AdWords & Online Advertising Articles

Quora Ads are one of the myriad options for advertising online. Like eBay, Reddit, and LinkedIn, Quora is one of those Web 2.0 properties that feels like it should be dated but remains surprisingly relevant.

In fact, while Quora itself has been around since 2009, Quora’s self-serve Ad Platform only rolled out in 2016. They have aggressively built one of the most targeted social ad platforms on the Internet. In just the last year, they’ve rolled out 5+ new beta ad programs and dramatically increased their number of advertisers. Their costs & competition is still low compared to Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram though.

[Read more…] about How To Advertise on Quora Ads Effectively

Zillow is one of the leading real estate websites. It allows owners or agents to list homes for sale or rent. On the other side of things, users can search listings and view approximate property values. These services are free.

[Read more…] about How To Advertise On Zillow Effectively

eBay is one of the oldest and most well established online marketplaces. With millions of active users, it can be an important sales channel for your eCommerce business, regardless of the industry you’re in.

While eBay has been thought of by many as a marketplace that connects individuals, akin to a sort of digital yard sale, the climate has certainly changed in recent years.

[Read more…] about How to Advertise on eBay Effectively

Craigslist is a treasure trove of opportunity for astute marketers. Each month, more than 60 million people visit Craigslist in the United States alone.

The site features a very simple interface and several highly targeted sub-sections. Best of all, many of Craigslist’s daily visitors are qualified buyers, looking to make immediate purchases.

[Read more…] about How To Advertise On Craigslist Effectively

So you have a website and you are really anxious to get visitors to your site. You have three main tactics to get visitors to your website.

You can either –

• Tell your network about it (ie, word of mouth, social media)
• Try to be there when other people are asking about you (ie, search engine optimization)
• Just advertise your website to people who might be interested.

Website advertising is by far the fastest and most scalable right away, but it’s hard to do right – even if you have the budget.

Here’s how to advertise your website online effectively in 5 steps.

[Read more…] about How To Advertise Your Website Online Effectively in 5 Steps

Astute marketers are constantly looking for new platforms to connect with their audience in useful and meaningful ways, and Nextdoor is one of the most promising social platforms for local business marketing to look towards as we approach 2021.

As a platform designed to connect neighborhoods and the people who live there, Nextdoor seems to have that special sauce that’s so appealing to marketers of all sizes. Over 75% of neighborhoods in the United States are already part of the platform, the user base is constantly growing, and it provides neighbors with the tools they need to connect on a local level to the businesses in their area.

As with any new social network, there’s a learning curve associated with it. If you’re wondering how to advertise on Nextdoor or simply fit NextDoor into your digital marketing, and you’re hoping you’ll be able to jump right in, you’ll need to cool your jets, unfortunately. But, this helpful guide will provide you with everything you need to know about this exciting new local social network and how you can leverage it to the advantage of your business.

[Read more…] about How To Advertise on Nextdoor Effectively

DuckDuckGo is an independent search engine that provides web search results without tracking users behavior or search history (like Google does). They are strictly focused on user privacy.

It’s a tiny search engine – like less than 0.50% of the global search engine market.

But it’s also rapidly growing year over year, and past 15 billion queries in 2019. Every time a story comes out about Google’s data trove, “filter bubbles”, the NSA or online privacy – more and more users start to switch to DuckDuckGo.

So even though DuckDuckGo has only a small slice of the search market, it has a significant share among a certain slice of the population – ie, tech-savvy individuals with money who are concerned about their privacy. If you look at US search engine marketshare, it doubles to 1.00%.

If your target customers fit into that bucket – how can you reach them online?

That’s where advertising on DuckDuckGo comes in. DuckDuckGo runs pay per click ads the same as Google, Bing & Yahoo. You run ads based on the search query and pay when someone clicks on your ad. Here’s an example.

Here’s how to set up your ads & what to keep in mind.

[Read more…] about How To Advertise On DuckDuckGo for Bonus PPC Wins

When it comes to most digital channels (think your typical online marketing activities), the focus is often on getting in front of customers who know they need your products/services.

Here’s the catch: eventually, you run into limitations. Why? Because you’re working with existing demand, and existing demand is always limited.

Which means at some point, you’re going to have to create demand for your offering.

But how do you do that? And do you have to choose one versus the other?

Before we dive in too deep, let’s break down the difference between harvesting demand vs. creating demand.

[Read more…] about Harvesting Demand vs. Creating Demand

People don’t just listen to music anymore; they experience it. Advertising on a platform like Spotify can expose listeners to your brand in an engaging, involved way.

You can currently use Spotify’s Ad Studio to develop & target ads.

Spotify can be used to market your business similarly as a radio ad. You can also sponsor streaming sessions and playlists to get in front of the people who are most likely to resonate with your message.

[Read more…] about How To Advertise On Spotify Effectively

Online advertising is an incredibly effective way to promote your business and attract a wide array of customers. Unlike organic marketing strategies, you can get started right now.

And unlike traditional advertising like TV, radio or billboards, you can advertise effectively through 100% self-service platforms. You can target any audience in any country through diverse platforms at any time.

And that is what I covered in the first post in this series – how to advertise online effectively.

But remember that your competitors can advertise as easily as you can.

How do you go beyond launching an ad campaign to making it even more effective and even more profitable?

There are tons of tips and tactics for every platform. But like improving your website speed – every tip that works for one person might not work for you.

Instead of a grab bag of tips, here’s the 5 step framework that you can use to improve your campaigns whether you are running ads on Reddit, Google, Facebook, Quora, DuckDuckGo or something completely different. [Read more…] about How To Improve Your Online Advertising Campaigns

You may have heard about the power of creating your own personalized advertising audience (ie, based on actual individuals – not audience segments). Twitter calls it “Tailored Audiences.” Facebook calls it “Custom Audiences.” Google calls it “Customer Match.”

Whatever platform you use, you’re trying to craft the perfect message for the perfect audience for a specific goal.

Most marketers know they should create audiences based on the visitors to their own website – aka, “retargeting.” Some know you can create “look-a-like” audiences with your website visitors.

But what if you could create a custom/tailored audience out of any group of individuals – quickly?**

**Editor’s Note – This post was originally written in 2015 before the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the political controversies of 2016. The tutorial below is in a gray ethical zone. I’m leaving it up and keeping the screenshots up to date, because it can be used for good within terms of service. But you can also be super-sketch with it. Just be cool and try to make the Internet a better place.

Either way, here’s how to use a set of tools to create almost any custom/tailored audience you can think of. [Read more…] about How To Search & Scrape Targeted Usernames for Twitter Tailored Audiences

When you are exploring how to advertise online – Google Ads and Facebook Ads are the two primary options. They have the biggest marketshare, the biggest audiences and the best self-service ad platforms.

In fact, the two together control 59% of online advertising.

But one way to keep improving your online advertising campaigns is to keep finding new advertising networks with different formats, different audiences and different pricing structures.

There are tons of reasons to at least try out new networks – but also a few drawbacks. So before we look at different ad networks – let’s briefly look at the advantages and disadvantages of using ad networks that aren’t Google/Facebook.

[Read more…] about Alternative PPC Ad Networks To Find New Audiences for Advertisers

LinkedIn has always been the odd-duck out among big social networks. Unlike Facebook, Twitter and others – it is a primarily paid platform. But it does have an advertising product.

I listed it within my alternative PPC networks post, and have run a few campaigns on it myself. I’ve never had huge success, but have had clients with sustainable success. Here’s the what, why & how of advertising on LinkedIn.

Having over 450 million business professionals, LinkedIn provides a very interesting platform for advertisers. But, it’s myriad of different targeting options, tools, and ad types can make getting started to seem like a daunting task. We’re going to take a look at each facet of their advertising program so we can better understand how to create and target effective campaigns.

[Read more…] about How to Advertise On LinkedIn Effectively

Have you ever made it to the end of an article online and seen “From Around Web” or “Recommended Content?” Usually the headlines are incredibly shocking, and the images eye-catching. Often they’re just plain weird.

Those are probably OutBrain ads, or Taboola ads – OutBrain’s main competitor. Technically though, they aren’t ads. They can’t be ads. OutBrain is a “content discovery platform” that specializes in putting paid links where readers are looking for something else to read.

OutBrain/Taboola ads are underused by advertisers because they are new, a bit odd, and hard to do well. They are neither ads nor the result of PR…so they don’t really fit into a typical online marketing model.

But they are cheap and give you normally expensive access to premium online publishers, and they appear exactly when readers are looking for something else to click on.

Back in 2014, when OutBrain was just getting started, I ran a few experiments, which I share below. In revisiting the platform, I had hoped that it would have matured over the course of 5 years, but it’s still basically the same.

Here’s guide to OutBrain Ads, how they work, along with a few examples.

[Read more…] about How To Advertise On OutBrain: My Experience & 4 Ideas for Advertising With OutBrain

Want to build brand awareness with a compelling video ad campaign, but lack the financial resources to land a traditional TV spot? YouTube advertising offers a compelling platform to reach a spirited online audience.

*Editor’s note – This post is by ShivarWeb staff. I’ve also written posts on using YouTube Analytics, optimizing your YouTube channel, using YouTube data to inform your marketing, and even how to scrape YouTube tags for research. I’ve also done a podcast episode on YouTube SEO.

Run through Google Ads, YouTube video advertising campaigns, called TrueView, can be tailored to control costs while precisely targeting your ideal audience. During this overview, we’ll take a look at the essential elements of launching a TrueView campaign, while also offer tips to improve your campaign’s effectiveness.

We’ll also touch on using text-based ads rather than (or in addition to) videos to promote your products or services. [Read more…] about Beginner’s Guide To Advertising on YouTube Effectively

Reddit has generated 8 billion page views from nearly 234 million unique monthly visitors. It has thousands of targeted communities organized around every conceivable topic. It’s the largest, most influential and most engaged community/platform/website on the entire Internet. It’s the self-proclaimed Front Page of The Internet – and the home of the Internet’s tastemakers with the people most likely to talk and voice opinions.

Reddit has cheap traffic. It has tons of very targeted ad inventory.

Based on stats alone, it should be a marketer’s dream…but marketers (still) aren’t really showing up like you’d expect. There are a lot of reasons for this – from it’s raucous and controversial reputation to its ugly interface to its odd subculture. It’s also not a safe, censored, walled garden like Facebook, and doesn’t have the mass culture buzz of Twitter. You may think advertising on Reddit is an uphill battle and not worth it – just like all too many of the advertisers out there.

Editor’s Note – This post was originally published in 2013 and was completely revised in 2018 (though most of what was true in 2013 about Reddit still is). Enjoy!

The fact that so many advertisers ignore Reddit represents a huge opportunity. Reddit is a wide-open platform for advertisers willing to spend time doing Reddit advertising correctly.

That’s because (compared to Google Ads or Facebook Ads) no one knows how to advertise on Reddit.

And often the advertisers who think they know how to advertise on Reddit… don’t actually know how to do it well (and often end up hurting their brands in the process). Back in 2013, The Atlantic & HubSpot wrote about this issue….and it’s even more true today in a world of Fake News, bot networks, tracking pixels, ad blocking, and new advertising options.

With everyone else failing on or ignoring the opportunity – those who can do it well stand to benefit even more. Reddit needs advertisers – and is working to make their ad platform even better. They did a huge redesign in 2018 with new tools, and they are continually improving. And the audience keeps growing month after month.

Now again, there are still no shortcuts to Reddit. The businesses that succeed are the ones who will do research, read the full manual, run test campaigns and scale up appropriately.

I did my first Reddit ad campaign back in 2013. I’ve never become or claim to be an “expert” but I do repeatedly go back to the platform for my properties and clients for targeted campaigns.

Here’s a walk-through of best practices on how to set up your campaign, my experience with a short, targeted campaign, and some ideas that I’d love to see other advertisers test and report on plus some next steps for how you can try Reddit out now.

[Read more…] about How To Advertise On Reddit: My Experience & 9 Ideas for Advertising on Reddit

Amazon is the behemoth of online retail. No matter what your eCommerce marketing plan is – you will have to consider Amazon at some point.

For online storeowners, Amazon is both a competitor and a partner. Through the Marketplace / FBA / Seller programs, Amazon allows nearly anyone to use their website & brand as an eCommerce platform.

But the nearly anyone cannot be ignored. That means that both you and your direct competitor are fighting on rented land. Amazon is happy to give you an edge – for a price – and that comes in the form of Sponsored Products.

Sponsored Products allow you to buy space at the top of Amazon search results & category listings. You only pay when someone clicks your ad.

Amazon Sponsored Product ads are similar in concept to every other PPC platform, but are very different in practice due to the fact that they live 100% on Amazon’s platform.

Since they are proprietary to Amazon’s platform & limited to Amazon sellers – Amazon Sponsored Product ads are a bit of a black box.

Unlike Google Ads or Facebook Ads which have tons of free material on getting started and improving your campaigns, reliable information on Amazon PPC ads is hard to come by.

I’ve never run an Amazon PPC campaign, but I do read *a lot* of posts as part of my newsletter research. To help you get started in a successful direction, here are the key concepts, resources and tools for Amazon Sponsored Product campaigns on the Internet. [Read more…] about How To Use Amazon Sponsored Product PPC Ads Successfully

My marketing philosophy is to do something very different, really well, for a specific audience. It’s the “Blue Ocean Strategy” in business school jargon.

There’s no sense in ruthlessly competing over a small bit of marketing space when there’s plenty of room if you simply specialize and do something a bit differently.

This website is in the digital marketing “space” where every single one of my competitors uses Google Ads & Facebook Ads to attract visitors – which makes total sense.

However, instead of bidding on those networks (and spending hours optimizing & competing with PPC specialists), I’ve tried experimenting with other channels like advertising on Reddit, doing content discovery on Outbrain – and old school SEO off-page ideas.

But what about advertising in print? Like – a magazine. People obviously still read them – plenty are still in business. And it may very well be the case that since so much time and focus for websites is spent on online advertising – print might be a good idea. It’s counter-intuitive & very ironic for a digital marketing blog, but I figured I’d have a go at it even though I had no idea what I was doing.

I thought learning the process might be worthwhile…and even if my cost per visitor was really high – I’d get a really cool blog post & lots of lessons out of it. Besides, surely a print ad would drive some visitors (I thought). Here’s my experiment on how to buy a print ad, what to consider to make it a success, and what to really look at when allocating budget between print ads vs. online ads.

[Read more…] about How To Pay $560 for 5 Website Visits (ie, How to Buy a Print Ad)

Word of mouth has always been one of the most powerful tools businesses have at their disposal to increase conversions and generate leads. But, since word of mouth is as much a phenomena as it is an actual method for driving sales to your business, it’s rather difficult to achieve at scale. You can’t just make people spread the word.

Now, it’s not uncommon for you to develop a loyal following that’s eager to share your business, especially if you offer quality services or products. Unfortunately, this advocacy can only take you as far as that person’s network.

Enter Yelp. Yelp is basically a word of mouth megaphone online. Your business’ page on Yelp provides essential information about your business, including real reviews from your customers.

Now, what people are saying about your business can extend far beyond their network, and everyone viewing your page on Yelp will be able to see what your customers are saying about you.

This is an exceptionally powerful tool for you to leverage. But, succeeding as an advertiser on Yelp isn’t quite as simple as claiming your business page and paying for ads. Before jumping in, there are several things you’ll need to consider.

Today, we’ll dive into everything you need to know about Yelp, how it relates to your business and the different ways you may be able to use Yelp as a tool to drive new business through your doors. [Read more…] about How To Advertise on Yelp Effectively

The digital marketing landscape is evolving quicker than ever before. While print and more traditional mediums still have their place, those who want to take their platforms to the next level need to embrace the new digital landscape. And no platforms are more influential to your business than the social media, including Snapchat.

Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter are common social media vehicles to advertise. However, because Snapchat is so new, many businesses don’t know how or don’t want to leverage the platform to their advantage. And I think that’s a great mistake on their end.

By explicitly targeting specific demographics and meaningfully engaging with them, Snapchat offers a variety of tangible benefits to growing your business.

Scroll through to learn more about Snapchat and how to advertise on Snapchat, one of the most popular social media networks in the world. [Read more…] about How To Advertise on Snapchat Effectively

The odds are that if you’ve been scouring the web for a deal, you’ve come across Groupon. In recent years, Groupon has become a touchstone for people who are looking for great deals on quality services, products, and more. And advertising your business on Groupon can put you in touch with the millions of people who use the platform each day.

Honestly, Groupon is one of the least utilized advertising platforms around. Using this eCommerce platform means that you won’t have to compete as much with competitors for advertising real estate. And utilizing it efficiently can help attract repeat customers, increase brand recognition, and make more profit along the way.

So, save some paper and embrace the era of digital couponing we’re all living in right now. Here’s how you can advertise your business or brand on Groupon. [Read more…] about How To Advertise on Groupon Effectively

Pinterest was launched in 2010 and has grown to at least 200 million monthly active users in 2017. The social sharing platform is designed to help people discover information on the internet. Just creating an account on Pinterest can draw viewers to your brand.

Pinning content from your own website puts it in front of a new audience. Even pinning other people’s content can draw followers to your Pinterest account. You can get useful analytics data from your account. Optimizing the SEO of your Pinterest boards can boost their organic search rankings in Google. And, all of these strategies are free.

The platform began experimenting with monetizing certain pins in 2014, initiating an effective way for companies to advertise. Nowadays, advertisers can create Promoted Pins, which show up alongside all of the other pins on the page. In this image, you can see that the pin that says “Get 500% more traffic” indicates that it’s promoted by Pinterest in the description below it:

In this case, Pinterest is using its platform to advertise tips for businesses. It’s always encouraging to see a company using its own advertising services. That’s one way to know that the system works.

[Read more…] about How To Advertise On Pinterest Effectively

For much of the 20th century, radio was a dominant advertising platform. Every operation from the nation’s largest companies to small and mid-sized local businesses allocated much of their advertising budgets towards advertising on the radio each year.

Radio has always provided effective opportunities to build a brand or drive awareness about a product or service. Compared to print or television ads, they’re also more affordable.

Plus, the radio remains the only advertising medium that’s inherently portable. Through radio, you can reach people at home, and while they’re away. Other avenues, such as print, digital, or television, require that the user is paying attention, either to a screen or what’s on a page.

Of course, radio ads weren’t without their flaws. They were expensive, they were virtually impossible to track or determine an ROI on, and people would often switch stations to avoid hearing ads in the first place.

As new advertising products become available, traditional radio advertising grows continually less popular. For many businesses, radio advertising isn’t a strong fit for their advertising needs anymore.

While the popularity of traditional radio has declined, a new way to listen to the radio has breathed new life into the industry and restored radio’s usefulness as an advertising medium.

Internet radio solves many of the problems that were inherent in traditional radio advertising. It’s affordable, it’s highly targeted, and it’s easier to track, and it may make a useful addition to your advertising portfolio. Of the internet radio providers, Pandora is by far the largest, and most compelling for advertisers of all sizes.

Whether you’re a national brand, a mid-sized company, or a local business that’s looking to reach a specific type of customer in your area, Pandora has ad products that are geared to your needs and may work well for your business.

This raises the question of how to advertise on Pandora. Today, we’ll cover the ins and outs of how you can advertise on this popular platform, and the different products Pandora offers. [Read more…] about How to Advertise on Pandora Effectively

Instagram provides an active, visually striking social media community ideal for building your brand awareness. With the help of its parent company, Facebook, you can take advantage of incredible reach to talk directly to your target demographic with minimal networking efforts. Plus, take advantage of a powerful advertising engine to build single image, video and slideshow campaigns within minutes.

During this guide, we’ll walk you through the basic steps of creating an effective Instagram ad campaign to impress, engage, and expand your target audience. Enjoy!

[Read more…] about Beginner’s Guide To Advertising on Instagram Effectively