Many companies struggle with the weight of data and strategies in their quest to find the right marketing campaign.
Although total spending on search advertising has increased 165.4% between 2017 and 2023 with a projected CAGR of 8.01%, a decrease in return on ad spend (ROAS) is likely to happen due to the law of diminishing returns.
If you are finding it tough to deliver sizable outcomes from your paid search campaigns, your strategy has likely reached this inflection point.
Developing a solid paid search strategy can be challenging, even for marketing veterans due to ever-changing algorithms and strong competitors. However, an agile and high-impact paid search strategy can enable you to break through this glass ceiling. This takes a lot of research, good strategic planning, and optimization.
In this article, we will detail the process for building a powerful paid search strategy and give you the tools to make sure you get it right.
Things to Sort Before Making Your Paid Search Strategy
Before entering into keyword research or creating ads, it is fundamental to establish a strong base. Here are the things you need to do:
Define Brand Objectives
Having a brand objective is the first step for creating a successful paid search strategy. These objectives should include – brand image you are projecting, your target customer base, brand voice, product positioning and definitely, revenue goals.
These objectives will be the driving force behind every decision you make – be it selecting the most effective keywords or creating compelling ad copy.
Set Clear & Measurable KPIs
What are Metrics? They help you measure how your campaign is doing. Setting clear and measurable KPIs can enable you to track progress and make important choices.
Whether it is click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, or return on ad spend (ROAS), having these metrics in place helps you monitor and benchmark your campaign performance.
Decide Budget Allocation
Consider your investment and allocate your budget according to your objectives. Take into account the costs per click (CPC) in your industry and find a balance between brand awareness campaigns and direct conversion efforts.
Pinpoint Target Audience
Utilize demographic data, past customer insights, and market research to accurately determine your target audience.
Having a clearly defined audience persona allows personalized ad targeting, resulting in increased engagement and conversion rates.
Having absolute clarity on the above points will help you create a solid foundation for a powerful paid search strategy that meets your brand’s objectives and positions you for success.
Find Keywords Resonating with Your Target Audience
To reach your target audience, you need to find the right keywords. Great marketing campaigns will have zero effect if your ads are not being seen by the right people.
Analyze Competitor Strategies
You can learn a lot from looking at what your competitors are doing. Use Google Ad Library to view your competitors’ keywords and ads. Tools like SEMrush can help you analyze your keyword rankings and traffic sources.
Example: If a competitor’s ads consistently rank for “best noise canceling headphones,” you might consider targeting related keywords, such as “top-rated noise canceling headphones,” to attract similar traffic.
Find Trends That Your Competitors Can’t
Google Trends is a great tool for understanding trending keywords and search queries. You can adjust your marketing strategy by studying current trends (what people are looking for).
Example: Google Trends indicates an increase in searches for “home office furniture,” use keywords like “best home desks” or “cheap home office chairs” to reach out to this audience.
Assess Keyword Volume
With Google AdSense, you will be able to know the search volume of a specific keyword, how popular it is and how competitive it might be. This will help you better understand which key terms would work well as targets.
Example: There may be high search volume but low competition for “eco-friendly cleaning products”, thus making it a potentially lucrative keyword for your pay-per-click advertising campaign.
Choose the Right Search Platforms
Different platforms offer different audiences, targeting options, and cost structures, which can significantly impact your return on investment. Knowing what each platform does best can help you tailor your approach and optimize your ROI.
Here is a quick list of the most popular platforms:
- Google Ads: Largest reach and advanced targeting » good for a broad and diverse audience.
- Bing Ads (Microsoft Advertising): Lower CPCs and less competition » good for reaching older and wealthier people.
- Amazon Ads: Great for e-commerce » targets users who are actively searching for products.
- Meta Ads: Great for demographic targeting and visual ads » can be easily integrated into social media campaigns.
- LinkedIn Ads: Ideal for B2B marketing » targets professionals based on industry, job title, and company.
- Twitter Ads: Useful for real-time engagement and brand awareness » targets users based on interests and behaviors.
- Pinterest Ads: Best for visual products and creatives » targets users interested in specific categories like fashion, decor, design, etc.
- Snapchat ads: Vivid, full-screen ads that are a great way to reach a younger audience base.
- TikTok ads: Reach Gen Z and Millennials with creative and viral content, perfect for short, engaging campaigns.
In order to ensure optimal performance, you will need to test several platforms to find the best fit for you.
Create Compelling Ad Copy
In advertising, content is king. Good ad content decisively increases clicks and conversions, so make sure your ad copy is spectacular. These tools could be useful:
- WordStream can provide great insights and suggestions for making your ad copy better, thus helping to fine-tune keyword optimization. It helps ensure the relevance and seamlessness of keyword integration in your ads.
- AdEspresso is a robust tool for easy A/B testing of your ad copies. It will tell you which versions are performing better, enabling you to improve and iterate on your strategy continuously.
- Canva offers tools that make designing ads, such as display ads, easy. These ads can help you stand out from your competition.
These tools ensure that your ads stay contextual, exciting, and hit the mark all the time.
Advanced & Creative Paid Search Tactics to Improve Conversions
Promising ideas for advanced paid searches exist in this fast-paced digital world. Here are some of them with examples:
Landing Page that Guarantees Conversion
A landing page that is well-optimized and meets users’ needs can boost interest and conversion rates. Making sure your landing page loads quickly, is easy to read, and works on mobile devices can help lower bounce rates and keep users focused on what you want them to do.
For example, if you are advertising a webinar, a landing page with an easy-to-use registration form, information on the speakers, and a list of their most-liked quotes is likely to get more sign-ups than a regular site.
Ad Extensions and Bidding Strategies
Ad extensions add more details to your ad, boosting visibility and CTR. Advanced buying strategies, such as automated bids, help you get the best return on your advertising spend.
For instance, a store can use price extensions to show the prices of highlighted items right in the ads to attract value-conscious customers.
A/B Testing and Continuous Improvement
A/B testing lets you compare your ads, landing pages and calls to action (CTAs) to see which works best. Your approach will stay relevant and successful over time if you keep testing and improving it.
For example, an online store can try two different forms of the same ad emphasizing free shipping, like “Free Shipping on Orders Over $50” vs. “Limited Time: Free Shipping “, to see which is more effective.
You can also run experiments in adsense which can help you find which ad setting works best for you. In the experiment’s result card, you can see the estimated earnings, revenue for tested traffic, percentage revenue change, and probability of recommended setting to work better (shown in 1,2,3,4 respectively).
Performance Tracking and Measurement
Continuous tracking and measurement lets you clearly understand how effective your strategy is, and make decisions based on the data. This ensures that your resources go to the tactics that work best, leading to better overall results.
You can use Google Analytics to see the steps people take, from clicking on your ad to buying something. If you see a drop-off on the checkout page, you can look into the bottleneck and make necessary changes to increase conversions.
Local SEO Integration
With mobile devices accounting for more than 50% of the global web traffic, having a local SEO strategy is a no-brainer.
Adding local SEO to your paid search efforts lets you target people in specific places. This way, each group would see content that is relevant to their interests. This makes your ads more relevant and increases the chance that someone will click on them.
For example, a nearby coffee shop can use local SEO to ensure that its ads show up when someone searches for “coffee shop near me” in their vicinity, attracting more footfalls.
Using these advanced and unique paid search strategies will improve your campaign and keep you ahead in a competitive market.
Time to Plan and Execute
An effective paid search strategy requires a deep knowledge of how your audience and market work, careful planning, and constant improvement.
By following the steps in this guide, you will be well on your way to making a plan that meets your business goals and goes above and beyond them.
Once you have your strategy, you need to find the executioners! That’s where we step in.
Improtics can help you get ahead of the competition, make your brand more visible, and or turn more visitors into customers.
We are a group of passionate digital marketers, with a sharp focus on researching marketing trends and our goal is to help companies reach their full online potential. We have years of experience making paid search strategies designed to drive high-impact marketing. We are experts at getting real results that drive growth and maximize ROI.
Start putting these ideas into action right away, and watch as your efforts lead to unprecedented growth!
Contact Improtics today to get started!
