While many businesses recognize the importance of paid search in a comprehensive online marketing campaign, few spend enough time thinking through their paid search budgets.
What is paid search? Using Google Ads as an example, when a user accesses the search engine, they are presented with a search engine results page (SERP) where they see both “organic” results pulled up by the search engine and paid results placed there by Google Ads. Paid search enables businesses to appeal directly to the people seeking their products or services and pay only for those who actively select them.
Receiving Immediate Results
Unlike other online marketing strategies like search engine optimization (SEO), which can take a year or more to see results, success (or lack thereof) with paid search is revealed almost immediately via Google Ads or other top-tier search engine pay-per-click (PPC) plans. Paid search gives you excellent control over the amount you spend. Within 24 hours, paid search can generate search engine visibility for your website and drive qualified traffic.
By using a list matching technique, it enables you to target users in terms of demographics, interests, job titles, industry, or even specific lists of people. The activity generated from paid search advertising is trackable, giving you valuable information on what ads are generating the best results, what products are of most interest, etc. Paid search gives businesses much more control and visibility over the dollars they spend and the ability to spend more in the areas that are doing well.
Getting the Biggest Bang for the Budgeting Buck
When budgeting for paid search, companies need to understand what amount of spending is reasonable for their industry to reach their target audience and what performance objectives they want to meet. The goal is to invest enough to have an impact in terms of market share. With paid search, it’s possible to assign a cost to what the business feels is important, which it can attribute to a cost per lead and compare against what dollar amount it needs to budget to achieve an adequate return on that investment. The goal is to optimize the account to meet those numbers.
Unfortunately, there is no magic amount businesses should budget for their paid search campaigns. One reason is that the “cost per click” can vary significantly across industries, depending on how competitive a sector is. That clearly has an impact on budgeting strategies. The most crucial thing when planning a paid search campaign is to do your homework. As one expert said, “Researching the industry and understanding what your goals are is a critical part of establishing a budget.”
Learn more about the Paid Search Advertising services we offer as part of a digital marketing strategy.
