After June 30, 2022, users will no longer be able to create or edit expanded text ads on Google Ads. Here’s what you need to know.
Expanded text ads are text ads that have three headline fields and two description fields. The first two headlines will always appear next to each other, while the third, optional headline may sometimes appear on certain devices.
Source: https://support.google.com/searchads/answer/7034382?hl=en
Like responsive search ads, advertisers can edit the ad’s display URL “Path” fields. For example, the ad’s final URL might be www.example.com/purchase/tickets. If you set the path text as “show” and “tickets” instead, the display URL will show as www.example.com/show/tickets.
If enabled, this type of ad can appear on both the Google Search Network and the Google Display Network. Ad extensions are fully compatible with expanded text ads, as well.
Expanded text ads are comparatively static; the headlines and descriptions entered will show as written, with little variation, save for the addition of a third headline on some devices.
Responsive search ads, on the other hand, use machine learning to select from any of 15 headlines and 4 descriptions to display on any given search. A maximum of 3 headlines and 2 descriptions will show, but their content and order will vary according to what Google Ads think will perform best.
According to Google, the automation that responsive search ads provide makes them a more effective advertising tool than expanded text ads, with advertisers who switched to responsive search ads seeing 7% more conversions at a similar cost per conversion.
As a result, Google Ads decided to retire this type of ad, and responsive search ads will be the only Search ad type available.
If you currently have expanded text ads in your account, they will not stop running after June 30, 2022. Existing expanded text ads will still be visible in the account, and while advertisers won’t be able to make edits to these ads, they will be able to enable and pause them as needed.
While advertisers won’t have to worry about their expanded text ads suddenly pausing being removed from the account, Google still recommends that advertisers have at least one responsive search ad in each ad group in Search campaigns to prepare for this change.
In order to see which ad groups still need responsive search ads, you can go into your Google Ads account and filter by ad type. If you discover an ad group without a responsive search ad, you can easily create one by clicking on the plus button and selecting “Responsive Search Ad”.
You don’t have to start from scratch; repurpose high-performing content from your expanded text ads and add additional headlines and descriptions that improve your Ad Strength, which has been shown to correlate with more clicks and conversions. For more information on best practices for responsive search ads, Google has a helpful guide, which you can read here.
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Our team of experts at Relevance Advisors wants to help your B2B business succeed. Reach out today to learn more about how we can help you improve your advertising efforts using Google Ads and other platforms.
Lead generation is the process of identifying potential customers and then trying to initiate their interest in your product or service. In the case of Business-to-business (B2B) lead generation, you’re looking for businesses that would have an interest in what you’re offering - aka, your target audience.
Although B2B and B2C companies engage in lead generation, the ways in which they do can (and should!) vary greatly. For example, according to Hubspot, B2B companies get twice as many leads from telemarketing than B2C companies.
So, what are the best lead sources for B2B companies? According to the same article, a company’s best bet for finding qualified leads is using one of the following methods: SEO, email marketing, and social media. So, based on this knowledge, let’s take a look at some of the strategies your company can implement today to gather leads and engage potential customers using these channels.
It’s no secret that blogging is a great way to improve SEO and increase your visibility on search engines. A good blog will be relevant to your target audience; a great blog will be informative, persuasive, engaging, and valuable to potential customers.
If you’re already creating compelling content for your website visitors, make sure you have a clear call to action that can direct prospects to the proper landing page or conversion action for generating leads.
When done correctly, emails are an excellent way to generate leads. The key is to segment your list of contacts. Use information your contacts have provided, such as job title or company size, to cater your messaging to your recipients. It’s also a great idea to automate your email campaigns, as it allows you to increase your reach without expending additional effort to do so.
For example, you could set up your email automation to send businesses in a lead nurturing campaign emails that introduce them to your business, or offer specific discounts.
Social media is an effective way to increase your visibility as a company, and connect with your target audience by producing content that they find interesting, humorous, or otherwise valuable. Do it right, and when a business does need your services, you’ll be top of mind.
In order to make sure your content is being seen by the right people, do a little research and find out which platforms your competitors and target audience are using. After all, it’s not really productive to spend a ton of energy creating content for Pinterest if potential leads won’t even see it. While it’s great to have as many eyes as possible on your content, don’t stretch yourself too thin. Repurpose content where you’re able, and forgo platforms that are unlikely to generate leads.
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Are you interested in improving your B2B lead generation efforts? Our team of experts at Relevance Advisors has the experience and the tools you need to succeed. Reach out today to learn more about how we can help you generate business leads.
Customer Match is a powerful Google Ads audience targeting tool that can help B2B businesses take their advertising to the next level. Today, we’re diving into the specifics of how it works, why it’s important, and the steps your company can take to begin using Customer Match for Google Ads today.
How It Works
Customer Match uses online and offline data that customers have provided while interacting with your business in order to target those customers and similar people. This data can include a customer’s:
Businesses can take this data and create customer data files. This is then uploaded to Google, where the customer information is matched to Google Accounts. Once this is completed, advertisers can target or exclude this audience list in certain campaigns. This means that those customers that have been targeted will see these ads on Google’s advertising platforms (Search Network, YouTube, or Gmail) when they’re signed into their Google Account. Note that users do have the choice to opt out of ads like these by changing their Google Ads settings.
Businesses can also expand their targeting by using the “Similar Audiences'' feature. Google Ads will examine a variety of factors to build this audience, including:
This data will be aggregated and Google will find new, similar people to show your ads to. Keep in mind that there has to be enough information on the list, and enough similar behavior between customers, to create a Similar Audience. Also note that sensitive information is not used to create Similar Audiences, in accordance with Google’s personalized advertising policy.
Why It’s Useful
Customer Match gives businesses an opportunity to engage with people who have already expressed interest in their goods or services, or find new people who are likely to find value in their business. Whether you want to simply increase brand awareness or drive conversions, Google’s tool is built to improve performance and achieve a variety of business goals.
Requirements for Using Customer Match
If you want to begin using Customer Match, you’ll need to make sure your account is in good standing. According to Google, accounts that want to use this tool must have a good payment history and a good history of policy compliance. Additional features are available for certain accounts depending on which additional requirements they satisfy.
Policy compliant accounts can use the “Observation” setting, which lets advertisers monitor how ads are performing within selected parameters, without narrowing the actual targeting. Accounts can utilize the similar audiences feature in “Observation” setting as well. Additionally, policy compliant accounts can exclude specific audience segments from their targeting.
Accounts that have 90 days of history in Google Ads and more than $50,000 in lifetime spend get some additional perks. They can use similar audiences outside of the “Observation” setting. They can also use the “Targeting” setting to narrow their ad groups to specific audiences or to appearing on specific content. These accounts can also make manual bid adjustments.
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Relevance Advisors can help your B2B business thrive. Interested in learning more? Contact us today, or sign up for our newsletter to receive marketing tips and tricks, as well as information on digital marketing trends.
Business-to-business (B2B) content marketing refers to the creation and distribution of content meant to attract, engage, and retain an audience in order to achieve business goals, such as increasing brand awareness or sales. It’s similar to B2C marketing, with the main difference being your audience; as the name suggests, B2B marketing is focused on attracting the attention of businesses that might require your services.
There are a lot of options when it comes to how you present your content. Here are just a few of your options, along with examples from real businesses.
1) Blogs & Press Releases
Klaviyo, a platform that allows you to deliver automated email and SMS messaging to customers, has a blog that focuses on marketing tips, ecommerce, and product-related news.
2) Newsletters
Goodreads, a book database and review site, may technically be B2C, but businesses can learn a lot from their newsletters, which often feature colorful graphics and plenty of products and links to engage with.
3) Videos & Webinars
Salesforce, the popular CRM platform, regularly hosts live webinars. While much of the content revolves around Salesforce, and the ways in which customers can maximize its potential, other videos offer broader advice on topics such as seasonal shopping and startup success. The webinars are easily accessible for on-demand listening.
4) Kits & Templates
Hubspot, another widely used CRM platform, has so many templates for businesses that they’ve been categorized by collection. Whether you’re an agency or a freelancer, there are templates for proposals, invoices, and reports at the ready.
5) Research papers
Intel, the technology giant, has a page of industry-related research publications that interested parties can read for free. Publishing research related to your industry helps establish your authority as an expert in the field.
6) Quizzes
Search Engine Land, which provides marketing professionals with the latest news in the industry, will occasionally post quizzes that test people’s knowledge on marketing topics such as SEO. It’s a good way to establish expertise and engage business leaders with their content.
In short, good B2B content marketing can lead to more quality leads for your business. In fact, according to a Curata study conducted in 2016, “74% of companies have experienced an increase in lead quality & quantity as a result of content marketing”.
Why? Content marketing helps increase brand awareness; after all, the more content that’s out there, the more likely a potential customer is going to see it. It also helps keep relevant businesses engaged with your company. If they consume your content and find value in it, then when they require the services you provide, you’re more likely to be top of mind.
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B2B content marketing is an essential piece of any company’s marketing strategy. As a B2B marketing agency, Relevance Advisors can help you identify and drive qualified customers to your website and increase your returns. Interested in learning more? Contact us today, or sign up for our newsletter to receive B2B marketing tips and information on digital marketing trends.
Pipedrive is a sales Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution that aims to make the sales process as easy as possible. It’s a powerful tool for small and big businesses alike that are looking to improve their efficiency and maximize sales. Today, we’re looking at some of the main benefits of using Pipedrive, and why good CRM software is so important.
Pipedrive calls itself “the first CRM platform made for salespeople, by salespeople,” and this is reflected in its capabilities. The software offers a number of great features; we’ve listed a few of the most important ones below.
Foster Your Relationship with Customers
Pipedrive’s main function is to help create more leads and conversions (or “deals”). Users can create deals in the software, and then track them through visual pipelines, which can be filtered by representative or by sales stage. More specific sales data can be tracked by creating custom fields. Users can also track contact history in the platform, and color cues act as a visual aid so that users know which deals and customers to prioritize.
Automate Busywork
Pipedrive is capable of automating administrative tasks, so users can focus on the important tasks instead of repetitive busywork. For example, users can create automated emails that trigger to send automatically at certain stages of a customer’s sales journey. The software has a variety of other features and app integrations that can streamline other basic processes, as well.
Get Valuable Insights
With the ability to create customizable reports and metrics, Pipedrive allows users to track the specific data that is important to their business. Custom features can be created for free with an open API, and revenue forecasts help users predict their earnings and plan ahead.
CRM is a vital part of a sales team’s arsenal of tools, as it allows you to create and manage customer profiles and prioritize interactions that will lead to a better customer experience. Most businesses will know that it can be a hassle to build good customer profiles, especially if your data collection is inefficient or unorganized. A good CRM tool should be able to gather, analyze, and present this data in a way that’s useful.
Pipedrive does all this and more; as CRM with automation and reporting capabilities, it’s the ultimate tool for businesses looking to strengthen their customer relationships quickly and effectively. Of course, if the ultimate goal is to increase sales, using Pipedrive can help with that too; users reported closing 28% more deals on average after just one year.
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Are you looking to grow your business? Interested in implementing CRM software, but not sure where to begin? Our team of experts at Relevance Advisors can help. Reach out today to learn more!
Are you trying to nudge your customers into the next step of the buyer journey? Discourage cart abandonment? Let buyers know about your latest and greatest deals? VWO Engage may be just the tool you’re looking for.
VWO Engage (previously known as PushCrew) is designed to help businesses engage their customers with personalized web push notifications or Facebook Messenger campaigns. With this tool, you can engage subscribers and encourage them to convert. It’s a unique alternative to regular retargeting ads, and allows you to engage with visitors who looked at your products but didn’t make a purchase.
A self-proclaimed way to “reach your audience beyond their email inbox,” VWO Engage is a unique way to promote sales and other offerings to interested customers. The tool allows you to reach customers on Facebook or on their browser, even when they’re not on your site. It’s a great way to prevent cart abandonment or let loyal customers know about new deals.
VWO Engage uses two methods of messaging, the first of which is web push notifications. According to their website, VWO Engage’s web push notifications have 4x the click-through rate (CTR) of emails. Users are able to opt in to their notifications with the click of a button; there’s no need for them to provide an email or other information.
You can create automated messages that are dependent on your visitor’s “real-time website behavior” and encourage them to take the next step in the buyer’s journey. Best of all, VWO Engage’s reach isn’t limited to desktop; the tool allows businesses to easily reach customers on mobile or tablet, no app required.
VWO Engage meets customers where they are. With over 1.3 billion users on Facebook Messenger, it’s an excellent place to reach people who are interested in what your business has to offer. According to VWO Engage, by using their tool on Facebook Messenger, you have the potential to get 15x the CTR of emails.
Here’s how it works: You can promote new arrivals or other promotions and send them straight to a user’s Messenger app. They can ask follow-up questions in the same thread, allowing you to engage with them on a more personal level.
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VWO Engage is appealing to the spontaneous shopper, and to customers who don’t want their inbox to be cluttered with promotional emails. It’s just one part of the VWO Platform, which allows businesses to test new ideas, get valuable insights, and create a valuable roadmap for testing.
Are you interested in news ways to reach customers? Our team of experts at Relevance Advisors has experience with VWO Engage and similar tools. Reach out today to learn more about how we can help you communicate with your website visitors in new and engaging ways.
From donations to volunteer logs, nonprofits collect an array of data. However, without analysis, that’s all it is: data. It’s not until organizations compile, organize, and analyze that data that it becomes something meaningful, something that can be used to identify trends and make informed decisions on how to push the nonprofit’s mission forward.
In short, data analytics allow nonprofits to identify current trends, predict future trends, find problems, and apply insights to their current operations in order to optimize their efforts. Specific examples of nonprofit data include volunteer contact information, donation records, website traffic, fundraising results, and any transactions or expenses. Analytics is taking those metrics and examining them in order to discover problems, patterns, and trends.
The insights gained from data analytics make it a vital component of any nonprofit organization’s operations. With data analytics, a nonprofit can better understand things like donor behavior and fundraising prospects.
When and where do people donate?
What are the characteristics of members and volunteers?
Which fundraising methods have been most efficient?
Effective data analysis helps nonprofits to identify issues, confirm hypotheses, and discover new solutions.
Organic Analytics
In an increasingly digital world, website performance analytics are some of the most important indicators of how your nonprofit is doing. Google Analytics and Google Search Console are two of the best ways to dig deeper into your website’s performance. With these tools, you can analyze what people are searching to find your website, what kinds of people they are, and how long they’re staying on certain pages. Perhaps most importantly, you can measure the success of specific goals that you set up, such as whether users are completing donations or registering for fundraising events.
Say you’ve noticed a drop in donations since updating your website, and you don’t know why. With Google Analytics, you can see that a lot of people are reaching the second page of your donation form, but are leaving before they complete it. That insight can help you to discover that the final “submit” button is broken, hard to find, or otherwise inaccessible.
Perhaps you want to know what is bringing people to a certain blog post on your site. Google Search Console allows you to see the searches that people are typing in on Google that lead them to your page. You can also see how often your page is appearing under certain searches, and whether or not people are clicking.
Ad Analytics
If you have a Google Ad Grants account or are doing any sort of online advertising, it’s important to use the metrics collected in order to optimize your campaigns. That way, you can figure out which messaging, calls to action, and creative works best for your nonprofit.
Google Ads can tell you a lot about your audience, including location, age range, and interests. It’s a good idea to leverage this data to improve your ads and even organic messaging. You can also use this data to segment your ads into categories that cater to specific audiences.
Email Analytics
Does your nonprofit send out newsletters or updates to email subscribers? It’s a good idea to look at your email data analytics in order to determine the messaging that works, and what’s better left unread.
With email data analytics, you can look at open rate, subscription changes, click-through rate (CTR), and even how often people are converting from your emails. With this data, you can identify the best subject lines and content to include in emails, or the best times of day to send messages to your subscribers.
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Are you a nonprofit looking to improve your data analytics? Our team of experts at Relevance Advisors is here to help. Reach out today to learn more about this and other services.
There are a lot of reasons a nonprofit organization might want to advertise on Google, whether it’s to encourage donations, recruit volunteers and sponsors, or to raise general awareness. However, many nonprofits may not have the funds to advertise their services.
The Google Ad Grants program was introduced as a way to provide nonprofits with the opportunity to advertise on Google Ads at no cost. Interested? Here’s a breakdown of how the program works, and how your nonprofit can qualify today.
Google Ad Grants allows nonprofits to advertise themselves. Besides some specific requirements and limitations, Grant ads are very similar to regular paid ads. Ad Grant ads compete in an auction just like paid ads, and are chosen based on quality score and relevancy to the search query. However, Grant ads are in a separate auction from regular paid ads, and paid ads take precedence. The Ad Grant auction takes place after the paid auction, and paid ads will always appear before Grant ads in the search results.
The grant itself provides qualifying nonprofits with up to $10,000 a month (up to $329/day) to advertise their initiatives, articles, services, etc. on Google.com. Unused funds do not roll over to the next month. Only search ads are eligible, so if you’d like to advertise using display ads, video ads, or other forms of advertising, you’ll have to make a regular Ads account for your organization.
There are a couple rules unique to Google Ad Grants ads. Bids max out at $2, and keywords cannot be overly generic. Keywords must contain more than one word and have a Quality Score above 2. You need at least two ad groups per campaign, and at least two ads per ad group. You also need at least two site extensions.
In order to qualify for the grant, Google has a short list of eligibility requirements, the most important of which being that you must be a nonprofit charitable organization that is in good standing. Your website must also meet Google website policy, and the specific policies of your country. If you meet all that criteria, you can start the nonprofit verification process by registering with TechSoup, a nonprofit that works with Google to ensure that all the aforementioned requirements are met. Requests for verification typically take 2-14 days.
Once that’s complete, you can complete the Ad Grants eligibility form, which assesses eligibility for the program as well as your organization’s specific needs. This should only take about 20 minutes to complete, after which you can submit your activation request for review. Activation requests take about 3 business days to review.
If your organization is approved for the Grant, you’ll need to activate the account by signing in to Google for Nonprofits; you will be sent an email with details on how to do so. After that, you can set up and launch your first campaign!
Google Ad Grants accounts provide nonprofits with a lot of flexibility over their marketing efforts, but it is possible to lose the grant if you do not follow certain guidelines. To make sure you meet the requirements, keep the following in mind when creating your campaigns:
Like with any Ads account, it is important to follow best practices for paid advertising; your Ad Grant ads should be of the same quality as regular paid ads on Google. If you need help creating, maintaining, or improving your nonprofit’s Ads account, we can help. Relevance Advisors has the expertise and experience to take your ads to the next level. Reach out today.
Here are some recent or upcoming changes to Facebook and Instagram that have a big impact on marketing efforts.
In an effort to promote data privacy and transparency, Apple recently launched an iOS 14 update that made it so apps like Facebook must prompt users to choose whether or not they would like to opt into tracking on their device. While consumers have always had the option to turn off this tracking, the new policy makes it much easier for people to opt out, and opt out they have; as of May 7th, 2021, only 4% of U.S. users have agreed to tracking. This has greatly impacted ad personalization and reporting within Facebook Business Manager. Many marketers have had to rethink their use of and overall marketing strategy on the platform. You’ll likely continue to see a dip in performance on Facebook and Instagram advertising as the company struggles to adapt to the changes.
In a video that sparked a lot of discussion around the future of Instagram, Adam Mosseri claimed that Instagram is no longer a “photo-sharing app,” and listed four main focuses of the company going forward. These will drastically change the ways that advertisers reach users, so it’s important to take note of the direction in which the platform seems to be headed.
1) Shifting power from institutions to individual creators. Mosseri doesn’t go into too much detail about this, but does explain that recommended topics and accounts may begin to appear in users' feeds, regardless of whether users are already following that content. Whether this is something that will boost or diminish the reach of smaller creators and/or businesses is unclear.
2) Video content. Mosseri acknowledges that it is a hugely popular form of entertainment on other platforms like TikTok and YouTube. Instagram is trying the “lean in” to the trends of entertainment and video, no doubt in an attempt to compete with these other platforms. Instagram will be testing “full-screen, immersive…mobile-first” video content and watching how users respond.
3) E-commerce. The video claims that the pandemic accelerated the shift from offline to online marketing. Consequently, Instagram will be pushing its marketplace more in the weeks to come.
4) Messaging. Mosseri claims that messaging has become a more popular method of communication among users. Again, he doesn’t go into much detail about this or what the resulting changes to the app would be, only saying that communication has shifted away from Feed and Stories.
In an attempt to provide a “safer, more private experience,”, Instagram is making three big changes to the accounts of minors.
Young people’s accounts will be private by default if they are under 16. According to the platform, “eight out of ten young people accepted the private default settings” during testing. However, they can still have a public account if they wish.
Potentially suspicious accounts -- such as those who have been blocked or reported for their behavior -- will have a harder time finding and interacting with young people.
The change that most affects advertisers relates to targeted ads. You will no longer be able to target Instagram, Facebook, or Messenger users under the age of 18 (or older in certain countries) using interest or activity-based targeting. Instead, advertisers will only be able to target by age, gender, or location. Instagram notes that young people previously had ways to disable targeting ads through controls within ad settings, but agree with youth advocates that young people “may not be well equipped to make these decisions”. Marketers will lose access to the aforementioned targeting options soon, so expect to see a difference in performance if you’re running affected campaigns.
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Do you need help optimizing Facebook or Instagram campaigns? Our team at Relevance Advisors is always happy to help! Reach out today.
Gen Z, the generation born between 1996 and 2012, is a unique and important cohort to which companies should be marketing. Most social media influencers are a part of this group and are important opinion-makers when it comes to fashion, beauty, technology, and other categories. This group has grown up in a unique environment: one of post-9/11 security, cyber-attacks, climate disasters, and unrestricted access to digital information at any time. And with an estimated $143 billion estimated buying power, businesses can’t afford to ignore them.
Because of the environment in which they grew up, Gen Z leans overwhelmingly towards companies that are socially and environmentally conscious. In fact, a recent poll found that over half of Gen Zers will always ensure that the companies from which they purchase align with their social, environmental, and political values. However, the same poll found that nearly half of Gen Z tends not to trust the average American company. So, companies need to not only communicate their values, they need to demonstrate their values through actions.
Gen Z wants to be sure they are getting a good product and are less likely to be swayed by gimmicks. Gen Z lists product quality, positive ratings, and customer reviews as the top 3 characteristics they check for when deciding whether or not to trust a brand. Another way companies can advertise authentically is to incorporate real customers and their testimonials in advertisements. A great way to develop a more authentic brand in the eyes of Gen Z is to focus on responsiveness and interaction. Nearly half of Gen Z consumers report that they would submit ideas to brands if given the opportunity. Marketers would be wise to capitalize on this willingness to develop a brand-consumer relationship and open up the floor for these young consumers to communicate their ideas.
Although Gen Z consumes more content than any other generation, marketers should not mistake their consumption for attention. In actuality, 82% of Gen Zers report that they skip ads as fast as they can when given the option to. When they aren’t given the option to skip, Gen Zers physically do something else while the ad runs, use third-party software to block ads in the first place, or simply ignore the ad. Marketers who desire success with Gen Z should create short, attention-grabbing videos to display on YouTube and TikTok, two channels overwhelmingly composed of Gen Z users. Marketers should also keep in mind the average attention span of Gen Z, which is about 8 seconds. While Millennials only have a slightly longer average attention span of 12 seconds, it is especially important to demonstrate your brand’s value to Gen Z as succinctly and effectively as possible.
It is also increasingly important to advertise through social media, especially in the form of influencers. Gen Z reports trusting “micro-influencers'' much more than celebrities. Micro-influencers are individuals with 1,000 to 1,000,000 followers who are considered experts in their niche. Reviews and product recommendations from these opinion leaders can feel like a recommendation from a friend and appear much more authentic than a celebrity endorsement. More than 80% of Gen Z are influenced by social media, primarily Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube when making purchases. Because Gen Z is so eager to skip traditional ads, a great way to market to them authentically is through their favorite social media accounts. Roughly a third of Gen Z says that their purchases are influenced by YouTube, especially review videos. TikTok, Snapchat stories, and Instagram reels are also effective channels for video ads.
As this generation continues to mature and obtain more buying power, companies will do well to maintain strong ethical convictions, make use of micro-influencers who have a high engagement rate, and incorporate quick and effective video ads. It will be interesting to see how this generation’s buying habits change and how the next generation, Generation Alpha, will decide how to make purchases.
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Does your company need help marketing to Gen Z, or any generation for that matter? The digital marketing landscape is constantly changing, and Relevance Advisors prides itself on staying up-to-date and effective. We would love to see your company thrive. Reach out today!
