New Google Ads Skillshop Replaces Academy for Ads

January 13, 2020January 11, 2020 by Melissa Sooter

The New and Improved Google Ads Training: Skillshop

After hearing rumblings for months now, Google has rolled out a new kind of certification within the Google Ads platform. The ever polarizing Academy for Ads has been replaced with a new revamped, on-demand certification portal called Skillshop. The new online training course provides the ability to become certified for the following products:

Analytics Academy
Android
Authorized Buyers
Google Ads
Google AdMob
Google Ad Manager
Google Digital Academy
Google for Education
Google Marketing Platform
Google My Business
Waze

Skillshop Features New Google Ads Pathways

As seen above, Google Ads Skillshop provides learning pathways that help users grow proficiency in measuring and managing different campaigns like Search, Display, Video, Shopping, and Measurement. Counter to the previous training course, Academy for Ads, Skillshop gives you real-world case studies and typical scenarios so you can be well-equipped in your campaigns.

Skillshop hosts exams that have been redesigned with completely new questions and formats. Contrary to the Academy for Ads, which utilized multiple choice and true or false questions, Skillshop features multi-part and matching questions for a better, well-rounded experience enforcing users to retain qualitative information.

There are sub-topics within the campaign courses. For instance, take a look below for the structure of the Google Ads sub-topic, paths, and courses:

Topic	Google Ads
Sub Topics	Google Ads Display Google Ads – Measurement Google Ads Search Google Ads Video
Learning Paths on Google Ads Search	Google Ads Search Google Ads Search Certification
Courses on Google Ads Search	Grow your Business with Google Ads Explore the Value of Google Search Understand the Google Ads Auction Deliver the Right Message with Text Ads Make Ads Relevant with Search Ad Extensions Increase Efficiency with Automated Bidding Reach Valued Customers with Search Audiences Boost Performance with Optimization Score

Additionally, Google now assigns a new diagnostic assessment. This is featured in each module, giving individuals the chance to assess where they stand and see what they need to practice more on before the certification test.

The new Skillshop platform is a great opportunity for those who work with Google Ads to learn more about the platform, whether it’s your intention to manage the platform on your own or employ an agency to manage it for you.

If you have questions or would like to speak to a digital representative more about this topic or other media needs, please contact us at info@bloomads.com or call us at (818)703-0218.

Creating a Successful Influencer Marketing Campaign

November 25, 2019November 22, 2019 by Melissa Sooter

Influencer marketing (also known previously as celebrity endorsement) and product placement have been a key marketing component for years. Whether it’s an athlete strutting a clothing brand, a product being featured in a film or TV show, or an actor promoting a product they “revere”, businesses are increasingly using this subtle form of marketing to drive brand awareness and sales. It’s not news that consumers tend to gravitate towards celebrities and the brands they support. But why is that the case? And why has it changed dramatically in today’s world of digital marketing? In this article, we’re going to discuss what exactly influencer marketing entails, how to build an influencer marketing strategy, and some key issues to look out for when executing this tactic.

What is Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing today is a type of social media marketing where key individuals with a significant number of loyal followers on a social platform push brand messages and endorse various products. According to Sprout Social, Influencer marketing is successful due to the high amount of trust influencers can generate with their following, and recommendations from them are seen as a form of “social proof” of the quality of a brand.

Mediakix, an influencer marketing agency, surveyed marketers on how they felt about influencers when planning for the new year. Their results show that 89% of marketers stated that ROI from influencer marketing was comparable to or better than other marketing tactics. Another keynote from this survey was that when asked, 65% of marketers planned on increasing their influencer budgets for 2019.

Best Practices When Utilizing Influencers

There are a few do’s and don’ts when it comes to utilizing social media influencers for your campaign. Setting up an influencer campaign is similar to other marketing tactics: determine your brand goals, identify the target audience, research your category and influencers that resonate with your audience, establish how engaged you want to be with your customers, and set a budget. Make sure that when you’re doing your research you select the appropriate platform that best supports your product. For instance, if your product is makeup, YouTube and Instagram would be the best platforms to employ an influencer because these consumers are looking for information and how-to tips. However, if you’re in the gaming industry, Twitch would be your go-to platform.

Don’t Overspend

Another important step is to research the appropriate compensation for an influencer. Influence.co published Instagram influencer rates. They looked at the average cost per Instagram post. They found that the overall average price per post was $271. The average price for a single post from a micro-influencer (fewer than 1,000 followers) was $83. versus the average price of a single post from an influencer (more than 100,000 followers) was $763.

Be Selective

There are a few things to watch out for when researching influencers for your campaign. Don’t always rush to influencers with the greatest number of followers. Make sure to find influencers with real, engaging followers. Previously, some influencers realized that they could buy fake followers and likes cheaply to convince brands in investing in their accounts. Early on quantity was more important than quality. But what’s the point of spending money on an influencer with a large number of followers if no one is engaging with the post and thus your product? Brands usually will notice that engagement rates fall as follower counts grow (real or fake). Micro-influencers tend to have the strongest engagement rates with a rough estimate of 20,000 to 200,000 followers. Jim Tobin, Forbes Council Member, explained, “We’ve found, over the course of our programs, that either flat-fee compensation or sale-based compensation (such as affiliate models) best remove the perverse incentives brands have created that encourage influencers to artificially inflate their numbers.”

Stay Away From Saturated Accounts

After netting down your influencer list, the next step should be to look at their saturation rate. What this means is the percentage of sponsored content compared to an influencer’s overall total content. When sponsored content increases and outweighs original content on an influencer’s account, their engagement rate plummets. People follow influencers for multiple reasons, but mostly to follow trends, inspiration, and discovery. People go to influencers for purchase decisions because they deem them “experts” of some kind. It’s important for followers to feel like the influencers they follow are authentic and are recommending products that they would suggest to a close friend – not just someone who’s trying to make a quick buck. Content needs to feel organic and not commercial.

Summary

Influencer marketing is becoming a bigger piece of the overall marketing plan. Influencer marketing’s only constant is change. With that being said, it is important to understand the benefits of influencer marketing, the role it can play in your overall marketing campaign, and how to find the right influencer for your brand. A good influencer can represent your brand in an authentic and personal way that other marketing tactics cannot deliver on. Influencer marketing can extend your marketing dollars by targeting your best customers, creating a direct relationship with them, and building trust and loyalty for your product.

For the complete Survivor’s Guide on influencer marketing where the psychological-sociological effects of influencers are discussed download Survivor’s Guide to Influencer Marketing

If you’d like to utilize an influencer campaign with your brand, feel free to contact us.

The Best Advertising Campaigns of 2019 (So Far)

August 14, 2019June 28, 2019 by Bloom Ads

As the halfway point of 2019 approaches, we think it’s time to highlight some of the most exciting, interesting, risky, and just plain best ad campaigns of the year so far. While we won’t necessarily see the sales impacts of these campaigns for some months, it’s worth considering what the hype around them has meant for their brands in the short-term.

The Best Ad Campaigns of 2019 So Far

Volkswagen’s “Hello Light” Spot

We’ll start off with possibly the riskiest ad on this list. During Game 3 of the NBA finals, VW launched what may be the most outside-the-box ad since its famous 1959 “Think Small” print. But why exactly? Basically, the ad breaks a major rule of advertising.

As Car and Driver points out, it’s long been accepted that you never mention anything unpleasant in an ad, because no matter what the ultimate message is, the audience will only focus on the negatives. Nevertheless, VW’s “Hello Light” opens with soundbites from radio reports about the company’s “Dieselgate scandal” from 2015, reminding viewers right away of how the company cheated emissions tests with diesel cars sold to Americans. It then spins a tale of self-reckoning and redemption to a Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack, before introducing a new electric concept car.

Critics warn that the ad could bring up bad blood that customers had largely forgotten. But as the company has seen sales rebounds since 2015, the new commercial’s combination of nostalgia and modern priorities may actually work. Only time will tell.

Bud Light + Game of Thrones for the Superbowl

Bud Light and HBO collaborated to deliver two mind-bending and somewhat sassy Superbowl spots with true entertainment appeal this year, both of which deserve a spot on our list of best ad campaigns.

For Bud Light’s part, it also chose to take a risk: calling out competitors like Coors Light for using corn syrup in their beers. Critics have pointed out that Budweiser also uses corn syrup, just not in traditional Bud Light. But there’s no doubt the Game of Thrones-themed Super Bowl ad caught eyes with its humorous approach.

Either way, Bud was able to ride the wave of an HBO collaboration when a second ad featuring Bud Knight turned out to be a promo for the highly anticipated final season of Game of Thrones.

KFC’s Bucket Bangers

KFC recently launched a digital marketing campaign using one of the internet’s greatest offshoots: music streaming. The brand collaborated with Spotify to create a playlist of 46 hip-hop songs that reference KFC.

Instead of building brand awareness from scratch, it simply aggregated and promoted messaging that was already there. In this creative and mutually beneficial process, KFC not only got to ride the wave of its own organic brand presence but also threw exposure to the musicians included… though few would argue that artists like Kanye West and Kendrick Lamar need any help in the marketing department. Still, in the end, users got to enjoy great music while celebrating The Colonel.

Dove’s Project #ShowUs

Dove has partnered with Girlgaze Photographers and Getty Images to collect about 5,000 of photos “of women by women.” This is just the latest marketing campaign in Dove’s efforts to redefine beauty standards in media and advertising.

The photos, all taken by women and woman-identifying photographers, aim to show a more accurate picture of the world’s women, inspired by a statistic that says 70% of women still don’t feel represented by traditional branding. The photo library shows a diversity of racial and gender identities, body types, abilities, cultures, fashion choices, hairstyles and more, while marketing material features slogans like, “Show us more women who look like me” and “Show us all hair is professional.”

According to Digital Agency Network, Dove, Girlgaze, and Getty Images will all feature the photos on their websites, marketing materials, and social platforms, and plan to use the hashtag #ShowUs to prompt similar user-generated content.

Love on Every Billboard

Sometimes the best ad campaigns aren’t selling anything at all. In the case of Love on Every Billboard, which Bloom Ads helped launch, the only message is “love,” which is why creator John Pogachar has rented billboards across the globe – including Russia! – that say only that. What started as a single red billboard featuring the word LOVE in Spokane, Washington, has grown into a phenomenon inspiring people to simply spread love.

In February, the TODAY show covered the campaign, and a billboard was even featured in the music video for Jason Mraz’s “Love is Still the Answer.”

No matter what your message is, Bloom Ads has the creative energy and expertise to help you spread it. We’re media-obsessed, and we’re happy to work hard for all of our clients. To learn more, visit our website and check out the advertising services we offer at Bloom Ads.

Embracing the Media Mix: How to Choose the Right Channels for Your Ads

August 14, 2019June 25, 2019 by Bloom Ads

Where should you spend your precious ad dollars? It’s probably the most common question in advertising, and it’s virtually impossible to answer – at least in one sentence. The fact is, the success of your advertising strategy depends on several factors besides the financial ones: your brand, your target audience, and your creative, to name a few. Another factor is having the right media mix.

Embracing the media mix isn’t just about blasting a one-size-fits-all message through whatever avenues you can. Instead, it’s about strategically constructing a web of messaging and engagement that allows the right audience to seamlessly follow your brand wherever they are, from TV to the web to their mobile phones. It’s important to make calculated decisions about what channels will work best for you based on your brand and, yes, your budget.

In this blog, we’ll take you through the available media avenues and leave you with some tips on choosing the right media mix for your company and product.

Your Media Mix Options

Television

While TV viewing habits may be changing, TV advertising can still be majorly effective. If you’re targeting populations that still watch broadcast and cable TV, you can get high ROI with the right TV ads.

Pros: Moving images can tell stories and drive deeper engagement with your brand. Both local and broadcast TV lets you target audiences geographically and psychographically while still offering a wide reach.

Cons: Broadcast TV is one of the most expensive forms of advertising, while cable TV can limit your audience.

Radio

While radio advertising doesn’t provide the same targeting abilities as TV, it’s one of the most cost-effective options for both small and large businesses depending on your product or service.

Pros: Radio advertising is an affordable option with a relatively high ROI. You can reach wide audiences right where they are.

Cons: If you’re selling to a niche market, radio has slightly lower targeting capabilities than TV.

Outdoor

Outdoor advertising is perfect for reaching a wide audience for a relatively low cost. A billboard can communicate a snappy message quickly, easily, and effectively. To see for yourself, take a look at how a single word went viral in the Love On Every Billboard campaign, which Bloom Ads helped develop.

Pros: Outdoor marketing can be affordable and wide-reaching.

Cons: Messages have to be incredibly concise because you’re limited to short messages and a static image.

Print

Print advertising may be a traditional form of advertising, but it’s still thriving. Newspaper ads, magazine ads, yellow pages, and more let you reach highly specific audiences with eye-catching design and concise messaging.

Pros: Newspaper readers can be customers with high purchase intent, while magazines offer specificity for brands selling niche products and services.

Cons: Print can be costly, and your design and ad copy must be punchy.

Sponsorships and Endorsements

A partnership with a high-profile company or an endorsement from a celebrity or athlete can shoot your brand into the awareness of the people who matter most. Sports player and celebrity endorsements, in-stadium marketing opportunities, celebrity/athlete on-site appearances, and TV/radio or print presence can add value to your media mix.

Pros: Sponsorships and endorsements can add a high dose of name recognition to your marketing efforts, which can be especially useful for small or growing companies.

Cons: To avoid off-brand messaging or even offensive partnerships, make sure your values and messaging match up well with your sponsor or celebrity endorser.

Digital and Mobile Advertising

Digital and mobile-first marketing are here to stay, and while traditional advertising is still thriving, some brands can’t get by without going digital too. Digital advertising is a broad field with many distinct but interrelated subfields, including:

SEO
Content Marketing
SEM/PPC (Paid Search)
Social media (Paid and Organic)
Local search
Mobile search
Email marketing
Reviews and directories – Yelp, Google My Business, etc.
Answering questions on Quora

As you can see, digital marketing spans the super-technical, like web design, all the way to the age-old question-and-answer format. Paid search and social media ads function almost like virtual billboards or print ads, while SEO and content marketing focus on building a brand’s credibility and authority online. Meanwhile, social media can help brands reach highly targeted audiences at low costs.

Digital marketing thus includes many different opportunities and channels at a wide range of price points. While a strong digital strategy is a coherent one, with all digital campaigns working in conjunction with one another, not all brands need to use all types of digital marketing. The size of your company and budget, where your company is in its life cycle, and the type of product or service you offer all determine what digital channels are best for you.

How to Choose the Right Media Channels

Successful media planning is all about coming up with a calculated strategy for reaching the right people with the right message at the right time – without going over budget, of course. Yet there’s no easy formula for knowing exactly what results you’ll get for a certain amount of ad spend. The best way to chart your path across the marketing landscape is to make some honest considerations about your product and brand.

Budget carefully. Figure out how much money you’re working with. This will help you narrow down and prioritize the channels that will give you the best ROI.
But know that just spending lots of money won’t automatically bring high results. The most important factor weighing on your campaign is the message. Invest in good branding and writing so that your ads have substance.
Understand and define your product, brand, and value proposition. This will help you craft a message that speaks to who you are.
Know your audience. Know not just who they are and where they shop, but also what they value so that your message reflects those same values.
Know where your competitors are advertising. This can give you an indication of where you yourself may get the best ROI.
Set realistic goals and then measure them. There’s no better way to refine your marketing strategy than by monitoring your results and implementing the findings on future campaigns.

The marketing landscape is a dynamic one, always changing with the tides of technological developments and user trends. Luckily, the media-obsessed experts at Bloom Ads are happy to help you find the perfect media mix for your brand and budget. Learn more about our services at our website.

What is the Buyer’s Journey and Why Does it Matter for Marketers?

August 14, 2019June 14, 2019 by Bloom Ads

Consumers today can seem almost allergic to advertising. Adblockers help users ignore sponsored messaging, customers trust reviews and testimonials over sales pitches, and 72% of customers turn first to Google – not sales reps – when researching purchases.

These behaviors reflect key features of the buyer’s journey, or the decision-making process that takes your audience from potential customer to loyal convert.

In this blog, we’ll explain what the buyer’s journey is and how understanding it can help marketers achieve their goals.

What is the Buyer’s Journey?

Hubspot defines the buyer’s journey as the process through which buyers become aware of, consider and evaluate, and decide to purchase a good or service. It includes pre-decision, decision, and post-decision stages during which consumers seek valuable information from authoritative sources.

In short, it’s a summary of how your customers think. That’s advertising gold if you ask us.

While the buyer’s journey is based on established psychological concepts, its implications for marketers have evolved with changes in consumer behavior. With so many options at their fingertips, customers want to make sure they’re making the absolute best choice possible. And with access to more information than ever, they actually can.

By understanding the buyer’s journey, you can better identify with your customers, which aids in communication – the essence of good marketing.

More specifically, you can zero in on what they need, and thus how your brand can fulfill that need. This helps you craft high-value messages that will cut through the noise and foster trust between you and your audience.

The Stages of the Buyer’s Journey

Conventional wisdom defines a purchase as a process, not an event. The buyer’s journey helps marketers break down a customer’s experience of that process, allowing marketers to craft targeted messaging that meets customers where they are.

Awareness

The buyer’s journey starts with a customer becoming aware of a problem, or need. This could be anything from being hungry and deciding to pick a restaurant to eat for lunch, to realizing that one needs to buy a new car.

Tip: Consumers don’t want to buy something they don’t need. For customers at the awareness stage, messaging that focuses on your brand, goods, or services may fall on deaf ears or, worse, seem too aggressive.

Consideration

Once a customer realizes they have a need, they’ll begin considering solutions. This means researching and evaluating options, refining their criteria, and finally narrowing down a list of solutions. Customers often cycle between these steps until they’re ready to make a final decision.

Tip: Your media mix should accommodate how people gather information these days. Television and radio ads that highlight your value in a unique way can certainly make an impact, but for many brands, digital outreach will be key.

Consumers in the consideration stage often turn to customer reviews, testimonials, and other content that provides trustworthy information. Think about including these in your marketing strategy.

Decision

Having evaluated the necessary criteria and options, the consumer converts, or makes a purchase.

Tip: While the decision stage is a milestone for any brand, it’s not necessarily the end of the buyer’s journey, nor your work as a marketer. Some have even dubbed the post-decision phase the “Evangelize” stage, during which happy customers spread the word about the value of your good or service.

Customers who have already converted have the potential to contribute to your brand presence through the same customer reviews and testimonials that may have driven them to you in the first place. Make sure your marketing strategy doesn’t leave your post-decision buyers behind.

How to Use the Buyer’s Journey in Your Marketing Strategy

Start with questions. How will customers find you? What kinds of information, or content, will help them make an informed decision? And once they’re poised to make a purchase, what will facilitate their conversion?
You’ll need to address these questions when designing your website and planning your advertisements and content.

Use buyer personas. The buyer’s journey is all about empathizing with your customers. One specific way to do that is with buyer personas. These sketches or profiles of fictional customers help you narrow down exactly who you’re talking to, where they are in the buyer’s journey, and most importantly what to say to them.
To learn more, read our blog on the power of buyer personas.

Craft targeted content. Since so much of the buyer’s journey now happens online, your digital marketing strategy should incorporate strong, authoritative content targeted to consumers at various stages of the process.
First, consider your brand and target audience, then decide what kinds of content will best communicate with them. Blogs, articles, white papers, and user-generated content like reviews or social media posts are great examples of this kind of targeted content.

At Bloom Ads, We Know Buyers

The professionals at Bloom Ads specialize in creating the right media mix for your brand and target audience. If you have questions about media buying and planning, digital advertising, or just how to better reach your potential customers, get in touch today.

Five Things You Need to Know About Mobile Advertising

August 14, 2019May 22, 2019 by Bloom Ads

Digital marketers must adapt to the habits of mobile users.
The recent shift towards mobile advertising has been immense, accounting for 30% of global advertising in 2020, with its total of nearly $190 billion being more than twice as much as desktop advertising. What’s even more fascinating is that this dominant market position hasn’t been a slow-burner, with 80% of mobile ad spending growth happening in the last five years.

Like so many tech and digital “unicorns,” mobile advertising has sprung from nowhere and changed the game so quickly, it’s left traditional players struggling to figure out the new rules – or to even get on the field in the first place.

The reasons mobile advertising has become so popular are unsurprising when you consider what it offers to marketers:

Average daily use of smartphones has skyrocketed from just over one hour to over three since 2012.
Reach is enormous, with nearly 80% of Americans owning smart devices.
Increased smartphone capability means that connection speeds and picture and video display are pretty much equal to desktops.
The popularity of mobile apps gives marketers powerful access to users’ undivided attention.
Advanced metrics mean that campaigns can be completely tailored to maximize digital marketing spend.
Tracking capabilities allow visitors to be retargeted and remarketed to as they move around the web.

With the unprecedented and highly individualized access to potential customers, it’s easy to see why everyone wants to grab a shovel and join in the mobile advertising gold rush that’s in full swing. But before you get in over your head, here are some important things you need to know about what makes mobile advertising different.

1. Mobile marketing has its own language.

You can’t make the most of mobile advertising without learning the language. Below are some of the most important terms you’ll come across:

Native ads: These are designed so that they look like they’re actually a part of the app or website being visited. For example, an ad for coffee might use characters from the game the user is playing.

Scrollovers: These are ads that take up a full-screen width, meaning that users have to scroll over them to get to the rest of their content, thus not being able to avoid the ad’s message.

Interstitial ads: These cover the whole screen during an appropriate moment during usage of mobile apps, such as a pause in play or changing from one screen to another.

Impressions: This is a digital marketing term that describes the moment an ad is viewed by someone or displayed on a page.

CPI (Cost Per Impression): This is a metric used to describe how much advertising costs per impression. It can also be described as CPM (Cost Per Mille), referring to cost per thousand impressions.

In-app purchases: These are purchases users make inside a company’s app, such as getting extra content to help them on a quest or give them more features, to provide a better experience or to make or renew subscriptions.

CTR: Click-through rate is the percentage of people who view your ad and follow through to visit the site or take a desired action.

Programmatic platforms: Highly automated bidding on advertising inventory in real time, which uses a wide variety of metrics to deliver intensely targeted advertising.

2. The mobile platform is a different beast.

Unlike display advertising, where everything is about capturing attention at a single glance, mobile marketing is defined by how consumers use their devices. This affects everything from the shape of the ad (e.g. mobile phone screens are generally in 16:9 ratio) to whether the user has wi-fi or not.

Effective mobile advertising means understanding how consumers use their phones, and how that will affect the display of your ads.

3. The possibilities are endless.

Mobile usage opens up a whole new world of marketing possibilities for businesses. These include location marketing to target specific geographic areas, augmented reality to blend virtual concepts into the real world, and using native ads to piggyback on the trust and brand awareness of an app they are already using.

4. Getting users on your own app is the holy grail.

While utilizing ad networks that are already positioned in the market can be a quick and effective way to get into mobile advertising, the potential to connect goes much further. By developing and pushing your own app, you will gain greater control of your customers’ experience while gaining access to data concerning their preferences and habits.

5. Users expect an experience.

While much traditional advertising is happy with simply increasing brand awareness, this is not nearly enough for mobile. The interactive nature of mobile and the journey you can take people on in a few quick clicks and swipes means that if you are not giving potential leads a full-on experience, you’re not making the most of what mobile has to offer.

Got Digital Marketing Questions? We Have Answers

Taking full advantage of the changing landscape of marketing can be overwhelming. The experienced marketers at Bloom Ads are here to help make the transition smoother. Contact us today with any questions you have about mobile and digital marketing.

The Power of Personas: Why Are Marketing Personas Important?

August 14, 2019May 8, 2019 by Bloom Ads

Markeing personas help make your audience real.
Most industry insiders agree that good marketing is all about figuring out not just what to say to your audience, but also when and how to say it. In order to craft that perfect message and communicate it effectively, you have to understand your audience.

So what exactly does that mean, and how do marketers accomplish it? One important way is through marketing personas. Sometimes called buyer personas, marketing personas create clear portraits of potential customers, literally putting a name – if not a face – to the often nebulous concept of your “target audience.”

Below, we’ll define marketing personas, explain why marketing personas are important, and provide tips for developing personas for your own company.

What Are Marketing Personas?

A marketing persona is a fictional “sketch” of a key segment of your target audience. This sketch helps you create a marketing strategy that is more relevant and valuable to the customers who matter most to your business. Once again, good marketing is all about figuring out what to say, and how and when to say it. By bringing faceless consumers to life with concrete identifiers, marketing personas address that very challenge.

A marketing persona should include specific details about the fictional customer, including at a minimum:

Demographics, such as age, gender, salary, education, and family
Occupation/career details
Personal goals and values

One final piece of the puzzle that many marketers may want to consider is the customer’s stage in the buyer’s journey. HubSpot has famously defined the buyer’s journey as the process through which all customers go when moving from discovery of your product/service to conversion. This process includes three stages: Awareness (the customer becomes aware of a particular need), Consideration (the customer researches solutions – i.e. products and services), and Decision (the customer purchases your product or service – i.e. converts).

Let’s say your company sells high-end hiking boots. A persona for one ideal customer might describe Jessica, a 30-year-old single Los Angeles resident. Jessica works as an executive assistant in the entertainment industry making $60,000 per year. She has recently started hiking for recreation and is interested in purchasing her first pair of hiking boots. She likes her job, which requires her to present herself well and keep up with trends, so she values both quality and style in her purchase.

Your message to Jessica should communicate these values in a way that targets beginners who are still in the consideration phase of their shopping. Save the discussions of complex boot comparisons and updated features, on the other hand, for Tim, a loyal customer, seasoned backpacker, and retiree looking to upgrade his go-to boots as he prepares to hike the Pacific Crest Trail.

Why Are Marketing Personas Important?

Marketing is about meeting audiences’ needs profitably. As you can see in the examples above, marketing personas help you meet customer needs by more fully defining who those customers are or could be. When you can put a name, age, and range of interests and experience to a customer, you can better illuminate their values and get a clearer picture of what that person needs from your product, service, or marketing strategy.

So personas help you define and understand your audience… but why is that so important? In short, if you don’t understand who your audience is, you can’t understand their needs. If you don’t understand their needs, you can’t meet them – let alone profitably.

By defining your ideal customers’ needs, marketing personas help marketers use time and energy more efficiently and, ultimately, create better products and services. Marketing personas are important in all of the following tasks:

Refining ad campaigns
Content creation (including email campaigns and blog posts)
Social media marketing (such as on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn)
General marketing problem-solving
Efficient and well-aligned product development

Tips for Harnessing the Power of Personas in Your Marketing Strategy

Be as detailed as possible. The more details you include, the clearer the picture of your ideal customer will be. A clearer sketch helps you both define and solve more problems for this customer, and refine your message to communicate how you can do so.

Consider the customer’s stage in the buyer’s journey. As we mentioned above, you should tailor your message to the buyer’s stage in engaging with your product or service. Someone who is still researching solutions needs a different message than someone who has already converted, or even someone who is just well-versed in industry terms and concepts.

Use templates. While each buyer persona is a unique sketch, you should standardize your process for developing personas by using or creating persona templates. This helps ensure you always include the same level of detail across campaigns, products, and departments, ensuring a more profitable use of time and resources.

We Can Help You Help Your Audience

At Bloom Ads, we’ve made it our life’s work to help clients craft the right messages for the right audience. Have questions about buyer personas, why marketing personas are important, or just how to get started on a successful marketing campaign? Explore our advertising services today.

SEM vs. SEO: What’s the Difference?

August 14, 2019May 1, 2019 by Bloom Ads

We know – search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO) sound almost identical. It is true that they both describe digital marketing strategies that harness the power of search engine results to increase traffic and conversions.

However, SEM and SEO describe two different (but complementary) branches of what’s now called “search marketing.” Search marketing can be contrasted with other types of digital advertising, such as display ads, video ads, and retargeting or remarketing campaigns, which do not rely on keyword searches to gain traffic.

While some industry insiders still use “SEM” as an umbrella term to describe all search-based digital marketing (including SEO), we define SEM as a separate branch alongside SEO.

SEM vs. SEO

In a nutshell, the difference between SEM and SEO comes down to where the money goes. While all advertising comes at some cost to your business, SEM and SEO use resources in very different ways to achieve the same goal: increased traffic and conversions online.

Below, we’ll go into more detail about SEM vs. SEO – plus how they work together for a well-coordinated digital strategy.

What is SEM?

If SEM doesn’t sound terribly descriptive, its other common name – “paid search” – should give you a clue as to how it works. In an SEM campaign, a business aims to increase traffic by bidding on paid search listings. Those Google results marked “Ad” at the top of search engine results pages? Those are the products of SEM. The most popular SEM platform is Google AdWords, followed by Bing Ads and Yahoo Search Ads.

The most important thing to know about SEM ads is that they work through keywords. When bidding on ad placements, your business will bid on well-researched keywords relevant to both your target audience and your product or service.

Common Paid Search Methods

Pay-per-click (PPC) – In this model, your business pays the advertising platform for every click the ad receives. This model is sometimes referred to as cost-per-click (CPC) advertising.
Cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM) – Some ads charge per thousand impressions, or times an ad delivers online.

What is SEO?

Unlike SEM, search engine optimization (SEO) does not involve the purchase of ads. Instead, it aims to increase traffic and conversions with high-quality, relevant web content targeted at keywords your audience is likely to search for. This is sometimes referred to as “organic” search marketing.

Because rankings on search results pages are not bought, but rather earned with content, SEO can be an inexpensive and thus profitable marketing tool for businesses of all shapes and sizes.

SEO Fundamentals

Like SEM, the practice of SEO revolves around keywords. SEO content such as blogs, on-site copy, and social media posts aim to incorporate relevant keywords their audience is likely to search.

Ideally, SEO marketers should place keywords in ways that simultaneously communicate the page’s relevance to search engines and readers alike. The key to striking this balance is good writing and technical knowledge that keeps up with constantly-changing Google algorithms.

Below are some of the basics:

“Content is King” – You can’t talk about SEO without talking about content. This term describes any piece of writing or media – from blog articles to Facebook posts – that can demonstrate your relevance to search engines and your value to customers through keyword placement. Content can incorporate informative or entertaining writing, images, videos, or a mix of those elements, but should first and foremost be high-quality, credible, and authoritative.
On-Page vs. Off-Page SEO – While it’s easy to assume that on-page SEO refers to tactics you can actually see on the page, this is only a small part of the puzzle. On-page SEO includes any tactic that helps your page rank higher on search results, whether it’s “seen” by the reader or by Google. Good keyword usage in text, but also good site navigation, quality internal links, image descriptions, and even fast page load times all contribute to on-page SEO. Off-page SEO, on the other hand, refers to SEO tactics that do not relate to webpage design, such as promotional campaigns.
Linkbuilding – Linkbuilding is another tenet of SEO that centers on credibility and authority. Google rewards sites that offer genuine, valuable, and relevant information. This is why simply “stuffing” keywords as many times as possible into a page won’t help your rankings. One way to build credibility for your sight is to make sure plenty of other, ideally well-ranking, sites are linking back to your site. This is another example of off-page SEO.

One important note on SEO: It’s a dynamic process that can take a long time to show results. For this reason, some recommend that newer sites prioritize SEM while revamping their site’s SEO.

To Pay or Not to Pay?

Let’s recap the similarities between SEM and SEO.

Both rely on keywords.
Both focus on increasing online traffic.
Both help users find what they’re looking for online.

So when it comes to SEM vs. SEO, what’s right for you? Most evidence says, both! SEM campaigns are more likely to succeed if your site already has good SEO, because good SEO contributes to your site’s credibility and authority online.

Got questions about SEM, SEO, or digital marketing in general? The advertising experts at Bloom Ads would be happy to help.

Tips for Measuring Your Advertising Results

August 14, 2019April 23, 2019 by Bloom Ads

Reaping the best ROI on your ads means monitoring their success (or failure).

Measuring advertising results from media campaigns can be challenging. Fortunately, there are a few ways to go about measuring advertising results to determine your return on investment. In this article, we will list a few tips that will help ease the challenges of running an effective marketing campaign. Let’s get started!

Analyzing Campaign Performance

Some variables are harder to control than others. However, collecting sales data before, during, and after the campaign can go a long way with regard to determining return on investment.

Timing is everything! Target a specific date range to see if there was any lift during the time period in which an ad campaign was running.

For a basic formula, ROI = gain from investment – cost of investment divided by the cost of investment.

Tone of voice is also an important variable to consider. If you know you ran a variety of ads, examine the results of each to determine which ones resonated the most with a target audience. Did messaging and tone change from one ad to the other? Was music played? What did the imagery look like when you ran the ad? In TV or radio broadcasts, for example, tone of voice can vary greatly depending on the time of day and audience segment.

Measuring Digital Advertising

Measuring digital advertising is more straightforward so long as you have access to reliable data. For example, if your brand has an online presence, you can measure the amount of website traffic during a campaign period to determine the effectiveness of an ad.

Taking it a step further, one can specify unique URL parameters to identify the traffic source of a campaign to tie results back to specific copy, CTAs, imagery, and layout.

The key to success with digital measurement is having access to reliable analytics, so it’s best to sync with other members on your marketing team who may have access to better data.

Business Outcomes and Customer Experience

A recent study conducted by the CMO Council found that marketers are now shifting their focus away from ad metrics towards measuring business outcomes. Ad personalization, for example, has become a great variable when measuring advertising results using the following metrics:

Retention rate
Lifetime value
Acquisition rate
Upsell/Cross-sell engagement
Revenue Per Transaction

Examining broader metrics allows marketers to zoom out and better understand the buyer journey, which can be a more effective marketing approach to tailoring messaging to the right time and place.

Defining Objectives, and Measurement

Defining objectives and measurement is of the utmost importance. Is your end goal to drive sales? Brand awareness? Retention? Having a clear set of objectives mapped out will pave the way to more measurable and actionable ad campaigns. The goal of this process is to drill down to the truth. What about a user’s behavior are we examining? Are key performance indicators (KPIs) actually representative of campaign success?

If the answer is yes, then you are on the right track. From there, you can begin to audit, analyze and tweak ad campaigns accordingly. The bottom line: Without a north star, it’s hard to determine a path to your specific goals. You can use data all day long, but reaching new or potential customers requires a more holistic approach. Measuring advertising results begins with defining your objectives and KPIs beforehand.

It’s important to remember never to settle. Continually analyze which platforms, publishers, or partners are performing best to identify gaps as well as what needs to be done in order to improve return on investment. As long as you work towards improving the value proposition of the brand, the easier it will be to measure the impact of your work.

Bloom Ads is Here to Help

Is your team looking to outsource its media buying and planning? Bloom Ads has a team of professionals standing by to help your brand create, administer, and measure effective media campaigns that truly deliver! Give us a call today at (818) 703-0218.

How Does Social Media Affect Advertising?

August 14, 2019April 16, 2019 by Bloom Ads

Whether you like it or not, social media is here to stay – and it’s definitely made its mark in the world of digital advertising. While traditional avenues like TV, radio, and print ads are still vital tools, companies that fail to adapt to the role of social media in advertising put themselves at a disadvantage.

This doesn’t have to be bad news. It may take some research and a little advice from the pros, but with the right tools and strategies, even technophobes can make concrete changes to their online presence that take advantage of the benefits social media offers.

Below, we’ll outline the state of social media in advertising and provide some pro tips for making good use of social media in your own marketing campaigns.

How Does Social Media Affect Advertising? A Look at the Data

Even the most cursory glance at the world around you offers plenty of evidence that social media is king. We’re constantly checking our devices for notifications from platform after platform, whether for work or personal reasons – often both. Facebook Ads have become ubiquitous, influencer marketing is a vital part of the industry, and user-generated content continues to gain traction.

It’s also obvious to many of us that users continue to find ways to block or ignore ads. We probably even do this ourselves.
But what do the numbers actually tell us? Let’s look at some statistics.

As early as 2006 – before Facebook even took off – it was estimated that the average American saw 5,000 ads a day. That figure is believed to have grown significantly since then.
As of 2019, Facebook has 1.69 billion users worldwide.
After reaching its 10 billionth tweet just four months prior, Twitter doubled that amount to reach its 20 billionth tweet in August 2010.
Companies are continuously developing products specifically to help consumers block ads. Such products have evolved from TiVo to ad-blocking browser plug-ins, many of which can be downloaded for free.

What do these statistics mean for advertisers in a digital landscape? Because social media puts so many people together in one “place,” advertisers have caught on to its amazing potential as a platform to broadcast their messages. But many argue that this has created ad fatigue for users, making it ever more challenging for marketers to cut through the noise.

Let’s break down some of the effects of social media on advertising.

Three Impacts of Social Media on Digital Marketing

1. Social Media Helps Communicate Value by Segmenting Markets

Most advertisers would agree that marketing is about communication and value creation. Well, social media is designed for just that. Social networking functions as a way to connect vast numbers of people from all walks of life and all across the globe – and that means connecting brands and consumers. With a built-in audience, social media provides amazing potential for boosting brand awareness.

But social media does more than just hand advertisers a virtual loudspeaker. In fact, advertisers already know that simply blasting a one-size-fits-all message without targeting the right audiences can actually negatively affect returns on investment.

This is where social media’s true strength comes in. Because of its amazing ability to target specific groups of people using powerful data and algorithms, social media is the perfect tool for segmenting markets so advertisers can actually reach the right people.

2. Social Media Turns Consumers into Message Creators

Because social media gives both brands and individuals a voice and a platform to express it, it has changed the way we send and receive messages. Social networking removes many of the barriers to expression that exist in more traditional advertising models. Companies can spend millions on a TV advertising campaign, but it doesn’t cost anything to create a Facebook post.

More importantly, social media creates the ideal space for word-of-mouth marketing and “buzz” – two things that are becoming more and more crucial in a marketing landscape where consumers value transparency and trust over what they perceive as deceptive or aggressive “sells”. Though it comes with its own pros and cons, companies are increasingly taking advantage of these values by making use of user-generated content and influencer marketing.

3. Social Media Reduces Marketing Costs and Boosts ROI

While it can present a challenge to marketers more versed in traditional mediums like TV or print, social media tends to be much less expensive if used wisely. Between the low cost of posting on social networks and the huge exposure potential of word-of-mouth marketing, social media can drastically increase the profitability of spreading your message.

Not only does social media boost your returns on investment by cutting costs, but it also provides customer insights you can use to further hone in on your target audience with the right products (and messages).

Tips for Reaching the Right People Through Social Media

When potential customers have so many messages competing for their attention on a daily basis, how can marketers cut through the noise and meet customers’ needs profitably? The key is to use social media to your advantage by zoning in on your audience and creating authentic relationships with consumers, proving your service or product speaks to their values and can meet their needs.

We’ve included some tips for how to do this below:

Get on multiple platforms. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are pretty much non-negotiable, with LinkedIn not far behind, especially for products or services geared toward a more professional cohort. Coordinate campaigns across platforms so your consumers perceive a cohesive, seamless experience across your brand presence.
BUT – Don’t just blast every platform. Tailor your posts to the platform’s strengths. Think visual/video content and hashtags for Instagram, more verbal content for Twitter, and content targeted at industry professionals for LinkedIn.
Utilize customer insights through data analytics, and make use of social media’s segmenting potential to target the right audiences with the right messages.
Consider user-generated content and influencer marketing – but carefully consider the costs and fit for your brand. When you pursue these campaigns, you’re putting your brand into the hands of outside parties, which comes with its own risks and rewards.

The Pros at Bloom Ads are Here to Help

Want to make the most of social media’s role in advertising but not sure where to start? Don’t worry – the professionals at Bloom Ads have plenty of experience in digital marketing to go around. Contact us to get started today!