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It’s that time again – a time when we are reminded to be thankful for what we have, and look forward to things (and gifts!) yet to come. Most people, this time of year, are asking for jewelry, clothes or video games to satisfy themselves this holiday season. But you, the savvy marketer, know better than that. What you want, what you REALLY want, is an optimized and profitable SEM campaign. This blog post is here to give you some hints as to what you should be asking for from your successful SEM campaign. If you’ve been on digital marketing’s “Nice” list, your campaign might demonstrate some of these characteristics.
Wish #1: A high conversion percentage (conversions/clicks)
Too many marketers focus on click through rate (CTR, clicks/impressions), when the more important metric is conversion percentage. With pay-per-click advertising, maximizing your visits is the key to a successful campaign. After all, the campaign that produces 100 clicks but no conversions is a very expensive branding effort, but the campaign that produces 1 click and 1 conversion provides a positive ROI.
Do these two things to maximize impact of your paid search traffic:
- Write detailed ad copy that explains exactly what the user can expect to see on your landing page
- Create a landing page that focuses on the conversion point, not content
Detailed ad copy should not only persuade search engine users to click on your ad, it should also dissuade unqualified visitors from clicking. If a user is looking for a red widget, but you only sell blue widgets, detailed ad copy will be attractive to blue widget seekers who are hit with a targeted advertisement, and red widget buyers will be directed away from your ad before they waste your money with a click on your PPC ad.
A landing page, for paid search campaigns, should focus on your conversion point. Don’t waste space (and your visitor’s attention span) with too much content or too many links pointing away from the page. They’ll have no choice but to focus on your conversion point (contact form, “purchase” button, white paper download). That focus will translate into a higher percentage of visitors who convert into potential customers.
Wish #2: A decreasing cost per lead
Digital marketers are often focused on a revenue (or potential revenue)-based metric. Cost per lead (CPL) is often a great way to measure your campaign’s performance. Often, CPLs are at their highest at the inception of your SEM campaign, but gradually decrease with constant monitoring and optimization. Generally, the longer your campaign runs, the lower your cost per lead (ideally!). Keep in mind that clicks (and subsequently, conversions) are more expensive during certain parts of the year (lower search volume during the summer leads to greater competition amongst advertisers), so it is best to take a year-over-year view of your campaign’s performance. But in general, you should see some efficiencies in your campaign as time goes by.
Constant improvement of your CPL (which is directly impacted by your cost per click) is dependent on constant monitoring of your campaign’s keywords (and groups of keywords, called Ad Groups). Make sure that you change your keyword bids to reflect the performance of each keyword – increase your bids for those terms that have produced conversions at a tolerable CPL, decrease bids for those keywords that are driving traffic (and eating up budget!) with little return. Be sure to give your campaign enough of a sample size before making decisions, I usually like to wait for at least 100 clicks before I have enough data to make an informed decision.
Wish #3: More budget!
Okay, I get it. Every marketer has limited budgets, except, apparently, for these guys. And one of the beautiful things about SEM is that you can set your marketing budget to whatever you are comfortable with. But if you DO find yourself with some extra marketing budget at the end of 2011, be sure to put it in the right places. SEM campaigns will give you a detailed view of which pieces of your campaign are working most successfully, and you’re digital marketing team can help you allocate that budget in the right places. After all, it might be useful to put more budget to search marketing during a potentially slow time of year.
2011 has been a great year, as Search Engine Marketing Continues to be a vital part of your digital marketing strategy. Here’s hoping that, when you open your SEM stocking this Holiday season, you find more candy (conversions and customers) than coal (high CPC’s and no traffic!).
