Best SEO Pricing: How Much Does SEO Cost in 2023?
SEO pricing 2023 varies a lot by industry, location, what’s included in the SEO package and more.
Without knowing a lot about your company, it’s hard to give a concrete answer on exactly how much you should budget for SEO in 2023. However, we can give you a general idea.
Based on the average cost of SEO services in 2023, you can expect to spend:
- $2,000 to $7,000 per month for an average monthly SEO package
- $100 to $350 per hour for SEO consulting
- Starting at $2,000 for project-based SEO work
It’s a wide range, we know. A lot depends on the industry and needs of your company, as well as the breadth of experience of the SEO agency you choose.
It’s also important to understand what those numbers mean, because cheap SEO services are almost always too good to be true and cost you more in the long run.
Quality SEO is complex work that requires specialized expertise and tools.
To further help you decide your SEO budget, we’ve broken down the information further. We hope this helps you better understand exactly where your SEO costs should fall. We’ll go over:
- Why you should invest in SEO
- What actually goes into pricing an SEO package
- What a decent monthly SEO package must include
- SEO consulting: The alternative to a done-for-you SEO package
- How much small businesses should be spending on SEO
- Red flags to watch out for when it comes to low-cost SEO
- Ways to keep SEO costs down without cutting corners
Let’s take a detailed look at how much SEO costs in 2023.
1. Why Should You Invest in SEO?
Fact: organic search accounts for 53% of all web traffic on an average website. Meaning if you’re not showing up in Google Search, you could be losing out on more than half of your potential customers.
And SEO is the most reliable, long-term strategy for getting your website seen by the people who buy what you sell.
That’s not to say it’s a magic bullet. SEO doesn’t work overnight. But when it’s done well, SEO is an incredibly powerful marketing tool that works alongside PPC advertising, social media marketing, and email marketing delivers lasting (and often increasing) value over time.
- Pay-per-click advertisements get your name out there quickly, but at a cost, and that cost fluctuates as the ad auction changes. SEO takes time, but once it’s established, it delivers a steady flow of relevant traffic for free.
- Social media platforms are powerful, but different platforms go in and out of fashion all the time. SEO leverages the value of stable search engines (mainly Google and Bing) that continue to gain influence on our lives.
- Email marketing gives you the freedom to say almost anything, but you can only communicate with existing leads and customers. SEO helps get your message out to new people who are specifically interested in what you offer.
It’s not so much a question of whether SEO pricing is worth it in 2023, but of how much you should invest in SEO based on your business’ needs and goals. Understanding the different types of SEO services available and how those services are priced will help you make an informed decision.
2. What Goes Into the SEO Pricing and SEO Packages?
Pricing for SEO packages largely depends on:
- SEO Agency Experience: You get what you pay for. Seasoned agencies tend to cost more, but they also know what works. They won’t waste your time on unproductive or outdated SEO strategies.
- Project Scope: Large-scale SEO campaigns will not only need more content, but also more labour and resources, while small-scale campaigns have a smaller price tag.
- Location: SEO agencies charge different rates depending on the demand for their services and the number of potential customers or clients in their area. This is where remote work is advantageous for agencies and clients alike — it lets agencies reduce operational costs without sacrificing quality or talent, which translates into cheaper rates for you.
- Pricing Model: There are different SEO pricing models, and each impacts the cost of SEO in a different way. An hourly or project-based model may be more cost-effective for you if you only need a few specific SEO fixes.
- Business Size (Startup vs. Mid-Market vs. Enterprise): Larger enterprises tend to require a broader scope of work, including more extensive website optimization, content writing and link building, so they require more expensive SEO packages.
- Existing SEO Strategy: SEO pricing depends on the state of your existing strategy, including existing website, backlinks, and content. Starting from scratch will obviously require more work and a greater cost since there’s more ground to cover. Having to reverse an existing SEO penalty will also require specialized penalty reversal work before or concurrent with SEO optimization.
- Goals: Want to dominate a particular keyword? Overtake specific competitors? Get a certain volume of traffic per month or year? Your goals play a big part in how much SEO costs, since you’ll need different approaches depending on where you want to end up.
Ultimately, what you budget for SEO isn’t just about what others are spending. Instead, it’s about what you need and want from your SEO campaign.
3. What Does a Monthly SEO Package Include?
A monthly SEO package usually includes a mix of SEO tactics to support an SEO strategy created based on your business’s current SEO standing (rankings, work already completed, penalties, etc.), goals, budget, and competitive landscape.
An SEO package priced at the higher end of the SEO pricing spectrum ($7,000 per month) will include more services than one at the lower end ($2,000 per month.) It could also include going after more, or more competitive, keywords.
When a company is new to SEO and starting from scratch, monthly SEO services will likely include research and setup tasks that lay the groundwork for success, including:
- Keyword and competitive research
- SEO Audit (on page SEO, technical SEO, off page SEO)
- Set up analytics
After the foundation is laid, monthly SEO services tend to transition to technical fixes that improve the health of your website to maximize SEO results, including:
- On-Page SEO fixes
- Off-Page SEO fixes
- Technical SEO fixes
Afterward, the focus generally shifts to ongoing optimization and content creation. Depending on your needs, it might take the form of a specific number of content pieces per month, or ongoing on-page and off-page SEO optimizations.
Overall, what a monthly SEO services package includes is subject to your company’s current and future goals, as well as your budget. Get in touch to learn more about the SEO services we can provide you on a monthly basis within your budget.
4. What’s Included in SEO Consulting?
If you already have an in-house marketing team with some SEO or content writing experience, you may be able to benefit from SEO consulting services, including:
- SEO Audit: The first step in implementing an SEO strategy is a detailed SEO analysis of your website that identifies exactly what’s preventing you from getting the results you want.
- SEO Recommendations: Second opinion on your current SEO plan with recommendations on tactics and keywords, etc.
- SEO Training: Providing training on SEO content, linking, technical SEO, and other SEO tactics to your in-house marketing team.
- SEO Implementation: Usually project-based services which can include fixing an SEO penalty, performing SEO audits and fixes, working on keyword projects, and compiling reports as needed
If you’re not sure if you need SEO consulting or a full SEO package, we offer free 20-minute consultations — for those who are interested in learning more about our professional SEO services without the commitment.
5. What Should SEO Cost a Small Business?
There is no reason why a small business can’t invest in SEO, even if you’re starting with a smaller budget.
In fact, small businesses can often benefit the most from SEO since they can’t just throw money at advertising like their large competitors can.
Generally, a small business’s SEO costs fall within this average range:
- $2,000 to $7,000 per month for a monthly SEO package
- $100 to $350 per hour for SEO consulting
- Starting at $2,000 for project-based SEO work
SEO agencies usually offer tiers of service, with the most comprehensive option costing more than the most basic.
Small businesses that are just getting started in SEO often start with a smaller package that includes things like keyword research, monitoring, and a focus on a small number of realistic keyword targets , then scale up once they see results.
6. Are Cheap SEO Services Worth It?
We mentioned above that you can expect a monthly SEO package from a professional SEO agency to range from between $2,000 and $7,000 per month.
Professional SEO Consulting runs from $100 to $350 per hour.
What if that’s just too much? Is it worth digging to find an even cheaper SEO service?
Here’s why the answer is always no.
While they may seem like a great deal at first, cheap SEO services often use manipulative tactics that go against search engine guidelines and cost you more in the long run.
Google and Bing are well aware of these shady practices. In fact, they deploy advanced machine learning algorithms to actively hunt down and penalize websites that use manipulative black hat SEO practices.
That can cause you to lose traffic, get blocked-listed, and potentially forfeit all of your future search traffic to your competitors.
Cheap SEO services are a huge risk to your company and brand so it’s important to know how to avoid them. The biggest red flags that you’re dealing with shady, cheap SEO providers include:
- Big Promises for Low Price Tags: Long-term SEO success takes a lot of manual work that can’t be done on a budget. You either have to settle for a small number of keywords or pay more later for the work that needs to be done.
- No Long-Term Strategy: Cheap SEO companies offer short-term solutions, but this isn’t realistic. Either they aren’t doing their job or they’re just looking to get quick and easy money from unsuspecting customers.
- No Transparency: Having visibility over the SEO process allows you to assess the results and make necessary changes. Never trust an SEO company that isn’t transparent with you.
If you’re looking for a quick fix to your online marketing strategy, don’t fall for cheap SEO pricing. Contact a reputable agency and see what can be done quickly and on your budget.
7. How to Keep SEO Costs in Check & Get the Best ROI
You don’t want to risk your business’s success by hiring an agency that offers SEO on the cheap.
At the same time, quality SEO doesn’t have to break the bank.
If you’re on a tight budget, making smart decisions in a few key places can help keep your costs down in order to get the most bang for your buck.
Here’s a quick lowdown on keeping costs in check while still getting the best SEO ROI:
- Focus on High-ROI Keywords: The best keywords to target aren’t always long-tail keywords or even competitive keywords — just the words and phrases that have the best chance of producing a good return on investment for your business. Any SEO work you pay for should start with solid keyword research to inform decisions about what to target.
- Test Keywords with Advertising First: Keyword research is important but not always foolproof. One way to test the viability of target keywords is to bid on them through paid search (e.g. Google Ads) before investing in SEO for that same keyword. That way, if the keyword turns out not to be profitable, you won’t waste your time or money chasing it organically.
- Keep an Eye on the Competition: Studying what your most successful competitors are doing can provide valuable insight on your own SEO strategy. Always insist on competitor research as part of your SEO package.
- Play the Long Game: SEO is a long term investment and it’s important to be realistic about ROI. This is especially true for small brands who may need a little more time than larger brands to rank their content. You should be prepared to invest in SEO for at least 6-8 months to see results. If you don’t have enough time or budget for that, stick to other digital marketing tactics like PPC or email marketing to get your brand in front of the right people sooner.
At TrafficSoda, we are committed to helping you get the best ROI with a strong, strategic approach. Get in touch to learn more about SEO pricing and how businesses can keep their costs low while still achieving solid results.
Want More Specific SEO Pricing? Request an Estimate to Find Out How Much SEO Will Cost You in 2023
The average cost of professional SEO services ranges between $2,000 and $7,000 per month for a monthly SEO package, or between $100 and $350 per hour for SEO consulting.
SEO pricing in 2023 varies depending on the scope of your SEO needs, the competitive landscape, and your goals, as well as external factors like location.
If you’re still not sure how to budget for SEO in 2023, we’ll do the hard work for you. Contact us now for an estimate of what you can expect to pay for professional SEO services tailored to your needs.
Who To Trust With Your PPC Management: In-House vs. Agency Marketing
In-house vs. agency marketing: which is the savviest approach to your PPC ad management?
If the circumstances are right, there is a solid business case for both in-house and agency marketing.
Choosing the right approach for your business will have a huge impact ‒ whether that means in-house, agency, or some strategic hybrid. There are many factors to consider and making the wrong choice can be very costly.
Read on for a detailed breakdown of the real pros and cons of partnering with a marketing agency vs. in-house PPC management, starting with the one big mistake you can’t afford.
Here’s the Biggest Misconception: What Does In-House vs. Agency Marketing Really Cost?
To begin, there is a major misconception about in-house vs. agency marketing that many companies fall victim to:
The cost of keeping their PPC advertising in-house vs. agency marketing solutions.
Cost is often the deciding factor for companies on the question of when to hire a marketing agency for pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.
And many business owners believe that hiring a marketing agency to do your PPC is inherently more expensive than doing it in-house.
But in reality, for numerous reasons, doing PPC management in-house is often far more expensive than outsourcing it to a capable agency.
- Maintaining a successful PPC advertising campaign requires experience and skill. Adding just one intermediate PPC manager to your staff will cost roughly $86,000 in salary, insurance, and benefits alone.
- That means that having a small internal marketing department of three or four employees will easily run you upward of $200,000 per year.
- Compare that to the cost of outsourcing your PPC management to an agency, which ranges from $20,000 to $200,000 per year depending on your needs ‒ and which gets you an experienced team managing and creating your PPC ads.
Plus, as with any employee, hiring an in-house PPC manager will cost more than just what you pay in salary, benefits, and insurance. There’s also:
- Recruitment costs. To find the right candidate, you have to set aside a budget that covers the costs of ads, networking events, and recruitment staff.
- Training and onboarding costs. Even the best new employees take time to adapt and reach full productivity.
- Equipment and software costs. An in-house marketing team will need software tools for analytics, ad creation, and more in order to do their jobs.
- Management costs. Spending time and resources managing and maintaining that person’s employment, from payroll to ensuring they produce quality work.
PPC advertising is an integral part of your lead generation strategy. It should be managed with the same care and attention as any other key part of your business.
If you are not able to dedicate the resources to this area, then it is almost always better to outsource your PPC management to a professional agency instead. Full stop.
Beyond Costs: Doing PPC In-House vs. Agency Marketing
Let’s put costs aside for a moment and look at other factors to consider when deciding whether to hire an agency or manage your PPC campaigns in-house.
When it comes to in-house vs. agency marketing, the TrafficSoda team has experience on both sides of the coin:
- We’re a digital marketing agency, and PPC management is something we handle for a number of clients across North America.
- However, there are times when we tell prospective clients that they would be better off handling their own PPC management, or outsourcing only a small part of it.
- And as a company that does most of our own marketing in-house, we are fully aware of the advantages and challenges involved.
In the following sections, we will examine the differences between working with an agency and hiring your own PPC team to help you decide the best choice for your business.
3 Benefits of a Professional PPC Management Agency
Marketing agencies that provide PPC management services are invaluable partners for small and medium-size businesses that want to increase traffic, leads, and sales online – but don’t want to spend $200,000/year or more on an internal marketing department.
1. Agency Expertise Gives You More Value
The best agencies give you access to a level of skill and expertise at a cost that is otherwise out of reach for most small and medium-sized businesses.
Many agencies give you access to team members specializing in many areas so you can take advantage of multiple marketing channels: Google Ads management, eCommerce PPC management, and more.
The benefits of agency experience include:
- Confidence in decision-making. Giving up some control can be scary, but a trusted digital marketing agency will give you the confidence that they have your best interest in mind with their ideas and execution.
- Advanced technology. Most agencies have an expert knowledge of the technologies they work with. They know the best ways to employ these technologies to reach their desired goals. You will gain access to advanced tools and bespoke services to suit your needs and requirements.
- New opportunities. The creative potential when you work with an agency is virtually limitless since you get an entire team of specialists with a wide range of skill sets who can be quickly called on depending on the project needs.
Agencies are experts in their field, they know how to create the best PPC strategy for your business.
2. You Can Ramp Up Advertising FAST (and Scale Back Just as Quickly)
Scalability is one of the biggest benefits of outsourcing your PPC management to an agency. Whether you want to boost your advertising during busy seasons or get more business in slower times, an agency can help.
In-house teams are limited in both resources and team members. Agencies have access to a larger number of team members with different skill sets that makes scaling seamless on your end.
Among the benefits of ramping up and scaling back quickly are:
- Outpace competitors. A quick response to changes in your market gives you an advantage over your competitors by targeting specific needs or segments of your audience.
- Get to market faster. Have a new business or product line? Hire an agency instead of building your own team until you have the time and resources to do so.
- Always on point. If you ever need to stop your ads or change your messaging quickly, an agency can handle it. There is no need to mobilize your internal resources. Remember how many businesses had to shut down or switch to curbside service early in 2020? Our team at TrafficSoda immediately jumped into action to ensure our clients’ advertising complied.
3. Your Agency’s Success Is Measured By YOUR Outcomes
Reputable agencies go out of their way to make sure that they deliver the best results for you and, in return, get more business opportunities with future potential clients.
You and your agency partners both know what’s on the line if they don’t deliver results. So, agencies work tirelessly to deliver.
There are many benefits to you from this dynamic, including:
- Fuel your growth. A good agency knows that they must deliver results and work hard for your business. You can trust an agency partner to deliver what you need to grow, whether it’s traffic, leads, or sales.
- Know what you’re paying for. In order to prove their results, a professional PPC management agency will meticulously track the performance of your ads and provide you with detailed reports. You see exactly what you’re paying for, so you’re confident you’re making the right choice.
- Constant improvement. Agencies are constantly evolving to stay competitive in the industry. With clients demanding more and better results, agencies have to find ways to keep up with that. It’s hard to maintain that kind of momentum in an internal team.
Marketing agencies are more than just a business that helps you with your marketing needs. They have the skillset to help you grow with your business with qualified resources, analytics and data, and insights.
3 Benefits of an In-House Marketing Team
For some businesses, building an in-house team to handle PPC advertising just makes sense. Internal PPC managers give you a greater level of control and a more focused approach.
1. Your In-House Team Knows Your Brand Inside and Out
You have a brand at the core of your marketing strategy, and your internal team knows it best. An in-house team is already immersed in and understands your company’s culture.
Your in-house team will already have more immediate and intimate knowledge of your brand and company culture, while it will take time for an agency to understand you. A PPC campaign aimed solely at branding rather than lead or sales generation may be better handled by an in-house team.
However, in the same way as your internal team takes time to get to know your brand, a good and professional PPC management agency will take time to get to know your brand as well.
2. Your Marketers Are Just Down the Hall
Because you’re all under one roof, having an in-house marketing team will save you from ever playing phone-tag with your marketers. It will be easier for your marketing team to coordinate with you and with other departments, allowing for greater collaboration and communication.
Since agencies aren’t next door, and you have to contact them by phone or email, it is essential that you find an agency that is responsive to your needs.
3. Your Team Works Only For You
Since digital marketing agencies have many clients, you might feel at times that you aren’t at the top of their priority list.
Your in-house marketing team focuses 100% on your business, not on other clients.
That said, it’s a mistake to assume that just because your team has singular focus means they’ll definitely achieve the results you need. You can still benefit from an agency’s experience even if they work with multiple clients.
When to Use an Agency and In-House PPC Advertising
While PPC advertising can generate significant business revenue, it requires a substantial investment of money and time.
Agencies, on the other hand, are more cost-effective, tend to produce better results, and offer the convenience of not having to manage PPC campaigns yourself.
We have outlined a few common business cases for both to help you better understand how they can benefit your business.
When to Hire a Marketing Agency for PPC Management
PPC advertising is a complex process that involves many strategies and tools.
You should hire an agency to do your PPC management if:
- You want a team with the most experienced people in the industry with specialized skills, and don’t want to build out a minimum $200,000/year PPC department.
- You want to be able to scale quickly, pause or pivot when required, without having to muster resources in-house.
- You value results and accountability. When your agency partner fails to deliver results, you won’t have a working relationship for long, so incentives are aligned and there’s a sense of urgency.
You can save time and money by having a PPC agency handle everything for you, and you will receive the quality of results only experienced and specialized teams can deliver.
When to Keep PPC Management In-House
In certain cases, it may be more efficient for the company to handle its PPC internally.
You may do better doing PPC advertising in-house if:
- You need local expertise. In a unique market, you might not want your ad campaigns managed by a third party who doesn’t understand local market conditions.
- You are a startup with venture funding. Startups that receive venture capital are usually expected to use that capital to expand their own internal teams, and you’ll have the means to acquire top talent.
- You work in a very obscure market. Some markets require unique marketing channels that are impossible to scale linearly. PPC aimed at government contracts or seasonal cycles, for example, may be better handled by in-house experts.
Keep in mind that this may not be an all or nothing decision. You can also use a digital marketing agency and an in-house team together, bringing some aspects of PPC advertising in-house or outsourcing others.
Drive More Traffic and Revenue with PPC Advertising
While both in-house and agency marketing have their advantages, most companies are far better off with one or the other. When choosing which method is best for your company, take the time to carefully weigh your options.
Our PPC advertising experts know how it’s done, and we have the track record to prove it.
Start with a FREE consultation and see how we get you results.
How Long Does It Take for PPC to Work?
PPC (pay-per-click) advertising is often considered the fastest solution in the digital marketing “toolkit” for driving traffic, generating leads, and making sales for your business.
And while PPC advertising generates impressions and clicks faster than SEO (search engine optimization), PPC doesn’t give you instant results like form fills and sales conversions.
Just like any digital marketing strategy, buying traffic through PPC ads takes planning, patience, and monitoring.
Meaningful results don’t happen overnight.
So, how long does it take for PPC to work? Let’s look at an overview of a typical PPC timeline, the main factors that influence how long it takes, and strategies to speed up the process.
How Long PPC Takes: What a Typical Timeline Looks Like
To answer the question of how long it takes for PPC to work, it’s important to define what we’re talking about in terms of results.
Yes, PPC advertising can bring in impressions and clicks right away. Sometimes you can even get lucky with a few sales and leads in the first few days and weeks.
But fine-tuning your campaign to bring in consistent, cost-efficient, and high-quality results takes time. Getting all aspects of the campaign working together can take between 3 and 9 months.
Here’s a quick overview of how this process can play out over a 9-month timeline.
Months 1-3: Gather Data and Make Early Adjustments
You can’t optimize a PPC campaign without data. So, the first stage of the campaign is getting enough relevant traffic to gather data for campaign optimization and expansion.
As soon as you have enough data to start noticing trends, you can begin to refine your campaign to increase its visibility and performance. For example:
- In a search ad campaign, adjust your keywords to ensure your ads show up for relevant searches. You can also add negative keywords to keep your ads from showing up for search queries that aren’t related or swap out headlines and descriptions that aren’t getting impressions.
- In a display ad campaign, pause underperforming ad creatives or exclude publisher placements that aren’t relevant to your ad or aren’t generating results.
- In a social media ad campaign, pause ads that are underperforming so more of your budget is spent on what works. You can also pause ad placements if they aren’t generating results or adjust your audience targeting.
With these early optimizations, your PPC traffic quality, conversion rate, and return on investment will improve. But to truly bring your PPC campaign results to the next level, there is still more work to do.
Months 3-6: Build on What Works
Once you have an idea of what’s working, you can start experimenting with new options that iterate on your current strategy.
Having some confidence in what’s going to drive clicks, leads, and sales can also allow you to increase your budget. Spending more on ad groups that are already bringing results can boost your results while also bringing in even more valuable data.
This is also the time when you have clarity on what’s not working, which may include entire advertising platforms. For example, if you started out with a combination of search ads and social media ads and only one channel is working, you should have enough data by now to decide whether to stop one channel altogether and focus on the one that is working.
Lastly, at this stage in your campaign, focus on your landing page’s quality and performance, especially if your ads are still underperforming. Be sure to pay attention not only to the technical performance (like load times and mobile responsiveness) of your landing pages but also to the relevance of its messaging to your ads.
Months 6-9: Remarket and Optimize
Now that we have collected a wealth of data and know what works, it’s time to start remarketing to track down lost leads and potential customers that need a little push.
Remarketing can also help to boost brand awareness and increase conversions.
At this point, you may need to refresh your ads with new imagery, headlines, or descriptive copy. Eventually, your audience will grow tired of the same old ads, especially if you’re dealing with a smaller audience.
Keep an eye on your social media and display ad frequency. You want to get in front of your customers, but you don’t want to overwhelm them with ads.
Why Aren’t PPC Ads Always an Overnight Success?
In order to be successful at PPC advertising, regularly monitoring and optimizing campaigns based on real, statistically relevant data is imperative.
Although PPC advertising can sometimes generate fast results, getting consistent, cost-efficient, and high-quality results is a long-term process.
You need to collect enough data to make smart decisions on which messages, imagery, keywords, and/or targeting strategies will work best. That takes time, especially if your budget can only buy you so many impressions and clicks per day.
How to Speed Up Your PPC Advertising Success
While there’s no ‘magic bullet’ that leads to overnight PPC advertising success, there are a few factors you should be aware of that may give you an edge.
- Send clicks to an awesome landing page. Having a great landing page waiting for your visitors when they click through from your ad is crucial. Clicks become sales when they land on a well-designed, incredibly relevant landing page that fulfills the promise of your ads.
- Start by building a great brand. Having a well-established product or website page with lots of organic traffic and a high conversion rate will greatly influence your PPC advertising success. It takes time for new businesses to build brand awareness and domain authority online, so expect PPC advertising to take longer as well if you are a new business.
- Make ads just one part of your digital marketing mix. The more trustworthy your brand and website are, the easier it will be to establish a foothold in PPC advertising. Using SEO, social media marketing, and email marketing in addition to PPC advertising will boost your brand awareness and produce the best results.
- Constantly monitor, manage, and optimize your campaigns. It is clear from the timeline above that PPC advertising is an ongoing process. Only by continuously improving your ad setup will you be able to ramp up its visibility, cost-efficiency, and overall success.
- Choose the best objective/goal for your campaign. There are many different ways to get value out of ads: you can build awareness of your business, get more website traffic, sell more products, and more. Think about what exactly you want to achieve and choose a campaign objective/goal that fits! For example, if you want to reach new customers and start building a relationship, choose Reach or Impressions as your goal rather than Conversions.
- Make sure your ads fit your buyer journey. Someone who already knows and loves your business won’t hesitate to click an ad that says, “Buy Now!” But someone who only just heard of you will probably need more convincing ‒ they don’t know who you are or how you can help them yet! Think about your buyer’s journey and adjust your ads accordingly.
PPC advertising is one of the most cost-effective ways to generate qualified traffic, leads, and sales online. For small businesses, using PPC campaigns can be their “big break” and a cost-effective way to get in front of potential customers who may have never heard or thought of them.
Success doesn’t happen overnight, but the right team with the right expertise can dramatically speed up your success rate and save you money in the process.
Looking for PPC advertising advice from digital marketing pros? Reach out to our team if you need help getting started!
Why Landing Pages Outperform Your Website for Ads
You’ve worked hard to get visitors to your website. Now, you need to convert them into leads.
One of the best ways to do this is with a landing page: a dedicated web page customized for a specific marketing or advertising campaign.
Sounds simple enough, right? But even today, many businesses are still sending traffic to their home page instead of landing pages. Either they’re too worried about the investment to design an effective landing page or are (more likely) just too busy to do it right.
But with a little help you can learn what to look for in an effective landing page and know why your company cannot afford to ignore them when it comes to lead generation.
What’s the Difference Between a Landing Page and the Rest of My Website?
A landing page is a standalone web page specifically created for a marketing or advertising campaign.
It’s where a visitor ‘lands’ after they click on a link, like in an email, a search ad from Google and Bing, or a social post from YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other platforms.
Now, you might be wondering “why do I need a landing page when I have a perfectly functioning website already?”
Why not just send people to your Home page, your Contact Us page, or one of your product/service pages?
Here’s why:
- Most of the pages on your website offer general information about your business. You’re the focus, not your customers. And these pages are all linked together, with a menu that lets people jump around unfocused and unmotivated.
- On the other hand, landing pages are solely dedicated to getting people to take action on one specific offer. It’s all about generating leads or sales. No links, no distractions. Just a single, simple offer.
That singular focus makes landing pages extremely effective when converting leads ‒ and research backs this up. Studies prove that landing pages with just one call to action will get you more conversions than pages with two or more.
And not only does a landing page get you more leads than a home page, but it also:
- delivers a higher ROI and gives you valuable information about your prospects.
- generates leads that you can segment, nurture, or distribute to your sales team with ease.
- lets you track the marketing performance of your offers and how visitors become leads over time.
To put it simply, sending people to a landing page instead of your home page is one of the most effective ways to increase sales, leads, and revenue from all your digital advertising and email campaigns. A successful landing page asks prospects to take a single action, whether it’s making a purchase or signing up for a quote, consultation, or lead magnet.
10 Critical Elements of an Effective Landing Page
So now that you know why your business should use landing pages, what should you do to create a high converting and effective one?
Below are some of the most critical elements of a landing page that every business should be incorporating.
- Don’t Underestimate the Power of a Great Headline
Your headline is the first thing people will read when they land on your landing page. It should sum up exactly what you’re offering and how people will benefit in a few words. - Write Concise and Compelling Copy
Tell a concise yet compelling story that makes an irresistible offer and nudges people to convert. Focus on the reader, not on yourself. Use short sentences and paragraphs. - Use Strategic and Natural Keywords
Using commonly searched keywords throughout your landing page (in the headers, body text, and page title) will help to optimize the page for Google search and ads relevancy. Avoid the temptation to keyword stuff. - Embrace a Mobile First Mindset
Over half of all website traffic is now from mobile devices. Make sure your landing page loads quickly, is responsive and looks good on mobile, tablet and desktop devices. - Seal the Exits and Hide Navigation
By hiding the top and side navigation, you reduce distractions, minimize friction, and lower bounce rates on your landing page. This means more visitors stay, stay longer and convert more often. - Use a Lead Capture Mechanism
A landing page isn’t complete without a lead capture mechanism, such as a form. In general, a shorter form will generate more conversions, but from leads of lower quality. Inversely, a longer form will generate fewer conversions, but from leads of higher quality. - Add Some Social Proof
Fear of missing out is a powerful tool to use when building social proof behind your landing pages. Testimonials and reviews add credibility to your product or service. This demonstrates that customers trust you and that business is in demand. - Help Explain It with Images
Using images that relate to the copy on the landing page allows people to visualize what it is that you are trying to say about your business, products, and services. If a picture is worth a thousand words, an image is surely worth a few hundred characters of copy. - Don’t Forget the Thank-you Page
After the visitor has put their information into the lead capture mechanism a thank-you page should pop up to confirm with the visitor that their information was received properly. If the page includes a specific deal, the visitor should receive a message that guides them to their next steps and prepares them to be contacted by the business. - Follow-Up with an Email Autoresponder
Many thank-you pages are accompanied by email autoresponders. These emails offer more information on what’s next for the visitor after converting on the landing page. Email autoresponders serve as a type of ‘receipt’ for the lead capture mechanism to confirm opt-in consent with the visitor. It also acts as a prompt for your sales team to check-in with your new lead.
Get More Leads at a Lower Cost with Landing Pages
Setting up landing pages is time well spent, and the results from conversion to leads will be all the proof that you need.
Guiding your website visitors to focus on your current business offer will steer them towards action and turn them into customers.
If you’d like to learn more about landing pages and how they can benefit your business, or if you’d like advice from an industry professional about the next steps reach out to us to chat.
Understanding Your Target Audience: Challenges and Pain Points
Connecting to your target audience is a daunting task. But what if I told you it didn’t have to be?
Like any relationship, forging a genuine, meaningful connection with your buyers takes time and effort. But once you do, you will begin to reap the rewards: you’ll be able to promote yourself to an appreciative audience that is clamoring to do business.
So, how do you get there?
First, you must understand the type of pain points your audience aligns themselves with.
Pain points are the specific issues your audience faces that your products or services can solve. Identifying these pain points – and speaking to them in your marketing – is key to bringing new customers into the fold.
Traditionally, there are four different types of pain points:
- Financial Pain Points: Your audience is trying to find a way to save money, as they are currently unsatisfied by how much money is entering or leaving their pockets.
- Productivity Pain Points: Your audience is looking to save time, or rather, to use their time more effectively.
- Process Pain Points: Your audience is in search of a more effective way to solve their problems.
- Support Pain Points: Your audience currently lacks support they need during their customer journey.
Once you identify which pain points resonate with your audience, you can better position your business to appeal to their wants and needs.
Finding Your Audience’s Pain Points
Now that you know what you’re looking for, you can start doing a little investigating.
Depending on the time and resources at hand, there are several ways to go about understanding your audience’s pain points.
Customer interviews are invaluable. Nothing beats talking to your audience one-on-one. But if you’re short on time, or don’t have access to real customers, a good place to start is with customer testimonials and reviews (on Google, Facebook, HomeStars, etc.)
As much as it’s nice to relish in complimentary customer reviews, it’s important to view the negative comments as well. This way, you can identify areas of improvement. If your customers have provided reasoning behind why they are dissatisfied, you’ve found a pain point!
After you’ve reflected on reviews of your product or service, it’s time to turn to your competitors. What are they offering their customers that you are not? What pain points are they addressing?
Look at their reviews, along with their website copy. Doing a Google search will also prompt their ads to pop up, which is a good opportunity to look at how they are appealing to their customers.
Addressing Pain Points
So, you’ve found your pain points. Now you must tailor your copy to suit the needs of your audience. Target your audience based on their pain points, and you will start to build a connection between them and your product or service.
- Financial: Highlight the money your customers will save by switching to your product/service.
- Productivity: Emphasize that by switching to your product/service, customers will also be saving time and their frustrations through user-friendly technology.
- Processes: Discuss how your product/service is the most effective, reliable, and convenient way to solve their issue.
- Support: Be present in every stage of the customer journey by helping your customers, both new and secured. Use inclusive language and emphasize that they are more than just a customer to you.
Add to Your Copy
Now that you know how to address pain points, we have a few extra tips for you to incorporate into your marketing copy to help prospects realize how great your business is.
In this case, qualitative data is much more valuable compared to quantitative. Each customer has an individualized experience, meaning they all have their own different pain points. One customer is not going to share the exact same problem as another, though it can be categorized into larger ideas like the ones discussed above.
At the end of the day, your audience is not going to remember the number of customers served or percentage of satisfaction – they are going to remember the stories behind customer success.
This can easily be found through use of customer testimonials, as it gives prospects confidence to continue their customer journey with you. By seeing displays of trust between your business and customers, prospects will expect to have a similar experience, one where they are supported.
Make a Lasting Connection To Your Audience
Building a connection with your audience is vital to the growth and survival of your business. By no means is it an easy task, but the effort you put into this relationship will pay off in time. Now that you understand how to find your audience pain points and address them, you can get started on nurturing a relationship with your customers.
When in doubt, just ask yourself: what do my customers need and how will I provide it for them? Reach out to us to start connecting to your audience and attracting qualified leads now.
5 Ways of Repurposing Content to Extend Its Lifespan
We all strive to make quality content but that takes time. In a busy world where 70 million other blogs are posted every month, most blogs are easily forgotten.
Is there a way to expand the reach of the content you already have, without having to research a new topic altogether?
By repurposing the already amazing content you have!
This will benefit you for several reasons:
1. Reaching a new audience
Just like the fact that everyone learns in different ways, they consume content differently too!
They might not have time to read an entire pillar post but they can listen to an audio version or podcast on their commute to work. In the future, you can even tailor your audience based on how they prefer to consume content.
2. Creating traffic
When it comes to turning traffic into conversions, the more opportunities you give your audience to interact with your site, the better your chances are to get leads.
3. Saving time
Ask yourself, “how much time does my team spend writing brand new content?” Likely, it’s more than repurposing content you’ve already done the research for.
Not only that, but it will free up time to work on other new or ongoing projects for your company while still maintaining the amount of content you already post.
So, how can you actually transform dormant content?
What Content to Repurpose
Step one is to choose content that will last for years and still be relevant to searchers down the line.
Once you decide what content to repurpose, it’s time to figure out what new form the copy will take on! Here are five of our ideas that have proven to show results:
1. Turn Statistics and Data into an Infographic
A great way to display boring information is to make it visually appealing.
Infographics make all those numbers into something exciting. They can help put the information presented into perspective so that readers understand the reason for calling attention to the data.
The reason that infographics are useful when repurposing content is because the majority of people are visual learners. In fact, 65% of people are considered visual learners.
Typically, an infographic contains 5-10 interesting statistics arranged in an appealing design layout to extend the blog information.
There are tons of free and easy to use infographic creating websites that don’t require heavy knowledge of design tools or more complicated programs like photoshop. One option is the infographic option of Canva, it has a simplistic and intuitive layout that anyone can use!
2. Bundle Blogs into an eBook or Whitepaper
By now, you’ve probably written a lot of blogs that support one another or that relate to different aspects of one broad topic.
Or maybe you even have a dedicated pillar post. For those who aren’t familiar with pillar posts, Hubspot defines pillar posts as “the basis on which a topic cluster is built. A pillar page covers all aspects of the topic on a single page, with room for more in-depth reporting in more detailed cluster blog posts that hyperlink back to the pillar page. Pillar pages broadly cover a particular topic, and cluster content should address a specific keywords related to that topic in-depth.”
EBooks and whitepapers don’t have to be lengthy, think of them as just a longer blog post. And just like blogs, it’s always quality over quantity. Using all the blogs related to the broader topic, just stitch them together into a frankenstein mega blog.
Since all the main points are already written, it will take significantly less time!
3. Turn Single Blogs into Videos or Podcasts
80% of consumer traffic is made up of video traffic.
People would rather watch a video than read text, it’s just a fact.
As marketers, it’s time to jump on the video train and create video content for our blogs. Not only will it have a high retention rate but it will also help your Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
When you embed a video to your blog, those that click on the video will show as a conversion. This means that Google will see that people are interacting with your blog and will be likely to recommend your blog post over someone who didn’t have that same interaction.
Even just turning prezis or slideshows into simple animations with a voiceover and music can help gain a high ranking.
If you don’t necessarily have the time to create a whole video for every blog, you can always create a podcast reading the blog.
Not everyone has the time to read an entire blog, so if they have time during a workout at the gym or on their way to work, they can listen to your blogs!
Not only are you tailoring your content to people’s needs but also the types of learners they are!
4. Break Down Long Blogs into Social Media Tips
Attention span is hard to maintain with the constant bustle of the online world.
If you have a blog that has a lot of little ideas that can be used individually, why not make social media posts that showcase these tips.
The best part is that you can even link to the blog post that inspired the tip within the social post and gain even more engagements.
5. Repurpose Videos into a Web Course
If you’re one of the companies that includes a mini video tutorials or explanations, this is easy to repurpose into fresh content.
You’ve already made the videos, and they’re doing great on your site. So why not make a little extra on the side when you’ve already put in the work?
Using a site like Udemy, you can upload your videos of the same theme and create a course out of it. Users will pay a flat fee for the entire course and then will have access to engage at their own pace.
What’s awesome about making a course on Udemy is that the courses allow for the creator of the course to get involved and help the users. Connections can be made and brand awareness can be developed!
Old content is not bad content, it’s just forgotten!
Repurposing your content is a great way to bring new life to your site and gain new traffic. Your information is sure to help someone out there find what they’re looking for, you just have to make your content heard!
Beginner’s Guide to Creating Quality Content Using SEO Practices in 2019
What did you last type into Google? Chances are whatever the question, it recommended a blog or article on the topic.
In 2019, search engines like Google care about solving the intent of the searcher. This means that the viewer’s attention must be grabbed, the information was helpful, and the article had steps in place to engage with the company.
Do you want to learn about how to write a quality blog post that helps your relevancy on search engines?
Here’s a beginner’s guide to everything SEO to optimize your next blog post.
Creating Effective Content
Your goal as a writer is to keep people on the website.
Content that is overly complicated or boring will cause readers to abandon your page. The experience that your audience has is an important one.
You aren’t the only one writing a blog today. Countless blogs are posted every day, so how do you grab people’s attention?
Well, it all starts with creating meaning content that educates or inspires your readers. How do you do that?
The first thing to do when creating compelling content, is to find a compelling topic to write about.
Choosing A Topic
The best thing to write about are things that both relate to your services and educational topics. Simply put, people find blogs by searching for questions they have. So, answer them!
The easiest way to identify this is to think like your audience and ask the following:
- What do they want to know about?
- What will they identify with?
This isn’t to say you should never write about your own business when it makes sense. Your company just won an award or was featured in a major new article? Perfect opportunities to write about what your company can do for the masses!
But for most blog posts, it’s best to focus on the industry’s questions. This is largely due to the fact that the people you are hoping to reach don’t know about you yet! If you only talk about your business or yourself, people won’t be able to find you by searching.
Are you stuck for ideas or have writers block? Consider talking to other people in the company in different departments or that have unique perspectives. They could be a gateway to ideas!
Here are some questions to ask regarding potential leads to topics:
- What are frequent questions from customers?
- What does our audience need help with?
- What do people wish they knew regarding our industry?
- What are others in our industry talking about?
It may be beneficial to start with a very broad topic. As you research and write, you’ll likely find subtopics that could be expanded on. Try to approach the broad topic in different ways to create different avenues for expansion.
Keyword Research
Keywords are the words or phrases that are commonly typed into the search engine. They are the main words people are looking for information on.
What are the words that your industry uses all the time? If you run a company that repairs air conditioners, your keywords could be “air conditioner repair.”
The concept of keywords is not to completely overwhelm your content with a keyword every sentence. It actually negatively impacts your search engine optimization because it’s considered stuffing.
Think about incorporating them naturally in the headlines and body, as if they were a conversation.
Language allows us to say the same thing differently. Maybe your keyword can be said a different way. Instead of repeating “air conditioner repair”, use a synonym. This can also help search engines to pick up on different nomenclatures because not everyone searches for the same thing the same way.
Develop a Long-tail Keyword and Title
Long-tail keywords are very specifically targeted keywords.
They typically are 3 or more words and contain a head term combined with more generic search terms. The head term should relate to what you want your company to be known for and what topics you want to provide knowledge on.
A good practice is to develop and focus on a single long-tail keyword.
Why are Long-tail Keywords Useful for Titles?
Often times the title is the opener for a question to be answered. Those who search for long-tail keywords will be the most likely candidate to read your post in its entirety and pursue your company further. They are the ones who will click down the conversion funnel.
Make a Working Title from a Long-tail Keyword
Everyone reads the title before committing to the rest of the blog. That means you have to make sure people are interested enough to continue by catching the viewer’s attention.
A working title is something you base the direction of your post off of. For example, using the broad topic of “video advertisements”, the working title could be “How to Optimize Your Video Advertisements in 2019”. We took the very general idea that could have been pretty much anything and made it specific.
Once you finish the post, go back to your title and rework it to align better with the end result. Your title should help people as well as search engines to decipher what the post will contain specifically. Readers will identify what they can get out of spending their time viewing your post.
Shorten Your URL Slug
A post slug is typically a viewer friendly URL name of a post or page.
They ensure clarity of the topic. For example, website.com/blog/our-first-blog.
Your slug doesn’t have to be the title of your blog. When slugs are overly long or complicated can be confusing and not memorable for users to find later.
It is also useful to have a consistent slug if the title changes. For example, if you intend on trying to better optimize your title to gain traffic, you don’t have to then also change the slug.
Best practice is to exclude years or numbers in general, this way you don’t have to change it if you update the page.
It’s important to keep the URL slug as short as possible without losing key information.
Optimize Image Alt-texts
It’s crucial to incorporate images throughout your blog to provide a visual interest.
Search engines can’t see images like we do, so you can’t optimize for actual images. What you can optimize is the alt text or name.
An alt name is information regarding what the image is about. From a search engine perspective, the best descriptions will better the results.
It’s an easy thing to forget but can ultimately help if you include them. Consider creating an alt text for your images based on your long-tail keyword or working title.
Additionally, including these will help with accessibility for impaired users and allow you to increase your reach.
Create an Interesting Meta Description
What’s the next thing users see after they read the title? The meta description.
The meta description is the brief synopsis of your article found right below the title. It is used by both viewers and search engines to provide information regarding what you intend to talk about.
Meta descriptions don’t directly affect your SEO; however, they are useful for including keywords. Searched information is often bolded if your article uses the keywords or the meta description does.
They should not mislead people into clicking on something they weren’t looking for. It’s good practice to use words that indicate what you want viewers to gain from reading further. This could be words like:
- Get
- Use
- See
- Learn
If you’re ever stuck on what to write to think of it as a headline. How would you get the attention of the viewer?
Including Strategic Blog Links
With more traffic, you’ll be able to develop better relationships with your viewers. You want users to feel that they can trust you.
So how can you create that trust with an informational blog? By being credible.
Including links to your sources throughout the blog will showcase that you have researched the topic and know what you’re talking about.
Now, including a link for every paragraph is not what you want to do. It’s best to sprinkle your sources only where it makes sense.
Likely at this point, you’ve got a few topics in mind for what you could write about, so plan accordingly! You can incorporate hyperlinks, Call to Actions (CTAs), to other blog posts of yours on related topics.
Have you already explained a topic that you mention? Link to it! This is good practice because if someone finds your content useful, they could find your services right within the blog.
Don’t Just Use Text
Plain text that all looks the same is frankly just boring.
By offering other types of media like images or videos will greatly increase the amount of time people spend on your article.
Including videos, especially near the top of your article, increases your chance of being on the front page of Google by 53 times. Why? Because people that take the time to watch your video, increase your bounce rate.
In the eyes of search engines, if people just view your page and then leave, it didn’t really help them. When people click to watch a video embedded on your blog, Google sees that as people finding valuable resources on your site. And it is more likely to recommend the article to people.
Most people would rather watch a video than read text, and giving people the option, puts value in your content.
If you’re just starting out on your blog or if you’re just looking to better your blog writing, this is an excellent map to creating quality content.
Make the most of every post on your site by incorporating these tips!
Use Your LinkedIn Profile to its Full Potential by Incorporating SEO Practices
LinkedIn is a powerful search engine that can drive targeted, high volume to your profile. But most people neglect to utilize its full potential and gain better conversions for your profile.
When you think of LinkedIn, you probably assume it is just a social media platform for your resume. But it’s more than that.
How can you optimize your profile to be more SEO-friendly and gain better traffic on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn Optimization
LinkedIn’s optimization allows connections to be built with those who are at the top of your industry. Your ideal clients are attracted to your profile and potentially send messages regarding your services.
By implementing SEO practices, like keywords and copywriting, you could generate more leads and build your brand.
How would this work?
Well, like any site, marketing is dependent on not only traffic but optimizing that traffic to create the best possible conversions. It’s important to make the most of each person that visits your profile.
Building Up Your Profile
Here are several practices in order to bring your LinkedIn profile up to the best it could possibly be.
1. The Look
Most people would say not to judge a book by its cover. But on LinkedIn you have limited space on your profile, so why not make the most of it?
Knowing your target audience, will help you tailor the profile’s aesthetics to them. If it is a very corporate job, you should wear professional attire in your profile photo. If you want to seem more casual, then don’t “suit up”. It’s all up to the audience and what they expect of you.
Take advantage of all the aspects you can expand on your brand’s look, be that the profile photo or the cover photo.
Your profile photo should have:
- High quality image
- Close up of your face (good practice is approximately 60% of the canvas)
- Plain and simple background
- Appropriate attire for your business
Your cover photo should have:
- Unique imagery that attracts attention
- A tagline that relates to what you do or who you do work for
- Call to Actions (CTAs) with your contact information
Since about 65% of people are visual learners, making the visual aspects of your profile
optimized will help give a good first impression. It will also allow people to have a quick
cue to get in touch and get to know you.
2. Finding Keywords
What users type into Google are likely not the same as what they type in LinkedIn. Therefore, you need to tailor your keyword research to how people search on LinkedIn.
Here are some questions to consider when researching your keywords on LinkedIn:
- What do you want to be known for?
- Do these terms get good traffic but with low competition?
- Do these terms fall into your target audience?
Based on these answers, take the shortest and broadest terms associated with you.
Good practice would be to consider the different results based on the degree filter of
your connections.
3. The Content
There are tons of opportunities to incorporate copywrite conversions within the content of your profile. Similar to your profile photos, keep in mind the target audience when writing.
Headline
Your headline should be a combination of copy and LinkedIn keywords. Users quickly understand what you do and more importantly, what you can for them.
Be clear. Don’t include catchy slogans or plays on words as it may leave the viewer confused as to what you do.
Fill the entire space. You have 120 characters for your headline so why not use them!
The main takeaway for your headline should be to appeal to people who are looking for specific qualities that you provide. Include keywords, but don’t make them the focus. For example, “Driving Digital Business Success with Best-In-Class Technology Partnerships.”
Summary
Your summary is the place where you have the most space, a whole 100 words!
This is where users hope to learn more about you, what services you provide and anything else about your industry.
What you shouldn’t do is to just endlessly list everything you’ve ever accomplished. No one needs to know you won the 3 rd grade spelling bee. Make the information relevant.
Think of this section as the About Page on your website. What would people want to know about what you can do for them?
Experience
You may be wondering how you could make the experience section of your profile SEO optimized. While it may be tempting to make this exactly like you resume, there are tons of SEO opportunities here!
Take those keywords and incorporate them within the skills you have. Mention things like how you increased the traffic of a site by a major percentage, or how you developed an uptick in conversions.
Step away from the boring bullet points of everything you did. Try writing naturally and conversationally. Those who seek your services may not know all the complex terms the industry uses. Instead of “CTR” or “KPI”, use the layman’s terms.
Use your experience section to compel your viewers in trusting you are the right fit for what they are looking for.
4. Connections and Recommendations
LinkedIn prioritizes the degree (1st , 2nd , and 3rd ) of connections based on what is searched.
When you connect with people, you are connected to their network as well as your own. This means you should try and keep your connections within your industry for best results. If they search for one of your keywords, you’re more likely to popup with them.
Simple connections are easy to accomplish. Creating meaningful and memorable connections is more difficult. We recommend starting a conversation.
Conversations make people feel important and valued. When composing a message, don’t ever pitch in the first message. It is an extreme turn-off for most people and often feels spammy.
Let the conversation naturally flow. They will almost always bring up what they are looking for from you, rather than you are presenting what you can do for them. Leads will find you and they are more likely to turn into a conversion.
When you work with people sometimes, they will provide you with a recommendation.
A recommendation is akin to a review of your services. They prove that you have the skills! It shows you know what you’re doing, and the results other people can expect of you. Naturally, keywords will be important here.
The goal of your profile is to create leads. Overall, by adapting your LinkedIn profile to a more SEO optimized profile, you’ll get more meaningful traffic. Not only that, but according to LinkedIn, companies who complete their profiles get 30% more views.
If you’re not making the most of your profile, why not start now?
Targeting on LinkedIn Is the Newest Way to Grow your Audience
There are so many ways to define your audience that finding the “perfect” one for your company can be overwhelming. How do you know if you’re reaching the right group?
LinkedIn’s newly released audience targeting system could provide you with the right connections.
In early 2019, LinkedIn released an exciting new advertising model that uses three main methods to help expand your business reach and propelling your business further:
- Lookalike audiences, which finds people who look like the audience you already have.
- Audience templates based on commonly related characteristics such as job titles and skills.
- Interest targeting for the most relevant topics or themes to your ideal audience.
Here’s a quick introduction to how you can use LinkedIn’s targeted advertising to reach your perfect audience.
1. Lookalike Audiences
A lookalike audience is similar to your core audience with one important difference: these individuals are not completely dedicated to your brand yet. But the potential is there because they have visited your website or engaged with your mobile app.
By enticing this audience through ads that reflect their interests or professional careers, you can expand your audience and grow. Those who are already engaging in mild ways with your site are the most likely to convert and grow your business.
Getting Started with Lookalike Audiences
The best step to begin this process is to find a specific starting point within your audience and develop the group from there. It’s important to not make overly broad audiences such as “all purchasers”. How would you know if they were one-time purchasers or consistent buyers? Identify your important customers.
After you’ve identified segmentation of your core audience, determine if you want to optimize based on similarity or reach. Typically, between 1%-5% of the target demographic will find you a group closely resembling your core audience.
For reach optimization, aim for anything near 10% of the target demographic. While you are targeting a greater number of users, they will be less similar to your core audience.
Why LinkedIn Lookalike Audiences?
What sets LinkedIn apart from other companies that help develop lookalike audiences?
- Ability to reach farther with active users and convert them.
- Scale results not just with a wide reach but with quality conversions.
- Find audiences you may not have considered before.
With 500 million people actively using the site and 9 million companies, you have access to a huge pool of people to expand your audience from. This software was built on their information, where people are motivated to keep their information up to date so they can network for future job opportunities.
Only active members within your target audience receive the advertisement campaigns. Meaning you are more likely to get traction on your ad from active users that are going to engage. During their pilot testing, companies were able to tailor their ads to their desired demographic and received 5-10 times more reach while still having quality customers.
Prior to any campaign launch for your business, LinkedIn has developed a system that predicts the general outcome of the ad. You can then make improvements before it goes live, which results in even more success with your campaign.
2. Audience Templates
LinkedIn provides a variety of different pre-set packages regarding their targeted advertisements. They are based on commonly related audience characteristics such as:
- Company size, name or industry
- Job title or function
- Seniority level
- Schools
- Degrees
- Skills
- Fields of study
- LinkedIn member groups
Businesses can easily begin their reach campaigns but don’t have to spend hours setting up the specifics.
3. Interest Targeting
Interest targeting is the idea that you are serving your ad campaign to people who are interested in that topic or a general theme.
The initial pique of interest, followed by content that they engage with, helps create a receptive and responsive audience. In the future, they will seek your content, products and services.
LinkedIn ads offer interest targeting based on content that users are responsive to. Relevant ads and content match a user’s interests using at least one of the 200 professional interest categories, including:
- Arts and entertainment (music, visual arts, literature, television, and film)
- Business and management, (company acquisitions, business funding, and human resources)
- Finance and economy (the stock market, corporate finance and financial matters on a personal, state, or federal level)
- Marketing and advertising (market research, advertising strategies, and brand management)
- Politics and law (law practice, social issues, and activism)
- Sales and retail (sales channels, lead generation, and retail merchandising)
- Science and environment (human health, social interactions and infrastructure, engineering, and consumer electronics)
- Society and culture (religion, family and personal relationships, and social issues)
- Technology (biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and internet technology)
There are also sub-categories within these broad categories. ‘Top’ categories will widen your reach, while sub-categories will find you more similarity.
Finding Your Audience on LinkedIn
Ultimately, customers care about their interests. They won’t purchase something they don’t like.
Businesses can shape their brand perception and appeal to the target audiences by associating ads with the interests of the people they wish to reach. You can reach many communities through targeted interest advertisements.
LinkedIn is a platform all businesses should consider utilizing when they wish to expand their core audience and get more traction and engagement. They have made ads user-friendly for both the business and the customer.
How Long Does It Take for SEO to Start Working?
One of the most frequent questions from clients of a digital marketing firm is “When will my search engine business rankings increase?”, or “How long does it take for SEO to start working?”
Business owners know the importance of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) as part of their online marketing strategy. They also understand that SEO strategies make it easier for search engines to find them, rank them higher, thereby increasing traffic to their website.
So how long do you have to wait before you see results? The short answer is “it depends”.
There are many variables to optimizing your website, however three specific criteria play a significant role: competition, inbound links, and content.
Competition
Depending on your product or service, there will be varying degrees of demand. The more competing webpages you’re up against, the longer it will take to see results. Depending on how well your competition’s SEO strategies perform, the longer it will take for you to rise in rankings.
If you are spending a great deal of time and effort developing and implementing your SEO strategies, you can be sure your competitors are doing so as well. Every time you post a new blog, your competitor may be doing the same.
Inbound links
The volume of inbound links to your website play a huge role. The quality of those links, the speed in which you gain those links, and historically have gained them also has an effect. The speed at which you earn links should have a relatively stable growth pattern. A sudden increase in links looks unnatural. If your link-building follows Google’s guidelines, that should happen naturally.
A large number of high-quality, high-authority inbound links (also referred to as backlinks) will flag site-crawlers, indicating that your website is an authority in your particular field. It’s almost like gaining a referral from someone for your product or service.
Content
Quality content matters a lot. High-quality content is original, relevant, authoritative, factual, grammatically correct and engaging. Your web pages need have no minimum or even ideal length. They just have to answer the question or solve the user’s problem.
A business blog is a great way to become a resource for information in your field that you add to on a regular basis. Blogs are a great way to increase traffic to your website.
Keep in mind that newer pages don’t rank as well as older ones. This graph shows that the average top 10 ranking page is at least 2 ½ years old.
Despite this, new content should be added to your website on a regular publishing schedule.
This encourages search engine spiders to crawl your site more frequently and speed up your SEO efforts. Also, users will return to your site more frequently looking for new content, further sending signals to search engines of the popularity of your site. User engagement is built and gauged over time.
SEO is An Investment
Ultimately, you need to be prepared to invest several months to a year before seeing the results of your SEO efforts. Why? Search engines take multiple factors into account when ranking webpages. For example, Google uses over 200 ranking factors in their search algorithm! The takeaway is this: SEO can have a significant impact on the success of your business, so it is worth the investment of time and money!