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Here at 2C, we are a predominantly female force. We’re fuelled by girl power and, as a result, we recognise the importance of showcasing the pioneering women of Digital Marketing. In this blog, we will look at five inspirational female figures that are storming the online-scene; whether that be through Social Media giant Facebook, Software trailblazer Microsoft or simply influencing through a personal blog, we can all learn a thing or two from these game-changing heroines.

  • Name: Molly Welch
  • Company: Google
  • Job Title: AI Advertising Manager
  • LinkedIn: mewelch
Molly

Molly Welch is a Marketing Manager for Google’s Artificial Intelligence department and has been at the company for over five years. Welch previously held the post of Product Marketing Manager, and has also been involved in the department of Social Impact Marketing. Prior to her career at Google, Welch interestingly worked in the Research and Communications office of Condoleezza Rice, the former US secretary of state. Graduating from Stanford University with a distinction in B.A. International Relations, it is evident that Molly’s hard-work and ambition lie at the root of her success.

Mari

With almost two decades of experience under her belt, Mari Smith is an Internet Marketing heavyweight. Since 2007, Smith’s career has revolved around Social Media Marketing at Facebook, with her prestigious title of ‘Premier Facebook Marketing Expert’ reflecting her industry reputation as the ‘Queen of Facebook’. Furthermore, Smith truly practices what she preaches, boasting over 1.7 million followers across all of her social media profiles. This impressive figure includes her YouTube subscribers, that she has gained through regularly uploading informative content related to her work. On top of this, Mari is an established writer, and her name regularly appears in newspapers and magazines such as The New York Times and Success Magazine.

Ann

Alongside Smith and Social Media Strategist Amy Vernon, Ann Handley also featured on Forbes December 2017 list of ‘Marketing Influencers to Watch’, in addition to being named on IBM’s list of the ‘Seven people influencing Digital Marketing’. Handley’s website coins her as a ‘Digital Marketing pioneer’, and quite rightly so. Ann’s online and in-person training programmes, provided by her company ‘MarketingProfs’, benefit over 600,000 people. What’s more, Hadley is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of ‘Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content’ and ‘Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business’, and has written many articles and bylines for publications such as the The Huffington Post and NPR.

Annie

Annie Cushing has worked extensively in the areas of web analytics, SEO, PPC, social media and competitive analysis, and so it comes at no surprise that she founded and runs the incredibly successful blog annielytics.com. In her own words, Annie has ‘played just about every role one can play when it comes to creating and promoting content online, she’s written it, edited it, marketed it, optimised it, acquired links for it, emailed about it and pimped it on social media’. Cushing spotted an opportunity to educate and now provides Marketers with strategies to help them understand and effectively use tools such as Google Analytics: she ‘makes data sexy’. You may also spot Cushing on Search Engine Land as she often posts data-oriented articles here.

  • Name: Purna Virji
  • Company: Microsoft
  • Job Title: Senior Global Engagement Manager, Journalist, Speaker
  • LinkedIn: purnavirji
  • Twitter: purnavirji
Purna

Purna Virji holds the respected title of Senior Global Engagement Manager at Microsoft, and has been at the company for over three years. She has featured on AdWeek’s 2018 ‘Young Influentials’ list, and was hailed by PPC Hero as the ‘world’s #1 most influential expert’ in 2016 – it’s blatant that Virji has had a significant impact on the Digital landscape! As well as contributing to many industry online publications, and exercising her skills as an MA in International Journalism, Virji is a regular keynote speaker at worldwide conferences, sharing her knowledge and expertise at events including SMX Advance, Big Digital and PubCon Pro.

So there you have it, five high-flying women of the digital world, and they’ve all achieved wonderful things throughout their careers. That said, they didn’t get to where they are without hard work, dedication and ambition; attributes that we can all employ to maximise our success. If you would like to expand your digital marketing knowledge and expertise, why not sign-up to the 2C newsletter for regular insights, updates and more!

As some of you may know, 2C is celebrating its first birthday this March. Therefore, we thought we ought to take a step away from the screen and look back on the year so far – and what a year it has been! With over a 1,000 of cups of tea, many a late night and a superbly gifted team, 2C Digital Marketing has gone above and beyond in exceeding both their clients, and their own, expectations! Beginning as a small one-woman team offering just PPC, SEO and Social Media services, we are now a strong, five-man band that services the full user journey.

As a digital marketing agency, our success is reflected through the success of our clients. One example of this is AccountingHub.io who experienced a significant improvement in their pay-per-click results. With a 45% increase in site traffic, a 580% increase in conversions and a 592% increase in conversion rate, all in just three months, it is fair to say that our PPC service is second to none. What’s more, following the launch of our new SME social media package in February, our client social media results have also been overwhelmingly positive!

A large chunk of 2C’s success is down to our wonderful clients, who have trusted us as a new company to manage their digital campaigns and act as an extra pair of hands in supporting and expanding their business. Therefore, we would like to send a whole-hearted thank you to all of those who have been with us from the beginning, allowing us to build our reputation and find our feet.

Since December, not only do we offer PPC, SEO and social media packages, but we have now expanded our services to facilitate the full user journey. This includes stages such as strategy and planning, content and creative and monitoring and reporting, meaning that we can now adopt a more holistic approach and create an even clearer and direct user journey, ensuring positive client results.

The success of our first year is of course primarily down to our crazily talented team, which has grown from just one to five! Of course, we cannot go on without giving a special shout out to our three amazing interns: Rebecca the graphics whizz, Beth our social media butterfly and Grace, our apt wordsmith!

The success of our client’s digital marketing campaigns has meant that we at 2C have been able to further develop the agency itself. With a fresh new website on its way, and an increase in not only our team but our services, we are now set-up for what we are confident will be another brilliant year of innovation and expansion!

So, on behalf of 2C, I would like to finish this post by saying a huge thank you to all of our wonderful clients, our truly talented team and, of course, to all of those who have helped and supported us along the way. Here’s to a great second year!

My week at 2C Digital was hugely insightful and eye-opening when it came to understanding the digital marketing industry. Being an English student at UWE, I had little experience when it came to applying the written aspect of my course to a real working environment. However, throughout my week at 2C, I have gained a real in-depth knowledge and practise of copywriting, which will no doubt help me to get a foot in the door at my next venture.

Immediately upon arrival, I realised that this was not going to be the stiff office environment I had been anxiously anticipating. It soon became evident that 2C worked in a modern and innovative way, within a comfortable and easy-going setting, enough to make anyone feel part of the team.

I was set to work straight away by the Director Sara. My first assignment was to write a piece on the top digital marketing blogs in the industry, which helped me to learn the basics of digital marketing from the get-go. Subsequently, I wrote a blog on 2C’s one-year anniversary and re-wrote copy for their social media bios. While these tasks were in relatively familiar territory, I was also pushed out of my comfort zone, writing website copy and social media posts for their current clients as well as a copy for their new SME social media package.

Throughout my week at 2C, it became increasingly clear that this was an extremely up-and-coming agency. During my stay, both the team and website were undergoing stages of expansion, and I was made to feel a part of the excitement for what their second year was to bring. Sara is wholly committed to her interns having a well-rounded experience and gaining in-depth knowledge – you won’t be making teas and coffees or filing on this placement!

Overall, I really enjoyed my week at 2C and would highly recommend taking part in one of their work experience placements. It is not exclusively for those wishing to pursue a career in digital marketing, it would also be beneficial for those who have an interest in copywriting, social media or public relations. 2C has well-equipped me for future job opportunities as not only has it given me an insight into the digital marketing industry, but a glimpse at the working world as a whole.

A huge thanks to Sara and her team, and I hope to work with 2C again in the future!

Congratulations – if you’re reading this you’ve probably discovered the glorious benefits of digital marketing. It’s quite likely that you’ve allocated a budget to keep the SEM and social media wheels turning. Exciting times ahead. Perhaps you’re now facing the hiring conundrum of in-house vs agency. So, which will it to be?

OK, 2C is a digital marketing agency so you know what we’re going to say – come to us, we rock, in-house sucks! Sure we’re biased, but we really do understand the benefits of working with a registered partner, as do our clients.

Here’s 4 big reasons why businesses choose us over growing their own team:

1) Specialism

There’s no ‘on the job’ training costs when you hire us. We’re ready to roll, fully fledged and certified. We don’t just come with the ‘we’ve passed the course’ stamp either. With experience across a wide range of accounts from different industries, with different objectives, and across different platforms, we’ve tackled most things. This is our full-time job – we’re efficient, we know what works and what doesn’t. We’ve got the time and energy to devote not only to your campaigns but to researching and mastering the most effective SEM and social media tools too. We’re well-connected. We’ve got access to tried and tested talent to cover all aspects of your campaigns. Copywriting? Check. Graphic design? Check. Web development? Check. Video production? We’re on it.

2) Cost

Hiring an agency to manage your digital marketing is cheaper than developing an in-house resource. Here’s how: 

  • No employee costs – When you hire an agency there’s no holiday or sick pay, pensions or committing to salaries, no software to buy or office space to find. Just switch us on and off whenever you need us.
  • Save time – Time is money and digital campaigns are all-consuming. They require commitment and constant management. Other business tasks can be impacted by running PPC, SEO and social media campaigns. It’s an in-house juggling act with the potential to become a circus. We, however, know where to focus our efforts and our dedicated account managers don’t have any other distractions – your campaign is our priority. 
  • Maximise your budget – It can be easy to fritter money away on a pay-per-click campaign, especially when you’re learning. A digital marketing agency knows how to manage and update bid prices and optimise targeting to make the most of your budget.

3) Reporting

Those end of month reports will be a thing of the past – we take them off your hands. Our reports are tailored to your business goals, look mighty pretty with meaningful graphs, and provide key insights. You don’t need to understand PPC, SEO or social media – we present figures that speak for themselves. And to make sure you’re fully prepared for that monthly board meeting, we’ll run through it all with you on the phone.

4) Assurance

When you hire 2C, you know your digital campaigns are well taken care of, leaving you to focus your time elsewhere. We’ve got one goal in mind – to make your campaign a success. It’s what keeps us in business after all.

So you see, digital marketing agencies really do rock. If you want to work with a specialist, reduce costs, have a partner you can rely on and leave reporting to us, please get in touch and speak to a member of our expert team today.

When most people think of pay-per-click (PPC), they think of the ads that appear at the top of Google search pages, right? Here’s the thing – PPC offers so much more, and it’s not all about Google (sorry Google!).

Bing (including Yahoo! and AOL), YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn all offer forms of pay-per-click that can help to build brand awareness, increase conversions and top your competition. And I know I said it’s not all about Google but, of course, some of it is. As well as Google’s Search Network ads, PPC leverages Google Shopping and Google Display Network too. Oh, and don’t forget about remarketing campaigns – they’re yet another type of pay-per-click that can really help to boost conversions.

Now let’s take a closer look at these platforms and how they can help you to meet your business goals.

Paid Search Engine Marketing (PSEM)

Google Shopping

Google Shopping is the ‘go-to’ platform for selling e-commerce products. Online shoppers are generally more likely to click on Google Shopping ads than other type of ad. So, if you want your goods to fly off the shelves, this is the place to be.

What do they look like? Google Shopping ads comprise of an image of the product, and a small section of text: price, product description, seller, reviews and any sales promotions. So, for shoppers with slight shopaholic tendencies, it’s a sticky, sweet cobweb of temptation!

Unless you’re selling tech, items tend to be of low value on Google Shopping. However, this doesn’t mean that your product has to be the cheapest on the market – it just needs to remain within a medium band and have a convincing USP or price justification. If this fits with your products, Google Shopping can, therefore, help you to increase brand awareness, stifle e-commerce competition and increase conversions. Good work Google, good work.

Google Display Network (GDN)

Google describes its Display Network as being ‘at the right place, at the right time’. It works on the premise that when you show ads on websites that are relevant to what you’re selling, you are more likely to reach your target audience. Who knew?!

Made up of approximately 2 million websites (and apps), GDN reaches a whopping 90% of people on the internet. It offers a wide range of targeting methods including:

  • Demographic – location, gender, age and interests;
  • Placements i.e. specific websites; and
  • Contextual i.e. websites relating to a specific topic.

So how does it work?

The Google Display Network is a form of interruption marketing. It allows you to show ads to users passively searching for content related to your website. You know when you’re surfing the net and spookily relevant ads keep popping up? That’s GDN at work. It’s great for raising brand awareness.

As you’d expect with a Google product, the Display Network has powerful reporting capabilities. It has everything you need to help you optimise your campaign for increased sales and return on investment.

YouTube

People don’t tend to think of YouTube as a search engine, but it is, and it’s a powerful one. Smart use of it can spread your brand message far and wide, leaving your competition standing.

Running an ad on YouTube allows you to connect with potential customers in a meaningful way at the precise moment they search for a word relating to your business. With Google AdWords for video, you can easily develop YouTube video campaigns in a wide range of formats, including YouTube, Masthead and TrueView. With over one billion hours of YouTube videos being viewed each day, on every topic imaginable, it’s definitely a PPC platform worth considering.

Bing Search Network

The Bing Search Network includes Bing, Yahoo! and AOL search engines. It’s similar to Google’s version in that it shows text ads to users actively searching for terms related to your website. Bing holds approximately an 18% share of the UK search market and is generally used by an older demographic. If that’s your target market, it can be a useful tool for stifling competition and increasing conversions. It’s also generally a cheaper option for B2B as some businesses block access to Google’s search engine.

Bing isn’t as much of a bargain basement as Google Shopping either. Your product(s) can have a higher price tag with a USP that sets it apart or justifies the price. For example, a 5-year guarantee, or an award-winning status. Why is this? Bing Network’s searchers generally have a higher income range than Google searchers, and they also tend to spend more. Ka-ching!

Paid Social Media Marketing

Before we can move onto the types of pay-per-click offered by Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, it’s important to be clear on the difference between organic social and paid social media marketing. Feel free to roll your eyes and skip forward if your granny knows how to suck this egg.

A quick definition:

Organic social – using the free tools available on a social network, such as posting, sharing, commenting on, liking and messaging, to help build a social community and engage with it.

Paid social – paying to display sponsored adverts or messages to social network users within and outside of your social community, based on specified targeting settings. Ads are generally charged on a cost-per-click basis.

And back in the room. Now let’s look at the types of campaigns available.

Facebook and Instagram

The world’s favourite social networking site has itself an extensive range of PPC ad formats including slide show and video. Like the Google Display Network, Facebook can target certain demographics including job titles, likes, followers and interests. This platform is a good choice for raising brand awareness, promoting events, and boosting sales promotion campaigns.

Facebook ads aren’t just a tool for the B2C marketer either. Research in 2017 revealed that in addition to 72% of B2C marketers reporting that Facebook was their top social advertising channel, 43% of B2B marketers said the same. That’s worth knowing, don’t you think?

And let’s not forget Facebook’s little sister – Instagram. She’s growing at quite a speed and has totally captivated the under 25s with her pretty pictures. If your market is young, it’s where you need to be.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is particularly beneficial for recruitment and B2B campaigns. As you’d expect from a professional networking platform, LinkedIn’s targeting methods are grown up and perhaps the most advanced out of all of the platforms. Like Facebook, LinkedIn offers multiple ad formats and targets location, age, gender, interests, followers and job titles. You can even specify companies, and job titles within a company e.g. ‘Director at 2C Digital Marketing’. With such accurate targeting options, you’ll have no problem hitting the bullseye.

Remarketing

Remarketing is not a platform but a type of campaign that can be used across Google’s Display Network, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. It targets users who have already clicked on your website using responsive ads (display remarketing) or a shopping ad of the last product they clicked on (dynamic remarketing). It’s another interruption marketing tactic that can have that ‘ooo spooky’ effect, helping to gently nudge interested users to re-visit your site.

You can also create remarketing lists – a nifty little tool that targets users who have taken a specific action on your site, rather than just visit it. It’s clever stuff. Take the outdoor clothing manufacturer, Craghoppers, as an example. They targeted their shopping cart abandoners list with a sales promotion ad that brought them a 711% return on investment – now that’s impressive!

Finally…

There’s no denying that Google’s Search Network is an important aspect of PPC, but it’s not where PPC starts and ends. In reality, there are a wide range of platforms where pay-per-click can be used to raise brand awareness and increase conversions.

As with any type of marketing, it’s a case of different horses for different courses. When you’re selecting your PPC approach, have a clear understanding of your target audience and which platforms they hang out on. Keep your over 60s ads off of Facebook, and your skateboard sales off of Bing! If you take the time to get this right, pay-per-click could become your new best friend.

For more information and support on PPC, contact a member of our expert team at hello@2cdigitalmarketing.com or call 0117 329 1717.

There’s a lot to consider when you start out on the road of paid search campaigns. How can you be sure you’re making the best decisions? Can you improve your return on investment (ROI)? What’s working? What’s not? If only there was a way of performing a health check – to identify problems and align budgets tightly with goals.

Enter the paid search audit. It’s time to interrogate your data. Before upping your game and flashing more cash, it’s wise to identify the good, address the bad and eradicate the ugly.

At 2C Digital Marketing, we regularly check our accounts to see how they can deliver better results. Taking the time to scrutinise and optimise your account can turn ‘average’ results into performance that exceeds expectations.

We’d like to share with you the key areas and questions that we ask ourselves when we perform a paid search audit.

The first task is to establish what you’d like the audit to achieve; the actions that you want to measure. Is it conversions – phone calls, contact forms, purchases or quotes? Perhaps your goal is brand awareness – impressions, clicks or subscription sign-ups. Remind yourself of your objectives and whether you’re meeting them.

Next up – crunch the data. There’s a lot of it, but don’t be put off. Break the job into small, focused tasks, and take your time. Begin with the basics and then root out the devils in the detail. You’ll find a few of the blighters in there!

The Basics

Tracking:

This is mahoosive! Are conversions being tracked correctly? Are you sure that code is placed on the right button or page? Find out by performing a test run. Incorrect tracking is like Chinese whispers – what you see is so far from the real picture.

Campaigns: 

Does your account structure (taxonomy) mirror your website and your paid search objectives? Identify themes that reflect your campaign goal and stick to them. Get the taxonomy wrong and your data will be too, no matter how much of it you collect.

Budgets:

Scrutinise your budgets to establish if they’re being managed effectively. It will be worth every second of your time. Are campaigns limited? Do the ad schedules, location, device, gender and age bid adjustments need optimising? Are you focusing your budget on keywords with a high return on investment?

The Detail

Your campaign, ad groups and keywords should be themed around a business objective. Check your journey isn’t going off-piste.

Keywords:

There’s no getting around it – you MUST constantly evaluate your keyword strategy. Use search query reports and analyse data in the keywords tab to review your bids, bidding strategy, position and conversion data. Check that keywords with high impressions or conversions also feature in high average positions (at a low cost-per-conversion). If you’re bidding on brand terms, consider whether competition is sufficient to warrant this. If you’re not bidding on brand terms, should you be?

In a nutshell, interrogate granular data at keyword level to determine if budget is being spent efficiently.

Negative Keywords:

Prevent erroneous traffic and wasted clicks by striking the right balance with regularly adding and monitoring negative keywords. Check that all campaigns have a sufficient number of negatives in the correct match type and at the correct level. Data can be skewed, and budgets seriously dented when this is overlooked.

Locations, Devices, Ad Schedules, Genders and Ages:

Are you bidding where you should be? Are your inclusion and exclusion settings correct? Are you bidding by location and overlaying device, time, gender and age? Remember to layer – focus your budget and bid higher in profitable areas on profitable devices at profitable days of the weeks/ hours of the day for profitable genders and ages.

Delivery Methods: 

An important one to check. Fine-tuning is often necessary, particularly if you see problems with under-spending budgets and low traffic. Review rotation too. You might want to rotate your ads to show the most clicked, or divide exposure to support A/B testing. Work out the tactic that best fits your goal.

Bidding:

If you’re using multiple bidding strategies, make sure they reflect your campaign’s goal. To achieve ROI, trial the applicable strategy before you apply it to multiple like-minded campaigns. Analyse the granular data and when you’re happy it’s working, roll that master plan out.

A word of caution – there’s no winning formula when it comes to bidding. What works for one campaign may not work for another.

The Market:

Love it or loathe it, you need to benchmark your efforts against your competitors’. The Auction Insight tool is great for this. It allows you to identify your AdWords competitors and measure how you stack up in key areas such as:

  • Impression Share Overlap Rate – how often another advertiser’s ad received an impression in the same auction that your ad also received an impression.
  • Positive Above Rate – how often another advertiser’s ad in the same auction is shown in a higher position than yours.
  • Top of Page Rate – how often your ad appeared at the top of the page.
  • Outranking Share – how often your ad ranked higher in the auction than another advertiser’s ad.

Ads: 

Ad evaluation should be constant. Depending on the type of campaign you’re running, things to consider include the ad type, messaging and imagery. Remember to theme each ad to the keyword behind it, and the landing page in front of it – this will also help to improve the Quality Score factor in your ad rank. A/B testing is crucial here, as is measuring Lost Impression Share – the estimated percentage of impressions that your ads didn’t receive due to a poor ad rank. You can improve (i.e. decrease) your share by increasing bids and quality score. Don’t forget to implement enough ads to gain meaningful insight into what works and what doesn’t. This is key to understanding what images and tone of voice your audience engages with.

Extensions: 

Extensions give the user fundamental information to prevent wasted clicks. There are many types of extension to choose from, so it’s important to check that you’re using them effectively. Here are a few examples to consider:

  • Location extensions – an obvious choice if you have multiple locations, but make sure your locations are set correctly. Check that the extension has been applied at the appropriate level – account, campaign or ad group.
  • Sitelink extensions – these increase your CTR by directing users to specific pages that relate to their search query. A few basic checks are needed here. Test that your links are working, and make sure linked pages are as UX-friendly and inviting as they could be.
  • Call extensions – a simple but effective extension type…if you’ve provided the right phone number! Seriously, it happens. Don’t forget to give mobile users the option to click-to-call, and make sure your answer machine is on. Missed calls equal missed opportunities.
  • Call out extensions – great for highlighting USPs, special offers or promotions. Each ad can have 2 – 6 callouts. Are you using yours effectively? Don’t forget you can change the text at any time so keep callouts relevant and review those that aren’t performing well.
  • Promotion extensions – does what it say on the tin – showcases your promotional offers with ‘% or £ off’ only features.
  • Image extensions – give your users an insight into your brand through creating awareness and building trust with professional logos and images.

Whichever extensions you’re using, be vigilant. Mistakes are common, especially with mobile usage.

Scripts: 

We’re a huge fan of scripts here at 2C Digital Marketing. They’re incredible tools for making all sorts of optimisation practices quicker and more efficient, such as:

  • Alerting you to crawl errors;
  • Identifying which ad was the ‘winner’ or ‘loser’ in A/B testing; and
  • Preventing your budgets from overspending.

As much as we find scripts useful, we’re mindful of how we use them. Leave everything to a machine and you’re asking for trouble – scripts can be unreliable, or at worst, break. Used in conjunction with manual techniques, however, and scripts can rock your world. All things in moderation, right?

What’s Next?

It’s time to take your accounts to the next level by turning intelligence into action. Take EVERYTHING you’ve discovered and work out what changes you need to make. Be sure to weave your tactics into your overall marketing strategy. Put everything into an action plan and voila, you have yourself a set of campaigns that will work harder for you.

Finally, book your next audit for 6 months’ time and do it all over again. Yay!

Before You Go…

Performing a paid search audit might seem daunting at first but being thorough and getting it right is worth the effort. Sometimes the smallest adjustment can pay the greatest dividends.

At 2C Digital Marketing we find it useful to begin an audit with a list of key questions. You guessed it, they’re all about nailing the good, the bad and the ugly! Try our checklist out for yourself and take your campaigns to the next level:

  • What are your paid search goals?
  • Does your account taxonomy and website mirror these goals?
  • Are your conversions being tracked correctly?
  • Are your campaigns targeting the correct audience?
  • Is your budget being spent efficiently?
  • How do you compare to your competitors?

If you would like more information about your paid search account, please contact hello@2cdigitalmarketng.com to apply for a FREE audit today!