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What is the best platform to build my website on?

Posted on by Phil

Once you’ve decided to get a website, you might be wondering how to get it built. There are actually several different platforms. Often referred to as a CMS, which stands for Content Management System–that you can use to build your website. Depending on your goals, resources, and technical skills, one might be much better than the rest. Some of the most popular platforms today are

  • WordPress
  • Wix and;
  • Squarespace,

Each of them are designed with their own set of strengths.

WordPress

WordPress is the big boy, the head cheese of website development. It powers over 1/3 of all websites that are online today. So if you’ve ever been online, you’ve been to a WordPress site. Our very own Back9 website is run on WordPress too. That’s simply because it has the most features and we believe it is the most powerful CMS.

But with great power comes great responsibilities. WordPress is ideal for people with some background in the technology of websites and the internet. That’s is because it has practically limitless things you can do… But first, you have to know how to do them. WordPress provides the tools to get online but leaves it up to you to use them. If you don’t know what hosting is or how to make a site go live on the internet, WordPress might be tough to use. There are plenty of online tutorials from people to help teach how to use WordPress. But it takes an investment to learn everything. Plus you’ll also be responsible for ongoing maintenance like security updates.

While you have to monitor everything and make your own updates, WordPress is completely free to use. You can get plug-ins to make the site easier to build or give it extra features too. Some of those come with a cost, but downloading and building a site can also come with no cost. This is because WordPress is an open-source program. This means that many people built the code together and you can download and modify it for free.

If you want the most control, WordPress should be your go-to CMS.

Wix

If you don’t want to deal with all of the complicated bits of WordPress, Wix makes getting a website up and going quick and easy. Wix is what’s known as a WYSIWYG builder, which stands for “What you see is what you get”. With CMS platforms that use HTML, translating what you’re building to what’s shown on the screen isn’t always straightforward. But with Wix, when you move an image to a precise location on the builder, it will be in the same place on the actual webpage.

However, Wix comes with a lot of restrictions, even on its top-tier plan. Some plans put strict limits on your bandwidth. That’s the amount of data like videos and images you can have on your website. And will possibly have Wix ads throughout the site. The most basic version lets you use the website builder and will make the website live. They will also handle hosting for you so you don’t have to worry about the technical aspects. If you wanted a free option, that’s cool, Wix offers that. But it won’t be with the website address of your choice and has strict limitations.

One major disadvantage of Wix is that it’s hard to move your site to another platform. If you think you might want to move to another CMS later on you won’t be able to do that with Wix. You will have to rebuild the site. So although the website builder is easy to use and getting a site up is simple, it’s best to keep it there for a long haul or deal with a major headache later on.

If you want a website to go up fast and don’t need the extra features, Wix is a great way to make it happen.

Squarespace

Another popular CMS is Squarespace, which is sort of like Wix with a stronger focus on eCommerce: buying and selling through your website. Squarespace doesn’t have any storage or bandwidth restrictions on any of its plans and has some basic SEO features to help your site be found.

Their basic plan starts at $12 USD/month and gives access to their design templates, some customisation options, and basic analytics data like website views and unique visitors.

However, the basic plan doesn’t give any way to sell products, which is one of the main reasons to use Squarespace over another CMS, so you may need to go up a tier or two. Squarespace has a limited number of templates, but the ones they have can help your products look sleek and attractive. But if you’re looking to add a massive online store with a lot of different categories, you might be better off with a dedicated eCommerce CMS.

If you want to strike a balance between design and eCommerce, Squarespace does a decent job at both.

What about eCommerce sites?

If your main goal is to sell products on your website, an eCommerce CMS will focus on making your online store simple and straightforward. These include platforms like OpenCart, Shopify, and WordPress with WooCommerce, each of which has ways of managing inventory, creating secure transactions, and the way they charge fees. Because these eCommerce CMS platforms are all about selling products, we’ve created a separate blog that you can read about it, Which eCommerce Platform is best for me? 

So which CMS is best?

Which CMS is best for you depends on what you’re looking to achieve with your website. If you want a site that’s simple and easy to use, Wix is a good option. And if you’re looking to balance good design with some basic e-commerce features, Squarespace is a good choice. But with an investment of time and money, WordPress by far has the most customisation options. A professionally-designed WordPress site will cost more upfront and take longer to build, but if you’re looking to have a site for the long-term and get the best results, it’s a fantastic investment. And custom websites come with a ton of benefits that make them a worthwhile investment. The team at Back9 has all the skills to build your site, create useful, engaging content, and market it to the people to help it grow, and we can start building yours today!

What is the best eCommerce platform for my business?

Posted on by Phil

When it comes to deciding the best platform to build your website on, firstly, it comes down to what you want your site to do. Secondlay who’s going to build it. And third, how much tech experience you have. For the best quality, custom-built WordPress sites undoubtedly wear the crown. But does that still hold true for eCommerce websites? What is the best eCommerce platform that’s best for you and where is the best place to start with e-commerce?

Choosing an e-commerce platform is an important part of How to sell products online. In our article, What is the best platform to build my website on? we talked about popular website platforms. We also briefly mentioned eCommerce the platforms OpenCart, Shopify, and WordPress with WooCommerce. eCommerce is a special beast when it comes to websites.

Safety 1st NZ E-commerce Platform Case study cta

An Ecommerce website is a Sales tool

Instead of optimising for visitors, you want to optimise for sales. People should buy from your online store, right? So which platform will make it more likely that they will? What will it cost and how do you sell products online with a Payment Gateway? Which is the best payment gateway to sell online? What are the Payment Methods for Selling Online? And what is the best inventory management software? We’ll cover some of the most popular eCommerce platforms in NZ in this article to help you decide which will be best for you based on your budget, design skills, and tech experience.

In this article we’ll look at the following platforms and the pros and cons to each.

  1. Shopify
  2. OpenCart
  3. Squarepace
  4. Magento
  5. Wix
  6. WooCommerce (on WordPress)

Shopify

Shopify’s goal is to do the hard work for you when it comes to setting up your online store. One of the biggest benefits of the platform is that you don’t need to have tech skills at all. You can get an online store up in a matter of minutes with their easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor. There are also options for dropshipping, something many small players are doing to compete with big stores, which you can find out more about in the ultimate guide to dropshipping and how to create a unique dropshipping store. With Shopify, you can get a store started quickly that looks good and feels familiar to people.

However, if you want the edge in Search Engine Optimisation so you can get found on Google, Shopify’s limit of customisation can hurt you here, especially on lower subscription tiers. It can also be difficult to export your posts and information if you decide to try out another platform. You can also run into scaling issues if your business starts to grow because there are limited options for customisation. The familiarity may work against you too; your store will look similar to a lot of other ones due to the limited themes, which means it’s harder to stand out and show off what makes you unique.

Some other features of Shopify include:

  • Website hosting is part of the package
  • Drag-and-drop customisation
  • 24/7 Support
  • Abandoned cart recovery
  • Unlimited file storage

When should I use Shopify?

If you’re okay with adding products on your own and want a good-looking, easy to use store and aren’t worried about extensive customisation, Shopify could be a good choice for you.

OpenCart

OpenCart aims to keep things straightforward by making it easy for you to set up a store. But the main draw? It’s free… Well, to a certain extent. Added functionality like tracking abandoned carts for remarketing comes with a cost through plugins. Some themes are also paid as premium options. Even still, OpenCart is perhaps the cheapest eCommerce platform on the market to get a basic shop up and running.

However, that free price comes with some costs. Customisation is difficult and although the software is Open Source–The code is freely available to edit–actually making those changes and getting the look, feel, and design you want can require some serious coding skills. You’ll still need to sort out hosting yourself as well as do website maintenance on your own.

Some other features of OpenCart include:

  • Free to use at its most basic level without plugins and extensions.
  • Fast to set up with a built-in product management system.
  • Unlimited products can be added.
  • One account can manage multiple stores.
  • Built-in sales and coupon codes tools.
  • Multiple currencies and languages are supported.

When should I use OpenCart?

If your goal is to get a shop up fast, easy, and cheap, OpenCart may be a good option for you. It also helps if you have a lot of technical knowledge–you’ll need to set up some things on your own to get your shop up and running.

Squarespace

Although it’s a template site–meaning you have to choose from a set of templates for your website instead of building it custom–Squarespace is known for having some of the best-looking templates around. Designed with artistic professionals in mind, Squarespace believes design is not a luxury reserved only for the elite. This means that all of the templates on Squarespace are free, although you can still buy 3rd party ones to use on your site at a cost if you’d prefer.

On the eCommerce side, Squarespace has a few subscription levels specifically designed for selling products and services online. The templates can really make your products pop–so long as you’ve invested into taking great photos or videos of your products already. And their basic eCommerce package starts at $26 USD per month with no transaction fees.

However, Squarespace is limited when it comes to features like support and SEO. Adding extra features can be a challenge as well unless you use the Squarespace plug-in store, which has limited options compared to some other platforms. And even though many of the templates look good, they’re still templates, so won’t be as good or unique as a custom-designed website.

Some other features of Squarespace include:

  • A free custom domain for one year to help you get started.
  • Optimised templates for mobile, desktop, and tablet.
  • A business email (email@yourbusiness.co.nz) through Gmail free for the first year.
  • Built-in ad options like pop-ups and banners.
  • Marketing options like abandoned cart recovery (Highest tier only).

When should I use Squarespace?

Squarespace claims that design is one of their primary focuses. And for a template site builder, they have some of the best designs in the business. This makes them an ideal choice if you have a small store with bespoke products where the look of your products is a major part of the appeal, like for artists, photographers, and beauty products.

Magento

Magento is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms around right now. With about 20% of all sites that sell online doing so through Magento. It comes stocked with an impressive array of features, including shipping and inventory management, customer logins with saved orders for quick reordering, and content management for writing blogs, articles, and updates. However, there’s some good and bad news when it comes to using Magento.

The good news? The Community version is free to use. All it takes to get started is a download. Setup on the other hand, can be complicated. It’s still free… If you know what you’re doing. Otherwise, you’ll need the help of a web developer.

The not-so-good news is that if you want the experts at Magento to set it up for you, it’s far from free. The Enterprise version is where everything is set up and managed for you. In order to even get a price quote, you have to fill out their contact form and have them get back to you, with reported prices ranging anywhere from $15,000 to $50,000 USD… per year.

Some features of Magento include:

  • The community version is OpenSource, meaning it’s free to use and is updated by the community frequently.
  • Content staging and preview so you can see what the customers will see before making a product available.
  • Customer segmentation so you can break customers down into groups for targeting purposes.
  • Ability to add additional features as needed with a large collection of plug-ins.

When should I use Magento?

Because the initial setup can be challenging on a technical level, Magento is best-suited for larger stores. Especially stores that have a lot of capital behind them. A large local retailer making the move to sell online with thousands of products will likely benefit from the features much more than a small boutique shop with a few handmade products.

Wix

Visit the Wix website and you’ll be met with a Get Started button front and centre that guides you through a series of questions to build you a personalised website. It might even seem like magic that you can get a website up and ready in minutes. Further customisation takes some effort and a bit of a learning curve working on the proprietary platform though. But having something workable in a few minutes is certainly impressive.

On the eCommerce site, Wix doesn’t have as many features as some of the heavy hitters. But if you’re already using Wix, it’s easy to upgrade to add functionality for selling online at $17USD per month (for annual payment). They also have a connected app store you can browse to add additional features, though some come with a cost.

However, Wix uses a limited number of templates. This means your store and website will look like a lot of other ones out there. They also don’t currently have stock management alerts, so if you sell a product but don’t have it in stock, you could be stuck in a bind. Wix also has limited options for functionality–meaning that if you need an unusual feature for your store, you may not be able to get it. Wix also wants to keep you around, so migrating your site somewhere else isn’t easy or straightforward.

Some features of Wix eCommerce include:

  • No transaction fees–besides the monthly/annual subscription, you don’t have to pay Wix anything.
  • Easy to add eCommerce if you already have a Wix website.
  • Ability to sell physical or digital-only products.
  • 20GB of online cloud storage included
  • Easily connect your store to your Facebook and Instagram account.
  • You can sell with multiple currencies across different countries.

When should I use Wix?

If you already have a Wix website and want to start selling online or you want to build a site on your own without much technical skill, Wix might be a good fit for you.

WordPress with WooCommerce

The best thing about WordPress is that you have endless customisation options to make your store look and act exactly as you want. The bad news… There are endless customisation options–so web development skills are a must. Learning how to use WordPress like a pro takes time, enough that many people build websites for people as a full-time job.

WooCommerce is a plugin that plays off the endless customisation so you can build a store exactly the way you want. You can have custom products, pages, checkout systems, sales funnels, whatever you want. You’re only limited by the capabilities of the builder, so getting a skilled web developer is important!

However, using WordPress with WooCommerce means that you’ll need to have a WordPress website already. You won’t be able to simply download WooCommerce and get a store ready from nothing the same day. Because of this, it can take some time to get your store up and going, but it will be powerful and versatile once it is.

Some other features of WooCommerce include:

  • Search Engine Optimisation tools.
  • Free backup options.
  • Thousands of plug-ins through WordPress.
  • Custom fields for products.
  • Use any payment gateway.
  • Easy integrations with other software.

When should I use WooCommere?

If you want the freedom of customisation, the ability to scale for large operations, and the largest selection of add-ons and plugins, WooCommerce is the right choice for you.

Which eCommerce platform does Back9 recommend?

Because each platform has different strengths and weaknesses, we don’t often recommend one above the rest. The right choice for you will depend on your goals, budgets, timeframes, and features needed. Depending on what those are, a basic template site may suit you. But be aware, the costs can soar quickly when adding plugins etc. Or you may need a fully-custom website using WooCommerce to best achieve your goals.

We specialise in custom designed and Built WordPress ecommerce websites, so if you think you may want to work with us please feel free to get in touch

If you’re not sure which is right for you or even want helping figuring it out, we can help. Or if you already have an e-commerce website and want to make it better, we can maybe help with that too.

So if you’re ready to get an ecommerce site or reach more customers? Get in touch with us today!

 

Still not sure? Book a FREE consultation

What sort of a business plan should you have?

Posted on by Phil

When you start a business, sometimes, greatness can be accomplished by accident. In fact, some of the greatest inventions in the world were discovered by accident. For example, Penicillin has saved literally tens of millions of lives. Sometimes, greatness isn’t achieved, but a happy accident is thrust upon you. Either way, having a business plan helps.

In the business world, however, you’re more likely to be successful if you make plans ahead of time. The right plans can be the difference between failure and resounding success. Three of the plans that can make or break your chances of success are developing a Business Plan, a Content Strategy Plan, and a Marketing Plan.

Do you have a solid business plan?

In simple terms, a Business Plan is a written description of what your business does, what it hopes to accomplish, and how it plans on doing that. Ideally, this should be a comprehensive, official document. However, it should also be one not set in stone. It should be a “living document”, one that changes and evolves as the business does.

In the Business Plan, it’s important to both create S.M.A.R.T. goals and measure progress. Quick wins, short-term goals that can be accomplished in 90-days or less, can help you stay on track for your larger goals. Developing KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for your team can help with their individual progress. Additionally, they show how they fit in with the team.

How do I make a business plan?

Not sure where to start? You can get a Business Plan Template straight from the government’s website to give you an idea of what you should include. It’s a great start if you want to create the plan on your own. Sometimes though, it’s hard to be objective as a participant (or even the founder) of the business. Getting a qualified third-party to help create it can be a tremendous asset. Here at Back9, we had the help of Malloch McClean – also our accountants – who have helped us create our business plan and make our core values official.

Getting everything written down and official helps make it real. It also gives you something to refer back to later on as needed.

What is a Content Plan?

Content is an essential part of digital marketing.

With more people online now than ever before, ignoring the internet for your business can greatly limit the people you reach. If you’re keen to be online but don’t know how to balance creating webpages, blog articles, social media posts, videos, and other kinds of content, how do you even start?

This is where creating a Content Plan comes in. A Content Plan is a detailed explanation of content you can create as well as times to post it to make it available. It helps you stay on-track with timeframes and ideas. This way you don’t constantly have to try to come up with something new whenever you have a few spare moments.

What if I have a hard time coming up with content ideas?

Coming up with ideas for a Content Plan can seem like a major challenge. For example, if you want to post on social media every week and maybe a blog every other week. How can you have enough ideas?

One way is to do a content generation session with your team. At Back9, we call it the Tight-5. This involves cross-referencing your offerings with things that people actively search for like problems you have the solution for, costs of products and services, and comparisons between different models and providers. In a one-hour session, we had over 100 different blog ideas. Therefore, 100 blog articles can be a few years’ worth of content, organised in just one hour of brainstorming!

If you don’t have a team, or have a team that’s hard to get together in one place, or still have trouble generating ideas, we can help you with a content planning session at our studio. Alternatively, we can do it online through video conferencing. Contact us for more information, or set up a session now.

Marketing plans help you stay ahead

A content plan can help you get valuable information and resources together for your customers. But then how do you make sure that they see it? That’s where a Marketing Plan comes in. Huge corporations have separate departments full of massive teams just for marketing and can spend more on a campaign than the GDP of a small country. With that much investment, something must be working! However, if you don’t have a dedicated team at your disposal, where do you begin to start?

We like to say that marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. In order to be successful in a marathon, you have to train and plan for the results far ahead. A marketing strategy looks to do just that. A good marketing plan looks to make you win the long game. It does this by using your content from your content strategy along with other assets you have that can be used for marketing. This includes search engine marketing, advertising, social media marketing, and more.

One thing that can greatly help out your marketing is to create things ahead of time. Since these plans tend to go out several months or even longer, you know what you’re going to be doing well before it happens. But that doesn’t mean you have to wait to create your social posts, ads, or campaigns. These can be made in advance and even scheduled through tools like Facebook Business Manager and Google Ads. We recommend doing things like photoshoots and videos in advance so you can have everything you need ready ahead of time.

A marketing plan and doing things in advance can help you get ahead and stay ahead.

What about when something major like COVID-19 happens? Don’t these plans become useless?

Not necessarily. An important part of all of these plans should be to address what happens if something stops you from doing business as usual. In case of an emergency, will your business be able to keep operating? And if not, will it survive until it’s able to once more?

Even if it’s impossible for your business to keep operating during the emergency, there are still things you can do. Your website can still work to tell customers what you do. You can keep up a Facebook presence, even if you’re only posting what you’re up to. If you do service quotes, you can get some of those prepared for when standard business resumes. You can even sell vouchers or deals for when things go back to normal. There’s plenty to do!

Your immediate content and marketing plans might need to be adjusted. However, if you make the content ahead of time, you can shift it out to a later date. By planning for emergencies, you can reduce the impact on your team. You can let customers know what’s happening and be ready to start running when you can get back on your feet again.

Selling online: OpenCart vs WooCommerce, which is better?

Posted on by Phil

OpenCart vs WooCommerce

With a decent following in New Zealand, OpenCart sites allow people to sell their products online and get a store up and running quickly. In the case of OpenCart vs WooCommerce, both have strong cases. OpenCart makes the straightforward claim their product is, “Simple to Start. Easy to run.” But does this eCommerce platform leave your cart open to sales, or close you off from potential customers?

Currently, OpenCart’s biggest rival is WooCommerce. WooCommerce is a plugin (a piece of software that adds extra features to a website) for WordPress that allows any WordPress site to transform into an eCommerce website.

When OpenCart and WooCommerce are put through the gauntlet, which eCommerce platform will get stuck in a rut and which can handle bigger challenges and emerge victorious?

OpenCart

OpenCart aims to keep things straightforward and claims to make it easy for you to set up a store. But the main draw? It’s free… Well, to a certain extent. Added functionality like tracking abandoned carts for remarketing comes with a cost through plugins. Some themes are also paid as premium options. Even still, OpenCart is perhaps the cheapest eCommerce platform on the market to get a basic shop up and running.

However, that free price comes with some costs. Customisation is difficult and although the software is Open Source–The code is freely available to edit–actually making those changes and getting the look, feel, and design you want can require some serious coding skills. You’ll still need to sort out hosting yourself as well as do website maintenance on your own.

Some other features of OpenCart include:

  • Free to use at it’s most basic level without plugins and extensions.
  • Fast to set up with a built-in product management system.
  • Unlimited products can be added.
  • One account can manage multiple stores.
  • Built-in sales and coupon codes tools.
  • Multiple currencies and languages are supported.

When should I use OpenCart?

If your goal is to get a shop up fast and cheap, OpenCart may be a good option for you. It also helps if you have a little bit of technical knowledge–you’ll need to set up some things on your own to get your shop up and running.

WooCommerce

If you want a unique site with a one-of-a-kind design, you won’t find a better option than WooCommerce. Because it’s part of WordPress, you get the same massive library of options and plug-ins, as well as the ability to simply build what you want. If it doesn’t exist to download, you can simply get a talented web developer to make it real!

However, if you don’t have an existing website, it’ll take longer to get a store ready to go on WooCommerce. This is because WordPress doesn’t have any default templates built-in. You can find options to download themes if you like, but none come prepackaged like many other eCommerce platforms.

This works as a double-edged sword because you can’t get an instant website, but you can also build whatever you want. If you have the time and skills (or know someone who can build the site for you), you have many, many more design, usability, and functionality choices with WooCommerce than any other eCommerce platform. If you treat your website as an investment that will last for many years, the extra time to get the store running is worth the wait.

Plus it’s free to download and use, which is always a good price.

Some other features of WooCommerce include:

  • You can get your website data backed up for free in case of an issue or site crash.
  • Built-in tools to help your site get found on Google.
  • The ability to use any kind of payment including Stripe, POLiPay, PayPal, and more.
  • Options to add unlimited products in any setup you want.
  • Easy integrations with other software that can sync together, such as connecting a Facebook shop to your inventory management system for accurate stock taking.
  • Thousands of plug-ins through WordPress to add additional features.

When should I use WooCommere?

If you’re looking to get a custom website, want more than the basic features of eCommerce, or already have a WordPress website, WooCommerce is a good option for you.

Who’s the winner?

If you need to get a quick eCommerce website set up right away, OpenCart might be the way to go–if you don’t have a WordPress site. Otherwise, the additional functionality and options mean that WooCommerce is the winner.

These extra features really come into play if you decide to do more than just sell products online like write articles or blogs or add videos or interactive content. Since OpenCart is designed with sales in mind, everything else gets tossed on the backburner. That doesn’t mean you can’t have a dedicated blog on OpenCart, just that things besides shopping are auxiliary features.

By using WooCommerce, you can have all of the functionality of an eCommerce store but also have everything you can do with a normal WordPress site too. You don’t have to pick and choose between the two, meaning that if you want to make a video game play on a website that someone has to beat before they can download your eBook, you can. And your site won’t have a problem selling products and services either. So when it comes to OpenCart vs Woocommerce who do you think wins?

To learn about other popular eCommerce platforms, go take a look at our article, Which eCommerce Platform is right for me? 

9 Key Reasons to use Google Ads

Posted on by Phil

Do Google Ads really work? Yes! Google Ads is one of the most effective ways to increase your sales fast and, with the right setup and management, it’s an extremely powerful tool that can bring in a whole new set of customers. And more customers equals more money for you! In this article, we’ll go over 9 key reasons to use Google Ads for your business, and why now is the best time to start.

1. Get your business on the 1st page of Google

The most straightforward reason to use Google Ads is that it will get your business found on Google. And as an ad, you can jump straight to the top of Page 1. This doesn’t mean that your ad will show every single time someone searches for your industry, but it does mean that it will show up frequently. Without Google Ads, it will often take a few months for your website to rank well on Google (but that’s a whole other story, and requires lots of work!) But with Google Ads, the results can start right away.

2. Reach people anywhere

Even with the best flyers and print ads, your reach is going to be limited by distribution and region. Since Google Ads is on the internet, you can reach the next city, the next region, even countries on the other side of the world. If you have the ability to ship internationally, you can target people in say, the US who would’ve never heard your revolutionary radio ad. You can reach people anywhere, and even gain fans and followers for your brand from outside the country. 75% of users say that paid search ads make it easier to find information, which is especially relevant when they live far away from you and wouldn’t see your local advertising. 

3. Increase the number of visitors to your website

The more people that view your website, the more likely they are to hear and understand what you have to say. They may share it with their friends, family, or other people they know that have a question you can answer. Even if they don’t share it, more visitors to your website can help your organic SEO (which means getting found without paying google for ads) grow, which can help you get more visitors, to get your more sales, to get you more visitors, and so on.

4. Find customers ready to buy from you

It’s not just quantity that matters, but quality. People that take the time to click on ads are 30%-50% more likely to make a purchase than regular website visitors. People that come across your website on accident may be looking to buy, but they may just be doing research. But if someone clicks on an ad, they tend to know that they’re being sold to–and continue on anyway. Without any Google Ads, you could be missing out in this important group.

5. Get new leads

Google Ads isn’t just for making sales from eCommerce websites. If you don’t or can’t sell online, you can still use Google Ads to collect customer information for new leads. You can send people to a dedicated landing page where they can request more information, submit info for a free quote, subscribe to your newsletter, and more. Then you can get back to them on your own time with the info they need or have them continue through your sales process.

6. Grow brand awareness

For many companies, brand awareness is one of the most important things on the marketing checklist. Building brand awareness helps people become familiar with your brand. They may not need what you’re selling at the time, but they’ll begin to associate your products and services with you. Then, if they ever do need what you offer, you’ll be first on their mind.

7. It costs less to advertise than traditional methods 

Traditional advertising can be expensive, typically a few hundred or even thousands of dollars for a limited run. Meanwhile, Google Ads can reach people for a very reasonable cost. And it doesn’t expire. In terms of how much you should spend on Google Ads, it’s hard to nail down exactly how much ads will cost.

Typical cost-per-click varies by industry, but there’s plenty you can do to end up on the lower end of the cost spectrum. The best and simplest way to get your cost down is to have your ads managed by a certified Google Ads professional. 33% of people click on search ads because of how relevant the ad is to their search. And professional management can make sure that your account is relevant to the right people. Even after setup, management, and your ad budget, you can get a far greater return by having your account set up properly. 

8. Adjust ad campaigns easily

If you do traditional advertising like printing flyers, once they’re printed, they’re final. Noticing a typo or changing a deal after the fact, means you’ll have to get an entirely new run printed. Or hand them out with outdated information. With Google Ads, changes are easy. You can adjust your ads with a few clicks. You can change the budget in a matter of minutes. If you’re having a difficult month, you can even pause the ads temporarily, and resume then again whenever you want. With this kind of control, you don’t have to worry about Google Ads running you dry. That’s because you can adjust campaigns whenever you need to.

9. Make more money! 

We talked a lot about spending money on Google Ads. But the old wisdom is true here: you have to spend money to make money. Including setup and regular management, the average business makes $2 for every $1 spent on Google Ads. 100% return is pretty good! And Google is constantly updating the platform to make sure running ads is worthwhile. 97% of their revenue comes from ads after all, so they have to make sure it’s worth your investment! A properly set up ad account can make a huge difference in getting customers, and ultimately, making you more money.

Ready to use Google Ads?

If you’re keen to start using Google Ads, that’s great. You can be successful with Google ads if they are done right. So in saying that, we don’t always recommend trying to manage Google Ads yourself, unless you have some experience… Using a professional for creating an account, setting up some campaigns, and helping you run your first set of ads will pay off. Get in touch with us if you’d like to see how Google Ads can help you!



What is remarketing?

Posted on by Phil

Remarketing is marketing to people who have already shown an interest in your products or services, such as people who have been on your website but didn’t buy anything. It’s one of the best ways to reach people who are interested in what you have to offer, yet something that many businesses don’t do; or even know about. There are some pros and cons to remarketing, but when done right, it can be good for you and your customers.

How does remarketing work?

The most common way that remarketing is done is through browser cookies. These are small bits of data that track whether or not you’ve visited a site. These help you get ads related to sites you’ve visited instead of getting something completely random you may or may not have any interest in. The idea is that the ads will be more relevant to you. And more relevant ads mean you’ll be more likely to interact with them.

So does remarketing work? According to Marketo, about 96% of visitors that come to your site aren’t ready to buy. They might be doing research like comparing what you have to a competitor. Or maybe they just want more information. Even if you’re extremely thorough and try to cover everything about your topics, you could be missing the information they need. They might need to visit a few other sites first and learn a little more from each.

Remarketing can be effective in these cases because it works as a reminder that your site was one of them that they were looking at before. Once they move on to the later stages of The Buyer’s Journey, they might be looking to do comparisons between different companies, and your remarketing ad could add you to that list or maybe even make you the one they choose.

What kinds of remarketing are there?

One of the most common forms of remarketing is abandoned cart remarketing. Have you ever looked at an online store, added a few useful things to your cart, and then completely forgot about them? If you’re like a lot of people and log out or close your browser window when you’re done interneting for the day, those items might get lost in the web. Abandoned cart remarketing sends you a reminder that you left things in your cart. If you have an email account, it might be through email. Or it might appear when you go back to the site next time. Most people find these helpful, because it’s a reminder of something they want–or no longer want and can quickly X out.

Google Ads

Google Ads, the most popular kind of remarketing, uses browser cookies. If you’ve ever searched for something–say, looking for a flight to Melbourne for an upcoming Holiday–you might notice that ads for that flight suddenly appear on random sites. Ads like these can be really useful. Since ads are going to be shown on a site regardless, wouldn’t it be better if they were for something you might actually use? That’s Google’s philosophy; useful ads are better for everyone.

Even though Google Ads remarketing is done primarily through image ads, those images still have keywords attached to them. This means they can show up when those keywords are searched for. But they can also show up after visiting a site. That Melbourne flight could come up with a picture of a $60 discount while you’re searching for a definition, stalking your rivals, or searching for things to do at work that’s anything but work. And if you were planning on going anyway, that’s a couple of extra Bogan Burgers for your trip!

Facebook Ads

Facebook also does remarketing (they call it retargeting though) with Facebook ads. By adding a little piece of code–called a Facebook Pixel–to your website, Facebook can connect your website and your business page together. This means people who came looked at something on your site can get an ad for it later on Facebook. Facebook is very into ad targeting. Targeting also helps you, because you can show ads only to the people that want to see it, like people who viewed one of your pages.

E-commerce sites can get even more out of retargeting by connecting a product catalogue to their Facebook account. Say you visited a site and added a few things to the cart. Then you got a text about some awesome monkey wearing a top hat and playing horseshoes and left the page. You might forget all about that after watching through the monkey’s entire video catalogue; even though you did want what was in your cart. With Facebook retargeting, later when you’re on Facebook, you can see an ad for the items in your cart. And it can remind you that you forgot to actually finish checkout. So you click it and finish buying it. Pretty nifty, right?

Facebook goes to the next level and does Dynamic ads too. This means that you don’t have to create an ad for every product in your catalogue. Instead, if you connect the catalogue and say you want to target people who added to their cart, the Facebook Pixel will show that same product the person left in the cart automatically. Easy peasy!

Done wrong, remarketing is creepy

When done right, remarketing serves as a gentle reminder. You might’ve forgotten to finish the checkout process. Or had too many tabs open. Seeing the ad or a reminder email helps you finish getting something you already wanted.

Other times, it’s plain creepy.

Have you ever talked about something you’ve never searched for, then had it appear as an ad minutes later? While major corporations deny that your devices are listening to you, they may be stretching the truth. Many people have experienced this strange phenomenon, and it may be due to software embedded into apps and programs. And you may be giving permission without knowing it by accepting all permissions that apps request.

Some of these companies are alleged to activate your phone’s microphone and record what’s being said and then use that information to choose what ads to show you. So if you talked about getting a cat and that you’d need to buy some kind of cat food, you might suddenly see an ad for cat food, even if you hadn’t started searching yet. To reduce the chance of something like this happening, be aware of the permissions you give apps. If an app doesn’t need a permission to function, don’t give it!

How do I make sure my remarketing is effective without being stalkerish?

If you don’t want to come off as a creepy stalker, doing specific, targeted remarketing is the way to go. There are some things you can do to make it so your ads are only going to the right people.

First, don’t use sneaky, black-hat apps that activate microphones and sell people’s info. Just, don’t.

Second, be specific in targeting. Typically, remarketing is done based on page visits to a specific URL. So if someone visits a page for a product or the page to start checkout, they could get an ad for that product or service later. But what about accidental clicks? Or people that already decide what you have isn’t for them? They aren’t going to click an ad later for something they already decided was a no-go. Instead, you can use tools like Google Tag Manager to set events or behaviours, so you could show the ad if someone scrolls down to the bottom of the page, spends at least 10 seconds there, starts to enter their payment details, and so on. You’ll tend to get much better ROI with these methods. But they also take time to set up all these extra steps as well as some technical know-how.

Third, put time limits on your remarketing campaigns. If you search for weight loss pills and then get an ad for some a year and a half later when you’ve already lost all the weight (Way to go!) that’d be quite rude! Facebook uses 28 days for product views and 14 days for adding to cart as their standard, but you can adjust that to what makes sense for your target audience. Google defaults to 30 days and maxes out at 540 days, so choose what works best for your target audience.

How can I set up remarketing?

If you’re keen to try remarketing, there are a few ways that you can do it. One is to get a program to do abandoned cart remarketing for you. There are several options for this, each with their own features and fee structure. You can also set up a Google Ads account and create Remarketing ads. The benefit of Google Ads is that the platform is free to use and you only pay for the ads through clicks/views/etc. But it also has a steeper learning curve and takes an investment of time and energy to learn. Fortunately, the team here at Back9 can help. We have a Google Ads certified team that will handle your remarketing and adjust it to make it more effective over time. We’re also experienced in Facebook Ads and can make highly-targeted audiences so you can get the most from your advertising dollar. Get in touch today to set up a meeting and let’s talk about how to make your site better!