It may not look it, but Search marketing is one of the most effective marketing methods in the world - for two simple reasons - reach (in December 2007, the U.S. alone accounted for 9.6 billion searches), and targeting (people search with an intent to find your product/service).
Apart from that, most Search networks also offer Content Networks - which is what we know as “AdSense“, “YPN” and several others. These automatically display your ads across (literally) millions of sites that already serve related content that their visitors are already interested in.
Obvious statement: It’s a good way to advertise.
Which is why I feel a dull pain in my chest when I come across a creative like this - no offense meant, but:
Firstly, there’s that typo. I don’t think I’ll contract with a marketing agency that makes obvious typos in their work - it’s not perfectionistic, it’s just professionalism. Secondly, the premise itself is incorrect, in that blogs don’t just automatically generate traffic - but that’s a whole other post altogether.
Here are seven quick tips (and a free bonus just for you) to creating Google AdWords (and by implication, Yahoo! Search and MSN AdCenter) campaigns that work.
Landing pages
1. All ads need a landing page. Make sure your page loads fast (<5 seconds is good - use Pingdom to test). You can speed up loading by reducing the amount of external resources (images, Jscripts, stylesheets) you include.
2. Basic SEO - no gurus, just add water. Make sure your <head> section contains Meta Keyword and Description tags that sum up your page, and use the keywords you’ll be using for your Search campaign.
3. Basic SEO II - Place important headings in <h1> tags, making sure that at least some of your primary keywords are in <h1> tags.
Keywords
1. Pick several strong/narrow keywords that define your product/service - make sure they appear on your site.
2. Use Google AdWords’ External Keyword tool (Website Content mode). It will crawl your site and report back on the potential keywords it sees. If you see the keywords you picked in (1), it’s a good indication that your SEO was done well.
Creatives
1. When a search term exactly matches a phrase in a creative title, description or display URL, it will be displayed in bold (example). Bold stands out, so make sure your creatives contain some of your narrow keywords :)
2. Creatives that contain the exact searched-for phrase, and that link to pages that are well-optimized will rank higher within Google. Google considers relevancy over the amount you bid per click.
3. Spell-check! Give your creatives to someone else to check (for redundancy). Typos are not cool, especially since it says something about your agency/campaign/client’s attention-to-detail.
And that’s all I have for you today, lol. Just consider these things before launching your next Search campaign - apart from potentially saving you some CPC fees, it’ll just make your marketing that much more effective :)
