Digital Marketing Advertising in 2020: Your Guide to Facebook and Google Ads

Getting your digital marketing strategy right means making the most of the platforms that offer the best opportunities for your customers and your business. It can be a challenge to decide where to spend your advertising budget since there are so many options, and our guide to Facebook and Google advertising is designed to help you optimise your opportunities.

Our number one recommendation is to simplify the whole process for yourself by working with a digital marketing team such as ePresence Digital Marketing Agency in Cork, which can help you to optimise your conversion rate and improve your SEO. This should be the aim of every campaign you develop, and making the most of our expertise in this area can save you money and bring significantly better returns.

Digital marketing is all about staying ahead of the competition by making your business a success in terms of SERP and across all of the platforms your customers are using, and optimising every advertising opportunity will help you reach new levels of success. Our guide will identify the tools that can help you to make the most of your Facebook and Google Ads, as well as introduce a few new opportunities to watch to maximise your online profile.

Key Google Ad Trends for 2020

Did you know that, on average, people conduct 3-4 online searches every day? It’s hardly surprising that we recommend making the most of this in your digital marketing strategy! Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is becoming more and more important as part of a digital marketing strategy, and Google is commanding more than 90% of the search engine market share worldwide, so there’s no better place for your ads.

Google frequently upgrades and adds to the products available to advertisers, and it can be tricky to work out what to opt for to maximise the impact of your ads. Here, we’ve picked out the best way for you to do just that:

• Make proper use of AI tools. Google is pushing for the use of Artificial intelligence and automation to run ads. Machines and AI can carry out routine operations and make judgements more quickly than humans, and there are many ways to make use of this within your online advertising. Automation is expected to replace manual bidding on Google Ads, for example, and it is predicted that this will affect the amount of control businesses have over their targeting and intentions, increasing audience capabilities in the future. However, we don’t recommend throwing all your lot on automation just yet. The best approach at this point is to dip your toe in the water and trial automation features on 1-2 campaigns to see their effectiveness while retaining manual bidding on the rest of your campaigns.

• Discover Discover. Discover is Google’s personalised mobile newsfeed, and it aims to present relevant content to users even when they are not directly seeking it out. This is arranged in topic areas and is available through the Google mobile app, or at google.com. It offers a personalised experience, which can be controlled by the user, and features native ads, known as Discovery Ads, which are optimised to relate to user search history and other factors. This is an interesting option for businesses since it makes it possible to reach potential customers across Gmail and the YouTube home feed as well.

• Google Gallery Ads. Google Gallery Ads, launched in 2019, offer a popular advertising format, providing mobile users with images that can be scrolled through to find out more about a product or service. Gallery Ads usually feature 4-8 images and appear at the top of mobile search results, showing text, a static headline and a URL, and run on a PPC format. This is ideal for a business that is suited to top-quality visual advertising and shows the benefits of choosing an ad type that suits your brand.

• Google Lens. As a visual search engine, Google Lens recognises objects and landmarks using a native app. It works in conjunction with Google Photos and can connect with Google Assistant and the Google App on some Android phones. This tool allows you to add events to your calendar directly by photographing event flyers or billboard notices, for example, or to use a barcode to find further information about a product you like. This is likely to be an important area for future marketing opportunities, particularly in terms of integrated ad campaigns.

• Expanded Audience Segments. All digital marketing is about engaging the customer, but the audience becomes ever more important as new tools are created to make the most of this. Affinity Audiences, for example, target users according to browsing behaviour and interests and can have a big impact on conversion rates when used effectively. In-market audiences focus on audiences who are actively researching and comparing products and services, and Google now enables seasonal event targeting for particular campaigns and offers. These tools enable businesses to identify and connect with their ideal customers at the right time for conversion and can be very effective within your marketing campaigns.

• Voice Search ads. Voice search is already taking over from typed searches, and any website that is not optimised for this purpose will already be losing out. Google is testing Voice Search ads on Google Home, and this is looking likely to become an increasingly

Making the Most of Your Facebook Ads:

The cost of Facebook advertising continues to rise as the most successful online platforms see greater competition between brands every day. If you want to make the most of your marketing investment, don’t waste your money on ads that are not guaranteed to work, but invest instead in an expert team who can make sure you are getting value from your ads.

Here’s what’s hot for Facebook Ads in 2020:

• Facebook Stories Ads. Facebook Stories might have seemed like a gimmick, but they are engaging around 500 million users each day, and these numbers are not to be scoffed at. Facebook Stories offers full-screen photos, 20-second videos and posts that are visible for just 24 hours, including live videos. These vary in approach and many studies show that a combination of high-tech studio-shot and low-tech mobile-shot content is the most successful, creating a professional but personal feel that gives the best of both worlds.

• Video leads the way. Video, especially on mobile, is the leading medium for catching conversions, and mobile-first video ads are crushing the competition. It’s vital to understand that 85% of video ads are watched with the sound turned off, so captions are a must! The most successful video ads are those that create an engaged audience, so you should be exploring interactive video advertising to optimise your video campaigns for better results.

• Optimise for mobile. The desktop has had its day, and mobile-first is the biggest tip for Facebook advertisers today. Did you know that more than 90% of Facebook’s advertising revenue comes from mobile advertising? Mobile ads require less content, usually just a URL and a headline with a call-to-action (CTA) button, so you need to pack all of your vital information into this to ensure that your customers are interested straight away.

The arrival of Instagram Checkout

Are you aware of Instagram Checkout? It’s a whole new opportunity, potentially launching during 2020, to enable direct purchases through Instagram via stored payment info. ‘Checkout with Instagram’ is already in action in the United States, and so far includes more than 20 top brands, such as Adidas and Kylie Cosmetics. This is a tool with great potential, and it’s one to watch if you want to set your business ahead of the competition.

How this service will be charged is, at this stage, uncertain as trials are being carried out. However, it looks likely that businesses will pay a fee for the service, rather than consumers paying to use the option. This is likely to be a very simple, user-friendly service that enables an easier checkout process, so your customers will love it and your business will reap the benefits.

Whatsapp Business

In a move that has surprised many, Facebook has decided against introducing advertising to WhatsApp, a move which has long been anticipated. Instead, it has opted to develop WhatsApp Business, a tool which enables sellers to create digital storefronts and manage customer support within WhatsApp itself.

WhatsApp is the main platform for online access in countries such as India and Brazil, and these areas do not traditionally have such high returns on advertisements as the United States and Canada, for example. It is, of course, vital for a business to offer customers the easiest way to engage with them, and in many places, this means using WhatsApp in this way.

WhatsApp Business offers low competition and zero starting costs and is ideal for smaller businesses that cannot afford to work with e-commerce giants such as Amazon. At present, digital payments are not possible via WhatsApp, but this is predicted to change very soon. Expanding for business is, so far, proving to be a lucrative decision for WhatsApp and could be a positive opportunity for your business to engage with in the future.

Tracking your Online Profile

How you advertise your products and services can make a huge difference to your conversion rates, and meeting your customers where they are is a crucial step in your digital marketing strategy. The aim is to make it as easy as possible for your customers to engage with and commit to your business, and optimising your online profile is the most important step in this process. Opportunities such as Instagram Checkout and WhatsApp Business take your brand directly into the hands of your customers and potential customers, and this can give you a great lead in the current market.

Optimise Your Digital Marketing With ePresence

Here at ePresence Digital Marketing Agency in Cork, we recognise that every client is unique, and we will take the time to understand you and your business to make the most of your investment. Whether you want to overhaul your digital marketing strategy or work on specific advertising campaigns, our friendly team at ePresence can help. Call or email us now to find out more.