To get the most out of your paid search efforts, use these six growth marketing best practices.
The terms “growth marketing” and “growth hacking” are frequently used interchangeably.
“Growth hacking” has its own set of job titles and responsibilities.
But, exactly, what does “growth marketing” imply?
Simply, growth marketing is the process of identifying and attracting the proper clients to your company. Whether they’re at the top of the funnel or the bottom, these are the folks who are most likely to buy from your company.
So, in today’s world, what is the secret to growth marketing?
Search engine marketing is a three-word phrase (SEM).
Not to be confused with PPC or SEO, search marketing has shown to be effective time and time again.
Deliver Value across the Decision Journey
As the behavior of your fragmented clients changes, so should your growth marketing strategy.
Who are the people who are making all those clicks?
Microsoft Ads research has helped us better understand the five key stages of purchase intent that all buyers go through:
To become a more informed researcher, gather background knowledge and purchase landscape.
Exploring buying guides, recommendations, and products that match fundamental criteria are all things to think about. Comparing a few products that meet the customer’s requirements, such as ratings, reviews, features, and price.
Finding where to buy, then looking at pricing and specials, availability, and nearby stores before making a purchase.
Maintain: Even if customers currently have a relationship with a brand, they may come across products or services that you offer in new regions.
Expand: The user is a happy customer who writes evaluations for your company, tells their friends about it, and so on. These individuals then progress to the Awareness stage.
Align Your Campaign & Business Goals
Your business goals might be influenced by search, and it can also help you measure them.
Make sure your SEM strategy is in line with your campaign goals:
Bid competitively on non-brand, brand, and rival keywords to increase brand exposure and perception. Non-brand searches are essential for getting started on a journey: A non-brand search query influences 69 percent of brand ad clicks. After seeing a brand ad on a generic search query or a competitor’s branded query, searchers were 30% more likely to conduct a branded search.
Gain new customers: Consumers use search to help them make purchasing decisions. SEM can assist you at every level of the decision-making process.
Increase sales: Conversions are one of the search’s strongest assets. In terms of conversion rates, it outperforms other marketing channels across all devices.
Enter new markets: Because of the widespread use of search, you may implement a cross-border marketing plan that uses Location Extensions to increase foot traffic, Call Extensions to increase phone calls, and Site link Extensions to increase ad clicks.
Expand Your Marketing Funnel
Search has evolved from a product to behavior as our continuous companion.
We use the search on our PCs, laptops, tablets, and cellphones at all times and in all locations.
Understanding how individuals search at various stages of their purchasing journeys opens the door to engaging this new audience with your business.
Search has evolved into an insight engine that now exerts influence across the five stages of the buying process (awareness, consideration, conversion, maintenance, and expansion).
SEM additionally strengthens your conversion funnel by bringing different marketing efforts together.
Take Audience Targeting To The Next Level
Engagement at the right time and in the right place is no longer enough to persuade potential clients.
Using audience targeting, you need to reach as many unique searchers as feasible.
Step 1: Create more detailed buyer personas that take into account the following factors:
Behavioral: Understanding past activities help determine a customer’s interests and the likelihood of making a purchase. Analyze activity across websites, searches, and content to better understand user behavior.
Age, gender, and geography are only a few of the basic yet crucial elements that influence purchasing choices.
Contextual: Consumers frequently conduct searches in the heat of the moment. Analyzing where, when, and how they search can help create more effective ad campaigns by providing helpful material.
Step 2: Select keywords that correspond to your target consumers’ key stages and mindsets:
Awareness – At this level, keywords like “What is” and “Benefits of” are most effective.
Consideration – At this stage, keywords like “buying guidance” and “models” are the most effective.
Conversion – At this level, keywords like “Where” and “Coupon” are most effective.
Maintain – At this stage, keywords like “Support” and “Experience” are the most effective.
Experience – At this stage, keywords like “reviews” are the most effective.
Lift Other Investments with Paid Search
Combine organic search with a paid SEM plan to optimize your search efforts.
Customers who click on your paid search and social ads are more likely to buy and spend more than those who don’t. To gain more impressions, expand your keyword coverage and customize your bidding approach for business PPC ads.
Search and television: Following the airing of a commercial, search volume surges for many days. In a research conducted by Catalyst Digital, search volume increased by more than 30% when compared to the same day and times when no advertising was broadcast.
Search and display: According to Invest Digital, running search and display at the same time will help you determine which channel produces the greatest results, which could be both.
Search and other channels: Purchases with Microsoft Ads alone have a 27 percent greater average order value than purchases without Microsoft Ads, which also provide value when combined with other channels.
Fight & Win the Battle for Paid Search Budget Share
SEM is still competing for a piece of your marketing spend with other channels.
As a result, bring along hard data that link the dots between SEO and commercial benefits.
There are three components to your budget share battle plan:
Select the Correct Metrics for Measuring SEM Impact Metrics make it simple to see what’s working and what isn’t.
For better results, your team may test, adjust, and optimize your brand’s SEM strategy.
Identify and track key performance metrics that match your business goals to focus your reporting:
- Obtaining new clients.
- Increasing foot traffic.
- I’m getting a lot more calls.
- Increasing the number of people who click on ads.
- Building your brand’s credibility.
- Cross-border approach is being expanded.
Separate the effects of SEM from those of other channels.
Determine which channels are responsible for your marketing success.
Each sale is the culmination of a sequence of marketing touches that may span days, weeks, or even months and involve multiple channels.
Because attribution can be difficult at times, proving that sponsored search efforts generate ROI and bottom-line results will help you unlock additional funding and improve search performance.
If you’re still measuring conversions using a last-click attribution methodology, you may be grossly underestimating the importance of other channels and techniques.
Use the same method to divide your budget between Google Ads and Microsoft Ads.
When you examine the paid click share and inquiry that each SEM option represents inside your industry, this final piece falls into place.
You’ll not only get your company in front of a wide audience, but you’ll also have the assurance that your paid advertisements will result in clicks.
Conclusion
SEM is an important part of today’s marketing mix for growth marketing.
A fragmented customer journey might result from increased channel availability and different devices per user.
Getting the correct message to the right customer, at the right time, on the appropriate device, is one of the most difficult tasks.
In addition to these issues, one of the most difficult hurdles is determining success due to user privacy restrictions.
You can no longer afford to invest all of your marketing funds in a single search ad network. You must enlist different channels to extend your addressable market if you want to grow your marketing.
Follow the guidelines suggested here to increase the reach, impact, and value of your paid search efforts while improving your bottom line.
