June 8/15, 2015; Volume 30/Number 1
By Jenna Lippin
Marketing experts continue to drive the point home about the importance of online advertising, social media, ratings and reviews. A number of manufacturers and buying groups are doing more to educate their dealer partners about these essential Internet tools, while Google in particular is making it easier for a company to maximize its exposure.
A tool that has been imperative in online marketing is Google AdWords, which allows for placement targeting to help reach target consumers. This is part of Google’s initiative to educate users about a brand-engagement campaign, which is meant “to build awareness of and positive associations with your company and its products and services. A customer can interact with your brand in a variety of ways, including watching videos, playing games, spending time on your website or communicating with customers,” the website explains.
At Abbey Carpet & Floor’s most recent gathering of members, Steve Butler, a Google certified AdWords specialist, was on hand to explain the importance of AdWords and, specifically for Abbey dealers, PPC—or Pay-Per- Click—advertising, which is part of the group’s Customer Connect program.
“There are ‘bull’s-eye’ terms that have indicators in them, and PPC spends money wisely to focus on these terms. PPC reduces the need for you to learn hard lessons that may have already been learned by other accounts: best ad copy, which keywords work best, which products should or shouldn’t be advertised, etc. The goal is not to pay the least amount per click, but to focus on attracting people ready to buy by creating campaigns tailored to individual stores.”
Google provides tools to help measure brand awareness, so companies utilizing these ad features can track the effectiveness of their efforts. Metrics include impressions, customer engagement, reach and frequency.
According to Google, reach is the number of site visitors exposed to an ad. Increased reach means the ad is exposed to more potential customers, which leads to increased awareness. Frequency is the average number of times a visitor has been exposed to an ad over a period of time.
To essentially help with all of these factors, Mohawk offers its retail partners a Lead Booster program, which drives ad/website traffic, bringing more consumers into stores. Because Google is responsible for 69% of desktop and 93% of mobile searches, “we certainly consider [it] an important and key component to retailers’ digital marketing strategy,” said Mollie Surratt, senior director of public relations and content.
Mike Zoellner, vice president, marketing services, said Mohawk’s Lead Booster “works in partnership with participating retailers to analyze search traffic and purchase most-used search terms in a local market. Digital promotional advertisements begin appearing to targeted customers and set up offers, connecting interested consumers to a retailer’s lead platform for follow up and conversation. The Lead Booster has created over 50 million ads through Google and other search engine providers for our retail partners and has generated thousands of highly qualified leads this year alone.”
What is most helpful about Google’s tools that maximize exposure and drive leads are its features that measure effectiveness. One such tool is called Conversion Tracking, which allows users to track the number of conversions, cost per conversion, conversion rate and keyword conversion data.