1. Get your target audience right
List the groups you want to target or make sure you ask your client. If your client hasn’t profiled their customer base just ask them to describe their typical client.

2. Build your first ad
If you are planning to test multiple versions (which we recommend), just submit one version for each campaign, wiat for it to get approved, then create variations.

3. Ensure you have a great landing page
Whether you are sending traffic to your website or a Facebook app, ensure it relates to the ad and has a clear call to action.

4. Spend time on creative
The image is the most compelling part of a Facebook ad, so spend time finding (www.shutterstock.com) or developing the right images.

5. Build multiple ads
We find ads become stale after seven days. This, along with the fact that you should be testing ads against each other means you should have two new ads to run per week, per campaign.
By creating the ads upfront so can simply login weekly, and pause existing and enable new ads.
The ad title, image, and body need to be reasonably related to pass editorial review. Again, choosing relevant images and writing compelling ad copy are critical to receiving higher click through rates.

6. Measure response by demographics and geography
You campaign might be targeting all Kiwi women 25+ but you might find women based in Auckland aged 35-45 respond best.  You can then allocate more budget to the best performing groups.

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Hot on the heels of introducing Timeline for Business Facebook are planning on new ad formats.  Here’s a quick summary:

Offers

For businesses with physical locations you can create a coupon which your fans can print and redeem in-store.

Learn more >

Reach Generator

With posts only reaching around 16% of your fans Reach Generator guarantees a 75% reach by creating a permanent sponsored story for your fans.

Learn more >

Premium Ads

With this option your ad can feature:

• As a page post
• On mobile devices
• As a sponsored story for your fans

Learn more >

Need help with Facebook Advertising?  Call Steer 09 579 4269 or results@steer.co.nz

Learn about Timeline Changes for Business Pages

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We’re sure many have experienced the frustration at the inability to change your company name, particularly when it headlines your Facebook advertisements.  The great news is that now you can make a request for a name change.   This could be an opportunity to add a geographic qualifier e.g. NZ or a key message.

Link to request a name change

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• 40% of customers will abandon any site that takes longer than 3 seconds to load. (source akamai.com)
• There are 2.1 billion internet users in the world. 44% of them are in Asia. (source mediabistro.com)
• The average Facebook user has 130 friends and like 80 pages. (source digitalbuzzblog.com)

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Facebook has released timelines for business pages.  All pages will be changed to the new format on 30 March, however you can convert early.

In our view, overall the changes are positive, with one exception: You can no longer have a default custom Welcome (Landing) page.   All users will be automatically directed to the Timeline wall. This signals the end of ‘Like us for an exclusive discount’.  You can still direct traffic directly to a custom landing page using Facebook ads.

Here’s a summary of the key changes.

Cover banners

Just like personal profile pages you can now headline your page with a giant banner that conveys what your brand’s all about.  While your banner can’t contain explicit calls to action, it can be an opportunity to be creative and drive your visitors to interact with your brand.  Most marketers will immediately think of changing it for specific promotions but you need to be careful; as always there are strict rules.  Facebook states that cover banners  must not contain:

• Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website”
• Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your Page’s About section
• References to user interface elements, such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features.
• Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”

Banners can be changed or updated as often as you would like.

Specs: 850 px wide by 315 px tall

Profile picture

The profile picture overlays the cover picture, helping it to stand-out.

It’s generally recommended to use your logo.  However, you may be able to come up with a creative incorporation to the cover image.  If you want inspiration check out these Examples of new personal pages >

Specs: 180 px wide by 180 px tall (will be reduced to 32 x 32px for Facebook search results so ensure it will work at this dimension)

Examples of new business pages >

Apps/Tabs

You applications/tabs/other pages are now accessed at the top of your page.

There are four tabs displayed with additional tabs accessible via a drop down.  The photo tab is fixed, leaving you three spots to highlight your most important pages.  You can easily promote and demote apps from these three spots.

If you are running Facebook ads you can still send traffic directly to a specific tab.

You can upload your own image for each tab.

Tab tips:

• Choose tab images that are descriptive.  Include icons.
• Assign names to your tabs that clearly indicate to users the content the tabs are driving  them to and consider including a call to action in the tab name e.g., “Get started” or “Be in to Win!”)
• Spend time building your Photos tab since it’s ever-present
• Swap your three customisable tabs periodically, according to current brand objectives,  product releases, or product popularity
• Measure tab activity with Google Analytics to determine which tabs to promote more

Specs: 111 px wide by 74 px tall

Posting

You can better promote your posts by:

• Creating milestones
• Starring posts
• Pinning posts

Creating milestones

There’s a new milestone option when you create a post.  Milestones are permanent and take up the full width of the page.

Milestone tips:

• Use photos & videos to tell your story
• Include questions to prompt conversation with your fans

Starring posts
By starring a post it will take up the full width of the page. Starred posts remain full width for 7 days, unless you ‘unstar’ them.

Pinning posts
You can pin a post to the top of your wall. Pinned posts remain for 7 days, unless you unpin them.

Welcome Pages

The Fan-gate (hiding content from non-fans) option is not currently working.  It’s rumoured that they will do away with Welcome Tabs that solicit users to like their page, meaning visitors to a page will always see the timeline view by default.

You can still set a tab to show different content to people who have and have not liked a page.  However, if they click the like button, the page does not automatically refresh to show the fan content.

Specs: 810 px wide  - no height restrictions

Like Button

The like button has moved to the right.  If you have Welcome pages with arrows pointing towards the like button you should amend these.

iFrames

iFrames can have been extended from 520px wide to 810px.

Currently you can toggle between 520 and 810px widths.  Existing iframes will still be displayed at the 520-pixel width, with that frame centered on the page.

Admin panel

This new management tool appears at the top of your page and gives you access to Facebook’s Insights reporting dashboards, recent “Likes,” fan activities, and messages.

Direct messages

Fans can now send you messages (you cannot send messages to fans though..) This should help to keep your wall free from ‘customer service posts’ and enable you to better connect with your fans.

Checklist

• Create a cover image (850 px wide by 315 px tall)
• Update your profile picture (180 px wide by 180 px tall)
• Create images for your apps/tabs (111 px wide by 74 px tall)
• Update your Welcome page image (810 px wide  - no height restrictions)
• Pin your best post to the top of the wall
• Star important posts
• Create milestones

The official video

http://www.learnfacebookpages.com/ui.html

More information

http://www.facebook.com/about/pages

http://www.facebook.com/help/pages/new-design

http://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php

What’s next?

Page post ads – read all about it!

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The experts predict that Google will give priority to these pages, possibly over business Facebook and Twitter pages.  So, despite the hassle of having another site to maintain, we recommend you at least test the waters.

Here are some tips we picked up to help promote your Google+ page:

• Include images, photos & video in your posts
• Add a personal signature to your posts (people want to know its a person, not a company that’s posting)
• Ask your community what circle they want to be in
• Link with your AdWords account
• Add the Google+ and +1 Badges to your website
• Notify your Facebook fans – Here’s how >
• Find people to follow using http://findpeopleonplus.com/

Need help with Google+?  Call Steer Digital Marketing 09 579 4269

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Keywords in your domain name used to be a relatively important factor:  we rated it a 3/10 when we launched with our domain: www.online-marketing-agency.co.nz

However, with the rise of other ranking signals like click through rates and social signals they now have little impact.

People are looking for recognised brands in the search results.  If you search for “office stationery” and the top three results are:

1. www.office-stationery-deals.co.nz
2. www.warehousestationery.co.nz
3. www.officemax.co.nz

Odds are you are likely to be a bit skeptical with the first result and click on No.2 or No.3.  This sends a signal to the search engines that the sites ranking No.2 & No.3 are more popular which in time will likely cause the search engine to demote the No.1 listing.  So, although you may get a short-term gain it probably won’t last long.

Our advice is to use a brand name and include your brand in all communication.

Do we regret our generic domain?  A little, but then we did benefit from great rankings for a while!

Need help with SEO?  Call Steer Digital 09 579 4269

p.s. www.office-stationery-deals.co.nz is available if you want to test for yourself!

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Most of us have heard of Google’s Algorithm updates with their memorable names like Vince, Caffeine and Panda but few understand how they have changed SEO as most of us know it.

A brief history of Google SEO

Back in the day you could rule Google by optimising your meta data and stuffing your page with keywords.  To overcome this SEO Spam Google placed more emphasis on external links.  This gave rise to a the ‘paid for link industry’. Directory sites & link-farms quickly sprouted, and India became the outsourcing capital for link-building!

Google soon realised that it couldn’t place too much emphasis in external links to a site.  Their response was to place more emphasis on searcher habits by evaluating usage data.  They developed the Chrome browser so they had first hand data on key metrics like click through and bounce rates.

Not long after social media started to take off with the launch of Facebook and then Twitter.  Google saw the potential for social media as a ranking signal so they tried to join the party with Google Buzz in 2010.  Buzz failed. Google went back to the drawing board launching Google+ in 2011.

So, here’s our take on where you should be focusing your SEO efforts:

1. Social signals

SEO used to be a separate and distinct discipline now social media is now a key component.

Social signals are hard to influence, therefore they are an important factor.  Google looks at social signals at a individual page level as well as at a website level.  Suppose you had a website dedicated to recipes. You might not feature on Google’s first page for generic searches like ‘recipes’ but you might have an excellent recipe for chocolate brownies that people can’t help but share with their friends.  As a result, you might find yourself ranking #1 for ‘chocolate brownie’ searches.

Size doesn’t matter!
Engagement is the key.  People posting on your wall, sharing your content and talking about your brand on social media is far more important than the size of your fan base.

2. Analytics

Through its Chrome browser  Google captures key metrics like click through and bounce rates. If a site ranking position #2 receives twice the clicks as the site above then there is every chance it will move to the top position.

3. Great looking website

Remember when you used to click on the first result to see the ugliest website imaginable?  Well these websites still exist; they have just been demoted.

Google has actually figured out a way to tell if your site is pretty.  That is, has a good layout and is easy to navigate.  So, don’t keep putting of that redesign!

4. Great content

Google has always loved fresh content. Regularly content generation has traditionally been a great way to improve your rankings.  That changed in 2011 when Google literally killed content hubs overnight with a major algorithm change.  Google was not saying they didn’t want fresh content, they were saying they wanted fresh content that was great!
With the rapid rise in social bookmarking and sharing they can now identify great content.

Tip: get your customers and fans to generate content for you. e.g. run a competition seeking the best chocolate brownie recipe.

5. External links

External links are still important. It’s still important to seek sites which you would benefit from a link, but you need to be more strategic in how you obtain links; in general you have to avoid paying for links.
For example, suppose you were a mobile application developer and wanted a link from the NZ Herald. You could create an infographic (contaning a link back to your site) showing the adoption of smartphones and operating systems in NZ and let them publish it first.

6. Branded searches

When comparing competitive sites, Google looks at the volume of branded searches.  If competitor A receives 3,000 branded searches
per month and competitor B receives 30,000 per month it will be very hard for Competitor A to outrank competitor B, even if they
surpass them on other ranking signals.

Tip: offer something for free e.g. whitepaper or eBook to drive branded searches.

7. Google+ business pages

Every business should create a Google+ page (we’re assuming you already have other social media profiles Facebook, Twitter etc).  The experts are convinced that Google is giving Google+ pages in their search results in an effort to encourage companies put off by “having to maintain another bloody site!”.
If you need to get something indexed in a hurry then posting on Google+ is certain to be quicker than using your own site or other social media.

Tip: if possible try to post unique content; don’t repost from Facebook etc.

So, in summary if you have a great website with great fresh content and an engaged social community you should be ok.  If you have operate a link-building factory in India you should start worrying!

Need an SEO Strategy?  Call Steer 09 579 4269

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While there are numerous somewhat complex tools available to help you manage your AdWords it’s often the simple things that can make a real difference.  Here’s a few tips:

Pricing

If you are the cheapest then try adding the price in your ad copy, if you are not then don’t.

Test discounts too; sometimes 50% off works better than advertising the discounted price.

Try Long Headlines

Google will often combine the headline and description line 1 into one long headline. You can’t control when this happens but be sure to include a full stop at the end of the description line 1 otherwise they won’t merge the two.
In Apple’s ad below Google has combined the headline and Description line one but it hasn’t for the Vodafone ad because there is no full stop between the first and second description lines.

Can you give something for Free?

Free can work extremely well!  Perhaps a free consultation, white paper or sample.  The uplift might outweight and additional costs!

Ad Extensions

Ad extensions are additional information that can sometimes appear.  Common extensions include address and phone number.  When your extensions are displayed your ads take up more real estate so they stand out more.

Sitelinks

Sitelinks as the name suggests are additional links to pages within your site.  Google has been adding them to organic results for some time and you can now add them to your AdWords ads.  As with Ad extensions, there’s no guarantee they will appear.  They typically appear for searches where there is little competition e.g. brand searches.

The flight centre ad below is displaying an address extension and the Virgin Ad includes three sitelinks:

Make use of the Display URL field

As long as your root domain in the ad and site are the same your display URL does not have to be an actual URL i.e [your_root_domain]/marketing message

Use Trademarks

If you have rights to a trademark then include it in your ad.  It makes it easier for brand searchers to differentiate between you and any potential imitators.

Need help with AdWords?  Call Steer Digital Marketing – Auckland on 09 579 4269

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If you are new to Facebook Advertising here are some things to consider:

Image is everything!

The key difference between Facebook Ads and Google AdWords is that Facebook ads have an image. The image is the most important component followed by the headline. Start with at least three ads each containing different images to determine the best performer.

Capturing leads?

If your objective is to capture leads then we recommend directing traffic to a lead capture form on your Facebook page. There a several free Facebook applications for lead capture e.g. http://www.facebook.com/contact.form

Building fans?

If you want to build fans we recommend using an incentive and communicating this in the ad. If your incentive is ‘like us for special offers’ then clicking on the Ad should take them to a page (Welcome Page) which re-enforces this.

Include a Call to action

People need to be told what to do, despite how obvious this might be.  The simple addition of ‘Click here’ can have a significant impact on click throughs.

Need a help with Social Media?  Call Steer Marketing on 09 579 4269 or search@steer.co.nz

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Increasing brand searches and discussions about your brand in social media is a great way to help SEO/improve your rankings.

Suppose you have just launched a new organic cider brand.  Here’s how you might generate some PR online:

1. Run a campaign/competition to encourage discussion around your brand e.g. complete the sentence: ”My favourite time for an XYZ Cider is…….”
2. Monitor social media for timely opportunities to reach out to prospects e.g. someone posts ‘Need something to help me relax & unwind after a tough day in the office!’
3. Create innovative content. e.g. create an infographic comparing the ingredients of two bottles of cider: yours and that of your non-organic competitor.  Here a great infographic >

Need a help with Social Media?  Call Steer Marketing on 09 579 4269 or search@steer.co.nz

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1. Create (& maintain) a Google+ page
2. Build relationships by spending 30 minutes a week commenting on relevant blogs and news articles
3. Set-up social media monitoring for mentions of your brands and competitors’ brands
4. Write a GREAT blog post at least monthly, ideally weekly
5. Create videos on your products & services (try www.screenr.com)
6. Speak at your local Chamber of Commerce. Post the presentation on your website
7. Create a Communications Plan, or at least a Marketing Calendar
8. Develop a Social Media Strategy
9. Read more books!   Here’s a few starters
10. Stayed focused on two or three core promotional messages e.g. Briscoes “You’ll Never Buy Better.”  People can’t absorb a long list of messages from any one company.
11. Use QR codes: also known as “quick response codes,” these little barcodes allow people to scan the code on your ad using a smartphone.  The code then takes them right to a website of your choosing.
12. Use infographics – Plain text is getting old; people will want to see information depicted visually to help explain boring or complicated topics.
13. Embrace mobile marketing.  In the US 20% of all searches are being performed on a mobile phone.  Ensure you have a mobile version of your website.  Consider creating an app for iphones, ipads and android devices and investigate mobile advertising options.
14. Partner-up. Find appropriate partners you can launch joint campaign with e.g. cars + finance + insurance + servicing
15. Run advice sessions via Facebook.
16. Become an expert speaker & record & post all presentations
17. Add your social media links to online and printed collateral
18. Do a monthly plan with clear goals
19. Test location marketing – services like ShopKick and Foursquare let people opt in to receive promotions on their mobile phones from nearby retailers.
20. Outsource – you can’t do it all on your own!

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With the arrival of Google+ many digital marketers reaction was “I can’t even manage my current social networks let alone another one,” and as a result have parked the task of creating a page.

Google realises this so what they are doing (starting in the USA) is giving bias to Google + pages in the search results.  SEO experts have noted that their Google+ pages are appearing above their other social media profiles (Facebook, LinkedIn etc) and Google has introduced a Google+ pages recommendation box to the right of the search results.  Google is giving you the best incentive to create and update a Google + page.

We have no doubt that Google+ pages will have a positive impact on your overall SEO score too.

Here are some good resources to help get you started:

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/6-steps-to-getting-started-with-google/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlLhtprZ04Q&feature=youtu.be

Let us know if you notice and increase in traffic and/or ranking improvements.

Need help with SEO?  Call Steer – SEO Agency Auckland

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While there are lots of sophisticated targeting options available it amazes us how many companies don’t get the fundamentals right.  By fundamentals we mean the Ad matches the searched term and links to the most relevant page.

We did a search for ”iphone 4 cases” and were amazed to see the number of ads promoting the phone itself – screenshot below.  Even big players like Telecom and Vodafone aren’t getting it right. If someone is looking for a case it’s safe to assume they have bought a phone.

Once you get the ad content right it’s crucial it links to the right page. Too many companies link all ads to their homepage. We were impressed by Chillicase who link directly to a page with a number of options for iphone cases.

So, it’s possible for David to take on Goliath, especially when Golaith can’t get it right!

Need help with AdWords?  Call Steer – AdWords Agency Auckland

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Social media is influencing search results both visiby (e.g. seeing which results your friends favour) and invisibly through their impact on Google’s Ranking algorithm.
Here are some tips to improve your social influence:

• Social results will be accompanied by a heading that says “Results from your social circle”.  If you can get into these results you can expect amazing click-thru!
• Get the right keywords are in the title will increase the likelihood of tweets etc. featuring them
• The more followers, the more people sharing your content, the more impressions of your content will entering search results
• Elicit Conversation: make a controversial comment or start a debate, just beware of your reputation!
• Make it easy for people to share your content; add social bookmarking buttons, perhaps state that the article can be copied provide there is a link back to the source
• Include social network details on business cards, signage and advertising (online and offline)
• Incentivise customers to follow you via social networks

Need help with Social Media?  Call Steer 09 579 4269

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There are two factors which determine your ranking: how much you bid and your quality score.  Improving your quality score can result in increased traffic and reduced click costs.

To see your quality score log in to your AdWords account and click the small speech bubble icon next to the keyword:

Here’s what Google scroes you on:

• The quality of your landing page: Google crawls your landing pages to see if it relates to the corresponding ad and keywords bid?  Ensure your landing page is well-written (consider engaging a copywriter) and has a clear call-to-action.
• Page load time: ensure your landing pages load in under two seconds to avoid a penalty
• Click-through rate (Keyword relevance): if your ads closely relate to the search query then they should receive a reasonable click-through. You should constantly test ad variations to improve your click-through rate.

Need help with AdWords?  Call Steer 09 579 4269 – AdWords Agency NZ

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Journeys leading to sales/conversions are never straight forward process i.e. many people will have multiple exposures to your brand before they convert. For example, they might receive a flyer in the post, search for your brand, click on an AdWords to visit your site and bookmark your website.  Suppose this person does not purchase in the first visit but returns directly to your site one week later and purchases. Depending on your web analytics you might attribute this sale to a direct visit.  However, the flyer and AdWords contributed to this sale.

You can draw a similar analogy from a game of rugby. Suppose following a scrum the ball is passed from the halfback to the first five to the second five then out wide to the wing who scores a try.  Although the wing scored they wouldn’t have done so if it weren’t for the other players.  In the online world we’d typically attribute the try to the winger, simply because we don’t have visibility of the other players/channels.

We now have visibility!  Google’s new version of Analytics shows the paths leading to a conversion. If you haven’t upgraded to the new version do it now – it’s free!  Here’s where you find conversion paths:
Conversions > Multi-channel funnels > Top Conversion Paths

If you notice a channel e.g. AdWords is contributing to sales occuring on another channel then you might be able to justify increasing your budget.

Let us know your thoughts!

Need Help with AdWords?  Call Steer – AdWords Company Auckland

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Images can help your SEO.  Because Google can’t interpret images it relies on other indicators.

Here are tips for optimising images and driving traffic to the images themselves.

Include alt text/tags on all images

Alt text is the text that displays in place of an image.  Often email programs prevent images from showing so you will just see Alt tags. Alt tags should be about 140 characters. They should be be descriptive of the image they represent.

Optimise image file names

Less important than Alt tags are file names. Often images will be accessed via a URL like: www.steer.co.nz/images/image1. We recommend renaming the file name to include a keyword e.g.www.steer.co.nz/images/online-marketing-experts.

Surrounding text

Text surrounding an image tells a lot about the image itself.  Where possible, include a descriptive caption and ensure the surrounding paragraphs relate to the image.

Standalone images

You may wish to drive traffic to the image (image URL) itself.  An example might be an infographic.  In this case we recommend building external links and adding social bookmarks to help spread the word.

Need help with SEO?  Call Steer – SEO Agency Auckland

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Keyword optimised copy might draw traffic but customer optimised copy will convert.  You need to strike a balance between the two.  Here are some tips:

Use synonyms to improve readability without significantly impacting SEO

Try to include keywords in the following:

• Navigation links
• Headlines (H1, H2, H3)
• Images
• Body copy
• Link text
• Calls to action (including text over images for buttons)

Remember search engines ignore basic punctuation and line breaks.   For example, if you are optimising your copy for the key phrase ‘organic wine’ you can achieve the same impact from separating these terms using punctuation.

e.g. ‘……we should all buy organic. Wine is well known for….’

In the above example the search engines will read the keywords ‘organic wine, despite them appearing in separate sentences.

Need help with SEO?  Call Steer – SEO Agency Auckland

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It’s no secret that ”social signals” are part of Google’s ranking algorithm.  Here’s some tips to optimise your Twitter activity.

Quality over quantity

Google determines authority by the number of followers and their “reputation”.  If you get followed only by a few people but they include reputable people (e.g. Journalists) you’ll get lots of Google Juice for your tweets.  1,000 poor quality followers is probably equivalent to one really reputable follower.

Unique content

Content originators will achieve higher real time rankings than re tweeters.

Quantity does matter

The quantity of re tweets plays is a factor in getting on the ‘real time radar’, particularly if they are generated in a short time frame.

Auto-following

If Google applies a similar algorithm to ranking websites then you should try to keep your followers relative to those you follow.  Ideally with more followers.  Consider stopping ‘auto-follow’.

Twitter Lists

If they have been created by reputable Twitter users they may help improve to your reputation

Twitter accounts

• Including keywords may help
• More established Twitter users may outrank new accounts
• Keeping to a theme should help Google categorise your site.  For example, if all of your tweets refer to ‘wine’ it’s likely that you’ll be seen as a wine expert by search engines.

Need help with Twitter?  Call Steer – Auckland Online Marketing Agency

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