Paid search marketing is an advertising model where businesses and organizations pay to feature their ads on search engines. Since the advent of the internet, companies have used paid advertising to draw attention to their services, and the field continues to evolve. Paid search marketing should be carefully researched and targeted to the demographics most likely to engage with your content. When used as part of an integrated media plan with other channels such as programmatic display, social, and video, paid search is an effective way to guide customers down the funnel.
Understanding the playing field of paid search marketing and how it can be used along with other channels to enhance campaign performance will give your company a definite edge and allow your content to reach your intended audience. With the right marketing strategy, you can keep your users hooked and continuously engaged with your business.
Does Paid Search Marketing Drive Results?
Paid search marketing is one of the most effective ways to connect with customers who are already searching for your services. Every second, tens of thousands of people use search engines to find answers, services and products. Since these users are already searching for an inquiry relevant to your business, they’re more likely to seriously consider your products and services than those who see your ads on more traditional advertising platforms.
Targeted keyword bidding is the primary way to focus on a paid search marketing campaign. In targeted keyword bidding, a company performs research to determine which keywords are most likely to reach their intended audience. Keyword marketing is an investment that becomes more lucrative over time.
The more competitive a keyword is, the more it costs to place bids for it. The most effective way to keyword bid is to find highly specific keywords that match your intended audience but aren’t competitive enough to cost a lot of money. All campaigns should include multiple keywords — and ideally several highly unique ones.
Paid Search Marketing Campaign Structure
Before starting a paid search marketing campaign, it is essential to research and understand your goals and budget thoroughly. The way to ensure a paid search campaign is successful is to have a measurable goal in mind beforehand. Some key terms you must understand for paid search marketing include:
Campaigns
Campaigns are targeted attempts to introduce your product or service to an audience over a set amount of time. Every campaign should start with a measurable goal, such as increasing sales by a certain percentage, improving brand recognition or reaching a specific number for online customer engagement. Though some paid search marketing campaigns can be evergreen, seasonal and heavily targeted ones are just as — if not more — important.
Ad Groups
Through Google Ads, you can define the ad groups you want to use throughout a marketing campaign. These ad groups should be thoroughly researched so you can be sure your ads reach your intended audience. You also want to ensure your advertisements don’t target any keywords your business doesn’t want an association with.
Keywords
Keywords must be determined at the ad group level of a campaign. The best way to maximize return on investment (ROI) through paid search marketing campaigns is to find niche keywords popular with your intended audience and have little competition. By working with keywords with little competition, you can market your business for precisely what makes it unique and find customers who love it for that reason.
Paid Search Ads
Most paid search marketing campaign advertisements are done through text ads. Word-based ads are short highlights that show at the top of the search engine result page.
Landing Pages
When you build an ad campaign, you should always have a dedicated landing page highlighting its unique selling points. By having a landing page that matches the user’s search intent, your business will be more likely to make a conversion.
Paid Search Marketing Glossary
Here is a short list of popular paid search marketing terms:
- Search engine marketing (SEM): This involves marketing that promotes websites and products using paid ads on search engine result pages.
- Pay-per-click (PPC) search marketing: PPC search marketing is an advertising format where your business only pays for the number of clicks your ads receive.
- Cost-per-click (CPC): CPC is the amount you pay as the advertiser for a click to your website.
- Quality score: These are scores that gauge your page’s usefulness and authority to determine where it lands in the search results.
- Clicks: Clicks are a marketing metric that tracks the number of times people have clicked on your content.
- Impressions: Impressions are a marketing metric that gauges the number of times people have seen your content.
- Click-through rate (CTR): CTR is the percentage of users that click on a hyperlink used in your content.
- Cost per acquisition (CPA): The CPA is a marketing metric that measures the average cost it took to convert one customer during a campaign.
- Negative keywords: These are keywords used to prevent any irrelevant traffic to your website and help you maximize your ad spend.
Paid Search Engine Marketing Platforms
With tens of thousands of people worldwide searching online at any moment, choosing the right marketing platform can give you an audience of thousands of searchers. These are the three most popular paid search marketing platforms worldwide:
1. Google Ads
Over 90% of online searches worldwide are through Google, making it the most effective way to reach a large audience. Google has extensive customization options for advertising. It’s also the surest way to reach the largest number of people through the search results page.
2. Microsoft Advertising
Microsoft Advertising has a small user base and tends to have a lower cost-per-click rate while still yielding a high ROI. Since they have a smaller audience, it’s easier to corner the market and reach goals using popular keywords. Less competition and lower pay-per-click rates make Microsoft Advertising an avenue your business shouldn’t ignore.
3. Yahoo Search Ads
Yahoo Search Ads are an effective way to reach older audiences who have been using Yahoo for years and work at companies that use Yahoo as their primary search.
How Paid Search Marketing Can Enhance Your Multi-Channel Campaigns
When consumers begin searching for a product or service, they are more likely to click on the search ads, and take action with brands that they recognize. They may have previously seen ads for these familiar brands across different websites, social media, CTV, etc. Using a multi-channel approach to your paid search marketing will help you to benefit from brand recognition amongst your target audience.
Paid Search Marketing With AUDIENCEX
Get in front of consumers who are already looking for your solutions by using paid search marketing from AUDIENCEX.
AUDIENCEX is here to help you develop a custom acquisition strategy, including paid search, that works seamlessly with your other digital marketing channels. Our independent trading desk, tdX works with 24 programmatic, search and social platforms to help you connect with your ideal customers and grow your brand. To learn more about how to reach your audience with paid search marketing or any other digital marketing channel, contact us online today.