PPC Strategy should not merely focus on driving PPC traffic successfully, but rather, driving successful PPC traffic. Traffic that will convert to meaningful outcomes. Results.

At Running SEO and Key Medium, use the right tools backed by AI to create the best AD for the right audience, in order to send them on the path towards conversion (ie. to a landing page which includes 1- a headline which reflects their search; 2) an image of what they are looking for; 3) short sales copy; 4) a clear call-to-action; 5) social proof/testimonial to show credibility-- usually under CTA).

We target your niche and focus first on completely getting to know the audience-- their location, age, gender-- along with their interests and what they are in-market for. This enables us to hone in on what the user's state of mind is.

Some purchases are thought out over a longer period of time, such as a high-ticket item or b2b services. Other purchases are more in-the-moment. Somehow something caught the lead’s attention and they quickly proceed on the path to purchase.

In order to buy something, one must be aware of it first, of course. After that initial exposure and awareness, the customer then shows interest. Their interest turns into desire/consideration, which then leads them to proceed to action. This is the sales funnel, which tapers down.

Through PPC- for people who know what they're looking for and are ready to take action. They are expressing intent.

Now through the display or Facebook/IG/Twitter channels, ads are placed directly in front of people who aren't actively looking and don't quite know what they want yet.

In this channel, we need to start educating them about the product or service offering and target them based on who they are and what they're interested in.

Video and content marketing strategy are a relevant way to reach these people that don't know what they want. Show them that there is a solution to a problem that they have in order to entice them to click.

Our PPC strategy utilizes a variety of tools and techniques that help you stand out, draw leads, and gain conversions. We follow a highly optimized strategy that will make your marketing strategy a success. Some of the things that we implement in our PPC strategy are:

We do away with the trends of the past to focus on the way of the future. That means that we don’t focus on keywords when crafting content, we focus on the wants, desires, needs, and interests of your target market along their journey.

Studies show that when ads are relevant and personal to someone, they are much more likely to click on it. With PPC, this is everything. The goal is to get people to click on your ads with the intent of conversion, so if your ad is appealing to them, they will.

We develop an understanding of your target market and use automation to personalize relevant ads that will capture the attention of your audience. This strategy is imperative in receiving the highest number of clicks in your PPC ads.

The vast majority of consumers use their mobile devices when they are searching or making a purchase online. This makes it imperative to optimize ads for mobile devices.

If an ad is not optimized for mobile, many potential customers will ignore it. Our services will make sure that your PPC ads integrate perfectly with mobile devices, making them accessible by all.

Voice search is a top up and coming marketing tool. In fact, estimates show that by the end of 2020, voice search will make up at least half of searches. This is in part due to the advent of technologies such as Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Siri.

Our services focus on optimizing your ads for voice search in order to prepare for future marketing trends.

Automation and Artificial Intelligence have long been used creatively in various stories that envision the future. This technology is no longer just part of the imagination. This technology is here and, in fact, prevalent in our society today.

Automation makes it possible for ads to be personalized for a particular audience. It ensures that ads will reach a specific target market and are more likely to be clicked on by potential customers.

Our strategies utilize automation in order to personalize your ads and create ads with high engagement and conversions.

Continuing as one of the top marketing tools out there, video marketing provides the opportunity for consumers to get a good look and feel of a product, brand, or service in order to entice them to buy. The addition of videos to ads actually gives them a higher ranking on search engines and makes them more likely to be clicked on.

Our digital marketing services focus on crafting relevant videos for your PPC ads in order to make your ad stand out, have a high ranking, and give consumers even more reasons to click.

Local SEO helps small companies take on big brands, and large companies reach engaged customers.

Improving your local SEO standing could boost your company revenue by nearly 20% — and it’s not that hard to achieve once you get your local SEO strategy aligned.

Here’s how to nail your local SEO strategy using social proof and tactical optimization.

Ask your customers to review your business

Google wants to give its users the best possible results.

When you ask for a Philly cheesesteak, you need to know it’s going to taste incredible. Your customers trust reviews from their peers as much as their family members, which is why Google uses customer reviews for local SEO rankings.

This is what I got when I searched for Philly cheesesteak:

Each of the top options has lots of reviews and ahealthy star rating. For your company to win at local SEO you need good reviewsand a high rating. Asking your customers to leave a review is a perfect way toget more reviews. Don’t believe me? Check these figures:

80% of online reviews come from businesses sending follow-up emails to customers.
68% of customers have left a review because a local company asked them to.

There are many ways you get your customers to leave a review of your business, such as:

Offer a discount.
Give them a free trial.
Just ask (sometimes it’s enough).

Creating a customer testimonial video is great wayto engage future reviewers. It adds credibility to your existing reviews byputting human faces to them. If you want to give it a try, Vidyard is aplatform designed to make creating videos as simple as possible. I’ve tried itmyself and can tell you it’s quick and simple to use. You can request a demo here.

Optimize your business to target “near me” searches

The average mobile searcher will want the company closest to them. Think about it — how many times have you asked Google for a bar, drug store, or gas station near you? Optimizing for “near me” searches helps your business win those SERPs.

Not convinced? Google Trends proves that the number of people making “near me” searches is steadily increasing overall. You can see for yourself below:

The key to targeting “near me” searches is incorporating your city and state into the various on-page elements that factor into SEO. This includes your:

Page title.
Image alt-text.
Website content.
Subheadings.
Meta tags.

Thankfully, it should be easy to make thesechanges provided your website runs on a somewhat-modern CMS. WordPress hasbecome an exceptional choice for SEO (particularly with the excellent Yoast SEO plugin available to everyone for free), and of course high-end ecommerce storefrontsoftware such as Shopify’s slick hosted service will be a breeze — good technical SEO ismandatory at that scale. Speak to your web designers or developers if you’re not sure.

All you need to do here is distribute your location keywords smartly and prominently, and you’ll achieve two things at once: making local searchers more likely to choose your site, and making Google more likely to rank you for those searches.

Increase the authority of your website with link building

Authority is one of the most important rankingfactors for local SEO. The more authority your website and pages demonstrate,the higher you’ll rank on Google. You can increase your authority by buildinglinks to quality local blogs and businesses. Not sold? This is what the experts say:

75% of experts believe links are as important in 2018 as they were in 2017. The other 25% think they’re more important.
72% of local gurus say link-building is crucial to local SEO.

Some of the best ways to build links include:

Guest posting.
Establishing web directory links.
Commenting on local forums.
Writing testimonials.
Buying them (perfectly legal!).

Building a linkable resource is particularly greattactic, because it gives blogs and businesses a reason to direct their visitorsto your company site. All you need to do is turn existing data into somethingfresh. This can include interviews from your experts, or data you’ve uncoveredfrom a government website. I found some great tips on how to do this at Quicksprout. Read this free article to find out more.

1 in 5 of customers buy an item within 24 hours of making a local search, so why wouldn’t you want a bigger slice of that pie? Remember: you could increase your revenue by almost 20%. Put these local SEO tips into practice, and you’ll be on your way to making more local sales.

This local SEO article was originally posted at Key Medium and was contributed by: