At Marketing Essentials, we specialize in crafting strategic digital marketing campaigns for our clients. We are digital-and-data-first, and that often means we spend our time hip-deep in updating and optimizing our clients’ digital presence to help their websites perform better in search.
One of the questions we often get when talking about pay-per-click (PPC) ads is, “Why should I pay for search ads when I’m already showing up in Google search results?”
Mark Blackford, Director of Marketing Analytics at Marketing Essentials, gets right to the point about the importance of this type of advertising in our latest Brew Session Podcast. Listen in to this clip:
As Mark says: your competitors are spending on digital advertising. No matter how high your website may be ranking in search, your competitors could always outspend you to rank first. But there are some ways you can be smart and strategic in your spending to get the most bang for your buck.
Here’s how:
Set Ad Goals
What are your goals? Different goals require different strategic approaches to digital ad spend. Are you seeking to generate more revenue through upselling to existing customers? Do you want to generate qualified sales leads? Want to rank first in search to overtake a competitor who’s hoovering up all the clicks? By setting your goals upfront, you will be able to chart your digital strategy in the most effective way.
Analyze Past Ad Performance
It might seem obvious, but whenever you prepare a new digital ad strategy, it’s vital to examine past performance (if you have any!).
Just as importantly, understand that your audience’s buying behavior may have changed during a crisis or downturn. Analyze your data to determine which channels, messages and keywords gave you the results you wanted. Strategize ways you can improve upon those methods or create A/B tests to start optimizing results.
Measure Results and Adjust Ad Spend
Your audience’s preferences and behaviors are changing all the time - and so should your digital ad spend. New ad types on a variety of different digital platforms are being enabled all the time, and younger audiences, in particular, are quick to shift their attention from platform to platform. Keep up with where your audience is spending its time and what types of content are performing best there.
How much should you be spending on Google and PPC Ads? Check out our guide!
