The times when we waited for a colorful advertisement on TV with flushed face are gone. It is true that there are still outfits that effectively attract our attention and are remembered, but when everything has already happened, it becomes increasingly difficult to find an original and thrilling spot. Currently, there are so many messages, including advertising ones, that we are happy to be silent. How can entrepreneurs present their products well in this difficult world?

The answer is obvious and absolutely natural. The place to present the offer is on the vast internet. It is an (un) tame space that gives a lot of opportunities to promote material goods, services and brands. Top companies and conscious entrepreneurs settled here some time ago. As a result of the pandemic, it was necessary to make room for other strategists who saw the possibility of developing their sales in digital marketing. This raises a lot of questions, including one quite obvious: how to stay ahead of the competition and stay at the top of the list in all of this? Support from proven players will come in handy. And here we come to the point …

Before we get down to business and find out who the real internet marketing ninja is, let’s first explain what digital marketing is all about.

Internet Marketing – What Is It?

To paraphrase the words of Benedict – what marketing is like everyone can see. And the internet one?

This is its most dynamically developing branch. So what is internet marketing all about? It focuses mainly on websites and social media channels. Its main assumptions and goals are unlikely to surprise you – they are attracting and retaining customers and building a good brand image.

What is working in internet marketing? First of all, increasing the company’s visibility on the web, which translates into sales results and increased consumer awareness. The biggest difference between traditional marketing and digital marketing is the role of the recipient. In the virtual world, “Your opinion is important to us”! Forget about passively receiving a message. Of course, this has its advantages and disadvantages.

When offering a product or service, you can count on a wealth of forms of expression in communication with recipients, the lack of a one-sided dimension and on customer reviews practically in live mode. The comments will not always be positive, but that is a topic for another article.

Working in internet marketing – what is it?

Internet marketing and the work of people who deal with this issue on a daily basis are a river topic! Therefore, work in network marketing has many faces. It is an action not only with the broadly understood word, but also with sound, image and data. After all, it is also about optimizing the materials created and making them more accessible – also for Google robots. So what is internet marketing and what does a marketer’s job look like? Below are some of the activities undertaken as part of its implementation:

– conducting Google campaigns and their optimization – creating an advertising creation in the search engine, partner websites and on Youtube, monitoring the campaign results and its modifications in order to obtain the best results while using the optimal budget,

– marketing activities in social media – Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and TikTok are used to the limit! It is not only running a company account on the aforementioned social networks, but also using their platforms for advertising campaigns.

– SEO – the fight for the highest positions in search engines. It is worth mentioning here that the goal of an SEO specialist is to obtain valuable and measurable traffic that brings tangible benefits to the brand. For example, increasing the number of visits to the website, increasing conversions from the organic channel, reducing the bounce rate, increasing the time the user spends on the website, increasing the value of the shopping cart and, consequently, also the profit. In addition to website optimization, content created in compliance with SEO principles is also important.

– content marketing – a specialist in this matter is a master of delivering engaging materials that tie the recipient to the brand, create dedicated communities around it, build awareness or strengthen the position of an expert in a given field. It’s not only fun with words (which seasoned copywriters specialize in), but also creating compelling videos, eye-catching photos, listening podcasts, thought-provoking infographics or life-enriching webinars.

– UX – the user experience. This concept is based on the concept of website usability and the impressions accompanying the user visiting the website. In short – it should quickly find the necessary information and proceed to conversion (e.g. purchase) without unnecessary perturbations. Intuitiveness is the key! Is your website based on it? You may be wondering about it or simply commission a professional UX audit. Yes, this is also what internet marketing is about.

We have already explained what internet marketing is. What job would be the most interesting for you? We hope you can answer this question now. Then we can go on …

How to start working in internet marketing?

You already know what and where you would like to do … So you definitely want to know the answer to the question of whether it is difficult to start working in internet marketing and what conditions must be met to be the perfect candidate …

In the home office era, an important piece of information is that internet marketing and working from home go hand in hand. Monitoring campaign results, creating inspirational blog posts or video creations is possible virtually anywhere! As a result, internet marketing is very flexible – and so is the job in this industry. Would you like to travel or work in the comfort of your home in your beloved tracksuit? You will have a field to show off!

If you already have a few years of experience and internet marketing is as close to you as a wetsuit surfer, your chances increase significantly. There will be a job for you – for good money. The amount of remuneration will depend on your competences, previous projects, negotiation skills and the possibilities of the agency in which you will apply for the engagement. It is also important to ask what position you will apply for. You already know that there are many possibilities! You can find out about the people we are looking for to work in internet marketing at Paraphrase Online and what we offer them in our other blog posts.

If, on the other hand, you are “freshman”, you will have to “feather” a little. Students of digital marketing faculties receive a solid base for later conquering the world. Especially the virtual one!

However, if you have long passed and written your master’s thesis and you are not in a hurry to get to pass tests and exercises, you can invest in specialization courses or participate in free webinars. In addition, a few obligatory readings, watching valuable industry blogs and watching video materials, as well as constantly keeping your finger on the pulse of online marketing – and we have it!

Remember that this industry is constantly evolving, so you always need to be up to date. There is no way to stop expanding knowledge!

Martin Grossberg, Head of Content Marketing at Paraphrase-Online.com, also reveals how to get started in internet marketing. So the guy knows what he’s saying!

– With today’s baggage of experience, I can clearly state that the key to success in the internet marketing industry is specialization in a specific field. The times when a marketing specialist could do everything with the thought “somehow it will be” have left us forever, just like the people of the Renaissance.

There are too many pieces of the puzzle for this puzzle to be completed alone. The multitude of advertising channels (Google, Facebook, SEO, Allegro, Content, Influencer, Pinterest, TikTok, Youtube and a lot of other options), the progressive degree of their complexity, the ability to aggregate data and draw correct conclusions from them in order to optimize activities – all this makes that currently it is not possible to dedicate each of these areas enough time to use them fully – Grossberg explains.

Does the size of the company matter when determining the scope of digital marketing activities?

– Regardless of whether we are talking about a small company or an entity from the SME sector, it is rational to hire people with specific competences to be a pillar in one of the basic advertising environments. It is important for you, the prospective employee, to realize which of these environments is the most used. If you start to develop in them, your competences will count on the market and it will be easier to find a well-paid job. But remember not to close yourself in one area – he continues.

– After reaching an advanced level in a given field, I would also recommend diversifying and deepening your knowledge in a related field. The thing is, marketing channels are increasingly reliant on specific vendors, who may sometimes, for unknown reasons, change their “policies” or limit their ability to display ads. Ultimately, ad accounts are also the target of hacking attacks, and it’s not worth becoming addicted to just one channel. Therefore, I suggest creating competence mixes (of course, a lot also depends on your interests):

– Google Ads + Facebook Ads,
– SEO + Content marketing,
– Content marketing + Facebook Ads,
– Marketplaces + Google Analytics,
– Google Analytics + Google Ads,
– SEO + Google Analytics,
– Pinterest, Instagram, TikTok + Influencer Marketing.

– It is also worth mentioning that competences in a given field are built differently and they are not correlated only with the time spent on a given channel. If, for example, there are 2 people, the first of whom worked in the agency with Google Ads accounts for 2 years, and the second worked in one company with Ads for 5 years, the first one should statistically be better prepared to work in this environment, because she observed more non-standard situations and based on a greater number of different accounts and data, she made different decisions. The agency environment also forces the optimization of activities and constant training in the subject, which is extremely important in the case of paid channels. Therefore, remember that training is training, but every area of internet marketing is based on experience and observation of smarter than us – ends Martin Grossberg.

Internet Marketing – A Job For Everyone?

Apart from competences and experience, there are also natural predispositions. Which of them should a person for whom internet marketing is attractive should have? The work will be easier if he has a lot of divisibility of attention and the ability to work on several projects at the same time. In this world, there is no such thing as “stimulation” and no time to “step out.” Oh no!

There’s a rodeo all the time here, show must go on! This is not a joke. If you don’t like adrenaline and work at top speed, it’s probably not your piece of cake. Working in digital marketing is based on a quick mind and constant readiness to act. Does social media ever sleep? Of course not! Can campaigns be neglected and content allowed to be nudged with the mouse? No, no and no more. So you are in for a dynamic action and constant change. As we know – this is the only constant, especially in the virtual world. Boredom won’t touch you!

What other personality traits will be useful to win awards in the Digital Marketer of the Year category every year? A bit threadbare, but very desirable creativity, the ability to speak words, level PRO interpersonal and communication skills, but also analytical thinking, “connecting the dots” and drawing conclusions. You got it? In that case, internet marketing and work in this plot are meant for you! What to do with this…?

For example, you can take a look at Paraphrase-Online.com and send us a message with special care that you want to work with us. Who knows, maybe you will get to know the sweet taste of digital marketing with us? Yummy!

What is brand monitoring?

Brand monitoring is a branch of social listening – that is, monitoring data flowing from the Internet and drawing conclusions from it that will shape the company’s image strategy. Since the explosion in social media popularity, we have access to a vast body of knowledge about customer preferences and behavior. The analysis of this data allows both corporations and small businesses to better adjust their business strategies to the expectations of consumers.

Brand monitoring therefore consists in analyzing the data that relates directly to the image of a given company among consumers. Statistical analysis of online statements on given topics allows you to obtain information in a few moments that required costly focus research just a few years ago. Now, it’s just a few clicks away to find out how we stand out against the competition.

How to listen to the voice of the client?

Of course, this is not all: thanks to brand monitoring, we can find out where the most talked about us is (both online and in the real world), how our marketing activities are received and what topics are most often talked about in our industry.

Modern social listening tools – such as SentiOne – allow you to analyze any topic in terms of emotional attitudes. Advanced AI algorithm is able to recognize whether a given statement is positive or negative. We can therefore analyze the mentions of your latest marketing campaign and find out what internet users think about it.

Just another click and we will also find out which keywords are most often used in relation to the campaign. In this way, we will identify which aspects of the campaign were taken away from the heat and which completely missed. We click again – and we see demographic data. Who turned out to be the target group?

It all sounds complicated. Yes, the detail of the data shared by social media platforms allows you to carry out analyzes for long hours, from any angle that we are able to come up with. Fortunately, this does not mean a lot of effort and resources. On the contrary – thanks to automation, we can receive reports and analyzes on any topic weekly, daily, even hourly, if we need such accuracy.

Brand monitoring – best practices and common mistakes

How does brand monitoring work in practice? What should you watch out for and what should you avoid?

First of all: under no circumstances can we limit our monitoring to just a few channels. In today’s internet, it’s easy to forget that there are communication platforms other than Facebook or Instagram. This is a big mistake! Our clients are not monolithic – we can find them everywhere. A decent monitoring strategy assumes collecting data from as many sources as possible, from social platforms (not only Facebook, but also, for example, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr, Reddit …), through industry websites, to blogs and even discussion forums!

This means, of course, choosing the right software. The number of sources monitored is one thing – the data processing capabilities are another. Why do we need access to tens of thousands of mentions when we have to analyze all of them manually? The software we choose must be able to process the found content: keywords used, hashtags, sentiment (positive / negative), etc. Automatic reporting is also welcome.

It is a serious mistake to ignore the lessons we can learn from monitoring. If, according to the data, consumers talk about us on Twitter and we do not use this channel for marketing – this is a missed opportunity to reach the customer! If negative mentions of a competitor’s product indicate a missing feature we offer – why are we not using this in an upcoming marketing campaign targeting competitors’ dissatisfied customers?

Brand monitoring and skilful use of the data it provides opens up a wide range of possibilities. We can regularly review negative reviews about us to find out what our weaknesses are. We can observe trends in our industry – or mass culture – to create RTM campaigns. We can keep an eye on the competition so that they never take us by surprise.

Real-time brand monitoring – how to prevent a crisis

Most importantly – we can also watch the mentions of our own brand to detect and react to potential image crises.

There are many potential indicators of a growing image crisis. A sudden jump in the number of mentions about us is one of the most important – if it is not related to the launch of a new campaign or the launch of a new product. This is where automated sentiment analysis comes into play. Are the new mentions negative? If so, what keywords are the most frequent?

We are not able to predict the image crisis. A defective product or a serious error in accessing the service will sooner or later happen to anyone. The only thing we can control is how we respond to the crisis. Brand monitoring gives us the advantage of time, allowing for an almost immediate response.

In some cases, we may even be able to stop a potential crisis before it escalates – if social media mentions a bad experience with our brand starts appearing, we will be able to apologize and offer compensation right away.

We can also react to mentions containing particularly sensitive keywords. The selection of these terms is an individual matter for each industry; for example, brands in the beauty industry may want to monitor slogans such as “animal tested” and “side effects”.

Modern brand monitoring solutions enable automatic “monitoring” of our mentions around the clock. If they discover a sudden spike in mentions or a brand association with a sensitive topic, they will automatically notify the right people such as the brand manager or customer service team.

Is brand monitoring worthwhile? Of course!

As you can see, modern brand monitoring is an indispensable tool for any company that is present on the Internet. Since the pandemic forced us to go online almost completely, it is hard to imagine a brand that would not be able to take advantage of the benefits of social listening.

Our verdict is therefore obvious: if you are not already monitoring the brand, it is worth considering. This is one “magic bullet” that will deal with both research for marketing campaigns, image / competition analysis, and save your company from escalating potential image crises!

An effective website must effectively combine these two areas. You should take care not only to attract a potential customer, but also to encourage him to make a purchase, leave a contact, watch a webinar or other activity that has been planned and envisaged to achieve the business goal. SXO – Search Experience Optimization comes in handy, i.e. the concept of a comprehensive combination of SEO and UX, data analytics and conversion optimization. This means that thinking about positioning should take place simultaneously with remembering about building a positive user experience, based on web analytics, in order to optimize conversion on the website.

The first step in implementing good SXO practices is to conduct a comprehensive website audit in this regard. A professionally conducted SXO audit will show all the fields that are worth looking at to probably improve the website’s results.

But let’s start with a brief introduction to what user experience and website positioning are more specifically.

UX – User Experience

UX, or user experience, is what the user feels while browsing the site. It cannot be denied that even very similarly designed pages can evoke various impressions – UX deals with how to refine a website in such a way as to make browsing easier and more pleasant for the user, and at the same time increase the conversion rate. Due to the multifaceted nature of User Experience, it is in fact a mix of many areas – from psychology and its derivatives, through web testing, to issues related to technical optimization of the website.

A component of UX is UI – User Interface. These are all the elements of the website or application, along with their arrangement, by means of which the user communicates with the program. In this context, we most often talk about GUI – Graphic User Interface, i.e. a graphic representation of this communication.

When analyzing and designing UX, the user is put first – his needs, skills, habits and digital qualifications. The website addressed to teenagers will look and work differently, and differently to seniors – both in terms of the interface (color combinations, font selection, graphics), and in terms of the structure of the user path and shopping funnels.

SEO – Search Engine Optimization

Website positioning activities are aimed at making a given website appear higher in the search results of Google, Bing, Yahoo! and other search engines.

By entering a specific phrase into the search engine, we hope that we will find what we are looking for quickly. Regardless of whether we mean a specific product (preferably at the lowest available price), a service, information, contact details or a meme from years ago. We are committed to achieving our goal as quickly as possible. Recently, Google has become fixated on making its search engine “precisely execute the user’s intentions,” which means that the positioning algorithm is committed to delivering qualitative results. This was due to the fact that over 60% of Internet users do not find an answer to their question after first entering the website from the search results. Clickbaits only make things worse, and this is what Google is struggling with with almost daily algorithm updates.

The owner of the website counts on the fact that the website will be visited by Internet users, and then they will make purchases (e-commerce), leave leads (service industry) or read the materials contained therein (content websites). Good website positioning can significantly improve sales results. Often, the profitability of running a given business depends on the visibility in the search engine. Thus, the user hopes for quick access to the right content, the search engine hopes to ensure it, and the website owner hopes that his site will be found and visited.

The results of displaying in search engines are not set randomly – the constantly improved algorithm is responsible for the ranking. This one takes into account about 200 factors during the overall analysis of the website and direct links to it. What is it about?

On-site SEO

Google places great emphasis on content and its presentation. On-site SEO means changes that can be implemented directly on a positioned website. They can be divided into two categories – content modification and technical layer.

As mentioned above, Google wants pages placed high in search results to meet the user’s needs. Ideally, the content on the page is well optimized and contains specific keywords surrounded by intermediate words – long tails and LSI. However, it is not about a random juxtaposition of phrases, but about a substantive and structured text on a desired topic. In order to properly present a given issue, the content on the subpage must be properly organized – incl. divided into paragraphs and supplemented with headings (H1, H2, H3).

It is also very important how the text is displayed and how quickly the page loads. Most users, when they have to wait more than a few seconds, will simply go back to the search results and select a different page. Therefore, the website loading time cannot be overestimated. The algorithm also takes it into account and checks it in particular according to Core Web Vitals guidelines.

Gone are the days when the Internet was only browsed on computers. Today, web developers have to deal with thousands of different devices, technologies, designs and resolutions. The website must look good on every hardware, should not generate errors, and ensure the correct display of many fonts or graphics. The Google algorithm is able to detect errors in the presentation, therefore the correct responsiveness is one of the keys to positioning.

Internal linking is also important, i.e. placing links to other subpages of a given website. Correctly solved, it not only increases users’ engagement by encouraging them to click, but also significantly facilitates navigation for web robots. Another important aspect is the so-called canonical links, thanks to which, despite different real URLs (for example in online stores), Google robots see this as one variant. This prevents duplication of subpages.

Off-site SEO

Extensive, comprehensive on-page content and technical perfection are very important, but not enough to position your page for more popular, frequently searched phrases. The algorithm assumes that if a website has many links, it is valuable for users – after all, when we find interesting content, we sometimes share the link with friends ourselves. Off-site SEO involves gathering multiple links from other pages that Google determines to be strong. It is important that the link structure is appropriately varied – next to the dofollow links containing keywords, there should also be links without keywords and sometimes with the nofollow parameter. Link profile diversification is sometimes referred to as link pillowing.

SXO audit – what is it?

The first step to improving your SXO is to conduct a comprehensive SXO audit. Specialists will thoroughly analyze various aspects related to positioning and UX, draw conclusions and propose necessary changes on the website. Many of the nearly 200 ranking factors of Google’s SEO algorithm relate directly to the UX on the page – for example, building pop-ups.

SXO audit – what is analyzed as part of it? The scope of activities includes, among others:

SEO audit and recommendations
– domain history,
– website performance and construction,
– keywords and their potential,
– visibility against the competition,
– link profile,
– the current condition of SEO on the website,
– website mobility and usability,
– Core Web Vitals parameters,
– SEO content on the website,
– meta tags, snippets,
– Google My Business card,
– crawl budget,
– search engine analysis, filters and sorting,
– and other!

Analytics audit and GSC
– correct basic configuration,
– the impact of organic traffic on conversion,
– traffic quality, click-through rate.

SEO – recommendations of actions depending on the type of website and industry
– Meta tags (title & description),
– On-site and off-site linking,
– SEO content (including headers),
– Rich snippets,
– Positioning the Google business card,
– Website optimization,
– Monitoring and optimization of activities,
– Keyword research with potential,
– and other!

UX and CRO – actions
– Analysis of the purchase path and cart from listing to order fulfillment,
– Analysis of the contact form,
– UI & UX analysis of main subpages,
– Widget and pop-up analysis,
– Heatmaps of clicks and depth of scrolling,
– Payment system tests,
– Support for the SEO department in designing changes.

With the spread of the Internet, many customers have moved to the network – including yours. That is why it is worth following the trends, becoming part of the Internet reality. Launching your own website is just the beginning, thanks to which you can reach a wide group of potential customers.

Online marketing, or what?

Online marketing is defined as all activities that support the sale of products / services and help in building the image via the Internet. At the same time, great emphasis is placed on building and maintaining a good brand-consumer relationship. All because the recipient in this case plays a much greater role compared to traditional marketing. The user is not a passive recipient of advertising messages, but has the opportunity to conduct a dialogue with the brand, express his own opinions, etc.

Online Marketing Activities

Online marketing is a very complex issue that involves many different activities. The possibility of implementing a strategy on several levels at the same time can bring much better and faster results.

Positioning
High positions in search results are desirable to increase brand awareness and generate a lot of traffic on the website. Search engine marketing helps in this, the main element of which is page positioning. Therefore, it is about developing such a strategy, thanks to which the company website will occupy the highest possible positions for specific keywords – those that are most often entered by users who will potentially be interested in purchasing a given product or service.

Google Ads advertising
Google Ads advertising is a way to appear, for example, in paid search results, i.e. those that appear above organic results. This means that the advertising message is displayed to the user after entering a specific phrase. This increases the chance of being clicked and redirected to the website. The advantage of Google Ads is its huge range and high efficiency. Therefore, this option is often used by companies that want immediate results.

Video marketing
It is an internet marketing strategy that aims primarily to build a brand image, strengthen awareness and promote specific products. Various forms of communication can be used in video marketing, e.g. video blogs, webinars, video guides, video reviews. Obviously, advertising on the YouTube platform plays a very important role in this case.

Content marketing
Content marketing should be understood as activities that oscillate around good-quality content. It is about providing useful texts in the form of a blog, sponsored articles, newsletters, e-books, reports, etc. The goals behind content marketing can be different – it can support seo, it can build an expert image or, on the contrary, for example, the image of the brand of a “buddy”. Correctly conducted and consistent activities in the area of content increase brand trust and understanding.

Email Marketing
In this case, e-mail becomes the communication tool. This form of marketing aims to build consumer loyalty, create a specific image of the company and build specific relationships with customers. One of the most frequently used forms of e-mail marketing is the newsletter. It reaches the audience by providing valuable content in an accessible form – so as to encourage clicking and going to the website. Through the newsletter, you can inform about current promotions, new products, industry events, etc. It is very important that the user has the opportunity to unsubscribe from the newsletter.

Viral Marketing
Viral marketing is based on the concept of the dissemination of information by users. Achieving this goal is only possible with valuable content – one that arouses interest. Then it is transferred in the form of shares, e.g. on profiles in social media.

Remarketing
Remarketing is defined as the activity of repeating the advertising message to users who visited specific products or visited the company’s website. This is done using the so-called cookies. In this form, there is great potential, because it allows you to more effectively reach potential customers who were interested in the offer in the past. At the same time, it makes it possible to stand out from the competition.

Blogosphere
An element of internet marketing is also the use of the blogosphere. It’s about working with bloggers who can test a given product / service and then write a review. Sometimes the cooperation concerns the placement of advertising banners or texts, etc.

Mobile Marketing
Mobile marketing takes advantage of the fact that most people use smartphones and dedicated applications. It is through them that you can help potential customers make purchasing decisions while tracking their location and preferences. What is it in practice? A person using a smartphone and having data transfer turned on may receive information about discounts, rebates or offers of the day when he passes by your store, restaurant, etc. This type of marketing is highly effective. In addition, the company appears to be modern and following the current trends.

Why is it worth implementing online marketing?

In the era of the widespread use of the Internet and the presence of potential customers on the web, it is worth becoming interested in online marketing. It is a tool that, if used correctly, will bring you a lot of benefits.

A chance to reach a larger group of potential customers
Do you have a small group of regular customers? While this is very good news, you can have many more. Thanks to internet marketing, you will reach new people potentially interested in your products / services. Internet marketing allows you to be where your potential customers are – even when your business is not directly related to online sales. Remember that many users – before making a purchase decision – look for information on the web. So it’s good to strengthen your image.

Attractive cost of the activities carried out
Internet marketing is a much more cost-effective option than many other forms of advertising. This is due to a simple fact: the company can choose from many tools – depending on the budget and the goal to be obtained. It is very often the case that the cost of internet marketing, SEO or social media is much lower compared to traditional marketing because we do not shoot at the barn, but only selected users – selected on the basis of the likelihood of their purchase.

Establishing interaction with customers
Modern customers want to know who is behind the advertising message, they want to have free contact with the company. Internet marketing creates such an opportunity, among others thanks to activities on social networks. Building positive relationships with consumers not only strengthens ties, but above all has a positive effect on trust and loyalty. Pleasant experiences from cooperation – not only at the time of making a purchase – influence purchasing decisions in the future.

Quick performance measurement
You don’t have to wait long to assess the effectiveness of your activities. In the case of internet marketing, you can track the effectiveness of the campaign on an ongoing basis using many useful tools. You can analyze conversions, sales, subscriptions and many other metrics. Thanks to this, you will know which channels to reach network users in order to turn them into real customers.

Reaching out with unobtrusive advertising
Nobody likes to be attacked by direct forms of advertising that clearly solicit a purchase. Internet marketing meets this goal by offering many different methods of reaching recipients – in a completely subtle and natural way. Effect? The chance of making a purchase is much greater. An example is running a blog as part of content marketing. By posting advisory articles with links to specific products / services that solve the problem, you increase the chance of making a purchase. Such an effect would not have been achieved if the advertisement had been placed “directly”.

Who is online marketing for?

A great advantage of internet marketing and at the same time an advantage over traditional marketing is the fact that it is a solution beneficial for every company – regardless of the profile, industry, size, etc.

The fact that marketing activities are carried out online does not mean that the company has to deal with online sales. All you need to do is have a corporate website through which potential customers will be able to reach you and contact you.

Online marketing is so universal that through appropriate activities it will be possible to reach potential customers interested in e.g. construction services, cleaning services, rental of tools, etc.

Where to start?

The starting point for online marketing activities is the website. It is the element that connects the company with potential customers. However, in order for it to be visible, you need to build a range. This is what internet marketing helps with: from positioning to cooperation with the blogosphere.

Remember, however, that you must conduct internet marketing in accordance with your strategy. Random actions will not bring the expected effectiveness. That is why it is worth using the support of specialists who will suggest solutions adequate to the expectations, needs and specificity of the industry.

Positioning the website

Our client’s company has been operating for over twenty years, providing high-quality furniture throughout Europe. Nevertheless, when we started SEO in December 2020, its online visibility was very low. The website did not appear on any phrase, neither in TOP3 nor in TOP10 of search results, i.e. it was never visible on the first page in Google for phrases related to the industry. What’s more – it appeared only for one phrase in the TOP50, which almost completely limited the organic traffic on the site.

Top phrases in December 2020
Therefore, it was necessary to take both on-site activities, i.e. within the website itself, and off-site activities – consisting in acquiring high-quality external links. We started out by optimizing the site technically to improve loading times and usability for the user. We also focused on adding meta elements, important for the website evaluation by search engine robots. However, these changes were only the beginning. Together with the client, we also decided to implement a blog with tips on the website, and saturate each entry with key phrases best suited to the store’s offer. In addition, we strengthened the website by acquiring links on external websites leading to the client’s website.

Thanks to these actions, after six months we can see a significant improvement in the visibility of the website – we currently have 5 phrases in TOP3 of search results and 25 phrases in TOP10, i.e. on the first page. Naturally, the TOP50 saw the greatest progress – here we have already introduced over 500 phrases and we are constantly fighting for their even better positions.

Top phrases in June 2021
It is worth remembering that indexing pages by search engine algorithms is a time-consuming process, and it is sometimes even a dozen or so months for Google robots to be “recognized”. So this is just the beginning of the SEO road, and even better results can be expected in the coming months.

In a short time, however, you can achieve a significant increase in traffic and conversion thanks to Google Ads. Let us compare the results of our client’s campaign from 3 months ago with those achieved now.

In the period from February 16 to March 16, the ads generated over 21,700 clicks. In the period May 16 – June 14, this number dropped by approximately 1,500 clicks. However, does this mean a decrease in the effectiveness of the campaign? On the contrary. Clicks themselves do not bring the customer tangible profits – they only mean that the user has entered his website. In the process of optimizing ads, we try to limit accidental, empty clicks from recipients who are not really interested in the offer and do not plan to make a purchase. Choosing the right target group may therefore slightly reduce the number of clicks, but this does not translate into a reduction in profits.

The number and cost of the conversion

During the three months of campaigning, the number of conversions doubled – there were 319 of them at the turn of February and March, and now their number is 663 per month. At the same time, however, the cost of acquiring one conversion decreased by over 50%, which means that at the price you had to pay three months ago to acquire one customer, you can now acquire two.

How it’s possible? The answer is simple. The longer the campaign runs and the more data our specialists and bid optimization systems have to analyze, the more effective your ads can be. We constantly monitor when there is the greatest chance of conversion, what devices are used by users who most often show interest in the offer, where are the people who convert and many other factors. On this basis, we can predict which actions will bring the best effect and optimize the rates per click to achieve the campaign’s goal at the lowest possible cost.

What profits did the campaign bring?

Together with the client, we agreed that we would stick to the chosen budget for the campaign – for 3 months it increased by only 2.6%. With almost the same budget, revenues increased by more than 56%, i.e. about 88,500.

So how has the return on investment changed? At the turn of February and March, each euro spent on campaigns brought the client about EUR 14.50 in revenue, which is a very good result anyway. Now, however, EUR 22 in costs corresponds to EUR 22 in revenue, an increase of 50%.

Channel bonding = more profits

By combining a Google Ads advertising campaign with positioning, you can significantly increase not only brand visibility and recognition, but also real profits in a relatively short time – this applies to both online stores and service industries. Can we promise that the profits for each company will be on a similar level? Of course not. Marketing campaigns on the Internet are governed by too many variables to take anything for granted, and we focus on honesty and transparency in contact with the client. Instead of empty promises, however, we offer experience, knowledge and commitment, and this in many cases, with good cooperation with the client, brings even higher profits than expected.

The answer will not be a big surprise – it depends. From what? First of all, the industry in which we operate, the promotional budget and the target group we want to reach. Of course, we also have to consider what exactly we want to achieve through advertising. We have a lot of possibilities to conduct campaigns on the Internet. Below, we briefly present the most popular of them.

Google Ads – not just advertising on the search network

One of the effective ways to promote your brand on the Internet is a Google Ads campaign. The giant from Mountain View offers users a system with which you can advertise not only in Google products, but also on many websites of its advertising partners. Examples of such formats as:

Text ads in the search network – this type of promotion is also known as sponsored links. They appear at the top or bottom of the search results page and are labeled “ad”. In addition to headings and descriptions, you can put various types of extensions in them, e.g. links to other subpages of your website, explanations, location or information about promotions. As a result, the link to our website not only appears on the first page with results, but also occupies a large area, so it attracts the attention of the audience.

Advertising on the Google advertising network – this type of advertising campaign on the Internet has a graphic form and is displayed on the partner websites of the giant from Mountain View. It is a very broad network, ranging from small to huge portals, industry sites, blogs, local sites and many other sites on a variety of topics. Ads can take the form of banners appearing between paragraphs of articles or on the side of the page, in the background (behind the main content), full-screen or pop-ups. The advertising network can also provide dynamic ads, the elements of which are automatically selected depending on the user’s preferences (based on his previous behavior on the Internet).

YouTube Ads – Video campaigns may or may not be skipped and may appear before, after, or during your videos. Bumper Ads, i.e. six-second ads that are highly effective, especially on mobile devices, are also very popular.

Product ads – they contain a photo of a specific product, its name and price and lead directly to the subpage where you can buy it. They appear on the search results page and in Google Shopping. To create this type of campaign, you must have an account in Google Merchant Center and implement the so-called Product feed, i.e. a file with data about the products we offer. The ad data is automatically drawn from the feed. This is an excellent format for online stores, as the user immediately has the key information when making purchasing decisions.

Why is it worth using Google Ads?

Google Ads is a system that gives advertisers a wide range of promotion opportunities that are not provided by traditional advertising on radio or television. The most frequently mentioned advantages of the system include:

Advanced targeting options – with our message we can reach a strictly defined group of recipients, which gives us the best chance for conversion. We can set a group, taking into account the interests of users, their place of residence, age, life situation (family, children, renovation, buying a house, etc.), reach people who have contacted our website or simply place advertisements on websites about specific topic. We can also freely set the ad schedule and territorial range or modify the rates depending on various parameters (e.g. device type).

Payment for the effect – in the case of campaigns in Google Ads, we do not have to pay for the mere display of the ad. The budget will be used only when we achieve the assumed goal, i.e. when someone clicks our ad or watches a promotional video (depending on the selected billing model).

Full control over the budget – at any time of the campaign, we can check how much we spent and increase or decrease the expenses.

Quickly visible results – an ad in Google Ads can be launched at any time without leaving home and it becomes visible almost immediately on the web (you have to wait for verification, but it usually doesn’t take long). Thanks to this, the effects can be seen much faster than, for example, in positioning.

Constant access to statistics – we can check which of our ads have the best results, identify keywords generating the most conversions, etc.

Raising brand awareness – our advertisement is displayed on the first page of search results or on the websites of Google partners, so even if the user goes to our website, he may remember the company name, logo or special offer.

Google Ads – who is this online advertising campaign for?

Google Ads advertising is a good way to promote almost all brands. It works well for both online stores and service businesses. However, you need to know that such campaigns, in order to bring profits, should be regularly optimized, and optimization is not a simple task for a layman. Therefore, when choosing this type of campaign, it is worth learning more about Google Ads or using the help of a specialist.

Facebook Ads and Instagram Ads – when is it worth it?

Facebook’s advertising system has a tremendous amount of information about social media users – especially when it comes to their interests and preferences. It is on FB or Instagram that we follow fanpages, talk about our hobbies, participate in discussions, inform about relationships and their ending, baby births, new animals, we even mark where and what we eat. That is why the Facebook advertising platform gives a good chance to reach those recipients we care about. In this system, we can advertise both the post itself (it will appear on the users’ board, even if they are not fans of our profile) and the entire fanpage, or direct traffic directly to the website. We currently have the following ad formats on Facebook:

– image – graphic advertisement in which we can present our products, logo, information about the offer, photos from the headquarters, etc.
– video – this format allows you to promote short movies or slide shows.
– carousel – this is a type of advertisement in which we can present a maximum of 10 images or videos – each with its own link. This allows, for example, to show several products covered by the promotion or new products on offer within one advertisement.
– instant material – a format designed for mobile devices. If a user clicks on our ad, a full-screen environment appears in which you can show images, videos, products or place a form.
– collection – an advertisement that opens as an instant material, used to show many products. As part of the advertisement, recipients can conveniently browse products on mobile devices and make purchases.

In the case of Instagram Ads, we can also use the graphic, video and carousel format, and additionally choose whether we want to display the ad in News or Insta Stories.

Advantages of advertising on Facebook and Instagram

An online advertising campaign conducted with the help of Facebook has similar advantages as in the case of Google Ads. It is a relatively cheap advertisement in which we pay for the effects, enabling precise selection of the target group and remarketing. This system also gives access to a large number of statistics and allows you to control expenses at every stage of the campaign.

What is particularly worth paying attention to when using the Facebook advertising platform is the option to select the target group Lookalike Audience. Thanks to it, we do not have to choose what features the users who will see the ad should have. The system will do it for us, selecting recipients as similar to our current customers as possible. So if we already have a certain group of recipients, it is a simple way to get more.

Who are the ads on Facebook and Instagram for?

Such an advertising campaign on the Internet is also very common and for good reason – it can give great results in many industries. However, it should not be forgotten that users enter these platforms mainly for entertainment. So it is a place where advertisements for cosmetics, clothes, cafes, hotels or an aquapark can be great, but not necessarily funeral services. The same applies to all industries that provide emergency services – such as roadside assistance, locksmith, plumber, electrician, etc. – there is little chance that users will be looking for them on social media. In these cases, a text ad on the Google Ads Search Network with a dial-in extension will perform much better.

Internet advertising campaign – LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn is the only platform with a lot of data on the education and career of Internet users. Thanks to this, it is an ideal place to establish B2B contacts, look for employees, partners and create a professional image of the company. We can choose from such formats as:

– advertising with a single photo – a format in which we can insert a photo and a description into it. It appears in the news,
– carousel advertising – allows you to place several images with assigned links,
– video advertisement – type of advertisement in which we present the video material on the news board,
– event advertisements – within this format, you can promote the event we organize, e.g. a webinar, in the news,
– text ads – contain a headline, description and image. They may appear in different places, for example at the top of the page or on the right side of the screen,
– sponsored messages – this type of ads appears directly in users’ inboxes – just like messages from their contacts,
– Follower ads – they encourage you to follow a given profile on LinkedIn. They are dynamic – this means that in addition to the logo and name of our company, they also include a photo and the name of the user to whom the advertisement is displayed,
– Spotlight ads – they direct you to our website or any other landing page. They are also dynamic and adapt to a specific recipient,
– job advertisements – another dynamic format, but thanks to it you can promote offers by reaching potential candidates.

Who is LinkedIn Ads for?

Ads on LinkedIn work well in very specific cases, when we want to target the message to people with specific professional experience, from a specific industry or in specific positions. Despite the fact that the platform is becoming more and more popular, there are still representatives of only some industries, in particular from the IT and marketing industries.

Or maybe website positioning?

Positioning of websites is probably the most commonly known method of promotion on the Internet. Despite the excellent recognition of the term itself, there are really few customers who know what it actually means. Positioning of pages are activities aimed at raising our website in organic results for a given phrase. It includes a number of activities – optimization of the website itself to be robot and user-friendly, as well as the issue of linking or delivering high-quality texts to it. However, the most important thing in positioning is the fact that it must be treated as an investment. While Google or Facebook Ads offer quick and repeatable results, positioning will start to bring results only after a few months. In the long term, it is the cheapest method of acquiring customers and building a reputation.

Other advertising channels on the Internet

Of course, this list does not include all the channels in which we can promote ourselves among network users. Online stores can also use, for example, Amazon Ads, with which you can increase the visibility of your offer on these platforms. There is also more and more talk about ads on TikTok or Pinterest, which are an alternative to more popular advertising channels. Is it worth taking advantage of these opportunities? This should be determined by the analysis of where our target group spends their time.

Bounce rate – what is it and what does it mean?

Google Analytics calculates the bounce rate using the formula:

sessions where the user has performed only one interaction / whole session

Of course, the rule is that the lower the bounce rate, the better – low bounce rate means that most users interact with the site, which should be important to every website owner. However, it does not have to play a very important role for every website.

High bounce rate – is this a cause for concern?

Certainly, the opinion that a session with a single subpage means that “the user entered the site, threw up and left”, which can sometimes be found on the Internet, should be approached with a great distance. For natural reasons, the bounce rate analysis will not work very well if the website is a so-called onepage, i.e. there are no subpages. Expert blogs are often characterized by a fairly high bounce rate – a user usually comes to such a blog in search of an article containing specific information on a specific topic, and after obtaining it, he leaves the site. A similar “problem” occurs in the case of online dictionaries, culinary websites or websites with research aids, and it does not necessarily mean that the websites are of little value to users – it is simply dictated by the specificity of the content.

Certainly, a high bounce rate should be very alarming for the e-commerce industry, especially when it is accompanied by a low conversion rate. The specific value in most cases can only be interpreted after taking into account the user group and the customs prevailing in a given industry, as well as – if possible – the results of competing parties.

When it comes to traffic sources, sessions obtained from display ads and social media typically generate the highest bounce rates. Users who access the site from these sources often return to the previous site quickly. In the case of display ads, you should definitely take into account “missclicki”, i.e. incidental clicks on the image with the advertisement, especially if the entries were generated by pop-ups that were difficult to close, or other forms of “clever” provoking not entirely intentional interaction.

Is bounce rate a ranking factor in SEO?

As is often the case with the Google algorithm, opinions are divided. Google itself claims that the bounce rate is not a factor that directly affects a website’s position in search results. On the other hand, a large number of positioners believe that the search engine is able to conclude that a given page is optimized for a given phrase, and users do not find information on it, which must have some impact on SEO.

A high bounce rate can also be related to other factors that are included in Google’s official webmaster guidelines. In this case, the bounce rate will be an indicator of other website optimization problems that will definitely affect positioning. A high value may, for example, result from a long loading of a given subpage, which makes an impatient user decide to switch to another site. Another reason may be poorly optimized text, which makes it difficult to absorb the content, the website is not adapted to mobile devices, a large number of annoying ads or the lack of an SSL certificate.

How to reduce your bounce rate?

Improve UX (user experience) on the website
Underdeveloped UX is usually the main reason for a high bounce rate. For some reason (or more often reasons), the site simply does not encourage the user to interact. This may be due to hundreds of factors, from the archaic structure of the website itself, through the choice of an insufficiently fast server, to errors that hinder browsing the content.

UX is a multi-faceted, complex issue – a valuable first step may be to commission a full UX audit to specialists.

Optimize your content
Proper optimization of the content is in many respects a UX element – division into paragraphs, alignment of the text in paragraphs to the left, choosing a font that is pleasing to the eye or adapting the content to different resolutions. However, not only the form, but also the content is of great importance – sometimes redrafting a given text can significantly minimize the bounce rate. Analyze whether there is a lack of appropriate call to action, whether the text is read lightly or rather clumsy. Even seemingly small changes can have a noticeable effect.

If a subpage generates a lot of organic traffic and at the same time its bounce rate is very high, perhaps the keywords used do not correspond to the actual content, collecting low-value inputs from the owner’s perspective.

Link internally and send suggestions to users
If there is an article on your website with a high bounce rate, offer the user other subpages that are related to the topic – you can do it in the form of a link directly in the text, with an appropriate CTA or a panel that will automatically display suggestions for similar subpages in within your website. In online stores, you can suggest other products from a given category that will probably meet the customer’s requirements.

Check the correctness of the Google Analytics implementation
Suspiciously high or low bounce rates can also be the result of incorrectly pasting the Google Analytics code. In this case, the system will misinterpret the given page entry, which will result in falsified data. A related issue will also be the lack or improper setting of events – the session with the launch of the movie on the website should not be included in the rejected sessions – although the user has not visited other subpages, he has performed a specific action on the website.

Machine learning – what is it?

Machine learning is an area of research on algorithms that can learn themselves thanks to the analysis of collected data. For example, self-learning machines can gather information about certain behaviors of Internet users and reduce them to general patterns, and on this basis, estimate with high probability how they will behave in the future. So you can say that algorithms learn from their own experience.

Let’s explain it in a slightly simpler way. Suppose we have an algorithm that should distinguish photos of dogs from photos of cats. To teach him this, we give him the so-called test data, i.e. a database of photos of both animals, of course with an indication of which of them is in the photo. The algorithm analyzes these photos and learns which features are characteristic for a cat and which are for a dog. Once he knows it, he can get a completely different photo, from outside the test base, and he will be able to indicate which animal is on it – because experience will tell him.

Of course, however, the algorithm must have a lot of information to avoid making mistakes. If we give him 10 photos of rottweilers and 10 photos of dachshund cats for analysis, he may not be able to correctly indicate what york is. There is simply no data on the basis of which he could conclude that the dog can be smaller, built differently, etc. However, if there are millions of photos of various breeds of dogs and cats in the database of the self-learning machine, its “experience” will be so great that it will be able to catalog subsequent photos with almost no mistakes.

Machine learning in everyday life

Such algorithms surround us in everyday life in many situations. Almost all of us use them, although we often do not even realize it. An example would be e-mail. Every day we get important messages, notifications from applications and websites, as well as completely junk e-mails. It is these machines that, on the basis of a lot of data, determine which messages are to be sent to the main mailbox, which to the community tab, and which simply to spam.

Uber, for example, also uses self-learning machines. By analyzing previous trips in a given time period, day of the week, city, etc., the algorithm predicts where the interest in the service will most likely be the highest in the near future. The system then sends vacant drivers to these places to reduce the waiting time for a ride and increase the number of journeys. Uber also uses algorithms in other aspects, such as estimating arrival time or price for a service.

Another giant that uses machine learning is Facebook. Algorithms based on our behavior in social media show us the ads and posts that we are most likely to be interested in. At the same time, they take into account even those reactions that we may not be aware of ourselves – even a slightly slower scrolling with a specific material.

Where else do self-learning algorithms work?

We also see the operation of self-learning machines on a daily basis, for example on Netflix, when the platform offers us movies and series to watch. Algorithms analyze descriptions of video materials, grouping them into micro-categories, and then, based on our previous choices, propose the next items that are probably the best for us. The recommendations are shown not only on the basis of the productions watched, but also our behavior on other websites – including Facebook (e.g. likes).

American Express, on the other hand, uses machine learning to keep its customers safe. Algorithms are used to analyze the transactions and detect anomalies among them, i.e. fees differing thematically or in terms of amount from others. Whenever a disturbing activity occurs on the account, they report suspected fraudulent activity to prevent any further abuse.

Automatic optimizations in Google Ads

Machine learning is also used by, for example, the Google Ads system to provide customers with the highest possible profit from the campaign. How it’s working? When we set up a campaign, the algorithms learn how the audience behaves, when they are active, which ad texts bring the most conversions. They draw regularities from the collected data and optimize the ads to bring the best effect. Their performance manifests in the use of Enhanced CPC, Smart Bidding Strategies, and Responsive Advertising on the Search Network. For example, if for some reason there is a sudden increase in interest in your product or service, they can adjust their bids almost immediately to maximize your benefit. Likewise, in a responsive ad, algorithms select the best-working headlines and ad text to maximize conversion.

Self-learning machines monitor all your ads non-stop and bring you tons of optimization daily. Each of them, even a very small one, means that the budget is better used, thanks to which more customers can be acquired for the same amount. The more data such a machine has a chance to collect, the better it forecasts future events, and thus refines the campaign. Such algorithms make their own decisions and introduce changes, which is why they give advertisers more time for other promotional activities, not related to AdWords / Google Ads campaigns.

What can you use machine learning for?

Machine learning can be used in business to improve many processes. Using algorithms, you can, for example, track business trends and set up action strategies. On the basis of the collected data, you will find out when your products are gaining popularity and plan your advertising campaigns or other marketing activities according to these trends. An appropriate self-learning system also allows, for example, to create a list of the company’s best customers. Based on the interaction with the website or other communication channels, it is possible to determine to which group of recipients it is best to target sales messages.

Machine learning can also measure how effective the company’s employees are and how changing conditions (such as remote work) affect individual performance. Some entrepreneurs also use artificial intelligence to plan their business development. Based on the collected data, machines can estimate the probability that it will be beneficial for the company before taking a new initiative.

Types of self-learning machines

The example described above with pictures of dogs and cats shows the learning of supervised machines. In this case, the algorithms know what the effect of their actions is supposed to be – for example, that they are to distinguish a cat from a dog. In this model of operation, they check which features of both animals will be useful in comparisons to achieve this goal. This type of machine learning can be used to classify images, recognize speech, or even segment corporate customers.

Another type of machine learning is unsupervised learning. In this case, the algorithms do not get the “goal” from the human serving them, which they should achieve after processing the material. They analyze the collected information and look for relations and patterns between them and draw conclusions based on them. The man taking care of this system is not able to predict the result of the machine’s work, because it simply resembles human observation of the environment. This machine learning system can be used, for example, to detect anomalies or irregularities.

The intermediate version is partially supervised learning, which consists in the fact that machines receive and marked data, assuming what the machine has to learn, and unmarked, where it has to find common elements and draw conclusions from them.

Are the algorithms wrong?

Self-learning algorithms, of course, can make a mistake in their predictions and make a bad decision – just as it can happen to a human. However, this usually only happens at the beginning of the machine operation or when the algorithm has very little data at its disposal. Therefore, it cannot be assumed that the effect of the “young” algorithm will be spectacular in the first phase. The more time it takes to gather information, the better the results, which is easily seen with many applications, websites and search engines on the market.

Algorithms can therefore be unreliable, but less so than a human who has many limitations, such as subjectivism, fatigue or distraction, when analyzing data. So when you think about developing your business nowadays, you cannot ignore the role played by modern self-learning machines – they are an element that may decide about the success or failure of the enterprise.