What is paid search, and is it right for your business?
Small business owners ask me this question a lot, and in different flavors; "What is paid search, and is it right for my business?
That's a seemingly simple question, but it has a complex answer. Before answering the question, it’s essential to understand what paid search is and what it does. Let’s take a closer look.
Paid search, also known as search engine marketing (SEM) or pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, is an online advertising approach where businesses pay to display their ads on search engine results pages (SERPs) when users search for specific keywords or phrases. It allows advertisers to bid on keywords relevant to their products or services, and when a user enters a search containing those keywords, the ads are shown at the top of the search results. It's more science than art and more technical than one might think.
Paid search is a powerful form of online advertising. It can help businesses promote their products or services to potential customers actively searching for related information. When you search for something on Google, Bing, or other search engines, you might have noticed that the results at the top of the page are labeled ads with links to relevant websites. These are paid search ads.
Paid search advertisers select specific keywords or phrases relevant to their offer. They then bid on these keywords, competing with other advertisers for ad placement on the search results page. The ads appear when someone searches for those keywords, and the advertiser only pays when a user clicks on the ad, hence the name 'pay-per-click' (PPC) advertising. The higher you bid on a per-click basis and the higher the relevancy of your content, the higher the chance of being displayed first.
Paid search is an effective way for businesses to increase their visibility, reach their target audience, and drive traffic to their websites. It allows advertisers to precisely target users based on their search intent and geographic location. Additionally, with proper tracking and analytics, businesses can measure the success of their campaigns and make data-driven decisions to optimize their advertising efforts.
Businesses looking to leverage paid search should constantly conduct thorough keyword research, create compelling ad copy, and set a budget aligning with their marketing goals is essential. While it can be a powerful tool, successful paid search advertising requires ongoing monitoring, testing, and refinement to achieve the best results. The key here is - test! I have personally managed various paid search campaigns with varying budgets, but for all of them, we would tirelessly test to continue to refine our approach.
When done right, paid search is a valuable digital marketing strategy to connect with potential customers at the exact moment they are actively searching for products or services like yours.
Here are the top 10 things to think about when considering paid search to acquire new customers:
Clear Business Goals: Paid search can be highly effective when you have specific and measurable business goals. If you aim to increase website traffic, generate leads, boost sales, or enhance brand visibility, paid search can help you reach your objectives.
Understanding Your Audience: Before diving into paid search, it's crucial to have a solid understanding of your target audience. Identify your ideal customers, their preferences, and the keywords they might use to find your products or services.
Budget Allocation: Paid search requires a budget to run ad campaigns effectively. There is the cost of the actual campaign used to run ads and, if you are outsourcing it, a cost for the agency to manage the campaign for you. Assess your financial capacity and determine how much you can invest in paid search while maintaining a positive return on investment (ROI). You won't get it right the first time. In my professional opinion and experience, expecting great results from your first campaign is unrealistic. Set aside enough budget and time to test and learn. Regarding agencies, there is some truth to “you get what you pay for.” If they seem too cheap, run and ask for references. If it’s someone you trust, great, if not, be careful so you don’t have your campaign mismanaged and your budget poorly spent.
Competitive Landscape: Evaluate your industry's competitive landscape. If competitors actively use paid search to gain an advantage, study what they are doing. You may learn something that will guide you further exploring this avenue.
Well-Optimized Website and Conversion Plan: If you remember just one thing from this, it should be this one. Ensure your website is user-friendly, mobile-responsive, and optimized for conversions. Paid search can drive traffic, but a poorly optimized website may result in wasted opportunities. If your campaign is successful, you want to be ready to capture the traffic generated. If your goal is to generate phone calls, for example, do you have enough people prepared to handle an increase in call volume? Don’t waste money here.
Keyword Research: It's crucial to conduct comprehensive keyword research to identify relevant and high-performing keywords for your paid search campaigns. Focusing on the right keywords is vital to attracting the right audience. What are they searching for? How are they searching for similar products? Where is there a high level of bid competition? Keyword research is one of the most critical steps in the process.
Tracking and Analytics: The adage "you can't improve what you can't measure" is the absolute truth regarding paid search. Establish a robust tracking system to monitor the performance of your paid search campaigns. Track key metrics, such as click-through rates, conversions, and cost per acquisition, to gauge the effectiveness of your efforts. Ensure your website is appropriately set up in Google Analytics or an equivalent platform and your content is tagged correctly. Tracking and analytics are vital components of paid search.
Testing and Iteration: Paid search requires continuous testing and refinement. Be prepared to experiment with different ad formats, targeting options, and bidding strategies to optimize your campaigns. As mentioned above, this also means ensuring you have a budget that accounts for testing. Again, 99% of the time, your first campaign will not be a home run. Be prepared to test, learn, and iterate.
Complementary Marketing Efforts: Consider how paid search fits your marketing strategy. It should complement your organic SEO efforts, content marketing, and other promotional activities to create a cohesive and effective approach. Think about this from the customers' perspective. When searching for a product or service, do you buy the first one you see? How else might your customers be searching for your product? Where else are they doing research or spending time that you want to expose them to your brand? The best campaigns have multiple touchpoints focused on how the customer shops.
Long-Term Commitment: Paid search is not a one-time endeavor. It requires a long-term commitment to iteratively improve and adapt your campaigns based on data and results.
That's a lot to take in, but trust me when I say this is just a very high-level overview. Each of these ten items warrants a deep dive as they are complex and technical. So, is paid search right for your business? Well, it depends. Until you get your customer acquisition funnel set up, have the right analytics in place, and have enough budget to truly test and learn, there are other things you should consider before diving into paid search. If you have the budget to hire an agency to set this up (or can hire a team to do it), and need immediate traffic to your site, then paid search would be a great way to go.
I hope you found this helpful. I'd love to hear from you and get your feedback.
Until next time,
Erich