NEW: Instagram has now 1 billion users. That is the answer to the question, what will be the next big thing.

Here is the most up to date list of monthly active users for the top social networking sites. If you want the numbers just scroll down. First, you’ll find top social networking sites followed by top 10 apps.

The post Top 15 Most Popular Social Networking Sites and Apps [August 2018] first appeared on IT Infrastructure Virtualization, Software Development, Digital Marketing Agency & Software Testing.

That means now is the perfect time to review current PPC best practices to start improving your performance.

There are opportunities to revisit the dependable PPC best practices but even more opportunity to implement new ideas into your program.

Get ready to rock PPC in 2019!

1. Review New Features in Google Ads

Another year, another Google deadline.

All Google Ads advertisers must switch over to the new ad experience by October 25.

This change is introducing a number of exclusive features only available in the new experience.

Don’t overlook these new features of note in Google Ads:

• Promotion extensions

  : Showcase products with a dollar or percentage discount. These can be added to the account down to ad group level. This is great option for advertisers who have been using sitelinks or ad copy for promos. The promotion extensions stand out more and take on a “coupon” look.

• Bid adjustments for phone calls

  : Increasing bid adjustments on ads with call extensions can drive those ads to be served more often. Check the number of ad impressions and call impressions to see if this is necessary.

• Outstream video campaigns

  : Mobile-only video ads served outside of Google and YouTube only on partners sites or apps.

2.Test New Platforms

OK, PPC marketers, listen up!

Testing new paid channels is one of the most important best practices you need to know.

Go beyond just Google, Bing, and Facebook in 2019.

Here are few other advertising platforms to consider and try out:

• LinkedIn

  : Most appropriate for professional and business targeting.

• Pinterest

  : Products, services, consumer goods with a female-focused target.

• SnapChat

  : Younger demographic (13 to 35), video ads, app installs, filters, lenses.

3. Mobile Preference

For years, we’ve seen the usage of mobile devices for search increase.

Now we have arrived at a do or die moment for businesses.

It’s time to customize your mobile ad experience.

This goes beyond a PPC best practice.

PPC marketers who ignore mobile risk wasting paid budgets and losing opportunities to reach their target market.

Start by assessing the volume of traffic coming from mobile devices in PPC.

This simple chart is available in the new Google Ads interface to get a snapshot of performance by device. Bing Ads offers a similar view.

This advertiser is seeing 58 percent of conversions coming from mobile phones (bottom blue bar) with the lowest cost per conversion.

This data can be analyzed at the campaign level to determine if the bid should be adjusted based on device.

Try to make changes in 10 percent increments or a small level to determine how the changes might impact the bottom line.

4. Test New Features

Earlier in this post, we see a few new features you should consider testing in Google Ads 2019: Promotions extensions and Outstream video campaigns.

Another new feature with a bigger impact than both is the Audience Network in Bing Ads. It is AI-powered and can add a punch to your current search campaigns.

The secret is its analysis of billions of audience intent signals from Microsoft properties (including billions of Bing searches, MSN, Outlook, Skype, and LinkedIn), resulting in highly relevant in-market lists that can reach searchers just at the time they are looking to make a purchase.

When browsing over 200 in-market categories, you also get see a list size of the users, which is extremely helpful for planning.

5. Audiences Integrated with Search

For quite some time we were limited to the keyword in search engines.

But now have the ability to layer in audience targeting and demographics to further refine those keyword campaigns.

An audience is simply a list of users who are grouped together by interests or behavior online.

We know about Bing Ads audiences, but there are few opportunities to check out in Google Ads to test in 2019:

• Detailed Demographics

  : Marital status, parental status, home-ownership, education, household income.

• In-market and custom intent

  : Searches and online behavior signaling buying cues.

• Remarketing

  : Advertisers website visitors and YouTube

Note: This varies per the campaign type and seems to be updated frequently, so make this a regular check-point in your campaign management for all platforms.

6. Learn to Use Scripts

PPC managers can learn to automate repetitive tasks in their Google Ads accounts using scripts added to the account.

Navigating through the world of scripts can seem overwhelming, but a good place to start is a post here on Search Engine Journal providing use cases and resources to get started with scripts.

Luckily you don’t need a PhD in computer science because there are resources online with free or templated scripts. Google also holds workshops across the country for training.

7. Voice Search Preparation

You might not be getting a large quantity of voice searches yet. Most advertisers aren’t.

But it will be important for you to check in with the trends in your account.

Be ready to respond to information voice searchers are seeking or negative-out the irrelevant searches.

Read up on the basics in 4 Steps to Prepare Your PPC Campaigns for Voice Search, including how to identify voice search queries.

Here’s a screenshot that shows a quick way to eyeball possible traffic in your account in the new Google Ads interface:

Review this activity on a regular basis to determine if there are any valuable keywords to add to the account or as a new campaign.

For example, if you notice several navigational voice searches like “sushi restaurant near me”, consider creating a campaign to hyper-target those people trying to find you, perhaps with ads and landing pages with easy access to directions, hours, and parking.

8. Budget Review for 2019

Some advertisers get stuck in a rut and forget to review and reevaluate the distribution of their budgets.

Learn more about managing a small PPC budget, or for any size budget, consider the following:

• Which campaigns were successful, with positive ROI?
• Is there additional traffic to capture to grow those results for the winning campaigns?
• Can you allot additional budget from other campaigns with less stellar performance?
• How about shifting budget from other channels with less stellar performance?
• Are you able to request the company invest more in these results?

9. Reevaluate How You Report

Have you been using the same old report for years?

It’s time to reevaluate your essential PPC key metrics and replace or add that data into your reports.

Both Bing Ads and Google Ads have recently revamped their Overview pages. Both need work, but can provide a few handy graphs if you need them in a pinch.

Your objectives in reevaluating the reporting are:

• Are we still using this data?
• Is the information we are using actionable?
• What new metrics should we consider adding we haven’t thought about?

10. Seek Collaboration

If the PPC wheels keep spinning, going nowhere, it’s a time to step back and seek out friendly resources and second options.

Much of the skill and science for PPC management is an individual approach so there is no shortage of ideas.

Check out ebooks, experts on Twitter, and industry publications for resources and tips to motivate your 2019 plan.

Content Source – https://www.searchenginejournal.com

The post 10 Paid Search & PPC Best Practices for 2019 first appeared on IT Infrastructure Virtualization, Software Development, Digital Marketing Agency & Software Testing.

You hit the publish button and …

Nothing. Tumbleweed.

It doesn’t have to be that way. There are countless ways to get eyes on your content. However, Facebook is one of the most powerful.

Best thing? Promoting your content on Facebook doesn’t have to break the bank. You can start from as little as $1 per day.

How? Let’s dive in.

1.Create relevant content

You need to create content that’s valuable to the people you’re targeting. Ask yourself, who is this content for? Why would they spend time consuming it? Would someone who doesn’t know our brand share this?

To accomplish this, your content should do one or both of these things:

• Answer a common question your prospects ask
• Solve a problem or pain point your customer has

It also needs to be done in a way that’s engaging. Facebook’s vice president of product management, says a feed’s intent is to inform and/or entertain. Facebook wants its users to have a great experience so they stay longer. What content can you create that entertains, informs, and solves a problem?

Video content creation should follow the above tips and a few more to succeed on Facebook. You should:

• Make its run time less than 90 seconds (as short as needed to get across the main point)
• Keep it simple
• Include actionable advice
• Include a call to action

Stay consistent with your content creation. If you can post something great at least weekly, over time you will build a picture of what content works best and what doesn’t, which leads nicely to the next point.

Post regularly on @Facebook to learn what content works best (then promote it), says @MrGavinBell.CLICK TO TWEET

2. Analyze results

As you create content regularly, you can start to see what works and what doesn’t. Whether it’s video, written, or live content, you can see what brings a better reaction from the audience.

Facebook provides an incredible amount of data whenever you post content – reach, engagement (including reactions, comments, and shares), and engagement rate – and you can break it down by type of post. With video posts, you can access even more data, including the important average watch time.

TIP:

Shoot for an average watch time of 10+ seconds. If yours gets between seven to 15 seconds, that’s great, and 15 seconds or longer is excellent.

Explore the analytics to see what posts are performing best based on your goals (e.g., reach, engagement rate, shares). What unique attributes does that top-performing post have? Is it short? Longer content? Video? Does it contain an image with a person? Is it about a particular subject?

Then focus your promotion on what’s working best and double down on creating more content like that.

Focus your promotion on what’s working best & double down on creating similar #content, says @MrGavinBell.CLICK TO TWEET

3.Promote best-performing content

Use the data to inform your paid Facebook content promotion. You should advertise or boost your content to new audiences who aren’t fans or regular consumers of your Facebook content.

This is where the magic happens.

The first steps intentionally focus on organic performance. You want to use Facebook ads to amplify content that’s already working. If something does well organically, it’ll likely perform well with paid too. Focus on promoting evergreen content – the longer the content’s shelf life, the longer you can boost the post.

Caveat:

Facebook often attempts to get you to boost posts that aren’t performing well, letting you know if you boost those posts, they’ll reach more people. Ignore Facebook’s advice. Focus on the posts that work for your goals.

Ignore @Facebook’s attempts to get you to boost posts that aren’t performing well, says @MrGavinBell.CLICK TO TWEET

When boosting a post, don’t use the visible big blue button. Do it through your Facebook ads manager because you can:

• Better control your promotion (and its parameters)
• Select more specific audiences
• Split-test criteria such as audiences more easily

The following screenshot illustrates all the goals offered by Facebook, broken into three broad categories: awareness, consideration, and conversion. Pick the goal best suited to what you want to achieve with your content promotion.

Go through the ad set creation steps, selecting your audience, placement, and budget. To create your ad, click on the drop-down menu to select the post to boost.

Then you can see how that post’s promotion would appear in mobile and desktop news feeds and adjust accordingly.

4.Retarget those who consume your content

Getting people to consume and engage with your content is important, but it’s only the start. If people are consuming your content but aren’t becoming customers, what’s the point? That’s what really matters to your bottom line.

How do you take people who have consumed your content and turn them into loyal customers?

Retarget them. Retargeting is hands down my favorite part of Facebook advertising.

Ever been to Amazon, looked at a pair of shoes and been followed around the web by an ad featuring that exact pair? That’s retargeting and you’re able to do the same effect with Facebook.

If someone reads one of your articles or watches a video on Facebook, you’re able to serve a follow-up ad for additional content. You can make the ad super relevant because you know the viewer already consumed your content.

Retargeting through @Facebook ads lets you create ads for content that’s super relevant, says @MrGavinBell.CLICK TO TWEET

For example, a personal training business creates and posts an article, Top 5 Reasons You’re Not Gaining Muscle. Through Facebook retargeting, the business could follow up with people who consumed that article with an ad inviting them to download a guide, 5 Exercises to Gain Muscle. See how relevant that is? It’s a no-brainer for the person to download that PDF.

How to create the retargeting Facebook ad

Let’s walk through the steps on how to do this for an audience that consumed your video.

In ads manager, click on the menu (top left), then Audiences.

Click on create audience, custom audience, and then engagement. Once there, click on video.

From there, click on “choose a content type” to select the video or videos for which you want to retarget viewers. Choose the time frame and name the audience.

TIP:

If you’re new to retargeting, select all versions of that content type.

Now anybody who watches one of the videos you’ve selected becomes part of the custom audience.

With the custom audience parameters determined, you can pick that option when you create your content’s ad campaign (that’s the retargeting).

Summary

Those are the basics on how to use Facebook as a content distribution platform. Based on your organic results, you can pinpoint who you want your initial promoted content delivered to. Once they consume that content, you can then bring them deeper into your sales funnel with retargeting ads.

You’re building your audience, helping more people, and increasing your revenue, all within the one platform. Pretty neat, huh?

Content Source – https://www.searchenginejournal.com/

The post How to Use Facebook Ads to Distribute Your Content first appeared on IT Infrastructure Virtualization, Software Development, Digital Marketing Agency & Software Testing.

Facebook has introduced new ways for mobile app advertisers to target users who are most likely to stay engaged.

User retention optimization can now be used in conjunction with app install ad campaigns.

Advertisers will have the option to optimize for returns on day 2 or day 7 after installing an app in order to find users who are likely to keep using it.

Facebook cites a 2017 study which says only 10-12% of app users stay active 7 days after downloading an app, and only 4-5% stay active after 30 days.

That makes user retention a top priority for app developers.

Apps that have been testing Facebook’s user retention optimization are already seeing results, the company says.

In addition to more engaged users, a representative for the Starz app reports an approximate 42% reduction in cost per day-2 retention compared to install optimization.

New User Retention Metrics in Ads Manager

Advertisers can measure the retention performance of app install ad campaigns with four new metrics in Ads Manager.

The new metrics allow advertisers to measure the number of users who opened the app after installing, as well as the cost per retention.

Retention optimization and the new retention metrics in Ads Manager are now available worldwide to all advertisers.

Source – https://www.searchenginejournal.com/facebook-introduces-user-retention-optimization-for-app-install-ads/274409/

The post Facebook Introduces User Retention Optimization for App Install Ads first appeared on IT Infrastructure Virtualization, Software Development, Digital Marketing Agency & Software Testing.