CDN – what is it?

CDN stands for Content Delivery Network. Otherwise, it is a distributed system that is responsible for delivering website content to users in the shortest possible time, based on their geographic location. Thanks to it, a large amount of content can reach specific people quickly and without any interruptions. CDN is believed to be a very simple solution to speed up the performance of websites. Users don’t have to wait too long for data to load from the site they’ve decided to visit. Such a network of servers is dispersed in many places, and content resources are displayed to specific people from the points closest to them.

Higher page loading speed thanks to the use of the CDN system can be seen especially in the case of those site elements that are considered to be heavier. This, for example, graphics. There is a lot of potential in CDN, which is why it is talked about more and more often, for example in the context of increasing the efficiency of websites or their effective SEO. Thanks to it, the physical distance between the server and the user is reduced.

How does the CDN work?

When opening a website that uses CDN, the request is sent to the server closest to the specific person. Thus, it does not have to wait long for all the data to be loaded. In short, the CDN consists of several elements:
– source server,
– distributed internet infrastructure points,
– routing system.

The process of the CDN system operation is invisible to us, as website viewers. Everything is done in the background. When a user enters the address of a site that uses CDN, the so-called process begins. mapping. The network selects the appropriate server in terms of the user’s location and responds to his request by displaying the previously cached content. POPs, i.e. data centers located all over the world (often referred to as points of presence) play an important role here. Their task is to download, save and store in their cache “copies” of the page content. What if there is a problem with processing data from the server closest to a given person? The network then searches for another nearby point. If the real server becomes unavailable due to a failure or similar factors, the CDN will act as a proxy and display the previously processed content despite the problems.

Due to the specificity of operation, the CDN system is somewhat associated with internet clouds. However, there are some differences between these areas. Thanks to the cloud, the data is stored on the server, not on the computer’s hard drive. It can be compared to an internet flash drive. The user has unlimited access to his files, he can view and download them via various devices from anywhere in the world. CDN is an extensive network of internet infrastructure points. Responsible for the distribution of content from the so-called starting server to others. If necessary, i.e. when sending the request, information is transferred to the user from the CDN server closest to him.

What is the CDN for?

The CDN system is used primarily to increase the efficiency and speed of loading a website. Using it means that the user’s request travels a shorter physical distance than when the content of the site is located on one server. You can illustrate this with a practical example. A person living in the United States wants to open a website based in the UK. If this one doesn’t use CDN, it won’t load fast enough because the request has to travel a very long distance, including the Atlantic Ocean. In the case of a content distribution network, this is faster because the data is sent from a server closer to the person, for example in a specific US state.

You should be aware that nowadays internet traffic is mostly handled by CDN. This solution is used both by the websites of the largest companies in the world (including Amazon) and small enterprises. The content distribution network is very popular, in particular among providers of online streaming services and other multimedia services. It allows for greater comfort of using streaming services and reducing the risk of long buffering of content. The CDN is also used by companies dealing with cloud computing and e-commerce websites. The system in question is willingly implemented also due to the increased security. Due to the fact that most of the traffic is not handled by a hosting provider, but only by CDN servers, the risk of cybercriminals attacks is reduced.

CDN system – advantages

There are several benefits to using a CDN, one of the most important being performance gains. It can be said that thanks to a distributed network of servers, the content of the website is closer to the user. At the moment when he wants to open a website, the content does not have to cover a very long distance (in the physical sense), therefore it is displayed faster on the device screen. This is due not only to faster website loading times. This way you can also minimize packet loss. The CDN system works especially well when the website is visited by people living on different continents.

Reliability of access should also be mentioned. Each time you try to open your site, the request goes to the location closest to the user. Even if one server is temporarily unavailable, it will automatically redirect to another one nearby. In this way, the so-called automatic redundancy. The use of the CDN system makes it possible to guarantee constant network availability, regardless of the operation of the main server and those making up the network. What happens without this solution? Users see an error page on their screen, and this discourages them from revisiting the site. Thus, the CDN allows you to improve UX.

It is also believed that the content distribution network often plays an important role in the SEO process. It shortens the website loading time and prevents unnecessary failures, which affects its position in the search results. In addition, the issue of security must not be forgotten. When using a CDN system, traffic is mostly handled by the servers and not by the hosting provider. As content distribution network providers usually apply additional security, the risk of attacks, especially DDoS blocking access to services using network congestion, is reduced. In addition, many servers offer the option of using an additional SSL protocol.

Big enterprises can find out about what CDN means in one more area, which is costs. The use of a content distribution network is less expensive than rebuilding the entire infrastructure, when it will be necessary to use a larger number of servers.

Is it worth choosing a CDN?

In many cases, the CDN turns out to be a very good solution. Nevertheless, the decision to use a network should always be thought out and carefully analyzed. If the majority of website users live in the same region as the hosting, a CDN system is often not necessary. It even happens that implementing it brings more harm than good. Due to a non-essential connection point between the visitor to the site and a nearby server, performance may be degraded.

However, in a situation where the website is popular among users from different parts of the world, CDN is the right choice. There are many providers of this type of service, including:
– Fastly – a commercial CDN network used, for example, by BuzzFeed, The New York Times and Pinterest. It gives many configuration options, provides a high level of security, and at the same time increases the efficiency of websites.
– Cloudflare – one of the largest global networks with data centers in Europe, the United States and South America, as well as in mainland China and Oceania.
– Akamai – one of the largest enterprises in the world, handles approx. 30% of Internet traffic. His clients include BNP Paribas, Honda, Douglas or Ubisoft.
– KeyCDN – a network suitable especially for beginners without much experience with CDN. Supports 6 continents and ensures easy integration.

Importantly, the use of this type of service does not have to be associated with a very large expense. Some providers give you the opportunity to try their offer first in a demo version, and you can easily find free plans with basic functionality. It is worth thinking about CDN especially if you want to acquire new users from other countries or even continents. Thanks to the content distribution network, it becomes easy to optimize your website in each geographic zone. Its use is recommended in particular:
– online stores,
– services with nationwide coverage,
– large, popular websites and those that store valuable data (due to the increased risk of attacks),
– multilingual websites,
– parties with a pronounced foreign movement.

In fact, any website that, for specific reasons, is to operate faster than before, can decide to implement the CDN system. The content distribution network makes sense not only in the case of foreign traffic. Since it affects the site loading faster, it helps it to gain a higher position. Of course, you have to bear in mind that the CDN requires skilful implementation. Only then can you notice all the advantages of this solution.

Not every blog is the same, because the light, entertainment content promoted by popular influencers is different from those posted on store, company or expert blogs. In the first case, bloggers and vloggers want to gain the largest number of so-called followers who will ensure their popularity, publicity, viewership and, as a result, earnings. Companies and services, through blog content placed on the site, attract users who can become their potential customers. However, in both cases there are several rules on how to effectively promote your blog.

How to start a blog?

Only a dozen or so years ago, the blog was associated with a kind of online diary, through which users shared their thoughts. Today, blog is a powerful marketing tool that positively affects the position of a page in the search engine. As a result, you can earn on consistent and consistent blogging activities. Blog is an important medium of communication with recipients – not only for the popular blogosphere, but also for e-commerce, companies and services that promote their activities on the web.

However, each time – regardless of the industry – the fundamental task is to set goals that you want to achieve by running a blog.

Friendly platform – whether you are the owner of a store, a company promoting various services, or a lifestyle blogger, your blog should not be visually deterrent. Transparency and clarity, which is enriched by good photos, is half the battle to keep the user on the blog.

Who is the recipient of the blog? – this is one of the most important questions you must ask yourself before starting your creative activity. It is for a specific group that you have to adjust the content and the way of communication that will be most attractive to them.

What are the recipients looking for – bet on strategies, think about what entries will be the most attractive for your group of recipients, what they can search on the web, what phrases to enter to find interesting entries.

Social media – a profile in Social Media is an important medium for building relations with the recipient: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and even Linkedin – depending on the industry and the group of recipients create a profile that will be a kind of communicator between your website and the user.

Read and watch the competition – your blog is just crawling, you expect quick results after a short time. Promoting your blog effectively is a labor-intensive and demanding task. It is worth – especially at the beginning – to observe the actions of the competition, its way of communication with the user and the way of blogging.

Thematic niche – if your business that you want to promote on your blog belongs to a so-called thematic niche, then be sure to use your unique knowledge and promote it on your blog. This is an opportunity to share expert knowledge of the topic that will be important to users.

Blog promotion – how?

How to successfully break through with your blog, in the jungle of such powerful competition – this is a question many are asking. The nature of the blog is of great importance here – whether they are traditional entries, vlogs or a social media channel. The purpose of the blog is also important. It is currently necessary in e-commerce, in agencies, services and companies that have the chance to gain new customers through blog entries. Online sales are steadily increasing, and business owners must constantly seek new ways to attract customers. A unique product at a good price is one thing, but the user must still find it. A blog is a great place to promote your activities and services, subtle definition of the company profile, but also to share substantive, industry knowledge.

Valuable content – the content contained on the site are the most important when successfully promoting a blog. In e-commerce and services, content should be consistent, closely related to the company’s operations, but also specialized in its message. The content on the blog must respond to the user’s needs through queries and key phrases that he enters in the search engine. If a potential customer of an online shoe store wants to buy shoes for a winter expedition to the mountains, then your blog text should thoroughly answer this question through an article, for example with the heading: “Winter shoes in the mountains – which to choose?”. A user who hits the post and is content about its content can automatically decide to buy this footwear in your store.

Do not treat these entries with disdain, share the knowledge available to you, do it in an exhaustive, substantive way so that the client feels that you are a specialist in your field. Write a text you would like to read yourself and which will answer your questions as a potential customer.

Does the length of characters in the text matter? Of course. The expert text should have a minimum of 6,000 characters with spaces, and the longer the text, the better. The content on the blog cannot bore the user, which is why they should contain reliable, specific information – necessarily enriched with relevant headlines, key phrases, bold and bullet points. The reader will then not be tired of reading the content, and in addition will be able to pick out the issues that interest him.

Remember that despite having, for example, social media, your blog will “live” mainly thanks to the search engine. And if so, they have all the guidelines associated with the traditional positioning process when building it.

Remember to enrich the text with photos described by the alt and title attributes. Images on the page not only increase the attractiveness of the text, but also affect the positioning of the page.

Accurate and thought-out headlines – popular titles and subheadings, marked with the character from h1 to h6, are indispensable elements in any text. They significantly affect the positioning of the site and thus promote the blog. Headlines must match key phrases and queries that a potential customer can enter on Google, such as “How to promote a blog.” Avoid in the titles of insignificant wording that will not lead the crawlers to your text and thus do not push blog content to a higher position in the search engine. Catch the micromoments, i.e. answer the user’s questions such as: what, how to do, I want to know.

Track current trends – in every industry, contemporary trends that guide potential customers in making the final choice are important. Blog trends are important in terms of content, popular topics and top issues. Keep up to date with what’s going on in them, for example through social media.

Comments, forums, other blogs – be in constant interaction with the user. Respond to comments or participate in other blogs and forums, but provide valuable content and conduct substantive discussions so that the administrator does not recognize these activities as intrusive self-promotion.

Systematics and consistency of actions – the first entries are optimistic, but the lack of quick effects effectively deters from further actions. Do not worry about the initial, poor results. The positioning of valuable content on the blog can take up to several months. It is important to create content systematically and reliably, because it affects the positioning of the page.

Effective promotion of a blog is a time consuming and demanding discipline and consistency in action. Many are discouraged when they don’t see the results after a short time. Blog promotion is not only your own entries, but also tracking trends, responding to the needs of users, sharing in forums and comments, being active in Social Media and searching for new, valuable and unique topics for subsequent entries.

Search engine optimization plays a significant role. They can be made effective by expert content, relevant headlines, key phrases and queries, images with alt and title attributes, internal and external linking, and consistency of actions, which is appreciated by indexing robots.

Multi-level marketing – what is it?

Multi Level Marketing or network marketing is best known for its short name MLM. Most of us have ever met with this name and probably know, more or less, how people involved in it work. Let us, however, bring its definition a bit closer: the premise of multi-level marketing – MLM – is the sale of products and services through direct marketing. So it is based on relationships with people and WOM (Word of mouth) or viral marketing. What, on the one hand, completely differentiates multi-level marketing from other forms of marketing is that every buyer who wishes to do so can be involved in sales. Then it gains not only discounts on given products, but also a commission on sales (both its own and sales representatives taking place below in the structure). On the other hand, some issues are relatively similar to other forms of marketing, e.g. in internet marketing, where customer references and WOM opinions are equally important.

How does sales look in multi-level marketing?

The quintessence of sales in multi-level marketing are commands and a large part of business is based on them. Distributors purchase products from the company and then sell them to others. Nevertheless, sales representatives, i.e. people involved in the operation of a given MLM, can reach their clients in very different ways, using both more traditional forms and more often, they are leaning towards online solutions, for example by acting in social media.

Nevertheless, according to a report carried out for the global MLM association in 2018, direct contact still plays the largest role. As much as 74% of distributors rely on such contact, and the majority of sales are made via traditional channels (61% by phone and 50% during product presentation, e.g. at distributors’ homes). Unlike most prosperous businesses today, companies based on multi-level marketing only make limited use of sales through their website or social media.

Products or services are therefore sold by people who have often tested them on their own and want to recommend further. Everyone involved in multi-level marketing can earn in two ways:

– by employing more people who also become distributors (earning a commission for each sale),
– by selling yourself.

People involved in sales decide themselves how they want to acquire new customers and increase their network. According to the MLM report (2018), distributors contact potential customers and sell through:

– contacts with relatives (family, friends or neighbors),
– business contacts (work friends, conferences, business events),
– social media activities,
– meetings at home and during product presentations,
– phone calls,
– email
– other unplanned occasions,
– own website or blog,
– door-to-door sales.

Structure in multi-level marketing

A company operating in the form of MLM sells its products to distributors, also known as consultants or ambassadors, at much better prices. Discounts reach up to 60% and depend on the sales volume of a given consultant. Not without reason, multi-level marketing is also known as network marketing – because each of the distributors can encourage sales to more people, thereby benefiting from commissions and increasing their profits. Each subsequent person can also involve others, thus building a network and moving higher in the entire pyramid.

What is the most common way of recruiting new people to MLM?

First step
For many people, joining the group of consultants and starting sales seems relatively easy. Most often, it is enough to purchase products of a certain value and register on the website of the company selling in the form of MLM. There is no obligation to set up your own business or other requirements that could make registration difficult at the beginning.

Second step
A new consultant is required not only to regularly purchase products of a given brand, but also to increase their sales in subsequent periods in order to be able to receive further discounts and take advantage of additional sales opportunities (e.g. during specially organized events or meetings).

Third step
Expanding your network of contacts and recruiting new people. A consultant can also make profits from the sale of people he recruited himself and who will be lower in the hierarchy. Additional bonuses and bonuses are dedicated to those who have extremely fast increases. By increasing their earnings and expanding the network, a given consultant has the opportunity to further develop.

Seemingly, MLM recruitment seems to be a simple path to success and high cash. Nevertheless, very often people involved in the sale of products have to resort to aggressive licks to increase their shares, which is negatively assessed by many consultants (especially beginners). Character traits play a key role here, and whether a person likes the product they are selling. According to the report, those who liked the product they sold and believed in a given product were more willingly involved in and more satisfied with working at MLM.

Multi-level marketing – working time and consultant’s duties

According to the analyzed report, over 60% of people operating in MLM have another job in full or part time, and MLM is an additional form of income, for which 45% of people devote on average 1 to 8 hours a week. Less than 30% treat work in MLM as the only form of income and very often devotes more time to it, i.e. from 8 to 30 hours a week.

The responsibilities of distributors include both acquiring new contacts and recruiting new people to the network, as well as taking care of regular customers. According to the report, distributors offer their regular customers free samples of new products, additional discounts and loyalty bonuses as well as product catalogs or special meetings to discuss current issues and help build their network.

Sales motivations in multi-level marketing

There are many reasons why more people start working as a consultant at MLM. The study participants most often agreed that working in direct sales at MLM gives many opportunities to meet new people, improve their communication skills, manage themselves over time and learn sales techniques. This type of business was also a great solution for those who work full or part time, and thanks to MLM they could earn extra money.

Respondents equally often stated that working at MLM allowed them to develop their confidence and courage.

Multilevel marketing companies motivate their distributors in various ways and encourage sales growth by offering, among others:

– cash rewards (e.g. for reaching a given sales ceiling)
– material prizes (and prizes in the form of meetings and events reserved specifically for people who have achieved a given level or reached a given level of sales),
– commissions for the sale of persons who have been awarded recruited persons,
– greater discounts on products or services.

About the controversy around multilevel marketing

Multi-level marketing has both its supporters and opponents, who spread their opinion among the closest people, thus creating an opinion on the operation of MLMs. Around the activities of companies based on multi-level marketing, there are also many controversial rumors related not only to the issue of financial pyramids, but also relationships or activities of distributors to increase sales. In the history of MLM we will encounter several cases of total fraud and unlawful activities. This is often associated with the inability to regulate the obligations and manner of work of distributors.

MLM is also often associated with the use of sales techniques that are unethical and based, for example, on the consumer’s ignorance and tricks that they simply manipulate. It should be emphasized that not every company that uses multi-level marketing has resorted to such methods, but it is something that – especially in recent years – consumers have paid special attention to.

It is estimated that most people involved in MLM lose money. Only a few people who have been operating for a relatively long time are able to build their network and profit from these activities. Therefore, many people who have tried to start their career in a company based on multi-level marketing, but have not managed to develop their network, have a very skeptical approach to the operation of such companies. The problem is also repeatedly the lack of transparency in such companies, which makes it difficult to simply calculate profit and loss.

Summary – is it profitable to develop a multi-level marketing business today?

Nowadays, it is impossible to rely solely on one marketing channel. It turns out that despite the fact that some channels do not sell directly, they play an important role in the entire purchasing process and direct the customer towards the final decision which is to buy or use the services of a given company. What’s more, focusing all your activities on direct sales may not bring the fast and pre-planned results that the entrepreneur is waiting for. Especially in times when most companies move their activities to the online world and completely give up offline sales – such as multilevel marketing. An entrepreneur who wants to develop his company and invest in additional marketing activities must consider many channels and forms of communication with customers and sales. More and more companies are leaning towards omnichannel marketing, which uses different channels to reach the recipient (both online and online).

Who chooses keywords for positioning?

As we indicated in the introduction to this article, despite the growing strength of the website positioning trend focused on increasing overall visibility, without focusing on specific keywords, positioning on specific phrases, combined with their regular, daily monitoring is still important. That is why the selection of keywords stored in the positioning contract is so important. We know from experience that the results and presence of keywords in the top 10 are one of the bases for assessing customer satisfaction with positioning services, along with increased visibility and website traffic.

Our clients have unique knowledge about what part of the range is crucial for their business, what people interested in their offer ask, what phrases they use, etc. This information is very useful in the context of creating a set of keywords. That is why in-depth customer interview regarding keyword expectations is so important.

A good set of keywords is the result of knowledge of the client and the account manager. The first one is the person who knows his business best, knows what brings him the most money, which is an important and profitable niche worth promoting, which products will soon disappear from the offer and as such are not worth advertising, etc. Paraphrase-Online customer care specialist is a specialist who has an overview through search engine trends, has access to tools dedicated to keyword selection, knows from practice what works in promotion, observes changes in Google search engine (e.g. the issue of local positioning).

Due to this, it is worth cooperating with each other in the selection of keywords – for the common good, it is not worth underestimating the knowledge of both the client and the account manager.

What characterizes a good set of keywords?

Despite the specifics of each positioned website and the uniqueness of the set of keywords matched to the promotion, one can distinguish a pool of common features that characterize well-chosen keywords. We will present them at this point:

A. Matching keywords to the offer visible on the website – this is related to the construction of the Google search engine itself, which in matching pages to the results displayed in the search engine is based on the content of websites. In short: if something does not appear on the website literally (this applies primarily to the content and appropriate meta tags), then Google’s web robots are not able to match such a page to the query – keyword. Therefore, it is not possible to effectively position yourself for phrases absent from the site or “on stock” (unless a sub-page announcing the appearance of a new product or service in the offer is available – such a pre-premiere presentation). For the same reason, it is also not possible to effectively position yourself on competition-related phrases (apart from the ethical overtones of such a situation).

An interesting case related to the selection of phrases is the situation in which some customers searching for a given product or service uses the incorrect term – colloquial, not professional, with a spelling mistake, etc. In the ancient past SEO in the positioning of keyword sets appeared keywords with popular spelling mistakes, but today Google is good at understanding the intentions of the user and correcting spelling mistakes. It looks a little different in the case of synonyms, colloquial names, etc., which are often considered incorrect from an industry point of view, and the customers themselves do not want to have them because of the “unprofessionality” used on their website (although they also want to promote them) efficiently). Their Google robots are not so good at matching terminology yet. In such a situation, a compromise solution is e.g. the use of these colloquial phrases in the texts in the blog part, and not on the product category subpages. The blog entry formula allows for greater freedom and clarification in the entry of the relationship between colloquial and professional naming. This is a compromise, although not perfect solution. However, it allows a meaningful link between the website and the desired keywords.

B. Keyword diversity in length – general, specific and long tails. We have already described the topic of phrases with long tails on our blog. In this post, we also want to present in more detail the trend regarding the length of typed phrases in the search engine. The relationship between shorter and longer phrases definitely indicates the reverse of the “one-word” trend.

C. Matching phrases to business location – this is particularly important for local service businesses. The place names appearing in the keywords must correspond to the real seat of the company (head office, branch, store, stationary point etc. – what has its stationary address). Positioning on a “uncomfortable” town will not be effective. Due to Google’s preferences in matching the displayed results to their location, it is definitely worth placing your stationary address on the website, even if the service is largely provided away or at the company’s clients.

D. Linking phrases with each other – if you decide to position your website on related passwords (forming a kind of family) then you can count on a better effect than in the case of several unrelated terms. It is good to bet even on several groups of terms referring to different elements of the offer than on unrelated passwords. When planning a set of keywords, it is worth consulting a mentor who, based on his experience, will advise on the right set of keywords, supporting the positioning process and properly presenting the offer of the promoted company.

E. Competitiveness of phrases and pace of entry to the top 10 search engine results – it is worth focusing on such a set of keywords that will ensure website visibility at the first stage of the positioning process. For this reason, it’s also good to have less competitive terms in the set, which will quickly enter the top 10 search results and ensure visibility and traffic on the site at an earlier stage of the positioning process. For this reason, it is not worth betting on the very highly competitive phrases, in which we will have to wait for the results, and thus the benefits associated with them.

Selection of keywords – what do people enter in the search engine?

Contrary to popular belief, general passwords are not the most popular and are not the most frequently entered. Research indicates that as much as over 80% of keywords entered in a search engine consists of 2 or more keywords. It should be noted that these more elaborate expressions with long tails are less often described as separate queries (which is a logical consequence of their greater diversity), but in general they constitute the majority of phrases that are typed in the search engine. Therefore, it is important to properly interpret the results for keywords after which potential customers reach the given website. Phrases with long tails will not be at the forefront of such results, but this does not mean that you should give them up.

There is also the question of readiness to buy from a potential customer – the person who enters a more precise password is closer to throwing the product into the basket than the one who searches for approximate general terms.

General or specific keywords?

In this case, a lot may depend on what budget allocated to the positioning service we have. The budget largely determines the planned and feasible actions. That is why it is so important to determine at the outset the amount that can be spent on SEO per month.

It happens that our clients suggest that they find the most general phrases among their keywords, considering that such phrases catch the largest number of their potential customers. General and very varied (unrelated) phrases are best in small quantities, because it will be cheaper – a set of terms such as “windows”, “doors”, “gates”, “drives”, “blinds” – this is the recipe for ineffective positioning .

In the case of a small budget, it is better to bet on varied phrases, among which there will be ones that will bring the effect and visibility faster, and thus more quickly reveal their potential in attracting customers. We write about a small budget because it places the biggest restrictions on positioning and choosing phrases. It is also worth realizing that the concept of “small budget” is relative and something else will be a small amount for a local business from a small town, and something else for an online store. That is why it is sometimes necessary to realize that some amount may be too small to be able to carry out effective positioning activities. In this situation, we inform our potential customers about it, not wanting to expose them to unnecessary and unprofitable expenses. The same way we inform our clients before signing the contract about the fact that a given page is extremely unadapted for positioning and before the SEO specialist starts working with it, it should be looking forward to its new version.

The Google Ads panel in conjunction with Google Analytics and YouTube Analytics gives you wide possibilities of measuring campaign data. When running a video campaign on YouTube, the advertiser can monitor, among others:

– number of views,
– average cost of watching the advertisement,
– daily (or generated in another, selected time period) advertising cost,
– the number and type of conversions,
– cost of conversion,
– video playback percentage,
– activity earned, i.e. likes, shares, subscriptions, etc.

In the case of television, viewership is determined by telemetry. Telemetry surveys are statistical surveys carried out on the basis of a panel, i.e. a group of recipients representing e.g. the entire population of a given country. In order for the panel to be reliable, it must properly reflect the structure of the society it presents, and must also have the appropriate amount of data. According to Paraphrase-Online.com, telemetry tests in the world are carried out on a group of 2,000-10,000 households.

A tycoon on the television research market on its website informs that it is able to obtain data on viewers, the channels they watch, as well as on the time of watching television. As part of the available viewing rates, it provides information on:

– television audience behavior,
– demographic characteristics of recipients,
– programs watched by individual members of the household,
– programs watched jointly by all family members,
– family attributes, e.g. possession of pets, income, education and their correlation with television preferences.

Certainly, telemetry data are a very valuable source of knowledge about recipients of TV programs and commercials. However, they are statistical data, obtained on the basis of a small group of recipients, and in addition they do not present such specific details that can be obtained from online advertising. For TV ads, it’s difficult to get data on the cost of a single interaction or the number of conversions that an ad generated. By promoting their products or services on YouTube, advertisers, however, have significantly more access to data on the effectiveness of promo videos and the behavior of viewers watching videos.

Advertising on television – costs

Online advertising fees are usually based on views (CPV) or per thousand impressions (CPM), not on broadcast time (as with TV advertising). The unit costs of online advertising usually range from a few to several cents per interaction, thanks to which, even with a very limited budget, the advertiser can display their promotional video on the web.

With a limited budget, the additional advantage is the ability to target specific, small audiences and the fact that you can choose specific periods of video display.

In the case of online advertising, the viewing rates are not so dependent on the duration of the spots, and even if they increased at a certain point in time, the advertiser always has access to such data. Thanks to statistics, the advertiser has full control over the daily budget of the campaign, which allows him to decide how much exactly he wants to invest in the promotion. Additionally, it can track expenses on an ongoing basis and decide at any time whether to continue or suspend the display of its campaign.

Targeting TV and Youtube ads

Google Ads offers many types of ad targeting. Audience groups can be created based on:
– demographics
– interests,
– life plans and events,
– destinations visited by internet users,
– topics of pages, channels, mobile applications,
– keywords related to the content of pages, channels and mobile applications,
– devices used by network users.

and combine the above mentioned options.

Television advertising – due to the fact that it is tested telemetrically based on a specific panel of recipients – will never be as well tailored to a specific recipient as online advertising. Unfortunately, television does not allow to narrow down the target audience as precisely as Google Ads allows. Equally important, the television does not have the remarketing option – therefore, it will not be possible to return there with a re-advertising message only to those recipients who were thinking about buying, but resigned from it at the last moment (e.g. they left the shopping cart).

Building engagement & impact on recipients

Online advertising allows Internet users to easily and quickly interact when they are interested in a product or service being promoted. When watching an advertising spot on the web, an Internet user has several different options at their disposal:

– watching the entire advertising film,
– clicking on the call to action to go to the advertiser’s website and get more information or to convert directly,
– movie likes
– entering the advertiser’s channel and watching other available materials,
– subscribing to the advertiser’s channel,
– making the advertising film available to other people,
– temporarily pausing the ad,
– as a last resort and if you are not interested in advertising – skip it.

In the vast majority of cases, interaction with online advertising does not require the use of a device other than that on which the ad is played. Thanks to this option, at the moment of interest in a given product or service, an Internet user can immediately explore the secrets of the offer without wasting neither time nor enthusiasm to reach for a computer or telephone, turn it on and look for the page or name of the product, which in the meantime may have unintentionally disappeared from memory.

In the case of TV ads, it is not possible to interact directly on the advertising medium. To learn more, you need to use a laptop or telephone. Many of you will say that during ads they grab the phone, and therefore at any time can tap the name of the thing that he saw on the glass screen. Truth. But…

According to research carried out by Paraphrase-Online.com during television advertising blocks, 33% of people using smartphones browse social networking applications, 21% of these consumers play games, 8% of people use messengers or have traditional telephone conversations, while 6% use them from online shopping applications.

In the case of TV commercials, it is common to distract the viewer and draw his eyes away from the TV screen. Social networking, phone calls and games often win with a glass screen.

Equally important, TV commercials – in view of the fact that they are most often displayed in the form of blocks of several or several minutes, and appear in between programs or during the break of the series – often serve as a moment to move away from the receiver. I guess each of us has happened to wait for an advertisement to brew tea, quickly prepare a sandwich or go to the toilet and not lose a fragment of an interesting film.

And how many of us at the time of the advertising break “jumps” on other channels and checks whether something interesting is going on there, or what is the result of the match that did not interest us enough to watch it in its entirety?

Simple configuration and optimization

Online advertising campaigns can be built and run by virtually any user who has access to the Internet and has created free Google Ads and YouTube accounts. In addition, there are a lot of guides on the network on how to create and optimize campaigns. The surest source of knowledge, i.e. Google support is in itself a mine of knowledge, good practices and news in the field of online campaigns.

An advertiser wanting to work on his campaign is not dependent on external viewership data providers (as in the case of TV). At any time, he can log into the advertising account and check the effects of the campaign and make necessary changes to it. All statistics are visible in the account, so if there were any anomalies, it can easily catch them.

In addition, all you need to create an online video campaign is a good-quality video on your YouTube channel. In the era of such intense technological development, an advertising spot can be recorded even with a smartphone. Once you have your video ready, simply paste it into the previously created ad group and add the destination URL or ad headline and description depending on the campaign type you choose.

In the case of television advertising, only a professional film is involved, recorded at a significantly higher cost and using a film crew or computer graphic designer. The advertiser cannot optimize the advertising campaign alone, as he has no access to any tools or current data.

Ad Reach

Only a few years ago television was the leading carrier of video materials. Due to the intensive development of the Internet and YouTube, the ways of consuming all kinds of film materials are changing rapidly.

According to YouTube analyzes, the viewership of video posted online has been growing not only on mobile devices, but also TV sets. According to statistics, YouTube has a wider range among young users than traditional television. The overall reach of Google’s video service is constantly growing, and the number of website and application users is increasing from year to year. Same as watching time of available materials. Equally important, many lovers of the glass screen are moving to the online world, because there they can watch programs of their interest at the time they choose, and not when ordered by the schedule.

Accordingly, the online advertising market itself is growing at the expense of the press and television. According to analysts, in 2019 television advertising expenditure was to increase by only 0.6 percent compared to 2018, while expenditure on online advertising was to increase by as much as 11.8 percent (mainly due to the development of video advertising). What’s more, in 2020 the share of television in the global advertising market is to reach 32.6%, which means that the highest place on the podium in this field will fall to the web and its 41.8%. So, does television advertising have a future? Certainly yes, but it appears in increasingly darker colors.

Choosing keywords for positioning is one of the first problems you need to solve in order to best conduct further actions. In most tutorials you will come across suggestions to use the keyword tools in Google Ads. It’s also worth adding Google Ads campaigns to this list.

When choosing keywords, you’ll ask yourself a few questions that require immediate answers. Among other things: do you want to position general keywords that give you greater ranges or a long tail? Is your domain brand strong enough? Later, it remains to select phrases within a given group. There are constantly new questions. In this case, a well-run Google Ads campaign can be the answer. If you have properly invested in this advertising channel, it may prove to be a great support for you.

In Google Ads campaigns, you can extract a very large amount of data about the searched and clicked keywords and their effectiveness. Both for text and shopping ads. In both cases, you are able to check the keyword that the user entered, clicked on your ad, and then converted (or not).

Where to look for all this information?

Where to look for all this information? In the search terms report. After logging in to your Google Ads account, select Keywords from the left menu, then click Search terms in the options at the top.

You import the entire report into a spreadsheet to freely analyze the data and suddenly you discover a sea of data. There are so many keywords here that you don’t know where to start.

You can do several things:

– Leave only those phrases that have brought valuable conversions and focus on them. With this solution, I recommend taking data from a minimum of six months back, preferably one year. Then you won’t be exposed to seasonal data analysis. Additionally, you can expand your word list in the direction of long tail niche phrases.

– Leave only keywords that have a specified minimum number of impressions in the analyzed time range. Here, I also recommend relying on data from a minimum of half a year. Then sort the data by number of views, descending. It is worth referring to the quality of traffic in Google Analytics and leave those phrases that have good results or have converted.

– Group keywords by product category, e.g. filter phrases for whether they contain the word “jacket”, “pants”, “sweatshirt”, etc. Then you need to determine the potential of each of these groups and analyze their effectiveness. However, remember to leave words with the best reach and conversion rates. In this way, the list will actually contain searched and clicked phrases from a given topic.

Analyze detailed data

If you do not want to analyze such detailed data and bury yourself in a huge spreadsheet, you can use the results in Google Ads at the keyword level. You’ll find them in your campaigns. This list will allow you to evaluate phrases and similar variations in terms of efficiency and profitability for business.

You can also download this data to a spreadsheet, then filter and sort according to your needs. The main difference between this report and the previous one is that here you won’t see exactly what users enter in the search engine, only the keywords from your campaign. In addition, this report does not include data from shopping campaigns.

What can you do with a table full of keywords?

What can you do with a table full of keywords? Exactly the same as with the search terms report. Depending on the amount of time you have and the amount of data, you are able to prepare and then choose the positioning phrases that will bring the best results. However, regardless of which method you choose, you always get reliable data. Not only about the possible ranges, but also the effectiveness of these phrases (number and value of conversions and conversion rate). Thanks to this, you don’t choose keywords in the dark, based on the “can convert” principle, only according to real performance data.