Creating a Seamless Customer Experience Through Omnichannel Marketing

A competitive marketing strategy in today’s increasingly digital age entails cohesive and personalized customer experiences across all in-person, social media, website, and phone interactions. Optimizing omnichannel marketing and providing varied and consistent touchpoints enhances the customer experience and brand accessibility.  

What is Omnichannel Marketing? 

Omnichannel marketing means offering seamless brand messaging and a consistent customer experience across various platforms, including print, email, in-store, and online. This approach makes your services more accessible, enhances customer satisfaction, and ensures your business’s values are at the forefront of all communication channels.

The Benefits of Omnichannel Marketing

Enhanced loyalty and engagement

Consistently targeting and engaging with clients across various platforms fosters customer loyalty by providing valuable and convenient cross-platform experiences. An effective digital marketing strategy that targets clients through social media and your website, paired with constructive in-person interactions, can enhance the client’s purchasing experience. 

Consider Starbucks’s loyalty and rewards program, which combines app, website, and in-store systems. This omnichannel loyalty program allows rewards to be gathered and redeemed via all touchpoints and achieved an impressive 34.3 million U.S. users in 2024. This personalized and accessible system incentivizes client engagement and builds brand loyalty. 

More brand awareness

An omnichannel approach also allows businesses to build brand awareness by connecting with potential clients through multiple platforms. Positive in-store interactions and technological tool optimization can help brands maximize their reach. Companies can reinforce their values through various touchpoints, cultivating a memorable brand identity.  

Lululemon, for instance, has expanded its client base by providing fitness classes, community events, and pop-up workouts. The Lululemon Studio app, website, and online advertisements keep clients in the loop about these events and reach future customers without a product-centric approach. The brand gains exposure through positive sales interactions, online communication, and live events. 

Increased sales and retention

A consistent customer-centric approach also drives higher sales and retention. It allows businesses to cater to customer preferences and maintain a seamless experience that keeps client needs at the forefront. When brand engagement is effortless and cohesive, customers are more likely to return to make purchases, building long-term value. 

Bank of America’s approach to using digital platforms includes Erica, an AI-powered assistant with built-in alerts and financial assistance. By keeping customers updated on their status and accounts, Bank of America encourages financial literacy and client empowerment. Erica’s user base has grown since its 2023 launch and drives client retention and conversions for the business as a whole. 

To reap the benefits of omnichannel marketing, start by identifying your business’s primary digital and physical touchpoints. Creating and maintaining a centralized customer database is also essential for a cohesive digital marketing strategy as it enables personalization and consistent communication. Additionally, auditing your current touchpoints and campaigns can provide valuable insight into the efficacy of your brand’s strategy and enhance future client engagement. Ultimately, a well-implemented omnichannel marketing approach with a client-centric mindset ensures your business effectively delivers on its brand promise across all platforms. 

Why Regular PPC Audits Are Vital for Digital Marketing Campaigns

In today’s constantly evolving business landscape, paid advertising is critical in boosting your brand’s reach. As companies invest more in digital marketing, using paid advertisements on platforms including Google, LinkedIn, and social media can help you connect with potential clients, generate site traffic, and outperform your competition. However, it’s important to remember that every marketing campaign is an investment of your company’s resources— and to optimize your return on investment (ROI), regular paid advertising audits are essential. 

What Is a Paid Advertising Audit? 

A paid advertising or PPC audit is a comprehensive review of your current marketing campaigns to find errors, ineffective ads, and opportunities for optimization. The audit examines your campaign structure, resource allocation, and quality score. It can also help you re-examine your bidding strategy and ensure you are not over-investing in underperforming advertisements. Most importantly, a PPC audit enables you to make strategic campaign changes instead of relying on guesswork. 

3 Key Benefits of a PPC Campaign Audit 

Optimizing ad spend 

A PPC audit thoroughly assesses your ad spend by focusing on click-through rates and cost per acquisition. This process can help you make informed decisions about where you invest your company’s precious resources by pinpointing ineffective ads or irrelevant keywords. Using data-driven decision-making and assessing financial efficiency can help you enhance each marketing asset and overall ROI. 

Protecting brand reputation 

Advertising platforms regularly change their regulations and features— for instance, Google Ads now offers enhanced targeting capabilities and news advertising formats. At the same time, consumer demands, trending search terms, and market dynamics are constantly evolving. Audits are the perfect opportunity to stay current and optimize client touchpoints. You can maintain a relevant and reputable brand image by keeping your digital marketing strategy up-to-date and eliminating obsolete advertising efforts. 

Discovering new keywords and enhancing SEO

An audit can help your business optimize SEO by discovering new keywords or search terms. Keywords are critical to reaching your target clients and driving relevant traffic to your site. An audit provides avenues to bolster your organic traffic by analyzing current trends and past performance. You can learn from unsuccessful advertising efforts, create a cohesive approach that maximizes your reach, and achieve greater engagement. 

The Takeaway

Whether you want to start a new paid advertising campaign or improve your brand’s current performance, a PPC audit is vital for making informed and strategic decisions. Audits help you save money, regulate spending, and maintain a current and competitive presence in the expanding digital marketing landscape. 

The best part is— you don’t have to approach this task alone. Contact our team at 7th Sense Marketing today and take the first step to propel your business forward.

5 Key Benefits of a Social Media Presence for Small Businesses

For small businesses worldwide, social media has evolved into a crucial marketing tool and a platform for customer engagement. Social media management can help brands foster human connection, build a loyal clientele, and maximize revenue in the digital landscape.

Over the past decade, social media has taken the world by storm. It’s time for businesses to harness its power to increase online visibility and stay ahead of competitors. Below are five key ways your business can use social media to optimize future marketing campaigns.

Building brand awareness— for free!

Social media posts allow small businesses to build a brand narrative and market themselves at little to no cost. You can use short-form videos, posts, and stories to market products and services— with the potential to go viral. Platforms like Facebook can expedite a business’s awareness campaigns, while TikTok or Instagram provide access to over 1.6 billion users worldwide. 

Businesses can use social media marketing as a great storytelling tool to communicate their expertise and the value they bring to clients’ lives. In time, the social media algorithm can help users discover businesses tailored to their needs and interests. Such platforms can be a cost-effective tool to enhance visibility and connect with a broader client base.

Maintaining a competitive edge

According to Forbes, 77% of businesses use social media to reach customers in 2024. Most of your business’s competitors will likely have a social media presence, so creating a strong voice across various social platforms can help you maintain a competitive edge. Social media management can help small businesses keep a memorable and consistent online image.

Keeping up-to-date with current trends and social media campaigns can also give you more insight into clients’ needs and interests. These insights can help your business better understand its audience and tailor marketing strategies accordingly.

Increasing site traffic and conversions

One of social media’s most significant benefits is that it helps small businesses optimize their reach and attract prospective clients. Thanks to the individualized social media algorithm, users who find your account are more likely to be interested in purchasing your products and services.

Including strategic calls to action (CTAs) in social media posts or sharing URLs to your website encourages potential customers to visit your site— ultimately increasing direct traffic. Even those who engage with your content without the intention of making a purchase might eventually become clients if they resonate strongly with your social media posts or the information on your website.

Enhancing customer service through increased touchpoints

As of 2024, 90% of social media users follow at least one brand on social media. Such widespread brand engagement is the perfect opportunity for your business to create multiple touchpoints with your audience. Social media posts, videos and messages provide convenient avenues for addressing customer inquiries and sharing business updates. 
All platforms, like Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, provide unique benefits and tools for businesses that facilitate constant communication with their clientele. Small businesses can use social media to connect with customers personally and provide highly efficient customer service. For instance, addressing client concerns or inquiries can now be as simple as answering an Instagram DM!

Strengthening brand loyalty

Clients are most likely to trust consistent, reliable, and relatable brands. Whether you share your business’s behind-the-scenes on TikTok or respond to customers’ Instagram comments daily, social media fosters a sense of human connection between your business and its clients.

Over time, clients are more likely to develop a sense of affinity and loyalty toward your brand, making you less susceptible to ever-fluctuating market conditions. One of the greatest benefits of social media management is building a long-term customer base, which can help you maintain a steady revenue stream as a small business.

The Power Duo: Combining SEO and SEM for B2B Success

SEO & SEM for B2B: Organic Traffic & Paid Ads for Growth

A solid online presence is necessary for competitive B2B businesses in today's digital landscape. Search engines are the gateway to reaching your target audience, and SEO and SEM can help you effectively drive traffic to your site.

SEO: Building a Sustainable Foundation

SEO is the ongoing process of optimizing your website and content. The goal is to rank higher in organic search results. Think of it as building a solid foundation for your online presence. SEO best practices make your website easier for search engines and humans to find and more user-friendly. This means more organic traffic and better brand awareness, resulting in more leads and sales.

The benefits of SEO for B2B businesses are undeniable. Studies show that 60% of B2B organizations see SEO as a core marketing strategy. SEO can help your business cultivate the following:

• Visibility and Credibility: A high organic ranking positions your company as an industry authority. It fosters trust and credibility with potential clients.

• Targeted Reach: Focus on keywords. They attract visitors who are actively searching for the solutions your business offers.

• Long-Term Value: Paid ads don't do this. SEO results are sustainable. They keep driving in traffic.

However, SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. Seeing significant results can take months as search engines crawl, index, and rank your content.

SEM: Bridging the Gap and Boosting Visibility

During the first two to three months of implementing your SEO strategy, SEM can help boost your immediate visibility. SEM encompasses all paid advertising strategies within search engines, primarily Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns.

While SEO builds on a long-term foundation, SEM offers immediate visibility. You can create targeted ads. They appear at the top of search results for specific keywords. They bring qualified traffic to your website immediately. This is especially beneficial for:

• New Websites: Your organic rankings will be low when you start. SEM can help bridge the gap and generate leads while your SEO efforts mature.

• Promotional Campaigns: Need to promote a new product launch or special offer? Use SEM to reach your target audience quickly and effectively.

• Competitive Landscape: Stay ahead of the curve by bidding on relevant keywords your competitors use. This will ensure your brand remains visible.

“The success of both SEO and SEM relies heavily on good content.”

— ClearVoice

The Synergy: Why Combining SEO and SEM is the Winning Formula

The real magic happens when you combine SEO and SEM into a cohesive strategy. This combination allows your business to take advantage of:

• Keyword Insights: Utilize keyword data from your SEM campaigns to inform your SEO strategy. You can optimize your website by finding high-performing keywords with good conversion rates. You can use them to target the right audience without paying for ads.

• Enhanced Content Strategy: High-quality content is paramount for both SEO and SEM. Use paid campaign insights to see what content resonates with your audience. Then, make valuable content that attracts organic traffic.

• Improved Brand Authority: Being in paid and organic search results is a strong brand signal. It solidifies your position as a trusted industry leader.

• Targeted Reach: Cater to different stages of the buyer's journey with your combined approach. Use SEM to capture high-intent searches. SEO attracts visitors at the research and awareness stages.

• Maximized ROI: While SEM delivers immediate results, SEO provides long-term benefits at a lower cost-per-acquisition. By focusing on both, you create a cheap marketing strategy that clearly impacts your profits.

Putting it into Action

Here are some practical steps to get started with your combined SEO and SEM strategy:

1. Do thorough keyword research. Find relevant keywords that have high search volume and low competition.

2. Optimize your website content and landing pages with targeted keywords. Please make sure they are informative and user-friendly.

3. Technical SEO focuses on website speed, mobile-friendliness, and site structure. It improves crawlability and ranking potential.

4. PPC Campaigns: Make targeted ads on platforms like Google Ads. They help you reach your ideal customers based on their demographics and interests.

5. Monitor and analyze your SEO and SEM performance often. Use data to refine your strategy. It will make your campaigns better.

Using SEO and SEM, B2B businesses can create a solid online presence. It will generate high-quality leads, build brand trust, and drive lasting growth. Ditch the siloed approach and embrace the synergy of this pair for long-term B2B marketing success.

Unlocking E-commerce Success with Performance Max Campaigns

How Google Ads for Ecommerce Benefit from PMax Campaigns

In the fast-paced world of e-commerce, businesses are constantly seeking innovative ways to maximize their online presence and boost revenue. One such powerful solution is implementing Performance Max Campaigns. Leveraging the full potential of this cutting-edge marketing strategy can give e-commerce businesses the competitive advantage they need. This blog will review how Performance Max Campaigns can affect e-commerce success and why integrating them into your marketing arsenal is crucial.

Google Ads is switching from Smart Shopping ads to AI-driven Performance Max (PMax) campaigns, which has sparked many discussions across various industries. This shift has introduced a new way of thinking to digital advertising, which is praised for its innovation and criticized for its opacity. The debate is about whether PMax campaigns help or hurt businesses. Some say bots might use these campaigns, adding to doubts about their effectiveness.

What are Performance Max Campaigns?

Performance Max Campaigns, or PMax Campaigns, have revolutionized Google advertising by enabling businesses to reach their target audience effectively across multiple Google networks, properties, and platforms. These include valuable touch points like Google Search, Display, YouTube, and Discovery.

E-commerce Businesses Need Performance Max Campaigns

Several reasons for using PMax campaigns include:

1. Maximizing Reach: Performance Max Campaigns leverage machine learning technology to optimize and expand your reach automatically. By tapping into Google's vast network, these campaigns present a prime opportunity to engage potential customers across multiple platforms. They will drive traffic and increase the visibility of your e-commerce store.

2. Enhanced Performance: PMax Campaigns utilize the power of automation to optimize bidding and ad placement. It aims to target the right audience at the right time based on their browsing behaviours, preferences, and intent. Ultimately, this leads to higher click-through rates, conversions, and a healthy return on investment (ROI).

3. Improved Cost Efficiency: With Performance Max Campaigns, e-commerce businesses have the advantage of cost-efficient advertising. By targeting the right audience and optimizing bidding strategies, your ad spend is utilized effectively, ensuring higher returns and reduced wastage.

4. Comprehensive Tracking and Analytics: PMax Campaigns provide robust tracking and analytical capabilities, which allow your e-commerce businesses to measure the efficacy of their campaigns. By gaining valuable insights into key performance metrics, including impressions, clicks, and conversions, you can adjust your targeting based on accurate data, not average market data.

Addressing Concerns about Bot Manipulation

While Performance Max Campaigns offer tremendous benefits, critics have raised concerns about potential bot manipulation. It is crucial to address and mitigate these concerns to ensure the integrity of these campaigns. Key steps to address these criticisms include:

• Implement Robust Anti-Fraud Measures: E-commerce businesses should partner with advertising platforms to implement comprehensive anti-fraud measures. These measures include bot detection algorithms, invalid click filters, and continuous monitoring to identify and prevent fraudulent activities.

• Regular Monitoring and Analysis: Campaigns must be monitored regularly, and performance metrics must be analyzed closely. Businesses can detect and combat possible bot manipulation by examining traffic patterns, auditing engagement rates, and identifying suspicious activities.

• Transparency and Accountability: Advertising platforms should provide transparent reporting and analytics, giving businesses complete visibility into the sources and quality of their campaign traffic. This transparency fosters trust and allows firms to promptly identify discrepancies or fraudulent activities.

Collaboration with Industry Experts: Partnering with digital marketing agencies with expertise in ad fraud detection and prevention can significantly help businesses navigate the complexities of bot manipulation concerns. These experts can provide strategies to combat ad fraud and ensure the effectiveness of Performance Max Campaigns.

Implementing Performance Max Campaigns

To unlock the full potential of Performance Max Campaigns, e-commerce businesses need to follow these essential steps:

1. Define Clear Goals: Determine your objectives, whether increasing sales, generating leads, or enhancing brand awareness. This step will help you tailor your campaign structure and optimize performance accordingly.

2. Refine audience Targeting: Study your target audience carefully and leverage Google's Audience targeting options to ensure your ads are shown to the right people. Utilize demographic targeting, remarketing lists, or customer matches to enhance ad relevance and drive engagement.

3. Create Engaging Ad Content: Craft compelling and eye-catching ad creatives that align with your brand's messaging and resonate with your target audience. Ensure your ads highlight unique selling points, promotions, and incentives to encourage clicks and conversions.

4. Monitor and Optimize Regularly: Continuously monitor the performance of your Performance Max Campaigns. Adjust your bidding strategies, test different ad variants, and remove underperforming ads. Regular optimization will result in improved ROIs and overall campaign success.

Asset Groups in Performance Max Campaign

Asset groups play a crucial role in Performance Max campaigns, serving as the foundation for how your ads are assembled and displayed across Google's networks. Think of an asset group as a cohesive collection of your advertising materials—images, videos, headlines, and descriptions—that work together to tell your brand's story or promote your product. Each asset group is targeted to achieve a specific objective within your PMax campaign, such as driving online sales or generating leads. To effectively build an asset group, you must include various elements. Start with at least 20 high-quality images that reflect your product or service compellingly.

Videos are equally important; including three well-produced videos can significantly enhance engagement. Headlines are your hook; having five short and two long headlines allows for variety and testing to see what resonates best with your audience. Descriptions round out your message, providing further details and prompting action, so ensure you have at least one short and two long descriptions ready. By thoughtfully assembling these components, you create a rich, adaptable portfolio of content that PMax's AI can use to optimize your campaign's performance across the various channels and formats available within the Google Ads ecosystem.

In the fiercely competitive landscape of e-commerce, Performance Max Campaigns will allow you to unlock your business’s untapped potential. By leveraging the reach, automation, and cost-efficiency of PMax Campaigns, e-commerce businesses can drive targeted traffic, enhance ad performance, and achieve their brand objectives. Embrace Performance Max Campaigns to elevate your e-commerce success and avoid missing out on this game-changing strategy.

Remember, to maximize the effectiveness of your Performance Max Campaigns, partner with a trusted digital marketing agency that specializes in e-commerce advertising. Their expertise and industry insights will help ensure your campaigns achieve optimal results.

The Significance of Long-Tail Keywords in SEO

Demystifying Long-Tail Keyword Myths

Long-tail keywords are keyword phrases that often have lower search volume and, at times, lower competitiveness. Contrary to common myths, they can be shorter. These keyword phrases are specific and cover more details, making them valuable in your SEO strategy. If you know your business and your potential customers, you can find the right long-tail keywords to boost your online presence.

Why Long-Tail Keywords Matter

Consider this: “Ahrefs analyzed approximately 1.9 billion keywords and found that a staggering 92.42% of them receive ten searches or fewer per month.” Long-tail keywords are pivotal in capturing this particular and less competitive search traffic. By understanding your customers' search language and aligning it with your services or products, long-tail keywords can drive high-quality, targeted traffic to your web pages. The best part? You can achieve higher rankings for these phrases compared to broader keywords, provided you have a clear understanding of search patterns.

Discovering Long-Tail Keywords

Finding long-tail keywords doesn't have to be complicated. One simple tactic is to start typing a broad term into Google. Google will then suggest more detailed searches, which you can review for relevancy. Additionally, explore the "People also ask" section for more ideas. Tools like SEMRush and Ahref can also assist you with long-tail keyword research, providing in-depth data to refine your strategy. Regardless of where you look, always ask: What questions are my audience asking, and how can I fulfill their needs?

Enhancing Local SEO with Long-Tail Keywords

Local businesses stand to gain significantly from long-tail keywords, especially when competing against larger competitors. Statistics reveal that half of all Google searches are local, and 76% of users who search for local businesses on their smartphones visit the business within one day. Targeting local-intent keywords through long-tail phrases can improve your ranking and attract more qualified traffic.

Leveraging Intent Keywords for SEO Success

Intent keywords such as "best," "cheapest," and "offer" may receive lower traffic, but they can attract potential customers who are specific in their searches. As searchers become more specific, such as through voice search, there's a higher chance to rank well for these intent keywords than broader terms.

The Art of Writing for Your Audience

While long-tail keywords are a valuable part of your SEO strategy, remember to write for your audience, not just for SEO. Using conversational language with long-tail keywords can increase engagement and attract more qualified traffic to your digital marketing agency's website. Long-tail keywords are a powerful tool in your SEO arsenal, and when used effectively, they can lead to improved search visibility and meaningful interactions with your target audience.

Unlocking the Power of Facebook Advertising KPIs

Understanding Facebook Advertising KPIs

In this article, we will delve into Facebook advertising and explore the most critical Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for managers and business owners. Have you ever wondered how to determine if your campaigns are yielding the right results or how to measure their success effectively? We'll address these questions and more.

The Unique Approach of Social Media Advertising

While search engine marketing relies on highly targeted keywords, social media marketing, especially on platforms like Facebook, takes a different approach. It involves understanding the behaviours and interests of your ideal customers and fulfilling their entertainment needs. Social media users primarily come online to connect with friends, follow their favourite celebrities, and have a good time. When interruptive marketing techniques are used on these platforms, respecting users' preferences becomes crucial.

We won't delve too deep into creating engaging ads in this article; instead, we'll focus on the KPIs that can guide your campaign's direction and effectiveness.

The Three Stages of Social Media Advertising

Facebook suggests that social media advertising can be categorized into three main stages: Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion. Let's break down the importance of these stages and the KPIs associated with each.

Step One: Awareness

In the Awareness stage, the primary goal is not to sell products but to build better and faster custom audiences. These campaigns aim to direct traffic to your selected URLs or generate engagement with your Facebook Page. Success in this stage is essential for creating an ideal audience for retargeting.

You can measure the success of your Awareness campaigns using KPIs from both Facebook Ads Manager and Google Analytics, such as Impressions, Reach, Cost Per Results, Post Comments, Post Shares, Link Clicks, Bounce Rate, Pages/Sessions, New Users, and Avg. Session Durations.

These high-level KPIs provide insights into your Brand Awareness Campaigns. They lay the foundation for retargeting campaigns (Consideration), enabling you to evaluate the quality of your new audience lists more effectively.

Step Two: Consideration

In the Consideration stage, potential customers are familiar with your brand and services. Now, the objective is to get closer to your audience by offering valuable content such as case studies, infographics, training program snippets, software features, or product tests.

Designing specific landing pages for these offers can be effective. Sometimes, you can request basic information like email addresses or phone numbers. The goal is to build trust, allow potential customers to test your products or services, and provide them with the opportunity to learn more about your approach through case studies.

KPIs to track in this stage include Reach, Cost Per Click/Lead, Number of Clicks/Leads, and Click-Through Rate (CTR) in Facebook Ads Manager. In Google Analytics, focus on Conversions and New Users.

The ultimate goal at this stage is to generate requests, not final sales. These campaigns serve as an indicator of how people respond to your messaging and offers. They help you fine-tune your messaging and market strategy to reach your target audience effectively, leading to the Conversion stage.

How Can Google Ads Help Your E-Commerce?

Picture this: Our protagonist (let's call him Jim) comes home from work; he's starving and wants nothing more than delicious, empty carbs. "You know what I could go for? Some air-fried wings," Jim decides. But Jim has neither wings nor even an air-fryer, so he heads to his laptop – he needs to order one immediately, of course. This is where you come in – your business sells the best air fryers. But when Jim searches 'rad air fryer' on Google, your Google Ads don't appear. So, Jim buys an inferior fryer, and everyone is dissatisfied. Why didn't your Google Ads show up to a potential customer? Because you haven't started running them yet. You're not sure how they work, you're not sure how to set them up, you're not even sure if they're worth the investment. But you don't want to keep losing all those Jims online. Google Ads for ecommerce gets more eyes – eyes looking for products or services like yours – on your brand, extending your marketing reach to any place with WiFi. By proactively advertising online, you'll get more relevant, targeted leads visiting your business, you'll build brand recognition, and, over time, accrue more and more sales. But before you can reap the benefits of ecommerce advertising, you'll need to know the ins and outs of Google Ads (or you could always get in touch with us for an audit, and we'll create and manage your campaign for you).

Why Google Ads Matter for Ecommerce

If the benefits of advertising online weren't illustrated well enough through Jim's debacle, the obvious advantage is the number of potential leads you can receive. Considering Google has a majority market share of search engine traffic at 73.34%, it's clear Google Ads is one of the best advertising platforms for ecommerce available today. You want your brand in the middle of the consumers' conversations, and a lot of dialogue starts with a simple Google search.

So, what do they even look like? You've seen them before:

At the top, you'll see shopping ads, which target people who are in the interest or consideration phase of the buying cycle. (This is what makes the Ads platform the best way to advertise ecommerce websites – unlike newspaper ads, for example, you can precisely set parameters to serve your ads to audiences with particular characteristics. If you're doing it right, you'll be getting more relevant leads, which will, in turn, have a higher click-through rate (CTR) and boost your ROI in the long run.) Below them are search ads, the first set of results before the 'organic' results. The difference between Google search ads for ecommerce and those organic search results is you're essentially paying to skip to the front of the line. When people query keywords you've optimized your ads for, your brand and products will come up first, giving you the first crack at a click. And if you use Google, you know how rare it is to go past the first few search results. Because you're jumping the queue and getting a chance to sell to your online consumers before your competitors, it comes at a premium. They aren't free, but they aren't expensive -and worth considering the potential benefits. You'll have to pay to show up for your chosen keywords, so depending on the competition, they can range in cost, as some 'keywords' will cost more than others. But we can't stress how valuable it is to be in those top results!…so we'll have someone else do that for us.

Starting Your Google Ads Campaign

You know Google is one of the best places to advertise ecommerce – but how do you make the most of your ads? We'll be frank – internet advertising for ecommerce isn't easy. Ideally, you'll have an analytics wiz and/or a qualified digital marketing agency with pay-per-click (PPC) experts to manage your ad campaigns. There's a lot that goes into it: choosing the right keywords, allocating the proper budgets, targeting the right audiences, constant monitoring of campaigns and competitors, and so much more. If you're confident in going at it alone, however, you can quickly get a campaign up and running through Google's quick start guide. And for those of you with some PPC savvy, here are a few actionable tips you can apply to your campaigns immediately to boost results.

Making Your Google Ads More Effective

How do I increase traffic on Google Ads? There are a number of recommended approaches Google offers to increase traffic. Some of the most important would be:

• Leveraging Smart Bidding – Especially if you're not a PPC pro – you'll no longer need to adjust bids manually!

• Amplifying successful keywords – If you see keywords in your campaign performing well, use them in different ways – phrase match, broad match, exact match – to appear in more searches, giving you more opportunities to accrue traffic. For example, if your keyword is 'advertise ecommerce website', maybe you'll want 'ecommerce site marketing', 'marketing online for websites', and other similar variations.

• Test, test, test! – We touched on their flexibility, so use it. Test different bids. Different messaging. Different ad formats. Different keywords. Keep trying until you find success, but be mindful of what you're spending as well!

How to Optimize Keywords in Google Ads

For an optimal campaign that captures the right audience, you'll need to speak your consumers' language. The more you're in tune with what your audience is typing into the Google search bar, the more relevant keywords you can add to your campaign, thereby boosting the number of eyes on your ads. You can optimize your campaign's keywords by:

• Creating a keyword list – helps you organize and determine which keywords are valuable and worth bidding for

• Grouping and segmenting – organizing keywords that are semantically related will boost relevancy and in turn, improve ad scores

• Improving relevancy – getting a click-through on your ad is the goal, and ads that are most relevant to a user's search will be awarded that glorious click

• Test different messaging – don't forget to include those keywords in your PPC ad copy, too! Try different value propositions and styles of messaging to see what performs best, then optimize from there

• Optimize your landing page – once a user lands on your page, your message must match the offer. Be sure to include your campaign keywords onto your landing page for best-quality scores

**Troubleshooting: