This is the eighth post in a blog and webinar series called 101 Digital Marketing & Fundraising Best Practices for Nonprofits, written and presented by Heather Mansfield. Please sign up for Nonprofit Tech for Good’s email newsletter to be alerted of new posts. Thank you!

Related Webinar: Social Media Strategy for Nonprofits
Related Certificate Program: Certificate in Social Media Marketing & Fundraising

The post 10 Instagram Best Practices for Nonprofits appeared first on Foundation for Shared Impact.

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Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Which is the best platform for your business?
• What should you do when managing social media channels for your business?
• Mainstream social media platforms and how they work
  • Facebook
  • Youtube
  • Instagram
  • Tiktok
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
• Commonly-used metrics to measure content marketing effectiveness

Introduction

Posting content from your companies’ official account is an important part of owned media in your POE management. Social media platforms can offer a low-cost way to increase the visibility of your company. However, even among mainstream social media platforms, there are different strengths that you can leverage and weaknesses that you may want to be aware of.

This guide aims to help you understand how mainstream social media platforms work, so that you can decide which to use to serve various different purposes.

Which is the best platform for your business?

To identify the right social media platform(s) to promote your company, first, ask yourself these three questions:

• What is your business?
  • Think about the type of your business and whether it is suitable to be promoted online. Then, try to match the business with content on different social media platforms, and let synergy effect play its magic.

Social media synergy effect is the impact of using a cross-media approach to engage the target audience. 

• Who is your target customer?
  • You can segment and target different groups of people who would be most likely to buy your products and services or support your organization according to the categories below:
    • Geography
    • Demographic: Age, Gender, Income etc.
    • Psychographic: Lifestyle, Self-perception, Activities, Interests, Opinions etc.
    • Benefits: Convenience, Economy, Prestige etc.
    • Behavioral: Occasion, Loyalty etc.

Visit Business of Apps if you’re interested in learning about the revenue, number of active users, user demographics, and other key statistics of mainstream social media platforms.

• What is your business objective?
  • For each content marketing campaign or social media post, there needs to be a reason for doing it, whether it is to increase brand awareness or stimulate customers’ desire to purchase. Different social media platforms serve different objectives.

What should you do when managing social media channels for your business?

• Scheduling: It is better that your social media channel post on a regular basis, so you may need help on scheduling those that you have written in advance.
• Monitoring: Feedbacks are always helpful. Monitoring the outcomes of every post will give you certain signs for your next post.
• Customer service & Chatbot: Automoation can bring high-efficiency.

Here are some best tools to do the above things:

1. Buffer, Hootsuite, Agora pulse, Later, E-clincher (for Small & Medium Businesses)
2. Mavsocial (for businesses with Multiple Locations)
3. TailWind (unifies your social & email marketing into a single solution)
4. Friends+Me (Publish at the right time, reach more customers and increase engagement)
5. TweetDeck, Follower Wonk (for Twitter)
6. Revive Old Post (for old post revival)
7. Quuu (Powered by AI)
8. Hooper HQ (Post, Story + Reel Instagram Scheduling)
9. Sprinklr (the only unified customer experience management platform)
10. Oktopost (for B2B businesses)

Mainstream social media platforms and how they work

Facebook

1. OverviewFacebook now has 1.79 billion daily active users and 2.7 billion monthly active users. Approximately 55% of its users are aged between 18 to 24. 57% of the users are female. Over 80% users log on to their accounts via mobile devices.
2. Percentage of different content types on Facebook

3. What you can do on Facebook
   • Post organic/paid text, photo, or video content
   • Build Facebook Groups
   • Post Facebook Stories and Reels
   • Use Facebook Ads
   • Make contests and giveaways
   • Use Facebook Messenger chatbots or auto-responders
   • Carry out influencer marketing campaigns

4. Pros and ConsEstablished in 2004, Facebook has accumulated the largest user base worldwide, which can be the source of your traffic. Also, promoting in Facebook Groups will increase your customers’ stickiness and retention rate. However, younger generation perceive FB as ‘old’ and outdated app and many of its existing users are considering leaving it. Another thing that may worries you is that Facebook has closer scrutiny on account security than any other platforms. If your accouunt was accidentally frozen, it may stop every ongoing marketing activity on this platform. Despite this, since Facebook is primarily a tool to stay in touch with friends and family, the connections it has can be ideal for local & small businesses.
5. How the Facebook algorithm worksTo quote from Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook: “Facebook will prioritise posts that spark conversations and meaningful interactions”. What did he mean by “meaningful”?Here are some key metrics of Facebook News Feed Algorithm:
   • From “creator” perspective:
     1. Is the creator a person, a business, or a public figure?
     2. Relationship between the viewer and the creator
     3. Viewers are more likely to be exposed to whom they once interacted with.
   • From “popularity” perspective:How many views, likes, emotional reactions, comments, and shares?
   • From “Type of post” perspective:
     1. What type of media do you interact with the most?
     2. Viewers are more likely to be exposed to whichever types of media they interacted with more often, including photos, regular videos, live videos, and articles.
   • From “recency” perspective:
     1. How fresh is the post?
     2. Newly created content is placed higher.
   Here are other things you may want to pay attention to:
   1. The Engagement rate of Facebook Status ranks the highest among other types of media, even higher than photos and videos.
   2. When your employee shares something, the algorithms will put them first.
6. Additional Resources
   • If you need the official guide, please refer to this page: https://www.facebook.com/business/marketing/facebook
   • Meta Foresight (formerly known as Facebook IQ) tracks the trends and topics that 3.6 billion voices care about: https://www.facebook.com/business/foresight/about-meta-foresight

Youtube

1. Basic information:
   • Youtube has the daily active users of 149 million, and monthly active users of 2.5 billion. 81% of 15 to 25 years use Youtube. Youtube has launched local versions in more than 100 countries, and users can navigate in over 80 different languages.
2. Advantages & Disadvantages of marketing on this platform
   • Youtube is known for its high-quality content. People are there expecting to see the tutorials or guides that can really address their questions. (High-quality videos longer than 3 minutes of commercials, product reviews, and interviews are recommended.) Also, many people do not know that YouTube’s keywords have high weight in Google search, which is good for SEO of your own website. However, it usually takes great time, cost, and efforts to produce a high-quality video, not to mention that you need to do it more frequently than you thought. It may become harder when users mostly log in through PC, not through mobile devices. What is frustrating about this platform is that its algorithms may recommend your company’s competitors, making it harder for you to stand out among similar products/services. But it is an ideal place to deploy influencer marketing.
3. Algorithms(explained in lay terms)-Youtube recommendations
   • 70% of youtube views are generated by its artificial intelligence-based algorithm. 81% of surveyed US adults occasionally or regularly watch videos recommended by the algorithm. A common misunderstanding is that the frequency and amount of videos are the key factors. However, Youtube recommendations are based on the rationale that if many viewers click into a video which leads them to the creator’s home page, then videos by this particular creator can get recommended more often. Youtube recommendations tend to point users to progressively longer content. Also, unlike Facebook, the volume of comments has nothing to do with recommendations. What matters is the relevancy and the sentiments of the comments. So, deleting offensive/negative comments will make your videos look good.
4. The use of Youtube Handles
   • Youtube Handles help viewers easily find and engage with creators. Handles normally appear on channel pages and Shorts. Creators can be mentioned in comments or tagged in the title of a recent collab, helping them increase visibility and reach with new audiences. Every channel on YouTube will have a handle, and each will be unique, so it is also another way to identify a YouTube channel. The timing of when a creator will get access to the handles selection process depends on a number of factors, including overall YouTube presence, subscriber count and whether the channel is active or inactive.

https://www.youtube.com/ads/ Here is some more information about Youtube Ads. 

Instagram

1. Basic informationInstagram has the daily active users of 600 million, and monthly active users of 1.5 billion. Almost half of all Instagram users are in the Asia-Pacific region, with India and Indonesia two of the five largest markets in terms of active users. 70% of Instagram users are under 35 years old, but the percentage of users over 35 has increased every year since 2018.
2. Advantages & Disadvantages of marketing on this platform:Instagram is a community rather than a tool, so the interaction rate is higher. most users are aged between 20-40, so they have much bigger purchasing power. Since the contents are usually viewed on mobile devices, it becomes the best place for “One-click purchase”. To promote on Instagram in 2022 should have no disadvantages. Instagram promotion can be effective and easy. Companies can post information of sales promotion and display of products any time they want.
3. Instagram algorithmsTime spent, likes, comments, saves, and clicks to profile are the four indicators for the algorithms to see if your post is worth recommending. Recommendations you usually receive are from four channels: connected recommendations, unconnected recommendations, author seeds, and media seeds. The four channels are devided by four key signals:
   • Your activity: What types of posts do you interact with more often?
   • Your interaction history: Whose posts are you interacting with? Comments are the most important.
   • Information about the post: popularity, time, location, tags, background music, and size of the frame.
   • Information about the author: followers, interactions
   Ranking Feed & Stories: Information about the post>Information about the author>Your activity>Your interaction history
   • Only 10% of existing followers will be able to see your posts by recommendation, so the better way to engage with the followers is through attractive Stories.
   Ranking Explore: Information about the post>Your interaction history>Your activity>Information about the authorRanking Reels: Your activity>Your interaction history> Information about the post>Information about the author
   • The music of reels is very important.
   • Videos with TikTok watermarks will be removed, so you’d better check beforehead.
4. The use of Instagram insights
   • Accounts reached: accounts reached(accounts who at least viewed one of your posts), reached audience, content reach, top posts, top stories, impressions, profile activity
   • Accounts engaged: accounts engaged, engaged audience, audience demographics, content interactions
   • Total followers: followers, growth, top locations, age, gender, active times

Instagram has its own blogs which you may find helpful: 

https://about.instagram.com/en_US/blog

Tiktok

1. Basic informationTiktok has the daily active users of 15.5 million and monthly Active Users of 1 billion. A majority of TikTok users are aged under 30, with the largest age bracket between 20 and 30 years old. Engagement on TikTok increased 15-fold between 2017 and 2019.
2. Advantages & Disadvantages of marketing on this platform:Tiktok has the youngest user base and therefore attract customer segments who are particularly susceptible to this form of communication. Besides, a focus on entertainment makes it relatively easier to obtain a significant follower base even among users they have never met offline. It is an ideal place for influencer marketing and user-generated contents. However, it is relatively hard to develop customer’s stickiness and brand loyalty. It’s all about creativity of the short video, sometimes the contents can easily get neglected
3. Algorithms(explained in lay terms)-FYP(For You Page)Once a video is posted, the platform will push it to the first badge of viewers, who will be the first ones to evaluate the content. Overall watch time, replays, likes, comments and shares will decide whether it is a good or bad video. If it performs well, it will be pushed to more viewers, then becomes viral(possibly).

Twitter

1. Basic information:Twitter has the daily active users of 217 million and monthly active users of 436 million. 38.5% of Twitter users are 25-34, making it the largest age group using the app. While Twitter’s usage in the US has stagnated somewhat, its international usage continues to grow, with 169 million dMAUs outside of the US in 2021.
2. Advantages & Disadvantages of marketing on this platform:On one hand, for many people, Twitter is used as a news source, so there are less personal interactions. Also, the updates may be too fast for companies to catch and make use of them. On the other hand, it is famous for the “retweet”, which can generate huge traffic.
3. AlgorithmsConnections on Facebook are, for the large part, online representations of offline relationships, while connections on Twitter are triggered by content relevance. For Twitter, what truly matters is the timing. Here is a picture showing Twitter’s global engagement during a week:

LinkedIn

1. Basic informationLinkedIn has the daily active users of 134.5 million and monthly active users of 64.6million. 58% of LinkedIn’s audience are ages 25-34. The United States is home to about 30% of all LinkedIn users, the next largest market is India. LinkedIn recently announced it would close operations in China, where it had 50 million users.
2. Advantages & Disadvantages of marketing on this platform:LinkedIn users are more educated, and have a higher income than those on other platforms. The profile of a LinkedIn user is a businessman or businesswoman in their early 30s who has graduated from college and earns a lot. LinkedIn has the highest average cost per click ($5.26). Also, you are not allowed to do custom reporting on LinkedIn. You’ll receive a standardized dashboard for your campaign and a summary when it ends. However, since there are not only personal accounts but also compnies, it can be the ideal place for B2B businesses, for the purpose of building up partnerships. It may be helpful for you to share some industry information, yearly achievement of the company, and original insights on LinkedIn.
3. Algorithms(explained in lay terms)Once you post an update, it will be immediately pushed through an “automatic filter”, by which your posts are labeled as:
   • Spam: grammar mistakes, too much “@”, tags that contain “#comment”, “like”, “follow”Low-quality: posting too much, offensive words, low engagement rateClear
   Then, there will be user flagging. Your post will be evaluated by a small pool of LinkedIn users. Interactions such as likes, shares and, above all, comments are considered positive. The next step is “Universal Content Filtering”. Pay attention to the scheduling of your posts, since the first two steps usually take some time to finish. Finally, LinkedIn employees will manually review the content and collect information about why the post is relevant. You can find out more information here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/linkedin-algorithm-simply-explained-peter-oberlik?trk=pulse-article

Commonly-used metrics to measure content marketing effectiveness

When measuring the effectiveness of your social media marketing strategy and initiatives, you may need different metrics. Here are some terms and their respective abbreviations that are commonly used.

DAU: Daily Active User

MAU: Monthly Active User

CPC: Cost per click. The advertiser only pays when a user clicks on an ad.

CPM: Cost per mille. It refers to how much it costs to have an ad displayed to 1,000 users

CPA: Cost per action or cost per acquisition. Advertisers pay every time a user completes a pre-determined action, be it a click-through, download, or purchase.

CTR: Click-through rate. The number of clicks that your ad receives divided by the number of times your ad is shown: clicks ÷ impressions = CTR

CVR: Conversion Rate. It refers to what proportion of people are persuaded by advertising to become a user.

UGC: User-generated Content

PGC: Professionally-generated Content

OGC: Occupationally-generated Content

Reach, impressions, video views, video completion rate, audience growth rate, mention(voice), social sentiments

 At FSI we’re always seeking to improve, so if you have any feedback on this guide/template, please do not hesitate to let us know.

The post How to Promote Your Business on Different Social Media Platforms appeared first on Foundation for Shared Impact.

Introduction

This guide is designed to help organizations (for-profit or non-profit) that are trying to strengthen their brand awareness and build their own social media communities. We will discuss the benefits of creating and maintaining social media communities for the organizations’ various stakeholders, and also give an overview of the different platforms that organizations should explore to evaluate which channel suits the purpose and intention of the organization. Thereafter, we will also suggest the best practices of how each social media community group can be managed.

What do I get out of building a social media community?

You don’t use social media for your business yet? – you’re missing out on a fast, cheap, and effective way to reach your target audience. This is just as true for budding entrepreneurs as it is for NGOs. But what specific benefits can I get from using social media for my business?

Benefits for Budding Entrepreneurs

Is it also your goal to grow your business as quickly and effectively as possible in order to generate the maximum profit? Keep reading to understand how to enhance your reach on social media, grow your business, engage with your customers, and utilize the metrics for analyzing your social media metrics.

Support your brand building

• Create an account for your business, post content, and network to increase your brand awareness.
• Make real human connections by showing customers how they can benefit from your product/service.

• Use social media to give people insights and information about your company, for example about topics you will not find on the website or special customer requests.

Stimulate growth

• Increase your website traffic by linking them on your social media channels.
• Cooperate with influencers to expand the reach of your products and services.
• Boost sales by placing advertisements, linking your website, sharing information about the product, etc.

Develop your business

• Allowing your followers to give you feedback through your social media activities. This way you can constantly adapt your offer according to the wishes of your customers. You can realize this through live chats, polls, creating posts regarding this topic, etc.

Communicate with your customers

• Interact directly with customers and fans, and likewise, give them the chance to interact directly with your brand. For example take out some time to reply to DM’s or comments on the post.
• Keep customers up to date, especially in times of crisis but also as normal customer support to avoid damaging your reputation.

Gain insights into your costumers

• Learn more about your customers by finding out about their demographics, interests, and desires.
• Stay on top of industry news
• Keep an eye on the competition

Place advertising

• Use tracking tools like Facebook pixel, to see what customers have browsed for on your website and show them social media ads for the same products.

Prove the ROI

• It is always a challenge for marketers to prove a return on investment. But with social media tracking and analytics tools, you can see the full impact of your social media activities, from follows to engagements right through to purchases e.g. Google Analytics.
• Read through these Guides to find out more about the process and the benefits of Google Analytics.
  • Guide to Setting Up Google Analytics
  • Guide to Using Google Analytics Report for Your Business

Benefits for NGOs

As a director or employee of an NGO, it’s often not just about you making the people aware of your product/service, but raising awareness of a particular issue and supporting various communities. Read this section to learn how to adjust your social media performance to get perfect results.

Support your brand building

• Create an account for your business, post content, and network to increase your brand awareness.
• Make real human connections by showing customers how they can benefit from your product/service.
• Use social media to give people insights and information about your company, for example about topics you will not find on the website or special customer requests.

Support your Mission

• Use the reach of social media to share your mission with followers.
• Post content that stimulates discussion and contributes to social or societal change.

Boost growth

• Increase your website traffic by linking them on your social media channels.

Develop your business

• Allowing your followers to give you feedback through your social media activities. This way you can constantly adapt your offer according to the wishes of your customers. You can realize this through live chats, polls, creating posts regarding this topic, etc.

Communicate with your interested

• Interact directly with your target audience and likewise, give them the chance to interact directly with your brand. For example take out some time to reply to DM’s or comments on the post.

Gaining insights into your target audience

• Learn more about your customers by finding out about their demographics, interests, and desires.
• Stay on top of industry news

Which Social Media Platform fits my Company best?

Nowadays there are many social media platforms where you can present yourself and your business. LinkedIn and Facebook are the most common platforms for building a social media community for your business. Both groups’ options offer unique features and benefits – but which is the best to leverage for your business?

Try to understand your Target Audience

Random acts of marketing will not get you far. That’s why it’s important to understand who your target audience is, what they want and how you can get to them. It also shows the importance on why you should also understand your Competitors on social media. The following questions will give you a guide to better put yourself in the shoes of your audience, in order to be able to implement their wishes perfectly.

Try to understand your Customers

• Who is your audience?
• What are their pain points?
• What does your product or service do to minimize or mitigate their pain?
• How can your product or service inspire and help them personally and professionally?
• How is your product or service positioned?

Try to understand your Competitors

• What is your competition up to?
• What’s your audience up to, both online and offline?
• How is your audience engaging with your competition?
• What is your competition doing that you aren’t?
• What type of response are your competitors receiving online and offline from your target audiences? Is it different than how your audience is engaging with you?
• Does your competition have a consistent tone, message, and brand? If not, how can you enhance yours to zoom faster?
• Is your competition engaging in a way their audience expects them to? Casual when they’re expecting a professional or the opposite?
• Why are they doing such things differently? Do they have a competitive differentiator because of this or do you have the leg-up? Remember, different isn’t always better. You may be on the right track.
• What are the weaknesses in how your competition is engaging and leveraging social media that you can use to your advantage?

Also always be aware of the different reasons why customers interact with companies via social sites vs. why businesses think customers follow them. It is important to have an overview of the members’ motives in order to be able to adapt the social media strategy in the best possible way.

How to Promote and Manage your Social Media Community?

Websites, Facebook, LinkedIn, … Do you ever wonder how to manage your social media community so that everyone gets value from it and you don’t lose track? The following section explains how to build and manage a social media community so that you can get the most out of the social media platforms for your business.

• Engage in more than one social media channel.
• Adding your website on your social media profile and vice versa, to channel your audience on both platforms.
• Evolve your content strategy over time, based on what’s going on in your industry, with your audience, and in the world around you.
• If possible, hire a community manager who’s responsible for the success of becoming a social business. This person should focus on social media engagement, which means he/she should plan and develop social media strategy that includes which platforms are used how and when. He should post content regularly, and respond to questions via social media.
• Create social media groups to expand your social media range and reach your target audience in a bundled way.

How to Promote a Social Media Group in particular?

Follow these steps to further increase not only your social media community in general, but your self-created groups to increase your brand awareness.

• Encourage group members to invite connections who would benefit from and contribute value to the group.
• Display the group on your personal account and website and encourage other members to do the same.
• Include the group link in your email signature.
• If you already have other accounts or groups on social media, share the group link with a brief summary of these.
• As new members join your group, welcome them by @mentioning their name, especially when your group is small and just beginning to grow.
• Ask new members to introduce themselves and tell the group what they hope to gain from the community.

How to Manage a Social Media Group?

Follow these steps to make your social media group stand out from the rest and add constructive value that will benefit your business and customers.

• Keep your customers informed by regularly updating information and communicating with them.
• Share your own content instead of retweeting. This can be done, for example, through stories that show how customers use your product or service. Always remember that customers are more interested in how the product is used than who is behind it.
• Review the information before retweeting or reposting it.
• Take advantage of photos and videos to create memorable community experiences.
• Post content that encourages discussion, makes customers think, and makes them want to respond.
• Review new content from other group members.
• Respond to questions on social media as quickly as possible.
• Accept new inquiries.
• Engage with spam.
• Stay true to your rules and the purpose of your group. Address criticism and rumors directly without sweeping them under the rug.

Additional Readings:

• Read this article to learn more about Facebook pixel and how it helps you to boost your sales.
• If you want to know more about the first steps to building a social media website, read this article.
• If you would like to learn more about the possible social media platforms, Oyava gives in this article a broader overview of the best social media platforms for your business in 2022.
• How to set up Google Ads and Conversion Tracking
• Guide to Google Ads
• How to List Your Business on Google

PS!

At FSI we’re always seeking to improve, so if you have any feedback on this guide/template, please do not hesitate to let us know.

The post Start your own social media community appeared first on Foundation for Shared Impact.

How to Receive Google Ads Grants as an NPO

Google offers a hugely generous grant (up to $10k per month in ad spend), and if the ads are set up correctly, they deliver highly engaged and valuable traffic. Yet many charities and nonprofit organisations either don’t take advantage of it or have an account that was set up years back and neglected ever since.

To be eligible for Google Ads Grants

https://www.techdonation.org.hk/

1. Access the link above and register your organisation as a Non-profit organisation.

2. Make sure your website meets the below requirements:

What Google Ads Grants require is a block of time for you to:

1. Learn how they work
2. Set up some basic campaigns (e.g., Brand campaign to promote your website)

Once that’s done, the account will only require small amounts of care and feeding, approximately two hours a month.

What do I need to do in order to use Google Ads Grants?

If you’re not yet using Google Ads Grants, you’ll need to:

1. Set up a new Google Ads account
2. Create some campaigns
3. Connect it to your Google Analytics and import conversions
4. Sign up for the Google Non-Profits programme
5. Apply to activate your Ads account under the Google grant programme

Step 5 can take quite a while to happen: Google says the current waiting time is 10-15 working days, but it often takes longer. Meanwhile, you can work away on getting more ad campaigns written and published while you’re waiting for the account to be activated.

*Look out for notifications in your account for customised tips and educational webinars hosted by the Google Ad Grants team.

Additional Readings:

• Guide to Google Ads

PS!

 At FSI we’re always seeking to improve, so if you have any feedback on this guide/template, please do not hesitate to let us know.

The post Receiving Google Ads Grants as an NPO appeared first on Foundation for Shared Impact.

Introduction to Google Ads

Google, as a dominant global search engine, provides a wide range of advertisement choices to companies. Google Ads allows you to reach anyone who uses Google to search for information, products and services online. If properly used, it has the potential to earn you a large number of people whom your product/service is targeting. Eventually, Google Ads is most likely to lead to increased traffic and customers to your shop/webpage.

Reasons why Google Ads can be the optimal marketing platform

Here are the reasons why you would want to use Google Ads for your marketing:

1. Massive user base

Google is the dominant search engine globally. Google owns a massive user base widespread around the world. It is the biggest marketing platform in most cases.

2. Capabilities that allow a wide range of targeting

Google’s capability in the management of information systems is well-known. Its massive number of users can be categorised into a wide range of demographic/geographic characteristics which in turn allows you to accurately set your target audience as well as gain insights from their behavioural data.

3. Full control and flexibility in your marketing

Google Ads gives you full control of your campaigns/advertisements. You can set your monthly budgets for your advertisement and Google automatically optimise the exposure of your advertisement in accordance with your proposed budget. On top of the budget flexibility, you are also offered a wide range of types of advertisement you can choose from, further optimising your advertisement/campaign in accordance with your target audience and budget.

4. Harness intention

Google users are looking for you, in other words, their underlying intention of ‘search’ is to find information/products/services. For example, customers wouldn’t like to see advertisements on their social media because they are unlikely to be looking for them.

5. Low complexity

Google Ads has so many different options for you to choose from and automatically optimise your advertisement distribution. This entails far less complexity compared to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

Recommended Videos for Beginners

Type of Advertisements Available

Google Ads offers a wide range of advertisement types for your products/services/campaigns.

You must understand what they are in order to make optimal decisions regarding your online advertisement, but it won’t be difficult to understand, I am confident that all of these Google ads are what you’ve been seeing regularly unless you’ve lived under a rock in last two decades.

1. Search Ads: Text ads on Google’s search results

Text-based ads on search results allow you to reach people when they are searching on Google for the products or services you offer.

Key benefits:

• Easy setup
• Typically include a headline, URL, and descriptive text
• Show up on the search and display networks
• Highly specific targeting

If you want to display further information such as location, call, subheadings and site links, you can use ‘ad extensions’ as shown above on the right.

2. Display Ads

Display Ads has ‘responsive’ features and it is specifically for displaying the ads and banners in Google’s extremely wide display network.

In responsive display ads, Google allows you to enter multiple versions of headlines and ad copy for Google to select the best performing ads to display to users after a certain amount of data experiment.

Key Benefits:

• Google will adjust the display of the ads to match the pages the ads are placed on (demonstrated in the image above)
• Your ads will be visible on external content that is relevant per your setting
• Effective in building awareness or remarketing

3. Video Ads

You can create compelling video campaigns with a range of video ad formats to engage customers in different ways on Google’s video partner sites, for example – YouTube! YouTube is a great platform to place your advertisements, thanks to its comparatively high conversion rate and the flexibility it provides.

There are numerous different types of Video Ads. Your ads can appear on the YouTube homepage, on search results pages, within the ‘related videos’ sidebar alongside videos, and within videos (at the start, middle, and/or end; either skippable or non-skippable), etc.

Learn more about the available video ad formats here:

• Skippable in-stream ads
• Non-skippable in-stream ads
• In-feed video ads
• Bumper ads
• Outstream ads
• Masthead ads

4. Shopping Campaigns

A shopping campaign allows you to add your promoted product to the product listings in Google’s Shopping tab.

As shown in the image above, your product will come up in the ‘shopping’ tab/tag. This is a great way to boost your sales because people searching for the keywords are likely your potential buyers. Google lets you optimise the audience reach by the user’s demographic and geographical properties.

Note that you will first need to register to Google Merchant Centre where you can upload your product inventory to our account.

5. App Campaigns

If the purpose of your advertisement is to find new app users and increase the sales within your app, this campaign must be one of your considerations!

This type is almost fully automated (Google does most of the jobs for you) and comprehends a wide range of platforms. Your app will be promoted throughout Google’s largest properties encompassing Search, GooglePlay, YouTube, Discover on Google Search, and expansive Google Display Network.

Unlike most Google Ads campaigns, you don’t design individual ads for App campaigns. Instead, Google uses your ad text ideas, images, videos, and assets from your app’s store listing to design a variety of ads across several formats and networks.

To get started, all you need to do is provide some text, a starting bid and budget, and let Google know the languages and locations for your ads.

Google systems will test different asset combinations and serve ads that are performing the best more often, with no extra work needed from you.

6. Local Campaigns

There is a common misconception that online advertisement is less effective in promoting offline stores. However, if you look back, it isn’t hard to recall the last time you searched for a physical store near you on Google.

Many local keywords are packed with high action intent which leads to immediate conversion, and you can definitely take advantage of the local campaigns in Google Ads! Your ads will be automatically optimised to appear across Search, Display, Google Maps, and YouTube.

7. Smart Ads Campaign

Smart campaigns by Google includes all of the above options with automatic optimisation of channels and targeting done by Google! It is specifically more important and useful for small business owners due to lack of relevant resources and knowledge in online advertisement.

For small businesses with limited budget, it is important not to fail on its advertisement/campaigns resulting in lots of time spent to learn about online marketing or managing their ads. If this is your business’ concern, Smart Campaign is the right type for you since Google Ads will do most of the jobs for you!

Procedures are following:

1. Set your business goals
2. Input your budget and specify your location
3. You are set to go! Google Ads detect search phrases that are relevant to your business and shows your ads to potential customers who are searching for what you offer. The performance is monitored constantly, and the Google’s algorithms are always learning how to better predict which user interactions will help you achieve your business goals

Example (from Google Ads official guideline)

The staff of a fish and chip shop in Derby, for example, may be too busy serving food during their shifts to dedicate any time to optimising the search phrases bids on each of their Google Ads. With Smart campaigns, they no longer need to manage this process manually. Google’s technology will identify terms like “haddock” and “battered sausage” as relevant to the business and automatically show ads to nearby potential customers searching for those terms.

Budgeting

One of the major advantages of using Google Ads is the fairness and flexibility in your advertisement budgets! Google Ads is PPC (pay-per-click) advertisement which means you pay a predefined amount of money for each click your advertisement gets. This puts you in control of the amount you want to spend, as well as where and how you spend it.

You start by bidding on keywords that people search on Google – related to your business for a chance to show ads in Google search results. Then you pay whatever you bid if, and only if, they click your ad to visit your website or call you.

Set your goals and budget

A thorough understanding of what you want to achieve through the ads is critical. It could be drawing more traffic to your website, getting more calls, building awareness of your business in particular locations, or among a certain customer demographic.

Assuming that your campaigns or advertisement are designed appropriately, you can set a maximum monthly ad budget. Google Ads will automatically adjust to optimise results towards achieving your goal(s) and stop showing your ads when you hit the predefined goal or spend all predefined budget.

You can set ‘daily limits’ in ad spend as well, but you need to be very careful with this. Google analyses the daily search traffic and it will show your ads more frequently on days when more people are searching, and thus your daily ad spend can differ from day to day.

Tips for Successful Operation of Google Ads

Here are a few tips to help you make the most out of your Google Ads.

1. Get familiar with the Google Ads UI

[Overview Tab]

The ‘Overview’ tab is an Account Manager’s dream come true and sums up everything you need to know about your account in one screen. Google Ads offers multiple semi-customisable windows within this Overview page that give you a quick and easy glance at your campaigns. (*Click on the triangle to expand the toggles for more information!)

• Need to know where your top ad views are coming from? There’s a geographical touch map for that:

• Need to know what keywords are incurring how much cost? There’s a ranked and already sorted table for that:

• Live Performance Graph & KPIs
  • Your Overview Tab also gives you the live performance graph that the old AdWords interface used to offer. It includes a few KPIs at the top of the graph, which gives advertisers a nice quick summary of current performance.These KPIs include Clicks, Conversions, Cost/Conversion, and Total Cost. But you can get more in depth in the Reporting if you want.These graphs are great for WoW(week over week) or MoM(month over month) comparisons

These graphs are great for WoW(week over week) or MoM(month over month) comparisons

[Campaigns and Keywords]

You can go about your everyday tasks by accessing the sidebar on the left and head to “Campaigns”, “ad Groups”, or “Ads & Extensions” area. Then it’s fairly straight forward from there.

Keywords matching options are following:

1) Broad Match:

Ads may show on searches that are related to your keyword, which can include searches that don’t contain the keyword terms. This helps you attract more visitors to your website, spend less time building keyword lists, and focus your spending on keywords that work. Broad match is the default match type that all your keywords are assigned, so that you don’t have to specify another match type (exact match, phrase match, or a negative match type).

2) Phrase Match:

Ads may show on searches that include the meaning of your keyword. The meaning of the keyword can be implied, and user searches can be a more specific form of the meaning. With phrase match, you can reach more searches than with exact match and fewer searches than with broad match, only showing your ads on the searches that include your product or service.

The syntax for phrase match is to put quotes around your keyword, such as “tennis shoes”. Below is an example of how phrase match will work:

3) Exact Match:

Ads may show on searches that have the same meaning or same intent as the keyword. Of the 3 keyword matching options, exact match gives you the most control over who sees your ad, but reaches fewer searches than both phrase and broad match.

The syntax for exact match is to use square brackets, such as [red shoe]. Below is an example of how exact match will work:

[Navigation Menu]

The Navigation Menu is on the left hand side of the screen in dark grey. This shows your different campaign view options.

Depending on which view you click, you’ll see all of those campaigns populate on your main screen and under the four major tabs in your Navigation Menu.

[Page Menu]

This is where you can view all of the different strata (fancy people talk for “levels”) of your campaigns. For example, you can click-through to your distinct Ad Groups, Ads, Ad Extensions, Audiences, etc.

You can essentially view everything you need to within each campaign. More importantly, you can see all of the campaigns you could possibly be comparing to one another just to the left of this Page Menu (in the Navigation Menu). 

[Subpage Menu]

The Subpage Menu will actually change depending on what you click in the Page Menu.

For example, clicking Ad Groups will give you the Subpage Menu showing Ad Groups and Auction Insights.

But, if you were to click through to the Ads & Extensions tab, you’d be shown a Subpage Menu like the image below:

Depending on what you click, the necessary options for that tab will be shown in the Subpage menu. 

[Top Bar]

The Top Bar is the consistent toolbar that will help you navigate through your actual Google Ads account. Note that this is where the search bar is!

[Tools Tab]

To find your actual Tools and different PPC functions, you have to find the Toolbar at the top of the page.

The Tool Tab can be found on the Top Bar of Google Ads. It has a tool wrench as an icon. When you click it, a drop down menu will appear that shows you the different options and actions available out of five categories:

1. Planning
2. Shared Library
3. Bulk Actions
4. Measurement
5. Setup

Within the Planning category you’ll be able to access your Keyword Planner and preview your Ads. You can also view your Display Planner, if you’re running display campaigns.

[Shared Library]

In the Shared Library, you’ll be able to manage all of your vital targeting information, including:

• Budgets
• Bid Strategies
• Audiences
• Negative Keyword Lists
• Placement Exclusion Lists

These are highly valuable assets in PPC; building out these lists will help eliminate wasteful spend and improve ROAS.

The Bulk Action section still handles all of your bulk actions for campaigns, ad groups, etc. (i.e. Rules, Scripts, Uploads).

Lastly, your Tools Tab includes the Measurement section where you can view your Conversions and choose Attribution Models. You can also click through to Google Analytics if you need more data.

Setup features, including Billing, Account access, and your Google Merchant Center are all under the Setup Tab.

[Search Feature]

The next Go To function in the Top Bar, right next to the Reports and Tools buttons, lets you go straight to any page in Google Ads.

Keep in mind, however, that this search feature doesn’t let you go to specific campaigns. You can view pages from within the Page Menu, nothing more. So it’s more of a navigational tool than a discovery tool.

[Opportunities]

You can access this dashboard by heading to “Opportunities” and then everything is split into a ‘before vs after’ style. Not only does it provide a sense of direction, but it’s really indicative of account health and makes it easy to improve overall efficiencies.

[Reports]

Simply head to the view you wish to export, and you’ll find this feature under the options dropdown:

If you need Google Sheets Integration, Google Ads has a Google Sheets Plugin, making these reports that much easier.

2. Structure your Account

When someone searches on Google.com and scans the results, your ad can stand out more if it’s more relevant to what they were looking for. To do this, you select keywords that you’d like to show an ad for and cluster them into themed ad groups so that you can show ads related to those keywords. You can also separate your ad groups into campaigns to allocate your budget to the topics that are most important to you.

For example, let’s say your organisation gives free books to children. You probably don’t want to run only one campaign about ‘Books’. Instead, your campaigns might look like following:

• Campaign: Books for Babies
• Campaign: Books for Preschoolers
• Campaign: Books for Teens
• Campaign: Volunteer
• Campaign: Donate

Then, your ad groups would reflect how a person might search on Google.com so you can offer ads that are very relevant to their search.

For example, ad groups within a campaign called ‘Volunteer’ might include:

1. Volunteer with babies
2. Volunteer with children
3. Volunteer in education
4. Volunteer for literacy
5. Volunteer to teach children to read

3. Create effective advertisements

Write at least 3 compelling ads per ad group that are relevant to the keywords in that ad group. The ads will rotate and prioritise the ads that are performing better than others in the ad group.

For example: if you create 2 Expanded Text Ads and 1 Responsive Search Ad, which will allow you to key in 15 headlines and 4 descriptions, while Google will help you to combine the ads by choosing 3 headlines and 2 descriptions based on users’ search terms. You may get more info here: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7684791?hl=en

Short, non-repetitive sentences work best. Avoid uncommon acronyms and abbreviations. Identify the unique aspects of your organisation and service, such as ‘Check our free book database to find books your preschooler will love’ or ‘Volunteer to read to children in your community today’.

Sample ad copy #1:

• Teach children how to read
• Volunteers needed now
• Online training available
• www.TeachKidsToReadNow.org

Ad extensions add useful links below the ad that help your message get noticed. Learn about the various ad extensions and how to use them.

Structured Snippets: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6280012

4. Choose the right keywords

Ask yourself which keywords – word combinations and phrases – you would type into the Google search box to find your organisation’s programmes and services. Then, use the Keyword Planner to find related keywords and group them together in ad groups if you’d want to show the same ad for them.

If you add a keyword without any formatting, the AdWords programme keyword default is broad match. For example, if your keyword were breast cancer, your ad would show when a Google search includes the keyword breast cancer, regardless of other search terms used or the order in which a user typed them.

Your ads will also automatically show for expanded matches, including plurals and relevant variations such as:

• breast cancer information
• cancer of the breast in men
• support groups breast cancer
• breast cancer symptoms
• self breast exam to detect cancer

All of the queries above are related to breast cancer and are relevant. However, the broad match default doesn’t work well for general keywords that may be included in searches unrelated to your organisation.

Let’s say your organisation is devoted to saving endangered bears. Here are search queries that might display an ad targeted to the broad match keyword bears:

• chicago bears
• berenstain bears video
• collectible teddy bears
• bad news bears dvd

None of the searches listed above are relevant to the organisation, yet they all include the keyword bear. Keywords such as protect bears and endangered bears would be a better option. In these cases, you could use negative keywords. You can specify keywords as negatives by preceding an unwanted keyword with a hyphen.

For example, if our endangered bear organisation wanted to use the keyword bear, the following negative keywords should be listed to avoid showing on unrelated queries:

1. -chicago
2. -berenstain
3. -bad news
4. -teddy

5. Target the right audience

You can also target your ads to different geographic locations and languages. Options include setting a specified distance from your organisation’s service area to selecting cities, regions or nations.

6. Track actions people take after clicking on your ads

In addition to Google Ads showing how many people clicked on your ads, Google Ads or Google Analytics can track what customers do once they’ve arrived at your site.

For example, let’s say some of your keywords lead to people browsing your website while others lead to people signing up for your newsletter or making a donation. Knowing this would help you determine what types of keywords and ads to set up for future fundraising campaigns.

Ask your webmaster to install the AdWords conversion tracking code on your website or consult your donation payment provider to embed your tracking code in their system. Or you can import goals from Google Analytics to track in AdWords. Just make sure to use the same email address for both your AdWords and Analytics accounts so that they can be easily linked together. Learn more about linking your accounts.

Adding a conversion tracker can also allow you to better manually target CPA (cost per acquisition) or ROAS (return on ad spending). These are more advanced metrics that perform better when they are driven by in-depth conversion data which is why a conversion tracker is necessary.

You can also directly link your Google Analytics Account and Google Ads Account, and you can set up goals in Google Analytics then import the tracking data to Google Ads, in order to further evaluate on Google Ads performance. You may refer to: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/1704341?hl=en&co=ADWORDS.IsAWNCustomer

7. Automatically set bids

Automating your bids with Google Ads can save you time optimising for your goals. Maximise conversions, which is a Smart Bidding strategy, automatically sets bids to help get the most conversions for your campaign while spending your budget. Maximise conversions bidding strategy will identify which keywords are more likely to result in a desired action and will then bid more for those and less for others. You can turn on Maximise conversions on the Settings tab of your campaigns. Note that the bidding strategies can differ depending on your objectives.

Note: In Ad Grants, using Maximise conversions allows the system to bid over the programme-level $2.00 USD max bid if your account’s performance merits doing so.

Setting up Conversion Tracking:

A brief video explaining how to enable conversion tracking with Google Tag.

References

• Video that explains Google Ads Bidding Strategies! The strategies are already provided by Google Ads, you just need to learn and choose the ones that suit your objectives!

PS!

At FSI we’re always seeking to improve, so if you have any feedback on this guide/template, please do not hesitate to let us know.

The post Guide to Google Ads appeared first on Foundation for Shared Impact.

SEO is essential to any company’s or organization’s marketing and growth strategies. Why? Recall the last time you searched for a service or product on Google. Let’s say you were searching for an art social enterprise in Hong Kong. On the first Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP) in response to your query, you will find nine to 10 results, ranked in order of relevance to your keyword search. Now, imagine yourself as the co-founder of Gowld Art Centre. You would be happy to see your social enterprise ranking second in Google’s search results, because prospective customers would have gone to your competitors if your social enterprise were ranked further down on the first page or on later pages of search results.

So how do you ensure your company’s website is ranked favorably by search engines? Read our guide on Google Search Console to learn how to use that service to boost your SEO. Moreover, you’ll need an SEO strategy that involves organizing the content on your website to improve its ranking on SERP.

If you optimize your content for SEO, you’re more likely to reach people who are actively searching for content similar to yours. Furthermore, having quality content that ranks well in searches will also make your content and work seem more reliable and trustworthy to visitors to your website, thereby establishing you as a thought leader in the industry. Increasing the organic visibility of your content also increases brand awareness and visibility for your business or non-profit.

Here are some tips that could get you started on enhancing your SEO:

1. Finding and Using Keywords

The first step to establishing your organization as a thought leader and your website as a credible source of useful content is to find out what your potential and ideal customers are searching for. This is where keywords become crucial. You want to find the right keywords – the keywords most frequently used by your potential and ideal customers when searching for particular types of content online – and use them correctly to get the algorithm to rank your website higher.

For beginners, it is probably best to do some simple research and choose your keywords intuitively. Obviously, you would want your keywords to reflect your content as accurately as possible. But just as important is thinking about the search intent of your potential customers. Search intent is essentially what your customers are looking for when they type in the potential keywords into a search engine.

Later on, it might be useful to use a dedicated keyword research tool. There are free options such as Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends and Keyword Tool.io, as well as subscription based tools such as Term Explorer, Accuranker etc.

Once you have chosen your keywords, you can then add them to your website content to produce content searchable by anyone using those keywords. For example, you can put your keywords in the page title. The page title is one of the first things that search engines evaluate when determining what is on a webpage. You should also use your keywords in the slug part of the URL. The part of the permalink circled in red is the slug part:

Make sure to also use your keywords in the meta description. This further tells search engines what your page is about, but it is also important for users as it gives them a short preview of the page’s content. The meta description will appear underneath the title of your page similar to the photo below:

Finally, it is important to use the keywords in the actual content of your page, while preserving the readability of your content (not overusing the keywords so that they interfere with the flow of the content on the page).

2. Quality of Content is Key

Content is one of the most important SEO ranking factors. That is why, in addition to making sure to use keywords in the content, you must also prioritize the creation of high-quality content that helps you stand out from the mass that is also producing similar content.

Based on the quality and trustworthiness of the content, your site will get a Page Authority (PA) score ranging from 1 to 100. The higher the number, the more authority your site has, and higher PA mean that your website is relevant, high-quality, and trustworthy. You can check your score on Moz.

Google has the so-called E-A-T standards (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) that it uses to evaluate your content. As a major search engine, Google would of course want to avoid sharing inaccurate information. Therefore, it would suggest that you keep your content updated so that it is relevant and accurate.

Other than following the E-A-T standards, make sure you follow good on-page practices, such as: focusing on creating content using the primary keyword (the term that your customers are searching for), using proper headings (they should be short, relevant to the paragraph, and make the article easier to skim through), using internal linking (linking from one page on your website to another) etc.

Furthermore, if you are running a local business and would like to target customers in the area, you might want to work on boosting your local SEO. In order to do that, make sure to focus your content on things that are more relevant in your local community. This will help the algorithm bring the right customers to your website.

3. Having a Mobile-friendly Website

People are increasingly using their mobile phones rather than desktops to browse and read digital content. In fact, 61% of all Google searches are performed on mobile, and “near me” searches have increased 250% since 2017 (source), proving that mobile-friendly websites are especially important for customers to look up reviews, location, or contact information of your business.

Importantly, Google’s change in its algorithm in 2015 to favor mobile-friendly websites means that your website is bound to have better SEO if it is mobile-friendly.

There are 4 main points to pay attention to, when evaluating if your site is mobile-friendly:

• Responsive design: This essentially means that your website is automatically displayed properly on any device, and regardless of whether it is being used in portrait or landscape mode.
• Readable fonts: The fonts that your website uses are easy to read on mobile devices.
• Text formatting: The text on the website is broken into smaller paragraphs or bullet points, so that it is more easily viewable on a smaller screen.
• Optimized media: The photos and videos on the website should be easily viewable on a mobile device, without having to scroll or resize.

When setting up a mobile-friendly website, the design itself can be an important aspect of the task but it is not the only element to take into consideration. It is very important to consider the user experience, as this is also what Google uses to determine how to rank your website.

Firstly, consider what information your customers need from your website and make it easily accessible for them. Whether it is your mission, product, contact information, directions, etc. Tools such as Google Analytics can help you identify this by tracking user activity on your website. As soon as you get some traffic on the website, Google Analytics will track where website visitors scroll and click/tap, and will give you a visual representation of it.

You can go on your website and test it yourself. It is important that the main buttons are easy to click on, and the website itself is fast, efficient, and easy to navigate. Need help with determining your website’s mobile-friendliness? Check out these tools:

Another thing to consider is that mobile users tend to access websites with less ideal internet connections (connecting to public Wi-Fi networks). That is why you also might need to optimize the content of your website to be more simple. Therefore, if your website has more interactive elements or there are files to download or forms to fill out, this may not be ideal for mobile users.

Finally, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is not limited to only your website. Therefore, it is important to consider the entire customer journey map. Sometimes, other elements are just as important to the user experience as the website itself. For example, customers often want easy access to reviews, directions to your shop/office, easily accessible review of the service/product you provide, or they may want to receive newsletter updates etc. Making your newsletter SEO-friendly (by including links, making it mobile-friendly, etc.) can be a great way to increase traffic to your website.

Customers may also interact with your brand through social media, so it is important to consider whether your social media accounts are optimized to boost your website’s SEO.

Considering the customer journey map can help you with building a good mobile experience, but learning more about it can help you in other aspects of your business. It can help you understand your customers better, and keep up with constantly changing customer expectations. Watch the video below if you would like to learn more about the customer journey map.

How To Make An Effective Customer Journey Map In Under An Hour (FREE Templates)

1. Link-building

Link-building is another great way to boost organic visibility and brand awareness. Link-building is essentially the process of creating content that other websites will want to share and link back to your website. A good example of this is posting annual reports on your work and making them shareable. Making content that is easily shareable is the simplest strategy.

Another way to get your content shared is by reaching out to other organizations or companies and asking them to link your content. You can email a potential content partner about an idea for an article that would be mutually beneficial. If they agree to it, you can start writing the content and share the link once it’s done.

Guest posting is another link-building strategy, where you would write blog articles that you publish on third-party websites, usually thought leaders in the industry. In doing this, those third-party companies might allow you to include a reference to your website in the content of the article and the author bio.

Finally, when setting up profiles on other platforms, it is often possible to list your website in the profile as well. While these links might carry less authority than being linked by other parties, they’re easy to set up and therefore worth doing.

2. Set Up a Blog

Setting up a blog and publishing regular blog posts about your business can prove very useful in boosting your website’s SEO. A study conducted on 1,531 HubSpot customers (mostly small- and medium-sized businesses), showed that companies that publish regular blog posts get 55% more visitors on their websites.

As a powerful marketing tool that drives traffic to your website, publishing regular blog posts can convert that traffic into leads, whether as potential customers of your services or products, or donors or collaborators for your social impact organization. Moreover, blog posts can be repurposed as social media content multiple times, as long as they are updated to remain relevant.

If your website is built on WordPress, check out our guide on publishing blog posts using WordPress here.

Final Tips

Boosting your SEO can be a complex and deliberate process, but it will pay off in the long run, as it is a great and cost-effective strategy to increase your business’ visibility to more potential customers, investors, funders or donors. To assess the performance of your site SEO strategy, use Google Search Console to review traffic to your website before and after the implementation of your site SEO strategy.

The tips listed here are by no means exhaustive. Depending on the touchpoints on your customer journey (where and how customers interact with your brand), you may need to tailor different SEO marketing strategies.

Here are some additional resources that may help you to ace your game in SEO marketing:

• Google Analytics for Beginners: A course on creating a Google Analytics account, implementing tracking code, setting up data filters, as well as tracking Google Ads campaigns.
• How to Use SEO to Grow Your Business: Take a deep dive into SEO and learn how tools like Ashrefs can help improve your SEO marketing initiatives.
• SEO Tips to Improve Organic Traffic in Under 15 Minutes: Learn some low-hanging SEO tips.

We hope you found this article helpful! Head over to our Entrepreneur’s Toolkit for more useful guides to help you overcome other entrepreneurial challenges.

The post Tips to Improve Your Website’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) appeared first on Foundation for Shared Impact.

Table of Contents

• Google Analytics (GA): Which version are you using?
• How can GA4 assist and support business owners?
• Having access to the above data is core to improving your business operations
• a) Initial Setup
  • 1) Account Setup
  • 2) Property Setup
  • 3) About your Business
• b) Link your Data Sources
• c) Adding Google Analytics script to your website (Wix/Wordpress)
  • Connecting Wix website
  • Connecting WordPress website
• d) Share Access on Google Analytics with Other People
• e) How to email yourself a recurring report
• f) How to set up and manage view filters

Why use Google Analytics?

As a business owner, you are always thinking to improve your revenue, operations and consumer engagement. Google Analytics, now in its fourth iteration (GA4), is a user-friendly but advanced tool which collects real-time data and provides you with a wide range of useful insights that can be applied towards your marketing efforts. GA4 is also very effective in the long term, as it can help entrepreneurs predict client behavior and create innovative ideas to continuously re-invent as a company.

Google Analytics (GA): Which version are you using?

It was announced that on 1st July 2023, the previous generation of GA, Universal Analytics (UA), will stop all processes and be completely replaced by its most recent successor, Google Analytics 4 (GA4). Thus, users who are still relying on UA for data processing are strongly recommended to make the switch to GA4 in order to prevent any potential loss of information, as well as to begin collecting data in GA4 as soon as possible.

First, let’s check which version you are using right now:

• If you created your account after October 14 2020, you are already using GA4 and no switching actions are required.
• If you created your account before October 14 2020, and have not yet created a new GA4 property, you are still using UA.

In the case that your business is still using UA, here are the steps you can take to prepare for switching to GA4 going forward.

• Essential migration steps for GA4
• Export historical reports from UA to GA4

More information to help with your UA to GA4 conversion can be found here!

How can GA4 assist and support business owners?

The following are some of the metrics GA4 can deliver regarding your website’s performance:

• The number of visitors your pages gets
• Frequency of visits
• Channels through which visitors access your pages
• How long visitors stay on your pages
• Performance of your Google Ads
• Visitor conversion rates – percentage of visitors who stay and complete desirable actions on your website, such as filling out a form or buying a product
• Visitor bounce rates – percentage of sessions in which visitors leave the website after only viewing a single page

Having access to the above data is core to improving your business operations

What actionable insights we can automatically obtain with the data above?

• Provides quantitative measures of your performance in each page of your website
• Gain a deeper understanding of which product/ service visitors come to your pages for
• Identify target groups and construct optimal channels based on the provided data
• Measure your marketing and Google Ads effectiveness & efficiency

Basics of Google Analytics

1. Initial Setup
2. Link your Data Sources
3. Adding Google Analytics Script to your Website (Wix/ WordPress)
4. Share Access to Other People
5. How to Email Yourself a Recurring Report

a) Initial Setup

The first step to using google analytics is to set up your account and link the data sources.

1) Account Setup

1. Head over to https://analytics.google.com/ , and press ‘start measuring’
2. Insert your account name and choose data sharing settings options.
3. Make sure you read and check which data sharing options you want to enable.

2) Property Setup

1. Insert your property name, and set reporting time zone along with the currency of your choice. Google Analytics will provide you with the reports in your chosen time zone and currency.
   1. Note that you can register multiple properties later on. Make sure you insert the relevant and specific property names! i.e. Stevie Corp Website, Stevie Corp marketing campaigns website, etc.

3) About your Business

You will then be asked to provide relevant information about your organization.

1. Industry
2. Size of your organization
3. What you would like to achieve through Google Analytics (GA4 will still provide you with the same interface and service, but its AI suggestions in the future may vary depending on your choices.)

b) Link your Data Sources

If you have completed setting up your account and properties, you will be able to see the ‘Admin’ page in Google Analytics 4. Now link your data sources in the Admin page by following the below steps:

1. In the property tab, click ‘Data Streams’

2. Select a platform of data stream source that you would like to track in Google Analytics

3. insert your Website URL, and the name of the data stream

• We recommend you allow ‘enhanced measurement’ for Google Analytics 4 to measure various data.

4. Link created – your data stream will now appear on the ‘Admin’ page

c) Adding Google Analytics script to your website (Wix/Wordpress)

For Google Analytics to extract and track the data flow regarding in and out of your website, you need to connect your website with the tracking ID or insert the tracking code lines into your HTML file.

Connecting Wix website

1. Go to ‘Property User Management’ → ‘Tracking Info’ → ‘Tracking Code’ → Copy the ‘Tracking ID’

2. Go on Wix → Select the website you want to connect with GA4

3. Click on ‘Analytics & Reports’ → ‘Old Analytics’

4. Press ‘Go to Marketing Tools’

5. Scroll down to find ‘Marketing Integrations’

6. Find ‘Google Analytics’ → Click on ‘Connect’

7. Click on ‘Connect Google Analytics’ on the top right → Paste your GA4 ‘Tracking ID’ in the pop-up and save.

Connecting WordPress website

1. Your WordPress Admin page → ‘Plugins’ → ‘Add New’

2. Search ‘Site kit by google’ → install and activate it

3. Once you activate it, you will see a page like below → Press ‘Start Setup’

4. Sign in to your Google account connected to GA4

5. Click ‘Go to my Dashboard’

6. Click on ‘Analytics’

7. Press ‘Configure Analytics’

8. Completed! Now GA4 can track your website and you can see the web traffic data.

d) Share Access on Google Analytics with Other People

If you want to share GA access with your team members, interns, management, board members, or others, you do NOTneed to share give the full log-in access to your registered email. Instead, you can share access by inviting them to your GA workspace by following the steps below.

1. Click on ‘Admin’

When logged in click on “Admin” in the bottom left.

2. Click on ‘User Management’

Click on “User Management” on the left column under “ACCOUNT”

3. Click on the ‘+’ icon

Click the + icon on the top right

4. Insert the email address you are inviting and the corresponding permissions

Write in the user(s)’ email address and choose the appropriate permissions. We should take great caution in enabling users to “Manage users”, so generally that should not be toggled on.

*The invited User can now log in to Google Analytics via their own email address and view the website data.

e) How to email yourself a recurring report

(1) Go on the report that you wanna receive regularly. (’Audience Overview’ in this example)

(2) Adjust the timeframe as the period you want to receive reports and set it as compare to previous period.

(3) Click ‘Share’ on the top right → insert your email → set the frequency

f) How to set up and manage view filters

You can exclude unwanted traffic and create custom views by creating and applying filters in GA4. For example, you can exclude internal traffic to show in your GA4 reports. However, edit permission is required in order to execute this action.

1. Navigate to “Admin”. Then, select the property for which you want to create a filter for.

2. Navigate to “Filters” in the “View” column (far-right) and create a view for your filter. Then, select the view you just created to apply the filter to.

3. Click the “+Add Filter” orange button in order to create a pre-defined or customized filter.

For more information on the different types of filters you can create, you can access: The 8 Most Important Google Analytics Filter, or watch these tutorial videos!

What you can monitor with Google Search Console vs. Google Analytics

In the world of digital marketing, Google Search Console (GSC) and Google Analytics (GA) are two instruments of massive influence with one shared objective: to increase website traffic. Both offer free services and are equally important to drastically enhance your website’s digital visibility to potential customers. GSC can monitor your website’s organic search position and identify webpages which lack optimization. On the other hand, GA delivers a broad range of metrics related to web traffic, such as engagement, demographic charts and the profitability of your Google Ads campaign. Below, we have summarized a list of the different features GSC and GA can help you monitor and display.

The post Guide to Setting Up Google Analytics appeared first on Foundation for Shared Impact.

SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” In simple terms, SEO refers to the process of improving your website to increase its visibility in Google, Microsoft Bing, and other search engines whenever people search for:

• Your organization
• Products you sell
• Services you provide, or
• Information on topics in which you have deep expertise and/or experience.

The purpose of doing SEO is to let search engine regard your website as a high-quality source and rank our website as high as possible in the search engine, so that you are more visible to your audience.

Why is SEO important？

SEO is one of the highest return on investment activities for digital marketing. Since most people tend to click on the first few search results, ranking higher will usually drive more traffic to your website. SEO is a channel that drives the traffic you need to achieve key business goals.

The better your rank, the higher up you’ll show, attracting more visitors. Ultimately, the goal of search engine optimization is to help attract website visitors who will become customers, clients or an audience that keeps coming back.

2. Understanding Keywords

Keywords form the foundation of SEO and play a crucial role in helping your website rank higher in search engine results.

What are keywords & Why are they important?

Keywords are specific terms or phrases that are relevant to the content on your website — they act as the bridge that connects what users are searching for with the information your website provides. Keyword research helps you understand what terms people are using to search for content related to your organization. This knowledge allows you to incorporate the right keywords into your website’s content, meta tags, headings, and URLs, which can then improve your website’s visibility and attract more organic traffic.

How to find effective keywords you can use

People may look up information about your brand, product or service in a variety of different ways online. You would want to find the best set of keywords to target relevant content that will attract your audience – and this process is called keyword research.

You can start with a keyword research tool to do this, tools such as SEMrush, which provides data on search volumes, keyword difficulty, and related keyword suggestions, making it easier to find the right keywords for your website.

For example, if you are running an art studio with art jamming workshops as your main product, you would want to find out what words people use to search for and how frequently they are searching for art jamming events, which you can find out as shown below:

Note that the tool also provides you the top searched keywords in different languages —  traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese and English in this case – according to the location you have set.

We recommend you to first assess the search volume. Consider the search volume of keywords to maximize potential traffic, and balance this with keyword difficulty for those keywords.

Example of keyword difficulty of art jamming vs. hamburger

Where and how to place keywords

Where and what keywords can affect your website to the extent to improve search engine rankings. Here’s a checklist you can go through for putting keywords on your website:

• Add keywords in essential spots like your page title, headings, subheadings, and meta description. This helps search engines understand your content’s relevance to specific searches and ensure higher rankings in organic searches.
• Confirm that each keyword accurately represents the content.
• Is well-written and free of grammatical and spelling errors.
• Is up to date, containing accurate information. Regularly update content to maintain accuracy and  revise outdated information to enhance credibility.
• Is readable – structured to make it easy for people to understand the information you’re sharing, ensuring it reads naturally and doesn’t feel keyword-stuffed.

3. On-Page Optimization

Content or ‘On page’ Optimization involves optimizing individual web pages to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. It makes sure that the content on your site is fit for purpose, optimal for google to read and aligns with the topics and keywords that your users will be looking for.

Title tags and meta descriptions

Title tags appear in the title bar of a browser and as the clickable headline (the blue hyperlink) in search engine results. It’s one of the reasons that attracts searchers to your page, so it’s important to make it as engaging as possible.

• Optimal length: 50 – 70 characters.
• Avoid excessive length: Long titles may get cut off.
• Craft unique, descriptive, and compelling title tags for each page.

For example, if we look at the titles of the top search results for “best bluetooth speaker”, there are two things in common:

• They all contain the year. This shows that freshness is important to searchers.
• There’s a lot of talk about portability. This implies an important property.

Using this knowledge, the following seems like a good title:

• Best Bluetooth Speakers (2023): Top Portable Speakers

Meta description is the text beneath blue link on search engine results.

• Optimal length: 110 -160 characters.
• Avoid wordiness, as it may be truncated.
• Use relevant text and keywords for visibility.
• Optimize for short, informative, and relevant descriptions that encourage clicks.

For example,  this following can be a meta description for bluetooth speakers:

• Discover freedom and joy in sound with our Bluetooth speakers – 2023’s top picks designed for ultimate portability. Elevate your audio experience anywhere you go.

URL structure

URL structure is an important factor in SEO as it helps search engines understand the content and context of a web page. A well-structured URL can positively impact search engine rankings and improve the user experience. Here are some ways in which URL structure influences SEO:

Let’s say your target keyword is “Impact.”

If your URL has no subdirectories (e.g. /blog/), then just set the alias to the target keyword.

• yourwebsite.com/Impact/

If there is a “logically related” subdirectory, such as /Resources/ or /Entrepreneurs-Toolkit/, just set it as the target keyword logically.

• yourwebsite.com/Resources/ Entrepreneurs-Toolkit/

• Keywords and Relevance:

Including relevant keywords in the URL can help search engines and users understand  what the page is about. This can enhance the page’s ranking for related search queries.

• Readability and User Experience:

Clean, concise, and descriptive URLs improve the user experience. Easy-to-understand URLs are memorable and encourage users to click on them in search results.

• Categorization and Hierarchy:

Structuring URLs logically mirrors your site’s organization. It helps search engines understand relationships between pages, especially through the use of subdirectories.

Heading tags (H1, H2, etc.)

Heading tags (H1, H2, etc.) are HTML elements that define the structure and hierarchy of content on a webpage. They help organize content into logical sections and communicate the relative importance of each section. Proper use of heading tags improves search engine optimization, accessibility, and overall user experience.

1. H1 (Heading Level 1):

• The H1 tag is the highest level of heading on a webpage.
• It’s typically used for the main title or headline of your content.
• Think of it as the chapter title in a book – it tells both search engines and readers what the page is about.

2. H2, H3, etc. (Heading Levels 2, 3, etc.):

• These tags are used to create a hierarchy within your content.
• H2 tags are subheadings, and H3 tags are sub-subheadings, and so on.
• They help break your content into sections and subsections, much like the headings in a textbook.

Heading Tags matter because:

• Content Structure: Heading tags provide a logical structure to your content. Just as a well-organized book has chapters and sections, your webpage should have clear headings to guide readers.
• Search Engine Understanding: Search engines use heading tags to understand the organization and importance of your content. The H1 tag signals the main topic, while H2, H3, and others indicate supporting subtopics.
• User Experience: Well-structured content is easier for users to skim and navigate. When users land on your page, they can quickly assess its structure and find the information they need.

Image Optimization

Alt tags, also known as alt text, are HTML attributes used to describe images on a web page. To put it simply: tell Google what is in the image — They play a crucial role in both SEO and image optimization.

• Alt tags are essential for accessibility, aiding visually impaired users with screen readers.
• Give them good names. The filename helps Google understand the image, if there’s no Alt tags, the screen reader may simply read out filenames for images such as IMG_281942.png instead of the description of the image.
• Use descriptive alt text. Alt text is code that describes an image in words. The text is invisible unless the user is using a screen reader or the image fails to load. Descriptive alt tags improve web page visibility in image search results and overall website rankings,  enhancing SEO and promoting inclusivity for all users.

4.Off-Page Optimization

Backlinks

Backlinks are links that point from one website to another. Many top-ranking websites will see a large number of pages with a large number of backlinks and are considered an important factor in determining a website’s ranking in search engine results. Here are a few examples of backlinks:

• Editorial Backlink: Natural links within website content, e.g., a news article referencing another site’s study.
• Directory Backlink: Links from online directories categorizing websites by industry.
• Social Media Backlink: Links in social media posts, contributing to site visibility and referral traffic.

Quality and relevance matter. High-quality, industry-related backlinks can boost SEO and traffic.

Social Media presence as a ranking signal

Social media signals like likes, shares, and comments don’t directly impact SEO rankings. However, a strong social media presence indirectly benefits SEO:

• Post Regularly: Share valuable content and engage on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
• Interact: Respond to comments, messages, and mentions to build relationships and encourage shares and referrals.

Maintaining an active and engaged social media presence can drive website traffic and enhance online visibility, supporting your SEO efforts.

Online Reputation Management:

Online reputation is vital for trust and credibility. Managing it involves monitoring and influencing what others say about your brand, products, or services online.

• Review Management: Encourage satisfied customers to leave positive reviews on platforms like Google My Business, Yelp, and industry-specific review sites.
• Address Negative Feedback: Respond professionally and constructively to negative reviews or comments. Show that you care about resolving issues.
• Content Publishing: Create and publish high-quality content that showcases your expertise and positive aspects of your business.
• Social Listening: Monitor mentions of your brand or keywords related to your industry. This helps in addressing concerns and joining relevant conversations.

5. How Can I Test If Things Are Working OK?

Indexing and Crawling

There’s no point in perfecting all the above steps if search engines can’t access your content. You need to ensure that search engines can find, crawl, and index these pages.

• Site Crawling: Make sure search engines can get to your important pages.
• Check What’s Indexed: Use Google Search Console to see if your pages are in Google’s list, and check for issues.
• Keep an Eye on Changes: Look at how many pages are in search engines over time.

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Site Speed and Performance Optimization:

Optimizing site speed and performance is crucial for providing a positive user experience, as you don’t want to make your users wait too long for the page to load.

• Check Loading Speed: Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to see how fast your web pages load.

• Image Optimization: Make your pictures smaller and help your server respond quickly to make your website faster.

Mobile Optimization:

How a website looks and performs on mobile is more important than the desktop version. Most searches are conducted on our smaller devices. However, this factor is easily overlooked because we use desktop devices to create websites.

• Mobile-Friendly Test: Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to see if your website works well on phones and tablets.

• Make sure your website adjusts to different devices, so people have a good experience on their phones or computers.
• Easy Mobile Navigation: Check that your website is easy to use on mobile devices.

Monitoring Organic Search Rankings:

• SEO Tools: Utilize tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and third-party SEO software to measure and analyze performance.

• Keyword Ranking: Keep an eye on where your website ranks in search results for target keywords and compare your rankings with those of competitors to identify strengths and weaknesses.

6. Recap of interdependence of all these aspects in realizing solid SEO

Understanding how these aspects interconnect and influence each other is essential for creating a comprehensive and effective SEO guide. Flexibility and continuous optimization are key in the dynamic field of search engine optimization. Come back to each step whenever you want to learn more.

Remember, SEO is an ongoing process: Check your website performance on a quarterly basis to stay updated according to trends and user behavior.

PS!

At FSI we’re always seeking to improve, so if you have any feedback on this guide/template, please do not hesitate to let us know.

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The post Basic SEO Checklist: Easy Guide to Search Engine Optimisation appeared first on Foundation for Shared Impact.

The SE Directory

What is the SE Directory?

The SE Directory (Social Enterprise Directory) is a list of SEs vetted and registered by the Social Enterprise Business Centre (SEBC) in Hong Kong, sponsored by the Home Affairs Department. Given that there is no legal definition of and registration system for social enterprise in HK, the SE Directory serves as one of the recognised channels for the public to look for information on social enterprises.

The Social Enterprise Business Centre (SEBC) has been compiling and publishing the SE Directory every year since 2007, via its website and mobile applications (iOS: https://goo.gl/h1S9tC & Android: https://goo.gl/htHiHr). Through the SE Directory, SEBC strives to build a systematic social enterprise searching platform, and promote it to all sectors in order to enhance the publicity of social enterprises in Hong Kong. To this date, over 10,000 booklets have been issued, and the search engine and the mobile application have seen extensive use of more than 2,800,000 views and 5,900 downloads respectively.

Link to SEBC here: Social Enterprise Business Centre

What is the benefit of being registered in the SE Directory?

• Fundraising: as the SE Directory is endorsed by the Government, sometimes there are funding applications that are open exclusively or targeting the SE Directory registered social enterprises.
• Business Support: SEs listed in the SE Directory are eligible for a range of discounted or free business support, directly provided by our Centre’s corporate partners. As of 2021 Oct, the covered areas included: legal (Thomas Reuters Foundation, PILnet), accounting (KPMG), banking and insurance (Marsh, DBS bank), HR, marketing, design and production, software and equipment, etc. Browse the relevant webpage for more details.
• SEs Gift Certificate: SEs Gift Certificate, launched in 2014 by our Centre, is popular among big corporations and anyone keen on supporting the local community (e.g. vouchers to staff, for guests on special occasions, etc.). To date, it can be used in more than 100 social enterprises, local shops, and organic and fair-trade sales points in Hong Kong; and redeemed at 7 points – and by Asia Miles! If you would like to increase sales and expand your customer base by accepting SEs Gift Certificate at your SE, after you are registered with SE Directory, you can join the ‘Social Enterprise Gift Certificate Program’.

Application Process

Eligibility – the Listing Criteria

• The applicant shall be registered under the laws of the HKSAR, and have a business that has been in operation for one year or longer
• The applicant should serve one or more social objectives
• No less than 50% of its annual income was generated from direct sales
• If the applicant is not granted tax exemption under section 88 of the Inland Revenue Ordinance, it should fulfill the below criteria, and will be required to sign the Declaration Statement to declare that during the business’s past two years of operation –
  • Only 35% or less of its profit was distributed to its shareholders
  • The business’s assets purchased or possessed were not transferred to other companies or individuals.

Submit the Application Form

If you are eligible, visit the Download page to access application forms and other related information, and submit your application with all of your supplementary documents at sebc@hkcss.org.hk. See below for the required documents.

Listing Application on SE Directory

• Application Form (PDF file) – mandatory for all applicants
• Application Form (Word file) – mandatory for all applicants (same as above PDF file)
• Declaration Statement (PDF file) – for non-S88 entities only
• Declaration Statement (Word file) – for non-S88 entities only (same as above PDF file)

Document checklist (if applicable)

1. Certification of tax exemption under section 88 of the Inland Revenue Ordinance (if applicable)
2. Proven documents of the registration under Society Ordinance, Co-operative Society Ordinance, or The Companies Ordinance
3. Valid Business Registration Certificate (if applicable)
4. Memorandum of Association/Constitution of the organisation
5. The latest independent audit report

From our experience, note that SEBC may ask for additional supplementary information such as your SE’s logo files, the SE introduction in Chinese, Product/service introduction in Chinese, 3-4 service or product photos, etc. as a follow up request after your initial submission.

(For existing listees) Update the SE Directory Information

For SEs already listed that want to update your information in the Directory, complete and submit the information update form to sebc@hkcss.org.hk.

• “SE Directory” Information Update Form (PDF file)
• “SE Directory” Information Update Form (Word file)

Processing and Review

• SEBC accepts SEs’ applications to be listed on a rolling basis.
• After your application submission, SEBC may reach out to you to schedule a phone (or face-to-face) interview. From our previous experience, the entire vetting process including the interview, review of the application, and the request for additional information – takes around 3 months.

Other Information

Other than SEBC, there are other channels that recognise social enterprises. For example:

• “SEE Mark” introduced by the Hong Kong General Chamber of Social Enterprises, featured online platform “SE Gallery” powered by ET Net under Hong Kong Economic Times
• “SE Award Scheme” organised by Home Affairs Bureau and Social Enterprise Advisory Committee
• The Enhancing Self-Reliance Through District Partnership Programme (ESR Programme) by the Home Affairs Department and “Enhancing Employment of People with Disabilities through Small Enterprise” Project by the Social Welfare Department, etc.

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