Question 1

What is PPC?

Accepted Answer

That's a great question that deserves a great answer. [Read more here](https://sol8.com/what-is-ppc/).

Question 2

How do I know the cost per aquisition of a client if Google Ads is only bringing in leads?

Accepted Answer

If your Google Ads account is gathering leads (as opposed to revenue), then it will be important to manually determine the cost per aquisition of a customer. Cost per aquisition, or CPA, is your bottom line, after all.

Getting to the bottom of this number is not always straightforward, but it is always worth the effort.

THe goal is to look through your recent sales and leads, and then to try to determine the average conversion rate of a lead that comes from Google Ads. That way we can apply the conversion rate to the performance reported by Google Ads in order to determine the CPA of a customer/client.

### Here is an example of the math equation that needs to be done:

If your CRM/sales reps are able to find 19 leads that originally came from Google Ads in the past 4 months.

And 8 of those leads converted into a customer/client.

Then, 8 converted leads out of 19 total leads is a 42% conversion rate from Google Ads.

If Google Ads is reporting 63 leads in the past 4 months and spent $20,000 in ad spend to do that, let's apply the 42% conversion rate to those numbers:

42% of the 63 leads gathered by Google Ads is 26.46 leads that were converted into clients, theoretically.

$20,000 spent on ads divided by 26.46 clients means each client cost $756.

Now that you know each client cost $756, you can ask yourself: Is that a profitable amount to spend aquiring a client based on how much revenue clients bring in over their lifetime with the business, on average? If so, then it's probably time to start talking about increasing the monthly ad spend to begin scaling how many leads are coming in each month.

### How to find the leads that came from Google Ads

Leads that submit a form will need to be tracked using [UTM parameters](https://help.sol8.com/faqs/how-do-i-set-up). This will need to be done ahead of time, so that the contacts in your CRM can be identified as having Google Ads as their source.

Leads that call your business won't have any UTM parameters attached to their contact record (and, in many cases, won't have a contact record unless the person who answered the phone added them into the CRM). In this case, we can send you a list of names & phone numbers from our call tracking app, and then you can manually match up your recent sales/new customers/new clients to the list.

Question 3

How did you create the estimated projections in the action plan?

Accepted Answer

Using tools such as [Google Keyword Planner](https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/), [iSpionage](https://www.ispionage.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIr8C8oKHy5wIVDfDACh11eAdMEAAYASAAEgJl5PD_BwE), [SpyFu](https://www.spyfu.com/), and [SEMrush](https://www.semrush.com/), we craft a keyword strategy.
 
Next, we: 
1. Add the total monthly impressions of those keywords
2. Divide that number by a standard 2% click-through rate
3. Multiply that by the keywords’ average cost-per-click
Finally, we produce results based on a 3%, 5%, and 10% conversion rate.
 
This will give you a total amount of monthly leads/sales and cost-per-lead/sale.

Question 4

How do I decide whether a campaign can spend more even when it doesn’t say “limited by budget”?

Accepted Answer

If you have extra ad spend to work with (or if you pause another campaign and need to allocate its budget), check out the impression share (IS) lost to see if an existing campaign can take on the new spend. If (IS) is lost due to budget OR due to rank, then it most likely can. This is due to the cyclical nature of bids:

* Rank determines your ad’s position in the results.
* Rank is affected by bid.
* Bid is set based on what the business can afford (for example, [Max CPC] = [Break Even CPL] * [Conversion Rate]).
* Higher Bid = Higher Ad Position = Better Website Visitors = Higher Conversion Rate (clicks to leads) = A Higher Bid can be afforded. So, you can sometimes raise the bid in the anticipation that the conversion rate will increase by guesstimating what it will increase to and “putting the cart before the horse.”

* If NOT Smart Shopping campaign - you might temporarily switch the campaign to a manual CPC (with enhanced CPC enabled) bidding strategy if it was using an automated bidding strategy before, because the algorithm most likely isn’t intelligent enough to push the max bid in this way.

* If Smart Shopping - it’s not possible to switch to manual, so here are some other options:
	* Give it more budget in order to get it to increase the bid
	* Before increasing the budget, make sure the product feed is optimized by including a lot of optional information that helps with rank. *Be sure to optimize your feed during the eCommerce setup process.*

Question 5

How can we get the product rating stars to show up on the ads?

Accepted Answer

The product ratings will begin appearing on Shopping Campaign ads whenever your business and the product itself qualifies for the program. Google is a bit vague exactly how to qualify...The rule is to gather a minimum of 50 reviews across the store before submitting the form to apply to participate in the program, but that is where the hard & fast rules end. In [this article](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6059553?hl=en&ref_topic=7307120) they say, "Reviews and star ratings may not always show. We’ll show star ratings when our system determines that the information is accurate and relevant for shoppers’ needs." Which means they are leaving it up to an algorithm and the parameters are left a mystery.

The only way to get reviews that aren't made directly in Google to appear in the ads is with a reviews aggregator app. Here's an article explaining this and offering a few alternatives. And [here's Google's comprehensive list of approved 3rd party aggregator apps](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7045996).

There is a section of your Google Ads account where the seller rating stats will begin to populate once the ads are showing the stars. The only way to know whether the ratings are showing is to occasionally check recent dates in this section. Here is how to get to it: Click on "ads & extensions" and then "extensions" and then scroll to the bottom of the screen and choose "automated extensions." The "Seller Ratings" row will populate with data on days when the ratings appeared in the ads.

If you aren't receiving enough reviews to qualify for the program or to keep the stars actively appearing on your ads, here is a tip: Use your review app to create an automated email series that asks customers to review. Schedule a large amount of emails and be very direct about wanting a review. Make sure to set up a trigger inside his review platform to stop the emails as soon as the person leaves a review. The automated emails have to be sent out of his review platform to do this, of course. He said he sends emails that say things like: reviews are so important, we're a family owned business, your voice matters, if you can’t give us a 4 or 5 start review please let us know so we can make it better, and even "we’re not going to stop asking until you review." Sounds pushy, but effective!

Question 6

How can I track chat leads? Which chat apps are compatible with Google Ads?

Accepted Answer

If you use a chat app on your website, and you want to see how many leads come through it after interacting with an ad, then we would recommend using a chat app that allows for lead tracking.

Lead tracking means we have the ability to verify the person chatting is an actual lead. Some chat apps simply mark every single chat message sent by a unique user as a lead, even if the person is trying asking a question that doesn't express intent to consider purchase.  For example, if someone chats in to say "can I get a refund?" then we would not want to tell Google Ads that this person was a lead. There are two reasons why this is not ideal:

1. We would see an inflated number in the Google Ads performance reports/dashboard
2. We would be telling Google's algorithms to optimize it's targeting based on incorrectly marking that chat user as a piece of conversion data

If you are considering using a chat app that doesn’t allow lead tracking, then we would recommend *not* basing optimization decisions off of chat conversion rate. We can make this happen by setting up the conversion action & tracking, but not including those chat conversions in the "Conversions" column of the ad performance. This is because a chat conversion would be counted the moment the lead clicks to write their message, but this type of conversion isn’t a direct indication of success.

You have the option to swap out the chat app with one that does allow for conversion tracking with Google Ads.
* Some chat apps have a team of customer support reps (like OctaChat or LiveChatInc. With these you don't pay unless it's a verified lead and the reps have gathered their contact information.)
* Some allow you, the business owner/employee to man the chats yourself (like PureChat).
* Some offer chatbots (like ManyChat)

Question 7

How do you track phone calls (leads and sales)?

Accepted Answer

Tracking phone calls is incredibly important for accurate reporting. Any calls that come in from your campaign are recorded using a tool called [Call Tracking Metrics](https://www.calltrackingmetrics.com/).
 
Here’s how it works: 
 
First, a lead calls from an ad extension or from your website. 
 
When this happens, we can see some really useful data:  
What page of your website the individual was on when they called
What keyword they used to land on your website 
Which campaign generated that user 
Then, a member of our team manually scores every call. After listening to the call recording, we manually import the quality conversations and the associated data into Google Ads.
 
Most agencies use a time threshold to determine lead quality (for example, any call over 45 seconds is automatically recorded as a conversion); however, we ensure lead quality manually, which makes for far superior data.

Question 8

Here's What You Can Expect Now That You've Been Onboarded As A Client

Accepted Answer

Now that you have been onboarded as a client there are just a few technical things that we need to set up for your website, in order to properly track calls and conversions in order to better understand what optimizations need to be made.

This is a guide for you to know what these tools are, why they're important, and how they're paramount to the success of the campaign.

Don't worry. You don't need to do any of these things (that's what we're here for).

We might need to request access from you for some of these tools. If that's the case, we will reach out to you and make the process as easy as possible.

### Google Tag Manager (GTM) Installation
Google Tag Manager is a tool that we use to track specific actions and events that happen on your website, such as conversions.

This tool integrates with Google Analytics, and allows us to see how your website visitors behave on your website.

By setting this up, we can track things like which forms a user has filled out, who has visited the website (important for remarketing), what links users are clicking on, etc.

Similar to how video cameras work to see what's going on in a physical store, Google Tag Manager with Google Analytics allows us to replicate that in a digital environment.

### Call Tracking Metrics (CTM)
Call Tracking Metrics is important to set up, particularly if your goal is to have leads call your business.

This feature allows us to track conversations that leads have with your business. Our team will be listening in all of the phone calls to gauge the level of quality conversations that are being had. If lead quality is excellent, Call Tracking Metrics allows us to identify what campaign generated that phone calls so we can increase the frequency of calls from that campaign.

### Conversion Tracking (Google Analytics)
Conversion Tracking helps us as advertisers to see when a user completes a desired action on your website, e.g. filling out a form, completing a purchase, etc.

Conversion Tracking utilizes Google Tag Manager in order to track actions and conversions.

### Pixel Installation (Facebook)
Should your business goals require advertisements on Facebook, we will need to install what's known as Facebook's "Pixel".

The Pixel is Facebook's version of Google's "Tag", and it accomplishes many of the same functions that Google's Tag does.

### Competitive Analysis
It's important to understand that other businesses in your space are likely advertising on Google as well.

Part of the process of creating a successful campaign is to see how your competitors are advertising. We uses a myriad of tools to identify what your competition is doing, if it's working, and how we can improve on it.

### Ad Copy Creation
The Ad Copy is what a potential customer is going to see on Google when they type in their keyword to the search bar.

Every ad that we create will be relevant to the product/service that you sell and will be specific to the group of keywords that best describe your product.

### Campaign Creation
Once we've received all the information relevant to your campaign, we can start the process of actually building out the PPC campaign. This is a complex process that involves taking the information that you filled out in the on-boarding process and translating that into keywords and advertisements.

Having the proper keywords, key phrases, ad budget, ad schedule, ad groups, landing page destination, etc. in place make sure that your ads are being shown to the right people, at the right time.

Also, depending on what your campaign goals are, it's at this stage that we configure the campaign to fit your desired customer actions, i.e. increase quality phone calls with potential customers, eCommerce transaction, contact form completions, acquiring customers for a particular cost, etc.

### After The Campaign Has Been Created, But Before Launch
After the campaign has been created, we will schedule a time to review the campaign and discuss what has been created, why it's been created in that way, and the expected outcome.

Question 9

What are my resources as a Solutions 8 client?

Accepted Answer

When you become a Solutions 8 client, you are assigned an entire marketing department team *for less than the cost of a part-time employee.*

## Your team is made up of: 
##

1. A dedicated client manager
2. Specialist and backup specialist
3. Strategist

![Screenshot (3).png](https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/MpD6OKc9u8/resources/hWCrjP5XYm/Screenshot%20%283%29.png)

Question 10

Providing Solutions 8 with access to your Google My Business (GMB) account

Accepted Answer

1. Sign in here: https://www.google.com/business/ 2. Choose the account you would like us to have access to 3. Choose "Users" on the left hand side 4. Select the "Invite new users" icon 5. Enter the email address you have been provided by your customer manager 6. Choose the role: "Manager" 7. Select "Invite"

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