Many business owners understand that paid search is a powerful tool, but some assume that, once they type their credit card number in, they don’t need to do anything else. In reality, there are many different ways that you can optimize a paid search campaign to get the most for your money. If you aren’t working with an experienced company like Gauge Digital Media, it can be very challenging to get the most out of your investment in your paid search campaign. Here are some of our best tips to use your advertising dollars wisely and optimize a paid search campaign.
1. Choose the Right Channel
Today’s businesses use many different channels and platforms to connect with their customers. In fact, before your target consumer sees the Google ad that you pay for, they might have already seen a sponsored post on Instagram and an ad on Facebook. However, you will only get the data from the final time that they click and place their order or complete your desired activity. Choosing the right channel to put your funds into is critical, as it can make or break the success of your campaign and the results that you get for your spending. We can help you to assess your current channels and think critically about how to divide the money you’d like to invest.
2. Think Carefully About Your Budget
Another key factor when you take time to optimize a paid search campaign is the budget. Review your impression share for keywords and parts of your business where you are defending keywords that your brand regularly uses. If you have already engaged in advertising in the past, you should also factor in past results. From there, you can determine whether you want to invest more of your budget into where you are already getting strong results or focus instead on raising up search terms where you might be falling behind.
3. Don’t Forget Negative Keywords
When you optimize a paid search campaign you should not just think about the keywords that your target audience might be searching for, but also the searches that you do not want to appear for. This is critical when you don’t want to appear related to certain searches but also when the meaning of what you sell could cover multiple things. For example, if you sell eyeglasses and want to make sure that you aren’t paying to also show up for “drinking glasses” or “wine glasses”, establishing those as negative keywords is a great way to ensure that your efforts won’t be wasted. You can include both broad, phrase and exact negative keywords in your specifications on Google.
4. Consider Landing Pages
Surprisingly, many businesses forget entirely about the potential for landing pages when it comes time to optimize a paid search campaign. While they aren’t necessarily part of the ad itself, directing to a landing page is a great way to increase the chances of a conversion. Landing pages are excellent for educating the consumer after they’ve clicked on your ad and leading them from their initial interest to actually making a purchase. If you aren’t sure whether or not landing pages could be a good fit for your business, Gauge Digital Media is happy to work with you to explore your options and show you examples of effective landing pages that we have created for businesses just like yours. Think of keywords and advertising campaigns as ways to get traffic to your website and landing pages as a way to seal the deal.
5. Craft Ad Copy Carefully
You might not have much space to work with when you are creating your ad campaign, but the copy that you include is critical to getting your preferred outcome. You can test and optimize your copy throughout the advertising process. Think carefully about what ads have the highest click through rate and which ads have the lowest cost per conversion. We can help you feel confident assessing the statistics from your ads so that you can make informed decisions about what copy to use and what copy should be revised to ensure better results next time.
6. Don’t Be Afraid to Pause Keywords That Aren’t Performing Well
Finally, don’t be afraid to pause keywords that are not performing very well. You should wait at least a few days before doing so, or you might not have enough data to assess. Some of the most common reasons why a keyword might not be performing well for you include:
- The keyword does not have a high enough big. If you have very low maximum CPC for some of your keywords, you might be unwilling to spend enough to get performance on the keyword. We can help you determine if this is the case and suggest other keywords or help you refine your budget to get better results.
- The keyword has a very low search volume. If your bid amount is appropriate and you aren’t getting results, you could have a keyword that is too long or complex or a keyword that people simply aren’t searching for. Pausing these for the time being can let you test others and other variations out while you see what works the best.
- Your keywords are getting a good volume, but very poor conversions and click through rate. This can happen on broad keywords or when you forget to put the correct negative keywords to limit unrelated searches.
We Are Here to Help You Optimize a Paid Search Campaign
Working with a professional digital marketing company is the best way to make the most of your website and all that Facebook Pixel, LinkedIn ads, Google Analytics and other digital advertising platforms have to offer. To learn more about the best digital marketing strategies for your company and reach a bigger audience than ever before, work with Gauge Digital Media. For a quote or to schedule a call, contact us at 443-376-7709.
