New Visibility Services for Local Businesses

Small business visibility services.

We’ve just introduced a new service for businesses located in Fredericksburg and Harrisonburg, Virginia. Check out the details or view on our website.

Our unique local business visibility program allows you to choose the services and level of engagement you need to grow your business. Choose from services like drone photography, drone videography, video creation for ad and website use, Google My Business management, and Google Ads Express advertising —all with an eye on driving more local traffic to your store or to increase sales of your local services.

Flexible Local Business Program Options

You get to choose what makes sense for your business*, but having a professional recommendation can make all the difference in your results.

Drone Shoot Package

Our experienced FAA Licensed, insured, and supremely experienced drone pilot will work with you to create a custom drone package based on your needs. Prices start at $489 for 20 minutes of fly time and the creation of a custom 2 minute video using drone video and still aerial photography. (There is an additional charge for longer fly times based on the area to photograph, travel outside our two service areas, and the addition of music to the video.) Our pilot will provide a custom quote based on the review of your location and unique needs.

Google My Business (GMB) Account Set Up and Management

You may already have a Google My Business account and just need a review and monthly management or you may need help with the full set up. We can assist with GMB verification, verbiage for your page, add monthly posts or events on your schedule, and even mentor you on how to manage it all yourself after et up. GMB set up prices start at $289 or just buy our services by the hour for what you need, when you need it, on your own unique schedule or on-demand.

Google Ads Express Set Up and Management

Google My Business makes it easy to get started in a junior automated version of Google Ads called Google Ads Express. We can set up your first ad program and budget and teach you how to manage it. Or, test out Google Ads with Express and then move to the full professional version of Google Ads for results that are an investment in your business’ growth. Management prices start at $189 to get started with Google Ads Express through the Google My Business portal and help with Google Analytics tracking and conversion goals. (Your webmaster may need to install code on your website for Google Analytics.) We recommend starting with a $300 a month click budget. Clicks are billed separately to your credit card by Google Ads. We do not make a margin on clicks.

Move to the full professional Google Ads version with professional set up and monthly account management within 90 days and get a $150 credit from us on your set up service.

Monthly Management Options

If you need help managing your Google My Business page with monthly posts, event creation updates, or periodic introduction of new images, ask us about our monthly Google My Business management service. Monthly management of your GMB page starts at $189 for one event creation, one small 150-word post, and help with responding to most comments.

*Please note: our local business visibility program is tailor-made for businesses located in our service areas of the Fredericksburg and Harrisonburg, Virginia. Ask us if we can help you with a streamlined version of this unique program in your location.

 

Google Ads is Killing Remarketing and Display with Mobile Apps Delivery

McCord Web Services is a Google Partner and a Certified Google Ads Professional

In early 2019 Google did away with the ability for a Google Ads account manager to not serve ads on AdSense for Mobile Apps. In May and June this year, across diverse business sectors we have seen a striking trend of strong ad serving to mobile apps in the Display and Remarketing space that is killing account performance.

Here’s what we see in a nutshell.

  1. Clicks to mobile apps are up strongly.

2. Cost per click is $.01 to $.08 to mobile apps.

3. Impressions are up very strongly.

4. Conversions are non-existent.

5. Ad serving budgets are mostly served in mobile apps.

6. The quality of the automatic app placement are game and kid-related.

See the Proof

To put this in perspective, we have attached a few screen shots that illustrate this huge change in ad serving that is killing the value of Display and Remarketing for client use.

Client One – Display 1/1/19 to 7/19/19 – shows a Display program note in May the strong increase in clicks (blue line) and strong drop in conversions (red line).

Display Graph

Client One – Remarketing 1/1/19 to 7/19/19 – shows a Remarketing program. Note in May the strong increase in clicks (blue line) and strong drop in conversions (red line).

Remarketing Graph

A Trend Across Diverse Business Sectors

Both performance graphs above are for one client.  But, that is just an illustration of this important trend.  For further illustration are results from other clients. Multiple this by all clients we manage and we know that this is not an isolated incidence or one of a setting update.

Client Two – Remarketing 1/1/19 to 7/19/19 – shows a Remarketing program. Note as early as February the performance drop and strong clicks (blue line) in April, May, and June with no conversions (red line).

Remarketing Graph

Client Three – Remarketing 1/1/19 to 7/19/19 – shows a Remarketing program. Note the click spike in April and May. The earlier drop is due to our moving out of the space due to quality due to no conversions and inability to stop the proliferation of poor quality Mobile App placements.

Remarketing Graph

The key takeaway on all this, is that Google has clearly made a first quarter change in automatic placements, of which you have no control, in all bidding algorithms for Remarketing and Display programs.

How to You Fix This Problem to Return Display and Remarketing to Performance?

Right now, we am testing some options. One includes weekly rules that run on Sunday to pause Mobile App placements that have high clicks and no conversions. We are not sure that this will work to stem the drop in activity as Google may simply replace the pause placements with other poor placements. Google may not even pause the placement as it is an automatic placement not a account selected placement.

For other clients, we have either dropped budget significantly in Display and Remarketing, moved totally out of mobile using a -100% device bid, culled out high dollar mobile sites as exclusions, or even stopped programs entirely.

We are hopeful over time that Google will see the drop in client investment in these spaces as a red flag and adjust their ad serving algorithm to allow account managers greater control over where their ads appear in the Display network.