3 – On the auto-apply page click Manage Step 4 – Uncheck all the checkboxes or deselect all using the button to opt out of auto-apply recommendations

Steps to turn off auto-apply recommendations in the web interface with screenshots

Step 1 – Click Campaigns > Recommendations Step 2 – Above the recommendation cards click Auto-apply (clock icon) Step 3 – On the auto-apply page click Manage Step 4 – Uncheck all the checkboxes or deselect all using the button to opt out of auto-apply recommendations A better way to solve this problem is using Google Ads Editor. Here are the action steps to achieve that.

Turn off Auto-Apply Recommendations (AAR) with Google Ads Editor

Step 1 – Click on Recommendations in the tree menu Step 2 – Click on Auto-apply in the tree menu Step 3 – Select all AARs in the list Step 4 – Select the disabled dropdown Step 5 – Post changes to make live

Steps to turn off Auto-Apply Recommendations in Google Ads Editor (with screenshots)

Step 1 – Click on Recommendations in the tree menu Step 2 – Click on Auto-apply in the tree menu Step 3 – Select all AARs in the list Step 4 – Select the disabled dropdown Step 5 – Post changes to make live  

The post Turn off Auto-Apply Recommendations (AAR) with Google Ads Editor appeared first on Espan.

How to turn off account level Automated Assets in Google Ads

In the tree menu on the left, click on Assets > Assets

On the right-hand side above the data table click the More … three dot menu

Click Account level automated assets

Click Account level automated assets settings tab

Turn off assets from this screen and choose the most appropriate reason for turning off, not that it matters.

Here are the steps with screenshots

1. In the tree menu on the left, click on Assets > Assets

2. On the right-hand side above the data table click the More … three dot menu

3. Click Account level automated assets

4. Click Account level automated assets settings tab

4. Turn off assets from this screen and choose the most appropriate reason for turning off, not that it matters.

This method is slow and laborious.

A better way to solve this problem would be using Google Ads Editor or to be able to select all assets in one click to turn off, but this is currently not possible.

The post Turn off account level Automated Assets in Google Ads appeared first on Espan.

1. Setting your business goals and objectives
2. Why is digital marketing so important?
3. Benefits of digital marketing
4. Digital marketing strategy
5. Types of digital marketing tactics
6. Having a digital presence
7. Customer audience online
8. Put the customer at the centre of everything you do
9. Poor customer experience
10. Traditional marketing and digital marketing

11. Our guide to digital marketing
11.1 Grow and increase organic search traffic with search engine marketing
11.2 Content marketing
11.3 Grow your social media followers
11.4 Social media marketing
11.5 Social media advertising
11.6 Use search in social media
11.7 Use Google Adwords Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising
11.8 Google Display Network
11.9 Email marketing opportunities
11.10 Influencer marketing
11.11 Online PR
11.12 Marketing automation
11.13 How marketing automation works
11.14 Inbound marketing, lead generation
11.15 Online reviews
12. Test your digital marketing and digital strategy
12.1 PPC and Google Adwords testing
12.2 Social media testing
12.3 E-newsletter testing
13. Measure campaigns
14. To summarise
15. Use your digital marketing to propel your business and profits

1. Setting your business goals and objectives

We always advise creating and forming digital marketing objectives for your online campaigns to understand how digital marketing is performing and where it can be improved.

Firstly, in order to set up relevant business goals and objectives, you should first consider the mission and goals of your business. Setting objectives that are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) will help you to focus on your activities, efforts and deliverables in order to meet your business targets and goals.

Goal and targets can include a range of aims, including increasing number of leads, selling more products, reaching new audiences or reducing costs. Defining these SMART objectives parameters as they pertain to your goal helps ensure that your objectives are attainable within a certain time frame.  It also helps to keep everyone in the business, at all levels and in all departments, focussed on what is to be achieved and what is important, and can filter through into projects, employee activities that need to be delivered and performance measurement.

A solid digital marketing strategy synched and structured to deliver your business goals will help to focus the marketing team so that they can focus on and fulfil their objectives in order to deliver the right marketing and digital strategy, within timescales and to budget.

2. Why is digital marketing so important?

Digital and the internet is ubiquitous. You can reach new audiences, locations and potentially have a global reach: there are no barriers to who and where you can reach with digital marketing. Using a range of digital marketing techniques, you can reach a wider customer base in a way that’s cost-effective, scalable and measurable. Virtually any business can have an online presence, and should be online.

But it’s not enough to just have a website up and running. Having a range of digital marketing tactics and a solid, workable digital marketing strategy ready is a necessity that you cannot be without, especially if your competitors are already doing well with their digital marketing.

Having a website is part of your digital marketing realm, it is an important part, however all of the other digital marketing tactics and elements are just as important and each have a role to play. Integrating them smartly and effectively, will further help you with your online presence, brand awareness, leads, sales and profits.

I have met many agencies who scoff at Search Engine Optimization, saying it is a waste of time. But it’s a necessity, because it is not enough to create a website and leave it, you have to optimise your core pages so that you can gain traction in search results to help customers find you. And all of this takes time, however with a steady strategy and plan that is realistic and can be implemented, you can make the big changes that need to be done with effective digital marketing.

3. Benefits of digital marketing

Some of the key benefits of digital marketing include:

• Widening your reach and customer base
• Understanding, nurturing and growing your customers
• Interacting with your prospects and learning exactly what they are looking for. Getting feedback is key to good customer service
• Targeting the right audience at the right time as digital marketing makes personalisation easier. You can personalise your digital marketing according to your customers’ needs and wants
• Communicating with your prospects at every stage of the buying journey
• Reaching more customers cost-effectively
• Getting to know your audience and driving engagement to create brand loyalty. Easily offer loyalty incentives, offers and discounts
• Mix and opt for what digital marketing you prefer to use and works well for your business
• Track, measure and monitor your digital marketing in real-time, instantly and accurately.

4. Digital marketing strategy

It is essential these days to have a digital marketing strategy that will help you to build and operate a framework for your digital marketing. It is also important that your digital marketing across varied digital channels work together rather than separately so that you can maximise reach, brand awareness and promotion opportunities.

Customers will be online at different times, on different digital channels and moving through a digital, customer journey and funnel. It is important that all of your digital marketing channels work harmoniously so you have the best chance of being seen by customers, and best of all, more than once.

An effective digital marketing strategy means that you will consider and plan all elements of online marketing and digital marketing tactics that can work together via online channels. A digital marketing strategy and plan will also identify the online marketing tools that you should be using and focusing on.

A digital strategy and online marketing tactics will include social media, search engine optimization, email marketing, content marketing. It can also include other digital marketing tactics such as online PR, inbound marketing and digital marketing campaigns to boost sales and increase brand awareness.

5. Types of digital marketing tactics

Digital marketing offers a whole suite and portfolio of online marketing channels and tools that you can use and integrate, including:

• Pay Per Click (PPC) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
• Content marketing
• Social media marketing
• Affiliate marketing
• Native advertising/online advertorials
• Email marketing
• Inbound marketing
• Sponsored content
• Instant messaging marketing
• Marketing automation
• Online PR
• Online reviews

6. Having a digital presence

Digital marketing will give you online presence for your customers on the desktop and on mobile devices. Typically well over half of customers will be using mobile devices, so you must have a responsive website that is speedy to load and browse.

Having an excellent, mobile website that works quickly and easily for your customers could be the difference between them staying on your website and clicking off to another website.

7. Customer audience online

It is also really important to understand and define who your target audience is that you want to target with your digital marketing. Ask yourself questions such as who would buy your product or service, what is their demographic, how much would they spend, how can you segment them in order to target them with each and/or a combination of online channel.

What brand loyalty do they have, and how can you build upon that brand awareness and brand loyalty?

To hone into your ideal customer, build personas for your target audience and digital marketing. Personas define who your customers are to make them more tangible to you and your digital marketing. You can scope their likes, aspirations, motivations, behaviours, demographics and reasons to buy from you. Find out more about creating personas from Gartner here. https://www.gartner.com/en/marketing/insights/articles/whats-in-a-name-creating-personas-for-digital-marketing

8.  Put the customer at the centre of everything you do

The most important thing is that you put your customers at the heart of everything you do.

Customers and clients can be fickle and quick to judge online, and it is easy for customers to click and go elsewhere if you are not meeting their expectations and requirements and giving them what they want, when they want it, and served in a simple and easy way.

You could have the best digital marketing strategy and plan, however if the experience on the website is poor or worse – for instance, customers cannot find what you have been advertising further up the customer journey chain and therefore what they are looking for.

So it’s really important to see the holistic, digital customer journey and digital marketing from the beginning to end, to ensure that it is fulfilling a faultless customer experience when it comes to calls to action and conversions.

Failure to do this will result in a waste of money and resources, as customers will not take the actions you want them to take with your digital marketing and your efforts will fall at the last hurdle. Ultimately your goal is to convert your customers and prospects and get them to take the action you want, whether that is purchasing, signing up, contacting you, filling out a form or making a call.

9. Poor customer experience

We have seen many times when the customer experience has failed and has been poor, which has rendered the digital marketing and spend to get them there useless. Pay great attention to the detail at the user and customer experience end and how you want your customers and prospects to convert and what actions you want to drive.

10. Traditional marketing and digital marketing

Traditional marketing, or offline marketing, can also work really well with digital marketing and digital marketing techniques, so remember to consider and plan these in alongside your online marketing tactics. Traditional marketing can include print advertising, press, radio, print direct mail and Out of Home (OOH) advertising.

For instance, plan and synchronise traditional media and print advertising with your online advertising, social media marketing and content marketing, so that it all works together and you have the same, consistent marketing message and positioning which is optimised across digital marketing channels and traditional marketing channels.

Get more out of your traditional advertising in printed and OOH advertising by carefully and cleverly planning your digital marketing alongside these traditional forms of marketing. The `opportunities to see’ by potential customers across traditional and digital channels will become greater and you will get more out of your ad spend overall.

If you are running print direct mail campaigns, then develop creatives that can be used in both print and your digital marketing, so that they look consistent and familiar. Repurpose and run the direct mail creative and messaging online, for instance, setting up a campaign landing page that will tie everything in together and seamlessly.

Put any press PR and articles online so that you can show off your press publicity and demonstrate your reach, both online and offline. Put any radio or TV interviews online and on your website so that customers can listen and watch your PR coverage.

Ensure that all of your print marketing materials have your online details, including your website and social media channels. For online PDF document downloads, activate the links to your online channels, content and website, it is surprising how often this is not done!

11. Our guide to digital marketing

Here is our guide to setting up effective online and digital marketing and factoring these elements into your digital marketing strategy.

11.1 Grow and increase organic search traffic with search engine optimisation

Organic search engine traffic is essential and can be the most profitable traffic for your website because it is free to you. One of your main digital marketing objectives is to see an increase in organic search traffic, whether from Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines.

Once you have decided to invest in search engine optimisation (SEO), it will take some time to get your website search engine friendly, and to make changes that will help you achieve better natural rankings in the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages).

So how do you do this?  Ensure that your site is optimised for your relevant keywords, including your website content, title and meta tags. Research the best keywords for you and focus on those keywords and themes so that search engines can find you. Make sure to optimise your core service and product web pages that are promoting what you offer and sell.

Also look at your internal cross-linking to your pages within your website pages, and make sure that they use your keywords and make sense to the user.

Avoid any unethical or ‘Black Hat’ SEO tactics on your website as this will catch up with you and Google may penalise you.

11.2 Content marketing

Next, concentrate and work on your content marketing strategy. Content marketing will help you to create valuable content that is relevant to your business and helps customers with what they are looking for. Other websites may want to link to your content too. Google and search engines love new content that is a good quality and informative. Online content can be written by anyone in your company. Great content marketing is also ideal for staff who have the expertise to write valuable online content to help customers make decisions and promote what you do.

Keep content varied. Content can include written, blogs and articles, e-books, downloads and thought leadership, opinion articles and white papers, infographics, online video and podcasts.

11.3 Grow your social media followers

Social media is a great platform to grow followers and increase your brand awareness using a variety of social media channels. With some algorithmic changes over time, it has been harder to gain thousands of followers on social media platforms, as their business model lends itself to more paid advertising than free and organic newsfeed listings and appearances. Nevertheless, it is still a relatively cost effective way to reach new audiences, increase followers and promote your products and brand, without the need for advertising.

Create engaging content that is of interest to your followers and is shareable on social media, promote sales and discounts on social media and also use social media marketing for lead generation. There are a number of ways to do this, take a look at the https://business.facebook.com/ to find out ways in which to grow followers and many other helpful functions to grow reach.

You can also repurpose your social media posts and content for the different social media platforms, so Facebook could be more informative, Instagram and Tik Tok more visual and Twitter more newsworthy.

11.4 Social media marketing

With social media, don’t just set up a page or account and post occasionally and let your social media pages and accounts go out of date. Your regular and current social media presence and engagement with your social media followers is key to build and nurture relationships with your followers and potential customers, and to keep your brand and products in your audiences’ minds.

If you cannot be bothered to update your social media regularly, why would customers be bothered to keep up with you? Additionally, lax and outdated social media pages and accounts will disappear from newsfeeds and be discounted by the constant algorithms that work behind the scenes.

So it’s really important to regularly engage, post, interact and comment on your page with your followers. Ask customers for feedback and to post and share photos of your products or services, use your social media accounts as a two-way communications platform as well as for online promotions.

All of your interactions will help to create a healthy, ongoing dialogue with your customers and potential customers.

11.5 Social media advertising

Social media marketing can also include social media ads which may be something to consider. Social media ads are still quite hit and miss and not ideal for detailed and targeted audiences, however can be good for general brand awareness building.

Be aware that the social media advertising interfaces and targeting functionality can be quite clunky and unsophisticated, so ensure that you test your campaigns and that they are working effectively.

11.6 Use search in social media

Often overlooked is that social media is a great place for customers to search for products, information and locations. So add and use hashtags to your posts, as social is an effective search tool, and you never know how customers will find you!

11.7 Use Google Ads Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising

PPC advertising, or Google Ads and Bing Ads, are ideal for all kinds of businesses, products and services. Using PPC advertising as part of your digital promotional mix has many benefits.

PPC is highly targeted and sophisticated and can drive a high volume of targeted website traffic and qualified website visitors for your business.

Google Ads are quick to implement and adverts can be live and appearing to your prospects in less than an hour. Conversions can be tracked using Google Analytics and the Google Ads platform. The Return on Investment (ROI) is easy to calculate and transparent so that you know exactly how your campaigns are working and performing.

Adverts and campaigns can be readily turned on and off and it is easy to change advert creatives, website links, messaging and text.

We recommend regular campaign optimisation and PPC management by a professional Google Ads consultant, like us, who will keep your adverts performing at their best and maintain the optimum ROI with your ad spend.

11.8 Google Display Network

As well as using Google Adwords for the normal search results, you can increase brand and product awareness by utilising Google’s Display Network as part of your Google Ads digital marketing tactic.

This extensive digital ads channel has a network of millions of websites across the internet that you can promote your text and banner ads on. This gives your business and products even more reach opportunity and serves as a reminder of your brand to those who have already visited your website, and  are actively searching for a business and products like yours.

Using the Google Display Network is also a great way to promote your business, product or service to a target audience that is not yet aware of your business and what you offer.

11.9 Email marketing opportunities

E-newsletters have been around since the year dot, and is still an under-used and glaringly obvious way to communicate with your audience. Your customers and potential customers who have taken the time to sign up and opt-in to your emails and  e-newsletters have already demonstrated a greater level of trust and confidence in your brand and products. They have also acted and shown that they want to hear from you and know more about your business and products.

So this should, without a doubt, be one of your top digital marketing objectives. Stay in touch with your subscribers regularly, at least once a month, and keep it interesting and engaging. An email marketing campaign can offer discounts, sales, vouchers, information and also drive your customers to your website with great content.  A good starting incentive to opt-in is to offer a discount when signing up to your e-newsletter, and you can easily offer this on your website.

It is important that you have a double opt-in to prevent spammers from signing up and ensure that all subscribers are qualified, as this will prevent problems.

Many email platforms have a free option for a capped volume of subscribers to start you off, and the measurement of opening, click and click through rates are very good, so you can see just how effective your e-newsletter content is and the most popular content.

11.10 Influencer marketing

An influencer marketing strategy can be included as part of your PR, digital marketing and/or social media marketing. Advocates become ambassadors for your brand and influence their followers to purchase from your business.

It’s important to find the right ambassadors for your ethos and business, and those that have influence to make it worthwhile as it can take time to build, nurture and maintain relations and marketing efforts with high profile influencers.

11.11 Online PR

Often forming part of influencer marketing, online PR is a great way to reach new stakeholders and audiences, not just customers. Use press and media coverage as part of your digital marketing to promote your brand and products.

Awards, whether local, regional or national, are a great way to get attention, credibility and kudos, as are photo opportunities and clever and creative press stunts.

Influencers can form part of your PR strategy with endorsements and to generate wider brand awareness, loyalty and reach, and use any print and broadcast press online too.

11.12 Marketing automation

Marketing automation systems are ideal for mass and volume based marketing campaigns and are useful for larger and mid-size businesses, although automation is scalable for small businesses.

These marketing platforms will integrate with other CRM and digital technologies, such as Salesforce, Oracle and Adobe that will give a 360 degree view of your customer contacts and interactions.

Marketing automation can be defined as a platform and system that automates, streamlines and measures marketing tasks, outputs and workflows, to increase operational efficiency and grow revenue faster.

This system can create marketing campaigns on omni and multiple channels and automate repetitive activities and marketing tasks. It’s ideal for all types of marketing including:

• Segmentation
• Relationship marketing
• Lead nurturing
• Lead generation
• Cross-sell and upsell
• Retention
• Return on investment (ROI) measurement
• Account-based marketing

11.13 How marketing automation works

Customers want to find out what they want to know, and when it suits them. A lot of customers want to do their research and learn at their own pace, so that they can make an informed and confident decision to purchase from a supplier.

A well defined and constructed automation strategy makes this a reality for customers and prospects and can instil a process and system that does not rely on overworked and stressed digital marketers. It can maintain a good level of engagement with prospects and customers, and help account and sales managers with managing clients.

Marketing campaigns and programmes can be created and set up to run at any time, as everything is pre-set and automated.

Customer interaction and engagement can be tracked, scored and monitored and further marketing is optimised and retargeted to move that customer along the decision making journey and closer to the point of purchase. This can be aided with personalised and relevant information that is served at the right time to that customer.

This automated approach is completely customer-centric and allows you to nurture prospects with relevant and useful information across multiple channels until they are ready to buy.

This type of system will also provide scoring and analytical information so that you can closely monitor and learn more about your customers, their behaviours and the types of information that they find useful and relevant. Automation will give you an insight into what your customers are looking for and require.

Automation can assist by helping you scale your programmes and campaigns, delivering more personalised marketing and targeted communications, aligning with sales, and measuring effectiveness.

11.14 Inbound marketing, lead generation

There are many types of specific digital marketing objectives that you may want to focus on for your businesses.

For a sales-driven environment, lead generation would be key digital marketing tactics used by digital marketers to maintain your vital sales funnel and list of prospective customers.

Inbound marketing will pull customers to your website and digital assets with compelling content will fulfil their questions, wants and needs. Inbound marketing is therefore customer-centric and all about the customer, moving them along the customer buying and decision making journey. This type of marketing is highly effective with technology marketing to customers and B2B customers.

Inbound marketing can include a range of digital marketing tools including content and content strategy, PPC Google Adwords advertising, social media, email marketing and messaging. I would categorically state that ALL of your digital marketing and digital communication to customers should have an element of inbound marketing and Call to Action (CTA) to them, which is designed to bring the user back to your website and sales and/or shop front.

11.15 Online reviews

Another vital part of the digital marketing armoury is online reviews which helps the referral and word of mouth marketing element and helps to build your credibility.

The best and most trusted form of marketing is peer recommendation and reviews online are crucial for this.

Implement a process that proactively asks happy and delighted customers for their feedback and review, using Google reviews, TrustPilot, Review.com etc.

12. Test your digital marketing and digital strategy

For all of your digital marketing, it is really important to test everything you do to improve and enhance your digital marketing efforts. Putting out a cold campaign or piece of content is great to test the water, however it may need to be honed and further worked on to make sure that it is performing at its best and optimum level.

Ensure that your digital strategy is aligned and working at its best, and all of the digital marketing and digital channels are working harmoniously and hard for your business.

12.1 PPC and Google Ads testing

For your PPC campaigns, create at least 2-4 ads for split testing. You can test anything within your campaigns, including prices, text, landing pages, creatives and offers.

Without testing, you won’t know which features or benefits your target markets are most responsive to and whether conversions could perform better with a few edits and changes.

12.2 Social media testing

Use your insights to see what content is popular and what type of post works best on your accounts. For instance, videos may perform better than images and sharing links. Do more of what works well.

12.3 E-newsletter testing

As covered earlier, some email platforms such as Mailchimp and Mailer Lite will have a free plan for up to 1000 subscribers and a single user. Within these platforms, there will be an in-built tester functionality which uses different titles and determines the best email version to send based on the number of opens. The test is done in real time and works it all out for you.

Take a look at your open and click rates too to measure the most engaging and popular content and what your subscribers are interested in, and create more of that content.

13. Measure campaigns

For all online campaigns, run a campaign report and audit after the end of the campaign so that you can measure each digital channel and tactic, as well as research the overall digital performance and reach for all of the channels that you have used. From the data and analytics, you will be able to see the best ROI digital tactic and the worst, cost and spend and number of sales, leads and conversions.

If you have run separate or different campaigns, don’t look at them in isolation. Measure and compare them together, what worked well and what didn’t, and are there any inferences you can draw to make a future, super campaign?

14. To summarise

It’s important that you have a digital marketing strategy that helps you deliver effective marketing objectives and that will lead to online success for your business. Small businesses and large businesses alike should all consider digital marketing and techniques that work best for them.

Have a digital strategy. Every successful business will have a digital marketing strategy in place with a full plan of digital marketing channels for their digital marketing tactics and marketing campaigns and a clear understanding of who their target audience is.

Traditional marketing plays a part. Traditional forms of marketing are just as important, and can leverage your digital marketing efforts and make your brand appear professional and together to your target audience.

Take a holistic approach. It is also important not to overlook digital marketing and digital marketing tactics, be clear what digital channel you are using for your marketing campaigns and how they will work together. Digital marketers should look at all of the digital marketing channels holistically in order to optimise each one and ensure that they work together seamlessly.

Resourcing your digital marketing. Of course, resources play a big part and exactly how many people you have to deliver a digital marketing strategy will be dependent on the size of your business, your investment and requirements. However, digital marketing can be adapted and tailored according to your resources, and if you have good performance and success, it could well be the catalyst for further digital marketing investment and spend.

Use the whole suite of online marketing tools available to you, utilising all channels and try out new things with your marketing efforts. We’re a great advocate for trying new things, even if you start off slowly and small. Everything can be tested and measured and your time, money and resources put into the digital marketing that really work for your business.

Keep up with the trends. Digital marketing can change quickly and regularly, so keep up on all of the digital industry trends and best practice. Small businesses can learn from larger businesses particularly with digital transformation and marketing, just scale it according to your resources.

Digital is affordable. The best thing is the affordability digital marketing gives to marketers. Whatever your spend or budget is, you can cater for all types of digital marketing tactics and measure its performance. Large and small businesses have access to free analytical tools, and more sophisticated paid ones where required.

Support your business goals. Done right, digital marketing helps and will support all of these objectives and goals for your business. Digital marketing makes many opportunities that you can test, rollout and adapt according to its success and performance.

Measure results. The beauty of digital marketing is that you can measure in real-time and understand performance quickly and easily using a range of analytical and data benchmarks and measurement.

15. Use your digital marketing to propel your business and profits

Digital marketing is the best platform and techniques for pushing the boundaries, reaching new customers, experimenting, building and retaining customer relationships, finding out what customers want and expect, and measuring what you do and every £1 that you spend.

That is why it’s important that you have a digital marketing strategy that helps you create and drive effective business and marketing objectives and that will lead to online success for your business. It’s a no brainer to use and take advantage of all of these digital marketing tactics and tools, so make it a priority.

Get in touch with us if you would like us to help with your digital marketing.

The post Digital marketing for business appeared first on Espan.

Headline 1 = 30 characters
Headline 2 = 30 characters
Description = 80 characters
Directory Path 1 & 2 = 15 characters each

This is a 47.4% increase in combined headline and description ad copy character length.

Google created this new format to unify a multi device mobile first world. The precursor to this was Google removing ads on the side of search results.

My Experience of Transitioning a Large AdWords Account

One of the accounts I manage has over 10,000 ads, so not a huge account, but fairly large. So, how do you transition from standard text ads to ETAs in this scenario?

The solution I have started to use on the account involves exporting from AdWords Editor and editing in Excel. You can export ads as ETAs by following the instructions at AdWords Support.

As you can see in the screenshot below, in the Text Ads view in Editor, you will see an “Export as” button on the top middle right and you select the ads you want to export, then click on the button and select “Export as expanded text ads”.

Adwords Editor button to export Expanded Text Ads

This exports a CSV file where you can add a Headline 2 and directory Path 1 and Path 2, which replace the Display URL. For some ads I added a generic call to action for Headline 2 that worked across many ads and this was a “quick fix”. For other ads I replaced existing strings of words with other strings to result in well-written ads that are coherent and work well when incorporating the Headline 2. You can then import the edited file into AdWords Editor, creating ETAs. It isn’t a perfect solution, and took some time to get things right. One issue is that the messaging was slightly different with the new ads where I edited the strings. Also, many different local area ad groups adds to the complexity. I only tried this on a small number of campaigns as a test and will roll out more in the future.

Worth noting is that with longer ad copy, and with a shift in emphasis of messaging, you will need to review your Ad Extensions to ensure that the entire ad and extensions work holistically, for example eliminating duplication.

Early Results from Expanded Text Ads Versus Standard Text Ads

Does the new ETA format outperform a standard ad? Not enough conversion data has accumulated yet, so I focused on changes in click through rates (CTR) when testing performance. My early tests and results are positive and generally there is an increase in CTR on the new ads compared to the old, although this is not always the case in each ad group. With more ad text available it makes sense that CTR would increase, especially with an early advantage over other advertisers in the market yet to make the transition. Overall in the account, CTR increased by 8% for a limited test period, although there are marketing industry reports that indicate higher CTR increases. I also expect Quality Score to receive a boost.

As an AdWords Consultant, we’re keen to observe future results and how ETAs impact the conversion rates in our accounts.

The post AdWords Expanded Text Ads for Large Accounts appeared first on Espan.

What are Enhanced Campaigns?

Google has updated Adwords to reflect the growing use of multiple devices to access the web, such as computers, laptops, tablets and mobile phones. Google says Adwords ‘lets you capture the power of context’, ‘context such as location, time of day and device matter and provide you more opportunities to reach people with more relevant messages’. So, advertisers can more easily reach customers with ads that are more suited to their search context.

From one campaign, bids can be adjusted across devices, for time of day and for location. For example, a pizza takeaway can target a radius of 10 miles around their store and can increase bids for prospective customers within 5 miles of the store.

There have been mixed reactions to Enhanced Campaigns from Marketers and here are some of the advantages and disadvantages:

• You cannot target mobile devices only any more
• You cannot target specific mobile networks or devices any more
• You cannot target tablets only, this is now grouped with desktop campaigns
• You can now serve ad extensions at the adgroup level rather than just at campaign level
• You can now schedule times to show Sitelinks
• You can now adjust bids (plus or minus percentage) for geography in one campaign

Who should upgrade now and who should wait?

Those who should wait include those running mobile only campaigns, those targeting tablets only or targeting tablets in a different way to desktops and those whose tablet campaigns have a major difference in cost per conversion to other devices.

Those who should consider upgrading early include those not focusing on mobile specific campaigns, those who would benefit from bidding differently for various geographies and those who have many campaigns only for the reason of using different Extensions such as Sitelinks.

Conclusion

Before upgrading it is recommended to have an upgrade plan in place, especially for larger or more complicated accounts, get to know the new Enhanced Campaign system by copying an existing campaign and testing it. Before upgrading ensure that you backup all campaigns and data, such as Sitelink data. One aspect to consider after upgrading is to ensure that the campaign settings such as ad scheduling is set correctly.

For advice on upgrading to Adwords Enhanced Campaigns, talk to a Google Ads consultant.

Sources
https://searchengineland.com/should-you-upgrade-to-adwords-enhanced-campaigns-148240

The post Demystifying Google AdWords Enhanced Campaigns appeared first on Espan.

1. Don’t have any objectives and don’t plan your campaign

You will need to set up a campaign by thoroughly planning it first. Produce a questionnaire to answer questions such as ‘What are my business goals for my PPC campaign?’ and answer questions as precisely as possible. For example with the question above you may answer:  ‘I want to increase sales by x%’, or ‘I want to increase my leads per month by x’. By initially defining goals, you will be able to benchmark success once the campaign is running.  Other questions that may be advantageous to ask are ‘Who are my competitors?’, ‘Who is my target audience?’ and ‘What are my Unique Selling Propositions (USPs)?’ or ‘How can I differentiate my company from my competitors?’. If you need to, perform further research on your industry.

2. Use default settings and throw your money away

Don’t set up your Adwords campaign yourself if you are not sure of what you are doing; you may save money in the long run by having a qualified Google Ads Consultant set it up for you.

By using the default settings for Adwords, you may be opted in to the Display Network (ads on 3^rd party sites), as well as the Search Network (ads on Google search results pages). Usually, initially, we want to target the Search Network only. You may also waste a lot of money on irrelevant clicks by not using negative keywords (keywords such as ’free’ that will prevent your ad showing for searches that contain those terms). See more on negative keywords below. Don’t set up one campaign and throw 100’s of keywords into one adgroup (groups of closely related keywords and their associated ads). We have often seen this for clients that come to us saying that their accounts are not performing well. Remember, keep very focused.

3. Don’t think about your account structure

Before setting up a campaign, ensure that you define your account structure. An Adwords account is made up of campaigns, which contain adgroups, which contain keyword phrases and associated ads. Often the account structure will mirror the way your website is set up. For example, if you offer holidays, you may have a section on Spain and a section on France and within the Spain section you may have pages for Madrid and Barcelona and so on. Your account may then have one campaign for Spain and one for France. For the Spain campaign you would have adgroups for Madrid and Barcelona.

4. Don’t do any competitor research

Ensure you research your competitors so that you can differentiate your company with the USPs you identified in your campaign planning. Also, competitor research can help with keyword research.

5. Go for any old keywords

Don’t set up your campaigns for generic or inappropriate keywords phrases, get specific. Use keyword tools such as Wordtracker, Keyword Discovery and the Google Adwords Keyword Tool to carry out keyword research and develop a list of keywords for each adgroup defined in the account structure.

6. Forget about negative keywords

Forget negative keywords at your peril. Build a negative keyword list by brainstorming and using keyword research tools. Negative keywords prevent your ads from showing for irrelevant searches and this helps to boost click through rate (CTR) and conversion rate and saves you money on irrelevant clicks. For our holiday example, negatives might be ‘jobs’ and ‘skiing’ as we don’t offer skiing holidays and we are not looking to recruit.

7. Create one ad and reuse it for everything

Don’t use the same ad in every adgroup or even worse, don’t use only one ad for the whole account. Create at least 2 unique ads for each adgroup tailored to the keywords in your adgroups so that you can compare the performance of each ad in the adgroup and test out different messaging. Mention the main keyword phrase in the ad title or headline and ideally once in the ad copy also. Include your USPs and benefits in ads, as well as a call to action such as ‘Call Today’. Don’t land all your ads on your Home page, rather land visitors on the page that is most relevant to the ad.

8. Use Adwords settings to show your ads to the whole world

Adjust settings for each campaign, for example geo-targeting settings will show your ad in the defined area, such as England only or the whole of the UK.

Other important settings include opting out of the Display Network (ads on 3^rd party sites). The Display network can be useful, but it is better to separate out Search Network ads and Display Network ads because you have more control.

9. Waste money and miss opportunities by not tracking your visitor data

Google Analytics

Track visitor usage by using Google Analytics, a free web analytics solution.  You can view statistics on how your Adwords campaign is performing, as well as other data such as non-paid visits, content viewed and the ratio of new to returning visitors.

Adwords conversion tracking

When driving traffic from your Adwords campaign it is vital that you measure whether visitors performed the action that you wanted them to on your site, for example filling out a contact form or making a purchase. Adwords conversion tracking does just this by inserting a small piece of code on the contact form ‘thank you’ page for example.  If someone clicks on your ad and then fills out your contact form, they will trigger a conversion in Adwords and this is tied to the keyword phrase they used to search with.

10. Leave your account to run itself and don’t monitor it

Don’t set up your Adwords account and then leave it to run without monitoring; closely monitor your Adwords account. Bids will need to be adjusted and you may need to pause keywords and add more keywords and negative keywords. Daily budget may also need to be adjusted.

11. Ignore ongoing optimisation

Don’t just monitor your account, take action and optimise it! Based on the feedback from monitoring and analysis of the account, improve the account to increase your performance and see increased click through rates and conversion rates and lower your cost per click.

We have seen 11 approaches to PPC campaign set-up that lead to poor results and 11 solutions that improve set up. Adwords and other PPC platforms can be profitable if set up in the right way.

Please let us know in the comments how your Adwords campaign is set up.

The post How is Your PPC Campaign Set Up? 11 Ways On How Not To Run a PPC Campaign appeared first on Espan.

• Attract new customers
• Sell your products or services
• Convert to leads and sales

There are some dos and don’ts for creating a great website and most importantly of all to give your customers an excellent experience on your website so that they don’t want to go elsewhere. Here is a checklist of 11 essential issues to prevent your customers clicking off your website.

1.         Get great web design

If your website is poorly designed, graphically and in terms of usability, it is going to put potential customers off. Your design needs to portray you in a professional way, using good design practices that are also up-to-date. A customer centric design will encompass the goals of your target audience whilst also achieving your business goals. For more on usability please see Jakob Nielsen’s website.

2.         Have clear navigation

Poor navigation on your website is going to confuse your customers as well as present a confusing website for your business. Designing and executing a clear and workable navigational structure throughout your website will enable customers to get to the information that they need quickly. If you have confusing navigation and users need to click a number of times to find hidden information, you are going to lose them to your competitors’ website. A search function is also a useful addition to aid navigation, but make sure you have a good search system in place so customers can find what they are looking for quickly.

3.         Don’t use clashing colours

Colours in design can be very subjective, but there are basic rules for using colours for good web design and also that applies to accessibility rules and regulations. Colour backgrounds for copy need to allow users to read your content easily, and makes sure contrasting colours don’t fight with each other on-screen,  giving your customers a poor experience. You can use colour in some great design ways and it’s best to use colours that contrast tonally well.

4.         Write engaging and clear content

Websites need to be clear about what their purpose is to the user straight away. So make sure that your site has concise and clear copy that explains what you do and what you offer at what price and how to find out further information.

Also make sure that you have all the information that your customers need and are looking for, rather than what your organisation wants your customer to know, and don’t use jargon or technical terms that externally customers won’t recognise.  Good content also goes hand in hand with clear navigation.

Your customers should be able to know what you do within 30 seconds of being on your website. Don’t write huge volumes of words on your website as customers won’t read all of it, so write your most important facts in the first paragraph of each page and make it succinct. Avoid marketing speak and fluffy words, just get straight to the point so you are clear.

5.         Don’t install pop-ups

Pop-ups are pop-up windows that appear on the screen without customers wanting them to. This is a real-turn off for users, because it is interruptive and intrusive to what they are trying to do on your site. Some companies use pop-ups for surveys, but it’s best to have these appear after a couple of minutes so that your customer has a chance to use and look at your site before answering the survey!

6.         Ensure fast loading

If your website has huge image files or a flash presentation that needs to load, you are making your customers wait for your website to appear. Not all customers will wait, they want to get to information quickly and easily, and a slow loading website is likely to make them go to another site.

7.         Have a clear call to action

The reason why you have a website is to create and convert leads and generate sales. So it’s vital that you have a clear call to action on your website. What is it that you want your customers to do? Do you want them to book a room directly, book a car service, contact you by phone, email or send a message via a contact form to you? However you want to handle your leads, put it clearly on your website and make the contact options clear to your customers.

8.         Stay clear of flash introductions

For some reason, flash introductions seem to be just as popular as they were ten years’ ago. Very often flash introductions are forced onto a user before they can get to any other part of the website. You may think that flash introductions are a crowd-pleasing attribute for your website, but they are not a great experience for your customers. Flash can be slow to load and is often a turn-off and barrier to people who just want to get onto a site quickly. If you must have a flash introduction, then make it optional for users to view and turn-off and on.

9.         Use video with content

Some businesses use video only to explain what they do, with long videos on their website pages expecting customers to sit and watch them. If you have video, make sure  you also have content on your website that explains what you do and what you offer, and that the video is an added option to view rather than the only thing to view otherwise you will lose customers who don’t have time to watch videos.

10.       Give scent trails

Your customers may be browsing for a while on your site and get sidetracked along the way into other areas of your website. To get your customers back on track again, make sure you include scent or breadcrumb trails in your website so it’s easy for your customers to find their way around and the  information they are looking for.

11.       Optimise for users and the search engines

Some web design companies will design your site without thinking about the longer term goal of delivering traffic to it. Holistic and best-practice web design will include optimisation for visitors but also search engine optimisation to include your target keywords sensibly on each page.

The post How To Stop Customers Clicking Off Your Website appeared first on Espan.