How Google Grants Can Boost Your Online Presence By $10,000/Month
Google Grants for Nonprofits is an amazing program for any 501(c)3 nonprofit to take advantage of. In fact, Google will give a qualifying nonprofit $10,000/month to be used in AdWords advertising! At Cohlab, we can help you access and manage this windfall for your organization.
$10,000/month!! How?
There is a series of steps you’ll need to go through. You can sign up through the Google Grants page, but we’d be happy to help you navigate the entire process; just send us an email.
What Google Grants Does
Google Grants allows nonprofits to access a $10,000/month ad spend on Google AdWords, empowering organizations to reach out to potential volunteers, donors and employees as well as spread brand awareness to those who may need your services.
This cash can really turn the tide for nonprofit organizations, and we’ve worked with a number of nonprofits who have benefitted from this program.
What Cohlab Does
On our end, we help guide you through the signup process. We take care of as much as we physically can on our end so your staff isn’t tied up in the administrative or operations tasks of this program. We even use an on staff writer to craft your application letter to Google to better your chances of acceptance!
Once you’ve been accepted to the program, we also take care of the day-to-day management of your ad campaigns, meaning you don’t need to have someone on staff trained in AdWords, and you don’t need to waste time trying to manage $10,000 worth of ads; we take care of all of it for you.
How You Benefit
Your organization, with our assistance and Google’s generosity, will likely benefit from an uptick in visitors to your website, increased response to ads for volunteers or employees as well as donations, and all without spending a dime on the ads themselves!
If you have any questions about how to get started on this process, let us know and we’ll be happy to walk you through it.
How Search Engine Marketing Has Brought Billboards To Their Knees
These days, search engine marketing is king. Television, radio, newspaper and even roadside billboards have begun to fall by the wayside as Google and other advertising providers have brought the ability to target advertisements down to the individual, to the masses. In fact, the goliath of advertising spending – TV – is set to be overtaken by search engine marketing and online advertising in 2017. Meanwhile, billboards continue to be a miniscule portion of advertising spending in the U.S., with $9.2 billion spent in 2015, while online advertising had about $67 billion spent by advertisers with a much higher growth rate.
We’re always available to talk, anytime you want to take a look at how search engine marketing can help your business thrive.
For this post, a study by MarketingCharts supplied the statistics.
Statistics
The biggest reason billboards are not growing as fast as search engine marketing and other channels is they can’t be tracked. When a person drives past a billboard, you as the advertiser won’t be able to track whether they saw the advertisement, whether they later go to your website or call you, whether they see your ad again later or who they were (demographically speaking)!
With online advertising and search engine marketing, you can track all of those things and more, making sure that your ad is as effective as possible!
Location
With billboards, you can only place your advertisements in certain locations: alongside roadways, in city centers, etc. And you’ll need to rotate the billboards in order to be able to reach new audiences, with no guarantee that people are actually looking at your billboard.
With online advertising and search engine marketing, you can target ads directly at certain demographics, and with Google you can even target ads at people who live on a certain block in a city! This means they will be served the ads in many places across the internet, without having to waste money showing the ad to people who aren’t your target customer!
Contact us anytime to chat about how we can help boost your ROI with search engine marketing!
4 Reasons Online Advertising Will Make Or Break Local Businesses
Online advertising is growing and growing, and will only continue to grow as more people get online and businesses can’t reach consumers through traditional means.
At Cohlab, we work hard to help small, local businesses succeed in their online advertising strategies because we know this is make or break for many local businesses, and will only increase in importance. Contact us anytime to chat about how we can help boost your business!
1. More People Are Online Than Ever
In 2016, the number of Americans online increased to 87%. That’s up from only 52% in 2000, an increase of 35%!
The number of people online, and searching and shopping online will only continue to increase, especially as younger generations continue to mature. The target market for your business will be online from here on out, and while the methods of reaching them may change, the channel will remain online.
2. Ads Are More Effective
New techniques, like retargeting (targeting online consumers based on past online actions i.e. visiting your website or searching for a keyword) allow you to get way better ROI than in the past. In fact, users who are retargeted are 70% more likely to convert into customers than those who are advertised to randomly. As well, the average click-through rate for display ads is .07%, but with retargeting it’s 10x higher at .7%!
3. Searches Are Becoming More Local
Google continuously works to help local businesses more prominent in search results, as they can typically fill searchers needs better. In light of this, when searchers are looking for something local i.e. “car repair near me”, the 3-pack of map results shows up in the top spot 93% of the time! So it’s very important to target those local searches with your ads, especially if you’re not naturally showing up in those local searches.
As well, getting your name in front of a searcher is important because 50% of searchers who conduct a local search on their smart phone visit a store within a day.
4. Searches Are Becoming More Effective
With recent updates like Penguin and Possum, searches are only becoming more and more effective at displaying the most relevant results to searchers. This means you either need to have the best and most pertinent content, or you need the best online advertising campaigns possible in order to keep your business running. If you don’t have the manpower or time to keep your website fresh and top notch, online advertising is going to help keep those online dollars rolling in.
Let us know when you’re ready to chat about online advertising, and how it can work for your business!
4 Simple Search Engine Marketing Pitfalls To Sidestep
Search engine marketing is an ever-changing subject with lots of techniques and subjects to learn about. It truly is a full-time job to use it effectively for your business.
If you’re tackling SEM on your own, we hope these tips help you succeed. If you’re looking for some extra, help, let us know. We have multiple Google AdWords, Google Display Network and Analytics experts on staff.
1. Spreading Your Ads Thin
You may believe that by not targeting your ads, you’ll be able to hit everyone and have a better chance of getting more sales. In reality, it’s like hoping a rainstorm will put out your house fire; no, you need a lot of concentrated water in one spot, not a ton of water spread out over miles.
Target your ads at the people who will be most likely to react to them: target by age, gender, income, language, device they are using, along with targeting people who have visited your website in the past 30, 60 or 90 days.
2. Unfocused Ad Groups
Each ad group you create should have a single focus. Don’t make the ad group do too much, because if it’s not focused people will be less likely to click on it because it doesn’t pertain to the problem they’re searching to solve for.
3. Directing Ads To Poor Pages
Okay, so you’ve targeted your ad, and you’re pretty sure people are going to click on it. But where is it taking them?
Make sure the page you’re sending them to is worth their time. If they’re clicking on the ad expecting information about your lawn mowing services, make sure the page describes what they’ll get, pricing, and how to get in touch with you (fill out a form, call, email, location, etc.) If your landing page is vague, not helpful or doesn’t have prominent contact information, it’s not going to perform well with your SEM ads.
4. Resting On Your Laurels
Finally, remember to keep studying! One of the hardest parts of managing a search engine marketing strategy is keeping on top of the latest strategies, technology and information.
Google is constantly putting out new features for clients to try, and sometimes those features are rolled out early only to digital marketing agencies who are Google Partners, like us. That means we get to play with and test features, learning how best to use them before the general public does, giving us an advantage.
If you’d like some expert help with your SEM strategy, give us a call or send us an email. We hope these tips have helped start you on the right path!
How Online Advertising Can Boost Your Offline Sales
As many as 88% of consumers, and probably more now, are researching items online and then buying them in a physical store. This is according to a 2013 study by Accenture, and from it and other data we can see that the world between online and offline is blurring in regards to the purchasing process.
Whether the customer is searching for your product or brand, or is doing a related search you have an ad running for, your online ads can and do boost your offline sales. Here are some strategies to get you started, but if you are looking for more detailed advice, contact us for help.
Direct Searchers To Your Store
No matter what page your ad takes the consumer to, you should have some sort of contact information nearby. People need to be able to see your phone number, address or even a map so they can contact you and find you easily.
While this information might not always fit neatly into your ad, it should be on your landing page.
Target Searchers Who Fit Your Demographics
Woody Allen famously said, “80% of success is showing up.” This couldn’t be more true as it applies to online advertising and store sales.
If you’re not doing online advertising, you’re missing out on sales, period. By doing any form of online advertising, you’re already halfway there.
One great way to refine your online advertising is by targeting your key demographics. Through Google AdWords and the Display Network, you can target people by location, gender, income and many other guidelines to increase the impact of your ads by getting in front of the right people.
Target Mobile Searchers Nearby
Like we just mentioned, you can target people by location. But even better than that, with AdWords and the Google Display Network you can target ONLY mobile phones and ONLY within a certain area, like your local downtown district. This ensures your ad is hitting nearby mobile users who are very likely to drop in.
According to Google, 32% of consumers say that location-based search ads have led them to visit a store or make a purchase, so it’s important to take advantage of these ads to drive visits to your offline location.
Include Location, Directions, Call Options
More than 70% of consumers who have used ad features such as directions or the call button say it’s important to have location information in ads, according to Google.
Sometimes it is beneficial to have your phone number, address, or even general location directions (i.e. Inside the Crossroads Mall) on your online advertisements.
Create Direct Call Ads
Google allows businesses to create Direct Call ads. These ads show up on search results only through AdWords, and only appear on mobile phones, not on desktops. Once clicked, the ads place a call to the number you choose rather than displaying a website, leading the consumer directly into a conversation with you.
This is a tactic which could be very beneficial for certain businesses, and if used right could lead to additional sales.
If you’d like some expert help with online advertising, give us a call or send us an email. We hope these tips have helped!
