It’s been a busy year for paid search marketing. In fact, this month marks the anniversary of Google announcing their plans to roll out ‘Enhanced Campaigns’, arguably the biggest change in Pay-per-click history. And what a change it’s been! ROI figures are growing each month, and 2014 is set to be the biggest year yet.
Here at Loom, we’ve had a good few months to get to grips with the new interfaces, tools and most importantly, opportunities that are available to us and our clients. And overall, we think it’s easier than ever to use Google AdWords to capture your audience – whatever your business!
For those of you who run smaller businesses and have concerns around budgets, ROI and managing campaigns, we’ve listed a few of the Google AdWords features that we think can have profoundly positive impact on small businesses PPC accounts – whatever the budget and whatever the product.
Paid Search Features to help your Small Business Grow
1. Device Flexibility
The ability to target and optimise ads for each device within a single campaign means that potential customers can be targeted no matter where they are – without having to create duplicate campaigns.
Previously, advertisers would have separate campaigns targeting different devices if they wanted to focus on mobile, tablet or PC in detail. However the new enhanced campaigns are far more intuitive and take into account the ways that new technologies are changing search behaviours. Someone searching on their mobile whilst walking around town is in a different headspace to someone sat on their PC at work. All this means that, if optimised well, customers searching your keywords will be shown device appropriate ads and extensions, making it much easier to dynamically target your audience. For example, mobile optimised ads with specific click to call and location extensions can generate a huge local traffic boost.
2. Ad Extensions
The variety of Ad Extensions available in Google AdWords allows you to generate streamlined, relevant leads. Whether you’re adding location extensions to let your customers know where to find you, sitelinks to give them more insight to the content of your website or social extensions to evoke trust in your brand, each extension can generate more precise and informed traffic to your page.
3. Bidding Flexibility
Bidding on Google AdWords can be daunting at the best of times, and the newer changes to the process may have made it seem scarier than it was before. But taking the time to experiment with bidding options could result in your business’ website gaining a whole load of golden traffic!
The flexible bidding options for different devices, locations and times of the day give you unbelievable spending control based on your business needs. It means you can bid more or less for the particular devices, locations and time periods that you know convert best for your business. A little bidding optimisation and analysis can do wonders in terms of securing the high quality traffic that converts to leads and sales.
4. Conversions
Whatever your business, it’s now much easier to track conversions based around your advertising goals. In the past, the Google AdWords system has favoured ecommerce goals and conversions. But now, anything from downloads to phone calls over one minute can count as a conversion. This means you can track custom defined leads, no matter how variable or wide ranging your business goals are.
How will Paid Search Benefit my Business?
So there you have it! Although paid search can seem overwhelming, a bit of tweaking, measurement and goal setting can bring defined, profitable leads to your website – even if your business is a one-man-band!
And PPC results keep getting better! A recent report from econsultancy has shown an overall ROI growth of 23% since 2011 – so there is definitely profit to be made with paid search!
Having said that, it’s understandable that the fear of not having the necessary budget to perform complex or well-planned campaigns can make AdWords seem an overwhelming endeavour for small businesses. But these recent developments in paid search have made PPC more accessible and dynamic than ever, allowing you to take control of your spending. And the best thing is, you really don’t have to spend a lot to get qualified leads. If anything, all you need is a little time to set up your account and experiment with the abundance of tools available to PPC advertisers.
Loom offers Paid Search in Bristol and Beyond
If you, like many others, want to make sure that your PPC campaigns are reaching their full potential, paid search experts like Loom are always on hand to show you the PPC ropes or even manage campaigns on your behalf. Whichever approach you choose, there’s always expert help available, meaning you can take advantage of paid search in full bloom, and watch your small business relish! For more information on paid search give us a call on 01179 239 726.
