We caught up with Olly West, Digital Marketing Manager at WebBox Digital, to learn more about what metrics to use to understand your brand’s visibility, his tips on how to take advantage of voice search, and how to make your PPC ads resonate with consumers.
Are there any metrics which are actually unhelpful when trying to understand your brand’s visibility?
OW: Keeping on top of key metrics is one of the most effective ways to track the growth of your brand visibility. Depending on the nature of their advertising campaigns, marketers should look at metrics such as website traffic, advert impressions, social media followers or video view rates to effectively measure growth.
However, simply stating that your website traffic or advert impressions have grown by x per cent isn’t quite enough. You need to prove that you are spending time and money on reaching the right people.
To find this out, turn your attention to Google Analytics and metrics such as your bounce rate and average session duration. If your bounce rate is high and your average session duration is low it’s likely that you are not attracting interested people to your website or landing pages.
As an agency we have had instances in the past where clients have questioned the point of brand awareness campaigns as they haven’t directly resulted in a certain amount of sales. So getting the whole team on board with regards to the benefits of visibility is also a challenge. I would recommend setting aside a separate budget for brand awareness campaigns, rather than combining them with the campaigns focused on generating sales and actions. This way you can accurately measure and report the success of each campaign against its primary goals.
How will voice search impact on visibility, and what are your top tips to prepare for this?
OW: Yes, the way that people search is changing, but for me the jury is out on voice search. Whilst it is attached to Android Devices and Microsoft Cortana there aren’t enough people using it yet to gain accurate insights on customer usage patterns. However, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be taking advantage of it!
Consider creating a new Google AdWords campaigns targeting voice search, with increased bid adjustments for mobile, conversational keywords and keywords such as “Alexa” and “OK Google”.
How can marketers make sure that their PPC ads resonate with consumers, particularly in industries with a lot of competition?
OW: When it comes to Google AdWords, standing out is crucial for industries with high Ad Depth. The companies that focus on delivering the best possible experience for consumers will stand out the most.
Ensure you build your campaigns out to ensure that consumers will see an advert that contains the keywords that they have searched for. Also take your time to create short, snappy adverts. You don’t need to use every character available to you either – why say something in 80 characters when you can say it in 30?
We’d also recommend making full use of all of the advert extensions such as review, call extensions and SMS message extensions. In short, make sure that everything the consumer is looking for is right there in your advert. There’s no need to make it complicated for your consumer to find what they need and action it.