SOCIAL MEDIA / DEVELOPMENT + ADS
CHALLENGE
CHALLENGESMG developed a social media campaign that included organic social development on all applicable channels, as well as paid Facebook and Instagram ads.
Our social media team worked with CAU to develop about 4-5 posts per week on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. In addition to receiving photos from the client, SMG sourced the following types of content:
- CalAero blog posts created by our SEO team
- Branded graphics created by the SMG graphic design team
- User-generated content
- Royalty-free images from the web
When CAU came to SMG, their Instagram was lacking consistent branding and aesthetic. SMG developed a cohesive Instagram layout that represented their brand. We also built out their Instagram story highlights.
Page Likes – We ran page likes ads to boost CalAero’s following on social. We targeted a demographic interested in aviation. The page likes ads receive an average of 368 likes per ad at .48 cents per page likes.
Post Engagement – We ran post engagement ads to increase likes and comments on posts and start to develop an engaged audience to retarget with lead generation ads. Boosted posts receive an average of 1,505 engagements at .04 centers per engagement.
Lead Generation – We ran lead generation ads to capture contact info of users interested in attending CAU. With these ads, we receive an average of about 300 leads per month at $10.23 per lead.
SMG was responsible for monitoring social media notifications, responding to comments and direct messages, engaging with followers, and conducting organic outreach.
SEO / SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
CHALLENGE
In Jan 2018 SMG launched a robust SEO campaign that included both on and off-page SEO development. Our SEO team conducted detailed keyword research to identify search concepts likely to result in conversions (calls, leads, and students) for CAU. We set about the task of optimizing every page of the website in an effort to improve rankings for our targeted keywords. Our on-page optimization included implementing structured data for rich snippets and mobile-first SEO techniques. The static web pages identified as most relevant to the specific keywords we were targeting were bolstered with additional copy and further optimized in keeping with best practices.
SOLUTION
We developed an editorial calendar for blog content and selected topic ideation in an effort to select blog topics likely to resonate with specific segments of CAU’s target audience. We’ve written, optimized and published 4 blog posts per week throughout the duration of our SEO engagement. The need to regularly develop blog content in the aviation market meant SMG needed to find copywriters who were not only talented writers, but also had a background in aviation (no small task). We located and hired a staff writer at the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) who started writing informative, educational, and compelling blog content for our SEO campaign with CAU.
Off-page optimization efforts included the development of market-specific directory accounts as well as local NAP (Name Address and Phone) accounts to help with local or “geo-specific” organic rankings. SMG’s outreach team has been hard at work developing collaborative relationships with 3rd party website owners and webmasters in an effort to generate backlinks from high-authority websites in the aviation vertical.
RESULTS
To date, the SEO campaign, coupled with the social media development efforts, have resulted in a dramatic increase in Cal Aero’s organic rankings and overall search visibility. The resulting improvement in the number of in-bound leads and student enrollment have had a consistent and positive influence on CAU’s revenue and overall ROI.
