Connect with us

PPC

Ultimate Guide to Dominating Black Friday PPC in 2023

Published

on

Ultimate Guide to Dominating Black Friday PPC in 2023

Black Friday is a special day for PPC. Normally, we’re able to launch new campaigns and carefully mold them into perfection so we can reap the rewards for months, if not years to come.

Black Friday in Google Ads is different. You have a very short time to make the absolute most out of what you do. The wrong ad, bid, or settings can ruin your results.

No matter your strategy, the tips below will help you maximize your potential. We’ll be covering exactly what you need to do to adjust your bids and budgets, ad text and extensions, display and remarketing ads, keyword strategy, Shopping campaigns, and more.

Quick note: Whenever I refer to Black Friday, I’m actually talking about the entire Black Friday weekend. Some advertisers treat Black Friday differently from the rest of the weekend, while others see it as a five-day sale, starting on Thanksgiving and ending with Cyber Monday.

Table of contents

How to prepare your Google Ads campaigns for Black Friday

In order to prepare for Black Friday, it’s essential to understand what promotions you’ll be running. It’s taking it back to ecommerce 101, but defining what promotions you’ll run will make a lot of sense as I go through the rest of the tips.

Advertisement

So first of all, find out:

  • What will your offers be?
  • Will you have enough stock?

If you don’t have a large stock, consider being less aggressive in your bidding or just pushing the product via Shopping or Search – whatever works best for you.

If you’re not sure you’ll have enough stock for a specific promotion, make sure you have a backup offer ready for your more generic keywords.

🎁 Get more holiday marketing tips here!

Review last year’s performance

I’ve written extensively about getting more success with PPC during seasonal swings, so I won’t dig too much into looking at historic performance.

The gist is that it’s crucial not to pretend this year is a single event. Despite the changing landscape in PPC, there are several areas that you can learn from based on historic performance. Some of these are:

  • What did you learn from the ads you ran? Did any generic messaging perform better than others?
  • Did ads that described the product benefits/features do better than the ads with price, shipping, and other specific info?
  • What bid did it take you to get into the first position?
  • Did any keywords or product categories turn out to be hard to advertise in?
  • How did the sections of your account that didn’t have a promotion do?
  • How big of an increase in spend did you experience? (Note, if you were capped out by your budget, then this is an important step for you to review)
  • Was your Display Remarketing a bust or did it succeed on the day itself?
  • What happened in the days after Black Friday and Cyber Monday? How much do you need to lower your bids in the immediate days after the promotion to avoid losing money?

And so on. Learn from what happened last year and you’ll be able to get more out of this year.

Define your rules of engagement

Before we get into the nitty-gritty I want to touch on one more non-PPC matter.

Advertisement

Chances are you’re not the boss. And even if you’re the boss, then this section will be healthy for you to prepare in advance.

Consider the following scenario: You’re expecting to spend $5,000 on Black Friday and aiming for an 800% ROAS.

However, Black Friday comes along and by 1 p.m. you’ve spent the entire $5,000 and have a ROAS of 1,100%. What do you do?

All the PPC managers yell: INCREASE THE BUDGET. But how much? What can the business afford? How much stock is left? And what if the ROAS was 700%? Should you still increase the budget? If you don’t have any stock left, do you have a backup promotion ready?

Having your rules of engagement set for the day can be incredibly powerful. You might think you’ll deal with that dream scenario if it happens, but what if on that same day your site starts loading slowly because of the high traffic AND your boss needs to pick up his sick daughter from school?

All of a sudden, you can’t get an answer until it’s too late.

Advertisement

Rules of engagement have the potential to save you a huge headache and give you a better opportunity to get the most out of the sale weekend.

Budget and bidding tips for Black Friday PPC

Bidding is one of the trickiest areas to work with. Not necessarily on Black Friday itself, but afterward. If you run any type of automated bidding, you’ll have to run bids manually for at least 1-2 weeks after Black Friday due to the influx of data.

I haven’t personally found a bidding system where I can tell the system to ignore data generated in a specific time frame when it runs its algorithms. This poses an issue, as you’ll convert much better on Black Friday than in the weeks after. Depending on your industry, this might be a big issue.

To solve this, I typically do the following:

Download your bids the week before Black Friday

If you’re running automated bidding in Google, then remove the bids and look in Google Ads interface to see what the bids are. There are a few issues you should watch for, though.

Depending on the day and time you download your bids, you might get a different bid than the one that’s running the rest of the time. Especially with Google’s own ROAS and CPA bidding, automation changes dynamically based on day of the week and time of day (amongst other factors).

Advertisement

Therefore, there is a chance you might not get the actual bid you should reinstate after Black Friday, but it’s the best chance you have. It’s much better to reinstate a previous bid that might be 20-30% off than continue running the bids you had for the Black Friday weekend.

Increase your budget, significantly

It goes without saying that you have to increase your budget quite a bit on Black Friday.

For example, searches for smartphone deals go up 10X.

black friday ppc - google trends smartphone search volume example

While searches for toys increased by 50%:

black friday ppc - google ads trends results for toys

Ad writing tips for Black Friday

Writing ads for Black Friday is similar to writing ads for promotions throughout the year. Make sure they are relevant to the sale and use an adequate amount of ad space so users are aware of the promotion you’re running.

There are some specific factors you need to take into account for Black Friday, though.

Advertisement

I’ve split up the tactics in Mandatory and Recommended. If you’re new or this is your first Black Friday you can choose to just follow the mandatory tactics. But if you’ve been around the block, make sure you invest the extra time to do the additional Recommended tactics.

Mandatory for all:

  • Set up a Promotion asset
  • Add Black Friday references in your ads

Recommended for intermediates:

  • Consider changing your sitelinks to specific products that will be in high demand.
  • Consider adding Inventory References

How to set up Google Ads promotion assets

The promotion asset should be an essential part of your ad writing strategy moving forward. Your ads for Black Friday are no exception.

Promotion assets look like this:

black friday ppc - google ads black friday promotion assets 1697840763 370 Ultimate Guide to Dominating Black Friday PPC in 2023

The extra line of ad text can really help set your ads apart from your competitors. The fact that it highlights a Black Friday sale is just the icing on the cake.

On top of this, you should also set your promotion to only run in a specific time frame. For Black Friday, this might be from Friday to Sunday.

This will give your ad additional space and add a sense of urgency to your offer.

Just remember, all ad assets aren’t necessarily guaranteed to show. It’s not enough to solely rely on the promotion asset to highlight your promotions.

Advertisement

Add Black Friday references in your ads

One of the oldest best practices is to make sure your ads are relevant, and one of the best ways to do that is to reference current events like Black Friday.

You can keep it simple, for example:

black friday google ads - search ad with black friday copy

If you want the biggest impact for the least amount of effort, you can just change the second headline in all your ads to text referencing your Black Friday offer. This can be done super quick in the Google Ads interface.

For a higher CTR, better conversion rate, and ROI, I do recommend spending the time to write more specific ad copy for your most important products and categories.

Remember, Black Friday is a high-volume day. Any time you invest in writing better ads will pay off more than any other time of the year (with the exception of the Christmas season) – even if the ads only run for that day.

Change your sitelinks to specific, high-demand products [recommended]

Sitelinks are usually not the biggest focus area when writing ads. Most advertisers just take a minute or so to put in a couple of random sitelinks.

Advertisement

On Black Friday, it might be worthwhile to add a bit of extra finesse to your sitelinks. One idea is to include the specific products you run promotions for in your sitelinks.

So, let’s say you are running a campaign for Bluetooth speakers. Normally, you might have sitelinks like these:

  • Most popular BT speakers
  • Newest BT speakers
  • BT speakers on sale
  • All BT speakers

On Black Friday, consider adding sitelinks that are more specific to the offers you’re running:

  • Soundlink: 33% Off Now
  • 20% Off All Bose
  • 25% Off Bose Headphones
  • All Black Friday Sales

The reason why I advise going a bit broader than normal is because during Black Friday you are more likely to convince consumers to buy something they weren’t really out to get.

Many of us will just start searching for various products to see what deals are out there. Just because someone specifically searches for Bluetooth speakers it doesn’t mean they can’t be interested in headphones or other types of speakers if there is a good deal to be had.

Add inventory references [recommended]

Let’s say you create a killer promotion for Bose speakers. It’s right in the middle of being a sought-after product, at the right price with an exceptional promotion.

You start selling it and you can see that it’ll sell out by noon. Boom!

But you could have taken advantage of this in your ads. By indicating how many products are left, you can create even more scarcity.

Advertisement

Just make sure you have backup promotions for when you run out of a specific product.

Tag your current ads with the label “evergreen”

Running PPC for clients always makes you think of ways to do things more efficiently. Especially in eCommerce, as there are times of the year when the workload increases significantly.

Black Friday is that day.

Before you start your Black Friday ads, you should take all the ads in the ad groups where you will be adding the Black Friday promotion and add the label Evergreen.

That way you can easily pause the ads and reactivate them again when the sale is over.

The same way, you should label all your Black Friday ads with BF. You should probably add the year to your label as well. So for 2023, you’d add the tag BF-2023. That way you don’t accidentally activate last year’s ads next year.

Advertisement

black friday ppc - google ads label feature

Write your ads at least a week in advance

You know those annoying emails you get from Google Ads about your paused ads being disapproved?

There’s a reason behind the madness, and it’s for days like Black Friday.

When you prepare your ads in advance (and upload to your Google Ads account) you’ll make sure that they get approved, or disapproved, well in advance of you actually needing them to run.

It’s a common mistake to write, or upload, your ads the same day that you need them. You’ll lose valuable time.

Use an automatic rule to pause and activate ads

The exact way you should build the rule is like this:

automated rules for black friday

Just in case, I recommend checking the ads in your account and live in the search results. Even though I’m a big fan of automation, I’ve seen these things go wrong for the stupidest reasons.

While it’s not fun, you can normally live with ads not being live for half a day or even a couple of days, but on Black Friday you can’t afford to lose out on one hour of downtime.

Advertisement

How to maximize your Black Friday Google Shopping returns

Shopping campaigns are tricky when it comes to Black Friday. You have a lot less control than your regular Search campaigns, but Shopping campaigns still account for more than 50% of the revenue in most e-commerce Google Ads accounts, so you need to get this part right.

Create a new Shopping campaign

There are a couple of angles you can take with Google Shopping campaigns on Black Friday, but my go-to approach is the following:

  • Create a new Shopping campaign for your most important products
  • Use a “SPAG” structure (single product ad groups)
  • Start it at least one week in advance, preferably two weeks

Depending on how many products you have, it can be super easy for individual products to slip through the cracks in your Shopping campaign.

By creating a new campaign, you’ll be able to keep an eye on the specific products you’re expecting will perform very well on Black Friday.

Just remember that if you’re using a tactic like segmenting your Shopping campaigns based on search query, then you should continue this with this campaign. You can quickly get in trouble with your ROI if you change that strategy for your key products all of a sudden.

Add storewide promotions to your new Shopping campaign

Okay. So you have a promotion that runs storewide with 20%. I get it.

It still doesn’t mean that all your products are equally important. If you look at your orders from the last 60 days, you must have a list of 10, 20, 50 products that vastly outsell the rest of your products.

Advertisement

Add these to the new Shopping campaign.

How to prepare your Shopping feed for Black Friday

This is where you need to make a decision. Do you run with a promotion that requires a coupon code (as listed above), or do you lower pricing in your feed and see it reflected in the ads?

Often, this decision will be made for you either by the strategy you take as a business (coupon or no coupon) or by the restraints of your platform.

If you run with the coupon code, then it’s crucial that you set up Promotions in the Merchant Center. Otherwise, your price in your Google Shopping ads will not reflect the actual lower price and it will undoubtedly decrease your CTR.

Lowered prices need to be reflected in your feed

It’s crucial that your feed contains the same price as on your website for each individual product. For two reasons:

  1. If your price isn’t lower in your feed, then your ads will show your original price, which will severely cripple your success on a day like Black Friday.
  2. There is a strong likelihood that Google will catch the price discrepancy and disapprove your product.

Again, from the time you catch this to the time the product gets approved by Google might take 4-6 hours. This is time that you can’t afford to lose. And that’s if you catch it at all!

I recommend regenerating/updating your feed and sending it to the Merchant Center right after you update the prices on your website. This might be midnight or it might be the day before. The second the prices on your website are updated, you should update your feed.

Advertisement

This is especially important as products go out of stock throughout the day.

Update your feed more frequently on Black Friday

Usually, you set your shopping feed to update every 24 hours. Typically at night.

On Black Friday I highly recommend you update it more frequently. Especially as products go out of stock or as you change your promotions.

Black Friday tips for remarketing

Most ecommerce stores run Dynamic Remarketing, but on Black Friday sending generic messages will not break through the digital noise.

I advise creating a new audience list solely for Black Friday. This means you’ll create a brand new audience the day before Black Friday that doesn’t include previous visitors:

remarketing on black friday

This way you can set a more aggressive bid for the people who’ve visited your site on Black Friday and another bid for the people who visited your site before Black Friday.

Bonus tip: decrease remarketing bids after Black Friday

Lower your remarketing efforts in the days after Black Friday. Most users will have bought what they needed, or they simply weren’t interested in the first place.

Advertisement

Consider static image ads for your remarketing

I would highly recommend some sort of static images in your remarketing mix on Black Friday. Your regular dynamic display remarketing ads most likely look something like this:

black friday display ads

Again, usually, this works great. But on Black Friday you’ll want something that pushes through the noise and delivers a message that adequately reflects the scarcity of the day.

Having some banners designed in the most popular sizes can be an easy win, and it shouldn’t cost you much if you use a site like Upwork to find a designer. If your store has an in-house designer, then spending some time on the designs in exchange for a pizza is well-worth the results you’ll most likely get.

The only thing I will add, which will complicate things, is to try to segment your retargeting when you do this. Meaning if a user visits the speaker section, then you’ll show a Black Friday display ad that contains your speaker promotion, etc.

You can try a general, generic banner, but it’ll be more effective if you put in the extra effort and create better-targeted ads.

Again, if your store is beyond a certain size this might prove impossible to do in practice. When you work at scale, you have to somehow limit your efficiency with hands-on tactics for the sake of getting out to as many people as possible.

Black Friday PPC keyword strategy tips

Your keywords should more or less stay the same for Black Friday.

Advertisement

I would highly recommend adding or reactivating keywords that have previously been paused for products you’re running promotions for. On Black Friday, most of your keyword portfolio will convert better than it will the rest of the year, which means you can afford to re-enable those keywords you paused due to low performance.

The exact opposite is also true. With keywords increasing three to four times in search volume, you want to consider pausing parts of your Google Ads account that you are not running promotions for.

Here’s an example of a search term that increased significantly when comparing to the same day a week before Black Friday:

black friday ppc - google trends in november screenshot

With the added volume and the fact that your competitors will run promotions, which consumers are likely chasing, then your standard pricing will most likely not do anything to incite them to buy from you instead.

Advertise for “black friday + my keyword

Yes, definitely.

You’ll already show up when someone searches for your keyword, so you might as well control the search by adding black friday to some of your keywords.

Advertisement

However, it will not make or break your success. In big markets, though, you want to be able to control it better. Let’s say that you’re selling Bose speakers, and you show up fine for searches on the keyword bose speakers, but you’re in position six for bose speakers black friday deal.

This search term might convert much higher than your regular keywords, so if your market is big enough it’s an excellent tactic to add black friday to your keywords.

Don’t advertise for the keyword “black friday

It’s too broad for you to target effectively.

The exception is to create a campaign only targeting your remarketing lists that target the word Black Friday. Find your largest list. Say, anyone who’s visited your site in the last 6 months. Anyone who’s bought from you, well, ever. Add all of them to a remarketing list for search ads campaign with the Targeting targeting setting:

using rlsa on black friday

By doing this, you’ll show an ad to anyone who has ever visited your site and searches for Black Friday deals.

Since they’ve already visited your site once before, or possibly even bought from you, we can assume that they have some interest in the products you’re offering, despite them not showing any intent outright. (Remember–brand affinity dramatically increases CTR and conversion rates.)

Black Friday scenarios to be prepared for

Here are some considerations you’ll want to be ready for on Black Friday in Google Ads:

Advertisement

Scenario #1: Low average position on key products

Make sure you review the early stats when it comes to your average position on Black Friday. If you’re coming in low for some of your key products, consider increasing your bids.

Throughout the day you can decrease or increase as you normally would based on ROAS, but you need to make sure your keywords have a fighting chance in a proper position.

Your position should preferably be in the 2-3 average position range. This will depend a lot on your ROAS, but the higher position your get, the more ad extensions and CTR you’ll get–which all results in more sales.

Scenario #2: No sales of key products

You need to be ruthless about admitting to yourself if you’ve been beat. It might not even be related to your Google Ads efforts.

Does your competitor run a better offer than you?

If so, then you might want to mimic their promotion or cut your losses. It’s incredibly difficult to beat a competitor that’s severely beating you on price under normal conditions.

Advertisement

On Black Friday with zombie-like consumers chasing deals like that kid on the Walking Dead, it’s almost impossible.

If you’re not getting anything out of your Black Friday efforts in some of your campaigns, consider solely focusing on remarketing. That way you’ll only show your ads to people who’ve visited your site before. With this strategy, you’ll bank on the fact that these consumers know who you are, which has been proven to impact your conversions significantly.

Scenario #3: Budget maxed out

You should routinely check in on your budget. Make sure that you’re not maxed out, or about to max out. If you are maxed out, consider adding more budget based on your rules of engagement that you’ve established.

What to do after Black Friday?

Make sure you do the following in your PPC account once the Black Friday madness is over:

  • Reinstate your old bids
  • Pause Black Friday ads
  • Re-enable your evergreen ads
  • Do an after-action report
  • Have a beer and enjoy sending out all those orders!

When you review your performance in the days after Black Friday, make sure you don’t take these days into account. For many advertisers, the days after Black Friday can be a time to lose a lot of money.

Wow, Black Friday PPC is… a lot…

If this was more than you could handle, I don’t blame you. It was a bit of a brain dump.

I created a checklist version of this article that you can print out or save for later. Get your simplified Black Friday checklist here.

Advertisement

I’ve also summarized the most actionable Black Friday PPC tips below:

For Bids

  • Download your bids a week in advance, so you can reinstate them after Black Friday
  • Increase your budget, significantly

For Ads:

  • Set up the promotion extension
  • Add Black Friday references to your ads
  • Consider changing sitelinks
  • Consider adding inventory references

For Shopping

  • Add a new campaign with your most important products (or the products you run promotions for)
  • Use Merchant Center promotions, OR include sale_price in your feed
  • Upload your updated prices in your feed around midnight

Remarketing

  • Focus your bids around your most recent visitors
  • Decrease your bids significantly in the days after Black Friday, or exclude Black Friday

Keywords

  • Add previously paused keywords that cover products that are on sale
  • Increase bids for low-position keywords that cover products that are on sale

Whatever you do, it’s crucial that you set yourself up for success on Black Friday. Take the time and acknowledge that you can’t just be in maintenance mode.

Get out of your comfort zone and start making some changes in your account.

Want more Black Friday tips? Find out how to drive results from your Black Friday Facebook ads!

Source link

Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address

PPC

PPC Advertisers Guide To Google Consent Mode V2

Published

on

By

PPC Advertisers Guide To Google Consent Mode V2

This update is not merely a technical enhancement but a robust response to the stringent privacy regulations and changing user preferences. With a compliance deadline set for March 2024, it’s crucial for websites utilizing Google services to understand and implement Google Consent Mode V2, ensuring alignment with global data privacy standards.

PPC Advertisers Guide To Google Consent Mode V2

Understanding Google Consent Mode V2

Google Consent Mode V2 enhances the initial version by introducing refined mechanisms for managing user consents related to cookies and data tracking. Key to this version are the new parameters: ad_user_data and ad_personalization, which join the pre-existing analytics_storage and ad_storage, providing users with greater control over their data. This tool communicates user cookie consent preferences to Google’s suite of services, ensuring data is handled in compliance with privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA.

The integration of these parameters signifies Google’s commitment to bolstering user privacy, offering a consent-based approach to data insights. For businesses, this means navigating a landscape where user consent directly influences data collection strategies.

The Significance of Compliance

The mandatory implementation of Google Consent Mode V2 underscores the importance of adhering to digital advertising and data privacy regulations. Its significance is twofold: it aligns website operations with legal requirements, particularly in the European Economic Area (EEA), and preserves the integrity of user privacy. For website operators, the practical aspect of compliance involves the strategic implementation of consent mechanisms that do not undermine the data’s value for insights and analytics.

Implementation Strategies

To leverage Google Consent Mode V2 effectively, website owners can opt for Basic or Advanced implementation options. The Basic approach ensures full data collection upon user consent and halts it otherwise. Advanced implementation, however, allows for the transmission of anonymous, cookieless data for modeling purposes even without consent. This method hinges on employing a Consent Management Platform (CMP), adjusting website configurations to respect consent choices, and enabling cookieless data collection for analytics and advertising purposes.

The Impact on Data Tracking and Privacy

Implementing Google Consent Mode V2 has profound implications for data tracking and user privacy. It allows websites to maintain a balance between collecting valuable user insights and respecting privacy preferences. The mode’s design ensures that user consent directly influences how data is collected and used, facilitating a privacy-compliant approach to digital marketing and analytics.

Advertisement

The Role of AI in Consent Mode V2

AI and machine learning play a critical role in bridging the data gap when users opt-out of cookie tracking. By analyzing patterns from consenting users, Google can model the behavior of those who decline, enabling advertisers to gain insights while adhering to privacy standards. This AI-driven approach underscores the potential of Consent Mode V2 to revolutionize data analysis in an increasingly privacy-focused world.

Beyond the Cookie Banner

A key aspect of utilizing Google Consent Mode V2 is the requirement for a compliant cookie banner. This necessitates the implementation of a CMP that aligns with both Google’s standards and privacy regulations. The consent banner acts as the intermediary, signaling user preferences to Google services and adjusting data collection accordingly.

Preparing for the Future

As the deadline for Google Consent Mode V2 implementation approaches, website owners and advertisers must take proactive steps to ensure compliance. This involves understanding the intricacies of Consent Mode V2, integrating a compliant CMP, and reevaluating data collection strategies in light of user consent.

In essence, Google Consent Mode V2 represents a pivotal development in the realm of digital privacy and data management. By embracing this new standard, businesses can not only ensure compliance with global privacy laws but also foster trust with their audience, building a foundation for sustainable digital practices in the years to come.



Source link

Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address
Continue Reading

PPC

11 Actionable Ways to Build Client Relationships That Last

Published

on

By

11 Actionable Ways to Build Client Relationships That Last

Some agencies manage to build a steady client base that strengthens over the years, while others ride roller coasters and eventually close up shop. What’s the difference? Client relationships. Strong client relations make for greater success with projects and campaigns, loyal clients who stay with you longer and refer new clients, and a better reputation for your brand. Even better, they make everyday work more enjoyable for all.

So what makes for a strong client relationship? The same traits that define any good relationship: awareness, communication, empathy, dependability, accountability, honesty, and the list goes on.

In this post, I’ve compiled 11 ways your agency can demonstrate the above and more to achieve the best possible outcomes for you and your clients. I’d say happy endings, but good relationships don’t really end.

Table of contents

Why are client relationships important?

It’s easy to skim over the importance of creating a strong relationship with your clients—you know you have to do it. But when you dig into how it helps your agency grow, you can be more strategic about it.

Reduces churn

It can be 25 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one. You also have a much higher probability of selling a new agreement to a current client than closing a deal with a new one.

Advertisement

A strong client relationship helps you weather rough patches and identify clients who are at risk of leaving. Both will help you reduce customer churn.

Increases referrals

Customer referrals are an extremely important source of new clients for your agency. That’s because referred customers are more likely to buy, are more loyal, and spend more on average than non-referred customers.

When you have a strong relationship with your clients, you can ask them to give reviews and refer other businesses. That’s especially helpful if your agency serves a niche industry where everyone knows everyone else.

Provides opportunities to learn

Have you ever wanted to know how a new regulation would affect your clients? Or how to best sell a service like PPC? When you have a rock-solid relationship with your clients, you can ask them.

It takes time to build that sort of comfort, but when you do, your best clients become your agency’s de facto advisers.

📣 Learn how 300 marketing agencies manage services, pricing, and challenges in our State of the Digital Marketing Agency report.

Advertisement

How do you build client relationships that last?

In the following list, you’ll find actionable ways to improve client satisfaction and build mutually beneficial partnerships, with input from PPC agency experts like Mark Irvine, Francine Rodriguez, Akvile DeFazio, and Susie Marino.

1. Gather “hard” and “soft” information

A strong agency-client relationship starts before the client even becomes one. You know that you need as much information as possible about your client to come up with a winning proposal. But the solution you come up with isn’t going to establish a meaningful connection between you and your potential client. It’s how you present that solution with respect to both the business’s goals and the personalities and values of the team you’ll be working with.

This means collecting “hard” information like:

  • Products and services they offer
  • Target audience and the end-users of their product or service
  • Top three competitors
  • Prioritized list of goals and challenges
  • Strategies that have worked and not worked in the past
  • Software are they currently using
  • Budget

But also “soft” information like:

  • What they define as success
  • Their future hopes or anticipations, like scaling, adding on new offerings, etc.
  • The company’s mission, beliefs, and values, and unique selling proposition
  • What makes them different from their competitors
  • Hobbies, interests, and preferences of the individuals you’ll be working with

strengthen client relationships emotional vs logical intelligence

Think with both sides of your brain when gathering information about your client.

Building emotional intelligence about the team you’ll be working with will help you to make communication more personalized as you move through these initial phases of your journey together.

Side note: Be prepared to answer their questions too! Even their non-PPC questions.

Advertisement

2. Internalize that information

This is the information you’ll be not only including in your proposal, but applying throughout your actual execution and ongoing communication with your client. Take the time to really internalize it so that it shines through organically in everything you do.

  • Gather the information in person (or video): Body language and facial expressions tell a lot. Take note of what gets them excited (and not so excited). Also, be sure to send out a list of the questions you’ll be asking far in advance so the client can have time to think about answers and produce follow-up questions.
  • Iterate back: As you listen, iterate back to your client what you have interpreted so you can make sure you’re crystal clear on the information you’re receiving. Remember, incorporating the tiniest details into your proposal and execution is what will give your clients confidence that you truly understand their needs.
  • Templatize: Have an internal templated document where you can collect all of the information you’ve gathered in one place. This gives every team member something to continually refer back to, and the uniformity makes it easier to internalize.

3. Go above and beyond with your proposal

    From a project standpoint, your proposal shows what you’re going to do to achieve your client’s goals. From a relationship standpoint, it’s your opportunity to reinforce, once again, that you have a deep understanding of your client—both the business and its team members. Speak to both the client’s business goals as well as the more personal pain points and desires of its employees.

    To do this, think in terms of “what,” “why,” and “so that.”

    • The what refers to what you’ll be doing from a process standpoint.
    • The why ties the process to one of the business’s specific goals.
    • The “so that” speaks to the pain point it will address for the business’s team members.

    For example, we’d like to ramp up ad spending in the latter half of the month to drive more signups so that your sales team isn’t scrounging for leads. Just be sure to use the language that your clients used in the initial information-gathering process.

    This strengthens that partnership feel. You’re not just looking to achieve goals, you care about the individuals impacted by them.

    how to strengthen marketing agency client relationship with a winning proposalhow to strengthen marketing agency client relationship with a winning proposal

    Source

    4. Have an onboarding process

    This is one of our customer retention strategies as well. Once you get started, there will be more points of contact added to the roster for both sides. A streamlined onboarding process will set the stage for the clear communication and seamless execution needed for a strong and long-lasting client relationship to form. During this process, you may want to:

    • Mail them a welcome kit: Send along some giveaways like branded swag, a greeting card, and additional goodies based on the more personal information you’ve collected.
    • Take care of housekeeping: Make sure each of you has the access needed for tools, accounts, and dashboards.
    • Have a kickoff meeting: This is to ensure everything is lined up for perfect execution. You’ve also become pretty familiar with one another at this point. This is a good time to have a more informal atmosphere.

    🛑 Free guide >>> The 6 Absolute Best Strategies to Grow Your Digital Marketing Agency

    5. Treat clients like partners

    Treating your client like a business will make your relationship purely transactional (i.e., no relationship at all). Treating them like family leaves too much room for miscommunications and unmet expectations.

    Treating your clients like partners, on the other hand, sets the stage for a healthy mix of personal, purposeful, and transactional encounters where both your and your client’s identities are preserved, and each of you supplies the essential ingredients for success.

    Advertisement
    • Embrace the truth: Remember that at the end of the day, both of you are businesses that want to make money. There’s no need to skirt around that. They need your service to generate revenue, and you need their continued business to generate yours.
    • Maintain structure with some fluidity: Keep deliverables clear and stick to the intended plan as much as possible, but always leave the door open for input and feedback.
    • Let them in: While some of your tools and processes may be proprietary, give them access to dashboards and data when possible. Let them in on (non-confidential) tidbits about your agency that “outsiders” wouldn’t know. Their earning your trust is just as important as you earning theirs.
    • Stay honest: This means giving pushback on your client’s desires or requests that may not be best for long-term success (wants vs needs). A good partnership is not one where both parties constantly agree; it’s one where the two parties come together with different perspectives to bring to the table, resulting in better output than either one could have achieved on their own.

    6. Be proactive rather than reactive

      Akvile DeFazio, President of AKvertise, makes this a priority with clients.

      Her team makes sure to proactively:

      • Share ideas and propose new campaign strategies.
      • Forewarn about upcoming platform changes and any action required.
      • Educate the client to empower them further.

      “This shows care and builds trust, and our clients share that they appreciate our diligent proactivity,” she says. “When we work with clients, we aim to be a seamless extension of their team and genuinely embed ourselves as so. When they win, we win, and proactive communication is the key to success for all.”

      7. Be empathetic rather than defensive

      This recommendation from Mark Irvine, Director of PPC at Search Labs Digital, ties back to the partnership mentality in tip #5. The scenario here is that your agency is doing great work. Performance metrics continue to climb. But the client is upset. They aren’t seeing new business come in.

      “A wrong response here is to dig your heels in,” Mark says. “Telling them that their business is doing fine is at best tone-deaf. Instead, let them talk it out and listen to them. This may even lead them to discover the problem is in their other marketing or sales teams.”

      If this ends up being the case, Irvine recommends that you take yourself out of the problem to prevent it from becoming an “us versus them” situation. Take the approach of teaming up together to come up with a solution. Use language like:

      • “I see what you’re talking about.”
      • “This is a valid concern.”
      • “That really is frustrating, we’re glad you brought this up with us.”
      • “Let’s make a plan to review this and report back with some solutions to remedy this.”

      Position yourself as a partner in their campaigns. Value their feedback. Even if you’re an expert, allowing them to work with you will help build a long, trusting relationship.

      “And remember,” Mark adds, “if you dismiss or fight their concerns, there’s an agency sales rep somewhere else who will be happy to listen to them vent about you all day.”

      8. Establish structure around communication

      Brett McHale, founder of Empiric Marketing, LLC, provides some great tips around communication and setting boundaries:

      Advertisement

      Stay away from being “always available

      Being always available, whether through Slack or other forms of direct communication, blurs the ever-important work-life balance. It can also distract you away from other clients.

      Hold regular meetings with actionable takeaways

      Instead, establish weekly or bi-weekly meetings to check in, review performance, and answer questions. “I always have some takeaway or action item from those meetings,” Brett says. “This keeps me accountable, and when I deliver on things that I say I’m going to do, it helps build trust with the client.”

      Use email and instant messaging

      Brett says, “Email can be very robotic, and I try not to be too professional or polished all the time. Communicating with clients directly via a messenger helps to build rapport and have a more laid back ‘human-to-human’ relationship.”

      He suggests designating instant messaging for urgent matters and email otherwise. This cuts out the back-and-forth emailing and also reassures your clients that while you may not always be available, you will never leave them hanging.

      how to strengthen relationships with clients the seven c's of effective communicationhow to strengthen relationships with clients the seven c's of effective communication

      Source

      9. Share your concerns early

      This suggestion from Mark Irvine is particularly relevant to the many changes happening in the advertising realm lately. The scenario here is that your client has big plans and aspirations, and you want to say yes to everything they want. But in the back of your mind, you’re not sure if they can create that audience in Google or build that campaign on Bing. You’re unsure of how the new iOS updates will impact their Facebook targeting.

      “Don’t nod, say yes, and then stress,” Mark says. “You lose trust with your client if you say you can do something and then can’t, even if that’s not your fault.”

      Advertisement

      Instead, show your expertise by sharing your concerns. Practice saying:

      • “That’s a really good idea. I know that some ad policies might come into play as we explore it, so let me double-check those first.”
      • “This new change could pose some challenges to us. I’ll keep an eye on it as it changes over the coming days.”
      • “It’s tough to say what this means for us yet, but I wanted to make sure we all knew about it in advance.”

      If you really have to put your foot down, try something like:

      “We agree that this is a great idea, but we can’t in good conscience proceed with it until we know that it won’t cost you in the long run.”

      Be transparent and ask them for their trust. Most of the time, you’ll come out as the person who helped them navigate through uncertainty, and they won’t forget that.

      10. Embrace small talk

      Small talk often gets a bad rap, but Susie Marino, WordStream’s Senior Content Marketing Specialist and former Customer Success Specialist, has found that it actually helps with building strong client relationships.

      “I know it can feel cringey or uncomfortable at first, but just go for it,” she says. “You’d be surprised at how receptive clients are. Next thing you know, you’ve got a great rapport going, and the banter at the beginning of meetings becomes more meaningful.”

      “People love to talk about themselves, and clients are no different,” Susie adds. “When you ask them about how that home garden is coming along, they’ll be pleasantly surprised. These conversations reveal how much you truly care.“

      Advertisement

      Clients are people who like to work with real people who also have personalities and personal lives. If you don’t show a touch of personality with small talk, it will be harder to stay connected and to demonstrate your genuine care, outside of campaigns and metrics.

      11. Establish quarterly business reviews

      Francine Rodriguez, former Senior Manager of Customer Success at WordStream, believes that quarterly business reviews are essential for client retention.

      “I think all agencies get into a cycle of monthly reporting and proving that deliverables were completed,” she says. “It is important to take that step back once a quarter and have a focused conversation on high-level strategy.”

      The QBR allows the agency and the customer to reflect on new goals, the efficiency of strategies taken in the past, and what needs to pivot for the future.

      It is also a time to allow your customer to provide insight into how their business goals are changing and perhaps what strategies outside of the agency’s scope they are also planning in the near future. Having that dedicated time to talk without existing action items on the table is a great way to strengthen the relationship, create trust, and become better partners.

      It may also lead to surprising discoveries, where an agency could find opportunities to upsell its customers into new services. If your agency is doing QBRs now and your conversations don’t look any different from your regular monthly check-ins, it is time to change the format!”

      Advertisement

      Start cultivating strong relationships with your clients today

      Strong agency-client relationships are built on virtues like trust, reliability, transparency, and personability, and they result in greater outcomes for everyone involved. If you find that you’re lacking in productivity, loyalty, or the overall feel of harmony with your clients, see if you can adopt or improve any of these strategies for your agency:

      1. Gather “hard” and “soft” information about your client
      2. Internalize that information
      3. Go above and beyond with your proposal
      4. Have an onboarding process
      5. Treat clients like partners
      6. Be proactive rather than reactive
      7. Be empathetic rather than defensive
      8. Establish structure around communication
      9. Share your concerns early
      10. Embrace the small talk
      11. Have quarterly business reviews

Source link

Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address
Continue Reading

PPC

Google change the meaning of “Top Ads”

Published

on

By

Google change the meaning of “Top Ads”

What is Top Ads in world of Google? well it’s changed. Today Ginny Martin, Ads Product Liaison at Google shared a subtle but potential significant change of definition of Top Ads. If your deep in the detail of paid search campaigns on Google this is the kind of tweak that’s easy to miss.

Now Google’s documentation reads;

Google change the meaning of Top Ads

Top ads are adjacent to the top organic search results. Top ads are generally above the top organic results, although top ads may show below the top organic results on certain queries. Placement of top ads is dynamic and may change based on the user’s search.

Google’s official documentation

Ginny clarified on LinkedIn that this is a definitional change (as ads can appear above the organic result or below for certain queries) and doesn’t affect how performance metrics are calculated. And that the definition update clarifies that top ads may show below the organic results for certain queries. Although, for most queries, ads will continue to appear at the top of search results.

Why make the change? Anthony Higman suggested it might be due to the change in how some ads are being presented like in the screenshot below and the general shift towards more SGE on the SERPs and the consequences that change in user experience might have on ad placement. And does seem part of increased amount of experimentation on where ads appear on search engine results pages.

Advertisement
1711605382 993 Google change the meaning of Top Ads1711605382 993 Google change the meaning of Top Ads



Source link

Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address
Continue Reading

Trending

Follow by Email
RSS