CWC Highlights of 2017

Another year in business has flown by! And what a year it was. Here’s a recap of Click-Winning Content’s 2017 highlights.

1. Business Partners, Friends and Clients

It’s been 8.5 years since I started Click-Winning Content and it’s the great people that I work with every day who make me glad I did!

This includes:

• My network of business friends who are always there was I need an opinion, a debrief or a fabulous lunch.
• All the people who refer clients to us and who we trust to refer clients to for services like Search Engine Optimisation, web development and copywriting.
• Our clients who appreciate the time and effort we put in to helping them get the best return from AdWords.

I also want to acknowledge everyone who reads our blog, is connected with us on social media and engages with our content.

2. Expanding our team and improving business processes

Andrew and I are always looking at ways to expand our capacity and this year we did that in two ways.

One of the ways was expanding our team to include a fabulous Virtual Assistant, AdWords Specialists and an AdWords coordinator so that we have more time to focus on client strategy and liaison, and working ON the business rather than IN it.

The other way was to introduce processes and tools that continue to make us more efficient, including updating our Reporting tool to provide more comprehensive information to AdWords management clients each month.

The new team and processes have given us capacity to work with new AdWords management clients without compromising the service we provide to existing clients. And they have also allowed us to introduce the new services below.

3. Introducing new services

In addition to Google AdWords set up, management, consulting and small group training which we’ve always offered, we have added an AdWords Health Check and a 30 Minute “Pick-My-Brains” AdWords consult to our list of services.

The new services were added in response to regular enquiries from businesses who need advice about what to do next to improve their AdWords campaigns, either via a structured report and recommendations, or a short, sharp, effective burst of high quality advice.

As well as to Business Owners, we’re also offering these services to Digital Marketing agencies and Marketing teams who would like an experienced, professional opinion about the AdWords campaigns that they are managing.

In addition to new AdWords services we can also provide a monthly report of your key Google Analytics data, with high level analysis on how your website is supporting your business goals, and if there are any issues that need to be addressed.

The Google Analytics report includes:

• visitor numbers
• bounce rate
• traffic sources
• conversion data.

It’s available at a special rate to AdWords management clients, as an add on to your monthly AdWords report.

4. Attending Ad Week and the Google Premier Partner Summit in New York

We were thrilled to be invited to attend this event hosted by Google in September and happily attended along with around 1000 other Google Premier Partners from around the world. It was an opportunity to catch up with our Google Partner friends, make new ones, find out about new products and features rolling out in the Google world, and improve our business knowledge. The event planning and organisation was impeccable and we also loved taking some time out to enjoy New York’s sights, sunsets, shopping and never ending array of restaurants, cafes and bars.

Here’s a summary of my key take-aways.

Review how you track Return On Investment from your ad spend

Move away from “Last Click” Attribution

• Traditionally AdWords and Analytics conversion tracking used a ‘last click’ model, which means that the last click (that doesn’t include people going direct to your website) gets the credit for the conversion. For example if someone originally clicked on an ad, then searched for your business name in Google, found your website in the search results and went back to the website and converted, then organic search would get the credit for the conversion rather than AdWords. This model means that you’re not getting insights into some of the value generated from your AdWords campaign.
• This topic isn’t new, but the importance of moving to a different attribution model was emphasised, for example one that shares the credit among the different marketing touch points in the lead up to the conversion.
• The free Google Attribution tool is currently in beta testing and is expected to be available in 2018.

Watch a video to learn more about Marketing Attribution and Why You Should Care

Understand the importance of cross-device conversions

• This is particularly important given how many searches (and Ad Clicks) now happen via mobile devices. When someone sees an ad on a mobile device, clicks on it and does research into your products or services they often don’t buy because it’s difficult to enter the required information via fat fingers on a mobile device. However they could return later via laptop or table to make the purchase. This behaviour is called a cross device conversion and while Google is working on improving this tracking for this, don’t underestimate the value of your ad spend where clicks via mobile devices can’t yet be fully linked to conversions.
• Read more

5. Getting short listed as a finalist in the Google Premier Partner awards

In 2018 Google Premier Partner agencies in Asia Pacific were invited to enter these awards for the first time. We decided to give the application our best shot!

Writing up the application was a great way to review all aspects of our business, particularly our areas of strength and where we can improve. I can’t thank Melinda from The Awards Agency enough for her help and advice in submitting the application.

And you’ve gotta love getting a delivery of mini cup cakes from Google to acknowledge making the short list!

6. Sponsoring Australia’s first copywriting conference

We were pleased to sponsor Copy Con which was run by Kate Toon and held in April. It was a brilliant event with engaging speakers, great atmosphere for networking and high quality event management. It was also a lot of fun!

Many copywriters refer new AdWords clients to us and it was great to be able to meet a lot them face-to-face at this event, and also make new contacts.

Find out about the 2018 Copywriting Conference.

Two aspects of your website that are critical for success in 2018

I want to mention two key aspects of websites that should be important to you if providing a user friendly website experience and getting your website found in Google are important to your business.

Many businesses have made these updates but if you haven’t, 2018 is the time!

• Having a HTTPS Domain
  • Read more about why having a HTTPS domain is important
• Having a mobile friendly website
  • As more and more people search the internet via mobile devices, not having a mobile friendly website means that you will both lose organic traffic from Google, and also lose people who visit and aren’t willing to put up with the ‘pinch and squeeze’ experience of a non mobile friendly site. This is particularly important if you’re paying for AdWords traffic and want to get maximum possible conversions.

If you need help with either update let me know and I’ll put you in touch with some good people.

On a personal note, for me, 2017 was the year of the greyhound.

I’ve wanted to get a dog for a long time. In fact since my last dog met a tragic end when I was in high school. But Andrew and I live in an apartment and travel regularly so it hasn’t been practical. Earlier this year we dog-sat a greyhound for friends who were travelling overseas. Through this experience we were introduced to the delights of greyhounds as pets, and were forever won over to the greyhound cause. I’ve since become a greyhound foster carer and have welcomed two ‘retired athletes’ as short term guests to our apartment to learn how to become pets. They’ve also motivated us to get us away from our desks and out walking more often!

Wishing you a happy 2018, full of family, friends, business success and satisfaction.

Until next time

Melinda

P.S. If you need help with Google AdWords, drop me a line via our AdWords enquiry form.