Tag Archives: digital marketing

Does AI and Free Customer Support Make Digital Agencies for Google Ads Obsolete?

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Does AI and Free Customer Support Make Digital Agencies for Google Ads Obsolete?

With the rapid rise of AI-driven tools and Google’s free customer support options, many business owners are asking: Does this mean digital marketing agencies are no longer necessary? As a digital marketing agency ourselves, we’ve seen firsthand how the landscape is evolving. While AI technology can offer some automation and insights, the personalized expertise and strategy that agencies provide are far from obsolete.

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The Role of AI in Google Ads

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a powerful tool that can analyze data, predict trends, and even automate portions of your Google Ads campaigns. Google’s AI-powered tools, such as Smart Bidding and Performance Max, allow businesses to set objectives and let machine learning algorithms optimize for the best results.

But as useful as these tools are, they have limitations. AI can’t know your business the way you do, nor can it fully understand the nuances of your customer base. It’s a fantastic enhancement for your strategy, but it’s not a replacement for human insights. A digital marketing agency can leverage AI to your advantage, combining automation with a personalized strategy tailored specifically for your business.

Free Google Ads Support: How Far Does It Go?

Google offers free customer support to help businesses set up and optimize their Google Ads accounts. While this support is certainly helpful, it’s often limited to generic recommendations. The free support typically provides broad guidelines but lacks the in-depth understanding of your business that’s necessary to maximize your ROI.

When you’re running a small campaign, free support might be enough to get by. But as your ad spend increases, so does the complexity of your campaigns. Understanding bidding strategies, ad extensions, audience segmentation, and conversion tracking requires a deeper level of expertise.

The Value of a Digital Marketing Agency

Here’s where a digital marketing agency comes in. A good agency doesn’t just set up a campaign and forget about it. We continuously monitor performance, tweak strategies, A/B test different approaches, and adjust to changing algorithms and market trends. We offer services that go beyond what AI or free customer support can provide, including:

Improving your is crucial. Focus on:

  • • Tailored Strategy: Every business is unique. A digital marketing agency builds a customized approach based on your specific goals, budget, and target audience.
  • • Multi-Platform Expertise: Most agencies don’t just specialize in Google Ads. We have expertise in platforms like Microsoft Ads and can craft strategies that work across multiple advertising channels.
  • • Data-Driven Insights: While AI can analyze data, agencies provide context to those numbers, drawing conclusions that shape more effective campaigns.
  • • Ongoing Optimization: Google Ads is not a “set it and forget it” platform. Campaigns require constant adjustments to achieve optimal performance. An agency ensures your account is always being refined for better results.

Why Business Owners Shouldn’t Rely Solely on AI and Free Support

Business owners who manage their own Google Ads may find that AI tools and free customer support are useful for smaller budgets or simpler campaigns. However, as businesses scale, the need for a strategic partner becomes increasingly evident. Digital marketing agencies bring a holistic view of digital marketing—one that combines the strengths of AI with the personalized service and attention to detail that free support simply can’t match.

It’s not a matter of choosing between AI and a digital marketing agency; it’s about how AI can be used in partnership with expert marketers to get the best possible results for your business. A digital marketing agency can maximize the capabilities of AI, while also offering you the human touch needed to connect with your audience effectively.

Final Thoughts: AI and Human Expertise Are Better Together

The notion that AI and free customer support will make digital agencies obsolete is premature. In fact, the most successful campaigns often arise from the partnership between AI, human expertise, and tailored service. By working with a Google Ads agency or Microsoft Ads agency that understands how to blend cutting-edge AI with personalized attention, you can achieve results that far surpass what either one could do on its own. Feel free to reach out for a if you need an evaluation of your Google Ads account.

At Zenergy Works, we stay ahead of these changes. Our team specializes in crafting customized, data-driven strategies that make the most of Google’s tools and AI while maintaining the personal touch that drives long-term success.

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How Can Digital Marketing Help Grow My Business?

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How Can Digital Marketing Help Grow My Business?

When it comes to growing your business, tapping into the power of digital marketing is a game-changer. However, for your efforts to be most effective, it’s essential to understand the wide range of digital marketing tactics available and what they have to offer

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When you employ multiple tactics simultaneously, your digital marketing strategy becomes a robust toolkit that propels your business’s growth forward and becomes a driving force behind its success. 

For example, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) helps improve organic search placement, while paid ads (primarily on Google and Bing) ensure immediate visibility by placing your business at the top of the search engine results pages. This combination gives you both long-term visibility through SEO and instantaneous visibility through paid advertisements—ultimately driving more traffic and potential customers to your website. 

Email marketing uses an organic collection of customer email addresses to stay in touch with existing and prospective customers; social media marketing utilizes social media platforms frequented by your customer profiles to promote your unique selling proposition, brand image, and products. 

Our digital marketing strategies focus on building sales while improving your company image and brand recognition; these proven tactics can be effectively applied to any business, whether B2C, B2B, retail, or a professional service. 

Leveraging Digital Marketing to Build Sales

SEO and Paid Search Ads on Google and Bing have immense potential in terms of driving sales. These techniques specifically target keyword searches used by potential customers who have moved past the casual browsing phase and are ready to make purchase decisions:

  • Keyword research: Understanding what your potential customers are searching for is key to visibility. Conduct comprehensive keyword research to identify the terms and phrases your audience uses when looking for products or services like yours.
  • Highlighting key products and services: Showcase your most popular and profitable offerings; this will direct attention to them and increase the likelihood of conversions. 
  • Create conversion-oriented landing pages: Develop dedicated landing pages focused on converting visitors to customers. These pages should contain clear, concise information about your products or services backed by testimonials from previous clients. Additionally, incorporating credibility statements focused on E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness) will bolster customer confidence in your brand. 

Email marketing is a powerful, cost-effective way to announce promotions or incentives for new and improved products or services, as well as an opportunity to improve products or services through upsells. It serves as a direct line to your audience and encourages them to make purchases or take advantage of special offers. 

Social media is a less formal platform for driving sales and promotions. However, for your campaign to succeed, it’s crucial to provide useful and relevant information. Share content that helps your customers use your products or services more efficiently or offers valuable industry-specific tips. Once you’ve established credibility through your content, call-to-actions to purchase your products or engage your services will be more effective. 

Building Your Image and Brand Recognition

Not all SEO content needs to be sales-oriented. In fact, Google (and other search engines) view content that provides value to users as the best content—and therefore worthy of being ranked higher in the search results. 

In addition, valuable content that educates and informs your audience positions your firm as an esteemed authority in your field. Blog posts and FAQs are instrumental in sharing your knowledge and establishing credibility. 

Likewise, Paid Display and Performance Max campaigns aren’t solely about immediate conversions; they’re designed to reach a curated customer profile and expand brand recognition. While this isn’t meant to imply that you won’t receive conversions from this platform—you certainly will—you’ll also have the benefit of amplifying your visibility in a way that drives both immediate action and long-term familiarity with your brand. 

Email marketing is an excellent platform for distributing content to existing and potential customers already familiar with your business, whether it’s a new blog or essential updates. This regular engagement deepens your relationship with your customer base, fosters brand loyalty, and encourages repeat business—all of which are key to helping your company grow. 

Social media platforms offer a window into your company’s culture and values for those in your target markets, which allows you to forge online relationships and cultivate brand recognition among your target audiences. 

Crafting a Successful Digital Marketing Strategy

While this guide doesn’t cover every digital marketing platform and its nuances, it does offer a general roadmap for crafting a successful digital marketing strategy. 

Keep in mind that the cornerstone of any successful digital marketing strategy lies in having a website that delivers a robust and seamless user experience; your website is the foundation that drives the success of all of these strategies and ties them all together. Learn more about creating a strong online presence here. 

How Will The iOS14.5 Update Affect Online Marketing?

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Apple has confirmed that it will require customer opt-in to be tracked by IDFA or “Identification For Advertisers” with iPhone and iPad users who have the new iOS platform sometime in early Spring of 2021.

How Does This Change Things?  When you visit websites, use search engines or use mobile apps, your activities, in most cases, are tracked using IDFA by advertisers like Google and Facebook to create a profile of what ads would appeal to you.

As it stands now, there are settings in existing iOS versions that allow you to opt-out.  The new version will require you to actually opt-in, or give permission to be tracked by IDFA.  This will result in less IDFA data being sent to advertisers.

I believe that less “big brother”, or more accurately, big data and machine learning for advertisers, is a noble cause.   However, it may come with a steep price.  Google, Facebook, and other internet platforms have to make money.  Right now, the data that is provided by IDFA creates huge income streams for these advertisers.  Without these income streams, there will have to be alternative income streams.

The actual effect on online advertising of this change is to be seen, but Google is reportedly going to follow suit with Apple to “keep up with the Joneses”.   Google is instituting a new program which is purportedly 95% as efficient as the current system.   Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) is a solution that is with Google Chrome only that groups those with like interests into groups for ads.  All privacy will be preserved under this solution.

It seems that there might be a return to good old-fashioned online marketing based on searching for keywords or phrases as opposed to marketing based on interests and intent.  Will this drive the cost of google ads or Facebook boosts up?  Google Display and Facebook ads are some of the most affordable ways for our clients to promote their brands.  Will we return to an online environment where small-sized companies will not be able to afford to advertise extensively on search engines and social media platforms?  

I am confident that these platforms will figure these problems out, but the one certainty is that the digital landscape will again change in the near future.  Most advertisers should also strengthen first-person strategies like email collection, rewards programs, customer data platforms (CDPs), and automated marketing solutions like Sharpspring.

For more on this subject and other Digital Marketing and SEO questions, please go to our website at zenergyworks.com.

Thanks.  Please stay safe and healthy.

Increasing Sales 3x with Local SEO

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Zenergy Works began working with this client in November of 2015 and in the last 5 years that we’ve worked together we’ve:

  • Increased sales over 3x
  • Increased their website traffic 12x
  • Established this client as a presence in local search

This particular client is an Auto Body Shop with one location in Santa Rosa, California.  (The client’s name will remain anonymous for strategic purposes). When we first connect with this client, we did an exhaustive debrief of the client’s marketing strategy, their ideal customer, as well as the types of services they prefer to provide and are most profitable. The initial diagnostic was this:

  1. A new website had been launched, but it needed a great deal of work in functionality like contact/quote forms, content, and mobile load time.
  2. Poor organic placement for significant search terms.
  3. No presence on Social Media.
  4. No strategy to take advantage of extremely positive customer reviews.

We made significant gains for this particular client by employing a geo-focused SEO campaign that allowed them to be found in search and build relevant website traffic quickly.  We emphasized our core values (ie.  OEM parts) using Google Text Ads to augment organic search positioning.  We began using blog posts and social media to give relevant tips on auto maintenance, OEM parts v. aftermarket parts, and how to evaluate if a body shop has the proper certifications to return a vehicle to factory specifications.

By making marketing a priority, and getting constant input and assistance from the client, by the middle of October 2020, we have been able to accomplish the following:

  1. Web traffic now is coming from results for search terms that emphasize the core and most profitable services offered by this firm.
  2. The company has grown and enjoys 3x the sales the firm had in 2015.
  3. The company is now competing with market leaders in its service area for all businesses instead of relying solely on insurance company referrals for new business.
  4. The company maintains top of mind awareness with its target market through social media.
  5. We designed and built a new website for the company that reflects the services offered, is structured for good SEO, and converts website visitors into customers.
  6. We have also helped the company to ensure that the brand of the company is consistent from website to business cards and in all advertising platforms, including social media.

Overall, the marketing strategy and tactics we’ve implemented for our client has led to dramatic increases in sales.  Additionally, our targeting has allowed them to focus on the type of business that they prefer to complete and clients they wish to work with.

Here is a quote from our client about our services:

My company, ———————-, has been using Zenergy’s services from web design, graphic design, content writing, eblasts, social media content, etc………. Eric, Vanessa and their team do a terrific job. They always following through on their promises and are quick to respond to any matter.

If you would like to find out more about how Zenergy Works can help your business to grow, please contact us.   Your initial consultation is free.   The client outlined here is available to discuss how their business has been changed by our marketing efforts.

Increasing Efficiencies During COVID-19

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Case Study: Increasing Efficiencies During COVID-19

Zenergy Works began working with this client in December of 2019 and in less than 12 months we’ve worked together we’ve:

  • Increased sales
  • Increased their closing ratio
  • Reduced their Google Ad spend by 70%
  • Reduced their CPC (Cost per click) by 38%

This particular client is a Kitchen & Bath fabrication and installation company with two locations in the Bay Area (The clients name will remain anonymous for strategic purposes). When we first connect with this client, we did an exhaustive debrief of the client’s marketing strategy, digital presence, their ideal customer, as well the types of services their prefer to provide and are most profitable. The initiation diagnostic was this:

  1. A new website had been launched, but it needed a great deal of work in functionality like contact/quote forms, photo galleries, content, and mobile load time.
  2. The majority of traffic to the website was generated by Google Text Ads at a monthly budget of approximately $16,500 at an average Cost Per Click (CPC) of over $6.
  3. Little or no presence in social media.
  4. Little or no use of the email contact list
  5. Poor organic placement for significant search terms.

We made significant gains for this particular client in the three months we worked together. Then COVID-19 hit. Luckily, this business was deemed essential which allowed them to change their showrooms to appointment only, although sales staff was reduced due to initial declining sales. Despite these challenges, the decision was made to not stop marketing efforts, but rather to pursue our main goals for the marketing program, namely:

  1. Finish the needed functionality and photo presentations on the website and improve mobile performance along with reductions in bounce rate and increase pages viewed per visit and time spent on the site.
  2. Significantly reduce the Google Ads budget and reduce the CPC.
  3. Improve social media presence, build up and increase use of the email contact list, and improve organic placement of the website.

By making marketing a priority, and getting constant input and assistance from the client, by the end of September 2020, we have been able to accomplish most of our goals.

  1. The website is now fully functional, and we are constantly updating inventory and photos of new installations, as well as revising and improving content.
  2. Google Ad spend was reduced to less than $5,000 per month and an average CPC of approximately $4.25.
  3. We have created social media presence on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.  We are experiencing a cost per click (CPC) at around $.10 on Pinterest to drive traffic with Pinterest’s visual search engine and using Facebook and Instagram for further down the funnel retarget.
  4. Branded email templates were created and we worked closely with the client to develop custom email content.  We have scrubbed, verified, and converted the email list in various CRMs that the client has used to a viable list that allows the firm to stay in contact with previous clients with current news, maintenance tips, and industry information.  Open rates exceed 20% on average with a Click Rate of over 2%.
  5. We are still working very hard on organic placement and Google My Business Listings for the website by adding relevant content and link structure, we have been able to improve rankings by over 20%, but still have more room to grow.  This has helped to increase conversions and lower overall CPC for this client.

Overall, the marketing strategy and tactics we’ve implemented for our client has led to an increase in profitability – during a pandemic. Additionally, our targeting has allowed them to focus of the type of business that they prefer to complete and clients they wish to work with. Our work is still on progress, but so far, the changes we’ve made have been sweeping and have served to change the face of this business in less than 12 months.

Finally, here is a quote from the owner of this business about Zenergy Works:

Zenergy took the time to learn about my business and my goals. Eric and his team work on our business like it is their own and work hard to act in our best interest all of the time. They have become part of our team. Most importantly, we are getting a good quantity of quality leads despite the Covid-19 crisis and the current economic slowdown. We are happy that we started working with Zenergy Works and would recommend them for digital marketing.

If you would like to find out more about how Zenergy Works can help your business to grow, please contact us.   Your initial consultation is free.   The client outlined here is available to discuss how their business has been changed by our marketing efforts.

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