Marketing Google

The holiday shopping season has long been synonymous with chaos, crowds and mass appeal. In fact, some might say that the holiday shopping season is, by nature, the enemy of personalization.But the bedlam of the holidays actually brings invaluable insights and increased opportunities for retailers to fine-tune their personalization strategies. Indeed, today’s consumers are becoming increasingly accustomed to a highly personalized customer experience, with 56 percent admitting they prefer to shop with retailers (in-store or online) that recognize them by name, according to Accenture’s “Personalization Pulse Check” report.With millions of shoppers ready to stampede into stores or browse through e-commerce sites over the coming weeks, now is certainly not the time to risk losing customers to a subpar experience.To create a seamless, omnichannel customer journey — from customer acquisition to the moment of purchase, and beyond — retailers cannot just focus on the “persona” of the customer…

With a lot of unsold inventory and not enough advertisers to buy it, Twitter is trying to address its demand dilemma.Over the summer, Twitter began testing a subscription-based ad-buying program through which brands could opt to pay Twitter $99 a month and have the company promote their accounts and tweets for them. Now the company is opening up the program to all accounts in the US and United Kingdom, including businesses and individuals, Twitter announced on Wednesday. Brands that use Sprout Social to manage their Twitter accounts will also be able to enroll, and the company eventually plans to open it up to accounts in Japan.The program is aimed at businesses and individuals with small followings who are looking to grow their presences on Twitter. “On average accounts will reach 30,000 additional people and add 30 followers each month,” according to the program’s help section on Twitter’s site. The program marks Twitter’s subscription-based ad product, but may not be its only one f…

This past week, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Marion Thomas, whose most recent role is director of Global Site Merchandising at Wayfair. Thomas has a tremendous amount of experience when it comes to selling online, and she was kind enough to both impart her knowledge to me and let me recount our conversation for this column.I’ve edited down the discussion below, focusing on Thomas’s tips around fostering mutually beneficial supplier-retailer relationships, along with her valuable recommendations for effectively marketing high price-point products online.Wayfair’s Marion Thomas Q: In your view, what does a good supplier-retailer relationship look like?A good supplier-retailer relationship needs to be centered around the customer, on both sides. A good retailer focuses on solving for the needs of their customers — understanding what they are looking for, what problem they need to solve, and helping them find the right product for that purpose.A supplier needs to learn from thei…

Let me say this first – keyword research is hard! Every SEO has done it, but few will ever master it completely.This is not supposed to be just another keyword research post. This post is about going beyond raw search volume data, using metrics which will help you choose keywords which deliver the best ROI for you right now.To start with I am going to assume you have carried out your keyword research already, and are starting off with a comprehensive list (if not, our complete guide to keyword research for SEO will help you do this).The more keywords, the better: you want to start with a massive data set and then use the below points to whittle down your keywords.Here is the full list:1. Get Cost Per Click dataCost Per Click, or CPC data is invaluable to SEOs. Why should we have to test one keyword’s effectiveness against another’s when the PPC guys have already got it figured out?If marketers aren’t spending money to appear on the keyword, it’s clearly not commercially viable. We wan…

If you really want to improve your Google AdWords' results, perform these three maintenance tasks and watch your CTR skyrocket.

via Entrepreneur: Latest Online Marketing Articles

From youXtools A startup called youXtools is out this week with a new online usability platform that employs AI to visually present problem areas.A similar platform was employed over two years for such clients as Google and Red Bull within user experience consultancy UEGroup, which spun off youXtools last year and is now making the platform generally available.Tony Fernandes, CEO of youXtools and founder of UEGroup, noted that the consultancy needed greater speed and automation, but “the tools on the market just didn’t cut it, so we created something better for ourselves.”[Read the full article on MarTech Today.]

via Marketing Land

In May of this year, Aditi Gokhale was named Northwestern Mutual’s first-ever chief marketing officer.“My role is interesting in that I’m the CMO of Northwestern Mutual and LearnVest,” says Gokhale, “I actually joined the organization nearly a year and a half ago as CMO of LearnVest, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Northwestern Mutual.”As CMO for both organizations, Gokhale says she is focused on strengthening Northwestern Mutual’s brand, while expanding engagement with clients and prospects“I’m also focused on listening and making sure that our most important constituencies — our clients, financial advisors and employees — share what resonates most with them, what can be improved, and how they think about our brand and its future.”Gokhale says she is a very data-driven person and that one of her biggest priorities is designing a comprehensive marketing strategy built around what the data is telling her.“Digital marketing has been an integral part of my career for the last 17 years,” sa…

In the battle with Amazon, Google is betting on its Shopping services to attract merchants and customers alike. A raft of product announcements has arrived just in time for the holiday season, including new ad formats and AdWords reports.What do marketers need to know, and will these new products be enough to take market share back from Amazon?Google has announced a variety of upgrades to its Shopping offering with a clear focus on improving the mobile experience, utilizing automation technologies to synchronize product information, and uniting voice search with ecommerce.The search giant quite correctly pointed to “rising consumer expectations” as a driving force behind these innovations, especially as the Amazon juggernaut continues to gather pace.Shopping seems the most suitable vehicle to compete with Amazon as an ecommerce business, but recent months have brought both successes and controversies for Google in this area, including:The hefty fine doled out by the EU to Google for a…

Twitter is officially doubling its character count.Less than two months after testing extending tweets’ maximum length to 280 characters, Twitter is enabling the new length for all users on Tuesday. The new maximum will apply to tweets in all languages except Chinese, Japanese and Korean, in which space is less of an issue.Advertisers won’t yet be able to take advantage of the new length for ads created through Twitter’s self-serve platform, but they will be able to post 280-character-long organic tweets and run those as Promoted Tweets, said a Twitter spokesperson. Support for 280-character ads will roll out to Twitter’s self-serve platform sometime “in the coming months,” the spokesperson said.The reason Twitter has quickly decided to officially adopt the 280-character maximum is that it didn’t make much of a difference, or at least not a negative one. A worry people had about the extended length was that it would make checking Twitter feel like paging through a Tolstoy novel. But t…

Here’s our recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on Marketing Land and other places across the web.From Marketing Land:SEO ranking factors for 4 business verticals and what they mean for local businesses
Nov 7, 2017 by Wesley Young
As organic search becomes ever more targeted, SEO is evolving in ways that require more customization. Wesley Young explores a recent study on ranking factors and provides 8 practical takeaways to boost search rank.Target the right keywords — for Google AND your clients
Nov 7, 2017 by Greg Gifford
Columnist Greg Gifford illustrates the importance of educating your clients on different types of keywords and when to target them.Using Google Customer Match to optimize PPC campaign performance
Nov 7, 2017 by Digital Marketing Depot
Your display advertising targets specific audiences, but what about your search marketing? It’s time to think beyond the keyword, and tailor your PPC campaigns based on who is actually viewing or clicking your…

SEO for local business has gone through a number of changes. First, local businesses had to figure out Google’s algorithm so that their websites would appear in search results. Next came local search ranking factors that emphasized location-based factors. Now, it seems Google updates will require a new look at vertical-specific ranking factors.This isn’t really a third wave of SEO — rather, it’s an evolution of Google’s general ranking factors. Consistent with attaining its goal of providing consumers with search results that best match what they are looking for and content that will be most helpful, Google looks more deeply and more specifically at factors that determine search results.What this means is that pursuing general factors like “more backlinks” or “matching keywords” simply doesn’t cut it anymore. That’s not to say those factors are no longer relevant; they are. But it’s getting more complicated.[Read the full article on Search Engine Land.]

via Marketing Land

It’s been awhile, thanks to a crazy fall conference season, but I’m back — and it’s time for another exciting episode of Greg’s Soapbox. This time around, I’m going to be talking about keyword targeting and client education.About a year and a half ago, I wrote a post about the importance of client education. I still firmly believe that client education is the key to success in SEO: If clients don’t understand how Google works or how your services are necessary to their success, you’re doomed to fail.As SEOs and digital marketers, we need to collectively be more responsible for client education. Many times, those fabled “agency jumpers” are hopping from agency to agency because no one has taken the time to sit down and explain how things really work. With a bit of education, their expectations would probably be more aligned with reality, and they’d stick around for the long term.[Read the full article on Search Engine Land.]

via Marketing Land

Your display advertising targets specific audiences, but what about your search marketing? It’s time to think beyond the keyword, and tailor your PPC campaigns based on who is actually viewing or clicking your ad.With a “people-based” approach to your search marketing, you can improve the cross-channel customer experience, optimize PPC campaign performance and ultimately reacquire customers and grow CLTV.Visit Digital Marketing Depot to download LiveRamp’s “How to Grow Customer Lifetime Value with People-Based Search Marketing.”

via Marketing Land

Mark your calendars for SMX West 2018! We’re coming to sunny San Jose, California, March 13-15. Don’t miss your chance to attend the largest search marketing conference on the West Coast.Obsessed with search? So are we.SMX is the only conference series that is 100 percent dedicated to search. Year after year, we serve up fresh and inspirational keynotes, tactic-rich sessions, plus hands-on clinics and thoughtful networking events, just for you.Here’s a taste of what’s in store for SMX West 2018:Dozens of SEO sessions, including fresh looks at ranking factors, PWAs, AMP and mobile success.Tons of SEM sessions that dive into video and voice ads, attribution and targeting.Brand-new sessions designed for search marketers focused on e-commerce including campaign structures, social selling, offer testing and much more!Stay tuned for the complete agenda, rolling out in a few short weeks.Ready to book now?Register todayand enjoy the lowest rates available: $400 savings off on-site rates. Hote…

Content shock.You’ve likely heard that expression. It’s descriptive of what the world is feeling these days with the incredible amounts of content being published every second. We’re shocked by the amount of information hitting us every second.For a business, this tidal wave of information makes it harder to stand out. The key? Do something different.Live video is the perfect way to tap into that differentiation and create a bigger brand name and reputation. And now, with so many of the top social media platforms making that a possibility, you’d be silly to ignore the world of live video.Where can you go live?In the past, making a live appearance involved hiring a PR team to get you on live television spots. Today, things are different. Four social networks hand the reigns over to you to create your own live segments — Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.Twitter is the newest social media platform to embrace live video, and probably one of the most interesting. That’s because it’…

Content shock.You’ve likely heard that expression. It’s descriptive of what the world is feeling these days with the incredible amounts of content being published every second. We’re shocked by the amount of information hitting us every second.For a business, this tidal wave of information makes it harder to stand out. The key? Do something different.Live video is the perfect way to tap into that differentiation and create a bigger brand name and reputation. And now, with so many of the top social media platforms making that a possibility, you’d be silly to ignore the world of live video.Where can you go live?In the past, making a live appearance involved hiring a PR team to get you on live television spots. Today, things are different. Four social networks hand the reigns over to you to create your own live segments — Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.Twitter is the newest social media platform to embrace live video, and probably one of the most interesting. That’s because it’…