Excluding placements in the Google Display Network (GDN) isn’t just a hygiene tactic—it’s a strategic lever for improving ROI and campaign efficiency.

GDN Placement Exclusions

Google’s AI-driven placement algorithms are continuously improving. Right now, though, they still lack the nuance to fully understand brand suitability or the nuanced goals of a specific campaign. That’s why the proactive exclusion strategies we detail below are important.

Start by considering the context in which your ads appear. Certain websites or app categories—such as mobile games with accidental clicks or sensationalist news sites—may technically deliver impressions, but they rarely contribute to meaningful engagement.

Looking at your placement reports clues you into patterns that you can take action on: high impressions with low conversions, unusual CTR spikes, or bounce-heavy traffic sources. These indicators often point to placements worth excluding.

Audience intent is crucial. Even on high-traffic, reputable sites, your ad might not belong if the user’s mindset doesn’t match your offer. For example, placing a B2B SaaS ad on a recipe blog won’t align with user expectations, regardless of the domain quality.

Brands with international campaigns should also consider cultural and legal sensitivities. Some domains or categories might be legally acceptable in one country but damaging in another.

GDN exclusions aren’t set-and-forget. They’re part of a feedback loop. Make it routine—monthly at minimum—to review your placements and performance metrics. Couple this with developing your own dynamic exclusion list, informed by your brand’s specific needs, vertical trends, and prior campaign data.

Background on the Google Display Network

With more than a million websites across the globe, the sheer size of the Google Display Network is one of the main reasons why display and retargeting campaigns are such strong marketing tools. Spanning myriad topics and interests, reaching a target audience based on what matters to them has never been easier.

A high-performing campaign leverages the Google Display Network by serving highly targeted ads to users somewhere across the mammoth network of websites and publishers. Odds are, if a user is seeing a display or retargeting ad, they are seeing it on a website in the GDN.

However, there are thousands of websites with which brands do not want to be associated. This is why it’s a good idea for advertisers to consider blocking or excluding certain websites for placements of their ads on the Google Display Network.

Why Exclude Some Websites on the GDN?

It may seem counterintuitive that blocking placements on some websites would lead to better campaign performance, but there are instances where blocking placements can be extremely beneficial. There are two main reasons why advertisers should exclude websites on the Google Display Network.

1. Spammy, Inappropriate, or Unrelated Websites

Considering how large the Internet is, it’s pretty clear that no matter what a person is interested in, there is likely a large community and hundreds of websites dedicated to that interest. This covers a gamut of topics from the very wholesome to the very “adult.”

Advertisers probably don’t have the luxury to consider and evaluate every single website on the GDN. That would take hours. But serving ads on a spammy, inappropriate website (or one that’s just not very related to your brand) can have unintended consequences. For example, say a butcher shop sets up a display campaign, and several of its ads are placed on websites whose audiences are passionate about the vegan lifestyle and animal rights. Not a great match.

2. Saving Money on the GDN

Besides avoiding placements because of a mismatch for relevancy or inappropriate misrepresentations of a brand, the big reason for blocking placements on the display network is to save money. When targeting is dialed in and a retargeting campaign is set up correctly, advertisers can reduce costs by eliminating irrelevant websites.

Say that a SaaS software company runs a display campaign but they don’t exclude a whole ton of websites geared towards teenaged and college-aged gamers. These placements eat away at the ad budget, and they don’t contribute meaningful conversions to the campaign.

By eliminating a whole slew of such websites, advertisers leveraging the GDN can ultimately get more out of their campaigns with lower costs if they refine where ads are being placed.

How to Block Placements on the GDN

Seasoned digital marketers may know about website exclusions, but they can be easily overlooked by less-experienced users of Google Ads.

At the most basic level, placements can be excluded by opening your campaign in Google Ads and clicking on the “Placements” tab. From there, hover the mouse over the top navigation and click on the “Exclusions” tab.

Once in this new area, exclusions can either be selected by website, YouTube channel and video, app, or by entire app categories.

It’s important to keep in mind that Google Ads’ exclusion tools don’t cover every website worth excluding from a campaign, and there are thousands it will miss.

Using an exclusion list can be a mighty weapon for any digital marketer working inside the Google Display Network — one you’ll want to come back to over and over again.

The Definitive Website Exclusion List (Free Resource!)

For years, Google Ads professionals have either had to resort to creating their own exclusion lists or borrowing lists of URLs from fellow marketers.

The team at Direct Online Marketing has created the exclusion list to end all exclusion lists.

This list is the culmination of our two decades as an agency running campaigns for clients in Google Ads. (To supplement our internal list, we also took every list of website exclusions we could find online and compiled it all in the above Google Sheet.)

At a stunning 70,000+ website URLs, this list is quite comprehensive as it covers such categories as dating, mobile, gaming, quizzes, sports, and more. And hey, it’s free!

Because this list can be found as a shareable Google Sheet, we encourage you to share this with anyone who would find it useful.

Notes About High-Cost, Low-Performing Categories

If you’ve taken a look at our list, you’ve probably noticed how we broke out several website categories.

High-Cost, Low-Performing – One of our categories addresses a large number of high-quality and reputable websites and publishers (such as The New York Times, CNN, etc.). We’d generally recommend excluding or considering blocking placements on some of these sites for direct advertisers. The placements may make sense if you’re using GDN just for brand awareness and reach. Because exclusions can be a good method of keeping ad costs down, blocking placements on high-quality websites can help stretch budgets a lot farther.

Key Takeaways About Google Ads Placement Exclusions

• Excluding placements on spammy, inappropriate, or unrelated websites helps maintain brand integrity.
• Advertisers can exclude placements directly in Google Ads so that ads reach their intended audience.
• Blocking select websites can improve ROI by reducing wasted spend on placements that don’t convert.
• Direct Online Marketing offers a comprehensive list of over 70,000 website URLs for exclusion.

Final Thoughts

Using the behemoth Google Display Network is how marketers are finding success with display and retargeting campaigns, but not every website is a good opportunity for advertising. By leveraging our comprehensive list of websites to exclude ad placements, advertisers can easily avoid the negatives of placing ads on inappropriate websites and reduce costs associated with their campaigns.

For those of you who share our vision in making this list the best it can be, we thank you and welcome any submissions.

To get more information on this topic, contact us today for a free consultation or learn more about our status as a Google Partner Agency before you reach out.

This article was updated to add additional information on April 21st, 2025.

The post Google Ads Placement Exclusion List for Google Display Network (Updated 2025) appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

Below you will find a nice even dozen of our favorite holiday marketing ideas for 2022. Consider these our free gifts to you in an effort to make this wonderful time of the year the most successful for your business.

Offer Some Limited Time Holiday Deals (Even If You’re In B2B)

Although Black Friday is looking less and less like the insane rugby scrum of years past, it is still “a thing” after the world of retail essentially canceled it in 2020 at the height of the global pandemic.

If there’s one thing we associate with Black Friday, it’s getting those amazing deals.

You might think this kind of strategy only makes sense with retail, but it can work for B2B marketing, too. Don’t forget that even though your office may be closed for the holidays, there are many companies that are open during the holidays because they are serving those who are traveling or taking time off. Aside from traditional consumer retail, other industries that regularly operate during holiday time periods include:

• Convenience Stores
• Emergency Healthcare
• Entertainment Venues (think movie theaters, sports arenas, etc.)
• Hospitals
• Hospitality
• Pharmacies
• Restaurants
• Travel and Transportation

For a few standout holiday marketing ideas, you could offer a discounted rate for one of the services you offer tailored to these specific industries. Or a coupon code that accomplishes the same thing. Just remember to make these offers redemptive. Instead of simply giving the deal away, offer it in exchange for completing a contact form, or gate it off with a form to capture some basic information.

If you identify these markets as high relevance for your products and services, prospective clients working during holidays will likely interested in your discounted services.

That’s what we call some “solid leads,” what about you?

Need to DOMinate Black Friday?
Watch This Webinar On-Demand.
Achieve Your Goals!

Setup A Google Performance Max Campaign

If you have an e-commerce site, there is no reason not to run Google Shopping ads. As far as holiday marketing ideas go, Google Shopping should be your bread and butter if you rely on digital channels to generate direct response sales.

However, in today’s modern digital advertising landscape, there is only one way to get your ads showing in Google Shopping… setup a Performance Max ad campaign in Google.

One of the things we’ve always liked the most about Google Shopping is that the ads are a combination of text search and visual ads. The user sees a picture of the item and also relevant information pulled from your feed by Google.

When it comes to setting up a Performance Max campaign so that your ads can be seen in Google Shopping, we are taking a more cautious approach. Instead of telling you to go all in on Performance Max, we strongly suggest running it with a “test and see” mindset.

If this is the first time you are hearing about Performance Max, or simply want to learn more about the basics of Performance Max campaigns before deciding to go all-in on them for your 2022 holiday campaigns, learn more by pressing play on the video below.

Like we said above, you should be taking a “test and see” approach to Performance Max campaigns. So, while you can still have some type of manual control over where your products are being shown, we recommend you continue to use it.

Along with that, if your feed is optimized, Google will be able to automatically pull information such as free shipping and place it in your Product Ads.

During the holiday shopping season, it is more important than ever to keep your feed as updated as possible. What do you think happens if someone clicks on an ad for a product, only to find out that you are sold out? They go somewhere else.

Don’t miss out on sales because of Google’s machine learning putting your products in front of the wrong buyers or because you have overlooked your feed management.

If you have doubts that your Performance Max campaign is ready for the holiday season – mind if we take a look with a complimentary PPC consultation?

Submit Your Product Feed For Free Clicks

At the beginning of the pandemic, we shared an important update Google made to it’s Shopping platform – online retailers could sell products for free through the platform.

Fast forward more than two years later… and those free to sell options are still available on the platform.

If you haven’t submitted your product feed to Google so that your products can be listed in free “Popular Products” search results like the one shown above – what are you waiting for?

Sure, we know these search results look awfully similar to the Google Shopping ads shown above, so how can you tell the difference?

Simple… shopping listings that are supported with advertising will always be labeled with “Sponsored” or “Ad” in the heading before the actual listing.

If you already use Google Merchant Center or Performance Max, you do not have to change a thing to receive these unpaid clicks. While the amount of impressions your products will receive for unpaid clicks will not be as high as if you were paying per click in Performance Max, this can still be a revenue generating strategy for the holiday shopping season.

Want to review your Merchant Center to see your unpaid clicks?
Learn How Here.

Change Up Your Ad Text

Customers are so used to seeing “50% Off. Order Now!” or “Great Deals!” Instead, show them what they want to see… specifically what it is you can offer them this holiday season.

So, be creative with your marketing campaigns!

If you sell gloves, use some copy that reads, “Baby, it’s Cold Outside! Warm Up with a New Pair of Gloves.”

If you sell products that are irrelevant to the cold season, no worries. You can still find ways to use the season to your advantage and inject a little “holiday spirit” in your campaigns.

Dynamic Search + Shopping = Re$ult$.
Learn How This Online Retailer
Improved Sales 115% During Busy Season.

Embrace Retargeting

When done right, retargeting can take your accounts to the next level when it comes to low-cost conversions.

This is the nice thing about retargeting: based on how your audiences are built, you can segment customers by intent.

If you have an audience for an informational page such as About Us, you know that there is some interest, but the customer is probably not ready to buy yet. You can tailor ads specifically for that audience with messaging to entice them to come back and learn more.

Along with that, if you have an audience for cart abandoners, you know there was intent to buy there – but something changed that. If you create ads that give the customer a reason to come back, you can create conversions from missed opportunities.

Learn more about our retargeting services if this isn’t already a part of your digital advertising plans for the holidays.

Lean On Email, Social, And Automation

Your messaging doesn’t need to slow down too much while you’re sipping eggnog, spinning the dreidel, lighting the candles, prepping for a fast, or ordering Chinese food with your dog.

And you don’t have to be on the stick (or at the keyboard, if you’re not a pilot) prepared to make a correction.

Most people aren’t going to be sitting in front of their computers or visiting their favorite websites for new content during the holidays. Rather, this is a perfect time to engage them where they are: on their phones, scrolling social media, and reading email.

The great news about those avenues is that you can write your social media and email marketing messages early, and then schedule them to roll out at predetermined times.

Just make sure nothing newsworthy happens that might make your subject lines or messaging seem tone-deaf.

Learn more about our social media advertising services if you may need a performance boost in these areas for the holidays.

List Holiday Sales Prominently

No one can participate in your sale if they don’t know it exists. To help boost your 2022 holiday sales, make sure your biggest promotions are front and center.

One of the best ways to do this is by incorporating your sale into your branded color design, using a holiday themed banner or other top-of-page display. This immediately makes the connection between your holiday promotions and the holiday shopping rush. Add a call to action and a link to your perfect gift products, or gift cards, and you’ll be ready to go.

Discounts should also be displayed prominently, especially around top selling products. In addition to displaying discounts on product cards and pages, special Black Friday deals, holiday specials, and gift guide call outs can be displayed both on your product pages and other holiday campaign landing pages.

Make It Easy To Convert

This is a year-round tip, but it’s especially important during the peak of the holiday shopping season.

Make sure each product on your landing page is designed with a clear purchasing path, which can be used on both desktop and mobile devices.

In the simplest instances, you can create a button that adds the product directly to the shopper’s cart. You can also display a sidebar with the current cart contents, allowing customers to see what they’ve chosen, and seamlessly check out when they’re ready.

For all your sales processes, the key is to minimize the steps it takes to purchase. The easier the conversion path, the fewer abandoned carts you’ll see all year.

Optimize Your Pages For Mobile Devices

According to Forbes, holiday spending on mobile reached $88 billion dollars last year. While the pandemic brought a lot of us in front of our bigger screens, mobile sales still increased as the calendar flipped closer to the big holidays.

Suffice it to say if your holiday landing pages aren’t optimized for mobile, you’re losing out on a huge consumer opportunity.

To optimize your seasonal landing pages for mobile:

• Make sure that the buttons are large enough to be seen and interacted with on smaller screens.
• Format holiday banners for mobile devices, keeping text size in mind.
• Don’t overload your mobile landing pages with too much text.
• Ensure that getting from products to checkout is simple, minimizing the number of “touches” between your product and cart pages.

Don’t Forget About Microsoft

Think Google is your only option when it comes to search engine advertising for your holiday marketing campaign? Think again. Microsoft can be one of those great holiday marketing ideas because it is an easy to deploy, high volume secondary platform to use to reach your target audience. Why would you want to pass up 20% of the search market?

Microsoft does not have the reach Google has, but it has an audience that has spending power. Microsoft’s search advertising solutions on Bing and across their entire network are great for reaching those that are not as tech-savvy (*cough* parents and grandparents *cough*) because they are less likely to use a browser, or a search engine, other than what Windows devices provide as the default.

Learn more about our Microsoft Ads account management services if this isn’t already a part of your digital advertising plans for the holidays.

Create A Sense Of Urgency

This is true for all product pages, all the time, but the holiday season is a fantastic time for retail sites because the urgency is already built-in!

What you can do is emphasize the timeliness of your sales on your site, reminding your customers that they need to act now if they want to surprise their special someone on time.

One of the best ways to do this is with the popular holiday countdown timer. You’ll see Amazon do this with their Cyber Monday deals, counting down the hours until each product special is gone forever—and it works.

Display your timer above the fold or along a sidebar, where your customers can easily see how much time they have left, and prepare to watch this be one of those holiday marketing ideas that will automatically push your holiday sails up!

Finally, Don’t Forget To Be Sincere

Your employees love each other, even if they fight like siblings sometimes. Your clients think you’re doing a great job, and you’re thankful for the ability to provide them with goods or services this time of year.

The holidays are also about love, acceptance, and gratitude. Don’t be afraid to show that side of yourself to the people who matter to you. We could all use a little more joy these days.

Don’t shy away from incorporating some of these timeless feelings and emotions that well up in the people who will consume the content you create for your holiday marketing strategy.

You might be surprised how far a little “I appreciate you” or “We understand what you’re going through” messaging can go in spreading more of that holiday cheer.

As the calendar year draws to a close, do you find yourself behind pace with your lead generation or sales goals? Even though the holidays are drawing close, there’s still time to meet, achieve, or exceed your goals. Contact us for a free consultation to learn how our digital marketing services can help you accomplish your best  year yet! 

The post 12 Profitable Holiday Marketing Ideas To Make This Your Best Year Yet appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

Simply put: it’s not easy to be in charge of kickstarting growth for treatment facilities and rehabilitation centers.

Scammers and third-party lead generators have increased the difficulty for organizations to rank their websites to be found by the 23-million-plus Americans in need of treatment. 

But the biggest Google change challenging SEO efforts for treatment facilities and rehabs isn’t the scammers…

Instead, it’s the government. 

Learn how the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has been impacting your ability to rank at the top of the search results. Then, get a glimpse into 12 of our top ideas to rise above SAMHSA in the search engines so you can get your growth plans off the ground.  

SAMHSA’s Impact on Digital Marketing for Addiction and Mental Health

Back in February 2018, Google rolled out a significant change to how it presents search results in the United States when users look for services and information related to substance abuse and mental health.

That change? The placement of the National Helpline page provided by SAMHSA as one of the top three search results for high volume keywords like:

• “anxiety symptoms” — 77,500 monthly searches*
• “drug addiction” — 22,200 monthly searches*
• “signs of alcoholism” — 18,100 monthly searches*

The rise in the ranking presence of this page was exponential. According to data from SEMrush, its presence in the top 10 of Google results increased by over 1,100% in just the first month.

But that was just the beginning. Today, many of those same searches continue to show the SAMHSA National Helpline, and the number continues to grow.

For instance, as of August 2020, you can now find it listed on the first page of Google for over 89,000 terms. As a result, traffic estimates to the site have also grown by enormous leaps and bounds.

If you are responsible for confidently growing admission applications at a substance abuse or mental health facility, this change has forced you to rethink a few of your tactics. The good news is that rehab facilities like yours can respond and succeed despite this.

Get started with the extensive list we’ve created for you below.

Below, you will find 12 alternative marketing tactics – three using PPC strategies, and 9 using SEO strategies – that you can leverage quickly to compensate for SAMHSA’s ownership over the most clicked-through keyword positions in the search engines.

Our 12 Top Addiction Treatment Marketing Tactics

PPC And Digital Advertising Tactics

1. Go ‘Legit’ to Run Search Ads
2. Advertise On The ‘No. 2 Search Engine’
3. Strategically Stay Top Of Mind On The ‘GDN’

SEO And Content Marketing Tactics

1. Get Listed in SAMHSA’s Locator
2. Create Content For Every SERP Feature
3. Market The Map With Local SEO
4. Explore New Markets With Hyperlocal Pages
5. Review Your Past (Optimize It For The Future)
6. Capitalize On Question-Based Searches
7. Expand Upon Your Program Features
8. Blog For Your Decision-Making Audience
9. Barnacle To Top Content Publishers

1. Go ‘Legit’ and Get Approved to Run Ads In Search Engines

For a long time, Google and Bing accepted search engine advertising from rehab and mental health facilities in the same way they accepted ads from other medical service and healthcare providers. But, as the opioid crisis in the United States continued to escalate, the rules for addiction treatment centers started to change. 

Why? Because scammers started taking advantage of those in need.

To help separate the scammers from the legitimate treatment facilities, Google partnered with LegitScript to setup an independent, third-party verification system. Since then, any in-person treatment facility, crisis hotline, or support group has been required to be LegitScript certified to advertise in Google. You can learn more about the LegitScript certification process from our friends at FHE Health, a healthcare institution that delivers quality, medically integrated personalized treatment for those suffering from behavioral health disorders located in Deerfield Beach, FL.

Why LegitScript Certification For Search Ads Became A Need

In case you missed it, here’s a timeline of how the bans and reinstatements of rehab facility advertising in search engines progressed:

• September 2017: Google began restricting ads from showing for searches related to addiction treatment after it noticed that some facilities running ads did not provide a high enough quality of care to help patients recover.
• January 2018: Google followed suit in the UK as well and eventually Google extended the ban globally.
• April 2018: Google announced its partnership with LegitScript. By July, LegitScript planned to verify about 30 facilities and Google would once again reopen advertising to in-person facilities, crisis hotlines, and support groups.
• February 2019: Bing announced it would also require LegitScript certification for all addiction treatment advertisers and would no longer accept third-party lead generators. 

To be fair, there’s no doubt that running PPC campaigns in substance abuse and mental health niches is a costly marketing strategy. In addition to your monthly PPC marketing budget and associated agency fees, LegitScript requires an application fee per facility and an annual fee for verification.

With that said, search engine advertising is likely to be an ROI-positive endeavor if managed correctly. It’s also the only 100% viable option for getting a top page position for a keyword currently occupied by SAMHSA.

Plus, LegitScript certification keeps a lot of the less ethical facilities and scammers from competing for clicks and driving the costs per click higher.

Similar to becoming a listed facility in the Behavioral Health Treatment Services Locator from SAMHSA (more on that below), getting your facility listed will take some time, but the process is pretty simple.

If you are a representative of a facility interested in starting a LegitScript application, you can click here to submit one.

2. Advertise On YouTube, The Internet’s ‘No. 2 Search Engine’ 

If you clicked here, you were expecting this to be all about advertising on Bing, weren’t you? Or maybe one of the search engines that’s popular in international markets, like Baidu or Yandex?

Well, it’s not. Instead, you need to take a moment and think about leveraging the search opportunities provided by advertising on YouTube. A site that generates more searches on its platform than Bing, Yahoo!, AOL, and Ask.com… COMBINED.

Added bonus: it’s also widely considered to be the no. 2 social network, making it a great place to boost your social media marketing.

While it’s not a traditional “search engine” in the way you might normally think about them, there are nearly 3 BILLION searches per month done on the site, according to data compiled by Mushroom Networks. 

That breaks down to over 1,100 searches per second. 

Although it was acquired by Google back in 2006, LegitScript certification is not required at this time to advertise on YouTube. Therefore, it can be a more attractive advertising solution for smaller facilities with cost barriers to traditional search marketing on Google and Bing.

4 YouTube Advertising Tips To Maximize The Performance Of Your Videos

While LegitScript certification isn’t required, you’re still going to need to have a commercial or video ad ready to go for a YouTube promotion. Once you have your creative completed, here are a few ideas on how to get the best performance from a YouTube campaign.

• Use the appropriate format. Here’s a quick list of which type of YouTube ad is best for your campaign, based on your goals.
  • Brand recognition: 6-second bumpers.
  • Clicks: 15-20 second pre-roll ads (bonus: they can’t be skipped).
  • Conversions: 15-20 second pre-roll ads
  • Re-purposing a TV commercial: 30-second In-Stream ads.
• Utilize closed captioning. Provide the best user experience for your viewers with accurate, verbatim transcriptions.
• Target smartly. Find your audience using the options for gender, parental status, interests, or target specific channels they are likely to watch.
• Deploy an end card. You’ve made some great content, now reinforce your brand and inspire the viewer to take their next action by directing your viewers to their next destination – a landing page, your website, or your YouTube channel page.

There are definitely some benefits YouTube can bring to your marketing efforts with a dedicated advertising budget.

In addition, leveraging YouTube can also bring benefits to your traffic and visibility through SEO and referral traffic. Interested in learning how it can help you in these areas? Check out one of these helpful links.

• How We Grew YouTube Traffic 6,800% For This Retailer
• Video Hosting: YouTube or Vimeo?
• 6 YouTube Tips To Improve Your Results

3. Strategically Stay Top Of Mind On Google’s Display Network

According to Google, its far-reaching Display Network reaches 90% of Internet users around the world. 

Websites. Blogs. News sites. Even Google-owned properties like Gmail and YouTube.

All of them have an advertising opportunity available to your facility through the Google Display Network.

Depending on the business goals you have for your campaign, Google can also manage the campaign for you on autopilot. Just set your budget, upload your ads, and off you go!

But just because it sounds easy, however, doesn’t mean it’s that simple. Sure, automated bidding is handy, but it’s only as useful as the strategy you put behind it. Similar to YouTube advertising and LegitScript approved PPC advertising, you’re going to want to pay a lot of attention to your targeting if you want a display campaign that will lead to conversions. 

Oh, and you’re going to want to keep your ads fresh. You ever get tired of seeing the same ads from leading brands over and over? If you answered yes, then you can assume your audiences will too. Don’t bore them to death with your creative.

With the Google Display Network, you can proceed with confidence. Just be aware that patience and persistence are going to be key in this channel if you want it to pay off. 

THIS TREATMENT CENTER
IMPROVED THEIR ADMITS BY 300%
USING DIGITAL ADS. LEARN HOW.

4. Getting Listed in SAMHSA’s Behavioral Health Treatment Services Locator

One of my favorite online marketing strategies comes from the adage, “…if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” From some of our research into how Google presents this SERP listing for SAMHSA, the link for the National Helpline will often include a site link to SAMHSA’s Behavioral Health Treatment Services Locator right underneath its meta description.

The fact is that Google favors displaying links from SAMHSA over other possible search results prominently, so getting your original content or sales-driven pages to rank above SAMHSA will be extremely difficult — almost near impossible.

However, SAMHSA has an online treatment finder, and rehab facilities can request to be added to that list of treatment providers.

How To Get Listed In The SAMHSA Behavioral Health Treatment Services Locator

Getting listed in the SAMHSA services locator is a great SEO tactic for your campaign. For starters, you’re gaining a backlink from a .gov domain — one of the highest-value links you can obtain.

Need a reason beyond that? The site generates an estimated 60,000+ visits per month in the United States from Google searches alone. The high volume and highly specific type of people visiting the site and then being referred to your facility create a great source of well-qualified traffic for your site.

If you represent a newer facility, or your facility is not currently listed in SAMHSA’s locator, getting listed will take some time. Overall, though, the process is pretty simple. Here’s how it works according to the FAQ on the locator’s website:

1. You request the addition of your facility by completing the I-BHS Facility Application Form.
2. The BHSIS Project Office verifies that your facility is eligible by contacting your local representatives or SAMHSA/CBHSQ. As an alternative, you can also contact your state mental health or substance abuse agency to help with verification.
3. You receive a survey in the mail from I-BHS, complete it, and return.
4. About a month passes, and pending final approval, your facility should be good to go. Just know that they typically add new facilities on a monthly basis.

To maintain your listing, you are required to respond annually to either:

• the National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (N-SSATS), or
• the National Mental Health Services Survey (N-MHSS)

These surveys go out every March, and your facility will be required to provide updated information each year after your facility was added to the list.

5. Create Content For Every SERP Feature

If you have spent time doing searches on Google and Bing for answers to almost any question, or for information on any general topic, then you have probably been served with a featured snippet result in the past.

What’s a featured snippet? According to Google, it’s that special box at the top of the search result before the standard listings. Featured snippets include:

• a quoted block of text from a webpage in paragraph, list, or table format
• a link to the webpage the text was originally quoted from

The content is also frequently read aloud by the Google Assistant if you do a voice search. 

While that is the general description of a featured snippet straight from Google, they are just one of many top-position-snatching Google features. Google search engine results page features (SERP features) can take many different forms and shapes. In fact, according to SEMrush, there are over 20 different SERP features to keep in mind if you are using SEO as a growth strategy for your facility. 

While some of the features SEMrush monitors will not have a direct impact on an addiction treatment or mental health campaign, many of them will.

12 Actionable Ideas You Can Use To Put SERP Features To Work

6 Ideas That Are Completely Within Your Control

• Local Pack: verify your GoogleMyBusiness listing and get citations on as many of the major local directories as possible (more on this in tip no. 6) 
• Site Links: add links to your top resources and services pages in the footer of your website.
• Top Stories: Have your blog added to Google News. 
• Knowledge Panel: if your facility has a Wikipedia page, or if one of your executives is a published author, one of these may be available for you to claim. 
• Reviews: deploy schema markup in your site header files with star ratings and review counts from sources like the National Rehabs Directory, the fix, ChooseHelp, or Rehab.com.
• Twitter: publish your most valuable blog content and resources in your Twitter feed using keyword-rich hashtags at the end of each tweet. 

6 Ideas You Can Influence (But Google Controls)

• Featured Snippets: if you have a page that ranks in the top 5 of a search term with a featured snippet at the top, create a subheading that includes the keyword, then publish content that matches the featured snippet type, using the keyword phrase 2-3 times in your text. 
• People Also Ask and FAQ: answer the questions Google showcases in the People Also Ask box in an FAQ section on a top traffic page. 
• Image Pack and Image: optimize the file size and dimensions of your image files and utilize up to 100 characters of your alt tag for keyword-rich descriptions. 
• Featured Videos, Video Carousel, and Video: embed your YouTube videos on pages of your site that also rank well for terms with video carousels. 
• Instant Answer: provide calculations and short, simple to answer questions on your top-performing webpages. 
• Jobs: deploy schema markup in your site header files for the pages featuring any of your open job listings. Note that this only applies if you are hosting your job openings on your site. Platforms like Glassdoor and Indeed already do this for you.

6. Leverage Local SEO To Rank Where SAMHSA Can’t Be Featured

While SAMHSA will continue to dominate organic search results, they technically only have one physical location in Rockville, Maryland. As far as Google is concerned, SAMHSA can’t be featured in local SEO search results because they are not considered to be a provider of local treatment services. SAMHSA will always be your biggest competitor for traffic in the search engines, but one area Google is leaving open for you to own continues to be local SEO.

On desktop searches, a map listing with three facilities is included with nearly every top searched keyword phrase related to substance abuse and mental health services.

On mobile devices, the map takes over all of the SERP real estate above the fold. At a bare minimum, if you have not taken over ownership of your Google My Business listing, or verified your business with the following top local directories, opportunity is leaving you behind:

• Apple Maps
• Bing Local
• SAMHSA
• Yelp

If you already have your business confirmed on all five of the platforms listed above, you are off to a great start with maximizing your online presence in your local area. But you’ll want to take it further with local SEO as there are still as many as 22 other local directories we deem to have a “high” or “very high” citation value.

Because of the presence of the SAMHSA listing at the top of the search results, the fact that you want to reach your target audience on a local or national level will not matter – you’re going to want to leverage every ounce of opportunity local SEO has to offer. Don’t get left behind — local SEO needs to be a critical part of your drug rehab SEO strategy.

7. Go Hyperlocal

There are a lot of well-established websites in the substance abuse and mental health niche that have leveraged hyperlocal keyword searches very effectively over the years for their own addiction treatment marketing.

In fact, many of the most highly trafficked sites in this niche leverage creating a directory of treatment facilities and drug rehab centers as one of their main marketing tools to drive referrals to advertisers. Sites like SoberNation and Rehabs.com have done this for years and become so successful with this as a marketing strategy that they can now get you to pay them for traffic.

Because of how well sites like this perform in the SERPs, these types of directories can be a good source of both relevant referral traffic as well as qualified admissions leads. It can be tough to justify paying to be listed in a directory, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore these opportunities entirely.

Think of it this way — if you can justify paying to be part of your local chamber of commerce, you could probably justify paying to be listed in a directory that can help grow your admissions. Outside of becoming listed in rehab focused directories, you can also apply a hyperlocal approach to your website. If you know zip codes, names of popular suburban areas, or names of specific cities and towns within a dedicated drive radius of your facility, then you can leverage localized content to rank for some highly targeted long-tail keyword searches.

Want to go into more depth on hyperlocal digital marketing? Here’s a few blog posts worth your click. 

• What is Hyperlocal SEO and Why Should I Be Doing it Right Now?
• How You Can Use Hyperlocal Ad Campaigns

8. Revise Your Past (Then Optimize It For Your Future) In Addiction Treatment Marketing

Historical optimization is the practice of updating old content on your site and improving its SEO value for the present and future. Over the past few years, this tactic has become an incredibly valuable SEO play for facilities with a large archive of content.

To briefly summarize this tactic, find a blog post or article on your site that was published at least six months ago. Prioritize pages on your site that either:

1. Generate a lot of traffic, or
2. Convert into admission inquiries

Then refresh the content, improve the on-page SEO, add an author bio, and re-publish it with a more recent “updated” date.

Search engines reward webpages they can rely on being “there” when the crawl the internet. This tactic presents your facility with the opportunity to avoid writing about the same topics over and over again. Instead, it helps your website establish cornerstone pieces of content that will reliably provide your site with traffic from search engines. 

As an added bonus, historical optimization can help you establish your administrators and clinicians as thought leaders in the addiction and behavioral health industry.

Historical optimization in your addiction treatment marketing is a great way to get long term value out of content you published long ago.

9. Take Advantage of Question-Based Queries In Your Addiction Treatment Marketing

According to research compiled by Jumpshot and analyzed by Moz in March 2017, roughly 8% of Google searches are phrased as questions. With voice search only continuing to rise in popularity, the percentage of question-based searches are sure to grow accordingly.

Do you have an FAQ page on your facility’s website?

When you publish blog content, are you writing titles and subheadings in your posts in the form of a question? Take the time to answer both common and uncommon questions. Try to compile questions you may often get from admission prospects and their families about your treatment approaches, facilities, or warning signs that a loved one needs to know. There are two major benefits to taking this approach with your addiction treatment marketing strategy:

1. You will be building trust and helping inform people who need help but are not ready to call.
2. Your site will benefit from a larger number of entry points from keyword searches, lessening the impact that SAMHSA’s top positioning will take away from search traffic to your facility.

What questions are your admissions team, or your clinical staffers, uniquely qualified to answer? Give them a laptop and have them start writing!

10. Don’t Forget About Your Program Features In Your Addiction Treatment Marketing

Of the over 89,000+ keyword phrases where Google displays the SAMHSA National Helpline link in the top three results, above you will see just a small sample of the monetary worth of some of the terms, sorted by top monthly search volume estimates.* That’s a very small sampling of the data SEMrush has on rankings for the National Helpline page, but with a pretty quick glance, you will notice some trends across the keywords that Google is using to trigger this result.

• Different forms of addiction
• Someone researching reactions to substance abuse (withdrawal, side effects, etc.)
• Someone is looking to find/get help (AA, NA, rehab, etc.)

Now, in contrast to that, you may have noticed that keywords related to general program features were not in the above example. These days, no substance abuse or mental health facility is the same. Dig in to communicate what makes the approach of your recovery centers unique from other facilities.

3 Questions You Should Think About Answering In Your Content Marketing Plan For Your Rehabilitation Center

• Does your program take a mindfulness approach to relapse prevention?
• Do you leverage the outdoors as a therapy method?
• Does your staff have multiple advanced certifications or education credentials?

Whatever makes your facility stand out from the rest of the facilities out there, now is the time to capitalize on it. Make sure your site has dedicated pages related to those treatment programs and features and support those dedicated pages with press releases or blog post content. Optimize the dedicated pages for maximum search visibility by applying on-page SEO best practices and leverage link building strategies from the supporting content to heighten the importance of the dedicated pages to search engines.

With this addiction treatment marketing tactic, every page on your website can be an entry point to put you in touch with those in need of help.

11. Addiction Treatment Marketing Should Cater Content to Your Audience

In response to these developments in Google search results, a lot of digital marketing agencies are going to suggest you try to leverage content marketing strategies only with the intention of generating interest from top-tier publishers. The idea here is that getting coverage in front of a national audience should generate backlinks and a lot of impressions. The concept can also be referred to as viral marketing — because “going viral” is super easy, right?

To us, this feels like an expensive fool’s errand; unless, of course, the idea of a campaign with a large expense and little to no attributable ROI sounds like something your facility wants to try out.

Addiction treatment marketing shouldn’t be about more awareness of your facility. Instead, it should be about connecting with people who love and care for those who need your help.

5 Content Ideas To Help Establish A Better Connection With Those Who Need Your Help

Going with a “10X content” approach that will have an impact on the attention your brand receives and little else, the more sensible approach is to cater your content directly to your audience. Here are several alternatives to making “viral” content that could be better suited to get your facility highly-relevant traffic:

• Answering questions for the family members of potential admits
• Recapping research conducted in the industry that validates your approach to healing
• Sharing video testimonials from alumni who have dramatically improved their lives after release
• Providing helpful guides on niche topics related to attending a treatment facility, such as a legal term glossary
• Reviewing national and international news topics and explaining how they are directly impacting addiction and mental health treatment

For all types of people, it’s tough dealing with substance abuse and mental health. If you seek to be a resource for people by providing useful information at the right time, they will reach out when they need you the most. Don’t rely on occasional brand mentions in big publications with the hopes that people will remember you when the time is right.

12. Barnacle Your Brand To Top Ranking Content Publishers

Barnacle SEO is not a new strategy, but it can be a highly successful approach when situations like this occur. The term was coined by Will Scott of Search Influence about a decade ago and there was a must-watch Whiteboard Friday about it several years ago, too.

The idea behind Barnacle SEO for rehab centers as an addiction treatment marketing tactic is pretty straightforward – leverage the top rankings of other sites for your gain. Ever since April 2018, ranking for the top keywords in the substance abuse and mental health space became exponentially harder due to the update of SAMHSA’s National Helpline. Now, in addition to competing with other facilities and online publishers for top keyword rankings, getting them is almost impossible because of the injection of SAMHSA.

What can you do? Create content specifically on other sites that rank for your targeted keywords. Five of our favorite target domains to leverage for this strategy include:

• Medium
• Pinterest
• Quora
• Wikipedia
• YouTube

The value of links from these domains to help boost your search rankings is debatable. However, the referral traffic opportunity from all of them is great, and the frequency with which content on these sites ranks on the first page of Google results is high. While getting a Wikipedia page about your facility may be difficult, creating a profile and submitting content to all of these platforms should become a high priority online marketing strategy this year.

Closing Thoughts On Addiction Treatment Marketing Strategies

Many people are turning to Google to find answers to their troubles. With locations in Wheeling, WV, and Pittsburgh, PA, the team at DOM is well aware of the US’s opioid crisis. We are also sensitive to the fact that there is no “one size fits all” fix.

We think it’s a good thing that Google is trying to get people help when they need it from a neutral source. This is also not unfamiliar territory for Google. Back in November 2016, they made a similar change to the top of results for searches related to suicide.

But this change over the last two years does force substance abuse and mental health treatment facilities to shift. They can still use search engine marketing strategies to create opportunities for themselves. 

They just need to get more creative in order to provide care to the nearly 23 million Americans in need.

The top 12 ways we suggest facilities shift their addiction treatment marketing strategies are:

1. Become a LegitScript certified advertiser so your facility can run Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising
2. Extend the reach of your commercials and video content with YouTube advertising
3. Strategically tap into the near-limitless advertising opportunities in the Google Display Network 
4. Get listed in the SAMHSA Behavioral Health Treatment Services Locator
5. Find keywords you already rank well for and structure your content for Featured Snippets
6. Maximize visibility in local SEO by completing and verifying any available citations
7. Create content on your site dedicated to hyperlocal communities that are in need of your services
8. Keep top-performing pages up to date by adding more text and updating visual content every three to six months 
9. Invest time in creating a comprehensive FAQ or writing blog posts to answer common questions
10. Optimize pages on your site for rankings around the unique features of your programs
11. Create content tailored to the families and individuals struggling with these issues
12. “Barnacle” content published by your facility to top publishing platforms for better exposure

Want to check out more of our actionable ideas from our Pittsburgh marketing firm to grow confidently online in the medical and health industry? Check out some of these blog posts below.

• Google Medic: How to SEO Proof Your Site in the Trust Authority Era
• How Do People Find Answers To Health Related Questions?
• How To Optimize Your Hospital for Local Search
• Healthcare Marketing Research & Survey Results

To get more information on this topic, contact us today for a free consultation or learn more about our status as a Google Premier Partner before you reach out.

The post 12 Marketing Plans For Your Rehab Center To Kickstart Its Growth (Updated March 2022) appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

But is ZPD just a bunch of hype? Jargon? A buzzword?

To be honest, when we first heard the term being thrown around late last year, we had those same thoughts, too.

We also couldn’t help but think back to a certain IBM commercial created by Ogilvy in 2007. Press play below for a cringe-worthy walk down memory lane.

Whether you just stepped out of an innovation meeting that killed you, or you came across this term in a MarketingProfs article and feel like you need to be brought up to speed on it – don’t worry. Zero-party data is not some meaningless buzzword or an empty topic that should cause you to reference your past at all!

Instead, it’s a look at the future of customer data collection that can be used for your marketing.

So What Is Zero-Party Data?

Zero-party data is the new kid on the data collection block. The tricky thing about zero-party data is that it’s a lot like first-party data (more on that in the next section). In fact, there are people out there who don’t even think it needs its own category.

The term was coined by Forrester Research, and is officially defined as “data that a customer intentionally and proactively shares with a brand, which can include preference center data, purchase intentions, personal context, and how the individual wants the brand to recognize her.”

So zero-party data is basically data that’s being willingly given to you by your customers.

An example is when a customer provides communication preferences, i.e. “Please email me special offers.” Other examples may include when users:

• Choose their interests while creating a profile on a shopping site (following authors or brands on Amazon)
• Give “thumbs up” ratings to shows and movies on streaming platforms (+1 Murder She Wrote on Peacock) with the intent of being presented other relevant suggestions

Much like first-party data, or maybe more accurately as a component of first-party data, zero-party data’s value will be heavily tied to your ability to centralize and organize it.

So what’s the significance here? Why are we talking about zero-party data so much?

Well, it just so happens that your zero and first-party data methods are about to become more significant than ever, due to the gradual decline of availability of third party data.

Before we get into all of that, let’s back up a little though and take a look at the more traditional collection methodologies – first and third-party data.

What is First-Party Data?

First-party data is essentially data that you collect yourself through your interactions with your customers. It could be demographics information, purchase history, the way they interact with your website, email engagements, support calls, customer feedback programs, etc.

It’s collected through customer purchases, support programs, and marketing programs, those sorts of things.

In terms of value and quality, first-party data is spectacular. That’s because you’re getting it straight from the customers. There aren’t any middle parties interpreting anything for you or muddying up the process. All of your first-party data is, by nature, accurate and relevant to your business.

Even better, first-party data is relatively easy to collect. As long as you make sure you’re using a central data platform to manage your data across all your sources and you follow any privacy laws in your country, your customer-related systems will naturally be collecting it and you’ll have access to it for data-driven decision making.

What is Third-Party Data?

Third-party data is acquired from data aggregators. Data aggregators take large datasets from multiple sources and compile them into a single dataset that can then be purchased for use in marketing.

For the most part, third-party data is purchased through a DSP (demand side platform) or a DMP (data management platform), but there are also a lot of third-party data marketplaces out there. Some of the more popular marketplaces are Google, Nielsen, and OnAudience.

The biggest concern with third-party data is that you simply don’t know where it came from, so you can’t be certain of its accuracy or reliability. You have all this aggregated data, but there’s no way to be sure how much it’s worth.

Also, you can’t be 100% certain that it was collected in a proper manner that followed privacy regulations. That means you have to put in some time to research your third-party data provider to make sure they’re legit.

So right off the bat it might seem like first-party data is superior to third-party, so why doesn’t everybody just use first-party data?

Well, it’s simple. First-party data gives you insights into customers who have already interacted with your brand. Third-party data gives you insights, albeit less reliable insights, into everybody else on a much larger scale. Thus, third-party data is what you can use to get more customers to interact with your brand.

All of that said, it may be a smarter move for your advertising campaigns to try to leverage your existing first party data to create campaigns to target third party potential clients and customers. Around here we commonly call those “lookalike audiences” although the different advertising platforms may call them something unique.

If you are currently leveraging third party data for your digital advertising and want to explore a better way to position your products and services to earn new customers, check out our retargeting services.

Google’s “Cookiepocalypse”

In 2020, Google announced that they plan to phase out third-party cookies in their browser, Chrome. Firefox and Safari have already taken measures to start blocking third-party tracking for the sake of privacy, but Chrome is the most used desktop browser on the planet.

What that means is that tracking user behavior is going to become a lot more difficult. Third-party data is going to possibly be less reliable and harder to come by. Maybe.

Recently, Google announced that they’re pushing their plan back to 2023, but it remains inevitable.

First and zero-party data are going to become even more valuable, and necessary, for delivering business results and making smart marketing decisions.

With Your Data, It’s Time To Stop Talking And Start Doing

Here at DOM, we believe in marketing that’s led by data. If you don’t have the data to back up your strategy, then you’re really just making a guess and hoping it will work.

Our expert data analysts aren’t the types of people that are just sitting behind a screen facilitating out of the box, value added solutions. They actually know how to find the message in your data and make it work for your business goals.

But no matter what type of data you have collected over the years – zero party, first party, or third party – your Google Analytics needs to be set up and optimized to work in tandem with your advertising campaigns.

We aren’t interested in creating some disruptive “web 3.0” solution just for the sake of doing it. Are you looking to turn your user data into a tool to produce better targeted marketing that gets results?

Great, check out our Google Analytics services or contact us to get answers to your questions about all of these data types and how they will work to solve your advertising challenges.

The post Zero-Party Data vs. First And Third-Party Data (Win Buzzword Bingo, Guaranteed!) appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

Let’s be honest, when people think about search engines, they’re probably thinking about Google and not Bing. Just from a surface level, that makes sense. Google has been around since the ‘90s; Bing didn’t launch until 2009. 

Bing’s global share of the search engine market is just 2.7%. Google currently sits at a pretty solid 91.95%, according to this article by Backlinko. 

Should I Pay For Bing Ads Or Google Ads?

So the answer to the question “Microsoft Advertising or Google Ads?” should be pretty cut and dried, right? Yep. This is the end of the blog. Google wins. 

Except, well…it’s not really that simple. Before we talk about why, let’s take a look at some of the differences between ads on the two platforms. 

Microsoft Advertising vs. Google Ads — The Similarities

There are some similarities between the two search giants when it comes to PPC (pay per click). Both are designed for and driven by the same purpose: helping businesses reach their target audiences and drive traffic and conversions and, ultimately, bring in revenue. 

Microsoft Advertising and Google Ads are both suited for creating ad campaigns to entice traffic at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs). The ads themselves are laid out in a similar fashion on both platforms, with URLs under headlines, and descriptive ad text below the URLs. 

Both services offer keyword research tools, broad match, and negative keyword targeting. 

Bing Ads Tools

Microsoft’s Keyword Research Tool offers keyword information in “Ad groups,” and can provide data on clicks, impressions, spend, average position, average CPC (cost-per-click), and CTR (click-through-rate). 

Google Ads Tools

Google’s tools include their Google Keyword Planner, which is designed to help with marketing research and discovering relevant keywords. This tool provides information on average monthly searches, competition level, and both high and low ranges for top-of-page bids. 

Put simply, both platforms offer tools that provide data to aid PPC ad planning. 

The Differences Between Google Ads & Microsoft Ads

The most glaring difference is the sheer disparity in audience reach you’re going to get with Google over Bing as search engines. However, that doesn’t mean Bing’s user base is small. We’re still talking about millions and millions of people. 

Another, perhaps less obvious, difference is that Microsoft’s ads generally have a 45% higher CTR for shopping and financial services search verticals. The reasoning here is that Yahoo and MSN, both Microsoft-owned, offer financial reporting resources and ads in the search verticals and, thus, are naturally reaching an already highly interested audience. 

Differences in demographics are also something to consider. More than 70% of Bing users are over 35 years old, and 33% are over 50. 38% of those users have a household income that’s more than $100,000, which means they have more spending power. Bing also accounts for 34% of all desktop searches, probably because it’s the default search engine of the default web browser on Windows-equipped PCs. 

The takeaway here is that Bing users are generally a little older and have more money to spend than the typically younger demographic of Google. 

Enough Small Talk, Which is Better?!

Unfortunately, we can’t really offer you closure on this one. It really depends on your needs. Using just one platform and not the other means missing out on reaching millions of people with your ads. 

Given the demographic information, it’s safe to say that if you’re selling a product or financial service that’s targeted at an older audience, Microsoft Advertising might be what you’re looking for. 

Then again, there’s no denying that Google simply has a much, much larger audience, so maybe you should target Google.

Ah, but Microsoft has that much higher CTR, and that’s really what you’re shooting for with PPC. But then again, is a 45% higher CTR ultimately more valuable than potentially reaching more people overall with Google’s massive audience?

Okay, look. If we’re being 100% honest, we’re going to suggest Google Ads over Microsoft Advertising 9 times out of 10. If possible, we’re going to suggest both, even. But it’s knowing how to recognize that 1 time that you should be picking Microsoft instead that’s really going to matter. 

PPC strategy is tough. The more you dig into it, the more questions you have. That’s why we’re so proud of our PPC specialists here at DOM, and we’re always willing to talk about how we can put them to use for your business. 

If you have questions about PPC or, really, any digital marketing concerns at all, contact us today and we’ll do a no-obligation assessment of your current marketing efforts and find out how we can help you do even better.  

DuckDuckGo Advertising: Should I Use DuckDuckGo Ads?

Also, if you’re willing to think outside the Google box and target your audience on Bing, you might also consider using DuckDuckGo. You can read our write-up of the up-and-coming search engine that’s standing out by offering users more privacy. 

To get more information on this topic, contact us today for a free Google ad services consultation or learn more about our status as a Google Premier Partner before you reach out.

The post Which PPC Network is Best — Microsoft Advertising or Google Ads? appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

We’re ashamed to admit it, but we can’t tell you how many countless hours a day we spend staring at our email. And for our fellow human beings, it appears that I am not alone.

So, we know that we spend a lot of time on email and Gmail has a huge user base. Is it any surprise why marketers love Gmail ads?

We’ve talked about Gmail ads before—also known as Gmail Sponsored Promotions (GSP).

In this article, you will find a quick breakdown over maximizing your ROI with Gmail ads.

• What the heck is a Gmail ad?
• Why do they work so well?
• What are the different types of targeting?
• How do I maximize targeting to improve ROI?

First, a quick refresher on what Gmail ads look like and how they work.

Gmail Ads 101

In its current state, Gmail will segment and filter email messages into different categories. By default, Gmail inboxes have the following categories:

• Primary – Messages Gmail deems a higher priority
• Social – Messages sent from Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.
• Updates – Messages like bills, software updates, etc.
• Promotions – Messages about offers and deals

Users can click to view messages in these different categories. They typically look like this:

Outside of the “Primary” tab, users will see two messages at the very top of their inbox that looks similar to other emails.

At a glance, they look like every other email in your inbox. But as you can tell with the little “Ad” icon, these are Gmail ads.

When we click on one of these ads, we see an expanded promotion that fits right in with the Gmail experience.

What’s great about these ads is that they’re fully customizable. These promotions can include CTAs, videos, forms, links, and phone numbers.

Ideally, you want your Gmail ad to entice users to click a dedicated landing page.

Did we also mention that these ads are mobile-friendly?

The Advantages of Gmail Ads

Considering that we write a whole lot of content, this ad from Grammarly certainly checks out. Writing is part of our livelihoods, so they nailed it by targeting us in Gmail.

Marketers select specific ad platforms and ad types based on customers they want to reach. In particular, you want to target users by where they are in the sales funnel.

This example demonstrates just how good Gmail ads can be for customers at the top of the funnel. And it makes sense.

When we’re in Gmail, we’re not actively seeking a grammar checking tool at that exact moment. If we were, we’d likely be conducting a Google search. This is why pay-per-click search ads are much better for customers with higher intent.

But marketers want to reach buyers at every phase of the sales funnel. The power of digital ads lies in their ability to go wherever your customers are spending their time and dedicating their attention.

Gmail ads are perfect for customers who exist towards the top of the sales journey.

Don’t take it from us; check out these excellent examples of how two companies found success with Gmail ads.

World First

This money transfer company tried Gmail ads to increase brand awareness and engagement.

In roughly three months, here are a few of the results from the campaign:

• 41% increase in time on site
• 24% increase in new users
• 29% in pages per session
• 181% increase in conversion rate

HushHush.com

For this online retailer, Gmail ads proved to be a great addition to their marketing mix. They ran a one-month campaign that segmented products by category and user interest.

Here’s what HushHush.com’s head of digital performance, Nadejda Tatarciuc Birca, had to say about the results:

“In terms of return on ad spend, our Gmail ads proved profitable as soon as the first set of historic data became available, which we then used to optimize our targeting. And I was surprised to see that Gmail ads can exhibit encouraging conversion rates slightly faster than the average GDN placements.”

Why Targeting is so Crucial

The main challenge with Gmail ads is that marketers don’t know if they’re reaching customers at the right time.

They perform similarly to display and social advertising in the sense that without the proper targeting, it’s easy to overspend on users who aren’t interested in your product or service.

Based on the different targeting options, marketers have plenty of choices to overcome these challenges.

Gmail Ads Targeting Types

When firing up a Gmail campaign, you’ll find all these types of targeting available for Gmail ads.

• Affinity audiences
• Audience keywords
• Automated targeting
• Customer match
• Demographics
• In-market audiences
• Life Events

Nailing your targeting with Gmail ads will yield better results.

Don’t Mix In-Market with Other Targeting Types

For those of you new to Gmail Ads and the Google Display Network, a best practice to keep in mind relates to your account structure.

In particular, you want to avoid combining in-market audiences with other targeting options inside of the same ad group and campaign.

For example, it may seem a good idea to apply the in-market audience and keyword targeting in the same ad group. But this will only complicate any insights gleaned from ad performance.

Optimization is the key to generating higher ROI for any paid advertising campaign.

Creating separate ad groups can help improve performance analysis in the long-run. In fact, keeping them separated will make it easier to conduct split testing to see which targeting type has better performance.

Maximize Retargeting with Similar Audiences

Retargeting wasn’t always available for Gmail ads. I’m happy to report that this is no longer the case.

Retargeting has proven its worth as a method for getting a second chance at winning business with customers already familiar with your brand.

Building a massive retargeting list can take quite a while. And that is a drag.

Since your retargeting list is limited in its size, it won’t be the magic bullet for your Gmail ads campaign.

But what if there was a way to double or even triple your current retargeting lists?

Enter Google’s Similar Audiences targeting. This type of targeting allows you to select a group of users with similar interests and characteristics as those on your retargeting list.

So while these users may not have interacted with your brand in the past, there’s a strong chance that you have a product or service they need.

Construct Insanely Specific Buyer Personas

Buyer personas are nothing new. But there’s one thing that’s all too common: vagueness.

Creating a vague buyer persona doesn’t accomplish much of anything.

Let’s say we sell artisan quality leather sandals for young men. Here’s a pretty standard, bland buyer persona:

• Male
• Age 18 – 24
• Income: $35,000 – $60,000 annually
• USA
• College graduate

When we say “insanely” specific, we mean creating a fictional person with a story. Here’s how we would create his persona:

• Bradley
• 23 years old
• College graduate from Michigan State
• $55,000 annual income
• Background: During the week, Bradley works as a business development executive for a small software company. He doesn’t like to splurge too often, but when he shops for himself, he enjoys products that have style and high quality. Bradley also lives to party on the weekend and spends a lot of time at the beach. He’s usually with friends on weekends and stays active to soak up lots of time outside.

See what We did there?

By using specific details, we now have a lot more to work with when trying to pin down buyer persona interests.

Try it out for yourself and see if the inspiration when applying affinity audiences targeting comes to you more naturally.

Let Google Build an Audience for You

Work smarter, not harder.

As cliché a saying as they come, but that doesn’t detract from how spot on this is.

Google’s algorithm has gotten scary good at modeling user behavior. If you’re willing to experiment, we recommend checking out the Custom Intent option.

In this type, Google will build an audience for you. It does this by examining user behavior associated with keywords or website domains.

It’s scary, but it works exceptionally well.

Use Keyword Targeting for Greater Intent

Nothing will ever be better than search advertising for user intent.

Having said that, marketers can opt to leverage Google’s plethora of keyword data to target specific users.

Let’s say we’re in the market for a new pair of Ray Ban sunglasses. Between Google Search and our activity on the Chrome browser, Google probably has a good idea about our interest in scoring new shades.

Now let’s say you manufacture sunglasses with better materials, similar style, and at a better price. If you were a smart marketer, you could use keyword targeting in Gmail ads to reach us with branded competitor terms.

Pro Tip: If you do target competitor keywords, you better have a good reason to get us to switch from my favorite go-to brand.

Exercise Caution with Automated Targeting

Automation will likely change our world quite dramatically over the next few decades. In a lot of cases, we love automation.

And yes, Google does offer an automated targeting option for Gmail ads.

Do we think you could see great results using this type of targeting?

Yes.

Do we also think you could inflate impressions and lower conversion rates?

That’s a Texas-size 10-4, good buddy.

We’re all for experimentation; if there’s a chance automated targeting will work for you, go for it.

But you have to keep in mind that automated targeting is really best for campaigns with more aggressive and broad targeting goals. Most businesses will generate tons of impressions, meaning that costs will skyrocket if you aren’t careful.

Just make sure you exercise caution.

Use Best Design Practices

Google’s own advice for Gmail ads is to make them as useful and responsive as a landing page would be.

This means making sure you’re following the best practices for design and usability. That includes the right mixture of photos and text, but also make sure you’re using complementary colors, attention-grabbing calls to action, and the absolute best copy you can muster. The extra care and attention will pay huge dividends.

Use a Great Headline

It goes without saying, but we’re going to say it anyway: you need to have a great, eye-catching headline that will make users want to click your ad. Keeping with the design aesthetic of Gmail, your headline should resemble an email, so it might be helpful to think of your ad as an email marketing piece rather than an ad.

Also, don’t be afraid to use emojis. Emails that use emojis tend toward higher engagement.

Consider Google Discovery Ads

Some digital marketers don’t even bother with Gmail ads anymore because of the runaway success of Google Discovery Ads in getting a piece of the ever-growing mobile pie. Check out our guide on Discovery Ads.

Final Thoughts About Gmail Ads

In this article, you should be able to come away with a better understanding of:

• What Gmail ads look like and how they work
• Why they’re so effective for reaching customers at the top of the sales funnel
• How to properly target users for better ROI

Gmail ads are great, but they should only be one part of a more comprehensive marketing strategy. Now that you’re armed with the knowledge to achieve better results with Gmail ads, it’s time to get out there and put our tips to the test.

If you’d like even more help finding the best ways to reach your future customers with digital marketing, get in touch with us today.

The post Simple Tricks to Mastering Gmail Ad Targeting (Updated August 2020) appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

So you have to flip it over, with the overly inquisitive lady who’s a fixture of this drugstore eyeing you like a hawk and then you can finally print those photos of your dog in a lil cowboy hat.

Do you really always have the USB turned the wrong way around? Or is it just that things going wrong tends to stick in our memories better than things going right?

This is an example of sample bias.

Defining Sample Bias

There are many terms in this realm with overlapping meanings: sample bias, sampling bias, implicit bias. The essence of what I’m trying to say is that these terms point us to blindspots and the attendant difficulty in understanding the world. You might be interested to see this conundrum as it relates to sample bias in a census.

We’ve got one coming up in the US this year, you know.

Tempering our intuition with testing can combat sample bias. A common story that we tell ourselves about “experts” is that they gradually and imperceptibly develop a sixth sense about their field from years of lived experience. Now, this is true in a way, but the process isn’t so mysterious or impenetrable. Building expertise is often just running numerous experiments and changing your hypotheses as you get new data and test again.

And again. And again.

Sample bias leads to poor analysis and decision-making. It blinds us to the world that is right in front of us: we approach a situation without realizing the assumptions we bring to it.

Overcoming Sample Bias: Envisioning What’s Been Left Out

During World War II, the military tried to assess how to better armor its aircraft. Hundreds of planes coming back from the front were examined for damage, bullet holes mainly. This image of the plane on the right represents the data. Black areas signify more damage; white, less damage.

Where would you have recommended reinforcing the planes?

Pencils down!

Mathemagician to the Rescue

Luckily for the Allies, Abraham Wald was on the case. Wald was a mathematician who took on this very question for the US government via his post at Columbia University. (I learned about this nugget of history in WORK RULES!, Laszlo Bock’s book about why Google is consistently rated a great place to work.)

What Wald advised might seem counterintuitive: that the cockpit and tail should be reinforced. He had the clarity to realize that the data wasn’t presenting the whole picture. It only represented the planes that made it back. Those that were shot down were not being considered.

The prevalence of bullet holes in the wings, nose, and center section of the fuselage meant that those parts of the aircraft were actually more durable and less in need of protection. It was the cockpit and tail—generally unscathed on the returning planes—that were essential to protect. A single bullet hole in those vulnerable areas likely spelled disaster.

Sample Bias: A PPC Example

Let me bring sample bias a little closer to home, to us as marketers.

What I Assumed

I ran an experiment on the bidding strategy type for a client. It was a display campaign with the ultimate goal of driving brand awareness. The client had the campaign set to the maximize conversions bid strategy; I hypothesized that a viewable cost-per-thousand impressions bid strategy would drive more impressions for a lower cost. In fact, I didn’t just hypothesize it, I guaranteed it (in my head at least).

Why did I believe this so firmly? First of all, because that’s exactly how Google explains Viewable CPM—as an algorithm aimed at putting ads in front of people for less spend. Secondly, because that’s how my teammates expected the experiment would go as well.

Here’s what happened.

What I Actually Saw

1-week performance

I felt pretty good after the first week. The Viewable CPM strategy had gotten more than double the impressions of Max Conv.

2-week performance

Boy, about then I thought I was hot stuff. More than a quarter cheaper for each thousand impressions.

3-week performance

After another week, it was more of the same. I was going Mach 5.

4-week performance

The full month’s story was different. The average CPM ended almost exactly the same for each bid strategy, and Max Conv. got more than 17x the clicks in those four weeks.

I reviewed these stats with the client, and we decided to close out the experiment, returning the full budget to the Max Conv strategy.

I had to doff my cap to the wisdom of testing.

If I’d just gone with what I assumed to be true, I would have missed out on the excellent performance of Maximize Conversions bidding strategy in this case.

Sample Bias and Self-Perception

Correcting for bias in our thinking isn’t only good for PPC campaigns. It’s good for us as people.

Oh, no! FOMO

Fear of missing out—FOMO, as the kids call it—is intensified by the way we interact with social media. FOMO is that vague sense that everyone else is always doing something more exciting than we are.

Facebook and Instagram are pervaded by images of people indulging at fancy restaurants, hiking in perfectly appointed outfits, dancing the night away, starting new jobs, showing off new cars, and displaying especially good hair days.

Sometimes we take these images as the whole story. We implicitly assume that these photos are representative of the lives of those therein.

When you’ve gotten home late from work on a Friday night and pull out your phone, it can seem like everyone else is out having a great time, while you’re the lame one without the right relationship, without the right friends, without the right self.

The problem is we aren’t seeing the whole picture. FOMO is a kind of sample bias.

People usually use social media to share peak events. We don’t typically present others with:

• time spent waiting in the dentist’s office
• getting a flat tire
• anxiety about getting older

or the

• pleasant but ordinary half-hour spent reading before work
• our mother’s cancer diagnosis
• waking up and our back not hurting as much as yesterday
• having Cheerios just when you had a taste for them.

Correcting for Sample Bias in our Lives

When you are already feeling a bit down and turn to social media in your default mode of thinking, you can wind up making things worse. There is an opportunity in such moments to adjust your thoughts: to consider that sample bias may be at play. You are not getting the whole picture. And this can be consoling.

You can come to see the photos of people showing off a new car or being in an exotic locale as a respite for them amidst the misfortunes of life. You can realize that that person in the pixels is probably just as worried about missing out as you are. So why not bask in their moment in the sun, even digitally, from afar.

Keep Alert for Sample Bias and Things Will Be Better

We’re human. We bring assumptions to the table that we don’t realize. We start from a biased framework and get skewed results.

We’re human. We learn from our mistakes—and the keen-sightedness of others (my thanks to Mr. Wald). We check ourselves going forward for the many species of bias.

Ferreting Out Bias in Marketing and Life

• Are you considering the whole scope of the data? Or just a subset?
• Why is your direct traffic in Google Analytics so high?
• Are you invested in the outcome of a test going a certain way?
• Are you accurately tracking users across subdomains?
• Are you using tests to balance your gut feelings?
• Does alt text still matter?
• Are emotions pushing you to a negative conclusion that’s unwarranted?

Happy hunting for those hidden assumptions and unrepresented data! Check out how we’ve seen things that others missed for our clients.

The post Sample Bias: Personal and PPC Pitfalls appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

Learn how the two platforms compare to each other in this blog post – Google Analytics 4 vs Universal Analytics.

Understanding the difference between clicks and sessions is one of the more common challenges marketing professionals face when they analyze data from their Google campaigns.

In October of 2000, Google changed the game for all of us in the world of digital marketing when they launched Google AdWords (now Ads). A little over five years later, they leveled the game up for all of us again when they launched Google Analytics.

While the two properties were both created by Google, they are not built the same. Because of that, performance data that is stored in each platform can be tough to interpret.

To quote Google directly, the ‘Clicks’ column in your Google Ads reports indicates how many times your ads were clicked by users. The ‘Sessions’ column indicates the number of unique sessions initiated by your users.

There are at least three reasons why these two numbers may not be a perfect match. Whether you review your campaign performance daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly in Google, chances are high that you will have a reporting discrepancy between the two.

And that you will need to explain why to someone you report to.

We are here to help. Let’s look at three common reasons there can be a difference between clicks and sessions, how these discrepancies get created, and how Google has your back when issues come up.

Reason #1: Multiple User Ad Clicks And How They Get Reported

Depending on the features and platforms you use in your Google Ads campaigns, it’s very likely that one individual user may click on your one ad multiple times.

But when that one person clicks on your one Google ad multiple times in the same session, Google Ads records all of those clicks as, well, clicks.

While Google Analytics does, in fact, recognize all of those clicks, they log all of that click activity as one session with multiple pageviews.

On the bright side, all of that data is getting recorded on both platforms. You just needed to know how that data was being interpreted by each platform.

On the dark side, it is really difficult to do a true, 1:1 match up of performance data between your Google Ads account and Google Analytics.

If you’ve ever:

• held down the ctrl key (or the open+Apple key, Macheads)
• right-clicked and selected ‘open link in a new tab’
• right-clicked and selected ‘open link in a new window’

when you’ve clicked on Google Ads, then you have likely caused this scenario to occur yourself.

You have also sentenced a digital marketing analyst to a pie in the face.

This is a common user behavior for anyone doing comparison shopping, so if you have this issue in your Google Ads and Google Analytics, your competitor probably does, too. With the high usage of mobile devices today, tapping the back button is a far more common practice. Over time, this scenario may become less of an issue.

Reason #2: Users Bookmarking Pages Or Suspending Browser Tabs

Google cites one of the more common reasons for differences between clicks and sessions as being due to user bookmarking.

They click your ad, Google Ads records it. Then Google Analytics records the session.

But then that user bookmarks your site. They could do this to continue browsing, or they could do this with the full intention of returning later to:

• Share what they discovered from your business with a supervisor or co-decision maker
• Complete the purchasing process on a better Internet connection or in a more convenient location
• Compare the contents of your ad/offer to a competing product or service

No matter what the reason, that user is returning to your site directly and starting a new session.

However, the referral information from the original ad click will be retained because the user bookmarked your ad.

Google Ads sees one click. Google Analytics sees multiple sessions.

You have a discrepancy in your reporting.

This same scenario could also be played out by heavy desktop Internet browser users who use a browser tab suspender.

While that sounds like a pretty unique situation, savvier users who have browser extensions like The Great Suspender – which currently has over 1.7 million users of its Chrome extension – would also create multiple Google Analytics session visits from one Google Ads click if they leave a tab open too long.

In addition to issues with reporting in Google Ads and Analytics, these situations may also explain why direct traffic in Google Analytics continues to increase.

Reason #3: A User Stops A Page From Loading

You are searching for a product or service on Google. On any device.

You click a Google Ad to learn more about that product or service. You wait for the page to load.

And wait. And wait. And wait. 4-plus seconds goes by, still, nothing loads.

Naturally, you click stop in your browser, go back to the Google results, and click the next ad that best matches what you’re searching to find.

You have probably done these hundreds of times.

If your site is slow, so have your potential customers.

The second you clicked ‘stop’, Google Analytics tracking code failed to register a session. But Google Ads recorded that click.

Your company spent money, and now has nothing to show for it. Except for a Google Ads click… and a reporting difference between clicks and sessions.

Aside from the reporting discrepancy between Google Ads and Google Analytics, the lesson here is really simple: slow loading websites hurt businesses.

Make sure you are doing everything you can to optimize your page load times.

Invalid Click Refunding Helps Protect Your Campaign Costs From These Issues

If you do have a reporting discrepancy between clicks and sessions in your Google performance platforms, your ad campaign likely has fallen victim to a combination of the three reasons discussed above.

• Multiple clicks on the same ad
• Users bookmarking your ad
• Users reloading your ad in a suspended browser tab
• Users stopping your page from loading due to slow load speed

One measure Google has had in place for some time for advertisers is the filtering and refunding of invalid clicks. Invalid clicks are regularly removed from your performance reports in Google Ads. If you navigate to your billing history, you will often find a record of any refunds your account has been credited for invalid clicks.

Keep in mind, though, that invalid clicks are not removed from Google Analytics session reports. So even though you will have lower costs associated with your campaign, getting both Google Ads data and Google Analytics data to match up 1:1 is going to be very difficult.

Interested in having a Google Premier Partner certified team take a look at your campaign to make sure everything is being reported as expected? Please contact us!

The post How Google Determines The Difference Between Sessions And Clicks appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

The ability to “mute” retargeting ads may be a win for users who feel hounded by repetitive advertisements, but this change also impacts marketers and advertisers. The truth is that these enhancements will have an impact on the overall number of impressions and general performance of retargeting ads.  

It’s difficult to tell the impact the new feature will have on retargeting ads, but here’s a closer look at the updates. and then provide a few awesome tips to minimize the impact on advertisers.

Mute Reminders (Cue the Silence)

For some time, users have had the power in their Google account to add or remove topics to which they will be marketed to based on their personal preferences. Topics include segments such as “Beauty & Fitness,” “Parenting,” or “Finance” – topics that advertisers can also use to target specific audiences.

Additionally, users have the option to completely turn off ad personalization as part of their ad experience. This removed users from Display Network targeting based on demographics or specific topics.

Google has now added a section for “Your Reminders ads,” which are just a name for retargeting ads which are viewed multiple times. But with this latest addition to the ad settings, users have the ability to completely mute brand retargeting ads in apps and on the Google Display Network.

So for example, a user may be perusing a furniture store in search of a new recliner for his living room. After going to a retailer who has recliners on their site, he looks at the selection, reads one product page’s description very carefully, and goes as far to place the product in his cart.

He doesn’t make a purchase, but retargeting deems him a perfect candidate to populate an ad for the product he was considering through Google’s Display Network. While this person may be interested in the chair, he is seeing it non-stop and starts to get annoyed. It’s in this case where “reminders ads,” or these repetitive retargeting ads, can be muted in Google’s ad personalization settings.

Mute Ads Expansion

In the same announcement, Google detailed even more changes coming to ad personalization options.

First, user feedback will cross all devices using the same Google profile. If a user mutes an ad from their laptop, this change is now recognized on their smartphone as well. Second, the option to mute an ad will be available in even more places across apps and Google Display Network partner websites.

Seriously, What Do You Do Now?

Now, this all may seem like bad news for the future of retargeting as we know it, but there are a few things which can help offset the potential negatives. Here are a few proactive steps advertisers can take to minimize the impact and potentially even improve current results.

1. Turn it Down

Frequency capping in retargeting campaigns is highly recommended to avoid hitting potential customers over the head with so many ads in one day that they resort to muting the ad. This setting is conveniently located at the campaign level of display campaigns and can cap impressions at the ad group or campaign level.

2. Segment. Then Segment Again.

Segmenting audiences is just one example of how retargeting ads are such a powerful marketing tool. To combat users muting ads, advertisers can segment their audiences based on a user’s engagement with a website. This could include specific products they viewed, the number of pages they visited, and whether or not they completed a purchase or other conversion action.

Now is a great time to make sure purchasers or converters are excluded from general retargeting audiences. That way retargeting ads can show more relevant content to users who need to return to an advertiser’s site to convert.

However, don’t throw converters entirely out of the picture; but consider retargeting them less frequently or later down the road. Because they have shown they are willing to be a buying customer in the past, they are more likely to re-engage with a brand in the future.

3. Relevancy is Key

Ad relevancy is extremely important and is now even more relevant for retargeting ads with the latest ad personalization announcement from Google.

For ecommerce websites, implementing a feature like dynamic retargeting creates ads featuring products a user viewed while browsing is tremendously useful. This helps reduce friction and annoyance a user might experience from seeing a generic brand ad over and over again for five straight days.

Lead generation websites can increase ad relevancy by creating retargeting ads around page content. For example, a university could build an audience specifically for users who visited the financial aid page and didn’t submit a contact form. This audience segment may find retargeting ads featuring messaging about affordability or financial aid options to be much more relevant than ads about student life.

Countering Muted Ads

It’s unclear as to how much this new feature will impact retargeting ads, but in the end, it most certainly will have some impact. Keep in mind that these features will most likely be used by a power user, rather than the average person on the Internet.

Provided that segmenting, ad relevancy, and avoiding excessive repetition will be the best way to undo the likelihood that an ad gets muted.

To get more information on this topic, contact us today for a free consultation or learn more about our status as a Google Partner Agency before you reach out.

The post Google Announces New User Controls Impacting Retargeting Ads appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

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