VM Weekly Roundup #thisweekineverything

Welcome to our industry news roundup, where the rubber meets the roadmap.

Adwords Curveball

Google Can Now Double Your Daily Budget Spend

A change in how Google spends your Adwords budget was announced in October, and search advertisers are still grappling with what this means for their campaigns. Under the new policy, Google can automatically double your set daily budget, as long as the the total amount spent over a given month equalizes to an average of your set daily spend over 30 days. This means you’re likely to see more sudden spikes and dips in spending and campaign activity.

10 Second Tip: This change will hit short-run campaigns of under a month and campaigns that get temporarily “paused” and re-activated hardest: in order for monthly spending to “equalize,” campaigns will need to run for a full calendar month.

Test Drive: There’s no opt-out option for this spending change, so small businesses using search marketing will need to make a choice: commit to full, month-long campaigns with zero budget adjustments, or plan for unexpected rises in ad budgeting.

YouTube Demographics

Advertising On YouTube? Don’t Neglect Boomers

Oh, those millennials and their crazy YouTu–wait, what’s that? Baby boomers spend 10% more time on YouTube than millennials? According to a new report analyzing generational digital trends, it’s true. That data likely comes as a shock to more than just us: overall, advertisers are spending 156% more of their ad dollars to target millennials with YouTube ads than they are to target boomers. What’s more: boomers also tend to have a higher click-through rate on YouTube ads–and they have a higher level of consumer spending.

10 Second Tip: If you want to target the boomer generation, don’t neglect YouTube. And if you’re a regular YouTube advertiser in a broad market, consider adjusting your messaging to appeal to this generational cohort. You just might see an uptick in conversions!

Test Drive: That’s interesting data–but will it apply to your industry? According to the report, videos with the highest view rates from boomers were those in the niches for household appliances, telecommunications, entertainment, and travel. If you’re leaving boomers out of ads in these areas, you just might be leaving money on the table.

Web Design for Your Niche

Design Tips to Help You Sell Services Online

If there’s one thing we know about web design and digital advertising, it’s this: one size really doesn’t fit all. What works fantastically for a retail business might not quite hit the mark for a restaurant, law firm, or installation company. Many of our clients fall into the B2B service provider category, and this link is a great roundup of things to consider for designing a website (or any piece of online content, really) when you’re a business offering a service–whether you’re in SaaS, the hospitality industry, or anything in between.

10 Second Tip: We’re big fans of focusing on the user’s experience of any given website, but for websites selling a service, you can’t neglect defining who you are as a company. Because offering services requires a level of ongoing trust (and often, contracts or recurring payments), users who visit the website want to know who they’re putting their trust in before they take the plunge.

Test Drive: 3 areas of focus you can use to give site visitors a sense of who you are as a company and what you do: create a stellar ‘About’ page, highlight outside testimonials, and maintain a blog.