In the digital marketing world, where we measure almost everything, there has been a major push to refine conversions and focus on the bottom line. Conversions are very important. You don’t want to be wasting your money on advertising or marketing activities that don’t bring in business. What we as marketers and business owners forget to measure is brand awareness.
Have you seen me lately?
How many times you see a brand (or a person like Donald Trump pictured above) the more likely you are to view that brand favorably. Studies have shown that simply becoming more “known” can have a dramatic impact on people’s decisions. Some of us may not agree with Trump’s opinions or statements, but what he has that many other GOP presidential candidates lack is awareness. From his real estate empire to the reality show “The Apprentice”, almost everyone in America has heard of Donald Trump.
Where would Bill Clinton have been if it were not for the Gennifer Flowers scandal that basically acted like a free PR campaign during the 92 campaign? The scandal helped draw attention away from other candidates and toward Clinton. While negative in the beginning, the result was a PR win for the Clinton campaign.
The Long-Tail and Marketing Impressions
While companies today are hyper focused on buyers and how many buyers they get for each paid click, we can’t ignore impressions and awareness. It’s important to keep an eye on your best performing keywords or your top performing ad, but don’t lose sight of a bigger opportunity of the long-tail. The long-tail is all of the more specific searches that all add up to a greater number than the top 10 or so high volume keywords.
Keywords look OK but it’s been a down month?! What gives?
When you’re trying to gain market share for your brand, every 1,000 or so impressions matter. Check your Google Webmaster Tools to see if your impressions are increasing or decreasing. A 10% increase (or decrease) in impressions can mean the difference between a good month and a great month.
Tracking impressions can be very important if you’re doing any kind of content marketing. Content marketing is very focused on generating lots of long-tail searches that lead to clicks and awareness. A good way of tracking how well your articles are doing is to look at your impressions by page.
If you would like to learn more about using Webmaster Tools, there are plenty of helpful articles. If you’re not sure where to find these metrics or want to learn more about our marketing support services, drop us an email.
More Resources
If you’re looking for help growing impressions and building your brand, take a look at some of these resources. These sites will give you a better understanding of how to measure and grow your brand impressions.
- What are impressions in Google Analytics?
- What are impressions and reach on Facebook?
- Reach vs Impressions on Twitter
A Marathon, Not A Sprint!
If you’re looking to gain impressions, there are several organic and paid media tactics that can help.
- Social Advertising
- Pay-per-click Advertising
- Remarketing
- Display
- Sponsored Content
- Content Marketing & SEO
- Email Marketing
Paid media advertising is a marathon not a sprint. Don’t expect to generate a ton of awareness or sales from running ads for a few weeks. Given 6-12 months and enough budget, you will see a lift. Don’t give up! If you enjoyed this post, please share on Facebook, Twitter, or Linkedin.