Starting in September Google removed the option to use adsenseformobileapps.com to exclude showing ads on mobile apps and provided advertisers with a built in option to exclude apps through Settings –> Devices –> Set specific targeting.

Now the option to exclude apps in the settings menu has been removed as well (Simplified device targeting)

Starting in September 2018, Google is simplifying targeting and exclusion controls for Google Display Network ads on mobile devices in order to make it easier to reach the growing base of mobile users. As a result of these changes, you may see a significant increase in mobile apps or mobile web traffic (depending on your current settings).

• Deprecation of adsenseformobileapps.com placement exclusion
• Deprecation of “G-mob mobile app non interstitial” content exclusion

This information was definitely not how I wanted to start that week…

Why Google removed mobile app exclusions

While it is understandable that the world is completely focused on mobile and that desktop traffic is declining, there is a lot less logic as to why Google would remove the options to exclude mobile app traffic from your display campaigns.

Judging from my experience, mobile app traffic is pretty low quality in comparison with standard mobile ads on websites.

The way I see it the reason for this is how apps integrate ads into their freemium models and encourage clicking on ads even though the user has no real interest in the product or service that’s being shown to them.

If you progressed beyond clicks and impressions, you’d better be(!), and are focusing on acquiring high quality traffic and leads then you most likely exclude mobile apps whenever you set up a Display campaign.

So why would Google disable this option for a savvy marketer such as yourself? Think in terms of profits. When you realize that you aren’t the only advertiser who was doing this, you see just how much advertising real-estate was being missed.

How to exclude mobile apps from Google Ads

Time learn a new trick. With the main two options out of the picture, my team and I decided to test a hypothesis. Using placement exclusions you can exclude all categories of mobile apps, one by one. Don’t worry, there is just 141 of them.

Ten minutes later and one right mouse button in utter distress, you have just excluded mobile apps from your Google Display campaigns. Congrats!

But wouldn’t it be great if you could do this in five clicks? It’s great you read this far, because it is possible!

A gift from the »Gods«, Google AdWords Editor (yes it is still called AdWords) is a tool that can help you, and me, when trying to do things in bulk. One of these things is excluding mobile apps.

Thanks to the multi select, you can select all high-level categories of mobile apps in a single go and thus effectively remove all traces of mobile app traffic from your display campaigns.

Quick overview:

1. Select your display campaign
2. Go to keywords and targeting –> Mobile app categories, Negative
3. Select “Add negative mobile app category” –> Campaign-level
4. Hold CTRL and select all top level options
5. Click OK and upload your changes!

If you haven’t adopted Google AdWords Editor yet then dive right in because your professional life will never be the same again!

The post How to exclude mobile apps from Google Ads appeared first on Bright Avocado.

But that’s not the topic I intend to discuss today. The focus for this article is on strategies you can implement in your email marketing campaigns that can positively boost the chance of conversion (registration, inquiry, purchase …).

Besides the most common recommendations such as CTAs, A/B testing emails, personalization, unified user experience from emails to your landing page and segmentation, I’m going to show you three less often utilized tactics:

1. Adapt your email content to your intent

Here’s a research by Remarkety in which they compared open rates, clicks and conversion rates based on the type of e-mails.

Research showed email campaigns with a strictly defined content brought in better results compared to email blasts to entire contact lists (hopefully you’re saying »duuuuh«right now, right?!).

General email newsletters are OK to let your subscribers know what’s going on in your company but it is understandable that they do not fetch the best conversion rates. This is why you should think about broadening your email types.

1.1. Order follow up email

Recurring purchase is statistically proven to be a lot higher then new customer conversion rate. Here are a few order follow up strategies:

• Offer them complementary products
• Ask them if they are running low on your product (extra question, if you sell non-durable goods,do you know the average time frame in which your average user goes through your product?)
• Ask your customers for a review of the bought items (thus returning them to your website where you can hook them with an up-sell/x-sell/etc. –> you get the picture)
• Reward them with a “regular client” discount

1.2. Reactivate inactive customers

Clients or newsletter subscribers tend to forget about you, especially if you’ve been sending out generic newsletters.

However these users are pure gold for your business. You already know they trusted you enough to buy from you once so why not do it again? Judging by the before mentioned research you can also see that these users can have a very high email conversion rate.

Few ideas to reactivate inactive customers:

• Offer them a special discount
• Notify them about a special offer that could – based on their purchase history – interest them
• Ask for their opinion. Go with simple questions, for instance, what they think you should change to increase their interest in your newsletter campaigns. A part of inactive customers might unsubscribe but their reactivation level was already low, however you might encourage others to re-engage with your company!

1.3. Abandoned Carts

So much talk about the cart abandonment yet I still see a lot of missed opportunities. It’s a fairly known tactics – use marketing automation email in conjunction with your e-commerce store to improve conversion rate. Then you send an automated email inviting them to complete their purchase.

As an extra treat you can offer them free delivery or a small gift if they complete the purchase in the next 24 hours.

A word of warning though, users have become quite acquainted with these techniques and might quickly get spoiled.

1.4. Follow Up With New Registrations

Marketing automation can help you push newly registered users down the conversion funnel at a quick pace.

These are users who have shown interest in your company and services, or have seen great value because of which they signed up.

Look at this for your perspective, if you made a connection with someone, would it be easier for you to have a conversation soon after meeting them or after half a year when they jump at you with a full blown sales pitch? Thought so.

So go ahead and prepare a »welcome« series of newsletters that will offer your registered users extra value, such as in-depth information regarding your vertical.

2. “Once in a lifetime offer” doesn’t mean ghosting your users

Constant bombardment with spammy or sales emails isn’t the best way to go about email marketing. But neither is the exact opposite extreme.

Sending a single email campaign (possibly from a noreply@ address) with your top notch sales pitch. Then nothing, you’re done… And your clients have effectively been ghosted.

Users get an insane amount of emails in their promotions tabs (yes, most of your users,unless you are a B2B company, will be using Gmail) on a daily basis. This means your single email will get lost.

Battle this with a three step approach:

• Mention your news/offer/product in the first email
• Send a second email as a reminder to users who have not engaged with the first email. Include all the important details!
• Wrap up the series with a third and final reminder in which you highlight your extra offer.

You can combine this approach with tactics from the first advice. For instance, make a three step email approach for abandoned carts –> first a reminder, second free delivery if they buy today. While priceless when it comes to email conversion rate optimization, this will be almost impossible without marketing automation scenarios. So go research it if you haven’t yet!

3. Coupons improve email conversion rate

Plain and simple –> coupons work. While not liked by some companies as they can devalue a brand, they sure can provide a boost of your email conversion rate.

So instead of a coupon for everything let’s do this a bit more strategically:

• Coupon personalization: “Hey John, it’s been three months since your last purchase.Seeing you are a great customer, we decided to give you a 10% coupon for your next purchase!”
• Special coupons: Offer a discount for the exact category that the user was interested in or even for the product that they left abandoned in their cart.
• Reward users for their next purchase: If they complete a purchase for 100 e he gets a 10 € discount on the next order. This helps you increase your returning purchase rates and help grow brand relationship.

Just don’t forget the first rule in marketing. Make it simple and easy to use. If it slows down the purchase process, then you might lose more then you gain.

I’m looking at all of you who implement online/offline/online etc. labyrinths to get a 2.6% discount. Jeeez!

Whatever technique you decide to implement, don’t forget what I wrote in the beginning. This is just the start: if your conversion funnels, checkouts … are off, you need to improve on those segments ASAP!

If you liked the article, click on the button below and sign up for my newsletters. I’ll help you increase traffic to your website or convert those users.

This article was first posted on iprom.si

The post 3 Simple Ways To Boost Email Conversion Rate appeared first on Bright Avocado.