Google Ads 2019 – The Ultimate Guide

Google Ads is one of the most effective online marketing platforms. The king of advertising, however, can easily confuse beginners.

Luckily for you, we are here to give you the lowdown on Google Ads. We will break things down and run through a step-by-step setup guide, so you can get your first ad campaign up and running.

We will take a closer look at how to best perform keyword research before launching your first ad campaign. We will also run through how to write new ads and set up your first ad group. So, if you are ready, let’s get started.

Why Advertise on Google Ads?

When it comes to search networks, Google reigns supreme. From the ever-popular search engine to Gmail and Google Assistant. Google is everywhere and can be found even in dictionaries: ‘Googling’ is a verb.

While there are plenty of other search engines available (hi Bing), none of them compare to Google in terms of dominance and notoriety. Google search averages 3.5 billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide. It is the best platform for reaching your desired audience while producing a high ROI (return on investment).

Google Ads also provides users with extreme flexibility and a plethora of features that can fit any business model. The options available to you are many and include:

 

• Mobile app downloads
• Partner websites
• Maps
• Google search results
• YouTube
• Gmail
• And many more

 

But is Google Ads superior to social media marketing? Absolutely! When you start out on social media, you have no likes, no shares and no followers. Building an audience on social media can be brutal and time-consuming. This is where Google Ads comes into its own.

Within a few minutes, you will be able to launch a campaign on Google Ads that generates genuine conversions. No waiting around. No hard work. As soon as your campaign goes live, instant sales are possible.

For best results, you need to use the right keywords. As an example, if someone needs a boiler fixed and your ad places at the top of the SERPs (search engine results page), then you are in a prime position to convert that search into a sale.

Performing Google Ads Keyword Research

Keyword research is the backbone of any successful Ads campaign. To have your ads displayed, you will need to target specific keywords and bid on them. These should be industry-related and targeted towards your brand or business model.

As an example, if you sell shoes then you are going to want to target searches made by real people who are looking for shoes. But—and this is a big but—finding the perfect keywords for your budget can be a nightmare. All the major footwear brands have almost limitless bidding budgets and drive up the bid cost massively.

Use The Google Keyword Planner

Google has its own tool for keyword research. It offers transparent suggestions from basic phrases or topics. You even have the option to search by URL.

Navigate to the home screen of your Google Ads page and search for “keyword planner” on the “GO TO” search option located on the top-right corner of the page.

Click on “Find New Keywords”. Type in one two three words related to your brand or product.

 Let’s carry on with the shoe seller example. Let’s see what happens if we search for ‘online shoe shop.’ You can hit enter to add more keywords. Press “GET STARTED” and let the magic begin.

This list contains information about average monthly searches, competition level, ad impression share, top of page bid low and top of page bid high. The top of page bid high and low are the amounts that you would need to place as a bid if you wanted one of the keywords to feature at the top or bottom of the first page.

Competition level means how competitive a keyword is. Highly competitive keywords are searched more often, which means you’ll have to compete with many advertisers that want to take advantage of their popularity.

The key to maximising exposure is balance. Most keywords in the above example have a competition score of 1, which would make ranking with any of them extremely difficult. The keyword “shoe shops” has medium competition and a respectable search volume, making it a great alternative to the generic “shoes”.

Be Specific

Highly specific keywords such as ‘women’s red high heels for sale’ have higher conversion rates. Those who search for women’s red high heels for sale are most likely looking to make a purchase. More generic keywords such as ‘review’ or ‘which is best’ are used by those who have not yet decided or are still searching.

If you want to know which keywords work best for your competitors, good old benevolent espionage may just do the trick. One of the best 3rd party tools for performing competitor keyword research is SEMRush. Another great third-party tool is SpyFu. This tool holds information about the history of your competitors’ ads and keywords along with useful performance metrics and statistics.

As soon as you have a list of keywords that fit your objectives, you will be ready to start your first Google ad campaign. Don’t stress! We are here to guide you through the process step-by-step.

Single Keyword Ad Group Setup

Now you are ready to begin the setup process. However, make sure that you don’t misconstrue the advice that Google gives you. When setting up your single keyword ad group, Google asks you to start with between 10 and 20 keywords. This is just too many keywords for a single ad. At a push, you should use 8 to 10 keywords—and you need to be specific.

If someone is looking for size 42 heels, they don’t want to see an ad about size 42 sneakers. While the context is similar, the aforementioned items are not. Even if your product comes up in plenty of searches, people will ignore it if it’s not exactly what they’re looking for.

To set up a new campaign, create a new ad group by navigating to the left sidebar. Grab all of the keywords that you compiled earlier and add them into your new ad group plan under “keywords”. Click “SAVE” when you’re done.

Google will then provide you with a forecast table that holds some useful information. Based on the selected keywords, Google automatically calculates a hypothetical amount of clicks and outlines the required budget. Click on “CREATE CAMPAIGN” on the top-right side to kick off your new campaign.

Now you want to work out the match type that you’re going to use. Keyword match types give a bit more control on what searches can trigger your ad. You can choose from three options, ranging from reach to relevance.

 

• Broad: Matches with close variations, related searches, synonyms and misspellings—the default and basic match type.
• Phrase: Matches with close terms, including keyword phrases—any words in between.
• Exact: Matches only with close variants and search terms related to the selected keyword.

 

To change match types, navigate back to the keywords page and click on the edit-pencil icon next to a keyword.  Click on “Broad match” to bring up the drop-down list and make changes. Click “SAVE” to apply any changes.

Google recommends that you use broad match for all your keywords. However, the reality is that proper use of phrase and exact match types will bring better results.

If there are certain keywords that you don’t want to be associated with your product, you can create exclusions by navigating to the negative keywords tab. Words and phrases that you add here tell Google that you don’t want your product to be shown in searches that include said keywords or phrases.

Create Your First Google Ad

It can be tiring to write Google ads. You are faced with character limits that make it difficult to write compelling text. Google recommends creating specific ad groups that contain a minimum of three ads.

But why is that? Well, Google automatically rotates ads to show the ones that are performing best. Creating different types of ads translates into higher conversion rates. You can choose between three types of ads:

 

• Text ad: Most common type of ad that comes with many restrictions.
• Responsive search ad: With responsive search ads, you enter multiple headlines and descriptions and Google combines them into ads—currently in Beta
• Call-only ad: An ad that displays a phone number—Meh…

 

Here is what you have to do. Navigate to Ads & extensions on the left sidebar. Click on the “CREATE AD” button in the middle of the page and choose an ad type from the drop-down list.

You can experiment with responsive search ads, but for now, we’ll focus on text ads. Once you’re in the new text ad page, you’ll have to select in which ad group your ad will be saved. Keep in mind that Google text ads can be quite restrictive.

Here’s what you need to fill out:

 

• Final URL:  The URL of your product’s page.
• Headline 1: Space for your first headline—up to 30 characters.
• Headline 2: Space for your second headline.
• Headline 3: Space for your third headline.
• Display Path: Customise your URL with a maximum of 15 characters.
• Description 1: Describe your product in 90 characters or less.
• Description 2: Space for your second description.

You should use your ad group keyword twice in your ad to help with ad relevance. This can be in your title and URL. You should also use a CTA so that users know exactly what to do.

Take a look at the above example. The keyword is used twice. There is a summary of benefits and a call to action. It is concise, clear and highly effective. To create more ads, simply modify your CTA and text to fit your next product.

You are now ready to launch your new ad. The next step is to make sure that you have a working landing page that converts.

Setting Up Your Landing Page

Your landing page should be created in a way that entices users to perform the requested CTA or make a purchase. Typically, your landing page should not feature many elements found on other pages, such as navigation, sidebars etc.

Your landing page should be a stripped-down, clean and clear page dedicated to the product or service that you are offering. It should be free from any distractions or external links that might direct potential customers away from your products.

One of the biggest mistakes that people make when setting up Google Ads is setting their homepage as the landing page. This really isn’t a good idea as homepages contain way too much content and distract customers away from the focal point of your page—the product that you want them to buy.

Ultimately, you want to create a landing page that accurately captures the message of the ad. Remember, you’re actually paying for every click on one of your Google Ads. It won’t do you any good if your advertising Ladies Red Fashion Heels but the link takes customers to a landing page filled with men’s sneakers.

Google Ads Campaign Settings

Google’s display planner is no longer available, but most of its features have been incorporated into the new Google Ads platform.

To access all the necessary information and edit your campaign goals and settings, click on the “campaigns” option on the left of the navigation bar. Click on the big blue plus icon and select “Load campaign settings”.

Here is where it gets a bit crazy. The new planner is filled with campaign settings that really can make a huge difference.

First, you need to select your campaign settings.

For a more effective marketing strategy, you can edit the type and goal of your campaign.

You can choose to focus on sales, leads, website traffic or promotions. Maybe your goal is to raise awareness for your brand. Choosing a goal that reflects your brand’s actual goals and marketing strategies is necessary if you want to succeed.

Choosing the right campaign type is also important. Do you want to reach customers who may be interested in your product or service or do you want to promote your products with shopping ads? Perhaps you want to reach and engage viewers on YouTube, in which case a video campaign may work best for you.

You also have the option of including your ads on Google search partner sites, which will only display ads with relevant search results, or you can include your ads on the Google Display Network, a collection of more than 2 million web pages.

You can then select those locations that are important for your business. For example, if you’re based in Australia, you’ll want to choose Australia as your main location and English as the main language of the campaign.

It’s important to note that if you’re advertising in a language other than English, you’ll have to use keywords in the targeted language. With the audience option, you can narrow your target audience even further (according to age, gender etc.).

On the budget and bidding tab, you can edit the budget that was automatically generated when you created your campaign. Although your goal is to reach wider audiences, you shouldn’t always focus just on clicks. Google lets you choose whether you want to focus on maximising clicks for exposure or conversions for profit. This one’s up to you.

The extension tab gives you more control over the links and information that will be displayed along with your ad. Aside from links, information and a phone number, you could also add:

 

• Structured snippets
• App extensions
• Message extensions
• Promotion extensions
• Price extensions
• Location extensions

 

Double check your main settings and click “SAVE AND CONTINUE”.

Next up, ad group settings. You have a choice between standard group type and dynamic group type. Standard ads are written by you and target audiences based on your selected keywords. Dynamic ads generate headlines automatically by scanning through your website’s content.

If you still have not picked your keywords, you can let Google scan your website (or one that’s related to your business) for keyword ideas (right box). This works even if you’re using standard ads, but you’ll have to type the ads in yourself (left box). For a broad match, type your keyword and phrases normally. Adding quotation marks around the keyword will activate phrase match (“keyword”), while brackets correspond to an exact match ([keyword]).

You can now create ads that utilise your new settings. Check the previous section for more detailed information on how to create the perfect text ad for your search campaign. If you’d rather create a video or promotion add, you need to change the campaign type.

Visual campaigns

Display campaigns are all about banners.  You can choose between a standard display campaign (you pick your settings and targeting) and a Gmail campaign (targets people as they browse emails).

With display campaigns, you have access to all the standard search campaign settings but must also upload pictures (GIF, JPG and PNG files) that will be used to market your business, product or service.

The size limit for all image ads is 150 kilobytes. Double-sized images are not supported. Google supports several different sizes for your image ads, which is why it is always seen as good practice for your display banner ads to have the ability to appear on a variety of sites, regardless of the banner size. You can find more information about image size on Google’s official page.

It is essential that your images can fit into all the different sized banner ads. If not, it could limit or prevent your ads from appearing on specific sites.

Video campaigns require more resources to create but open up new possibilities as they reach huge audiences. With Google Ads, you can choose to run a custom video campaign that is tailored to your brand’s needs or choose between:

 

• A non-skippable in-stream: A 15-second non-skippable ad that will run between videos relevant to your product or service.
• Outstream: Outstream ads are mobile-only ads that appear on partner sites and apps outside of YouTube. These ads play automatically on mute when they appear on screen. You only pay if your ad is viewable.
• TrueView: TrueView campaigns are made up of CTAs and a headline. These ads are available on YouTube and give viewers the option to skip them after 5 seconds.
• Ad sequence: These are ads that tell a story. They come together to form a whole and the goal is to ensure that your potential customer progresses through the complete sequence campaign.
• Shopping: Skippable ads that seek to promote relevant products and direct people to your online shop.

Once you’ve created your video ad, you must provide Google with a valid URL from YouTube. If the video is not hosted on YouTube, Google will not be able to process it.

App campaigns are a great way to promote your newly launched app. You first choose your mobile app’s platform and then search for the app by name, package name or publisher.

Your campaign’s objectives depend on the type of bidding that you choose: Cost per instal; (CPI) will charge you every time someone installs your app on their phone, while cost per action (CPA) charges you every time someone takes a revenue-generating in-app action.

You can add up to 20 image and video files (HTML5 is also supported)  to promote your app. Google recommends that you use landscape images for native ad and portrait images for interstitial content. Valuable formats include 320  x 50 px, 320 x 480 px and 300 x 250 px.

More Features

Once you’ve set up your campaign, Google gives access to multiple stats and metrics that you can use to keep track of everything.

The Landing Page tab offers useful information about page clicks, views, interactions and engagements. It’ll tell you how well your page is performing and whether and how many people are actually using the page to purchase the advertised product or service.

The Audiences and Demographics tabs offer valuable information about the people that your ad has managed to reach. With that information in mind, you can design new suitable products or change your marketing strategy to ensure you reach your desired audience.

The Devices tab can tell you where most users view and engage with your app. Again, this tool can be used to determine whether your marketing strategies are effective. For example, if you’re targeting the mobile market but are still receiving more traffic on PC, you may want to switch focus to target PC users or come up with new strategies that will engage more mobile customers.

The Locations tab holds information about your targeted and excluded locations. Google can also generate Geographic and User location reports.

With the schedule option, you can design your ads beforehand and decide when exactly (day and hour) they’ll go live. It sometimes takes more than 48 hours for changes and new ads to get registered, which is why it’s always a good idea to plan ahead.

The new Google Ads interface aims to keep everything that you need to market your product in one place. Navigating through its tabs and finding exactly what you need may be a challenge at first, especially if you’re used to using the separate Keyword and Display Planners. We hope that this guide will help you navigate through Google Ads with more ease. If you still have questions, you should take a look at Google’s self-help page.

If you’re using Google Ads to promote your new online business, you should definitely check out our Entrepreneur guide!

Article first published here: Google Ads 2019 – The Ultimate Guide

New Google Keyword Planner – Beginners Guide

Looking to increase site traffic from Google? To achieve this, you need to know what people are searching for. And this is where keyword research comes into play.

 

Google Keyword planner is a free tool that lets you research to your heart’s content. Previously known as the Google Keyword tool, recent updates have made it slightly less user-friendly. However, newer updates have added more flexibility.

Up until recently, users could see monthly search volume numbers that were exact and precise. And unless you run an AdWords campaign, you will only be shown an average monthly search that is pretty useless. (We show you how to fix this for free!)

With that said, Google Keyword planner is still the best keyword research tool out there. If you want keyword suggestions perfectly optimised for Google, then straight from the horse’s mouth is a surefire way to success.

If you have never used the Google Keyword planner tool before or are new to SEO, you probably don’t quite know where to start. Today, we are going to show you how to make the most out of this tool for maximum SEO benefits.

Sign Up to the Free Google Keyword Planner

Unlike most keyword research tools out there, the Google Keyword Planner tool is completely free to use. All you need to gain access is a Google account.

When you first sign up to Google Keyword Planner, don’t be tricked into thinking that you need to set up an AdWords ad to gain access. On the sign up screen, simply click on the ‘skip the guided setup’ link instead of entering your email address and website.

On the next screen, fill in your email address and country (Use a personal Google email account for this.) The currency and time zone should auto fill. Then click on continue. This will take you to the campaign overview for Google ads/AdWords.

Navigate to the menu bar and then click on tools. From here, select planning and then click on New Keyword Planner. Et voila! Free access is granted.

 

Now that you have successfully signed up for Google Keyword Planner, it’s time to work out the best way to use it. While it may look complicated to begin with. We promise you that it is much easier than it first appears.

Using Google Keyword Planner

When you first use Google Keyword Planner, you will be presented with two options. These are ‘find keywords’ and ‘get search volumes and forecasts.’

 

The Find Keywords option helps you work out the best keywords for reaching those who are interested in your service, product or niche.

This is the option you should select if you are looking for keyword ideas. It’s as easy as entering a URL, phrases or words that relate to your brand or business.

These URLs, phrases and words are not only limited to one per search. In fact, you can use up to 10 seed phrases or words at once. However, this doesn’t mean you will get double or triple the results. Google limits the keyword suggestion results per search.

 

 

While this number may seem small when compared to other Keyword Planners available on the internet. They will be highly relevant and more than enough to kick-start your SEO efforts.

 

 

Once you have entered this information, Google Keyword Planner will present you with some targeted keyword suggestions. These suggestions will provide the following information:

 

• Keyword by relevance
• Average monthly searches
• Keyword competition from high to low
• Top of page bid low and high ranges

Google Keyword Planner Search Vols & Forecasts

The Search Volumes & Forecasts throws up lots of keyword metrics, along with predictions of what their future performance might be. And this is the option to choose if you already have a set of keywords that you want to learn more about.

 

 

Simply paste them into the search bar, click on get started and get ready to see what their forecasted performance is likely to be.

Don’t expect to find further keyword suggestions. This option is all about learning more about your already chosen keywords. It gives you a good idea of how the keywords would perform on Google AdWords over the next month. Some of the information you will discover includes:

 

• Maximum CPC (cost per click)
• Expected number of clicks
• Expected number of impressions
• Approximate cost
• CTR percentages
• Average cost per click (CPC)

 

This data only shows the forecasted keyword metrics for the next 30 days. If you head on over to the historical metrics tab, you can view the average search volumes for your chosen keywords over a 12-month period.

 

But here’s the catch. Those 12-month averages don’t give you the exact keyword volumes. Instead, you are presented with a rough estimate anywhere between 10% to 90% accuracy.

Clearly not ideal for your keyword research purposes!

 

How to See Google Keyword Planner Exact Volumes?

There is nothing more infuriating than trying to find the best keywords only to be cut off at the last minute! This is a hated change implemented by Google. And one that so many SEO specialists refuse to use it anymore.

What use are broad average monthly search volumes? If you want to know how well your keyword performs, seeing an estimation between 20K to 100k is as useless as a waterproof tea bag. You know what it is, but you don’t quite know how to use it!

So. How can you get around this? The quickest and easiest way is to install the Keywords Everywhere Chrome extension.

 

Once installed, every search you perform on Google throws up monthly CPC and search volumes. And you can geo-target these to your preferred country or on a global level.

But how does this help you work out your Google Keyword Planner monthly search volumes? Well, Keywords Everywhere and Google Keyword Planner work hand-in-hand.

 

 

Of course, keyword volumes or never exact. Sometimes they are overestimated, other times, underestimated. Even on Google Keyword Planner! Nonetheless, they are going to give you better foundations to build your keyword planning strategy on then simply plucking random key words out of thin air.

 

Use Your Competitors to Your Advantage

One of the best ways to generate highly relevant and target in keywords is to use your competition. Spend a bit of time looking at the biggest players in your niche. Grab their URL. Enter it into the search bar and then hit ‘entire site’ from the drop down menu.

Of course, by scanning your competitors site you are going to be generating a lot of keyboards that are brand-specific. But not to worry, these can be filtered out in 4 simple steps.

Click on add filter > keyword text > does not contain > brand keywords

 

Hey presto! You now have a huge list of keyword ideas that do not contain your competitors name. And best of all, if you have chosen a competitor who is a giant or a leader in your business market, you can be pretty sure that the keywords will be high-hitters.

Finding the Right Questions to Answer

When you know what types of questions people want answered, you can create content that stops the search. But how do you go about finding these all-important questions?

Again, a few clicks of the mouse and Google Keyword Planner will reveal all. To do this, perform a search of the keywords you are interested in, and then:

Add Filter > contains > (enter question supposition.)

 

 

Start off by checking keyword text that contains who. Then add in how, what, why, when, and where. And before you know it, Google Keyword Planner will be showing you some of the best questions for your content marketing plan.

Another great way to find keyword questions is to use Answer the Public. This hugely popular tool allows you to perform up to five free searches a day. While not a huge amount top searches can be performed, it’s normally more than enough to get yourself on the right track.

These are just a few great tips and tricks for beginners to Google Keyword Planner. We will be following up this post with more advanced strategies over the coming months. If you are an online business, brand or company looking to leverage keywords to your advantage, don’t give up on Google just yet!

Article first published here: New Google Keyword Planner – Beginners Guide

Entrepreneur Guide – How to Start an Online Business

BRAND IDENTITY – HOW TO TELL YOUR STORY

LONGTAIL KEYWORDS – HOW TO USE THEM IN YOUR CONTENT

 

What Are Longtail Keywords?

Head keywords are great to help you rank high and bring more traffic to your website. But longtail keywords are better. Here we explain why we love longtail keywords so much, and why we think you should be loving them too.

Longtail keywords are, well, long. While head keywords average one to two words in length, long-tail keywords can be as long as ten words or more. Knowing how and when to use long tail keywords will give you an edge over your competition.

Because longtail keywords are weirdly specific and occupy a lot of space, knowing how and when to use them can prove quite a challenge. Depending on the topic, specific texts written in different writing styles can seem out of place when stuffed with sentence-long keywords.

 

Longtail Keywords = Less Competition

Weaving in some long-tail keywords in your content means that your website will be visible to those searching for something more specific. Your page might come up in fewer searches overall but might end up receiving more traffic by appearing in those few searches that count.

It’s much harder to rank high with head keywords, exactly because competition for them will be fierce. For example, instead of “Sydney hotels”, you could give “5 star Sydney hotels near airport” a go. The long-tail keyword here is not as competitive as the generic “Sydney hotels”, as it appears in fewer searches, but will probably lead to more organic traffic.

Don’t underestimate the power of long-tail keywords. 57% of Amazon’s sales come from long-tail keywords and by integrating just a few long-tail phrases into your content, you too could improve your website’s organic traffic by up to 80%.

The search demand curve is a visual representation that shows the various keyword areas that are in demand. It comes as no surprise that 70% of all search traffic comes from long-tail searches.

Volume Is Important Too

You want to focus on keywords with low competition, but don’t forget that higher search volumes are also crucial. Aim for long-tail keywords that are niche, but make sure that there is an audience for it.

There is a fine balance between competition and volume levels. If you want to rank high, you’ll have to do some research. Finding a niche in the market is not easy. With time and practice, you’ll be able to nail those nice long-tail keywords that bring traffic and revenue.

Longtail keywords are important but don’t go overboard. When you’re going for those specific longtail keywords, make sure that you’re not getting too specific. There’s no point in coming up with extremely niche long-tail keywords if no one’s going to be searching for them.

The Benefits of Using Longtail keywords

Low competition is important, but there are many more reasons why you should consider adding more long-tail keywords into your content:

 

• Long-tail keywords are used by customers who know what they’re looking for and are ready to buy. By using the correct long-tail keywords, you’ll be able to reach your target audience with more ease.
• You might think it’s hard to come up with good long-tail keywords, but a multitude of keyword tools that can help you on your keyword journey already exist. Some keyword planners (such as Keywords Everywhere) are free, while other more sophisticated keyword research tools (such as Ahrefs Keyword Explorer) offer statistics and tools for project planning, at a price.
• Long-tail keywords can guide your content creation plans. Knowing what keywords are optimal gives you a rough idea of what you should be focusing on. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t write about things that don’t rank high, but if you’re between two topics, it could be a factor to take into consideration.
• Content creation that focuses on keywords (both head and long-tail) automatically optimises your website for search. Chances are that the people who reach your website are already interested in what you’re offering, making it more likely that they will buy your products or services.

 

Things to watch out for

Longtail keywords will help you rank higher, but here are some things to keep in mind:

 

• Longer doesn’t always mean better. If your keyword is too long, people won’t be searching for it. Aim for a minimum length of six and a maximum length of ten words per keyword.
• Don’t forget to use head keywords too. Just because long-tail keywords bring more traffic, doesn’t mean they should replace all other keywords.
• Sometimes, you’ll just have to follow trends. Generic isn’t necessarily bad. By combining shorter and longer keywords, you’ll attract different audiences. You can then check performance and decide what keywords work best for you.
• Give long-tail keywords some time. It usually takes a few months before the beneficial effects of long-tail keywords kick in.

 

It’s Not Just About Size

Long tail keywords are great. Most SEO experts will advise using them as much as possible. When you use long-tail keywords, Google links your website with niche markets, boosting your website’s organic traffic as a result. It’s also true that certain writing styles and content allow for lengthier keywords.

With so much keyword research software available on the Internet, it won’t be hard to find optimal keywords. Keyword research also optimises your website, which means that you’ll be getting more visitors that are ready to buy your products and services.

But be careful when using lengthy keywords. You need to strike a good balance between competition and volume levels. A combination of long-tailed and head keywords might be your best choice, at least until you know what brings more traffic to your website.

If keywords fascinate you and you enjoy a good challenge, make sure to check our article on LSI keywords and how they can help you succeed in SEO.

Article first published here: LONGTAIL KEYWORDS – HOW TO USE THEM IN YOUR CONTENT

INSTAGRAM ADS – THE ULTIMATE BEGINNERS GUIDE

Instagram and Instagram Ads are the perfect platforms for engaging with an audience that is ready to interact with your brand. Every day, there are more than 400 million active users waiting for you to connect with them.

In fact, it is such an effective marketing platform that out of the top 100 global brands, 90% of them are using Instagram. Other promising insights include an engagement level that is 10 times higher than seen with Facebook Ads. And  84 times than that seen on Twitter.

While Instagram has one of the highest audience engagement rates of all the platforms. It is starting to suffer with a tsunami of content, making it harder for your ads to be seen.

In this guide, we are going to run through the best ways to create an Instagram ad. We will also look at how to manage and run ads on Instagram. Once you realise how easy it actually is, you will be well on your way to marketing success.

Creating Your First Instagram Ad

To start creating your first Instagram ad, you will need to head over to Facebook Ads Manager. As Instagram was purchased by Facebook, this is now where the ad creation takes place. Once you start the process, you will be guided through the campaign level, the ad set level, and the ad level.

If you’re not sure what these mean, the following is a quick summary to help you out.

 

• The campaign level is where you choose the objective of your Instagram Ads campaign. 
• The ad set level is where you will select your placements, budget, targeting, schedule and bidding.
• The ad level is where you can get creative. It’s where you get to choose what your ad says and what it looks like.

 

Now you know what to expect during the process of creating your first Instagram ads. Let’s start with a step-by-step guide to help you successfully launch your first Instagram ad campaign.

We are going to try and keep it as simple as possible so that every level of experience is able to follow along.

Choosing Your Objective

When it comes to choosing your objective, Instagram has plenty on offer. These are perfectly optimised for the Instagram news feed and you are able to utilise any of the objectives that appear in the list. These include the following:

 

• App installs – for downloading apps
• Brand Awareness  – targeting users interested in your brand
• Catalogue Sales – shows ads from your Facebook product catalogue
• Conversions – encourages registrations, email sign ups and purchases
• Engagement – encourages likes, shares, comments, offer claims
• Lead Generation – delivers a lead generation form to users
• Messages – encourages users to message you
• Reach – shows your ad to a large audience
• Store Visits – for real world stores in multiple locations
• Traffic – encourages users to visit your website
• Video Views – encourages more views of video content

 

To choose the best objectives for your Instagram Ads, you first need to know what your goals are. As an example, if you are using a video in your Instagram ad but your aim is to generate leads. Then, you should choose the generate leads objective and not the video views one.

Once you have chosen an appropriate objective. Facebook will then use it to work out which audience your ad will be shown to. By doing this, Facebook is then able to ensure that your ad is optimised and targeted toward users who are more likely to follow through with your desired actions.

Instagram Ad Set level

Okay. So we have now got the objective out of the way. The next step in the process is to start making important decisions. If your objective is to send site traffic to another location. You must first select where you are going to send the users to.

You are able to send them to your Instagram app, your website or Facebook messenger, where they can contact you. One of the best features of using Instagram ads is that you have access to all of the targeting options available on Facebook.

This means that you are able to target users based on their demographics or location. These include the following:

 

• Age
• Education
• Gender
• Job title
• Languages spoken
• Parental status
• Relationship status

 

You also have the ability to be able to further fine-tune your targeting based on your audience behaviors and interests, such as:

 

• Bodybuilding and fitness
• Diet, such as veganism or vegetarianism
• Dog or cat owners
• People’s shopping preferences
• Online shoppers

 

The list is almost endless. When using the behaviour and interests for detail targeting, you are able to either narrow your audience or completely exclude people. This lets you target your ad to those most likely to engage with it.

If you decide not to target a custom audience. You can use the connections targeting feature to reach your audience. With connection targeting, you are able to select the option to target users who are exclusively connected to you via your page, events or apps.

You also have the option to exclusively target those who are not connected to you via your page, events or apps.

Using a custom audience allows you to connect with users who have previously visited your website or a set webpage on your website within a set time you can also upload a customer email list or targets users who have interacted with content on your site.

When creating a custom audience, you will be presented with five options. These include the following:

 

• App activity – create a list of users who took specific actions or launched your game or app.
• Customer file – upload a customer file to connect your customers with Facebook users.
• Engagement – create a list of users who have engaged with your content on Instagram or Facebook.
• Offline activity – manually create a list of users who have interacted with your store through offline channels.
• Website traffic – create a list of users who visited your website or performed actions using Facebook pixel.

 

As soon as you have finished creating your custom audience. You are presented with two further options. You can reach users who have had prior interaction with your business using the custom audience setting.

You are also able to choose a lookalike audience. The lookalike audience allows you to reach a new audience on Facebook who are similar to those in your custom audience.

Instagram Ad Placements

Now that we have the bulk of the ad set up out of the way, it is time to decide where your Instagram ad placement will be. As a general rule of thumb, Facebook tends to automatically select placements suited for your ad.

However, if you would like to change the placement, then you need to click on the ‘edit placements’ button.

When you decide to run your Instagram ad as a news feed placement, you can also opt for other placement options alongside it. However, if you decide to run a ‘story ad, ’you are unable to select any other placements for it.

You can opt to run ads for mobile only. But if you do this, you will have to deselect the desktop only ads for them to be displayed.

When it comes to news feed ads, you are able to run them in a variety of other placements too. These placements include side column ads, the Facebook news feed, messenger ads and Audience Network ads.

One of the biggest mistakes that you can make when running an Instagram Ads campaign on Instagram is to only have them display on Instagram. Using a variety of placements can help keep the overall bid costs down.

Consider running your Instagram ads on both Instagram and Facebook for maximum impact.

Ad Budget, Scheduling and Bidding

We are now nearing the end of setting up your first Instagram ad. Before your ad goes live, you need to select your budget. You have two choices available to you when it comes to your budget. These include the lifetime budget or a daily budget.

The lifetime budget is a great way to ensure that you don’t go over your budget limit during the saturation of your ad campaign.

Once you have chosen and set your budget, the next thing to do is decide how long it will run for. You can either schedule a time for your ad to start and end or allow it to run continuously.

It is recommended to give your Instagram Ads campaign a deadline so that you don’t forget about it. If you need to run it for longer, you can extend the end date whenever you want to.

Looking at bidding, Facebook and Instagram ads both work on a bidding system. This means that if you bid more for your ad placement, you are more likely to be shown over your competitors.

You have the option to bid for daily unique reach, landing page views, per 1,000 impressions or clicks. You are also able to place a bidding cap for your ad placement to ensure that you don’t spend more than you need to.

Choosing Your Instagram Ad Format

When it comes to the time to choose your ad format for your Instagram ad campaign. You can choose any one of four options. These are Carousel ads, single image ads, single video ads and slideshow ads.

Once you have chosen the best ad format for your Instagram ad campaign. The final part is where you are required to select your ad copy and the visual components. If you are running your Instagram ads on Facebook too, then you should fill in the headline section.

While this won’t be shown on Instagram, it is a valuable asset when running a campaign on Facebook.

The very last thing to do is to select your CTA button. Choose the CTA that is most appropriate for your objectives. If you want people to contact you, then your CTA button can be for sending a message.

You are now ready for your Instagram ad campaign to go live.

Make sure that you monitor your ads performance through the ads manager dashboard. This will give you insights into how much you are spending and the levels of engagement.

If you have a campaign that is performing below your expectations, you are able to pause it and reallocate funds to use on another Instagram ad.

While we are on the subject of Social Media Marketing, why not check out our recent post about why you should never buy Facebook or Instagram likes. It’s well worth a read and is filled with great tips and tricks for growing your social media accounts organically.

 

Article first published here: INSTAGRAM ADS – THE ULTIMATE BEGINNERS GUIDE

WHY YOU SHOULD NEVER BUY LIKES ON SOCIAL MEDIA

You want to be famous. You want to be rich. You want a hundred thousand followers, countless red hearts on your photos on Instagram and thousands of “love” and “wow” reactions on your Facebook posts. Well then, you could just buy likes on Facebook, right?

Whether you want the likes for yourself or as a means to marketing your brand, there are many “like providers” out there that you can choose from. But that’s not why we’re here.

Before you make a huge mistake, let us explain why we think you should never buy likes or followers for IG or Facebook. When you buy likes on Instagram and Facebook, it’s not just a waste of money. It can also damage your brand, lead to lower sales and ruin your reputation for good.

Keep reading to find out why such an aggressive and deceptive marketing strategy is a terrible, terrible idea. We’ll also provide you with some tips on how to get popular on social media fast, the right way.

It’s Not Actually Allowed

You may not be surprised to find out that such deceptive practices are against the Terms of Service that you agree to when you sign up for a Facebook or Instagram account. The last thing you want is getting banned.

Facebook and Instagram are not fond of fake accounts. The “buy cheap likes” industry is not exactly known for its moral standards. If you do decide to buy likes on social media, know that most of these likes will be coming either from fake (machine-generated) or sold accounts.

This actually makes it easier for Facebook or Instagram to track suspicious activity and connect your account with all kinds of shady business. You wouldn’t want your account hacked and used to fund scamming and deception campaigns, which is why you should avoid engaging with companies that offer “cheap like” services.

It may take some time for Facebook and Instagram to figure out what’s going on,  but once they do, there’s no turning back. Once you’ve been exposed, it will only get worse. The likes will most likely be removed and you won’t be compensated. A ban or suspension from the platform is guaranteed.

It Ruins Your Engagement Rate

The point of getting likes is building a reputation and engaging with fans and communities in ways that will be to the future benefit of your brand or business. You want to seem credible and honest.

Between January and September of last year, Facebook and Instagram disabled more than 2.1 billion fake accounts. Yep, that’s a lot of fake accounts. The problem with bots and fake accounts is that they don’t care about content. They get your money, leave their like and are never to be seen again.

When you buy likes on Facebook or Instagram, you’re exposing yourself to a number of dangers. Most people will be able to tell whether the likes you receive are genuine or not, especially when it comes to Instagram likes.

For example, if you only buy likes on Instagram, people will know something’s off by comparing the number of followers you have to the number of likes you receive on an average post. If the two numbers vary greatly, well, you have your answer.

This, of course, works both ways. Buying fake followers on top of fake likes might work for a while but doesn’t mean you’re off the hook. Same goes for Facebook likes. Websites like Socialblade can analyse an account’s activity and tell with just a click whether a profile has fake hearts, likes or followers.

Fake Likes Are a Waste of Money

This is an immediate result of low engagement rates. Fake followers will not be buying any of your products, sharing your posts or promoting your brand in any meaningful way. Your brand may seem larger, but it won’t be. This effectively means that despite your newfound popularity:

 

• Other brands and companies will see right through your ploy, meaning you won’t be able to take full advantage of Facebook’s current $483 billion (in US Dollars) market cap.
• Chances are you won’t be able to strike many deals. More and more brands are now using a multitude of tools to pick out the real accounts from the fake ones. Without real followers and high engagement rates, you’re just another profile with tons of worthless likes.
• Maintaining a large number of fake likes and followers is not a viable long-term solution. It might not cost much to buy a few likes and followers the first time around, but if you’re planning on maintaining such a facade, be prepared to incur huge financial losses.

Be Real – Don’t Buy Likes 

Now that we’ve established that to buy likes and followers is a bad idea, let us give you a few tips on how to acquire a regular following that actively engages with your content:

 

• Remain active on social media. Produce content in multiple forms and make sure you engage with your audience on a daily basis. Replying to messages, for example, can be a great way to boost your brand’s image.
• Know your audience and don’t be afraid to try out new things. If you know who your audience is and what they want to see from you, focus on that.
• However, remember that trying new and original ways to promote your brand and products can be a great way to keep your audience interested and engaged.
• Build partnerships that last. Focus on those that work best. Keep an open mind to new deals and opportunities that may come your way.

Quality Over Quantity

When businesses buy likes on Facebook , they do it because they think it will promote their brand and increase revenue, but this is far from true. What it really does is give Facebook a good reason to ban you from their platforms.

Financially, it’s a disaster, especially if done for a longer period of time. Fake likes and followers lower your engagement rates, making it less likely that companies will want to collaborate with your brand in the future.

This is why it pays to invest your time, money, and energy into coming up with marketing strategies that will bring real likes and real followers instead. Buying likes and followers just doesn’t really come with any benefits.

At Talk, we value quality over quantity. We don’t offer fake likes or followers, but we offer services that help businesses grow and strive on their own. If you’re willing to invest in digital marketing that works, then you’ve come to the right place!

If you’re after constant growth and development, then make sure you know why digital marketing strategies that utilise White Hat SEO bring the best results.

Article first published here: WHY YOU SHOULD NEVER BUY LIKES ON SOCIAL MEDIA