More PPC advertisers pause campaigns amid coronavirus upheaval by Ginny Marvin #478

Hi, and welcome to the SEO podcast, Unknown Secrets of Internet Marketing. My name is Chris Burris, one of the owners here at E-Web Results. My name is Matt Bertram. I'm one of the survivors here at E-Web Results. One of the survivors. Yeah, this is another episode of our podcast. It's going to be less fun-filled. We're planning on talking about the coronavirus. But we do want to stick to kind of our typical process. We are broadcasting live here from Houston, Texas. Why, we still can? We are under 10 people. We are under 10 people. We, Matt and I, we are your Results Rebels. And I did want to start off with a testimonial that we got. It's really pretty powerful. It's from Mselts, and it is, of course, five stars. I've been building my website for a few months, and I listen to these guys as often as possible. They really are the best SEO podcast. Here's how I know. Last week, I officially caught up with all their episodes, and my first thought was, eh, no big deal. I want to keep learning about SEO. I'll just go find another podcast. I've since spent a week searching for something, anything, that's really worth a while. But so far, I can't find any of the content I'm looking for. Either it's a million times too basic for me, or it's from a podcast that's just talking to experts about their growth, rather than giving actual tricks I can use in my next piece of content. Seriously, team. If you're trying to figure out how to get your content to rank, this is the podcast to listen to. As for me, I'll just have to wait for the next great listen. Guess I'll go write some blog articles to pass the time. That's awesome. Patif to you guys. Patif to you, Mseltser. We really appreciate you. It's uplifting. It's great. It's why we do this podcast, and actually why we've kind of gotten to the format that we're in so that we can deliver a lot of

value. So I think if you just go read a bunch of articles, you've really got to bounce ideas. There's nothing that's like, just do this. It's like, hey, this is kind of what you need to do, and you've got to bounce those ideas off of other people, and we're kind of the other people you get to bounce ideas off of. Yeah, I mean, you can send us your questions. I think that something that he highlighted is super important is a lot of people have asked me, hey, when are you coming out with the next podcast? We are working to be more consistent about that. But what I can tell you is I know SEO is a moving target. Things constantly change. There's algorithm updates. But really what we teach you is the right strategies to help the end user, and that's what Google is always going after. So a lot of the basic concepts or even advanced concepts that we talk about, like if I look back at all the different things, there might be some small tweaks here and there, but the fundamentals are there. So don't think that you have to listen to the next podcast like the old ones aren't relevant. They really are. They really are. Don't listen to like a G plus one. Yeah. There's going to be some. So there's certain fundamental changes, but overall, if you're learning what we're teaching, you're going to be able to apply those. And really, you know, like I'll give you an example, like the same things you should be doing on Facebook. Facebook made the change to say, you know what, if you don't do these things, we're not going to show your content. Yeah. Right. So if you're looking for kind of the black hat tactics, that's really not what you're going to get here. We're giving you the long term, the long term fundamental investment to make in your website, in your digital marketing to rank properly. And so if you go back, anything you learn, I believe you could

apply it. I'm thinking back to, you know, 30 something podcasts back. Yeah. And I'm going, that's still just little tweaks that I would make overall solid, solid advice. And maybe the content needs to be longer. Maybe it needs to incorporate more videos. The sound quality might not be there. Yeah. Exactly. We've gotten that taken care of. So, yeah, we wanted to jump in. I will say, again, sticking with the format, if you've got, if you're in a position to and you can, we would appreciate you to share, like, or follow us. Shaco. Shaco us. I know. That's not how you say it. Yeah, we did. No, you didn't. Shaco. Shaco. But Shaco. Shaco. Shaco. I don't know. So, please do that. Make sure you share, like, and follow us. If you're watching us on YouTube, subscribe and follow. That would be much appreciated. We're going to jump into this. It's a Search Engine Land article. And Matt had actually put together a video. I think that's an in-house video, right? Yeah. I mean, I put some stuff out on LinkedIn. I need to get it transferred over to YouTube. There's a lot of questions that people have been asking me. And so, I've kind of, you know, short format answer those questions. So, we are redoing our YouTube and, you know, kind of going with a different social media strategy. But my LinkedIn right now is where I'm putting out a lot of the most current content. But we will be syndicated everywhere. And so, that was kind of the genesis. Like, the coronavirus is changing everything. We're currently, like, in an empty office. Everybody's working from home. So, it's probably the case that if you're watching this and you're in a situation where you can actually work from home, you're probably working from home. So, that changes some things. And it changes a whole lot of things. I know my other business, we ship products. So, everybody has to be at work in order to ship products. And we'll be there until and if.

And I don't think this will happen. The shelter in place? Yeah. I think it's coming. Yeah. You think so? Yeah? Yeah, I'm not sure. Because, like, how are you going to get your toiletries? How are you going to get your supplies? I think it's for emergency. So, I think the grocery store, the pharmacy is going to be open. And, you know, I can't think of one or two other things. But, really, I mean, we're just slowing what's happening. So, remember, shelter in place would potentially close down Amazon, right? Well, Amazon, you know, is only shipping essentials right now and food. Well, so, that's actually not true. Yeah, I know. So, they sent out a message because I actually ship products into Amazon and they get shipped out from Amazon. And the message they said is, hey, we don't have the capacity to accept inbound orders. So, if you want to ship that mattress or those chairs, we're not going to accept them. And then I'm like, okay, I need... So, that returns? No, that's just... So, say, for Amazon Prime, Amazon warehouses have to have the product, right? And so, you ship them to Amazon and then they warehouse them and they ship them from their stock. And so, what they're saying, what they said in the email was, we're not accepting stuff. But then we went into the interface and we were actually able to send. Now, I have a supplement and so maybe we get a pass, right? Yeah. And maybe it's true that they won't accept shares, but they will accept our product. Well, I mean, your product does boost the immune system. It does boost the immune system. And so, that might be a legitimate thing. Now, if Amazon needs to be in a place to continue to deliver household goods, then my company should have that equal capacity, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, they could come in and say... Are you seeing anything with like FedEx or anything like that? We haven't... Their shipping routes? We haven't seen those. And I

actually don't anticipate because they really work pretty independently. They're not in close human proximity to other people. They're delivering dry goods. It's kind of well-established that the coronavirus can't exist on boxes and things. And in fact, my other company will be sending out an email to our clients just saying, hey, you can receive packages. Let's just be clear. We'll keep this moving. Yeah. So, I think that the delivery side of things is going to continue. Yeah. Unless something changes, like unless it becomes... Well, did you know that Walmart, there's like 30% more open accounts like online, right? So, people that are already shopping at Walmart, low price, hey, they're setting up their e-commerce account, right? So, I think we're seeing this big shift there. Delivery is trending up. A lot of businesses. And then I think Uber or whatever favor, like cut the service fee or drop the service fee. So, everybody's trying to kind of mitigate what's going on. But I do think that certain industries are getting hit hard, like tourism and airlines and all that. And government's going to come in there, I guess. But there's other industries that are really doing quite well. Yeah. Yeah. And so, this is an article. It's actually from Search Engine Land. More PPC advertisers, pause campaigns and, you know, amid coronavirus upheaval and kind of the video you put together. So, we're going to be talking about a lot of stuff outside of this article. But this will be kind of the framework for the article. Did you have anything? Well, I just, you know, as we were reading this article to talk about it. Oh, yeah. One of our clients came in and said that they're going to pause PPC, keep SEO, come back stronger than ever on the other side of this. They are a gym. And so, you know, gyms are one of the kind of industries that are getting hit. But we can talk about something. Yeah, because they're saying, like, I don't know. Like anything where there's a congregation of

people is the issue. If it hasn't been hit, like, I don't think it's been hit in Houston yet. Like, they haven't shut it down in Houston yet. I know in others. Well, St. Paddy's Day, they kind of like. Yeah. But, you know, I'm talking about gyms. I will tell you the spring breakers, like, don't care. Like, I mean, I saw some pictures. So, you know, in Miami, they shut down the beach. Well, yeah, they started kicking people off. They shut down the beach. Yeah. And the bars are closed. Yeah. No, I know. I know. But I saw pictures of a lot of people on beaches in congregated areas. And not only that, like the pictures I saw, like, at O'Hare and, like, some of the New York airports when they were shutting everything down. Like, it looked just like a cluster. They were like, that's the absolute not what we want. That's what you don't want to happen. Yeah. So, you know, but again, I think that right now we're really not in the exponential piece of this curve, even though since yesterday, it's a 40% increase. Okay. In cases. In number of cases. But a lot of that has to do with how many they're testing. Sure. I think it's a Tesla. I think it's a Tesla. But, okay, let's talk about how it affects Mark. You know, let's not. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, it's trying times, right? And that's where we're at. It's actually surprising. So, this article is from Jenny Maven. Yeah. She's written a number of articles for Search Engine Land. Really good article. It's surprising how fast things have changed in just a couple of days. Like, you know, it feels like last week there was no problem. And then this week it's all problems, right? Well, I think people are still in kind of deer and head thoughts. Yeah. Like, I mean, I've been kind of seeing this coming. We've been kind of pivoting internally of some things that we're offering, which we can go through. But. And helping clients

to shift their focus so that they can. Doing the free strategy sessions for existing clients has been helpful on kind of changing that messaging. Because there's usually messaging that you can get. And really, in adversity, there usually is a silver lining. A silver lining, right? It's a half glass full, half glass empty kind of situation. Um, they've seen a lot of campaigns suddenly paused. Travel especially, right? You can't fly. Now, what's interesting is even travel agents who tend to book a year out have gone on pause, right? So nobody's even thinking about taking the vacation. Like, prior to coronavirus, you would book your vacation a year out. I don't think anybody's anticipating, although it's possible, that this continues for a full year. But people aren't looking for it. Schools are getting shut down for a year, right? Some of them are starting to close down. I think it's going to be a great buying opportunity. Yeah. Okay. I think it's a supply and demand issue. Yeah. You know, I would love to go on a cruise and on the other side of this thing. And I think that there's going to be a lot of deals. You could buy it soon. There's going to be a lot of specials, right? But then you're just, it's the risk assessment of, is it going to be done by here? Or is it going to be done by here? I mean, they might not be letting you book them out, right? And like, I've never seen the whole world shut down. I mean, have, I mean. No, it happened that, no, that was a dream. No, it's crazy. I mean, we've had conversations about, you know, your role as CEO. And it's like, yeah, Matt, I thought on your resume you could handle everything you've ever seen. And you're like, that's right, I just have never seen this before, nor has any other CEO on the planet. So it's definitely crazy times. But car dealerships are showing decline or turned off campaigns. Event venues, of course. Restaurants are

shifting towards just delivery or pickup. Delivery or pickup. I mean, hotels, crazy. Like, those need to be converted, I guess, to hospitals. I don't know all this space on a month over month, night over night, that's inventory that's just lost revenue. Yeah, that revenue is, you can never get it back. Like, it's revenue that can never be. Any event, any events. Like, event industry, like, so I was at the PodFest. Yeah, yeah. You know, and that was probably the last marketing conference. While I was there, cases started popping up in Florida. You know, I was like. Conference over, out. And then I was seeing on social media, you know, South by Southwest being canceled, like, you know, everything. Music festivals, it was just. I saw that some article that said South by Southwest canceling could cause it to never happen again. Like, we may not have South by Southwest next. Yeah, that's what I heard. I don't know. Just because of the financial loss. I mean, look at that. I think this, yeah, see this one, South by Southwest 2016. Yeah, 2016. Yeah, just because the financial cost. Oh, it could put the company under. But isn't there, like, business insurance? Like, I know gyms. There's business insurance for gyms. There's business insurance. Yeah. And there's, do you have business insurance, right? There's two. Yeah, well, I think, I mean, the lost revenue. Yeah. Is absolutely incredible. Yeah. Of what's unprecedented right now. And really, she goes on to say that travel is just the tip of the spear. Many marketers sell. Well, look at that. Yeah, 62% in digital media spend by the travel sector is down. A contraction of 62%. It's just crazy. In the first two weeks versus March versus February. Many competitors have pulled out entirely. CPCs have plummeted. So cost per click has plummeted because it's an auction-based system. So if there's less people bidding on it, then the price is going to go way down. So if you're kind of the person who, like, maybe the plumbing business or

whatever, if you may not even need to change your budget, you'll just end up spending less, right? Spending less or get, yeah, your customer acquisition cost is going to go down, right? Because you're probably going to get more leads. You know, I think that, you know, demand-based services are still there. Like, the economy is not completely shutting down. I know in my neighborhoods, like, a new-build neighborhood, they're building houses. Like, you wouldn't know anything's going on, okay? Like, we got, I mean, there's, like, five different trucks there that are pouring cement. Like, and interest rates have gone down. So we've seen the mortgage industry. There's some clients in that space. Bumping up, yeah. Yeah. Real estate, the money's still flowing there. Or, I mean, it could get hit, right? Like, we don't, this is just the beginning of it. But right now, there's so much in the works. Yeah. Things are not slowing down on that side of things. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So Jim, Tim Jensen of Clix Marketing said, I would say most clients are noticing a definite drop in leads and a general decrease in buying interest. And I think that depends on the industry. That's the thing. Now, it's not all doom and gloom. We do understand that many sectors and businesses will see skyrocketing demand during this time. And like we said, it may be the case that you can hold your budget steady if you're in a position where you can still provide a service that people are interested in. You hold your budget steady and you actually get more bang for your buck, right? Yeah. I mean, you might have to pivot what you're offering. You need to definitely pivot the message to connect what's the promise that you have to your customers. How do you shift that? You know, like online learning, conferencing. I actually made a list here. You know, anything virtual, what is this? Yeah, that's going to go up. Pictures, if you're doing online consulting, you know, there's pivots of basically if you're doing coaching

or you're doing even personal training, you can pivot to do that. Anything you can do from at home, tech services. People are going to be sitting in front of a computer. Streaming services, video conferencing is blowing up. But I think that there's a lot of, I think there's a lot of opportunity. You got to kind of, you know, fit what your brand message is and figure out what you're saying. But we're seeing social media way up. Yeah. Okay. Social media, screen time way up. Search volumes actually way up. So people are having more time to do research. You know, people are also looking for community updates or coronavirus updates. Entertainment, absolutely blowing up. Okay. Like maybe not in theater movies. Okay. But everything else. Definitely not. Video games, streaming. I don't know what's going on with Netflix. I don't know if too many people are on it. It's crashing the server. Like Netflix has been kind of, you know, on the fritz for me. An interesting note. I was tuning into a Zoom conference, right? It may not have been Zoom, but a similar conference. And there was a note across the, a red note across the top that said, due to increased demand, dial in numbers may not be available. Right. So to dial into the call instead of to connect through the internet, you know, you've got a limited number of circuits that are designed to get into it. And so they're actually going to bump. Yeah. The bandwidth is crazy. Zoom. Zoom. It's time to buy a Zoom stock actually. Well, so we, we, we're going to do a, like a webinar to go into some of this stuff more in depth. And, and we've evaluated a number of different platforms. And really we've seen Zoom as kind of like the go-to or preferred. Yeah. So, so we've moved to paid a Zoom account. Yep. You know, like here, here's some of the ideas, you know, that we could, we could talk about. Right. And what I talked about with our existing

clients is, you know, look at your digital presence. Okay. Is, is your website representative of your brand? Yeah. Can you offer a full customer experience, like your showroom, like your products, your services, can they be highlighted online based on like the data point from, you know, other podcasts. We've talked about 88% of people are through the buying funnel before they even pick up the phone. Right. Remarketing. Okay. Content marketing, hitting me up your email list, the post notifications, the text messages, your existing client base, maybe come up with a special offer. Right. Right. Stay top of mind. If you have to reduce. Okay. If you have to reduce space overall, you need to, if you've been putting money in SEO or kind of investments online, social media, all that sort of thing, like organic stuff. Right. I would keep it going or you're going to lose positioning. You don't want to lose the traction. Yeah. Like Google guidelines are looking for that kind of consistency. Yeah. And I haven't seen anything of Google saying, Hey, we're going to, because businesses are shut down, we're going to change our algorithm. We're going to change our algorithm. Right. So I think that there's a real opportunity to position yourself. Right. You know, if you're running ads like supply and demand, I think running some Facebook ads right now, uh, change that conversation to your target market, uh, is, is phenomenal. Your email list, people are still in shock. They don't know what to think. I don't think this is going anywhere. You, you, you need to, you need to potentially pivot or figure out how to operate in this environment. Also ship stuff where it's sanitary. Like, Hey, maybe you're putting in like, like you need to wipe the box down or some kind of recommendation. I don't know. I mean, there's a lot of things that we don't know of what's going on, um, because this is really unprecedented. Uh, we've been talking about now's a great time to build expertise and authority. Right. Right. And

so, you know, if any of you out there, we are going to be open up our podcast pitching services. Uh, we've been building that internally. One of the best ways to establish yourself as an expert. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so, so, so we, we're seeing a lot of the larger podcasts where they're booked out like a year or two in advance, they're opening up slots. Um, Chris and I have been getting on a lot of different podcasts. Um, and then for our existing client base, we've been doing that as well. We are going to be opening up that service in about a week. Um, you know, like, I think that, I think that there's a lot of different ways to handle this, but figuring out how to operate online. And if you're in a brick and mortar business and you haven't gone online, now's the absolute time to do it. All the things we talked about in our, our other podcast about some of these trends that are happening, like video, you don't have to have a videographer come and shoot. Uh, I can tell you, you do want it 4k. Um, you do want in certain instances, a professional shot. Um, you know, but if you're concerned about that, produce some content, like people want to connect with you. That's where video turn on the video conference. Yeah. Don't just do the dialing because there's a lot of, I guess, what is it? You know, communication, communication, psychology, all that that's communicated, uh, not just through the face, through the face, through your gestures. So, so, so we, we encourage our account managers. You need to have your camera on. You need to, you need to, you need to talk to your customers. We actually have a lot of customers all across the U S and even, uh, globally. Right. And so what I can tell you is some of them we've never met, like, and we've had clients for five years or longer that we've never met. Like, I want to change

that. That was on my agenda to change this year, but we'll see. But, but, but we've already been doing that. Right. And, um, there, there's a lot of things that you want to think through how you want to do it. If you want to do a strategy session, um, we are going to be doing a group webinar, but, but one-on-one strategy is going to be, be paid. Um, that, that is one of the opportunities, right? Like if you're doing life coaching or business coaching that you can still do. Yep. Uh, if you have a job and you're concerned about your job, it might be time to think about digital marketing and say, Hey, I need to get my side gig going. Like I need to be able to, uh, run it honestly, I think that, uh, digital marketing is going to be more important than ever. And that customer experience online is going to be more important than ever. Cause that's almost the only way you're going to be able to interact with people. Like whatever your face-to-face, uh, abilities to convert a client are going to go away. They're going to become digital. Yeah. I think the trend line is going to continue to change. I mean, like it, like something I just thought about, right? Like if you're worried about like a magazine that's being printed, like you would rather touch your own device than even touch them. Like, I just think for, for a number of different reasons, maybe that one's not that, that, that strong of an argument, I don't know. But for all these different reasons, I think they're coalescing in that where people need to be spending their money is in on some medium online to reach people, to stay in front of people, to communicate your message, to represent your brand, to, uh, target that mindshare and, and either position yourself for the other side of this, or like a lot of us figuring out how to operate through this. Cause I think that there's some businesses that

are just kind of like, I'm going to wait it out. Yeah. Like I would advise against that. Like, I think that this is going to be prolonged. Yeah. Okay. And, and the better you can operate in this environment, the stronger you'll be on the other side. On the other side. Okay. So that, that's kind of my, my two cents, maybe come up with like a CTA special offer. I think that that's super, super important. Yeah. Um, you know, we're, I'm going to go into some of this stuff in more depth. On that webinar. Yeah. On the webinar. So, uh, be looking out for that again. Also my LinkedIn, that's probably the best way to get me, but we'll be pushing it out across all platforms. Yeah. So Gina, Marvin, uh, Patif to you. Thank you for putting this article together. Thanks. I know you've been doing, doing a lot of stuff. Oh man. Where's the hand sanitizer? What's it not doing in this room? Um, to you guys who are listening, like just be safe, uh, be, be strategic in what you're doing. You know, there's a lot of like, stay calm and think clearly about what you're doing. Stay healthy. Stay healthy. Drink a lot of water. Take care of yourself. Like you want a strong immune system, uh, from what I'm seeing, like, like this is going to be inevitable. Yeah. Like we're just kind of slowing it down to prepare for it and maybe lengthen it over, uh, a longer period of time so we can handle it better. Uh, but, but I think it's, I think it's coming. Um, and just, you know, take care of yourself and, uh, be smart. You know, and, and, and thank you for tuning in. Thank you for being so supportive. The next one might be remote. Yeah. Yeah. We might be sheltering in place. We'll, we'll be like a max headroom from, uh, uh, the max headroom show. Um, so anyway, you guys have made us the most popular internet marketing pod, one of

the most popular internet marketing, the most popular SEO podcast. I would like to be one of the top small business, small business, large business, like, uh, like CFO. I think, shouldn't we just, you know, nudge out Joe Rogan? Isn't that, shouldn't that be the. You know, my table, I don't know for any of you that are kind of in my inner circle have seen, uh, the table with the EWR media built in. Yeah. Like, and also Joe Rogan doesn't have a, like a website page. Yeah. Okay. Like, or I can't find it. You just called it a website page. Well, I don't, I don't really know. Like I can't find anything that he has online. Um, you know, like I've learned so much about like what, what we could be doing and and, and how, uh, to, to really grow, uh, the podcast and treat it as a business. And, and we're going to try to do a better job of that. I think y'all like the content, um, and, and we could be doing a better job and, and we're, we're going to attempt to do that. Right. Cause I, we think that this medium is also going to attempt to do that. We're going to do that. We're definitely going to do that. Definitely going to do that. Anyway, thank you guys. If you are interested in, um, growing your business, right. And we know it's troubling times and what's typically true is you cannot contract yourself to a successful business, right? That's just not what happens. You've got to grow through, uh, the challenges that you have. If I look at businesses, okay. If I look at businesses, businesses that you have utilized internet marketing or utilize SEO and have it in one year's time, always the business that's done the, the SEO has grown and other businesses of like referrals or, you know, different things or salespeople or whatever. It's not consistent. Fairly stagnant. Yeah. Like, like I believe for, it should be the core spending for, for any business that's

operating today. Um, you know, that's my, that's my opinion. That's the ones that I look through what I've seen from all, all different industries. So, um, so thank you guys for making us this popular podcast. Um, if you're interested in growing your business, you want to do some strategy sessions and try and understand, uh, where you could extract some value from this changing environment. We have experts who are standing by to help you, uh, do that. You can call eWebResults for increased revenue in your business. I don't know if you want to call us right now. Okay. Cause we might not have anybody in the office. Oh, okay. So I would go to the website and just say, uh, fill out the contact, fill out the contact or bestseopodcast.com. Um, we're going to be offering the, the profit plans there, the, the mini consulting, and then the agency is kind of the, the longer half day, you know, three, fourths a day, uh, strategy session. So we're going to have kind of the short-term consulting or that kind of hourly consulting, and then we'll have the full workshops as well. So businesses, or if you just need, uh, some direction that will be on bestseopodcast.com. Excellent. So, uh, so yeah, don't call us, just go there. Uh, we were filmed live here at 5999 West 34th street. Excuse me. That's the old address. Uh, I need to add. Yeah, I know. I was like, I was like, no, that's, that's incorrect. 1-3-1. 1-3-5. 1-3-1-0-5 Northwest Freeway, Houston, Texas 77040. Suite, 515. Oh, suite. The entire fifth floor. Well, you know, there's a whole coworking space here. We were planning on doing some, uh, you know, weekly trainings. Uh, we're going to do a mastermind down the road. It might all be a webinar. It might all be online. It might all be online. So thank you guys for tuning in. Uh, we really appreciate you until the next podcast. My name's Chris Burris. My name's Matt Bertram. Bye-bye for now. Second time. Let's do it.

I think that was good. Dude, at least we have, we've redone. Have we ever redone a whole podcast? No. I've redone podcasts. Like, I've gotten to the end and gotten more. It's hard. It's hard because I'm like, that was so good. And then you're like, oh, we're going to hit the court. Maybe that's five minutes. Yeah. Yeah. But we're going to, it's good. Okay. All right.