Why failure is good and why searching for perfection is your 1st problem with #PPC.

I have had a lot of feedback recently, from people (clients AND trainees) looking for perfection with their digital marketing efforts.

This is one of the key problems for people to overcome. Traditional marketing was about getting the ‘perfect creative’. Now you do the opposite almost.

As you make something, and keep testing, testing and testing.

You can do that with PPC – you can fail and fail fast. 

In fact, that’s the point. Keep failing.

People don’t like to. But you fail fast with PPC and get better and better at it.

So on this note I would like to share 20 Powerful Quotes on failure – to change your mind about the power of it all.

1. “You always pass failure on your way to success.” ~Mickey Rooney
2. “A failure is a man who has blundered, but is not able to cash in the experience.” ~Elbert Hubbard
3. “Failure is the tuition you pay for success.” ~Walter Brunell
4. “Feeling sorry for yourself, and your present condition is not only a waste of energy but the worst habit you could possibly have. ~Dale Carnegie
5. “Success represents the 1% of your work which results from the 99% that is called failure.” ~Soichiro Honda
6. “The season of failure is the best time for sowing the seeds of success.” ~Paramahansa Yogananda
7. “Success is not built on success. It’s built on failure. It’s built on frustration. Sometimes it’s built on catastrophe.” ~Sumner Redstone
8. “Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” ~Truman Capote
9. “There is no failure. Only feedback.” ~Robert Allen
10. “Remember that failure is an event, not a person.” ~Zig ziglar
11. “Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.” ~Og Mandino
12. “Its fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” ~Bill Gates
13. “Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.” ~Richard Branson
14. “I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” ~Michael Jordan
15. 15.” Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.” ~Napoleon Hill
16. “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”~Henry Ford
17. “My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.” ~Abraham Lincoln
18. “I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.” ~Thomas Edison
19. “Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat. “~F. Scott Fitzgerald
20. Our best success often come after our greatest disappointments. ~Henry Ward Beecher

Finally, don’t let the fear of failure hold you back. Especially with your PPC advertising and digital marketing. 

Remember to take risks: if you win, you will be happy; if you lose, you will be wise.

Failure is feedback. Feedback is golden and it’s what you need.

And that’s what you get that from PPC. So go now, start, fail, get feedback, and start again.

Just remember…(not only to budget probably but also that…..)

Here’s to a wonderful 2015. Full of feedback and happiness.

Happy New Year.

5 top tips for trying out #Twitter Ads. And a Merry #Christmas Bonus.

I have been honing my Twitter advertising skills for a while, both with clients who had apps to promote and clients with businesses and websites they want more traffic for.

I can safely say (and so can many of my clients) that Twitter is THE most cost effective way to get more leads and traffic in digital marketing that I know of right now.

And even though I can’t tell you the figures or CPA’s for clients I can give you a Merry Christmas with these top tips. Here they are:

My 5 top tips for Twitter Advertising 

1) Target the followers of specific accounts

This is MUCH better than just aiming at people’s interests (which is like what you can do with Facebook advertising). Going for the follower of accounts gives you much more rich data from a psychological POV. i.e. If they like 10 or so of the right accounts – you can tell a lot about the person’s thoughts and potential desires.

2) Target by device

This one is not as psychologically exciting but it is vital for conversion rates i.e. if you are wanting people to fill in a signup form and this form is not as mobile-friendly as it ought to be (a serious challenge when using Twitter ads), you’ll want to target users who can easily sign up, i.e. those on non-mobile devices.

However, do remember that Twitter is more mobile than anything else – especially in the UK i.e. around 78% are mobile users.

3) Don’t pre-empt yourself

When you start using Twitter ads you can do lots of different things – but two of the main ones are:

Promoted Tweets or Promoted Accounts.

The assumption is that the former will get you engagement while the latter attracts followers. This is not always the case. You should play around with Promoted Tweets to get more followers as well, as this works.

4) Use conversation pieces:

Normally advertising is statement led or to increase the desire for something. But in Twitter as such a social platform try to use social actions to engage with people so use promoted tweets that have questions in there. You will be amazed at the results.

5) Don’t follow Twitter’s recommended bid price

When you create your campaign Twitter will suggest a max. bid price that you should offer. This is a ‘per engagement’ fee that you’ll pay for clicks, RTs, replies and follows. You will pay a LOT less – and you should. So go low. Then if you aren’t getting anything, gently up the price and check, check, check.

Christmas bonus tip: Play around and test, test, test.

Have fun playing with Twitter ads. The platform being self-service really is an amazing opportunity. You can turn it on and off as much as you like, tweek something and try again.

This is what we did over the weekend, for KeyRingMe an app which transforms your iPhone pics into a key ring. We changed the campaign 5 times over the weekend to get the CPA right for our client. From clicks, to downloads, to followers, to lead generation.

Enjoy:

There is so much you can do with Twitter. From using pictures to making statements, we were even going to play around with videos as well.

In 2015, as promised we will be doing some live twitter training courses, for a mixture of businesses, so at a lower price point to our 1-2-1 twitter training which is more personal.

And…

If you are feeling festive and giving – answer this question on what is holding you back from getting the success you want with Twitter.

And if you like some #Christmas stats on the power of #Twitter – click here. 

Lots of Top Tips for Landing Pages and making ones that CONVERT.

Well it’s that crazy time of the year again. So we are all busy aren’t we. So I will keep this blog post short and sweet with some great links to go for more information on landing pages …. for when you have more time. In the mean time…. a question… How you can make your landing pages – CONVERT – more? The answer is simple. CONVERT stands for…C = Clear Call to Action O = Offer N = Narrow Focus V = VIA: Very Important Attributes E = Effective Headline R = Resolution-Savvy Layout T = Tidy Visuals S = Social Proof This is good stuff from  the big boys over KissMetrics. But to really get into the guts of a great landing page – you cannot beat the guys who know it from the data points. So it’s over to Neil Patel at Crazy Egg (an analytics software provider) to explain – the 12 landing page essentials. Copy writing:  As for copy writing – this is perhaps the best (and maybe most controversial piece I have loved for a long time…) Everything You’ve Been Told About Copywriting is Complete Nonsense So there you go – that’s landing pages for you. And to answer your question – I use Instapage for mine.  Here’s one of my favourites – can you think why?  Now go and create landing pages that convert business for you and do great things for your business. Do remember that the quality of the traffic (or people) you send them makes the difference as well. But that’s the point of marketing…isn’t it. Knowing which channels to use… Next week: We will give you some great tips of the newest type of PPC marketing on the block… Twitter Advertising … which is amazing for ROI – let me tell you. Or better, let a client tell you: Angela Roberts from MapMyWorld “As a new business we need a lot of traffic to our website to get sales as our brand is not established yet. Twitter advertising got us this traffic with potential customers coming to our site and engaging with our content and designs online.” A business which is doing amazingly well on Facebook (with more than 7000 people loving what they do worldwide) They might even be doing some Facebook advertising with us next year to convert them into sales and take the business to the next level. Which is what we want from all our clients. To take things to the next level and be successful with their businesses and their lives…

Here’s to your success and Great Marketing Works being able to help you get there.

Benchmark your investment in online media with other organisations in the UK.

The IAB and PwC published their full-year figures for online advertising in 2012 this week. We recommend using this annual research on online advertising to benchmark your investment in online media with other organisations in the UK.

But do remember that you should also look at your own organic traffic from your analytics as well – as you might be surprised how many visitors you are getting now a days from tablet and mobile devices – especially if you are yet to optimise your pages 😉

Anyhoo, if European figures are more relevant to your business then do check the IAB Europe Adspend figures.  And a huge thanks to Smart Insights for these smart insights,

The stats:

Percentage of overall ad spend on digital media advertising?

More than £1 in £4 of ad budgets were spent online  for the first time and online ad spend is now closer to 30% of all spend although the figures weren’t disclosed in the latest announcement.

However with £3 in £4 still spent offline in traditional media like TV and print advertising it underlines the continued effectiveness of traditional media and the need to integrate these with online media.

Mobile advertising shows strong growth as we would expect – and myself personally love – as predicted this many moons ago – whilst others thought me mad 🙂

Mobile now accounts for 9.7% of all digital advertising spend compared to 1.1% three years ago

Total mobile display advertising (including video) increased like-for-like by 121% to £150.0 million in 2012. Mobile search grew like-for-like by 164% to £365.0 million – accounting for 69% of mobile ad spend.

The remaining £11million of mobile ad revenue is primarily accounted for by classifieds, SMS/MMS and other smaller advertising formats.

The research shows the most popular online advertising tactics, but beware the methodology – spend on other digital marketing channels such as affiliate marketing, SEO and online PR/Social media aren’t included – it’s pure media spend only..

This is the breakdown of different Internet advertising types:

Paid search advertising: Paid for sponsored listings such as AdWords  maintained their position as the largest single format with a 58% share of digital advertising.

Display advertising: Display advertising accounted for 24% of spend, similar to previous years. But within this there were larger increases for social media advertising which grew 24% to represent 25% of online display budget and video advertising which grew 46% to account for 12% of online display budget.

Classifieds : Online classified ads important in recruitment and auto for example, but less relevant to other advertisers grew by 7.6% to account for 16% of spending.

Some interesting stuff here to consider when you are planning your or your clients next year of digital ad spend.

The simple stats on why you should be advertising on YouTube…

Viewership is Growing and like crazy and on mobile… 🙂