Single Grain | Start Growing’s Post

It has been a busy quarter here at Single Grain! We’ve welcomed 5 incredible new team members who are already bringing fresh perspectives to our work. Their innovative approaches and dedication to excellence are exactly what we look for in our growth-driven culture. But we’re not done growing yet! We’re on the lookout for more talented folks to join us, especially for these roles:   🛒 eCommerce Paid Media Manager 📊 Sr. Paid Media Manager 🔍 AD or Director of SEO and CRO Do you know someone who thrives on challenges, constantly seeks improvement, and isn’t afraid to think outside the box? We want to meet them! If this sounds like you, don’t hesitate – DM us or check our careers page: https://lnkd.in/gu-hd_8y

The key to SEO from our CEO, Eric Siu ✓ “Just be useful” It’s really that simple. #SEO #DigitalMarketing 

👨💻 CPC (cost per click) Trends 👨💻 📈 13% higher CPCs year over year on Google in Q1 of 2024 according to Search Engine Land.  💰 91% of industries saw increases in CPC on Google YOY.  📉 64% of industries saw decreases in CPC on Meta YoY. 🤑 Everywhere you look, you’ll see evidence that Google search ads are getting more and more expensive. There are a few factors that come into play leading to these increased costs:   🌐 ~60% of searches stay in the Google ecosystem according to SparkToro, so there’s less opportunity to have someone click to your site  💸 10% higher “floor prices” on Google according to the Department of Justice hearing 📱 More searches happening off Google on TikTok, Reddit, and other social sites means there’s increased competition for the searches made on Google 🥴 Broad keyword adoption allows more advertisers to match for each search made 🔎Does this mean you should switch to Meta for a cheaper cost per click and more traffic for less investment?? Not necessarily… 👀 We always recommend keeping a close eye on quality when running Meta ads since Meta’s AI can start finding people it believes are relevant to your business (but aren’t). Testing Meta ads and Meta’s AI is worth doing, but in a structured format, to ensure it’s providing you the quality you need to make sales. 🤔 So, while CPCs are lower on Meta, unless those clicks lead to a sale, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a worthwhile place to invest your marketing dollars. At Single Grain, we believe that there’s a healthy mix needed between social and search ads… and there’s always give and take with tracking a metric like CPC since it can impact your bottom line, but isn’t directly tied to it. Looking for ways to improve your marketing strategy? Work with us and we can help you find the best mix for your business: https://lnkd.in/eDYC8_xb

Let’s say you switch to a new agency for your Paid Media (such as Single Grain), and they introduce a new campaign structure for you in Google Ads (or Microsoft, or Meta). All of a sudden, performance starts to look a bit worse. 📉 What’s the first reaction you have? 😡😡😡😡😡 “This agency doesn’t know what they are doing.” Unfortunately, your ad account is being hit by the infamous “learning period” that all Google, Meta, and Microsoft algorithms have. What does this mean? Let’s break it down so it’s less of a “black box.” 🤔 What is a learning period? It’s the amount of time it takes for Google’s algrothium to learn WHAT you want it to do and to react to any changes you make in the account. Same goes for Meta and Microsoft. 🤷♂️ Is the learning period bad? Not necessarily. If you are implementing a new structure, trying to hit a new conversion action (such as moving from form fills to sales qualified leads), or if you introduce new ad copy, keywords, ads, or audiences, you will go into the learning period. AND that’s OK 👌 Once you cross out of the learning period, you will likely see improved performance (or else, why would you be making the change)? ⏳ How long is the learning period? This can vary depending on how long your path to conversion is. For some advertisers, it can be as little as 2 days, for others it may be as long as 2 months. On average, it tends to be around 1-2 weeks. 🙈 How can you avoid the learning period? It is unavoidable at times. However, you can mitigate it by trying to make changes gradually, no more than 10% at time. The platform will know what to with the 90% of your campaign you didn’t change and only have to relearn the 10%. Though, if you need a new structure, sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and work through the learning period. Hopefully this helps alleviate some of the confusion around learning periods and provides you with some peace of mind the next time your paid media specialist mentions the “learning period” as a reason for volatility within your account you at least know what it is, about how long it will last, and what you can expect. Want to learn more about Paid Media? Check out the latest posts on our blog: https://lnkd.in/euUQBz7Y 

You just spent $10k on a YouTube ad campaign 🤑🤑 You earned over 50,000 bonus organic views on your YouTube channel… notched a total of 500,000 video views on your ad… 🎥 and gained 200 new subscribers. 🙌 So did the campaign work? Was it successful? 🤔🤔 Well - as with anything in marketing - that depends. 1. *Who* did your ad show to? Did you hit your target audience?  2. Do you have an increased volume of brand searches? 3. How much of the product featured in the campaign did you sell?  4. Did your other channels (organic search, organic social, paid brand, emails, SMS, Meta, etc) become more efficient?  5. Did your time to close shorten in your sales cycle? As you can see, there’s no one way to measure success, and it will vary from industry to industry and from business to business. So, if you’re unsure that your YouTube campaigns are boosting your products or brand appeal, reach out to our team and let our experts take a look: https://lnkd.in/eDYC8_xb #YouTubeAds #YouTube #PaidMedia #DigitalMarketing

Running social media ads can be expensive… and this year is predicted to be more expensive than most. According to eMarketer, the spending forecast for social media ads in particular is expected to increase by 13.5% compared to 2023. Video ad spend is expected to increase by 21.2% in 2024. Why? 1. Inflation: While inflation in the US has only increased by 3.3% in 2024, it is still a rising cost that impacts those buying media placements.  2. Social Search: There is a large increase in people using social platforms, such as TikTok or Instagram, as a search engine to find the best new restaurants, get product reviews, or find the coolest activities for their trip. This increase in social searching, up over 450% over the last year, has been met with an increase in content from brands large and small and a corresponding increase on prices for ads.  3. Political ad spend: It’s an election year in the United States which means that there’s a lot of money going into political ads - over 12 billion dollars. That means a higher cost per click to reach the same audience due to the increased competition. 4. Influencer Marketing Growth: The influencer market is bigger than it's ever been - with 44% of advertisers investing more in creator content in 2024. Again, this means that there will be more videos in the market, increased competition, and higher prices.   5. Generative AI: Generative AI is making it easier than ever for people to create videos. This ease means more competition, and we all know what that means - higher prices. So what can you do about it? 1. Test new platforms. TikTok, which was once seen as a young man’s game, is increasingly starting to have pockets of older audiences which, if you target appropriately, can help you unlock more affordable ways to reach your target audience. Same with other platforms such as Pinterest or YouTube Shorts. It’s worth testing the lift of new placements outside of Meta to see if you can help create a stronger funnel for your content for a lower, or at least equal, investment. 2. Post organic content. Post organically, tie into platform trends, and use hashtags. See what takes off and then use that to inform your paid media strategy.  3. Test creatives. Improve your efficiency with more creative testing. Test early and often.  4. Invest in the top of the funnel. No one can search for you if they don’t know who you are. Make sure you’re getting in front of the right people with prospecting campaigns who will later search for you by name. Unsure where to start? Read more on our blog about creating the best video content for your brand to unlock the efficiency you need to improve your social campaigns, even within an increasingly expensive market: https://lnkd.in/ei3MkstW

We're making sure the recent Google leak doesn't sink your SEO in our upcoming webinar 🚣♂️ As you know, Google's recent SEO leak turned the digital marketing world upside down. It confirmed some suspicions but also dropped a few bombshells that could completely change how you approach SEO. That's why our CEO Eric Siu ✓ is hosting an exclusive webinar to break down the leak, piece by piece, and share the actionable strategies you need to not just survive but thrive in this new SEO landscape. Here's what you can expect: - The Leak's Impact: We'll go beyond the headlines and uncover the real implications for your SEO efforts. - Ranking Factors That Move the Needle: Forget the guesswork – we'll reveal the elements Google is really prioritizing. - Content & Keywords, Reimagined: It's time to adapt your approach to align with Google's new playbook. - User Experience as a Ranking Powerhouse: we'll show you how to harness the power of engagement metrics to boost your rankings. You'll walk away with a clear roadmap to update your SEO strategy and stay ahead of the curve. And the best part? You'll have the chance to ask Eric your burning SEO questions during a live Q&A 🔥 Spots are limited, so register to secure your seat. https://lnkd.in/grFafT6c

Meta will tell you that your ads are hitting a 3 ROAS. Google will tell you that it’s campaigns are achieving a ROAS of 4. But, when you look at your overall spend and profit, you might be hitting a 2.75 ROAS overall. 🤔 How can the platforms be so wrong? - Depending on where your conversion data is from, it could be modeled to make up for the loss of tracking due to cookie depreciation and ad blockers. - If a future purchaser is served one of your Meta ads, Meta will claim credit for the purchase (depending on the settings you have in your account).  - Google will also claim credit for purchases or conversions if the customer interacts with your campaigns along the path to purchase. This means that both Meta and Google could claim credit for the same purchase, making proper attribution a nightmare. 😱 What can you do to understand what channel or campaign is working? - Invest in a 3rd party tool such as Northbeam, TripleWhale, or Rockerbox. These tools have their own system to tell you what is working and what isn’t. You can lose some visibility into how the campaigns influence each other and influence organic traffic. This option may come with a hefty price tag and requires some critical thinking and analysis to make it actionable.  - Connect all platforms directly to your internal CRM. This limits the purchase modeling that occurs in platforms.  - Run incrementality testing with strict parameters to better understand new efforts and how they impact your bottom line. - Calculate your marketing efficiency ratio (MER). This is the profit you earn from all channels divided by the cost of your marketing efforts. The goal would be to improve your marketing efficiency over time.  - Hire a data scientist to run regression analyses and mixed media modeling for your business. This is likely the best data you could get, but it also is the least cost effective. The best option for your business is likely a combination of two or three of the above options. Need help deciding? Feel free to reach out and work with our experts here at Single Grain. https://lnkd.in/gXpPpvN 

🚨 Google's AI Overview 🚨 There have been a lot of errors – some hilarious, some dangerous – since the roll out of Google’s AI Overview. Famously, the AI Overview feature recommended the searcher to put glue on their pizza to help the cheese stick better to the crust. While it seems amusing, if you are advertising Elmer’s Glue and your ad shows up next to this search, it could look like your brand recommended this recipe tweak. Talk about a branding nightmare. So, what can an advertiser do to avoid what could be a huge fiasco? 📈 First Party Data - Google’s AI Overview struggles with nuanced understanding. - It misses the complexities of searches, leading to oversimplified or problematic recommendations. - Customer data can steer Google towards the type of searches that drive purchases… and in the example above, you’d be able to steer an Elmer’s Glue ad away from Pizza searches. 👥 Human Oversight - AI can help us conquer more work in less time, but still requires a human touch.  - Relying on AI for ad content, targeting, and placements can, at best, lead to wasted spend, and at worst a branding emergency, negative press, and going out of business. - Human expertise on what is and isn’t important to your business, and finding ways to feed Google that data, will steer the AI in the right direction. 🌐 Search Coverage - Search, Performance Max, and Shopping campaigns are all available to show up in Google’s AI Overview placements.  - Ensure these campaigns have coverage on the content you want to show up for. - Add in negative targeting restrictions on the placements you don’t. Google's AI Overview feature, no matter how problematic, is here to stay. It’s critical to find a way for your business to show up when it makes sense and to not show up when it could be problematic for your brand. Unsure where to start? Read more about the other changes coming to Google this year in our 2024 Google Marketing Live Recap and feel free to reach out to work with our expert team! Read More: https://lnkd.in/g_7cScke #AI #GoogleAI #AIOverview #HumanOversight