What benefits are there to utilising paid search advertising within your marketing strategy?

Paid search advertising is an increasingly significant part of business marketing strategy. Google Adwords is probably the most popular type of paid search advertising and works in a very simple way. When users go online they use words and word pairings to search for products, services or websites – these are the keywords. When a business opts for the keyword chosen by a user that business’ paid ad appears on the search results page, either next to or above the organic search results. From here, users can click on the ad to discover more about the business. So, the process is simple but what are the benefits to incorporating this into your marketing strategy?

Quantifying results

Google Adwords makes it very easy to measure the results of everything that you do with paid search. Every single aspect can be tracked, from impressions to click through rate (CTR) and conversions, which makes it much easier to quantify the impact of paid search ad spend. Plus, with this level of data you’ll be able to tweak future campaigns to generate better results.

Focused spend

You have much greater budget control when it comes to the paid search ad element of your marketing budget. The daily spend can be set small (say £10) or significant (say £2,000), which means that this type of investment in marketing potential is open to any business, no matter what size. Plus, paid search ad spending is incredibly cost effective, as you pay nothing until there is action, such as someone clicking on the ad.

A more level playing field for advertisers

The Ad Auction that takes place every time a search term or keyword goes into Google isn’t necessarily won on the basis of cash every time. Google takes into account a much broader range of factors when determining which ads get the most prominent position. So, if your ad already has a higher click through rate then you could beat an ad with a bigger budget. Other factors include the page that the ad links to and the quality of the site – the focus on providing relevant results to users means that advertisers of any budget have a more level playing field to work with.

Sophisticated targeting – and retargeting

Google provides a range of options for targeting to help make campaigns more effective and deliver greater ROI for marketers. These include targeting locations where the ad will be shown, as well as specific hours during the day. Languages and targeting those users searching with mobile devices are also useful options to increase the effectiveness of paid search ads. Retargeting is another way in which it’s possible to do more with this investment. It involves displaying paid ads to users based on previous activity. Retargeting has had some bad press but a remarketing list on Google AdWords can ensure these ads are targeted properly.

If you’d like more information on using paid search ads in your own marketing strategy, we can help – contact Iconic Digital today on 020 7100 0726 to find out more.