For all the new bells and whistles Google is creating for advertisers and businesses, there’s been zero focus on the biggest potential game changer. Which is lowering cost of ads, which would make people more money off their ad dollars. But why would Google want to lower the ad cost? That’s the opposite of what they want. I feel there’s not enough excitement and focus from marketers to do this. To lower the cost of ads. All the buzz I see and read about is everything, except lowering the cost. It baffles me. Lowering the cost and making customers more money off of want their currently is the top, top, top, top thing that increases the marketers value. My theory is that not enough marketers realize they’re in the casino business. Where the only reason why somebody gives you money is because they hope to walk away with even more. But that could be a sign that too many marketers in the industry do not make their customers money because they lack skills, experience, knowledge, etc. So if you’re a marketer that struggles to make someone money, making someone money is not what you would want to focus on. Instead, the big buzz right now is on all kinds of identity ads. My main point is that this current climate creates oodles of opportunity for those marketers that are able to make people money. Because that’s the only thing business owners care about. They don’t care about native ads, or audience targeting, or evergreen content. They care about making more money. That’s it. Right now, ton of demand. Not enough supply of people that know how to do it.
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January 9, 2018
May 26, 2017
Complicated question, but I think organic, SEO, click through rates are down because of the public’s growing acceptance of ads at the top of the search engine. For years, there was proof of some people skipping the ads and going straight to the organic section. But my theory is that with Google loading the top with so many ads and pushing organic so far below, that consumers would rather give the ads a shot than scroll down to find the organic section. Thus making it even harder to make money off SEO.
Original Article:
http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/04/26/google-ranking-click-through-rate
![Available NOW: Similar Audiences for Search Campaigns [Data]](http://chrisschweppe.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/similar-audiences-for-search-campaigns-meme.gif)
May 26, 2017
Target similar audiences for search ad campaigns. Well, it’s about time Google! I’ve been waiting for this for a few years now. It’ll be interesting to see the cpc difference in better targeted clicks.
Original Article:
http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/04/25/similar-audiences-for-search-campaigns
Now, before i really get going on this post, I’m going preface by saying that i know nothing about cars. I have no clue how to change the oil. I know almost absolutely nothing about science. If you asked me what a proton or neutron was, I’d give you a look similar to a deer in the headlights. So…. I’m not a car guy. I’m not a scientist.
Another bit of information that’s come to my attention is that not all small business owners are salesmen.
The last few months, I’ve been more and more surprised by how some of our clients react to the phone call leads that we’ve been sending them. And the thing it always comes back to is our client’s disdain for the fact that the people we’re marketing to shop around. Mostly, i think this comes because the vast, vast majority of small business’ revenue comes from referrals and “word of mouth”. Or maybe it’s something else. Whatever the case, entrepreneurs need to be prepared to sell when people call. Or at least hire a professional sales rep who can’t handle the calls.
Talking with one of our web designers earlier, he was telling me about his experience looking for locksmiths. He needed to get a couple keys made. The first company he called quoted him $100 for the job and to the web designer, that was surprising, so he said thanks and called the next locksmith he could find hoping that there would be someone else out there with a better price. And sure enough on call #4 he found someone that was willing to do it for $70.
My main point is that if 10 calls come in from people you have no relationship with and they’re interested in your service, there are some companies out there that convert 7 sales out of the 10 calls. For entrepreneurs that are hoping to just get 1 or 2 sales out of 10 calls, maybe it’s time to think about your sales strategy and if there’s anyway you can improve what you or your sales rep is saying to increase sales. The only thing that’s more valuable than receiving more leads is converting more of the leads you already have into sales.
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Every now and then I’ll hear someone tell me that that not interested in doing any kind of internet marketing because “it doesn’t work.” Anytime i hear this, it makes me sad. And it’s not because I’m a greedy capitalist trying to make a buck. ; ) I want to set the record straight for both fellow marketers and small business owners alike. I wanted to offer the 4 main reasons from my experience marketers and clients can’t find the same page.
BAD INFORMATION: I can’t tell you how many times i’ll be speaking with a client who has gotten bad information from a friend and or family member. The client becomes convinced the sky is blue and then someone like me comes along and tries to inform them that the sky is actually in fact red. It’s a difficult situation. All I am is the lowly web sales guy who’s only agenda is to sell our service. How is my word going to be more trust worthy than someone the owner knows and trusts.
BAD EXPERIENCE: This one is also tough to overcome. I’ve talked to many clients over the years who’ve worked with a free lance guy who does great in the beginning. Very giving with their time, usually low rates. And then the day comes when they’re gone and never to be heard from again. For a lot of these entrepreneurs, they’ve paid deposits and their projects aren’t finished yet. Free lance workers usually do this when either A) they thought they knew how to do the project and then find out they have no clue what to do, B) they thought the project wouldn’t be that much work, charged a low price and low and behold it turns into being a heck of a lot more work than they thought and decide it’s not worth it anymore, and C) they have another job or school or lots of other projects and they procrastinate and procrastinate and it really never gets done. To me, THE worst thing you can do as a professional is take someones money, not finish the work, and ignore the customer’s calls. The small business owner who’s been through this can have a hard time getting the bad taste out of their mouth. And rightfully so.
UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS: In marketing, expectations are everything. A campaign with super high expectations, that produces decent results, can be viewed as a failure. When we first rolled out social media marketing, I talked to a client one month after he had agreed to give it a try and he tells me , Chris, I want to cancel because it’s not doing anything. I tried to remind him that i told him the previous month it takes 3-6 months for the social campaign to produce results but for whatever reason, he was convinced that it should only take 4 weeks for his facebook page to bear fruit. There are some internet marketing services that can produce overnight results like pay per click and email marketing, but others like search engine optimization, social media, and reputation management take time. A lot of time. Entrepreneurs need to look at these services as investments that will be great for their company down the road.
THE ECONOMY IS BAD: This is something that is beyond anyone’s control at this point. The root of the problem with the economy is that when a marketer’s client’s customers don’t have as much money, there’s going to be a lot less conversions per lead. Sometimes business owners lose sight of this and blame the strategy. Sometimes marketers get upset because they’re doing exactly what they’re supposed to and the client is still not happy. The economy being what it is, makes things tough on everyone and I think it’s essential to keep perspective in mind when trying to determine if a marketing strategy is working or not.
Ultimately, it’s important for marketers and small business owners to be on the same page. When a marketing company, such as Customwave, can deliver leads and drum up business for entrepreneurs, everyone wins. In my opinion, if i was running an auto repair shop or sign manufacturer or any other small business looking to market online, i’d invest in both long term and short term solutions.
I’d keep in mind in the short term that the amount of sales I get from leads won’t be as high as it usually is because people simply don’t have as much money. But i’d really focus on the long term solutions because the economy will turn around sooner or later and there will be less competition in the market. And when demand starts really picking up again, there’s going to be a real opportunity to pick up a good chunk of market share. I truly believe that it’ll all be worth it to be ready when that happens.
Just wanted to pass along these numbers not to brag that our industry is doing OK during the recession. It’s informative because in this economy, if people are increasing their internet marketing budgets, it means they’re getting value out of it. I really believe that we’ve only scratched the surface of what the internet can do marketing wise. It’s easy to forget that websites really became mainstream back in 1995 and marketers have been trying to figure out best practices since.
The yellow pages wasn’t created overnight after the telephone was invented. The best of internet marketing is probably still a ways away.
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