Don't rely on SEO: how paid search can help SMBs 

Written on 15 July, 2018 by Jen McKinnon
Categories Pay Per Click

These days, consumers are driven to online search engines to find the right business for their personal or professional requirements, which means your business needs to be there, easy to find, with a solution that’s relevant to the needs of the searcher. 

SEO is a slow-burn digital marketing strategy to get you seen by the right people at the right time. If you need to drive traffic to your website fast, paid +search advertising can bypass the traditional SEO ranking factors and display your website on the first page of Google for related keywords instantly. 

What is paid search?

In our impatient, time-poor society, most people don’t look past the first page of the results when they perform a search on Google. They are more likely to revise their search terms and search again. This means, to get traffic to your website, you need to be on the first page.  

Google Search Advertising is often referred to as Google AdWords. It is a form of pay per click (PPC) advertising that allows you to pay for that prime, first-page real estate. Up to 7 ads can appear as “sponsored” links on the first page of Google search results, and most people can’t tell the difference between a sponsored link and an organic link. 

The higher your ad is positioned, the more likely you’ll get a click on your ad. Payment and ad rank work on a bidding system, combined with Google’s Quality Score (how useful Google thinks your ad is). How much you pay for a single click can vary depending on the bids of your competitors, who will also be vying for top spot with the same keywords.  

Google Search advertising works for businesses of all sizes with shoestring to bottomless budgets. With paid search advertising, you’ll never go over your maximum spend, as you are able to cap your total budget per day.

 

Will Google PPC ads work for you

What are the benefits?

Paid search advertising has a wealth of benefits for small to medium business (SMB). Here are a few ways it can help drive traffic to your website and increase sales. 

Immediate Results 

Google Search advertising is the fastest way to reach new customers from launch. Once you’ve set up your Google AdWords and set your ads to ‘live’ you can expect to see results within the day. This is a great way to boost your SEO in the short term of give a business the post-launch exposure it needs for a flying start. 

Consistent Web Traffic 

When your ad is ‘live’ and performing effectively, you will see a consistent flow of traffic to your website or landing page. With paid search advertising, you can control how many or how few people find your website on any given day purely with the budget you allocate. 

Free Brand Exposure 

You may appear on the first page for multiple search terms but, if someone doesn’t click your link, you don’t pay. So, even if you don’t make the sale or generate a lead today, you will have made an ‘impression’ on the searcher, and you’ll be known to them next time they come across your website. 

Granular Targeting & Reporting 

Search marketing has an incredible capacity for in-depth targeting. You can reach audiences defined by a wide variety of factors, the most common of which is their location. This provides you with granular reporting which you can use to optimise your ads for better conversion rates and a lower cost per click. 

Get Qualified Leads 

Google prioritises relevance and usefulness as factors in the Quality Score of any given ad and, as a result, the people who do click through to your site are likely to be highly interested in what you have on offer. When you cam pinpoint your ideal customer and advertise only to those people, you ensure that when someone does reach your site, they fit your target audience, which gives you a higher chance of converting the lead to a sale. 

Secure a Repeat Purchase with Remarketing 

Remarketing is a tactic used by search marketers to track and follow either your existing customers or hot leads to entice them with something complimentary to what they have previously purchased or to remind them about a product or service they showed interest in. This is all done using a Google Analytics tracking code and is pretty high-tech but, if you know what you’re doing, the results can be fabulous. This type of personalised marketing journey is where digital marketing does its best work. 

There are many facets of paid search advertising that make it a terrific investment for small to medium business owners. The Google Search Advertising platform (also known as AdWords) can be a little tricky to manage if you’re new to it. It may also take you some time to perfect your ads to sit within your ideal bid range. We know that running your own business is hard work and managing the complexities of Google Search advertising on top of it all may just not work for you. That’s why we offer managed search advertising services. We manage your ads and your daily spend, so you can focus on running and growing your business. Chat to an Online Solutions Provider today or send us an email for more information on how Netregistry can make your life easier. 

 

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