Paid search for beginners
If you run a business and you don't have a website, you're missing out on one of the most cost-effective and powerful ways to show off what you do.
A good website can sell your services, or tell customers where they can find you and what they can expect to pay, but your competitors are likely to have one too. And when a potential customer looks for the goods or services you provide in a search engine like Google, there's no guarantee that you'll appear first on the list - or even on the first few pages.
Where you do appear in these so-called 'natural' results reflects how relevant a search engine thinks your website is to the words a user searched for. The art of improving your ranking is often referred to as 'search engine optimisation' or 'SEO', but it has its limits. If you're a new company facing established competition, you might find yourself crowded out.
However, type a key search term relating to your business, such as 'electrical suppliers Kent', into Google, and take a look at the page of results. To the right of - and often above - the main listings you'll see 'sponsored links'. These have been paid for by competing firms who, like you, might struggle to appear high up in the natural results or are complementing their position there. In essence, these paid listings are simply a new type of advert, and the business of placing them is known as paid search.
According to Amelia Dawson, paid search manager at Leapfrogg Digital Marketing, paid search offers a cost-effective and efficient way for small firms to gain immediate visibility in search engine listings.
"The opportunity to generate a high volume of quality traffic to a site within hours at an affordable cost is a gift for small businesses seeking to compete with their big budget competitors," she says.
How much does it cost?
But to run a cost-effective paid search campaign, you need to understand how the payment system - typically called pay-per-click (PPC) - works. The first thing to know is that there's no guarantee that your advert will be shown for the search term(s) you choose. It'll face competition to be displayed, and the winners will be those prepared to pay the most. However, this price isn't charged to have an advert displayed: it's only payable if somebody clicks on the listing and arrives at the chosen landing page on your website (hence pay-per-click).
Advertisers 'bid' against each other by setting a maximum price, known only to them, that they're prepared to pay. This sum will need to reflect the level of competition for the keyword(s) in question: for obscure terms it might be just a few pence, while for hotly-contested terms such as "car insurance"; it could be tens of pounds. An advert won't appear for a given search if enough competitors are prepared to pay more, and, should a customer click on one that does appear, that advertiser will pay only what it took to out-bid the competition; not necessarily their maximum bid price.
"You have full control over the amount you spend, the days of the week your ads run, and the geo-targeted settings, which is important to small business in ensuring that their ads are only shown to the most relevant of traffic," says Dawson. "[Paid search's] cost effective, transparent and speedy format means that it is perfect for a small business to use for both brand awareness and online campaigns."
Quantifiable results
Advertise in the press and you'll know the circulations figures of the publication you've chosen, but you'll never know how many people have actually read your ad. The advantage of paid search is that it is quantifiable and delivers a far higher ROI. A paid search campaign not only allows you to keep track of your daily spend but also to get access to real time data that measures the ad's reach and effectiveness.
Dawson explains that the highly-targeted advertising that paid search delivers, along with its analytics tools to measure value, allows SMEs to get maximum mileage from campaigns and to keep track of their budgets, however modest.
"As you are able to track each and every element of a paid search campaign, it is quick and easy to identify how well your ad is working and adapt it accordingly This analysis coupled with many tools from the leading search engines, enables you to 'optimise' all elements of a campaign in order to guarantee return on investment (ROI)," says Dawson.
How to get started
If you are a medium-sized company planning a comprehensive advertising campaign, consider appointing a professional search marketing agency that has experience in paid search campaigns for SMEs. Most will offer a PPC payment plan, but be aware that they may also charge a retainer fee.
If you're a small business and have a very modest budget, you can set up a Google Adwords account yourself and avoid paying any third parties. Google Adwords features step-by-step instructions that cover everything from how to create an ad, to setting your campaign criteria. Among the key benefits for an SME are the ability to target your ads to appear only to people searching in your area, or to edit them and adjust your budget until you get the results that you want.
Stay in control
Once your cost per click - the price you'll pay each time your ad is clicked on - has been set you can also agree a funds budget. For example, if you're paying £1 per click but don't want to spend more than, say, £30 per day, your ad can be capped at 30 clicks per day. Once it has received 30 clicks, the ad will disappear until the next day of your campaign. In order to prevent an ad disappearing too soon, you must keep a close watch on the click-through rate. This measures the number of times that an ad is displayed against how many times it was clicked. For example, if your ad is displayed 20 times and clicked on twice, the click-through rate is 10%.
However, if you're in any doubt of your ability to create an account and write an ad, consider hiring a freelancer to do it for you. Visit www.freelancer.co.uk or www.elance.com for a directory of freelance web wizards who can set up a Google Adwords account and write your ad for an affordable fee. Whatever route you choose, you should bear the following points in mind:
* You need to identify the keywords that the customers you want are using to find your type of product or service, in order to deliver relevant and valuable traffic; i.e. the right customers in your catchment area.
* Know your advertising budget and stick to it. It's important not to get carried away before you really understand the results that you're getting - a poorly-targeted campaign could waste vital funds.
* Encourage readers to click through to your website with compelling copywriting. Make sure that your ad copy stands out. Maximising the conversion rate (the volume of traffic that comes from your ad to your website) is the objective of a successful paid search campaign.
* Don't fall at the first post; make sure that your landing page is up to the job. It should be well designed and professionally formatted, as it will be the first part of your website that potential customers see. It's vital to include properly-tested routes to the product or booking areas of your site.
* Make sure that your appointed agency or freelancer run tests as part of the service so that you can adapt ads according to their performance.
Best Practice Guidelines
1.Industry analysis. Before launching a paid search campaign, investigate the marketplace, and your main online competitors. Read industry blogs - such as Inside AdWords - to better understand how to optimise a campaign, and learn more about AdWords through Google's AdWords Learning Center.
2.Is there enough profit per sale to generate ROI from a paid search campaign? Will your budget stretch to the level of visibility you want? If the obvious terms are subject to heavy competition, you may find success with more specific and niche terms.
3.Bid for ROI. Calculate your break-even cost per click, and only bid below this level.
4.What keywords to bid on? Choose really specific keywords that are likely to drive high-quality traffic, and consider specifying negative keywords that you know aren't relevant to your campaign.
5.Advert copy. Make sure the advert's message is descriptive, and that it contains your USPs and a compelling call to action. Qualify users by giving insights such as make, model or price in the ad copy: you'll pay for everyone who follows the ad, so do what you can to appeal only to potential customers.
6.Deep linking. Link keywords in your ads to the most relevant page within your website to increase conversion rates.
7.Keep an eye on progress. Regularly check all elements of the campaign for optimum results. Use Google Analytics and link your Adwords account to it, then you can use Analytics' features to optimise your campaign keywords.
[with thanks to Amelia Dawson and Leapfrogg]
DARTBOARD IMAGE BY Flickr user storem
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