Instacart, the online shopping platform connecting users with shoppers for a personalized grocery delivery experience, just added a new addition to their mobile app and website. This self-serve ad platform places brands before potential buyers and shoppers for their products. Exults Digital Marketing Agency has some insights to help companies utilize this new service successfully.

First off, What is Instacart & What’s it For?

Instacart is a growing platform with over 350,000 users in the United States. Users purchase items through the Instacart app or website, and shoppers, working as independent contractors, physically go to the store to select and deliver those goods.

What Stores Use Instacart?

Examples of stores that populate the platform with their products include nationally known chains like:

• Target
• Aldi
• Costco
• BJ’s
• Publix
• CVS Pharmacy
• Total Wine & More
• Petco

And other regional and major retailers (Choose your location here and find a list of stores near you)

How Does the New Instacart Advertising Platform Work?

The new Instacart advertising platform is designed to help companies and brands get their products facetime and brand impressions in front of customers. Being at the top of Instacart is like being the new eye-level shelf in the grocery aisle! Each brand or product owner can choose which grocery or personal items to promote in order to increase brand awareness with shoppers and potentially increase purchases as a result of seeing the ad. The platform also includes banner and display ads for the marketplace, as well as special ad promotions and other incentives in order to increase Instacart advertising.

1. Choose Your Products. Choose what products to promote so they appear in prominent locations where customers are shopping
2. Pay for Performance. Set a budget that works for your business and only pay when users engage with your products.
3. Learn what works. Make data-based updates to your ads to optimize performance.

Utilizing a new self-service advertising platform, such as this, can be a tricky endeavor for companies. The right demographic must be reached in the proper geographic location of the country – and this can vary based on the company’s target audience. With the goal of incentivizing Instacart shoppers to make the purchase presented to them, these marketing decisions must be strategically made.

“Instacart’s new advertising platform presents a huge marketing opportunity for many companies with distribution models dependent on the traditional grocery store distribution model. If properly utilized, grocery store brands can maintain and grow their market position with more affluent consumers using these delivery services which charge a convenience fee and delivery tip for shoppers,” said Zach Hoffman, CEO of Exults Digital Marketing Agency.

Why Instacart Advertising Strategies Are Important

Instacart has gained popularity in the U.S. as consumers seek a way to purchase groceries and goods from nearby retailers.

With the increasing popularity of online shopping, Instacart has become a popular option for those who want to shop quickly and easily. Instacart allows customers to order groceries online and have them delivered to their homes or picked up at their local store. This makes it a viable advertising option for brands looking to boost their online web presence.

Companies selling groceries and CPG products in major retailers are using Instacart to gain an advantage over competitors by utilizing the platform’s convenience.

How Do I Get Started with Advertising on Instacart?

Companies that are unsure of how to choose a target market for these new Instacart ads can reach out to Exults Internet Marketing Agency to learn how to strategically navigate their options and maximize their digital marketing results.

For more information about digital marketing support services and initiatives, please contact us to request a FREE quote today!

Find this full press release here.

FAQs

Why should I advertise on Instacart?

Instacart advertising offers the advantage of targeting specific customers according to their shopping habits and preferences. By utilizing Instacart’s extensive first-party consumer data, brands have the ability to develop tailored campaigns that effectively reach their desired audience at the most opportune moment.

Who is the target audience for Instacart?

The app’s audience demographics show an almost equal distribution between males and females. The majority of visitors belong to the age group of 25-34.

Is Instacart still popular?

In 2022, Instacart had 13.7 million active users who made purchases through the app on a monthly basis.

The post Unlock The Power Of Instacart Ads appeared first on Exults Digital Marketing Agency.

Different Ways to Target Audience with Facebook Ads

Identifying a target audience and actually having your ads appear in front of them are two unique challenges. But with powerful tools like Facebook Ads available for any business owner to use, it’s never been easier to create a target audience of real users and have them see your content. Check out some strategies you can use to create target audiences with Facebook Ads.

Exclude Customers From Your Target Audience

If you want to move customers through your sales funnel and avoid wasting advertising revenue on people who’ve already made a purchase, exclude paying customers from your target audience. Instead, prioritize people who have either visited your site or added items to their shopping carts and not checked out. Use website retargeting to display ads on Facebook for visitors who have been to your site without making a purchase.

Use Facebook’s “Saved Audience” Feature

Once you know your ideal customer demographic, you can use Facebook’s “Create a Saved Audience Button” to build an audience to use in your ad campaign. The button to do this can be found on the Audiences page. You can then define your audience based on factors such as age, gender, and location.

Narrow Your Audience Further, Based on Their Likes and Interests

You can further target an audience by narrowing your search criteria — either for a Saved Audience or a Lookalike Audience — by including specific likes, interests, and even life events to create an audience. For example, an author can limit a target audience to those who like a genre or a certain book, and a jewelry company can target individuals in relationships who have an upcoming anniversary. You would never imagine the ways you can actually target people on Facebook, things can get weirdly specific!

How to Get Your Ads to Convert on Facebook

Developing strong ad campaigns on Facebook can help you drive traffic to your website, boost brand awareness, and generate conversions. Find out how to get your ads to convert on Facebook and learn how to meet your objectives.

Know Your Target Audience

No matter which type of Facebook ad campaign you’re planning to run, creating the right target audience is essential for social advertising. You can create a lookalike audience that’s similar to your existing followers, build one using relevant interests, or select one based on device usage. The specificity of options is exponential. You can target any group ranging from single mothers to home gardeners, to people in specific neighborhoods. Choose the combination of targeting that works best for you to make sure you’re targeting the right users.

Utilize Photos and Videos

Photos and videos offer a great platform for expanding brand awareness, building your audience, and even driving conversions. People scroll through timelines and newsfeeds so quickly, using a photo or video can be one of the only ways to grab the attention of people with crowded social media platforms. To get the most video views, start by choosing an eye-catching thumbnail and ensuring your video file uses the optimal aspect ratio. Try to use photos that convey your message or an emotional connection to attract attention. Because people lose interest easily, aim for a video between 15 and 30 seconds to maximize views.

Optimize Ads for Landing Page Views

Pushing traffic off Facebook and to your website is ideal if you have a high-performing landing page that creates conversions. To make the most of Facebook’s landing page views option, use a strong creative and an effective call to action (CTA) to get the high-quality traffic you want. Try out a few different versions of your landing page to make sure it gets the results you’re targeting. You can do this by creating different ad sets that include different pictures, carousel ads, and different CTA or ad copy content.

Drive Specific Actions With Website Conversions

To attract users who are primed to make a purchase, download content, or complete another type of conversion, you’ll need to tweak your audience to make it as specific as possible. Use copy with a specific CTA and test your landing page to make sure it converts effectively. Identify what your ultimate goal is and gear your ads from there.

Facebook Gets Rid of Accidental Ad Clicks

Creating and monitoring Facebook ads isn’t as easy as it might look, especially when you have to account for users accidentally clicking your ads. Find out why Facebook has taken steps to eliminate accidental ad clicks and learn what this means for advertisers.

Facebook Establishes a Two-Second Threshold for Ads

It’s happened to even the most frequent social media users. When scrolling through an article or your news feed, sometimes you accidentally click on an advertisement. In the past, Facebook levied charges for every single click-thru, even those generated by users who unintentionally clicked on the ad before returning to the original page immediately.

As of August 2017, however, that’s no longer the case. Facebook has established a two-second threshold for its Audience Network ads, which appear in non-Facebook applications. Essentially, a user clicking on one of these ads and returning back to the original page within two seconds will no longer count as a click. In the future, Facebook may shorten this length of time or even extend it to other aspects of its advertising platform.

Advertisers Can Expect More Accurate Metrics

This two-second threshold is good news for advertisers, as Facebook will no longer charge for these unintentional clicks. The benefits extend beyond budget alone, though.

Since advertisers will no longer see these accidental clicks in their reports, they can look forward to more accurate metrics. This change could help businesses improve their ad targeting, increase lead generation, and spend their budgets more wisely.

Facebook Discontinues 5,000 Ad Targeting Terms to Prevent Ad Discrimination

Facebook announced it is removing 5,000 ad targeting terms that could potentially allow for bias against different religions, races, and cultures.

If you’re not sure what ad targeting is, it is a strategy for advertisers to reach certain customers based on demographics, psychographics, behavior, and interests. Simply put, when advertising using Facebook paid ads, you have a plethora of options to create campaigns that target your most valuable customers ranging from zip codes and marital status to interests such as “Latin America” or “Medicare”.

While Facebook does not categorize people by their race or ethnicity, advertisers could target people “interested in” certain cultures. For example, a person interested in “Passover” could be Jewish. Under bad practice, a person could use these targeting options to discriminate against Jewish people by not showing them ads for housing, jobs, or educational opportunities.

So why would this happen?

Advertisers must have some sort of strategy to get their ads to the most valuable customers whom will end with a conversion. Businesses are paying to get their ads to the right people, so typically they exclude certain segments from seeing their campaigns to avoid serving ads to unnecessary or redundant audiences.

Although excluding certain audiences can be a very useful tactic, Facebook has received scrutiny due to the tool’s ability to discriminate. By excluding someone interested in “mobility scooters” or “child care”, advertisers could potentially prevent disabled renters or working parents from seeing their ads.

This isn’t a subject that has been tread on lightly either. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) filed an official complaint against Facebook for violating the Fair Housing Act by allowing landlords and home sellers to use its advertising platform to engage in housing discrimination.

The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing transactions including print and online advertisements on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, or familial status.

According to the press release HUD distributed, Facebook’s platform violates this act by enabling advertisers to:

• Display housing ads either only to men or women.
• Not show ads to Facebook users interested in an “assistance dog,” “mobility scooter,” “accessibility” or “deaf culture.”
• Not show ads to users whom Facebook categorizes as interested in “child care” or “parenting,” or show ads only to users with children above a specified age.
• To display/not display ads to users whom Facebook categorizes as interested in a particular place of worship, religion or tenet, such as the “Christian Church,” “Sikhism,” “Hinduism,” or the “Bible.”
• Not show ads to users whom Facebook categorizes as interested in “Latin America,” “Canada,” “Southeast Asia,” “China,” “Honduras,” or “Somalia.”
• Draw a red line around zip codes and then not display ads to Facebook users who live in specific zip codes.

This isn’t the first time either. The discriminatory misuse of its advertising product has been on Facebook’s radar since at least 2016, when ProPublica published an investigation on how the tech giant enabled advertisers to exclude specific groups based on race and gender, according to Gizmodo. Facebook was again found guilty of enabling this troubling practice at the end of last year—another ProPublica investigation found it was still letting housing ads on the service effectively exclude black, Jewish, and disabled users—after the company said it would no longer allow it.

Facebook has reportedly denied that the removal was in response to the HUD complaint. In Facebook’s blog post about the removal of potentially discriminatory ad targeting options,  “While these options have been used in legitimate ways to reach people interested in a certain product or service, we think minimizing the risk of abuse is more important.”

Facebook is constantly updating its platform to better cater to users and improve user experience. They plan to share more targeting updates in the coming months as they continue to refine they tools for people and businesses.

In an effort to underscore the difference between acceptable ad targeting and ad discrimination, Facebook is requiring a continuing education certification for all advertisers. In order to continue advertising on Facebook, all advertisers will be required to complete the certification.

From Facebook to Google, all advertising platforms are always evolving and as a digital marketing agency, we always strive to communicate and apply these industry updates to all our clients to ensure we are strategizing effectively.

If you have any questions about increasing your leads, ROI, and valuable customer base through social media marketing or Google Ads, give us a call for a free consultation!

The post Facebook Ads: Tools, Tricks, Updates and More! appeared first on Exults Digital Marketing Agency.

Simply put, programmatic direct advertising works like this: if you’re an advertiser (a buyer), you need ads. You buy them from a publisher (the seller) who creates the kind of content your consumers would find attractive. The system worked well in the early days of the Internet, but then there was more demand than supply, and more publishers than advertisers. To ramp up and meet publishers’ needs, ad networks formed and increased the number of available ad placements and formats.

After ad networks formed and began selling premium ads in batches, real-time bidding started. RTBs can be effective because they target a specific audience, such as only Gen Z students who are enrolled in college or moms with at least two children under the age of five. A publisher can set a predetermined price and bid on ads being auctioned off.

Programmatic advertising has become an integral part of the advertising landscape. After all, what publisher wants to pay for ads that aren’t relevant to consumers? The challenge with programmatic is that with so many sources, it has become difficult to assign value to the ads-until now.

Google Ad Manager changes the game

Google Ad Manager will offer a unified first price auction. The auction is intended to level the playing field for buyers and advertisers. Google Ads will not share bids or reset prices until an auction is won. At that time, the buyers pay the price bid for the ads. Ad Manager’s goal is to make the impression process simpler while offering more value.

According to Google Ad Manager, you can count on:

• First price auctions in simplified programmatics. Simplicity rules in selling and purchasing ads.
• Custom creatives. You still have creative control over your ads. In fact, management tools and formats can be customized more than ever.
• Native style suggestions. No advertiser wants ad copy that looks out of place. Google will recommend styles that complement websites. This feature is now live.
• What the change means

The first auction simplification of the digital advertising market will have deep ramifications for buy-side players who have relied on second auction pricing bids and sales. The good news is Google’s newest position in programmatic landscape means that ads will have an assigned value and cannot be overvalued or lowballed.

As a result, many sellers will have to put pencils to paper as they recalculate their pricing structures and strategies for selling digital ads in a fluid market. It will take a while for the dust to settle as players learn the new rules for engagement. Google Ad Manager will continue to send out updates, and the transition will be completed by the end of the year.

Until then, digital marketing agencies will be helping buyers and sellers regain a position of advantage on the playing field.

The post Google’s Ad Manager Moves to First-Price Auction appeared first on Exults Digital Marketing Agency.

Imagine being able to take the best of the shopping experiences found in Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram, and then creating a spectacular mashup that resonates with consumers and encourages them to make purchases with a quick click. In essence, that’s what Google Images has done.

Where once items were displayed in isolation, they now are placed and photographed in the environment in which you would use them. Rather than look at a picture of a cup or plate against a bland, white background, you can see the place setting as it would be used: on a table. It’s a more authentic and engaging way to market products and services.

Shoppers can view multiple ads with different place settings ranging from informal to formal. The ad helps them visualize the product in their own home. With shoppable ads in Google Images, it’s all about the experience.

Shoppable ads

Shoppers turn to images first, and pictures sell products. With shoppable ads, advertisers can create a staged scenario that features several products in a single picture. The picture should suggest a lifestyle that the consumer would find appealing, and as he or she scrolls across the image, the prices appear on any of the items being offered for sale.

For now, shoppable ads are in testing mode with furniture retailers and art dealers who provide a picture of a room staged with their products. Imagine taking shoppable ads a step further.

Advertisers will be able to sell a complete experience by promoting a scenario. On a beach stands a colorful umbrella, and next to it, a few folding chairs. The children are tossing a beach ball, and a surfer is riding in to shore. As the shopper scrolls over each image in the picture, a brand and price appear. The result is a richer experience that is more likely to result in a sale.

Shoppable ads in Google Images allow consumers to identify, save and collect the images on boards they can refer to later. Suddenly, furnishing a room or even an entire home has never been easier because everything you need is right there, curated in the shoppable ads.

Showcase shopping ads

Some advertisers want to take the shopping experience to the next level, and for them, Google has created showcase ads. These ads offer multi-image formats that create a series of thumbnails you can enlarge and view full screen. The idea is to funnel sponsored content to interested consumers, encouraging them to become paying customers. The video format offers a richer context and more immersive experience for previewing a product. Through sponsorship, these showcase ads appear at the top of product keyword searches.

Shopping insights

Merging shoppable ads with Google Images makes sense. We’ve known for a long time that a picture is worth a thousand words, so it’s logical that pictures make the sale. Consumers are more likely to make a purchase after seeing an item rather than reading or hearing about it.
Most shoppers in the United States turn first to Google when making a purchase. You’ve done it, too. Now you can be there waiting for them with an immersive experience they’ll love.

The post Google Images getting more shoppable ads appeared first on Exults Digital Marketing Agency.

What type of targeting can we utilize with Google Display Network (GDN)?

There are virtually millions of targeting options to find qualified customers or leads on the Google Display Network. We are able to target people based on demographics, interests, previous searches, geolocation and more.

With these incredible targeting tools that Google provides, we can develop a more efficient online marketing campaign that delivers solid ad revenue growth for clients of all industries because we are showing ads to people who fit the ideal “persona” of a qualified lead. Cool right?!

However, new generations are seeking out and responding to information more uniquely than ever which has forced Google to innovate. As of February 2019, Google Ads released three brand new features added for responsive display ads. These features are powerful and we don’t want you to miss out on the immense potential to increase your ROI with Google Ads.

Three new Features for Responsive Display Ads:

If you want to get the most value out of your Google Ads campaign, then you’ve got to learn about the newest features opening up a world of revelation in online advertising. These features allow you to drive improved performance, unlock creative insights, develop video responsive display ads, and increase your overall ROI by using Google Ads’ features to your advantage. Check out the three new features below:

In addition, the ability to optimize these ads by finding the best combination of text, images, and videos is crucial to successfully implementing the campaign. So, in efforts to help you increase your ROI with Google Ads, Google did just that with the following three new features:

Video Assets for Responsive Display Ads:

The inspiration for this came from a sobering statistic stating that over 60% of shoppers say online videos have given them ideas or inspiration for their purchase. In the new feature announcement, Google said, “If a picture is worth a thousand words, then imagine what could be done when you craft a 30-second video for your ads?”

Responsive display ads were originally built to help advertisers adapt to the increasingly diverse mix of content types and screen sizes (think all iPhone/droid screen sizes, iPads, laptops, wide screen TV screens, and more). Now, you can adapt video!

This is the very beginning of an incredibly efficient system because all you need to do is upload your content (select up to five videos from your YouTube page) and Google will automatically generate ads to be shown on the Google Display Network.  The overall benefits of responsive display advertisements are one of the main secrets to increasing your ROI with Google Ads (image and video). Some of these benefits include:

• Broader reach– Google automatically optimizes your content on an ad to format and fit just about any available ad space. Thus, no matter what device your viewer is on they will see the combination of ad most optimized for that situation.
• Save valuable time– Responsive display ads help you to adapt to the increasingly diverse mix of content types and screen sizes, thus marketing teams can scale ad creation, testing, and optimization.
• Dynamic marketing– Responsive display ads show tailored content to customers from a feed you control and add to your campaign. The cool thing about this is that if you add a feed to your campaign, your ads will show in both dynamic and static formats!
• Customizable – Take more control over the aesthetics of your Display campaigns by building and uploading your own image ads. Uploaded image ads are created outside of Google Ads and can be uploaded as a .zip file into Google Ads.

Combination reports:

Getting the most return on your investment in Google ads takes more than just having an optimized ad campaign. Google takes it a step further and allows businesses to see not only what’s working in their campaigns, but also why it’s working. This feature brings new insights as to which combination of content works best for certain ads. This report will populate separate sections for combinations based on your images, text, dynamic feeds, and videos. The benefit behind this tool is that not only do you know which creative combinations resonate with potential customers, but now you can try testing the top performers across different campaign types to see what works best!

Ad Strength Scorecard:

The ability to create relevant display ads which attract a target audience is a top priority for every advertiser. Thus, Google has ensured our responsive ads are set up for success, before they are published live. This is done through a unique algorithm that highlights the most efficient number of headlines, text, and images to use in your ads. The next steps are then provided to ensure a fully optimized and compelling ad.

Increasing site traffic with Google Ads: 

From a marketing Agencies perspective, Google Ads is one of the best ways to increase your return on your investment (ROI). Why? Well, there are three simple reasons:

• You can reach qualified leads with robust targeting capabilities
• You can put your brand in front of 90% of all internet traffic
• You can utilize machine learning campaign strategies or A/B testing for campaign optimization

The key to increasing your ROI with Google Ads lies in Google’s testing and analytics. It may seem hard to “go wrong” when you have such a powerful algorithm generating your ads and displaying them in the most efficient manner, but campaigns need a human touch. With the newly added features being introduced, content is better optimized and businesses are provided with even more insight which allows for smarter advertising. As a result, you can expect a huge return on your investment using Google Ads as incredible features such as these continue to be invented. Looking for someone to manage your Google Ads campaigns? Request a quote from our sponsored search experts at Exults today!

The post What Are Some of the Latest Features on Google Responsive Display Ads? appeared first on Exults Digital Marketing Agency.

With the average small business now spending more than $75,000 a year on digital marketing, spending is only going to go up.

If you’re not constantly updating your digital marketing strategy, you’re going to fall behind. You need to have a strategy that takes into account what your customers want, or you’re going to fall flat on your face.

Here are three things to keep in mind when updating your strategy for 2019.

Stay Social

One of the best tools you have access to as a business owner is all the free advertising you can get on social media. With the help of social media, you can test out ideas with your digital marketing strategy in real time and see real results. Rather than having to guess whether you’ll be able to connect with your audience, make it happen on social media.

With social media, you get the opportunity to make powerful and directly targeted campaigns that work to connect with audiences of all types. Want to make something targeted to working-class women in Toronto? You can do it with social media.

Looking to try out a new flavor of your product in Ohio? Social media helps you figure out what kind of response you’ll get.

Start a Blog

When people use search engines, they’re either looking for a specific product or the answer to a question. When you start a blog, you get the chance to capture both audiences with your writing, offering answers to questions with your products and services as the solution.

When you start a blog, you also get the chance to increase your ranking on search engines. Search engines reward websites with lots of regular updates with higher results than other sites. They look for keyword intent and the context that you use terms in.

They’ll also be looking to match searchers with local results, so mention where you’re located as often as is relevant.

Don’t Give Up On Email

While it might seem slightly outdated, email is still a viable way to connect with your audience and run a promotion. When you maintain email as part of your digital marketing strategy, you connect with the people who’ve opted into what you have to offer.

When you connect with your customers via email, it feels more personal than social media.  Since it means you’ll reach them directly, you need to handle this contact information with care and target customers only with what they care about.

Your Digital Marketing Strategy Is a Moving Target

The metrics for success when it comes to digital marketing are constantly changing. If you’re not ready with a flexible and agile digital marketing strategy, you’re going to fall behind in the dust your competitors create. Use the three methods above but be ready to shift your content at a moment’s notice.

Check out our latest guide to ensure you’re also using best practices with paid advertising.

The post Ring in the New Year: What Your New Digital Marketing Strategy Needs to Look Like in 2023 appeared first on Exults Digital Marketing Agency.

Curious about the newest PPC trends?

Google reported $33.74 billion in the third quarter of 2018 in ad revenue. Facebook reported $13.54 billion in that same quarter for ad revenue. This is significant for two reasons.

First, other PPC platforms, such as LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Bing are galaxies away from contending with these digital ad giants. Second, the sheer number of marketers you must contend with for PPC space is colossal. To get ahead of the competition, you must master the process. And use the most up-to-date information.

And that’s why we’re here today. In the sections below, we outline the biggest PPC trends for 2019, so you can be on the top of your game. Read on when you’re ready to discover the newest advances and blow away your competition.

PPC Trends: #1 Decline of Keyword Importance

The days of keyword stuffing are long gone. The keywords themselves also seem to be losing their value for PPC campaigns. What do we mean? Let’s take a look.

If you’re a marketer, you’ve already seen the expansion added to Google’s Remarketing Lists. We’re talking Customer Match lists, Search Ads, and Similar Audiences for Search. Well, now marketers must power to target their audience by both demographic AND life events.

That reduces the significance of keywords.

Google promises to soon offer the ability to target users based on their other behaviors:

• Frequency visiting real-world stores or restaurants
• Frequency researching and comparing products or services

With this, marketers can target prospects based solely on behavior. It may completely revolutionize your lead generation strategy.

#2 Voice Search

Finally, voice-supported technology reigns. Both pc and mobile devices offer a range of compatible voice recognition software. Think Siri and Alexa. Other stripped-down devices, such as Amazon’s Echo, Google Home, and Apple HomePod, offer voice-only web searches.

Voice support is becoming ubiquitous.

By 2020, over 50% of all web searches will be voice searches. That’ll make a difference to your PPC strategy. People use different language and phrasing when performing voice searches.

In other words, you’ll need to figure out how to add natural language into your website copy. After you update your web copy, consider adjusting your AdWords account:

• Match your keywords to voice searches.
• Use longtail, 5- or 6-word phrases
• Use phrases that incorporate “near me”

Try to focus on the prospects intent when searching. For instance, traditionally, users may have performed a search using the query, “Trendy Bars San Francisco.” With a voice search, the same user may say, “I need a trendy bar that serves marguerites near me.”

#3 Visual Search

Now, this is futuristic technology coming to life. Services like Pinterest Lens and Google Lens can now search the web for items you snap pictures of. You just take your phone, snap a picture of whatever you’re looking at, and Lens performs a search.

This will affect search dynamics, and therefore PPC. Unfortunately, nobody’s sure quite how. Keep your eyes peeled for this new technology and how it’s impacting marketing.

#4 Video

Did you know that YouTube has become the second most used search engine? Yeah, so if you’re thinking of branching out, the video ad market is the place to be in 2019. Things like Google’s recent vertical video ads are taking advantage of mobile content over performance.

We recommend you investigate this option before 2019, so you can hit the ground running in the new year.

#5 Amazon Rising

Amazon is building its innovative advert platform to compete with Google and Facebook. The online store is offering marketers a greater scope of options to generate sales. Experts argue that Amazon is going to dominate the market, just as they dominate seemingly every other market.

Once again, keep your eyes peeled. This time, for Amazon’s advert platform in 2019.

What’s Next?

Well, now that you know the newest PPC trends, please spend some time evaluating how they’ll affect your marketing strategy. If you can get in on the ground floor, you’ll see a surge of both conversion rates and ROI.

Did you find this material valuable? We’d love to help you get your PPC campaign started. Contact us today for more information!

The post Top 5 PPC Trends to Watch Out for in 2023 appeared first on Exults Digital Marketing Agency.

4.2 billion people are active internet users. With that many potential eyes on your work, you have to make sure your web designs are modern and relevant. As we step into the new year, we must also step up our design game and learning design trends is a great way to do just that.

Here are 5 design trends you should know about as we head into 2019.

Asymmetrical Layouts

2019 website trends aren’t just about thinking outside the box, they’re actively breaking it.

Unless you’ve been living under a poorly designed rock, you’ll know about the grid system. A layout guide that’s been used for decades to help us maintain consistency, balance, and alignment in our designs.

Well, 2019 is breaking the grid. Asymmetrical layouts are easy to mess up. A great trend doesn’t make up for bad UX. But when applied with skill, asymmetrical layouts are an excellent way to add interest and depth to your designs.

Just remember to be consistent with your asymmetry. Establish your hierarchy and use repetition to ensure your users can navigate the page.

Animated Visuals

No, we’re not talking video, though that’s also a must-have when designing for the new generation of internet users. When we talk animated visuals, we’re discussing gifs and cinemagraphs.

If you’ve stepped foot onto any social media platform in the last decade, you’ll already know what a gif is. But what about cinemagraphs?

Cinemagraphs are static images that contain a single animated element. For example, a picture might show a coffee cup sitting on a table with the steam rising from the cup dynamically animated.

Gifs and cinemagraphs are both great ways to catch your audience’s attention without overwhelming them. The internet is a visually loud place — sometimes a well-placed whisper will get more attention than a bullhorn.

3D Photos

Facebook teased this new feature earlier this year and it quickly captured the interest of us web designers.

Through clever use of modern phone cameras and a cutting-edge algorithm, we’re now able to build a 3D map of the everyday images we take.

3D photos allow for innate, immersive interaction with images. When a user scrolls past them or tilts their phone, the photos respond like the image is a window into a diorama. It’s a great way to grab a user’s attention and keep them on your page.

Minimalism

Yep, it’s back. As the online world gets busier, the saying “less is more” is becoming more and more relevant.

Minimalistic websites make a massive impact on user behavior. Rather than being overwhelmed with stimuli, the audience is given clear, concise direction. 2019 will be the year we perfect this trend, shaving our content down to reduce load times and improve conversions.

Bring on the whitespace.

Mobile First

Responsive designs have been a mainstay for a while now, but earlier this year Google took our mass mobile migration a step further. Their indexing algorithm will now consider the mobile content of your site, rather than the desktop.

Modern web design mustn’t just incorporate mobile usability, it should actively prioritize it.

Be Savvy About Web Design Trends

The web design industry moves fast so you should too. Staying on top of current design trends is essential for industry success.

Employing asymmetrical layouts, animated visuals, cutting-edge tech, and tried and tested techniques will help you keep your designs relevant, modern, and effective. And what better way to ring in the new year?

Want to learn from the year behind us? Here are the top 4 standout SEO trends of 2018.

The post Facing Forward: 5 Web Design Trends to Use in 2023 appeared first on Exults Digital Marketing Agency.

It’s no secret that having a mobile-friendly website can increase your conversions and help you skyrocket to the top of search engine results.

The only problem?

You’re not quite sure how to make a website mobile friendly.

Read on to learn how to create a design that works across multiple mobile devices and operating systems.

Then, learn where you can go to find the professional digital marketing help you need to take your desktop and mobile sites to the next level.

Optimize Your Images

While a giant photograph of some of your top-selling products or smiling clients might be eye-catching on a desktop site, oversized images can slow loading speed to a crawl — and seriously mess with the formatting — on a mobile device.

Instead, make sure the images you use on a mobile version of the website are as light as possible. Switch to JavaScript, choose one central image as opposed to a slideshow, and post lower resolution photos.

Don’t forget to crop and study up on the aspect ratio to seriously save on bandwidth and ensure images load quickly and completely.

Stop the Autoplay

We know that video marketing is on the rise, and it’s true that it can be an excellent addition to your overall digital marketing plan.

However, stop to consider if it really belongs on a mobile-friendly website.

Eliminate the autoplay features of a video, and instead allow mobile users to click on a link to be redirected to a video instead.

When it comes to choosing the right mobile video player for a mobile site? We suggest going with an HTML5 player, which is compatible with most mobile devices.

While we’re on the subject of automatic features — skip the pop-ups and automatic redirects to an app store or another site. Not only will it slow things down, but it’s also off-putting to consumers.

Consider Site Design

The final step in learning how to make your website mobile friendly.

Make sure that you’ve optimized your overall site design.

First off, make sure to include follow buttons to your social media profiles, and always ensure your contact information is visible.

When you look at your website, search for things that can be cut. This includes excess plugins, large images, slow-loading graphics, and especially giant walls of text.

Remember that the mobile screen is much smaller than a desktop, so aim to de-clutter your mobile website as much as you can.

Above all, if you include appointment request forms, question and answer forms, or contact forms on your mobile site, ensure they’re mobile friendly.

Otherwise, none of your hard work will pay off!

Need Professional Help Creating a Mobile Friendly Website?

Sometimes, the best way to create a mobile-friendly website is to leave it to the professionals.

That’s where we come in.

We’re a full-service digital marketing agency, which means that we can help you with mobile-friendly design in addition to SEO, social media, and more.

When you’re ready to transform your site and web presence as a whole, reach out to us.

The post Going Mobile: 3 Tips for a Mobile-Friendly Website Design appeared first on Exults Digital Marketing Agency.

To simplify your process, we’ve outlined four marketing options that always create new leads, no matter what your industry. In fact, we have seen some of the greatest results when using all four strategies together. The collective effort of a comprehensive digital marketing strategy which is paid and organic effectively generates leads and ultimately, conversions. Read on to learn about our most effective strategies for lead generation.

PPC

Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing is a way to get your brand noticed. The concept is based on the traditional advertising wherein you expose potential leads to your brand through adverts. Those include the following:

• Search Ads on search engine results’ pages
• Display Ad Banners across websites
• Video Ads on sites like YouTube
• App Ads on millions of apps

When a lead notices an ad that interests them, they can click on it. When they do so, they are redirected to whichever webpage you’ve linked to your ad. You can send them to a sales page, landing page, blog, or another online site.

One of the greatest things about PPC is the sheer versatility. When you set up your ad account, you can target leads with pinpoint accuracy. It doesn’t matter which industry, age group, or economic status you’re trying to hit.

That translates to lower costs and higher lead conversions. If you want to learn more, check out this article on Google PPC Campaigns.

Website Design

While a good PPC campaign will attract leads to your site, a great website design will keep them there. You can think of it as the glue that holds together your sales funnel. So the question is: what makes a great web design?

• Mobile Responsive: Built for both desktop and mobile devices. In 2018, people use mobile devices to search the web more than desktops. Your site must be built for both. Otherwise, you run the risk of rejecting potential leads.
• Fast: Your webpage should load quickly and look clean. Make sure to use small image files, perform a site audit, and choose the right plan from your web host.
• Attractive: Your leads like the look and the feel of the site. The color palette is simple. Navigation is easy. Your pages contain no clutter or distracting elements.

Social Media

Hello, this is where your prospects hang out. First, perform research to discover who your leads are, what they want, and where they hang out. Once you figure that out, you can begin approaching them on their favorite social media platform.

Whether your audience chooses to spend their time on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or some other platform, that’s where you go. You can start creating your own posts to connect with your intended audience. Or you can try a social PPC campaign, using the social media platform as your main channel for paid ads.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the method used to clearly define your website for search engines in order for them to rank highly in SERPs (search engine results pages)… aka you want to be on PAGE 1 right?  When you use proper SEO techniques, you tell engines exactly what your site has to offer and deem it valuable enough to rank highly. Then, that engine can better gauge for whom your site is appropriate when users are making searches.

Excellent SEO leads to a higher search engine page rank. That, in turn, leads to more people visiting your site and generating more leads.

Which Lead Generation Strategy Should I Use?

We recommend using each lead generation strategy listed above as a collective team. They’ve been proven time and again over the last two decades. The trick is not to give up, but to constantly adapt to the everchanging Google, Facebook, etc updates and use analytics and data to better reach your target market.

Set a lead generation goal. Create your digital marketing strategy. Then tweak your approach until you reach your goal. The process takes a lot of work, but we can help you!

If you found this information helpful, take a minute to explore our website and request a quote or call 866-999-4736 to speak directly with the Exults team!

The post How to Design an Effective Lead Generation Strategy for Your Company appeared first on Exults Digital Marketing Agency.