Category: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Google’s First Click Free Policy for Journalism Articles to End Soon

Google had aligned several protocols to ensure the growth of digital subscription for news articles online. One such move was the ‘First Click Free’ policy that mandated the news providers to publish free articles in order to rise up the order on the search engine. The move that was supposed to aid the news publishing houses’ digital growth, backfired for many reasons. As per News Corp (which publishes The Sun in the US), the move meant that if the articles weren’t provided for free, then the site virtually disappeared from the search rankings, proving to be harmful to the overall online marketing strategies of the publishers.

What is changing?

As per the ‘First Click Free’ policy, subscription-based publishing needs to comply with Google’s demands of providing the first three articles for free before opening the ‘subscribe for more news’ dialog box. This was the only way they could come up on search engine query results. By ending this move, Google will now allow publishers to decide how many articles they want to provide for free before they show the paywall (the ‘subscribe for more news’ dialog box) to the users.

What does it mean for news publishers?

Nielsen’s study reported that around 20% of the readers were fine with to pay for the subscription of premium content published by the known news agencies and publishers, provided it is ad-free. While the market is there, news publishers must strike a fine balance between monetizing their premium content and ranking well on search engines.

For news publishers, Google’s decision to remove the ‘First Click Free’ policy provides advantages at many levels –

1 – As subscription-based news access is gaining popularity, news publishers can set their monetization strategies without the fear of distributing it for free.

2 – The occurrence of fake news will go down as publishers and reporters will be incentivized for working hard, putting in their best efforts, and bringing only factual information as news to the public.

3 – News publishers promoting premium news content can build a stronger relationship with their readers and craft an enduring brand loyalty

What it means for the end readers?

For the content consumers, the move offers a mixed bag of scenarios. On one end, they will now be able to access better-quality content knowing that the publishers will be working doubly hard to retain subscriptions and build loyalty.

On the other hand, they can no longer get a feel of the website without subscribing to it. However, this is expected to be a minor obstacle, as reputed news publishers would have already proved their mettle with a stellar background. This will provide the impetus for serious readers to go ahead with the subscription without the need to try it out for free first.

To conclude

In order to make the monetization strategy truly successful, content publishers will have to elevate the degree of user experience and reader delight they provide to consumers. The overall browsing on the site should be as clutter-free, seamless, and free of ads. This is the way forward now that Google’s ‘First Click Free’ policy is no longer around.

December 20, 2017
Move over B2B and B2C; it is the age of P2P now

Person to Person (P2P) Marketing is an interesting topic worth exploring for all digital marketers. Instead of clubbing your customer segment into Business to Business (B2B) or Business to Consumer (B2C), a saner approach in today’s times of digital marketing uncertainty and trust issues is to go for a human essence in interactions. This is precisely what P2P marketing entails.

Why is the P2P approach necessary?

The right approach to interacting with customers is at the core of P2P marketing. And why would this be important? Precisely because businesses don’t drive a brand’s success, people do. So rather than going on and on about the brilliance of your product, P2P marketing concentrates on letting your audience know the answer to one crucial question they may have

“What’s in it for me?”

P2P Marketing tries to bring out a lucid and clear answer to this question and communicate it in the right way to your target audience.

Why now?

Remember how radio took a whopping 30 years to reach an audience of 50 million? Well, Facebook did 100 million in just 9 months! That’s the power of social we see around us today. Audiences today are connected, vocal, and social – across the world. And this is a power in the hands of the customer we simply cannot ignore. Most of the buying decisions now entail going online, checking reviews, talking with friends, and then making a decision. Hence P2P marketing – i.e. a personal interaction with the customer is an excellent fit for the evolving dynamics we are seeing around us.

How to enable P2P?

The below interesting pointers will guide you in making that personal connection with your customer to drive greater brand success:

1. Give a human face to your brand

While it is hard to break away from business jargons and terminologies, it is still doable. Instead of focusing what you do, focus on how your customers will benefit from it. This way, customers will come to know why they should go with your product/ services and not your competitor’s. Remembers it’s all about re-wording your business proposition in an easy to understand perspective.

2. Connect where your customers are

Customers need a platform on which they see that they can impact a brand’s decision. Instead of going round and round in consumer redressal forums or other forms of dispute resolution, they want a simplified way to resolve their pain points. Social media offers brands to carry out this task with incredible effect. By being present online and responding to their customers’ posts in real time, you not only prevent an issue from snowballing to a major PR catastrophe, but you also show other customers how quick and nimble you are in customer servicing.

3. Upgrade your metrics for P2P

Traditional success metrics in digital marketing won’t just cut it for P2P. You need to employ more targeted approaches that can accelerate the P2P campaign success. Some ways to do this is by having live stream events, doing personalised Q&A sessions, and surveying for NPS scores.

Today when privacy concerns are high, and ad frauds are on the rise, it is this crucial element that can connect your business to the success it deserves. Go on, try out P2P marketing and let us know in which ways you will be adding this essence to your overall digital marketing mix.

October 26, 2017
Major Changes to How Google Spends Your Budget
Out of the blue came the news last week that Google has doubled the ad spend amount a company can use per day for its advertising campaigns on AdWords. While the announcement was not publicised across the digital media, the fact remains that this update can have plenty of significant implications for brands. While some people would see it as an effort by Google to increase its revenues, some brands would like to think it as Google milking them dry. The answer lies somewhere between both the extreme spectrums.

The new update has been in force since October 4 when this announcement came. In simple words, if your budget is $500, Google can decide to spend twice the amount. It’s not a loot from Google but helping you to reach your goals efficiently with the help of Big Data.

Some advantages of the AdWords policy changes:

1) Companies will be able to reach their advertising goals faster.

2) In the long run, a company’s effective marketing spend on Google AdWords will not increase as Big Data deploys the ads depending on the traffic on that particular day. For example, if the traffic on a day is very high, Adwords will present more ads; and if the traffic is less, it will show fewer ads.

3) There is nothing to panic, and the process is nothing more than an over-reach where Google tries to reach as many prospective customers as possible.

Major disadvantages of the new rule:
- You will never come again under your monthly advertising budgets.
- On days when the traffic is high, your costs could swell up to 100% from the previous 20%.
- By increasing the budget limit cap from 20% to 100%, it is possible that a full month’s advertising budget can get over within fifteen days.
Agencies which do daily tracking of their advertisement’s performance will be disappointed to see some sporadic numbers in the tracking month. As fluctuations will go in both the directions, it is prudent to inform your management and clients beforehand. While the money spent will be a little more than before, the increased clicks would more than compensate. As the policy applies for a full month (30.4 days), experts believe it will lead to a minor loss for those companies which do not advertise for the whole month.

The daily budget changes by this rule but there are three other changes which will reset the monthly budget.

    By changing the last date of the campaign.

    By changing the mode of ad delivery.

    By choosing a time zone different from the current one in an AdWords account.

While companies will spend a little more than their average monthly balance, they will be happy with the fact that it has translated into more clicks and eyeballs. With a definite increase in revenue, brands won’t be hesitant in advertising on AdWords. Lastly, there is no losing party in this game, as it is a win-win for both Google and the Brands.
October 20, 2017
Search engine meets chatbots to unlock new opportunities
You must have encountered chatbots in your daily life while surfing various websites. It’s increasingly common to see companies deploy chatbots for basic chat with customers. Chatbots are being installed by big companies into their sites to have a better degree of customer engagement and faster issue resolution.

In China, there is even a friend bot called Xiaoice (built by Microsoft) which regularly talks to more than 4 million people like a human friend. But can a chatbot be used for a search engine? If yes then how can it be deployed efficiently to bolster the overall searching experience for a user?

First, some background on how search met chatbot

From May 2017 Bing has started using chatbots in its search in a limited area of Seattle. The idea was that in a traditional search, a user is provided with too much information and he wastes a lot of time sifting through it. So Microsoft built a Bing bot which can interact with the user on the search page itself and provide him more precise information he is seeking. This not only enhances the accuracy of search results but also offers a highly satisfying search engine usage experience to the user.

For example, if you want to order a jacket from a local shop but want it to be black, two button style, and in worsted wool material, you can connect with the Bing bot to chat with the shop owner and inform him of your requirements.

What does this move mean for search engine users?

In the future, chatbots integration with search engine has the potential to unlock various opportunities hitherto unavailable with the traditional search engine results page. It holds tremendous opportunities for companies to increase their business and enhance consumers’ goodwill towards them. Some of them are:
- Users can book a test drive without leaving the search page.
- They can order services and products from the search results directly.
- Engage with customer services and avoid the horribly long waiting periods of customer services through phones.
- They can check on basic queries like availability of sugar-free cookies in a nearby bake shop
The possibilities, it seems, are endless for both companies and users and many experts believe it can drastically cut a company’s spend on customer care.

What does this move mean for businesses?

While most experts believe chatbots are here to stay in the medium to long-term, there is some doubt regarding investing in it for the short term. As the technology is very new, investment in it can prove to be exorbitant. Also, brands will have to initially invest heavily on better data infrastructure, better reporting mechanisms, and higher number of customer service centres. Getting to a point where brands can leverage the technology efficiently will be a huge challenge especially when the integration is in its nascent stage.

The bottom line

If chatbots in searches go mainstream in the future, it would be essential for companies to have internal teams which can assist in providing the required resources. Right now it seems that investing in it in the early stages would not give the required results, but adopting it early can give a company a lot of advantages when the integration sees global adoption and customer patronage for the servicing innovation it provides on the search results page.
October 18, 2017
Which Audience Lists to Use for Your Marketing Campaigns?

With the right audiences seeing your marketing ads at the right time, your business growth can propel to unprecedented levels. By pitching your ads to the audience selected the strategic way, you can ensure that the likelihood of conversion explodes substantially the next time they interact with your brand. If you are interested to know which type of audience list will work best for your remarketing efforts, then the below post will be helpful for you.

1. Similar Audience list

This type of audience list is curated by Google based on past actions or triggers originating from similar users. This type of list doesn’t work on the lines of remarketing list for search ads (RLSA). Rather, this is for capturing new leads instead of targeting customers based on their past actions.

The impressive thing about this list is the high relevancy, as all people added on the list are based on similar query behaviour in the last 24 hours. This type of list yields outcomes with people who have just entered the sales funnel (high funnel audience) like viewing the online shopping cart page.

2. Smart Lists

Google’s very own Smart Lists is a great medium to propel your remarketing efforts. It takes in a lot of information from Google Analytics and factors in various purchase signals like browser, location, and device type. By considering these factors, the Smart List can predict which recent buyer will likely to convert at a later stage, to a greater extent.

There are two types of lists generated by Google Analytics:

A. Brand specific list
You can create lists specific to your own site if you have a minimum of 500 monthly transactions along with 10,000 page views on a daily basis.

B. Proxy list
If you don’t have the above numbers on your site, you can still make use of proxy lists. This list is generated by Google based on other similar companies’ insights and signals.

3. AdWords Optimized List

In your paid search campaigns you can uncover a wealth of information to bolster your remarketing efforts. You can traverse to Shared Library -> Audiences -> AdWords optimized list. This list is described as a combined audience that is built using diverse data sources.

For some marketers, it may look intimidating to add audience lists to a high volume of ad groups and then analysing the insights at a separate level. However, Google has announced a workaround to this too. It now allows marketers to apply audience lists at the campaign level. This way, instead of fine tuning your bids for each individual or group, you can optimise at a broader campaign level with the help of more amount of data and insights.

One more important thing to get more out of your remarketing effort – set your date range as per your campaign objectives. For instance, for longer duration purchase consideration (for example annual Diwali purchase or yearly insurance renewal), you ought to set a date range of 400 – 550 days. For RLSA, a range of 3 months will suffice.

It is clear that using the right audience list can be extremely beneficial to amplify your paid search efforts. Which will be your preferred audience list? Do write to us and let us know.

October 11, 2017
Take your PPC advertising to the next level with Artificial Intelligence
At a time when the world is raving about Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana and Google Now, Is Artificial Intelligence all ready to take over the PPC world by storm?

Let us see how machine learning will dominate the future of PPC and how the businesses can leverage from it.

Machines will not ultimately take over the job of PPC professionals, but it will change their role, by automating processes. PPC can soon be a winning strategy for an organisation’s overall digital marketing programs. Below are some of the machine learning features from Adwords that can help you take that leap in your PPC advertising by being more strategic:
1. Smart bidding: Google’s smart bidding is a machine based bidding with the ability to analyse voluminous data thus maximising conversions for your client campaigns. It comprises of smart bidding strategies such as Target CPA, Target ROAS, Max Conversions and Enhanced CPC. Under this method, Google can process a large amount of real-time data in a jiffy and analyse “signals” to get a clear understanding of your audience and how to convert them.
However, you cannot expect results overnight with smart bidding; you need to give the system a considerable amount of time to learn, grow and optimise on the new strategies. Over time, you will notice efficiency in CPA and growth in volume.
1. Smart display campaigns: Sit back and relax as Google’s Artificial intelligence completely controls your campaigns. All you need to do is mention your Target CPA and Budget; Google will do the rest!
For example; A popular hotel search platform, Trivago used Smart display campaigns to reach audiences looking for travel packages around the world and reported an increase in conversions by 36%. They only provided creatives such as headlines like “Find Great Hotel Deals”, striking images of the places to travel, target CPA, a daily budget and Adwords did the rest for them.

Credit Karma, a financial management website reported 37% higher conversions using Smart display campaigns and witnessed increased signups on their page.

Hulu Japan, a subscription video service, used Smart display campaigns to increase their subscriber base and got a whopping 37% increased conversion rate.
1. In-Market audiences: Looking for your favourite brand of perfume and it shows up right in front of you, does that feel great? Oh yes! This is exactly what this feature does. It helps you reach out to potential customers who are actively researching, browsing and seeking out for the products or services that you have to offer them. This feature helps you to target the right customer at the right time, just before they make that crucial decision to buy. Google classifies and connects you to potential customers based on their in-market behaviour and purchase intention.
So why wait? Optimize machine learning to execute swiftly and strategise your marketing campaigns better. There are things which you can do but artificial intelligence can’t! Translate the insights available from machine learning and convert them into effective strategies for your business, to increase the impact of your digital marketing campaigns.
October 6, 2017
SEO+PPC = the perfect recipe for new age search marketing
Not sure how to decide between SEO and PPC for your business campaigns? Find out how a “Single source of truth” may be your answer.

It has been a long-debated topic whether paid or organic search marketing, which of the two can really get conversions and benefit your business.

However, a liaison of both these methods of search marketing can go a long way in driving traffic to your website that can convert into a customer. Let us find out how:
1. A right mix of PPC and SEO
Displaying ads which don’t cater to the information that the user is looking for is a complete no-no.

For example: If a user is searching for “the best mobile phone of 2017” and your paid ads are simply displaying iPhone X then that will not tempt the user to click on the Ad. Though these ads display on the top of search results, the user may overlook it since it does not serve his purpose. The user here will instead click on the reviews and recommendations of the best phones, displayed in organic search results.

On the other hand, if a user has made up his mind as to which phone he wants to purchase, he will click on the paid ads that can serve his purpose.

Insight: Integrating organic search content with paid results can be the key to conversions.
1. Outsmart competitors organically
Your website should be a storehouse of information that drives users via both paid and organic search results. A small amount of research as to which websites, blogs or forums are driving the most traffic in your niche sector can be useful in deciding the most engaging topics.

Using search tools such as search metrics, SEMrush, spyfu, etc can help you find out the most engaging keywords for your business.
1. The Speed and flexibility of PPC
Once you know the topics and keywords, you can use it to run broad matched paid search campaigns.

Pay Per Click approach can be your trial and error method to find out which terms not to opt for. Once you select the “broad match” option for keywords, you will get a clearer picture as to which keywords engages users to click on the links.

The crux of the matter is that combining both SEO and PPC strategy is a skill that every marketer should try to incorporate into businesses. The right approach is to create a synergy between SEO enhanced content and paid traffic for a powerful and profitable result.
October 5, 2017
Limitations of Google AdWords To Consider While Planning A Marketing Campaign
It is common marketing knowledge that Google incorporates certain settings in AdWords for targeting that enable various businesses to adjust landing pages, ad copies and bids to suit the requirements for particular demographic areas. This method is based on purchasing power, gender, age, etc., of individuals to improve the experience for them, eventually leading to an improved marketing campaign.

Despite its many benefits, AdWords has its limitations that may make it harder to achieve the desired results when targeting specific demographic areas. These limitations are discussed below:
- Lack of proper algorithm to target the correct audience group
Usually, there are two kinds of keywords that people search online – one is a broad keyword, and the other is a longtail keyword. Broad keywords are short like ‘AC services’ and thus target a wider audience. Longtail ones like ‘AC services in New York’ may target only the area of New York City. Thus the problem arises here in choosing a keyword by a user to find you. If your business is bound to the regions of New York only, then ads that show AC services in other cities would be irrelevant. Here the flaw is either you target broader keywords or longtail ones that target specific areas. But, both have their own cons such as wastage of money, lack of potential customers due to an irrelevant keyword search.
- Waiting for analysis every day
Another major flaw with AdWords is that you will have to wait for results to be analysed each day to monitor your ads. Any conclusion that may give you an idea of what your next step should be, usually consumes time. You have to patiently wait for Google Analytics to bring out accurate data revealing the potential visitors who interacted with your ads. Moreover, analysis of a particular ad requires at least 200 clicks. But, this also varies depending upon the keyword. Above all, you are forced to pay even at the time of waiting for Google Adwords, and this makes it frustrating.
- Need of assistance
While setting up an account for AdWords is not that hard, maintaining it, in the long run, may require extra hands. Setting up a marketing campaign for targeting calls for an extensive research that may not be managed on your own. If you lack experience, then you will need an expert to help you out. You may need an expert to monitor the keywords list daily, analyse the graph based on specific parameters, modify your campaign if needed. Also, the analysis takes time as discussed above, so you will have to be patient for the desired results.

Conclusion

No doubt there are many other limitations to the use of Google AdWords that may affect your business. To make sure that your marketing campaign is not left out in vain, you definitely require a proper setup that optimises the time invested, money spent, and the experts involved. If you lack any of these three fields, then it is better to avoid starting a campaign and expect results.
September 22, 2017
3 applications of computer vision in marketing

Marketers of the 1960s and 1970s would vouch for the efficacy of sending out surveys and paying a premium for prime-time brand placements as a part of TV advertising. With the current digital age, these traditional methods have given way to more targeted and contextual marketing methods.

Today’s digital marketing ecosystem is multi-channel, device agnostic, multi-platform, and driven by programmatic ads. Studies show that 80% of the internet traffic will be driven by video by 2019. With the online marketing world increasingly driven by video content, there emerges a need to place emphasis on making sense of the exploding visual data.

This is precisely where computer vision and machine learning come in.

Applications of computer vision?

Computer vision employs AI and big data to drive various marketing objectives like enhancing programmatic video capabilities, unraveling semantics in social media posts and images. Want to check out how this is done in the real world? Then check out a few use cases to understand the prowess of computer vision for marketing

1. Smart e-retail

Merchandising places a focus on tagging to attach attributes that users can use to find specific product choices. However, solutions like Sentient Aware goes one step ahead and facilitates visual product discovery rather than relying on just text. With this standard, e-commerce shoppers can select visually similar products to the one they are looking for or have browsed for in the past.

A popular sunglass brand Sunglass Hut uses this tech to refine the range of products displayed online based on visual similarities. The benefit is that it expands the range of products that are displayed to the shoppers and carried a better likelihood of purchase because of visual similarity

2. Contextual image display

The in-image ads are a great way to engage with site viewers. For example, a luxury auto forum may place a contextual ad for a new BMW car launch. This is enabled by the context capture capabilities of brands like GumGum that use in-image ads to ensure better engagement and higher conversions.

The underlying principle is it identifies what is in the image (for example a cat photo, or a car photo) and then places a relevant ad on the image itself. This is done by computer vision and improved ability to understand semantics (human understanding of images)

3. Emotional analytics

The recent $33billion company, Mediacom tie-up with emotion analytics company Realeyes has grabbed headlines in the marketing world. The analytics solution from Realeyes will be integrated with Mediacom’s central content hub. The key idea here is to get behavioral information. This is achieved by placing webcams in remote panels of users viewing the ads or content generated by Mediacom. This helps them track the facial expression and develop emotional analytics.

These examples show the immense potential for employing computer vision and machine learning to improve the efficacy of targeted marketing message and drive better conversions for a particular brand.

September 15, 2017
Opt For The Emotional Route To Create Loyal Brand Advocates
Irrespective of the business objectives, goals, and profit margins, every entrepreneur shares a common target with his contemporaries. Yes, you’ve hit the bull’s eye! It is sales and revenue generation. Business owners will like to add to their revenues and profits, which isn’t possible unless they have access to crucial and effective strategies. It is right here that the creation of unmatched consumer experiences plays the vital role.

You have to develop a strong follower-base for your brand, who will serve as dedicated and loyal brand advocates. No points for guessing that nothing other than targeted CX strategies will work in this context.

Comprehending the nitty-gritty

As a brand owner, you might not be successful in comprehending consumers’ needs. It’s highly imperative to get into their skin and make realistic assumptions. Say, for instance, a customer uses:
- Wearable and smartphones of a particular brand
- Shoes from a reputed company
- Apparels manufactured by a specific brand
Now, that says a lot about his preferences and choices. It is during these occasions that we term such people as ‘brand loyalists.’ No matter what happens, loyalists will always go with their brands. Here’s the catch for you! If you wish to emerge as a brand and turn your dream venture into a force to reckon with, brand advocate creation will be significant.

Tips to follow

Turning followers into loyal brand advocates happen to be an intensive process. You have to follow strategic approaches and tips thus delivering actionable results. The following steps will help you to a great extent:
1. Personalization is the key
Personal messages and marketing approaches are great ways to captivate consumers. However, it’s highly imperative to leverage these strategies and create special experiences. Try imitating or replicating a one-to-one exchange. Your consumers should have a clear idea of your goals, and you should make them understand how much you care for them. Consumers turn into advocates only when they realise a particular brand cares for their needs and understands their requirements.
1. The power of anticipation
Data analytics and Big Data have revolutionised various sectors. Businesses across the globe can leverage the power of data thus gaining crucial insights into consumer behaviour. You can do the same thing by accelerating the anticipation process. Track your consumers’ purchase actions and trends, which will give you crystal clear ideas of their preferences. Give them buying options and meet their demands before they place a request.

Once your target consumer adds a particular item to the shopping cart, make sure you present a slew of related products. Attach special offers and discounts as that will help them recognise their exact needs.
1. Emotions are powerful
When it comes to creating experiences for consumers, always emphasise on the significance of emotions. Your CX strategies and approaches shouldn’t be restricted to creating exceptional User Interface. Add powerful emotions that help you tug at the right strings at the right time. When a compelling marketing message gets added with emotional content, the results are always positive for your brand.

Parting thoughts

These factors will give you brief insights into the process of creating powerful brand advocates. If you want to make it big in the professional arena, you can’t be just another service provider. Branding is the key, and the above tips will definitely help you in the long run to achieve your goals.
September 1, 2017

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