Google Ads Archives | Brand Ranch Media

Top 5 Insights on the Future of Google Ads

The advertising world has been buzzing ever since the Google Marketing Live event showcased how Google plans to use AI to improve its marketing platform for businesses of all sizes. The event is broadcast every year to a worldwide audience of marketing professionals who are eager to hear about the future of Google Ads and Search. This year’s topics focused on AI, future improvements to Performance Max campaigns, and how to multiply the success of your Google advertising moving forward. It’s been almost one month since the 10^th annual event was held and we’ve prepared our top 5 insights on the future of search marketing and what it means for SMBs and advertisers.

AI Helps Advertisers Compete

There is a great need for AI in search marketing in today’s digital landscape. The average consumer journey has grown more complex in recent years where it is common for a customer to have 5 different touchpoints during the buying process. Google Ads AI tools are developed with three concepts in mind: to help marketers keep up-to-speed with competitors, reach customers at the right time, and drive better results.

In addition, privacy has become more important to users. This is the reason why Google has developed its new analytics platform, GA4. It will use AI to collect and report on website analytics that will help drive ad performance in a new privacy-centric environment.

Build a Solid Foundation

During the Marketing Live event, Google refers to “AI Essentials” which are the basic requirements needed to succeed with AI and Google Ads. These are divided into three categories, the first of which is “Foundation”. The foundational aspect strengthens measurement strategy with high quality data. This is accomplished with setting up the Google site tag, the setup of enhanced conversions, assigning values to conversions, and upgrading to GA4. By building a solid foundation, you will set yourself up for success in the future of advertising with Google.

Utilize AI-Powered Ad Campaigns

The second AI Essential is the utilization of AI-powered campaigns that automatically optimize performance in real time to get more conversions and value for your budget. This includes the combination of running simultaneous Search and Performance Max campaigns (Pmax), utilizing value-based smart bidding, and using a wide variety of creative inputs. Pmax campaigns utilize AI to combine multiple types of ad assets and optimized targeting to reach the right audience at the right time.

By introducing AI at the campaign level, campaigns can be launched faster as many of the previous manual tasks will shift to AI. However, marketers will still need to guide the AI in order to drive the best results.

Organizations Will Need to Shift Mindsets

The final piece to AI Essentials is the shifting of the mindsets of organizations in order to unlock the full benefits of AI. Brands and Agencies will need to become open to shifting budgets towards the biggest opportunities. Since AI is going to be doing a lot of the tasks that used to be manual, this will free up time for more experimentation in order to test, learn, and scale what works best.

Agility is going to be very important as workflow will become less siloed between data, budget, and channels. There are also going to be new campaign types being released, such as Demand Generation campaigns that utilize YouTube shorts, Discovery ads, and Gmail to reach lookalike segments of your first-party data.

First-Party Data Will Drive Performance

The majority of advertisers understand the importance of first-party data, however, less than 1/3 of them admit to using it. It’s for this reason that Google is going to make it easier to connect data sources, such as CRMs, to ad accounts. One of the final key takeaways from the Google Marketing Live event was that first-party data plus AI equals a winning Google Ads strategy. If brands and agencies don’t fully embrace AI and first-party data, they will most certainly fall behind and won’t achieve their desired results. AI-driven ad campaigns, such as Pmax, use first-party data signals to help supercharge and hyper-target those who are most likely to convert towards your campaign goals.

If you’re looking for a team of experienced marketers to guide you into the future of search engine marketing, Brand Ranch Media is a pioneer in driving successful AI-driven campaigns. We have been using AI marketing technology since its inception and have a strong track record of helping our clients grow. Give us a call at 713-309-6380 or use our contact form to shoot us a quick message!

Best Home Services SEM and PPC Strategies

After providing an overview of home services marketing tactics in our last article, it’s time to dig a little deeper and talk some specifics regarding some of the best home services SEM and PPC strategies. One of the most cost-effective marketing strategies for a home services business are digital marketing campaigns. Digital campaigns allow you to reach a highly specific targeted audience at a cost point that it much less expensive than traditional marketing channels such as radio, TV, and print. In addition, it’s much easier to track the overall success and performance of digital marketing campaigns versus its traditional counterparts. Digital marketing encompasses a broad range of different marketing channels. Today, we want to hyperfocus on search engines and how a home services business can utilize search engine marketing (SEM) to reach its target customers with highly focused messaging that will convert at a high rate, low-cost ratio.

Is it SEM or PPC?

If you’re a home services business owner, you are likely familiar with one of the following marketing terms: search engine marketing (SEM) or pay-per-click marketing (PPC). Essentially, they refer to the same thing (though, not exactly). SEM implies paid advertising tactics done via a search engine such as Google or Microsoft (Bing). PPC is an SEM tactic where you, quite literally, pay for each click your ad receives. Not all SEM is PPC as there are multiple ad types and different bidding strategies you can choose that don’t charge you for each individual click. When working with a digital marketing professional, they will ultimately make the best decision as far as what bidding strategy to utilize based on the goal of the individual campaign. However, arguably the most effective search engine ad type is a search ad, which happens to follow the pay-per-click model.

What are Search Ads?

If you’re a home services provider and you want to reach potential customers at the exact time they are searching for your service type online, then you need to invest in a search ad marketing strategy. Search ads are highly effective because the customer is actively looking for a specific product or service in the exact moment when the search occurs. In addition, the buyer is typically in the mid to late funnel stages of the buying process and therefore search ads tend to have higher conversion rates for qualified leads. When users search online for a service, search ads will appear on the SERP (search engine results page) as some of the first results (see image).

The main components of a search ad are headlines and a description. Headlines should consist of the main product/service that you are advertising as well as short, supporting phrases that would entice users to click the ad. The description should include verbiage to further support the services provided. Additional components of a search ad are called “extensions”. Different types of extensions can be included with a search ad and provide unique bits of information including, but not limited to, a phone number, sitelinks to different web pages, service types, locations served, deals, short callouts, and more. Since the goal of the search ad is to get the user to perform some sort of measurable action, the ad copy and extensions are quite important and should be optimized over time for best performance. Since search ads tend to target customers at later stages in the marketing funnel, another digital ad type can be utilized to reach more early-stage buyers: display ads.

What are Display Ads?

Display ads provide visually appealing ad content (shown below) to users who have shown online signals of actively researching specific products or services, however, they can also raise brand awareness for users that may have interests in related products or services.

A home service provider can also use display ads to retarget previous customers or website visitors which helps keep them top of mind and consistently in front of previously engaged audiences. Since they can reach buyers in different stages of the buying process, display ads should be designed with specific messaging intended for each specific audience. Depending on the messaging, when users click the ad, the landing page content should closely match to maximize the desired outcome.

Landing Pages and Digital Ads

No matter what type of digital ad you are running, the landing page (the web page where users will land upon clicking an ad) plays a pivotal role as to whether the potential customer will take the desired action towards converting into an actual lead. Like ads, a landing page should entice users into taking a pre-defined action. For home services, these action types are typically customer contact via phone calls or a form fill. The messaging on a landing page should closely align with the messaging of the ad so that when users click the ad, the landing page further supports everything that the ad claims. In addition, the page content should minimize any doubts a potential customer may have, convincing them that they should definitely use your services. Finally, there should be a clear call-to-action on how the customer can contact you to schedule service. Combined with compelling ads, this landing page formula will help drive leads. Landing pages should be optimized over time to find the highest converting content.

If you’re a home services business owner, having a great digital marketing team is going to be crucial for your success. Whether the strategy is PPC only or a more balanced SEM approach, you will want those who are experienced in home services marketing to drive your strategy and execute the plan.

Brand Ranch Media is Houston’s most experienced home services marketing agency. We have helped countless home services providers grow their businesses exponentially, consistently driving record-high revenues for our business partners. Get on the path of exponential growth today. Call us at 713-309-6380 or send us a contact form and let us know how we can help you!

Home Services Marketing in Houston

There are many different advertising platforms and strategies one can use for home services marketing. Brand Ranch Media has proven that a balanced advertising plan can lead to great success in the home services industry. It is important to utilize both traditional and modern marketing methods. We use omni-channel strategies to provide consumers with a seamless experience across multiple channels. Staying consistent across channels will take customers through a high-quality experience. You may be reading this article because you want to generate outbound and inbound leads for your home services business. Let’s take a bird’s eye view at some of the different ways to advertise for home services companies.

Traditional Advertising vs Digital Marketing

Traditional advertising is served on different platforms such as print, radio, TV, and streaming. This method of advertising is great for brand recognition and can help to get the message about your products or services to your target consumer. We will do a deeper dive into traditional advertising later in this blog series, but for now, let’s discuss one of the difficult aspects of traditional marketing: tracking its success.

Return on Investment (ROI) is one way that an advertising agency, such as Brand Ranch Media, measures the success of marketing campaigns. It tends to be more difficult to track the ROI of traditional advertising campaigns because the attribution is sometimes clouded. For example, a radio ad for lawn maintenance plays. The listener drives home and looks at the current state of their yard. She decides she needs the service, searches the company’s name online, and calls the phone number listed on their website. The call is attributed to an organic search result instead of the original advertising source, a radio ad. Therefore, the radio ad is less likely to receive credit for this lead.

In contrast, digital marketing is served across the internet on various platforms including websites, search engines, social media, and email. Over the past few decades, digital marketing platforms have evolved and improved the way advertising professionals can market home services. Using digital platforms, we can better target a specific audience, optimize the performance of campaigns, and track campaign success by using website and performance analytics. The ability to attribute a conversion goal or purchase directly from a digital ad source makes it much easier to determine the ROI of a digital campaign over a traditional advertising campaign.

Digital Marketing Strategies

There are multiple digital marketing platforms and strategies advertising professionals use in the home services industry. Each of them works together and complements each other, ultimately driving the most amount of leads possible. We will discuss this at greater length later in this blog series but here are some quick insights into each method.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a strategy designed to increase the volume of website visitors by improving a website’s positioning in an unpaid (or “organic”) way on search engines. This is performed through a combination of keyword usage throughout a website, content optimization, and website best practices. However, SEO is much easier said than done and can be quite time consuming.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM, commonly known as PPC), allows marketers to target people who fall within a typical customer profile based on a combination of demographics, interests, and in-market audience segments. Campaigns utilize different types of ads including search, display, and video. SEM is a great way to reach people who are searching online for home services providers.

Social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, can be utilized by marketers through paid and organic approaches. By using paid advertising on social media, advertising agencies can use targeting capabilities to reach extremely specific audiences. This puts your ads in front of people that are likely to need your services (homeowners in your target demographic, for example). Social media campaigns can also help further your reach and broaden your audience. Additionally, utilizing organic social media is a great way for you to work on brand recognition while humanizing your business. It’s a place to showcase examples of your work, who you are, and could even stir up conversation or “engagement” around your business. Users can also write genuine testimonials about the services they received. Ultimately, an active social media page can generate more traffic and result in more leads for your business.

Home Services Marketing with an Experienced Ad Agency

It’s important for your brand to use best practices to comply with industry standards. As marketing platforms continuously modernize, it’s important to keep in mind the standards your business needs to maintain to keep up with changes. Advertising agencies make themselves industry experts to keep up with the trends that are everchanging. Keeping up to date on trends in the market and the industry itself will significantly impact your results for the better.

One example of how an experienced agency can help is by utilizing home services software tools such as a Customer Relationship Management system (CRM). By utilizing a customer’s existing CRM, we can work together to track leads, customer acquisition, sales, types of services performed and more – all for the benefit of improving marketing campaigns. By tracking leads all the way through to a completed sale, we can capture which ads drive the greatest revenue to maximize profit. Then, we are able to focus advertising efforts on the most successful platforms. This will help maximize ROI!

Additionally, using an omni-channel marketing strategy can optimize the customer experience. This marketing strategy provides users across multiple marketing channels with a consistent brand experience. It is meant to be a seamless transition for your customer as they navigate your brand from channel to channel. Staying consistent across channels will provide your customers with a cohesive experience that will help conversions.

At Brand Ranch Media, we have a wealth of experience in the home services marketing industry. Our experienced team will lead you in the right direction. We will customize your marketing plan, budget allocations, and strategies for growth and performance. Our goal is to help you expand your business. Some of the different types of home services providers we have worked closely with include Exterior Cleaning, Electricians, HVAC, Pool Cleaning, Pest Control, Plumbers, Concrete Services, Lawn Care, Landscape Design, and Cleaning Services.

If you are looking for Home Services Marketing, Brand Ranch Media develops and manages marketing strategies that will lead your business to the success you are worthy of. Our experienced marketing experts bring diverse skillsets and understand all components of successful marketing campaigns. Call us at 713-309-6380 or contact us to discuss how we can grow your business together!

Marketing Trends in 2022

It’s that time of year again. The final three months of the year are marked with back-to-back-to-back holiday celebrations and most companies already have their holiday marketing plans set. Business owners and marketing professionals alike start setting up marketing initiatives and budgets for the new year. At the end of 2020, we made a few prophetic insights into marketing trends to expect during their 2021 campaigns. Now, we shuffle and flip our tarot cards of advertising and read into the marketing trends to look for in 2022.

Digital marketing automation will continue to evolve.

Google has slowly introduced automated ads into their search and display ad types. These responsive ads take different ad copy and creative input in the platform by the advertiser and use machine learning to show the best performing combinations of the ad assets available to users based on the individual’s preferences. Budget strategies have also become fully automated and are aimed to get the best results based on the goal of each campaign within specific budget parameters. Other digital ad platforms such as Microsoft Ads, Facebook, and LinkedIn utilize similar automation concepts. Expect to see marketing automation continue to improve with new features and better results allowing marketers to focus on other ad management aspects while the automated systems provide support in some of the ad optimization work.

Google’s search algorithms will continue to get smarter which will change website SEO.

In June 2021, Google released an algorithm update it calls, “MUM”. MUM has the ability to translate user searches into different languages as well as go beyond providing results that only answer the original search query. One practical use is utilizing search when in different countries. An English-speaking user on vacation in Italy might want to find fun places to visit in Rome. MUM will bring up local results and translate them from Italian into English so that the user receives localized web results rather than results from an English-language website. MUM can also serve web results that go beyond the initial search query. Using the same travel scenario, when the user is planning a trip, they usually have many questions such as air travel, where to stay, things to do, and how to get around. The MUM update seeks to show results that can answer all of these related questions through only one query. The bottom line for content creators is that keyword placement within content is going to become less and less relevant while focusing on providing well-rounded, quality, and informative content is going to be much more sustainable in the long run.

Image optimization is going to become more vital for SEO.

Image optimization has evolved. Not only do images need to have a descriptive file name and a descriptive alt img tag, they also should be uploaded to websites using proper image formatting and file sizes. Without proper image formatting, websites can load much more slowly which can cause ranking issues. Some companies may have to go back and reformat their website images in order to keep SEO compliant. It might be an expensive process but well worth it considering the amount of business you may lose because of a slow-loading website and a drop in search engine rankings.

Core Web Vitals will find a happy medium.

Launched this past Summer, though announced in 2020, Google provided ample time for website owners to prepare for their Core Web Vitals update. The update added some additional ranking factors to the search algorithm regarding website performance related to site speed in three categories: loading, interactivity, and visual stability. Google also provided a tool to indicate and troubleshoot Core Web Vitals issues through its Chrome Browser called, “Lighthouse”. Our experience working with optimizing for Core Web Vitals and utilizing Lighthouse has shown that the ranking signal is evolving and will likely continue to do so until Google finds a happy medium on just how much ranks will be affected.

Small and medium-sized businesses will invest more into First-Party Data collection and usage.

This one is not only a prediction but also a suggestion. With the almost near extinction of 3^rd party cookie tracking, it is going to be much more difficult (if not nearly impossible) to retarget website visitors in digital marketing campaigns. Facebook’s ads platform is even saying don’t bother with trying to retarget, and if you do, don’t expect to gather very accurate results data (but more on that next). Instead, focusing on collecting first-party data from users is the best method for targeting audiences specifically interested in the services a business provides. The easiest way to start a first-party marketing list is to download and format your customer list so that you can upload to various marketing platforms. There are many different target audiences you can create using this list. If you haven’t already worked this strategy into your marketing plans, do so now.

Facebook ads tracking will get better in a world without third-party cookies.

With the rollouts of iOS14.5 and iOS15 this year, Apple has officially changed the digital advertising game revolving around 3^rd party cookie tracking. With this type of cookie tracking eliminated on iOS devices (or rather, the ability to opt out of this method of tracking), Facebook has been racing to figure out alternative tracking methods to keep their revenue stream, Facebook Ads, relevant and effective. Working within Facebook’s Marketing Expert program, we gain first-hand, direct access to the newest updates within Facebooks ad platform. Thus far, Facebook has done a good job adapting to a cookie-less world and they will continue to improve upon their systems moving forward.

Advertising spend on connected TV will increase.

The 2020 pandemic helped cause a shift in consumer behavior. One of those shifts was viewership of ad supported YouTube video content. Stuck at home, many viewers switched from the smaller phone and tablet versions and started to watch videos on connected TVs. More than half of all YouTube viewers now watch YouTube on TV screens. The cost of advertising on YouTube is much cheaper than cable or broadcast TV and you can still reach a massive audience with better targeting capabilities. Advertising on connected TV is a great marketing strategy that businesses should not ignore.

Email marketing strategy will need to evolve.

Changes in cookie-based tracking has also brought upon changes in the way that email platforms will allow reporting data. Email providers will no longer allow for email marketing platforms to utilize custom tracking code to record click data that occurs within the email itself. Marketers will have to become more creative in bringing users to their website through emails in order to record activity data. Expect marketing emails to be a little more vague while they try to lure you to learn more on their website.

As a full-service marketing agency, Brand Ranch Media develops and manages diverse marketing strategies that can propel your business into solid year-over-year revenue growth. Our experienced marketing experts bring diverse skillsets and understand all components of successful marketing campaigns. There is always time to adjust your marketing goals and that’s where we come in! Call us at 713-309-6380 or contact us to discuss!

Display is NOT Dead

When talking with business owners and managers about Display advertising, there is often a disconnect or lack of understanding of current day digital display campaigns, their capabilities, and how they are best utilized. Many folks generally think that display ads are simply banner ads placed on news websites and sold directly from that news outlet such as the local NBC or ABC affiliates. By nature, these are definitely display ads, however, with this type of business structure, a business is charged a fixed price per 1000 ad impressions, the ad targeting is limited, and your audience is limited to those that browse the affiliate’s news website. These types of display campaigns underperform with regard to bringing in value to the ad purchaser, and as a result, we often come face-to-face with those that think display advertising simply does not work. However, display is NOT dead and in fact is far from it!

What is a display ad campaign?

A display ad campaign combines two different creative elements, copy and imagery, into ads that are shown across the internet on websites, videos, apps, and email platforms. Utilizing an ad platform such as Google Ads, display ads can target very detailed audiences based on demographics, interests, locations, types of products and services they are currently in-market for, and websites or topics they have previously browsed. Another key feature is that these platforms allow an advertiser more cost controls and eliminates the need to pay 3^rd party pricing which is often marked up 3 – 5 times the actual cost. Display ads can also target consumers who are more likely to interact with ads in a specific way such as website visits or lead conversions.

But wait, there’s more…

What are responsive display ads?

Responsive display ads allow for the use of multiple different combinations of ad copy and imagery to show the consumer a more personalized ad based on their related online activity. This helps drive increased click-through-rates (CTR) as the consumer is likely to see ad copy that is customized to their own interests. Different imagery is tested by the platform and via AI machine learning, platforms can determine which perform better to achieve the campaign goal. Utilizing responsive display ad creative often times increases ad engagement by 100% – 200%!

Using Display to Target Competitors

There are a number of different custom audience targeting methods to include in a display campaign aimed at better defining a potential customer. A custom audience can be created based on interests and behaviors, similar websites, and similar apps. For example, Tom owns a local store that sells authentic sports jerseys and wants to use custom audiences to help narrow down a very specific audience. He might want to target people that have visited his competitor’s websites, so he compiled a list of their URLs and creates a custom audience. To be even more specific, Tom wants to sell Houston Astros jerseys, so he creates a custom interest-based audience utilizing the keyword “Houston Astros Jersey”. He may consider targeting users of apps similar to MLB.com in order to reach Baseball fans in general. Through this type of custom targeting, an advertiser can reach consumers who have visited competitor websites and who also have a high intent to purchase.

How Display Can Drive Leads

No matter where a consumer fits into your sales funnel, display can help drive leads through the awareness, interest, decision, and action stages. Utilizing general audience targeting combined with interests and in-market segments that qualify buyers, display helps to build awareness and interest in brand and product. By generating remarketing audiences, you can reach buyers who have already interacted with your ads and explored your website. Ads targeted at these audiences help drive decisions and purchasing actions.

The bottom line is that when used in a strategic way, display campaigns can be very beneficial and can play an active role in your overall advertising strategy. If you don’t see the benefit in display advertising, perhaps you have never worked with a fully knowledgeable team of experts that can help steer you to marketing success. At Brand Ranch Media, we are those experts, and we want to prove to you that display is most certainly NOT dead. We want to hear from you so please reach out and contact us or give us a call at 713-309-6380 so we can discuss how to put display advertising to work for you!

Marketing Trends in 2021

It’s December 2020 – finally! We are less than a month away before we wave goodbye to this rollercoaster year. While we “deck the halls” and “keep our spirits bright,” we eagerly await 2021 and hope for somewhat of a return to normalcy in the new year. Digital Marketing Agencies, as a whole, actually fared well in the uncertain economy. The Facebook Ad Boycott in June had little effect on Facebook’s bottom line. Overall spending on search advertising didn’t take the hit that was forecasted as retailers turned to more online marketing strategies to make up for lost in-store revenue. Looking through our shades at the hopefully brighter future ahead, we have identified some marketing trends in 2021 that brands and advertisers can expect as we transition into a new calendar year.

No more 3^rd party cookie targeting.

Utilizing 3^rd party advertising cookies to track user behavior on websites throughout the internet is a practice this is slowly being burned to a crisp and tossed down the disposal. Search engines and device makers have already eliminated or banned 3^rd party cookie tracking or have plans to do so in 2021. Brands that are not properly prepared for this will have a gap in their digital ad audience targeting. It will be important to start implementing data collection tools and methods in order to serve ads to the most engaged users who are likely to convert into a sale.

Google Analytics has a new face.

The future of analytics is now and in the form of Google Analytics 4. GA4 utilizes an event-based tracking method that features AI learning designed to help advertisers make smarter marketing decisions based on specific actions users take when visiting a website. Though not quite 100% fully developed, it’s best to set up and configure a GA4 analytics property along with the global site tag property and configure custom conversion tracking. As 2021 rolls along, we can expect to see more features added to GA4 to make it the analytics powerhouse that it’s promised to become.

Companies will continue to improve their customer’s digital buying experience.

As shoppers were locked out of retail stores in 2020, brands shifted their dollars and strategies towards improving the customer’s online buying experience much sooner than previously forecasted. Improvements to the mobile buying experience were a large focus as well as virtual customer services. It is unknown how long it will take for retail shoppers to feel comfortable in a traditional shopping environment, however we could eventually learn that more and more shoppers actually prefer a digital shopping experience. Amazon is now where more that half of consumers begin their search for products surpassing search engines, retailer websites, and brand websites.

Search Ad spending will continue to increase.

Despite forecasters’ predictions for 2020 search ad spend, the reality is that rather than taking huge losses now and in the foreseeable future, search ad spend will be on par with the original 2021 predictions and actually surpass forecasted estimates in 2022 and beyond. This comes as large retail brands shifted their marketing efforts to enhanced digital strategies during the lockdown caused by the Coronavirus pandemic.

SEO will continue to stay relevant.

Google continues to make core adjustments to their search algorithm and announced in May that the next update was going to focus on page load speed and mobile-friendliness. SEOs will need to adapt to these new guidelines in order to maintain site rankings and competitiveness in the organic search environment. Google tools, such as Lighthouse and Page Speed Insights, will assist in identifying site speed issues. It will be up to the SEOs to make the proper site adjustments. Mobile web experience adjustments will also be worth the investment. Websites will refine their mobile versions to enhance user experience and more sites will invest in development of AMP encoded mobile site versions designed to load faster on mobile platforms. All of these proactive measures will positively contribute to site ranking.

Ad revenues will increase for streaming devices and apps.

As more households cancel their cable services and switch to one of the many streaming options, more ad dollars will be spent trying to target these customers. Devices such as Smart TVs and Chromecast show video advertisements on free streaming apps that provide viewers with television shows and movies. One YouTube ad option (managed through the Google Ads platform) is to target Smart TV screens as well as streaming apps downloaded to those devices. Expect this feature to continue to gain momentum as it provides advertisers a streamlined option to publish video ads without directly going through paid media reps.

Facebook Ads will be limited.

Starting in February of 2021, Facebook will start to limit the number of ads that a page can concurrently run. According to Facebook, “running too many ads at once can hurt performance.” SMBs (small and medium sized businesses) are not likely to see their ad account affected by the limitations, however larger businesses that utilize widespread regional advertising will find themselves having to identify and focus on the most successful types of ads for their business goals.

TikTok Advertising spend will increase.

The newest social media platform has taken the US by storm after already leading Asian countries such as China and India in total downloads and daily users. TikTok has not only attracted the younger generation – it has become popular with those between the ages of 30-50 which opens opportunities for more advertisers to join in on the craze and reach consumers through another medium. TikTok should be included in any brand’s marketing plan in 2021.

Podcasts and Music Streaming Ad revenue will increase.

More people are working from home and companies are offering this option as part of an employment perk. As more people ditch their long commutes to work, they are turning away from traditional radio broadcasts and switching to Podcast programming and streamed music apps. There is a big market for advertising on these platforms as most users opt for free streaming versions that are ad supported.

How Will 3rd Party Cookie Elimination Affect Your Digital Marketing Strategy

Cookies follow us throughout our time spent on the internet. They track every movement, every behavior, and it’s just plain scary sometimes. Have you ever been online looking at a t-shirt to buy and then navigated to another website only to find an ad for that same shirt? That’s the work of a 3^rd party cookie.

By definition, a 3^rd party cookie is a piece of code embedded into a users’ web browser that tracks their every move online. It tracks what is viewed, what is placed in shopping carts, purchases, and even non-purchases. However, 3^rd party cookies don’t just track behaviors on one website, but rather they track behavior throughout the entire users’ internet experience.

Since 2014, Safari has restricted 3^rd party cookies as well as Firefox following in 2019. These two web browsers combine for about 40% of all internet traffic in the US! Safari also accounts for over half of mobile internet traffic. This consists of millions of internet users that advertisers are not able to collect behavior data on, an advantage digital marketers have over traditional advertising methods such as television and radio. In an effort to further protect user privacy, Google announced that it will begin to phase out 3^rd party cookies on their Chrome browser with a target completion date sometime in 2022.

So, what does this mean for the future of digital marketing?

The ability to adapt to new targeting methods will be the key to future success in the digital marketing realm. If you work in the digital industry, then chances are that you are already familiar with adapting to changes in the marketing landscape. It seems as though advertising policies change daily and keeping track of all the changes can be a daunting thought considering there are so many different digital platforms to manage.

Moving forward, the data someone is able to collect first-hand (through 1^st party cookies) is likely to increasingly become more vital than it already is. One method of 1^st party cookie data collection is actually a Google product: Analytics. There are all sorts of user datapoints that you can collect to see how they interact with your website. This data can be combined in Analytics to create custom marketing lists that can be linked to and used by Google Ads to reach a specific audience. Since this data is collected directly from your website and not based off of user behavior across the internet, it is NOT considered 3^rd party.

Another example of 1^st party data collection is gathering customer data through newsletter sign ups, email lists, and past customer data. Not only is this beneficial for email marketing campaigns, but the data can also be used to create “lookalike” audiences which will target users based on the overall general profile similar to the demographics of the people included in the list. Instead of targeting people based on their personal internet history (3^rd party cookies) you can target them based on whether or not they “look like” your current customer profile.

Social media platforms, such as Facebook, have revolutionized user data and how it can be used to target a specific audience. Millions of users freely provided their personal information, interests, and habits directly to Facebook which then can provide advertisers with enhanced targeting methods that they can use freely as long as the user is logged into Facebook. Google has similar targeting methods, but the user needs to be logged into their Google account in order for it to be fully effective and not everyone that uses the internet is logged into a Google account.

There are likely other methods for digital ad targeting not yet invented. The digital advertising landscape is likely to continue to change and adapt just as the policies that govern them. If you think your advertising efforts could be better targeted, our experts and Brand Ranch Media want to speak with you! Please feel free to give us a call at 713-309-6380 or reach out through our online contact form.