My conclusions are based on cooperation with nearly three thousand clients that we have had or have had the pleasure to run from the very beginning of
Paraphrase Online. As an organization, we meet dozens of business owners every day and exchange hundreds of emails with people responsible for marketing. We also know everything about budgeting in most industries and about the ratio of marketing expenses to revenues in general. Ultimately, we have a preview of how certain types of activities work, and how others hinder scaling or the ordinary communication flow.

Sin # 1: Marketing specialist

The proverbial marketing specialist is a dinosaur who does not know yet that an asteroid is flying towards him. Once upon a time, a marketing one man show was possible. The competition was smaller, advertising and analytical systems easier to use and offering very limited possibilities. Ba! There were simply fewer advertising channels we needed to know about. Therefore, in many companies, several people could take care of everything and possibly replace each other. Also, hiring someone was much easier due to relatively general market demands. Someone obtained approval from the Management Board, someone launched a prom on FB with a discretionary budget, someone else ordered leaflets or started cooperation with an influencer. There was usually no time for analytics in such a system. Everything was going forward anyway, so for several years no one asked any questions, and marketing departments were covered in a spider web of stagnation.

It ended, however.

Today we are dealing with a completely different battlefield. Every team member must specialize, be well paid, and be good at what they do. It does not have to be a social media ninja or a content visionary of the decade. However, he must be a solid craftsman, which – contrary to appearances – is really difficult to do.

Everyone wants to have everything “here and now” without a minimum of persistence and without working on themselves. Finding people who know Rome wasn’t built in a day is insanely difficult.

Given the current complexity of marketing tools, it is currently not possible to be good at everything. You have to test, search, read and experience to get to know a given platform inside out. And sometimes this is not enough, because there is, for example, an algorithm update or a new company policy and … you have to do it all from scratch, and using old schemes will result in reduced effectiveness.

But why is it necessary to be good at something?

Because there are more and more companies like yours on the market. Because advertising budgets are getting higher and there are more of them. Because the number of advertising space or places does not increase as much as the number of companies that want to develop them. This implies competitiveness that requires optimization of its activities. If we rely on the same behavior for several years, we will consistently lose reach among potential customers.

Sin # 2: Budget

We often come across a situation where a company hired someone to handle Google Ads, with a payout of $ 5,000, spending $ 3,000 or $ 4,000 on the advertising budget alone …

In the case of a paid channel like Google Ads or Facebook Ads, it’s completely absurd. It is not possible to hire a specialist for $ 5,000 who, with such a low budget, will become profitable by optimizing such a campaign. Someone with such skills simply has to earn and spend more in the campaign.

With this type of relationship – where the cost of a person for paid channels is, for example, 50% of the company’s total marketing expenses, it is much better to shift the budget to a proven agency or freelancer. Quite simply – a sensibly targeted budget of $ 3,000, say $ 7,000, instead of $ 3,000, will do a lot better for most industries. Servicing this type of budget in marketing agencies is between 20 and 30% of this sum, so you will close to $ 9,000 for the whole, but you will spend twice as much on pure marketing than if you hire an in-house specialist.

Based on conversations with companies and taking over accounts that were managed in this way, I can guarantee that only then you will feel the real power of paid channels (of course, the budgets given here are hypothetical, because they largely depend on the industry).

Sin # 3: We employ the wrong places

Currently, no company can afford a situation where it relies on only one advertising platform. In the case of giants such as Facebook or Google, we must be ready sometimes for the fact that, for example, the possibility of advertising certain products within them will be limited overnight, as has been the case recently, e.g. with masks or sanitary devices.

There are also topics – such as underwear or dietary supplements that can block accounts for up to several weeks. It happens that even advertising accounts in neutral industries are suspended for a week or two, because the algorithm decided so, and the support was just lazy.

Your customers are also present in more than one channel, and marketing must make sure that you meet them wherever possible, not just where… we consider it best. In the case of outbound marketing, the more often they encounter your homogeneous message, the greater the probability that they will finally decide to buy your product or service. Shopping is definitely more impulsive than measured from top to bottom.

That is why most businesses must diversify the channels of reaching a potential customer. Depending on what we do, what budget we have and what we want to achieve, there is a more or less sensible methodology for selecting people for work. Basically, it can be presented simply by answering the question of who is worth having in the company, and what topics are better to be sent to external entities.

I know a company that has an advertising budget of $ 40,000 per month. At the same time, it employs:
– A social media specialist who runs a FB profile and deals with superficial advertisements.
– A marketing specialist who runs instagram and pinterest, orders printed materials and collects invoices from various subcontractors.
– The second marketing specialist who coordinates the filming and basically also acts as a graphic designer.
– SEO specialist who is also a copywriter, but does not have a separate budget for reasonable linking.
– Marketing Manager who embraces them all and reports them higher.

The total monthly cost of maintaining these employees, in this arrangement, is 38,000 dollars. Therefore, monthly, this company spends ~ $ 80,000 on marketing, of which only half of this money goes to advertising channels. Of course, organic work on Insta, FB, or Pinterest can be worth a lot of money. In general, however – the people from the example – do not even know if what they are doing works …

In such a case, it would be wise to reduce employment by one or two people and leave strategic resources within the company, and release the rest of the funds to additional channels that can only be selected after a meaningful audit of the activities carried out so far. You can also decide on a new division of competences and send specific people to specialized training. In this example, they should probably start with a meaningful web analytics course to delineate further axes for acquiring new competences.

In conclusion, in most cases, it will be a good idea to have a mix that will accommodate both internally employed specialists and agencies that can provide selected services. What is most important in this system, however, is the fact that in the end the costs of servicing and maintaining agencies and specialists do not exceed 30% of the company’s total marketing budget. If we hire for a company, remember that it should give us a specific skill due to its presence. The fact that we add an additional person to the project does not mean that the project will speed up and will have a positive impact on its effectiveness. It could, in principle, be the other way around.

Internet Marketing allows you to advertise on the web through multiple channels. The key to achieving goals is combining them skillfully, but before that happens, at least basic knowledge about each of them is necessary. What are the most popular ways of reaching the customer?

Google Ads is one of the most popular advertising channels on the Internet. Its potential is used by thousands of companies from hundreds of different industries and allows you to increase profits and improve brand exposure on the Web.

The most common option advertisers use is text ads on the search network. Thanks to them, the advertisement can be placed above the results, ahead of “normal” pages on Google – placing a link in such a place is characterized by a high likelihood of a click, and thus redirecting the user to the advertiser’s website.

Although Google Ads ads are often identified only with the above-described display of sponsored links in the search results, this system offers much more possibilities. In addition to text ads, Google allows you to advertise your company on YouTube and – thanks to the Google Display Network (GDN) – on millions of different pages. GDN is one of the components that make up Google Ads. It includes micro websites and personal blogs, as well as big websites with a multi-million audience. These are both expert websites, comprehensively describing specialist topics, as well as websites with show business gossip or sports news. Advertising on YouTube can also be extremely profitable – YT is after all the second largest search engine in terms of traffic. Another interesting option may be to use the Display & Video 360 service, which allows, among others, finding and renting space in the largest VOD (Video on Demand) streaming services.

For online stores, the Google Shopping system is also important, thanks to which, after entering a specific phrase – for example “adidas predator sports shoes” above the search results (as well as over “classic” sponsored links), product suggestions will appear. Such a panel contains a photo of the item, the name of the store, price and a link redirecting to the product page in a given store.

Ads in Google Ads are billed in the CPC (cost per click) system. This means that we only pay when the user clicks on the ad and goes to the page being promoted. The mere display of an ad is completely free. There are no lower or upper spending limits in Google Ads – it all depends on the industry, business competition, and even the time of day.

SEO

In a nutshell, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), also known as page positioning (wrongly because SEO is one of the elements of positioning), deals with increasing the visibility of the website in search engines. After entering a specific phrase into the search engine, the engine usually returns to us an ordered list of several thousand pages. The essence of positioning is to get a specific page at the top of the ranking – and if not, at least high enough to successfully generate entries and attract potential customers. The vast majority of users do not look at the second page of the search results, or even the items at the bottom of the first page. For this reason, the presence in the “top” of the results is of enormous importance and the thought about which marketing channels to choose usually starts with the positioning of the pages.

The position of the page is determined by the search engine’s algorithm on the basis of over 200 factors of different “strength”. Web bots analyze the content on the website, the technical aspects of building the website, as well as the links leading to the website. Due to the constant updates of the algorithm and the fact that a large part of the aforementioned factors has never been officially disclosed by Google, effective positioning requires a lot of experience and constant experiments at the same time.

We divide SEO activities into:

A. On-site SEO
This term defines the actions that we can perform on the website – often increase the amount of content and refine its quality, adjust the content to keywords, and also take care of reducing the loading time of the site, compression of graphics, implementation of the SSL certificate or correct display on various resolutions and devices ( this is very important – most of the traffic today is via smartphoness).

B. Off-site SEO
This SEO department gathers links that lead to a positioned page. Google assumes that users share links to websites they consider valuable – regardless of whether it is an online store with interesting promotions or a website with study aids for students. Therefore, an important factor in determining the ranking of pages after entering a given phrase is the profile of links from external websites leading to the website. Of course, each link has a different value – some do not affect the “strength” of the site, while others will be important. The goal is to collect links that have a real impact on the position of the site – moreover, it must be done as naturally as possible, according to Google’s “social proof of rightness”.

What else should you know about SEO at the beginning? First of all, it’s important to remember that positioning takes time. In the case of campaigns implemented with the use of the Google Ads or Facebook Ads system, the increase in traffic occurs almost immediately. SEO usually brings results only after a few months – PPC campaigns are often compared to a sprint, and positioning activities to a marathon. On the other hand, SEO as a long-term activity is, in the end, the cheapest way to increase website traffic and attract new customers.

It is worth remembering that positioning works not only for companies operating on a national scale. On the Web, we also look for facilities, services or products in our immediate vicinity, and due to the increasing popularity of smartphoness and services based on GPS technology, many companies can change their Internet presence thanks to local positioning.

Social Media

Over the years, social media has become an inseparable part of life, and thus also of business. In most industries, running profiles on various websites – for example Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and increasingly also TikTok and others – has become a necessity. With the help of such profiles, we can attract customers, make contact with those already present, get feedback and present not only our products, but also the company as such – its approach to business, values or a team of employees.

Advertising in social media has come a long way. While just a few years ago it was enough to have a profile and run it “smartly”, today Facebook and other portals often limit the organic reach, so that the published post will be shown in extreme cases to only a fraction of subscribers. PPC ads come in handy, as they operate in a similar way as Google Ads, they reach a large number of users and help in acquiring customers or increasing brand awareness. In the vast majority of cases, in 2021 it is no longer possible to promote in social media without investing in advertising.

The key to efficient communication in social media is to adjust the communication code to the customs and users prevailing on a given platform. On Instagram, the main medium is graphics, and text – especially content longer than 2-3 sentences – is of little importance. LinkedIn brings together professionals and although it has long been more than just an “online CV”, work-related content is still the most important there (which means that it is worth looking for B2B clients there). Teens and young adults are the dominant group on TikTok, but due to the dynamic growth, more and more older users can also be found there. Facebook, on the other hand, is still the largest social platform with great potential for brand owners, but has long since lost the sympathy of the youngest users. This does not mean that they cannot be found there, but in the collective consciousness Facebook is slowly becoming “booming”.

This shows how vigorous social media changes are, and nothing is given forever. Due to the number of users, companies and brands present on various portals, building recognition based on adjusting to trends becomes the key. Therefore, marketing channels require constant tracking and adapting messages to the current social situation.

Linking advertising channels

Enabling more advertising channels can greatly develop any online store. If your business has a limited advertising budget, then you need to focus – at least in the initial stages – on the most effective channel. Then, successively, you can turn on new ones, when the investment begins to bring the first profits. This is a standard operating methodology, because most entities do not have the resources or the courage to invest large amounts of money in advertising, including multi-channel advertising. However, the example below shows that courage, supported by our experience and knowledge, pays off.

The discussed example shows that a quick and decisive investment of the advertising budget in even a new online store brings the expected results. It is also important to combine individual channels into one coherent communication vision.

Why is consistent, high-frequency display across multiple channels so important?

Because we buy impulsively. Some channels inspire us, in others we look for answers or recommendations, and still others find us at this “perfect moment” to buy. You need to be a brand at each of these stages. Otherwise the opportunity will escape to another company.

The presented data comes from an online store operating in the DOM and GARDEN industry. In January 2020, this store was not on the market yet.

SEO

Search engine optimization was the first service chosen by said client. Keep in mind that positioning takes time, and therefore attracting customers through only organic results in the initial stages of the store’s operation may be unsatisfactory. This is for two reasons.

First of all, we compete with other companies that have been on the market for longer and, after all, also invest in website optimization. The effectiveness and time horizon of taking over customer data also depends on the adopted strategy and budget allocated to activities.

Secondly, you can’t be aggressive when it comes to SEO. Creating a website on a step-by-step basis, not spread out over time, is an “unnatural” action for the Google search engine (or actually the indexing robots responsible for evalsuating the page), and therefore will not be as effective as consistency in action. It can also be dangerous and result in a filter being applied to the page.

As a rule, therefore, entrepreneurs who initially invest in positioning immediately add another channel to it (e.g. Google or Facebook ads), which will quickly prove that a given store is prospective, and treat positioning as an investment in the future.

Let’s go back to positioning, however. In March 2020, when we started our cooperation.

SEO March 2020

Due to the infancy, it was therefore very fragile – the store simply did not exist in the consciousness. After 9 months of cooperation – in January 2021 – we gained visibility, which generated 60,000 dollars in revenue and, of course, will only grow in the coming months. There were a dozen or so phrases in top3, over 50 for top10 and over 300 for further positions, which heralds the arrival of even better results with the same commitment.

SEO January 2021

From the beginning of cooperation, the budget for SEO activities, in this case, was $ 3,500 per month

We have already written dozens of articles on our blog about Google Ads. Measurable, budget flexible and great for optimization. In addition, you only pay when a potential customer clicks on your ad.

In the case of Google Ads, there is no one-size-fits-all budget that will guarantee your success. Too small amount in your industry may prevent you from generating enough traffic to start converting and bring not only profits, but also specific data that allows you to optimize your campaign. On the other hand, there are industries where there is no point in spending more, because we will start to burn money into groups that convert less well.

Google Ads May 2020

At the beginning of the cooperation, the budget was $ 12,000. It generated $ 98,000 in revenues. Sounds good, but as it turned out, it could get even better.

Google Ads October 2020

Spending at $ 17,000, revenues grew to nearly $ 180,000 per month. Compared to May, the marketing budget in October increased by ~ 30%. Interestingly, however, revenues increased by as much as 47% compared to May. This happened for two reasons.

First of all, May 2020 was the second month of our cooperation in the field of running Google Ads advertising. The result was already satisfactory, but we knew that the “learning” campaign in the coming months would produce even better results. Our self-learning algorithms usually take 3 months to obtain repeatable and the best possible results from the right amount of data.

Secondly, we saw after the first weeks of the campaign that we had room to increase the budget. The client was open to this, which allowed us to more meaningfully divide the funds between the different channels.

The combination of an increased budget, a fully optimized campaign, but also the customer’s trust in our competences (sometimes this is the key) – all this allowed us to stabilize the campaign at a very satisfactory level.

Facebook Ads

Ultimately – to have everything under one umbrella of Paraphrase-Online.com and seeing that we can make it – the client transferred to us activities related to Facebook Ads and running a fanpage. In this case, it is best to see how the “learning” of the campaign pays off in the case of algorithms. The budget has remained the same, and there is no significant seasonality of sales in this particular assortment.

Facebook turned out to be a great sales channel in this case.

The Facebook Ads marketing budget was $ 2,000 and generated $ 12,000 in revenue. This result had to improve a bit and we worked hard on it. The real revolution came after the holidays.

Facebook Ads October 2020

In October, ad spend did not increase and remained at $ 2,000. However, revenues soared to over $ 90,000.

In addition, the client entrusted us with the issue of running a corporate Fanpage, which was faced with softer goals, such as strengthening brand recognition, working on the reputation and supporting the store’s users. This is of paramount importance for customers who, when buying, need more time and factors to finally decide on a given store.

Joining advertising channels – benefits

At the time of writing, the client’s cumulative budget for all advertising efforts is approximately $ 20,000 per month, which generates approximately $ 500,000 in revenue. Every dollar spent on marketing therefore generates $ 25.

Of course, it is not the case that every industry and every product will provide such a good return on investment. All this is a component of many factors – from the store’s UX, through well-optimized campaigns in each advertising channel and seasonality, ending with the store’s complaint policy or such nuances as the cost of delivery or the company’s tons of answers to users’ questions on the fanpage. We are also convinced of the exceptional need to combine advertising channels. Of course, when financial resources are modest, then you cannot divide them and focus on the most effective one. Overall, however, if you can invest more, you should be present on many levels. Connected channels work better together than each of them separately.

As there are many factors of success, cooperation between the client and the agency is also crucial. For our part, we always provide hints about the customer’s experience, the solutions he prefers on the websites, but also about advertising investments for a given industry. By running several thousand campaigns, we already have excellent insight into what works and what does not necessarily bring good results. We take full responsibility for this know-how.

How much does it cost to make a website and business needs

A website is a source of knowledge about our business. Its task is to inform about services or products, communicate transaction rules and provide contact details to the company. Just a few years ago, all goals would be met by a simple website consisting of several tabs. Today, however, the requirements associated with it are much higher – you should take into account trends in the industry and the network, and if you want to reach as many customers as possible – also the requirements of search engines.

How much it costs to make a website depends largely on its expected size and the technologies used. So let’s start by answering a few questions:

A. Size of the website – if you are planning a website for a small, very local business, all you have to do is build a simple website that will provide basic information for your customers – it will tell you about the business, who is behind it and where and at what times you can use the services. What does “simple site” mean?
These are several tabs – subpages.

These types of sites are intended for a small number of recipients. By placing the object on the map and adjusting the search to the locations of its user – those interested will easily find a website and gain access to the necessary information.

The site can be based on pure HTML and CSS, without a content management system. However, if you plan to frequently add entries to the news section and be able to change your course offer, for example, it is worth meeting people who are unfamiliar with the code and invest in one of the popular CMS. The simplest solution here is WordPress – popular, intuitive, with the ability to create users with different levels of access to the administration panel. The installation of CMS is, however, associated with higher costs and in the extended time of completion of the website design.

For this type of page, however, you can use alternative solutions – page builders. Google also provides this type of solution. Sites created using these solutions are usually cheap (costs are the subscription of the selected tool and the price of domain maintenance and hosting) and can be done on your own. Website builders have their limitations and creating large websites that have ambitions to storm the first positions in search results may not be very effective.

Websites that are to contain more tabs – e.g. the offer category is to be developed for various types of services, and the site will allow customers to contact the company directly or book visits – it is worth building based on CMS. More subpages require agile administration, and this will definitely be facilitated by the installation of a content management system.

B. Technology – the bigger side is usually the need for more individual solutions. The simplest and cheapest solution is to put a static page, using HTML, CSS and simple JavaScript. How much does it cost to make a simple website? An efficient developer will code and – colloquially speaking – will “put” this type of website within a few days. The cost should also be increased by the work of the graphic designer responsible for creating the website layout and time related to making corrections to the project.

More complicated pages, extended with functionalities allowing for greater interaction with the page – e.g. using forms, creating accounts and logging in, require more advanced solutions. In these cases, the page is most often based on one of the CMS. Again, the most popular solution for medium-sized sites is WordPress, which thanks to the plug-in system can extend a regular website with almost any functionality.

The advantage of popular CMS are easily available documentation and forums, where you can find solutions for virtually any problem. Their definite downside – susceptibility to burglary. Lack of the current version of the system, unchecked plugins and add-ons may be the reason for slamming or hijacking. Therefore, if you choose this type of solution, their additional cost may be updating the version (which does not always go smoothly), and in the worst case … removing the effects of hacking.

Online stores also have a separate price list. Here, several solutions are involved – installing the engine on a server or using software in the Saas model.

Placing the store on your own server is associated with the need to take care not only of its appearance, but above all about security. It is not only about meeting security requirements, but also about the stability of servers, the security of your data and customers and the elimination of errors related to installed extensions. This solution, however, allows full access to the code of the website and full modification in accordance with your own vision.

The online store can also be opened using the offers of companies operating in the SaaS model – Software as a service. By choosing this solution, we sub-rent a cloud fragment and store software in exchange for a monthly fee. There are many companies operating in this system on the market. Each of the brands offers several subscription versions. Its amount depends on, among others on the number of accounts in the administrative panel, integration with other sales channels and wholesalers, the number of products and so on.

The costs associated with placing the store at the start may be smaller – the smallest subscription is around $ 10 / month. This, of course, brings limitations, e.g. the inability to match the appearance of the store’s vision or pasting the codes necessary to run a Google Ads campaign. Fees must be paid monthly, which can be quite painful for the entrepreneur in the event of a worse period.

How much does it cost to create a small page?

As mentioned above, making a website takes a few hours of work and graphics. The list of points in the cost estimate will look like this:
– domain cost,
– hosting cost,
– the cost of creating the page layout (graphics time),
– cost of coding the website (web developer time).

The total should be close to about $ 200-300.

These costs can be reduced by using, for example, one of the programs that allows you to create a page yourself. In this case, the main effort will be our time – necessary to choose the program, familiarize yourself with it and build a working website. The cost of domain and hosting will remain the same, you should also add a subscription to them resulting from the use of the wizard – the cheapest start from around $ 5 / month. Note – the use of wizards has its limitations – e.g. a smaller subscription requires you to agree to display ads on our site.

The small site is ideal for businesses that do not have the ambition to dominate search results.

How much does it cost to make a website for a medium-sized business?

A website, which is to be a tool for acquiring new customers, should meet a whole range of requirements – it should be fast, mobiles and accessible to recipients.

Building this type of site will be more complicated – the number of bookmarks increases and additional functions need to be added. Points that should be included in the cost estimate of such a project are similar to those of a small site, but their height will increase significantly. Depending on the planned functions and the expected traffic on the site, it may be necessary to choose a more expensive option or a dedicated server.

The cost of creating a medium-sized business website also has a CMS chosen. Installing it usually increases the price by around $ 150-300. Added to this are the costs of some solutions that need to be installed into the basic system.

Additional costs worth paying

CMS support requires familiarity with its limitations and capabilities. Unless it is planned to employ a separate employee to operate the website, it is worth considering the issue and, for example, adding a point related to the system training in the website contract. It is worth keeping this in mind – simple corrections that you can do yourself in a few minutes, the company will cost you a lot. Self-service of the system also saves time – delegating tasks in this case can postpone their execution for several days.

Note – submission of the page by the web developer is not synonymous with its full preparation for active activities on the Internet. If you start positioning or Google Ads, you may need to make corrections. This does not mean, however, that the “site was bad”, but only not fully adapted to Google’s guidelines. Optimization, however, may involve the need for additional changes, especially if the site is managed by a proprietary CMS system that does not have full documentation on the Internet.

Store – virtual store shelves, salesman and cash register

One of the more complex types of websites are certainly online stores. This translates directly into how much it costs to make them. What should be considered?

In addition to basic costs – domain and hosting, there is the cost of the engine. As I mentioned above – its issue can be solved in two ways – by installing open source options or choosing a SaaS solution.

Store prices start at around $ 2-3 thousand and increase depending on the solutions and integration used.

SaaS for those who like “fast”

At first glance, it may seem that how much it costs to make a website and store on open source engines is incomparably greater than using the store options in the SaaS model. Subscription allows us to set up a fully functional store, but depending on the height limits the possibility of customizing its appearance and optimization. These types of solutions will not work for large e-commers trading thousands of products. This solution will be appreciated by small companies that do not have financial expenses to build their own sales platform.

(Not) Perfect solution

The biggest drawback of this type of solutions is the inability to modify the code and make changes, including those that would be required during optimization for running an advertising campaign. Of course, many of them have the option of more advanced customization, but this is an additional cost that the company must take on. Many suppliers of ready stores emphasize the possibility of giving websites a unique look, unfortunately, most projects – especially in lower subscription plans – do not differ much.

SaaS also has its advantages – the responsibility for maintaining the continuity of the correct operation of the site and ensuring data and transaction security, falls on the service provider. In the case of multi-person activities, the delegation of these tasks allows you to focus on creating the product and running the brand.

The cost of placing a store in a SaaS model starts at around $ 15 / month. Prices for more advanced packages start from around $ 70.

Regardless of whether you run a clothing store, an automotive parts store, a gardening equipment store, a health food store, you have one specific goal – for example, getting customers and increasing sales. An online store advertisement comes in handy, thanks to which you can reach a wide audience. This is the beginning of the road, but you are not far from success.

Online store advertising – possibilities

Wondering what online advertising options you have? Internet marketing is a very broad concept, thanks to which you will choose solutions adequate to your needs and expectations. Importantly, online store advertising should not focus on just one tool at all. To increase your chances of success, it is worth acting on many levels. Many forms of online advertising complement each other perfectly, thanks to which a larger group of potential customers can get to know you.

– Google Ads
This is a paid online store advertisement that gives quick results. Therefore, it will be great when you are just starting a business and your brand is not yet known.

As part of Google Ads, you can use, among others from sponsored links. They are displayed in the search engine – above the organic results – after entering specific keywords. After clicking the user is redirected to your store. This is a very effective method of advertising because for the average user Google Ads do not differ from organic results. It is also worth adding that they are well-matched to the client’s queries and thus get what he expects.

Another option is given to banner campaigns, which are implemented with the participation of portals cooperating with Google Ads. The banner is displayed on the given website – after clicking on the graphic the user is redirected to the online store.

The third option is Google Shopping – a tool with which you can promote specific products in the search engine. The user entering the product name receives the results in a special box – a link to the product appears along with the name of the store, price and photo.

– Advertising on Facebook
Statistics show that most people use at least one social networking site. Facebook is the most popular and, among other things, you should mark your presence there.

One of the forms of advertising is your own fanpage, through which you can establish long-term relationships with customers and engage in dialogue with them. It is also a good way to build brand awareness.

The fanpage itself is not enough – especially if the store takes its first steps. Facebook campaigns come in handy to help you adapt to your needs. The form of advertising can be, for example, sponsored posts appearing on the board of potential customers or in Messenger. There are a lot of advertising formats on Facebook, from static to carousels and movies.

– Content marketing
Content marketing is not direct advertising. It is a series of activities on the Internet that primarily allow you to increase brand awareness, build an image of an expert or gain leads.

These activities can be carried out in many ways, however, the publication of thematic articles on external websites and the publication of articles on a company blog plays a major role. These are content activities that we know widely, but there are many more and they can also be much more sophisticated. Let store actions serve as an example. A simple loyalty mechanism (stickers = reward) was turned into a content self-play. Such action provides a lot of sought after content. Thus, a powerful envelope of content is created around the programs.

Online store advertising – why is it worth it?

The need to incur financial expenses for advertising on the Internet raises many questions – including those related to profitability. Although it’s hard to get a clear answer, one thing is certain: online store advertising has many advantages and is extremely measurable. So you can make budget transfers to the most promising channels in real time!

– Wide range
Internet advertising is distinguished by a very wide range. It allows you to reach hundreds of thousands of recipients – not only in your country, but also in the world. This is especially important if you are considering selling products also abroad. A wider reach means reaching more users with more potential customers among them.

– Unlimited access to the offer
Unlimited access to online stores means that an online store ad does not have to be displayed at certain times. It reaches the recipient virtually 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

– Precise targeting
Online store advertising – regardless of the tool chosen – allows you to precisely identify the target group and then reach it. This increases the chances of the recipient carrying out a specific action, e.g. placing an order, subscribing to the newsletter.

– Speed of campaign launch
An online advertising campaign can be launched very quickly. What’s more, it is possible to reach a wide audience as soon as the campaign starts. This works great for online stores starting out, which – in the case of offline advertising – would have to wait much longer for results.

– Affordable costs
Traditional forms of advertising can cost a lot – unlike online advertising. It is much cheaper, which allows you to achieve your business goals with a lot less money. Thanks to this, every online store has a chance to appear on the web – regardless of its scale.

– High flexibility
Online store advertising is characterized by great flexibility. You can modify the parameters of individual campaigns – so that they bring the expected results. And all this without having to increase advertising expenditure.

– Possibility of constant monitoring of effects
Internet advertising is fully measurable. It is possible to systematically monitor effects using various tools. Thanks to this – if a given form of promotion does not meet expectations – it can be modified or completely eliminated.

Online advertising of an online store is a profitable investment. Compared to other forms of advertising, it provides the best ratio of campaign costs to results.

Choosing keywords for positioning is one of the first problems you need to solve in order to best conduct further actions. In most tutorials you will come across suggestions to use the keyword tools in Google Ads. It’s also worth adding Google Ads campaigns to this list.

When choosing keywords, you’ll ask yourself a few questions that require immediate answers. Among other things: do you want to position general keywords that give you greater ranges or a long tail? Is your domain brand strong enough? Later, it remains to select phrases within a given group. There are constantly new questions. In this case, a well-run Google Ads campaign can be the answer. If you have properly invested in this advertising channel, it may prove to be a great support for you.

In Google Ads campaigns, you can extract a very large amount of data about the searched and clicked keywords and their effectiveness. Both for text and shopping ads. In both cases, you are able to check the keyword that the user entered, clicked on your ad, and then converted (or not).

Where to look for all this information?

Where to look for all this information? In the search terms report. After logging in to your Google Ads account, select Keywords from the left menu, then click Search terms in the options at the top.

You import the entire report into a spreadsheet to freely analyze the data and suddenly you discover a sea of data. There are so many keywords here that you don’t know where to start.

You can do several things:

– Leave only those phrases that have brought valuable conversions and focus on them. With this solution, I recommend taking data from a minimum of six months back, preferably one year. Then you won’t be exposed to seasonal data analysis. Additionally, you can expand your word list in the direction of long tail niche phrases.

– Leave only keywords that have a specified minimum number of impressions in the analyzed time range. Here, I also recommend relying on data from a minimum of half a year. Then sort the data by number of views, descending. It is worth referring to the quality of traffic in Google Analytics and leave those phrases that have good results or have converted.

– Group keywords by product category, e.g. filter phrases for whether they contain the word “jacket”, “pants”, “sweatshirt”, etc. Then you need to determine the potential of each of these groups and analyze their effectiveness. However, remember to leave words with the best reach and conversion rates. In this way, the list will actually contain searched and clicked phrases from a given topic.

Analyze detailed data

If you do not want to analyze such detailed data and bury yourself in a huge spreadsheet, you can use the results in Google Ads at the keyword level. You’ll find them in your campaigns. This list will allow you to evalsuate phrases and similar variations in terms of efficiency and profitability for business.

You can also download this data to a spreadsheet, then filter and sort according to your needs. The main difference between this report and the previous one is that here you won’t see exactly what users enter in the search engine, only the keywords from your campaign. In addition, this report does not include data from shopping campaigns.

What can you do with a table full of keywords?

What can you do with a table full of keywords? Exactly the same as with the search terms report. Depending on the amount of time you have and the amount of data, you are able to prepare and then choose the positioning phrases that will bring the best results. However, regardless of which method you choose, you always get reliable data. Not only about the possible ranges, but also the effectiveness of these phrases (number and value of conversions and conversion rate). Thanks to this, you don’t choose keywords in the dark, based on the “can convert” principle, only according to real performance data.

Online store advertisement

This is a mandatory element of the promotional strategy – regardless of whether you are just starting out in the world of e-commerce, or have been running it for a long time, gaining good results. Your competition is not asleep, so you need to ensure effective communication with customers – potential, but also current and those who have purchased from you in the past.

However, you may wonder what the costs of such an investment will be and, equally important, how long it will take to lead customers through the marketing funnel towards the finalization of the transaction. The answer is short: it depends. If you expect unambiguous, very specific information, well. This does not exist, because there are many factors to consider when estimating costs and payback times. What? About this in a moment.

What does the online store advertisement look like in practice?

Before you even start thinking about the time and costs that effective online store advertising requires, it’s worth realizing how broad this concept is. There are many ways to promote an e-store on the Web. The most important are:

Google Ads

How can customers get information that you run an online store and offer the products they need? One of the key search channels is of course Google. You use it yourself when you are interested in specific products.

As part of Google Ads, you have a number of options.

First: AdWords campaigns (Google Ads), i.e. sponsored links. What is the point Simply put, when a user enters the keyword for which your store is being promoted, a link to it will appear above the organic search results. It’s a simple and quite effective way to increase conversions in a short time.

Secondly: banner campaigns on external portals – the advertisement will be displayed on various types of websites that work with Google Ads, and you will pay for page views / clicks on them. This method of promotion is quite effective especially if you decide on the version using remarketing mechanisms.

And what is remarketing itself? It is a strategy based on displaying personalized advertisements to recipients – matched, among others to what they were looking for online before. For example, if a potential customer visited your store and viewed specific products, remarketing mechanisms will allow them to display banners with advertising on this topic. Thanks to this, step by step, it will move deeper into the marketing funnel, towards the final finalization of the transaction.

It is also worth mentioning the relatively new tool, which is Google Shopping. After setting up your campaign, your product offer, along with the price and a direct link to the purchase will be displayed in the search results.

SEO and SEM

An equally important aspect associated with online store advertising is visibility in search engines. The higher it is, the better organic reach you get. As a result, what is important, the cost of advertising campaigns themselves can be lowered, because activities through different channels will support each other.

In this aspect, it is worth ensuring above all the optimization and positioning of the online store – including preparation of unique content for descriptions of categories, subcategories, and if the budget allows you – also products. Equally important is the expansion of the blog (with long-tail positioning in mind) or building valuable links.

Online store advertisement in social media

This is not just about running a store fanpage on Facebook, although it is of course the basis of all activities. In the case of e-stores, however, paid promotion is important, especially since this portal provides many attractive opportunities for e-commerce. In addition to the typical ads in the style of “sponsored links” / banners, which go to the column next to the main, or news feed, sponsored posts play an important role. They can take different forms – including e.g. carousel with products.

On Facebook, you can also use remarketing mechanisms, and because of how popular social media are, investment in promotion through this channel will pay off.

How much does it cost and how long will it take?

As you can see, in this sea of possibilities it is quite easy to get lost – especially since in the case of PPC campaigns or Facebook advertising, the system leaves you almost complete freedom in determining the parameters of the campaign, including its budget, as well as its duration.

Of course, you can be tempted to experiment and set everything yourself. Nevertheless, if you are not an experienced marketer, it is very likely that … you will throw money away or achieve less than you could by investing a similar amount in cooperation with professionals.

Together with experts:
– circle target groups and customer persona – so as to be able to direct the campaign to recipients with high potential,
– you estimate what budget will allow you to increase ranges for those you jointly set up – the sum depends, among others by store size, planned ROI or competition in your industry,
– set the duration of individual stages of the campaign and its course.

Specialists will also conduct analytical activities on an ongoing basis to check how the published ads are received and, if necessary, modify their content or form to obtain better results.

As you can see, to find out how long your online store ad will last and how long it will take for you to see measurable effects, it’s best to talk when looking at a specific store. Therefore, contact our specialists without obligation and you will receive detailed information.

Online store advertising – the main benefits

Online store advertising can bring measurable benefits – provided that it is based on a carefully developed strategy and is well thought out. Therefore, it requires considerable skill and sensitivity – it is important because the slightest mistake can have the opposite effect to the intended one.

– You become visible to network users – Online store advertising has no time limits, therefore you become visible to network users. This is a huge opportunity, considering the fact that every day over 4 billion people use the Internet worldwide.

– You are visible without time limits – Online store advertising can be displayed around the clock – 7 days a week. There are no time limits here, e.g. related to the opening hours of the store. Thanks to this, potential customers can see your offer even when the store is closed. What’s more – if it is an e-store, they can make purchases as soon as they become familiar with the content of the advertising message.

– You adjust the cost of advertising to the budget – Store advertising on the Internet is very flexible in terms of costs. You can customize each campaign to your budget – even the most limited budget. While, for example, $250 is not enough for advertising on the radio or television, such an amount spent on advertising on the web can bring satisfactory results and convince you to in-depth investments in the selected channel.

– You can specify the target group with more precision – You can tailor online advertising to your target group. Using the right tools, you are able to direct the message exactly where it will bring the best results, e.g. increase in sales, increase brand recognition, etc. (If the store’s offer is addressed e.g. to men in the 30-45 age group, the message will reach them In its creation, you can use their preferences or use it to speak “their language”).

– You constantly monitor the effectiveness of advertising – Online store advertising is completely measurable. It is possible to constantly monitor the course of the campaign, which allows you to assess the effectiveness. This way you know which channels bring the best results, and which ones you can opt out because they don’t translate into traffic.

– You can modify your campaign – Online store advertising is characterized by great flexibility. The message can be quickly and easily modified if it proves to be ineffective.

How and where to advertise a store on the Internet?

Online store advertising offers many possibilities. Choosing the right channels depends not only on the budget available, but also on many other factors. An important role may be played by, among others whether you run a stationary store or do online sales.

– SEO
SEO is a series of activities that make a store visible in an internet search engine. However, the point is not to be in the search engine at all, but to get there high enough positions for relevant phrases. Statistics show that the majority of network users pay attention only to addresses of sites occupying TOP10 search results. This means that the positions on the following pages reduce the chance of reaching potential customers.

Taking high positions in the search engine is easier when you sell by mail order. You can do, among others store optimization, among others by modifying category descriptions, creating unique product descriptions, creating content within the blog. Publishing articles on external websites is also helpful.

– Google Ads
Google Ads is a paid advertisement that has two options.

One of them is AdWords campaigns based on sponsored links for specific keywords. When a user types a specific phrase, an advertisement for your store will appear above the organic results.

Another option is the so-called banner campaigns on external websites. The store’s advertisement will be displayed on various portals – when the user clicks, he will be directed to the website of the online store.

– Advertising in social media
Running a Facebook fanpage is one of the elements of online advertising. However, it is worth going a step further by opting for paid advertising campaigns. Facebook offers increasingly broad methods of promoting its products due to the growing pressure of monetizing the whole environment. You can not only start various posts and formats, but also invest in remarketing, abandoned baskets, lead ads, promotions on messenger or instagram.

Store advertising on the Internet – alone or with experts?

Nothing prevents you from running an advertising campaign yourself. However, you need the right knowledge and various tools can be useful. Lack of experience in this field may result in … throwing money away.

So if you are just starting your adventure in implementing advertising campaigns, rely on the help of experts. By choosing cooperation with an experienced agency, you will better choose the target group, set the optimal duration of the campaign, and choose the right tools. Remember that the budget devoted to cooperation with experts does not have to be larger – aiming at the right actions can translate into savings. With specialists, you won’t go astray and randomly test specific advertising tools.