Audit Process

Articles relating to the categories and assessment process that Constello engages the customer in a digital marketing audit.

How Can Google Ads Help You Advance Your Business Goals?

How Can Google Ads Help You Advance Your Business Goals? A Guide to Getting Started with Google Ads 

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TLDR: Google ads can help you advance your business goals through their exceptionally wide reach and high ROI. With the right optimization and monitoring, Ads can boost your sales and brand awareness.   

Intro

Google Ads, or Google AdWords, is a widely popular advertising platform for good reason: it has massive reach, flexible campaigns for almost any budget, and a variety of ad styles to reach your specific audience. However, it’s not a magic button to instantly increase revenue. It takes a certain level of time and skill to maximize your use of the platform.  

Here we’ll cover the advantages and disadvantages of using Google Ads, how to choose from the many different types of ads they offer, and how to optimize your Google Ads for the best results.  

So, how can Google Ads help you reach your specific business goals? Let’s find out. 

What are the benefits of using Google Ads?

Google Ads have many advantages. For one, they tend to deliver a higher ROI than other platforms, because users are actively searching for topics, rather than casually browsing. If your ads are optimized well (more on the below), this means you’re paying for more qualified clicks per ad.  

However, there’s plenty of research demonstrating why Google remains a top choice for advertisers: 

  • On average, businesses make $8 in revenue for every $1 they spend on Google Ads. That’s an 800% return on investment! (WordStream) 
  • 63,000 searches get processed by Google every second. (WebFX)
  • Google Ads have the potential to reach 90% of internet users worldwide. (WordStream) 
  • Paid search ads have been shown to increase brand awareness by up to 80%. (Google) 
  • 41% of clicks go to the top three paid ads on the search engine results page (SEPR). (WordStream) 

Overall, Google Ads are great for companies that want to increase awareness about their products/services, or drive qualified consumers directly to their website.  

What are the disadvantages of Google Ads?

It stands to be said that, like any advertising platform, Google Ads aren’t perfect and they aren’t for everyone. There are a few main drawbacks that tend to scare people away from using Google to get the word out: 

Competition: Google Ads are more competitive than ever, and just because you build a campaign, doesn’t guarantee your sponsored links will land on the first Search Engine Results Page (SERP).  

Budget: Increased competition is also driving up the cost of PPC ads. To achieve the high ROI that makes using Google advertising so appealing, campaigns need to be carefully targeted. Google does offers several budget-friendly options (and at the end of the day, you’re setting how much you spend), however they need to be carefully targeted to be effective. 

Time Commitment: To attain the highest results possible, you’ll want to dedicate a certain amount of time to monitoring your results and A/B testing to reach your goals.  

Google is a highly rated advertising platform for good reasons, but it is important to approach it with clear expectations. Ultimately, whether you choose to invest in Google Ads comes down to your budget, time, and ability to continuously monitor, test, and adjust your campaigns. 

What Types of Google Ads are There?

There are plenty of in-depth articles that thoroughly breakdown the 22 different types of Google Ads, but here’s a brief overview of the nine most common categories: 

Search Ads: Text-based ads that appear at the top or bottom of Google search results when users enter specific keywords or phrases. They are commonly used for driving website traffic and generating leads. 

Display Ads: Visual ads (e.g., image, video, or rich media) that are run across the Google Display Network, which includes a vast list of websites, apps, and YouTube channels. Display ads are optimal for brand awareness, remarketing, and reaching a broad audience. 

Shopping Ads: Product-based ads that display product images, prices, and other details directly in Google search results. These are ideal for e-commerce businesses looking to promote their products. 

Video Ads: These are the ads you see on YouTube but they’re also used across the Google Display Network. They come in various formats, including skippable in-stream ads, non-skippable in-stream ads, and bumper ads. Video ads are excellent for visual storytelling and engaging with audiences through video content. 

Local Ads: Designed to drive in-store visits and local online conversions, local ads include formats like Local Search Ads and Local Inventory Ads. 

Discovery Ads: These ads appear in Gmail, YouTube, and the Google Discover feed. They’re designed to engage users with visually appealing, personalized content and drive brand discovery. 

App Ads: Promote mobile apps on Google Search, Google Play, YouTube, and across the Google Display Network. These ads help drive app installations and user engagement. 

Smart Campaigns: A simplified campaign type designed for small businesses or advertisers new to Google Ads. Smart Campaigns use automated features to optimize ad delivery and performance. 

Performance Max Ads: These are another type of automated campaign. Advertisers provide assets such as images, headlines, and descriptions, and Google uses machine learning to create ads that fit various ad formats and placements, optimizing for performance. 

How Do You Choose the Right Type of Google Ad for Your Company?

Choosing the best type of Google Ads for your company depends on your specific marketing goals, target audience, budget, and the nature of your products or services. Here are some steps to help you decide which Google Ad type is most suitable for your business: 

Define Your Marketing Objectives: Common objectives include increasing website traffic, generating leads, boosting sales, raising brand awareness, driving app installations, or increasing in-store visits. 

Know Your Target Audience: Understand your target audience’s demographics, interests, and online behavior. Different ad types may work better for reaching specific audience segments and how they may look for your product. Multiple ad types may be able to align with different stages of their customer journey. 

Determine Your Budget: As stated earlier, some ad types are more budget-friendly than others. Types such as Search Ads and Display Ads can be cost-effective, while Video Ads, may require a larger budget to develop as well as run. 

Consider Your Product or Service: If you’re an e-commerce business, Shopping Ads are probably going to be highly effective for you. If you offer a unique app, App Ads will be a priority.  

Competitive Analysis: Research what types of ads your competitors are running. This can provide insights into which ad formats are successful in your industry. (Hint: Constello’s Digital Marketing Audit has a competitive analysis built in to help you build a marketing strategy that works.) 

Keyword Research: Perform keyword research to identify the keywords your potential customers are searching for. A longer-tail keyword will narrow the amount of people who see your ad, but will also mean they’re likely a more qualified buyer.  

Testing and Optimization: Don’t be afraid to experiment with different ad types. Google Ads allows for A/B testing, so you can refine your strategies based on performance data. 

Measure Results: Once you’ve selected an ad type and launched your campaigns, regularly monitor their performance using Google Ads’ analytics tools. Adjust your strategy as needed to optimize results. 

Remember that it’s often beneficial to use a mix of ad types to achieve your marketing objectives. Your strategy may evolve over time as you gather data and gain insights into what works best for your company. The key is to remain flexible and adaptable in your approach to Google Ads. 

How Do You Optimize Your Google Ads?

As we’ve emphasized, proper optimization is critical to getting the most out of your Google Ads campaign. How you optimize will vary slightly depending on the type of ads that you build, but the following items should be considered in any campaign: 

SEO Keywords: Keywords in Ads work very similarly to keywords on webpages. Search and product ads use them to determine when your ad is displayed on SERPS, while types like video and display ad typess use them to determine what content pages are most relevant to show your campaign on.  

Tailor your keywords to match your goals. If you want to drive sales and qualified leads, specific long-tail keywords will bring in users that are searching to buy. If you’re looking to build brand awareness or cast a wide net, a broader keyword will help with this, however it can use up your budget faster.  

Relevance: Google also judges the relevance of your ad’s content to the keywords you’re aiming for. If you pick a keyword that is only vaguely related to the product you’re actually advertising, Google will penalize your bid as a low-quality ad. 

Landing Pages: In a similar vein, your landing pages should be relevant and specific to your ad. For example, if you’re advertising the latest line of trousers your clothing company has launched, your ad should take the viewer to that product’s page rather than a homepage. The more a user has to dig for what they’re looking for, the less likely they are to convert.  

Scheduling: Schedule your ads for when your customers will be looking for your product. If you work for a CRM company, try running your ads during the workday when people are looking for better software. If you sell candles, running your ads in the evening may bring you more success, as that’s when users are in the mindset to buy a relaxing treat. However, don’t just run on assumptions. Scheduling is an area of ads that is worth experimenting with, as your optimal timing for visibility may surprise you.   

All of these areas can benefit from testing and adjustment. Monitor your ads regularly and take advantage of Google’s A/B testing features to see the best results.  

So, How Can Google Ads Help You Advance Your Business Goals?

Google Ads is an excellent tool for building brand awareness and driving sales. With a high ROI, and thousands of users per second, it can give businesses an extra boost toward reaching their goals. Although it’s no magical solution, with the right optimization and know-how, Google’s ad platform can be a vital tool for growth.  

Want to know how your business can specifically benefit from Google ads? A Constello digital marketing audit can show you where the opportunities are in your market to make the most of your advertising. To find out more about what a Constello audit can do for you book a demo today. 

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Streamlining Success: How Constello Provides Simplified Marketing Solutions

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TLDR: Marketing is hard, but Constello exists to provide simplified marketing solutions.

Marketing is a challenge. Even for seasoned professionals, the unending lists of decisions to make, with a sea of metrics to consider for each can be daunting. Marketing is both a science and an art, requiring an understanding of psychology, design, data analytics, budgeting, and project management. Moreover, we have to keep our fingers on the pulse of current political, economic, and social events, and understand how our specific audiences feel and are affected by them.

The job of a marketer is to take all of that information and find our business’s unique position and proposition in the midst of it. Like all things in life, some days it’s easy and the direction flows naturally. On other days, it can feel like an impossible riddle to solve.

Enter Constello, a marketing analytics tool designed to remove the guesswork and make your marketing strategies the most efficient and effective they can be.

How Constello Makes Marketing Easier

Constello was made by marketers for marketers (and the people they report to) to make life easier. Our digital marketing audit was born out of a need to simplify and streamline our client assessments with absolute certainty in our results.

Our reports are designed to be a health checkup for your marketing strategies. They’re clear and accessible to stakeholders at many levels within the business sector, but detailed enough to provide constructive direction and insight for seasoned marketers.

Constello audits focus primarily on internal practices, strategies, and content, and reveal how they stack up against your top competitors. Many companies can benefit significantly from simply updating their methods and assets. A great example is improving webpage loading speed, which can impact conversion rates by up to 22%. But if you’re looking for a full strategic overhaul, we can help with that too.

Constello provides simplified marketing solutions in three ways:

Insight: We analyze your digital marketing footprint to help you understand exactly how effective your current strategies are. Our reports focus on your website structure and performance, as well as any tactics you’ve employed to attract and engage your audiences.

Clarity: You’ll gain context for your digital position with an analysis of up to five of your top competitors. By performing the same analysis on their marketing strategies, you can understand who is setting the standards in your industry, and where you can find your unique advantage.

Direction: Constello reports include tailored recommendations for items that should be urgently addressed, areas of improvement to boost your performance, and avenues to explore that could lead to significant growth.

Marketing will always be a challenge, and at the end of the day, that’s what makes it just as exciting as it can be frustrating. Whether you’ve been stuck in the same old rut for a while or you’re looking for a whole new approach, Constello is here to make your work easier and more effective.

Want to know more about how the reports can help you? Click here to book a demo today.

What is a marketing audit?

What is a Marketing Audit (and why do I need one?)

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The number one question I get when I tell people what I do for a living is “What’s a marketing audit?”

Admittedly, it’s not a particularly exciting phrase. In fact, it combines two words people love to avoid.

Yet for a small business owner looking to get ahead in their industry, or for a CMO hunting for a new advantage, it could be the best thing you hear all day.

So, what is a marketing audit?

As the name suggests, a marketing audit is a full assessment of your marketing assets, initiatives, and endeavours. Or, as ChatGPT more boringly describes it, it’s a comprehensive evaluation of all marketing activities, strategies, and processes within an organization.

An effective audit should have three critical components:

  1. Defined objectives. Just like it’s impossible to make progress without clear goals, it’s impossible to measure it without understanding what you’ve set out to achieve. Best practices will vary based on what a successful conversion looks like to you, so your audit should take your unique business objectives into account.
  2. Quantifiable results. You need to be able to compare apples to oranges. In order to clearly understand the results of the audit, each component should be given a numerical score against current best practices.
  3. Unbiased findings. This is difficult to achieve from an internal position, as the time and effort you’ve invested can cloud the reality of your results. Conversely, for the high-achieving CMO, a sense of perfectionism can overshadow achievements.

And a bonus item:

  1. Competitive analysis. Data without context can lead to huge gaps in your decision-making process. Understanding your competitor’s position relative to your own allows you to navigate your market strategically.(Hint: Constello’s digital marketing audit evaluates up to five competitors with 362 data points.)

If an audit has these three (or preferably four) elements,

Why do you need one?

Marketing audits are obviously a large undertaking, particularly when a competitive analysis is involved. However, they can be used to give your company or organization a significant strategic advantage in your market.

So why do you need one?

You need one because you’re spending too much for too few results. You’re focusing your spending on channels that don’t need it or aren’t performing well, while overlooking strategies that your competition has barely touched.

You need one to identify and strengthen weak points in your funnel. Maybe you’re seeing a lot of likes on social media, but those numbers aren’t reflected in your conversions. A digital marketing audit can reveal where your systems of customer engagement and attraction are breaking down.

You need one because you have goals, but no clear way to reach them. You’re great at monitoring your KPI’s but getting an understanding of your overall efficacy is difficult to calculate. And although your team has lots of good ideas, it’s difficult to prioritize what needs to be accomplished first.

You need one because you’re on a bootstrap budget and you can’t afford to spend on areas that aren’t going to bring in the best possible results. An audit could reveal that your competition is leading you significantly in PPC, but you have a big opportunity to overtake them in terms of email marketing.

You need one because you outsource a lot of your marketing work to contractors, and the more specific your strategy and instruction, the more value you get back. An audit can clarify your tactics and trim the fat from your budget.

You need one because you got one done a year or two ago, and you need to know what’s changed. We aren’t the first to say that today’s market is constantly evolving. A reassessment will reveal how your strategies have improved and how your competitive landscape has changed.

If any of the above situations sound familiar, consider scheduling a consultation with one of our experts to discover what a digital marketing assessment can do for you.

Digital marketing assessment

Can Constello Solve Your Problem?

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This week we were asked, “What problem does Constello’s digital marketing assessment solve?” It’s a simple question that could have many answers, but we’ve landed on this:

Constello reduces uncertainty and risk by providing information, clarity, and direction.

The Original Problem.

Constello was created to solve a problem – our problem. Years before the name Constello came to mind, our founders Gerry and Jason were digital marketers.

They believed firmly in data-driven strategies and results. When a client came to them looking for a digital revamp, Gerry and Jason knew they needed clear and reliable information to set the tone for their client’s new direction.

However, despite the use of tracking links, cookies, and data input, it was difficult to reconcile all of the metrics they were following to gain a complete picture of their digital marketing efforts. It was harder still to compare their outcomes to their competitors and understand how they were competing in the digital marketplace.

Gerry and Jason needed a digital marketing audit tool they could use to comprehensively understand their client’s digital marketing position. They did some digging, but nothing existed that took every aspect of digital marketing into account. So they set to work developing an audit process.

They applied their findings to the client they were revamping, and over four years of exercising and refining their strategies, Gerry and Jason were able to bring their client’s marketing spend ROI up to $44.60 on the dollar. Not only that, they were able to bring their rankings to 9/10 or higher in 14 of the 17 data categories, with the other three in continued development.

After their initial trials with the first client, Gerry and Jason applied that same process to the next client, refining as they went, with equally impressive results. And the next, and the next.

This digital marketing assessment process became part of Gerry and Jason’s regular tool set, a way to ground their strategies in reality and clearly set a path forward.

After helping almost a dozen clients improve their digital position through their digital marketing assessment, they realized that this tool was too effective to keep to themselves, and thus Constello was born.

How We Solve It.

As previously stated, Constello solves for uncertainty and risk by providing information, clarity, and direction. We do this by providing comprehensive, unbiased, and contextualized data on the key elements of a digital marketing program.

Our digital marketing assessments dive into our clients’ websites, measuring structure, integration, performance, and content. We examine their customer engagement in the form of branding, thought leadership, and conversions. Finally, we analyze their customer attraction through their use of social media, paid advertising, SEO, and more.

We then perform the same analysis on up to five of our clients’ top competitors and chart the results for a quick, at-a-glance understanding of their digital position. From there we dive deeper, expanding on each data category’s findings and comparing them to current standards of practice.

Our reports conclude with recommended courses of action based on our clients’ unique market positions and business objectives.

Information.

Clarity.

Direction.

Constello in Action.

Because of the thorough and unbiased nature of Constello’s reports, our services have a wide breadth of applications to a number of clients, but let’s use Joe as an example.

Joe owns a mid-size metal fabrication business that brings in about $1.5 million a month. Lately, he’s noticed a notable drop in new leads coming in off his website, which had been performing well until recently.

After a brief meeting with his marketing manager, Joe realizes that since their practices haven’t changed, something in the market must have. He knows he needs to pivot his strategies to get leads generating again, but in what direction? He doesn’t have time for guesswork, but he does need to act quickly.

A digital marketing assessment from Constello makes the source of Joe’s problems clear:

A year ago, Joe was alone in his market as a digital leader. However, he didn’t develop his marketing any further after his website launch beyond the occasional social media post. Now, two of his top five competitors rank above him in several categories, having made substantial changes in light of the pandemic.

It isn’t all bad news though, the Constello assessment also shows that no one in Joe’s market has made meaningful use of video integration, and only one has invested in thought-leadership-driven content to a limited extent. These two areas offer significant opportunities for Joe to press into as he reconsiders his marketing tactics.

These insights give Joe a clear list of priorities to address in order to recover his position in the marketplace. Three months later, he’s not only regained his leads, but he is able to completely revamp his marketing strategy to grow his business with confidence.