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Axel Zawierucha is a successful businessman and an internet expert. He began his career in journalism at some of Germany's leading media companies. As early as the 1990s, Zawierucha recognized the importance of the internet and moved on to become a marketing director at the first digital companies, eventually founding internetwarriors GmbH in 2001. For 20 years – which is an eternity in digital terms! – the WARRIORS have been a top choice in Germany for comprehensive online marketing. Their rallying cry then and now is "We fight for every click and lead!"

Axel
Knowledge

- Blog Posts

Axel Zawierucha is a successful businessman and an internet expert. He began his career in journalism at some of Germany's leading media companies. As early as the 1990s, Zawierucha recognized the importance of the internet and moved on to become a marketing director at the first digital companies, eventually founding internetwarriors GmbH in 2001. For 20 years – which is an eternity in digital terms! – the WARRIORS have been a top choice in Germany for comprehensive online marketing. Their rallying cry then and now is "We fight for every click and lead!"

Axel
Knowledge

- Blog Posts

Axel Zawierucha is a successful businessman and an internet expert. He began his career in journalism at some of Germany's leading media companies. As early as the 1990s, Zawierucha recognized the importance of the internet and moved on to become a marketing director at the first digital companies, eventually founding internetwarriors GmbH in 2001. For 20 years – which is an eternity in digital terms! – the WARRIORS have been a top choice in Germany for comprehensive online marketing. Their rallying cry then and now is "We fight for every click and lead!"

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Online Marketing Trends 2024: Balancing AI, Data Privacy, and User Experience

Dec 20, 2023

Axel

Vortex

Category:

Growth Marketing

As always, the Online Marketing World remains exciting, thanks to new technological developments, ever-changing algorithms, and a year full of Google updates. Artificial Intelligence is shaking up all channels and opening new opportunities. The experts at internetwarriors have once again compiled the most exciting trends and current developments from various online marketing disciplines for 2024. We provide you with an overview of what remains important, what will become important, and how you can prepare for it. General Trends in Online Marketing 2024 Online marketing agencies in Germany, like elsewhere, must adapt to global trends while accommodating the country-specific aspects of the German market. Let's delve into some of these trends and how they specifically apply to the German context: 1. Compliance with Data Protection Laws: Germany is known for its strict data protection laws, particularly under the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Online marketing agencies must ensure compliance with these regulations, focusing on privacy-friendly strategies and transparent data usage. 2. Mobile and Voice Search Optimization: With a high smartphone penetration rate in Germany, optimization for mobile and voice search is crucial. This includes creating mobile-friendly content and optimizing for German-language voice searches, taking linguistic nuances into account. 3. Integration of E-Commerce: Germany boasts a strong e-commerce market. Online marketing agencies are increasingly integrating e-commerce functions into social media and other platforms to facilitate direct sales and enhance the customer journey. 4. Sustainability and Ethical Marketing: German consumers are generally very environmentally conscious. Agencies should focus on sustainable marketing practices and promote clients' eco-friendly initiatives, which can significantly influence consumer decisions. 5. Localized Content and Multilingual Strategies: Although a large part of the German population speaks English, localizing content into German is key for deeper market penetration. Given Germany's multicultural landscape, multilingual marketing strategies can also be advantageous. 6. Video and Interactive Content: The popularity of video content is rising in Germany. Agencies should focus on creating engaging video content, including interactive elements, to enhance user engagement. This includes using platforms popular in Germany like YouTube and TikTok. 7. Artificial Intelligence and Automation: The use of AI for customer segmentation, personalized marketing, and predictive analysis is becoming increasingly important. German online marketing agencies are investing in AI-driven tools for more efficient and effective campaigns. 8. Influencer Marketing: Influencer marketing is effective, but there's a shift toward authenticity. German agencies focus on micro-influencers and influencers who closely align with the brand's values and target audience. 9. Chatbots and Artificial Intelligence: Implementing chatbots and artificial intelligence in both German and English can enhance customer service and provide a personalized experience, which is crucial in the German market known for its high standards in customer service. 10. Virtual and Augmented Reality: AR and VR are still in their early stages but are already being explored to create unique brand experiences. This is particularly relevant in sectors like the automotive and engineering industries, which are significant in Germany. 11. Remote Work and Collaboration Tools: The trend towards teleworking also impacts German agencies. This requires efficient online collaboration tools and strategies for managing distributed teams. 12. Focus on B2B Marketing: Given Germany's strong industrial and manufacturing sectors, B2B online marketing holds particular importance. Agencies develop specialized strategies for B2B marketing and leverage LinkedIn and other professional networks. For online marketing agencies operating in Germany, it is crucial to understand and adapt to these trends while respecting local culture and regulations. The ability to innovate while ensuring compliance and localization will determine their success in the evolving digital landscape. AI and Its Applications in 2024 AI and machine learning are becoming increasingly important for data analysis, customer segmentation, and personalized marketing. They can predict buyer behavior, optimize advertising campaigns in real-time, and provide insights that might escape human analysis. The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in online marketing is revolutionizing how businesses approach their digital strategies. Here's a closer look at how these technologies are impacting the field: 1. Customer Segmentation and Personalization: AI algorithms can analyze large data sets to identify patterns and segment customers more effectively. This leads to highly personalized marketing strategies, tailoring content, emails, offers, and advertisements to individual preferences and behaviors. In Germany, where data protection is a priority, AI can help tailor content while respecting data protection regulations. 2. Predictive Analytics: AI and ML are excellent for predictive analytics. They can analyze past consumer behavior to predict future actions. This is particularly useful for forecasting market trends, understanding consumer preferences, and making inventory decisions. In a dynamic market like Germany's, predictive analytics can give businesses a competitive edge by keeping them one step ahead of trends. 3. Chatbots and Conversational Marketing: AI-powered chatbots can provide personalized customer service and marketing. They can handle inquiries, offer recommendations, and even assist in the purchase process. In a market like Germany, known for its high standards in customer service, chatbots can improve the user experience while providing valuable data insights. 4. Real-Time Ad Optimization: AI algorithms can optimize advertising campaigns in real-time by adjusting bids, targeting, and content based on ongoing user interaction and feedback, ensuring marketing budgets are used more efficiently and ads reach the most receptive audiences. 5. Content Creation and Optimization: AI can aid in creating and optimizing content. From generating basic reports and news updates to assisting with language translation and SEO - AI tools are invaluable in content marketing. 6. Email Marketing Optimization: AI can personalize email campaigns based on user behavior, ensuring messages are sent at the right time, with the right content, and to the right audience, increasing the chances of engagement and conversion. 7. Sentiment Analysis: With sentiment analysis, AI can capture public opinion and emotional reactions to marketing campaigns, products, or the brand as a whole, which is particularly useful for adjusting marketing strategies in response to public sentiment. 8. Image and Voice Recognition: AI technologies are advancing in image and voice recognition, which can be employed in innovative marketing campaigns like interactive ads or voice-activated experiences. 9. Fraud Detection and Security: AI can help detect and prevent fraudulent activities in digital marketing by identifying unusual patterns and behaviors indicating fraudulent clicks or transactions. 10. Market Research and Consumer Insights: AI tools can process large volumes of market research data to gain insights that would be challenging for humans to capture manually. This includes understanding market trends, analyzing competitors, and consumer behavior patterns. In Germany, where technology adoption is high, and there is a strong focus on innovation, AI and ML are particularly relevant for online marketing. However, agencies must align the use of these technologies with strict data protection laws. The key to successfully implementing AI and ML in German online marketing lies in leveraging these technologies to enhance customer experience and engagement while ensuring transparency and compliance with GDPR and other regulations. Let's take a closer look at the key Online Marketing Channels , their current developments, and trends. SEA & Social Trends 2024 No surprise: Artificial intelligence, automation, and smart bidding remain the main topics in Google Ads. In search, as well as in the management, optimization, and delivery of campaigns, Google continuously develops AI technologies. Specific SEA trends we see for 2024 are: 1. Demand Gen Campaigns (previously Discovery): The new AI-supported campaign type for Gmail, Discover, and YouTube was officially introduced by Google in June 2023. By October, these were available to all advertisers and replaced the previous Discover campaigns by November. They offer high potential: creative ads for greater relevance and more engagement. 2. YouTube Shorts: The YouTube Ads channel will soon also enable advertising in YouTube Shorts. This innovation is currently in the beta phase and accessible to selected advertisers. Once rolled out to everyone, advertisers will have new opportunities for visibility in the popular video format. 3. New Search Experience in Yahoo Search: According to Brian Provost, Senior VP and General Manager of Yahoo Search, the new Yahoo Search Experience is scheduled to roll out in early 2024. Although specific features haven't been disclosed yet, it's likely Yahoo will also implement AI-backed features. We'll monitor how this impacts search engine market shares in Germany and Yahoo Ads. 4. New AI Features in Search: Google also continuously enhances the Search Experience with new AI-based features. For SEA, updates in the Shopping area of mobile search are particularly relevant. Examples include AI-generated gift ideas or images for clothing searches. As usual, these updates are often first rolled out in the USA, and when they'll reach Germany remains to be seen. 5. AI in Social Media and Social Ads: In social media, artificial intelligence remains a major topic. An example is Meta's AudioCraft, a KI-driven tool for creating music and other audio files, presented in August. In September, Meta also introduced Meta AI in the beta version, available for WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram. 6. Search Ads and Live Shopping in TikTok: TikTok remains a relevant channel for social media marketing and social advertising. Besides In-Feed Ads, the new allows advertisers to place ads in TikTok Search. 7. Growth of Influencer Marketing: Influencer marketing is more relevant than ever. eMarketer substantial growth in influencer marketing spending in the USA - by 2025, three times higher than spending on social ads. A similar development is expected in Germany. User-generated content from authentic influencers with high trust enables brands to increase their visibility among relevant audiences and build trust. AI can assist not only in selecting suitable persons and accounts but also in content creation. The significance of AI influencers will continue to grow. SEO Trends 2024 2023 was a year full of changes in Google search . Artificial intelligence has become commonplace in many agencies and companies. In the last quarter, Google significantly reshaped search results with various updates, leaving some companies somewhat perplexed. Since we love challenges, we look forward to 2024 with anticipation. The main trends and developments in SEO : 1. Google's Search Generative Experience (SGE): One of the most exciting innovations from Google Labs is SGE or . Google integrates generative artificial intelligence into the search. The goal is to provide answers and compile information relevant to the query, while enabling users to ask follow-up questions. SGE is currently only in beta in the USA, so it might take a while before it rolls out in search in Germany. Nevertheless, looking across the Atlantic is always exciting to prepare for new developments in advance and adjust strategies. 2. The Importance of E-E-A-T: The framework became known through Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines and offers insights into the aspects Google uses to assess quality. The second E for Experience was introduced . These criteria remain relevant for 2024. For content creation, this means that the standards for good content, especially in critical industries (YMYL) and other topics, remain high. Regular updates, accurate information, individual perspectives, and professional expertise are becoming increasingly important. Although more effortful than automated content creation without depth, it pays off in the long run. 3. Answer Engine Optimisation: AEO or Answer Engine Optimization, a subset of search engine optimization, emerged in response to various AI assistants. It involves optimizing content for these tools, particularly to answer specific questions and problems. This influences content structure and preparation, but doesn't contradict traditional content optimization for search engines. On the contrary, synergy effects can be generated, as both Google and AI tools find content forms like (meaningful!) FAQs, bullet point lists, or information in tabular format helpful. When planning and creating content, it's crucial not only to consider user intent but also to adjust structure and preparation accordingly. 4. Zero Click Searches: As Google strives to answer questions directly on the search results page and provide information that users don't need to click for, the relevance of "Zero Click Searches" grows - search queries that don't lead to a click. Information in a featured snippet, for instance, can suffice to answer a question. What does this mean for online marketers? Besides analyzing which keywords and topics are affected, strategic content planning is more important than ever. A search result without a click can indeed enhance brand awareness, but it's crucial to consider topics and keywords too complex to be answered within a featured snippet or any other answer type on Google's search results page. 5. User Experience Remains Important: This is not a new topic, but one that has been and will remain important for years. Online competition isn't decreasing, users aren't becoming more patient, and expectations aren't lowering. Relevant information and an intuitively user-friendly, fast website remain as crucial as understanding the needs of the target audience. What's the intention behind the search query, what information is necessary, how should it be presented and structured, what's the logical next step for visitors to the website or online shop? A deep understanding of your target audience remains essential for long-term success. 6. Changes in Search Results: Google consistently evolves search result pages, creating new challenges and opportunities for online marketers. Some changes are temporary and experimental, others permanent. One example is the altered assessment of FAQ markups, which Google temporarily stopped using for rich snippets (and now seemingly only displays for sources with particularly high trust). Another is the sometimes very inconsistent to questionable information in the Product Knowledge Panels. Monitoring search results and their features, understanding what this means for our customers, and consistently monitoring SERP information and sources are essential to identify changes early and respond accordingly. Either to fix errors (despite AI, Google is far from infallible) or to seize new opportunities. 7. AI-Driven Search Engine Optimization: In SEO, there are many use cases for artificial intelligence. Various SEO tool providers already use AI technologies to, for example, analyze competitors or assist in content creation. AI offers many possibilities to gain deeper insights and make work more efficient, such as text generation with tools like ChatGPT. Experts are nonetheless more needed than ever, as without an individual strategy, AI tools are only half as effective. As previously mentioned, authority remains an important topic. Here, human expertise continues to play a role by enriching AI-generated or supported content with genuine expert knowledge. The key is to deliver unique content because no AI tool can provide unique expertise and personal experiences. Web Analysis Trends 2024 The shutdown of Universal Analytics and the transition to Google Analytics 4 and data protection challenges were the defining web analysis topics of the past year. The developments and trends for 2024 seamlessly build on these topics. 1. The End of 3rd Party Cookies in Chrome: In the upcoming year, Google plans to disable third-party cookies for all users in Chrome. With Chrome holding a 63% market share, this development requires preparation from all website operators and advertisers. A response to this is the Privacy Sandbox, which gradually expands its privacy-friendly testing options for web developers. It remains to be seen what solutions the sandbox will create next year and how this will affect display advertising opportunities. 2. Apple's Tracking Prevention: Apple continues to limit tracking in the Safari browser and for all iPhone and iPad users with each update. The technologies behind this are Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) and App Tracking Transparency (ATT). We can only wait and observe what this will mean for traffic from Apple users in 2024, 3. Tracking with 1st Party Data: Using their own 1st party data offers companies many advantages in analyzing user behavior. Given that the previous tracking methods are becoming stricter and data less precise each year, data from logged-in users holds significant value. Logged-in users can be assigned, recognized, tracked, and have their data evaluated without privacy concerns and cookies using a user ID. For companies, this means offering incentives for users to log in and stay logged in. Examples of large companies already successfully implementing this are Google, Amazon, and social networks. 4. Further Development of GA4: The transition from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4 was one of the main web analysis measures for many companies. This wasn't always smooth, as not all functions are available or work flawlessly. It is desirable for Google to resolve all issues and provide satisfactory solutions, such as more persistent tracking of user IDs or better default reporting in new properties. New features could also be conceivable, for example, integrating AI and machine learning for better analysis. 5. Analysis Using BigQuery: The more data available, the more complex the analysis. A solution for medium to large companies is capturing raw data from web analysis in BigQuery and combining it with other data sets. The advantages: longer data storage and better control over data processing. In our agency, we already use BigQuery to create more complex reports for clients. 6. Server Side Tracking (SST): A topic we've written and about often, which remains important in 2024, is . For those who missed transitioning to the new tracking technology in 2023, 2024 will be the critical time for the switch. Once Google disables third-party tracking (see above), SST becomes the answer for continuing data collection in a privacy-compliant manner. So far, GA4, Google Ads, Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, and LinkedIn can be integrated natively through the Google Tag Manager. We expect that more providers like Bing/Microsoft will follow suit with an API. Is Your Online Marketing Ready for 2024? Have you already adapted your online marketing strategy to the current developments ? Are you leveraging the opportunities offered by artificial intelligence? Are you maximizing the potential of all relevant channels? If you're looking for expert support to advance your traffic and revenue in 2024, we're the right agency for you. Thanks to years, sometimes even decades of experience, we can accurately assess trends and determine which are relevant and how to implement them. , our team of experts across various disciplines is happy to assist!

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data Privacy: Challenges & Solutions

Oct 23, 2023

Axel

Vortex

Category:

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence is one of the most exciting digital topics of our time. New developments and applications facilitate work for businesses, for instance, through the automation of processes such as lead generation or content production, but they also bring legal pitfalls. The collection and processing of information, which may include personal data, must always be critically assessed from a data protection perspective. Here's an overview of potential issues and solutions. Note: This article offers an introduction to the topic and aims to raise awareness but does not claim completeness and does not replace legal advice from professionals familiar with AI and data protection issues. How does Artificial Intelligence work? The functioning of Artificial Intelligence is complex; in simplified terms, AI systems are meant to simulate human intelligence. A subset of Artificial Intelligence is called Machine Learning, which, using fed data and an algorithm, is capable of learning. The foundation consists of information and algorithms or a mathematical model designed to simulate the human brain. Where do the data and information used to feed AI come from? The specific data used to train an AI application depends on the system and cannot be generally answered. Chat GPT, for example, accesses freely available information from sources such as Wikipedia, digitally available books, and publicly accessible texts from the internet. Additionally, the chatbot learns from the “conversations” it has with users. What legal and data protection issues can arise from using Artificial Intelligence? Data protection officers and authorities have been dealing with the topic of data protection and Artificial Intelligence for years. As early as 2019, the Conference of the Independent Data Protection Authorities of the Federal and State Governments (DSK) published a position paper recommending technical and organizational measures for achieving data protection-compliant design of AI systems. In spring 2022, the French data protection authority CNIL published two guides for the data protection requirements and evaluation of AI systems. One of the most well-known AI tools, ChatGPT, was initially banned by Italian data protection authorities this spring and was allowed again for use in Italy after a statement from the provider. These examples demonstrate that for several years already, authorities from various countries have been dealing with the issues AI tools may cause and whether they can be used in compliance with data protection regulations. The topic of data protection must be considered more closely when AI tools use non-public personal data, such as customer data or employee information. Sensitive personal data includes names, addresses, and phone numbers. The processing of these data and the company's interest in them contrast with the individuals' right to informational self-determination. Regarding especially sensitive data like health information, the legal framework is even stricter. It also becomes problematic when sensitive, non-public information is fed into an AI system unknowingly, where it might be used and potentially exposed to other users upon their inquiry. An example of this is summarizing confidential meeting notes or evaluating personal data according to specific criteria. AI and GDPR For GDPR, the processing of data with a personal reference is relevant, for example, the use of datasets containing personal information or linking the AI tool with communication channels like an email program. The fundamental principle of data minimization applies here as well: personal data should only be collected and processed as necessary for the intended purpose. Unnecessary data collections should be avoided. In case of doubt, it is also advisable to be able to demonstrate why the use of AI in processing these data is necessary. Individuals whose data are used should be informed (for instance, via the privacy statement) about what data is collected, how it is used, and who has access to it. The legal assessment also differs based on whether this data is anonymized and adequately protected, for example, through encryption. AI and Copyright Less discussed but still relevant is the copyright question in using artificial intelligence. AI-generated works are not protected by copyright since they are not created by humans. But what about the content that AI applications use to generate new content? The debate includes, for example, the question of whether it is permissible to use image datasets for training AI tools without the consent of the copyrights holders. The function of known AI tools, which deliver a result to a task, initially seems similar to searching in a search engine. Both answer questions and provide information. However, search engines only show a preview or excerpts of the content in its original form. Generally, this data is not altered, and no new content is created. Crucial to judgement, even in the offline world, is how closely a newly generated work (text or image) resembles an original work. This cannot be estimated when using an AI tool since the sources and therefore the originals are unknown. An uncritical adoption of AI-generated content can, therefore, be problematic in terms of copyright. What options are there to use Artificial Intelligence in compliance with data protection? That Artificial Intelligence is valuable for companies, for example in online marketing ( ), is undisputed. Many companies regularly use Chat GPT, for instance, to ease or speed up content production. Given the possible legal issues, the question arises of how to use it in compliance with data protection regulations and which approaches already exist. It is always advisable to use AI-generated texts or images critically instead of using them unreflectively. We, for instance, draw inspiration from the responses of AI tools, but we always subject them to manual review and editing. How data is collected and used, which sources an AI tool utilizes, and what data protection measures are in place differ among the various providers. This is especially true for personal data – how is it protected, is it anonymized, is it processed outside the EU, etc. The question of who is responsible in a legal case (is it the tool provider?) should also be clarified. Before deciding on a solution, it's advisable to check these points and seek legal advice if in doubt. Using AI-based chatbots requires sensitivity regarding the input of the question or task. This information may be used by the system for further training – including personal information not meant for public use. Depending on the tool used, the use of the entered data can be objected to. In addition to using online AI solutions, which must be checked for their legal requirements, there are two alternative approaches we'd like to briefly explore. Local/Offline Use of AI Tools Various providers are working on solutions for locally usable AI applications. An example is GPT4All, an open-source clone of ChatGPT. It can be used within one's own network and does not require internet use. How helpful such local AI solutions are depends on how comprehensive the model behind it is, the quality of the language model, and for what purpose they are to be used. Providing the tool with its own data for processing is something GPT4AAll cannot do. However, it is assumed that significant developments and expansions in current solutions will occur. Development of Own AI Tools A completely independent programming of an AI tool is costly and not profitable for most companies. However, there are ready-made algorithms or AI models that facilitate this work and can be adapted to one's needs. This personal AI solution can then be used to evaluate one's own data, obtain answers, or automate processes. More Updates from the World of Online Marketing and Online Business We at Internetwarriors consistently watch the developments of the online world with excitement, some already for decades. We keep ourselves informed about new tools and technical standards and evaluate them for application in our work. Our customers benefit from current knowledge and from being a step ahead of the competition in introducing new technologies and responding to important trends. Would you like to always stay up to date? , which provides you with current information. Are you looking for support with your online marketing? Contact us!

Omnichannel Marketing - From a Choice to a Necessity

Apr 29, 2023

Axel

Vortex

Category:

Growth Marketing

Is Omnichannel Marketing the new Multichannel Marketing?  What sounds like a marketing slogan can be proven by experience and studies. The lines between online and offline, as well as between different information and marketing channels, are increasingly blurred. Users expect a seamless transition between various channels and a user-friendly experience when searching for information and making purchases. Companies that have not yet engaged with an omnichannel strategy risk missing out on crucial developments. Benefit from our agency's experience and use our valuable tips to develop your own strategy. Click here now to download our checklist and start right away. What does Omnichannel mean? The prefix “Omni” means “all” or “whole.” Hence, omnichannel can be described as “all channels.” These channels include, for example, paid and unpaid search, social media and social ads, banner advertising, WhatsApp marketing, marketplaces, apps, newsletters, one's own website (or online shop), brick-and-mortar stores, as well as offline channels like print or radio advertising. In summary, the goal is to create a consistent shopping and information experience regardless of device or platform. All touchpoints should be as consistent as possible but also controllable and evaluable. Examples of omnichannel are found in many large companies: Check online availability in-store (example: IKEA) Pick up online orders in-store (example: Tchibo) Return online orders in-store (example: dm) Click & Collect (example: Rewe) Not only do the lines between online and offline blur, but also those between entertainment, information, and sales. There are numerous different customer journeys and paths to purchase. This makes the topic of omnichannel both exciting and challenging. An omnichannel strategy involves various important aspects that must be considered both technically and strategically. Here are the key points in brief: Omnichannel Communication Omnichannel encompasses not only the entire purchase process but also the information and, thus, the communication along the user journey, both before and after the purchase. This also means giving customers the choice of communication channel and providing an optimal user experience regardless of the channel of contact. The challenge lies in integrating different channels and centrally storing all important customer information so that it is available at any time, regardless of the channel. This includes personal information as well as order history, but also communication history across other channels. Users now expect not to have to re-enter their information or repeatedly explain their concerns with every contact. Omnichannel Payment Users have long been accustomed to being offered a selection of different payment methods. In brick-and-mortar stores, this has long been “cash or card,” but now mobile payment via app or digital wallet is also an option. In the omnichannel experience, this means that users can choose the most convenient payment method for them, regardless of the channel. A seamless experience, not only during purchase and payment but also for possible returns or exchanges (refund to the desired payment method). For companies, this means creating the technical conditions and interfaces necessary to make omnichannel payment as convenient and user-friendly as possible and to connect all payment methods to the relevant channels. Omnichannel Personalization An expectation of users that has crystallized over recent years: the most personalized and individualized approach possible. And not only that, but also experiences tailored to one's own interests and situation, such as individual offers and suggestions and communication adapted to preferences. This personalization is now achieved through online channels in many cases, but it remains a challenge in brick-and-mortar stores. Identifying customers who enter a physical store is a task where we are still in the early stages technologically. In some industries, however, personalization across different channels has been common practice for some time. Here are two examples: Hospitality: A user books a room online via the hotel's own website or a platform. Check-in allows for effortless identification, so the on-site staff can address the guest individually and, for example, make recommendations based on past bookings. Additional services can be ordered via app during the stay; after departure, the user receives personalized offers via email. Travel: A user purchases a ticket online or at a counter. The ticket is then available in the app, along with further information about the schedule, such as train composition. Emails offer hotels or rental cars appropriate to the trip. Prior to departure, the app sends push notifications about delays or changes. After the trip, the passenger receives a personalized newsletter with individual offers. Omnichannel vs. Multichannel “Omnichannel is the new Multichannel,” we claim, but what does that mean? Both strategies address different channels, yet their approaches are fundamentally different. Multichannel (multi = several) means: presence on different channels; various marketing and sales channels exist and are operated independently. Omnichannel (omni = all) aims for a unified shopping experience and seamless communication and connection across all channels. Related is Cross-Channel Marketing , which connects various, but not all, channels. In contrast, the Single Channel Strategy means serving one sales channel, such as the online shop or the brick-and-mortar store – a strategy that is increasingly being abandoned, as it no longer aligns with modern buyer behavior. The Differences Between Omnichannel and Multichannel Strategy In the multichannel strategy, as defined above, each channel is considered separately. Measures are defined along the user journey on this channel. The approach and content are channel-specific. The focus is on reaching as many potential customers as possible by spreading measures across different channels. Omnichannel, on the other hand, uses standardized information and processes, aiming to create a consistent customer experience. All channels are considered in optimizations. The approach is personalized, yet consistent across the different channels. Advantages and Significance of Omnichannel Marketing The goal of omnichannel marketing is a consistent message and a seamless branding experience. It should ensure a positive user experience along the personalized customer journey, regardless of the channel. Customers can easily switch between channels; data and information remain intact, and the purchase is simplified. Users have the option to choose if and how much interaction they need during purchase (from intensive customer service support to self-service models) or where and via which payment methods they wish to purchase. This way of thinking received a boost during the pandemic due to the demand for contactless shopping and the focus on e-commerce. Driven by the omnichannel developments of many large companies, user expectations and requirements increased during the search for information or a product. This means that not only corporations and international companies need to engage with omnichannel, but this topic is becoming increasingly important for the entire retail sector. Omnichannel in Retail Interestingly, Germany seems to lag a bit in omnichannel development compared to other countries. A 2022 survey asked respondents about the . In Germany, 34% indicated that a seamless offline-online experience was important to them, while in the USA, UK, Spain, and France, it was significantly higher, over 50%. Since the offering influences expectations, it is expected that this number will significantly increase here in the future. In contrast stands the retail sector and its efforts to implement omnichannel measures. According to a 2022 survey, 76% of respondents in German retail reported indicating the . 18% further have planned this. 70% offer in-store orders, 53% enable ship-from-store, and almost 23% more have planned this. A similar survey from 2015 in the DACH regions showed significantly lower values, with just 36% having an online availability check back then. These numbers show how much the importance of omnichannel has grown for retail in recent years. It is expected that this development will continue. B2B Omnichannel Marketing A McKinsey survey in 2021 among decision-makers in the USA revealed that , compared to five in 2016. This highlights the importance of omnichannel marketing in the B2B sector as well. The can be translated into omnichannel communication. Examples of a good customer experience are the online display of availability as well as good customer service and real-time service. Thus, findings for omnichannel marketing can be broadly applied to both B2C and B2B sectors. What makes a good Omnichannel Customer Experience? A well-functioning omnichannel approach is oriented towards customer preferences regarding information channels, sales channels, and payment options. All systems are perfectly aligned, creating a cohesive experience rather than a linear funnel. Information and communication are personalized and intention-driven. Users seeking entertainment or information, for example, can be put off by intrusive advertising. The message and brand experience are consistent across all channels and touchpoints. Implementing this is no easy task. Do you want to benefit from the advantages of an Omnichannel Strategy but need support in implementation? As an experienced agency for omnichannel marketing, we are here to help you create a seamless customer experience across all channels. From conception to implementation, we offer tailored solutions for your success.

Trends & Developments in B2B E-Commerce 2023

Feb 14, 2023

Axel

Vortex

Category:

Growth Marketing

B2B e-commerce is growing and evolving as rapidly as the online world as a whole. However, many B2B companies invest very little in expanding their e-commerce, thus lagging behind current technological developments. Regardless of whether the increasing demands for a professional online business are missed due to a lack of budget or knowledge, awareness is increasing in the B2B sector as a whole that digital sales channels represent a significant opportunity that should be utilized. The past years in the pandemic have sustainably changed the business world. Due to lockdowns and restrictions, field sales have largely been shifted to digital channels,  re-structuring sales to find  . This especially impacts B2B companies.  According to the  , 1.49 trillion in revenue was generated in B2B e-commerce in Germany. Of this, almost 50% is attributed to manufacturers and over 30% to wholesale.  As early as  , over 50% of respondents from B2B companies made at least 75% of their purchases online, with an upward trend. In  , 55 percent agreed that by 2025 more than half of their company purchases would be made via webshops and online marketplaces. These numbers illustrate the increasing importance of B2B e-commerce. As an online marketing agency, we have been following and supporting the developments of our B2B clients for years. We want to share the most important insights from the industry and new trends with you in this article.   What does B2B e-commerce mean? B2B e-commerce refers to the online sale of products or services to business customers, such as wholesalers, retailers, or other business clients. In contrast, B2C involves selling to end consumers.    However, there are also companies that sell to both end consumers and professional customers, such as a catering business delivering food for both birthdays and corporate events and trade shows. Or a company selling building materials to both craftsmen and end consumers.   The sale occurs through an online shop, electronic procurement system (Electronic Data Interchange or EDI), or an online marketplace. Procurement systems are still responsible for a large part of B2B e-commerce revenue. According to a  , marketplaces are gaining significance compared to online shops. How do B2C and B2B e-commerce differ? B2B e-commerce targets a professional audience. While B2C mainly addresses an individual, decisions in B2B often depend on multiple people. This means different needs for information, various types of questions, and decision criteria must be considered in the sales process. Impulse purchases, which play a significant role in B2C, are rare in B2B because decisions are often not made by a single person; budgets need approval and expenses must be justified. Another significant difference: In the B2B sector, the order value is often higher than in the B2C segment. This can result in fewer orders being required to meet sales targets, and the target audience may be smaller. More differences between B2C and B2B e-commerce at a glance: Individual solutions and prices are common practice in B2B business. B2B acquisition is often more complex and consultation-intensive. Thanks to high order volumes and often comparatively fewer customers, individual customers are more valuable, and maintaining existing customer relationships is especially important. This also implies: Good customer service is crucial, particularly with technically complex products or services. Acquiring new customers involves building relationships and trust, which are prerequisites for closing a deal. The products are often more complex and require a higher level of information. There are often larger order quantities in B2B e-commerce compared to the B2C segment. Repeated orders are more common, making satisfied existing customers particularly valuable. Further challenges in B2B e-commerce The differences result in particular challenges and tasks that B2B e-commerce faces. Online sales channels must, for example, provide different information for various stakeholders. Technical details, pricing, efficiency, and other information must be easily accessible - a challenge not every shop system can meet. Manufacturers exploring B2B online sales find themselves in competition with the retailers selling their products. On one hand, this can mean risking good relationships with retailers. On the other, retailers often outpace manufacturers in technology and marketing. An advantage that can be challenging to overcome. B2B companies in Germany meet the rising demands in various ways, not every business is active online or invests in developing its online sales.  28 percent of decision-makers and project managers from B2B companies stated that they would invest 5 percent of total revenue in e-commerce. Only nine percent invested more than 60 percent. B2B Online Sales and B2B Marketing Trends 2023 Sales channels and marketing are continuously evolving and have gained new momentum in B2B e-commerce since the pandemic began. From the many interesting developments and topics we observe in the market, we've highlighted nine important ones.  can be found in this article. 1. High demands for B2B e-commerce solutions Demands on B2B vendors are rising; the online version of a printed catalog is long outdated. Whereas vendors previously provided their business customers with catalogs as PDF downloads or through rigid shop systems, expectations have changed. Business customers also shop privately and expect the same buying experience in their business shopping. The demands of B2B and B2C customers are converging. Usability and performance are therefore very important for B2B e-commerce as well. A B2B online shop must not only be capable of processing transactions but also complex sales processes, including after-sales support. This also means keeping an eye on market developments and new demands. Following the  , 75% of respondents agreed that it is important to them that providers of e-commerce solutions continuously develop their products and features. Additionally, 73% of respondents consider it essential that, alongside a pure commerce platform, further solutions are offered, such as integrated online marketing tools. Examples of features in a good B2B e-commerce solution (depending on the industry): Individual prices and special conditions (only visible after login) Clearly visible availability Clear delivery times Simple options for recurring orders The ability to assign multiple roles with varying rights within a company The functionality to jointly fill a shopping cart Integration with existing systems Product configurator for individual solutions Easy contact with customer service Self-service (the ability to complete a purchase without customer service assistance), as through an extensive information portal and digital contract management Simple requests for services such as repairs As B2C e-commerce further develops, the demands on B2B shops and marketplaces increase. A technical challenge that various providers of major shop systems have already addressed, with B2B-specific e-commerce solutions. 2. The rising importance of B2B (niche) marketplaces B2B marketplaces are an alternative or supplement to B2B shop systems. According to the  , 27% of sales were generated through B2B marketplaces last year, compared to only 15% in 2018. As each industry brings its own requirements, the importance of specific marketplaces will rise too. Alongside this, major players remain important and are investing in their growth. One example: Amazon Business, which takes much of the workload off B2B companies (such as billing), still offers many options for customizing pricing and discounts, promoting products, and providing detailed dashboards for analysis. Also,  . 3. Composable Commerce The rising demands mean a great opportunity for Composable Commerce. Rather than relying on a single system, this approach connects different software solutions into a custom-fit application. The harder it is to find an all-in-one application covering all needs, the more attractive custom solutions become through Composable Commerce. Companies aren’t dependent on a single platform but can remain agile, adapting or replacing modules as needed. All channels can be utilized, offering an optimal customer experience across all touchpoints. The downside: The complexity of Composable Commerce solutions requires professional support during setup. All integrations must work seamlessly, and there are typically different contacts for various software solutions. However, once the system functions, it becomes a powerful B2B e-commerce and online marketing tool. 4. The Metaverse as a sales channel In professional circles, the significance of the Metaverse is debated: Is it a gimmick for the private sector or a real opportunity for the B2B sector? It can be used as a virtual space for the promotion and sale of products. Examples include: Virtual stores or showrooms with virtual staff Networking events Virtual trade shows Other virtual events such as product presentations Predictions foresee  : Bloomberg expects the Metaverse economy to reach a market volume of 800 billion US dollars by 2024. Companies that seize this opportunity early can gain a competitive edge. 5. AI-driven personalization A good B2B customer experience is essential in 2023 to successfully attract and retain customers in many industries. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is entering many areas of the online world, and Google has been using AI for several years. In B2B e-commerce, AI can automatically improve the customer experience by providing custom prices and products, offers, or product recommendations. It can create individual user journeys based on data collected, such as location, order history, shopping carts, CRM data, and visitor behavior. Navigation through the store is conducted through AI-driven shop navigation, search, and product recommendations. A development in which we see significant potential and one we follow with interest. 6. Engaging and retaining customers through content Reaching B2B customers involves considering different decision makers and addressing a range of needs and levels, including both personal and company dimensions. Rational factors such as price and features are crucial in B2B purchases, but personal factors also matter. These include trust in the seller and personal relationships. Content optimized for different users is therefore a key success factor, alongside customer service, even in the B2B sector.  in e-commerce can mean: Detailed product descriptions with technical data sheets and 3D views Tutorials and how-to videos for setting up and using products 3D configurators for creating a tailored, perfect-fit product Online showrooms and trade fair stands for demonstrations and additional information Webinars White papers Market studies and surveys Case studies etc. This also includes general virtual information offerings important for companies in the industry, such as industry news or articles with new scientific insights that highlight the company's expert status. 7. Security of digital identities Online sales, especially with high order volumes, demand a high level of data security and verification of buyers' digital identities. The challenge is balancing secure methods for identity verification with the customer journey, especially when onboarding is interrupted or delayed by a time-consuming validation process. In B2B e-commerce, invoice payment remains a popular method. To minimize risks for the seller, identity must be verified. Unlike the B2C business, this involves checking not only the customer's personal identity but also the company's identity: Does the individual actually work at the company and is authorized to electronically finalize the contract? Marketplaces and B2B e-commerce solutions, through external partners, partly include an identity check. New developments and simplified secure solutions for both sides are expected in this area too. 8. Expanding towards B2C B2B and B2C are not always distinctly separated, and this trend is amplifying. B2B enterprises are expanding their target group to include end customers, for instance, by opening their online shop to private consumers. Another trend: Manufacturers that previously only sold through wholesalers or retailers are opening up to direct-to-consumer (D2C) businesses, be it to private or business customers. The advantage: Consumers generally have great trust in manufacturers. In the B2C sector, a similar trend occurs in reverse: Companies are extending their consumer shops with a segment for business customers. Parallel B2B and B2C shops and their unique demands are one of the current challenges for e-commerce solutions. 9. Measurable KPIs are becoming more crucial The economic situation is strained, and many companies are cutting budgets. A vital part of B2B marketing includes maintaining relationships with new and existing customers and building a brand reputation. However, when revenues stagnate or decline, what becomes important is knowing: How much revenue do individual channels and activities generate? What's the ROI? Measures that can be tracked as precisely as possible are therefore even more significant in 2023. Simultaneously, digital channels in the B2B segment provide important opportunities to reach new target groups. Good communication with potential buyers is now more crucial than ever, as many companies compete for customers with sometimes reduced budgets. The key lies in targeted marketing efforts to spend the budget as effectively as possible. Conversion after the click depends on an optimal user experience within the shop system, whose requirements we described above. B2B E-commerce Marketing with the internetwarriors Planning to build or develop your B2B online shop? Looking for a reliable partner with longstanding experience in B2B e-commerce and comprehensive knowledge of the specific challenges of B2B online marketing? As a full-service agency , we have been supporting B2B companies of different sizes in implementing customized online marketing strategies for many years, even at an international level. Contact us today for a non-binding offer! Together, we will develop a strategic solution that leads your B2B company to success.

Online Marketing Trends 2023

Nov 30, 2022

Axel

Vortex

Category:

Growth Marketing

As the current year draws to a close, new online marketing trends for 2023 are already emerging. Whether it's , , or , the development of the online marketing universe is advancing at a familiar rapid speed and remains exciting!  But what does 2023 have in store for us? Economic crises and conflicts have been shaking up the corporate world for some time now, making planning more difficult. This makes it all the more important to stay up-to-date on the various online marketing channels and adapt your strategy to new conditions and opportunities. Together with you, the internetwarriors venture a first look at the online marketing trends for 2023! Digital Marketing Trends 2023: Data Collection Following the "Form First" Principle A meaningful is the basis for deriving effective marketing measures. For this, the most precise and selected data possible is needed. Therefore, it is no surprise that data collection will again play a key role in 2023. True to the principle of "Form first!", proactive data collection through targeted inquiry forms will be a focal point in 2023. These primarily serve to sustainably strengthen the sales funnel in customer acquisition. Even simple forms are sufficient here and offer many advantages over fillable contact forms. Consideration of the customer journey is sometimes neglected in B2B . But only marketers who understand at which points of the customer journey the right content must be placed to be found by B2B prospects can reach B2B customers and win them over in the long term. Especially, organic visibility in the form of search engine optimization is a crucial factor here. Target groups looking for B2B services often use search engines like Google as a first step. This means companies that perform well with unique B2B SEO content are also accessible to the potential audience. Verification of Local SEO Listings by Google is not new, but with the verification of local SEO listings, the significance of local search engine optimization for companies with local locations will continue to increase in 2023. Verified entries enhance the credibility of local businesses and hence are a true marketing booster! The verification status of one's listing can be checked in a few steps. Google Support . Online Marketing Trend Voice Search Voice search isn’t new either, but it’s gaining even more importance in the online marketing trends 2023. Voice-activated digital assistants have seen a significant upswing in recent years, making it impossible for SEO managers to overlook voice search. This means keywords must be understandable when spoken. The popularity of voice search has led to significant shifts in keywords.  The reason: A typed search on Google is framed differently from a spoken keyword. When searching for an Indian restaurant, you might type "Indian restaurant near me" on Google, while speaking: "Where is the nearest Indian restaurant?" Considering such long-tail keywords in content optimization is therefore an effective SEO strategy. As voice search continues to grow, alongside the increase in smartphone usage for search, pages that are not optimized with voice search long-tail keywords may be found significantly less often – a trend that will intensify in 2023. Optimization for Visual Search Visual search is among the newer digital marketing trends. Instead of spoken or typed queries, users can now upload an image for their search. It’s also possible to retrieve information about a single image element. Upload a plant photo and receive information about that plant. The image of a city provides architectural, geographic, and historical information. The image of a product offers product descriptions, similar products, and purchasing options. Pinterest Lens, Google Lens, and similar search tools make the smartphone camera a search bar. Companies can leverage visual search by, for example placing high-quality images on their websites, equipped with descriptive keywords, prioritizing image optimization in online marketing, running ads on Pinterest. Tip: An image sitemap helps the search engine to better crawl the images on the website. Speaking file names and meaningful image descriptions ensure that search engines can better capture the content of the image. User Reviews for Local Businesses Search engines now capture user reviews much better than in previous years and can influence local ranking. Not too few and preferably many positive user reviews from verified sources are important. This not only increases trust for human users but also in search engine ratings. On Google, the most important review is the one under the Google My Business listing. The social network Facebook is also considered very significant due to its large number of users. In addition, there are industry-specific portals like Yelp for hotels, restaurants, and the leisure industry. Those who wish to generate user reviews can, for example, send their customers a link to their Google My Business entry after completing a purchase. A strategy to increase the number of (positive) reviews is therefore sensible for the online marketing goals of 2023, at least for local businesses. By the way, we would be happy to advise you and create an tailored exactly to your goals and your industry. Google Ads with Automated and Intelligent Bidding as a Key SEA Trend 2023 Automated and intelligent bidding in Google Ads has been refined and is therefore among our online marketing trends for 2023. Since mid-2022, are the only ad type that can be created. With automated bidding strategies using AI and machine learning, marketers have been able to gain a lot of experience this year. Google's focus on automation means a certain loss of control in optimizing campaigns and ads, however, new expertise around the SEA channel is increasingly evolving. Manual measures are increasingly being replaced by strategic tasks. For instance, addressing the right target audience and the synergies between different online marketing channels will remain important and can likewise be seen as a trend for 2023. TikTok Between SEO, SEA, and Social Media Marketing What was once dismissed by many as a channel for fun for the younger generation, shows considerable potential as a platform for customer acquisition and retention. Whether for a behind-the-scenes look at a company for applicants or as an advertising channel - TikTok must be taken seriously in online marketing and thus belongs to our online marketing trends for 2023.  While Facebook and Google's ad revenues saw drastic declines in 2022, TikTok experienced growth. One reason may be that Apple's new privacy settings are making it harder for large platforms to play personalized ads, whereas TikTok is presumably affected far less. Another reason is the increasing popularity of the platform for entertainment, but also for information and news. What's interesting about TikTok is the overlap of various online marketing disciplines: TikTok SEO for organic visibility, ads for paid reach. In the , the platform should therefore definitely be considered by companies with a younger target group. Growth in Instant Messaging Platforms Instant messaging platforms now allow customers to be efficiently addressed in great ways. They want the information they need about a product or service faster than ever, which works best through instant messaging. WhatsApp is probably the most popular platform for instant messaging. Many German companies are still reluctant to send their customers and prospects notifications via WhatsApp, but the communication channel should not be neglected. Naturally, consent for this, as for any advertising, must be obtained in advance. One of the major online marketing trends for 2023 is to use this medium more intensively. It’s effective because people love WhatsApp and usually pay more attention to a message if they receive it over this platform. In the context of customer loyalty, instant messaging services are becoming increasingly indispensable in many industries. The Introduction of Google Analytics 4 Determines Web Analysis Trends 2022 and 2023 Google already introduced Google Analytics 4 (GA4) in October 2020, which many companies are already using. The switch to GA4 will be one of the important online marketing trends by next year at the latest, since the predecessor version Universal Analytics will no longer provide data as of July 1, 2023. Users can use GA4 to access the Google Merchant Center, BigQuery, and Google Optimize for free and add custom reports to the navigation menu. Other features include anomaly detection, deeper attribution models, and predictive analysis. To avoid a data gap, it is important to set up Google Analytics 4 as quickly as possible. Experience shows that several months of lead time should be expected to professionally set up, test, and adjust the tracking if necessary before Universal Analytics is shut down. Haven't switched to GA4 yet? We can you with the implementation of Google Analytics 4 and you on how to handle the new interface. Inclusion as a Company Value and Marketing Benchmark Our last two online marketing trends for 2023 are cross-channel and affect both search engine optimization and SEA or social media marketing. Never has the topic of inclusion, equality, and representation been so much in the public spotlight as this year. Thanks to social media, underrepresented groups also have a voice and can raise awareness of their situation and disadvantages. Companies are thinking about their image and values and how they can communicate these externally. It is not uncommon for different generations and ideas to clash. Engaging with inclusion - whether through gender-neutral language or more diverse visual imagery on websites and marketing materials - is an important topic for companies to practice target-oriented marketing and live their values, regardless of the standpoint. Data Protection Remains an Important Topic in 2023 The general public has been sensitized to data protection since the GDPR. Many people have become more critical of what data is disclosed about themselves and how this data is used. As a result, the cookie consent banner is met with "Reject cookies," and user data is not tracked or only tracked to a very limited extent. Consequently, companies do not have access to all the data unless they choose solutions like server-side tracking. The balance between data protection regulations and the desire to have as much data as possible for evaluation and planning of upcoming online marketing actions will therefore remain a significant topic for the foreseeable future. Conclusion: Online Marketing Trends 2023 In the online marketing trends for the coming year, we see various developments that were already on the horizon in 2022 and will intensify in 2023. It remains exciting to see how the advertising revenues of the different platforms will develop over the next year and whether there will be further shifts. The complexity of Google search from voice search to local SEO, under the increasing influence of artificial intelligence, will be another major topic in 2023 that we will follow with interest. Would you like to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and developments in various online marketing channels? Subscribe to our newsletter and receive regular valuable tips and information on new developments. Our team of experts in the fields of SEO , SEA , and web analysis is happy to personally assist you. We offer customized support to successfully advance your company. Contact us now and benefit from our know-how!

internetwarriors are Google Premium Partner 2022

Feb 9, 2022

Axel

Vortex

Category:

Inside Internet Warriors

We are proud to announce that in February 2022, we were once again awarded as a Google Premium Partner. Each year, Google awards this title to select Google Ads agencies in specific countries that are proven leaders in search engine advertising. In short: We are among the top 3% of all German companies participating in the Google Partner Program! Learn more in the current blog post about the benefits the new Google Premium Program offers for 2022 and how we, as Google Ads specialists, can expertly put your company on the path to success. We have been a certified Google Partner since 2006, and since 2016, we have been honored by the Google Premium Seal With over 20 years of experience under our belt, the Warriors have the necessary know-how to create for our clients. From the beginning, we participated and contributed to all developments in the field of search engine advertising (SEA). To meet our high quality standards, we have been part of the official Google Partner Program since 2006. Our tireless ambition was ultimately rewarded: In 2016, we met all the criteria and requirements of the Google Premium Partnership for the first time. Since then, we have worked closely with Google as a Premium Partner. What sets us apart as a Google Premium Partner Agency As a certified Google Premium Partner, we not only possess unmatched expertise in search engine advertising but also benefit from exclusive bonuses in support, training, and recognition areas. Google's certification program is divided into three levels, ranging from the base and partner membership to Google Premier Status. Depending on the level of certification, numerous advantages open up, positively impacting the success of campaigns in Google Ads. The strategic Premium Partnership has been reformed and comes with many innovations this year, which not only enhance our success but also that of our clients, regardless of industry and company size. With our renewed entry into the Google Premium Partner directory, the Warriors meet demands that go far beyond Google's standard certification: Monthly Access to Insights Briefings Every month, we gain access to insights briefings—reports that include up-to-the-minute Google statistics. Based on the insights briefings, we detect industry trends earlier than our competitors and can recognize and respond to changes in user behavior promptly. Additional Product Training and Events for Our Employees We are entitled to participate in informative product training and industry events. Tailored Google events include roundtable discussions with industry experts, individual business coaching, and leadership seminars. Thanks to the constant exchange with sales and product experts, our knowledge is always up to date. Premium Google Ads Support To offer our clients the best possible service, we benefit from enhanced Google Ads support as a Google Premium Partner. Premium Google Ads support is available around the clock and resolves issues in record time. Exclusive Access to Beta Product Versions Quarterly reports give us advance access to upcoming beta product versions from Google. This allows us to easily update product information and successfully expand our customer base. Advertising Offers On Top As a Google Premium Partner Agency, Google provides us with additional advertising offers. With Google Ads promotional credits, the advertising budget for our new clients' campaigns can be significantly increased. Participation in the Google Premier Partner Awards Premium Partners are eligible to participate in the Google Premier Partner Awards. Most recently, in Dublin, we were able to demonstrate the quality of our Google Ads campaigns during the —as the best German agency in the Search Innovation category. As Google Ads Specialists, We Safely Guide You to the SEA Harbor Looking for a qualified Google Ads specialist to guide and support you in SEA? Then you're definitely in the right place with the Internetwarriors! For more than two decades, we've been helping clients worldwide to create and optimize Google Ads campaigns. We offer, among other things: optimization of existing Google Ads campaigns setting up a new Google Ads account configuring and implementing a retargeting strategy, and custom training around SEA for your employees. As a certified Google Ads agency, our SEA Warriors know exactly what factors are important for a successful Google Ads campaign. But what are the requirements of the Google Partnership for us? And what conditions must we fulfill to be recognized as a Google Premium Partner? The prerequisite for participating in the Partner Program is an optimization score of at least 70%. The optimization score indicates to what extent the potential of a Google Ads campaign is exploited. We always take into account the requirements, wishes, and goals of our clients. Additionally, our SEA Warriors must have the Google Ads Certification to demonstrate up-to-date expertise on the latest products and solutions. This way, we recognize and foster our clients' growth opportunities, build long-term customer relationships, and continuously expand our customer base. We do all this to belong to the top 3% of SEA Google Ads agencies in Germany—the ultimate challenge to attain Google Premium status. As you can see: The Warriors combine extensive certified knowledge with years of practical experience. Together with you, we find out the potential hidden in your Google Ads campaigns. Did you enjoy the blog? Recommend it now! AUTHOR

The Key Online Marketing Trends 2022

Dec 22, 2021

Axel

Vortex

Category:

Growth Marketing

Table of Contents 2020 and 2021 were years with special challenges. The pandemic not only affected the private and professional lives of most people, but it also influenced online marketing. What will 2022 look like? The warriors team looks ahead and summarizes the key developments for you and ventures a look at the trends of 2022. What innovations will there be in SEO and SEA, how will web analytics develop, and what opportunities does social media marketing offer? Our best tips for you to make your online marketing fit for 2022! Online marketing is constantly evolving, new platforms emerge, trends come and go. Some prevail, others do not. We have just celebrated our as an agency and looked back on the developments we've witnessed. Today we look forward: how will online marketing change in 2022, what trends do the experts in different channels see in our team? An outlook and professional assessment. How is the online marketing world developing in 2022? Before we look ahead, it's worth taking a look back at 2020 and 2021. Two years in which hardly anything was as it was before. The pandemic significantly changed the private lives of most people as well as the working world. The way many teams work, for example, or the demand for certain products and services. We now have almost two years of experience on how our industry and our clients' industries have changed due to Corona. And since the pandemic will also impact the coming year, we can use these insights for our planning and our online marketing strategy for 2022. Especially in uncertain times, reliable data is invaluable. Those who conducted correct tracking and professional web analytics in 2020 and 2021, observed their industry and analyzed their target group's behavior, are better prepared for 2022 than competitors lacking these figures and insights. This also includes having a sense of how potential customers want to be addressed during such a challenging time. What is important to your target audience? What values, needs, and questions do they have? This knowledge is invaluable for online marketing. That’s why the guideline for 2022 remains: “Data driven marketing” is a key to success. Another trend that will continue: people expect personal outreach instead of anonymous mass communication. This applies to newsletters, as well as social media, SEA, or SEO. Since not everyone can be addressed individually, this means precise segmentation, accurate targeting, and most importantly, clearly defined target groups and customer journeys. What do users need at what time? It's less about the pure sale than building trust and a relationship with potential customers. Especially in a pandemic where emotional needs differ from previous years, personalization is more important than ever. Besides, automation is becoming increasingly important: which processes can be automated or supported by automation? The focus of manual work in online marketing is increasingly shifting towards strategy - the profession is changing, and the demands on online marketers are rising. Interdisciplinary knowledge and an eye for the bigger picture are now almost prerequisites for successful online marketing work. It's a reason why, as a full-service agency, it’s essential for us to develop holistic strategies for our clients and work together as a team towards success. We don't see the individual disciplines as isolated but as puzzle pieces. This is not always taken for granted, but we are convinced: it’s becoming increasingly important! Current politics and major public issues also influence content in online marketing. Customers are setting higher standards for quality and corporate values. Sustainability and inclusion are in the public focus and must be taken into account in strategy if these topics are important to your target audience. Especially polarizing questions (such as gender-neutral language - ) require companies to answer: what values do we stand for, what are our core messages, how do we position ourselves, and how does our target audience view it? These questions should be reflected in corporate communication and accordingly influence online marketing measures. Just as content and processes change, our way of working is also evolving. Remote work and hybrid work models are now commonplace, and customer contacts and sales are almost exclusively online. We’re not alone in this; Digital Only Sales is one of the big trends these days. The lack of opportunities for in-person (or F2F?) contacts forces most industries to rethink - online marketing plays a crucial role in the within the sales funnel. Another trend, from our perspective a positive one, is Consulting Based Selling , which we also incorporate into our online marketing strategy: here too, the needs of the target group are central. The focus is less on selling a specific product or service and more on finding individual solutions for customers. In practice, this means first engaging in exchange to find out what the optimal solution for the problems or needs is. Once again: relationships and trust as a basis for sales. SEO Trends 2022 The SEO year 2021 was shaped by numerous Google updates (Core Updates, Spam Update, etc.), primarily by the Core Web Vitals, which have played an important role in ranking since the summer. The user experience, which Google has pointed out for years as an important factor, is now representable in concrete figures and presents real challenges for many companies because not every system is equally well set up for fast performance and high user-friendliness on mobile devices. This development will continue, and systems need to keep up to respond to the rising demands. The better Google learns to interpret search queries and the meaning behind them, the more important it is for companies to focus on the “ User Intent ”: what is the need or expectation behind a keyword or phrase? Is it an information need, a buying intent, or simply a desire for entertainment? Merely looking at search volume is no longer enough to qualify keywords, the intent behind them must also match the target page. What type of content and page best addresses the need - a product page, a shop category, a FAQ page, a blog post, a white paper, or a service page for example? And how do these contents and pages fit into the Customer Journey and the company's goals? Keyword-optimized landing pages are no longer enough - they must also fit the user intent. A development we're observing and that will continue in 2022 in is Google's focus on high quality and trustworthy content and publishers. Especially in potentially sensitive industries, where accurate information is particularly important (such as medicine or finance), but also in other areas, we're observing how important a strong brand is. Technical SEO is thus not unimportant, especially in light of the Core Web Vitals it's of great importance, and the technical fundamentals , which alone had a significant positive impact in the past, are now in many cases only the foundation and no longer sufficient to significantly improve rankings across the site (apart from essential technical errors). Every company needs a holistic sustainable SEO strategy , in which technical functionality and targeted content for the target group and user intent are equally considered. Tip : If you've already analyzed your most important keywords and planned corresponding content - consider the intent and check if the intent and content align. Plan not only technical and content search engine optimization for 2022 but also measures to strengthen your authority in your industry. Publish “thought leadership content” to demonstrate your expertise and be present on other relevant platforms as well. SEA Trends 2022 The biggest innovation in Google Ads: Expanded Text Ads (ETAs) will be discontinued and can no longer be created from summer 2022. Instead, Google's focus is on automation . Optimization is done via algorithm, working with machine learning and artificial intelligence. Advertisers thus have significantly fewer levers for manual optimization available. For , this means that less and less manual work is necessary for campaign management and optimization. However, the overall strategy and alignment will become more important in this field. What is the company's goal across all online marketing measures and what role can SEA play in it? Who is the target audience, what are their intents and needs, and how can they be addressed? What does the customer journey look like? Which target pages are suitable? The connection to other online marketing channels also remains important to utilize synergy effects. The importance of mobile access is becoming increasingly significant for SEA: all campaigns must be optimized for mobile devices. Target pages must not only be accessible on mobile but also operable. This not only prevents a high bounce rate but also a negative rating by Google. Another current development, significant in 2022 and beyond, is the increase in voice search use. “Voice shopping” - shopping via voice-controlled inputs in devices like Alexa or Siri - may not yet be a major topic for the general public but is a future model ( ) that must be considered in SEA, as voice search works differently from traditional search. Especially in paid online marketing channels, measurability of actions is indispensable for meaningful evaluation and derivation of measures. Current data protection regulations have changed the tracking we have known for a long time and bring new challenges. The goal must be to gather as much data as possible and integrate it into campaigns. Only if we can reliably evaluate performance and user behavior are we able to assess actions and optimize them in a targeted manner. Tip : If you haven't considered the user journey yet, you should urgently do so and incorporate these insights into your actions. The automation of Google Ads continues to progress, and advertisers must address this topic. Those who engage early, test, and gain experience do not relinquish control to Google in one step but can learn and evaluate how successful these automated campaigns are and where room for maneuver remains. Read more about the future of search engine marketing in this article: Web Analytics Trends 2022 As previously mentioned, Data Driven Marketing remains important. The significance of is accordingly large: correctly set up tracking and qualified data analysis to draw the right conclusions can make a difference in using the online marketing budget efficiently. Especially in the last two years when due to the pandemic in few industries was

20 Years! Advocating for your leads!

Oct 22, 2021

Axel

Vortex

Category:

Inside Internet Warriors

Table of Contents 20 years of WARRIORS - that's a reason to celebrate, and that's exactly what we did! We want to take you on a little journey back through the last 20 years with us. What has happened over two decades—not just with the Warriors, but also in the online world itself? Can you still remember how digital communication worked in 2001? What options didn't exist back then and what did we use for personal and professional communication instead? Let's take a look back! In 2021, the agency internetwarriors turns 20 years old - and we celebrated this milestone together! 20 Years of Online Marketing - An Eternity. A lot has changed in the digital world over the past 20 years. At the beginning of the 21st century, Google was still in its early stages, both in organic search and Google Ads (back then known as Google AdWords). The first partner programs marked the beginning of affiliate marketing. Social networks developed in the years that followed. Do you remember MySpace and StudiVZ? By 2006, MySpace had 100 million users but was significantly overtaken by Facebook in the years that followed. With Xing and LinkedIn, there were also networks for professional exchange from 2003 onward. Google+ is a good example of a Google project that was not successful and was discontinued in 2018 after about 7 years. Much has changed in the last 20 years, especially in recent years since Facebook emerged over 10 years ago. Many networks and services have disappeared, but many have also remained. YouTube has been around for over 15 years, Instagram and Pinterest for over 10 years. Google has undergone massive development from a simple website search engine to the market leader in various vertical search services. Advertising formats are constantly changing, as are targeting options and analyses. Scandals, privacy issues, platforms that come and go. Technological revolutions like the smartphone and smartwatches have changed online marketing. Over 20 years, many changes were observed, and we are certain - the upcoming 20 years will be just as exciting. Witnessing all these developments and changes in real-time doesn't just provide a wealth of experience. 20 years in online business, advertising, and organic lead generation also mean being able to better assess current developments and approach innovations openly but with healthy skepticism. We are curious about everything new but do not throw away the tried-and-true without a good reason. We test thoroughly and then evaluate based on data and facts. We recognize trends early and use them for our clients. Here's to the next 20 years with internetwarriors! 20 Years of internetwarriors - Experience and Innovation The history of the Warriors began in 2001 when Axel Zawierucha decided to compete with the giants of the industry in the digital world. An ambitious plan, but as is well known, courage often pays off. With the bursting of the dot-com bubble, some big online agencies gave up - but internetwarriors is still here in 2021. Since 2001, the Warriors have evolved with the online world. We continually improve ourselves to advise you on all current channels and strategies. After two decades, we look back on over 300 satisfied clients, over 1 million generated leads, tens of thousands of Google Top-Rankings, and many other highlights. From Kreuzberg, Berlin Mitte, Friedrichshain, we moved to Schöneberg, and now we are based in Bülowbogen, advising and supporting companies from all over the world. This Is What Warriors Stand For What exactly is an “internetwarrior”? A warrior is well-versed in the online world, always searching for new opportunities and chances. We fight for you, for our clients, for every click and every lead. Our agency stands for holistic online marketing, offering you the full-service package. Our team has experts from various disciplines to ensure you are optimally positioned across all relevant channels. We oversee your overall strategy and business goals, to which all actions, campaigns, and channels contribute. Direct, clear, and transparent communication is important to us. We see ourselves as your partner, supporting you with practical, goal-oriented, and creative ideas. We Fight as Warriors - with Respect and Vision We fight for every click and lead! Visibility is good and important, followers are valuable capital. Increasing your clicks is one of our objectives. However, this is often not enough, which is why we always keep long-term goals in mind. It’s the leads that matter to us - we not only ensure that you get more traffic but also that it's relevant and increases your sales. As a reliable partner by your side, we bring a wealth of experience, technical understanding, creativity - and sometimes a touch of madness, which is necessary to stay on top in the fast-paced online world. We focus on measurable success instead of luck - please do not interpret the clenched fists in our logo as crossed fingers! We’re ready to fight for you and your leads. As Warriors, we fight for every click on your behalf. Sometimes, we also celebrate our successes. Take Advantage of Our Expertise! Are you looking for a reliable partner for your online marketing who can support you across all paid and organic channels? Get in with us, we would be happy to fight for you too! Did you enjoy the blog? Share it now! AUTHOR

The Future of B2B Sales: Hybrid Sales and Online Lead Generation

Aug 9, 2021

Axel

Vortex

Category:

Growth Marketing

Table of Contents What does the future of B2B sales look like? The COVID-19 pandemic has been impacting us for almost 1.5 years now and has had massive effects on both our private lives and the work world. Entire industries have been and are in crisis, and almost all companies had to rethink their work models and ensure the greatest possible safety for employees. Sales have also been affected, and new tools and channels for lead generation had to be found, especially in the B2B sector. In this blog post, we share current insights from expert surveys with you and provide tips for your own B2B sales: which sales models are future-proof? Where and how can online channels assist? What advantages has COVID-19 brought to lead generation? How can you achieve effective sales? How the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world of work and sales Due to contact restrictions and the necessity of hygiene concepts, travel was heavily restricted, especially in spring and fall/winter 2020 and in spring 2021. Companies switched to remote work, and sales had to work from home offices and largely forego on-site visits to (potential) customers. Interestingly, some companies reported better productivity when working from home – especially those employers who actively supported and encouraged their employees during the pandemic. That's what a found. The Sales Management Department at Ruhr University Bochum conducted an extensive survey of B2B companies in the regarding their sales experience during the 2020 pandemic. Executives and sales leaders from 777 medium and large companies were surveyed via questionnaire. Over 50% of them were either in the service sector or manufacturers of industrial goods. Over 89% of respondents were affected by the COVID-19 shutdown in 2020; this meant that customer on-site visits were not possible. Nevertheless, the majority of companies met their sales targets or narrowly missed them. About 19% slightly exceeded their targets, and over 8% significantly exceeded them. This suggests that successful sales are possible at least predominantly remotely. Channels such as online meetings, video calls on smartphones, and even LinkedIn and online demos were primarily used. You can read more results from the survey as you continue through this article. Hybrid Work and Hybrid Sales - the Models of the Future The future work model is hybrid. Employees appreciate the freedoms and flexibility of working from home but miss the office and colleagues and feel isolated. Not everyone can work well at home; conditions vary significantly depending on the family situation and living environment. found that 9 out of 10 surveyed employers want to combine in-office presence and remote work post-pandemic. However, there is largely still no plan for how exactly this should be implemented. This leads to significant uncertainty among employees, the study revealed. For example, questions need to be resolved such as: How should work be structured? What are the expectations? Concrete approaches or guidelines are largely lacking. The result is burnout, concerns, and stress. A situation that employers must respond to, to reduce as many uncertainties and fears as possible. A good approach is to include employees in decision-making processes and discussions: what do the employees themselves want? Sales will likely increasingly rely on hybrid and remote models, and here too, there must be fixed rules and structures. According to the survey of the Sales Management Department at Ruhr University Bochum, around four times the number of visits were possible compared with on-site sales. Furthermore, online meetings save time – averaging 40 minutes, they were significantly shorter than on-site visits, which averaged 70 minutes. In addition, the travel time that cannot be 100% productively used is saved. This way, the online variant saves even more time and frees up resources. The results suggest that sales are also moving toward hybrid sales, as companies have recognized the advantages of online sales. However, there are also hurdles that companies had to overcome, as hardly any innovation comes without challenges and difficulties. The Challenges of New Hybrid Work Models in Sales Hybrid sales mean combining on-site visits and online meetings. The survey of Ruhr University Bochum shows where the challenges lie. Online sales operations are subject to different conditions than traditional channels with personal on-site contact. Processes need to be rethought, team leaders and sales staff must learn new skills. Hurdles can also be observed on the customer side. According to the study, the acceptance of online sales varies significantly among different customer types. About ⅔ of the global accounts and key accounts could be reached well through online channels. Among B and C customers, it was only about half or even just 42%. Differences were also noted across different industries. Not every occasion and situation is suitable for an online meeting. The study differentiates between these customer groups and situations: New customers Initial contact initiation First purchase consultation Relationship building/follow-up Negotiation appointment Problem-solving and coordination execution According to the assessment and experience of the respondents, problem-solving is particularly suitable for the online format in new customer sales, while all other situations should be conducted as on-site visits. This applies particularly to negotiation appointments. For existing customers, according to the survey, all situations are suitable, although relationship maintenance works better in direct personal contact on-site: Consultation on new product/first purchase Repeat purchase/order (similar/modified product) Relationship maintenance Negotiation appointment Problem-solving and coordination execution Differences between the various industries of respondents were also noted: Online meetings are particularly useful for banks, insurance companies, and financial services, as well as IT and telecommunications Most problematic for wholesale and retail It is important to understand the customer's preferred care mode - online or on-site. Only this information helps decide for which customers and situations the on-site visit is important or even necessary for closing a deal and where online meetings suffice or even offer advantages. Virtual team meetings and video conferences have been a fixed part of many teams' workdays since March 2020. Their advantages and disadvantages have been extensively discussed, such as the fact that it is impossible to look someone in the eye during video calls. Online formats also lead to fatigue more quickly, necessitating more frequent breaks – something that online conferences have already widely accounted for with shorter sessions and more breaks. The biggest challenge in online sales lies mainly in the limited perception of non-verbal, emotional language. Many cues such as facial expressions, gestures, and body posture are lost in video calls, which are available in personal contact and help assess the situation. However, technical issues and the skill levels of sales staff in online meetings are also challenges. This means that new skills are needed, sales staff need to be trained, and the optimal process and suitable tools need to be tested and established. Online Lead Generation as a Relief for Sales If COVID-19 has shown us and our customers one thing, it is this: online channels are almost indispensable in sales. Nevertheless, many companies are not yet fully exploiting the potential of online advertising and lead generation. Online lead generation offers many advantages, such as: Scalability: If the size of the target audience is known, online advertising can be well scaled. Additional information such as the average click-through rate for the respective channel and type of advertisement, as well as click prices or costs for a specific number of ad impressions, make it easier to predict how many people can be reached with a specific budget – and what it costs to increase this number and gain more leads. Measurability: With properly set up tracking, channels and individual campaigns can be accurately evaluated for their efficiency and ROI or ROAS. Even individual ads can be compared to implement campaigns as effectively as possible and achieve the best ratio of revenue to expenditure. Precise Targeting: The targeted approach to target audiences with precisely defined measures is possible in various online channels because such information is available and can be used. For example, this might mean addressing executives in a particular industry via LinkedIn in B2B sales or reaching people of a certain gender with specific characteristics or interests on Facebook in the B2C sector. What does this mean for B2B sales and new sales models? Where can online marketing and online lead generation assist? Depending on the target audience and industry or topic, online advertising can reach a high reach – initial contacts could be established through presence in paid and unpaid search results as well as visibility on appropriate social media channels and be fed into the sales funnel. Additionally, if a sales tool like LeadInfo (link to blog post) is used, sales can be significantly relieved by pre-qualifying potential customers and passing only the most promising contacts with a high conversion likelihood to sales. Online marketing also helps increase brand visibility, position the company as an expert and authority, and build trust with the target audience. Thus, online actions can significantly increase the number of contacts with potential customers without the sales team always having to be in personal contact. Therefore, online lead generation can effectively complement traditional sales. Achieving Successful Hybrid B2B Sales The survey has shown: The hybrid sales model leads to more productivity and saves time and money. Digital channels offer many opportunities in B2B sales as well, although online contact cannot entirely replace on-site contact – the right balance must be found. The key success factors from the and our own experience summarized for you: The training of sales staff is essential to be well-prepared for online meetings and successfully conduct them. Sales competencies are even more critical online due to the limited non-verbal cues, with new skills needed; for instance, managing conversations over online tools. In this context, leaders must also take on a coaching role, accompany and support employees. The topic of remote leadership has gained significantly more importance since COVID-19 – leading hybrid or remote teams is a skill many leaders had to acquire: How can motivation be maintained even while working from home? How can team cohesion and camaraderie be strengthened even if the team only meets virtually? High-quality technical equipment is a prerequisite to avoiding problems and appearing professional. This applies to both the hardware and suitable tools. To have an effective sales process, online platforms and CRM systems must be integrated into the sales process. Equally important is correct lead tracking and the assignment of leads to the respective channels and campaigns, as well as the qualification of contacts for the sales process. All relevant channels should be used in online lead generation, even in B2B sales, especially social networks. Relevant initial contacts can be reached via LinkedIn or XING, for example. Ultimately, it is the combination of various channels that increases success. It is less about the number of on-site visits and more about the total number of contacts : How often do prospects interact with the company – through organic reach, paid campaigns, and personal contact, both online and on-site? In traditional sales, it was mainly print brochures, catalogs, or on-site product demonstrations. For online sales meetings, high-quality virtual product and company information such as professional product images and videos, promotional videos, the possibility for demos, and online company brochures are the equivalent. Good preparation of meetings is key to success online too: this includes, for example, a pre-sent agenda; the ability to prioritize topics or plan for experts who can be brought in as needed (an advantage over on-site sales – additional people can be added without significant additional cost). Freeing up capacities should be used sensibly – for instance, by supervising a larger number of customers or intensifying the care of existing customers. The online format can also allow the internal sales service to participate actively in sales, for instance, to serve small customers with minimal effort and improve customer retention. Hybrid sales, therefore, requires adapted structures and processes akin to Hybrid Work models, as well as training sales and considering all relevant online channels. There's a substantial opportunity to win significantly more leads at lower costs and support a larger number of customers per sales employee. Despite all the challenges, COVID-19 has opened at least new perspectives and potentials for sales. Digital B2B Lead Generation with internetwarriors Do you want to relieve your sales and gain more potential customers through ? As a full-service online marketing agency, we have experts for all important channels on our team and can support you and your sales team in setting up campaigns and installing efficient tracking. This way, you gain more qualified leads for your sales team to process, increasing your visibility in your industry as well as your number of prospects and closures. We analyze your situation with you, identify the right channels and measures for you, and support you from conceptualization to implementation and evaluation. Sources Survey by the Sales Management Department at Ruhr University Bochum: “Hybrid Selling: More Sales Productivity through Synchronized On-Site and Online Visits” (Link? ) McKinsey & Company: “What executives are saying about the future of hybrid work” (Link ) McKinsey & Company: “What employees are saying about the future of remote work” (Link ) Did you enjoy the blog? Recommend it now! AUTHOR

internetwarriors & Leadinfo Partnership: Together We Are Stronger

Jul 28, 2021

Axel

Vortex

Category:

Inside Internet Warriors

Table of Contents Every day, hundreds - maybe even thousands - of visitors find your website. But only a few of them leave their contact details. This means your company misses out on dozens or even hundreds of potential customers. A significant wasted potential! A group of programmers thought so too and developed their own lead generation software: Leadinfo. In this blog, we tell you more about the tool, its benefits, and ways to use it. What is lead generation software and what can it do? The majority of all visitors to your website decide not to make contact, even if they are interested in the services you offer. Lead generation software provides a concrete solution by giving you deeper insights into your non-converting traffic. Leadinfo decodes anonymous website traffic. This means the tool identifies the companies visiting your website by linking IP addresses with its own database. From this, Leadinfo extracts the relevant company data, email addresses, and LinkedIn profiles and displays them to you. So you have all the information you need for the first contact in a clear dashboard. You can optimize your sales processes and take steps to qualify and convert these leads. Why Leadinfo? With Leadinfo, you can see in real time who is visiting your website, allowing you to respond faster to warm and hot leads as soon as they occur. One-click integrations with more than 25 platforms: From Teamleader CRM to Google Ads, you can easily enrich your CRM or measure the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns. Qualified leads: You can use the data, for example, to create prospect lists or retarget website visitors on LinkedIn. This ensures that you only contact qualified companies that are interacting with your website. An improved customer journey: With Leadinfo, you link anonymous website visitors to complete company profiles and can personalize your customer journey. How does Leadinfo work? The idea behind Leadinfo is simple. To use the software, you need to place a tracking code on your website. This can be done in three different ways: Manually Through a WordPress plugin By adding the code to your Google Tag Manager This code records the IP addresses of your visitors. These sequences of numbers are compared with data from the Leadinfo database, supplemented with publicly accessible databases, and include information from numerous companies from Germany and beyond. A lead is then created in your personal Leadinfo dashboard. On this page, you find all the important company information. So you can see at a glance whether it is worth contacting this organization. What data does the Leadinfo tool collect? In the Leadinfo database, you find a variety of company information. When a specific IP address lands on your website, this information is passed on to you: The company name The address data The number of employees The chamber of commerce and VAT number The financial situation The industry Operations with Leadinfo Leadinfo was developed specifically for the B2B sector. Various functionalities have been incorporated to increase efficiency for businesses. These can be found in the dashboard. Here are some of them: Lead Score All visitors are displayed within the Leadinfo dashboard. So how do you separate the wheat from the chaff and identify qualified leads? Because only by doing so can you avoid calling uninterested companies, saving a lot of time, energy, and thus money. The Lead Score was developed for this purpose: Next to all organizations or companies in your dashboard, you see a status bar. This indicates whether they are engaging with your service or product. If a company's employees visit your website multiple times or view a large number of pages, this contributes positively to the Lead Score. The higher this is, the greater the chance of a conversion. Tags For each individual person, "tags" can be assigned, allowing website visitors to be categorized as potential customers, customers, competitors, or suppliers. The data can be exported at any time for analysis and evaluation. This way, you always keep track of your visitors, and the cooperation between sales and marketing is greatly facilitated. Triggers There is an option to set "triggers" to automate certain tasks or (sales) processes. For example, an email would be sent to sales when potential customers visit a certain page on your website. Data Export Loss of important data is annoying. Especially when it comes to warm leads. Therefore, Leadinfo offers the possibility to export dashboard data. This data then belongs to your company. You can store it or even use it for targeted lead generation with LinkedIn or Google Ads campaigns. Leadinfo and Data Privacy The topic of data privacy has clearly gained importance with the public in recent years. How does the use of Leadinfo fit with this topic? Is this tool GDPR compliant? To put it briefly: Yes! Leadinfo is fully GDPR compliant. The data security of visitors is fully guaranteed. Additionally, all data collected by Leadinfo is processed according to privacy requirements: Visitor IP addresses are not stored. Leadinfo users only see company information. The company information comes from public sources such as the chamber of commerce or LinkedIn. How do you use the data from the software for lead generation? With Leadinfo, you have access to the contact details of many potential customers. But what can you do with this data for your lead generation?   Leadinfo for Sales & Marketing Customer Acquisition: See who visits your website, what pages they view, and how long they stay. You can then sort this data to filter out those who exactly match your customer persona. Finally, you can use the collected information to improve your own company website.   Lead Qualification: With the custom filter, prospects can be filtered by specific criteria. You can use the filter for company size, location, revenue, etc., to qualify leads and focus on the right companies. Targeted Marketing Campaigns: You can use the lead data obtained from Leadinfo in LinkedIn or Google Ads campaigns to specifically target your audiences or companies. Campaign Performance: You can track how well your ad campaigns are performing. For example, you can see how many leads a PPC campaign generates or how significantly organic traffic is rising - and then track these leads through the conversion funnel. Lead Generation with the internetwarriors as Leadinfo Partners As an official partner of Leadinfo, we are well-versed with the tool and are at your disposal as a direct contact. Test the software free of charge for 14 days and see for yourself. Feel free to contact us and get advice from our lead generation experts! For more information on services and pricing, visit Did you enjoy the blog? Recommend it now! AUTHOR

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Optimize PDF SEO the Right Way!

Aug 14, 2024

Ina

Bondarev

Category:

SEO

Now that all necessary measures for search engine optimization (also: ) have been taken and the website achieves top rankings? Even if the first steps are successfully mastered, the next step comes - SEO for PDFs! The PDF file is notoriously not well-regarded in the SEO world, but sometimes it's unavoidable. This is partly due to the static format (HTML pages are not as easily downloadable) and partly due to the user experience: some people prefer to read certain content offline, and PDF files usually provide detailed information that isn't always suitable for HTML pages due to text length (extensive scrolling and unnecessary information can, in the worst case, lead to bounce rates). So PDFs have their own target audience that can and should be addressed. Therefore, optimizing PDFs for search engines is worthwhile, even if it brings some challenges. Back to the roots: History and relevance of PDFs Regular users of Google search know that organic search results can include not only websites but also PDF documents. In fact, PDF files have been in the Google index since the year 2000: PDF file in Google search - https://www.internetwarriors.de/ The PDF format (Portable Document Format) has existed since the early '90s - developed by Adobe Inc. - and can contain both text and images, forms, links, etc. Today it stands for the open standard (ISO) and is very popular for its accessibility. The inclusion by search engines allowed users a broader access to information. This added value resulted in the discussed indexing of static PDF files. This was the starting shot for another discipline of search engine optimization: SEO PDF. Though PDF files differ from 'classic' web formats, they offer numerous advantages for SEO. This isn't just about the profit for users, but also about keywords (PDFs can be excellently optimized for keywords), (PDFs as a source for backlinks), and enduring content. Therefore, when well-integrated into the SEO strategy, PDFs can provide significant added value. Search engine optimization for PDFs: Doing it right! To understand how to optimize PDF documents, two main questions arise: How does Google rank PDF files? What decides their position compared to websites? And ultimately - what differentiates PDFs from classic websites? Two points stand out: PDFs are generally longer Users tend to link less to PDF documents Google itself also says that determining relevance is difficult because it depends on personal preference whether a user prefers to read a PDF or a website. Different search engines handle this differently and so only some helpful hints can be provided here. Find out what these are! But first, a golden rule: Google, as a text-based search engine, needs real text to optimally read and evaluate a document. PDFs often consist of images, especially if they are scanned book pages, etc. With the help of OCR software (Optical Character Recognition - a technology many are familiar with from scanners), Google might be able to better read images containing text in the future, but until then, pure text documents are the better choice. This is where SEO optimization for PDFs begins: Formatting, adjusting, and reformatting As mentioned, PDF SEO optimization starts with the correct file format. It's simple to check if it’s correct: if text from a PDF document can be copied and pasted into, e.g., a Word file, it is real text. Even if tables are present in a file, they should be text-based. Selectable text isn’t the only requirement for the correct format. Besides the text content, other aspects need to be considered, such as file size. Following the principle “as small as possible” practically ensures you can’t go wrong in this regard. Generally, file size reflects loading speed and download duration. A size under 1 MB is generally considered user-friendly, but some PDFs require more, justified by the amount of content. Additionally, a range between 1 and 5 MB can be seen as optimal, with anything over 1 MB aimed at large files and documents. It’s important to consider image compression to prevent unnecessarily increasing the file size. Always ask whether the file size suits its purpose and prioritize user experience. Don’t overlook the write protection of PDFs - it’s crucial to prevent changes and modifications to the original files. Despite crawlers accessing write-protected PDFs, indexing them is usually pointless. It’s recommended to set such PDFs to noindex.  In summary: Correct formatting is the first step in PDF SEO optimization. It also ensures readability and accessibility, essential for a positive user experience. Content determines success “Content is King” seems to be one of the most well-known and current quotes, even though it originates from a 1996 essay by Bill Gates. The saying has become somewhat of a cliché and has its place in the online marketing world. It’s also a rule in search engine optimization when it comes to content creation. PDFs are no exception. The rule always applies - it’s all about the users. Thus, the PDF should provide added value if a good ranking is to be achieved. It needs not only SEO optimization but also informative, relevant, and useful content for the user. Added value, quality, and credibility are crucial for , making it essential to create high-quality content. Content optimization for PDFs follows the same rules as for 'normal' HTML pages - one of the most important: it must be unique. This means: PDFs should provide additional information to the HTML content, may complement them, but must not be identical. This leads to the issue of duplicate content. If there’s a good reason to duplicate content, a Canonical Tag must not be forgotten. In terms of keyword optimization, there are almost no differences: PDFs should and must be keyword optimized because search engines find and index PDFs through relevant keywords. Care should be taken to integrate keywords as naturally as possible into the content, and they should also appear in headings, title tags, meta descriptions, and file names. PDF Mastery: Onpage optimization for maximum success An is also required for PDF SEO. Essentially, it is very similar to onpage optimization of HTML pages. When done correctly, discoverability, user experience, and accessibility can benefit. The first concern should be the file name : it should be as descriptive and simple as possible. Integrating a meaningful keyword into the file name is a helpful step, as it facilitates indexing by search engines. However, avoid using special characters and prefer hyphens - this measure is partly for better compatibility (for various software and operating systems), URL friendliness, and error avoidance (special characters have specific meanings in the file system). Next, the title , part of the metadata, should be optimized. Common SEO rules apply here - length (max. 60 characters), unique design, relevant keywords, and brand at the end of the title. The title is directly stored in the PDF file and is an essential part of PDF SEO. It's possible to save the file name as the title simultaneously, which is also a permissible implementation. This must now be noted in the settings (Adobe Acrobat) accordingly. Contrasting with the title, the meta description or description is not quite identical to what is known from SEO optimization. For PDFs, metadata includes title, author, keywords, and content summaries. Additionally, further information can be added via additional metadata. Except for keywords, which no longer have ranking relevance, all fields must be filled out. Even with different handling of PDF files, it is advisable to still consider the description's length (max. 160 characters) and add a usual call-to-action. Traditionally, headings play a very special role in SEO: …they structure content for users and search engines …provide an excellent opportunity to integrate keywords for better ranking …improve user experience …facilitate navigation, especially for users relying on screen readers …highlight content Moreover, headings are an important ranking factor. Therefore, it's crucial to equip not only websites but also PDFs with good headings. The same rules as for HTML pages should be followed - no unnecessary headings, keyword optimization, one H1 per page or document, and maintaining logical order. Inserting headings is very straightforward using Adobe Acrobat (or PDF-XChange Editor) or already in the Word file (with subsequent export of the document as PDF). If content is considered a king in the SEO world, then internal linking is at least a hidden bridge to SEO success. Internal linking is also very relevant for PDFs, as it can increase the value of the PDF itself and its visibility. Internal linking can be well implemented through relevant keywords in the content. It is merely necessary to maintain thematic coherence and link to pages that fit the PDF's content. Moreover, anchor texts should not be overlooked, nor should the embedding in the sitemap. If backlinks from high-quality websites point to the document, there is an excellent chance to improve authority and visibility and thus work into the E-E-A-T concept. Furthermore, internal linking is almost indispensable if one wants to optimize PDFs for SEO. Tech-Tuning: Optimize your PDF! Once content, keywords, and onpage aspects for PDFs are optimized, the first half is done. The next and almost last step should be technical optimization. Including it in the sitemap is essential for universal and/or current PDFs. However, one should start with the added value - does the PDF file offer it to the user? If this question can be positively answered and the criteria are met, then the sitemap is the right place for PDFs. The advantages are similar to HTML pages - direct indexing, better discoverability, improved performance, and proactive control of the indexing process. However, if certain files are to be excluded from indexing, this can also be done using the “noindex” tag. The canonical tag should be correctly used and applied: Is the PDF content similar or even identical to the HTML page content? If so, the canonical tag is indispensable to avoid the issue of duplicate content. The SEO optimization of PDFs also requires mobile optimization - correspondingly, aspects that characterize a mobile-friendly file should be considered - starting with file size (shouldn't be too large) to correct formatting (e.g., portrait orientation, left-aligned text, use of sections & headings, good structuring, etc.). If these points are observed, PDF search engine optimization is on the right track! PDF without barriers: Accessibility redefined! The topic of has been discussed for a long time - and rightly so! Websites should be accessible to everyone, and from June 2025, this becomes mandatory. Hence, basic adaptations should be made in PDFs: All images/graphics should have alt texts Headings and tags must also be implemented Content must be text-based but also need appropriate contrast and readable typeface Lastly: Don’t forget necessary configurations for screen readers. The good news is that all these measures can be directly implemented in PDF programs like Adobe Acrobat or the PDF-XChange Editor. Afterward, you can use the accessibility check (also available in the programs) to verify implementation. SEO PDF Accessibility PDF Tracking: Measuring with Precision Those wanting to measure performance should definitely consider tracking. This is also part of PDF SEO and can be used effectively. It provides a way to understand how users interact with the PDF document. There are many methods suitable for tracking PDF files - everyone can find what works best for them. However, the tracking concept should be approached with caution, always weighing its necessity. SEO Optimization for PDFs: Strategies for Success Even if PDF SEO is considered complex, it’s worth optimizing such files correctly. It should not be underestimated that PDFs can be SEO-relevant for several reasons: Indexing of content (text-based) Additional opportunity for keyword optimization Positive user experience Distribution of link equity Sustainable content PDFs are thus a valuable addition to the website, offering content expansion, targeting specific audiences, and appropriately optimized can increase visibility. If you follow the rules and properly implement search engine optimization for PDFs and fundamentally include the use of PDF files in the SEO strategy, you can only benefit from the expanded content format! Need help optimizing your PDF content? Don't hesitate to contact us - our team is happy to assist you! It's simple: and get all the insights! Learn more about our

Custom Columns in Google Ads: The Ultimate Guide to Greater Data Transparency

Aug 14, 2024

Markus

Brook

Category:

SEA

Google Ads offers a variety of standard reports that provide valuable insights into campaign performance. However, these reports often reach their limits when it comes to analyzing specific data points or creating individual evaluations. This is where custom columns come into play. With custom columns, you can tailor Google Ads data to your needs, gathering the information most relevant to you. In this blog article, we explore how custom columns work and introduce you to important formulas you can implement directly in your account. What are custom columns? Custom columns in Google Ads are specially tailored data fields that you can define yourself. Unlike the predefined columns available by default in Google Ads, custom columns offer the flexibility to create your own metrics and perform complex calculations. This feature is especially useful for gaining detailed insights into your campaign performance and tracking specific metrics. Benefits of using custom columns Using custom columns in Google Ads offers numerous benefits: 1. Personalization of data analysis: You can create metrics that are precisely tailored to your business goals. For instance, you can calculate ROI, Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), or other business-specific KPIs. 2. Increased efficiency: Custom columns in Google Ads allow you to perform complex data calculations directly in the Google Ads interface, reducing the need for external spreadsheets and speeding up the analysis process. 3. Improved decision-making: With tailored metrics, you can make more informed decisions, gaining specific insights into your campaign performance that would otherwise be hidden. 4. Better reporting: Custom columns facilitate the creation of detailed reports that provide your stakeholders with exactly the information they need. Creation and implementation of custom columns Creating custom columns in Google Ads is a relatively simple process. Here are the basic steps: Log into your Google Ads account and go to the campaign area. On the right side, you will find the "Columns" menu item. Figure 1: Step 1 Select Columns   Click "Custom," but you can also get there via "Customize Columns." In the next step, you will reach the overview page and open "Custom Columns." Figure 2: Step 2 Customize Columns for Campaigns   From here, you can create the corresponding columns. Figure 3: Step 3 Create Columns   Give the column a name and description. Choose the desired metric and calculation formula. Formulas and calculations: You can use simple calculations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division to create your custom metric. Once you've created the custom column, you can add it to your reports and dashboards. This allows you to monitor and analyze your campaigns' performance using the new metrics. Important custom columns for Google Ads To help you get started, we've compiled some useful custom columns that you can create directly in your Google Ads account: 1. Expected costs for the current month: This column shows you the monthly budget you should expect if you don't change existing settings or budgets. Formula: REPLACE MANUALLY!!! 2. Cost-per-conversion by conversion action: This column shows the average cost per conversion for various conversion actions (e.g., purchase, newsletter signup). This helps you better understand the profitability of your conversion actions. Formula: REPLACE MANUALLY!!! Here is an excerpt of conversions we have set up in our account: Figure 4: Overview of created conversions   These are also associated with the respective CPA per conversion. The above data provides extremely useful insights into each conversion phase. Different views can also be examined to see which search terms, keywords, and ads perform accordingly, allowing you to find out very specifically where you need to optimize, cut, or increase your budget. 3. CPA in the last 7 days: This column shows the average CPA in the last 7 days. This allows you to compare the development of the CPA over the last 30 days and the last week at a glance. Formula: REPLACE MANUALLY!!! 4. ROAS in the last 7 days: This column shows the average ROAS in the last 7 days. This allows you to compare the development of the ROAS over the last 30 days and the last week at a glance. Formula: REPLACE MANUALLY!!! 5. Budget utilization: The "Budget Utilization" column shows the percentage of the set daily budget that the campaign spent on average per day in the last 7 days. It is important to note that if the daily budget is increased or decreased, the column will change accordingly. This means it is only meaningful if the budget is not adjusted. Formula: REPLACE MANUALLY!!! Conclusion Custom columns in Google Ads are a powerful tool for tailoring Google Ads data to individual needs. By creating your own columns, you gain deeper insights into your campaign performance and make informed decisions to optimize results. We are happy to help you identify and create the right custom columns in your Google Ads account. Simply contact us via the and secure your non-binding offer!

Local SEO – How to Improve Your Local Visibility

Aug 9, 2024

Ina

Bondarev

Category:

SEO

The is famously very diverse - content SEO, E-commerce SEO, on-page SEO, off-page SEO, technical SEO, and local SEO. Many of these intertwine and are difficult to separate. Although each type of SEO has its own peculiarities and nuances, there is also a common foundation that is the same across different types of SEO. One of the most current SEO topics is local SEO. What is local SEO and where does it come from? The origins of this field date back to 2005. With the launch of Google Maps, the local aspect suddenly became very relevant. Since then, it has been gaining more and more importance. While traditional search engine optimization focuses on being easily found on Google, local search engine optimization aims to be found when users are searching for a result in their immediate area. It is implemented in different forms - from the Google Business Profile to local keywords. But what does it include and how is it optimized? It's not enough to just specify the city Local business SEO is not just about keywords or the city name in the title tag. It's much more about strategy, planning, and execution. The goal of local SEO is to optimize local visibility, such as how the service or product is presented and its visibility with a local context. The search results are displayed based on the users' location. The increasing relevance of local SEO is due to the fact that nowadays, many people (if not most) are mobile. This means that, for instance, when looking for a restaurant or a good online marketing agency, local SEO is the way to go: Fig.1: Local Search - 360 Online Marketing Agency For companies, local SEO is not only a cost-effective strategy but also a way to stand out from the competition. With a well-crafted profile, specific and locally tailored content, as well as feedback and reviews, your visibility will shine in new colors. As a small bonus - it helps you gain and strengthen your customers' trust! Overall, local SEO is your excellent chance to position yourself locally and gain market presence! Opportunities and limits of Local SEO Of course, you must always weigh the pros and cons. SEO for local businesses has a different tone and, while it offers many bonus points, it also presents its own challenges: The local aspect : The local aspect, which is the focus of local search engine optimization, can be both a curse and a blessing. Compared to classic SEO measures, the website is found in certain geographic regions with a local SEO strategy, making it difficult to rank for general queries. If the company's main target is at the local level, this is definitely an advantage. However, if you want to be visible beyond one city, you should consider combined SEO strategies and not rely solely on local SEO. Continuous change in algorithms : One should always remember that search engine algorithms change very quickly, so it's important to keep adapting local SEO strategies. Competition : Especially in certain local industries, competition can be very strong, which brings certain challenges. Time investment : The time investment is another factor because you can't do SEO halfheartedly. The effort in local SEO involves keeping all information up-to-date. In certain industries, the frequency can be relatively high, but the profiles should still be kept current and maintained. Reviews : Feedback, reviews, and testimonials strengthen customer trust, and that's true! But one must not forget that reviews are not always positive. A negative review can have serious consequences and requires immediate action. A thoughtful and constructive response to a negative comment can also create trust. If you're wondering if the effort is worth it, the answer is: Absolutely, because the benefits are huge. Targeted reach : With local SEO, you can specifically target users in your area searching for products or services, significantly increasing the likelihood of interaction. Visibility : A good placement in local search results will not only increase your visibility in the region but also encourage customer interactions, both online and offline. Cost-effectiveness: Compared to many traditional marketing measures, local SEO is a cost-effective solution, mainly relying on organic traffic. However, if you do not have enough experience in the industry, working with a local SEO agency is a good decision to balance efficiency and costs. Mobile search : As mentioned before, mobile phones are the most commonly used search medium. Local SEO is ideal to reach users seeking local insights while on the go. Trust : A business can enhance its image in the community through positive customer reviews, building trust. Practical tips from professionals: How local SEO works! It's essential to evaluate and be clear on what marketing measure is right. Even if it seems like there's a formulaic approach in practice, it's not all that straightforward. If you're unsure whether local search engine optimization is right for you, answer this simple question: Does your business (store, restaurant, shop, etc.) have a fixed location? If you can answer this question with "Yes," then it's the right SEO strategy for you! Local SEO works when there is a location that can be visited. If your business is only online, it doesn't make sense. This is because most users will make very specific search queries with local references, such as "Pizza place Mitte" or "Beauty salon Schöneberg Berlin." Geographical orientation is the starting point. Once the question of choosing the right SEO strategy is clarified, here are some fundamental tips to maximize local visibility: Google Business Profile Google has its own local SEO management. To be present there, you need to know the rules. The first one is: "Create a Google Business Profile." Formerly known as “Google My Business,” the Google Business Profile is of enormous importance for local optimization. From the provided information, Google can determine relevant insights like reviews, opening hours, photos for local rankings, and display these alongside local hits: Fig.2: Google Business Profile - internetwarriors GmbH Moreover, connections to Google Maps, Google Street View, and Google Local Pack (also known as Google 3-Pack) are only possible with the Google Business Profile. Another advantage of this platform is that it is developed directly by Google and thus also considered in organic search. This means you can appear in local Google search results, even if the content on your website hasn't been optimized. NAP NAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone number and is another important component of local SEO. This information is essential for Google and should be consistent everywhere: On third-party platforms, on your own website, and within the Google Business Profile. The spelling should be uniform as well. Otherwise, it can lead to confusion, especially for users, but also for search engines, leading to negative ranking effects. On-page & Content Anyone familiar with on-page SEO will not find major differences in local on-page SEO. One should pay attention to the same components: keywords, title tags, meta descriptions, headings, etc. But since it's about the local context, this should also be mirrored everywhere. If the title tag says, for instance, "Delicious Italian Pizza," it's best to add the city or district, for example, "Delicious Italian Pizza from Berlin-Schöneberg." The same rules apply to meta descriptions and headings. With keywords, local relevance should also be considered. This applies to the content as well. Users should understand that it is a local provider. Of course, don't forget that the content must provide value and high quality. It’s much more about the substance than marking every sentence with a keyword of local relevance. Structured Data Let's not forget structured data. Even if users do not see it, structured data is visible to search engines. By marking all necessary data, you can also benefit. Search engines recognize such information (e.g., address, opening hours, etc.) and use it for display in search results. They also contribute to better local ranking. Moreover, using structured data provides the opportunity to display rich snippets. Mobile Optimization Though it seems evident, the relevance of mobile optimization should not be neglected. On one hand, local SEO is perfect for mobile search; on the other hand, it is generally important for ranking and visibility. Furthermore, some simple rules should be followed: The less, the better: Your website’s code should not be overloaded to achieve fast loading speeds. Your website's content should not be overloaded either. Users should not have to scroll excessively, whether on desktop or mobile, to reach the desired content. Responsive Design: This is by far the most important aspect. When designing the website, responsive design should always be implemented so the content adjusts dynamically to all mobile sizes. Business Directory Back in the day, people often looked up the Yellow Pages to find desired information and addresses. Today, everything is digitized, and numerous digital business directories exist. Utilizing this opportunity and registering your business there can yield additional benefits. Reviews and Testimonials Your local SEO checklist should not miss handling reviews & testimonials! The reviews and testimonials left by customers can lift or lower the business. Negative reviews undermine trust. But you should respond to such reviews and make a statement. Therefore: Don't leave reviews unanswered and never delete negative reviews! It's important to handle criticism and not panic. Also, try encouraging customers to give feedback and leave reviews, as the more reviews there are, the stronger the profile. Regularity is also a positive signal for search engines. However, you should collect genuine reviews to gain trust from both users and search engines. Backlinks Working with backlinks is also part of local SEO. Therefore, after completing all mentioned measures, start building relevant from websites in the local environment. Attention should be paid to the importance of links. We always recommend generic, or free, backlinks collection, as it offers significant added value. Helpful steps include using PR measures or collaborating with other local businesses. Local SEO - Your To-Do List When opting for local search engine optimization, always keep a cool head. Proper implementation brings great added value! Local SEO increases visibility in local search results and is the first point of contact when looking for services or products nearby. Additionally, it generates targeted traffic and highlights local brand presence. In summary, these are the To-Do’s that must be checked off for effective local search engine optimization: Google My Business Profile Local keywords Structured data NAP On-page & content Possibly expand social media profiles Maintain reviews Mobile optimization Backlinks We are happy to help you implement your local SEO strategies! Simply contact us via the and secure your non-binding offer! Together, towards the most sought-after local brand! Did you enjoy the blog? Recommend it now!

Improve Internal Linking for SEO: A Guide to a Successful Strategy

Aug 6, 2024

Julien

Moritz

Category:

SEO

In the world of search engine optimization, there are numerous strategies and techniques to enhance the visibility of a website. One often underestimated but highly effective method is optimizing internal linking. Internal linking in SEO serves to connect different pages within a website. This plays a crucial role not only in navigation and user-friendliness but also in distributing what is known as "Link Juice," which increases the authority and relevance of pages in the eyes of search engines. In this blog post, you'll learn how to improve your SEO strategy through thoughtful and targeted internal linking. Discover the best practices to satisfy both your users and search engines and ultimately improve your ranking. As a basis for the concept of your internal linking, you will learn in a step-by-step guide how to analyze the current state and identify potential areas of improvement. Definition and significance for SEO Basically, there are two types of hyperlinks: Internal links are connections that lead from your website to a subpage within your website. They help users navigate through your site and assist search engines in understanding the structure and hierarchy of your site. The advantage is that you have 100% control over them. External links , on the other hand, lead from a completely different domain to your website or vice versa. They can enhance credibility. However, you do not have full control over these and are dependent on other websites. This blog post will focus solely on internal linking. An important term in this context is "link juice." Link juice is the strength of a page. It consists of the quality and number of incoming links as well as their distribution across a website. As a result, the homepage has the most link juice and can pass it on through internal links. Links from pages considered more important transfer more link power than links from less important pages . A page is deemed important when many other important pages link to it. Link power is not distributed evenly. For example, if there are 100 internal links, they do not each receive 1/100 link power. Some links receive more, others less link power. The significance for SEO is diverse. Internal links enhance the user experience by helping visitors easily reach the desired information. For search engines, internal links are indicators of which pages on your website are most important. Pages that receive many internal links are considered particularly relevant and can rank higher in search results. Additionally, internal links make it easier for search engine crawlers to explore and index your site, thereby improving the discoverability and visibility of your content. Significance for Users The importance of internal links for SEO is diverse. They improve the user experience by helping visitors easily find the desired information. Within a text, for example, other products or services of the company are linked. This allows users to reach the page directly via the link without having to navigate to the site's menu. A well-thought-out internal linking strategy for SEO can help increase the user's time spent on your site. This can lead to better rankings in search results, as search engines consider user behavior in evaluating a site. Significance for Search Engines For search engines, internal links are an indicator of which pages on your site are most important. Pages with high link juice are considered particularly relevant and can rank higher in search results. Additionally, internal links make it easier for search engine crawlers to explore and index your site. This, in turn, improves the discoverability and visibility of your content. We occasionally hear the idea of marking links with nofollow to save link power. However, we advise against this. In such cases, the link is not followed, but it is still perceived as a link. During the calculation of link power, this link is considered in the total count. Concrete tips for optimizing internal linking We have concrete and practical tips on how you can optimize the internal linking on your website for more efficient SEO. From identifying particularly rewarding pages to choosing the right anchor texts to strategically placing links, these tips will help you fully exploit the potential of your internal linking and sustainably improve your SEO performance. 1. Use Screaming Frog to find pages that particularly benefit from additional internal links How can you find out which pages would benefit the most from additional internal links? This is where Screaming Frog comes into play. This powerful SEO tool allows you to specifically search for pages that are currently under-linked and therefore have great potential for additional internal links. Especially for pages that already have high traffic and are relatively poorly linked, there is a high probability that additional links will increase visibility and relevance in search results. First, create an API connection with Google Search Console : 1. Configuration → API Access → Google Search Console 2. Log in and select domain → OK Figure 1: Screaming Frog Guide: Set up API access Then start the crawl of the domain and limit the dataset to relevant data : 1. Internal → HTML 2. Select the following columns: Address, Meta Robots 1, Inlinks, Impressions 3. Filter: Meta Robots 1 → does not contain → "noindex" Figure 2: Screaming Frog Dataset Once the crawl is complete, you should have a manageable number of pages. Now the ratio between inlinks and impressions is relevant. For optimization, especially those pages are interesting that have many impressions but few incoming links . For these pages, optimizing internal linking is a great way to capture the low-hanging fruits (threshold keywords). If the number of URLs is too overwhelming, you can save the data and create a chart using Excel. 2. Use internal links in the content of the page When using links in the text, the so-called anchor text (or also anchor text/link text) is particularly important. You shouldn't use phrases like "Click here" or "Learn more." Because not only should users learn from the anchor text what to expect on the linked page, but so should bots. Therefore, the linked text should as closely as possible match the keyword of the target page. However, we recommend not using the same anchor text (the keyword) 1:1 for every linking of a page, as that would seem unnatural. Ideally, use variations and synonyms, sometimes single words, phrases, or even entire sentences with keywords. It's also important to consider the position of the link. The highest importance lies in links within a text. The context signals to both users and bots the context in which the link is located. The further up on the page it is placed, the more important it appears. Of course, buttons can still be used, as they are user-friendly. Pay attention to a good link text here as well. Furthermore, images can also be linked. In this case, using the alt attribute and a good image title is particularly important. Specifically, the alt text visualizes for the bots what can be seen in the images and indicates what content the target page offers. 3. Use internal links in the navigation Navigation consists mainly of the menu and the footer . The navigation can be accessed from any page, and thus the links are visible on every page. Especially the most important pages should be linked in the menu, as they receive a lot of link power from this placement. The links in the footer should also not be forgotten. However, it is not meant to contain innumerable links. Linking pages from the menu a second time in the footer makes no sense. Moreover, the links pass less link juice because they are less likely to be clicked. Seasonal pages should be well-linked internally with some lead time. If a topic is relevant in 5-6 months, the target page can be linked in the footer. However, it should be linked more prominently 2-3 months beforehand, e.g., in the menu, on the homepage, and from relevant content to show search engines that it is currently a very important page. We also recommend integrating a breadcrumb for easy navigation. The links it contains show the hierarchical depth of the active page and offer the users the opportunity to reach the correct parent page with a few clicks. As a result, it is very user-friendly and increases the number of internal links in the domain. 4. Quality over Quantity There is no optimal amount of internal links on a website. More important is that the links are relevant and make sense . If you keep this principle in mind, you cannot have too many internal links on a page. You can ask yourself for each link: Could this page be interesting for users? If that is the case, it is a good and relevant link. If you want to create a concept for the internal linking of your website from scratch, you should consider the so-called siloing . This is the topic-relevant linking . According to this principle, online shop visitors on a product detail page for a soccer shoe should not see links to products from the "T-shirts" or "Pants" categories. These are likely not relevant in this case. Instead, it makes sense to offer a link to a soccer shoe from another brand, as the users are obviously interested in this product type. Therefore, internal linking should be limited to the category in which the users currently are and should only refer to the homepages of other categories. Figure 3: Siloing - topic-relevant linking Internal Linking & SEO: Conclusion from internetwarriors Optimizing internal linking is an important but often underestimated method for improving a website's SEO strategy. Through targeted internal linking, both the user-friendliness and the visibility and relevance of pages for search engines can be significantly improved. Well-thought-out internal linking supports navigation, efficiently distributes link juice, and helps search engines better understand the structure of the website. Practical tips such as the use of tools like Screaming Frog, the correct selection and placement of anchor texts, as well as high-quality and topic-relevant linking, are essential for success. Overall, optimized internal linking contributes to longer user dwell time and a better ranking in search results. We are happy to support you in developing an SEO strategy for internal linking. With an , we find the potential of your website, define measures, and can implement these together under . us anytime for a non-binding offer! Did you like the blog? Recommend it now!

Privacy Sandbox Stopped! The Future of Chrome Third-Party Cookies

Jul 29, 2024

Halid

Osmaev

Category:

Web Analytics

Google plans to block third-party cookies in Chrome and replace them with cohort data. However, this faced difficulties. Even though the plans were abandoned, the fear of a comprehensive tracking blockade remains. In this blog post, you'll learn more about the latest developments in tracking and how our solution can help. Chrome relies on third-party cookies – What you need to know now In 2019, Google announced that with the introduction of the Google Privacy Sandbox, it would block all third-party cookies in its Chrome browser. These measures have already been implemented by the browsers Safari and Firefox. However, Google's approach encountered significant challenges, particularly regarding the use of cohort data provided by Google based on browsing history. Instead of traditional third-party cookies, the Privacy Sandbox is intended to provide information about user groups, known as cohorts or interest groups. These groups are based on browsing history and offer advertisers a new way to reach target audiences. The problem is that marketers rely on the data provided by Google, which could allow Google to gain a monopoly position. Additionally, the results of the Privacy Sandbox trial from the first quarter of 2024 did not yield the desired outcomes. These insufficient results ultimately led to Google abandoning its . This was confirmed in an official blog post by Anthony Chavez. Yet, the concern over a comprehensive blockade may not necessarily be over. With Google’s new proposal, users can make informed decisions about which data to permit for tracking. This might lead many users to opt for a full or heavily restricted tracking blockade. Therefore, it remains essential to keep your advertising tracking methods up to date to counteract the effects of potential tracking blockades. A proven technology in this area is server-side tracking. Our case studies and the experiences of numerous clients show that . Do you have any further questions or comments? Feel free to or use the comment function below.

Google Ad Grants for Nonprofit Organizations

Jul 22, 2024

Emily

Dier

Category:

SEA

For nonprofit organizations, reaching a broad public and promoting their mission with limited budgets is often a challenge. This is where Google Ad Grants comes into play: The program offers nonprofits the opportunity to run free ads through Google Ads, significantly increasing their reach. In this blog post, you'll learn how Google Ad Grants works and what requirements must be met to participate in the program. Along with a step-by-step guide to setting up and managing your Google Ad Grant account, we provide tips for creating effective campaigns and ads, and share optimization strategies to increase your visibility and conversion rate.  Dive in and discover how you can maximize the impact of your nonprofit work with Google Ad Grants! In this blog post, we show you how to quickly create your creatives through clever design and the right layout - making your creative ads true eye-catchers. Discover the secrets behind successful ads and learn how to design your ads to not only grab attention but also boost your conversion rates. What exactly is Google Ad Grants and how does it work? Google Ad Grants is an initiative by Google that offers nonprofits the opportunity to advertise for free on Google Search. The program provides eligible organizations with up to $10,000 per month in ad credits, which can be used to promote their mission, events, donation opportunities, and more. Benefits of Google Ad Grants for Nonprofits: Increased Visibility With Google Ad Grants, you can raise awareness of your organization and reach a wider audience of potential supporters. Targeted ads focusing on relevant keywords and audiences significantly enhance your organization's online presence. Increased Donations Strategically placed ads increase the likelihood of people willing to donate. By using the ad credits, you can spread your donation appeals more effectively and increase the willingness to donate. More Engagement Google Ad Grants enables you to promote participation in your events, campaigns, and other initiatives. With the right ads, you can encourage more people to actively participate in your programs. Lower Marketing Costs One of the biggest advantages of Google Ad Grants is the reduction in marketing costs. By providing free ad credits, you can invest your resources in other important areas without compromising effective online advertising. Requirements for Participation in Google Ad Grants To participate in the Google Ad Grants program, nonprofit organizations must meet certain criteria. Here are the key requirements: Nonprofit Status : Your organization must be officially recognized as a nonprofit in your country and have a valid tax-exempt certificate. This ensures that only legitimate nonprofit organizations can take advantage of the program. Website : Your organization must maintain an active website that provides clear information about its mission, activities, and contact options. A professional and informative website is crucial to gain trust from potential supporters. No Commercial Focus : Your organization must not sell products or services unless they exclusively serve the nonprofit mission. The main goal should always be to support charitable work, not commercial profit. No Political Background : Your organization must not support or promote political activities. Google Ad Grants is aimed at promoting nonprofit purposes, not political agendas. Compliance with Policies : Your organization must comply with all Google Ads policies and terms of service. This includes ensuring that all ads meet Google's quality standards and do not contain misleading or inappropriate content. Eligible organizations include, but are not limited to: Charitable organizations Foundations Educational institutions Hospitals Research institutes Environmental organizations Humanitarian organizations Find more success stories of organizations supported by Google Ad Grants here: . Application for Google Ad Grants: Step-by-Step Guide for NGOs To apply for Google Ad Grants, you must first create a Google for Nonprofits account. You can start this process on the following page: . The verification process then proceeds as follows: Identity Verification : Confirm the identity of your organization with an official document such as a tax-exempt certificate. This ensures that only legitimate nonprofit organizations can utilize the program. Website Verification : Link your website to your Google for Nonprofits account and confirm access to the site. A clear and informative website is crucial for the success of your Google Ad Grants campaigns. Policy Compliance Check : Google reviews your organization and website for compliance with program policies. This check ensures that all participating organizations meet Google's quality standards. Verification can take several weeks. Once your account is verified, you can apply for Google Ad Grants and benefit from the program's numerous advantages for NGOs. Limitations of the Google Ad Grants Program When users make a search query on Google, the system scans Ad Grants participants' ads for those relevant to the entered keywords. These ads are then auctioned off based on several factors: Bid : The amount you're willing to pay per click on your ad. Ad Relevance : How relevant your ad is to the search query made by the user. Quality Score : An assessment of your ad and landing page quality. The ad with the highest product of bid, ad relevance, and best quality score is displayed first, followed by other ads in descending order. A limitation of Google Ad Grants is that only Search campaigns are possible - other campaign types known in Google Ads, such as Display or Performance Max campaigns, are not permitted. Within Search campaigns, you can use various bidding strategies, from manual CPC to Maximize Conversions, to maintain control over your spending and optimize results. Guidelines for Ad Grants Campaigns No Single-Word Keywords Google Ad Grants has specific guidelines for keyword usage to maximize the relevance and effectiveness of ads. Generally, single-word keywords are not allowed as they are often too general and can lead to irrelevant traffic, reducing conversion rates and increasing costs. Exceptions include branded keywords (e.g., "WWF"), recognized medical conditions (e.g., "Diabetes"), and some special cases that may be individually approved. To achieve the best results, you should use long-tail keywords that are specific and relevant, leading to better traffic and higher conversions. Regularly analyze your keywords' performance and pause ineffective single-word keywords. Google Ads also offers a filter to easily identify and pause single-word keywords. This ensures your campaigns remain optimized and your resources are used efficiently. Use the Keyword Quality Guidelines for Google Ad Grants According to Google Ad Grants guidelines, keywords with a quality score of 1 or 2 are not allowed and must be paused or removed to maintain the account status. The quality score consists of ad relevance, expected click-through rate (CTR), and the user experience with the landing page. Regular reviews of your account for keywords with low-quality scores are therefore essential. To simplify the process, you can set up an automated rule to pause these keywords automatically. By adhering to this guideline, you improve your ad quality and increase the efficiency of your Google Ad Grants account. Automatically pause keywords with poor quality scores using a rule Handling Low CTR in Google Ad Grants For Google Ad Grants, a click-through rate (CTR) of at least 5% must be achieved across all campaigns to avoid account deactivation. A high CTR indicates that your ads are relevant and appealing, while a low CTR suggests irrelevant or unattractive ads. If your campaigns exhibit a low CTR, you should pause keywords with many impressions and low CTR, adjust bids, optimize your keywords and ad texts, and improve the user experience on your landing page. Set up automated rules to automatically pause ads with low CTR and use the Google Ads Keyword Planner to find relevant keywords with high potential. This way, you can enhance the quality and efficiency of your campaigns. Set up automation: Pause ads with low CTR using a rule. Use the Google Ads Keyword Planner to find relevant high-potential keywords. The Importance and Optimization of Conversion Tracking in Google Ad Grants To maximize the success of your Google Ad Grants campaigns, the Google Ad Grants program requires achieving at least one conversion per month. Conversion tracking plays a crucial role in this. Why is Conversion Tracking Important? Improved Campaign Success : Conversion tracking shows you which ads and keywords lead to the most conversions. This helps you optimize your campaigns and reach more potential supporters. Necessary for Policy Compliance : Ad Grants accounts must implement conversion tracking to meet program requirements. Increased Account Opportunities : Demonstrating conversions shows Google that your campaigns are effective and should be supported. Efficient Budget Utilization : With conversion data, you can deploy your budget more efficiently and avoid wasting money on ineffective ads. Data-Driven Decisions : Conversion data enables informed decisions about your campaign strategies, allowing you to specifically optimize your ads and keywords. If your Google Ad Grants campaign did not achieve any conversions last month, there are various actions you can take: First, you should create Google Analytics goals and import them into Google Ads. Alternatively, you can add new conversions directly into Google Ads. These actions help you gain detailed insights into your campaign's performance. If no conversions are still recorded, detailed troubleshooting is needed. Check the conversion tracking tag in Google Ads to ensure it is implemented correctly. It is also important to check the setup of goals in Google Analytics to ensure everything functions correctly. Besides the technical review, optimizing your landing pages is crucial. Ensure your landing pages are relevant to the respective ads and keywords and include a clear call-to-action (CTA). By conducting A/B tests, you can compare different versions of your landing pages to determine and continually improve the best conversion rate. Through effective conversion tracking and targeted optimizations, you can significantly increase the efficiency of your Google Ad Grants campaigns and ensure that your ads achieve their desired goals. Conduct A/B tests to compare different landing page variants and improve the conversion rate. The Campaign Structure and Ad Groups To enhance the effectiveness of your Google Ads campaigns, a well-thought-out structure is crucial. Each ad group should contain at least two ads tailored to different user preferences to maximize relevance. Setting the ad rotation to "Optimize" ensures the optimal ad selection for each auction. Each campaign should set up at least two ad groups focusing on relevant keywords and landing pages to improve campaign performance. It's crucial to use highly relevant keywords that are closely related to target high click-through rate search queries. Regular campaign structure reviews and A/B tests for various ads and ad extensions are also recommended to continuously optimize overall performance. Regularly review campaign structure & A/B test various ads and ad extensions to optimize performance. Setting Up Ad Extensions: Sitelink ad extensions enhance the user experience by linking directly to relevant pages of the website without detours via the home page. This increases user satisfaction and optimizes the user experience. For Google Ad Grants accounts, at least 2 sitelinks per ad must be added, which lead to high-converting target pages like campaign pages, detail pages, or contact pages. Best Practices for Your Google Ad Grants Account Optimize Ads: Create engaging ads with a clear CTA Highlight benefits and differentiation from competitors A/B test for best performance Optimize Landing Pages: Ensure relevance of used keywords and ad texts Ensure a user-friendly experience on landing pages Conversion optimization with CTAs, forms, and load times Track and improve conversion rate Ensure Account Structure: Are there at least two active ad groups per campaign? Are there at least two active ads per ad group? Are there at least two sitelinks per ad? Do all campaigns use conversion-based smart bidding ("Maximize Conversions", "Maximize conversion value", "Target CPA" or "Target ROAS")? Is geographic targeting applied? internetwarriors – Performance Agency Berlin To optimally optimize Google Ad Grants accounts and campaigns, a comprehensive understanding of the program's requirements and guidelines, as well as continuous optimization, is essential. Do you want to take your online marketing for NGOs to the next level with the help of the Google Ad Grants program? Then you've come to the right place with the internetwarriors! As an experienced with more than 20 years of expertise, we support you in running effective performance marketing campaigns. From account creation to campaign optimization, we stand by your side. Benefit from our experience and let's achieve your advertising goals together. us now and benefit from our extensive range of services!

Attention, Eye-Catcher! How smart design can turn your creative ads into conversion magnets!

Jun 3, 2024

Céline

Otto

Category:

SEA

In today's fast-paced digital world, it's more important than ever for your ads to stand out from the crowd and capture the attention of your target audience. Smart design strategies play a crucial role in this. But how do you manage to stand out from the multitude of ads and create true conversion magnets? In this blog post, we will show you how you can easily create your creatives through clever design and the right layout - and make your creative ads real eye-catchers. Discover the secrets behind successful ads and learn how to design your ads so that they not only attract attention but also boost your conversion rates. The Design Process and Conceptualization The core of performance design lies in the seamless connection between graphic design and performance marketing, with the primary goal of improving conversion rates. For the conception of an advertising campaign, it is crucial to first understand the needs of the users in detail. The questions that need to be answered are diverse: How do I address the target audience correctly? And how can we meet their needs and prompt them to take action? The following points can help with this: Addressing the target audience correctly: Selection of the target audience Definition of interests and needs Choice of product Conveying the message Choice of advertising format Appealing design Inducing the desired action  Motivation Appealing to interests Utilizing pain points Technique Links Sound / Image / Subtitles Trigger Colors / Effects CTAs The technical implementation involves selecting the right format and setting the campaign parameters such as placements, audiences, and budgets. The visual design, on the other hand, deals with color schemes, the selection of appealing images or videos, and the formulation of the right text. The psychological component also plays a major role: it’s about setting emotional triggers that not only appeal to users but also resonate with them. Video Ads: Best Practices The attention span of users on platforms like TikTok and Instagram is very short these days. Video ads, therefore, need to captivate within the first few seconds. Here is a detailed overview of how to design an effective promotional video: Video Structure Along the Arc of Suspense Seconds 1-3: Capturing Attention The first three seconds of an advertising video are crucial to capture the attention of the viewers. In this short time frame, the video must not only catch attention but also build suspense. This can be achieved through a provocative question or a visually striking scene that piques interest in the topic. The use of dynamic visual elements like color explosions or unexpected movements can help increase the curiosity of the viewers. Seconds 4-6: Conveying the Core Message Once interest is piqued, the core message of the video must be communicated clearly and succinctly. During these seconds, viewers should learn about the product or service being promoted. It is also the ideal moment to introduce the brand or company to avoid any uncertainty among viewers. The use of color and movement during this phase can create a slight provocation that keeps interest alive. Seconds 7-11: Presenting Relevant Information During this phase, important information should be presented. The use of expressive images or videos representing the advertised product or service is significant here. Techniques like quick cuts, split-screen views, or subtitles can be used to maintain suspense while effectively conveying relevant information. Seconds 12-15: Clear Call-to-Action The final seconds of the video are crucial for the call-to-action. It should be clearly and unambiguously communicated what viewers should do next. This could be a call to purchase, an invitation to participate in a survey, or a link for further reading. Visual reinforcements like text overlays or animated buttons can help underscore this message and increase the conversion rate.  Example Video Structure: “Pain Points” Problem Presentation and Amplification Initially, the current state is presented in the advertising content by clearly defining and explaining a specific problem faced by the target audience. Example: Jewelry that is not waterproof and thus could be damaged upon contact with water. To increase urgency, the problem is portrayed more intensely, for instance by showing how the jewelry discolors the skin or damages clothing. This creates a greater awareness of the problem's extent and motivates viewers to seek a solution. Presentation of the Desired State Subsequently, the desired state is presented, showing the ideal situation or desired outcome. This could be illustrated with an example where a friend wears high-quality, waterproof jewelry. This representation offers a visual illustration of what is possible and presents a direct contrast to the problem-laden current state. Problem Solution The next step involves offering a solution to the problem. The product or service is presented, highlighting its specific benefits. It is shown how the product effectively solves the problem. For instance, a demonstration of waterproof jewelry in a vacation context could be made to illustrate how the jewelry maintains its quality and appearance even under extreme conditions. Call-to-Action (CTA) Finally, a clear call-to-action is formulated. This should encourage the purchase of the showcased product or prompt a specific action that boosts the conversion rate. A typical CTA could be: "Order Now!" This direct call aims to motivate customers to take immediate action, thereby achieving the desired conversion. Checklist for Video Ads Static Ads: Best Practices For static ads, it is recommended to use high-contrast, brand-specific colors to immediately catch the viewer's eye. Text should be minimized and the message communicated clearly and concisely to avoid overwhelming visual overload and increase the click-through rate. Different formats should be used throughout the marketing funnel to promote specific actions, from awareness-building to customer retention. Creative Formats Along the Customer Funnel Throughout the customer funnel, there are various creative concepts that address the user at their respective step of the customer journey. To target users at the “Top Funnel” , it is important to capture attention at all, as users have had no contact with the brand so far. For this, there is, for example, the option to use the concept of "us vs. them." This way, the brand’s unique selling points and special features are presented directly. The next step addresses customers in the so-called “Mid Funnel” . Initial contact with the brand has already been made, but users have mostly not converted yet. It is therefore important to once again highlight the benefits of the brand or product and convey values with which the customer can identify. Advertising communication options here include "3 reasons why," or "Which type are you." For the “Lower Funnel” , it is worthwhile to address the target group with like-minded voices - that is, either with testimonials, experts, or followers on social media channels. This builds trust among potential users or buyers. In the last funnel step, the “Bottom Funnel” , the focus is primarily on addressing people who have already been in contact with the brand and have tested its products or services. The goal here is mainly to entice customers to return to the brand and be convinced once again by their products. One way to do this is by advertising with a discount code. It is also useful to use wording like "We miss you" to appeal to the emotional side of consumers. Design Tips When designing creatives, there are also some proven tips and tricks that can help you create engaging and effective ads . Colors play a crucial role in this. High-contrast colors can draw the viewer's eye and direct their gaze exactly where you want it: on your ad. This often happens subconsciously, as the user has to pause to see what catches their eye. Use this feature to highlight important information and capture the attention of users. A clear and concise message is also crucial for a successful ad. Reduce text to a minimum to quickly and clearly convey your message. Long text blocks often appear overwhelming, are not visually appealing, and are rarely read. A short and precise phrasing helps your ad stand out and be click-worthy.The use of brand colors is another effective way to strengthen brand awareness while creating a strong brand experience. By consistently using your branding elements, you ensure recognition and build trust with your users. Additionally, A/B tests are an excellent way to test the effectiveness of your ad creatives. Create different designs for the same product and see which design resonates better with your audience. These tests help you make data-driven decisions and continuously optimize your ads. An often overlooked, yet very important aspect is the use of whitespace , also known as “negative space” . Whitespace are the neutral areas surrounding the core of your image. There are two main reasons why you should use more whitespace in your creatives: Whitespace helps to focus the eye and directs users exactly where they should look. It draws attention to the essential elements of your ad . Furthermore, a generous use of whitespace makes your design appear cleaner and more sophisticated, which many users associate with professionalism and quality. By following these tips, you can design engaging and effective creatives that capture your target audience's attention and strengthen your brand image. internetwarriors - Performance Agency Berlin To design a successful performance campaign, a thorough understanding of the target audience, market conditions, and psychological triggers is required. The combination of technical precision and creative design enables the creation of campaigns that not only stand out but also achieve measurably successful results. Do you want to fully exploit the potential of your ads? Then internetwarriors is the right place for you! As an experienced performance ads agency with more than 20 years of expertise, we support you in running effective campaigns in performance marketing. From account creation to campaign optimization, we are by your side. Benefit from our experience and let's achieve your advertising goals together. Contact us now and take advantage of our extensive range of services!

Google Ads Video Campaigns

May 6, 2024

Karina

Nikolova

Category:

SEA

Many marketing experts today still consider YouTube to be a good way to increase brand awareness and generate cheap traffic. This assumption is indeed legitimate, as YouTube video ads primarily served this purpose in the past. But times have changed, and so have the opportunities YouTube offers marketers. While it used to be unimaginable to achieve many direct conversions with YouTube campaigns, it is now possible to focus your campaign on conversions and use automated bidding strategies such as “maximize conversions” and “maximize conversion value.” And this is thanks to one of the latest Google Ads video campaigns launched on the market - the video action campaign. Before addressing the main topic, I want to emphasize the significance of YouTube as a channel and highlight the importance of incorporating this platform into your marketing mix. Why YouTube? Image Source: Google Support In a world where digital presence is increasingly decisive, YouTube has established itself as a key platform in the marketing mix. This has been confirmed by several statistics in recent years. According to Statista, more than 2 billion users are active on YouTube every month worldwide, which corresponds to about 40% of global users. In January 2024, YouTube secured the second place in the ranking of the world's largest social networks. This positioning is no surprise when you consider that only in Germany, about 72.6 million people use YouTube monthly, with a daily reach of about 37%, according to a survey from 2022. The fact that many users spend a lot of time on the platform is evidenced by the 2019 Comscore study, which shows that YouTube offers the longest playback time among ad-supported streaming services. Regarding the user demographics, YouTube is most frequently used by people aged 25 to 34 years, unlike platforms like TikTok, which are more preferred by a younger target audience. YouTube's popularity is due to its numerous advantages. Users can learn, get inspired, become part of a community with shared interests, and discover new products. All these factors make the platform a powerful tool for advertisers looking to effectively engage their target audiences and increase brand or product awareness. Especially the possibility to reach users at the very moment they search for products or services is a decisive advantage. Moreover, many users consider the recommendations of their favorite YouTube creators in the purchasing process. All in all, YouTube has proven to be “the place to be,” and as marketers, we want to advertise where everyone wants to be. What is a Video Action Campaign? Video action campaigns offer an efficient way to generate a higher number of conversions through a single automated campaign on both YouTube and other platforms. They are designed to directly encourage your audience to take action and not only scale conversions but also the overall revenue. However, this is not the first YouTube campaign type designed to encourage direct conversions. Video action campaigns are considered an evolution of the former TrueView for Action campaigns, which have not been available on Google Ads since 2022. While the latter offered many benefits, they lacked some of the advanced features integrated into video action campaigns. Google reports that compared to TrueView for Action campaigns, you can achieve up to 20% higher conversion rates with them. In this sense, the “True View for Action” campaign served as the foundation for developing the current YouTube campaign type. Where are the video ads displayed and what do they look like? YouTube allows advertisers to deliver their ads through various formats, including skippable in-stream ads, in-feed video ads, and YouTube Shorts. In contrast, True View for Actions could only use skippable in-stream ads. Besides the homepage feed, video ads can appear in the “Recommended Videos” section and on the search results pages. They are displayed not only on YouTube but also with Google video partners, significantly increasing reach. If you want to use video ads, they should be at least 10 seconds long. As for video ads themselves, the Google ad videos you want to use as ads must be at least 10 seconds long. Since the introduction of video action campaigns, Google Ads has improved the ad's appearance. Recently, the number of assets you can add to ad texts has been expanded. Currently, you can insert 5 call-to-actions, headlines, long ad titles, and descriptions per ad. However, some assets are not displayed in certain formats. For example, descriptions are not visible in skippable in-stream ads. For even stronger campaign performance, various additional assets can be integrated. These include site links, lead forms, or product feeds. These elements can significantly enhance user engagement and conversions by providing additional interaction opportunities directly within the ad.   Which creatives are suitable for video action campaigns? ABCD Principle Creating relevant advertising content is key to the success of any YouTube campaign. The first few seconds of a video are crucial in capturing the viewers' attention. Use visually appealing, high-contrast images and ensure that your brand is noticeable from the beginning and consistently present throughout the video. Try to tell a story within your video that highlights important USPs but also evokes emotions. End each video with a clear call-to-action (CTA) to encourage interactions. For more information, you can check out Google's ABCD principle for effective creatives. What bidding strategies can be used? Since video action campaigns focus on conversions, you can select conversion-related bidding strategies like “Target CPA.” It is important to note that the set campaign budget influences how quickly the algorithm can optimize the campaign for conversions. Particularly for the “Target CPA” bidding strategy, a daily budget is recommended that is at least 15 times the targeted CPA. The “Target ROAS” and “Maximize conversion value” bidding strategies are only available for video action campaigns once the campaign has achieved at least 30 conversions.   Which best practices are recommended for video action campaigns? Using the WAVE tool on the Google Store Test different ad variations: Experiment with different CTAs, ad texts, and video content to find out what resonates best with your audience. As more users are mobile, it is advisable to include vertical videos among the ad materials as they are optimized for mobile devices. Use additional assets only when necessary: While the use of assets, such as lead forms, can improve your campaign's performance, this is not always the case. They can affect how your ads are delivered and user behavior. For example, a long lead form may cause users to abandon rather than convert. Furthermore, you should strategically consider whether different assets are even beneficial for the success of your video action campaign. Select the right conversion goal: This point is particularly important if many and different conversion goals are stored in the account. When creating a video action campaign, you should only retain those that are relevant, as the algorithm cannot distinguish between different conversion goals. Activate optimized targeting: With this option, Google promises about 20% more conversions. Set the right expectations: As already mentioned, video action campaigns are conversion-oriented, and as such, the algorithm prioritizes the conversions set as a goal in the campaign. You can certainly strengthen your brand or product awareness, but the prices you would pay for this, e.g., the average CPM, would be higher than with other Google Ads video campaigns. For this reason, you should be clear about what you want to achieve with YouTube as part of the marketing mix and which measures are best suited for this purpose. Why test the video action campaign? Testing is an essential part of every marketing expert's daily routine. Taking the known path might generally be beneficial but does not always work. Regular success on Google Ads requires staying up to date and testing what the platform has to offer. In this sense, I encourage you to give the video action campaign a fair chance and experience its unique features for yourself. If you need help planning, creating, or optimizing such campaigns, the Warriors from Berlin are happy to assist you. You can contact us anytime for a non-binding offer .

Check Website Accessibility - Using WAVE and Google Lighthouse

Apr 24, 2024

Julien

Moritz

Category:

SEO

The Digital Accessibility Enhancement Act, scheduled for 2025, marks a significant advance in the development of an inclusive digital society. It aims to improve the accessibility of digital products and services for people with disabilities. This legislation builds on existing legal frameworks for accessibility and extends them to meet the needs of the digital age. It is a good reason to check if your website meets the requirements. In this article, you will learn how to use the tools WAVE and Lighthouse to identify issues, determine what actions are needed, and get a good idea of what it means to optimize your website to meet WCAG - AA criteria. Why the WCAGs matter A key aspect of this law is compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The WCAGs serve as an internationally recognized standard for web content accessibility and are divided into three levels of conformance: A, AA, and AAA. These guidelines offer detailed recommendations on how to design digital content to make it accessible to people with a range of disabilities, including visual, auditory, motor, and cognitive impairments. The law is expected to include requirements ensuring that websites, mobile applications, and other digital technologies comply with WCAG standards. This means that developers and providers of digital products and services must design their offerings to be accessible to all users, regardless of their physical or sensory abilities. Key elements of the WCAG include ensuring keyboard operability, providing alternative text for visual content, enhancing the usability and understandability of content, and compatibility with assistive technologies. The Digital Accessibility Enhancement Act will have far-reaching impacts on the public sector as well as on companies providing digital products and services for the German market. Implementing WCAG compliance will not only promote digital inclusion but also improve the quality and accessibility of online offerings overall. Measuring accessibility with Google Lighthouse Lighthouse is an open-source tool developed by Google to improve the quality of websites. It is a valuable resource for both developers and website operators to analyze and optimize the performance, accessibility, best practices for web applications, and search engine optimization (SEO) of your websites. Accessibility and SEO have synergies that should not be underestimated when optimization aims not only at accessibility but also at increasing organic visibility. A is available from us. The installation, functionality, and measurement of accessibility with Lighthouse are explained below. Lighthouse can be installed and used in several ways: Lighthouse can be installed as an extension in the Google Chrome browser. You can simply visit the Chrome Web Store, search for Lighthouse, and add it. Lighthouse is also directly integrated into Chrome DevTools. To use it, you simply open the DevTools in Chrome, navigate to the "Lighthouse" tab, and start the analysis in Lighthouse. The website also evaluates accessibility. Lighthouse performs a series of tests to evaluate various aspects of a website. The results of these tests are summarized in a report that not only shows the performance of the page but also offers specific recommendations for improvement. The report is divided into several categories: Categories measured in Lighthouse Measuring accessibility with the Lighthouse tool Accessibility is evaluated by Lighthouse through a series of automated tests as well as manual review recommendations. These tests include: Contrast ratios: Checking the text contrast compared to the background. Keyboard accessibility: Ensuring that all interactive elements of the website are reachable and usable by keyboard. Aria attributes: Use of ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) attributes to improve accessibility for screen readers and other assistive technologies. HTML structural elements: Using correct HTML elements to structure content and navigation elements. Classic SEO basics, such as heading structure, ALT attributes, or [lang] attributes. It is important to note that despite the comprehensive tests by Lighthouse, a fully accessible website cannot be guaranteed solely through automated checks. The manual review recommendations provided by Lighthouse are a crucial step to ensuring comprehensive accessibility. In the Google Developer Tools, a is published, where individual factors carry a weight from 1 to 10. It is advantageous to focus first on the measures with a higher weight - interestingly, these factors are also closely linked to SEO measures. Excerpt of individual metrics and weightings The Google Tool Lighthouse shows the individual errors in website accessibility, categorized by topic. The display is in accordion format, ensuring an overview - see 1. Lighthouse also offers users the option to display more information about the errors. In this example, it not only shows what an ALT attribute for images should look like but also how it should be best implemented in the source code so that it can be read by search engines and also by assistive technologies like screen readers - see 2. The final part specifically displays the elements where the aforementioned error occurs, in the form of a screenshot and a snippet of the code. Unfortunately, the screenshots shown by the Lighthouse Tool are very unclear, making it difficult at first glance to place the element on the entire website - see 3. Error display in Google Lighthouse In summary, Lighthouse is a powerful tool that helps web developers and website operators analyze and optimize their websites. With its versatile installation and usage options and detailed reports and recommendations, Lighthouse plays an important role in modern web development, especially in the area of search engine optimization, where these values are an important indicator. So far, Google has not made a specific statement that the accessibility of a website is a ranking factor. However, many metrics are already indirectly evaluated. Accessible websites are becoming increasingly important, so it's only a matter of time before possible indicators and measurements are also found in the Google Search Console. WAVE - Tool with visual marking of accessibility You can also easily and freely test your website's accessibility using the WAVE tool. However, unlike the Lighthouse tool, it was not developed by Google itself. Lighthouse provides the advantage that the results come directly from Google and may be a more significant indicator for ranking. WAVE was developed by the recognized organization WebAIM and also adheres to WCAG guidelines. The results of the respective tools should thus not differ significantly when testing a website for accessibility. Therefore, for us, the clear presentation of results and the handling of the tool are in the foreground. There is also a paid version. The WAVE API is installed locally and can analyze your entire website. In this article, we present the free version and do not go into the WAVE API further. WAVE is available both as an and as a practical browser extension for Chrome and Firefox, allowing web content to be made easily and efficiently accessible. When using it, you stay visually on the website (see Figure 4). The tool shows accessibility hints and errors using small icons. This immediate feedback allows you to quickly identify and address issues. WAVE pays particular attention to critical aspects of accessibility - from alt attributes to the labeling of forms to contrast issues. It also shows whether your website has a clear structure. Additionally, the WAVE tool considers ambiguous or non-descriptive links and the use of ARIA labels, which can be used to provide an optimal web experience for people using screen readers. Using the WAVE Tool on the Google Store Error identification On the left side of the screen, there is a dashboard. It serves to navigate and display accessibility elements. The menu consists of six different sections and is intuitively usable. In addition to the summary of how many errors and contrast errors, warnings, features, structural elements, and ARIA usages there are, they are listed in the "Details" tab. Here you can click directly to the cause on the website. Under "Reference," you find a detailed description of the problem and how to fix it (see Figure 5). Dashboard of the WAVE Tool (Section 1 - 3) Furthermore, there is the option to disable styles or open the HTML code directly at the appropriate place. The WAVE tool ensures that every error can be found and identified. The tool for testing websites for accessibility also shows the tab order (navigation with the tab key to all interactive elements - links & form fields). It provides an overview of the structural setup with headings and offers the option to manually check contrasts (see Figure 6). This can be important, for example, for contrast ratios on relevant images, as the WAVE tool does not check these. In some cases, for example, when text is directly in the image, it is also important that it can be read by everyone. Interpretation of the results Errors and contrast errors are usually clear violations of WCAG Level AA guidelines and should be rectified before the Accessibility Enhancement Act takes effect. In the case of warnings, the WAVE tool identifies potential barriers that are not as drastic and not always based on a legal basis. However, all results should generally be critically examined and controlled before implementation. With the use of features and ARIA labels, these are HTML elements designed, among other things, to enable accessible websites. However, they should be used correctly. For example, an existing alt attribute of an image is marked as a feature. However, the quality or correct use cannot be captured by the WAVE tool. Alt attributes should ideally describe the content of the image as they are read aloud by screen readers. You need to check for yourself if they are well-chosen. Another example is ARIA labels. Here, correct use is also important. The WAVE tool shows all used labels. However, they can also be used incorrectly and cause more barriers. To check if they are used correctly, it's very helpful to use your website with a screen reader. For Windows devices, we recommend the screen reader , which is free to download and easy to use. Apple devices have the "VoiceOver" accessibility feature integrated. The tab order should follow a logical sequence of links, visually counting up from left to right and from top to bottom on the website. If this is not the case, the code needs to be adjusted. Conclusion - Lighthouse and WAVE The benefits of accessibility are clear. It's an opportunity for website operators to improve usability and make content accessible to all. At the same time, visibility also benefits from accessible implementation. But which tool should you use to check your website for accessibility? In this blog article, we introduced two tools, Lighthouse and WAVE. These are our two favorites. Both can be used as browser extensions or directly on the respective website. Lighthouse is a Google tool and has the advantage that the results may soon directly influence the ranking. Implementing the tool's suggestions puts you in a good position from an SEO standpoint. In our opinion, WAVE clearly has the edge in terms of result presentation. Errors and notices are directly visible on the page. From a contrast checker to the display of the structure to the option to disable styles, the WAVE tool offers a wide variety of applications. It remains clear and easy to use. The errors and warnings of the two tools are very similar according to our experience. However, it is important to emphasize that these are automated tools. The actual assessment and understanding of barriers require human judgment. Therefore, it is recommended to further review the identified results with screen readers to get a realistic picture of a website's accessibility. Another aspect is that they only analyze individual pages and not the entire website. This can lead to missing problems that arise from the interaction of different pages. Do you need help checking and implementing accessibility for your website? The warriors from Berlin are happy to assist you. By June 28, 2025, all affected websites must be accessible. Prepare now and stand out from your competitors! You can contact us for a non-binding offer at any time.

Recruiting in the Digital Age: Google for Jobs in Practice

Apr 22, 2024

Jona

Pahlke

Category:

SEO

Online research has long become a part of everyday life. Whether it's a recipe for a family dinner, a nearby gym, or the latest football scores, Google has been working on innovations for years to improve the way people search for information on the internet, ensuring users always find exactly what they are looking for. From more precise search results to personalized recommendations - Google has consistently led the digital revolution. In 2017, Google introduced one of its most important innovations - Google for Jobs. This search engine extension has significantly changed not only the search behavior of job seekers and employers but also the use of major job portals like Indeed or Stepstone. Since 2019, Google for Jobs has also been available in Germany, allowing companies to post job ads with structured data directly on Google, turning the world of online job searching upside down, as around 80 percent of job searches begin on Google. In this article, we will show you the advantages of Google job search for job seekers and employers, the requirements you must meet for an ad on Google for Jobs, and how optimized job advertisements can help you achieve perfect results in your recruitment efforts. More Applicants, Better Matches: The Benefits of Google for Jobs In 2023, Bing gained a significant market share, making it an indispensable element of any SEO strategy. Interestingly, it shows that Bing users are on average older and have higher incomes than Google users. These demographic factors can be particularly relevant for companies whose products or services are geared toward this target group. On one hand, it's due to the convenience and searching habits of users. Google has been the number 1 among search engines for years with over 2 trillion searches per year. Users who used to search for "marketing jobs near me" on Google save the extra click on one of the many job portals and instead get job offers with all necessary information directly integrated into the search results. The timeliness of job postings and the filter function are also reasons for using Google job search. Another crucial aspect that distinguishes Google for Jobs from traditional job portals is the timeliness of job postings. By integrating job ads from various sources in real-time, Google for Jobs provides users with access to current job offerings in the market. This timely presentation of jobs is of enormous importance in the fast-paced job market, allowing job seekers to respond immediately to newly advertised positions and thus increase their chances of landing their dream job. In addition to timeliness, the extensive filtering functions make Google for Jobs such a powerful tool in job searching. Users can customize their search in detail - be it by job title, location, company, working hours model, contract type, or even specific industries. This flexibility in search allows job seekers to find job offers that are perfectly tailored to their individual needs and career goals. This benefits not only employees but also employers. Thanks to the filtering options, the pool of applicants is precisely tailored to the employer's target group. For employees, this means saving time and avoiding unnecessary applications, while employers no longer have to sift through thousands of applications. Behind the Scenes - Setting up Google for Jobs IndexNow is an innovative technology that enables website operators to directly submit their latest updates and content changes to search engines like Bing. This tool breaks the traditional waiting for search engine crawlers and brings fresh content almost in real-time into the search results. It's particularly valuable for dynamic websites that change frequently. The integration of IndexNow into Bing Webmaster Tools is quite straightforward, either via an API or through user-friendly plugins in popular content management systems like WordPress. This integration ensures a fast and smooth update of content. To ensure a consistent code and thus seamless reading of data, Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex launched the Schema.org initiative in June 2011. This website provides users with a comprehensive collection of schema markup tags with which various types of content on a website can be labeled, such as events, products, and much more. However, when it comes to data tagging, it's important to know which tags need to be used and which are optional. Google offers useful tools for this, such as the and detailed Google for Jobs guides on the . In the specific example of job advertisements, there are 5 so-called required properties that must be specified and marked: Date the employer posted the job Complete job description (tasks, qualifications, skills, working hours, and requirements concerning education and work experience) Organization offering the position The company's location(s) where the employee will work Job title In addition to the required ones, there are also recommended properties. Recommended properties offer additional information that can enhance the quality and relevance of the content, while required properties represent the minimum information necessary for correct data interpretation. In Google for Jobs, the recommended properties play an important role as they include additional information such as base salary or application deadlines. These details allow employees to receive more tailored job offers, while employers benefit from a more targeted selection of applicants. Google for Jobs as a Key to Efficient Recruitment The integration of Google for Jobs into your recruitment strategy can provide enormous benefits. Through continuous Google for Jobs optimizations, including the application of Schema.org, precise tagging of all important data, regular updates, and adjusting your ads for mobile devices, you can increase the visibility of your job ads and effectively target top talents. On the other hand, employees benefit from job offers that are better tailored to their needs, making their job search more efficient. This win-win situation makes Google job search an important resource for employers and employees. internetwarriors GmbH has many years of experience in SEO optimization for various channels. We believe that a solid Google for Jobs SEO strategy is essential to remain visible in the job ad market in the long term. We are happy to support you in optimizing your job ads to maximize your visibility. us today to learn more about how we can individually support you.

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Optimize PDF SEO the Right Way!

Aug 14, 2024

Ina

Bondarev

Category:

SEO

Now that all necessary measures for search engine optimization (also: ) have been taken and the website achieves top rankings? Even if the first steps are successfully mastered, the next step comes - SEO for PDFs! The PDF file is notoriously not well-regarded in the SEO world, but sometimes it's unavoidable. This is partly due to the static format (HTML pages are not as easily downloadable) and partly due to the user experience: some people prefer to read certain content offline, and PDF files usually provide detailed information that isn't always suitable for HTML pages due to text length (extensive scrolling and unnecessary information can, in the worst case, lead to bounce rates). So PDFs have their own target audience that can and should be addressed. Therefore, optimizing PDFs for search engines is worthwhile, even if it brings some challenges. Back to the roots: History and relevance of PDFs Regular users of Google search know that organic search results can include not only websites but also PDF documents. In fact, PDF files have been in the Google index since the year 2000: PDF file in Google search - https://www.internetwarriors.de/ The PDF format (Portable Document Format) has existed since the early '90s - developed by Adobe Inc. - and can contain both text and images, forms, links, etc. Today it stands for the open standard (ISO) and is very popular for its accessibility. The inclusion by search engines allowed users a broader access to information. This added value resulted in the discussed indexing of static PDF files. This was the starting shot for another discipline of search engine optimization: SEO PDF. Though PDF files differ from 'classic' web formats, they offer numerous advantages for SEO. This isn't just about the profit for users, but also about keywords (PDFs can be excellently optimized for keywords), (PDFs as a source for backlinks), and enduring content. Therefore, when well-integrated into the SEO strategy, PDFs can provide significant added value. Search engine optimization for PDFs: Doing it right! To understand how to optimize PDF documents, two main questions arise: How does Google rank PDF files? What decides their position compared to websites? And ultimately - what differentiates PDFs from classic websites? Two points stand out: PDFs are generally longer Users tend to link less to PDF documents Google itself also says that determining relevance is difficult because it depends on personal preference whether a user prefers to read a PDF or a website. Different search engines handle this differently and so only some helpful hints can be provided here. Find out what these are! But first, a golden rule: Google, as a text-based search engine, needs real text to optimally read and evaluate a document. PDFs often consist of images, especially if they are scanned book pages, etc. With the help of OCR software (Optical Character Recognition - a technology many are familiar with from scanners), Google might be able to better read images containing text in the future, but until then, pure text documents are the better choice. This is where SEO optimization for PDFs begins: Formatting, adjusting, and reformatting As mentioned, PDF SEO optimization starts with the correct file format. It's simple to check if it’s correct: if text from a PDF document can be copied and pasted into, e.g., a Word file, it is real text. Even if tables are present in a file, they should be text-based. Selectable text isn’t the only requirement for the correct format. Besides the text content, other aspects need to be considered, such as file size. Following the principle “as small as possible” practically ensures you can’t go wrong in this regard. Generally, file size reflects loading speed and download duration. A size under 1 MB is generally considered user-friendly, but some PDFs require more, justified by the amount of content. Additionally, a range between 1 and 5 MB can be seen as optimal, with anything over 1 MB aimed at large files and documents. It’s important to consider image compression to prevent unnecessarily increasing the file size. Always ask whether the file size suits its purpose and prioritize user experience. Don’t overlook the write protection of PDFs - it’s crucial to prevent changes and modifications to the original files. Despite crawlers accessing write-protected PDFs, indexing them is usually pointless. It’s recommended to set such PDFs to noindex.  In summary: Correct formatting is the first step in PDF SEO optimization. It also ensures readability and accessibility, essential for a positive user experience. Content determines success “Content is King” seems to be one of the most well-known and current quotes, even though it originates from a 1996 essay by Bill Gates. The saying has become somewhat of a cliché and has its place in the online marketing world. It’s also a rule in search engine optimization when it comes to content creation. PDFs are no exception. The rule always applies - it’s all about the users. Thus, the PDF should provide added value if a good ranking is to be achieved. It needs not only SEO optimization but also informative, relevant, and useful content for the user. Added value, quality, and credibility are crucial for , making it essential to create high-quality content. Content optimization for PDFs follows the same rules as for 'normal' HTML pages - one of the most important: it must be unique. This means: PDFs should provide additional information to the HTML content, may complement them, but must not be identical. This leads to the issue of duplicate content. If there’s a good reason to duplicate content, a Canonical Tag must not be forgotten. In terms of keyword optimization, there are almost no differences: PDFs should and must be keyword optimized because search engines find and index PDFs through relevant keywords. Care should be taken to integrate keywords as naturally as possible into the content, and they should also appear in headings, title tags, meta descriptions, and file names. PDF Mastery: Onpage optimization for maximum success An is also required for PDF SEO. Essentially, it is very similar to onpage optimization of HTML pages. When done correctly, discoverability, user experience, and accessibility can benefit. The first concern should be the file name : it should be as descriptive and simple as possible. Integrating a meaningful keyword into the file name is a helpful step, as it facilitates indexing by search engines. However, avoid using special characters and prefer hyphens - this measure is partly for better compatibility (for various software and operating systems), URL friendliness, and error avoidance (special characters have specific meanings in the file system). Next, the title , part of the metadata, should be optimized. Common SEO rules apply here - length (max. 60 characters), unique design, relevant keywords, and brand at the end of the title. The title is directly stored in the PDF file and is an essential part of PDF SEO. It's possible to save the file name as the title simultaneously, which is also a permissible implementation. This must now be noted in the settings (Adobe Acrobat) accordingly. Contrasting with the title, the meta description or description is not quite identical to what is known from SEO optimization. For PDFs, metadata includes title, author, keywords, and content summaries. Additionally, further information can be added via additional metadata. Except for keywords, which no longer have ranking relevance, all fields must be filled out. Even with different handling of PDF files, it is advisable to still consider the description's length (max. 160 characters) and add a usual call-to-action. Traditionally, headings play a very special role in SEO: …they structure content for users and search engines …provide an excellent opportunity to integrate keywords for better ranking …improve user experience …facilitate navigation, especially for users relying on screen readers …highlight content Moreover, headings are an important ranking factor. Therefore, it's crucial to equip not only websites but also PDFs with good headings. The same rules as for HTML pages should be followed - no unnecessary headings, keyword optimization, one H1 per page or document, and maintaining logical order. Inserting headings is very straightforward using Adobe Acrobat (or PDF-XChange Editor) or already in the Word file (with subsequent export of the document as PDF). If content is considered a king in the SEO world, then internal linking is at least a hidden bridge to SEO success. Internal linking is also very relevant for PDFs, as it can increase the value of the PDF itself and its visibility. Internal linking can be well implemented through relevant keywords in the content. It is merely necessary to maintain thematic coherence and link to pages that fit the PDF's content. Moreover, anchor texts should not be overlooked, nor should the embedding in the sitemap. If backlinks from high-quality websites point to the document, there is an excellent chance to improve authority and visibility and thus work into the E-E-A-T concept. Furthermore, internal linking is almost indispensable if one wants to optimize PDFs for SEO. Tech-Tuning: Optimize your PDF! Once content, keywords, and onpage aspects for PDFs are optimized, the first half is done. The next and almost last step should be technical optimization. Including it in the sitemap is essential for universal and/or current PDFs. However, one should start with the added value - does the PDF file offer it to the user? If this question can be positively answered and the criteria are met, then the sitemap is the right place for PDFs. The advantages are similar to HTML pages - direct indexing, better discoverability, improved performance, and proactive control of the indexing process. However, if certain files are to be excluded from indexing, this can also be done using the “noindex” tag. The canonical tag should be correctly used and applied: Is the PDF content similar or even identical to the HTML page content? If so, the canonical tag is indispensable to avoid the issue of duplicate content. The SEO optimization of PDFs also requires mobile optimization - correspondingly, aspects that characterize a mobile-friendly file should be considered - starting with file size (shouldn't be too large) to correct formatting (e.g., portrait orientation, left-aligned text, use of sections & headings, good structuring, etc.). If these points are observed, PDF search engine optimization is on the right track! PDF without barriers: Accessibility redefined! The topic of has been discussed for a long time - and rightly so! Websites should be accessible to everyone, and from June 2025, this becomes mandatory. Hence, basic adaptations should be made in PDFs: All images/graphics should have alt texts Headings and tags must also be implemented Content must be text-based but also need appropriate contrast and readable typeface Lastly: Don’t forget necessary configurations for screen readers. The good news is that all these measures can be directly implemented in PDF programs like Adobe Acrobat or the PDF-XChange Editor. Afterward, you can use the accessibility check (also available in the programs) to verify implementation. SEO PDF Accessibility PDF Tracking: Measuring with Precision Those wanting to measure performance should definitely consider tracking. This is also part of PDF SEO and can be used effectively. It provides a way to understand how users interact with the PDF document. There are many methods suitable for tracking PDF files - everyone can find what works best for them. However, the tracking concept should be approached with caution, always weighing its necessity. SEO Optimization for PDFs: Strategies for Success Even if PDF SEO is considered complex, it’s worth optimizing such files correctly. It should not be underestimated that PDFs can be SEO-relevant for several reasons: Indexing of content (text-based) Additional opportunity for keyword optimization Positive user experience Distribution of link equity Sustainable content PDFs are thus a valuable addition to the website, offering content expansion, targeting specific audiences, and appropriately optimized can increase visibility. If you follow the rules and properly implement search engine optimization for PDFs and fundamentally include the use of PDF files in the SEO strategy, you can only benefit from the expanded content format! Need help optimizing your PDF content? Don't hesitate to contact us - our team is happy to assist you! It's simple: and get all the insights! Learn more about our

Custom Columns in Google Ads: The Ultimate Guide to Greater Data Transparency

Aug 14, 2024

Markus

Brook

Category:

SEA

Google Ads offers a variety of standard reports that provide valuable insights into campaign performance. However, these reports often reach their limits when it comes to analyzing specific data points or creating individual evaluations. This is where custom columns come into play. With custom columns, you can tailor Google Ads data to your needs, gathering the information most relevant to you. In this blog article, we explore how custom columns work and introduce you to important formulas you can implement directly in your account. What are custom columns? Custom columns in Google Ads are specially tailored data fields that you can define yourself. Unlike the predefined columns available by default in Google Ads, custom columns offer the flexibility to create your own metrics and perform complex calculations. This feature is especially useful for gaining detailed insights into your campaign performance and tracking specific metrics. Benefits of using custom columns Using custom columns in Google Ads offers numerous benefits: 1. Personalization of data analysis: You can create metrics that are precisely tailored to your business goals. For instance, you can calculate ROI, Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), or other business-specific KPIs. 2. Increased efficiency: Custom columns in Google Ads allow you to perform complex data calculations directly in the Google Ads interface, reducing the need for external spreadsheets and speeding up the analysis process. 3. Improved decision-making: With tailored metrics, you can make more informed decisions, gaining specific insights into your campaign performance that would otherwise be hidden. 4. Better reporting: Custom columns facilitate the creation of detailed reports that provide your stakeholders with exactly the information they need. Creation and implementation of custom columns Creating custom columns in Google Ads is a relatively simple process. Here are the basic steps: Log into your Google Ads account and go to the campaign area. On the right side, you will find the "Columns" menu item. Figure 1: Step 1 Select Columns   Click "Custom," but you can also get there via "Customize Columns." In the next step, you will reach the overview page and open "Custom Columns." Figure 2: Step 2 Customize Columns for Campaigns   From here, you can create the corresponding columns. Figure 3: Step 3 Create Columns   Give the column a name and description. Choose the desired metric and calculation formula. Formulas and calculations: You can use simple calculations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division to create your custom metric. Once you've created the custom column, you can add it to your reports and dashboards. This allows you to monitor and analyze your campaigns' performance using the new metrics. Important custom columns for Google Ads To help you get started, we've compiled some useful custom columns that you can create directly in your Google Ads account: 1. Expected costs for the current month: This column shows you the monthly budget you should expect if you don't change existing settings or budgets. Formula: REPLACE MANUALLY!!! 2. Cost-per-conversion by conversion action: This column shows the average cost per conversion for various conversion actions (e.g., purchase, newsletter signup). This helps you better understand the profitability of your conversion actions. Formula: REPLACE MANUALLY!!! Here is an excerpt of conversions we have set up in our account: Figure 4: Overview of created conversions   These are also associated with the respective CPA per conversion. The above data provides extremely useful insights into each conversion phase. Different views can also be examined to see which search terms, keywords, and ads perform accordingly, allowing you to find out very specifically where you need to optimize, cut, or increase your budget. 3. CPA in the last 7 days: This column shows the average CPA in the last 7 days. This allows you to compare the development of the CPA over the last 30 days and the last week at a glance. Formula: REPLACE MANUALLY!!! 4. ROAS in the last 7 days: This column shows the average ROAS in the last 7 days. This allows you to compare the development of the ROAS over the last 30 days and the last week at a glance. Formula: REPLACE MANUALLY!!! 5. Budget utilization: The "Budget Utilization" column shows the percentage of the set daily budget that the campaign spent on average per day in the last 7 days. It is important to note that if the daily budget is increased or decreased, the column will change accordingly. This means it is only meaningful if the budget is not adjusted. Formula: REPLACE MANUALLY!!! Conclusion Custom columns in Google Ads are a powerful tool for tailoring Google Ads data to individual needs. By creating your own columns, you gain deeper insights into your campaign performance and make informed decisions to optimize results. We are happy to help you identify and create the right custom columns in your Google Ads account. Simply contact us via the and secure your non-binding offer!

Local SEO – How to Improve Your Local Visibility

Aug 9, 2024

Ina

Bondarev

Category:

SEO

The is famously very diverse - content SEO, E-commerce SEO, on-page SEO, off-page SEO, technical SEO, and local SEO. Many of these intertwine and are difficult to separate. Although each type of SEO has its own peculiarities and nuances, there is also a common foundation that is the same across different types of SEO. One of the most current SEO topics is local SEO. What is local SEO and where does it come from? The origins of this field date back to 2005. With the launch of Google Maps, the local aspect suddenly became very relevant. Since then, it has been gaining more and more importance. While traditional search engine optimization focuses on being easily found on Google, local search engine optimization aims to be found when users are searching for a result in their immediate area. It is implemented in different forms - from the Google Business Profile to local keywords. But what does it include and how is it optimized? It's not enough to just specify the city Local business SEO is not just about keywords or the city name in the title tag. It's much more about strategy, planning, and execution. The goal of local SEO is to optimize local visibility, such as how the service or product is presented and its visibility with a local context. The search results are displayed based on the users' location. The increasing relevance of local SEO is due to the fact that nowadays, many people (if not most) are mobile. This means that, for instance, when looking for a restaurant or a good online marketing agency, local SEO is the way to go: Fig.1: Local Search - 360 Online Marketing Agency For companies, local SEO is not only a cost-effective strategy but also a way to stand out from the competition. With a well-crafted profile, specific and locally tailored content, as well as feedback and reviews, your visibility will shine in new colors. As a small bonus - it helps you gain and strengthen your customers' trust! Overall, local SEO is your excellent chance to position yourself locally and gain market presence! Opportunities and limits of Local SEO Of course, you must always weigh the pros and cons. SEO for local businesses has a different tone and, while it offers many bonus points, it also presents its own challenges: The local aspect : The local aspect, which is the focus of local search engine optimization, can be both a curse and a blessing. Compared to classic SEO measures, the website is found in certain geographic regions with a local SEO strategy, making it difficult to rank for general queries. If the company's main target is at the local level, this is definitely an advantage. However, if you want to be visible beyond one city, you should consider combined SEO strategies and not rely solely on local SEO. Continuous change in algorithms : One should always remember that search engine algorithms change very quickly, so it's important to keep adapting local SEO strategies. Competition : Especially in certain local industries, competition can be very strong, which brings certain challenges. Time investment : The time investment is another factor because you can't do SEO halfheartedly. The effort in local SEO involves keeping all information up-to-date. In certain industries, the frequency can be relatively high, but the profiles should still be kept current and maintained. Reviews : Feedback, reviews, and testimonials strengthen customer trust, and that's true! But one must not forget that reviews are not always positive. A negative review can have serious consequences and requires immediate action. A thoughtful and constructive response to a negative comment can also create trust. If you're wondering if the effort is worth it, the answer is: Absolutely, because the benefits are huge. Targeted reach : With local SEO, you can specifically target users in your area searching for products or services, significantly increasing the likelihood of interaction. Visibility : A good placement in local search results will not only increase your visibility in the region but also encourage customer interactions, both online and offline. Cost-effectiveness: Compared to many traditional marketing measures, local SEO is a cost-effective solution, mainly relying on organic traffic. However, if you do not have enough experience in the industry, working with a local SEO agency is a good decision to balance efficiency and costs. Mobile search : As mentioned before, mobile phones are the most commonly used search medium. Local SEO is ideal to reach users seeking local insights while on the go. Trust : A business can enhance its image in the community through positive customer reviews, building trust. Practical tips from professionals: How local SEO works! It's essential to evaluate and be clear on what marketing measure is right. Even if it seems like there's a formulaic approach in practice, it's not all that straightforward. If you're unsure whether local search engine optimization is right for you, answer this simple question: Does your business (store, restaurant, shop, etc.) have a fixed location? If you can answer this question with "Yes," then it's the right SEO strategy for you! Local SEO works when there is a location that can be visited. If your business is only online, it doesn't make sense. This is because most users will make very specific search queries with local references, such as "Pizza place Mitte" or "Beauty salon Schöneberg Berlin." Geographical orientation is the starting point. Once the question of choosing the right SEO strategy is clarified, here are some fundamental tips to maximize local visibility: Google Business Profile Google has its own local SEO management. To be present there, you need to know the rules. The first one is: "Create a Google Business Profile." Formerly known as “Google My Business,” the Google Business Profile is of enormous importance for local optimization. From the provided information, Google can determine relevant insights like reviews, opening hours, photos for local rankings, and display these alongside local hits: Fig.2: Google Business Profile - internetwarriors GmbH Moreover, connections to Google Maps, Google Street View, and Google Local Pack (also known as Google 3-Pack) are only possible with the Google Business Profile. Another advantage of this platform is that it is developed directly by Google and thus also considered in organic search. This means you can appear in local Google search results, even if the content on your website hasn't been optimized. NAP NAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone number and is another important component of local SEO. This information is essential for Google and should be consistent everywhere: On third-party platforms, on your own website, and within the Google Business Profile. The spelling should be uniform as well. Otherwise, it can lead to confusion, especially for users, but also for search engines, leading to negative ranking effects. On-page & Content Anyone familiar with on-page SEO will not find major differences in local on-page SEO. One should pay attention to the same components: keywords, title tags, meta descriptions, headings, etc. But since it's about the local context, this should also be mirrored everywhere. If the title tag says, for instance, "Delicious Italian Pizza," it's best to add the city or district, for example, "Delicious Italian Pizza from Berlin-Schöneberg." The same rules apply to meta descriptions and headings. With keywords, local relevance should also be considered. This applies to the content as well. Users should understand that it is a local provider. Of course, don't forget that the content must provide value and high quality. It’s much more about the substance than marking every sentence with a keyword of local relevance. Structured Data Let's not forget structured data. Even if users do not see it, structured data is visible to search engines. By marking all necessary data, you can also benefit. Search engines recognize such information (e.g., address, opening hours, etc.) and use it for display in search results. They also contribute to better local ranking. Moreover, using structured data provides the opportunity to display rich snippets. Mobile Optimization Though it seems evident, the relevance of mobile optimization should not be neglected. On one hand, local SEO is perfect for mobile search; on the other hand, it is generally important for ranking and visibility. Furthermore, some simple rules should be followed: The less, the better: Your website’s code should not be overloaded to achieve fast loading speeds. Your website's content should not be overloaded either. Users should not have to scroll excessively, whether on desktop or mobile, to reach the desired content. Responsive Design: This is by far the most important aspect. When designing the website, responsive design should always be implemented so the content adjusts dynamically to all mobile sizes. Business Directory Back in the day, people often looked up the Yellow Pages to find desired information and addresses. Today, everything is digitized, and numerous digital business directories exist. Utilizing this opportunity and registering your business there can yield additional benefits. Reviews and Testimonials Your local SEO checklist should not miss handling reviews & testimonials! The reviews and testimonials left by customers can lift or lower the business. Negative reviews undermine trust. But you should respond to such reviews and make a statement. Therefore: Don't leave reviews unanswered and never delete negative reviews! It's important to handle criticism and not panic. Also, try encouraging customers to give feedback and leave reviews, as the more reviews there are, the stronger the profile. Regularity is also a positive signal for search engines. However, you should collect genuine reviews to gain trust from both users and search engines. Backlinks Working with backlinks is also part of local SEO. Therefore, after completing all mentioned measures, start building relevant from websites in the local environment. Attention should be paid to the importance of links. We always recommend generic, or free, backlinks collection, as it offers significant added value. Helpful steps include using PR measures or collaborating with other local businesses. Local SEO - Your To-Do List When opting for local search engine optimization, always keep a cool head. Proper implementation brings great added value! Local SEO increases visibility in local search results and is the first point of contact when looking for services or products nearby. Additionally, it generates targeted traffic and highlights local brand presence. In summary, these are the To-Do’s that must be checked off for effective local search engine optimization: Google My Business Profile Local keywords Structured data NAP On-page & content Possibly expand social media profiles Maintain reviews Mobile optimization Backlinks We are happy to help you implement your local SEO strategies! Simply contact us via the and secure your non-binding offer! Together, towards the most sought-after local brand! Did you enjoy the blog? Recommend it now!

Improve Internal Linking for SEO: A Guide to a Successful Strategy

Aug 6, 2024

Julien

Moritz

Category:

SEO

In the world of search engine optimization, there are numerous strategies and techniques to enhance the visibility of a website. One often underestimated but highly effective method is optimizing internal linking. Internal linking in SEO serves to connect different pages within a website. This plays a crucial role not only in navigation and user-friendliness but also in distributing what is known as "Link Juice," which increases the authority and relevance of pages in the eyes of search engines. In this blog post, you'll learn how to improve your SEO strategy through thoughtful and targeted internal linking. Discover the best practices to satisfy both your users and search engines and ultimately improve your ranking. As a basis for the concept of your internal linking, you will learn in a step-by-step guide how to analyze the current state and identify potential areas of improvement. Definition and significance for SEO Basically, there are two types of hyperlinks: Internal links are connections that lead from your website to a subpage within your website. They help users navigate through your site and assist search engines in understanding the structure and hierarchy of your site. The advantage is that you have 100% control over them. External links , on the other hand, lead from a completely different domain to your website or vice versa. They can enhance credibility. However, you do not have full control over these and are dependent on other websites. This blog post will focus solely on internal linking. An important term in this context is "link juice." Link juice is the strength of a page. It consists of the quality and number of incoming links as well as their distribution across a website. As a result, the homepage has the most link juice and can pass it on through internal links. Links from pages considered more important transfer more link power than links from less important pages . A page is deemed important when many other important pages link to it. Link power is not distributed evenly. For example, if there are 100 internal links, they do not each receive 1/100 link power. Some links receive more, others less link power. The significance for SEO is diverse. Internal links enhance the user experience by helping visitors easily reach the desired information. For search engines, internal links are indicators of which pages on your website are most important. Pages that receive many internal links are considered particularly relevant and can rank higher in search results. Additionally, internal links make it easier for search engine crawlers to explore and index your site, thereby improving the discoverability and visibility of your content. Significance for Users The importance of internal links for SEO is diverse. They improve the user experience by helping visitors easily find the desired information. Within a text, for example, other products or services of the company are linked. This allows users to reach the page directly via the link without having to navigate to the site's menu. A well-thought-out internal linking strategy for SEO can help increase the user's time spent on your site. This can lead to better rankings in search results, as search engines consider user behavior in evaluating a site. Significance for Search Engines For search engines, internal links are an indicator of which pages on your site are most important. Pages with high link juice are considered particularly relevant and can rank higher in search results. Additionally, internal links make it easier for search engine crawlers to explore and index your site. This, in turn, improves the discoverability and visibility of your content. We occasionally hear the idea of marking links with nofollow to save link power. However, we advise against this. In such cases, the link is not followed, but it is still perceived as a link. During the calculation of link power, this link is considered in the total count. Concrete tips for optimizing internal linking We have concrete and practical tips on how you can optimize the internal linking on your website for more efficient SEO. From identifying particularly rewarding pages to choosing the right anchor texts to strategically placing links, these tips will help you fully exploit the potential of your internal linking and sustainably improve your SEO performance. 1. Use Screaming Frog to find pages that particularly benefit from additional internal links How can you find out which pages would benefit the most from additional internal links? This is where Screaming Frog comes into play. This powerful SEO tool allows you to specifically search for pages that are currently under-linked and therefore have great potential for additional internal links. Especially for pages that already have high traffic and are relatively poorly linked, there is a high probability that additional links will increase visibility and relevance in search results. First, create an API connection with Google Search Console : 1. Configuration → API Access → Google Search Console 2. Log in and select domain → OK Figure 1: Screaming Frog Guide: Set up API access Then start the crawl of the domain and limit the dataset to relevant data : 1. Internal → HTML 2. Select the following columns: Address, Meta Robots 1, Inlinks, Impressions 3. Filter: Meta Robots 1 → does not contain → "noindex" Figure 2: Screaming Frog Dataset Once the crawl is complete, you should have a manageable number of pages. Now the ratio between inlinks and impressions is relevant. For optimization, especially those pages are interesting that have many impressions but few incoming links . For these pages, optimizing internal linking is a great way to capture the low-hanging fruits (threshold keywords). If the number of URLs is too overwhelming, you can save the data and create a chart using Excel. 2. Use internal links in the content of the page When using links in the text, the so-called anchor text (or also anchor text/link text) is particularly important. You shouldn't use phrases like "Click here" or "Learn more." Because not only should users learn from the anchor text what to expect on the linked page, but so should bots. Therefore, the linked text should as closely as possible match the keyword of the target page. However, we recommend not using the same anchor text (the keyword) 1:1 for every linking of a page, as that would seem unnatural. Ideally, use variations and synonyms, sometimes single words, phrases, or even entire sentences with keywords. It's also important to consider the position of the link. The highest importance lies in links within a text. The context signals to both users and bots the context in which the link is located. The further up on the page it is placed, the more important it appears. Of course, buttons can still be used, as they are user-friendly. Pay attention to a good link text here as well. Furthermore, images can also be linked. In this case, using the alt attribute and a good image title is particularly important. Specifically, the alt text visualizes for the bots what can be seen in the images and indicates what content the target page offers. 3. Use internal links in the navigation Navigation consists mainly of the menu and the footer . The navigation can be accessed from any page, and thus the links are visible on every page. Especially the most important pages should be linked in the menu, as they receive a lot of link power from this placement. The links in the footer should also not be forgotten. However, it is not meant to contain innumerable links. Linking pages from the menu a second time in the footer makes no sense. Moreover, the links pass less link juice because they are less likely to be clicked. Seasonal pages should be well-linked internally with some lead time. If a topic is relevant in 5-6 months, the target page can be linked in the footer. However, it should be linked more prominently 2-3 months beforehand, e.g., in the menu, on the homepage, and from relevant content to show search engines that it is currently a very important page. We also recommend integrating a breadcrumb for easy navigation. The links it contains show the hierarchical depth of the active page and offer the users the opportunity to reach the correct parent page with a few clicks. As a result, it is very user-friendly and increases the number of internal links in the domain. 4. Quality over Quantity There is no optimal amount of internal links on a website. More important is that the links are relevant and make sense . If you keep this principle in mind, you cannot have too many internal links on a page. You can ask yourself for each link: Could this page be interesting for users? If that is the case, it is a good and relevant link. If you want to create a concept for the internal linking of your website from scratch, you should consider the so-called siloing . This is the topic-relevant linking . According to this principle, online shop visitors on a product detail page for a soccer shoe should not see links to products from the "T-shirts" or "Pants" categories. These are likely not relevant in this case. Instead, it makes sense to offer a link to a soccer shoe from another brand, as the users are obviously interested in this product type. Therefore, internal linking should be limited to the category in which the users currently are and should only refer to the homepages of other categories. Figure 3: Siloing - topic-relevant linking Internal Linking & SEO: Conclusion from internetwarriors Optimizing internal linking is an important but often underestimated method for improving a website's SEO strategy. Through targeted internal linking, both the user-friendliness and the visibility and relevance of pages for search engines can be significantly improved. Well-thought-out internal linking supports navigation, efficiently distributes link juice, and helps search engines better understand the structure of the website. Practical tips such as the use of tools like Screaming Frog, the correct selection and placement of anchor texts, as well as high-quality and topic-relevant linking, are essential for success. Overall, optimized internal linking contributes to longer user dwell time and a better ranking in search results. We are happy to support you in developing an SEO strategy for internal linking. With an , we find the potential of your website, define measures, and can implement these together under . us anytime for a non-binding offer! Did you like the blog? Recommend it now!

Privacy Sandbox Stopped! The Future of Chrome Third-Party Cookies

Jul 29, 2024

Halid

Osmaev

Category:

Web Analytics

Google plans to block third-party cookies in Chrome and replace them with cohort data. However, this faced difficulties. Even though the plans were abandoned, the fear of a comprehensive tracking blockade remains. In this blog post, you'll learn more about the latest developments in tracking and how our solution can help. Chrome relies on third-party cookies – What you need to know now In 2019, Google announced that with the introduction of the Google Privacy Sandbox, it would block all third-party cookies in its Chrome browser. These measures have already been implemented by the browsers Safari and Firefox. However, Google's approach encountered significant challenges, particularly regarding the use of cohort data provided by Google based on browsing history. Instead of traditional third-party cookies, the Privacy Sandbox is intended to provide information about user groups, known as cohorts or interest groups. These groups are based on browsing history and offer advertisers a new way to reach target audiences. The problem is that marketers rely on the data provided by Google, which could allow Google to gain a monopoly position. Additionally, the results of the Privacy Sandbox trial from the first quarter of 2024 did not yield the desired outcomes. These insufficient results ultimately led to Google abandoning its . This was confirmed in an official blog post by Anthony Chavez. Yet, the concern over a comprehensive blockade may not necessarily be over. With Google’s new proposal, users can make informed decisions about which data to permit for tracking. This might lead many users to opt for a full or heavily restricted tracking blockade. Therefore, it remains essential to keep your advertising tracking methods up to date to counteract the effects of potential tracking blockades. A proven technology in this area is server-side tracking. Our case studies and the experiences of numerous clients show that . Do you have any further questions or comments? Feel free to or use the comment function below.

Google Ad Grants for Nonprofit Organizations

Jul 22, 2024

Emily

Dier

Category:

SEA

For nonprofit organizations, reaching a broad public and promoting their mission with limited budgets is often a challenge. This is where Google Ad Grants comes into play: The program offers nonprofits the opportunity to run free ads through Google Ads, significantly increasing their reach. In this blog post, you'll learn how Google Ad Grants works and what requirements must be met to participate in the program. Along with a step-by-step guide to setting up and managing your Google Ad Grant account, we provide tips for creating effective campaigns and ads, and share optimization strategies to increase your visibility and conversion rate.  Dive in and discover how you can maximize the impact of your nonprofit work with Google Ad Grants! In this blog post, we show you how to quickly create your creatives through clever design and the right layout - making your creative ads true eye-catchers. Discover the secrets behind successful ads and learn how to design your ads to not only grab attention but also boost your conversion rates. What exactly is Google Ad Grants and how does it work? Google Ad Grants is an initiative by Google that offers nonprofits the opportunity to advertise for free on Google Search. The program provides eligible organizations with up to $10,000 per month in ad credits, which can be used to promote their mission, events, donation opportunities, and more. Benefits of Google Ad Grants for Nonprofits: Increased Visibility With Google Ad Grants, you can raise awareness of your organization and reach a wider audience of potential supporters. Targeted ads focusing on relevant keywords and audiences significantly enhance your organization's online presence. Increased Donations Strategically placed ads increase the likelihood of people willing to donate. By using the ad credits, you can spread your donation appeals more effectively and increase the willingness to donate. More Engagement Google Ad Grants enables you to promote participation in your events, campaigns, and other initiatives. With the right ads, you can encourage more people to actively participate in your programs. Lower Marketing Costs One of the biggest advantages of Google Ad Grants is the reduction in marketing costs. By providing free ad credits, you can invest your resources in other important areas without compromising effective online advertising. Requirements for Participation in Google Ad Grants To participate in the Google Ad Grants program, nonprofit organizations must meet certain criteria. Here are the key requirements: Nonprofit Status : Your organization must be officially recognized as a nonprofit in your country and have a valid tax-exempt certificate. This ensures that only legitimate nonprofit organizations can take advantage of the program. Website : Your organization must maintain an active website that provides clear information about its mission, activities, and contact options. A professional and informative website is crucial to gain trust from potential supporters. No Commercial Focus : Your organization must not sell products or services unless they exclusively serve the nonprofit mission. The main goal should always be to support charitable work, not commercial profit. No Political Background : Your organization must not support or promote political activities. Google Ad Grants is aimed at promoting nonprofit purposes, not political agendas. Compliance with Policies : Your organization must comply with all Google Ads policies and terms of service. This includes ensuring that all ads meet Google's quality standards and do not contain misleading or inappropriate content. Eligible organizations include, but are not limited to: Charitable organizations Foundations Educational institutions Hospitals Research institutes Environmental organizations Humanitarian organizations Find more success stories of organizations supported by Google Ad Grants here: . Application for Google Ad Grants: Step-by-Step Guide for NGOs To apply for Google Ad Grants, you must first create a Google for Nonprofits account. You can start this process on the following page: . The verification process then proceeds as follows: Identity Verification : Confirm the identity of your organization with an official document such as a tax-exempt certificate. This ensures that only legitimate nonprofit organizations can utilize the program. Website Verification : Link your website to your Google for Nonprofits account and confirm access to the site. A clear and informative website is crucial for the success of your Google Ad Grants campaigns. Policy Compliance Check : Google reviews your organization and website for compliance with program policies. This check ensures that all participating organizations meet Google's quality standards. Verification can take several weeks. Once your account is verified, you can apply for Google Ad Grants and benefit from the program's numerous advantages for NGOs. Limitations of the Google Ad Grants Program When users make a search query on Google, the system scans Ad Grants participants' ads for those relevant to the entered keywords. These ads are then auctioned off based on several factors: Bid : The amount you're willing to pay per click on your ad. Ad Relevance : How relevant your ad is to the search query made by the user. Quality Score : An assessment of your ad and landing page quality. The ad with the highest product of bid, ad relevance, and best quality score is displayed first, followed by other ads in descending order. A limitation of Google Ad Grants is that only Search campaigns are possible - other campaign types known in Google Ads, such as Display or Performance Max campaigns, are not permitted. Within Search campaigns, you can use various bidding strategies, from manual CPC to Maximize Conversions, to maintain control over your spending and optimize results. Guidelines for Ad Grants Campaigns No Single-Word Keywords Google Ad Grants has specific guidelines for keyword usage to maximize the relevance and effectiveness of ads. Generally, single-word keywords are not allowed as they are often too general and can lead to irrelevant traffic, reducing conversion rates and increasing costs. Exceptions include branded keywords (e.g., "WWF"), recognized medical conditions (e.g., "Diabetes"), and some special cases that may be individually approved. To achieve the best results, you should use long-tail keywords that are specific and relevant, leading to better traffic and higher conversions. Regularly analyze your keywords' performance and pause ineffective single-word keywords. Google Ads also offers a filter to easily identify and pause single-word keywords. This ensures your campaigns remain optimized and your resources are used efficiently. Use the Keyword Quality Guidelines for Google Ad Grants According to Google Ad Grants guidelines, keywords with a quality score of 1 or 2 are not allowed and must be paused or removed to maintain the account status. The quality score consists of ad relevance, expected click-through rate (CTR), and the user experience with the landing page. Regular reviews of your account for keywords with low-quality scores are therefore essential. To simplify the process, you can set up an automated rule to pause these keywords automatically. By adhering to this guideline, you improve your ad quality and increase the efficiency of your Google Ad Grants account. Automatically pause keywords with poor quality scores using a rule Handling Low CTR in Google Ad Grants For Google Ad Grants, a click-through rate (CTR) of at least 5% must be achieved across all campaigns to avoid account deactivation. A high CTR indicates that your ads are relevant and appealing, while a low CTR suggests irrelevant or unattractive ads. If your campaigns exhibit a low CTR, you should pause keywords with many impressions and low CTR, adjust bids, optimize your keywords and ad texts, and improve the user experience on your landing page. Set up automated rules to automatically pause ads with low CTR and use the Google Ads Keyword Planner to find relevant keywords with high potential. This way, you can enhance the quality and efficiency of your campaigns. Set up automation: Pause ads with low CTR using a rule. Use the Google Ads Keyword Planner to find relevant high-potential keywords. The Importance and Optimization of Conversion Tracking in Google Ad Grants To maximize the success of your Google Ad Grants campaigns, the Google Ad Grants program requires achieving at least one conversion per month. Conversion tracking plays a crucial role in this. Why is Conversion Tracking Important? Improved Campaign Success : Conversion tracking shows you which ads and keywords lead to the most conversions. This helps you optimize your campaigns and reach more potential supporters. Necessary for Policy Compliance : Ad Grants accounts must implement conversion tracking to meet program requirements. Increased Account Opportunities : Demonstrating conversions shows Google that your campaigns are effective and should be supported. Efficient Budget Utilization : With conversion data, you can deploy your budget more efficiently and avoid wasting money on ineffective ads. Data-Driven Decisions : Conversion data enables informed decisions about your campaign strategies, allowing you to specifically optimize your ads and keywords. If your Google Ad Grants campaign did not achieve any conversions last month, there are various actions you can take: First, you should create Google Analytics goals and import them into Google Ads. Alternatively, you can add new conversions directly into Google Ads. These actions help you gain detailed insights into your campaign's performance. If no conversions are still recorded, detailed troubleshooting is needed. Check the conversion tracking tag in Google Ads to ensure it is implemented correctly. It is also important to check the setup of goals in Google Analytics to ensure everything functions correctly. Besides the technical review, optimizing your landing pages is crucial. Ensure your landing pages are relevant to the respective ads and keywords and include a clear call-to-action (CTA). By conducting A/B tests, you can compare different versions of your landing pages to determine and continually improve the best conversion rate. Through effective conversion tracking and targeted optimizations, you can significantly increase the efficiency of your Google Ad Grants campaigns and ensure that your ads achieve their desired goals. Conduct A/B tests to compare different landing page variants and improve the conversion rate. The Campaign Structure and Ad Groups To enhance the effectiveness of your Google Ads campaigns, a well-thought-out structure is crucial. Each ad group should contain at least two ads tailored to different user preferences to maximize relevance. Setting the ad rotation to "Optimize" ensures the optimal ad selection for each auction. Each campaign should set up at least two ad groups focusing on relevant keywords and landing pages to improve campaign performance. It's crucial to use highly relevant keywords that are closely related to target high click-through rate search queries. Regular campaign structure reviews and A/B tests for various ads and ad extensions are also recommended to continuously optimize overall performance. Regularly review campaign structure & A/B test various ads and ad extensions to optimize performance. Setting Up Ad Extensions: Sitelink ad extensions enhance the user experience by linking directly to relevant pages of the website without detours via the home page. This increases user satisfaction and optimizes the user experience. For Google Ad Grants accounts, at least 2 sitelinks per ad must be added, which lead to high-converting target pages like campaign pages, detail pages, or contact pages. Best Practices for Your Google Ad Grants Account Optimize Ads: Create engaging ads with a clear CTA Highlight benefits and differentiation from competitors A/B test for best performance Optimize Landing Pages: Ensure relevance of used keywords and ad texts Ensure a user-friendly experience on landing pages Conversion optimization with CTAs, forms, and load times Track and improve conversion rate Ensure Account Structure: Are there at least two active ad groups per campaign? Are there at least two active ads per ad group? Are there at least two sitelinks per ad? Do all campaigns use conversion-based smart bidding ("Maximize Conversions", "Maximize conversion value", "Target CPA" or "Target ROAS")? Is geographic targeting applied? internetwarriors – Performance Agency Berlin To optimally optimize Google Ad Grants accounts and campaigns, a comprehensive understanding of the program's requirements and guidelines, as well as continuous optimization, is essential. Do you want to take your online marketing for NGOs to the next level with the help of the Google Ad Grants program? Then you've come to the right place with the internetwarriors! As an experienced with more than 20 years of expertise, we support you in running effective performance marketing campaigns. From account creation to campaign optimization, we stand by your side. Benefit from our experience and let's achieve your advertising goals together. us now and benefit from our extensive range of services!

Attention, Eye-Catcher! How smart design can turn your creative ads into conversion magnets!

Jun 3, 2024

Céline

Otto

Category:

SEA

In today's fast-paced digital world, it's more important than ever for your ads to stand out from the crowd and capture the attention of your target audience. Smart design strategies play a crucial role in this. But how do you manage to stand out from the multitude of ads and create true conversion magnets? In this blog post, we will show you how you can easily create your creatives through clever design and the right layout - and make your creative ads real eye-catchers. Discover the secrets behind successful ads and learn how to design your ads so that they not only attract attention but also boost your conversion rates. The Design Process and Conceptualization The core of performance design lies in the seamless connection between graphic design and performance marketing, with the primary goal of improving conversion rates. For the conception of an advertising campaign, it is crucial to first understand the needs of the users in detail. The questions that need to be answered are diverse: How do I address the target audience correctly? And how can we meet their needs and prompt them to take action? The following points can help with this: Addressing the target audience correctly: Selection of the target audience Definition of interests and needs Choice of product Conveying the message Choice of advertising format Appealing design Inducing the desired action  Motivation Appealing to interests Utilizing pain points Technique Links Sound / Image / Subtitles Trigger Colors / Effects CTAs The technical implementation involves selecting the right format and setting the campaign parameters such as placements, audiences, and budgets. The visual design, on the other hand, deals with color schemes, the selection of appealing images or videos, and the formulation of the right text. The psychological component also plays a major role: it’s about setting emotional triggers that not only appeal to users but also resonate with them. Video Ads: Best Practices The attention span of users on platforms like TikTok and Instagram is very short these days. Video ads, therefore, need to captivate within the first few seconds. Here is a detailed overview of how to design an effective promotional video: Video Structure Along the Arc of Suspense Seconds 1-3: Capturing Attention The first three seconds of an advertising video are crucial to capture the attention of the viewers. In this short time frame, the video must not only catch attention but also build suspense. This can be achieved through a provocative question or a visually striking scene that piques interest in the topic. The use of dynamic visual elements like color explosions or unexpected movements can help increase the curiosity of the viewers. Seconds 4-6: Conveying the Core Message Once interest is piqued, the core message of the video must be communicated clearly and succinctly. During these seconds, viewers should learn about the product or service being promoted. It is also the ideal moment to introduce the brand or company to avoid any uncertainty among viewers. The use of color and movement during this phase can create a slight provocation that keeps interest alive. Seconds 7-11: Presenting Relevant Information During this phase, important information should be presented. The use of expressive images or videos representing the advertised product or service is significant here. Techniques like quick cuts, split-screen views, or subtitles can be used to maintain suspense while effectively conveying relevant information. Seconds 12-15: Clear Call-to-Action The final seconds of the video are crucial for the call-to-action. It should be clearly and unambiguously communicated what viewers should do next. This could be a call to purchase, an invitation to participate in a survey, or a link for further reading. Visual reinforcements like text overlays or animated buttons can help underscore this message and increase the conversion rate.  Example Video Structure: “Pain Points” Problem Presentation and Amplification Initially, the current state is presented in the advertising content by clearly defining and explaining a specific problem faced by the target audience. Example: Jewelry that is not waterproof and thus could be damaged upon contact with water. To increase urgency, the problem is portrayed more intensely, for instance by showing how the jewelry discolors the skin or damages clothing. This creates a greater awareness of the problem's extent and motivates viewers to seek a solution. Presentation of the Desired State Subsequently, the desired state is presented, showing the ideal situation or desired outcome. This could be illustrated with an example where a friend wears high-quality, waterproof jewelry. This representation offers a visual illustration of what is possible and presents a direct contrast to the problem-laden current state. Problem Solution The next step involves offering a solution to the problem. The product or service is presented, highlighting its specific benefits. It is shown how the product effectively solves the problem. For instance, a demonstration of waterproof jewelry in a vacation context could be made to illustrate how the jewelry maintains its quality and appearance even under extreme conditions. Call-to-Action (CTA) Finally, a clear call-to-action is formulated. This should encourage the purchase of the showcased product or prompt a specific action that boosts the conversion rate. A typical CTA could be: "Order Now!" This direct call aims to motivate customers to take immediate action, thereby achieving the desired conversion. Checklist for Video Ads Static Ads: Best Practices For static ads, it is recommended to use high-contrast, brand-specific colors to immediately catch the viewer's eye. Text should be minimized and the message communicated clearly and concisely to avoid overwhelming visual overload and increase the click-through rate. Different formats should be used throughout the marketing funnel to promote specific actions, from awareness-building to customer retention. Creative Formats Along the Customer Funnel Throughout the customer funnel, there are various creative concepts that address the user at their respective step of the customer journey. To target users at the “Top Funnel” , it is important to capture attention at all, as users have had no contact with the brand so far. For this, there is, for example, the option to use the concept of "us vs. them." This way, the brand’s unique selling points and special features are presented directly. The next step addresses customers in the so-called “Mid Funnel” . Initial contact with the brand has already been made, but users have mostly not converted yet. It is therefore important to once again highlight the benefits of the brand or product and convey values with which the customer can identify. Advertising communication options here include "3 reasons why," or "Which type are you." For the “Lower Funnel” , it is worthwhile to address the target group with like-minded voices - that is, either with testimonials, experts, or followers on social media channels. This builds trust among potential users or buyers. In the last funnel step, the “Bottom Funnel” , the focus is primarily on addressing people who have already been in contact with the brand and have tested its products or services. The goal here is mainly to entice customers to return to the brand and be convinced once again by their products. One way to do this is by advertising with a discount code. It is also useful to use wording like "We miss you" to appeal to the emotional side of consumers. Design Tips When designing creatives, there are also some proven tips and tricks that can help you create engaging and effective ads . Colors play a crucial role in this. High-contrast colors can draw the viewer's eye and direct their gaze exactly where you want it: on your ad. This often happens subconsciously, as the user has to pause to see what catches their eye. Use this feature to highlight important information and capture the attention of users. A clear and concise message is also crucial for a successful ad. Reduce text to a minimum to quickly and clearly convey your message. Long text blocks often appear overwhelming, are not visually appealing, and are rarely read. A short and precise phrasing helps your ad stand out and be click-worthy.The use of brand colors is another effective way to strengthen brand awareness while creating a strong brand experience. By consistently using your branding elements, you ensure recognition and build trust with your users. Additionally, A/B tests are an excellent way to test the effectiveness of your ad creatives. Create different designs for the same product and see which design resonates better with your audience. These tests help you make data-driven decisions and continuously optimize your ads. An often overlooked, yet very important aspect is the use of whitespace , also known as “negative space” . Whitespace are the neutral areas surrounding the core of your image. There are two main reasons why you should use more whitespace in your creatives: Whitespace helps to focus the eye and directs users exactly where they should look. It draws attention to the essential elements of your ad . Furthermore, a generous use of whitespace makes your design appear cleaner and more sophisticated, which many users associate with professionalism and quality. By following these tips, you can design engaging and effective creatives that capture your target audience's attention and strengthen your brand image. internetwarriors - Performance Agency Berlin To design a successful performance campaign, a thorough understanding of the target audience, market conditions, and psychological triggers is required. The combination of technical precision and creative design enables the creation of campaigns that not only stand out but also achieve measurably successful results. Do you want to fully exploit the potential of your ads? Then internetwarriors is the right place for you! As an experienced performance ads agency with more than 20 years of expertise, we support you in running effective campaigns in performance marketing. From account creation to campaign optimization, we are by your side. Benefit from our experience and let's achieve your advertising goals together. Contact us now and take advantage of our extensive range of services!

Google Ads Video Campaigns

May 6, 2024

Karina

Nikolova

Category:

SEA

Many marketing experts today still consider YouTube to be a good way to increase brand awareness and generate cheap traffic. This assumption is indeed legitimate, as YouTube video ads primarily served this purpose in the past. But times have changed, and so have the opportunities YouTube offers marketers. While it used to be unimaginable to achieve many direct conversions with YouTube campaigns, it is now possible to focus your campaign on conversions and use automated bidding strategies such as “maximize conversions” and “maximize conversion value.” And this is thanks to one of the latest Google Ads video campaigns launched on the market - the video action campaign. Before addressing the main topic, I want to emphasize the significance of YouTube as a channel and highlight the importance of incorporating this platform into your marketing mix. Why YouTube? Image Source: Google Support In a world where digital presence is increasingly decisive, YouTube has established itself as a key platform in the marketing mix. This has been confirmed by several statistics in recent years. According to Statista, more than 2 billion users are active on YouTube every month worldwide, which corresponds to about 40% of global users. In January 2024, YouTube secured the second place in the ranking of the world's largest social networks. This positioning is no surprise when you consider that only in Germany, about 72.6 million people use YouTube monthly, with a daily reach of about 37%, according to a survey from 2022. The fact that many users spend a lot of time on the platform is evidenced by the 2019 Comscore study, which shows that YouTube offers the longest playback time among ad-supported streaming services. Regarding the user demographics, YouTube is most frequently used by people aged 25 to 34 years, unlike platforms like TikTok, which are more preferred by a younger target audience. YouTube's popularity is due to its numerous advantages. Users can learn, get inspired, become part of a community with shared interests, and discover new products. All these factors make the platform a powerful tool for advertisers looking to effectively engage their target audiences and increase brand or product awareness. Especially the possibility to reach users at the very moment they search for products or services is a decisive advantage. Moreover, many users consider the recommendations of their favorite YouTube creators in the purchasing process. All in all, YouTube has proven to be “the place to be,” and as marketers, we want to advertise where everyone wants to be. What is a Video Action Campaign? Video action campaigns offer an efficient way to generate a higher number of conversions through a single automated campaign on both YouTube and other platforms. They are designed to directly encourage your audience to take action and not only scale conversions but also the overall revenue. However, this is not the first YouTube campaign type designed to encourage direct conversions. Video action campaigns are considered an evolution of the former TrueView for Action campaigns, which have not been available on Google Ads since 2022. While the latter offered many benefits, they lacked some of the advanced features integrated into video action campaigns. Google reports that compared to TrueView for Action campaigns, you can achieve up to 20% higher conversion rates with them. In this sense, the “True View for Action” campaign served as the foundation for developing the current YouTube campaign type. Where are the video ads displayed and what do they look like? YouTube allows advertisers to deliver their ads through various formats, including skippable in-stream ads, in-feed video ads, and YouTube Shorts. In contrast, True View for Actions could only use skippable in-stream ads. Besides the homepage feed, video ads can appear in the “Recommended Videos” section and on the search results pages. They are displayed not only on YouTube but also with Google video partners, significantly increasing reach. If you want to use video ads, they should be at least 10 seconds long. As for video ads themselves, the Google ad videos you want to use as ads must be at least 10 seconds long. Since the introduction of video action campaigns, Google Ads has improved the ad's appearance. Recently, the number of assets you can add to ad texts has been expanded. Currently, you can insert 5 call-to-actions, headlines, long ad titles, and descriptions per ad. However, some assets are not displayed in certain formats. For example, descriptions are not visible in skippable in-stream ads. For even stronger campaign performance, various additional assets can be integrated. These include site links, lead forms, or product feeds. These elements can significantly enhance user engagement and conversions by providing additional interaction opportunities directly within the ad.   Which creatives are suitable for video action campaigns? ABCD Principle Creating relevant advertising content is key to the success of any YouTube campaign. The first few seconds of a video are crucial in capturing the viewers' attention. Use visually appealing, high-contrast images and ensure that your brand is noticeable from the beginning and consistently present throughout the video. Try to tell a story within your video that highlights important USPs but also evokes emotions. End each video with a clear call-to-action (CTA) to encourage interactions. For more information, you can check out Google's ABCD principle for effective creatives. What bidding strategies can be used? Since video action campaigns focus on conversions, you can select conversion-related bidding strategies like “Target CPA.” It is important to note that the set campaign budget influences how quickly the algorithm can optimize the campaign for conversions. Particularly for the “Target CPA” bidding strategy, a daily budget is recommended that is at least 15 times the targeted CPA. The “Target ROAS” and “Maximize conversion value” bidding strategies are only available for video action campaigns once the campaign has achieved at least 30 conversions.   Which best practices are recommended for video action campaigns? Using the WAVE tool on the Google Store Test different ad variations: Experiment with different CTAs, ad texts, and video content to find out what resonates best with your audience. As more users are mobile, it is advisable to include vertical videos among the ad materials as they are optimized for mobile devices. Use additional assets only when necessary: While the use of assets, such as lead forms, can improve your campaign's performance, this is not always the case. They can affect how your ads are delivered and user behavior. For example, a long lead form may cause users to abandon rather than convert. Furthermore, you should strategically consider whether different assets are even beneficial for the success of your video action campaign. Select the right conversion goal: This point is particularly important if many and different conversion goals are stored in the account. When creating a video action campaign, you should only retain those that are relevant, as the algorithm cannot distinguish between different conversion goals. Activate optimized targeting: With this option, Google promises about 20% more conversions. Set the right expectations: As already mentioned, video action campaigns are conversion-oriented, and as such, the algorithm prioritizes the conversions set as a goal in the campaign. You can certainly strengthen your brand or product awareness, but the prices you would pay for this, e.g., the average CPM, would be higher than with other Google Ads video campaigns. For this reason, you should be clear about what you want to achieve with YouTube as part of the marketing mix and which measures are best suited for this purpose. Why test the video action campaign? Testing is an essential part of every marketing expert's daily routine. Taking the known path might generally be beneficial but does not always work. Regular success on Google Ads requires staying up to date and testing what the platform has to offer. In this sense, I encourage you to give the video action campaign a fair chance and experience its unique features for yourself. If you need help planning, creating, or optimizing such campaigns, the Warriors from Berlin are happy to assist you. You can contact us anytime for a non-binding offer .

Check Website Accessibility - Using WAVE and Google Lighthouse

Apr 24, 2024

Julien

Moritz

Category:

SEO

The Digital Accessibility Enhancement Act, scheduled for 2025, marks a significant advance in the development of an inclusive digital society. It aims to improve the accessibility of digital products and services for people with disabilities. This legislation builds on existing legal frameworks for accessibility and extends them to meet the needs of the digital age. It is a good reason to check if your website meets the requirements. In this article, you will learn how to use the tools WAVE and Lighthouse to identify issues, determine what actions are needed, and get a good idea of what it means to optimize your website to meet WCAG - AA criteria. Why the WCAGs matter A key aspect of this law is compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The WCAGs serve as an internationally recognized standard for web content accessibility and are divided into three levels of conformance: A, AA, and AAA. These guidelines offer detailed recommendations on how to design digital content to make it accessible to people with a range of disabilities, including visual, auditory, motor, and cognitive impairments. The law is expected to include requirements ensuring that websites, mobile applications, and other digital technologies comply with WCAG standards. This means that developers and providers of digital products and services must design their offerings to be accessible to all users, regardless of their physical or sensory abilities. Key elements of the WCAG include ensuring keyboard operability, providing alternative text for visual content, enhancing the usability and understandability of content, and compatibility with assistive technologies. The Digital Accessibility Enhancement Act will have far-reaching impacts on the public sector as well as on companies providing digital products and services for the German market. Implementing WCAG compliance will not only promote digital inclusion but also improve the quality and accessibility of online offerings overall. Measuring accessibility with Google Lighthouse Lighthouse is an open-source tool developed by Google to improve the quality of websites. It is a valuable resource for both developers and website operators to analyze and optimize the performance, accessibility, best practices for web applications, and search engine optimization (SEO) of your websites. Accessibility and SEO have synergies that should not be underestimated when optimization aims not only at accessibility but also at increasing organic visibility. A is available from us. The installation, functionality, and measurement of accessibility with Lighthouse are explained below. Lighthouse can be installed and used in several ways: Lighthouse can be installed as an extension in the Google Chrome browser. You can simply visit the Chrome Web Store, search for Lighthouse, and add it. Lighthouse is also directly integrated into Chrome DevTools. To use it, you simply open the DevTools in Chrome, navigate to the "Lighthouse" tab, and start the analysis in Lighthouse. The website also evaluates accessibility. Lighthouse performs a series of tests to evaluate various aspects of a website. The results of these tests are summarized in a report that not only shows the performance of the page but also offers specific recommendations for improvement. The report is divided into several categories: Categories measured in Lighthouse Measuring accessibility with the Lighthouse tool Accessibility is evaluated by Lighthouse through a series of automated tests as well as manual review recommendations. These tests include: Contrast ratios: Checking the text contrast compared to the background. Keyboard accessibility: Ensuring that all interactive elements of the website are reachable and usable by keyboard. Aria attributes: Use of ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) attributes to improve accessibility for screen readers and other assistive technologies. HTML structural elements: Using correct HTML elements to structure content and navigation elements. Classic SEO basics, such as heading structure, ALT attributes, or [lang] attributes. It is important to note that despite the comprehensive tests by Lighthouse, a fully accessible website cannot be guaranteed solely through automated checks. The manual review recommendations provided by Lighthouse are a crucial step to ensuring comprehensive accessibility. In the Google Developer Tools, a is published, where individual factors carry a weight from 1 to 10. It is advantageous to focus first on the measures with a higher weight - interestingly, these factors are also closely linked to SEO measures. Excerpt of individual metrics and weightings The Google Tool Lighthouse shows the individual errors in website accessibility, categorized by topic. The display is in accordion format, ensuring an overview - see 1. Lighthouse also offers users the option to display more information about the errors. In this example, it not only shows what an ALT attribute for images should look like but also how it should be best implemented in the source code so that it can be read by search engines and also by assistive technologies like screen readers - see 2. The final part specifically displays the elements where the aforementioned error occurs, in the form of a screenshot and a snippet of the code. Unfortunately, the screenshots shown by the Lighthouse Tool are very unclear, making it difficult at first glance to place the element on the entire website - see 3. Error display in Google Lighthouse In summary, Lighthouse is a powerful tool that helps web developers and website operators analyze and optimize their websites. With its versatile installation and usage options and detailed reports and recommendations, Lighthouse plays an important role in modern web development, especially in the area of search engine optimization, where these values are an important indicator. So far, Google has not made a specific statement that the accessibility of a website is a ranking factor. However, many metrics are already indirectly evaluated. Accessible websites are becoming increasingly important, so it's only a matter of time before possible indicators and measurements are also found in the Google Search Console. WAVE - Tool with visual marking of accessibility You can also easily and freely test your website's accessibility using the WAVE tool. However, unlike the Lighthouse tool, it was not developed by Google itself. Lighthouse provides the advantage that the results come directly from Google and may be a more significant indicator for ranking. WAVE was developed by the recognized organization WebAIM and also adheres to WCAG guidelines. The results of the respective tools should thus not differ significantly when testing a website for accessibility. Therefore, for us, the clear presentation of results and the handling of the tool are in the foreground. There is also a paid version. The WAVE API is installed locally and can analyze your entire website. In this article, we present the free version and do not go into the WAVE API further. WAVE is available both as an and as a practical browser extension for Chrome and Firefox, allowing web content to be made easily and efficiently accessible. When using it, you stay visually on the website (see Figure 4). The tool shows accessibility hints and errors using small icons. This immediate feedback allows you to quickly identify and address issues. WAVE pays particular attention to critical aspects of accessibility - from alt attributes to the labeling of forms to contrast issues. It also shows whether your website has a clear structure. Additionally, the WAVE tool considers ambiguous or non-descriptive links and the use of ARIA labels, which can be used to provide an optimal web experience for people using screen readers. Using the WAVE Tool on the Google Store Error identification On the left side of the screen, there is a dashboard. It serves to navigate and display accessibility elements. The menu consists of six different sections and is intuitively usable. In addition to the summary of how many errors and contrast errors, warnings, features, structural elements, and ARIA usages there are, they are listed in the "Details" tab. Here you can click directly to the cause on the website. Under "Reference," you find a detailed description of the problem and how to fix it (see Figure 5). Dashboard of the WAVE Tool (Section 1 - 3) Furthermore, there is the option to disable styles or open the HTML code directly at the appropriate place. The WAVE tool ensures that every error can be found and identified. The tool for testing websites for accessibility also shows the tab order (navigation with the tab key to all interactive elements - links & form fields). It provides an overview of the structural setup with headings and offers the option to manually check contrasts (see Figure 6). This can be important, for example, for contrast ratios on relevant images, as the WAVE tool does not check these. In some cases, for example, when text is directly in the image, it is also important that it can be read by everyone. Interpretation of the results Errors and contrast errors are usually clear violations of WCAG Level AA guidelines and should be rectified before the Accessibility Enhancement Act takes effect. In the case of warnings, the WAVE tool identifies potential barriers that are not as drastic and not always based on a legal basis. However, all results should generally be critically examined and controlled before implementation. With the use of features and ARIA labels, these are HTML elements designed, among other things, to enable accessible websites. However, they should be used correctly. For example, an existing alt attribute of an image is marked as a feature. However, the quality or correct use cannot be captured by the WAVE tool. Alt attributes should ideally describe the content of the image as they are read aloud by screen readers. You need to check for yourself if they are well-chosen. Another example is ARIA labels. Here, correct use is also important. The WAVE tool shows all used labels. However, they can also be used incorrectly and cause more barriers. To check if they are used correctly, it's very helpful to use your website with a screen reader. For Windows devices, we recommend the screen reader , which is free to download and easy to use. Apple devices have the "VoiceOver" accessibility feature integrated. The tab order should follow a logical sequence of links, visually counting up from left to right and from top to bottom on the website. If this is not the case, the code needs to be adjusted. Conclusion - Lighthouse and WAVE The benefits of accessibility are clear. It's an opportunity for website operators to improve usability and make content accessible to all. At the same time, visibility also benefits from accessible implementation. But which tool should you use to check your website for accessibility? In this blog article, we introduced two tools, Lighthouse and WAVE. These are our two favorites. Both can be used as browser extensions or directly on the respective website. Lighthouse is a Google tool and has the advantage that the results may soon directly influence the ranking. Implementing the tool's suggestions puts you in a good position from an SEO standpoint. In our opinion, WAVE clearly has the edge in terms of result presentation. Errors and notices are directly visible on the page. From a contrast checker to the display of the structure to the option to disable styles, the WAVE tool offers a wide variety of applications. It remains clear and easy to use. The errors and warnings of the two tools are very similar according to our experience. However, it is important to emphasize that these are automated tools. The actual assessment and understanding of barriers require human judgment. Therefore, it is recommended to further review the identified results with screen readers to get a realistic picture of a website's accessibility. Another aspect is that they only analyze individual pages and not the entire website. This can lead to missing problems that arise from the interaction of different pages. Do you need help checking and implementing accessibility for your website? The warriors from Berlin are happy to assist you. By June 28, 2025, all affected websites must be accessible. Prepare now and stand out from your competitors! You can contact us for a non-binding offer at any time.

Recruiting in the Digital Age: Google for Jobs in Practice

Apr 22, 2024

Jona

Pahlke

Category:

SEO

Online research has long become a part of everyday life. Whether it's a recipe for a family dinner, a nearby gym, or the latest football scores, Google has been working on innovations for years to improve the way people search for information on the internet, ensuring users always find exactly what they are looking for. From more precise search results to personalized recommendations - Google has consistently led the digital revolution. In 2017, Google introduced one of its most important innovations - Google for Jobs. This search engine extension has significantly changed not only the search behavior of job seekers and employers but also the use of major job portals like Indeed or Stepstone. Since 2019, Google for Jobs has also been available in Germany, allowing companies to post job ads with structured data directly on Google, turning the world of online job searching upside down, as around 80 percent of job searches begin on Google. In this article, we will show you the advantages of Google job search for job seekers and employers, the requirements you must meet for an ad on Google for Jobs, and how optimized job advertisements can help you achieve perfect results in your recruitment efforts. More Applicants, Better Matches: The Benefits of Google for Jobs In 2023, Bing gained a significant market share, making it an indispensable element of any SEO strategy. Interestingly, it shows that Bing users are on average older and have higher incomes than Google users. These demographic factors can be particularly relevant for companies whose products or services are geared toward this target group. On one hand, it's due to the convenience and searching habits of users. Google has been the number 1 among search engines for years with over 2 trillion searches per year. Users who used to search for "marketing jobs near me" on Google save the extra click on one of the many job portals and instead get job offers with all necessary information directly integrated into the search results. The timeliness of job postings and the filter function are also reasons for using Google job search. Another crucial aspect that distinguishes Google for Jobs from traditional job portals is the timeliness of job postings. By integrating job ads from various sources in real-time, Google for Jobs provides users with access to current job offerings in the market. This timely presentation of jobs is of enormous importance in the fast-paced job market, allowing job seekers to respond immediately to newly advertised positions and thus increase their chances of landing their dream job. In addition to timeliness, the extensive filtering functions make Google for Jobs such a powerful tool in job searching. Users can customize their search in detail - be it by job title, location, company, working hours model, contract type, or even specific industries. This flexibility in search allows job seekers to find job offers that are perfectly tailored to their individual needs and career goals. This benefits not only employees but also employers. Thanks to the filtering options, the pool of applicants is precisely tailored to the employer's target group. For employees, this means saving time and avoiding unnecessary applications, while employers no longer have to sift through thousands of applications. Behind the Scenes - Setting up Google for Jobs IndexNow is an innovative technology that enables website operators to directly submit their latest updates and content changes to search engines like Bing. This tool breaks the traditional waiting for search engine crawlers and brings fresh content almost in real-time into the search results. It's particularly valuable for dynamic websites that change frequently. The integration of IndexNow into Bing Webmaster Tools is quite straightforward, either via an API or through user-friendly plugins in popular content management systems like WordPress. This integration ensures a fast and smooth update of content. To ensure a consistent code and thus seamless reading of data, Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex launched the Schema.org initiative in June 2011. This website provides users with a comprehensive collection of schema markup tags with which various types of content on a website can be labeled, such as events, products, and much more. However, when it comes to data tagging, it's important to know which tags need to be used and which are optional. Google offers useful tools for this, such as the and detailed Google for Jobs guides on the . In the specific example of job advertisements, there are 5 so-called required properties that must be specified and marked: Date the employer posted the job Complete job description (tasks, qualifications, skills, working hours, and requirements concerning education and work experience) Organization offering the position The company's location(s) where the employee will work Job title In addition to the required ones, there are also recommended properties. Recommended properties offer additional information that can enhance the quality and relevance of the content, while required properties represent the minimum information necessary for correct data interpretation. In Google for Jobs, the recommended properties play an important role as they include additional information such as base salary or application deadlines. These details allow employees to receive more tailored job offers, while employers benefit from a more targeted selection of applicants. Google for Jobs as a Key to Efficient Recruitment The integration of Google for Jobs into your recruitment strategy can provide enormous benefits. Through continuous Google for Jobs optimizations, including the application of Schema.org, precise tagging of all important data, regular updates, and adjusting your ads for mobile devices, you can increase the visibility of your job ads and effectively target top talents. On the other hand, employees benefit from job offers that are better tailored to their needs, making their job search more efficient. This win-win situation makes Google job search an important resource for employers and employees. internetwarriors GmbH has many years of experience in SEO optimization for various channels. We believe that a solid Google for Jobs SEO strategy is essential to remain visible in the job ad market in the long term. We are happy to support you in optimizing your job ads to maximize your visibility. us today to learn more about how we can individually support you.

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