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25 Crucial Questions to Ask Before Outsourcing Your Digital Marketing To An Agency

Asking the right questions to evaluate a digital marketing agency before outsourcing your marketing needs is important. The questions below will help to ensure a perfect fit and a successful long-term partnership.

You’ve researched the costs and benefits of outsourcing your digital marketing needs to an agency vs building an in-house marketing team and decided that outsourcing is the more cost-effective option.

Now, you just need to find the right partner.

In this article, we list the essential questions you should ask before outsourcing to find the right agency for your needs and explain why asking these questions is vitally important for the success of your business.

We’ve grouped these questions into the following categories:

Questions To Ask A Digital Marketing Agency Before Outsourcing

Navigating the vast digital marketing landscape can be overwhelming. To ensure your business’s online visibility and growth, it’s important to find the perfect digital marketing agency that can not only provide tailored marketing solutions, but also help you achieve your desired goals through innovative, data-driven strategies.

Asking the right questions is crucial in determining the best fit for your specific marketing needs. To save you countless hours of research and time-wasting, we’ve compiled the list below. It includes all the questions to ask a digital marketing agency before outsourcing your marketing initiatives.

Note: If you’re a digital agency, use the questions below to help you gain a better understanding of your business and to position your services more competitively (go here for details on how to list your agency in our directory).

Agency Background and Experience

The questions below focus on understanding the agency’s overall experience and expertise in digital marketing. Ask these questions to help you determine if the agency has a proven track record of success within your industry or with similar businesses, to ensure they have the knowledge and skills needed to drive results for your business.

1. What is your experience in digital marketing? How long have you been in the industry?

Understanding the agency’s experience and longevity in the industry helps you to evaluate their expertise and stability. This question helps you assess the agency’s expertise and industry knowledge. A digital marketing agency with a proven track record of experience is more likely to have the expertise to handle your marketing needs effectively.

2. What sets your digital marketing agency apart from your competitors?

It’s important to identify the agency’s unique selling proposition, differentiating factors, or innovative approaches that make them stand out. Understanding the agency’s distinctive offerings can help your business make a more informed decision and ensure that you are choosing the right partner to help you achieve your goals.

3. Can you provide examples of digital marketing campaigns or projects you have worked on in the past and their outcomes?

Reviewing the agency’s portfolio and case studies can help you evaluate their past work and outcomes, assess their track record of success, and gauge their creativity, strategy, ability, and effectiveness to achieve results.

4. Do you have experience working with businesses in our industry or similar industries? How do you tailor your digital marketing strategies to different industries?

Businesses with experience in your industry will be better prepared to handle the unique challenges, trends, and audience behavior of your industry and develop targeted and effective marketing strategies and campaigns that cater to these unique needs.

Asking this question will help you find out if the agency has relevant experience and knowledge about the sector and the markets your business operates in.

Digital Marketing Services and Approach

The questions below are designed to gain insights into the agency’s specific digital marketing services and their strategic approach to driving success. This includes their process for developing and implementing digital marketing strategies, as well as their knowledge and experience in specialized areas such as content marketing, SEO, and social media marketing.

5. What digital marketing services do you offer? (e.g. SEO, PPC, social media marketing, content marketing, email marketing, etc.)

Different agencies may have different areas of expertise, like SEO, PPC, or social media. Knowing the agency’s core services will help you to determine if they have the capabilities to meet your digital marketing needs and align with your business goals.

6. How do you approach developing a digital marketing strategy for a business? Can you provide an overview of your process?

A well-defined strategy is essential for successful digital marketing campaigns. This question helps you assess the agency’s strategic thinking and planning process and understand how they create customized marketing strategies and what steps are involved in their process.

7. What is your approach to content creation and content marketing? How do you ensure that the content is aligned with our brand and messaging?

Content is a crucial aspect of digital marketing. Understanding the agency’s approach to content creation, quality, relevance, and alignment with your brand helps to ensure that your content marketing efforts are effective.

8. How do you handle social media marketing? Can you provide examples of social media campaigns you have managed?

Social media is a prominent digital marketing channel. This question helps you assess the agency’s experience and approach to social media marketing, their capabilities and their ability to to create and manage successful social media campaigns that will generate engagement and growth through various platforms.

9. How do you approach search engine optimization (SEO)? Can you provide examples of SEO strategies you have implemented for other clients?

SEO is critical for online visibility. Inquiring about the agency’s approach to SEO and their past strategies and proven successes can help you assess their expertise in optimizing websites for search engines, and evaluate their ability to improve your search engine visibility and drive organic traffic to your site.

10. How do you handle paid advertising campaigns, such as pay-per-click (PPC) or Google Ads? Can you provide examples of successful paid advertising campaigns you have managed?

Paid advertising can be an effective way to boost online visibility. This question helps you evaluate the agency’s expertise and ability to manage paid advertising campaigns effectively and their proficiency to generate desired outcomes a positive return on ad spend.

11. How do you handle email marketing campaigns? Can you provide examples of successful email marketing campaigns you have executed?

Understanding the agency’s approach to email marketing, including their strategy, segmentation, and automation, can help you assess their ability to create and execute effective email campaigns that drive engagement and conversions.

12. What is your approach to website design and development? Do you offer website design and development services or work with external partners?

Your website is a critical digital marketing asset. Knowing the agency’s approach to website design and development helps you assess their expertise in creating websites that are user-friendly, visually appealing, and aligned with your brand.

Tools, Technologies, and Data Security

The questions below are critical for understanding the agency’s technical capabilities and their commitment to data security. Asking these questions will help to elucidate the digital marketing tools and technologies they utilize, any additional costs associated with these tools, and their approaches to ensuring the protection of your business and customer data.

This is important because you will need to trust the agency and provide them with access to everything they need to run your marketing effectively – login details to your site, Google Analytics and social media accounts, etc.

13. What tools and technologies do you use for digital marketing? Are there any additional costs associated with these tools?

Knowing the tools and technologies used by the agency helps you understand their capabilities and efficiency in managing and executing effective digital marketing campaigns, and allows you to assess any additional costs associated with these tools.

14. How do you handle data privacy and security? How do you ensure that our business and customer data are protected?

Protecting your business and customer data is paramount.  Data privacy and security are critical concerns, and asking about the agency’s data privacy and security practices ensures that they follow industry standards and will take appropriate measures to safeguard your sensitive information.

Performance Metrics and Reporting

Gauging the success of digital marketing campaigns requires effective tracking and reporting of performance metrics. The questions below address the agency’s process for measuring campaign success, the key performance indicators they track, and their approach to reporting and communicating these metrics to their clients.

15. How do you measure the success of digital marketing campaigns? What metrics do you track, and how do you report on them?

Clear reporting and analysis are crucial for optimizing campaigns and achieving desired results. Understanding the agency’s approach to measuring campaign success and the metrics they track allows you to evaluate their performance and accountability, set up realistic expectations, and evaluate their performance and campaign success over time.

This question will also help you understand if the agency’s performance metrics align with your business goals.

16. How do you handle reporting and communication with clients? How often will we receive reports, and what will be included in them?

Clear and regular communication is essential for a successful partnership. This question helps establish expectations for reporting frequency and content. It’s important to ensure there’s open communication and trust between your business and the agency.

You want clear and consistent communication about the progress of your campaigns in order to make timely adjustments and ensure that the campaign’s messaging and strategy remains aligned with your goals.

Collaboration and Coordination

Partnering with a digital marketing agency often involves extensive collaboration and communication with your internal team. The questions below cover how the agency plans to involve your in-house team, as well as their methods for coordinating with various stakeholders to ensure seamless execution and synergy.

17. How do you handle communication and coordination with our internal marketing team or other stakeholders? How much will you involve the in-house team? Who will be working on our account?

Effective communication, reporting, and coordination with internal teams and stakeholders are key to a successful agency-client relationship and allow for a smooth collaboration between your business and the agency.

If you have an internal marketing team or other stakeholders, coordinating with them is essential for successful digital marketing campaigns.

Asking the agency about their approach to coordinating and collaborating with your internal team or other stakeholders helps you understand how they will work with your team and ensure smooth communication and coordination throughout the campaign.

Knowing the main contact person(s) and the team structure will help to foster a healthy working relationship and keep communication streamlined. Understanding the dynamics of the team that will handle your digital marketing efforts, the agency’s reporting frequency, format, and how communication channels will be maintained helps you ensure that you receive regular updates and insights on your campaigns.

Pricing and Timeline

Understanding the costs associated with digital marketing services is essential for budgeting and decision-making. The questions below focus on the agency’s pricing structure, any additional fees, and their expectations concerning timelines and results. This information will help you plan your marketing efforts more effectively and determine if the agency is a good fit for your financial goals.

18. What is your pricing structure? How do you charge for your services, and are there any additional costs or fees?

It’s important to have a clear understanding of costs associated with outsourcing your digital marketing efforts to the agency. Understanding the agency’s pricing structure, payment terms, and any additional costs associated with their services helps you assess if their services are within your budget and if they provide value for the investment.

It’s important to have clarity on pricing and budget to avoid any surprise costs, hidden fees, or misunderstandings later on.

19. What are your expectations in terms of timelines and results for our digital marketing campaigns?

Setting realistic expectations and understanding the agency’s anticipated timelines and results ensure transparency and optimized goal-setting for both parties.

Additional Questions to Gauge Agency Success

Asking the questions below will provide additional insights into the agency’s overall success and adaptability in the ever-changing digital marketing landscape. Topics covered in this section include staying updated with industry trends, providing references and case studies, internal marketing strategies, expected result timeframes, and the agency’s ability to learn and bounce back from failures.

20. How do you stay updated with the latest trends and changes in technology and the digital marketing landscape?

The digital marketing landscape is constantly changing. It is essential for the agency to stay updated with the latest trends, algorithm changes, and best practices, and be able to adapt their strategies accordingly.

You want to know how flexible and adaptable their strategies are to changes in industry trends and technology to ensure they can adapt to changes in the market, deliver timely, effective and up-to-date marketing efforts, and maintain their relevance and competitiveness.

21. Can you provide references from previous clients or case studies of successful digital marketing campaigns you have executed?

Case studies and client references provide insights into the agency’s credibility, ability to drive results, and client satisfaction. Ask for examples of successful campaigns and whether you can contact existing clients to obtain feedback, verify the agency’s claims, and get insights from their previous clients about their experience, communication, and results achieved.

22. Which strategies do you use for your brand, and what has been working out for you?

This question is important because it helps evaluate the agency’s own digital marketing efforts and identify the strategies that have been successful in promoting their brand. By learning about the approaches they use for themselves, you can better understand their expertise and potential effectiveness in implementing those strategies for your business.

Asking this question also showcases the agency’s ability to adapt and innovate in the digital marketing space, demonstrating their willingness to stay ahead of the curve and continuously test and refine techniques. Furthermore, it shows that they practice what they preach and can be a credible partner for your business.

23. What is the onboarding process for new clients?

Understanding the agency’s onboarding process is crucial to ensuring a smooth and efficient transition into the working relationship. This question helps reveal the agency’s organizational skills, communication strategies, and their commitment to providing a seamless integration for new clients.

The response to this question will offer insights into their process for gathering necessary information, setting expectations and goals, assigning key personnel, and establishing communication channels. Additionally, it allows you to assess the agency’s dedication to understanding your business, objectives, and target audience, which is vital for creating and implementing tailored and effective digital marketing strategies.

A clear and well-defined onboarding process also demonstrates the agency’s professionalism and experience, ensuring that they are well-versed in managing projects and working with different teams. This information helps build trust and confidence that the agency can effectively address your unique digital marketing needs and cultivate a productive partnership.

24. When can I expect to start seeing results?

Setting realistic expectations regarding the timeline for results is crucial for both the client and the agency. This question allows you to gauge the agency’s transparency and the effectiveness of their strategies in delivering quantifiable results. It is essential while forming a suitable partnership, as it prevents potential misunderstandings or disappointments in later stages of the project.

The agency’s response helps you understand the typical timeframes associated with different digital marketing strategies and the time needed to achieve desired outcomes. It also provides an insight into the agency’s ability to deliver on their promises and their overall performance.

25. What are some of your recent failures, and how did you remediate them?

This question is not only about learning from their mistakes but also assessing the agency’s adaptability, transparency, and problem-solving capabilities. The willingness to share and acknowledge their failures demonstrates a proactive learning attitude and a commitment to continuous improvement, which are essential traits for a successful digital marketing agency.

Inquiring about their remediation efforts helps you understand the agency’s resilience when faced with challenges and their ability to bounce back and learn from their mistakes. This insight can inspire confidence in their services and provide a better understanding of their approach to overcoming setbacks and unforeseen obstacles.

Successfully Interviewing Digital Agencies – Additional Tips

It’s important to thoroughly vet and interview digital marketing agencies to ensure they align with your business goals, have the necessary expertise and experience, and can deliver results.

In addition to the questions listed above, the tips below will help you make an informed decision about selecting the right digital marketing agency for your business:

Contract and Terms

Review the agency’s contract and terms of service thoroughly and clarify any doubts before committing to their service. This will help you understand the legal and contractual aspects of the engagement and ensure that you are comfortable with their terms and conditions.

Team Expertise and Qualifications

Ask about the qualifications, certifications, and expertise of the agency’s team members. This will help you assess their skills, knowledge, and experience in digital marketing. A qualified and experienced team is more likely to deliver effective results for your campaigns.

Communication Channels and Response Time

Clear communication channels and timely response are crucial for successful collaboration with a digital marketing agency. Inquire about the agency’s preferred communication channels and their typical response time. This will help you set expectations and ensure smooth communication throughout the engagement.

Flexibility and Adaptability

Digital marketing is dynamic, and strategies may need to be adjusted based on results and changing market conditions. As covered earlier, it’s important to ask the agency about their flexibility and adaptability to changes. This will help you assess their ability to adjust strategies and tactics as needed to optimize results.

Client Retention Rate

Inquire about the agency’s client retention rate. This helps you gauge their ability to retain long-term clients. A high client retention rate is a positive indicator of client satisfaction and successful outcomes.

Ask For a Proposal or Plan

Request a proposal or plan from the agency. This allows you to evaluate their approach, creativity, and strategy in detail. A well-prepared proposal or plan provides insights into their understanding of your business, market, and objectives, and helps you assess their suitability for your digital marketing needs.

Additional Tip: Choose Local

Although we live in a global economy that allows us to do business with anyone, anywhere in the world, keep in mind that international laws can be complicated. Should your relationship with an agency go sour for any reason, you could find yourself in a difficult situation facing complex, challenging, and expensive options for resolution.

For this reason, we recommend hiring an agency within your own country or within the same region your business legally operates in.

Unlock the Full Potential of Your Digital Marketing Strategies with WPMU DEV’s Agency Partner Directory

If you plan to outsource your digital marketing needs to an external agency, it’s important to find the right partner that aligns with your business values, expectations, and objectives.

Asking the essential questions listed above when hiring a digital marketing agency is crucial to assess their expertise, experience, approach, and compatibility with your business goals. It will help you make an informed decision and choose an agency that can effectively meet your digital marketing needs and goals, drive successful outcomes for your business, and provide you with the backing and support you need to run a successful marketing strategy.

WPMU DEV’s Agency Partner directory is an invaluable resource that we have developed to help you find reliable agencies with the expertise and experience to help your business maximize online visibility and growth and ensure that your marketing goals are met and exceeded.

If you are ready to outsource your digital marketing needs, then familiarize yourself with the above questions and search through our directory of digital marketing agencies. You will be sure to find a suitable partner that will perfectly meet your needs.

And if you provide web development or digital marketing services, consider becoming listed on our directory. For more details, go here: Become a Partner.

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6 Examples of Blog Post Templates

Blogging is one of the best ways to build brand awareness, engage your audience, promote your products, and deliver value to your customers. 77% of people read blogs, and adding one to your website can lead to a 55% uptick in website visitors.

But if you’re going to do it, you have to do it right—and blogging is no easy feat. Crafting an interesting, informative, and engaging post takes time and effort, and getting it to rank on Google requires an entirely separate set of skills.

We do pretty well at it, but we’ve dedicated years to the practice. And we have a recipe for success: reusable and scalable blog post templates.

The Best Blogging Platforms for Building Out Your Content

WordPress is still the best blogging platform, and when paired with Hostinger’s hosting plans, you get an unbeatable combination of scalability and affordability. WordPress will take care of the design elements, while Hostinger’s hosting plan covers the server-side requirements. You can host your WordPress site with Hostinger today for just $2.79 per month.

Here are our picks for the top blogging platforms:

1. The “Listicle”

List posts (also called “listicles”) are some of the most ubiquitous posts on the web. But they’re also some of the most useful, providing readers with a comprehensive list of information they can use to inform their decisions or get educated.

You can use listicles for just about anything.

  • Ranking products, services, or ideas
  • Creating a step-by-step guide
  • Outlining the pros and cons of different options
  • Giving tips and tricks on a relevant topic
  • Giving expert strategies based on industry insight

You can even use listicles to repurpose old content, creating a fresh post from older (but not outdated) material.

Lists make up some of our top-performing pages and are an excellent way to drive organic traffic. We use them for things like this article—a list of blog post templates—and you can use them for pretty much anything.

List posts are great for SEO because they tend to contain lots of keywords (and links) spread throughout them. They’re also easy for readers to follow and can help you generate more leads.

For writers, listicles are straightforward and don’t require much background research or analysis. You just compile the facts, rank them accordingly, and then organize them into an easy-to-follow post. They’re also easy to extend, so if you have more to say on a topic, you can just add another list item or two.

Example of how a classic list post title is formatted
Listicles need to showcase a clear benefit, a number of items and a relatively short timeframe to realize that benefit.

Your list post title needs three key elements:

  • A clear and actionable benefit
  • A certain number of items
  • A short time frame to complete the list

Examples of listicle titles include:

  • “10 Strategies to Grow Your Business in the Next 12 Months”
  • “7 Tips for Writing Compelling Blog Posts in Under an Hour” 
  • “5 Strategies to Improve Your Website User Experience Today”

The title is one of the most important parts of your post, as it will determine whether or not someone clicks on it. But it also doesn’t need to be complicated. Clear and concise titles that give readers an idea of what they can expect are the best, as most of your readers will be looking for a solution when they search for your post.

Example of an intro to a list post
We write short intro paragraphs to lead them to the meat of the post more quickly.

Don’t spend too long on the intro. The top-performing listicles have introductions of as little as 2-4 sentences. Your goal is to get the reader hooked and excited for your list, and the best way to do that is to cut to the chase.

We cut straight to the point in each listicle post and explain why readers should care about our information. We also sometimes use it as an opportunity to explain the criteria that went into our selection process and how we chose to rank items.

The best way to write a simple intro paragraph is to use the PAS framework. PAS stands for Problem, Agitation, Solution. It works like this:

  • Introduce a problem your readers will likely face (“problem”)
  • Get them worked up about it (“agitation”)
  • Explain how the list will solve the problem (“solution”)
Example of subheading used in list post
Our subheadings are big, bold, and clickable. That way, even those who parse through articles can see them.

Subheadings are essential for any list post. They break up the stream of information and make it easier for readers to scan through the post. If you have a long list, then subheadings can help structure that list and make it much more digestible.

They also help with navigability. Using WordPress, you can automatically generate a table of contents based on the subheadings you use in your post, which makes it easier for readers to skip to specific sections they’re interested in.

2. How-To Posts

If your readers are looking for a step-by-step guide on how to do something, then a how-to post is the way to go. How-to posts should include clear instructions and visuals, such as screenshots and diagrams, to help make it easier for readers to follow along and understand the process.

Example of a Quick Sprout how-to post
How-to posts provide step-by-step directions on how to complete a task.

How-to posts are similar to listicles in that they have titles that include a benefit and a short time frame in their title.

Here are a few examples of how-to posts:

  • “How to Set Up a WordPress Website in 10 Minutes or Less”
  • “Step-by-Step Guide to Designing an Effective Landing Page”
  • “6 Easy Steps to Optimizing Your Blog Posts for SEO”

Again, the intro should be short and sweet—you don’t want to waste your readers’ time. Instead, use it to make a promise and set the tone for the rest of your post.

Example of a Quick Sprout clickable table of contents
A clickable table of contents makes it easy for readers to see where to find information pertinent to them.

After your intro, you want to provide a clickable table of contents that allows readers to skip directly to the most relevant sections.

This is where the subheadings are critical for how-to posts. You want your readers to be able to skim through your post to find the information they need quickly and easily because chances are they won’t need all the information provided in your post.

Finally, don’t forget to include visuals in your how-to posts. Whether it’s screenshots of a website or a diagram illustrating a process, visual content can help break up the text and make it easier for readers to understand what you’re talking about.

Especially given the descriptive nature of how-to posts, visuals can help your readers see what they are supposed to be doing instead of having to read page after page of text.

3. Case Studies

Case studies are a logical progression from how-to posts. They give readers an in-depth look at how a particular problem was solved, or a project was executed.

They include details such as the process and strategy used, the results achieved, and lessons learned. This format can be especially helpful for readers who need to make decisions about their projects since they can use the case study as a template for their own success.

Example of a Quick Sprout case study
Case study titles follow the same framework as most other titles—they include a benefit and a timeframe.

As with listicles and how-to posts, your case study should start with a title that includes a benefit and timeframe.

However, you’ll want to include more detail in the intro than just the PAS framework this time. This is because you’ll likely need to explain the background context of the case study before getting into the meat and potatoes.

Here are a few solid case study title ideas for your template:

  • “How Entity X Grew Their Conversion Rate by Y% in Z Weeks”
  • “How Business X  Launched Their Website and Doubled Their Traffic in 3 Months”
  • “How Company X Reduced Churn by Y% With Z Strategy”

With case studies, subheadings are still important, but they don’t serve the same purpose. When writing a case study, you aren’t typically creating a post meant to be skimmed for a few words here and there.

When creating a case study template, your goal should be to create a chronological progression of information. You can still use subheadings, but they should be used to break up the sections in a logical way that follows the timeline of the project or situation being discussed.

Images are one of the most critical elements of a case study. They allow you to illustrate each step of the project or process in a way that words alone cannot.

Including images, screenshots, and diagrams can really help your readers understand what they are reading and make it easier for them to draw their own conclusions from the data presented. Adding this valuable contextual information can help bolster your case study’s impact, making it even more useful for readers.

When concluding your case study, you should always include some sort of disclaimer, additional note, or lesson learned. This is a critical element of case studies, as it allows readers to reflect on what they’ve just read and take away any valuable advice that could help them in future projects.

By including this at the end of your post, you can allow your readers to digest all of the information you’ve provided and make sure that they don’t miss out on any valuable insights.

4. Product Comparisons

Tons of people look to online blogs for in-depth comparisons from experts. Reviewing products in your industry is an excellent way to position yourself as an expert and provide valuable advice to your readers.

We create lots of product comparisons in addition to our fleshed-out review blogs for a few reasons:

  • They add more context to each review by allowing readers to compare the pros and cons of multiple products.
  • They can supplement individual reviews, helping readers quickly identify which product would be best for them without reading through all the details in each review.
  • They make for excellent interlinking and organic traffic opportunities, since readers may arrive on the comparison page first and then click through to the full reviews.

You can also use this template to compare topics and keywords. For example, a blog discussing SEO topics might write an article about SEO vs. SEM or SEO vs. PPC.

Example of a Quick Sprout product comparison blog post
When pitting two products against each other, you must preface it with a quick overview.

Your title should be eye-catching and include words like “compare,” “vs.” or “which is better?” to indicate that it’s a comparison post. In the intro of your post, you’ll want to explain the background of the comparison and why you’re discussing these two topics in particular.

Your post should include a section listing each product or topic being compared. This section can be divided into subsections where you discuss the pros and cons of each individually.

In our articles, we always include a clear winner for each section of the comparison and explain why it came out on top in the body text. This helps readers make an informed decision about which product or topic is right for them.

Example of a pros and cons section in a product comparison blog post
The pros and cons section will be the most looked-at section of your blog. Ensure it gives readers enough information to grasp the concept.

Pros and cons sections can also help compare topics or products. Here, you’ll list out all of the ways each product or topic stacks up against the other and why it might be a better option for some people.

When you list pros and cons, make sure to make them descriptive enough so that readers can understand the difference between topics without reading the entire blog.

5. The Complete Guide

One of the best ways to inform and educate readers is to produce a comprehensive guide. The “complete guide” format can be utilized on almost any topic and is an excellent way to demonstrate your expertise in a particular field.

Example of a Quick Sprout complete guide post
Complete guides unpack the basics of a subject and open the door for more engaged reading.

These guides should be as comprehensive and detailed as possible, covering every aspect of the topic with as much detail as you can. Start by introducing your reader to the topic and explaining why it’s important for them to learn about it.

Then, move on to breaking down each concept in more detail. This is where you’ll want to include examples and visuals, if possible. If a concept is particularly complex, you may want to divide it up into multiple sections that can be linked together.

Beyond tips in your guide, you can also include relevant information on the topic. In the example above, we gave our readers a list of the best SEO tools to optimize online marketing since the blog was about digital marketing.

Examples of actionable headlines in a complete guide post
Actionable headlines go a long way, especially for your visitors who won’t read the fine print.

For each component of your guide, make sure to provide actionable advice and tips for readers to apply in the real world. This could include links to helpful resources or examples from your own experiences. Aim for your guide to be a one-stop shop for everything related to the topic.

6. Myth Debunking and Mistakes to Avoid

Setting the narrative straight on a controversial or misunderstood topic can be an excellent way to captivate readers and establish your authority in a particular field. Helping your audience understand what’s true and what’s not can be essential for anyone looking to make informed decisions.

Example of a myth debunking post
Debunking myths is an excellent way to grab the reader’s attention.

Start by introducing the topic with a few sentences about why readers need to understand the truth about this issue. Then, move on to debunking each myth or mistake you want to address. Include concrete evidence from reliable sources to support your claim, and explain why it’s important for readers to know the truth.

Example of blog copy that debunks a myth
By taking a popular myth and stating the facts, we grab the reader’s attention and provide them with helpful information.

If possible, include real-life scenarios where understanding this topic could have had implications. In the example above, we debunked a common myth about keyword-optimized anchor text and provided evidence for why the myth isn’t true.

We then turned this into useful advice by showing how incorrectly optimizing anchor text can negatively affect SEO.

Final Thoughts About Blog Post Templates

The most essential thing to remember with blog post templates is that they are plug-and-play. Feel free to mix and match different sections from various templates, rewrite the examples we provided to fit your brand’s tone of voice, and add any sections necessary for your blog post.

Beyond templating, here are some concluding tips for creating engaging blog content:

  • Break your text into digestible chunks with headings, visuals, and quotes.
  • Use short paragraphs to keep readers engaged.
  • Include sources and references to establish credibility.
  • End with a call to action or an invitation for discussion.
  • Make sure your content is SEO-friendly by using keywords in the appropriate places.
  • Ensure each post provides actionable advice or unique perspectives that readers can implement.

Once you have a template, writing blog posts becomes much easier and more enjoyable!

Creating content that resonates with your audience is key to successful blogging, so experiment with new post types and different templates until you find the format that works best for you.

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How to Add a Custom Domain Alias for Your WordPress Landing Page

Do you want to add a custom domain alias for your WordPress landing page?

Instead of installing a separate WordPress website, wouldn’t it be nice if you could use your existing WordPress to make landing pages and point different domains to specific custom landing pages?

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily add a custom domain alias for your WordPress landing page.

Adding a custom domain for your WordPress landing page

Why Add a Custom Domain for a WordPress Landing Page?

Let’s say you have a blog where you publish cooking recipes on a domain name called mycookingrecipes.com. Now you want to sell online courses on your website.

A good way to promote your online courses business would be to have its own marketing website using a different domain name (for e.g. awesomecookingcourse.com).

Now, you can make a separate WordPress website and spend your time and money on that, or you can simply add a custom domain and point it to a landing page on your existing website.

This way you can create an awesome landing page (micro-site) that is highly optimized for conversions. At the same time, you can use the same WordPress installation for creating and selling courses.

Similarly, let’s say you are launching a new product on your WooCommerce store. You want to use a custom domain to promote that product without creating a separate WooCommerce store.

This allows you to save time on website maintenance tasks while keeping your WordPress website costs under control.

Another popular use-case for this solution is marketing agencies. If you’re creating PPC landing pages for clients and managing it through a platform like Unbounce, you can now significantly reduce your bill by doing that all from a single WordPress install while still using clients’ custom domains.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily add a custom domain alias to your WordPress landing page.

What Do you Need to Add a Custom Domain Alias for Your WordPress Landing Page?

First, you’ll obviously need a new domain name. We recommend using Domain.com as they are one of the best domain name registrars on the market.

They have competitive pricing and you are free to use your domain name with any WordPress hosting company.

Secondly, you’ll need to make sure that your WordPress hosting company allows you to use multiple domains pointing to the same WordPress website.

Lastly, you’ll need SeedProd. It is the best WordPress page builder plugin on the market with a built-in feature to use a custom domain for any landing page on your website.

Note: You’ll need at least their Pro plan to access the domain mapping feature.

Creating Your Landing Page in WordPress

We will start by creating the landing page on your existing WordPress website.

First, install and activate the SeedProd plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit SeedProd » Settings page to enter your license key. You can find this information under your account on the SeedProd website.

SeedProd License Key

Next, you need to visit SeedProd » Pages page and then click on the ‘Add New Landing Page’ button.

Creating a new landing page

On the next screen, you’ll be asked to choose a template. SeedProd comes with several professionally designed templates that you can use as a starting point.

Choose landing page template

Simply click to select the template you want to use. You’ll be asked to provide a name for your landing page and choose a URL slug.

Choose page name and URL slug

After entering the required information, click on the ‘Save and Start Editing the Page’ button to continue.

This will launch the SeedProd’s drag and drop page builder interface.

SeedProd's page builder

The page builder is super easy to use. Simply point and click on any item on the page to edit and change it. You can also add new elements by adding blocks from the left panel.

It comes with all commonly used blocks needed to make any type of landing page. You can also add complete sections by switching to the sections tab.

Add complete sections to your landing page

There are common sections like header, footer, hero image, call to action, and more.

You can change any element on your landing page by changing its properties like fonts, size, colors, background images, and more.

Editing in SeedProd page builder

You can also connect your landing page to third-party tools by switching to the ‘Connect’ tab. SeedProd supports all top email marketing platforms, Google Analytics, and over 2000+ other apps via Zapier.

SeedProd integrations

Once you are satisfied with your landing page, you can click on the Save button to publish your landing page.

Save and publish your landing page

Adding Custom Domain to Your Landing Page

Now that your landing page is ready. Let’s tell SeedProd that this landing page will be displayed by using a custom domain alias.

To do that, you need to simply edit the page and switch to the ‘Settings’ tab. Ther you’ll find the ‘Custom Domain’ option where you need to switch the toggle to turn ON the custom domain.

Setting custom domain for your landing page

Below that, you need to provide the domain name that you want to use.

If your custom domain name has an SSL certificate enabled for it, then you need to switch the force HTTPs option as well.

Don’t forget to click on the Save button to store your changes.

If you tried visiting your landing page now, it will show you an error. That’s because SeedProd is trying to use your custom domain name, but the domain name doesn’t point to your website yet.

Let’s change that.

Setting up Custom Domain Alias

You need to point your custom domain alias to your WordPress hosting provider. You can do that by editing the DNS nameservers under your domain registrar account.

Nameservers are part of the global database of the domain name system. Their job is to tell other computers where to find a domain name.

You can find out which nameservers to use for your hosting company by asking their support team. For instance, Bluehost uses the following nameservers for most websites:

ns1.bluehost.com
ns2.bluehost.com

Once you find out the nameservers used by your hosting provider, you need to write them down as you’ll need this information in the next step.

For the sake of this tutorial, we’ll be showing you how to do that for a domain registered at Domain.com by pointing it to Bluehost. However, the basic instructions are the same for most domain registrars.

First, you need to log in to your Domain.com account. After that, you need to click on the ‘DNS & Nameservers’ link in the left-hand sidebar.

Editing DNS nameservers on Domain.com

Before you start, make sure the correct domain is selected at the top of the screen. Once you have verified the domain is correct, simply scroll down to the NS records section.

First, click the 3 vertical dots next to ns1.domain.com then select Edit.

Editing nameserver

You will see a popup where you need to edit the nameserver record. Simply type the new nameserver in the ‘Content’ box then click the ‘Update DNS’ button.

Updating nameservers

Repeat the same process for the ns2.domain.com nameserver record too. You will see your updated nameservers in the list.

Nameservers updated

For more details and other domain name registrars please see our guide on how to easily change DNS nameservers.

Adding Custom Domain to Your Hosting Account

Now that your custom domain is pointing to your WordPress hosting provider, the next step is to add it to your hosting account.

We’ll show you how to add your domain name in Bluehost. However, the process is the same for most hosting providers.

Simply login to your hosting account dashboard and then go to Domains » Assign page. Here, you need to enter the domain name that you want to add under ‘Use a domain that is not already associated with your account’.

Adding an addon domain in Bluehost

Bluehost will now check if the domain name points to their nameservers. After that, you can scroll down to ‘Addon vs Parked’ section and select ‘Addon’ option.

As an addon domain

Below that, you will be given the option to select the directory (folder) you want to use for this domain. You need to choose the directory where your WordPress site is installed.

Choose directory

If you are unsure, you can simply choose public_html option below.

Finally, click on the ‘Assign this domain’ button to add your domain name.

That’s all, you can now enter your custom domain alias in a new browser tab, and it will automatically show your WordPress landing page.

Landing page preview

We hope this article helped you point your custom domain alias to your WordPress landing page. You may also want to see our guide on how to create an email newsletter, and our comparison of the best business phone services to boost your landing page conversions.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Add a Custom Domain Alias for Your WordPress Landing Page appeared first on WPBeginner.

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How to Use Google Keyword Planner Tool For SEO

There are so many different elements of SEO.

For the most part, all of these various aspects can be broken down into two main categories; on-page SEO, and off-page SEO.

The biggest factor of off-page SEO is backlinks. While on-page SEO is comprised of elements like content copy, title tags, meta descriptions, internal linking, and site architecture.

It’s nearly impossible (unless you get extremely lucky) to have a successful on-site SEO strategy without conducting keyword research.

There are tons of tools on the web to help you with finding keywords related to your business, but Google Keyword Planner is arguably the most powerful.

The best part about this tool is that it’s completely free for anyone to use. All you need is a Google Ads account.

It’s also worth noting that the primary purpose of the Keyword Planner is for PPC advertising.

But with that said, you don’t need to spend any money on ads to do your keyword research with this tool. The only thing you won’t be able to access is the exact monthly search volumes for specific keywords. As you’ll learn shortly, you’ll still be able to see an average range, but Google will only show exact volumes when you run an ad campaign.

I’m assuming that most of you already have a Google Ads account. If not, it’s very easy to set up. So go ahead and do that as soon as you’re ready to proceed.

Then just follow along this guide to learn how you can take full advantage of the Keyword Planner for bringing your SEO strategy to an elevated level.

Google Keyword Planner features

Before we dive too deep into the specifics, it’s important for you to understand exactly what the Keyword Planner can be used for.

As I said before, this tool is designed with PPC ads in mind. So about half of what you’ll see is going to be geared toward running a successful paid search campaign. These are some of the top benefits of Google Keyword Planner:

  • Find new keywords using words, phrases, websites, and categories.
  • Discover search volume trends and historical data of different keywords.
  • See performance forecasts for keywords based on your budget and average bid prices.
  • Narrow your results based on geographic location, language, and date ranges.
  • Filter results by average monthly searches, competition level, organic impressions, ad impressions, suggested bids, and organic average position.

It’s worth noting that some of these features are only available if you sync your Google Ads account with your Google Analytics account.

For our purposes today, we’re going to stick to the features that focus on finding keywords that you can use to improve your on-page SEO strategy.

Discover new keywords

The first thing you should use the Keyword Planner for is finding new keywords. This is very straightforward.

Once you know what keywords are related to your site, brand, niche, or a specific campaign, then you’ll be able to use those keywords to improve the content and on-page SEO of your website.

So log into your Google Ads account and navigate to the Keyword Planner.

Keyword Planner

From your Google Ads dashboard, click on the “tools” icon in the top right corner menu bar. This will expand the menu, showcasing an additional five categories.

Now select “Keyword Planner” from the planning list on the left side of the expanded menu.

Next, you’ll be presented with two options.

  1. Find new keywords.
  2. Get search volume and forecasts.

For now, just select “find new keywords.”

Find Keywords

Next, it’s as simple as entering keywords into a search bar and letting Google take care of the rest for you. Although it seems simple, this is probably the most important step of the entire process.

The Keyword Planner tool is extremely advanced, but it can’t provide you with valuable keywords unless your initial search terms lead it in the right direction.

A great benefit of this search bar is that it allows you to enter words, phrases, and a URL that’s relevant to your business. To get the most out of your searches, I recommend taking full advantage of the search options at your disposal.

Here’s a look at an example of what a search would look like if I was conducting keyword research for content here at Quick Sprout.

Example Keywords

As you can see, I used some single words like “SEO,” two-word phrases like “content marketing” or “ecommerce conversions,” and even some three-word phrases like “small business marketing.”

I also included a link to the Quick Sprout homepage to give the tool a better understanding of the content related to our site.

This is much better than just adding “marketing” to the search bar without adding anything else.

Analyze the search results

Once you begin your initial search, you’re going to get lots of information thrown at you. Do not be overwhelmed or intimidated by this. We’ll eventually narrow down the results.

Again, if you’re not planning to run any PPC campaigns, you can ignore some of this data.

First, let me show you how to read and interpret the results.

Interpret Results

There’s a couple of things I want to point out right away.

The Keyword Planner generated 4,403 keyword ideas based on my initial search. By default, the results that you’re going to see are based on the last twelve months of search data. But you can play around with that to see how the data changes if you view those keywords over a longer or shorter period of time.

Before you get new keyword ideas, the Keyword Planner shows you results for what you’ve already searched for.

The only columns you’re going to want to look at are average monthly searches and competition.

Ad impression share, top of page bids, and account status are all for pad ad campaigns.

As you can see, the average monthly search ranges are pretty broad. For example, it says that the search range for “SEO” is from 100,000 to 1 million.

There is a big difference between 150,000 searches and 950,000 searches, which both fall into that range. But the only way to get the exact data is by running an ad.

The competition data is crucial.

High competition keywords are going to be more challenging to rank for since more people are running paid ads for these words and phrases. But maybe you can try to gain an advantage over your competitors by taking steps to outrank them organically.

Some of you might have more success with low competition keywords. It all depends on your priority and the keywords in question.

By looking at the search results above, the term “social media marketing” has a high competition level, while “link building” is low. Let’s keep this information in mind as we continue.

Now it’s time to analyze the keyword ideas based on the keywords that we searched for.

Analyze Keywords

Here are the top 12 keyword ideas, sorted by keyword relevance.

I highlighted some of the suggestions to give you an idea of how you should be approaching this process.

All of the keywords on the list are useful and worth incorporating into your content. But you need to find ways to prioritize them.

Low competition keywords with high search volumes might seem like the easiest for you to rank for. But it doesn’t always work out that way.

For example, look at the data for “social media.”

It has a high search volume and low competition, so it must be a home run—right? Not necessarily.

Since that topic is so broad, it will be tough to rank for. That’s probably why people aren’t spending money on PPC campaigns to rank for that term.

On the flip side, “social media manager” at the bottom of the screenshot has a high search volume and high competition level, making it a challenging keyword to rank for.

Now let’s take a look at the keyword ideas that I boxed.

  • SEO company
  • Digital marketing agency

Both of these have high search volumes and medium competition levels. Ranking organically for these keywords won’t necessarily be easy, but it’s definitely not impossible.

Even though a term like “web marketing” has a lower search volume, it’s still in that 1,000 – 10,000 range, and has low competition. I boxed that as well because it’s related to the two other terms we’re discussing.

You could potentially use these three terms to conduct a new search that’s more specific. But we’ll get into that shortly.

Before you get into anything more complex, you should experiment with filtering the results.

Organize the keyword ideas by low competition, high competition, low search volume, and high search volume.

Narrow your search

Now that you’ve taken some time to sort your list of keywords, you’ve probably realized that 4,400+ keywords are too much. Lots of these keywords won’t be used by you.

So you’ll want to narrow the results to make sure that you’re only seeing ones that are the most relevant, and will actually benefit your SEO strategy.

The easiest way to do this right away is by changing one of the filters from “broadly related ideas” to “closely related ideas.”

Related Ideas

As you can see, this filter alone cut the search results in half.

So scroll through and get more keyword ideas using the new results. Use the keywords on this list to help you create new searches that are highly relevant.

Refer back to what I did earlier.

I took SEO company, digital marketing agency, and web marketing from that initial list of ideas. Here’s what the search results look like for those keywords combined with the Quick Sprout URL.

Location

Those new terms combined with the closely related filter yielded 296 keyword ideas.

This list is much more reasonable for you to manage.

As I mentioned earlier, you can also narrow your results by locations, language, and search networks.

For example, let’s say you have a local business that has retail locations scattered across New England. You don’t need to get data on the entire United States.

Map

Instead, you can just focus on those six states in New England.

With that said, this feature is definitely more beneficial for those of you who will ultimately run PPC campaigns. In this case, you can choose to only target users who are searching in that region.

But it’s still worth seeing how the competition and search volume changes if you adjust the location.

With each list of ideas, you can download the information as an excel spreadsheet as well.

In my opinion, this makes it easier for you to keep notes and organize the data in a way that aligns with your SEO plan and content strategy.

Download Keywords

Just look for the “download keyword ideas” button at the top right corner of each page.

View keyword forecasts

Head back to the main keyword planner page that we landed on earlier.

Only this time, we’re going to select the other option; get search volume and forecasts.

Search Volume Forecast

We previously saw the search volume when we were discovering new keywords. It showed us data from the past 12 months.

Maybe you changed around the date range and saw something different.

While the Keyword Planner tool won’t show you projected search volumes for the future, it will show you a forecast for your keywords if you decide to run a PPC campaign.

Based on those three keywords that we looked at most recently, Google projects that a PPC campaign would get 20,000 impressions and 280 clicks for $580 per month. The average search position would be #3.

This is not an ideal forecast. But it’s not awful either.

Personally, I wouldn’t proceed with it. But this decision is completely up to you.

You can use this tool to give you a better idea of how certain keywords will perform. If you can find a way to get 20,000 monthly impressions organically using these keywords, it will be better than paying for it.

But you might see forecasts that are worth pursuing based on the keywords, projections, and the budget that you’re willing to allocate for paid keywords.

Conclusion

Now that you have your list of keywords, it’s time to enhance your website’s on-page SEO.

Decide which keywords you want to prioritize, and then produce content that will help you rank for those terms. Write blog posts and guides. Create images, videos, and infographics. Produce content that’s a combination of these.

Focus on your title tags, header tags, and internal linking with exact-match keywords.

You can refer to my complete guide on SEO for more information on how to do this. There’s a section in here for on-site SEO that will help you out tremendously.

Start experimenting with Google Keyword Planner. Since it’s free to use, it can’t hurt to try.

Once you get familiar with navigating and searching, you can use this guide as a reference to help you find keywords that will be easier to rank for.

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Paid Marketing

There is possibly nothing else in marketing more magical than getting a paid marketing funnel to work.

Think about it.

You put $1 in and you get $2 out.

At that point, you’re printing money for your business, getting bigger with every cycle of your paid marketing.

Now the bad news, paid marketing is really difficult to make work. There’s a lot of serious players that are all trying to convert the same prospects. So ads get bid up quickly. It’s still possible to win but you want to take paid marketing seriously.

First, go through our guide on PPC. That’ll give you a really strong foundation so you can compete with the paid marketing pros.

Once you’re ready to go through some of the core tactics for paid marketing, read through our post 7 Ways to Get High Quality Paid Traffic with Rock-Bottom CPCs.

For B2B marketers, definite go through our post on How to Generate Leads with PPC Campaigns for Your B2B Company. I’ve run B2B and B2C paid marketing campaigns and while there is a lot of overlap, there’s also some key differences that B2B companies need to watch out for.

These guides will also be helpful when learning the basics:

Google Ads

Google Ads (formally Google AdWords) should be part of every ad budget. The best part of AdWords is that as long as there’s a few keywords that people use to find your product or service, it’s really easy to get in front of your ideal prospects. Since they’re searching for those keywords, they’re already aware of the problem and have decided to take some action to solve it by looking for solutions. Those are the prospects that you want to be in front of.

For a small business, hopefully your niche isn’t too competitive. That means you’ll probably be able to run ads on Google Ads that aren’t too expensive. If you’re going after a really large market, keep in mind that other businesses have most likely bid up the ad placements really high. It could take some time before you’re able to compete with them directly on Google Ads.

We have a number of guides on different parts of Google Ads to help get you up to speed:

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Find Customers With PPC Advertising

PPC marketing is something you’ve probably come across in some form or another.

The paid channel advertising landscape is worth hundreds of billions of dollars. In 2011, the ad-supported Internet contributed more than $500 billion to the United States economy.

Holy smokes. That’s a lot of spend.

The numbers alone tell us that this marketing channel far too robust to ignore, but more often than not, marketers are scared to take the plunge for two reasons:

  1. It costs money to get up and running
  2. There’s a big chance you’ll lose money if you aren’t smart about your strategy

PPC advertising is a powerful marketing medium because it is measurable. It’s possible to calculate both a long-term and short-term value for how much revenue resulted from even one incoming website visit. You can also deploy targeting features to ensure that you’re reaching the right audiences.

LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Google all offer products for marketers looking to reach customers.

Which network should you use?

The answer to that question goes back to user psychology. Understand what people are doing when they’re using LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Google products. These details will help you determine which channels are the right fit for your brand and advertising message.

Start by Knowing the Different Advertising Sales Models

The capacity in which you work with a website or advertising network to show your ads will depend on how you are able to pay. Tools like Facebook will generally give you some different options from which to choose. Making the right decision will ultimately impact the efficiency of your online ads. Here is a breakdown of the different paid channel pricing models, as well as their strengths and pitfalls:

CPM/Display

The Basics:

  • Defined as cost-per-mille.
  • You’re billed a flat rate per 1,000 impressions of your ad.
  • You’re not charged for any clicks.
  • This ad format is common on display advertising networks (banners, ads with an image, etc).

What’s an impression? It’s a measure of the number of times an ad is displayed, regardless of whether it’s clicked on or not.
With CPM-based advertising, a specific number of impressions are guaranteed by the ad spend; whereas for other types of online advertising (like CPC), there is no guarantee that your ad will shown.

Strengths:

  • CPM rates can be relatively inexpensive.
  • You’re paying directly for people to see your ad — these are likely to be top of the funnel consumers.
  • You can easily apply a budget that makes sense, as you are only paying for views.
  • Works well for visual, branding-oriented campaigns.
  • Guarantees that your ad will be shown the number of times that you want it to be seen (per impression).

Weaknesses:

  • If people aren’t clicking on your ads and converting, you risk overspending.
  • Performance (resulting sales from ad views) are tough to accurately track and monitor.
  • You can’t easily quantify the return of your traffic buy until the end of the campaign.
  • Rush of resulting web traffic is uncommon.

Investopedia CPM Ad

Here are examples of CPM banner advertising on Investopedia.com (see the ad from Underwater Audio on the top of the page). It’s possible to purchase ads with sites like these directly or through the Google Ad Exchange.

Here is how Forbes runs display advertising (see the banner ad from HP at the top):

Forbes CPM Ad

PPC (also called CPC)

The Basics:

  • Defined as cost-per-click.
  • You pay for every click on your ad, at a price determined by the marketplace value of the keyword or expression you’re interested in.
  • CPC marketplaces operate on an auction model, where strong-performing ads are likely to win.
  • Strong performance is defined by a function of ad click-through rates (CTRs) and the CPCs that the advertisers are willing to pay.

Strengths:

  • Clicks are straightforward to track.
  • You’re only paying for traffic directed to your site.
  • It’s possible to place budget caps on traffic coming in through large networks.
  • CPCs and budgets are modifiable in real time.
  • You can make modifications to campaigns (CPCs and budgets) in near real-time by tracking performance on your website.
  • You only pay for the clicks you need.
  • When well-optimized, CPC traffic can be a significant and well optimized traffic driver.
  • For marketers who are tracking ROI, CPC advertising can be much more cost-effective than traffic generated via CPM.

Weaknesses:

  • You’re competing against other advertisers for traffic, which can cause CPCs to become high and sometimes unaffordable.
  • Clicks coming in now may result in monetization later — attribution models need to be accurate.
  • If you’re not bidding with a competitive CPC, it’s entirely possible that you won’t get traffic.
  • It’s complicated.
  • If you don’t have a handle on your strategy, it can quickly become super-complicated.
  • It requires a dedicated resource to monitor and optimize campaigns.
  • You need to know what you’re doing to see an ROI.
  • You may lose significant money initially in order to optimize over time.

Here are example PPC ads targeting the keywords “usability testing” on Google:

Google PPC Ad

CPA and Revenue Share

The advertiser pays for traffic based on a proportion of revenue earned. For instance, if you advertise on pqr.com, you will pay 20% on sales generated from pqr.com’s traffic. If no conversions or transactions occur, you won’t pay.

The strength is that you pay for performance. The downside is that because performance is difficult to track through the correct attribution models, this type of advertising model is quite rare.

Cost Per Install (CPI)

CPI stands for cost per install and it’s geared towards mobile app developers.

Strengths:

  • You pay directly for installs.
  • Some ad network algorithms will decrease costs for higher number of installs.
  • On some ad networks (like Facebook), you can target your creatives and messaging to people who have downloaded similar apps in the past.

The main weakness is that you pay the same amount for user-installs that yield both high and low long-term user value.

Here is an example of a mobile ad from HotelTonight, an app that helps consumers book hotel rooms at the last minute. These ads are targeted to Facebook newsfeeds.

Facebook CPI Ad

Cost Per View (CPV)

Cost per view is a rate structure for video advertising, you pay per number of views to your video ad.

Strengths:

  • Structured entirely for video-based advertising.
  • You can choose to have ads autoplay or for users to click “play.”
  • You can very easily find the right videos and users through massive distribution networks like Google/YouTube.
  • Video is a highly engaging marketing medium.

You’re paying for views, not conversions. So CPV has all the same weaknesses as CPM ads. It’s easy to esceed your budget if the traffic doesn’t convert.

Here is an ad for a television show before a YouTube video that will teach you how to dance in a club:

YouTube CPV Ad

Key Concepts of PPC

Your paid channel advertising campaigns are only as strong as your overarching strategy. Here are some important concepts that you should know before you shop around for advertising opportunities:

Day Parting
These are features that allow you to pace how ads are shown throughout the day. You can specify that ads are shown during certain hours of the day only.

Remarketing or Retargeting
Market to your existing audience. If you’re an e-commerce company, you can show them products they’ve already expressed interest in buying. You can remarket to users through a variety of platforms including Google’s advertising network and Facebook (more on this topic below). Here is an example of an ad that was remarketed to me (Ritika) via Facebook — I’ve been shopping around for the perfect laptop bag.

Geotargeting
Target your advertisements to audiences at the country, state, city, or metropolitan area level.

Interest-based Targeting
Connect with audiences based on their browsing activity/shopping behavior/interests.

Behavioral Targeting
Target advertisements to users based on past purchase activity.

Quality Scores
These are ratings of how well your advertisements align with your offer/marketing message/landing page. Quality scores are especially important for Google. Higher quality scores can result in lower CPCs (aka – cheaper web traffic). Advertisers are incentivized to show high quality ads.

CPC/CTR
Costs per click (CPCs) will frequently decrease with higher ad CTRs. In online auction models, the highest CPC bidders will not always win.

Targeting capabilities and features typically vary by ad network, but these concepts are fairly standard.

Match Types
Keyword match types control which searches or terms initiate your ad. This concept relates to precision.

For instance, you can use broad match to show your ad to a wide audience, phrase match to ensure that your ad is part of a searched expression, or exact match for the most rigid possible precision. Negative match lets you pick keywords and expressions that you don’t want to align with (for instance, your competitor’s branded keywords).

Match types are most relevant to search engine marketing but frequently apply to other text-based marketing channels.

How to Choose the Right PPC Network

Choosing the right ad network is an important strategic decision. You should base your decision on the following criteria:

1. Available Targeting Options

  • How will this ad network help you reach the right audience with the right advertising message at the right time?
  • Do you care more about demographic targeting, interest-based targeting, or both?
  • Do you care more about reaching a B2B or consumer-facing audience?
  • Do you care about reaching a certain demographic or cross section of the internet, or are you trying to reach general consumers?

Here are example targeting options that are available on Facebook:

Facebook PPC Targeting Options

2. User Experience Alignment

How well does the ad network align with certain user experiences?

  • Search advertising through Google AdWords and Bing can help you reach consumers based on keywords they’re researching online.
  • Facebook advertising allows marketers to show display ads that drive awareness about new businesses, services, or products.
  • LinkedIn advertising allows marketers to target professionals (by interest or job title) when they’re browsing through feeds, job listings, or groups.

3. Ad Format

Are the ad formats likely to inspire user engagement and align with your brand’s needs?

Unattractive ads will generate a negative user experience, costing you time and money. Don’t jump into an ad network because you feel like “everyone’s doing it.” Choose ad products and features that create the best user experience possible.

4. Ad Network Reputation

The Internet is filled with dark corners of shady people who are manipulating web traffic.

Low CPCs are frequently too good to be true, coming from click farms, spambots, and shady user experiences.

Make sure that you’re reaching real people and delighting them with a positive user experience. ‘Cheap web traffic’ is usually too good to be true. Make sure that you’re always working with a reputable web traffic partner with publicly accessible testimonials and reviews.

Know What You Can Afford and Work Backwords

Start with your user value and work backwards:

  1. On average, how much does your business earn, per user, through CPC advertising?
  2. What type of margin are you hoping to make?

A common mistake that marketers make is working with in-session ROI data. This is the wrong approach. You need to look at your customers’ lifetime values in tandem with what you’re earning in the short run. These metrics will give you significantly more flexibility with your marketing spend.

Let’s say that you learn that a customer is worth $1,000 in the first year and $5,000 over the course of three years. You can hypothetically spend up to $4,999 on marketing in the short run.

Granted, you wouldn’t want to spend that much money to acquire a customer. You should focus on establishing a happy medium, in between the maximum and minimum. If you increase your PPC spend to $1,000, you may realize that you’re able to get 5x more customers compared to spending $500. In the short run, you may not make much money, but in the long run, your earnings will be significant.

You shouldn’t optimize your marketing campaigns for in-session revenue. Instead, you should ideally be optimizing them using lifetime value metrics as that will allow you to acquire more customers and make more profit.

Focus on Driving Conversions, Not Just Traffic

We emphasized earlier that traffic is only part of the marketing equation. You need to focus on driving conversions and sales through your PPC traffic acquisition.

A/B testing isn’t optional. You need to include it in your marketing plan. If you can double or triple your conversion rate, your customer acquisition costs will decrease dramatically.

The cost of your web traffic is irrelevant. You can buy cheap traffic? Awesome. So what? What matters most is the ROI you’re driving and how you’re monetizing your marketing spend.

Stop Dwelling on Your Budget

If your paid channel advertising strategy is doing its job, your budget shouldn’t matter. Every dollar you invest should generate a margin-positive return.

Focus on optimizing your ROI, not how much you’re spending on a daily or monthly basis. Once you feel more comfortable with your marketing spend and you are able to track a positive return, you can grow your budget.

Start your spend low, and scale up.

Key Takeaways for PPC

  • PPC acquisition is an extremely viable marketing channel. Don’t let costs scare you away.
  • Focus on generating ROI based on your long-term user acquisition value instead of in-session revenue.
  • There is no one-size-fits-all solution to online advertising. Learn the basics, and choose the right marketing channels for you.
  • Pursue conversion opportunities, not traffic for the sake of traffic. Less traffic is better if you can earn viable business.
  • Start with small tests and scale up as you get more comfortable.
  • Use budgets to regulate your spend. Don’t use budgets as a measurement of efficiency. If your paid channel advertising efforts are truly efficient, you won’t need a budget.
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Measuring SEO Performance After "Not Provided"

In recent years, the biggest change to the search landscape happened when Google chose to withhold keyword data from webmasters. At SEOBook, Aaron noticed and wrote about the change, as evermore keyword data disappeared.

The motivation to withold this data, according to Google, was privacy concerns:

SSL encryption on the web has been growing by leaps and bounds. As part of our commitment to provide a more secure online experience, today we announced that SSL Search on https://www.google.com will become the default experience for signed in users on google.com.

At first, Google suggested it would only affect a single-digit percentage of search referral data:

Google software engineer Matt Cutts, who’s been involved with the privacy changes, wouldn’t give an exact figure but told me he estimated even at full roll-out, this would still be in the single-digit percentages of all Google searchers on Google.com

…which didn’t turn out to be the case. It now affects almost all keyword referral data from Google.

Was it all about privacy? Another rocket over the SEO bows? Bit of both? Probably. In any case, the search landscape was irrevocably changed. Instead of being shown the keyword term the searcher had used to find a page, webmasters were given the less than helpful “not provided”. This change rocked SEO. The SEO world, up until that point, had been built on keywords. SEOs choose a keyword. They rank for the keyword. They track click-thrus against this keyword. This is how many SEOs proved their worth to clients.

These days, very little keyword data is available from Google. There certainly isn’t enough to keyword data to use as a primary form of measurement.

Rethinking Measurement

This change forced a rethink about measurement, and SEO in general. Whilst there is still some keyword data available from the likes of Webmaster Tools & the AdWords paid versus organic report, keyword-based SEO tracking approaches are unlikely to align with Google’s future plans. As we saw with the Hummingbird algorithm, Google is moving towards searcher-intent based search, as opposed to keyword-matched results.

Hummingbird should better focus on the meaning behind the words. It may better understand the actual location of your home, if you’ve shared that with Google. It might understand that “place” means you want a brick-and-mortar store. It might get that “iPhone 5s” is a particular type of electronic device carried by certain stores. Knowing all these meanings may help Google go beyond just finding pages with matching words

The search bar is still keyword based, but Google is also trying to figure out what user intent lays behind the keyword. To do this, they’re relying on context data. For example, they look at what previous searches has the user made, their location, they are breaking down the query itself, and so on, all of which can change the search results the user sees.

When SEO started, it was in an environment where the keyword the user typed into a search bar was exact matching that with a keyword that appears on a page. This is what relevance meant. SEO continued with this model, but it’s fast becoming redundant, because Google is increasingly relying on context in order to determine searcher intent & while filtering many results which were too aligned with the old strategy. Much SEO has shifted from keywords to wider digital marketing considerations, such as what the visitor does next, as a result.

We’ve Still Got Great Data

Okay, if SEO’s don’t have keywords, what can they use?

If we step back a bit, what we’re really trying to do with measurement is demonstrate value. Value of search vs other channels, and value of specific search campaigns. Did our search campaigns meet our marketing goals and thus provide value?

Do we have enough data to demonstrate value? Yes, we do. Here are a few ideas SEOs have devised to look at the organic search data they are getting, and they use it to demonstrate value.

1. Organic Search VS Other Activity

If our organic search tracking well when compared with other digital marketing channels, such as social or email? About the same? Falling?

In many ways, the withholding of keyword data can be a blessing, especially to those SEOs who have a few ranking-obsessed clients. A ranking, in itself is worthless, especially if it’s generating no traffic.

Instead, if we look at the total amount of organic traffic, and see that it is rising, then we shouldn’t really care too much about what keywords it is coming from. We can also track organic searches across device, such as desktop vs mobile, and get some insight into how best to optimize those channels for search as a whole, rather than by keyword. It’s important that the traffic came from organic search, rather than from other campaigns. It’s important that the visitors saw your site. And it’s important what that traffic does next.

2. Bounce Rate

If a visitor comes in, doesn’t like what is on offer, and clicks back, then that won’t help rankings. Google have been a little oblique on this point, saying they aren’t measuring bounce rate, but I suspect it’s a little more nuanced, in practice. If people are failing to engage, then anecdotal evidence suggests this does affect rankings.

Look at the behavioral metrics in GA; if your content has 50% of people spending less than 10 seconds, that may be a problem or that may be normal. The key is to look below that top graph and see if you have a bell curve or if the next largest segment is the 11-30 second crowd.

Either way, we must encourage visitor engagement. Even small improvements in terms of engagement can mean big changes in the bottom line. Getting visitors to a site was only ever the first step in a long chain. It’s what they do next that really makes or breaks a web business, unless the entire goal was that the visitor should only view the landing page. Few sites, these days, would get much return on non-engagement.

PPCers are naturally obsessed with this metric, because each click is costing them money, but when you think about it, it’s costing SEOs money, too. Clicks are getting harder and harder to get, and each click does have a cost associated with it i.e. the total cost of the SEO campaign divided by the number of clicks, so each click needs to be treated as a cost.

3. Landing Pages
We can still do landing page analysis. We can see the pages where visitors are entering the website. We can also see which pages are most popular, and we can tell from the topic of the page what type of keywords people are using to find it.

We could add more related keyword to these pages and see how they do, or create more pages on similar themes, using different keyword terms, and then monitor the response. Similarly, we can look at poorly performing pages and make the assumption these are not ranking against intended keywords, and mark these for improvement or deletion.

We can see how old pages vs new pages are performing in organic search. How quickly do new pages get traffic?

We’re still getting a lot of actionable data, and still not one keyword in sight.

4. Visitor And Customer Acquisition Value

We can still calculate the value to the business of an organic visitor.

We can also look at what step in the process are organic visitors converting. Early? Late? Why? Is there some content on the site that is leading them to convert better than other content? We can still determine if organic search provided a last click-conversion, or a conversion as the result of a mix of channels, where organic played a part. We can do all of this from aggregated organic search data, with no need to look at keywords.

5. Contrast With PPC

We can contrast Adwords data back against organic search. Trends we see in PPC might also be working in organic search.

For AdWords our life is made infinitesimally easier because by linking your AdWords account to your Analytics account rich AdWords data shows up automagically allowing you to have an end-to-end view of campaign performance.

Even PPC-ers are having to change their game around keywords:

The silver lining in all this? With voice an mobile search, you’ll likely catch those conversions that you hadn’t before. While you may think that you have everything figured out and that your campaigns are optimal, this matching will force you into deeper dives that hopefully uncover profitable PPC pockets.

6. Benchmark Against Everything

In the above section I highlighted comparing organic search to AdWords performance, but you can benchmark against almost any form of data.

Is 90% of your keyword data (not provided)? Then you can look at the 10% which is provided to estimate performance on the other 90% of the traffic. If you get 1,000 monthly keyword visits for [widgets], then as a rough rule of thumb you might get roughly 9,000 monthly visits for that same keyword shown as (not provided).

Has your search traffic gone up or down over the past few years? Are there seasonal patterns that drive user behavior? How important is the mobile shift in your market? What landing pages have performed the best over time and which have fallen hardest?

How is your site’s aggregate keyword ranking profile compared to top competitors? Even if you don’t have all the individual keyword referral data from search engines, seeing the aggregate footprints, and how they change over time, indicates who is doing better and who gaining exposure vs losing it.

Numerous competitive research tools like SEM Rush, SpyFu & SearchMetrics provide access to that type of data.

You can also go further with other competitive research tools which look beyond the search channel. Is most of your traffic driven from organic search? Do your competitors do more with other channels? A number of sites like Compete.com and Alexa have provided estimates for this sort of data. Another newer entrant into this market is SimilarWeb.

And, finally, rank checking still has some value. While rank tracking may seem futile in the age of search personalization and Hummingbird, it can still help you isolate performance issues during algorithm updates. There are a wide variety of options from browser plugins to desktop software to hosted solutions.

By now, I hope I’ve convinced you that specific keyword data isn’t necessary and, in some case, may have only served to distract some SEOs from seeing other valuable marketing metrics, such as what happens after the click and where do they go next.

So long as the organic search traffic is doing what we want it to, we know which pages it is coming in on, and can track what it does next, there is plenty of data there to keep us busy. Lack of keyword data is a pain, but in response, many SEOs are optimizing for a lot more than keywords, and focusing more on broader marketing concerns.

Further Reading & Sources:

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