Uncategorized

Things On Fire

by
Writing for humans & Robots
On Top
On Focus

Services

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.

Explore more
On Brand

Explain It Like I'm Five

more beauty secrets
On Style

Glorious Fashion

On Taste

Food & Drinks From Around the World

On Air

Watch Animag's Video Channel

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur acing elit alora sedo eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore magna aliq.
Watch more videos

The Truth About Google Advertising – Differences Between Google & Facebook Advertising Strategies

by

Google wants everyone, to click everything, over-and-over, all the time…… that’s okay if advertising expenses are outperforming the wildest expectations. However, without a deep understanding of who is clicking your ads and why, you’ll fail.

How do Google and Facebook make money? 

Well Senator, advertising, of course. 

Google and Facebook make money by advertising, period. Advertising revenue is by far the single most lucrative income stream for both platforms.

Google puts your business in front of customers, that’s it. Google wants you to sell as many “things” as possible, because that means Google users found what they were looking for after clicking on your ads. If users find what they want, either online or at your business, they’ll come back the next time they’re in the market. 

The downside, is that Google doesn’t care if you spend $10 to make $1. It’s your job to put the right product, in the right place, at the right time. It’s no different from paying the rent at your retail space or corner store. You still have to pay the rent and utilities, regardless of how many people walk into your store, regardless of whether you made any money. 

Google Wants You to Make Money

Google wants you to make money on your advertising campaigns because if you don’t make money, you’re not going to advertise on google anymore.

On the other hand, Google also wants you to make money because that means people are buying things. If people are buying, they are finding what they are wanting. When people find a place that has what they want, they’ll come back for more.

If users arrive on a Google search results page and see ads irrelevant to what they want, ads become a nuisance to finding what they want, instead of an enabler. They’ll not only be annoyed, but they also are not going to click spammy, irrelevant ads. When Google users don’t click ads, Google doesn’t make money.

The Difference Between Google Ads and Facebook Advertising

There are two basic advertising models which run most of the internet’s advertising, “impression-based” (Facebook, Twitter) and pay-per-click (Google, Bing). 

For now we’ll just stick to these basic strategies, as they are the most important when assessing the costs of online advertising. While most platforms continually develop more advanced bidding methods, here are the differences between how you’ll evaluate how you’ll spend money on Facebook and Google advertising platforms.

Facebook Advertising: How Much Will I Pay?

Pay per Impression: On Facebook advertising, you’ll pay for how many people SEE your ad, but will not pay extra money for each click. It’s essentially a flat rate, fixed dollar bidding strategy. 

Facebook charges for advertising based on the number of users who viewed your ad.

Facebook Advertising Cost Structure (Impression Based Advertising)

For example, if 1000 people on Facebook SEE my ad, and 10 people click, my ad cost is not different than if all 1000 people clicked. Instead of paying for each click, you’ll pay the market price for each ad view based upon how competitive your market is. 

Advantages of Advertising on Facebook 

The more competitive your market is, the more you’ll pay for each impression. This strategy has advantages when ad space is undervalued, or when your ads are far more compelling than your competitors. If you’re willing to pay for more impressions, you’re effectively gaining market share over your competitors. 

Facebook Serves Ads to Billions of Users Each Day

There’s only a limited amount of eyeballs on the internet, so if a Facebook user is viewing your ad, it means they’re not viewing your competitors ad.

Facebook Advertising is Easy

Facebook advertising is easy. Put in your credit card and off you go whether you want to promote your local business or boost a post with a service you offer or item you’re selling.

Downsides to Facebook Advertising

When the barrier to entry is low, the competition is steep. On Facebook, you’ll see ad budgets which range between enterprise and fortune level companies, to mom and pop shops, and global brands. That means you’re ads better be well targeted, and they better be relevant, or nobody has time for you in a sea awash with alternatives.

Impression Based Advertising – How to Measure CPM – Cost Per Mile (CPM)

Impression based advertising strategies like those used on Twitter and Facebook ads are measured with a metric called CPM bidding, which means “cost per mile”. Statistically, your CPM is how much you paid for 1000 clicks. 

Frankly, I try to avoid throwing around acronyms; it’s easy to get confused. But when you’re looking for digital marketing and advertising strategies online, it’s important to know that when “CPM” or “impression share” are involved, you’re paying for how many people SEE your ad, not how many people click. 

How Does Google Advertising Work? PPC Advertising Strategy

Every major search engine offers a pay-per-click advertising plan. It’s quite simple, you only get charged when your ad gets clicked. Even if millions of people see your ad, you won’t be charged other than when people click. Google and Bing, which make up the overwhelming number of online searches each day both serve ads under this ad cost model.

How Much Does Google Advertising Cost?

The most reliable advertising strategy on Google is called pay-per-click (PPC). Yes, it’s that simple; if people click on your ad you’ll be charged for each one of the clicks. Unlike Facebook, you won’t be charged for people that view your ads and do not click on them. 

How Much Does Each Click Cost?

The cost of each Google click is based on a “silent bidding” auction. You’ll decide how much money you’re willing to pay for each click (Max Bid), and if your bid is higher than your competitors, your ad will be shown on top theirs. If your ad shows first on the page, we call this the first position bid. 

Because each search results page only has a max of 3 – 4 ads at most, the lowest bids will not be shown on the page. 

The trick: is finding the least competitive ad clicks for the most valuable customers. 

Google Ad Budgets

Pay-per-click models don’t mean that you pay an unlimited amount of money if more people happen to click your ad. Every advertising campaign is capped by daily or monthly budget cap. So that means you’ll control how much much money is spent per month without worrying about blowing your budget out of your wallet

Highest and Lowest Possible Ad Click Price on Google

The lowest possible ad click on Google Ads is $0.05 cents. The most expensive and competitive markets may cost upwards of $100 per click. For example, if you’re selling $60 million dollar mega yachts, $100 clicks for a relatively small number of possible customers is just a drop in the bucket. 

What is the advantage of Google advertising over Facebook? 

The advantage of Google advertising..is that you’re only paying for people who walk into your digital store, meaning they click on your ad and come to your website. If nobody clicks your ads, you wont pay a dime, not even a penny. It’s that simple.

What’s Hard About Digital Marketing?

by

It’s easy to justify marketing spend. What’s really hard…validating that spend.

Validation: the action of checking or proving the validity or accuracy of something.

My goal with every advertising campaign is to make you $10 for every $1 spent on digital advertisements. Does that seem like a lot?

But even a 1000% return on investment doesn’t mean you actually made money.

That’s a 10X (1000%) return on investment (ROI).

Let’s say your products costs $100 (MSRP) and costs you $20 to make (80% net revenue).

Now let’s adjust for the cost of actually delivering that product.

Shipping = $5
Transaction Fees: $3
Advertising and Marketing: $10
Overhead inventory: $10

$100 less total cost of goods sold so far = $31 for overhead + $20 to make the product = $54

Want to sell that product on Amazon? Subtract another $20.

So let’s just say that if

Continuing, your overhead costs (keeping the lights on, paying your employees) costs you about 60% o

For 99.9% of sites, that rate is probably closer to 0%. And that’s okay. One of the biggest differences in overhead websites costs is whether or not your require the infrastructure

It certainly doesn’t mean they’ll buy it. Not even if the want it.

Selling products online is competitive. It’s easy to eat up your margins before you’ve cleared any sales. This is not the field of dreams. It’s a long-term game that requires a long-term strategy.

If you’re tired of burning through your budget faster than you can say “advertising agency”, then you’ve come to the right place. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel; we just need to provide information in a more compelling and organized way than our competitors.

I build lean marketing and advertising campaigns that connect ideal customers…the ones that deliver long-term profits and repeat purchases. I catch the bigger, badder fish and leave the junk trophies for my competitors. But first, what are we trying to catch?

How Much Does a Website Cost?

by

First, there’s no scientifically valid way of determining how much a website costs. Yes, we can look at averages and market expectations, but even within the industry, everyone uses different cost structures.

What we can do is look at the bare-minimum of keeping a website online. One thing is certain: inflation and the never ending demand for faster, more data intensive websites will increase websites costs over time. I wrote the body of this article ~3 months ago and I can already tell you my server costs have already gone up.

The good news is, bare-bones website hosting cannot get much cheaper than it already is for quality service offerings.

Initial Website Costs

Domain Name Purchase Costs

Each site requires a unique domain name. 

Generally, a domain requires a one time purchase fee (usually around $12) and then a recurring payment of the same amount each year. Monthly hosting usually ranges between $8 – $15 depending on the number of domains and monthly data requirements. That generally includes essential, integrated security protocols which have become a web standard over the last few years.

That’s not to say you can’t host a website for less than $5 a month, but over here we like fast, responsive internet experiences that go online and stay online. I’m not going to go deep into the metrics of website costs/performance here, but you will get what you pay for (and be punished accordingly if you skim on the most critical asset of your website).

Remember, that if you build your website on something like Wix, SquareSpace, or WordPress.org, you’re going to be ‘taxed’ in perpetuity and get really mediocre server performance. (WordPress.com is a different thing)

So, the good news is, once you’ve found a name for your website that isn’t taken, it will cost you only $10-12 a year to secure the domain, and another $8 – $15 a month for something that’s zippy fast with multi-site support.

Search for a domain that isn’t taken >> I prefer Namecheap

Server Hosting Costs

The files of every website require a centralized server which stores the website’s content infrastructure. The cost of server hosting varies based upon the sites requirements for speed, file transfer, and number of users. More users means more file transfers, which means a faster server is required to maintain site speed.

Generally, server hosting for my average customer is between $10-$20 a month for a 1 – 3 domains (website addresses). That’s because I don’t use the cheapest, slowest servers. I prefer server hosting with prompt and well trained customer service because if issues arise, they can identify and resolve problems faster without having to rip the metaphorical motor out of your website and remachine the pistons. The saves a lot of costs from being passed down to the customer.

Most websites do not require extraordinary security measures, server side caching, or massive file traffic and file loads, hence 99% of websites will fall within the above data tier. Server hosting is provided by many companies you’ve likely seen advertisement for: GoDaddy, Hostgear, Dreamhost, Rochen, ect. (Again WordPress.com, SquareSpace, and Wix are “all-in-one-hosting” solutions that you’ll pay extra for based on convenience)

Personally, I’ve been working with Rochen for roughly the last 10 years and while they are not perfect, they’ve also been more than helpful with working out an issues and have a ton of value added services that make my life easier, and my customer’s websites less expensive.

Value Added Services

Hosting companies provide many value added services to win your business by making the deal sweeter (and your life easier). Some of these services include free registration of a domain name, transfer of your old website to your new domain, or installation of content management platforms like WordPress.  

The thing about those services is they usually get baked in to a recurring monthly fee. Thus, you can end up paying 25 – 30% in monthly fees over the life of your website.

My customers enjoy me handling all of their mission-critical recurring payments that keep their website online and I just pass along the invoice. Most people don’t realize that if you forget to renew the license for the name of your website every year, people can steal it from you. It’s not joke. Google once paid a guy $10K because they forgot to renew their .com domain. Luckily, he was a very nice guy and they simply gave him a reward for returning it to them.

Considering File Size and Video Bandwidth Limitations

A website which hosts unlimited movies and music for user download, or one that sees overs 100K users each month requires more storage, faster speeds, and higher file transfer rates to maintain stable function and prevent crashes. Sites with large volumes of visitors, extensive media downloads, or integration of many sites into the same account may exceed $100/month or more, if not hundreds-of-thousands-and-millions per month for enterprise level media sites (Netflix, Amazon, Ect)

Website Administrative Costs 

Website updates

Website updates are an essential task in maintaining the functionality of a website. Just like updates for your phone, a fast, safe, and functional website requires maintenance. Developers must respond nimbly to changes from many sources and ensure cohesiveness for the device in question: Tablet, iPhone, Desktop, ect. 

Administration and Website Updates

Some clients have the internal resources and skill sets to update their website on their own, while many prefer the ease and “worry-free” option of hiring a developer for web and security maintenance.

Administrative Updates:

  • Changes to fix bugs and security loopholes
  • Changes to improve website speed and page load times
  • Updates to the Content Management System (CMS) platform (Ex: WordPress, SquareSpace, Wix, Drupal, ect.)
  • Updates for evolving regulation and legal compliance (Ex: Europe’s new privacy requirements)
  • Security certificates and protocol updates

Website Updates that Stem from External Forces

Continual updates for the latest best practices ensure compliance with updates to various search engines like (Google algorithms), regulatory compliance, page speed improvements, and core infrastructure updates from framework and plugin developers. 

  • Changes in user behavior or customer preferences and suggestions
  • Updates for new and legacy support of device platforms 
  • Adding checkout options for new payment technologies (Bitcoin, Apple Pay, ect)
  • Updates and changes required by partners or affiliates

Ecommerce 

Initial Ecommerce Costs

The initial costs of getting your products online and ready for sale varies for each business. The number of products, complexity of the products, checkout features, security requirements, and extent of customer information management all have implications, 

Recurring Ecommerce Costs

Just like doing business in a retail store, each online transaction incrues a marginal expenditure, generally between 1 – 3% for each transaction when using payment platforms like Stripe, Paypal, or Shopify. Some payment platforms simply require a one-time fee to purchase the service, while others like Shopify require a recurring subscription free.

Recurring Ecommerce Management Fees

While online transactions have never been easier, facilitating online checkouts requires a significant extension of developer responsibility. Particularly, maintaining a secure place for transactions and ensuring that the customer has a simple and easy path to purchasing your products online. This also includes troubleshooting checkout issues such as failed transactions, invoice propagation, and revising page designs for better user experience. A painless online checkout experience is the absolute most important feature of an ecommerce website in today’s market.

Total Monthly Cost of Website Ownership

For most of my business-orientated customers, basic hosting costs are covered by $15 – 20 a month which supports up to three websites and about 100K visitors a month.

I only do maintenance plans for websites I’ve built personally, as the only way I can keep costs so low is because I intimately understand each and every gear, knob, and lever of the websites critical assets. Maintenance fees are just too variable to address in full here, but my plans start around $100 a month per-site for upkeep and maintenance with a pre-allocated number of service hours included. The best part for customers is that they don’t spend extra on one-time services and recurring fees at initial start up and get all of their web services bundled into a single invoice.

How Much Influence Does the Internet Have on Customer Purchases?

by

A lot.

If you’re reading this, it’s probably because you’re looking for your customers online. Good news: they’re also looking for you. So how do we start the conversation with a warm introduction and skip the small talk?

Let’s start with some basic stats on how online experiences influence online shopping behavior.

Business-to-Consumer-Marketing (B2C)

  • 90% of shoppers are not absolutely certain of the brand they want before they begin searching online.
  • Over 50% of consumers state that reading blogs has an influence on whether they make a purchase or not.
  • 61% of consumers say that they are more likely to buy from a company that provides custom content

Business to Business Marketing (B2B)

  • 89% of B2B researchers use the internet during the B2B research process.
  • 90% of B2B researchers who are online use search specifically to research business purchases.
  • 71% of B2B researchers start their research with a generic search

Putting a product or service online doesn’t mean that somebody will find it. For every 100 people that find your product online, if 1 of them buys something (1%) you’re doing something right. It’s a numbers game — a game that’s won and lost by focusing on the right numbers.

It’s easy to make statistics look pretty. It’s easy to spend a lot of cash on marketing and advertising services as long as the numbers keep going up. Everyone loves data that supports their inner-narrative.

It’s easy to justify marketing spend. What’s really hard…validating that spend.

Validation: the action of checking or proving the validity or accuracy of something.

In that same scenario, if you spent $1000 per each $1 of generated revenue, you’ll of those online transactions attributed

For 99.9% of sites, that rate is probably closer to 0%. And that’s okay. One of the biggest differences in overhead websites costs is whether or not your require the infrastructure

It certainly doesn’t mean they’ll buy it. Not even if the want it.

Selling products online is competitive. It’s easy to eat up your margins before you’ve cleared any sales. This is not the field of dreams. It’s a long-term game that requires a long-term strategy.

If you’re tired of burning through your budget faster than you can say “advertising agency”, then you’ve come to the right place.

We don’t need to reinvent the wheel; we just need to provide information in a more compelling and organized way than our competitors.

I build lean marketing and advertising campaigns that connect ideal customers…the ones that deliver long-term profits and repeat purchases. I catch the bigger, badder fish and leave the junk trophies for my competitors. But first, what are we trying to catch?