As I was auditing yet another Google ad account at my agency Digital Street, one of the biggest and most common mistakes that popped up once again was no negative keyword list or negative keywords added to any of the campaigns.

The ad account in question is spending $1500 a day i.e., around $45000 per month. I’ve audited 1000s of Google ad accounts and this one mistake annoys me to the hilt.

You Must Be Wondering, Why? What’s the Big Deal?

Let me explain.

First things first, let’s define what negative keywords are. Simply put, they’re words or phrases that you add to your Google Ads campaign to tell Google which search terms you don’t want your ads to appear for.

By excluding these keywords, you can save money, improve your click-through rate, and increase your conversion rate. 

For example, let’s say you own an online shoe store that sells high-end designer shoes. You might want to bid on keywords like “designer shoes,” “luxury shoes,” and “high-end shoes” to attract potential customers who are specifically looking for your products.

However, you probably don’t want your ads to show up for search terms like “cheap shoes” or “discount shoes,” since those searchers are unlikely to be interested in your expensive products. In this case, you would add “cheap” and “discount” as negative keywords to your campaign.

Now, Why Are Negative Keywords So Important?

Well, let me break it down for you.

By eliminating irrelevant clicks and focusing on high-intent searchers, you’re likely to see a higher click-through rate (CTR), a lower cost per click (CPC), and a higher conversion rate. That means you get more bang for your buck and achieve better results from your Google Ads campaigns.

And who doesn’t want that?

So, How Do You Create An Effective Negative Keyword List?

Here are some steps to follow:

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• Step 1: Start with a brainstorming session. Think about the types of search terms that would be irrelevant or low-intent for your business. There are certain words such as ‘free’, ‘reviews’, ‘cheap’ that we always exclude across all our accounts.
• Step 2: Use Google Ads’ Search Terms Report to see which search terms are triggering your ads. This report shows you the actual search terms that people are using to find your ads and can help you identify any irrelevant or low-intent search terms that you might have missed. At my agency Digital Street AU, we mine search terms every 48 hours. It’s part of our optimizing the ad campaigns process.
• Step 3: Add Negative Keywords to Your Campaign. Once you have your list of negative keywords, you can add them to your campaign by going to the “Negative keywords” tab in your Google Ads account.
• Step 4: Refine Your List Over Time. Remember, creating an effective negative keyword list is an ongoing process. Keep track of your campaign’s performance and adjust your negative keyword list accordingly.

In conclusion, negative keywords are a powerful tool that can help you save money, improve your ad performance, and achieve better results from your Google Ads campaigns. So, don’t neglect them!

Take the time to create an effective negative keyword list and watch your Return on ad spend (ROAS) soar.

Until next time, keep optimizing!

The post Don’t Waste Your Google Ad Spend: How Negative Keyword Lists Can Improve Your Google Ads Campaigns appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

Understanding and tracking the performance of your marketing efforts is essential in order to grow your business. While there are dozens of metrics you can use to measure the success of your campaigns, some are more important than others. In this article, we’ll provide an overview of the ten most important marketing metrics that everyone should be aware of, and most likely tracking on a weekly basis.

(Before we dive in, if you want a shortcut to building your growth marketing scorecard that tracks all of your most important metrics in one place, you can steal our growth marketing scorecard here >>)

With the understanding that every business is different, and a couple of these metrics might not make sense for you to track, here are the top 10 metrics most Heads of Marketing should track:

#1: Unique Pageviews

Unique pageviews measure how many times a webpage has been visited by individual users over the course of a designated period. This metric helps you understand which content resonates with your audience and how often they view it. It also provides insight into user engagement and helps inform decisions about what kind of content to prioritize in future campaigns.

#2: % New Visitors

% new visitors measures how many unique visitors have come to your website for the first time during a given period. This metric is helpful in understanding whether or not you’re successfully reaching new audiences with each campaign and can help inform decisions about where to allocate resources for maximum impact.

#3: Video Watch %

Video watch % measures how often people watch a video all the way through, as opposed to how many times it’s been viewed or clicked on. This metric gives you an indication of user interest and helps inform decisions about whether or not your audience is finding value in your videos or if they’re being ignored.

#4: Click Through Rate (CTR)

CTR measures the number of clicks on a particular link compared to the number of impressions (how many times that link was seen). A high CTR indicates that users find the link interesting enough to click on it while low CTR numbers suggest there might be improvements needed within the content itself or its placement within a webpage or email message.

#5: Open Rate

Open rate measures how often people who receive an email open it, as opposed to leaving it unread in their inboxes, also known as “opens” vs “bounces” rate. Understanding this metric helps marketers decide whether their messages are engaging enough for readers to take action on them and can help inform decisions about subject line wording, email length, and other aspects related to emails sent out through campaigns.

#6: Leads Generated

Leads generated measures how many individuals expressed interest in learning more about a product or service by taking an action such as filling out a form or signing up for an event. Tracking this metric is important for evaluating the effectiveness of various channels and campaigns used for lead-generation activities.

#7: Revenue

Tracking total revenue generated from campaigns provides insight into overall performance and ROI from those efforts. It also helps marketers understand which channel offers more significant returns so they can adjust their strategy accordingly.

#8: Number Of Lead Magnets Downloaded

Lead magnet downloads measure how many individuals downloaded a valuable piece of content offered by a company in exchange for contact information such as name, email address, etc. These metrics provide insight into user engagement with various lead magnets created by organizations so they can evaluate which ones resonate best with their target audiences and create more effective strategies going forward.

#9: North Star Metrics Performance

North Star Metrics are one high-level key performance indicator (KPI) designed to keep organizations focused on achieving their long-term goals regardless of short-term successes or failures — measuring performance against these metrics paints an accurate picture regarding progress towards achieving desired results over time.

#10: Upsell Take Rate

Upsell take rate measures conversion rates when customers are presented with opportunities to purchase upgraded versions/features after purchasing initial products/services — understanding this metric helps companies identify areas where they could improve customer experience and increase the chances of customers taking advantage of upsell opportunities available.

The post Top 10 Metrics Most Heads of Marketing Should Track appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

In our Paid Traffic Mastery course, we bring together four of the world’s top paid advertising leaders to share the foundational knowledge you need to know to win with paid traffic. One of the first lessons they share is common terms and acronyms every paid advertising professional should know.

These Are The Term To Know Before Running Paid Ads

Search Engine Marketing or SEM

Search engine marketing is a broad marketing strategy term that includes search engine optimization, content marketing, as well as paid ads. 

Social Media Marketing or SMM

Social media marketing is limited to social media channels and includes organic and paid traffic.

Conversion

A conversion is the desired action you want someone to take on your website or funnel. A conversion event typically includes a time or money commitment on behalf of the customer. 

Conversion Rate

This is the percentage of prospects landing on your page or taking you up on your offer.

Cost Per Click or CPC

Cost per click means that your ad campaign is billed each time someone clicks a button, link, or directly on your ad. 

Cost Per Thousand or CPM 

Cost per thousand is charged for every 1,000 impressions. An impression happens anytime someone lands on the page where your ad is placed. (Don’t ask us why it’s CPM…it’s just weird.) 

Click Through Rate or CTR

Click through rate is the percentage of potential customers who saw an ad and clicked on it. This metric is a good indicator of the quality of your ad copy and media. 

Cost Per Acquisition or CPA

Cost per acquisition is the expense incurred to acquire a new customer.  

Return On Ad Spend or ROAS

Return on ad spend is the amount of revenue earned per dollar of ad spend.

Return On Investment or ROI

Return on investment describes how much you get back after calculating the entire cost of the ad campaign. When calculating the ROI, costs can include agency fees, copywriting, graphic design, video production, call tracking, etc. 

Lifetime Value or LTV

Lifetime value is the long-term value of a customer. 

Urchin Tracking Module or UTM

The Google Analytics we know and love started out as Urchin Software Corporation. The term just stuck around after Google bought Urchin in 2005. The term Urchin tracking module (not universal tracking mechanism or Uncle Tom’s marmalade) is a piece of code that is tacked onto the end of the URL. The code is pushed to the search engine whenever someone clicks through the ad. 

Use this list of common terms to impress your friends at a dinner party, or to share with your paid advertising clients. It’ll get everyone on the same page and avoid confusion down the road.

NOTE: This content came directory from DigitalMarketer’s Paid Traffic Mastery Certification.

The post Terms Every Paid Traffic Master Must Know appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

…when you know which noodles stick, it isn’t all that messy.

In the world of email marketing, we call wall-sticking noodles “triggers.” And they work because humans are all hardwired the same way. When you push on certain persuasion buttons in the brain, you can get readers to perform the actions you’re hoping for with your copy.

The 4 triggers to increase email click-through rate are:

• Gain
• Logic
• Fear
• Scarcity

These principles of persuasion can be applied ANYwhere you want your customers to take action.

Think about the last time you made a big decision. I guarantee it had something to do with:

• What you could gain…
• Your desire to maintain consistency with your previous decisions, based on deductive reasoning…
• A fear of what would happen if you didn’t make that decision…
• A ticking clock…

…or some combination of the four.

Let’s break each of these emotional triggers down one by one…

Emotional Trigger #1: Gain

At any given moment, we all want to gain something. What that something is depends on the moment. 
Sometimes we want to gain the knowledge of why our email open rate decreased by 10% this week. Other times we want to gain a burrito bowl. 

It really depends on the moment.

In the moment that someone is reading your email, you want to ask:

What will they gain if they click on this link?

That’s what your reader is wondering and you need to answer it. Your email copy should make a promise that clicking on the link in the email will deliver a specific gain.

That promise might be obvious or subtle.

For example, Joe Polish outlines the gain of clicking on the video link in his email not once, but twice (we highlighted it in yellow below).

First, he identifies if the person reading it is interested in the gain he’s offering, “…does creating that value sometimes get in the way of your health, or in the way of the relationships that are most important to you?”. 

Whoever sees this gain and has an emotionally triggered response to say “yes” in their mind is going to keep reading.

Then, he goes for the click-through close, “…lead a sustainable, creative life and never have to choose between ‘thriving’ and actually achieving your business goals.”

On top of adding the social proof of Arianna Huffington giving the advice, Joe is painting the beautiful picture of a life spent in creative pursuits without tanking your health and relationships.

Joe is showing his readers looking for this type of guidance they have a lot to gain from clicking on that link.

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Emotional Trigger #2: Logic

It’s true. People buy for emotional reasons—but they justify the purchase with logic.

If you’ve appealed successfully to a buyer’s emotional side, it’s time to give them something practical to justify the purchase.

Use statistics, odds, comparisons, expert opinions and other practical facts to encourage email clicks.
For example Trends by The Hustle uses this copy to get people to click-through and subscribe for their $1 trial.

The logic is that all of this information cost attendees of Hustle Con. $600, but it will only cost you $1. 
Pretty logical, right? 

Casper, Away, and Twitch are 9+ figure businesses. Being able to see what their founders talked about at Hustle Con. seems like a no brainer for somebody interested in a business newsletter and community.
This justifies the $1 trial offer. If the reader used the $599 they saved from not going to Hustle Con. and just signing up for this trial, they’d be able to buy 80 burrito bowls.

And that’s bulletproof logic.

Emotional Trigger #3: Fear

With the right audience and the right promise, you can get outstanding click-through rates when you push on a reader’s fear button.

This sounds scarier than it really is. You don’t need to go full Parasite on people, you just need to convince them if they don’t click on this link something they don’t want to happen might happen.
For example, Canva does a great job of this. When you initially read this email, you may think, did DigitalMarketer really just tell me this copy is creating fear?

This is why Canva did a great job. Without many realizing, they’re evoking the fear that if you don’t click on the turquoise button you won’t know what design trends are emerging in content and you’ll get left behind.

A business owner is going to see their social media engagement dropping, their emails getting less clicks, and their website not converting. 

A graphic designer is going to imagine an email from a client saying the graphic they designed didn’t perform the way it used to.

That’s scary—and that’s what makes it clickable.

Emotional Trigger #4: Scarcity

If the reader feels there is no urgency to take action on your campaign or product launch NOW, often they won’t do it. You might be offering gain, logic, and fear…but if you don’t put a time limit on it they’ll just tell themselves, “I’ll get to it later.”

If you want to increase click-throughs on your email in your email marketing strategy, you need to communicate that what you have for them is limited in some way.

Health insurance providers in the USA have mastered scarcity. They’ve opened enrollment for health insurance into just a few months at the end of each year, pushing the scarcity of the time remaining to get health coverage. 

Take a look at this email from Health Insurance Marketplace.

Notice how they show the reader they still have 2 more steps to complete before April 15th to get coverage. This pushes the scarcity of time (there’s a deadline AND two steps left to complete!) and makes the reader feel a lot more motivated to prioritize clicking on the Finish Enrolling button.

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• How Standardizing Your Sales Process Boosts Overall Conversion

• 2 Ways to Take Back the Power in Your Business: Part 2

• 2 Ways to Take Back the Power in Your Business: Part 1

Mixing and Matching Emotional Triggers

These persuasion buttons don’t cancel each other out. If you push on the gain trigger, you can still catch people with a logic trigger, and follow up with a scarcity trigger.

And this is exactly what you want to do.

Your subscribers haven’t banded together to decide that on Monday’s they feel logical, on Tuesday’s they prefer a little scarcity, and on Wednesday’s they need to know what’s in it for them.

Your emails are meeting readers where they are. 

Some are going to be really happy when they read your email. Others might feel overwhelmed. And some might feel like they don’t actually need what you’re selling them.

That’s why you want to meet your customer avatar where they are in that moment.
Happy readers are going to feel excited to learn that you have something for them to gain, and in turn make them even happier. 

Overwhelmed readers can be extremely inspired by scarcity. 

And the readers who aren’t totally convinced need some logic to show them why this is a good solution/answer for their problem or question.

By mixing and matching emotional triggers, you can personalize batch emails a bit more.

For example, an email could be structured like:

1. Gain Section
2. Gain CTA
3. Gain trigger segue into Logic Section
4. Logic CTA
5. Logic trigger into Fear Section
6. Fear CTA

Would we be a digital marketing education platform if we didn’t say TEST at least once in this article?
Once you’ve decided the best flow of pushing on these emotional triggers, you want to test it.

TEST, TEST, TEST.

Experiment with the order in which you push these buttons. Try GAIN > FEAR > LOGIC > SCARCITY. Then, switch it up and test FEAR > LOGIC > GAIN > SCARCITY.

Also, experiment with emails that focus on a single emotional trigger and others that combine more than one.

For example, a single sentence in your email might touch on gain, logic and scarcity.  It might read like this:

Until midnight tonight [SCARCITY] and for less than it costs to fill up your gas tank [LOGIC] you can learn how to negotiate thousands of dollars off of your next car purchase. [GAIN]

The same sentence could be tested using fear instead of gain,

Until midnight tonight [SCARCITY] and for less than it costs to fill up your gas tank [LOGIC] you can learn to stop a used car salesman from ripping you off. [FEAR]

And that’s how you get the click.

Find your emotional triggers and then mix them together to create the perfect email campaign.

The post Increase Email Click-Through Rate with These 4 Emotional Triggers appeared first on DigitalMarketer.