BENEFITS OF PAID SEARCH
Digital ads are a critical part of SEM, or Search Engine Marketing. Paid ads listed on search engines improve your website traffic and are one of the most effective ways to advertise online and grow your business. While SEO is a longer term strategy designed to improve your website’s ranking on SERPs organically, SEM allows you place paid ads on relevant search results pages, providing more immediate results. When you combine a well planned SEM campaign to work in tandem with your SEO strategy, you can dominate search results pages, driving more traffic to your website and increasing your brand awareness.
SEM campaigns are also targeted and allow you to control your budget. Rather than spending money to cast a wide advertising net and hoping to catch the right people, at the right time, in the right place, SEM campaigns are directed at specific audiences and you only pay when a user clicks on your ad.
Examples of SEM campaigns include Pay Per Click (PPC), Retargeting and Geofencing.
PAY PER CLICK (PPC)
The first step in developing a successful Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign is to gain a full understanding of the behavior of your desired audience. You must answer questions such as “When do they search?”, “Where do they search”, and “What do they search”. The answers to these questions, combined with industry keyword research through tools like Google Search Console, help us identify the best keywords to use in your ads.
Knowing the terms your customers use in their queries helps you but it’s important to consider the types of queries they are performing. Keyword research for SEM is different than keyword research for its longer term cousin, SEO. Consider that some users are searching for information and may not be ready to transact. Your SEM campaign will more likely target people who are ready to transact and therefore, the keywords you select should be related to “buying behavior” versus “research behavior”.
Budget is also factored in to the plan. The ad space located on search engine results pages (SERPs) is essentially auctioned off in real time each time a slot opens up. The quality of the ad together with format, relevancy and bid amount determines which ad wins the spot. Budgets are set at the campaign level and bids are set at the keyword level. Setting your bid price requires analysis of your historical performance, your campaign goals and your industry’s standard bid pricing. If you have a robust campaign budget but your keyword bids are too low, your ad will perform poorly which may damage your quality score, ultimately increasing the price you have to pay for an ad.
Your ad’s Quality Score is a key factor in determining the cost of your campaign. The quality score is Google’s rating of the relevance of both your ad and your keywords. The quality score determines your cost per click and is influenced by the relevance of your ad’s text, keyword and landing page, your historical account performance, and possibly most important, your click through rate. When more people click your ad, it shows Google that your ad is relevant and helpful to users. User experience is an important factor in Google’s rating and good click-through-rates (CTRs) demonstrate value.
RETARGETING
Retargeting, or remarketing, refers to the process of serving ads to users who have already visited your site. This is a very effective means of marketing because it targets people who have already shown an interest in your product and your brand.
Marketers work really hard to create great content for websites. And that great content brings lots of visitors to your site. But what happens after that? Did they buy something? Did they complete a lead form? Retargeting helps you to bring those people back back so they can take things to the next level. If you are not using Retargeting in your marketing plan, you’re missing out on a big opportunity to convert leads and build your brand.
Retargeting basically tags people who visit your website then allows you to present ads to those people when they are doing something else like browsing YouTube, searching the web, scrolling social media or even gaming. It’s all accomplished through the Google Display Network (GDN).
GDN is one of the largest remarketing networks in the world. There are millions of sites included in the network, including sites promoting mobile advertising. With so many sites in the network, it’s easy to find your users on other sites throughout the month and serve them ads. There is one major site that is not part of Google Display Network and that is Facebook. But fear not, you can still serve retargeting ads to Facebook users. You just have to use their service instead of GDN.
Some may suggest that the targeted nature of remarketing can create a sort of creepy stalking experience for the user. You periodically hear someone say that they looked at one thing on a website and now that site is following them everywhere. While some may find retargeting to be a little cringe worthy, the fact is that it works! Studies have shown that people are far more likely to click on an ad they have been served before then on a brand new, generic ad. Just be sure to make that second look worth it by serving high quality, eye catching ads that make people want to click!
DISPLAY ADS
Display advertising is the practice of presenting ads to the audience of a social media platform, website or other digital medium and encouraging them to take some action. Display ads can take a variety of forms including a simple image, a video or animation or an interactive application. They stand out from the rest of the page and they always include a call-to-action and a link back to the advertiser’s website or landing page.
Display ads should be creative and get directly to the point in order to grab the attention of users and entice the desired action. Images should be clean and striking and the copy should be clear and concise. The best ads often use language that generates a sense of urgency or a sense of curiosity in order to engage users and encourage them to click the ad. And since display ads are targeted to a specific audience, they should include language that speaks directly to that audience rather than the generic language often used with wider audiences.
Key benefits of display advertising are the expansive reach through the Google Display Network and the ability to target a specific audience based on demographics, interests and geographic location. Targeted ads are more cost-effective and result in a higher conversion rate since you are able to present you ads to the people most likely to have interest.
Impressions, clicks and conversions can all be tracked through Google Analytics. This allows for detailed tracking and analysis of your advertising campaign and provides the information needed to adjust the campaign as needed.
Digital Ads are a key component in your online marketing strategy. They help to build brand awareness and brand loyalty and they provide immediate results in building website traffic and lead conversions. Contact Real Reach Marketing Group today to discuss your options and assemble a cohesive Digital Ad strategy that complements your overall marketing plan.