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Friday, February 3, 2023

We can’t all be the star of the show. 🤣

In this newsletter, you’ll find: 👇

📦 Keywords, quality score, and your cost-per-click

📦 How to build an attractive mobile shopping app

📦 Reviews, location-based assets, and bidding on promotions

📦 The state of creator guided shopping in 2023

📦 Sizzling sauces, organic coconut water, and AI for personal care

Read till the end to access exclusive DTC swag. 😎

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Google Suite

Welcome back to part three of the Ridge Brand Breakdown: Google Suite edition.

Our pals at Pilothouse looked at Ridge’s strategy on Google to see what keeps them on top of the wallet game. If you’re looking to ‘go Google’, or rework your strategy, keep reading!

🔑 Keywords

“Aluminum wallet” is heavily contested, so it’s a no-brainer for Ridge to be bidding on this keyword as well. The Ridge comes in at a close second of the total 1.6k monthly searches, so let’s dive a little deeper… 🤿

By bidding on that same keyword for paid ads, Ridge can increase their visibility in both organic and paid search results. Paid results always come first, but dominating in both areas is how The Ridge shines.

By carefully pairing their keywords, search results are deemed more relevant, leading to a higher Quality Score. Align your ad copy and landing page content to rack up those brownie points from Google! Why wouldn’t consumers trust The Ridge name plastered all over their SERPs (Search Engine Results Page)? 🤷‍♀️

See how the term “aluminum wallet” isn’t in their descriptions? Well, it should be!

Don’t rewrite your copy entirely, just replace keywords where necessary to increase your ad strength for an overall positive impact on your cost-per-click (CPC) and click-through rate (CTR).

Sponsor

Move over SMS. Push notifications are here to play

👀 When it comes to getting your customer's attention, push notifications are the best retention tool. So why isn’t your brand using them?

It's time to build an attractive mobile shopping app for your fans.

📲 Custom push notifications from Tapcart can cover everything from news to product drops. Increasing the overall LTV of every customer.

Less churn + More conversions = More revenue. It's that simple.

Don’t believe us? Streetwear brand RipNDip increased their total sales by 52% in the first month – and then another 43% the next month! 🚀

It gets better – 92% of mobile users engage with push notifications because they want to hear from you.

Connect directly to your customer, live on their phone, and become their favorite roommate.

Send product notifications, limited offers and special news. Keep shoppers coming back by building a community of engaged customers.

👉 Create your mobile app with Tapcart!

Google Suite

🤑 Merchant center promos

Let’s check out The Ridge’s current promotion. Their bidding strategy has them appearing at the top of the stack for non-branded searches (fantastic!), but their higher price point relative to competitors may cause their cost-per-click (CPC) to be higher. 🤔

Truth is, it’s simply harder for businesses with higher prices to win the auction on keywords. If you have higher prices, bid higher to secure that top spot and recoup the cost with a higher average order value (AOV).

That’s not all! Consumers often choose the cheaper option if all the products look similar. This leads to a lower click-through rate for the higher-priced products. ☹️ This all sounds like doom and gloom but fear not…

The Ridge has a secret weapon! On-site promotions. Let consumers see these before they even click on your ad for extra value and an incentive to purchase. The Google Merchant Center makes this easy.

Click on the “Marketing” tab in your Merchant Center and navigate to the promotions section. Here, you can set up various promotions, including discount offers, bundle offers, and even highlighting a free shipping option!

On your ads, there will be a “Special offer” prompt which, when clicked, displays something like this:

🫵 Prove it!

Social proof superpowers your ads. Reviews increase the credibility and trustworthiness of your product, meaning higher click-through and conversion rates.

Let’s be real. You and I are likely to purchase products that have positive reviews and The Ridge has tons of them. We’ve noticed that their US ads have thousands of reviews…

…but reviews aren’t attached to their Canadian ads.

Weird. Reviews show on the Canadian product pages, so we’d like to see those reviews synced with their paid advertising. 🤝

Sponsor

What to expect from influencer marketing in 2023

🔥 The Creator Economy is hot! Creators are pushing product discovery and community building forward, helping brands skyrocket.

Better yet, consumers continue to look to creators for recommendations. Cha-ching!

While creators are core pillars for brands and retailers in 2023, top marketers need to understand exactly what influencer marketing strategies and trends are producing the best results.

🤿 LTK's deep dive report into creator marketing trends for 2023 covers:

• Top influencer marketing trends
• A forecast for Creator-Guided Shopping
• Consumer insights from LTK’s national studies

👉 If influencer marketing is on your agenda in 2023, it’s time to dive into this report.

Google Suite

🗺️ Location, location, location

Let’s say you’ve got some of your products in a physical store. That means location-based inventory can be a lifesaver for those choosy shoppers.

Promote products that are available in nearby stores to increase your visibility and credibility of the brand. Tailored inventory lets people know what is actually available to them and even if something isn’t ready for purchase, you’re saving customers’ precious time. A little good will goes a long way! 😉

The battle for screen space never ends! Callout assets are little snippets of text appearing after descriptions that provide more information about the business or product. More words means more screen space! 🤔

Due to the 90 character cap on descriptions, callout extensions can not only maximize your screen real estate, but also highlight additional unique selling points (USPs) that may not be able to fit in your copy… try to put them in there though!

⏰ Asset scheduling

Sitelinks allow businesses to add additional links to their ads. Link to specific pages on your website or specific promotions and discounts! By scheduling these assets, businesses can set specific times for when the promotion should be active and when it should be paused.

As mentioned above, we can see how great Ridge’s asset usage is. But we did find some outliers when investigating the Canadian side of their Google Ads suite… namely, an outdated Father’s Day Sale sitelink asset in February!

It’s a quick fix. Scheduling sitelink assets on Google Ads for promotions can prevent outdated assets from remaining active after the promotion has ended.

Expand the “advanced options” section when setting up your sitelinks to select your desired start and end date. Get as specific as scheduling them for certain days or hours.

That’s all from our friends at Pilothouse, but stay tuned for the next Brand Breakdown series to get all the insights and tricks you need to make it happen like the best of the best. 💪

Brands

🧑‍🍳 Haven's Kitchen: Getting dinner together every night is hard. Thinking of new recipes, making health-conscious choices… exhausting! Haven’s Kitchen sauces make adding flavor to your food easy. No added sugars and no shortage of delicious dishes!

🥥 Harmless Harvest: Is your goal in 2023 to stay hydrated? Are you finding yourself not sipping enough water throughout the day? Check and check! Harmless Harvest has you covered with their organic coconut water.

💊 SpoiledChild: AI is all the hype right now, we know. But have you ever considered using AI to personalize your personal care routine? SpoiledChild has. They use AI technology to get the perfect hair and skin products for you.

‍

🔊 Have you heard our latest podcasts?

‍

⚔️ Mini Katana: Karly McFarland on $100M in Email Sales and Why She Sold Her Agency and Turned to the Brand Side (C-Suite Mentor Preview).

🤑 The Oodie - Davie Fogarty: Lessons From a Fast $400M.

💸 Andrew Wilkinson at C-Suite in Victoria: Bootstrapping vs. VC vs. PE vs. Angel.

😎 Pretty Boy - Ben Feys and Kevin Niehoff: Nailing your Brand Identity and Balling on a Budget.

🥤 Sansorium - Fiona Hepher: Sipping Sober with a 30% Return Customer Rate.

💡 Listen to the Biggest Marketing News Stories Today.

Don’t forget to rate the DTC Podcast on Apple (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

DTC Newsletter is written by Rebecca Knight and Michael Venditti. Edited by Claire Beveridge and Eric Dyck.

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