Fine-Tuning Bidding Strategies in Google Ads: Maximizing Conversions Safely

When implementing a bidding strategy on Google Ads to maximize conversions with a target CPA, monitor the cost/conversion metric over the last 90, 60, and 30 days.

If you observe a positive trend in reducing the cost/conversion, consider adjusting the target CPA. However, make sure that the weekly variability of the cost/conversion has not exceeded 20% over the last four weeks, as having consistent and predictable data is crucial.

This should be done cautiously to not limit your bids too much and lose visibility and potential conversions.

🔍 Extra tip: be careful with having auto-apply recommendations activated so that Google Ads decides for you the type of bidding, whether you use target CPA or target ROAS, or how much CPA or ROAS you should have. Completely delegating these decisions to automation is like handing over the responsibility of your campaign strategy to Google.

Raising and Evaluating Brand Awareness: A Guide for Digital Marketers

Brand recognition over the long term is like the lighthouse guiding consumers towards your products or services. But how can you ensure this lighthouse shines bright and far enough? Moreover, how do we measure its brightness in a sea of competition and distraction? This post will delve into the details of increasing and measuring brand recognition, breaking down proven strategies and metrics every digital marketing professional should know.

📈 How to Increase Brand Recognition

Your brand's notoriety is like the echo of your presence in the market; to amplify it, consider the following:

1. Conduct satisfaction surveys: Surveys are tools that help you understand how your brand meets or exceeds your customers' expectations. This not only helps you improve aspects related to your offering but also strengthens the relationship with your customers, showing that you value their opinion and are committed to improvement.
   

2. Listen to your customers: Monitoring what is said about your brand at various touchpoints can give you valuable insights. This approach is not limited to collecting direct feedback but also involves analysing conversations on social media, forums, and reviews. The key here is not to avoid feedback fearing it will be negative; being open to change where it truly matters is what will most transform your brand's perception.
   

3. Know your market: Understanding the needs and desires of your audience is crucial. Studying your market allows you to identify real trends, anticipate demand, and adjust your strategy to remain relevant.

Extra tip: To know if a trend is real or not, the most important thing you can look at is whether people who buy a product or service actually use it frequently, rather than just keeping it as a "decoration".

🔍 How to Measure Brand Recognition

Measuring brand recognition is not about counting mentions on social media; it involves understanding the depth and quality of brand perception among your audience. Important metrics include:

✅ Notoriety: Measures the degree of brand awareness: how many people know it and how many do not. It's a straightforward variable: either it is known or it is not.

To measure this, you must ask potential customers in your sector very directly: "Tell me shoe brands you know," for example, or have them recognize 10 different logos of competitors within the same sector.

✅ Esteem: This is the level of satisfaction associated with your brand.

Does it meet expectations?

Has it fulfilled its promises?

If the answer is yes, the brand will have a high level of esteem. A high esteem level indicates that your brand is well-regarded.

If the answer is negative, actions should be taken to prevent the business and sales from being affected by a spillover effect.

✅ Relevance: This is very much linked to the emotional importance of your brand.

For example, imagine a digital marketing agency. With every important milestone/project completed, they directly ask their clients if they deliver on what they promise, which is, essentially, what their brand or motto conveys.

Then, they conduct testimonial recording sessions to extend their clients' satisfaction and their company philosophy. This essentially deals with whether you are making your clients' satisfaction known or not.

✅ Differentiation: Differentiation is the degree to which the brand fulfils its role related to the area it extends to.

If the area, as in the earlier example, is "digital marketing agency," we need to verify that our client recognizes us as part of that area. Or better, as the leading company in it.

Otherwise, we are not communicating well.

✅ Familiarity: A brand has high familiarity when the customer knows what it can do for them.

For example, if a service company's brand has 10 different services and the customer knows 9 of them, it has high familiarity. However, if a shoe brand offers heels, sneakers, ballerinas, and boots, but its customers only know about the boots, the brand has low familiarity.

✅ Engagement: Engagement is the ability of a person to be an ambassador for your brand or to speak positively about it without a commercial or professional link.

🎯 Loyalty...

And this is the climax of brand notoriety, getting people, on their own initiative, to become ambassadors of our products or services; that is, to sell them for us at no cost, just because they feel a strong bond.

This is not easy, I know.

There are brands you may consume daily, but with which you feel no connection.

The highest degree of recognition is achieved, in addition to constant work and consistency, with values and philosophy.

Human nature makes us need to understand better the things that affect us daily.

And brands are already part of our vital environment.

Therefore, today, generating an emotional bond is fundamental to growth; otherwise, we will just be a completely replaceable vending machine.

When we have studied the aspects mentioned before, we can know how deep brand recognition can be. Thus, we can analyse season after season the increase in reach with our actions.

It is advisable to maintain the brand permanently, which allows us to check the performance of our marketing actions and detect things to improve.

Beyond Ads: Crafting a Marketing Funnel that Converts Skeptics into Brand Advocates

Simply launching ads is not the end; it's just the beginning. Before introducing your brand into the advertising sphere, understanding the marketing funnel is essential. This funnel is a deliberate path that can transform an uninformed visitor into a dedicated brand advocate.

Imagine a stranger, completely new to your brand, becoming intrigued by an attractive blog post on the web, a relevant social media update, or an article well-positioned on Google due to well-executed SEO. This marks the attraction phase, where content does more than merely exist; it interacts, encourages, and addresses the questions that every visitor has.

As these visitors move from initial awareness to the consideration stage, we turn them into prospects by showcasing our products in a way that tells a story about their needs and the benefits we can offer.

As we progress from one stage of the funnel to another, scepticism acts as our silent challenge. A sceptical reader will evaluate every claim and statistic with a critical eye. They are not convinced by lofty adjectives, but by logical and trustworthy content that addresses their silent questions and demonstrates value beyond the superficial.

The relationship doesn’t end with a purchase; it deepens as prospects become customers and, eventually, promoters of the brand. Our goal is not merely to conclude a sale, but to foster ongoing engagement, turning customers into open advocates of the brand.

From identifying Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) in the Middle of the Funnel (MOFU) to securing Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) at the Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU), each stage is a calculated effort to maintain relevance.

By incorporating CRM and automation tools, we strengthen trust and ensure that every interaction is personalized, every message is precise, and no potential brand advocate feels overlooked.

Therefore, before launching your next advertising campaign, consider whether your marketing funnel engages even the most sceptical readers.