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Our Journey With LLM Advertising: How To Optimize and Set Up ChatGPT Ads

We never like to recommend, or try to implement, a new form of online advertising, until we’ve tried/tested it with our own business. That way we can understand the pros and cons of running advertising on a new advertising vehicle, plus all the “inputs” we’ll need to provide to the tool to launch the campaign. That makes it easy to know what questions we need to ask of our clients related to a new ad campaign launch on a vehicle that is new to them, or what we need their approval on.

We waited to try this new vehicle until they offered pay-per-click (PPC) vs. just pay-per-impression (CPM) advertising because, quite frankly, most of clients are small-to-mid-sized businesses (SMBs) and nonprofits and they have far smaller marketing/advertising budgets than large firms and need their ads to really work for them and generate leads and sales vs. just awareness-generation!

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Results Communications & Research’s ChatGPT Ad

As of the original publish date of this blog post, It’s been about 1.5 weeks since we rolled out ads for our own business, Results Communications & Research, on the ChatGPT LLM-powered (large-language-model-powered) answer engine/AI search platform. We’ve documented below — and will continue to document — our 2026 journey with this new form of online advertising. So, be sure to check back!

  • Days 1 & 2 (June 11 and June 12) – set up our ad and associated targeting for our campaign at ads.openai.com (ChatGPT is owned by OpenAI) — it was not a large lift at all! Needed to determine and document in OpenAI’s ad tool how much we were initially wanting to spend for a click (we initially put this at $3.50) and our daily budget ($25), plus in what geographies (Providence RI and Boston MA) we wanted the ads to appear. And, also provide context hints (OpenAI instructions explained this exercise this way: “describe the conversations, topics, or keywords where your products or services may be relevant; these hints guide matching, but aren’t exact-match targeting rules.” We also documented the images and content we wanted to use in our ads. We are testing two ads — one with longer and one with shorter headlines — but to keep something consistent, so we’d feel comfortable drawing conclusions about our headlines, we used the same image in both ads. We also had to share with the ad platform what page of our website we wanted ad clickers to land on (we created a brand new page on our WordPress website for such purposes — which is an online advertising best practice).
  • Day 2 (June 12) – launched our campaign by activating it in our OpenAI Ads dashboard.
  • Day 5 or 6 (June 15 or 16) – of course, being the digital marketing and analytics geeks that we are, we checked our advertising dashboard at openai.com countless times to see if the ads were being served up and generating impressions and/or clicks. Seeing zero movement on either the impressions or clicks front, we decided to expand our geography to NYC and our daily budget to $35 and what we were willing to spend for a click to $5.00, in case what we were willing to pay for a click (and the competition to have ads shown by competitors in the same geography for the same types of prompts) was causing the ads to not be shown or we needed a bigger geography to have enough opportunities for our ads to be shown to relevant “prompters” on ChatGPT.
  • Day 7 (June 17) – we saw in our advertising dashboard that our ChatGPT ads were starting to accrue impressions, and therefore, were being served up, but not to any great degree.
  • Day 8 (June 18) – we increased what we were willing to pay for a click to $7.50, and also added in the whole state of New Hampshire to our geographic targeting.
  • Day 9 (June 19) – seeing an alert in the OpenAI ads platform that we were often being outbid by competitors because of what we were willing to pay for a click, we increased our click bid to $10.00 from $7.50 – our first 2 clicks were achieved somewhere between the 18th and 19th, and at that point, our ads had a 0.66% click-thru rate (meaning less than 1% of individuals having our ad served up to them, clicked on it — not surprising for reasons outlined in the next bullet.)
  • Day 12 (June 22) – we just checked this morning and the increase in budget and what we are willing to spend for an ad click, plus the expanded geography seems to be paying off! As of this morning, our ChatGPT ads have generated 2,762 impressions (been served up that number of times), 13 clicks (a 0.47% click-thru rate), and an average cost-per-click of $6.44. We aren’t surprised by any of this. We had seen competitors running ChatGPT ads in our space when we were entering relevant prompts into ChatGPT, so we knew as a business-to-business advertiser we were more likely to have to pay more for a click than a business-to-consumer advertiser might. We also know that ChatGPT is a different animal than Google Search ads — the new form of ads discussed in this post is served up to individuals entering prompts into ChatGPT that might indicate they’d be interested in our services, but it’s not the same as someone entering “keywords” into Google and then Google serving up ads to those individuals because an advertiser provided those keywords as ones they wanted their ads to be served up for. We changed our daily budget to $50.00 today — we should have increased the daily budget a few days back in keeping with our increasing the amount we were willing to pay for a click! We also paused the shorter of our two ads since the longer ad was performing far better. To-date, we have not generated any leads — in the form of phone calls, e-mails, or appointment set-up — from these ads. We’re not discouraged by this at all, since, when it comes to a business engaging a firm for B2B services — or even reaching out to them — there can be a long lead time!
  • Day 17 (June 27) – we paused our ads today. Not because they weren’t generating impressions or clicks, but simply because we are a small marketing agency/SEO company who deliberately keeps our fees/rates very reasonable so that small businesses and nonprofits can afford to work with us. Going into this pilot, we planned to only spend about $300, but ended up letting the ads run until ChatGPT ads had spent $364.12, based on our daily budget and what we were willing to spend per click.

How Successful Was Our ChatGTP Ads Campaign?

Because businesses often take some time before purchasing business services, and therefore, like to research a number of companies before they decide to reach out to the one organization or the few organizations whom they are most interested in, we have yet to receive any inquiries from our ads, but still hope to get some inquiries from those who have clicked on the ads. At least we’ve generated some “awareness” among appropriate parties. We’ve also found in our many years of running online ads for our own business, that often, fellow marketing agencies/competitors click on our ads to see what we are offering and what we are all about. We did ensure our landing page for our ad clickers adhered to best practices, such as demonstrating why we are experts, including “social proof,” therefore, a review or testimonial, and much more!

Ultimately our ChatGPT ads yielded:

  • 11,321 impressions (this number of sets of eyeballs viewed our ads as part of entering an appropriate prompt into ChatGPT)
  • 46 clicks
  • 0.41% CTR (we aren’t concerned or scared off by this low click-thru rate — we’ve seen similar with Reddit and nextdoor.com ads
  • Average cost-per-click (CPC) of $7.92 – not horrible for a B2B (business-to-business) lead

As we recommended at the top of this blog post, keep coming back to learn more about our ChatGPT advertising journey! We’re all in this together when it comes to understanding this particular form of new advertising and how effective it will be in generating leads and sales, not just awareness, and if ROI makes sense for advertisers like our clients who need their ad $$ to work for them pretty quickly.

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The Marketing & Sales Downfall of Focusing Too Much On Appearing In Answer Engines (AI Search)

I’ve attended a decent number of webinars about AI search and how to get your organization’s name or a link back to your website (citation) to be shared by an answer engine in response to a topic-relevant user’s prompt. To-date I’ve heard the following list of key tactics mentioned related to how to get your organization’s name or page served up by answer engines like ChatGPT:

This is a very brightly colored image with question marks of different colors in the background and then the words, where, what, when, why, how, and who in brightly colored captions bubbles -- yellow, blue, pink, red, green, and orange.

What Types Of Organizations Benefit The Most From Appearing In Answer Engines/AI Search Engines?

For bigger brands who offer services and products throughout the whole U.S., or even the world, it makes great sense to want your organization’s name and links back to your website to appear in answer engine results related to relevant-topic searches. But for organizations who only offer services or products locally, i.e., in one city or town, in one state, or in one region (such as New England), there will likely be far less value to your organization to your organization from being found on answer engines than there would be for a national or international organization. Why? Because many individuals entering prompts into an answer engine just want their question answered. They aren’t looking to buy a product or pay for a service. And, the answer engines are more concerned about serving up content that easily/readily answers the question, regardless of the geography of the content producer or of the individual who is looking to get their question asked or answered. Unless, of course, the searcher/prompter includes their geography in the prompt, such as a prompt like “who’s the best digital marketing agency in Braintree MA.”

The Big Mistake That Organizations Who Need To Rank Locally Are Making Related To AI Search

Let’s face it, smaller, local organizations have far smaller budgets than a national brand like Progressive Insurance. They also have far smaller marketing teams. When they put the majority of their marketing dollars and energy into producing content that will be found in AI tools like Perplexity, Claude, and ChatGPT, they are missing out on other opportunities which might better help them be found locally, since, as we shared above, many individuals to whom their website content or name will be served up by answer engines won’t be in their geography.

What Are Some Marketing Tactics That Help Organizations Be Found Locally?

  • Nextdoor Business Profile and Advertising – you can’t get more local than that!
  • Google Search Ads – where you’ve selected a geography appropriate for your business
  • Display Advertising – Google, Meta (Facebook/Instagram), other social media advertising – again, where you’ve selected a geography appropriate for your business
  • Publicity in Local Newspapers and/or on Local Media websites
  • Community Event Participation and Sponsorships – in communities your organization serves
  • Social Media Strategy and Posting – like with AI/answer engine search – you can reach local individuals and businesses who follow you this way, but there’s always some “waste,” where you are reaching individuals who can/will never become a client or customer because of geography or for other reasons
  • Optimizing Your Google My Business Profile — this is your best opportunity to be found locally and have your organization served up for “near me” terms
  • Writing a guest blog post for another local organization who serves your geography and/or requesting a backlink from their website to your website

Why You Need To Diversify Your Marketing Efforts

Check out our blog post on why it’s particularly important right now to diversify your marketing efforts and reach out today to schedule a complimentary discussion of your organization’s particular marketing challenges and opportunities in the time of AI!

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The Challenges Of Display Advertising, A Form Of Push Marketing

While our firm has developed a specialty in, and has gotten well known locally for search engine optimization (SEO), i.e., both paid and organic tactics that drive individuals who are actively searching to identify someone who offers the products, services, and solutions to products you do to your website, we also have a lot of experience with “push marketing.” Unlike SEO-related marketing and tactics (pull marketing), push marketing is all about putting the idea about your organization’s products, services, and solutions into the heads of individuals who aren’t actively searching to identify someone like you, but who still might be a great fit for your product, service or solution, based on various demographics and behaviors. And, our blog post is focused on one form of push marketing — display advertising.

Who Does Display Advertising Target?

Like all forms of push marketing (think print, e-mail, and radio marketing), display advertising (advertising that includes an image vs. just text) allows you to target individuals and/or businesses based on one or more of these criteria about the individual or business:

  • the geography in which they live or are located
  • their age, gender, and household income, if an individual
  • key life events, such as graduating from college, having a baby or retiring, if an individual
  • their hobbies or interests
  • their role at a company
  • their recent purchase, or research conducted related to a potential purchase
  • the size or nature, if a company

So, What Is The Biggest Challenge Of Display Targeting?

Over the years, in both corporate marketing and consulting/agency roles, we’ve run a decent number of Google Ads, Facebook/Instagram, Reddit, Nextdoor.com and other “display campaigns” that have employed the targeting detailed above. But, with recent campaigns, it’s really struck us what one of the biggest challenges is related to running such campaigns to pursue individuals who aren’t necessarily looking to buy your products, services or solutions, but who might be a good fit for them.

And, that display advertising challenge is this. Many consumers and/or individuals associated with a business often click on ads, not because they have an immediate need for the product, service, or solution advertised nor will they ever have such a need. But rather, they click on ads out of what we call “the curiosity factor.” Something about the language and/or image in the ad — known as the “ad creative” sounds interesting or intriguing to them and they click on the ad to learn more just because they are curious.

This image shows part of the face and only one eye of a boy with dark hair and dark eyes peeling back brightly colored blue, gold, and purple curtains to look out the window.

How Does The Curiosity Factor Impact Display Advertising Results?

Here’s how individuals clicking on display ads simply out of curiosity impacts display advertising results:

  • Since for display ads, you often pay for ad “click,” you often pay for clicks that will never become a lead or sale.
  • The conversion rate for your ads is far lower than what you see with “paid search” campaigns (where ad clickers are in active search mode to identify someone like you) and your cost-per-conversion may end up being far higher than what you see with push marketing. The last statement depends on how much your cost-per-click is for your display campaign since often the cost-per-click is far lower than for a paid search campaign.
  • Ultimately your campaign ROI or ROAS (return on ad spend) ends up being quite low and doesn’t warrant continuing to spend on the campaign even though you’ve generated a lot of awareness of your products, services, and solutions thru your display ad spend.

Need Help Determining Whether Or Not It Makes Sense To Run A Display Advertising Campaign?

Our team is glad to chat with you on a complimentary basis about whether or not piloting a display campaign would make sense for your organization. Schedule a complimentary display advertising discussion today!

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You Won’t Know Unless You Try: Why Sometimes The Only Way To Know If A Particular Marketing Activity Will Be An Effective One Is To Test It

As we mentioned in our blog post about our digital marketing agency and SEO company celebrating our 11-year anniversary, recently we’ve been testing more print advertising and Google Display advertising for clients. Sometimes, your organization and/or your marketing consultant or agency either doesn’t have enough experience employing certain types of advertising or marketing, or they don’t have enough experience employing certain types of advertising or marketing related to your organization’s particular industry, challenges, and opportunities.

The above-mentioned scenario means the only way to know for sure whether or not a particular marketing vehicle or marketing activity might generate great awareness, leads, sales, or engagement for services for your organization is to test that vehicle — run a pilot campaign using that particular vehicle and see what results reveal.

Recently, we’ve been working with a client in the food space that offers a food-related service vs. offering a food product that you can buy at the grocery store. They were already running Google Search ads that were served up to individuals specifically looking for their particular service. We suggested they also:

  • run search ads (search engine marketing (SEM) ads/paid search/paid SEO) for people looking for a solution to a problem, challenge, or opportunity who weren’t aware of, or necessarily thinking about, the client’s service as an option for addressing their need.
  • employ Google Display advertising and have image/display ads served up to people reading about relevant topics as well as people to people who had researched relevant topics in the past and/or had bought products/services similar to theirs in the past.

Evaluating A New Marketing Activity: What Does A Conversion Cost You?

While both of the new campaigns had strong click-thru rates, and the Google Display ads had an extremely low cost-per-click, when we did a really deep dive to determine which, if either, of the two new campaigns were generating conversions, i.e., calls, submitted inquiry forms, etc., we determined that the Display ads were NOT generating conversions — ultimately, making the cost-per-conversion crazy high for the Display ads, even though they had a very favorable cost-per-click.

Are we glad we tested both of the new types of campaigns? Certainly. The client is still somewhat in start-up mode, and is still testing and trying a number of marketing vehicles and activities to determine what will work best for them as far as lead- and sales-generation goes. And, we wouldn’t have learned the Display ads wouldn’t be effective if we haven’t tried. We spent short money and only ran the campaign for about six weeks. Our money and time investment wasn’t huge, and we learned this type of ad doesn’t make sense from an ROI standpoint — too many people clicking on ads because of the “curiosity factor,” likely, because the ads were food-related and images included in them were enticing and inviting.

We’ll continue to run the other new Google campaign — the Search one — because it is generating conversions, and we’ll keep an eye on the cost-per-conversion to determine if we should continue to run it, but the ads have only been running for 2 months and we need more time to get a sense of the advertising ROI.

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Need Help Testing A Particular Marketing Vehicle Or Activity?

Reach out today to schedule a complimentary discussion of your particular marketing challenges and opportunities!

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11 Years and Close To 150 Customers Later…

We can’t believe it either, but today (April 1, 2025) marks 11 years of Results Communications & Research (Results C & R) being in the marketing agency and SEO company business.

As we always have been, we are very grateful to the many talented marketing consultants, marketing agencies and their staff, and other marketing professionals we’ve had the pleasure to collaborate with, and to learn from. We mention a few of those marketing collaborators on our Our Team page, but the list is so long, it’s hard to give a shout-out to everyone we’ve enjoyed meeting, knowing and working with the last 11 years!

And, we are incredibly grateful to the close to 150 client organizations — both for-profit and non-profit — with whom we’ve brainstormed and strategized to achieve the best possible level of awareness, sales leads, and actual sales (both product and service sales). Many of our current clients have been with us a number of years. You can access a list of our past and current clients to see examples of industries we’ve served by visiting the Clients page of our website.

Lastly, we’d be very remiss if we didn’t give a huge shout-out to the various students or recent-college- or recent-graduate-school graduates who worked for us over the years, and to our Principal’s late sister-in-law who greatly supported our mission, contributed to our success, and believed in us. All of the aforementioned individuals will always be a part of Results C & R’s rich history!

What’s Next For Our SEO Company and Marketing Agency?

In general, it’s full speed ahead with serving the same type of customers we’ve always loved serving — small to mid-sized for-profit and non-profit organizations. But, right now, we are enjoying spending more time getting up-to-speed on anything new and different going on in the Google Ads space. We love helping clients create awareness, sales, and leads with Google Ads and always have, so we are refreshing our Google Ads skillsets (even though we’ve taken and passed a number of Google certification exams in the past), particularly, Google Performance Max ones, so that we are not missing out on any opportunities to maximize our clients’ Google Search, Google Display, and Google Performance Max campaigns. Think of this latter campaign type as of a hybrid of the two former Google Ads types of campaign, and one with an AI component, like Google Display.

AI Is Not New To Google Ads/Google Ads Is Not New To AI

Related to our above desire to continue to grow our Google Ads skills, we want to remind our readers that AI is not new to Google Ads and Google Ads is not new to AI. For years, Google Ads has been able to offer “display” ad campaigns that are targeted to individuals who show affinity to certain products or services because of past buying or researching of them, having interests related to them, visiting websites focused on them, or reading about them on a variety of diverse websites.

AI and Writing Website Content, Particularly Blog Posts

And, speaking of AI, another area in which we hope to do more client work in the coming year is blog writing for clients. We’ve offered blog-writing services for years — and a number of clients have taken us up on it — but because we really enjoy writing, we hope to do more of this work for clients.

We don’t think AI search-engine/tools like ChatGPT will, or should ever, replace humans when it comes to website content and blog post writing. There’s great evidence that, at least some of what is spit back by AI search engines is not accurate. Plus, we don’t think an AI tool can ever bring the behinds-the-scenes knowledge or heart ‘n soul of an organization to website content writing or blogging. Only the organizations, themselves, truly understand what challenges their target audiences face — what their pain points are — and what they most need help with and how the organization’s products and services make a difference in their client’s/customer’s lives.

Traditional Marketing Opportunities Are Often Missed Ones

And, we always enjoy — and hope to do more of this in the coming year — helping our clients out with traditional marketing opportunities like print, radio, and TV/cable/streaming advertising, transit advertising, outdoors (billboard advertising) and more. We’ve got years and years of experience related to it and can help you gather information on possible traditional marketing opportunities and evaluate them! By dismissing traditional opportunities because they aren’t online/digital ones, organizations can also miss out on reaching target audiences who don’t spend a lot of time on the internet!

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Our Principal, Gail Snow Moraski, in a photo from around 2014, the year she founded Results C & R

Many Thanks and Let’s Catch Up!

Many thanks to the clients and marketing professionals we continue to collaborate with!

If you’re a past client, a prospective client we spoke with, or a fellow marketing professional with whom we collaborated in the past, or if you’ve interned with us in the past, let’s catch up. Schedule a time to do so today!

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Like SEO, Keyword Research Is Not Dead

Some SEO experts are saying identifying and focusing on ranking for keywords, i.e., high-volume appropriate search terms your organization wants to be found for in search engines in relevant geographies, isn’t as critical to SEO success as it used to be. In keeping with our recent blog post about SEO (search engine optimization) still being relevant, keyword research is still quite relevant to both for-profits’ and non-profits’ success.

Here at Results Communications & Research, we still believe and see evidence from the SEO rankings audits of clients’ websites that we conduct, that understanding the search terms that target audiences are entering into Google, Bing, and other search engines and capitalizing on them (as explained in this previous blog post about how to interpret and use keyword research) is still an important SEO tactic and one that moves the SEO needle.

We don’t see the day coming (for a long time, if ever) on the SEO front where clients aren’t going to want and need to remove their blinders and not rely on internal speak and internal knowledge to inform both their SEO and their overall business strategy. Keyword research allows them to take those blinders off.

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Non-SEO Benefits Of Keyword Research

Keyword Research Is Not All About SEO, It’s Also About Your Marketing and Business Strategy

Even if keywords were no longer important to SEO, keyword research still allows you to determine:

  • What products and services target audiences are searching on which can help an organization to decide to eliminate products or services or add new ones
  • The volume of individuals who are searching in an organization’s market area (geography) to help inform whether push or pull marketing is warranted

Read our blog post about why keyword research informs more than an SEO strategy.

Need Help Conducting Keyword Research?

Our team regularly conducts keyword research to inform our clients’ marketing and SEO strategies. Reach out today to schedule a complimentary discussion about our keyword research services.

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Does SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Still Work?

As we’ve explained in numerous spots throughout our website, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the practice of ensuring your organization is found online for relevant search-engines searches in relevant geographies. But a huge mistake in 2025, and beyond, would be to only focus on your website and Google My Business Profile being optimized to be found by appropriate searchers/target audiences, as shown in the image below.

Gray image with turquoise lettering that reads "Particularly With The Intro. Of AI Search, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Efforts Need To Focus On ALL Your Digital Properties, Presences, and Assets Not Just Your Website!!! These Include, but are not limited to: Organic Social Media, Profiles/Posts Google My Business Profile Discussion Forums, Like Reddit and Quora Infographics Residing Anywhere Online Online Advertising: Search & Display Branded Images Videos Your Website." The image also contains the logo of our SEO consulting and digital marketing agency, Results Communications & Research.

If you’ve been regularly reading our blog or, simply, just reading whatever you can get your hands on related to SEO, you know that search engines’ focus since the 2020 pandemic has been on answering (by providing other organizations’ answers to) questions that searchers have related to a particular topic, product, service, or solution. Search engines care less and less about the source and format of that content, and they’ll snag content from just about anywhere on the internet if it answers a question in a manner that is easily understood/is absorbable, and that allows readers to take action/the next step.

Is SEO Dead? Does SEO Still Matter?

The answer to the above is “no way!” In fact, just the opposite, although some digital marketing experts are saying it is, or are reluctant to use/expand the SEO acronym or search engine optimization phrase to describe maximizing your opportunities for all and any digital assets, presences, or properties to be served up in search-engine results vs. just an organization’s website, Google My Business Profile, and paid search/search-engine ads (think Google and Bing ads).

Hey, right now in this time of constant change on the SEO front, no-one really is the one true expert or SEO guru, so we’re going to take our stand vs. following the crowd or one expert, and say that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is about making sure all your digital assets, presences (think social media posts and presences and discussion forum presences) and properties serve you well related to being found online for the right search terms, questions, and topics in relevant geographies.

Let’s Chat About What SEO Means In This New Era And How Your Organization Can Plan and Respond To It!

We always love a complimentary discussion of for-profit and nonprofit organization’s digital marketing challenges, so schedule a discussion with our SEO consulting firm today!

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A Day In The Life Of An SEO Consultant

If you’re considering a career in digital marketing, and particularly within that, a specialty or expertise in SEO (search engine optimization), read on to learn what a typical work day look likes.

How An SEO Consultant Starts Her Day

8:30a.m. – 9:30a.m.

Check/read (and send response e-mail) e-mails, which inevitably include the following:

  • Notifications from paid search (SEM) ad platforms (Google Ads or Microsoft (Bing) Ads) about:
    • Policy changes that have caused a Google or Bing Search Ad to be disapproved
    • Ad extensions and ads that have become disapproved because “page destinations” are no longer working (sometimes, clients of ours take down or move website pages to which site links (one form of ad extension/asset) point or ads point and forget to let me know that pages have been taken down, moved, etc.
    • Payment form (credit card) can’t be charged — therefore, the credit card information that a client provided to Google Ads or Microsoft Ads is no longer accurate/has changed
  • E-blasts and e-newsletters about SEO and invites to various SEO webinars and classes (due to the large # of search engine optimization experts we follow)
  • Client questions about how well their website is or isn’t ranking in search engines, particularly Google
  • Questions or comments from other marketing professionals with whom I collaborate, including social media specialists, branding/graphic design specialists, and website designers and developers
This is an image of Gail Snow Moraski, our Boston SEO Company's Founder/Owner Who Is An SEO Consultant. Gail has blonde shoulder length hair and is waring and orange crew-necked sweater that reads "Carpe Diem" She is wearing classes and smiling and is standing in front of a field of black-eyed Susans in her backyard.

9:30 a.m. – noon

  • Use Google Analytics data, Google Search Console data, paid search platforms, and SEO rankings audit reports to analyze and document KPIs (key performance indicators) for upcoming monthly/standing client meetings
  • Have a mid-to-late morning #SEOStrong snack, particularly one with lots of protein like swiss cheese or hummus because you definitely need a sharp brain and a lot of energy to do SEO work!
  • Employ “Answer The Public” and Google Ads keyword planner tools to conduct keyword research in relevant geographies using approved “inputs” from client about what terms they believe their target audiences would use to identify someone who offers the services, products, and solutions to problems they offer
  • Check client Google Ad and Microsoft Bing Ad campaigns (including Google Nonprofit Ad Grant ones) to see how they are performing, including reviewing cost-per-click (CPC) and click-thru rate (CTR); plus, review and apply or dismiss recommendations from Ad platform to improve optimization score, and check for appropriateness of “search terms” for which ad platforms are serving up ads.

12p.m. – 6:00p.m.

  • Review SEO diagnostics reports to determine possible website issues and/or missed SEO opportunities related to a particular client’s website ranking situation.
  • Facilitate client discussion about next steps/implications of their SEO rankings audit, diagnostics reports, and/or monthly KPIs. Where do we go from here to move the SEO needle and drive more relevant searchers to the client’s website in the month ahead?
  • Write a blog post for my own website or for a client website to support SEO by addressing topics and answering questions that are important to clients, but also to show search engines, that the website in-question is being kept “fresh”
  • Write and enter SEO page/post title tags (this might be in WIX, GoDaddy, Joomla, WordPress, Expression Engine, or a propriety software such as a CMS platform used in a particular industry), and submit the revised pages/posts for indexing by Google and/or Bing using Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster tools.

7:00p.m. – 8:30pm

Check e-mail again and/or continue to complete client SEO work of the nature outlined above. Being an SEO consultant is not just a 9 to 5 job!

Considering Hiring An SEO Consultant/SEO Expert?

Reach out today to schedule a complimentary discussion about your particular organization’s marketing challenges and opportunities!

alt-tags, Being Found On Bing, Being Found on Google, Blog, Blogging, Consulting, Google Ads, keywords, lead generation, marketing consultant, meta tags, online advertising, online presence, organic SEO, paid search, Quora, Reddit, Search Engine Optimization, search terms, SEM, SEO, SEO tags, technical SEO, Uncategorized

What Is An SEO Consultant?

While I’ve referred to myself and my business as a marketing consultant or marketing consulting firm, it never struck me that individuals would use the term “SEO consultant” to refer to someone who offers the SEO services (search engine optimization services) that I and my firm does.

Just by chance, while conducting some keyword research for a client that offers business and management consulting services, I stumbled across the term and the average monthly search volume for it. Did you know that 27,100 individuals a month, across the whole U.S., search on this term in Google? That’s a lot of searches on an annual basis!

So, I’m using this blog post as an example of how you can write a blog post to support being found for a term relevant to your business and services you offer, but also to explain to individuals who are searching on the term, what “SEO Consultant” means and what an SEO Consultant does.

An SEO Consultant is an individual or firm who can help your organization be found on Google and on other search engines for relevant terms, and in relevant geographies.

This is a square gray image with black and turquoise and blue text which reads "Did You Know That There Are Consultants Whose Sole Or Primary Focus Is To Help Your Organization Be Found in Search-Engine Results Listings By Your Target Audiences? They Are Known As: SEO Consultants. The image also contains the logo of our Boston SEO Company, Results Communications and Research.

So, What Exactly Do SEO Consultants Do?

Every SEO consultant’s approach to SEO is likely slightly different, but, in general, SEO consultants not only help your website rank well “organically (via unpaid/non-advertising tactics)” in search engines, but also your Google My Business Profile or Bing Places Profile (collectively referred to in this post going forward as “Business Profiles”). In addition, they may also help you identify presences you can have on social media platforms and discussion forums, like Reddit and Quora, to support your organization being found in search engines, since social media presences and discussion threads can also be served up in search results — not just your website or Business Profiles.

We believe that, ideally an SEO assessment to arrive at an SEO state-of-the union (an understanding of how your website and Business Profiles already support or don’t support your being found on search engines) should be completed first. Hey, we and you don’t want to break something that’s already working and doesn’t need fixing, right? That, should, then, be followed by implementation of various SEO tactics and best practices, based on what the audit/assessment reveals is warranted and appropriate.

Step 1: Initial SEO Assessment/SEO State-of-the-Union Evaluation

To achieve the objectives above, common initial activities that an SEO consultant may complete to arrive at an SEO state-of-the-union include, but are not limited to:

  • Conducting keyword research to identify what terms your target audiences are searching on most to identify someone who offers the services, products, and solutions to problems your organization offers — and in the right geographies.
  • Employing website diagnostics tools to run reports that assess how well your website employs best practices, including what’s known as technical SEO practices (think your website performing well and loading quickly), and provides for a good user experience.
  • Reviewing what’s known as your “behind-the-scenes” meta tags to ensure that they inform search engines and searchers what your website is all about.
  • Analyzing your Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Bing Webmaster data to see what percentage of your website traffic comes from search engines, and for what terms Google and Bing are serving up your website most.
  • Conducting an SEO rankings audit to see just how well your Google My Business Profile and website rank on Google, and how well your website ranks on Bing.

Step 2: SEO Tactic Implementation To Address Areas For SEO Improvement Revealed By An SEO Assessment

Once the analyses listed above are completed, an SEO consultant will come up with a list of one-off/one-time SEO tactics and ongoing/regular/monthly tactics that should be implemented to support your website and various Business Profiles ranking better, plus your organization being found more online. These may include, but are not limited to the following:

One-Off/One-Time SEO Tactics To Support Being Found On Search Engines

  • Making your Bing Places and/or Google My Business Profiles (Business Profiles) more comprehensive.
  • Rewriting, or if they are missing, writing your meta tags for various website content (pages, posts, and images), and implementing and/or working with you or your website developer to implement them on your website.
  • Suggesting and/or writing new blog, FAQ, or website content to support your site ranking better in search-engines for certain high-volume keywords (search terms.)
  • Submitting any revised website pages and posts for indexing/crawling by Google and Bing by using Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster tools.
  • Developing and implementing paid search/search-engine advertising via Google Ads, Microsoft Bing Ads, or both, for organizations who don’t have the luxury of the long window required to rank better in search results, and need to rank well immediately!

Ongoing SEO Tactics — Since SEO Is Not A One And Done Marketing Activity!

  • Posting content regularly, including new blog post links, on Business Profiles
  • Writing, or making suggestions for blog topics, plus ensuring meta tags are appropriate and new website blog content is submitted for crawling/indexing by Bing and Google
  • Using Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster, and SEO rankings audit tools and diagnostic reports to monitor how your website and aforementioned Business Profiles are ranking in search-engines and making regular recommendations about tactics to improve rankings, as necessary

Speak With An SEO Optimization Consultant To Learn More

Want to learn more how we help and collaborate with organizations to ensure their websites, Business Profiles and other online presences are optimized for search? Reach out today to schedule a complimentary, no-obligation discussion with an SEO consultant!

AI Search, Being Found On Bing, Being Found on Google, Bing Ads, Google Ads, Google Nonprofit Ad Grant, marketing best practices, online advertising, paid search, pull marketing, Search Engine Optimization, search terms, SEM

Should I Use A Call Ad Extension In My Google Ads?

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Earlier this year, our Boston SEO Company wrote a number of blog posts to help our readers understand the paid-search side of search engine optimization (SEO). Two key organizations who offer opportunities to run ads that will appear at, or near the top of search results for the search terms (known as keywords) and geographies you provide them with when setting up your account, include Google Ads and Microsoft Bing Ads.

We highlighted Google Ads in our headline above because, despite the recent anti-trust lawsuit against Google, and more than 30 AI Search engines vying to be the top search-engine as use of AI search engines grows, Google’s search engine is still used by more than 90% of search-engine users. Regardless, the opinion we share below about whether or not to use a call ad extension (also known as a call ad asset) in your ads pertains to both Google and Bing Ads.

What Is A Call Extension Or Call Asset?

A call extension or call asset is a hyperlinked phone # (housed behind a phone icon labeled “call us” that the advertising platform serves up) that you can include along with your main ad body content when employing paid search advertising (also know as SEM, or search engine marketing). Any time someone clicks on this hyperlinked phone #/phone icon (see print screen below) the organization with whom you’ve placed your advertising will charge you for that click, the same way you pay a certain cost-per-click when someone clicks on the main body content of your ad or a different type of ad asset, such as a sitelink.

Reasons Not To Include Call Assets In Paid Search Advertising

Getting back to the answer to the question in the title of our blog post, the answer is “no, you shouldn’t include a call/phone extension/asset in your paid-search advertising.” We’ve run countless Google Ads campaigns for clients and our own business, and are now running Bing Ads for our own and client organizations. Based on our own experience and what we’ve heard/learned from other marketing professionals, our reasons for this are simple, and outlined below.

Call Assets/Call Extensions Waste Advertisers’ And Ad Clickers’ Time, Plus Advertisers’ Money Because:

  • Bots may click on call assets/extensions and each click on your hyperlinked phone #/phone icon that represents your call asset/extension will cost you money. As we explained above, the same way that search advertising platforms charge you each time someone clicks on the main ad body content of your ad or other ad extensions like site links, paid search advertising platforms will charge you for clicks on hyperlinked phone #’s.
  • In addition to the actual fee you pay to an advertising platform for clicks on phone # assets, you’ll also be paying for the time of your organization’s team member who answers the phone and interacts with someone who isn’t the right fit for what your organization offers, and of course, if they aren’t the right fit, the ad clicker will have also wasted their time. Even if your organization is a nonprofit one and not paying for your advertising clicks because of having a Google Nonprofit Ad Grant in place, you still don’t want to waste your team’s time or that of an ad clicker.
  • Searchers, i.e., individuals who have your ad served up to them, are usually in a big hurry. Search advertising platforms often serve up your ads to individuals who aren’t the right fit for your product, service, and solution, despite your ad body copy and keywords indicating who would be the right fit. Searchers often don’t take the time to read ad body content, and they may simply click on your call extension without visiting your website to see if your products, services, and solutions are the right for them. We’ve seen this happen over and over again.

Here’s an example that supports our above thinking. As you’ll see from the below print screen, we typed “designers near me” into Google. These ads (identified by the word “sponsored”) appeared. But, the search terms we entered into Google are very vague. Are we looking for a home designer, an interior designer, a graphic designer, etc.? If we clicked on the “Call Us” phone icon (call asset/extension which is hyperlinked to a phone #) without reading the ads and were looking for a graphic designer vs. a home designer or home renovator, we’d be wasting the advertisers’ money and time and our own time.

In sum, while it might seem ideal to make it easy for searchers to call you right away when they have an ad served up to them, you are better off from a financial standpoint, and good will standpoint (therefore, avoiding clickers getting frustrated with your organization) if you force them to 1) read the ad and 2) visit your website to learn more before they call you.

Check Out These Other Recent, Helpful Blog Posts For More Google Ads Wisdom From Our Boston SEO Company

Google Search Ads Not Converting? It May Not Be Your Ads Nor Landing Page That’s The Problem
Is Your Advertising Landing Page Too Self-Serving, And Ultimately, Hurting Your Organization?
How Much Should I Spend On Google Ads?
SEO VS. SEM

Need Help Optimizing Your Google Ads Or Bing Ads Or Getting Your Paid-Search Advertising Spend Down?

Reach out today to schedule a complimentary paid search advertising discussion about how our team of SEO experts can help you with the above.