Category: Marketing

Don’t let your content dreams be dreams. You can tap into traffic and conversions, get qualified leads, and grow your business. All you need is the right set of tools to help you make your content look top-notch and the analytics to keep it answering your customer’s questions.

Blog Highlight: https://www.digitalmarketer.com/blog/top-9-content-marketing-tools-of-2021/

WHAT IS DIGITALMARKETER:

DigitalMarketer is the premier online community for digital marketing professionals. It’s a place where you can learn how to market like a pro, connect with industry experts, and get the strategies and tools you need to grow and scale your business to new heights. https://www.digitalmarketer.com/

Related DigitalMarketer Course: https://www.digitalmarketer.com/lp/content-marketing-mastery/

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LinkedIn advertising has been steadily gaining notoriety over the past few years, thanks to its super specific demographic targeting and professionals-based network. 

But there are definitely a few fears that may be preventing you from delving into LinkedIn advertising: it is expensive; it is uncharted territory (in comparison to Facebook or Google); it is not a sales-based platform; etc. These concerns are 100% valid. 

If you are reading this article, you are likely a LinkedIn skeptic. And that’s okay! This article will walk you through the proof that LinkedIn ads ARE worth the effort, then suggest a few resources for your next steps. 

A Quick Disclaimer: 

Like we said above, there are some real drawbacks to LinkedIn advertising. Really quick, let’s address those concerns (because it’s completely possible that you’re right: LinkedIn ads might not work for you). 

Reasons to say “No thanks” to LinkedIn Ads:

#1 | You can’t afford it.

 Advertising on LinkedIn is simply more expensive than alternative options. Of course, it also has the potential to be more lucrative… but it is a huge investment. If your business is still small or is not focusing a big chunk of the budget on advertising, this might not be a good time to start LinkedIn advertising. 

#2 | Your primary goal is to sell.

Yes, yes. Obviously, we are all trying to sell something. But the LinkedIn platform is not centered on buying. It is centered on growth: personal growth, career growth, business growth. If you can market your business so that it can contribute to a potential client’s growth, then you’ll succeed on LinkedIn. 

Alright, if you are still interested after our disclaimer, then we are ready to seal the deal and give you definitive proof! 

LinkedIn Advertising Statistics: 

LinkedIn is a great advertising platform because it simultaneously 1) attracts almost every kind of person and 2) singularly appeals to people interested or involved in business. So everyone on LinkedIn is potentially interested in your business, but you can also find virtually any demographic. 

LinkedIn reported over 706 million users and furthermore, says that 80% of these users have influence over business decisions. Because of the professional environment and high concentration of business accounts, LinkedIn also claims that their users have double the buying power of a more general online audience. Surely, these are very valuable potential clients! 

LinkedIn also reports that their conversation rates are an average of 300% higher than other platforms.

These statistics can certainly justify the price point, as well as your time and effort!

Our Stats: 

While LinkedIn’s statistics are certainly encouraging, we also wanted to offer some of our own. 

DigitalMarketer’s LinkedIn page has 55,622 followers, which means our posts already show up on all those people’s pages. This is a result of strategic ads to our targeted demographics as well as consistent and engaging posts. 

Aside from that, our analytics are quite happy with where we…

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Rebranding can be costly, but not as costly as straying from your values.

Ruben Aguirre’s family immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico when he was six. Growing up, he had a front row seat to their entrepreneurial genius as they started over in a new place, building one business after another. He started his own business in 2014 and recently went through a complete rebrand.

In today’s episode of the DigitalMarketer Podcast, Ruben sits down with host Jenna Snavely to talk about his journey, including the profound impact DigitalMarketer has had on his company, 8 Signal Marketing Agency. Listen in and hear his inspiring story.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN:

• Tips for knowing when/how to rebrand
• The hidden benefits of impostor syndrome
• How to turn away clients that aren’t a good fit for your company
• How to cut through the noise in the marketplace

Listen Now

OUR PARTNERS:

Resources Mentioned In This Episode:

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

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Your SEO marketing budget is specific to your business. Reading an article telling you to spend $3,000 per month on SEO isn’t the answer you need.

You need to know how much *you* should spend on SEO, based on what SEO success looks like for you, how much you can afford right now, and what type of hire fits your business best.

That’s where this article differs from the others online (trying to answer the same question).

We’ll avoid giving you generalized advice and replace it with 3 questions that will tell you how much to spend on SEO marketing.

Because marketing isn’t one-size-fits-all.

How Much You Should Be Spending on SEO Marketing

Question #1: What does an SEO success story look like for you?

SEO success means something different to each company. If you’re making $100,000 a year, SEO success could look like another $20,000 in profits. → But, if you’re making $5,000,000 a year, your SEO strategy needs to bring in high 6-figures to be worth your resources.

To figure out what your SEO success story is, you’ll narrow down how much you’d like to make from your SEO strategy if all goes well. As tempting as it is wanting to make $100 billion trillion from it, let’s keep our feet on the ground.

How many more products or services can your supply chain or team realistically handle?

• Can you add 10,000 more units to your ecommerce store?
• Are you able to work with 15 more agency clients?
• Do you need 5,000 more membership sign-ups?

Your SEO strategy has one job: get more traffic and conversions. Knowing how much more traffic and how many conversions you can handle is the first step to figuring out what you should invest.

Question #2: What can you afford to invest for a long-term ROI?

The best part of your SEO strategy is that it will be around for a long time. The worst part of an SEO strategy is that it takes a few months to get it rolling. SEO isn’t like paid ads that pop out conversions after a week. With SEO, you’ll tap into your inner meditation guru while you wait for the results to come in a few months down the line.

That means you need to invest what you can afford to wait to see an ROI on.

With paid ads, you can invest $1,000 and get ready to see conversions within a week or so. But, with SEO, that $1,000 investment isn’t coming back to you for at least a few weeks. You don’t want to invest more than you can afford to while waiting to see it boomerang back to you. 

For an experienced SEO specialist working full-time, Glassdoor averages a salary of $46,658, but depending on experience and location this is (of course) going to differ.

If you’d prefer to bring on a freelance or hire an agency, you won’t…

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App store optimization (ASO) is about getting your mobile app in front of the right users at the right time. 

With 2.22 million apps available in the Apple App Store and 2.89 million in the Google Play Store, you need the best possible strategy to help your app stand out. 

In this post, we’re sharing how ASO helps you increase traffic and downloads, the specific on-metadata vs. off-metadata factors that matter, and how to leverage ASO mechanics to maximize conversions. 

How to leverage app store optimization (ASO) to improve app visibility, conversion rates, and retention

ASO is about improving your app’s visibility to drive awareness, conversions, and prolonged engagement.  

Like with SEO, there are rules you need to follow (to satisfy algorithms), best practices (depending on your goals and audience), and consistent testing and optimization. 

Done right, ASO can reduce user acquisition costs, increase app downloads, and improve your app’s value. 

But ASO, like search engine optimization, fails when worshipped like a false god. Installs and conversions should be celebrated, but 21% of users abandon apps after one use and the average 30-day post-install retention rate is only 5.7% (industry-wide). We can’t rely on install metrics alone to substantiate success.

A positive and engaging experience to improve retention is just as important as downloads or conversions (if not more). Otherwise, you’ll live in an inflated metrics loop that doesn’t reflect true, long-term value. 

Building a sustainable customer experience that goes beyond conversion rates is key.

Stand out from the crowd with brand differentiation

Everyone wants their app to stand out, but you can’t differentiate on features alone. Increased competition leads to commoditization, and your ideas will get copied.  

Banking apps used to show your bank balance on the go. Now, customers expect to be able to make transfers between accounts, pay other people, and alert their banks to fraud. Mobile banking has become tablestakes, and the same cycle will repeat when the next unique feature comes into play. 

To stand out, you need a strong user experience (more on this below) and brand differentiation. ASO helps you avoid sameness by:

• Becoming more discoverable for relevant keywords that users search for. 70% of Apple App Store visitors use app store search to discover apps. And, 65% of downloads happen post-search. Sounds promising, but don’t use keywords to cast a wide net. You’ll end up chasing false-positive click-to-install metrics that don’t improve conversion rate optimization. Instead, conduct voice-of-customer research to align your keywords with audience intent and capture quality downloads that won’t immediately churn. 

• Lowering your customer acquisition costs (CAC). The average app install cost per Facebook Ad in 2020 was $3.50. Paid ads can supplement organic reach, but should not drive your ASO strategy. 90% of worldwide app installs are organic, so play the long game to boost retention, not the short game to capture misaligned downloads. To keep…

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Weekly Wrap Up: Friday 8/13/2021 – DigitalMarketer Weekly Wrap Up: Friday 8/13/2021 – DigitalMarketer
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Building loyalty and awareness are top priorities for any social media marketer. And for good reason. The greater your visibility, the more your brand is in front of potential followers. 

By turning those fans into customers, you can create long-term advocates that spend more money and recommend you to others. 

In the past, it was possible to achieve these goals through promotion and advertising. However, the rules of engagement are changing. Today’s social media users are more discerning about where they place their trust. Brands have to work harder and smarter to earn it.

In this article, we’ll look at how the social media landscape has evolved, and what you can do to grow your presence and create a community of loyal fans.

Recent years have changed social media for better and worse. On the one hand, it’s played a critical role in bringing people together during a pandemic that forced us apart. It’s also provided a platform to speak on areas such as climate action and racial and gender equality. 

On the other, it’s been damaged by concerns over privacy (see The Cambridge Analytica and Facebook scandal) and fake news.

More people than ever are using social sites, which is good news for social media marketers. But more of these people are using it to interact with friends and family. What’s more, fewer people trust what they see and hear in their feeds.

So, how do you build awareness in a landscape favored for person-to-person interaction? And how do you build loyalty when people are more skeptical?

With a social media content strategy rooted in relationships and communication. 

As Neal Schaffer points out:

“…Companies still look at social media as a promotional and advertising channel rather than as a grand arena to collaborate with social media users, primarily customers and influencers, and work them through a relationship funnel to incite word of mouth marketing for your brand in social media.”

[via Smart Insights]

Edelman’s Trust Barometer study shows that trust is second only to price in becoming a loyal customer. And 70% of people say trusting a brand is more important today than in the past.

To earn that trust, word-of-mouth marketing leads the way.

Communication builds lasting relationships. You have to make social media a two-way street. Neal again:

“The social media algorithms will always favor people. It’s time to wake up to this fact and be the first in your industry to craft a radically different people-first social media strategy that is driven by the voice of your employees, customers, and influencers.”

[via Smart Insights]

More than ever, your strategy needs to embrace and engage people who have an affinity with your brand. They will help generate awareness and inspire trust.

Social selling app Depop does this by combining user-generated content with influencer Q&As.

“A lot of our content on Instagram is just…

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Instagram has been rolling out new ad placements at lightning speed over the past few years. We’ve gotten Stories Ads, IGTV Ads, and Reels Ads. Now we’re gaining access to Instagram Explore Ads, too.

Instagram’s Explore Ads allow advertisers to show sponsored content on the Explore page, where users go to browse images and videos that the app has curated based on their past behavior and interests. They’re an exciting placement option because they reach people who don’t already follow you while they are in prime discovery mode. 

In this post, we’re going to go over everything you need to know to get started with Instagram Explore Ads, including why you should use them and how to set them up.

What Are Instagram Explore Ads?

Instagram’s Explore Ads show up when you’re browsing content that you’ve found in the Explore section. Right now, they’ll show up not necessarily in the Explore section itself, but in the “similar posts” you see after clicking on an Explore post. (Note that this may change eventually).

Let’s look at an example. Here’s my Explore feed. I decide to click on the “Spot the Difference” post in the top right hand corner. 

That opens an Explore post-by-post feed that resembles the newsfeed. I see the post I clicked on, and can scroll through more.

After scrolling down past another post, I see this: An ad that was generated in my Explore scrolling feed.

Why You Should Use Instagram Explore Ads

If you’re wondering whether or not you should use Instagram Explore Ads, the answer is yes. This is a great new placement, and it offers three distinct benefits. 

It’s An Additional Placement Opportunity 

At the end of the day, the more placement opportunities you have for your ads, the better. There are more chances to connect with more segments of your target audience, and since you can use the creatives you’re already using for Facebook and Instagram Ads without having to modify them in any way, this is an easy way to potentially scale your campaigns.

And it’s a good placement opportunity. According to Instagram’s own numbers, Explore has over 200M daily active accounts that view the page, and 50% of accounts on Instagram use Explore at least once a month.

It’s a Great Place to Reach New Followers 

People go to the Explore section when they want to find something new. They’ve likely already browsed through their own feed and are excited to see what else is on the platform. They want to find new content, specifically from accounts that they aren’t already following. 

…

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Instagram Story ads are continuously growing in popularity and there’s a solid reason for this trend.

More than a billion people use Instagram every month, and 500 million use Stories every day. From a marketing perspective, it’s obvious why Instagram Stories are a great tool for any business. If you’re not making the most of Stories as a placement for your ads, you’re missing out on a lot of advertising potential.

This guide covers the ins and outs of Instagram Stories advertising and includes inspiring Instagram Story ads examples that you can learn from.

What are Instagram Story ads?

Instagram’s Story ads are full-screen, vertical photo or video ads that are served to target audiences while they browse Instagram Stories.

Advertisers can include custom swipe-up CTAs in Instagram Story ads (however, the swipe-up feature is about to be replaced by stickers). Available objectives include brand awareness, reach and conversions (more on this in the setup section).

Source: Facebook

Instagram Story ads don’t disappear after 24 hours like organic Story content does. Instead, you get to choose how long your ad campaign will run.

Advertising on Instagram Stories gives you the opportunity to be creative, and the ads are immersed seamlessly into viewers’ viewing experience.

Instagram Story ads best practices

To create an effective Instagram Stories ad, you need to think strategically and plan ahead.

Here are a few best practices to keep in mind when creating your Stories ads that will help you stand out and attract viewers.

Get straight to the point

On Instagram, and especially on Instagram Stories, content is consumed very fast.

Your ads need to capture your audience’s attention immediately to stand out from the endless stream of content. Suspense will do you no good in Instagram Story ads, so kick your video ads off with your value proposition.

Strategically showcase your logo

If you’re pouring in an effort to create an attractive Story ad, you shouldn’t forget to reap the benefits of brand recognition. There’s a simple way of doing this: by featuring your brand logo in your Stories.

Here are some tips to keep at the top of your mind while employing this practice:

• Ensure that no object or elements of visual design are in the way of the logo being seen.
• Be product or service-centric with your Stories, more so if the product/service in question already has the logo included.
• Avoid flashy design elements so that your brand name/logo can stand out in the Story.

Make your ads engaging

While, in general, photo posts perform best on Instagram, you can shake up your content by telling your stories with videos or animations every now and then.…

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If you’re like most marketers and advertisers, you closely track the performance of your Facebook Ad campaigns on a daily or weekly basis. That’s where a Facebook Ads audit template comes into play.

Facebook Ads audits are essential to assess the overall performance of your campaigns. In this post, we’re going to go over exactly what’s included in a Facebook Ads audit, how to perform one, and share a free Facebook Ads audit template to make the process easier.

What is a Facebook Ads Audit?

A Facebook Ads audit is a full and in-depth review of everything that’s happening with your Facebook Ad campaigns.

You can conduct audits weekly, but it’s essential to ensure that you’re auditing your accounts under the following circumstances:

 

• At frequent intervals, such as once a month to ensure everything is on track
• Whenever you’re taking on a new client’s ad management
• If there’s an issue with underperformance in existing campaigns and you want to know why
• When you’re interested in making changes to your campaigns overall to optimize them further, or after testing out a new strategy

Auditing will examine all of the metrics involved with your ad campaigns, including what results you’re getting and how much they’re costing you. In-depth audits (which we strongly recommend conducting) also will look at the strategies you’re using, the audiences you’re targeting, and the ad tools that you’re using.

Without thorough audits, it can be difficult to truly assess how your campaigns are performing and what’s driving the results. Audits can help you spot trends and patterns, making it easier to create stronger campaigns both in the short and long-term future.

Audits are also essential in making sure that your accounts are in good standing in every way; since Facebook updates the platform regularly, they prevent you from missing a major change like how the pixel works or new ad types.

How to Perform a Facebook Ads Audit

When performing a Facebook Ads audit, there are multiple steps involved and a lot of data that you’ll be looking at. Because of this, we recommend going step by step through the process and compiling data in a central point to better track trends.

We’re going to look at the six essential steps that come into play when conducting a Facebook Ads audit. They may not all apply to you, but read through each one to make sure. Then you can follow the steps that apply to you and skip the ones that don’t.

You can also do your own Facebook Ads Audit using our free template, which will take you through each of the 6 steps below.

1. Gain High-Level Access to the Account in Question

The first thing you need to do, if possible, is to get access to the Facebook Ad account that needs to be audited.

Some agencies will ask clients to just send over the analytics reports, but it’s much more effective to gain access to the analytics directly.

This is for several…

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