We had a great Google Partners Connect event here last week, when we hosted another Google livestream presentation on online marketing, featuring Google’s Matt Lawson and Fred Vallaeys. For those who missed it, here’s a recap.

The Consumer Is In Charge

Matt started out by reminding us that in today’s media environment, the consumer is in control, choosing what media to consume and—perhaps most importantly—when and how to consume it.

Media consumption has risen 500% in the past three years alone. On top of that, we all use multiple devices many times throughout the day. We even check our phones, he said, an average of 150 times a day. (Let that one sink in.)  And according to a recent study from Accenture, up to 88% of consumers are now researching products online and then buying in a physical store.

So we know consumers are online and active. The key question is, Where are you? Is your business in front of them when they need it? And do they see it as relevant to what they want?

Micro Moments: The New Battleground for Brands

“The biggest opportunities sometimes come in the smallest moments.” Consider these some common scenarios:

• You’re in a new town and you want to find a good restaurant nearby.
• The coffee pot breaks and you want to find a replacement….right now.
• You’re buying a home and you want a mortgage calculator to use whenever you have a free moment.

All of these are moments when a business has an opportunity to shape people’s choices by putting the right info in front of the right people at the right time.

Where is your business when the individuals who matter to you are making a decision that matters? What are the points on their decision-making journey? And how do you connect the dots?

Three Steps To Successful Digital Marketing

1. First, Matt pointed out, you need to identify the moments that really matter to your customers. Ask questions. Find out what they’re really looking for when they whip out their phones in the store…..or download that report…..or call in to customer service.
2. Next, deliver on people’s needs in the moment. Get the content right, get the experience right, and get both of those aligned within the user interface and design. (A big challenge, but something an agency can help with.)
3. Finally, measure each moment that matters. Because mobile has “fractured the customer journey,” it’s no longer enough to measure only the online conversion or lead. We now have to look at whether that customer called on the phone, came into the store, or started on a mobile device and completed a purchase in-store.

Identify, deliver on, and measure the moments that matter.

The importance of claiming online place listings

Google My Business: The Importance of Claiming Place Listings

Following Matt’s presentation on micro-moments, Fred Vallaeys gave a good review of the search engine results page (SERP). He emphasized the importance of understanding what the different components of the SERP actually are in order to focus on the ones that matter most to your business.

For those who don’t have a website, or those who need to drive traffic to a physical location more than to a website, claiming and optimizing your Google My Business listing is a great place to start. It puts your business on Search, Maps and Google+ so that customers can find you wherever they are, from any device. Best of all, it’s free—no ad spend required!

Of course, even businesses that invest heavily in driving traffic to their website should also claim and optimize their online listings.

A side note here: As a certified Yext Partner as well as a Google Partner, ClearPoint offers a streamlined and very affordable way to claim and update all your key online listings—including Yahoo!, Yelp, Bing, CityMaps, Merchant Circle, Yellow Pages, and many many more—in addition to your Google My Business citation. Give us a call or email for more on this valuable time-saver.

Going Mobile

“Get in front of the trend for mobile growth,” Fred urged. A few interesting stats on the necessity of being mobile:

• Local Search Keeps Business Local—72% of people who searched for local info on a smartphone eventually visited a business within five miles
• Phone Search Pays Off—50% of consumers visit a store within a day of searching on a smart phone
• “Siri, Please Find…”—A recent study found that the most common thing adults do when talking on their phones is to ask directions
• Gimme My Phone!—Another recent study found that 45% of people would rather give up their vacation than give up their smartphone

Getting The Most Out Of AdWords

He also went over a couple of “extras” that can give a big boost to search ad campaigns:

1. Show Extra Info In Your Ad—One way to increase the number of clicks you get is to add ad extensions, a feature that shows extra business information with your ad, such as an address, phone number, store rating, or links to additional pages on your website. Simply adding extensions can increase click-through-rate (CTR) up to 30%. There are now 12 different ad extensions available with AdWords.
2. Advertise When You Need It Most—It’s now possible to connect your ads to the temperature, the stock market, things happening on social media, things happening in your business—just about any variable you can measure—to control when and under what circumstances your ads show. This allows you to show the right things to the right user at the right time. This is an advanced AdWords tool, though, he added, and should really be handled by a Partner Agency (such as ClearPoint).

Watching the Google Partners Connect Livestream May 13

Tracking Online Ads

The presentation wrapped up with a reminder of the importance of tracking everything. What’s great about search advertising is how easy it is to track and measure—with a great level of detail—and see exactly what’s working and what isn’t. You can always optimize for better results, and a couple of cool new measurement tools make it possible to optimize at a very sophisticated level:

• Get Specific With Dynamic Numbers—Using ad extensions in AdWords, you can show a dynamic phone number on ads and even on a landing page. This is a unique phone number that you can track back to a certain ad and even a certain keyword, to help measure exactly what’s performing best in terms of conversions, cost, and ROI.
• Track Cross-Device Conversions—Google now has technologies in place that can estimate cross-device conversions, and now they can even estimate offline conversions for those customers who complete the sale in the store.

Powerful tools for getting the most out of your online advertising.

Trying AdWords For Your Business

Have you ever tried search marketing and advertising for your business? How did it do? If you already have a pay-per-click account, check out our our complimentary AdWords Audit. This is an 8-point analysis we developed that examines the most crucial elements of any pay-per-click (PPC) campaign—account structure, targeting, bid strategy, and more—and includes a written report of our findings and recommendations. There’s no charge and no obligation. As a Google Partner Agency with a Certified Google Specialist on staff, we know how to optimize for best results. Click here to find out more.

We expect to host another Google Livestream later this year, so stay tuned. If you’re in Asheville or within driving distance, please join us!