How To Implement an Effective Paid Search Strategy

We’ve all seen paid search results, more than likely every day. Whether you want to make a purchase or not, when you type a search into Google, paid ads are almost always the first results you see. A challenge would be to find a search query that DOES NOT produce paid ads at the top of the results. It’s an excellent way for businesses of any type to attract new prospective customers when the organic results can’t pull in the traffic they want.

The options businesses can incorporate into a paid search strategy are limited only by the team’s creativity. Google is the most widely known and used, but don’t limit your thinking to just one approach (or search engine!). Below are some tips for implementing the most effective paid search strategy.

Paid Search Strategy Step 1: Determine Your Values

Don’t do anything until you spend time determining the following for your business:

1. Average lifetime value of your customer
2. Percentage of actions on your website that turn into a customer
3. The value of those actions

Knowing these three critical pieces of information about your business will drive everything you do. Paid ads should improve the profitability of your business. No one wants to spend more money than they’re making, and your business should know what they’re willing to spend to gain new customers. Then, while running your paid strategy, you can quickly determine your Return On Ad Spend (ROAS) and whether or not the ads are paying off.

Paid Search Strategy Step 2: Identify Your Target Audience

Before you decide how to attract new customers, you first need to know who your customers are and where they spend time online. This is the first step in driving your paid search strategy. If you don’t know who they are and what internet spaces they hang out in, you will likely make a mistake in choosing a paid strategy focus.

Paid Search Strategy Step 3: Consider Google Ads

Google Ads is often the clear choice for a paid search investment. They handle over 3.8 million searches every minute with over 270 million unique visitors. More than likely, your prospects use Google for something. But are they using Google for what you need, and is it affordable? For eCommerce products, it’s frequently the right move. But other businesses may not want Google Ads as part of their strategy.

For example, showing ads for “personal injury lawyer” can easily cost over $100 per click (it’s a popular, therefore expensive term to target). Researching the cost of your keywords is an essential part of determining your strategy.

Paid Search Strategy Step 4: Match Your Audience to Other Platforms

Google is undoubtedly the Goliath in the room. But there are many other platforms available, and your prospects may be there waiting to be enticed into your sales funnel. After researching your target audience, you can decide which platform makes the most sense. Here are just a few of the advertising platforms you can consider, depending on the demographics of your target audience:

1. Facebook/Instagram
2. YouTube (part of Google Ads)
3. TikTok
4. LinkedIn
5. Reddit
6. Quora
7. Microsoft Ads (also includes DuckDuckGo)
8. Amazon
9. Pinterest
10. Twitter

If you sell fashion items to girls ages 13-25, TikTok may be a no-brainer, while LinkedIn would be an epic fail. If you sell IT services, LinkedIn has your customer, while Pinterest would be a swing and a miss for you.

No matter who you’re trying to reach, what your offer is, and the depth of your ad spend pockets, make sure you target the right people in the right places with the right message.

If you’re interested in knowing more about &Marketing’s approach to paid advertising as an outsourced marketing department, contact us and we’re happy to discuss your business goals and how ads can help you reach them.

&Marketing leverages the power of Business Intelligence to gain insights on paid search performance and help our clients make informed decisions. To learn more about our BI and analytics process, download our eBook below.

About the Author

Marketing Director Sydney Thomas helps clients create, implement, and optimize campaigns in their Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising accounts. While ensuring that clients are getting the most out of their pay-per-click accounts, she also supports creating websites to improve SEO and supports paid social network advertising on Facebook and LinkedIn.

About &Marketing

&Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.