No More Exact & Phrase Matching in Google AdWords

As of late September, Google AdWords advertisers will not be able to use the Exact and Phrase matching options. 

The “close variants” (an option at this point) will be applied to all match types and a “pure” exact match will be a thing of the past.  Some believe this will limit the control advertisers will have over specifying the key phrases that trigger your ad to show in specific searches.  

Good news:  less complicated matching selections for key word bidding. Bad news:  potential losses in performance which may necessitate an increase in spend. Some analysts believe advertisers may need to ante up a 10% budget increase to get the same results pre-exact/phrase kill announcement of 8/15. Others see it as an opportunity for advertisers to let go of the efforts and $$ put out for possibly lower performing keywords and focus more on strategy.

But, since I'm a glass totally filled kinda gal, I see this as a good opportunity to refresh campaigns (usually a much needed action) - AND - that this is probably a Google move that will benefit the "little guy". By all analyses I've reviewed, this change will have more of an impact on those spending $100K+ per month: the top 5% tier of elite Google advertisers. But, no matter the budget you may have for your campaign, you will need to change up some of the keyword strategies to make sure your Google AdWords campaign is as efficient as possible.

We recommend that you declutter your campaign’s keyword lists but definitely create much more focused landing pages. By having well-optimized landing page you can experience 3-5 times gains. 

So... Awareness Creation is starting to strategically modify all of its AdWords clients' campaigns to counteract Google's most recent decision (nothing new for us!). We will continue to strongly encourage improved optimization of landing pages.

Bottom line: Never get comfortable (read "static") with your Google strategies.

Speaking of modifications:  Awareness Creation has begun its amplified Google+ strategy. Please follow!

Content Marketing + SEO + Increased Web Visitors = LEAD GENERATION

Don't cha just love it when studies come out that reinforce the broken record message you've been delivering for, oh, I don't know - forever?!

Demand Metric in partnership with Ascend2 completed a SMB/Enterprise Survey covering content marketing objectives for SMB and Enterprise organizations. The survey results were provided by Marketo. Thanks to all for the great info!

Here's one snippet I particularly liked:

"As a lead generation strategy, content marketing is more effective when paired with other objectives on this list, such as increasing website visits and improving organic search rankings. 

While these latter objectives are not highly ranked, they also are top drivers of lead generation performance."

The majority of Small Businesses and Enterprise organizations surveyed had lead generation as a top objective for content marketing while less than a third named their content objectives as focusing on increased website traffic and SEO. The bottom line: you need to have a mulit-dimensional content marketing strategy for it to deliver the benefit of lead generation. And, you need to make sure your content is compelling (will increase web visitors), audience-driven, and optimized for search engines (will improve organic search rankings). 

Why Is Web Content so Important?

Content is vital for the success of your Marketing campaigns. Your audience - no matter the size of your company or the type of product or service -  is a group of "self-educators" who are doing more online research before making purchasing decisions than ever before. 

Because of this self-education process, the information you provide has a big job of attracting, engaging, and acquiring new customers. This is something you might want to do right to make sure your lead generation objectives are being met.

Resources Needed for Content Creation and Implementation

For most companies (SMB and Enterprise) the problem with creating and executing successful content strategies requires resources. Here's something to think about:

"More than half (53%) of SMBs use only in-house resources to execute content marketing campaigns. 

68% of large enterprises outsource all or part of their content marketing campaign creation and implementation, gaining higher levels of expertise and performance available outside the organization. 

Outside resources are helpful for obtaining specialized skills or to remain agile in the production of content." 

SMBs... do you think your in-house resources are the most knowledgeable choice for creating and executing the best content marketing strategy that will meet your lead generation objectives.  Enterprise organizations... are the 32% of you not using outside resources with more specialized skills getting the results you want to compete with the 68% who "get it"? Two words to remember:  Awareness Creation!

Just saying...

Important Website Content - Don't Forget SEO!

Website content has always been and will continue to be important for B2B vendors (and any other kind of website) not only for search engines but for your visitors' satisfaction. Many companies really don't have an understanding about what makes great content - and - the power great website content has when it comes to forming a good relationship with prospective clients. Of course, optimized content also has the power to get a website more visibility within the major search engines.

Many times, website owners don't offer website content that is important to their audience; perhaps, they're not sure what kind of content the audience wants to see. When it's time to create or update your website content, here is a great resource to keep in mind:

The above survey results were just released by KoMarketing Associates and Dianna Huff. It's interesting to see the most important asset for establishing your credibility is Contact information and About information. This correlates to years of website analytic reporting for hundreds of websites:  the vast majority of visitors only visit the home page and then drop off the website without diving deeper into the website information. I personally prefer not to see so many one-page visitors but if that is something we have to deal with, why not make sure your B2B website gives the visitors what they're looking for?

On the flip side, here are a couple of the most annoying website elements that result in high exit rates:

• Auto-playing video or audio and animated ads.
• Contact forms that require too much information. By the way, most people do not want to share their telephones numbers or addresses but are comfortable with sharing emails, company, and position information.

For more details about this study, check out Must Have B2B Website Content

And - remember - don't put great content on your website without optimizing it for search engines. If your prospective clients can't find you - it doesn't matter how great the content is!