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Why Paid Search Should Be Priority

Written by Abby Riley

Investing in Search Engine Marketing, particularly traditional Paid Search, will put you above competitors, save you time and money, and provide you with the flexibility to target your ideal audience.

Keep reading to learn the benefits and view our healthcare client case study to see the difference Paid Search can implement in your digital marketing.

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Nowadays, it’s difficult to get a top rank in popular Search Engines like Bing, Google, and Yahoo.

There are many businesses who sell similar products and services within your industry and may have been creating content with search engine optimization (SEO) before you got your foot through the digital marketing door.

Search Engine Optimization is a slow and steady process, and it could take months to a year of consistent content development to see the fruits of your labor.

So what else is there? Well, the next best thing to SEO is SEM, Search Engine Marketing.

Search Engine Marketing is the promotion of websites, mainly through Paid Search. Advertisers can pay companies like Google or Yahoo to be promoted at the top of a SERP (Search Engine Results Page).

The rate at which companies pay depends on if searchers click on their paid ad. For each click, there’s a cost. This is coined in the marketing world as a PPC Campaign or Pay-Per-Click. The cost depends on the demand of the keywords being used in the ad.

For example, you (hypothetically) wish for your life insurance company, TLC Insurance, to pop up when people search for “life insurance.”

Well, the current price to use the keyword “life insurance” is 34 dollars per click. Yikes! That’s a little on the higher end of demand since it’s a general keyword wanted by dozens of companies.

But, if you bid to use “TLC Insurance,” a brand keyword, then that may cost you 2-3 dollars per click. You can still receive sufficient results by using these terms without draining your budget from paid search.

Now that we’ve got explaining Paid Search out of the way, let’s focus on how it can transform your sales.

Steal Clicks From Competitors

There’s no time waiting, you need conversions now. Search Engine Optimization is ideal to organically reach the top, but while your working on content development to reach this ranking achievement, you can use Paid Search to speed up the process.

With paid search, your ad is shown at the top search engine results page, above all other competitors. When your prospective customers type in your general or brand keyword you bidded on, you’ll be one of the first few names they’ll see.

This is a profitable position, for nowadays the average consumer has a limited attention span. In a study done by Microsoft in 2015, they found that the consumer attention span has dropped to 8 seconds, 1 second less than a goldfish; this is apparent to how the individual views a SERP.

Look towards this image:
eyetracking; heat mapping; digital marketing; Neil Patel

Image provided by Neil Patel

As you can see through the heat mapping image, the greatest activity is shown on the top of the search page, moves to the left, and disappears in the second half of the page.

This is how much information a consumer is willing to process, about 8 seconds of viewing. Content that relates to their search provides a concise explanation of the product, and is within the first portion of the page will be highly considered by the viewer.

So, beat your competitors through ranking in paid search. Consumers will click on your link before even considering other options. If your landing page is efficient and gives exactly what they need, then you’ll turn a consumer into a customer.

Save Money & Time on Digital Advertising

The winning combination of all businesses strive for is a strategy that saves time and money. Well, you’re in luck, because the paid search does exactly that.

When structuring an efficient PPC campaign, you’re inserting keywords within your campaign that consumers will search online if they are curious or in need of your product.

This is a methodical strategy, for instead of publicizing your product or service to consumers that may not need your product via social media, billboards, or television advertisements, you’re reaching the audience that is requesting information on your specific product or service via the search engine.

And, you don’t have to pay just then. Remember, you pay when the consumer clicks on your digital advertisement.

If they do click, the cost could be a few dollars to thirty dollars depending on which keywords you invested in for your digital campaign.

PPC is budget-friendly, and you, the company, determines how much you are willing to pay to be ranked on a SERP. Typically, it’s far less than any traditional or social media marketing.

After a few weeks, you’ll begin to see people clicking on your ad. A click-through rate (CTR), which compares the number of impressions your link collected to how many individuals clicked on your ad, comes into play.

Now that you’ve curated conversions and keywords that are shown to have a substantial return on investment (ROI), the search engine you’ve selected to display your search campaign can take the steering wheel.

Due to the gift of artificial intelligence and machine learning, the search engine can then format your PPC Campaign without you have to constantly monitor and tweak it. They’ll make bids for keywords based on your budget and improve your quality ad score and ranking.

Through this PPC Campaign automation, you’ll save time having to complete mundane campaign-tasks, and you’ll see a rise in your click-through-rate, quality score, and lower your cost-per-click.

See An Increase on Your Return on Investment

What better way to show the positive effects of an exceptional paid search campaign than to show the success of one of our own?
Our healthcare client, a B2B leader in cloud computing and information security services, had difficulties in managing their PPC Campaign before consulting Fahrenheit.  
Our content strategist, Matthew Michaelree, took over the account and made changes to optimize their keyword selection, organize their overall campaign through ad groups, and enhance the quality of the ad through additions to improve ranking and score.


The above image is a comparison from a healthcare client’s PPC Campaign between May to August 2018 to September to December 2018, the period in which we took over.
Overall, here are the main differences that showed an improvement in the return of investment:

KEY IMPROVEMENTS IN THE SEPT. TO DEC. PERIOD

  • Click-Through-Rate increased by 203%
  • Conversions, the desired action from customers, is raised 676% in the September to December period.
  • Impressions are down 43%, but that is a good sign, for it means that the ad is receiving more clicks than views.
  • The cost per conversion is down 76%, mainly due to the shift of keywords that drive conversions and do not waste money.
  • The overall conversion rate increased by 164%

As you could see, Paid Search Campaigns done right create a big wave in activity for your brand. Paid Ads increase brand awareness, which increases curiosity, which increases conversions.

If you need a bit of help with search engine marketing, the content strategy team at Fahrenheit Marketing is the best there is at increasing traffic.

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Drop by our website and look at our previous work with clients. We specialize in not only content strategy but web design and web development. Say hello to our team and let us know what your business goals are.