As a marketing agency we get many clients who want to advertise their products and services through AdWords and Facebook, but don't want have the patience to wait for the results. The thinking is that since it's digital it must be quick. And if you don't see the results instantaneously, something must be wrong.
No client wants to hear it's a slow boil even with the nanosecond technology we all have swirling around us. The truth is that good advertising hasn't really changed from the days of print ads, radio and even TV. It still takes creativity, planning, frequency and, yes, patience. What has changed is the accessibility to audiences and the tools you can use to analyze and measure effectiveness.
Digital advertising has made the ability to get a message out into the ether rather quick. It also has the ability to rapidly understand how successful it really is. It truly offers an ROI measurement, but as I keep saying it requires patience.
How About Highway Billboards?
I recently told a client that they should look at online advertising the same way they may look at buying billboard space on a highway. It seems like an old-fashioned medium but it offers a good lesson for today's caffeniated options.
First, you need to commit to this type of advertising medium. Perhaps it fits into your strategy or maybe someone likes seeing their face on a billboard on the way to work.
Next, you need to develop the creative. Write the copy and select the images. Then, agree on a budget which determines how many billboards you'll be on and for how long. After that, you need to get someone to plaster all those billboards with your final approved ad campaign. Then, you have to let the traffic (the actual cars and people who drive by) build up. And finally, you need to hope and pray that your brand and message is recognized and acted upon, or hope that the president of the company feels the campaign is successful because everyone recognized his smiling face on the billboard. Eithe way, this whole process from design to execution to nurturing could take months.
Digital advertising is not too different. The timeframe to execute is much quicker but understanding how the nurturing is going takes the real time. And by nurturing, I mean the ability to tweak your ads to the interests of your target audience and keep tweaking them over time in order to maintain their interest and get them to act.
With Adwords, in particular, there is one primary thing you need to spend your time honing and thats your ad's Quality Score.
Your Google Quality Score Really Matters
The Quality Score is Google's rating of the quality and relevance of both your keywords and PPC ads. It is used to determine your cost per click (CPC) and multiplied by your maximum bid to determine your ad rank in the ad auction process. Your Quality Score depends on multiple factors, including:
- Your click-through rate (CTR).
- The relevance of each keyword to its ad group.
- Landing page quality and relevance.
- The relevance of your ad text.
- Your historical AdWords account performance.
Click-through rate seems to be one of the most important components. When more people who see your ad click it, that’s a strong indication to Google that your ads are relevant and helpful to users. Accordingly, Google rewards you with:
- Higher ad rankings
- Lower costs
The higher your Quality Score, the lower your cost per conversion. And, a high Quality Score is Google's way of saying that your PPC ad meets your potential customers’ needs. The better you are at meeting the prospect’s needs, the less Google will charge you for the ad click.
And to do this takes PATIENCE because you are constantly analyzing and manipulating your bevy of ads to understand what pleases the Google gods and your customers.
Want to know how to improve your Quality Score? Stay tuned for part 2 of our online advertising quick tutorial. Or sign-up for our newsletter so you don't miss out on any of this very important information.
