New comment by ciscogarcia in "Ask HN: Who is hiring? (April 2022)"

City Innovate | San Francisco, CA | Full-time | 100% Remote | No Visa

Hiring for: Experienced Ruby on Rails Software Engineer, $120K-160K, unlimited PTO

City Innovate is a VC-backed public benefit corporation working on making government more effective, equitable and responsive. Our approach is to use technology to transform and streamline how governments find and work with the best partners on solving their critical needs.

https://www.cityinnovate.com/careers/senior-engineer-remote

Or email me at francisco@cityinnovate.com

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Marketing Automation: What is it, Examples & Tools [2022]

guide to marketing automation 2021

Marketing is important to your business.

Just call me Captain Obvious.

However, as customers evolve, so does the unpredictable marketing landscape.

This means you’re likely spending more and more time trying to keep up with the latest marketing tips and trends.

That’s wasting your precious time that you could use for other tasks.

What if there was a way to simplify? Or even automate those tasks altogether?

No, I’m not just talking about emails.

Keeping up with what you should be measuring or targeting can be exhausting, difficult, and time-consuming.

But marketing automation tools make your job a little more painless, so you and your team can focus your time and attention on other efforts that drive revenue.

Luckily for you, I’ve compiled a list of the best marketing automation tools with countless features and automated workflows that will make marketing less of a headache.

Here are 20+ tools (in no particular order) that you should try out if you’re looking for new, easy ways to streamline marketing functions.

What is Marketing Automation?

Marketing automation is the act of using software and technology to create and implement applications to automate repetitive tasks, such as (yes) email marketing, ad campaigns, tracking, and much more.

For example, brands could create an automatic lead generation funnel that gathers an email address, sends a recorded demo, then invites the prospect to schedule a live demo.

Marketing automation is not a nice-to-have strategy you can ignore — the industry is expected to be worth more than 25 billion dollars by 2023.

If you want to compete, you need to be using marketing automation.

The good news? Using marketing automation can save you time, money, and improve your marketing efficiency. Here are a few ways to add it to your strategy.

1. Let Constant Contact Deliver Powerful Emails Simply and Easily

Constant Contact is an extremely useful email marketing automation tool that has powerful automation capabilities to take your marketing beyond just the basics.

marketing automation guide constant contact

Its autoresponder is wonderfully adaptable. You can build welcome sequences, drip campaigns, and any other sort of automated email campaign with fine-tuned customization.

That applies to everything: timing, volume, subject matter, targeting, triggering, and even the content in your emails.

Plus, Constant Contact allows you to quickly embed custom forms on your landing pages. So, you not only get names and email addresses, but any other information you want to ask for.

Thus, you can send one welcome sequence to new senior VP-level subscribers, another one for sales folks, another one for regular Joes, and on and on. And that’s just on the basis of job title. You could thin slice on anything from where they live to their favorite kind of beer.

Make it as granular and intricate as you’d like. Set long-tail, automated campaigns for each track and let Constant Contact do the hard work for you over weeks or months. All you have to do is look at the reports and keep a finger on the pulse.

You’ll need Constant Contact’s Plus plan to really reap the benefits of the platform’s email automation. That starts at $45/month for up to 500 contacts in your list, scaling upward at increments of $25-$30 for each additional 2,500 contacts you need to accommodate.

2. Gain Opportunities on Abandoned Carts and After Purchase with Sendinblue

Marketing automation is a massive tool for ecommerce. With Sendinblue, you can close the gaps that allow sales opportunities to slip through your grasp.

And it’s a piece of cake to set up. Sendinblue comes with powerful automation capabilities out of the box. You can build your own automation workflows, but the platform comes with eight helpful, prebuilt options for ecommerce.

The two I love best are triggered by either a completed purchase on your web store or an abandoned cart.

In either case, Sendinblue sets up the first and last actions in a three-step automation: the trigger event (either completed checkout or a visitor leaves with items in their cart) and the action (send them a message).

You’ll determine the delay between the trigger event and when you want the email to be sent out and build out the message in those follow-up emails. The latter can entail offering a promo code to complete their purchase or for their next one, personalized reminders about the product they’re interested in, or a satisfaction survey, to name a few examples.

In minutes, you can have automations set up to generate sales from situations you may not have been able to capitalize on before.

Sendinblue offers automations on every plan, including their free forever package, but the tiers below Premium will limit you to targeting up to 2,000 contacts.

Try out Sendinblue’s free plan and see how easy it is to gain ecommerce opportunities through automation.

3. Automatically Engage and Grow Your Following on Instagram with MobileMonkey

MobileMonkey is a powerful Instagram automation tool that lets you automate everything from replying to comments, stories, and even direct messaging.

This is a huge advantage for busy marketers looking to get back more time in their day through automation.

And don’t forget the power of automation to grow your audience, your brand affinity, and your conversions from hot engagement channels like Instagram.

MobileMonkey Instagram marketing tools let you automate:

  • Replies to DMs
  • DM replies to Story Mentions
  • DM replies to post comments

And if you really want to juice the Instagram marketing funnel, set up drip campaigns to send timed follow-up messages to anyone who starts a messaging convo with you.

The Instagram follow-ups feature, which is included in InstaChamp as well as the multi-channel MobileMonkey messaging automation suite (along with messaging tools for Facebook Messenger, SMS, and web chat) is a convenient way to send offers and promotions to anyone who DMs your Instagram.

Best of all, these Instagram DM automations are 100% Instagram-approved because MobileMonkey is one of the only official partners for Facebook and Instagram marketing automation.

4. Generate Leads, Close Seals, and Manage Your Pipeline on Auto-Pilot With HubSpot

marketing automation hubspot

HubSpot is an inbound marketing tool with the goal of turning outbound leads into inbound ones.

It’s perfect for content marketing.

Their Starter package is $45 a month for all the free tools plus simple automation, conversation routing, task queues, and email support.

Their Professional Plan starts at $450 per month, which provides everything in the Starter package, plus marketing automation, goal-based nurturing, and custom workflows.

You also get Salesforce integration, smart content, attribution reporting, user roles, A/B testing for CTAs, and A/B testing for emails.

Enterprise pricing is $1,200 and includes revenue reporting, custom-event reporting, custom-event automation triggers, predictive-lead scoring, contacts and company reporting, and event-based segmentation are included.

5. Use Customer.io to Automate Timely Emails

Customer.io lets you send targeted messages to your customers that you can craft based on how they interact with your business.

marketing automation guide customer.io graph

The best part about this tool is that it integrates with your mobile app or website so you can see data in real-time and triggers actions by adding in predefined rules.

Basically, it makes personalized messages simple.

Other features include A/B testing, conversion tracking, customer profiles, and in-context conversations.

Pricing starts at $150 per month for unlimited emails, SMS, tracking, and technical support. Their Premium plan costs $995 a month and includes all the basic features plus dedicated customer service rep, onboarding, HIPPPA compliance, and premium tech support.

6. Supercharge Your Marketing Analytics Automatically With Pardot

marketing automation perdot

Pardot, a Salesforce company, is a marketing automation suite perfect for boosting your revenue.

Amp up your engagement with CRM integration, email marketing, lead nurturing, lead scoring, and ROI reporting.

This tool is perfect for helping sales teams shorten sales cycles.

Their Growth plan pricing is $1,250 per month, and features include email marketing, in-depth prospect tracking, lead nurturing, and lead scoring and grading.

You also get ROI reporting, forms and landing pages, and standard CRM integration.

Their Plus plan is $2,500 per month and includes all standard features plus advanced email analytics, email-rendering preview, and spam analysis.

Email and landing page A/B testing, advanced dynamic content, and Google AdWords integration are all included.

You also get API access, multiple scoring categories, an integrated marketing calendar, and social profiles.

Advanced pricing is $4,000 per month and includes pro features as well as customer-user roles, custom-object integration, and API access for up to 100,000 calls per day.

It also includes a dedicated IP address and phone support.

7. Use AdRoll to Automate Ad Campaigns

automation guide adroll

AdRoll is helpful for retargeting customers through re-engagement on Facebook, Twitter, and the web.

With cross-device and cross-platform retargeting capabilities as well as flexible segmentation, you can provide customized experiences that dramatically improve marketing efficiency.

Key features include retargeting across devices and platforms, dynamic LiquidAds, flexible segmentation, transparent analytics, and expert optimization and conversion reporting.

AdRoll offers a free plan with limited features, or you can get their Growth plan for $19 a month.

9. Automatically Nurture Leads With Marketo

Marketing automation guide marketo

This marketing software lets you drive revenue with lead management, mobile marketing, and more.

Marketo, an Adobe company, is a cloud-based tool for companies large and small that not only helps build customer relationships but helps you sustain them.

There are no set-up fees, and the tool comes with a free trial, so you don’t have to commit until you’re sure it’s right for you.

Their first product was “Lead Management” in 2006, but the company has grown tremendously since then and now offers a larger variety of features.

9. Automate Inbound Call Analytics with Dialog Tech (Invoca)

marketing automation guide dialog tech

Dialog Tech (now called Invoca) is great for voice-based marketing automation so you can boost ROI with call automation and analytics.

You can optimize voice interactions with Dialog Tech’s tools by measuring your success and adjusting accordingly.

Features include keyword call-tracking, phone surveys, caller-profile data, reverse lookup, conversation analytics, in-call scoring, geolocation routing, voice broadcasts, SMS, and more.

Keyword call tracking is a game-changer for voice interactions.

Otherwise, you really have no way of tracking that kind of data over the phone yourself unless you’re manually recording calls and playing them back later.

Even then, you’d have to manually track how those customers reacted after hearing certain keywords.

Unfortunately, they don’t publish their pricing. So you’ll have to get in touch with them to get a quote.

10. Deliver Personalized Campaigns Across Multiple Channels With Oracle Eloqua

marketing automation guide oracle example

Oracle’s B2B cross-channel marketing solution Oracle Eloqua lets marketers plan automated campaigns while simultaneously personalizing them.

The company was launched in 1999 with the goal of boosting lead generation.

Now, the tool has grown into an effective personalization device across various channels like email, video, and mobile.

Oracle Eloqua will give you all of the lead-management tools you need and segment your audience in specific ways to get them to buy.

Plus, you can track reports and insights into a buyer’s journey with just a few clicks.

They no longer list their pricing online, but previous plans started around $2,000 a month.

11. Track Marketing Interactions Across All Channels With Bizible

marketing automation guide bizable example

Bizible closes the gap between sales and marketing.

You can maximize AdWords ROI and use multichannel tracking to get a full picture of both sales and marketing metrics.

Big features include keyword-level metrics for AdWords as well as metrics for campaigns and ad content, UTM parameters, detailed lead history, custom reports, and integrations.

Bizable was purchased by Adobe, and now exists as a product under Marketo. You’ll need to reach out for a quote and more information.

12. Let Act-On Seamlessly Nurture Inbound and Outbound Leads

marketing automation act-on

Act-On’s cloud-based platform lets you connect inbound and outbound leads to manage your nurturing programs. There are tons of other helpful features too, like landing page design.

With this tool, you can take your revenue to the next level.

The company was founded in 2008 and first sold software through Cisco exclusively.

The professional package starts out at $900 per month for 2,500 active contacts, 3 marketing users, and 50 users in sales. You’ll get 30,000 API calls-per-day.

Enterprise pricing is $2,000 per month for 2,500 active contacts, 6 marketing users, and 100 sales users. You’ll also get 30,000 API calls-per-day with this feature.

13. Automate the Customer Journey With LeadSquared

pasted image 0 1071

LeadSquared, founded in 2012, helps small and medium companies align their marketing and sales efforts.

Capture leads from inbound email, online campaigns, phone calls, your website, chat, and more with this tool.

LeadSquared offers a free trial, and pricing for automation plans starts out at $400 for the basic package (10,000 contacts).

The cost is $1200 for the standard one (20,000 contacts) and $2500 for the enterprise package (200,000 contacts).

14. Get CRM, Sales, and Marketing Tools Automated Together with Keap

marketing automation guide keap

Keap (formerly Infusion Soft) is for you if you want to get organized, increase sales, and save time.

Don’t we all?

If you’re a small business owner or blogger, this tool is perfect for you.

Keap makes it simple to create a new sales or marketing strategy and execute it so that you can capture and close sales more quickly.

Save time by automating repetitive tasks like follow-ups, billing, contact management, and payments.

Pricing starts at $79 for Lite plan, $159 for their Pro plan, and $199 for their Max plan. Each package covers 500 contacts, with additional costs for additional contacts or users.

15. Grow, Engage, and Acquire Customers with Genoo‘s WPMktgEngine

marketing automation guide kpmktg engine

WPMktgEngine is a WordPress plugin designed to help small businesses implement marketing automation.

Capture lead forms, profile customers, and create new landing pages to drive results fast.

Key features include a centralized lead database with unlimited leads, landing page design, CMS, lead activity tracking, SEO analysis, and more.

Their Conversion Pro package starts at $166 per month for up to 15,000 leads. The Engage Pro package starts at $83/month for 5,00 leads, and their Inbound Pro packages starts at $44 per month for up to 2,500 leads

16. Attract, Capture, and Streamline Leads With Sugar Market

marketing automatoin guide salesfusion

Salesfusion (now called Sugar Market) is another tool that helps B2B companies link sales and marketing more closely together.

The truth is, 70 percent of the buying cycle is complete before the customer ever contacts sales.

Sugar Market helps businesses build revenue funnels by creating custom digital conversations that marketing and sales representatives can use to convert customers.

The tools help your team say the right thing to the right leads at the right time and includes all the CRM features you could ever need.

Pricing depends on the number of contacts you want but begins at $1,000 per month for 10,000 contacts.

17. Segment and Automate Customer Experiences Using iContact

icontact marketing automation tool

iContact provides marketing-automation software, email marketing services, and more so that your team can drive successful results every time.

Integrate landing pages, email marketing, social media management, and analytics together to outsmart your competition and reach more contacts.

Plus, you’ll have access to strategic advisors who can help you “optimize your sending strategy and inbox delivery for maximum conversions.”

This is the tool for you if you’re looking to grow your business and become notable in your industry.

Pricing depends on your number of contacts, but you can easily select your list size.

icontact pricing marketing automation

iContact is a minimum of $15 per month for 1500 contacts for the basic Email Marketing package, and $30 per month for 500 contacts for the Pro package.

The Pro package includes features not available with the basic Email Marketing package, such as:

  • Email, automation, and landing page reporting
  • Unlimited landing page creation
  • Custom API
  • Smart sending
  • Automation followups
  • Welcome, birthday, and event eries
  • Segmentation
  • Behavioral targeting
  • Social monitoring

18. Get BuzzBuilder Pro to Automate Cold Email Campaigns

buzz builder marketing automation guide

BuzzBuilder Pro is useful for entrepreneurs, sales teams, and marketers. Find prospects, generate leads, and nurture them more easily.

Key features include advanced email marketing automation, a website form builder, tracking and analytics, lead nurturing, scoring and ranking, social media marketing, and hot-lead alerts.

You will need to call for detailed pricing information.

19. Create Automated Marketing Workflows With Net-Results

pasted image 0 1075

Net-Results helps to automate almost every kind of marketing task imaginable.

Their goal is to help you save time while allowing you to better uncover and nurture leads so that your revenue will grow quickly.

Features include an email builder, form builder, landing-page builder, campaign builder, and A/B-test builder. Nurture leads, automate workflows, and more.

Pricing ranges start at $800 per month for 2,500 contacts and go up from there.

20. Streamline and Simplify Marketing Automation With GreenRope

pasted image 0 1108

GreenRope is “the ultimate dashboard for your business.”

This tool is useful for completing marketing automation and CRM all in one place.

Manage operations, sales, and marketing all from one dashboard that will help you visualize your performance and make key business decisions.

Features include interaction tracking, event and project management, calendar booking, SMS marketing, surveys, video tracking, and predictive analysis.

You can also trigger automation, lead scoring, analysis, prediction, and engagement.

Pricing starts at $99 per month for 500 contacts and goes up to $799 per month for up to 50,00 contacts.

21. Deliver Automated Email Campaigns Using MailChimp

marketing automation mailchimp screenshot

With intelligent email marketing features, it’s hard not to love MailChimp.

This tool is perfect for contacting prospects or customers who are vital to your success. If you need an effective email tool, this is one you should definitely check out.

Features include email marketing automation, personalized emails, automated welcome emails, behavioral targeting, engagement monitoring, and more.

With this tool, you can trigger emails based on actions like sign-up date and website activity.

The cost is free for up to 2,000 contacts, and upwards of $425 or more per month depending on your total number of subscribers.

22. Automate Marketing Processes with Gliffy

marketing automation tool gliffy

Create organizational charts, high-quality flowcharts, UML diagrams, network diagrams, technical drawings, wireframes, and more with Gliffy.

It works in your web browser to help you visualize workflows and boost marketing productivity.

Key features include workflow organization, an intuitive interface, collaboration with anyone with access to a web browser, and more.

The best part? They have a free trial!

23. Use Inbound Marketing Automation with Jumplead

marketing automation jumpead

Jumplead turns website visitors into leads and then nurtures them until they become paying customers.

Jumplead is a go-to source for everything from lead tracking to CRM, analytics, and automation.

Features include lead tracking, CRM, behavior-triggered actions, email marketing, landing pages, and analytics.

The cost is free for 200 visitors and goes up from there. The pro package is $199 per month for 20,000 visitors.

Bonus: Add fresh data to your marketing campaign with DataForSEO

DataForSEO provides “comprehensive SEO data via API at a predictable price.”.

While they mostly work with SEO providers, you can use their data to juice up your marketing efforts.

Here’s a list of API’s DataForSEO provides:

  • Rank tracking API
  • SERP API
  • Keywords data API
  • Competitor API
  • OnPage API
  • Keyword finder API

Marketing Automation FAQ

What is marketing automation?

A strategy that uses software that creates “rules,” which allows brands to create an efficient, often hands-off marketing process.

What are the benefits of marketing automation?

Automation allows you to get more done in less time, improve effectiveness, and provides access to far more data. For small or streamlined teams, it is ideal.

Are there any free marketing automation tools?

Some tools offer a free trial or free plan, including MailChimp, HubSpot, and Zoho.

What can I do with marketing automation?

A ton! You can automate email campaigns, reporting, lead nurturing, lead scoring, and much more.

Marketing Automation Conclusion

Good marketing has the ability to set you apart from your competition.

However, it can be hard to keep up with what marketing strategies work and which ones don’t.

Even when you do, it’s hard to focus on all of them at once. You don’t always have the time or energy to do it. Neither do I.

Thankfully, marketing automation tools exist to make marketing easier for you and your team.

By automating, you can spend your time and attention focusing on other efforts that will increase your company’s success.

Try out some of these marketing automation tools based on your needs and budget.

Kick back as they streamline your processes for you.

Then, pick your favorites and stick with them.

What marketing automation tools are you using?

What is PPC Management and How You Can Take Advantage Of It To Maximize Revenue

When it comes to getting traffic, you have two main choices: SEO or PPC management. Both options are an effective means of driving prospects to your website, and one isn’t necessarily better than the other.

When used correctly, these methods can deliver results. They just have different ways of achieving them.

Ad spending is projected to grow 7.61 percent yearly through 2026, proving companies see the value in PPC strategies. This article teaches you to get the most out of your PPC campaigns.

What Is PPC Management?

PPC management refers to the spending and strategy behind your paid ad campaigns, including:

  • the keywords you target
  • the SEM strategies you choose
  • the copy you use in your paid ads
  • the metrics you track and tools you use to track them
  • campaign optimization
  • A/B testing

You could manage your PPC ads yourself or consider using PPC management software for some areas. However, it’s a complex endeavor, and you may find you’re losing money if you don’t have a precise plan.

Therefore, many businesses choose to work with a digital agency to maximize their spending and conversions.

Once you choose to work with an agency, they take over your PPC management campaign for you and suggest changes to maximize the effectiveness of your ad.

Why You Need a PPC Management Strategy to Increase Revenue

When implemented correctly, your PPC management approach forms the backbone of a successful online marketing campaign; it’s a great way to get your business noticed in a crowded marketplace and generate fresh leads.

However, without a strategy in place, it’s a struggle to attract the prospects that are most likely to convert, but there are other reasons you need a plan.

A well-targeted PPC management campaign:

  • Raises your profile: Whichever niche you’re in, the competition is vast out there. Getting noticed means getting your business in front of the right people, and a well-drawn-up plan can enable you to achieve this.
  • Creates the right ads at the right time: To attract the right people, you need to send your ads to the sites where people are looking for products or services like yours. An effective strategy ensures you know who you’re targeting, why you’re targeting them, and when. This tailored PPC campaign management approach often significantly impacts your success rates. One agency found its client’s CTRs increased by 39 percent, and conversions increased by an incredible 78 percent.
  • Reduces your cost of conversions: When you know who your audience is, you spend less money. For example, when Hootsuite used an agency to assist with its PPC management, it streamlined its strategy and lowered cost per conversion by 28 percent.
  • Discovers new keywords: Whether you’re using PPC management software to discover new keywords or working with an agency, new keywords can equal more business. After some changes, Hootsuite found that 51 percent of its new custom came from additional keyword research.
  • Leads to more conversions: You can considerably increase conversion rates when you optimize your ads.

PPC Management Responsibilities

The main PPC campaign management responsibilities are analyzing and optimizing your PPC ads. This includes analyzing data, identifying trends, and improving the ads.

Other responsibilities cover creating a strategy for paid search, managing budgets, setting up ad groups and keywords, along with bidding strategies.

Then there is:

  • researching and implementing new strategies
  • creating reports on campaign performance and making recommendations
  • completing keyword and competitive analysis
  • keeping track of Google updates
  • managing the budget of campaigns, so they are in line with company goals
  • copy creation and channel targeting

Completing these tasks requires expertise and a wide range of skillsets to achieve the best returns, so some advertisers prefer to use an agency.

PPC Management Strategies to Increase Revenue

There’s more than one way to use ads as part of effective PPC campaign management. Below, we explain some of the most popular approaches, how to use them, and explain why you need them.

Let’s start with A/B testing your CTAs.

1. A/B Test Your CTAs

Not getting the results you want? Then try A/B testing.

A/B testing is the process of comparing two versions of an advertising asset. Aside from your PPC ads, you can split test your emails, web pages, videos, emails, and other types of content to see which one performs better.

As part of your PPC campaign management, you can test your PPC ads:

  • text
  • colors
  • ROI, etc.

However, you want to give special attention to your CTAs to understand which ones get your prospects clicking through and arriving at your marketing page.

HubSpot suggests taking a three-pronged approach to testing your CTAs.

  1. Be specific. You don’t want to run ads with a ton of individual differences, like an array of colors or text. You need to ask yourself some questions first to get meaningful results. For example, do you want to test the wording? Visuals? Placement? Test each ad for one element at a time.
  2. Vary your CTAs. Here, you want similar CTAs that provide the same information but are phrased differently. You could also test components like your CTA placement, color, size, text, etc. Even the most minor changes to a CTA can make a significant difference. Brad Shorr, Director of Content & Social Media for Straight North In Chicago, recently tested the following CTAs:

A. Get $10 off the first purchase. Book online now!.

B. Get an additional $10 off. Book online now.

There’s not a massive difference in the CTAs, but “B” won every time.

  1. Pick a date range, measure your results, and optimize.

2. Use Negative Matching Techniques

An essential part of your PPC management is not spending unnecessary money on ads. There’s a simple way to save money, and it’s called negative matching or negative keywords.

For example, drug development company Nuventra experienced a 70 percent cost savings per lead and a 500 percent boost in conversions when an agency used negative keywords as part of its PPC management.

If you’re not familiar with them, negative keywords are words and phrases you don’t want your ads to show up on. They’re a great way to get super specific with your targeting, and they can keep your ads from showing up on irrelevant searches.

For instance, if you have a PPC campaign for the term “athletic sneakers,” but you don’t want to show up on searches containing the phrase “running shoes,” then add “-running shoes” as a negative keyword.

As Google explains, excluding search terms lets you focus on the keywords most relevant to your customers, and the improved targeting can enhance your ROI.

For a simple way to implement negative keywords, try a free PPC management software tool like WordStream. You just:

  • add a broad term relevant to your sector
  • choose your industry
  • pick your country
  • wait for the keyword list to popularize
  • list any irrelevant keywords

You can also use Google’s keyword planner and the search terms report. Google advises that you “look for terms that don’t fit your business model among the queries where you’ve received traffic or in the keywords suggested to you in the course of planning.”

And, “In addition to reviewing the stats in these reports, also look for the intent behind a search.”

Alternatively, use a tool like Ubersuggest to find negative keywords.

PPC Management Semrush negative keyword

3. Make Sure Your Ads Look and Sound Like Organic Results

PPC ads are often the first impression a customer has of your company. Therefore, t’s important to ensure they’re well-designed, well-written, and sound like organic results.

This means that your ad copy should be written in a natural, conversational tone and should not sound like you are trying to sell something. Further, natural-sounding copy is more:

  • engaging
  • persuasive
  • compelling

However, that’s not all you also need to think about. You need to look at natural language processing (NLP) and the role it can play in your SEO strategy.

NLP is becoming a much greater part of our everyday lives, and by 2026, the sector is set to be worth $27.16 billion. Considering its growth and its application to marketing, you can guarantee we’re going to see more of it, so you can’t ignore it.

If you haven’t heard of NLP, it’s a subcategory of AI; if you use predictive text, search on Google, or use a voice assistant, you’re already using it.

NLP is important to marketers because consumers don’t just use keyword-based questions. They use complete questions, which look more akin to long-tail search queries.

For instance:

U.S. States vs. How many states are there in the U.S?

Reconditioned smartphone vs. Where can I buy a reconditioned smartphone?

Keyword analysis vs. What is the best tool for keyword analysis?

There’s another factor to consider: the surge in voice search.

The growth in smart speakers like Alexa is undeniable. According to the analyst company Canalys, the smart speaker market was set to reach 163 million units by 2021.

This growth makes it even more vital that your PPC ads look and sound natural. Below are some tips to optimize your ads for voice search.

  • use short, concise sentences and phrases when writing your ad copy
  • add keywords that are relevant to what you’re advertising
  • include a call-to-action at the end of your ad copy so that people know what they should do next
  • understand user intent
  • answer your audience’s questions and address their pain points
  • use long-tail keywords

4. Use Display Advertising

Display advertising is a form of internet advertising that has become increasingly popular in recent years and includes text, banners, and images,

Although search ads are the most popular, display advertising is growing. According to research published by eMarketer, display advertising grew 41.2 percent in 2021, with ad spend climbing to $105.99 billion and it will continue to grow.

PPC Management eMarketer forecast

One of the best ways to include display ads as part of PPC campaign management is to have a detailed plan in place first. Decide what type of ads to run, what keywords to target, and how much your budget is.

If your finances are tight, focus your efforts on the best-performing ads and keywords. This approach allows you to get the most out of your advertising dollars without constantly tweaking your campaigns.

Finally, for this section, here are some best practices for display advertising:

  • include a mix of ad types to maximize engagement with your audience
  • use quality images to draw attention to your ads
  • create a call to action
  • A/B test your ads
  • include keywords

5. Optimize Your Site for Mobile

In 2020, there were 211 million mobile phone searchers in the United States alone. Fast forward to the fourth quarter in 2021, and 54.4 percent of global web traffic came from mobile.

Further, according to research from Adobe, while mobile shopping has hit a bit of a wall, 57 percent of consumers use their mobiles for browsing.

The message is clear: you need to accommodate mobile visitors.

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes for a moment.

You’re on your smartphone. You click on an email link or a search ad, keen to find out more.

However, the print is so tiny you can’t read it, the images aren’t clear, and you can’t see the information you want to complete the purchase.

What do you do? Wait until you’re on your laptop and click-through then? Maybe. If you remember. Most likely, you click away, don’t go back, and find a competitor.

You see, PPC management doesn’t stop with your online ads. It needs to continue into your landing page, website, or blog, so your prospects have the best experience.

How can you achieve this? By making your prospect’s destination user-friendly and optimizing your site by:

  • creating a responsive website design
  • using a fluid grid and fluid images to make sure content is readable on any device
  • optimizing site navigation so it’s easy to use with one hand
  • making certain text is readable on small screens without zooming in or out
  • ensuring the site loads quickly by minimizing images and removing unnecessary files

6. Create Text Ads

Text ads are the most common form of online advertising. They are usually short, with just a few lines of text and a link to the advertiser’s website.

Google defines text ads as, “a form of marketing communication that advertisers can use to promote their product or service on the Google Network.”

Text ads are shown on SERPs as sponsored links, which have been paid for by advertisers as part of a PPC management campaign and throughout Google’s Display Network (GDN), which includes:

  • websites displaying Google ads
  • mobile devices
  • apps
  • google online platforms such as YouTube and Gmail

To make the most of text ads:

  • include keywords
  • address your audience’s pain points
  • explain the benefits of your product/service
  • include affiliate and sidelink ad extensions
  • add numbers
  • detail the benefits

Finally, use CTAs that get customers to take the next step and purchase, like in this example by Pizza Pizza.

PPC Management Google text ad

7. Create Native Ads

According to the 2021 PageFair Adblock report, desktop adblocking grew 8 percent to 257 million users, while mobile ad blocking grew 10 percent to 586 million users. However, the research also found that Adblock users were more likely to accept less intrusive adverts.

That’s where native ads come in.

These ads don’t impact the user’s experience the same way some other ads do.

Native ads are advertisements that match the style and format of the other content on a website. In other words, they look like articles, videos, website banners, and other forms of content on a webpage. Examples are sponsored posts on social media or “sponsored stories” on Instagram.

Assuming you’re using Google, you can create native ads by:

  • signing in to Google Ad Manager
  • clicking delivery and selecting “native”
  • picking “new native ad single ad”
  • choose the type of ad (guided design editor for programmatic and traditional ads, the HTML and CSS editor, or the Android and iOS app code)

Best practices for native ads include:

  • knowing your audience and targeting them
  • using a compelling headline to draw readers in
  • creating an engaging visual
  • keeping them consistent with your brand
  • providing useful information or entertainment
  • including hyperlinks to drive people to your site
  • using a variety of formats
  • ensuring ads are responsive

PPC Management Frequently Asked Questions

Who should hire a PPC manager or agency?

If you don’t want to wait for your SEO strategy to kick in, then you might want to consider finding a PPC manager or agency to implement a PPC management campaign.

PPC is a proven way of getting targeted traffic to your site. However, even though you can manage various aspects of your advertising, like keyword analysis with PPC management software, you can still benefit from some expertise.

Regardless of the size of your budget, a PPC agency ensures you’re spending your budget wisely and implementing a solid strategy.

Can you manage your own PPC campaigns?

You could manage your PPC campaigns, but this often means a lot of trial and error and perhaps some financial losses along the way. Successful campaigns take skill and strategy and, therefore, may be more successful when you employ a digital agency to implement them for you.

What are the top e-commerce PPC marketing management tips?

You can identify the keywords that will resonate with your target audience; create an e-commerce ads campaign; segment your ads for better targeting; use remarketing; A/B test ads; advertise on a variety of channels, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube to reach new customers and widen the reach of your campaign; and use Google AdWords or Bing Ads for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes.

Does a PPC manager help you decide how much to spend on paid ads?

A PPC manager provides recommendations based on your aims and explains key information like your cost per acquisition, cost per click, and what you can achieve. However, the final decision on how much of your budget you want to assign to PPC is down to you.

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Conclusion: PPC Marketing Management

For many businesses, effective PPC management is an essential part of growing their businesses and attracting qualified leads to their websites.

However, for the inexperienced, PPC campaign management often leads to costly mistakes if you’re unsure of the precise tactics you should be using.

You could use PPC management software tools to find keywords, monitor the results, and optimize when you’re starting.

Nevertheless, you may find it easier to leave the learning curve to others and enhance your chances of PPC success by outsourcing to an award-winning digital market agency.

Which PPC management techniques do you use, and how have they helped your business?