How Your Score goals with Google during the FIFA World Cup (Part 1 of 5)
We’re fast approaching the biggest sporting event of the year and are
excited to see which team will triumph. As World Cup fever takes hold,
online activities are set to increase and you could potentially reach
more users and advertisers as a result. We’ve created a five-part blog
series that will run every day this week. The series will focus on how
to make the most of this exciting seasonal event. We’ll look closely at
how World Cup events can help benefit sports, news and travel
sites.However the tips we’ll cover are universal and apply to most sites
and sporting events.
To get us into the World Cup spirit, let’s drop by Italy to meet the
team behind NapoliSoccer.net and get inspired. Created in 2004 as an
online community, NapoliSoccer.net has grown as an online community. The
site has even opened a cultural association and started a newspaper
over the past few years. “It’s a completely non-profit project” says
Sergio Massimo, one of the managers of the website.
“Now NapoliSoccer.net has about 25,000 page views a day and 12 people
dedicated to writing content, creating press reports and managing
relations with local radio and TV,” Sergio continues.
From 2005, NapoliSoccer began using Google solutions. "The role that
AdSense plays is very important” says Sergio “since it allows us to
cover more than a half of our costs. Moreover, 70% of our total revenue
comes from AdSense."
"We started to use AdSense to secure revenue to cover the costs of our
non-profit activities. AdSense was a natural choice that gave us a
guarantee to keep our project alive."
Sergio explained that the ads are relevant and that when he doesn’t want
to show certain types of ads, he uses the features available in the Ad
review center.
"We are using a range of other Google products” Sergio tells us
”including Gmail, which is used by all of our copywriters. Fans can also
follow us on our YouTube channel and on Google+. And Google Drive is
very useful for sharing documents."
Sergio concludes by telling us that his on-going plans for the site
include more integration with social media and launching a mobile app.
Stay tuned for part two tomorrow where we’ll take a closer look at content creation and promotion.
How Your Score goals with Google during the FIFA World Cup (Part 2 of 5)
Welcome to the second part of our World Cup series. Today, we’ll
focus on the creation and promotion of related content ahead of the
tournament.
The World Cup is one of the most searched topics we’ll see in 2014. Other large-scale events such as the US Presidential elections
don’t compare. At this time, sports, news, travel and outdoor sites
could see an increase in traffic of up to 13%*. Take a look at the graph
below which highlights the growth of site visits during last year’s
Confederation Cup in Brazil.
As most World Cup fans will start to search for related information
before the tournament begins, now is the time to start sharing relevant
and related content with them. When building your content strategy and
timelines, think about important dates, specific games and popular
keywords. The World Cup audience will search for schedules, results,
teams and player information, not to mention the viral entertainment
that many advertisers will create. Fans traveling to Brazil might also
search for travel and accommodation options, local directions or
restaurant recommendations. Regardless of what type of website you have,
ask yourself if you’re giving your users the content they need right
now.
Stay tuned for the next blog post where we’ll share some best practices on using social media to reach more users.
How Your Score goals with Google during the
FIFA
World Cup (Part 3 of 5)
Welcome to the third part of our World Cup series. Today, we’ll focus on taking your content viral through social media.
The 2014 World Cup in Brazil won't just be about soccer. It’ll also be
about interactions across social media. This event will see millions of
people interact and share content on multiple social channels, driving
the potential for your content to ‘go viral’. With this in mind,
publishers should think about adapting their editorial coverage around
the World Cup to generate audience buzz. Some fun examples could include
discussing top ranked players or incredible game moments. 73%* of
online adults now use a social networking site of some kind. So it’s
essential that content on your site is easy to share and that you’ve got
a strategy in place for engagement and distribution of content through
your social media channels.
Users not only like to read the latest updates regarding the World Cup,
but also share interesting content, comment, and interact with other
users. Additionally, sports are a leading topic on many social media
platforms. Sports audiences often account for some of the most engaged
and passionate fans on social media. To engage your audience further,
explore using Google+ Sign In and som e ofother Google+ features that will help you take your content viral.
If you’re planning to create specific content for the World Cup, don’t
forget to build out a content strategy for your social media channels.
Use these channels to spread your content and engagement. For instance,
try hashtags and make sure they’re relevant for the season and not just
promoting your site or business. Using well established hashtags can
help users discover your content faster and can also allow your content
to contribute to ongoing discussions. Here’s a couple of examples of
some of the most popular hashtags used with World Cup content:
- #worldcup
- #worldcup2014
- #fifa
- #brazil
- #football
- #brazil2014
- #soccer
- #brasil2014
Video is another potential channel for you to create and share unique
content on your site. Over 6 billion hours of video are watched each
month on YouTube**. That's almost an hour for every person in the world.
With that much content being consumed, think about using YouTube or Google+ Hangouts On Air
to distribute your content and to engage your users. For example, you
could create a daily 90 second clip that highlights the best, worst and
funniest moments from the various games.
In our fourth blog post tomorrow, we’ll talk about your strategy for reaching users across devices.
How Your Score goals with Google during the
FIFA
World Cup (Part 4 of 5)
Welcome to the fourth part of our World Cup blog series. Today, we’ll
take a closer look at reaching your audience across devices.
Is your website optimized for your mobile users? Throughout the World
Cup, fans will be looking for great content, regardless of whether
they’re viewing it from a desktop, tablet or mobile device. “In 2013,
internet traffic from mobile devices surpassed traffic from desktop, and
that figure is continuing to grow”*.
Today, approximately 60%** of online users are now multi screen users.
In many instances, this means they’re online on social networks, news
sites or mobile messaging apps while also watching TV. During live
sporting events, this number grows further. Euro 2012 and the 2012
Olympics were good examples of this trend as illustrated below.
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With this in mind, think about whether you should be preparing
additional mobile-optimized content to share with your users during
events like the World Cup, especially during the opening ceremony, key
matches and the finals. Looking at how your users digest your content is
important. If they receive a link on their smartphone but are unable to
view the content because it’s not mobile-optimized, they’ll feel
frustrated at the poor experience. On the other hand, If the user is
delighted with the content and their first visit to your site is a
positive experience, they’ll likely come back again and again. We
recently shared some best practices
on driving user engagement and loyalty through smart mobile site design
- take a look and see if there’s any practices you can apply to your
own site. If you haven’t created a mobile-friendly site yet and would
like to outsource this, take a look at Google’s recommended vendors.
If you already have a mobile optimized site, don’t forget that you can
grow your earnings potential by understanding which mobile ad sizes are most effective for you. Moreover, if you’ve created an app, use Google AdMob to monetise it and grow your earnings.
With this in mind, think about whether you should be preparing
additional mobile-optimized content to share with your users during
events like the World Cup, especially during the opening ceremony, key
matches and the finals. Looking at how your users digest your content is
important. If they receive a link on their smartphone but are unable to
view the content because it’s not mobile-optimized, they’ll feel
frustrated at the poor experience. On the other hand, If the user is
delighted with the content and their first visit to your site is a
positive experience, they’ll likely come back again and again. We
recently shared some best practices
on driving user engagement and loyalty through smart mobile site design
- take a look and see if there’s any practices you can apply to your
own site. If you haven’t created a mobile-friendly site yet and would
like to outsource this, take a look at Google’s recommended vendors.
If you already have a mobile optimized site, don’t forget that you can
grow your earnings potential by understanding which mobile ad sizes are most effective for you. Moreover, if you’ve created an app, use Google AdMob to monetise it and grow your earnings.
Check back tomorrow for the final post in our World Cup series, when
we’ll be talking about growing your site with Google AdSense.
How Your Score goals with Google during the
FIFA
World Cup (Part 5 of 5)
Welcome to the final part of our World Cup series. Today we’ll share
some AdSense-specific tips and tricks to help grow your revenue
potential. We'll cover some old but steadfast recommendations plus more
advanced seasonal optimisation tips to help ensure you’re well prepared
for the World Cup.
1. Increase ad coverage: Place up to three ad units, plus three
link units per page. This can help increase the click rates and views on
your site, and potentially boost your earnings. It’s important to
remember that a good balance between content and ads is essential.
Placing too many ads on a page may cause a high bounce rate and loss in revenue.
2. Use the best performing ad formats: Wider ad formats usually
perform better compared to others. Some ad formats also have more
advertiser demand. Typically ad formats like the 728x90 Leaderboard, the
336x280 Large rectangle, the 300x250 Medium Rectangle, and the 300x600
Large Skyscraper are the most popular formats among the advertisers and
more effective in terms of potentially increasing revenue. During big
sporting events, advertisers are often focusing on viral engagement.
Enabling expandable ads will help you capture this opportunity.
3. Be careful with blocking controls: Review which ad categories
you’re currently blocking and why you’re blocking them. Overblocking can
lead to a decline in your earnings potential, especially in times of
increased traffic to your site and bigger advertiser spend on categories
such as CPG, Auto, Entertainment Food and Beverage and Travel.
4. Ensure optimal ad position: Choosing the best locations to insert the ads can be challenging. Use Google Analytics to get a heatmap on where your users are clicking. You’ll also find more new resources
on the AdSense Help Center regarding the best performing ad placements
for each website category. Recently we have new articles about ad
placement specific to sports and travel.
That wraps up our World Cup blog series. We hope you’ve gained some new
insights, inspiration and ideas on getting your site ready for the World
Cup. Check back here in a two weeks when we’ll be sharing news of a
fantastic Google initiative around World Cup insights.
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