A Guide to Learning Facebook Ads

Looking to harness the power of the world’s largest social media network to grow your business? Facebook Ads offers an incredible platform for businesses and individuals to create and distribute promotional content. With its extensive user base and powerful targeting options, Facebook Ads can help you connect with your ideal audience and achieve your marketing goals.

If you’re new to Facebook Ads, don’t worry. This guide will walk you through the fundamentals, helping you get started with confidence and set the foundation for digital marketing success.

Step 1: Define Your Advertising Goals

Before you dive into creating your first ad, it’s essential to define what you want to achieve. Facebook Ads categorizes objectives into three key areas: awareness, consideration, and conversion. Understanding these categories will help you align your campaign with your business goals.

Awareness

If your goal is to get your brand noticed by as many people as possible, choose an awareness objective. These campaigns aim to increase your brand visibility and reach users who may be interested in your products or services. This is ideal for new businesses or when launching a new product.

Consideration

When you want to spark interest and encourage potential customers to learn more about your business, a consideration objective is the way to go. This category includes goals like driving website traffic, generating post engagement, or prompting users to download your app or message your business directly.

Conversion

For businesses focused on driving specific actions, such as purchases or sign-ups, the conversion objective is the best choice. These campaigns target users most likely to complete high-value actions and help you maximize your return on investment.

Aligning your ad objectives with your overall business goals ensures that Facebook’s algorithm works effectively to deliver your ads to the right audience.

Step 2: Identify Your Target Audience

One of Facebook Ads’ greatest strengths is its robust targeting capabilities. Using the platform’s tools, you can pinpoint exactly who you want to reach.

Demographics, Interests, and Behaviours

Facebook allows you to filter your audience based on factors like age, gender, location, interests, and behaviours. This is a great starting point for narrowing down your potential customers.

Custom Audiences

If you already have a customer database, you can create a Custom Audience by uploading your list to Facebook. This feature is especially useful for retargeting past customers with new offers or reminding them of products they’ve shown interest in.

Lookalike Audiences

Lookalike Audiences help you find people similar to your existing customers. Facebook analyzes your Custom Audience to identify patterns and then targets users who share similar traits, increasing the likelihood of engagement and conversions.

Taking the time to define and refine your target audience ensures that your ads reach people most likely to respond positively to your message.

Step 3: Choose Your Ad Format

Facebook offers a variety of ad formats to suit different goals and creative preferences. Selecting the right format is crucial for effectively delivering your message.

Image Ads

These are the simplest and most commonly used ads. They rely on a compelling image paired with a concise, engaging message. Ideal for promoting single products or services.

Video Ads

Perfect for storytelling or demonstrating a product’s features, video ads can capture attention and leave a lasting impression. They’re especially effective for showcasing how a product works or highlighting customer testimonials.

Carousel Ads

Carousel ads allow you to feature multiple images or videos in a single ad, with each visual linking to a different webpage. This format is great for e-commerce businesses wanting to showcase a variety of products.

Slideshow Ads

These ads combine multiple images into a video-like presentation, offering a dynamic experience with minimal production effort. Use this format to tell a story or highlight a sequence of features.

Collection Ads

Best suited for mobile users, collection ads display a primary image or video alongside a grid of related products. This format encourages browsing and is great for showcasing a product catalog.

Choose the format that aligns with your goals and resonates with your target audience.

Step 4: Set Your Budget and Schedule

Facebook Ads allows you to control your spending and schedule ads for maximum impact.

Budgeting Options

Daily Budget: Set the maximum amount you want to spend per day. This is ideal for ongoing campaigns where consistent exposure is important.

Lifetime Budget: Define the total amount you’re willing to spend over the duration of your campaign. This option works well for time-sensitive promotions.

Ad Scheduling

Timing is everything. Facebook lets you schedule ads to run during specific times of the day or week when your target audience is most active. For instance, if you’re targeting working professionals, consider scheduling ads during lunch hours or evenings.

Step 5: Monitor and Optimize Your Campaign

Launching your ad is just the beginning. To ensure success, use Facebook’s analytics tools to monitor performance and make data-driven adjustments.

Key Metrics to Track

Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of people who clicked your ad after seeing it. A higher CTR indicates your ad resonates with your audience.

Impressions: The number of times your ad was displayed. This helps gauge overall visibility.

Cost Per Click (CPC): The average amount you pay for each click. Monitoring CPC ensures your campaign remains cost-effective.

A/B Testing

Optimize your ads using A/B testing. Create two versions of the same ad with one varying element, such as the headline, image, or call-to-action. Run both ads simultaneously to see which performs better and refine your strategy accordingly.

Adjusting for Success

If your ads aren’t performing as expected, don’t hesitate to make changes. Experiment with different visuals, messages, or audience settings until you find what works best.

Mastering Facebook Ads: Continuous Learning

Mastering Facebook Ads is an ongoing process. As you gain experience, you’ll discover new strategies to improve performance and maximize your ROI. Here are some tips for continuous learning:

Stay Updated: Facebook frequently updates its ad platform with new features and capabilities. Keep up with these changes to stay ahead of the competition.

Leverage Expert Insights: Follow digital marketing professionals and read reviews of their strategies. For example, experts like Sean Kochel and Douglas James share valuable insights into lead generation and advanced tactics.

Take Advantage of Resources: Facebook offers a wealth of tutorials, case studies, and tools to help advertisers succeed. Explore these resources to enhance your knowledge.

By following this guide and continually refining your approach, you’ll be well on your way to leveraging Facebook Ads effectively for your business. Start small, experiment, and scale your efforts as you learn what works best for your audience. Happy advertising!

The post A Guide to Learning Facebook Ads appeared first on .

Here are some ways social media marketing can help small businesses:

Increased Brand Awareness
Social media platforms have billions of active users, making them an ideal platform to increase brand awareness. Small businesses can reach a larger audience and increase brand visibility by creating engaging content, sharing relevant information, and interacting with their followers.

Cost-effective Marketing
Social media marketing is a cost-effective way to promote a business, as it doesn’t require a large marketing budget. Small businesses can create engaging content and share it with their followers at no cost, and can also use paid social media advertising to target specific audiences.

Better Customer Engagement
Social media platforms offer a unique opportunity for small businesses to engage with their customers. Small businesses can use social media to answer customer questions, respond to feedback, and offer personalized customer support.

Targeted Advertising
Social media platforms have sophisticated targeting tools that allow small businesses to reach their desired audience. Small businesses can target their ads based on demographics, interests, behaviors, and location, ensuring that their message is reaching the right people.

Increased Website Traffic
Social media can be a powerful driver of website traffic. Small businesses can use social media to promote their products or services, share blog posts, and other valuable content that drives traffic to their website.

Better Search Engine Rankings
Social media can also have a positive impact on search engine rankings. When small businesses create quality content that is shared on social media, it can help improve their search engine rankings, leading to more traffic and customers.

Social media marketing can help small businesses reach a wider audience, increase brand awareness, engage with customers, and drive website traffic. Small businesses should leverage social media marketing to stay competitive and grow their business in today’s digital world.

Social Media Marketing is the megaphone of the modern age, and if you aren’t using yours properly, you will be drowned out in the white noise that is Marketing. As a specialist Digital Marketing Agency located in the North East, our methods are creative and innovative, built around the sole purpose of anticipating the intent of your customers across all your social media channels.

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Blogger outreach involves building relationships with various blogs so that you can post content on other websites and create backlinks to your own site. The purpose of this is to increase your search engine rankings, visibility, and authority on the web.

With that in mind, read on to discover some of the most common blogger outreach mistakes business owners are making so that you can avoid them.

Not reading their blog
There is only one place to begin, and this is with approaching a blogger without actually reading their blog. You will be shocked by how many people do this. You need to get to know as much as possible about the blog, the author, their audience, and the content before you send an email. After all, you may find that the blogger does not accept guest blog content, in which case you would simply be wasting your time.

Not following up
One of the biggest mistakes that businesses make when it comes to blogger outreach is failing to follow up with the bloggers they have contacted. Most bloggers have to deal with a huge number of emails each day, and they lead a very busy life on top of this. If they have not responded to your initial email, it could simply be because they have overlooked because of their full inbox. This is why it is a good idea to send a follow-up email. Of course, if you do not get a reply this time, it could be that the blogger is simply not interested, so don’t hound them until they reply. And, an extra tip with regards to this is to try and include the name of the blogger on the subject line of your email. This can boost the open rate by up to 29.3 percent, so it is definitely worth it.

Being informal
It is important to recognise that there is a very fine line between being conversational and being informal. It is a good idea to make sure your tone is a professional yet approachable one when writing outreach emails. Yes, you want to come across as friendly, but it’s vital to remember that it is business too.

Pitching content they already have
This is where a lot of business owners are going wrong when attempting to manage their blogger outreach campaign. You are simply wasting your time and their time if you propose a guest post that is similar to something they already have. Not only will your post be rejected because bloggers don’t want to duplicate content, but it indicates that you have never taken the time to look at their website. This isn’t going to make the blogger particularly happy, and you will find yourself facing an uphill battle from this point forward.

This is why you should take the time to search the blogger’s site thoroughly. Most blogs have search facilities, which make it easier for you to find out whether they already have similar content to yours on their site or not. You should also think about ways you can add more value to the person’s viewers. For example, you should look at ways to change the perspective of your ideas so that you are revising your content and approaching it from a completely different angle that has not been approached yet. You could also create an infographic to improve the value of your content.

Asking bloggers to do your work for you
If you want to insult the bloggers you are working with, this is a sure fire way to go about it. Most bloggers are realistic enough to know that their blog is not powerful enough to reach everyone. Most blogs will have a niche area of expertise in any case, and everyone’s viewership numbers are different. However, we have seen many occasions where business owners have asked bloggers if they know anyone else they could pass their details on to. This is just adding insult to injury.

Letting the relationship die
It can be easy to let the relationship with the blogger die once you have achieved what you set out to. But you should not simply let that be the end of the interaction. You will gain a lot more in the future if you keep the relationship going with the blogger. After all, you may be able to post another blog post on their website at some point. They may also be willing to advertise your product or service via their social media channels. It would certainly be very awkward to ask for favours like this if you hadn’t bothered with the blogger since they last posted your blog.

Posting on irrelevant blogs
This is one of the biggest mistakes we see made time and time again. You need to find blogs that are going to appeal to your target audience. They should not be competing with you, but complementing what you have to offer. Therefore, if you run a flower shop, you may want to post on gift websites, wedding blogs, event blogs, and celebration blogs. You can also team up with businesses that offer a service that complements yours. You should only post your content on blogs that are relevant to trucking – be it auto blogs or business blogs. You also need to ensure the blog is held in high regard and has a good number of viewers. After all, posting on a business blog is no good if no one actually visits the website.

Going back on your word
If you want to build a good relationship with bloggers, you need to stand by your word. If you promise that you have a client who loves someone’s blog and wants to feature on it, you should only say that if it is the case. If you then come back to the blogger and say the site needs to be reviewed first to see if it is good enough, they aren’t going to be very happy.

Signing up bloggers to mailing lists without their permission
Once you make contact with a blogger, it may seem a good idea to sign them up to your mailing list and your client’s mailing lists. However, you should never do this without the blogger’s permission.

Not doing your research first
The importance of doing your research before putting together your blogger outreach campaign cannot be stressed enough. There are many different ways you need to research. Firstly, you need to focus on your own business. What are you hoping to achieve from your blogger outreach campaign? This will help you to determine what direction to go in, and what blogs are going to be right for you. You also need to make sure that your website has a good user experience and performs well. After all, if it doesn’t, why would anyone want to connect with you? You then need to research the market for blogs relevant to your business. Discover high authority websites, as well as those with a niche viewership that is going to be just right for what you have to offer. Before you email a blogger, you need to research their website thoroughly. There is nothing worse than contacting a blogger and telling them you love reading their posts on their children yet getting the names wrong. You need to show an interest, and you need to double-check everything you write to ensure you haven’t included any incorrect details.

Not focusing on your own website
No one is going to want to start a collaboration with you if your website is outdated and spammy. Focus on updating your website by looking for the best tools to use. Doing your research and using industry information such as these website builder reviews is the best way to find the right website building platform for you. You can then ensure your website is of a high level before you try to improve your blogger outreach strategy.

Taking collaboration as a one-time deal
This leads on from the earlier point regarding maintaining a relationship with the blogger. You should not simply write a single blog post, post it, and then move onto a different blogger. This is a big mistake. Firstly, this is an incredibly difficult process to keep up, as you are going to need to secure a new lead each and every time. Moreover, building a relationship with a blogger can be highly beneficial in many ways. They may advertise for you via different platforms. Not only this, but with every post you put on a particular blog, the more familiar the audience gets with your brand and what you have to offer.

As you can see, there are many mistakes that could be jeopardising your blogger outreach campaign. If you are making any of the errors that have been mentioned above, it is important to rectify them as soon as possible. Use the advice that has been provided, and you can expect improvements, both immediately and in the long run.

The post Perfecting Your Blog Outreach Strategy appeared first on .

With that, Microsoft published its ad quality in review for 2020, and here are some of the highlights.

Note, this report comes a week or so after Google released its ads safety report for 2020.

Microsoft sensitive advertising policy. Microsoft said it put “strict measures in place to restrict advertising for products such as covid medicines, covid testing kits etc.” With that, it had its sensitive advertising policy lead to rejecting about 21 million ads, just through that policy alone. This was to help Microsoft with its goal to ensure it “continued to deliver accurate, high-quality results across our platform, at a time when low-quality content was increasing,” the company said.

Blocking a lot of ads. Microsoft blocked a lot of ads, here are some high-level stats the company provided:

> Suspended about 300,000 advertiser accounts in 2020 (up 30% from 2019)
> Removed 1.6 billion bad ads in 2020
> Removed 270,000 sites from the ad system in 2020
> Rejected 21 million ads over the sensitive advertising policy in 2020
> Removed 20 million ads and 10,000 sites over its political advertising policy
> Rejected 8.5 million ads and 7,000 sites over its third-party government services policy
> Suspended 28,500 advertiser accounts, an increase over 100% from 2019, due to tech support scams and phishing attacks

Microsoft said through automated fraud detection and other methods, as well as through manual removals through human reports.

In fact, Microsoft said in 2020, it received a total of about 50,000 complaints related to ads not being compliant per its advertising policies. The company investigated each complaint and found that about 65% of the reported ads to be in violation of Microsoft Advertising policies. Most of the complaints were related to trademark infringements, the company said.

The post Microsoft Blocks 1.6 Billion Ads appeared first on .

He said: “We’ve provided them with firm information that shows these reviews are completely fabricated but they’re not interested.”

Google said the vast majority of user contributions were genuine and it constantly monitored content.

A number of one-star reviews about the garage appeared on Google’s map service, such as: “Absolutely the poorest service I’ve ever been unfortunate enough to experience.”

Mr Boatwright called it “an invisible aggressor”. “They’re anonymous, behind fake names, so you don’t really know what to do. You feel helpless,” he said.

Google users post about 20 million business reviews each day.

The tech giant said: “The vast majority of reviews are helpful, relevant and authentic. We monitor closely for content that violates our policies 24/7.”

Adam French from consumer rights organisation Which? said: “Our research has found fake reviews are prevalent across different platforms and the kind of influence they have on our shopping decisions is huge.

“I think there’s more that companies like Google could do to shut down these fake reviews. They can be quite passive, relying on people to report them.” He advised customers to read full reviews rather than star ratings alone and to avoid relying on just one site.

“Look for things like repetition, odd turns of phrase, and check across different sites to see if reviews are saying similar things to get more of an idea if they’re trustworthy.”

Mr Boatwright said of his legal action: “We’re not taking it lying down. We’re trying to fight back but, for a small company to take on the mighty Google, it’s not going to be easy”.

The post Garage Takes on Google Over Fake Reviews appeared first on .

Based on a new European law that just went into effect, Google will begin notifying businesses, globally, of local listings suspensions. Historically, businesses found out their listings were suspended when they signed into their Google My Business (GMB) accounts or noticed a change in call volume, web traffic or conversions.

“Every day a listing is down, opportunity and revenue are lost,” says Ben Fisher, a Google My Business specialist and co-founder of local search consultancy Steady Demand, who first wrote about the change.

Delay before discovery. According to Fisher, “The suspension [usually] happened days before it was discovered.” In addition to a potential loss of calls, traffic or revenue, it often created “a feeling of betrayal when [business owners] would discover a suspension.”

Under the new law and policy, business owners will receive a formal notification in email. The email will indicate the listing has been suspended but won’t offer any explanatory detail, according to Fischer. It will identify the suspended location address. It will also link to guidelines for representing your business on Google and to the Google My Business reinstatement request form.

Hard and soft suspensions. There are two types of Google My Business listings suspensions. A “hard suspension” causes the business listing to be removed entirely from search and Google Maps.

This is the most common suspension type, according to Fisher. The other, a “soft suspension,” leaves the listing online, but the account owner can’t manage it in any way: update hours, respond to reviews, create Google Posts and so on.

Fisher says the main reason Google declines to explain its rationale for suspensions is that “It would give way too much ammo to people who make fake listings and spam Google Maps.”

Stop, drop and roll. When a suspension occurs, Fisher advises business owners and local marketers to remain calm: “Stop, relax and read through the guidelines.” He also says it’s a good idea to have someone else look at the suspended listing before submitting a reinstatement form.

Many business owners reflexively submit the reinstatement request without thinking, he says. It’s also not uncommon for business owners to panic, remove the listing and create a new one.

This is a terrible mistake, Fisher says, because it risks the loss of all the content (photos, videos, reviews) associated with that listing. But if the listing is successfully reinstated, all the content and its the listing’s ranking will typically return within 72 hours.

Name and address errors are the most common infractions. It’s also possible that the suspension was in error. “False positives happen all the time,” Fisher observes.

The post Google to notify GMB Accounts When Listings Suspended appeared first on .

So, why should you choose to work with us over the many other social media companies out there?

Here are just some of the more obvious reasons we could think of…

1. We have been at this a long time. We actually started working in SEO and Digital Marketing in 2001. Our first client at this time was a company called Easy Seal UK Roofing, who we still work with. We know what works, and we know what needs to happen to KEEP it working.

2. We’re a ‘dependable & reputable’ company. Unlike many of our competitors, we are a registered limited company in the UK. For you, this means more trust, more protection, and more security.

3. Technology. At every opportunity, we use technology to both improve our service, and make time and cost savings that we can pass on to our customers. This is why we can offer such a high level of service at such a low relative cost.

4. We’re a small team. With us, every member of our team will have an in-depth knowledge of your project and business. Believe us, that makes a difference.

5. Value. Our services are affordable & scalable, helping clients harness the power of digital marketing at highly competitive rates. The truth is, we could charge a lot more for our services. We do pay attention to our competitors (you may have looked at a few of them), and we can see many charging two or three times what we do for an identical service. Instead of charging more, having fewer customers and our customers always questioning the value of what we do, we prefer to offer a great service at a great price. To us, this makes far more sense.

6. Transparency. Have you looked at other agencies? After looking at their websites and services on offer, did you feel that you had a clear grasp of exactly what they would do for you, and exactly what it would cost?

7. We over deliver. Every single one of our services / packages includes many things that we don’t even mention. These are just little surprises that, when you start working with us. All designed to help YOUR project succeed.

8. We care. Easy to say, we know. However, we really do. We’ve been in business long enough to know that running any sort of business is tough. We know the challenges business owners face, and we do everything we can to help. We invest in every business we work with. After all, if your business goes from strength to strength – you’re going to keep working with us, right? It’s this approach that has led to us working with many of our customers for years.

That should have got your interest if you are genuinely looking for a Digital Marketing agency to help your business grow.

Direct Submit are a UK based digital marketing agency that specialises in all thing’s SEO. Set up in 2001, we have been continually adjusting and tweaking our proprietary SEO strategies, which has made us leaders in our industry.

So if you feel it’s time to transform your business and generate more traffic and more business opportunities then contact us today on 0845 2722350 or visit our Digital Marketing Services website. With offices in both Durham and Newcastle, we can help you do just that through Digital Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

The post What Makes Us Different? appeared first on .

Of course, these are the webpages where a potential customer can find out the most important aspects of your business and reasons why the customer should choose your business over the many others. However, also important are blog posts to your website. Blog posts keep consumers informed about your industry and improve reader engagement; blogs improve your brand’s image in the public eye as they display an industry knowledge that makes your business trustworthy.

Increasing Traffic through an Optimised Blog
Because blogs are important for your SEO and your brand image, it is important to optimize them properly so that they rank in a manner that an interested consumer can find. One of the most important factors in optimising a blog post to increase traffic is the use of keywords, or words, terms or phrases that users type into search engines. The keywords on your site should be relevant to the services you provide and the interests of a consumer.

It is important to understand both search volumes of specific keywords and your target audience. Be careful not to over saturate your content with keywords, as this becomes unreadable and will cause people to leave your website quickly. In addition to keywords in your content, include keywords in the URL; keep it as short as possible with only relevant keywords.

While writing your blog content, remember to link to high authority websites. Although there is a chance this may cause a consumer to leave your site, which we already discussed we did not want, your business can build credibility by linking to reputable sources. These relevant and respectable links also cause your blog to rank higher. If your blog mentions certain brands, tools or information taken from another resource, simply link the page or business you referenced.

For reader interest, guarantee that your blog contains informative, practical and unique information. People search the internet looking for answers to questions, recommendations for businesses, and examples of content. If your website provides an answer the consumer is looking for or adds value to his or her life, your website’s traffic will improve, and your ranks will increase. A blog that is unique and useful is the most valuable content on the internet. Because many businesses use online marketing tactics, it takes strategy to stand out from the crowd.

Images also increase reader engagement and can increase website traffic. Just like pages on a website, without being broken up by an image, the words become more difficult, more monotonous and more lackluster to read.

It is common for consumers to bounce off of a blog or a website quicker when it does not contain images. Further, when search engine users are searching for images, it is possible they may stumble across your original image and be taken to your blog if they click on it. In order for your image to be found, save the image as a keyword and add an alt tag.

Blog posts have the ability to grow traffic to your website and build trust in your business.

When done properly, blogs are a very valuable component of a comprehensive SEO campaign. Alone, they also have the ability to spread your business’ message and grow its customer base.

The post Methods for Increasing Traffic through a Blog appeared first on .

Blogger outreach involves building relationships with various blogs so that you can post content on other websites and create backlinks to your own site. The purpose of this is to increase your search engine rankings, visibility, and authority on the web.

With that in mind, read on to discover some of the most common blogger outreach mistakes business owners are making so that you can avoid them.

Not reading their blog
There is only one place to begin, and this is with approaching a blogger without actually reading their blog. You will be shocked by how many people do this. You need to get to know as much as possible about the blog, the author, their audience, and the content before you send an email. After all, you may find that the blogger does not accept guest blog content, in which case you would simply be wasting your time.

Not following up
One of the biggest mistakes that businesses make when it comes to blogger outreach is failing to follow up with the bloggers they have contacted. Most bloggers have to deal with a huge number of emails each day, and they lead a very busy life on top of this. If they have not responded to your initial email, it could simply be because they have overlooked because of their full inbox. This is why it is a good idea to send a follow-up email. Of course, if you do not get a reply this time, it could be that the blogger is simply not interested, so don’t hound them until they reply. And, an extra tip with regards to this is to try and include the name of the blogger on the subject line of your email. This can boost the open rate by up to 29.3 per cent, so it is definitely worth it.

Being informal
It is important to recognise that there is a very fine line between being conversational and being informal. It is a good idea to make sure your tone is a professional yet approachable one when writing outreach emails. Yes, you want to come across as friendly, but it’s vital to remember that it is business too.

Pitching content they already have
This is where a lot of business owners are going wrong when attempting to manage their blogger outreach campaign. You are simply wasting your time and their time if you propose a guest post that is similar to something they already have. Not only will your post be rejected because bloggers don’t want to duplicate content, but it indicates that you have never taken the time to look at their website. This isn’t going to make the blogger particularly happy, and you will find yourself facing an uphill battle from this point forward.

This is why you should take the time to search the blogger’s site thoroughly. Most blogs have search facilities, which make it easier for you to find out whether they already have similar content to yours on their site or not. You should also think about ways you can add more value to the person’s viewers. For example, you should look at ways to change the perspective of your ideas so that you are revising your content and approaching it from a completely different angle that has not been approached yet. You could also create an infographic to improve the value of your content.

Asking bloggers to do your work for you
If you want to insult the bloggers you are working with, this is a sure-fire way to go about it. Most bloggers are realistic enough to know that their blog is not powerful enough to reach everyone. Most blogs will have a niche area of expertise in any case, and everyone’s viewership numbers are different. However, we have seen many occasions where business owners have asked bloggers if they know anyone else they could pass their details on to. This is just adding insult to injury.

Letting the relationship die
It can be easy to let the relationship with the blogger die once you have achieved what you set out to. But you should not simply let that be the end of the interaction. You will gain a lot more in the future if you keep the relationship going with the blogger. After all, you may be able to post another blog post on their website at some point. They may also be willing to advertise your product or service via their social media channels. It would certainly be very awkward to ask for favours like this if you hadn’t bothered with the blogger since they last posted your blog.

Posting on irrelevant blogs
This is one of the biggest mistakes we see made time and tim again. You need to find blogs that are going to appeal to your target audience. They should not be competing with you, but complementing what you have to offer. Therefore, if you run a flower shop, you may want to post on gift websites, wedding blogs, event blogs, and celebration blogs. You can also team up with businesses that offer a service that complements yours. You should only post your content on blogs that are relevant to trucking – be it auto blogs or business blogs. You also need to ensure the blog is held in high regard and has a good number of viewers. After all, posting on a business blog is no good if no one actually visits the website.

Going back on your word
If you want to build a good relationship with bloggers, you need to stand by your word. If you promise that you have a client who loves someone’s blog and wants to feature on it, you should only say that if it is the case. If you then come back to the blogger and say the site needs to be reviewed first to see if it is good enough, they aren’t going to be very happy.

Signing up bloggers to mailing lists without their permission
Once you make contact with a blogger, it may seem a good idea to sign them up to your mailing list and your client’s mailing lists. However, you should never do this without the blogger’s permission.

Not doing your research first
The importance of doing your research before putting together your blogger outreach campaign cannot be stressed enough. There are many different ways you need to research. Firstly, you need to focus on your own business. What are you hoping to achieve from your blogger outreach campaign? This will help you to determine what direction to go in, and what blogs are going to be right for you. You also need to make sure that your website has a good user experience and performs well. After all, if it doesn’t, why would anyone want to connect with you? You then need to research the market for blogs relevant to your business. Discover high authority websites, as well as those with a niche viewership that is going to be just right for what you have to offer. Before you email a blogger, you need to research their website thoroughly. There is nothing worse than contacting a blogger and telling them you love reading their posts on their children yet getting the names wrong. You need to show an interest, and you need to double-check everything you write to ensure you haven’t included any incorrect details.

Not focusing on your own website
No one is going to want to start a collaboration with you if your website is outdated and spammy. Focus on updating your website by looking for the best tools to use. Doing your research and using industry information such as these website builder reviews is the best way to find the right website building platform for you. You can then ensure your website is of a high level before you try to improve your blogger outreach strategy.

Taking collaboration as a one-time deal
This leads on from the earlier point regarding maintaining a relationship with the blogger. You should not simply write a single blog post, post it, and then move onto a different blogger. This is a big mistake. Firstly, this is an incredibly difficult process to keep up, as you are going to need to secure a new lead each and every time. Moreover, building a relationship with a blogger can be highly beneficial in many ways. They may advertise for you via different platforms. Not only this but with every post you put on a particular blog, the more familiar the audience gets with your brand and what you have to offer.

As you can see, there are many mistakes that could be jeopardising your blogger outreach campaign. If you are making any of the errors that have been mentioned above, it is important to rectify them as soon as possible. Use the advice that has been provided, and you can expect improvements, both immediately and in the long run.

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Multi-Country Feeds
Advertisers can reach more holiday shoppers around the world with multi-country feeds. These allow for easy targeting of multiple countries that share the same language. For example, if you upload product information in English for the United States, those products may be automatically available to show in other English-speaking countries.

Advertisers will have to set their own shipping and location targeting for multi-country feeds. This is in order to ensure ads are only shown to people who can buy the products.

Automated Feeds
Retailers can create product feeds more easily with new automated feeds. These allow Google Merchant Center to crawl a website’s structured data to create a feed out of the product information.

New Merchant Center Experience
Google Merchant Center has been updated with additional insights, easier navigation, and more straightforward workflows. With this new interface, advertisers can manage products more effectively and learn about opportunities to promote and sell those products.

Google notes that advertisers can opt-in to ‘surfaces across Google’ through the new Merchant Center interface. Surfaces across Google allows products to be shown in rich snippets and product annotations in Google Images for free.

Surfaces across Google is currently available in the US and India, but will be expanded to more countries before the end of the year.

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