This is always one of the first questions that someone who is new to Google AdWords asks. It can be difficult to get your head around the process but this infographic published by WordStream does a great job of breaking down the different factors affecting ad position, and explaining the process step-by-step.

Something which is very important to understand when looking at the ad auction is Google’s quality score metric. Quality score is Google’s way of rewarding relevant, well-optimised AdWords campaigns. Google always wants to give the user exactly what they’re looking for; this means not just giving the top ad position to the highest bidder, but allowing the most relevant advertisers a better chance to show their ad in a good position.

Once the ad positions have been determined, Google has to decide how much to charge for a click. Your keyword bid (in addition to quality score) helps to determine ad position; however you may not be charged the full amount that you bid. An advertiser pays 1 cent more than the minimum possible bid required to maintain the current ad position.

You may sometimes notice a rise in CPCs or a drop in ad position, and when this happens people often think that they have been penalised by Google for something. This is not necessarily the case. Often a change like this can be caused by some new competition who is bidding on the same keywords as you. This can cause the minimum required bid to maintain your position to rise as this new competitor may be bidding higher than the previous competition, or has a higher quality score, causing your CPC to rise. If their bid and quality score are high enough, they may even knock you off the top spot.

The important thing in this situation is to not panic; raising all of your bids without understanding what you’re doing could have a hugely negative effect on your AdWords account. It is very important to think about what you’re doing before you do it. Every action has a reaction and an understanding of AdWords and the ad auction is vital in the decision making process.

Helping Adwords advertisers boost their online returns is our bread & butter. If you think your AdWords could do more for you, we’d be delighted to talk to you!

Rob

The biggest secret in the Irish Online Advertising Industry

The Wolfgang crew had a good giggle at this disclosure; we’ve been telling people in the Wolfgang community for years now that the biggest secret in the online advertising industry in Ireland is that many advertisers are massively overpaying for under-performing display ads. There is a ten-fold gap between what different networks charge for display advertising. Yes that’s 10:1 – I kid you not!

Believe it or not, even the perceived cheap “blind buys” still work out as more expensive than full visibility campaigns on Google Display & Facebook.

Taking offline advertising methodologies, and lobbing them online

When you take an offline business model and try to crowbar it online as is, more often than not it fails – and fails badly.

Search advertising, Social Media, Email Marketing are all native online marketing models. They are built to deliver value online.

When it comes to Display Advertising, the way a lot of people are doing it is a clear-cut case of taking newspaper ads, lobbing them online using the same old offline targeting methodology & pricing models. This is doomed to fail and is burning many marketing bucks along it’s path to it’s demise.

Consumers Don’t Trust Display

And hey it’s not just Hugh and Wolfgang who think much of display is broken; internet users have stated that display ads on desktop & mobile are their least trusted form of advertising bar unsolicited text messages.

This is a Nielsen study on trust in advertising form the end of last year.

Smart Display v Dumb Display

Now I did mention that not all display advertising is bad. There are some incredibly smart display options out there; if you are an advertiser perhaps you should conduct a display advertising audit to ensure this is where your money is being spent.

Features of Smart display:

Pricing Model. You are paying based on CPCs. The worlds two largest display advertising networks – Google Display Network & Facebook – both offer CPC pricing models. This means the advertiser pays based on interactions. When as little as 1 in 1,000 views result in a click it seems foolish to pay based on CPMs when you simply don’t need to.

Jaw dropping targeting. Great display advertising gets your message to the right audience at the right time, in ways that will amaze you at first and then scare you a little  (Click here, then click edit under interests to see what Google reckons you are interested in right now)

•  Behavioural targets relevant people based on their recent online behavior. Remarketing allows you to advertise to people who have already been on your website. Interest based advertising allows you to advertise to people who have recently been on websites related to your offering. Search retargeting allows you to advertise to people who have recently been searching your offering on Google etc.

• Contextual advertising targets relevant webpages, offering you the opportunity to place ads alongside relevant content by way of keyword targeting. We’re not talking advertising Mercedes in the business pages here. We’re talking advertising high interest savings products accompanying newspaper articles on declining interest rates. It’s all about intelligence and it’s about granularity.

The wealth of available targeting options means there are lots of ways you can reach your customer in a timely fashion online and in a manner that you have never dreamed of.

When you truly understand the myriad of targeting options available on the leading display networks, the only limit to how you communicate with your target audience is your imagination (or that of your digital marketing agency of course).

Alan

As promised, here are the slides from myself and Alan’s presentation – shamelessly recycled as a blog post…

If you liked what you heard yesterday and would like to hear about how content marketing could help your business, be sure to get in touch with us.

And don’t forget to sign up for our awesome newsletter

Siobhan

Some might say I now have the guest blogging bug.

Anyways, I decided to take a look at a guest blogging-inspired infographics for this fortnight’s content marketing infographic post. I have also taken some inspiration from Rob’s PPC infographic post last week and decided to concentrate on one great infographic.

So here we go…

8 Ways to Boost Visibility and Viral on Guest Blogging: The Benefits of Guest Blogging

This is a great infographic by Inbound Visibility.

There are a number of questions you may ask yourself when approached to write a guest blog; why should I guest blog? What’s in it for me? Wouldn’t my time be better spent writing content for my own blog?

This infographic illustrates the benefits of guest blogging. Whether your aim is to reach a wider audience and driving traffic to your website, to get a high quality link back to your own blog for SEO, or simply building your community; the wide range of benefits really makes it worth your while. Just be sure the audience of the blog you’re writing for matches the audience you want to read your content.

We are always on the lookout for guest blogging opportunities, and are open to suggestions for guest bloggers on our blog.

Why not get in touch if you are interested in giving us a guest blogging opportunity on your site? If you would like to write for us, why not send us some ideas and we’ll see what we can do

Siobhan

On Wednesday, May 15^th Alan and I will take to the stage and share our wisdom of content marketing with the world.

It promises to be a great event, especially for those seeking to optimise their return on investment in content creation. There will be discussion and debate on key issues and emerging trends. It promises to be a great learning opportunity for anyone interested in using content creation as a means of furthering their business.

We will share the stage with:

• Kieran Flanagan - Hubspot
• Alan Coleman & Siobhán McGinty - Wolfgang Digital (That’s us!)
• Hugh Linehan - Irish Times
• Brian O’Neill - Content Kings
• Claire Carroll - neo@Ogilvy

The event details are as follows:
Date: Wednesday, May 15^th

Time : 1.30pm – 5.30pm

Location : The Auditorium, The Digital Hub, Crane Street, Dublin 8

Book your place at this great event here!

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

Siobhan

As PPC Experts, as well as Content Marketing Specialists, we felt it was time to reward our hard-core PPC fan base with a few infographics of their own. We can’t let the content marketers have all the fun!

So without further ado, I present the inaugural Wolfgang Digital PPC, But In Particular Google AdWords, Infographic From Around The World Of Digital Marketing Of The Week (We welcome any suggestions for a catchier title on the back of a postcard or on Twitter)!

The Most Expensive Google AdWords Keywords

Back in November, Hallam Internet Limited published this great infographic on the most expensive Google AdWords keywords to bid for in the UK. This is something we’d been wondering ourselves for a while and we’re asked about it quite regularly. Through our own research we identified the most expensive industries (like gambling, insurance, personal claims and compensation, etc.) but this is a really good breakdown of what costs the most within these industries.

We’ve always said that consumers behave differently in different countries. We were glad to see this point being illustrated in this infographic. An expensive keyword in one market (USA) may not be so pricey in another market (UK). There’s no one-size-fits-all solution in AdWords and the only way you are going to get the most out of an AdWords campaign is if you can recognise these small market differences and use them to your advantage.

The last part of the infographic also backs up something we’ve been saying for ages. Companies like eBay and Amazon are spending more and more on digital marketing meaning that they are becoming major competitors to high street retailers. With 75% of the money spent by Irish consumers online going overseas, you’re no longer just competing against the business down the street; you’re competing against some the biggest companies in the world. Now, more than ever, it is vital to make your presence known.

Let us know what you think of our new fortnightly feature. We’d love to hear any feedback. Or if you know of any infographics we might like, let us know.

In return we’ll keep you in the know on what’s new in the world of digital marketing with our monthly newsletter. Sign up here!

If you’d like to see what Wolfgang Digital can do to help you make your online presence known, enquire online today or simply pick up the phone and give us a bell.

Rob

But the questions is, are you blogging optimally? The last thing you want is to waste time engaging in worthless blogging.

Eh…there is a ‘correct’ way of blogging?

Yes!

You might think that blogging is just about writing an article here and there about something related to your business and your target audience.

However, it is not as simple as that. Here are five very simple tips we have for optimising your blog posts.

1. Think about the name of your blog post

When you are naming your blog post, think about terms and phrases that your readers will be interested in and are likely to search. If your title is a close fit to something your readers are likely to be looking for, it is more likely to show up on Google. Furthermore, searchers are more likely to click through.

2. Tag Blog Posts with the Correct Meta Information

Google have said time and time again that ranking does not depend on meta info. However, we still believe that it is very important to fill out meta information as fully and as completely as possible. The reason for this is that Google pulls information from the meta descriptions whenever your page shows up in Google’s organic results. This means that meta descriptions warrant  just as much thought as blog content does, as they can play a major role in attracting people to actually click through to your website from the SERPS.

3. Don’t Stuff Your Blog Posts with Keywords

You do, of course, have to include SOME level of keywords in your content. However, Google will notice if you fill your content to the gills with keywords. Even worse, they will penalise your for it.

As a guideline, we suggest including your primary keywords a maximum if four times throughout a typical 500 word article.

4. Have Some Personality

Who wants to read something boring? Striking the balance between being informative and engaging (and perhaps a little bit entertaining) is a talent but it is something which should be worked towards. Give your readers something to return for. Make them realise there is a person behind the blog. Write like a person having a conversation with your reader. Don’t speak AT your reader.

We think Irish businesses are in a unique position to do this. We even wrote a…ahem…great article on why Irish businesses are particularly suited to creating great content.

5. Include a Call-To-Action

So you have written a great blog post which has spoken directly to your reader. Your reader is captivated by it. But now what?

Humans need to be told what to do. Include a call to action at the end of your blog post; tell them to share your post through the various social media channels, to leave a comment, or sign up for a company newsletter.

Hopefully you find this guide useful! And don’t forget to Retweet it or +1 it if you are that way inclined – it’s as simple as clicking the buttons underneath this article.

Last but not least, sign up for our newsletter – something highly entertaining to read every month

Siobhan

We are busy deciding on content for May’s edition. What would you like to see in our monthly newsletters?

Let us know what you would like to read about every month from industry-specific Google AdWords and Content Marketing tips to expert opinion on something topical.

And don’t miss out on the May edition of The Wolfgang Digital Digital Digest. Be sure to subscribe to it by filling out our subscription form!

Take a peak at last months issue here! 

Online Advertising: Increase in Irish Spend

Even more interesting are figures published by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) last week. According to the IAB, in 2012 online advertising spend in Ireland was up 12.3% on the previous year. The total amount spent on offline advertising in Ireland actually dropped by 6.2% over the same period.

For anyone who is already engaging in online advertising as part of their marketing strategy, these figures are very encouraging; for anyone who is not, they raise an important question: your competitors are moving online, why aren’t you?

Mobile Advertising Is So Hot Right Now

2012 was the first year that mobile ad spend was measured in Ireland. Mobile advertising made up over 6% of the €158 million spent on digital advertising in Ireland. That’s just shy of €10 million spent on mobile ads. In both the US and UK, mobile ad spend increased by over 100% in 2012.

At Wolfgang Digital we pride ourselves on recognising trends and changes in consumer behaviour, and we like nothing more than being proved right. On the 1^st of February this year, our CEO Alan Coleman appeared on RTE Radio’s Morning Ireland and RTE Television’s Morning Edition to talk about mobile marketing. He spoke about a shift in consumer behaviour towards mobile devices. He predicted that 2013 is going to be a breakthrough year for mobile advertising.

The Mobile Consumer

At that time, and based on what we’d seen with our own clients, we were feeling pretty confident about that prediction. Two weeks later, GfK (one of the world’s leading research companies) released figures announcing that sales of desktop computers had dropped by a staggering 42% in the final 3 months of 2012 when compared to the same time period in 2011. In addition to this, there was a drop of 14% in the sale of laptop computers.

More recently, results of a study announced by Eircom this week show that Irish tablet ownership has doubled in the last six months. Smartphone ownership also increased by 28%; 50% of Irish people now own a smartphone. When you couple these stats with those released this week by both Google and the IAB, they only lead to one conclusion.

Alan has been walking around with a big I-told-you-so smile all week.

2013 will be a breakthrough year for mobile advertising. Don’t get caught standing still… get mobile!

Rob

Our last infographic post focused on the measurement and analytics of content marketing. This week, we have decided to have a look at a few B2B content marketing infographics

  1. Content Marketing in B2B

We love this infographic from Marketing Profs. It is simple, yet powerful in communicating a really clear message: content marketing in the B2B sphere is a necessity.

According to this infographic, 90% of B2B marketers already engage in content marketing – whether they know it or not. The three most common forms of content marketing are articles, social media posting and blogging.  The most popular goal of content marketing is brand awareness.

What we really like, however, is the summary of four questions that one needs to ask when embarking upon the content marketing journey: Why, What, Where and How. Not only that, but it suggests that, as a content marketer, you must ‘be the help you wish to receive’ and ‘be a thought leader.’

This is perhaps one of the best summaries of B2B content marketing we have come across. What do you think?

2. The Contentious State of B2B Content Marketing

This is another great infographic by Marketo.

When I read this infographic first, my original thoughts were that it shed a negative light on content marketing and its effectiveness in a B2B context.

The infographic starts by highlighting the face that only 36% of B2B content marketers see their content marketing efforts as being effective.

There are a number of possible reasons highlighted for this, which we found very interesting. These include: budget, producing enough quality content and of course, our favourite, measurement.

We strongly believe that with a robust measurement programme, these content marketers would actually see benefits above and beyond the obvious.

What do you see as being your biggest B2B content marketing challenges?

Content Marketing in Ireland Business to Business

3. The State of B2B Content Marketing

This infographic from Uberflip on state of B2B content marketing was included in eConsultancy’s top 6 infographics blog post recently.

The infographic complements what the first infographic says: 91% of B2B marketers are engaging in content marketing; furthermore, a large proportion of these plan to increase their marketing budgets in the next year. This infographics identifies lead generation as the greatest motivation for content marketing, while social media is the most widely used tactic.

What is really interesting about this infographic is that it suggests that 94% of B2B content marketers say they create content from scratch, rather than repurpose third party content for distribution (like we are doing here). Of course, original content is great. But let’s be frank; creating original content takes time and creating original content every day of the week is impossible unless you have appointed content marketing staff…or if you spend your days twiddling your thumbs.

Repurposing your content is a great way of delivering relevant information to your audience. In fact, our infographic posts are among our most popular. As long as you link back to any original content, we think repurposing content should be an integral part of any content marketing strategy.

Do you think repurposed content is useful?

Hope you have enjoyed this fortnight’s content marketing infographics post. Next week, we will be debuting a similar PPC infographics post – something for you to look forward to!

Finally, don’t forget to sign up for our monthly newsletter!

Siobhan