Mike Fleming

Use Google Trusted Store as an AdWords Review

Are you an eCommerce business owner or have a PPC client that is a Google Trusted Store? You can now add the benefit of being a trusted store to your Review Extensions in AdWords! More ad real estate is ALWAYS a good thing; Google knows it, good PPC managers know it, now you know it.[…]

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6 Google Ads Scripts Every Account Should Be Using

I’m writing this the day after Halloween, which may be the perfect time to talk about Google Ads scripts since it’s a fairly scary subject to most people dealing with accounts.  But let me tell you…it doesn’t have to be.  With such an amazing, sharing community all around us, PPCers aren’t on their own…ever.  Trust[…]

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Book Review: Digital Marketing in an AI World

Some would say we’re not significantly affected by the media we consume. I don’t claim to be one of them. After watching a lot of the movies being put out these days that show futuristic visions of how artificial intelligence might be incorporated into the world in the future, I can’t help but wonder how[…]

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5 Non-Lead KPIs B2B Digital Marketers Shouldn’t Forget About

Leads, leads, leads!  It’s the cry of B2B marketers everywhere, and for good reason.  But consider this…do you try to force your offline relationships into spaces they’re not ready for?  Or do you instead nurture relationships with prospects and customers in ways that work for them as you build trust and gently nudge them toward[…]

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This Is What You Really Want From A PPC Manager

When I first got into PPC management, I had basically no client management skills.  I got into PPC because I read a book called The Future of Music (I’m a musician) that explained to me how digital distribution was changing entire industries and how the Internet made it possible for anyone to sell anything to[…]

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Improve Your PPC Ads: Use Precise Numbers

The Technique In a previous post, I showed you how telling your customers how many have converted unlocks the principle of social proof and is helpful in persuading more people to take action.  In that test, I simply replaced a fairly generic introductory text in an ad designed to attract subscribers on Facebook to include[…]

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Improve Your PPC Ads: Avoid Too Many Choices

The Technique It’s been well-documented in marketing psychology books like Brainfluence and others that offering too many choices to your customers can create frustration and a mental paralysis that leads to lower rates of people taking action.  This New York Times article dives more deeply into the psychology behind it.  But basically, when the number[…]

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Improve Your PPC Ads: Give Your Customers A Compelling Reason

The Technique There’s a single word that can lead you to getting better results from your PPC ads.  That word is because.  Why is this word so effective?  Because whatever you put after that word acts as a justification or reason why a person should comply with your request.  And because people have grown used[…]

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Improve Your PPC Ads: Tell Your Customers How Many Have Converted

The Technique A classic way to be persuasive in advertising is to use a principle known as social proof.  The principle holds that when people are uncertain about a course of action, they tend to look outside themselves and to other people around them to guide their decisions and actions. One such way to implement[…]

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The First Step To Creating a Killer B2B Paid Social Strategy

So, we know that most B2B companies really should have a killer Paid Social strategy these days.  But as soon as they get on board with the idea, the most frequent question I hear is undoubtedly “What kind of content should we produce for promotion?“  The simple answer is – content that is helpful to[…]

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Why B2B Companies Need A Paid Social Strategy Now More Than Ever

Most B2B companies suck at social media.  OK, it’s not just B2B companies.  But that’s where I want to focus for this post.  You may not have thought about this before, but social media is probably more beneficial for B2B companies than B2C ones.  Of course, this likely depends on the companies and industries we’re talking[…]

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5 Foundational PPC Ad Copy Tips Just for B2B Advertisers

As we know from previous posts, your B2B prospects can vary widely as there are likely multiple stakeholders in all different stages of the buying process. They range from unaware of your product’s/service’s existence to ready to buy.  Since this is the case, you’re going to see the best results by matching up your ad[…]

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How To Carefully Choose & Use Keywords For Your B2B PPC Campaigns

The first step to picking the right keywords for B2B search advertising is defining your audiences.  Doing this first will help keep you from bidding on search terms that are superficially related to your offering, but don’t actually indicate any relevant search intent.  It will also give you ideas about what your audience can be searching[…]

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B2B Audiences: How To Create & Effectively Use Them For PPC

In B2B, you’re typically not getting a transaction online.  You’re developing a relationship that you hope will lead to a transaction offline in the not-too-distant future.  Therefore, the best approach with PPC advertising isn’t to offer what you’re ultimately selling, but to offer valuable information that makes what you’re selling attractive to those you reach[…]

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How To Advertise In A World That Hates Advertising

We now live in the most over-communicated society in the history of the world.  It’s gotten so bad that it feels like people and companies are simply just constantly fighting for people’s attention.  I fight the fight every day in my own house.  Trust me, I’m not immune to this either.  But, I’m not quite[…]

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How I Used Voice Search Data To Improve Ad Performance By +35%!

I remember doing a communication exercise with my wife that was guided by a good friend of mine.  First, my wife would share her thoughts and feelings about something.  Then, it was my turn.  Except I wasn’t allowed to share my thoughts and feelings.  Before I could do that, I had to summarize what my[…]

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How I Rephrased 2 Words in a Headline & Improved Results by 34%!

I love new ways to think about how to create ad copy.  Looking back on my younger PPC management years, I definitely didn’t give enough weight to it from the beginning.  That’s probably because I’ve always been a numbers guy first.  But then I had a eureka moment when I said to myself…“You’re in advertising[…]

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buyer psychology

AdWords’ Price Extensions: 5 Powerful Techniques You Can Use

In the past when we’ve talked about pricing strategies in digital marketing, it’s mostly been a conversation about post-click conversion rate optimization.  Sure, we’ve always been able to put prices in ad text.  But with the release of 2 newer ad extensions in Google AdWords (and the presence of product listing ads), it’s becoming more[…]

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