It’s not easy to forge your way to success doing business on the Internet. While you are bringing your services to a wider, more savvy audience you are also competing with every other business on the web. If you’re looking to move to the front of the line, locate your customers, and turn pageviews into transactions, it’s time you look into paid search.
What Is Paid Search?
You’ve likely heard of paid search, and if you haven’t heard of it you’ve seen it in action. Paid search is a tool that is imbedded into nearly every website, social media outlet, and search engine. It’s designed to help your website stand out in the sea of trillions of websites you’re competing with. There are many different types of paid search advertising opportunities available and it will take a concentrated effort and clear goal to use this tool most effectively for your business. To participate in paid search you simply pay a search engine to place an ad for your website in any of their “sponsored” areas of their website.
However, nothing in life is ever this easy. Behind the scenes of a paid search campaign much more is happening. Using Google as an example, we’ll dive right in. Google’s advertising department is called AdWords. To participate in AdWords you only need to set up an account – in fact Google provides many tutorials that can help you understand and master AdWords. Pay-per-click, or PPC, advertising is extremely beneficial because you can target your audience and your ad will only be shown to users it may be relevant to, and you only pay Google if the ad is clicked. To do this, you must create an ad campaign for your website. This is where your experience with keywords will come in handy. You start by deciding which keywords will be most relevant for the audience you wish to draw. Next these will be sorted into ad groups. Several ad groups will allow you to reach a wide yet targeted audience. Using those ad groups you craft an ad that concisely conveys what you are providing to your would-be customers using the keywords within that ad group. This equation of keywords, relevancy, and importance to user’s search inquires creates what is called a quality score. This score, combined with the Cost Per Click Bid – how much you intend to spend – will help algorithms decide if your ad is right for each specific user search. This formula ensures that the proverbial pie is split three ways. One slice for AdWords, one for you the customer, and one for the curious user who will be provided with exactly what they were looking for.
Will Paid Search Work For Me?
If you own a business and are online, then yes, paid search will work for you. That being said, how you implement your plan will largely affect its success. If you pay an advertiser to place your ad, it will be placed where an inquisitive user will see it. But, if it is not relevant to their needs they will gloss over with as little effort as it takes to block a pop-up. If you really want paid search to work for you in the most cost effective way, you’re going to need to spend some time learning how best to sow your oats. Google is just one of the many search engines that provide paid search for their users. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Bing, Yahoo, and pretty much any other site that hosts a large amount of people offers paid search opportunities for their customers. To employ a successful paid search campaign it is fundamental to find your audience. Ask yourself: where are your customers and how do they find you? Once you can answer that question it is only a matter of going to them and giving them a message they can sink their cursor into. And, the best part is you don’t have to settle for just one. If you find a lot of your customers find you on Google local search and through Yelp, starting there can be a great way to test the waters.
Another great thing about paid search is that your ROI is very quickly accessible and apparent. If you do not see the dollars coming in as they are going out, you can quickly and easily change your ad or switch up your strategy and close in on your target market. Controlling your investment puts success in your hand. You can start out with a small budget and see how it works for you. As you begin to realize the power first-page placement has for your company, you may decide to invest more into your paid search strategy.
Incorporating paid search into your digital marketing plan is an eye opening experience for businesses that operate online. By paying search engines to display your ads, you can ensure your audience will see your website while searching and have the opportunity to interact with your brand. No wasted dollars and more interested eyeballs can spell literally overnight success for your ad campaign. If you are serious about finding more customers and bringing more attention to your business, paid search is the fastest and most effective way to help your business flourish.