Ad Targeting & Paid Audience Data For SEO Personas

So the title is a mess of things and hopefully covers really what we talked about, or is as close as we could get! Once a year or so we both are in the same place, have time, and record a few episodes together. This is one of those rare episodes!

This episode was sponsored by MarTech® West (April 3-5) in San Jose, CA and MarTech® East (September 16-18) takes place in Boston, MA. To save 15% use MarTech® Conference promo code BIZPODCAST when you register.

* 1st Screenshot - This is the screenshot that was mentioned about the audience data from Facebook.

So what paid tools can you leverage (at least to start with?):

Twitter Audiences

Facebook Audiences - see your ad preferences

Google Audiences

Pinterest

Display Marketing - what sites are conversions coming from?

What can you use the data for? You can certainly use it for SEO campaigns but also Product Marketing and Product Features.

Content Marketing

Targeting complementary audiences

Expanding your audiences

Expand upon or improve your Personas

Content ideation

Look for uses or ways to help answer questions with your product/content with new audiences

Product Marketing and Product Ideas

Think of the two examples given - suitcases with batteries/chargers for phones. The other was coolers that also have power sources to fuel phones while out camping, support lights or have radios and speakers integrated so you have one less thing to carry.

* 2nd Screenshot - this is an audience screenshot from the Twitter example that was mentioned during the show.

The goal for a marketer is to get in front of people and solve problems. Using the audience and interest data is a great way to dig into problems and possible

product uses (or features) that you can leverage to help people but also your sales.

Episodes 89 Mentioned Tools & Resources

Google Ad Settings

How does Facebook decide which ads to show me and how can I control the ads I see?

Here’s how to see, edit and delete the topics that Facebook advertisers use to target you

Customer First View and Content Balance - Getting the Share, Click, or Sale

Kristy's tweet was caught by Dave (see the tweet below) that spurred an idea for this show. Often people create content to get the click, spur debate, encite some type of reaction or engagement but also think about who someone might WANT to share the content with.

Your cutesy puns and cheeky illustrations might be fun to use in your thought leadership - but guess what? It means I probably won’t share it with my execs. Think about desired use case for your readers as well when you’re creating content - not just your own.

What is the goal of your content? Is it shareable?

Kristy was faced with the following options, when creating content and supporting materials think of how someone reading your content may also ask these questions (and why they may think these things):

Not share it and move on with her day.

Share it and apologize for the immature or not work appropriate aspects

Summarize the article in an email, say what she wanted to say regarding the topic and content and then source it

In the end she went with option #1 and wasn't able to share the great content with other team members and executives. Could you be missing opportunities for your content to be shared on social platforms or within your target audiences company?

This episode was sponsored by MarTech® West (April 3-5) in San Jose, CA and MarTech® East (September 16-18) takes place in Boston, MA. To save 15% use MarTech® Conference promo code BIZPODCAST when you register.

Do You have a Customer First View for Digital & Content?

Are you creating content for everyone or no one? Is there a disconnect between Headline -> Persona -> Business Goal -> Content and maybe take a step back and see if all the things work together or if there is that disconnect.

Know your audience and know the possible and even more the likely use case for the content you are creating for that person and their role. Think about the following things when creating content:

Where along the customer journey is your audience?

What is their role?

What problems are they trying to solve?

How is this piece of content going to help them?

How do they plan on using it? Or how might you inspire them to use it?

If there is ever a question as you go through the process just go back to "What was the objective" for a piece of content. In terms of ways to go about doing all of this, here are some ways to dig into if you are doing a great or poor job:

Support Site

Site Search

Navigation - is your navigation aligned with business or customer. Your site search data will support this.

Why hide answers in the FAQ, why isn't it on the key pages people are looking for?

Episodes 89 Mentioned Tools & Resources

Kristy's Tweet

Best B2B Content: Analysis and Insights from Over 50,000 Articles

Minding & Closing the Gap of Digital Marketing Expectations

Mat and Dave dive into what many people think or expect from a person and what that person actually really should do. Often companies want to hire a PPC person but expect them to do Social Media, Content Writing, and SEO. You aren't going to find a single person that is awesome at everything thing and can do everything. Sure you can find them but they likely won't want to work for entry-level pay! Along those lines, Know Your Marketing Budget Before You Hire an Agency/Consultant.

This episode was sponsored by MarTech® West (April 3-5) in San Jose, CA and MarTech® East (September 16-18) takes place in Boston, MA. To save 15% use MarTech® Conference promo code BIZPODCAST when you register.

From a digital side of things, these are often some of the "jobs" that may have some limited crossover but also might require experts in each domain for your campaign or project.

Developer - is the person that can code

Graphic Designer - can make the great images, hero shots and such that you need

X Agency - to do the X marketing optimizations

Web Designer - to do layouts

Analytics - understands the reporting and setup

Email - knows the platform and can run campaigns

Social Media - knows the various platforms that your business is on

SEO - your SEO person

Not familiar with the digital needs or are unsure how this applies? Here are some other examples for your health, home interior and home exterior. Each of the skills and services below has an expert that you would work with so when it comes to online and offline marketing why wouldn't you also seek out experts in each skill?

Roofer

General Contractor

Landscape Architect

Plumbing

Electritian

Engine Mechanic

Foot Doctor

Hand Doctor

Veterinarians

Interior Designer

Furniture Maker

Your expectations of what one person can do and what their skills are should be tame. People will often say yes to everything and oversell what they can do. Don't be oversold, ask questions, ask for examples, ask that others join in on the hiring/recruiting too. In the end, if your expectations are that you can hire one person/company to do 5 things, it is very likely that you find someone but that they won't do most of those things well and your business/project/campaign could pay for it. Yes, there are always exceptions to the rule, but do make sure you talk to all of the people that will be working on a project and make sure that the skills you are being promised are real and that your expectations for what they can do are realistic too!

Episode Mentioned Tools & Resources

Website Frustration

Why you should not hire a website designer

Hire Web Designer

Holmes on Homes

Episode 87 - SEO is Dead. X is Dead. Long live X!

Last year we talked about Link Building is NOT Dead and this episode is more about how you need to not just follow the hive mind thinking and best practices. Nothing dies, it just evolves as should your tactics and ways of using SEO, PPC, Email, Display, Landing Pages, Images, Infographics, Data, Metrics, etc...

Here is a (mostly) verbatim account of Mat's original idea for this episode:

Stop listening to people that say “X” is gonna die. New episode idea. Basically, I was told over 6 years ago infographics were dead. I grew a company for many years where our primary offering was infographics. We could even talk about the SEO is dead crap, but just was thinking about that this morning.

So what types of things are we talking about? When you see someone say "X is Dead" it likely is just clickbait. What they really mean is that X has changed and evolved. If something DOESN'T evolves then it really will die.

SEO is Dead

Email is Dead

Do this one Best Practice

Facebook is Dead

Google Says X

Google Says Dont Do X

Image Search

Voice Search

This episode was sponsored by MarTech® West (April 3-5) in San Jose, CA and MarTech® East (September 16-18) takes place in Boston, MA. To save 15% use MarTech® Conference promo code BIZPODCAST when you register.

If nothing else - take a "best practice" guide with a grain of salt, read it, test it, adapt it for your company/project/budget. Instead of dwelling on the negative impact of change, look at how you can leverage it. Did Google or Bing change things? What can you do to leverage it to eclipse what you were doing prior.

SEO is Dead Episode Mentioned Tools & Resources

Worldwide Email Users (chart is above)

Burger King's OK Google Ad

Vertical Measures

Why These Tech Companies Keep Running Thousands Of Failed Experiments

Episode 86 - Competitive Research Beyond Just Keywords

This episode the guys have guest Aaron Friedman of SimilarWeb joining the dig into Competitive Research. The goal of the episode was to dig into ways and data points beyond just pulling some competitive keyword data and calling it a day. By the end, we did circle back and prove Dave wrong and cover/includes keywords but overall the idea of themes, topics, personas, categories, audiences should be looking at and not just get bogged down in just keywords.

If you get nothing else from the conversation, look at themes. Themes in keywords. Themes in sites your own ad teams and competitor advertise on. Where people sponsor and the themes or audiences. Keep going higher in the audiences and themes to help you find where to get links, traffic, content to create and in general to help guide your own marketing.

Competititve Data Beyond Keywords

Solve problems. Mat digs into HVAC and hail damage. Think about why people may be looking and help solve their problems.

New product or category. What happens if your product or services is brand new? There are no keywords. You need to really think about why they would need or search for what you offer.

Fidget spinners and topics or emerging topics that you didn't know existed. How and where can you monitor these types of things?

URL Data and Campaign data - what offers and promotions are people running?

This episode was sponsored by MarTech® West (April 3-5) in San Jose, CA and MarTech® East (September 16-18) takes place in Boston, MA. To save 15% use MarTech® Conference promo code BIZPODCAST when you register.

Where to Find Competitive Data

Social Networks - FB, Reddit, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.

Advertising Network Audiences - FB, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc.

Look beyond single keywords, group them. What themes or topics stick out? What are you missing?

Combine prospect interests to create content - use ad and display placement data to spark ideas and creative ideas for content.

Episode Mentioned Tools & Resources

Business of Digital on Similarweb

Google Correlate

How to be a Guest on a Podcast

We get our fair share of people reaching out to be a guest and after a recent email thought it was time to dig into this topic. Getting booked as a guest on a podcast is just another form of PR and outreach. If your pitch is wrong, bad or doesn't convince the podcast owner that yes you would be the perfect guest, you likely are just wasting your (and their) time.

What Podcast to Pitch

While we think most people do this we also think many skip this step. Research the podcast, the past episodes, the topics they cover. See if it is a fit for you and not just that you want it to be.

Something relevant to you - don't waste people's time

A guest driven show (our show is not, on average we have one guest a month i.e. every 4 shows)

Research the podcast, find an angle of something that they havent covered before

Start your own - maybe dont even publish it but get some practice or use as a highlight reel.

Dig into Podcast directories, your podcast player of choice, iTunes or Google for "Topic + Podcast"

Here is a recent example (that has been heavily edited and paraphrased) to show what a non-relevant guest request can look like:

Subject: Message sent from your contact form.

Date: February X, 2019

I love the focus of your podcast, and I wanted to make an introduction to X, who would be an amazing guest for your show! ....much more about the possible guest and their career.....

.... a "pitch" about a rev share.....

...ending pitch about again how they would make a great guest but nothing that ties into our show, our audience or our topic at all...

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. I look forward to hearing from you, and keep up the great work!

The person was interesting I admit but I saw no reason to say yes now or in the near future. The pitch made me work and try and think of a way or reason to have them on instead of making me try and think why I SHOULDN'T.

What Not To Do When Pitching Podcasts

Only focus on you

Give no topic ideas

Clearly have no idea what the podcast is about i.e. don't pitch a podcast about horses when you just want to talk about the Denver Broncos offseason moves

Make it easy for the podcast to say no and hard to say yes

Pitch a podcast or show out of your league. This means if you are just a normal person but think Tim Ferris or Joe Rogan will have you, think again.

This episode was sponsored by MarTech® West (April 3-5) in San Jose, CA and MarTech® East (September 16-18) takes place in Boston, MA. To save 15% use promo code BIZPODCAST when you register.

Where to Find Podcast Guest Opportunities

With so many podcasts these days there likely are many that you could be a guest on but where to find them? We cover a number of ideas on the show and here are some of them:

Directories (see links below)

HARO

Email and Outreach

Facebook Groups

Conferences

Twitter and Forums - all over the place!

Your Own Network

What to Include in Your Podcast Guest Pitch

Your value - what and how can you help educate the audience

Topic ideas that would be interesting to the audience

Links to past podcasts, about you, about your company, your LinkedIn, your speaking profiles, just stuff about YOU!

Make it short - people have stuff to do

Mention that you have quality equipment (actually have it too)

A one sheet or a link to a one sheet/about page

Again, focus on how you being a guest on the podcast can help thier audience

How to Get on Podcasts Mentioned Tools & Resources

21 Great Resources for Finding Podcast Guests

Connecting podcasters with great guests.

Interview Guests Directory - Find Guests

Podcast Movement (conference)

Richie Norton (as mentioned by Mat)

Radio Guest List

Help a Reporter Out

How to Work Together - Pay Per Click & Search Engine Optimization

Do you have one person, team, agency or consultant that handles your SEO and another that handles your PPC? Maybe you do one and outsource just the other? Or maybe you have two internal people do it but they rarely talk and share what is working/not working (- if this is true we suggest listening to How to Grow a Digital Marketing Team). That all needs to change and this episode digs into some ways to make that happen (and why it should be a priority).

This episode was sponsored by MarTech® West (April 3-5) in San Jose, CA and MarTech® East (September 16-18) takes place in Boston, MA. To save 15% use promo code BIZPODCAST when you register.

Teams to Integrate

Depending on the size of your company and team some of these "teams" might just be tasks so change things according to your own setup. Depending on the campaign and project scope you might not need to meet with all of the following people but they all can help you in some way no matter if you are the SEO or PPC person. While we mostly focus on SEO & PPC in the episode there are MANY teams and people that you should also work closely with.

Organic Social Media Person - Can use share converting pages but also learn what content or headlines do well.

SEO Person - can pass along what pages convert organic traffic and what keywords have lots of impressions (via Google Search Console)

Paid Search Person - can share conversion and impression data

Paid Social Person - can share what headlines and personas are converting

Designers and Creative Person - can help create new landing pages, hero shot graphics or ads

Copywriter(s) - can help update or craft new headlines and copy

IT, Developer, Technical Person(s) - can help speed up pages for better conversions or implement new pages

PR & Outreach Person(s) - can relay back where you are getting placements

Analytics & Data Person(s) - can dig into all the data from all the traffic to pass along to you

What Ways are SEO and PPC the Same?

Not only does your Keyword Research often help one team but the other team can use it as well. We also recommend Unique Ways to Do Keyword Research to help all teams involved.

PPC Headline = SEO Page Title>

Google Ad & Bing Ad Description = SEO Meta Description

PPC Keywords = SEO Keywords

Conversion Data and Pages

Converting Traffic Devices (Mobile, Tablet, Desktop)

Traffic Location

Questions to ask!

There are so many someone can ask but to get you started - What SEO Pages do people visit and on what devices? Do we target those visitors with ads and remarketing on the same type of device that they visited the site? How do we measure offline conversions? Should we go after keyword X with SEO? Why not use PPC to test that keyword(s)?

Tools, Resources & Tips for combining SEO & PPC

HOW I’VE USED PPC DATA TO SUPERCHARGE CONTENT, SEO, OUTREACH AND MORE

An integrated approach: From SEO to PPC and beyond

Creating a Relationship Between Paid & Organic

PPC vs. SEO With Guest Kenny Hyder

Why (and How) You Need to Know What is in Your Marketing Stack

In this episode, if you get nothing else from it - know what technology your company uses for as many things as you can. Don't rely on your IT consultant or your own IT Team, know your Marketing and Tech stack from top to bottom. Do you know the CRM you use? Do you know how it connects with your own internal backend? Do you know how a lead form submission flows through your internal systems and ends up in a list for email blasts?

If you don't know what systems you have, how they talk, or how they are set up, how can you ever optimize them?

This episode was sponsored by MarTech® West (April 3-5) in San Jose, CA and MarTech® East (September 16-18) takes place in Boston, MA. To save 15% use promo code BIZPODCAST when you register.

Why Knowing Your Marketing Stack Matters and a Checklist

This isn't a full list but should get you started. If you have a big enough team we recommend splitting the task and assigning everyone with different technologies to own. This will spread out the work and knowledge but also make it so they can get their job done while researching and documenting everything.

Domains

Hosting

Email Provider

CDN

Analytics

CRM

CMS

Server

Propietary Systems

Backend Systems

POS

Shipping and Operational

Site Forms

Database(s)

Caching

Tracking Pixels

Live Chat

What is My Site Built with Tools

There are other tools out there to help you look at a competitor's site or your own if you are unsure. From looking at what tracking pixels to the CMS to what server, there are tools and services that can help you figure it out and you don't even have to look at the code.

Wappalyzer

BuiltWith

Wix SuperBowl Stories and Resources

During the episode, Mat brought up the Wix ad from the 2019 SuperBowl. The two articles we referenced are here and will give you some additional insights.

Wix ‘SEO Wiz’ Stars in Big Super Bowl Ad, Fumbles with SEO Community

Wix Promotes SEO in Super Bowl LIII Ad, But Fails with Karlie Kloss Website

What is Amazon SEO and Amazon Advertising?

With the help of guest Ginny Marvin, the episode digs into a number of ways that your company can leverage the many ways to advertise on Amazon. Just a few years ago Amazon was just a growing retailer but has quickly become a huge marketplace and growing ad platform as well. As always we cover a ton during the episode and this write up likely misses a good amount, but highlights much of the main topics and resources for you.

This episode was sponsored by MarTech® West (April 3-5) in San Jose, CA and MarTech® East (September 16-18) takes place in Boston,MA. To save 15% use promo code BIZPODCAST when you register.

Paid Advertising Options on Amazon

It is estimated to now be the third-largest ad seller in the U.S. behind Google and Facebook with 4% market share (keep the over-hype in check). Long gone are the clunky UI and backend setup for Amazon but it still has a ways to go to catch up to the Google and Facebooks.

Sponsored Products (CPC based)

Sponsored Brands (CPC based)

Stores (Free) - For smaller brands and sellers to showcase their wares, Amazon launched Storefronts in September 2018

Amazon Sponsored Products

There are more coming, these are typically targeting single keyword searches.

Amazon Sponsored Brands

Look for the banners at the top of search results or on the right side for the desktop.

Amazon Stores

Getting started? Look at Amazon Stores as a platform option but do know that there is some work to get going and manage it. As with everything be strategic and don't go into Amazon (or any new market/platform) lightly.

Amazon SEO

Below is a list of some things that can impact your Amazon SEO and further down the page are some really deep dives into Amazon SEO. Look at your product description, your competitors and look for ways to better set yourself up for success.

Videos

Product Images

Reviews

Availability

Sales Performance

Shipping & Logistics

Constant Sales

Optimized Content & Titles

Answer Questions that people ask

Amazon Reviews & Your Brand

They matter for showing up, for getting shoppers to be buyers, and much more. The team digs into reviews and how they impact you on Amazon and beyond.

Amazon Consulting Scams - Be wary of promises and pitfalls

Just like anything, there are good and bad people out there looking to "help". Do your research. Plan. Know that while some may "get rich quick" or say they sell X, the end result of operating on the Amazon Platform for you and many others may be different.

Amazon prey to get-rich-quick scams

How to Lose Tens of Thousands of Dollars on Amazon

Amazon SEO & Advertising Resources

Freedive, Amazon’s free video-on-demand service, serves up new video advertising opportunities

Advertise on Amazon

4 Key Elements of a Successful Amazon SEO Strategy

How to Master Amazon SEO and Move Your Products up the Search Rankings in 2019

The Ultimate Guide to Amazon SEO & Cracking the A9 Algorithm

The basics of working with Amazon Marketing Services

5 SEO trends that will matter most in 2019

Amazon Pay Per Click Campaigns: How To Advertise Your Private Label Product on Amazon

Winning on Amazon: Here are 3 strategies that can help

Amazon’s latest ad test: Targeted Product Sampling

Analysts say Amazon’s advertising business will surpass AWS by 2021

What Amazon Advertising’s big 2018 advancements will mean for 2019

Holiday Tips for Amazon Sellers: An Interview with Robyn Johnson

The Digital Marketing Checklist: 48 Things You Should Be Doing But Probably Aren’t

In this episode, we explore and highlight some of the 48 items on Ian Lurie's list that he created in late 2018. This list would have been a great list in 2017 and will likely be a great list even in 2021. So be sure to go see the full Digital Marketing Checklist that Ian put together.

Basic Marketing Items

#2 Is page speed a factor? Our answer - it doesn't really matter if it is or isn't. Every millisecond it takes for your page to load your conversion rate goes down.

#1 Compress Your Images! Look at the item above, big images slow pages. Mat suggests looking at Smush if you are on WordPress.

#11 Internal Resources for Content - listen to your CS and Sales teams. What do people call things? Do you only answer questions on the FAQ page? Why not on other pages?

#6 Meta Descriptions - Does your HP's Meta Description say "Home"? Please review your Meta Descriptions! It is 2019, describe the page!

Intermediate Marketing Items

#21 Install Google Tag Manager - there are other tag managers as well (Tealium among others for example). No matter what CMS you are on, install something to help manage tracking pixels.

#8 Spell Check Your Site - Use Grammarly, hire and editor or do something to check your content.

#33 Content Ideas - find some older pages that drive traffic or maybe some pages that have lost favor and update them. Every quarter take a look at any content older than 1,2,5+ years and review and update where needed.

#27 Setup and Use Bing Webmaster - it is free, why wouldn't you?

Advanced Marketing Items

#43 Review Email List - look at cleaning it up but also look at how or where you are growing your email list.

#48 Make Your Own List - this podcast and even Ian's list is not the end all be all list of things to do. Make your own weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, project, whatever list.

#49 Schedule 30 Minutes a Week for Diving into Data - set aside some time to dig into your Web Analytics or Google Search Console or Log Files or Bing Webmaster. Ask a question and spend 30 minutes trying to answer the question. You will learn amazing things.