This week I am joined by the friend, colleague and co-speaker at brightonSEO, the amazing Tiffany Shears PPC Manager of Absolute Media to join me to talk about this important topic.
Tiffany - I have been working in PPC for 3/4 years. I started in tracking and got really really good in it. I then moved to Google Analytics and now I have become targeting and data specialist at my current agency, Absolute digital media. I have done a talk at BrightonSEO at the Paid Social show, which was about building e-commerce, and I did another one at the Measure Fest about GA4. Both very data and Analytics
Anu: So big fan of data. Stumbled into or you knew you had a knack?
Tiffany - I have had an unconventional route into doing digital marketing. I started working at a Digital Marketing company but I was in the complaints department and it was specifically called Investigations and Resolutions. So was my job to have a look at problems and come up with a solution for them and being very good at fixing things is what data is all about. you're looking at daya and you're looking for a problem and a way to fix it. So because I already had that kind of background I started with tracking and I tracking and data are very intertwined because you can't look at data if you're not tracking correctly.
Anu: How does targeting fit in with data. Cause I imagine that the data with be more accurate in showing you whether you are targeting the right people or not. Is that how it works?
Tiffany: Data is very good for targeting because for one thing, when you are looking at data it helps show you who you need to target. When you are running campaigns in Google Ads, you've got your Google Analytics telling you which demographic set is best, what kind of interest is bestand you can use that to build out your other campaigns. Alternatively you need actual traffic to get that data into analytics, so if you're not getting enough traffic into your website because you're not targeting the correct people then you're not going to get that data. So you need both - you need data to tell you where to target, but you need the right targeting and the right audiences to give the correct data to make those decisions.
Listen to the podast episode on Ad targeting, who to target and waht to target:
Anu - Ok, let's get to the questions
Q1 What are your thoughts/how do you feel generally about targeting in PPC? Is it simple? Complex? Harder now? A level of sorcery you wish you could fully unlock?
Q2 How specific is your targeting in paid search? What are you using - keywords, audiences, custom lists, dynamic search features, etc.? Why do you use what you use?
Q3 How specific is your targeting in paid social? What are you using - interests, demographics, custom lists, lookalikes, etc.? Does it differ by platform? Why do you use what you use?
Q4 On average, how good or confident do you feel that you’re currently targeting the “right” people with your paid search ads? Why? (Next Q will be about paid social)
Q5 On average, how good or confident do you feel that you’re currently targeting the “right” people with your paid social ads? Why?
Q6 Do your clients or stakeholders have incorrect or misguided ideas about who their actual or potential customer base actually is? How do you know it’s not right? What do you do in this situation?
Q7 What kind of data points do you use to help determine who you should be targeting and how to actually reach them?
And right now on the link above, you can check outa a 60 day free trial before you buy it before you put any money through - credit card details, not needed. So check them out. They're great at suggesting improvements that can be pushed live in your Google ads account, creating reports & alerts for you, and even your reports can be, be put in a way you can edit and customize it in a way that is very close to the brand or the client that you're working on.
For any feedback about the podcast, or maybe you want to give a correction about anything that has been shared to get in touch with me on Twitter, my DMS are open on the handle, @themarketinganu, or on LinkedIn.
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