Google Goes All in on Mobile Apps With AdWords Updates

Google is making a big bet on mobile app marketing, judging by the new and improved AdWords features it announced recently.

Innovative new ad formats are designed to drive greater engagement, allow for more effective app promotion, and boost measurement capabilities for companies offering their audience a mobile app.

The updates are likely motivated by rapidly increasing app usage, which is stealing from Web-usage time, and Google's need to shore up Google Play, which made just 13% as much revenues compared to Apple in 2013.

Here are the highlights from the recently announced Google AdWords updates.

Enhanced App Discovery and Installation With New AdWords Features

Engagement is critical, but first, you have to get your app in front of the right audience and installed on their devices. Google aims to make this easier with new ad targeting options that allow advertisers to home in with greater intent on audiences.

Now, you'll be able to see keyword suggestions based on searches from the Google Play store and target users based on which apps they use. For example, a women's clothing retailer with a mobile app could choose to promote its app through AdWords to people who already have women's fashion apps installed on their phones. Even better, Google will consider not only which apps are installed but how often they're used and the user's history of in-app purchases.

That gives brands greater control over their AdWords spend when promoting their app. It also helps expand your potential audience without sacrificing specificity or intent.

App Promotion Comes to YouTube and Google Display Network

Until now, you could only promote app ads in Google Search. This latest update expands the App Promotion ad format to YouTube and the Google Display Network, giving you far greater reach. This is pretty huge for advertisers, considering there are about 25 billion ad impressions per day on the GDN (an estimate based on our internal data).

This is a much-needed update, as the current Google App promotion ad format has been a complete failure. Only a few hundred million apps have been downloaded as a result of Google App Promotion ads. That might seem like a lot, but bearing in mind there have been 50 billion app downloads on Google Play so far, it's only 0.4% or so (which is nothing).

AdWords will now also allow you to direct people from TrueView ads on YouTube right to the app install, instead of to an app landing page.

Boost Engagement With Deep-Linking for Apps

You don't always want to send people to your app download page. This is particularly true when you're trying to boost app engagement or promote offers to people who already have your app on their device.

Google has added deep-linking for apps to AdWords. That means you can use your ad to point people directly to a page within your app. For example, a fitness brand could create an AdWords ad with a promotion on treadmills; with deep-linking, an existing app user's ad click will take them inside the app, to the treadmill product page (or whichever in-app location the advertiser prefers).

People love apps—but the vast majority of installed apps aren't used regularly or they are simply deleted. Using this new AdWords feature to point people inside the app with highly relevant, specific offers is a huge boon for app marketers.

Coming Soon: Conversion Measurement Across the App Lifecycle

Paid search advertisers have to be able to accurately measure ROI, and app marketing is no different. Google has promised it'll soon roll out improved measurement capabilities that will allow advertisers to track and measure each installation, engagement, and in-app purchase.

If you aren't seeing all those new features and functions in your AdWords dashboard yet, fear not! Google will be rolling them out to more users in the coming months.

Source: http://www.marketingprofs.com/opinions/2014/25024/google-goes-all-in-on-mobile-apps-with-adwords-updates

You Can Drive Traffic and Conversions With These 3 Twitter Cards

Over the past year, Twitter has enhanced its ads platform with new targeting options, creative ad units, and measurement tools to help you better achieve your direct response marketing goals. Features like tailored audiences, Lead Generation Cards, and conversion tracking have all delivered strong ROIs to advertisers.

As an advertiser, you’re always looking for new ways to drive relevant traffic back to your website, product page, or blog post. Tweets offer one of the most convenient ways of doing this. However, sometimes you need more than 140 characters to get your message across, which is why Twitter Cards have become such a valuable tool in your arsenal.

Here are a couple examples of Twitter Cards that can be used to increase traffic and conversions, as well as some tips on how you can get started.

Twitter Website Cards

Recently, a powerful new ad unit began rolling out to Twitter’s mobile and desktop advertisers. Called the Website Card, it offers you a new way of not only surfacing website content within a tweet, but also of driving relevant traffic back to any page of your website.

With the Website Card, consumers are able to preview an image, related context, and a clear call-to-action in their timelines before clicking through the tweet. This enables easy discovery of interesting content while giving advertisers the ability to drive a higher volume of URL clicks. The Card can also be used in conjunction with conversion tracking to measure end-to-end conversions.

Twitter has tested the card with a handful of brands like Citrix and Betabrand, both of which saw significant decreases in cost-per-click (CPC) compared to campaigns that used an image and URL to drive website traffic. Betabrand’s CPCs were reduced by up to 85 percent while Citrix saw a 92 percent decrease. Additionally, the mobile company Three saw a 26 percent higher engagement rate as well as a 64 percent increase in URL clicks when using Website Cards.

Twitter Lead Generation Cards

Lead Generation Cards make it easy for advertiser to find and connect off-Twitter with consumers. It allows people to express interest in what your brand offers, while enabling them to easily and securely share their contact information without leaving Twitter or having to fill out a cumbersome form.

Outdoor gear and apparel company Rock/Creek used the card in a Promoted Tweet campaign to collect email addresses of people who wanted to enter to win a free pair of sandals. The campaign saw a 4.6 percent engagement rate and generated more than 1,700new email contacts in less than one week.

Mount Washington College, which is part of the Kaplan Higher Education group, worked closely with Adobe to increase awareness, create engagement, and generate leads for enrollment. Adobe created a Promoted Tweet campaign with Lead Generation Cards for @MW_College. This method increased the school’s conversion rate by 101 percent while decreasing the cost-per-lead by 55 percent.

Twitter Product Cards

Product Cards let you feature retail items on Twitter and help drive sales. This card is designed to showcase your products with an image, description, two item-specific details (like price and availability) and most importantly, a call-to-action. It’s a great way to promote new products as well as showcase your top-sellers.

UK-based Harveys Furniture was one of the first major retailers in the country to adopt Product Cards and it paid off. According to reports, doing so enabled the company to triple its clickthrough rates within a month.

Best Practices for Twitter Cards

When given the opportunity to customize your call-to-action, always opt for a strong one. Think about what it is you want consumers to do and choose the strongest and clearest variation using the least amount of words possible. For example, “sign up here” or “download the whitepaper” are two very solid options.

Regardless of which Twitter Card you’re using, make sure that you create a compelling one. Choose an image that best represents your offer or product and make sure that the description is relevant and adds value. Remember, you still have to get people interested in your tweets in order for them to see your call-to-action.

When using Lead Generation Cards, don’t stop when the sign-ups do. Send a follow-up email to ensure the recipient is engaged with your brand. It goes without saying that this email should provide something of value to avoid coming across as spam.

And finally, always test and re-test. Create variations with different images and calls-to-action. Choose the one that’s resonating the most, and later revisit it to ensure it’s still working for newer audiences. Never stop improving.

Source: http://sproutsocial.com/insights/can-drive-traffic-conversions-3-twitter-cards/

How To Get More Relevant, Quality Twitter Followers [INFOGRAPHIC]

Since it first opened its doors way back when, almost everybody using Twitter has been obsessed with the answer to one question: how can I get more followers?

But here’s the thing: followers are just a number. And more of them doesn’t really mean anything except that the number has got bigger. What really matters is who is following you, and why. Are your followers relevant? Are they interested in the things you say and do?

As I’ve said before, you’re far better off with 100 true fans than you are tens of thousands of people “following” you who couldn’t pick your avatar out of a lineup.

So forget about the number, and focus on the quality. This visual from MarketMeSuite provides a wealth of tips on how to get more of the right sort of Twitter follower.

(Source: MarketMeSuite.)

Source: http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/get-more-quality-twitter-followers_b56758