When building an online presence for our clients it is important to structure websites and digital content that assist with search engine optimization, so that potential and existing clients can easy find a company when performing a search.
Many business owners have heard or been informed that the days of paid online advertising are gone, but our view is that is not any more true than saying that there is no point in print or television advertising. If it makes sense for the space or market that our client is working in, we still feel that this can be a strong piece of a marketing plan.
One powerful and often overlooked benefit of paid online advertising is acquisition of customer metrics that would not otherwise be available (and not available with organic-only marketing). Google is the primary example that we refer to for purposes of this article. A paid ad campaign with Google allows a business to gain exclusive insight about their potential and existing customer base. After an ad campaign has aged for a period of time, data can be retrieved about metrics such as client age, location, search phrases, time-based habits and more. Sometimes this information is almost if not just as useful as the clicks or impressions generated by the ads. Obviously, knowing your target audience can be a goldmine, and Google along with other online advertisers like Facebook, have made it their business to mine and decipher this data.
Many times a market space can be very competitive for a smaller business or startup to compete for clicks on a particular product or service. One of our goals is to consult with clients to build a more focused audience for their paid placements and created longer phrases and targeted search terms to help level the playing field. Small businesses often have a niche or specialty that can help them collect traffic without excessive spending.
As for cons; On rare occasions a client may be entering a marketing with a product or service that is viewed by the public as a commodity. One example could be an insurance agency, who offers a product that is controlled and mandated by their parent company. The product that they are offering is the same as other agencies in their state and keywords and phrases that would lead a potential customer to click-through to their website or call could be fairly costly. If a small business is bidding a small amount of money per/click in the same space that is occupied by high volume spenders, the small company’s lower bid ad may not even show up in the search engine the majority of the time. When this situation arises it becomes important to look at what our agency can do to minimize competitive costs with planning for geotargeting, niche terms, and long keyword phrases. The ability to control ad content based on these items is an advantage that is not always possible with traditional advertising and organic placement.