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Category: Digtial Marketing

How to Get The Most Out Of Your Google Ad Campaigns

Google Ad campaigns done right are a good way to drive highly qualified traffic to your website. Done wrong, you can waste money on clicks without getting conversions. The key to running a successful Google Ads campaign is to make sure people notice your ad, click on it and then call you or convert on your landing page.

Where to Advertise

Google Search Network ads, which you see on the search results page, have higher click-through rates than Display Network ads. Display ads appear on Gmail, YouTube, and other Google properties. You will get more impressions on the Display Network, however, consumers looking to buy usually start with a Google search.

Choose Relevant Keywords for Your Ad Copy

You want to bid on keywords with a high search volume which shows commercial intent. Use the AdWords Keyword Planner to build ad groups and specific campaigns with your keywords.

Next, you’ll write ad copy which reflects the user’s intent, Since you get two lines, use the second line to state your value proposition and how choosing your brand benefits the user.

Geotarget Your Audience and Schedule Your Ad 

Make the most of your Google Ad campaign budget by specifying who sees your ad. An attorney who practices in New Jersey wouldn’t want their ad shown to people in other states. If you are an online retailer who ships internationally, exclude countries where you do not offer shipping.

If you have a local business open during the daytime only, exclude your ad from showing when you are closed and there is no one to answer the phone.

Use Extensions

Extensions are very useful, especially the click-to-call extension for smartphone users. Imagine you’re frantically looking for an emergency plumber. The ad offering 24-hour service with a phone number you can click on will get more attention than one without the extension.

Quality Score

Learn how Google determines your ad’s quality score. They look at how relevant your ad is to the keyword and the quality and relevancy of your landing page. Google wants people who click on ads to have the same good experience as they do with organic listings. If your ad has a high-quality score, you’ll pay less per click and rank higher.

Ranking of Governments Engaged in Digital Diplomacy Through Social Media

The concept of Digital Diplomacy (sometimes called Virtual Diplomacy) is fairly new, arguably coming to the forefront of international affairs as a result of the failed Green Revolution in Iran in 2009 where social media played a role, albeit ambiguously in its effect. Then came the Arab Spring and the use of Facebook and other tools. Today, the most active governments are the U.S. and UK in using social media as Digital Diplomacy tools. Below we’ve provided a ranking of which democratic and non-democratic countries are most active in terms of international relations through digital media in Cyberspace.

Democratic Governments Using Social Media for Digital Diplomacy
As the graph below shows, the U.S. government leads the way with a foreign affairs department using social media actively to promote its foreign policy with a close second from the UK FCO. Australia is third but coming up fast. For the most part however, most governments tend to “broadcast” and not engage in dialogue. This graph “ranks” a government based on a) volume of content created and pushed across digital channels, b) number of channels they are active in and c) number of “entities” or people that push out content from that department. The highest a government can achieve for activity is a 9.

 

 

Democratic Governments Engaging in Dialogue with Foreign Citizens for Digital Diplomacy
Without a doubt, Australia leads in terms of responding to inquiries and having, albeit short, bursts of engagement with citizens from other countries. Behind them is the Netherlands and then the UK. We term “engagement” as responding to inquiries and questions and occasionally in Twitter, re-tweeting content from someone else. Engaging in dialogue however, can be a challenge for a government in international affairs as there can be serious implications. Over time, as diplomatic services become more familiar with and comfortable in the use of social media, engagement levels will likely change.

Methodology
For this research we used our proprietary software to analyze the Twitter accounts of confirmed government foreign affairs departments and then looked at traffic and engagement across blogs, Facebook and any other social networks such as YouTube. Rankings are designed to understand the level of activity use by each government in a channel. Human analysts then completed the work through link and data verification.

Keystone XL and The Impact of Social Media Study

Today we announced the release of our groundbreaking research into a major issue that crosses two borders – the Keystone XL pipeline and how social media was used.

We note that this was an in-house research project by our own team and was not sponsored by any company, organisation or individual. Some of the key findings of this report are;

  • This issue galvanised very large numbers of people, organisations and groups on both sides of the Canada-US border and social media facilitated cross-border connections and relationships.
  • Negative sentiment around Keystone has remained a majority view among people active in social media channels since this issue entered the public domain in July 2008.
  • Positive sentiment, however, has gained momentum over the past year and has nearly closed the gap with negative sentiment in some channels.
  • Our research also suggests that social media was vital in incorporating  the views of local, civil society groups from rural areas in a broad public debate.
  • Finally, the issue also moved into the social media dialogue surrounding the 2011 Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa this December.

We can certainly see the social media is having an increasingly bigger impact on our world beyond just marketing. Increasingly, citizens are learning how to use these technologies to organise and drive change not just in democracies, but in dictatorships like Egypt and Tunisia.

So what do you think? Will social media continue to be as or more important in society?

Senior Citizens and Social Media

It’s easy to assume social medias are the domain of the young and frenetic. To assume the “silver surfer” or the silver haired 55+ dem0graphic is rather technologically disconnected. That assumption would be wrong. Marketers would do well to take a second look at this market and it is growing. In Atlantic Canada and northeastern USA, the average age of a Facebook user is 53. In England we see a similar trend, though it is somewhat lower at 46.

How do figure that the Silver Surfer is more active than we might have assumed? As the Internet grew in popularity, it was first most popularly adopted by people in their 40′s, back in the mid-1990′s. Computers were triple or more the cost of what they are today and those that could afford them for the household, and the cost of Internet connectivity (dial-up no less!) were in the higher middle income brackets, professional and well educated. Now, 15 years on, they are into their 50′s and 60′s and they are active.

Reason for Engagement
The pie chart below indicates the reason Silver Surfers engage in social media. Friends and family come first; no surprise there. This is followed by hobbies (golf, knitting, sailing etc.) but shopping and banking comes in last. Silver Surfers are still untrusting of online financial transactions. We also found that this demographic is among the most vocal in local newsmedia websites for commentary.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Channels Used
Here we have a graph of the channels used by various age groups. As we can see, Silver Surfers prefer to Forums and photo sharing. They may watch video but are unlikely to create and share videos through channels like YouTube or Vimeo. For social networks in Western nations they prefer Facebook for its ease of use (all things considered) and because it is more likely that’s where family and friends are. This research was conducted prior to Google+ launch.

 

Conclusions
Silver Surfers or Senior Citizens (classed by us as 55+ in this instance) are active in social media. They love to comment on news sites and as expected have strong opinions. For the most part, they prefer simple tools that fit in largely with services they are already familiar with. They quickly develop habits of use with preferred tools and are unlikely to change their preferences once established. New tools that take some exploration or anywhere near complex will not be easily adopted. They are “late adopters” of any technology and service online.

This is an active social media demographic. Marketers have an opportunity to engage in these channels and push products and services. We do note they are not likely to plonk down a credit card number into an online purchasing system unless they truly establish a trust connection.

Methodology
We collected and aggregated data from 2,500 profiles in Atlantic Canada and New England states and 1,200 profiles from England for a sample size. All data collected was publicly available. We did not access individual and/or private information. Over 1.5 million text files were analyzed using our Artificial Intelligence Engine and crawler, mediasphere360. Human verification of data was applied. The data was collected from June 2010 to December 21st, 2010.