Using Google AdWords: the Case of Farm Girl Mobile Food Co.

For my Interactive Web Marketing class, we were asked build a successful AdWords campaign using Google's step-by-step guide. The Google package is a very helpful resource to help you build a successful campaign!

Below is an example of how to build a campaign using Farm Girl Mobile Food Co., a local mobile food truck serving up some truly delicious - and locally sourced - gourmet comfort food in Kingston! 

WORKSHEET 1: Organizing your Account

Step 1: Design your advertising plan by answering some questions about business needs

What do you offer? Gourmet locally-sourced comfort food
Who do you want to target? 
- Kingston/surrounding area
- young professionals
- students
- individuals who care about sustainable food practices

What's your budget? $5 per day > $35 per week > $140 per month

Step 2: List campaign goal (which can be used as your campaign name)

Campaign Goal: Increase Lunch Sales

Step 3: Create at least three ad groups for your campaign (optional)

WORKSHEET 2: Picking the Right Keywords

Step 1: Expand - list keywords that relate to both your business and campaign goal. Use the keyword Tool for ideas.

catering Kingston, local farms, mobile food, gourmet food, comfort food, locally sourced, sustainable, mobile food truck, home down food, homemade menu items, homemade menu

Step 2: Group - separate keywords into ad groups by common theme

Theme 1:

- local farms
- locally sourced
- sustainable
- local private catering
-catering Kingston

Theme 2:
- gourmet
- gourmet food
- comfort food
- delicious food
- gourmet food Kingston
- comfort food Kingston

Theme 3:
- food truck
- mobile food truck
- food truck Kingston

Step 3: Refine - cut out any irrelevant, unclear, generic or too-specific keywords from the list above.

(Will see when we develop the ads)

                      WORKSHEET 3: Write Targeted Ad Copy

In this section Google AdWords has you create 3 sample ads for each Ad Group! However, I've simply included a few examples along with the breakdown of how Google formats your targeted ads.

Google Ads consist of 3 parts:

1. Headline - A 25-character headline
2. Description - You get 2 lines of 35 characters each to describe what you have to offer
3. URL - www.your-35-character-URL.com

Examples:

Private Lunch Catering

Looking for a customizable menu for your event?

Contact us today!

www.farmgirlfood.ca/index.cfm/catering 

(destination URL)

Gourmet Comfort Food

Fresh locally-sourced homemade menu options.

Come visit us today!

www.farmgirlfood.ca

Gourmet Comfort Food

Homemade, locally-sourced menu options.

Join us today!

www.farmgirlfood.ca

So, there you have it! A sample of how to build a successful Google AdWord campaign using their easy step-by-step guide. Don't forget that whether you're brand new to Adwords (like me) or are an AdWords veteran, getting the most out of Google AdWords requires ongoing experimentation! 

'Oh So Pinteresting': How & Why You Should be Marketing with Pinterest!

I was having trouble thinking about what to write this week so I asked a friend of mine something that she would like to see a blog-post about and she asked if I would write about how to market using Pinterest. Challenge accepted! 

I'll be honest, I haven't been highly active when it comes to Pinterest. While I absolutely love looking through the fashion, home decor and - of course - DIY boards, I rarely pin things and my personal account is a little ...well, bare boned. However, I was completely blown away with just how many resources I found about the topic that are really helpful! So Kaitlyn, this one is for you!

First, it's important for marketers - and people alike - to understand the fundamental inner workings of Pinterest. For those of you who don't know Pinterest acts as a massive virtual pinboard that allows people to look through interesting pictures, pin them and leave comments below items that were pinned. The most important feature then is undoubtedly all the captivating pictures Pinterest has to offer - the trick as a marketer is to get your visuals pinned as much as possible!

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Here are some mind-blowing facts about Pinterest!

1. Pinterest is the 3rd most popular social network in the world (source: shopify)

2.  Pinterest is more effective at driving traffic compared to other social media sites - even Facebook! (source: Hubspot)

3. Pinterest is 80% more viral and three times more effective than Twitter

4. 69% of online consumers who visit Pinterest have found an item they've either bought or wanted to buy (source: social annex)

5. An estimated 47% of U.S. online shoppers have made a purchase based on a recommendation from Pinterest

6. Pinterest users spend more than 2x as much as Facebook users. Average order value when a user follows through on a purchase from a product seen on Pinterest is $179.36 (source: fastcompany)

7. Pinterest buyers spend more money, more often and on more items than any other top 5 social media sites (source: COMSCORE)

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Now that we understand the power of Pinterest as a social media force - how do we develop marketing strategies around this platform? Where do we start? Here is an incredible - and beautifully designed - Pinterest marketing strategies info-graphic I found that was designed by Maria Peagler, founder of Social Media Online Classes, to help you get started!

In addition to this info-graphic, there is a really helpful blog called, "Oh So Pinteresting" who not only provide the tactical steps to gaining success with Pinterest, but also who provide an abundance of resources to gain inspiration and information on how to enrich your own business and marketing initiatives! They are definitely a MUST READ for all looking to enrich their personal and professional Pinterest profiles!

I hope that this post has helped shed some light on the inner working of Pinterest and why it might be a great opportunity for you and your business to meet your marketing initiatives! Happy Pinning!

*Additional Resources:

- Pinterest Marketing Tips: 20 Things you can Learn from 20 Big Brands (entrepreneur.com)

- A Brief Guide to Pinterest Marketing (HongKiat)

- Pinterest Business Accounts: The Definitive Guide to Getting Started (SocialMediaExaminer)

Run-of-Site Advertising & The Case of the Queen's Journal

They say a picture is worth a thousand words - and an info graphic ..well, I don't actually know. But here is a little info graphic I whipped together to help explain Run-of-Site advertising from Easel.ly, a really helpful and user friendly site to help people like me create one seamlessly.

Now that you've read what ROS advertising is and when it's useful, I was thinking about if I knew of any sites that host this type of ad space.

After some thought I realized the Queen's University Journal, the university's main student newspaper, has an online site where they sell ad space to advertisers at a lower rate. These ads are randomly dispersed on the site and rotate between pages.

Here is actually an example of a couple ads I created for the companies I work for Megalos Restaurant and The Harbour Restaurant, that are featured on the Journal website to give you an idea of what these type of ads can look like (see below)

In this case this ROS ad is useful for these companies, particularly Megalos because no matter what page the company's ad is on they are still reaching one of their primary targets - Queen's students. 

So there you have it! I hope that this helped make ROS ads a little bit easier to understand!

Using Meta Tags for SEO & CTR Maximization: The Case of Farm Girl Mobile Food Kingston

Meta tags are dead I've read. And while it's true that meta descriptions and meta keyword tags aren't necessary for higher webpage ranking in the natural SERPs - this does mean that we should rule them out entirely. Despite what you've heard, meta tags still have their place in both Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Click Through Rates (CTR).

Page Title - 70 characters
Title tags should include the page title, your brand name as well as a phrase that includes your target keyword phrase. Here is the current title of Farm Girl Food, a gourmet food truck in Kingston with a modified version, as well:

<title>Kingston Ontario Gourmet Food Truck Kingston - Farm Girl Food</title>

or

<title>Kingston Ontario Gourmet Locally Soured Food Truck - Farm Girl Food</title>

*Remember, titles & meta-descriptions often end up forming the your company's snippet in the natural search results.

Meta-description - 160 characters
Now here is where the work - and fun - begins! Here is an excerpt from a great blog post from Search Engine Journal, Maximizing Your Meta Tags for SEO & CTR, about how to write your meta-description section:

• Add a call to action.  Asking people to do something (as in the case of “Find out how” in the example above) often results in readers taking the action you’ve requested. Other possible calls to action for your meta descriptions include “Discover how,” “Read more about,” “Click here,” or other related variation.
• Use cliffhangers. Use cliffhangers in your meta descriptions to encourage viewers to click through for the full story.
• Write your tags for yourself. Once you’ve come up with a possible meta tag, ask yourself, “Would I click through based on this information?” If your tags don’t yet seem compelling, rewrite them until you come up with something more enticing

Here is an example:

<Farm Girl Mobile Food Co. is the first gourmet locally sourced comfort food truck of its kind representing Kingston, in the evolving food truck movement in Ontario/>

3. Meta-keywords - no more than 10 keyword phrases
SEO for Restaurants is great for increasing sales, customers and reservations to their restaurant. An example of 5 starter keyword/phrases suitable for restaurants like Farm Girl include:

Restaurant name: Farm Girl Mobile Food

Type: Gourmet Comfort Food

City: Kingston

Type of food: Locally sourced

Atmosphere: Family Friendly

So, there you have it! Meta Tags aren't dead - they are alive and well and still have a place in any SEO strategy. For more information visit Google's Ad-words and if you're in Kingston be sure to visit Farm Girl Mobile Food for some delicious, locally sourced, down home comfort food - Yum!

5 Tips to Becoming a Twitter Champion!

Of all the social media platforms Twitter is undoubtedly my favourite - it's straight forward, simple and it doesn't completely change every time I log on (I'm talking about you Facebook). But are we using our personal twitter accounts to their full potential? The truth is, probably not. I know I'm not.

Instead of frantically wondering what I've been doing wrong, I decided to do the only logical thing there is to do: I Googled, "How do I maximize my Twitter Account" and lo and behold I stumbled upon a really helpful article with 10 tips to maximize your twitter account from Business Insider!

I've decided to focus on the tips I felt most useful!

1. Pretend like you only have 125 Characters
I break this rule almost always. In an ideal world, tweets should be kept to 125 characters or less. This allows others to easily RT with just enough room to comment or provide a short lead-in.

2. Follow the Right People
I think at some point everyone has been guilty of following anyone and everyone in hopes that they will follow you back. However, people who actually share your interests will be more likely to engage your content than @teamfollowback

3. Content, Content, Content!
After reading this tip I looked at my twitter and realized about 90% of what I was tweeting were insiders that my friends and I would share amongst each other - who really cares right? Building solid content, content that has value (but still interests you) is how to engage followers and build an audience.

4. Use URL Shorteners
While there are many URL shorteners out there that are FREE including Su.pr and Ow.ly through Hootsuite, I personally really enjoy using Bit.ly! In addition to shortening URLs, many can also help you measure the click-through of your links!

5. Pictures & Videos
People like pictures. People like videos. Don't only bombard people with text-filled tweets - makes sense right?

So, there you have it. Some quick tips on how to maximize your twitter account - you're now on your way to becoming a twitter champion!

WWJD?: The Digital Marketing Trifecta - Search, Display & Social

What would John Wanamaker think of this thing called digital marketing? I mean, what is it? Your guess is as good as mine. Digital marketing certainly encompasses a multitude of things, chief among them jargon, acronyms, and let's not forget complete and utter confusion. In an attempt to help untangle the web, Mediative, one of North America's largest integrated digital marketing companies, uploaded a video to help make sense of this thing called digital marketing!

In it's journey through the evolution of digital marketing, the video concludes by discussing the current digital marketing trifecta: search, display and social.

Path to Purchase - Targeting

Paid media - refers to AdWords or bing, advertising through social channels and/or display channels.

Earned media - include viral marketing and gaining traction (what most brands strive for)

Owned media - refer to a brand's website/blog

Bringing together paid, owned and earned media enables marketers to best reach the most "contextually qualified consumers" - and these are gold to marketers.

Late to the blogging game.

So, it's 2013 and I am just getting a blog now - better late than never, right?

I'll be honest - the thought of starting a blog has always completely freaked me out. I mean, who in their right mind would ever care what I have to say? Do I even have anything to say? I guess we'll see!

My name is Kristen and I'm a Queen's University graduate and current Interactive Marketing Communications (IMC) graduate student at the School of Business at St. Lawrence College. I also serve as Marketing Director for an independent restaurant in Kingston, Ontario, Canada where I started serving during my undgrad. I've had a "learn as you go" approach to marketing until the past year when I thought it best to actually enroll in a credited program.

I'm hoping this blog will be a little bit of everything - marketing meets personal. However this blog unfolds I promise it will be above all else: mint.