For many marketers, paid search strategies remain an effective way to drive brand awareness and engage audiences. But to captivate consumers and see the results you’re looking for, it’s important to focus on testing strategies that work.
Below, we share three phenomenal paid search strategies guaranteed to boost campaign effectiveness.
3 Need-to-Know Paid Search Strategies
1. Incorporate Video Content
As marketing expert Ted Coine (@tedcoine) notes: “Change is the result of insurmountable market pressure” (Source: Kissmetrics), and we are certainly seeing the pressure to include video in paid campaigns. More than ever before, video content is making appearances on search engine results pages (SERPs)—and it only makes sense that Google (who owns YouTube) will continue to integrate video into paid search results. The good news? Video drives action from consumers, and investing in the creation of high quality video content could result in better business.
2. Take Advantage of AdWords Extensions
Ever wondered why some search ads are taller than others? Everyone gets the same amount of real estate with AdWords: a headline and two lines of copy, right? Surprisingly, no—and here’s why: AdWords has Callout and Sitelink Extensions, and anyone can take advantage of them.
- Callout Extensions: These are the pieces of content that can be used to highlight what makes your business unique without using space in the ad text. Information you might include in a Callout Extension includes: warranties, free shipping, money back guarantees, or X% discounts.
- Sitelink Extensions: These are links incorporated into your ad that send viewers directly to relevant content on your site. You might link to landing pages tailored to specific types of customers—for example, a photographer could include separate site links for school pictures, wedding, engagement and family photography.
Using the two extensions together can reinforce the key values of your offering and drive conversions while expanding the real estate for your ad—something that is increasingly important on mobile. Extensions are also used to help determine your overall ranking, so including this additional information that users would consider relevant is beneficial to your on-page placement.
3. Win the Sale with Micro-Moments
Google notes that 82% of smartphone users interact with their device while in a store and use the information to influence a buying decision. What does this mean for marketers? Plenty of opportunities to promote their business and make a sale. One of the newest of these opportunities to capitalize on are “micro-moments”: those digital dashes of activity that allow brands to influence a buying decision in real-time.
An example of a micro-moment includes when a consumer asks Siri where the closest Chinese restaurant is located. The subsequent search results incorporate a massive amount of real-time data: device location, restaurant ratings, Yelp or Google reviews, GPS location of the restaurant and potentially information from previous searches by the customer. Google has a great guide on leveraging micro-moments here.
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