3 Things I’ve Learnt From Google Digital Garage
2 months, 89 lessons, 23 different units and lots of cups of tea later, I have received my Online Marketing Fundamentals qualification with Google.
The Digital Garage course is a free online learning platform, which consists of 23 modules covering a wide range of subjects from marketing fundamentals, search email, social media, display, video, e-commerce, geo-targeting and analytics.
I work in the marketing department for Essential Group of Companies and currently study Social Media for Business with Estio Training and Google’s Digital Garage helped me to not only expand my current digital knowledge but support it.
So, here are 3 key things I have learnt purely from The Digital Garage:
- Google doesn’t just have three tools. Google has an extensive range of Digital Marketing Tools.
You’ve probably heard of tools such as Google Analytics, Google’s Keyword Planner and Google’s Search Console. What I discovered from The Digital Garage was that the tools come from Google Webmasters, which houses all of Google’s digital tools.
The tools allow you to delve deeper in your digital journey with more customisation options from the Google Ad Gallery, help with mobile optimisation from Google’s Mobile Friendly Test, and geo-targeting with Google My Business.
(Source: https://digitalgarage.withgoogle.com/)
2. The difference between Display Advertising and Search Advertising
Before I began the Digital Garage, I had the idea that all online advertising was the same thing. I thought: it’s all digital advertising / online advertising isn’t it? Why do we need to classify this already specific area of marketing? However, through Digital Garage I found this wasn’t the case.
Search advertising a.k.a search engine advertising, focuses solely on the use of search engines to advertise. So when your audience search for terms related to your business, your advertisements will appear. This should mean the outcome for you if you’re using search advertising, will be that you’re bringing in customers who are relevant to your business, not people aren’t interested in what you provide.
Display advertising is different. These advertisements will appear when your customers are not actively searching for your business. You may have seen display ads in the form of banner ads on certain web-pages. To conclude, display advertising can be a brilliant way of re-targeting customers back to your website, so when putting display advertising and search advertising together efficiently, you can gain a really strong online presence.
3. AB Testing
When I first began my role in Marketing, my original thought process was to come up with one detailed idea and then create your outcome. When Google Digital Garage introduced myself to AB testing, my thought process changed immediately. Below is a preview of the training offered by The Digital Garage:
“Create two versions of an e-mail to see which one performs better. Send half of the customers version A and half of the customers version B. Look at which e-mail had the higher open rate,”
“You can see which content drives people to visit your site by looking at the “click-through rate,” when people click a link within the email.” – E-mail Marketing from Google Digital Garage Training.
Key takeaways:
- If you’re a marketer, entrepreneur, or someone working on enhancing your company’s SEO and SMO, explore Google Webmasters tools. I would recommend checking out the Webmasters Blog also.
- Try to refrain from searching “define display advertising” or “define search advertising” – the definitions are too similar and can seem misleading. This idea can be applied to many words and phrases. When you’re learning about specific areas of a particular field, my best advice to you would be to use more than one source.
- Actively use the practice of AB testing whenever you can! If you don’t give your audience more than one choice, what will you do if they dislike your idea? AB testing will save you from that “oh no, back to the drawing board” feeling.
I hope you enjoyed reading about my experience with Google Digital Garage, feel free to let me know your experiences with Digital Garage in the comments!
