Getting the Most from Your Paid Searches

Paid advertising, when paired with a strong, SEO-friendly and properly optimized website, can really make your company’s site standout from the competition if you know it works. Chucking hundreds to thousands of dollars into various campaigns can be frustrating if you aren’t getting the results you want. But how to get those results, and really make your paid searches work for you? Here are a few tried and true tips from the SEO experts at Houston internet marketing company Directory One.

Know Your Competition. Keep your customers close and your enemies (competition!) closer. Check in on competitor websites frequently to scope out what keywords they are using or not using, and what techniques seem to be working for them. Chances are, you can find flaws in their marketing and use them to your advantage on your website, and in your paid searches.

Research Keywords. Always keep a close eye on your Google Analytics tools to see what keywords are working best for your website, and make sure that those top-performing keywords are present in your paid ad campaigns. Don’t spend money on untested keywords, especially if your internet marketing budget is on the smaller side.

Use your paid ad campaign in tandem with your content marketing strategy to fill your site with high-quality, relevant content for an even stronger online presence. Odds are, a double threat like this will make your site appear even better to the Google search algorithms, and you will wind up in top organic search results as well as your paid ad space – an unbeatable combination.

Ensure a Strong Landing Page. The landing page, or the page that your paid ad will redirect to when a potential client clicks on it, is a vital part of your internet marketing strategy. Make sure that all the content on the page is relevant to the ad, isn’t spammy, and complete with high-value keywords that point to your business as the one the customer needs.

In addition, ensure that the landing page loads quickly – all too often, a potential client will click on your paid ad, only to exit out of the landing page when it fails to load at the snap of a finger. Get with your graphics designer and web design team to make sure that there aren’t any big graphics or images that are slowing down load time prior to launching your paid ad/landing page combo.

A third factor is having a strong call-to-action.  Try to include an offer (free consultation, discount, free trial, etc) that will motivate the prospect to further interact with your business.

Hire a PPC Expert. It can be a full-time job managing your company Pay-Per-Click budget. A PPC professional will be able to thoroughly analyze keywords, use Google’s Traffic Estimator Tool, and really provide the results that you want to see from your paid ad campaign. Going it alone, or trying to manage PPC yourself can be tricky – Directory One does provide PPC Management, so that you are always able to see exactly how your paid ad campaigns are working, and give you advice on where your money would best be spent.

Go for that Click-Through Rate. Although you won’t have complete control over this, you should always keep the Click-through rate in mind when running your paid search campaign. Basically, click-through rate is determined by the number of times your ad is clicked on by the number of impressions, or times that the ad is seen. The all-powerful Google is able to assign your page a Quality Score based on how high the click-through rate is on your ad, versus the other ads that might appear on the same page. You should always strive for a high Quality Score by following the tips discussed above.