First things first: whether you’re already running an e-commerce business or considering it, you need to be online. This is the only way to attract new customers and remind the old ones of your existence. Why is that so? The answer is simple. Today, most searches for specific products, as well as places that sell them, start online.

This is for a simple reason: almost everyone has a smartphone, and entering a query on Google or using the voice search engine is very simple and accessible. If so, you cannot afford not to be on the Internet. And how to mark your presence? Here are the most important aspects you need to keep in mind.

Advertising of a photo shop? Start with positioning!

Website positioning is the absolute basis of all the activities you undertake in connection with the promotion of your photo store. Why? Because without SEO solutions, it will be difficult for you to be “found” by customers interested in the offer of photographic equipment or accessories.

Remember that an assortment similar to yours is offered by many other points of sale – at the forefront of large chains of electronic stores. To compete with them, you must first show your audience that you exist. For this to happen, your website must appear high in Google search results for phrases related to the scope of the prepared offer.

And here’s the first important note: your keyword selection is HUGE. It cannot be done “by eye” because it is a road to nowhere. In theory, you can simply indicate the key categories of products offered and build content marketing activities and SEO content on them. Nevertheless… so does your competition. This puts you in a losing position.

Therefore, before choosing keywords, you will need:
– SEO audit in terms of the quality of your website – it is about both its functionality and technical facilities. Important issues include, among other things, whether the website is responsive (and thus whether it adapts to the displays of various end devices), and how fast it loads,
– keyword analysis – both those where your store may already be displayed somewhere in the search results, and those that have high potential. We are talking primarily about keywords from the so-called long tail, and therefore a much wider catalog of expressions.

A good specialist will also create a plan for the placement of these specific keywords in the content on individual subpages of the website. This is also a very important issue, because otherwise the results of the SEO company’s activities may be weakened.

Is positioning profitable?

The profitability of the SEO activities carried out cannot be overestimated – both in the context of short-term and long-term goals. The longer time perspective is particularly important, because the results of skilful optimization of the website code and its content will increase the visibility of the photo shop for a very long time.

The advantages of positioning are also:
– support for image and branding activities – possible thanks to the publication of valuable content related to the activity,
 – improving the functionality of the website,
 – more traffic on the website,
– better brand recognition.

However, it must be remembered that this is an investment, the return on which will not appear immediately. Often – especially when activities are carried out from scratch – it is necessary to wait several months or even longer for the results. However, when they finally come, they prove that it was worth being patient!

Attention! Although in theory you can carry out many SEO activities yourself, in practice it is better to do it in cooperation with an experienced specialist. Then you will be sure that the money invested in activities in this field will pay off.

Google Ads, i.e. a paid advertising for a photo store

The second way to promote the operation of a photo store on the web is to use Google Ads tools. This is a very beneficial solution, thanks to which you can quickly achieve the goals of your campaigns – e.g. those related to increasing website traffic. All thanks to the fact that Google is a very powerful platform that allows you to build spectacular ranges.

How can a photo shop ad be run on Google? The tools that are available are very wide. However, the most important ones are:
– Google Shopping advertising – very important, especially when promoting e-commerce activities. It is mainly about advertising consisting in displaying offers of specific products above the customer’s search results or on the right side of SERPs. In such a carousel or box, a photo of a specific product offered by you will be displayed, which is thematically related to the customer’s inquiry. There will also be the price of this product and a link to your e-shop. This form of promotion works well when the goal is to quickly increase the conversion of specific goods in the store,
– sponsored links – this is a form of advertising that displays a link to your offer above the organic results. While these results are clearly labeled as advertising, many users click on them, which helps you build your reach as well as increase your sales volume.
– Google Display Network – it is contextual advertising displayed in the form of banners on external websites visited by a potential recipient. This form of presentation is extremely attractive because it allows the client to follow the websites he visits. The most interesting version of contextual ads are those displayed in the remarketing system. These are the ones that are presented to people who have already visited your camera shop, looked at certain products, but have not made a purchase. When they see information about your offer again, they can come back to it.

What are the advantages of advertising a photo store in Google Ads?

Advertising in Google Ads is:
– a chance to quickly build ranges,
– the possibility of accelerating the sales process,
– easy adaptation of advertising messages to the needs of recipients at various stages of the shopping funnel,
– support for branding activities,
– easy monitoring of advertising results and a simple, transparent PPC billing system.

Of course, it’s worth remembering that this form of promotion is not without its drawbacks. The key factor is the short duration of the effect obtained. For this reason, the use of Google Ads must be combined with activities in the area of SEO to obtain a synergy effect.

Facebook photo store advertisement

Facebook is another communication channel that can be used to conduct effective promotional activities. Why can a Facebook photo store advertisement be a good solution? The answer is simple: your audience is here too. You can think about completely free methods of promoting yourself – including setting up a fan page and managing it yourself, as well as interacting with users on thematic groups. However, such activities should also be supported in the area of paid promotion.

The system of accounting for ads on Facebook works much like the one in Google, so you also pay for the effects in the form of impressions or clicks. You can also use very different forms of promotion – e.g. contextual advertising, post promotion, or displaying a carousel of products in the news feed. Everything depends on the goal of the campaign.

Facebook is a good promotional tool because:
– your clients are present here and they will be happy to take a look at the interesting proposals you present to them,
– you gain access to intuitive advertising tools that give measurable results,
– you have a chance to associate activities on social media with those conducted, for example, on a company blog or on external portals,
– you can combine an advertising campaign with branding activities.

It all has a huge impact on the final results – both in the short and long term.

Advertising in other social media: does it make sense for a photo shop?

Advertising your photo store on other social media also holds great potential. Why? Because on the one hand you can reach amateurs-enthusiasts with it, and on the other – professionals. You can communicate with the former, e.g. through campaigns on Pinterest or Instagram. However, experts should present their photographic equipment, e.g. on LinkedIn. There are many possibilities, and choosing the right ones should be preceded by a consultation with a good digital agency. This is your chance to plan an attractive campaign.

You should also appreciate being able to collaborate with better photographers or often in thematic groups – a wide wave can follow their example.

Let us assume that you have created a text whose thesis or proposition is the sentence, It’s worth writing straightforwardly. Now it is necessary to justify this point of view in order to convince the recipient to it. The combination of convincing with justification is nothing more than argumentation.

Because, what is worth emphasizing, there is also persuasion without justification. You act under its influence if you choose a floor cleaner just because its brand is known, or if you go to a movie where all your friends were present, or drink blackcurrant juice when you have a cold, because it was considered effective in your family home. When you follow an example or herd instinct, you usually do not need justification and thus argumentation.

Thus, whether we are dealing with argumentation is determined by the justification. It also has its other side. When you argue in favor of a thesis, you indicate that it is not obvious and must be justified. So it is worth considering whether argumentation is always necessary.

How to build arguments

The argument consists of:
– premises that justify the thesis,
– thesis, i.e. the conclusion.

It is structured as follows: Because premise 1, premise 2, … .., therefore the conclusion, e.g. because the human foot was formed while walking barefoot, and the feet of young children are just developing, therefore footwear should give children’s feet such an opportunity to develop, as if they were walking barefoot.

Of course, the argument need not be worded because, then, though, such transitions increase the effectiveness of suggestion and facilitate acceptance.

Without transitions, the argument would go like this: A person’s foot was formed when walking barefoot. Little children’s feet are just developing. Footwear should therefore give children’s feet the opportunity to develop as if they were walking barefoot.

Let us have a look at the fluency of the arguments as presented by J. Iwaszkiewicz: There is an author behind the book. So his writing is always a letter to the reader. We usually write letters to friends. The book is the author’s letter to a friend.

If the recipient accepts that sentence A is true, he must also admit that sentence B is true. Sentence A is the basis for accepting sentence B. And so on. This reliable way of inference can take the following form, for example:
– Premise 1: Food without preservatives is healthy.
– Premise 2: Juice X contains no preservatives.
– Conclusion: Juice X is healthy.

Both premises have one term in common (preservatives), each term of the application is included in one premise (healthy – in the first, juice x – in the second). This is how a syllogism arises. The greater premise contains a general truth, the smaller one – a detailed one, the conclusion follows logically from two premises.

When I say that Juice X does not contain preservatives, so it is healthy, I will ignore the first premise (Food without preservatives is healthy), because I will take it for granted. This is how an entymemma is created.

An entymemma can also refute a theorem, and in this role it has even greater power. In the inference Adam could not have committed the crime, I have known him since he was a child, the premise Adam is good by nature was hidden.

However, breaking arguments in an advertisement is dangerous. Now, when we fight a claim, we emphasize, as Perelman writes, that it has “sufficient strength that we must go to the trouble of resisting it.” It will be more advantageous not to invoke counter arguments unnecessarily. “Otherwise, we most often risk enhancing their meaning and presence.” – explains Perelman.

Aristotle attached great importance to enthymmas. However, he emphasized that they should be intertwined with the argument from time to time. In too high a density, they will hurt each other. “For simultaneous movements deny each other: they either destroy completely or weaken one another.” – he explains, and it is a universal truth about language. Entymems will not help to evoke emotion either, because “either the emotion will vanish or the enthem will be used in vain.”

Take care of the recipient’s favor

So what you need to care about the most is the favor of the recipient. Nowadays, it is straightforwardly said that effective arguments are those that are tailored to the audience. Therefore, the starting point should be the theses recognized earlier by those to whom we address.

This is why Aristotle advised: “When speaking, we must always pay attention to whether our audience has the same understanding as we are talking about. For it is likely that such things are easier for them to believe. “

When preparing the argument, we must first of all take care of being favorable to the premises. If we take a point of view that is denied by the audience, we will be mistaken.

The premises may concern reality (Mastering a foreign language is not innate) and desirable things (the way to master a foreign language is systematic).

Even a seemingly obvious rule, such as: If you learn 10 new words every day, improve your knowledge of a foreign language, you may not gain the favor of recipients who say that efficient use of a foreign language is the result of inborn talent.

In what order to present the arguments

First of all: should the argument follow the thesis or lead to it? Cicero claimed that when we want to convince the audience, the first order will work, when we move – the second.

In this series, I propose to present the main idea at the beginning. This approach will be useful in both advertising and expert text, and above all, it is consistent with the knowledge about how we read from the screen. In an online article, the passages above have a greater chance of being noticed, read and remembered.

And in what order are the arguments arranged? The rhetoric theorists distinguished ascending, descending and Nestorian order.

If your audience is interested and sympathetic, you can afford to argue from the weakest to the strongest. The ascending order gives the author a certain comfort. When the recipient accepts weaker arguments, he will become more open to accepting stronger ones.

In the case of indifferent and reluctant recipients, a falling order is better. You start with the strongest arguments. If the strongest argument is accepted, so are the weaker ones.

However, both orders have their weaknesses, which Perelman pointed out. “The weakness of the ascending order is that, starting with the weakest arguments, it discourages the [speaker] audience, it damages its prestige and badly affects the attention given to its speech. The descending order, ending the speech with the weakest arguments, makes a bad impression on the audience, usually the only one that they will remember. ” – explains the author.

The compromise ensures the Nestorian order. This honorable name comes from Nestor, who in the Iliad arranged the military ranks so that the strongest were at the head and at the rear, and the weakest in the middle.

This system intuitively created by the ancients has been confirmed by research into the primacy and freshness effects. What is at the beginning of the text has a chance to be permanently remembered by the reader, while what at the end may have a short but strong impact on him. The effect of freshness appears right after reading the content and does not last long.

How to compose a whole

Bert Decker advises you to first write down each idea on a separate piece of paper. Then analyze the ideas, discard some of the ideas, and categorize the rest with a title. According to the classic rule, 3 key points should be added to the final version. Each of them should contain 3 sub-points (arguments).

Below I will present a diagram of such an argumentation that could support a point of view: It’s worth writing simply. I used the Nestorian order, i.e. I started and ended with stronger key points.

Key point 1: Reading from the screen
– On the Internet, the reader is task-oriented and wants to complete the task quickly and effectively.
– When reading from the screen, the appearance of the text is as important as its content, and the short words and sentences, characteristic of a simple style, are easier to catch the eye.
– When reading from a small screen, the memory is overloaded and the pace of reading difficult texts drops significantly.

Key point 2: Brand language
– Language expresses the personality of the brand. Especially the service feeling is mainly based on language.
– The formal style is intimidating, it blows cold from it and these feelings translate into the perception of the brand.
– Written communication becomes more informal. This is one of the main directions of modern language development.

Key point 3: Good impression
– Simple language makes us sound more intelligent.
– We overly complicate the statement when we want to hide uncertainty.
– What you say or write will make more sense to others if they understand more. They recognize that because you express yourself clearly, you can think so too.

Organic traffic and the costs of its acquisition

Many people associate organic traffic mainly with huge publishing expenses for several thousand dollars a month for the purpose of obtaining links. Link building is important, but it is not the only thing you should do. Many things can be done inside the website, and link building itself does not always have to be associated with huge expenses. What is certain is that if we neglect the onsite factors – link building itself may not give the desired effect.

Content creation and optimization

When generating organic traffic, the main costs are:
– our time (I assume that with the current slowdown of the economy and lower turnover of companies, there is more of it to be spent),
– content cost (you can send specific guidelines to a copywriter or write content using resources in your company).

If we are able to create content ourselves, it is a huge saving. We know that content is worth building and that it can be done at a lower cost. But what to write about? How to plan the created content? You can use many tools, including free ones.

Content creation – where to get ideas?

Before we start creating content, we need to plan it skillfully – that is, develop the subject, structure of the document and create a list of keywords that must be in the content. A common problem is the lack of ideas for generating content. I will not elaborate here on how to research competition in paid tools or on graphs and keyword relationships. After all, the intention of this article is to indicate ways that do not involve expenses.

Google Search Console

A huge treasury of free knowledge is Google Search Console – a tool that can be implemented for free and collect data on the visibility of our website.

How can this tool be used? You should analyze the data in the “Effectiveness” tab and search mainly for:
– phrases that, despite the far position, have quite a lot of views,
– phrases that have a lot of views and are located just outside TOP10.

We can narrow down the data to words that contain a specific word or string of characters. Thanks to this, we can both create content (in a situation where we mentioned a certain issue alongside other content – it is worth building a dedicated content that describes it accurately) and optimizing the current content.

Regardless of whether we are creating new content or trying to optimize the current one – remember about the most important elements:
– carrying out a TOP10 analysis for a given word (context of the content already created, length or optimization method),
– title meta optimization,
– appropriate keyword saturation,
– including the most important keywords in the first paragraph.

But what if we have not written about a given topic and there is no mention of it in GSC? One of the cheap, but unconventional ways, is to use customer inquiries or industry knowledge.

The client will also help you with SEO

It is worth carefully analyzing our clients’ questions and taking note of the latest trends in a given industry. During my work, when I send clients suggestions for topics (which were generated in a paid tool based on a keyword association), I often get a response that clients actually mentioned it during their inquiries. A real challenge for a person who does not have access to paid tools is to verify which queries have search potential.

In the case of reducing the costs of activities, we can use, for example:
– keyword planner (when we have an active Google Ads campaign – we have access to information on the number of monthly searches),
– a free counterpart, which usually has limits on the number of polls per day.

Or maybe take advantage of the knowledge of others?

One popular way to create content on your site is to provide guest posting. It is worth looking for people in the industry who have knowledge and would like to share it on the pages of another portal. We do not have to take money from the author for the possibility of publishing content with a link to the website – often it is enough to pay in the form of a substantive article, which can also generate traffic from search results.

Another factor influencing our visibility may be the author’s reach in social media and broadly understood popularity. If a recognizable person publishes content on our website and it reaches many recipients – recipients can start looking for information about the portal, which also increases organic traffic from brand traffic.

Link building – not always expensive

The subject of link building itself is very extensive and highly dependent on a given industry and the competitiveness of phrases. Nevertheless, at the beginning of cooperation with a client, I always try to be alert to the great potential of such inexpensive and unconventional linking methods. There are many methods for such cheap linking, and these are just a few of them.

Check your previous publications

Customers often mention that they published substantive content on the most famous industry portals or used the services of a PR company that published content on behalf of the client. If you have a list of such publications, for each of them:
– check if there is a link in the publication (preferably without the nofollow attribute),
– if there is no link, add to the “contact” list,
– write a request for the possibility of placing a link to the URL of the page.

Some websites may refuse, some will demand payment for the link, but in many cases it is enough to develop a list and one template e-mail.

Guest articles – sharing knowledge pays off

The scheme of operation in this case is the same as in the previously described sharing of space for experts’ statements. The only difference is that this time we express ourselves on external websites and share our knowledge. In return, we receive a link and potential brand traffic. If the portal on which we publish our content has a large group of recipients – some of them may search Google for information about the author and search for his website.

A unique offer is also a chance for a link

As a business owner, you know your offer perfectly well and know the target group. If your potential customers form communities and have associations or clubs – it is worth establishing not only offline cooperation, but also asking for a link. One example of a tailored offer is schools that offer driving lessons for people with disabilities. All it takes is a quick research and we find a page where driving school websites with such an offer are available.

Internal linking – often untapped potential

Many people hearing the phrase “linking” associate it with acquiring links from other websites. The techniques of cheap external linking have been discussed above, but there is also information about the potential of internal linking. Through internal links (where we have full control over the anchor text of the links), we can also influence the position of keywords.

It is important to analyze which subpage is responsible for visibility for a specific keyword and not to mix up internal links in the target addresses. A common mistake in portals’ editorial offices is linking to various thematically related articles using the same keyword. This misleads Google and increases cannibalization by boosting a few similar articles.

You must create a map of internal links:
The keyword in which we insert the link Internal link address
Keyword – 1 / subpage-X /
Keyword – 2 / subpage-Y /
Keyword – 3 / subpage-Z /

Any further internal linking should follow this pattern.

You probably think now that such internal linking and browsing the site is a lot of work, not to mention the cost. There is also a certain way for this. Internal linking can be automated – with the use of related articles modules or through the scheme of inserting internal links according to a certain key.

You have probably seen the module of similar content more than once on many websites, but it is worth making sure that the mechanism of generating these links works according to a certain key – after similar keywords or thematic connections between articles assigned manually in the CMS.

Automatic linking in the content is used less frequently, but it works in a very simple way. We determine that when a specific keyword appears in the content, a specific link to another subpage will be inserted there. It is also worth adding the condition that such a link has not been added higher in the content, which will limit the number of these links on one subpage. Such a solution can be implemented on individual orders from the programmer, or in the case of more famous CMS systems, look for ready-made solutions.

Summary

The Paraphrase-Online.com Team hopes that with this article you already know that there are many ways to increase organic traffic on your website – not necessarily at the expense of a lot of cash. You can use your own and our clients’ knowledge on many levels. In addition, a whole range of activities related to content planning or its creation can be performed within the organization. Therefore, do not hide behind high costs and start working on the website visibility on Google today.

Call To Action – what is it?

“Check the offer”, “subscribe”, “buy now”, or even “read” used above – what do these expressions have in common? They can all be classified as calls to action, or call to action. These are the key elements of any advertising or promotional campaign. Currently, they are mainly associated with the content presented on the Internet, but they have also been used for years in traditional advertising. Typically, the CTA is designed to guide the user to wherever you want him to go. In the web, it usually takes the form of a button or other active link that directs to the appropriate tab, landing page or store. It sounds like a small matter, but in your CTA marketing efforts, it can make a huge difference. Therefore, it is an obligatory element of every campaign, website or mailing advertisement.

Why is CTA so important?

You might be wondering how it is possible for a simple thing like a call to action to get results. However, experience shows unequivocally that indicating the user what exactly to do creates a much greater chance for him to take action. A CTA can be seen as a signpost that shows exactly where to go and guides the customer along the shopping path. It is this element that often leads to conversion, which is one of the favorite concepts of marketers, meaning the achievement of a specific goal (most often making a purchase, but also e.g. subscribing to a newsletter or submitting an inquiry).

Even if you think that the website is clearly designed and there is simply no chance of getting lost, don’t give up on the CTA. They should appear at every stage of the customer journey to conversion. It is worth choosing them carefully. For example, after adding a product to the cart, you can encourage the user to place an order or continue shopping. The basket itself should also contain clear signposts regarding the transition to the next stages of implementation. They help you avoid confusion and avoid frustrated potential customers leaving your website before converting. It is also worth using CTA to direct internet users to your website – by placing them, for example, in posts on social media or in meta tags. If you haven’t used them before, you’ll definitely notice the difference when you change your strategy!

Why is it worth using Call To Action? In short – because it pays off. Importantly, applying calls to action doesn’t have to be difficult. It is enough to learn a few simple rules that will help to skillfully create them and place them in the right places so that they bring the expected results.

Where to use CTA?

As mentioned, CTA most often takes the form of a button or link. Use a call to action wherever you want to trigger a specific action. It most often appears on websites and in e-mail campaigns. However, it is also worth using them in posts on social media or in the meta description of the page. Call To Action goals may vary. For example:

– getting acquainted with the offer or the price list,
– product purchase,
– subscribing to the newsletter,
– signing up for a course, webinar, etc.,
– file download,
– submitting an inquiry,
– contact with the company,
– filling in a form or questionnaire, etc.

It is not worth counting on the fact that users – without specific encouragement – will understand the intentions of the website creators and meet their expectations. That is why Call To Action is used, which accurately shows the direction of actions and allows you to make a decision automatically. The call-to-action power is quite a lot!

How do you create call to action that work?

Creating a call to action alone is not difficult. However, it is important to use the CTA wisely! Equally important, remember that not all text will always work the same. Therefore, there is no one-size-fits-all recipe for effective calls to action. The content should always be relevant to the target audience. It is also worth checking their operation, comparing them with other possibilities, in order to choose the best solution. At the outset, however, it is good to know the principles of creating Call To Action, which are primarily effective. What are the rules?

A. Keep your message simple
The best Call To Action are very simple. Some, however, tend to complicate the matter unnecessarily. The wording used as a call for action must be understandable and unambiguous – they should not create any doubts as to what they refer to. Therefore, the button for adding a product to the cart should simply be called “Add to cart”. Then you can encourage the customer to “checkout” or “checkout”. Importantly, in some cases CTA uses 1 person singular, and this can be very beneficial. In the above example, for example, buttons with the words “buy”, and then “pay” or “order” could be used. Extremely simple, and at the same time clear – that is exactly what a CTA should be.

B. Bet on specifics
The enigmatic “move on” or “click” button may not look bad at first glance. For some, it will probably even be intriguing. Usually, however, such CTAs are not effective enough. Increasingly, they also fail to inspire confidence. It is best to inform the user immediately what awaits him after clicking the button. Therefore, you should not be afraid of phrases such as “sign up” or “go to payment”. They are much more understandable and lead to a higher conversion rate.

C. Don’t mention the tasks to be done
Many users are reluctant to move on when receiving a message that suggests a task or strenuous work to be done. An example would be the phrase “fill in the questionnaire” – simple and clear, that’s for sure, but is it encouraging? Who wants to waste their precious time filling out some surveys? However, “take part in the study” sounds much more interesting. It is similar with the sometimes used “provide payment information” – it is associated with some difficult task. Meanwhile, “pay” is not only simpler and shorter, but also does not suggest any need for work. Taking care to simplify the purchasing process as much as possible is very important and allows you to significantly increase the conversion. However, CTAs should also not be forgotten, which can destroy all the effort put into building a simple and friendly website if used inappropriately.

D. Highlight the benefits
This point is somewhat related to the next. Instead of emphasizing the difficulties that may await the internet user in the next step, remind him of the benefits! It is often worth replacing “register” with “try it for free.” In turn, instead of “subscribe to the newsletter” you can again reach for 1 person. l. capacity and use the words “yes, I want to know more about …” or “I want to receive information about promotions”.

What else is worth remembering? A call to action alone won’t do the trick. It should also be enclosed with text that will encourage its implementation. It is worth mentioning the benefits and guarantees. It is also best to create the need to take this step immediately through the applied treatments. Sometimes it may be helpful to emphasize the success so far (eg “join thousands of satisfied customers”).

Not only the content is important – well-exposed Call To Action

Successful Call To Action must combine two aspects – the right content with the right form. Therefore, when you decide what text should be on the button or link, think about how to emphasize it so that it does not remain omitted. In this case, you can also define a certain set of rules, but remember that each situation must be approached individually.

A. Visibility
Your carefully crafted CTA may not be of much use if it is not visible enough. It is unacceptable for the user to scroll the whole page to get to the button. This applies to both websites and mailing campaigns. Ideally, the call to action should be at the top of the message so that it shows up to the user without having to scroll. This is especially important in the case of emails, because it is estimated that 8 out of 10 recipients do not delve into the content of marketing messages, reading them only to the so-called the break line, i.e. the place visible without scrolling the page.

It is worth taking care of visibility by using also color highlight and using a button of the appropriate size. The CTA should be in such a form that the user knows that it is a click. Remember to use the first person singular – it’s a treatment that can often help increase conversion. There should be enough space around the button to make it noticeable.

B. One offer – one CTA
Using multiple CTAs on a single page or promotional e-mail can only create unnecessary confusion. Your message should be clear so that the recipient does not have to think about what to choose and what to click. If he can’t make a decision right away, he won’t move on. Therefore, you should always use only one CTA. However, they can be placed in different places on the website or in the e-mail, so that the potential customer does not have to waste time looking for the button. In most cases, it is even a recommended solution.

C. Don’t extend
Remember that the CTA should be short and unambiguous. The most common requests are those with only 2 – 4 words. If you have more content to submit, place it above the button – Call To Action should only be about what awaits the user after proceeding. Usually, however, it is better to avoid hackneyed and overly general phrases (such as “check” or “click here”) that don’t say much.

D. Check Links!
Finally, a small but extremely important point – there is nothing worse than a CTA leading to an invalid or non-existent subpage. Therefore, always check the operation of the links before launching a website or sending marketing messages.

Effective Call To Action – How To Check It?

It’s important to keep an open mind to create effective calls to action. Even if you think that the applied treatment looks great and will certainly be effective, it may turn out otherwise in practice. Therefore, it is a good idea to prepare several CTA variants and monitor their effectiveness. How to do it? One of the easiest ways is to check your Click Through Rate (CTR). It tells you how many of those who saw the offer decided to click on the link in it. So if out of 100 people who visited the website (or out of 100 sent emails), 5 click on the link, the CTR will be 5%. Constant monitoring of this indicator can tell a lot about both the selection of Call To Action and the structure of the offer itself.

Video content is the future

In recent years, there has been a lot of talk about content marketing and its great importance in promoting brands, products or services. Many people equate the term primarily with text material, but the reality is that video and audio files are increasingly important – especially YouTube videos and podcasts. This is how more and more people most readily absorb information. Hence, the optimal environment for advertising is also changing. Today, more and more companies are taking advantage of paid content on YouTube – including small and local businesses. Reason? It is simply a very effective promotion channel. What’s more, YouTube, thanks to its advertising policy, makes it possible to publish even without a large budget.

Advantages of advertising on YouTube

The portal has enormous power, it is used by over 90% of Internet users. Advertising via YouTube is more and more often described as more effective than television advertising, especially as it allows you to target the message only to specific recipients. What are the main advantages of promotion on the site?

– Broad coverage – the already mentioned over 90% of Internet users who may find your ad! The website has overtaken Facebook when it comes to the popularity of social media and is increasingly serving as a search engine for users. Thanks to this, the advertisement can have a really wide range of impact. It is also an ideal place to reach young people in the 18-34 age group, who most willingly spend their time using YouTube.
– The ability to precisely define the target – this is something that makes many methods of Internet advertising much more effective than spots published on TV or e.g. billboards on the streets. You can precisely select the viewer profile to which your video will end up. YouTube provides criteria such as age, place of residence or interests. Also, your ad may only appear on videos from certain creators or in a specific category. It also supports remarketing activities – the spot can reach people who have previously visited the advertiser’s channel or website.
– Effect control – in the case of many types of advertising, it is impossible to check how many people actually reached. By acting on YouTube, you can get detailed analytical reports showing how many people watched your ad and how many of them interacted with your business through it. This is extremely valuable information that helps to refine the promotional message and check the return on investment in marketing. Affordable prices – despite many advantages, publishing a spot on YouTube is still much cheaper than on TV. In addition, in this case, you only pay for the actual impressions of the ad, and not for the mere placement of the ad before or during the video. This makes it possible to get much better promotion results.
– Possibility to share – a creative, surprising, funny, touching and interesting advertising film can work for you for a long time, even after the end of the paid promotion. It can be shared just like any other YouTube content. This in turn allows you to reach even more people. That’s why it’s worth creating ads that engage the viewer!

Types of YouTube Ads

YouTube allows advertisers to use several methods of displaying their content. The selected type of promotion affects its visibility as well as the price. It is worth knowing all the possibilities to choose the right one for the character and goals of a given campaign. There are:

– display ads – standard banners, on YouTube displayed under the video or on its right side; do not interfere with video playback, which increases the chance of clicking;
– advertising overlays – displayed on the watched movie, have a graphic or text form; they take up about 20% of the area of ​​the window in which the film is displayed and can be turned off at any time
– TrueView In-Stream – a negligible advertisement displayed before, during or after the video; attractive due to the pricing model – if a viewer skips the ad, there is no fee for the impression;
– In-stream advertising without the possibility of skipping – lasting from 15 to 30 seconds, usually less perceived by Internet users;
– ads in cutscenes (Bumper Ads) – cannot be skipped, lasts about 6 seconds; usually shown before the movie, sometimes also during and after the movie;
– mid-movie ads – may or may not be negligible; are published only in films longer than 15 minutes;
– sponsored cards – shown in the movie viewing window; they most often present film-related products, allowing the viewer to expand the card.

What to choose? Much depends on the type of content presented, but also on your budget. In the case of using longer, negligible spots, it is necessary to ensure that their first few seconds encourage the recipient and present a specific message. Interesting advertising will certainly help you get much better results, so it is worth taking care of its careful planning and implementation.

How much does advertising on Youtube cost?

Many advertising formats have different billing models. The most commonly used is Cost Per View (CPV) – you pay for each ad impression in full (or at least 30 seconds, if longer). In image campaigns, Cost Per Mile (for every thousand views) is also sometimes used – primarily in relation to non-negligible TrueView and Bumper Ads videos. In the case of ads that are primarily aimed at encouraging the viewer to interact, the CPI (Cost per Interaction) model is used – fees for each click resulting in a redirect. Importantly, YouTube allows you to adjust the billing model to the advertiser’s needs. Therefore, with specific types of paid promotion, it is possible to use the selected scheme. As you can see, however, the answer to the question of how much does advertising on Youtube cost is not obvious and unambiguous.

So how much does advertising on YouTube cost? The good news is, as much as you choose to pay for it. The advertiser can set the budget himself. How much do you have to invest to make it pay off? Here the answer is much more difficult. It all depends on the type, model and target of the campaign. It is worth noting, however, that advertisers are often positively surprised by the relatively affordable costs of publishing on YouTube. It’s hard to look for specific numbers – even on the website itself – without providing specific data, but you can assume that a single ad impression costs about $ 0.01 – $ 0.3. Considering that most billing models are based on real impressions, that is, you don’t have to pay for missed spots, this is a very good result. It is also worth remembering that thanks to precise targeting, the ad can go exactly where you want, which further increases its effectiveness.

Effective advertising on YouTube – choose your target carefully!

The effectiveness of any ad depends on who it will be shown to. As an advertiser, you want it to reach your target group – people who should potentially be interested in a given product or service. Therefore, the return on investment in the promotion depends on precise targeting. In the case of YouTube, the whole machine works similarly to Google Ads campaigns. However, your ads can be targeted even more precisely. What criteria can be considered?

Demography
This is the basic criterion by which you can significantly narrow down the audience of your ad. There are specific age ranges to choose from, identical to those proposed by Google (18-24; 25-34; 35-44; 45-54; 55-64; 65+), as well as an interesting “unknown” category including both users under 18 life, as well as other people who have not been classified into any age category. It also appears when choosing the target gender (of course, next to women and men). In addition, you can decide on the parental status of your ad audience or your household income.

Geotargeting
Geotargeting is an important category, especially for local businesses. Thanks to the precision of Google Maps, you can only direct your promotional message to YouTube users located in a specific area or at a specific distance from a point designated on the map. You can also exclude specific locations from targeting, which creates a very wide range of precise messages.

User information (interests)
Thanks to the information collected by Google, it is possible to create a profile of the user’s interests. Thus, you can only target your ads to people who have visited websites on a specific topic or watched videos devoted to it. The frequency and intensity of interactions with a given topic are taken into account in order to obtain the most reliable data. There are many categories available to cover various areas of life. It is also possible to select a more specific, narrow group of recipients in which, for example, there has been a significant change recently (e.g. wedding, moving house, graduation, etc.). Google also divides into market audiences (people who are in the purchasing process and focused on searching for information about specific services and products) and non-standard recipients with similar intentions who actively search for information on the Internet using a search engine. This allows you to determine the most current interests of users.

YouTube video themes
YouTube videos are divided into thematic categories. This makes it easy for you to assign your ads to a specific topic. It is an easy way to reach users interested in specific issues, regardless of their age, gender or other behavior on the Internet.

Keywords
The ad can also be placed on videos whose titles or descriptions contain specific keywords.

Remarketing
Remarketing is a very popular and effective form of promotion consisting in displaying advertising content to users who have already expressed interest in the company’s offer (e.g. visited its website). Thanks to data integration with Google, remarketing is also possible for advertising on YouTube. It gives the opportunity to reach e.g. to people who watched a specific video or subscribed to a specific channel.

Extensive targeting options affect the effectiveness of YouTube ads, and thus also their profitability. A wide range of options allows you to reach every target group, regardless of the device on which the website is used. Ads are displayed on the YouTube website, in the mobile application, as well as in applications on game consoles and Smart TV.

Is YouTube advertising right for you?

Is it worth being interested in the advertising possibilities of the most popular streaming service? Of course! Among other things, thanks to precise targeting, it is a solution for both large and small companies, including local ones. Precise definition of the target group allows you to reach only people interested in a given topic, and at the same time reduce the costs of the campaign. If you want to reach a very wide audience, it is also worth betting on YouTube – after all, it is used by over 90% of Internet users!

Advertising on this site can be particularly beneficial for new brands that want to increase their recognition, as well as for completely new products. Presenting your business as a movie can also be a great idea when it comes to innovation, hard-to-understand mechanisms of action, or business models. In fact, anyone can benefit from the promotion on YouTube.

Campaigns aimed at generating potential customers is one of the increasingly popular advertising targets in social networks. Standard forms on the website in many cases turn out to be much more expensive than lead gen campaigns. The main reason why people choose contacts from social media platforms is the ease of filling them out. Automatically collected data made available on websites shorten the time of filling in forms, which makes them more pleasant and easier to receive.

However, campaigns with this goal are not without flaws. By keeping clicking to a minimum, in many cases the quality of the leads obtained significantly decreases.

Do you operate in the B2B industry and are you looking for new customers on Facebook? Anyone “own boss” and the nobility who do not work can also become one, and you will pay for it in the Advertising Manager. This is where LinkedIn comes in handy – a clear leader among lead generators.

How much does a Linkedin campaign cost on average?

If you use other advertising channels and start your adventure with advertising on LinkedIn, it may turn out that the budget you set is too small to effectively carry out your first campaign. The minimum daily budget that can be set for one campaign is $ 10.

Of course, you might find your first choice of target, audience, and placement a bull’s eye, but you will need to increase your budget to test other options and setups. Even though the advertising efforts on LinkedIn require a larger investment to start with, you’ll quickly find out that this is probably the best platform for generating leads for you.

LinkedIn forms

If it is relatively difficult to find the contact form on your website or the website is easy to use, it does not allow you to add additional functions, for example, to download materials by the interested person, or you simply want to shorten the customer path and without having to do it after clicking on the advertisement on the website website, you want him to download a given material or contact you – this ad in the form of a lead generation form is for you.

What does the form on Linkedin look like?

Forms on Linkedin allow you to get the most important contact information of potentially interested people in our product or service. They can also be used in campaigns with a more educational purpose, in which we offer something in return for each contact, e.g. a guide, newsletter, report or catalog, etc.

What data can we collect via the Linkedin lead generation form?

There are many possibilities. Starting from personal data, to company contact details, and non-standard questions aimed at collecting specific information about subscribers and their classification in the lead collecting system.

The form also gives us the opportunity to select the necessary conditions to submit the form (e.g. acceptance of the regulations or privacy policy).

Nevertheless, when creating a form, it is always worth bearing in mind good practices taking into account UX, i.e. limit the mandatory fields to be completed to a maximum of 3. The great advantage of Linkedin forms is their automatic filling, thanks to which the user interested in the material can easily and quickly receive interesting content, without having to fill in the fields yourself. Of course, some fields can be reserved as necessary to be entered or unchecked by the user and thus pre-verify the quality of leads and their level of interest in a given material.

The process of creating an ad and the Linkedin campaign

As with any LinkedIn Ads campaign, you start by choosing the goal that best describes what you need. Your goal is to get new leads, which means that you choose the ‘Lead Generation’ target in the conversion group. To run a Lead Generation Campaign, you need to associate your Advertising Account with a LinkedIn Company Page.

The process of creating a campaign is no different from other goals. We start, of course, by identifying the audience. Despite the much smaller possibilities of targeting audiences than in the Facebook Ads Manager, it is much more likely that you can reach a specific target group that is actually built mostly of the audience the advertiser is looking for.

Ad formats in the lead campaign on Linkedin

The ad formats available for creating a customer acquisition campaign are the standard single photo, carousel, video ad, and two types of campaigns with ad placement in audience inboxes. Which format you choose is entirely up to you, there are no suggested formats that work best for your industry. For this reason, it is so important to test different ad placements. Some LinkedIn ad campaigns will perform much better than a mostly text-based Sponsored Message campaign with an attention-grabbing banner, and vice versa.

Advertising creations available in the lead campaign on Linkedin

The next step is to prepare the ad creative and set the detailed content of the ad, which, depending on the format you choose, has different options to complete and select. However, all goals are united by creating a leads form.

Privacy policy in lead campaigns on Linkedin

The form has standard settings and content to be completed. It is very important to have the content of the validation policy on the same domain as the page. You can choose from many data options that you need to obtain from potential clients. Creating the form ends with a confirmation window for sending contact details with a thank you.

Campaign on LinkedIn – case study

Due to the pandemic at the turn of February and March, many companies were forced to introduce radical changes in their activities, for some of them a new path was opened to reach their recipients. One of our clients dynamically used the current situation and predicted that cooperation in the field of advertising activities on the LinkedIn platform may bring tangible benefits. The main goal of our client was to reach the departments of specialists and HR leaders in order to promote the webinar on best practices in the coming period. We took a campaign to the fore with the goal of generating leads in the form of sponsored messages that go straight to your LinkedIn inboxes.

In the first week, the campaign started with great intensity and it was possible to acquire the assumed number of potential customers very quickly. By the end of the first month, the initial cost of acquiring a client had dropped by 18%. Ultimately, after 3 months of advertising activities, the campaign was completed with a cost-per-result 22% lower than in the initial period.

We were also positively surprised by the CTR (Sponsored Message Openings Rate) of over 70% during the entire campaign. The key here was the first “meeting” of the recipient with the ad in their inbox, which is influenced by the appropriate headline of the ad.

First of all, we tried not to attack potential customers with another advertisement, but to encourage them to read the entire message in a friendly way.

One of the first tests we did in the campaign was based on bid changes. LinkedIn suggests the suggested bid value at the level of creating a campaign group. This value is influenced by your chosen goals, placements, and audience selection. The starting bid of $ 0.15 turned out to be much worse than our optimization bid, which was $ 0.30, which we eventually held for most of the campaign.

Customer support for the advertising campaign on Linkedin

The client obtained support from us also at the level of advertising texts. The goal was to encourage LinkedIn users to leave personal information in exchange for invaluable knowledge and guidance. The client shared his experience in his industry with us, after all, he knows his potential recipients best, and based on the knowledge obtained from many other campaigns, we added the best strategies that we learn through testing in campaigns. Thus, several versions of messages reaching the recipients were created, which we analyzed and finally chose those whose results were in the lead.

In the meantime, we conducted a few more advertising campaigns for this client, which, thanks to the correlation, had a positive impact not only on building brand awareness, but also on a noticeable gradual reduction in costs for results.

Linkedin lead campaign – Summary

We know from our own experience that the costs of running advertising campaigns on LinkedIn can initially be a deterrent. If you operate in the B2B industry, however, you should know that it is currently the best platform for acquiring valuable customers. However, the lead-generating campaign is the final stage of the sales funnel and it is worth supporting these activities through advertisements building brand awareness, as well as through other advertising channels.

Of course, we make a reservation that not every type of business is suitable for advertising on Linkedin. It is worth conducting a preliminary analysis to check whether our clients are on Linkedin and whether they spend their time there looking for content / services or products that our company offers. It often happens that our clients are really there, so we start the campaign, but after a given period of time, we notice that the campaign does not achieve the intended results. This is often caused by the lack of a preliminary analysis of the Purpose for which our target group uses Linkedin. It may turn out that he is looking for more business solutions here, and he leaves lifestyle options for Facebook, Instagram or simply uses the Google search engine.

Hosting is a service that is responsible for the round-the-clock maintenance of websites on the web. Such a service is possible thanks to servers that are constantly working, and thus are constantly available in the network. Of course, there is no problem to set up a website on your own computer, but there are many barriers to it. Therefore, it is a rather temporary solution, good for local project work. Servers must meet stringent requirements related to round-the-clock work. There are many types of hosting on the market, or rather ways to keep your websites online. The hosting includes:

A. Shared hosting – usually the cheapest type of hosting. We only get a certain pool (usually not too large) of physical resources of the server. In most cases, there is no advanced server configuration option. The website will have so-called neighbors, i.e. websites of other people who have also purchased shared hosting from the same provider. Unfortunately, often due to the large number of pages on one server, the performance is sometimes poor. Services of this type are good for private clients or small and medium-sized companies that do not have a lot of traffic and thus do not need large server resources. This solution is good for people who are not familiar with the technical configuration of the server.

B. VPS server (Virtual Private Server) – as the name suggests, it is a virtual server, and in fact a separate part of the server on which a virtual machine is running. In the case of this type of service, we have full access to a separate part of the machine. The virtual machine guarantees us the purchased server resources such as: disk, memory, processor cores. Which will be associated with greater page efficiency. Of course, as it’s a virtual machine, we still share server resources with other people, but it’s safer. To operate a VPS server, technical knowledge is required to properly configure and monitor the service. The cost of such a service is usually greater than that of shared hosting, of course, it all depends on the resources of the server you buy. The service is good for larger projects, i.e. rather for medium and larger companies.

C. Dedicated server – in this case, by purchasing the service, we get the entire server. The entire physical machine located in the server room will be at our disposal. Thanks to the full possibility of any configuration, this type of service offers the greatest possibilities. Of course, as in the case of a VPS server, everything depends on the purchased resources. If we are looking for high performance, this type of service needs attention. Technical knowledge is required for the correct configuration of a dedicated server. This type of service is aimed at demanding users who are able to pay much larger amounts for both the service and administration. A dedicated server is dedicated to large projects with high traffic.

D. Cloud server – is a kind of alternative to dedicated servers. Thanks to the advanced capabilities of the cloud, it is possible to scale the resources that are needed to service the website. It is a kind of a network of dedicated servers (cluster) based on the infrastructure of a selected company. Due to the complexity of the service, good knowledge is required. The price varies greatly, it all depends on the resources currently used. In most cases, it is more expensive than shared hosting or a VPS server. Destiny is usually very popular and demanding projects.

What are the SEO characteristics of good hosting?

I will also try to refer to all of these features in the context related to SEO. Virtually every feature in some way affects or may affect the evaluation of the page by the Google robot or other search engine. The features that are worth including are:

– High availability time (Uptime) – we care about the highest possible reliability of services. Uptime shows the availability of services as a percentage, ideally it should be 100%. We want the website to run continuously. External service monitoring tools are used to check the server uptime.
SEO Context: Robots check the availability of the page. When a page is unavailable, it may be temporarily hidden or even removed from the index.
– Infrastructure – we are talking about both the connection speed and the specification of the device itself, which will affect the speed of the hosted service. The selection, of course, depends on the requirements of the project and the traffic that the service will have to handle.
SEO Context: Regardless of the volume of traffic and the complexity of the project, everything has to be fast. This affects the positive feeling of using the website and promoting it in free search results.
– Fast disks – nowadays it is worth investing in the fastest SSD disks. It is very important to have quick access to files that are placed on the website. SSDs do not have heads that have to search for the correct sector on the disk, as is the case with HDD disk drives.
SEO Context: It is important that the visitor to the website does not have to wait for the resource to load. This affects the so-called Page Experience, which is an important ranking element in Google.
– The latest and configurable versions of the software – it is worth being able to change the software version or configure it. This includes selecting the PHP version and any add-ons that the project may require.
SEO context: The speed and security of the website are closely related to the approach that Google forces on webmasters. The website must be reliable and secure.
– SSL certificate – we are talking about both the configuration of such a certificate and the possibility of obtaining it for free. In the case of small websites or those that do not process a lot of user data, free LetsEncrypt or CAcert certificates are quite sufficient. The data between the server and the visiting user’s computer will be encrypted.
SEO Context: Having an SSL certificate is one of the ranking factors. It is mainly related to the safety of users using the website.
– Access to logs – this is a completely basic thing related to checking how users (including robots) use our website. Based on the error logs, we can fix the page. However, access logs can be used to create statistics that will be used to analyze the website.
SEO Context: Constant verification and analysis of traffic flow helps in fixing bugs and improving the design. It is related to both speed, readability and security, which is pointed out by Google.
– Spam and anti-virus filters – as in the case of computers, servers should also be protected. Of course, a lot of security comes from the application code itself. The danger may also come from a poorly secured server.
SEO Context: Search engines value user safety extremely. Bad security measures can lead to the substitution of the content of the page, which can ultimately result in a complete blockade of the page in search engines.
– Fast and 24/7 support – in case of any problems or breakdowns it is extremely important to act quickly.
SEO Context: If you want to avoid penalties or large position fluctuations, it is extremely important to act quickly in case of problems.
– Backup copies – in the event of a breakdown or hack, it is extremely important that the website is returned as soon as possible. With frequent backups, this is possible.
SEO Context: In addition to the server-side availability of the website, it is also important that everything works properly from the website functionality side to avoid penalties from Google.
– Trial period – thanks to the possibility of testing the services, we are able to check whether the service is sufficient for us. It is worth testing both the speed and possibilities of services, as well as their personalization. It is also important to check the support in order to act as quickly as possible at critical moments. In fact, it is worth testing all the above-mentioned issues.
SEO Context: All the above-mentioned features will provide a good Page Experience, which Google pays for, among others.

I tried to write the above-mentioned features in a rather general way. It all depends on the technologies used and the project requirements. Each project should be approached separately to know the exact requirements.

Does Web Hosting Affect Core Web Vitals?

Basic Internet Ratings are closely related to the user experience of a website that Google believes is very important. Core Web Vitals consists of three main pillars:

– Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – this is the loading time focused mainly on the largest element that is immediately in view after the user enters the site. Google is committed to ensuring that every page is loaded as quickly as possible. The LCP should not exceed 2.5 seconds.
The impact of hosting: Fast page loading is closely related to the server hosting the page.
– First Input Delay (FID) – this is the time after entering the page, after which the page loading process begins. The FID should not be greater than 100 milliseconds.
The impact of hosting: Page response time is related to the infrastructure that supports the website and its load. Choosing the right service for your project requirements is important here.
– Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – while loading the page, there should be no element shifts that could mislead the user (e.g. by clicking on an invalid link). This ratio should not be greater than 0.1.
The impact of hosting: This metric is largely influenced by the coding of the page. Hosting can only be affected when a loaded item is not able to load quickly enough for some reason. In these cases, there should be a (code-side) placeholder to prevent unwanted shifts.

Ensuring the quality of all the above pillars will result in a higher website quality in the eyes of the Google search algorithm.

Does the choice of hosting affect website optimization?

Choosing the right services has a great impact on website optimization. Of course, ultimately everything will depend on the person implementing the optimization. In some cases this can be made easier by the use of technology on the server that will facilitate the optimal optimization of the website. In the case of the popular CMS system – WordPress – it can be support for special plugins optimizing the website. It is important to be able to run the cache on the side of both the website visitor and the server itself. This will significantly speed up page loading and command execution. Another issue is the ability to scale resources when the traffic on the site will be much higher.

What is SEO hosting used for?

When looking for good hosting, you may come across so-called SEO Hosting. This service is aimed mainly at clients dealing with positioning of websites. The main difference between regular hosting is the availability of additional IP addresses. Placing pages on different IP addresses will help to create a larger database of pages (back-end) on one service, which will be somewhat in a different location due to a different server address.

Will an investment in good hosting affect SEO?

Good hosting is certainly one of the factors that will positively affect the position of a website in organic search results. This is just one of many components that should be taken care of before Off-site activities. The service should be properly selected for the project being implemented. In the event of a rapid increase in traffic, you need to react quickly to maintain the upward trend.

Advertising on the Internet has many names

Banal statement? Perhaps. Nevertheless, many people equate online promotion primarily with paid banners and sponsored links. It is impossible to hide: they are a very important part of on-line communication. Measurable, effective, with fair settlements. Nevertheless, the possibilities offered by the Internet are much, much more.

Think for a second: how do you use the internet? On the one hand, you are looking for information in it (including those helpful in shopping). On the other hand, you contact your friends and acquaintances and share information about yourself with them on social media. On the next one: you draw a handful of entertainment. On-line games, streaming services, YouTube … can be exchanged like this endlessly. Behind the enormous possibilities offered by the internet, there is also a very wide range of marketing tools that you can use. One thing is certain: they all have the same ultimate goal – to motivate and encourage the consumer to make a purchase decision.

That is why, when writing about advertising, we will take into account both direct promotion strategies and those that fit into the so-called inbound marketing.

Internet advertising – what are the most important types of advertising?

Before we move on to the rules of selecting advertising tools or creating a campaign, let’s answer one more important question: what forms of promotion can you use? There are many of them. Get to know the key ones.

PPC / PPV advertising

Pay-per-click and pay-per-view are the two most popular systems for the settlement of classic online advertisements. These are those that are direct promotional messages and are displayed to users in a typical context. So it is mainly about:
– advertising banners – appearing mainly on websites, e.g. information or industry portals,
– Google Ads text ads – displayed to Google users over the so-called with organic results.

It is worth knowing that a very modern and effective form of PPC or PPV advertising is contextual advertising, especially displayed as part of remarketing. What is going on? That the content appearing in the form of advertisements is related to the interests and activity of each recipient.

Today it is possible – all thanks to cookies, which you are asked to accept after entering each page. Special algorithms process them when any ad site that works with this ad system is accessed. As a result, the user is shown banners referring to the content of previously visited pages.

For example, if you have recently browsed the Wi-Fi router offer, banners of this type will appear more often, which may eventually push you to make a purchase.

It is worth knowing that Google Ads / AdWords ads are billed in the system per click or per pageview – which means that you pay only for certain effects.

The advantages of PPC advertising are:
– easy accessibility,
– relatively low cost,
– simplicity of preparation,
– the possibility of detailed monitoring of the results.

Ads on social media

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn – these are social networking sites that are used by millions or even BILLIONS of users around the world every day. For many people, they are a source of information, contact with loved ones, but also with brands they value and like.

It is worth knowing that in social media you can conduct advertising activity in many ways – not only by creating a company profile. Yes, it is the primary source of communication. Nevertheless, such a fanpage will largely play a PR role, and therefore it will be:

– built brand awareness,
– encouraged interaction / leaving a lead,
– it allows your current and potential customers to stay up to date with your offer.

Yes, strictly advertising content can also appear on it – for example, encouraging people to take advantage of a specific promotion or presenting new products. However, in order for them to reach a sufficiently large number of users, they must be properly promoted. This is the purpose of advertising systems on social networks.

For example, on Facebook you can use e.g. with:
– paid post promotion – so that it is displayed also to people who did not like your page, and at the same time meet the criteria of your target group created according to strict assumptions.
– banner ads – both in the main part of the website and in a dozen or so other, secondary locations

Ads can direct both to your fan page and directly to the website, e.g. to specific products.

The advantages of advertising in social media are:
– the ability to reach a very wide audience,
– the possibility of taking full control over the budget (you control the limits),
– possibility of precise profiling of target groups of messages,
– the ability to adjust the specificity of the advertisement to the purpose of the promotional campaign.

Content marketing

Is content marketing also a form of advertising? Yes, although the promotional message is more subtle and less direct than in the above-described promotion methods. Tools that also function as advertising are mainly internal and external articles, as well as guides, trendbooks or – recently popular podcasts.

If at this moment you think of advertising articles from years ago – those that constituted a “laurel” for the company – you know that modern content marketing has nothing to do with them. Brand information is skillfully woven into expert text that has practical value for the user. Thanks to this, the text is a fairly effective form of direct promotion, and at the same time supports SEO activities.

Video advertising

Contrary to appearances, television or cinema is not the only place where they can be displayed. For their publication, you can use:

– Internet portals that provide such technical possibilities – many of them, especially informational ones, publish their own video materials, so there is an opportunity to place their own advertising message in them,
– YouTube service – ads are displayed here both before the actual recording starts and during it.

The video advertising system was also proposed by Facebook. Importantly, these commercials differ in formula from standard videos prepared for television. On the one hand, short formats of a few seconds are desirable. On the other hand, especially on YouTube, you can afford longer content. If they catch the user’s attention, it can last for several minutes.

Email Marketing

This is another form of communication that belongs more to the inbound format than outbound. Although it may seem ineffective, in fact … it works very well, and at different stages of the customer’s journey towards finalizing the transaction. For that to be the case:

– gain a group of customers interested in the newsletter (and thus obtain valuable leads),
– prepare interesting content, prompting you to take specific, desired actions.

A properly created e-mail message may encourage, for example, to read the content on a company blog, but also directly to purchase, if it informs about a short-term sale or the introduction of a new collection of products.

Of course, this is not the end of promotional tools that can be used on the Internet. There are many more.

Does internet advertising have to take all of the above forms?

Simply put: no. Above, we have presented the most important forms of presenting advertising messages on the web. However, you as an advertiser don’t have to use all of them. On the contrary: it is worth choosing those that suit the specifics of your business. So what?

Think: Will an e-shop that sells pet food need more contextual advertising on LinkedIn, or a promotion on Facebook or through sponsored links? And what will be useful for a company that implements firmware? She can make more profits by reaching for ads on LinkedIn or by using content marketing on industry websites.

So we go back to the basic rule: advertise where your target group is.

How to choose advertising channels on the Internet?

Before you start thinking about having an online ad published, you have a long way to go. You should and even have to go through it if you don’t want to risk financial losses. Although online promotion is relatively cheaper than that on television or on outdoor media, it still carries considerable costs if you operate in a competitive industry. And if so, you need to be well prepared for it. How?

A. Define the purpose for which you want to promote
The ultimate one is obvious: maximizing your sales. However, for the conversion to take place, the consumer has to go through many steps along the way. What do you care most about right now? On building brand awareness? Arousing consumer curiosity? Achieving a quick sales effect, or maybe long-term results?
Each of the answers to the above questions is good. Each of them also entails the necessity to take other actions.

B. Define your target audience
In a word: answer the question to whom you are targeting your products and services. It is not just about a few-sentence definition. Comprehensive personas are prepared in modern marketing. It is about:

– specifying representatives of all target groups of people interested in your products – for example, the aforementioned food may be bought by both a student – owner of a domestic cat, and a wealthy businessman who looks after purebred dogs,
– precise definition of their features – both their character and needs as well as the problems they struggle with,
– giving them a “face”.

The more accurate the visualization, the easier it is to translate theoretical assumptions into specific promotional messages.

C. Determine the budget for the campaign
Yes, it cannot be done 100% precisely, but you need to know in advance how much money you can spend on advertising on the Internet. This will allow you to diversify your resources and control your budget.

Advertising on the Internet: on its own or with the support of a digital agency?

In theory, you can plan and implement online advertising yourself – various tools are available at your fingertips. However, in practice, the correct configuration of a campaign – so that it brings the desired results – requires in-depth knowledge and broad skills. It is not a formula at all, but … a hard reality. The point is to spend your money as efficiently as possible. In the era of growing competition, it is more and more difficult not to simply burn through the budget for ineffective activities. The care of an agency or a freelancer will save you time and, paradoxically, your budget – many times it turns out that optimization brings much greater savings than the commission for service.

Therefore, if you want to know how to use the potential of online advertising in order to achieve maximum business goals, contact the experts.

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 location 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, mobile 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.

What is a 301 redirect?

A 301 redirect (Moved permanently) is a mechanism that indicates that a given page has been moved to another address. It works automatically – that is, it does not display information about the “move”, but immediately directs to the correct page under the new URL path. Thanks to this, e.g. search engine robots and Internet users do not have to wander in search of specific content.

There are several types of redirects, but 301 is the most popular of them. It means a permanent move, i.e. a permanent change of the website address. This solution is very convenient from the user’s point of view, and at the same time extremely important for SEO. Thanks to the redirection, the website does not lose its position or power and can continue to work on it.

When is a 301 redirect used? The most popular types

A 301 redirect might be necessary for a variety of reasons. It is (usually) done in a .htacces file – just use the appropriate code. There are several most popular types of such an activity. Examples and the codes needed to make them can be found below.

301 redirects from the address from “www” to “without www”
Page addresses can be with or without “www” at the beginning. If this issue is not sorted out, it can create chaos and the traffic will be broken down into two separate addresses, which is extremely bad for SEO.

Therefore, in such cases, the 301 redirect is most often used, which allows you to choose the preferred form of saving the website address. This makes the user go to the target page, regardless of whether he types in the browser bar, for example, “www.yoursite.com” or “yoursite.com”. This solution has a positive effect on optimization and determines the user’s comfort.

Sample code:
RewriteCond% {HTTP_HOST} ^ www.yoursite.com $
RewriteRule (. *) $ Http://yoursite.com/$1 [R = 301, L]

Domain change
Changing the domain name is a relatively common procedure. In this case, you should take care of redirection so that users can easily find the new address, and Google robots do not consider the transferred content duplicate content, which is highly inadvisable in terms of SEO.

It is extremely important to ensure that the 301 redirect concerns not only the home page, but also other tabs. The best solution is to use them to set direct paths to new addresses for each subpage. It is worth trying, for example, so as not to discourage users by meeting the wall, i.e. entering a website that no longer exists. It is also the only way to move your site without losing traffic.

It’s best to implement a 301 redirect before migrating data to a new address. This allows crawlers to correctly read your actions: as moving your site rather than creating a completely new one with duplicate content.

Sample code:
RewriteCond% {HTTP_HOST} ^ yoursite.com $
RewriteRule (. *) $ Http://yoursite.com/$1 [R = 301, L]

Change from HTTP to HTTPS
Using the SSL protocol involves changing the address from HTTP to HTTPS. Then you should also redirect.

Sample code:
RewriteCond% {HTTPS}! = On
RewriteRule (. *) Https: //% {HTTP_HOST} / $ 1 [R = 301, L]

A slash (“/”) at the end of the address
The same address that differs only by the slash at the end (for example, “www.yoursite.com” and “www.yoursite.com/”) are two separate pages for Google. Failure to redirect in this respect is a very common mistake, which causes the algorithm to read your content as duplicate content, and thus getting a high position in the search results is basically impossible.

Sample code:
RewriteCond% {REQUEST_FILENAME}! -D
RewriteRule ^ (. *) / $ / $ 1 [L, R = 301]

Wildcard redirection
The wildcard feature helps you easily create new subdomains. However, in practice it also means that entering any string of characters before the address of your website will display its content, creating a copy of it. Sometimes Google robots index such pages, creating incredible chaos. Then, the search results may show several (or even several dozen!) Versions of the same address, e.g. for example www.yoursite.com also www.tyoursite.com, ww.yoursite.com or e.g. yoursite.yoursite.com . It is very dangerous and may result in penalties from Google. Solution? A 301 redirect that will take users and Google bots from each subdomain to the home page.

RewriteCond% {HTTP_HOST} ^ (. +). Yoursite.com $
RewriteRule (. *) $ Http://tyoursite.com/$1 [R = 301, L]

Other types of redirects

Let us remind you that the 301 redirect is used only in the case of a permanent change of the website address. However, there are also many other possibilities of transferring Internet users to another address and sending an appropriate message to the search engine robots. Other types of redirects available are:

– 302 (Found) – temporary, allowing the content to be moved to another address and then returned to the original source;
– 303 (See Other) – used with forms sending data using the HTTP POST method, enabling redirection to a specific address in response to this form;
– 304 (Not Modified) – informs the browser that the data in its memory is up-to-date, has not changed, so it does not have to be downloaded from the source;
– 305 (Use Proxy) – allows you to use a given resource only when using a specific Proxy server, displays a message with the server address;
– 307 (Temporary Redirect) – temporary redirection, does not allow to change the request method from POST to GET.

What to remember when using 301 and other redirects?

It is worth remembering that redirects are not only beneficial for users, but also facilitate the work of Google robots and help ensure proper indexing of the page. So they have a positive effect on both UX and SEO. Using them skillfully, you can “painlessly” move pages to new addresses, and also allows you to carry out many other activities without compromising the position of the site.

However, be careful when using redirects of different types. Using too many commands may result in the formation of a loop, and the resulting error 310 – Too many redirects, which prevents you from hitting a specific page.