Google announced new rules to distinguish popular and authoritative websites. Many small businesses have trouble using pay-per-click remarketing to target customers effectively, and as a result, nearly all small businesses polled in a recent survey said PPC is an ineffective strategy for advertising.
With more than 1 million companies advertising their products on Google, competition to get noticed is stiff. Several little-known techniques for increasing visibility can give savvy small businesses a leg up. Consumer surveys, special offers, smart PPC remarketing, and alternative product listings can turn Google’s constantly changing algorithm in your company’s favor.
Fear prevents small businesses from taking risks
When a firm stakes too much of its budget on a particular marketing strategy, the possibility of missing payments and getting behind on payroll may become very real. Diversifying your marketing tactics helps you hedge your risks and save as much as 25 percent on marketing costs.
When used effectively, pay-per-click remarketing can reach highly interested customers with custom-tailored advertising.
A recent WordStream study found that, on average, small business owners lose 25 percent of their advertising budget on inefficient PPC remarketing strategies. Out of a typical advertising budget of $1,200 per month, small businesses spend $300 on ads that are never seen by potential customers.
Search engine quality scores will drastically affect cost-per-click prices, because the highest-rated businesses pay 50 percent of CPC and the lowest-rated pay up to 400 percent. More than half of small business websites lack conversion-tracking software and have no way to analyze their traffic.
Targeted advertisements and email newsletters can increase website conversion rates by as much as 65 percent, according to research conducted by marketing analysis firm Econsultancy. Optimization of an online business website can prevent shopping cart abandonment and lost customers.
Strategies for increasing advertising efficiency
Many small businesses hire SEO specialists to optimize their marketing strategies in such areas as editorial appropriateness, nofollowing links, and reinclusion requests — because they don’t have the time to learn the ins and outs of these complicated tactics.
Most search engines offer simpler ways to increase website conversions, such as targeted PPC marketing and other unique search engine features. Merchant special offers display relevant product listings alongside Google search results.
New Google Shopping features allow customers to filter results by merchant special offers, so businesses can convert new leads through Google Shopping results. With merchant special offers, low-ranked listings appear on the first page of shopping results.
Consumer surveys are another feature offered by Google to enable businesses to get customer feedback after making a purchase. Recent updates to Google’s search results algorithm display consumer surveys in a sidebar along with Google Adwords results.
The feature is known as Consumer Ratings Annotations. It informs potential customers of a business’s trustworthiness and ratings by other customers.
Most businesses report that SEO and simple word-of-mouth advertising are better lead generators than PPC. Savvy marketers have a perfect opportunity to distinguish themselves from the crowd with a more effect PPC remarketing strategy.
