So what does this mean for your page?

Below we’ve outlined a few of the more major updates and changes along with some of our recommendations to help you address each of these before Facebook hit the big green ‘on’ switch at the end of the month.

Note: If you are an admin of your page, you can preview your page changes up until March 30th and, if your happy with your updates, you can publish them prior to the rollover date.

Cover Images and Profile Pictures

As has been the case with personal profile pages, brands can now also join in on all of the cover image fun!

If you haven’t seen a Facebook cover image before, here is a cracker that will surely get your creative juices flowing:

Our Hints and Recommendations

• First of all, for your cover image use the native dimensions of 851px by 315px for best results.
• For your profile picture, use the dimensions 180px by 180px and ensure this will still look good as a thumbnail for your posts.
• Get creative with your image and profile picture and think outside the canvas
• Ensure your cover image and profile picture work cohesively together.
• Remember to follow Facebook’s (strict) cover image guidelines! You may not include:

1. Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website”
2. Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your Page’s ‘About’ section.
3. References to user interface elements, such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features.
4. Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”

Application Icon Changes and Application Position Changes

One of the first questions that will be popping into many marketers and business owner’s minds will be “…but what’s going to happen to my apps?”

First things first, let’s start with your app positions and icons and then we’ll move onto the apps themselves.

If you scroll back up to the Livestrong example, you’ll see that under the cover image there are four extra images visible. These are your apps.

There are two things you need to know about this app repositioning:

1. As the ‘photos’ app is immovable, you really only have space for three featured apps on your page. The rest of your apps can be accessed via a drop down function to the right of the last featured app.
2. The apps utilise larger icon images with the dimensions of 111px by 74px.

Our Hints and Recommendations

• Make sure that you devise a creative strategy to integrate your app icons with the look and feel of your cover image and profile picture. If this is too much of a brain fry, at least upload some attractive images to represent your apps and to keep your business timeline page looking clean and tidy.
• Although Facebook says you cannot include a call to action on your cover image, they have not yet ruled out the option to include a call to action on your app icon images.
• Choose your three featured apps wisely as it is likely that these will gain the most organic click through traffic. Ensure you have analytics installed on your apps to determine which is currently engaging your users the most.

 -Intermission-

Now, if you’ve at least completed the tasks above you can safely get to March 30^th knowing that that at least your timeline page will be up to date, looking nice and spiffy. Phew!

However, if you’d really like to hit your customers between the eyes with a fully fledged timeline integration and app optimised business page, read on!

Timeline and Milestones

Again, just like with your personal timeline, brands can now upload all of the historical content relating to their brand. Coke have (as they always do with new marketing platforms) executed this extremely well.

The giant cola company has invested some real thought into their timeline and have combined imagery from their bountiful archives with an integrated design theme in order to create a truly engaging historical account of their brand:

Our Hints and Recommendations

• Go through the history of your brand and add as much of it as you can to your timeline in order to create a more engaging user experience for your audience
• Try to have an integrated design theme for all of your timeline content and make each piece of history interesting for your users.
• For best results, design your milestone images to 843px by 403px.

Application Width Changes

I mentioned earlier how applications would be affected by timelines didn’t I? Well hold on to your seat. This is going to be one of the biggest changes to your business page.

Previously, Facebook in-page iframes (applications) were limited to 520px in width. This was the maximum app space businesses had to play with and generally resulted in long, narrow facebook apps. Now however, with the rollout of timelines, the new width for applications is 810px wide!

What does this mean?

1. Unfortunately, your old apps will be centered smack in the middle of the new app canvas with a bunch of white space on either side.
2. On the bright side however, you have much more space to work with when developing new apps for your page. You no longer have to squeeze everything into that darn 520px!

Our Hints and Recommendations

• With this huge increase in canvas space, we’re licking our lips at the new creative opportunities this expansion will enable for our clients and you should be too. We are all starting fresh here so it could even be YOU who creates the next big Facebook app that everybody is talking about!
• If you have already invested a bunch of money into your current app suite, don’t fret, there are plenty of ways to integrate your old app functionality into a new design. Just ask your design team or agency to get creative and come up with a workable solution.
• If you are keen to start fresh, start thinking of featured app ideas that will really intrigue and attract your audience. Then, go ahead and develop them while utilising the 810px of space in the most creative and engaging way.
• There appears to be a compulsory white border around the edges of the new app canvas so just note that your design will not be able to go to the edge of the app.
• With the compulsory borders, it appears that, the actual space you have to work is actually 779px.
• Users can add their favourite apps to their own timelines now so try to make sure your app is ‘sticky’ enough to be used on more than one occasion. We envisage that page apps will begin to function more like reusable smart phone apps. The price however will be a ‘like’ as opposed to 99 cents!

Default Welcome Pages Changes

Previously, best practise for a Facebook business page was to ensure you were welcoming your fans via a default landing page tab. As the new Facebook changes don’t allow for a default landing page tab, your ‘welcome’ page may become somewhat obsolete. This reinforces our position that app strategy will become more focused on creating unique, content moments between you and your Facebook community.

Our Hints and Recommendations

• Don’t worry if you still have a ‘welcome’ page, you can still direct advertising traffic to your apps!
• Consider developing featured apps with a more unique and focussed purpose.

Pinning

Facebook have also rolled out a new ‘pinning’ feature to be available for updates made by your brand. What is pinning you ask? Pinning is a tool that allows you to ‘pin’ status updates to the top of your page for up to seven days so that it is the first piece of page engagement that a visitor sees. We also assume it will therefore become your default sponsored story ad copy. Very cool.

Our Hints and Recommendations

• Use pinning to push traffic to your promotions or apps for seven days after launch.
• Be sure to include pinable content into your social media content schedule.

Fan Gating and Advertising Changes

As mentioned above, I assure you, advertisers are still able to direct Facebook advertising to their specific page apps. Further to this, fan-gating is still allowed. Therefore, some tried and tested community building strategies will still be applicable. However, there will also be some very exciting advertising changes coming your way.

Facebook are looking to add advertising to sit within user’s desktop and mobile Facebook news feeds, allowing your brand’s content to be ‘sandwiched’ between their friends status updates and activity. With over 350 million people using Facebook on their mobile, this initiative will increase your potential audience significantly.

On top of this, the new ‘reach generator’ advertising solution appears to allow advertisers to dodge any EdgeRank issues and reach up to 75% of their audience through paid status updates. As most pages are currently only reaching approximately 16% of their user base, this is definitely a tool that will be making most marketer’s eyebrows rise a few inches!

There are a slew of other exciting advertising improvements and additions but that’s for another blog post….

Our Hints and Recommendations

• Keep using fan gates, just be sure to utilise the new app width you have to work with
• Keep sending ads to your apps.
• Look into some of the new advertising options for yourself. You will be impressed I guarantee it!

Send Your Audience Messages

Finally! Brands can now send direct messages to fans. This will help with your social media response strategy as brands can now respond to disgruntled users or private matters through a personal message. This will help to move any conflict out of the public eye or discuss sensitive matters without having to move to phone or email communication.

Furthermore, for businesses that have ever had to remove a post due to page guideline breaches, this feature will allow admins to proactively inform the offending user.

Final thoughts

There’s definitely a lot to take in here and it can all seem a bit overwhelming. Our advice is to just start making the relevant aesthetic changes in small chunks in the lead up to March 30^th in order to ensure your page looks visually pleasing when the rollover occurs. However, if you need some assistance or would like to implement a full transition strategy, contact Reload Media about one of our Facebook Timeline rollover packages today.

Just follow the three simple steps below in order to achieve this in Google Analytics!

STEP 1: Set Up a New Filter in Your Google Analytics Settings

STEP 2: Wait For Data

Next, you’ll need to wait for some data to build up as this filter is not retroactive.

STEP 3: Voila!

After a day or so, check back on your top referring pages by clicking through to Visitors > User Defined on your left hand analytics panel (as it appears in June 2011).

You should be seeing the full referral URLs now:

Feel free to leave a comment if you were successful in setting up your filter. Otherwise, let us know if you need a hand!

Google Shopping is basically a product comparison search engine with one major difference to all the other competitors in this space – it’s completely free!

True to form, Google plan to earn their revenue through the extremely targeted AdWords ads that appear above the product results:

So what do you need to know about Google Shopping?

How does it work?

Google Shopping is available due to the Google Merchant Center (finally!) being made available in Australia.

The Google Merchant Center is a place where users can submit detailed data feeds of their product listings, availability, sizes etc. to Google so that these products can be indexed in Google product search and across the web. These product listings can be static or dynamic depending on the nature of your inventory.

Submitting a data feed by yourself can be tricky but is definitely doable. However, if you are having trouble, feel free to contact a consultant at Reload Media who can arrange this for you!

How do I access Google Shopping/product search?

To access Google shopping you can either visit Google.com.au/Shopping or just click the ‘Shopping’ tab on your left hand tool bar in Google:

Where will my products appear?

Not only will your products appear in the ‘Google Product Search’ results (as visible in our first example), but you now have the opportunity to extend your AdWords ads with product images, descriptions, prices and direct links to the product page:

Once again, this is a service that Reload Media now offers to our current and future clients!

Why would I want my products to be available in the Google shopping tab?

Although it is still in its infancy in Australia, Google Shopping is an opportunity that should not be overlooked.

The reason?

Google’s newly released product search engine targets comparison shoppers and purchase ready consumers alike when they are in the most tantalising stage of the consumer buying cycle – the ‘taking action’ stage!

Furthermore, the ability to extend your product range to relevant Google AdWords ads will allow you to create more magnetic, specific and higher converting ads!

Need to know anything else about Google Shopping? Leave your questions and comments below!

Google have updated their AdWords blog to announce the change of display url appearance. From now on, your primary domain will be in lowercase but your tail at the end can still be capitalised. See some examples below:

Time to put those w’s back in!

To read Google’s official statement, click here.

[Previous Post - December 17th 2010]

About two weeks ago I noticed on my computer that all AdWords display urls on the Google search results pages were showing up in lowercase.

I did a quick whip around the office to check to see if anyone else was seeing what I was seeing but to no avail.

However, I am now convinced that Google were testing a new ad format on a limited sample of users.

My ads have gone back to normal for now but another blogger identified the same phenomenon last week.

Why do I believe this was a deliberate test by Google:

1. For some reason, my PC has been included in other Google trial runs in the past. This included access to Google Instant prior to launch and the appearance of the new purple AdWords background colour a week or two before the full roll out.

2. It makes sense for Google to try & make their sponsored links look as similar to their organic search results as possible in order to blur the lines between paid and organic results. This would help to increase the CTRs of the top three paid ads and, therefore, increase revenue for Google.

3. We have seen other efforts on Google’s behalf to try and get advertisers to aim for the top 3 ad positions in recent times. The most significant change has been the new places map overlay which now covers up ads on the side of the screen when a user scrolls down the page:

Conclusions

Google don’t appear to have announced anything yet so they may have just been doing a limited test to see what would happen in terms of click through rates. However, if there were to be widespread changes to display urls in the future, many advertisers would need to:

• Rethink display URL capitalisation tactics (e.g ReloadMedia.com.au vs reloadmedia.com.au)
• Perform new www vs non www split testing. Currently, in most split tests, non www ads perform better than www ads. However, this is likely due to the extra capitalisation that is allowed in AdWords display urls (e.g. ReloadMedia.com.au ads will generally have a higher click through rate than www.ReloadMedia.com.au or www.reloadmedia.com.au ads).
• Amend every ad in every campaign in order to harness the results of aforementioned split testing.

As mentioned, this may have just been a case of Google experimenting with AdWords results to see what would happen. Only time will tell if this new Ad format will be rolled out and how they will affect current AdWords campaigns. However, considering the rapid rate that Google have been making changes to their search results pages lately, I would keep a close eye on this one!

If you’ve seen these lowercase urls in YOUR search results or would just like to discuss the implications further, feel free to comment below.

With its open graph protocol spreading around the internet like wildfire, over 500 million active and interconnected users and a critically acclaimed motion picture now released, Facebook has not only anchored itself within the very fabric of the internet, it has embedded itself within modern popular culture as we know it – and there are no signs of slowing down.

The Facebook website itself states that a standard Facebook user creates 90 pieces of content per month and is connected to an average of 80 pages, groups and events.

So how can your business connect with these consciously connected consumers?

Whether you already have a Facebook page or not, the following tips will help you create a presence for your business on this social behemoth and, furthermore, will keep them coming back for more!

1. STRATEGY

With all the hype surrounding Facebook these days, it’s easy for many businesses to forget the importance of strategy and just dive right in. However, these businesses often neglect the fact that they don’t yet know how to swim in the murky waters of social media and in turn, find themselves flailing and sinking (Paul ‘likes’ this self indulgent analogy).

It is imperative that you make sure you have a clear objective and goal for your page. Is your strategy based on:

• Customer Relationship Management?
• Customer Engagement/Loyalty?
• Recruitment?
• Sales?
• Branding?
• Awareness? etc

The list goes on. It is vital to know where you’re headed on Facebook so that you know you have arrived when you get there!

2. CONTENT, CONTENT SCHEDULES & CONTENT TIMING

Content is not only ‘King’ on Facebook, it is the lifeblood of the entire network. I cannot stress the importance of quality, consistent and engaging content enough.

There are three common content questions you should ask yourself before you submit a piece of content to your Facebook page:

Is this content engaging while still being relevant to my business?

Is this content entertaining while still being relevant to my business?

Is this content educational while still being relevant to my business?

If you cannot consciously answer ‘yes’ to any of these questions, then CAN THAT CONTENT!  Post it somewhere else if you need to but not on your business page. It will dilute your strategy and confuse your customers. Good content should have your fans consistently returning to your page for more.

Secondly, at Reload Media we recommend to every client who is about to implement a social media strategy to have a comprehensive content schedule prepared before they even think about setting up their page.

A content schedule is basically a guide as to what content/promotions/events you will be posting to your page and when.  It can often be set out similar to a media plan and simply creates a blueprint for you to follow throughout a set time period (e.g. 6 months).

And finally, remember to keep your content flow steady in volume and well paced. This stuff is getting posted to your customer’s news feeds so you don’t want to upset them by posting too much & too often!

3. LANDING PAGES

Landing pages are a great way to increase the amount of unique likes or fans that your business page has. This is obviously important as, the more fans your page has, the more viral your content can become.

You can make this page to only be visible to people who do not yet like your page in order to create a customised experience for different Facebook users.

Here are some examples of successful Facebook landing pages:

4. VANITY URLS

Vanity URLs allow you to have a short and simple url for your business page as opposed to the default, long winded and convoluted url you will be provided with.

Once your page has 25 people ‘liking’ it, you can snatch up a vanity url for your page (for example Facebook.com/ReloadMedia).

Simply head to Facebook.com/Username and follow the prompts.

5. FACEBOOK PROMOTIONS & APPS

One great way of supplying your fans with a creative and engaging ‘content moment’ (as described by David Smerdon of Clemenger BBDO), is to create a custom Facebook app centered around your business in some way.

Here is a great example of an engaging and viral Facebook app by Sony Vaio.

Facebook apps however are a bit more tricky and you would need to find a developer capable of creating custom Facebook applications.

Another opportunity would be to launch a promotion through Facebook. Promotions allow users to not only engage with your brand, but be rewarded for doing so. Research shows that promotions are one of the best ways to create an active and engaged fan base on your business page.

Beware though!

Facebook have some very strict promotional guidelines now set in place. If you breach these guidelines you could find your page deleted without notice and all of your hard work and fan base can be undone in an instant.

For more information on Facebook’s promotion guidelines, visit their page here or call Reload Media for a walkthrough in layman’s terms!

Apologies for the acronym soup I’ve served up today. Before we indulge in the main course, here’s the menu in brief:

IMC

IMC stands for Integrated Marketing Communication. According to Wikipedia, IMC is a “holistic approach to marketing” that “aims to ensure consistency of message and the complementary use of media” (IMC, Wikipedia, 2010).

SEM

SEM is short for Search Engine Marketing. In many cases, search marketing includes a wide variety of disciplines but for the sake of this article, when we refer to SEM we will be referring to pay-per-click search advertising. This includes sponsored advertising on the Google, Yahoo and Bing search and display networks.

SEO

If you are an avid reader of this blog, you will likely already have some idea of what SEO is. SEO is short for Search Engine Optimisation (or, for the Americans reading this, Search Engine Optimization!). This involves the process of optimising your website in a bid to improve your search engine rankings on the keywords that are most valuable to you. SEO is achieved through a multitude of visible website changes (on-page SEO) and non-website (off-page SEO) strategies.

SMM

A relatively new acronym in the online marketing field, SMM simply stands for Social Media Marketing. This involves harnessing the communication and viral power of social media platforms in order to achieve a particular marketing objective.

The Main Course

Ok. Now that we know the dishes, it’s now time for the special – a combination of the four!

Consistency. This the main ingredient in a quality IMC campaign. IMC involves creating a consistent tone, character, appearance, personality and message across your entire marketing mix. IMC has been widely accepted as the most effective way to cut through media clutter and deliver a single minded brand proposition to your target market.

You have probably already experienced a quality Integrated Marketing Campaign without realising it. Consider Optus. The way Optus have developed their IMC campaign is through the use of a consistent brand theme throughout all of their visible customer touch points. This theme of course, revolves around the brand colours yellow and turquoise and the use of wild animals in all of their marketing discourse (open a new browser/tab and check out their website now – you’ll see what I mean).

So how can SEM, SEO and SMM be integrated into an IMC campaign? Here are a few tips:

SEM

• Ensure that you develop your PPC advertising campaigns to include keywords that are utlised in your offline marketing efforts (for example brand slogans, tvc messages, etc)
• If your brand has a recognisable and distinctive brand personality, try to incorporate this personality into the writing of your ads.
• If you have a special offer or promotion running offline, replicate and reinforce this offer though your ad copy in the search engines.
• Let users know they have landed in the right place by integrating your landing page/website design with offline marketing themes.

SEO

• Like with SEM, make sure you have optimised your website for keywords and phrases that a potential customer might type in after ingesting your offline marketing material.
• Increase your search engine real estate by dominating the most valuable keyword groups relating to your industry. This will increase your branding and will allow you to reinforce your integrated marketing message every time a user searches for a relevant term in your industry.
• Make sure that, in making on-page SEO changes to your website, that you are able to create a balance between SEO and readability so as to maintain a clear and consistent marketing message.

SMM

• If you have an actual brand character, consider integrating this character across all of your social media channels. Brand characters are very powerful marketing tools and work well to create instant brand recognition and connection.
• Once again, if you have offline promotions running, you can boost the profile of this promotion through a creative social media marketing strategy.
• If you have decided on the brand tone and personality you would like to convey to your audience (are you young with attitude or conservative and corporate?), make sure to convey this personality in your social media interactions. A great example of a brand with a consistent brand personality and theme is Virgin (cheeky, red and white, casual, innovative, slightly (and ironically) anti-corporate)).

Mmm delicious…

I hope you’ve enjoyed this quick taste test on some ways you can incorporate SEO, SEM and SMM into your integrated marketing campaigns.

Please feel free to add a comment below if you:

• Did or didn’t agree on any of the points,
• Know of another good IMC example?
• Or simply have a question about this post!

Google TV – Watch The Overview

There are a multitude of topics and issues that could be discussed in relation to the announcement of Google TV.  As a keen Google advertiser myself, however, I would like to concentrate on just one – the shift in thinking that may occur amongst advertisers if Google’s ambition to combine the internet with traditional television is successful.

Although many other companies have attempted to marry these two beasts in the past (Apple TV, Boxee, TiVo etc), none have yet achieved the ‘Holy Grail’ result – widespread adoption of and acceptance of tv/internet integration. Although to most advertisers, this integration has always been the obvious next step in television advertising, until now, there hasn’t really been a platform on offer that smoothly integrates the television and internet into one, seamless media experience.

Enter Google into the equation and the traditional television advertising landscape begins to look a little different. Google, who already have a wildly successful online advertising platform in Google AdWords, will no doubt be looking at integrating their AdWords system into Google TV. Even at this point in time, Google already have a Google TV interface within their AdWords console which allows advertisers to upload TV ads to be viewed by current Google TV owners.

Google TV + AdWords

But consider some other future possibilities for a moment…

If Google TV is a success, we may see a new generation of direct response advertising in traditional TV ads.

Imagine a Domino’s TV ad which allows you to click on an AdWords coupon that then takes you to a HD ordering page designed specifically for TVs.

Or an ad for a new song or movie that takes the user directly to a website where they can buy and download that media onto their television.

What is most exciting about this fundamental shift in the way television advertising may soon be provided is that it will now allow a once passive medium to become an extremely active, engaging and (even more) powerful advertising tool.

Only time will tell if Google’s new television platform will gain widespread acceptance but, for now, as a Google Advertiser, I can only sit and think giddily about the future possibilities for online advertising through television.

What do you think about Google TV and the future of TV advertising? Feel free to comment and discuss!

In the last post, we explored how to convert international visitors into paying customers.

Now that you’ve got that sorted, let’s look at how to drive quality traffic to your site.

Although there are number of ways to direct international traffic to your website (international search engine optimisation, offline marketing and international public relations to name a few), Google AdWords remains one of the most effective and efficient mediums with regards to testing the validity of new markets.

AdWords allows businesses to very quickly dip their toes into the waters of just about every market in the world at very little cost. Furthermore, businesses can just as quickly pull out of these markets if said waters start to get a little rough.

The next four steps in this guide will therefore concentrate on how to successfully set up an international Google AdWords campaign for the purpose of generating international traffic.

Eeni Meeni Minee Moe

• Choose your markets based on website and market trends. Have you noticed sales coming through any countries in particular in Google Analytics?
• Test only 1-2 markets at a time.
• Take cultural considerations into mind. For example, if you are exporting wine, how does your new market perceive alcohol?
• Take exporting issues into consideration. How will your product be taxed?

I’ll have what they’re having

• Use the Google Ad Preview tool to test if and how your competitors are advertising in your chosen market/s.
• How will you create a magnetic advertising message that will break through the clutter in this new market?
• What lessons can you learn from your competitors in this market place?

Tis’ the season?

• Do you have a seasonal product? If so, figure out what season your market is in.
• Remember that your time scheduling will also need to be altered in an international market if your ads aren’t set to run at all times.

Watch Your Language!

• Consider whether you should be advertising in multiple languages. Be careful however as multiple languages can sometimes bring in double the traffic on broad terms. If this is the case, you may have trouble deciphering which negatives to add to your campaigns!

Even though AdWords will work very effectively to kick start your international traffic, it’s important to make sure you’ve got the whole OIMP sorted!

Your domestic traffic is through the roof and your conversion rates have remained reliable and stable for a prolonged period of time.

But how are you going to move forward?

There are two integral questions you need to ask yourself when attempting to solve the Online International Market Puzzle (OIMP!):

1. How am I going to convert International traffic? and
2. How am I going to generate International traffic to my website?

Sounds simple… doesn’t it?

Let’s start with the first part of the OIMP equation – converting International traffic.

For most domestic e-commerce websites, some simple conversion optimisation and usability changes need to be considered before any International marketing begins in order to accommodate foreign visitors. There are a number of points to consider when upgrading to an International e-commerce website.

There’s no place like home page

First impressions count. Have you ever heard the term ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’?  Well forget that. On the web, your home page or landing page generally only have 8 seconds to capture your audience’s interest before they decide whether or not they have landed in the right spot. It is therefore imperative that you customise your home page or landing pages for International markets. Some ways to do this are to:

• Recognise your user’s IP address and display content based on their geographic location. This might include a custom welcome message for French visitors or a special shipping sale for German customers etc.
• Maintain country recognition throughout visit. Remember to make sure that, if you have a customer from Germany on your website, you should always display currency in Euros, have an option for German language/site translation and only include information relevant to German visitors.
• Buy a domain name from the user’s country of origin in order to reduce proximity dissonance.

Make them feel safe

One method to gaining your customer’s trust within the first 8 seconds of their visit is to make them feel like they are in safe hands upon arrival. Although a custom, geo-targeted greeting may help the customer feel welcome, there are some other ways to help make the consumer feel safe on your site.

• Mention the security credentials of your site.
• Use a number of well known payment methods and options.
• Make sure your visitors know and understand that you have shipped to their country before and that you can guarantee quick, safe, and reliable delivery of your product or service.
• Mention your local shipping partner for that country. If you can secure well known local shipping partners, this will help to establish trust between you and your international audiences.
• Let your customers know about any additional fees or taxes that may not be included in the price of your product or service (for example VAT fees, shipping insurance and import/export taxes).
• Be sure to include all of these extra fees in your overall total price so there are no surprises for the users down the track.

Check out your Checkout

One of the biggest conversion barriers in international markets is your checkout. Here are some questions you should ask yourself when implementing a checkout system for international customers.

• Would you feel safe or comfortable using this checkout if you were an international buyer at an American store?
• Have you provided international assurances during the checkout process? Once again, you need to let your audience know that you’ve done this before! Assure them that they will always be able to contact you and that they will also be able to get a quick response from your company.
• Have you included a package tracking option?
• Have you sent a confirmation e-mail receipt when your customers order is purchased and dispatched?
• Have you added all shipping costs to the order total?

Where in the world?

• It might go without saying, but if you are targeting a non-english speaking country, it would be preferable if you could have your site translated into your target countries language!
• Even in countries that do natively speak English, ensure that local terminology and spelling is used. (eg: don’t use American spelling if you’re selling to the UK)
• You should also make sure you have altered your checkout fields to suit the country you are targeting. (e.g. Hong Kong has no post code so this field should not be mandatory in a Hong Kong checkout form)

Leave Your Boat Ashore!

• Don’t revert to your country of origin’s domain or pages after the user clicks off your home page. Stay in the country you are targeting.
• It is important to maintain a smooth, customised and personalised browsing experience for each international customer in order to generate optimum results.
• Remember to leave out information which is Australian centric information which is not relevant to your international customers.

Now that you’ve got your website converting, the next step is to send quality traffic. Coming soon will be part 2, how to design an AdWords campaign for International markets.

If you turn to one of the first chapters you will find a tried and true path to AdWords marketing success. The 4 P’s of Marketing.

The 4 P’s of Marketing (Product, Price, Place and Promotion) should be one of this first ad creation strategies a search engine marketer turns to when building any new AdWords’ campaign. These four elements – which are the cornerstone of nearly all first year marketing textbooks – are of paramount importance in the search engine marketing sphere.

Here’s why.

Search engine marketing is a curious beast. Many bright eyed, bushy tailed newly graduated marketers who find themselves in a search engine marketing position often neglect these core marketing principles and attempt to develop over creative, over complicated and ultimately unattractive search advertising.

However, when creating ads for search engines, marketers need to put results ahead of creative ambitions. By keeping the 4 P’s in mind at all times, a marketer will discover very quickly that utilising some or all of these four elements in their ads – while adhering to strict advertising character limits – will automatically cut the fat off any over-ambitious advertising copy.

This is critical to AdWords success as, through employing this ad creation strategy, one can instantaneously increase any ad’s probability of quickly solving their audience’s perceived problem.

AdWords Solves Problems Quickly

Google is fast becoming the number one go-to source for problem solution amongst consumers. This is great news for advertisers as search engines create a veritable feeding ground of qualified, purchase ready individuals ready to have their problems solved by intuitive, relevant and magnetic advertising. Purchase ready consumers on Google are generally looking to find the quickest and most attractive solution to their perceived problem. So solve their problems quickly and creatively with your ads!

Integrating the 4 P’s

The trick with Search Marketing is to create ads that possess an even balance of creativity and detail about the advertised product/service. If you put yourself in the shoes of a purchase ready consumer on Google, you will begin to understand the importance of utilising the 4P’s in your ads.

For example…

Let’s say you are searching to buy a new acoustic guitar and the following two ads appear:

As you can see, although the first ad in this scenario uses a (somewhat) creative emotional appeal, the second ad would likely generate a much higher CTR as it gives users more than one reason to click.

Let’s break it down.

Assuming the search term was ‘acoustic guitar sydney’, the ad above touches on all four of the 4 P’s:

Product: Acoustic Guitar

Price: From $499

Place: Sydney

Promotion: Huge Acoustic Guitar Sale

The lesson here is to take some time out to evaluate some of your current ads to see whether they are working hard to solve your target audience’s problem. If they aren’t try rebuilding some of your ads with the product, price, place and/or promotion details integrated into your copy.

Or, if you don’t have the time or patience to do it yourself, talk to a specialist AdWords’ firm like Reload.