SMTP Server Setup with Postal (Step by Step Guide)
There are several methods to build SMTP servers, in this guide I will build the SMTP server using a free open source software called “Postal“.
Postal is a fully-featured open source mail delivery platform for incoming & outgoing e-mail and gives you all the tools and features needed to build a full mailing system for your business.
What is the SMTP Server?
I don’t like robotic definitions like Wikipedia, I love to make things simple.
Simply, SMTP is that thing that allows you to send emails over the internet.
SMTP stands for “Simple Mail Transfer Protocol”. It’s a Concept in Networking that you don’t have to worry about.
Just Know that SMTP is the technical thing that is responsible for delivering emails over the internet.
Let’s connect things, how this is related to email marketing?
Email marketing system consists of two parts:
- The sender: (SMTP service) this is the technical part. It allows you to send emails over the internet.
- The Management Application, where you can configure and manage your Email Lists, Marketing Campaigns, monitor and analyze results, manage your sending servers, and so on.
So we connect both together to get an Email Marketing System.
What do we mean by Sending Unlimited Emails?
When we say unlimited emails, this means that we can send unlimited emails from our server, there are no restrictions by companies or monthly plans to buy or so.
It’s your own server, u can send as much your server can handle in terms of resources. so when you have more (CPU and RAM), you can send more emails and so on.
Setup the SMTP Server, Let’s Start!
Ok, So Let’s start the real work! but before, you need to know what is required.
Requirements to Setup SMTP Server.
In order to Build and Setup an SMTP Server, you will mainly need two things:
- A Domain name
- VPS Server with port 25 opened.
1. Domain name
When you send emails, you will be sending from an email address like this one:
[email protected]
So in my case, “H-educate.com” is the domain name that I use to send my emails. so simply it’s required to have a domain name to use when you send emails from your SMTP server.
Usually, it’s your website domain name, except if you are working with cold emails, then it’s better to get and use another domain in case it got blacklisted, to keep your main business domain safe.
So if you don’t have a domain yet, go and get one NOW! in order to continue the Setup.
How to get a domain? simply you buy one! and it costs around 11$ per year, so it’s not that big deal!
We have a lot of DOMAIN REGISTRATION PROVIDERS where you can get a domain from like:
- Godaddy.
- Namecheap.
- freenom.
- Enom.
- Google Domain.
Here in the course, I will be using Namecheap to get my domain, but you can use any other service if you want, all work in the same way, and if you need any help, I will be here 🙂
2. VPS Server with Port 25 opened.
The second thing you will need is a VPS server. a public server to install & Setup SMTP on.
What is a VPS server?
If you don’t know what is a VPS server, simply its a computer (a server) running in the cloud that you buy from a Web Hosting or Cloud Services company. And it’s publicly accessible with a Public IP.
A VPS can be used to host your websites with higher performance, can be used to run a machine 24/7 in the cloud to do any task you want.
Note: If you are interested in learning how to host your own websites on a VPS server, you can
Anyway, In our case, we will be using the VPS Server for Building an SMTP server.
Port 25 open??
I mentioned that the VPS must have port 25 opened, what does this mean?
I don’t want to bother your head within deal technical stuff but in short. Any network service or software uses a certain port to communicate over the internet or network. Examples:
- Connecting remotely to another Windows Machine using RDP software works over port 3389.
- SQL database systems like MYSQL on our computer works over port 3306.
- Connecting to a Linux machine remotely to manage it with SSH, uses port 22.
- When you surf the web and open websites, we use port 80. and so on.
By default, all servers and computers have a firewall running which blocks all ports except the ones you want. so In order to use a certain service, we need to open that port in the firewall.
So, in our case, we are building an SMTP server, and the SMTP software or protocol communicates over port 25. so we need to have port 25 opened.
So when you get a VPS server, just make sure that the company allows Port 25 an don’t block it, because some companies do this to protect from spammers.
Here is a list of some companies that allows port 25 by default:
- Host wind.
- Contabo.
- Interserver.
- OVH.
- Digital Ocean*
- AWS (some accounts are blocked)
*Digital Ocean Sometimes block some accounts and restrict port 25, but in general they allow all ports.
Are there any other Companies?? yes, simply you can contact the support of any company you want and ask if they block any ports by default. if not, then perfect, you can go with it.
Feel free to use any VPS company you want, It’s up to you!
After you select your VPS company, just create a VPS Server with the following specifications:
- Ubuntu 18 x64 as your operating system
- You can start with 1 CPU/2 GB RAM (And resize later).
VPS Server basic configuration.
Now we have our new Ubuntu VPS server, Let’s prepare it for out Setup.
Connect to your server, using an SSH client like putty or bitvise.
First, check your hostname:
hostname -f
If you don’t see a form of ANYTING.YOURDOMAIN.COM, then you need to change the hostname using the following command:
sudo hostname host.domain.tld
Where the host is anything you want. so in my case, my sample domain for this tutorial is mailknock.net, the command will look like this:
sudo hostname postal.mailknock.net
Map your domain name.
Now we have our VPS server and we set its name. Go to your Domain Provider and map your Domain to your VPS server. simply open DNS management zone and add a new A record like this:
Host: Postal points: YOUR SERVER IP.
*postal is in my case, you can choose whatever you want for your server name.
Setup Free SMTP Server
The VPS is ready, and we can start the installation process. So in order to setup SMTP Server on our VPS, we need to install an SMTP software.
Install Postal Free SMTP Software
Prerequisites
Postal runs entirely using containers which means to run Postal you’ll need some software to run these containers. We recommend using Docker for this purpose but you can use whatever software you wish.
To install docker, run below commands. (NOTE: Each command starts with a – )
-sudo apt-get update
-sudo apt-get install \
apt-transport-https \
ca-certificates \
curl \
gnupg \
lsb-release
-curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg
-echo \
"deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
$(lsb_release -cs) stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
-sudo apt-get update
-sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io
-sudo curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.29.2/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
-sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
-docker-compose --version
System utilties
There are a few system utilities that you need to have installed before you’ll be able to run some of the Postal commands.
apt install git curl jq
Git & installation helper repository
Make sure you have git installed on the server by running below commands.
-git clone https://postalserver.io/start/install /opt/postal/install
-sudo ln -s /opt/postal/install/bin/postal /usr/bin/postal
Maria DB
You can run MariaDB in a container, assuming you have Docker, using this command. Copy and paste this all in Putty.
docker run -d \
--name postal-mariadb \
-p 127.0.0.1:3306:3306 \
--restart always \
-e MARIADB_DATABASE=postal \
-e MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD=postal \
mariadb
This will install your postal database on MariaDB.
RabbitMQ
RabbitMQ is responsible for dispatching messages between different processes. As with MariaDB, there are numerous ways for you to install this. For this guide, we’re just going to run a single RabbitMQ worker. Copy all the below as one command and paste on putty.
docker run -d \
--name postal-rabbitmq \
-p 127.0.0.1:5672:5672 \
--restart always \
-e RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_USER=postal \
-e RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_PASS=postal \
-e RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_VHOST=postal \
rabbitmq:3.8
Installation
Run the command below and replace postal.yourdomain.com
with the actual hostname you want to access your Postal web interface at. Make sure you have set up this domain with your DNS provider before continuing.
postal bootstrap postal.YOURDOMAIN.COM
Initializing the database
Run the following commands to create the schema and then create your first admin user.
postal initialize
postal make-user
Running postal
You’re now ready to run Postal. You can do this by running:
Postal Start
This will run a number of containers on your machine. You can use postal status
to see details of these components.
Installing WEB Client
You can use any web client to run postal on your web, but in this guide, we are going to use Caddy. Install it with an SSL using below command.
docker run -d \
--name postal-caddy \
--restart always \
--network host \
-v /opt/postal/config/Caddyfile:/etc/caddy/Caddyfile \
-v /opt/postal/caddy-data:/data \
caddy
Once this has started, Caddy will issue an SSL certificate for your domain and you’ll be able to immediately access the Postal web interface and login with the user you created in one of the previous steps.
Ginger VS Grammarly: Which Grammar Checker is Better?
As a beginner digital marketer, it may be daunting to choose the one for you. In this Ginger VS Grammarly comparison, you’ll decide on your tool depending on what matters the most for you.
Both Ginger and Grammarly can catch grammar and spelling mistakes. They also check to make sure there are no typos, homonyms, and other grammar errors.
While there are similarities between the both, there are a few differences as well. Let’s jump straight into Ginger vs Grammarly comparison and we’ll individually understand each software. Sounds fair? Let’s get started right now.
What is Grammarly
If you write something online, you must have heard of Grammarly before. With over 10 million daily users across the globe, it’s probably the most popular AI writing assistant, without a doubt. That’s why the chances are that you already know what Grammarly is.
But for the sake of its comparison with Ginger, let’s define Grammarly here. Like Ginger, it’s also an AI writing assistant that checks for grammatical errors, punctuation, and spellings. The free version covers the basics.
While the Premium version offers a lot more functionality than just identifying grammar and spelling mistakes, for example, Grammarly detects plagiarism in your content, suggests word choice, or adds fluency to it.
Read my Grammarly review for digital marketers if you want to dig deeper. In this post, I’ll let you know the top features and benefits of using the software.
Grammarly: Top Features & Benefits
So it detects basic to advanced grammatical mistakes. And if you aren’t sure about a mistake, Grammarly helps you understand why it may be a mistake. It does it all in real-time while you write. And it also suggests to you how you can improve sentences.
Have a look at some of the top benefits you get while using Grammarly
- Check spellings in American, British, Canadian, and Australian English
- Understand inconsistencies
- Detect unclear structure
- Explore overuse of words and wordiness
- Get to know about the improper tones
- Discover the insensitive language
- Align with your intent, audience, style, emotion, and more
Grammarly is a pretty powerful AI writing tool to help you write your content on the go, and it works with every type of website easily.
What is Ginger
Ginger is an AI writing tool that checks spelling and grammar mistakes while you write. It works seamlessly in your favorite apps and browsers, giving you instant corrections for everything from common typos to sophisticated grammar errors.
Ginger offers you all the tools you need to outshine your blog post or articles for your site. It also helps improve your grammar on the go. So, it doesn’t just identify grammar mistakes but enables you to enhance your writing skills by showing synonyms and other details.
Ginger vs Grammarly: Differences Between the Two
Ginger and Grammarly are AI tools that help you edit your writing on the go. They can catch mistakes in spelling, grammar, word choice, and more. Each tool casts a wide net, but they do have some differences.
Ginger Offers Desktop App for Mac (Unlike Grammarly)
Ginger is a writing assistant that’s available via browser and an iOS and Android app. It’s also available for Mac and Windows.
Grammarly is an editor that has a desktop app for Windows but not for Mac. But it does have a Grammarly Keyboard for iOS and Android.
Ginger is a clear winner here because it offers the desktop app for Mac, unlike Grammarly.
Grammarly Has a Plagiarism Checker (Unlike Ginger)
Grammarly offers a fantastic tool that checks your content for plagiarism, but Ginger doesn’t provide you with such a tool. Ginger doesn’t help you avoid copying someone else’s work, which is extremely important in today’s world.
Grammarly is a clear winner here because it has an excellent plagiarism checking tool.
Grammarly Helps You Check Uploaded Docs (Unlike Ginger)
Grammarly allows you to check the uploaded documents. In contrast, Ginger grammar software doesn’t help you with that. That’sUsing Grammarly as your writing assistant is an added advantage because you don’t want to copy and paste the text sometimes.
Ginger Offers Text to Speech Feature (Unlike Grammarly)
So Ginger software helps you perfect your spoken English and see if your text has talking fluency. It does it all because of its awesome tool called Text Reader. It’s helpful when you want to write something conversational.
Ginger Software: Features & Benefits
Ginger software helps you check the common grammatical mistakes like consecutive nouns or contextual spelling correction. It also helps you correct the typos on the go. The sentence rephrasing feature enables you to come up with a perfect sentence to convey your meaning.
Ginger acts like your personal trainer, that gives you practice sessions based on your mistakes. Also, it offers a text reader, so you know the conversational level of your content. The dictionary feature helps you see the definition of any word.
Let me enlist all these features in bullets:
- Grammar check
- Spell check
- Sentence rephrase
- Personal writing trainer
- Text reader
- Translator
- Dictionary
- Emoji feature
Yeah, it has an emoji feature that brings hundreds of emojis to outshine your content. Also, it’s mobile-friendly, which means you can edit on your phones as well. Last but not least, Ginger works with Microsoft, Mac, iOS, Android, Safari, Chrome, and whatnot!
On the other hand, Grammarly doesn’t offer a text-to-speech feature. But you can voice-type your text with the software. However, Ginger wins here!
Ginger Supports Over 40 Languages (Unlike Grammarly)
That may be the most significant difference for non-English writers and marketers, without a doubt. Grammarly may be more popular than Ginger, but it doesn’t support grammar checking and translation for over 40 languages. Ginger wins here, once again.
Ginger VS Grammarly: Pricing Difference
While both the writing tools offer essential features for free, they have their Premium and Business plans. Let’s dig into the pricing of these AI writing assistants.
Ginger offers a Premium subscription for $19.99/month ($13.99/month for a special promo) for a monthly plan. For an annual subscription, it comes at $12.48/month ($7.49/month for a special promo).
And for a two-year plan, you get Ginger for $9.99/month ($6.99/month for a special promo). The special promo is valid at the time of writing and may finish at any time. You would want to check out the pricing on their official page.
Ginger for Business subscription starts at $149 and scales up to $249 and $349 per month, depending on your company’s needs.
On the other hand, Grammarly offers a Premium subscription for $30/month for a monthly plan. It comes at $20/month for quarterly and $12/month for an annual subscription.
Grammarly for Business plan starts at $12.50/month for each member of your company’s team. And you require at least three members of your team to buy the subscription.
Final Thought: Grammarly is a little more expensive than Ginger, especially for monthly plans. But let’s be honest and get to know more about both the software programs before we conclude. Let’s get started with Grammarly.
Summarizing the Ginger VS Grammarly: My Recommendation
While both the writing assistants are fantastic in so many ways, you need to choose the one for you. And it depends on your needs. For example, go for Grammarly if you don’t want to pay separately for plagiarism tools.
Choose Ginger if you want to play with words in languages other than English. Let me summarize the differences for you:
- Ginger has a desktop app for Mac (Both have Windows, iOS, and Android apps)
- Grammarly offers a plagiarism checking tool
- Ginger provides text to speech tool
- Grammarly helps you check uploaded documents
- Ginger supports over 40 languages
- Grammarly has a more friendly UI/UX
Ginger and Grammarly are awesome writing tools, without a doubt. Which one you choose depends on your needs. You’d want to go for Ginger if you’re going to listen to your text.
As per my experience, I found Grammarly to be easier and more user-friendly than Ginger. It also helps me check plagiarism in my content. And that’s why I recommend going without giving a thought. But Ginger is the only option when you write in a language other than English.
How to Generate Content Ideas for One Year Ahead (2022)
You always have to create content and then market it as a digital marketer. And the best thing in content marketing is planning the entire content for an entire year. You never run out of content ideas next time. This post will help you learn how to generate content ideas for one year for your blog or website.
As a blogger, I never find it challenging to find topic ideas for my blog or website. You can also easily find them if you look around and pay attention to the content around you.
You’ll get more ideas than you can handle, especially with how I’ll discuss this post. You’ll also learn how to do keyword research for your blog. Without further ado, let’s get started right away.
How to Generate Content Ideas for One Year Ahead (2022)
Generating content ideas may require a lot of effort at the start. But after you plan out your content for an entire year, you don’t have to worry about it again. And it means the effort is completely worth it.
In this first section, you’ll learn how to generate content topics with the help of the people around you. And then you’ll learn ways to do it yourself. The last section of the post will outline step-by-step guidelines to do keyword research for your blog.
How to Generate Content Ideas for One Year With Others
Small businesses grow 126% more with blog posts than those without them in the online world. For making a successful blog, you need to fill it with topics relevant to your audience. And for that, you need to brainstorm within the organization and understand your audience.
Brainstorm Content Topics Within Your Organization
Coming up with video or blog post ideas can be challenging for one. But if you do it with your team, it becomes way easier than you think. Organize brainstorming sessions and note every idea regardless of how ridiculous it seems.
This is how you do it correctly:
- Note every idea thrown by your team members
- Don’t limit your team’s ideas
- Help them generate as many ideas as possible
- But stay focused on your niche or theme
- Break up the bigger groups into smaller ones
- Include people who have little to no idea of what your business is
Group brainstorming sessions can be extremely valuable for your business, without a doubt. And you can do it among your family members and friends as well. Let’s jump on another way to generate content topics for your blog or website.
Listen to Your Audience
Start adding value to your audience, and they’ll respond. Listen to them always. Pay attention to their responses. And you’ll get to know what you need to do to grow your business.
For that, you need to:
- Ensure the right solution to their problems
- Think of the correct content formats for your audience
- Understand your audience by making buyer’s persona
- Encourage them to share their ideas (Create a survey asking what they want to learn)
How to Generate Content Topics Yourself
In this section, you’ll learn how to generate content ideas yourself. Of course, you can just think of the topics. But you need to look around carefully. Explore forums, social media, trends, and more.
Explore General Forums and Communities like Quora & Reddit
One great way to generate content topics is to explore general forums and online communities. Sites like Quora and Reddit are filled with passionate people who love to talk about a wide range of topics.
By spending some time browsing these sites, you can quickly develop a long list of potential content ideas. You can also get some great feedback and inspiration for different content formats.
Dive Into Social Media: Hashtags & Questions
Social media is all about people and their interests. Your audience is surely there too. All you need is to find them and see what they’re talking about. One of the best ways is to use hashtags on Twitter and posts on Facebook.
And if you look at questions people ask in Facebook groups; you can find some really good topics. This could be a great topic for an ebook or a blog post.
Social media helps you understand what people are up to. You must pay attention to trends if you create content around trends.
Benefit from the Power of ‘Google Autosuggest’
Most content marketers know the power of Google Autosuggest. This is a great way to get hot topics that align with what you type in Google.
For example, if you type “Email marketing” in Google, you’ll have these suggestions immediately:
And the list goes on. You can easily come up with dozens of potential blog post ideas just by doing this. Keep track of anything that looks promising.
Research Other Bloggers in Your Niche
A quick way to generate dozens of content ideas is to explore other influencers in your niche. For example, researching what Neil Patel writes on his blog will surely help if you are into digital marketing.
Here’s how you can do the research:
- Go to Google
- Search for the niche related blogs
- Make a list of the blogs that appear in SERPs
- Read individual blogs and see what resonates with you
The best thing about this method is that it saves a lot of time doing keyword research. You’re getting content ideas directly from your target audience. And you’ll have plenty of ideas for your blog posts, YouTube videos, or Quora spaces.
Answer the Public Using AnswerThePublic
AnswerThePublic is a great tool that allows you to develop your potential topics on the fly. How it works is that you type in any keyword on the site and see all related phrases categorized as questions and more.
It’s like having an idea of what people are interested in on Google Autosuggest, but more accurate and organized.
The results you get are categorized into questions, comparisons, and more. You can also export the data to a CSV file for further analysis.
Repurpose Your Content for Other Platforms
One great way to come up with content topics is to repurpose your existing content. How many times have you already written blog posts? How about turning those posts into an ebook or a webinar?
This approach works because you already have the knowledge and expertise on the topic. All you need is to find a new medium for it to reach a new audience.
How to Do Keyword Research for Generating Content Ideas for One Year Using Ahrefs
Keyword Explorer is Ahrefs’ premium keyword research tool—and it does not disappoint! With this tool, you can get keyword ideas, generate lists of related keywords, and see how difficult it will be to rank for a given keyword.
It also predicts whether a keyword is worth targeting. You can divide keywords based on CPC, word count, and more.
Log into Your Ahrefs Account and Go to Keywords Explorer
Log into your Ahrefs account and go to Keywords Explorer to get started. If you’re not a member yet, you can also sign up for a 7-day trial.
- Type in a seed keyword.
- Ensure you choose ‘Google’ and press the ‘Enter’ button.
- Hover over to ‘Phrase match’ to see a list of related keywords.
- Use subfolders to organize your results.
Filter Results by Adding ‘Defining’ Words
Defining words define the stance of a keyword. These words include
- How to
- What
- Best
- Top
- Review
- Alternative
- Template
- VS
- Ideas
- Free
As you can see, these words define the intent of a keyword. For example, a keyword with ‘how to’ refers to a keyword requiring a how-to tutorial on something. If your niche is email marketing and you include ‘how to,’ you’re likely to get results like:
- How to get started with email marketing
- How to run a successful email marketing campaign
- And how to implement an effective email marketing strategy
People typing these lines and phrases in Google must look for different email marketing tutorials. And it’s not about ‘how to’ only. You can include the words like review, alternative, template, and more.
In this way, you’ll have different categories of content ideas for your blog. Download the results in .CSV format and start creating content.
Expand Your Research by Adding More Niche Keywords
Click on the ‘Phrase match’ and ‘Having same terms’ to see all the keywords related to your niche. You can follow the same steps to filter your results by adding more ‘defining’ words.
Another method is to enter your competitor’s site in Ahrefs Site Explorer. And see all the keywords he or she is ranking for. And then add those defining keywords to categorize your content accordingly.
Prioritize Your Keywords Based on These Factors
There are tons of parameters you can decide on while generating content ideas. These include
- Keyword difficulty
- Search volume
- Clicks
- Traffic potential
- Cost per click (CPC)
Let’s understand them one by one now.
Keyword difficulty shows you the approximate difficulty level of ranking for a given keyword. This metric considers the overall domain rating of the sites appearing on SERPs, content relevance, search intent, and more.
Search volume is the average number of times people search for a keyword per month. However, it’s not accurate but an estimate only. The higher volume a keyword has, the better it is. However, it’s not a hard and fast rule! But then, it may be more difficult for you to rank for that keyword.
Clicks in the Keyword Explorer refer to the average number of clicks a keyword gets per month. It may be different than the volume. For example, ‘time in the US’ may have an extremely high volume compared to clicks.
Traffic refers to the potential traffic a keyword gets per month.
Cost per click (CPC) refers to advertisers’ pay for each ad click from a keyword.
All these factors play an important role in prioritizing or categorizing your content.
I hope this post on generating content ideas for one year helps you never run out of topics. And after that, you can prioritize your content pieces based on keyword difficulty, CPC, volume, and more.
But as for questions, I always recommend answering them regardless of their difficulty and more.
FAQs on Generating Content Ideas
These are some of the most frequently asked questions.
What are Good Content Ideas?
For me, good content ideas are those that are evergreen. They are always relevant and will continue to be popular for a long time. These could be topics like “How to Do Email Marketing” or “The Best Ways to Lower Your Energy Bills.” You can also find content ideas by looking at what’s trending in your industry or social media.
How Can I Come Up with New Ideas?
One way to develop new content ideas is to look at what’s popular on other blogs in your industry or on social media. Brainstorm a list of topics related to your niche and then research to see which ones are most popular.
You can also look for content gaps – topics that haven’t been covered as much as you think they should be. And do your research with tools like Ahrefs, SEMRush and generate content ideas for one year or more.
How Do I Keep My Content Fresh?
One way to keep your content fresh is to update it regularly with new information. You can also switch up your content formats from time to time.
For example, if you usually write blog posts, try creating a video or infographic. Also, participate in conversations on social media and offer your insights on current trends.
Do I Need to Come Up with New Ideas All the Time?
No, you don’t need to come up with new content ideas all the time. You could even reuse some of your old content to repurpose it for a new audience or platform. You can also team up with other content creators to come up with content ideas.
How Do I Research Content Ideas?
There are a number of different ways to research content ideas. You can use Google Trends, BuzzSumo to find out what’s popular in your industry.
So that’s how you generate content ideas for one year or more. Have questions? Share them in the comments below.
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AdSense Tutorial: How to Make Money With Google AdSense
I have divided it into three major parts. First, you’ll get to know the basics. In the second part, you’ll learn how to earn $67 per day at least.
To make money with Google AdSense, you need to create a website, get approved for AdSense, and start displaying ads. But let’s get to know the basics first.
Google AdSense: Things You Need to Know
In this section, I’ll help you understand the basics of Google AdSense. It includes what AdSense is, how it works, and much more. Skip this section only if you’re here for the AdSense tutorial.
What is Google AdSense
Google AdSense is a program run by Google through which you as a website publisher make money by displaying ads. These ads may be text, images, videos, or any interactive media. They are targeted to the site based on the content and audience.
There are tons of benefits of using AdSense ads on your site. For example, there’s no limit to how much you can make with AdSense. It doesn’t require any specific product for a user to sell. And it doesn’t require a complicated process to get started on the platform.
One of the biggest advantages of using AdSense is that you can manage your ads on several sites. There’s no charge to get into the program. So, if you’re looking to make money using your site, look no further than AdSense.
Google AdSense Metrics: What Are the KPIs
But how will you measure your success? Yes, you got it. Using the most important AdSense metrics or KPIs, you can measure the progress. Metrics refers to the values you’re measuring. Understanding them will help you act accordingly and earn money effectively.
Some of the most important Google AdSense metrics include:
- Earnings
- Ad Views
- Number of clicks
- Clickthrough Ratio (CTR)
- AdSense revenue per visit
- AdSense eCPM (Cost Per Mille)
And you can add all these metrics to your Google Analytics (GA) to measure your progress in real-time. But first, you need to link your AdSense account to your GA account. Here’s the giveaway; pick the right AdSense metrics for measuring your success.
How Does AdSense Work
The entire process of making money with Google AdSense is straightforward. It’s a brilliant way for publishers like you to make money using the power of quality content. Advertisers want to display their ads on Google and Google-approved sites. Google displays them and gets a little money in return. And you get your money as a publisher as well.
And this is how it works for you:
- You make ad spaces available on your site
- Advertisers bid to show ads in those ad spaces
- The highest paying ads get displayed on your site
- Your website visitors start seeing and clicking on those ads
- And you get paid by the Google AdSense program in return
As you can see, Google AdSense works on a cost-per-click revenue sharing basis. Isn’t it simple? Comment under this post if it’s not! And I’ll shed more light on the subject. But how much can you get paid?
How Much Does AdSense Pay
Google AdSense pays 68% of the revenue generated by the number of ad clicks on your site. Google keeps the remaining revenue. This is how mainly Google makes money. And just to give you a number, it has made $146.9 billion in 2020.
Website owners get 51% of the revenue generated by the number of ad clicks using Google Search. So how much will you earn with AdSense? It’s hard to say exactly. Why? It’s because your earnings depend on a lot of factors:
- Type of content
- CPM, CTR, and CPC
- Location of your audience
- Your ad placements and sizes
- The niche of your site
And more. However, you can use Google’s revenue calculator to estimate how much your site might earn. As per my experience, it lets you know a little more than you should really expect. Based on a number of factors, CPM (cost per 1000 ad impressions) can range from $0.3 to $2.
But if you create content around high CPC keywords, you may get as much as $50 revenue per click. And that’s huge!
AdSense Requirements
For displaying AdSense ads, you need to apply for the program first. And for getting approved, you need to fulfil the minimum eligibility requirements for AdSense. For example, you must have your own unique content and abide by the AdSense policies.
Let me reveal a few more criteria for you to follow:
- You must be 18 years of age
- Own your site
- Your site must have unique content
- It must have clear navigation
- Don’t go for fake traffic
- Abide by Google Content Policies
- Respect the copyright law
- Use the AdSense supported language
- Have technical pages like Privacy, Contact or About pages
Also, your site should be at least six months old before you apply to AdSense. But it’s not a requirement. You can apply for AdSense anytime. But I recommend going for it once you have at least 100 visitors per day. The more, the better!
3 Types of Website for Quality AdSense Revenue
There are three types of sites that have quality AdSense revenue, according to Google. And it’s important to understand this because this is how you’ll monetize your site effectively. These website types include:
- A blog site
- Forum site
- Free online tool site
You need to create quality content regardless of the type of sites you choose. And you can use Google Keyword Planner to see if your kind of topic gets traction on Google Search. After that, you would want to create your site and run ads on it to make money.
AdSense Tutorial: How to Make Money With Google AdSense
This step-by-step guide will help you learn how to earn money with Google AdSense. From picking your niche to making bucks, I’ll outline everything for you here. Sounds exciting? Let’s get started right now.
Pick Your Niche
Picking your niche is probably the first step of starting almost anything online. Why? It’s because the general horizon is pretty too competitive for you. Also, in this noisy world, you want to have your voice heard.
So choose a niche or theme you want to create content around. Even the tools have specific niches.
This is how you can choose a niche for your blog:
- Explore yourself – pay attention to what you enjoy
- Do the market research and monitor the gaps
- And fill in those gaps by creating content
What ads will be shown on your website and how much money you’ll get depends on the ads displayed in your blog. Ads should be related to the contents of your site but not too general or specific either.
Buy Domain & Hosting
After you choose your niche, go for the perfect domain name and hosting as well. AdSense is a text-based Ad Network, so make sure your domain name has relevant keywords in it. But it’s not a must, of course.
Branding domain names work just fine. Choose a hosting service that’s reliable, fast, and secure. These are some of the top hosting services
I have been using their hosting services, and I vouch for their reliability. Connect the domain name with your hosting account. And set up WordPress to manage your blog’s content.
Don’t forget to benefit from these top WordPress plugins and tools to increase your site’s functionality. After that, you would want to start creating awesome content.
Start Creating Quality Content
Content is the backbone of all the businesses in the world. Now that your site is ready with all the necessary tools, it’s time to start creating quality content.
You don’t want your blog visitors bouncing away in just a few seconds, right? So how do you create quality content?
By following these tips:
- Research and back up your claims with data or sources
- Write in a way that’s easy to understand
- Break up your content into shorter, readable paragraphs
- Use images, infographics, and videos to break the monotony and add value
- Stick to a publishing schedule
Your blog will start getting traction. This is how you start a publishing business online. Now is the time to get started with Google AdSense.
Get Started with Google AdSense
Well, it’s quite easy. Just create an AdSense account and add the AdSense code to your blog. This is how it will look like:
- Read and implement the Google AdSense requirements
- Go to Google AdSense
- Click on ‘Get Started’
- Choose your payment country
- Read and accept the terms and conditions
- Start using AdSense
Some people find it challenging to get approved for AdSense ads. Let’s understand why and how you can avoid disapproval from Google.
Get Your Site Approved for AdSense
If you are honest with your job, it’s unlikely for your blog to get disapproved from Google AdSense. But for that, you must know how things work here. Let me share a few tips on avoiding any disapproval from Google.
- Provide all the correct information when applying for Google AdSense
- Create high-quality content that adds value to your readers
- Build some must-have pages like about, contact, and privacy
- Don’t use any copyrighted content at all
- Ensure your website doesn’t have illegal or pornographic content
- Remove other ads when applying for AdSense
- Create at least 30 posts before your apply (it’s not a must but a recommendation)
Wait after you’ve done everything right. Google AdSense has never rejected me. And the tips given above are the reasons for that. After getting approval, your site will start making money.
Earn More Money With Your AdSense Site
Google AdSense is a great way to monetize your website and start making money. But it’s not just enough to place the ads on your site and wait for the money to start rolling in.
Here are a few things you can do to increase your ad revenue.
Place AdSense ads on high-traffic pages.
Place AdSense ads on pages that get a lot of traffic. This will ensure that as many people see your ads as possible. The more people who see your ads, the more money you’ll make.
Select appropriate ad formats and sizes
AdSense provides a variety of ad formats and sizes to choose from. Select the ad formats and sizes that work best for your site. This will help you maximize your AdSense earnings.
Place ads above the fold
It’s important to place your AdSense ads to be seen easily. Placing the ads above the fold will ensure that many people see them as possible.
Use AdSense optimized themes.
There are several AdSense optimized themes available that you can use on your website. These themes have been designed to help you get the most out of your AdSense ads.
Place ads in appropriate locations
Place your AdSense ads in appropriate locations on your website. AdSense allows you to place ads on various locations, including the header, footer, sidebar, and within the content. Experiment with different locations to see which ones work best for you.
Create AdSense optimized content
Google AdSense is a text-based Ad Network. So it’s important to create AdSense optimized content. This means using the right keywords and writing content relevant to your AdSense ads.
Use AdSense channels
AdSense channels allow you to group your AdSense ads. This makes it easier to track your AdSense performance and identify which ads perform the best.
Try new AdSense ad formats.
Google AdSense has AdSense ad formats that you can use on your AdSense optimized content. Experiment with new layouts and ad units to help you create a better AdSense experience for your users.
Use these AdSense optimization tips to increase your AdSense revenue.
- Monitor your progress and keep improving yourself
- Do the A/B testing for the ad units
- Optimize the color of your Google AdSense ads
- Implement responsive ads
- Work on your niche and the quality of content
That’s all. By now, you must have created your site that is up and running Google AdSense ads. Drop your questions in the comments below.
10 Best Chrome Extensions That Are Perfect for Everyone
This post will help you learn about the best Chrome extensions, whether you’re a freelancer or entrepreneur with online ventures.
Google Chrome is the best browser known for its speed, security, and simplicity. That’s why it has over 2 billion users globally, making it the most popular browser in the world.
One of Google Chrome’s greatest strengths is its ability to integrate with other Google services. One of the many ways of extending your browser’s functionality is through extensions.
These are small scripts installed on your browser to perform various functions. A lot of extensions are created by Google itself.
However, a majority of extensions are created by third parties worldwide with various goals. They add features to your browser and improve your web surfing experience.
Do More with Your Browser
Google Chrome has an in-browser app store, also known as Chrome Web Store. The apps are called extensions because they extend the functionality of your Chrome browser.
They make Chrome even better by adding new features or taking some off your shoulders.
For example, you may not want to bother storing saved passwords in browsers. Or you can design your own webpage with one click when surfing the internet. There’s always a Chrome extension for your needs!
10 Best Extensions for Google Chrome
There are many best Google Chrome extensions available which simplify your work and help you to complete it quickly. And I have made a list of my top 10 Google Chrome extensions perfect for people who work online. Let’s get started!
INSSIST: Instagram Assistant
Have you ever wanted to post to Instagram on your laptop or PC? You might have tried using photo capture or other extensions to take quick photos for Instagram on your desktop.
But what about uploading video covers, scheduling posts?
INSSIST, a Google Chrome extension, lets you do all of those things and more.
“I found it frustrating having to open the Instagram app every time I wanted to post something,”
@youcanbeast.
INSSIST makes uploading photos, videos, stories, and carousels to Instagram much easier.
If you’re uploading a video, it will automatically take screenshots before uploading the whole thing in one go. You can also schedule your posts and manage your IG profile.
Grammarly: Best Chrome Extension for Marketers & Freelancers
As a marketer, freelance writer, or entrepreneur, you always deal with written content. Either you write something or get it written by someone else for your site or social media pages. However, your job is not over after you’re done writing.
You have to proofread your article to make sure it’s flawless. The problem is that even if you are a good writer with a commendable grip on grammar, some mistakes may slip through the cracks sometimes.
You may miss some articles or prepositions. That’s where Grammarly pops up! I absolutely love it. Read my Grammarly review for digital marketers here. And luckily, it has an extension for Chrome as well.
Grammarly‘s Google Chrome extension helps you write grammatically correct blog or social media posts. It enables you to proofread your content while you’re writing it. Here are a few things you can do with Grammarly‘s Chrome extension:
- Set your tone and style
- Find the right words to express yourself
- Proofread while you’re writing in Chrome
- Improve your articles and prepositions usage
And more. It’s a must-have Google Chrome extension for everyone working online. That brings us to the next contender here onboard.
vidIQ: Top Chrome Extension for YouTubers
If you are a YouTuber like me, you will love this extension without a doubt. vidIQ is an all-in-one tool that helps do the YouTube SEO for your channel.
It also helps you find new ideas for your following YouTube videos. In addition, its Chrome extension does many things for absolutely free.
Here’s what you can do with vidIQ‘s Chrome extension:
- Get to know the insights and metrics that go beyond YouTube Analytics
- Find great videos with the Trending tab.
- View YouTube rankings for any video, including your own.
- Track keyword ranking history to determine when a keyword is trending up or down in popularity over time.
- Quickly see which videos are doing best on YouTube right now.
- Get suggestions on keywords to use in your title, description, tags
With all these features, you can judge the likelihood of a video going viral. You can also analyze comprehensive optimization report cards for YouTube videos on your browser. This way, you enjoy the insights on how to get more views and subscribers.
Also, have a look at these 8 of my favorite YouTube keyword tools to grow your channel.
Keywords Everywhere: Best Chrome Extensions for SEO
Keyword Everywhere is a free Chrome plugin that aids in keyword research. However, you can always upgrade to the premium version for increased functionality. I believe it’s a handy extension for SEOs and online marketers.
The extension helps you know some important SEO metrics like:
- Keyword search volume
- Cost per Click (CPC)
- The ranking difficulty for over 15 websites like Google
Keywords Everywhere shows the SEO metrics within the search engine. It saves tons of time, without a doubt. But wait, there’s more. It also indicates trend charts, related & long-tail keywords on the right-hand side of Google.
Furthermore, you can also see the estimated organic traffic and the top 5000 keywords for web pages on Google. So, there’s a lot you can expect from this brilliant Chrome extension, primarily if you work online.
GMass: Powerful Chrome Extension for Gmail Marketers
If you’re a Google Workspace user, you may want to stick with it. However, even if you’re a Gmail fan like me, you’ll love GMass for increasing your emailing functionality on the platform.
GMass (or Gmail Mass) allows users to compose and send mass emails using Gmail. It’s a great tool because you can use it as a replacement for a third-party email sending platform.
GMass Chrome Extension Features:
The Gmail Extension lets users do the following:
- Uses SMTP Authentication
- Supports HTML and Multipart MIME content type
- Send email marketing campaigns to thousands of email addresses
- Mail merge with data from Google Sheets
- Scheduling option for your mass email campaigns
SimilarWeb: Traffic Rank & Website Analysis Extension
SimilarWeb is an online tool that helps you do competitive analysis. By analyzing your competitors, you can figure out the most effective ways to gain profit and increase sales.
SimilarWeb gives you valuable information about websites like their ranking, traffic, keywords, social media statistics, geolocation, and more.
Use the web app to get the most detailed information about your competitor’s websites. But if you’re like me and want quick information, download Similarweb’s Chrome extension. With the extension, you can:
- Discover keyword trends
- Know fresh keywords
- Get benefit from the real traffic insights
- Analyze engagement metrics
- Explore unique visitors data
- Analyze your industry’s category
- Use month to date data
Similarwebs’s Chrome extension is a must-have tool for SEOs and internet entrepreneurs, without a doubt. It helps you know website rank, visitors over time, geography, traffic sources, and more.
Notion Web Clipper: Chrome Extension for Geeks
It’s a Chrome extension for geeks that lets you highlight and save what you see on the web. After a time, it becomes your personal knowledge base.
It’s been built by Notion, which is a Google Workspace alternative that helps teams craft better ideas and collaborate effectively.
But I’m here to talk about its Chrome extension only. So, let me tell you a few of its awesome features now:
- Save anything online with just one click
- Use it on any device
- Organize your saved clips quickly
- Tag, share and comment on the clips
If you are someone working online, you must be surfing the net to do your business. And there are a lot of times when you don’t have time to read or analyze something.
But it’s important for you to do so. That’s where Notion Web Clipper helps you.
ColorZilla: Top Chrome Extension for Picking Any Site’s Color
ColorZilla for Chrome is a free color picker and palette browser you can use in almost any web environment. And you can do it from any point in your Chrome. It helps designers and developers to work with colors like
- Pick colors from a page
- Adjust HEX/RGB/HSV values of colors on a page
- Save colors picked from any site
And yes, you can also use it on Firefox and enjoy a similar feature set. ColorZilla for Chrome is a really helpful preview of colors chosen from a palette on a gradient or web page. If multiple colors are being used on a website, this tool makes finding them all easier.
You can also use it on retina displays if you wonder. So, get inspiration from other sites. Combine different ideas. And rebrand your site just like the way you want. Now comes the 9th top Chrome extension that shows the fonts used on any website.
WhatFont: Best Chrome Extension for Knowing Any Site’s Fonts
Are you a web designer who is interested in fonts? Or maybe you are a standalone website owner who wants to customize their website. You’ll love WhatFont, an extension for Chrome that reveals the fonts of any website.
WhatFont is a Chrome Extension that allows web designers to easily identify and compare different fonts on a page. The first time you use it on any page, WhatFont will copy the selected page.
It uses this page to find out what fonts are present and generate an image showing all these fonts in different sizes. Besides the obvious websites like Google or Amazon, you can also use it on sites where embedded fonts are used.
Wappalyzer: Know the Tech Behind Any Online Business
This extension shows up as an icon that shows what CMS was used on any website you visit. It gives you a breakdown of what tools and frameworks were used to create this website.
This application allows you to detect all types of information about any website you visit. It can discover different applications and frameworks used for this site, including Bootstrap, jQuery, and more.
Why is it helpful? It’s because you can understand the tech behind a site to use the same for yours. Even if you’re not a web developer, you may still be curious to discover the tech behind a site.
So that’s all! These are the 10 of the best Chrome extensions for everyone working online. But wait, there’s more. Have a look at some more extensions for geeky Chrome users.
Other Top Google Chrome Extensions You Need to Use in 2022
Screencastify | Blurring | Unshorten.link | AdBlocker | RescueTime |
Privacy Badger | User agent switcher | Papier | FlowCrypt | BeFunky |
HabitLab | OneNote Web Clipper | Wikiwand | Better history | Loom |
Session Buddy | The Great Suspender | Mercury Reader | CrxMouse Gestures | Buffer |
Checker Plus for Gmail | MailTag | Print Friendly & PDF | Boomerang for Gmail | StayFocusd |
Which of the Best Chrome Extensions Do You Like the Most?
The internet has become extremely important for business. You need to get to know many things related to your work continuously. To get the most out of it, you need to know the best Chrome extensions for your work.
That intrigued me to compile the 10 of my favorites. However, everyone’s needs are different. If you are an Instagrammer, you’d love INSIST. But if you’re a YouTuber, you’d love vidIQ‘s Chrome extension. Let me know which extension for Chrome do you like the most?
Send your contact form submissions to Mailbox
It’s quick to keep track of feedback form submissions by guiding the entries directly to your Support Scout mailbox. This article addresses the submission of communication type submissions to Support Scout.
Application of the Contact form submissions.
Although it is possible to create a dialogue using the Support Scout API, submitting an email submission form is a more traditional solution. If you are not comfortable creating a communication type on your own (light programming required), we highly recommend one of these fantastic services:
WordPress
Wufoo’s
Feedbackify
The contact form submissions to Help scout.
If your form is designed to send emails to your email address that is designed to be sent to Help Scout, those emails will show in Help Scout much as every other email.
You will reduce forwarding delays by submitting applications directly to your Support Scout Mailbox Address if you do not need to save a copy to your email provider. Instead of sending emails to your linked account ([email protected]), send them directly to your Help Scout Mailbox address. You’ll almost immediately see the contact form submissions pop-up in Help Scout.
Contact form submission and spam.
Many types on the Internet can be spammed sooner or later. Since emails created by your form service are not just normal emails, the Help Scout spam filter will often not recognize spammy form submissions as spam. Modern form providers provide all security options to avoid spam submissions to your site-if you notice that you are receiving a lot of spam content emails from your site service, consult with your service provider for ways to stop these submissions.
If you’ve developed your form using the API, we’d suggest that your developers consider adding a CAPTCHA to avoid automatic spam submissions in your form.
How does it work on your website?
If a visitor heads to a communication page on the website, they will have several fields to join. If the fields have been filled up, they will press the submit button and immediately send it to the email address you specify. Behind the scenes, what happens is that when the submit button is reached, the request is sent to a Perl Script or PHP file, which then reads the request and sends it to your email address. This is just an automatic process and there is no need for a deep knowledge of Perl Script or PHP to make the feedback formwork.
When you get an answer, all the questions you have asked the guest will be filled out in the same order and style each time. This is nice as it is easier to read and understand a message or input if it is replied in the same way each time. Even, if you change the email address to which you wish the form to be sent, only a quick updating of the file has to be made to make some changes so that you receive an update to the new email address.
When a visitor submits their submission, you can configure it to automatically direct the visitor to a page that has whatever reply you want. E.g., it may mean “Thank you for your input!” or “We will respond to your request immediately!” This is a way for the client to know that you have received the details they requested. Setting up a contact form takes longer than just having an email address, but the advantages mentioned in the previous section make it worth an additional period if it supports your website.
FAQ
What’s the best application of the contact form submissions?
As I mentioned before, the best 3 applications are WordPress, Wufoo’s, and feedbackify.
Is it easy to submit a form or it will take some time?
It’s very easy, just follow the rules of the article, and you are all set to start.
The Most Effective Method to Optimize WordPress Posts Before Publishing
It’s getting increasingly hard to rank high in Google’s indexed lists. Rivalry is solid, on account of thousands of dynamic sites and expanded information among website admins on the best way to rank high in list items. Indeed, even with specialties that offer a touch of qualification among sites and the sort of crowds they target, rivalry is simply getting stiffer.
So how would you even the odds? Straightforward. By streamlining your articles for SEO before distributing.
Upgrading for SEO is basically an improvement cycle, an approach to support your article’s perceivability to web indexes over the a huge number of articles previously distributed. On the off chance that web indexes can’t see your article or think of it as significant to perusers, it won’t be recorded anyplace in the outcomes. That is bad news for your site’s perceivability.
This SEO enhancement direct highlights in excess of 10 demonstrated strategies on the most proficient method to advance your articles in WordPress before distributing in 2020.
UTILIZE THE BEST POSSIBLE TITLE FOR YOUR ARTICLE
Each article, be it a news update, blog entry, or magazine story, requires a decent title at its head to work. There are a couple of things to recall when making article titles. Exhausting, uninformative articles disclose to you nothing about the story beneath. Extremely long titles get severed when recorded in internet searcher results, and nobody has the opportunity to complete them at any rate.
As such, the ideal title is one that is promptly infectious and enlightening without being excessively long. For setting, a peruser ought to have the option to see the answer for their concern inside your article’s title first. Website optimization specialists additionally recommend that a title shouldn’t go past 50 to 70 characters max.
How would you make the best title for your article? Start with a working title as you compose your blog entry and utilize some force words. At the point when you’re finished editing, create 3 to 5 distinctive catchphrase rich titles and see which sounds generally snappy and instructive without being excessively long.
PICK AND USE THE BEST PERFORMING KEYWORDS
Regardless of whether you’ve recently begun blogging or have blogged previously, you more likely than not found out about catchphrases.
Those are the words or expressions that Google’s calculations are quickly pulled in to inside your substance when somebody types that in the hunt bar. It’s on these words and expressions that Google works your article and rank it likewise in the list items. Those are the words that web guests are destined to use in a program when attempting to discover your article.
You can find the best watchwords for your article utilizing Google’s own Keyword Planner Tool and some other extraordinary apparatuses on the web. At the point when you research them, the stunt is in adjusting short and long tail watchwords all through your article without trying too hard.
So where accomplish catchphrases work best in the article? Specialists suggest that these three segments of an article must element your essential catchphrase: the article title, the article’s URL and the article body, ideally in the initial 100 words or first section. Ensure the watchword is fitted normally on the grounds that when it’s not, it makes an awful duplicate.
USE H1 TAGS FOR YOUR ARTICLE TITLE
Subsequent to making your article’s title and fitting the correct catchphrase in it normally, the following stage is to add a H1 tag to it. H labels mean headings, and the H1 tag is utilized for the fundamental heading in the story. Google’s web crawlers pay special mind to this heading when positioning the article in query items.
For all the subheadings in the article, it is suggested that you use H2 and H3 labels for qualification. You can include your H labels utilizing your statement processor by utilizing the Styles highlight, or by altering in WordPress itself.
ASSEMBLE METADATA FOR EACH IMAGE AND VIDEO IN THE ARTICLE
Designing the pictures in your article is another significant advance in streamlining your article in WordPress. Google and other web indexes recognize pictures in text as well, and use them when positioning your article in query items.
And keeping in mind that Google is turning into an AI-centered web index, it actually can’t recognize what a picture is about all alone. That is the reason each picture must have metadata; it discloses a picture to Google’s web crawlers. To assist Google with exploiting your picture, you have to fix its metadata.
Metadata is the picture title, its alt text and its subtitle. Notwithstanding helping Google, they likewise help perusers: alt text, specifically, is the thing that shows up if a picture neglects to stack, while inscriptions straightforwardly clarify who is and what’s going on in a picture.
Shockingly, WordPress as of now has an altering highlight that empowers you to add this data to your picture in only seconds.
LOWER IMAGE FILE SIZE TO BOOST PAGE LOAD SPEED
Everybody concurs that reasonable pictures are the best for sites. The issue is that the more clear a picture, the greater its goal, and the greater its size. Large size pictures wouldn’t be a reason for stress, yet they hinder sites, making them load perpetually.
Studies done on site traffic as of now show that guests disdain moderate stacking pages more than numerous other apparently more terrible things about sites, which is the reason you have to bring down the size of the pictures in your article.
How would you start? By resizing your pictures and cutting its document size. A picture of, state, 2000px×3000px can be resized without modifying its shape to a much lower goal. You can likewise trim the picture on the off chance that it doesn’t delete the picture’s best parts.
On the other hand, instruments, for example, the Kraken Image Optimizer and the EWWW Image Optimizer are useful for bringing down the picture’s document size and expanding the WordPress stacking speed.
UTILIZE INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL LINKS
One other advance you have to cover is the structure of connections inside your article. There are two sorts of connections: inner and outer. Inward connections are those associating with content inside your own site, and Google adores them. WordPress additionally makes making these connections very simple. Outside connections associate perusers to content on different stages.
To streamline your article further, start by building the outer connections. This requires connecting to articles on different sites inside your substance, ideally top, notable sites, for the best impact. You can make such connections by referring to or straightforwardly connecting to effectively distributed articles on different sites or citing different writers.
Google distinguishes connections to different sites as markers of a quality site that enhances its perusers, which triggers a higher positioning in web index results.
Outer connections are additionally the initial phase in procuring backlinks from top sites, which typically happen when the sites you connected to give back. Google cherishes sites with trusty backlinks as well.
Make sure to physically test each connection in your article to check whether it opens to any place it was intended to. Programmed scanners will in general avoid a couple of broken connections once in a while.
MAKE YOUR CONTENT MORE ENGAGING
There is no preferable attract to a site over remarkable, great quality and exceptionally captivating substance. Since there are a large number of dynamic sites on the web currently, opened and oversaw by individuals with different goals, the nature of substance on numerous sites is less than impressive.
In the event that substance composing isn’t probably the most grounded point, utilize web based composing administrations thesis composing and trust my paper surveys for articles, research papers and white papers that you need to transfer.
Perusers are continually longing for supportive and elegantly composed substance, content that includes the arrangements they are searching for on the web. This is the sort of substance you have to make for your blog or site in any case.
You can generally make your substance all the more captivating by adding connects to other respectable destinations, citing specialists, doing what’s necessary examination and utilizing current insights. Google sees these subtleties and increases the value of your site that triggers higher web crawler positioning.
ABBREVIATE YOUR PARAGRAPHS
Making your sections shorter is an extraordinary method to streamline your article for good SEO, and WordPress makes it simple to do. There are numerous ways of thinking on why you need shorter passages.
Google and SEO specialists state that shorter passages are simpler for Google’s web crawler to examine for catchphrases, which would at last lift an article’s situation in the web index results.
Shorter passages additionally make for simpler perusing. Exploration shows that most of perusers examine articles first before they read them, and shorter sections make this filtering simpler.
Zero in on the length of the sentences too. Use instruments like Grammarly, Ginger and HemingwayApp to accomplish a high clarity score and abbreviate the intricate sentences. Feature the central issues in the article to permit better skimming of the article by a peruser.
MAKE SOCIAL BUTTONS EASY TO SEE AND USE
The intensity of web-based media in web distributing is notable. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other web-based media locales are presently the greatest wellsprings of traffic to web destinations, overwhelming connection referrals and other normal sources.
You may or probably won’t have the a large number of adherents on your online media accounts, yet your perusers can share the substance for you on their web-based media stages and assist you with arriving at a great many more expected perusers.
How would you start? By making web-based media catches present, accessible and noticeable on your site. You can likewise provoke perusers with a basic source of inspiration to share on their profiles.
CHECK RESPONSIVENESS ON OTHER DEVICES
Individuals access the web today on something other than work areas at work. Mobiles, iPads and other littler gadgets of changing screen sizes are presently used to get to sites, some of the time more than work areas. Ensuring your article shows up well on every single one of these gadget screens is another method of advancing for better transformation.
Considering the 15-second principle, one of the significant reasons the guests ricochet off sites directly in the wake of arriving on them is helpless web design. This is brought about by helpless responsiveness of a site to a specific screen size. Thusly, pictures and headings may not show up at all or may be uprooted to some place further inside the substance.
In the wake of editing your article, test what it looks like on changed screens. WordPress offers this component during altering, with alternatives for tabs, work areas and mobiles. In the event that it doesn’t stack directly on one gadget, fix it right away.
CHECK RESPONSIVENESS IN DIFFERENT BROWSERS
Each program is planned in an unexpected way, despite the fact that they all play out a similar capacity. Your article may show up distinctively in every program, and once in a while not flatteringly. As a writer, you don’t have a decision with respect to which program your article may show up in. Everything you can do is ensure your article shows up directly in every conceivable program.
You can do that by physically testing your article’s connection in all potential programs and seeing the outcome. Start by taking note of how it shows up in indexed lists. Is the title cut off? Is the title simple to see? Does the meta depiction show up accurately? Does it sound the manner in which you need it? When you click on the connection, how does the page open? Does each picture and video load? In the event that all the appropriate responses aren’t what you expected, run back to the altering suite.
UTILIZE A SEO PLUGIN
WordPress is as of now known for its superb substance the executives framework, yet it likewise has a magnificent arrangement of modules. Some of them are intended to help with SEO advancement. One of the absolute best is Yoast, and it’s as of now utilized by a huge number of sites to help with streamlining. Do an exhaustive exploration and discover all other best modules that your WP site needs.
In the event that you have a feeling that you can’t get SEO advancement directly all alone, a decent SEO module like Yoast is an ideal friend. It guides you on where to put your catchphrases, encourages you pick the correct watchwords and helps you to remember essential improvement tips as you compose. Website design enhancement modules are not great, however they are acceptable increments to any SEO streamlining system.
LAST WORD
Getting your article to rank high in query items is conceivable with SEO enhancement. The tips above should make it simple for you to streamline each article on your site before you distribute. Note that WordPress has all the instruments you need effectively inbuilt, so you don’t need to look excessively far for help.
Additionally, recall that on-page SEO isn’t the best way to help your site’s perceivability in Google’s indexed lists. You’ll require off-page SEO, clever web-based media the executives and other ideal stunts to get your site up where you need it.
Step by step instructions to Use LinkedIn Events to Promote Online or In-Person Events
Wondering how to get the word out on LinkedIn about an event you’re hosting? Have you heard of LinkedIn Events?
In this article, you’ll discover how to use LinkedIn to promote your next online workshop, product launch, or in-person event.
What Is the LinkedIn Events Feature?
This feature allows you to create an event on LinkedIn to share with your network and wider audience. You can use LinkedIn Events for both in-person and online events. LinkedIn suggests you build your network by hosting or attending LinkedIn events and meeting your connections face to face.
If you’re already hosting professional events, you should try this feature out. Having the ability to include a link to an external ticketing site and share the event with your personal network are great benefits. I’ve also used this feature to encourage my network to sign up for paid online workshops.
Here are some types of LinkedIn events you might create:
Networking events for your connections to meet face to face
Workshops—either in person or online
Product launches
Alumni meetups
Conferences or summits
LinkedIn is promoting Events as a professional events tool so why not create a LinkedIn event for an offline gathering? I’ve been using LinkedIn events to host a regular in-person breakfast and my school’s past pupils’ business breakfast.
You can create a LinkedIn event from your personal profile or company page. Here are a few points to keep in mind when creating your event as your page:
- Any page admin can create the event as your page.
- As a page admin, you can only invite your 1st-degree connections to the event. If you have multiple admins, each person can invite their own connections.
- You can’t invite followers of your page unless they’re connected to one of the page admins via their personal profile.
One of the advantages of creating the event on your page is it allows you to bring in a third party. You can invite someone external to become a page admin so they can manage your event for you. This is a good option if you’re hosting a larger event and partnering with an outside team.
When you create an event on your company page or share an event to your company page that you created from your profile, you have the opportunity to sponsor that post.
Now that you understand the how LinkedIn events work, here’s how to set up your own LinkedIn event.
1: Set Up Your LinkedIn Event
On your home page, you’ll find an Events section in the left-hand column. It will include any events you’ve been invited to, as well as ones you’re hosting or have hosted in the past. At the time of writing, all of your events will show up under this heading. You can’t filter by new, existing, or past events.
To create a LinkedIn event from your personal profile, click on the + sign in the Events section.
If you’re creating the event from your company page, click the Admin tab on your page and select Create an Event.
Pro Tip: There’s no “draft” feature for LinkedIn events. Once you start creating your event, you’ll have to complete it or abandon it. So make sure you have your graphics, copy, and ticketing link in hand before you get started.
Provide Event Details
In the Create Event window, type in your event name and select your event organizer. Note that once the event has been created, you can’t change the event host or organizer role.
Fill in all of the relevant details about your event including the location, venue, date, and time. The Location field is mandatory even if your event is hosted online. When I hosted an online workshop, I entered UK as the location.
You can also upload a logo (400 x 400 px) and banner image (1776 x 444 px). The logo won’t show up in the Events listing on your profile, however.
Write the event description to appeal to your target audience. Highlight the main topic of your event, note if you plan to have speakers, and detail what the schedule is. Make sure you @mention any speakers.
The description can be up to 5,000 characters but the description box won’t expand automatically as you type. Drag the icon in the lower-right corner to expand it manually.
Link to an External Ticketing Site
LinkedIn lets you add a link to an external website for ticketing. If you’re selling tickets to your event, add a link to your paid tickets. Unlike Facebook events, ticketing isn’t an automatic integration.
When you invite someone to your event, make it clear if it’s ticketed. Your invitees may accept an invitation and not be aware that they need to buy a ticket.
You’ll likely see a lot of attendees who accepted the invitation but haven’t purchased a ticket. If you’re hosting a paid webinar as your event, contact attendees to let them know how to purchase their spot.
Set LinkedIn Event Privacy Settings
You can set up LinkedIn events as public or private. If your event is public, anyone can choose to attend. If it’s private, only invited guests or people who have the link to the event can see it and attend. Uninvited guests have to be approved before they can attend. If your event is private, you’ll be notified if someone is marked as ‘pending’ to be admitted into your event.
Note that the privacy of the event can’t be changed once you’ve set it.
When you’re finished filling out the details of your event, click the Create button to publish it. Your event page will look similar to this:
#2: Promote Your LinkedIn Event to Your LinkedIn Network
Now that you’ve created your event, what’s next? Events aren’t currently discoverable on LinkedIn so you’ll have to do some work to promote your event.
The posts you publish in the event feed will only be seen by confirmed attendees so think about sharing content about the event on your personal profile and company page for more visibility. And if you send a confirmation email to people who sign up to attend, consider asking them to share the event with their network.
On your event page, you’ll see two more ways to encourage people to attend your event:
- Invite your connections.
- Let your network know about the event.
Invite Your Connections to the Event
When you click on the Invite button, a pop-up box appears with a list of all of your network connections. LinkedIn doesn’t offer an “Invite All” option so you’ll need to select people individually.
If you have a large network, there are a couple of ways to narrow this list:
- Use the search box to find specific members of your network by name.
- Filter your connections by location, company, school, and industry.
If you’re creating an industry-specific group, you can choose one of the options listed under Industries or add your own industry.
Once you’ve selected the connections you want to invite, simply click Invite to send the invitations. Currently, there’s no option to add a note to your invitation.
Once someone accepts your invitation, they’ll be able to see all of the other attendees. Attendees can connect and network with each other before the event.
Share the Event With Your Network
To share the event with your LinkedIn connections, click the Share button next to Let Your Network Know About This Event on your event page. A pop-up box will appear with a draft message that includes your event name. Customize this message for your audience and voice.
If you’re ticketing your event, include some information about the tickets. Also add three relevant hashtags that your ideal audience will be following on LinkedIn.
Pro Tip: Click the Share button on your event page to promote your event beyond just a post. You’ll find options to send an event link in a message to people in your network, copy the link to share in your newsletter or elsewhere online, or post about the event on Twitter or Facebook.
#3: Engage and Connect With Your LinkedIn Event Attendees
To keep your LinkedIn event top of mind and encourage people to show up to it, engage with attendees inside the event feed.
Send Connection Requests to Attendees Who Aren’t in Your LinkedIn Network
Once people start to accept your invitations, you’ll see a list of attendees on your event page. Attendees show up on the right-hand side of the page. To manage and communicate with attendees, click on See All.
The next screen will show details about each of the attendees in your event. You can send a message to attendees who are personal connections. If someone has marked themselves as attending but isn’t yet in your network, send them a connection request.
Share a Post to the LinkedIn Event Feed
Your LinkedIn event has its own feed so your general network on LinkedIn won’t see any conversation inside the event. Only people who’ve accepted the invitation to attend the event will see posts in the event feed. When you post in the event feed, the LinkedIn algorithm will decide which attendees will also see your post in their personal feed.
Start creating content inside the event to build interest. Explain what’s going to happen at the event, tag any speakers you’ve invited, and welcome attendees.
Encourage attendees to post questions or introduce themselves in the event feed. As with the posts you share in your personal LinkedIn feed, you can add images, video, and documents to your posts inside the event.
Pro Tip: If you’ll have guest speakers at your event, encourage them to post in the event feed.
As the event organizer, you’ll receive a notification when someone posts in your event feed.
#4: Edit or Change Event Details
Once you’ve created your LinkedIn event, you can edit, cancel, or delete it. To see these options, click the Edit button below your banner image.
If you select Edit Event from the drop-down menu, you can edit the date, time, or location of the event.
Conclusion
LinkedIn Events was first launched in 2011 and then removed by LinkedIn in 2012. LinkedIn started a rollout of the new version in late 2019. If you regularly host events both on- and offline, you’ll find the Events feature a great tool to use alongside other event management tools.
To encourage people to sign up and attend, share the event on LinkedIn and your other social platforms and invite people from your personal LinkedIn network. And be sure to create engaging posts inside your event to build interest.
What do you think? Will you try LinkedIn Events for your business? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Beginner’s Guide to Successful Facebook Ads
Thinking of diving into Facebook ads? Wondering what the common pitfalls are?
In this article, you’ll discover three important considerations when starting your first Facebook ad campaign
#1: Commit to a Facebook Funnel Implementation
All successful marketing starts with a clear strategy and Facebook advertising is no exception. With a strategy built around your available audience assets, you can execute campaigns that will deliver the best results for your business in the fastest time.
You want to implement a Facebook advertising strategy that moves someone from a stranger to a paying customer through a series of ad campaigns, known as a Facebook ad funnel.
There are three stages to a successful Facebook ad funnel:
- Awareness: At the top of the ad funnel, the goal is to generate awareness of your business. In doing so, you’re also building recognition in the Facebook news feed, which is important later in the funnel, as well as for your business’s credibility and authority.
- Engagement remarketing: For this stage, the goal is to build consideration of your products or services in the minds of your target audience. You’re driving people from Facebook to your website to find out more and purchase.
- Website remarketing: The goal at this stage is to drive sales and leads by engaging people who have visited your website.
You always want to start the funnel implementation at the awareness stage because these campaigns target cold audiences of new people and don’t use existing audiences.
Whether you implement the other two funnel stages—engagement and website remarketing—will depend on your answers to the following two questions:
- Do you have Facebook pixeled website traffic?
- Do you have other existing engaged audiences? These are engagement-based custom audiences that include video viewers and Facebook page engagers.
If you answered yes to both questions (meaning you have pixeled website traffic and other existing engaged audiences), you can start with all three campaigns: awareness, engagement remarketing, and website remarketing.
If you answered yes to the first question (you have pixeled website traffic) but no to the second question (you don’t have other existing engaged audiences), you can launch both awareness and website remarketing campaigns at the same time.
If you answered no to the first question (you don’t have pixeled website traffic) but yes to the second question (you have other existing engaged audiences), you can start with awareness and engagement remarketing.
If you answered no to both questions (you don’t have any pixeled website traffic or existing engaged audiences), you have to start from scratch. Here’s how:
- Start with the awareness stage.
- Once you have enough engaged audiences, implement engagement remarketing, which drives people to your website.
- Once you have enough website traffic, implement website remarketing.
#2: Set Up and/or Optimize Your Facebook Pixel Settings
The work you do researching and setting up new Facebook ad campaigns can be worthless if you aren’t tracking the results and then optimizing your campaigns. If you don’t install the Facebook pixel and conversion events, you won’t know if your campaigns are delivering the desired results and you won’t be able to measure your return on ad spend (ROAS).
So once you’ve decided on your Facebook ads strategy, set up your Facebook pixel and conversion tracking and/or turn on advanced pixel settings.
Install the Pixel and Conversion Events
There are two parts to tracking on Facebook. The first part is the Facebook pixel, which is a piece of code that you install across your whole website. It allows you to build website custom audiences so you can target your website visitors with Facebook ads.
The second part is conversion events, also known as standard events. These are specific actions that someone takes on your website that you can track and attribute to your ad campaigns. These actions include product page views, add to cart, initiate checkout, purchases, and leads.
Turn on Advanced Facebook Pixel Settings
Once you’ve installed the pixel and event tracking, ensure the following advanced settings are turned on. These are small details that can make a big difference in your pixel’s effectiveness.
Start by navigating to your Events Manager.
From the drop-down icon list, select Settings.
The first setting relates to cookie usage. If it’s set to third-party, change it to first-party. By doing this, your pixel will be implemented on your website and read by browsers as main code, not third-party, so it won’t be excluded from your site.
Also check that automatic advanced matching is turned on. This is the second advanced pixel option you need to turn on. Automatic advanced matching tracks additional pixel data known as microdata so you’ll see a higher attribution and match rate for event actions and website custom audience sizes.
#3: Create Target Audiences
Before you set up any Facebook ad campaigns highlighted in your strategy implementation, you need to create the audiences you’re going to target.
Understand Audience Temperatures
Audiences on Facebook fall into one of three categories: cold, warm, or hot. These are also known as audience temperatures. Each temperature correlates with different audience types, as well as a stage in your Facebook ad funnel.
First up are cold audiences, which contain people who don’t know you and have yet to be exposed to your business. Cold audiences are incredibly important because they’re the foundation of sustainable Facebook advertising and the starting point for the majority of people who will become your customers from your ad campaigns.
Cold audiences are the largest of the three audience temperatures and include both saved audiences and lookalike audiences.
Warm audiences are next. They contain people who have previously engaged with your business on a Facebook-owned property, whether that interaction came via organic or paid content. Warm audiences are Facebook custom audiences, excluding website.
Finally, we have hot audiences. These audiences are comprised of people who have visited your website previously and are familiar with your business but haven’t yet converted into customers or clients. You create hot audiences by using the website custom audience feature.
Create Your Saved, Lookalike, and Custom Audiences
For all of the Facebook ad strategies mentioned earlier, you want to create your cold audiences. These include saved audiences and lookalike audiences.
Before you can create your lookalike audiences, you need to create the source audiences upon which your lookalike audiences will be built. Facebook lets you choose from nine different custom audience types to create your source audiences. You want to choose the one that will deliver the best results, and that depends on what marketing assets you have in your business.
To visualize this, if you have a large database of customers, create a customer list custom audience and use that as your source audience. This will deliver the highest-quality lookalike because you’re essentially cloning your customers.
By creating the source audiences for your lookalike audiences, you’ll have also created some of your warm and hot audiences such as page engagement custom audiences and website custom audiences.
Now finish creating the rest of your warm and hot audiences, which you’ll use in your engagement and website remarketing campaigns.
Pro Tip: With website custom audiences, start with an audience of all traffic in the last 180 days. Then create audiences for 90, 60, 30, 14, 10, and 3 days. Although you might only have enough people to run a campaign to the 180-day audience at the moment, when you start driving people to your website, the audience size of the other durations will start to increase. Eventually, you’ll be able to test the other audience durations for effectiveness.
Conclusion
Facebook has the most advanced targeting capabilities and versatile ad formats of any advertising platform. For these reasons, there are now more than 7 million global advertisers, competition is intense, and ad costs continue to increase year over year.
Anyone can set up Facebook ads in a few minutes by using the Boost functionality so there’s little or no barrier to entry. However, this means that new advertisers can easily jump on the platform, run Boost posts or full ad campaigns with very little knowledge, and find themselves quickly losing money due to mistakes with their campaigns.
So before you set your next campaign live, follow the steps above to put yourself in the best position to see great results from your Facebook advertising.
What do you think? Do you have any other important considerations to add to this list for new Facebook advertisers? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
The most effective method to Scale Valuable Facebook Lookalike Audiences
Want better results from your Facebook advertising? Wondering how to reach more people who look like your top customers?
In this article, you’ll discover how to create and scale high-intent lookalike audiences with Facebook ads.
Why Increasing the Lookalike Percentage Doesn’t Work for Scaling
Facebook lookalike audiences let you reach a large number of people who share the same characteristics as your existing customers. But how do you scale your lookalike audiences without damaging their quality?
While using a larger lookalike percentage could help you reach more people, those people would end up being less similar to your seed audience, and therefore less likely to convert. In other words, increasing the reach would come at the expense of your audience’s quality.
When you increase the lookalike percentage, you may reach a point where the audience becomes so large that it’s similar to a broad audience with no targeting at all. In this case, you’re not helping Facebook narrow down the target audience and are relying more on the algorithm to laser-target your prospects within a huge audience pool. While this could work for large accounts with a lot of data, it isn’t leveraging the full power of lookalike audiences.
A ‘super’ lookalike audience, on the other hand, has the advantage of both size and quality. It’s a combination of different lookalikes—each of which holds very similar characteristics to the custom audience it’s based on—that you target within a single ad set.
A super lookalike maximizes Facebook’s lookalike capabilities. Facebook’s algorithm gets better and more accurate by the day but when you narrow down and specify the characteristics of your desired audience, you help Facebook do an even better job and get better results.
Due to the high relevance of the super lookalike, it provides a higher click-through rate and a higher rate of conversion while improving your relevance score. Facebook will then reward these audiences with a lower CPM (cost per thousand impressions), which improves the overall performance of the ad set.
This method works for basically every industry because it relies on Facebook’s lookalike data module, which works across the board. And the more data you have, the better it will work. The most important data points you need are a large variety of high-performing custom audiences and a significant amount of historical data about high-performing lookalike audiences.
Now we’ll look at how to set up and scale high-intent lookalike audiences to target with your Facebook ads.
#1: Create Facebook Custom Audiences of Top Customers
The quality of your custom audience is crucial to creating a solid performance-driving lookalike audience. You want to focus on your most valuable customers, and therefore create custom audiences based on bottom-of-the-funnel conversion events.
You can create custom audiences based on your Facebook pixel data, targeting people who have completed different conversion events on your website.
Another option for focusing on your best customers is to create a value-based custom audience. To create this audience, you use your customer list and add an arbitrary number to each customer, representing their lifetime value to your business. You simply upload this list to Facebook and create your audience based on it.
Keep in mind that you’ll need to update your customer list regularly to keep this audience relevant for your business. Creating this value-based audience using your pixel data will save you a bit of trouble because your customer data will be updated automatically.
Moreover, in a recent update, Facebook added the option to turn every one of your pixel-based lookalike audiences into a value-based one with the click of a button.
Other valuable custom audiences that advertisers tend to overlook are people who spend time on your product pages, your top spenders (one of the most powerful value-based audiences), and people who watched 75% or 95% of your video.
For eCommerce, I recommend starting with custom audiences based on high-intent events that take place on your website:
- Purchase
- Initiate checkout
- Add payment info
- Add to cart
To create these website-based custom audiences, make sure you have the Facebook pixel installed on your website and that it identifies these specific events.
Once you have this in place, go to Audiences in Facebook Ads Manager to create your first custom audience. Click the Create Audience drop-down menu and select Custom Audience.
In the Create a Custom Audience window, choose Website as the source.
On the next screen, select your Facebook pixel and use the drop-down menu to choose your desired event. Then add a name and click Create Audience.
When you’re finished creating your first audience, repeat the above steps to create the other three custom audiences.
Keep in mind that while these custom audiences might overlap, the final lookalikes will end up being big and diverse enough that the overlap won’t hinder your campaigns. Additionally, all of these lookalikes will be targeted within the same ad set so you don’t have to worry about your ad sets competing against each other by targeting the same audience.
Combining audiences of people who are likely to purchase, initiate checkout, add payment info, and add to cart will get you one large audience that includes users who are highly likely to take several high-intent actions on your website. This is the power of the super lookalike audience you’ll set up.
#2: Identify Top Custom Audiences to Seed ‘Super’ Lookalike Audiences
The next step is to identify your top-performing custom audiences according to your key performance indicators (KPIs). You’ll then create low-percentage lookalikes from each of your best custom audiences and target them in the same ad set. Each of these ‘blended’ lookalike audiences will be a super lookalike audience.
To identify your current top-performing ad sets, open Facebook Ads Manager and go to the Ad Sets tab. Add a column for your most important metric (ROAS, for instance) and sort the list by it.
After you’ve identified your top ad sets, find out which audiences are behind them. To do this, click Edit under the ad set name.
Then scroll down to the Audience section and note the audience name. Repeat this process for each of your top ad sets to compile a list of your top-performing custom audiences.
Now go to Audiences in Ads Manager to create low-percentage lookalikes based on each of your top custom audiences. Select your first custom audience and click the button with the three dots. Choose Create Lookalike from the drop-down menu.
I recommend that you use 0%–3% lookalike audiences, depending on your target country.
Now combine the lookalike audiences you just created and start testing them to find the top-performing super lookalikes. To do this, launch three to five ad sets, each of which will target a different combination of 3–15 lookalike audiences (your super lookalike audiences).
#3: Four Ways to Scale Your Lookalike Audiences
Getting great results early on will allow you to vertically scale your super lookalike audience by increasing budgets.
Once you max out the audience, you can horizontally scale it by applying the same methods used for creating the super lookalike audience:
Different Lookalike Percentages
Try creating lookalikes from the same seed audience using different percentages—2%, 5%, and 10%, for example.
Pro Tip: When testing different lookalike percentages, don’t exclude the smaller-percentage audiences you used previously. The reason is that the audience is so large that even if there will eventually be some overlap, it would be negligible, especially when considering the auction overlap. Therefore, there’s no need to exclude your best audiences that have already proven to deliver high performance.
Different Seed Audiences
The more audiences you can test, the better. Start with strong audiences and use all of your data. I recommend testing these audiences:
- Website visitors: Start with visitors who performed high-intent events (as outlined above) and then progress to visitors who performed lower-intent events like page view, view content, and so on.
- Social page data: People who have engaged with your Facebook page, Instagram business profile, or other presence.
- Ad engagers: People who have saved or engaged with your ads.
- Email list: People who have bought from you directly on Facebook or somewhere else.
Different Recency of Data
When creating custom audiences of Facebook page engagers, Instagram business profile engagers, and ad engagers—as well as video viewers—you can extend the time frame to include data from the past 365 days.
For website visitors, you’re limited to a maximum time frame of the past 180 days; therefore, I recommend you also add a custom audience with your all-time purchase data. You can do this by uploading your email list to Facebook.
When testing different recency of data, split the days into various data sets. Ideally, test data from the past 7, 14, 30, 60, 90, 180, and 365 days (when possible).
Different Countries and Regions
Try to create lookalike audiences in different countries and regions. Start with your best-performing countries and expand farther. You can also combine multiple countries or locations within a single seed audience (but don’t combine low- and high- CPM regions).
If you’re marketing worldwide, a good combination is the largest English-speaking countries: U.S., UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
On top of all of these options, when scaling, try to mix all of these different variations. You can either play with one element (country, recency, etc.) at a time or with all of them at once.
Pro Tip: After testing your super lookalike audiences with low budgets using ad set budget optimization, you can use Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO) and launch four or five different ad sets, each containing four super lookalike audiences. CBO works best with larger audiences so you can use slightly higher-percentage lookalike audiences at this stage.
Conclusion
Super lookalike audiences work best when they’re created based on real data (which you may already have in your account). The more data you have, the better your super lookalike audience will work, which will improve your Facebook ad performance.
The “secret sauce” of super lookalike audiences is utilizing all of your possible data sets to create an extremely high-quality audience in terms of relevance. At the same time, this method keeps it large enough for Facebook to run it through its algorithm and work its magic.
Not a lot of advertisers are currently using this approach so it’s an opportunity for you to stay ahead of the competition. Create more ad sets leveraging super lookalike audiences to get better returns on your ad spend.
What do you think? Will you try targeting high-intent super lookalike audiences with your Facebook ads? Share your thoughts in the comments below.