Monday, 31 July 2023

X launches creator ads revenue sharing program

X has officially rolled out its creator ads revenue sharing program.

The new feature enables users to share revenue from verified content creators’ impressions of ads in replies to content posted on the social networking platform.

Elon Musk’s platform, previously known as Twitter, has introduced this new tool as part of X’s mission to enable people to “earn a living” by posting on its site.

Why we care. Musk is in the midst of trying to rebrand Twitter to X following a plummet in ad revenue after his takeover last year – and this new feature comes at a huge turning point for the platform. The program has already helped creators secure substantial early payouts, which is helping to generate interest in the brand again. However, while the payouts so far have been impressive, the eligibility qualifications are pretty high. Perhaps too high for people to realistically earn a living through X.

Who is eligible? In order to be considered for the creator ads revenue sharing program, your account must meet the following criteria:

  1. Subscribed to Blue or Verified Organizations.
  2. Have at least 15M impressions on cumulative posts within the last three months.
  3. Have at least 500 followers

If your account meets these conditions, you’ll then need to ensure you have an account with Stripe – X’s payment processor. You’ll then need to ensure that X’s Ads Revenue Share Terms are adhered, for example, the Creator Monetization Standards and the X Rules

How it works. If your account is eligible, you’ll need to follow these simple steps to get started:

  1. Join and set up payments from within the Monetization section of the app, which can be found in the side menu on iOS and Android, and the overflow menu on web.
  2. Click on ‘Join and setup payouts’, which will redirect you to X’s payment processor, Stripe.
  3. Setup a Stripe account to receive your share – this is the account you will need to transfer funds to your external bank account. 
  4. Once you opt in, you will receive payouts at a regular cadence, so long as you have generated more than $50 USD.

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What has X said? X announced the rollout via a statement posted in its Help Center. It read:

  • "We want the process to be as simple as possible, so all eligible X Blue and Verified Organizations subscribers are entitled to revenue share so long as they meet the eligibility criteria and join."
  • "Users will be able to apply for both Creator Subscriptions and Ads Revenue Sharing by accessing Monetization in settings."
  • "While all eligible users may choose to participate, if you are found to breach the Ads Revenue Share Terms, which include, for example, Creator Monetization Standards and the X Rules, you may be excluded from the program."

Deep dive. Read Twitter's full announcement for more information on how its ad revenue-sharing program works.

The post X launches creator ads revenue sharing program appeared first on Search Engine Land.



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Reminder – Google’s similar audiences are being removed

This is a gentle reminder that on August 1, Google will remove similar audiences (or segments) from all ad groups and campaigns. Please have a look at the full announcement here.

Campaigns using similar audiences will automatically get opted into optimised targeting and audience expansion moving forward.

Marketers who would rather avoid this can go to the audiences tab in the Google Ads settings page and manually turn off the campaigns instead.

It’s important to note that historical similar audiences data from past campaigns will still be accessible despite the transition.

Why we (still) care. When marketers use first-party data (for example, customer lists) to create a similar audience segment, this data can generate a hugely influential performance driver for new customers within Google Ads. By combining similar segments with display ad campaigns, marketers can achieve 41% more conversions, according to Google. So losing this data will be of concern to users

The new automation features set out to help marketers better connect with relevant audiences, measure results and unlock growth even more so than before, resulting in better reach and ROI. But whether they agree with Google remains to be seen.

What has Google said? Google told marketers that its new features encourage an audience strategy anchored in automation, which it claims makes it easier to market at the speed of consumers. A statement posted on the Google Ads Help Center read:

  • “For Discovery, Display and Video action campaigns on Google Ads and Display & Video 360, optimised targeting can help you find new and relevant audiences that are likely to convert without relying on third-party cookies. In fact, advertisers who use optimised targeting on Display & Video 360 can see, on average, a 55% improvement when using first-party audiences.”
  • “For Video reach or consideration campaigns, audience expansion makes it easier to reach more people that matter to your business. By leveraging machine learning, audience expansion helps marketers incrementally grow reach with new relevant audiences. This solution is already available in Google Ads and will be launched for Display & Video 360 in the first half of 2023.”
  • “For Search and Shopping campaigns, advertisers can reach your most valuable customers using the predictive power of Smart Bidding that automatically leverages signals from your first-party data. More than 80% of Google advertisers are already using automated bidding. So even as observable data may become less available, you can trust that automation can help you drive strong results.”
  • “To understand how these automated solutions work towards your marketing objectives, advertisers can use audience-insights – a new feature on the insights page that helps brands learn more about customers’ interests and how they engage with ads – at an aggregated level – so that you can connect with them in more meaningful ways.”

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Why now? Google announced in November 2022 that similar audiences would sunset in August following the phasing out of third-party cookies and the ongoing need to increase user privacy. The search engine explained:

  • "The ongoing uncertainty we see today challenges us as an advertising industry to re-evaluate established formulas for success and find more immediate ways to drive business growth. Moreover, as common online marketing approaches evolve and new privacy-preserving alternatives develop, growing your business requires new, more durable strategies." 
  • "That’s why, starting in 2023, we’ll gradually transition similar audiences to more powerful and durable automated solutions to help you connect with relevant audiences and unlock growth – while meeting people’s expectations for privacy."
  • "An audience strategy anchored in automation will make it easier for you to market at the speed of consumers. And in an ever-evolving privacy environment, it will bring you one step closer to meeting people’s expectations and multiplying your results."

Deep dive. Read Google's Audience Insights guide for more information on how automated solutions help advertisers achieve their marketing objectives. You can also check out our top tips on how to move away from similar audience segments and what action you should be taking next.

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Universal Analytics still processing data one month after ‘sunset’

Universal Analytics is still processing data one month after Google advised it would sunset.

The search engine had warned that everyone would be forced to migrate over to Google Analytics 4 by 30 June 2023 or else they would lose the ability to track the performance of their websites and campaigns.

However, a month later, it looks like many marketers can still use their UA accounts as usual.

Why we care. The majority of marketers did not embrace the enforced migration to GA4 and many have found the new system difficult to use with complaints raised around its user interface, a lag in data and data discrepancies. Being able to still monitor campaign and website performance in UA will come as a huge relief to those that have been struggling with GA4. However, as tempting as it may be, it would be unwise for marketers to rely on UA for analytics purposes as it could stop processing data at any minute.

What’s the latest? Shopify’s official support channel was asked by a marketer to comment on when UA data would stop processing data on its merchant platform on Friday. A spokesperson said on X:

  • “While the Universal Analytics properties will no longer process data on July 1st, merchants will still be able to see UA reports and historical data for the time being.”
  • “We don’t have a set date on when the feature will be completely removed from the admin. – Dirk.”

Word of warning. Although it does appear to be business as usual for many using UA, a warning that started appearing on the tool at the start of the month is still there, warning users to migrate to GA4. It reads:

  • “This property is scheduled to stop processing data very soon.”
  • “Any conversions and audiences you use with Google Ad campaigns will stop working.”
  • “To avoid serious disruption to your ads, book a free support session to to complete your move to Google Analytics 4 today.”

UA sunsets for some. While many marketers can still access their data on UA, others have confirmed to Search Engine Land that their accounts have stopped processing data. James Brockbank, managing director of Digitaloft, told us:

  • “I can still see realtime for this UA property but it’s no longer tracking data as of today.
  • “This has been showing as 0 (same across a few different sites’ properties) since midnight in the properties’ time zone. Was all showing up to today.”

For marketers still using UA as opposed to GA4, it looks as though their accounts may very well be on borrowed time.


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What has Google said? Google has confirmed that the sunset of UA has already begun but that properties are being removed in stages. All access to UA will be completely be gone by 1 July 2024. The search engine confirmed on the Analytics Help Center:

  • "Universal Analytics properties will stop processing hits, including standard properties in accounts that also contain 360 properties starting 1 July 2023."
  • "Some properties will continue to process data for a short period after this as we stage the shutdown of Universal Analytics."
  • "You'll be able to access your previously processed data in your Universal Analytics property until July 1, 2024."
  • "Starting on 1 July 2024, all users, including those accessing 360 properties, will lose access to the Universal Analytics user interface and API."
  • "We know your data is important to you, and we recommend that you export your historical reports before this date."

Deep dive: For more information on how to migrate to GA4, read Google’s ‘Learn how to make the switch‘ guide.

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How to create local content that builds trust and drives sales

While content is a foundational aspect of any SEO plan, it can be overwhelming for a local business to produce. 

An HVAC company, hardware store, or real estate agent may not have the time, budget or capacity to roll out an exhaustive content marketing program that a B2B SaaS startup would implement to gain market share. 

To heed the advice of creating content, many local businesses default to blogging.

Yet the results are usually underwhelming: a few 300-word articles that are read by a total of three people. 

Local content: More than blog posts

Local content can be product or service pages, case studies, client testimonials, and other content pieces that:

  • Drive people further down your sales funnel.
  • Answer every objection they have.
  • Convince them to take the next meaningful action in their buying journey. 

Local content doesn’t even need to be written content. 

The rise of iPhones, GoPros, and user-friendly editing tools means local content can include images, videos, podcasts or stories on your website. 

The most important part is that you are creating content that helps you build authority and trust with your potential customers. 

Dig deeper: How to use location-specific authority content for SEO

Below are the different types of content a local business should invest in.

1. ‘About’ content

The old adage is true: “People do business with other people, not businesses.” 

That is especially true with local businesses. 

Customers often seek out local products or services because they can get to know the sales staff, management, and owners. 

A priority for any local website should include presenting your business authentically and helping your potential customers know, like, and trust you. 

Use your website to introduce:

  • Who you are.
  • What you do.
  • Why you do it. 

Your company’s story is unique and helps set you apart from the rest of the competition. Make sure it is front and center on your website. 

Here are some types of content you can create to introduce your company’s story: 

‘About us’ page

  • What is the story of your company? 
  • What makes you unique? 
  • Why should someone trust you instead of the big national brand or your crosstown competitor? 

Company beliefs

  • What does your company stand for?
  • Talk about your company’s core values and mission statement. How are they lived out in your work?

Company history

  • Does your company have an interesting history? 
  • Maybe you are a fourth-generation, family-owned business that has weathered major changes in the industry. 
  • Perhaps you have pivoted from a small operation to a larger regional presence. 
  • Showcase the interesting parts of your history that the general public would be interested in. 

Community impact

  • Would anyone in your community notice if your company closed tomorrow? 
  • Tell the story of how your company has impacted your local community. 
  • This may include charitable work your team or individuals perform, events you sponsor, scholarships you fund, or partnerships with charities and organizations.

Our team

  • People like knowing who they are dealing with. 
  • Whether you are a retail store, a local manufacturer, or an HVAC company, you have public-facing team members whom you can highlight on your website. 
  • Depending on the size of the company and the number of public-facing employees, you may want to highlight the executive/leadership team, sales or customer support team, or individual technicians. 
  • If it makes sense, include a bio for each – highlighting their skills, experiences, and training – and contact information. 

Careers page

  • Not all your website visitors are future customers. Some are potential employees. 
  • Have a dedicated page on your website to tell your story to job seekers.
  • This is where you have employees share your culture and how you differ from other employers. 
  • You can list job openings from this page or link to your third-party hiring software. 

2. Products and services

Potential customers searching for a specific product or service will start at Google; your goal is to get your product or service page to appear in their search results. 

One of the most common mistakes I see local service businesses make is that they have a single page listing all their services. 

For instance, an exterior remodeling company only has a single service page with a paragraph – or, even worse, a bulleted list – mentioning that they install roofing, siding, windows, doors, and decks. 

At a minimum, you must have dedicated pages for every service you offer. 

Going deeper and having specific pages for sub-services would be even better. 

So you don’t just want a roofing page – you want pages on roof repair, roof replacement, hail damage, and even pages for each type of roofing material.

Here are some additional types of content you can create for your products or services:

Local angle

  • What services are only offered regionally? 
  • What restrictions, insights, or specifics can you give about your services in your target market? 
  • For example:
    • Pest control companies should focus on the most common pests in their region.
    • Builders and remodelers can mention local building codes.
    • Pool companies in colder climates will lean into winterizing pools.

Your expertise

  • You need insights from your sales team, technicians, or customer service reps to see what people struggle with and how your solution is the best. 
  • You cannot outsource your service page solely to an agency, freelancer or ChatGPT and expect it to stand out. 

Brands 

  • Do you carry certain brands in your store or prefer certain manufacturers for your materials?
  • Creating content around these brands can help you rank locally for any brand-specific searches:
    • Why are they better than others?
    • How long have you worked with them? 
    • Why do you like them?

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3. Proof

Any business can make claims on their website:

We are the best…”

“We are the most affordable…”

“We are the most responsive…”

But what separates great local websites is how they make a claim and back it up using social proof.

Social proof is a psychological principle in which you help people take action based on the actions of others. 

In practice, social proof shows that others have purchased from you and are satisfied with the results. 

There are plenty of ways to highlight social proof on your website:

Testimonials

  • The best type of social proof is to hear previous customers share their experience of buying from you. 
  • Showcasing these testimonials will help answer questions, alleviate doubts, and build trust with potential customers. 

Case studies

  • These are must-have proofs to showcase your work and design aesthetics.
  • Depending on your industry, you may consider:
    • Case studies (B2B).
    • Featured projects (construction or remodeling).
    • “Before and after” (lawn care).
    • Galleries (custom furniture, roofer). 

External recognition

  • Adding trust symbols to your website is a great (and underutilized) type of social proof. 
  • Industry awards and recognition, manufacturer certifications, and local business awards can help you stand out from your crosstown competition. 

4. Your difference

Why should someone choose your business? In a world of sameness, what makes your company different? 

Your website should clarify who you are, what you do, who you serve, and what makes you different. 

Here are some ways to introduce the difference in your website's content:

Process

  • If you offer something that doesn't involve frequent purchases – like a car, divorce, or kitchen remodel – chances are you have to conduct a lot of customer education. 
  • Make it clear on your website the steps in your process, from initial inquiry to completion. 
  • Give as many details as possible, answering common questions people have along the way. 

Comparison against competitors

  • As people research, they are bound to find your competitors – whether they are the local business across town, the national brand, a big box store, or an online ecommerce platform. 
  • What can you say about your company, product, or service that none of those can say? 

Comparison against other products or services

  • Sometimes, your competition is not a similar business down the street. You both might be competing against other choices. 
    • If you are a contractor, you are competing against DIY or handyman options. 
    • If you are a retailer, your products are competing against other products at higher or lower price points. 

5. Pricing

Pricing is one of the touchiest areas in local content – especially for service businesses. 

I get it. There are legitimate reasons why you don't want pricing on your website. 

But your potential customers are looking for it. 

Who do you want to control the pricing discussion and help them justify their budget – you or your crosstown competitor? 

While you may not be able to give exact pricing on your website, there are still plenty of ways to broadly discuss pricing. 

This will help set proper expectations and even better pre-qualify prospects, often resulting in improved lead quality. 

Here are some ideas on how you can create content on pricing your services: 

Give a price range

  • People researching online before purchasing are not looking for exact pricing; they want to know ballpark numbers. 
  • You can provide potential customers with a price range for a typical project. This works well in combination with featured projects. 

Price breakdown 

  • One of the biggest reasons local business owners don't put pricing on their websites is because there are too many variables. So talk about these variables. 
  • What goes into pricing a product or service? 
  • What things can affect the pricing – either positively or negatively?

Additional fees

  • What things do people not know about that get added to the purchase price? 
  • This could include taxes, fees, permits, delivery charges, or installation costs. 

Why businesses charge more or less

  • As people research, they may discover that some companies charge a lot less while others charge a lot more. 
  • Own it and explain these differences in pricing. 
  • If other companies charge significantly less, use it as an opportunity to show your value, why you charge more, and why it matters. 

Local content: Presenting your business to your customers

Creating local content is not about creating thousands of spammy content pages to hack your way to the top of search results. 

Nor is it thin blog posts that don't get read by anyone. 

This guide has plenty of content ideas to fuel your local content strategy and help you best present your company to Google and your potential customers. 

Dig deeper: Local SEO in 2023: 5 simple ways to dominate local search

The post How to create local content that builds trust and drives sales appeared first on Search Engine Land.



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5 tips for a successful programmatic ad campaign

Programmatic advertising enables digital marketers to buy advertising space through automated technology and machine learning, typically using a demand-side platform (DSP).

Leaning on automation is nothing new to most marketers.

Programmatic advertising streamlines the process of buying ad inventory across a huge network of platforms. It also gives advertisers greater control and granularity over placements, budgets and creative assets. 

Yet, automating the media buying process has its downside: it’s easy to let the system take over without considering what’s best for your agency.

With many targeting, creative, and optimization options, determining the right approach for each client can be overwhelming.

Here are five tips to ensure your programmatic campaign is as successful as possible.

1. Know your objective

A clear purpose is key to your programmatic strategy.

Clearly focusing on your client’s objectives will inform almost everything about how you set up your programmatic activity. 

Is your client looking to:

  • Drive traffic to their site?
  • Increase conversions?
  • Increase brand awareness around their product?

They might want to do all three (in our experience, this is often the case).

Knowing these objectives will help you allocate budget accordingly and make a bigger impact where it matters most. 

To put this in perspective, if your goal is to build brand awareness, you can opt for a CPM bid, prioritizing impressions, or a CPE (cost per engagement) model, where you pay for the impression only when the user clicks and stays on the site for more than 15 seconds.

Alternatively, a lower funnel objective will probably involve implementing a CPC bid strategy. Aligning your objectives with your campaign strategy from the outset is key.

2. Plan your approach

As with most digital advertising channels, programmatic is designed to reach the right people at the right time. 

And, as with most digital advertising channels, programmatic performs best when you give it a clear steer on which audiences to go after. 

Thankfully, programmatic advertising can be a powerful forecasting tool, providing valuable insights into campaign performance and scalability. 

You can use this immediately before putting a campaign live or even to get an idea of how a campaign would perform if you were to launch an activity in the future.

You can gain a forecast of how your campaign will perform by defining several parameters, such as:

  • Budget.
  • Audience.
  • Goal.
  • Geography.
  • And more. 

This is valuable, as it helps you identify which levers will improve performance.


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3. Go multi-channel

In today’s online ecosystem, consumers have more touch points than ever when interacting with a brand. 

It’s wise to adopt a strategy that will reach those users across platforms, channels and devices. 

Programmatic advertising has a multichannel approach advantage over the Google Display Network. You can target potential customers across the following channels:

Using multiple channels in your programmatic strategy will help you capture the attention of consumers active on different platforms and create a consistent message for those across multiple channels.

4. Target the right people 

Targeting relevant audiences is crucial for a successful programmatic campaign. 

Experienced marketers familiar with paid search and social campaigns will find some familiar targeting options in programmatic, with some offering even more control.

Page Context AI (PCAI) advertising

Page Context AI (PCAI) advertising leverages artificial intelligence to place your ads in the right place in the right context, using keywords that you give it to determine where ads are placed. 

For example, if you give the system a keyword such as “surfboard,” PCAI will look for available placements on sites where the content relates to surfboards and surfboarding. 

You can also determine the extent to which the system expands its reach.

You can keep it hyper-relevant and appear only on specialist sites related to your keyword or broaden the targeting by using it as a starting point.

Lookalike audiences

Lookalike audiences enable you to create a list of users whose online behaviors closely match those who have visited your site previously. (This can then be expanded to lookalikes of users who purchased from your site.)

Lookalike audiences ensure your campaigns reach relevant users with characteristics that align with your existing customers. 

Deals

Many programmatic DSPs will offer deals.

Deals are custom-built packages that target specific inventory based on device and audience targeting previously used by other advertisers.

Want to run a cannabis advertising campaign in the USA on Connected TV? Check.

A Spotify-only audio campaign for pet products in France? There’s a deal for that.

Deals have the advantage of being highly specific and having built-in forecasts, making them a powerful all-in-one option when it comes to targeting. 

5. Use data to optimize 

Once your campaign is live, reviewing and optimizing your campaign performance is crucial in ensuring a successful programmatic campaign. 

Ideally, once your campaign is live, you should optimize throughout its duration.

There are two main ways to optimize your programmatic campaigns:

Against objectives

Consider your campaign KPIs and how you are performing against them. 

Is your average CPC much higher than the CPC bid you originally opted for when setting up the campaign? 

Certain devices or audiences could be driving that up. You might want to consider pausing them. 

Is your campaign budget being eaten up by targeting users on tablets? 

You could set a negative bid adjustment, telling the system to bid, let’s say 75% less, for users who are on tablets. 

Identifying which devices, audiences or placements are the outliers in terms of your KPIs is key to meeting your overall campaign objectives.

Placement analysis

Programmatic advertising reaches approximately 95% of the web, so it's natural that some placements will outperform others.

Analyze your placement reports to get a sense of the quality of the site your ads appear on and which supply sources are performing the best. 

If there’s a certain niche placement that's relevant to your campaign that has a really strong CTR and conversion rate, adjust your bids so that it’s able to perform. 

If certain supply sources tend to eat up the budget but have a low conversion rate, consider lowering their bids or excluding them altogether.

Your campaigns will usually improve over time by default. Still, you can speed up this process by reviewing your campaign data and prioritizing the areas driving the best performance.

Maximize programmatic advertising with these tips

There’s much more to programmatic than can be explained in a single article.

However, sticking to these five tips will give you and your campaigns a great chance of success.

The post 5 tips for a successful programmatic ad campaign appeared first on Search Engine Land.



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B2B keyword research: A comprehensive guide

B2B companies struggle with keyword research for various reasons:

  • A lack of significant search volume around their core topic.
  • Search volume for their core topic is highly concentrated around a few highly competitive keywords.
  • Search volume is concentrated around top-funnel terms that don’t convert.

Every niche and site is different – even under the B2B umbrella. 

Having worked with several B2B businesses to help drive millions of visitors along with real revenue and business value, I have developed a process for gathering a list of keyword targets to drive real leads, pipeline, and revenue for any B2B website.

This article will walk you through the entire process of what to do – including three types of keywords many B2B companies ignore that you shouldn’t.

The basics

The first phase of keyword research is to build out a list of possible keyword targets.

At this stage, you can be liberal with adding keywords here, as not all will make the cut as potential targets.

Some fundamental keywords will be obvious. If you sell software that helps companies with pricing and quotes, you’re probably aware of the term “CPQ software.” 

Terms that are obvious descriptions of your product or service, you know competitors are using, or are frequently used buzzwords in your space are good additions to your list. 

Questionnaire 

We always start a new project with a B2B client with a kickoff questionnaire that asks the client to share information, such as:

  • Their biggest product or service competitors.
  • Their biggest competitors in search results.
  • Publications (online and offline) that their prospects and customers read.
  • Conferences their prospects and customers attend.
  • “Thought leaders” in their space.

Even if you’re working in-house, reviewing and revisiting these can be a great jumping-off point for keyword research. 

Historical data

Looking at your site or your client’s historical PPC and SEO data can be a suitable means of finding ideas. 

For an older site, an overlooked opportunity may be to pull back and look at specific queries and pages that have lost traffic over time.

You may then want to refresh or create net-new content around those assets.

Pain points

Pain points are great B2B keywords because they allow you to demonstrate to searchers that:

  • You understand their problem.
  • You have solutions.

There are several reliable ways to find these types of keywords:

Forums/message boards

Continuing with our CPQ example, let’s say I’m trying to find good topics for my CPQ software site. 

I want to see what issues these users struggle with and the questions they raise their hands to ask. 

First, let’s look at a really basic search to demonstrate the “why” of the process here:

CPQ - Reddit

I just searched for my core topic + Reddit. Some threads are likely to be pretty ripe with pain points. 

When I look at the first thread, there’s this comment:

CPQ - Reddit comment

This leads us to another great place to find pain points and possible keyword ideas: user forums for related or competitive products.

This thread is about Salesforce’s CPQ product, and the commenter mentions looking at “won’t fix” issues and the “ideas” list.

If a competitor has a publicly available forum, you can work through threads to see what people are struggling with, what features they’d like to see, etc. 

These areas could be good focuses for keywords. (Again, we don’t know anything about volume and competition here, but we can add them to our list to dive into.)

Mining testimonials, reviews and customer interviews

Similarly, looking at customer and prospect data can be helpful as well. Specifically, look at:

  • Your own customer testimonials.
  • Competitor testimonials.
  • Customer interviews your sales and customer services teams have conducted. 
  • Talking to sales and customer services representatives.

They can get you started down many fruitful keyword paths.

Another great resource is third-party reviews. This is similar to forums in that you can “listen in” to what real users say about your competitor’s product.

Mining testimonials and reviews

This is from TrustRadius, which aggregates reviews of Salesforce CPQ. 

If you filter by the best and worst reviews, you can get a sense of both customers’ biggest pain points and your competitors’ most important selling features. 

As you scroll through the various review sites, you can also get topic ideas from areas like categories, alternatives considered, etc.:

Salesforce CPQ feature ratings

Again these aren’t necessarily terms we want to immediately create content against, but we can add anything that seems like a good topic for a blog post or page on our site to our list for vetting.


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Competitors

Using a tool like Ahrefs or Semrush to see what terms your competitors are ranking for is a common and effective keyword research tactic. 

There are multiple types of competitors, however.

Search result competitors

The sites you compete against in search results may not always be product or service competitors.

  • For informational glossary-type terms, you may be competing with publishing sites or Wikipedia. 
  • For comparison, review, or best-of queries, you may be competing with third-party review and comparison sites (like the TrustRadius example). 

Let’s say we're attempting to rank for a broad informational term like “market pricing.” 

This is a screenshot of that search result (with the Ahrefs Chrome Extension turned on to give some additional data about the sites ranking):

Market pricing SERPs

This is a great example of “SERP competitors” being different from product competitors.

While my fictitious company makes CPQ software, I’m competing with a job board, a related but different software company, and a publishing site – if we deem this term relevant and worth targeting.

Once you find these SERP competitors, how do you mine them for keywords?

SERP competitor halo effect

First, if I have a relatively new, small site and my product and prospect focus is narrow, I obviously can’t just drop “Indeed.com” into Ahrefs and hope to get useful keyword ideas:

SERP competitor halo effect

What I’m looking for in terms of an ideal SERP competitor to mine keywords from is:

  • A site with a lot of overlap in terms of audience and terms and topics I’d want to target.
  • A site with similar domain authority and many linking domains to mine.

This way, I know my site will have a chance to match that site in terms of topical authority and domain authority. 

For those types of sites, I can add the URL to my favorite tool and pull out terms I want to add to my list.

With a larger site like in the example above, what I can do is add some filters such as:

  • Keyword to filter for terms like CPQ or even something broad like pricing.
  • Difficulty – again, this is a good leading indicator but doesn’t necessarily mean that your site can really rank for the term in question.
  • Depending on a filter for “Lowest DR” in the search result (and filtering for my site’s DR or slightly lower / higher).

At that point, you’ll have more relevant terms that you are more likely to actually rank for.

Once you find relevant terms from one competitor, go into the search results for those related terms and find more SERP competitors to research.

After researching market pricing, let's say I found a great SERP competitor who also ranked for "price waterfall," a term I wanted to target. 

I can take that one step further, and once I know that that’s a great term, go into that SERP and see which sites are ranking:

Price waterfall SERPs

Now I have some new sites I can dive into to find more keyword ideas. 

Particularly if my domain authority is somewhere in the range of these sites and they’re covering similar topics (even if their core product/service/monetization isn’t the same as mine).

Product and service competitors

Looking at the direct product and service competitors can be helpful, too. Just keep in mind a few possible pitfalls:

  • Competitors may be more or less authoritative, so you may not want to target the same terms.
  • Competitors may be targeting terms that drive traffic but don’t convert, so make sure you’re thinking through the intent of various terms and how you’ll convert traffic that drive to your site.
  • Often your competitors won’t generate much SEO traffic outside of branded queries, so depending on your niche, this may not work. 

Note: The sites in the example above are very authoritative sites in terms of volume and quality of links (despite the keyword difficulty of the example term there being a 2) – demonstrating that keyword difficulty scores aren’t always what they appear to be.

Industry resources

Another great means of collecting B2B keyword ideas is leveraging industry resources.

Mining glossaries

This could be a standard informational industry glossary or a glossary of terms for a major competitor. 

In the Salesforce CPQ example, they actually have a glossary of terms related to their products:

CPQ object and term glossary

The terms listed here are good candidates to add to your list for possible keyword targets.

Conference agendas

Similarly, the agendas for the conferences your prospects are attending can help you understand hot topics in the niche and things that are of interest that you can add to your keyword list.

Publishing sites

Even if they didn’t surface as “SERP competitors,” niche publications are often a good source of keyword ideas. 

As with competitors, you can look for terms and pages that rank and drive traffic for these sites. But ensure the sites have a similar topical theme and level of authority.

Overlooked (sometimes controversial) keyword opportunities 

Many B2B companies operate in regulated industries and are very specific about the types of content they produce and publish on their blog.

For companies that have a sufficient amount of leeway, there are a few content types that many B2B companies overlook that can target valuable content:

Top funnel glossary content

Sometimes “What is X” content seems too basic for many B2B companies as it may not be valuable for advanced audiences. 

While this may be the case, this type of content can serve a few purposes:

  • It speaks to different audiences within an organization. To the primary purchaser of a CPQ tool, the terminology related to the tool may seem basic, but some executives or people in other departments may not be as familiar. This content may give you a touchpoint with those executives when they’re researching certain features.
  • These assets frequently generate “passive links” from relevant and authoritative sites when they start to rank in search results, which helps lower-funnel pages rank and generate traffic (and direct leads).
  • These pages also help to signal topical authority to Google by allowing you to fill out various related topics around some of your better-converting terms.

Mentioning competitors

Many B2B sites are unwilling to mention competitors for various reasons. But if you’re willing to, you open up some new keyword opportunities further down the funnel.

One is “best of” queries. Many times when a searcher is looking for the “best X” they want a list of options. 

This may mean having to list out competitors and say accurate things about them (and your own products and services).

If you do, you can get top real estate for valuable search terms, however, like in this example:

Best content optimization tools

Additionally, your competitors’ brand names and modifiers frequently have reasonable search volume and are very high intent. Terms like:

  • {Competitor Name} alternatives
  • {Competitor Name} pricing
  • {Competitor Name} vs. {Your Brand} vs. {Another Competitor}
  • And so on. 

If you’re willing to write accurately about competitors and yourself, you can generate relevant traffic and trust with prospects.

Note: Be careful to be aware of any potential legal issues. This is the type of content you want to run by executives before publishing.

Mapping terms to topics and a content plan

Finally, you need to take what’s hopefully a large list of potential keywords and start to both cull it down and then turn it into action.

You can run the terms through your favorite keyword tool to help you prioritize based on keyword difficulty and search volume. 

However, it’s also important to:

  • Go to the search results and analyze the SERP to make sure you're likely to rank.
    • Are there sites like yours in terms of the type of site, with types of content you're willing to create, and are the ranking sites comparably authoritative in terms of volume and quality of links?
    • Tools like Ahrefs (in the Keyword Explorer tab) or LowFruits.io can help you find terms that have “weak spots” or lower authority sites ranking in the search results (or at the top of search results).
  • Confirm that the terms are relevant to your site and your audience
  • Check whether you can build related content around the topics you’re selecting to build topical authority.

This last step is critical: you’re effectively getting a broad set of possible keyword ideas from the process until now. 

From there, you want to build the topical clusters around the most relevant and profitable terms.

You can use several tools and processes, including Ahrefs, LowFruits.io, Search Response, AlsoAsked, and even Google to find related terms and search suggestions.

Building out your content map and calendar is its own process, but the steps above should give you plenty of opportunities to find great B2B keyword ideas.

Dig deeper: How to do B2B content marketing the right way (with 5 examples)

The post B2B keyword research: A comprehensive guide appeared first on Search Engine Land.



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Friday, 28 July 2023

Ad spend up across Google, Meta, Amazon, Walmart in Q2

Ad spend increased across Google, Meta, Amazon and Walmart during the first two quarters of 2023.

Another major advertising platform on the grow in Q2: fashion brand Temu.

The company became a major player in the Google Shopping race, so much so that it is now competing against 82% of US advertisers – to put this percentage into perspective, this is a higher share than Walmart, according to Tinuiti’s latest Digital Ads Benchmark Report.

Why we care. An increase in ad spend is fantastic news for marketers as it shows that stability and trust in the digital ad space is finally returning following the economic downturn. The more brands are willing to spend, the more opportunities that are created for advertisers – not just in terms of campaign volume, but bigger budgets will give advertisers access to more resources to improve engagement, conversions and ROI.

The business’ strong performance will also be of interest to marketers previously thinking of buying ad space with Walmart, as Temu may now be considered a serious alternative.

What has Tinuiti said? Andy Taylor, vice president of research at Tinuiti, suggested Temu’s success was unexpected:

  • “It’s pretty shocking to see a new player – one that many are not aware of – rise to become a bigger advertiser in the space than Walmart, in terms of the companies we support.”

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By the numbers. Among the most interesting stats highlighted in the 31-page report:

  • YouTube ad-impression growth remained strong at 34% year-over-year (YoY), while the average CPM fell 18%.
  • YouTube spending on connected TVs (CTVs) shot up 31% YoY, however, desktop spending fell.
  • Desktop YouTube spend dropped by 27% YoY in Q2 2023, with the desktop share of YouTube spending falling from 20% to 14% during the same period. 
  • Reels ads now account for 11% of Instagram ad impressions. 
  • Advertisers grew investment in Meta properties 9% year-over-year in Q2 -- the strongest quarter since Q1 2022.
  • Walmart Sponsored Products spend rose 39% year-over-year in Q2, as ad pricing declined just 4% in the second quarter compared to a 41% decline in Q1. 

The report. You can download Tinuiti's latest Digital Ads Benchmark Report to dive deeper into all the numbers and trends.

The post Ad spend up across Google, Meta, Amazon, Walmart in Q2 appeared first on Search Engine Land.



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Google’s attribution model shake-up: 3 solutions for advertisers

You’ve probably heard the news: Google Ads and Google Analytics 4 will completely retire first-click, linear, time decay, and position-based attribution models in September.

Last-click and data-driven attribution models will remain available, along with external attribution.

What some PPC marketers don’t realize is that Google won’t just discontinue these attribution models from a bidding standpoint. They will also be removed from the reporting and comparison features.

This means you can no longer analyze your customer journeys within Google Ads and Google Analytics using attribution models. You need alternatives.

A look at attribution models

Attribution models help connect a conversion (i.e., a sale or a lead) to an ad click or impression. It’s a way to determine which ads, audiences or networks perform best. 

Historically, we’ve used several attribution models with different rules to make that connection.

Using football analogy, here’s what each model represents:

  • Last click: The goal scorer deserves all the credit.
  • First click: The first player who touched the ball during the action leading to a goal deserves all the credit.
  • Linear: All players who touched the ball during the action leading to a goal deserve an equal share of the credit.
  • Time decay: The last players who touched the ball during the action leading to a goal deserve more credit than the first players.
  • Position-based: The goal scorer and the first player who touched the ball during the action leading to a goal deserve 40% of the credit each. Other players will get the remaining 20% evenly.

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The issue with Google’s preferred attribution model

This shift leaves data-driven attribution (DDA) as the default attribution model in Google Ads.

Google doesn’t share the rules that decide what ads to link to a conversion. I personally assume DDA utilizes a combination of the aforementioned attribution models.

There’s one very cool bit, though: DDA is tailored to your account.

  • “Data-driven attribution is different from the other attribution models because it uses your conversion data to calculate the actual contribution of each ad interaction across the conversion path. Each data-driven model is specific to each advertiser,” according to Google.

Theoretically, this is perfect. 

An attribution model custom-made just for you. And you didn’t even have to bother thinking about those rules! 

Yet, it sounds too good to be true. 

DDA is tailored to your account. But based on what criteria? We don’t know.

This shouldn’t matter as long as it works. 

And we could make sure it does by comparing it to other models.

But what happens now that Google will discontinue “old” attribution models from the reporting section?

Does fewer attribution models necessarily mean poorer performance?

Now that’s the real question. 

While we probably all hate to lose more control with every year that passes by, that shouldn’t be an issue as long as performance keeps on increasing. 

And as we saw earlier, the impact is minor in terms of bid management (3% of all conversions).

The real issue lies elsewhere – at the strategic level.

As Google states:

"On the path to conversion, customers may interact with multiple ads from the same advertiser… Attribution models can give you a better understanding of how your ads perform and can help you optimize across conversion journeys.”

So how do we optimize across conversion journeys if we lack visibility? Let’s walk through an example first:

Analyzing customer journeys in action

One of our clients has a relatively simple media mix, so I’ll use that as an example to illustrate my point. 

Like in football, that client has different tactics: defenders, midfielders and strikers. It takes that whole team to score a goal.

Tactic Last-click purchases First-click purchases Difference
Organic search 2,478 1,579 57%
Email 1,978 1,184 67%
Paid search 1,621 2,796 -42%

Notice that paid search “scores” pretty well when using the first click attribution model. However, not so much when using last click. Organic search and email marketing steal the show when using that attribution model.

This is as expected, though, because:

  • The conversion journey starts with non-branded paid search. They generate leads.
  • Lead nurturing is necessary to mature prospects. That is mainly done through email marketing.
  • Qualified prospects eventually buy through organic and paid branded search.

Or, to put it in football terms:

  • Non-branded paid search = Defenders
  • Email = Midfielders
  • Organic and paid branded search = Strikers

Is DDA enough? 

Would you have understood this conversion funnel without those attribution models? 

Probably. This example is quite straightforward. 

But what if we start working on a B2B project where sales take months or a B2C project where repeat purchases are important?

Now that’s another story. I have seen plenty of examples where DDA did not perform well. 

I think validating DDA conclusions with old and rigid attribution models still has value. Without such benchmarks, you expose yourself to potential harm.

After all, machine learning is only as intelligent as the data we feed it.

Here are three solutions for advertisers looking to adapt to the changes.

Solution 1: Next-level tagging plan

Developing a solid data program is your first step to identifying customer journey interactions. 

Through complete tracking, you can use DDA or last click attribution models confidently… but with all those customer journey steps to replace first click and so on.

I know it's not ideal but this is a first step. If we use my example above, you’d attribute last click leads to non-branded search and last click sales to branded search. Not ideal, but it works.

Naturally, this requires tracking the entire customer journey. You can't rely on your old simplistic tagging plan. You need micro-conversions.

Solution 2: Integrating CRM data

When tracking conversions, do you stop at sales? 

Now you need to track and feed the entire customer journey (yes, including post-sale) back into ad platforms through external attribution. 

You can then use that tool for increased visibility – like lead scoring but with client scoring this time.

If you spot performance discrepancies, this should enable you to influence your bids differently from the "data-driven" model.

In short, the CRM must become (if it isn't already) a central tool for advertisers to better understand and inform the customer journey – and, consequently, the appropriate media mix.

Solution 3: Other attribution methods

I’m venturing into more sophisticated grounds here, which doesn’t apply to all projects. 

Basically, incrementality means exposing an audience to your ad and purposefully hiding that same ad from a similar audience, and then comparing both audiences’ performance levels.

As you can imagine, this method is very cool but prone to errors. (Not to mention only available if you have big budgets in the first place for data reliability purposes.)

Your next best bet is with customer surveys. 

For example, you can use an exit-intent popup (asking leaving visitors where they came from, what they didn’t like, etc.) or additional fields in your purchase/lead journey to capture additional information.

Naturally, be careful with such declarative data since they are often skewed to an extent.

There’s no perfect attribution model

Throughout this article, I’ve been chasing the perfect way to measure performance.

But don’t get lost in the rabbit hole. There is no such thing as perfect attribution. 

What you want is a reliable yet directional input to your strategy.

Getting past that stage is for ad geeks like me, but not useful for business decision-making. Prioritize accordingly.

The post Google’s attribution model shake-up: 3 solutions for advertisers appeared first on Search Engine Land.



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Google Merchant Center introduces customer support feature

Google has launched a new customer support feature on Merchant Center.

The new tool enables retailers to input their customer support information and returns policy.

Merchant Center is then able to share these details with shoppers without them ever having to leave the program.

Why we care. Consumers often feel frustrated and dissatisfied when they can’t easily access customer support and returns-related information while shopping online. Giving them the ability to quickly and easily search for these details within Merchant Center not only improves the user experience but helps to build trust amongst shoppers with that brand. The more shoppers trust a brand, the more likely they are to make purchase and become a loyal customer.

Setting up customer support information. Google has provided the following instructions on how retailers can add their customer support information:

  1. Log into Merchant Center.
  2. Once on the Home page, navigate to the “Add customer support info” card.
  3. Select ‘Add info’.
  4. Input the following customer support information:
    1. Customer service telephone number
    2. Customer service email address
    3. Customer service web page URL (i.e. link to a customer service form)
    4. Select the “Live chat support available” toggle if your business supports this
    5. Select the “Chat bot support available” toggle if your business supports this
    6. After providing the relevant information, select your preferred contact method.
  5. Once these steps are complete, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click  ‘Save’.

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What has Google said? Google explained the importance of providing customer service information via a statement issued on Merchant Center:

  • "Customer service is important for your business and your customers because it allows you to help customers solve any issues with your product or service.
  • "It also helps you build trust with your customers. So it’s important that your customers know how they can reach you for support."

Deep dive. Read Google's Merchant Center customer support guide for more information.

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