TrueInsight Newsletter

Avoiding the Paid Search Slip-Up:

How to Overcome Six Common Mistakes In Your Paid Search Campaign

Managing a paid search campaign is a lot like juggling—very intense juggling. You’ve got hundreds of keyword bids up in the air, tossed between a number of different search engines, and if you don’t pay close—and constant—attention, your whole act can fall apart. The good news is that managing an effective paid search campaign can be done. It’s just a matter of learning how to do it, or in many cases, what not to do. With that in mind, TruePresence has uncovered the most common mistakes businesses make when taking on paid search, as well as the best solutions for overcoming them.

Inviting Too Many Guests to the Search Party

Marketers often think that the more keywords they bid on, the more visitors they’ll attract, and the more sales they’ll make. Not true. Effective search marketing is about quality leads, not quantity. The less focused your keyword list is, the more likely your ad will be clicked by someone who’s not specifically looking for your product or service—and those unqualified clicks mean wasted dollars. Narrow your keyword list down as precisely as you can, based on your target audience’s search behavior. If you’re not sure what keywords to use, turn to an Internet marketing partner, like TruePresence, that has proven keyword expertise in your industry.

Revving Up Too Many Engines

It’s the same line of thinking as with generating too large a keyword list: “I need to appear on every search engine so that I don’t miss a single prospect.” That’s great—if you can afford the considerable time and resources it takes to optimize your campaigns across all the major search engines. Most of us, however, aren’t that fortunate.

One solution is to seek an Internet marketing firm, like TruePresence, that can professionally optimize your search campaigns for you on a budget you can manage. If you prefer to manage your campaigns internally, focus on one major search engine and optimize that campaign to the fullest extent before taking on any other engines.

Making The Number One Spot Your Top Priority

It’s a common misperception to think that the higher your ad appears in the paid search results, the more successful your campaign will be. But depending on your industry, you may pay dearly to appear in the top spot. The difference in bid price between, say, the first and third positions could mean several dollars per click. And—here’s the clincher—your conversion rate could in fact worsen as you rise to the number one position. You may find that more visitors convert in position five than in any of the top three spots. So be sure to test the more budget-friendly positions before breaking the bank on number one.

Confusing Click-Throughs with Conversions

Many marketers mistakenly see high click-through rates and think their campaign’s a hit. But clicks don’t necessarily add up to sales, and remember, wasted clicks are wasted dollars. You must always make conversion your search marketing priority, whether it means getting prospects to submit online forms, pick up the phone, email you, or complete a sale—whatever it takes to move them closer to becoming a customer.

The smartest way to increase conversions is to examine your campaign’s ad creative. Does the ad contain the actual search term the prospect used in his search? Is there a strong call-to-action or offer? And does the offer on the landing page align with the specific offer promised in the ad? If you can answer “yes” to all three questions, you’re well on your way to better conversion rates.

Rushing the “3 Month Rule”

You just launched your campaign and you watch eagerly with each passing day—or hour—to see how it’s playing out. And by day six, you’ve already deemed your campaign a success or failure.

This is a common but grave mistake: making a judgment call much too early. The golden rule among search marketing experts is the “3 Month Rule”: every campaign “test” should run at least three months before a fair assessment can be made. That’s because it takes six to eight weeks for a campaign to get fully indexed by the search engines and initially optimized. And it takes another month after that to gather stabilized and consistent data—the kind of data on which you can base sound decisions.

Not Performing Routine Maintenance
Just like your car, your paid search campaign needs to be maintained regularly to keep it in superior running condition. Sure, you may see leads, even conversions, from a neglected paid search campaign, but at what expense? You could very easily be paying more for keywords, clicks and ad positions than they prove to be worth.

Take a look at your original paid search objectives. What is the price you’re willing to pay for a qualified lead or customer? Then evaluate your campaign on a keyword-by-keyword basis as often as possible to make sure you’re spending your money wisely.

If this sounds like a lot of work, it is. But the new business that paid search can generate for you often outweighs the time and effort required. Fortunately there are also Internet marketing partners, like TruePresence, that have the expertise and staff to manage all the day-to-day details of your paid search campaigns for you. To learn more about TruePresence’s paid search services, visit truepresence.com or call us at 800.506.9116.