Search engine advertising quickly leads to high visibility in search engines. B2B companies have to be present there nowadays.
Because Google and Co. are also the primary sources of information acquisition in the business environment, so that your investment in AdWords pays off, we give you the ten success factors for successful paid search campaigns.
1.- Define your goals in advance and set up proper tracking
Before you set up campaigns, define your goals in advance. These are varied: Marketing and selling your products, announcing new products, generating leads or branding are the most important. The type of campaign differs depending on the goal. For example, display campaigns are suitable for branding or to announce new products. Search campaigns are the focus for the sale of products. When generating leads, rely on the right lead goals: offer exciting white papers, checklists, or demos. Only those who define the goals of their campaign can successfully implement them before the campaigns go live, set up proper tracking to measure the success of your campaigns. Plan re-marketing campaigns and collect people for your lists at an early stage.
2.- Bid on the right keywords
Keyword research is mandatory for all search engine marketing measures. You can only be successful if you use the right keywords. In practice, it is a good idea to put together an extensive list of possible keywords. Product management and marketing should work closely together here. Validate your list using tools such as the Google Keyword Planner. Also, consider in which region you would like to run the campaign. Users in the USA may search for different terms than in England. When booking the keywords, be sure to test out different match types: Which ones perform better? Make sure you also take negative keywords into account!
3.- Post negative keywords to avoid wastage
When creating campaigns, there are numerous setting options: from the region to the language, delivery time, bid strategies, devices or even ad rotation. Study the settings to choose the most effective ones for your campaign. Make sure your campaigns don’t cannibalize each other. For example, if you have different country campaigns. Set the correct regions and languages and do not assign areas twice. Initially, deliver your campaigns 24/7. But check as soon as possible at which times the campaign is particularly successful. Adjust your delivery accordingly. Consider the choice of devices: If your website is not mobile-optimized, you should not run the campaign on mobile devices.
4.- Make sure you have a homogeneous account structure
There are pitfalls in the structuring of your campaigns. Basically, you should always structure your campaigns according to a chosen scheme. You can orient yourself on your goals, your website structure, topics or other logical points. It is important that the structure is clear and understandable, because often several people are involved in the optimization. The clearer the structure, the easier it is to understand. When structuring the ad groups, you should always proceed according to keywords: Which ones fit thematically together? Proceed as homogeneously as possible. This allows you to target your ads even more specifically to the keywords per ad group. In favor of your quality factor.
5.- Set your campaigns right
When creating campaigns, there are numerous setting options: from the region to the language, delivery time, bid strategies, devices or even ad rotation. Study the settings to choose the most effective ones for your campaign. Make sure your campaigns don’t cannibalize each other. For example, if you have different country campaigns. Set the correct regions and languages and do not assign regions twice. Initially deliver your campaigns 24/7. But check as soon as possible at which times the campaign is particularly successful. Adjust your delivery accordingly. Consider the choice of devices: If your website is not molbil-optimized, you should not run the campaign on mobile devices either.
6.- Write relevant ads and design compelling banners
One of the success factors for search engine advertising is the ads themselves. Whether text or display ads: Use them to address your target groups and guide them to your website. Your ads compete against a variety of other search results. In the display network, even with entire websites and their content. Stand out by making your ads the best they can be. In terms of the message, advertisements should be as long as necessary and short as possible. Text ads, in particular, should be highly relevant to search queries. The search queries are often your booked keywords – so write keyword-relevant ads. This also increases your quality factor.
7.- Bet on the right landing pages
Clicking on an ad alone is not valuable if visitors jump off the landing page right away. So choose your landing pages wisely. Do they match the type of search query the user is searching for? Are you bringing added value to your target groups? Are you relevant to the keywords you booked? Always put yourself in the shoes of your target groups and determine what their needs are. Deliver exactly what your target groups need. This is the only way to turn a tiny click into a customer. Also, make sure to include your booked keywords on your landing pages. How to improve your quality score. Incidentally, this is also influenced by so-called soft facts: If users quickly jump off again, this implies for Google that the website is not optimal. So also offer good usability.
8.- Use ad extensions for a better Quality Score
AdWords offers a variety of ad extensions for the search network. These improve your Quality Score so that you have to bid less for a good ad position. The ad extensions appear below your text ads. This will automatically enlarge your ad and make you stand out from other search results. Make sure to use the extensions sensibly: Sitelinks should lead to websites that also offer added value for the user. Here you can find links to demos or white papers, for example. Additional information, so-called callouts, allows further advantages and sales arguments to be placed. In contrast to the sitelinks, these cannot be linked. There are also rating, calling, location and app extensions.
9.- Consistently evaluate your key figures, derive insights and optimize them manually
The main advantage of online compared to print is that the measures can be measured. Defined key figures can be used to quickly determine whether a campaign was successful or not. For paid search ads, in particular, it is essential to define the relevant key figures and monitor them regularly. Once again, the previously described goal plays a central role. For branding campaigns in the display network, the click and conversion rate is not as crucial as for sales or lead generation campaigns. Therefore, monitor your campaigns and keywords. If they are performing poorly, check what could be the cause. If the click rate is terrible, this could be due to a wrong position, for example. Then consider why the situation is awful: Does the quality factor need to be improved or the bid increased? For classic B2B campaigns, in particular, it is also advisable to optimize them manually and not rely on automated strategies or tools. Often, due to the niche, there is not enough data to work automatically.
10.- Be brave and take advantage of the latest features
Online marketing is in a constant state of flux. User behaviour is changing, and new technologies and devices are emerging. There are constantly new functions and changes in Google AdWords. In some cases, the previous and conventional procedure is even obsolete because there are entirely new types of campaigns. Therefore, inform yourself regularly about new features. Take part in Google Hangouts, which regularly revolve around specific topics. Follow search engine marketing blogs and read practical tips. Above all, be brave enough to use and test new functions. In particular, re-marketing campaigns are a must to address the same target group.
Conclusions
With search engine advertising, you can quickly achieve visibility in Google & Co. But one click alone is worth nothing if the target groups do not turn into leads and customers. Successful search engine advertising is not done in a hurry. Rely on an optimal framework, regular evaluations and optimizations paired with courage and openness to new functions.