Resuming Paid Advertising After COVID

Andy Splichal  0:03  

Hey there, this is Andy host of the Make Each Click Count Podcast coming at you. And today I'm excited to be discussing resuming your paid advertising in a post COVID world. So over the last few weeks, as many of the areas across the country began to slowly reopen. Many of my private clients who pause their online advertising back in March have also decided to relaunch their online Google campaigns. And I'm excited to announce that I'm seeing preliminary results based on advertising over the last few weeks. And those results have been very good for business owners. Each one of my private clients has been more profitable in late May and early June of this year than they were in February of 2020 before the pandemic occurred. Here's what I believe to be some of the reasons for the increase of profitability for companies using Google paid ads. Number one, there is less competition right now on Google. It's a fact that many advertisers pause their online advertising in March or April of this year. Now Google works remember by displaying ads in the most prominent position based on a real time auction. When determining how high and advertisers pay that appears within the Google search results. Google uses a combination of an advertisers bid and other factors, such as relevancy to the user search query to determine what is called ad rank. The higher the ad rank, the more prominent on the page and ad will appear. The more prominent and ad appears, the more likely an ad, whether a product ad, like in Google Shopping, or a text ad, like in Google Search, is to be clicked on by a potential customer. And with less businesses advertising, it's translating into less competition and cheaper bids for those who want to advertising meaning higher Ad Rank and more prominent positions for your ads right now within Google. In fact, right now, I have seen some of my clients where their average cost per click is 50% or less of what they were paying earlier in the year for the exact same search terms. So you combine this cheaper clicks with a relatively the same conversion rates. And it's no wonder that profitability has been substantially higher these last few weeks. And although I'm not sure how long this phenomenon is going to last, current advertisers are certainly take advantage of cheaper clicks, thus reducing their cost per click, and thereby helping to drive their profit margins higher. There's also an opportunity to reach more shoppers than ever before. Less competition online means less options for shoppers. And well, this might not be a good thing for consumers. But let me tell you, it's a real real good thing. If you're one of the remaining choices right now. It also by advertising. Using Google, you're going to increase your business not only in the short term of their profitability, but in the long term. I always like to remind my private clients that advertising using paid ads is not a short game. Not only is advertising on Google about optimizing your profits per sale now, but it's also about the average lifetime value al V of a customer, advertisers are paying for that first sale. But how many future sales will an average customer make from your website after their initial purchase? This is the data you need in order to calculate your average lifetime customer value. Increasing the ARV depends on factors like staying in contact with past customers. How often are you emailing your customer base? How happy your customers are with products? Are you doing everything you can to exceed your customers expectations? And how smooth was the initial transaction? Did your customer receive their order as they expected in the manner promised? You combined good service with good products and you have the initial recipe for increasing your average customer lifetime value? Number two reason that Google has been more profitable in the last few weeks is it, quite frankly, there's more people shopping online. What has happened in the past few months is like nothing we've ever seen before. In California, for instance, we have been asked to stay at home for almost three months in county. Now that not only means that all the grass in my backyard has begun worn out, but it also means that personally, I've been buying a whole lot of stuff online. Some I need much that I don't. And you know what, and the action of increasing the amount of shopping done online over the last few months, I am not alone. And it isn't just the people who already were accustomed to shopping online, either that or increasing how much they're shopping. Nope. In addition to regular online shoppers, there are people that have never previously shopped online that now have no other choice do to stay at home orders, including specially some Generation Xers and a whole lot of baby boomers, The stay at home orders have created a whole new wave of online shoppers, and it is a big wave. In 2019 online purchases made up 16% of commerce, and it's been consistently growing. But now many experts predict that because of the COVID 19 pandemic, it will change the way shopping is done and specifically how the way online shopping is done forevermore. And 2020 get this online shopping could skyrocket to as high as 50% of all sales is new shoppers become more accustomed shopping online and become more adept at doing so this percentage could increase even higher than 50% Over the next few years. So if you are selling your products online, you should be filled with optimism. And if you're not selling your products online, you should be thinking about how and where you could start. Number three, the third and final reason that we're seeing more profitability with Google ads is this people are ready for normalcy. Let's face it, after weeks, or even months at home, people are ready for normalcy. And I'm not talking about purchasing that 10 foot inflatable pool for the backyard. And yes, I did recently ordered one. Or even that new video can yep, I bought one of those two. Instead, I'm referring to that new baseball batting helmet for little Johnny, we're a new volleyball for the beach. Items that return a sense of normalcy, even though the activity for which they are bought may still not be at full capacity, have had a huge uptick in demand over the last few weeks. The demand has picked up online due to what I believe is the people's desire for just the sense of normalcy. You combine this demand for normalcy with the lack of competition, and many advertisers are seeing more profitable sales, even when logic may dictate that it would be better to hold off on resuming advertising for certain product lines. So if you were using paid advertising before COVID, there's no reason absolutely no reason not to resume advertising now. And when I say resume advertising now I'm not referring to next week, or even next month I'm referring to today. If you're not quite ready to take the full plunge, but you just want to put your toe in the water, then you can resume on a limited basis. In one idea you could restart your advertising with just your best sellers or restart advertising bidding at a reduced level say 50%. However, in whatever method you decide to restart your advertising, you need to know that the opportunity is high right now to see cheaper clicks and higher profit levels from your online marketing. The time for being timid with your ad budget is gone. And customers are again wanting your products. However, like that 48 hour sale at Macy's be worn this sale for Google ads on cheap clicks may be over before many know it even began. So remember and stay safe and stay healthy. And before I forget, I wanted to let you know I just launched a new Facebook group so search for the Facebook group Make Each Click Count. It's free to join. And there myself and other experts are available to answer any questions you may have regarding your online marketing. Also, as always, I recommend if you liked this podcast, go ahead and go to Apple podcasts. Give me a review letting me know why you liked the episode and any feedback you might have. And if you know somebody selling products online, this podcast will help send it to him. I'm not going to be offended if you share what we discussed today. Last thing before I go if you have an idea for an upcoming show, including a topic to discuss, or have someone you would like to see us feature as a guest email me at info at trueonlinepresence.com. That is it. And I'll talk to you in the next episode.