With paid search engine marketing, you’re walking the spending tightrope. Spend too little, and you’ll drop into the oblivion of irrelevance. Spend too much, and you’ll fall into a fiscal abyss. While it’s hard to get it exactly right, the better balance you have, the better your chances of averting disaster. Paying attention to these details can help.
Don’t slip up on campaigns
Scrutinize the keywords in your campaigns and note their purpose. Popular and costly keywords can generate quick results if you’re willing to outspend everyone on the block, but less popular (and less expensive) “long-tail” keywords provide more value. These keywords often convert better since they relate more specifically to a searcher’s intent.
Mix these two types of keywords and you’ll trip over your own feet by competing against yourself. You’re likely to spend your whole campaign budget on the costlier keywords and stifle performance of long-tail terms.
Create ad groups with ads related by theme and purpose, and driven by the same set of keywords. Writing effective, relevant, and yes, creative copy is easier when ad groups focus clearly on a specific theme, a defined purpose and a limited keyword vocabulary.
If your brand is well-known, keep your branded terms in their own campaigns, using a single match-type, a single keyword and a single ad group per campaign. Don’t use two different match types in campaigns – you’re likely to spend your budget on the broadly-matched keywords alone. Keep branded and non-branded efforts separate since unbranded terms are likely to be more popular (expensive) and will knock you off your budget balance.
Tread carefully with keywords
Every keyword you choose is taking a step along the search marketing tightrope. Start with Google Keyword Planner, but be careful: letting Google decide when and where to spend marketing dollars is like taking those crucial steps blindfolded.
Start with Google Keyword Planner, but be careful: letting Google decide when and where to spend marketing dollars is like taking those crucial steps blindfolded.
Don’t stumble through keyword selection blindly. Pick keywords that mimic your website structure, with keyword groups for separate pages. You don’t need Google or any other tool at this point; just pick keywords that are relevant to the content of each page. When you have that list, use keyword tools to uncover anything you’ve missed.
Monitor spending – it can be difficult to realize any ROI with very expensive keywords. Seek quality keywords that are priced right – the same way you shop for cantaloupes or carrot juice. After you launch your campaign, tweak it. Cut expensive keywords with lackluster performance; these are the obvious budget-killers. Look at less expensive keywords too since any keyword that’s not pulling its weight is a drag on your campaign.
Take it one step at a time
If you’ve never stumbled with the issues above, don’t look down. There are still a few things about search engine marketing that can throw you off balance.
Don’t blow your bid budget. High bids can leave your campaigns without a net. Bid as high as you must to get the share of voice you need, but that’s all. Stop spending when you reach the point of diminishing returns.
With Google’s Keyword Planner, go to “Get search volume and forecasts.” Here, you can set a high bid and see where impressions begin to plateau even as spending increases. That’s the point beyond which higher spending is fruitless.
Don’t mismatch match types. Using broad match for keywords guarantees higher spend but doesn’t guarantee higher relevance and therefore higher click-through and higher engagement. Instead, modify broad matches to refine them further. Broad-match-modified (BMM) terms are more specific than broadly matched terms, but not as specific as phrase-matched or exact-matched terms.
Don’t show up where you don’t matter. Showing your ad in response to search queries that will never result in a conversion is a waste of money. Use negative keywords from the https://www.whitesharkmedia.com/blog/keywords/how-to-use-the-shared-library-negative-keyword-lists shared library to ensure your ad won’t show up on irrelevant or inappropriate SERPs.
Don’t omit a call to action. The best ads remind searchers of what they seek and tell them what to do next to get it. Use keyword insertion in the first headline to make your ad more relevant to the searcher’s intent and provide more information in the second headline. Make sure the description includes a call to action!
Avoid Search Marketing Missteps
was written by me, Greg Norton – also known as webzenkai. I’ve got more than two decades’ experience building effective websites and powerful email campaigns that yield results. Feel free to contact me regarding this article or anything else you find on this website.