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How to Optimize a Paid Search Campaign

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Paid Search Campaign|How to Optimize a Paid Search CampaignPPC campaigns rely heavily on data, but often, there is so much data available that it can muddy the waters. All PPC campaigns need a goal. Otherwise, progress will be limited, and it will be impossible to verify how successful the campaign is/was. Read on to learn how to optimize a paid search campaign.

Budget Allocation

Before the campaign starts, optimize your budget, and decide how much budget you have allocated and where. It is usually sensible to allocate a reasonable proportion of the budget to your brand’s keywords but remember to allocate money to keywords that convert well, too. Regularly review the number of impressions you are getting and adjust your budget accordingly.

Allocate your budget according to which channel performs best. This is important when you are targeting multiple channels or running several paid search campaigns concurrently. Some channels will show a higher conversion rate, but there may be supporting channels that also play a crucial role in those conversions.

Adjust Bids for Time and Location

While adjusting bids for keywords is important, it can also be useful to adjust bid settings for time and location. Look at when you get the most impressions and exclude times when performance is low. This maximizes your budget and results.

Location performance data is equally important. There is little point in allocating a budget to a wide area if most of the locations within that area perform poorly. Focus on key locations that perform well and allocate more of your budget to them.

Search Partners

Whether you are using Google or focusing on a different search engine, like Bing, pay attention to your search partners. Low-performing search partners can be excluded.

Generally speaking, you have to work with both good and bad partners when you use Google and Bing, but tools like this Bing Syndicated Partners spam list from Digital Strike are very useful for identifying less valuable search partners that have no real traffic or fake traffic.

Optimize Landing Pages

Don’t overlook the value of a great landing page. After all, it is pointless spending time and money on a paid search campaign if a poor landing page kills your conversion rate. Bear in mind that a good landing page can really boost conversions, so it is worth investing some of your budget in making improvements to the layout, navigation, and sales copy.

Keyword Performance

Continually review the performance of your chosen keywords against your end goals. If some keywords are not performing as well as you had hoped, despite optimizing location and time, and also landing pages, it may be worth getting rid of them so you can spend more on better-performing keywords.

Review Your Audience Demographic

There will likely be some audience segments that perform better than others. For example, your brand might appeal more to women, or teens. Make adjustments as the campaign progresses and adjust your bids accordingly.
Other areas worth optimizing include how well pages perform on different devices and how your keywords are matched on search queries.

Have You Outsourced Your Marketing Yet?

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Outsource Marketing|Have You Outsourced Your Marketing Yet?When was the last time you took a close look at your marketing efforts? It’s one of the most important aspects of your business and when you don’t create the right marketing strategy, you’ll struggle with your branding and attracting new customers. What happens, though, if your in-house marketing team isn’t up to scratch? What happens if you have too many competitors and you can’t quite get your footing in the market at all?

You may not have the expensive budget and you may not have the know-how to know where to get started. You might not even have a team of SEO experts, or digital marketing managers. You might not know about how to get your brand into social media. There are so many things that you may not have a clue about because you are too busy running a business – and that’s fine! You’re a business owner, you’re not supposed to know everything that there is to know about marketing. However, you do need to consider hiring the experts. This brings us to the burning question: have you outsourced your marketing yet?

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Implementing the right digital marketing strategy is vital to your business, and we’ve got so many reasons below that you should look at outsourcing your business marketing to those who live and breathe it!

  1. Your resources are spoken for. The chances are that you have a limited budget for your business – and you wouldn’t be alone in that. As a smaller business owner, you might find it easier to manage your budget when you outsource your marketing. You’ll spend your money in a way that is easy to manage, and this will also ensure that you are carrying out the correct marketing strategies all run by the experts.
  2. You’ll benefit from expert knowledge. You don’t have to know everything there is to know about marketing when there are others who specialize in it and can know everything on your behalf. When you outsource, you entrust your marketing strategy to a team of experts who do nothing else but marketing in all of its forms. You will acquire a whole team of experts working on your behalf when you choose to outsource and this can be everything that your business needs.
  3. Saving money. There are far fewer costs involved when you outsource your marketing. Small business owners who realize that they lack the resources to hire a full time team then see the benefits in saving money with one smaller fee compared to paying for the annual salaries and benefits of a team of people. Outsourcing will transfer all of the costs to the agency, which frees your budget, saves you money and ensures that your projects are managed by one team of people.
  4. A fresh perspective. There is nothing quite as helpful as getting a fresh set of eyes looking over your marketing strategy and all of your planning. The chances are that you are passionate about your business and you want it to do as well as possible. For that to work, you need to know that your marketing has been given the ‘once over’ by the right people. Outsourced marketing experts are absolutely the right people and they will ensure that you don’t put out something in your plan that’s going to cost you too much or prevent you from getting the views and the audience that you need. That fresh perspective can make a huge difference to your business.
  5. They’ve got the talent. When you hire outsourced agencies to work your marketing for you, you’ll be paying for superb talent. You no longer need to spend time training your employees in marketing, because you are hiring people who already know what to do. Time spent training your staff can be a drain. Outsourcing your marketing services will allow you to depend on someone else who already knows what they are doing.
  6. You can concentrate. When you don’t have any interruptions to your services, you are going to be able to get on with the work you’re doing and let the marketing happen outside of your business. Small business owners like you won’t have to worry about further interruptions in the service, and it enables you to continue on with your planning.
  7. You get to help to scale up or down. As a small business you’ll have your own goals to consider and when you know that you have a strong expert team outside your business, you can ensure that you have experts who can help you to scale up or down as needed. You can change your budget to change how much you invest in your marketing plan, or you can change your goals and then your marketing changes as a result. You can work carefully with the agency and they will help you to keep a handle on your marketing, working with you as needed.
  8. You can manage the risk. If you are ever worried about the risk of marketing your business, you can feel appeased by the agency that is working on your side. Hiring a digital marketing expert to work with you is going to help you to avoid risks with your marketing and you’ll get to know how to balance your relationship with an agency, too. It’s always a risk – well, it feels like one – when you deal with an outsourced agency. You don’t know the people you’re dealing with just yet, so it takes some time.

Putting your marketing strategy into the hands of an agency of people that you don’t know is always brand new as an experience. With this, you can outsource your marketing and ensure that you feel comfortable and confident that you’re going to be making the right decision for your business in the first place. Marketing is a must if you want your business to succeed. If you want your business to do well, it needs marketing that matters, so let the outsourced agencies help you and you’ll see how far you grow!

7 Ways To Consolidate Debt And Improve Credit Score

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Consolidate Debt|7 Ways To Consolidate Debt And Improve Credit ScorePaying off loans is a tedious process and can be challenging to keep track of. It can help to move all the payments you need to make to one convenient place. That is where debt consolidation comes in. It is about merging credit and loan balances into one large loan. Not only does it help you lower the interest you owe but helps you save money on making regular payments. Once you make enough payments on time, you can even improve your credit score.

A credit score is an essential indicator that informs all loaning and crediting bodies how you handle money. A high credit score means you’re good at making repayments and don’t overspend. So, ensuring you keep a high credit score is pivotal.

Here are some ways you can consolidate debt, improve your credit score and supercharge your finances:

1. Get a Debt Consolidation Loan

A debt consolidation loan is a personal loan that you take to pay off your consolidating debt. You get these loans as secured or unsecured personal loans. While secure loans are easier to get, you often need to put in your car, savings, or even your house as collateral. This may not be a good idea if you’re already in financial straits.

On the other hand, unsecured loans rest on your credit score. While qualifying for one is more challenging, you save yourself from setting up collateral. Fortunately for you, there are services for securing the best unsecured debt consolidation loans online that allow you to choose your loan options flexibly. Once you create an account, you can pick the amount and payment option suitable for you and get funds right away. These services give you the margin to pay back with no early repayment penalties and options to pay according to your income bracket.

2. Use a Debt Management Program

Debt management programs help you create a monthly payment program that reduces interest rates on credit cards and allows you to pay off debt quickly. After analyzing your financial status, most credit counseling agencies can help you make a proper debt management plan.

Since interest plays a role in debt, one of the advantages of opting for a debt management program is a massive reduction in your interest rate, keeping it below 8%. Since these programs are not loans, you can withdraw from them at any time. You get counseling, educational resources, and a proper plan for a minimal fee. Once the payment rolls in, your credit score starts to improve.

3. Go For Credit Card Balance Transfers

If you have a good credit score but you’re struggling to pay the debt, you can use your score to your advantage. A form of consolidation is transferring multiple credit card balances to one card with no interest rate. Your credit card company will provide you with the option to transfer the balance with a payment period of no interest. You get substantial time to pay off the principal amount without worrying about accumulating more. The only catch is you need to make all the payments on time.

4. Consider Peer To Peer Loans

Peer-to-peer loans are personal loans that allow you to get loans with no middlemen such as banks involved. You directly get funds from the borrower, whom you can easily find online and send in an application. The borrower will assign a risk level to your application and allow investors to see your financial profile.

Generally, it’s easier to get investors when you have a medium to low-risk profile. Once the borrower arranges funds for you, they get sent your way online. The added competition between borrowers allows you to choose with whom you want to work at a lower interest rate.

5. Be Strategic About Paying Credit Card Bills

It’s a good idea to utilize your credit cards properly to improve your credit score. Credit cards come with a limit, and no matter how high you’ve set yours, use only 25% of it. Going even lower will only boost your credit score faster if you can go even lower.

When you use your card, you accumulate a small bill with minimal interest that you can pay off right away. This means that when credit bureaus evaluate your financial habits based on your credit balance, you get a high score. The goal is to always keep your balance low and reap the benefits of a high credit score.

5. Review All Credit Report Errors

Credit report errors can decrease your score, which is why you need to review the report once you get it. Most credit bureaus provide you with a free transcript that you can study, picking on where you are marked wrong. If you’ve made a payment on time but don’t see it reflected in your records, dispute the error.

Other errors include using outdated information on your history that is not usable or mixing someone’s credit activity with yours. Don’t let these errors slide since they can negatively impact your credit score. Instead, take the time to file a report and add it to your credit score. The earlier you file, the better your chances of getting reviewed and approved, leading to a fixed overall balance.

6. Look Into Authorized Usership

You have the option of becoming an authorized user for credit cards that your friends and family have. This can give you access to positive payment history and a high credit score. You don’t even have to use their card or their bank account number – you simply share their payment history.

If you’re looking for a way to fix your credit score and have a thin credit file that needs minimal fixing, you may have found your saving grace. But if you’re under staggering loans, you shouldn’t entertain this idea and seek more concrete solutions.

Final Thoughts

Paying back your loans can be a debilitating process. Debts can get messy with time. The high-interest rates and lack of time put you in a difficult position. Still, investigate consolidating debt and finding ways to improve your credit score to put yourself in the best possible situation.

Therefore, options like consolidation loans, management programs, balance transfer, and personal loans can help you bridge the gap between payments. Improving your credit score can get tricky, but all it takes is an effort on your part to keep a low balance and a consistent payment history. Make sure you take small but concrete steps towards financial freedom, and you’ll be there before you know it.

How to Win in Business By Playing Your Best Golf

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Playing Golf|How to Win in Business By Playing Your Best GolfGolf has always been synonymous with business networking, mastering team-building skills and for developing working relationships. In the words of the late Arnold Palmer, one of the world’s greatest golfers, “success in golf depends less on strength of body than upon strength of mind and character”.

As well as getting to know potential clients and employees, some of golf’s most valuable lessons apply equally well in a business setting for leaders and employees alike. In a relaxed setting, golf has evolved as an opportune sport to evaluate vital qualities prized by business investors, colleague and potential clients, such as:

  • personal drive
  • management skills
  • leadership abilities
  • problem-solving capabilities, and
  • effective communication.

Golf also appeals to businesses as it lends itself well as a team-building tool, showcasing a player’s determination and commitment to a task in hand. When playing golf, you must also take into consideration investing in a quality golf club bag for better storage of your golf equipment.

But, if you’re not a pro and have been invited to or are hosting a golf event, here are some top tips on how to raise your game.

Forget about theories

There are countless tricks and theories online that promise to help you gain the edge in a golf match, from giving your opponents their putts early in the round so they haven’t been able to practice short putting when the pressure’s on, or walking ahead of your opponent so they feel like they’re behind all day. But, the issue with these nuggets of wisdom is that they can distract you from the real focus of the game, putting you further behind. If your goal is to win, you can’t put your efforts towards doing that if you’re spending all day trying to trick the system.

Know your weaknesses

You may or may not know the people you’ll be playing with, but you certainly know where your own strengths and weaknesses lie, so focus on these first of all. You don’t want to try overcoming your weaknesses while you’re playing against someone else, so take the time to perfect your skills and hone in on those elements of the game that tend to trip you up.

Instructional videos are a great way to do this, but also practicing your swing at home is also hugely beneficial. Carry out different drills and swing positions to perfect your short game and correct any weaknesses that will improve your performance when you’re up against it.

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Do your research

There are countless great locations for golfing, but you can give yourself an advantage if you know the course you’re playing on. That might mean agreeing to a course you play regularly (or at least more than your opponents) or reading online course reviews before you visit so you can identify any tricky shots or strategies that others have found effective. You will gain an advantage that provides you with more confidence when you’re playing and helps you prepare mentally for the upcoming shots you’ll be faced with.

Play point by point

Instead of playing a more traditional stroke scoring game, switch up the rules and award points to the person who cups a given hole in the fewest number of strokes. Match play encourages stronger, more exciting shots but it also means that hitting 12+ on a hole won’t completely destroy your round like it would in stroke play, since strokes don’t roll over from hole to hole. It’s still possible that if one of your opponents is a stronger player, they’ll continue to count overall strokes, but being able to secure the match play will still give you plenty of smug satisfaction and is guaranteed to leave the others feeling defeated.

Get aligned

A common mistake that many amateurs make is improper alignment, which can affect your performance on the course. You might think you need to align your feet towards the target or get your shoulders parallel to it, but the correct way to align your shots is to assess your target from behind the ball for the best perspective of the hole so you can aim effectively.

Also, before you make your stance, set the clubface behind the ball and align it towards your target. This should be your focus before you get into stance and paying attention to this can really improve your shots.

Focus on your grip

A more experienced player will always have a fundamentally solid grip and you might be surprised just how much grip can affect your ability to make better shots. Grip the club with your gloved hand and focus on the placement in the fingers between the first knuckle and your palm. Apply your ungloved hand to wrap comfortably around the handle, moving your thumb and index fingers of both hands to form two Vs which should point towards the right side of your chest or right shoulder.

In summary

Golf can be as relaxed or competitive as you want it to be, but when you get a group of colleagues and companies together, there’s bound to be a fair bit of competition among you all. If you’re keen to come out on top at the end of your golfing day, wherever you choose to book it, the best way is to practice, be prepared and do your research when it comes to the course itself. But above all, enjoy yourself and focus on the job in hand.

Why Your Business Will Benefit from Hiring an Accounting Firm

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Team Building Tips|Team Building Tips and Tricks for ManagersIf you are running a business, then chances are you constantly have a number of different things on your mind, one of which is likely going to worry about how you can keep up with your growth upon expansion. If you currently find yourself querying such a thing, then there are resources you can look at and learn from, but the fact is, the answer that is best for you will be different to what is best for other businesses. One reasonably universal step forward, though, is to hire an accounting firm.

As you grow, so too do the number of people you pay, your income and your overall outgoings, and with that, so too will your tax obligations change. Keeping up with these is very hard to do while running the rest of your business, hence why an accounting firm is an important asset. This article will dive into a bit more detail about why having such a firm on your side is useful.

Are You Looking to Buy an Accounting Firm?

Of course, it may be that you already know the value of an accounting firm and are currently looking out for one. If this is the case, then it is recommended that you head over to Poe Group Advisors, which buys and sells accounting firms. These will be able to listen to you and understand what your business does before making suitable recommendations.

The Benefits

So, what are the benefits of such a purchase?

You Will Save Yourself Time

It is recommended that different elements of your business are outsourced to other people because if you get too bogged down in the likes of legal, technology and, in this instance, accounting, you aren’t going to have any time to actually run your business. You want to be working on what it is that makes you unique and can generate income, not piling through pages upon pages of accounting in order to get to grips with the process and what you owe.

You Will Be Paying Employees in the Best Way

A good business is nothing without good employees and as such, it is important that you are paying them a fair wage, on time and in a way that benefits you and them equally. An accounting firm is going to be a lot more versed in working out the best way that you can pay your employees, as it is not always as simple as just handing over a paycheck. There are some complications that can present themselves along the way and as such, you will need an accountant to pre-empt these and pay your employees accordingly. The most common methods are either by salary or dividend.

You Will Get Access to Pieces of Accounting Software

There is a lot of good accounting software out there that can make inputting numbers and keeping on top of everything a lot easier. By hiring an accounting firm, you are going to get access to this software and also be able to work with someone who knows how to properly use it.