In the world of paid search advertising, it’s all about putting yourself in front of the customer at the right time. To do this, you need to know where that customer will be and when they will be there. Instead of working off hunches and placing ads when and where you “think” your customers will be, consider using the tools available to more accurately predict your customers’ behavior.
Google Trends
Google Trends is a free tool available to anyone curious about what search traffic is doing on a global or regional scale. Want to know if search traffic is growing for your industry? This is your tool. Want to know if search traffic for your industry is seasonal? This is your tool. Want to know if your traffic should spike at a certain time, like holidays, or during a particular month? This is your tool. It won’t give you exact search numbers, but it will give you an easy to read graph that will show you how traffic is trending for any keyword you want. It’s an invaluable tool for finding out when you should be getting your largest amount of traffic, and if your traffic should increase or decrease in the near future.
Year Over Year Analysis
This measure can be a bit trickier. First, your AdWords account needs to be at least one year old. Once you’ve built up a history, you can look at what should be happening to your specific business’ online traffic with your accounts actual history as a benchmark. You can predict when different factors will affect your business through the year and track the impact of changes you’ve made over time to both improve your weaknesses and enhance your strengths. There’s no better predictor of the future than what has happened under similar conditions in the past.
Out of the Box Thinking
This is where your knowledge and creativity as an account manager come into play. Sometimes it takes more than a graph or your account history to know when your customers are going to look for your services. There are tons of outside forces that drive online traffic every day. If you can act quickly on these forces, you can take advantage of traffic shifts that other competitors will most likely miss. For example, say you own a car repair shop. There are more car accidents on rainy day. It may be worth bidding more on rainy days to grab increased traffic. Road Construction could also be a factor to consider. Target geographic areas with heavy road construction and advertise for problems caused directly from the road construction (dents and scratches from kicked up rocks, damage caused by pot holes, etc.). It’s up to you to find what works for your industry and enact that process in your campaign.
There is no perfect predictor of future online traffic, but if you combine the available tools with the knowledge you’ve gained through managing your accounts, you have a much greater chance for success. If you have any questions or would like some help managing your own AdWords account, please don’t hesitate to reach out. As your Melbourne, FL Internet marketing team, we look forward to helping your business grow.