Five sins in paid search marketing and their solutions

When it comes to competitive analysis for my clients, there are always people who don't know the basics of paid search and I'm amazed. Sometimes these people provoke me, sometimes it makes me laugh, but more often, it makes me want to point out their mistakes.

So today, I would like to point out five of the most impossible things in paid search, that is, five sins. So, if some of these words are too direct, please forgive me, I just want to be able to change their ideas to better conduct paid search marketing.

Sin One: Bidding for keywords that are too broad or too loose, linked to the business

Common sense tells us that we should only buy the keywords that are relevant to the target audience and can be put into place. For example, if you are an outdoor green company, if you are "home decoration" and other keywords to bid, may produce a lot of unrelated traffic.

Solution: In the keyword research, the keyword should be screened: Is this what the enterprise is good at? Does it accurately describe the business? Once you've started your campaign, make sure you analyze it properly at the right time to see which keywords really bring high quality traffic and conversions, and remove the key words that don't have the obvious effect.

Sin II: Link ads to your home page

The most effective search activity will provide the most relevant pages on the site based on the user's search, which is not normally the homepage of the site. After entering the homepage, users need to click further to enter the page they want to browse, rather than immediately see what they want to see.

Solution: Select the most matching page in the site for each keyword or ad group link. If the site does not have ready-made pages to match, then you first need to check the keyword filter is out of the question; If the test results are no problem, then you may want to consider creating a new page to meet this requirement. If it is too challenging to add new pages under the existing Web architecture, you may want to consider using a login page.

Crime III: Take the general advertising copy

Without the use of personalized ad copy, the previous two articles would not make much sense. Even if you want to introduce the target audience to the relevant target page, if the ad doesn't "attract" the audience, no one clicks on the target page. If you want to maximize the relevance and CTR of your ads, you need to make sure that the ad copy is as tightly linked as possible to the keywords users enter.

Solution: First, create multiple ad groups that are closely related to key words. Then, customize each ad group to ensure that the relevant keywords are included in the advertisement (preferably in the title).

Crime Four: Use search method to build brand

Paid search is not a strategy to build brand awareness, but a direct response strategy. Back to the examples of landscaping we talked about earlier, here is a "brand building" advertising case:

Dallas Design Brothers

"Build Your Own private paradise"

Dallas District Greening Company

Www.dallasdesignbrothers.com

There is nothing terribly wrong with this ad, but it's just not likely to get users to take action. The advertisement does not use an advertising scheme to encourage users, but only tells the user the company's name and marketing slogan.

Solution: Consider the potential needs or motivations of your target audience. And then think about what kind of action you want them to take. Your ad copy and calls to action should be balanced between user needs and business goals. You also have to be clear: let the user into your site, what you can provide, users can do something.

Along these lines, the above case advertisement can be changed to:

Greening Services

Looking for outdoor landscape design?

View our portfolio, or request a quote!

Www.dallasdesignbrothers.com

Sin V: always bid for the first position of the search results page

The first place to bid for search results is not a bad thing, but the goal of paid search marketing is not just to get the top spot. The top position is usually more expensive, but sometimes its conversion rate is less than the third or fourth place. If you're bidding on the search results page for the first place because you find that it can lead to finding the most quality and interactive visitors, then it makes sense to do so. If you do this just to beat the competition, it's not right to do so.

Solution: Don't let your self-esteem (or your supervisor's self-esteem) decide where you want to buy the search results page. Set the conversion rate target and do the right analysis to track which ad location really produces the largest conversion. You may find that some keywords or ad groups actually perform better when they are in the lower position of the search results page. You can also save some click costs.

That's the first five things I think is the last thing you can do in a paid search. But I also want to hear what you think is the last five things you can do in paid search marketing. You are welcome to share with us in the comments. Of course, don't forget to break down your solution.

(Original in: June 6, 2011, compiled: Zeng Cui)