Category: Paid Media

B2B Digital Marketing for SAAS Companies – Insider Strategies

In this digital world, SAAS companies base their growth on digital marketing – from outreach and traffic to ABM (account based marketing) and retargeting. The channels and strategies for B2B digital marketing for SAAS enterprises are quite different. While a part of focus is on Google Ads and Meta Ads, most of the focus shifts to SEO, LinkedIn Ads, Email, Affiliate marketing, Content Syndication, and retargeting or funnel nurturing via GDN, Newsletters, and YouTube.

Furthermore, in my experience, B2B digital marketing is slightly less volatile or dynamic than B2C digital marketing. You may ask how? For B2B, you don’t need to push so many different ads for each event or festival, you also don’t need to make changes as often as you need to for B2C. Some of the reasons behind this are the long sales cycles in B2B and the lesser number of offers that need to be advertised. The negotiation on pricing happens during the sales funnel phase. Many channels and campaigns such as Affiliates and content syndication have longer runtimes and shelf life.

Do you have a monthly media spend of more than $50k? Get your ads managed at just 5% media fee by certified experts handling over $1M per month for billion dollar global enterprises.

Click here to schedule a free demo

B2B Digital Marketing Strategies for SAAS Companies

Understanding B2B Digital Marketing for SAAS Companies

Now while all that makes management of B2B digital marketing campaigns relatively easier, there is another side to this coin. The data analysis and optimization depends on channel, website as well as funnel tracking which is very different than just placing tags or pixels on a website to track from clicks to RoAS in the platform itself. Then, on the analysis side, you need to look into both in-period and cohort data due to the monthly nature of sales and lengthy sales cycles. And don’t forget about the ABM part of B2B digital marketing – which we will discuss in detail later.

The CPCs for B2B campaigns are much higher compared to B2C campaigns. While a B2C campaign click costs between $2-5, a B2B campaign click costs between $10-20. That is 10x.

The conversion rates are a mix of platform CVR for leads and funnel CVR for deals. The revenue is not just a one time sale but a recurring revenue over years. The overall LTV and ACV (annual contract value) is much more important while making decisions on which platforms to choose and which campaigns to scale.

I will be discussing all this in detail in this blog based on my own experience of working with two global multi-billion dollar B2B SAAS enterprises. Having spent over $30 million in B2B campaigns in the past 3 years, I now have some pretty good insights into these campaigns – both performance and management. I will also be sharing the names of multiple vendors which can help you scale your affiliate & content syndication programs as well as webinars. So Stay tuned!

How does B2B Digital Marketing differ from B2C?

Now let’s go through some further details on the digital marketing activities necessary for medical and healthcare professionals.

In most cases this is Lead Generation. In some cases it is online sign up and payment.
The channels in B2B vary a lot from B2C – more focus on LinkedIn, Affiliate, Newsletters and Listicles/Review Sites
ABM (Account based marketing) while targeting TALs (Target account lists) is something unique to B2B digital marketing. This is done on multiple channels including Meta, LinkedIn, and Affiliates, sometimes using specialized SAAS tools such as 6Sense, Demandbase, Metadata and more.
The CPCs are comparatively much higher – $10-20 for B2B vs $2-5 for B2C
Sales Funnel – The leads go through a rigorous nurture and sales process before finally converting
This results in a high CAC (Cost of Acquisition) as it includes cost of sales team
The CVR is also much lower in case of Click>Lead>Sales Funnel>Deal funnel in B2B vs Click>Purchase in B2C
RoAS is not based on just a one time purchase but is based on customer LTV

B2B Digital Marketing Channels & Traffic Sources

Sources	Platforms Included	Importance	Retargeting?
Paid Search	Google Ads, Bing Ads	High and specific intent	Yes
Paid Display	Google Display Network, Programmatic, Tabula, Criteo, Outbrain, and many more	Low cost per impression, multiple placement opportunities	Yes
SEO	Google and Bing Search Engines	High intent and low cost
AI SEO	Google, ChatGPT	High intent, low cost and low competition
Paid Social	Meta/Facebook/Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Tiktok, Twitter(X), SnapChat	Low cost per impression, multiple placement opportunities	Yes
Organic Social Media	Meta/Facebook/Instagram/Threads, LinkedIn, YouTube, Tiktok, Twitter(X), SnapChat	Low cost, build communities and following, WoM
Social Influencers	Meta/Facebook/Instagram/Threads, YouTube, Tiktok	Low cost, WoM
Affiliates	Email Partners, SMS Partners, App Partners	Pinpoint targeting based on demographics and firmographics
Content Syndication	Publishers, Listicles, Review Sites	Mid level intent and low CPC
Paid Communities	Reddit, Quora, Pinterest	High interest, more ad content to engage	Yes
Organic Communities	Reddit, Quora, Pinterest	High interest, build communities and following
Messaging	WhatsApp, Email, SMS	Highly targeted	Yes

Now each traffic source has multiple channels with each channel having its own uniqueness in terms of intent, targeting, visibility and cost. I always suggest B2B practices use multiple channels and split their budget based on performance of each channel.

While SEO is highly dependent on your website content and optimizations, your organic social media is dependent on your post quality and posting frequency. However, the scale of both is limited as the search volume for B2B KWs is much lower compared to B2C KWs and the engagement on B2B content on social media is also much lower compared to B2C content.

On the other hand, paid advertising channels have their own set of characteristics and complexities such as how to structure the campaigns, whom to target, how to target and how much to bid.

We will now discuss the nuances of each of these B2B digital marketing channels for the SAAS industry in detail. We will also discuss the best digital marketing strategies and tips for each of these channels.

I am also going to ask you to skip many of these channels based on my experience of managing digital marketing for 250+ clients in the US, Canada Australia, UK, and Mexico.

Digital Marketing Channels for SAAS Enterprises – Channel Strategies and Tips

Platforms	Dimensions	Metrics	Audiences	Importance	Set Up	Optimization Tips	Budgeting & Bidding	Tech Integrations	Geo Targeting
Google Search Ads	Campaign, Ad Group, Ads, Keywords	CPC, CTR, CPL/CPA, CVR, RoAS, Impr Share, Quality Score	Attach existing customer list for better targeting	High intent audience targeted by KWs for diseases, ailments & symptomsUse Phrase match for best results	Brand, Competitor, Generic campaign structure Skip Search Partners and Search on Display options	Regularly exclude queries using Search Term reportUse tRoAS bidding strategy	Cascade budget – Brand is most important, followed by Competitor, and then Generic. Split Generic KWs into multiple campaigns	Use GTM to place tags on appointment engines Integrate GSC and GBP	Targeted Markets (Country based)
Bing Ads	Campaign, Ad Group, Ads, Keywords	CPC, CTR, CPL/CPA, CVR, RoAS, Impr Share, Quality Score	Use intent targeting	Use Phrase match for best results	Brand, Competitor, Generic campaign structureSkip Search Partners and Search on Display options	Regularly exclude queries using Search Term report Use tRoAS bidding strategy	Cascade budget – Brand is most important, followed by Competitor, and then Generic. Split Generic KWs into multiple campaigns	Use GTM to place tags on booking engines Integrate GSC and GBP	Targeted Markets (Country based)
GDN	Campaign, Ad Group, Ads, Audiences, Publishers	CPM, CPC, CTR, CPL/CPA, CVR	Use Lookalike, Custom Intent, inmarket and Affinity Audiences	Cheaper and wider outreach	Split ad sets based on audiences and creative themes	Regularly exclude publishers with extremely high or low CTR or CPC or based on industry	Minimal budget and low bidding compared to Search Ads	Use GTM to place tags on booking engines	Targeted Markets (Country based)
Programmatic	Skip these
PMax	Skip these
Google Search	Brand, Generic KWs	Imprs, CTR, Ranking, CVR		High Intent free traffic and customers	Use Entity Search and Schema			GA4, GSC and GBP Integration
Google Business Profile	NAP, Categories, Service Area, Schedule, Reviews	Ratings, Directions, Calls, Website Visits		Not so important for SAAS companies	NAP – Name, Address, Phone NumberAlso fill up all the other fields available	Maintain Rating of 4+Get good reviews regularly Post pictures regularly
Bing Search	Brand, Generic KWs	Imprs, CTR, Ranking, CVR		High Intent free traffic and customers	Use Entity Search and Schema			GA4, GSC and GBP Integration
ChatGPT	Brand, Generic KWs	Imprs, CTR, Ranking, CVR		High Intent free traffic and customers	Use Entity Search and Schema			GA4, GSC and GBP Integration
Influencer PR		CPM, Engagement Rate, Clicks, CPC, CPA			Reach out to travel influencers via their social media pages to negotiate a deal with them for each story and post promotion
Meta Ads	Campaign, Ad Set, Ads, Creatives	CPM, CPC, CTR, CPL/CPA, CVR	Use default option for travel audience at Ad Set levelUse 2% lookalike audience or Advantage+ audience		Separate campaigns to focus on indoor/outdoor/services/places to visit/events	Use multiple creatives in a single ad	Low Budget and low bidding	Integrate Pixel and implement events via GTM	Targeted Markets (Country based)
Facebook		Followers, Likes, Engagement Rate		Organic engagement and outreach	Add all links into your profile	Share how to videos, features, stories and testimonials
Instagram		Followers, Likes, Engagement Rate		Organic engagement and outreach	Add all links into your profile	Share how to videos, features, stories and testimonials
Threads		Followers, Likes, Engagement Rate		Organic engagement and outreach	Add all links into your profile	Share how to videos, features, stories and testimonials
LinkedIn		Followers, Likes, Engagement Rate		Organic engagement and outreach	Add all links into your profile	Be a thought leader on LinkedInShare client testimonials and case studies
LinkedIn Ads	Campaign, Ad Set, Ads, Creatives, TALs	CPM, CPC, CTR, CPL/CPA, CVR	TAL targeting for ABM is only available on LinkedIn – Use it!Integrate with tools such as Demandbase and Metadata to target account based audiences with high accuracy	LinkedIn is where you find professionals in your targeted industry who are the decision makers in their organizations	Separate campaigns to focus on indoor/outdoor/services/places to visit/events	Use multiple creatives in a single ad	Medium budget, High CPM, CPC and CPL	Integrate Pixel and implement events via GTM	Targeted Markets (Country based)
YouTube		Followers, Likes, Engagement Rate		Organic engagement and outreach	Add all links into your profile	Share features, stories and testimonials
Youtube Ads	Skip					Share how to videos
Tiktok		Followers, Likes, Engagement Rate		Organic engagement and outreach	Add all links into your profile	Regularly post about events, discounts and how to travel
Tiktok Ads	Skip
Snapchat	Skip
Twitter(X)	Skip
Twitter(X) Ads	Skip
Aggregators	Skip
Quora	List a free profile to answer specific questions			Some users may ask very specific questions		Answer questions related to ailments and symptoms questions by other users
Quora Ads	Try if you have extra budget	same as other social platforms
Reddit	List a free profile to answer specific questions			Some users may ask very specific questions		Be a thought leader on Reddit Share client testimonials and case studies
Reddit Ads	Try if you have extra budget	same as other social platforms
Pinterest	Skip
WhatsApp		Delivered and Read Rates	Existing Patients	Use this as a retargeting channel to reach and remind existing patients about upcoming tests and appointments	Integrate with your CRM for automation	Share offers & benefits Share client testimonials and case studies		CRM integration
Email/ Newsletters		Delivered and Read Rates	Existing Patients	Use this as a retargeting channel to reach and remind existing patients about upcoming tests and appointments	Integrate with your CRM for automation	Be a thought leader Share playbooks Share client testimonials and case studies		CRM integration
SMS		Delivered and Read Rates	Existing Patients	Use this as a retargeting channel to reach and remind existing patients about upcoming tests and appointments	Integrate with your CRM for automation			CRM integration
Affiliates	List or Subscribers Count	Sent, Opens, Clicks, Leads, Deals, ACV, RoAS	One of the best to target ABM TAL and upmarket	Firmographics, ABM and TAL based Marketing, Upmarket Audiences, BANT leads	Make a deal with an affiliate vendor – Greenleads, itechSeries, SpiceWorks, PMG360, First Connect Digital, User Gems, ROKT and many more	Use best performing newsletter Double Touch leads are much better in quality BANT leads are even better			Targeted Markets (Country based)
Publishers	Websites Owned, Articles, Clicks	CPC, CVR, Leads, Deals, RoAS			Revleads, Morning Brew, Thirddoor Media SEJ, Neil Patel (not recommended due to poor CRM)	Customize headlines and short descriptions	Pay $10-15 for Rank 1 in US		Option not available
Listicles	Websites Owned, Articles, Clicks	CPC, CVR, Leads, Deals, RoAS			Capterra, SoftwareAdvice, Plain English Healthcare, Deep View	Customize headlines and short descriptions	Pay $10-15 for Rank 1 in US		Option not available
Review Sites	Websites Owned, Articles, Clicks	CPC, CVR, Leads, Deals, RoAS			b2breviews, SEJ, SAAS Advisor	Customize headlines and short descriptions	Pay $10-15 for Rank 1 in US		Option not available
Webinars	Websites Owned, Articles, Clicks	Registrations, Attendees, CPL, Deals, CPA, RoAS			Martech, Third door Media, WM America, Product School, CMP Team, Madison Logic				Targeted Markets (Country based)

For B2B companies, it is essential to have a great marketing agency at their disposal handling different strategies and several activities across multiple channels and campaigns. Not every agency can handle B2B digital marketing – I can say this as I have worked with a few and they didn’t have a clue as to how to optimize or even analyze B2B digital marketing performance. Thus, choose an agency which has worked with global SAAS enterprises and bring the experience and findings from there to analyze and optimize your digital campaigns.

Mindless is one such agency where the digital marketing specialists have worked with multiple SAAS companies. They help B2B companies manage all aspects of digital marketing including paid media, SEO, LinkedIn, ABM, Affiliates and others. Specialists at Mindless have worked with 250+ clients including multiple global B2B corporations and scaled the online presence of several businesses while increasing their clientele, revenue and performance..

If your business is facing the challenge in optimizing website SEO or other paid media channels, then book a free consulting session with our experts and find out how we can help your business achieve new heights.

You can also mail us on sales@mindless.digital for any queries.

About the author:

Pragun Jain is a seasoned digital marketer who has worked with over 500+ businesses ranging from billion dollar SAAS enterprises to 5-star hotel chains, doctors, politicians, SAAS companies, restaurants and retail stores. He has managed over USD 75M in paid media spend across Google Ads, Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads and other digital marketing channels.

You can visit his LinkedIn profile here.

Found the article on B2B Digital Marketing interesting? Share it with your peers.

February 2, 2025

Digital Marketing for Doctors & Medical Practices in the US

This world is full of patients who are in constant need of doctors and medical practitioners. Some patients get referred to their doctors by the current patients or their friends and family, some just others rush into the first clinic or hospital they find nearby. But most patients who require non-critical or non-urgent care do a thorough research before finalizing the visit to a doctor.

This research about the doctors, their reputation and their specializations has become easier due to the internet. Today, we can easily search for a doctor by disease or specialization in our nearby areas and then read the reviews of their current and previous patients. Their ratings and reviews are the deciding factor in our search and finalization of which doctor to visit.

While you can be a good medical practice or practitioner in your area, there is always a stiff competition. There are multiple doctors and hospitals in every nook and corner of the US. Thus, you have to create your own space and visibility. How do you do that?

Why is Digital Marketing for Doctors and Medical Practices now a necessity?

Digital marketing helps a medical practitioner or practice create awareness, build your own brand, reach out to patients searching about you, your competitors or about specific ailments and symptoms. This can be done by posting ads on Google Search and Display Ads, Facebook or Instagram. You also need to create authority by writing blogs and establishing your credibility on social media. While all this is to get new patients, you also need to constantly be in touch with your current patients. You need to remind them about their upcoming or routine appointments – this is made easy by digital marketing channels such as email, WhatsApp and SMS.

Maintain online presence in terms of website to allow patients to book appointments online while SEO & blogs help you build authority and visibility for keywords related to the ailments, diseases and symptoms you treat. Finally, you need to work Google Business Profile by maintaining high ratings and generating good reviews – this will help with Local SEO and Maps results.

On Ad platforms such as Google Ads and Meta Ads, there are some strict compliances that need to be followed when running ad campaigns. You will need expert help to adhere to the policies of these digital advertising platforms

Most importantly, most of these digital marketing activities need to be confined in local areas usually within a 3-5 mile radius. Medical and healthcare industry is highly hyperlocal in terms of digital marketing and your agency partners need to be very careful about when and where to show your ads.

Now let’s go through some further details on the digital marketing activities necessary for medical and healthcare professionals.

Digital Marketing for Doctors, Medical Practices and Healthcare Industry in the US

Digital Marketing Channels & Traffic Sources

Sources	Platforms Included	Importance	Retargeting?
Paid Search	Google Ads, Bing Ads	High and specific intent	Yes
Paid Display	Google Display Network, Programmatic, Tabula, Criteo, Outbrain, and many more	Low cost per impression, multiple placement opportunities	Yes
SEO	Google and Bing Search Engines	High intent and low cost
AI SEO	Google, ChatGPT	High intent, low cost and low competition
Paid Social	Meta/Facebook/Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Tiktok, Twitter(X), SnapChat	Low cost per impression, multiple placement opportunities	Yes
Organic Social Media	Meta/Facebook/Instagram/Threads, LinkedIn, YouTube, Tiktok, Twitter(X), SnapChat	Low cost, build communities and following, WoM
Social Influencers	Meta/Facebook/Instagram/Threads, YouTube, Tiktok	Low cost, WoM
Affiliates	Email Partners, SMS Partners, App Partners	Pinpoint targeting based on demographics and firmographics
Content Syndication	Publishers, Listicles, Review Sites	Mid level intent and low CPC
Paid Communities	Reddit, Quora, Pinterest	High interest, more ad content to engage	Yes
Organic Communities	Reddit, Quora, Pinterest	High interest, build communities and following
Messaging	WhatsApp, Email, SMS	Highly targeted	Yes

Now each traffic source has multiple channels with each channel having its own uniqueness in terms of intent, targeting, visibility and cost. I always suggest medical practices use multiple channels and split their budget based on performance of each channel.

While SEO is highly dependent on your website content and optimizations, your organic social media is dependent on your post quality and posting frequency.

On the other hand, paid advertising channels have their own set of characteristics and complexities such as how to structure the campaigns, whom to target, how to target and how much to bid.

We will now discuss the nuances of each of these digital marketing channels for the hotel industry in detail. We will also discuss the best digital marketing strategies and tips for each of these channels.

I am also going to ask you to skip many of these channels based on my experience of managing digital marketing for 250+ clients in the US, Canada and Mexico.

Digital Marketing Channels for Medical & Healthcare Industry – Strategies and Tips

Platforms	Dimensions	Metrics	Audiences	Importance	Set Up	Optimization Tips	Budgeting & Bidding	Tech Integrations	Geo Targeting
Google Search Ads	Campaign, Ad Group, Ads, Keywords	CPC, CTR, CPL/CPA, CVR, RoAS, Impr Share, Quality Score	Attach existing customer list for better targeting	High intent audience targeted by KWs for diseases, ailments & symptoms Use Phrase match for best results	Brand, Competitor, Generic campaign structure Skip Search Partners and Search on Display options	Regularly exclude queries using Search Term report Use tRoAS bidding strategy	Cascade budget – Brand is most important, followed by Competitor, and then Generic. Split Generic KWs into multiple campaigns	Use GTM to place tags on appointment engines Integrate GSC and GBP	3-5 miles radius
Bing Ads	Campaign, Ad Group, Ads, Keywords	CPC, CTR, CPL/CPA, CVR, RoAS, Impr Share, Quality Score	Use intent targeting	Use Phrase match for best results	Brand, Competitor, Generic campaign structure Skip Search Partners and Search on Display options	Regularly exclude queries using Search Term report Use tRoAS bidding strategy	Cascade budget – Brand is most important, followed by Competitor, and then Generic. Split Generic KWs into multiple campaigns	Use GTM to place tags on booking engines Integrate GSC and GBP	3-5 miles radius
GDN	Campaign, Ad Group, Ads, Audiences, Publishers	CPM, CPC, CTR, CPL/CPA, CVR	Use Custom Intent, inmarket and Affinity Audiences	Cheaper and wider outreach	Split ad sets based on audiences and creative themes	Regularly exclude publishers with extremely high or low CTR or CPC or based on industry	Minimal budget and low bidding compared to Search Ads	Use GTM to place tags on booking engines	3-5 miles radius
Programmatic	Skip these
PMax	Skip these
Google Search and SEO	Brand, Generic KWs	Imprs, CTR, Ranking, CVR		High Intent free traffic and customers	Use Entity Search and Schema			GA4, GSC and GBP Integration
Google Business Profile	NAP, Categories, Service Area, Schedule, Reviews	Ratings, Directions, Calls, Website Visits		This is free traffic searching for you on Google Search and Google Maps. You can show your profile with images, booking/calling links	NAP – Name, Address, Phone Number Also fill up all the other fields available	Maintain Rating of 4+Get good reviews regularly Post pictures regularly
Bing Search	Brand, Generic KWs	Imprs, CTR, Ranking, CVR		High Intent free traffic and customers	Use Entity Search and Schema			GA4, GSC and GBP Integration
ChatGPT	Brand, Generic KWs	Imprs, CTR, Ranking, CVR		High Intent free traffic and customers	Use Entity Search and Schema			GA4, GSC and GBP Integration
Influencer PR		CPM, Engagement Rate, Clicks, CPC, CPA			Reach out to travel influencers via their social media pages to negotiate a deal with them for each story and post promotion
Meta Ads	Campaign, Ad Set, Ads, Creatives	CPM, CPC, CTR, CPL/CPA, CVR	Use default option for travel audience at Ad Set level Use 2% lookalike audience or Advantage+ audience		Separate campaigns to focus on indoor/outdoor/services/places to visit/events	Use multiple creatives in a single ad	Low Budget and low bidding	Integrate Pixel and implement events via GTM	3-5 miles radius
Facebook		Followers, Likes, Engagement Rate		Organic engagement and outreach	Add all links into your profile	Regularly post about diseases, ailments, symptoms, cures and patient reviews
Instagram		Followers, Likes, Engagement Rate		Organic engagement and outreach	Add all links into your profile	Regularly post about events, discounts and how to travel
Threads		Followers, Likes, Engagement Rate		Organic engagement and outreach	Add all links into your profile	Regularly post about events, discounts and how to travel
LinkedIn	Skip
LinkedIn Ads	Skip
YouTube		Followers, Likes, Engagement Rate		Organic engagement and outreach	Add all links into your profile	Regularly post about events, discounts and how to travel
Youtube Ads	Skip
Tiktok		Followers, Likes, Engagement Rate		Organic engagement and outreach	Add all links into your profile	Regularly post about events, discounts and how to travel
Tiktok Ads
Snapchat	Skip
Twitter(X)	Skip
Twitter(X) Ads	Skip
Aggregators	Skip
Quora	List a free profile to answer specific questions			Some users may ask very specific questions		Answer questions related to ailments and symptoms questions by other users
Quora Ads	Skip
Reddit	List a free profile to answer specific questions			Some users may ask very specific questions		Post and discuss about latest treatments and advanced in medical science
Reddit Ads	Skip
Pinterest	Skip
WhatsApp		Delivered and Read Rates	Existing Patients	Use this as a retargeting channel to reach and remind existing patients about upcoming tests and appointments	Integrate with your CRM for automation	Also, reach out with short write ups on medical issues focusing on the symptoms and treatments.		CRM integration
Email/ Newletters		Delivered and Read Rates	Existing Patients	Use this as a retargeting channel to reach and remind existing patients about upcoming tests and appointments	Integrate with your CRM for automation	Also, regularly share medical industry/treatments updates in weekly or fortnightly newsletters		CRM integration
SMS		Delivered and Read Rates	Existing Patients	Use this as a retargeting channel to reach and remind existing patients about upcoming tests and appointments	Integrate with your CRM for automation			CRM integration
Affiliates	Skip
Publishers	Skip
Listicles	Skip
Review Sites	Skip

For Doctors, it is more important to manage their practice and focus on the patients. Leave the trivial tasks of digital marketing and growth in footfall to us!

Mindless helps you manage all your website, paid media, SEO and all other digital marketing channels by providing you specialist teams that stay updated on all industry requirements related to the medical industry. Specialists at Mindless have worked with 250+ clients and scaled the online presence of several businesses while increasing their clientele, revenue and footfall.

If your business is facing the challenge in optimizing website SEO or other paid media channels, then book a free consulting session with our experts and find out how we can help your business achieve new heights.

You can also mail us on sales@mindless.digital for any queries.

About the author:

You can visit his LinkedIn profile here.

Found the article interesting? Share it with your peers.

January 25, 2025

Digital Marketing for US Hotels – Channels, Strategies and Tips

Since the dawn of the internet, travel and tourism industry has been pioneering digital strategies to make it easier for users to book their travel plans without a hitch. Digital marketing advances in the hotel industry have been the main reason behind the high growth of this industry.

Digital Marketing for Hotels, today, is a necessity. Maintaining online presence in terms of website and SEO, Google Business Profile for Local SEO and Maps, Ads in terms of outreach and visibility along with Aggregators for listings and competitive edge.

While Aggregators can help you fill your hotel rooms quickly and up to the brim, they charge a hefty commission of up to 25% that can literally run you dry. Thus, it is necessary to break out of their clutches and build your own presence on the internet.

While the quickest way to do that is by posting ads on Google and Meta (Facebook and Instagram), it may turn out to be costly in the long term. Thus, for long term growth, SEO is the best bet. You should also regularly use influencer PR to grow your social media presence and also improve your SEO by improving the awareness of your hotel.

There are several digital marketing sources and channels which you can use to reach customers. These traffic sources can be broadly divided into:

Digital Marketing Channels and Traffic Sources for Hotel Industry

Sources	Platforms Included	Importance	Retargeting?
Paid Search	Google Ads, Bing Ads	High and specific intent	Yes
Paid Display	Google Display Network, Programmatic, Tabula, Criteo, Outbrain, and many more	Low cost per impression, multiple placement opportunities	Yes
SEO	Google and Bing Search Engines	High intent and low cost
AI SEO	Google, ChatGPT	High intent, low cost and low competition
Paid Social	Meta/Facebook/Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Tiktok, Twitter(X), SnapChat	Low cost per impression, multiple placement opportunities	Yes
Organic Social Media	Meta/Facebook/Instagram/Threads, LinkedIn, YouTube, Tiktok, Twitter(X), SnapChat	Low cost, build communities and following, WoM
Social Influencers	Meta/Facebook/Instagram/Threads, YouTube, Tiktok	Low cost, WoM
Affiliates	Email Partners, SMS Partners, App Partners	Pin point targeting based on demographics and firmographics
Content Syndication	Publishers, Listicles, Review Sites	Mid level intent and low CPC
Paid Communities	Reddit, Quora, Pinterest	High interest, more ad content to engage	Yes
Organic Communities	Reddit, Quora, Pinterest	High interest, build communities and following
Messaging	WhatsApp, Email, SMS	Highly targeted	Yes

Now each traffic source has multiple channels with each channel having its own uniqueness in terms of intent, targeting, visibility and cost.

I always suggest our hotel clients to use multiple channels and split their budget based on performance of each channel.

While SEO is highly dependent on your website content and optimizations, your organic social media is dependent on your post quality and posting frequency.

On the other hand, paid advertising channels have their own set of characteristics and complexities such as how to structure the campaigns, whom to target, how to target and how much to bid.

I am also going to ask you to skip many of these channels based on my experience of managing digital marketing for 250+ hotels in the US, Canada and Mexico. These channels are either irrelevant for this industry, or are costly and provide low performance.

Digital Marketing Channels for Hotel Industry – Strategies and Tips

Platforms	Dimensions	Metrics	Audiences	Importance	Set Up	Optimization Tips	Budgeting & Bidding	Tech Integrations	Geo Targeting
Google Search Ads	Campaign, Ad Group, Ads, Keywords	CPC, CTR, CPL/CPA, CVR, RoAS, Impr Share, Quality Score, RPB	Attach existing customer list for better targeting	High intent audience for better CVR Use Phrase match for best results	Brand, Competitor, Generic campaign structure Skip Search Partners and Search on Display options	Regularly exclude queries using Search Term report Use tRoAS bidding strategy	Cascade budget – Brand is most important, followed by Competitor, and then Generic. Split Generic KWs into multiple campaigns	Use GTM to place tags on booking engines Integrate GSC and GBP	200 mile radius and feeder cities from GA4 data
Bing Ads	Campaign, Ad Group, Ads, Keywords	CPC, CTR, CPL/CPA, CVR, RoAS, Impr Share, Quality Score, RPB	Use intent targeting	Use Phrase match for best results	Brand, Competitor, Generic campaign structure Skip Search Partners and Search on Display options	Regularly exclude queries using Search Term report Use tRoAS bidding strategy	Cascade budget – Brand is most important, followed by Competitor, and then Generic. Split Generic KWs into multiple campaigns	Use GTM to place tags on booking engines Integrate GSC and GBP	200 mile radius and feeder cities from GA4 data
GDN	Campaign, Ad Group, Ads, Audiences, Publishers	CPM, CPC, CTR, CPL/CPA, CVR, RoAS, RPB	Use Custom Intent,inmarket and Affinity Audiences	Cheaper and wider outreach	Split ad sets based on audiences and creative themes	Regularly exclude publishers with extremely high or low CTR or CPC or based on industry	Minimal budget and low bidding compared to Search Ads	Use GTM to place tags on booking engines	200 mile radius and feeder cities from GA4 data
Programmatic	Skip these
PMax	Skip these
Google Search	Brand, Generic KWs	Imprs, CTR, Ranking, CVR, RPB		High Intent free traffic and customers	Use Entity Search and Schema			GA4, GSC and GBP Integration
Google Business Profile	NAP, Categories, Service Area, Schedule, Reviews	Ratings, Directions, Calls, Website Visits		This is free traffic searching for you on Google Search and Google Maps. You can show your profile with images, booking/calling links	NAP – Name, Address, Phone Number Also fill up all the other fields available	Maintain Rating of 4+ Get good reviews regularly Post pictures regularly
Bing Search	Brand, Generic KWs	Imprs, CTR, Ranking, CVR, RPB		High Intent free traffic and customers	Use Entity Search and Schema			GA4, GSC and GBP Integration
ChatGPT	Brand, Generic KWs	Imprs, CTR, Ranking, CVR, RPB		High Intent free traffic and customers	Use Entity Search and Schema			GA4, GSC and GBP Integration
Influencer PR		CPM, Engagement Rate, Clicks, CPC, CPA, ROAS			Reach out to travel influencers via their social media pages to negotiate a deal with them for each story and post promotion
Meta Ads	Campaign, Ad Set, Ads, Creatives	CPM, CPC, CTR, CPL/CPA, CVR, RoAS, RPB	Use default option for travel audience at Ad Set level Use 2% lookalike audience or Advantage+ audience		Separate campaigns to focus on indoor/outdoor/services/places to visit/events	Use multiple creatives in a single ad	Low Budget and low bdding	Integrate Pixel and implement events via GTM	200 mile radius and feeder cities from GA4 data
Facebook		Followers, Likes, Engagement Rate		Organic engagement and outreach	Add all links into your profile	Regularly post about events, discounts and how to travel
Instagram		Followers, Likes, Engagement Rate		Organic engagement and outreach	Add all links into your profile	Regularly post about events, discounts and how to travel
Threads		Followers, Likes, Engagement Rate		Organic engagement and outreach	Add all links into your profile	Regularly post about events, discounts and how to travel
LinkedIn	Skip
LinkedIn Ads	Skip
YouTube		Followers, Likes, Engagement Rate		Organic engagement and outreach	Add all links into your profile	Regularly post about events, discounts and how to travel
Youtube Ads	Skip
Tiktok		Followers, Likes, Engagement Rate		Organic engagement and outreach	Add all links into your profile	Regularly post about events, discounts and how to travel
Tiktok Ads
Snapchat	Skip
Twitter(X)	Skip
Twitter(X) Ads	Skip
Aggregators	List on all major aggregators	Listing Fee, Commission, cancellation refunds		MMT, Expedia, Booking.com, Goibibo, Kayak, Trivago, Agoda, Priceline and more
Quora	List a free profile to answer specific questions			Some users may ask very specific questions		Answer questions related to travel and tourism in the city
Quora Ads	Skip
Reddit	Skip
Reddit Ads	Skip
Pinterest	Skip
WhatsApp	Skip
Email	Skip
SMS	Skip
Affiliates	Skip
Publishers	Skip
Listicles	Skip
Review Sites	Skip

I know that setting up so many channels is not a child’s play. This requires multiple resources as well as expertise. Thus, I highly suggest hotel owners and managers to approach specialist agencies to manage their digital marketing.

Mindless helps you manage all your website, paid media,SEO and all other digital marketing channels by providing you specialist teams that stay updated on all industry requirements related to the hotel industry. Specialists at Mindless have worked with 250+ clients in this industry and scaled the online presence of several brands including top chains such as Hyatt, Windhyam, Hilton, and more.

You can also mail us on sales@mindless.digital for any queries.

To find out more about digital marketing trends and ideas for the hotel industry read our blog here.

About the author:

Pragun Jain is a seasoned digital marketer who has worked with over 500+ businesses ranging from billion dollar SAAS enterprises to 5-star hotel chains, restaurants and retail stores. He has managed over USD 75M in paid media spend across Google Ads, Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads and other digital marketing channels.

You can visit his LinkedIn profile here.

Found the article interesting? Share it with your peers.

January 24, 2025

How to build LinkedIn Ads Predictive Audience – A step by step Guide
LinkedIn Ads is definitely the best channel to target B2B audiences and you can do it even better by targeting Predictive Audiences on LinkedIn. Let’s learn how to do that quickly and easily.

Predictive audiences are LinkedIn’s version of Lookalike Audiences. They work in the same way as lookalike audiences in Google Ads and Meta Ads.

Let’s build a Predictive Audience in LinkedIn Ads.

We start by creating a matched audience.

This is a list of your customers uploaded into LinkedIn with details such as phone number, email ID, company, title and others.

Now, to create Predictive Audiences:
- In left side menu, click on Plan>Audiences
- Create a matched Audience
- Choose the source of the audience
- Upload and save
- Creating similar audience (called Predictive Audience in LinkedIn)
- Select a source contact list
- Choose the location and the size of the audience
- Click on Agree and Create
Managing audiences and updating them regularly can be a daunting task and you may need professional help to get the best performance from your marketing campaigns.

Mindless helps businesses get the best performance out of their Google Ads account. We have helped our B2C clients achieve 20x return on ad spend and B2B clients lower CPL by 20% while improving lead quality and funnel conversion rates. We have managed over USD 60M in ad spend across Google Ads, Facebook/Instagram Ads, LinkedIn Ads and other digital marketing campaigns. If your business is facing a challenge in optimizing Google Ads or other paid media channels, then book a free consulting session with our experts and find out how we can help your business achieve new heights.

You can also mail us on sales@mindless.digital for any queries.

About the author:

Pragun Jain is a seasoned digital marketer who has worked with over 500+ businesses ranging from billion dollar SAAS enterprises to 5-star hotel chains, restaurants and retail stores. He has managed over USD 75M in paid media spend across Google Ads, Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads and other digital marketing channels.

You can visit his LinkedIn profile here.

Found the article interesting? Share it with your peers.
December 30, 2024
How to build lookalike audiences in Meta Ads – Step by step Guide
Facebook Lookalike audiences are definitely the audiences to target to get the best results. All you need to take care of is that the audience size you choose is large enough (>1 Million).

These audiences can then be narrowed using exclusions depending on your industry, market, affinities and business.

Now let’s quickly create your first lookalike audience on Facebook/Meta.
- In left side menu, click All Tools>Audiences
Start by creating a Custom Audience as a base to create Lookalike Audience
- Click on Create Audience>Custom Audience
- Choose Customer List
- Use the following data points for customer list
- Choose the option of uploading with value or no value
- Map the identifiers, the click on Upload and Create
Now to create a lookalike audience for a customer list
- Choose a source audience
- Choose the number of lookalikes and percentage size
- Narrower is more accurate
- Click on create Audience
Always split your upload customer match lists by segments, countries and even product/service type if you have a large customer base. This will help you target based on your sales segment.

In B2B marketing campaigns, Meta or Facebook works really well for small business. Even if you try to target upmarket, you’ll end up getting majority of the leads from small business segment.

On the other hand, this works really well in B2C where your target audience will complete the transaction on your website and Facebook will have better first party data to curate lookalike audiences. Thus, Facebook lookalike audiences will provide your the best RoAS amongst all targeting capabilities in Meta Ads.

Now comparing Facebook and Google Ads lookalike audiences based on performance. In my experience, both are very similar in performance in B2C industry. However, Facebook wins by getting better lead quality in B2B campaigns.

Pro tip: Create multiple lookalike audiences of each custom list for every one percent. Then target multiple audiences in a single ad set in your campaigns. When analyzing your campaigns, you can breakdown the results by audiences to find out which audiences are performing the best.

Mindless helps businesses get the best performance out of their Google Ads account. We have helped our B2C clients achieve 20x return on ad spend and B2B clients lower CPL by 20% while improving lead quality and funnel conversion rates. We have managed over USD 60M in ad spend across Google Ads, Facebook/Instagram Ads, LinkedIn Ads and other digital marketing campaigns. If your business is facing a challenge in optimizing Google Ads or other paid media channels, then book a free consulting session with our experts and find out how we can help your business achieve new heights.

You can also mail us on sales@mindless.digital for any queries.

About the author:

Pragun Jain is a seasoned digital marketer who has worked with over 500+ businesses ranging from billion dollar SAAS enterprises to 5-star hotel chains, restaurants and retail stores. He has managed over USD 75M in paid media spend across Google Ads, Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads and other digital marketing channels.

You can visit his LinkedIn profile here.

Found the article interesting? Share it with your peers.
December 30, 2024
How to build Lookalike Audiences in Google Ads – A step by step Guide
Ever wonder how to target the best and most relevant audiences in Google Ads using Display or Demand Gen campaigns? The answer is quite simple. Use Lookalike Audiences by uploading customer lists into Google Ads. This helps Google Ads analyze your customer base for demographics, firmographics, and other behaviors or affinities to build a list of audiences that closely resembles or matches your current customers.

You can also segment your customer lists by countries or sales segments for better lookalike matching and targeting in your display and demand gen campaigns.

Lookalike audiences in Google Ads are the best audience to target in Display and Demand Gen campaigns. To create lookalike audience in Google Ads, you need to upload a list of your customers (preferably the best ones or ICP). Make sure the list is substantial (at least above 3000 contacts)

Let’s build Google Ads Lookalike Audience using this step by step guide.

In the left side menu, click on Tools>Shared Library>Audience Manager

Click on ”+” sign and choose Customer List to build a new customer list

Choose Data Source “Upload a file manually” and click on continue

Choose a customer type that you have currently implemented as conversion goal for campaign optimization.

Choose Data Type “Upload Emails, Phones, and/or Mailing Addresses”

Upload the audience list in csv format

Set an Expiration Date

Click on Save and Continue

Create a Lookalike segment in your new campaign

Follow the steps below to create a Lookalike segment in your campaign:
- Create a Demand Gen or Display campaign.
- Add an audience at the ad group level.
- Click New Audience in the Audience dialogue box.
- Click in the “Add or create Lookalike segment” search box and the “Lookalike Segment” dialog box.
- Click New Segment.
- Add a Lookalike segment name in the “Segment name” dialog box.
- Choose from or upload at least one seed list in the “Seed list” dialog box. You can add up to 10 seed lists.
- Enter and select the countries or regions you want your lookalike segment to target in the “Locations” dialog box.
- Choose “Narrow,” “Balanced,” or “Broad” with the slider in the “Lookalike segment” dialog box.
- Click Save.
Now you are ready to target the new lookalike audience – the best audience available on Google Ads.

Remember, you need to regularly update your seed audience (one a month or at least once a quarter) to keep getting the best performance from your lookalike audiences.

Pro Tip: You can further narrow this audience by adding demographics filters and other affinities or criteria in Google Ads audience targeting settings. Use your top KWs to find inmarket or affinity audiences and implement them in AND conjunction with your lookalike audiences to narrow the targeting criteria.

Still feeling confused? Get help from Experts!

Mindless helps businesses get the best performance out of their Google Ads account. We have helped our B2C clients achieve 20x return on ad spend and B2B clients lower CPL by 20% while improving lead quality and funnel conversion rates. We have managed over USD 60M in ad spend across Google Ads, Facebook/Instagram Ads, LinkedIn Ads and other digital marketing campaigns. If your business is facing a challenge in optimizing Google Ads or other paid media channels, then book a free consulting session with our experts and find out how we can help your business achieve new heights.

Book Now

You can also mail us on sales@mindless.digital for any queries.

About the author:

Pragun Jain is a seasoned digital marketer who has worked with over 500+ businesses ranging from billion dollar SAAS enterprises to 5-star hotel chains, restaurants and retail stores. He has managed over USD 75M in paid media spend across Google Ads, Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads and other digital marketing channels.

You can visit his LinkedIn profile here.

Found the article interesting? Share it with your peers.
December 23, 2024

Google Ads Bid Strategies & Bidding Optimization in 2025

Google Ads Bid Strategy and bidding optmizations blog banner

Wondering how to choose the best Google Ads Bid Strategies for your campaigns & optimize bids? Let’s give you some of the best practices and guidelines based on over $40 Million ad spend across Search, Display, Demand Gen, PMax and YouTube/video campaigns.

Fair warning, you may find my suggestions contrary to those by Google, but remember that I am here to help you maximize your marketing performance while Google’s ultimate goal is to earn more by making you spend more.

Quickly, what are Google Ads Bid Strategies? In Google Ads, bid strategies determine how much you pay for clicks, impressions, or conversions in your campaigns. These strategies align your bidding approach with your campaign goals, such as driving website traffic, increasing sales, or boosting brand awareness. Selecting the right bid strategy can significantly impact the performance and ROI of your campaigns.

Google has a plethora of bid strategies to confuse you. Moreover, you can also choose campaign level or portfolio bid strategies. The importance of these two changes with your business objective. For a B2C business, you can use portfolio strategies across your entire gamut of campaigns or use them at product/service level but for a B2B business, the value of the lead changes based on segment, device type and multiple other factors making it difficult to provide values to leads. Thus, multiple tCPA and tROAS bid strategies are a better option.

At a higher level, bid strategies serve only four objectives. Selecting the right bid strategy depends on your campaign objectives:

Traffic: Use Manual CPC or Maximize Clicks.
Conversions: Opt for Target CPA, Maximize Conversions, or Enhanced CPC.
Revenue: Choose Target ROAS or Maximize Conversion Value.
Awareness: Use CPM or Target Impression Share.

Google Ads Bid Strategies and sub-categories across campaign types

	Bid Strategy	Bid Strategy Sub Categories	Campaign Types
Campaign Level Bid Strategies	Impression Share	Anywhere on Page Top of Results Page Absolute Top of Results Page	Search, YouTube, Video
	Clicks	Maximize Clicks Max CPC bid	Search, Display, Demand Gen, Local
	Conversions	Fully Automated Target CPA	Search, Display, Demand Gen, PMax
	Conversion Value	Fully Automated Target RoAS%	Search, Demand Gen, PMax
	Viewable Impressions / Viewable CPM		Display, YouTube, Video
	Target CPV or vCPM		YouTube, Video, Display
	tCPM		YouTube, Video, Display
Portfolio Bid Strategies	Impression Share	Anywhere on Page Top of Results Page Absolute Top of Results Page
	Clicks	Maximize Clicks Max CPC bid	Search, Display, Demand Gen, Local
	Conversions	Fully Automated Target CPA	Search, Display, Demand Gen, PMax
	Conversion Value	Fully Automated Target RoAS%	Search, Demand Gen, PMax
	tCPA	Fully Automated Target CPA with max and min CPC limit	Search
	tROAS	Fully Automated Target RoAS% with max and min CPC limit	Search

Further in this article, we will majorly discuss the various bidding strategies for different types of campaign and campaign themes for Search, Display, Lead Gen and PMax campaigns. Based on your business choices and targets along with the learning of the campaigns, you may have to use different bid strategies across different Google Ads campaigns. Over time, you may even need to switch the strategies based on campaign learning, business goals, and campaign performance.

Use the below table as a cheat sheet to choose the best bid strategies for different campaign types and themes.

Campaign Type	Campaign Theme	Bid Level	Preferred Bid Strategy (B2B)	Preferred Bid Strategy (B2C)
Search	Brand	Campaign	Impression Share – Abs Top Conversions with target CPA	Max Clicks with limits Conversion Value with target RoAS%
	Competitor	Portfolio	Impression Share for limited competitors Max Clicks for limited budget tCPA based on campaign learning after 30 days	Impression Share for limited competitors Max Clicks for limited budget tROAS based on campaign learning after 30 days
	Generic	Portfolio	Max clicks for first 14 days tCPA	Max clicks for first 14 days tROAS and use max/min CPC limits
Display	Funnel Retargeting	Campaign	tCPM or vCPM	tCPM or vCPM
	Awareness	Campaign	tCPM or vCPM	tCPM or vCPM
	Engagement	Campaign	Max Clicks with CPC bids	Max Clicks with CPC bids
	Conversion	Campaign	Conversions with target CPA	Conversion Value with target RoAS%
PMax	Any	Campaign	Conversions with target CPA	Conversion Value with target RoAS%
Lead Gen	Any	Campaign	Conversions with target CPA	Conversion Value with target RoAS%

Google also gives us an option to target existing and new customers with different target values

Bid higher for new customers than existing customers
Only bid for new customers

While these sound great, they kind of serve no purpose. As soon as you choose any of these, your whole bidding optimization and performance will go for a whack. Google isn’t able to differentiate well between new and existing customers. If you choose to bid only for new customers, then the expected bid value will be 10x higher than your current CPA which for any business wouldn’t make any sense. To share an example from the accounts that I handle, Our current CPA varies between $250 to $500 depending on keyword cluster and device type. We get less than 10% duplicate leads/customers but if I choose to bid only for new customers, the expected target CPA rises to $7,500 and with that too my reach becomes so limited that I am unable to spend 10% of the regular budget on a daily basis.

Bid Optimization Strategies in Google Ads

Optimizing your bidding strategy involves tailoring it to specific business objectives. Here are common scenarios and how to approach them:

1. Low Conversion Rates

Action: Switch to “Maximize Conversions” or “Target CPA” to let Google optimize for conversion-focused bidding.
Example: A small e-commerce business struggling to convert traffic can use Target CPA to set a manageable acquisition cost, allowing for better ROI.

2. High Clicks but Low ROI

Action: Shift to “Target ROAS” to focus on conversion value rather than volume.
Example: A SaaS company generating leads but failing to convert them into high-value customers can set a ROAS target to align bidding with revenue.

3. Limited Budget but High Competition

Action: Use “Maximize Clicks” or “Enhanced CPC” with a cap on maximum bids to control costs while maintaining visibility.
Example: A startup targeting competitive keywords can optimize their limited ad spend for maximum exposure.

4. Focus on Brand Awareness

Action: Implement “Target Impression Share” or “CPM” bidding.
Example: A new product launch campaign can set a high impression share for relevant keywords to ensure top-of-mind awareness.

5. Seasonal Campaigns

Action: Use “Maximize Conversion Value” with season-specific budgets and ROAS targets.
Example: An online retailer during Black Friday can focus on high-value purchases using conversion value optimization.

6. Underperforming Keywords

Action: Adjust manual bids or use “Enhanced CPC” for precise optimization.
Example: A local service provider targeting specific cities can manually increase bids for high-performing locations.

7. Video Campaign Engagement

Action: Opt for “CPV” bidding to focus on maximizing views and interactions.
Example: A brand awareness video campaign for a new app launch can optimize cost-per-view for higher engagement.

8. Expanding Market Reach

Action: Combine “Maximize Clicks” with broader targeting options and responsive search ads.
Example: A business entering a new geographic market can focus on traffic volume to gather insights before shifting to performance-based bidding.

Decision-Making Framework

Analyze Data: Use performance reports to identify gaps in CTR, conversions, or ROI.
Set Goals: Define clear campaign objectives like traffic, lead generation, or revenue.
Test Strategies: Run A/B tests with different bid strategies to measure effectiveness.
Adjust Frequently: Monitor performance and tweak strategies as needed.

Understanding the nuances of each bid strategy and aligning them with your goals ensures efficient budget utilization and better campaign outcomes.

Optimizing bids requires huge amount of data analysis on regular basis. You also need to meld your budget, business goals, inventories and industry seasonality to this mix. Thus, sometimes bidding optimization may seem a daunting task.

Still confused which bid strategies are the best for your business and how to optimize them to maximize campaign performance?

Mindless helps businesses get the best performance out of their Google Ads account. We have helped our B2C clients achieve 20x return on ad spend and B2B clients lower CPL by 20% while improving lead quality and funnel conversion rates. We have managed over USD 60M in ad spend across Google Ads, Facebook/Instagram Ads, LinkedIn Ads and other digital marketing campaigns. If your business is facing a challenge in optimizing Google Ads or other paid media channels, then book a free consulting session with our experts and find out how we can help your business achieve new heights.

Book Now

You can also mail us on sales@mindless.digital for any queries.

About the author:

Pragun Jain is a seasoned digital marketers who has worked with over 500+ businesses ranging from billion dollar SAAS enterprises to 5-star hotel chains, restaurants and retail stores. He has managed over USD 75M in paid media spend across Google Ads, Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads and other digital marketing channels.

Found the article interesting? Share it with your peers.

December 20, 2024

Google Ads Keyword Research, Optimization & Budget Management – The Ultimate Strategy
Google Ads keyword research and optimization helps you decide manage budgets optimally, manage campaigns effectively, and build better ads, ultimately leading to better digital marketing performance for your business. Always be cautious while choosing the keywords to be targeted and contrary to Google’s guidelines of using broad match, I highly suggest using exact and phrase match keywords to properly utilize your budgets and get better data for further analysis.

I manage over USD 1 Million monthly budget on Google Ads and Bing Ads. The keyword research and optimization strategies that I will discuss have helped channelize the spends towards the best performing KWs while keeping a check on CPCs. This in turn has led to over 20% increase in CPA for our client’s lead gen program.

I will also reveal some secrets about bidding optimizations and keyword CPCs. So read till the end to find out how to get maximum performance out of your Google Ads campaigns.

Google Ads Keyword optimization begins with impeccable keyword research:
1. Understanding your customers
2. Exploring their intent and behavior
3. Discovering the market size
4. Unearthing industry dynamics and competition
How would you find the keywords for your business?

Step 1: Think about the topics or phrases that come to your mind if you had to search for your products or services. Make these your starting point. We will elaborate this by considering 2 examples throughout this article: for hotels – hotel in New York and for SAAS – reputation management

Step 2: Use closely matching words or synonyms. Examples; hotel in NYC, ORM or manage online reputation

Step 3: Next, make it more specific and long tailed – 5 star hotel in new york, reputation management for hotels

Step 4: Now add the intent – book hotel in New York, reputation management pricing

Step 5: Mix services/products – 5 star hotel in New York with parking, reputation management software for hotels

Step 6: With your core keywords now being finalized, we move to peripheral keywords, that is, keywords which are closely related to your core keywords. The examples here would be – hotels near empire state, manage hotel reputation

Step 7: Once you are done with such permutations and combinations, use Google Ads Keyword Planner Tool to expand on these keywords and find their search volumes as well as market competition

Step 8: Google Keyword Planner Tool will provide you with hundreds of keywords – do you want to bid on all of them? Definitely No!

How would you choose the best keywords for your business?
1. Your core KWs are still the most important ones (not more than 15-20). Find their search volume and group them into one campaign and possibly 2-3 ad sets. Check for Google’s highest and lowest bid from Keyword Planner data. Use the average of that bid and calculate the budget to target 60-70% of impressions with the average CTR for those KWs or industry. Note: Use only Exact and Phrase Match of these KWs
2. Perform a similar process for your peripheral KWs and calculate the budget to target 25-30% of the search volume for these KWs or if your budget is lower, then as much as your budget allows. Again, use only Exact and Phrase match.
3. Finally, create a duplicate campaign of your core KWs. Change the match type to Broad Match. Add Exact and Phrase matches of all KWs as exclusion to this campaign. Reduce the budget to just 10-20% of the original campaign. This will help you target news KWs and discover search queries that can later be added to your core or peripheral campaigns.
4. If you have more than one product or service, repeat the process for each.
Now to some other important settings for your campaigns:
1. Start new campaigns with CPC bidding and later move to tCPA or tRoAS.
2. Once your campaigns are well established, use portfolio bids (without shared budgets). Use tCPA or tRoAS with maximum CPC bids configured. This will help you control your CPC while also controlling the overall performance. Google’s automation tends to bid erratically high on CPC’s, thus lowering your overall performance.
3. Be precise with your location settings. Use presence in the location rather than interest in the location
4. Do not switch on the broad match setting. KEEP IT PAUSED!
5. Initially, you want to control your messaging to understand custom behavior. Thus, keep automated text assets setting paused. Later, as you optimize your landing page and ad content, you can switch on this setting.
6. Ensure that user’s search queries match your keywords which in turn are part of your ad messaging and also your landing page content.
7. To optimize Google Ads for local business, you need to focus on Local KWs and near me KWs
Apart from all this, you have to regularly go through the search terms/query report and exclude irrelevant or non performing queries.

Armed with all this information, you are ready to confront the challenges related to Google Ads Keyword optimizations. Your budget management will be impeccable leading to reduced wasted spend and better overall performance.

Most businesses will be able to set up their Google Ads campaigns and keywords using this strategy but there is a lot more which goes into day to day optimizations. You have to constantly improve your ads, adjust bids based on market competition, current keyword performance, your business budgets as well as overall industry search volume and seasonality. Most businesses require dedicated professionals to take care of these day to day tasks and maintain a healthy Google Ads account.

Finally, there is also the aspect of multiple integrations – with GA4, Google Search Console, Google Tag Manager for site tag/pixel and offline conversions import for B2B or online to offline businesses. You need to set up audiences and targeting based on the data provided by your tag, GA4, offline imports or custom lists. These are all part of advanced Google Ads tactics beyond keyword optimization and budget management.

Mindless helps businesses get the best performance out of their Google Ads account. We have helped our B2C clients achieve 20x return on ad spend and B2B clients lower CPL by 20% while improving lead quality and funnel conversion rates. If your business is facing the challenge in optimizing Google Ads or other paid media channels, then book a free consulting session with our experts and find out how we can help your business achieve new heights.

Book Now

You can also mail us on sales@mindless.digital for any queries.
December 19, 2024
Digital Marketing for Restaurant Industry
Digital marketing is the key to a restaurant’s success. Your restaurant needs to be prominent on SEO, Google Search, Maps, Google Ads, Social Media as well as on Open Table, ChowNow etc.

Implementation of technology and digital marketing is becoming increasingly important in the restaurant industry. This industry is unique in its own way. It has limitations to the geographical area that it can serve making it hyper local, it is time bound with 2 peaks of traffic and orders every day, for delivery and take out, quick service is a major factor for customer satisfaction, and finally, it is highly operations and logistics dependent.

Over the past few years, the restaurant industry has gone through an overhaul and major changes in how customers reach the restaurants and how they are serviced. Multiple aggregators platforms and logistics providers have mushroomed in the market. The likes of Zomato, ChowNow, GrubHub, Swiggy have become the newest channels for end businesses – the actual restaurants, thus making the identities or brand of the restaurants less significant.

On the other hand, even dining experience has changed with players like OpenTable, Resy and more coming into the picture and allowing for transition from phone call/offline model to online pre-booking of dining facilities in top restaurants.

All these changes point to the same thing – the movement towards digitalization of the industry.

The restaurateurs themselves now need to keep up with the trends and build their digital presence. They also need to ensure that they do not give hefty commissions to these aggregators for their loyal customers. Thus, they need a means to help their loyal and repeat customers order directly from business/restaurant owned platforms.

Here comes to the rescue the digital presence of these restaurants – Branded website, App or PWA.

To support the website or app, the restaurant needs to authenticate their physical presence by being present on GMB listings and other directories clubbed with social media presence on Facebook, Instagram and more.

Part of a restaurant’s digital presence is also to be present on the aggregator platforms as it gives a chance to bring more revenue for the restaurants while they build their own identity and brand in the market.

So what are the key digital marketing strategies for a restaurant to build its identity and presence?
- Restaurants serve local markets usually up to 5 kms from their physical location – so hyperlocal SEO is of extreme importance.
- They need to fight the competition from aggregators – thus website with integrated menu for ordering, discount offers, logistics services and CRM integration is required
- Social Media presence, requesting customers to check-in to social media, tag the restaurant and also incentivizing reviews
- Local food influencer collaborations to reach more people interested in food
In short, a restaurant is a local business that needs hyperlocal digital presence and marketing strategy.

Let’s drill down a bit deeper into how we can improve Local SEO on different digital channels:
1. Local SEO for Restaurants
  - Local (location) KWs, “near me” and “near by” keywords in the website content
  - Local Information in Meta tags and Schema along with service area details – neighborhoods, suburbs, zipcodes, and city
  - Google My Business listing, Apple Maps, Bing Listing and other directory listings
  - Maps API integration on website
  - Aggregator listings
1. Social Media for Restaurants
  - Local hashtags
  - Local content
  - Local checkins and tags
  - Local collaborations
1. Google Ads and Social Media Ads for Restaurants
  - Local Ads on Google Search linked to GMB listings
  - Google Search – generic cuisines based keyword targeting and competitor targeting
  - Geo targeting on platforms may be restricted to 5 kms with bid adjustments at various radius or neighborhood levels
  - Limited time offers
1. Customer Cycles
  - Our research shows that there are ordering cycles for cohorts of customers which range between 1 and 3 weeks
  - Rewarding loyalty – your every fifth meal is on us or incremental discounts on multiple orders
Beyond these simple strategies, the main factor behind the growth or brand building for any restaurant is the taste of food and customer services. Make sure that you have great ambience, pleasing service and quick delivery. Consistency in the taste of food is extremely important for customers to become repeat clients.

While marketing can get you awareness, your service and food quality will be the deciding factors in scaling your restaurant’s business. So, a restaurant owner should focus on the food and leave everything else to experts.

Mindless has expertise in building digital and local presence of businesses. Our team has worked with over 350 restaurant clients and built their online business, scaling some of them by 500% in one year. We provide beautiful and efficient websites for online ordering, takeout and reservations. We take care of their social media presence of our restaurant clients and also create their hyperlocal awareness using advertisement channels.

Want to grow your online sales? Feel free to reach us on sales@mindless.digital for all the digital requirements of your business.
December 14, 2024
Paid Media Strategies – Google Ads, Facebook Ads and LinkedIn Ads
Paid Media Strategies – Google Ads, Facebook Ads and LinkedIn Ads
Paid Media or Digital Advertising is one of the most effective mediums for new age businesses to reach, engage and convert customers to mint revenue. Whether you are a small business such as a hotel, restaurant, doctor, lawyer or contractor; or a retail store/chain or an international B2B enterprise, digital advertising or paid media has to be an integral part of your growth strategy.

One of the major advantages of digital marketing is the ability to track users to precisely attribute & accurately measure the effectiveness of each digital channel thus, helping you maximize RoAS (Return on Ad Spend) for omni-channel paid campaigns.

There are different strategies you can follow based on your industry, budget or phase/goal of your business. Some easy examples to understand these differences are as below:

Social media and display ads help spread awareness at low cost while Google Search ads let you convert audience with highest intent

Lower budget strategies focus on local search and local social media (custom audiences) while higher budget campaigns tend to go broader on audience targeting to spread more awareness & then bring interested audiences into the funnel

Also, a restaurant needs to run local paid media strategy while a hotel needs to run campaigns on larger geographies and identify feeder cities. On the other hand, B2B enterprises need to go broad and target everyone searching for specific keywords or have specific intent under the blue sky.

Thus, there is NO one size fits all strategy but Mindless has created time-tested strategies for different consumer & B2B industries including local (restaurants, doctors, lawyers, contractors), hotels, & B2B enterprises.

Now let’s dive into how to create a Digital Ads strategy for your business and understand the various levers which need to move in sync to make your Paid Media strategy a ravishing success.

Pillars of Digital Ads or Paid Media

Budget – Your Budget is one of the major factors which defines your paid media strategy. The budget may also be impacted by the phase of your business (growing, stabilized or expanding) and the goals you define (Awareness, Engagement, Conversion or Retargeting)

Channels – Based on your budget, phase and goals of your business, you choose the channels. Refer to the FREE Paid Media Cheat Sheet available on Mindless.Digital on how to choose the best channels for your business.

Content (Keywords, Ads & Landing Pages) – Content strategy helps your align the intent of your audience with the reading material such as ads and landing pages, that help captivate the attention your audiences via ads (text, images and video), communicate the USPs of your products and services and help them navigate through the landing page to make a purchase or share their details as per your business requirement.

Audience – Define your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) or target audience based on their demographics, interests, intent or the content they like to read, the pages/topics they follow. Most modern platforms such as Google, Facebook & LinkedIn have the capability to create custom audiences using your current customer information (via cookie events or PI data upload). In case of display, you may need to define where you will find your audience (content they read on various publisher websites). Learn more about how to create various audiences on different paid media platforms using the FREE Paid Media Cheat Sheet on our website.

Analytics – Tracking your website traffic helps you understand audience behavior to improve CRO (conversion rate optimization). It allows you to attribute conversions to channels which helps you define your budget strategies and maximize returns. Finally, analytics also helps you understand your audience in detail (demographics, geographies, interests, devices, timings and more)

Do IT Yourself Strategy for Each Paid Media Pillar

Use all that we have learnt today and you should be able to create an effective paid media program.

Paid Media is a science as well as an art. You have to use logic to understand the customers and use creativity to communicate your message. When everything comes together and these levers move in sync, Paid Media campaigns give the best results

The Upgrade to Your Digital Advertising

While DIY Paid Media Strategies are good to provide an initial boost to your business, our suggestion is to let the experts create a customized & implement paid media strategies for your business. There are multiple benefits of hiring experts or agencies as they have marketing technology capabilities in-house and have a larger view of multiple businesses across various industries which helps them analyze and benchmark the performance for your business and quickly change course as deemed best to maximize the returns of your paid media spend.

Paid Media experts at Mindless have worked for 500+ businesses including 2 Global Billion Dollar B2B enterprises and helped them increase their returns by up to 30%. We implement all aspects of Paid Media including Paid Search, Paid Social, Display, or Programmatic. Over time, our team has built specific strategy templates for restaurant, hotel, retail, medical and B2B industries which helps with easy implementation and better returns for your business.

Need help with your Paid Media or Digital Advertising? Contact us on marketing@mindless.digital or visit www.mindless.digital and our experts will get in touch with you.
December 6, 2024

Category: Paid Media

Understanding B2B Digital Marketing for SAAS Companies

How does B2B Digital Marketing differ from B2C?

B2B Digital Marketing Channels & Traffic Sources

Digital Marketing Channels for SAAS Enterprises – Channel Strategies and Tips

Why is Digital Marketing for Doctors and Medical Practices now a necessity?

Digital Marketing for Doctors, Medical Practices and Healthcare Industry in the US

Digital Marketing Channels & Traffic Sources

Digital Marketing Channels for Medical & Healthcare Industry – Strategies and Tips

Digital Marketing Channels and Traffic Sources for Hotel Industry

Digital Marketing Channels for Hotel Industry – Strategies and Tips

Let’s build a Predictive Audience in LinkedIn Ads.

We start by creating a matched audience.

Now, to create Predictive Audiences:

Now let’s quickly create your first lookalike audience on Facebook/Meta.

Start by creating a Custom Audience as a base to create Lookalike Audience

Now to create a lookalike audience for a customer list

Let’s build Google Ads Lookalike Audience using this step by step guide.

Create a Lookalike segment in your new campaign

Now you are ready to target the new lookalike audience – the best audience available on Google Ads.

Google Ads Bid Strategies and sub-categories across campaign types

Use the below table as a cheat sheet to choose the best bid strategies for different campaign types and themes.

Bid Optimization Strategies in Google Ads

Decision-Making Framework

Still confused which bid strategies are the best for your business and how to optimize them to maximize campaign performance?

Google Ads Keyword optimization begins with impeccable keyword research:

How would you find the keywords for your business?

How would you choose the best keywords for your business?

Now to some other important settings for your campaigns:

So what are the key digital marketing strategies for a restaurant to build its identity and presence?

Let’s drill down a bit deeper into how we can improve Local SEO on different digital channels:

Paid Media Strategies – Google Ads, Facebook Ads and LinkedIn Ads

Pillars of Digital Ads or Paid Media

Do IT Yourself Strategy for Each Paid Media Pillar

The Upgrade to Your Digital Advertising