magento_1_end_of_life_migrating_to_magento_2

Magento 1 End of Life – Migrating to Magento 2

Expert Tips on Magento

Magento is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms available. Powering at least 0.8% of all websites on the internet, the platform handles more than $150 billion in gross merchandise each year

As the platform continues to grow, changes are being made to its existing products. This entails the end-of-life of Magento 1. While it was known for quite some time that Magento 1’s support would come to a close, many users have hesitated to migrate over to the newer Magento 2 platform.

This guide will break down all of the information concerning the end of support for Magento 1 and your best course of action for migrating to Magento 2.

What Does This Mean?

Any time software or an application ceases support, it means that the manufacturer has discontinued that product.

This, of course, means you can use the product. However, the manufacturer won’t provide any technical support or updates for the product.

Therefore, if you are experiencing any problem with the outdated product, you’ll have to service the issue on your own. The end-of-life process of an application places an obsolete product in purgatory. Over time, the product ceases to exist when newer versions are available.

When Will Magento 1 Be Discontinued?

The official date that Magento 1 will be discontinued is June 2020. Again, multiple sources have speculated the end of support for Magento 1 for several months. Yet, more than 189,000 out of a total of 240,000 sites are still operating on the Magento 1 platform as of June 2019

As the platform comes to an end, you can expect to see more merchants make the move to Magento 2. Many e-commerce retailers rely on personalized support to navigate their businesses.

How Will Your Magento 1 Be Affected?

There are still many merchants that are using Magento 1 to conduct their business. Although Magento 2 will become the new standard moving forward, it’s not exactly required to make the switch.

Nonetheless, if you decide to wait until the end of service for Magento 1, your online store will be affected. Here are the ways that this change will impact the design, extensions, security, hosting, and costs related to your platform.

Design:

Regardless of if you’re migrating from Magento 1 to Magento 2, you will have to endure a website redesign.

Depending on how extensive your M1 website is, this process can be extremely time-consuming and expensive.

Before taking part in any website redesign process, you should create a plan for your next move. Also, you should carry out a comprehensive audit to ensure that your new website will maintain the same user experience and functionality. 

Soon, many audit checklists will be created to help merchants make the switch when they deem the time necessary.

Extensions:

While your M1 website is being audited, you should check the integrations and extensions you are currently running.

Although popular M1 extensions are not directly compatible with M2, several original extensions have been updated and are now compatible with the M2 platform.

This ultimately makes it easier and affordable for merchants to migrate over to M2. Still, switching over to any new content management system (CMS) will require you to find new integrations, extensions, and plugins to salvage the functionality of your existing website.

This may result in you creating a dev site to test these integrations for your live site. During the auditing process, you will be able to identify plugins that are obsolete and determine whether you should move forward with them.

Security:

When a manufacturer ceases support of an application, security issues almost certainly arise. After all, if manufacturers refrain from servicing their software, they can open up the opportunity for security fractures.

If you want to enhance the functionality of your e-commerce website, then you have to make sure that your integrations and extensions will continue to receive updates. This helps your business to avoid security issues and stay on top of compliance mandates. 

Granted, members of the Magento community have said that they will continue to provide support to users who are still using the M1 platform. No one knows how long this support will last before more retailers flock to M2. As a result, many merchants are already making the switch.

Hosting:

Fortunately, there won’t be many changes to the hosting after the end-of-life for M1. Though, when an increased number of users migrate to M2, they will likely ask a change in how their hosting is structured.

With Magento being a complicated application, the hosting structure is based on cache, PHP, and much more. Thus, Magento will have to consider changing their hosting structure.

Ultimately, migrating to Magento 2 will give you the opportunity to rethink your hosting provider and make the necessary changes to improve your business. 

Costs:

The majority of migrating costs will be derived from auditing your existing site and creating a new site for the M2 platform. Most likely, a website redesign will be necessary, further driving costs.

If you have a budget and are hesitant to move to the M2 platform, then you’re clearly at a crossroads. While you may have limited financial resources to make the switch, migrating to M2 will be better for your entire online store. 

For this reason, consulting with a reputable web development agency is your best chance to make the right decision.

Who Can Migrate My Website?

If you don’t want to put forth the time and effort of migrating your website to the M2 platform, then you’re in luck.

There are countless qualified web developers that can assist you throughout the process.

Agency Partner Interactive specializes in Magento migrations to ensure that your business is placed in the best possible position to thrive.

Migrate Your Website Today!

Migrating your website to M2 can be a massive decision. If you need assistance with kick-starting the process, feel free to give us a call at (214) 295-5845 to learn more about how we can help you. 

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youtube

The Complete Guide to YouTube SEO

Expert Tips on Youtube SEO

YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world just after its parent company, Google. For more than a decade, YouTube has held a monopoly over global video platforms. 

In fact, billions of people use YouTube every day to browse content, ranging from educational videos to entertainment. This makes YouTube an invaluable tool for businesses to promote their products and services.

78.8% of marketers say that YouTube is the most effective video marketing platform. However, if you want to get started with creating stellar videos for your business, you’ll need to develop a sound SEO strategy.

Here’s how you can practice effective YouTube SEO tactics to boost the exposure of your video content.

Name Your Video File Using a Target Keyword

Again, YouTube is a search engine just like Google. This means you will have to conduct keyword research to see the keywords your target audience is using to find videos similar to the ones you are creating.

With that being said, there are a variety of YouTube SEO tools you can use to get the job done. Once you have identified a prominent keyword you want to target, you should place it in the title of your video file first.

Doing this is important because YouTube has to process the file information of your video to see what it’s about. Since YouTube doesn’t have eyes to watch your video, adding a target keyword in the file name can help its index bots determine the value of your content.

Hence, avoid standard file names that include underscores and unspecified information. Ideally, a person should be able to see the file name of your video and understand what it’s about.

Place the Target Keyword Naturally in the Video Title

When you conduct a search, the first thing you typically look at is the video title. This is often what determines if a person will click on a video. Therefore, the video title should be captivating, clear, and concise.

Adding your target keyword in the video title is essential to ensure that your video shows up for corresponding searches. However, you shouldn’t put all of your hopes in this greatly affecting the visibility of your video content.

According to Brian Dean, video titles that include a verbatim keyword-only have a slight ranking advantage over those that don’t. 

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As you can see, including a keyword in your video title won’t give you a significant advantage, but it provides one nonetheless. For this reason, make sure that you insert a keyword naturally in the video title.

While including a target keyword in your video title isn’t the end-all-be-all, it can certainly work effectively if you also write a compelling video title.

Optimize Your Video Description

YouTube utilizes descriptions that inform viewers about what videos are about. These descriptions have a character limit of 1,000. While it’s acceptable to use all of these characters to describe your video, it’s important to realize that your viewers want to see a video and not read an essay.

If you want to compose a long video description, keep in mind that YouTube only shows a snippet of the first two or three lines of content, which is approximately 100 characters. If you write more, viewers will have to click the video to see the full description. 

To get the most out of this space, post all of the important information like CTAs in the first lines of your video description. As for whether adding keywords to a description matters for ranking purposes, Brian Dean maintains that there isn’t a definite answer.

Take a look at this chart to learn more.

keyword_description
While Dean’s study didn’t find any link between keyword-optimized video descriptions and increased search rankings, he stated that following this practice helps videos show up in the “suggested videos” feed, which can generate a significant source of views.

Use Popular Tags for Your Videos

According to YouTube’s Creator Academy, adding popular tags to videos not only help viewers find quality content, but it also informs YouTube what your videos are about. Tags provide context on how your videos should be categorized.

This way, YouTube can associate your videos with similar ones your target audience may also be viewing. However, make sure you aren’t just adding irrelevant tags to get more views for your videos.

Google can penalize you for this practice, and it’s simply not necessary. Just like in your description, use the most important keywords first. To show up for more searches, you can try using long-tail keywords. 

Choose the Best Category for Your Video

Like tags, categories group your video content with other similar content. Once you upload your video, you can click the “Advanced settings” section to choose a category for your video.

Be mindful to choose the category that fits the topic of your video. This will make sure that your video shows up in various playlists and gains more exposure. Selecting the right category isn’t as simple as it looks.

The best way to identify the category for your video is by finding similar creators that upload the same videos as you.

For example, if you’re running a marketing company, you can try to find other marketing companies that upload similar videos and use the same category.

This is a much better tactic than simply guessing which category your videos belong to. 

Upload a Custom Thumbnail

On YouTube, thumbnails are extremely important. According to YouTube’s Creator Academy, 90% of the highest-performing videos have a custom thumbnail. Hence, if you want to replicate the same success, you should create an enticing thumbnail that convinces viewers to click on your videos.

There are plenty of online tools that help creators develop custom thumbnails. In fact, it’s easier than ever to create one within a few minutes.

Revamp Your YouTube Marketing Strategy!

Do you need help in directing more exposure to your YouTube videos? If so, give us a call at (214) 295-5845 to speak to a member of our team and learn more about how we can help you today!

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A Complete Guide to Local SEO for Small Businesses

Expert Tips on Local SEO For Small Business

For small businesses, local search is crucial to reaching potential customers in their area. In fact, 80% of consumers use local search to find nearby businesses in 2023. If your website isn’t optimized for local search, you could be missing out on 4 out of 5 potential customers. 

Fortunately, optimizing your business for local search is a straightforward process. By taking the necessary steps to ensure your website appears in corresponding local searches, you can attract more customers and increase your business’s visibility. 

If you want to build a strong foundation for your business and achieve more online visibility from local searches, continue reading this guide for more tips and strategies! 

What Is Local SEO? 

Local SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is optimizing a website or online presence to improve its visibility in local search results. SEO for small businesses is focused on improving a business’s local online presence and making it easier for potential customers to find their physical location or services.  

If you’re a small business owner looking to improve your online presence and attract more customers, investing in effective SEO strategies is crucial. Optimizing your website and content for relevant keywords can increase your visibility on search engines and drive more organic traffic to your site, ultimately helping you grow your business.

Expert Tips on Local SEO for Small Businesses 

This year, 88% of all local searches result in the web user calling or visiting the business within 24 hours. This means that a strong local search strategy can have a significant impact on your business’s success. Here’s how to implement an effective local search strategy in 2023: 

Create a Google My Business Listing 

As of 2023, it’s still surprising, and concerning that only 44% of small businesses have claimed their Google My Business (GMB) listing. 

Considering that an average consumer will check local map listings to find a business near them, it would seem foolish to ignore setting up a listing.

That is how things currently are, but it doesn’t mean you have to neglect this very important process.

dentist

As you can see, the listing on the right of the image has all of the information that’s valuable to a potential customer.

People can use these listings to visit a website, receive directions, look at online reviews, and make a phone call. 

Creating a GMB listing is simple. Follow these steps to get the job done properly.

  1. Create a Google account or log in.
  2. Click here to visit Google My Business. 
  3. Fill out the required fields, such as your phone number, address, etc.
  4. Verify the information.
  5. Claim your listing and submit.

This is the most basic step in optimizing your business for local search. Your GMB listing is the gateway where unrefined prospects become loyal customers.

Leverage Effective Internal Linking Strategies

Backlinks are the crux of every internet marketing strategy. Though, internal links are just as important to boost your SEO ranking. Generally speaking, internal links are essential for the following reasons:

  • They support efficient website navigation
  • Streamlines website hierarchy and information architecture
  • Reinforces ranking power and page authority throughout your website

If you ever want to see a prime example of an effective internal linking strategy, visit a Wikipedia page. It’s not a coincidence that Wikipedia pages often rank highly in search engines.

They are highly-resourceful and have countless internal links to aid your comprehension and navigate to other useful pages. This increases the time you spent on Wikipedia, which lets search engines know that the site is valuable.

To the same effect, you should utilize sound internal link strategies to help your site rank sufficiently for local searches. 

Optimize all Metadata

Metadata is information that describes other data. This includes URLs, title tags, meta descriptions, and all the like. 
You see metadata every time you conduct any type of search. Just take a look at this standard search.
dentist

Do you see the headers indicating what each web page is about? 

This is metadata. 

Do you also see the descriptions below the headers? 

This is also metadata. 

It’s important to optimize the metadata of your entire website architecture to show up for local searches. The best way to do this is by adding high-volume keywords in the URL, title, header, meta description, and body. 

This will make sure that your website is found by consumers using the same high-volume keywords you’re including in your site’s metadata.

Add Location Pages to Your Website

As of 2023, local search remains a popular method for consumers to find local businesses. According to a survey conducted by BrightLocal, 86% of consumers reported using Google Maps to search for local businesses in the past year, while 72% used Google. 

If your business has multiple locations, it is essential to reflect this on your website to optimize your local search results. One effective way to do this is by creating separate location pages for each city or region where you do business.  

For instance, if you run a restaurant chain with Los Angeles and Beverly Hills locations, you should create separate pages for each site. However, it is essential to note that there are more effective strategies than simply duplicating the same page and changing the city names. Google’s algorithms are designed to detect duplicate content and may penalize your website for it.  

Instead, invest the time and effort into creating custom location pages that provide unique information for each city or region. This can include details about local events, nearby attractions, and special features of each location. By creating high-quality, customized location pages, you can improve your chances of ranking higher in local search results and attracting more customers to your business. 

Develop Stellar Local Content

If you want to attract local leads, then you’ll need to develop a consistent local content strategy. Ranking your local content isn’t as difficult due to the low amount of competition compared to worldwide search results.

Therefore, all you need is a great content writer and marketing team on your side to craft stellar local content. For example, if you run a law firm, you can write a post about how readers can select the best firm in your city.

Finally, you can add tons of local keywords. This will help your content rank high for local searches and provide a lot of value to your audience – that’s effectively killing two birds with one stone.

Make Sure Your Website is Mobile-Friendly

More than half of all online searches happen on a mobile device. If your website isn’t optimized for mobile devices, then you could be running potential customers off before they can even convert. 

A website doesn’t appear the same way on a computer as it does on a tablet. Therefore, you will have to ensure that your website has a fast and convenient mobile version. 

The important thing to realize here is that your desktop version should still provide the same features as your mobile version. It can be frustrating to be forced to use a computer just because the mobile version of a website stripped certain essential features. 

Here are some tips for ensuring your website is mobile-friendly 

  1. A responsive design automatically adapts your website’s layout to the screen size of the device being used, ensuring that your website looks great and is easy to use on any device.  
  2. Mobile users don’t want to sift through a cluttered website to find what they want. Ensure your website is clean, simple, and easy to navigate on a smaller screen.  
  3. Large images can slow down your website, especially on mobile devices. Optimize your ideas to ensure that they load quickly on all devices.  
  4. Some fonts may look great on a desktop but may be difficult to read on a mobile device. Use fonts that are easy to read on smaller screens.  
  5. Test your website on multiple devices to ensure it looks and functions correctly on each one.   

Boost Your Local Business with Our Expert Local SEO Services  

At Agency Partner Interactive, we offer custom digital marketing services for small businesses to increase local visibility, attract more customers, and generate more sales. Our team of experts is dedicated to helping you achieve your marketing goals through effective promotion strategies that align with your business objectives and budget.

One of the critical services we offer is local SEO for small businesses. Our Local SEO service is designed to help small businesses like yours achieve greater online visibility, increase website traffic, and attract more new customers. As a small business, you want to ensure that your website and online presence are optimized to attract local customers in your target area. Agency Partner Interactive can help you achieve that and more.  

Contact us today to learn how we can help your business grow through effective local search marketing! 

 

 

 

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How to Target Business Owners on Facebook Ads

Expert Tips on Targeting Business Owners with Facebook Ads

Facebook is the largest social media network in the world. Approximately, 2.89 billion people across the world use the platform every day. This makes Facebook the perfect place to promote your business.

Although Facebook has the most powerful social media advertising platform available, targeting specific individuals can be challenging. For example, if you want to position your ads in front of business owners, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with Facebook’s advertising platform.

Luckily, this platform was built to granularly target specific audiences. Below, you can learn more about how you can align your ad campaign to your target audience.

Is Facebook Ideal for B2B Audiences

For the most part, advertising to B2B audiences is a bit more complicated than doing the same to B2C audiences. This is because people usually don’t have a chain of command and will spend their money any way they please.

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B2B clients have obstacles in the way of making transactions and have to think about the profitability of their business before jumping into a purchasing decision. What’s more, some marketers don’t believe that Facebook is an ideal place to find business owners.

This is because some of them believe that Facebook is only used by consumers or B2C audiences. This could not be further from the actual truth. Business owners are people, and people more often than not use Facebook.

This makes Facebook a great place to find and target business owners. Knowing how to do this is rather simple. Here are five essential tips for targeting business owners with your Facebook ads.

1. Target Business Page Admins

This is one of the easiest ways to target business owners. Generally speaking, nearly all business page administrators are actually business owners. Therefore, targeting these individuals is key. 

Unfortunately, many people don’t know that Facebook allows users to position their ads in front of the business page admins. By using the detailed targeting section on Facebook’s ads business manager, you can configure your ads to reach any desired target.


This is a quick way to find a person that owns a business. It will also ensure that you’re putting your ads in front of people that are the most likely to own a business.

2. Target Publications Business Owners Follow

Many business owners follow publications for various reasons. Fortunately, Facebook allows advertisers to target these individuals based on the publications they read. 

If a business owner follows a publication with a large readership, you can find this publication on Facebook ads manager, and target people who have an interest in it. Here’s how:
Target-Facebook-online-publications
The Entrepreneur is read by millions of business owners across the world. It stands to reason that their audience will be valuable in your search for potential leads. Still, to achieve the best results, make sure you are finding publications relevant to the type of audience you’re targeting.

For example, if you want to reach financial businesses, then you should focus on financial publications. 

3. Target Audiences With an Interest in Business

One of the best ways to reach business owners is to simply target people that simply have an interest in the business.

This is actually similar to targeting business page admins. When creating a business page, you have the option of highlighting your interests.

Any business that has an interest in the business will be targeted by selecting “business”
as an interest in Facebook ads manager. 

target_industries
This will make sure that your ads are diverse and show up to business owners that may have indicated their interest in the business.

4. Target Specific Types of Industries

If you are simply targeting all types of business owners, then all of the above tips will suffice. However, if you need to reach business owners in specific industries, refining your search will be necessary. For example, if you’re looking for businesses that recently switched their registered agent service provider, then perhaps there is some sort of opportunity to market a B2B service to that particular company. 

Let’s say that you need to reach financial business owners, particularly accountants and investment bankers.

Facebook allows you to narrow down your search to find these individuals based on their profession they have listed on their profiles.

Target-businesses-based-on-industries-on-Facebook
This provides a wide range of options, in which you can ensure that you are targeting the right audience. 

5. Target Specific Job Titles

Another basic tip for reaching business owners is to target people according to their job title. For example, business owners normally hold positions, such as “CEO” “Founder” and “President”. 

By typing these titles into Facebook’s ad manager, you can successfully narrow your search further to target people that are explicitly running their own company. 

Target-job-titles-on-Facebook-ads (1)
To ensure that you optimize your reach correctly, add multiple job titles that business owners might use. This means it will be a great idea to use all possible job titles you can think of that business owners will typically use.

Best Tips to Target Business Owners on Facebook

If you need further insight for targeting business owners on Facebook, then take note of the following tips to improve your campaign. 

  • Mix up your targeting options. Don’t just target people based solely on their interest or job titles. Instead, mix job titles with interests to narrow your search and locate the best people for your campaign.
  • Look at the audience size. Facebook’s ad platform will always inform you how many people your ads will reach. If your audience is too small, you’ll run out of qualified leads. If your audience is too broad, your mix of leads will be diluted. Try to strike a good balance between your audience size. 
  • Experiment with various variations and audiences. Achieving a successful campaign is all about finding equilibrium. Experiment with different variations and audiences to find out what works better for you. Never stop experimenting. 
  • Make sure your message is sufficient. If you want to generate more leads, make sure your messaging is valuable or appealing to your audience. Usually, underperforming ads miss the mark when it comes to crafting enticing ad copy.

Work With Social Media Professionals – Enhance Your Facebook Ad Campaign Today!

SEO marketingIt takes a lot of time and effort to make your Facebook ad campaign profitable. For a free strategy session, contact Agency Partner Interactive today and learn how we can rapidly improve your marketing campaign. 

Contact Agency Partner

 

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How to Determine How Much to Spend on PPC Advertising

Expert Tips For Setting a Pay Per Click Ad Budget

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is the lifeline of many businesses across the world. In fact, more than seven million advertisers invested 10 billion in PPC ads in just 2017, according to Social Media Today

Also, PPC advertising remains one of the major generators of one-page conversions. Like any marketing strategy, you must be cognizant of how you are spending your PPC budget.

You can’t mindlessly throw away dollars to an unrefined campaign, and you don’t want to limit the potential of your campaign by not investing in it properly. With that said, knowing how much you should spend on PPC advertising is essential.

This guide will explain key methods for determining the budget for your campaign commensurate the results you’re looking for.

Things to Consider Before Determining Your PPC Budget

Striking a balance between quality and quantity is important for any PPC campaign. However, you can’t do this without first defining the results you need and understanding the characteristics of your target audience. 

Ideally, you’ll need to recognize certain qualities about your target audience, which include:

  • Buying cycle
  • Visitor frequency
  • Geographic location
  • Target cost per lead (CPL)
  • Lead quality

These are all qualities you must understand about your intended lead. If you’re not yet sure what this lead looks like, you can start by asking the following questions:

  • What can I afford to spend?
  • How do I “value” a lead?
  • What is my website’s conversion rate?
  • How many leads do I need from my PPC campaign?

Let’s take a closer look at the information you’ll need to be aware of before determining your PPC budget.

How Much Do You Need to Spend to Get Started with PPC?

Once you know the answer to the questions above, you can perform some basic mathematical calculations to help you define your overall budget. Take a look at this image to further understand how this math will work.

How-to-Determine-How-Much-to-Spend-on-PPC-Advertising.
Let’s say that you need at least 250 leads per month from your PPC campaign and you have a conversion rate (close rate) of 15%. This means you’ll need 1667 conversions every month to convert 250 leads every month.
If your CPL is $25, you can expect to spend $1,388 every month or $41,666.67 annually to achieve this goal. 

Is There Anything That Affects How You Value Leads?

All leads aren’t created equal. Some leads will enter your funnel fully ready to do business with you. These are called qualified leads. On the contrary, others will need to be nurtured.

The value of leads will depend strongly on the following factors:

  • Geography: Are your leads valued more or less based on where they live? Are you willing to spend more money on leads from specific areas?
  • Bounce rate: How are your leads interacting with your website? What’s the average bounce rate for your website and what do your web users do after they click on your website?
  • Precedence: What have past qualified leads shown you?

Controlling the quality of leads that are derived from your PPC campaign is simple. You can utilize negative keywords to stop using search terms that don’t bring in qualified leads

You can also manipulate the placement of your ads and adjust them based on the time of day they appear. Doing this will ensure that you are putting your budget to great use. 

For example, if you analyze the performance of your ads during all days of the week, you may see that your CPL on Saturdays is higher than other days of the week, especially for international traffic. 

At this point, you should ask yourself, “are the leads I’m bringing in over the weekend worth the increased cost? Should I dial back my budget just a bit? This is where bid adjustments come into play.

Changing the schedule of your ads can help you save money overall, but it’s not the only way. Finding other growth opportunities is vital to saving more money and nailing down your PPC budget.

How to Find Growth Opportunities?

Will increasing your budget result in more leads? How can you define the marginal gain for every cent you are spending? Ultimately, it can be challenging to see how changes in your budget can influence your entire campaign.

Though, Google does offer some tools that can assist marketers in this task. If you’ve used Google Adwords for your campaign, then you’ve likely seen the “limited by budget” notification in your account.

If you have, then Google provides a helpful resource that will inform you just how much more leads you would receive if you increase your budget. Just take a look at this snapshot.

ppc-budget
This shows that Google can estimate the growth of your campaign based on your daily budget. For this user, increasing their daily budget will lead to more daily clicks. The user also has an option to set a different budget and see custom metrics for how that will impact the potential of their campaign.

Is There Anything to Consider Before Setting My Budget?

There are various scenarios that can affect your PPC budget, which include:

      • Search vs. the Display Network
      • Keyword Considerations
      • Search Engine (Google vs. Bing)
      • Device (desktop/tablet vs mobile)

To set the right budget, you’ll need to do some experimentation. Little changes can significantly impact your budget. Therefore, once you understand the growth opportunities for your campaign, you can move forward in increasing or decreasing your budget.

Over time, you can figure out if your budget is efficiently leading to the results you’re after. Finally, you can deliberate with your marketing team to optimize your campaign to reach your objectives.

This is the basis of creating a successful campaign and spending the correct amount of money to do so. 

Improve Your PPC Campaign Today!

As you can see, defining an accurate budget for your campaign takes a lot of knowledge and effort. If this is something you don’t have, then contact Agency Partner Interactive today to learn more about our PPC services. 

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How Much Does Good SEO Cost in 2020

Tips from SEO Experts

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of achieving increased visibility online. In 2020, many businesses invest thousands of dollars into developing a sound SEO strategy.

If you’ve just started a new business or want to reconsider your current marketing strategy, you may be asking the important question, “how much does good SEO cost in 2020?”

The answer varies based on your specific needs and the scope of your strategy. However, knowing what quality seo optimization costs can help you navigate the murky waters of choosing the right SEO agency.

Why is SEO Important?

According to Statista, 1.8 billion people across the world shopped online. In fact, 63% of all shopping occasions begin online. It’s no secret that consumers believe the internet to be a valuable tool.

With that said, will your website be one of the first they’ll see when they want to search for a product or service? By hiring an SEO agency, you can position your business to rank well online, even over your competitors.

With SEO being a commodity and essential marketing process, it understandably will require you to invest significant capital in quality services. This doesn’t, however, mean that you should spend an arm and a leg on a prospective agency.

How Much Does Quality SEO Services Cost?

Upfront, you can expect to spend anywhere from $650 to $1,500 a month for quality SEO services. Depending on the agency you work with, these prices can vary tremendously. This is why you should do your due diligence in requesting a quote or researching the pricing plans of a prospective agency.

Fortunately, many agencies are very transparent about their pricing. Therefore, this eliminates any possible hidden fees or tricks. Ultimately, it’s your call on how much you want to spend.

Outside of quality SEO agencies, you have a wide variety of options to choose from. In the following section, we’ll go over those options.

Is There a Such Thing as “Cheap” SEO Services?

The short answer to this question is yes. Generally speaking, you get what you pay for. There are many SEO agencies that will charge you as little as $300 per month. Does that mean that you will be given quality services?

There’s a high chance that you won’t. Agencies that charge “cheap” rates have to work quickly to turn a decent profit.

These companies are more likely to rush your services and deny you a positive SEO experience.

Hence, there is a such thing as “cheap” SEO services. However, this is much different than affordable SEO services.

Agencies that provide quality SEO services will charge you accordingly, but this means that they’ll be more likely to go the extra distance for you.

It may cost you more, but hiring an experienced SEO agency is vital to securing qualified leads for your business, since SEO is one of the most proven ways of gaining online real estate.

What Do SEO Services Include?

Common SEO services include keyword research, website audits, on-page SEO, off-page SEO, link-building campaigns, and blogging services. Together, all of these initiatives can impact your SEO.

However, SEO isn’t the only marketing process that contributes to an increased online ranking. There are other marketing strategies that are integral to improving online visibility. Content marketing, pay-per-click (PPC), and link-building are also important factors that influence SEO.

Therefore, when choosing an SEO agency, make sure you inquire about the type of services you’ll be receiving in return. Avoid SEO companies that offer one-size-fits-all packages.

How Much Should You Pay for SEO in 2020

If you’re running a small business, it may be difficult to allocate most of your marketing budget to the purposes of securing quality SEO services. It’s important to treat SEO like an investment.

It takes several months to see tangible growth in your online presence, but if a top SEO agency is working for you, you’ll receive a more than sufficient return in your investment over time.

Overall, only pay what you can for an SEO agency in your area. After all, you can only pay what you have. There are many agencies out there that will work with you to develop a custom package that will benefit your business.

Build Your Online Presence Today!

Finding the right SEO can be challenging, especially if you have a set budget. At the end of the day, you’ll need to hire an affordable company you can trust. Give us a call today at (214) 295-5845 to learn more.

Not big on reading? That’s okay. Watch “How Much Does Good SEO Cost in 2020instead.

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5 Ways Gun Brands Can Advertise Online Without Google Ads or Facebook Ads in 2020

Expert Tips For Online Advertisement

Advertising is an essential business practice. Without it, businesses that have gone through the LLC filing process wouldn’t have a way to promote their products or services. However, many advertising platforms have conditions that prevent many businesses from working with them.

Popular advertisers, like Facebook, Google, and YouTube, all prohibit businesses in the firearm industry from using their services. This can make it difficult for gun brands to promote their products.

Fortunately, there is a way to bypass this restriction. Whether you sell Glock mags, rifle optics, or some other regulated e-commerce niche, by leveraging other effective forms of marketing, gun brands can successfully reach out to their target audience. Here are five ways that can happen.

1. Thoroughly Invest in Both On-Page and Off-Page SEO

Although advertising is an essential practice, it’s not the only one you should be focusing on. Search engine optimization is a marketing process that entails building your online ranking to the top spot of major search engines.

Since many consumers use the internet to shop, being seen as the first website can help tremendously in improving your conversion rate. Particularly, on-page SEO is how you can optimize your website to rank high online. 

Off-page SEO is the factors that contribute to your website’s ranking away from your website. By focusing on creating excellently written articles, improving your site speed, and leveraging keyword to rank for popular gun keywords, you’ll be putting your brand in a superb position to reach your target audience. 

2. Create Personalized Emails

Email marketing is still, by extension, a marketer’s most powerful resource. By building an email list, you’ll have an audience ready to listen to your correspondences. The problem that many rookie marketers make is sending an email blast to their entire email list.

Such a one-size-fits-all strategy doesn’t work. Instead, personalized emails get the job done. Granted, it takes much less time and effort to compose one email and send it to your entire email list.

Still, personalized emails achieve 6x higher transaction rates according to HubSpot. With that said, strive to segment your email list into specific categories and send emails that will be relevant to each prospective customer.

3. Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing has been a popular topic in recent years. Mainly, influencer marketing can be used by businesses of all sizes. You don’t need a big budget to hire an influencer to market your brand.

By using Instagram, you can find micro-influencers to introduce your products to a wider audience. Influencer marketing is an effective way to grow your marketing strategy because social media has created a broad atmosphere of individuals focused on building their own audience.

There are several influencers you can reach out you, and many of these people may share the same ideals as your brand. With that said, conduct an experiment where you partner with a prospective influencer.

Make sure you place your influencer on a trial period to monitor the progress of your strategy. If you like your progress, you’re free to move forward with your influencer and make them your brand ambassador. Otherwise, you can cut them loose and start over your search. 

4. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a great way to reach your target audience at an affordable price. Unlike traditional digital advertising models, affiliate marketing is a cost-effective strategy in which you only pay content publishers for their success in selling your products.

Shareasale and Commission Junction are two affiliate marketing platforms you can try to have your products promoted by popular content and video creators online. One of the best things about affiliate marketing is that publishers are only rewarded if they sell a decent percentage of your products.

This means you’ll be partnered with popular content publishers who will have an incentive to take your products seriously. 

5. Social Media Marketing

Even though social media sites like Facebook and Instagram prohibit ads from businesses in the firearms industry, you can still reach your target audience by posting eye-catching social media posts.

With billions of users using social media platforms every day, you should strive to create effective social media content that will achieve engagements. If you want to receive more in-depth information on how to perform any of these tasks, we’ve got the perfect proposition for you.

Promote Your Gun Brand Today!

Do you want more assistance in promoting your brand? If so, give us a call at (214) 295-5845 to speak to a member of our team for more information. We’d be glad to transform your marketing strategy today!

Not big on reading? That’s okay. Watch “5 Ways Gun Brands Can Advertise Online Without Google Ads or Facebook Ads in 2020instead.

Using the power of Artificial Intelligence, we turned this blog into a video for you. Check it out below!

 

 

 

 

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Top Software for Game Designers

Expert Tips From Dallas Software Developers

There is no process of developing a video game without the necessary software. Video game engines, or software made to create video games, are essential in the development process.

If you are new to the world of video game development, it’s important to study the available video game software to narrow down your choices. Ultimately, there is a wide variety of software to choose from to develop your game.

Depending on the type of game you want to create, here are the best available choices to assist in your project’s development. 

RPG Maker MV

RPG Maker, produced by Degica, is one of the most preeminent video game engines for role-playing games. The widely-popular software has been used by millions of game designers and even featured in popular commercial games, such as To the Moon. 

RPG Maker has built a solid reputation as one of the most simple to use video game engines. No coding knowledge is required to develop a quality game. RPG Maker MV is the latest installment to the RPG Maker series.

It boasts significant improvements to its predecessor, RPG Maker VX ACE, giving users a professional game designing experience.

Game Maker

Game Maker is a powerful video game engine used to create many 2D games, from RPGs to adventure titles. Its simple interface and high compatibility with a wide variety of resources.

If you are experienced as a coder, using Game Maker is an excellent option. This software has amazing potential, depending on how knowledgeable you are with a coding language.

Unity 3D

If you want to dive into the world of professional game designing, Unity 3D should be a top option. The software allows users to create their own custom 3D video games. Many games produced on this software have been featured on modern generational video game consoles, such as Playstation 4 and Xbox One. 

However, you must have at least basic coding experience to use Unity properly. If you aren’t an experienced programmer, you can try to hire a professional from online development forums. 

Unreal Engine

Unreal Engine is used by countless professional video game development studios across the world, and it’s for a good reason. The powerful engine contains a full suite of essential tools to design and develop high-quality video games.

Unlike Unity, Unreal Engine is a versatile engine that can create MMORPGs, first-person shooters, fighting games, etc. This is why it has been widely used for more than 20 years.

Gamesalad

If you want to build a basic app-style video game, then Gamesalad is a great choice. The software utilizes a drag-and-drop interface that’s easy to use for anyone without significant coding knowledge.

It’s a free tool and doesn’t take much time to get the hang of. With this tool, you can build a quality game in as little as an hour and upload it to every known platform. 

Do You Want to Design Your Own Game?

Choosing to design a video game is a monumental decision. If you need help in leaning in the right direction, we suggest you give us a call at (214) 295-5845 to discuss your central strategy. 

Not big on reading? That’s okay. Watch “Top Software for Game Designersinstead.

Using the power of Artificial Intelligence, we turned this blog into a video for you. Check it out below!