Maccabees Update: Google Confirms New Core Algorithm Changes

Today we received confirmation from a Google spokesperson that “several minor changes” were made to the core algorithm this month.
“We released several minor improvements during this timeframe, part of our regular and routine efforts to improve relevancy,” a Google spokesperson told Search Engine Journal.
The timeframe with the most volatility for some websites was between December 12 and 14.
Following published reports about the Maccabees Update, Danny Sullivan, Google’s public liaison for search, downplayed its significance on Twitter:

Reports calling this a single “update” or calling it “Fred” don’t reflect what we actually said: there were several minor changes that happened as they routinely do in any particular week. — Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan)

 

 What is Update Maccabees (formerly known as Fred)?

Updates to the core algorithm do not receive a formal name. So they are informally named Fred. However, Barry Schwartz of SERoundtable named it Maccabees in recognition of Hanukkah and the search community followed on.

In a separate tweet, Sullivan was wary of giving this flux period a name because it wasn’t a single, major update:

There was no single update. I suppose some might find it useful to give a name to the general flux period, but I think it’s important to understand there were different changes happening — as happen in any week. — Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) 

What Does a Core Update Mean?

Updates to the core algorithm can be a variety of things.
Here are some examples:

1. Algorithms that determine the relevance of a search query to a web page
2. Change in how links to a site are scored. This means, some links begin counting less or other links can count more. This will result in a re-ranking of certain kinds of sites. Sites that depend on a single kind of link can be vulnerable if that kind link is devalued.
3. Change in how page content is scored. For example, if a search query is informational in nature, then a commercial site may be deemed irrelevant.

What Is the Maccabees Update?

First reports of changes to Google’s search results began December 12. The impact is not widespread.
Anecdotal evidence shows that many affiliate type sites have felt it the most.  Normal e-commerce sites have not been affected on the same scale but some have reported as suffering drops in traffic (WebmasterWorld Google Update Discussion), but e-commerce sites appear to be in the minority.
It is tempting to view updates to the core algorithm as targeting a certain kind of site. However, as the Google spokesperson said, these changes are meant to improve relevancy. So that means it could be, as noted above, improvements to on-page or off-page relevance signals, and possibly both.
Here are the prevailing theories and counterarguments:

1. Maccabees Update is mobile-first related: This theory has been dismissed because some have reported that their sites are mobile friendly and others have reported they’ve seen no increase in Google’s mobile bot.
2. Desktop visibility affected more than mobile visibility: This is an interesting hypothesis but some have reported the opposite. I am inclined to rule this out.

Today we received confirmation from a Google spokesperson that “several minor changes” were made to the core algorithm this month.
“We released several minor improvements during this timeframe, part of our regular and routine efforts to improve relevancy,” a Google spokesperson told Search Engine Journal.
The timeframe with the most volatility for some websites was between December 12 and 14.
Following published reports about the Maccabees Update, Danny Sullivan, Google’s public liaison for search, downplayed its significance on Twitter:

Reports calling this a single “update” or calling it “Fred” don’t reflect what we actually said: there were several minor changes that happened as they routinely do in any particular week.

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan)

What Kinds of Site are Affected by the Maccabees Update?

Given the timing, it may not be far fetched to speculate that this relevancy change might be shopping related, especially given how many affected publishers are in the shopping space.
I’ve been seeing quite a bit of concern in Facebook groups associated with aggressive linking techniques. This isn’t to say that this is a link related issue.
It could be that those kinds of sites share certain attributes related to their sites. It could be that they lack certain on-page or off-page signals of authority.
There are many affiliate sites that are still ranking fine. So it’s definitely not an affiliate related update. But it may be related to something that aggressive sites share in common.
Jim Boykin of Internet Marketing Ninjas told me that he checked and double checked the rankings of client sites and reported, “nothing changing in rankings or Google organic traffic for the past month.”
Casey Markee, of MediaWyse in San Diego offered this clue:

“I did have some sites contact me and they did have drops… Their content and overall user experience though had some holes.”

I polled some affiliate site publishers who had been affected and they shared that both mobile and desktop traffic has been affected. So there you are, a minor update to the core algorithm that feels major to certain sites on the Internet.
If you have been affected and feel it’s not merited, if the site truly does not merit, then history has shown that Google tends to dial back on changes when they find it’s been creating false positives.

Resources:- Google Updation Maccabees

How to Write Title Tags For Search Engine Optimization?

Today we're going back to basics! And nothing is more basically important to a site than properly written title tags. You know the ones that used to appear in the little blue bars in your browsers. Most modern browsers try to hide these, though that doesn't stop them being helpful!

So what is a title tag? Why is it important to SEO, and how do you write the darn things?

Meta Tags

First let's talk about meta tags. Meta elements are HTML or XHTML elements used to provide information about a web page for the search engines and website users.

Such elements must be placed as tags in the head section of a HTML document. These elements are the:

• Title Tag
• Description
• Keywords (No one uses these anymore and you can get spam "points" for overuse on Bing, so just forget them. If you have keyword stuffed "spammy" ones, you probably want to fix those.)

What is a Title Tag?

Title tags are part of the meta tags that appear at the top of your HTML inside the < head> area. Think of title tags like the title of the chapter of a book. It tells people and search engines what your page is about.

Title tags are also part of what makes people decide whether to visit your site when it shows up in the search results. The title tag should contain important keywords to help the search engine determine what the page is about.

Write title tags for humans; format them for search engines.

NOTE: Every experienced SEO has their own unique methods to doing this, so I'm going to give you best practices along with some of my methods. However, there are a million ways to write a title tag.

What Does the Title Tag Look Like?

The title tag looks like this in your HTML code:

<title>Important Words Go Here </title>

Here is how title tags appear in a browser that uses the bar to display title tags (other browsers might only use the tab space or not show them at all):

Finally, here's where Google shows the title tag:

REMEMBER: A title tag is THE MOST IMPORTANT SINGLE TAG in your page. It tells the search engines what your page is about. It is still vitally important to your SEO strategy.

Quick Checklist

When you're writing your title tag what do you need to know? Here's a quick checklist with some tips on how to write optimized title tags:

• Length: Title tags should be a maximum of 70 characters long, including spaces.
• Keyword Placement: Your most important words (keywords) need to be first in your title tag, with your least important words being last in the title tag (most to least). However, if you're working in a language that reads right-to-left, then it is reversed, and it would be least important to most important.
• Keyword Separation: Use pipes | to separate important (keyword) phrases (no commas, underscores, dashes or any other punctuation unless the keyword is written that way).
• Wording: Keep your important phrases short and simple. Leave out words that would make it read like a sentence. (e.g., and, if, but, then, etc.)
• Company Name: If your company name is not part of the important (keyword) phrases, put it at the end of the title tag; if it is part of your important words, put it as the first words in the title tag. Some SEOs will tell you to leave it out. You can leave it in for branding purposes – so people will see the brand and click. This isn't valid for all sites.
• DON'T DUPLICATE Title Tags: They must be written differently for every page. Don't mass replicate your title tags.
• Make It Relevant: Title tags must be written to be descriptive of the content on the page. (e.g., the About Page would be:

About | Important Keywords | Company Name

or

Important Keywords | About Us | Company Name

Google & Title Tags

Sometimes Google doesn't like your title tag. In fact, sometimes Google thinks it can pick a better one, so it will rewrite the tag for you. There are several places it might get this information, most of them you won't prefer to one you crafted yourself.

While there isn't any assurance your title tag won't be replaced, make sure you write a title tag that is page related, content descriptive, short and sweet, and not keyword stuffed. This is your one defense.

Keyword Stuffed Title Tags

You've probably come across badly written title tags that try to rank for everything or repeat a word over and over. Keyword stuffing is the worst offense when it comes to title tags.

Say your site is trying to rank for Blue Bells and Yellow Bells. Many times you will see the main keyword repeated multiple times across the title tag. It might appear like this:

Blue Bells, Yellow Bells, All Types of Bells | Bells Bells and More | Doors.com

This is bad title tag writing. You don't need to repeatedly write the keyword. Google especially can pick up the keywords like your eyes can read them, so you would best to rewrite this as

Blue & Yellow Bells | Doorbells | Doors.com

We removed the extra words, combined the products (if possible you would split these products to separate pages, a blue and a yellow, but this isn't always feasible or desirable) and added a category keyword which would appear in the middle of the title tag on all doorbell related page titles, then end it with the domain name (again this is for branding purposes – there are also good reasons to not do this, it depends on the SEO).

Now our title tag is short, sweet, simple, and to the point. We have also categorized it and added in branding for good measure.

We also took out the word "and" and replaced it with an ampersand (&) so that you don't accidentally relate the two items and make Google think you want people who are looking for Blue AND Yellow Bells.

And there you go, a basic lesson in title tag writing. This can be the most challenging and fun part of any SEO's work! Or should that be "Inbound Marketer's" work?

Some Title Tag Writing Examples

Let's look at a few examples of writing title tags with actual examples.

If your important words (keywords) were "Charlie Sheen" and "Winning" your title tag would be written in that order:

Charlie Sheen Winning

Charlie Sheen would be the first words in the tag.

Now what if we had more than one set of words? What if my keywords were "Charlie Sheen Winning"and "Tiger's Blood"? Your title tag would still be written with "Charlie Sheen Winning" as the first words in the tag. Then you would add a pipe | and "Tiger's Blood" as the second phrase:

Charlie Sheen Winning | Tiger's Blood

Don't use hyphens, underscores, commas or any other type of character – just pipes.

Now what if we had more than one set of words and a company name we were not worried about optimizing for (the company name was not part of the reputation issue). If my words were "Charlie Sheen Winning" and "Tiger's Blood" and "CBS", you would separate these three phrases with pipes, with CBS last and farthest from the beginning, which Google sees as the least important phrase:

Charlie Sheen Winning | Tiger's Blood | CBS

The company name can be repeated in every title tag as long as it as not part of the important words and appears at the far right end of the title tag.

What about sentences? Couldn't you just write a sentence such as "Charlie Sheen Says Winning And Tiger's Blood And Gets CBS Riled Up"? You could, but those extra words like "says", "and", and "riled", dilute your important words and make them less important to content, so best to keep it short, simple, and clear. Leave out the extra words.

Title Tag Writing Pop Quiz!

When using strict SEO principles. Which are the BEST title tags for the important (keywords): (pick 2) "Charlie Sheen" "Winning" "Howard Stern Show" when optimizing (trying to rank for) the words"Charlie Sheen (1) Winning (2)"

1. Charlie Sheen Winning on the Howard Stern Show
2. Howard Stern Show & Charlie Sheen | Winning
3. Charlie Sheen is Winning Points on the Howard Stern Show
4. Charlie Sheen | Winning | Howard Stern Show
5. Charlie Sheen and Howard Stern Winning the Show
6. Winning | Charlie Sheen on the Howard Stern Show
7. Charlie Sheen Winning | Howard Stern Show
8. Doesn't matter as long as the words are all there

5 types of retargeting every marketer should know of.

Digital marketing is a fast paced field. Even if new marketing technologies tend to be slowly adopted (think marketing automation, programmatic ad buying), digital marketing concepts and tactics spread easily.

If you need proof, think how fast viewability became one of the buzzwords for 2015 advertising predictions after Google dropped the bomb that only 54% of online ad impressions are viewable.

Even if retargeting has been around for some while, the concept has changed, grown and adapted to fit many tactics. If you don’t want to appear silly, read on and get acquainted with all the available retargeting forms.

RETARGETING INCEPTION

Retargeting was first introduced by Google in March 2010. Since then, Google has grown and adapted the tools it offers marketers.

Facebook joined the party in December 2012 when they launched FBX – the platform that allows advertisers to use third party data to target users on Facebook inventory. Thus social retargeting emerged and Twitter followed in on the trend in 2014.

Ok, so why the short history lesson? That’s how site, social and search retargeting emerged. Let’s take a look at all the different types of retargeting and what they stand for.

1. SITE RETARGETING

This is the one that started it all. Site retargeting is the process of showing ads to people who have visited your site, but left without converting. This is the broadest definition of retargeting because it doesn’t take into consideration the inventory where the ads are displayed.

It simply refers to the process of using data to bring your visitor back to reduce shopping cart abandonment, increase conversions and drive brand awareness.

2. EMAIL/CRM RETARGETING

Even if email alone is a very strong driver of sales ($44 ROI for every dollar invested) and a very popular channel among marketers (according to a Forbes study, 67% of marketers say that it is key for attracting and engaging prospects), there is plenty of room for improvement. Enter: email retargeting.

Email retargeting allowed you to show ads to users or subscribers who have opened your emails. It worked like traditional site retargeting. When an user opens the email, a cookie is stored in his browser. Using that cookie, the user is identified when he browses other websites or social networks and sees your ad.

However, email retargeting stopped being a viable solution once Google changed the way it display images. Because Google caches images, the retargeting pixel can’t be dropped into the users’ browser. Without that, you can’t build lists of users to show ads to.

The alternative all previous email retargeting providers adopted is CRM retargeting. With CRM retargeting, you can show ads to users based on their email address. All you need to do is upload the email address list to your retargeting provider. They do the hard work of matching the data you provide with data from other online/offline CRM to identify the user and show him your ads. Automatically, of course.

This type of retargeting is similar to Facebook custom audiences. With custom audiences, you need to upload a list of emails, phone numbers or users ids. Facebook does the matching, identifies the users and shows them your ads.

With CRM retargeting, the success rate depends on the match settings you select when you upload your data. Also, if you want to run this type of retargeting, you need to choose a company that provides this service such as Ad Roll or Perfect Audience.

3. SOCIAL/SOCIAL MEDIA RETARGETING (FACEBOOK AND TWITTER)

Social/ social media retargeting is displaying ads on social networks to, you’ve guessed it – people who visited your site without converting.

While the name encompasses both platforms (Twitter, Facebook – Linkedin, at the time of writing, does not allow retargeting), it does not imply that you’re running ads on both platforms. You could be running retargeting ads only on Facebook or only on Twitter for instance. However, it’s good to know the term – you never know when you might need it.

What’s different between site retargeting and social media retargeting? Like we mentioned earlier, site retargeting only mentions the process, it doesn’t say anything about the channel. Before the Facebook Exchange, the default channel for retargeting ads were banner ads displayed on websites. With social media retargeting, you’re specific about where you’re having your ads shown.

4. REMARKETING LISTS FOR SEARCH ADS

While the other types or retargeting are available from multiple companies, remarketing lists for search ads are available only in Google Adwords. With it, you can use your current remarketing lists and reach site visitors when they go back to Google to make a search. Instead of showing banner ads, you show your users classic search text ads.

Because there’s been less talk about it, remarketing lists for search ads is not as popular as other types of remarketing. Like with social, still, it’s good to know the term and what it actually refers to.

Remarketing lists for search ads sometimes gets confused with search retargeting because they both use “search” and “retargeting”. However, they couldn’t be more different. Remarketing lists for search ads allows you to show search engine text ads to users who have been to your site. Search retargeting allows you to show banners and Facebook ads to people who have never visited your site, but have searched for relevant keywords and phrases, more on it belo

5. SEARCH RETARGETING

Even if it contains the word “retargeting”, search retargeting is very different from the other types mentioned. While all the others are ways of getting users that you have somehow came in contact with (either they visited or subscribed to your website), search retargeting allows you to reach highly potential, entirely new customers for your business.

Search retargeting allows you to show your ads to users who have previously searched for keywords that are related to your business, but have never visited your website. For instance, if you have an online shoe store, your ad could appear to users who have searched for  “high-heeled shoes” or “Red shoes”.

Search retargeting is a great way to reach users beyond their initial search. Because it targets recent interest, it’s also highly effective. Ads can be displayed both on Facebook and the web.

Now, back to you. Are there any other types of retargeting that you know about? What else would you want to know about each type?

An In-Depth Comparison of Remarketing and Retargeting Services.

A customer steps into your shop, inquires about a particular product, and then leaves without buying. You know there’s a potential sale, and there’s every chance that person will be buying a similar product sooner rather than later.

How would you like to send some of your sales people to follow that visitor, reminding them of your business wherever they go? In fact, reminding them to the extent that your business/brand is the first and only name that comes to mind when they are about to make a purchase?

Sounds like an insane idea in the real world. Even if your sales staff doesn’t get beaten up for stalking, the cost alone would make it impossible to pull off.

But that’s exactly what remarketing (a/k/a retargeting) services enable you to do in the online world.

Remarketing is great for many reasons. For example:

• Reduced cost per impression
• Better conversion rates
• Improved ROI
• Precise targeting
• Cost effective branding

It’s no wonder remarketing has been taking the online world by storm.

But… It just seems so difficult, so hard to understand and set up.

Is it?

Reeeeallly?

Truth be told, setting up a killer remarketing campaign is surprisingly easy. As long as you understand the basics, there are great remarketing platforms out there ready to help you smash your ROI targets. These platforms take care of all of the technicals, like leaving a cookie to earmark visitors, monitoring their behavior, making guesses about their intent, or working with a “display network” or “Real Time Bidding exchange.” Pretty cool, really, because they leave you more time to work on strategy and branding while they handle all of the technicalities.

Let’s dive in and take a look at some of the main platforms you can use.

AdRoll

AdRoll has been providing various online advertising options to businesses for more than five years, but they are best known for their retargeting plans. And while it’s not always a testimony to the efficacy of a service, with companies like Moz, Levi’s, Red Vines, and Salesforce using the platform, you can think they must be doing something right.

• AdRoll works with advertising partners like Facebook Exchange, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, allowing you to reach 98% of sites on the Internet.
• Speaking of ROI, AdRoll retargeting customers earn $10 for every $1 spent on average. (At least that’s what they claim on their website.)
• The guys at AdRoll are really good at advance targeting techniques, likecustomer segmentation, geo targeting, and more. Using their platform, you can target or exclude site visitors based on their actions, create groups of users based on purchase intent (like adding a product to a shopping cart), and set up advanced conversion tracking rules. Check out the image below to see a quick snapshot of this in action:

Customer Segmentation – AdRoll

• AdRoll makes retargeting quite simple with features like easy-to-read analytics. And for sites with over 60k uniques per month, they also offer their Liquid Adsservice. LiquidAds enables advertisers to personalize each impression based on the product pages that an individual user visits.

The image above shows the dynamic elements of an AdRoll LiquidAd. Each element can be tailored depending on your targeting preference.

• AdRoll is an official Facebook partner and provides one of the best and easiest-to-use platforms for customer retargeting on Facebook, especially the news feed ads.

A Facebook Newsfeed ad powered by AdRoll. Yep – AdRoll can remarket to your potential customers who left your site and went to check Facebook.

• Setting up a Facebook news feed campaign is quite simple. All you need to do is choose your weekly budget, schedule, targeted locations, and max CPM bid. Then select your visitor segments. Your ads will start appearing in their news feed. The ads will start showing to anyone who has been cookied on your website, regardless of whether they liked or interacted with your Facebook fan page. The ads will start showing in the person’s news feed simply because they visited your website in the past and you have targeted them in your ad campaign. Pretty cool!

• AdRoll has good transparent pricing and solid customer support, both in terms of responsiveness and level of expertise.

AdRoll in a nutshell: Easily the frontrunner when it comes to retargeting platforms. While it is a little on the pricey side, the service and ease of their platform make it worth your marketing dollars.

Chango

Chango specializes in search retargeting (though they are offering site retargeting solutions as well). Search retargeting doesn’t require a potential customer to visit your website before your ads start appearing on their screens. Instead, customer interest and relevancy are decided by a recent search they performed on Google, Yahoo, or Bing.

So, if someone performs a search for a product/service on a search engine and lands on a website that is part of Chango’s data network, Chango will earmark the user and let you advertise to that user with a customized ad promoting relevant products and services.

• Chango has a massive network of data partners. You will get access to more than 8 billion search events and search data from Google, Bing, and Yahoo, which means you also can get some great keyword ideas or suggestions.
• You will get a dedicated account manager, meaning you won’t have to waste countless hours trying to set up, optimize, or manage your campaigns.
• You can target customers from some of the best markets like US, UK, and Canada.
• Chango has certain indicators and scores allowing you to assess each visitor according to what they do before, during, and after visiting your website. They call it “intentscore,” so you can target the visitors who seem to have the “intent” of buying a particular product.
• If you’ve got a product feed, Chango offers dynamic creative for online stores, allowing you to create ads with recently viewed products the customer browsed at your e-commerce store.

Chango points to take home: Chango prides itself on having a huge network of data partners. Using their search retargeting option to target potential customers with an intent to buy, will give you an upper hand over your competitors when it comes to SEM.

Chango isn’t for the fainthearted, and their minimum price is 10k to set up a campaign. If you are just taking your first steps in the remarketing world, it might be wise to use one of the other platforms before you dive into the deep end with Chango.

Perfect Audience

The guys at Perfect Audience provide a retargeting platform for those who’d like to keep it as simple as possible. All you need to do is insert a script/code in the body section of your website, create lists of visitors’ types to retarget, design campaigns to target certain segments in your retargeting lists, and your ads will start appearing on visitors’ screens, so it’s as simple as ABC (and D).

• You get to remarket your products or services to lost customers on Facebook, a platform with a user base of more than 950 million people. When a visitor leaves your website or a certain page without ordering, you will be able to retarget that visitor on Facebook. Similar to AdRoll, Perfect Audience offers both standard Facebook ads and the ability to retarget in the Facebook news feed. Check out this ad they actually ran themselves when they started their beta testing:

A Perfect Audience Facebook Newsfeed ad

• For online stores using platforms like Shopify, 3dcart, Magento, andVolusion, Perfect Audience offers practical solutions to retarget visitors who are leaving without buying anything.
• You don’t need to pay a setup or maintenance fee, which makes it an ideal choice for small businesses with tight budgets.
• Their “site reports” actually show you the names of websites which your ads have been served on, how many impressions were served, and how many clicks were attained. Using this data, you can easily see where your ads are performing the best and where your target users are spending most of their online time. Further to this, if you notice that one or a few sites aren’t performing well, then you can “blacklist” that site from your campaign to focus on more profitable exposure.
• As suggested earlier, Perfect Audience focuses on keeping it as simple as possible. They even have a 5-minute quick start guide with instructions for setting up and starting to use their platform in a matter of minutes.
• If you are sending emails or newsletters to a list of subscribers, you can retarget recipients who’ve opened the email. All you will need to do is place an image pixel on your HTML email template. Then anyone who opens your email in HTML format will be cookied and on your remarketing list. Of course, this opens a plethora of marketing opportunities. If you are a little creative, I’m sure you can think of a few fun ways to use this feature. The great part is its simple to build out your list. Take a quick look at this shot of me creating a remarketing list of past buyers of an e-commerce business:

With Perfect Audience you can target people who have open your emails.

• Perfect Audience also has a huge knowledgebase with short to-the-point manuals, quality guidelines, video tutorials, and dynamic ads.

Perfect Audience points to take home: Perfect Audience is a great option for small businesses that are keen to learn a bit more about online advertising without spending massive amounts. The range of options is great for e-commerce stores using third party platforms like WordPress, Shopify, Magento, or 3dcart.

Triggit

Triggit has many different advertising options for their clients, but, like Perfect Audience, they seem to be focusing more on Facebook ads. That’s mainly because they strongly believe in the power of social media when it comes to converting a visitor into a prospective buyer. So, you will find many tools and features made specifically around the Facebook Exchange.

• You can set your own budget, frequency caps (so that people don’t get annoyed by your ads), maximum bid, and a lot more while retargeting your visitors on Facebook and around the web.
• While their reach doesn’t quite hit the highs of AdRoll or Perfect Audience, Triggit more than makes up for it by offering more advanced targeting features like frequency caps, bidding rules, and campaign goals
• The Dynamic Creatives feature allows you to use custom heading, custom dates, and custom images in your Facebook ads to improve click through rates (CTR.) Not only can you retarget with products that the visitor has recently browsed on your website, you can integrate your product feeds and the software will dynamically create multiple ads for the same purpose.

• In addition to the basics, there also are some advance retargeting options available, like targeting the people in your remarketing list according to their location (i.e., FBX Geo-Targeting [advertising to Facebook users according to their location]), one-off product marketing, custom reporting, customer segmentation, and creating unique strategies for different segments.

A Geo-Targeting Campaign in Triggit

• Triggit claims having access to more than 10 billion impressions a day, from millions of websites around the Internet.
• Triggit is one of the oldest DSPs in the market, so they have plenty of experience when it comes to the art of retargeting.

Triggit points to take home: Triggit specializes in retargeting via Facebook Exchange, and that is where their strength lies.

ReTargeter

ReTargeter is comparatively new, but it already has shown itself to be a strong contender when it comes to remarketing platforms. Retargeter offers a wide range of marketing and remarketing solutions, including site retargeting, Facebook Exchange, CRM Retargeting, email retargeting, search retargeting, and short tag (you can use a custom link shortener and when you post that link on social media, anyone who clicks on it will see your full ad popup AND be cookied for later.), to name a few.

• The service is aimed at sites with over 30,000 unique visitors per month.
• You can create target ads according to the demographic, geographic, income, or intent of your customers.
• Since they are not focusing more on a certain type of retargeting, you can choose from a variety of options; for example, retargeting visitors who have browsed your website, subscribers who have opened your newsletter, or people who’ve engaged with you on social media.
• ReTargeter does not restrict their inventory based on spending level, so you will get full network access.
• You can use frequency capping; for example, showing users 15-20 advertisements per month, so that they don’t start getting annoyed by your ads appearing left, right, and center.
• Their services start at $1500 per month (and you will get up to 175,000 impressions for that price), and all the campaigns are managed by a dedicated account manager.

ReTargeter points to take home: A great solution for larger volume sites. ReTargeter has some unique advertising solutions which will put you ahead of the pack.

Google

Since we’re talking about retargeting, we’d better take a quick look at what the big “G” offers. With a massive display network encompassing more than a million websites, videos, and apps, there are plenty of opportunities to retarget successfully with Google.

The service can be set up easily from inside your Google AdWords account. All you need to do is add the remarketing tag to your website, build your ads, set up your campaign, and off you go.

In your AdWords account, head to the shared library (from campaigns tab) to create a list of people visiting a certain section or page of your website. Check out this image below to see exactly where to go:

Once in the shared library, click on “view” under Audiences as per below:

• Google offers super simple targeting options. You can target people depending on their actions, time of visit, and the specific pages they landed on. Take a look below to see a real life example of this:

• Google has recently introduced remarketing lists for search ads (RLSA) with the aim of allowing advertisers to craft campaigns aimed at people who have searched for a particular keyword, regardless of whether they have visited your site or not.
• Google remarketing takes place on the Google Display Network. This means you can reach close to 10% of the internet through their platform.

Google points to take home: A simple solution for users who are comfortable with the AdWords platform. It is limited to the Google Display Network and doesn’t offer any Facebook retargeting options. This service is great for people looking for an easy, quick solution without any headaches.

How to Manage a Low Budget AdWords Campaign:

Google AdWords campaigns are usually not considered cost effective for small and medium sized businesses.  In reality, these campaigns can be both useful and budget friendly for smaller budget users when they are carefully managed.  By using these tips I have learned after spending more than $40,000 on Google’s advertising product, you can run a successful low budget AdWords campaign.

1)      Campaign Objectives: Before you launch an ad campaign, clarify the reason for the campaign: is it to generate traffic, target specific keywords, or as a marketing stunt against your competitors? Being clear about your objective allows you to create a more effective, targeted ad.

2)      Stick to Google Search Networks: Use of product listing ads (PLAs) by e-commerce websites is also on the rise. Such options are usually recommended for campaigns with a comfortable budget, and is not recommended for budget conscious users.  

3)      Extensive Keywords Research: Bid for generic keywords can be very high. So look for unique and longer keywords to compete effectively on a smaller budget. Find effective long tail keywords using your Analytics account to see organic searches leading to your website, Google auto-complete option, and tools like Google’s Keyword Tool or Word Stream’s Niche Finder                

To keep your PPC expenditure in control, keep exact match or phrase match keywords. Speaking of web services industry, choosing exact match keywords such as [web design company] will not display your ad for terms like “website design company” or “web design agency”

Targeting keywords like “web design company India” will give you relevant clicks and impressions at a lower bid. Such keywords are especially helpful for people running small and medium ventures.

4)      Avoid Dynamic Search Ads: These ads are not triggered by specific keywords chosen by you. Instead they are displayed when someone searches for anything related to the content of your landing page. While this seems convenient, it often results in irrelevant impressions and clicks, which push your daily budget up.

5)      Negative Keywords List: Make an extensive list of negative keywords and update it regularly if campaign keywords are broad match and phrase match type.  An important source could be irrelevant organic search results found in Google Analytics account, AdWords search results, and also by using negative keyword search tools like Wordstream

6)      Bidding Strategy: Instead of letting AdWords automatically adjust your bid, set it manually to match the ad position and cost per acquisition that you desire. Bid according to the location that you want to target. Your AdWords account tells the Geographical Location of your past traffic.

If you think that you are reaching the daily budget for a certain campaign, try to lower your bid so that you can be visible for a longer time without much change in your campaign’s performance.

7)      Targeting Competitors Head-on: Using the name of your competitors or industry leaders as your keywords (after insuring trademark policies) is an effective trick to get impressions. Avoid using their name in your ad copy. Frame your ad copy in such a way that you clearly reflect what the visitor will find on the landing page to avoid a high bounce rate.

8)     Target Keywords by Industry: Always stay updated with your industry best practices. To improve the list of keywords that prompt your ad to display, try finding the details of the ad campaigns of other players (keywords, budgets and ad copies) through online tools like Semrush.com orkeywordspy.com 

9)      Focus on Ad Position when You Can’t Match a Bid: You don’t have to be at the top of the ad results to be noticed. Having your ad displayed on top 3 positions increases the chances of getting clicked on by mistake or by immature searchers. Always keep track on the average position of your ads.

10)  Check for Overlapping Keywords: If you are using similar or duplicate keywords in different ad campaigns, the keywords will start competing against each other. So, use ad campaigns with keywords which do not overlap.

Keywords like “office furniture NY” and “furniture NY” in different campaigns are overlapping. A search query for one might trigger an ad for the other.

11)  Use Features of Enhanced Campaigns: People usually have different campaigns to target different locations and devices, spreading the daily budget even thinner. With a limited budget at hand, it’s better to have minimum number of campaigns (maximum 3).

You can bid higher for certain locations which get you maximum business.

12)  Optimize According to the Nature of your Business: Your ad campaigns need to be optimized according to your marketing vertical. For example, a blog about food might get extra traffic on weekdays and negligible on the weekends, or if you are in the travel industry you do better advertising more on weekends.

13)  Quality Score:  The quality score of your keywords depends on click-through rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience. The overall ad position is determined by the CPC and quality score:

Ad position = CPC Bid*Quality Score

A high quality score decreases your cost and makes your ad rank higher.

What actually contributes to a good quality score?

• Past and current performance of your keywords.
• A high click-through rate, preferably above 1.5%
• A working and relevant landing page that loads quickly

14)  Targeted & Conversion Optimized Landing Pages: An important component of your ad quality score is your landing page, which is judged on the parameters of relevance, content originality, transparency, and navigability. You will not get conversions from poorly structured or outdated landing pages.

15)  Analyze before Changing: Check your ad campaign regularly and take time to see how the campaign is performing. Refrain from making changes till you have enough data in the form of impressions, clicks, and conversions.

16)  Branded Campaigns: Use your brand name in your ad copy if people know you well. If you are new to the industry, you can experiment by using your company name and build a brand name gradually. Target the keywords that you are unable to achieve through organic search in your ad copy. Using brand name as a keyword won’t have a very high bid and is thus easy on the pocket too.

17)  Ad Extensions: You can add details to your existing ad to garner more attention if your ad is displayed above the search results. These details could include local address, site links, special offers, a phone number, seller rating, or social rating on Google+.

If you provide the option of phone number, you can set your ads in such a way that they turn off after your office working hours if you do not have 24/7 support.

18)  Track Cost per Acquisition: CPA shows the amount that you pay for a single conversion. After running your ad campaigns for a few weeks, you can adjust the ad if you are paying more than you estimated.

Whether you are running a high and low budget AdWords campaign, it will require planning, tracking, and timely changes. Low budget ads can be effective, if they are managed correctly. So, whether you do it on your own or hire someone to do it for you, make sure you pay attention to above mentioned points.