Friday, July 1, 2016

Google Maps, Green Ad Tags, and Other Top Stories from June

Although there weren’t as many major headlines in the world of paid search this month as there were in May, there was still plenty going on in the digital marketing industry. Google shook things up by changing the long-standing yellow color of its AdWords ad tags to green, and marketers were still buzzing about the potentially powerful new ad features coming soon to Google Maps.

 Best of the WordStream blog June 2016

That’s not all that went on here at the WordStream blog in June, however. For your convenience and reading pleasure, here are the top 10 blog posts from the WordStream blog this month.

1. 10 Things You Need to Know About the New Google Maps Local Search Ads

Our most popular post of the month was Larry’s excellent write-up of the changes to Local Search ads that advertisers will soon be able to leverage through Google Maps. Described as “the next generation” of Google Maps ads, these exciting new features and their implications were by far the hottest topic of conversation at the WordStream blog in June. Essential reading if you haven’t gotten up to speed about these new features.

2. 5 Proven Formulas for High-Converting Landing Page Headlines

Despite their importance, many advertisers continue to overlook the importance of landing page headlines. A powerful headline can have an incredible impact on your conversion rates, and in our second-most popular post of June, Brad shows you five proven formulas for making your landing page headlines even more irresistible.

3. 5 Perilous Mistakes That Will Destroy Your PPC Budget

WordStream has helped thousands of small businesses grow through the power of paid search – but sometimes, the accounts we inherit from our clients aren’t always in the best of shape. In our third-most popular post of the month, Erin shows you five perilous mistakes that aren’t just easy to make, but could effortlessly lay waste to even larger ad budgets.

PPC ad budget mistakes

4. All of Facebook’s Ad Targeting Options (in One Epic Infographic)

Facebook offers an amazing variety of targeting options to advertisers, which is one of the factors that makes Facebook advertising so cost-effective for small businesses. However, keeping track of exactly what you can do in Facebook Ads is a little confusing, to say the least. That’s why we created this epic infographic that neatly summarizes all of the many targeting options in Facebook Ads – the perfect cheat sheet for handy reference!

Facebook targeting options infographic

5. RLSA for Competitive Marketers: A Ridiculously Awesome Way Forward in PPC

If you know Larry, you’ll know that he doesn’t like to sit still. He’s always looking for ways to optimize his workflows, discover new strategies, and generally stay on the bleeding edge of everything to do with online advertising. In our fifth-most popular post of June, Larry dives deep into the data to reveal why remarketing lists for search ads – commonly known as RLSA – might be nothing short of completely transformative for your business. Also, if you like unicorn and/or Deadpool memes, this post most definitely delivers.

6. 19 Super-Creative Local Marketing Ideas

Some business’ idea of local marketing involves little more than renting one of those arm-flailing inflatables you tend to see at used car dealerships, and that’s pretty much it.

Don’t be like those guys.

In our sixth-most popular post of the month, Garrett Mehrguth of Directive Consulting offers 19 highly imaginative ways to make your local marketing campaigns more effective.

7. Did Google’s New Green Ad Labels Affect CTR?

My favorite color is green, so you’d think I’d be a fan of the new green ad labels that Google confirmed would replace the old yellow ad tags earlier this month. Strangely, I don’t particularly care for the new color scheme, but the real question is whether other people felt similarly, and whether the change had an impact on ad click-through rate. In this post, WordStream’s resident data scientist Mark Irvine investigates.

Google AdWords green ad label CTR

8. 13 Best Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses

Marketing strategies – both digital and otherwise – can be a real challenge to even experienced business owners and entrepreneurs. Combine this with typically smaller budgets and things can become even more difficult. Fortunately, Mary has 13 winning strategies for small-business owners right here in our eighth-most popular post of the month.

9. 7 Strategies for High-Converting Landing Pages

Although landing pages can be among the “leakiest” parts of a typical conversion funnel, they can also be amazingly effective if optimized well. In the penultimate post of this month’s round-up, Brad outlines seven actionable strategies you can implement to increase the conversion rates of your best landing pages.

10. 7 Things Marketers Need to Know About AdWords Store Visit Conversions

Offline conversions such as store visits are incredibly valuable to advertisers, but tracking the true ROI of a paid search campaign can be difficult, especially for store visits driven by PPC ads. Google has been working on ways to improve its in-store visits metric since it was introduced in 2014. In our final post of June’s round-up, Larry explains what advertisers need to know about store visit conversions.



from Wordstream Blog Feed http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2016/07/01/best-of-the-wordstream-blog-june-2016
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