For website owners the pursuit of relevant traffic is an endless one. High organic rankings are what everyone wants, but hardly anyone gets.
Recent changes to how Google works has made this even more difficult to achieve. Localisation, personalisation, “In the News”, Images, Videos, Google Now and The Knowledge Graph (to name a few) are all pushing out how many ranking results can even appear in that elusive first page of results.This diversity, whilst promoting opportunity to businesses and better relevance to the searcher, has meant creating excellent content, promoting your brand and earning loyalty has become increasingly difficult and is often not enough to get you those high rankings you crave.
Is Paid Search the Way Forward?
Many businesses see this as a cost; both financially and in terms of resources. It can be difficult to manage; many have tried it once and got their fingers burned racking up huge spend without any return.
It doesn’t have to be this way. A well structured, well managed account sponsoring highly targeted key phrases that trigger well written and managed adverts that click through to specially created landing pages that are then split tested to increase conversion rate can ensure your money is an investment not a cost.
This management-intensive approach often creates on-site conversion rates that are five times higher than the site average from other traffic sources and even out-performs direct traffic.
Why does it work?
Each step in the process is designed to understand the searcher’s intent; bidding on the correct phrase at the correct time in the buying cycle.
Next up is showing them a relevant advert with an appropriate call-to-action that takes the searcher to a landing page that fulfils the promise of the search and the advert.
Then split testing the adverts and the landing pages means this process will drive higher engagement and conversion.
Understanding ROI
Generating on-site conversion and leads is one thing, demonstrating a return on investment (ROI) is another. You need to understand your cost per lead, what your lead to close ratio is, your average order value and if there is an average lifetime value that you can attribute.
When you understand this you will truly know what you can invest in buying traffic, how it can take pride of place in your traffic acquisition plans and why it is something you do not have to be scared of.
Think it’s time to bite the bullet and get over your fear of Paid Advertising? Book onto our next marketing Leaders Lunch.
