How to Use Twitter Ads to Your Advantage

The big debate is whether or not to use Twitter Ads, and also how to use them effectively.

So why use Twitter Ads:

Small businesses, such as mine, SMR Website Design, have very little money to spend on advertising. In most cases, as was mine, even $100 per month was unreachable.

Like Google AdWords, Twitter Ads makes their money on a pay per click basis. You can set a daily budget as well as a total amount to spend. This is advantageous to the start up, as we can control our budget. You can spend either $1.00 a day or $10.00 a day. 

But is spending that much to place your ad in a search on Twitter worth it?

From my experience, setting a low budget, while promoting the twitter card your using in the ad yourself, is

where you get the most bang for your buck.

So what does that mean?

What I do is I set my daily budget for around, $2-$3 per day. This will only get you maybe 4 clicks depending on the rates. Since the Twitter community is a vast place, your ad impressions will be a tremendous number. Impressions are how many times your ad shows up in a search.

But I believe that is not where the strength of Twitter Ads is.

To supplement your low daily budget, you need to promote your twitter cards yourself. This is extremely easy to do.

What this does is target your potential clients directly within their searches or conversations.
For ex. I want to sell a website. I check out #website designer,#website developer, etc... I post tweets using my Twitter Ads card in these conversations, and that's where the most interaction takes place.

People in those streams are either talking about, looking for, or selling websites themselves. That's where the ad does well. And that's where I pick up the most buzz.

When an interested party sees the ad and engages, Twitter gets paid, you get a lead, and the world for that moment is a happy place.

The key here, is that for a little amount of money, you can get your ad in the exact place you want it.

But what about other social media sites?

Here's another advantage of using Twitter Ads.

You can copy and paste the link of the Twitter Card you are using into any other social media, like Google+ or Facebook. A viewer there can click the link, see the card, and engage. And again, Twitter gets paid, you get your lead, and business is good. This expands the reach of your ad throughout every form of social media you are involved in!

The last thing, which is I think the first thing that will make a person decide to engage in an ad or not, is artwork!

That's right. Whenever your scrolling through a feed, do you notice all the words and posts first, or that nicely designed image that says buy something sometime here? You can't miss the yellow card that says $100 off! You probably read the card before this paragraph! 

These cards are designed to catch a person's attention, and bring them in. If you searched for a website designer, and were on a budget,  a yellow sign that said $100 Off would immediately pull you in. 
And Twitter Ads bases their advertisements on a visual card, a small phrase, and a call to action button. Simple and effective.

I do preach a lot about twitter ads, but it has been a successful tool for me and my small business.

So I hope this helps your decision of whether or not to try Twitter Ads. 

Not only do I build and design websites, but I can also design Twitter Cards for you, like the ones above. They are extremely cheap. 

If you need any help, you can Contact Me, send an email to: frank@smrwebsitedesign.com, or visit my website SMR Website Design. 

Holiday Twitter Ads Results

So after about a month of using Twitter Ads, and following advice from Jane Stecyk, the Marketing Manager at Twitter, I have a whole new view of the role social media is playing in business.

Before using Twitter to promote my business, I used Google Adwords. Adwords worked well, was easy to track through Analytics, and did get me a couple of clients. But if you aren't careful, it could cost you  more than you make.

When I first started with Twitter Ads, I noticed the setup and billing was

basically the same. I think the biggest thing is the reach. With Twitter ads showing up in all the related keyword searches, the impressions for 1 month were almost triple that of Adwords, and the engagements were double. That is a huge difference, especially considering that I spent half as much as I did on Adwords.

One of my favorite things though, and I feel what really drove my sales, was that I could at anytime compose a Tweet using my Twitter Cards. This way, the ad showed up in searches, but I could also place it in conversations, as well as on other social media sites just by copying and pasting the link. I was able to really target my intended audience, and get my promos out there.

So in my business, Website Design, like all businesses, it's extremely competitive. It's harder to make a sale, especially during the holidays.

In my two months of using Adwords, I've only signed 1 client and maybe lost two that were interested.

With Twitter Ads, which I've only used for 1 month, (December), I've signed 5 clients and lost only 1! That's 2/3's more clients, in half the time, spending half the money. That's a successful ad campaign for anyone if you ask me.

I have actually paused my campaigns as I am in the process of building 5 websites, and need to focus on them. But once I finish them, I will  turn them on again. I think since the holidays are over, people will be getting back to business, and I am expecting even better results.

So back to my original statement of having a whole new view of the role social media plays in business, it's clear to see with my results.

Testimonials are always the second most visited page on my website. They play a huge part in whether a client contacts you or not. The same is how people are using social media. If their friend or follower recommends someone, they will be more inclined to contact them, or even use that person's services.

"The battle is half won when you get recommended!" 

If you do need any help with your website, whether it be a redesign, or building one from scratch, you can contact me here, SMR Website Design, or check out our website for all the info you need.

Have A Happy New Year!

Great Advertising Tool For Social Media

So here is a great tool I have been using, it's called Canva.
Canva let's you design cards, business cards, media headers, email headers, and of course Twitter Cards. It's costs $1.00 per card but there are also free cards depending on the design.  I've been using Canva, for  my Twitter posts, to attract more attention in the live stream. These posts stand out a little more and catch users attention.

The fact that a premium card only costs $1.00 is amazing, considering the quality of the image. The designer itself is extremely easy to use, and offers many backgrounds and text options, as well as title designs too.

I used it to create the header on my website, SMR Website Design, and it looks great. I also rotate a few Twitter cards throughout my daily posting as it introduces a fresh look for viewers.
The fact that they make the cards for a Twitter feed or Twitter header, makes it extremely easy for you to design one that fits perfectly for the feed.


They also offer Facebook and Google+ headers as well.

So if you do need a card made, I could certainly help you out, or just design one for you. But you should definitely take a look at this great tool.

For more info on this design tool or any website consulting or info:  Contact Me

SMR Website Design

Don't Let Your Website Get Outdated

Often, as the years pass, businesses forget about their websites. Once a business achieves some success, they point their attention on keeping it going, or continuing to grow.

Websites, like fruit or milk, can become outdated and stale.
New trends in design, structure, and even code, can quickly change. This could leave your once great website, feeble and out of touch.

At SMR, we recently received a request from a business owner. He saw our Twitter Ad Card, clicked on our Promotions button, and checked out our website Plans. He asked us to take a look at his businesses website, and find out why the gallery didn't work, and why there were no paragraphs in the containers provided. He also wanted to streamline the site and bring it up to date.

So after going through his site, we found that he had some out of date plugins that would not work, as well as some code that was no longer accepted by certain platforms. His website was built in 2006, so it was very old, almost ancient in the technology world.  The colors, fonts, and the pics were also dated. According to today's trends and standards, this website was no longer desirable for customers to visit.

His other main issue, was his SEO. Yes even SEO has changed dramatically. New trends in SEO management, as a result of a market flooded with website traffic, has forced SEO managers to adapt. Social media such as Twitter, now plays a huge role in business marketing. And now with media sites like Twitter adding business ads and promoting small businesses with their own app, Twitter Planner, SEO managers now need to know how to enhance SEO for social media. 

For ex. Twitter now provides ads that use keyword searches. These ads will show up when a keyword is entered. Twitter records all the info. Impressions, engagements, cost per click, and how much spent. You can easily use this info to gauge how your ad card is performing. By seeing a daily and final budget, you are always in control. You can customize everything about your ad, how long it shows, language, location, a specific campaign, and so much more.This is the new SEO for website analytics. If you are not on board you will miss out on a lot of exposure for your company.

Needless to say his SEO did not cut it.

So we are in the process of redesigning his site, basically from scratch. His blog, links, and pages, all need facelifts, as well as his content. Since he hasn't kept up with updating his info, it all has to go. A total ground up restoration.

The point of this post is this, just because you have a great website right now, doesn't mean you should forget about it. Constantly updating information, social media, pictures, SEO, and design, will keep your website up to the latest trends.

The importance? If your site is easy to navigate, has a nice user interface, and is clearly categorized, your visitors will will have a good experience, find what they are looking for, and inevitably become your customer.

If you need a website redesign or a new website altogether, contact us. We have great plans for start ups, are very affordable, and we love our business.
We have a couple of new promotions going on. Our best is for start ups.

So take a look at SMR Website Design and let us build your website.

Website Design

So I am the owner of SMR Website Design. I had a great idea for start up companies. A Free Website Promotion. I started this promo, using my Twitter ads. I started a website clicks campaign as well as a lead generator campaign. Both ads led me to more views of my website, which inevitably led to some potential clients.

Start ups usually have little or no money in their budget for a website. As I have received a few inquiries for websites, only to find that these startups could not afford the prices I was charging. Being a web designer, when I was a startup, I was not so strapped. I used my other company to help fund this new one. Also, I am able to do my own website SMRWebsiteDesign , update it, as well as do all my SEO and social media, so that is a cost I did not incur.

But as I have been speaking to people and potential clients, I realized that startups need that first break. You know the one all successful businesses hoped for when they were starting out. So I came up with this Promotion.

-free website
- no charge for the design or build
-$30 upfront for 1 yr of hosting
-$30 per month for site maint, updates, SEO, client management etc...

Now on my end, I will lose out on the price of a completed website. For me that means anywhere from $300-$500! But, the other part of the payment plan is $30 a month, $30,for 1 yr of hosting and I run their site, SEO etc... What this does is provide me with income, but at the same time provide a startup not only with a website which they need, but also someone to run their SEO, client list, newsletters etc... This way their website has a greater chance of generating business for them as opposed to creating one themselves with none of the seo or not having one at all.

Since I have proposed this, I have 5 startups. 3 have committed, and two are just getting their businesses together, but they liked my proposed designs, and assured me they will be in touch soon.

So that's 5 clients I could pick up.  That makes the promotion for me worth while monetarily, while at the same time, helping out some good people.

The other side of the coin is that by helping these people, they will recommend me to their friends, customers, etc.... extending my reach to even more potentials.

I believe this is a win win situation for both parties involved. I am happy to provide this service to them, and honestly can't wait to get these sites published and live.

If you do need a web designer please feel free to Contact me with any questions you might have.

-Frank - SMR Website Design

Website Building Tips: Basics

So you're going to try to save some money, and build your website yourself. That's a great idea, but do you know enough of the basics, to not only design a website with a nice UI or UX, but a website that can be crawled with the important information in the right place?

That basic information is shared through your heading and paragraph styles.

What are those?

Well in whatever editor you are using to build a website with, you need to put in Page Titles, Titles, Subtitles and Paragraphs. In the coding world these are tagged as h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6, and p. (Heading 1,2,3.....paragraph) But did you know that these settings have a direct relation to your search results?

So when the "spiders" come and crawl your site, the most important information will be found in your h1, the largest heading. And the information gets less and less important, the further down the list you go, with the least important being the paragraph.

So what does that mean for me?

That means, that when you are making titles, subtitles etc... You have to take into account that the info you want to be found the most, should be in your H1 or page title.
You also can't make every word you write an H1, your search results will be penalized for that. All your titles should be balanced showing a site that has good content and will therefore be more credible.

Hope this helps.

How Valuable Is A Google + Page?

So do you have a Google + page? Not just a profile, but a separate page for business? This page, like all other Google products, can be a great way to get your website out there in searches.

When you post on the Google page, it is immediately crawled, and all relevant terms in the post are added to the relevant search keywords. For ex. Last night I decided on a new aggressive promotion. So after Tweeting it, I turned to my Google page. I made several posts, each with the keywords I wanted it to show up for. So my first post said Free Website followed by the description. I then posted a couple of others with different terms like Free Website Designer, Free Website  Build, etc... I put my Twitter ad link in the post as well. I then cleared my cache and went to my browser and searched Free Websites. In the matter of minutes it took to clear my PC, and type in my search, my post featured me on the 1st page! Actually the fourth result behind two ads!  After scrolling down, another of my old posts that had the word free came up as well. The same result happened for all the posts in relation to their searches.

So what could be the reason for this?

Is it because g+ is a google product? Absolutely!

Is it because g+, blogger and YouTube are completely engrained  into the Google ecosystem and they get priority? Damn rt!

Remember, Google is all about connecting people, so their services are built on that foundation. They want to connect everything and everyone.

So if you don't have a G+ page, or use Blogger or have a YouTube channel for your business, you are missing out on getting connected.

Hope this helps.