You created a blog. Great! Now what?
You probably want to gain some visitors to your site to read your perfect and informative words. No matter how well your post is optimized, though, paid promotion — such as content amplification — needs to be part of your marketing strategy.
The algorithms that fuel content amplification services have become so robust they can attract users based on their individual online habits. So, despite content amplification being a paid marketing campaign, it reaches an audience that could have organically found your site.
The majority of content amplification services have algorithms built around individual contextual, behavioral and personal online habits. This allows the service to place amplified content under relevant articles the user is currently reading by learning the behavior of a user based on what types of sites and articles they’ve visited in the past. Amplified content is found in the “You may also like” or “Sponsored content” section of hundreds of thousands of media sites and looks like this:
But unlike Billy Madison, you can’t just throw pickles at the window and see if they stick, yet alone lead to a trail of success. A content amplification strategy starts by creating a useful piece of content with a strong Call-to-Action (CTA) to increase conversions and measure success.
Weigh these six steps before jumping into this section of paid marketing on your own:
1 – Create
Before even venturing into the paid marketing realm you need a solid piece of content hosted on your domain. It can be a blog, article, infographic or video, but it needs to live on your domain to track and drive conversions.
The 80/20 rule applies to this piece of content: 80 percent should provide true utility to your audience while the final 20 percent can promote your authority, knowledge or success in the area. Finally, the piece of content must be matched with a significant CTA that is linked to a goal in Google Analytics for accurate tracking – the CTA can urge visitors to learn more by signing up for an e-book or newsletter or direct them to your online store with a code offering a discount or free shipping on a purchase.
2 – Submit
Alright, you’ve create a knockout piece of content. Now it’s time to submit it to a content amplification service. The amplification service will review your piece of content and approve it for distribution.
Before the piece goes live it’s best for you to create at least four optimized headlines and upload a unique photo. With multiple headlines the algorithm is able to determine which ones gain the best click-through-rate (CTR) and put more focus on the top headlines.
3 – Establish visitor goals
Every campaign you start with a content amplification service is based on a budget. You can establish your budget by determining how many visitors you’d like to get throughout the campaign.
As a benchmark, a lot of our campaigns for Brandpoint clients are set to receive 2,000 visitors in one month or 6,000 visitors in four months.
4 – Set the CPC
Now that you’ve established the amount of visitors you want to receive during the campaign, it’s time to set your Cost-Per-Click (CPC) maximum. Depending on your budget and industry it’s important to choose the right CPC and daily cap number so you a) don’t overspend and b) stretch out your visitors throughout the entire campaign rather than receiving all 2,000 in one day.
5 – Track
Once you’ve hammered down the numbers it’s the algorithm’s responsibility to place your article. But you need to know what kind of traction your article is receiving. If your article isn’t gaining the right amount of daily clicks, or starts tracking off the pace of your goal, you need to adjust the CPC or daily cap to get back on track.
6 – Analyze
Once the campaign ends your real work begins.
If you created conversion goals within Google Analytics you’ll be able to put a monetary value on the success of your campaign. But either way you can track relevant metrics showcasing the success of your campaign. Everything from bounce rate and time on site to following the behavior flow can give you a good indication of your amplification campaign and specific adjustments to make moving forward.
Conclusion
Plenty of moving pieces are involved in any paid marketing campaign. Even if you have the resources to create a great piece of content, you might need a hand managing the amplification setup, monitoring and reporting. That’s where Brandpoint can help. From start to finish our team of writers and strategists can help you achieve a successful content amplification campaign. And there’s that all-important CTA we talked about!
