Google has continued to change the way we do business online. It’s no secret it is the world’s dominant search engine since the first person uttered the words “I don’t know, let’s ‘Google’ it”. They change the rules of the game often, but with that comes new and exciting ways to broaden our online marketing initiatives.
Here are some insights on how to make Google work for your bottom line in 2015:
Use Google AdWords
When someone searches for something on Google, it looks at the pool of AdWords advertisers and determines whether there will be an auction. Before you embark on this form of online marketing, it’s important you define your budget and strategy. Your strategy is developed based on the types of buyers you want to attract and what keywords will most appeal to that audience.
Once you are entered into the auction, Google looks at your maximum bid and quality score. Your quality score is based on a number of factors, including how useful your ad is to the buyer. The higher your score the better! If your ad is chosen, Google uses a formula to determine the minimum amount you can pay for your position if your ad is clicked on. In 2014 it was determined that businesses make an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 they spend in AdWords. That’s ROI makes it one of the most popular forms of online marketing today.
Use Google Analytics
Google does an amazing job of creating great insight into how your online strategy is working with their analytics feature. The information you can pull is truly endless. While it’s awesome to have all that information, it can also be overwhelming. Each business needs to focus on different analytics for their goals, but there are 4 that you should be paying attention to often.
- Website Visits / Time on Site – how many visitors are you getting and how much time are they hanging around? This information is an excellent insight into how your online marketing efforts are working to pull people in and how well your website is doing to engage them.
- Traffic Sources – Ok, so you just saw that 1,500 people came to your site this month but where did they all come from? It’s a great way to analyze your online marketing efforts. Knowing if it was email, social posts or an AdWords campaign is crucial to evaluating your tactics.
- Referring Websites – are other sites referring to me and if so, how do I get more links? Using this data to thank partners, find out where your links are lacking and reciprocating links to partners will be beneficial to your strategy.
- Top Pages Viewed – what pages are people visiting the most often and spending the most time in on your website? This is a great content driver to help you pull in more visits and leads for your sales team.
Track Google Trends
Google trends allow users to track two or more terms and how they are trending in the searches. We’ve found this to be one of the coolest resources for our clients and us. Why? Because it makes us look through the eyes of the buyer. For example, we like to talk about inbound marketing because we are a certified HubSpot Inbound Marketing Agency.
