Customer Personas, Digital Marketing Funnel, SEO, SEM

Customer personas for your target audience

An important marketing concept is defining your ideal customer (customer persona, the buyer persona, marketing persona, or audience persona). A customer persona represents a group of similar people in a desirable audience. They can help you figure out how to reach people at the right time, with the right message, offer, and products.

Typically, a marketer creates several types of personas for a product or service. Which helps to better understand the customer’s perspective. With a persona, you’re imagining things through that individual’s point of view. When creating marketing material such as an advertisement or an email, you should consider the customer’s priorities. Once you understand who your customer is, it’s easier to create customized content for them. You’ll understand how they think, what they want to achieve, and what’s holding them back from making a purchase. The last reason to create customer personas is for effective ad targeting.

How to create a customer persona

When crafting a customer persona, you’ll need information about your ideal customers. The thing is you’ll likely need to do research to collect this information.

Here are a few ways to do the research. The first is to review customer data. It’s possible the business already has existing data about its customers. Review this for information for details such as demographics, location, sales history, and customer service notes.

A second way is to conduct customer interviews. Like, consider interviewing customers directly about their experience with the product or service. Ask questions such as what brought them to the product, how did it solve their problem, and if appropriate, consider collecting information on their other interests as well to form a more detailed persona.

Now, another way is to analyze web data. If the business is active on social media, review any demographic data about people who follow your business account. Additionally, website analytics, such as Google Analytics, provide data about elements like the age and gender of website visitors.

A fourth way is to send out surveys. A simple method to collect information is to email a survey out to current customers. You may find that participation is low on this particular type of strategy. So instead encourage survey participation by giving away something for free to one of the customers who fills out the survey.

Now, once you’ve done your research, the first part of creating a persona is defining who your customer is. This includes defining your persona’s interests, traits, and demographics. Demographics are information specific to the customer, such as age, gender identity, income, family size, occupation, education, and location.

Once you determine the persona’s interests, traits, and demographics, it’s time to get specific about their goals and barriers. To create the goals and barriers, you should primarily rely on the data you collect about customers, such as surveys and interviews. For the customer persona goal, get specific about the customer and what they want to achieve. This goal needs to be related to the product or service.

Reviewing the data, you also identify additional goals they may want to achieve. While you’re relying on your data to form the goal and barrier, it’s okay to include additional details.

Now, after identifying goals, consider the barrier, or what’s preventing the customer from achieving their goal. Again, review the customer data, including the surveys and interviews. Can you identify any barriers?

Now that you have the demographic information, the goals, and the barriers, combine that information to create your personas.

Researching your customers

Here are some examples of questions you might ask to gather customer data:

What is your age? What is your education level? Where do you live? Whom do you live with? What is your occupation? What are your primary activities on a typical workday? What about on the weekend? What challenges do you face? What do you value most? What are your goals?

Here is an example of how you might organize your customer data in a spreadsheet:

Name

Age

Location

Occupation

Education

Values

Here is an example to describe your personas:

Personas
Categories	Persona 1 <Name>	Persona 2 <Name>
Goal
Concern
Age range
Location
Household
Education

Strategies at each section of the marketing funnel

Stage	Key Strategies
Awareness	SEO, SEM, Display Ads, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Advertising, Video Marketing, Influencer Marketing, Content Marketing
Consideration	Unique Selling Proposition (USP), Testimonials, Case Studies, Remarketing Ads, Webinars, Email Marketing, Social Media Marketing
Conversion	Optimize Checkout Process, Improve Product Photos, Strengthen Product Copy, Add Live Chat or Chatbots, Pursue Abandoned Carts, Increase Website Speed, Offer Trials or Guarantees, A/B Testing
Loyalty	Reward Programs, Email Marketing, Social Shares, Remarketing Ads, Positive Reviews, Personalized Discounts, Freebies, Amusing Confirmation Messages

How does the Google search engine work?

The three main processes of the Google search engine are: crawling, indexing, and serving. The Google search engine uses these processes to locate the most relevant content to a user’s search query. The first step the Google search engine takes is crawling, which is the process of finding new and updated webpages. Google explores the Internet with automated programs called crawlers. These crawlers find new and updated webpages, and once the crawlers discover a new or updated webpage, Google then stores these page URLs in a big list to review later. There are several ways that Google crawlers finds webpages. The main way is to follow links from pages already identified.

Once the new pages are crawled, Google then stores them in an index. Google stores web content with its location: the URL for each webpage, anything on the page including text, photos, and video content.

After the webpage content is indexed, the Google Search algorithm goes to work. In this context, an algorithm is an automated software that helps locate information to answer a user’s query. The Google search algorithm sorts through billions of webpages to deliver the most relevant content for a given search. The purpose of the search algorithm is to deliver the best results for a search. Now what does the algorithm consider when ranking a webpage for a search? Well, it considers many factors, including what’s on a website and information on other websites. Some of the factors are more obvious than others, such as location and language. Google wants to really return results that meet the needs of users with a great user experience. We’ll discuss five key factors, such as quality of content and usability of webpages, in an upcoming video. Overall, Google Search wants to return results that meet the needs of users with a great user experience.

Websites and platforms use different algorithms to decide what to show users. A search algorithm for an e-commerce site may display the most likely products a shopper would purchase. Factors such as price and shipping time might influence the results. A social media algorithm may focus on what it thinks is most entertaining for the user. Factors such as popularity and content length may influence the results the social media algorithm provides its users.

How Google determines website rankings

Google determines website rankings based on five key factors:

1. Meaning of the Query: Google’s algorithms analyze the search intent behind the query. They try to understand what the user is looking for, beyond just the words typed. Marketers should consider customer intent when creating content.
2. Relevance of Web Pages: Google’s algorithm assesses relevance by looking for matching keywords and related phrases. It also considers the type of content (text, images, videos) that best suits the searcher’s needs.
3. Quality of Content: Google prioritizes high-quality content, often determined by factors like backlinks from reputable websites. This also includes aggregated feedback and signals that indicate a trustworthy source.
4. Usability of Web Pages: User experience is crucial. Mobile-friendliness, fast page load times, and overall ease of use can affect how well a page ranks.
5. Context and User Settings: Factors like the user’s location, past search history, and search settings influence the results Google provides. The context tailors search results to be more relevant to the user.

By optimizing for these factors, marketers can improve website visibility and ranking in Google’s search results.

Breakdown of the Google search engine results pages (SERPs)

Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs) display different types of content based on the query.

Here’s a summary of key SERP features:

1. Paid Ads: Typically found at the top and bottom of SERPs, these are paid placements through Google Ads.
2. Featured Snippets: These are special boxes providing concise answers to a search query. They appear prominently and are non-paid, with Google determining if a webpage qualifies for a snippet.
3. Rich Results: These results provide extra information, such as product ratings, prices, and availability, enhancing search visibility for products or services.
4. Images: Google may display images in the SERPs if visual content is relevant to the query. They can appear at various positions within the results.
5. Videos: Similar to images, videos may appear in the SERPs if the algorithm believes video content is valuable. They can be displayed at any position.
6. Local Business Listings: When searching for local businesses or services, SERPs often feature a map and listings tied to Google business profiles, which are free and available to businesses with local customers.
7. Business Profiles: If a user searches for a specific business, a business profile panel may appear on the right side of the SERP, providing details about the business.

By analyzing these SERP features and their placements, marketers can better understand how to optimize content and improve search visibility.

SEO and SEM

Aspect	SEO (Search Engine Optimization)	SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
Definition	Optimizing website content and structure to improve visibility in organic search results.	Using paid advertisements to appear in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Cost	No direct cost (organic), but requires time and effort.	Paid (costs incurred per click or impression).
Time to Results	Takes longer to see results (months).	Quick results (can see results immediately).
Sustainability	Sustainable over time, results persist even after effort stops.	Results stop when payment stops.
Traffic Type	Organic traffic from search engines.	Paid traffic, such as pay-per-click (PPC) or cost-per-impression (CPM) ads.
Key Activities	Keyword research, on-page optimization, technical optimization, content development.	Running ads, bidding on keywords, and managing ad campaigns.
Best Use Case	Best for long-term visibility and attracting relevant, organic traffic.	Best for immediate visibility and targeting specific audiences quickly.

SEO Techniques at each critical point:

Category	Key Points	Best Practices
Website Structure & Navigation	– Organize pages hierarchically (Homepage > Category > Subcategory > Product) – Ensure all pages are 3-4 clicks from the homepage – Clear, readable URLs – Sitemap for large sites	– Use breadcrumbs for easy navigation – Simple, descriptive URLs (e.g., www.tools.com/garden/flower) – Custom 404 error pages guiding users back to content
Technical Development	– Improve site speed by optimizing images and code – Mobile-friendly design – Fix crawl errors and ensure proper indexing – Implement HTTPS for secure communication	– Use schema markup for better understanding by search engines – Fix redirect chains to avoid slow loading – Submit an XML sitemap to search engines for better indexing
Content Development	– Conduct keyword research before creating content – Create high-quality, relevant content – Optimize on-page elements (titles, meta descriptions, headers) – Internal linking	– Use multimedia like videos and infographics to make content more engaging – Structure content with H1, H2 tags – Regularly update content to maintain relevance
Keyword Research	– Identify keywords relevant to customer searches – Use tools to analyze search volume and competitiveness – Avoid keyword stuffing	– Focus on relevant keywords that match search intent – Naturally incorporate keywords into the content – Create content that answers user needs and drives action

Optimize a website’s content

Here’s a summary of the key steps to optimize a website’s content based on Google’s SEO guidelines:

1. Make the Website Useful and Interesting:
   • Create compelling, engaging, and useful content that satisfies the searcher’s query.
   • Engaged users are likely to share your content, which helps build the site’s reputation with both visitors and Google.
   • Quality content is the foundation of building engagement and trust.
2. Know What Visitors Want and Give It to Them:
   • Conduct keyword research to understand what your audience is searching for.
   • Ensure the content is well-written, easy to follow, and free from spelling and grammatical errors.
   • Create fresh and unique content. Avoid duplicate content, as Google prioritizes distinct and original information.
3. Cultivate User Trust:
   • Build a trustworthy website by cultivating a good reputation and providing expert information.
   • Include clear customer service details, especially for e-commerce sites.
   • Use proper technologies like secure connections (e.g., HTTPS) to enhance trust and credibility.
4. Show Expertise and Authoritativeness:
   • Ensure content is created or reviewed by knowledgeable experts in the field.
   • Include expert sources or experienced contributors to establish authority on the subject matter.
5. Provide Comprehensive Content:
   • Invest time and effort to produce high-quality, comprehensive content.
   • Make sure your content is factually accurate, clearly written, and complete. For instance, if writing a recipe, provide detailed instructions, not just basic descriptions.

By following these recommendations, you can create optimized content that provides value to users and increases the chances of ranking higher in search engine results.

Best practices for links and promoting a website 

	Best Practices
Use Appropriate Anchor Text	Descriptive: The anchor text should provide a basic idea of the linked page’s content. Avoid generic phrases like ‘click here’ or ‘page.’ Concise: Use a short phrase or a few words rather than linking long sentences or paragraphs. Easy to Spot: Format links so they stand out from regular text to avoid visitors missing or accidentally clicking them. Helpful: Only use anchor text that helps visitors find relevant information, rather than using long anchor text stuffed with keywords.
Use Caution with External Links	Reputable Sites: Avoid linking to sites that are not reputable or contain information you don’t want to endorse. Manipulation of Links: Some users may try to add links to their own sites in comments or message boards for their benefit. Nofollow Links: Use nofollow links, which tell search engines to ignore the link, preventing association with potentially harmful sites. Automated Nofollow Links: Automatically use nofollow for public comments or message boards to avoid manually removing harmful links.
Promoting Your Website	Google’s Ranking: The quality and quantity of links to your site affect its ranking in search engines. Quality Content: Creating high-quality, engaging content encourages other sites to link back to your website naturally. Ways to Promote Your Website: – Publish blog posts about new content or services. – Share valuable content on social media. – Feature helpful articles (e.g., buying guides) in email marketing. – Engage with online communities, forums, or social media groups related to your site. – Only share content relevant to your users.
Paid Links	Avoid Manipulating Search Results: Google discourages paid links unless they are for advertising and properly labeled. Negative Impact of Paid Links: Buying or selling links to manipulate rankings can result in low-quality backlinks and harm your website’s ranking.

Optimize images for a website

Here’s a summary of the key points for optimizing images for a website:

1. Ensure Relevance and Placement
2. Descriptive Titles, Captions, and Filenames:
3. Use Descriptive Alt Text:
4. Optimize for Speed:

By following these best practices, images on your website will be user-friendly, search-engine optimized, and more likely to appear in Google Image results, thereby driving more traffic to your site.

Make your website mobile-friendly

Key Considerations for Building a Mobile-Friendly Website:

1. Focus on User Objectives:
2. Test for Usability
3. Responsive Web Design:

Common Mistakes to Avoid:

1. Neglecting Mobile Functionality:
2. Creating Separate Mobile URLs:
3. Working in Isolation:

By applying these principles, you can create a mobile-friendly website that enhances user experience and is easy to maintain.

Control title links and snippets

Do:

• Accurately describe each page’s content in the title elements.
• Write descriptive yet concise titles.
• Ensure titles read naturally.
• Create unique titles for every page.
• Give the main headline more visual prominence.

Don’t:

• Use irrelevant or vague text like “Home” or “Untitled.”
• Use the same title for all pages.
• Write lengthy or wordy titles.
• Repeat or use boilerplate text.
• Stuff titles with unnecessary or excessive keywords.

Create structured data markup

Rich results are enhanced search results that display extra visual or interactive features like star ratings, prices, or recipes. These results stand out in Google Search and can help attract more users. Structured data markup is code added to a webpage to help search engines better understand the content. This additional information can help trigger rich results in search. Examples of data you can mark up include product prices, reviews, location, hours, events, videos, and more.

Key Points to Remember:

• Accuracy: Ensure the data is accurate and relevant. Never add fake or misleading information to structured data.
• Examples of Rich Results:
  • Product: Displays price, availability, and reviews.
  • Review Snippets: Shows aggregated review ratings for books, movies, recipes, products, etc.
  • Articles: Timely information, not just for news, but also for industry articles.
  • Videos: Includes options to play, segment information, and livestream details.

Using structured data helps enhance your visibility in search results, potentially driving more traffic to your website by making it stand out with useful information.

Establish your business details on Google

A Google knowledge panel is an information box in search results that displays official business details, separate from general search results. It serves as a brand’s “ID card” and consolidates key information such as:

• • Official website link
  • Site logo
  • Brand industry
  • Brand description
  • Social profile links

Knowledge panels are generated automatically from web sources and help searchers quickly identify a brand’s official site.

Overview of Google Search Console:

Google Search Console is a free tool that helps website owners track and improve their website’s performance on Google Search. It provides insights on traffic, technical issues, and overall SEO health.

Key Steps to Getting Started:

1. Add and Verify Website Ownership:
2. Ensure Google Can Crawl and Index Pages:
3. Review Mobile Usability:
4. Submit a Sitemap:
5. Monitor Site Performance:

Reports and Metrics:

1. Overview Page:
   • Displays a summary of site health, metrics, and security issues. It’s crucial to check regularly for dips in traffic or security problems.
2. Web Search Performance Report:
   • Shows impressions, clicks, click-through rates (CTR), and average position in search results. These metrics help track website performance.
3. Links Report:
   • Identifies which websites link to your pages, what the anchor text is, and which pages receive the most links.
4. Coverage Report:
   • Monitors whether pages are being indexed by Google and flags any crawling or indexing issues.
5. Manual Actions Report:
   • Lists pages or sites penalized by Google for violating its guidelines, such as keyword stuffing or other manipulative practices.
6. Security Issues Report:
   • Alerts you to any security problems like hacking or malware, along with steps to resolve them.

Google Search Console is a critical tool for understanding website performance, monitoring SEO, and identifying technical issues. Regularly reviewing reports ensures the site is functioning properly and helps address issues like indexing errors, traffic drops, or security problems.

More tools and reports in Google Search Console

Here’s a summary of additional tools and reports available in Google Search Console:

1. Sitemaps Report:

2. URL Inspection Tool:

3. Change of Address Tool:

4. Removals Tool:

Google Search Console provides essential tools like the Sitemaps report, URL inspection, and more to help monitor and optimize website performance. These tools help improve crawling, address technical errors, and control search visibility.

Google Ads

1. Types of Google Ads:
   • Text Ads: Classic ads with a clickable title and short description.
   • Shopping Ads: For e-commerce businesses, showing product images and prices.
   • Local Services Ads: For service-based local businesses like plumbers or realtors.
   • Google Maps Ads: For local businesses to show up in Google Maps.
   • Call Ads: Mobile-only ads enabling users to call a business directly.
2. Ad Extensions:
   • Sitelink Extensions: Additional website links relevant to searchers.
   • Call Extensions: Allow users to call a business directly from the ad.
   • Location Extensions: Help customers find a business’s location on Google Maps.
   • Price Extensions: Display specific products and prices.
   • Structured Snippets Extensions: Highlight key aspects of products or services.
3. YouTube as a Search Platform:
   • YouTube is also considered a search engine where customers often research products or services, providing another SEM opportunity.

SEM helps businesses increase visibility, drive conversions, and gather useful data, making it a vital component of digital marketing strategies.

Here’s a summarized breakdown of the Google Ads Bid Strategies:

1. Bid Strategy Definition:
   • A bid strategy in Google Ads helps businesses achieve campaign goals based on their budget.
   • Manual CPC: Allows users to set a maximum cost per click (CPC) for their ads.
   • Automated Bidding: Lets Google automatically set bids based on an ad’s likelihood to result in a click or conversion.
   • Smart Bidding: A type of automated bidding using machine learning to optimize for conversions or conversion value, adjusting bids based on real-time factors.
2. Types of Bid Strategies:

Bid Strategy	Definition	Goal
Maximize Conversion Value	Uses machine learning to automatically set bids and optimize conversion value for each auction.	Increase business value
Target ROAS	Predicts conversion value for each search and adjusts bids to maximize return on ad spend (ROAS).	Increase business value
Maximize Conversions	Automatically sets bids to get the most conversions within your budget.	Increase sales or leads
Maximize Clicks	Sets bids to get as many clicks as possible within your budget.	Increase website visitors
Target CPA	Sets bids to get as many conversions as possible, while targeting a specific cost per action (CPA).	Increase sales or leads
Target Impression Share	Sets bids to increase ad visibility, with options for showing ads at the top of the page or anywhere in search results.	Increase awareness and visibility
Cost Per 1000 Impressions (CPM)	You pay based on the number of impressions received on YouTube or Google Display Network.	Increase awareness and visibility
Cost Per View (CPV)	Sets the amount you’ll pay for video views or interactions in Google Ads.	Increase awareness and visibility

By identifying your primary campaign goal (awareness, conversions, or clicks), you can select the most appropriate bid strategy to ensure the effectiveness of your Google Ads campaign.

Keywords and the ad auction work in Google Ads

1. Keywords and Match Types:

2. Negative Keywords:

3. Ad Auction and Ad Rank:

4. Importance of Alignment:

By optimizing keywords, understanding match types, and focusing on ad quality and relevance, businesses can improve their ad performance and get the most out of their Google Ads campaigns.

Best practices when creating a Google Ad for Search

1. Focus on User Needs and Benefits:

2. Include Keywords in Headlines:

3. Avoid Generic Sales Language:

4. Use Ad Extensions:

5. Optimize the Landing Page:

Follow these best practices to create effective ads that deliver a positive user experience, match user intent, and generate higher click-through rates. Continuously test and tweak ad copy based on performance feedback.

Google Ads account structure and organization

Google Ads is Google’s online advertising program that helps businesses create ads to reach potential customers when they are interested in specific products or services.

Key Components of Google Ads Account Structure:

1. Google Ads Account:
2. Campaigns:
3. Ad Groups:
4. Ad Formats:
5. Bids:

In summary, the Google Ads account structure starts at the account level (with all campaigns inside it), organizes ads into campaigns, and further refines targeting through ad groups based on keywords. The bidding system allows advertisers to compete for placement in the SERPs (search engine result pages), ensuring the right ads reach potential customers at the right time. 

Creating a Google Ad

Seven steps to creating a Google Ad campaign based on the information provided:

1. Define your campaign goal:

Choose one of the following campaign objectives based on what you want to achieve:

• Sales: Drive sales online, in-store, by phone, or through an app.
• Leads: Get conversions or lead generation by encouraging customers to take action.
• Website traffic: Encourage users to visit your website.
• Product and brand consideration: Encourage people to explore your products or services.
• Brand awareness and reach: Build awareness among a broad audience.
• App promotion: Increase app installs or promotions.
• Local store visits and promotions: Drive foot traffic to physical locations.

2. Choose the campaign type:

Options include:

• Search
• Performance Max
• Display
• Shopping
• Video
• Discovery

3. Set a budget:

Define the daily budget for the campaign, which determines the maximum amount you’re willing to spend each day. You can always adjust it later.

4. Choose your bidding strategy:

Select a bidding strategy that aligns with your campaign goal, such as maximizing conversions, clicks, or impressions.

5. Select your targeting:

Narrow or expand your audience by targeting based on:

• Locations: Choose geographical areas where you want your ad to appear.
• Languages: Specify the languages your audience speaks.
• Audience segments: Select audience categories based on demographics, interests, or behavior.

6. Create your ad:

Input the following information to shape your ad’s appearance:

• Descriptions
• Final URL (where users are taken after clicking the ad)
• Display path (visible part of the URL)
• Headlines
• Extensions (additional info like phone number or site links)
• Include at least one keyword in your headlines to improve relevance.

7. Finalize your ad:

• Add the final URL and display path.
• Use the preview window to check how your ad will appear to users online.
• Adjust based on the ad strength indicator to improve effectiveness.

By following these seven steps, you can create a responsive Google search ad tailored to your campaign objectives, while ensuring it is optimized for performance and relevance.

Introduction to Display Advertising

Display advertising involves placing visual ad formats on websites or apps that are not search engines, such as a website about furniture trends. These ads are placed on online properties relevant to potential customers and are managed through display advertising networks like Google Display Network, which reaches over 90% of internet users worldwide.

1. Types of Display Ads:
   • Uploaded Ads: Custom-designed ads that marketers create and upload with specific ad sizes (e.g., banner, leaderboard, skyscraper). Requires design resources and time.
   • Responsive Ads: Ad content (images, headlines, logos, videos) is uploaded, and Google Ads automatically generates combinations for various platforms (websites, apps, YouTube, Gmail). Google adjusts the ad size, appearance, and format for broader reach and better performance.
2. Benefits of Responsive Display Ads:
   • Optimization: Google Ads software automatically tests and optimizes ad combinations for the best performance.
   • Broader Reach: Ads fit various platforms and adapt to ad space, ensuring wider coverage.
   • Video Integration: Allows videos, which can be tested against photos for better performance.
   • Time-Saving: Reduces time managing multiple ads by automating ad generation, allowing more focus on performance improvement.

In conclusion, display advertising, especially using responsive display ads, can simplify the process of managing ad campaigns by automating optimization and maximizing reach, making it ideal for digital marketers or e-commerce analysts new to the role.

Optimize a Responsive Display Ad

Creative Best Practices:

1. Upload the Recommended Number of Assets:
2. Create Unique and Effective Copy:
3. Ensure Landing Page Cohesion:
4. Rotate New Ads Regularly:

Image Selection Tips:

1. Strong Visual Focus:
2. Avoid Overlaying Logos, Text, or Buttons:
3. Focus on the Product:
4. Use Appropriate Backgrounds:

Responsive display ads help digital marketers by allowing them to leverage Google’s advanced software for optimized ad performance, making them an effective tool for driving conversions.

YouTube advertising

It offers brands a great opportunity to reach a wide variety of audiences globally. There are two main types of YouTube ads: Display Ads and TrueView Video Ads.

• Display Ads: These are static ads placed next to streaming videos, managed via Google Display Network, and function like digital billboards.
• TrueView Video Ads: Video ads where advertisers only pay when viewers choose to watch the ad. TrueView has multiple formats:
  • Skippable video ads: Viewers can skip after 5 seconds.
  • Non-skippable video ads: Must be watched before content, lasting 15–20 seconds.
  • Bumper ads: A 6-second version of non-skippable ads.
  • Overlay ads: Appear on the bottom of a video but only on computers.
  • In-display ads: Appear in search results with a video thumbnail and are independent of other videos.

In summary, YouTube is a highly effective platform for reaching and engaging audiences at a low cost, offering multiple ad formats to suit different campaign needs.