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Top 5 Paid Search Marketing Tactics for Quick Wins
Quick-win marketing tactics: They’re simple, they’re fast, and they’re revenue-boosting. What’s not to love?
If your paid search strategy is in need of an update, you’ve come to the right place. Your Marketing People is here to sweeten your day with five of our best paid search marketing ideas.
Tackle one (or more) of these. You’re going to love what they do for your KPIs.
1. Turn off broad match.
By default, Google Ads sets your keywords to “broad match.” This means that when someone searches for a keyword, Google may show your ad for that keyword, as well as any variations that “broadly” match the term. As you can see from Google’s example below, this can exponentially increase the number of keywords your ad shows up for:
At first glance, this may seem like a great idea. You only have to do a bit of keyword research, and let Google take it from there.
Not so fast. Keywords don’t exist in a vacuum; there’s intent behind them. For example, if you’re a vegan food supplements site, you’d want to show up for “vegan food recipes” and “vegan food ideas” but not “vegan food restaurants near me.”
Avoid wasting money on keywords that aren’t relevant to your business. Be specific, and target the ones that matter.
2. Embrace the negative.
Keywords, we mean—not mindset! Just as you can drop “broad match” to avoid wasting money on irrelevant keywords, you can specifically tell Google the keywords you don’t want to rank for. This is known as negative match.
Does your company often get confused with another, because they have a similar word in their name? Or, do you sell certain types of products within a niche but not everything under the sun? You’re a great candidate for negative keywords.
For example, if your site sells Marvel-inspired merchandise, you’d want to rank for broader terms like “comic book accessories,” but you could set up negative keywords for the comic universes you don’t sell, like “batman hat” or “anime apparel.”
Doing your negative keyword research can do positive things for your business. With just a few negative keywords, we instantly helped our clients save hundreds of dollars each month. Find out how.
3. Target the right audience.
That same attention to detail you apply to your keywords? You should be just as focused on your audiences. Sure, it’d be wonderful for the entire universe to see your ad, but there’s probably a certain subset of people who are most likely to actually be interested.
Whether you’re just getting started with PPC or you’re hoping to enter a new market, you may need help finding those people. One of our favorite “easy” options for narrowing your audience is the In-Market Audiences feature, available for both Google and Bing paid search.
With this feature, you can select different market audiences to create your audience. Test this out for a few of your campaigns to hone in on the right consumers.
4. Optimize for mobile.
Think about it: do you search for different things on your phone than you do on your computer? For example, you might search for retailers when you’re out driving around, but you might search to buy products when you’re on your home laptop.
Your customers do the same thing.
Moreover, your site offers a different experience on mobile vs. desktop devices. Your landing pages look different. Your content loads faster or slower. Some of your products will sell better on one vs. the other.
So, you may need to optimize your paid search campaigns for mobile vs. desktop users separately. Fortunately, Google can give you a few pointers here. This chart, found in the Google Ads dashboard, reveals how your various campaigns perform on different devices:
The mobile vs. desktop distinction is no small potatoes. For one of our clients, a major automotive e-retailer, making this switch resulted in 60% savings for their Mobile CPC.
5. Enable ad extensions.
From exclamation marks to urgent CTAs, PPC ads are exciting. Make them even more exciting with a visual pop, thanks to Ad Extensions.
Ad extensions expand the visibility of your PPC search results and extend the actions searchers can take when they see them. Here are just a few of the things you can do with ad extensions:
- Use “callouts” to highlight key features for your brand or product, like “free shipping” or “24/7 live chat”
- Make it even easier for locals to find your business with a map maker and street address
- Help customers contact you with business hour extensions and call buttons
Review your ads to consider which ones could benefit from ad extensions. The right extension can take an ad from an underdog to one of your top performers.
Bonus: The Ultimate Paid Search Quick Win
Want to experience a lot of quick wins, fast? Hire a paid search marketing agency to review your paid search strategy, pinpointing quick-win opportunities and implementing strategy changes to support your long-term goals.
Want to see how it’s done? Take a look at the ROI success stories we’ve driven for other clients at Your Marketing People.
