February 25th, 2016

The Benefits of Using a PPC Agency

When it comes to getting serious about your PPC strategies, should you opt for an in-house manager or a PPC agency? Many companies opt to manage their own PPC initially. But as campaigns gain momentum, it usually becomes clear that they need to dedicate more resources to their advertising efforts.

Deciding whether you should hire someone to join your company full-time to manage PPC or work with an agency can be a challenging decision to make. Having a dedicated, in-house PPC manager may seem like the ideal solution. But for many companies, opting to work with an agency can be a better resource for optimizing PPC campaigns. If you’re weighing your options and considering whether you should hire an in-house PPC manager or use an agency, here are a few key things to keep in mind.

1. PPC Campaigns Don’t End After Office Hours

The major perceived benefit of having an in-house PPC employee is that the person managing your campaigns will be available at all times. In reality, this assumption doesn’t always hold true. Employees often have set hours and don’t work weekends, even if your campaigns continue to run after hours. Additionally, even the most dedicated employee will eventually need to take vacation days or sick days. If you’ve focused all your PPC management in a single person, your campaigns will have to adhere to that person’s schedule.

With an agency you don’t need to worry about these things. Agency representatives can be on-call around the clock, giving you all the attention that an in-house employee would give. While it can be cheaper to hire a PPC manager in-house, the amount of experience and expertise you gain from working with a PPC agency far outstrips the value of a single employee.

2. Exposure to New Ideas Breeds Better Campaigns

On one hand, being able to focus in on a single company’s campaigns can seem like the ideal approach for optimal results.  However, it’s easy to get stuck in a creative and strategic rut when you’re managing your own. By not managing multiple accounts, PPC managers aren’t exposed to new ideas as easily. Even if they are exposed to new ideas, they don’t know if they work or not until they try them on your own campaigns. Many organizations lose valuable ad spend experimenting with new ideas on their own. 

At an agency, we try new products and features from Google on one or two accounts first and see how they perform. This allows us to adequately test new features before we advise our clients on how to use them. Because of the volume of campaigns we manage, we have a large bank of experience to draw from and can bring a fresh perspective to your campaigns on a continual basis.

3. A Safety Net Against Change

In-house PPC managers can hold a lot of important knowledge about your particular PPC processes and needs. But what happens if they quit tomorrow? Even planned, relatively short-term absences can have an impact on your campaigns.  Who will manage your campaigns if your sole in-house PPC manager is out sick or on an extended vacation? 

At an agency, you’ll always have someone else ready who is sourced, trained and prepared to take over. With many accounts at Webrageous we crosstrain our account managers on multiple accounts. In general, we have two people working on the account and are familiar with the account’s particular needs. That way when one person leaves on vacation, someone else can take over. If your agency account manager quits tomorrow, your accounts will go through a seamless transition to their new manager.

4. Tap the Insider Knowledge of a PPC Agency

If you’re considering hiring a dedicated PPC manager, chances are you don’t have expert-level knowledge of the PPC industry. But without being an insider to the world of digital advertising, it is very hard to know the questions to ask of a candidate. It can be very easy to hire the wrong person in-house. Hiring someone who doesn’t have the required experience to be successful can spell disaster for your PPC strategy at worst, and cause delays or wasted money at best.

PPC agency professionals can dedicate much more time and resources to staying up to date on the latest PPC strategies and trends. Because of our intensive work with platforms like AdWords, PPC agencies are often able to optimize campaigns more quickly and effectively. When you work with an agency, you’re working with a team of experts with a proven track record of success.

The Benefits of Webrageous

Convinced that a PPC agency might be a good fit for your advertising needs? Webrageous has an experienced team of PPC managers ready to help you transform your campaigns’ conversion rate. For qualified clients, Webrageous offers a 60-day, risk-free trial of our PPC services. If you’re ready to start getting the most out of your PPC campaigns, contact Webrageous today and we’ll walk you through our process and show you how big of an impact we can have on your advertising strategy.

 

February 25th, 2016

Top 5 PPC Management Sales Scams

ppc management sales scams

Managing PPC campaigns that are budget-friendly and high-converting can be a challenging endeavor. This is especially true for business and individuals who don’t have a PPC advertising background or a dedicated marketing team. For many small businesses looking to take advantage of the benefits that PPC campaigns can bring, opting to work with a PPC management firm is an effective way to harness the power of PPC advertising without having to take the reigns for themselves.

However, choosing the wrong PPC management company won’t just leave you at square one — it can actually harm your business’ reputation and cost you hundreds or even thousands of dollars in wasted advertising spend. Want to make sure your PPC manager is the real deal? Here are the top five PPC management sales scams to watch out for to make sure that your campaigns are in the hands of experts, not scammers.

1.They Guarantee You #1 Placement

By now you probably know that the first ad position generally has a much higher CTR than subsequent positions, so that top spot can seem like a great target for your campaigns. Some PPC managers will promise their clients nothing but #1 ad placement. However, a company who claims they’ll keep your ads on top is likely trying to scam you. While getting top ad placement can seem like a great idea, sometimes it can cost more than it’s worth to maintain. A good PPC manager will encourage clients to adopt a solid PPC strategy that leverages lower positions (as well as #1!) to garner solid results — without costing a fortune.

Additionally, great PPC managers know that CTR isn’t the only metric that matters to your campaigns. Look for PPC companies who will work with you to set realistic goals that will make a positive impact on your business, including conversion rate and cost per conversion. When a PPC manager understands your business goals, they’ll be able to craft campaigns that get you there.

2. They Don’t Keep You in the Loop

If you ask a PPC manager exactly what they’re doing to deliver the best possible results for your campaigns, they should give you a concrete (and detailed) answer. They will be able to explain why they’re allocating your ad spend the way they are, and how they developed your campaign strategy. And they should never keep your campaign status and performance a secret. PPC “experts” who keep their clients in the dark about how their campaigns are performing often aren’t experts at all.

Another important quality to look for in a good PPC campaign manager is a collaborative attitude. A good company will ask you for input on the keywords ideas. You’re the expert in your own industry, and PPC experts know that insider knowledge is critical for successful campaigns. If your PPC manager doesn’t seem interested in both keeping you informed and keeping you involved in your own PPC campaigns, you probably aren’t going to get great results from them.

3.    They Don’t Talk about PPC Campaign Goals and ROI

A well-planned PPC campaign should have concrete goals from the start. But just as scammers often promise too-good-to-be-true ad placement, they also tend to avoid setting realistic campaign goals because they know they won’t be able to deliver. A good PPC company will always ask you about your advertising goals. If a PPC manager is chomping at the bit to get your campaigns up and running without discussing your short and long-term goals, they might not have your best interests in mind.

Another telltale sign of a PPC scammer is a failure to focus on budget. PPC experts know that advertising budgets can vary greatly from one client to the next. They also know that a successful PPC campaign doesn’t have to be an outrageously expensive one. PPC companies should be willing to work with their clients to set realistic budgeting goals to ensure that their campaigns yield the best ROI possible, without breaking the bank. PPC managers who don’t ask you about your budget up front might be trying to scam you.

4.   They Don’t Give Suggestions to Improve Landing Pages

Experts know that PPC campaigns don’t exist in a vacuum of bids and keywords; successful PPC campaigns depend on considering every step in a prospective customer’s journey towards conversion. A good PPC company will always suggest some improvements to your campaigns beyond your keyword strategy. They’ll look at your landing pages and your ad copy, and give suggestions on how to improve those assets. PPC experts often have a wealth of advertising experience to draw from for every aspect of a digital ad campaign. If your PPC company is not open to advising you on how to improve your prospects’ experience from start to finish, they might not be the experts they claim to be.

PPC managers should be able to see the big picture of your business and your advertising goals to help you make the best decisions possible. Don’t let PPC scammers convince you that fiddling with your bidding strategy and suggesting a few fresh keywords is enough to revamp your PPC campaigns. A good PPC manager will bring a holistic, strategic mentality to your campaigns to help give your advertising strategy an all-over facelift.

5.  They Don’t Share Past Successes with You

Scammers lie about who their clients are. They will proudly name big companies like Nokia, Nike, Disney and an array of Fortune 500 companies, but if you ask them to put you in touch with satisfied customers, they’ll always come up dry. Good PPC managers are proud of the work they do, and maintain a degree of honesty and professionalism so that even former clients should be happy to provide positive feedback on their work.

A PPC manager might not be able to hand out every client’s contact information to anyone who requests it, but they should be able to offer concrete case studies and customer stories that illustrate how they approach building and maintaining PPC campaigns. It shouldn’t be challenging for a high-quality PPC manager to provide proof of successful campaigns they’ve worked on in the past.

Getting the Real PPC Deal with Webrageous

At Webrageous, we strive to provide the best possible PPC campaign results to all our clients, whether they’re new to PPC or more experienced advertisers looking to take their campaigns to the next level. We work with our clients to create customized PPC campaigns that help them achieve their unique business goals more effectively. Contact Webrageous today for a PPC consultation and we’ll walk you through our PPC management process from end to end.

February 25th, 2016

10 Common Misconceptions About PPC

PPC misconceptions

There’s no question that PPC advertising is a lucrative space right now; the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) reported that search ads accounted for over $9 billion in revenue in the first half of 2014– that’s almost 40% of total Internet-based revenue. Unfortunately, many would-be advertisers hold misconceptions that don’t just prevent them from reaching their PPC potential, but can actually cause them to lose money on their PPC campaigns. Before you dive headfirst into PPC advertising, here are 10 common misconceptions about PPC that need to be cleared up.

1.      Anyone Can Run and Manage a PPC Campaign Easily

Getting started with PPC is deceptively simple — setting up an AdWords account and getting your campaigns up and running can seem like it’s just a few clicks away, and bids start at just a few cents per click. But just because it’s easy to get started doesn’t mean that it’s easy to manage PPC campaigns. Adwords and other PPC platforms have a huge array of features, functionality and settings that can make or break your campaigns if they’re not properly calibrated, and launching into PPC when you don’t know what you’re doing can leave you with wasted time, lost budget and a lot of frustration. PPC is about more than just launching campaigns and using tools — great results require strategic thinking and the ability to think about PPC as one channel within your advertising strategy as a whole.

2.      If You Ads Aren’t in the First Position, They’re Worthless

It’s true that CTR drops significantly for ads in positions below number one. But you don’t have to break your budget to push your ads to the top of results every single time. In many competitive industries, especially the legal and insurance industries, highly sought-after keywords carry CPCs of over $100. In fact, in these cases, advertisers can actually maximize their ROI by aiming for the top three ad positions, rather than focusing solely on #1. Adjusting your ad position strategy to maximize profit can be a much wiser move than simply racing to the top of the page.

3.   High Bids = High Ranks

While high bids are one way to increase the visibility of your ads, simply increasing your bids and your budget isn’t a scalable way to improve your PPC results. Your bid isn’t the only factor Adwords uses to determine how and where your ads will be served. Your Quality Score, which is how Google determines how relevant your ads are to the keywords to which they’re matched, plays a significant role in determining the position of ads for any given search. In many cases, a high Quality Score can give your ads a bump in position more effectively than raising your bids will do. By focusing on increasing your Quality Score, you can help keep your ad spend manageable while enjoying higher positions for your ads.

4.      PPC Takes Too Long to Produce Results

Getting a PPC campaign from zero to full-speed doesn’t happen overnight, but that doesn’t mean that you’ll have to wait weeks or months to see any results for your efforts. While realizing the full potential ROI of your campaigns usually takes at least a few months, you’ll still benefit from increased visibility and brand awareness soon after you turn on your first campaign.

5.      You Don’t Need PPC if You Have Good Organic Rankings

SEO and PPC are two distinct ways of driving online traffic, and it can be tempting to think that good SEO is enough. However, their respective costs and benefits mean that you shouldn’t neglect one for the other. Google’s SEO algorithms change frequently, which can mean that a site with great organic rankings one day can plummet the next. If your business depends on web traffic to thrive, relying solely on SEO ranking is an inconsistent, unreliable way to ensure traffic. Additionally, having good organic rankings makes your site a great candidate for PPC, as SEO contributes to your Quality Score and can help you get better ad rankings for your ad spend.

6.      PPC is Too Expensive

While enterprise-level corporations can funnel millions into their PPC campaigns each month, that doesn’t mean that PPC is prohibitively expensive for smaller companies. The average CPC for keywords on Adwords is between $1 to $2, and many keywords cost only a few cents per click. Since Adwords allows advertisers to control their daily budget for various campaigns and keywords on a granular level, PPC advertisers enjoy a great deal of flexibility when it comes how much, when and where they spend their advertising dollar.

7.      Never Use Broad Match Keywords

Broad match keywords get a bad reputation — they tend to be expensive, and because they’re so broad they carry the risk that the traffic they’ll bring won’t be a great fit for your business’ needs. But savvy advertisers know that using broad match keywords can be a powerful tool in your advertising arsenal. Analyzing data from broad match keywords can help you identify more specific keywords that might be a better fit for your campaigns, and they can often bring good-quality traffic as well. We often recommend using broad match modifier, which lets you get some of the benefits of casting a wide PPC net, with a little more focus.

8.    Bid Only on Long Tail Keywords

As an extension of refusing to use broad match keywords, some novice PPC advertisers maintain that long tail keywords are the only way to go. Because they’re so pinpointed and often have very low CPCs, long tail keywords can have great CTRs and great conversion rates for a low cost. But by the same turn, if you rely solely on long tail keywords, you’ll miss out on a lot of high-quality traffic that can come from broader keyword strategies. Long tail keywords can be a cost-effective means to capture great leads, but to build PPC campaigns that are scalable and sustainable, you’ll need to diversify your keyword strategy to include a variety of keyword matching techniques.

9.      The More Keywords You Target, the More Traffic You’ll Get

More keywords means more matches, and more traffic — right? It’s important to keep in mind the fact that quality of keywords is far more important than quantity of keywords. While you can use up to 20,000 targeting items (including keywords) in a given ad group, Google reports that most advertisers find that having between five and 20 keywords per ad group is the most manageable and effective range. Using too many keywords, or using keywords that don’t fit well with your business, will only drive up your advertising costs without giving you high-quality leads.

10.      PPC is Click Fraud and Brings Irrelevant Traffic

Click fraud, which involves people or automated scripts clicking ads to drive up advertisers’ costs, is a common fear among advertisers. Fortunately, Google takes fraudulent and malicious clicking behaviors seriously, and has a series of safeguards, from automated anti-fraud algorithms to dedicated investigation teams, in place to prevent advertisers from becoming victims of click fraud. When executed correctly, PPC campaigns are one of the most transparent forms of advertising; advertisers can review and analyze their conversion rate and the ROI of their campaigns at a much more granular level than with offline advertising channels.

Building Smarter PPC Campaigns with Webrageous

There’s a wealth of advice about PPC practices on the web, but wading through the sea of information and finding the knowledge you need to run better campaigns can be daunting. By working with Webrageous to develop and manage your PPC campaigns, you’ll gain access to years of hands-on PPC management experience and knowledge. Whether you’re just getting started with your first campaign or are looking to revitalize existing ones, Webrageous can help you optimize your PPC campaigns and maximize your ROI. Contact us today for a free PPC consultation.

 

November 2nd, 2015

“Always Be Testing” An A/B Testing Rule To Improve Conversion Rate

a/b testing

There’s an often quoted saying in the advertising world, coined by John Wanamaker, a famed early 20th-century advertising tycoon: “I know that half my ad dollars are wasted, I just don’t know which half.” Wanamaker’s words still ring true for PPC advertisers today. Developing high-converting PPC campaigns can seem like guesswork, and sometimes advertisers can feel like there’s no guarantee that their ads will perform well until after the fact.

Unfortunately, there’s no magic button on AdWords to optimize your ads and boost your conversion rate overnight. Nevertheless, improving conversion rates is a priority for many search marketers. And while there’s no secret formula to that will guarantee a high conversion rate, improving ad performance can often be achieved with A/B testing practices that follow the simple rule of “always be testing.” If you can commit to making A/B testing a regular part of your PPC campaign management, you’ll be rewarded with better CTR and conversion rates.

Why A/B Testing is Important

It can be hard to know how your audience will respond to your brand before you serve them any ads, and what you think will work best might not actually give you the best results when your ads are in action. Only about 22% of companies are satisfied with their conversion rate, meaning that nearly 3 out of every 4 marketer’s PPC campaigns are regularly failing to resonate with their audience. Fortunately, the digital nature of PPC ads gives marketers the ability to tweak and test new versions of their ads in an instant, and to run different versions of their ad simultaneously. By serving different ad variations to segments of your customers, you can find out which variations your prospects will respond to, and you can hone your message and presentation to better fit with their needs and expectations.

Oftentimes advertisers are obligated to make decisions about their PPC campaigns without having a strong foundation of evidence to support those decisions. What color should your “Download” button be? How do you select search ad copy that will garner the highest CTR? Every aspect of your campaigns has a wide range of variations from which you must make a selection. A/B testing allows you to make decisions about your PPC campaigns based on data gathered from real reactions from your prospective customers. When the results of A/B tests control the flow of your ad campaigns, you’ll be able to make better decisions based on the data you’ve collected, rather than subjective feelings and opinions.

How A/B Testing Can Improve PPC Campaigns

A/B tests can improve your CTR and conversion rate significantly, and savvy companies are wising up to the benefits  Both large and small companies can benefit from A/B testing; for example Google ran 7,000 A/B tests in 2011. It should come as no surprise that companies that are serious about advertising invest heavily in A/B testing. By leveraging A/B testing strategies to gain better insight into the preferences of your audience, you can hone in what converts best, from ad copy and messaging to landing page layout and design.

Well-tested campaigns can lead to measurably better advertising initiatives than their un-tested counterparts. In one instance, SAP was able to boost their conversion rate by over 32% by changing the color of their CTA button. Businesses with over 40 landing pages converted up to 12 times more leads than those with only 1-5 landing pages, and that’s no coincidence — testing multiple variations of your advertising and marketing materials allows you to see what works best and invest more of your ad spend in materials with a proven track record.

A Good Testing Strategy is a Continuous One

A common mistake made by novice search marketers is that they treat A/B testing as a one-time event. They run tests briefly, take a look at their results, then run their campaigns indefinitely based on those assumptions. But testing once isn’t enough. High-performing PPC campaigns are those that are carefully and actively managed. Consequently, A/B tests must evolve with your campaigns. And even if your campaigns are doing well right now, constantly testing and experimenting with your ad campaigns can keep you ahead of the curve in the long run.

Another important aspect of A/B testing is to make sure you let your tests run long enough. If you run A/B tests for a day or two and make assumptions based off the results of those flash-in-the-pan tests, you aren’t likely to see a big difference in your conversion rate. You need a larger data set to really understand which advertising materials perform the best. Marketing experts suggest running A/B tests for at least a week to ensure that you have enough information to make informed decisions about your campaigns. Your ideal test runtime may vary but, as a general rule, the longer you’re able to run tests, the better results you’ll see.

Always Be Testing with Webrageous for Better PPC Conversion

As the PPC advertising field gets more and more competitive, marketers are developing more sophisticated strategies than ever to stay ahead. 85% of search marketing professionals focused on improving their conversion rate with A/B testing this year. If you’re not using it as a tool to improve your campaigns you’re not being competitive enough.

Managing high-performing PPC campaigns and effective A/B testing strategies can be time and resource-intensive. Here at Webrageous we have a dedicated team of PPC campaign managers who can identify and manage your highest-converting AdWords materials to help you improve your conversion rate. Contact us today so we can help you achieve better results from your PPC campaigns.

Image Source: Pixabay

September 23rd, 2015

Instagram Advertising Basics

Instagram advertising has been a great medium for small businesses in many verticals and especially in the fashion world from what I have seen. Small businesses have been able to make sales organically from Instagram and want to increase their exposure.

Lucky for those, Instagram has recently began rolling out advertising abilities to small businesses. This isn’t quite available to all advertisers yet, but you could be one of the lucky few ready to start now. If not, keep checking because you can be soon. So whether you can now or later let us give you the knowledge you need to start your Instagram advertising.

How To Start Your Instagram Advertising Campaigns

First off, to advertise on Instagram you’ll want to connect your Instagram account to your Facebook Business Page. You can do this by logging into your Facebook Page (not personal account) and click on Settings. Then click on Instagram. From here you will enter in your Instagram username and password to connect your account.

You do not need an Instagram account to start Instagram advertising. If you do not have one the handle (username) area will be grayed out and you will not be able to respond to or view comments on your ads. Although without an Instagram account you must still have a Facebook Advertising account setup. To connect Instagram to your Facebook Page follow the steps shown in the images below.
Instagram Advertising Setup

Connecting Instagram

Next, you have to use Facebook’s Power Editor in order to create ads targeting Instagram. If you have not yet used Facebook’s Power Editor, this is a great time to learn to. This will make advertising much easier for those that run large and even small Facebook campaigns. You can access Facebook’s Power Editor here https://www.facebook.com/ads/manage/powereditor

Create your new campaign. Make sure to have your buying type as Auction. not Fixed Price. Instagram only supports this and one of the following objectives:

  • Clicks to Website
  • Mobile App Installs
  • Video Views

So you must choose one of these to get your ads on Instagram. To create your new campaign, just click Create Campaign. See screenshot below. Once you have setup your campaign within Facebook’s Power Editor it’s on to creation of the ad set, see screenshot 2 below. Ad sets, if you are familiar with Google Adwords are the same as an ad group. Your ad set allows you to have a set of ads within a group that targets specific information such as demographics, interests, etc.
Facebook Power Editor

Facebook Power Editor
Within the ad set you will see whether you are eligible to run ads on Instagram. You will see this:
Instagram Advertising

To run an Instagram campaign by itself, just remove the checkboxes beside Audience Network, Desktop News Feed and Desktop Right Column. If you do not see Instagram in the placement settings, you are not yet eligible and should keep checking back to see when it does show.

I hope this article helps you to understand how to Instagram advertising works and increase your business’ ROI through online advertising. If you are ready to get started advertising on Instagram and need help from professional social PPC managers, contact us on the form below today for a consultation.

September 21st, 2015

How to Create Lead Conversions

Inbound marketing is a relatively new term in the marketing community and marketers are still fine-tuning their systems to fully use it to their advantage. The most essential element of the inbound marketing toolkit is the lead conversion process.

The conversion process is the bread and butter of any inbound marketing program. Without a seamless and fully-integrated conversion process you are basically wasting your time and money on efforts that will never convert into revenue. So it is essential that you take the time to convert those leads that you work so hard to bring to your landing pages. Once you get them to the web page that you want them on, this brings them to the conversion process so you can capture those lead conversions.

There are various methods you can utilize to bring your prospects to your desired landing pages prior to getting them to complete the conversion. You will want to subscribe to this blog as I will go in depth on each marketing channel in the weeks to come. For now, let’s make sure you understand how to complete the conversion process so you can capture those leads when they visit your landing page!

  1. Create an offer that is relevant to your contacts. Pay attention to where your contacts are in the funnel. Are they cold contacts? Then an eBook would be good to gain interest. Are they a current customer that you are trying to upsell? A relevant checklist would be good. Have they already showed interest in your product offerings? Offer them a demo or a coupon for enrollment!
  2. Host that offer on a thank you page and/or with a follow-up email. You must deliver the promised content once they submit their information to you. You can host your content on a thank you page or deliver it in a follow-up email. You could also deliver the content upon conversion by including a content link in the associated form in step 3.
  3. Create the landing page with an integrated form. There are many programs that you can create a landing page with, but the most important part is to integrate a form with the landing page that will capture those submissions! This submission form will direct the contact to the content whether it is hosted on a thank you page, delivered automatically through a content link, or delivered in an automated email.
  4. Then you will want to segment your acquired lead lists for email marketing purposes!

Now that you have completed and refined your conversion process you are ready to begin driving traffic to your website to generate those leads you worked so hard to convert. Webrageous can help you maximize campaign performance and avoid wasting your ad spend on ineffective keyword techniques. Our team of search marketing experts stay continually up to date on the latest advancements with both Google AdWords and Bing Ads, so you can be sure that you’re getting the best results possible from your ad campaigns under our management. Contact us today for a consultation to see how you can grow your PPC advertising efforts successfully.

September 7th, 2015

Why PPC Advertising is Great for Lawyers

ppc for lawyers

With an estimated annual spend exceeding $100 billion, the US legal market is thriving. But while there’s plenty of raw potential in the market right now, finding the people who are looking for your services can be challenging. Running advertising campaigns that promote your firm, help you connect with clients and ensure that you stand out from the competition can be a time-consuming and costly endeavor. And finding the right advertising medium can mean the difference between your firm thriving with the market’s growth, or falling through the cracks.

One of the most efficient advertising methods on the market is pay per click Internet advertising. If you’re looking to build your client base and spread awareness of your law firm, starting a PPC advertising campaign can be a highly effective way to see results. For legal specialists dealing with niche audiences and time-sensitive issues, such as pharmaceutical liability law and personal injury law, digital advertising is often the best way to reach customers because of the way it caters to the unique needs of the legal industry.

The Digital Advertising Space for Legal Industry is Already Mature

Nearly a quarter of the current advertising market is made up by Internet advertising. Within that space, the legal industry is one of the most profitable segments. In 2012, the digital ad spend for trial attorneys alone topped $52 million, and that figure has been growing steadily since then. Proof of the success of these advertising campaigns can be found in the high level of competition among legal industry advertisers. With the most competitive keywords consistently costing over $100 per click, pay per click advertising is  a lucrative space for law firms looking to build their business. By opting for PPC advertising, you don’t have to waste time and resources figuring out if your ads are reaching prospective clients. And while the most sought-after keywords can be very expensive, leveraging the experience of PPC experts keep costs down while still giving you great results.

Prospective Clients are Looking for Legal Services Online

Your clients are probably already using search to look for lawyers. Google is oftentimes the first place people go when they’re looking for legal advice. Up to 21% of people start their search for a lawyer using a search engine. By building an online presence, you can get exposure for your firm with the people who want your services.

In most cases, the goal of advertising for law firms is getting a prospective client to call or email for a consultation. By leveraging PPC advertising, you’re reaching prospective clients on devices from which they can reach out to you directly, which often leads to a high conversion rate. This holds especially true for mobile PPC advertising, where we’ve seen great results for our clients in the legal industry. Google AdWords has built-in tools to help facilitate these points of contact, including plugins that automatically include a “call now” button in your mobile ads.

Target Clients by Your Specialty

Unsurprisingly, most law firms who specialize in a specific space are most interested in finding clients that need those services. To get the most out of your ad spend, you want to make sure that the people seeing your ads are a good fit for your services. The ability to pinpoint and target an audience is where pay per click advertising really excels. PPC advertising allows you hone in on keywords and phrases that relate to your specialty– that means fewer calls from people looking for divorce lawyers when you only deal in personal injury law.

Focus in On Industry Trends

You can also target searchers with the ebb and flow of trends. This is especially relevant for pharmaceutical liability law, where costs for keywords like “mesothelioma” or “Yasmin” can skyrocket overnight as the news cycle covers and highlights new cases, and can fade in popularity just as quickly. Navigating the changes to the market can be challenging and time-consuming, but can also give you first-line access to a fickle and continuously changing market. By working with a pay per click advertising team like ours with experience in pharmaceutical liability ads, you can harness the benefits of pay per click advertising while minimizing risk.

Find Clients Near Your Practice

The web is a big place, but PPC advertising helps make it a little smaller. For some industries, the location of their customers and clients doesn’t matter much, but for lawyers and their clients, proximity can make a huge difference. Geo-targeted PPC ads let you focus in on serving ads to potential clients in your preferred locations, whether that’s a specific neighborhood, city or state. That focus can help garner better conversion rates and high-quality prospective clients than non-targeted advertising methods.

Get the Highest ROI for Your Advertising Dollar with PPC

For law firms looking to optimizing their advertising efforts and get the most value out of each advertising dollar, PPC campaigns can provide great results. Inbound ad campaigns have been shown to deliver 54% more leads than outbound ad campaigns. And since you only pay for the people who actually engage with your PPC ads, your ad spend is closely tied to the actual performance of your advertisements.

Leverage Our Legal Industry Expertise for On-Point Pay Per Click Advertising

While PPC is an excellent space for lawyers to find new business, it can be a time-consuming and expensive endeavor. The legal industry presents a unique set of demands and needs that require specialists with extensive experience to execute campaigns to their full potential. For individuals and firms new to the PPC advertising game, it can be all too easy to lose valuable resources on PPC campaigns that don’t convert.

Webrageous specializes in legal industry PPC ad campaigns, making us a great resource for busy law firms who need high-quality advertising without a headache. Contact us today to discuss PPC solutions that will fit your needs and budget. We can get you started developing an effective pay per click advertising strategy with a great ROI.

Image Source: Pixabay

June 12th, 2014

Tips for PPC for Small Businesses

In this day and age of intense competition online, every business of every size has to make sure they have the right tools to gain an edge over their competitors and make money. After all, the world of ecommerce is a lot like the business world; it is dog eat dog and only the strong and the smart survive. That being said, small online businesses need to make sure they are smart about their advertising and marketing. They need to become visible if they are to attract customers and entice buyers and this is where PPC marketing comes in to save the day. When used correctly, PPC for small businesses can be a great marketing ploy to attract more visitors to one’s site.
 

What is PPC?

Before getting into the nitty-gritty of how PPC can help small businesses, first a brief background on what PPC is. PPC is short for pay-per-click, and is also known as cost per click. It is an advertising model developed especially for the internet. This internet advertising method is mostly used to direct traffic to websites that have ads. Those ads are placed there by an advertiser that then pays the website owner every time their ad is clicked. In a nutshell, PPC is defined as the amount that is spent just to get clicks on an advertisement.
 

The Benefits of PPC for Small Businesses

It is sad that many small business owners are still hesitant to go for PPC even if the benefits are very real. For one, PPC ads can help a business compensate especially if they do not turn up in the top search engine page results. Another benefit is that PPC ads can augment the revenue stream of businesses while their organic SEO projects are still gaining ground. For business owners that are eager to make use of PPC for small businesses and get the most out of it, below are some tips that are sure to prove valuable:
 

  • Time/day parting

    Google allows small businesses to set the time of day when the ads will show. This is an especially good function for small businesses because they can set all their ads to show during high traffic times of day to ensure maximum clicks. Not only does it make the endeavor more profitable but it also reduces costs.


  • Match types

    Website owners no longer have to cast a wide net for keywords in the hopes that they will luck out. It is better to go for exact match types because this way, they bring down the costs of advertising. Remember that in business, it is as much about saving money, as it is about making money.


  • Negative keywords

    This is a great way for website owners to drive away unwanted traffic to their site. For instance, a company that sells materials for business cards can type in “custom” so that people who are looking for custom business card printing services do not end up on their websites.


  • Geotargetting

    Studies have shown that 80% of consumers expect the businesses they see online to be within more or less 15 miles of them. Of course, there are some exceptions to these but that should give you a pretty good idea of who you should be targeting and where. When it comes to PPC for small businesses, location also matters.


  • Alternative search engines

    Google may be the biggest search engine ever but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try out others like Bing or Ask.com. They often have lower bid prices, which mean lower conversion costs for you and more savings for your small business.

 

May 24th, 2013

New to PPC? How do you make good optimization decisions?


So you’ve done some research and are ready to create a pay per click campaign for your business. Excellent choice. Now comes the hard part of making sure your PPC campaign is working for you.

new-ideas

How do you make good optimization decisions if you’re new to PPC?  While it can be very complex, there are a few simple factors that will help you make the most out of your campaign.

 

Optimization involves constantly testing, managing, refining and improving your pay per click campaign. The most basic yet important things to pay attention to in this process are:

 

Settings

This is where you select your network, device, location targeting, bid, budget, ad rotation and ad extension. Making smart decisions in each of these areas is important for a successful PPC campaign. Hire a PPC management company to help you, or read through the Google AdWords learning center tutorials before making any selections. (more…)

May 21st, 2013

Why Google is better than Bing for PPC advertisers

If you’re thinking about investing in a Google AdWords campaign,, you couldn’t make a better decision for your company.  With 67 percent of market share and unmatched capabilities, Google is the clear choice for PPC advertisers.

piggy-bank-money-stack

Sheer popularity is reason enough to opt for Google, especially if you’re starting to use PPC advertisements. Obviously, the more often people see your advertisement, the more well known your business becomes, and the more users who see your advertisement, the more chances you have for sales.

 

A pay per click campaign with Google AdWords guarantees potential access to a more Internet users than Bing. Google is the default search engine for a lot of browsers and the choice most people make when searching.

 

If you still need some convincing, read on for the top reasons why Google is better than Bing, and any other search engine, for a pay per click campaign. (more…)

May 17th, 2013

What are the Main Advantages of Pay Per Click Advertising?

An updated version of this article is available here. What are the main advantages to be had from marketing your business online via pay per click advertising?

jumping

1. Anything from a local to global audience at the touch of a button

The first top advantage of pay per click advertising is that worth nothing is the fact that you can easily select the focus and scale of your target audience at the click of a button in your pay per click advertising account.

 

If you want to focus your online advertising on a small, localized area, within a few square miles of your business or store, you can choose to do so. If you want to advertise your products or services across more than one continent, you can choose to do so thanks to the technical advantages of pay per click advertising.

 

Being able to geographically target your audience is a huge pay per click advertising advantage, particularly because the boundaries that you set can be changed at any time. There are also lots of other ways to continue targeting your audience, such as their social or cultural preferences which can be gleaned from your audience’s social networking activities for example. (more…)

March 25th, 2013

How does a PPC advertising beginner make good optimization decisions?

The journey into paid search advertising or bidding on display networks can be a little frustrating to many new AdWords users. Beginners keen on making progress in their advertising should focus on several key areas in PPC campaign development.

Below are four tips to help even the most inexperienced PPC advertisers optimize their accounts.

Optimize advertisement text

Though PPC campaigns on the Display Network can also include video and image advertisements, it is the accompanying text that contains the call to action. PPC advertisements should be crafted in a creative way that drives the user towards your website. The words used should be attractive to your ideal customers and unappealing to everyone else. Including prices or descriptive words such as “affordable or premium” can give your audience an idea of whether or not the product or service is suitable for them. This is a fine art, so start practicing your pitch. (more…)

March 22nd, 2013

Why Google AdWords is the best form of PPC Advertising

When it comes to Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign management, Google AdWords is by far the leading product offered in the industry. With a thriving Display Network composed of hundreds of thousands of websites and blogs, Google AdWords is the ideal platform and the best form of PPC Advertising for any business interested in exposure and long term online marketing success.

The Best Form of PPC Advertising

best form of PPC AdvertisingWith global search engine market share at 88.2% as of February 2013, Google is a global giant in paid search engine advertising. The company’s AdWords PPC campaign management product is home to hundreds of thousands of advertisers and offers lots of ways to capitalize on fluid market trends, making it, undoubtedly, the best form of PPC Advertising.
 
Users have the capacity to reach an audience anywhere online while getting the support required to drive conversions. The platform offers text, image and video formats to best enable users to communicate their message to potential customers.

Context and targeting

With the right PPC management experts at your side, your firm will be able to utilize Google’s contextual targeting technology which can match your advertisements to the most relevant web pages in the Google Display Network. For more autonomy, Google allows advertisers the option to bid for spaces on specific websites that they would like their advertisements to appear. For example, if your business sells household items, you may select an online magazine popular among your customers.

More Opportunities for Analysis

The Google Adwords product also gives advertisers many avenues to test the performance of their campaign and in the ‘Opportunities’ tab there are a slew of suggestions on how to optimize. Google’s Placement Performance Report can give your business the chance to review advertising performance on every single site you choose. You can view impressions, clicks, costs, and conversion data and therefore determine where to target more or less aggressively. You can’t get that anywhere else outside the best form of PPC advertising.
 
Google AdWords is also extremely flexible when it comes to your budget restrictions. For starters, there is no minimum spending requirement to restrict you at any point; you completely determine the financial direction you want to take. It is important to note that you can change your daily budget at any time. Google will suggest a recommended daily budget based on a number of factors including the strength of your keyword selection. This recommended budget is a mere guideline and is not compulsory.
 
On the Google Search Network charges are made only if someone clicks on the advertisement. The charge is called your ‘cost per click’. Advertisers can also opt into the Google Display Network where their advertisements are shown on an array of newspaper websites, blogs and other popular web pages. Advertisers here are charged per thousand impression (views) or CPM. Both CPC and CPM can be lowered by using a set of strategies that include optimizing landing page and keyword selection. Seeing huge results at lower costs, that definitely the mark of the best form of PPC advertising there is.

Lower Costs, Higher Rankings

If you want to enter the world of PPC advertising it pays to do so on a firm foundation. This means finding the most lucrative, dynamic and engaging platform to interact with users and increase your exposure.
 
Here at Webrageous we can guarantee you 100% that this platform is Google Adwords. Because we know that we can’t let any of your clients down, we work only with the best form of PPC advertising, the only way for our clients to stay happy with what they see. And when we’re talking about the best form of PPC advertising, you know that it has to be Google AdWords.

March 15th, 2013

3 Ways PPC Campaigns are Destroyed Using Unnatural Links

Advertising on the Google Search Network through Google Adwords can help your business to generate traffic and conversions on your website while building brand power. Google uses an algorithm to determine the PageRank of your website which, among other factors, is determined by the quantity, quality and relevance of the links other websites make to yours.
 
unnatural linksRecently Google announced that it would be streamlining activities it deemed as “unnatural links schemes”. Essentially, this is any behavior that manipulates links to your website or outgoing links from your site. It’s a broad definition but the company clarified by giving users a detailed list of these activities.
 
As expected, practices that were considered unfavorable included exchanging money, services or products for links, using excessive link exchanging or “link to me and I’ll link to you”, linking to spammers or unrelated websites to improve PageRank and utilizing automated programmes to create links to your website.
 
If these links are not removed, your company risks being banned from the Google Search Network and paid search with Google Adwords. Though removing these links can be a challenging process, it is a necessary one if you are to safeguard your PPC campaign. (more…)

January 31st, 2013

Why is PPC Better than SEO?

Before we touch on any of the reasons as to why PPC Advertising is better for almost any kind of online marketing campaign than SEO, let us just say that SEO is not a complete waste of time. Our intention is not to bad mouth SEO.
 
SEO can be very effective, particularly when used in conjunction with PPC Advertising Campaigns, and this is not something that we are trying to refute entirely.
 
However, in our experience, PPC Advertising is better than SEO if you are looking for online marketing results and you want them fast. If speed and profit are the top two aims of your online marketing strategy, PPC is always going to be the best form of online advertising. SEO is always going to be running up behind.
 
Why?
 
Because SEO takes longer, you have less control over your audience, less control over who you compete with and less control over where your audience navigates to when they go to your site. With SEO you have to cover everything! You have to account for all possible events and this is, quite simply, a huge amount of work. (more…)

January 30th, 2013

Why do you need Google AdWords Help?

“I get by with a little Google AdWords Help from my friends,” is how the real Beatles hit song goes – a few years into the future that is – and the phrase really couldn’t be truer if it wished to be with the help of a genie and fairy godmother in tow at the same time.
 
Even if you are a real veteran, a real Google AdWords dab hand at managing online campaigns, you still need help and advice when it comes to the management of your Google AdWords Campaigns. We all need help and advice. It is useful and healthy to see things from another’s perspective and to get an objective eye on certain matters whenever possible. Particularly in the world of online marketing, as it changes all the time and new techniques are being developed on a daily basis to make advertising campaigns even more successful.
 

What kind of Google Adwords Help is available?

There are a number of different ways in which you can get your hands on some Google AdWords Help. It is always best to investigate a little into the sources that you come across, but the variety is out there for the taking. (more…)

December 6th, 2012

6 Ways to Fail AdWords Campaigns

It’s easy to set up an AdWords account in order to run ads on Google, but it’s even easier to fail AdWords campaigns, especially if you manage them poorly.
 
fail adwords campaignsPaul Downs is a small business owner who manages his own AdWords campaigns and realizes that his campaign was being wasted on the wrong people. “Google’s algorithm saw the total number of clicks generated as evidence of success, regardless of whether we closed any business,” he tells the New York Times, “By all of its own metrics, the AdWords campaign was a home run. I had received lots of impressions and bought lots of clicks. The only problem was that these apparently were the wrong clicks.”
 
This is classic example of how people fail AdWords campaigns.
 

How People Fail AdWords Campaigns

Here are six ways for you to fail AdWords campaigns, especially if you don’t prepare for the unexpected:
 

1. Failing to Link to a Landing Page

 
Website visitors will be lost in the shuffle if you send them to your home page, causing you to fail AdWords campaigns if you don’t find a way to lead them to the right direction. By setting up a custom landing page with either a plugin or an HTML company, you can convert your AdWord leads into sales. The process becomes simple and focused on one action. Limit the copy to what you want your visitors to do — such as subscribing to a newsletter, making a purchase, or downloading a free sample. (more…)

April 9th, 2012

Pay Per Click for SMBs

Which companies are the most likely to benefit from pay per click advertising? You’ve got it. SMBs. They have the most to gain, such as local clients, while working on a small budget not suited for most other forms of advertising apart from in the local newspaper or radio station.
 
Small and medium businesses (SMBs) in the U.S. have so much to gain from pay per click. There are very few advertising forms that allow companies to spend as much or as little as they want on their advertising campaigns and still have a chance of coming up against the big players.
 
Pay per click advertising does this. It allows any advertiser the chance to succeed if they have the right keywords, keywords bids, targeting, advertisement text and landing pages, for example. With great PPC management even advertisers with the smallest budgets can succeed.
 
However, it is also true that SMBs have the most to lose. Statistics show that most SMBs that go under fail to resurface. With pay per click advertising, the risks of damaging your reputation online or losing your company’s advertising dollars are real. A poorly managed campaign can have dire consequences on an SMB. (more…)

April 2nd, 2012

Google AdWords Research: What It Should Cover

When it comes to running a successful Google AdWords campaign, there is one thing that you absolutely must do to succeed – research.
google adwords research
Research is a crucial component of all aspects of a Google AdWords campaign, from keywords, advertisement text and calls to action to reporting tools and targeting. With Google AdWords, not only must you be well-read in terms of all the rules to be followed but it also helps if you are qualified, in order to ensure that you have done as much research as possible.
 
The best way of all, particularly if you do not have time to research, is to outsource the running of your campaigns to Google AdWords managers who have done the necessary research already.

Google AdWords Research Focus Areas

Either way, whether you are doing it on your own or you’ve hired an expert, here are critical areas where your Google AdWords research should focus on: (more…)

December 26th, 2011

What is the Best Online Marketing Approach?

If you do not already have a solid online marketing campaign for your business, then you are seriously behind. However, if you are marketing your business online, but are unsure about the best online marketing approach to take, keep reading.
 

Is PPC advertising the best online marketing approach?

best online marketingPPC advertising is the best online marketing approach if you are looking to soar to the top in the quickest amount of time possible.
 
With PPC advertising, when you write effective advertisement text, when you bid successfully and use your budget (however large or small) to the maximum, and when you analyze the data from your campaign to optimize your online marketing strategies the best way possible, the results that you can achieve from PPC advertising start to come through quicker than any other form of online marketing.
 
PPC advertising, within a matter of days (sometimes from one day to the next) can start to bring in effective results when managed correctly and by PPC advertising experts who know exactly what to do to manipulate the campaigns to their full potential.
 
PPC advertising also offers you ultimate control over your online marketing. You can decide which people in the world will see your advertisements, at what times of the day they will see them, how much each advertisement costs you, and where your advertisement appears on the search engine results page.
 
For speed and control, the best online marketing approach is definitely PPC advertising. Therefore, if you need to generate some effective advertising, for a specific audience and as quickly as possible, PPC advertising is the best online marketing route you should take. Contact our PPC advertising managers today.
 

Why should your online marketing also include SEO?

SEO is a form of online marketing that takes a longer time than PPC advertising to become effective and show regular positive results. However, it is also one of the best online marketing approaches for the following reasons.
 
Firstly, if you have a PPC advertising campaign in progress already, the SEO online marketing campaign that you set up will act as a perfect partner to that PPC campaign. SEO might take longer to develop, but once it does start to generate leads and once your content does start to get recognized by the major search engines and listed on their search results pages, the mark you make will be long lasting.
 
Really effective SEO, made up of well crafted landing pages, meta data, blog posts and articles, is long-lasting. If your SEO content is really well written, your online marketing will remain effective and generate leads / traffic to your site for a very long time to come.
 
Businesses that have websites with strong SEO are businesses that are looked on more favourably when it comes to PPC advertising by the major search engines. You will start to see your PPC Quality Score go up, which will make your paid advertising go down, and your site will start to be recognized as an authority.
 
If you are looking to develop an online marketing presence that is going to stand the test of time and turn your website into an authority in the eyes of the major search engines, choose to invest in SEO.
 
The content writers who work for Webrageous might be able to help you improve the quality of your SEO content through articles and blog posts, so make sure that you consult us directly about the SEO content services we might be able to provide for you.
 

What role should Social Networking take in your online marketing campaign?

Social Networking is the best online marketing approach to focus on if you are looking to generate buzz about your business and if your business has updates to share on a very regular basis.
 
The thing that sets the Social Networking Campaign off into the successful online marketing atmosphere is a constant stream of news and updates to keep people interested and to make sure that they return time and time again to your page / updates throughout the day.
 
The content that you share in your Social Networking Campaign should also be the kind of information that people want to share with others. It should have “viral” potential. It should be something that will catch the attention of internet users so much that they take the time to get someone else to read it too.
 
Essentially, you should utilize Social Networking if you want people to help you spread the word about your business and if your business is able to feed its Social Networking audience with the kind of interesting information on a regular basis that they are looking for.
 
Again, the best online marketing experts at Webrageous will be happy to answer any further questions you might have on Social Networking at any time, so please do not hesitate in contacting us with your inquiries.
 
We are looking forward to hearing from you and helping you achieve the best online marketing campaigns as soon as possible.

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