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Marketing Plan
Details

Table of Contents:

PPC Management

Google Optimization: Local SEO Packages

Social Media Marketing

Email Marketing Automation

Website Maintenance Allocation

PPC Management

PPC Management Timeframe: Ongoing

Continual PPC Management:
Detailed below for your review are our primary areas of focus when tackling any PPC project. Our approach is comprehensive and is not limited to the account alone. We take the time to ensure tracking analytics are setup correctly, that your landing pages are helping boost your quality scores (which helps lower your cost per click), and we also provide feedback on how we can further improve your conversion funnel to get the best return on investment.

Search Engine Ads: Advertising-Driven Campaign Deliverables

  • Tracking – Basic analytics tracking and conversion tracking codes for PPC will be provided and can be installed by our team, if needed. Proper tracking is essential to our success, and we will work with your team to ensure it is accurate. We want to monitor all relevant conversion points specifically. This can be lead form conversions, eCommerce cart checkouts, phone call conversions (you will need a 3rd party tracking call tracking solution, we can recommend a great, inexpensive provider if needed), emails, downloads, etc. Every conversion point matters and needs to be correctly counted.
  • Segregating by Platform – Fundamentally, the platform you advertise on needs to be well-suited to achieve the goals you have in mind. While most clients do well to start in Google Search, it is not the only (or always even the best) option. The Google and Yahoo display networks target people researching information on websites relevant to your industry. It can be extremely cost-effective for branding purposes, but we project the traffic quality to be much lower than in the search networks. However, there are advantages. By structuring the campaign on a cost-per-click basis, you can get hundreds or even a couple thousand views of your ad for every click. If the ad is informative/builds awareness, you get hundreds of successful free ads for every paid interaction. Moreover, the click cost in the display networks is generally a fraction of the cost of search networks, it is often low enough that we believe this can be a source of cost-effective traffic. YouTube marketing can be educational, build awareness from the ad itself, and be engaging/generate sales and leads. Once again, the creative is the key to this platform. Bing also has a small search network. Because costs per click there tend to be lower than in Google, advertisers who have saturated their keywords in Google often find some very cost-effective traffic in Bing. We are happy to talk to you through the pluses and minuses of each platform.
  • Keyword Selection – Keyword selection is key to the success of any PPC Campaign. We believe in a very comprehensive long-tailed keyword approach, as it has a positive effect in both reducing costs per click and increasing relevance. More general terms will generally need to be bid slightly lower since the conversion rates/ quality will be lower. Keyword selection all comes down to what is the ROI an individual keyword is producing. It can take time to decide if a keyword is worth discontinuing bidding on if the resulting business isn’t profitable enough.
  • Competitors – In some cases, we may propose specifically targeting competitors’ names as keywords. In many industries, the competitor brand names are overlooked, so they cost less, indicating that a customer is closer to the bottom of the funnel and more ready to decide on a provider. We want to target the competitor’s name, which can trigger your ads for highly relevant clicks. For this practice to be most effective, we will need well-composed ads and high-quality landing pages that specifically address the key differentiators between you and the competitor. Simply advertising on a competitor’s name and driving them to a landing page that exposes them to your alternative offer, rather than a special landing page, is generally a productive use of ad spend. For most clients, competitor campaigns are not large lead/revenue generators but are among the most cost-effective.
  • Negative Keywords - Negative keywords block traffic triggered by your keywords but not truly traffic you want coming to your website. In recent years, Google has drastically reduced the transparency of search queries, making it more difficult to see what user searches triggered an ad. It is vital now to generate a negative keyword list through research. In addition, we have created negative keyword lists from previous clients in numerous industries that we can incorporate into your account (not to mention some general best practice negative keywords). For example, for most clients, any search involving the words “free” or “image” are likely to be the wrong search and should be added as negative keywords before campaigns go live. Ongoing reviews of search queries and the addition of negative keywords are part of our standard operating procedures to make sure the budget is spent in the right areas.
  • PPC Match Types – Recently, Google has made significant changes to match types, making it more challenging for advertisers to target than in the past. Here is a brief description of Google’s current match types:
    • Broad Match – Trigger ads when any terms in the keyword are in a user search term. They will also trigger user searches that relate to the keyword. Synonyms and even loosely related words can trigger ads. For instance, the search “Attorney bar exam in Texas” can trigger ads for the keyword “Texas lawyer.”
    • Phrase Match – Trigger ads when the keyword or a closely related phrase is entered in the order of the terms of the keyword or is implied by the user’s search term. Google will also disregard the word order if it believes the search intent is similar. For instance, the search “park in Boston” can trigger ads for the keyword “park and ride Boston.”
    • Exact Match – Trigger ads when the exact keyword is used as a search term or variations of the word (including plural/past tense/etc.) For instance, the search “software developer” can trigger ads for the keyword “software development.

Google makes it extremely easy for companies to set up campaigns with a match type called “Broad Match.” And many businesses fail to add Negative Keywords or carefully monitor the performance of broad matched keywords. Proper setup/monitoring is not understood by most businesses, and Google gains billions of dollars every year from this common mistake. Broad Match, in particular, gives Google the power to show your ad for anything they think may be relevant to your keyword. These leads to all sorts of exposure on searches that you don’t really want to trigger your ads. The worst-case scenario is that searches click on your ad, thus wasting budget on people who are not in the market. The best-case scenario is that those folks don’t click, but that leads to lower click thru rates, and even worse, hurts the keyword’s quality scores) and their ability to show up to people who are in the market for the services). With that said broad match keywords, can be very useful, when closely monitored. That is also closely tied to the goals of the advertiser.
We utilize these three match types to optimize keywords in campaigns based on the current campaign strategy. Depending on the objective of the campaign, we will implement these options differently to achieve desired results. These are some of the primary focal points of each campaign, whether it be to gain leads or increase return on investment. This can be countered by the three best practices that we emphasize 1- making sure that intelligent negative keywords are in place, 2- making sure many keyword variations are in place, giving us more exacting control, and 3- making sure that for every keyword we eventually add the more tightly focused match type for more exacting control. For instance, if we see good performance early on for a dozen broad matched keywords, we will add phrase and exact match variants that allow us more ability to micromanage the account.

  • Bid Adjustments - We will utilize our proprietary bid management software and expertise in a manner that allows us to bid specifically on the keywords that best reach the campaign’s target audience for the most cost-effective rates. As a general rule, we found that the top 4 positions are where we want to be if we want to take market share. If the goal is the least expensive conversions on a small budget, then advertising on the bottom of the page may make the most sense. Google has increasingly pushed advertisers towards more and more automated bidding. This is not inherently wrong. However, for automated bidding to be effective, 1- it must align with the goals of the campaign, and 2- there must be a decent set of data to draw upon. We have seen automated bidding go terribly awry, particularly when there is little available data. We have seen campaigns with low-cost keywords set to automatically bid targeting $10 CPAs (costs per lead/acquisition) in which the automated bidding ramped up to $17 per click. Enter automated bidding at your own risk, and only when carefully monitored. Adjusting bids by keyword is just one of the ways we manage bids.
  • Managing by Devices – It is a common mistake to treat all traffic equally. We individually analyze how mobile traffic, tablet traffic, and desktop traffic are performing. While mobile traffic typically more the majority of traffic for most advertisers, that does not mean that traffic behaves the same as desktop/laptop/tablet traffic. Mobile traffic tends to convert at a lower rate online, but have a higher rate of phone conversions. Tablet traffic generally under-performs on all conversion metrics. We will adjust to this conversion rate in two ways. First, since click-to-call conversions from mobile devices are often the preferred method of converting, we want to make sure that is enabled for mobile searchers. Second, we may elect to lower our bids for specific devices to ensure that the ROI makes sense for each device subset.
  • Time of Day/Day of Week Adjustments - While it may be appropriate to run the campaigns 24/7, it is important to adjust bids by the time of day and day of the week. It is best to adjust bids by the time of day so that we are only paying what a click is truly worth, being more aggressive when the best traffic is available, and saving money during the off times. There are smaller adjustments to be made by the day of the week. Again, we can pull on our experience in your industry, but the best decisions come when we have your internal data that further refines these adjustments.
  • Ad Creation - Getting the messaging right is a big key to successful PPC marketing. We have seen messaging have profound effects on both click-through rates and conversion rates, which is one of the reasons we emphasize such an elevated level of client interaction when creating campaigns. We will incorporate your messaging with our standard best practices regarding ad copy to create effective, compelling ads. This is true for both text and image ads. We can either utilize existing image ads that you have created or create new and unique ads with images that you provide us (Image ad creation/graphic design services are quoted ala carte). We will always split test a variety of ad variations. Google has changed how split testing works, and their current preferred SOPs align well with our best practices. We will create a series of highly optimized lines of text and will continually split test them against one another. This is an on-going core of all our work. Google has also created more and more assets (formerly called ad extensions) that are crucial to the success of the campaigns. Google limits all ads to no more than 3 assets. This means we must pick the 2-4 assets that have the greatest impact on achieving your goals, and focusing heavily on creating and optimizing them. The goal is to improve conversion and click-through rates. Ad assets can be every bit as important as the ads themselves.
  • Remarketing – We believe that “remarketing” (sometimes called “retargeting”) can be a vital component to the success of your digital marketing efforts. Here is a brief explanation. Except for those few people who have cookies disabled on their device, a site tracking marker (cookie) can be placed on the device of any website visitor. It doesn’t matter how they arrived on the website. Those people can then be targeted with low-cost ads when they visit different sites online, as per the Google Display Network. This scenario is typically very cost-effective and can turn a one-time visitor into a customer, essentially multiplying our efforts towards target clientele. It has the benefit of increasing brand recognition and improving the conversion rates for all of your traffic sources at an extremely affordable rate. We do basic, site-wide remarketing when you add on the Display Specialization to your account.
  • Quality Scores – The truth is, Google has changed so much in recent years and taken away both the transparency we appreciated and the micromanaging we depended on. As they have done so, quality scores have become increasingly important. Since high-quality scores are so vital to the success of the account, we regularly review quality scores and restructure campaigns with that in mind. This is an often-overlooked part of PPC and is essential to success. Good quality scores can be the difference between a pretty good campaign and breaking all-time sales records. Quality scores directly impact costs per click, impression shares (the slice of the advertising pie that Google allows us to have) and position on the page. It indirectly impacts ad extensions, and CPA/ROAS. The three primary categories of factors Google uses to determine quality scores are the click thru rates, ad relevance, and landing page experience. We are adept at optimizing the Google Ads account for this metric. We anticipate that each campaign will have dozens of ad groups of tightly knit keywords. Each ad group with have an optimized, relevant ad specifically tied to that tight cluster of keywords. Each ad will direct searchers to a landing page that is also highly relevant for those searchers. Quality scores are vital, and if there is one metric (aside from CPA/ROAS) that we could manipulate it would be quality scores. That has the most significant, indirect impact on CPAs/ROAS.
  • Reporting – Depending on the size of your campaign you will either receive reporting monthly, bi-monthly, or weekly. It is our goal to help you understand these reports, what is working well, what could use improvement, and what steps we want to take next to scale up our successful efforts. You will have a complete insight into what we are spending and the results of your campaigns. This transparency and commitment to regular communication with you are one of the reasons we have some of the highest retention rates in the industry. We retain customers 3 times longer than most other digital agencies due to the results we consistently deliver, and our commitment to excellence.

PPC: What to Expect

  1. Brand new accounts take 3 weeks to setup.
  2. Account set up is paid for under your monthly management fee. We do not charge an additional setup fee on top of the management fee, but the time spent setting up the account is part of the first month’s fees.
  3. One Business Day Response Time: You can expect a 1 business day response time to emails. Our production departments are focused every day on doing the actual work of executing multiple clients’ Marketing Strategies. An email sent today can expect a response by end of business the next business day at the latest. We of course look to answer quickly, but we focus our production teams on work output/efficiency.
  4. Clients get a monthly meeting with their PPC consultant.
  5. We require a 30-day notice of cancellation.
  6. Conversion funnel development and banner ad design are not included in the PPC Management Price.
    • If your campaign requires the development of a specialized conversion funnel, we can create one at the beginning of the campaign, and we can create conversion funnels a la carte. Flat rate per Conversion funnel is $1500. Turn around time estimate is 2 weeks as long as client feedback is provided promptly.
      • What is included? We create a page layout mockup – (provided in ~1 week):
        • Includes 3 stock images
        • Ipsum lorem layout
        • Copy provided by the client will be integrated into the final product if provided
        • 2 revisions
        • Thank you, page (for tracking purposes)
        • Conversion Tracking Setup
        • 4 – 15-minute check-in meetings
  7. What is NOT included? Custom image creation and copywriting. These are to be supplied by the customer by the end of week 1.

Banner Ads can be designed by NetSource as needed. NetSource will provide two design comps. One design will be selected and revised as needed. When finalized, this design will be created into 20 banner sizes for your particular display campaign. Flat rate for Banner Design is $895. Turn around time estimate is 2 weeks as long as client feedback is provided promptly.

Google Optimization: Local SEO Packages

Basic

This plan is focused on citation building to make sure your business’ information is consistent across the web. Citation websites are comprised of two layers: Engagement and Authority.

The engagement layer consists of the websites consumers use to discover, evaluate, and engage with your brand. The four engagement websites are Google, Bing, Facebook, and Apple Maps. NetSource will help claim these listings, if not already claimed, and clean up the information for consistency. We will also protect these accounts from unauthorized and external edits. These websites will be kept up to date regularly so that the websites consumers use most will always be accurate.

The authority layer consists of websites that consumers rarely use, but are important in helping your business build authority with search engines. NetSource will help claim these listings and make sure all data is accurate during setup. These websites will not be updated after that, allowing your budget to be spent on the sites that matter to consumers.

Reports are delivered every 6 months.

Bronze

In addition to the Basic plan above, Bronze includes:

  • Keyword-rich replies to Google reviews
  • Optimized setup or completion of your Google Business Profile, ensuring that business category, description, service areas, service options, payment methods, business attributes, accessibility, amenities, and crowd information are set up appropriately.
  • Updates to the account settings as needed
  • Regularly adding new photos (strongly recommended)
  • Quarterly reports

Silver

In addition to the Bronze plan above, Silver includes:

  • Google products setup
  • Research to determine the best keywords and phrases for your industry and geographic area
  • Up to two SEO posts per week based on GBP keyword research
  • Up to two GBP offers and/or events per month to incentivize website clicks and leads. Client must provide input for these offers and events.
  • Quarterly reports

Gold

In addition to the Silver plan above, Gold includes:

  • Up to 3 hours per month of on-site SEO-optimized content creation and updates based on your specific goals. May include, but not limited to:
    • Adding content to existing pages
    • Building new pages
    • Updating/adding meta data
    • Internal linking
    • Backlink removal
    • Google Search Console monitoring and management
    • Monthly reports

Important Information about Google and our Optimization Plans

Google is the most used search engine, claiming 93% of the market share. Creating and maintaining a quality Google Business Profile is essential for local businesses to be found by local customers. Google’s general search and Local Pack results are based primarily on relevance, distance, and prominence to the searcher. A combination of these factors helps Google find the best match for local searches and display the most relevant results in the Local Pack.

The NetSource Google Optimization program uses a custom Google search SEO plan created with your advertising goals in mind. We will implement that plan in order to move your business up the Local Pack results list and ideally, into the top three results of Google’s Local Pack on desktop and mobile searches. NetSource will optimize your Google Business Profile account and regularly post to encourage engagement which will positively affect the two aspects we can control: relevance and prominence.

Research & Analysis

On Silver and Gold, NetSource will research key search terms that match your business categories and also show up in Google’s map pack for your area**. These SEO terms usually differ from SEO keywords or phrases on your website pages. Competitor research will also be done to take into account the keywords local competitors are ranking for. We will also establish a set of best practices for review responses, a list of Q&As about the business, general About Us information, and Product content. Please be prepared to provide input and photos to your dedicated Google Business Profile specialist. We will run a baseline report of activity on your existing account to compare to later.

If you do not already have a Google Business Profile-account, we will work with your business to open an account, provide our agency with the appropriate admin permissions, and complete the setup process.

**Not all keyword phrases appear in Google’s Local Pack or Map Search. We will work with you to determine the best phrases for your business.

Market share stat source: https://www.oberlo.com/statistics/search-engine-market-share

Social Media Marketing

Initial Analysis for Paid & Organic Marketing

Developing the Strategy (Comprehensive Analysis Reports)

Critical research is the first step taken with a client. Our comprehensive Initial Social Media Analysis Reports lay the foundation for the strongest social media success possible and determines the best path in achieving greater brand exposure. The analysis is an extreme amount of information we need to collect in order to take action and direction with your social profiles. It takes us approximately two to three weeks to aggregate the below data, then we deliver the reports to you in an online meeting format. These reports allow all parties to understand the scope of the project and will allow us to write a Strategic Social Media Marketing Plan. Once this plan is complete, you’ll receive an official quote for ongoing social media, but until that point it is only guesswork as to the amount of effort that will be necessary to attain success. That’s why we start with a baby step of noncommittal research. After that stage is complete, you’ll know what it’s like to interact with our professional team, you’ll have a great amount of knowledge about the opportunity and obstacles, and we’ll know what it’ll take to help you achieve the success you want.

These reports include:

  • Comprehensive Profile Review – We provide detailed suggested changes to optimize organic exposure. How a profile setup is weighed into Facebook/Instagram’s formulas heavily. Not as much for other networks.
  • Content Calendar (1 Month) – We will provide content type suggestions based on what we see working best in your industry. We will build it out along with a recommended posting schedule.
  • Social Keyword/Hashtag Research – Your hash tagging strategy is crucial for gaining as much organic exposure as possible. We have found our hash tagging strategy in addition to growing your organic social exposure also compliments SEO via social signaling whenever we are posting content that links back to your site.
  • Paid Ads Strategy Development – We will develop initial recommended copy and graphic suggestions as well as targeting recommendations.
  • Best Practices Write-up – In addition we will provide an official write up of social media best practices specifically for your industry.

Social Media Management Plan Builder
Our Social Media Plan Builder allows you to match your desired platforms with your budget to build a custom package created especially for you. We offer discounting for long term commitments. We highly encourage accounts to run engagement, conversion, and traffic ads simultaneously for best performance.

Option A:
Monthly posting schedule includes 16 organic posts per month (~4 per week)
Up to three paid ads per month (set up & management)

Option B:
Monthly posting schedule includes 30 organic posts per month (~daily)
Up to three paid ads per month (set up & management)

Add-On Options:

  • Additional Social Platforms: Using the monthly posting schedule created for your primary social platform above, we’ll optimize the content for other social platforms. You can opt to do organic posting only, or both organic and paid. Paid ads will correlate with the ads on your primary platform, but will be optimized for each platform chosen below. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest are available for organic & paid additional platforms.
  • Original content created specifically to reach your target audience has incredible benefits. Having new, original, and relevant content added to your website on a regular basis will boost your organic rankings. This content provides search engines with new content to index and provides additional opportunities for consumers to find you online. Well written blogs also showcase industry expertise. Offering helpful content keeps visitors coming back to your website. Great articles also create opportunities for your content to be shared across many platforms. Any blogs we create will be included as posts in your monthly schedule.

Ad spend is billed from the social media platform directly to a credit card provided by the client. NetSource will assist in setting up the relevant ads manager accounts on the platform(s) you choose.

Email Marketing Automation

Email Marketing Automation is the process of keeping in touch with website visitors without requiring manual intervention, helping your business showcase products and services to potential customers. This sets you apart as an expert in your industry and helps warm up & increase leads.

Deliverables:

  • Advanced tool for displaying and collecting leads (Opt-In Monster)
  • Software set up for email construction, management, and delivery (MailChimp).
    • While NetSource will set up and manage the MailChimp account, the MailChimp costs will be set up to bill directly to your credit card. We will set you up on the base plan to start which is $14.99/month for up to 500 subscribers. Please see https://mailchimp.com/pricing/ for full details.
  • Monthly email content creation (promotional email) – 1 per month
  • Popup forms – 2-3 for website
  • Gated content – 1 piece annually
  • Email nurture content – 6 email pieces
  • Quarterly reporting, tuning, execution, and management

Overview:

NetSource will deliver an integrated system to optimize your marketing lead generation. This strategy has 2 components that work in synergy together.

  1. Lead Nurture – NetSource will utilize a content offer with popup forms on your website to entice visitor opt-ins. Once a visitor opt-ins, they will receive a branded content piece, followed by a sequence of 6 timed emails designed to educate, build rapport, and advance a prospect to becoming a customer of your business during that crucial 30-day buying cycle window. Contact sales buttons will be used in email pieces as an ongoing opportunity for contacts in the lead nurture stage to engage directly with sales.
  2. Promotional – At the conclusion of the lead nurture cycle, the contact will be brought over into a regular promotional campaign with new messaging. This will be composed of 1 email per month that will have blog excerpts (linked to full blog on your website), plus a sales call-to-action (CTA). Since your prospects move to the promotional campaign from the lead nurture cycle, your contacts list will grow over time unless it is purged (charges for email are based upon the number of contacts in the list). Any concerns about purging the email list are eliminated because all marketing leads are duplicated into your MMC upon submission. These leads are labeled separately from your sales leads making recovery at a later date easy.

Customer Engagement, Obligations & Timeline

To successfully deploy this service and meet obligations, the customer must engage with NetSource and provide feedback. Failure to do so within the timeline provided will result in either delays, or decisions being made by NetSource without your review and/or consent. Once required decisions are made without the client, due to lack of involvement, these changes will be integrated into the solution, and the project will continue to the next checkpoint. Any desired retroactive changes, such as rework, edits, replacements, modifications, etc., following that point, will be subject to hourly charges.

In the initial month, NetSource requires responses to requests via email within 1 business day, at a minimum. We recommend that any email requests we send be acknowledge to ensure receipt. Failure to do so can lead to miscommunications and delays. This will allow us to continue to move things forward in a timely fashion. It may not be unusual for us to make several requests to you, the client, for feedback during the first 30 days. Again, there may be days when no information is requested, and others where multiple requests take place.

Marketing Automation Timeline

  1. Questionnaire
    1. The questionnaire is the first step in developing, designing, and prioritizing your email messages.
    2. NetSource always prefers to get your feedback. Your knowledge of your customers, as well as desired future customers, is critical to the alignment of our messaging to your prospects.
    3. Failure to provide the questionnaire in a timely fashion will result in NetSource making assumed decisions based upon our industry and knowledge of your customers.
    4. NetSource will provide you with a questionnaire that will form the foundation of the deliverables within 1 business day of contract being signed. It is essential that the questionnaire is completed and returned to NetSource within 2 business days of receipt.
  2. Email Topics & Sequence
    1. NetSource will provide you with a document that outlines email topics and sequence.
    2. You have 1 business day to provide feedback / approval.
    3. If any adjustments are requested, they will be discussed, incorporated, modified, or reconsidered.
  3. Final Emails
    1. NetSource will send the email sequence to you for final approval.
    2. You will have 2 business days following receipt to approve the final content.
    3. If any adjustments are requested, they will be discussed, incorporated, modified, or reconsidered.
  4. Final Review
    1. NetSource will deliver the final product to you.
    2. If you have any final changes, you are required to provide those within 1 business day. No further customer modifications will be accepted following this point (as part of this agreement). If further changes are desired, they will be subject to per hour charges.

Website Maintenance Allocation

To ensure that NetSource still has the capacity to help your business with website changes, up to 3 hours of design & maintenance time per month can be added. It can be used for:

  • Landing page set up for Social Media Campaigns
  • Conversion funnel edits for PPC Campaigns
  • Website content updates (ex: change of hours, new business photos, new brands)
  • New graphics for ads or website display
  • Adjustments to campaign tracking

Unused hours will not rollover. Additional hours will be billed at $150/hour. Additional increments of three hours can be added to your plan for an additional $375 per month, each.

Please note that website maintenance allocation is an add-on for recurring marketing plans and not a stand-alone offer.