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How to Create Facebook Ads

April 10, 2018Social Media Marketing 0

As you know, social media is a tremendous way to increase exposure and traffic for your business. It helps you to create loyal customers, and generate leads and increases your sales.

Facebook remains the most popular social media platform. It is the social-media platform of choice not just for the public but also for the majority of businesses and brands…for good reason.

It has never been cheaper to build your brand and create new demand for your products and services.

Facebook Advertising probably offers some of the most targeted advertising opportunities today, maybe even ever in existence. At the time of this writing, Facebook serves more than 1.94 billion monthly users. More than 1.7 billion visit daily on their mobiles alone.

If you aren’t already advertising on Facebook, you’d be crazy not to.

Facebook ads allow you as the advertiser to target these visitors by factors like location, age, interests, likes, and so on.

When you advertise on Facebook, you can make sure you’re really reaching the right audience. According to Facebook.com, you can target by:

Location – you can target by country, state, zip code, and proximity to the business.

Demographics- You can target by age, gender, interest, language(s) spoken, and more.

Interests- You can target based on what people have said they like on Facebook. These things might include music, movies, sports, games, shopping, and so on. It’s almost eerie how targeted ads can get based on people’s interests.

Behaviors– You can target people based on the things they do, like what they are buying or looking at, the phone they use, and even if they are shopping for a new car or home.

Connections– You can target those who have liked your page or app. You can target the friends of those who have liked your page or app.

There are advanced ways to target your ads as well, such as with Custom Audiences and Lookalike Audiences. These are areas to explore once you’re really rolling and familiar with Facebook advertising.

Before You Create a Facebook Ad

As you’ve probably guessed by now, we do not encourage you to just go and create an ad, have it shown to all of Facebook, and pray.

To be successful, you’re really going to think about this. Your ad is only going to be shown to the very specific audience YOU choose.

It makes sense, then, that you really think about the ad itself and your goals for the ad before you actually run it. What do you intend to accomplish with the ad? Are you directing it to a squeeze page or are you directing it to a Facebook page where you hope to get more likes?

It can often make sense conversion-wise to direct people to like your Facebook page first since that’s something easy for them to do and they aren’t likely to object to that. It’s built right into Facebook, after all. And you can build a relationship from there and then funnel them to your list.

It might make the least sense to direct your Facebook ad right to a sales page. Do these people know you? Are they even in the mood to buy? You might be wasting your money. Think about these things and study these things before getting started.

How to Set Up a Facebook Ads Campaign

Creating Your Facebook Ad

Actually creating your ad is very simple. Facebook really makes it easy to do, even if you’re a total novice. They want to make it approachable for everyone to run ads with them, from top companies to those who might only have $5 a day to spend. I think you’ll find it very easy.

Simply start with their “Create Ad” button and use the ad creation tool. Note that you have to have a profile with Facebook before you complete this step.

Facebook will have you choose an objective for your ad. This is something we’ve talked about, so you should already have this in mind. Page post engagements? Page likes? Clicks to website? Video views? There are several options there.

You’ll then choose your audience. As you’re choosing your audience, resist the urge to be more general. Sure, your ad will be displayed more often, but you really want your ad to be displayed to those who are most targeted. You’ll save yourself money that way and you’ll be a lot more likely to get the results you want to get.

After walking through those steps, Facebook will have you set your budget. You can set a daily or lifetime budget. Be careful here– if you’re on a limited budget you’ll have to weigh how often you want your ad to be shown and clicked on with how much you’re willing to spend. Over time, you should be able to get more bang for your ad dollars.

When you’re first starting out, you may want to go with Facebook’s suggested big pricing optimization.

After you’ve gone through setting up all of that, it’s time to finally create your ad. The type of ad you’ll set up will depend on your objective.

Facebook Advertising Options

There are many different Facebook ad options. Facebook will walk you through these, depending on what you’ve chosen.

For example, if your objective is ‘Clicks to Website,’ there are ad types Facebook Carousel, Facebook Links, etc.

There are other ad types for Page Post Engagement, Page Likes, Lead Generation, etc.

You’ll need to think about the image/graphic you want to use. Note that you’ll need to keep the text and headline limits in mind for your ads or Facebook will reject them. Facebook walks you through all of this.

Facebook Ad Manager

You’ll want to keep a close eye on the Facebook ad manager. You’ll learn things like how often your ad is being displayed and what kind of actions are being taken. This can help you tweak and better your ads so you can get more for your ad dollars.

As someone who is now using Facebook for paid advertising, you’ll live and breathe the Facebook Ads Manager. We recommend you become very familiar with it.

Setting Up Your First Facebook Ad Campaign

Really, the best way to become familiar with Facebook advertising is to go ahead and set that first ad up. You’ll soon find out that it’s not nearly as tricky as you thought, and you can probably advertise for less than you thought.

Your first Facebook ads will be a learning experience, so set your budget low or don’t let it go live at all.

For inspiration, study those who are successful with Facebook advertising to learn how to get your costs down and get the best possible results.

Need help with Facebook Advertising?

Some businesses still find social media advertising daunting, especially if they have had their fingers burnt in the past.

The good news is that you don’t have to go it alone. We are an experienced Facebook Ads agency and we can make sure that all of your Facebook Advertising marketing campaigns are successful and generate leads and sales.

We will be very happy to manage your Facebook Advertising and social media marketing. Give us a call today and discover what we can do for your business. Facebook Ads Management by Flarecom Digital takes the stress and hassle out of Facebook ads. Let us optimise your ads and improve your advertising ROI.

Posted by Flarecom

What You Need To Know About Search Engine Optimisation

April 10, 2018SEO 0

It’s Time to Stop Hiding. You need to find out exactly what search engine optimisation (SEO) is and why it is so important for your business.

As soon as some business owners hear the term Search Engine Optimisation their eyes glaze over and the shutters come down. They are just not interested. These tend to be the business owners who dismiss the Internet and try to ignore it, fooling themselves into thinking that it isn’t really happening.

On the other hand, there are some business owners who either find the internet too confusing or simply don’t think they have the time to learn how to promote their website online.

If you fall into the latter category, then we invite you to take a few minutes over a cup of coffee to find out what SEO is and how your business will benefit by attracting more customers.

What is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)?

SEO is simply the process of optimising your website so that it ranks well on search engine result pages such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. enabling people searching for products or services that you provide to find you and buy from you.

So, let’s apply this information to your website:

Why Does My Site Need SEO?

You want your website to be found on the search engines by people looking for your products or services. The fact is there may be thousands of websites out there all offering the same or similar products or services. You want your site to stand out and be ranked above all of the other sites and pages so that the person searching online can find you. The way you achieve this is by making your page or site relevant to what people are looking for.

When someone types a word or phrase into search engines (like Google) looking for your product, you want to appear on the first or second page of the search results listings on search engines.

There are literally billions of different websites that are relevant to the search query, but really, if your website doesn’t appear in the first 10 pages (or first 100 results), it’s virtually invisible to the world. Ideally you need to be on page one…or at worst, page 2. If not you will never be found because visitors very rarely go beyond page 2.

Why Can’t The Search Engines Find My Website Without SEO?

Search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing are very sophisticated but they still need help.

The developers are constantly working on and improving the technology behind the search engines so that they can crawl round your web site more deeply in order to give better results to the people using their search sites. However, there is a limit to how search engines can operate.

As a result the search engines reward the web sites that help them out with good SEO by promoting their sites above the ones that make things more difficult for their technology by not optimising their sites. This means that with the right SEO, you can attract thousands more visitors to your site, resulting in more sales, whereas the sites that don’t bother are hidden and buried deep in the results making it much, much harder to be found.

As the amount of sites increase on a daily basis, the internet is becoming even more competitive. The companies who perform SEO have the distinct advantage by being able to attract more visitors and customers.

Can I Do SEO myself?

The world of Search Engine Optimisation is very complex, but as we have hopefully just proven in the information in this short article, most people can easily understand the basics. Even a small amount of knowledge like you have gained today can make a big difference.

To be honest, there is a lot of information about putting SEO strategies into place available for free on the Internet. By applying some of the tips, you can make a difference to your search ranking.

It all depends on how much time you can commit to SEO on top of running your business. You also need a willingness to learn and have to have a basic understanding of how your website works.

You may decide, like many other companies that it is best to hire an SEO consultant to effectively handle your SEO instead while you concentrate on doing what you do best and running your company.

Whichever option you choose, the important thing is to do something….and to do it soon.

For a quick test to impress how urgently you need to take action, do a search online for your business. Don’t just do a search for your name, but type in the same words and phrases that potential customers might use if they were to look for products or services that you provide.

If you don’t appear on the first two pages of Google then you desperately need to start thinking about SEO either by implementing some SEO strategies yourself or by using a professional company like ours.

Give us a call or email us today to find out how we can make sure that your site is seen by everybody who looks for products and services that you provide so that they buy from you and not your competitors.

Posted by Flarecom

How Australian Retailers Can Prevent Amazongeddon.

April 10, 2018SEO

It has been said the Amazon could officially arrive in Australia by November 24th to coincide with the Black Friday online weekend spending.

According to the doomsayers, Amazon’s launch in Australia will accelerate growth in the online retail market resulting in reduced growth and turnover in some shopping centres. This could lead to lower retail rents as retailers rationalise and demand for retail space decreases. Most analysts predict that electrical and appliances will be hardest hit with Harvey Norman and JB Hi-Fi the most likely Australian local retailers to be negatively affected.

However, clothing and footwear could also be under fire as beginning this month Amazon is scheduled to undertake three fashion shoots per day, five days per week, at secret locations across Melbourne.

In other markets, Amazon sells other brands’ clothing label as well as its own private label clothing, including men’s and women’s basics, business attire, children’s wear, and a recently launched sportswear range.

Amazon Australia has registered trademarks in Australia on brands including AmazonBasics, which sell mass market products covering everything from electronics to kitchenware.

So what should local retailers do to prevent Amazongeddon?

If you try to fight Amazon or Ebay for that matter, on their terms you will struggle as they have website authority due to world-class backlinks and high domain authority. Amazon with their enormous advertising budgets are experts at building brand exposure which leads to more branded searches in Google. Branded searches can be a huge trust signal for a website.

So website authority combined with branded searches makes these global brands an SEO supremacy, allowing them to publish duplicate or thin content and still rank highly.

However, the good news is you can fight back and with some SEO stealth tactics even beat these e-com giants at their own game.

Step 1: Niche Down

These larger sites are competing across many different categories and they don’t have the ability to reach the level of dept that a niche site can. When you niche down, every page on your site is about the same topic, for example, a site that specialises in outdoor and camping supplies, this makes it very easy for Google to determine what your site is about camping.

This combined with everyday SEO best practice (which we can help with!) will ensure you have put your best foot forward in the e-comm online battle.

Step 2: Long Tail

Niching down will also help you to rank for those longer tail keywords which is something that the e-com giants don’t do well. Using the outdoor and camping store example this might be “cold weather sleeping bags”, this search has little or no Australia competition except for the Adwords advertisers – who should do some SEO and rank free for this term.

If you sell these type of sleeping bags ensure you optimise the product description for these sorts of long tail searches, this will also help you rise above the duplicate product descriptions that appear on other sites.

When doing or having your digital agency do your keyword research look for keywords that have a clear commercial intent. Although sales volumes will be lower for these longer tail keywords conversion rates (purchases) can be much higher.

It is also worth sometimes adding a geo term or city name eg sleeping bags Melbourne as this will limit your competition from the bigger sites like Amazon and Ebay.

Tip: Don’t compete for high volume search phrases drill down into your products figure out your ideal customer and create content to hit them with.

Step 3: Topical Relevancy

Considering that over 50% of keyword queries are unique and even search engines have not seen them; information retrieval relies on contextual relevance to determine a pages quality score determined by the domain authority.

So using the outdoor and camping store example you might try to rank for informational type content for example “best sleeping bags for summer” or “best down sleeping bags australia”.

Topical relevancy differs from keyword research, with keyword research you only focus on keyword search volumes in a particular market eg Google Australia or maybe Sydney if its a more localised business.

With topical relevancy, your primary focus should be to help users solve their problems or to find what they were looking for, even if they don’t know what that is yet and even if the keyword doesn’t have search volume.

Step 4: Backlink Strategy

Backlinks have been an important part of online marketing for a long time now. For those that are asking What is a backlink? A “backlink” is created when an external 3rd party website links to your website.

Backlinks if done correctly can help improve your website’s traffic, rank, reputation, and even relationships. If done incorrectly backlinks can lead to a Google Penalty as happened to Interflora a couple of years back.

Successful brands should incorporate backlink strategies into their overall marketing strategy, building links on sites not only with high authority but also meaning to their personas.

There are a variety of methods that can be used to increase a website’s backlink profile. You need quality content, with something valuable to say in order to earn your backlink.

If considering a backlink campaign or outreach campaign it is best to talk to a reputable digital agency such as Flarecom Digital Marketing first rather going ahead of yourself and buying a heap of dodgy links on a site like Fiverr.

If you can’t beat them join them – Start with Selling on Amazon

If all of the above seems to difficult there is always the option to sell your own products on Amazon. Amazon offers a range of selling plans and price points to suit a variety of business sizes.

Amazon’s vast influence and presence make it an appealing platform for retailers who want to take advantage of the site’s unmatched volume of traffic. At our Sydney digital agency, we work with many clients who are exploring the decision to sell on Amazon. If you’re considering whether or not Amazon is a viable channel for your brand, here are some things to keep in mind.

Amazon SEO Requires On-going Maintenance

Search visibility is the key to success on Amazon. According to Amazon, a search is the number one way users find products on their platform, so in order to have success on the Amazon platform, you need to invest in optimizing your listings.

Just like regular SEO, Amazon product listing optimization requires constant upkeep. You can’t simply set your product listings, forget about them and expect the sales to roll in.

Similar to regular SEO, Amazon has created its own ranking Algorithm for retailers with the intention of gaining maximum visibility of their products. However, understanding the Amazon algorithm for your Amazon SEO strategy is necessary for all retailers who are looking for high volume sales on Amazon. That means paying close attention to product titles, keywords, product information, and quantity and quality of reviews.

Optimizing your product listings on an ongoing basis is critical to obtaining enough search visibility to move your products. This is something which we can help business out with as we have recently launched an Amazon Product Optimisation service that looks after all the hard work for you, more details can be found here.

Selling on Amazon is a personal decision for every brand, and it’s important to weigh all the factors before jumping in. In terms of getting your product out in front of an enormous new audience, Amazon presents a major opportunity in Australia. But Australian retailers that aren’t able to compete on price may face challenges in the Amazon marketplace. It’s also worth noting that success with Amazon is similar to success in any other channel in that it takes both time and expertise to manage it properly and optimize it fully.

However you choose to move ahead, it’s important to keep your overall business goals in mind and stay focused no matter which you choose.

Flarecom Digital Marketing is everything you’d expect from a smaller digital agency: accountable, autonomous, flexible and personable.

We work across all the main business sectors: retail, finance, charity, travel and b2b. Our work for some of Australia’s leading brands is recognised for challenging the market, driving innovation and accelerating business performance.

Posted by Flarecom

Looking for Free Stock images or video content for your site?

February 12, 2019Content Marketing

We know the feeling, we have sometimes spent hours looking for suitable images for clients.

Well the good news is that we can save you some time looking for free stock images as there are a huge variety of excellent free and paid stock images for commercial use available online.

We have got you covered

We have updated our list of stock photo sites as well as stock video sites you can use to find free images for your website or free videos for your website. Whether you need hero images for your blog, placeholder images for your website, or first-rate stock photography for commercial use, you’ll find what you’re looking for right here.

Recent stats show that online video drives a 157% increase in traffic from organic SERPs. With the growth of platforms like Facebook Live and YouTube it's important for local businesses to take stock.

Understanding the value in creating videos for your company can be an effective way to drive new customers.

Although sometimes we all feel like we're missing that creative spark we need to create great content online for our video marketing material.

Creating great video content from scratch can be difficult, however, we can help you create amazing videos that will have a positive impact on your business. But even we can get stuck sometimes.

There’s generally two ways to get great content to use in your videos. One is that you take photos and video clips yourself.

The other one is to use content found online. There are a ton of free resources you can use, so scroll down to get a list of resources you can use to make awesome videos for your business!

How To Find Great (free) Photos and Videos For Your Video Online
There are a ton of great and free resources around the web where you can find amazing photos and video clips for free online! Here’s a list of resources you can use:

Free Video Clips:

Pexels Video
Free HD Footage
X-Stock Video
Openfootage.net (paid but affordable)
Videezy (limited selection of featured free videos)
Mazwai
Coverr (7 free videos every week)

Free Photo Sites:

Don’t let a perceived lack of ability get in your way, let us help you grow your revenue—and your business— with video today.

Note

Note: It’s always best to double check the licensing for each stock photo resource below. We did our research when putting this list together, but licensing is subject to change and may differ by photographer. Some may require approval for commercial use, while others may be totally free to download and use.

Posted by Flarecom

Got an Innovative Business Idea? 10 Point Investor Ready Checklist

May 22, 2017Start-up Marketing

Have you got an innovative business idea? If only you could get some help with the funding to get your business off the ground.

What problem are you solving and are people going to pay?
You may have a great idea, but is it sustainable as a business? Would you be willing to pay for it? And how much would you be willing to pay? These questions will help you to know if your idea has the potential to become a business.

Is the idea scalable?
Investors love to put money into start-ups that are scalable. So, to become an Investible business, you will need to be able to demonstrate that your idea has sufficient room to grow.

What is your value proposition?
Your value proposition is a clear statement that explains how your product solves your customers’ problems or improves their situation. Consider well-known and effective examples such as “Low Fairs. Made Simple”, from Ryanair, and “Remember Everything”, from Evernote.

Do you have a business plan?
A business plan should be one of the first items on your to-do list for your new business. It’s the foundation upon which your success will be built, and contains the summary of what your business is, and how it’s going to grow. Preparing a business plan allows you to quickly work out some of the kinks and evolve to a more effective business model.

Do you know your competitors?
Who are your competitors? And why is your idea better than what’s currently been offered?

Have you carried out market research?
Perform the research yourself or pay to get the data but you will require this if you want to prove your potential worth to investors.

Do you have financial models?
When do you expect the business to become profitable? Include metrics such as costs, sales, profit, and growth. Investors want to see a long-term solution so you’ll need to chart your potential growth over the first, three, and five year periods.

Do you have customers or potential customers?
If you can acquire even a handful of testimonials from potential customers, investors will be much more interested in working with you.

Can you take your idea forward?
Are you or your team capable of handling the first stages of development and business growth? If you have experience in the industry, you’re already in good shape. Otherwise, you’re going to need to upskill or have a plan to bring in the expertise from outside.

What will you do with the money?
You need to show investors where their money will be going. There’s a big difference between saying, “I need money for my idea,” and, “I need x for an office, x for a first product run and x for marketing.”

Digital Marketing For Startups

Flarecom is a Sydney digital agency dedicated to helping startups achieve success through multi-channel marketing. We provide on-going services for SEO, online advertising, automation marketing, social media, modern PR and content marketing.

We help startups generate qualified leads and nurture sales opportunities using inbound marketing.

Results-oriented marketing

Flarecom helps start-ups attract clients and grow sales. Start-ups need a marketing process that works – not a collection of fluffy, vanity metrics. We build scalable marketing practices and help manage the growth strategy for start-up organizations – acting as a strategic partner.

Marketing automation
Search
Social media
PR and Content marketing
Email marketing
Advertising
Conversion and lead generation

Startup marketing company

Digital marketing for startups. Flarecom are an digital agency dedicated to start-up marketing solutions. Advertising, SEO, social media, content websites, mobile and PR. We help startups after the angle investment stage build a sales pipeline to generate revenue, improve their service offering and nurture sales.

We help startups gain traction in the marketplace. Contact us today to find out how we can help grow your new business online.

Posted by Flarecom

Internet Marketing Magazine – October 2019

October 4, 2019Business, Online Marketing

Posted by Flarecom

Seasonal Trends In The Australian Property Industry

February 14, 2017Business

The Australian property market is always a hot topic. Rocketing house prices and the rising cost of living have forced many consumers to weigh up if they can afford to become home owners versus remaining renters.

This report will focus on the consumers looking to move home through buying or renting. It will also explore online growth across the property industry, identify brand performance at a state level and describe key audiences to tailor content and campaign strategies.

Seasonal Trends

The Property industry has grown 42.5% from December 2013 to December 2016, peaking during the spring and summer months.

Regional Demand

Property websites’ brand awareness and performance varies from state to state with All Homes seeing it’s greatest share of visits from NSW and On The House it’s greatest from Queensland.

Target Audiences

Prospective home buyers are slightly older than renters. They are 1.3x more likely to be aged 35-44. As we might expect they fall into the most affluent Mosaic groups and over-index for household incomes of $100k+. Females made up the largest share of both audiences, this clear skew highlights that women are more involved in online research for a new property than men, this is an important consideration for campaign planning.

Audience Lifestyles

The House & Garden sites and searches to over-index for the ‘buy’ a property audience shows a focus on DIY and home improvement, particularly in the garden.

How has the property industry grown year on year?

The industry has grown 42.5% from December 2013 to December 2016. The graph indicates a slight lull over the winter months, highlighting less people look to move house at this time of year.

The 3.27% increase in Total Visits for August 2016 can be linked to interest rates dropping.

This top level industry knowledge can help inform sales campaign strategies throughout the year to ensure content is resonating with house movers at peak times.

How does visit share vary by state?

It’s easier than ever for people to search for a new property with sites like Realestate.com.au and Domain operating Australia-wide. Combined these two websites make up 60% share of visits to the industry.

Looking at visits to a selection of small players in this space we can identify who has the greatest brand presence at a state level which they can use to attract valuable advertisers and potential partners.

We can also gain similar insights for real estate agents. This enables companies who don’t operate at a national level but in specific states to easily benchmark where they sit.

How does the audience for ‘buy’ and ‘rent’ differ?

Two audiences come to mind when thinking about home movers, those looking to ‘buy’ and those looking to ‘rent’. Understanding the key differences between these two groups can help deliver content that is going to resonate with consumers in the research phase of moving house.

Creating audience segments of those who searched for ‘buy property’ variations or visited the Buy section of a real estate listing, versus those searching for a ‘ rent property’ variation or that visited the Rental listings section. The following insights are returned;

How do the digital behaviours differ across these two audiences?

We can pinpoint the interests and searches preferenced by the ‘buy’ a property audience. The location searches for example can help steer search campaigns and maximise the messaging that will appeal most.

Comparing the House & garden sites and searches that this audience over-indexes for reveals they are focused on DIY and home improvement, particularly in the garden.

Higher end websites such as Matt Blatt over-index whilst IKEA under-indexed. Blogs that were popular with this audience include Zero Hedge and WordPress.

Television websites Discovery and Fox Sports over-indexed for this audience. Interestingly by comparison renters over-indexed for Main Event the pay-per-view channel.

For those wanting to engage with the rental audience the locations, searches and brands below can all be taken into consideration.

Knowing more about your clients online preferences will allow estate agents, advertisers and listing sites to make smarter decisions.

Don’t waste another dollar..

Is your real estate agency struggling to get online conversions from your ads? The key to selling successfully online lies in your sales funnel. You’ve spent a lot of time building your database and website – make sure you leverage these to generate super high quality leads and clients.

Not sure how to even leverage the Facebook platform? We can take the whole process off your hands, from developing the blueprint through to building and testing it out.

We’ll set up, test, optimise and manage your entire campaign and stick to your goals and objectives.

Don’t have the time or resources to take care of all your social media, or would you prefer the experts to handle it? We can set up all your company’s social media channels and run them on an ongoing basis effortlessly.

Let us pull together a strategy that will crush your sales and lead objectives!

Posted by Flarecom

The Easiest Way In the World To Turn Website Visitors Into Customers

February 11, 2017Online Marketing

How to reach the 98 percent of people who leave your website without converting sales.

The Easiest Way In the World To Turn Website Visitors Into Customers…6 Steps to Profiting with Retargeting Advertising. It Works Like Magic.

Getting customers to your website is only half the battle. The question is are they converting into customers?

As a small business owner, you want to know how to reach the 95 to 98 percent of people who leave your website without converting into buyers.

Retargeting converts window-shoppers into buyers. Generally 2% of shoppers convert on the first visit to an online store. Retargeting brings back the other 98%. Retargeting works by keeping track of people who visit your site and displaying your retargeting ads to them as they visit other sites online.

For that reason, retargeting has emerged as a must have marketing channel, and all of the major companies are doing it. Retargeting is the cornerstone of any online advertising strategy since it improves the results of every other channel out there if it is implemented correctly.

Retargeting advertising allows you to “capture” all website visitors and add them to a list. Then once you have a list of your lost prospects, you can display banner ads to them on other websites to convert them to leads and sales.

So retargeting gives you another shot (or multiple shots) to convert website visitors that left before buying or giving you contact information to follow up.

HOW RETARGETING WORKS

Retargeting may sound complex, but it’s really quite simple.

Have you ever looked for an item online, but didn’t buy it, however when you visit other sites on the Internet, you see adverts for that item following you around? THAT is retargeting.

Technically speaking, retargeting relies on browser cookies. So when a potential customer visits your website, a cookie is saved on their browser. This is no different than how Google Analytics or any other analytics program works. Browser cookies are totally safe and completely legal. In fact, nearly every advertising platform relies heavily on cookies for tracking and reporting capabilities.

So once the cookie is saved on your prospects browser, then you immediately have the ability to “retarget” that prospect. As more and more prospects visit your website, your retargeting list will grow and you’ll be able to display ads to a larger audience.

When someone on your retargeting list visits other websites like CNN.com, you’ll be able to display banner ads promoting your business or a special offer.

WHY IS RETARGETING SO EFFECTIVE

Retargeting generates greater online sales by keeping your brand front and center and bringing “window shoppers” back when they’re ready to buy.

Every time your customer sees your retargeting ads, your brand gains traction and more recognition. The high click-through rates and increased conversions that are typical with retargeting campaigns underscore the value of good branding and repeated exposure.

That’s pretty cool, but it gets even better.

With retargeting, you do NOT buy ad space directly from CNN.com or any major site that displays your ad. As you may know, big websites like these are very expensive and typically require large minimum media buys. And it may not make sense to target everyone visiting those websites right? However, it makes perfect sense to target the people visiting those websites who previously visited your website. Those are your ideal prospects.

So rather than buy ad space directly from a website like CCN.com, you can buy from a retargeting ad network that has access to that ad inventory. By going through a retargeting ad network, you’ll get a huge discount because your ads are only showing to a small percentage of the entire website’s audience.

Plus, because retargeting is fairly new, there are very few competitors driving up the costs. This means retargeting is a very cost effective tactic to follow up with your lost website leads and give them the impression you have a million dollar brand image.

WHAT RETARGETING IS NOT

Retargeting is an amazing tool, but it’s not a silver bullet solution for lead generation. First, it’s important to understand retargeting will not fix your online conversion rate. So if you’re not currently converting any prospects to customers on your website, then retargeting is not going to magically solve your conversion problem.

In addition, retargeting does not help websites that do not already have traffic. This one should be obvious. If no one is visiting your website now, then no one will get on your retargeting list and you will have no one to display ads to.

Also, retargeting is not unethical or against any online privacy laws. The cookie used to create a retargeting list does not include any personal identifiable information (PII). Therefore, retargeting is completely anonymous. The only information you have is the total number of people whom you can retarget ads to.

Finally, retargeting is not a replacement for online forms to capture contact information on your website. Since retargeting is anonymous, you still need to collect contact information whenever possible to follow up via email, phone, and mail.

6 STEPS TO PROFIT WITH RETARGETING

STEP 1: CREATE YOUR ACCOUNT

The first step is to choose a retargeting ad network. Most of the big ad outlets are adding retargeting as an option so if you’re already advertising then ask your rep. If you’re not yet advertising or your ad outlet doesn’t have retargeting capabilities then here are a few specific retargeting networks we recommend:

Perfect Audience – (Click here for $120 credit)
AdRoll
Retargeter
Fetchback
AdWords ReMarketing

Perfect Audience is the best well known in terms of ease of use and performance. They reach 95% of all websites on the internet (including Facebook) so they are one of the big players if you want to reach a wide audience.

Plus we can offer our readers a $120 Free Trial with Perfect Audience

STEP 2: ADD RETARGETING CODE

The next step is to add the retargeting code to your website. To keep it simple, simply add the code to every page of your website.

If this has made absolutely no sense to you or you find it daunting, then don’t worry! You don’t have to do it alone. This is a simple task for any Webmaster or company like ours, and we can do this for you.

Once the code is on your site, then everyone who visits from that point forward will be added on to your retargeting list. So if you typically get 500 visitors in a month, then you can expect to have 500 people in your retargeting list within a month. Most retargeting platforms recommend you wait until you have about 500 people to target because otherwise there are just not enough opportunities to display your ads.

STEP 3: DESIGN BANNER ADS

The third step is to design your banner ads in all of the major dimensions. Here’s a list of the dimensions we recommend you create in order to get the most exposure:

Banner – 468×60 pixels
Square – 250×250 pixels
Small Square – 200×200 pixels
Leaderboard – 728×90 pixels
Medium Rectangle – 300×250 pixels
Large Rectangle – 336×280 pixels
Skyscraper – 120×600 pixels
Wide Skyscraper – 160×600 pixels

When you are designing your ads, make sure you include the following 3 key components:

Benefit focused headline
Phone number call to action (Important: Use a trackable phone number!)
Business logo

The first component is the headline.

Make sure your headline is all about the benefits of your product or service. For example, if you’re a dentist then the benefit might be a brighter smile. It’s not how long you’ve been in business or how many patients you’ve helped. Think about the problem you’re solving and how your customer’s life will improve by using your product or service.

The second component is your phone number call to action, which should be a unique trackable number. For example, “Call 646-470-3753 Today!” or “Call 646-470-3753 to Schedule Your Appointment Today!” By including your phone number in your ad you give the prospect the opportunity to call without having to click on the ad. Always make it as easy as possible to contact you and remove as much distraction as you can.

The third component is your business logo. With direct response advertising, we would normally never recommend you add your business logo. Especially for a small, local business where most people will not recognize the name and logo.

However, with retargeting, you’re only showing your ads to prospects who already visited your website and should remember your name and logo. Therefore, your business logo will improve your conversion rates because prospects will recognize and remember you.

STEP 4: DEPOSIT MONEY & SET BUDGET

This is easy. In order to start any ad campaign you’ll need to deposit money or add a credit card to your account so pay for the ads. While you’re adding money to the account, also set a daily and/or monthly budget to ensure you don’t exceed the money you set aside to invest in this retargeting campaign.

STEP 5: ENABLE ADS & MEASURE RESULTS

The final step is to enable the ads if they are not already and measure your results. We recommend you log into your ad account to check the stats every day for the first 3 days. If you don’t see any ad impressions after 3 days then contact the ad network to see if there is a problem with your account setup. It’s possible you didn’t add the code correctly on your website.

If you do see ad impressions and possible a few clicks after 3 days, then we recommend monitoring every other day to every week for the first month. After one month you should have enough data to calculate your return on investment (ROI).

STEP 6: TRACK YOUR ROI

When designing your banner ads we strongly recommend you use a trackable phone number so you know exactly how many calls come in from your retargeting ads.

Also, if you have a contact form on your website, then you can add conversion tracking so you know exactly how many contact form submissions come in from your retargeting ads.

To get conversion tracking set up, you or your Webmaster will add some code to your contact form “thank you” page. The “thank you” page is the page immediately after the contact form is submitted that typically says something like “Thanks for contacting us.”

If you need help adding conversion tracking to your website, then contact your ad network and they’ll help you get set up.

Armed with your trackable phone number and contact form conversion tracking, you can calculate the ROI from your campaign. For example, you may find that you generate 5 phone calls and 10 contact form submissions after the first month.

To calculate ROI, you need to know the value of a phone call and the value of a form submission. Note that the values will typically be very different because phone calls tend to be more qualified prospects than contact form submissions.

If you’re not sure about these values, then you’ll need to track all of your calls and form submissions over the next month or several months to see how many convert to sales. Then based on the value of each sale, you’ll be able to calculate an average value for every call or form submission.

Call In the Experts

As you can see, retargeting advertising can be extremely lucrative and can help businesses get customer that they would otherwise have lost.

Thee are lots of points that you need to consider in order to run a profitable campaign. At Flarecom we have lots of experience so it is second nature to us.

If you are struggling with your remarketing campaign, please don’t let that stop you missing out on huge profits using this strategy. Contact us today and let us help you reach the customers you lost when they visited your site and turn them in paying customers.

Posted by Flarecom

9 Website Design Mistakes That Can Kill Your Online Sales

September 29, 2016Design

9 major design mistakes that a lot of website owners make and discover how you can start converting your website visitors into customers

Posted by Flarecom

Google Data Studio Now Available in Australia

September 29, 2016Google Analytics, News, Online Marketing

This morning we were delighted to receive an email from Google telling us that that Google Data Studio (beta) is now available in Australia. If you love creating reporting dashboards for SEO or PCC clients then this announcement is music to your ears.

For those of you not familiar with Google Data Studio, it gives you the tools you need to turn your analytics into beautiful, easy-to-read reports through their data visualization technology.

Data Studio reports are extremely easy to read, easy to share and they are fully customizable. It’s easier than ever to pull and organize the data you need to make informed decisions about your business.

You have the option to present the data in a number of ways — bar graphs, charts, line graphs, and so on. You can even change colours, fonts, and brand the reports with your logo.

Some of the features of Data Studio include:

Put all your data to work. Easily access the data sources you need to understand your business and make better decisions.

Transform your data. Quickly transform raw data into easy-to-follow reports and dashboards — no code or queries required.

Build engaging reports and dashboards. Data Studio gives you the ability to create meaningful, shareable charts and graphs that bring your data to life.

Leverage teamwork that works. Work together quickly, from anywhere by sharing reports via Google Drive.

With this fantastic and free software, you can easily show your clients the results of your efforts in an easy-to-understand, customizable reporting dashboard. Proving ROI on digital campaigns is as important as ever and Google Data Studio will be a critical tool in any marketer’s arsenal.

Google Data Studio provides everything you need to turn your online data into beautiful, informative reporting dashboards that are easy to read, easy to share, and fully customizable. data can be pulled in from various sources in an easy to add module.

Here is a great tutorial on the basics and how to use Data Studio. For more video tutorials visit this page.

Watch the video below to learn how to create beautiful reports using the new Google Data Studio. Data Studio makes it easy to connect to your data, visualize that data, and share and collaborate with colleagues and customers.