Over the past decade, Free Google
Ads has become an integral part of most
businesses’ marketing strategies. In particular, Free Google
Ads (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
have become one of the most common channels for any business to
sell its products and services. In this article, I will share some
insights into successful SEM and SEO campaigns.
The attractive quality of SEM and in
particular pay per click (=PPC) advertising is that the results
are measurable. As a strategic marketer, I have never come across
any sales or marketing tool which is so transparent and
cost-effective. PPC campaigns allow you to see vital statistics on
user behavior, Free Google
Ads, keywords and much more. Best of all,
however, is the fact that you can use PPC campaigns as “instant
sales generators”: You can pause your campaign when sales are high
or you can switch them on again when sales are low to get a new
sales boost.
Secret 1: Have an online strategy
in place before you start!
Prior to implementing your online strategy
you should consider the following:
I. Define the purpose of your Free Google
Ads.
Some businesses use PPC purely as a “sales
generator” tool, other businesses use it as a way to encourage new
client leads and others simply for increased brand awareness.
II. Identify the medium and long
term online strategy
It is important to have realistic medium
and long term expectations. Bear in mind that online campaigns
deliver improved results the longer you run them.
III. Set a realistic monthly
budget
Always consider your budget relative to
your product’s profit margin. PPC can have a massive effect on
sales and Free Google
Ads, but
In our experience, we often find that very
few businesses develop a strategy before they start their
campaign. The alarmingly common approach of “let’s allocate some
budget for 6 months and see what happens” is a recipe for
disaster.
Particularly for the first weeks of your
PPC campaign run time, it is imperative that you dedicate a
significant amount of time to fine-tuning key words and text ads.
An alternative solution is to employ an
agency and ask them for a trial PPC campaign in which the results
are assessed after 4 weeks. If your agency cannot deliver results
within the first 2-3 weeks, chances are that they are not
allocating your budget to the right key words and text ads or did
not consult you properly in the first place.
Secret 2: Prepare your
website!
Statistics show that you have got exactly 6
seconds to convince a visitor to stay on your site. If the visitor
does not instantly find what he or she is looking for, your budget
will not translate into business or leads.
It is critical for your website to have the
following characteristics:
Enticing images- If you offer a service,
pictures of happy people will give the impression of satisfied end
users. If you are offering a product, make sure that your images
are clear and represent your product in a true manner.
Good web copy – Remember that less is more
when it comes to web copy. Don’t clutter your site with
unnecessary text. Good web copy should fit in one frame.
Call to action phrases- Tell your visitors
what you want them to do. Examples of good call to action phrases
are: “Call now!”, “Buy today!”, “Contact us!”.
No scroll bars- Wherever possible, fit
everything into one screen or frame. The more a user has to
scroll, the more chance you have in loosing the visitor.
Site design in HTML – Free Google
Ads might look great, but are a killer for any
SEM campaign. You may incorporate some flash images to enhance
your site’s look and feel, however keep your site predominately
HTML.
Remember: Unless your site is ready, your
traffic will not convert into sales or leads.
Secret 3: Start small – Choose
one only
Especially if you are dipping your toe into
the pay per click pool for the first time, it is more than OK to
start off small. In my experience, too many companies are
confronted by the variety of choice between different PPC search
engines and are tricked into thinking they need to be on all these
so-called “networks” immediately. New online advertisers are often
considering big players such as Google Ad Words and Yahoo! Search
Marketing (Yahoo!7 and ninemsn), but also the smaller fish such as
Sensis, Ask, MIVA and Mirago. Too many different campaigns (each
of which are run according to different rules, different budgets
and different funding) are too much to juggle for most first time
online advertisers.
It is important to stay focused when
deciding on your first search marketing network, and refer back to
your online strategy to properly match your purpose to the correct
network. I would always recommend trialing a campaign on Google
due to its amount of market share (55%) and quality traffic. If
your campaign performs well on Google, chances are it will also
perform on other networks.
Walk before you can run. Test your campaign
on one network first to get a feel for it, and when you feel more
confident then consider branching out.
Secret 4: Trial and Assess the
Results
After choosing the correct search engine
network to implement your PPC campaign, embark on a simple three
week trial campaign. The great thing about PPC is that you can
pause it whenever you like, so you are not locked into any long
term commitment after your designated ‘trial period’.
Once you have seen the campaign results for
the first three weeks, you (or your online agency) should be able
to identify trends for your particular business. For instance, you
should be able to see which of your key words were most sought
after, which words attracted most enquiries or led to sales, which
“click-days” and “click times” were extremely popular and which
companies you compete with.
Example: one of our clients in the beauty
industry knew after their three week trial period that Wednesdays
and Thursdays between 12noon and 4pm were extremely popular for
them in regards to clicks and enquiries for their services. As a
result, they shifted their entire media budget on these 2 days and
now receive twice as many enquiries as they had gotten in previous
weeks – with the same investment!
Whilst trends are important to analyze for
both your medium- and long-term online strategy, you must also
closely analyze the direct impact that the campaign has on your
business. Your sales team (or whoever answers calls in your
business) needs to be briefed before the campaign starts and
should monitor where new business leads are coming from. Analysis
of your new business enquiries and where they found out about you
is important to accurately gauge the impact of a prolonged PPC
campaign.
Use your trial campaign as an indication of
what is to come. In my experience, PPC campaigns improve immensely
over time and a feature of their success depends on the amount of
time that is invested in their development.
