- KNOW YOUR CUSTOMERS
First and foremost in any campaign—online, offline, in the ocean or on the moon—the most important question to answer is: Who is your customer? Alright, I know, almost everyone knows that…but, have you done the research? I always find it interesting when someone thinks their customers are 21-year-old, urban hipsters when in fact they are middle aged, rural introverts. Make sure you do your research and understand who your customers really are, as opposed to who you think they are. This will help you to understand how your customers find you.
- FIND THE RIGHT KEYWORDS
The right keywords are crucial to the success of any search campaign. You need to understand how people search and think about your product or service. For instance, if you sell soda, you have to include regional words for soda, as well—such as cola, pop and soda pop—and understand that some, like myself, simply call it by the brand name.
- WRITE THE RIGHT CREATIVE
Just as important as knowing your customer and finding the right keywords is writing copy that will speak to your customers. You want to make sure your copy is relevant to their needs. You also want to make sure that the creative is geared toward the keyword, so the connection between the two is clear. Above all, make sure that the copy is compelling enough that customers want to click on the ad.
- HAVE THE RIGHT LANDING PAGE
An advertiser’s first thought might be to send a keyword search to the homepage. The logic is, everyone will find what they are looking for there and, if they don’t, maybe they will find something else. The problem with this approach is, your prospects have already begun to narrow their search by choosing specific keywords. If you send them to a page with tons of information other than what they are looking for, they will leave and look elsewhere. If you carefully choose the right landing page for the given keywords, you will likely see an increase in conversion.
- OPTIMIZE
One of the crucial parts of any search campaign is to optimize. At the very least, you need to look at your campaign daily and monitor its performance. If your cost per click (CPC) has risen, see whether a competitor has come into the market or check your click-through rate to see if your ad’s performance has declined, dropping your quality score. Any number of factors could affect your campaign. Make sure you stay on the pulse of what is happening and react accordingly to make maximize your quality score and drive stellar results. |
