Small Businesses and Paid Search

In recent years, the internet has opened the way for smaller businesses to take greater control of their marketing efforts and use their business finances software to get the most from their advertising investment.

Many firms have found success with paid search. All search engines operate paid search programs. Paid search is a type of advertising in which you bid on keywords related to your product or service so that your website appears above or beside the search engine results. If done well, paid search will drive traffic to your website.

Here are some factors to consider:

What do you want to achieve?

Are you looking to increase your sales, encourage people to read content on your website or simply let the world know your business is out there? Determine your main purpose before you begin, as this will guide how much money you spend, as well as the strategies you use to spend it.

As with any marketing campaign, it is also essential to know your target audience, particularly the terms they are most likely to use when they search for your product or service category online. If you operate in different regions or countries, you may also want to vary which search engine you advertise in based on their local popularity.

Choose the right terms

Just as with search engine optimization, paid search incorporate keywords that help draw searchers to your advertisement. It is crucial to make sure these are specific, relevant and aimed at your target audience to achieve the best results.

How many? Many experts suggest maintaining a list of more than 100-200 options for keywords, so that you can determine those that will deliver the most conversions at a reasonable cost.

Which ones? Remember that it may not always be in your best interest to choose the most commonly searched terms, as these are likely to be more competitive, the most expensive to bid on - and already dominated by top players in the industry.

As part of your keyword strategy, it may be in your interest to devote a larger proportion of your budget to less competitive terms and phrases - particularly if you have used your business finances software to determine a relatively small maximum daily spend on this type of marketing.

What format? If you choose what are known as "longer-tail" terms (specific terms) that people may use when they are searching for very specific products or information, you could benefit from reaching these customers directly - which could lead to more sales. After all, who is more likely to make a purchase - someone who is casually browsing their "pet food" options or someone who is specifically searching out "organic vegetarian dog biscuits"?

When choosing keywords, you also have the option of including negative words to reduce the chance that your ads show up on irrelevant searches. You can choose different word order combinations for your keywords as well - varying these patterns may produce different click-through rates.

Budgeting

Because paid search involves bidding on keywords, you will need to use your business finances software to guide how much you can afford to spend on each term. Based on the performance of the keywords and phrases you have chosen to focus on, the amount spent may have to be adjusted each month.

A savvy business owner will continually assess their return on investment (ROI) to make sure they are getting the most out of their paid search campaign. You can do this by keeping track of your paid search spending, the number of people who click through to your site from your ads, the number of sales made as a result of ads and the amount of revenue that is derived from each of these products.

Write a good ad

It is generally recommended that small businesses write a paid search advertisement that is targeted at a specific keyword and product, rather than a more general advertisement.

When writing the ad to be used in your search, consider what would make someone want to click on your advertisement and visit your site. You can think about using your unique selling point, just as you would in a traditional marketing campaign.

Where do people land?

You can choose to bring browsers to any landing page you wish - so again, the more specific, the better. If a person is searching for a particular term, direct them to the landing page on your site that matches their search. After all, if a potential customer finds it difficult to locate what they are looking for, they are more likely to move on to a different site. Many search engines also assess the landing page when they are working out the cost they charge when a searcher clicks through, with lower fees charged for more relevant landing pages. Refer to search engines such as Yahoo!, Google, MSN or Ask.com for more information on setting up a paid search program.