admin In Advertising, Art, Branding, Business, Design, Digital Solutions, Email Marketing, Facebook, Fayetteville, General Info, Graphic Design, Lead Generation, Media Services, Raleigh, Search Engine Optimization, SEO,

What Makes an Ad Stand Out – Good Text, Display, or Video?

As a business owner, it is important to understand the basics of what goes into a good advertisement.

All brands need promotion and the correct kind of promotion is key. In order to expand your business, it’s essential to have an effective advertising campaign. When done incorrectly, money is wasted on ineffective or poor ads. Our goal is to save money with ads and, in turn, make them more money with new clients or customers.

At 219 Group, when clients ask us “What makes a good ad?” – there is no easy answer, as it is largely based on each client. However, we will do our best to answer this in general terms.

GENERAL OVERVIEW OF ADS

It is important to understand what makes a good ad and what does not.

Good ads:

Call to action / tell the prospective customer to do something.
Engage customers based on where they are in the customer journey.
Regardless of channel, it seamlessly translates brand identity.

Bad ads:

Do not follow the rules and get disapproved.
No call to action / do not ask the customer to do anything.

TEXT ADS

In 2021, Google confirmed Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) are the default in new ad accounts. What this means is that strategies need to fit both formats to include the expanded text ads.

RSAs are made up of:

Minimum of three headlines (30 character limit each), maximum of 15.
Two descriptions (90 character limit each), maximum of four.
One path set (two 15-character addendums to your root domain)
Optional tracking templates.

As only the first two headlines are guaranteed to show in a text ad, it is imperative that you pin the calls-to-action in either headline one or two.

In text ads it is important to make sure each headline can stand on its own while being related to the others.

DISPLAY ADS

Display advertising is defined as a mode of online advertising where marketers use visual ads to advertise their products on websites, apps, or social media. It has been mistaken that display is only useful for remarketing; but display ads are good for various parts of the consumer’s journey. Display ads can create and build brand awareness.

The steps for display ads include creative for all the potential spots, or sacrificing some creative polish to use responsive display ads.
If you choose to opt for a responsive display ad (RDA), you are sacrificing some level of brand control in exchange for reach. These ads will open all possible placements to you.

Display and Responsive display ads require:

At least three images or videos, including a logo (can have up to 15 assets)
One long headline
At least one regular headline
At least one description
Business name
Final URL

Display ads have their own downfalls but tend to outperform traditional ads simply because they stand out. They allow more creative either from your website or social or stock images if you prefer.

Display ad tips:

If using video, make sure it is no longer than 15 seconds.
While RDAs will have a CTA button, regular display does not therefore, make sure to build a call to action button into your ad.

VIDEO ADS

Video advertising is the process of displaying ads either inside online video content. This is typically before, during or after a video stream, known as pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll or as standalone ads.

How video ads work on Youtube:

Bumper: 6-second spots serving before or after the main video.
In-stream non-skippable: 15-second spots that serve before/during/after the main video.
In-stream skippable: 30+ second spots serving before/during/after the main video that can be skipped after five seconds.
Outstream: Video spots serving in spots other than main YouTube.

Video ad composition:

Video: If you selected a time-specific format, you’ll receive a warning if your video is incompatible
CTA: 10 characters (“Learn more” is always a good option)
Headline: 15 characters to position your CTA
Final URL: Where your clickable element will lead
Display URL: What the user sees (root domain is the best choice)

The most important thing to remember about YouTube is understanding what you want your audience to do. If your goal is to drive them to a landing page or website, you need to make sure they watch long enough to see the website. If the goal is sales, then do not waste time on the bumper ad for awareness and put your call to action for a sale.

WHICH AD TYPE IS BEST

To decide which ad type is best is to look at the client and goals. A great ad is the result of many things – the right target audience, the right creative and using the channel correctly.

DIGITAL MARKETING YOU CAN TRUST

At 219 Group, we do a lot of things well. Websites, landing pages, banners, newsletters, social media, mobile marketing, search engine optimization, email and paid search campaigns are the best ways to engage with customers in an increasingly digital, mobile and personalized world. We have assembled a team of professionals to create complete digital strategies and tactics that leverage all available forms of digital media at different levels of the marketing funnel.

admin In Digital Solutions, Fayetteville, General Info, Raleigh,

Digital Audience Building – How To Target Effectively And Efficiently

targeting customer audience target market marketing

With the ever-changing ways of the internet, we have to know how to effectively reach our customers. Especially since the existence of COVID-19, we are not interacting with people on a regular face-to-face basis; however, we can influence them through social media and other digital media.

WHAT IS AUDIENCE TARGETING

Audience targeting is a way to make sure that your digital ads are being displayed only to the people that are most like your ideal customer. With roughly 9 out of 10 people on the internet, if you were serving your ads to everyone they would get lost and run the risk of not being shown to your ideal customer. Rather, crafting messaging or ads that feel personalized toward the audience most likely to buy from you is a much better strategy. Audience targeting is performed by taking the available data on your ideal customer or client such as — individual characteristics, interests, and behaviors.

DEFINING YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE

As discussed, a social media target audience is the specific group of people you want to reach with your social channels. Begin by asking yourself the 5 W’s – start with Who is your current customer database, your competition, and what is your product.

Age (use a range)
Gender
Education
Location
Some of their interests (list 3-5)
Occupation

WHERE TO USE AUDIENCE TARGETING

Audience targeting can be used on paid social and paid search. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google, and YouTube have interfaces that make it easy to build your audience with the characteristics you want to target.

OTHER WAYS TO HIT YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE

Audience targeting helps to avoid wasting money on ad impressions. If you want to branch farther than paid search and social you can try some additional targeting techniques such as geofencing and retargeting. You can run either the same ad or a new ad to that same person in hopes of securing a conversion by repetition, a special offer, or improved messaging.

Display Advertising – Display advertising is defined as graphic advertising on websites, apps, or social media through the use of banners or other ad formats made of text, images, video, and audio. The main purpose is to deliver general advertisements and brand messages to site visitors.

Geofencing – Geofencing uses GPS to show ads to people near a chosen location. How it works is a virtual geofence is drawn around a location, ads are then served to anyone browsing the web via desktop or mobile in that area.

Behavioral Targeting – Behavioral targeting is a method that uses historical behavior to personalize the types of ads consumers see. Using this strategy, relevant ads and messages are displayed to users based on web-browsing behavior. It is a powerful method because the data helps match the ads to each consumer’s actual behavior.

Categorical Targeting – Categorical targeting is the method of placing display advertisements on social media, apps, and websites that are categorically relevant to both your company and your customers’ interests.

Mobile – Mobile targeting is where certain target groups are shown ads on mobile devices. User-oriented data is what drives who/when gets advertising and the ads are formatted to the technical requirements of smartphones and tablets.

Retargeting – Retargeting uses data on people who have already engaged with your ads or have visited your website. You can either then show the same ad or a new ad to that same person in hopes of securing a conversion by repetition, a special offer, or improved messaging.

A targeted ad campaign will always perform better than an untargeted campaign; hands-down. Understanding your audience, how to build it, and how to target is crucial to all businesses.

admin In Graphic Design

Nothing Less Than Intentional Graphic Design

219 Group has been doing graphic design work for a long time. Our graphic designers have created entire marketing brands for some incredible clients over the years. With each client that comes along, our creative team knows that the stakes are high and that the difference between a successful brand and an unsuccessful one can come down to simply being intentional with your graphic design.

We all know iconic brands that are instantly recognizable simply by their logo. Maybe it’s a swoosh, or a golden arch, or perhaps it is an apple missing a bite. Whatever the logo may be, chances are that once you see it, you know exactly what company is behind it. Successful branding includes several creative marketing elements, but graphic design is one of the most vital keys to defining who you are to potential clients and customers.

Intentional graphic design is the driving force behind the work that our graphic designers do at 219 Group. We listen to our clients talk about their vision for their brand and we strive to bring that vision to life. In the process of giving the client what they want, our graphic designers are thinking five steps ahead to how the clients’ logo will be integrated into all other elements of their branding campaign. Will the logo and graphic design elements merge well into the website design, and other promotional materials that will be created in the future? Does the design scheme set the client apart from competition by creating a strong and unique presence just by being seen?

Great graphic design doesn’t simply ride on one track of thought. It is not a singular accomplishment for the client. Having a team of talented graphic designers behind your company or organization only works if those that create your graphic design elements are also considering all other aspects of your marketing and publicity campaign. The creative team at 219 Group has proven time and time again that intentional graphic design succeeds every time. Could your brand use some help from a team of skilled graphic designers who have your creative vision in mind? Give 219 Group a call today at (910) 483-4749.

admin In Public Relations

Why An Effective Public Relations Strategy Matters

For some people, when they think of public relations, they instantly think of anything that has to do with the visuals of a company or organization. They bring up logo design, website usability, and marketing materials, including print brochures and promotional products. Whatever they can visualize about a company or organization, whatever that brand is, that is how they define the purpose of public relations.

Any public relations professional learns two things as soon as they start out. The first is that, to the audience of any business or organization, perception is reality. The second is that when it comes to proper public relations strategies, it is always better to be proactive instead of reactive. Public relations goes way deeper than website design, graphic design, blog writing, and social media content.

While the creative team at 219 Group has talent for days when it comes to bringing the vision of a business owner or a community group to life in the form of innovative graphic and website design, we also offer our clients something more than the average design agency. We give our clients their voice.

In order for a public relations strategy to work, you have to employ a team that understands who you are, what you are trying to say and who you are trying to say it to. 219 Group has the amazing honor of being the voice online and in the community of many different businesses and organizations, and none of them are the same. If you are going to hire a design agency to put a face to who you are as a business or organization, then do yourself a favor and hire an agency that takes your distinct voice into serious consideration.

Every business and organization has ups and downs. You hire a design team that you hope will bring you more ups than downs through creative marketing strategies, and client/customer interaction. Consider a team that includes public relations professionals who can also navigate the downs with you.

219 Group is more than just a talented design agency. 219 Group is a public relations team that can help you find your voice and tell your story.

admin In Digital Solutions

The Essentials of Web Design

If you’ve read any of our previous blogs, you would have seen where we constantly discuss the importance of a company having a website. But we never discuss the importance of how your website should look. When it comes to reaching a larger demographic, having a website is great but making sure those individuals stay on your site and continue to visit all depends on the design. In this article we will discuss a few elements that can determine the success of your website, regarding design.

Easy to Navigate: The more pages that your website has the more important that it is easy to navigate. When designing your website, you want to make sure your navigation bar is labeled correctly and is also placed where individuals can see it, which is particularly at the top of the page or on the right-hand side. Simple is always better, so try to avoid art typefaces for labels.

Balance of Content and Visuals: There must be the right balance of content and visuals when designing your website. While you don’t want your website to be filled with just content, you also don’t want it to be filled with just images and videos. Both scenarios can discourage someone from revisiting your site or staying on there for a long period of time.

Consistent Brand: When you think of the McDonald’s logo, not only do you think of the golden arches but also its colors, red and yellow. McDonald’s is very consistent with those colors from their uniforms, to their packaging, to even their website. The colors of your website should be consistent with your logo, this will continue to remind visitors of your brand. For instance, look at our website for example. Our logo color is orange, and as you can see, when you are going through our website, orange implemented on each page.

We Can Help: Our web designers, at 219 Group, are well experienced and have designed over a hundred websites for different businesses. Give us a call to see how we can help!

admin In Advertising, General Info

The Best Ways to Optimize Your Blogs

Anyone that has some knowledge about SEO will tell you, writing blogs for your webpage is very important. But, not optimizing your blogs can determine whether they are beneficial or not regarding web presence. In this article we will give you the best ways to optimize your blogs, so you can see the results that you’ve been looking for.

1. Ask Google. Doing research is very essential when writing a blog. It is always best to lookup the right keywords when you are putting together content. You can use software tools such as Google AdWords Keyword Tool to help you with this task. This software will provide you with the right keywords to boost your web presence as well give you insight on your competitors and the types of words/phrases that they are using for their site.

2. Use Your Keywords Wisely. After you’ve found the right keywords, it is now time to implement them throughout your blog. But it is very important that you utilize them in the right places. Having an effective use of your keywords will make it much easier for search engines such as Google and Bing to pull your blog as the top result when people are researching.

Here some good place to utilize your keywords:

· Header/Sub header

· Introductory Sentence

· Anchor Text

· Title tags/meta descriptions

3. Optimize Your Photos as Well. Putting images on your blog can be helpful as well IF they are used correctly. Each photo that you use should have the keyword in the file name as well as in the description.

4. Promote Your Content on Social Media. Although social media is a great platform to connect with your current and potential customers, you can also use it to promote your blogs. This is an awesome way to remind your followers that you have a blog page and more importantly IT’S FREE. When promoting your blog, make sure you provide an eye-catching post along with the link and then encourage your followers to share the post on their page as well.

Still Have Questions? Well give us a call or email us and we’ll be sure to reach out to you. We’ll be more than happy to help.

admin In Public Relations

So, What Really Goes on At a Public Relations Firm?

Have you ever wondered what PR professionals really do? Most people might think that public relations are all play and no work and that’s not the case. Being a professional in the public relations industry requires a person to be a jack of all trades. Here are a few things that public relations consist of.

Identifying a Target market

Most businesses think that all the hard work is done once they’re up and running, but to remain successful they must consider who their customers are. That’s where the PR professionals come in to help. When taking on a new client it’s very important to do research and identify who their customer base is. Figuring out a company’s target market can be tricky. When researching, a professional must consider the target’s age, gender, income, interests and goals, just to name a few. After identifying these attributes, it is simpler to figure out a way to reach the customer.

Graphic Design/Web Design

Graphic designers and web designers play a major role in the success of a PR firm because they create the artwork for clients. To revamp a company’s brand successfully, everything must be updated across the board. This includes giving the website a modern and sleek look along with creating a logo that relays the new brand message.

Social Media

Social media has dominated the world… in a good way. Mostly everyone, young or old has a social media account or access to one. PR professionals’ step in to help businesses create pages, engage with customers, and to write content for social media. It’s very important that companies stay current on social media trends as well as know what to post and when to post it.

admin In Fayetteville, , Uncategorized

How to Create Effective Content for Social Media

FACTS

97% of adults between the ages of 16-64 say they logged onto at least one social network in the past month.
Compared to other social media platforms (Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook) Instagram drives the most engagement per post.

Source: Socialstout.com

Know Your Audience

Now if you’ve been binge reading our blogs (for some strange reason), then you’re probably asking yourself, “how many times are these guys going to say this?”. And honestly until we’re blue in the face, and even then, we’ll probably take the risk. The key to a running a successful social media account is truly knowing your target audience. Whether it be women, aged 18-30, living in California, or men, 30-45, in Central Georgia, every business should have a target audience that they’re trying to market to. When it comes to finding your target audience, it may seem like you’re playing the guessing game. In the early stages of finding your target audience, it takes a lot of trial and error posting. For example, posting about a new product that’s available could be a test to see how many likes and followers it generates. After the posting, do your research and use the data, that you collect, to run another test post. You should continue to use this strategy until you find the right target audience.

Use your voice

So, what happens after you find your target audience? You keep them engaged! Now that you’ve figured out your audience, it’s time to entertain them. Posting relevant content that will engage your audience is key. Keeping your followers engaged builds a sense of trust with the company. For example, running contests and adding questions to posts can be a way to create buzz on your page. It creates a way for the followers to learn about your company.

Are you using the right platform for the story?

Social media is very broad, and each platform is different. You could post the same picture on each of your sites and your followers will depict each story differently. Twitter is generally used to let your friends know what’s on your mind while only using 140-280 characters. It is also a place to follow friends, post pics, and retweet/favorite other’s tweets. Instagram is a media sharing app where you can post pictures/videos. When posting on Instagram, add hashtags to add more engagement to the posts. Facebook is a mixture of the both, but it’s more personal. Facebook users range from Millennials to Baby boomers, so the spectrum is wide when it comes to promoting a business. Just remember to have fun and remain professional.

admin In Raleigh, Search Engine Optimization, SEO

Tips on Having Success with SEO

Google states that there are over 30 trillion active websites on the web. Not 30 thousand, not 30 million, not even 30 billion, but 30 TRILLION. That’s a heck of a number and unfortunately out of that number, only a few can make it to the first page, while the rest get lost and ignored amongst the many. To avoid this, we have provided a few tips on how to have success with SEO.

Focus on One Thing

Focusing on one thing is one of the most important steps when you are trying to boost your SEO rankings but unfortunately, it is one of the steps that gets overlooked the most. Don’t get us wrong, your site can cover other things, but you want to make sure that you have a primary focus. Before a choosing a topic, we recommend that you do keyword research.

Use Your Keywords as Much as Possible

There’s a reason why they are called ‘keywords’ and that is because they are the ‘key’ to your site getting a boost in SEO rankings. We know it sounds silly but it’s the truth. That is why after finding your keywords you should use them as much as possible. This includes implementing them in page content, titles, and taglines. If you have a blog category on your website, you should make sure that you are covering at least one in each post (hence why we are writing about SEO because it’s one of our keywords). They should even be mentioned in your title/description for images that you post on your website or on other social media platforms.

Constantly Update Your Site

We tell our clients all the time, you must treat your website like you treat your business. To make it presentable to your customers, you must constantly update it. Updating your site will make it first on the list for Google rankings, helping you reach a larger audience. Updating your site includes adding blogs, changing images, adding/changing content, and even redesigning the layout of your current site. You want to make sure that your site is always up to date. SEO is vital to new companies to receive new patients in order to keep the company above water. New Beginnings Dental Center is one of our new clients that we make sure to have this concept instilled into our SEO plan.

You Are a Human… So, Write Like One

It is key that you make sure the content on your site does not sound like a robot has wrote it. Make sure that the content is relatable to your customers and yet personal because it’s telling your story. You do not want anything generic; your customers can see right through it. Include those keywords and add images of you and your team.

Give Us a Call

Trying to get your site boosted on Google can be a hassle and very time consuming, but luckily, we’re here to help. Our SEO specialists have years of experience and have worked with a long line of clients, helping them get to the number one spot with some of their keywords.

If you looking to be found on Google, then give us a call!!

admin In Advertising, General Info, Graphic Design

How to Have Success with Outdoor Advertising

Fact: The average American spend more time in their car, than they do reading the newspaper or watching television.

Due to social media and digital advertising, many people look at billboard advertising as obsolete or old school marketing. But the truth is, billboard advertising is still very important when promoting your business. Here are a few tips on how you can make it successful for your company.

Know Your Story

Fact: Billboard are noticed because of their message, colors (preferably bright) and graphics.

Your story is very important when developing an ad for your billboard. To create a story, you must know your company’s purpose. For instance, if you are a restaurant that caters to family dining then you should want to portray a family enjoying your restaurant’s cuisine. There should always be a message for people to grasp when driving by your billboard.

Also, keep in mind of the colors that you are using for this determines the type of emotions that will be evoked. For instance, most restaurants use colors like red, blue, and yellow for research states that it stimulates hunger.

Keep Your Story Short, Sweet, and Memorable

Fact: 56% of Americans, this week, will talk about a funny billboard that they saw.

After finding your story, the key thing, when creating your billboard, is to keep it short, sweet, and most importantly memorable. Whether it is a catchphrase, jingle, or a pun/joke it should be something that drivers will constantly have in their head even when they are miles away from your billboard. For instance, when you hear the catchphrase I’m Lovin’ It or Have It Your Way, you instantly think about McDonald’s and Burger King. The phrase is so embedded in your subconscious that if you saw the phrase, without the company’s name, on a billboard, you would still know what restaurant it is. That should be the goal you’re reaching for when creating your billboard.

Location, Location, Location

Fact: If the billboard is in the right location, it can have more viewers than the Super Bowl.

Now that you have your story and the way you want to portray it, it is now time to pick the location of where you want the billboard to be. Picking the right location for your billboard can determine whether it will be successful or not. You do not want to waste a great ad in a bad location. When choosing, make sure you do your research. Ask about the level of traffic that the road, your billboard will be on, gets and at what specific time does it get the most. Also, if possible, ask about the other companies that had their billboard there and if it was successful.

Another important thing is to make sure your billboard is relatable to the drivers that are seeing it. If your billboard is on interstate 95, heading south, create a message for the typical driver that they can relate to. For instance, if you have a ski lodge and you want to advertise to those that are on the coast, a catchy message could be “Miss the Waves and Hit the Slopes”.

Fact: 219 Group can help.

Creating and designing a billboard can be tough but 219 Group can help. We have years of experience of working with different companies and can show you examples of billboards ads that we have designed over the years. Give us a call or fill out a quote form to see how we can help.

Crew Thoughts

Nothing Less Than Intentional Graphic Design

Why An Effective Public Relations Strategy Matters

The Essentials of Web Design

The Best Ways to Optimize Your Blogs

So, What Really Goes on At a Public Relations Firm?

Tips on Having Success with SEO

How to Have Success with Outdoor Advertising

What Makes an Ad Stand Out – Good Text, Display, or Video?

Digital Audience Building – How To Target Effectively And Efficiently

Nothing Less Than Intentional Graphic Design

Why An Effective Public Relations Strategy Matters

The Essentials of Web Design

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Digital Audience Building – How To Target Effectively And Efficiently

Nothing Less Than Intentional Graphic Design

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