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How Medical Professionals Use Google Display Ads to Win New Patients
By now, most professionals in the medical industry know that a robust Internet marketing campaign is necessary to achieve maximum exposure in the digital age. Doctors, practice managers, and other medical professionals may have an SEO plan that is designed to improve their search engine rankings with web crawlers such as Google. They may even have discovered AdWords, Google’s PPC (pay-per-click) advertising program. However, many aren’t aware of the visibility available to them via Google’s most powerful tool: Google Display Ads.

GDN Banner Sizes: Get the Most for Your Money

All ads come in various shapes and sizes and are measured in pixels. Depending on GDN banner size you opt for, the number of partner sites available to you may dwindle. Generally speaking, the options available are as follows:
- 200×200 Small Square: Appears on the right-hand sidebar on a limited number of sites.
- 250×250 Square: As above.
- 300×250 Medium Rectangle: Appears within or toward the end of an article, with a good number of sites to choose from.
- 336×280 Large Rectangle: As above.
- 300×600 Half-Page Ad: Appears on the left or right hand of the site, with a growing number of participating websites.
- 728×90 Leaderboard: Appears inside or at the top of an article, with a good number of sites to choose from.
- 468×60 Banner: Appears in small spaces inside an article or to the left side, with few participating sites.
- 234×60 Half Banner: As above.
- 120×600 Skyscraper: Appears on the sidebars of sites, with few participating sites.
- 160×600 Wide Skyscraper: As above, with a good number of sites available.
- 970×90 Wide Skyscraper: This ad appears at the top of websites, with few participating sites.
What Is the Google Display Network (GDN)?

AdWords promotion will get your business and services noticed, as it bumps your site toward the top of SERPs (while simultaneously flagging it as an advertisement), but the GDN is slightly different. Google has said that the GDN reaches over 90% of Internet users worldwide, expanding across 2 million pages, including Google-owned sites like YouTube and Gmail, popular news outlets like The Huffington Post and, best of all, a large number of webpages devoted to the medical and healthcare industry. Not only do these ads display when a consumer is already searching for your services, but they also appear on related sites and target the lead while not in “shopping mode.” This unique ability to shape and direct the scope, reach, and target audience for your ad makes the GDN an invaluable tool in anyone’s digital marketing strategy.

Where to Begin: Types, Formats, and Focus

Though you can opt for a text ad, researchers have found that maximum impact occurs with image ads, which Google places into four categories; static, animated, interactive, and video.

Static ads: These are just what you might imagine: banners of different sizes that occupy space (usually at the top, bottom, or sides) of a website. The GDN allows these in the most common image file formats: JPG, JPEG, PNG, and non-animated GIF. The example to the left is a static ad created for Donaldson Plastic Surgery.

Animated ads: This type of ad often generates more interest, as the eye is drawn to movement on an otherwise still display. This type of image also has the benefit of including more information, as you can phase from one still image to the next without having to take up a large amount of page space. These can be uploaded as an SWF or GIF.

Interactive ads: These encourage input from the user, whether it be by including a link to sign up for a newsletter or showing a photo gallery of products that requires the user to click to view more. These ads can only be uploaded in SWF format. Studies suggest that people are 2.5 times more likely to take action after viewing an interactive ad; however, it’s worth noting that opting for static ads gives you a greater number of sites to advertise on.

Video ads: These ads can be particularly eye-catching, and they allow you to market on sites that display video content, like YouTube.

Here is an infographic that will help you easily remember the sizes.

When selecting a size for your Google Display Ads, it’s paramount to consider the both the click-through rates and the number of potential clients who will be exposed to your campaign.

A large interactive ad may seem like a good idea, but if it only appears on a handful of websites, it may not be worth the cost—or the effort.

Technical & Content Requirements

The GDN will not accept ads that are larger than 150KB. Reducing image size—particularly for animated or interactive files—without sacrificing quality can be difficult, which is why it’s always a good idea to consult with a professional design and marketing team. While animated ads can be looped (effectively playing forever), they cannot be more than 15 seconds long consecutively. Ads in GIF format must be 5 frames a second, whereas Flash ads (whether video or animated) can be considerably longer—up to 20 frames a second and sometimes slower.

Google Display Ads also carries content guidelines that are particularly pertinent for those in the medical profession. Some of these rules are self-apparent, like not duplicating site content, not tricking users into clicking your ad by pretending to be a virus warning, and making it clear that the material is an advertisement. However, Google also has rules regarding adult-oriented content that can impact healthcare professionals, particularly in fields like OB/GYN and plastic surgery. For example, images containing exposed skin and nudity are not allowed, nor is content that is sexually suggestive. Again, consulting an Internet marketing specialist may be the best way to get your brand out there without inadvertently violating Google’s policies on restricted content.

Tips for Successful Ads

There’s no question about it: Google’s paid advertising options are powerful, but they’re complicated. Making the most of the GDM requires completely rethinking the way you market your services and products. You need to be intimately acquainted with your target audience, what sites they’re likely to visit, and what types of advertisements they’re most likely to respond to. Additionally, what works for a general practitioner isn’t going to work for an inpatient addictions clinic. Doctors who specialize in breast augmentation may encounter more problems than those who specialize in psychiatry and counseling—it all depends on your business and your prospective clientele.

With years of experience in paid search and display advertising for medical practices, Search Influence is uniquely qualified to help you and your business harness the extraordinary power of Google Display Ads. Get in touch today, and we’ll be happy to come up with a plan to increase your visibility and enhance your bottom line.

Image Credits:

Ad Click-Through Rates
January 20, 2016
How the Google Penguin Update Will Affect Your Site in 2016

Happy Penguin Awareness Day! (You remembered, right?) Today, we celebrate everyone’s favorite quirky, aquatic natives of the Southern Hemisphere. Maybe you’ll want to spend the day in a tuxedo, visit your local zoo, or adopt a penguin to celebrate?

Of course, if you’re in the world of SEO, you might find that instead of adorable fluff balls, Google’s massive algorithm springs to mind. While it’s not quite as cute and cuddly as its animal cousin, this Google algorithm continues to be a crucial part of SEO in 2016—and this January, it’s more important than ever to be aware of how it affects your site.

Google’s Big, Fluffy Penguin

First launched in April 2012, Google’s Penguin update made massive waves in the SEO world. That era was a dark time in the online world—back when questionable content and black-hat SEO could earn you high rankings in the SERPs. The Penguin update’s primary aim was to make these manipulative strategies ineffectual, decreasing the SERP rankings of any website found to be in violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, especially those sites that tried to increase their rankings through various link schemes.

The penalty for sites with too many low-quality, “spammy” links is steep: you may lose your high rankings in the SERPs, or Penguin may even remove your URLs from the SERPs altogether, which is the last thing you want. Fortunately, penalties can be removed in a number of ways, from manually removing questionable links to using Google’s Disavow Tool. In a January 2015 video hangout, John Mueller also stated that these penalties can be removed by simply building high-quality links—which can help Penguin overlook some of your more questionable links.

What’s New?

Up until recently, Penguin was pretty old news: the last confirmed Penguin update was over a year ago in October 2014. But Google has been working on a revamped version of its favorite fluffy algorithm for some time, and Penguin 4.0 is expected to be released within the next few weeks. With anticipation hanging in the air, influencers throughout the industry have been on the edge of their seats awaiting the update—but in spite of a lot of unusual ranking changes, Google has confirmed that the latest Penguin update has not yet been released as of January 12.

The Penguin update, according to Webmaster Trends Analyst Gary Illyes, promises to be the “real time version,” which means that the revamped Penguin algorithm will update continuously, discovering and analyzing your site’s links in real time. This, in turn, means that any changes to your site (whether good or bad) should have a much faster impact on your rankings.

In the long run, this is great news: fast and frequent “real time” analysis should mean that Penguin penalties are less lasting, so removing unnatural links from your site should allow you to see a speedy recovery.

How to Prepare for the Coming of Penguin

While massive Google algorithm updates tend to shake up the SERPs for a while, the good news is that the same SEO best practices we preach so frequently on this blog should be a good defense against the worst of the changes.

Now is the time to perform a comprehensive link audit, especially if it’s been a while, just to be sure your site is prepared. Take the time to eliminate any bad, exact match, low-quality, or irrelevant links in favor of clean linking strategies. If you’ve made every attempt to remove an unnatural link, use the Disavow Tool as a last resort: this tool tells Google that despite your attempts to remove the link, you were unable to do so.

Aside from this careful audit of your site’s links, the best thing you can do is continue creating content that is high-quality, helpful, and informative—or tweaking your existing content to be this way. Organic backlinks are grown from this kind of information, as people naturally share content that they find interesting or informative.

If the impending Penguin update has you worried, don’t forget that Search Influence offers a wealth of SEO services to ensure that this penguin doesn’t come back to bite you!

Image Credits:

Jumping Penguins
You Didn’t See Anything
Penguin Attack

January 20, 2016
4 Tips for Managing the Reviews & Reputation of Your Multi-Location Business

Managing your business’s online presence can help you set yourself apart, especially when it comes to big franchises and multi-location businesses that are often too large to handle things like responding to reviews.

1. Monitor What’s Being Said About Your Overall Brand

By using tools that monitor mentions of your brand name online, you can keep a pulse on the overall tone and sentiment customers express about your brand. Social Searcher is a simple, free tool that allows you to track mentions on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ and to get alerts about the mentions in your email inbox. This can help you reply to feedback about your business that comes in forms other than review platforms like Twitter posts and Facebook statuses.

2. Address Reviews Both Good and Bad

Responding to reviews online is important for showing that you are a brand that is active and engaged in your widespread community. It is often assumed that large franchises and multi-location businesses are too big to handle the relatively large amount of feedback they receive. Being able to manage and respond to those reviews is a great way to set yourself apart from your competitors and show concern for and interest in your customers. While it’s much easier to respond to positive reviews, responding to negative reviews gracefully and respectfully can also lead to a greatly improved reputation for your business.

3. Check Out Industry-Specific Review Sites

Some industries have their own niche sites where you’ll find reviews. These are great opportunities for building and understanding your business’s online presence for those who are actively engaged in your industry. For example, GolfNow is a site that helps golfers locate courses all around the US and even internationally. Within each course’s listing, you can also find reviews from golfers that use the site. Another interesting feature of this review site, which can be seen on the Audubon Institute‘s Audubon Park Golf Course listing, is that reviewers who book their golfing experience through GolfNow are shown as “verified,” which gives more authority to the reviews. Having authoritative resources across the web pointing back to your business is also a great way to increase your business’s visibility in search engine results.

4. Get Creative with Review and Testimonial Opportunities

Think about what type of engagement your business attracts and try to come up with a way to engage and feature your customers’ feedback on your site. Everyone these days is taking pictures of their food, so restaurants would be smart to feature tags of their food in the form of an Instagram stream on their site using free tools like Instansive. These kinds of tools allow you to generate a code to implement on your website that shows photos from your username or using a unique tag. Similarly, business owners can take note from the clever Donaldson Plastic Surgery. Dr. Donaldson’s patients are proud to share their selfies and testimonial videos on site, so this is a great opportunity to leverage positive reviews for their business in a fun and engaging way.

Whether you’re a three-location local business or a countrywide franchise, it’s important to maintain control of your online presence. Check out the ways in which Search Influence can help your business grow its presence online on our services page.

Image Credits:

Five-Star Image

January 19, 2016
The Verdict Is In: How to Make Your Law Firm Mobile-Friendly

The Internet is not contained to just desktop computers anymore. With the massive proliferation of mobile devices, including smartphones, tablets, and phablets, users have the Internet wherever they go, and that means there are a lot of mobile search inquiries. In fact, according to Google, more people search using mobile devices than with desktop computers worldwide.

Importance for Law Firms

What this means is that your law firm must be optimized for mobile searches in order to be found, especially by younger generations. Think about it: when a smartphone user needs timely legal advice to handle a situation such as a car accident, they will immediately use it to search for a reputable law firm. And the closer your law firm is to the top of the mobile search rankings, the more likely your firm is to receive that phone call.

Whether on desktop or mobile, more and more people are using the Internet to find a lawyer. Citing a survey conducted by Moses & Rooth Attorneys at Law and Mike Blumenthal, Will Scott notes that 15.5 percent of those searching for legal assistance use the Internet. He also points out that those between the ages of 18 and 24 have a stronger inclination to search for legal representation using the Internet.

Become Mobile-friendly

But how can your tell if your law firm is optimized for mobile searches? Google Analytics will provide you with the tools you need to know if your website is up to its standards. Some things to pay attention to when optimizing your site for mobile is your site speed, internal links, how many images are used, the word count, and strong social signals. These elements all affect your search rankings, communicating to Google whether or not your website is mobile-friendly.

In addition to having a site that is easy to find on Google, you’ll also want to implement strategies to convert mobile website hits into clients. Adding a click-to-call button to your website will allow users to easily call your office so they can arrange a meeting for a consultation. A simple inquiry form is also important to implement on your website so mobile users can fill in the fields with pertinent information about their case without having to wait to find a desktop to do so.

It is also important to understand what your potential clients will be putting into the search box. Besides specific and location-targeted keywords, Blue Nile research has discovered that 27 percent of search engine users form their searches as questions. That means when a potential client searches for a law firm, over 1 in 4 people will search for phrases such as “where can I find a medical malpractice lawyer?” or “how can I fight a ____ charge?” A detailed and informative FAQ page will help lead these searches to your law firm. Not only does the FAQ page help for search engine optimization purposes, but it also benefits the user experience. A potential client will see the detailed information that answers their question and gain confidence that the site of your law firm has the solution to their legal matters. And with the aforementioned click-to-call button, the initial consultation meeting will be set up with effortlessly.

As the world transitions further and further into the digital realm, it is important for your law firm to understand how to stand out from the other law firms online. Search Influence is here to make sure your website is optimized for mobile searches to convert hits to consultations.

Image Credits:

Law Books

Mobile Phone Search

January 18, 2016
How to Rein in Your Content Marketing Budget
Scope creep. A concept that strikes fear in the heart of every project manager. Content can be a slippery slope when you’re racing against the competition to build your brand, show your expertise, and earn the trust of your customers, you may find yourself sacrificing quality to post new content more often. Your challenge is to produce enough quality content to keep your brand in the public eye. Without a clear strategy, it can get out of hand. Here’s how you can stay on budget and still deliver the goods.

Brainstorming and Buy-Ins

You want your blog to be informative and have an insider feel, and the best people to produce that kind of content are your employees. Asking your employees to blog benefits them by making them feel more valued and valuable. But, let’s be honest, not every employee is a writer. That’s where brainstorming comes in. Schedule a meeting every two weeks to brainstorm blog content. Invite stakeholders from each department, especially those on the front lines: customer service and sales.

You’ll also want to hear from the back end – whoever is monitoring your analytics. If you’re using a CRM with comprehensive reporting features, you have a wealth of data at your disposal. You’ll be able to spot trends, find out what customers are discussing on social media, and develop a comprehensive customer persona.

Using input from all departments, develop topics based on questions customers ask and problems they encounter. Your blog calendar should include a nice mix of informational topics, interaction, and personality. Employees who don’t have blogging skills (or the time) can contribute ideas and knowledge by way of bullet points to be sent to a writer.

Be sure to appoint an editor who can fact and quality check everything posted, make sure enough content is submitted, and ensure that sensitive company information doesn’t accidentally go public. An experienced editor will help protect your online reputation.

Stretch Your Most Valuable Assets

Buzzsumo analyzed thousands of posts and found that the most shared content is long…really long. More than 3,000 words. Professionally written content of length can be very costly, and your customers might not actually read it.

To make the most of an expensive piece of content, you can:
- Break points into shorter blog posts and discuss one concept at a time in more depth.
- Make a slide presentation with bullet points from a report.
- Create an infographic.
- Schedule dozens of tweets and social media posts with snippets of information.
- Discuss the information in a video.
- Create a how-to teaching viewers to apply the information you’ve presented.
- Schedule a livestream webinar with Q&A to discuss your findings.
- Create eye-catching graphics to tweet and post
Curate Content

The beauty of curated content is simple: you don’t have to produce it or pay for it. Curation allows you to provide a lot of content, even if you don’t have a lot of resources. You can add value with commentary and your own insight in just a few sentences. The content you pull into your site should be relevant to your industry, interesting, and new.

Ask for Guest Posts

Most blogs have a “write for us” page with guidelines about what they are willing to post. As your blog grows in popularity, writers will likely contact you to offer guest posts. Accept only quality posts, and make sure any links are to authoritative, high-quality sites.

You can also invite execs from partner industries to share their expertise.

Invite Your Readers to Participate

User-generated content (if appropriate) can be a fun and interesting way to get your customers involved:
- Threadless.com asks users to submit designs, which users then vote on. The most popular designs, based on pre-order sales, are printed and delivered.
- Hatteras Realty invites users to post their favorite vacation photos.
- TripAdvisor’s core value is built on user reviews.
- GoPro invites users to upload videos shot on GoPro cameras.
Long before your content budget spins out of control, you can create a strategy to contribute, curate, and invite. Done well, you can provide a wide variety of content to interest and entertain your customers, even on a limited budget.
January 18, 2016
Search Influence Turns 10, Gives Away $10K to Local Business
This past Wednesday was National Make Your Dreams Come True Day. Three lucky people won the largest Powerball payout in the history of the world, an estimated $1.6 billion. While none of my co-workers have come forward with a winning ticket, we all were lucky enough to attend Search Influence’s 10-Year Anniversary Celebration here in our New Orleans office. And what a party it was.

More pics can be seen here.

Influencers, along with clients, city officials, family, and friends, enjoyed finger foods and adult beverages while reminiscing about how much we have accomplished in just 10 short years. A company timeline can be viewed here. It’s amazing that what began in a spare bedroom in Will and Angie Scott’s home after Hurricane Katrina has now grown to be the largest online marketing company on the Gulf Coast. Guess their idea of helping businesses succeed online had merit! Search Influence now employs 85 full-time employees in New Orleans and 150 contract writers. Not too shabby, huh?

Other highlights include the following:
- May 2007 – Search Influence hires its third employee, Amy Arnold. As the longest tenured employee, she has since logged over 17,850 hours toward SEO research.
- June 2010 – With 14 employees, Search Influence outgrows its home office and moves to new digs on Jackson Street.
- February 2011 – One of the biggest SEO changes occurs—Google’s Panda launch—and it is a big deal. It targeted high-quality sites, pushing them up to the top of search results. To date, Search Influence has helped its clients maneuver 22 major Google updates.
- June 2011 – Having outgrown the office space in just 12 months, Search Influence packs up and moves to Oak Street with 33 employees.
- August 2011 – Inc. magazine releases its 30th annual Inc. 500, an exclusive ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. Search Influence is included as an honoree on the prestigious list.
- June 2012 – Search Influence is named in the first ever Flyover 50, a list compiled by Five Elms Capital to highlight the 50 fastest-growing companies in the middle of the country. Only two New Orleans companies make the list.
- August 2012 – Search Influence becomes the Gulf Coast’s largest Google AdWords Certified Partner. Today, we have five Adwords-certified professionals on staff.
- December 2013 – Will and Angie Scott are included on the Silicon Bayou 100 list of the most influential leaders in Louisiana’s startup, entrepreneurial, tech, and digital communities.
- July 2014 – Search Influence moves from its beloved Oak Street office to the 13th floor of the Exchange Centre in the Central Business District. Our offices currently take up over 14,000 square feet.
- September 2014 – Search Influence is named one of the 12th annual Best Places to Work honorees by New Orleans City Business.
- August 2015 – Search Influence is chosen as one of 29 New Orleans-based startups named to the NOLA100, a group of companies leading the local entrepreneurship movement.
- October 2015 – The Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) and Fortune announce that Search Influence was selected for the 2015 Inner City 100, a list of the fastest-growing inner city businesses in the U.S. Search Influence ranked 51 overall on the list of 100 and was one of only two LA businesses.
To commemorate the event, Search Influence also gave away $10,000 worth of free online marketing services to one New Orleans-based business in our “Make Your Dreams Come True” 10K Giveaway. New Orleans Shotokan Academy won the contest by receiving the most number of votes via Search Influence’s Facebook page between December 28, 2015, and January 8, 2016. Other finalists included Jolie & Elizabeth, Red Stick Gutters, Offbeat Media, and Prevent Child Abuse Louisiana.

“We are happy to be celebrating 10 years in business and are thrilled that we can offer another small business the chance to grow,” said Will Scott, CEO and co-founder of Search Influence. “New Orleans Shotokan Academy will be able to redeem the $10,000 prize for online marketing services, including search engine optimization (SEO) and social media management,” he added.

According to New Orleans Shotokan Academy Owner Dimitri Papadopoulos, “This is a dream come true. Winning this contest will bring our program to new heights and give us opportunity to establish our company in the New Orleans community.”

I am looking forward to see what Will, Angie and the team will be able to accomplish in the next 10 years (2025—can you imagine what online marketing will look like?). For now, I am happy to be working at a place that values culture, celebrates milestones, and gives back to the community like Search Influence does. #WhoNeedsPowerball #DreamJob

Photo cutline: Search Influence, the largest online marketing company on the Gulf Coast, recently awarded $10,000 in online marketing services to New Orleans Shotokan Academy in its “Make Your Dreams Come True” $10K Giveaway. Pictured are New Orleans Councilman-At-Large Jason Williams, Search Influence COO and Co-Founder Angie Scott, Search Influence CEO and Co-Founder Will Scott, and New Orleans Shotokan Academy Owner Dimitri Papadopoulos.
January 15, 2016
A Dentist’s Guide for Choosing Target Audiences on Facebook

The number one tool in any business’s online advertising arsenal is knowing your audience. In a field as wide-ranging and diverse as dentistry, such knowledge can mean the difference between a stagnant online presence and social media success. So we’ve put together a helpful guide to improving your understanding of Facebook’s targeting tools in the hopes that you can hit that sweet spot of audience-targeting potential!

We’ve investigated the targeting strategies behind some of our most successful social media campaigns in the dental industry to bring you three distinct targeting groups: family dentistry, young adults and orthodontics, and cosmetic dentistry. We dug deep to provide you with result-generating, relevant targeting parameters that go beyond the typical dental hygiene-related interests of mediocre social media campaigns. For each of these three hypothetical campaigns, we’ve provided some of Facebook’s best options for reaching your intended audience.

Family Dentistry

Although your first instinct may be to target users by selecting more obvious interests, such as pediatric dentistry, oral hygiene, or dental care, you can generate much more social engagement through streamlining your strategy and focusing on specific age groups, lifestyle choices, and purchase behavior.

For a family or pediatric dentist group, we recommend targeting women between the ages of 25 and 55 who have children. This demo group comprises the family decision makers who are most likely to engage with your page. Exploring Facebook’s fantastic targeting tools within the “More Demographics” dropdown will allow you to target parents of children within a specific age range. For instance, you can target new parents all the way through parents with children aged 12. This will ensure that your bid for impressions is going to the right users and not parents with adult children who would be more likely to seek out a dentist on their own.

Finally, investigating the options available under Facebook’s “Behaviors” section is most helpful in providing you with the best methods for reaching those most likely to engage with your social media presence. Here, you can ensure you are reaching parents who are willing to invest in health and wellness products for themselves and their children. We recommend exploring the “Purchase Behaviors” section and adding behaviors like spa enthusiasts, shoppers, and baby care.

Young Adult & Orthodontics

This group can be a little tricky to reach. The sticky situation, if you will, is developing a targeting strategy wide enough to include parents of teenagers as well as young adults and even older adults who require orthodontics. For best results, we recommend targeting both men and women between the ages of 18 and 45. Under “More Demographics,” we have found that the option to target by “Generation,” which includes Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials, is most useful. We’ve discovered that targeting Generation X and Millennials, which encompasses those users born between 1961 and 2004, is quite effective for this subset of the dental field.

The most useful behaviors for this targeting group are those related to technology. Facebook now allows for targeting by “Mobile Device User,” including tablet and smartphone owners. You can even get more focused by choosing to target only those who prioritize being up to date with their tech gadgets by selecting new smartphone and tablet owners. As common as orthodontics have become and as the stigma of adult orthodontics is reduced through innovations such as invisible braces, more and more of this targeting group’s social media audience will be young adults who are plugged in.

Cosmetic Dentistry

Our last targeting group presents the widest range of targeting options based on exactly who your cosmetic dentistry office intends to serve. Here, we have provided you with just a sample of what Facebook’s targeting parameters can allow you to do.

For this specific targeting group, we recommend focusing on both women and men in the 30 to 65+ age range. Once again, we can look to the “More Demographics” dropdown to provide even more insight into the makeup of our audience. Take a look at Facebook’s “Work” and “Financial” targeting options to get the most out of your marketing budget. You can focus on specific job titles and industries, highlighting those occupations in which a winning smile is most beneficial, such as CEO, lawyer, broadcast journalist, and the entertainment, sports, and media industries. Targeting by financial parameters allows you to engage customers with enough expendable income to prioritize cosmetic procedures.

Under “Behaviors,” we can select those users who are already investing in health and wellness, especially when it comes to dental care. Facebook provides options for targeting users whose purchase behaviors reflect investments in beauty products and accessories, cosmetics, and oral care. Lastly, Facebook’s “Behaviors” section provides our hypothetical campaign with one of my favorite targeting parameters: photo uploaders. This group includes those Facebook users who posted more than 50 photos in the last month. We all have one of those Facebook friends who is obsessed with selfies, and who wouldn’t want to make sure their perfect pearly whites are on point for all those photos?

The benefits of social media marketing campaigns are apparent. Every time you flip through your News Feed, you are greeted, hopefully, by well-targeted promotional campaigns that bring you the products and services you’re interested in. With the tips we’ve provided in this helpful guide to understanding your social media audience, you, too, can be on your way to increasing audience engagement and building your online presence!

Image Sources:

Facebook Like Button Image
Smartphone Image

January 14, 2016
Think Your Coworkers Have Cool Hobbies? Check Out These Interesting Influencers!

As the largest online marketing firm on the Gulf Coast, Search Influence has attracted an eclectic group of employees with an array of talents. While our clients know our team members as talented online marketing experts, our Influencers’ talents extend beyond the friendly confines of our 13th-floor office. Since January is National Hobby Month, I spoke with a few Influencers about their hobbies outside of work.

Influencer: Shaye

Department: Production

Hobby: Drawing and art are some of Shaye’s most notable hobbies. Recently, Shaye showcased at the New Orleans Comic and Zine festival and sold works at a local pop up shop called<100, which aims to promote gender wage equality.

Quote from Shaye: “I started out just doodling on everything. You should see my meeting notes. All my friends and family have been incredibly supportive of my art. My partner bought me a graphics tablet this year, and everything took off from there. I still can’t believe I was able to showcase next to so many amazing artists at NOCAZ and at <100.”

Influencer: Meaghan

Department: Production

Hobby: Meaghan has been swing dancing for roughly five years and has learned all the major swing dance types, including lindy, balboa, blues, and solo jazz, which she believes is her best dance. Meaghan has also done a bunch of other partner dances like the waltz, foxtrot, and tango, as well as the salsa and cha cha.

Quote from Meaghan: “Sometimes dancing feels more natural than walking. The music comes on, and it’s automatic and instinctual. When you dance with a partner, you end up sharing that with another person. So then it’s like nothing exists except your connection and the music, and there’s nothing that makes me feel more alive, or more human in a way.”

Influencer: Maggie

Department: Account Management

Hobby: Maggie plays in a cornhole league with a number of her Search Influence coworkers! Search Influence prides itself on a collaborative team environment, so it’s no surprise that Maggie and her coworkers form one of the most imposing cornhole squads you’ll see in the Crescent City.

Quote from Maggie: “We all have a great time cheering each other on, and competing against each other too! It’s a great way for us to relax after work, especially since cornhole is a leisurely and (mostly) no contact sport.”

Influencer: Serena

Department: Account Management

Hobby: Serena plays roller derby for the Big Easy Rollergirls AllStars, New Orleans’ premier women’s flat track league. Serena is all business in the office and on the track, so if you come at her, you better come correct.

Quote from Serena: “I love playing roller derby because it makes you part of a community that promotes more than just being athletic (but that helps too!). I’ve skated alongside so many amazing women from many backgrounds over the last six years, and roller derby teaches you not only about teamwork but about yourself. It’s about empowering women to be real, strong and revolutionary–on skates and off! Come see the Big Easy Rollergirls skate at the Lakefront Arena in 2016!”

Influencer: Gabrielle

Department: Account Management

Hobby: In her spare time, Gabrielle is an avid runner. She recently ran the St. Jude Marathon and asked her fellow Influencers to support the cause. Thanks to her team’s support, Gabrielle raised $330 for a worthy cause. Around race season, Gabrielle participates with her coworkers in SI Running Club to train for 10Ks and half marathons. They even have team shirts, too!

Want to be part of our dynamic and talented workforce? If you can visualize yourself as a member of the Search Influence team, check out our current openings for your chance to shine!

January 7, 2016
A War of Words: 4 Tips to Help Lawyers Win the Cost-Per-Click Bidding Wars

Whether a veteran attorney or a recent law school graduate, legal professionals have likely noticed that the world of generating leads and winning new clients has changed drastically. While tried and true marketing methods such as word of mouth and putting your picture on a billboard still have their place, effectively using online resources can have a huge impact in establishing a solid client base. In particular, paid online advertising for attorneys has become so vital that competition for keywords has skyrocketed. Although it may seem daunting and difficult to know how to begin, these critical tips can help you win the cost-per-click (CPC) bidding war.

1. Understanding the Competition

Consumers who are searching for a lawyer often turn to the Internet to conduct their research. With that in mind, marketing online has become an integral part of building and sustaining a law practice. When it comes to paid online advertising, it’s important to first understand your competition. Legal keywords are typically among the most expensive in Google AdWords, with terms related to “attorney” and “lawyer” topping the cost charts. High levels of competition naturally follow expensive keywords, as lawyers constantly place bids on the exact same terms. Try conducting your own competitive research and search the keywords in your geographic area to see for yourself what ads are getting top placement. Simply run a search on the keywords you’re hoping to target and see which keywords your competition is already bidding on. Take a look at their ads and start crafting a plan to make yours even better.

2. Target Specific Keywords

So how do you overcome the highly competitive landscape and win the bidding war in your online ads campaign? First, you should create a list of specific and relevant three- to five-word keywords to explicitly target. This is a trial-and-error process, and it takes time to accumulate useful data. A simple way to start is to use the Google AdWords Keyword Planner, which will help you compile specific keyword ideas. This tool will also help you determine average traffic and CPC for your potential keywords, and it will make suggestions based on your site’s URL. In addition, it’s critical to focus on relevancy and make sure that your keywords, your ads, and your landing pages all match the searcher’s intent. For example, if the keyword in your ad is “DWI lawyer,” the click should take the consumer to a page with content for “DWI lawyer.”

3. Use Negative Keywords

Another crucial aspect of a successful paid online advertising campaign is the use of negative keywords. This allows you to stop your ad from appearing when you know that the consumer isn’t interested, which can help improve the click-through-rate of your ads. Using negative keywords informs Google that certain search queries are irrelevant to your practice, ensuring that you don’t pay for clicks that will not lead to conversions. You can start by using a free negative keyword tool like the one from Wordstream, which will return an extensive list of search terms that may not be related to your practice area. Using this tool is especially essential in the legal world, where you are bidding on expensive keywords that could result in unnecessary and costly clicks.

4. Optimize Your Landing Pages

Now that your paid online advertising campaign is set up with specific and relevant keywords and you’re getting clicks from consumers searching for your exact type of practice, it’s important not to derail all of your efforts with ineffective landing pages. Your landing pages should be directly on point to the ads that the consumer clicked on. They will likely need to be continuously tweaked with different types of offers to see how people respond to them. You might want to consider using videos on your landing pages with subject matter explanations directly from a lawyer, or customer testimonials from successful cases. In addition, having a chat function on legal landing pages can be particularly critical for consumers who are hoping to have immediate answers to case-specific questions.

Keeping your paid online advertising strategy focused on these tips will help you capture leads that you would have normally missed, allowing you to conquer the competitive CPC bidding war for attorneys.

January 6, 2016
Birds of a Feather Tweet Together: How to Shape Your Dental Practice’s Strategy

With today being National Bird Day, one saying comes to mind, and it’s one that forever rings true: “Birds of a feather…” Like-minded individuals with similar interests and agendas generally come together and communicate with each other more regularly. This can be beneficial for dentists, periodontists, and orthodontists as they work on growing their audiences online.

Who’s in Your Flock?

For those in the family dental industry, consider who will be most inclined to tweet about your services. First to note in the flock is, of course, parents and families. With that in mind, crafting your content with families in mind can benefit both your business as well as your audience, both of which will do wonders for your online presence and, in turn, grow your respective audience as more of that same audience is brought in by their own family and like-minded friends.

Tweet to Your Birds

Birds go where other birds go. If you want your Twitter audience to grow, start with those on Twitter who fit your audience to a tee. From there, encourage interaction and engagement with them and their fellow followers who share the same general mindset and lifestyle. For example, if you share a great joke, infographic, or helpful fact about oral health practices and end it with “RT to your friends and fam!,” more will learn of your company’s personality and expertise through shared tweets, and those with whom the messages resonate will join your flock of followers, allowing your audience to continue to grow and prosper.

Take Flight Today

The idea of growing your audience online can be daunting to those who aren’t entirely familiar with the method, as the Internet has grown to become a whole new world of its own. Don’t worry, though—that’s what online marketing services are for! Allow a professional company to best serve you in the way that will grow your audience, your company, and your success via online marketing today.

January 5, 2016