If you aren't already running paid search campaigns, you are missing out on potential revenue, and you're making it easier for your competitors to steal market share.
At the very least, you want to serve ads when users search for your brand name...if you don't, your competitor will, and they'll distract potential customers away from their original intention, buying your product.
Google reports that search ads can boost brand awareness by as much as 80%, making consumers more likely to remember your brand and interact.
Evaluating Your Paid Search Readiness
We get it. You don't want to just jump right in to search marketing, and you shouldn't. Before you spend your hard earned media budget, you should do some soul searching, and ask yourself a few important questions:
Does your website have a landing page with concise information that echoes your ad copy and features a clear call to action?
Do you have the resources to meet the needs of your online customers? For example, if you offer a service do you have someone who can answer the phone and take orders? If you have a product, is your shopping cart functional and free of any bugs that will hinder online purchases?
Can you commit to the cost of a paid search campaign, with a budget of 3 – 6 months? In the linked article above, the Senior Digital Advisor at Hanapin recommends using competitive research tools and Google or Bing’s Keyword Planner to get a rough estimate of your budget.
Do you have the time or access to a resource with the time needed to set up and manage a search campaign (researching keywords, writing ad copy, adjusting bids and budgets)? It's difficult to estimate how much time you'll need, but for a basic campaign, we recommend spending one hour per week on maintenance and optimizations.
With the foundations covered, you can open AdWords and Bing accounts and get started on building your ads.
- dXm -